OK, I had no plans to write a post today but I thought this was something I needed to share with you. It will be brief!

A few weeks ago I conducted a  quick experiment based on purchasing a WSO and trialling it to see if it could help me reactivate a niche I had previously dipped into.  If you didn't see the original post you can read it here.

Well, a funny thing happened today.  I logged into the affiliate account for that product (Commission Junction) and – to my complete surprise – I found that I had made 2 sales, making me £55.98 (that's just short of $80) in commission. And, get this, I only sent 60 clicks through to the affiliate site (that's about $1.33 epc) – boy does this niche convert

I know what question is now in your mind: "What's the niche?"  Well, the point of this post isn't about what the niche is, it's more about the fact that things can happen if you are willing to just try things out and experiment a little.

If you have read my original post you will know that this was by no means a major project for me – more a quick stab at reactivating a niche I had briefly tried before.

More Than $1 Earning Per Click

In all honesty, I don't think the You Tube thing is necessarily right for this particular niche despite making 2 sales but what I have got as a great spin-off from this exercise is: 1) confirmation that the niche is worth being in – I tried it briefly in the past and made a couple of sales which brought me just over $150 commission but I wasn't able to make the site stick;  2) a really good site (in my opinion) that I can now build up and promote more actively to generate more leads and commissions; 3) my first 'proper' metric in the niche showing me I can potentially achieve over $1 epc!

So, now I think I'll build the site out a little with a few more pages and opportunities/reasons for people to purchase. And then, armed with the knowledge that I can potentially achieve a $1+ epc, I'm going to pay for some ppc traffic.

I signed up with 7search this week for my 'main' project so I'll start testing this site with 7search traffic immediately (thanks to Clare at http://help-pay-bills.com for her post on 7search as I hadn't heard of it before).

Also, I purchased another WSO yesterday – I know, I know, but I can't resist sometimes – which is focused on ways to get free and very low-cost traffic so I'll go through the videos today and see what other tips I can pick up.

So, going back to my original You Tube test.  It didn't fly but, equally, it wasn't the complete flop I thought it was (see my second post on the subject for my initial thoughts). 

I spent $8.93 for the original WSO.  This spurred me on to build a new website to test the model, which took approximately 4 hours of my time.  I paid a guy on Fiverr.com $10 to create 2 videos for me (both of which I renamed and used twice so I had 4 vids to use).  I spent all of 15 minutes posting the videos to You Tube. 

Less than 20 bucks spent and little more than 4 hours of my time has brought me $80 in return.

It's not very sexy to most people but, for me, it's great because I know I have a site already built in a buying niche and I know it converts.

Rather than chasing worthless dreams I can focus some of my attention on this one site and start testing, tweaking, testing, tweaking, etc.  You never know, I might even get some more traffic from the original videos!

This is not the end…only the beginning.

Update:

I managed to pick up £150 worth of coupons for Adcenter (that's the Bing/Yahoo equivalent of Google's Adwords) so I shall also run some PPC ads through their service.  This will give me a great free test.

Hey, this post is my first example of ‘repurposing’ my work – cool

Earlier this week I was writing an email to set into an autoresponder series for my new site and it occurred to me it would probably make a fairly useful blog post so here goes (with a few minor additions or modifications):

“This year two people I know asked me to create websites for their new businesses.

Actually, to be more accurate, ONE GUY I know asked me to build a website for  his new business and another guy I know ask me to build a website for HIS WIFE’S new business.

So, why did they ask me?

Well, for 3 reasons I guess. First, they know I ‘do website stuff’. Second, they know they can trust me. Third, they both know I’m cheap (I prefer to say ‘good value’)!

But, you know what, I charged £150 (about $237) for one website and £300 (about $474) for the second – and it took me just a few hours work. I know I could have charged more but the prices reflected expectations – and they are friends!

Now, understand I’m no web development guru. But…I don’t need to be. It’s not even a business for me. I just happen to know more than most other people do so I can accomplish something really quick and easy that they think is real cool and professional looking.

