You want to know what the really rich guys do that the rest of us don’t?

They use maths.

They use statistics.

They measure, track, tweak and remove as much guesswork from their business activities as possible.

And as my traffic and readership continues to grow I’m starting to see why. A small change in my opt in form design could result in dozens of missed email subscribers every day. And that works out to a lot of potential customers down the track.

I’ve made a video to show you how to create a split test for your opt in forms to mathematically get more email subscribers.

The post that follows is a bit of background in to what is going on and why everyone should be doing it.

What exactly is a split test?

If you are new to all this stuff you are probably wondering what the heck a split test is!

Simply put:

A split test (or A/B test) is where you run two versions of the same advert and see which one performs the best.

Today the “advert” that we are talking about is our email subscriber opt-in form where we ask people to enter their name and email address and subscribe to our blog.

Why bother?

A few years ago I thought this stuff was for people who had too much time. I honestly thought that it wouldn’t result in a huge difference to my subscriber levels and my time would be better spent producing new content.

I was wrong.

Now I believe the reverse is true: why bother spending time creating all that amazing content if your subscriber form is not working at its absolute best?

What an absolute waste of time.

Split testing two different versions of your email subscription form is one of the most worthwhile things that you can do for your blog or website.

Creating a split test for your opt-in forms, the video

Let’s now watch the video so you can see how the whole process works with Aweber.

As you can see, it takes around two minutes and gives you data that could make a huge difference to your profit margin.

This was one of the main reasons I switched to Aweber for my email marketing and subscriber service.

What elements of your opt-in form should you test?

Now that I have (hopefully!) convinced you that split testing is the new black you are probably wondering what elements of your forms you can change and measure.

Here are some suggestions that I have tried out myself.

• The copy
  The first and most obvious thing is to run different versions of copy. You might want to change what the header says or what the main pitch is about. This is often the major turn on/off for potential subscribers.
• The font size
  Header and copy font size can play a big part in how visible, noticeable and actionable your opt-in form is. Play around with larger fonts.
• The colors
  Do your colors match your branding and blog design? Does it matter? Do louder colors get more attention but result in less subscribers. These are the types of things you need to test.
• The “submit” button text
  The submit button is a really big player in subscriber rates. Some people find they have more luck with a forceful statement like “Sign Up Now!” and other people find that less committing statements like “Get Started” work a lot better. Brian Clark once commented that he thought the words “Subscribe” sound too much like something you pay for and should be avoided. Test that!
• The use of images
  I used to run a version of my sidebar ad that had a picture of the free eBook in it. That’s gone now after some split testing showed it didn’t perform as well.
• The use of social proof
  Social proof is where you use statements like “Join 200,000 others who have already subscribed” to encourage people to sign up. The psychology behind these statements is that people hate being first and really want to know that they aren’t alone. But sometimes this might have a negative effect if people feel like they aren’t getting something fresh and new and exclusive.
• A different free giveaway
  Maybe it is your free eBook that is hurting your sign up rates. Try a form without one or with a different one and see how things go.

You need to set some really concrete goals here otherwise you could spend your whole life tweaking and testing things that don’t matter. The more study and reading you do, the more you will get a feel for what elements need to be changed and just focus on them.

What makes you sign up?

Can you think of any element of an opt-in form that really makes you want to sign up? Please leave a comment and let me know. We might get some really cool information.

(If you’ve ever done split testing let me know too!)

Feedback is one of the most important things your readers can give you. [Tweet this quote]

And one of the best ways to get that feedback is to create an awesome survey that your blog readers actually enjoy filling in.

In this article I’m going to show you:

• why surveys are so important for your blog’s growth
• what WordPress plugins you can use to do a basic survey
• strategies for making sure you get the right answers
• how you can develop a more in depth and free survey for your mailing list
• how to use the information properly
• extra resources to master survey question writing

As always, if you have ever conducted a survey and have some insights to pass on please leave a comment and let us know.

Let’s get started!

Why are surveys are so important?

At some point you really need to stop guessing. When I take a good look at myself I am often really surprised at how much guess work I do around my blog.

Sure, I have a fair idea about what my readers might like based on two years of getting to know them, but the best way to do things is to occasionally ask.

Surveys let you find out things like:

• who is actually reading your blog (age, sex, location, interests, etc.)
• what content people would like to see more of
• what products they might be interested in purchasing down the track
• what problems they have with your blog
• any ideas they have for improving your delivery, design or approach

All of this information can help you expand and grow in areas that you might not have even known were problematic or underdeveloped.

How to create a survey for your blog readers

There are a few ways to do this thing so I am going to show you the quick and easy methods first and then get in to something a little more professional and polished.

1. Use your comments area
The first and most basic way to survey your readers is to just ask them in the comments area. This has several advantages:

• It is familiar
  Readers don’t have to learn anything new so will be often more likely to answer.
• It is free and easy
  No cost to you and you don’t have to master and new software.
• Readers can feed off others ideas
  Comments aren’t anonymous so readers will see the other comments and get involved in discussions. This can give birth to new ideas.

However, there is also a few disadvantages to using the comments area like:

• You can’t limit responses
  With a survey you can limit responses so that you get the correct information out of people. In the comments area people are just free to talk.
• Public forum might stifle the truth
  What was a plus above might be a negative as well. Some people might not want to express their full opinions in public.

Here is an example of a semi-survey that I did recently where I asked my readers whether they would prefer new comments to appear first or last. It resulted in some really cool ideas and discussion (as always!).

2. Use a simple WordPress polling plugin
Now, some of you might disagree with this but a simple poll that you embed in your sidebar or blog post is also a type of survey.

This can be particularly useful if you do several different polls over a period of months because people will get used the interaction on your blog and look forward to having their say and checking back to see if their is a new poll. Darren used to do this over on ProBlogger quite a lot and I really liked it.

The plugin WP-Polls lets you create single or multiple-answer polls that you can easily whack in your sidebar or post and gather information.

NOTE: Remember, if you want to install a plugin nowadays you just login to your dashboard and go PLUGINS > ADD NEW > SEARCH and locate the one you want. No need to download to your computer anymore.

The above screenshot shows you how you can use the widget to select different polls that you have created. All of the setting up and monitoring of results is done within your WordPress Dashboard.

Here we can see an example of a simple multiple-answer poll that you can have present on your site permanently or for a set period of time.

3. Create a professional and powerful survey with Survey Monkey
If you want to get a bit more serious with your polls I highly recommend Survey Monkey which is free for up to 100 responses.

