niche research | Make Money Blogging

Tag Archive for niche research

Are You Following Inexperienced Advice?

December 19, 2010 Brandon Connell Blogs, Internet Marketing, Making Money, Marketing, Rants, Research 18 comments

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:

You need content in order to #1) have something to offer your visitors; #2) obtain organic rankings.
You need good content in order to make people want to read it.
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.

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Niche Secrets Are Pointless

November 6, 2010 Brandon Connell Internet Marketing, Making Money, search engine optimization, Traffic 20 comments

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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If I Had to Start All Over

November 4, 2010 Brandon Connell Blogs, Internet Marketing, List Building, Making Money, Marketing, Research, Traffic 15 comments

This seems to be a popular topic with many these days, because newbies want to know how to get on the blogging and niche fast track. People are in an extreme hurry to make money online so that they can quit their jobs and work from home. There is nothing wrong with this, because it is the perfect mentality for coming up with a winning game plan.

I have been blogging full time since February 2010, and it is now November. There is a full 8-months in between now and then. I have wasted a lot of time with things that I wish I didn’t, when I could have done the things that I know now. Luckily, you now have a blueprint to follow. Bookmark and share this with others.

My first steps

If I had to start blogging all over again, I would setup the perfect WordPress install. This would include the following plugins.

Akismet – This is a must for any blog that wishes to become popular. If you follow my marketing directions, becoming popular will not be an issue. Prevent spam from the beginning with this plugin so that you may focus on productive tasks to build up your blog’s reputation.

All in One SEO Pack – A must for any blog wishing to be fully optimized for search engines. This plugin will do all of the work automatically, and you have the option to add custom meta tags for each article if you want to.
Author Box – This plugin puts a box under or over your articles and shows your bio, or the bio of your guest posters that are contributing to your blog.

BM Keywordlink – The best free plugin to automatically link keywords to any URL that you wish. I use this to interlink articles, automatically link to other websites, or affiliate offers.

Bubblecast Video for WordPress – The Bubblecast Video plugin will allow your commentators to publish a video comment on your articles.

CommentLuv – Show your commentators some love by allowing them to get a link from your blog to their latest article on their blog. It entices readers to comment.

Comment Referrers – This plugin reports where the people who comment on your blog come from. It then adds a line to the end of your comment notification or moderation emails with that information. Good tracking info provided here. The more information you have, the more power you have over your blog.

Comment Reply Notification – Any blog that does not use this plugin is asking to be left behind. This plugin allows commentators to subscribe to comment replies. It can keep the discussion going on an article and ensures you get more traffic and interaction within your blog.

Conditional CAPTCHA for WordPress – I used to get a ton of spam. Even with Akismet, I had to go in and browse the spam folder. This plugin works with Akismet to block spam by making anyone who was caught my Akismet as possible spam, enter a captcha to prove they are human. Most bots will not get through this, so if the captcha is incorrect, then the spam won’t even go to the spam folder. I RARELY get a single spam comment to moderate now, even with my heavy traffic.

Constant-Content Widget for WordPress – This baby shows off your Constant Content author status. It links your readers to Constant Content.

Contact Form 7 – By far, the best contact form for WordPress. I was using another one, but it was horrible and had to be updated manually every time. Contact Form 7 has excellent functionality and allows for multiple forms anywhere you want to put them on your blog. It powers the contact forms I have right here on different pages of this blog.

Facebook Comments for WordPress – You notice the Facebook comment area below? This allows you to have people comment through Facebook, and they can publish it on their wall as well, which gets linked to your article. It also provides a “like” button to help get you additional traffic.

FeedBurner FeedSmith – You know what feedburner is right? I use this for my rss feeds to keep track of all of my rss feed subscribers.

Follow Me – This is that purdy’ “follow me” button hovering on the right side of my blog at this time. I placed a lot of different ways on here where you can connect with me.

Follow My Links – This removes the nofollow from links created by the comment author.

Google Analytics for WordPress – I keep track of my stats with Google Analytics. This plugin adds the code for me.

Google Sitemaps – Google is my site map provider, and this plugin automatically indexes all content within my blog, and pings Google. This way, I get deep linking.

KB Countdown Widget – A good countdown widget for events that you may have coming up, and want to share with others.

KeywordLuv – This makes commenting on my blog more attractive because if the commentator were to put without quotes “Yourname@Your Keywords” then they can get a good anchor text to their blog/site. It also makes people want to actually use their first name when commenting. I don’t allow just keywords as a name in my comments.

Lijit Search – It’s a search for content. Lijit seems to bring me some decent traffic without me even interacting with it in any way.

LiveJournal Crossposter Remix – Every time I update my blog, this crossposts to LiveJournal which results in more traffic and subscriptions. Don’t leave home without it!

Modal Dialog – Have you noticed that pop-up on my blog? I have it configured to be non-obtrusive for my readers. It is FREE!

