Before blogging hit the mainstream and WordPress made it easier to publish articles than making macaroni and cheese, the few bloggers that took on the expensive hosting costs and DIY approach to website building had very little competition in the blogging world. With a small amount of competition, rising above the noise was an easy process because there wasn’t much of it!

Fast forward to today’s blogging world and everyone from top level news sites to stay at home mom’s have a website or blog to express their views and try to stand out to generate some sort of income online. For those bloggers looking to step into the realm of profitable blogging, the outlook could look bleak as you pine away at ways to bring a unique voice to the world of “me too” copycats looking to make a quick buck.

So how do we do it?

How do we stay unique to who we are in our writing but find a way to rise above the rest at the same time?! Luckily…if you watch successful blogs that have grown to power over recent years…the uniqueness is what drives growth, so here are some tips to being a bright light amongst burnt out bulbs.

Tips On How To Keep Your Uniqueness And Grow Your Online Presence

So here we are…with thousands of blogs started each day looking for our corner of the web to call home. How do we keep our uniqueness while growing our online presence at the same time?

• Passion Breeds Unique Attraction – While you can be successful in blogging without passion on your subject matter. I have found that bloggers that are passionate have a larger chance for success because more of their uniqueness shines through in their content and they possess the willingness to push forward and write even when no one is listening. Blogging is not the easiest way to build a reputation and business online. Whether you are looking to a blog to generate free leads for your business or you want to become the next “problogger” in your niche, blogging is a long road of constant dedication that is made easier through a love of what you do and your readers will be drawn to that passion in your writing.
• Practice Makes Perfect…Or At Least Close To It - When was the last time you read your blog posts from your first month of blogging…or year for that matter?! Sometimes I take a look back and think, “wow…I really wrote that and people listened?!” Unique writing that portrays your voice to readers who do not know you personally takes time and practice. Many times, you are not even sure what your unique voice is until you experiment with different styled posts or writing methods. You aren’t going to get it perfectly right away, but your willingness to step outside of the box and try new things is what will get you to the promised land when words just seem to flow that connect with your readers.
• Look For Like Minded Bloggers and Readers – Just being unique and having quality content is not going to make your light the brightest. Blogging, social media and other online activities are made successful through the collaboration with others. This will require you to step outside of your comfort zone and actively seek out like minded individuals in your niche to collaborate with. By visiting online forums, guest posting, commenting on other blogs, responding on Twitter and cold emailing other people in your niche, you are able to pull new readers to your content and convert those new readers into regular subscribers. If you plan on the “if you build it they will come” technique, you are going to fail.
• Do Not Be Afraid To Put Your Real Self Out There - The web does not want the next Brian Clark, John Chow or Darren Rowse. Those guys already exist. The web wants the next you! Forget about copying other successful bloggers in your niche as potential readers will see right through you. You can not be afraid to be yourself and put yourself out there for the masses to see. Your unique angles, attitude and personality is ultimately what is going to draw people to your content.

Quite possibly the best thing about blogging in my eyes is the ability to make money from an art form where you get to express yourself and your thoughts with other people around the world. When you try to be “the next big thing” by copying the views and voice of other successful bloggers in your niche, you are setting yourself up for failure. Get yourself out there and bring your unique voice and brand to the table. Blog readers genuinely want to connect with unique bloggers. That is going to be your strength and that is going to be what ultimately grows your online empire.

Over the past week, I have increased my Adsense earnings 266% on Bike198.com. Really…no lie. I made some serious changes on the site over the past week and the results have been staggering.

It all started with the idea of a complete overhaul and redesign that changed the way my readers interact with the content. As we took a look at how readers were interacting and how we wanted them to interact…we saw room for improvement. The fun part…we were absolutely right and all of the stats are through the roof. Now, let’s take a look at the subject of this article specifically as it relates to other forms of advertising on your blog as much as it does Adsense.

I Use Adsense As A Litmus Test

First, let me start by clarifying that I use Google Adsense as a Litmus test on my “non-blogging” blogs to see how direct advertising and other forms of banner style advertising will perform given certain designs and locations. Why do I do this? Adsense provides you with real time feedback on certain ad locations and sizes will perform. In certain niches, it can also give you some insight into how much you should be charging for a given location. In markets where Adsense performs well, advertisers could have to beat what Adense is generating for a given location.

For these reasons, Google Adsense is a great way to test out specific locations in terms of performance, but it does not mean that it is the best means for maximum revenue generation in all niches.

How I Increased My Adsense Revenue 266%

As mentioned before, this all started with a redesign project that was based around user interaction with Bike198.com. The #1 goal was to integrate the various subdomains into a more seamless design that allowed for ease of movement among the content. During this process, I saw a real need to extract more performance around the banner advertising sections of the site. Who doesn’t like to make more money?!

Let’s take a look at the before and after with Mountain.Bike198.com as the example…

Before: Mountain.Bike198.com

After: Mountain.Bike198.com

You can navigate through Mountain.Bike198.com and see the other ad locations, but these screenshots will serve a purpose as you are about to see.

What Changed: Reader Interaction

As you take a look at the before and after, let’s point out the significant changes.

• Cleaner Overall Design
• Sidebar Location Moved To The Left
• Lighter Colors
• 300×250 Ad Spot Moved To Top
• Restructured Navigation

At first, I was a little bit nervous about removing a lot of the image elements of the new design as a lot of people liked that aspect of the site, but…after the fact…everyone is actually liking the lighter look and increased speed of the site (if the flood of “it looks great!” emails aren’t proof enough). Now…let’s get to what you are actually reading this article about…increasing revenue.

How The Site Re-Design Increased Revenue

The re-design of Bike198.com did two things that were specific goals that directly affect revenue.

1. Put the emphasis back on the content.
2. Put the ads in direct view of the reader without being obtrusive.

Having a lot of graphical elements, widgets and other miscellaneous “looks cool” items on your blog can get a good reaction from your readers, but you need to realize that…most times…those elements go against what you are ultimately trying to accomplish…more interaction with your content and revenue streams. The previous Bike198.com design got that “wow factor” but the image elements distracted from advertising and the content.

