Gathering content from other websites and posting it “as is” in your blog is completely legal and acceptable when you acknowledge the proper references and links from the original source.  However, doing so without introducing new and unique content is not favoured by the Search Engines.

Content curation is important when you want to expand your niche and add more traffic to your blog or website.

It is crucial to curate content from other high PR blogs within the same market to bring more visitors to your site. Keeping your visitors updated and make them aware of the changes pertaining to your industry will add more rapport and status quo to your site. Content curation is like feeding your readers the “all in one” trend in the specific topic.

The Process of Content Curation

Get the Most Relevant Information

Content curation only works when you collate the related topics, news and trends in your niche. This is a process where you must curate news or information with the methods of sifting, sorting and arranging each material. You need to know how to create a good article to be able to finish a content curation process as you will have a solid idea on how to establish a good connection between your curated content and your own input.

Make it Personal

You must not rewrite the curated content, only publish it as it is, however you will have your own voice / opinion before or after the curated content. You add your own insight or feedback regarding the information that you gathered giving readers a better understanding as to how it relates to their needs.

Connect

This is the most challenging step in the process of content curation. Your insights and your curated content must connect to the needs of your readers. Remember the readers will only be interested when the content that you publish is about their needs.

The objective of the content curation is to translate the available information online to the readers’ desires. You must assume the place of your readers, try to be in their shoes and provide them the most valuable information online.

The curator must aim to send information in a well arranged and well written post. That is why the combination of the high quality content data plus your insight  work best as an internet marketing technique.

The presentation of this content curation process is the easiest and simplest online. Always do your best to find quality content because this is where the success in promoting your website starts.

Pinterest

Pinterest users collect photos and links to products they love and put it on their own pin boards, then they could also follow the pin boards of other people whom they find interesting. Popular images get a chance to be repined more than a hundred times per day. So, if you have a really interesting product with a quality image, you may get this chance repined a lot of times, thus a wider exposure for your business.

How can you use Pinterest for your Business?

Pinterest can help your business grow in many ways as exposure is unlimited.

You can simply pin the images of your products in your own pinboard then follow other pinners so that they will take a look at your pins. This way, you encourage people to be interested in your product and may visit your main website but the question is how you can get the attention of other pinners’?

Create a Pin Board that Reflects Your Products or Services – Be creative on your pin board so that you catch more attention. Instead of describing your product (after you pin/ post your photo) with its technical name, describe it as creatively as you can. Do not just pin your product/s on your pin board but also find pinterest users to repin them too, you can do this by browsing Pinterest.

For example, as a clothes retailer, the pinner should not create a pin for ‘dresses’ but instead create a pin labeled as ‘spring dresses’ or ‘pretty (or cute girly) dresses’ or something that describes the product more creatively.

Pin High Quality Photos / Images – Pinterest is all about visual inspiration. Your photos reflect your brand, products or services. Be professional in this field so that you can get more re-pins and likes, thus getting more attention from potential customers. Make your photos colorful and fun.

Personalize It – Pinterest is more about being personal, not a staid professional persona. Expose your profile by pinning an image of your office, clinic, work area etc. Develop interest from potential customers by letting them feel like they already know you.

Be Mutual – In business, being reciprocal has its rewards and that same is true on Pinterestas well. Create a board for inspiring photos (remember to always acknowledge whose pin you are repining, put the link of where you got your inspirations) and pin these to broaden your scope of interest. However, explore pins that relates to your business so that it could still connect on your genre.

Put your Brand on your Pins – You may want to put a side logo on all pins you make, it is a great way of branding your images.

Utilize “Follow Me” Buttons – Integrate Pinterest with your website by placing the follow me/us and the “pin it” on Pinterest buttons on your site. Allow people to find your article from your pins from Pinterest along with a link to expand your network.

I’m on a wordpress plug-in search for our blog sites Charly Leetham . When I post a video on youtube I embed in a post. My readers leave comments but they also leave comments on youtube and facebook where both the blog post and then the youtube link are automatically posted. I’d like to make it so all comments made on facebook, twitter and youtube are automatically added to the blog post. Any suggestions?

I had been testing the Disqus Comment system on my other site – Ask Charly Leetham but on further prompting from Janet, I did some investigation.

From the Disqus About page:

Disqus Comments is a comment system and moderation tool for your site. This service lets you add next-gen community management and social web integrations to any site on any platform. Hundreds of thousands of sites, from small blogs to large publications, rely on Disqus Comments for their discussion communities.

Basically, Disqus is a third party service that connects different community sites (Facebook, Twitter etc) and collates all the comments and discussions into one place.  A truly nice concept.

