It has been awhile since I launched the forum. I have not been marketing it heavily, but will begin to soon. I thought I should re-introduce the marketing forum right here though because there are a lot of new readers and subscribers to this blog.

The free marketing forum is a place for you to go and share your expertise, or ask questions and learn something new. Find income strategies, or help others and get traffic through your signature.

The forum was something I added on this site to be a resource for my loyal readers and fellow online money making visitors. I have created various forums in there, and am open to suggestions on new categories.

This site has been experiencing excellent growth, and I truly feel that the forum can become a huge valuable asset to your daily marketing arsenal.

Current categories include but are not limited to:

• Ad slots wanted / available
• PPC & Affiliate Programs
• Guest posters
• Link swaps
• SEO & SEM
• Blog Design
• and a job board

Hurry on over to the free marketing forum now and sign up! Share your knowledge and make friends while you network with like-minded individuals! Don’t forget to refer others with your unique referral url in your dashboard.

I have not kept my newly adopted tradition of doing a free website review on the 1st of the month because as my skills in the blogging world have advanced, so did my strict quality requirements. Until now, I have not found an article that told me “you better review this blog or slap yourself!”

The blog that broke my temporary review ban was BuzzBlogger.com because of something I accidentally stumbled across…. I mean literally stumbled across because I was clicking the stumble button in my StumbleUpon toolbar for Firefox. It was a list article which as you know are the best kinds of articles for linkbait. Well this fish caught the bait.

I was planning on writing an article on traffic sources, but I didn’t have to thanks to “21 untapped traffic sources” which lays out some excellent resources.

I guess I need to use StumbleUpon a little more often than I do. I bookmarked a few new blogs thanks to stumble. I would be remiss if I didn’t look further into BuzzBlogger though before posting this review. Funny thing, I didn’t know Kim from BuzzBlogger has been interacting with a lot of the bloggers I interact with on a daily basis. That paired with the content on her blog overall was all I needed to know before I made this decision.

Check out BuzzBlogger!

I have been meaning to write an article on how to make money with niche sites, but I have been busy with many other topics. So here goes. This is a fairly short article, but I get to the point.

The Niche Concept

The things I am about to post here may seem unrealistic to those that are new to niche site income. But the fact is that these methods of income generation work. The only problem is that you have to stick with them until they produce, just like making money blogging. So if you are a quitter, then stop reading this now.

Niche sites earn their income through adsense, infolinks, kontera, and affiliate programs. You can even make money with CPA offers that don’t require a purchase, but rather a form submission. It is best to switch up your monetization methods rather than stick to say… adsense. Diversify is an important word here. It would suck to garner a $300 a day income and have it taken away by Google because they got an itch and decided to rob you.

The key to niche sites is quantity paired with marketing. If you can get 100 niche sites up, and get them all earning, you can realistically love off of the income with change to spare. If you dedicated each day to putting up 2 niche or micro niche sites, then you would have 100 of them in less than 2 months!

The Niche Marketing Strategy

Your marketing strategy is mainly going to consist of blog hopping, guest posting, and article publishing. the more traffic you drive to your niche sites, the more money they will earn you.

It may sound financially unrealistic to get 100 sites out there, but consider the many free web hosting services available. You don’t have to buy domains as most of them allow a unique subdomain. You can always add on a domain later on when the sites are earning, and you won’t lose any traffic by doing so. If anything, you will just add to your traffic because the old subdomains will still route to your sites.

The Niche Content

There are options out there where you can get premade niche sites in bulk. These premade sites tend to be made up of republishable articles and require links back to the original author. There is nothing wrong with this if you are going this route. Most niche specialists prefer to write or outsource unique articles. I say, if I can get a premade niche site up and add unique articles to it, I am benefitting. The unique articles will simply make your unoriginal site original.

The Niche opinion

For those of you with your own opinion on the niche site market, feel free to share you wealth of information below.

I have used squeeze pages for many things. The most important to my business has been lead generation for customers seeking search engine marketing and web design services. These days, I use them to build my list and promote my blog.

Back when I first started using squeeze pages, they were just gaining popularity. They were not yet as advanced as they are today, but they did the job. I often imagine how great it would have been had I known that video increased the amount of leads you can generate on a squeeze page. Then I found Hot Video Squeeze Templates. These things are serious business with over 60 video optin and squeeze templates!

All you need is a hosting account, a youtube account and an email service to create a video squeeze template in minutes. No matter what your niche, market, business or language, the template can be modified to suit your needs. For years, long form sales pages have been the standard, but not only are Video sales pages and templates faster and easier to setup… they convert better!

