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Grow Your Blog’s Comments Using A Comment Tribe

February 29, 2012 By 3 Comments

Grow Your Blog’s Comments Using A Comment Tribe

Comments are a great indication of how a blog is doing within the blogosphere. Generally speaking (not always) the more comments a blog gets the more active and more engaged the readers are, and the more likely they’ll return to respond to something they’ve already posted, or perhaps to defend a comment they made.

Comment tribes are a terrific way to get out and meet other bloggers and also participate in a comment exchange with them. Not only do you get some quality comments, but you also open yourself up to people with their own pool of knowledge and you can’t help but to learn something by visiting, reading, and commenting on their posts as well.

A short while back I integrated a blogging and internet marketing forum into my website where online marketers, bloggers, and entrepreneurs can meet and discuss those topics that are near, and dear to their hearts – their websites and businesses.

I’ve also just added a comment tribe into the forum, and will be accepting members who are looking to grow their community and generate more comments to their blogs.

The way each campaign works is a comment tribe member starts a campaign by creating a new thread and giving it a title such as: blog comment campaign #1 and then copying and pasting in the rules coupled with the number of their post (Which for the person starting it would be #1 of course) and a link to their post.

Here is an example:

Comment Campaign #1

— Paste Rules —

The Rules:

Rule #1 - Comment Campaigns are limited to 10 per thread. If you find yourself number eleven simply start a new thread using the following format: Blog Comment Campaign #1 (change the campaign number to reflect the new campaign) copy and paste this notice in its entirety and follow it up with a link to the post you’d like comments on.

Rule #2 - You must comment on all other posts in your campaign before moving onto a new one.

Rule #3 – Please only offer up high quality information as it relates to either the internet marketing, or blogging industry. While affiliate links make sense in some posts, if that is your only type of content this likely isn’t the forum for it.

Rule #4 - While the forum is moderated it is up to the members to inform newcomers if they are breaking the rules, or submitting content that is poor quality or in some other way unacceptable.

Rule #5 - While Re-tweets, Likes and other shares aren’t required, if you feel the content to be deserving, or could benefit your own audience then go ahead. I’m sure it will be appreciated and the chance of it being reciprocated is much more likely.

*Note Comments can hit spam traps for new visitors. If you are missing comments try checking your spam folder first.

(Copy these rules into each new campaign)

My Blog post #1
www.blog.com/post-I’d-like-the-other-nine-members-to-comment-on

Thank you.

The following person would then simply add theirs

My post is #2 and the link is

www.blog.com/example

And so on and so forth up until there are ten posts within the campaign. (The 11th person would simply start comment campaign #2 and copy paste the rules and things would start all over again.)

Please don’t start or participate in a new campaign until you’ve finished commenting on any campaigns you’ve entered into already.

While retweets, likes, or shares aren’t required if you feel the content is deserving by all means share it with your own audience if you think they might benefit from it.

Like any beginning I’m sure things will start off slowly, but with each campaign limited to only ten submissions we should be able to get underway with as few as twenty or so regular members to start off, and if we invite others into it, growth should happen quickly.

If you’d like to participate in the comment tribe, you can simply sign up here, or under the members tab up above, and create a free account (there used to be both free and paid, but I’ve recently opened everything up to everyone) and feel free to introduce yourself in the Coffee Lounge, and if you have a blog post you’d like comments on add it under the comment campaign section.

The rules for the forum are fairly standard and are only there for our benefit. If you come across a problem, or issue don’t hesitate to get ahold of me either in the forum itself, or via email and we’ll get it straightened out promptly.

 

 

 

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Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: blog, bloggers, Blogging, comment exchange, comment tribe, comments, community, forum, membership

Why I Break These Blogging Rules

February 8, 2012 By 9 Comments

Why I Break These Blogging Rules

When you think of blogging, what comes to your mind? Do you think of people sitting at their computer writing posts every single day? Unless you are John Chow and you post twice a day, this might not be for you. Do you think of bloggers who write on one topic over and over again? Unless you are blogging in a niche that keeps evolving like electronics, then you might run out of things to write about.

