AWT Tips Tricks

AWT Blog Tips Guest Post Guidelines

2014-03-29T10:34:00.000+05:00

I get many emails from people who want to know if I accept guest posts on AWT Blog Tips, and if that is the case, what are the guidelines. I figured that it would be easier to write the guidelines in a post and just refer every one here.
So the answer to the first question is: Yes, I do accept guest posts. Currently I publish two guest posts per week, usually on Mondays and Wednesdays. Below you will find all the details about the process.

What kind of content do you accept?

Anything that is useful for my readers is good content for a guest post here. It can be related to blogging, Internet marketing in general, and it can also be derived from your own personal experiences. There is no minimum length for your post, but usually the guest posts have over 400 words.

General Guidelines

Your post must be original and must have never been published before on the Internet
You agree to not publish the post anywhere else (i.e., in your own blog or as a guest post in other blogs)
You can include one link in the byline, which will be displayed at the bottom of the post

Formatting Guidelines

Please format your guest post as an HTML document, so that I can copy and paste it into the WordPress HTML editor.
Use H2 or H4 tags for sub-headings.
Make sure to include the author byline at the bottom, with the link to your website already formatted (do not spam keywords there, though).

Submission Guidelines

If you have a post that meets the guidelines above, you can send it to me on the email post.awtblogtips@gmail.com. Please include the post in the body of the email itself, or as a .doc attachment.
I check and respond to all guest post submissions twice a month, so it might take up to two weeks before I get back to you. This doesn’t mean I have rejected your post though, and even in case of rejection you should get an answer from me, explaining the reason.

7 Lessons from a Full Time Freelance Blogger

2014-03-29T10:00:00.000+05:00

I am almost exclusively greeted with bemusement whenever I tell someone what I do for a living. It is something that I have gotten used to over time. “A freelance blogger? Can you even make money doing that?”
In fairness, if someone had told me that they were a freelance blogger 12 months ago, I would have probably reacted with similar bemusement. It is only recently that I have come to realize how lucrative freelance blogging can be. I am earning an equivalent of $100 per hour for some of my work.
It has been a big learning curve though – at the beginning of 2011 I barely even knew what a blog was. I’ve come a long way since then, and have gradually become aware of a few key things that have led me to where I am.
Now I want to share them with you!

1. Have a Blog

I haven’t sought out any work since last November, because people come to me asking if I can work for them. All of my recent clients have approached me my via my blog.
If you take a look at the blog, you will see that it barely screams “hire me”. On the contrary – there is a “Hire Me” link in the navigation bar, and that is it.
I blog in part about helping people to become freelance writers – i.e., I write for others like me, ï»¿notï»¿ prospective clients. And yet I still receive enquiries. If you build a blog specifically for your target clients, you should be able to fare far better than I do.
Stop wasting your time on job boards trying to find clients that may or not may not be interested in your services. When a client reaches out to you, you are already in a position of strength.

2. Get Bylines

Prospective clients often approach me having found my blog through a byline on a client’s blog. The logic is simple – if someone is looking for a blogger, likes your writing, and see that you are available to hire, they will probably contact you.
So whenever appropriate, you should get a byline. If a client initially balks at the idea, suggest that it can actually be of benefit to the blog, in showing that a recognized blogger is writing for them.
Bylines are of course not always appropriate – for instance, if you are ghost writing, or writing on a topic in which you have no real expertise.

3. Consider Intangible Benefits

How much you get paid should not be the only consideration when deciding whether or not to take on work. I still work with certain clients who pay me way under my “peak” hourly rate, because of the associated intangible benefits. These include:

Authority – it is good to be seen as a writer for an authoritative blog.
Traffic – certain blogs send my own blog a healthy amount of traffic.
Potential – could the work lead to bigger and better things?
Security – could the work be a long term source of secure income?

Such intangible benefits can help you to better rationalize the offer, and make a decision accordingly.

4. Never Price by the Hour

Here’s a little slice of freelance blogging 101 – never price work by the hour.
Instead, become faster at doing your work than everyone else, then charge the same per post or project. If you can write a 500 word article in 30 minutes and someone will pay you $50 for it, your equivalent hourly rate is $100.
The client is happy to pay $50 for a quality article – how long it took you to write it is irrelevant.

5. Type Fast

I’ve been using computers since the age of five, and naturally learned to type pretty fast (around 90 words per minute). I don’t touch type in a particularly beautiful manner, but it gets the job done.
But I digress. The point is, the faster you can type, the faster you can write blog posts. It may sound trivial, but it really isn’t. If you are interested in writing for a living, learning to type faster is effectively a business investment.

6. Write Fast

For the purpose of this article, there is a difference between typing fast and writing fast. Writing fast is about taking a blog post from its inception, to completion, in the quickest way possible.
Typically speaking, the better you plan a blog post, the more quickly you will write it. This may sound counter-productive, but how many times have you got to the middle a post only to forget the core issue you were trying to address, or how you were planning on addressing it?
Plotting a post out in bullet points allows you to address any potential issues before you waste too much time. Once you are done with the framework of the post, it is then just a case of fleshing out your bullet points.

7. Write What You Know About (or Charge More)

There is a common misconception that you must write about complicated topics (or that you need to be an “expert” on something) in order to earn good money as a freelance writer, but that is simply not the case.
It again comes down to speed. If you are knowledgeable on a topic, you can probably produce a related blog post in double quick time, which pushes your equivalent hourly rate up. On the other hand, if you are writing about a topic that you are not familiar with, it is likely to take you far longer.
Don’t fall into the common trap of charging the same rate across the board. Decide what hourly rate you would be comfortable with, consider each job on an individual basis, and charge accordingly.
Tom Ewer is a freelance blogger and the owner of Leaving Work Behind, a blog for anyone interested in quitting their job and building a better life for themselves. Join Tom on Facebook here!

15 Affiliate Marketing Questions Answered By 3 Experts

2014-03-29T09:58:00.000+05:00

A couple of months ago I asked our readers what affiliate marketing questions they would like to have answered. I then analyzed the submissions and filtered out the 15 most common questions. After that I sent the questions to three friends of mine who are affiliate marketing rock stars, and the result is what you will find below.
These guys need no introduction, but here we go anyway. Shawn Collins started doing affiliate marketing in the 90s, and today he is one of the most respected names in the industry. Jonathan Volk is the CEO of Surge Marketing, an affiliate marketing company that generates million of dollars in affiliate sales every year. Zac Johnson started making money online when he was 15, and today he is one of the most successful affiliate marketers around. Make sure to subscribe to all three sites if you want to learn more about affiliate marketing. Now to the questions and answers.

1. How do I get started with affiliate marketing if I am a complete newbie?

Shawn: I created a video overview on the steps I would take to set up a new affiliate site.
Jonathan: I would start out by joining some of the internet communities and reading the blogs. I think it’s a great idea to give you a head start. Additionally, on many of the blogs they have some “Getting started with affiliate marketing” type guides that can really help you to start your make money online journey.
Zac: The best way to get started is to get familiar with the lingo and how networks, cpa/cpc, social marketing and all aspects work. There are plenty of paid ebooks and “teaching” programs out there, but none of them are necessary. Do a simple google search and you will come across a ton of marketing blogs offering the same newbie information for free. Everything you need to get started is already out there for free if you just look for it.

2. Do I need to spend money (e.g., PPC, paid advertising, etc) to make money with affiliate marketing?

Shawn: There are many different ways to make money as an affiliate. If you have money to invest, and you’re willing to put a lot of time into testing, you can make money fairly fast with PPC. But if you have more time than money, and you want to build a long-term site, I’d suggest focusing on building a blog on a topic that interests you. This can be done for very little cost.
Jonathan: Yes. There is always going to be at least a minimal investment needed. You’ll need a website, domain, etc. You don’t have to pay for traffic but it’s the FASTEST way to begin to earn a living online. I would recommend starting out paying for PPC traffic and just setting your daily budget to whatever the affiliate commission is. Let’s say you earn $20 bucks per lead for an offer. Set your daily budget to $20 and see if you get anything.
Zac: As mentioned, everything is already out there. You definitely DO NOT need to spend money to make money online. However, it is all relevant in terms of how fast you want to make money and how much. When I first started making money online over a decade ago, I was making 5 figures a year without spending a dime on advertising costs. This took much longer to build up content and get search traffic… but didn’t cost any money.