Click for more information

Your low cost purchase of Hot Video Squeeze Templates includes:

* 60+ Video Optin Templates
* Flash Squeeze Pages
* Blog Sidebar Optin Forms
* Flash Video Optin Players
* Wide Optin Forms
* Add To Cart Graphics Pack
* Video Marketing Training
* Sales Video Tutorials
* 50 Animated Graphics
* Buy Now Area Templates
* HTML Training
* YouTube Templates
* Installation Videos
* Private Member’s Area
* Incredible Support

Consider the fact that if I am promoting a product, I know that it’s a great product that I stand behind. You all know the power of video, and I have stated the need to utilize YouTube for traffic in the past. The fact is that people in our day and age love to watch video, and if you are not providing video, you are leaving serious money on the table!

Also consider the fact that major league bloggers like John Chow, Alex Jeffries, and others utilize video on their squeeze pages. Did you think that they did that for their health? NO! They do it because video converts. The great thing about this product is that it allows you to utilize advanced video technology without the tedious tasks that web designers normally deal with.

I hope you understand the importance of video, and just on this before your competition does! Grab this great product now!

Incoming search terms:

• make

My dearest friend, and most hated enemy (or enema as I like to call him) Alex Whalley challenged me. The challenge? He said I could not get on the first page of Google for the keyphrase “Make Money Blogging”. Keep in mind that this is my target phrase and it has over 12 million results now. The first site on their is ProBlogger, and I intend to knock them down and replace their listing with mine (nothing personal to Darren Rowse, but this is business).

I am stating this challenge publicly because I want it to hold me accountable and keep me on course. I will post my updates right here to let you know what I am doing and the results I am getting. I plan to own that first page within 3 months!

How do I intend to do this?

If you recently noticed, I released a web template called “Ghostly Acres” the other day. That template was released under creative commons and can be used for personal or commercial purposes. The only catch is the footer link requirement which links to this blog with my anchor text. I invite you to download this template and use it as you wish.

The reason why I did this is because I have previously tried this experiment on another website I was marketing at the time. I released it on an open source web design site under the same terms, and it was downloaded over 180 times. I used “Chicago Web Design” as my anchor text and easily killed it within 3 weeks. I am not taking any chances this time, and I am releasing multiple web templates. I may even release a few WordPress themes if I get around to it.

This technique is called Google Bombing, and it is a well known method. Funny thing… most people think that this method was “patched” by Google but unfortunately their algorithm relies heavily on outside factors such as links. There is no reason for Google to de-index me because I am not doing anything bad. In addition, I have build up many backlinks to this blog with other anchor texts, so an advance in this specific phrase wouldn’t look improper. It also matches the title of my blog, and more specifically, the niche. So again, I am 100% relevant to this phrase. The only difference between me and ProBlogger is that Darren has had since 2002 to build up his links and his reputation. I have only had since February of 2010.

Aside from the whole google bomb thing, I still blog hop and write articles everywhere. Expect my request to guest post on your blog or at a blog near you

BOOKMARK THIS PAGE

I will be updating you on the progress on this specific blog post. Make sure you bookmark it now and intend to check it here and there.

UPDATE #1 October 29th 2010 @ 2:49 PM CST

Last night when I wrote and scheduled this post, I was at #83 for my target keyphrase. I just checked and I am now at #65. Keep in mind that this may be just Google shifting around because of my recent template release which has already been downloaded a huge number of times. I am keeping an eye on my ranking for the keywords and will update accordingly.

UPDATE #2 November 6th 2010 @ 12:01 AM CST

I spent a large chunk of the day today (or last night depending on how you look at the time) hand submitting this blog to maybe 200 directories. I used my anchor text every single time, and switched the description and keywords on the listings here and there.

I believe it took me a few hours, and half of them were PR6 directories. These links should all be approved in sprinkles over the next month. I will probably submit another couple hundred tomorrow. Luckily, I have the holy grail of a directory list with a huge number of free directories (maybe 1,000 or so).

All of these links, paired with the links from the free template(s) I released or am releasing should really take a huge bite out of the ranking I am trying to achieve for make money blogging.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

I have gotten to the #3 spot on Google for “make money blogging” right under problogger and nicheblogger. See below for yourself! I did this in under 2 weeks time. If you cannot see the image below, access it directly at http://www.brandonconnell.com/makemoneyblogging.gif or of course do a Google search.

Incoming search terms:

• ghostly acres com

Over the past few months, I have been asked many questions by readers. I felt it was time to compile them into a blog post to help out those of you who are looking for answers. If I do not answer a question here, feel free to post your question as a comment and I will try to compile another Q&A post at another time.

Brandon, how do you make money online?

This is one of the common questions I get every single day. My answer is that I receive multiple streams of income. When I first started making money online, I was being paid a few hundred a month for search engine optimization and marketing services by a couple of different clients. I got those initial clients by a referral from a friend that operated a graphic design business. After awhile, I got into affiliate marketing. In addition, I make money by blogging using a few different methods to make a decent income. Sometimes I also take on a freelance writing gig for a few extra bucks.

Does all of your income come from online sources?

Yes. I do not have a normal job. I do occasionally take on a seasonal job so I can get out of the house for a couple months.

Do you have a marketing degree?

