While I don’t claim to be a blogging expert, I have picked up a few tips and tricks over the past 9 months that have helped me break into the Technorati Top 10,000, push past 2,000 RSS subscribers, and find myself a job as editor on PickTheBrain. In this article I will share everything I know about blogging, including how to get started, find the perfect image for your article, and increase your subscriber count. Enjoy

Getting Started

Why blog? Well amongst other things, blogging is a great way to meet people, it can potentially be a healthy source of income, and it is much cheaper than therapy. See my article Why You Should Blog for a few more reasons.

Blogger. I created my first blog using Blogger. While I would never go back to it, I do believe it is a good way for a beginner to start blogging because it is free and incredibly easy. Also check out WordPress.com.

WordPress. If you are even a little bit serious about blogging, I suggest taking the plunge and going for a self-hosted WordPress blog (note: I am referring to the WordPress software from WordPress.org, not the hosted version available at WordPress.com).

Web hosting. For my web hosting I use and recommend Dreamhost (use the promo code “CHANGE” to receive $50 off). I also hear good things about Media Temple. If you are going to go for self-hosted WordPress blog, look out for a host that offers a “one-click WordPress installation” as it makes things incredibly easy.

WordPress for Dummies. I won this book thanks to a ProBlogger competition, and I must say it is an excellent guide to WordPress and blogging in general. I only wish I had read it earlier, as it would have saved me a lot of time and hassle. You can read the Amazon review of it here.

Writing

Tell a story. Don’t always tell people the information/ message/ idea you want to convey. Instead, try showing them by telling a story. Apart from being more interesting to read, stories stick (read Made to Stickfor more on this).

Who cares? Whenever I write an article, I ask myself “who cares?” Firstly, do I care? That is, am I writing about something I am passionate about and that has meaning to me. Secondly, will my readers care about what I have to say? I have found that asking myself this simple question keeps me focused and helps avoid a common blogging sin: being boring.

Capture ideas anytime and anywhere. My best ideas for articles normally come when I am anywhere but sitting in front of the computer. So I have made it a habit to carry a notebook and pen with me wherever I go, allowing me to easily capture ideas as they pop into my head.

Write with purpose. As a father and a full-time employee I have limited time to write articles. I have found the key is to ensure I have a clear understanding of what I want to say before I sit down at the computer and start writing.

Take time to craft a catchy headline. A headline can make or a break a story, so make sure this important decision is not simply an afterthought.

This is not university. So don’t write your blog articles in the style of an essay.

Read sites devoted to writing/ copywriting. I highly recommend CopyBlogger to any blogger wishing to write in a more strategic, persuasive, and compelling manner. Also be sure to check out Leo Babauta’s recently launched WriteToDone.

Subscribers

Why care about subscribers? Someone subscribing to your blog is perhaps the best compliment they can give you. Traffic comes and goes, but someone subscribing to your blog says that they want to read more of your articles.

Make it easy to subscribe. Make it easy for readers to subscribe by prominently displaying a subscription icon and giving them the option to subscribe immediately after your article. You may even include a link in your article giving them the opportunity to subscribe (click here to subscribe to my feed).

Offer a full feed. It may decrease traffic to your site, but not offering a full feed is a big reason why people unsubscribe.

Don’t forget email subscriptions. Not everyone wants to use a feed reader. I have approximately 150 email subscribers at the moment, so it is certainly worth your while to make it easy for people to subscribe via email.

Subscribe to your own feed. It is not vain to subscribe to your own feed. Rather, it is essential to regularly check your RSS feed to make sure everything is ok.

Flaunt it. If you have over 100 subscribers, I say flaunt it by selecting a feedburner chicklet that shows your number. If you have under 100, don’t display your subscriber number just yet.

Photo by SmilingSunflower.

Ignore daily fluctuations. Ignore day to day fluctuations of your Feedburner Subscriber Count. A drop in the number of subscribers shown does not necessarily mean people have unsubscribed (see this ProBlogger article for more on this). Instead, aim to increase subscriptions over a week or even a month.

