Skimlinks has released a “Ways to Monetize Your Website” infographic that is really comprehensive.

Related posts:

1. Monetizing Online Forums – The Right Way
2. Does It Matter that Your Website is Outdated?
3. 27 Ways to Promote your Website without Google

Seven easy steps to start blogging now

One of the best business marketing tools is a blog.  Needless to say, blogging has been a major part of my business and marketing plan since 2005.  

In February 2005, I started blogging to promote and market my professional service firm.  And what still amazes me, it worked and worked well.  Blogging gives even a small marketing budget business the opportunity to position themselves as an authority on their particular area.

What I hear often from businesses and others looking at blogging and using a blog is how do I get started. Frankly, it has never been easier to gain a web presence then is it today.

Blogging is also one of the original social media tools and remains in my opinion, still one of the best social media tools.  I have stated in the past, “blogging was social media before social media even knew it was social media.”  

WordPress.com?

Yes, you can quickly get a free blog up and going in under 10 minutes with WordPress.com  However, I and others do not recommend you use WordPress.com as your web presence.  

So, how do you get started blogging?  

Here are some quick and simple steps for starting your own blog

1.  Purchase your domain.

A domain name is your address on the world wide web.  It is your real estate so to speak.  Your store front. Your domain is you.

I purchase my domains now from Name.com and they are great.  Before you do anything, give some serious thought to what your domain should be and go buy it right now.  Don’t wait as good domains go fast.  And like land or other real estate, people tend to hold on  to good domains.  Once they are gone, they are gone.

2.  Purchase your hosting.

Hosting is the actual server or location where your site runs.  This is where your data resides.  Think of your hosting server as that black tower you have sitting on or under your desk.  Except, it is located somewhere else.  

To run a self-hosted WordPress.org site you have to have hosting.  

One host provider we recommend is HostGator.  I have used them for sometime and run one of my own sites on HostGator.  They are reasonably priced and have great service.  

3.  Install WordPress on your site.

In my opinion and the opinion of approximately 38,000,000 others, WordPress is the best blogging software out there.  Most host providers, HostGator included, offer a one-click install of WordPress.  Use that method to get WordPress installed on your site.

Once you have WordPress installed, log into your WordPress admin and get started.  When you first set up your site on your host and start WordPress, you will be taken to your WordPress admin login page.  Typically this is your domain with an extension.

For example, to login to your site, go to http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin/

If you run into any issues installing WordPress, hit your host up for help.  

4.  Some initial settings need to be tweaked on your site

Right after you log in the first time, there are some basic settings in WordPress you will want to make.  

• Permalinks - This is under Settings —> Permalinks.  Clicks on “Post Names” and change your permalinks to that setting.  Example – http://yourdomain.com/sample-post/  This setting just makes more sense and it is good for your SEO too.
• Privacy Settings – This is also under Settings —> Privacy.  You want to make sure your site is not being blocked to the search engines.  You can leave this setting on until you are done building your site.  Just make sure you go back and unblock your site.
• Discussion Settings – Under Settings —> Discussion is where you control moderation of your posts comments or not.  Make this setting “Before a comment appears, an administrator must always approve comment.”  I moderate all comments on all my blogs.  You want to filter this.  And if anyone objects, remind them this is your blog.  I talk about moderating comments a lot on this blog.
• Reading Settings – Under Settings —> Reading  Here is where you can set whether you have a home page and a blog or not.  We can discuss this more in the comments if you would like.

Let me briefly add to what I mentioned above about moderating comments.

Don’t allow them to publish until you have checked them all to make sure they are proper for your blog.  Yes, this is going to take some time and effort on your part.  However I and others moderate our comments.  And we do so because we want to protect our readers.

We also don’t want some of the crap some put in comments to be on our blogs.  Your readers will appreciate the fact you are moderating comments and they will feel you are paying attention to them.

5.  Do you need a theme?

Unless you can code your own WordPress theme, yes you do.  A theme is basically a template or in the case of our own WordPress theme, a framework you can use to build your own WordPress theme.  There are literally thousands of free WordPress themes.  And there are some awesome premium themes and frameworks which will take an investment of money on your part.  Our own company, Headway Themes is such a WordPress theme/framework.  