To get started with Survey Monkey just visit their site, sign up for a free account and then click “Create a Survey”. This will take you to a beautiful survey creator area which is extremely simple to follow.

They even give you little tips along they way to make sure you’ve thought of everything!

The first really cool thing which you’ll see from the screenshot above is that there are a whole bunch of survey types that you can choose from. These range from simple blank boxes where people can write essays to complicated multiple choice answers that go through a variety of stages.

Generally it is a good idea to keep things simple and separate your questions by topic or the nature of the answer. Never ask more than one question at a time.

As you can see, you then get a really cool area where you can edit your questions and look at a preview of how your readers will see the survey. This is a very important step.

Another really cool feature of Survey Monkey’s is their template creator where you can custom design and build a template that is branded to your own logo and colors. This can often have a positive effect on your survey participation rate because people feel like they are doing something that is a part of your website, not someone elses.

Once you have finished with your survey you get access to some really beautiful stats that show you visually how the different aspects of your survey performed. You can turn these in to charts and even download the results into Excel to create spreadsheets for further analysis.

Some of the main advantages of Survey Monkey include:

• Great support
  If you aren’t sure about something you can just jump on support and get some expert help.
• A database of questions
  Asking the right questions is extremely hard. Survey Monkey have a huge database of questions written by experts that you can tap into in order to reduce bias, etc.
• Live results
  There is something really cool about watching the answers come in live. You can read them as you go.
• Easy interface
  I love it when a complex task like creating surveys is made super easy. Their step-by-step editor is one of the best I have used and beginners and experts will really enjoy it.
• Email, Facebook and Blog delivery
  These surveys can be sent out to your email list, posted on Facebook or linked on your blog. Once you have that final survey URL you can add it anywhere you like.

This really is a much more powerful and robust way to get information.

How to ask the right questions and get the most from your survey

Over the years I have done quite a few surveys on my different blogs. While I am no where near an expert in the field I can hopefully offer you a few pointers.

1. Define your survey goals
The first step is to come up with some goals for your survey. If you don’t think of these at the beginning your survey might come across as directionless and end up confusing people due to the lack of focus.

It is very important that your readers know what type of information you are after.

Some goals might include:

• getting feedback on a recent event
• finding out demographics about your readers
• discovering levels of interest around an upcoming future event or product
• etc.

Make sure you have one goal per survey.

2. Keep it short
People get bored really easily and their levels of generosity will drop off quickly. Make sure your survey is really short and takes no more than a minute to fill out.

It is my belief that if you’re survey takes much longer than this you are either asking the wrong questions or need to offer a bigger participation reward. This leads me to my next point.

3. Consider offering a reward
Some bigger events send out surveys and put you in the draw to win a big prize if you fill out the survey. This shows your readers that you are serious and also helps them understand that the data you are collecting is valuable. An Amazon.com Gift Card or some prize related to your blog should be enough.

Do not make the prize too big, however, or you run the risk of getting surveys filled out by people who aren’t really interested in helping – they just want to go in to the draw.

4. Limit response options
There is a marketing rule that says that the more choices you give people the less likely they are to make one. I have found that this applies to surveys quite well. [Tweet this quote]

Limit people’s response options and you will find that the answers are often more accurate and you get more of them. For example, instead of having an option where people can write their own answer give them three pre-defined choices.

This isn’t always possible, of course. Sometimes you need to hear people’s own thoughts.

5. Know your research participants
It might seem simple but it is really important to know who you are asking these questions to.

For example, in my niche I need to know whether I am talking to beginners or experts. I need to have some idea about their level of education and how well they understand the terms that we are talking about.

Try to become familiar with your audience before you send out the survey.

6. Take time crafting your email and subject line
If you are sending out your survey by email to your list you want to spend a good amount of time making sure your email gets attention and helps set up the survey.

For example, if you have a list of 1000 people you might be able to get an open rate of 400 people with a bad title and 600 people with a good title. That makes a big difference to the amount of surveys that you might get back.

The body of the email itself should set up the survey – tell people why you are doing it and let them know how valuable their input is.

And, as always, make sure you say please and thank you.

7. Use simple language with minimal jargon
Closely related to the previous point, you want to make sure you are using language that is easy to understand when just glanced at.

We all know that people don’t spend much time trying to understand or read things deeply on the internet. They skim. And your survey is no different.

Keep the language simple and to the point.

More excellent resources for your surveys

Here are a few more really cool articles, plugins, tutorials and what not that I found when writing this article.

• Survey Gizmo – A different plugin solution for more robust surveys within your WordPress blog.
• Polldaddy Polls – Another very popular plugin for adding a poll to your site.
• Survey and Quiz Tool – A step by step style plugin for WordPress surveys.
• Creating Good Interview and Survey Questions – This is a scholarly article based on research in to how to write proper questions.
• The Impact of Adding More Questions – Interesting data on whether adding more questions reduces your survey completion rate.
• Questionnaire Construction – A really wonderful page on Wikipedia about building your questionnaires.

If you know of any others feel free to leave a link in the comments.

What’s your survey experience?

I’m sure not all of you have created a survey but I bet everyone has participated in one. What was your experience? What worked and what didn’t? Please leave a comment and let me know.

When you first start getting interested in blogging, online marketing and social media you feel like you need to be everywhere.

You start with your blog and then slowly (or not so slowly) branch out into writing on other people’s blogs.

Then there is Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Tumblr.

And now we have Pinterest sending more traffic than a lot of those things combined.

So at some point you have to ask a very interesting question: how important is it to be everywhere?

Let’s take a look shall we?

ROI: The all important return on investment

The logical place to start this post is with a quick chat about the definition of the term ROI or return on investment.

So, putting things simply:

Your return on investment is the amount of money you gain or lose when you make a specific investment.

A high ROI mean that you are gaining more than you are spending. A low ROI means you are losing money.

Now, you can get a lot more technical than that and talk about the maths behind the profit margins, the actual rates, etc. But in terms of social media ROI it’s just useful to know that you should be aiming for some kind of positive return.

What’s the catch?
If you have come to this article after working in social media marketing for a while you will realize something extremely annoying: it’s near impossible to measure a financial return on investment when it comes to social media.

Why is that?

• It’s not just money you’re investing
  When you work in the social media marketing game you know that it’s not just a flat sum of money that you are investing (as opposed to buying a TV advert). You are also investing time. So how do you calculate your time spent Tweeting, checking in to Foursqaure, etc.?
• Your goal isn’t just sales
  The second thing that hits you is the realization that you aren’t just trying to make sales. Social media campaigns are often about building community, growing a mailing list or creating some buzz around an event. How do you measure those things financially?

