Where would you go for traffic?

How would your blog/business change?

It’s important to think about these things because nothing lasts forever.

There was a time, light years ago, when we thought MySpace was gonna stay on top as the powerhouse of social networking sites, until Facebook came along.

We thought K-Mart was gonna take over the world, until Walmart beat it at it’s own game.

Everything has a beginning and an end; it’s our job to prepare (and structure) our online businesses in a way that allow them thrive no matter what happens to these other sites.

Structure Your Internet Business To Take Heavy Damage

What kind of damage are we talking about here?

• Traffic sources going dry.
• Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, iTunes shutting down.
• Useful website tools being removed.
• Online services stop working (or get super expensive)

Any of these things can happen, and relying solely on them can be detrimental to your online efforts.

The possibility of all these sites shutting down at the same time is highly unlikely, but the point still stands – you can’t rely on them alone because you don’t know how long they’ll be around.

The key to structuring your internet business to take heavy damage is to build a self-reliant business. A business that relies on itself to keep running.

If you were to take my domain, hosting, blog content, products, and social media accounts away tomorrow – and leave me only my email list, I would be able to build another high traffic blog in a matter of weeks.

I’ll say it again:

Take everything away, but my email list, and I’ll build a high traffic blog in a matter of weeks – Tweet This Line

Why?

Because I own the asset that makes my blog and business profitable.

I own that traffic source.

No one else does – and you should own yours, too.

Think about that – then leave me a comment below telling me what you think…

Let’s chat..

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Today I’m gonna share with you some quick and easy ways to do market research, so you can be sure that the guide you’re going to create will be something your audience actually wants.

Obviously, there are no guarantees in business, so there’s still the possibility that you’ll create something very few people will wanna buy. But you can take comfort in knowing that if you get a few things right, you will get some sales.

The first thing you gotta keep in mind is WHO you’re selling to, and the second is the PROBLEM they want to solve. If you can figure out what those two things are, and create something that speaks to them, then you’ll make sales.

But first… What Makes a Great Ebook?

Since we’re going to be talking about ebooks for the next 7 weeks (maybe even longer), let’s first dissect the makings of a great one. I’m sure there are many things that make a great ebook, but I believe these are the four main factors.

A Great Ebook…

• Solves a real problem – because if it doesn’t, your refund rate will go through the roof

• Builds even more trust with your audience – because it’s an expansion of the value you’ve already been sharing with them on your blog

• Takes a stand on your topic – because no one will care if you try to be everything for everyone

• Over-delivers on your promises -because this is the difference between an ebook that you keep to yourself and one you talk about

We’lll talk more about HOW we’re going to incorporate these things into our ebooks when we get to creating “ebook worthy” content. For now, let’s jump into some quick and easy market research strategies.

7 Amazingly Simple Ways to Do Market Research

1. Ask Your Readers

I know. I know. It’s obvious, but it’s also the easiest and most straight-forward way to gain valuable insights from your audience. You can ask them what they’d like to learn more about in your area of expertise.

You’re likely to get some really good responses; but you don’t stop there. In the comments sections, you can ask them to get more specific, so you can get an idea of what type of content they really want.

2. Create a Survey

If you have an idea of the topic you want to write about, then surveying your audience might be a better way to learn what interests them about your idea.

In order to get the most out of your surveys, make sure it’s easy to take. Try to ask close-ended question that your audience will have little to no trouble answering. Multiple choice and YES or NO questions would work best.

Here are a few examples;

• When you visit my blog you wanna learn more about ________ (follow by a list of topics)
• Do you think you would benefit from a product on _______ ? (yes or no)

You can however ask open-ended questions if you feel your audience would answer them. This sill give you a much better idea of what they want and the language they use to describe what they need.

Ask questions like:

• What frustrates you the most about ___________ ?
• Fill in the blank. “If only I knew how to ______, I would ________ .

3. Look Through Your Comments

There might be a brilliant ebook idea buried in your comments section.

People will often ask questions about blog posts you’ve written or make suggestions on topics they’d like to learn more about. (at least this is what I’ve found to be true on my site).

Although only a small percentage of your audience actually leave comments, and it could be that what one person is interested in might not be true for the rest, you can still use this information on surveys.

The point here is.. Don’t overlook comments, you might find gold.

4. Dissect Popular Posts

Popular posts are popular for a reason, your job is to find out what that reason is.

There may be a hidden product idea underneath the topic you covered in that particular post. It’s important not to jump to conclusions though.

Just because a post got a lot of retweets doesn’t mean people will PAY to get more of it. Simply add this to your idea list and try writing another post around the topic.

If it resonates with people a second time, you might have a good ebook topic on your hands.

5. What are your competitors doing/selling?

There’s no rule that says you can’t spy on your competition – (this is, of course, friendly competition, cuz mostly everyone in the blogosphere is super nice to one another)

If you know of another blogger who writes to your audience, then check out THEIR most popular posts as well. There’s a good chance your audience will resonate with an article about the same topic.

Also, look at their product line. Of course, you won’t know for sure if the product is selling well unless they share sales results, but they’ll at least give you an idea of the ebooks you can create.

It’s likely that your competitors did some research before releasing the product, anyway..

6. Is There a Complimentary Product You Can Create?

Maybe your competitors left something out. Maybe you can find a topic that was NOT covered by a popular product and Fill That Void.

This is often used when doing affiliate marketing, and trying to sell software. Software creators often create plugins or scripts without putting much emphasis on exactly HOW to use it effectively.

This is where affiliate marketers come in. They see a NEED that needs to be met and they fulfill it with tutorial videos and step-by-step action plans.

They often give this away for free in order to get more sales, but I know of a few bloggers who charge monthly for this type of information.

7. What Questions Are You Getting Via Email or Social Media?

Don’t just focus on your blog, think about the people who email you or contact your on Twitter and Facebook.

They have questions. No matter how simple the answer is, there might be a much deeper problem that they’re not asking about.

Think about how you can address all aspects of the questions they ask; there might be an ebook idea in there, too.

What I Suggest You Do Now…

Take a look at all of these market research strategies and pick one to perform your own market research.

If you get a lot of email, go back and read them. If you get a lot of comments, go back and do the same. If you have a large, very engaged audience, create a survey using surveymonkey and get an idea of what they want.

And then.. Click Here To Spread The Word.

I’ll reveal my Ebook Topic real soon, and next week I’ll talk about how to start outlining your ebook.

See you then… let’s chat!

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Yes, of course… you can monetize using AdSense and sell advertising space, but those models aren’t as profitable as selling your own digital information products; which is what I recommend.

Now, it may seem obvious to you that in order to get paid, you have to have something to sell. But you’d be surprised how many bloggers actually “Know” this information, but have yet to create their own product.

Do you fall into that category?

If you do, I’d like to introduce to you the Profitable Ebook Project.

The Birth of The Profitable Ebook Project

I’ll explain to you what this project entails but first I’d like to give credit where credit is due. Pat Flynn, from Smart Passive Income, came up with a challenge called the niche site duel with Tyrone Shum.

In this challenge he created a brand new niche site from scratch while sharing everything he was doing with his audience; Tyrone did the same.

They both encouraged their readers to create a niche site of their own following their same exact steps.

Awesome, right?