Don’t become obsessed. Yes, it is nice to see subscribers increasing, but if you start judging the success of your site based solely on a number you are giving in to your ego (this is a self improvement site remember ).

Themes

Free themes. There are some amazing free WordPress themes out there. To get an idea of what is available, check out the following articles from Smashing Magazine:

• 100 Excellent Free WordPress Themes
• 21 Fresh, Usable and Elegant and WordPress Themes

Custom made themes. If you want to take your blog to the next level, a custom made theme may just be the answer. John Chow recently said that a custom made theme was the most important thing he did to improve his blog in 2007. And if you are wondering why I am still using a free theme, I am currently in the process of getting a custom made theme.

Images

Why bother? An interesting and relevant image can add a lot to an article. It is of particular importance if you hope your article will become popular in the social media. For example, you only have a few seconds to catch the attention of people using StumbleUpon.

Flickr. I find most of my images on Flickr. If you decide to do this, take a moment to read up on the Creative Commons License. Then, go to “Advanced Search” and tick the box for photos licensed under the Creative Commons License. To make it easier to find a good pic, I suggest selecting the option for “most interesting” pics and then “thumbnails” so that you can scan them quickly.

Other sources of pics: Sometimes it is worth spending a few pesos to get the perfect image. Check out iStockphoto for a huge collection of images that can be purchased quickly and easily.

Maintaining a Blog

Often less is more. If you struggle to find the time to blog, just remember that when it comes to posting frequency often less is more.

Photo by Hypergurl.

Hitting the publish button. If you have any doubts about as to whether or not an article is ready, don’t hit the publish button. It is better to not publish (even if you normally do post something that particular day) then to post something that is not up to your usual standard.

Microsoft Livewriter is great. Yes, it’s true! “Microsoft” and “great” can exist in the same sentence. Livewriter makes blogging incredibly easy. Check it out here (it’s free).

Read blogs devoted to blogging: ProBlogger, Skelliewag, and Daily Blog Tips are my personal favorites.

Comments

Plugins. There are a number of WordPress plugins (eg Threaded Comments, Subscribe to Comments, Top Commentators, and Recent Comments) that help encourage people to leave a comment. You can read more about these below.

Reply to comments. This may sound obvious, but if someone leaves a comment on your blog that is directed to you make sure you reply to them.

Take time to comment on other blogs. Often if you take the time to comment on someone else’s blog, they will visit your blog and return the favor. Don’t comment just for the sake of commenting though – make sure you have something thoughtful and relevant to say or don’t say anything at all.

Building Your Online Profile

Give. In a recent guest article on ProBlogger, Tina from Think Simple Now suggests ending your emails with “let me know if you need anything”. Very simple. Very powerful.

Sell yourself. To build a good online profile you need to sell yourself as a person. If the idea of “selling yourself” makes you cringe, read my article How to Sell Yourself for a better idea of what I mean.

Guest post. Guest posts are one of the most powerful ways to build your online profile. Most blogs are open to guest posts, so take the plunge and get in contact with a blogger you admire. It is best to attach your post to your email. Even better, attach a few articles and tell them they can use their favorite. David Bohl from Slow Down Fast often does this when he sends articles to me – he also regularly writes for Dumb Little Man (60,000+ subscribers) so he must be doing something right!

Be Strategic. It is no coincidence that I have posted this article about blogging the same day as this post and this post are posted elsewhere.

Blog Carnivals. Blog carnivals may not be suitable for every blog, but I have seen a number of bloggers in the self improvement niche build their online profile this way. I have found that my Personal Stories of Change Blog Carnival has helped me break the ice with a number of my fellow bloggers, and we have since gone on to have become good friends.

Photo by El Fotopakismo.

Making Money

Dream. Blogging can potentially earn you $1,000 per day and allow you to quit your day job. There is nothing wrong with having a dream, right?

