Webside Chat with Eve Tahmincioglu, CareerDiva.net

Eve Tahmincioglu has a popular column on MSNBC’s “Your Career” segment. Her book, “From the Sandbox to the Corner Office: Lessons Learned on the Journey to the Top,” details what makes a success story by interviewing 55 leaders and CEOs. (Learn how spanking your children can lead to success in this podcast!)

Eve is also long-time contributor to the New York Times and blogs at CareerDiva.net.

In this episode of Webside Chats, learn about yet another path to authority and success through Eve’s story. She has some great insights on blogging and popularity you won’t want to miss.

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Tags: blogging tips, career diva, eve tahmincioglu, great books, msnbc careers, Webside Chats

Webside Chat with Heather Armstrong, Dooce.com

Picture an authority blogger who doesn’t know what an Alexa ranking is. Someone who blogs professionally, yet her RSS subscriber badge is buried in the footer of her site. Picture someone who is an ultra popular, successful blogger with one of the the biggest followings on the web for a personal blog not knowing really what it means to be a PR 7 site.

After all the times I’ve said that all that really matters is content that grabs people and leaves them wanting more, I’ve found the perfect example of a “pure blogger” who is reaping the rewards of cyber-stardom. All without knowing 1/2 of the marketing tactics and technology that people who are struggling just to make a dent in their market niche know about.

Her name is Heather Armstrong and she is the owner and writer of Dooce.com, one of the most popular personal blogs on the web today by any and all measures of site popularity. (Her latest post, just today, now has 662 comments. Eat that TechCrunch!)

She doesn’t run an internet marketing blog or a tech blog. Yet she’s still famous. Her blog provides for her family very well. But she doesn’t write about he things Scoble, Rowse, Clark, Beard, Arrington, or Cutts write about on their popular blogs.

She writes about her life and her family. And she does so in a way that makes you want more.

Today’s lesson is: grab people by the throat with your content and gain popularity one reader at a time (who tells other people they have to go see this blog they found!)

This is what I hope to be the first of several talks with Heather. She epitomizes blogging authority in the hardest niche of all: the personal blog.

Enjoy this Memorable Webside Chat with Heather Armstrong…

Heather is also the author of “Things I Learned About My Dad In Therapy” Grab it on Amazon. Read it on Kindle.

Watch for her April release of “It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita”

Tags: blogging success stories, blogging tips, heather armstrong, successful bloggers

Webside Chat with Darren Rowse, ProBlogger

How would you like to have Darren Rowse all to yourself for 45 minutes to ask him any questions you wanted about professional blogging? That’s just the chance I got today.

Darren was just starting his day in Australia and mine was just about over here in the States. We talked about things that I try to ask any professional blogger, but Darren has been on my wish list for quite awhile as I think of him as one of the original pro bloggers who are still at it today.

So I had some specific questions for ProBlogger as well. He’s one of the few online who can really shed light on the history of blogging while at the same time share what’s working now and where it’s all headed down the road.

For 2 years I’ve been asking my readers to check out Darren’s stuff. Now you can sit back and check him out right here on the Friday Traffic Report and get to know him a bit. THEN go read every word he writes at ProBlogger!

Darren’s Blogs

ProBlogger
Digital Photography School

Read the ProBlogger book!

Tags: blogging tips, Darren Rowse, problogger, problogger book, professional blogging, Webside Chats

Olympic Blogging

As you watch the Olympic games in Beijing, something will inspire you. Likely, many courageous, tough, remarkable athletes will inspire you.

Try to take a business lesson away from the Games this time around.

When your favorite athlete or event leaves you with a heart full of pride in the recognition of greatness, dedication, success, and extreme focus and hard work, think about your business and how you can inject the heart these athletes have into it.

How hard would you work on one blog post to make it as good as Michael Phelps’ performance in these Games? Is it even possible?