All of this because I know how to set up WordPress and install a free theme (template). Do you think you could do that? Sure you could, it’s easy.

You just need to learn how.

I’ve built websites in the past using other content management systems but WordPress is way, way simpler to set up and manage.

Honestly, you could learn all you need to know within a few hours and be building websites for your own business – and for other people – this very week.

You really would be surprised how smart people think I am just because I can press a few buttons to install a piece of free software

If there is one skill I recommend you learn right now it’s how to set up a WordPress site (if you already know, that’s great).

WordPress sites will be the foundation for most of your online business ventures going forward but – as I’ve shown above – you really can make a quick buck just helping out people you already know.

Top tip: if you build websites for other people you should think about getting a reseller hosting account. That way you can host the websites you build and charge your customers/friends every year for hosting – recurring income, its great!!”

In a follow up email I also went on to add that I charge between £75 – £100 (approx $120 – $160) per year to host a website and that I pay £120 (about $190) per year for my reseller hosting account.  I include first year’s hosting ‘for free’ as this makes it sound like even greater value

I realise that $700 is not everyone’s idea of ‘internet riches’ but the point I wanted to make is that this was just a spin-off from what I have learned over the last few years.

Also, it’s an indication that the opportunity to make money from our knowledge is all around us.  We just need to think about how we can apply what we have learned.

By the way, you will not be surprised to learn that I included a couple of links in my email to a WordPress video training course I’m selling.

I hope that gives you all something to think about.

OK, I think I’ve taken too long to write an update on this but here goes: IT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME.

If you want to know the background to this post you can read my previous post

To be absolutely fair, I didn’t actually follow the WSO guidance to the letter.

The whole basis of the WSO was to find the “easy to target, low competition  keywords” (aren’t all WSOs??) and to create videos that would easily rank on the first page of Google’s search results – yep, it really did say “easily”!

However, the way I chose to go about it was to use the WSO’s keyword research method to target alternative keywords within a more competitive niche that I want to get back into. So, I entered this test from a different angle and accepting the fact it was a long shot. I want to make this clear to be completely fair to the WSO seller.

Initially, I did get a little excited as my first video (of 3 that I posted to You Tube targeting different keyword phrases) quickly made it on to page 3 of Google’s results – so I added some social bookmarks with Social Monkee to try to give it a boost.

Unfortunatelly, this small success was just a blip (or part of the ‘Google dance’ as some people put it) and my video disappeared from the search results pages as quickly as it arrived

Neither of my other two videos registered at all.

What I found particularly interesting though was that when I revisited the original WSO listing on the Warrior Forum it had been closed after just a few days – this doesn’t suggest the seller was interested in selling a long-term, scalable or repeatable system.  Guess I might need to think about reviewing my opinion about that particular ‘no-BS seller’.

What’s more, over the next 10 days from purchasing that WSO  - and accepting subscription to the guy’s mailing list – I received sales emails almost every day trying to sell me the next greatest video marketing WSO or other video marketing system.  I had been categorized….I was a guy who was interested in buying video marketing courses!

I guess the more experienced you become in internet marketing, the more transparent the sellers’ motives and models become. And this guy’s model was clearly to whack out a quick, plausible WSO to build a new list quickly and then follow up with as many related products as possible. I didn’t buy, I just unsubscribed.

I’m not overly disappointed as I didn’t spend much time or money on this little project – and I can still work on promoting the videos to see if there is a way of making the system work for me.

The big positive I can take from this is that I have now built a completely new site for a niche I wanted back into – and I now have that in place to test other traffic models on.  The day I crack it will be a very happy day as it’s a pretty lucrative niche

I’m sorry I can’t give you guys the heads-up on a great video marketing system but it simply didn’t work for me. Believe me, I would if I could.

Today I did something that I promised myself I wouldn’t do again – at least not for a while.