Some very smart people have tried to measure those things accurately but, to be honest, I don’t think it can be done. Every social media platform needs to be measured differently and even different activities on the same platforms have different goals and outcomes.

The Twitter example
Let’s take Twitter as an example. You might calculate that every visitor that comes to your site from Twitter is worth $1. But what about the one visitor that engages you to build a $5,000 website? He may not have found you unless you’d done 500 tweets that only brought in $20.

And what about all the Tweets you do addressing people’s complaints? Are they equal in cost to all the Tweets you do promoting your blog posts?

What about the Tweets you do promoting other people’s material or making jokes to appear personal and likable? Are they all costing your business the same amount?

So can you measure ROI in social media at all?
Don’t get me wrong. You can measure and track a lot of these things if you are that kind of person or work for an organization that has money to spend. I’m not saying you can’t calculate any ROI for any social media activity.

You can.

And you should.

Because if you are spending money on staff that do your social media stuff (or spending time doing it yourself) you want to make sure you aren’t just guessing at what’s going on.

A screen grab from Google Analytics social section illustrating your social impact.

Google Analytics now has a whole section devoted to the behavior of your visitors in terms of social sharing. You can see how many people are engaged and how many don’t do anything at all. And, most interestingly, you can set up goals to see how many social media followers are converting to certain outcomes.

Jenn Deering has written a really cool post over on KISSmetrics about how to measure and track certain social media campaigns.

So if you have the ability to track your social media efforts you should do it.

So what should be the ROI in social media? Should I be everywhere?

If you’ve read this far you’re probably more confused now than you were when you started.

Sorry about that.

But it is a good thing if you’re confused because it means you are thinking about things.

Some social media strategists have an approach where you just throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. That is a lazy approach.

Other social media strategists have an approach where you do something on Twitter and then blindly hope that’s what caused your traffic spike. That is a stupid approach.

You are at least attempting to figure out what works and why. And that is very important.

Personalized limits and goals
In my opinion your social media return on investment should be based on personalized limits and goals that you set for yourself or your organization.

Now, these goals might be:

• Financial goals
  Product sales, ticket sales, Adsense clicks, etc.
• Non financial goals
  Email subscribers, increased Facebook likes, better search engine rankings, etc.

The idea is to develop your goals and then set limits on how you will achieve them, when you will achieve them and on which platforms.

What this means is that you don’t have to be everywhere all at once, but you should give almost everything a go at some point in time.

You should then create primary and secondary goals for your campaigns.

For example, let’s say you are running a Facebook competition. Your goals might be:

1. Primary
   Get people to spread the word about the competition on Facebook (shares).
2. Secondary
   Increase email subscribers on website.

This gives you multiple opportunities to track and measure your ROI. Indeed, it gives you specific ROI metrics that you can follow.

Not all social networks are created equal

Something that a lot of new comers don’t realize is that not all social networks work the same for your business type.

I work with a lot of “bricks and mortar” companies to help them with online marketing and what I find is that often they have heard about how big Twitter is and as such want to throw heaps of money at it.

That’s fine, but Twitter doesn’t work so well for construction companies in Australia.

Sure, you could have staff on Twitter talking about their latest projects and addressing complaints that existing clients have. But that shouldn’t be the major place you put your online marketing budget. Wouldn’t it be better to upload professional photos on Facebook, tag the location and ask recent clients to share the album with their friends?

Often it is also not about what is possible, but what you can manage. Some companies just can’t afford to train all their staff on Twitter and G+ behavior and best practices.

You don’t need to be everywhere but you should take time to research as many social media networks as you can to see how well they perform in your industry.

What do you think?

How important do you think it is to be everywhere? Do you think that money is the only true measure of a return on investment when it comes to social media? And how do you measure the non-financial aims like growing a community or a reputation?

You know the drill. You create a free eBook and then you give it away for free to get more email subscribers.

It’s a tried and tested method that has worked wonders for years.

But lately people have been saying the method is dead in the water. They reckon it’s lost it’s effectiveness because people are clued in to the method.

Well, I’d like to say a few things about that. I’d be interested to see what you think about the matter too.

My experience with the “eBook for email address” method

For years now I’ve been offering a free eBook to readers in exchange for an email sign up. And it’s worked pretty well. My sign up rates are good and the people who sign up don’t just unsubscribe after they’ve read the free offering.

And the funny thing is that it is working just as well now as it was six or seven years ago.

Maybe even better.

And I’m not the only one. Guys like Pat Flynn and John Chow are using this method to great effect.

A screenshot from my Aweber stats showing a high eBook sign up rate.

Take a look at the screen grab above and you will see that my Free eBook page is converting at just above 10%. Anyone interested in sign up stats will know that that is pretty good.

My experiences with the free eBook giveaway and the experiences of those guys I look up to continue to demonstrate that this method is no yet dead.

Reasons the eBook giveaway is not dead or dying

Now, just because it is working for me does not mean that it will work for everyone. That being said, here is why I think the free eBook is still alive and well.

1. Most readers are newcomers
One thing you need to be aware of is that most of the people who come to your site are new to the blogging world. Whatever your blog is about, you can be pretty certain that most of your readers are beginners.

You see, if you write a good quality blog you will be solving a lot of problems and answering a lot of questions.

And people search for these answers in Google and then arrive at your site to see what you have to say.

Sure, you will get some experts in there but even they are looking for something. If your eBook is high quality and if your traffic comes from a funnel of some kind you will enjoy a lot of new sign ups.

2. Technology is re-popularizing eBooks
A few years ago everyone was talking about the fact that eBooks were on their way out.

And then came the Kindle.

And then came the iPad.

And then came iBooks and Instapaper and all those other amazing things that let us read PDFs on our phone.

Technology is making eBooks popular again. I would hazard a guess that they are more popular than ever because people now read them on their phones and tablets as well as their computers and laptops. Accessibility is way up.

3. People are more open to giving away their email address
When I go over to see my mother I am always surprised at how unwilling her new husband is to do anything online.

Paying bills, shopping, signing up to email lists… it’s all out of the question.

Luckily most people aren’t like that.

Now that the we are spending so much time online (on our phones, etc.) we find that we are more open to sharing email addresses and other potentially private information with blogs, websites and applications. Read the Terms and Conditions of most apps and you’ll notice that they access private data even when you’re not using the thing!

You have to make sure YOUR eBook is not dead

Sometimes when I hear sweeping statements like “free eBooks are dead” I wonder whether the person has any reliable data for such a statement or whether it is just their personal eBook that is not performing all that well.