Most Commented Widget – This shows the posts in my sidebar that have the most comments. It gets more traffic to old posts for me.

Newsletter Pro (satollo.net) – The best newsletter subscription management plugin. I don’t have to subscribe to a 3rd party to manage my subscribers. I prefer to control my list rather than rent one, but thanks! So, I got the free version of this plugin, then I paid for the low-cost upgrade to get pro functionality which was worth it.

OIOpublisher Direct – Again, I like to control my blog entirely! That is why I use OIOPublisher to sell my ad space on this blog. Want to buy some ad space? Do so before the prices go up!

Page Links To – This cool plugin allows me to add static links in my navigation. That’s how I link to the marketing forum in a sub-directory on this domain. Cool right?

Please Link 2 Me – That nifty html code underneath every article which asks readers to link to the article if they enjoyed it. That’s created by this plugin. It’s an ease-of-access thing for other webmasters.

Pretty Link – A wonderful plugin that shortens and masks affiliate links, or whatever I want to link to. It includes it’s own tracking.

SEO Friendly Images – Automatically makes any images I upload search engine friendly with alt text.

SexyBookmarks – This plugin allows my content to be shared across the web on many social networks and social bookmarking sites. You see it below all of my articles.

Smart Youtube – This embeds Youtube videos when I simply link to it in my article or page, and use httpv instead of http. Very easy to use.

Static Toolbar – This adds a toolbar on the bottom of the screen when you are on my blog. It shares social links, and provides a stream of the latest content on my blog. It’s all about convenience for my wonderful readers

Top Commentators Widget – This is a must for anyone who wishes to being consistent commentary on their blog. If someone wants a free link to their site, they need to be a top commentator on this blog. I have it set to reset to zero every month to be fair to everyone. At one point, Scott Barron was a regular commentator here and racked up a huge number of comments, so he was always number 1. Sorry Scott!

TweetMeme Follow Button – The button shows a live count of the number of Twitter followers a particular user has.

TweetMeme Retweet Button – This is the cool Retweet button you see on my articles. It allows for easy tweeting to share with your own followers. Care to click it for me on this article? Thanks!

Twitterlink Comments – Shows a link to follow the comment author on twitter if they have entered in their username at least once in the comment form.

WordPress Automatic Upgrade – A handy tool to automatically backup and upgrade your WordPress installation.

WP-Ban – It’s sad when you have to use this, but handy to block abusers who spam you constantly or like to start trouble in your community.

WP-Cumulus – A flash based Tag Cloud for WordPress.

WP-PageNavi – Adds a more advanced paging navigation to your WordPress blog.

WP-Sticky – I use this sometimes to make a post stay on my homepage longer, even if there is a newer article published. I can set it as an announcement to keep it on the homepage, or set it as a sticky to keep it on the top for a specific date.

WP-UserOnline – This handy tool shows me in real time, the people or bots who are visiting my blog. It also tells me how they were referred to the page that they are on.

These are the main plugins that I use on every install. I do use other plugins depending on the blog/site, but to keep it simple, I will leave those out. I listed these because I have been asked what plugins I like to use.

Once I have my plugins all installed and configured, I would then make sure that my permalinks and other standard wordpress settings are all in order.

The next thing to follow would be my creative writing. I would assemble 15 articles, each with 1,500 words or more, and then post the first one and schedule the rest for 2-days apart. This will ensure regular updated for an entire month.

After the first article is published, I would immediately start blog hopping and commenting on as many as possible. This will get the initial traffic and commentary on my new blog. It will also build up some backlinks to my blog, and to articles for deep-linking from blogs using the CommentLuv plugin.

After I have the traffic, I would immediately get to work on my first ebook, and have an announcement for it so I can build up some suspense. I would have the ebook complete in less than 4 days, fully proofread and put together with an ebook cover. I would use this ebook as an enticement to build my mailing list.

Social Status is Everything!

Facebook and Twitter have been the best social networks to bring me traffic on this blog. I am very active on both networks, and it is a must to build up a huge network on these. Start building your followers on Twitter, and add lots of friends in Facebook. This pays off big in the future.

With Facebook, I wished I started sooner. At first, I used it for personal friends. Then I realized I didn’t have many, so I started adding people who are interested in things that I am.

Twitter is great for a quick boost in traffic, and getting to know people in 140 characters or less

There are a bunch of other social networks and social bookmarking sites that I use as well, and are vital to your success as a blogger, or niche site promoter. Don’t neglect your social networks or you will regret it. Start early on in your venture.

Expert Profile

Associated Content and EzineArticles have been great at allowing me to establish myself as an expert in my niche. I write articles for both outlets, and it is well worth the time and creative content to do so. Associated Content also paid me in advance, and pays in residuals for CPM when you write for them.

I wrote recently about becoming an expert on a guest post. I suggest you check out that article so that you can see why it is important to establish yourself as an expert, and how you can go about doing so.

