You already know by now that I am a huge cheerleader for having an email newsletter on your blog if you want to make any kind of significant income. I have beat that point to death so hopefully you are already using Aweber or some other email delivery program to jump start your earnings.

Now…you might have already setup with quality content hitting  your auto-responder series and are off and kickin’ with a great start or an established list, but…you might be leaving a serious amount of money on the table by not doing one simple task that takes all of 5 minutes to complete. No really…I’m serious…5 minutes and you are opening up a killer revenue stream that 99% of bloggers that I follow aren’t even doing.

Blog Broadcast Messages: An Untapped Resource

One of the really cool features within Aweber is the ability to broadcast out a message once your blog hits a specified number of new posts to your list via your RSS feed. This is a great way to bring subscribers back to your blog and keep them in constant contact. A blog broadcast message does several things for my blogs:

• Broad broadcast emails have the highest open and click through percentages (readers get used to looking for them).
• My highest traffic days on the blog are blog broadcast days (Darren Rowse did a post about this same thing on DPS).
• Most of my Bike198.com readers have no clue about RSS or feed readers, so the blog broadcast acts as their subscription.

It is all about providing different options, and this almost weekly (I have it set to send out when there are 5 new posts) email is a great, fundamental resource for my blogs.

Where Most Bloggers Go Wrong With Blog Broadcast Emails

99.9% of bloggers love the feature in Aweber with the blog broadcast, but where they go wrong is simple. Almost all bloggers using this feature setup the broadcast message and then leave it! That’s right…you are probably doing the same thing right now. Aweber makes it incredibly easy to setup, so it is an afterthought after the process is complete. Why would you change anything, it’s automatic right?!

Well…as I said previously, my blog broadcast emails have some of the highest open rates on my newsletter, so naturally…I am going to want to extract as much as possible out of them and this is how I do it.

Monetizing Your Blog Broadcast Emails

Like anything else in Aweber, your email messages are formatted. With the blog broadcast email, you have some necessary fields there that extract the title and excerpt from your feed and list it in the email. However, while you have to include those fields, the rest of the email is editable by you at any point in time.

Want to unlock a new monetization stream? All it takes is planning ahead and paying a little bit of attention!

I keep a constant watch on my blog broadcast message to see when it is going to go out next. A couple of minutes before I hit the publish button of the article that is going to send out the broadcast, I head over to Aweber and edit the email.

The two spots in green were added in directly before I hit publish on the article that will trigger the blog broadcast to be sent out to my newsletter subscribers.

How Do I Decide What To Put In My Blog Broadcast?

Typically, you are not doing a “hard sell” email when you are sending out a broadcast. It is a “keeping everyone informed” style email so you need to treat what you add to it in the same manner if you want to keep its effectiveness. Here are some examples of what I add to my blog broadcasts in Aweber to make some extra income with my most successful and consistent email string.

• Updates from major online retailers (like you see in the bottom box above).
• Coupon codes and hot deals in the industry (like the top box that is not even an affiliate link…you don’t always have to promote things you are getting paid for).
• Announcements about the site.
• Paid links (Google can’t penalize your newsletter!).
• Affiliate links.

As you can probably start to figure out…the possibilities are endless and it literally takes only a couple of minutes worth of work and the ability to think ahead and plan a little bit. By doing so, you are tapping into your emails that have the highest open percentage and click through rates in a manner that is generating revenue on your blog. Are you doing anything like this with your blog broadcast? Probably not…

Products mentioned in this article: Aweber

Hint: I have over doubled my opt-in rate with PopupDomination. You can see it in action on Mountain.Bike198.com and check it out here.

One of the most overlooked items on a blog is the tagline. As with any great company, website or personal blog, the blog’s tagline creates an atmosphere and first impression for your readers, but most bloggers do not think about it past the time they are filling in the blank while setting up a new WordPress install.

Your blog’s tagline tells your new and existing readers where they are and what they can expect in a very few amount of words that is readily seen throughout all of your blog. That is very powerful and it should be thought of carefully as it is an essential part of your branding.

That said…I need to tell on myself a little bit.

While I have always thought about taglines in all aspects of my businesses, I always left one out. While working on a new project for Bike198, my print designer (RegularJoe) and I knew we had to come up with something because this new apparel project needed to have it included. I shot him over an email throwing some ideas on the wall, but it was during a long climb in the north Georgia mountains on a humid Saturday morning on our road bikes as the sun was breaking through the low level clouds at the top of the mountain peaks…he came up with it…

“I like what you came up with, but you know what I was thinking? How about ‘Live the Ride’?”

