Work Yourself Up!

10 Tips for Becoming a Better Blogger

2010-11-02T11:36:00-05:00

Just imagine if you developed one of the most popular blogs in your niche. Think of how much money you could make selling your products or affiliate products.

Imagine how big your list would be. And when you were ready to exit the business, just imagine how much money you’d make selling your corner of the web.

All of this is within your reach – especially if you follow these 10 tips for becoming a better blogger…

Survey your readers to find out what they want.

Adding a poll or short survey to your blog not only makes your blog interactive (which is a good thing), it also gives you an idea of what kind of content and solutions your readers are looking for.

Give your readers info that they’d gladly pay for.

Just because your blog is free doesn’t mean you should post content that’s not worth anything. On the contrary, you should post valuable content – the kind of solutions your market is already paying for – on your blog. That way you can build trust and establish yourself as an expert in your niche.

Write about hot or controversial topics to spur discussion.

When there’s a controversy going on in your niche, decide which side you're leaning towards and blog about it. Push a few emotional buttons. Then create a call to action at the end of your post where you specifically ask your readers for their opinions and feedback. The more emotionally charged the post, the more likely it is that you’ll get comments.

Join the blogosphere discussions.

Your blog is not an island. Start visiting other blogs in your niche and join the community discussions. You can comment directly on their blogs. Or better yet, write a response on your blog using a trackback link.

Optimize your posts for the search engines.

You don’t have to optimize every post you make. But if you make a point to optimize at least one post per week, you’ll see a steady increase in traffic.

Tip: Use a tool like WordTracker.com to uncover your niche keywords. Choose words that have low competition. Then include your keywords two or three times for every 100 words of content.

Arouse curiosity with password-protected posts.

Your visitors can see that your blog has a lot of good content. But then they notice that you lock up your best content behind password protected posts (with the passwords only being available to your subscribers). You can bet curiosity will get the best of many of your readers… and they’ll subscribe.

Learn to create killer headlines.

People will decide whether to read your post based on your headline. As such, use headlines that include power words like “how to”, “amazing”, “secrets” and “discover”.

Vary your posting style (some long, some short, etc).

Don’t always post a 400 word “how to” article. Instead, mix things up by posting articles of different lengths and different styles.

Interact with your readers by answering their comments.

Your comment section isn’t just a place for your readers to talk amongst themselves – it’s also a great place for you to interact with your readers. In fact, if you're not responding to comments on your blog, you're missing out a huge opportunity. Since people buy from those they know, like and trust, this simple act of interacting will grow your income.

Make blogging a part of your daily routine.

Add “write a blog post” to each and every daily to-do list until it becomes a habit. If you write just one short blog post per day, in a year you’ll have 365 blog posts – and a whole lot more readers, subscribers and income!

10 Tips for Getting More Mailing List Subscribers

2010-10-27T11:34:00-05:00

There’s a fortune that lays hidden in your mailing list. And…

The bigger your list, the bigger fortune for you to tap.

That’s why these 10 tips for getting more subscribers are almost as good as money in the bank…

Include a call to action at the end of your blog posts.

Let your visitors know that if they like your blog posts, they’ll love your newsletter content. That’s because you save some of your best niche tips, tricks and secrets for subscribers.

To get more subscribers, include a link to your landing page at the bottom of your posts, along with a reason to click on that link.

Example: Discover 101 more weight loss tricks for free – click here!

Encourage a viral effect.

You can get more subscribers simply by including a note at the bottom of every newsletter where you encourage your existing subscribers to forward your email to their friends, family and colleagues who could benefit from the information.

Example: “Do you know someone else who could benefit from these dog training secrets? Please forward this email to them – they’ll thank you for it!”

Use your forum signature file to get new subscribers.

If you’re visiting busy niche forums, include an ad and a call to action in your forum signature.

Example: “Free report reveals the health secrets your doctor doesn’t want you to know! Click here to claim your copy now…”

Point your Twitter followers to a free report.

You can use Twitter.com as well as other social media sites (like Facebook.com) to grow your list. Simply point your fans and followers towards your squeeze page to pick up a free report. Include this link on your profile page as well as in some of your posts (“tweets”).

Embed your links in your products.

Sometimes people share your digital products with their friends. Sometimes they give away or sell pirated copies of your product. Either way, you can benefit from this if you include links to your squeeze page in your paid products.

Drive traffic to your landing page using videos.

You can create YouTube.com videos for the sole purpose of driving traffic to your newsletter sign up page. To get the best results, include a call to action at the end of your video where you promise viewers they can get the second part of the video – for free – when they join your list.