Corbett Barr, from Think Traffic, re-engineered that idea and started a project called The Million Dollar Blog Project where he’d start a blog (from scratch) and share everything he’s doing to build a popular and profitable site.

So… I thought it would be a great idea to use this same approach to help you create your first (or second) profitable ebook for your business.

What Is It Exactly?

Over the next 7 weeks I’m going to be creating a brand new ebook. This ebook will be sold some time in March (if everything goes according to plan). I’m gonna be showing you exactly what I’m doing step-by-step so you can follow along and create your own profitable ebook alongside me.

This is going to be a 7 week process, and every week I’m gonna share with you what I’m working on. The topics I’ll be covering are:

• Coming up with ebook topics your audience will gladly pay for
• Outlining your ebook
• Ebook length
• Naming your ebook
• Creating “ebook worthy” content
• Designing and styling your ebook
• Releasing your ebook to your audience

Why an ebook? Why not a full blown multimedia product?

Great question…

Right now I have two products. None of them are ebooks. The reason they’re not ebooks is because I strongly believe that giving customers access to information creates a better customer experience.

This is why I created membership areas for Podcasting for Bloggers and The Blog Planning Workshop.

But for the purposes of this project, I wanted to tackle something that I felt was doable in a few short weeks. Creating and selling an ebook made more sense to me than building an entire video-based product.

…that’s the answer 

The actual writing part of this ebook creation process is what’s going to take the longest time to complete. I have a lot of writing to do because I want to keep you up to date with what I’m doing as I’m writing my own ebook.

Seven weeks may not be enough time for you, but for some it might be more than enough. I want to encourage you to work as hard and fast as you can to get this done. It won’t be easy, but you’ll feel awesome at the end.

Remember, this ebook isn’t gonna write itself. Work is required for success, there’s no way around it. I just hope this project will inspire you to get started and create something that will pay you over and over for a long time.

The Only Thing I Ask…

This is 100% free. I’m not charging a penny for the next 7 weeks of in depth “ebook creation” content. But, in order for this project to help as many people as possible, all I ask is that you share the project with your friends and followers.

Facebook share it. Retweet it. Stumble it. Google Plus it – and anything else you can think of.

I’m sure that’s not a lot to ask. No money, just spread the word about the project and I’ll be happy :0)

The only question that remains to be asked is…

…Are You In?

Let me know in the comments section below if you’re thinking about participating. You can also announce to your audience that you have accepted this challenge and that they should be expecting a brand new ebook from you in the next 7 weeks.

This is good for a few reasons:

• You become accountable and your chances of following through increase dramatically
• You begin building anticipation with your audience until the day you release your ebook
• You’ll feel great about taking on this challenge head on..

If you have any questions about the challenge, please leave them in the comments section. If there are any additional topics that you’d like me to cover during the next 7 weeks, also leave those suggestions down below.

I’m excited…

Spread the word! Look I made it really easy for you. Just Click Here to tell you twitter followers that you’ve accepted the challenge.

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Guest post by Karol K from NewInternetOrder.com

Don’t worry, I won’t torture you.

I’m not gonna make you read half way down the article to find out what this quick and simple way to improve your writing is.

So here it is: start writing a journal (or a diary – whichever you prefer).

The whole thing is rather easy. There are no rules. No must-have elements before you can get started. No boundaries. No cost (usually). All you have to do is write at least one entry every single day.

But, how does this help?

How does writing a journal improve your writing?

Let me quote someone who’s a little more experienced writer than I am – Stephen King.

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”

Stephen says that a good starting point is writing 1,000 words per day, every day, six days a week. And there’s no requirement to write anything that makes any sense, hence, why a journal sounds like a very good idea.

Stephen also says:

“So okay – there you are in your room with the shade down and the door shut and the plug pulled out of the base of the telephone. You’ve blown up your TV and committed yourself to a thousand words a day, come hell or high water.

Now comes the big question: What are you going to write about? And the equally big answer: Anything you damn well want.”

It’s hard to argue with someone like Stephen… If you want to be a good writer (and ultimately a good blogger) you have to do one thing – you have to write, and you have to do it a lot.

Writing a journal will improve your flow, ease of writing and overall comfort of sitting in front of a blank screen or a piece of paper.

The more you write, the less you have to think about what you’re going to write; the words will usually appear with minimal effort on your part.

Writing a journal is so easy that anybody can do it, and at the same time it’s so underestimated that hardly anybody does.

Where to begin

First you need to decide if you want to write a journal using your computer or go the traditional way – pen and paper. But since it’s the 21st century you’re probably going to use your computer.

The only thing you have to do now is choose your software. If you already have any kind of word processing app then you are more than welcome to use it (like MS Word for PC or Pages for Mac).

I, however, don’t like to play around with all the files. You have to store them somewhere and (usually) make sure that no one else can access them because, let’s face it, it’s your private journal. This is particularly important when you’re sharing your computer with someone else (your spouse, kids, dog, etc.).

That’s why I use an online app – Penzu. It’s free, easy to use, cool, safe, and takes care of managing and storing your journal entries, so I encourage you to check it out.

What to write about

This is the best part. You can write about anything you want… For example:

• How your day was.
• Your opinion about something you’ve seen on the news.
• Your favorite food as of late.
• People you hate and why.
• People you think hate you and why.
• What your plan for taking over the world is.
• What your ideal day would be.
• What your fitness plan for upcoming months is.
• How you would name your dog if you had one.
• And so on, and so on.

Even though this is what you can call freestyle writing, there are still two things to keep an eye on if you want to improve your writing along the way!

1. Make sure to use proper English.

Just because there are no boundaries it doesn’t mean you have to botch every sentence.

2. Maintain a consistent flow of writing.

Even though what you’re writing might not make any sense to anyone else, it does need to make sense to you when you read it out loud. This is called “writing flow”.

Try not to jump from topic to topic. Stick to one thing and let your thoughts do the writing. It helps with your focus when you’re writing your next blog post, ebook, or website copy.

The main goal when writing a journal…

…is writing itself. You don’t have to fool yourself by saying that you’re going to go back and read the entries someday. That day rarely comes…

One of the most important things to keep in mind when using your blog as a marketing platform, is that publishing content on a consistent basis will increase your overall traffic and leads.

So even if the last time you see your entry is when you finish writing it, the sole fact that you wrote it, and kept writing every day will pay off. It will improve your writing. Period.

Now, do you keep a journal?

Well, I’ve got you covered with my Blog Marketing 8-Part Course . And there’s absolutely no charge.

This 8-installment email course and newsletter will show you the techniques and strategies you need to know when marketing your business on the internet.

Find out more and sign up for free here.

Here are some of the topics I cover inside:

• Content Marketing
• Getting Blog Traffic
• Effective Blog Design
• Conversion Strategies
• Creating a Sticky Blog
• Being Everywhere
• Multiple Income Streams

Just click here to sign up for free. See you inside.

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Does your blog design talk?

No? – Well, it should.

In this post, I’m going to lay out all of the important questions your design should be answering for your first time visitors.

If your blog isn’t doing this, then there’s a possibility that many of your first time visitors are leaving your blog in a matter of seconds.

High bounce rates are not uncommon in the blogging world.

A bounce is when a visitor lands on your site, and leaves without visiting at least one other page

After some digging, I found that the average bounce rate for a blog is around 40%. Anything higher than that means that you’re either not attracting the right visitors or not using the tips that I’m about to share with you.