The moment I heard it…I knew it fit perfectly. It spoke to the way of life, obsession with bikes/parts and the desire to get out on a ride every chance we get that encompasses everything that is Bike198. When new readers hit the page, they will get an emotional feeling (read what David Risley says about emotion and blog success) that portrays the site in a perfect manner. “Live the Ride” was born and we are now integrating it into the site and new projects.

What Should A Great Blog Tagline Do?

A great blog tagline should give your readers a quick glimpse into what your blog is about during that split second interaction with your logo. When you are developing your branding and how you want your blog to appear to outside readers, a blog tagline can go a long way in converting new readers because they will know who you are and what you are about as soon as they land on the page.

A great blog tagline should have several characteristics for success.

• Should be short and to the point to prevent confusion (ideally no more than 5 words if you can swing it).
• A blog tagline should be factual about your site’s content so new readers now what to expect from your blog as soon as they land on the page.
• The tagline should have an emotional attachment to create atmosphere and community around your brand (ex. Ramped Up Pro Blogging in RobbSutton.com makes you feel like you are going to increase your success, traffic, income, etc.)
• Your blog’s tagline should be original.
• The tagline should not change multiple times (it is as important as not changing your logo).
• Ideally…it should be placed with or close to your logo.

Some examples to get you off and rolling:

• PCMech: Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On
• TutsPlus: Power Up Your Skillset
• Shoemoney: Skills to pay the bills.
• YouTube: Broadcast Yourself
• Steve Pavlina: Personal Development for Smart People
• Apple: Think Different
• Visa: It’s Everywhere You Want To Be

A successful blog tagline (much like logo design) is often the easiest/hard thing to come up with for your blog. When read, it looks like it was easy to formulate as it just seems to fit. When developing, it can be one of the harder aspects of your branding to brainstorm and get right.

Have you thought seriously about your blog’s tagline?

When you have been blogging for several years…or even several months…there are things that happen to your articles that will decrease your traffic and make you less money over time. Old articles are going to start to drop in search engine rankings if not cared for and affiliate links will change or go away completely has companies come and go from affiliate networks or go completely out of business.

It is your job, as the blog owner, to stay on top of these as your blog continues to grow so you can make sure you continue to build a strong reputation online. While everyone might have their own strategy for handling this situation, here is how I attack each issue on a quarterly basis on my blogs.

#1 – Refreshing Old Articles on My Blogs

If you aren’t already, you should be using Google Analytics to track your blog’s traffic, entry points, keywords, etc. With Google being the largest search engine on the planet and Google Analytics being as comprehensive as it is and free…it is a no brainer.

Once, at the beginning of every quarter, I go into Google Analytics with one primary goal: Grabbing a list of my bottom 100 performing posts in search engines.

Steps: Select Date Range –> Traffic Sources –> Search Engines –> Select “Landing Page” from the drop down –> Show rows 100 –> Sort by visits increasing

From this list of 100 articles, you now have your worst performing articles in Google and other search engines online, so it is time to get to work. I start to go down the list and mark articles that I think need to get some love. Now, not all of the articles on this list need to be edited as some are ok down there and are not too important. However, as you go down the list, you will see articles that need some serious help.

What do I do with these low performing articles?

There are several things I do with these low performing articles to get them back up to speed.

• Rewrite any of the content that needs refreshing (content and times change…you also get better at blogging over time)
• SEO optimize the article with Scribe - Scribe is a paid SEO optimizer that you probably don’t have. I didn’t believe in it at first but it has done fantastic things for Bike198.com over the past couple of months and by using it…I have been able to jump up results dramatically in certain areas.
• Make sure all affiliate links are setup correctly – If you bring more traffic to these articles, you better have your monetization setup correctly. Now is the time to do that.
• Write a list of articles to link back to – After I edit up the article, I write it down on a list. This list is a selection of articles that I  need to link to in future articles to get them re-spidered and indexed more efficiently.

And that is it! When I keep this cycle going, I am in constant rotation of keeping article fresh and income coming into my blogs.

#2 – Optimizing and Checking My Affiliate Links

As I mentioned before, affiliate links can change over time so you can be leaving money on the table and not even know it if your readers are clicking a link and getting no where. I optimize and check my affiliate links in a two stage process that seems to work really well.

1. Click All Of My Affiliate Links To Check Landing Pages

The only way to really find out if your links are broken or hitting the wrong page is to click them. When I first started blogging, this was an extremely cumbersome task as I had to go through each article, find the links and change them if necessary. As you can imagine, as your article count goes up, so does the amount of time and work this takes.

Luckily, these days all of my affiliate links are located in one place in a list with the Ninja Affiliate Plugin, so I can go straight down the list, clicking each link and making adjustments as necessary in an hour instead of days.