Nope. I am actually a high school dropout that created a successful business through trial and error. Making money online requires no experience. As a matter of fact, you can only gain that experience by doing and learning. I am however, currently in pre-tests to pursue a masters in computer science. I plan on getting my degree because I want to know everything about the subject. Education is important. As far as marketing goes, I would put my knowledge gained up against any individual holding a marketing degree you throw at me and I bet that I will come out on top.

What is your working space like?

As you know I work at home. I prefer to sit on my couch with my laptop, and watch lots of Netflix while I work. Sometimes I turn off the t.v. and listen to mixed on 8tracks.com. I often work so deeply that I forget to eat. I then get a headache and beg my wife to make me something. I blame it on the Ritalin.

Do you put any stock into lottery or is it all hard work for you?

I have always fantasized about winning a quick hundred-million, but it has never happened for me. I do play every now and then still. But mostly, I focus on hard work. I believe that if you slap $500 on lotto tickets, then you have a good chance at winning. Playing a single buck is like a hail-Mary pass though.

My lotto strategy would be to put that $500 on scratch-offs though because the odds are much better. Go after the million dollar ones, or the $50k a year for life ones. That way you can recoup your money somewhat at least with that many tickets.

What’s your favorite food?

Well, I LOVE food. All kinds. But my favorite is clearly italian food. Lots of pasta, lasagna, pizza, etc. That doesn’t mean I don’t like the occasional sandwich from Jimmy Johns, or two double cheese burgers and a large fry from MacDonald’s.

What are you doing right now?

Well, as I write the answer to this question, I am waiting for dinner. My wife is making battered fried chicken strips and lumpy mashed potatoes. Good thing because I am starving as I forgot to eat. It smells too good in here and I can’t stand it anymore!

God only knows what I was doing when I first read the question though.

I saw on one of your posts that you are a web designer. Do you have a company website?

Yes I do. Thanks for asking. My web design company website is http://www.webdesigntaxi.com. Yes, I designed the site myself, and integrated WordPress into it. I have not blogged there in forever though. I plan on reviving the blog in the near future.

Do you own any brick & mortar companies?

Nope. I would LOVE to open up a dvd and video game rental store though. I used to be a manager at a Hollywood Video and we raked in $3,000 per day at that place when they were a 99 cent new rental store. Know any investors?

I also want to launch a record label.

How do you keep coming up with things to write about?

I have written a lot about this subject actually. You can find some of my posts about this at the following links:

• Popular Blogging Topics for 2010
• 28 ways to make the perfect article
• 10 ways to come up with blogging topics

I have never personally had a hard time coming up with topics to write about. I have simply run out of time here and there and have been forced to space out my posts though.

Can you guest post for me?

Of course. I am open to all guest posting requests. Send them my way. These days, I have to be selective about where I guest post and try to focus on blogs with large audiences. It never hurts to ask.

How do I start making some money with my blog?

You came to the right place my friend! I would ask you to first and formost, sign up for my newsletter and download my ebooks. My “blogging for income” ebook will detail some jewels on the subject. You can also read the many articles right here on my blog where I provide that information.

How do I get my blog on top of Google?

This is a loaded question because there are many answers to that. The one that I am “supposed” to tell you is to keep writing lots of articles and comment on other blogs to get traffic. Believe that this method works over time. Want to own a specific keyword or keyphrase much faster? Listen closely because I am giving away a secret freebie here. Design or hire someone to design a free WordPress theme and upload it to the WordPress.org extend database.

Make the template available for free as long as they keep your credit link in the footer. The credit link should contain the anchor text that you want to rank for. Because there are so many downloads on that extend site, your theme will be used by hundreds if not thousands of users, and that means you get that many one-way inbound links.

You can also design regular templates, as in not for WordPress, and upload them to an open source template site with lots of followers. That will also do the trick. If done together, you are wielding a powerful tool.

In addition to all of that, make sure you write link-bait articles. These are usually list articles, and how-to articles. You can find many of those types of articles by browsing my blog a bit further. While you are writing articles, make sure to guest post on other blogs. Guest post articles can include a link or two to your actual blog. This helps with the inbound links. Some blogs will allow you to use anchor text when linking in a guest article.

What do you do for fun?

Funny thing about fun. It requires you to be unproductive. I rarely get to have fun, but it’s mostly because of my personality. I was deprived as a child and I am anti-social. My idea of fun is to go for a drive with the music on and the window open so I can think.

Why did you choose the ‘make money blogging’ niche?

I chose it because it was something I knew I could teach, and consistantly write about without getting bored. It stems from my years of marketing experience. I simply had a lot to say on the subject, and I made the right choice because I still love it to this very day.

Do you get a lot of spam?

Do you mean blog spam or other? I get lots of blog spam, and I get even more email spam. The blog spam gets automatically deleted though because of the combination of Akismet and Conditional Captcha. Rarely does a spam comment end up in my moderation queue.

For email spam which I get thousands of daily, I have multiple filters setup in Windows Mail. Also, Windows Mail automatically puts spam it detects in my junk folder. Most of what ends up in my inbox is meant to be read.

