Lead Inspectors - Blogging Tips, Social Media, Web Apps

Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online - July 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy Neal) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:45:00 +0000

Welcome to the July 2008 edition of Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online.

The Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online is a monthly blog carnival consisting of posts about leads to making money online. The primary focus of this carnival is to help blog publishers learn about new and effective ways to monetize their site(s). It also includes posts about related items, like SEO, copywriting sales opportunities, entrepreneurial spirit and marketing programs.

Blog authors are encouraged to submit their best posts for consideration, as only the most relevant, unique and useful entries will be selected each month.

Michel Fortin presents Customers Won’t Discount Your Dishonesty posted at The Michel Fortin Blog.

J Will presents Paid Surveys: Make Extra Cash | The Wi11is posted at The Wi11is.

Sarah Paine presents Emotional Intelligence & Internet Business posted at Sarah Paine.

The Shark Investor presents How To Find Domain Investing Deals posted at The Shark Investor, saying, "how to find promising domain names and invest in them"

Jessica Donnovan presents Making Money Online with IFW Marketing posted at Sensible Self-Improvement.

Steve Faber presents - Creating a Customer Loyalty Strategy – How to Reach Your Business Profitability Goal posted at Home Based Business Success.

Riggie Freyer presents How to Increase Your Targeted Website Traffic For Free posted at Internet Business for Beginners | Internet Home Based Business.

Danogo presents Two Types of Proven Online Businesses You Can Start Today posted at Danogo.com - Discover. Inspiring . Media, saying, "Why reinvent the wheel when successful internet business models already exist."

BlogMeTheMoney presents Blog Me The Money: Translate Your Websites Or Blog For Money posted at Blog Me The Money, saying, "Is your website only accessible by one language? If so you could be losing out on visitors and even more importantly, MONEY."

Mag Herrera presents The Quest for Making Money Online posted at Life. Money. Development., saying, "Personal opinion and views about the rush for making money online"

Don Morrison presents Create A 100% Steady Online Income? Produce & Market A Quick e-Book Daily! posted at dondmorrison.com, saying, "Download 300+ Free, New, & Original eBooks at http://dondmorrison.com"

Jack S. Keifer presents Using the Great Tools of The Trade posted at Jack S. Keifer.

Technology Editor presents Business Continuity Lessons from the Universal Studios Fire posted at Physician Entrepreneur.

NLHE Player presents Slowplaying Aces - Playing With Fire posted at No Limit Holdem Advice, saying, "Deciding to not bet aggressively while holding aces can often backfire."

Taylor Coburn presents What To Do When You Are Stuck posted at Internet Business at ProcessToProfits.

Kenton Newby presents First-Class Blogging: 12 Perfect Upgrades to Power Your Wordpress Site posted at KentonNewby.com.

Mark presents The fine line between personal and business posted at Business is Personal.

Ian Richardson presents Growing Your Internet Business One Day At A Time posted at Make Everything EzyAs123, saying, "An article on how to grow your internet business"

Diego Norto presents Internet Business 101 posted at Internet Business 101.

joy hudgins presents How To Make Money Selling In Online Auctions posted at auctionhelper4u, saying, "Tons of ideas on how to make money selling in online auctions. Learn how to make extra money or work full time online. Check it out!"

John Lenaghan presents What Is Your Time Worth? posted at Internet Marketing Chaos.

First Lady Of Poker presents The Importance of a Continuation Bet posted at Shopping and Poker Blog, saying, "A continuation bet is exactly what the name suggest; a bet of the same or greater amount than a bet made before the flop."

Bryan presents 5 Surprising Traffic Secrets posted at The Capitalist Guide Blog.

James Lee presents The Awesome Power of Face to Face Networking posted at Online Business Freedom.

Social D presents Social Marketing Traffic Experiment Updated Results Video posted at Social Networking Bookmark Domination.

Danogo presents Guide to Making Your Own Ringtones and Selling Downloads posted at DanoSongs.com - Dan-O's Music Blog, saying, "Use your music to make money with ringtones - there are more markets for your mp3s than just selling cds."

Bryan presents Will You Remember Your Next Big Idea? posted at The Capitalist Guide Blog.

Michel Fortin presents Apply The Law of Contrast to Build Desire posted at The Michel Fortin Blog.

Jose DeJesus MD presents Successful Business Networking posted at Physician Entrepreneur.

Carl Ringwall presents When Evaluating Ad Copy, Only Listen To Buyers posted at Data SystemsPlus.

Jane25 presents The ABC of Making Money At Home for Beginners posted at Work At Home Mom Home Job Resource.

Chris presents 9 Surefire Strategies NOT to Retire Early posted at nomad4ever.

blogging tips presents Solution for Wordpress 2.5 problems posted at Glowicki ProBlogger - Blogging Tips, saying, "You have problems with new Word Press? Here is what to do. Dont worry anymore!"

terry dean presents What If Its Not Working? posted at Integrity Business Blog by Terry Dean.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online using our carnival submission form. Submissions for this monthly carnival are due by the 25th.

Who is Behind Lead Inspectors? Podcast Interview

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy Neal) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:00:00 +0000

I had a great time today as a guest on Soapbox Radio, and I really appreciate all of the people who tuned into the live show and participated in the online chat room. It's always a little uncomfortable to spend an hour talking about myself, but I think Nicole (Soapbox Mom) did a great job conducting the interview. Thanks Nicole!

If you missed the show, I have the podcast recording to share with you. It's exactly one hour, so grab a beer, glass of wine or cup of coffee and enjoy listening to me ramble. I'd love to know your feedback, as well as answer any questions that we were unable to get to on the show today.

Here's the podcast:

Also, since I mentioned several other bloggers on the show that you may or may not know, here is a list of those people and links to their blogs.

Jim at The Busy Dad Blog, Chuck at D is for Dad, Jason at iVegasFamily, Tyler at Building Camelot, Joe at Joeprah, Mr Lady at Whiskey in My Sippy Cup, Jen at Huckdoll's Hood, Kim at Jogging In Circles, Piper at Bliss in Bloom, Kelby at Type-A Mom and Dadosphere, Matt at The Playpen on Redsparks

Also, the other sites that I publish that were discussed in the interview are: American History Quotes, World History Quotes, Struck In Traffic, Thoughts On Quotes , Discovering Dad and Artistic Pursuit. Nicole mentioned that I was also working on a few other "secret" projects, which I hope to share with you all over the coming months (very excited about them too)!

We also spent a lot of time talking about personal growth and development, and I mentioned a book that was particularly meaningful to me. If you want to buy it, here's my Amazon link to it: Now, Discover Your Strengths (book) or Now, Discover Your Strengths (audiobook). I strongly recommend this incredible book and taking the StrengthsFinder test that comes with it.

Thanks again to Nicole at Soapbox Mom for having me on her show today. I really enjoyed sharing more about me, my sites and my life. I feel very fortunate every day to be able to connect with so many great people through blogging, including you!

Please fee free to share your feedback or ask questions that came from listening to the interview. I'll try to answer them all!

If you want to stay updated with Lead Inspectors, please subscribe to my feed.

Welcome Soapbox Radio Listeners!

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy Neal) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:58:00 +0000

I just wanted to take a quick minute to say "Welcome!" to all of the Soapbox Radio listeners who are visiting Lead Inspectors for the first time. As you can see from the bullet points next to the blog title, this site is an outlet for me to share some of my key learnings, thoughts and recommendations about blogging, technology and social media.

Some of the most popular articles I've written include:

10 Things I've Learned About Professional Blogging
Four Key Learnings for Bloggers from Fortune's Most Admired List
20 Twitter Services to Enhance Your Experience

Some of the highlights of my recommendations include:

5 Top Quality Sites for Bloggers
New to Social Media? Check Out Mixx.com
Be a Better Blogger - Five Sites that Build Skills

In addition, I also host a popular monthly blog carnival called Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online. If you have a relevant article, please feel free to submit an entry.

Lastly, if you'd like to stay updated on my most recent posts and recommendations, please subscribe to my feed.

Thanks to Soapbox Mom for featuring Lead Inspectors this week! I hope to see you all again soon!

Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online, June 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy Neal) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 23:51:00 +0000

Welcome to the June 2008 edition of Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online.

The Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online is a monthly blog carnival consisting of posts about leads to making money online. The primary focus of this carnival is to help blog publishers learn about new and effective ways to monetize their site(s). It also includes posts about related items, like SEO, copywriting sales opportunities, entrepreneurial spirit and marketing programs.

Blog authors are encouraged to submit their best posts for consideration, as only the most relevant, unique and useful entries will be selected each month.

Brian Terry presents It?s not just about the money? posted at Big Selling Website Design.

Sarah Paine presents Is Risk Aversion Ruining Your Business? posted at Sarah Paine, saying, "Take a look at how your aversion to risk may ruin your chance of running a successful online business. Discover how to overcome this fear by acknowledging it."

Tim Gary presents Have You Been “six-packed” by Your Thinking? posted at Internet Success Bites.

