Well I started with no money and in this blog post I am going to share with you guys some tips on how you can promote your business without spending any money.

Blog Commenting

This is one my favourites ways to drive traffic to my blog was through commenting in other popular blogs within the same niche. Do take note, I mentioned it have to be within the same niche or the traffic that comes from that blog will not be targeted

The strategy behind blog commenting is not to comment just a simple comment in the blog you are targeting but you would want to give more added value to the blogger’s blog. You can do so by commenting valuable comments and give more tips with regards to the article he has written.

In that way, you not only contribute to the blogger’s blog but also bring value to his blog and readers who read your comments will have a high chance of visiting your blog just to check how great you are

Forum Marketing

It has been my favourite marketing tactic until today since I started and this tactic is real simple and only takes minutes a day All you need to do is first of all find 1 or 2 related niche forums within your market and start posting discussion topics in there everyday.

By doing that, you not only network with people in that forum but also have a chance to advertise your blog through the signature box in the forum.

The most effective method I have tried is most question based discussion within the forum threads to generate more replies within the forum so that your discussion is being picked up by people in the forums to view. The more views there are, the higher chances they will see your signature to generate massive traffic from it

A Must Have Secret Weapon That Hardly Anyone Bothers To Try And It’s FREE

I think I am just crazy to expose this marketing tactic to you guys but hey what the heck If you make more traffic from this one method alone I bet you will come back for more to learn from this blog So what’s this big secret all about? Well it’s actually right in front of you everyday when you load my blog

Just right above this blog, you will see an opt-in box that says you get a free “Blogger’s Handbook” and after you fill up the form it actually emails you my free handbook and also telling you that you have rights to give away this book to others for free.

If you actually open up my handbook and read it, you will realized the free handbook is actually a marketing tool I use to get others to promote my blog by giving away my handbook for free Already more then thousands and thousands of people have downloaded it and it’s driving really lots of referral traffic just from one free book itself

Just imagine, one person download my hand book and read it and forward it to his friend ( which does happen really often ). That one friend may refer another 10 friends who are interested in making money online and will pass on this ebook on and on to others. In the long run, this book just get spread all over the internet creating a viral effect To track how effective the tool can you be, you may want to put in tracking links in the ebook to see the number of referrals you get from the free handbook

Want To Find Out More About The Secret?

Get the book or DVD at the link below

Hey Gather success readers, do you want to know a sneaky way to drive targeted traffic to your website through blog commenting?

I am sure you do. Blog commenting is now a common method use by many people to drive traffic to their website and probably you already heard of this method multiple times before and you may also think that blog commenting is not as effective as before.

That may be also the reason why you are not using this method to drive traffic to your website.

Well I hope this blog post will change the way you view blog commenting strategy after you finish reading.

Here are the steps you need to take to use blog commenting effectively.

Step 1: You want to find blog related to your niche that has lot of comments on each post.

Step 2: Then you want to visit all the websites of the people that have left a comment regularly on that high traffic blog that you found.

Note: The reason why you want to do so is because I found that people who leave a comment on a blog regularly usually is a raving fan or a customer of that blog owner. That is why they are very targeted traffic.

Step 3: You want to leave a comment on the blog that you visit. The way you want to do is not the normal text comment but a video comment.

Example of a comment will be like this: Hey Blog Owner, I have created a video sharing my feedback regards to this post. Click here to watch this video => Website link

Do you think people will click the link to watch the video you personally created for them? I am sure they will. This method not only helps to drive traffic to your site but also help to build relationship with the list that you want to build.

Do you see the powerful of this method yet? I hope you do and start implementing this powerful strategy.

To find out more about what John does, do remember to check out his website @ MarketingLunchBreak.com

I think this was the first time, I spend so much effect in sharing as it was suposed to end at 5pm, I decided to share till 7pm Anyway I had a great time with you guys at the class and I do hope they implement the stuff I mention in the class as they really do work very well in the blogging business

Anyway it has been a long time since I did this exercise so I thought it’s time to get it started again My blog would not be as successful as it is today without you, that is why I would have a topic submission exercise to ask you what topics you like me to write on further to help you further in your journey to make money online If you wish to contribute an article you may do so by clicking here to contribute an article

Guidelines And Rules

1. No request on illegial black hat tactics
2. Only legal white hat tactics will be accept
3. I have the right to choose and accept topics posted on the post

Format To Post For Topic

Topic Name:
Topic Details:
Example: Affiliate Marketing, I like to know more about what is the process involved in Affiliate Marketing?

NEW! Video Submission Allowed Too!