There are a lot of blogger rules that I break but the 4 that I am going to talk about are the biggest ones. The reason I say this is because all of these will revolve around the actual blog and how it looks and feels. Just know that you don’t have to break these same blogging rules that I did but if you do, then good for you.

400 Word Articles

How many times have you heard somebody tell you that every article you post has to be 400 words? This is something I get tired of hearing because in 400 words I am barely getting my point across.

Just to give you an idea of how big of an article that would be, right here is just over 200 words.

The problem that I had with this is that I would give my readers only part of what I wanted to share with them and that is why I break this rule time and time again. Also, who says that a blog post can’t be shorter than 400 words? I know of some A-list bloggers who write posts that are 200-300 words and they still get a bunch of traffic and hundreds of comments.

What I Do Now:

What I have been doing lately is not even keep track of how long my articles are and as you can see, they are all over 500 words and most of them are pushing the 1,000 word mark. Something that I also do is I spend around 10 minutes before every article listing all the tips and key points that I want to put in the article that way I don’t forget anything while I write.

Stick To One Niche

It doesn’t matter if your blog is about freelance writing or Kodak digital cameras, you can talk about whatever you want. A blog is great because you are not stuck talking about just one niche, if you want to expand your following then you will have to put yourself out there in different niches as much as you possibly can. Trust me, if you stick to one niche you won’t make any money from your blog and you will have a hard time getting the traffic that you really want.

Something that I would highly recommend is to ask your readers what they want to hear. The benefit of doing this is that you will be giving your readers what THEY want as opposed to what you think they want.

What I Do Now:

As you can see, I don’t just blog about PLR or internet marketing, I have really expanded what I talk about. Now, I talk about blogging, social media, affiliate marketing, niche websites, website flipping, Adsense and whatever else I think my readers will like. If you have any suggestions as to what you want me to write, then just let me know so that I can fulfill your requests.

Build Backlinks

How much time to you spend building backlinks to your website? If you are like most people, then you will spend more time building backlinks than you will on the actual content. What you need to understand is this is the worst thing you can do. If you have a decent following, then you should be able to get a good amount of backlinks no matter what you do. The content is the most important thing here so make sure you are writing epic content if you want to get the most backlinks.

What I Do Now:

Do I still build backlinks? Yes, but not to my posts. The only thing I do is build backlinks to my homepage and the reason for this is because my content should be good enough to get the backlinks that I need. If you write epic content like I highly recommend, then the links will come in on their own.

Daily Posts

Do I post on a daily basis? I would if I had great articles to publish every day but I don’t. If you have noticed, I don’t publish every single day and the reason is because while most bloggers are rushing to get articles out, I am rushing to get ideas on papers so that I can spend time writing the article.

If you have a niche that requires daily posts, then go for it but I break this rule because I don’t need daily posts. My goal with this site is to ensure that I have the best content on the internet, not to have the most content. If you are anything like I am, then you will understand why daily posts are good for some sites and not for others.

What I Do Now:

Even though I don’t post on my blog daily, I will continue to write. I will write for other blogs and do guest posts, I will write for future posts on this blog and I will just practice my craft. The more I write the better I will be at it so there is no point to stop. Also, if there is a day that I am not writing it is because I am doing something else to make this blog and the community around it much better.

Even though I break these common blogging rules doesn’t mean that you have to do it as well. If you feel that blogging daily or publishing 400 word average posts is right for you and your readers, then go ahead and do it. Just remember that this is my experience with my blog and it won’t work with everybody.

If you have any other blogging rules that you break I would sure like to hear them in the comment section below.

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Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: articles, backlinks, blog, Blogging, content, daily posts, freelance, John Chow, readers, rules, writing

February 2012 Goals

February 1, 2012 By 26 Comments

February 2012 Goals

Wow, our first month of 2012 sure seems to have flown by! January usually starts out strong for most people, with New Year Resolutions and goal setting being front and foremost on many people’s minds. Bloggers and small business owners are no different.

