Blogging Is A Character Issue

I was talking with Rich Schefren last night and he pointed me to a blog I immediately adored.

I will point you there in a minute. But first I have to get you ready for it.

1. It is possibly offensive to some readers
2. It is full of “color”
3. It is an example of building a blog around a character - and this guy is a real character
4. It has no flashiness - a killer example of a blog written by someone who has something to say, in an interesting way, which needs no flash and dash template or packaging. The content speaks for itself and the design gets the hell out of his way.

The blogger in question is Dean Hunt.

The blog is DeanHunt.com.

If you can bring this kind of character to your writing and overall blog presence, you will get attention and build a loyal following.

Most people can’t do this. So we have a fall back: information. But it still has to be delivered with some panache!

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Tags: blog building, Blog Marketing, Blog Marketing, writing for the web, writing with character

Direct vs. Indirect Marketing

Coming from a world where the only way to market anything included a pushy, hype-ridden direct sales letter, (still does to this day for many thousands of people marketing online) it was refreshing to see Chris Garret’s post on ProBloggger.net.

I would add that indirect marketing also includes blogging in the first place.

Again, where I came from, blogs are still a complete mystery to marketers. It’s 2007 and people are still asking in a deafening roar what use blogging is to a marketer.

Credibility and authority never enter the minds of opportunity seekers looking to cash in and out in a hurry.

Even though tens of thousands are still trying to cash out as fast as possible (after many years of trying, no less), many people refuse to grow up, learn the basics of business online, and start growing something of pure, true value.

Yep, in my old stomping grounds Chris’ post won’t be fully understood for another 2-3 years. Again, after all the easy money has been made.

Tags: Blog Marketing, Blog Marketing, direct marketing, indirect marketing

The Magic of Lists

“Lists are tiny coded messages that mean everything to a targeted audience and nothing to everyone else.”

-Wired Magazine, “To 10 Reasons We Like Lists” #4, 03|2007

“By filtering and condensing, the link blog turns online chaos into a tidy little stack of clickable potential.“

-Rex Sorgatz, “Click to Enter” WIRED 03|2007

Lists are remarkable in their ability to make us feel smarter and more resourceful simply by finding and reading them.

Unused, they are useless, yet they still make the reader feel like they know something more than they did before.

More than ever, a list of resources on the web is a happy island of utopia in a vast sea of noise, confusion, and pre-designed tactics to tear us away from our intended purpose.

Just reading a list evokes comments from readers like “This is the best list of ____ I have ever seen!”

Yet few comments are ever registered about the specific rewards people have gotten out of putting these lists to use!

People like lists whether they use them or not.

When I encounter a good top 10 list, I bookmark it and feel as though my arsenal of knowledge and power has grown… by exactly 10.

I may never have an occasion to sit down that click all 10 links in the future, but I have collected them and they are ready to do me good whenever I should need them.

Collecting resources is like saying “I have no time whatsoever to learn this stuff now, but I will bookmark it for later.”
Did you get anything out of the last list you forwarded to your friends and associates? “No, but I could if I wanted!”

The bottom line for bloggers is this:

Lists have intrinsic value in and of themselves. People love lists because they are “tidy” and quickly consumable.

They give readers the power to feel as though simply boomarking them gives them the knowledge and power of knowing everything the information contained in the links…

…regardless of whether they actually follow the links and learn now, later, or at all.

Lists bring loyal readers.

Almost everyone enjoys a good list and when you are known for continually having the best lists in your niche, you become the authority in that niche.

Google has the biggest list on the web. Still think people hate lists?

Tags: Blog Marketing, list blog, resource lists, top 10, top ten list

Twas The Blog Before Christmas

This is such a cool post I had to share with all you FTR readers!

What makes it better is it comes from one of our own at Authority Site Center.

Great job Bonnie!

—

Thanks to all my readers for a wonderful 2006. Your loyalty will be rewarded big time in ‘07!

