An article I read today rehashed an issue I argued against on another blog a couple months ago. That issue being that content is not king. I instantly get into these debates because I find that the person writing about them is promoting disinformation which goes against everything I teach on this blog. What upsets me more is the amount of people who comment on those articles thanking the writers for “sharing the truth”.

My argument that content is king is that without content, you have nothing. But it isn’t as simple as that, and people need to stop making these generalizations and leaving them at that. If you want to write about what’s king, then you need to get in-depth and not just leave lame advice which stems from inexperience. I will not call anyone out here, especially because the person that wrote it is someone I consider a blogger friend.

The actual facts behind content and what makes it king are as follows:

1. You need content in order to #1) have something to offer your visitors; #2) obtain organic rankings.
2. You need good content in order to make people want to read it.
3. You need to drive traffic to that content in order for people to know it exists.

Failing to acknowledge all of these points means that you are basically spreading your inexperienced knowledge to others with inexperience that think you actually have experience.

Who Is Inexperienced?

I won’t lie to you… I have visited thousands of blogs, and a lot of the blog owners are friends. We communicate on a regular basis which is why I call them friends. But how many of those friends are actually making money; pulling in traffic or whatever type of conversion they are shooting for; or actually reaping the rewards of the topics they are blogging about?

There are blogs out there who are basically posting articles about topics such as what works in blogging and what does not without actually experiencing these things in-depth and on their own. They read an article on the topic, and they felt a need to share that knowledge, even if that knowledge is not factual.

How Can You Avoid Spreading Disinformation?

The number one rule here should be to only blog about things you actually know. The thing that determines what you actually know vs what you are inexperienced with is that you have heavily played with something.

An example is would be if you went out to build links, and you didn’t attack that task at every angle such as publishing articles on 3rd party sites, blog hopping, reciprocal linking, buying links, etc, then you are not experienced. You then post an article on building links and claim that reciprocal doesn’t work because Google doesn’t like reciprocal links. You would be pushing disinformation out there because those of us who actually have built reciprocal links on sites currently, know that it does in fact work.

Stressed Points

• Research a subject, not only by reading about it, but by doing it.
• When you do something, go all-in or not in at all.
• Blog about subjects you went all-in with, and stick with what you know.
• Do not blog about topics you haven’t actually explored to the depths. Doing so will only make you non-credible in the eyes of readers.

So you probably came here looking for photos of my butt. Sorry to disappoint. What I meant to say was that I am going to get in late on Alex Whalley’s and Moon Hussain’s niche site challenge…. and kick both of their butts. This should be fun.

I haven’t technically chosen a niche, and frankly I just thought of doing this just 4 minutes ago . I am confident in a green energy niche though, and I am thinking about going with solar panels. I will be pushing an excellent product from ClickBank, and I will probably even use a free host and a sub-domain just to show off a little bit.

I believe solar panels and wind power are the energies of the future, and near future. They will save us all from being pushed out of a torn ozone and into space.

As far as seo goes, well… do I really have to talk about my skills? It will only make me blush.

Incoming search terms:

• show moon ass (images)

Ok, now people are really going to think I’m nuts, but I really wanted to try something new and strange. That’s why I created a new blog on blogger (yeah I know it’s not self-hosted) and utilize the blog to provide free graphics and graphical templates for my readers.

The idea is to get readers to donate anything ($1, $500, $1,000, etc) and their entire donation will be applied to the next Mega Millions or Powerball game on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

It doesn’t matter how much you donate. It will ALL be applied to the next game

What do you get out of this? Well, you are getting lots of graphics to use to build your business, or your traffic! On top of that, you will get to know a lotto winner should I hit the jackpot.

You would also get to say “I was part of that original experiment and my money probably bought the winning ticket!”. Head on over there and check it out. I will be posting the first of the free graphics late tonight/early tomorrow. Help spread the news!

Incoming search terms:

• star backgrounds for twitter
• crazy experiment
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• free banner money psd
• grazy lotto
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• What if you could have gotten in on the ground floor of YouTube?

• What if I were to give you that chance right this very moment?

This will change EVERYTHING!