However, as Janet asked – Is Disqus the best or most appropriate system around?

My investigation focused on collating comments from three main sites – Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.  Any other sites that were included were considered a bonus.

Oh yes, I wanted one unified commenting system – not three separate systems…. The Facebook connect Comments system is excellent, but it only does Facebook.  I want all responses, comments and reactions to my post across Facebook, Twitter and Youtube to be shown in one place.

I spent some time looking at the options – and I doubt I got them all.  I found IntenseDebate, CoComment and LiveFyre (a private beta that I’m waiting for access to) – they all do something similar and have seem to have WordPress plugins or extensions – but they don’t seem to do all the three sites that I wanted.

After a bit of digging, I found the Echo commenting system.  From the Echo website:

Echo Comments is designed to replace the legacy commenting system on your site turning your conversations into a real-time cross-platform & highly interactive experience.

It also appears to connect the three sites I was looking for… so I decided to test it out on this blog.  You’ll notice that at the time of publishing this article, the commenting system is using Echo – not the standard WordPress comment system. That may not be the case in the future….

To test the effectiveness of both Echo and Disqus, I have created the video above and uploaded it to YouTube.  If Echo works as it’s supposed too, the comments that this video is getting on YouTube should appear in the comments below….

Have you commented on the video at YouTube?  Tweet about it, add it to Facebook – let’s give the system a run for its money and see just how well it works!

But how do you get that information? How do you know if the niche you’re considering is a low competition niche?

There are a lot of tools out there today to help do this, but today I found the Cherry Picker software – simple to use, easy to understand results.  It’s not the ‘be all and end all’ of niche research, but it sure takes a lot of the guess work out the game.

Ryan Deiss had Cherry Picker coded for one thing and one thing only…To show him the most effective keywords to rank for…

This software will tell you more about your market and your competitors in 2 minutes than a team of researchers could.

The best thing is that it’s in Beta and free….  All you have do is click here to download Cherry Picker for free

Ryan even added a 40 page report explaining how the software works and the system he uses behind it to get even more FREE traffic than you can buy at any price…

This is certainly something to look at and Ryan demonstrates it right here: Cherry Picker Niche Market Keyword Software

The truth is that a giveaway is not truly free. In order for you (or your referral) to receive your free gifts, you have to give your email address away to every marketer whose product you download. Not only can that clog your mailbox with emails promoting one thing or another several times a day, everyday, it can be most inconvenient.  It is, however, the price you pay for your new load of ebooks and software.

Since Giveaways seem to be a permanent and very popular online event, let’s check out how they work.

Let’s look at how Giveaways work for contributors …. A contributor is someone who provides a gift that is included in the Giveaway event.  As a contributor to the event, you will get a new subscriber to your list for every person who downloads your products. Seasoned contributors often offer multiple products to the Giveaway, which multiplies their opportunities for list building. For contributors, a targetted giveaway event is a great way to build your list.

Giveaways are also great for the giveaway owner.  In fact, the site owner benefits most from a giveaway event, as they get the benefit of your initial signup when you first visit the Giveaway plus all the referrals (people) you send to the site because you normally have to opt-in with your email address before you can even see the products being offered for free download.

Can I Really Make Money?

There are several ways for you to make money as a contributor to a Giveaway.  The main way you can make money is indirectly – by building your list, it is possible to bring in a steady income if your list likes the products you are offering them in your follow-up emails.

Another way to make money is by promoting the Giveaway to your lists, on forums and in your signature anywhere you use it. This is because when you become a contributor, you are given a link to send your referrals to – this is also known as an affiliate ID or affiliate link.  When someone uses your affiliate link to visit a Giveaway and buys the One Time Offer (OTO), you as the referrer gets the commission for the sale.

Other Benefits…

Another benefit of using your affiliate link, is that when you refer people to the Giveaway event, your offer is ‘ranked higher’ and is displayed on ‘higher’ or ‘earlier’ pages on the Giveaway event. By having your gift displayed on pages as close to the first page as possible, you increase the number of optins you will receive.

Promoting a Giveaway Event that you contribute too is an absolute must!  Not only is it ‘correct etiquette’, the more referrals you make the more you will benefit. Some events won’t allow you to add a product, or display your product, to the Giveaway until you have sent a certain amount of traffic through your affiliate link.

Dee and Khai have put together offerings that include:

Google Traffic Pump System, by Heri Rosyadi

Odinn Sorensen’s 2 Day Profit Plan

VIP Membership to Twitter Effects from Kathe Lucas and

Shelby Carrs’ How To Write Blog Posts That Suck Visitors In

Plus a bundle more products to help you grow your online business.

