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I recently conducted a poll here on the blog and I asked you, my readers, to take part in it (Where Are You at in Your Online Business). If you haven’t done so I hope you’ll take the few seconds to check the box that most closely fits for you - it will really help me give you the best content and information here on the blog. After reading the results I found that there are some of you who still need some direction in finding ideas for your new online business. I think those of you who chose answer one or two, that you’d like to have an online business but don’t yet have a topic in mind or that you have a topic in mind but need some help getting started, will benefit greatly from this tutorial.

If you have an online business and you are not truly happy and excited to work on it you’ll want to listen to this too. I for one know that I’ve “happened onto” some businesses that I don’t truly have a passion for and it makes it really hard to work on the business without feeling like I’m “working” LOL. If you have a business that you ended up in for whatever reason but you’re not truly happy with it then maybe it’s time for you to too to see what other business options are out there. Working a business that you don’t truly enjoy is almost as bad as going to work every day at a job that you don’t enjoy and none of us should put ourselves in that position - don’t you agree?

Now, before we get started with this lesson I want you to get out a pen and a piece of paper (or your notepad or journal) because as we go through this lesson I want you to write down EVERYTHING that comes to mind as it pops into your head.

NOTE: These notes differ a little from the video so I suggest if you have the time you not only watch the video but you also read this post.

This is what I want you to think about and to start writing down … and for now don’t worry about spelling, penmanship, what order or which number they fall under … just let your ideas and thoughts flow out and onto your paper OK? 

Let’s get started:

***In fact … as we go through this exercise … I don’t want you to try to figure out if ANY of these could actually be monetized or not … we’ll be looking at that in a different lesson … so for now … just make sure that every single thought and idea makes its way onto your paper.

OK … let’s continue: 

1. Write out ALL ideas you have … or have had … for a business (don’t worry about if it could be made into a blog or business or not. 
2. Write out ALL of the things you’re interested in (i.e. sports, hobbies, what you do in your spare time, where do you travel to (or where would you like to travel to?), what you like to read about, material possessions you have or want … think about what magazines you read or subscribe to (or wish you did) … what type of shows you like to watch … what interests you and captures you? Are you crafty? Do you make things? What do you make?
3. What’s a subject or topic that you’d research and write about that you could care less if you got paid for that work or not? Which topics could you do this work on and hours have passed before you even know it?
4. What do others tell you you’re good at? Are you a good cook? Baker? Good with relationship advice? At organizing? Cleaning tips? At decorating? At event planning? Do others come to you before they make a purchase? If so … of what? Computers? Cars? Boats? Appliances?
5. Write out WHO you are (i.e. woman, divorced, engaged, parent, mom, soon-to-be step mom, Christian, like to help and teach others, tall, etc.)
6. Write out what you are experienced in … for instance what did you study in school? What types of jobs and careers have you had? (i.e. legal assistant, list cars on eBay, cell phone business, direct sales, sales, marketing, people, etc.)
7. Write out ALL of your causes or passions (i.e. politics, religion, environment, advocacy issues, etc.) 

• Write out EVERYTHING that comes to mind
• Nothing is too silly to add to the list
• Do NOT try to figure out if you could make a business out of this (that’s another step we will get to … I promise) 

Once you are done, you should start to rearrange your list putting the top 5 - 10 towards the top (they don’t need to be in an exact order) and then try to filter on down as you see fit. 

That’s it for the Brainstorming Part 1.

I want you to put that aside for today and tomorrow we’ll move onto Brainstorming Part 2.

NOTE: I made this video some time ago and even though it says for “blogging” it definitely pertains to any type of business you’d like to start

Was this helpful for you to get some ideas about what you actually enjoy in life? Are there things on your list that got you really excited? Did you find yourself asking, “Wow! What if I could actually make a living around “blank”? I hope you’ll keep adding to this list as other things you enjoy pop into your head. Let’s hear from you below! *SmiLes* Suzanne

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Well … I finally did it! I changed my Twitter User Name and for some reason I was really stressed out about it. I’ve used wahmsuzanne (work at home mom Suzanne) for many years on forums and such so when I signed up for Twitter I used it out of habit.

I finally understand the importance of “personal branding” so I wanted to get @suzannefranco for Twitter. I did some searching and I couldn’t find a definitive answer to the question of how to change user names without any problems. I guess somewhere along the line I used my Gmail address to “reserve” @suzannefranco so when I went to switch one night it said it was already taken (Uhhhh …. Duh! LOL). So … now I have thousands of followers on @wahmsuzanne and I want to switch to @suzannefranco.

I thought I’d heard that there was a cooling off period if you let your user name go so I didn’t want to just cancel the @suzannefranco. I finally emailed Twitter. Their response was to change the @suzannefranco to something else, log out and log back into @wahmsuzanne, and then change it to @suzannefranco (you do this by clicking on “Settings”). So … I’ve done so and so far so good. Now … just in case there is some confusion at first I went back and changed the “old” @suzannefranco to @wahmsuzanne. OK … you can shoot me now!

If someone has me saved as @wahmsuzanne or I have a link out there somewhere I will still be notified and I can let the person know about my new user name.

So … if we’re not already following each other on Twitter let’s do so ok?

In fact, if everyone would like to post their Twitter ID in the comments we can all connect and network together. What do you think? *SmiLes* Suzanne

P.S. This would work best if you put the entire URL in the comments so it’s clickable i.e. http://www.twitter.com/suzannefranco

P.P.S. If you hold down the “Ctrl” button and then click the link it will open in a new window so you can make your way down the whole list easily.

