Information Products Have Major Online Demand

Draw from your experience and knowledge to make money online.

Having information that other people want and can use gives you a virtual treasure that can flow from your experience and knowledge to your keyboard and on to your bank account. We’ve all seen the non-fiction books and information products that fill the shelves at bookstores but online they are especially popular and are filling the needs of millions around the world who are hungry for the advice and insight a little experience and knowledge can provide.

If you are a baby boomer, chances are you have and infinite amount of experience in a plethora of different subjects and areas. The fact that there are scores of people searching the internet to find information at  any given moment, provides you an opportunity to share your knowledge and make a profit as well.  By selling non-fiction information products and sharing your knowledge on a certain subject, you can build an entire line of products that target a single niche of consumers.  Or, you can branch out and offer solutions in a multitude of niches to reach millions of people worldwide who need guidance.

As an online information product provider, you will enjoy keeping almost 100% of the profits for yourself. In the print publishing industry, the author only receives a small portion of the proceeds after agent and publishing house fees. Online is totally different, there’s no agent, you are the publisher, and there are very few expenses involved in setting up a website.

Typically, a non-fiction book at Barnes and Noble would cost the consumer an average of $9.95 to $39.95.  When you sell information products ready for instant download on the internet, quite often depending on the subject matter and your audience, you can demand a higher price.  I personally have purchase information products about internet marketing that cost as much as $1000. In smaller niches outside of the ‘make money’ niche, it will depend on your knowledge and the value of that knowledge. Some eBooks may only bring $4.95 while others may be worth as much a $500 or $1000.

Online digital products do not take up physical space or need to be purchased and shipped which aids in keeping overhead costs low.  Even if you outsource the creation of your information product, you’re still able to recoup the investment after a short period of sales.

Why are consumers so hungry for online information products?  In this age of rapid high-tech development your readers want information now, not the next business day. Your customer may be sitting in an airport, accessing your eBook from their laptop so they can read it on their flight.  If their child is up sick crying from colic at 3:30 in the morning, a mom can’t drive to a bookstore to get a self-help book – but she can go online and download your eBook and put your advice into action within minutes.

Another reason information products are such an attractive purchase online is because they most often come with an ironclad money-back guarantee. This gives the consumer added assurance they are purchasing something they can use, and if not, they don’t have to worry about wasting their money.

If you are seeking a way to make money online, consider developing an information product that will fill a need in an area where you have knowledge and experience. There are many people seeking your knowledge and it could be a very profitable venture for you.

In my next post I will review an information product that will teach you to create information products. The item I will be reviewing is call Information Product Sweetie and was written by Alice Seba. Alice is a well known and respected author and trainer in the ‘work at home mom’ (WAHM) community. Her products are geared at teaching ‘work at home moms’ to run their own online business so they can stay home and care for their children. However, it’s my experience that her products cross-over to most anyone who wants to learn the topic.

Until next time…

Reba

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Create Your Own Products and Sell Them Online

I just ran across a post on Mashable that I thought might interest my readers. It’s called ‘15 Places to Make Money Creating Your Own Products‘. In the article Josh Catone lists 15 print/make-on-demand companies that will make ‘just one’ of just about anything (within reason), and most will drop-ship the item to your customer. Some even give you a place on their site to sell your product.

Below I’ve reprinted the 15 places but be sure to read through the comments on the article at Mashable. The readers have added at least 10 more great sites. With info like this, there’s nothing stopping you from starting your own online business.

Go to Mashable’s article for descriptions of each site.

CafePress -print-on-demand tees, card, mugs, etc.

Zazzle – same as CafePress

Spreadshirt – mostly print-on-demand tees and sweatshirts

PikiStore – same as CafePress and Zazzle

Lulu – print-on-demand books, CDs, DVDs, etc.

CreateSpace – same as Lulu, owned by Amazon

Blurb – print-on-demand books only

TasteBook – print-on-demand personal cookbooks

CDBaby – CDs – lots of Indie Artists use this site

The Game Crafter – make your own board game or card game

SpoonFlower – print fabric with your own custom design

Ponoko – will turn a 3-D drawing into a product-toys, housewares, furniture, jewelry, etc.

