Blogging

Many people stop at the idea of blogging simply because the technical aspects of how to do it get in the way – and the money.  Well, blogging can be completely free if you use a platform like http://blogger.com or http://tumblr.com (and there are several other free blogging platforms, as well).

If, however, you truly want to create an authority site and move toward a monetization or referral model, it’s always best to use something other than a free platform.  I know you’re thinking – “Sure, it always comes down to money…”  Well, you will have to spend money on a domain name (about $11), and about $5-10 per month for hosting.  Overall, that’s fairly cheap. (For discounts on both, check out our RESOURCES page.)

Now you’re just left with the issue of how to do it.

I have some great news for you!  Glen Allsop of ViperChill.com is just beginning a new completely free program where he will teach you to start a very successful blog from scratch.  Yep, at no cost.  Glen is one of the best bloggers on the Internet today, and he’s also a super nice guy.  He’s passionate about blogging and he loves to share a ton of information about marketing and blogging absolutely free on his blog, http://Viperchill.com.

If you want to follow Glen’s new Blogging Case Study, where he teaches someone how to start a blog and successfully monetize it all within 6 months, head over to http://BloggingCaseStudy.com and sign up.  There no cost now – or ever.  It’s really just free and an amazing opportunity to learn from a great guy and very successful blogger and business person.

I’m participating because I take every opportunity that I can to learn from Glen, and the few training programs that he charges for, I’ve purchased.  He holds nothing back, teaches authenticity, ethics, marketing, and good blogging and Internet principles.  I highly recommend any and all of his work, and wanted you to know about his new Blogging Case Study project.

Join me at http://BloggingCaseStudy.com. If you decide to join in, let me know (comment!).  I’d love to follow your progress and I’m happy to help answer any questions you may have.

The contest starts on October 26 midnight and ends on October 29 at midnight.

It’s an easy and fun contest with great prizes – even for just participating. (And how hard can it be to Facebook like or retweet something?!) There will be total 5 lucky winners and each winner will receive a free copy of Subscribers magnet with life time updates and not to worry if you didn’t win. All participants will receive 30% discount on Subscribers magnet.  This is one of those “win-win” contests – love it!

It’s super easy to enter in the contest. You simply have to gain points by doing a few quick things to share about the contest and then write “I did it” on comment with the actions that you took. That’s it. Gaining point is really as easy as 1-2-3.

If you can click “facebook like”, retweet, write a blog post review, etc., then you’ll gain point according to the actions (facebook like, retweet, blogpost review etc..) that you took. Each action has a different point value.

Like most contest, the more points you gain, the higher chance for you to win.  Easy-peasey.

Best of all – a Winner is announced every day on the Maxblogpress blog.

Hurry up!  Don’t miss out on this chance to share a great product and potentially win! Once again, the contest contest will end on 29th Oct at Midnight and discount will expire on 2nd Nov at midnight.

Visit the link below to participate in the contest:

http://www.maxblogpress.com/blog/290/maxblogpress-subscribers-magnet/

SEOPressor is a simple yet effective tool that is used by people all over the world (literally) for their on-page optimization needs.  This is a program that will easily elevate the SEO standards and ranking of your website.  (Yes, I own it and I LOVE it. You can click the SEOPressor image below if you wish to check it out further.)

The premise is that if your website can reach out to more people, it will have more business, and that’s exactly what SEOPressor helps you achieve.  It has helped many get their niche site to the first page of Google and when this happens, it’s a given that your business prospects are going to improve and increase.

SEO is a highly time-consuming activity, and it can be incredibly costly.  If you try to do it manually you’ll find yourself investing a huge amount of time in blogging, marketing with articles, submitting to directories, sending emails to other webmasters for sharing links with them and on and on and on. (Yes, I’ve been there!)

Now just think—if you could just delegate all this work to a tool like SEOPressor – won’t you be saving an incredible amount of time?  Time that you could better use in increasing your business, or putting up more niche site, or implementing a CRM program?

Here’s a list of some time-consuming things that SEOPressor can do for you:

1. It finds out the hottest keywords on the Internet and tells you how you can use them. It keeps monitoring the keywords and continuously makes suggestions on what you can change. It also tells you what density you should use the keyword in and what special formatting you need to keep it. All these things could be very time-consuming if done manually – and a lot of guess work.

2. The program also looks at the tags you have used and makes suggestions on how to improve prospects. It makes suggestions on which tagging formats should be used—H1, H2 or H3—and carries it out by itself.

3. If you run a blog, SEOPressor will look at your individual posts and suggest changes if anything is wrong. It also tells you the value of each of your existing posts with a unique rating system based as closely to G’s algorithms as one can get.

So, this program isn’t just about optimizing your on-page needs — it is also about actually suggesting changes.  Whether you have a small business or large business, one website or many, SEOpressor is an incredible tool that will help your SEO ranking.

Buy SEOpressor:

Blogging will help you inject a little character into your business. Too many vendors feel they need to create conventional, professional sales pages so as to make any sales. You could have even hired a professional copywriter to help you create a page to influence visitors to buy from you. Blogging is really a lot less formal and you can introduce yourself to the prospective buyers who’ll be purchasing your goods. Your product sales will grow if your site visitors understand a lttle bit about you as a person. Blogging is the easy path to online marketing. Please don’t make the mistake of believing that you must be great article writer to be able to create content on your web site because you don;t have to be. Moreover, as your blog begins to grow in popularity, you can outsource the writing duties to other people in exchange for a link to their site or a few dollars. Another smart thing to do is to use outside agencies for your article writing to capable writers in order to have more time for you to come up with fresh ideas and monitor your current business’. Growing a blog is definitely easier than you think when there are crowds of people who’ll also gain from contributing articles to your blog, so let them do it. You can discover more about SEOLinkVine at Kieran Cales IM blog.