Niche Income

Setting yourself up for a monthly niche income will ensure that you can take care of your bills without worry. If I had to start all over, I would buy up prepackaged niche sites and insert my affiliate codes. I would then use blog hopping, guest posting, and article publishing to build backlinks and traffic to these sites.

I would have setup at least 50 of them initially, and then expanded that number over time to 150. Each site would only need to bring in a small amount daily in order to add up to something that will make a serious dent in your financial needs.

When starting from the beginning, I would have invested a small amount of money into excellent resources like Affiliate Kung Fu. You may think it’s a good idea to just learn this stuff through trial and error, but in this case you’d be wrong. Saving serious time by learning everything ahead of time is well worth it when you are trying to build up an affiliate income.

Wise Tips

If I had to start over, I would establish my blog with articles that were all 1,000 words or more. This would have brought me a higher amount of natural search engine traffic much sooner. Today, Google is my single largest traffic source. But it would be much better had I added lots more content for spider food.

I would have spent more time with my blog hopping and guest posting. While I have done a large amount of guest posts, if I put out a good 500 of them in a few months, I would have build up my Alexa Traffic Rank much faster, and much better, as well as my PageRank and generated a serious amount of targeted traffic. This would have resulted in more newsletter and rss feed subscribers.

My mailing list would be something I would have started from the beginning. If I did that, I would not have had to play catch-up later on down the road. I would also have created free ebooks as incentive to join my newsletter because everyone wants something for free.

Conclusion

I know this isn’t the most detailed list of things I would have done, but it is a list of the most important. If I had to do it all again, my blog would have been making serious money for me within the first two months. Most bloggers can take a year and a half to two years before they can make that kind of income. The biggest reason for this is because they waste a lot of time with things that are unproductive, when they could have been building their following and traffic sources.

Marketing is your largest asset, and if you know how, things get much easier. Remember to bookmark this article and share it with your friends and colleagues. Comment below if you like what you read, or care to share anything that would have made things easier and faster for you.

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The Big Fat Blogger Repeat

August 6, 2010 Brandon Connell Blogs, Research 9 comments

So we all have fallen victim to this scenario. Eventually, even the bloggers who create steady content that holds reader attention finds themselves repeating old articles using new words or article layout structure. More recently, I have even found some of the bigger blogs in this predicament.

How do you avoid classic “rerun”? Well, luckily you are a blogger and not a cable television network. There are steps you can take to ensure you always come up with fresh topics to write about.

Visit the following articles for topic ideas:

Understand that you will sometimes forget about some of the topics you have written about because you write so much. There are some articles of mine that I actually have to search for because I forgot the exact details but knew it was good reference material for a new article I am working on. One such article is the “28 ways to make the perfect article” that I linked to above. I forgot the name of it, and I had to locate the category that I remember placing it in just to reference it here.

Because you forget about some of your articles here and there, you very well may end up repeating yourself. The good thing is that even though you cover a topic more than once, you are likely to write about that topic differently the 2nd time around. This may mean a renewed interest in that topic by your readers.

The trick behind secure reader interest

It’s not really a trick more than it is a use of common sense. But I saw a commentator on Jean’s blog mention that it is hard to comment on blogs when all the blog posts are basically the same.

I remember in the past mentioning that all current bloggers are basically recycling old content, but by presenting it in a new way, they give it a fresh perspective. Because of this, blogging will never die. Other “experts” think that there is only so much you can say about a topic before it gets old. But the fact is that a topic can be re-spun in many different ways with additional reference material and other presentation methods that will always bring in readers and commentary.

What problems to avoid

While a blog can repeat many times and still be successful, there are some blogs out there I would just get bored with way too easily. The reason for this is that their presentation is simply bad. Some of the reasons that end with me closing the tab on a blog are:

Writers who add extra spaces, a lack of periods between sentences, and other grammar issues that make me cringe.
Blogs that have too much advertising “within a post” in a way that it interferes with the flow of the article. The ads I am talking about tend to be adsense because of how ugly it is.
Blogs that write article after article which are on the very same topic rather than topics that are related and within the same niche.
Blogs that contain nothing but reviews in order to generate affiliate profits.
Writers who can’t take criticism and end up going off on commentators rather than being humble and clever in their responses.
Articles that contain mostly repeated material in order to increase the word count.

Obviously, such bloggers know nothing about blogging. They do what they do and they rushed into it rather than researching how blogging is done. I also avoid bloggers who do nothing but go to others blogs and start trouble. Take a recent commentator on my blog who had nothing other to say than my blog was boring. I was nice enough to publish his attack comment for all to see. I was also nice enough to remove his CommentLuv and link back to his blog because my reasoning told me that if he didn’t like my blog then he wouldn’t want to benefit from it in any way.

Controversial bloggers can do well in their niche, but it isn’t usually wise to go to another blog and pick a fight. This is a method that shouldn’t be repeated.