The path to making money online is not always obvious. As I wrote about in this guest post for ProBlogger, when you start blogging it is not always obvious how you will make money online. Focus on adding value to your readers and building traffic and I’m sure goods things will come your way.

Read sites devoted to making money online. John Chow and Shoemoney know a lot more about making money online than me, so if you are interested in learning more these two sites are a good place to start.

Social Media

Digg, Reddit, Del.icio.us, etc. If you want to see your articles do well on these social media sites, I strongly suggest becoming an active member of their communities. Oh, and do my next 2 tips….

Ask. It is becoming more and more common to see articles end with a simple request such as: “If you liked this article, please share it on del.icio.us or on Digg. I’d appreciate it. ” And why not? It is a simple and effective way to help promote your articles with the social media.

Email requests to your friends. If you have written an article you are particularly proud of, I suggest bringing it to the attention of your friends by sending them an email. Of course, just remember my earlier point about giving.

Plugins

Akismet. A essential plugin for fighting spam. It normally comes automatically with WordPress so just make sure you have it activated. Download Akismet here.

Adsense Deluxe. This plugin is the easiest way for WordPress bloggers to incorporate Adsense into their blog. Download Adsense Deluxe here.

Automatic Update. If you hate the thought of having to update WordPress, this plugin makes the process extremely easy. Down Automatic Update here.

Comment Relish. If you received a “thank you” email after leaving your first comment on this site, that message came courtesy of this nifty little plugin. Download Comment Relish here.

Feedburner Feedsmith. An essential plugin for anyone offering a feed on their blog. Basically it detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber. No prizes for guessing where this link takes you.

Full Text Feed. If, like me, you only have an excerpt of you article on your main page you should have this plugin which prevents WordPress 2.1+ from adding a more link to your website’s feed. Download Full Text Feed here.

Google XML Sitemaps. . Download Google XML Sitemaps here.

Subscribe to Comments. This is a simple little plugin that has the potential to stimulate discussion in your comments. Basically it allows readers to receive notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry. Download Subscribe to Comments here.

There’s more! There are many, many more plugins available for WordPress. 50 Best WordPress Plugins for Power Blogging is a good list of them I came across recently.

About Peter Clemens

Peter Clemens is the owner and editor of The Change Blog. He also publishes Audio Book Downloads, a blog which helps people find the very best audio books online, and The Blogging Blog, a blog which helps people either start a blog or take their existing blog to the next level.

source:

Everything I Know About Blogging.

It is fantastic to see Twitter moving faster than ever with its developments. The company received $800m in investment, acquired several Apps recently and put out plenty of new features.

On top of all this, the company just announced that there are now over 1 million Apps that are part of the Twitter eco-system. Every 1,5 seconds another one registered. Recently, Twitter’s own Jack Dorsey approached App developers and encouraged them to keep building their businesses in and around the Twitter eco-system. This is particularly interesting as Twitter’s relationship hasn’t always been a friendly one.

In one go, the Social Network killed many tools after introducing Twitter lists. More recently, the addition of Twitter’s own picture gallery puts Apps like TwitPic and Yfrog under severe pressure. Still, I believe Twitter Apps are the most crucial component to make Twitter work for you as an individual or business.

So without further ado, here are 10 Apps that are a great enhancement to my Twitter experience:

source: http://www.instantshift.com/2011/09/02/10-powerful-tools-to-make-tweeting-more-efficient/

When it comes to having successful online and offline advertising, it is important to collect thorough varied data. In my experience I’ve often seen businesses make the mistake of taking the easy way out and attempting to implement a one-size-fits-all approach towards marketing. In affiliate marketing, it is essential to do research since banner ads, text links, widgets and other tools tend to only be as effective as the strategy behind their use. This strategy comes best from applying data. The same need for information applies for TV advertisements and other offline marketing methods.