I bought a WSO – for those of you not familiar WSO stands for Warrior Special Offer and it’s where a marketer sells their new information marketing product through a forum known as The Warrior Forum.

Sometimes, these are new products created by the marketer – many times they are rehashed information that others have sold over and over. Sometimes they are just works of fiction that are not even worth the low cost of the WSO.

Marketers release new products on the Warrior Forum for two main reason: firstly, they want to build their subscriber list; secondly, they want to iron out any problems or inconsistencies and get testimonials before releasing the product for sale on ClickBank at a much higher price.

Good WSOs are a bargain….bad WSOs a waste of time and money.  More than that, they can demoralise newbie marketers who might start to think either they are being ripped off at each turn or they don’t have what it takes to make internet marketing work.

So, Exactly Why Did I Purchase This WSO Today?

That’s a good question. One of the things I promised myself recently is that I would shy away from all the ‘shiny new objects’ promising me immediate riches and focus on building my business – this blog plus the membership site I’m working on.

BUT…and it’s a BIG but, one of the things that interests me greatly is the use of video to promote my business.

Video is the future. With more and more people moving towards using smartphones and tablets it doesn’t take a genius to realize the future of internet marketing is in video rather than the written word.

So, it was already at the back of my mind that – when I got the time – I would start to study video marketing seriously so I could find a way to build my business.

Then, 2 days ago, an email dropped into my email inbox.  I ignored it but, for some reason, I didn’t delete it.  I’m not sure of the exact title but it was something along the lines of “How To  Beat Google and Rank For Keywords Immediately”.

My first thought was “Yeah, right.  Another piece of BS fantasy!”  BUT, the email came from a guy I know doesn’t do BS fantasy, which is probably why I didn’t delete the email.  I finally read it this morning.

OK, so the email came from a guy I know doesn’t do BS fantasy.  Well, when I read the text I found it was about a WSO just launched by another guy I know doesn’t do BS fantasy – I guess this is the know, like, trust mechanism at work!

I followed the link over to the Warrior Forum and read through the thread and there were certainly some powerful testimonials and buyer feedback – but that’s often the case….even for some of the crap!

But there was just something that caught my attention.  I can’t put my finger on it – maybe it was the $8.93 price

Hooked.  Just Like a Fish On a Line! But What Potential.

I guess I was hooked like a fish on a line.  The product was inexpensive, it focused on video marketing (which is certainly a direction I want to go) and it promised a new ‘twist’.  Also, it was being sold by someone who I know has a good reputation for no-nonsense information – because that’s really all it is, information.

So, I purchased, downloaded, read the PDF and POW! I immediately saw a way I could use this (there are also 4 videos to show the process).

There’s nothing new in the process: anyone who has made a video and posted it to You Tube will be familiar with the ‘how’.

It’s the IDEA that makes this WSO so worth the money (at least I hope so).

It looks like this guy has come up with a really interesting twist to keyword selection that make it pretty damn easy to rank videos with minimum effort. Obviously, I’m not going to give the guy’s idea away in this blog post – I appreciate and value his work.

I’m not sure how I could use this method to promote this blog – or even my upcoming membership site – on You Tube but there are other things I have tried over the last year that have the potential to really work using this method.

To give some perspective, last year I put up a 3 page site that promoted a specific product.  I got to #6 on page 1 of Google for a short time but the site didn’t last long before it was ‘slapped’ and I was never able to get it back.

However, in the very short time the site was up I made two sales that gave me a total commission of just over $150! Not to be sniffed at.

I have wanted to find a way to go back into that market for a few months.  After a few searches on Google KW Tool to establish potential with this new method I think I might have found the way

I’m Going To Run a Test

So, now I plan to make a few vids to test the ‘system’.  I guess I’m lucky that I already have the niche in mind and know it sells as that really makes my test ‘real world’.

I’m not promoting this WSO – heck, I haven’t even mentioned it or the name of the marketer – as I don’t yet know if it will work.  I just see the potential.