How many years of hard work, suffering, and lack of sleep would you go through in order to realize your goals? The athletes in the Olympics have spent much of their lives in gyms, pools, and on the field just to prepare themselves for their best performances ever. Usually performances that last mere seconds. Then it’s over. Years of work and single-minded dedication in order to shine for a blip of time and possibly come out as the gold medalist.

Honing your marketing and content development skills to the same level of perfection as an Olympic athlete takes time. It takes laser focus and dedication. And it takes putting up with climbing out of obscurity, little by little, until you are at the top of your game.

Every post you make is a bank deposit to be withdrawn sometime in the future. Every post is one in a line of thousands upon thousands of actions you take to inch toward authority, critical mass, and hyper-popularity in your market.

The rewards are obvious. Money, fame, authority, respect. Yet most people falter. They find the work too hard. They can’t hack it in so many ways for so many reasons that they give up.

The athletes at these Olympic games are the ones who never gave up. They are the rare ones. Successful people are rare in comparison to the rest of the world population which lives an average existence from birth to death.

Your choice is which group you’d prefer to be in…

You’re either going to do whatever it takes to succeed or you’re going to fold back into the masses of average people who take their cues in life from outside influences and live vicariously through the successful, independent people.

The choice seems an easy one. But the path to success is a hard road filled with setbacks, burnouts, long hours, and long periods of no gratification. You’re investing in an outcome that might take months, but probably years, before you taste glory.

Having a top website is nothing in comparison to a gold medal in the Olympics. But the guts, work, and dedication it takes to achieve greatness in your “sport” is much the same.

Tags: beijing, blogging tips, olympic blogging, success tips

The QU.IL.LO Method to Creating Killer Blog Content

Guest Post by Tom Deeter

Are you creating valuable content for your blog (or website) on a regular basis?

Or, are you feeding your audience leftovers gathered from other bloggers syndicated “junk food”?

I hope not, because consistent, valuable content (text, audio and video) is the ONE aspect of your web presence that MUST exist.

As a fellow social marketer, I struggle with this too. So, here’s a great “pneumonic device” that helps me keep content creation on track: QU.IL.LO

Questions

Notice the beginning of this post. It started with a question, right? I could have started with: “A good blog creates valuable content on a regular basis.” And you would have said… “Duh!”. But, I bet the question made you think to yourself… “Is my content valuable, am I posting consistently?”

You tell me, which reaction is better?

Illustrations

Now, take a look at line #2 above. Just in case you did not get the point with the initial question, I threw in a brief illustration that may have poked a few article marketers in the ribs.

Imagine… serving up leftover junk food from someone else’s garbage… how disgusting. Sadly, this is what the majority of bloggers do.

So, this illustration made the point in a way that caused the desired emotion (disgust) in just one sentence.

Logic

Once the question is raised and the illustration causes a reaction, the logical statement will have meaning and impact.

See line #3… I now restate the point phrased as a question in line #1. But now, you get it, you believe it and you are more likely to trust what I have to say next.

Social Suicide

As a serious social marketer, you may be busy…

• Blasting Squidoo with loads of keyword rich lenses.
• The QU.IL.LO Method to Creating Blog Content
• Casting articles to dozens of article directories with SubmitYourArticle.com or iSnare.com.
• Making timely comments on oodles of blogs each day using Comment Kahuna or Comment Sniper.
• Digging, Sphinning, BuzzUping, or Twitting for hours each day.

All in an effort to lead a browser back to your blog and, more importantly, your offer.

So, at the end of that rope, what do you have waiting for your visitors?

Well, they are either welcomed with great original content that is easy to navigate or smacked with banners, text link ads and recycled content.

The latter is the typical fare on most blogs and this, my fellow social marketers, kills the potential of ever making money with your blog.

Why not reevaluate the quality of your blog and start using the QU.IL.LO method for fantastic blog content that readers will want to be a part of.

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Tom Deeter is a social media marketing consultant with NetSmart Media and a frequent contributor to Web2Center.com.