Online marketing is much more complex than what we first knew it to be back in the 1990s. Back then, affiliate marketing was more or less just setting up a tracking link to the merchant’s website. With the spread of the internet and the increased influence of affiliate marketing, the current landscape requires sophisticated means of servicing consumers, the majority of which are information-based. These approaches include, but certainly are not limited to, geomarketing, geotargeting, and multicultural marketing. By becoming more specific about the type of consumer you want or are already attracting, you better understand how to service your consumers. Additionally, you also avoid a marketer’s worst nightmare: controversy.

A Lack of Research, a Lack of Success

The reach of affiliate marketing is now so wide that it is important to research demographics before undertaking any marketing. Marketing to specific cultural markets is a necessity, because these days, one-size does not fit all. We live in a politically correct world, where cultural messages, idiosyncrasies, or images can offend an audience and leave the company doing the offending in hot water. By attempting a cookie-cutter approach to general marketing, you greatly increase your risk of offending your audience. In a way, trying to force mainstream marketing techniques onto the multicultural, multisegmented world is like having a joke you tell a friend at a bar publicized to the entire world. Although that joke is not indicative of your general beliefs, chances are that if widely broadcast, someone may take offense.

This sort of problem occurred recently for Canada-based water distributor Eska. The company was forced to pull its ad campaign following a backlash from the general public. Subsequently, Eska had to deal with accusations of cultural insensitivity towards First Nations people. Cultural shaming aside, whatever amount of money and time the company spent on that advertising campaign has gone entirely down the drain.

Know Your Audience

Avoiding sticky situations with regard to cultural communities in marketing is a wise task. As a business, regardless of whether you are a retail men’s apparel merchant or an affiliate specializing in PPC for a maternity merchant, it’s essential to research your audience. While market research may seem extraneous initially, if you don’t do it you can end up losing far more time and money in the long run than would have gone into simply obtaining proper demographics in the first place. Knowing your audience means that you know what sort of marketing they are responsive and unresponsive towards. Marketing campaigns that appeal to the cultural sentiments of Germany may offend people in Mexico, or simply miss the point. By taking the time and effort to know the audience, you help ensure that you get the most out of your marketing by directing efforts efficiently and generally avoiding social scorn.

Know Your Location

Knowing your location is just as important as knowing your audience, as the two go hand-in-hand. Being unaware of geographic information can also hamper the effectiveness of your advertising. A cautionary tale of this is daily-deal giant Groupon’s foray into the Korean market. Groupon, one of the world’s fastest growing companies, thought that Korea would be an easy location to offer daily deals due to its high population density and hi-tech information systems structure. As of right now, Groupon ranks third in Korea in an industry it spearheads elsewhere.

The business structure of Korea varies greatly from that of Groupon’s other markets. As Groupon has learned, one must be prepared to adjust to each different business world in its own unique way. The Korean Internet is much faster than the US one, so consumers and business partners expect a lot more media information that Groupon did not provide. Meanwhile, Coupang, a much smaller company run by a native-Korean has found more market success due to being aware of the practices and standards of Korean business and consumers. If you don’t know your location, you can still partner with a local who does. This can be an incredibly valuable partnership, and can provide you with information both on the location, as well as the market, its audience and inherit values.

Any information on possible marketing endeavours will only benefit your company. Knowing your audience and knowing the differences between cultural, geographic, and social boundaries is essential to personally tailoring marketing towards an audience, and in turn generating the best possible response. The initial costs of this research will pay for themselves in future revenue, while helping keep your brand to remain pristine and appealing to multiple demographics.

Want To Reach A Multicultural Market? Get To know Your Audience | ReveNews.

When it comes to optimizing your web presence, a recent study by Google confirms what most online marketing professionals have been insisting for years: search engine advertising helps – not hurts! – organic traffic volume. The findings in this report address a frequent concern of some advertisers who may question the value of PPC ads in conjunction with SEO efforts. With this study, the message is clear: if you are putting a lot of effort and resources on building an organic web presence that appears across search engine results pages, boosting your efforts with search engine advertising can give you immediate results and turbo-charge your organic traffic.