2. Optimize Monetization On Top 100 Search Engine Articles

The next thing I do is head right back to Google Analytics and sort that same low performers list as a high performers list in search engines. From this list, I go down one by one and make sure I am monetizing each article correctly. Over time, I have become better at monetizing articles, so by going back into each, I can use my new techniques to squeeze more money out of each article.

Most of my top performing search engine articles on Bike198.com center around reviews, tips and tutorials, so taking this extra step goes a long way in increasing my blog’s bottom line. You might have also picked up a new affiliate program that pays a higher commission or offers products and services that are related to that article that you did not have before. This is the time to make those edits as well.

Quarterly Cycles Insure Long Term Success

The tendency is to want to watch these items on a weekly or even daily basis to make sure you are not leaving anything on the table. However, nothing changes over night and obsessing on this will take you away from your primary goals of content production and promotion, so limit these tasks to a quarterly or bi-yearly basis to make sure you are headed in the right direction.

Products mentioned in article: Google Analytics | Scribe SEO | MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate Plugin

In the blog world, your #1 resource for traffic and making money online is your list. While some are hesitant to start an email newsletter, the fact remains that if you want to be successful online, it is a necessity…not an option. Since the number of targeted subscribers to your list directly correlates to your success online, bloggers like myself are always testing new ways to get people to signup. Up to this point, a Lightbox Hover has been the highest converting method to convert casual readers into newsletter subscribers and long time readers and…as you have probably noticed…the lightbox hover on RobbSutton.com has drastically changed.

How I Increased My Newsletter Signups by 150% and Higher

It shouldn’t be surprising that people really protect their email address online. With as much spam that hits our inboxes on a regular basis, online security has become a growing problem over the years. As an online entrepreneur/blogger, it is your job to show professionalism and poise when asking for email addresses. So…your first impression is everything in converting that causal first time reader into a subscriber and first impressions all come down to design.

Unfortunately for most bloggers, design is one area that is often too expensive or overlooked in the pursuit of online superstardom and even though Aweber has made drastic strides in making lightbox hovers, you still do not have a high converting, easy to setup design process that will drastically help you grow your blog…

Until now…

A friend of mine in the blogging world, Michael Dunlop, hit me up to start testing a new plugin that is now available to the public. PopupDomination is an extremely easy to configure plugin that takes your newsletter subscription service (I use Aweber) and inserts that into a fantastic Lightbox hover that goes live on your blog. While I was going to throw up some screenshots of how I configured this plugin in 3 minutes and had it live on the sites, I thought it would be better to just show you with this short video.

Product Links: PopupDomination | Aweber

As you can see by the video…I custom taylored the Lightbox to match the site, and the conversions went through the roof.

Does that mean I recommend PopupDomination? Absolutely and I think you are going to see a lot of bloggers do the same.

The $37 dollars this plugin costs has already paid for itself and more on my blogs in only 3 days of operation.

The only thing I wish it had (which is already in development) is split testing and when that feature goes live…it is going to add an extremely strong foundation to an already fantastic plugin.

Buy You Own Copy Of PopupDomination by Clicking Here

Still not sure you need an email list? Check out this article series to see why you need to get started today: The 1 Thing Your Blog Can’t Live Without

Content scrapers are the scum of the earth in the blogging world. They take the hard work and dedication of others and try to capitalize on it for their own monetary gain. Instead of actually doing some work, they decide to try to profit of yours. Content scrappers are as sleazy as a hit and run and as annoying as road rash…so basically…they are just the scum of hte blogging world. While most of the time you are going to ignore content scrapers as they lift your content through your RSS feed or copy/paste, there are going to be times in your blogging when you need to handle a content scraping situation and handle it accordingly.

What Impact Can A Content Scraper Have?

A content scraper, when the situation gets serious enough, can have several adverse affects to your blog that are not easily quantified.

• Traffic loss in search engines
• Brand confusion (same content in two places with different sites/logos)
• Duplicate content issues within search engines
• Copyright violation if your content carries those rights
• In low competition markets, they can rank well for your content

When Should I Plan Action Against A Content Scraper?

There are going to be very few times you really need to stand up and take serious action with content scrapers. Luckily, Google and other search engines have gotten pretty good at sniffing out who as the real content and who is just trying to fake it. Once Google and other search engines figure that out, they penalize the other sites through their algorithm by pushing them down the list. I had a unique situation lately that made one content scraper of my content get on the radar and I had to do something about it.

When I changed domain names from mtbtrailreview.com to Bike198.com at the beginning of the year, I new that Google was going to have to catch up and spider my thousands of pages. I was prepared for the change and knew it would all get sorted out. At the same time, someone decided to scrape the content off my site and put my full feed articles and pictures on a site of their own and the only content they were using was mine.