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Other great, helpful posts about content development and copy strategies:

• A 20-Step Process For Finding Your 1000 True Fans
• A Three-Step Approach to Strategic Content Development
• Content Development delays Website Production
• Why Content Development Strategies Are Important for Popularity …
• How to Become an Authority in Your Niche: Eight Content …
• Social Media Content Creation Process

Tags: blog writing tips, blogging tips, content development

Michel Fortin on Writing

Helpful Hints for Writing
Guest Post By Michel Fortin

An interesting question was recently asked of me in a discussion forum: “I agree with the idea of submitting articles [in order to get] a lot of targeted visitors to a site, however, I was wondering, ‘What keeps Michel Fortin writing?’ I mean, Michel, what is your 3-, 5- or 7-point formula to get an article on paper? What are [some of the specific] steps you follow?”

Here’s my answer.

1. I’m subscribed to a ton of ezines and blogs.

As an “expert” (if I dare call myself that) in my field, I must keep abreast of my industry — so should you. But the wonderful byproduct is that something I’ve read will stir a few ideas in my mind about something worth writing.

The gazillion of ezines and blogs to which I’m subscribed are filtered in my software (both email and RSS readers) into folders for later reading. What I do, however, is filter such articles for keywords that I decide, in advance, about which I feel there’s a need to write.

As for my RSS reader, I use FeedDemon.com. The beauty with FeedDemon is that is not only synchronizes your feeds with the online service NewsGator, but it also has filtering capabilities such as a “bin” (i.e., folder) for copying posts that mention a particular keyword, such as my name, “copywriting,” “Internet marketing,” “salesletter,” and so forth.

But it also has an external keyword-based blog search (on Technorati, Google Blog, del.icio.us, MSN, and more). What it does is search blog networks for a specific keyword or phrase (that’s how I know people talk about me in the blogosphere, for example) that I can file for later retrieval.

It gives you the ability to copy specific posts in a “Newsbin” and even flag/label specific posts. Whenever I want to post about a topic, I can do a simple search through my 300+ feeds for posts that contain a specific tag or keyword, and copy the results to the news bin, for later perusal.

As for email, copies of all the email ezine issues I receive are filtered into a master folder (i.e., the filtered email is moved into its appropriate folder for later reading and a copy is also placed into this master folder, both simultaneously — most email filters or rules do this ). In my master folder, I do a text-based search for certain keywords (e.g., topics, ideas, events, etc) about which I can write.

2. I create a skeleton article or post.

Then, I create an outline. To do this, I write down keywords or keyphrases, in point/bullet form, representing future paragraphs or phrases, and the subjects I’d like to cover in those paragraphs or idea blocks.

This allows me to see, at a glance, the flow of the article and then reorganize them so there’s a better structure and organization of ideas. As you know, some points within an article are best mentioned in strategic locations within the article, and the outline allows me to do exactly that, even before I start writing.

Writing keywords in bullet form and then expanding those keywords into full paragraphs is the easiest way for me to write — it may not be for most people. For me, though, since the keywords or keyphrases are based on specific topics, the flow seems natural and I can see, quickly, if there is cohesiveness within the article.

What I do is follow the three major steps:

Introduction
Body (Content)
Conclusion
It comes back to that famous rule: “Tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em,” “tell ‘em,” and then “tell ‘em what you told ‘em.” But let’s take a look at each element in detail.

a) Introduction:

I’ll start with something that announces the topic, prepares the reader and gently takes them into the body of the article — something that “tickles” them in order to pull them into the article. (Creating headlines is last for me.)

This is also used as an excerpt when I post to my blog, particularly when you hit the front page. (By the way, you may not know this, but the excerpt, which is the first 80 words or so, are also automatically incorporated into the meta-description tag of the page’s HTML code.) Ultimately, using introductions as a way to get people to start reading is crucial.

b) Body (Content):

Then I prepare the core components of the article (usually, it will be three main points, expanded, and I often use headings for these three core components). Generally, I resort to the use of adverbs as bases for expanding on the topics — my “five honest serving men,” as the saying goes, “which are who, what, why, where and when.”