The Google study shows that paid search ads give a brand an 89% incremental lift in site visitors. And the word “incremental” is especially revealing in this case. As the Google research blog puts it, “This means that a full 89% of the traffic generated by search ads is not replaced by organic clicks when ads are paused.” In other words, a holistic web presence strategy that combines search advertising with SEO tactics will ultimately drive more traffic to your site than doing either alone.

Whether your search ads focus on keywords related to your business vertical or your business name itself, search engine advertising is a vital component of any online marketing strategy for your business. Our Director of Marketing, Mike Merrill, explains more in this video.

Are you including paid search engine advertising along with search engine optimization efforts to promote your local business web presence online? Share your experiences in a comment!

Author: Angela Epley writes about online advertising & web presence for the ReachLocal blog, which focuses on small business online marketing strategies.

Web Presence Optimization: How PPC Boosts Organic Traffic | Business 2 Community.

Most So-Called SEO Experts are Liars!

The Internet is filled with self-proclaimed Internet Marketing Gurus hawking “SEO Secrets” like there’s no tomorrow — but look beyond the screenshots and “audit-proof” results and dig into their history, and their long-term results and you’ll often find that their promises are overhyped, the results achieved were temporary and that they are salesmen more so than SEO experts…

Put it simply, these guys are great info-product marketers, but when it comes to generating results for themselves or their clients, the numbers simply don’t add up.

“The SEO Business Guide” published by SitePoint is different, and we invite you to do your own research and verify our credentials:

* SitePoint.com is one of the Top 1000 Websites on the Internet, and has been for the past 10 years according to Alexa.com
* Kristen Holden, the co-author of the book is also responsible for the SEO on two “little” websites that you might have heard of — 99designs and Flippa. If you haven’t, just type in “99designs” into Google News to find news stories on Entrepreneur.com, INC.com, and the Webby Award Win for “Best Web Service” in 2010. Kristen has also managed search accounts for big brands like Pfizer, Sensis and Commbank at his previous life working at an SEO agency.
* Mike Holden, the co-author of the SEO Business Guide is responsible for search strategy at realestate.com.au – one of the largest and most popular and well-respected sites in Australia and receives over 6,872,760 unique visitors per month

We invite you to see for yourself and request FREE Sample chapters from SitePoint’s SEO Business Guide.

Grab 4 FREE Sample Chapters Today:

REAL Guys Show How to Make REAL Money Online

I want you to check these guys out. It’s a breath of fresh air.

If you are not one hundred percent satisfied with the current status of your life as it is right now in terms of anything including relationships, finances, career, parenting, etc. there is only one thing that you need to assess and that’s your decision making process.

You see, our lives are shaped by our experiences and all experiences are the result of a decision.

If you decide to touch a burning stove, the result will be that you get burned. If you decide to jump in a pool of water, the result will be that you get wet.

Sometimes however, the result that we experience from a decision isn’t so clearly visible prior to making that decision.

In other words, we think that by making a certain decision, we will achieve a certain result but somehow that result turns into something else. And that’s when things get tricky.

And this is why if areas of your life aren’t moving along as planned, you must assess your decision making process.

Decisions are driven by two things; the confidence in one’s ability to achieve a certain result and more importantly, emotions.

The reason why I say “more importantly” is because emotions ultimately guide every decision and will always override one’s confidence.

For example, if you decide that it’s time to lose weight or quit smoking, you can have all the confidence in the world in your ability to achieve those goals but if your emotions point you in the opposite direction, you will ultimately never achieve those goals.

Therefore, to truly enhance any areas of your life, you must work on both your confidence and your emotions.

Steve G. Jones is a clinical hypnotherapist who has been practicing hypnotherapy for over 20 years and has worked with the likes of just about anyone ranging from regular everyday folks to high profile celebrities.
In fact, pretty soon he will have his own television show called “The Celebrity Hypnotist.”

Steve also has the largest collection of hypnosis recordings on the planet and is well respected in his field.

Some time ago, Steve realized that while he was helping improve various areas of people’s lives using the power of hypnosis on a subconscious level, working on someone’s confidence was a must no matter what.

