Webside Chat with Ben Mack, IAmTheVirus.com
September 29, 2008
Ben Mack is the author of “Poker Without Cards” and “Think Two Products Ahead.” In this episode, Ben talks about how he got 300,000 visitors to one of his blogs with a tactic people weren’t even talking about back in 2005.
His new site, IAmTheVirus.com, and interesting open writing project that’s easier to be experienced than explained.
Check out this interesting and insightful discussion with Ben Mack…
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Blog SEO Advice from Marketing Pilgrim
September 14, 2008
Andy Beal has some great advice at MarketingPilgrim on blog SEO and search engines.
Check out these valuable posts:
- Optimize Blog Post Titles
- Blog Marketing Tips #2: Increasing Traffic with Killer Slugs
- Do you still optimize your site for the search engines?
- The Search Engines are Killing Creativity
Check out Andy’s Webside Chat for more great info on blogging for profits.
Tags: andy beal, Blog Marketing, blog seo, marketing pilgrim, Search Engine OptimizationAn Authority Site Is Born
September 13, 2008
Witness the birth and evolution of a new authority site created and marketed by our team and written by two talented, professional writers.
The site, TeenCheckup.com, is, of course, a blog. The “big bang” happened this week with the site setup, new content, and initial indexing by the engines.
If you want to see how an A-List blog progresses from humble beginnings to wild popularity, this is a blog to watch. This is where we prove our methods work.
I will be posting updates here on each benchmark and success story and will try to be as transparent as possible without giving away too many of the secrets that people pay us a worthwhile chunk of money for each month.
What to watch for:
1. Links - watch them pile up over the next couple of months with Yahoo link checking.
2. Buzz - watch our professionally researched and expertly written content grab links and mentions from around the web from other bloggers.
3. Rankings - we are already showing up in the engines on keywords from the first few articles published this week. As our authority grows, watch how many keywords we’re showing up for in Google and elsewhere.
4. Traffic - I will report back here with daily unique visitor counts every so often and give hints as to how we are increasing our traffic over time.
Watch our baby grow up to be a high-traffic, profitable, respected, informative site in the online safety niche before your eyes.
What I Will Be Showing Authority Site Center Members
Members of Authority Site Center are going to be getting videos and reports that show the step-by-step development, marketing, and results along with exact keyword rankings. Basically, my “peeps” get to see how we build authority sites from the ground up in complete detail.
The map that will be laid out by watching every little thing we do to build a profitable site will be absolutely invaluable. If you’ve been wondering how we do what we do, this would be the time to join our “Authority Site Building Army” at ASC!
Tags: authority site building, authority site center, Blog Marketing, blogging tips, how to build and authority siteTactics to Increase Blog Traffic
May 10, 2008
I have collected some blog traffic driving gems tonight. These should be a great help if you aren’t already getting 1 million visitors per month.
If you are, then take the night off!
21 Ways to Increase Blog Traffic
A considerable portion of my consulting time has recently revolved around the optimization of corporate blogs (or the addition of blogs to revamped sites). As usual, I find a pattern emerging in the strategies that need attention and the pitfalls that must be avoided.
Tips for Blog Traffic - How to Increase Traffic Levels
But in my opinion, the best way to increase blog traffic is simply by posting often with quality content. In fact, there are so many benefits of posting quality content that I’m going to dedicate this entire blog post to the subject… …
Increase blog traffic via Blog Explosion
I have found myself spending a lot of time over at blogexplosion.com. It is a great way to get traffic to your blog and there are several fun ways to do it. You can surf others blogs, each time earning traffic to your own blog. …
Increase Blog Traffic With Google Image Search
How many times in a week do you search for images in Google Image Search? For bloggers, those numbers may be very high. I know that I use Google Image Search quite a bit when I need to find a picture to use for a blog post. …
Others find commenting to be a good tool to increase blog traffic. Being a middle of the road person - I see both sides of this debate and have not abandoned commenting all together. Why Commenting is Worthwhile …
How To Increase Blog Traffic With Your RSS Feed
The RSS feed for your blog is a very valuable traffic generation tool. Really Simple Sydication (RSS) makes it really simple to syndicate your blog content all over the internet….for free. … [[ This is a content summary only. …
Use TrackBoost to Increase Blog Traffic!
