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So, what’s the very most important part of creating your online business?
Hmm… You know already.
KEYWORD RESEARCH!
Why would you start anything online if nobody is looking for what you want to sell?
Monday evening at 8 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Central, 6 p.m. Mountain, and 5 p.m. Pacific, I’m doing my very first slide presentation at Xiosoft and hoping it comes out well.
I’m totally excited! I did this cool Power Point that lays it all out, and I’m rarin’ to go.
So, if keyword research is something you haven’t mastered yet, you absolutely HAVE to come.
Nearly 40 Articles About Blogging to Get You Going in the Right Direction
Audio Interviews with Some of the Brightest Minds in Internet Marketing
10 Mindmaps to Guide You Through Technical Aspects of What You Want to Accomplish
Pat’s Personal Plugins and Ping List
A Web 2.0 Directory to Point You to the Hot Sites
13 Great Bonuses to Help You Succeed…
And most importantly, you get me. Twice a month I get on the phone and answer questions about blogging and Internet Marketing for my members. They’re an awesome group that wants to act on things and become successful, and I’m thrilled and honored to be part of their quest.
I think I’m a born teacher, though I never realized it. My bosses always shoved me into the role from my first job to well… my current job. If you’re a member of Tellman’s ListBuilding Club, you hear me twice a month there answering questions, too. I love it! It’s probably my most favorite part of the job. ‘Course I love it all, but interacting with people is really fun.
But come on over to Blogging4Boomers.com, and check me out. Sign up, and if you absolutely hate everything, there’s a 100% full money-back guarantee. But you won’t. I think you’ll be happily impressed.
If you’ve been marketing very long, you know you need to be building a list. Why? Because when you have a list of people who enjoy you and your marketing message, it’s a sure bet that you’ll make more money.
So, if you’re not sure how to get an optin box into your blog… Here’s the deal:
Can you tell? I mean, I’m just enthralled with all the cool things you can do, right? You can bookmark, network, Tweet, Tumbl, or blog and if you work them all together, they become a powerful traffic machine!
About three or four months ago, for a hoot, I set up a bunch of sites about cats. I love ‘em. I have two and have always had them around and thought it would be a lot of fun gathering material for them. Well, I was right! It was fun setting the stuff up. And it was like a test. I wanted to see if I could make Web 2.0 work for me in a niche.
I have a hub at HubPages, a Squidoo Lens, a couple of blogs about cats, and even a wiki. All full of fun content and information about the different cat breeds. Check out Captivating Cat Breeds, if you’re curious.
Once in a while I’ll add something, but I really haven’t done much to the sites, as you’ll see. But here’s the cool thing: I just realized that the system is getting traffic! And they’re just sitting there.
I didn’t do much about monetization because that wasn’t really my intent. I just wanted to have fun and so… Duh. I never realized that any of these sites would become popular. I mean, they’re not tearing up the track yet, but if I build them out, I can see that they will.
Next thing on Pat’s agenda: Find cat products that pay. Ha! Are there such things? Yes. I’m thinking a brass kitty bed or an automatic litter box that never smells might do the trick. (Is there such a thing?) LOL I’ll find something.
The point is, don’t rule out Web 2.0 when you’re marketing. If you’re not using it, you’re nuts! You don’t have to do a lot for the content sites like HubPages or Squidoo or any of them. If you don’t want to write articles, get someone to do it for you. I did, and I’m a writer! But who has time for fun like that? Har.
Create a whole new set of domains for what you want to do, and then, set up a systematic circle of sites so that you’ll get traffic and visitors. Like, link your Hubs to your blogs and to the wiki, for example. Here’s the thing… Most of the traffic is coming from organic search! I’m not paying a dime and like I said, I’m not really doing a whole lot about these.
Maybe I should huh? I’m on a new mission to be Cat Woman.
Whoa. Really, really cool stuff going on over at WordPress.org. They’ve released WordPress 2.6 with some totally sweet options.
Here’s a quick rundown:
Preview past post revisions.