As I head into February one thing is front and center in my thoughts. This marks the end of my 2nd year with PLR Internet Marketing. March 1st begins the third year for me, and I’d like to achieve as many things before then as I can. (I feel so much more productive when I can list all the various accomplishments I’ve achieved with my site during any particular time period) J

I have an online interview lined up for March where I’ll discuss not only what’s been happening with my site during the 2nd year, but also my plans, hopes, and dreams for 2012 and my third year with the site so I won’t go into that here. What I do want to do however is set some last minute goals for February to make sure I get the most out of my business year.

I should point out that I do use goals, and goal boards constantly, but posting something publically is always a little more “concrete” as there are a lot more people holding you accountable. I only wish February wasn’t a short month! LOL

So without further ado, here are my goals for February 2012:

  1. Write an eBook. This will be something along the lines of an “Operations Manual” for professional bloggers. (Anyone looking to make some money with their blogs) I want to make this very in depth and content rich, so this will likely take up a fair bit of time and energy.
    Since I did write a post title “30 Days to an eBook” though, I’d better make sure it happens!
  2. Open up my internet marketing forum to the public. The forum will be going from a paid structure to free for all users.
  3. Issue a press release to announce the launch of the forum opening.
  4. Send out 3 press releases. (I’m investing some of my marketing dollars this year into a serious press release campaign to track and assess the benefits of a sustained approach. Previously I’d only sent out a couple, and that was sporadic at best.
  5. Start a commenting tribe within the forum. Comment tribes are a great way to generate comments and traffic  but there are still quite a few people who either haven’t heard of them, or don’t belong to any groups.
  6. Holding with goal number 4, I’ll send out a press release to announce the tribe launch.
  7. Complete interview for www.Aaronhoos.com outlining my 2nd year successes and challenges, as well as my 3rd year goals, hopes, and dreams for PLR Internet Marketing.
  8. Make 300 comments on blogs I follow. (Roughly ten a day) This is something I’ve been neglecting, and I need to get out there and interact more.
  9. Publish 29 posts on the PLR Internet Marketing blog.
  10. Record 20 podcasts. I’d like to eventually have all 630+ articles in audio version as well as written.
  11. List out my 3rd year goals for my business.
  12. Install DLGuard on www.blogtraffictactics.net to track sales and downloads.
  13. Install an affiliate tracking software on Blog Traffic Tactics to launch and take advantage of affiliates for the book.
  14. Issue a press release announcing the affiliate program. (This will fulfill my 3 press releases)
  15. Hand out 100 +K (Klout) to the various Twitter users I follow. (I’ve been lax in this regard, but since I keep getting Klout Perks, I should really participate more)
  16. Launch www.earningsuccess.com with Aaron Hoos and start marketing it.
  17. Start paying attention to www.thehappyself.com (One of my blogs that I’ve been neglecting, and yet still gets hundreds of visitors a day)
  18. Make sure my Fiancé gets her driver’s license! (I’m currently spending 80 hours a month driving her into the city and back for work. Time that would be better spent working my business!)
  19. Build a “Link Partners” page, and start doing link exchanges. I’ve never taken advantage of this and I’ve noticed a competing website shoot up to the 3rd position using primarily this method. So for all you bloggers, affiliate marketers, and internet marketers who would like to participate shoot me an email, and we’ll get things rolling!
  20. Expand my own “Operations Manual”. This is a document I keep for my blog and business that outlines all the pertinent information outlining the day to day activities. It serves as a great training document for employees, and outsourcers as well, and I highly recommend you create one for yourself.

That’s it, 20 goals for the next 29 days! It should keep me busy especially since some of these are fairly decent sized goals (like the eBook). I’ll post the interview, as well as a follow up in the first week of March letting you know how I did with it. I’m pretty sure you’ll call me on it if I come up way short! J

Take care, and have a great month!