Now, a paragraph is not entirely dedicated to one question, as it may be covered in other places within the article, and in a strategic location that flows better with the thought process I want the reader to have while they are reading it. But I do make sure the article covers most if not all of them.

c) Conclusion:

It’s a recap or summary of the article, with a final word — like the “moral of a story,” “final analysis,” or “bottom-line,” offering an actionable step, a question upon which to ponder or a cliffhanger (maybe leading to another article).

In terms of software, I use TextPad, which is a text editor. (I never write articles directly into the blog or HTML software, lest my connection goes down and I lose everything I wrote. I also don’t use Microsoft Word or any other word processor, as copying them into my blog or website may also copy junk created by the software’s proprietary code.)

I’ve been using TextPad for years, now. It’s like Notepad but on steroids. It has a spellchecking feature with a lot of macros, file managing functions, integrated character maps, etc. Even HTML tags and split windows when writing various parts of the same article, at the same time. It also has a hard-break feature so that I can split-wrap my articles at 65 characters — which is the norm.

3. Then, I just write.

I temporarily put my “critical editor” hat aside and I just keep writing, non-stop. I don’t even stop to read what I’ve written. I just write! Once done, I stop, read again and edit for style and grammar — of course, with the kind help of my TextPad’s spellchecker.

Sometimes I’ll take whole sentences out and add new ones in. I’ll rewrite passages I feel aren’t clear. I’ll cut and paste some paragraphs where I feel they belong best. (In fact, after writing a bit I can see where my outline, created earlier, may need a bit of revamping.)

And then bingo: The final product.

As for the frequency, I write all the time. What I often do is prepare a ton of skeleton articles in advance and save them for future use. (I do this with Microsoft OneNote, which is a fabulous piece of software that allows you to save clippings, audios, videos, URLs, notes, comments, you name it.)

I use Thunderbird (from the folks at Firefox) for my email. The neat thing is that I can create new “temporary” filters. Ezines are filtered into temporary folders in order to research more information on the topics I’d like to cover. From there, I move copies of specific articles that match a keyword search into new temporary folders for research in creating future articles.

I can jot down URLs and specific data pertaining to articles — when I don’t use OneNote, I sometimes send an email to myself with the notes I’ve made and have them filed in those specific “temporary” folders.

While I seem to be using Microsoft OneNote more these days, there are several freeware desktop note-making applications on the web, such as notes software from 3M, the makers of Post-It Notes. (There’s also Google Notebook, as well as some of the social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, that do the same.)

I also have with me, most of the time, a small tape recorder or notepad (a cellular phone and Palm Pilot are also good for taking notes). I record some thoughts that pop into my head from time to time.

I’ll give you an example: I’m driving to a client. While in my car, I listen to the news. Then all of sudden, bang! An idea hits me. I’ll record it immediately and use that as a basis for an article — or for that week’s blog post, for example.

I also frequently use a service like iDictate.com. After opening an account, I get a 1-800 number and, after calling in and dictating my “thoughts,” a few hours later I get a transcription by email. This is absolutely perfect when I’m on the road. (I also use it to write copy for salesletters, too.)

4. I edit, edit and edit some more.

In terms of proofreading, what I do, when I have a chance, is have my articles read by my wife Sylvie, friends or associates. Often, they see things I don’t see. I miss things that are blatantly obvious but overlook them since I tend to read my article the same way I wrote it.

In fact, the best method, I’ve found, is to read the article slowly, to myself, out loud. Really! If I notice that my speech slurs or fumbles at some point in the article, or that a passage just doesn’t sound right, then I know that something was poorly written and I’ll rewrite it for clarity.

I’ve used dictation software before, but I don’t use it normally. (I prefer iDictate.com. You don’t have to train it like software, as it’s transcribed by real human beings. I talk more than I write, and as a professional speaker and storyteller, I talk a lot :). So iDictate is a godsend for me.)