WP 2.6 lets you see what you’ve done before and even compare revisions to see which is best very easily.
New Press This! button allows you to post from wherever you are online
Snatch snippets of other blog posts, pictures, and get them onto your blog. (With proper crediting, of course.)
See your theme before you actually change it.
A new preview window allows you to see what a theme will look like with your content before you hit the change button.
Get your word count!
This is totally something I can use. Find out how many words are in each post you make.
Give your pictures captions
Let people know what your picture is about.
Fantastico doesn’t have it yet, though, and I’m lazy. I’ll wait. That way, the bugs might be worked out of the new software before I use it. Love that WordPress.
Reading around the blogosphere, I came on a great post at Independent Street, the Wall Street Journal’s blog, entitled “15 Entrepreneur Blogs Worth Reading.”
It states: “The best entrepreneur blogs – and often the most successful ones — do more than just promote the entrepreneurs or their projects. Star power can draw attention, but it won’t sustain it if the blog doesn’’t “give.’”
I’ve always figured that. Who wants to read constant sales pitches, hey look at how great I am posts, or reviews of products ad nauseum? For this reason, I always encourage students to use a blog for business, but to put some of your own personality and life into it. Let people know what you’re thinking and what you’re up to.
People like to read about people, not products.
For example, I was at the DMV this morning with my daughter, who needed to take her written driver’s test for her learner’s permit. Yeah. She’s almost 19, but never wanted to learn. Now, it’s a necessity. So, we sat in line and waited…
For the third time!
The first time, she didn’t have a proper “certified” birth certificate. Grr.
The second time, she didn’t know she’d have to take the written portion of the test just to get her permit. Double Grr. OK, so it’s been decades since I went through that. She should have known that yadda, yadda.
But this was the third time we went! And the third time we had to wait in line, and WHEW! This time, she passed.
But what frustration!
So, what if I told that story and then, told you about a product that would help new drivers before they got to the DMV? That showed them everything they needed to know and do before getting their permit and license?
Of course, this stuff varies state-to-state, but this is an example.
This kind of thing is frustrating for everyone! What if I had a magic bullet that would make it smooth as eel skin?
Well… that would be a perfect place to pitch. Now, you’ve given people a story, and you might say, “If YOU have a teenager, you might be interested in this.. before they turn 16.”
You see what I’m getting at? It’s a much more effective way of “showing.” In writing, we call it “showing” when you describe something without description. You lead readers to believe something without actually saying it.
Same thing with marketing. If I want to sell you something, I’m not going to scream, “Hey, buy this!” like a huckster. I’m going to lead you to realize that you want it first and why by illustrating the point.
And that’s what a good entrepreneurial blog does. The 15 in Independent Street’s list are all really incredible at doing that. It’s a post worth checking out.
So, today’s the last day of this awesome conference and I’m totally looking forward to it. First up is Simon Leung, who’s really brilliant. Think we’ll learn something? Hmm… No doubt.
And then, one of the nicest people online and off, Mike Morgan. I finally get to meet him, which was totally cool. I’m so looking forward to the call we’re doing together on June 19 at 8 p.m. EDT. You won’t want to miss that one. He has something very special for my listeners. If you haven’t yet signed up for the teleseminar calls, you can get in under the wire for this one at Blogging4Boomers.com
Anyway, it’s always hard to stop being in conference mode, and get back to the real world, but hey…
Do you know what a very big secret is to getting traffic to your blog on a regular basis?
It’s so simple, you probably haven’t thought about it.
In fact, you may be a pretty casual blogger. You do it when the spirit moves you, right? Or when you have time.
Well…
I’m here to tell you that one HUGE factor in getting traffic to your blog is by posting every single day.
Argh! You think. Easier said than done. What do I write? How will I find the time?
There are two ways you can post to your blog every day and not feel too pinched.
When it comes to the writing of posts, that can be pretty simple. You can read something online and write a post about that. I love to do that. When I find something that’s pretty cool or interesting in my niche, I love to tell people about it. Those are easy posts to make because someone has already given me the material.