Podcast version

 

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Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: affiliate program, blog, Blogging, comment tribe, comments, Earning Success, ebook, goals, internet marketing, interview, link partners, operations manual, podcasts, press releases, The Happy Self, year end

Paying Your Bills Entrepreneur Style

January 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Paying Your Bills Entrepreneur Style

Many of us turn to internet marketing in the hopes of earning a few extra bucks doing something we’d likely do for free anyway. While there is a general misconception surrounding internet marketing and the work required to build an online business that is capable of generating income of any level, there are still people willing to invest the time and effort involved to either subsidize, or in some cases even replace their offline income all together. (The misconception is that making money online is easy, and requires no more than the push or at most 6 buttons on a keyboard, the truth is an online business is still a business requiring work!)

I was recently discussing my blog with an old colleague who had expressed interest in the direction I planned to take when I left my corporate position for something less stable in the internet marketing industry. He liked the thought of building a website that would continue working for him 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and that could be marketed to a global audience.

The part he didn’t relish, or at least failed to attempt was taking the time to research, and register a domain, and then building up a website with a product or service. He opted instead to take a “wait and see” approach, and chose to watch my blog grow and develop.

I’ve been blogging full time now for two years, and have loved every minute of it. Some weeks have involved more work than most of us would like to invest, and less pay than we can hope to live on, while other weeks have been relatively relaxing, and way more profitable than I could have hoped. (My best week of earning took place while I was on holidays).

Now while I won’t be the next internet millionaire for quite some time I’m sure, I’ve still enjoyed the challenge of building an online business, and growing a community around my blog. I’ve managed to almost completely replace my old “offline” income, and the viewpoint I took while doing so was perhaps a little different than what most people would be used to.

While we were discussing my business, my old friend and colleague asked how I was able to replace the salary I used to make. In the beginning I simply wrote down an amount that I needed to make in order to survive and struggled to match it with offline earnings. This technique turned out harder for me to achieve than I’d hoped. Income growth was coming in not only slowly and sporadically but from almost more directions and durations than I could keep track of.

I had advertising income that paid within three days, and I had affiliate programs that took as long as ninety days, and many in between sources. This sporadic income caused me to reevaluate my earnings, and more accurately my bill paying options.

I started out looking at my smallest bills which were things like gym memberships, and internet service provider bills, and then chose two income sources that matched up relatively close, both in terms of dollar amounts, and payment frequency. I used the income from a PayPal Donation Script that I was selling and then brought in about fifty dollars each month and tied that income to the two bills.

For larger bills such as car payments I used the revenue derived from my Twitter account and website advertising sold through my ad manager at BuySell Ads. Clickbank income went towards food and toiletries, and so on.

By utilizing various income streams to pay individual bills it was never a huge stretch trying to grow my income. Tackling a revenue stream and working at it until it is capable of earning a hundred dollars or so each month is much easier than looking at the overall picture and saying I need to grow my income by four thousand dollars monthly.

Not only did this method encourage me to develop several revenue streams, it also kept them at a manageable size. Chances are if you have the skill to grow a stream of income to twenty-five dollars a month, you can redouble your marketing efforts and double that figure. If your Twitter account earns fifty dollars a month, then it stands to reason that you can either double your follower count, or sell twice as many ads to bring in double the income!

I should probably mention that in the beginning an approach like this might be harder to work with as you are likely investing most (if not all) of your income back into your business. Once things start gaining momentum however it can become both fun and challenging to work and develop ten or twelve revenue streams to a point profitable enough to pay your bills, and grow your savings!

So don’t despair if the dollar amount you’ve chosen as your blogging or business goal seems to be eluding you, or taking longer to achieve. Focus instead on the smaller successes that make up the sum total of that goal, and you’ll likely not only find yourself achieving more, but having more opportunities to celebrate those small yet meaningful successes along the way!