When we moved the sidebar to the left and brought the color of the design into the content and the ads instead of the design, we drew the eyes of our readers where it mattered the most without any distractions. The result…more conversions (rss, Facebook, YouTube), higher comment counts, more emails and ultimately more revenue on the site.

When you are trying to extract more dollars out of your blog, you need to be the eyes of your reader.

Where do you want your readers eyes to go? On an image that generates you nothing or on an ad that brings you income? How about an article or picture within an article that will bring you more traffic? It is not about what you think looks cool or getting a compliment about which background you chose, it is about increasing efficiencies and incorporating elements into your design that help you achieve your goals. After that…you start testing, moving and experimenting to see how you can increase these elements even further.

As a general rule, the simpler the design, the better it will convert as long as you have set defined goals. With less distraction from conversion elements, the eye will gravitate towards color and size, so structure your elements in a hierarchy of importance keeping those to aspects in mind. If you spend all of your time chasing what you think looks good without any technical backing on why, you will be spinning your wheels wondering why you are not making any income.

The redesign of Bike198.com drastically increased earnings because reader interaction, conversions and income generation was the ultimate goal.

Free 118 page eBook that takes you step by step through successful blogging!

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I got an email in from a reader this week that is a common occurrence in the blogging world. You hit the ground running and start to see some success. With time, you start to shift your focus elsewhere, leaving behind your primary source of revenue only to find that traffic and profits decrease on the project that is the source of getting you online success. Or…all of your current methods have hit a plateau in traffic and earnings and you have no clue on how to get off it and back to sustainable growth! And what are you left with? A stale blog starring you in the face. You need to win back old readers and find ways to attract new readers to your corner of the web to bring back up profits and encourage growth. The big problem…where to start?

The Story of Tweaks For Geeks

I figured the best way to tackle this common occurrence in the blogging world was hit it head on with a real world example, so here is the email I received this week. I hope Kevin doesn’t mind!

Kevin’s Email To Me:

Hello Robb,

We’ve corresponded a few times in the past, perhaps you remember me. Anyway, my query is as follows:

This particular question may actually make for a good article for you; as I’m sure there are others out there like me that have started up their sites and have seen some success, but have either stalled in their progress or simply want to take their online business to a whole new level.

I’ve owned a site about computers/technology (primarily focusing on how to fix various computer issues) for a little over five years now. While I am one of the few that can say that he has made over $1,000 a month from his sites, I am simultaniously one of the many that has fallen prey to the “do nothing” bug and have let my main earner fall into stagnation (and sadly seen my revenue plummet as a result). It still brings in ad money, but needs a new updated look to it (which I almost have done), and fresh consistently updated content.

So – with that in mind:

1. What steps would you take in order to give an established but a bit “dusty” site a jumpstart?
2. In your professional opinion, how long do you think it would take in order to make a site like that a contender again that regains its old readers and acquires new ones?

Currently I am in an excellent position where I can dedicate most of my time to revamping and regrowing my online ventures; and with my technical background I am fortunate enough to be able to do all of the programming work myself in order to add new and innovative features to it.

Really I just want to know what the most effective course of action would be to take this from a publication that gets approximately 55,000 unique monthly viewers that are all one-time visits and turning it into a destination where people visit and then want to not only stay, but return regularly. Of course, I would also love some tips for explosive growth.

Again, I think that this would be an excellent article for your readers; so perhaps you’ll want to do a full writeup on it. If not, then some friendly pointers would be greatly appreciated. If you do decide to make an article of it you can feel free to post parts of this email, or all of it in its entirety as part of your content.

Also, thank you for providing such a concise and informative site about the blogging industry. RobbSutton.com is one of the best resources out there that I’ve come across.

Keep up the good work!

Thank you,

-Kevin Souter
Owner, TweaksForGeeks.com | Rent A Geek Computer Services

Breathing Life Back Into Your Stale Blog

Ok…before we even jump into this…my biggest recommendation to any blogger is “do not ignore your primary income generator“. Yes…blogging is exciting and new projects are always more of a rush than old, but by jumping around starting and stopping new projects, you are just crippling yourself for the future by not giving anything ample time to grow. I am not sure if that is what happened in this case, but that is the most common mistake I see in new bloggers. Try to fight the urge to start “the next great idea” every week and focus on projects that you can tackle without leaving what has brought you success behind.

When you look to breathe life into a stale blog or bring new growth to an existing blog, your efforts are going to fall into 3 basic categories.

1. Content
2. Blog Design
3. Promotion

These are the three core elements to blogging that will bring you new growth and make existing readers happy every time. When you start to jump on each of these aspects of your blogging individually, you need to do so with a plan and ask yourself the right questions.

Content: Shaking Things Up

No…I am not going to sit here and give you the same, old, tired out line of “write pillar articles and content is king”. Hopefully, you have already been doing that or you wouldn’t have seen any success to begin with. When you are looking to attract new readers and bring life back to old readers, you need to ask yourself a couple of questions.

• Who do I want to attract? – You need to specifically lay out exactly who you want to attract with your content. Who are you not reaching now that you want to? Are you generating content for that specific target audience? You need to start bringing in high quality, targeted content into your blog to pull in new readers that you are specifically targeting. However, this content needs to be relevant to current readers as well, so do not step too far outside the scope of your niche as you can start to alienate your die hards while trying to attract new.
• Where can I expand? – When I start working with new bloggers, I tell them to find a niche that is manageable. Do not take on TechCrunch right off the bat…you will loose. When you find a sub-niche in your industry, you can really drive it home and start to see success because you are reaching a very targeted audience in a smaller competition market. When you take this theory, you can start to run out of content over time, so now is the time to look into your expansion opportunities in related subject matters.
• How can I be more useful? – How you write your content and the types of articles you publish are incredibly important. Are there certain articles that seem to perform better than others on your blog and in search engines? In my experience, tutorials and other “helpful” articles tend to perform the best, so look into areas that you can continue to hit a home run and start to product more of those types of articles as you look for new growth.