P.P.P.S. Due to adding a link in the comments area your comment will most likely go into my spam … but I will stay on top of this post and approve them as quickly as possible … so please don’t repost over and over again LOL

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Anthony was mentioning that the posts on the blog were taking up way too much space on the main index page … and he’s right. Today I remembered a plugin I’d read about months ago that is designed to help you manage how much of each post you want to show on the main page and how many posts, etc.

The free plugin is from Daniel Scocco of Daily Blog Tips and it’s called Homepage Excerpts WordPress Plugin.

I’ve done a video to show you how to go download the plugin to your hard drive and then go into your WordPress admin panel and upload the plugin there. I also show you how to activate it and how to go in and configure it the way you want it to display.

Not only will this clean up your main index page and make it look much cleaner it can really help your SEO efforts too. When you hear about duplicate content it is referring to having duplicate content on the same domain name or URL. And if you think about the way a WordPress blog is set up you are putting up a lot of duplicate content (without even knowing it). While a new post is on my main/index page in its entirety it is also being placed in its entirety on the single post page for that post. So if I only post a portion of it on my main page that will definitely help with this problem.

It also strips the html out of the post on the main page (removing links, images, audio, video and such) so I’d imagine this will also help with the load time of my main page (please let me know if you were experiencing any problems with the load time).

Here’s the video:

So … what do you think of the new look and feel on the main page? Do you use excerpts on your main page or do you post articles in their entirety? Have you considered using excerpts? Did you understand how to add and configure this plugin? Let us hear from you! *SmiLes* Suzanne

UPDATE:

P.S. I want to thank those who reminded me about the excerpt feature that’s in your WordPress admin panel. Some prefer it because they can decide how much of each post they’d like on the main/home page on a case by case basis. I’m still making my final decision between the two and I’ve enjoyed hearing the different opinions on this. I do miss seeing images on the page … but I also like the clean, uniform look that the plugin creates.

Please keep sharing your thoughts on this ok?

Screen shot:

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OK guys ~ I’ve gone back and revised the Q & A post with Julie (Part One) and instead of breaking it up by date and doing it in a series I’ve decided to give you what we’ve discussed so far (in its entirety) but in a little different order and format.

I’m hoping this will be easier to read and follow along with too. A HUGE “thank you” to both Angie and Dennis for their honest feedback on the last attempt. This is YOUR blog and I don’t write this stuff for myself … so your feedback is really important to me. I want to make the information here valuable to you. Please, please let me know if this was any better … do you have any other suggestions for any future Q & A posts, etc. I’m open to all ideas and suggestions!

Julie’s questions and comments are in blue and my responses to her are in black and I’ve added a couple of comments in red.

I will also be doing some keyword research for Julie’s blog and she’s given me permission to share that with you (most likely via video) so watch for that here soon!

Suzanne:

I was looking over your site and I wanted to ask you what your keyword phrases are for the blog? 

Julie:

Funny you should ask. I keep hearing about keywords and I understand the concept but I can’t seem to find anyone to tell me what to do with those words!!!! Can you? I’ll be your best friend forever. I assume my keywords would be Provence, France, South of France, French Travel, French Tourism, etc. Is that correct?

Julie:

Are you willing to give this kind of help for pay? I’m looking for someone to provide me with just this kind of help. Can we discuss? 

Suzanne:

Do you use any type of SEO plugin (do they have that on blogspot?)? Sorry … I’ve never used Blogspot so I’m not familiar with it at all.

Julie:

Ha, I know less than you! What is an SEO plugin?

Suzanne:

Hi Julie ~ I don’t know exactly which one of these would help you the most but for sure the keyword tools and checking out the competition …

The keywords you gave me earlier were too broad! I did a quick look before I emailed you earlier and I think “visit provence” and “travel to provence” jumped out at me (but that was without doing the whole process) … I also have a tool here that will help but I want you to understand this process before I put it into the tool for you.

http://www.suzannefranco.com/what-is-a-niche

http://www.suzannefranco.com/keywordresearch-tools

http://www.suzannefranco.com/checking-out-the-competition

http://www.suzannefranco.com/keyword-research-follow-up

NOTE: These are some of the lessons from BootCamp. If you are not signed up for BootCamp please use the Contact page and let me know you’re interested. I’m about to close it to newcomers.

Suzanne:

Also, I wanted to link to one of your posts from my Twitter and I don’t know much about blogspot but it wouldn’t let me get the direct URL to that specific post???

Julie:

There’s definitely a problem linking to Blogger blogs (Google’s blog program is called Blogger. The word Blogspot is the site I guess. But it’s one and the same. ) to Facebook. There’s a way around the problem which I can tell you if you’re interested. I’m not sure about linked to my blog from Twitter (although it would be awesome if you did!) Here is a direct link to today’s post…does that help?

http://theprovencepost.blogspot.com/2009/10/tour-dargent-cellar-sale.html 

Suzanne:

I know how to link from both … but the strange thing was that when I clicked on the title of your post it should (and it did) go to the individual post but the URL in the browser bar should change to the whole long URL like the one you sent me (but it was still the main URL). I can see it when I hover over it … but it should be up top so I can do a simple copy/paste. I tweeted about your post using your main URL because I was being lazy and didn’t want to have to type out the entire URL (LOL). When I tweet it goes onto my Facebook page automatically so you might get a bit of traffic from it.

Julie:

PS: The solution to linking to Blogger posts from Facebook seems to be to place all the info, including the link, into the main message box…and ignoring the link box completely. With regarding to Twitter, I’ve never done it so I don’t know whether it works or not. And thank you for the very nice comment you just left on ProvencePost.com! 

Suzanne:

If you have a second … go to my blog and leave a comment on the newest post (maybe just what you sent me below) and for name you could do something like travel to provence - Julie and then with a link back to your blog. This will give you a good backlink to your site with that “anchor text” telling Google that’s what your blog is about.