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Are You Using The Right Images On Your Blog

January 25, 2012 By 6 Comments

Are You Using The Right Images On Your Blog

Running a blog is not always as easy as you might think, you have to do more than just write. Most bloggers will spend a lot of time writing great blog posts, adding cool new affiliate products and even sending out dozens of emails every month, but most bloggers don’t spend enough time finding the right images for their blog?

How much time do you spend looking for the right image for your blog? If you simply type in a few words in Google and pick the first thing that looks halfway decent, then you are probably not choosing the right images for your blog.

What most people don’t realize is that every image will say something different and that is why you have to choose the images wisely. Trust me, spending a little more time choosing the right image for your blog will be well worth your time now and in the future.

Did you know that most people are the visual type?

The reason you need to know this is because if you don’t have a great title for your article, then maybe the image will help get people to read it. Have you ever looked at an image next to a post and wondered what it is about? This is what a lot of people do, I know this because I do this, my friends do this and a lot of other bloggers have said that they do this. We all know that content is what people will read but the image is what most people will look at before they even read a word on your blog. Just do yourself a favor and add the right images to your blog.

How To Determine The Right Image

Test Different Images

If you write a post about “Article marketing” one month, then I would recommend writing another post about “Article marketing” the next month but use a different image. What you will see from doing this is which image is better received by your readers. Sometimes it makes a difference as to how much color is in the image and other time it is a matter of the size. Without testing you won’t be able to see which image works best and why.

Ask Your Readers

Something that a lot of bloggers are starting to do now is to simply ask their readers what images they like the best. The benefit of asking your audience as to which images they like the best is that you won’t have to bother testing as much and you will get an inside peak into what your readers really want to see.

Watch The Big Boys

If you are not following some of the bigger blogs like Copyblogger, Problogger, Johnchow and Smartpassiveincome, then you need to do that now. When you watch some of the images that these guys post on their blog you will start to see why they get so much traffic and make so much money. Sometimes the image is what people refer to and the content is just there to help them understand. The A-list bloggers spend a lot of time dissecting every aspect of their blog so use what they are doing to help you learn a thing or two.

When it comes to using the right images on your blog there are a lot of things that you need to think about such as; color or non-color, paid images or free images and large images or small images. Whatever you decide to use just know that if it doesn’t work out, then you need to move on and try something different.

I’ve personally been using Fotolia now for a little over two years and love the selection, simplicity, and service I get from them!

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Is Your blog Ready For 2012

January 3, 2012 By 7 Comments

Is Your blog Ready For 2012

As a blog owner, it is up to you to keep everything updated and being that it is a new year, it is that time again. What most bloggers do is they totally forget to update their blog and get it ready for a new year and that is a huge mistake.

When did you start your blog? The reason I ask this is because blogs that are years old generally have gone in a different direction than they were going in last year. Think about it, what was the point of your blog last year and what is it this year? If your blog changed at all (which I am sure it did), then you need to make some of the following adjustments to get your blog ready for 2012.

Clean Up Your Blog

This is a little like spring cleaning, except you are doing it a bit early. When I say clean up your blog, I am talking about articles that are no longer relevant, comments that seem to spammy and even advertising that is outdated. As a blogger, it is your obligation to give your readers the best experience possible and that isn’t possible if there is a bunch of junk on your site. What I highly recommend is that you spend a little bit of time looking over your blog to see what is there that could be adjusted or simply taken off.

Update The About Me Page

You know you have one, it might not be the best page on the site but it is there. The About Me page is very important so that readers know who they are learning from and what kind of experience they have in that field. Think about it, if you are wanting to learn how to lose weight you would do it from somebody that is a personal trainer, not somebody that weighs 400 pounds and eats at McDonald’s every single day.

With your About Me page it is important that you give your age, some general information about you and recent achievements. The reason you want to put all of this stuff on your blog is because people like to feel connected to one another and this is one of the best ways to go about doing that.

