James “the infopreneur” Richmond is motivated as hell. If you are a blogger and you don’t know who I’m talking about, well…you should. There is probably no one in the business who has put the kind of effort into making his blog a brand as James has. Starting from scratch only a few short months ago, he has created and promoted his way to the top echelons of the blogging world. Practically all the top bloggers have written about him.
Thinking about starting a blog? Here are some helpful resources. I was just sitting here thinking about a friend of mine from back in Maryland, when I recalled a conversation we had a couple of months back. I remember mentioning to him that I had a website, and he was suddenly very interested. He wanted to know how hard was it to set one up.
Back then he owned a golf business and had hired someone to build him a website. He didn’t know about search engines and ranking and never really got much business from it. So anyway, I remembered this conversation and realized that there may be other people out there who aren’t sure how to go about getting their own site, and I thought it might be helpful to write a few thoughts down about it.
I thought I’d just jot down some thoughts about email marketing since the vast majority of the emails residing in my inbox are from internet marketers. Here, at the the blog-log, I have yet to do any marketing by email, but there will come a time… When I first started to think about the subject of making money online, I used to go from website to website reading everything I could about how the successful bloggers and marketers were making it. I wanted access to all the secrets and the very latest new ideas.
If you blog, chances are you have heard of Yaro Starak. Not only is he well known within the internet marketing community, he has a cool name. A name that you don’t easily forget. But here’s the more important thing to know. His extremely successful site Entrepeneurs-Journey.com isn’t his first site. Yaro has a business timeline on his site. You should read it. It’s quite illuminating.
The primary lesson you can take from Yaro is to never stop thinking. Think about your business if you have one. Think about how you can promote it. Think about how you can improve it. If you don’t yet have a business, then think about what interests you have that might be turned into a business.
Reading Yaro’s timeline you really start to understand just how much the guy loves business. And that’s another lesson you can learn from him. One of the reasons he has been so successful is that he really loves what he does. That love is what keeps him motivated. There is a reason that those of us who have or have had real jobs find that we need vacations. The constant focus on something that you really don’t love is tiring. Over time you find that your mind wants to wander. Your thoughts turn to what you would rather be doing. Yaro and those like him that work at what they love find that it isn’t work. Of course every now and then everyone needs some time away, but that need is diminished greatly when what you would rather be doing is exactly what you are doing.
Another lesson from Yaro is that as your interests change, so can your business. Yaro’s first online endeavor was his MTGParadise.com site. A site dedicated to his passion at the time, Magic The Gathering, a card game. Eventually he found that his passion for the game had diminished to the point that he no longer wanted to work on it. He found buyers and was ready to devote his time to other interests.
There is a tremendous amount of information on Yaro’s blog. This article encompassed just Yaro Starak’s blog. There is a lesson in that too. The lesson is that time spent examining the sites of successful bloggers or internet marketers can be valuable. Take some time and spend it on the sites of people like Yaro Starak, or Darren Rowse, or any number of other successful internet personalities. Try to see what they are doing to be successful. Analyze the content of their articles. Analyze things like the colors they use in their design. The list is endless. The point is that you should examine everything that you can think of that might help them to be successful, and think about how you can make use of that information.
If you liked this article let some other people know about it.
As always, comments are encouraged.
I missed posting yesterday. We were on the road. It’s about 300 miles from home to here. Where’s here? Phoenix, Arizona. Yesterday morning, I had an idea. I love golf. I love road trips. Well, really I should say,we love road trips. My beloved Rosey and I drive across the country about every other year. We visit my father in Asheville, North Carolina, and sometimes we make it up to the Washington, D.C. area where I used to live. As an aside, if you ever get a chance to visit Asheville…go. This trip, however is my birthday present to myself. We’re in Phoenix so I can go to the Phoenix Open. Today I’ll be watching some of the best golfers in the world. But that is not what this post is about.
The point of this post is the portability of blogging. It’s one of the reasons why blogging is such a special mode of communication. You can blog anywhere you can get an internet connection. In a larger sense this post is really about what is frequently referred to as the internet lifestyle. Since the source of my income is not yet from the internet, I guess this post is more about my thoughts on what I would like to get out of blogging and internet marketing. It’s about the steps I am taking to attain those dreams. They are baby steps to be sure at this point, but it is said that every journey begins with a single step. I know many others are on the same journey…journey…for some reason I hate it when I see that word used in this context. Maybe because it is so overused. How many blogs have you seen that talk about the blog being about “my journey to…fill in the blank.”
