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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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 Premium Site Is Now Open

Gosh, I feel like all I’ve done is promote products this week. I’m sorry for that but in my day job I’m an accountant and the first ten business days we close the books on the last month’s business. I’ve been so busy at work, I haven’t had time to make good posts, but there were some really good offers made available this week and I wanted to post about them.

So…

I got the notice today that Yaro and Gideon’s Become A Blogger Premium Site is now open for business. I hope I’m not too late in posting but I was at work when it opened.

This is a great new coaching program offered by Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick. These two are considered two of the best in the blogging field and make tons of money with their blogs.

You can go to this link to check out the offer:

Become A Blogger Premium Site

If you really want to grow your business or make money blogging and are ready to move to the next level, you really should at least read what they have to offer.

Become A Blogger Premium Site

Yaro and Gideon seem to know the skill of how to simplify things that many consider complicated and they have put together an amazing online video course based on their very popular Become A Blogger video series.

Remember the fabulous free blogging tutorials I told you about the other day – (here’s the link)?

Well…they’ve already had close to 70,000 downloads of those videos helping people get started on the internet all over the world.

They tell me that inside their new program, you’ll discover (their words, not mine):

1. - Clever tricks for getting top search engine results for your blog posts…
2. - Exactly how to get images onto your blog in the right format, size and shape…
3. - Easy-to-follow instructions for getting streaming audio onto your blog…
4. - “Hold-you-by-the-hand” tutorials for producing professional quality videos and getting them onto your blog quick and easy, without any hassle…
5. - Powerful content creation techniques for attracting hordes of daily new traffic to your blog…
6. - Simple methods for driving multiple streams of highly qualified traffic to your blog…
7. - Step-by-step instructions for making a consistent income from your blog using all the latest social media strategies…
8. - And Much MUCH more…

Yaro and Gideon have been blogging for quite some time now, so they know what they’re talking about (and they make a lot of money doing it). Yes, Yaro, the “strategy brain” behind this new program, currently makes a six figure income just from blogging.

They didn’t offer me an inside preview of their new site but based on what I’ve seen him do over the last few years, I’m sure you can learn a few things from him.

As with most new programs when they are first launched, there is a tiny bit of time pressure…

That’s why I hope I got this out early enough. For only the first 24 hours, Yaro and Gideon are giving away two very POWERFUL bonus products.

One cuts your online video learning time in half, and the other could make you heaps of cash by following some simple advice from a prominent sales conversion expert.

You only have 24 hours to be eligible for these two bonus products – they will be available until December 5th at 4:00 p.m. EST. Once the time runs out, they’ll remove the bonuses and then you won’t be able to get them any longer… unless of course you want to pay for them.

However, if you happen to see this post after the bonuses are gone, that doesn’t mean you can’t get in, just follow the link.

Here’s the link again:

Become A Blogger Premium Site

Ciao!

Reba

PS: Don’t forget that you only have until 4pm, December 5 to grab the fast action bonuses. If you order after this time, I’m afraid you’ll miss out on these two powerful products.

PPS: Oh, and I almost forgot to let you know…

After exactly one week, the price of this new program increases dramatically. So if you’re the least bit interested, I suggest you make the most of this opportunity while you still can…

Become A Blogger Premium Site

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Become A Blogger – Fantastic Blogging Training Videos

If you’re reading my series on Blogging for Money, then you will probably be interested in the wonderful site I just ran across today for new bloggers. It’s called Become A Blogger and is a MUST SEE for anyone who needs help setting up their WordPress blog.

Yaro Starak, who’s blogging course “Blog Mastermind,” I recommended in a earlier post, and Gideon Shalwick, a world-renowned author of entrepreneurship books, have teamed up to bring you a fabulous series of videos that will teach you everything you need to know to get your blog up and running. And amazingly enough, these videos are FREEEEEEEE!!

When you go over to their site, you’ll find they recommend the same webhosting company I recommend, HostGator.com, however, when you get to the section on installing your WordPress blog, they do it from scratch. I explain in my article “Where Should You Host Your Money Making Blog” that HostGator uses C-Panel and they have Fantastico. Fantastico is a program that installs WordPress for you. Why do it from scratch if Fantastico will do it for you? Well, you might just want to learn how to do it, but once you’ve done that, just use Fantastico.

I put their first video in the right-hand column of the my sight, you can watch it while you’re still reading this article. If you like it just click the following link and go watch all ten videos:

Become A Blogger

Here’s a list of all ten free videos, I also gave a link to similar articles I have on this site:

1. Why You Should Use WordPress – My Post => WordPress-Simply A Necessity
2. How To Get Your Own Domain Name – My Post => Where Should You Host Your Money Making Blog?
3. How To Get A Webhost – My Post => Where Should You Host Your Money Making Blog?
4. How To Install WordPress
5. How To Upload Files To Your Webhost Using FTP
6. Choosing A WordPress Theme For Your New Blog
7. How To Install And Use WordPress Plugins – My Post => Setting Up Your Blog Properly-Part 1
8. How To Create Your First Blog Post
9. What RSS is and Why You Need It – My Post => What Is RSS & How To Use Google Reader
10. How To Use FeedBurner for Super Charging Your RSS Capabilities

Also, while I have your attention, on December 1st Yaro and Gideon are going to release a free report called “Roadmap To Become A Blogger”. When you visit their site to view the videos, you’ll see a sign-up box in the right-hand column of their site. If you go ahead and sign-up there, you will be on their early notification list for when the release occurs so you won’t forget. If you’re thinking about blogging for a living, I’m sure the report will be one you want to read, so don’t miss out and get yourself signed up.

Cheers!

Reba

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What Is A Blog?

The term blog is the combination of two words: ‘web’ and ‘log’.

The word blog has become not only a noun but a verb as well:

“I blogged today” – means you posted to your blog.

“I’m blogging” – means you’re actively working on a blog post or that you blog on a regular basis.

“I’m a blogger” – means you run a blog.

A blog is an online journal that is run by a software program loaded on a website. The most common and easiest to use blogging software is a free program called Wordpress. Wordpress is easy to install and simple to use. It uses a database to store your posts and other information that make up your blog. Wordpress provides you with an online dashboard for typing your journal entries.

Don’t worry about the technology that makes blogging possible, once the process of installing Wordpress is explained, it’s really simple. I’m even going to make a video to show you just how easy it is. If you’ve ever used a web-based email system like yahoo.com or hotmail.com or if you’ve ever created an Ebay auction or signed up for Facebook.com – you have enough technical experience to use a blog.

Even if you’ve never done any of these things, you will still be able to do it! It’s really very simple.

So, what is a blog really? Basically, it’s whatever you want it to be.

• It can be an online journal.
• It can be your web based diary.
• It can be your monthly web article archive or a place to categorize your weekly newsletter.
• A blog can include whatever you would like it to include: words, sound, video, pictures, etc.
• It can be very personal or it can be quite businesslike.
• And yes, it can help you make money online.
• This site, www.InternetMarketingBoomer.com, is a blog.

I know ‘journals’ and ‘diaries’ are usually private and blogs are public but I think that contradiction creates a unique culture among bloggers. People tend to be more personable on a blog because it’s public but they also tend to speak more openly and passionately because of it’s personal nature, even when the topic is all business.

It’s up to you to decide what you want the feel of your blog to be, personal, personable, witty, funny, controversial, or all business, it can be whatever you choose.

Next we’ll talk about if you can really make money blogging.

Ciao!

Reba

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