Journey for the Holy Grail...More Blog Traffic

Blogs have become more popular. Tens of thousands of blog go live each month. Colleges are even starting to make blogs part of college courses. Some blogs are meant to be for entertainment only. Some are trying to share information with like minded people. Others are trying to make money online. Common ways of making money blogging is by commission from affiliate marketing or ad revenue. Whether you are just wanting to share information or generate income, you must be able to generate traffic to your site. Generating higher blog traffic has become the Holy Grail of blogging. These are lessons I have learned in my quest for the Blogger's Holy Grail.

Learn from mentors that are already successful. One of the quickest ways to be successful, in any endeavor, is to learn from people who are already successful. In days past, this required meeting these people or knowing someone who could introduce you. The internet has made it much easier to find mentors. When it comes to generating blog traffic, there are several sites you should become familiar including; Zac Johnson's blog, Shoe Money's Affiliate Marketing Ideas, Seth Godin's Blogging Success Tips, and RemarkaBlogger's Guide to Jumpstarting Your Blog. These are just a few sites that offer great blog traffic ideas. What do we learn from these sites?

I was a fan of mentors long before starting a blog. When I decided to start a blog, I began by searching for successful blogs about making money. I subscribed to the RSS feeds of each of these sites. I use a rss feed aggregated (Bloglines) to allow me to quickly see the blogs that have new posts, read the posts, and save the interesting ones. Not only do I learn from successful bloggers, I also get ideas for articles and reviews.

Email Subscriptions - Repeat visitors is one of the keys to generating an income blogging. Pay Per Click Journal reports, "Traditional marketers know that a person has to see an offer seven times before they act on it" (Can You Re-Engage Nonconverting Traffic Through PPC?, 2009). Email subscriptions are a great way to draw visitors back into your site. Email subscribers are notified when new posts are published. Subscribers do not have to consciously visit your site to get the newest information. They just have to open their email. You can use many services to setup email subscriptions. A free, and very popular, site is Feedburner.

Early on, I did not place much stock in email subscriptions. I thought that having a link for RSS subscriptions would be enough. I missed several important factors. You need to ask visitors to subscribe. You want the subscription link to be easy to see. You want to ask visitors to subscribe more than once.

Become an Expert - Today, people are inundated with information. They want to find the information they need quickly. They want to find it from expert sources. A great way to generate traffic is to position yourself as an expert. This may seem a monumental feat, especially for new bloggers. However, you can begin by picking one area of your topic and learning all that you can. For example, you could choose Search Engine Optimization (SEO), begin reading and researching the topic, try different techniques with your own sites, document what works and what did not work so well. Publish and distribute your findings. You will gain credibility and increase your position as an expert.

Participate on Other Blogs - Identify successful blog in the same area as yours. Begin placing comments on their blogs. This will provide much needed backlinks to your site. Show Money explains, "great way to increase the popularity of your blog is to find all your competitor blogs and start participating on them" (5 Simple Ways To Get More Blog Traffic In 2008, 2008). These links will assist readers in finding your blog. These visitors will be targeted because they are coming from a site with a similar topic.

Be Consistent - Many bloggers make the mistake of becoming discouraged. They expect fast results. When those results do not come, they stop posting altogether. Search Engines are becoming more sophisticated in their searches. They like sites that have been around for awhile. They like sites that are updated frequently. You must be consistent in your postings and practice some patience.

Identify Your Edge - People want their information but they also want to be entertained. How will you differentiate yourself from the hundreds of thousands of blogs in existence? Your writing style is one way to set yourself apart. Writing styles can be as different as fingerprints. Find a style and voice that draws your readers in.

Email subscriptions allow you to remind people to read new blog posts. Setting yourself as an expert makes it easier to build a readersip. Participating on other blogs helps to build backlinks and visibility for your site. Consistency is key, visitors like blogs that offer fresh informtion. Consistency also is important for increasing search engine traffic. Identify your voice. Cultivate a voice that sets you apart from the pack. By no means is this every idea for generating traffic. These are some blogging lessons that I have learned. I hope that this will help you to avoid the potholes that I fell in. Please, return often to learn more about my blogging experience.

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Infinite Income Plan And Why We All Need A Business Model.

by Brian V Shortt

Every business needs a strategy. Whether your business is physical and in the high street or whether it is digitized and solely online therefore it is imperative that you need some form of groundwork, blueprint or guide to get your business started and to allow it to grow successfully. For a quickly thrown together or conceived concept will just end in failure and monetary loss.

In the issue of affiliate marketing this notion is no different. Indeed the idea of paying commission for referred business " basically what affiliate marketing is " predates the internet itself but it is the World Wide Web that has allowed the model to grow, prosper and enter the mainstream as a way to earn money. Thousands upon thousands of internet users have seen this as a way to supplement their current earnings or even build a profitable career. However thousands upon thousands have also failed in this venture. To be profitable at it doesn't mean that all you have to do is sit at your computer and watch the money flow, it takes the same amount of investigation and inquiry as setting up a physical business.