It’s almost like a prerequisite for true transformation. The only problem was that people would have to fly to his Savannah office for the hypnosis session and pay a pretty penny to do so.

Steve decided to create a program that would equip any person with the ability to build confidence using hypnosis right in the privacy of their own homes, which would make it much more convenient and affordable.

And so he did just that. The only problem; it was missing something.

While Steve’s program was, in fact, ultra effective at building confidence, it didn’t focus on emotions on any level.

Knowing that the only true way to deal with one’s emotions is through Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT for short, Steve knew he had to incorporate the principles of EFT into his program.

But Steve is an expert in hypnosis, not EFT.

So what did he do? He decided to enlist the help of a man who is arguably the world’s foremost EFT expert……Brad Yates.

While it certainly was no easy task (it took nearly a year), Steve finally did track Brad down and got him to join forces with him to create what is perhaps the most powerful formula for building confidence known to man.

Introducing Confidence Beyond Belief by Steve G. Jones, M.Ed. and Brad Yates.

=====> http://internetking.co.nz/confidence.html

Here’s why you must order today – Steve has priced this powerful system at what I consider to be a very generous and fair price…and in fact..it is only a market test. He will also be testing higher prices for this program.

Here’s something you must realize – Steve reserves the right to jack up the price…probably by $20 minimum…at any time without notice. That could happen tomorrow, next week, or later today.

So, if you see that the investment is still just $49.00, consider yourself lucky and hurry and order right now.

If you don’t order, you’ll end up paying more later and kick yourself for not acting now. Please don’t tell me I didn’t warn you! So just take advantage of this offer today and get the “steal of a lifetime” by ordering today. Do it now.

Go NOW before he changes his mind:
http://internetking.co.nz/confidence.html

Do you want some inspiration to maintain building your blog?
Are your curious to know who some of the biggest Google Adsense earners are?
I know that I was interested to know who the best are so I could check out their websites and see how I could possibly earn as much money as these people do. I realized from most of these sites that sites with user generated content usually ranked pretty highly for Google Adsense earners. It seems that these “community” type sites do tend to get a lot of traffic and we all know that traffic = money. So without any more delay here are a list of the top 8 Google Adsense earners as collected from online resources.

1. Markus Frind – PlentyOfFish.com – $300,000 per month

If you haven’t heard of this guy yet you should check out the website plentyoffish.com. He is the person who created this free online dating website from his appartment all by himself. His website soon become one of the largest dating websites online. I have actually tried out his website myself and can see how it can be interesting and attract a lot of visitors. The graphics and layout of the website is nothing fancy at all but the functionality is all there and its fast to use.

There have been many of doubts that he wasn’t making that much money so he made those people silent by posting this on his blog. According to his blog this represented two months worth of Adsense earnings.

2. Kevin Rose – Digg.com – $250,000 per month

Kevin Rose started Digg.com in December 2004. It is a social marketing site that is mostly news, video, and pictures that are submitted by users for other users to read about and view. Basically what happens is you can signup for an account and you can submit a “news story” and other people can view it and if they like it they can “Digg it” and this boosts the rating of the post. If it gets enough Diggs it will appear on the Frontpage of the site and will get tons of traffic. Digg has both Google Adsense ads and Federated Media ads. It is estimated that he earns roughly $250k a month from Adsense alone.

3. Jeremy Schoemaker – $140,000 per month

ShoeMoney is considered to be one of the greatest Internet Marketers out there. He is very good with search engines and knows how to setup his sites to get optimal traffic to them. In one of his best months with Google Adsense ShoeMoney earned $132,994.97. You can imagine it was probably pretty difficult for him to cash a check of that size!

Unlike most of the other Google advertisers ShoeMoney makes his money from hundreds of sites and thousands of domains.