However, what I promise is that I will provide an update to this post – and a link to the WSO – if it works so you all can go check it out for yourselves.

Well, since then I have received some interesting comments and questions, both on my blog and at the forum of which I’m a member.

It really seems that many people just don’t know what PLR or MRR material is – and how it can be used in a business.

So, I thought I would write this short blog post to give a little insight into how PLR and MRR products can be a great help to someone starting out in information marketing. In fact, selling PLR and MRR products can be a powerful business model in its own right.

Private Label Rights (PLR) and Master Resell Rights (MRR) might be really unfamiliar to you especially if you are new to the marketing scene or come from the world of doing business conventionally.

Think Of It Like Retailing…

You have probably heard of terms “retail” and “wholesale” in the offline world. Well, think of PLR and MRR products as “wholesale” products that you – as a ‘retailer’ or ‘reseller’ – can sell onto other people for a profit, either ‘as is’ or with any modifications you wish, license permitting.

And when I use the phrase “sell on” I don’t just mean in the conventional sense – in internet marketing you may well choose to give a product away in order to secure future customers – your all-important subscriber list.

It’s not cheating to use PLR/MRR products. Many top marketers boost their income and build their mailing lists through creative use and leverage on PLR/MRR products – both ebooks and videos.

In the regular business world ‘white label products’ (where one company makes products for other companies to sell as their own) is very commonplace.

Think of your local supermarket as an example. They sell products from all the big brands but alongside them on the shelves you’ll find similar products with the supermarket’s own packaging.

Do you think the supermarkets make these themselves?  Heck, no.  Other companies make them and put the supermarket’s packaging/labels on.

Many years ago my brother worked in a commercial bakery and that’s the first time I realised that wherever I purchased my bread – whether it was from one of the big brands or labelled as a supermarket ‘own brand’, it was actually all baked in the same few places. Everything else is just marketing and middlemen – and that accounts for the difference in price.

The big question for many would-be information marketers thinking of using PLR/MRR products is:

How Is It Possible To Compete with Other Marketers Using PLR/MRR Products?

How can you compete with other marketers selling the exact same product for the exact same price to the exact same market? Well, simply put – don’t! Do something different. Do something unique. Do something YOU!

Remember, more than 90% of all people who hold the same rights license that you have either won’t market the product at all, or won’t market it correctly. This essentially means that less than 10% of those who have resell rights to the same product are in competition with you.

It’s About Presentation, It’s About MARKETING…

It really doesn’t matter how competitive the market is or how many other resellers there are for the same product. When all is said and done, the only thing that really counts is how the product is marketed – how it’s presented to the market.

The first thing you must do is set yourself apart from the pack. Don’t worry about what others are doing. Do your own thing. Do what works. Start by making the product as different as your license will allow you to.

Change the package to include bonuses that others are not offering. Also change the sales letter. Make it completely different, and more effective than it already is. Change its image – you can get a basic ebook cover created onlione for free, or a more graphic-heavy one from a Fiverr seller for only 5 bucks.

Once you’ve changed the product and the package as much as you are allowed to, you can then focus on marketing – and selling – your very own, unique information product.

Just make sure to start with a good quality product as your base!

By the way, if you don’t know the difference between Private Label Rights (PLR) and Master Resell Rights (MRR), here goes:

PLR – you purchase both the product and the rights to use the product as your own, put your own name on it, sell it, give it away for free (usually), break it up to use as articles or blog posts, and more

MRR – all the above and you also have the rights to sell the product with MRR and/or PLR rights to other marketers

The exact rights that come with a product will vary from seller to seller but the above is a good rule of thumb.

Finally, finally, finally.

I now think I’m getting somewhere.

I have just finished creating my first two information products.