The faster you answer these 7 questions for your visitors, the longer they’ll stay. (and possibly become subscribers) These tips will also help you get a lot more engagement from your visitors.

However, this is NOT all set in stone and you should experiment with these tips on your own blog until you see engagement increase.

OK, enough chit-chat.. let’s get moving.

7 Questions Your Design Should Answer

Question #1: Who are you?

You’re always gonna be getting new visitors coming to your blog.

Some will comment but most of them won’t – but they all be wondering who the heck you are. There are two ways to answer this question.

The first is by creating an “about me” page and the second is by placing a brief bio on your sidebar.

The visitor can now put a face to the words they’re reading and it’s makes it easier for them to comment and engage.

Question #2: What’s this blog about?

This is another question many of your readers will have and one that is very easily answered by adding a tagline.

This is the one phrase that will let your audience know what you’re blog is all about.

The tagline will let visitors know what to expect from your content so they can make a decision of whether or not they want to look around.

Question #3: Are you here to help me?

This has everything to do with how easy you make it for people to find and consume your content.

If all they see are banner ads and links to affiliate products that you recommend, then they’ll be turned off and leave.

So, make sure you don’t clutter your blog with ads that direct your visitors’ attention away from your content. Don’t lose a loyal readers for a $27 commission. It’s not worth it.

Question #4: Where’s your best stuff?

You can do this very easily by adding one plugin to your sidebar. It’s called the “WordPress.com Popular Posts”.

This plugin lists all of your most popular posts by number of comments and views.

I have a list of 26 links that direct my visitors to posts that did very well. It also makes it easy for them to find more useful content to read.

Question #5: What do other people think of you?

Social proof is a wonderful thing, but it can also be your worst enemy when you’re first getting started.

Us humans are programmed to need validation for our decisions by watching what other people do.

For example, more people will comment on your posts, if they see that other people are commenting on your posts. Comments counts is a great way to display this.

Some other examples are the Feedburner counter, ReTweets, and Shares on FB.

If you don’t have anything to show as social proof, just worry about putting out some really good content and soon you’ll have all the social proof you’ll need. :0)

Question #6: How can I share what I just read?

Don’t make sharing hard for your readers.

If you know your content is great quality and you’re getting positive feedback from your readers, make sure you have sharing buttons where your readers can easily see them and click.

You can use the “New Twitter Button” plugin and the “Simple Facebook Share Button” plugin to give your readers the opportunity to spread your content.

If you’re not doing this, you’re probably leaving a lot of traffic on the table.

Question #7: Where do I sign up for more of this great content?

The worst thing you can do is make it hard to sign up for your mailing list. This should be easy, simple and obvious to your visitors.

The best places to have a sign up opt-in form are:

• on the top-right hand side of your blog,
• on a dedicated landing page,
• and a banner on the top of every page.

This will make it very easy for people to sign up and they don’t have to jump through hoops to find it.

By the way, don’t forget to sign up for my 8-Part Blog Marketing Course… it’s Free.

On To You…

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Nowadays if you’re going to start a blog and want to get seen online plus build your audience and make money, you will have to do something different.

To market and promote your blog successfully it takes time and you can’t do everything yourself. From writing blog posts, finding pictures, uploading content, networking with other bloggers, responding to comments and emails, tweaking your blog design, where do we find time to do this?

Luckily for you it’s possible to access the help of a virtual assistant whom you could outsource a lot of the administrative blogging tasks and help you contact other bloggers that people don’t see behind the scenes.

Probloggers, Darren Rouse from Problogger.net and Yaro Starak from Entrepreneurs-Journey.com leverage the help of virtual assistants who do help them post their articles online and handle all the “behind the scenes” work.

I personally know Yaro and he spends no more than 10 hours a week on his blog and still make a full time income just by writing a few blog posts a month in addition to a group of writers who his outsourced to as well. There is no way his able to create this type of lifestyle without outsourcing a majority of his work and still be a success.

Another example is through my Outsourcing Live blog, all email inquiries are redirected to a ticket support system where my virtual assistant handles weekly and if there are any important emails she will forward them to me, otherwise she will respond to them on my behalf.

This saves me time and allows me to focus on delivering more videos to my audience and provide the best value to my members.

Why Do Most Bloggers Fail And Need To Outsource?

Now let’s take a look at blogging in itself. Most bloggers know and have heard of the phrase “content is king”. But without an audience to read or consume your content, then your content is lost amongst all the noise.

This leads me to share with you a formula which helps you stand out and achieve success through blogging:

Create Content + Outsource Administrative Blogging Tasks = Successful Blog

Let’s break it down….

Create Content: This is where you aim to focus on creating value for your audience and provide “epic shit” (as Corbett Barr puts it) through regularly posting new content.

Outsource Administrative Blogging Tasks: It’s tasks which people don’t see behind the scenes, such as posting your new content onto your blog, finding stock images to make the post look pretty, formatting of the post, sending out tweets and messages to your fans, and so forth.

In addition you could be spending hours to contact other bloggers. This is another administrative task that can be outsourced.

So if you combine the two, can you imagine what you could achieve and how fast you can build your audience and a thriving blog?

How To Avoid The 9 Out Of 10 Bloggers Failure Rate

Don’t Spend Your Time Making Your Blog Look Good

Most bloggers spend too much time making their websites look good while instead they should be outsourcing design to a web designer and programmer. Outsource this work to someone who can finish it in less time while you can spend time networking with other bloggers to move forward.

There are lots of great full time or part time designers from overseas like the Philippines and China. Here’s a tip, you can test out a small one-time project on Fiverr.com and get web design done for just $5. If you like their work you can pay them more to do other web design work for you.

So instead of you studying Adobe Dreamweaver and Photoshop for hours and hours, outsource it to web designer to get it done fast.

Hire Help To Post Articles On Your Blog

Yes, I know you love creating all the content on your blog but posting, setting up the layout, adding images, and scheduling takes away your valuable time.

You would also have to regularly do research, collaborate with other bloggers and write content at the same time. Thus, having a virtual assistant with you can relieve all that pressure of blog posting and scheduling.

In my business I’ve also trained them to do search engine optimization for each post that goes out on my blog and that has saved me a lot of time. That way I can double my content production and marketing efforts to focus on building my audience.

Don’t Spend Time Reading Other Blogs

Lastly, blog hopping has been an addictive sickness to almost all bloggers out there. For instance, bookmarking blogs and subscribing would be a good idea to learn and connect with other bloggers.

But it also wastes a lot of your time consuming their content when you should be producing content of your own. So I only recommend keeping up to date with 2 or 3 blogs you truly love.

Take Control And Outsource!

The number one reason why bloggers fail is when they do everything alone. We’re in a global market and if you are not taking advantage of outsourcing, then another blogger is.

You can get a tons of things done all at the same time and see results faster and ultimately achieve your goals quicker. Outsourcing is our only solution.

Start small by hiring one full time virtual assistant and implement the concepts I mentioned. Be brave and bold as stepping out and being different is just the beginning! Remember to “just outsource it!”

————–

Tyrone’s Bio:

Tyrone Shum is an International Outsourcing Expert who has been interviewed and featured on over 38 different blogs and media channels sharing how he outsources to the Philippines. He is the presenter behind Outsourcing Live website that teaches entrepreneurs on how to get traffic from videos using outsourcing. Follow Tyrone Shum on Google+.