The free eBook forumla is alive and well but you need to make sure you are taking the right steps to ensure its working well for you and your blog.

• How niche-specific is it?
  I am always talking about this but it is so important. You need to make sure that your free giveaway is as tightly related to your niche as possible. If it is even slightly off topic or general you just won’t get the interest.
• Are you pre-selling it?
  Last year I wrote a post on Problogger and one on Copyblogger about how you need to create a “sales funnel” for your eBook where you use guest posts to prime people for your free giveaway. Since then I’ve seen a lot more people doing it and have had a lot of feedback about how well it works.
• Are you promoting it properly on your blog?
  If you have a look at 10 blogs I bet that 9 of them have horrible opt-in form areas. The part of the sidebar that encouraged people to sign up, the dedicated landing page that promotes the idea… a lot of them are really underwhelming. You need to make sure you have a nice clean opt-in area with a properly designed form or eBook graphic.
• Are you split testing your opt-in forms?
  Split testing is where you run two versions of the same ad at the same time and see which one works the best. Of course, they don’t actually run at the same time with both ads on the page at once – you just input the same code and the software will show 50% of people the first ad and 50% of people the second ad. You can do this really easily with Aweber.

Any time you are promoting a product, whether its free or paid, you need to be constantly working on the delivery and the offering itself. Things can always be improved.

Do you think the free eBook method is dead?

I’d really like to open up the comments now and hear what you think about whether this method is dead or not. Is it working for you? Do you think it is less effective than a few years ago? Please leave a comment and let me know.

Today I thought we’d do something a little bit different.

Instead of me telling you what I think about something I’d like to hear your opinions.

So here’s the question:

You see, the traditional way to display comments is in descending order meaning that the first person to comment retains the first position and every one else goes below him or her.

But you can also do it the opposite way whereby the newest comments appear first and the older comments gradually move down the page.

So which one do you think is best?

I’d like your answer to address two things:

• What would get the most comments?
  The first thing, of course, is which method do you think would encourage the most comments? Would you like to be “rewarded” for being first and getting the top spot or do you think you’d be more likely to comment if yours appeared at the top for a period of time?
• What is the best user experience?
  The second point is extremely important for me and that is what fosters the best user experience? Do you think you’d be more likely to engage in an ongoing conversation one way or the other?

I really love hearing all of your opinions; there are a lot of smart cookies on this site.

Please leave a comment below and let me know which method you prefer and why. Hopefully we can get some insights in to how people think about commenting which you can apply to your own blogs.

I really love online marketing that focuses on capturing loyal, focused email subscribers. In my first year on Blog Tyrant I got over 4,000.

And one of the things I noticed was that the type of post structure I used had a real impact on how many people subscribed by email.

Let’s take a look at five link bait post structures that really get people motivated to read, share and eventually give you their email.

Is link bait a dirty term?

I know a lot of bloggers think that link bait is a little bit dirty, perhaps a bit black hat.

Well, its not.

You see, for something to get lots of backlinks these days it needs to be high quality. So if you are writing a post with the goal of getting more backlinks you are (most of the time) writing something highly useful, funny or engaging.

Link bait is not a dirty term. To be successful it requires content that helps people. [Tweet this quote]

The 5 link bait post styles

So let’s dive in and have a look at five post styles that have helped me get more email subscribers.

5. The niche-narrow series
The first structure I want to talk about is one that used to be extremely popular but is now harder to come by – the niche-narrow series.

Darren Rowse used to do these all the time and a lot of bloggers followed in his footsteps. But in an era where many bloggers are writing big long posts or just filling up their blog with guest posts I have been noticing less series posts.

And remember, these things can often take a week to write when done properly. So it is a big undertaking.

But the thing is, people subscribe by email extremely quickly when they think there is a bunch of other posts coming up in a series that has really piked their interest.

Some key things to remember when trying to get subscribers this way:

• Make it exhaustive and targeted
  As I always say, you need to write your posts in a way that makes them feel like the topic is almost exhausted. This doesn’t necessarily mean they have to be long, just leave your readers feeling satisfied but motivated about a very particular niche topic.
• Make the first part enticing
  The first post in your series really needs to set up the ones to follow. This means emotion and other psychological triggers need to be present.
• Add a call to action
  At the top of each post in this series make sure you have an italics section that tells people to subscribe by email if they want to get the other parts.

One of the best ways to find out if this post structure will work for your blog is to send out an email broadcast message with Aweber to announce a small 3 part email series where people have to subscribe to a different list to get involved. See how many numbers you get.

4. The resource-rich list post
One of my favorite type of posts to write and read is one that uses the old list post structure to promote a lot of resources for the people reading.

These posts have always been link bait (meaning they get lots of back links) and share bait. But they also get a lot of email subscribers because people love to feel connected to someone who knows a lot of cool things/people in their chosen area.

Its like knowing the hip indie kid who finds all the cool bars and coffee shops.

You’ll find that if you write a useful list post with a lot of useful links you will position yourself as a bit of an expert and people will sign up to see what other cool little secrets you have to offer. [Tweet this quote]

3. An incentive-based guest post
The third post structure that has worked very well for me is a guest post that is based around an offer or free give away that is available on my own blog.

I have written about this little technique a few times now – its called a funnel.

Basically the idea is that you introduce people to free eBook or blog style on your guest posts so as to funnel them back to your email list.

Some tips to make this work well include:

• Making your backlinks well thought out
  It’s okay to include links to your own site in your guest posts. You should chose anchor text that is a phrase that is well linked to your offer so when people click it and arrive on your blog they are already primed for your offer. This also helps you rank on Google for your funnel term.
• Avoid general posts
  Posts need to be very specific for this strategy to work. We aren’t trying to impress everyone, we just want the attention of those people interested in your email list offer.
• Consider a specific landing page
  If you are really clever and prepared you will add a link on your guest post back to a specific landing page that you have built specifically for readers of that individual guest post. You can welcome them by the referring site’s name and tell them about you and your email list. Personalisation is key.

I have done posts on Problogger using this strategy that have brought me over 100 subscribers in a day. Here is one you might like to check out for some examples.

2. The 2000+ word guide to [topic]
If you write 2000+ words of a very specific topic and your post has good basic English and a bit of personality you can’t fail.

These posts really get people’s attention.

If you take a look at any blog in the past ten years that has rocketed to success in a short time (think Dosh Dosh, Viper Chill, Smart Passive Income, Blog Tyrant, etc.) you will notice that all of them focused on huge posts that provided massive value to readers for no fee or gimmick.