Do you take donations?

Yes I do. You can PayPal me by using the send email address of brandon@brandonconnell.com and I will get whatever donation you send. I used to have a donation button up when I first started this blog, but I took it down in order to better utilize my sidebars.

Are you hiring?

Not currently. As far as blogging goes, I do not outsource. I write all of my content, and I market my blog without any need for help. I do occasionally hire for my web design and internet marketing firm, but I am not at the moment. I have plenty of programmers and developers in my roster. I do the majority of seo and internet marketing work so I rarely hire for that anyway.

What are your goals?

My ultimate goal is to create a billion dollar empire. I want to be able to do anything I want without having to think hard about the financial aspect. That’s why I would never stop at just blogging. I am into real estate, stocks, and creating/building businesses also.

I would love to be able to create some charities and help others right here in my own country. I see a lot of rich people helping those in 3rd world countries, but I feel we have plenty of need right here.

Should I sell or give away my ebook?

If you are first starting out, you should offer an ebook or two as incentive for signing up for your newsletter. Once you build up your subscriber list, you can sell a new ebook with little problem. Even then, it is a good idea to continue distributing ebooks for free as incentive.

Even if you are providing your ebook for free, you can still sell it on the side. An example would be my latest ebook “Blogging for Income” which is available for free to my new subscribers. I just released it on Amazon for 99 cents because it is going in front of millions of new eyes that have never heard of me. Anyone with a computer or a Kindle Ebook Reader will be able to get the Kindle edition of my ebook for cheap, and they will end up on my blog through the links contained in the ebook.

Be creative. Just because it is a free item of yours doesn’t mean you can’t make money with it. More importantly, if you can use leverage to gain new readers then you are doing pretty well for yourself.

Can I work with you?

This can mean many things. What did you have in mind? A joint venture of some kind? I am open to offers, and you only need to contact me. Just use the form on this site to get in touch.

Questions? Just Ask!

If your question hasn’t been answered above, don’t worry. Just send your question in using the comment area below. I will answer what I can in the next Q&A.

There are so many blogs out there in which I interact with on a regular basis. Lots of them come back to me and comment, and I like to browse through old comments and click on the blog links. But do you know what happens when I do? Sometimes I come across a url with an error message because no website exists there anymore!

The reasons for each blogger giving up the world of blogging vary. They may have had unrealistic expectations; They aren’t earning any money; Their real life prevents them from giving their blog any attention; They couldn’t afford the domain and hosting; and many other reasons. Whatever that reason may be, it is always sad to see another blog bite the dust. But I am here to help you prevent that from happening to you.

What I would first like to say is that I am not assuming that your blog will sink. I prefer to stay optimistic, and so should you. If you have the ability to keep your mind-set in the game and positive, then your chances of surviving the blog world increase dramatically.

On to the goods…

Survival of the shittiest

Pardon my American because I know that wasn’t french. But the fact is that a lot of blogs that make it in the long term are just plain worthless. They are blogs that have no originality or they spew reviews for profits. That makes me want to blanch. Sorry to anyone named Blanch. The reason why they are still making it is because they are trickling in some sort of pocket change and it all adds up into a workable income. But those kinds of blogs do not have a following. They simply rank well and get traffic which is why they survive longer. That does not mean you have to join them in their dark ways in order to stay afloat as a blogger.

Review sites have a purpose. People go to them when they want to find out information on a product or service. The problem with affiliate review sites is that they are getting paid for that review, so it is not going to be objective most of the time. They simply want to hype up a product or service in order to get you to buy it. After you gain some experience online, these affiliate review sites are easy to spot and avoid.

Unoriginal blogs are those blogs which either write about a topic that has been covered millions of times by others, or they are sites that simply republish other articles that already exist on the net somewhere. The unpublished ones are often referred to as splogs aka spam-blogs.

The bad thing about those kinds of blogs is that they do not gather followers and subscribers. The whole thing that allows a blog to grow and build into a community is the fact that they gain subscribers and regular loyal readers. Because of this, review sites and splogs may make a few bucks, but they will never bring in the big time dollars that some bloggers dream about. Why? Because people aren’t coming back every day to read the articles!

Readers into subscribers

It is a tough thing turning readers into subscribers. Believe me I know. There are some of you who are reading this now and have been here before, but are you subscribed to my newsletter? What about my rss feeds? My subscriber count gradually increases every day, but it is still a ”job” to get that to happen.

The trick to getting readers to become subscribers is to actually put some thought into your content. Work hard on coming up with the right words to say in order to make sure your message gets across. Make sure to include vital aspects of a certain topic you are covering to that the reader does not have to keep looking elsewhere to find what they thought they found on your site. If you can make them remember that you provided information that they needed badly, then they are sure to want to stay in touch with your blog.

Subscribers want value. I know some blogs out there that build up their newsletter list just so they can proceed to spam away with affiliate reviews and links. What a horrible use of a newsletter subscriber list! I would never!