Furthermore, like a physical business, you need a proper plan put in place. This needs to build the foundations, the building blocks on which our internet business will be built upon. The reason so many internet businesses " and in particular affiliate marketers " fail is because they do not have a proper, proven and detailed strategy as to how to be successful or to even get them started. They fall into the mistaken belief that their own intuition and creativity will be sufficient to see them through. Unfortunately for them this will more often than not end in letdown and disappointment. For a optimistic outlook and "every cloud has a silver lining" attitude will not warrant success by itself, you need a solid platform with which to work with.

The strategy itself should also not just be confined to what you need to start your career as an affiliate marketer. It should also explain to you how you need to accurately, effectively and successfully market the products that you have chosen to sell. With the internet growing and developing at an alarming rate the possibilities for promotion and advertising are endless; innovative ways of gaining publicity for your product are appearing every day. Without the proper information of how to profitably exploit these methods then your career as an affiliate marketer will be short lived indeed.

Some 90% of affiliate marketers do not accomplish the results that they would like and many of these fail completely. What the successful 10% have is a blueprint on which they can build upon. There is a free report on the internet entitled: "The Infinite Affiliate Income Plan". While no-one is going to make $1million overnight, by researching a proven strategy then you stand a much better chance of being in that top 10% as opposed to the other 90% who normally turn their back on affiliate marketing altogether and miss out on the great benefits it brings.

About the Author:

To learn more about affiliate marketing, check out the free Infinite Affiliate Income report. Feel free to distribute this article in any form as long as you include this resource box. You can also include your affiliate link if you sign up at Clickbank Pirate.

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Setting Up RSS Feeds & Analytics

by Caroline Middlebrook

RSS - A Brief Intro

RSS is 'Really Simple Syndication'. It allows visitors to your blog to have your posts sent to them automatically with a method of their choosing, instead of having to come to your web page each day to look for an update. This can be helpful if someone follows several blogs as they can use the RSS reader tool to look at all the blogs in just one place.

The RSS feed is a unique URL published by the blog, this is what is needed for your visitors to subscribe to your blog with RSS. You'll be glad to hear that there is very little to do, as all the blog platforms have the RSS technology already built in, including WordPress. In fact, chances are you won't have to do anything if you have already chosen your theme.

What you do want to watch out for is that your RSS icon will be clearly displayed in the top section of the blog theme. If the visitor needs to scroll way down to get to it, choose another one. Be sure that the icon is relatively large and that it stands out. Fundamentally, you need to be sure that your visitor's eyes will be drawn straight to it. If it's tucked away then it more than likely won't get used.

Full or Partial Feeds - Which to Choose?

There is an RSS feature that will send just a small piece of the published post to the RSS feed, and if the reader would like to view the whole post, they have to click to follow it through to your web page to read it. Be aware though that WordPress is set, by default, to publish a full feed, so your whole post will be sent via the feed. You can see, and amend, this setting by going to your WordPress Dashboard, then go to 'Settings', then 'Reading'.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods. If you provide a full text feed it means that your reader doesn't ever need to visit your website again - they can get all of your material directly through their feed reader. Some webmasters don't like this because it means that those people won't see their ads that they have on their site. However, all that has changed now as Google has setup a system to allow ads to be embedded directly in your feed.

The thing to realise about RSS users, is that these people understand the internet. They know all about RSS, have already chosen their RSS reader and they chose to subscribe to your feed as they want to read what you have to say. There is much less chance of these people clicking on an ad than someone who came to your website via a search engine. These are people who are hungry for information, that is why they use RSS in the first place.

The use of an RSS reader will allow them to view all of their chosen blogs speedily and saves them from the need to navigate round a whole horde of websites. The downside, then, of only sending a partial feed to your reader, is that if these people are forced to then have to click and follow through to your website, they may simply not bother, and many may even unsubscribe. This then means that your posts do not get viewed.

I would recommend that, if you want to grow a social blog and you are keen to build up a loyal audience who will read everything you write, you will need to make it a full feed. But if you are looking to create a commercial blog that is monetized heavily, and that you are not so concerned about readership, you can do a partial feed.

On-page ads, however, are not the only revenue that can be generated by your blog. When you have learned how to utilise your blog to create much greater revenue streams, it will not matter whether your readers follow your posts on your website or via an RSS feeder. With this in mind, a full feed would be my recommendation.

Utilization of a Feedburner

If you are using the unchanged WordPress theme then you will not need to do anything for viewers to be able to subscribe to your feed. However there will be no way to see how many readers have subscribed. If this is an issue and you want to know your subscriber number, then a Feedburner service will allow you to be able to track it.