Shapeways – same as Ponoko

ImageKind – print-on-demand art and photography

deviantART – same as ImageKind

Enjoy the list and let your imagination run wild!

Until next time…

Reba

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What Makes Twitter SO Hot?

People really love Twitter! There’s evidence everywhere you look, from the Twitter badges on the sidebars of blogs to those who put their Twitter address the signature of forum posts, it’s plain to see, people adore Twitter. Heck, I never see my daughter on FaceBook anymore (what???), she said she rarely logs in because she likes Twitter better. So, what is it that makes this social networking site so lovable? Let’s find out.

The question posed by Twitter, “What are you doing?” has become almost as popular as AOL’s “You’ve got mail.” So much so that it has even caught the eye of offline news mediums such as USA Today, CNN, and ABC. And for those who think Twitter is just a place for computer or Internet geeks, rest assured it’s nothing of the sort.

In some ways, Twitter is like other social networking sites in that it’s a way to interact with like-minded individuals. Whether one is a stay at home mom who craves adult conversation, an at home worker who misses the water cooler chit-chat from past jobs, or a business owner who wants to reach more of their target market, this form of social media fills a need. It makes it easier for people to connect with others in a way they might not have previously been able to.

I follow it on my IPhone at work, of course, I can’t watch it all day, but I do take a look ever so often. My daughter plays college volleyball and Tweets about what’s going on with the team and herself throughout the week. I like to see what she has to say. In addition to watching what’s going on in the internet marketing world, I also follow my political representatives to see what they are currently working on in Austin (I’m in Texas) and Washington D.C..

The fact Twitter is easily accessible and even simpler to navigate makes it a favorite as well. Anyone can create a Twitter account of their own with nothing more than a user name and a password. Once that’s done, it’s easy to customize your profile and begin following other tweeps, as those who use Twitter affectionately call one another. To follow what another person is doing, just visit their page and click the follow button. You’ve now been added as a follower and when you log-in to your account you will see their messages on your screen or timeline as it’s called.

If you want to use Twitter when you’re not at home or if you don’t have access to your computer like I do with my IPhone, it’s no problem. Inside your account you can choose whether to have messages sent via cell phone or instant messenger programs. Just browse to your settings and choose the devices tab and in a few steps you’re good to go. This feature makes it possible to tweet on the go. This is perfect for those who travel frequently or while out and about come across something interesting or amusing that they’d like to share with their followers.

Twitter’s arrival has also led to the creation of different platforms and applications to make it even easier to use. Popular applications include, Twitter Fox, Twhirl, TweetDeck, and TweetMyBlog. Twitter Fox and Twhirl give users who prefer the instant messaging look and feel a way to use Twitter in somewhat the same manner. Twitter Fox is an extension for the Firefox browser and Twhirl is a desktop application.

TweetMyBlog is a way to automatically post updates from a user’s blog to Twitter. In order to use it you need a Twitter account and an RSS feed from your blog. It will automatically post a tweet using your account when your blog is updated.

Tweet Deck is another desktop application that allows for more organization of updates. Instead of posting all tweets one right after the other, it allows the user to organize tweets into separate columns within the application. For those who have customers and friends on Twitter this is a great feature as the different categories can separated into separate columns.

If you’re interested in marketing your business on the internet, you will serve yourself well to try Twitter. Most every business industry now has tweeps that Twitter, follow some, tweet some yourself, and before long you will have your own following and so will your business.

Feel free to follow me at @RebaCollins.

Until next time…

Reba

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31 Days to Kick Your Blog in the Butt

Grant Griffiths, owner of the fantastic blog, Blog For Profit, is going to be running a ‘kick yourself in the butt’ series to get your blog in shape and I highly recommend you check it out. Grant’s blog is one of the best to read if you want to learn how to make your blog profitable and the tips and ‘kick butt’ he’ll give you during this series will definitely help you put your blog on the map ~ or the internet.

The series will start October 1st and there will be a daily post to help you get your blog started or, like in my case, back on track. I’m going to be following along as well, as Internet Marketing Boomer has fallen off the wagon and I need to get my butt in gear too.  So be sure to join me.