My dream of blogging has been from the beginning to learn how to make enough extra income so that Rosey and I can afford to take road trips. Lots of road trips. We both enjoy motel rooms and just driving through new places and seeing new things. About the motel rooms. It’s kind of a weird thing, but I sort of obsess on motel showers. I have no explanation for this interest, but I seem to judge which motels I like the best on how good the shower is.
I realize that this post is rambling a bit. Back to the post. As a first step I am focusing on getting my traffic higher. I could be working a lot harder on that, but I’m making steady progress. The next step at some point will be deciding how to monetize this blog. I am not sure what direction the monetization will go. I recently read a post on another blog telling me that I need to make detailed plans, and I gotta tell you, I agree. I don’t have those detailed plans yet. I am a newbie to having any internet presence. I am going to do some thinking about it though.
My guess is that a lot of the people reading this are in exactly the same boat. They know where they want to go, but aren’t really sure how to get there. God knows that there is no end to the sites and articles telling you how to make money online. And for the low, low, fee of x dollars, they’ll be happy to share the secrets to internet wealth with you. I have bought some of them, but I suspect that some clear thinking and some research would give me all that information for free.
I know there are many different methods of making money online too. There is no one right way. The virtual world, when it comes to business, is really no different from the real world. It’s a question of analyzing the situation and thinking clearly and logically. I am asking myself what would people find valuable enough to be willing tom pay for it? That’s really the basic question that needs to be answered.
I apologize for the rambling nature of this post. I am excited to be trying a sample of the internet lifestyle, and I’m heading out to the golf course shortly to watch some guys that really know how to hit the little white ball.
As always, comments are encouraged. This time especially if they suggest how this type of blog should be monetized.
I’m not concerned with making money on this site…yet. Why not? It’s not time yet. Blogs like everything else have a life. They have different stages to their lives too. Just like people. This blog is still an infant. Let’s examine the stages of the life of a blog.
The preparations in anticipation of the birth of your blog are important. There are concepts to be considered. What is your new blog going to be about? What interests will it address? You must choose a name. Unlike a baby’s name, however you will need to make sure it’s available. When’s the last time someone named a baby and then had the state tell them, “Sorry, you can’t have that name. Somebody beat you to it?”
You will need to choose a host for your blog. Who’s server will your blog live on? There are any number of choices for your new blog’s home. Not being monetized at the moment, this blog won’t be making any recommendations just yet. There are sites that rate the different hosts. A simple search will find these for you.
Then when you get the blog home, so to speak, there are more decisions to be made. How are you going to dress it? You need to choose a blogging platform. Most people choose wordpress, although there are other quite nice platforms available too. Joomla, and Drupal are popular alternatives.
And then there’s the theme. What do you want it to look like? Will you choose a free theme, or go with a premium theme? Can you customize it yourself, or will you pay an expert to write the code that gives it exactly the look you want?
Now that your blog has a new home (the host server), and you have dressed it (the platform and theme), it’s time to teach it to talk. You need to give it a voice by writing new content. Most articles I have read advise having at least five articles ready to go when you put your new blog up. The thing to keep in mind is that when readers come to your blog, it’s important that there is actually something there for them to read.
There’s is going to be lot of hard work involved in growing your new blog. There is promotion. You have to find ways to let people know that it’s there. You will want to comment on other blogs (preferably in related niches), and comment in such a way as to make readers of your comment want to learn more about you by visiting your blog. You’ll want to have guest posts published on popular blogs. You will need to work hard at promotion.
Then there is the continuing need for new content. This never ends. A reasonable metaphor would be that content is your blog’s food. It’s sustenance. And like the food that you would feed a child, you will want to supply food of the highest nutritional value. Write quality articles for your blog. As a reader would you continue to visit a blog that didn’t have interesting or helpful content? You would not, and you should not expect your readers to either. Give them a reason to return again, and again. Give them content that is your best effort. You owe them that.
As your blog grows, you may find that it begins to change. The focus that you originally planned to write about changes. This is normal, and is nothing to worry about. Growth is about change. As your readers comment on your articles you may notice that they have a preference for certain topics, and want to focus more on those topics. Or perhaps it just may be that you find that it is your interests that change. That’s not a problem. While you don’t want others to dictate what your blog’s focus is going to be, it is important to listen to your readers. Think of it in terms of the growing pains of a teenager.