Your content is the core of your blog. Without it…you are left with an empty design that doesn’t do too much of anything. When you are looking to expand or revive, it is where you need to start as the rest of this isn’t going to mean a thing without your content.

Blog Design: Time To Shift Focus To Action

How your readers interact with your content is completely based on your blog design. Where there eyes go…where they click…the actions they take (rss feed subscribing, newsletter opt-in, social media spreading) are all dependent upon how you present your words through the design. When you are looking to ramp things back up a bit, it is time to look at how your readers are interacting with your content.

Note: I would highly recommend paying close attention to your bounce rate and reader trends in Google Analytics as that gives you an insiders look at what is going on with your blog.

• What do I want my readers to do when they finish reading? – You have to put yourself in the shoes of a reader in your niche (not a blogger looking at a blog article). In non-tech/blogging niches, your readers will have no clue about blogging and social media other than their own personal experience. It is your job to step inside of their head as they land on your pages. Do you want them to share it on Facebook? Do you want them to check out another article? These are important questions that you need to answer as they directly affect what you put at the end of each article.
• What is my blog design not accomplishing? – Are you not increasing your opt-in rates? Are your pageviews low? You need to start looking at what your design is not doing for you currently. The outward appearance of your blog is not just a visual mechanism, it is how your readers interact and move through your site. When you are looking to get readers to dive deeper into old content, click on advertising or feel like they are on a quality site, you lean heavily on your design. To get things rolling, start to look at things like logo design, navigation and design elements while keeping in mind where you want your readers to go. As a general rule, bloggers tend to add too many elements to their blogs so only put it up if 70% of your readers are going to use it. Anything else will just be wasted space and clutter. You want to draw your readers eyes to your most important elements that promote growth and conversions.

What you should have created at this point is a site that is accomplishing your goals while also looking professional. One key thing to keep in mind is that you are building your site for your readers and what they will interact with…not what you are going to interact with. Keep your personal touch…but back it up with function.

Promotion: Time To Take It To The New Masses

The order of this process is intentional. With an end goal of attracting new readers, you have to create an atmosphere that they want to land on before you go out and find them. This does not meant that everything has to be perfect before you move forward (it never is…blogging is an evolving process), so don’t get locked down with “it has to be perfect” panic. When you feel like you have accomplished enough of the goals you have set out with content and design, you need to start pulling new readers into your revisions. Hopefully, you already know who you want to attract through the first content step…so let’s go get them.

• Where do my new/potential readers hang out online? – It is your job as the blogger to pull in new readers. Where does your new “perfect target reader” hang out online? By visiting these places and building up a solid reputation (online forums, other blogs, meetup groups, Facebook fan pages, etc.), you can pull them back to your content and create another subscriber.
• How do my new and existing readers spread content? – Not all niches spread content the same. While Twitter might be a great viral spreader for one niche, it could be horrible in another. It is your job to figure out which ones work the best in your subject matter and start building up a profile in these areas. The easiest (and hardest) way to get new reader’s eyes on your content is through viral spreading, but you want to make sure your time is not going wasted by doing some research before you jump in head first.
• How do my new readers like to subscribe to content? – As part of your promotion techniques, you are trying to attract new, long term subscribers to your blog. How do these readers want to subscribe to online content? In the biking world, more than half (probably even less) know what an RSS reader is or even care. It is still a world of email, so I put a lot of emphasis on my RSS email subscription and newsletter subscription. When you promote your new content and pull new readers into your blog, you need to feature a method of subscription that is the most widely used in your niche. Do not force feed what some other blogger says you need to do. It is up to you and what your readers want.
• Who can I collaborate with? - Guest posting is a fantastic way to pull in new readers to your blog, but it isn’t always an option in some niches. Try to think up of unique ways that you can work with both online and offline resources to bring more content/promotion to their medium while also promoting your corner of the web. In the past, I have worked with forum site owners, industry magazines and special interest groups to help them accomplish their goals while at the same time promoting my website. It brings you credibility and new readers at the same time.
• What can I give away? – Contests and giveaways can grow a blog faster than just about anything else online. People love free stuff and they will promote you to no end to get it. Before you start sweating about the money you are going to have to spend…keep one thing in mind. Even the giveaways with inexpensive products…when targeted correctly…perform incredibly well. You can also have companies and other blogs donate prizes in exchange for promotion within the contest and you will not have to spend a dime. Just be sure you structure the giveaway or contest in a manner that you get some needed asset (newsletter subscriber, rss reader, etc) and that contest is virally promoted (stumbled, Tweeted, shared on Facebook, etc.).

Rinse, Repeat and Evolve

That is really the nuts and bolts of breathing life back into a stale blog (or starting up a new one for that matter). When you are looking to rejuvenate your blog, take a look at these three core areas of blogging to see what you are doing wrong and how to improve it. By taking a systematic and planned attack, you can not only bring a blog back to its former glory, but you can lift it above and to a success you never thought was possible.

When you create an atmosphere that is based around the premis of helping others, they will in turn want to help you. Ideally, you want to create a “cultish” following online where your readers want to tell other people that they hangout in your online space. When you focus on that idea of helping…you can make huge strides in creating an online community that breads repeat visitors.

So how long does it take if you are on the right path?

Honestly…success is often a byproduct of the effort put forth. While it can differ depending on competition and market saturation, I have found that the hardest working (when it is a planned, thought out attack) get ahead the fastest.

Image by R’eyes

Blogging is a wonderful thing. This same medium that can be used as an online diary can also be the source of a lucrative online business. Personally, I can not think of any other medium in the world with that kind of flexibility. However, this same flexibility creates some interesting gray area when you start talking about generating income as a business and just having a couple of extra bucks to throw around for another meal out during the month. The story about the city of Philadelphia requiring any blogger making over $50.00 per year to pick up a $300.00 business license should have some beginning bloggers thinking. At what point do you bridge the gap between a hobby and creating a business?