Also that way when I reply others can see what we’ve said to each other and it helps them out too. *huGs*

P.S. Stay in touch any time and let me know how I can help.

Julie:

I’m going to do this as soon as I finish writing you. I love the ideas you are giving me and am very appreciative.

Julie:

Suzanne, on which of your blogs should I do this? Should I do it here?

http://www.suzannefranco.com/category/affiliate-networks/

Suzanne:

Try this … go back to the original email with the title “I Wrote You a Letter” and in the body of that email where you read the article try clicking on the Title of the Post and it should be a hyperlink …

Julie:

I’m getting lost now!! You’re referring to the group email I got from you this morning, obviously. From what address was this email sent? I can find it again alphabetically.

Suzanne:

LOL … this is VERY valuable feedback for me … last night my husband was reading my RSS email and he didn’t know how to get to my blog from there either so it’s a great post idea Try this … go back to the original email with the title “I Wrote You a Letter” and in the body of that email where you read the article try clicking on the Title of the Post and it should be a hyperlink … then you can scroll down to the comments section (at the very bottom). This is very important for you to learn to do and it’s a GREAT way to get traffic to your site (and new subscribers). If you don’t have the email or don’t understand this don’t waste too much time on it but again this is a great topic because I know a lot of people reply to the RSS emails directly to me and I have a feeling many don’t know how to go back and comment.

Suzanne:

I tweeted about your post

Julie:

I saw it on Facebook. I can’t believe how kind you are!

You’ll be rewarded….

Suzanne (to Anthony):

Good morning … just wanted to help put a smile on your face! This is the rewarding part of our business

NOTE: I forwarded one of Julie’s nice emails to Anthony because I know he loves helping others as much as I do … I knew it would make him happy to see what I (now we) do behind the scenes.

Julie:

Hi

Ok! I found the email you were referring it. I posted a comment. See? There’s hope for me! I’ll read your emails slowly later when it’s quiet. You’re the best! Can you just tell me quickly how leaving a comment on your blog with my name as TRAVEL TO PROVENCE–JULIE is helpful? And when I comment on other people’s blogs in the future, should I also comment that way? I’ve just been commenting as Julie from ProvencePost.com. I’ll do as you say from here on!

Suzanne:

Good job! Yes, I saw your comment come through ;) Google wants to know what your blog is about … so one way to tell them is by linking to your site with your keyword phrase (not just your URL) from other sites. In fact, the higher ranked the site is that links to you the better (I have a PR3 so that’s pretty good for a link back LOL). This also works on your own site! Internal linking is also important so when blogging about one subject and referring to a post you’ve already done be sure you link to it using the keyword phrase for that post. With that said you will want to get into the habit of doing the keyword research for EACH POST not just for the main page. So if you blog about something as a “must see” in Provence … you’ll want to put that term into the keyword tools and make sure you choose the best term to optimize for before you write your post title and your post so you can work that phrase in there.

Here’s a post that will help with blog commenting (pardon the title LOL):

http://www.suzannefranco.com/are-you-a-blog-comment-pussy/

Julie:

S,

I am a total blog comment pussy!!! No offence taken.

I’m going to read all of this…

Just as soon as the driveway black topper guys are gone.

I need you to work with me on the whole keyword thing and of course I want to pay you. But in the meantime I suppose I better click all the links and read the stuff you sent, like a good little student. But as you well know, there’s so much to read on this topic and sometimes you just want someone to TELL YOU WHAT TO DO!

Anyway, more soon and many thanks.

Meow!

Suzanne:

i will definitely help you! 

Julie:

Hi,

I just spent the last year writing a book that took up (no lie) at least 12 hours of my day, every day. I sent the book to the publisher last week and now have a little break while my editor does her thing. Then I’ll do revisions and photo editing and recipe corrections (it’s a cookbook), etc., but having time to finally focus on blog is my gift to myself. I’ve been waiting a year to have it. I’m a full time freelance food and travel writer and have to work very long hours to make a living. So all this blog stuff has had to take a backseat. I hope to crash learn as much as I can in the next few weeks, while my book is off my plate.

I’m going to print everything you’re sending me and work my way through all your ideas and tips one by one. Thanks again for your willingness to share and help. 

With the magazine journalism world (my world) crashing around me, I’m looking at every way possible to replace the lost income. ProvencePost.com started as fun but now I’m starting to sell small ads so I want to see how far I can take it. Still my main intent is just to provide great info.

MERCI MILLE FOIS! 

Suzanne:

Wow! I’m so excited about your book! And proud of you! That’s huge! I know the industry is taking a huge turn so it’s a great idea to be self sufficient when possible. The biggest piece of advice to anyone who wants to blog is to blog about your PASSION! If not, no money in the world will motivate you and you won’t do the “work.” The work is writing … so you have a leg up on the rest of us. LOL … Writing is the best way to make money online … PERIOD! I can teach you what to do with your writing and how to monetize what you do write. I’m envious because you have the piece of the puzzle that is the most difficult for the rest of us (the writing). You will do great with this. *huGs*

P.S. How much content have you put on your blog so far (sorry - I didn’t check)? You really want to consider your own hosting and possibly wordpress. Sorry I just had to say so. You are building THEIR business for them! They own that site and can do whatever they want with it … whenever they want. If you’re going to put effort and energy into it … more than a hobby … you should seriously consider it. I can help of course.