The Feedburner service is completely free and is run by Google. It is also incredibly easy to set up. All you need to do once you are signed up, is give your original blog's URL to Feedburner and it will create a new Feedburner URL for you to use. You can then edit your WordPress theme to use the Feedburner URL instead.

Google Analytics - What is it?

Google Analytics is a great piece of software that will let you track all sorts of statistics about your website. This can include information on the amount of traffic you are getting, the keywords people are using to find you, links elsewhere that point to your site, where your visitors are located and so on. It's absolutely fantastic software and again is entirely free!

You will have to insert a website profile for your blog once you are all signed up. This just requires you to put in the URL of your blog and possibly your time zone, if you wish, then it will provide you with some code that you should display on your pages. Just click and copy the code on to the clipboard.

To put the code onto your WordPress blog, you can do it manually but that involves editing your theme files and if you change themes you will have to do it again. Instead, I recommend Semiologic which manages your Analytics for you. The download page has full instructions on how to use the plugin so I don't need to repeat it here.

About the Author:

Caroline Middlebrook has written a popular blog since 2007 which earns a 4-figure monthly income. She demonstrates how to make money with blogs and gives away free downloads of her free guides & courses.

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Trying to Make Money Online? Quit Trying and Just Do It!

The internet is chocked full of people trying to teach you to make money online. Heck, this blog is dedicated to the same thing. You can even by books and reports, on late night television that claim to teach the same thing. To put it in the words of Anthony Robbins, "Why do people not follow Nike's advice and "Just Do It"?"

A blog that I love to read is Erica.biz. I enjoy her blog because I fully believe in mentors. Finding people that have already successful in your chosen endeavor. When it comes to running a successful business, Erica Douglass knows what she is talking about. By her early twenties, Erica had already started, grown, and sold her first business. Eria.biz published a post called “2009 Goals Update - Perfectionism is Your Worst Enemy“.

Erica provides insight into her 2008 goal of earning $10,000/mo online. Her plan was to start a membership site. Early in the process, a few customers criticized the concept. Erica believed that their points were valid. She changed the site to utilize these ideas. She stopped production of her current idea and "went back to code" to incorporate the suggestions. Erica states that she later realized that not continuing with the current idea and incorporating the suggestions later cost her valuable money making time.

The potential to make money online exists. Internet World Statistics reported there are currently 1,596,108 internet users. Imagine selling a $1 product to 0.01% of these users. You would make $100,000. Imagine if you could repeat this each year.

This may seem unobtainable. You may doubt the possibility of selling to even 0.01% of all internet users. Right now, I cannot tell you the secret formula. I can tell you that I do not believe the formula is a "secret". I believe that it is a set of skills. Like any other endeavor, you must dedicate yourself to learning these skills. I have developed a game plan for myself. Here are the steps I have identified:

• Identify your goals - my current goal is to be making $3000 a month online by December 31, 2009.


• Identify what you enjoy - I identified that I enjoy helping people and writing. Using these talents I am developing a series of blogs. In addition to this website I have “My Dumb Criminals Blog” and “My ADHD Blog“.


• Follow through - for me this has meant actually developing the sites and finding ways to keep them updated. My goal is to provide new content every day. Currently, I am up to a couple of times a week.


• Educate Yourself - It is important to educate yourself about internet marketing. Research for this site is one way I am educating myself. You may also want to view the resources I have listed.
  

If you are looking for ideas for making money online, here are a few of my personal favorites.

• Associated Content - a great site to make money writing articles online.


• People Search Engine - this is a new idea that I have been trying. You get your own search engine for people. You are paid based on sales to the site. Personally, I like that they even help you advertise the site.

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10 Best Types of Links

Link building is essential to increasing your Google search engine rankings. Volume is no longer the major criteria; quality and variety of links are what count now. So which types of links will help your site the most - give you the most "link juice?"

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World's Dumbest Criminals

Doctors have stated that laughter is the best medicine. My new blog is dedicated to making everyone laugh. What makes people laugh more than dumb criminal stories? Whether it be a bank robber that writes the robber note on his paycheck or a guy who decides it is a good idea to throw a keg into a bonfire, these stories will keep you laughing. Head on over to World's Dumbest Criminals for even more dumb criminal stories.

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Reporter vs Expert - Why Most Bloggers Are Stuck Reporting

There are basically two types of bloggers in the world - reporters and experts - and some people perform both roles (usually the experts, it's hard for reporters to become experts, but it's easy for experts to report).

If you have ever taken an Internet marketing course or attended a seminar specifically for beginners, you have probably heard about the two different methodologies. Whenever the business model is based on content, and if you blog for money then the model is based on content, people are taught to either start as reporters, or if possible step up as experts.

I'll be frank; you want to be the expert.