Whether you’re creating a landing page, a blog post or a sales page, your headline is what determines whether or not the visitor will continue reading down the page.

There’s a lot of content on the web that is not being noticed and read because it’s hiding behind a mediocre headline.

Today I’m gonna be sharing a few tips for creating great headlines that get noticed, clicked and shared on social media.

Hopefully these tips will help you improve you headlines for better results, let’s get started!

1. Don’t Confuse Your Reader

A confused mind always says “No” – in this case, a confused mind won’t bother clicking on your headline to continue reading your content if it confuses the crap outta them. Simplicity is key when creating great headlines. For example, someone asked me what I thought about adding hashtags to the headlines.

Can you imagine trying to read something like this:
6 Tips For #Growing Your Audience On #Twitter, #Facebook & #YouTube

Besides the fact that its not easily read, it also looks spammy. Stay away from anything that might confuse your readers and you should be fine.

2. Make Sure It’s Benefit-Driven

Everyone is always tuned into their favorite radio station when they’re browsing the web. What’s In It For Me – W.I.I.FM. Your job is to attract your audience by creating content that benefits them somehow; and your headline should reflect that.

You can accomplish this by adding “How To..”, “Ways To..” or “Why” to the front of your headline.

You should be putting the same, if not more, effort into writing your headline as you do your content. Think about what they’re going to get out of reading your post. Think about their desires and frustrations and how your content gets them that much closer to what they want.

3. Numbered Lists Almost Always Work

…this is why I used it for this headline. Not every headline I write uses numbers, but I can almost guarantee the post’s success when I do. Why do they work so well? Simple. List headlines work because they make a very specific promise of what the reader is going to get in return for their time.

• 6 Ways..
• 6 Secrets..
• 6 Tips..
• 6 Reasons..
• 6 types..

All of these are great ways to start a headline that will communicate a benefit to the reader and will compel them to click, read and share.

4. Make It Irresistible

We’ve already stated that great headlines contain a big benefit for the reader, but how do you make them impossible to resist. You can add a sense of curiosity. Craft your headlines to create an incomplete thought in their minds. You want them to ask a question that just has to be answered.

This will entice them to go from the headline to the content to find the answer. If the reader is satisfied, then your content will be share – A Lot!

5. Keep It Short & Sweet

Long headlines can work, but if you’re just learning how to write headlines, stick to short ones that you can read in one breath. It should deliver a benefit and entice them to read in 10 words or less.

Here are some of my best short ones;

• Why Your Blog Makes No Money
• What Makes Great Blog Content
• How To Craft An Awesome Blog Post

..and of course, I’ve had some long ones that worked just as well;

• How To Increase Your Blog’s Speed By A Lot, Plus 3 Plugins That Improve Site Speed Optimization
• 4 Ways You’re Destroying Your Credibility and 5 Tips To Avoid It
• 5 Ways To Know If Your Content Sucks and 4 Ways To Fix It

So…

If you think the headline for this post is awesome, you should definitely share it with your followers and friends on Twitter & Facebook. ..and as always, leave your thoughts below

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The reason I created this program was because I wanted you to have access to a complete step-by-step course that showed you how to take your idea and turn it into a loyal blogging audience.

I won’t get into all of the details of what’s inside the course, but the modules include content creation, promotional strategies and how to start getting paid from your blogging efforts.

It’s a pretty awesome and comprehensive course, but of course I’m bias.. I put a lot of time, and brain power into this program, so I definitely think it deserve a look.

To learn more about this course, visit my Courses page or click here. I’d like to see you inside as a member.

Take care.. talk soon

Hector

That’s a great question, but one I can’t answer without knowing a lot more about the main blog topic, the purpose of the site, and the business idea behind it.

What I can do, however, is tell you why I believe most blogs don’t make any money at all and what to focus on to turn your situation around.

I can say, from experience, that if you focus on fixing these 5 things, you may start to see income coming from your blogging efforts. Ignoring these will get you more of the same results you’re getting now; and I’m sure you don’t want that.

5 Reasons Why Your Blog Makes No Money

Started Off On The Wrong Foot

This is a much too common mistakes many bloggers make. They build their blog around what they believe to be an awesome idea, that is doomed from the start. I’ve have some friends ask for advice on blog topics and I’ve had to gently shut them down.

For example, if you’d say you wanted to build a blog about Star Wars and make money from it, I’d say you have a better chance of getting struck by lightning. The reason is because that the people in that “niche” don’t have an urging problem that their trying to fix or a desire that they’re trying to achieve.

* To avoid starting off on the wrong foot, pick a niche where people are searching for solutions.

Your Content Sucks

This is also much too common. I wrote a post about this a few months back, click here to check it out. But the point of it was that you need to focus on creating valuable content that people actually want to read if you want to sell anything.

And no, I’m not talking about addressing “trending” topics and catching a big wave of visitors because your post ranked highly for “Justin Beiber & Selena Gomez”. Leave that for the entertainment blogs.  Your goals with the stuff you create should always be to help your readers. Be their leader and guide them towards their desired goals.

* To avoid sucky content, focus on helping your audience relieve pain.

No Branding Strategy

What are you known as? What’s your unique selling proposition? What are your colors? Blog branding and personal branding is something many successful bloggers take seriously but not many people talk about it. One thing to remember when trying to earn money from your blog is that people buy from those they know, like and trust.

Blog and personal branding helps you build that trust and establish that likability. The key to branding your blog is to be very obvious about who you are, what you do and how you can help your visitors. This way, the minute someone new lands on your site, they can figure out what your deal is in about 8 seconds.

* To avoid a mediocre brand, focus on building trust through design elements and your tagline.

You’re a Blogger Not a Marketer

Not that there’s anything wrong with bloggers, but overall, marketers (specifically, direct marketers) are more strategic than bloggers. Marketers focus on building an email of people who are interested in what they have to offer. While bloggers want lots of people to subscribe to their RSS feeds.

Marketers plan out an entire product launch in order to get people excited about the product; bloggers might post about it once and then create a banner to place on their sidebar because they don’t want to be too pushy.

Which is the best approach? In my opinion it’s a combination of both. Bloggers are much better at cultivating relationships with their customers and building communities. These things are needed to thrive in the online space. But bloggers shouldn’t be afraid to build a list, market and sell a product that is intended to help the end user.

* To avoid falling into the “I don’t wanna sell to my audience” trap, study direct response marketing.

Lack of Business Sense

The last reason, and possibly the most obvious one, for your blog not making money is a misunderstanding of what is it to do business online. There is no magical internet fairy that will put money in your bank account just because you provide valuable content. Money isn’t going to appear under your pillow because you decided to start blogging one day.

Business blogging is just that – Business. And just like an offline business, you need to have:

• An overall vision
• Goals in place to keep you productive
• A business plan
• A strategy to execute that plan
• & Products and/or services to sell

You need to package your knowledge in a way that your audience will want to pay you for it. You need to ask them what their frustrations are and help them fix them with your offers.

- In Other News…

This Thursday, (June 30th) I’ll be releasing my Blog Planning Workshop. It’s a 5 module course that helps you take a simple idea and build a loyal blogging audience. It addresses content creation, branding building, blog promotion and getting paid.