Suzanne:

have you considered a twitter account that’s more specific for your keywords? … there are all kinds of tools that will alert you when a certain word/phrase is mentioned too … that could be helpful? you can also do searches whenever you have a bit of time … and find people talking about provence and offer to help answer questions for them and direct them to your blog

http://www.suzannefranco.com/use-twitter-to-promote-your-niche-site/

Julie:

Ah HA!!!! Double HA! I never Twitter. I just tweeted. And I just used Bitly for the first time. And I just changed my Twitter name from YIFNIF (which means nothing) to ProvencePost! Is that a good Twitter name for me? SEE HOW YOU’VE IMPROVED MY LIFE ALREADY???

Suzanne:

yes … much better! now you’ll need a photo for your profile and a background I personally think you should use your face as your photo (people like to “know” who they’re talking to) and if you have a really pretty Provence image you can do your own background for now. I’ll get the dimensions to you for the background … remember you’ll meet all kinds of people through twitter … those who travel, who want to travel, travel agents who want to advertise … etc. It’s good for you and for your blog

add a few more tweets when you get a chance … your favorite thing to see in provence? the weather there today? whatever so that when people check you out to decide whether or not to follow they’ll see you tweet about provence (and not spam LOL)

P.S. Twitter has grown my blog subscribers by at least 200-300 in the past few months! and it’s grown my facebook friends too … this is my twitter landing page: http://www.suzannefranco.com/twitter

Julie:

Hi–Your wedding pix are gorgeous!!! Congrats!!! Funny I was going to book a trip down to Tulum or somewhere nearby to celebrate finishing my book but have already moved past it and on to other projects, the way those things go. Who’s the lucky guy?? How did you meet him? Do I need a Twitter landing page? Have I asked one question too many yet today???

Suzanne:

Never too many questions It’s how you’ll learn. Ken and I met online - our first date was October 26 just about 5 years ago The wedding down there was so fun … we just love the area … in fact, I am planning on launching a destination wedding site specifically for the Riviera Maya (so excited!) … I have this one http://www.thedestinationweddingsite.com but it’s very broad and that’s a not good for a blog LOL

I love the Twitter landing page and I believe it’s the reason for the increase in RSS subscribers. I might need to shorten mine? But it’s working for now it seems.

NOTE: Others have asked my “permission” to steal this idea … YES! Please do … set up your own Twitter landing page (or maybe even a separate landing page for each of your social media sites).

Julie:

Hola

Your new site idea sounds really good…that area of Mex. is so hot right now. I have a good chef friend down there, John XXXX. Last I heard he had five places…I wonder if you know them? File him away as someone who might be able to help you somehow with your site or maybe you guys can help each other. He’s an extremely talented chef, who was exec chef at the Ritz Carlton Cancun before deciding to go out on his own. I can’t find his corporate site but you can Google him to learn more. I emailed him for his site…weird it isn’t coming right up. HE NEEDS YOUR MARKETING SKILLS!

Meanwhile I’ll see about doing a Twitter landing page. Smart!

Thank you!

Julie:

Hope you don’t mind one more question. How many pages does my site have? It’s this simple stuff that keeps tripping me up!!! I know that I can specify how many posts I want per page and I know there more there are the slower everything loads. But how do I know how many actual pages I’m using? Or does each post count as a page? I know older posts go to Archives…and I’m sure there’s a whole science on this…but if there’s anything you’re willing to tell me easily/quickly, I’d really appreciate it.

Thanks!

Suzanne:

Hi Julie … Did you figure this out or understand what I sent?

Julie:

HIya

Have been busy with other stuff today since we last spoke. I’ll get back to THE BLOG tomorrow morning most likely. Thanks for checking back…I’m a couple emails behind so I need to click the links you sent and read what’s what and stumble through it and come back to you. Every 12 year old seems to know this stuff…

THANKS and enjoy your evening.

Suzanne:

sounds great … i’m usually online throughout the day (and night LOL) …

Julie:

Hi Suzanne,

Good morning!

I watched this video the other day on the BlogWorldExpo site but it came in an email this morning and I thought just in case you missed it you might want the link.

http://jamesplouf.com/?p=104 

NOTE: This is an awesome video with some amazing blogging stats so be sure you watch it!

I’m sure you’ve seen it but just in case.

Anyway my blog project for today is to read some of the great links you sent me and start to take action. Can I ask you a quickie about the commenting thing? Am I supposed to always comment as “Travel to Provence–Julie” rather than “Julie” or “Julie Mautner”?

Thanks and hope you have a great day! 

Julie:

Hi

I forgot another very obvious question and then that will be it for the day!

When I go to comment on a post on a blog, usually it’s already filled in by Google/Blogger. Meaning, I see a version of what I’ve pasted below. So how could I comment as “Travel to Provence–Julie” when my name, tied to my Google account, is already in there? Would I sign out first?

Thanks! 

Julie:

Oh my I’m making so much good progress in such a short time, thanks to you!

No need to answer my last question about commenting…I solved it.

The answer is just sign out of Google and put in whatever name I want.

You are a GODDESS.

NOTE: I just love how I’m a GODDESS … even though she figured this out on her own LOL

Julie:

Hi Suzanne

Your whole bootcamp package is great…bravo. I just did the lesson on keywords, which you linked me to below. I’m sorry but I just don’t get what I would do with the keyword(s) I choose. It sounds like you’re saying I should use those words or phrases in the titles of my posts as often as possible? Or am I missing something?

Thanks and hope all is well…

Julie:

Suzanne/Sadie–

How are you?

Quick question?

When people refer to ”pages” (with regards to a blog), does each post constitute a page?

Or does the word page mean a whole screen of posts?

Thank you! !