Its brand new. We programmed it, so you know its good!
How To Increase Blog Traffic and Improve Search Engine Exposure
Having a blog is good. Having a blog that gets traffic is great. Not having to pay for that traffic…. PRICELESS! If you have a blog, or any page on the web for that matter, learning how to… [[ This is a content summary only. …
Use Web2Submitter to Increase Blog Traffic!
It submits to the top social sites faster than you can!
How to Increase Blog Traffic with Social Communities
Social communities, like BlogCatalog or Twitter, are great resources to help you increase traffic to your blog and get more eyeballs on your content. While social bookmarking sites allow you to mark… [[ This is a content summary only. …
Use Utility Poster to Increase Blog Traffic!
It allows you to compile posts like this one you’re reading. Very fast, very keyword dense, very lovely for your readers looking for your information.
Cross Blog Conversations by the Web Success Diva
April 10, 2008
Not only does she have the goods to deliver sound advice on blog marketing and making money, but this web diva is a heck of a lot more fun to learn from than my ugly mug talking at you all the time!
Her name is Maria Reyes-McDavis. Smart, accomplished, and she is one of the few people on the web who is better looking than me.
Here’s Maria’s take on cross blog conversations and driving traffic:
Check out Maria’s Web Success Diva blog for more blog marketing tips!
Tags: Blog Marketing, Blog Marketing Videos, blog promotion, training videos, web divaStephen Pierce Uncovers Traffic and Link Building Tactic on YouTube
March 24, 2008
Link Building with YouTube
I hate it when someone figures out something I should have figured out! The fact that it’s Stephen Pierce helps a little. But I’m still mad. 
There’s a simple little trick Stephen teaches on today’s DTAlpha Blog which makes it easy to find high traffic sites to get links and traffic from. Stephen shows you how in his podcast “YouTube’s Amazing Overlooked Traffic Secret” REVEALED!” -Podcast, 10 min
Here are a couple more recent posts I found related to YouTube and video marketing:
TrafficJam.com by John Reese
February 29, 2008
The circle closes. BlogRush user data manifests at TrafficJam.com for a quick, easy look at the days events according to the BlogRush member network.
Bloggers have a new place to rank on the web with TrafficJam.com, the latest addition to the John Reese marketing arsenal. If you are a BlogRush member (free to join blog widget traffic network), you are automatically placed in the TrafficJam aggregator according to the popularity or “hotness” of your latest posts withing the network.
If your post is getting more clicks than others in your category or even overall in the network, you show up at the top of the results for any given day.
I know this because I just checked my stats and noticed some traffic coming from TrafficJam.com. I go and check and see that I am number 2 on the main page for one of my latest posts.
This is the first time I’ve shown up on the front page since this relatively new directory started, and I think I know why. If you are a BlogRush member you are coached to be creative with your blog titles. The better titles get clicked more on the network, sending you more traffic.
I guess my post about making almost $42,000 in 24 Hours (even though it was about Qassia Dollars) caught a lot of attention on the BlogRush widgets around the web in my category!
That was nice proof for me that John Reese has figured out how to tie BlogRush and TrafficJam tightly together, with TrafficJam reflecting accurately what’s being clicked on the most in the BlogRush network.
I can tell you that it sends a decent amount of traffic to be on the first page of the network. Especially for the amount of effort I put into it: a blog post I’d have written regardless of the chance to get picked up on the TrafficJam network.
How to Show Up In The TrafficJam Blog Aggregator
Just join BlugRush and follow the instructions. Once you are in BlogRush you will be eligible to rank on TrafficJam.