So what happened?

They started to rank for my content that had not been fully spidered by search engines yet. Big problem.

In this situation, I needed to take action to protect my brand and my content that I have worked so hard to build up.

How Do I Stop A Content Scraper From Stealing My Content?

When you run into this situation or another one that requires action, you have to handle it very carefully.

First, go to the site and see if they have a content form. 99 times out of 100, content scraper sites do not have any form of contact form or email available on the site, so you are going to have to get it stopped by other means. If they do…send an email requesting removal of your content and see what happens. If you get no response or an ugly one, continue.

Go to whois.net and do a whois lookup on the domain that is stealing your content. When you do this, you are going to get the name of the company that hosts the site. Once you have that name, Google the hosting company to contact them directly.

When you contact the hosting company, keep it short and simple. Here is what I wrote.

You have a domain hosted on your servers, scrapersite.com, that is scraping copyrighted content from my blog network, Bike198.com.

Since there is no contact information provided on the site itself, I am contacting you to shut off the content.

Thank you,
Robb Sutton
oneninety8, LLC
Bike198.com

If the company is reputable at all (like this one was), you should get a response that looks something like the following.

Dear Robb:

Rest assured we at [removed].com and it’s parent company [removed] take this type of infringement very seriously. I have passed this message on to the account holder and have given him 24 hours to respond. Failure to respond to this within 24 hours will cause an immediate suspension of the account. Once a response has been made, I will forward the same to you to reach a settlement.

From that point forward, you should be able to get your content removed from the site.

Is It Ever That Easy?!

Well…not always. Every now and then, you will get a site owner that knows he is wrong, admits it and moves on. However, remember who you are dealing with. Content scrapers are stealers of copyrighted content, so a lot of times they do not go down without a fight. Here are some excuses you might here from a typical content scraper as you go through the process. You need to ignore the excuses (You don’t have to explain anything! They are stealing your content!) and stick to your goal of content removal, but here are some explanations.

• “But I Link Back To Your Site” –  Hold zero weight for you. Too many one way links have almost zero Google weight and they are stealing traffic off of your content and most readers will not know the difference.
• “RSS Is Built For This” – Nope. RSS is designed for easy digestion of content…not to make it easy to publish copyrighted content on the web. Now, if your content is Creative Commons licensed, republish with credit is allowed.
• “I’ll Just Stop Using Your Site, I Don’t Have Time To Go Through Everything” – Your time is not my problem. You stole my content and it needs to be removed.

Now…there are a couple of things you need to keep at the forefront of your brain as you deal with content scrapers and getting your content off of their site.

• Keep a level head and keep emotion out of the picture. – You have just caught them stealing, so they are going to battle their way out. If you really want to see this issue resolved, you have to keep a level, business head without interjecting emotion no matter what they say to you.
• Work with the hosting company - The hosting company has the power to shut down the site, so as you go through the process…keep a good working relationship with the hosting company as you move forward as they are going to be your partner in this. If you piss them off, things are going to be harder.
• Do not make threats you can not keep – Do not throw the idea out there that you are going to call your lawyers if you do not have lawyers. You need to stick to what you can do and keep to your guns. If you have lawyers…by all means throw the book at them if you need to.
• Don’t believe their threats – In the process, the content scraper is going to throw out threats they can not backup. If they were really that good or had that good of a lawyer, they wouldn’t need to steal your content for a couple of bucks a month.

In the end and about 17 emails later, my content was removed and things are back to normal. Will I need to spend my time hunting down every single content scraper going forward? No. Will this be the last time I have to deal with this? No. I deal with content scraping when it makes sense to invest the time into making sure the situation gets resolved.

Basically, if they hit that hard on my radar, it is time to do something about it.

Scum Image by ۞japaneseblues

Once Twitter exploded on the scene, coders and programers all over the world started coming up with Twitter clients to satisfy the needs of the Twitter obsessed. With many paid and free options, you are now able to find a Twitter client that manages your social media needs down to a T. One of the newer clients to hit the market is MarketMeTweet.

While MarketMeTweet does do most of the same things that the other paid and free clients accomplish, it does come with a few exclusive features that could meet your Twitter and social media posting needs. Let’s dive in and take a look…

Features: MarketMeTweet – Facebook and Twitter Client

Every Twitter and Facebook client has its own set of features, so let’s take a look at MarketMeTweet’s. While this is not a comprehensive list of features, these are the highlights before we move forward.