To get even a better ‘butt-kickin’ sign-up for the daily emails that Grant will be sending out each day in October as an enhancement to the posts he makes on the blog. Signing up will make you more accountable and you’ll receive a bit more info than if you just read the blog. I’ve known Grant for quite a while, he’s not a spammer and if he says he’s only going to send you one email a day, you can believe him, and if you get sick of him, you can always unsubscribe. Like I said, no worries about spam with Grant.

During the month of September to get you ready for the ‘butt-kickin’ series, he’s going to make a daily post on Twitter. So you might also want to follow @GrantGriffiths there as well.

During the series I’ll post how his tips have helped this blog.

Until next time,

Reba

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Ultimate Boomer Business Start-Up Guide Review

Sometime in the last quarter of last year I had the pleasure of running across the Biz Starters website and ‘The Ultimate Boomer Business Start-Up Guide’ by Jeff Williams. I asked Jeff if I could promote his product on my website and he was kind enough to give me a review copy of his start-up guide. So that he wouldn’t have to mail me the physical product, I read a PDF copy on my computer.

I have read a lot of business start-up books in my lifetime and I have to say, this is the most complete one I’ve ever seen. And having actually started a ‘brick and mortar’ business myself, I feel qualified to judge whether or not a book on how to start a business is complete or not. Honestly, why Jeff named this 222-page guide a ‘Boomer’ guide is beyond me, as it is filled with comprehensive checklists and uses a ‘decision tree’ approach to help anyone (not just Boomers) get through the complicated steps of starting a business.

In reading this book I liked how the author led the readers through decisions and based on those decisions, he led them to do different steps. For instance, if it was decided that a rented office space was needed, then lease review, review of prices for comparable space, and even attorney review was suggested. If home office was the choice, regulations for home businesses, space consideration, what address to use for business, and whether or not the type of business was conducive to residential areas was considered. This level of deliberation and forethought was suggested for every decision discussed in the book.

The other thing I liked about the way the guide was written was that the author talked about his own personal experiences and how they related to the topic being discussed, however, he didn’t bore his audience with tons of personal dribble. He contained it in a section at the end of each Action Step so it was easy to skip if the reader wasn’t interested.

The first section of the book covers setting-up the organization of the business. Jeff helps aspiring new business owners through a vast sea of decisions, like whether to locate in a home or rented office, how to choose a name and identity for the business, how to handle the legal aspects of setting up a new business, and how to organize an office.

The second section of the book includes the Action Steps to take in preparing to market and sell a product or service. Preparing a marketing plan, how to set-up a website, and deciding how customer service will be handled is covered among other things. Again, the information is very thorough, and the full scope of every topic is covered.

It started to come to my attention in this section that throughout the book the author suggests lots of websites, products, and information about where to find tools and help needed to complete his action steps. I love that the information is given so the reader knows where to go, however, I also hope that Jeff plans to do continuous updating of the book in regard to that information. For example, Microsoft FrontPage is one of the recommended products to use for building a website and Microsoft no longer sells this product, it has been replaced by another product.

Section three of the book talks about money. In my opinion, next to sales and marketing, finances is the most important thing to know about in a business but is most neglected by small or solo business owners. The author covers this area very well, all the way from setting up the company bank account and what to look for in a bank to setting up the accounting software. One of the most important things covered in this section is how to estimate start-up costs and find the money for start-up, but even more importantly, how to prepare an estimate of the expenses, cash flow and profit/loss for the first year in business is covered. The book explains very well how to go through preparing this information and Jeff gives very good tips for cash management.

The book recommends using Quickbooks for the accounting and makes some very specific recommendations on how to set-up the office processes. These recommendations will work well for a very small start-up but if the business being considered is much larger than just a few people, I think other software and different processes should be considered. However, I feel the author was writing for the very small business and that’s why these recommendations were made.