Tap into Squidoo to get new subscribers.

Create Squidoo.com pages around niche topics with the purpose of driving visitors

to your landing page. In other words, when including links in your Squidoo page, consider making as many as possible point to your squeeze pages.

Co-promote with others in your niche.

Here you can swap endorsements with your partners. You can post your endorsements on your respective blogs as well as in your newsletters. I've also very successfully done ad swaps where I swap ads with other marketers.

Unleash the power of content marketing.

First create a multi-part article series around a niche topic. Then upload Part 1 to the article directories (such as EzineArticles.com, GoArticles.com and IdeaMarketers.com) and upload the rest of the series to your autoresponder. Use your article byline to encourage people to get the rest of the series (starting with Part 2) by clicking through to your squeeze page.

Form a newsletter co-op.

Do a co-registration deal with one or more people in your niche. That is, when a prospect joins your partner’s newsletter, they also get the option of joining your newsletter at the same time (simply by checking a checkbox).

10 Tips for Getting Traffic Through Social Media Sites

2010-10-19T11:33:00-05:00

Web 2.0 sites and social media are already here (and have been for some time). Experts predict that this trend will only grow. That means if you don’t start using social media now – today – you’ll be left behind.

Here then are 10 tips for using social media to drive traffic to your sites…

Complete your profile.

When you first open your Twitter, Facebook, Squidoo or other social media site account, fill out your profile (including a picture). Doing so makes it easier for people to get to know you and build relationships with you, which will make it more likely they’ll click through to your site.

Interact.

Social sites are, by definition, social. They’re two way streets (not monologues). That’s why you shouldn’t just post content and move on. Instead, spend a few minutes each day interacting and getting to know people in your network.

Include a link to your site on your profile page.

This tip is simple but effective: Give people a reason to click through from the social media site to your blog or squeeze page. A promise of a free solution usually makes for a good enticement.

Ask your followers to “retweet” and repost.

If you create a “buzzworthy” post (such as a post on a hot or even controversial niche topic), as your Twitter followers to “retweet” it and ask your other social media networks to repost it.

Spend time each day growing your network.

Commit to spending at least 10 minutes each day growing your network. You’ll see big results by the end of the month. And you’ll be amazed at the size of your network in six months or a year from now.

Link your social site pages together.

Link your Twitter account to your Facebook, MySpace, Squidoo, HubPages and other social media pages. And vice versa.

Use your real name so that you’re easy to find.

People who want to do business with you won’t respond well to working with “BaseballBoy72.” Instead, build trust by using your real name. Doing so also makes it easier for others to find you on Facebook and similar sites.

Post good content.

Social media is not just about networking, it’s also about sharing information. If you share some of your best information with your network, you’ll get respect, trust… and more sales. Plus you’ll establish yourself as a niche expert.

Optimize some of your content.

Some social sites (such as Yahoo! Answers and Squidoo) get crawled and indexed regularly by the search engines. As such, you may consider optimizing some of your content for the search engines by including relevant (longtail) keywords two or three times for every 100 words of content.

Get the most benefit for your time.

Instead of trying to interact and build relationships with thousands of prospects, consider building a relationship with a handful of partners. That’s because just one good partner can send you hundreds or thousands of prospects and customers.

10 Tips for Using Videos to Market Your Business

2010-10-11T11:31:00-05:00

Even if you’re not selling video-based products, you should be using video to market your business. That’s because different customers respond better to video than they do to text. When you use both text and video, you’re reaching a wider audience than you would with text alone.

Here then are 10 tips and tricks for using video to market your business…

1. Keep ‘em short.

Whether you’re loading videos on YouTube.com or you’re using them to pre-sell products on your blog, keep them short (around five minutes or so)… especially if your audience includes people who don’t know you. If needed, break a long video into multiple smaller videos.

2. Post videos on your sales pages.

You can use video sales letters to highlight the main points of your regular sales letter. You can also use videos to demonstrate what the product is and how easy it is to use. You may also get your satisfied customers to give you video testimonials.

3. Choose your keywords carefully.

If you’re loading your videos onto YouTube, choose keywords that your market is currently using to find information in your niche. You may also choose keywords that match those being used alongside other popular videos in your niche.

4. Know your purpose before you start.

Before you film, choose one purpose for your video. Is it to get subscribers? Send traffic to your blog? Pre-sell a product? Whatever the reason, base your entire video around that singular goal. Don’t confuse your viewer by giving more than one option.