If you feel overwhelmed, don’t have the time or would rather have your site professionally done, there are tons of professional developers out there.  

6.  Must have plugins

One of the huge advantage of WordPress is the fact there are now over 14,000 plugins you can use to enhance your blogsite.  They are like the options you put on your car.

Here are some I feel are must have:

• Your blog will get spam no matter what.  Get Askimet.
• You need to do backups of your site.  My must have for backing up my sites and a lot of other uses is BackupBuddy.  Yes it cost some money.  But, you buy car and home owners insurance don’t you.  BackupBuddy is just like insurance.  
• If you theme or framework doesn’t offer you top quality SEO, get All In One SEO Pack.
• Another great SEO tool is Scribe.  Scribe actually helps you write better post too.
• You are going to want to put forms on your site to gather information and allow people to contact you.  Without a doubt the best form plugin is Gravity Forms.  
• If you want to add ecommerce to your site, we recommend JigoShop.
• Need to provide a way for your world wide visitors to translate your site, get WPML.  It works great.

7.  Finally, get your rear busy writing content

Your goal is to educate your audience. In order to do that, you need content.  Get busy now and start writing content.  I will take some time in the very near future to discuss this step further.

Final thoughts

Leave your questions and comments below.  Ask any question you have now and let’s keep the conversation going on this.  

Related posts:

1. Beginner Blogger – Quick Start Guide to Getting Your Blog Online
2. Running for Your Blog… (Or is that Running Away From It?)
3. Please take our quick survey

I have known Patrick O’Keefe for sometime now.  In fact, I still have his book, Managing Online Forums on my bookself.  If there is one person who knows more than anyone on the subject, that person is Patrick.

Forums have been around since cave carving too.  Seriously, when we look at social media, what form of social media has been around longer than forums?  None that I can think of.

Recently I had the opportunity to get a first look at a new book Patrick just published.  What is awesome about this new book it is in the form of an e-book so you can simply download it and start reading.

Monetizing Online Forums: A Practical Guide To Generating Revenue From Forums – The Right Way is in a word, complete.  And I don’t say that lightly either.

Personally, I have used forums on a membership site.  We use forums as a major part of the support we provide at Headway Themes.  I have been a member on forums as long as I can remember.  

Patrick’s book sets things out for  the new and experienced forum users in an order which takes you from advertising to subscriptions.  He gives you an inside look at whether you should be doing affiliate marketing or placing ads.  

Patrick’s book is one of those books I wish could have had 5 years ago.  

When Patrick first approached me about the e-book, I assumed it was going to cost readers money.  It should for that matter.  But, this thing is FREE.  You read that right, FREE.  And this is not just one of those quick and easy 5 to 10 page e-books.  This thing is over 90 pages and it is packed full of everything you need to know to make money with a forum and do it right.  

Enough of me trying to convince you to go grab this thing.  Just do it.  Its free and you will learn from it too.

Just in case you are wondering, those are not affiliate links to the book and no, I don’t get anything from Patrick for this review.  In fact, I received nothing more from Patrick then you will if you go download Monetizing Online Forums: A Practical Guide To Generating Revenue From Forums – The Right Way and read it.  

Related posts:

1. Monetizing Your Website
2. How to be found online as a small business
3. Online Business School Launches Today

I am all for redesigning and working on your blog design and layout.  However, where too many go wrong is they just can’t stop tinkering with things.

One mistake I see bloggers make is not letting their new design or layout sit for a few days.  Give your readers a chance to see it for a while.  Allow them to comment and leave their thoughts on what you have done too.

What you don’t want to do is keep changing things around day after day after day.  

If this is what you find yourself doing, chances are you really didn’t  do enough pre-planning for that new design.  Build the new design on a test site and don’t take it live.  This way only you see it.  But, you should let this new look sit a bit even if you are the only one looking.  

Like your readers, give yourself a chance to get use to it.  Look at it and leave it alone. Go back and look again, leave it alone.  What do you like and what don’t you like about it?  If you need a second set of eyes, give a trusted friend access so they can give some input too.

The great thing about WordPress Frameworks/Themes and WordPress itself is you can do so much with them. Some WordPress Frameworks make is super easy to make changes. Even on the fly.  The bad thing is you can do so much with them.  

Don’t be an over tinkerer.  

