StayOnSearch » Blogging

Must Have Firefox Plugin for Blog Commenting

Kristi Hines — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:00:34 +0000

If you are like me, you have multiple identities when it comes to blog commenting. I comment with several identities for my own blog, my work, blogs I guest post on, and also my article marketing profiles. As you can imagine, this gets somewhat confusing and exhausting, entering the different information.

Even if you are only commenting for one site, you still may have the need for multiple profiles. For example:

Some sites only allow you to use your real name when commenting.
Some allow you to use keywords as anchor text for your link.
Some allow you to use your name@your keywords via the KeywordLuv plugin.

Easy Comment for Firefox

The Easy Comment plugin for Firefox allow you to enter multiple commenting profiles to switch between when commenting. It will auto fill in your name, email address, and website on standard comment forms that provide those fields.

Once you install the plugin, you will be able to access it in the bottom right corner of your Firefox browser. Simply right click on Easy Comment and select Manage Profiles.

Click on the Create Profile to start entering your commenting identities. Be sure to name each new profile in a way that will be easy to remember.

Then, whenever you are on a blog and ready to comment, simply right click on the Easy Comment and select the profile you want to use. If it is already selected (or you only have one), just click on Easy Comment and it will fill in your information.

The Downside

Unfortunately, this will not work on blogs using any commenting system that requires you to login. But for the rest, you should be able to use it to make your commenting simpler.

Word of Caution

One word of caution. Yes, there is an option to fill in some default comment text as well. But it is never a good idea to use a generic comment on every blog post you visit.

While dealing with a situation where Disqus was duplicating comments, I realized that good comments were ones that are easy to associate with a specific blog post. If I came across one and couldn’t decide which post it belonged to, that was not a good sign.

Your Commenting Toolkit

Do you have a favorite tool or plugin to make blog commenting simpler? Let us know in the comments below!

Using Multiple Blog Monetization Strategies to Increase Your Income

Mark Thompson — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:10:49 +0000

There are many bloggers out there who make a full-time living off of their blog. Of course, like anything, it doesn’t come without a lot of hard work and dedication. How much money you make from your blog is determined by most importantly…traffic! If you have a loyal readership and have tons of traffic, monetizing your blog should be relatively easy. Without traffic, it doesn’t matter how many of these strategies you implement; you won’t make money. Once you have built the traffic, doing things like A/B testing, creating new products, running promos and specials, etc…can increase your conversion rates on the traffic you have already built.

You should also not put all of the ways you make money on your blog in one basket. It is important to diversify your monetization strategy just in case one or two tactics are not performing as well as you thought they would. Also by using various monetization tactics you can test which works best for your blog.

Let’s take a look at the different blog monetization strategies that are available. Even though there are plenty of other ways you can make money from you blog, these are probably the most used.

Product Reviews

One way you can make money is by reviewing a 3rd party product or service. Basically it is where you do a write up of the product or service and describe how it works, it’s features/benefits, who the target audience would be, and how it solves a specific audiences problems. Usually great product reviews will include images, screenshots, demos, videos, or audio that will help the user understand what the product does.

There are a number of websites that bring together advertisers and publishers specific to paid reviews. The most popular include ReviewMe, Pay-Per-Post, and SponsoredReviews.

I should state that if you do decide to go this route, that you should truly believe in the product. It should be a product that you actually use and would recommend to a friend.

Start an Affiliate Program

In order to start your own affiliate program on your blog, you will need to have a product to sell. This will allow others to sign up for your program and start marketing your product(s) for you. The affiliate would then get a cut of how ever many sales they make, that resulted in traffic they drove to your site or landing page. Starting an affiliate program can essentially create an army of marketers working for you, however you only pay them when they produce sales.

Some of the more popular services you can use to setup your affiliate program are ClickBank, Ejunkie, LinkShare, and ShareASale.

Join Affiliate Programs

On the flip side of things, you can become an affiliate for other peoples products and promote them on your site. For everyone that you drive to that site and they purchase, you get a cut. Again if you have a significant amount of traffic and a loyal readership, it should make it easier to get people to purchase products you promote on your blog. Just like paid reviews, you should try to stick with products that you believe in, unless you explain why you don’t like a certain product.

Probably the most popular affiliate programs are the Amazon Affiliate Program, ClickBank, Linkshare and EJunkie. However depending on the site, they can be using one of hundreds of affiliate programs out there. Usually you can find a link in the footer of their site that says “Affiliate” that will explain how to sign-up for their program.