Value Seeker presents Stock Investment Resource: Stock Market Investing Tips - Is Small Cap Value The Key For 2008? posted at Stock Investing, saying, "Small cap value stocks performed poorly in 2007. Will 2008 see a resurgence of small cap value?"

KCLau presents Everything you are looking for about Bursa Malaysia posted at KCLau's Money Tips, saying, "A list of sources for you to learn about stocks and shares"

Eric presents Growing Money posted at Make Money Blog, saying, "Tips on making money, avoiding scams, growing money, and overcoming poverty."

Fred Black presents What Can You Learn from Watching Big Product Launches? posted at Fred Black: Internet Business Blog..

Terry Dean presents 5 Keys to Successful Internet Business posted at Integrity Business Blog by Terry Dean.

Sam Carrara presents 24 Hour Special- Top Search Terms posted at Sam Carrara's Marketing Education.

Mohamed Bhimji presents Start Your Own YouTube Service WITHOUT OpenSource posted at Internet Business Opportunities.

Davexplorer presents The Guru of Investors - Warren Buffett posted at Millionaires Ladder.

Cindy King presents Book Review - Landing Page Optimization posted at Cindy King.

Kevin presents Link Baiting Tips and Practices posted at Trafficteria.com Blog Optimization.

Kathleen Gage presents Blogging is so simple virtually anyone can do it posted at Street Smarts Marketing & Promotions.

Robert Phillips presents I?m Not as Bad As Others posted at CYBERCA$HOLOGY.

The Fund investor presents Why Invest In Mutual Funds? posted at Mutual Fund Investing Tips, saying, "Many people invest in mutual funds without really understanding the benefits of this type of investment vehicle."

Ian Richardson presents More proof on the way on building backlinks posted at Make Everything EzyAs123, saying, "An article(with embedded video ) on how to build backlinks"

BlogMeTheMoney presents Powering Up Your Blog With These 26 Power Lists/Rankings posted at Blog Me The Money, saying, "Increase traffic and brand awareness within your blogging niche. traffic=money"

Christine presents Money Making Blogs and Websites posted at Me, My Kid and Life: An American Single Mom Living in France.

Carol Bentley presents How informative are your sales letters. . . posted at Carol Bentley, saying, "How informative are your sales letters?"

James Lee presents Top 5 Blog Traffic Generation Methods posted at Online Business Freedom.

Sam Carrara presents The Secret To Blogging Success posted at Sam Carrara's Marketing Education.

Prashant K Shukla presents Role of Meta Title Tag in SEO | My Smart SEO posted at Prashant K Shukla.

Patti Blevins presents Home Based Business Opportunity to Work At Home - Auto-Suggestion is Changing Lives posted at pattiblevins.com.

Nate presents Ecommerce Terms Glossary posted at Build Your Own Ecommerce Website!.

Leorita Seneres-Velasquez presents My first online payout ... posted at Money Matters.

Aaron Anderson presents Traffic Experiment Results: 308 Visitors In 6 Days posted at Online Business Blog.

James DeLelys presents WORDSBlog » MONEY ONLINE posted at Author James DeLelys.

Praveen presents My Simple Trading System: Using Long Tail Keywords to Help Create Blog Posts and Articles that Attract Search Engine Traffic posted at My Simple Trading System.

Brice Hogan presents The Way to Financial Independence | Financialzip.com posted at Financialzip.com.

Kurt Schmitt presents The 7 Bad Habits of Highly Defective Article Marketers posted at Free Website Traffic Tips, saying, "Correcting these article marketing mistakes will dramatically improve your chances of success."

Karthigeyen Subramaniam presents Wordpress Affiliate Marketing(WAM)-The Next Gen posted at My online Street.

Webmaster_1 presents 5 Reasons Why Blogging Is Beneficial posted at The Entrepreneurs Online Magazine.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online using our carnival submission form. Submissions for this monthly carnival are due by the 25th.

Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online, May 2008
Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online, April 2008
Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online, March 2008

5 Top Quality Sites for Bloggers

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy Neal) — Sat, 31 May 2008 02:12:00 +0000

If you're looking to get informed about new technologies, as well as stay up-to-date on some of the latest trends in social media, RSS, social bookmarking, blogging, marketing and more, then I would recommend reading the following,

5 Top Quality Sites for Bloggers

1. SheGeeks - Corvida gives you info straight-up, no fluff, only "awesomesauce." She has turned me on to several applications that I was able to apply immediately to one or more of my sites, and she's always willing to offer her opinion/advice.

2. Chris Brogan - Chris shares great and useful information, but he also makes you think. It's a nice mix of technology articles with philosophical perspectives. I also like that he challenges you to think about your blog as an extension of yourself.

3. Louis Gray - Louis gives you in-depth information about particular technologies that he finds extremely useful, such as Toluu and Friendfeed. I really like his follow-up on topics as well - it expands the learning process exponentially.

4. Copyblogger - Brian Clark offers up daily thoughts, insights and tips that challenge you to be a better blogger, writer and person. His practical advice on social media and copywriting help all levels of bloggers.

5. Sparkplug CEO - Wendy Piersall, formerly of eMoms, is the CEO of Sparkplugging, and she offers great articles about building a business with the help of your blog while maintaining a work-life balance. Sparkplug is a network of blogs that are all very good, but the CEO blog is particularly useful to fellow bloggers. Wendy is accompanied by co-author Dawud Miracle, who is another expert on making your blog a fun and exciting business.

I also recommend reading Be A Better Blogger - 5 Sites that Build Skills.

Early Arrival and Wii Contest

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy Neal) — Fri, 23 May 2008 03:39:00 +0000

Sorry for the light activity this week. My wife and I were blessed on Monday morning with a surprise arrival of our new little girl (6 weeks early)! Mom and baby are doing well. If you'd like to see a brief slideshow, you can visit one of my other sites and see my beautiful new addition to the family.

Since the baby is still in the hospital, I am running a contest on the other site too, and I wanted to share the opportunity with readers here as well.

'Bringing Out the Kid in You' Contest - Win a Nintendo Wii game system!!!

Anyone can enter - see the post for a few rules and requirements.

Thanks for your ongoing support, and I'll look forward to getting back to normal posting soon!

Privacy Policy for the Site

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy Neal) — Sat, 17 May 2008 04:04:00 +0000

Website Visitors

Like most website operators, Lead Inspectors collects non-personally-identifying information of the sort that web browsers and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. Lead Inspectors purpose in collecting non-personally identifying information is to better understand how Lead Inspectors visitors use its website. From time to time, Lead Inspectors may release non-personally-identifying information in the aggregate, e.g., by publishing a report on trends in the usage of its website.

Lead Inspectors also collects potentially personally-identifying information like Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. Lead Inspectors does not use such information to identify its visitors, however, and does not disclose such information, other than under the same circumstances that it uses and discloses personally-identifying information, as described below.

Gathering of Personally-Identifying Information

Certain visitors to Lead Inspectors websites choose to interact with Lead Inspectors in ways that require Lead Inspectors to gather personally-identifying information. The amount and type of information that Lead Inspectors gathers depends on the nature of the interaction. Those who engage in transactions with Lead Inspectors are asked to provide additional information, including as necessary the personal and financial information required to process those transactions. In each case, Lead Inspectors collects such information only insofar as is necessary or appropriate to fulfill the purpose of the visitor’s interaction with Lead Inspectors. Lead Inspectors does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below. And visitors can always refuse to supply personally-identifying information, with the caveat that it may prevent them from engaging in certain website-related activities.

Aggregated Statistics

Lead Inspectors may collect statistics about the behavior of visitors to its websites. Lead Inspectors may display this information publicly or provide it to others. However, Lead Inspectors does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below.

Protection of Certain Personally-Identifying Information

Lead Inspectors discloses potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information only to those of its employees, contractors and affiliated organizations that (i) need to know that information in order to process it on Lead Inspectors behalf or to provide services available at Lead Inspectors websites, and (ii) that have agreed not to disclose it to others. Some of those employees, contractors and affiliated organizations may be located outside of your home country; by using Lead Inspectors websites, you consent to the transfer of such information to them. Lead Inspectors will not rent or sell potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information to anyone. Other than to its employees, contractors and affiliated organizations, as described above, Lead Inspectors discloses potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information only when required to do so by law, or when Lead Inspectors believes in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of Lead Inspectors, third parties or the public at large. If you are a registered user of an Lead Inspectors website and have supplied your email address, Lead Inspectors may occasionally send you an email to tell you about new features, solicit your feedback, or just keep you up to date with what’s going on with Lead Inspectors and our products. We primarily use our various product blogs to communicate this type of information, so we expect to keep this type of email to a minimum. If you send us a request (for example via a support email or via one of our feedback mechanisms), we reserve the right to publish it in order to help us clarify or respond to your request or to help us support other users. Lead Inspectors takes all measures reasonably necessary to protect against the unauthorized access, use, alteration or destruction of potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information.