The last section is about running the business operations. Here Jeff covers setting up the phone system, production system, and hiring employees. The telecommunications section is good. It covers things to consider in regard to mobile phones, land line, and fax. I know email is not considered telecommunications but I feel it needs to be discussed somewhere in the book and it never was. With more and more transactions being handled by email and the fax machine becoming a dinosaur, it seems the space allocated to how to handle fax communication would have been better used discussing how email will be handled. In today’s business world, this can make a huge difference in the perception a customer has about the level of customer service a business provides.

The book closes with more fantastic information for hiring employees and running a business. Again, thoroughness is foremost. There are tips for deciding whether to hire regular employees or contractors, tips for reducing personnel costs, information about government requirements for hiring personnel and much more. The very last section is about setting up your production processes and running your business with tons of information from a seasoned professional.

All in all the ‘The Ultimate Boomer Business Start-Up Guide‘ is the ultimate business guide and not just for Boomers. There were only a couple of things I saw in the book that could actually be improved. I do feel the 10-week timeline presented is a bit long, but since planning a business start-up can’t be done on a linear timeline, 10-weeks could be about average. I guess I’m an action person and would never take that long to get everything in place.

Oh and I don’t want to forget to mention that as the owner of the ‘The Ultimate Boomer Business Start-Up Guide‘ you’ll receive an exclusive offering of more than $150 of discounts for leading online start-up service providers including LogoWorks.com, VistaPrint.com, MyCorporation.com, StockLayouts.com and Intuit.com. And Jeff is continually working on adding new discounts that he sends to all purchasers of the guide.

The ‘The Ultimate Boomer Business Start-Up Guide‘ sells for only $99 and for that small amount of money there’s not a better guide. If a new entrepreneur messes up even one thing taught in this book it could cost the new business many, many, times that amount of money. It only makes sense to read the guide first. And if you use the discounts that come with it, you’ll get that money back and then some.

If you are considering starting your own business, you MUST consider using the The Ultimate Boomer Business Start-Up Guide as roadmap. It is available at the following link, click now to learn more:

The Ultimate Boomer Business Start-Up Guide

EDITED TO ADD: A short time after this review was published Jeff contacted me with some exciting information about The Ultimate Boomer Business Start-Up Guide. Here’s what he had to say:

New, Improved Version of the Ultimate Boomer Business Start-Up Guide Debuts on February 1, 2009.

Members of the Bizstarters community have asked us to add several new features to Ultimate Boomer Guide, and we’re pleased to respond.

Debuting on February 1, 2009 we will expand the Ulitmate Boomer Business Start-Up Guide into a full-blown business start-up and management program, offering several new features:

1. An invitation to join Bizstarters CEO, Jeff Williams, for a monthly 60-minute TeleCoaching session during which you can ask any business start-up or management questions you have and get an immediate answer.

2. A DVD containing mp3 files for a series of podcast interviews conducted by Jeff Williams with a number of 50+ Boomer entrepreneurs who share their valuable insights into how their launched their particular kind of business.

3. A new binder workbook presenting a print worksheet version of our Business Blueprint planning outline (CD verision is also included in the new program), as well as our “mini-MBA” guides for managing the marketing and finances of your growing business.

The new, improved version of the Ultimate Boomer Business Start-Up Guide comes packaged in a convenient carrying case. The selling price of $249 is backed with a lifetime satisfaction guarantee.

Ciao!

Reba

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Traffic Generation for Your Blog

I’ve been working on writing about traffic generation this week while writing my new e-course ‘10 Days To Limitless Traffic’ (you can get the e-course by signing up for my mailing list, see the right-hand side bar). Traffic has got to be the most important component of a profitable website or blog and there is so much to cover that a 10 day e-course just isn’t enough.

However, I thought it would be a good idea to add at least one post with a few tips in this Blogging for Money series because it’s that important. Please understand however, this is just skimming the surface of the subject of traffic generation.

There are a few easy ways to drive traffic to your blog. None by themselves will generate huge traffic but lots of little trickles soon lead to an unstoppable flood.

Each of these are easy and most can be done in a few minutes each day. Getting in the habit of doing at least one of these each day will soon create the traffic you need to be profitable.

Here is a quick list of some of the things that will help your blog traffic increase.