Use Social Media

If you are not aware of it yet, Google + is a very popular social network that you need to be a part of. I am pretty sure you have seen the “+1” buttons around but some blogs still don’t have it. What you need to understand is that social media is a great way to get traffic to your website and also get exposure. If you are not using any social media buttons on your website, then it is about time that you add them because this is easy traffic that you could be getting. Trust me, social media is going to be huge in 2012 and you need to be part of it.

Reveal Your Most Popular Posts

One of the biggest problems with a blog is that once the content is off the front page, it is usually lost forever. This is why a popular post plugin works great. If you don’t want to use a plugin, then you can easily add links inside your articles but that will be a lot more work.

Giving your readers the chance to see some of your past work is very important because that will give them another door to go through on your website. What you need to understand is that the longer you can get people to stay on your website, the better off you will be.

Add Videos

Everybody loves to watch videos and because of that you need to add some to your blog. Having a blog full of content and nothing else is going to get tiresome to most people and that is why using videos in between content is a great way to diversify your blog. Where most people make a mistake is they tend to add videos of things that are not really related to their site, this is something you want to stay away from. If you can’t find videos that talk about things relevant to what you are blogging about, then that would be the perfect time to create your own videos and share them.

I hope these 5 things help you get off to a fast start, just make sure that your blog is ready for 2012. Being that the year just started, you need to do whatever you can right now to get your blog ready, if that means taking a week off from blogging then that is what you will need to do. Remember, the internet is always changing and because of this your blog should too.

Podcast version

 

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Why Create Blogging Goals Based On Numbers

January 2, 2012 By 1 Comment

Why Create Blogging Goals Based On Numbers
How often do you create goals? Do you create a new goal every time you have a new project or only after you reach one of your existing goals? Creating goals is a very important part of life and if you run a website, then goals are the way you can measure growth.

Often times people will create goals based on their fantasy and that never works out. You need to set a goal that is reachable, yet far enough out there that you will have to work to reach that goal. As a blogger you will find that there are a lot of different goals you can set for yourself but you need to set the right ones.

As far as the goals go, you need to create them based on numbers and only numbers. Most bloggers will say they want to rank first for a certain keyword or get a lot of new subscribers but none of those are based on numbers. What you need to understand is that a number based goal is easy to track and that is why you use them.

Blogging Goals For Everybody

Traffic

How are you currently measuring your traffic? Do you base your traffic off of how many total pages are viewed or by how many unique visitors you get? The reason why this is important to know is because you need to use the same method time and time again or else your goal tracking will be off. One of the goals I would set is how many visitors to the blog per day. 500 visitors, 1000 visitors or even 2500 visitors, these are all great goals to set for yourself.

Tip: As far as traffic goes, I would recommend setting a goal based on unique visitors per day, per week and per month. Determining the amount of traffic you get is really easy so that should be a goal that every blogger has.

Search Engine Position

If you are watching where you are on the search engines, then you need to track where you are for all your main keywords. Blogs will rank for a lot of smaller keywords and that is ok if you don’t track them but make sure you know the bigger keywords that you rank for. The way I would set a goal for keywords is to write down the keyword that you want to rank for and which position you want to be by what time. You need to write down but the time and the position because leaving either one open is not a set goal.

Posts

How many posts do you plan on writing every day? Most bloggers will write 1 post a day and for some that is enough but for others they need to write more. A goal that I would recommend setting is “X amount of posts in X amount of days”. The reason I would setup a goal like that is because you don’t have to write 1 post every day for 30 days, instead you could write 2 posts per day published every other day for 30 days. In the end you get the same result as far as posts go.

Setting goals is very important and that is why you need to use them. Many bloggers think that goal setting just gets in the way of their actual success but when you think about it, how do you know what success is if you never set a goal?

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Standing out in a crowd of Bloggers

October 18, 2011 By 10 Comments

Standing out in a crowd of Bloggers

With well over 150 million blogs reportedly being online this year more and more people are seeking out ideas and tips on how to stand out among so many. Now I have to admit I didn’t have enough time to visit all 150 million, but judging by the ones I do visit that are successful vs. those that are, shall we say less than successful there are a few clear differences that stand out.