Visit the Home Business Breakthrough Giveaway to get your free products before February 15th.

Peoples JV Giveaway
Start: 2010-01-01
End: 2010-01-31
Become a Contributor
Become a Member

New Years Bash
Start: 2010-01-01
End: 2010-01-31
Become a Contributor
Become a Member

Self Improvement Gifts 4
Start: 2009-01-05
End: 2009-01-19
Become a Contributor
Become a Member

1. The reader sees an article title that interests them
2. They open the article and start reading it
3. They read all the way to the end
4. The reader then clicks on the link in the resource box because they want to know more and…

Arrive at your site, likes it, and opts in to your list and/or buys your product.

Simple! So here are some tips to help you create great Articles:

The Title is everything.

If the title doesn’t catch a readers attention, they definitely won’t read the article. In fact, they probably won’t even see your

article in the list of articles they’ve seen… Your title needs to offer them something – What’s in it for them? How can it solve their problem?

Your title should evoke curiosity. “The Number One Mistake New Parents Make” would certainly gain the attention of new and first time parents, “How To Double Your Sales In 6 Weeks” will gain the attention of a business owner seeking to grow their business.

Words that are considered to be curiosity triggers are words like “Top 10 Tips”, “Secrets To…”, and “How I…”

Your title must contain your keyword phrases, not only for Search Engine Optimization, but also so that the people who would be interested in reading your article can find you.

The first paragraph is also very important.

The first paragraph needs to grab the reader’s attention so they will continue reading. When writing the first paragraph, you should identify with your reader by explaining the problems your article will be discussing. It is also important to write in a way that connects with your Target Audience.

Consider the length of the article.

There is a lot of discussion about the length of an article. Many readers will not read long articles however, the articles have to be informative and contact enought information to encourage the reader to want to learn more. On average, a 400 word article seems to work – it gains readers and will also allow for your article to be ‘syndicated’ on other sites.

Be informative, but incomplete.

First of all, you need to give valuable information in your article to encourage people to keep reading however, you don’t have to give it all. For example, your article can include 3 of your top 7 tips and the other 4 can be found on your website or in the product on your website.

Link to the correct page.

When you create your author resource box, make sure you have the right page linked. There is nothing more frustrating than clicking on the a link in someone’s bio box and being sent to a ‘page not found’ page, or worse – to a page that has nothing to do with the subject of the article.

If you’re linking to a specific topic on your blog – make sure you link to the article on your blog, not just the front part of your blog.

Make your bio box work for you.

Your author resource box, or bio, can be the conclusion of your article. Bring your article to a graceful close in the body, but use your bio area to invite the reader to learn more, get a free report or a free gift by visiting your site. Of course, use your keywords for the article as your anchor text (that’s the text that is clickable) for better Search Engine Optimization.

From experience, Article marketing is an effective tool to bring visitors to your site and help make you sales, but only if implemented correctly. Take these tips and use them to grow your article marketing efforts.

Have you signed up for my Free 3 part Article Marketing ECourse?

There are benefits to having a list…

* You don’t have to start over and find new people to sell to. You already have a ready-made group of people who have decided that they want to hear what you have to say and have probably already bought from you.

* Typically, if you’ve built a targetted list and treated your subscribers well by sharing valuable information (as opposed to continually promoting to them), the bigger your list, the more money you can make.

* If you are an affiliate marketer, having a responsive list can help you to become a Super Affiliate, which not only equates to more income – it also means that you may have a chance to win cool prizes in affiliate contests. Being a Super Affiliate also means that you can becoming sought after for large launches.

List building however, requires bringing traffice to your website. Here are some ways to get traffic and build your list.

1. Give them something for free. This is the obvious way however, make your free item something other than the usual pdf ebook.

Consider creating a podcast (mp3) with an expert, or even yourself sharing some great tips about your niche. You can also have someone interview you and record the interview to give away. Another idea is to create a video demonstrating a ‘secret technique’ or discussing some of your strategies in a visual way? If your software developer, why not give away some software in exchange for their email address?

2. Post on your blog regularly – using your chosen keywords. Try this – write a blog post (with good content and keywords) every day for 2 weeks and check your traffic stats – you should have more traffic! Do You?

3. Giveaway events are another way to build your list – make sure you create an opt-in page so that you can get the email address.

It’s important to make sure your offer is something that stands out in the sea of all the other Giveaway offers.

4. Build a Squidoo lens or Hub Page and point people to your site. Squidoo lens and Hub Pages are fun to put together, and relatively quickly to make. Take advantage of it and generate some traffic to your site.