Cookies

A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. Lead Inspectors uses cookies to help Lead Inspectors identify and track visitors, their usage of Lead Inspectors website, and their website access preferences. Lead Inspectors visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using Lead Inspectors websites, with the drawback that certain features of Lead Inspectors websites may not function properly without the aid of cookies.

Privacy Policy Changes

Although most changes are likely to be minor, Lead Inspectors may change its Privacy Policy from time to time, and in Lead Inspectors sole discretion. Lead Inspectors encourages visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy. Your continued use of this site after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such change.
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Privacy Policy WP reference.

You Have a Blog. So What?

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy Neal) — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:18:00 +0000

Millions upon millions of people have blogs, which is awesome! The fact is, though, that the majority of them will fail to be anything more than something of a personal site or archive of your own thoughts. Why is that?

Most blogs fail to provide content that connects with people outside their immediate sphere of influence, such as family and friends. Many blogs also plateau at a certain level of success because they lack focus, clarity or purpose. Readers stumble across a new blog, look around and ask themselves, "So what?"

Dawud Miracle, a popular business consultant, wrote a post in which he shared his thoughts and a great video about the topic. Take a look at this interview of Chris Garrett and see if your blog answers the question of "So what?"

If you want to have a successful blog, then you must ensure that readers immediately answer the "So what?" question with, "Oh, I get it! This is great!"

It's fine to have a personal blog that exists for your own fulfillment; however, if you really want to connect with others, then you need to add value to their experience by giving them something they need.

Related Posts:

10 Things I've Learned About Professional Blogging
Be A Better Blogger - 5 Sites that Build Skills
Four Key Learnings for Bloggers from Fortune's Most Admired List

Optimizing Your Blogger Title Tag

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy Neal) — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:53:00 +0000

Thanks to Moleskine and Me, I was finally able to get my Title Tags working properly to maximize how search engines see my blogs. If you're unfamiliar with Title Tags, they determine what is seen by users in the top of your browser bar. In addition, it is one of the most important things that search engines use to classify and rank pages.

Basically, there are two components of your blog that have titles to optimize: your homepage and your individual post pages.

To optimize your homepage, just go to your dashboard and click on the Settings Tab. Then, under the Title box, enter your blog name and a brief description of your blog using the main keywords (no more than 4-6 words).

Now, here's the catch - if you aren't using a logo header in your blog, in place of the title, then you're going to get a huge title showing up on every page. Before you modify the title tag for the homepage, you may want to create and add a logo or image to use in place of the title.

To optimize your individual post pages, follow these steps:

1. Go to your Layout tab, and click on Edit HTML.
2. Highlight entire code and Save It.
3. At the top of the template, find the following line of code:

Now, delete this code.

4. A few lines above that you should see the opening "head" tag. Immediately before that tag, paste the following code:

You can also get this code from the Moleskine and Me site, since that is where I got it.

5. Save changes. View blog. You should see that your homepage Title Tag reflects the changes you made in the Settings section, and the individual post pages should have the post title followed by the main blog title.

All that's left to do is sit back and enjoy the SEO ride!

Related Posts:

10 Things I've Learned About Professional Blogging
Be A Better Blogger - 5 Sites that Build Skills

Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online, May 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy Neal) — Sun, 04 May 2008 15:28:00 +0000

Welcome to the May 2008 edition of Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online.

The Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online is a monthly blog carnival consisting of posts about leads to making money online. The primary focus of this carnival is to help blog publishers learn about new and effective ways to monetize their site(s). It also includes posts about related items, like SEO, copywriting sales opportunities, entrepreneurial spirit and marketing programs.

This issue of Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online received 136 total entries. Congratulations to the 32 authors selected to be featured in this issue.

Blog authors are encouraged to submit their best posts for consideration, as only the most relevant, unique and useful entries will be selected each month.

Matt Garrett presents Blog Carnival Submission Video | posted at BlogTactics.com, saying, "A great video on how to submit to blog carnival."

Vandelay Website Design presents 6 Steps to Building Diversity In Traffic | Traffikd posted at Traffikd, saying, "In order to make money online you have to have visitors to your site. Here are some tips for building diversity of traffic."

Steve Faber presents - Make More Money in Your Home Based Business - Make it Real posted at Home Based Business Success.

KCLau presents Relative Value of Money posted at KCLau's Money Tips, saying, "An article on how to earn and spend money as well as the relative value of money."

Brian Terry presents What are the top 17 sources of affiliate traffic? posted at Big Selling Affiliates Blog.

Terry Dean presents Does Customer Service Matter? and 7 Steps To Start A Blog Today posted at Integrity Business Blog by Terry Dean.

Adie Dornom presents 3 Tips to Blog Like a Manaic and Still Have a Life and Supply and Demand and the eBay Download Ban posted at Lee McIntyre's Honest Marketing Blog.

Keith Godorum presents eBay’s Latest Policy Is An Important Marketing Lesson… posted at Keith Goodrum.

Fred Black presents Google WebMaster Tools posted at Fred Black: Internet Business Blog..

Cindy King presents International Internet Marketing & Keyword Placement and Why You Need To Internationalize Your Own Communication First To Avoid Cultural Blunders posted at Get International Clients.

Andrew Erickson presents Merchant Processing 101 posted at WebSite Werx.

Christine presents » Incorporating a Blog on My Website posted at Me, My Kid and Life: An American Single Mom Living in France.

Derrick Markotter presents Choosing a ClickBank Product to Promote posted at FreelanceIncome.co.za, saying, "Beginner's guide to choosing ClickBank products to promote."

Carol Bentley presents Writing to your audience posted at Carol Bentley.

Ed Rivis presents The correct course of action for online success. posted at Ed Rivis.

Craig Andrews presents Turn Bad News Into Profits For Your Internet Business posted at Craig S. Andrews.com.

Robert Phillips presents 3 Simple Ways to Increase Blog Traffic posted at How to Create a DVD without Spending a Dime.

John Landells presents 3 Tactics Every Affiliate Marketer Needs to Know posted at John's Tech Blog.

Prashant K Shukla presents SEO and Meta Tags | My Smart SEO posted at Prashant K Shukla, saying, "SEO and Meta Tags - Meta Tags play significant role in SEO."

Bryan presents How to Beat the Google Slap with 5 Simple Steps… posted at The Capitalist Guide Blog.

Tim Gary presents Supermarket Lessons - Self Checkout Reminder posted at Internet Success Bites.

Rebecca Suzanne Dean presents How To Write Your First Paragraph posted at Rebecca Dean.

LIVING OFF DIVIDENDS presents How I Made $2,667 In Passive Income In March ?08 posted at LIVING OFF DIVIDENDS.

Sam Carrara presents My Six Figure Affiliate Check posted at Sam Carrara's Marketing Education.

Hill Robertson presents I Want to Pay More Taxes posted at Hill Robertson, saying, "I want to pay more taxes every year to the government. It may sound crazy, but it is true."

Kenton Newby presents Website Content Ideas: 7 Templates Every Blog Owner Oughta' Try For Effortless Content Creation posted at KentonNewby.com.

Jimmy Sansi presents Do You Test? Yes! Why? posted at The Kaizen Business.

Gley Yahya presents What Link Popularity Can Do For Your Business? posted at Work At Home Start Up Guide.

Bill Mcintosh presents $3.5 Million From AdSense Response posted at Bill McIntosh.

Frank Delvechio presents Engagement: The Magic Ingredient You Need For Success Online Today posted at Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak.

Karen Lynch presents My Internet Business-the Opportunity posted at Internet Marketing.

Warren Wong presents Why Being Generous Makes You Wealthy posted at Personal Development for INTJs, saying, "An astounding discovery of how generosity brings you more wealth."

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online using our carnival submission form. Submissions for this monthly carnival are due by the 25th.

Related Posts:

Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online, April 2008
Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online, March 2008

RSS Real Simple Syndication Day

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy Neal) — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:33:00 +0000

Today is RSS Awareness Day. If you're not familiar with RSS, or Real Simple Syndication, then I recommend checking out the information on RSSDay.org. Also, thanks to Daniel at Daily Blog Tips for starting this great project.

I use RSS to subscribe to blogs that I like to read every day. The main tools I use are Google Reader and e-mail subscriptions. If I want to follow a blog consistently, but not every day, I subscribe in Google. If I want to read every single post from a blog, then I subscribe via e-mail.

I use RSS technology in other ways too, in particular through news aggregator sites like Popurls.com and Alltop.com. These sites gather feeds from across the blogosphere, social media, Twitter, news organizations and more. They allow me to view hundreds of posts and preview articles. These sites help me to keep my Reader and e-mail clean.

If you want to save time and get consistently informed, then I recommend using RSS.

Use RSS and subscribe to this blog.

Related Posts:

RSS - Learn More About Real Simple Syndication
Alltop Benefits Publishers, Readers and Social Media Nuts
Popurls Aggregator Saves You Time

Alltop Benefits Publishers, Readers and Social Media Nuts

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy Neal) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 19:27:00 +0000

Alltop.com has been described by many as an online magazine rack. It is a place where average Internet users can find hundreds of blogs, view the 5 most recent posts and preview the first 2 paragraphs of articles. I'd like to thank Alltop founder Guy Kawasaki for including this blog in the Social Media section of the site - Thanks Guy!