Be Yourself

This one might seem like a no-brainer, but you don’t have to spend much time at all online to find multitudes of people who just don’t get it. Finding your own “voice” might take you a while, but once you do it will become one of the main reasons people start coming back over and over again.

 Write about what you know

If you’re super passionate about a topic, and can’t seem to devour enough information on the subject, and are continually talking (or writing) the ear off of anyone who shows the slightest interest in the same topic you’ve likely got a winner on your hands. Try to avoid subjects you either don’t know, or aren’t passionate about as they’ll soon dry up and what started out as fun will turn into work.

Be Consistent

You’ve probably heard this one before, but it’s amazing how many bloggers write sporadically at best. I often stop by the occasional blog expecting new materials and when I’m faced with last month’s post still I quickly lose interest. If you can’t see yourself writing once or twice a week on a topic you may have chosen the wrong one to begin with which is why the last point was so important.

Your readers will become accustomed to the writing schedule you keep and will often stop by your blog in anticipation of the next article on the subject you write about. It’s probably a good idea to send these visitors away happy and fulfilled rather than lacking, and frustrated.

Respond to each and every visitor

If Twitter, Facebook, and blog comments are potential contact points between yourself and your readers, then make sure you’re monitoring all of these, and responding to the people who are actually interested enough in you and your blog to engage with you, or share your content. It only takes a moment, but the conversation you start might begin the conversation that brings that reader back again and again in support of your blogging efforts.

Don’t give up!

This is one of the biggest one’s on this list. There are millions of blogs and blogger’s you’ll never hear of simply because they are no longer online. They folded their tents up, and likely won’t be back. People wander off leaving their readers behind for many reasons. Some think the level of success they achieved in the time they “tried” wasn’t what they were expecting. Often these people either didn’t put in enough time, or enough effort.

The items on this list or basic and simple, but so few seem to be doing them or are flitting about from one set of ideals to the next trying to figure out which one is going to bring them the level of success they see others achieving. It’s simple! Figure out what you want, and then figure out what you need to get you there and do it!

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Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: be consistent, be passionate, be yourself, bloggers, Blogging, blogs, respond to comments, standing out, write about what you know

Building Relationships Online

October 13, 2011 By 7 Comments

Well I’m guessing you can guess what this post is about by the title. I’m not talking about the relationships you might develop through sites like Plenty of fish either, (though I’m sure those are awesome as well) but the ones you make with other people just like yourself who are interested in blogging, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, etc.

The greatest thing about meeting all these wonderful people is the fact that many are on the same road towards success, but perhaps at different points along it. Some are just starting their journey, while others might be midway, and still others are all the way along and have reached the level of success we all start out looking to attain.

You can definitely learn something from each and every one of these individuals. Most of us invest time and energy into learning the tactics and strategies that interest us the most. Since we all have widely varied interests we end up with a pool of knowledge that is not only quite deep, but also widely varied.

Even the one’s with very little experience who happen to be just starting out can offer us a fresh insight into things as well as a great opportunity to teach a few of the tricks we’ve picked up ourselves along the way.

Teaching not only reaffirms what we already knew, and helps to establish us as knowledgeable on our topic, but also allows us a chance to give back to the community we’re a part of. After all, it’s likely we learned that very same knowledge from someone else along the way!

Some of us, me included tend to be solitary creatures and have to get out of our comfort zones in order to connect with our peers. For some reason it’s in our nature to try and do things alone and without help. It’s important to realize that any business isn’t going to be built by you alone, but by the community you build around it. Both your customers and visitors will likely determine your level of success to a much greater degree than the amount of work you yourself put into it.

So how do we go about building better relationships while we busily go about building up our own businesses? I mean as much as I want all my online friends to succeed in spectacular fashion, I also know that I have a ton of work to do in order to be successful myself right?