The good news is I’m giving both away to readers of my blog TOTALLY FREE 

 FOLLOW THIS LINK TO SIGN UP FOR YOUR IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD

• “THE EASY GUIDE TO PRODUCT CREATION FOR NEWBIES” – ebook
• “HOW I WENT FROM NEWBIE TO PRODUCT CREATOR IN ONLY 6.5 HOURS” – special report

If you want to achieve anything in life there will be a number of hurdles you must overcome.

Whether it's gaining the best education you can, building successful, long-lasting relationships, getting married, having a happy family life, finding a great job (or any job), building your career, planning a comfortable retirement, etc., etc.

Nothing comes easy  - well, nothing worthwhile comes easy anyway.

It's no different with when it comes to making a living online.

For some reason there are people who think that making a living online is a simple process….build a website, throw up some ads up and hey, presto, money will start flowing.

Well, it sure isn't like that, although there are marketers who will tell you it's that simple whilst, at the same time, taking your money for a course on just how to do it

Don't get me wrong – the principle behind making a living online is actually straightforward once you know it but, in order to see any success, it does involve time, effort and some cash.

You Need To Work, To Do Things (Take Action) And Clear Those Hurdles 

The course I'm taking with Alex jeffreys made it very clear that three of the key components to building a successful online business are having a blog, creating products and building a subscriber list.

Well, none of these are things I'd ever considered before and – to be completely honest – I don't think I really would have wanted to do if I didn't understand how critical they would be in attaining the success I want to achieve.

So, here we are, 2 months into my 'journey' and, as you can see quite clearly, I have a blog up and running.  In fact, what I have discovered is that I really enjoy writing the posts.

I think that's probably because I'm simply writing about my own experiences or my own thoughts – it comes pretty easily, but I'm still surprised by that.  

The great news is that's one hurdle cleared.  What I once saw as a great big hill in front of me is now a hill I'm standing atop.

Of course, the blog will never be 'finished' per se but every post is (hopefully) a useful piece of information for someone and remains on my blog forever, I guess.  Each post is another piece in an ever-expanding resource.

The next hurdle for me has been product creation – creating my own information product.  Again, this was a major issue for me.  I really didn't think I had anything to give but – once again – I have totally surprised myself and in the last week I have managed to create not one but two information products of my own that I can now do with as I wish.

Another hurdle overcome.  And the one that probably created the single biggest 'objections' and doubts in my mind when I found out I had to do it.

It's actually amazing how my mindset has been changed because now I KNOW I can create information products and I know this new skill will provide for me and my family in the future. 

My next hurdle?  

Building a subscriber list. This one is less of a psychological hurdle – building a blog and creating my infoproducts have demonstrated to me the potential I have – and more of a skills/knowledge hurdle I must overcome. So, let's do it!

I don't know how to build my list.  How do I generate the traffic (visitors) to my site? How do I get those visitirs to become subscribers? What do I do once I have a list? How frequently do I communicate with people? How do I make money?? I guess that's where the course comes into play again so I had better get back to it!

One final thought: when you clear one of your personal hurdles it's behind you.  Don't look back – keep moving forward. 

I found a recently released PLR ebook about product creation that I will use as the foundation for my own information product – this cuts down the time it takes to have a real live product by a LOT.

Just searching for a suitable PLR product to use was an eye-opening exercise – there's so much stuff out there both in ebook format and in video format.

I think the secret is to find your way through all the cr*p that's being peddled by so many marketers – and their dogs – and zone in on a quality product that you would be happy to put your own name on.

If you can find a PLR product like this you're all set.  I've found my product.

I've read through the ebook and it's just as I anticipated – no new secrets, no wild claims….just solid, proven information that will help newbies along the road to creating their first product. 

I've even had thoughts on other ways I can use the information: I can break it down into 2 or 3 separate ebooks – a related series – or I can create a 5/7/10-day ecourse or maybe use some of the information as blog posts…..or maybe just edit, add my own twist, add my own name and sell it complete.  A lot of choice for a $10 investment (and my time, of course).

I've started writing a short report which will show exactly how I take this PLR ebook and convert it into my own information product. 