• Unlimited Accounts
• Brand Management (Tweets show up as Tweeted from “whatever you pick, linked to your site)
• Schedule Tweets
• Schedule Tweets from Blackberry, iPhone or Android (through Google calendar)
• Facebook Integration (unlimited fan pages)
• Location Targeting
• Reply Campaigns (completely user controlled automation)
• Auto RSS Tweets (import your RSS feed into Tweets)
• Smart Following and Unfollowing
• OAuth Secure
• Multiple Pricing Options

Review: MarketMeTweet – Social Networking For Real Business

MarketMeTweet is very unique when it comes to Twitter and Facebook. While it does what you would expect out of any desktop client (posting Tweets/Facebook updates, multiple timelines, scheduling Tweets), there are several features of MarketMeTweet that really set it apart from the other free and paid clients on the web, so let’s take a look at those individually.

Personal Branding On Twitter

MarketMeTweet has a really cool feature built into the application that allows you to create your own Twitter application. Now what does this do for you…the blogger or business owner? It allows you to create an application within Twitter that changes your byline to include “via Robb Sutton” or anything you choose below your tweets. That “Robb Sutton” is also linked to RobbSutton.com so anytime it shows up in the timeline of one of my thousands of Twitter followers, it is clickable right back to my homepage as you can see below.

What does it do for your business or blog? Well…for those Twitter followers that use the web client for Twitter, you are no longer promoting your Twitter client. You are now promoting your own personal brand which carries a lot of weight online. When MarketMeTweet first hit the market, this was the #1 feature I was most interested in as I like to keep branding as secure and consistent as possible, and it works flawlessly.

Auto Replys and Automatic Following and Unfollowing

One of the other really cool features within MarketMeTweet is the ability to auto reply to your followers based on keyword selection. Now…before you start thinking, “wow…that is spammy” let me explain just a little bit. Yes, if you are planning on setting up just a couple of lines of reply and hitting up as many keywords as you can and then leave it alone without paying any attention to it later, you are going to be a spammer. On my end, I do not have time to go through my Twitter timeline for hours on end a day, so this allows me to start conversations with other Twitter users based on information I want to talk about. It is not a set it and forget it system…you still have to interact after the fact if you really want to see results.

As you can see by the screenshot, you can also create “negative keywords” to better filter your results.

These days, I do not use too many (ok…none) auto follow services. Don’t get me wrong…I have used them in the past and they have helped me find new Twitter users that are looking for the information I provide. I just don’t have the time to manage applications like that for the return it brings me at this point in time.

With MarketMeTweet you can use that same keyword strings that you created to handle your auto replies to auto follow to auto follow Twitter users that are talking about subjects you want to connect with. Unlike other auto follow scripts, the MarketMeTweet version is pretty light so it stays underneath the radar while you grow your Twitter following. It also does it via the keywords I have already set up and in the background so I am able to just hit a switch without too much time management on the backend.

Final Thoughts: MarketMeTweet Twitter and Facebook Client

Overall, the MarketMeTweet desktop client for Twitter and Facebook is a strong application. With a user friendly, easy on the eyes interface and Adobe Air integration (makes for easy update and launching), MarketMeTweet answers all of the Twitter and Facebook needs you should have for your blog or business. With unique features that are very focused and provide real results, MarketMeTweet justifies it’s paid status as a Twitter and Facebook desktop client.

Is it perfect? Not completely. MarketMeTweet does its unique features incredibly well, but there are a couple of little usability options I would like to see included into newer versions. I would also to be able to setup panes on an account basis so I can see multiple accounts at once on one screen. Right now…you have to switch accounts through a drop down menu to see the different timelines, replies and search queries.

If MarketMeTweet really want to rock it out, an iPhone app would completely make my day as most of my Tweeting is done on the road and the branding element would be great on my iPhone (you can schedule Tweets on the road through the Google Calendar integration).

Positives: MarketMeTweet Client

• Branding – HUGE! The ability to brand your Tweets is unique and strengthens your brand.
• Auto Reply and Auto Follow – Done easily and in the background to grow your blog or business
• User friendly interface that is easy to setup and use
• Free updates
• RSS feed and scheduling tweets integration
• Post To All Feature covers Facebook, Twitter and Pingfm

Negatives: MarketMeTweet Client

• A couple little usability additions need to be added in future updates (outlined above)
• Not really an application for the casual Twitter user
• Limited mobile phone support

With pricing plans starting at 15 bucks with strong support and a 30 day money back guarantee, MarketMeTweet is the answer for blog and business owners looking to expand their business and stay on top of the trending topics on Twitter. If you are looking for a Twitter and Facebook client that will meet the needs of your business or blog, MarketMeTweet is your answer.

If you want to see more:Click here to check out MarketMeTweet.