Most of us who are active bloggers or social media participants use a feedreader to stay updated and informed. The average Joe/Jane Doe doesn't understand or utilize this technology though - only 5.4% of Internet users take advantage of RSS, according to Daily Blog Tips.

Alltop uses feeds to populate the site, and caching to optimize load time (otherwise, the gargantuan number of feeds would make loading it insane on any computer). It refreshes itself every 10 minutes.

So, does this mean that Alltop.com is only useful to people who are 'tech-illiterate'? I don't think so.

Guy tipped me to the site prior to its official launch. I immediately felt like it was a simple yet effective concept, much the same as fellow aggregator and inspiration site Popurls. Over the past few months, I've found several new ways to use the site in combination with my normal feedreader and regular Internet usage.

First of all, I'm not one of those people who likes to subscribe to blogs that I don't intend to read. Instead, I read the majority of posts from start-to-finish from the blogs to which I subscribe (about 25 are on my list). I like to read a lot of different blogs though, and I use Alltop to preview posts in various categories of interest to me. So, in some respects, Alltop has replaced a feedreader for me (please don't kick me out of the tech club though, OK?).

Second, I consider myself to be a moderately active social media user. I am a SuperMixxer at Mixx.com, and I regularly review and submit posts to Mixx, Digg, StumbleUpon and Propeller. I use Alltop to find interesting articles of value to submit to the social media sites. Quality is my first criteria, followed by posts related to groups that I moderate or am an active participant. I can spend 15 minutes on Alltop and find 2-3 quality articles to submit that I know will receive a good amount of votes and comments. Finding and submitting quality articles helps increase your personal brand within the social media community.

Third, as a former journalist turned publisher, I am fascinated by headlines. I will almost always click on a good headline, even if the article is not something within my usual areas of interest. I have found no place on the web to more easily mine headlines than Alltop. The social media sites offer similar benefits, but not to this extent. Within the social media category, for example, 180 headlines are visible on one page; by contrast, the front pages of Digg and Propeller might have 30 - 40 random headlines between the main section and sidebars.

Fourth, I use Alltop for keyword and common topic research. I'm sure that there are better ways of doing this, but it works for me. I look for trends in what bloggers are posting about within specific categories, like Dads or Career or Life, and then I use this information to help plan out future posts on my sites. According to Guy, Alltop is working with Lijit to create a search function, which I think will make it even more useful for researchers, readers and publishers.

Finally, Alltop is a great place to find and discover new potential business partners or blogging compatriots. I've connected with several people that I may not have met, if it weren't for Alltop. These relationships are new but I'm optimistic about their potential. Alltop is not a social or business networking site, although there is a way to generate leads by using it.

Alltop.com is a very useful site for both tech savvy and non-tech savvy Internet users. I'd love to hear your thoughts, as well as some of the ways you may be using it.

Leave a comment - let's talk about it!

Related Posts:

Alltop - Encouraging the Mainstream (Chris Brogan's blog)
Announcing (Formally) Alltop - (Guy Kawasaki's blog)
On Alltop and RSS For the Masses - (ReadWriteWeb)

20 Twitter Services to Enhance Your Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy Neal) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:04:00 +0000

If you're a blogger and haven't joined Twitter, then you're missing out on a great opportunity to network, expand your brand and increase blog traffic.

The best way to see what it's all about is to sign-up and see for yourself. Personally, I would recommend using a desktop air application, rather than the web stream. I use Twhirl. Pick 20-30 users to follow, and start reading and sharing. Feel free to follow me @jnbammer.

Once you get the gist of how it works, then you will quickly see that Twitter has inspired a ton of applications and services to enhance your experience. Most of them are best used strategically or sporadically, as the biggest value comes from tweeting and interacting with fellow users.

Here's 20 Cool Twitter Apps or Services that I would recommend checking out:

1. Twubble - provides recommendations for people you may want to follow based on who you already follow. Basically, it shows you how many of your friends are following other users. You will need to have 20 - 30 people that you're following already before this recommendation has much value. Every time your list of followers doubles, then try it again to expand your bubble. Twits Like Me is another option to find new friends.

2. Twit Links - want to know what links the top tech writers are sharing on Twitter, then check out Twit Links. It's a great way to get the inside scoop on what these early adapters and creators of tech content are reading, writing and sharing.

3. Alpha Twitter - this site displays the top links being shared on Twitter by all users. It ranks links by number of times shared. If you're looking for what's hot in the entire Twitter-verse, then this is the site to visit.

4. Tweet Clouds - cool service that lets you make a tag cloud from the words you are currently using on Twitter. Gives you an idea of what you're focusing on and sharing with others. Another cool feature of this service is that you can tell it to add in your del.icio.us tags as well to see if you're focusing on the same things on and off of Twitter.

5. Tweet Scan - real-time Twitter search. Not much more to say, other than it helps you find people talking about the same thing you are interested in talking about, and it is a great tool for research.

6. TweetLater - If you have an addictive personality, or you want to have a constant presence on Twitter, this service allows you to schedule Tweets to be transmitted at a later time in the day when you may not be near a computer. Although I haven't done this yet, I can see value in this for retweeting announcements about new blog posts or other news about your site.

7. TwitDir - a directory for Twitter, which includes Top user - Top 100 Followed; Top 100 Updaters; Top 100 Favouriters (if that's even a real word); Top 100 Followers; and, a basic search function for all of the Top lists combined.

8. Your Twitter Karma - this is a service that shows you all of the people who are connected to you and vice versus. It displays a user's profile image, then shows you if he is following you, you are following him or the relationship is mutual. You can then choose to follow or unfollow users.

9. TweetStats - a service for stat freaks. Graph your stats by hour, month or timeline. Pretty self-explanatory.

10. Hashtags - real-time tracking of Twitter hashtags. Hashtags are a way to create groupings on Twitter. It's a little extra work, but it serves its purpose.

11. Twitter Poster - shows you a graphical view of people's influence among Twitter world. I don't really get it, but I guess it's another way to expand your understanding of reach.

12. Tweeterboard - this is a service that analyzes who is talking to you on Twitter. It also shows you the Top 100 conversationalists.

13. Twitterfeed - service that uses your blog feed to post updates in content on your site to Twitter at a specified time.

14. tweetgift - send your Twitter friends virtual gifts (icons of gifts).

15. tweetmeme - tracks new blog posts, images, videos and audio files shared on Twitter.

16. Twittervision - watch as Tweets pop-up from around the world on a cool interactive map. For a similar experience, check TwittEarth.

17. TwitterLocal - create a feed for users who are tweeting messages within a 1 - 20 mile radius of any zip code.

18. Twitter.Alltop.com - see the 5 most recent posts of top Twitter users. Updated every 10 minutes.

19. Twitterbar - post directly to Twitter from your address bar. Firefox add-on.

20. Twitterholic - tracks stats for top users and sorts them for you. If you are addicted to Twitter and use it constantly, you may be on the list! If not, it is another way to find out what's hot with the tw-hotties.

Any cool apps or services that I missed? Feel free to share them in the comments. Thanks!

5 More Reasons Why Mixx Rocks Social Media

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy Neal) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:48:00 +0000

Mixx.com is an up-and-coming community that is quickly establishing itself as a standout in the social media world. I recently wrote an article about it being a perfect place for newcomers to social media to get started: New to Social Media? Check Out Mixx.com.

The more I delve into the site, and interact with people from the Mixx team, the more impressed I become. I still use other sites, like Digg and Propeller, but the majority of my quality time budgeted for this activity is being spent at Mixx.

In addition to the benefits described in my earlier post, here's

5 More Reasons Why Mixx Rocks Social Media

1. Responsiveness to Feedback - I use Mixx in two primary ways - voting and submissions. I vote for quality articles that spark my interest, and I try to apply the same standards when choosing articles to submit. One of the topics that interests me is career development, but I noticed that there wasn't a subcategory for "Career" within the Business section. I sent an e-mail to Kerry at Mixx, and the next day there it was. How often do you get a response to feedback that quickly? I was very impressed.

2. "More From This Site" tab on Submissions - I just noticed today that Mixx added an automated tab for new submissions that aggregates all previously submitted articles from a particular site. This is awesome! I see 3 benefits with this tab: 1) you can discover more quality articles to read from a publisher you like; 2) you can find new community members to "follow" that may have similar interests to you; and, 3) if you are a publisher, you can learn more about how a large audience perceives your work and, then, apply the feedback to future articles.

3. "Related" tab on Submissions - Although this tab is not utilized to its fullest extent yet, readers benefit greatly from being able to easily find multiple articles about the same topic. Users can attach similar stories to existing submissions to expand the conversation and increase knowledge. This could be extremely valuable for research and understanding of hot topics.