First…Is Becoming A Business Even Your Goal?

Let’s just get one thing straight. If you really want to generate a profit and create a business with a blog, you are going to have to take that mindset from the very start. There are very few “I started this hobby that just took off like crazy” bloggers out there that were hit with a business out of the blue. 99% of bloggers that generate enough income to quantify it as a sustainable business started day 1 with the premis that their corner of the web was going to achieve that end goal. It’s a mindset thing and without it…you are just spinning your wheels with a hobby.

Ok…off the soap box…let’s get at it…

When you are planning for the future with your blog, you need to have an idea of where you want to head. As mentioned before, blogging is a beautiful online medium in which you can release your creativity in any way you see fit. There is no right or wrong way to do things…it is all just a product of your goals. The vast majority of blogs online make next to nothing, but they allow the blogger to release their words on the web. For some bloggers, that is worth its weight in gold.

For others…we need something more. We want the freedom that having an online business provides. However, we need to be ready for the responsibilities that come along with business ownership at the same time…a part that many beginning (and experienced) bloggers are not ready for…

Bridging The Gap: Blogging As A Business

When you make the decision to make more than just a nice evening out with your blog, you are making a decision to run a business and not a hobby. You are changing you mindset from that of a hobbyist to a business owner and that can be trying for some bloggers looking to keep the fun in blogging and making money at the same time.

So what differentiates blogging as a business?

There are several things you are going to have to start doing as you start to build your business online.

• You will have to come up with an actual name for your business (I am oneninety8, LLC)
• You will have to file taxes and apply for a business license with your local and federal governments.
• You will have to start keeping track of earnings, expenses and other necessary record keeping.
• You will have to start watching statistics and look for new and unique ways to promote growth in those areas.
• You will have to look into producing your own products and diversify income streams.
• You will have to listen to the needs of your customers (readers and subscribers) to start filling their wants and needs through products and services you create or promote.
• You will have to create goals and steps to achieve those goals.
• You will have to be accountable to other bloggers and businesses in your niche.
• You will have to figure out how to generate income outside of just publishing content (newsletter through Aweber, your own products, offline promotions)
• You will have to be able to hire out work to freelancers and employees (the days of doing everything yourself are gone).

Long story short…you are going to have to start treating your blog like a brick and mortar business to be successful. There are a lot of bloggers that want the monetary success, but want it without the work of actually owning a business. Did you know that most successful bloggers have their own accountant, virtual assistants and designers? Did you also know that most of these successful bloggers started spending money in these areas way before they hit it big?!

This brings me to my next point…and probably the most important.

If you are not willing to reinvest back into your blog, you are making the decision to stay small time.

The #1 thing that allows you to bridge the gap between an hobby and a business is the willingness to take your own money and earnings from your blog to reinvest back in and promote faster growth. Blogging…like any business…can not grow quickly without capital reinvestment. The low barriers to entry in blogging create a mass entrance of eager bloggers looking to make it big, but the bloggers that are willing to look past the low cost of entry and start infusing money back into their blogs (design, new products, advertising, etc.) are the ones who make it big. The hard part…you as the reader never see that reinvestment but you are a product of that action.

Reinvesting Without Capital

Now…I know what you are probably thinking. I don’t have any money to put back into my blog and things are tight around the house right now so I need anything I can get to stay afloat. Guess what?! You are not alone and their is one way you can reinvest into your blog and create a business that will not cost you any money at all…just time.

GIVE AWAY THE FARM!

Some of the most successful bloggers online took one solid idea to heart as they grew their businesses. If you do not have monetary capital to throw at your aspiring online business, give away everything you can possibly get your hands on.

When you see bloggers holding contests for free stuff, giving away free eBooks and throwing other objects to the wind, they are doing that because giving stuff away for free is the #1 way to grow your blog without a huge capital investment. All you need…time to get it done.

Here are some examples.

• Give away product you got in to review (can grow things exponentially).
• Give away informational products.
• Give away services (consulting, reviews, etc.)
• Give away your paid products in a contest.
• Have other companies and blogs sponsor a contest.

As you can see…there are plenty of things that you can give away and grow your business…but the key here is to actually grow your business online. Everyday…I see bloggers take the “give the farm away” mentality to heart, but the execution is terrible. When you give things away on your blog, there has to be some action taken on the part of the reader that not only provides you with an asset (newsletter subscriber, twitter follower, etc.), but they also provide you with free promotion (tweet, Facebook share, etc).

The trick with great giveaways is to create incredible value and getting that giveaway to spread like crazy with minimal effort on your part. The solution to that trick? You need to figure out how your readers communicate and tap into that medium of communication. If you do that successfully, you will see enormous growth in a short period of time.

Then…you can use capital to reinvest back in.

Bringing It All Home: Business and Blogging

This article bridged a gap on its own. From talking about setting up your online business to growing your online business, there are many aspects that all play into together that you need to consider before you make your first dime online.

The good news…just like anything else…your plans can adapt and change as you see fit. It is really all up to you and your decisions. Hopefully…I just got you thinking about where you want to end up at the end of the day and gave you some ideas on how to get there.

Bridge Image by esmtll

Everyone has a dream. For those of us in the online world…it is to see our little corner of the web grow. For others around the world, it might be professional achievement in corporate, a healthy set of two kids or even that car they drooled over as a kid. Each of these dreams are achievable, but many people run throughout life talking about their dreams only to find out later they were just words hitting air. Time goes on…things come up…and somewhere down the road…action was not taken. Every day of the week you can walk down the street and hear people talking about their dreams and what they want to accomplish, so what separates those that achieve their goals from those who just pay them lip service over time? Is there a secret? Is there something you can do today to change the outcomes of tomorrow?