3. Suppose I already have a website or blog with decent traffic. How can I use affiliate marketing to monetize my site?

Shawn: Find out which companies in your niche have affiliate programs and apply to them. Check them against each other to see which have the longest cookie durations, best payout, highest EPC, etc. Then start testing creative from these companies to compile data and determine which perform best for you and your audience.
Jonathan: First, you really need to know your demographic. Who visits your website? Then using that information go to your affiliate manager and ask them what particular offers might be working well for this demographic. For example, if your site primarily caters to 35-50 year old women, weight loss offers might be and offer you want to try.
Zac: Depending on the type of site you currently have, its likely one of the major affiliate networks will have a relevant CPA offer for you to blend in with your content. You always have the option of Google Adsense, but that is usually a last resource for seasoned marketers. The key is blending in relevant content/ads and making it look real.

4. Do you start by choosing an offer, and then building a website/email list/PPC campaign around it, or the other way around (i.e., first build a website or email list and then try to find suitable offers)?

Shawn: I choose offers that fit my sites, because I am more likely to maintain a site if I have an interest in it. But there are plenty of successful affiliates who are essentially mercenaries that create sites to capitalize on whatever is hot.
Jonathan: I actually find the market first. What I mean by this is that I find where there are high volumes of traffic and try to cater to their needs. That way I know the traffic is there, it’s just a matter of finding out what will convert profitably for that particular area (or demographic).
Zac: Personally, if I am selecting an offer from a network, I will go through their available offers. I already have a good idea of whats on every other network and most likely saturated, so I want to choose something that looks a bit unsaturated and not already being pushed by a ton of affiliates. This is usually a hard find, but if found, usually it is much easier to promote and make money.

5. What is affiliate scrubbing/shaving, and what do you think about it?

Shawn: I focus on retail/revenue share and this hasn’t been an issue for me.
Jonathan: Scrubbing is when an advertiser (not the network) scrubs out bad leads and you do not get paid for them. This is very common and happens on a majority of the advertiser pages. This could be as simple as scrubbing someone from another country when the advertiser is only asking for US based leads or as complicated as the lead having bogus information such as a fake email address (e.g., 129023i190i@fakemail.com).
Shaving is different. Shaving is when an affiliate network shaves leads from your leads. So maybe one in 100 of your leads does not get counted. The network still gets paid from the advertiser for this but you will never see anything. There are times when shaving is intentional (and some networks have been proven to shave) and sometimes when it is unintentional. Either way, it can be prevented by simply split testing the offer across multiple affiliate networks if possible.
Always remember that you should not accuse anyone of shaving unless you have a statistically significant number of leads to prove it. If you only have 10 leads per day on average and one day you have 5, it doesn’t mean the advertiser is shaving. It could mean a lot of things.
Zac: Since affiliate marketing first started online, it’s always been a scary issue and always in the back of our minds. Years ago, you pretty much had to rely on what the networks stats reported, but with more advanced reports and pixel/cookie tracking, you can compare network stats against your own. Unfortunately there are always going to be cheaters, lairs and people looking to take advantage of you. Before pushing some serious numbers with a company, make sure you can trust their stats and know who you are working with.

6. Do you fear the possibility of web surfers having their browsers to auto-clean cookies at the end of every browsing sessions? What if this becomes a default feature on browsers?

Shawn: There is a new threat that has some affiliate marketers frantic every six months. I just concentrate on producing quality content and don’t obsess about the threats. So long as my numbers are where I’d like them to be, the payout, conversion rate, etc. are secondary.
Jonathan: No. I think it will never become a standard. Too many people like to be logged into their facebook, myspace, email, etc without having to relogin every time. Plus some networks don’t even require cookies to track conversions.
Zac: I’m not concerned about individuals clearing out their cookies, but it would be interesting to see what happens if this was an automatic browser feature. I’m sure many of the bigger coupon sites and merchant networks would be affected heavily. I always liked the concept of whoever delivers the most recent cookie, gets the credit. Either way, the marketplace will adapt and find a new and better way to track leads.

7. Do you think that super affiliates necessarily need to use PPC to power their campaigns? Or is it possible to make big money with affiliate marketing without using PPC?

Shawn: PPC is just one area of affiliate marketing – there are plenty of affiliates using content sites, comparison shopping, email, coupons, etc. to generate big results.
Jonathan: PPC is not the only traffic source. There are many other traffic sources that you could use. I do feel that since Adwords has such a HUGE reach, it can prove to make someone extremely successful in finding large volumes of traffic.
Zac: It’s definitely possible to make a massive amount of money without relying on pay per click. PPC is always the big attraction because it can deliver fast and big numbers. What most people aren’t discussing or thinking about is the big costs also involved. I’ve always been a fan of creating niche sites, building them up over time and having them earn thousands of dollars in profit month and month, without having to worry about PPC management or costs.

8. How do I get quality affiliates to promote my own products and services?

Shawn: That’s not really something that can be answered in a couple sentences. However, I’ve created a free video series that goes over the steps for companies to set up and run a successful affiliate program, based on my decade as an affiliate manager.
Jonathan: I think it comes down to a few things.
1. Relationship. – If you have a relationship with the affiliate, they are way more likely to promote your stuff although it does not guarantee it.
2. (Most important) Conversion rate. – If you spend the time optimizing your page over and over, you will have the best converting sales page. Numbers don’t lie and at the end of the day, super affiliates want to make the most for their investment into traffic costs.
Zac: Most affiliates are lazy and just want to make money. They don’t want to be bothered and pestered with what offers to run and why your network is better than others. If you truly want an affiliate to run your offer, contact them with your exact numbers (and they better be good!), and a very easy way to get the campaign up and running. Nothing is worse then being pestered to run a campaign, then having to join a network, wait a couple days and so on… by then it’s already too late.

9. Clickbank seems to be the big thing among affiliate marketers. Do you use it extensively as well, or most of the offers you promote come from other places?

Shawn: ClickBank is popular with affiliates who focus on digital products. I tend to promote physical products, and work more with Commission Junction, Google Affiliate Network, LinkShare and ShareASale.
Jonathan: I used Clickbank in the beginning of my affiliate marketing career. Now my Dad owns a product on there and does very well with it. I have since moved on to entirely CPA networks with the exception of a few small marketing campaigns.
Zac: ClickBank has always been a massive powerhouse and the way they handle their payouts and backend is awesome. They get paid when a sale is made, so you never have to worry about an advertiser screwing over the network. From an affiliate aspect, they have an excellent selection of offers for almost any niche, with well written creatives and ad content. As an advertiser, you simply create an account, add a product, a few creatives and you are ready to go. ClickBank is genius!

10. What was your first affiliate marketing success?

Shawn: Back in the 90s, I started doing paid search arbitrage before I knew it had a name. There were lots of PPC affiliate programs then, and I would buy targeted clicks for a penney on GoTo.com and funnel them to affiliate links.
Jonathan: It’s been so long I cant even remember. I think I was linking directly from PPC campaigns to a clickbank ebook on golf. I was making like $20 bucks per day or so. I then moved into other niches and got up to $250 per day just linking directly from PPC Campaigns in google.
Zac: My earliest and most memorable affiliate successes was when I was first starting out and hitting $100,000 in sales with Amazon.com, with NO ad spending. This may not seem like a ton, but it was pretty cool for a kid starting high school. After promoting Amazon’s associate program for a while, I quickly got into CPA affiliate marketing, where things got even more exciting and fun.

11. There are so many offers out there to promote. How do I choose the right ones for my blog/audience?

Shawn: It depends on why your audience is there – think about the top 3-5 keywords that describe your site and search in Google for affiliate programs that related to those keywords.
Jonathan: This goes back to knowing your demographic / audience. Know what typically converts for that audience by asking around and you should do pretty ok!
Zac: It’s all a game of testing. Since there are literally thousands of offers to choose from, you can break down your decisions by profit potential, quality of offer and relevance to your web site. If you are selecting ads for your high quality/profile blog, you want to make sure you aren’t pushing crap off to your readers.

12. Do you believe that social media can be used to promote affiliate offers? If so, how?

Shawn: Yes, affiliates have been using video, Twitter, social networks, etc. for years to promote affiliate links.
Jonathan: You can promote affiliate offers through social media although it’s a lot more difficult. I think the best way would be referring friends to services, etc you are already using and enjoy. Sure, you won’t become a millionaire from it, but you’ll make some extra coin!
Zac: Without a doubt. I’ve seen some great results with Facebook Fan Pages and Twitter for building up niche sites that people are really interested. You would be surprised at how many people will retweet articles they are interested in, and gladly contribute on your blog feedback.

13. Do you use pre-sell/review pages when promoting affiliate offers, or do you send the traffic directly to the sales page of the merchant?