Be sure to come back on Thursday at 10:00am EST – Don’t miss out.. =)

Similar Online Marketing Posts::

1. What Makes Great Blog Content
2. Hector’s Daily Blog Post Promotion Strategy In 7 Simple Steps
3. Top 4 Traits Of A Successful Blogger (No, It’s Not About Technology)

I assume you feel like this at times; when creating blog posts, podcast episodes, videos or even your own products.

Maybe you feel like you HAVE to create, like you HAVE to press publish, even if it’s not ready.

I say, if its not remarkable, but it could be with a little extra work, don’t press publish yet., Here’s why…

Being “good enough” has become commonplace in almost every market.

Being “good enough” isn’t going to win over an audience.

Being “good enough” is expected, but being remarkable still works.

The Problem With “Good Enough“

The problem with being good enough is simple. If this is all you strive for, then you’ll be like everyone else. Your blog will be no different than any other blog.

Your products won’t stand out from the sea of other products in your niche. Your brand won’t mean ANYTHING to your visitors and potential customers. But this problem can be avoided simply by taking some extra time and effort to make your work remarkable.

I can’t tell you step-by-step, exactly what to do because I don’t know of any checklist for being remarkable. All I know is that it comes from the heart, it’s genuine and truly helps people. Here’s how I would do it.

How I (Try To) Create Remarkable Work

I suppose I should tell you the definition I’ve accepted for Remarkable Work. Remarkable work is defined as something that causes people to ACT, THINK or FEEL differently about a particular topic, and in doing so it causes positive change in them.

With all of that said, we can’t be remarkable ALL the time. It’s not sustainable. So yes, you should publish content that isn’t remarkable; so long as the content you’re producing is not being published just to fill a posting schedule.

Publishing without having anything useful or insightful to say is a recipe for mediocre content.

Here are 5 pieces of remarkable content I’ve published recently: (remarkable by my definition)

• 5 Traditional Blogging “Rules” I Refuse To Follow (this is me ranting)
• How To Craft An Awesome Blog Post
• Using Technology To Automate 79.7% Of Your Internet Business
• Just Because You Blog Doesn’t Mean Everything Has To Be Free
• How To Increase Your Blog’s Speed By A Lot

Why do I feel these pieces are any different than anything else I’ve published? Here are 5 reasons:

1. Someone took action to increased their blog speed using this content
2. Someone realized that a One-Size-Fits-All blogging blueprint doesn’t exist
3. Someone started crafting better blog posts because of this content
4. Someone started focusing on how they can automate more of their business
5. Someone started thinking about what products to offer their audience

I spent hours crafting these posts. I put effort into making sure the message was clear. I read them out loud over and over again to make sure they made sense.

I brainstormed every headline and sub-headline so that  they attracted attention. I thought about the images I was going to use. I challenged my audience to think differently.

I tried to be remarkable and the best part is that I gave it all away for Free. Not many people are willing to do that and that makes us (bloggers) unique.

Share Your Remarkable Content Below..

I wanna see your remarkable content. Use the comment section to share with the community one article that you’re most proud of. An article that you know you put your all into and felt good about publishing.

Feel free to place your URL in the comments section, but please only ONE link. Once you do that, be sure to share this with your friends on Facebook, retweet it and stumble it. I’d really appreciate that.

All the best…

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If you have yet to subscribe, click here to get on the list and receive 3 really cool Free Gifts. A PDF report, an Audio guide and a 6 part video course.

If you wanna learn how to create remarkable Audio content and a killer Podcast, check out Podcasting For Bloggers.

I just wanted to take a quick second and thank everyone who sent emails and tweets, I really appreciated those.

So now that I’m back, I want to tackle the question above – What Makes Great Blog Content? But I won’t do it alone; throughout this post you’ll see appearances from 5 bloggers that have been nice enough to share their views with us.

I got in contact with these people because I truly believe they got what it takes to create great blog content that their audience actually wants to read. Let’s get to it…

Great Content Is Not Subjective

Some will tell you that we’re all different, that we all have different taste, and we like different things – you’ll hear that content might be “Great” for one person and crappy for someone else. But, I call bullS***!

Here’s the deal.

When I read blogs, I can tell the difference between great content and crappy content. I can tell if the blogger has found their voice. I can tell if the blogger is completely confident with what they’re sharing. I can tell if the blogger knows their stuff.

And I KNOW I’m not alone. We all have bulls*** radars built into our systems.

• We know when we’re not being entertained.
• We know when we’re getting fed “advice” without proof to back it up.
• We know when we’re not being inspired.

Here’s what Natalie has to say about writing great content:

“From my experience, it’s when it comes from the heart and is truly useful and valuable. It can be one of two types of contents:

(1) How to do something that will help someone learn and get ahead.  (2) A personal account that you’ve learned from and your insights that you can share to help others.”

If you do some digging around this blog, you’ll definitely find those two types of articles, so I agree with Natalie 110%. Johnny had this to say about creating great content:

“By my definition, [great content] is “stuff that causes a positive change in people.” Sometimes that’s just making them laugh or smile or feel better, and often it’s causing them to reexamine something in their lives and to get them to improve themselves.

I try to get people asking questions about the way they’re living — usually through my own trial-and-error example, of my own experiences.”

There is an underlying theme in both of their responses. The content reflects lessons learned from their own experiences and shared in a way that provides value to the end user. If you’re regurgiating what has already been said WITHOUT injecting your own personality, stories and writing style then there is definitely room for improvement.

To Write Awesome Content, Live An Awesome Life

This idea of living an awesome life is not spoken about enough in the blogosphere, but many successful bloggers will agree that reporting back their experiences definitely helps when writing blog posts.

It’s hard to come up with anything interesting to say when you’re not “in the trenches” alongside your audience. I’ve spoken briefly about this before, but Tyler put it nicely. Here’s what he had to say:

“For me, the absolute most important thing I can do is to make sure I’m actually getting out in the world and doing the things I want to talk about. That brings a whole breath of life to what I create, ensures that my ideas are accurate, and really helps with the storytelling aspect I talked about.

I don’t write about things I don’t have experience with. I don’t pay attention to trending topics. I don’t even watch the news. Instead, I set goals for the things that I want to achieve in my life and then I report back and offer ideas in the most helpful way that I can.”

What’s so cool about this way of creating content is that you’re not only being useful, you’re also taking your audience on a journey. It’s almost as if they’re learning, growing and experiencing with you.

But I wanted to know one last thing; how can you get into the flow of creating awesome content on a weekly basis? How can you continue putting out “great” content for your audience without fail?

Getting In The Flow of Great Content Creation

Well, unless you’re not human, there’s a good chance you won’t hit it out the park with every post your publish. I believe we all feel creative sometimes and other times our creativity is shot.

But is there a way to swtich on our creative juices? Here’s what Chris has to say about getting in the flow of creating great content;

“I don’t think I always do that; sometimes it’s a struggle. But I’ve never missed a post day since starting more than three years ago.

After a while, the streak is motivational by itself.”

Corbett says;

“Inspiration to me comes in waves. Some weeks I feel full of great ideas and other weeks I’m stumped. During those especially creative weeks, I like to get everything down on paper, or at least take some good notes about what I was thinking.

Then when I need to fill the uncreative gaps I just refer to what came while I was in the flow.”