Or, you can take a PLR product and break it down into articles that you rewrite. Don’t just slap up the stuff without rewriting first, or it probably won’t do you much good with the search engines. PLR products are sold to tons of customers who may all be using the stuff verbatim. Don’t do it. You’re just tossing out duplicate content.
You can also someone to write blog posts for you. That’s the easiest way yet.
So, let’s say you have content and no time. That’s simple, too.
In WordPress, right in the “Publish Status” box, there’s a phrase that says, “Publish immediately.” And beside it, a link that says, “edit.” When you click that, you can set your post to publish at any time of the day or night on any day of the week, month, or year. It’s really sweet.
So, like you have 5 articles and you have a weekend or a block of time you’ve scheduled in for blog posting. Post all of the articles at once, and set them to go out whenever you like.
In my mind, that would be 5 days, back to back.
Here are the facts…
In April, I had 50% more visitors to my blog because I posted every day. I decided to slow it down a bit in May to see what would happen.
People forget you. People unsub because you’re not adding new content fast enough. There are all kinds of reasons.
Just keep posting, every day, though, and you’ll see an enormous difference in the traffic to your blog, your opt-in numbers, and even your sales.
Come on… It’s really not that tough. Tomorrow, I’ll give you a few more ideas for posting content…
I was over at Blogosphere News today and see that we’re getting yet another upgrade to WordPress–version 2.6, which is due out in August. The changes are interesting, but not sure how awesome. They’re integrating with Google Gears and making it harder to lose posts if your browser crashes and such. I mean, those things are interesting, but… it may be a developer dream. Since I’m not one of those, I’ll withhold judgment until I see the results.
I also watched a video today that was pretty interesting from Michael Gray of GrayWolf’s SEO Blog
He says that it’s best to make your blog super simple for the GoogleBot. Well, we knew that, but here’s something I never thought of. (And Duh… shame on me.) Michael says that when you’re choosing a category for your post, it’s best to keep it in ONE category, not two or three or the “very bright for a 5-year-old” GoogleBot may think that you have dupe content on your blog.
Well…
We all know that’s bad.
I’m going back and changing the posts that I just had to add categories to for my readers’ sake.
But, then, who needs readers?
I mean, I want to be a good SEO person and do all the right SEO stuff and make the Google ghods love me, but hey…
The audience is really what matters, eh?
From here on, I may try to keep my categories singular.
I don’t mean, do you chirp like a bird or talk inanely until your lips fall off? I mean, do you belong to Twitter?
Well…
Why not? It seems kind of silly to be “following” the activity of people, but I follow some pretty cool people, like Brad Fallon and his “Free Line Report” and Paul Colligan, podcasting journalist. So, when I go to Twitter, I can see just what’s up.
I get a Twitter from Brad daily, and if you’re interested in Web 2.0, the Free Line report is pretty cool. Takes just a minute to watch and keeps you up on the 2.0 news.
Paul Colligan posts to Twitter about a gazillion times a day. I try to stop by the stuff I’m really into, and keep the other stuff for later. There are just so many hours in the day!
I keep one open for education, usually first thing in the morning. It’s a “Tellman” thing. He says, “One hour of education; one hour of implementation.” It really works, and because of that bit of encouragement, I learn something new about our online world of glittery gems at least once per day.
But anyway, Twitter is so cool that some guy named James Buck, a graduate student in journalism from the University of California-Berkeley was arrested last month in Mahalla, Egypt while covering an anti-government protest. He just had enough time to Twitter “arrested” and his Twitter followers both here and in Egypt contacted the U. S. consulate to help him. How cool is that? James was freed and his one-word “Tweet” of “Free” was the next message he sent along. CNN even reported on it.
So, see? Twitter is useful.
And with folks following you and reading your blog and such, and some signing up for your list, it’s the best of all worlds.
40 + Videos to Show you How-to, Step-by-Step
Love that WordPress.