I got a new video player on my blog and I do have some spare time this week, so here’s what I am going to do different this time round for this exercise. You may also comment below what type of video instructions do you need to help you further in your journey to make money online

Format To Post For Video Submission

Video Topic:
Instructions You Like To Learn More About:
Example: Affiliate Marketing, I like a video tutorial showing me how to create hop links from Clickbank

So all you need to do, is comment below the topic you like me to talk about and I will start writing about them for the next few weeks and set it up on my blog. There is nothing to buy nor is there any catch just pure great content to help you make more money online!

Why Do I Do This?

I have a strong believe in giving and I have been doing this for 3 years and this is what I believe in “The More You Give, The More You Shall Receive!” Anyways do comment below what you need you have nothing to loose but everything to gain

Please do comment below the following:

1. Feedback on the new features
2. What other features you would like to see?
3. How much in US dollars will you be willing to pay for this theme?

It is worth cataloging the basic principles to be enforced to increase website traffic and search engine rankings.

• Create a site with valuable content, products or services.
• Place primary and secondary keywords within the first 25 words in your page content and spread them evenly throughout the document.
• Research and use the right keywords/phrases to attract your target customers.
• Use your keywords in the right fields and references within your web page. Like Title, META tags, Headers, etc.
• Keep your site design simple so that your customers can navigate easily between web pages, find what they want and buy products and services.
• Submit your web pages i.e. every web page and not just the home page, to the most popular search engines and directory services. Hire someone to do so, if required. Be sure this is a manual submission. Do not engage an automated submission service.
• Keep track of changes in search engine algorithms and processes and accordingly modify your web pages so your search engine ranking remains high. Use online tools and utilities to keep track of how your website is doing.
• Monitor your competitors and the top ranked websites to see what they are doing right in the way of design, navigation, content, keywords, etc.
• Use reports and logs from your web hosting company to see where your traffic is coming from. Analyze your visitor location and their incoming sources whether search engines or links from other sites and the keywords they used to find you.
• Make your customer visit easy and give them plenty of ways to remember you in the form of newsletters, free reports, reduction coupons etc.
• Demonstrate your industry and product or service expertise by writing and submitting articles for your website or for article banks so you are perceived as an expert in your field.
• When selling products online, use simple payment and shipment methods to make your customer’s experience fast and easy.
• When not sure, hire professionals. Though it may seem costly, but it is a lot less expensive than spending your money on a website which no one visits.
• Don’t look at your website as a static brochure. Treat it as a dynamic, ever-changing sales tool and location, just like your real store to which your customers with the same seriousness.

Anyways I thought I like to share with guys some of the major mistakes I have done in the past and hopefully after you have read this blog post you would avoid these mistakes and leverage on the things  have done to push my business from zero to 5 figures

Do Not Think As A Cheapo Marketer

When I first started 3 years ago, I was just like many people in the world who wanted to start a business online but to be frank I was a real cheapo marketer. I did not want to spend a single cent on hosting or domain name and started finding all the free tools and resources to make money online.

Did I succeed in the end? Well the answer was a big NO No. Well here’s what actually happen, I open up a blogspot account to setup my blog online and within the 1st 2 weeks it was suspended! Fortunately it came back after 4 weeks of begging to blogspot but hell no will I want to go through all that again

On top of using free blog spot, I also tried using free auto-responders to collect leads as it cost a whopping US$150+ per year just to get an account and I thought it was expensive to own one. So I did try using free ones and collected my first 100 leads and you know what happen after 2 weeks? My account was suspended again! I guess I am really unlucky when it comes to using free services. That even my YouTube account “GatherSuccess” was suspended for some strange reason

So overall, you can say I started out in a really bad shape as you can see So what I can say from all this is DO NOT use free tools or resources for your own business as you will never know one day your account will be suspended just like me

I Never Imagine I Could Do It

To be real frank, 3 years ago I was not as confident as I am today in making money online as back then I knew no body online and I was a total newbie with no list and no products of my own. Just like everyone, I started out selling people’s products but I did not succeed real far as I did not collect leads back then.

To make things worst, I was constantly telling myself I was wasting my time with this blogging thing as I was barely making even $10 on my first month of blogging online. I was constantly demoralized and never imagine I could even make US$1,000 a month.

It was then one day I realized I was pulling myself down, I decided to set some goals of my own and found some buddies offline to work together to constantly challenger each other on getting results for each other’s business.