4. Multiple Sharing Options - When you submit an article to most social media sites, you are given the opportunity to share it with your "friends." At Mixx, you have a variety of options on how to immediately share information, including: 1) e-mail all of your followers; 2) e-mail groups to which you belong; and 3) direct message individual community members. The benefit is that you can quickly share submissions to a more targeted audience. For me, I use all of these options, depending on the submission. I am a moderator for a couple of groups, so I share a lot of relevant articles within those groups without sending notices out to my entire list of followers. I think people appreciate this, as not everyone is interested in every type of submission. It is also one way to make participation in groups more special.

5. Your MixxFriends - You can easily stay up-to-date on what your friends are doing by exploring the Your MixxFriends section. This includes tabs for a variety of items, including: articles submitted; voted for; voted against; comments; and, favorites. The benefit of this section is that it helps to further build bridges between yourself and other users. It adds to the community environment, and it saves you time. For me, it takes the place of having to read dozens of e-mail alerts each day. It is yet another way that Mixx makes the site easy to use, get informed and stay connected.

If you're active yet unsatisfied with your current experience in the social media realm, I would recommend giving Mixx a chance to change things for you. As I said before, it is a welcoming community, and it's very easy to use and navigate. When you sign-up, make sure to look me up and follow (I'll follow you back): Jeremy aka jnbammer on Mixx.

Related Posts:

New to Social Media? Check Out Mixx.com
10 Things I've Learned About Professional Blogging
POPURLS Aggregator Saves You Time

RSS - Learn More About Real Simple Syndication

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy Neal) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 05:29:00 +0000

May 1, 2008, is RSS Awareness Day. For those of you who may not know, RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication, and it is the means by which readers can subscribe to feeds to stay better connected and informed by blogs.

I will be posting in more detail about this topic on May 1st, but I wanted to share a few links with you in advance, in case you wanted to read-up on the technology.

Visit RSSDay.org to see a video and read more about the subject.

Wikipedia information on RSS.

What is RSS? RSS Explained.

Visit Daily Blog Tips article on the origination of RSS Awareness Day.

Also, if you're not already a subscriber to Lead Inspectors, subscribe to my RSS feed.

New to Social Media? Check Out Mixx.com

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy Neal) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:18:00 +0000

*Note: This post is meant for people who are new to social media sites, such as Digg, Reddit, Propeller and Mixx.

Background: My name is Jeremy Biser, and I am a writer who first made the move to blogging about a year ago. Since then, I've also become active in social media communities. I am designated a "SuperMixxer" on Mixx.com, but I'm not one of the top 20 users of the site.

I mostly incorporate the use of social media into my research activities. When I find an interesting news article or blog post, I share it. I also enjoy talking with new people about subjects of interest that I submit or share on the social sites. Over the past year, I've had a variety of positive and negative experiences with the various communities, and I've joined just about every one of them to try and figure out which one best suits my needs.

I'm happy to say that Mixx.com is that site.

Why Mixx.com is the best place for your journey to begin:

With millions of users and a treasure trove of submissions, Digg is the big dog of the social media world. Unlike traditional media sources, like newspapers, radio and television, social media is interactive. Users share and promote submissions, as well as comment on and vote for their favorites.

When you first encounter these sites, it can be overwhelming to try and navigate through the vastness of a large network like Digg. You may be hesitant to contribute or participate because initial efforts produce little or no results. For newcomers, Mixx is a better place to start.

Mixx is a social media community that is easier to learn and use than Digg or Reddit. You're more likely to find a wide variety of topics on the front page (Popular section) of Mixx, as community members are not exclusively focused on technology, politics or entertainment as in other sites.

Mixx users are more accepting of newcomers, and they tend to be more understanding and courteous. It is a place where you can actually have a multi-user conversation about an interesting topic that extends over a period of days without some jackass interjecting a pointless, perverted or idiotic remark (which happens all of the time on Digg and is my biggest complaint of that site).

As in any other social media community, there are some jerks and spammers (there's even a few elitists, but nothing like you experience at Digg). In general, though, Mixxers are welcoming, thoughtful and engaging, and they love to connect with like-minded people.

Here are some basic tips to get you started on Mixx:

Take a Tour of Mixx. This short presentation gives you an introduction to how Mixx works. You should probably read the Frequently Asked Questions as well.

Search through the different sections of the site (in the header). Look for submissions that interest you, and give them a vote up. Click on the link to the story submitted. Read it. Then, come back and leave a thoughtful comment that sparks conversation. After that, click on the user who submitted the story and start "following" them. As your comment receives replies, evaluate these users as potential people to "follow" as well.

Search through the Mixx Groups and join 3-5 that really interest you. View the members of the group and begin "following" these people. Some groups are more active than others; however, it is more important to join a group in which you will participate than one you will simply watch.

Take a look at the Mixx Lounge to get an idea of what the badges and awards mean. This is also a good place to see top users of the site. Click on award winners to get an idea of what kinds of articles spark conversation and receive votes. You may want to "follow" top users as well (*Warning: be prepared to get a lot of e-mails from some asking for your attention to a particular submission - you may want to adjust your Account Settings for e-mail alerts).

Check out the Official Mixx Blog and the Unofficial Mixx Blog (MixxingBowl) to learn more about the community and how to maximize your experience.

Share quality news and blog posts that you find. Quality is better than quantity. Feel free to test things out and gauge responses - votes are important, but comments are a better indicator of a good submission. Remember, the point of social media is interaction. It's OK to submit your own work, but be aware that some Mixxers don't like this. As in life, it's usually better to let others sell you in social settings.

Lastly, when using Mixx or Digg, or any other social media site, you will only get out of it what you put into it. You should manage your expectations accordingly. If you participate for a few hours each day, then you will likely get a lot of attention. If you pop in for ten minutes once per week, then people will probably ignore you.

You may decide that Mixx.com has everything you need:

The social media world is an exciting and fast-paced arena, in which people get informed and interact with others from around the world. If you're the kind of person who writes letters to the editor or talks about the news with coworkers, then you'll probably love what social media communities have to offer.

Based on my experience, newcomers will have a better experience getting started at Mixx. Once you get the hang of things, then delve into some of the larger or more specialized communities. If your experience is like mine, though, you may find that Mixx has everything you need. I recommend you go to Mixx.com right now and sign-up for an account.

Feel free to look me up when you join Mixx. My profile name is jnbammer.

Related Posts:

10 Things I've Learned about Professional Blogging
Be a Better Blogger - Five Sites that Build Skills

Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online, April 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy Neal) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:45:00 +0000

Welcome to the April 2008 edition of Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online.

The Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online is a monthly blog carnival consisting of posts about leads to making money online. The primary focus of this carnival is to help blog publishers learn about new and effective ways to monetize their site(s). It also includes posts about related items, like SEO, copywriting sales opportunities, entrepreneurial spirit and marketing programs.

This issue of Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online received 197 total entries. Congratulations to the 25 authors selected to be featured in this issue.

Blog authors are encouraged to submit their best posts for consideration, as only the most relevant, unique and useful entries will be selected each month.

Enjoy this issue of Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online:

John Lenaghan presents Affiliate Summit Day 1 - Calacanis Keynote Part 3 (aka Long Term Thinking) posted at Internet Marketing Chaos.

hank presents How do I publicize my blog? A personal finance blog’s lifeline from “start-up” to “staple” posted at My Investing Blog.

Don D. Morrison presents Discover 18 Common "Link Baiting" Methods (Or Getting More Online Back Links)? The Prime Directive! posted at dondmorrison.com.

Craig Andrews presents Do You Linkbait With Your Blog? posted at Craig S. Andrews.com.

Kevin Fleming presents 7 Ways to Turn Your Website into a Lean, Mean, Lead Generating Machine posted at FOS Commerce Blog.

Bill Mcintosh presents Google AdManager: The First Product From Buying DoubleClick posted at Bill McIntosh.

Michel Fortin presents Busy Working In The Virtual Kitchen posted at The Michel Fortin Blog.

Terry Dean presents 8 Steps to Create Your Internet Business and Create Business Systems and 7 Make Money Online Myths posted at Integrity Business Blog by Terry Dean.

Mark Riffey presents Have you lost a customer today? and Is your small business website a Store or a Brochure? posted at Business is Personal.

Nesher presents BlogLipi - Revenue Sharing Forum posted at Collection of the Web Freebies, saying, "BlogLipi. Review of the general topics forum, sharing its ads revenues with members."

Sagar Patel presents Don’t compare Flat-rate ads with PPC or CPM ads posted at Ways 2 Earn Online, saying, "This blog post is written to compare flat-rate ads with PPC and CPM ads. Have a look at it!"

Kenton Newby presents Simple Solutions For the Content Creation Roadblock Nearly All Online Business Owners Face and Focusing on Leverage posted at KentonNewby.com.

Hill Robertson presents Time for Money - Moving in Reverse posted at Hill Robertson, saying, "If you are just trading your time for money, you are going backward financially."

James D. Brausch presents Craigslist Posting and Not Enough Time posted at Internet Business Blog.