Shawn: I always send the traffic from my sites. I don’t think affiliates are bringing value to the table if they’re insinuating themselves into a search from a consumer for a product or service.
Jonathan: I almost always pre-sell my traffic before sending them to an affiliate offer. Doing so generally increases profit.
Zac: I will test both landing pages and direct linking. Direct linking is always easiest, but with the creation of a landing page, you may even increase conversions more. It’s very easy to split test offers while advertising on solutions like Facebook Ads, because you can get a decent flow of traffic very fast and have an idea where/what people are clicking on.

14. Do you lose money on offers while trying to find profitable ones? Is this process inevitable?

Shawn: That’s the nature of testing – the key is to closely monitor things to limit losses and scale gains.
Jonathan: All the time. In fact I’ve lost more money this year than I ever have. Why? Because I’ve tested a TON of offers aggressively. You can’t make everything work and sometimes it takes a bit of money to figure that out.
Zac: It’s a good bet that you will lose money while testing out new campaigns. It’s also ok and expected, which is why it’s called testing. You are throwing a lot of mud at the wall and seeing what sticks. Once you find the few keywords, ad copies or offers that work and weed out the best, you can see a quick swing to high profit margins.

15. What are the most important things to track and test when promoting affiliate offers.

Shawn: The effective CPM for all similar offers to see which ones to drop and which to give more prominence.
Jonathan: I think it’s always important to track what traffic source is converting best. If you’re promoting your site in multiple places, always make sure you know which site is bringing in what conversions. This can be done with a simple “subid” and helps dramatically.
For testing, the main thing I test is my headlines. Testing different headlines both in affiliate landing pages and ads is very important!
Zac: Obviously the ROI of an offer is what you are looking for, and how much you can expand on advertising. Once you have a campaign setup, it’s easy to see your profits and sit there and relax. A few days/weeks pass and you are slowing losing profit margin, then before you know it… you are pushing even/loss numbers. It’s important to always be on top of your ad campaigns. Don’t forget to search for other relevant and competing offers to see which may convert best.

22 Ways To Find Advertisers For Your Website

2014-03-29T09:56:00.000+05:00

Selling advertising deals is one of the most profitable ways to monetize your website. Some time ago I wrote an article titled How to Find Advertisers for Your Website, where I covered the pros and cons of using this method, what you need to have in place before getting started, how much you should charge and so on.
The most difficult part of the process, however, is to actually find the advertisers. I included some places where you can look for in that article, but I felt that it would be useful to have one post listing all the ways you can use to find advertisers for your website. That is what the list below is all about.

Leveraging Your Own Site

Your own website should be the first port when it comes to finding advertisers. Why? Because people who are familiar with your work will be more willing to discuss possible advertising deals.
1. Put an “Advertise” link on the menu bar
If you have a navigation menu bar, you could include an “Advertise” link there, making it point to a page where you describe the advertising options of your site. This link will help you in two different ways. First of all it will allow interested companies to quickly find the page where you display your advertising information. Secondly, it will also let all visitors know that you do accept advertising deals.
2. Use an “Advertise Here” banner as placeholder
If you have unsold ad spots, you could include an “Advertise Here” banner as a placeholder on one of them. This banner will act just like the “Advertise” link on the navigation menu, but it might be more effective because it will show potential advertisers exactly where their ads will be displayed. Just make sure to not use an “Advertise Here” placeholder on all of your unsold spots, as this would send a negative message to advertisers (i.e., no one is buying any ads on your site, so why should they?).
3. Write a post welcoming advertisers
If you have a blog, you could write a post inviting advertisers. This technique works pretty well because it allows you to elaborate your offer. On the post you’ll be able to explain what kind of audience your blog has, what kind of traffic it gets, what are the advertising options available and so on.
4. Email your list
Do you have an email list? Then send the same information that you posted on the blog to these subscribers. The only thing you should not include is the price. Why? Because if you don’t include it interested people will email you asking for that, and this will give you their email addresses and an invite for a conversation, where you’ll have better chances of convincing them.
5. Put a message at the bottom of blog posts
If you post often on your blog you could attach a message at the bottom of every post. Something like “Want to showcase your product to our audience? Then check our advertising options.” Obviously you should include a link to your “Advertise” page on that message. If you are using WordPress, you’ll just need to edit the single.php file to make this message appear on all your blog posts.
6. Put a message at the bottom of your feed
Similarly, you could also put a message at the bottom of your feed. This will make sure that both website visitors and RSS subscribers will see it. If you are using WordPress, you can create easily create a custom message to be displayed at the bottom of you feed with the RSS Footer plugin.
7. Examine who is leaving comments
It is a good idea to examine who is leaving comments on your blog. You are basically looking for people who work at companies that have relevant products to your audience. Once you identify someone who does (either by the link he will leave or by the domain on his email address), you’ll just need to contact him, asking if his company would be interested in becoming a sponsor. This technique works well because the person will already be a member of your community.
8. Examine who is linking to you
Apart from examining who is leaving comments on your blog you should also check the people linking to your blog posts. If you notice a link from a company blog, you could again contact the company asking if it would be interested in becoming a sponsor. If they liked your content enough to link to it, they will certainly consider an advertising deal.
9. Reply to all press releases and review requests
Once your website gets somewhat popular inside its niche you’ll certainly start receiving many press releases and review requests via the contact form. Instead of sending these to the trash bin, you should reply to all of them, stating that you found their product/service interesting, and that you believe they could benefit from advertising on your site because your audience would be a good match. Then give all the details about the advertising options, and wait to see if they are interested.

Exploring Ad Networks

If you can find companies that are already spending money on online advertising, your job will be halfway done. Advertising networks represent an excellent opportunity to do this.
10. BuySellAds.com
Just by visiting the homepage of this ad network you’ll be able to see a list of “Sample Advertisers.” Most of those are big online spenders. After that you can also check the publishers listed on the directory. Just click to visit the homepage of each site, and check what companies bought banners there. You’ll be able to find hundreds of potential sponsors.
11. AdBrite
On the navigation menu of this ad network you’ll find a link titled “Site Directory.” It is basically a list of all the websites that accept ads through the network. You’ll just need to browse through them, checking what companies are buying banners there. The interesting thing is that you can also filter the websites by niche, making sure you’ll only contact relevant companies.
12. ClickBank
ClickBank is not an ad network per se, but rather an affiliate marketing one. That being said, you could still signup as an affiliate and browse its marketplace looking for sponsors. Just avoid contacting the top selling products, because those already have hundreds of affiliate promoting them. Focus on the middle range of the marketplace.
13. SponsoredReviews.com
Once you signup as a “Blogger” on this ad network you’ll be able to browse its marketplace, which contains a list of companies who are willing to pay bloggers to review their products/services. Guess what? After that it will just be a matter of contacting them.
14. ReviewMe
This network works pretty much like the previous one. You’ll find fewer offers here, but it is still worth a look once in a while. Additionally, if you setup a low review price for your blog you’ll be contacted by interested companies on a regular basis.

Vising other sites in your niche

A very effective way to find advertisers for your website is to visit other sites in your niche, looking for companies advertising there already.
15. Contact the banner advertisers
First of all you’ll want to contact the advertisers who purchased banner spots. Usually these are companies who contacted the site owner directly, so they will be more open to discussing new advertising opportunities with you.
16. Contact the AdSense advertisers
If the site you are visiting uses Google AdSense, you could check the companies that are putting ads there and then contact them . Mention on your email that your saw the company ad on the XYZ site, and that you believe your site would be a good match for their products/services, too.
17. Contact the site owner
If your website is larger than the one you are visiting, you could also contact the site owner to see if he is not interested in purchasing one of your banner spots. This could help him to get more brand awareness and new readers. Secondly, you could also try to establish a partnership, where you refer advertisers to each other.

Using Google

Whenever you need to find something online, Google can help.
18. Search for relevant products and contact the organic results
Companies that sell products or services relevant to your audience will certainly consider the opportunity to advertise on your site. If that is the case, all you need to do is visit Google and start searching for these companies. If you have a site about baseball, for example, go to Google and search for “baseball bats”, “baseball gloves” and so on.
19. Search for relevant keywords and contact the AdWords advertisers
Apart from finding companies on the organic results you can also look for the ones already spending money on Google AdWords. These are the “Sponsored Links” that will appear on top and to the right of the organic search results. Notice that you don’t need to search for products here. Searching any keyword that is related to your niche should already trigger the sponsored links.
20. Search for websites thanking their sponsors/advertisers
Many websites publish periodic posts thanking their sponsors. You could use Google to find these posts, as they will come with a list of companies you can contact. For example, you could search for “thanks sponsors” on Google. Alternatively you can also filter the search to specific websites that are related to your site. If you have a tech blog, for example, you could search for “site:techcrunch.com sponsors”, which will give you a list of all the posts on TechCrunch.com that talk about sponsors.