If I were you, I’d write that one tip down right now. When you feel inspired, write down all of your ideas, so that when you don’t have any, you can refer back to them.

On To You: What Motivates You To Create Content Consistently?

Leave your comments below and don’t forget to share this post with your friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter.

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But what can I possibly share with you today that will guarantee you always have something to share with your audience? How can I guarantee you endless blog topics?

Simple, you have to automate the idea generation process.

If you’ve been following me for a while now, there’s a good chance that you’re building your email list of potential customers. If you’re not building your email list, be sure to read these posts:

• 6 Simple Ways Of Growing Your Email List
• How To Create An “Ideal” Lead Generation Process
• The Smart Blogging Audio Guide (40:17 min | 36.8mb)

So here’s what you do, step-by-step.

1. Create a lead magnet that attracts visitors to opt-in to your email list

2. Use your email autoresponder service to set up an automatic sequence of messages

3. Make sure to include 1 message that asks them to Take A Quick Survey

4. Direct them to your online survey and collect their most important question

You can use a service like Survey Monkey to create your own surveys for free. As long as you continue to bring in new subscribers every day, then your list of blog topics and ideas will always continue to grow.

Plus, the fact that you’re adding it to your autoresponder sequence means you only need to do the work ONCE and forget about it. I set this up months ago, and now have pages and pages of questions from my email subscribers, that I look over whenever I’m lacking creativity.

That’s it! Today’s post was short and sweet. This is the shortest post I’ve written in a very long time.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed it. Please share this on Twitter & Facebook; and leave your comments below..

All the best!

It’s brilliant. It’s so good you’re afraid you’re gonna forget, so you run to your computer, open up your internet browser, go to your wordpress dashboard and start typing like a lunatic.

Next thing you know, it’s finished. You’re confident that this post is going to get read, shared, and spread all over the place – so you press publish and envision all of the links, comments, and retweets that are gonna start coming in.

But they never do.

No retweets, no links and 2 spam comments later, you feel like crap.

Hey, it’s OK. It happens. It’s happened to me a few times, but there’s something you can do to avoid this. Here’s how: Craft an awesome blog post – why? Because awesomeness works and it gets spread. (Corbett said it best)

The Practical Step by Step Checklist

There’s no shortage of information out there about how to craft killer blog posts but as always, I like giving you the most important and effective points because there’s no need to do stuff that doesn’t work. I hate wasting time so I’m gonna share with you the 6 points I make sure I cover before pressing publish on my own blog posts.

This doesn’t mean that you won’t have posts that flop ever again; it just means you’ll have a better chance of publishing something your readers will actually consume and share.

The Headline

This is THE most important piece of your blog post. If your headline doesn’t get the attention of your visitors, it won’t get read or spread; no matter how great the content is. But of course, there are exceptions to this “rule”.

I read almost everything Seth Godin publishes on his blog, because I believe he’s a marketing genius and he’s known as a thought leader in this industry. Here’s the thing though… YOU & I, we’re not Seth Godin and we’re probably not considered thought leaders (not yet at least) – so we need to write great headlines to get our stuff read. Period.

The Topic

I try my best to not only keep my posts useful and entertaining, but also as relevant as possible. The best way you can do this is by sharing the experiences that your audience can relate to. One commonality that I see in successful bloggers is that they’re “in the trenches” along with their readership.

They don’t just teach. They do and then teach; and then they keep doing so they can keep teaching. When I did my blog redesign, I talked about it. When Pat started his niche website, he shared the process; and when Ana got a ton of Twitter traffic, she shared what she learned.

The Type

So you got the headline and the topic down pat.. what’s next? Choose the type of post you’re gonna write that content in. There are different types; you can use a list post, crowdsourcing, pillar, Ask the readers, Round up, Interview and a few others.

Choose wisely but don’t sweat it. You’ll know which type works best for you topics as soon as you think of them. Some will be tough, but most won’t. I wrote an article that talks about these different types of posts and their functions – be sure to check it out here. I wouldn’t want to waste your time saying what has already been said before.

The Opening

I’m probably gonna write a follow up post about how to open up your articles, videos and podcast episodes. No matter what mode of content you’re creating, the first 2 lines (or 20 seconds) has to grab and keep the reader’s, or listener’s, attention.

Here are a few ideas to get you started. Start with a question that relates to the topic. Or you can say something that create a sense of curiosity in the mind of your reader. Even if you have a great topic and a great headline – this first line will mess it up for you if it doesn’t get people to continue reading. But more on that later, let’s move on…

The Content

I don’t have to tell you how important the actual content is in this whole process. Remember, entertaining/inspiring, awesome, useful and relevant content always wins. But here are some things I haven’t mentioned:

Make the content easy to read. Break it up with sub headlines. Use bold and italics when appropriate. Don’t make it a link-fest. Use images to take your point further, or just to make it look nice. Add a call to action; tell your readers what you’d like them to do next. (ie. comment, like it, share it, tweet it)

The Promotion

Promoting your blog post is where most people drop the ball. People are led to believe that awesome content gets found and spread on its own. (highly unlikely)

The reality of the matter is that, “Content is no longer King. It has become a minimum requirement to do anything online” – credit to Francisco for this quote. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

By the way, speaking of promotion.. Please tweet this post:

Tweet

Thanks! Let’s continue…

Great content is being created left and right. I know a lot of you guys are putting out awesome stuff every week (I have awesome readers), but in 2011 and beyond – that’s what we’re suppose to do. Mediocre content gets you mediocre results; to get thousands of readers coming to your site, you have to promote your stuff like mad.

On To My Favorite People On The Web..

That means you guys.. :0) – What else do you do to create awesome blog posts? Is there anything I missed or anything you’d like to share with everyone else? You know where to leave it..

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I’m curious to know,

This weekend I was looking at my 2011 list of business goals and I couldn’t help but noticed that I didn’t plan many different projects.

I put almost 90% of my focus on this blog and this business.

Now I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but I am starting to get really interested in a number of different things that could turn into more income streams.

On my list I wrote that I wanted to create and released 4 information products this year, in an attempt to create a suite of products that helps bloggers and start-up internet entrepreneurs.

The first of four is being released tomorrow (Podcasting For Bloggers) while the other 3 will be released in the coming months.

On my list I also wrote that I wanted to release wordpress plugins, both free and paid. I have an idea for both, but have yet to find the time to get that underway. (excuses, I know)

Anyways, the reason I’m curious is because we hear all this talk about having multiple income streams, but are we really doing the required work to create it? Are you working on 2 or more things that bring you multiple streams of income?

If not, what projects are you thinking about starting? Let me know in the comments section below.

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A New Podcasting For Bloggers Video is up – It has all the details about the program; bonuses, price and guarantee. Click here to watch it now.

WARNING:

The reason you’ll fail is because of fear.

Is your blog growing as you hoped it’d be? Is you email list growing as fast as you want it to? Did you live up to your expectations? If not, then read on because I think I know what the problem is…

We’re All Afraid… (of stupid things)

Here are some of my fears:

I’m afraid I’ll get into a freak accident and never get to reach my lifestyle goals

I’m afraid my subscribers will all unsubscribe one day for no apparent reason

I’m afraid no one will buy my Podcasting For Bloggers program next week..