I expect to be finished over the  weekend and I'll be giving both documents – the product creation ebook AND my special report – free to people who are willing to subscribe to my mailing list.

I know, for many new marketers, creating their own information product can be a big psychological hurdle to overcome.  Hopefully, I'll be able to show just how simple it can be.

Watch this space…….

The proven way to long-term business success in the online marketing field is to build a mailing list of people who are interested in either (i) listening to what you have to say or (ii) buying what you have to sell – ideally both of those things – AND creating your own information products either to sell or to give away (to help build your list). This applies to any niche you're in so it's sure worth knowing about – and knowing how to do. 

Yikes!  This is soooo far out of my comfort zone I almost wanted to stop the very moment I found out!!

But, that's not what I signed up for.  I didn't sign up with the intention that I would walk away the moment I felt I had to do something that I didn't find easy.  After all, nothing worth doing ever comes easy, right?

Still, even though I know what I have to do I still find myself avoiding those two particular tasks. You probably know what I mean – so many other things must be more important, surely?

I hear myself justifying a whole range of jobs as top priority just so I don't have to face the jobs I don't want to do!.

Are any of the following thoughts familiar to you?  "I must get another blog post out."  "Ooh, I really need to find a plugin to do [insert any unnecessary job]." "I must find some blogs to leave comments on."

These are all important elements in the process of building my business but, in reality, they are probably not top of the list right now. 

Essentially, I've been directing myself to do other tasks – all important, of course – because I didn't want to face the jobs that come least easily to me.  My biggest personal challenges (to date).

I need to build a list, and to build a list I need a product to give away.

So, I had to start thinking. How do I approach this? I'm in the early stage of an online marketing training course so what do I know? How can I create an information product that is going to be of value to people?

I decided to read up.  To find out what it takes to create an information product.

And, guess what?  It's not rocket science. The wheel has already been invented so I don't need to do it.

What do I mean by that exactly?

It means that unless you're some kind of research scientist you won't be making any earth-shattering discoveries (and, let's face it, plenty of those guys never really discover anything anyway – they just get paid to try!)  So, what that means is – in most markets/niches –  the information you'll be providing is already out there somewhere – you (or I) just have to recreate and update it adding our own spin/personality/insights.

Easy as apple pie….

Let's think of a really simple example: how many people do you know have a family recipe handed down from mother to daughter (or father to son – let's be equal in this modern world)?  It might even be you or someone in your family.

Now, how many of those people have recipes for apple pie?  Really, how many ways can there be to make apple pie? 

But……each person has a slightly different take on what is the best apple pie recipe. From what kind of apples are used to the way the pastry is made….or even rolled out. I think you can tell I don't make apple pies but I'm sure you get my point.

If it wasn't for spin/personality/personal preferences we would have no celebrity chefs (if only) – all food recipes would be pretty much the same.

What makes a person think Gordon Ramsey's apple pie is better than their grandma's (it probably isn't better but it will be expensive anyway)? Marketing, that's what.

Gordon Ramsey is a brand and when his restaurant (not even him personally) serves up any dish there is an expectation it will be better than the same dish from a small family-run restaurant in your local town.

But if your dessert is home-made apple pie, it's home made apple pie. We all have a good idea what to expect already – but we might not know the exact recipe and presentation we'll get.

Coming back to my point, it is OK to take information or knowledge that's already largely known – but perhaps not easy to find amongst so much misinformation – and use that as the basis of your own information product IF IT STILL WORKS.  After all, what's old news to one person is still going to be a new discovery to someone else. New learners are coming along all the time.

Face it, not much is ever truly new – look at fashion. Everything in fashion is a derivative of something else! 

By the way, please be clear I'm not suggesting plagiarism at all – whatever you do needs to be both legal and ethical. It's important you do not leave yourself open to any legal liability.

My Next Step – Create That Product!