Using Social Networks

Social networks are among the most popular websites on the Internet these days. As such, companies are starting to direct their advertising efforts there, and you could use that to find sponsors for your site.
21. Sponsored Tweets
Twitter created one of the fastest growing online platforms, and many companies started to leverage the “sponsored tweet” idea. They basically pay a certain amount of money for people willing to send a message talking about their products or services. Most of these companies require people to disclose the ads with hashtags. Two popular ones are #ad and #sponsored. If you search for those hashtags on Twitter, you’ll be able to find a huge list of sponsored messages. After that you’ll just need to contact the companies who sponsored them.
22. Facebook Ads
Facebook is the largest social network on the web, and they also have a self-serving ad platform that works similar to Google AdSense. As a result many companies are purchasing ads there, and you could try to find some that are related to your own niche. You just need to browse around the site (while logged in), and the ads should appear on the right sidebar. On some pages you’ll also find a link titled “More Ads,” which will send you to a page with a list of advertisers relevant to your profile.

Bonus Tip

This tip helped me find dozens of advertisers over the years. It is a really simple but very effective one. The tip is: create a folder on the bookmarks of your browser named “Potential Advertisers” or “Potential Sponsors.” After that you’ll just need to pay attention while browsing the web to companies and/or websites that have something related to your website and that could be interested in advertising there. Whenever you come across one, bookmark it. If you use the Internet a lot you’ll find that this bookmark folder will grow very quickly, and it will just be a matter of getting in touch with the companies listed there.

How to Add a Call to Action to Your Post

2014-03-23T19:40:00.003+05:00

You might have written your best post ever — but without a call to action, it’s not going to get you the results you’re hoping for.

A “call to action” is a copywriting term. It simply means asking or telling the reader to take a specific action. That might be:

Subscribing to your blog or newsletter
Buying your ebook
Sharing the post on Twitter or Facebook
Downloading a free report
Trying out a particular technique or idea

… or almost anything that will benefit you and/or the reader.

Your call to action should be clear and specific. Don’t simply link to a post and assume that readers will get the message: tell them “click here to read…” or “find out more by clicking this link” or similar. If you’re asking for comments, give them a specific question to think about.
There are two places to put your calls to action:

#1: At the End of Your Post

The final line of your post is a natural and effective place for a call to action: you’re helping the reader decide what to do next. It’s crucial you don’t leave this to chance. After reading a post, the reader has lots of options open — including leaving your site altogether.
Some great closing lines are:

What do you think about [topic]? Let us know in the comments below.
If you enjoyed this post, please share it on Twitter by clicking on the “Tweet” button to the right.
To find out more about this, read [link to another post on your blog]

#2: Throughout Your Post

You don’t just have to put calls to action at the end of your post. By including them earlier, you prime readers to take action, and get them thinking.

For instance:

To introduce a list post: See what you think of these ten ideas (and add your own in the comments).
To sell an ebook: I’ve just launched my new ebook, [title of ebook]. I’ll be saying a few words about that at the end of this post, but if you want to find out all about it now, you can click on this link [link to sales page].

Now, it’s your turn. Think about your blogging goals (e.g. growing your subscriber base or your newsletter list) and come up with a call to action for your next post.

Bio: Ali Luke is a writer and writing coach, and has a weekly column on content creation for DailyBlogTips. Her new writing community/teaching site, Writers’ Huddle, is open until January 31st:
check it out here.

Why You Should Use “You” and “I” In Your Posts

2014-03-23T19:38:00.000+05:00

This is a guest post by Ali Luke. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

Two tiny words will help you build instant rapport with your readers: I and you.

If you’re used to writing essays for school or business reports, you’ve probably been taught to avoid writing “I”. But online, readers expect — and want — informal, conversational writing which speaks to them directly.

I’m guessing that you’d like more repeat traffic, more comments, more tweets and more subscribers. That means learning how to use “you” and “I” effectively, so that you draw readers in — rather than turning them off.

Using “You” and “Your”

If you look at recent posts on Daily Blog Tips, you’ll see that many of them include the word “You” or “Your”. They have titles like:

Would these titles be so engaging if they didn’t use “you” and “your”?

I don’t think so — and I expect you’d agree. The “you” and “your” make the posts personal, not generic.

Try working one of those words into your next blog post title — and see what happens.

The biggest mistake I see bloggers making with “you” is to make it plural. They’ll write things like:

“Some of you may be wondering…”
“Most of you are writers…”
“There are hundreds of you reading this blog…”

Each reader is reading on their own. Your readers are not gathered in an auditorium, listening to you read your post out loud — so it jars them to read the plural “you”. Make your readers feel special: write as if you’re speaking to just one person.

When to avoid “you”

There’s one clear case for avoiding the word “you” — and that’s when you’re writing something negative or critical. For instance, change “You’re a chronic procrastinator” to “Some people are chronic procrastinators.”

Using “I”

It’s perfectly appropriate to use “I” when you’re writing about your own experiences or opinions. You might worry that too much “me me me” will bore the reader — but a well-chosen personal anecdote can bring life to a post.

You might consider sharing:

Some of your own failures and frustrations. (“I find it hard not to procrastinate.”) This helps make the reader feel that you’re on their side.
Your personal success story — with an emphasis on the idea that “you can do this too.”
Brief snippets about your life. With so many blogs to choose from, readers stay engaged because they feel like they know you as a person.

Make sure you’re delivering value to the reader, too: you’re not writing a personal diary. If I’m writing a very “I”-centered post, I try to bring out clear points which apply to the reader’s life too.

When to avoid “I

If you want to sound authoritative, too much use of phrase like “I think” or “I believe” can weaken your post. Readers know that what you’re writing is your opinion — you don’t need to keep saying so.

Over to you … do you have any experiences to share about using “I” and “you” in your posts? Have these little words helped you build engagement, or do you struggle to use them effectively?

About the Author: Ali Luke is a writer and writing coach. If you’re looking to improve your writing, check out her post on 7 Habits of Serious Writers.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Your First Guest Post

2014-03-23T19:33:00.000+05:00

Your own blog might be packed with great content … but it won’t be doing you much good if you don’t have any readers.

One of the best ways to bring readers to your blog is to write guest posts on larger, related, blogs. This not only gets your name and writing in front of people, it also helps your Google rankings (because you’ll get a link to your site from a high-pagerank blog).

If you’ve never guest-posted before, you might not know where to start. Here’s your step-by-step guide:

Step #1: Choose Your Target Blog

Some bloggers come up with an idea and write their post, then look for a blog that’s a good fit. But it’s more efficient to select your target blog first — because this will influence everything from your initial idea to your writing style.

A good target blog is large, on-topic, and clearly accepts guest posts (e.g. you’ve seen other people’s guest posts on that blog).

Step #2: Write Your Guest Post

As you write your guest post, keep in mind any guidelines from your target blog. (Most larger blogs will have guest post guidelines — try using the search box to find these if they’re not immediately obvious.)

Make your guest post focused and useful. Give it a clear structure (introduction, main body, conclusion) and try to write it in a similar style to that used by your target blog.

Step #3: Edit Your Post Carefully

Allow plenty of time for editing your post. You might even want to print it out so you can read it through on paper. Make sure the post flows well — you may find that you need to rearrange sentences or paragraphs to make your progression of ideas clearer.

Watch out for any clumsy phrasings or unclear sentences, as well as spelling mistakes and typos. If you can, get a friend to look over the post for you, so they can give you some feedback.

Step #4: Add Your Bio

Finally, don’t forget to include a bio. This is a sentence or two of text about you, usually written in the third person (for an example, just glance down to the final few words of this post, which start Ali Luke…)

It’s a good idea to tell readers who you are (e.g. “John Smith is a keen gardener…”) as well as giving them a link to a specific resource on your blog. That might be a free ebook, a great post, or a special landing page designed for them. Don’t just link to your main URL, because that’s not enough of an incentive for many people to click on your link.

So there you have it — a completed guest post. It’s as simple as that! Why not do some research today and find a great target blog for your first guest post?

Ali Luke is a writer and writing coach. If you want to take your blogging further, join her weekly newsletter list to get two free ebooks on blogging (“Ten Powerful Ways to Make Your Blog Posts Stronger” plus “Ten Easy Ways to Attract Readers to Your Blog … And Keep Them There”) as well as lots more goodies.

Seven Ways Blogs Make Money – Which is Right For You?

2014-03-23T19:27:00.000+05:00

Do you wish your blog was bringing in more money?

Even if you’re just blogging because you love to write, there’s a good chance that the idea of earning money from your blog has crossed your mind.

And if you went into blogging with the hopes of starting up a business, you’re probably on the lookout for ways to monetize your blog(s).