If you are already a BlogRush user and haven’t had a post hit the front page at TrafficJam, make sure you spend the time to think about how your next blog post title is going to look in the widget. Make it appealing, outrageous, interesting, or something that will catch eyes.
That’s what you’re supposed to be doing with your titles anyway. Writing a good title for the BlogRush widget is the same as writing a good title to draw your readers in from all over the web.
Oh, and put TrafficJam.com on your list of places to check out daily to see what stuff IS rising to the top so you can tailor your posts and headlines accordingly.
Tags: Blog Marketing, blogrush, john reese, traffic jam, trafficjam review, trafficjam.comHow To Start A Social Marketing Campaign
February 13, 2008
Social marketing is a relatively new, often misunderstood form of online marketing that is reaping huge rewards for website owners who incorporate it into their marketing plans.I work with clients and customers who, while being very new to social marketing, are seeing results in the following areas:
1. Higher search engine rankings for their top keywords
2. More rankings of additional keywords or “long tail” keyword phrases
3. More link popularity from sites linking on their own accord
4. More link popularity from social media sites
5. More activity on their blogs, such as more commenting and interaction
6. Direct traffic from incoming links on social media sites (One good StumbleUpon.com submission can net thousands of visitors alone.)
7. Fast traffic increases and steady growth in unique visitors month after month
8. An increase in subscribers and sales. Social traffic, properly acquired, is very warm to your message and products.
The problem for most people when thinking about social marketing, after getting a taste of all the hundreds of sites there are to interact with, is becoming overwhelmed and paralyzed into inaction.
They assume established social marketers gained their “social authority” in a short period of time. This is simply not true. Although the opportunities for driving serious traffic and rankings from hundreds of social sites exists, it is an embarrassment of riches.
And it cannot be conquered over night. It is a gradual process you manage with all your other responsibilities and grow as time allows.
What I encourage my clients to do is set aside enough time each day to get one more link, participate in one more conversation, or sign up for one more account on a social site.
A little goes a long way and social marketing is not an “all or nothing” situation. Eventually you will have established yourself on the major social media sites you need to be on. And you will have a schedule that allows you to keep up with your other work while adding this extremely powerful marketing method to the mix.
10 Steps For Starting a Social Marketing Campaign
1. Grab a free guide called the Authority Black Book that will show you what you need to run a successful social marketing campaign that fits into your current marketing and work schedule.
2. Sign up for the major social news sites: Digg.com, Propeller.com, Mixx.com. Don’t submit anything to these sites until you have filled out your profile completely and submitted news from elsewhere on the web to generate a real presence and avoid being labeled as a spammer.
In fact, BE a real presence and don’t try to push your own content onto the networks you belong to. It should feel and be natural and you will know what “natural is on each network by participating, commenting, voting and getting a general sense of what members think is good and bad content. Watch their comments and votes and you will know how to proceed with your own site’s content from there.
3. If you don’t have a blog, you must install one immediately. This is not an option. It is an absolute necessity on today’s web. I recommend Wordpress which can be downloaded and installed by you or your webmaster. Wordpress download: http://wordpress.org/download/
Option #2: Check with your web host to see if they have Fantastico available to you and, if so, that it installs the latest version of Wordpress. If so you are very lucky because the software can be installed by you very easily in just a few steps with Fantastico.
4. Once you have your blog set up, join the following networks. (These are blog communities that will help you generate visitors, authority, and links and most bloggers belong to them.) MyBlogLog.com (install the widget on your Wordpress blog), and BlogCatalog.com. (they also have a widget to install)
5. Join groups, make friends, and interact with other bloggers on these networks. Especially the people who would be most likely to link to your blog and send you traffic who write about similar things or have an audience similar to yours who’d benefit by knowing you. You can even start your own group, promote it in the network, and send “shouts” to the group when you have announcements or need attention to a new post.