Newsletter content value is important because it is an extension of your blog. If you are willing to provide some extra time coming up with value packed articles just for your newsletter email blast, then your subscribers will take notice and tell others. Your newsletter might even get a mention in someone elses blog post!

How do you solicit subscribers? That is a key question to answer. Notice I have a popup here that appears once every month. I do not smack you in the face with it every day, or worse… every time you load my blog! I only show it to you once every 30 days as to not piss you off. But I am smart enough to understand the value behind the pop-up because it does have it’s worth when used properly. I also provide a way to subscribe on my sidebar as well as automatically linked text to my newsletter page when certain keywords are used in my articles.

Spill the beans

Readers want to know how the hell you made it so long as a blogger without giving up. They want to know the secrets to your ability to make money with your blog. They want to know how you get subscribers, and how you keep them. They want to know what plugins you use, and how you market your blog.

The perfect way to keep readers is to not be secretive. If you just trust your readers and share your knowledge, you will gain some loyal readers who will stick with you until the very end. That does not mean that you have the provide the details about how much money you are making, or anything you value as personal. It is fine to have a secret here and there. Just don’t go overboard with it and get greedy with the techniques you use.

Be honest when posting your stats and techniques. It will be noticed if you are… and if you aren’t. Disinformation completely defeats the purpose of why they started reading your blog in the first place. The last thing you want to be known for is lying about something. You will NEVER be trusted ever again! It is ok to have low blog stats, or not making any money yet from your blog. Be honest because honesty will earn you growth to the point where your stats are high and so is your wallet. Everything takes time, so don’t rush it. Karma pays off in the end.

Sacrifice in order to grow

Your readers will take notice when you do things like hold contests where the prize is either money or tangiable items. An example would be my $100 prize contest from October to the end of November 2010. The $100 is something out of pocket, but for me it is nothing because I am making money online to pay for it. For the winner, it is something that tells them that they have made it. It might be the first $100 they ever make online as a blogger! Or maybe it is the incentive that kept them in the blogging game for awhile.

I remember a blogger who did an iPad giveaway, and I also remember that she had over 400 comments on that post. Contests and incentives are a great way to grow your blog. Don’t just assume that when the contest is over that the participants will not show up at your blog again until there is another one. Chances are that they will become loyal visitors and subscribers to your blog.

Now maybe you say that you don’t have anything to give. Well, one of the first contests I held right here on this blog was for free ad space. I had quite a few participants and two winners. Your blog space can be your prize, so don’t worry about not having anything. Or perhaps you can save up a hundred bucks and offer it as the prize. If it grows your blog in the end, then it wasn’t a bad investment. A lot of people look at a giveaway as them having to lose something. They don’t understand that they are actually getting more in return than what they had to give up.

Get yourself noticed

It has been said before. Especially by me many times. But in order to get readers, you have to go out there and pull them in by the shirt sleeve. Ok, not literally. But if you want instant traffic, get your butt out there and comment on blogs and guest post on established blogs. Those two methods combined will bring in traffic like crazy. It is most important to do this when you have a contest running so that the contest gets the most exposure.

Getting noticed is what lots of bloggers have a hard time with and that’s the common cause of a blog shutting down. When a blogger reads that all you have to do is comment and guest post, they think that it is too simple to work so they never give it a try. Then they shut down their blog before they have the chance to realize how badly they were wrong. Commenting and guest posting is something that can give you an instant boost and keep your blog alive when you’re sinking. But if you are using this technique in the first place, then your blog will never have the chance to sink.

You can also get noticed by investing a little money and advertising on an established blog. What’s a few bucks for some quality targeted traffic? I would be happy to offer you some affordable ad space here on this blog to get you started.

Stand out or get stepped on

I like to say stand out or get stepped on by someone who will. What does this mean? It means be unique and instantly recognizable. When I first started out with this blog, I stood out by posting articles every single day for months. It was exhausting. I even guest posting on tons of other blogs and commented all over on top of it. Imagine doing that on top of running multiple businesses and home life with the wife and two young kids.

I know of another blogger who stand out to me. It is Ryan, and the reason he stand out is because I see him putting others first and promoting tons of other bloggers articles via his social network profiles. I was thinking “man this guy is trying hard to stand out”. He is a friend on Facebook and I notice his update stream regularly.

Are you making money?

Making money with your blog is rather easy when you establish yourself. I am making money right here on this blog in multiple ways. One of the ways is by selling direct advertising. Another is by offering consulting services. Consulting services for blog analysis as an example is one of my best selling things here on this blog. People want to know what I am doing that they aren’t, and I can point them in the right direction for a minimal fee. Another way I make money is by affiliate offers. I am unlike those serious pushers who spam newsletters, or do nothing but post reviews. I post an occasional review like this one and people click on the links and buy the product.