Related posts:

1. How To Make A Better First Impression With Your Blog Without An Expensive, Custom Blog Design
2. The New Design for Blog For Profit
3. Blog design matters

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine today and we were discussing the Internet.We do that too often as that is what geeks do.

The conversation turned to a question one might ask someone in a job interview.

Can you diagram the Internet?  What is the Internet to you?

Here was my answer.

I am plugged into the world and have a global office in my basement in a town of 4,000 people in the middle of corn and wheat fields in the middle of Kansas.  That is the Internet.

As a small business owner, the Internet is what I like to call the “force multiplier.”  Think about that for just a moment.

If you sell an actual hands on product, widgets for example, the Internet puts you on equal if not superior footing than the store downtown.  If you are selling products, you have 

a global market the second you flip the switch on that new Web site you just built.  The store downtown most likely is self-limiting themselves to their local market.  

Build your own online store on a solid framework and open your doors to the world.  That is the Internet. 

Leave your comments and let’s discuss what the Internet is to you.

Related posts:

1. 12 Ways You Are As Powerful As He Man If You Use The Internet
2. Things not to do on an internet marketing blog
3. What are you Blogging? Part 3 of 5…

“Where do you get ideas for blog posts?”

It’s by far the most popular question I get whenever I talk about blogging, especially blogging for business.  I’ve been blogging since 2004 and although I’ve gone through periods where I haven’t blogged regularly due to a variety of reasons, lack of ideas has never been one of them.  So how do I answer that question?

Honestly, I find inspiration everywhere, from conversations with family  to  magazines I read, but some of my favorite places to find ideas are:

1. Forums: I pay attention to conversations that are taking place on forums that potential clients frequent.  What are they talking about?  What are their pain points?  What information are they looking for?  It usually doesn’t take me very long once I log onto a forum to find a new topic  or two for blog posts.

2. Personal experience: Some of my recent blog posts on my Tips from T.Marie blog have to do with my own personal customer service experiences.  Our life experiences teach us a variety of lessons, why not share those lessons with others?  For example, if I’ve had a particularly good (or bad) customer service experience I ask myself why?  Then I ask myself if there are aspects of that experience that I can learn from and apply to my own life and/or business.  A blog post practically writes itself that way.

3. Social Media: The conversations taking place on social media often will spark ideas for new blog posts.  A Twitter tweet, something shared on Google+, Facebook status messages, LinkedIN group messages, even infographics discovered on Pinterest have all been the starting point for some of my blog posts.  There’s a huge variety of topics I find on social media.  One day it may be something that sparks a post about feeling less isolated in a home office and on another it may inspire me to share my opinion about the industry I belong to.  Sometimes the simplest tweet can prompt the best blog posts.

4. Blogs: The same way that social media inspires ideas, so too do other peoples blog posts.  We’re not talking about using another person’s content here, we’re talking about reading their content and creating a post of my own that gives my thoughts on the same subject, or addresses something connected to it.  I have my Google Reader set up to  feed me my favorite blogs so that I don’t miss the opportunity to find my next post. (yes, Blog for Profit is on that list!)

5. Comments: Comments from readers on my own blogs, others blogs or even news articles have been the basis for quite  a few blogs posts over the years. Oftentimes a commenter on a post will bring up questions or a new train of thought that is perfect for expanding on with a post.

The secret to utilizing all of these idea starters is recognizing them as such.  As a blog author it’s sort of like being a detective, you always should have the search for topics in the back of your mind.  That way when you discover a ‘clue’ you’ll recognize it!

Related posts:

1. Beginner Blogger – Where do I get ideas for my blog post?
2. Building a Successful Blog — Part 15 — Where to find ideas for your blog post
3. From Problogger “Why Did Your Last Blog Post Fail? 13 Questions to Ask”

When you spend any time at all looking at other sites, whether they be a blog or a static web site, you see the good and the bad.

What amazes me the most about other sites is just how hard some of them are to read.  For that matter, just how hard some of them are to even look at.

One of the problems today is the fact many of the tools we can use to build our sites give even the average user the ability to do some amazing things.  And when we talk about WordPress powered sites, let’s not forget there are over 14,000 WordPress plugins now people can use on their sites.

Now all of that is good.  But, at the same time it is also bad.