We all know the impact that blogs have had on traditional media. Newspapers are obsolete, and magazines are nearly obsolete. Any newspaper or magazine that hasn’t transitioned to offering a blog or some other form of digital media cannot be around much longer… if they still are even.

Newsgrape is revolutionizing the way you blog though! Found at http://www.newsgrape.com is an amazing new web platform that allows publishers to start their own magazine for free, and collaborate with other authors. Take a quick look at the video below before I tell you more…

What has my attention so much is the way that publishers can earn money on Newsgrape. As a matter of fact, it is the only reason why it caught my attention so much and made me want to write this article! (By the way… NOBODY paid me to write this)

Still in development is their amazing new revenue system that is modeled around Google Adwords. But let me ask you this… Does Adwords pay you anything? Nope. Does Adsense pay you anything adequate? Nope! What if Google decided to pay you HALF of what they earned? You would probably piss yourself right?

Well guess what! Newsgrape gives YOU, the publisher 60% of all revenues through their system generated from your articles and profile! This beats the mere pennies that you would earn through Adsense by a landslide!

How Does Newsgrape Work?

Here’s the cool thing. Newsgrape is more than just a platform for publishing articles. It is heavily focused on the reader by providing an innovative and amazing system which allows you to actually create your own collection of materials and effectively build your own actual magazine that is regularly updated!

It is my honor to actually break this story, and introduce you to a platform that I plan on calling my home. I am one of the first users with a pre-beta access key which allows me to gain access as soon as January. Then approximately two months later, the system will be opened to the public under beta release.

The Newsgrape team is working on funding additional development and server power via Kickstarter. YOU have the opportunity to get a pre-beta access key right this very second! Newsgrape has 42 more days to raise a goal of $12,500 before pre-beta, and with a donation of $5 or more, you can gain access! However, if you donate more, then pre-beta might get here even faster! To get your access key, stop by Kickstarter and make a donation.

If you are seriously passing this up, you will want to kick yourself soon after! Think of Newsgrape like a large mall. You can pick and choose the content that you read. How crazy is that? Do you know how much is sucks to browse the internet looking for articles that aren’t garbage? I find so many blogs that have the same crap posted over and over, and a lot of it is truly sub-par with bad writing. Newsgrape‘s system weeds out the bad articles, and only pushes forth the quality content that you want to read.

Meet The Team

Leo, Gabor, and Felix are behind the Newsgrape platform. Leo and Felix are Co-Founders and Co-CEOs. Gabor is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and programmer.

From their bio:

The origin of Newsgrape came during the summer of 2009 when they founded an online magazine out of sheer creativity (and boredom, who knows?).

With his intuition for interesting topics, Leo became the Editor in Chief of the team, which had reached over a dozen co-writers by then. Felix, on the other hand, was more interested in marketing and how to reach a broader audience, from a publishers point of view.

One late evening, during the cold winter months, they sat down with their programmer, Gabor, and thought about how to bring the idea of online magazines to a new level to make it more efficient.

So from forming a community for a magazine – like they did with online castings to find talented writers – they moved on to creating a community with its own articles and magazines from publishers and writers for readers – in a mutually beneficial way.

Meet The Platform

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Meet The Website

http://www.newsgrape.com

Incoming search terms:

• newsgrape
• leo gabor
• newsgrape will change everything you know about publishing!

Countless people under estimate everything it takes to make a living blogging.  I had no clue what I was getting into the first time I stated a blog.  Like so many others, I thought it would be a breeze. For some irrational reason there were many things I didn’t consider.  This is why I am back again, because I don’t believe in quitting.  You’re a loser if you’re a quitter, plain and simple.  Who wants to be a failure right?  I certainly know you don’t. I don’t know everything about blogging and I won’t dare say I do.  Here are five tips many individuals over look.

Don’t Be Cheap

Blogging is much like a business.  In any proper business money will be involved.  If you are a cheap bum, it will have a damaging impact on your reputation.  To be a expert blogger money will be invested into the business.  Spend a little money for a self- hosted site.  Have your own domain name for you as cheap as ten dollars a year.

That’s two number 1 Big Mac meals from McDonalds!