4. Jason Calacanis – Weblogs, Inc. – $120,000 per month

Jason Calacanis is the creator of Weblogs. Weblogs is a network of blogs and it was apparently making roughly $4,000 a day from Google Adsense! He eventually sold the company to AOL for a reported $25 million. He also announced his retirement from blogging earlier this year (July 2008). He is now focusing on his email campaigns instead.

5. David Miles Jr. & Kato Leonard – FreeWebLayouts.net- $100,000 per month

According to a Washington Post article these 20 year old’s claim to be making $100,000 a month from their site FreeWebLayouts.net which offers free Myspace templates. That is pretty impressive for a couple of young guys that are offering free Myspace templates!

6. Tim Carter – AskTheBuilder.com – $30,000 per month

Tim Carter is a licensed master plumber and carpenter with his own radio show. He started his website up in 1995 with his primary focus to cater to an avid following of fellow builders on the site. In April 2004, Carter learned about Adsense for content sites and he put it on his site. With minimal effort and time he optimized his website and his Adsense earnings grew from $1,500 to $7,500.

There was a Google case study done on Tim Carters earnings with Google Adsense. You should definately read it by clicking HERE. Read the results section because it gives a bunch of helpful tips on how he increased his revenue with Google Adsense.

7. Joel Comm – e-book – $24,000 per month

Joel Comm is a get rich quick guru. He wrote an e-book, What Google Never Told You About Making Money with Adsense. With his e-book and his website he earned $23,458.46 between Nov 2005 and Dec 2005. Check out his Google account stats here.

8. Shawn Hogan – DigitalPoint.com – $10,000 per month

Shawn Hogan is the creator of the forum DigitalPoint. This forum is a very usual forum with lots of information about: Search Engines, Marketing, Business, Design & Development, and Products & Tools. In a New York Times article it stated that he was making roughly $10k a month with Google Adsense.

The members of his forum speculate he is now making around double of what he was making in 2005 when this report was published in the New York Times.

So there you have it, the Top 8 Google Adsense earners. This list might be slighty out of date and there could be some new people in this list but this is the list I was able to pull from collecting information on the net. So check out these sites and see if you can strive to earn as much as these people do with your website or blog.

source : mindofmichael.com

1. Choose a topic you know about and have an interest in writing about

It is much easier to sustain a blog over the long haul if you have a genuine interest in the topic. It’s also easier to gain the trust of others and be seen as an authority if you know what you’re talking about.

2. Choose a topic that is in demand and has potential for profit

IF your goal is to make money from your blog (and it isn’t for everyone) you’ll probably want to do some thinking about the topic you’re going to write about. Most profitable blogs have a niche that they focus upon (here are some reasons why). Beyond your own interest in the topic there are other factors that you might want to consider when it comes to profitable niches including its popularity and whether people are searching for that information, how many competitors there are in that niche (and how strong they are), what income streams might be available on the topic, whether the topic is a long term one or a fleeting trend etc.

3. Produce content that meets peoples needs or solves problems

The content on your blog needs to mean something to people, it needs to solve a problem that they have (whether it be ‘I need to how to….’ or ‘I’m bored and need a laugh’ or ‘I want someone to tell me how xxxxx applies to my life’). Do this and people will keep coming back and they’ll tell others about you too.

4. Build traffic by participating on other sites and building a network

Building great content on your site is just half the battle but especially in the early days you can’t just rely upon a ‘build it and they will come’ mentality. Later on you might find that you can focus less upon promoting your blog but in the early days you need to get off your own blog and be willing to interact on other parts of the web (other blogs, social media, forums etc). Build a presence on sites where the type of reader that you want are already gathering, build relationships with other blog/site owners and be as useful to others as you can where ever you go.

5. Produce Content that People Want to Pass on

The bulk of your content will want to be solid content that focuses upon meeting the needs of your readers – however it can be well worth your time also throwing into the mix content that is designed to be more about attracting new readers through word of mouth. It is hard to define this content and many times it just happens but be aware of what content in your niche is being passed around on social media sites and you’ll begin to see opportunities to write some of your own. Often this content is funny/playful, controversial, statistics/research based or ‘list posts’ that are mega resources (50 ways to….’ or ‘50 ….. to watch’ type posts. Ultimately it is the type of content that someone reads and where their first reaction is to make them think – ‘I need to send this to….’ or ‘I need to tweet this’ or ‘I’m going to bookmark this on Delicious’.