Google Adsense

One of the oldest forms of making money through your blog is through Google Adsense. Basically this is where you add a line of Google Ads on your site that are relevant to the content on the page. For each ad that someone clicks, you get a commission for that click. Depending on the industry your commission on the click will vary.

For savvy website visitors like in the Internet Marketing industry, Google Adsense ads are not as effective because the visitors are aware of what the ads look like. Similar to how peoples eyes have been trained to look away from banner ads, because they have seen them for so long and understand that the banner is just trying to sell something to you.

Sell Banner Ads

Banner ads are fairly simple ways to monetize your blog, however they are usually not as effective in terms of driving traffic to the advertisers website. Some ad networks will work on a PPC model, where you only make money when someone clicks on the banner ad, however others will set flat monthly fee to the advertiser. Some of the more popular ad networks that will help to sell banner ads for your blog are BuySellAds.com, OIO Publisher, and DoubleClick.

Sell Text Links

A topic for debate and a bit grey hat are selling text links on your website. Why it is such a topic for discussion is because people who are looking to manipulate the organic search results by purchasing links on quality websites is seen as unethical. If you feel this way, you can always sell the link and use a NoFollow attribute so that they will not receive the link value.

If you are looking for some text links networks you can try Text Link Ads, Link Adage, Text Links Forum, Text Link Brokers, and BackLinks.com.

Add a Job Board

Another way you can monetize your blog is to add a Job Board. Posting industry specific jobs that are available for your visitors to view and apply to, can be very enticing to Job Recruiters. Normally these type of job boards are cheaper than places like Monster and Career Builder and have a more targeted audience.

A good example is the Job Board that I launched on StayOnSearch. Currently it is free to post a job, so I would encourage any companies who are trying to find qualified Internet Marketers to post their job openings. If you are wondering how I created this job board, I used a WordPress Theme called JobPress, which has all of the functionality built for you.

Create a Membership Section

A way that you can really make a lot of money, but requires the most time and effort is to create a membership section on your site that offers premium content. Only people who pay for the membership will have access to the premium content. Typically this includes additional videos, whitepapers, interviews, podcasts, webinars, etc…that are not offered to a normal visitor.

Some of the top Internet Marketing membership sites include SEO Book, Huomah, and Blog Mastermind.

Create and Sell a Product

You can also stick to being an affiliate and selling other peoples products, however the down side is that you will only get whatever the affiliate decides as the percentage of the sale. If you are serious about making money from your blog, you should really create your own product(s). Creating eBooks, training courses, tangible products, videos, podcasts, etc… are all great ways to make money from your blog.

Keep in mind that when you are creating a product, you should really have a reason as to why people should pay for your content. Since there is so much free content already out there, you need to have a competitive edge and selling point as to why people should spend the money to pay for your content.

Consulting

Offering consulting services can be an easy way to make money. If your blog is meant to educate people on a particular industry, it only makes sense that some of the people reading your content are going to need someone or a company to help with strategy or implementation. Have a section on your blog that talks about your consulting services and how they can contact you.

The Fringe Benefits of Blogging

Mark Thompson — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:00:16 +0000

Throughout the 3 years that StayOnSearch has been around, I didn’t truly see the full value of the fringe benefits that you gain from blogging until recently. Now that the blog is receiving a respectable amount of traffic and has built a loyal readership, there are many more opportunities that come in, that I never have expected.

It’s pretty amazing the doors and opportunities that open up once you have become established.

Sneak Peaks/VIP Access

When a new product or service is in the development stages, many companies will reach out to industry experts/bloggers to get some quality feedback on how they can improve the product/service. This can mean that you get an inside look at a product that is going to hit the mainstream in the near future. By being one of the first people to try out the product/service you can be ready to cover it on your blog before anyone has the chance, giving you the first mover advantage.

Getting a first look before everyone else can sometime also lead to future partnerships and business relationships. If there is a new product that compliments your offerings, you can jump on the opportunity to partner with the company or be the “exclusive carrier” of their product/service.

Free Products/Services

There are new products being developed every day. Of course these products need to be marketed and promoted to become successful. One very powerful way that companies market a new product, is to reach out to bloggers and offer their products for free, in hopes of a positive product review. If you are an influential blogger and you write a positive review about a product that you got free access to, it can mean thousands of dollars in sales for the company.