At risk of creating a little confusion I'll explain what I've decided to do. Over the next week or so I plan to create an information product using existing information products (PLR) about creating information products.  And I also plan to create an additional report which will be a case study of my information product creation, so I'll also have a bonus report to give away. Two products for the price of one!

I hope that makes sense.

As for my list-building efforts/plans?  That's for a future post.

If you’ve seen the excellent baseball movie Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Costner, you’ll get the baseball reference. If you haven’t I think all will become clear soon.

“If You Build It They Will Come!”

In the movie, Kevin Costner plays a farmer who gets a message to build a baseball field on his land.  He’s not sure where the message is from or why he has to build the baseball field, all he knows is the message tells him: “if you build it they will come”. He doesn’t even know who it is that will come!

If you haven’t seen this movie I will not spoil it for you by revealing what happens or who ‘they’ are but suffice to say people do come.

And that brings me to the point of this post. Do people visit blogs?  And more importantly how do you get people to visit your blog (or website)?

So, If You Build a Blog Will They Come?

Well, the short answer is yes, people will visit your blog. It’s not quite that simple though.  If people are going to find your blog they need to know it exists. They also need to know your blog has something of interest to them – makes sense, huh?

I made my first post on this blog on March 4th. Today is March 24th and this is only my 7th post yet I’ve already had 164 visitors to my blog (some of those will be my own visits as I pop by to admire my work) and over 700 page views.

And guess what?  I haven’t even done much to publicise my blog – I’ve been too busy writing posts and studying more of my Alex Jeffreys marketing course.

Don’t you think I should be able to get those visitor numbers up considerably? Heck, yeah.  And that’s what I’m going to start doing this coming week.

What Have I done So Far?

As mentioned, very little in terms of traffic generation.  One of the techniques we are tought involves going to the places people in your niche hang out and making yourself known to them.

Usually, this is through forums.  Wherever there is a popular niche there will be forums – and if there isn’t that’s a business opportunity for you

I’ve already mentioned I’m part of a training program delivered by Alex Jeffreys and one of the benefits of this training program is that there is a members-only forum. The people in this forum are all in the same boat – we’re all trying to learn the ropes of online marketing so we can achieve our dreams and ambitions in the future.

And don’t you just know it, most of the visitors to my blog so far have come from this forum.  We are positively encouraged to post in the forum with links to our blogs in our profile signatures.  We’re encouraged to network, we’re encouraged to visit other people’s blogs and make comments.

All these things have multiple purposes:

• we get known
• we get to network and make contact with people who are in the same boat as us
• our blogs get known about and we get feedback from our peers
• we can help each other out with information and tips
• we are being prepared for blog and forum commenting ‘in the real world’
• we’re starting to build our ‘social proof’ in the eyes of search engines with increasing numbers of links from diverse sources

So, What Comes Next?

I need to get out and do some more blog and forum commenting and I need to expand this beyond my Alex Jeffreys training group – and that’s the plan for the coming week. I have been a member of the Warrior Forum (a very popular internet marketing forum) since last year so I better add a signature file and make some posts!

Funnily, I have already commented on one blog but without having purposely planned it. In a recent post I wrote about whether full or partial posts should be used on a blog’s front page.

I took my inspiration for that article from another blog so I thought it only fair to reference the original blog post and add a link to it in my post (you can read my full post here).

I then decided to go back to the original blog and comment on the page I had linked to, thanking the author for the information he had given and also informing him I had used it as inspiration for one of my own posts.

And, guess what else I did?

Yeah, I placed a link to my blog post so other visitors to that blog can find my post/blog if they are interested. After all, I have a post about the same topic as the one they are reading so they should be interested.

I think what I have done is good blog commenting etiquette.  Why not let me know what you think.

I know there are plenty more means to get visitors to my blog and I will write about my experiences in the future.  To start off though, blog and forum commenting is a very good method for getting targeted visitors to a blog.

And visitors from these sources are targeted because you choose where to post your comments….and you make only relevant and helpful posts on relevant forums and blogs. Simple.