I’m afraid the internet will vanish and everything I’ve worked on will go to waste

I’m afraid my business success will make my friends hate me

I’m afraid people will stop opening my emails

I’m afraid someone will say something bad about me, that spreads all over the web

All of these “fears” sound really stupid once you actually write them down. For example, right now I’m asking myself why would the internet just disappear, you idiot? But that’s the type of irrational thinking that goes on in our minds.

Most of these fear are likely NEVER to come true (let’s hope not) but still they linger, and stop us from taking any action. They stop you from doing the things that you NEED to do in order to:

Spread Your Message

Live Your Dreams

Get Paid To Do What You Love

Help Other People

Design Your Ideal Lifestyle

Buy What You Want

and Have Time & Financial Freedom

I Want You To Get Mad…

If you want to move forward in your business and overcome your fears, you have to get mad; you have to get angry at your current situation. Say NO to the recession and say “screw you” to the fear that is stopping from doing.

Someone you may have heard of, by the name of Thomas Edison, (Lol.. that was a joke – OK let’s get serious here)

Edison once said, “Restlessness is discontent — and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man — and I will show you a failure”

So basically, if you want to fail at this internet business thing, all you have to do is accept and be happy with the life you’re currently living. Be satisfied and you’ll do nothing to get more of what you want; but if you get mad, success becomes a byproduct of the fearless action that you’ll take.

What’s Your Reason Excuse?

Let me help you out with this one. Pick the one you like best:

I don’t have the time

It’s too hard to build an audience

Nobody will pay for my stuff

It’s too hard to grow an internet business

I don’t have the skills to do this

I don’t have the money for this

I’m tired all the time

I tried and it didn’t work for me

[Insert Yours In The Comment Section Below]

These aren’t reasons, they’re excuses. This is our way of trying to convince ourselves not to stay in our comfort zone and away from fear.

But they also lead to a life of mediocrity and I doubt that’s what you want. If you’re reading this all the way through, I KNOW for a fact you want more. The road to getting more is letting fear motivate you and getting out of your comfort zone.

A general rule of thumb I follow is, If it feels scary to do, then it’s probably what I should be doing.

On to you… what scares you? what are your fears and frustrations? what reasons are you coming up with for not taking fearless action? Let me know in the comments section below.

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** The Podcasting For Bloggers Q&A Video Is Now Live.. click here to watch it now

But… before we start,

If you agree or disagree with anything I say in this post, please  share your thoughts in the comments section below. It’s free to do so, and there are no hidden fees. :0)

The Blogging Sweatshop

This is what the blogosphere has become; bloggers churning out content day in and day out, replying to comments for hours on end, promoting post after post, wanting to “reach a-lister status” so that they can (one day) “make money blogging”.

Does any of that sound familiar?

I bet it does, and I also bet that most people reading this right now are running a blogging sweatshop in their homes. Part of the problem is the information that’s out there, the other part of the problem is the fact that most people don’t set goals.

Very few people have stopped to think about what products or services they’ll one day WANT to offer to their growing audience. Very few bloggers have stopped to realize how much content they put out on a regular basis, and how that effort can be transferred onto a money generating project.

Free Has It’s Place…

I’m not against free, at all. I mean check out my blog, it’s filled with hours of free articles, videos, and podcast episodes. Look at the sidebar and you’ll see a list of my 15 most popular posts.

If you check out From Zero to Blogger you’ll get 6 videos showing you how to start your own blog. If you go to Smart Blogging Guide, you’ll get access to my free ebook that has been download thousands of times – For free!

Free content is needed for this business model to work.

Free is what gets people to come to your blog.

Free is what gets people to join your email list.

Free is what gets people to get to know you and become loyal fans.

But here’s the thing, “Free Is Not A Business Model”. When it comes to getting paid, free doesn’t always cut it. But, there are ways to get paid without making offers.

You can inject affiliate links into your content and get paid whenever someone buys a product through your link; but more on that on this Friday’s podcast episode.

What Can You Charge For??

If you don’t know what to charge for, then you’re not listening well enough. Remember, you don’t know what you don’t know, so if you haven’t taken the time to ask your audience what they want, don’t assume you know what that is.

It takes a great deal of effort to create a really good product but it takes ZERO effort to mess up and sell ZERO copies. The biggest mistake you can make is creating something that no one wants. You’ll waste a ton of time and it will KILL your motivation.

This is where the “real work” comes in. Product creation is not my favorite thing to do, but it needs to be done. Plus, after finishing Podcasting For Bloggers I gotta say that it’s also a very fulfilling process.

The reason I say “real work” is because in order for you to make your internet business work, you need to have something to sell and the right tools to sell it. Here are a few things you rarely hear spoken about in the blogosphere for whatever reason:

Product creation
Sales processes
Member management
Customer experience
Customer service
Content protection

Why? Why is this stuff not spoken about often enough? Is it because it’s not as sexy as Traffic Generation, Link Building, SEO, Guest Blogging, or Design?

…maybe, who knows.

The fact of the matter is that in order to get paid, there needs to be an exchange of value; an exchange of Content Value For Dollar Value. But if you want to know how I balance free and paid in my business, here’s the one sentence answer that sums it all up

I give away stuff that gets people results, and sell cooler stuff that gets people even more results.

Click the retweet button and let’s chat…

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For the 8 Part Blog Marketing Course.. click here

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Everyone knows podcasting

Well, I have my own thoughts on audio podcasting, but I won’t get into that, not yet at least (I love it).

A few days ago I started going through all the bloggers that I knew that had added a podcast to their blogs; and I wanted to know if podcasting was helping them just as it was helping me.

So I contacted 5 awesome fellow bloggers and asked them to answer these two very simple questions:

1. Why did you start a podcast?

2. How do you think it has helped your business grow?

Needless to say, the responses were great but I’ll let you be the judge of that. After you read their responses, you’ll understand why podcasting is not “old skool” anymore.

The 5 Popular Bloggers (Ladies First):

Maren Kate from EscapingThe9To5.com

I started a podcast because I wanted to get in touch with lots of interesting entrepreneurs and this was a value providing way for both of us.

It definitely drove a lot of traffic and very specific traffic since they were people that liked the general concept of the podcast… not just strangers who stumbled upon it.

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Srinivas Rao from BlogCastFM.com

I actually started podcasting as nothing more than an experiment. One of the lessons in Yaro Starak’s Blog Mastermind program was to interview somebody for your blog. So, I started a weekly series called interviews with up and coming bloggers.

After about 13 interviews one of my guests on the podcast contacted me about launching the idea as a separate venture and BlogcastFM was born. If anything I would say, I’ve been really lucky because I get to pick the brains of the best and brightest minds in the blogosphere.

As a result I’m armed with an arsenal of ideas and information that I bring into everything I do when it comes to my own blogs and things for clients

_______________________________________________________

Yaro Starak from Entrepreneurs-Journey.com

I started a podcast initially because I had just purchased an MP3 player (iRiver) that had a mic on it that I wanted to have a reason to play with and because years ago a university lecturer told me I had a good voice for radio, so I wanted to be a radio star.

It also seemed like a good way to practice public speaking and since I knew I was good at rambling off the top if my head it would be an easy way to create new content for my blog in a different media format to reach more people.

The podcast turned out to be the best marketing technique for my blog and business that I have ever done, especially once I started interview other people. Podcasts are very easy to share and take on the road, and they build relationships for you in places all over the world long after you release them.