Improve Your Industry Credibility

As bloggers begin to make their mark in the industry, others will recognize it and position you as one of the experts. Once your readers have thought as you as a leader you will see people contacting you for a number of reasons including:

Conduct an Interview
Contribute to an Expert Poll
Add a Quote from you to use in a Whitepaper or E-book
Invite you to speak at an event/conference

Opportunity to Travel

Even though most people think of bloggers as people who sit at home in front of their computer for 8 hours a day, that is far from the truth. Many bloggers are avid travelers, because of the ability to be able to work from anywhere they want….all they need is an internet connection and computer. By being a full or even a part time blogger, you have more opportunities to set your own schedule and go where you want to go.

Furthermore, many bloggers will be invited to speak at trade shows, conferences, and events, which can turn into a free opportunity to travel and see new cities.

Additional Work Opportunities

Once you have been blogging for a good amount of time and you have gotten your name established in the industry, you will start to see that it is easier to get new opportunities for work. The best part about this, is the opportunities start to come to you, instead of you having to go out and find those opportunities.

Type of Work Opportunities:

Get new speaking engagements
Gain new clients/customers
Partnership Opportunities
Consulting Work

4 Reasons to Provide Video Transcripts

Kristi Hines — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 12:20:03 +0000

More and more often, I am finding blog posts that are nothing more than a video with little to no text details. As video blogging becomes more and more prevalent, I think it is a great time to look at four reasons why video transcripts should be included in the blog posts or pages, as opposed to just including the video itself.

Mobile Visitors May Not Be Able to Watch the Videos

With the rise in smartphone usage, more and more people are starting to browse blogs online, many because they are checking their Facebook, Twitter, or email and clicking on the links, or following links from other blog posts.

Even though many smartphones can get small videos, such as ones from YouTube, to download on their phones, some video sites are not as mobile friendly so the video will not display at all. Or alternatively, the video may be large or the mobile user may be in an area where they do not have a strong signal, so they cannot fully download the video.

In either case, having a transcript along with the video would make it easy for the mobile browser to read the content included in the video.

Visitors May Not Be Able to Listen to the Videos

Many visitors to your blog may not be able to take the time to listen to the video post, such as mobile visitors who can’t listen with the sound up or people at work who many not have headphones or speakers. In these cases, a transcript would also be extremely helpful so they can get the article content.

Visitors May Not Have the Time to Watch the Video

The sad truth is that many people are always in a rush, and they want content to be quick and digestable. If they come to a post with a 10+ minute video that they do not have the time for, the best case scenario is that they will bookmark it for later, but likely, if they can find similar content elsewhere, they will move on and miss out on what you have to offer. By supplying a transcript, the visitor will be able to read parts of the content and then maybe decide that the content is worth dedicating some time to, either now or later, or at least be confident that it is something valuable to comment on or share with others.

Transcripts Provide Additional SEO Value

Pages with lots of text and strategic keyword usage are usually better ranked by search engines as they have content for the crawlers to index. If your post or page only includes a video, there is not much content for the crawlers to use to determine the the value of your page. A transcript can easily provide this content to make the page rank better in search engines.

Why People Do Not Include Transcripts

Although there are obvious benefits to including transcripts with videos, there are also three common reasons that people still choose not to.

They Want to Increase the Video’s Viewing Count and/or the Video is Long

What if you want to have a video with a high viewing count, or the video is simply way to long to fully document by text? The simple solution to both of these concerns, while still getting the benefits of having a transcript, is to include a summary instead of a word by word documentation.

The Video is a Presentation, Demo, or Tutorial

What if the video is not just a discussion, but a presentation, tutorial, or demonstration. There are great examples of video + presentation form transcripts on the Market Samurai software site. If you look at their Introduction to Keyword Research, for example, you can either watch the 8 minute video or you scroll down and view the transcript that includes powerpoint slide images and informative text describing the keypoints.

The Video has No Text

What about photos slideshows, nature scenery, or other videos where there is no speaking? The transcript could simply be a play by play description, such as a description of each photo or notation of a particular event at a certain time in the video.

Tips for Video Transcripts

Want to get the most out of your video transcripts? Just use these simple tips to make your transcripts better for visitors and search engines.

Use Good Formatting

Transcripts, just like long articles, can look a bit overwhelming if proper formatting is not used. Remember to use headers to break up sections, bolding or italicizing to highlight keypoints, etc. to make the transcript easily browsable and readable.

Include Keywords

Make sure that the most valuable keywords and keyword phrases that represent your video are included in headers and bold text for the best search optimization, as well as to help visitors find the information they want the most.