Dream Lock: The Action Of Doing Nothing

It does not matter what your dream is. It can be a personal goal or a professional achievement. If you focus on the dream solely hoping that one day it will come true, you are going to be constantly waiting. I like to think of this as dream lock. The dreamer has an idea of where they want to head, but by focusing on the last step 24 hours a day, 7 days a week…they forget that there are steps 1 through 285 that need to be carried out before the dream can be realized.

By focusing on the dream and not how to get there…the dream becomes another “I wish I could have” in the life of the dreamer. Why does this happen? It’s simple. It is a lot more fun to talk about the dream ahead than it is to sit in reality about the boring steps it takes to get there. Instant gratification of the thought of a dream can often times be more satisfying to the human psyche than the accomplishment of a small task that adds up to that dream.

Dreams Are Made Reality One Step At A Time

Like most things in life, it is the small steps that matter. The small steps add up over time to bring you to the big reward. When you have a dream, it is important to have that focus to know where you want to end up down the road, but…during that process…the focus on step 1 and then step 2 and then step 3. By focusing on each step and checking them off the list, each step will add up to your dream.

Set the goal but focus on the steps.

By following that simple theory and keeping your focus on action, your dreams become a reality before you know it.

Too Much Future Thinking Is Overwhelming

Right now, my wife and I are going through some issues at home that are hard to deal with. Starting a family is proving to be a little bit more involved than we had hoped for, so there are certain things we are having to do that are outside of the normal way to do things. If we continue to sit back and wonder “what if” or just focus on the end result instead of the action we need to take to get there, we will end up overwhelming ourselves and getting into a situation where we freeze.

This theory of taking it one step at a time holds even more true for toughest situations in our lives. To truly be successful or tackle elements out of our control, we have to focus on each step and not lockup. It’s hard, but no one promised that life would be easy. Who we are is defined by the actions we take and by choosing inaction…you are making the conscious decision to be just another number. By choosing action…you are making the decision to be extraordinary.

Our success as human beings in life is the addition of small steps taken over time. Which step forward are you taking today?

Image by Michelle Brea

Internet marketing can be a jungle. Everyone is fighting to be the first to release products while at the same time relying on others to help promote them. While everyone is watching out for #1, there is an unwritten truth throughout the industry that you need the help of others to get ahead, so you better not burn too many bridges. Typically, this keeps everyone on their best behavior and everything rolls along smoothly, but…every now and then…something happens that you attach your name to that either isn’t on the up and up or is dancing around that sleezy line that you would rather not be involved with. Before we get specific…let’s talk about credibility, trust and their rolls in your blogging.

Your Online Credibility Is Built One Reader At A Time

Online street cred is not an easy thing to come by. By building up trust with your readers, fellow bloggers and companies that want to deal with your blog over time, you are able to establish a strong, positive credibility online. This takes time and sometimes lots of it. With each action, you are adding to your point total and this happens progressively through consistent effort and results.

This is nothing new to the business world. Just like with brick and mortar businesses, you have to watch who you associate with in blogging because your name and your brand get attached to everything you touch. At the drop of a hat, several wrong decisions (or sometimes even one) can strip you of your positive trust and you are back to square one clawing and scraping for anything you can get.

So your job as the blogger is to protect that credibility by watching who you associate with, how you treat your readers, the quality of the products you release and controlling the quality of the products you promote. It is a constant balancing act all with the same goal…to build our business.

A Recent Situation: Fake Scarcity

Recently, I was caught in a situation that I had attached my name to that made me uneasy. Fake scarcity was attached to a product I was promoting but I didn’t know it was happening. Let me preface by saying a couple of things off the bat…

Scarcity When Followed Through With Is Not A Bad Thing

Yes, especially in the blogging/mmo niche, we deal with scarcity on digital products. Many of you might say…”there is no way you can only have 150 eBooks…that is dumb and sleazy.” However, scarcity with digital products can serve two functions.

1. It Can Control The Amount Of Work – If you are releasing a product that is going to require a lot of follow up time and support, only releasing a certain amount of copies, spots, etc. can keep your work level manageable on the backend. Can you imagine trying to converse and support thousands of people? I can’t…so sometimes putting a limit on things is a good idea from a quality standpoint.
2. Scarcity Gets The Tire Kickers Off The Couch – By only allowing purchase of the product for a specific period of time or raising the price after a prelaunch, you are able to get people to take action. The key…follow through with whatever you are planning on doing after the allotted time period or quantity.

Where Scarcity Goes Wrong

When scarcity goes wrong, it is usually an attempt to scare visitors into taking action when the scare tactic is not ever going to be followed through on. So what happens? The potential client/customer takes the action thinking they only have a little bit of time left. Then, at a later date, hits the same sales page only to find that nothing has changed.

At this point…the product means nothing as the customer feels cheated.

To make matters worse, if you were the one promoting that product…your name is attached to it just as much (sometimes more) as the marketer who released it. Except…you have zero control or ability to change it.

The Personal Experience: Lessons In Affiliate Marketing

The recent experience involved a marketer I have dealt with in the past and a product that I actually use and believe in. I promoted the product. I was told the product was going to go up in price…so I promoted under that premiss…and the product didn’t go up when the time hit. At that point, was was emailed by readers who were pissed. I can’t blame them because I was too.

To make matters worse…emails and attempts at rectifying small bugs and the situation went ignored. On the outside…it seemed like this kind of attitude was taking place…

You made me my money…now I’m done with it.

Ego blogging at its finest. Use it up and move on to the next…

One of the hard parts about affilate marketing is attaching your credibility to a product and marketer that you have zero control over. Like this circumstance, there are even situations when you think you can trust what is hitting the screen only to be blindsided when things go wrong. It is dissappointing to say the least and I do take those situations personally.

On the flip side…when you create products and services and you need another bloggers help to keep the ball rolling, keep this story in mind as I will never promote for this blogger/marketer again because of the anger that came out of my readers and my personal views on using those kinds of marketing tactics (I hate them if you can’t already tell). You will need the help of others during your blogging career and burning bridges like this is not a good idea.