Suzanne:

Hi Julie ~ I’m so sorry! I just remembered reading your email this morning … been out most of today. If you go to http://www.suzannefranco.com and look at the top navigation … “Home” “About This Blog” “Recommends” … those are “pages” on my WordPress blog vs. the posts which are the chronological articles I post. The pages are considered “static” … they don’t move … where the posts move down the page as I write new posts. Does that make sense at all? I have other “pages” on the site … but I use a plugin that helps me easily decide which pages are seen on the navigation and which ones are not. On my http://www.thedestinationweddingsite.com I set up WordPress differently … I used the feature where you can make your “home” page a static page and then I link to the “blog” portion on the left side navigation. I know it’s a bit complicated … so let me know what other questions you have. Is there something specific I can help you with? You are asking about pages … why? LOL … Hey … we (Anthony and I) are going to start doing some Q & A … do I have your permission to answer this for the readers?

Julie:

Hi

Of course you can use this as a Q&A…I ask because I’m reading a lot online this week about building readership and SEO and all that and they often refer to pages. As in “do this or do that on every page of your blog.” But the main thing I still can’t figure out is what I’m supposed to do with regards to METADATA. Everyone talks about it. I know I need a meta description and meta keywords. But where do I put this info? I’m still working my way thru the links you graciously sent earlier this week so maybe the info is there. But I’ll read this whole online article from someone about it, impressing the need for it and explaining what it is, and then they don’t tell you where to put it…or how. Sorry to be a whiner…sick with a cold…bleary eyed…and logging off now! Thanks for all your help and I’ll keep readin’!

Bonne Weekend!

Suzanne:

I hope you feel better! When you find something like that just forward it to me and I’ll read through it and maybe I can shed some “light” on it for you. There’s soooo much to learn with SEO that it’s hard to teach via a few emails LOL … but I can help explain what you find out there for sure. I’m also not very familiar with BlogSpot so that makes it a bit harder for me … with WordPress (self hosted) you have plugins and such that help with all of that. Have you considered a blog “of your own”? It won’t be the last time I ask! LOL. *huGs*

Julie:

Sorry…but if you look at my blog (ProvencePost.com), I have just one page…correct?

Or are the archived posts (posts #26 and up) considered to be on another page?

Finally, if I only have one “page”–could I have more if I wanted?

Does Blogger allow for that, if I had a designer to do it for me?

MANY THANKS!

Suzanne:

Which page do you have now? Don’t pay a designer! If I can’t help we will find someone who can Is there anything in your admin panel that says, Page?

Julie:

To be honest there was such a huge learning curve learning Blogger I can’t right now imagine trying to learn a whole new program. When I’m feeling a bit bitter I may ask you pros and cons but as it is, trying to learn the nuances of tags and meta and search and all that is taking up hours every day and soon I’ll be out of time and have to get back to my “real” work which pays the bills.  

Suzanne:

One of the bootcamp lessons I did addresses how I feel about Blogger and Wordpress.com (vs Wordpress.org)

http://www.suzannefranco.com/blogging-communities-self-hosted/ 

Julie:

It’s frustrating. I know I’m not alone but it just seems that anything one wants to do, there’s a whole bunch of things one has to learn first.  

Suzanne:

I’ve spent 10-14 hour days for almost 4 years now studying this stuff … so I know exactly what you mean! There’s so much to learn and quite honestly you will never know all of it … just when you get good at SEO … Google will change all the “rules” so it’s never-ending. That’s not to discourage you … it’s important for you to focus on your business (writing great content and selling advertising and finding ways to monetize your site) and then look for those who are willing to help you with the other stuff. It’s more time consuming to look for free help … but don’t spend money until you know you would make more with your time if you outsourced the “crap” you don’t know or don’t enjoy.

Julie:

That said, I’ve come to realize Blogger is a crap program and have been told by others as well that it would be better to switch. I appreciate your nudging and will come back to you on this if you don’t mind.  

Suzanne:

Because you are building a valuable business I don’t want to see you cling to Blogger out of fear or anxiety! The longer you wait the harder it will be for you to make that decision. The great thing is that you own your domain! Yes! Awesome! We can talk more later about where your traffic is coming from and what your best move would be on this.  

Julie:

Question! Why do you always cap one letter of your closing word? It’s cute…does it mean something? 

Suzanne:

I guess it’s my way of being “different” and it makes me smile LOL … I’ve had a couple of people say it’s annoying and at this point in life I just quietly respect their opinion and kept on keeping on … *huGs* LOL

Julie:

I’m afraid if I let you go now I’ll lose you but I do need to log off even though I’m so appreciative. Can we try this page thing later, maybe over the weekend or next week? Thanks!!!!

Suzanne:

OMGosh! Go rest! I’m almost always online or on my blackberry and this is what I ENJOY doing I know my kids need and appreciate me … but this is my “adult” interaction and I love it! I will send you an email with the other questions you asked … but I will “be here” when you’re ready. 

Julie:

Good morning you little internet temptress!

I swore I would do no blog-related anything today.

And yet here I am.

Each day I look at one or two of your recent emails to me and “process them.”

So I just processed the email below and it was soooo good!

You have convinced me of course.

I’m not going to switch now but soon.

Question: I wanted to do some design work on my blog. My friend, an art director, is going to do it for me. Would it be better to do that at the same time I move to Wordpress.org or to do it now?

My guess is do it all at once: make the move and get a redesign. You agree?

Thanks! And how old are you kids? I wondered if they’re barefoot, starving and tattered with you online all the time??? Joke.

Suzanne:

Hey there … it depends on what you mean by a redesign? Are you talking about colors … a header? Or what is she doing exactly? With WordPress you will pick a theme to work with (there are a ton of good free themes) … and you will want a header and a color scheme. I “think” it would be best to do it at the same time but you could get started with the look and feel now?

Julie:

Good Morning Sunshine!

Since you are so willing and helpful…

How do you bill your advertisers??