If there is one aspect of your site too many forget it is they have to remember the reader’s experience.  Basically, you have to look at your site from the eyes of a reader.

Questions to ask

When you are thinking about your site and building your site, ask yourself some simple questions.

• Do the colors I have picked make it difficult for my readers to read my site?  Yes, that dark background and light text is cool.  But, is it readable?
• Is the font I am using making it difficult for my readers to read my site?  Yup, that awesome new font is so cool and amazing, but can it be read without giving my readers a headache?
• Does the width of the column my content is located in too wide so my readers get lost on the page while they read it?  Or is it so narrow my readers get dizzy jumping from line to line?
• Does that auto-play video drive traffic from my site?  While that auto-play video or music player is the next great WordPress plugin, is it something I should really be using.  If I am using it, what is my bounce rate and how long is my traffic hanging around.  Hint:  Don’t have music or videos auto-play.
• Does that really cool animated gif cause my readers to throw up from motion sickness?  Again, this is a cool web feature and if used right can really be effective. But, do you really need it on your site to get your message out?
• Have I made it easy for my readers to subscribe to my updates?  Don’t hide your subscription options.  Put them right in front of your readers and do so often.  (We will have post just on this subject).
• Does my navigation make it easy for my readers to navigate my site?  This is another feature you should not hide with cute stuff.  Put your navigation right in front of your readers.
• When I look at my content, is the sentence structure easy to read?  Do I use short sentences and short paragraphs?
• Do I use bullet points and sub-headings in my content?
• Have I provided a way for my readers to share my content with others?
• Are my blog post titles so small people don’t see them?
• Do I use images to re-enforce the point of my content?

I could go on and on and on.  However, I am stopping and going to just give you one example of what I consider to be one of the easiest blogs to read.

Jim Connolly’s Jim’s Marketing Blog is such a blog.  I know Jim personally and consider him a friend.  What I do know about Jim’s blog is the fact he has put a lot of thought and work into making his blog easy to read, navigate and one you want to dive in and use.

Yes there are other blogs out there which do the same.  But, Jim’s blog is simple, clean and uncluttered.  Plus, if you notice, Jim’s blog is not full of fancy coding or fancy features.  He highlights the content.

Add to the list

Now it is your turn.  Add your own items to the questions one should ask when they are looking at their own site.

Leave a comment and let’s keep the conversation going.

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Going where your audience is, is where a lot of marketing fails.  Don’t get me wrong, I love social media tools like twitter and Facebook.  We use them both on a daily basis. 

In fact, when we launched our own product Headway Themes on July 31st, 2009, we literally launched it with one tweet.  And that one tweet was heard around the world.  

But, to do that we had a huge build up and we spent at least 2 or 3 months building a social media network.  And that network helped us get that one tweet out by retweeting and tweeting it.

Now, let me give you another example of how you can use social media such as Facebook to get the word out to your target audience.

I realize this might be a bit biased and a bit of self-promotion.  This is my blog and I can do that.  However, this is really a great example of what you can do even on a small scale to build a business using social media.

Jill Griffiths, yes our daughter-in-law has what amounts to an almost exclusive online business called Hats & Knit Knacks.  And to get the word out, she uses a Facebook page called, you guessed it Hats & Knit Knacks.  

On that page, she gives a brief history of what she is doing and why she is doing this.  She uses a perfect model to show off her work.  Our grandson, so of course he is perfect.  And, just in case you can’t tell.  The photos are done by a professional photographer.  

My point in addition to getting the word out about her online business, is to show you that even a small biz can use social media to promote their products.  

And just in case you want to ask.  Yes, I am sure we will be setting her up an online store soon using Headway and Jigoshop for the shopping cart.  

Related posts:

1. Blogging and Social Media – Benefits of Social Media Marketing
2. Why Should I Care About or Even Bother With Social Media?
3. Building a Successful Blog — Part 4 — Social Media

First of all, to all of my old readers, I am sorry I have been away.  For whatever reason, I 
have just not had it in me to spend the time I wanted and you deserved to write anything here on Blog For Profit.  

I had every intention to do so months ago.  But, as life would have it, we get busy and distracted by other things.  And that has surely happened for me and my family these last months.

Where to now?