6. Once you have established yourself on all the sites above, meaning you have a decent profile in each that shows you’ve been active and involved, move on and search for networks that are geared toward your particular market niche. There are a lot of new “vertical” social sites popping up that focus on much more narrow markets and their membership is far warmer to your kind of information than on the bigger, more general networks above.
Add a new site to the mix as often as you can and repeat the steps for becoming established there as mentioned in Step 2 above.
7. Join a group dedicated to social marketing to pick up tips from other social marketers and find new places you can sign up with to continue building your social authority. New sites pop up every single day. One such group is http://socialauthority.ning.com and it specializes in networking among social marketers to keep up on the latest news and social sites.
8. Remote blog. Join blogger.com and put content there that is good, just not good enough to go on your main blog. This serves two purposes: 1) you get to use more of the great content you find as you travel through all the social news sites and 2) it gives you another place to link back to your main site and pass on traffic and link popularity over time.
9. Track your progress diligently. If something you are trying on a social network isn’t working, you need to know that in order to save time and move on to something more fruitful. MyBlogLog.com (above) has a tracking system which will show you where your traffic is coming from so you can avoid time wasting efforts and focus more on the sites that are really pulling in good traffic for you.
10. Don’t freak out! This is only overwhelming if you act like someone at an all-you-can-eat buffet with no self control. You have other things to do and this needs to fit into, not dominate, your current business and marketing.
Social marketing, once you’ve established some authority, will replace some things you are currently doing to promote your site. Many people completely drop their paid advertising or PPC campaigns once they see the organic, natural traffic and search engine rankings pile up from social marketing.
Until then, just take it one step at a time and do some social marketing. A little goes a long way and before you know it, you will reach a point where a lot of traffic and lots of search engine rankings are piling up because you simply started doing something each day.
There’s a lot you can learn about social marketing. And not all of it can be found on free blogs. For the most cutting edge training on social marketing available on the web, see my Social Power Linking membership. I guarantee you will love what you see!
Tags: Blog Marketing, social marketing, social marketing tips100 Plus Ways To Make Your Blog Go To 11
January 27, 2008
…monetize your blog without driving readers crazy…
I like lists. It’s no big secret. Something about lists that approach 100 has a certain ring. 100 things means its usually a pretty deep, hefty resource. Sometimes there are only a couple of things on a 100+ list of resources that are helpful, but its because it is a big list that you are almost guaranteed to find stuff you didn’t know about before.
Blogging Tip: “Lists are tired linkbait.” Have you heard that before? Here’s how to get as much out of list-bait as in the old days. Go to 100! I know its very Spinal Tap of me to say so, but the list that goes to 100 is rare, and reeks of someone putting some serious work into a post. Lots of research goes into a quality list of 100 anything!
If all the blogs in your niche go to 10, then yours needs to go to 11!
This video should help you understand the concept of going to 11…
Where’s Your Blog’s Unique Voice?
January 26, 2008
We’ve been talking a lot at SPL and ASC lately about finding your voice for your blog. As you might have noticed there is more “me too” blogging going on than “me new” blogging. A lot of people are taking my frequent advice to look at what others are doing successfully so literally that they seem to think I mean to “copy” the successful, unique voice bloggers.
I don’t mean that, of course. Seeing what is working for others is one thing, but a blog that copies the look and feel of an A-List blog as well as the types of content and even the messages and writing style of the original - that’s just cheating and lazy. And completely ineffective.
Finding your voice and making a blog unique is a crucial step on your way to high traffic and lots of links. Until you can set yourself apart from the rest of the “pack” in your niche, people will find it easy to leave without subscribing. They will notice you’ve done about the same content as a favorite blog of theirs already, so why subscribe to yours?
Your “voice” is what makes people decide to subscribe and stick around. If you are too much like the current A-Listers in your niche they won’t have any need to subscribe.
Tags: Blog Marketing, finding your voice