If you take anything from my situation, let it be these two things…

1. Your credibility and the ability to be trusted as a blogger is everything. Do not waste that in an attempt to make a couple of bucks…you will lose a lot more in the long run.
2. You are never bigger than one of your readers. If anything…you are a servent to you subscribers…not the other way around.

Image by ShivF1

I am about to give you some insight into how I pull in a massive amount of search engine traffic to my blogs. Now…this is me giving up way too much information about one of my niches, so hold on tight as you are getting an inside look at how I roll.

SEO can be a frustrating thing for bloggers. You want to rank well for specific keywords in your niche, but you also want to provide top notch content for your readers. This can create a push/pull affect as you struggle to balance the business and personal sides of your blogging. No one likes articles that seem SEO’ed to hell and back, so the trick is to get 1st page ranking without pissing people off.

Another frustrating aspect of blogging is one of its biggest strengths over time…date based, massive content production. Bloggers continue to struggle with getting readers to dive deeper into their content to find those incredible articles that you wrote in the past.

Want to kill both birds with one stone and provide a massively useful section of your blog for your readers that also fullfills both struggles outlined above? Ok…let’s hit it…

How To Pull In Massive Traffic With Pages

Now…I really struggled with the idea of giving away this much information about the inner workings of one of my most successful blogs, so I hope you guys find this helpful in your blogging.

The first thing I did was headed over to the Google Adwords keyword tool to research what search engine readers were typing into the search box. What I came up with was a list of keywords and how often they are searched per month locally and globally.

The trick at this point is to find a highly searched for keyword string that also helps your readers with existing content you have already written. I have a TON of riding tips on Mountain.Bike198.com, so “Mountain Biking for Beginners” made perfect sense to setup and it was one of the top phrases…double bonus.

Then, I went into WordPress…setup a new page with the keyword string “Mountain Biking for Beginners” in it and started building a resource for my blog. As you can see in the screenshot, the Mountain Biking for Beginners section of Bike198 is a collection of organized groupings of articles that help beginning mountain bikers ride better, work on their bikes easier and decide what to buy without confusion. As you click on each of the icons, it takes you to a listing (another page) of articles that help my readers in those areas.

Now…just setting up a page like this isn’t enough to rank well in Google. You need some text to go along with the sections to create keyword friendly content to rank well. If you click on the Mountain Biking for Beginners section, you will see that below the sections…I typed out a very targeted SEO explanation of why we created the beginners section. These couple of paragraphs help our readers, but…more importantly…it provides the SEO juice to rank well in Google.

To make sure I was extracting as much as I possibly could out of the content, I optimized it with Scribe.

So what were the results?

Page rankings may vary some depending on your location (and if you are signed into Google…in this result I was not signed in so it is accurate for my area), but it averages between 3 and 10 on the front page depending for a highly searched for, competitive keyword and this page has only been live for less than a month!

The best part about this whole process is that you get to help your readers and your blog at the same time. You get to bring back older, quality content and rank well in search engines while providing a resource for your readers that will keep them coming back to you time and time again for content.

Oh yeah…don’t forget to link the page prominently on your blog…like I did in the navigation bar.

See…I told you I was giving way too much information away.

Products Mentioned: WordPress | Google Adwords | Scribe SEO

Traffic Light Image by wwarby

Two things happened to me today that spurred a thought that is known throughout the blogging world.

First, I listened to David Risley eavesdrop on two businessman setting up their first website to attract new customers to their business. This is a common conversation that takes place everyday, and…unfortunately…most of them go this direction. There were multiple lines to the trascribed conversation from “that will look cool” to where to put the “skip this intro” link to the Flash intro they were going to throw up on their site (yuck!), but when DR typed out this line…it hit me like a ton of bricks.

And they clearly are planning the design based on what THEY think is cool, assuming customers will like it. Wrong direction.

The second thing was a video linked by Risley (I swear I wasn’t stalking him yesterday…just kind of how the cards turned over) that was a presentation by Matthew Inman (The Oatmeal) for Ignite on viral content linked on Geeks Are Sexy (and displayed below). Matthew created this presentation to show how he got over 5 million visitors to his website per month before The Oatmeal hit its one year anniversary through viral marketing.

While the premis of both websites are entirely different…one for business lead generation and one being a humor blog…the idea behind site and content design is the same. Except…one site is getting 5 million visitors per month and the other will be lucky to get one outside of their half awake mom…and this is why.

When You Blog…Write For An Audience Greater Than 1

Unless you are blogging just to put your thoughts out there for your friends and family, you have to produce content that you readers want to read. One of the biggest mistakes I see beginning bloggers make is producing content and designing blogs that they want to see and not what their target audience wants to read or see.

Have you stumbled upon blogs that have the latest and greatest widgets/plugins installed all over the place just to make the site load slowly so you leave? Same theory…

Your #1 goal as a blogger is to solve the problems of your readers…not you. If you want to reach a large audience, you have to bring your experience and knowledge to the table in a manner that connects with a large number of people.

Note: While many might think…The Oatmeal doesn’t solve one of my problems…you laughed and not enough laughter in your life can be a problem so keep your mind open to the possibilites.

Throughout the Ignite presentation video, Matthew Iman repeats the same phrase over and over again.

I pick something everyone can relate to and…

When you generate content on your blog, are you producing articles that a vast majority of your readers can relate to? Or are you force feeding what you think they should be reading?

There is a balance that has to be made between what you think is right and what works in an income generating environment. I have seen many bloggers sit on their high horse doing what they think is right only to find they were the only ones that thought that way.

So what do you need to focus on as a blogger?

• Do not put up widgets or design elements unless 70% of your readership will benefit.
• Listen to the questions asked in your comments and on social media outlets in your niche and answer those questions with your content.
• Present your content in a unique/interesting manner to promote viral spreading of your solutions.
• Reply to emails/comments as much as possible to bring back the personal nature of your site to get that connection between blogger and reader.