Beyond Blog Posts and Pages

Have you considered leaving a short transcript for videos on video networks such as YouTube and Vimeo? Even though YouTube hides the description, it is all still in the source, providing some text for additional SEO value and information for video viewers who may like the video and want to know more (ie. great place to drop a link to your website, Twitter, etc.).

One favorite of mine that takes advantage of adding viewing tips, additional information about the subject, and links to their site is Kuroshio Sea – a video of the second largest acquarium in the world. Even though the links are nofollowed, I’m sure that out of the 1.7 million views there were people impressed enough to visit his site and follow him on Twitter.

Your Thoughts on Video Transcripts

Do you provide transcripts for your videos on your website, blog, or video channels? Have you seen the difference between posts or pages without a transcript as far as SERPs? What other benefits do you see for including text-based transcripts for your videos?

How To Assemble the All-Star Content Promotion Team

Mark Thompson — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:15:26 +0000

Content promotion is getting to be as important as creating the actual content. I think what people are starting to realize is that just creating great content will only take you so far. This is one of the reasons Social Media and SEO are blending together. You need both to truly see the full value of your content’s potential.

Let’s examine what are the pieces of the content promotion puzzle.

Subject Matter Experts

SME’s are going to be the foundation for your content promotion. Without experts creating the content that you are going to promote, it will never earn the right to be spread socially. Having someone do some research on a topic and whip up a 350 word article is easy, anyone can do that. But to get someone who has the knowledge and real life experience is another story. Being able to think outside the box and add REAL value requires both the know-how and experience.

Social Networking Professionals

So once you have created the content and posted it on your blog, you need to promote it. Usually SMEs are not necessarily the biggest social networkers, so having someone who keeps up with the social world on a daily basis may be a better choice for promoting the content. Ideally it would be nice to have the blogger who actually wrote the content, promote it, but that is not always the case.

PR Contacts

Having good public relation contacts can be a big plus when trying to get other news sources to pick up your story. Many of the popular news outlets have tremendous reach and can deliver some great traffic to your site. Developing relationships with local news sites, industry organizations, trade journals, and key bloggers can stir up buzz about your content very quickly.

Social Bookmarkers

Social bookmarking your own content, can sometimes be seen as negative especially if you are out for just self-promotion. Finding a few people who do this for a living and promote a wider variety of content can be more beneficial. These people are usually more established in places like Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg, and can drive more people to your site if they are the ones promoting your content.

Your Readers!

Probably your most important and loyal promoters are your current readers. Reaching out to your fans and asking them to ReTweet, Share and Promote your content is one of the easiest and most effective ways to promote your content.

The Power Of Stories (To Engage With Your Audience)

Welly Mulia — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 10:00:34 +0000

People love stories. We humans are curious in nature, and by using stories in your marketing messages you can engage with your audience a lot better.

Take the 2 scenarios below for example:

Scenario 1

Susan exclaimed: “Yes! I’ve finally made it!”

After a continuous struggle to lose her weight for the past 6 months, this time Susan has finally managed to lose her fat belly…

But where did that motivation come from?

Exactly 6 months ago, Susan’s long time boyfriend said he wanted to marry her, on the condition that she loses her fat belly within a year.

Scenario 2

Susan’s boyfriend is going to marry her if she can lose that fat belly. 6 months later, she finally did it.

Which One Is More Interesting?

Now you tell me which one is more interesting to you. Which one captures your attention more? If you are like most people, then scenario 1 definitely got your attention more than scenario 2, even though they both contain the same meaning.

When you use stories to engage and connect with your audience, you have a higher chance of connecting with them on a deeper and more personal level. They trust you more both as a person and as a seller (and hence lowering down their resistance unconsciously). This in turn will allow you to sell your products and services easier.

You Can Use Stories To Engage With Your Audience In:

Sales letters
Email Marketing Messages
Blogs

1. Sales Letters

The typical sales letter starts off with a headline followed by sales text or sales video (if you’re doing a video sales letter). The introduction of the sales text or sales video typically talks about how great the author or seller is; how they are currently earning thousands of dollars a day or how they are able to achieve that coveted 6 pack abs.

Now you know why so many sales letter start off their copy with a story. They do so to capture the attention of the visitors and then engage with them afterwards.

2. Email Marketing Messages

While a lot of marketers use stories in their sales letters, VERY FEW use it in their follow up email messages. What they usually do are follow up with their subscribers reminding them of the great benefits and features of their products, or to build relationships with them by offering them yet more valuable content that they can use and apply.

What they do NOT do is tell their story further.