As you gain experience and your blog matures, you will find that writing comes a little more easily, and promotion becomes second nature. As it grows, your blog becomes something that you can take pride in. Before you know it, you’ll be taking it to little league games and soccer matches.
Then one day you’ll find that it’s all grown up. All your hard work is going to be rewarded. It’s time for your blog to go and find it’s first job. You’re ready to monetize. But that’s for another article.
If you enjoyed this article, share it with others.
As always, comments are encouraged.
photo credit: quickredfoxandkits
Here’s number 2 in my series of “how to” articles for bloggers.
What should you know about effective promotion of your blog? You are probably already familiar with the usual litany of blogging. Write posts, comment on other blogs , and guest post. But is there more that you could be doing? Funny you should ask. Now let’s talk a little about what you could be doing to promote your blog more effectively. (Here’s a little freebie piece of advice. Make sure you hit “save draft”, and not the “publish” button when you’re writing in the wordpress editor. heh)
New Posts
This one is not really promotion, but you need to add fresh content to your blog regularly. It doesn’t have to be an every day thing, but try to update, and add new articles on a fairly regular basis. Think about it. How many times are you going to keep coming back to aq blog if the content never seems to change.
Comments on other blogs
This is always on everyone’s list of promotional activities. There’s a reason for that, of course. It works! As has been said already a hundred times, this does not mean making meaningless noises abut how helpful this post is. Leave something with a little meat on it (Sorry vegetarians, but if God didn’t want us to eat animals, then why did he make them out of meat? I’m sorry about that. I couldn’t help myself. It’s one of the funniest things I ever saw. As a public service, here’s the truth. The China Study proves that meat really is not very good for you. The consumption of animal protein leads to all kinds of health problems. End of health lesson.) As I was saying before I so rudely interrupted myself, when you leave comments, be sure you are contributing to the conversation, and not just leaving noise. The point of the exercise is two-fold. One, you want the backlink, which is important to traffic. More backlinks = higher rank on the search engines = more traffic (=more money if you are monetized). Two, you want to leave a comment that has valuable content and is so well-written that readers feel that they just have to go see what your blog is all about.
Guest posting, like commenting has two purposes. One is the backlink, and two is to gain readers. Always check the blog you want to submit a guest post to for any rules or guidelines that they want guest posters to abide by or follow. Since you’re trying to generate more backlinks, and traffic with your guest post, and you are using another bloggers site to do it, you owe them your very best work. Your article will reflect on them as well as you. Make sure you show them the respect and gratitude they deserve by offering only your best writing.
Build Links
There are a number of ways to get links. Blog carnivals, where a number of bloggers with a similar interest get together and list there latest offerings can be effective. Get your blog listed in directories. Find forums and take an active part in them.
Social media
Twitter and Facebook are changing the internet. They should be an important part of your campaign to get people to be aware of your site. Create accounts and talk.
SEO
Before I go I should probably mention something about SEO or search engine optimization. In the comments and guest posting sections I briefly touched on backlinks. They are the principal criteria for ranking. There are different levels of backlinks. The more authoritative the source of the backlink, the more weight it carries. You also should be aware of keywords. Keywords are not just single words either. They are the words and phrases people put into search engines. The higher your page ranks in the search engines for any particular term, the more likely it is that people will click on the link to your page. This is especially critical if your site has something to sell. This one does not…yet. It also helps your site to link to your own articles within your site, so don’t overlook that source of links. I find it helpful to go through my posts after they are written to inspect them for keywords to use as tags, and to look for any terms I may have used that are well-suited to use for links.
Conclusion
The basic concept is simple. You want your blog’s name to appear in as many places as you can possibly find. The more places on the internet it shows up on, the more people will see it. See, effective promotion isn’t that hard.
If you enjoyed what you read here please send a link and share it with others, and as always comments are encouraged.
This is the inaugural article of a new series of “how to” articles I am going to publish here. Since all bloggers have one thing in common, and that’s writing, this seemed like the perfect place to start. So, without further ado:
What’s the point?
What exactly is the purpose of your writing? Understand what you are trying to accomplish, and write toward that goal. Are you informing your readers about something new? Are you going to teach them? Have a clear goal in mind as you write, and lead your reader to your conclusion.