You must live in a hysterical dream if you think you’re going to make it anywhere being too cheap to pay ten dollars.  Wake up from lala land.  When you have a site name like, “yourdomainname.blogspot.com” don’t hope to be an expert being cheap.  Cutting to the chase, building a business without putting money into it will be tremendously hard.  On top of that, no one likes a cheap person!  I wouldn’t want to work with you, and neither will the next.  A great way to use a little money in a constructive way would be giving incentives.  Everybody loves a incentive.

Know What You’re Getting Into

The key to a fruitful blog is doing your research.  Check out the competition in your niche.  See what they blog about, their stats, design, take in as much as possible.  Know exactly what you’re going up against.  You should never go into anything blind-sided.  There are too many haters trying to knock your shine.

Through your blogging journey there will be many surprises.  Doing your research will help you through them.  Use your roadblocks as a development platform and learn everything you can.  The more you advance and learn, the more you will benefit from your blog.  It’s going to take a lot of effort; I would never lie to you.  Make sure you have a lot of free time on your hands, because you’re going to be in for a long ride.  One of my many mistakes was I didn’t do enough research early on. I don’t want you to make the same mistake as me.   Make sure you’re comfortable before taking on the hustle and bustle of a blog.

Make A Schedule/Goal List

Making a schedule is something I foolishly over looked.   I thought I could some how keep my hectic lifestyle organized all by myself.   Boy was I wrong.  Everyone’s lifestyle could have some sort of structure.  Structure doesn’t always mean a strict lifestyle.  You could have a laid back schedule.   Just the fact you’re following a schedule means you’re getting somewhere.

Boost your productivity by repetition.

Time is money, so make the most of it.   Every person on this earth is given the same amount of time in a day.  It’s up to you to out work another person.   Having goals will give you a better vision of what it’s going to take for you to become a proficient blogger.   Accomplishing goals will boost your motivation.   I now see the power behind having a schedule.   The deadlines give me even more inspiration to beat them.   All the motivation I receive makes it much easier to smash all my deadlines much  earlier  than  they come.   Take this free game and use it to your improvement.

Be As Social As Possible

Blogging in a nutshell is for the social.   If you’re not social you won’t get anywhere.   You are just one fish in an enormous ocean; no one would care about you.   Being social is the only way to become a expert blogger.   I’m  in to building all the relationships I possibly can.   I can acquire something encouraging from everybody.  The more social you are, the sooner you will develop, and the more you will learn.

Connect and build as many relationships as possible.

The object is to propel your voice over all sides of the web.  Some people will agree with your logic, many won’t.  In the end keep doing what you do, because you were all you had when you started.  This had to be the principal mistake I made.  Don’t follow in those footsteps.

Blog About What Makes You Joyful

Blogging about what makes you exultant will actually make you a happier person!  Its proven ask any professional blogger.  In my opinion, it’s the only way to go.  True blogging is something that doesn’t happen overnight it has to mature.  When your blogging about a passion it’s easier to stay devoted. 

Passion + Hard work= Success

People will notice your passion above everything else.  The great thing about following your passion is, work isn’t so much work anymore when you’re in love with what your profession.  Do you even if everybody advises against it, because there not living your life. You’re the only one living your life, so you’re in control.

Conclusion

There are many elements that add to make a successful money making blog.  Today I shared with you 5 tips that will benefit you if you heed my advice.  Blogging can bring you happiness you never thought you could have.  I hope you get the most out of your blogging experience.  Whatever you do, just don’t quit.  You will never know what you could have been.

Incoming search terms:

• key things to consider when blogging for money

This is going to sound like a harsh statement… When it comes to affiliate marketing, there are the smart and the not-so smart people.  Now I won’t call them dumb, but I feel some folks won’t succeed because they’re not following basic, fundamental affiliate marketing techniques.

In truth, success with affiliate marketing doesn’t come from being intelligent or from working hard.  Instead it’s about adhering to the specific, “smart” techniques all the big dogs use.  Frankly, if you don’t use them you’ll probably fail.  The good news is it’s easy to join the ranks of the elite.  All you have to do is follow these five simple rules:

Rule #1- You promote the right products

It’s not about offering the hot, new product everyone else is pitching.  A smart affiliate marketer carefully selects the products that have a proven track record of providing genuine value to customers.

Yes, it’s important to make money.  But you never give up your integrity to market something just because it’s the “in” thing to promote.