It all comes down to striking a balance and realizing that things we do today may pay off down the road. That programming genius you spend the day helping may come in handy when you decide to develop your own IPhone application a year from now. Even if it doesn’t ever get returned from the person you helped today, chances are somewhere down the line somebody will return the favor and help you out a jam. I know it’s happened that way for me at least!

Supporting your online friends can be as simple as stopping by from time to time, and offering up a word of encouragement, or retweeting one of their posts that is in reality more of a benefit to you and your followers since it’s likely filled with well researched information that is bound to come in handy in your own business.

When you consider the other person likely spent an hour or two putting it together, taking the two minutes to comment or share it really isn’t much at all, and the result will likely end up in even more valuable information being written by that particular person.

For all you bloggers who continue day in and day out regardless of visitors, retweet’s, or shares to write valuable, high quality information for readers like myself… I thank you, and dedicate this post to you. Keep up the great work! We appreciate it!

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Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: bloggers, Blogging, building relationships online, marketing

Daily Blog Tasks you shouldn’t be ignoring

September 21, 2011 By 17 Comments

Running a blog is no easy feat; as if being creative, artistic, and social weren’t enough there are a million other tasks that require our attention on an ongoing basis in order for things to run smoothly.

Because of these diverse components it’s easy to let certain tasks fall to the wayside until all of a sudden problems start to arise, causing us unwanted stress that could easily have been avoided.

I generally keep two lists on my desk. There is the “to do” list of things I’d like to accomplish, and then there’s the tasks that need to be done in order for things to stay healthy, and continue to grow.

Here’s a list of the items we should all try to ensure we get done each and every day we’re online and working on our blogs.

  • Backup your website – It’s such an easy task than most of us ether forget to do, or do sporadically. It isn’t until you have need of those critical blog files that you remember all those words of wisdom you’ve read about on blogs like this one. If you incorporate it into your daily “critical” tasks you’ll never be left without a recent copy of your blog again.
  • Log in and check Webmaster tools – If you haven’t signed up for Google’s free service “Webmaster Tools” you are doing your website a huge disservice, and are likely to be blind-sided by issues that you should have seen coming. By making a point to log in daily, you’ll not only become more familiar with the way your website is being seen in the eyes of Google, but you’ll also become aware of things like broken links, who’s linking to you, which terms are sending you traffic, and much, much more!
  • Check Your Analytics – You don’t want to rely on stat programs like AwStats which are available from within your cPanel because they aren’t reliable in the least and you’ll really have no idea what sort of traffic you’re actually receiving . Google offers the most comprehensive stats you could possibly hope for and will give you a much deeper insight into who your visitors are, where they come from, and what they do when they arrive!

 

It’s important to not get too addicted to checking your stats. It’s easy to get into the habit of watching the numbers grow so much that you stop doing all the things that actually do make them grow! Checking them in the morning to see how you did the previous day is more than enough, and can help you make a game plan for the coming day ahead!

 

  • Respond to emails, and comments – Nothing says unprofessional more than neglecting the very people who make up the readership of your blog. If you’ve set your comments to manually be approved then ensure you’re checking them daily and approving any legitimate ones, as well as responding to them when needed.
  • Visit your neighbors – A blog is never built by a single person, instead it takes a whole community. Make sure you’re getting out there, seeing what’s new in your industry, commenting on posts, and adding to discussions as you can. This is still one of the very best ways to get noticed by not only your fellow bloggers, but also their readers as well.
  • Create content – You should always be creating some sort of content for your website, whether it’s a post for your own site, a guest post for another, or perhaps a video or podcast. Whatever will engage your readers, and help drive traffic to your site. The more content you create, the more assets you have.

These are just a few things you might want to consider adding to your daily tasks in order to facilitate the health and growth of your blog. Each of us has different goals, strengths, and ideas of what’s important to us, so this list will be different for everyone.  The important thing is to make sure you’re continually moving your blog forward!

 

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Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: Blogging, daily blog tasks, to do list
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