Jimmy Sansi presents Guaranteed Traffic Today Using These 7 Simple Methods posted at The Kaizen Business.

Robert Phillips presents The Wright Brothers PPC Success Model posted at CYBERCA$HOLOGY.

Mohamed Bhimji presents Use Common Sense When Using Marketing Giveaways posted at Internet Business Opportunities.

Andrew Erickson presents Email Marketing for Ecommerce - Part I: What Is It? Why Do It? posted at WebSite Werx.

Ask Matt presents Using BlogCarnival and More Stumbleupon Ads Results posted at IM & Affiliate Marketing Product Testing. And, Do You Get Twitter? posted at Matt Garrett, saying, "Twitter is really a fast growing community site and providing a good environemnt to interacting with people of same thinking or business line. So, go and get a twitter, now."

Mystery presents Myspace Money - Blackhat Autoincome System! posted at Mystery Online Autoincome Turbo Cash Money Making Systems.

Brian Terry presents How to set up a zero maintenance affiliate marketing WordPress blog posted at Big Selling Affiliates Blog. And, Why You Need Long Tail Keywords posted at Big Selling Website Design.

Charlotte Babb presents Create Your Own DVD posted at Charlotte's Babblings.

Ivy Tan presents How to make money with Viral ebook posted at Beginner's Guide to Internet Business.

Cindy King presents 7 Brainstorming Questions To Determine What To Sell Abroad posted at Get International Clients.

Tim Gary presents Weasels and False Promises posted at Internet Success Bites.

Technorati tags: carnival of leads to making money online, blog carnival.

10 Things I've Learned about Professional Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy Neal) — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 20:47:00 +0000

I started blogging about a year ago. In the beginning, I thought it was a cool way to chronicle my daily or weekly experiences, kind of like an online journal. For some, this is the extent to which they use the medium. For me, though, I quickly realized the blog format had much more potential. As such, I decided to begin a journey toward becoming a professional blogger.

Here's 10 Things I've Learned about Professional Blogging:

1. Quality content must be your #1 priority. The determining factor for me when deciding to publish a post is quality. If you read popular sites about blogging, such as ProBlogger or Daily Blog Tips, you have probably heard that it is important to post quality content often, in order to maximize traffic and keep readers engaged. I agree with this theory, in most cases; however, I also tend to agree with DoshDosh (another popular blogging site) in that the quality of content must come first. I post to some of my sites every day, while others might only get one post per week. My reputation is at stake with every post, so I try to make sure that I always put my best foot forward. I probably lose some short-term traffic because of this but I believe the strategy will pay off in the long run.

2. Treat your blog like a business. If you look at Technorati, you will see millions of blogs, but the majority of them are published by people who are blogging as a hobby. The personal nature of blogging is part of what makes it so special, but you're not going to make enough money at it to live on, unless you treat it like a business (and, even then, there's no guarantee). If you're like me and striving to become a professional blogger, then you need to budget time for your blog as if it were a job. You need to spend time creating quality content, working on site design, marketing, networking, advertising, optimization and monetization. You also need to spend time developing your own editorial skills and business acumen. If you're really serious, you will create a business plan for your blog(s).

3. Network appropriately within your niche. What do I mean by networking appropriately? Make friends with bloggers whose site is at a similar level of traffic, subscriptions or search rank. Fellow bloggers at your level are more likely to provide moral support and be good sources of feedback. You can also help each other learn, grow and succeed. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't network with bloggers who have achieved a higher level of success, however the appropriate way to get to know them (and vice versa) is to subscribe to their feeds and leave quality comments on their posts. NEVER throw a link in a comment on an established blogger's site. This is a sure fire way to kill any potential relationship. Finally, be generous in your actions toward other bloggers, and do things without an expectation of quid pro quo. As in life, it is better to give than receive, and the 'givers' in the blogosphere are often rewarded tenfold over those who take.

4. Don't spend too much time on marketing yourself. You have to spend time marketing your blog in order for people to find you, but a common mistake many bloggers make is spending too much time on self-promotion. The social media and bookmarking sites, like StumbleUpon, Digg, Mixx, Reddit, Propeller and Del.icio.us, can generate hundreds or thousands of visitors to your site; however, you need to be careful about promoting your own content on them. In general, it is better for others to sell you than you to sell yourself. If no one has submitted your post in a day or two, then float it out there and see what happens, but make sure that you are also contributing to these sites in other ways (voting, submitting other bloggers quality articles, commenting on submissions). You may want to build up your content inventory, experiment with different design elements, and ensure that the site is optimized for success before you try to drive lots of traffic to your site.

5. Do spend time tweaking your site to make it more professional and user friendly. If you want people to take your blog seriously and view it as a trusted resource, then you have to take it seriously first. You need to choose or create a blog design that is both visually appealing and functionally appropriate. There are certain basic things that users are going to expect from a professional site, such as quality articles and graphics, clarity of purpose, the ability to contact you, a search function that works and ease of use. During your first 3 months, feel comfortable modifying the look-and-feel of your blog several times and gauge user reactions. You should also experiment with different plug-ins or page elements. Don't change it so often that you can't tell what is working or not - a good gauge is probably a week, if you actively solicit feedback and inform readers of your experiment. Once your blog becomes more established, you probably shouldn't make major changes very often, as it will negatively affect your branding efforts.

6. Make all advertising or paid reviews self-evident to your readers. Nothing aggravates blog readers more than getting scammed, and that is exactly how they feel when clicking on a link expecting to find a great resource only to be landed on a sales page. Many top bloggers recommend not monetizing your site until you become established and have enough traffic to warrant it. Personally, I feel like it's fine to monetize your site from the beginning, as long as you don't over do it. Most people start out with Google Adsense, but this isn't a big source of revenue until after you build-up traffic. Affiliate ads or direct sales through Amazon's Associate Program may be a better place to start. Although some may disagree, in-text advertising is fine with me too, as long as it isn't deceptive to the reader. If you ever do a paid review, always state it at the beginning of the post. To learn more about effective monetization strategies, I recommend subscribing to the feeds of John Chow, Jeremy Shoemaker and Zac Johnson.

7. Variety is the spice of life, but keep it within due bounds. It's good to mix-up your article topics, but it's confusing to readers if you're all over the place. If you blog about gardening, then your readers probably won't appreciate a random article about politics. It's better to write within your niche or closely related fields. This helps you to earn a reputation as an expert. For example, one of my blogs is in the parenting niche, specifically about parenting from a dad's point of view. The majority of my articles focus on providing men resources related to fatherhood, but I occasionally post on other topics that are of general interest to men, such as sports, politics or money (I try to link them in some way to being a father though - click here for an example). The important thing to keep in mind is that your article should meet the expectations of readers without triggering the "WTF is this" reaction.

8. Comments are your greatest resource. Your readers will provide you with all kinds of good information and feedback. I try to let people know when they make a good point and positively contribute to dialogue. You may want to reward comments by displaying them on your blog, featuring them in future articles or offering prizes to top commenters. Analyzing comments will help you to discover new topics of interest for future posts. Remember that comments drive conversation, so don't kill it by making someone feel bad for disagreeing with you. You will build loyalty by showing respect for readers comments and opinions. If you are successful at building a good relationship with your readers, then they will keep coming back, link to your post and recommend you to friends.

9. Always edit your content before you post it. Nothing screams novice or amateur or idiot like blatant spelling or grammar errors. Using spell check is a bare minimum. Simple mistakes undermine your credibility as a professional blogger. If it happens too often, readers will abandon the site. I probably spend twice as long editing a post as I do writing it. The most effective editing tactic I use is reading what I wrote out loud to see if it flows properly. If you're really not qualified to edit, then make friends with someone who is and ask them to review your work prior to publishing. Your buddy may not care if you can spell 'delicious' right or not, but your readers will. I recommend subscribing to Copyblogger and Daily Writing Tips to help you improve in this area.

10. Be passionate and choose a topic that you love. I have a degree in Journalism from the University of Connecticut, and one of the things I learned early in school is how to write about any topic that I was assigned. I did the research, conducted interviews, included all the necessary elements of a good article (catchy lead, background information, substantiating quotes, engaging narrative, strong closing) and edited for proper spelling and grammar. I learned how to write about anything, but not everything I wrote connected with readers. Why? Passion. The things I wrote about with passion always received a better response.

When it comes to the blogging medium, people expect you to write articles with passion; otherwise, your posts seem like the same boring commentary of Joe Schmoe down the street. Professional blogging is very similar to professional journalism, and the greatest at both are often the most impassioned in their field. Some examples of passionate bloggers on the rise that I enjoy reading are Peter at I Will Change Your Life, Aaron at Today is that Day, Jim at The Busy Dad Blog and Mr. Lady at Whiskey in My Sippy Cup.

I've learned a lot about blogging over the past year, and the more I learn the more I appreciate the medium. I'm not quite to the point of being able to make a living at it, but I feel like I'm on the right path. The journey to become a professional blogger is an exciting one, but it isn't for everybody. It takes a lot of work, time and dedication to do it right, but to me, it's worth it.