Finally, I regularly spend 18 to 20 hours a day on my computer and on the web. Like I said, I read and write a lot. I’m a virtual sponge. And surfing the web, believe it or not, is one of the most creative processes in which I engage myself.

Some people call me “expert” or “guru.” I hate that. In reality, I’m more of a perpetual student. I read intensely and love new ideas and trends. But I scan a lot, too. I usually receive about 2,000 emails and blog post notifications a day (I’m not kidding), two-thirds of which are ezines and blogs in the areas of copywriting, marketing, Internet marketing and sales.

Creativity is known to be one of my biggest talents — as a copywriter and marketing consultant, creativity is a must. But in terms of writing articles, it’s as necessary as oxygen. I always like to write about either what hasn’t been written or something that’s been scarcely written. (You know as I do that the web is filled of recycled, rehashed content.)

However, it doesn’t have to be new per se. What stirs that creativity is often not something completely new but something on which I want to opine. Thus, a new article or blog post may be as simple as my own take, or a different twist, on an existing topic.

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Michel Fortin is a direct response copywriter, marketing strategy consultant, and instrumental in some of the most lucrative online businesses and wildly successful marketing campaigns to ever hit the web. For more articles like this one, please visit his blog and subscribe to his RSS feed.
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Watch some cool copywriting videos from Ted Nicholas and John Carlton!

Tags: blogging tips, how to write, michel fortin, writing tips, writing tips for bloggers

I Wish This Post Was As Good As These Posts…

…but alas, I was forced by the teleseminar tonight (which went smashingly, I might add) to pad my content with links to bloggers who had more time than me today to write some KILLER stuff.

North x East has the best “save-your-butt” post for bloggers ever created.  Called “Essential Posts Every Blogger Should Know,” you are going to love me for not having time to drool out some dumb post about link building today!

Collis, the author of the above blog, is also involved at Freelance Swtich, which I took a look at and immediately bookmarked for later.  That is a damn well done blog and you can tell in the first 10 seconds of landing there.  (I spent 30 seconds and almost got dragged into it more than once in that short time.)

Andy Beard has a funny post on how to “Steal Content from Download Squad to Get Links!”

If you’re still new to blogging, check out QAQNA (try saying that once out loud) for a post with “tips for bloglings.”  (Tom, please visit for a sec and tell us how you pronounce the name of your site in your elevator pitch!)

Howie Schwartz has been flooded with questions about how he got Seth Godin to sit down and bang out thorough answers to questions about the “Squidoo Slap.”  So his latest post is simply titled:  “How to Interview an Expert.”  We can consider Howie an expert now.  Once you land some “face time” with Seth, you get an honorary degree in expert interviewing.

Tags: blogging ideas, blogging tips, freelancing tips, marketing tips, seo tips

This Month’s ASC Newsletter Available for Download

Did You Know About Authority Buzz Newsletter?

Authority Site Center has a great free monthly newsletter call “Authority Buzz!” Myself, ASC staff, and members write for it and it has great articles on blogging tips, social marketing, SEO, PR, and other important topics.

Grab a copy - it’s free - no email required.

In This Issue of Authority Buzz:

• To Monetize or Not To Monetize Your Blog?
• Going the Extra Mile
• Website Monetization and Knowing Your Niche
• 19 Tips for Creating Killer Blog Content
• Strategies for Finding the Right Niche
• Web 2.0 To Go Corporate
• Blog Categories: Use Them and Don’t Abuse Them

There are also some more surprises in there, but you’ll have to download the newsletter to find out what they are…

Tags: authority site center, blogging tips, free marketing newsletter

Begin With This Monetization Test - Before You Create a Blog

Guest Column by Rick Butts

Did you start your blog to make money?

As Dr. Phil say’s, “how’s that workin’ out for you?”

Most people start their web site based on a topic without any idea if they can really make money with it.

Here is a sure-fire plan to guarantee you’ll make money - BEFORE you put all the time and energy into creating a high traffic site.