Smart affiliate marketers focus on building a successful long-term business.  You don’t go hoping from one offer to the next.  You choose products that solve specific problems customers are experiencing.  It’s a win-win situation because you make money while helping people improve their lives.

#2- You have a personality and use branding

It’s widely known that people buy from someone they like and trust.  That’s why a smart marketer isn’t afraid to show a little bit of personality when dealing with prospects.  You joke around, admit when you’re wrong, and write like you’re having a one-on-one conversation.  In short, you act like a real person not some faceless corporate entity.

Furthermore, a smart affiliate marketer focuses on branding.  Every logo, blog post, and social media profile has a consistent look.  No matter where a person finds your content, he or she will feel like its part of your core content strategy.

#3-You capture leads

Capturing leads is the lifeblood of all Internet businesses…especially affiliate marketing.  As a smart affiliate marketer you understand this principle and use it to your advantage.  You know the best way to obtain leads is to use a “lead magnet.”  This is a free product that’s given away in exchange for a prospect’s name and email address.

Furthermore, your lead magnet isn’t a rehashed collection of articles.  Instead it contains useful content that can’t be found elsewhere.  This is the first impression people have of your work, so you make sure it counts!

#4- You use email marketing

As a smart affiliate marketer you know the importance of building an email list.  Your database of contact information is an asset you use for long-term income.  Since you followed the above rules, this list is highly responsive.  You give them excellent content and they help you make money by purchasing the quality sites you recommend.

You quietly chuckle to yourself when you see someone not building a list.  People like this send a prospect directly to a product page without any form of “preselling.” You know this is a mistake because people tend to buy when they have multiple exposures to a marketing message.  As a smart affiliate marketer you build a relationship with your list and make heaps of money when making the rare recommendation of a product.

#5- You understand web traffic

The greatest website and series of offers won’t make money unless there’s web traffic.  As a smart affiliate marketer, you dedicate a lot of time on promotion.  In fact, the majority of your time is spent on marketing your online business.

As a member of the affiliate marketing elite you’ve experimented with many different traffic methods.  PPC, ezine articles, blogging, Twitter, Facebook – You’ve tried them all!  The way you stand out from the crowd is you’ve found the promotional methods that really work and you only stick with them.  You’re not afraid to experiment but you also understand the importance of focusing on the things that get results!

How to Become a Smart Affiliate Marketer

It’s not too late to become a smart affiliate marketer.  If you looked at these five rules and feel like you’re lacking in any area then it’s not too late to make a change.

The great thing about affiliate marketing is it’s a process of learning.  Nobody learns all they need to know on the first day.  They create success by tweaking the things that aren’t working and applying lessons from their mistakes.  It’s not too late to become a smart affiliate marketer.  In fact, the first step is to implement the five little rules I just listed.  Good luck!

Incoming search terms:

• how smart people make money
• how can intelligent people make money fast
• people who made money smart way

Over the many years that I have been in business, I have made a lot of money. I will admit that it started slowly, with my first year only making a grand total of $500, but after that it was all downhill riding. My income has come from various ventures, with seo services, web design, and consulting being my largest providers to this date.

What if I told you I would be willing to give you my money?

I am not going to directly hand over some cash, but I will provide you with solid details of how I did it. If you are failing right now online, then why don’t you copy others who seem successful and find out of they are really raking in the dollars, or if they are full of shit? I ask this because I have seen many claim that working online is impossible unless you are lucky or know the right people. I want to slap them and say “Research is easy. So research those who have the appearance of making money and do what they do. Then copy it, and if they are truly making money then you will too”.

It can’t get any simpler than this really. Copy me.

Why man, are you nuts?!?

Yeah, probably. I can hear my friend Alex now, telling me that I should be committed for leaking the secrets to my success. But if you want to be realistic, there is plenty of money out there to be made. Competition is also healthy, therefore I am not worried in the slightest.

But I don’t know how…

Ok here’s the deal. You may be telling yourself that you do not know how to design websites like I do, or optimize them like I can. But you don’t have to. Do you know how many web design companies have actually come to my company @ http://www.webdesigntaxi.com because their business model is to outsource everything? Design firms have been about 50% of my entire client inventory. You can also start a web design business, and secretly outsource to companies like mine that do the hands-on design/coding/marketing. There is absolutely no reason why you cannot copy what I’m doing and start your own web development and marketing firm.