Tags: Blog Marketing, Blog Marketing, christmas blog

Writing for the Web: Nourish the spider, engage the human

Guest Article by Rick Sloboda

Editor’s Note:  This article contains great advice on bridging the gap between search engines and carbon based units (humans).  Write too much for search engines, and you get no support from your visitors.  Write too much for your visitors and…wait…you CAN’T write too much for your visitors!

Unless it’s boring, un-targeted, irrelevant, pedantic, or any other fancy word meaning “bad writing!”  Here is how you can avoid the latter…

When you’re writing for the Web, you answer to two masters: humans and spiders.

For your website to reach its full potential, your web writing needs to appeal to the emotional needs of your target audience as well as the logical needs of search engine spiders.

Nourish the spider

Search engines, such as Google, identify relevant web writing for their search results by sending spiders (or robots) to ‘crawl’ and index websites. Complex sets of rules called algorithms are then employed to determine how useful your site is and where it should rank in the search engine results.

Given the facts that more than 500 million world-wide searches are made daily, and search engines account for more than 85 per cent of all new visitors to a website, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is by far the single most effective marketing strategy you can use to gain online presence.

But before your webpage can be optimized, you must determine which keywords to target. This involves:

• Finding relevant keywords
• Determining their popularity
• Assessing the amount of competition
• Deciding which keywords can be best supported with quality web writing

The selected keywords must then be tactfully integrated into your web writing. Search engines reward sites with well-written, relevant and content-rich copy, so your web writing should comprise a keyword density ratio of three to seven per cent. This is calculated by dividing the keywords by the total number of words on a page.

Engage the human

Once you drive traffic to your website, your web writing must connect with visitors on an emotional level to engage them and ultimately convert sales.

What’s the quickest and most effective way to achieve this? Give people what they want: relevant web writing!

When you’re writing for the Web, recognize and address the real needs of your visitors, and make it easy for them to find what they need or want to know.

Do:
Engage, inform, influence and convert online visitors into customers with clear, concise and relevant web writing.

Don’t:
Bore or irritate visitors with company-centered, self-absorbed messages, which will only guide cursors to the ‘back’ button.

Ignite readers’ emotions by clearly communicating the benefits of your products or services. It’s surprising how many businesses, large and small, overlook this all-important aspect, and instead focus exclusively on features. Promoting benefits will help visitors envision themselves experiencing your product or service.

By providing relevant web writing, you empower visitors to make informed decisions. This gains you instant credibility and trust, increasing your chances to turn them into full-fledged customers.

Rick Sloboda is a Senior Web Copywriter at www.webcopyplus.com
Put your web writing to the test with a free, easy-to-use keyword density tool www.webcopyplus.com/tools
Get more web writing tips www.webcopyplus.com/faqs

Tags: Blog Marketing, Copywriting, Search Engine Optimization, Visitor Optimization, writing for the web

Could You Live With $20 to $250 Per Post?

See what Jason Calacanis thinks of pay per post models. It’s not pretty but I now agree 100% with him on the issue of paid blog posts.

Sponsored Post

There are a couple of services out now that pay bloggers for reviews of products and services related to their niche. Some refer to it as [tag]pay per review[/tag] or pay per post.

Original, die-hard bloggers, of course, absolutely hate the idea. But they are not my market, mainly because I teach people how to make money with and get traffic to their blogs.

(Two of the most evil things you can do if you want to stay in the good graces of the “hippy bloggers” who pretend not to care about paying rent or blogging to be seen.)

Anyway, the latest service to hit the web is called ReviewMe.com.

If you have a blog that is old enough with enough traffic, you can be offered paid reviews by advertisers wanting to get in front of your people.

Slippery slope, I know. I would just like to say upfront that I am actually getting paid for this review by ReviewMe.com.

Has it altered what I would say about them if I wasn’t being compensated? Not a bit. It is right up my alley, as you can tell from the rest of my content on this blog.

I get paid for a LOT of the things I post. People who read the FTR know I am an affiliate marketer. Another dirty word to the hippy bloggers, but I could care less.