I have four paying ads now (woo hoo!!!!) and they want to pay.

Do I set up Pay Pal?

Or should I just invoice them each month and have them send a check?

Also I’ll have people paying in euros and others paying in dollars.

Does Pay Pal allow for that?

Love,

Your Biggest #1 Fan Julie

Suzanne:

Good morning! I don’t have paid advertising (yet) but when I do I am considering http://www.oiopublisher.com/. Probably looks intimidating right now but I’ve heard it’s wonderful. That’s awesome you have paying advertisers? What are you charging? I personally use PayPal for everything online and I’ve never had any problems with them. I believe they will allow you to choose the type of money/currency. You can invoice them through PayPal and that’s pretty easy too. Are you monetizing in any other way? Any affiliate links? Paid reviews? *huGs*

P.S. What time is it there?

P.P.S. Anthony and I were thinking we need to come there and help you and interview you! (great business trip don’t you think? LOL) … I think I read you’re back and forth to the states … where are you now?

P.P.P.S. Did you hear the audio where we mention you and your blog? LOL

Julie:

Hiya!

I’m in Milwaukee now, heading back to France in early December. Of course you should come see me there, not to help me but to let me thank you by giving you the grand tour!!! Do you know Provence? It’s just glorious and it would be a treat to show it to you. Yes, I go back and forth. My mom is in Milwaukee and that’s where I grew up. I come here to hang with her and since I can work anywhere, it works out nicely.

I’m charging XXX and XXX euros/dollars an ad. I’m embarrassed to tell you how low it is but I had to start somewhere! When you start charging I’m sure you’ll get top dollar. I don’t do paid reviews (I’m not even sure what that means) but I do have Google Ad Sense ads on my blog. Is that what you mean by affiliate program? I would like to join others but don’t know which ones are still accepting new members. Do you happen to know? Also, once again, I got confused once I started looking into it….pay per click and all that. 

No, I didn’t hear the audio where you mention me!!! Do you have a link? Thank you for that!!! I’m a couple days behind on my blog related emails.

THANK YOU! 

Suzanne:

Don’t be embarrassed at all (about this or ANYTHING for that matter - I’m here to help not criticize)! I think that’s a great start for your ads … and I don’t know anything at all about your traffic or your visitors. In fact, do you have analytics or any way of tracking your stats for visitors? How they get to your site … search terms they use, etc.?

Julie:

Yes, I use Google analytics. I’ve just started looking at it and learning it.

Suzanne:

I think reviews of other businesses would work well on your site. That is where you are paid to review someone’s busines i.e. a travel company there. They pay you (say $50 or $75 - based on your ad price) and you go to their site and do a blog review of their company … a mini commercial. You are most successful with this if you are completely honest! If there is something that you don’t like (maybe they run late occassionally - so you want to warn people of that so they can plan accordingly) or you think one of their tours is a bit pricey but only by a few bucks? you get the idea here).

Julie:

Great idea but not for me I don’t think.

Suzanne:

I forgot you have AdSense on there … are you making any money with that? Depending on how many advertisers and what you’re trying to accomplish … sometimes you don’t want to drive people to AdSense - you’d rathen them click on one of your advertisers or an affiliate link …

Julie:

I can’t remember my AdSense password so I have no idea how much money is in there!!!! It’s on my to-do list, like so many other things! I can’t imagine it’s more than a few dollars though.

Suzanne:

So on to affiliate programs. Amazon would be a good “match” for you but I personally don’t do much with them (just never been paid by them LOL). I use eBay quite a bit and that seems to do fairly well for me. And there are a ton of other affiliate sites we can help you explore. Being in the travel niche there are some great affiliate programs/opportunities like Travel Zoo and such that pay if someone signs up for their travel newsletter or something like that.

Julie:

I’m in the Amazon program…and will definitely check out these others that you mention. Who knew??

Suzanne:

Let me know what the main focus is for your blog and I can help you. You can also try this … go to google and type in “provence + affiliate” and variations of that and see what comes up. There are many different ways to get paid by affiliate programs so I can explain that better too.

Julie:

I will do this for sure, thank you!

Suzanne:

What (if anything) do you do to promote your site? Are you commenting on other blogs … submitting articles … anything like that?

Julie:

I do a lot when I have time and when I know to do it or how to do it What do you mean submitting articles?

Thanks as always for everything!!!

I’m back to work on my book this week so won’t have much time for blog stuff…but an hour or so every day I hope.

*************

I hope there were some nuggets in there that will help you too. I realize that I didn’t get to every one of her questions so I’ll address those in a different post and see if there’s anything else to add as well.

For comments I’d love to hear what you thought of this post (yes - honest feedback LOL) … did you learn anything? Was it helpful? Too much at once or a good post? If I hear from you I can get better and better at this as we go … so don’t be shy. *SmiLes* Suzanne

P.S. Please send us your questions too and let me know if  we have permission to post here on the blog …

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<—— A quick reminder to Retweet if you enjoy the post … Thanks!

Here’s wishing you a really fun Halloween … please be safe!

This picture cracks me up so I thought I’d share *SmiLes* Suzanne

What are you doing or did you do for Halloween? Do you dress up and/or go to a Halloween party? Do you take kids trick or treating? Do tell …

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<—— A quick reminder to Retweet if you enjoy the post … Thanks!

I read a lot of blogs, and I mean a lot! When I see something that could help everyone, I’ll save the links, and post them for you! Let’s just say its my gift to you on Friday’s! I hope you enjoy them, and look forward to your comments!

How to Build a High Traffic Blog Without Killing Yourself

A great video on how to build a high traffic blog, the easy way!