1.    Commenting on a related blog with a thoughtful comment and a link back to your blog
2.    Posting a video with your link to YouTube
3.    Bookmarking your content and others’ content at Stumble Upon, Digg, etc.
4.    Commenting on others’ pages at MyBlogLog, BlogCatalog, etc.
5.    Posting on Twitter about your latest post
6.    Using Facebook and including your RSS feed on your profile there
7.    Adding your RSS feed to a Squidoo lens, Hub page, Wet Paint, etc.
8.    Writing articles that link back to your blog and submitting them to various article directories

By no means is this everything. For more ideas, subscribe to my mailing list and get my new e-course ’10 Days To Limitless Traffic’.

Commenting on others’ blogs – Commenting on other people’s blogs has two benefits. If the blog is set up with ‘do follow’ (this blog is) you get a back link to your blog. Even if not, you can and will get traffic from people reading the comments if…you actually take part in the conversation and add value to the post. This also builds up your name recognition in whatever niche you are operating in and helps build your credibility. After all, your goal is to be recognized as an expert authority in your niche.

Posting video – Adding a video about your topic to YouTube or any of the many other video sites can also add back links and new visitors. Make sure you start your description with the full url of your blog – http://yourdomain.com

Adding a podcast – Audio is easy to use and you can create an mp3 file with the free tool offered by Audacity from SourceForge ( http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ ). If you hold teleseminars most services record them for you and you can use that in mp3 format as a podcast. Add these to your blog using appropriate plugins (Podpress is a good one) and then submit that feed to all of the various podcast services.

Bookmarking – Using social bookmarking services such as StumbleUpon, Digg, etc. will increase the amount of traffic you receive. Remember though that these are communities and you should not be bookmarking just your own sites but other sites that have value as well. Bookmarking posts that you have commented on is a great way to indirectly bring more traffic to your site and will increase the number of bookmarks of other sites you have on your account.

I have found it best if 20% or less of all your bookmarks are your own. Feel free to bookmark some of my posts ~ .  You’ll find a bookmarking plug-in to help you at the end of every post (it’s a good idea to have a bookmarking plug-in installed on your blog to make it easy for your readers to bookmark your posts).

Blog communities – I use two blog communities Blog Catalog and MyBlogLog. Of the two I find MyBlogLog to be the better choice if you only have time for one. You can join communities there, add in other social sites you are using like Digg, Stumble Upon, Twitter, and Facebook and your updates to any of those will show on your profile. You can install the widget on your site to allow others to see who has been visiting your site. I get a lot of traffic from other blogs I’ve visited because my face shows on the other blogs widget.

Twitter – Twitter is a micro-blogging platform and can really help you get visitors if you are posting regularly, have a decent amount of followers and add a tweet when you add a new post. Like commenting, you must take part in the conversation and add value not just tweet your posts.

Facebook – Another great social site as it is becoming a ‘must participate’ site for businesses.  You need to make sure to add your RSS feed to your profile so your visitors will see your latest blog updates. Recently I also joined another social networking site similar to Facebook called Eons, it’s a social networking site for those who are 50+.

If you join either of these sites, be sure to add me as a friend, my profile can be found under RebaCollins, just do a search. Also, at Eons, I have just taken over the Marketing/Internet Marketing Group, please stop by, join and add to the discussion. Honestly, I really need your help there, the place is like a ghost town, please help me out and join in!

Squidoo, Hub Pages, etc. – Squidoo and Hub Pages along with others are like blogs on steroids. Because there are lots of people constantly adding content to their pages at these sites, the search engines like them and rank them well.

Adding targeted anchor text leading to posts on your blog and having your RSS feed displayed on these sites can be a great traffic generator. I have a lens at Squidoo about blogging and another about setting up a virtual assistant business, both have links to the articles here and generate traffic for me.

Article submission – Writing quality articles and submitting them to the various article directories is another way to generate back links for your blog which in turn helps you to rank higher in the search engines. Ezine and website owners can use your content but have to link back to your site through the resource box and this creates the additional back links and visitors you are seeking.