I still receive regular emails from people who tell me they have spent hours digging through the archives of my previous podcasts and enjoying them all. Having a podcast is my number one recommendation for any blogger or person who has content to share online. Audio is my favorite learning format and it’s a great way to establish a following.

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Dan Andrews from TropicalMBA.com

I started a podcast because I have a passion for audio content and the radio. First, I am a HUGE podcast and radio fan. I wanted to be just like Dave Ramsey or Howard Stern. I’m certainly not there yet but someday I want to be just as good.

I also think it helps you improve some fundamental skills which are important for business: communicating clearly and creating intriguing content and products.

In terms of how its improved my business, it’s brought a lot of attention through alternate distribution channels like iTunes. It’s also created an incredible network for me to get in touch with in order to find new clients, partners, and friends.

Finally, I believe the audio format is one of the most compelling ways to reach your market because after listening to your podcast for a while your audience feels a real trusting connection to you that I feel is more difficult to achieve in text alone.

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Tyrone Shum from TyroneShum.com

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You See What I’m Sayin’??

Podcasting is here to stay!

Now you know why I’m so excited about the program I’m putting together. Now you know why I’m putting in hours and hours of hard work to make it awesome; because I know it will help make YOU awesome online.

The Official Launch Date For Podcasting For Bloggers is Tuesday, March 1st, 2011 @ 12pm EST.

Leave your comments below… let’s chat

The crazy part is that most of us are already using some version of this strategy on our own blogs, but he’s doing a few things that I’ll like to pinpoint because I think they’re important.

I’d really appreciate your feedback in the comments section below…

What Are You Talking About!?

So here’s the back story. On August 22nd, 2010, at 5:20 am Kanye send out a tweet about his new “Good Fridays” plan. The idea was that he would create a brand new song for his listeners to download every single Friday.

Click To Enlarge

Kanye is not a blogger by any means but he IS a content producer. The content he produces isn’t advice by any stretch of the imagination, but it IS content nonetheless.

He makes music and millions of people follow and listen to him. His music is how he attracts his audience, just like we do with our blog content.

Good Fridays was his content strategy; it’s simple but very effective.

Step 1. The Announcement
Announce you’re gonna do something New, that has Never Been Done Before, & Free.

Step 2. Give It A Name.
I call mine the Business Blogging Podcast, he calls it Good Fridays.

Step 3. Create Content.
He creates music, I create podcast episodes. Can you see the similarities?

Let’s move on…

So, Where Does Email Come In?

Every time he created a new song, he would tweet his audience and let them know where to get it. Twitter is probably where most of his audience keeps up with him and what he’s doing.

Right now he has 2.1 million followers so I suspect a lot of traffic hit his site every time he announced a new song was available. Anyway, when you reach his site, you don’t see a download button, or a play button; all you get is a list of songs and a box to enter your email.

The process is simple, but again, VERY effective. Here it is again:

Give me you email and you get to download the song. My version of this is, give me you email and you get to download the Smart Blogging Guide. You probably have a version of this process for yourself.

If you still haven’t created your email lead magnet, please read this post:
How To Create A Content Packed Lead Magnet In 6 Hours Or Less

And if you haven’t created your Lead Generation Process, read this one:
How To Create An “Ideal” Lead Generation Process On Your Blog

What This Proves…

It proves that everything we know about online marketing can be applied to any industry. It proves that the level of awareness about using social media and email as marketing tools is going up. And It proves that keeping it simple works!

So go out there, build your audience, offer them valuable content, ask for their email, and build your list of true fans!

Got Feedback? Let’s talk about it in the comments section…

P.S if you’re gonna tell me you hate Kanye, please don’t – this isn’t about him or his music… it’s about marketing – Thanks :0)

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3. What Makes Great Blog Content

Here’s the truth. Most bloggers are being controlled.

Here’s the truth about traditional blogging - it doesn’t exist. Without the creativity, self-expression and freedom that blogging allows, blogging itself wouldn’t exist. So answer this for me, please…

Why is it that people let the “rules” of blogging rule their blog?

Is it because they need validation that what they’re doing is right?

Is it because they’re afraid of making a mistake?

Or maybe they’re afraid to be different. Whatever it is, it’s hurting their image because they’re blending in with the crowd. It’s also hurting the entire blogging industry because the lack of creativity leads to lack of good quality content.

But rules are necessary right?

Well yes and no. Some rules are necessary like, “Don’t SPAM other blogs” or “Don’t bad mouth other bloggers”; those types of rules are great ones to follow. But there are other rules that I refuse to pay any mind to; and I’m about to tell you what they are, but first…

I’d like to welcome you to the “Best Bloggers are Natural Hackers Series” started by Keisha Keasly from WeBlogBetter.com. This is part three of the series; click here to read part 2 by Alex Whalley.

Let’s continue…

So, I used to follow these rules when I first got started, but later decided to do my own thing. Here they are:

5 Blogging Rules I Refuse To Follow

1. Keep Post Short

No Way!! My posts will be as long as they have to be. Who made up this craziness about people having short attention spans. So, we come online and all of sudden we’re dumber?

I’m sorry but that doesn’t make any sense to me. If your posts are interesting, engaging, entertaining and/or educational then they can be 1,200 words long, or more.

Check out these posts and then read the comments. I don’t think any of my readers have short attention spans. Do you?

4 Ways You’re Destroying Your Credibility and 5 Tips To Avoid It

How To Create A Content Packed Lead Magnet In 6 Hours Or Less

How To Create An “Ideal” Lead Generation Process On Your Blog

The 1,062 Words Guide To Creating An “Almost Perfect” Sales Process

2. Make Everyone Happy

In other words, don’t say anything to piss anybody off and agree with everybody. Those of you who have been following me for a while know how I feel about personal branding and how taking a stand can only HELP your brand.

People will disagree with you and they might be really mad at you, but if you’re trying to make everyone happy you’ll be hurting your brand in the long term because you never stood for anything.

3. Be Perfect

This is more of a belief rather than a rule. I’ve never actually seen a blogger write about how we have to be perfect in everything we do, but we still think we do.

There are people don’t publish their podcasts and videos because they aren’t perfect. They don’t put out content regularly because they feel it can be improved, but it ends up hurting their productivity.

This belief of perfectionism will stop you from taking any action and it’ll hold you back. Let go of it and just be human. Remember that being the best YOU you can be if perfect enough.

4. Post Everyday

This topic has been beaten to death, but with good reason. There are benefits to posting everyday and benefits to posting less frequently.

But the idea of making this a blogging rule just isn’t cool. I, like many other bloggers, got burned out when I was starting out trying to do this. Yes, my blog grew but then I stopped posting for about 2 weeks. (not good)

It really does depend on what your blogging goals are.

5. The Goal is More Pageviews

This also depends on your blogging goals, but more and more bloggers are realizing that building community and getting the right people on your email list is much more important than pageviews.

I would rather get 500 responsive email subscribers than 10,000 pageviews and no one signing up any day. Wouldn’t you? Let me know in the comments below..

I’d really like to hear what you think about “blogging rules” and how you’re doing things differently. Oh and if you got value out of this, tell your friends about it; they’ll think you’re cool. :0)

Let’s Talk

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For my 8-part blog marketing course – Click here..

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