Surely I need clients…, right?

Well duh! But you can land clients in many ways. One easy way is to post ads on Craigslist, or reply to ads that are already there. For example, I can create an ad for web design or seo and post it to the computer services section. I can then browse the computer gigs section where people are posting their needs, and I can respond to them with a request for additional details that will allow me to provide them with a free proposal.

Another great way to get clients is to do something you are already doing now, but in a different way. You can have a site setup for design, or a page on your blog with a service list. You can then link to that page on your guest posts, blog hopping expeditions, and author box in articles you publish on EzineArticles. The possibilities are truly endless when it comes to marketing, and marketing is universal.

How else do you make money?

Consulting is huge for me. I get clients that pay a good $5,000-$10,000 or more each for high-end services that I provide. I also sell “ready-made” blogs to people who want an established blog for sale. Something that already contains unique content, and has traffic coming to it. I seem to get decent traffic in Google for “established blogs for sale“, but I have not looked into my ranking for that yet. You can also flip them through blog/site brokers if you didn’t want to rely on Google search to bring you hits for that.

You can check out one of my lower-end consulting service sites at http://www.homebizconsultant.biz which is a WordPress powered site using a free squeeze page theme.

I know you have more…

You would be right. A favorite past-time of mine is to take over entire industries in Google, then lease the space to professionals in those industries. For example, I would create a website to generate leads for an HVAC company in Miami, then get it ranked for their target keywords. Once I get the site ranked, I would present it to HVAC companies in Miami that are interested in increasing business through Google local search, and make them an offer they can’t refuse.

Is that all?

Hell no! I have other ventures. Niche sites baby! These puppies are great. You can create mini niche sites easily. You may be hindered by your inability to design websites, but you can just use free templates instead. Go to http://www.oswd.org and grab a few free templates, open them up in a free html/wysiwyg editor, and plugin your content including your affiliate offers. You can have a niche site in as little time it takes you to write a couple of articles. No hosting you say? Try searching Google for “free php hosting” and your problems will be over. There are tons of free hosting companies out there that do not place ads on your site. In addition, they give you ftp and c-panel access. If you don’t want to pay for a domain, then use the free sub-domain they give you and get a domain later on. You can promote these niche sites the same way as everything else. Refer to the marketing that I mentioned earlier.

What are you hiding?

Well, I think this falls under consulting, but I also offer my expertise to attorneys. Lawyers have cases out for everything you know. You can promote yourself as an expert witness. Expert witnesses get paid for their consultations. I have been called in for expert witness cases, and also to be a call in expert on a major talk radio show, although I did the latter pro bono for the free publicity.

What’s in your future?

I can see myself very soon, offering a paid multi-week mentoring course. I can also see myself opening up a subscription section in the marketing forum (while leaving most of the forum free for all). In addition, I see my niche site count growing even further.

Other things I do is invest in real estate and stocks. But maybe you aren’t ready for that yet…

Maybe we’ve all crossed the line, or just everyone’s going crazy, but blogging is no longer just about sharing what your thought’s are. It’s turned into a whole rave for making money, building businesses and getting cashed up through advertisements. So were does that leave us all? Should we follow the path that everyone is now taking, pouring out content that is suited specifically to narrow down niches, or should we be taking up the struggle of bringing out true content that people may regard as trashcan content? Die by following what everyone is doing, or stepping up the pace, unleashing your own creativity and writing something that may one day be recognized, bringing a huge fan base along with it?

What happened to all the miscellaneous writings?

Were did it all go? It seems like everyone has progressed on to writing about blogging or technology. People are still yet to realize the potential in writing about other niches, not just the ones that, so far, seem to be making money. You may be missing out on a whole possibility of success when you follow a group that seems to be working for you so far.

Follow the group, last a year – Take on your passion, last a lifetime!

Blogging is turning into something that many people say they are interested in but are just doing it because they are following the trends of everyone else. These are the people who will not last out very long. They are spending their time creating content for a specific niche because they may make some quick money. There is one way these people are heading.