These are seven straightforward ways to make money from a blog. I’ve ordered them, roughly speaking, from the easiest and fastest to implement up to the hardest and most complex – though also most potentially rewarding.

#1: Donations

The simplest way to monetize your blog is to put up a “Donations” button or similar. Some blogs refer to this as a “tip jar” – or the “buy me a coffee” or “buy me a beer” button.

Works well if: You just want to cover your hosting cost; you have particularly loyal readers.

Drawbacks: Unlikely to result in much money; can make your blog look rather amateur.

Read more: Buy Me a Beer: Why the “Donate” Button is Dead … Almost (Blog Tyrant)

#2: Advertising

However big or small your blog is, you can run ads: this might mean GoogleAds or selling individual slots for banners.

Works well if: You have lots of traffic; you have a niche where advertisers pay well.

Drawbacks: Too many ads can make your blog look unattractive; ads will drive readers away from your site.

Read more: 22 Ways to Find Advertisers for Your Website

#3: Affiliate Sales

Many sites, including huge ones like Amazon, offer an affiliate program. You link to their products with a special affiliate link, and if anyone buys something, you get a cut. (For digital products created by other bloggers, your affiliate cut will often be as much as 50%.)

Works well if: You write an in-depth review; the products are a good match for your audience.

Drawbacks: Could distract readers from buying your products; may take a while to build up a steady income stream this way.

Read more: 15 Affiliate Marketing Questions Answered by 3 Experts

#4: Digital Products

Many bloggers create their own digital products – ebooks are particularly popular. These can take a lot of time to put together, but they also can act as the first step toward turning your blog into a real business. (You’ll sometimes hear these called “information products” or “electronic products”.)
Works well if: You can create something genuinely valuable; you’ve built up a good relationship with your readers.
Drawbacks: An over-priced or underwhelming product may put readers off ever buying from you again.

Read more: Get Started Selling Electronic Products on Your Blog (ProBlogger)

#5: Services

Have you ever seen a “Hire me” page on a blog you were reading? Some bloggers offer their services as freelancers – perhaps in areas like design, business consulting, or even blogging. This is an alternative to the product route of turning your blog into a business.

Works well if: You’re skilled in a specific field; you have time to work one-on-one with clients.

Drawbacks: Hard to scale up (your time is finite); depending on your niche, your readers may not be able to afford to pay a good rate for your time.

Read more: 7 Lessons from a Full Time Freelance Blogger

#6: Physical Products

Blogs that sell physical products are often ones that were created to support an existing business, like an online or bricks-and-mortar store. They arrange shipping of the products (either directly or through a drop shipper). The products may be ones they create, or ones they buy wholesale.

Works well if: You already have a business selling physical goods, or experience of one.

Drawbacks: Many more overheads than selling digital products; likely to involve upfront costs.

Read more: An Introductory Guide to Selling Physical Products Online From Anywhere (Location Independent)

#7: Membership Site

A membership site charges a fee (normally monthly) for members to access content. The content might be “dripped” (every member gets certain content at week one of their membership, at week two, and so on) or new content might appear for all members at the same time, regardless of when they joined.

Works well if: You have in-depth, multimedia content to share; you can create a sense of community.

Drawbacks: Likely to require some technical support; may be tougher to promote than one-time payments for ebooks or similar.

Read more: 7 Tips for Creating and Running Your First Membership Site (Copyblogger)

Have you tried any of these methods for making money from your blog? Or are any of these on your to-do list for the future? Drop a comment below to let us know your experiences.

Seven Ways to Get More Comments on Your Blog

2014-03-23T19:18:00.001+05:00

Is there tumbleweed blowing through your blog’s commenting section? Do you write post after post, hoping for a response … only to get silence?

Maybe there are other signs of readers (like pageviews, tweets, Facebook shares, and so on), but what you really want is some feedback and conversation.

Here are seven ways to start getting more comments:

#1: Make Commenting Easy

Have you ever been put off commenting on a blog because you had to jump through hoops to do so? If your blog requires readers to sign in or complete CAPTCHAs in order to comment, try using a simpler commenting system where they can just leave their name and email address.

#2: Leave Room for Readers to Respond

In-depth posts are great, but they can sometimes leave readers feeling that there’s nothing left to add. To encourage comments, write a post that’s deliberately incomplete. By that, I don’t mean you should suddenly stop half-way … but you should avoid trying to cover every aspect of your topic. (List posts with an odd number of items can be good for this.)

#3: Invite Readers to Comment

This works well with #2: make sure that you explicitly invite readers to comment. That could mean writing something like “Do you have a tip to add? Let us know in the comments.” Don’t see this as asking for or begging for comments … you’re simply inviting readers to join in the conversation.

#4: Develop Relationships with Other Bloggers

Get to know fellow bloggers in your niche, especially any who have a blog at around the same level as yours (so don’t just concentrate on the A-listers). If you comment on their blogs, there’s a good chance that they’ll comment on yours too. These relationships are hugely valuable in so many other ways as well — these blogging “colleagues” might tweet your posts, or link to you in their blogroll.

#5: Always Reply to Comments

If you are getting comments, try to reply to them promptly (within a day or two, rather than weeks later). It’s discouraging for readers if they ask a question and have to wait ages for a reply — and other readers looking at the comments may be put off leaving one.

#6: Remove Spam Comments

Unanswered comments are off-putting, but spam comments can be even worse. If your comment section is riddled with spam, readers may well think that you don’t even read the comments. Use a plugin like Akismet to stop spam before it even hits your blog, and remove any spam comments that do creep through.

#7: Email a Blogging Friend

Finally, if you still don’t have any comments, get a fellow blogger to help break the ice: sometimes having just one or two comments can encourage many more. Email someone who you know well (perhaps you’ve met in real life, or you’ve talked on Skype) and ask if they would leave a quick comment on a specific post. Make sure you return the favour!

Have you found a great way to get more comments on your blog … or do you love one of the ideas above? Let us know your thoughts below!

9 Ways to Find a Domain Name for Any Site

2014-03-22T21:39:00.000+05:00

With dozens or even hundreds of domain search sites available, you can easily waste hours exploring all of them.

Instead of casting a wide net, do a targeted search based on your project.

Building an affiliate or AdSense site? Use a keyword-based domain site.

Creating a new business or blog? Find a memorable, brandable domain.

Below are the best domain search sites for any purpose.

For SEO and Niche Sites: Keyword-Rich Domains

Most domain search sites specialize in keyword-rich domains. Why? They’re in high demand and are easy to serve up to potential buyers.

Lean Domain Search is a quick way to find available domains containing your target keyword.

Bust a Name will combine your potential keywords and show you the available permutations.

Panabee is really basic but will show you a short list of options including keyword combinations, spelling variations, and keywords with simple modifiers like “go” or “it.”

For potentially higher-quality domains, try aftermarket site Sedo. The prices are higher, but the domains should be more desirable.

For New Companies/Projects: Brandable Domains

Brandable domains are not for SEO. They’re for people, not search engines, to remember.
To be brandable, a domain and business name must be short, unique, and memorable.

The domain should be less than ten letters, easily pronounceable (especially to English speakers), and be spelled how it sounds.

Real words with other meanings can work well but will be harder to brand with a new identity. Think Apple or Amazon. They’re also probably already taken or too expensive.

Wordoid is a great source of word-like domains that are pronounceable but available.

You can select how natural you want the domain to sound, in which language, how many characters (max), and a word or letter combo to include in the domain.

If you can’t find what you want on Wordoid, try Domainr.

Domainr will find available and very short domains, but you’ll be stuck with a tricky subdomain and extension combo like del.icio.us.

Give it a try, but Domainr is ideal for finding short URLs for existing sites.

For Quick Set Up: Domains with an Identity

If you want to hit the ground running, you can buy a package of a brandable domain with a logo and color scheme.

Both Stylate and BrandBucket resell domains with ready-made logos as a brand package.

Both sites sort domains by category, so you can browse the possibilities for your niche. Name and logo quality seem fairly equal. The biggest difference is price.

Every domain and logo package on Stylate is $250. BrandBucket’s packages start at $595 but most are multiple thousands of dollars. The latter does offer a larger selection however.

For Any Purpose: Domains Without Effort

You can find additional tools like the ones above on NameStation. Their biggest differentiator, however, is their domain name contests.

For just $35, you’ll get 100-300 suggestions of available domains based on a project description. Once ideas start coming in, you can vote on them to give the contest entrants more direction.

When you’re tapped out of ideas or just need a starting point, turn over your project to the masses and let them do the work for you.

Regardless of your project, you should be able to brainstorm domains with just one or two sites. What are your favorite domain search engines?