As an FYI, I actually bought a copy of MarketMeTweet, this was not a freebie for review.

Watching trends is just a part of blogging. With information changing as fast as it does online, if you are not paying attention to what is going on around you, you might as well get used to being left in the dust.

In every niche, there is going to be an event or time of the year that you are going to have to be on your A game. Big name print publications are even looking to blogging as a way of providing real time information and updates for their readers, so where do you fit in as the blogger and how can you capitalize on trends in your niche to cash in big? Let’s take a look at my example and how you can apply it to your blogging.

Covering Real Time Events In Your Niche

As you can probably imagine, things are pretty busy over at the road biking side of Bike198.com this week. With the largest cycling event of the year taking place with the 2010 Tour de France, it is a jam packed 3 weeks of Tour results, information and coverage. As a blogger, I need to position myself as a reliable, return resource to capture the benefits of the largest event of the year without actually being in France. This is not always an easy thing to accomplish even if you have a vast amount of resources. As you can see by this traffic graph from Google Analytics…things are going pretty good so far.

So what can you do to get a 68% traffic increase on your blog and rake in the cash from this new traffic at the same time?

8 Ways To Go Big Or Go Home

So…you want to cover something big in your niche or ride the trend wave, what do you need to get done to enjoy the benefits of a drastic traffic increase over a period of time? Here are some tips to help you cash in on the increase and keep a larger percentage of those new readers as your blog moves forward.

#1 – Have Your Blog Prepared – Monetization and Conversion Items

You are going to see a sharp wave in traffic like the graph you see above, so you are not going to have much time to change and edit your blog. You need to have all of your conversion items and monetization strategies in place before the wave starts. About a week before you start your coverage, you need to make sure you have everything in place. During this time period, your main focus is going to be on delivering the content goods and not on blog design or monetization strategies. By planning ahead, you can cash in even bigger.

Money Making Note: It is also a good idea to throw in 1 or 2 extra monetization strategies for this time period. It will bring in extra income for your blog at a time when readers will not be as sensitive to the idea. Even this big publications are inserting a couple more ads here and there to cash in.

#2 – Credit External Sources

Since I can’t be in France to take my own pictures, I have to rely on the pictures and other resources of the people on the field. Because of this, you have to be extra careful about using pictures and make sure you credit the photographer and organization responsible for the shot. Unless you want to really piss people off to the point they will never work with you again, go overboard on giving credit where credit is due.

#3 – Integrate In Other Content Types

Your goal during this process should be to increase traffic to your blog but also to convert that traffic into regular readers. One of the best ways to do that is to mix in other content types with your coverage to show new readers what they can expect on your blog. Ideally, you want to mix in more pillar type articles to really feature your best of the best. For example, on Road.Bike198.com, I am mixing in in-depth how to articles and product reviews…my two “showcase” article types that convert the highest on that blog.

#4 – Be Prepared To Work Longer Hours

Right now is one of my busiest blogging times of the year, to even scrape together the precious minutes to put together this article took some planning. When you are covering realtime events or a growing trend in your niche, you need to be prepared to work longer hours than you are used to. There is time to research (or stay glued to the TV for hours in my case), write articles and stay on top of what everyone else is covering in your niche as well. All of this has to be done at the same time you are still mixing in your regular content. Tired yet?

#5 – Partner With Other Media Sources

One of the best ways you can lighten the load and have higher quality content during these periods of mass blogging is to partner with higher profile media outlets for content. For the Tour, I got together with the crew at Bicycling to use pictures, interviews and Tour stage explanations on my blog crediting back to Bicycling. This cuts down on my research time and provides Bicycling magazine with more vistors to their online real estate. It is a win/win for the both of us.

#6 – Bring Something Different To The Table

Everyone and their mom is providing the same cookie cutter information on whatever you are trying to cover. By bringing something a little bit different to the table in terms of related content, you can improve the stickiness of your blog during this time period. Since my readers are used to riding tips and product reviews, I am going to mix in articles related to the Tour from those two categories. This will differentiate my blog coverage from the typical news media coverage and bring readers back to Bike198.com.

#7 – Test, Test and Test Again

Unfortunately, the preparation you made at the beginning of the process might not be converting. If your monetization strategies or conversion items are not doing well during this time period, you need to put in the extra hours to get it right. This is your one and only shot at this, so make sure all of the extra effort isn’t going wasted.

#8 – Pre-Write and Plan Content

Do you have other blogs or already know what you want to mix in during your coverage? Pre-writing and scheduling content the weekend before you are covering a large event is the best way to lighten the load during periods of high blogging stress. If you have other blogs that are going to take up precious time needed to continue your coverage, schedule those posts ahead of time or get in some guest posts to lighten the load. The worst thing you could do for yourself is sacrifice your hard work in other areas just because your focus as shifted temporarily.