We need to escape this onslaught of thinking that following something that has been well recognized as working is really for us. We are often just wasting our time, there are always going to be people to compete with us, so are we just another competitor, or are we trying to step up from things?

Your passion is what will make you win out in the end. Why, because it is your driving force. People often get into the blogging niche because it makes money, but they don’t have the passion. When they end up in tough times, not getting traffic or comments – they will often quite because they are not in a niche that they enjoy. Always take on the niche that you enjoy, it will stick by you as long as you stick by it!

People get used to the little success

It happens to so many people; their little success that they achieve, they get used to. People after months upon months of work stop, look back over what they have achieved and then don’t try to improve it anymore. Once you reach your goal, the world does not have to end. There is always going to be new things to try out and experience. Following a niche that is bringing in money now may not be helping you in the future. You might be limiting yourself. – In some cases, it is often better to miss out on the money for one year and get triple that the next; instead of making some money this year, some the next but still not close to what you would have achieved if you waited.

What about you – Have you found a niche that you enjoy, or are you just following the crowd?

As you may have read on many blogs about blogging, list posts are very popular. But did you know just how popular they actually are?

I have my homepage set for Yahoo! and it’s been that way since I was 13 years old. I am now 29, so that’s a pretty long time. Having Yahoo! as my homepage means I get my daily news from them, and that’s how I keep aware of what’s going on in the world. A lot of the time, a health article or something about specific industries pop up. One of those things popped up today, and it was something like “35 things airline pilots won’t tell you”. At the end of this big list post, there was a list of other list posts.

Think about this. If Yahoo’s Shine blog is posting list posts like nuts, maybe it’s a good idea for you right? RIGHT!

List posts are popular for specific reasons. One of those reasons being that it is very easy to follow a list post. The items are broken down into an organized, controlled format. List posts also provide summarized information that you feel you must know.

Over my career as a blogger, I have posted many list posts. A lot of them were about coming up with blogging topics, blog topics that are popular, etc. I have written list posts about failure and how you can prevent it. This goes on and on. Why? Because list posts have brought me a ton of traffic! I have not written a single list post that hasn’t been well received.

Alas, I finish this post with a list of reasons to use list posts.

• List posts are easy to create content with. You know how it becomes hard to write all the time? With list posts, you only need a subject and then you can just list out things related to that subject.

• List posts are popular. If you did nothing but write list posts, the chances of your blog becoming popular faster than any other is great.

• List posts do well in search engines. I have seen tons of list posts come up on the first page of Google which have turned me into a regular reader for the blog hosting the post.

• Lists are a great way to make money. You can flip the way you do reviews and do a list of great products for your niche.

• Lists create loyal readers. Something about a list posts brings out the best of everyone. Even people who don’t read very much will go through a list post. They will most likely bookmark it and come back to read more.

• List posts get linked to. If you want to build some deep links to your blog, create list posts that other bloggers will rave about. People love to share list posts as reference material.

There are tons of ways that list posts can work in your favor. If you have not looked into the power of them, then you are truly missing out.

A recent comment on another blog sparked my need to write about niche site research, and why keeping secrets about your niche sites is pointless.

There was a comment warning the blog owner and niche expert to keep his niche details to himself because there are bad people out there that will hack his sites and kill his income. The thing about this is that in this day and age, there are no secrets. There are websites out there with free tools that allow you to do a free ip reverse lookup. You can find out what other domains are hosted on a server by typing in the domain name you want to research. The only problem is that this method will not tell you who owns those domains. There may be 50 or thousands of domains and websites on that single shared server.

The reason why multiple sites that a person owns can be hacked is because the hack would go for the root of the shared server. If they gain access to the root, then they can kill every domain on that hosting space. There is nobody stalking you trying to assassinate your income, so no need for the paranoid approach to niche marketing.

Another reason why you don’t have to care about keeping your winning niches secret is because anyone can find those domains, and copy what you are doing. If they are smart, they will not copy your content because you can easily catch them with copyscape this way. Each niche can sustain a ton of competition. Search engine traffic isn’t the only game in town, nor is it the best. It’s wise to keep your eggs in multiple baskets. Anyone can make money with their niche if they simply build links, participate in social circles, and get articles out there.

Try to stay away of the paranoia and go make your niche income without worry

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