When Should You Start Monetizing Your Blog?

2014-03-22T21:34:00.000+05:00

“At what point in the progression of developing and managing your blog is it best to try to monetize?”

One DailyBlogTips reader asked this question in our recent survey. It might well be a question that you have too, if you’re hoping to make money from your blog.

And for most bloggers, the answer is sooner than you think!

In fact, it’s a good idea to put as much thought as you can into monetization before you even launch your blog.

If you want to make money, you need to see your blog as an integral part of a business, and you need a clear plan for how your business will make money.

You also need to think about how this will fit in with your blog.

It’s a good idea to set reader’s expectations from day one.

Even if you know you’re unlikely to make money in your first couple of months, make sure readers understand your blog isn’t just a hobby. (If you train them to think everything will be free forever, you may struggle to get their money when you do monetize!)

Depending on your monetization method, you might:

Choose your blog theme to allow for the easy placement of ads.
Focus on writing review posts with affiliate links in.
Add a “Hire me” page to your blog to promote your services.
Have a section about your upcoming ebook in your sidebar.

… and so on.

Of course, most bloggers accept they won’t make money from day one. You do need to get your blog online, write posts, and create something truly valuable for readers. But that doesn’t mean you need to wait to think about monetization until your blog’s been going for months (or even years).

If you haven’t launched your blog yet, make sure you spend some time thinking about how it will generate revenue for you. Advertising and affiliate links are popular and easy to get started with, but you might find it’s actually a lot faster to make money by offering a service or product.

If your blog is still quite new, make sure you prepare readers for any monetization that’s going to happen soon. For instance, you could throw in the occasional mention of the ebook you’re working on.

If your blog is well established, don’t hold back on monetizing because you’re afraid of readers’ reactions. You may get a bit of a backlash, but most readers will be accepting and even encouraging – especially if you monetize in a way that’s a win-win for you and for them.

Next week, I’ll be writing about ways to monetize a new blog, so stay tuned for that. If you’ve got any great tips or lessons learned, add them in the comments and I’ll pick some of the best to use in next week’s post.

Seven Reasons to Keep Blogging (Even When You Feel Like Quitting)

2014-03-22T20:07:00.000+05:00

Do you ever feel like giving up blogging?

Maybe you’ve had a bad week … or a bad month. You worked for hours on a post, only to get precisely zero comments.

Maybe you’re just really busy, and it’s tough to find time for your blog, even though you have great ambitions for it.

Maybe your friends and family just don’t understand blogging, and you’re starting to wonder what the point is too.

Here are seven reasons to keep blogging, even when you’re thinking about quitting.

Reason #1: You’re Building Something Unique

So much of what we do in life seems to make no real impact on the world around us. Doing chores, going to work, answering emails.

When you write a blog post, you’re creating something absolutely unique. It’s a piece of content that no-one else could have written – because every word comes from you. By sitting down and tapping keys on your keyboard for an hour or two, you’ve brought something totally new into the world.

And – regardless of how many readers you have – that’s an amazing and wonderful thing.

Reason #2: You’re Enjoying Yourself

Blogging is great fun. You get to write about topics that you’re really interested in. You get to sort through your thoughts and set them down on paper in a coherent way. And you get to hear from readers who’ve loved your posts (if that hasn’t happened to you yet, it will soon!)

Plenty of people blog just for the fun of it. They’re not worried about making money or even building a big audience. They just want to get their words out there.

If blogging’s no longer enjoyable for you, look for ways to get the fun back. That might mean shifting your blog’s topic slightly, or coming up with a creative spin on your usual posts.

Reason #3: You’re Learning New Skills

There’s a huge amount to learn as a blogger … in fact, the learning never really stops.

To begin with, you learn how to set up your blog on your chosen platform (probably WordPress or Blogger).

You learn how to change your blog’s theme, how to add widgets, and how to get it looking at least roughly the way you want it.

As time goes by, you learn lots more. You learn how to write well for the web. You learn how to use calls to action. You learn how to build relationships.

All of these skills are hugely valuable, and you can add them to your resume.

Reason #4: You’re Making New Friends

Blogs are a type of social media – and social media is (as the name suggests!) all about being social. Through blogging, you’ll meet all sorts of people who you’d never have come across otherwise.

You might have readers all around the world, and you might meet up with bloggers in your hometown. You’ll get to know fellow bloggers online, perhaps through Twitter, or by leaving comments on one another’s blogs.

These connections and friendships can be really rewarding: it’s great to be surrounded by people who “get” blogging!

Reason #5: You’re Helping People

Perhaps your blog has ten readers, and you want ten thousand. Even so, you’ve made a difference in the lives of each of those ten people. (And if you think about it, that’s quite impressive.)

Maybe your inspiring post gave a reader a new sense of resolve at a difficult time.

Maybe your funny post made them smile during a difficult day.

Maybe your how-to post helped them solve a problem in ten minutes, instead of spending hours struggling.

Don’t underestimate how much difference you’re making. Lots of readers won’t ever comment or email you – but they may still be very grateful for you and your blog.

Reason #6: You’re (Close to) Making Money

Money definitely isn’t everything … but you may well have got into blogging with the aim of making money from it.

Even if you’re only making a couple of dollars a month, it’s something. And if you’re making nothing at all, it’s just a matter of time.

Every single dollar you make through your blog was won entirely by your own efforts. You didn’t have to wait around for someone to employ you: instead, you went out there and made money by yourself.
That’s a brilliant position to be in. Even if your blog just provides a small side income, it gives you greater freedom – you’re not so reliant on the whims of bosses.

Reason #7: You’re on an Exciting Journey

Finally, you’ll never know what blogging will lead to.
It’s almost six years now since I started my first “pro” blog, with the aim of making some money at it.
Since then, I’ve been able to:

Quit my day job and make a living doing what I’ve always dreamed of – writing.
Speak at conferences and events in the US and UK.
Write a book in a well-known series (Publishing E-Books For Dummies, with Wiley).
Become co-editor of AWT Tips & Tricks, one of the blogs that inspired me six years ago.

If you give up on your blog now, you’ll never know where that journey would have taken you.

Over to you! Which of the above reasons inspires you most? And what other reasons would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments.

Get in Touch

We’d love to hear from you, whether you want to tell us about a post you loved, about a topic you wish we’d cover, or about a typo that you’ve spotted! Just head to our Contact page for ways to get in touch.

How to Remove Broken Links From Your Website

2014-03-22T20:01:00.005+05:00

Broken links are links on your website that point to pages that no longer exist. For instance, suppose you write a post linking to an article you found very interesting on another website. A couple of months down the road that website owner decided to delete the article, or to shut the website down completely. Your link will now be pointing to something that no longer exists, so it will be considered a broken link.

Why should you care about broken links?

First because it creates a bad experience for your visitors, as it’s pretty frustrating to click on a link expecting to find something there and get a 404 error.

Second, Google knows broken links are a bad experience for users, so it doesn’t like websites that contain too many broken links (i.e., it might reduce the search rankings of a page or website that has too many).

Now that you are convinced, here’s how to remove broken links from your website. Visit BrokenLinkCheck.com, put the URL of your website, and click on “Find broken links”. Depending on the size of your site you might need to wait some minutes.

If you want a more hardcore tool check out Xenu Link Sleuth (you’ll need to download and install this one though, so the above one is much easier to use).

Once the results are displayed go through each URL and remove the dead link. I suggest that whenever you delete a link you keep the anchor text there and add a “(Update: link no longer active)” message aside to it to let users know what happened there.

Repeat this process once a year or so to make sure your website will stay clean of broken links. Your visitors will thank you, and Google will reward you.

Five Great Writing Tricks to Enhance Any Blog Post

2014-03-22T20:00:00.002+05:00

You don’t need to invest years, months, or even days in becoming a great writer. These tricks are all ones you can use right now to enhance any post you write.

(Let me know any great ones I missed in the comments!)

#1: Cut Out Your First Paragraph

Look at your most recent post. Does it still make sense if you delete the whole of the first paragraph? (This will work more often than you might think.)

A lot of bloggers take a paragraph or two to “warm up” when they start a blog post. Often, the first paragraph can be cut off completely – leaving you with an introduction that gets straight to the point.

#2: Make Your Subheadings Match

The details count – and one way to make your post well-written (and trustworthy) is to match up your subheadings.

For instance in this post, all my subheadings start with a verb (“cut”, “make”, etc) and they’re all an instruction. I’ve also kept them around the same length: four or five words.

#3: Rewrite Long or Complicated Sentences

Imagine you’re reading a post and you have to pause to re-read the same sentence several times before you get what the author was trying to say. It’s frustrating, and it jolts you out of the flow of your reading.
When you edit, watch out for any long and/or complicated sentences. Rewrite them so that you have two or three sentences – or a list of bullet points.