How I wish I have done that earlier in the past to find a buddy to constantly challenge each other to perform well online because it really have helped me push my business up to another level

The reason, I highly recommend everyone to get a buddy to do the business with you is because many times when you are blogging online and see no $$$ on your blog you WILL BE disappointed and that’s normal So with a buddy, you can set goals & challenges like “See Who Hits 1,000 Hits This Month, Winner Wins A Buffet Lunch”. I did this with my buddy offline and most times we out do each other and unknowingly $$$ start rolling in

I Hate Networking And Hate To Make Friends

Like most people who got started in business, I really hated to network online and hated to drink coffee with people offline just to network with others to grow my business. Basically in short, I was doing my blogging business alone and I did not bother to find out who are the top gurus in the market.

Then I realized one of the weeks when I was reading other people’s blog why do these successful blogger make hell a lot of traffic and money from their blogs and the secret was they had connections to people who were capable of marketing their blog

I realized how important having a strong network can be and that is why today, I have more then hundreds of internet marketing friends with mailing list in my contact list and these contacts are the real key to the success of any business online.

Just imagine if you have 10 internet marketing friends. Each having a list size of about 50,000 and all of them promote your blog or product that’s a whopping 500,000 people promoted to your products and that the secret actually how people make 5 figures online ( it’s actually not some secret Google magic or thingy, it just pure good email marketing ).

So What Does All This Got To Do With Me And Making Money Online?

Some of you guys may agree or disagree what I say but based on my experience what I am sharing here are real facts of life in online business and do trust me on this if you actually done all the things above you will immediately see your business start to grow in the next 2 weeks

Anyway if you have any further comments or adds do comment below

I Need Your Feedback!

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1. More adsenses placements
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Do you know why most people fail to make money online? Is it because they don’t have money to start off with, is it because they look to get rich quick or is it because they don’t have a good mentor? Actually, that was a bad question, because it is none of those things.

The reason 99.9% of people fail to make money online is simply because they don’t take action. Seriously, action is all it takes.

There are literally thousands of guides out there to help you make money, even Caroline offers a completely free niche Wordpress guide that can help you get started. I think it’s safe to say there are 2 types of people that fail to make money online:

1) Those that don’t believe they can do it or don’t believe they have the skills so they don’t even try

and

2) Those that know exactly what to do, they just never do anything about it

Making money online really isn’t that difficult, it just requires some knowledge, a bit of effort and a lot of perseverance. Even last month I set up a brand new website in 4 hours, and in the same month it made over $1,000. This is not my best website by any stretch, but it just goes to show that once you have a solid grasp of this business, the dollars are not hard to find.

Just in case you fall into category one above, or even if you’re in category 2 and need a new direction, I’ve decided to outline a simple formula to help you make your first dollars online.

1. Find a Niche You are Passionate About - I know everybody says this, but there’s a good reason for that, it works. Unless you plan on doing PPC to Landing page work for specific network offers, then it’s a good idea to work out what you love. What do you do already that you would love to get paid for?

What clubs do you take part in outside of work? What are your favourite topics in school or college? If you rack your brain for a few minutes, you should be able to think of a few industries that interest you. It’s a great feeling when you start making some money online, but it’s even better when you know you actually enjoy the topic that your website is about.

2. Decide Which Way You Want Make Money – I’m probably underestimating when I say there are hundreds of ways to make money online, there are far too many to list here anyways. Once you know what it is you are passionate about, it’s good to decide how you want to make money.

Some options from the top of my head include:

* Creating an eBook relating to your passions that helps solve a need

* Starting a blog on the subject and writing unique, quality articles

* Building forums so that other people can discuss the topic

* Creating an information site that attempts to earn money with contextual ads

There are many more, but these are some of the most common options online. Once you know what type of site / product you want to build, it won’t take much searching for you to find out how.

3. Set out a Plan of Action

If you want to create an eBook then there are various elements that you need to put together. For a start, you need to study the market to find out what people are missing in your niche. It may be possible that people are just not interested in an eBook about your topic, or it may be that there is a huge gap in the market. Either way, it’s your job to find out.

If you did find out there was interest, then you would need to get an eBook cover sorted, register a domain, build your landing page and set-up some form of payment processing. Some of this may sound difficult, but it’s all easily achievable. Set out a plan of action of exactly what you need to do, and then…

4. Take Action – That’s it. This is why most people fail to make money online, they simply don’t do anything with their knowledge. Don’t think that you need to have everything perfectly in place just to start making a go of things. You’ll actually find that most of your learning comes from doing.

Good luck!

About The Author

Glen is the author of ViperChill, a blog on Viral Marketing. He makes his living online and wants to help other people do the same.