Stressed Yet?! It’s better than you think…

While this may seem like a stressful time in a bloggers life, it can also be one of the most rewarding. During times of extreme blogging, you can make the biggest gains and get over that plateau of traffic and earnings that you have been hopelessly sitting on for months. If you put in the extra effort with content and planning, you will see the increases and enjoy the fruits of your extra labor for years to come. You just have to go after it! Do large spikes due to special events last for forever? Of course not, you are going to see a decrease in traffic after the event is complete, but the idea here is to leave with more traffic and conversions than you came in with. If I am seeing a 68% traffic increase during the Tour de France, I would expect to retain a 20% increase on the backend with new readers and subscribers.

And remember…as the blogger, you have the unique ability to adapt and change on the fly unlike the big print publications.

Wave Image by mikebaird

In this guest post by Andrew Rondeau of WeBuildYourBlog.com, Andrew takes a look at the importance of turning off your blogging brain…something that is vital to blogging success.

If you’re anything like me, as a busy blogger sometimes you find it hard to switch off. We all go through times when we feel overwhelmed by everything we need to do, and teaching ourselves to relax and walk away from work is a tough lesson to learn.

Knowing when to find and use your personal power-down button is as much a critical part of being a small business owner as managing your finances or building relationships. Unless we learn to do this well, we’re at risk of burnout, meaning we stand to lose all the benefits of working for ourselves and wind up wondering where it all went wrong, as we flounder about wondering why our home life is failing and our customers are walking away.

Why it’s important to relax sometimes

Think of people you know who are not that great at switching off. We all know someone, and know the effect they have on people around them. Being in a constant state of stress about what needs to be done, and feeling overwhelmed, rubs off on those around you.

A friend of mine works in a busy environment as an alternative therapist. Instead of exuding calm as these people are supposed to do, she runs about tearing her hair out and periodically bursting in to tears, in between bouts of cursing and freaking out.

She is a great example of how being too stressed and not switching off actively affects other people. Her customers and colleagues walk away from her with a sense of confusion, wondering why she is so stressed all the time. She inspires about as much faith as the e-mails you get promising you a million dollars if you send your bank details to someone in Nigeria.

The trouble is, stressed people make other people stressed.

Whether you work in a predominantly online environment, or meet customers face to face, it’s important to keep calm and relaxed in order to inspire faith in others. If you are calm, you look competent. If you are always frazzled, you come across as being someone who doesn’t know how to manage themselves, and probably their business too.

Keeping calm and carrying on – personal benefits

Not only is learning to switch off actually good for your business, it’s also good for yourself, for a number of reasons. All the basics like getting enough sleep, taking time out to exercise and getting a healthy dose of culture all contribute towards making you a happier, more competent person.

This in turn makes you a better business owner. People who get out and do things away from work tend to make great bloggers, because they have interesting anecdotes and are positive. Holing up in your darkened room fire-fighting your things to do list will sap all your creativity quite quickly and make you a boring blogger.

Happy people attract happy people. It’s a well-known fact that we humans respond well to people who are positive and chilled out, and we warm easily to people who smile and seem confident and relaxed.

If all this hasn’t inspired you to kick back and take some time out, then go back and read it again.

The main message here?

Being lazy sometimes, sleeping too much and having fun will enhance your business. Fact.

Andrew Rondeau blogs over at WeBuildYourBlog.com on blogging and provides a service to setup your own successful blog.

If you are anything like me, when you go to insert social media icons in to your blog, you start to scour the net for the perfect set that matches your style and your design. Ever since Smashing Magazine started doing “## Top Whatever’s” list posts, everyone and their mom has come out with their own version clouding up Google with the same list after list.

Don’t get me wrong…there are a lot of really cool looking icons in those lists, but can you honestly see me using leaf icons on any of my blogs?! What about those crazy, complicated icons that you can’t even tell what they are trying to promote? I didn’t think so…

So, every time I need to find some clean, professional looking icons to integrate into my blogs, I end up having to look through every pointless list after list for that one set that is going to work. After having to do that too many times, I have decided to put together this list of social media icon sets that you can actually use in your designs as a resource for myself and you guys. No leafs, Popsicle’s or random weirdness here…just clean icons you can actually use on your blog.

33 Social Media Icon Sets You Can Actually Use

So here it is…the list. Click on any of the images below to download the set to use in your blog design.