#4: Use “You” More Than “I”

Unless you’re a celebrity or have an extremely loyal band of readers, they don’t really care about you and your experiences all that much.

Make sure your posts focus on the reader, offering something useful for them. An easy way to do this is to make sure you’re using the word “you” considerably more often than “I”. You might need to rewrite some paragraphs to make them “you”-centric.

#5: Include a Call to Action

A call to action is simply a request for the reader to do something, like leave a comment, share your post on social media, join your mailing list, etc.

It’s often placed at the end of your post, as that’s where readers naturally pause – but you can put calls to action elsewhere. (Did you spot the call to action earlier in this post?)

Which of these five tips do you like best … and what other tips could you add to our list? Let us know in the comments!

Nine Blogging Milestones to Celebrate

2014-03-22T19:58:00.000+05:00

You probably have some big goals (or dreams) for your blog.

Maybe you’d love to make a living online. Perhaps you hope to attract a large audience, or you’re aiming to become well-known in your field.

These goals can sometimes seem a very long way off, though. For many bloggers, it takes months to start to get the results they’re hoping for.

Instead of looking far ahead to a distant goal, focus on some of the milestones you’ve already achieved, and the ones which are coming up.

I’ve listed the milestones in roughly the order you’re likely to achieve them, but no two blogs (and bloggers) are the same — so you might well find that you’ve skipped some or reached others in a different order.

Milestone #1: Getting Your Blog Up and Running

Some people read about blogging, think about blogging, talk about blogging … but never get around to starting their blog.

The set-up stage can take a lot of time and thought — you may need to get your head around the techy side of things, or you might have tricky strategic decisions to make. If you’ve got yours online, that’s a great achievement.

Milestone #2: Publishing Your Second Post

Once your blog’s online, Post #1 is often not too tricky: you could, for instance, simply write a bit about the purpose of their blog and about who you are.

Post #2 is harder. I’ve seen a fair few blogs with just one post … ever. If you’ve got at least two posts on your blog, congratulations!

Milestone #3: Getting Your First Subscriber

You might get some initial traffic from Facebook friends or forum buddies, but it’s when you get your first subscriber that you know you’re on the right lines.

If someone’s signed up to follow your blog by RSS or email, it’s a safe bet that they liked what they saw. You’ve turned a casual visitor into a (hopefully) loyal reader.

Milestone #4: Getting Your First Tweet or Share

Once you have some readers, it’s only a matter of time before someone (other than you!) tweets one of your posts, or shares it on Facebook … or on LinkedIn, Google+, etc.

To reach this milestone a little sooner, make sure you have social sharing buttons on your posts. There are plenty of WordPress plugins that can do this. You may want to focus on one or two specific social networks, rather than providing dozens of buttons.

Milestone #5: Getting Your First Comment

In the early weeks of blogging, it might feel like you’re writing and writing … and no-one’s reading. Getting your first comment proves that at least one person is not only reading, they’re engaging.

If you’re struggling to get comments, check out some of the links (and some of the great comments) here: Seven Ways to Get More Comments on Your Blog.

Milestone #6: Getting Your First Link

The first time another blogger links to you is real proof you’re doing something right. It might be in their blogroll, in a weekly roundup post, or even in a post that tells their readers how much they’re enjoying your blog.

You might be tempted to hurry this one along with a link exchange (asking another blogger to link to your blog in return for a link to theirs). Keep in mind that Google may penalise you if you do this too much, plus link exchange requests can be irritating to other bloggers.

Milestone #7: Making Your First Dollar

Even if you’re not interested in making a living from your blogging, you might at least want to offset your hosting costs. The day you first make money from your blog — even if it’s just a dollar — is one to savour.
If you’re unsure how blogs make money, or if you’re looking for an easy-to-implement method, try our post Seven Ways Blogs Make Money — Which is Right For You?

Milestone #8: Writing Your First Post for Another Blog

There’s no rule saying that you have to guest post on other people’s blogs … but I’ve never met a successful blogger who hasn’t. Guest posts are a great way to get in front of a big audience, to build a relationship with well-known bloggers in your niche, and to get links.

You don’t need to have lots of readers in order to guest post (in fact, you can guest post even without a blog of your own). If you need a helping hand, read our Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Your First Guest Post.

Milestone #9: Getting a “Thank You” Email from a Reader

Comments are great … but there’s something particularly special about receiving an email from a reader to thank you for you post.

Maybe you wrote something that helped them solve a tricky problem in their life. Maybe your words encouraged them during a tough time. Whatever the situation, you made a difference — and that’s something to be truly proud of.

What would your #10 be? And which of these milestones have you already reached? Let us know in the comments…

How Broad or Narrow Should Your Blog’s Niche Be?

2014-03-22T19:51:00.000+05:00

One of the questions that’s come up a few times is how to select a niche, or how to fix problems with one. Usually, problems crop up because a niche is too broad or too narrow.

Is Your Niche Too Broad?

Here’s an example of too broad a niche … in fact, this blog doesn’t really have a niche at all:

My blog covers travel, health, personal development, Twitter, and watercolour painting.

While you might personally have a very wide range of interests, it’s not a good idea to combine these into one blog. Even if you have no intention of making money, you presumably want readers – and they’ll want a blog with a focus.

Fix it:

Choose a core topic (or two or three closely related topics) to focus on. For instance, it might make sense to combine health and personal development.
Write down what your blog is really about. You might find it’s useful to use bullet points here. Imagine you’re explaining your blog to a friend or a potential new reader.
Use different outlets for your other interests. If you have a blog on personal development, with a slant towards health, there’s nothing stopping you writing guest posts about watercolour painting.

Is Your Niche Too Narrow?

A very narrow niche might sound like a good idea, but in practice, it can be very tough to get traffic and readers. A too-narrow niche is also a common cause of burnout: you simply run out of things to say, or lose interest.

It might look like this:

Best brushes for watercolour painting.

While that could make a great blog post or even a great series, it’s not going to be an easy topic for a whole blog.

In my experience, bloggers often choose a too-narrow niche not because they’re passionately interested in it but because they hope it’ll make money. The truth is that a slightly broader niche will usually serve you better.

Fix it:

Move one step up from your current topic. From best brushes for watercolour painting, you might choose to blog about painting tools (brushes, canvases, etc) or you might blog about watercolour painting.
Consider buying a new domain. Perhaps your current domain name restricts your topics too much, and it’s time to find a new one.
Rethink how your blog makes money. Very niche sites are often monetised with affiliate marketing or ads. There’s nothing wrong with that, but you might find a broader niche is easier to monetise in other ways (e.g. by selling products or services).

What’s your blog’s niche? Do you think it’s too narrow or too broad? Let us know in the comments!

How Should You Monetize a New Blog?

2014-03-22T19:41:00.000+05:00

You’ve got a new blog – maybe it’s been running for a few days or a few weeks. (Or perhaps you’re still in the planning stages.)
How should you monetize?
(And if you’re wondering whether it’s too soon, check out this post from last week where we looked at why you can and should monetize your blog right from day one.)

As I see it, there are two really good options for a brand new blog.

Option #1: Affiliate Links

Although affiliate marketing sometimes gets a bad rap, it’s a straightforward way to make money, and (done with integrity) it creates a win-win-win situation for you, your reader, and the product creator.

Many digital products (like ebooks, software and membership sites) offer an affiliate program, where you can sign up to earn commission on any sales you generate. If you own any digital products, look for an “Affiliates” section on their website, or contact the creator to ask if there’s an affiliate program. Often, you’ll get a 50% cut.

If you want to promote physical products, Amazon will give you a small percentage of sales – this could work out very well if you blog about laptops, cameras, phones, or anything else where readers are likely to buy high-priced products. If you mainly promote books and other low-priced products, though, it can take a long time to make any money like this.

Tip: Only promote products you own and like. Don’t sign up as an affiliate for a product you’ve never used – it could badly backfire if a reader buys on your recommendation. Always be honest when reviewing products, and let readers know any drawbacks.

Option #2: Services

Creating a product up-front is probably going to take more time than you have – but how about selling a service instead?

Hopefully, you have a few skills that relate to your niche. For instance, on my site Aliventures I blog about writing – and I could feasibly sell my services as a blogger, an editor, a proof-reader, a writing coach, and so on. (In fact, I’ve done all of these in my time.)

Don’t underestimate yourself here. Skills that may seem second-nature to you could be very valuable to someone else. Let’s say you’ve started ten blogs and you’re now great at installing WordPress, setting up plugins, tweaking themes, and so on. You could offer blog setup to people who aren’t so techy minded.