You should go beyond just telling your business story as it relates to your business. You should tell your personal stories too, even if they are not related to your business or to what you are trying to sell to them.

The reason for this is simple.

People buy from those they know, like, and trust. When you share your personal story with them, they get to know you better. While most product sellers or marketers in your field are following up with their subscribers with content and sales messages, you take it one step further. IN ADDITION to doing that, you tell them your personal story to engage with them on a deeper level.

Congratulations! You’ve just differentiated yourself from your competitors.

3. Blogs

Some blogs do not have an “About Me” page, which I SERIOUSLY think is a BIG mistake. Cold visitors land on your blog and are impressed by your blog content. They want to find out more about you but they can’t because you do not have an “About Me” page.

So they leave your blog, never to return again, ever.

You might contest that since they are impressed by your blog they’ll naturally subscribe to the blog’s newsletter. While this may be true, if you were to also provide an “About Me” page that tells who you are (both personally and professionally), your chances of converting visitors to subscribers is going to be higher.

Stories Can Help You (Rather Than Harm You)

A lot of marketers think they shouldn’t include personal information to their audience because they are afraid that their audience might get upset and turned off. As long as you do it within reason (don’t overdo it), telling the personal side of your story can actually help you rather than harm you. After all your audience is humans and humans are curious creatures.

And don’t forget too that people buy from those they know, like, and trust.

What do you have to say about using stories to engage with your audience? Please leave your thoughts in a comment below…

Building Online Relationships: How Do We Do It?

Andrew Rondeau — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 10:00:47 +0000

One of the most important success factors for your blog is going to be how you go about building relationships. Getting people to check in with you regularly is crucial if your blog is going to thrive and flourish. It can seem daunting when you first consider how to go about getting a strong following, but the following tips should support you in building up your reader list and reaching your target audience effectively.

Link your Blog to your Other Activities

A blog can stand alone, but if you really want to use it to its best advantage, link it in to other things. Promote it on your service website if you have one, and print the URL on business cards and promotional material. Add the address on the bottom of your e-mail signature to encourage people you make contact with to log in and read what you have been up to.

Respond With Great Customer Service

Business is completely dependent on good service, and nothing speaks more powerfully about your commitment to customer service than being polite online. Deal with queries and comments quickly when they come in to you, so that people understand you are responsive and value their input. If you can help people in any way, then do. Consider this an ongoing investment for your business – be proactive with people, and they’ll come back to you when they’re looking for someone to do business with. This has happened to me many times. Someone asks me a question. I spend time answering and they end up being a client.

Invite Feedback

Relationships take two people to exist. This is important to remember when it comes to building up your readership. Ask for feedback all the time on your site, what you have written, and your service. This demonstrates that you are flexible and open to improvements and enhancements in line with the feedback you get from your customers.

In some ways, feedback will be your most valuable tool when it comes to developing your business, as it provides a form of free consultancy from the people you need to hear from – your service users.

Listen To Your Critics

Don’t be afraid of criticism – it’s a great mechanism for understanding how you can improve. Welcome negative comments just as you would positive, as they hold the same value in terms of evaluating your progress.

Criticism isn’t necessarily being offered out of malice – it could be that something about your blog jars with people, so it’s good to hear that and change things about until you’re satisfied you’ve addressed the issues.

Write Regularly

This is a no-brainer. Keep your blog regularly updated or people will stop visiting it!

Only adding to your blog every now and then is the equivalent of staying quiet in a conversation – it alienates people and suggests that you are not dedicated to your business.

Be Personable

Just as in real life, good online relationships depend on you being likable and personable. Basics such as avoiding swearing and keeping away from updates in poor taste are important. Writing with good grammar and clear language is the equivalent of speaking in a nice voice – it makes your blog more readable, and encourages people to engage with your writing.

Ask Open-Ended Questions and Request Comments

Finally, this is one of the most important elements of blogging. Ask people for input. It can be demoralizing to keep posting on your blog without any input, as it feels as if you are writing for nothing. By asking open questions and inviting comments, you gain reassurance that you have an audience, while gaining lively and interesting input to your blog. Your readers will feel that you value their opinion, and you’ll gain much more satisfaction from a two-way communication process.

How do you build on-line relationships? Share your views in the comments below.