If you intend to make money with your blog, don’t be shy about it. Put your ads right out there smack in peoples faces. Do you take donations? Then ask for them. Are you trying the affiliate route? Then by all means, use a plugin like Pretty Link Pro and link keywords throughout your articles that go to affiliate products. Occasionally write a good review about a product you are passionate about. Just don’t over-do it.

Let’s review…

• Don’t be shitty – Avoid becoming one of the bad guys and provide quality content instead. Believe me when I say that this is the only way to go. I have been to the dark side. Otherwise, how would I know so much about it?

• Convert readers into subscribers – If you can’t convert them into subscribers, then you are not growing your blog. Work actively on increasing newsletter and rss feed subscribers. The more the merrier.

• Be open about your methods – People want to know what works and what doesn’t. What works for one person may not for the other and vice-versa. But if you share your experience, it helps the reader be objective about the decision ahead of them.

• Make a sacrifice and invest in your blog – Do you know the saying “it takes money to make money”? Well that isn’t entirely true, but it helps alot! So make an investment in your blog. Give something away, but make sure you are actively commenting and guest posting to ensure that your generousity gets noticed.

• Don’t get stepped on – Stand out from the crowd in some way. I have had a face that is recognizable all of my life. It sucks actually because I run into people years later I wish I never see again, and they know who I am. But from a marketing standpoint, if you are noticable in some way, you are most likely to succeed at ANYTHING!

• Make that money – Don’t be shy about making money. And don’t be hard-headed either. Some people say that making money from your blog is selling out. Well guess what? I am happy to be a well paid sell-out. My wife and kids thank me for it. They have this tendacy to like eating food and having heat in the winter. Those gold-diggers!

Now do me a favor

If you enjoyed this post, be a pal and comment below. Even better, become a subscriber to my newsletter or my rss feed. It is appreciated. Also adding me to your blogroll makes me smile

From today until November 26th, 2010, I am holding a contest here. The prize? $100 payable through PayPal and a dedicated post announcing and publicizing the winner. This is an easy $100 and publicity!

How do you win the $100 and free publicity?

This is fairly easy… Submit as many guest posts as you want here on this blog, and the single guest post with the most comments wins the prize! Of course, I will be weeding out spam and non-legitimate comments (i.e. comments with only the words “i agree”).

If you want to jump into this contest head first, visit my guest post page and let’s get started! Remember to promote the he!! out of this post and all of your guest posts so you can get the most traffic for your articles.

Now GO!

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• make money via paypal

If you started blogging back in the late 90′s up into the early 2000′s then you are most likely a successful blogger today. Back then, it was the newest and greatest thing to do on the web. Now-a-days it takes much more effort because everyone and their mother is doing it. The problem isn’t necessarily that the market is saturated. The problem is that society is used to blogs now, and people can be very critical about the content that they read.

As of 2010, bloggers have to take on a new approach. The most effective approach today is patience and time. You can really build a blog into a success if you have the time (approximately a year or two), and the patience to see that timeframe all the way through. Of course time means nothing if you are not adding value to your blog in the form of research and content. But that is not what this article is about.

Growing a blog can be fairly easy in action, but can get very tedious in practice. What I mean by this is that the basic act of commenting on blogs every day to drive traffic, and posting articles on your blog can get very tiring when you feel that the momentum is not growing automatically. But that automatic momentum takes time to happen. Eventually, you will get visitors and comments without having to go to blogs on a daily basis. You still should comment on other blogs and not “sell out” on those that have made you a success, but it isn’t necessary for traffic at that point.

If you are already an established online presence somewhere other than your blog, you can utilize that presence to drive traffic to your blog. Let’s say for example you have a forum with hundreds of members. You can send out newsletters to those members letting them know of your new blog. You can post advertisements on your forum and bring in clicks. Using outside sources that are already established is one of the fastest ways to bring in immediate traffic and commentary to your blog. Of course, not every blogger will already have online experience or existing websites elsewhere.

Specials & Promotions

So you all know the power of free. That’s what guys like me who teach blogging talk about a lot. We tell you to offer an ebook for free in order to build your newsletter. But did you know that free ebooks and contests are not the only way to new readers and traffic? As a freelance web designer and seo expert, I have been able to offer promotions (not free) and trade my discounted time in exchange for traffic and subscribers. Say for example I were to offer a 30% discount on internet marketing services only to my newsletter subscribers. That would equal a valuable incentive to sign up.

Take into account what you have a talent in. What are you good at? Offer that expertise or service as a special or promotion and build your list.

Newsletter List Building Minus Unsubscriptions

When you first get your newsletter all set up, you are eager to make that system work to earn you some affiliate cash. But wait! There is no rush. If you are only in this for the money, then you will not listen to me anyways and your list will suffer. So will your income.

Why Wait? Look at it like this. Let’s say you have 40 subscribers. You send out a weekly or bi-weekly newsletter, and one or two subscribers unsubscribe using that handy link you provide in your newsletter. In my expert opinion, that single newsletter only being displayed in front of 40 people was not worth the loss of a subscription. You want your material to get in front of as many people as possible!