5. Write articles and submit them to directories like Ezine Articles. Be sure to use your chosen keywords to the article and create an author resource box that will encourage people to click through to your site. Create articles that have great content and are informative – the content doesn’t have to be your best writing, but it should still be good.

6. What forums exist in your niche? Join a forum (or 2 or 3) and set up your signature to graciously promote what you do. The way (and when) you set up your signature block completely depends on the forum – make sure you read the Terms of Service first. When creating your signature, remember to ‘sell a benefit’ and get readers curious enough to click through.

7. Ad Swaps are certainly an excellent way to grow your list fast and effectively. Find another business in your niche that has a similar size list (or similar response) and send each others offers of a free item to your own list. The key is, to plan your swaps with offers that will appeal to your niche and not to do it too often, as you will ‘desensitize’ your list.

8. Twitter is another great resource to help you generate traffic to your site. A well written, 140 character tweet can entice people to want to know more and click through. For more information on how to use Twitter to drive traffic to your site, pick up your free Twitter Blog Magic report.

9. Pay Per Click advertising can be an effective way of traffic generation. A well designed AdWords campaign will be seen on a number of others people sites – and increase your reach incredibly. Spend some time developing your AdWords campaign to make sure you pay the ‘right’ price for the advertising.

10. If you like to write and you have something valuable to say, guest blogging is a good way to go. Blogging on your own blog means you have your readers, blogging on other people’s blogs (preferably higher traffic blogs) means you have their readers too, and these people will see your name AND your link.

Building traffic to your site, and list building, requires work from you – it doesn’t happen overnight and whilst you can outsource a lot of the work, understanding the basics will definitely help you. Building your list will most certainly help you create a sustainable, and profitable business.

Your sales letter is incredibly important and should exhibit a level of friendliness, whilst still being direct and to the point.

Many Internet Marketers struggle with writing an effective sales letter and realize that if the sales copy doesn’t speak to their target audience, in a way that the target audience will appreciate and understand – they are wasting their time.

Not only should a sales letter speak to your site visitor in a way that they can relate to, it must also address the reader’s main interest – generally a problem they are experiencing that requires a direct solution, or specific training or another need that requires filling.

Here are six tips for keeping your potential customers, your readers, very interested and convert readers into buyers:

#1…It is imperative that you know why your visitors will buy your products or services. Your visitors really aren’t interest in your EBook or service – you would be wrong – your visitors are are only interested in what your product will do for them.

When writing your sales letter, you need to stress the benefits your potential clients will get if they buy your product.

There is an emotional component to all sales and it is that emotional component that prompts buying. The emotional component is the bit that contains the “WIIFM” or “What’s In It For Me?” Provide the answer to that question with the benefits of your product or sevice and you will make sales.

#2…The first thing your visitors see when they land on your page is the headline – possibly even before they see your graphic header.

Whilst it’s important that your graphic header needs to be professional, the headline must grab the reader and makes them want to read more.

Your headline is the most important part of your entire sales letter. If you can add your readers name to the headline, you will have a magnetic response.

Check your autoresponder or webmaster for the script that will automatically add your readers name to the headline – you will be amazed at the response.

#3…Your sales copy shouldn’t ramble. Your sales copy should be direct and specifically focused on the benefits of owning your product.

There is no Golden Rule about the length of sales letters, it should be as long as it needs to be. Some sales page will be one page and some will be several pages long. As long as you stress your benefits and make your copy as long as it needs to be to make your points (WIIFM).

#4…Readers tend to skim through endless paragraphs of text and the look of your page is important to your conversion and as such, you should keep your sentences and paragraphs short.

Large blocks of text get skipped by scanning eyes. Use bullet points and subheads to direct and focus your reader’s attention and put a space or two between paragraphs to make your page easy to read.

Formatted text boxes will attract attention for special information or calls to action.

#5…Many successful Internet marketers believe that including a PS or two at the end of your sales letter, after your signature at the end, will increase your conversion rates dramatically.

This may, or may not be true – it would depend on your target audience. Split-test your copy with a PS and without – see what results are achieved.

#6…Often, when new Internet marketers write their first sales page, they forget to add several calls to action. A Call To Action literally tells your reader what to do – gratiously and politely. The Call To Action is generally a request to actually buy the product or service.

If you check out any good sales page, you will usually find two or three opportunities to purchase the product on the sales page, complete with a statement of urgency and the PayPal button.

Once you have led the reader through your benefits and listed the bonuses available after they buy the product, you have to tell them what to do next.

These six tips are a great but your best training tools can be found on the sales pages of any of the very successful businesses. Review lots of sales pages, note things like colors, placement of the “Buy Now” button and the general layout of the page. Find pages that appeal to your target audience and duplicate what already works.