Like I said earlier, these tips are just the beginning. Traffic generation has so many avenues you can take. Subscribing to my e-course will give you a little more detail, which is great because it’s all about taking baby steps and learning as you go. I suggest playing with some of the techniques in this post, while going through the e-course.

If you feel you want to take it to the next level, check out StomperNet’s new product Formula 5. I haven’t seen the product because it hasn’t launched yet but I have their Stomping the Search Engines 2 program and it was far and wide the best information I’ve EVER seen on search engine optimization and learning how to drive traffic to your site. I’m sure their Formula 5 program is just as good.

My next post will be about advertising your blog. So, until then…

Ciao!

Reba

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Tips on Finding Great Content for Your Blog

Making sure you have a constant flow of traffic to your blog is the only way to be successful at making money with it. And the only way to keep a constant flow of traffic is to provide the best and most interesting content you can for your readers.

It’s not an easy task to keep a constant flow on content going, even the most successful bloggers start to run out of their own original content. Some resort to scraping the bottom of the barrel to find things to discuss, but that will ultimately cause you to lose your readers, which means less money streaming in.

So, where do you find great ideas to post about?  Actually, there are many things to use to get your creative juices flowing. These techniques may seem simple, but they can be effective. Next time you feel like you have writer’s block, try some of these techniques to get unblocked:

Scour news sites – Search the news sites like CNN, MSNBC, and FOXNEWS to see if you can find a top story that you can blog about. Instead of just linking to the story, add your own commentary and opinions.

You can write about your own personal feelings toward the story or ask your readers what their thoughts are and ask them to comment on the post. Just make sure the story somehow relates to your blog’s topic and the niche you’re targeting.

Check other blogger’s sites and see what they’re blogging about – This is not an unethical practice as long as you’re not stealing content. It’s perfectly acceptable to see what your niche or community is talking about.

If you see a post that would be of interest to your readers, write about it adding your own ideas or give it a whole new spin. Other media, like TV news stations, magazines and newspapers always have an eye on the competition – and you should, too!

Internet research – Do a search on the Internet for your blog’s topic to see what information you can come up with. You may be inspired by something or it may make you think of something new to post about.

Google’s experimental search lets you search in different ways, including timeline, information lists, and mapping details.  This can give you more ideas than the traditional search route: http://www.google.com/experimental/index.html.

Check the video sites – YouTube.com has millions of videos that you can add to your blog.  See if you can find one that relates to your blog’s topic. Post the video to your blog and have your readers share their thoughts on it. I did this in my post, Goal Setting – Zig Zigler is a Legend, using one of Zig’s YouTube videos.

Consider doing reviews - Reviews can be a good filler to use while you try to get inspired again. Choose an article, website, a book or whatever you like that’s related to your niche and post a review. Add your affiliate link and make some money from your opinions. You’ll see me do this a lot on this blog for good internet marketing programs that I recommend.

Your daily activities – Think about what happened in your day that you might be able to write about.  If your blog is about flowers and you went for a walk and saw some flowers, use that as the basis for your post. Let your readers know what kinds of flowers are seen in your neighborhood and if possible, take some pictures to add to the post becasue visual stimulation enhances the reader’s experience.

I received an email from Yaro Starak once that talked about WordPress and I made a post out it, Don’t Be A Blogger Victim – Use WordPress. If you use someone else’s words in your post, be sure to link to their site and it’s always a good idea to give credit to your inspiration.

Blog Energizer – For those of you who were smart enough to read all the way to the end, I have a special treat. My friend, Lynn Chandler, has just launched a new website to help bloggers find things to write about. It’s called Blog Energizer. You can consider it your own personal blogging muse. Best of all, it’s free. Just go there and sign-up for access, once inside you’ll find some great stuff:

• Find out who’s looking to promote your blog or product, for free.
• Connect with people who want to blog for you for free.
• Meet bloggers who would love to feature your posts on their blog.
• Find interesting activity ideas you can do on your blog to bring in new readers, and bring back previous readers.
• Free goodies like reports, coupons, and audios that you can freely distribute to your readers at no cost to you.