You have to listen to your audience and produce the content they want to read to solve their problems of the day. You gain the credibility in you content by bringing your own personal experience to the table and integrating that into digestible and spreadable information. If you continue to try to force feed it down readers throats…you are just setting yourself for writing to an audience of 1.

Image by soylentgreen23

To say that I am Apple Computer obsessed is an understatement and you are about to see why.

Since the very beginning of my computing career, I have never actually owned a DOS/Windows based computer. While I have been burdened with some work issued computers over the years, I have always had my trusty Mac at home to ease the pain. Sharing in this obsession, my dad and I have owned at least 12 Macintosh computers over the years and that doesn’t even include the accessories end.

I know…this is a blog about blogging so why the hell are you talking about the fact that you can only whip out the checkbook if there is a logo of an Apple with a bite out of it? Well, there is an explanation after I show off my sickness.

An Apple Obsession That Rivals That Of Steve Jobs

To lay it out for you, here is my history with Apple Computer…

Macintosh Classic

Where it all started. In the early ’90′s, Apple released the Macintosh Classic (Classic II pictured) with it’s 8 mhz 68000 processor and a whopping 1MB of RAM. With fond memories of playing the Parachuter game, my all things Mac obsession started with this little all-in-one machine, a 9″ black and white screen, OS 6.0.7 and a single button mouse.

Macintosh Centris 650

With the newly integrated CD drive, the Macintosh Centris was the next logical upgrade. Remember the days when you actually had to put the CD in a case before inserting it into the computer?! With an upgrade to discs, OS 7.1 and a color screen…we were off and rockin’.

Macintosh Performa 6100

Heading into the mid to late ’90′s, we jumped up to the new PowerPC processors to the 601 with the Performa 6100 series. These new lightning fast 601 processors (by those days standards) were the start of the PowerPC platform that would carry Apple computer all the way to the Intel switch. Armed with SCSI drives, OS 7.5 and more robust audio and graphics…we were living the good life.

PowerComputing PowerCenter Pro 210

What a lot of people don’t know is that during the time period between 1995 and 1997, Apple approved licensing for 3rd party manufacturers to carry the Mac OS platform. During that time, we actually owned two models that ran Mac OS but not on Macintosh branded computers. My computer was the PowerCenter Pro 210 from PowerComputing that even eventually saw a G3 upgrade card from OWC amongst other upgrades.

PowerComputing PowerTower Pro 250 MP

During the clone years, my dad ended up running a PowerComputing PowerTower Pro 250 MP that saw 2 250 Mhz 604e processors. This machine eventually saw a host of upgrades from OWC as well.

Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics)

With the year 2000 on the horizon, it was time for an upgrade to the G4 processor and that came with the Power Mac G4 AGP. The first of the G4 line to get an AGP graphics slot, this tower was a significant upgrade from our tapped out clones with a 400 MHz processor and 100 MHz system bus speed.

Power Mac G4 Cube

Our house rarely had less than 3 computers running at once…so of course we had a Cube laying around! Revolutionary Apple design but a PITA to upgrade. The G4 Cube was short lived, but it did bring a lot of press and marketing to Apple Computer as they started their run to the reputation they hold today. The G4 Cube eventually got an upgrade card and was maxed out beyond belief, but it too was retired.

Power Mac G4 (Digital Audio)

After a lightning bolt surge blew up my heavily upgraded PowerCenter Pro 210, I ended up with the Digital Audio version of the popular G4. With a 133 MHz system bus and the 466 MHz G4 processor, this Power Mac was the first to come shipped with the new OS X operating system. The complete overhaul meant that I eventually downgraded to 9.2 until software companies caught up, but OS X was a huge leap forward in OS technology that others (ahem…Microsoft) are still copying today.

This computer actually still runs in my dad’s basement with an OWC 1.4 GHz G4 upgrade card.

Power Mac G4 Mirrored Drive Doors

When it came time to upgrade my aging Digital Audio G4, I went to the multi-processor MDD G4 from Apple. This sexy, mirrored drive case would carry my into the mid 2000′s after a host of upgrades that even included hacked graphics cards and SATA drives. At the end of its life, it was actually one of the fastest MDD’s clocked on XBench at the time.

This one still sits in my office closet.

MacBook Pro 2.4 Core 2 Duo

In 2008 when my blogging career really got off and running, I decided it was time to break my tower streak and head to something more mobile. I stepped up to the laptop place with the 15.4″ MacBook Pro 2.4 Core 2 Duo. With laptop speeds becoming increasingly faster with mobile technology and the introduction of the new Intel processors earlier, it made sense to get similar processing power out of a more mobile platform. With some memory and hard drive upgrades…I was off and running and my tower tweaking days were over.

Previous Apple Accessories

I wish I could say that the Apple sickness within my brain and my family stopped with Apple computers, but that wasn’t the case. Over the years…we have dipped into the Apple bucket for other needs as well.

• Apple QuickTake Digital Camera – VGA resolution digital camera
• 2 – iPhone 3G
• 2 – iPhone 3GS
• 3 – iPhone 4
• 1 – iPod Mini
• 1 – iPod Click Wheel
• 1 – iPod Color Display
• 2 – iPod 5th Gen Black
• 4 – iPod Shuffle 2nd Gen
• Miscellaneous Printers
• Every OS from OS 6.0 to Snow Leopard (and whatever comes next)

So What Are We Running Now?

As the obsession continues to get unhealthier by the day. Here is what my family and I are running right now.

MacBook Pro i7

I made a huge leap forward and picked up a 15.4″ MacBook Pro i7 this year. It all started with my wife saying, “I want a laptop.” So now she is running my old 2.4 Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro and I am enjoying the speed of the new Intel i7 processor.