1. Choose 3 different products that you would potentially promote. If you will be selling your own product - just choose items that would appeal to your target market. To make it easy - we’ll use 3 Clickbank products.

2. Create an AdWords campaign and drive the traffic through a tracking URL that will take each visitor to one of each of the Clickbank products.

3. Run the test until you get a pretty good idea of what the loser is - eliminate it - and run your test between the two survivors.

4. Run this test until you get a clear winner. This would be the one that sold the most.

Keep good records, take notes, and take this test seriously. The information you get will give you critical information abou your most valuable keywords, bid costs, and so much more.

Part of the reason you want to run the test a while is to make sure you find a good click-thru rate on your AdWords campaign. Keep all the ads you write and split test. You’ll be glad you did.

That’s it!

Now you have some real live fire-tested market information!

Let’s say you were testing 3 products around a health market.

Now you know what headline, URL, copy, and offer, at what price point and what the sales letter looked like that turned people in your exact market into CASH.

Armed with this information you can confidently purchase a URL around your keyword research and test results.

You will already know what types and price points you can begin to build your business around.

This will also reveal a failed idea in a hurry. If you can’t figure out how to get traffic - or how to get that traffic to buy something - you can either solve those issues, or abandon this niche no matter how sexy it looked going in.

Building an authority site that gets tons of traffic is a labor of love that requires time and patience. There is no reason to do all that work and end up with a high traffic site that can only make small AdSense pennies.

Now you can begin to build your high traffic site around a profit path that you know will be successful.

-Rick Butts

Guest Columnist Rick Butts is the Editor of Online Marketing Monthly and Visitors2Cash. For more information about making your web site make more money get his FREE audio.

Tags: blogging tips, make money blogging, make money with a blog, rick butts

Why Put more YOU in your site?

Guest Article by Dr. Rachna Jain

If you’ve been marketing online for any length of time, you will know that the more “YOU” that exists in your site, the better. Marketing online is about building relationships. It’s difficult to build a relationship with anyone unless you’re truly being yourself. Aside from this, there are other professional and personal reasons to put more YOU in your site. Let’s tackle the professional reasons first.

If you are running a blog, you, presumably, are doing it for one of three reasons. Either you want to get known in your field (fame), you want to make money from your knowledge (fortune), or you want to build relationships with others in your niche (friends). Sometimes, you are seeking all three. It is easier to build your fame, fortune, and friends when you are being yourself. If people like what you have to say, they will read it. If your customers like what you can do for them, they will buy it. If you want to create alliances, it’s easier to do when the other party knows who you are and what you stand for.

From a personal standpoint, it’s easier to develop your content when you base it on yourself- your own experiences, your own preferences, your own suggestions. This doesn’t mean, of course, that you write a blog which is only self-focused. One method that I’ve found to work very well for building fame and friends (and the beginnings of a fortune!), is to blog about something I’m experiencing in my own life or business, but in a way that allows the reader to learn from it too.

So it’s the difference between writing a personal diary “I did this… and this… and this..” to writing a personal account- which your reader then benefits from. (This is very important–don’t skip this part!)

Think of how your life experiences could be a teaching tool for your ideal clients. If you sell professional consulting services, as I do, part of building expertise and credibility in the niche is sharing how you’ve solved the very same problems your clients are facing. By sharing your solutions through your blog or other marketing, you help attract clients who are seeking those solutions too.

So by putting more YOU in your blog, your clients, business alliances and joint venture partners know exactly what they’re going to get. When people understand what you’re offering, they can easily opt in. With understanding and opting-in, your sales and marketing process becomes almost effortless.

So if you’ve been hiding yourself in the name of being professional, it’s time to rethink this approach. By sharing your own insights, suggestions, and ideas, your blog (and bank account) will benefit.

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Want to learn the fastest way to build a high traffic site which get results? Meet me at The 2007 Authority Summit.

Tags: blogging tips, content development, Link Building

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