5. Create a call to action.

You should create at least one call to action in your video, where you tell people exactly what you want them to do and why (e.g., “Go to www.yourdomain.com to grab Part 2 of this video – but hurry, you can only get it free for a limited time!”)

6. Encourage comments.

If you’re posting your video on YouTube, on your blog or other social sites, encourage comments (even controversial ones). The more people talk about your video, the more your visitors will return to your page to see what’s new in the discussion.

7. Use other social sites to jumpstart the viral effect.

If you want your video to go viral, you need to advertise it. One way to do that is to link to or embed your video on your other social media site pages, like Twitter or MySpace.

8. Blog about your video.

Another way to advertise your video is to blog about it. If you embed your video on your blog, then encourage your visitors to bookmark it using Digg.com, StumbleUpon.com or similar.

9. Ask your JV partners to share your video with their prospects and customers.

Yet another away to advertise your video is by asking your JV partners to mention it in their newsletters, blog about it and share it with their social media contacts.

10. Put a video on a CD/DVD and give it away for free.

You can build a physical mailing list by putting your video on a CD or DVD and giving it away for free to those who give you a mailing address. Be sure to include an upsell at the end of your video.

10 Tips for Turning PLR Content Into Cash

2010-10-01T11:28:00-05:00

You can save time and money if you use PLR (private label rights) content to create products and market your business. To that end, here are 10 surefire ways to turn your PLR content into cash…

Rewrite it.

No matter what you’re using the content for, change it so that you don’t have competition. At a minimum, change the title, introduction and conclusion of your articles and reports. You may also delete irrelevant content and add in your own examples and tips.

Put it in a different format.

Most people who use PLR text content leave it in the form of text. You can virtually guarantee that you’ll have a unique product if you put it in a different format, such as converting text to an audio book or even a video.

Turn it into a physical book.

Another way to make money with your PLR content is by turning it into a physical book. Just use a self-publishing company like Lulu.com or one of the many other sites out there that offer a similar service.

Use as a subscription incentive.

Compile a pack of PLR articles into a report - or just rewrite a PLR report or ebook. You might even turn it into a video or audio book. Then finish by adding your affiliate links to a product (or links to your own products) and give the PLR content away for free to your subscribers.

Use it as a bonus for your paid products.

Instead of giving the content away to prospects, you can give it away to your paying customers. Just use your PLR content as a bonus – you might even offer it as an unadvertised bonus.

Stock a membership site.

You can stock your membership site with PLR content. Or, break the content up into six months worth of weekly lessons and run a fixed-term membership site.

Put it on CD and sell it on eBay.

You can use your PLR content as a lead-generator on eBay. Simply add your product links or affiliate links to the content, burn it on a CD and auction it off.

Use it as content for your autoresponder series.

You can create an evergreen, “set it and forget it” newsletter using PLR content. Just chop it up into weekly lessons and load it into your autoresponder. To “bribe” people to subscribe to your newsletter, you may consider throwing in another PLR report as a bonus.

Create blog posts from PLR content.

You can rewrite PLR articles or break down reports and books to create blog posts. Just insert your product or affiliate links and let these posts make money for you on autopilot.

Combine multiple sources to create a new paid product or upsell product.

As previously mentioned, you should rewrite your PLR content to make it unique. Another way to make it unique is to combine multiple PLR products. For example, you can compile a set of related articles. Or you can take a chapter from multiple PLR ebooks to create an entirely new product.

Obviously, you can use this new product in any way you like, including offering it as a bonus, turning it into a subscription incentive, or stocking a membership site with it. You can also offer it as a standalone paid product, or even as an upsell to a paid product.

Autoresponders and Email List Building

2010-09-28T11:00:00-05:00

Everyone has received an email. Everyone has also received unsolicited emails. That makes it all the more important to build a list of subscribers who won't mind you communicating with them this way.

One of the most common ways that online business owners connect with their potential customers is through email. You can reach people easier that way than you can by ringing them up on the phone. Email can be accessed from laptops in Wi-Fi hotspots, cellular phones and WebTV to name a few. So, you could say that it is pretty important to manage this marketing tool just right.

Email Lists

Here's how it usually works, you include an opt-in page on your website. It could be for free stuff, discounted merchandise, or additional information on something they read on your site. Readers are asked to become subscribers in some way to your website by providing their name and email address.

Along with that address you also include a disclaimer to put them at ease. Anyone who signs up knows that you won't sell their information to a third party or send them unwanted spamming emails.

Your initial list will be mixed with those who are in your target market and people who are interested in more general information. If you are trying to reach people who are into dog accessories, you may reach those who are seeking information on pet accessories in general. They will soon be weeded out and hopefully they won't make up the bulk of your list.