How can you correct this problem? How about you just build your list, and don’t send out a newsletter? I know that seems counter-productive. Especially because you obtained those subscribers with the intent of sending them a newsletter. But wouldn’t it be more effective if you waited until you had 500 subscribers before you sent your exclusive article out to them? It would save you some creative material, and inside of your newsletter on top of the free stuff you can link to affiliate offers. You can even offer the newsletter as an advertising option on your website because you have a decent sized audience.

There is nothing to be gained from greediness. Patience wins the prize.

Offer a community

You will notice that right here on my blog, I offer a free marketing forum. It is like a whole new extension of my blog but an entire community in and of itself! I have noticed that I get members signing up in my forum that have not taken part in my blog commentary at all. My reach has expanded greatly and all it took was a little creative thinking. The forum is a separate entity, and it has it’s own list. If you don’t have the subscribers in your blog newsletter, then you may very well have forum members that have opted to receive messages from the forum. In that case, you have an entire 2nd list to market to!

By offering a community with your blog, you are making your blog web 2.0 in the social sphere. Think about why Facebook and MySpace have had so much success. They provide reasons for members to come back on a daily basis. You may not want a forum, but you may like the idea of opening up a profile blog space for members to write something of their own right on your blog site. You can even offer revenue sharing for regular guest posters on your blog. There are free handy plugins for WordPress that allow for that functionality.

How’s your expert status?

I have been riding the opportunity for expert status for a long time. I have even appeared on a major news talk radio show as a call-in expert. Today, I decided to pick up the “Writer’s Market” book from the library to help me locate some trade magazines that may be interested in featuring my articles. Aside from the obvious exposure, some of these magazines pay $1,000+ per expert article.

Being an expert practically entitles you to traffic on your website or blog. Once a reader finds you in a trade magazine that they subscribe to, they have become your loyal reader as well. You will want to gain that potential source of new readers. You can also publicize your published works in trade magazines on your site. That way, when readers on your blog discover you, they can locate your column in the trade magazine which will solidify your expertise in their eyes.

New bloggers who don’t try to get creative tend to completely pass this up as a marketing tactic. You will find a lot of bloggers posting on EzineArticles and Associated Content as well as other well known article websites. They often never realize that it is very possible for them to appear in print magazines too! Never underestimate the power of print. These trade magazines tend to have a huge subscriber-base. That is afterall, why they can afford to pay $1k for a 3,000 word article.

Features and Options

People love options. I would classify options as a way of making it easy for your readers to come back to your site and read you more. Examples of effective features would be a “bookmark this site” link; “email a friend” this article; “share this article on Facebook”; and others. Features and options make your blog interactive, and allow your readers to find you fast or promote your blog for you. I would say that being user-friendly is the single most important part of your blog. Sure you may find a blog that you love and lacks even the basics of social bookmarking buttons, but would you take the time to go and manually promote that blog article if it wasn’t convenient?

You should never make it inconvenient for your visitors. I find it inconvenient when I want to comment on a blog, and they do not have a “subscribe to comments” feature. It makes me mad because I have no idea if someone was replying to something I said. It makes me look like a jackass that doesn’t really take part in that blog when it wasn’t even my fault.

Your readers are what will make or break you, so don’t make their life harder than it needs to be. Spoon feed them everything from easy access, to easy sharing. Besides, free is the best form of marketing.

Obvious ignorance

Chances are that if you got into this with money on the mind, then you looked up the short cuts to get you there quickly. Chances are also good that you did not research it totally, and are doing obvious spamming black hat seo methods.

If you are doing any of the following, please stop immediately:

• Keyword repeating – the act of placing your keyword in an invisible layers like the <noframes> tag. An example would be “make money blogging, make money online, blogging for money, make money blogging, blogging money, online make money, make online money….etc”.

• Keyword jamming – the art of placing keywords on the bottom or top of your site and making the font incredibly small. What a great way to get banned from a search engine.

• Hidden keywords – placing keywords in invisible text like that of the noframes tag; font the same color as the background; placing keywords in comment tags or the style sheets.

• Stacking keywords – you found out that alt tags are a great way to add keywords into your code. So you added keywords to every image you have, including spacers. Horrible idea. The alt tag is for describing the image. Leave the spacer alone as it is supposed to do nothing other than add space. As for the other images, actually describe what they are with a few words. They do not have to be keywords unless that image actually matches a keyword.

• Dynamic automation – You may have thought it was a good idea to have the meta tags, on-page content, or title of a page change every couple of days. But guess what… Search engines already thought of this. Be realistic, and you will win. Be tricky, and you will end up with a useless domain.

There are many obvious pitfalls of bad seo technique. It’s best to simply ignore any of the techniques that are black-hat. And sure enough, there are many I didn’t even mention. Invest your time into your blog/site and figure out them all by yourself. You will love yourself in the morning.