If there is one thing being away for the last serval months has done is to give me a fresh look on things as far as blogging for profit is concerned.  I have been watching the conversations taking place in social media.  Been reading and watching what is happening on blogs too.  And to be very frank, some of what I have seen has been a bit disappointing.  

Too many bloggers have lost sight of what blogging truly is.  Too many business bloggers especially have forgotten just how important a blog is to their overall business marketing.  It is time businesses get back to what is important and that is connecting with their market, audience, customers and potential customers.

I fear too many businesses are looking at “social media” as the easy way out.  Too many are looking to Facebook and twitter to be the end all to all of their marketing needs.  

Guess what kids, blogging is still one of the best ways to connect with and communicate with your audience.  

It is time that conversation gets going again here too.  

Sure, we won’t be ignoring Facebook, Twitter and god forbid Google+.  Those are still tools we need to use.  But, they are not going to replace the power of blogging for a business.  

We are going to look at all of the “things” we can do online to connect with our audience.

There is something you have to do.  Some of what will be coming will be long post and short ones.  If I get a quick idea or thought, it is going here.  And if I get long winded, again, it is going here.  But, I need your help.  Blog For Profit is a conversation.  And I want you to get involved in that conversation too. Comment, ask questions, argue and discuss things.  Do that here and do it on those other social media outlets we have already mentioned.  

In addition, while we have the conversation going here, we will be working on a new look and design for Blog For Profit. I am not sure where that is going yet, but it should be fun.

Thank you!!!

And thanks to all of you who have stuck around and to all of you for coming back.  If we do anything, lets have fun.

Related posts:

1. 12 Ways You Are As Powerful As He Man If You Use The Internet
2. Blogging And Social Media
   Should Not Be Overlooked By Small Business
3. Blogging is More Than Just Simply Marketing

One of the most requested leafs around the Headway community is one which presents content in tabbed panels. And just as often, we get asked if there’s a leaf which does tabbed widgets. As of now, the answer is yes to both, and what’s more, they are one in the same leaf!

Our Australian developer, Chris Howard – known for the hugely popular Excerpts+ and Gallery+ leafs – now brings another brilliant leaf to the “plus” series, Tabs+.

Tabs+ adds native tabbed content support to Headway Themes and the content can be posts, excerpts, pages and even widgets. Furthermore, as well as standard horizontal and vertical tabs, it also supports vertical accordion style tabs.

Have you ever wanted to shrink your page so the user doesn’t have to scroll so much? Maybe you show your 10 most recent posts on the home page but your home page is becoming unweildingly long? No worries.  Tabs+ accordion layout is just what you’re looking for!

Ever wanted to group your widgets and minimize the space they take up in the sidebar?  No worries, Tabs+ tabbed horizontal widgets is just what you need!

Those are just two examples of how Tabs+ will help tidy up your pages, and bring more content into the immediate view of your readers. Best of all, the content in the inactive tabs is only being hidden from your readers.  It is still visible to search engines, so your SEO is not affected.

 

 

 

 

Features

• Layouts: Vertical and horizontal tabs; Vertical accordions
• Content types: Posts (Full/Excerpt), Pages, Widgets
• Thumbnails in tabs
• Option for tab titles to display Text, Numbers or Bullets
• Custom text for tab titles
• Tabs can be changed by: Mouse click; Mouse hover; Double click; or Automatically
• Tabs and panels styling
• Background styling can take single HTML colours, multiple ofr gradients, or full CSS declarations for complex gradients
• Extensive CSS classes for designers to customize even further

The following shows a couple of examples

 

 

Widgets in tabs with styled backgrounds

 

Posts in accordion style layout

You can see more demos at Tabs+ Demo

We’re really excited about Tabs+, it is the leaf we and so many others have been waiting for. Like the other “plus” series leafs, it’s an absolute steal at $25. Get it now from the Headway Dashboard. It rocks!

If you’re not a Headway user already, you can see now why people are raving about it. Headway Theme framework for WordPress is simple and easy for non-coders, and powerful and flexible for developers and designers. Grab a copy today and get started making great looking sites quicker than you could imagine.

Related posts:

1. Introducing Excerpts+ Leaf v2 for Headway Themes
2. Headway Themes Black Friday Sale – 50% Off Today Only
3. Just released, Headway Themes 1.7 Beta