Autoresponders

Now, it's time to contact those people. You have the list and something has to be done with it. Your subscribers are waiting.

You can use a series of emails that highlight your product offerings as a way to transition subscribers into the realm of customers. The goal of these emails is to provide additional information on the topic of your website business and not to necessarily sell a product directly.

The emails can be set up automatically to go out on a pre-set schedule using autoresponder programs and services. These services give you a way to distribute those emails. You can even add the personal touch of addressing your list by name instead of a blanket greeting with certain autoresponder services.

But, we are getting ahead of ourselves here. You need something to load into the autoresponder program. Create a series of emails that speak directly to each list member as if they were the only one on your list. You can even outsource the autoresponder emails if you need to.

Now that you have a list of subscribers, your next step is keeping them your number one priority. Use autoresponder emails to contact them on a regular basis with the purpose of building a solid relationship for future business.

Create Expert Status: Increase Your Visibility

2010-09-21T10:59:00-05:00

You may have a strong business idea and a great product, but are you doing everything you can to be seen by the right people? Increasing your visibility can change the way that potential customers see your business.

Visibility is the glue that holds all other strategies together when it comes to achieving expert status as a business owner. Each strategy gets your name out among other business owners, movers and shakers and potential clients. Being seen goes a long way with the word-of-mouth crowd.

Here are a few ways that you can increase your visibility:

- Take advantage of all opportunities that come your way
- Attend business seminars
- Public speaking
- Write press releases
- Start a blog
- Publish a newsletter

If you are comfortable doing what you are doing and it works for you, still try at least one or two of these ideas. No one ever made a fortune playing it safe or being comfortable. That comes later on when you are the Big Cheese. Trying new things to elevate yourself within your business is a part of the process. And, it can be fun to learn just how good you are.

Some business owners are too picky. They want to do certain things to achieve expert status. This goes back to the issue of comfort level. When you are on Facebook and a fellow business owner is looking for speakers for his online conference or a local event in your area, throw your hat in the ring.

Someone in one of your associations needs advice or a speaker for the next meeting? Take that spot for yourself. Every opportunity places another feather in your cap. It is a point that you can add to your bio and also your press releases for new products or events.

And, you can create newsletters for your customers. Sending a monthly or quarterly newsletter about your business gives you the chance to add information about accomplishments that have occurred since the last newsletter. Each solidifies your expert status in the eyes of current and potential customers. Newsletters can be printed and passed around to others.

Once you put all of this in place, keep a monthly check on your ventures to be sure that they are still bringing about the desired effect. Some of it won't require much tweaking just checking in with the movers and shakers to be sure they still know your name.

Achieving expert status inspires confidence on the part of customers and fellow business owners. Increasing your visibility is the first step and the information in this article can help you do just that.

Create Squeeze Pages

2010-09-15T10:58:00-05:00

There are dozens of them on the Internet. We read them every day but are they effective? Do they make you want to actually do the thing they are asking you to do - which is normally to sign up for an email list? What are we talking about? Why, squeeze pages, of course.

What is a Squeeze Page?

It sounds like it has something to do with fruit. What you are squeezing is not produce but people. You want their information for your list. Whether you are looking for sales leads or subscribers, a squeeze page is an effective way to get what you seek.

A squeeze page is essentially a landing page. It can be your home page on your site, but if you are running more than one marketing campaign, it can be a separate page, the purpose of which is to get people to opt-in to your list in exchange for something.

What can they opt-in for? It can be newsletters, free reports, free analysis, catalogs and the like. You choose who you are looking for and what media will get the names and email addresses for you.

These pages are important because their sole purpose is to get the reader to perform an act that has been predetermined by you. The "act" does not involve sales directly. You want to gain the trust of your potential customer before you ask them to consider buying something from you.

One benefit you will gain here is a list of subscribers that are within your target market. Someone who is not interested will not sign up. Using a squeeze page as a sales page can draw people who are not within your target market. If you post a page that offers "get rich quick" scenarios, you are guaranteed to get lots of takers but not the ones you want.

Characteristics of a Squeeze Page

People pay a lot of money to have squeeze pages constructed for them. With this page, you want to pull out all of the stops to get noticed by your niche. So, let's start at the top, the top of the page that is.

1. Headline. People glance over pages when they read on the Internet. Your headline may be the only chance to gain their attention. Sum that up in a few words and use it as your headline: "Researchers Say it takes Two Weeks to Make or Break a Habit." Don't forget to use the same keywords you researched for your website.