Newsgroups aren’t 80′s after-all

Newsgroups are often associated with spam. But there are actually millions of loyal newsgroup users out there. The trick to becomming one of them is to actually take part in the newsgroups and not think like a marketer. Most people try and get away with providing some quick freebie with their url plastered across it. If you stick with that scenerio then you will most likely be classified into the spammer group.

You can actually take part in a newsgroup and establish yourself as an expert. Then, just like a forum or article would, the newsgroup will bring traffic to your blog. It is all about image and branding yourself in front of an audience. You can find tons of free newsgroups online, and you can bring them up right in your outlook express or windows mail program. What… you didn’t notice that newsgroup link in your email client?

Let affiliates promote

I know you want to sell things. But selling isn’t everything when you are focused on building. With that in mind, it is a good idea to have an affiliate program running to promote one of your premium ebooks or some other product. I always prefer my own affiliate program for control issues I have. But when you are first starting out, you may want to utilize the huge network that places like ClickBank already have in place. There are literally thousands of people who may end up promoting your blog and your product.

Affiliate programs are a great source of traffic for any website. You can offer the product right on your website, and hopefully the visitor will look around and become a regular blog reader. Maybe even a subscriber.

You always want to go where the people are. That’s why you turn to affiliate programs because there may be a single person who decides to promote your product, and they have an existing reader-base of 50,000. Ok, so that is a great scenerio to have, but it is realistic.

Are you building your blog properly?

Wow, what a motivation title. I didn’t really quit blogging, just in case any of my regulars had a mini heart attack. I just wanted to catch your undivided attention for awhile.

I didn’t bring you here with such a startling title so I can sell you something. I did it because I have been visiting some blogs during my blog hopping campaign and I came across a post (sorry I can’t link, I forgot who it was) and he mentioned that so many bloggers have been slacking in their regular article posting.

I do not wish to write yet another motivational article to convince you that it all pays off in the end. I already did that many times, and if you read it and still don’t get it, then quit right now. Why? Because it is a bad idea to do so much work trying to build your blog content and traffic, then suddenly stop posting and abandoning your readers.

“But I don’t have any readers”, you say? Well, there is a such thing as shadow readers who rarely comment but they may read your articles every day. If you signed up for my free newsletter and confirmed your email address, then you have received my ebook on blogging which includes a handy chapter on instant traffic generation. There is absolutely no reason why you do not have commentary on your blog.

Are you shy of pop-ups?

There are some sites out there that are WAAAY too pushy with their popups that it makes me close them out and never return. I HATE those kinds of sites with a passion. But I completley understand the value of a popup for list building, and when it is used in a non-offensive way such as an occasional display then it is not an issue. If you are too hard-headed to understand the power of being “slightly” aggressive in your list building activities, then you will not grow as fast as you want to.

I am really trying to get you to understand the entire list thing because it is what gives you the “power” to make money blogging. Even if you are not blogging for income right now, you may want to in the future. Wouldn’t it suck really bad if you came to that realization and your hard-headedness prevented you from getting a head start? I mean, if you never want to make money then simply never use your list! Genius right?

Another issue is that I find alot of bloggers who simply say “I hate popups” and that feeds their negative list building ways. Fine, you don’t like popups. But be reasonable. I stay away from blogs who load popups every single time I visit. But they probably don’t know any better. These pop-up plugins for blogs have settings which allow cookies to limit the amount of times a popup is displayed to a visitor. I have mine set to every 30 days at the moment of writing this. That way, I don’t slap my readers in the face with it.

I feel bad about making money!

Well, jump in a hole because the entire planet is all about making money in some way/shape/form. Without money, you will probably not survive unless you live in the middle of nowhere speaking a language that uses a series of clicks.

I recently published a rant about review blogs because they do nothing but promote affiliate products. But I have written a review here and there myself, so does that make me a hypocrite? Nope. Why? Because my blog is dedicated to providing so much free content, I can write an occasional review without offending anyone. If anyone DOES have a problem with that (seeing that I am working for free) then they can kiss my ass. I will not apologize for making money on my own blog. Especially because this blog teaches you how to make money blogging. With the links contained within my articles, I can still make affiliate referral sales (unless I am interlinking or outbound linking to something just for reference).

You cannot be shy about making money on your blog. You can be direct without offending. You can send an occasional newsletter with a product review if you wish, but I recommend adding value to the post and not just a product review for the best response. You can place ads right there in your content. Placing ads in places that are ‘out of the way’ is no way to go about making any money. Be serious about making money with your blog if that is truly your goal. Being shy will only make you think that it can’t be done.

Summary

Blogging may be a hobby for you. It may be your experimental new method to make money online. It may be a way for you to update friends and family. Whatever your reasons for blogging are, go all-in or get the hell out. Plain and simple. If you create a blog with these grandios asperations and then quit, you have just added to the world of internet clutter and the smelly smell of a stale blog. Thanks for that.
If you do decide to go all-in, then I am sure you will succeed and never want to give up and call it quits.