Some of my posts were well in excess of 5,000 words. That is an eBook right there.

Now, it is important that you aren’t just rambling on in order to make your post look good. Each word, sentence and paragraph needs to add some value for the reader.

Make sure you do things like:

• Break up the content
  Use dot points and lots of paragraphs and headings to break up the content and make it readable.
• Link out
  Link out to other big blogs in your post so that the get the attention of the big boys as well as providing extra resources for your own readers. These links make you look more valuable.
• Keep focused
  James Chartrand from Men with Pens often corrects my guest posts for being too wafty and brilliant aloof. Make sure you stick to the topic at every turn.
• Use photos
  Make sure you use photos and images to help illustrate your points and draw the eye down.
• Know your brand and style
  Don’t try and write different style posts all the time. Find your voice and make sure your posts all look and feel the same. It is part of branding.

Now people can get sick of long long posts if you don’t do them right. It is extremely important that you add a lot of value and solve a lot of problems if you want to get more email subscribers from the event.

My advice: don’t publish any post half-baked. It’s a big waste of your time. [Tweet this quote]

1. A trial and error story with findings
The last post structure that works extremely well these days for getting more email subscribers is a trial and error study that imbues your own personal story in the findings or post.

As I always say, people become loyal to other people, not brands. So when you share your own personal story on a given topic or event you capture people’s hearts and minds.

So what is a trial and error story with findings?

Basically it is where you share something that you tried and the results that you obtained and how the experience felt/worked/impacted/affected you.

Some examples include:

• Income statements
  People love to read income statements if you are running a “make money” blog. It shows the person behind the blog and keeps things inspiring. Check out Pat’s for an example of how to mix the story and the figures.
• Blog changes
  Are you changing something on your blog? Perhaps a sidebar or posting schedule? Talk about why and what the results were. Here’s an example from when I changed my sidebar.
• Real world examples
  Has something happened to you in the offline world that applies to your blog? Write about how the two connect and share how it affected you. This guest post from Jon Morrow was (I think) the most popular in Problogger history.

People love to learn new things and they love following people who are experimenting (even failing) with new ideas and opportunities. Share them with your readers and watch how many more loyal email subscribers you get.

Over to you

Have you ever used a particular style of link bait post structure and noticed more email sign ups? Please leave a comment and tell me about it.

When I launched Blog Tyrant over a year ago (can you believe it?) I instantly got lucky.

I hit the front page of Delicious in the first few weeks and had tens of thousands of visitors who subscribed, tweeted and told their friends.

My career as the Blog Tyrant was born… thank heavens.

And from the beginning I decided that I wasn’t accepting any guest posts, even if Seth Godin himself wrote to me. A lot of people thought this was a strange decision.

So why did I do it?

Well, the reason was simple really: I wanted people to get to know my brand and my style.

I wanted people to become familiar with the way I did things on the site.

I wanted my brand to be solid and recognizable across the blogosphere.

Sure, it would have been easy to let the guests posts flow in because I already had a lot of subscribers and traffic and loyal readers. I could have stepped back and let other people fill out the blog with mediocre content as we are seeing so many other blogs do nowadays.

But I didn’t.

I decided to do things the hard way by producing long, detailed, exhausting articles that really helped my readers as much as possible. I stuck around answering every comment and replying to every email. And now, all these months later, I feel like I’m ready to open the site up.

But be warned. I’m doing guest posts a little differently.

Guest posts done differently

You see, I am really attached to this site. I am attached to what I’ve built up and I really don’t want my readers to think any less of me because of the guest posts that I accept.

For this reason I am making some really strict but hopefully not too restricting guidelines.

Here they are:

1. You have to know your topic better than me
I once heard Tim Ferriss say that he doesn’t accept guest posts on topics that he could write about himself. As soon as I read that statement I initially knew he was right – guest posts are not about filling out your blog with content, they are about featuring authors who can educate your readers in a way that you can’t.

So, if you want to write a guest post on Blog Tyrant you’ll need to know your stuff pretty well. I don’t have the largest readership in the world but I do care a lot about them and their careers.

That being said, I am keenly aware of my shortcomings and am very open to learning from other people. Even on blogging and online marketing there are so many bloggers who know a sh#t tonne more than I do.

2. You have to be a good person trying to help
Another borrowed philosophy: I once heard John Mayer that he was happy to feature Taylor Swift on his album because he knew that in ten or twenty years she’d still be a good and decent person and he wouldn’t have any regrets.

I feel the same about this blog. I don’t want to feature and promote people who then go back to their own blogs and do dishonest things.

I guess this means that I am going to check up on all the potential authors I feature. I’m not talking about police background checks and going through your garbage but I will read through your old posts and make sure I think you mean well.

3. You have to be open to criticism
I think I’m going to find this aspect of accepting guest posts pretty difficult – saying no. But I promised myself I’d be tough.

You see, as soon as you open up for guest posts people start submitting crap. I’ve experienced it on a lot of my other blogs and I know a lot of other bloggers who talk about it. They just want to get featured on as many blogs as possible to get those juicy backlinks.

The funny thing is that I’ll probably hold people to a higher standard than I hold myself, at least in the beginning. I’m strange like that. And I apologize in advance.

4. You have to be a good blogger
Notice I didn’t say a good writer. I don’t care if you are a good writer. I want you to be a good blogger.

What’s the difference? Well, a good blogger knows how to write but also how to make those words work on a blog. They use headers, dot points, links and photos to sell their ideas. And their ideas are clever and provide a new perspective on something that we all do everyday. And they can push their content socially.

Keep in mind that this means you can do videos or podcasts or a mixture of everything in between. Blogging is an artform (or an anti-artform) that I hope guest posters have some ideas about.

5. You have to be open to regular contribution and collaboration with me
The last thing that I really want to try with my featured guest posters is coaching and collaboration. Now, this won’t work in every situation but I had the idea that many new bloggers might want feedback on their posts and promotion in the long term.

What this means is that I would like to pick only a small handful of guest posters to regularly feature on the blog instead of dozens of random one-timers.

Those regular guest posters will have access to me whenever they want to discuss their ideas, post structure, promotion, etc. I want their posts on Blog Tyrant to not just help my readers but also grow their careers.

What do the readers think?

What do you think about Blog Tyrant being open for guest posts? Are you upset that things are changing or are you interested to see who gets a post live? Please leave your thoughts below.

What is the best blog host for you to start your first professional blog and grow your blogging empire?

What host is cheap, reliable, powerful and above all has excellent support and an easy-to-use interface?