Tip: Offer your services for free to a few selected people, and get them to give you feedback so you can improve. Ask them for a testimonial that you can include on your website: this will be a big help in persuading potential customers that you’re reputable.

So why haven’t I mentioned one of the most popular options out there – running adverts on your site? Many new bloggers want to monetize using ads – but it’s rarely a good way to make money. You need a lot of traffic to make ads worthwhile, and while they can provide a nice extra stream of income, you’re unlikely to make a living from them.

(To give you an example here, it took me 11 months of blogging to get my first $100 from Google Adsense, and just a couple of months to make that much through freelance blogging.)

If you’ve been blogging for a while, tell us what monetization techniques worked best for you in the early days of your blog. And if you’ve got a new blog, or you’re about to get started, leave a comment to tell us how you’ll be monetizing.

Is your blog cross-browser compatible?

2014-03-21T16:25:00.002+05:00

People usually design a website or a blog for one specific browser, and that is the browser they use to navigate. Should they load the site on a different browser, however, it is probable that some unpleasant surprises will appear.
Most of the new websites are based on Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), a technique that allows developers to have more control over the look and feel of the pages, making sure that the elements are consistent throughout the site.
Unfortunately not all browsers interpret CSS commands on the same way, creating discrepancies such as misaligned sidebars, overlapping text and the like. The only way to solve the problem is to test your website on the many different browsers that people might use to access it.
Now, installing on your computer a version of every single browser out there would be time consuming, to say the least. What if you could find a service that takes screenshots of your site in different browsers and report them back to you?

That is exactly what Browsershots.org does. All you need to do is to type the URL of your site, select the browsers you want to test and wait some minutes to see the screenshots. The service includes all the versions of IE, Firefox, Safari and Opera and you can even select different screen resolutions.

Create your own “Advertise” page

2014-03-21T16:21:00.000+05:00

There are many advertising networks out there connecting content publishers (i.e. bloggers) with advertisers. The advantage of those networks is that they can tap a wide range of advertisers, something that would be very difficult for a small blogger. Secondly they also have economies of scale to deal with thousands of ads monthly and consequently a higher credibility.

That said, such networks also have a huge drawback, they usually eat half of your money. Text-Link-Ads, for instance, places simple text links on your site. You can decide the amount of links you want to put on your blog, and based on a couple of parameters (traffic, topic, pagerank, etc.) they will calculate a monthly price per link. Suppose the price is $50 monthly per link, this means that an advertiser will pay $50 dollars to put the link on your site, but you will receive only $25 and Text-Link-Ads will eat the other $25.

Subscribing with advertising networks can be an option if you don’t have time to sell advertising yourself or if just want to make a couple of bucks to pay your hosting bills. If you are serious about your blog and if the traffic is starting to grow steadily, however, I highly recommend that you create your own “Advertise” page to deal directly with potential advertisers, cutting out the middle man.

You can customize your advertise page in whatever way you prefer, but a good way to structure it is to divide the page in three main paragraphs. On the first paragraph you need to describe what topic your site deal with, who are your readers (age, geographical locations, profession, or anything else that describes them) and what kind of traffic or exposure the site is receiving. Notice that the more precise you get the better.

Screenshots with Firefox

2014-03-21T16:17:00.000+05:00

“People often take screenshots of web pages for miscellaneous reasons – when designing a page, debugging a web application, or even for graphical reference. Usually, though, only a portion of the screenshot is actually relevant to the user’s purpose, leading to a large portion of the image getting cropped. This can be time consuming, and annoying at times.”

If you ever faced similar problems the solution for you is called Snapper. This Firefox extension will allow you to select only a part of web pages, cutting out the unnecessary crap, and it will automatically export the picture as a PNG file.

5 things that your blog doesn’t need

2014-03-21T16:15:00.005+05:00

The More Minimal blog has a very interesting post listing “5 things that your blog doesn’t need”:

Badges
Social bookmarking buttons
Google AdSense insertions (when your blog has low traffic)
The Really Big Blogroll
Unrequested media (i.e. Background music)

I agree with most of the items. Badges, buttons and other intrusive objects just clutter the blog without adding to the reader experience.

Focus on timeless content

2014-03-21T16:15:00.000+05:00

Unless you are blogging about news-related topics you should focus your writing on timeless content. This means that what you write should be useful today, tomorrow, 1 year from now and possibly 5 years from now.

Blogs that are focused on news or current events die as soon as the articles stop coming on a consistent basis. If you write timeless content, on the other hand, people will still be reading your blog for months or years after you stop writing as long as the content has some value for them,

Jerome’s Keywords

2014-03-21T16:13:00.003+05:00

WordPress is one of the best blogging platforms around. It is reliable, customizable and it gives you full control over your blog. One of the useful features of WordPress is the existence of plugins, which can be used to solve particular problems or to add functionalities to your blog.
Jerome’s Keywords is a very good WordPress plugin to manage keywords, here is a list of what you will be able to do with the plugin:

add tags to each post (compatible with Technorati)
implement a local tag system
create a local tag cosmos
add keywords to meta tags on the header

If you still do not have a keyword manager on your WordPress blog you can check Jerome’s Keywords
here.

200 Prefixes and Suffixes for Domain Names

2014-03-21T16:12:00.000+05:00

If you ever tried to register some domain names you probably know how difficult it is to find something that has not been registered yet. You start with an idea for a cool website (excitement), then you narrow down a couple of keywords (more excitement) and suddenly “Damn! Who the heck registered that already!”Â (anger)…

One of the most effective ways to find a free domain name that is relevant to your site is to grab a keyword and add prefixes or suffixes to it, until you find something unique. Suppose you want to launch a blog about marketing, all you have to do is pick the word marketing and start adding prefixes like “emarketing.com”, “promarketing.com”, “polimarketing.com” or suffixes like “marketingspot.com”, “marketingvox.com” or “marketingpulse.com”.

Below you will find more than 200 prefixes and suffixes, so just grab your keyword and run through the list, sooner or later you will find some unique combination that no one has registered yet. Good luck!
Update: If you like this list, consider purchasing my book “Killer Domains.” It has an even bigger list with over 400 prefixes ans suffixes, and many tools and techniques to find good domain names.

Classic suffixes:

house
central
point
home
place
garden
site
spot
park
dome
bay
web
net
cave
base
heaven
portal
world
camp
network
county
street
city
alley
depot
valley

Other suffixes:

now
resources
tools
source
review
system
book
guide
talk
data
vision
load
box
focus
beat
voice
share
cafe
nexus
zone
sight
link
lab
insight
vine
board
flow
signs
network
wire
cast
ville
nation
egg
cove
news
today
future
fun
watch
story
fever
coast
side
road
heat
bite
insider
club
connect

Classic prefixes:

the
my
i
me
we
you
e
top
pro
best
super
ultra
all
cyber
simply
free
1st

Other prefixes:

meta
re
metro
urban
head
hit
front
techno
ever
rush
think
solo
radio
vip

Adjectives that can be used as prefixes:

hot
smart
cool
hot
fast
fresh
sleek
first
daily
best
sharp
light
classic
fast
great
quick

Latin prefixes:

ubi (when)
bis (twice)
ad (to, towards)
ambi (both)
inter (between)
liber (free)
mono (single)
poli (many)
tele (distant)
omni (all)
exo (outside)
extra (addition)
hyper (over)
hypo (under)
intro (within)
proto (first)
intra (within)
micro (little)
macro (large)
multi (many)
neo (new)
iso (equal)
mono (one)

Latin words that can be used both as prefix and suffix:

io (I in Italian)
virtus (virtue)
ego (me)
vox (voice)
ex (out of)
ideo (idea)
novo (renew)
novus (novelty)
pax (peace)
rex (king)
velox (fast)
verus (true)
vivo (alive)
nova (new)

Multipliers prefixes:

pico
nano
micro
milli
kilo
mega
giga
tera
peta

Scientific prefixes:

aero
cosmo
deca
eco
geo
hex
oxy
uni
poly

Words that work both as prefix and suffix:

media
direct
access
ez
easy
info
interactive
biz
buzz
bit
byte
up
tech
on
out
auto
pulse
x
venture
trend
life
retro
secret

FileZilla FTP Client

2014-03-21T16:10:00.001+05:00

Whether you have a blog or a normal website one of the most important applications that you will use is the FTP. The File Transfer Protocol is the most efficient way to get pictures or files to and from the server that is hosting your site.

Not all FTP programs are the same, though. One of the best alternatives around is the FileZilla. This open source FTP client is fast and reliable and it also has all the advanced features that you will probably ever need.

You can download FileZilla here.