10 Small Business Social Media Market Tips

We all want to work from home, right? Well, its time to talk Social Media

How to Defeat Burnout and Stay Motivated

Tips to keeping the mind motivated

Scrapblog’s QuickMix Is A Dead Simple Tool To Make Digital Scrapbooks

Do you like scrapbook? Anthony we blog remember? This post should get your ideas on the fast track!

Business or Pleasure – You Must Have a Blog To Be Seen!

Give your readers a reason to read your blog. Maybe even come back!

Make Your WordPress Blog Mobile Ready

Is mobile WordPress the wave of the future?

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We’re excited to get started with our Q & A series here on the blog. We want to thank Julie Mautner of Provence Post for allowing us to share her questions and my answers to her. We’ve exchanged several emails back and forth and we’ll be posting them here in a series. There’s a lot of good information here so be sure you follow along. If you have any questions or comments please leave a comment below or use the Contact page. Enjoy.

From: Julie Mautner 
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 5:47 AM
To: Suzanne Franco
Subject: Re: Money Making Ideas - Suzanne Franco

Hi Suzanne

Your letter was touching and I hope your honeymoon was divine! I’d love a copy of the e-book when you have time. I won’t pay but I will value it!

Thanks!

Julie

From: Julie Mautner
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 7:52 AM
To: Suzanne Franco
Subject: Re: Money Making Ideas - Suzanne Franco

In a message dated 10/19/2009 7:43:43 A.M. Central Daylight Time, Suzanne Franco writes:

Hi Julie ~ Thank you for your nice email. We are trying to get the eBook ready this week *fingers crossed* and I’ll announce it on the blog.

Great!

I was looking over your site and I wanted to ask you what your keyword phrases are for the blog?

Funny you should ask. I keep hearing about keywords and I understand the concept but I can’t seem to find anyone to tell me what to do with those words!!!! Can you? I’ll be your best friend forever. I assume my keywords would be Provence, France, South of France, French Travel, French Tourism, etc. Is that correct?

Also, I wanted to link to a post from my Twitter and I don’t know much about blogspot but it wouldn’t let me get the direct URL to one of your posts???

There’s definitely a problem linking to Blogger blogs (Google’s blog program is called Blogger. The word Blogspot is the site I guess. But it’s one and the same. ) to Facebook. There’s a way around the problem which I can tell you if you’re interested. I’m not sure about linked to my blog from Twitter (although it would be awesome if you did!) Here is a direct link to today’s post…does that help?

http://theprovencepost.blogspot.com/2009/10/tour-dargent-cellar-sale.html

Weird. Do you use any type of SEO plugin (do they have that on blogspot?)? Sorry … I’ve never used Blogspot so I’m not familiar with it at all.

Ha, I know less than you! What is an SEO plugin?

If you have a second … go to my blog and leave a comment on the newest post (maybe just what you sent me below) and for name you could do something like travel to provence - Julie and then with a link back to your blog. This will give you a good backlink to your site with that “anchor text” telling Google that’s what your blog is about.

I’m going to do this as soon as I finish writing you. I love the ideas you are giving me and am very appreciative.

Also that way when I reply others can see what we’ve said to each other and it helps them out too. *huGs*

P.S. Stay in touch any time and let me know how I can help.

Are you willing to give this kind of help for pay? I’m looking for someone to provide me with just this kind of help. Can we discuss?

THANK YOU!
Julie

From: Julie Mautner  [mailto:Julie Mautner ]
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 7:55 AM
To: Suzanne Franco
Subject: Re: Money Making Ideas - Suzanne Franco

In a message dated 10/19/2009 7:43:43 A.M. Central Daylight Time, Suzanne Franco writes:

If you have a second … go to my blog and leave a comment on the newest post (maybe just what you sent me below) and for name you could do something like travel to provence - Julie and then with a link back to your blog. This will give you a good backlink to your site with that “anchor text” telling Google that’s what your blog is about.

Suzanne, on which of your blogs should I do this? Should I do it here?

http://www.suzannefranco.com/category/affiliate-networks/

Thanks!

J.

From: Suzanne Franco Land [mailto:Suzanne Franco]
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 8:28 AM
To: ‘Julie Mautner ‘
Subject: RE: Money Making Ideas - Suzanne Franco

LOL … this is VERY valuable feedback for me … last night my husband was reading my RSS email and he didn’t know how to get to my blog from there either so it’s a great post idea Try this … go back to the original email with the title “I Wrote You a Letter” and in the body of that email where you read the article try clicking on the Title of the Post and it should be a hyperlink … then you can scroll down to the comments section (at the very bottom). This is very important for you to learn to do and it’s a GREAT way to get traffic to your site (and new subscribers). If you don’t have the email or don’t understand this don’t waste too much time on it but again this is a great topic because I know a lot of people reply to the RSS emails directly to me and I have a feeling many don’t know how to go back and comment. ;) 

From: Suzanne Franco Land [mailto:Suzanne Franco]
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 8:31 AM
To: ‘Julie Mautner ‘
Subject: RE: Money Making Ideas - Suzanne Franco

I know how to link from both … but the strange thing was that when I clicked on the title of your post it should (and it did) go to the individual post but the URL in the browser bar should change to the whole long URL like the one you sent me. I can see it when I hoover over it … but it should be up top so I can do a simple copy/paste. I tweeted about your post using your main URL because I was being lazy and didn’t want to have to type out the entire URL (LOL). When I tweet it goes onto my Facebook page automatically so you might get a bit of traffic from it. 

From: Julie Mautner  [mailto:Julie Mautner ]
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 8:00 AM
To: Suzanne Franco
Subject: Re: Money Making Ideas - Suzanne Franco

PS: The solution to linking to Blogger posts from Facebook seems to be to place all the info, including the link, into the main message box…and ignoring the link box completely. With regarding to Twitter, I’ve never done it so I don’t know whether it works or not. And thank you for the very nice comment you just left on ProvencePost.com!