I’m going to tell you in a minute. But why am I writing about this?

Well, I get a lot of emails from readers asking where they should start and how they do it. It can be a really scary and stressful time if you feel like you are doing it all alone.

By recommending one single host that I have tested and used for years I am hoping to give new bloggers confidence about their hosting decision so they can move on and get blogging.

In this post I am going to talk about where I have hosted my blogs for the last seven years and why I think Blue Host is the best place for you to start your blogging empire.

NOTE: This is not a paid post but it does contain affiliate links. I will earn a small commission if you buy a hosting package from one of my links. I guarantee that I would never recommend this host unless I had tested it and loved it myself. Thanks for your support!

It’s all about confidence

Now I’m sure there are going to be readers who disagree with my praise of Blue Host in favor of their own host. And I am more than happy for them to do that.

The reason I am calling Blue Host the “best blog host” is because they have been the best for me. My goal with this post was not to do a review of all the options out there.

My goal was to give new bloggers confidence that they are making a good decision. I hope that after reading this post people might stop the search for a host, sign up with Blue Host and get on with the real important tasks like blogging, social media marketing and building an email list.

Here are some of my Twitter friends who also use Blue Host:

Sometimes you just need to know that someone else has already done what you are attempting to do. A little confidence boost can really help people along.

Why you should avoid free blogs like Blogger, Tumblr & WordPress.com

I need to start this post by explaining the difference between freely hosted blogs and paid professional hosting and why the free guys fall short.

What is a freely hosted blog?
The freely hosted blogs are the ones that most people turn to when they want to give blogging a try. The common ones include Blogger, WordPress.com (very different from self-hosted WordPress), Tumblr, Live Journal, etc. You sign up for an account and they give you a blog.

Why are they good?
These blogs are nice if you are really really early on in your career and you want something that is free and easy to use with minimal chance of mucking it up. Tumblr especially has other advantages like being able to reblog other people’s posts. Each of these sites does have its own advantages and will work well for some people. However, I have always believed that their limitations far outweigh their advantages.

Why are they not good enough for real money making?
If you want to grow a blog or a website to make money you need your own domain name and self hosted blog. The free ones are just too limiting. So why aren’t they good enough?

• Very limited control
  Most free blogs don’t allow you to tweak the coding which makes up the framework of the site. This might sound a bit daunting for a beginner but one day you will need to get in there and change the code (or pay someone to) in order to add new features and updates.
• You don’t own it
  The biggest drawback for me is that you don’t really own your blog – the provider does. Why would you want to spend years building up an asset that you don’t fully own or control? That is a deal breaker for me.
• Not as good for Google rankings
  It is well known that Google doesn’t give as much weight to free blogs on their search results. Why? Because they don’t rate them as being as authoritative. By hosting your own blog with your own domain name you are signalling to Google that you mean business.
• Limited design options
  On a self hosted blog you can upload your own themes, hire designers, etc. You can tweak the layout and change the total look and feel. With a free blog you often can’t. You are normally stuck with whatever the free blog host offers which means that your blog will look like a lot of others.
• Bad for branding
  Something a lot of people don’t realize is how important it is to have your own domain name. Now, you can do this on some of the free hosts now but it is mostly the area of self hosted blogs. This is very important for building up your brand over the years.

The most flexible, powerful and professional way to run your blog is with its own domain name and own host.

What is the main disadvantage of a self hosted blog?
The main downfall of hosting your own blog or website is that it is slightly more involved and complicated than starting up a free one. You need to learn a few things like how to install WordPress, set up emails, etc.

This, however, is vital to your blogging career and something you are going to need to learn in the same way that you learn about any basics when you start a new job.

It is also important to remember that if you initially start on a free blog and then want to move to your own self hosted set up you will experience more issues than if you had just started with the paid host to begin with. Changing from free to paid hosts can be very stressful and negatively impact your Google rankings.

What are the costs of a self hosted blog?
The beauty of this is that it is really, really cheap to host your own blog. You need to get a domain name from a provider like Namecheap for $9.99 a year and a hosting package from Blue Host for $5.95 a month.

That is a total of $81.39 per year for all the wonderful features that self hosting offers. Remember, this is a tax deduction for most people as well.

Why Blue Host is the best host to start your professional blog

I have personally used Blue Host for close to a decade to host over 50 blogs and websites.

Over that time I have had close to zero problems with them as compared with their competition and the reports I hear from my friends in the industry about the issues with some other hosting companies.

My experience with them over the years has been such that I feel very comfortable openly promoting them on Blog Tyrant – something that I very rarely do. I really believe they are the best blog host for anyone looking to start a blog or website.

Please note that Blog Tyrant is now hosted on its own VPS (Virtual Private Server) as it has outgrown Blue Host. This is not a negative indictment on Blue Host but rather a situation I hope you will all experience as your blogs get bigger.

Here are some of the main advantages and benefits of hosting your blog (or blogs) with Blue Host:

1. 24 hour live chat support from amazing people
The absolute best thing about Blue Host is that you have access to amazing tech support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You just go to their website, click Live Chat and you are instantly put on a chat screen with a technician who will help you with your problems.

All you do is click the live chat button and you’re taken to a new window with a wonderful consultant. They even tell you how long you’ll have to wait.

And here is the thing; the often announce officially that they don’t help with this issue or that issue but in my experience they offer support for almost everything. And when they can’t fix it themselves they refer you on to someone trustworthy.

If you are new to blogging but want to do all the right things first then it is nice to know you have the support team ready to help. It made a huge difference to me.

2. One-click WordPress installation
Blue Host allows you to install WordPress with one click using a program called Simple Scripts. This is so convenient.

Many hosts require you to install WordPress manually which can be a bit of a nightmare for new bloggers. Or, they might give you a program like Fantastico which, in my experience, often has an outdated version of WordPress available for installation. This is a security risk.

Installing WordPress on all your blogs with one click is really nice.

3. Unlimited blogs, domains and email addresses
One of the cool things about Blue Host is that they let you host unlimited blogs and websites.

Now, unlimited doesn’t really mean unlimited I should point out. It is a theoretical offering. If your blogs get big and take up lots of files they will eventually give you problems as they can’t host unlimited files.

The point is that it is a great place to start your new blogs. Eventually you might need to move to a $50 a month server but if that happens you will be doing very well.

4. Security help
When you start your own blog you don’t realize how much knowledge you are going to need to accumulate. You need to know about social media, WordPress, plugins, copy writing… the list is endless.

And one of the things you forget about is that security is really important. Well, Blue Host can help with that.