Apple iMac 24″ 3.06

My dad is running a early 2009 3.06 Intel Core 2 Duo 24″ iMac. Surprisingly, both of us have gotten off of the “Pro” tower platforms as the fully integrated options of the MacBook Pro and iMac have gotten fast enough to run the Adobe Creative Suite and Final Cut Pro.

Apple iPhone 4

There are 3 iPhone 4′s in my family (me, my wife and my dad)…all without any signal issues too for what it’s worth, and my mom is running my old 3GS.

So What Does All Of This Have To Do With Blogging?

There are two things you should take away from this exercise in obsession…

1. I Do Not Review Products That I Can Not Be Unbiased About – I am the review blogger guy that teaches other bloggers how to get in free stuff to review. One of the things I really hammer home with bloggers is that you have to stay unbiased and truthful in your findings regardless of pressure from manufacturers or your personal views. Your credibility is everything as a blogger and if you lose that…it is very hard to gain back. I have a hard time being unbiased about Apple products…so I do not publicly review them. That is something you should take into consideration as you review products.
2. A History Of Quality Brings Repeat Business – I have faith that Apple will build a solid product for my needs. For that reason, I do not need someone else’s opinion before I pick up my next computer. My personal history with the brand is more than enough to make me spring for the latest and greatest. You should strive for this same loyalty in your blogging by creating repeat visitors and purchasers of your product. It requires you to go over the top with your quality, but that will multiply over time.

Apple Computer is a great case study in how strong marketing with quality products can make consumers lineup to purchase what you have to offer. When you are finding your audience and selling your products, creating an “Apple like” atmosphere around your content and monetization efforts will create a loyal following that will spread your word like crazy.

Your #1 goal in blogging should be to create an army of customers and subscribers just like me…

It’s true…hot chicks are always going to have more Twitter followers than you, but…it doesn’t matter because 1/2 of them aren’t even real and the other 1/2 just have a bunch of worthless followers.

You see it all the time. Some hot chick avatar has 75,000+ followers but they are following 82,000+ and you say to yourself, “man…I wish I had that many followers. I am going to do whatever I can to get them.” I am here to tell you that you should much rather have your 1,000 or even 100 followers rather than their 75,000+ that they spam on a regular basis.

In today’s social media environment, there seems to be an obsession to race to the highest number. Whether it be Twitter followers, RSS feed subscribers or pageviews, aspiring bloggers and social media gurus are all watching stats closely to see where they stand. If you have some successful history in blogging/social media, you already know there is a numbers game and the more you have…the more you typically make. But…the really experienced know that the numbers game is about QUALITY more than it is about quantity.

In the pursuit of stat racing, many aspiring entrepreneurs take the road too much traveled of lowering themselves to sleazy tactics in the attempt to attract more followers or subscribers. They throw up controversial blog posts in the interest of viral spreading instead of quality content. They put up pictures of barely dressed women in their avatars and posts. They even go as far to try to call out other successful entrepreneurs to try to attract attention. If they are trying to use sleazy tactics like putting a hot chick as their avatar, they do not know the first thing about making money online and their business is failing before they even get started.

It’s Not A Race and Quality Matters More Than Quantity

I don’t know about you, but when I build up my online businesses, I do not want a bunch of dirty old men on my lists. I want targeted leads that actually want to digest what I have to say. While there is something to the whole “social proof” theory (more people sign up when they see a big stat…wish it wasn’t true but it is), I would much rather have 1,000 highly targeted followers/leads than 100,000 that are just random.

When you are seeking out new subscribers, followers or new visitors to your blogs and social media outlets, the #1 goal should be finding quality, targeted eyes not just a mass quantity.

How To Find Quality, Targeted Leads and Subscribers

So…we know you need to have better followers and subscribers than the internet marketing hot chick, so where do we find these targeted leads? The #1 way I have found to grow my online real estates is simple.

Find where your potential new visitors are hanging out and bring them back to your blogs, Twitter account, Facebook fan pages, etc.

New followers and subscribers are not going to magically find you online. The “build it and they will come” theory to online growth never held true so it is not going to work for you. If you really want to grow your blog and business online, you are going to have to actively search out new visitors and find a way to get them on your pages. Here are a couple of examples to get you started.

• Actively Guest Post On Popular Blogs In Your Niche – One of the most popular ways to attract new readers is to guest post on other blogs. This theory works incredibly well in niches that have active bloggers. If you are in a niche that does not have a strong blogging community, you are going to have to look to other outlets to pull new readers in.
• Build Up Online Forum Profiles – Online forums are still the #1 place for dedicated online obsessed to exert their passions and share them with others. For every niche that you would want to blog about, there are a ton of active forums that you can participate in. However, forum communities are extremely sensitive to spam, so becoming a valuable member of the community is essential before you start pushing your content.
• SEO Targeted Content - In my biking niche, I rely on Google and other search engines to deliver a large portion of my new leads. By doing keyword research with Google Adwords and writing SEO optimized articles using Scribe, I can bring in a massive amount of targeted, new visitors a day. While building up a blog with strong SEO presence can take time, it is still the #1 way to pull in new visitors. For beginning blogs, focusing on long tail keyword strings can bring you in some early success when you can’t compete with the older, larger sites on high competition keywords in the beginning.
• Use Your Search Functions - Within Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets, there is always a search function that allows you to find targeted leads. While this may not be the most efficient way to get a large number at once, they are highly targeted. By finding out which hash tags your audience is using in Twitter and which Fan Pages they are following on Facebook, you can open your blog and social media accounts to an entirely new audience.
• Interact and Communicate – Blogging and social media is still a people business. Interact and talk with as many people in your niche as you can. Those friendships that you grow over time will help you grow your business exponentially.

It isn’t rocket science. The more you try to cheat the system and employ tactics that you think are going to get you drastic results with 1/2 the work, them more you are setting yourself up for failure. Just remember, the fake hot chick on Twitter is going to act like they are making butt loads online…but in reality…their un-targeted leads are not making them a thing. Focus on quality and the results will be bigger than you would have ever imagined.

Model photo by Mike__G