IMPORTANT DESIGN NOTE: One thing to keep in mind. You are not picking the icon set that you necessarily like the best. It is about finding social media icons that integrate into your design to make it look seamless. You do not want your icons to look like a “cut and paste” after thought just because you think they look cool. Careful planning goes a long way…

1. Social Bookmark Icon Set from Vikiworks

2. Socialize from Dry Icons

3. Circular Social Media Icons from Blog Perfume

4. Aquatiqus.Social by jwloh

5. Handycons by Janko at Warp Speed

6. Chrome by Chris Wallace

7. Social Media Icons by ~plechi

8. Social Media Icon Set by webtoolkit4.me

9. Glossy Icon Set by webtoolkit4.me

10. Social Media Icons by Sebastiano at WeGraphics

11. Splatter Social Icons by My Ink Blog

12. Social Icons by Elegant Themes

13. Sleek Social Icons by Andrew at Design Instruct

14. Vector Social Media Icons by Icon Shots

15. Vintage Social Media Icons from Web Expedition 18

16. Social Media Icons by FreeSocialMediaIcons.com

17. Vector Social Media Icons by Icon Dock

18. Social Media Icons by Pink Moustache

17. Gray and White Social Media Icons by Web Treats

18. Extreme Grunge Social Media Icons by colaja

19. Polaroid Icon Set by webtoolkit4.me

20. Rivet Social Icon Set by John Campbell at DesignBump

21. Social Duo 2 Icon Set by IconBlock

22. Web Social Icons by NarjisNaqvi

23. Picasso Social Media Icon Set by Six Revisions

24. Social Media Icon Set by Paper Leaf

25. Social Media Icon Set at WeFunction

26. Social Networking Icons by Cheth Studios

27. Social Icon Tabs by Cheth Studios

28. Life In Pixels Icon Set by Six Revisions

29. Social Media Icon Set by Media Loot

30. Social Media Icon Set by sawb

31. Mac Style Icons by designbold

32. Black and White Icons by webtoolkit4.me

33. Social Clean by Icon Shock

There you have it. The 33 social media icon sets that you can actually use in your blog design. These clean, unique sets can integrate into your design to create higher conversions and a more custom appeal. Be sure to pick a set that fits with your color scheme and feel as you look to increase your social media presence.

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So I was hanging out over at Blogussion the other day when I fell upon this article titled, “Interviews are Boring, Reviews are Fake & Lists are Kind of Lame. Let’s Get Real“. In the article, Alex (who I respect in the industry by the way) brings up a valid point about a blogging timeline that seems to plague bloggers across the web.

The basic gist of the idea is that a blogger initially comes to the table with some engaging, unique content. You subscribe to their RSS feed because you like what they have to say. And after a period of time, the blogger gets away from their uniqueness and falls into the boring trap of being like everyone else. What you basically end up with is a RSS reader full of bland trash that used to be unique and engaging.

While I do agree with him to a point, there are several aspects of the article, that while I do see it happen out there, I do not hold to. Specifically that interviews are boring, reviews are solely to make money and lists are lame.

Blogging The Way I See It

The way I see it…there are two things that start to happen amongst new and experienced bloggers.

1. The passion fades and complacency and bordom start to show in the articles. The result…what once used to be an engaging blog is now a cookie cutter copy of everyone else. Bring on the same lists and reviews as you see all over the web as the blogger is just going to do what he/she sees or reads.
2. After a period of time, after putting in above average effort, the blogger only sees sub-par results. Instead of pushing forward and keeping the bar high, the blogger gets lazy and complacent once again, and that starts to show through the content…specifically by sacrificing value for writing money driven articles or a “Digg perfect” article and not taking as much time as effort as before.

The reality of the situation is that blogging is hard. If you are looking for an easy way to make money online, you have come to the wrong place. You have to keep the intensity high even when you are not seeing the results or “you just don’t feel like it that day” to make a real run at doing this craft full-time.

It is all about blogging priorities and where you stand at that point in time. When the shift in blogging priorities goes away from providing unique value to making money or trying to write the perfect Digg article, the content suffers in a big way and that is transparent as hell.

Don’t get me wrong…I still run businesses, but I absolutely love what I do and hopefully that shows in my writing. If I get to the point that I am ready to sacrifice that unique value (that can be done through product reviews, interviews and lists), then I might as well sell off the property and start up something else.

• I started writing product reviews in the mountain biking industry because I saw a need for honest reviews instead of glorified advertisements. The money made from those reviews is secondary and a result…not the goal. (Bike198.com)
• I started RobbSutton.com to help other bloggers bring in review product for their blogs. The money earned from eBook sales and this site is a result of that…not the goal. (Ramped Reviews)

When you focus on the right elements, the rest falls in place with time and smart decisions. When you shift those goals to ones that do not provide value, you are making the conscious decision to be boring.

Image by latigi

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