Blog Energizer is going strong with over 1100 members. I will add, I noticed a lot of the postings requesting guests or offering guest blogging were bloggers from the Work At Home Mom community. Lynette markets to that niche, so of course the first to join her new site will be those followers. But if you’re not part of that community, don’t let that stop you from joining Blog Energizer. There’s a bunch of great info in the downloads Lynn offers and if you join and post a need for a guest blogger, I’m sure you will find some very capable bloggers who can write about just about any subject.  Just join and you’ll see. It’s free, so let this great community help you keep your blog interesting. Here’s the link:

Blog Energizer

These techniques will not only keep you and your readers up-to-date on what’s happening in your niche, but they will help you keep your blog interesting while you get back your inspiration. In fact, these techniques might just be THE way to keep your blog interesting just as long as you’re not regurgitating what other people are talking about but adding your own personal inspiration to the mix as well.

My next post will be about generating traffic for your money-making blog.

Cheers ~

Reba

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Blog Posting Tips For Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

It’s been a while since I posted in my series about blogging for money, the holidays kind of got me sidetracked. But I’m back and want to finish up the series, there are just a few more posts after this one.

I have to be honest here, I don’t always follow the tips I’m going to provide in this post. I tend to write for my readers rather than for the search engines. That decision will be yours to make but my take is that if you write for your readers, the search engines will soon find you. That being said, if you want to blog for money, search engine optimization and following these tips will get you indexed and ranked much quicker.

When you researched your niche, if you were following the advice I gave in my post, Finding A Good Niche For Making Money Blogging, you probably did some keyword research. This research will now come into play. You will want to start by posting for your long tail (multiple word) phrases first.

Make each post include a single phrase only and use that keyword in the title of your post.

Example:

Let’s say your keyword is “red silk duvet cover”. In your post use that keyword phase along with “silk duvet cover” and “duvet cover”. This post will be about all three but specifically about the “red silk duvet cover”. Make the title of your post start with your longtail keyword phrase, so in this example, it will start with “red silk duvet cover”.

The next item you’ll need to pay attention to will be the title tag. If you followed my instructions in the Setting Up Your Blog Properly Series, it is set to use the title of the post in both your URL and as the title tag. That is the default when using the All-In-One-SEO plug-in.

The problem is that you have two parties you are trying to satisfy; your reader and the search engines. All-In-One-SEO will allow you to give each what they want.

Now if we go back to our example, let’s say your post title “Red Silk Duvet Cover For A Sensual Bed.” Both the reader and the search engines are satisfied as your keyword is the first thing in your title.

But…

If you had a title of “Five Things You Must Look For In A Red Silk Duvet Cover” you have a problem with the search engines. The keyword you want to rank for starts at word eight of the title and the search engines won’t put much weight on it in that position of the title.

However, if you want to get your post read, you must make it as compelling as possible and “Five Things You Must Look For In A Red Silk Duvet Cover” is as compelling as you can get.

The solution is to use the All in One SEO Pack. After you type your post, scroll down to the All-In-One-SEO on your posting page and add a new title -

Here you can change your title to “Red Silk Duvet Cover – 5 Things You Must Look For”.

Now the search engine has the keyword you want to rank for in the beginning and your reader will still have a compelling title that will lead them to read the article.

In testing on other blogs, I have moved a post from page 3 or 4 of Google to page 1 for a specific keyword just by changing the title tag, so this is an important component for search engine optimization. When blogging for money, traffic is essential and you will get more traffic the higher your post ranks in the search engines.

Finally, the order that you post will definitely make a difference in how fast your blog ranks.  It is much easier to rank for very long-tail keywords phrases such as those with four or more words than those that are only two word phrases.  Once you are ranking for those four words phrases, you will eventually start to rank for the primary keyword phrases that bring in even more traffic.

The next post in the ‘Blogging For Money’ series will be tips for finding and writing great content.

Ciao!

Reba

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Become A Blogger – Price Going Up From $27 to $47 Tomorrow

Okay, just one more post about Become A Blogger. It’s a great program put on by two very experienced internet marketing bloggers, what do you have to lose?