You can also use blogging to generate more back links to other sites you have. Many internet marketers may recommend that you have a separate blog for each individual product, although it’s possible to make use of one blog to showcase all of your products. Through using the sidebar, or post footer and header ads, you can add links to as many other sales pages as you would like. This can build up the number of links you have to those pages, which usually means they rank higher in the major search engines. You’ll also be raising your authority with such sites as technorati and alexa, both sites that may turn out to be crucial later if you wish to sell your sites. There are numerous reasons why online marketers really need to blog. Blogging attracts visitors to your blog that are interested in your products or services. You come in contact with people who can have a really beneficial effect on your business. Yet again, imagine having fun while at the same time creating a considerable cash flow.

Blogging is a terrific way to be innovative even if other people are urging you to be formal. By now it ought to be apparent just how important a blog is in helping you reach the next level of revenue. There is always something which is so versatile and powerful that people simply don’t take advantage of; blogging is one of them.

You might also be interested in reading SEOLinkVineTurbocharges Your Article Marketing

To quote CMP.LY:

“provide a simple and easy method for you to disclose material connections you have with the entity providing goods and services about which you publish content.

Cmp.ly disclosures follow a standard naming convention that is easy for readers to understand and can be used for disclosures in print, online, SMS, tweets or other digital communications.”

My disclaimer:  I am recommending this site because I appreciate the service they provide.  With that said, I am not saying that it will fully satisfy the FTC’s regulations.  For that, PLEASE consult your attorney!   I found CMP.LY to be very useful and helpful, and for that reason I am sharing it with you, my readers.

CMP.LY was created  in response to a continued push for transparency and honesty in blogging and within social media and digital communications.   Personal transparency and honesty are huge for me, and both strongly impact my associations and relationships.

CMP.LY has made the ease with which you can share these disclaimers both simple and varied.  And for now, this is a free site/service.

I hope you find this helpful.   Either way, I’d love to know what you are thinking.  Please let me know with a comment below.

~Kate

 I journaled as a kid, read voraciously, actually enjoyed English, (I know, I probably shouldn’t admit that!) and have always wanted to write a novel.  Blogging is a natural extension of that for me. 

I get into trouble occasionally because I’m interested in a such a wide variety of topics and subjects, that with a few blogs up and running now, I sometimes find it challenging to blog consistently on each site. 

Here are some of the ways I overcome this challenge.

• I subscribe via Google Reader to my favorite blogs within a topic.  Interacting and staying current within any given field I’m interested in helps inspire and keep me up-to-date.
• I read, read, read.
• I’m implementing Jeff Vacek’s Go Be Productive program into my life.  It has single-handedly made the most  difference in my ability to focus and Be Productive!  =)  (Google him – his program is fantastic!)
• I learn, take classes and update my education.   I believe this is critical to keeping both my mind and blog content fresh and relevant.
• Be Curious.  This might be the most important of all.   When I’m curious about a topic, a perspective different from my own, new information, other opinions, it broadens my perspective and understanding.

Here’s a quote from Oliver Wendall Holmes, “Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.”   I love this!

Please let me know what you think – or share some ideas below.     ~Kate

photo credit: BoneDaddy.P7

Begin with the End in Mind.

Creating a new blog?  One of the most important things you can do when starting a new blog is research.

Research your “niche”, the topic your blog will be focused on and what the market wants.  Sketching out your blog “architecture” or “frame” before you begin will allow you to create a blog that’s both relevant and beneficial…two keys to successful blogging.

If you create a blog that Inspires | Educates | Motivates you will have a successful blog.

Take the time to get to know your niche.  What are people talking about in this niche?  What questions do people have? (You’ll want to provide the answers.)   What are the top blogs in your niche talking about?

Here’s a quick list of how to gather more information in your niche:

1. Social Media Sites.  Visit the top social media sites and search for your particular niche.  Participate.
2. Ehow and Article sites.  Visit Ehow.com and various article sites.  What are people writing about within your niche?
3. Visit YahooAnswers and Wikihow.com.  What questions are people asking, what information are they seeking?
4. Visit Technorati.com and Google.  Find some of the top blogs in your niche and READ.
5. YouTube.  Check out YouTube.com and search for  your niche.  Listen to the top videos and read the comments.

Make notes along the way.  What are the key words used in your niche?  Consider using the key words and related topics as main categories for your blog/blog posts.  Search engines love content that flows and relates to the topic consistently throughout a blog post.   With that said, don’t use the same word repeatedly, that’s considered too spammy.   Use words that relate to each other, for example, “grill” and “barbeque” relate to each other, yet are not the same word.

The research you do now will help you structure both the architecture and initial content for your new blog.

Most importantly, there is no substitute for interest and passion when it comes to blogging.  If you blog about something you like, love, are interested in and /or passionate about, that will come through in your writing.  It will ring true to your readers, and this single factor alone will make a significant difference in the success level of your blog.

Please comment below.  Let me know what you think, and if there are particular questions I can help with!

Thanks, Kate