Please feel free to share any of your tips or blogging resources in the comments. I'm always interested in learning from others what has worked for them or not. Also, your feedback on this article is appreciated too.

Related Posts:

Four Key Learnings for Bloggers from Fortune's Most Admired List
Be a Better Blogger - Five Sites that Build Skills

Contact Lead Inspectors

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy Neal) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:17:00 +0000

Lead Inspectors shares blogging information and resources, tips to publicize and monetize sites and leads to cool stuff that I find online.

For General Inquiries, please contact me via e-mail.

You can also add me as a friend or link to my profiles at the following sites:

MyBlogLog - jeremyneal
Zimbio - jnbammer
Blogcatalog - jnbammer
LinkedIn - jeremybiser
FriendFeed - jnbammer (display Jeremy Neal)
Twitter - jnbammer
StumbleUpon - jnbammer
Mixx - jnbammer
Digg - jnbammer
redditt - jnbammer
Propeller - jnbammer
del.icio.us - jnbammer
Technorati - jnbammer
cre8Buzz - jnbammer

To submit an entry for the Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online, click here.

To be a guest blogger and share your thoughts or leads, send me an e-mail.

For Advertising Inquiries, send me a proposal via e-mail.

Four Key Learnings for Bloggers from Fortune's Most Admired List

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy Neal) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 21:50:00 +0000

Fortune Magazine released its list of Top 20 Most Admired Companies 2008. The list is based on a survey of more than 3,700 "experts" from a variety of industries, who were asked to select the companies they admired most. In looking through the list, there are some key learnings that can be applied to professional blogging.

1. Innovation or Creativity - generating customer buzz is a tricky thing, but many people are attracted to companies that consistently release new and exciting products or services. In the blogging world, this means regularly creating fresh and engaging content or leads; it doesn't mean reinventing yourself every few months. You may be providing content in a large niche, like SEO, marketing, social media, or gadgets, but readers will be attracted to your blog if you can present quality content in a unique way. Experts admired businesses, like Apple and General Electric, that consistently produced innovative products and services. Similarly, readers admire blogs, like Techcrunch and Engadget, that provide great coverage of new and innovative topics in a way that keeps them on the cutting edge of their field.

2. Quality of Products or Great Content - consumer loyalty is critical to the long-term success of a business, and quality is a prerequisite to building brand loyalty and trust. As it relates to blogging, the quality of your content or leads will determine whether or not visitors subscribe or move on. Attention to details, like spelling, grammar and syntax, are important factors to consider. Relevant and informative content is also critical in engaging readers and building your brand/blog loyalty and trust. Experts admired businesses, like Nordstrom and Starbucks, that consumers recognized as consistently having quality products and services that they trust. Similarly, readers admire blogs, like DoshDosh and ProBlogger, that provide quality content or leads they rely upon and trust.

3. Social Responsibility or Having a Conscience - people like buying from companies that have a heart, create a great work environment, and embrace fair business practices. When it comes to blogging, readers can tell when information is misleading, unfair or lacking integrity. False precepts or unsubstantiated concepts may slip past a few readers; however, submit weak content to the social media, and it will get shred to pieces. Blogs are oftentimes founded on specific points of view, but don't expect to gain a large following if your posts lack scruples. Experts admired businesses, like UPS and Walt Disney, that embraced socially responsible practices. Similarly, readers admire blogs, like TreeHugger and How to Change the World, that provide fair, honest and illuminating content.

4. Use of Corporate Assets or Providing Value - companies that recognize and leverage their strengths are more likely to pass on value to their customers. As it relates to being a professional blogger, it is important to recognize your strengths and build upon them too. Probloggers become subject matter experts through hard work and leveraging strengths. As they improve their skills and knowledge, they deliver more valuable content and leads to readers. Experts admired companies, like McDonald's and Southwest Airlines, that maximized their own assets in ways that enabled them to pass on value to customers. Similarly, readers admire blogs, like Lifehacker and Copyblogger, that deliver valuable content or leads from authors who know and understand their strengths.

Take a few minutes and read through Fortune's entire list of Most Admired companies. Next, take a look at the Technorati Top 100 Blogs list. Then, take a look at your own blog, and ask yourself the following questions:

1. Am I consistently providing readers with innovative and creative content? Is this a strength or opportunity for me?

2. Am I consistently providing readers with great quality content? Is this a strength or opportunity for me?

3. Am I consistently providing readers with content that reflects a sense of pride and integrity? Is this a strength or opportunity for me?

4. Do I know my own, and my blog's, strengths and opportunities? Are my strengths evident to readers who visit my blog?

Once you ask these types of questions, it will be easier to come up with a plan to make your blog better. It also helps to have some successful companies and blogs to use as examples and inspiration.

Good luck discovering your strengths and applying them to your blog!

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Amazing New Ecofriendly Products of the Near Future

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy Neal) — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 04:09:00 +0000

Globalization combined with an increasing population has sparked a huge rise in the consumption of our natural resources. As time goes on, the need for businesses and manufacturers around the world to invent, create and produce more ecofriendly products is becoming more and more imperative.

The world population as of February 2008 was estimated to be 6.65 billion. By comparison, the world population in 1950 was believed to be 2.52 billion. Assuming the population continues to grow at a rate slightly higher than 1% per year, then the world population will exceed 9 billion by 2050.

If the way and manner in which essential products are produced does not seriously change in the coming years, then consumers will be faced with a dilemma of scarcity, huge price increases and potential economic instability throughout the world.

Here are some examples of innovative ecofriendly products that could help conserve resources and meet the needs of consumers in a more sustainable manner:

The RoboScooter - is a lightweight, folding, electric motor scooter. It is designed to provide convenient, inexpensive mobility in urban areas while radically reducing the negative effects of extensive vehicle use – road congestion, excessive consumption of space for parking, traffic noise, air pollution, carbon emissions that exacerbate global warming, and energy use.

Gravity powered lamp - essentially, it works similar to an hourglass that captures the energy of a falling mass and uses it to output light equivalent to a 40-watt bulb. Imagine being the first person in the neighborhood to get one of these - it would certainly be a conversation starter at a dinner party.

Designer Clay Moulton acknowledges that the current state of the art isn't sufficient to actually build the lamp. The news release should have said: “based on future developments in LED technology."

The Air Cars - you've heard of running like the wind, but what about air powered cars? No, this company is not suggesting a wind powered vehicle, but rather using compressed air to power the engine and deliver comparable performance to current vehicles.

Here's another link that describes a prototype being produced in India. The article says the car can go as fast as 68 mph with a range of 125 miles. All this with zero emissions.

The City Car - Stackable Electric Cars - electric two-passenger vehicle. The City car utilizes fully integrated in-wheel electric motors and suspension systems called, "Wheel Robots." The wheel robots eliminate the need traditional drive train configurations like engine blocks, gear boxes, and differentials because they are self-contained, digitally controlled, and reconfigurable. Additionally, the wheel robot provides all wheel power and steering capable of 360 degrees of movement, thus allowing for Omni-directional movement. The vehicle can maneuver in tight urban spaces and park by sideways translation. This technology is patented-pending and under design development at the MIT Media Lab.

Body Heat Powered Devices - everything from cell phones to iPods could be powered by converting your body's lost heat into energy. The conversion process would involve nanotechnology, and researchers at U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) at Berkeley are currently researching means of viable application. Just think - if you're a big talker on the cell phone, it could be recharging from all the hot air as your speak!

Ecofriendly products and innovations will be essential to the future world economy.

Please feel free to share any leads you may have to cool new products that will help conserve resources or provide viable alternatives to existing needs.

Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online, March 08 Issue

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy Neal) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 03:18:00 +0000

Welcome to the March 2008 edition of Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online.

The Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online is a monthly blog carnival consisting of posts about leads to making money online. The primary focus of this carnival is to help blog publishers learn about new and effective ways to monetize their site(s). It also includes posts about related items, like SEO, Copywriting and marketing programs.

This issue of Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online received 214 total entries. Congratulations to the 30 authors selected to be featured in this issue.

Blog authors are encouraged to submit their best posts for consideration, as only the most relevant, unique and useful entries will be selected each month.

Enjoy this issue of Carnival of Leads to Making Money Online:

Charles Eglinton presents eBay Power Seller and eBay Descriptions and eBay Seller Customer Service posted at AuctionIncome.com - eBay Bidding Tips & Selling Tips.

Michel Fortin presents Give Your Joint-Venture Offer An Extra Punch and How to Hook (More) Copywriting Prospects and Breaking This Copywriting Rule Boosts Profits posted at The Michel Fortin Blog.

Craig Andrews presents Making Money Online for Free? and Setting Goals For Your Online Business and Alternate Ways to Make Money Online posted at Craig S. Andrews.com. Craig also presents a series of posts Building Your Internet Business (Part 1) and Building Your Internet Business (Part 2) and Building Your Internet Business (Part 3).

Jeremy Zongker presents 101 Ways to Make Money Online posted at Destroy Debt.