Julie

From: Suzanne Franco Land [mailto:Suzanne Franco]
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 8:34 AM
To: ‘Julie Mautner ‘
Subject: RE: Money Making Ideas - Suzanne Franco

Hi Julie ~ I don’t know exactly which one of these would help you the most but for sure the keyword tools and checking out the competition …

The keywords you gave me earlier were too broad! I did a quick look before I emailed you earlier and I think “visit provence” and “travel to provence” jumped out at me (but that was without doing the whole process) … I also have a tool here that will help but I want you to understand this process before I put it into the tool for you.

http://www.suzannefranco.com/what-is-a-niche

http://www.suzannefranco.com/keywordresearch-tools

http://www.suzannefranco.com/checking-out-the-competition

http://www.suzannefranco.com/keyword-research-follow-up

NOTE: These are some of the lessons from BootCamp. If you are not signed up for BootCamp please use the Contact page and let me know you’re interested. I’m about to close it to newcomers.

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<—— A quick reminder to Retweet if you enjoy the post … Thanks!

Yesterday I decided to add the Tweet Meme plugin (far left - button that allows you to easily retweet this blog post) and I decided I wanted it to appear on the upper left of my post. I usually align my images to the left of the text so I decided it would look better if I moved the images to the right of the post.

I logged into my admin and did the edit to move the image to the right but it didn’t work. It showed it moved right in the admin panel but it wouldn’t move on the actual live post. I googled the problem and found a fix (so I thought). I decided to turn on the screen capture so I could show you how to “fix” this problem. I followed the instuctions and it didn’t work. As I was scanning the style.css file (where I was to put this “fix” code) I noticed some image code already in there. Sure enough there was an error in the code on this file.

Now … this might be a little advanced for some of you but I want you to watch this video so you can learn from this. If you do enough with WordPress (or any blog/site) you will eventually have a reason to dive into the code to look for something or to make some adjustments. (Hey … never say never! LOL).

The one mistake I made that I want to stress is that I should’ve copied that file on to my desktop BEFORE I started messing around with that code! That was if I did anything that didn’t work or “broke”something I’d have the page that I started with.

NOTE: I’m sorry the audio on this video has some weird background buzz … sorry about that!

I hope you enjoyed the video. I plan on doing a lot more of these videos to capture what I get up and do each day for “work.” Let me know if there’s something specific you need to learn and if I know how to do it I’ll do a video for you. *SmiLes* Suzanne

P.S. So … how do you like the Tweet Meme? If you enjoyed this post please try out the new button and give this a retweet! LOL Thanks!

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On today’s audio message Anthony and I discusss how we actually do our audio recordings … and we talk about the upcoming posts we are getting ready for you.

We are using Skype to call each other via the computer (an IP connection) using the internet … one computer IP address calling the other computer. Pretty cool huh? Then Anthony found a free software for us, PowerGramo, which we use to record the phone calls. When we’re done I save the recording into a .wav file (one of the options with the software). Then I import the audio into a program that creates the player (I can choose the size, style and color for the player) and that’s what I upload to the site. Obviously these steps are a bit more complicated than this … and I’d be happy to do a more detailed post if anyone is interested in adding audio on their blog.

First thing this morning I ran into a problem getting images to align on the blog so I decided to do a screen capture video of how I fixed the issue. I hope to be posting that for you tomorrow.

Also, I’ve been emailing back and forth with one of our readers, Julie, and she’s given us permission to share those emails. I answer various questions for her and I’m hoping it will be helpful for others so we’ll be posting them all here on the blog. (Thanks Julie!)

The next issue is the poll we’ve got here on the blog … so far we’ve had a bit of each answer but the majority of you checked that you have a site/blog in a niche other than the make money online niche. That’s exciting for us as we’d love to help you fine tune your keyword research and possibly take a look at your competition and such. If you’re reading this and you haven’t taken the poll yet would you please do so? It will really help us provide the best teaching content here on the blog (for you!). Link to the Poll

Hope everyone is doing well … please send us your questions and let us know if we have permission to post the Q & A’s here on the blog so we can help others as well. Let us hear from you in the comments! *SmiLes* Suzanne

P.S. We’ve added the Tweet Meme plugin … it’s the button at the very top left of each post that allows you to easily retweet the post and we’d appreciate your help in sharing suzannefranco.com with your Twitter friends. Thanks!

P.P.S. Oh yeah … Anthony and I laugh every time my headset gets brought up … someone stepped on it and I taped it back together … well the tape hurt my head so I taped over that with a bandaid LOL and now the earphone part isn’t working so I sit with the headset for the microphone … and then plug my earphones to my MP3 player into the other ear … I’m a sight for sure … Anthony talked me into posting the pic I sent him from the day my hair got all tangled in the “broken piece” … so … we’d love for you to send us pictures of you in your office or work space to post here on the blog … might be a fun way to get to know each other right?

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So … Anthony and I were talking and he asked me what type of businesses (if any) you had … and I couldn’t really answer him.

We want to know where you’re at in your online business … are you still trying to get one started, are you in the make money online niche, are you in a different niche (or both) … we want to know so we can tailor our teaching to best serve you.

Listen to the audio below so you can hear what we were discussing about the subject.

*NOTE: Click “Play” on the audio player below so you can hear our message …

Please, please, please take our Poll here (So we will know what to teach here on the blog):

So … you’ve taken the poll and now let us hear from you. Do you have an online business … if not … what can we do to help you get started? If so, what is it? What do you need the most help with (please be as specific as possible). *SmiLes* Suzanne

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