Well, if you wait until after 4 pm EST sharp, Thursday, December 11, you’ll lose $120. Yeah, the monthly price is going up $20 a month from $27 to $47 a month. The program lasts six months, so $20 X 6 months = $120!

Yes, the price is going to almost double. So if you’ve been thinking about it, now’s the time for action. I know you’ve been visiting the site, I can see the number of people who have clicked the link, now click the link and join. If you want to make money blogging, this is the program that will get you started.

Become A Blogger Premium Site

And if you’re still skeptical, you really don’t have anything to worry about. The purchase is made through ClickBank and they have a 100% 60-Day money-back guarantee, you don’t even have to notify Yaro and Gideon, just email ClickBank and they’ll make the refund. So, if you join and you aren’t happy any time in the first 60-days, you can get a full refund. I can tell you with confidence that Clickbank will give you your money back no matter what the website owner wants to do. I know because I’ve gotten refunds from Clickbank in the past.

But you won’t want a refund. Yaro says 600 people have already joined. That’s 600 people on the internet that will be ahead of you when you start your blog if you don’t sign-up. So ~ just do it.

Become A Blogger Premium Site

PS: Oh, and I almost forgot ~ the payments stop after 6 months, and then you will gain LIFETIME access to the members area including ALL future updates? Yeah, it’s a good deal and it’s less than $1 a day.

Become A Blogger Premium Site

ONE MORE UPDATE: I just clicked over to the sign-up page and Gideon was manning a chat window. I asked him about the level of the course, here’s what he said:

Cheers!

Reba

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Don’t Be A Blogger Victim – Use WordPress

A few weeks ago I posted an article in my Blogging For Money series called, A Guide To Choosing A Site For Your Money Making Blog. If you haven’t set up your blog yet, it is definitely worth your time to read that post before you make a decision you could possibly regret down the road.

The reason I’m posting this is because in my efforts to recommend Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick’s Become A Blogger, I got a lot of email from Yaro and Gideon about the their new product. In this morning’s email there was a story that explains why my advice on choosing a WordPress blog hosted on your own domain is the only way you should consider setting up your blog.

Here’s the story that Yaro Starak told in his email this morning:

Let me tell you a story about Steve. Steve is a niche blogger. He set up lots of little blogs on all kinds of topics (niches) aiming to make a few dollars from each blog by placing Google AdSense advertisements on them. Google pays you when someone clicks on the ads.

After a few months he did really well and built up his income. None of his blogs had a lot of traffic, but they got enough from search engines that each blog earned between $1 and $10 per day.

In total he earned over $2,000 per month from his blogs – not a bad effort.

One day he turned on his computer and all his blogs had gone. Disappeared. Vanished without a trace…

What happened?

He was using one Blogger.com account to manage his blogs and Blogger.com determined that what he was doing was violating their terms of service.

They thought all his blogs were what are called “splogs” or SPAM blogs.

Splogs are blogs set up to get traffic to other sites. They are usually automatically generated and the owners have no intention of producing a useful website – they just want to get traffic. They are the SPAM of the blogging world.

Steve contacted the support staff at Blogger.com to explain that his sites were not SPAM sites but it was difficult to convince them and he never got his blogs reactivated. Overnight he lost his regular $2,000 per month income in one hit.

Please, understand, this story is true. I had a blog on Blogger that was deactivated. It didn’t have any income stream, in fact, I didn’t even miss it when it was gone, however, it happened, Blogger just removed it. And the worst thing is that Steve’s and my blog had perfectly legitimate information but we were at Blogger’s mercy and there’s nothing we could do about it.

It’s an awful feeling of being out of control that I liken to getting laid off from a traditional job. It leaves you in a “fix” and there’s not a lot you can do about it but start over. Please do not put yourself in the that position and take Yaro and my advice, set-up your own domain with WordPress.ORG software.

If you need help setting up your own blog, you can view Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick’s fabulous video series about how to set-up a WordPress blog on your own domain. Here’s the link:

Become A Blogger

If you’re interested in taking your blogging to the next level, check out Yaro and Gideon’s Become A Blogger Premium Membership. Here’s the link:

Become A Blogger Premium Membership

Ciao!

Reba

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