Hill Robertson presents The Internet Business Game, You Must Spend Your Money and Time Wisely and Work Your Internet Business in Peace and Quiet posted at Hill Robertson.

HL Grove presents Three Steps To Make Sure You Do Not “Over Monetize” Your Blog and 4 Steps To Creating Quality Content For Your Blog posted at MoneyWeb24.

Frederic Patenaude presents Make a Living With eBooks and How to Write eBooks in Your Spare Time posted at Frederic Patenaude Talks, saying, "With a growing e-book market, who would not like to make a living writing e-books?"

Andrew Erickson presents Are you making this PPC mistake? and Email Marketing for Ecommerce - Part I: What Is It? Why Do It? posted at WebSite Werx.

GWN Lifestyle presents SEO Tips For Chicks! posted at GWN Lifestyle, saying, "Your SEO Plan and Search Engine Optimization An Hour A Day help you learn how to effectively optimize your website's content and visibility."

Ask Matt presents Using Stumbleupon To Bring Visitors to Your Blog posted at BlogTactics.com.

Brian Terry presents The Law of Presentation and 17 essential ?big selling? website strategies posted at Big Selling Website Design. Brian also presents How to tap into 60+ million highly responsive, targeted visitors and 10 Steps To Successful Affiliate Article Writing posted at Big Selling Affiliates Blog.

James D. Brausch presents Your Natural Genius and TMI (Too Much Information) posted at Internet Business Blog.

Stephen Dean presents Deciphering Cosmopolitan Magazines and Stop Assuming So Much posted at Stephen Dean's Copywriting And Internet Advertising Blog - Copywriter.

Kenton Newby presents 6 Surefire Strategies for Writing Better Articles or Blog Posts and 6 Tips for Better Recordings When Creating Your Infoproducts posted at KentonNewby.com.

Carol Bentley presents Outsourcing or when DIY writing is best and How appealing are you posted at Carol Bentley.

Warren Wong presents Why Compounding Returns Isn?t That Important posted at Personal Development for INTJs, saying, "Some reasons why compounding returns is less important than it seems."

Joshua C. Karlin presents The Single Most Important Thing Your Business (or Charity) Needs posted at Marketing & Fundraising Ideas.

Ed Rivis presents Powerful Marketing Tactic. and More Content = More Sales. posted at Ed Rivis.

Derrick Markotter presents How Blogging Regularly Can Increase Your Traffic posted at Online Business Blog.

Natalie presents The most popular layouts of the Top 20 Technorati blogs posted at I love technology, saying, "A study of the layout and colour scheme of the Top 20 Technorati blogs, complete with graphs."

Marcus Hochstadt presents 5 Key Steps To Internet Business Success posted at Marcus Hochstadt, saying, "So you want to be a successful Internet business entrepreneur? Do you know the steps to take in order to achieve your goals and success?"

Phillip Lyon presents Want to Make Real Money Investing With Play Money? posted at Intelligent Speculator, saying, "You get one million dollars in play money and you make real money by beating the return of the S&P 500."

blue skelton presents Production Blog: The Biggest List of Blog Directories by Page Rank posted at Blue Skelton Publications, saying, "Here is the biggest list of the best blog directories that you can find sorted by page rank."

Don D. Morrison presents Generating Targeted Traffic from Forums posted at dondmorrison.com.

Terry Dean presents How to Write a JV Email and Using Long Tail Keywords for Profit posted at Integrity Business Blog by Terry Dean.

Cindy King presents 5 Factors To Consider When Marketing To Different Cultures posted at Get International Clients.

Rebecca Suzanne Dean presents Stop Thinking. Begin Testing! posted at Rebecca Dean.

Pat B. Doyle presents How To Make Money with Affiliate Programs posted at Pat B. Doyle.

Stephen Pierce presents 3 Ways to Make Money Online posted at DTAlpha TalkBack with Stephen Pierce.

the baglady presents What Am I Earning by Blogging? — The Baglady posted at xynny.

Technorati tags: carnival of leads to making money online, blog carnival.

Will Blogged be More Than a Typical Blog Directory?

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy Neal) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:23:00 +0000

Blogged.com is a new interactive blog directory that officially launched today. On the surface, it seems to look similar to Blog Catalog or Bloghub; however, once you begin to explore the site, it reveals the potential to be something more than a typical blog directory.

One key difference is that most of the blogs have been reviewed and rated by "professional editors." These editors apparently use specific criteria to help filter out spam (or scam) blogs and provide readers with some good leads. The ratings are based on "Frequency of Updates, Relevance of Content, Site Design, and Writing Style."

The About Us page says that the site is primarily designed for blog readers, as opposed to blog authors. I'm not sure if this is a realistic assertion, as the majority of blog readers that I've met are also blog authors.

The company does claim to benefit blog authors by better connecting them with their readers through the review and rating process. Again, while I understand the value to which they allude, I also think that actual comments, site traffic and subscriber numbers are a much better indicator than a review on any of the blog directory sites.

Having said that, Blogged.com does have a lot of potential to expand a blogs readership, if it can deliver on its goals and objectives. To do this, though, I think they will need to find a way to compete with traditional search engines for people looking to find specific types of content, which may be a challenge.

From a reader's perspective, the site does offer some useful tools, such as bookmarking and good search options. I also like that certain blogs and bloggers are featured. Readers will definitely be able to discover new blogs and easily see which are rated high, which could save them time as well.

At the present time, Blogged.com is slightly more interesting than a typical blog directory, and it has the potential of being a much more valuable source of blog traffic to publishers if it can really attract a large amount of new blog readers to buy into their service.

Click here to register and learn more about the site.

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Is Using Google Alerts a Waste of Time for Bloggers?

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy Neal) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:54:00 +0000

Google Alerts is a service that provides e-mail updates on Google results for a specific set of search terms. Over the past few weeks, I've been using this Beta service to track keywords that I want to use in upcoming blog posts.

In addition, I have tracked the titles of my blogs to see what came through on the alerts. My hope was that this service would provide me with good leads and valuable insights as to how my blogs were tracked by Google. Overall, I'd say that the value of information provided compared to the amount of time needed to analyze the information is not worth it.

Here's the good thing about the alerts - it validates whether or not recent posts from your blog are found somewhere within the Google network. When you are creating alerts, it allows you to choose where you want Google to look for the keywords you select, including news, blogs, web, comprehensive, video and groups. I chose the "comprehensive" option and opted for daily alert deliveries.

The problem I found is that beyond the validation of my own blog posts showing up, the results were not very "comprehensive" or useful in providing qualified leads to good content. I recognize that the goal of Google Alerts is probably not to qualify the content, so I don't really consider this a failure on the part of the service; it just makes the time spent sifting through the results laregely unproductive. Essentially, it is a 'hit-or-miss' approach to research, whereas most professional bloggers need to utilize more targeted methods.

So, what would make Google Alerts a more useful service for pro bloggers? Adding an Advanced Search option might be helpful to further qualify and customize desired results.

I probably will continue to utilize Google Alerts with a much lower level of expectations. If you have had different results or would like to make any suggestions for how to better utilize the alerts, please feel free to share them in the comments.

POPURLS Aggregator Saves You Time

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremy Neal) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 06:13:00 +0000

Popurls helps you find out what's popular on the web in a hurry. As one of the leading web aggregators, this site allows you to customize a display of popular content on leading social media, photo and video sharing sites and news feeds. Popurls allows you to create a customizable one-stop shop for daily buzz, chatter and more.

If you are currently a regular visitor to sites like Digg, del.icio.us, reddit, flickr, newsvine, metafilter, truemors, YouTube, Slashdot, Mixx and other social media, news or blog networks, then Popurls can save you a significant amount of time each day. It shows you the current top posts with summaries, links to source pages and the ability to search all aggregated "buzz" posts by topic.

So, what's the benefit of this site to bloggers? First, it is an excellent way to quickly identify what might be a popular topic to write about that day. Identifying hot topics, obtaining useful source information and discovering gaps in coverage, or editorial opinions, can help you craft a unique spin on a popular topic in order to attract new readers to your blog.

Second, the search function enables bloggers to do a significant amount of research within their niche. It can help you to determine what types of headlines are attracting readers across a broad spectrum of media; which of your targeted keywords are connecting well with the masses by producing popular results; what sites are creating popular content that you can learn from; and, which social media sites have an abundance of readers voting within your niche that would increase your potential of gaining exposure.

Finally, assuming that you do not subscribe to every feed out there, Popurls also aggregates some of the more popular "voices" of the blogosphere, including the most recent posts of Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki and Jeff Jarvis. Latest posts from Techcrunch, Engadget, Blog Herald and more are also displayed.

Popurls is a great resource for saving time when you want to find out what's hot in the social media realm. Whether you are a blogger, or simply addicted to the Internet and social media, this site can help you learn about what generates buzz and what doesn't. Bloggers who are having trouble connecting with new readers, it is definitely worthwhile to do some research on this site, and then take some actions to improve your content and/or expand your reach.

To learn more about the value of this site for yourself, click here.