One of the amazing things about this host is that if you have any glaring security threats on your blog they will often auto-correct it for you and notify you of the changes. Failing that, you can always jump on support and get some coaching on how to fix the problems.

They also have a long list of security software and anti-spam features that you can plugin to your site.

5. Personalised emails
Now, you can do this on all hosts so its not unique to Blue Host but they do offer a lot of support if you run in to troubles.

The idea here is that instead of having an email address like mysite@gmail.com you can have something like yourname@mysite.com which is personal, professional and looks very good to potential clients or readers.

Setting up these emails can be tricky and over the years I have had amazing live support from Blue Host in this area. I know a lot of other hosts palm you off saying that it isn’t really their problem.

6. Excellent uptime
Lately I know a few people have been complaining about Blue Host’s uptime saying that it is getting worse. While I respect these opinions I have to disagree.

First of all, in the years I used Blue Host I only had a few occasions where my sites went down and it was only for a very small amount of time.

Secondly, the reason Blue Host has had a few downtime moments lately is because they are growing and adding a huge amount of clients to their servers.

This is a good thing. It shows that they are a well respected company who is acquiring a lot of funds to build new servers and make their customer support stronger.

7. Choice of various blogging platforms
Now, I only recommend that you use WordPress to power your blogs but Blue Host gives you a choice.

For example, you might want to try Drupal or Joomla or something like that. Blue Host has a lot of different blogging platforms to choose from.

It is often a good idea to become familiar with these platforms in case a project you are working on requires something a little different. My experience, however, is that WordPress works for every blogging need.

8. A bunch of free programs and software
Blue Host gives its customers access to a lot of really cool extra features that you just might want access to someday.

Some of the coolest ones include Site Lock, a bunch of free SEO tools, Spam filtering and Spam Assassin for your emails, free WordPress themes, site builders and much more.

They also give you a free $75 Google Adwords credit when you first sign up to help you advertise your new blog and get it off the ground.

Sure, you won’t want all of these things right away but they might be useful for you or a client down the track.

A quick tour of Blue Host

What I’d like to do now is give you a quick little tour of a few of my favorite features at Blue Host.

1. The Control Panel (cPanel)
Below is a screen shot of part of the control panel which runs on the very popular cPanel system. As you can see, there are little icons that you click to perform various functions like installing blogs, creating email addresses, etc.

A screen shot of the Blue Host cPanel where you install blogs, email accounts, etc.

You might also notice that you get a bunch of additional features like the ability to add shopping carts to your sites. This can be very handy in the future if you ever decide to launch a product.

2. Simple Scripts
The next screen shot I want to show you is from the amazing Simple Scripts which is how you install WordPress with just one click.

A shot of the Simple Scripts installer area.

Now, Simple Scripts can be used to install a massive array of different site types but here I am showing you the WordPress installer. All you need to do is select the domain name you want WordPress to be installed on, select a password for your account and click the button. It’s that easy!

For a more complete overview of how to create a blog check out my article on building a full time income blogging.

3. A huge knowledgebase of answers
One of the main advantages of being with the big guys like Blue Host is that if something goes wrong there is a massive knolwedgebase of answers to browse through to find your answer.

Just a few clicks away from tens of thousands of answers.

Now, I normally just go to the live support chat right away but sometimes you can just have a look through here and see all the problems other people have had and how they solved it. It is an excellent back up resource that saves a lot of time.

What is your hosting experience?

I’d really like to turn it over to the wonderful Blog Tyrant community now and ask what your experience has been with hosting. Who do you use? Are they any good? Are you paying for hosting or using a free option?

Please feel free to add as much information as possible as it might really help someone who is starting out on their blog hosting journey.

Ever wondered how people add a little “tweet this quote” or “click to tweet” link within their posts that allows readers to just tweet that quote and not the whole article?

You might not have even seen it yet. Its a fairly new thing that all the cool kids are doing.

Anyway, I first saw this on Neil Patel’s blog and decided to implement it on my own.

This is a really cool way to get more retweets on your blog because you are giving people micro-opportunities to share your work. They might not want to tweet your whole post but they might like a quote or two.

How the “tweet this quote” function works

Okay so basically the way this thing works is by allowing you to add a little link next to quotes that you think people might like to share on Twitter.

I’ll show you an example. Here is a quote I just came up with:

Twitter is like the lunch meeting with potential clients before you do the pitch. [Tweet this]

Every now and then I write cool little sentences that I’m 100% certain get lost within the post. Now I add these little “tweet this” links so that people who spot them can share them.

How to add it to your blog

As far as I can tell there are two ways to add a little click to tweet link to your blog.

The hard way:
The first way, which takes a bit more work, is to use the following URL as the link for your quote:

http://twitter.com/home/?status=

After that you add the message that you want people to Tweet and the text you want them to click. So the one I gave in the example above would look like this:

<a href=”http://twitter.com/home/?status=Twitter is like the lunch meeting with potential clients before you do the pitch. via @blogtyrant”>tweet this </a>

The easy way:
The easier way to do this is to use a website called Click to Tweet.

All you do is enter the quote in the box on the right and then click “generate link”.

You then use they URL that they give you as the destination for your anchor text.

For example:

Here is an example quote you want people to share. [<a href="http://clicktotweet.com/HVk8C" target="_blank">Tweet this</a>]

You can add these at any part of your post, it doesn’t have to be a blockquote. It could just be a cool little phrase you use to sum up a paragraph or article.

Make sure you make the quote short enough to allow people to retweet it within Twitter itself and make sure you include a tiny URL of the post where the quote came from.

What do you think?

What do you think about this little function? Will you use it on your blog? If you are confused about the implementation or know a better way to do it then drop a comment and let me know.

Photo credit: Neal.

Blogging used to be just about written content. But these days we need to think of ourselves as internet marketers. And that means video.

I’ve said it so many times lately: as the world makes the shift from PCs and laptops to tablets and smart phones we need to be on top of the technology changes.

People are viewing and responding to videos now more than ever before and it’s important that we take advantage of its power.

In this post I want to show you why video can massively increase your email sign ups, sales and conversions. I’ll also show you some really cool examples.

Why people respond to video

As an internet marketer (and not just a blogger) I am challenging you to think of the reasons why people do things.

Bloggers need to think about the psychology behind people’s actions. [Tweet this]

We need to think about why people click and sign up and interact with content in certain ways.

Understanding these reasons, as I have been saying for years, takes the guess work out of your online marketing.