Choosing a topic
Keep in mind why your readers are there. You are writing for them. What do they care about? Don’t write about what your readers have shown they are not interested in. I have written in previous posts on my blog that I have decided to lay off the keyword articles. The readers have spoken (or rather they have not spoken) and I have listened. Fewer comments=lesser interest. Instead focus on what your readers have shown to be their interest. In my blog’s case, I have noticed interest in the articles I have written about the tools and mechanics of blogging. Thus, the birth of this new series of articles.
Get organized- A Little Secret
The ideas that you are conveying to your readers should flow in a logical order. Use an outline if that’s what it takes. I’ll let you in on a little secret. When I write these posts, the very first thing I do is list the points that I want to write about. Then it’s a fairly simple matter of expanding on each of the points that I have listed. After proofreading them it’s a simple matter to rearrange the order if necessary too. Just a little cut and paste. It makes writing simpler, and it’s a big help in staying on point.
Simplicity is a good thing
Simple, plain language works. Use it. Don’t practice using the biggest words you can find in the dictionary or thesaurus to impress your readers. You’ll impress them alright, but not in a good way. Readers want a simple clear message. They don’t need you to point out that they don’t have the largest vocabulary on the planet. Keep in mind that your are writing to convey information and not to impress.
This is the web
Remember that you’re writing for the web. I mentioned this for a reason. It’s unlike writing for any other media. This is the place where the reader can instantly go to another source of information with just the click of a mouse button if they get bored. You must be interesting. You must hold your reader’s interest or they can instantly leave your pearls of wisdom, thus turning them into pearls of… well…something else.
Look for more articles in my new “how to” series in the very near future
I have made great progress with this blog in the short time that it has been in existence. In 29 days, I have moved from an Alexa rank of over 17, 000,000 to being poised to go under 600,000. In all honesty I have not been doing the promotional tasks that I really should be. I have published 1 or 2 guest posts, commented here and there, but my efforts have been haphazard at best. I will try to do better in those areas in the coming months. I am also guilty of not posting as often as I did the first 3 weeks. That one I won’t apologize for though. I am developing some new sites, and that requires time. Having said that, I am compelled to point out that I am still averaging slightly more than 1 post per day.
I have learned some things that are a bit of a surprise in writing this blog. The most surprising fact is which articles have attracted the most comments. I had thought that posting articles about keywords and the things I am learning abut how to improve your ranking in the search engines would be of interest to the readers of this blog. I was wrong. The keyword articles were among the least commented on.
The single article that received the most comments was the article I wrote that was critical of Steve Pavlina. Following closely behind that one article were the articles I wrote about some of the tools I use in writing this blog. As tempting as it might be to write more posts that are critical of some of the well-known bloggers, that isn’t what I or this blog is about. That was a sort of a special case, and I gave credit where credit is due. Steve has written much that people have found helpful. Here’s a link for those who may be unfamiliar with said article. A Criticism of Steve Pavlina.
So where do I go from here? I shall continue to write articles on promotion, and the tools of blogging. Probably fewer SEO articles for now. Just in case…SEO is search engine optimization for those who may be new to all this blogging stuff. SEO is what gets your site ranked higher in the search engines (along with backlinks). I will start writing some articles on writing too. To sum up, fewer keyword articles, more articles on the tools of blogging, and some new articles on writing. And maybe some off the wall articles every now and then too. Thus endeth the lesson.
As always, comments are encouraged.
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The Plan For Today
Today I am going to:
Post
I am going to post to this blog. That’s what this article is. ’nuff said.
Comment
I am going to comment at 20 other blogs. As has been said over and over, comments must be quality comments. I don’t know how many articles I will have to read to find 20 that inspire me to write some intelligent and useful comments.
Picture
This one is probably very different from anything you will read on anyone else’s blog today. One of the projects I referred to in my last post was building a site to offer a picture that my beloved, Roseann, made to help her teach her children about Jesus. Everyone who has ever seen it wants one. Consequently, we have decided to make it available to those who would like one. It will be our first online business.
Since it is our first, we are moving slowly. We don’t want to make any mistakes. Up until now we have been moving so slowly that our progress has been imperceptible. It’s time to start moving.
Tomorrow I will post on progress made today.
As always, comments are encouraged.