2. Get personal. Share a story that is relevant to your subject matter. Maybe you had a habit you wanted to create. Give the reader insight into your issue and how you solved it.

3. Get user-friendly. Use bullet points and numbered passages to gain the reader's attention. Emboldened wording stands out and lets the reader glance to see if you have to say anything that they want to hear.

4. The action. Don't forget to include what you want them to do. If it is signing up for something, tell them how to do it and what they will gain. Have your opt-in form clearly labeled with a link to your site.

Squeeze pages are one way of creating a targeted list of interested people who will hopefully become customers. They are a great way to not only grow your list, but potentially your profits too.

What are Backlinks Anyway?

2010-09-09T10:57:00-05:00

It sounds like some place you go after dark that you shouldn't go. But, backlinks are actually a good thing as far as getting noticed on the Internet goes. Keep reading and you'll find out all about them and how they can be useful to you.

Backlink Basics

To put it in the simplest terms, backlinks are links from other websites and blogs back to your website. They increase your visibility on the web and also make the search engines really happy with you. It sounds easy, but getting links can take some time and effort.

Also, did we mention the spiders and bots? They work on behalf of the search engines. These technological marvels crawl not just content but also inbound links (backlinks) to your website. So, you'd probably figure that you can go to every website you can and post a link back to your site, wouldn't you? In the grand scheme of things, this is not always a good idea.

Here's why. Those bots are smarter than you think. They even evaluate the types of backlinks you get. For instance, let's say that you are just beginning and are trying to establish yourself. You go to other sites and ask to exchange links with them for free. Some are readily eager so you do it. As it turns out, these sites are offensive, plagiarize content and don't know the first thing about keyword optimization.

Now, all of these things won't be true at the same time but it goes to prove a point. A poorly kept website or even a troublemaking one can lower the quality of your backlinks and thus your favor with the search engines. What you want is backlinks that are of the same or preferably better quality as your site.

Quality Backlinks

How do you determine quality? One way is to look at their following. Do they have a lot of readers? Are their articles rated on the first page of search engine results? Does everyone know their name (just like "Cheers")?

Keep your links within your chosen niche. While there may be some gardening websites with a high search engine ranking, linking here won't do you any good if your website sells crafting supplies. The bots look at that too.

So, what criteria do you need to consider when approaching the subject of backlinks?

- Choose similar or better quality websites to use for your backlinks
- Choose websites and blogs with similar topics of interest as yours
- Ask friends and family members with websites (of good rep, of course) to exchange links with you

Get the word out about your website. Use any resources you have available to you first and then go searching for other high-quality sites to bring you more traffic.

Article Marketing and List Building

2010-09-01T10:55:00-05:00

Article marketing is one of the best ways to gain traffic for free. Using your expertise in the niche market, you can attract the kind of readership that would be interested in the product or service that you are marketing. Use it to build a money-making list.

The goal of business is to make money. If you aren't successful, then you won't be in business for long. The goal of list building is to create a network of people who will play into that success over and over again. The money will come if you cultivate the relationship first.

Article Marketing

Most people choose niches that appeal to them because they already know something about it. Use this to your advantage with article marketing.

Article marketing involves writing stirring content that can be highlighted on your website as well as other places. If you aren't great in the writing department you can hire a ghostwriter or a ghostwriting service to handle the hard work for you. All you need to do is provide them with the information you want included in the articles.

Don't forget to include keywords. They are still important. The fabulous things that you write won't get read if no one can find it. Using keywords relevant to your niche can assure you a place on the first page of search results (or close to it once you get the hang of it). Then, others will learn that you have something important to say.

You can market your articles in several places. In fact there are quite a few directories that are in search of good articles. Quality is still the name of the game. Once you submit your work to these sites, they are reviewed by their experts before they are accepted. Appearing on popular sites like EzineArticles.com and Buzzle can increase your visibility and credibility.

Growing Your List

What you want to build your list are subscribers - people who will opt-in for newsletters, reports, email marketing campaigns and the like. If you are bent on selling them something at every turn, then your list will remain puny and ineffective. Concentrate on giving the readers what they want before you think about making the sale.

Provide information that is relevant to the target market. For example, for someone who wants to sell fishing equipment, write content that touts the benefits of fishing (relaxation, family activities, etc.) to them. After that, you can build up to how-to articles on different types of equipment or fishing tips.

When you give your readers what they want, they will come back for more. As they become comfortable with you, you can ask for their information and they will give it freely. These readers are now ready to hear more about you and your products.