My readers depend on me for information that can help them succeed with [tag]online marketing[/tag] and [tag]authority site[/tag] development. Those people are not the e-hippies who think all information should be free.

I am drawing that line in the sand so that both parties will know who they are dealing with. Don’t ever expect me to rant and stomp my feet about someone making money from posting reviews on their sites.

ReviewMe.com allows you to be as picky as you want to be. To keep the integrity of your site to your personal acceptable levels, you can refuse any review requested of you, no matter how much it pays.

So in the end, the limiting factor is always going to be the blogger’s own professionalism and ability to say no, just like it always has been.

ReviewMe.com Fast Facts

How you get paid: Paypal or Check

How You Get Gigs: Advertisers can pick you out of the ReviewMe.com directory according via search parameters they set for the markets they’d like to reach and based on the traffic and popularity level of the sites they are looking for.

What you get paid: If you are accepted, it ranges from minimum $20 to $250 per review.

As these types of networks grow, it could finally mean that average bloggers with decent sites in decent niches could really blog for a living by simply posting regularly.

Add this revenue to your advertising and affiliate sales, and it could be a significant upswing in monthly profits.

Will this kind of thing ruin trust?

Bloggers have the option of lying every time they post. Pay-per-review changes nothing about that fact.

Will some bloggers be inclined to review something favorably that they wouldn’t recommend to their family members in the real world?

Heck yes!

Some bloggers have no moral or ethical compass whatsoever. But they probably have a crappy reputation for it as well. Again, none of this is new to the blogosphere.

An important rule ReviewMe.com states plainly in their FAQ that tipped the balance for me:

Can Advertisers Require Positive Reviews?

“We do not allow advertisers to require a positive review. The vast majority of reviews are measuredly positive, although many do contain constructive criticism. We view this as a bonus: how else can you quickly and cheaply get feedback on a product or service from influencers?”

Are you going to start seeing a bunch of sponsored reviews popping up on FTR?

You already do, my friend. Many of my reviews are for products and services I have tested and recommend. I don’t do the “critic” thing here.

I don’t have time to write about everything that is wrong with internet marketing and the products and services that outright suck. That’s not my gig.

My reputation is based on giving pointers to things that work. Not for blasting the things that don’t.

Plus, I don’t even know if there are advertisers in the ReviewMe.com network that want to get in front of you yet. Or how many there will ever be.

It depends on how many online marketing-related advertisers seek out that network.

Will the quality of FTR information suffer from me joining ReviewMe.com?

Not a bit. I will refuse any review requests for things that go against what I know to work well for online marketers: Period.

I am not ruining my rep for $250.

I WILL however completely ruin my rep for $2.5 million. If you’d like to see me dance in a tutu or give a cow a kiss with tongue, that’s my price. Email me for my paypal address.

Tags: authority site, blog advertising, Blog Marketing, Blog Marketing, online marketing, paid reviews, pay per post, pay per review

Blog Marketing Tips The Balance

It shouldn’t be a secret anymore that [tag]blog marketing[/tag] is more powerful than static site marketing.

We have tested both models heavily in 2006 and found that our rankings come far easier with a blog as our content management system as opposed to any other form of web publishing.

Below are some tips to make sure you are taking advantage of all there is to offer in the Web 2.0 world of traffic, links, and easy search engine listings.

1.  Tag your posts.  If you are using Wordpress (and you should be) use a plugin called Ultimate Tag Warrior to tag posts and put together keyword dense archives.  You can find this plugin at wp-plugins.net.

2.  Syndicate with RSS.  Not just the feed that comes with your blog, but with custom feeds that specifically isolate keyword groups you develop content for regularly.  The best tool for this is PheedPress, available from Content Desk.

3.  Get Involved!  Trackbacks and comment links are alive and well, despite reports to the contrary.  Bloggers will grant your trackbacks and comments when they are on topic and useful.  These are the easiest links available on the web today.

4.  Social Bookmarking.  Public lists of bookmarks are easy spider food and will get you more traffic the more you use social bookmarking.  Your entire site should be bookmarked somewhere, and preferably in all the major bookmarking engines.