Reporters leverage the content of the experts and in most cases people start off as reporters because they haven't established expertise. Experts enjoy the perks of preeminence, higher conversion rates because of perceived value, it's easier to get publicity, people are more likely to seek you out rather than you having to seek others out, joint ventures come easier, etc. experts in most cases simply make more money and attract more attention.

Most Bloggers Are Reporters

The thing with expertise is that it requires something - experience. No person becomes an expert without doing things and learning. Bloggers usually start out without expertise and as a result begin their blogging journey by talking about everything going on in their niche (reporting) and by interviewing and talking about other experts (reporting again).

There's nothing wrong with reporting of course and for many people it's a necessity at first until you build up some expertise. Unfortunately the ratios are pretty skewed when it comes to reporters and experts - there are a lot more reporters than there are experts, hence reporters tend to struggle to gain attention and when they do, they often just enhance the reputation of the expert they are reporting on.

Don't Replicate Your Teacher

If you have ever spent some time browsing products in the learn Internet marketing niche you will notice a pattern. Many people first study Internet marketing from a "guru" (for lack of a better term). The guru teaches how he or she is able to make money online, and very often the view that the student gleams is that in order to make money online you have to teach others how to make money online.

The end result of this process is a huge army of amateurs attempting to replicate what their teacher does in the same industry - the Internet marketing industry - not realizing that without expert status based on a proven record and all the perks that come with it, it's next to impossible to succeed.

Even people, who enjoy marginal success, say for example growing an email list of 1,000 people, then go out and launch a product about how to grow an email list of 1,000 people. Now I have no problems with that, I think it's fine to teach beginners and leverage whatever achievements you have, the problem is that people gravitate to the same niche - Internet marketing - and rarely have any key points of differentiation.

How many products out there do you know of that all claim to teach the same things - email marketing, SEO, pay per click, affiliate marketing, and all the sub-niches that fall under the category of Internet marketing. It's a saturated market, yet when you see your teachers and other gurus making money teaching others how to make money (and let's face it - making money as a subject is one of the most compelling) - your natural inclination is to follow in their footsteps.

If the key is to become an expert and you haven't spent the last 5-10 years making money online, I suggest you look for another niche to establish expertise in.

Report on Your Process, Not Others

The secret to progress from reporter to expert is not to focus on other experts and instead report on your own journey. When you are learning how to do something and implementing things day by day, or studying other people's work, you need to take your process and what you do as a result of what you learn, and use it as content for your blog.

It's okay to talk about experts when you learn something from them, but always relate it to what you are doing. If you learn a technique from an expert it's fine to state you learned it from them (and affiliate link to their product too!) but you should then take that technique, apply it to what you are doing and then report back YOUR results, not there's. Frame things using your opinion - your stories - and don't regurgitate what the expert said. The key is differentiation and personality, not replication.

Expertise comes from doing things most people don't do and then talking about it. If you do this often enough you wake up one day as an expert, possibly without even realizing how it happened, simply because you were so good at reporting what you did.

You Are Already An Expert

Most people fail to become experts (or perceived as experts) because they don't leverage what they already know. Every person who lives a life learns things as they go, takes action every day and knows something about something. The reason why they never become an expert is because they choose not to (which is fine for some, not everyone wants to be an expert), but if your goal is to blog your way to expertise and leave the world of reporting behind you have to start teaching and doing so by leveraging real experience.

Experience can come from what you do today and what you have done previously; you just need to take enough steps to demonstrate what you already know and what you are presently learning along your journey. I know so many people in my life, who are experts simply by virtue of the life they have lived, yet they are so insecure about what they know, they never commit their knowledge to words for fear of, well fear.

Blogs and the Web in general, are amazing resources when you leverage them as a communication tool to spread your expertise because of the sheer scope of people they can reach. If all you ever do is talk to people in person and share your experience using limited communication mediums, you haven't much hope of becoming an expert. Take what you know and show other people through blogging, and you might be surprised how people change their perception of you in time.

Reporting Is A Stepping Stone

If your previous experience and expertise is from an area you want to leave behind or you are starting from "scratch", then reporting is the path you must walk, at least for the short term.

Reporting is a lot of fun. Interviewing experts, talking about what other people are doing and just being part of a community is not a bad way to blog. In many cases people make a career of reporting (journalism is about just that), but if you truly want success and exponential results, at some point you will have to stand up and proclaim yourself as someone unusually good at something and then proceed to demonstrate it over and over again.

Have patience and focus on what you do to learn and then translate that experience into lessons for others, and remember, it's okay to be a big fish in a small pond, that's all most experts really are.

This article was by Yaro Starak, a professional blogger and my blog mentor. He is the leader of the Blog Mastermind mentoring program designed to teach bloggers how to earn a full time income blogging part time.

To get more information about Blog Mastermind click this link:

www.BlogMastermind.com

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