6. Develop a ‘hook’ or ‘hooks’ that will keep those visiting your blog for the first time coming back again

Some people will naturally keep coming back to your site after their first visit, but a very large percentage of them will never return unless you ‘hook’ them in some way. Many bloggers rely upon people subscribing to their RSS feed to ‘hook’ readers and while this can help only some visitors will know how to do this. Other options for this include creating an email newsletter or getting readers to sign up to join/become members. Once people sign up for these you have their permission to remind them about your site and continue to draw them in.

7. Build Community

People no longer just come online to download information or read the expert opinion of others. The web is not a passive place, people want to interact, create, discuss and belong. A blog is a great way to broadcast information but it is also a fantastic tool for building a sense of belonging and interaction, so make the most of that. You might want to add other areas to your blog for this type of interaction (a membership area or forum) but much of it can happen right in your blog posts as well. Ask questions, feature what your readers are doing, run interactive projects, do polls, host debates, give your readers a place to show off what they’re working on. The more you get your readers to ‘do’ the more they’ll feel like a member rather than just a ‘reader’.

8. Experiment with Different Direct Monetization Streams

One of the wonderful things about the blogging space today is that bloggers now have a myriad of ways to monetize their sites. Back when I started in this business things were much more limited and most bloggers just used AdSense and Amazon affiliate program because there were not many other options. Those can be great starting points to begin to learn about running ads and affiliate programs on your blog but don’t limit yourself to them. The key is to experiment with different ‘direct income streams‘. Try some different ad networks (whether they be contextual ads, impression based ads etc), try selling your own ads and play with different affiliate marketing campaigns. Play with using different ads and affiliate programs in a variety of ways and positions on your blog (for example in your RSS feed, in posts, in your sidebar, in your header etc).

9. Plan for Indirect Income Streams Early

One of the biggest trends in blogging over the last couple of years is bloggers also experimenting with making money ‘because’ of their blog through more indirect income streams. It’s not just about running ads on your blog – there can often be other things you can do including selling your services as a consultant, running training programs, developing eBooks or other resources, starting a paid members area/forum, selling premium content services etc. Not all of these will apply to every niche but more and more bloggers are now discovering the power of developing their own products and services to sell to blog readers.

10. Don’t Give Up Your Day Job…. Yet

Making money through blogs can be very profitable and a lot of fun, however it is not a fast process and there are no guarantees. It almost always takes years to build up and there are many many bloggers who’ve been at it for that long who make very little money (if any) despite their best efforts. I think there is something to be said about investing a lot of time into a blog if you want it to grow, however I’d advise very very careful consideration if you’re thinking about opening up time by giving up other employment. I personally took 2-3 years to move my blogging from a hobby, to a part time job to a full time thing (and even when I went full time there were times where I took on other work) and most full time bloggers I chat with today have similar stories.

Source: Problogger.net

I just got done watching a killer video that I wanted to share with you…

We all know that selling is one of the keys to making a ton of money online.

However…

Most people don’t truly understand it, and if they do, they don’t really know the “underground” tricks that a lot of the big gurus do.

Well Shoemoney, has just made a free video that reveals some of the sneaky selling tricks that have helped him to make over $10,000,000 (yes that’s 10 million!)

Check out the video here…

-> http://cot.ag/byy6YJ

I think you’re gonna’ learn a ton from this video. Enjoy!

- Terry

P.S. – Obviously Shoemoney is going to launch a product at the end of the free videos he puts out. Whether you buy it or not, really doesn’t matter.

You’d be stupid though to not watch this video, because just 1 of these tips will make you a lot of money…

Here’s the link again…

-> http://cot.ag/byy6YJ