5.  Get Dugg.  Digg.com and other social information networks take “stories” from sites that post them.  Then they are ranked by members.  You are either in or you’re out.  Dugg or buried.  A great place for marketing related stories on this type of system is www.marktd.com.

6.  Myspace Networking.  There are social networks popping up all over the place that are like Myspace.  One notable network is called MyWebTop.com and it is specifically for online business owners to network and get valuable links back to their sites.

7.  Article Syndication.  Not the 2005 version.  In 2007, the best results for article syndication will be for people who adhere to the holy grail of content syndication:  Topical, Relevant, Well-Written Content!

Most of the above will work for old-style sites, like sites written in static html.  But not nearly as well as when you publish on a blog platform.

Blogging doesn’t mean pouring out your feelings anymore.  It is serious business and the platform itself can be used for anything where information needs to be updated regularly.

Properly marketing your blog site depends first and foremost on what you have to say.  If it is boring, lame, or focused too much on blatant advertising of products and services, you will get slammed with extremely poor results.

The secret is the content.  Very good content will dominate a niche.  The platform you put it on will dictate how well it dominates.  And how regularly you perform the tasks above will dictate how long you dominate.

—

Jack Humphrey publishes on the Content Desk Publishing System.

Tags: articles, Blog Marketing, Blog Marketing, blog promotion, Internet Marketing Articles

The Simple Truth About Online Business

Many people think they want to make a killing or at least a decent living by owning a profitable online business.

People want lots of things they will never actually work to acquire.  That’s human nature.

A very small percentage of the people who build sites on the web make any kind of money at all.  That’s also got a lot to do with human nature.

It is not because internet marketing (web publishing) is a scam and people like me are only pretending to be successful.  Granted, most people are pretenders to the throne, but not all of us.

Truth is, success (period) is hard won.  Online or offline, the rules are exactly the same.

There are evident traits of successful web publishers.  Bloggers, direct marketing experts, shopping site owners, affiliate marketers, and niche content providers are collectively making the equivalent of the gross national product of medium-sized countries.

What’s the difference between them, the relative few, and everyone else?

1.  Passion:  An unwavering dedication to “make it” without distraction and without slowing down until “it” has been achieved.

2.  Work Ethic:  Nothing can stop these people.  They will work any number of hours per week, blast through learning curves and leap amazing technical hurdles until they have realized their goals for their online business.

3.  No Free Lunch:  Although entrepreneurs are, by definition, “dreamy” and undaunted by big thinking, they are not so stupid and unrealistic that they believe anything is going to fall into their lap.  They ignore the emails and ads for “opportunities” most people get sucked into.

4.  Caring:  Professional web publishers give a damn about what they do and how it is perceived by the markets they serve.  They cannot get into a business just for the money and sustain themselves emotionally and physically for the money alone.  And they cannot screw good people out of money just to become rich for the sake of wealth.

5.  Giving:  The best and most successful business models online are the ones that give before asking for anything in return.  Free information is proven to build trust and set apart the greedy from the honest.  Online business owners who are trusted are, not coincidentally, successful beyond measure in their niche.

The Simple Truth is that…

…statistically you, dear reader, are destined to fail at your online business.  I say statistically because I can’t know if you personally are one in a hundred that are going to work hard enough, give enough, care enough, be sensible enough, and be passionate enough to do what it takes to succeed.

The odds aren’t in your favor, but if you are realistic you knew that already.

The final truth about online business is that the people who succeed find ways to cut the learning curve down as much as possible.

You can’t come online and simply buy a “make money” product, service, or scheme and start depositing large checks every month.

Does that mean the opportunities the web provides everyone are not real?  Ask the guys who started Google, Myspace, Skype, Ebay, YouTube, Content Desk, Flickr, De.lic.ious, Napster, Yahoo and any number of other sites in your bookmark files right now.

None of the people who started the successful ventures above are overly remarkable human beings on average.  They just worked hard, thought big, and saw their dreams through to the other side no matter what got in their way.