Some of the reasons people are responding so well to (good) videos is because:

• It’s new and exciting
  People are still excited by video presentations on blogs and websites. It can appear very professional and fun.
• It encourages trust
  When someone uses a talking head style of video we often see a big increase in user engagement. Why? Because people are feeling like they are getting to know the person a lot better.
• It is compelling
  Closely linked to the new and exciting idea is the idea that video keeps you captivated longer than text. People skim and skip large chunks of content but a good video with music and so on can keep your eyes on the screen.
• It’s easy
  Watching a video is really easy. Its lazier than reading text. But it’s also easy because you can watch it on your phone while laying down on the couch.
• It is very emotional
  People often make decisions based on emotions and video is a very emotional medium. It is very easy to find yourself sucked in and carried away by the message.
• We’re not used to video selling yet
  One of the big things to understand is that people haven’t quite got video blindness yet. Long landing pages full of text? Yep, people know they are being sold to. Sure, they still work but a fresh landing page using video will have a better engagement rate.

Video is something that no one should be ignoring. Whether you want to sell a product or get more people signed up to your list, video is now essential for your success.

Examples of really tight video

What I want to do now is show you a few people who are doing video really well on their blogs, sales pages and websites.

I should also point out that in a short time when I introduce myself on Blog Tyrant with my name and face I will be releasing a lot of talking head videos that I’ve been making. I really hope you like them (and my face!).

1. Jon Morrow at Blog Boost Traffic

Jon Morrow is one of the editors at Copyblogger and an all round nice guy. I really love reading what he writes both there and around the web.

But something that Jon is doing extremely effectively now is using a video presentation to get sign ups to his new website. I’m not sure if this is going to be a product or just a new website but it works well. Take a look.

As you can see there is no human presence in this video – just emotional music mixed with authority-building quotes from famous bloggers.

I signed up for this thing and I almost NEVER sign up for things like this. I wonder how many of you went to his website to sign up?

Key Features:
Authority building quotes, emotional music, simplicity, focus on outcome, used in context of a simple opt-in form page.

2. Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income

I must have sent so many visitors to Pat’s site by now. I talk about him all the time. I guess it is because he is doing so much right.

When you arrive on his home page you instantly see a welcome message saying “Don’t know where to start? Click here.” You are then taken to this video.

First of all, the site introduction is an amazing idea. I don’t know if Pat was the first person to do it but it was the first place I noticed it. Its now happening on a lot of blogs. And with good reason. It works.

The video is extremely personal. You meet Pat right away and instantly develop a bond with his ambitions and motivations and style.

The great thing about this approach is that a huge percentage of people who visit Pat’s site will watch this video and remember his face forever. That is excellent personal branding.

Key Features:
Relaxed and friendly tone builds loyalty, used in introduction page to increase personal brand, increases page views on site through curiosity and then virtual “tour”.

3. Darren Rowse on Problogger

Darren has been at the forefront of blogging changes for a long time. I remember when he first changed his blog to the new “portal” design I hated it but then two months later everyone else was doing the same thing.

For a few years now Darren has made his talking head videos a feature on Problogger and they work wonders. Here is one.

The cool thing about Darren’s videos is that they aren’t really promoting any product or trying to achieve some direct aim. They are almost like video blog posts; videos about certain topics to do with his blog.

In true Rowse fashion we are seeing a new way to provide unique and free content to his readers.

Key Features:
Personal and intimate, genuine value-adding content, high definition quality, promoted and featured on the website’s homepage.

4. Katie Freiling from KatieFreiling.com

I stumbled upon Katie’s blog a few months ago and was instantly attracted to how she presents her content. I signed up to her mailing list out of pure curiosity.

Katie does everything well on her blog. Her format, offering and, of course, her videos.

In fact, all of her blog posts are videos and the format is working really well for her. She has a great following and is making a fortune.

The video above is the one from her homepage which encourages you to sign up to her list. This is a trend that I will be following on Blog Tyrant soon – the homepage acts as a portal to all your services as opposed to just being a blog. It works really well and is used by a lot of big guys like Copyblogger.

Key Features:
Personal and intimate, featured on homepage as a video landing page, focuses on how she will help the reader, consistent branding and tone throughout all her videos.

5. Derek Halpern from Social Triggers

A little while ago now Derek drummed up some excitement for his new audio masterclass series where he spoke to leading experts about marketing psychology. And one of the main ways he did this was with video. Take a look.

This is a really simple video but one that is used to great effect. Have a look how many comments there are on that post. I can only imagine how many sign ups he got for the masterclass – I know I was one of them.

Key Features:
Simplicity, focused on message, builds excitement for a yet to be released product, specific call to action.

Tips for making highly engaging videos

I want to finish this post of by giving you some tips for using videos to increase sign ups or loyalty on your site.

• Script it but be natural
  Remember in high school when you had to give oral presentations? The best ones were the ones when people just talked to the class. The same is true here. Don’t read off of a script or notes but make sure you plan before hand and know what you are talking about.
• Host on Youtube and promote as an SEO exercise
  Hosting your videos on Youtube is best practice because Youtube itself can bring you lots of traffic. You can get on their featured videos page, catch the attention of other video makers and, most importantly, these Youtube videos get indexed really well as individual items on Google now.
• Use watermarks and professional introductions
  Darren Rowse’s video has a really cool little intro where his logo spins around, etc. This is a very nice touch and, for a couple of hundred dollars, makes his videos look even more authoritative. Watermarks also help people know where your videos are based and how they can find more.

  NOTE: If you want a video introduction made that is something my company can make for you.

• Have one call to action per video
  It is tempting to cram a lot into these videos because you are talking and talking is easy. However, you need to really focus your message and have just one call to action per video. Want people to sign up to a new list? Tell them to do that and nothing else.
• Repeat the transcript or main message below
  Don’t just expect that people will watch your video. What if they are at work where videos are not allowed? In that case you want to make sure the entire script or at least the main message is repeated in text below. This prevents people from missing the point.
• Use a good mic and camera
  Make sure you use a high quality mic and a good camera. You can hire these for a few days and make a bunch of videos at once or you can pay someone to film these for you. In my post on making a podcast I showed you a good mic for voiceovers.
• Be careful with autoplay
  Last week on Twitter meetup #blogchat (its on Sunday nights) a lot of people were talking about video and one of the main issues was that people hate autoplay. This is interesting because often autoplay videos convert really well. In the end though, most people thought you should let the view decide when to stop. Thoughts?

What videos have you seen done well?

Please leave a comment if you have used videos with some success or know of someone who is doing it really well. Feel free to post links to your own site.

Lastly, what works well for you in a video? Is there anything that really turns you on or turns you off?

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