Can you do it too?  Absolutely.  If you have it in your genetic makeup to succeed no matter what.  Yes.

Does everyone have the characteristics of successful people?  Absolutely not.

Most people will enjoy a lifetime of working for others no matter how bad they “want” to be independent and successful online.

That’s just life.  It’s human nature.  It’s the Simple Truth about online business success.

Find out who you are and what you are made of before jumping into the game unprepared for what might come.  If failure is not an option, yet you don’t have what it takes to work like a dog in the beginning, don’t jump in at all.

At the very least you could find someone to work for who owns a successful online business someday.  Online jobs blow away offline jobs anyday.

If all this advice does nothing but inspire you to be one of the few who make it, then my job is done for the day.

Stick around, read, learn, and get on the path leading to your destiny as a successful online business owner!

Tags: Blog Marketing, internet marketing, motivation, success, web publishing

Blog Marketing Tips

It’s about time you showed up here. I’ve been waiting!

So you want to know about [tag]blog marketing[/tag]? Got a sudden urge for more links, better search engine results, and more traffic?

Here are a couple sure-fire tips to keep you up past bedtime tonight…

Say Important Stuff!

Blogging is all about being interesting, informative, maybe controversial, helpful, and concise.

If you are trying to blog in order to get more prospects clicking on ads, buying recommended products, or buying your own product or service, you simply must spend time creating content that satisfies.

Most marketers-turned-bloggers have a terrible obsession with bland content and in-your-face marketing tactics that simply do not work in the [tag]blogosphere[/tag].

To garner rabid readers you have to care about them. Sincerely. Not Fakely.  (Don’t run to your dictionary, I just invented that word.)
Give them good, topical, helpful things to read and let them decide if they want to click an ad or buy something in your sidebar.

People trust you faster if you don’t have your hand on their wallets the very second they land on your blog!

Link Baiting

If you were in my niche and you put up a helpful post about internet marketing tactics, blog promotion tips, or something on effective list building, I would likely want to link to your post to save myself some writing and to look good to my readers for providing a great resource.

As you can see in my other posts, I do this a lot. My readers want me to filter the mass of information out there and present them with tips and resources that matter to them so they don’t have to be up at 4 a.m. like I am now.

People link to my stuff and I link to them. Far from the old days where we hid links from our visitors, we now openly link to each other and take part in a larger discussion, knowing we will get traffic back for our efforts.

Good Link Bait

Lists rock. Do the work of researching a good list of sites, recommendations, posts on a certain topic, recipes, resources, or anything else that your readers will appreciate and there’s a chance other bloggers will link to your resource too.

Just so’s they can look like heros to their readers without having to work.

Here is a sample of one of my most successful link bait pages.

People love that list. People just love lists. Don’t you?

Kill Them With Content

Don’t over do it, but write often. Many of the top bloggers write 3-5+ times per day, and that’s ok.

You got something to say on a few topics today? Say it!

Just never let too much time go by where you don’t get something new on your site.

With blogging, especially on a system like I am using, every post is a new entry into the engines for new keywords and phrases.

And every post is possible [tag]link bait[/tag].

Those should keep you busy for awhile. I post these things all the time, so make sure you are subscribed to the Friday Traffic Report Ezine for reminders and special email-only articles and how-to’s. Subscribe above - big yellow box on right - can’t miss it!

Tags: Blog Marketing, Blog Marketing, blog promotion, blog tips, blogosphere, link bait, linkbaiting, linking, links

Tips For Finding Breaking News

Breaking something is the bread and butter of the big bloggers.

Everyone wants to be the first in their niche, or in the world, to scoop a story or piece of controversy.

If you are the first to blog it, it is likely you will be linked to from every corner of your niche for it.

To find new news in your niche you must be diligent.  Here are some great tips for looking more diligent than you actually have to be to break news in your niche.

Don’t break wind - break news!

Tags: Blog Marketing, blogging tips, breaking news, finding news

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