5 Benefits of Blogging from a Junior SEO Analyst

Tola Famakinwa — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:00:37 +0000

I’ve been in the SEO blogging industry long enough to know that though there is a difference between being a SEO Consultant/Analyst/Executive and a Blogger, they pretty much go hand in hand. I like to think I’m a combination of both, a hybrid if you like and it definitely does have it’s benefits. During the day I work as a Junior SEO Analyst and at night I blog. I like to believe there are a lot of benefits to being a hyrbid and here are some of the benefits I’ve observed:

1. Gather your thoughts

When it comes to SEO there are no hard and fast rules. Sure there are the general rules and guidelines, but everyone has their opinion and ‘algorithm’ by which Big Gee ranks websites. A SEO Blogger has the opportunity to gather opinions (read other SEO blogs) and put down personal thoughts and thereby form an opinion which you can stand on. After all, you can’t always be a follower. Even if you’re a follower, you really don’t want to follow blindly; know and understand why you’re following that particular leader.

2. Documentation and Progress Report

Personally, I use my SEO blog to develop myself and my SEO skills. There’s so much to learn and sometimes you can actually get carried away so I try to document my progress and what I’ve learnt. Funny enough, I recently read some of my first posts and smiled because I could see the amateur in me writing. I’m not saying I’m an SEO expert now, but I have definitely come a long way from where I started and those posts can attest to it.

3. Experiment with Ideas

I see a lot of people using their blogs to experiment on various SEO ideas. Sadly, I haven’t done much of this except for the occasional keyword targeting and anchor tagging, hopefully this will change soon. Other than that, I use my general understanding of SEO to market blogs and client websites. The benefit of experimenting on your personal blog first is if it goes haywire, you only have yourself to answer to and not your client and/or boss.

4. Further Clarification and Reference

Something I seem to be doing more of these days is rewriting someone’s work in my words (with references of course) and the way I understand it. I enjoy doing this for articles I find useful but currently do not need. I don’t always publish articles like this unless I’ve been able to actually derive something new from it. This way I believe it gives you a bit understanding of the idea or methodology. It also makes that idea sticks better because you have put it down in words. Sort of like doing an assignment yourself, you remember it better!

5. Market Yourself

I think this is one of the most obvious reasons for blogging in any industry, not just SEO. When you run a blog for your industry of choice, it shows you are interested in that industry and not just looking to do a job. It shows you have a passion for it , a willingness to learn and put in extra hours, not just because you have to but because you want to. That zeal can actually get you a great job(s) or client(s).

These are some of the benefits I’ve found blogging in the SEO industry. Sometimes it’s not all about your traffic volume going up (although that is always nice!) and making money from your blog. It’s also about personal development and helping other people like yourself, which I hope to do with my SEO blog. And who knows, somewhere along the line, I just might get a big break from it! What about you? What are the benefits you’ve found with personal blogging in your industry? Is it worth it? Would you encourage other people to do it?

Download Now: 6 Free eBooks to Make Money Online

Mark Thompson — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:30:46 +0000

Over the past 6 months I have been interested in learning more about affiliate marketing and making money online. So I started reading a number of awesome blogs that are dedicated to exact that. I am paid for a number of eBooks, some good, some bad…but I have found some free eBooks that are just as good or better than the ones I have purchased. Everyone should take a few minutes and download these books if you are interested in Affiliate Marketing, Driving Site Traffic and Generating Multiple Streams of Income.

Zac Johnson: Six Figure Affiliate Blogging

Zac Johnson’s affiliate blog is one of the best resources for making money online through blogging, site promotion, and affiliate marketing. The eBook he is giving away for free explains all of his secrets on how you can make a six figure income by blogging and marketing affiliate products. This is a great roadmap for creating a brand, driving traffic and replicating the process.

John Chow: Blog Profit Camp

Basically the king of Affiliate Marketing, John Chow provides the Ultimate Blog Profit Model to create the greatest money making machine. John explains his process for how he makes $40.000/month and you can to. This eBook goes into details on beginner blogger tips, wordpress tips, content generation, and loads of monetization ideas.

The Launch Coach: Launch Coach Library

Dave Navarro, aka the Launch Coach offers a number of free PDF downloads that give you tips for launching a product and making money. Everything from a product launch checklist, to generating multiple revenue streams, to marketing your products.

Blog Mastermind: Blog Profits Blueprint

Yaro Starak talks about how to earn $5,000/month from your blog with working as little as 2 hours per day. In his eBook, Blog Profits Blueprint he teaches important skills in order to build multiple streams of income by marketing products through your blog.

Winning The Web: Proven Internet Marketing Strategies

The Winning Way is a 118 page eBook jam packed with awesome content including a checklist of 500+ proven Internet Marketing strategies. Gyutae Park talks about lots of ways to drive traffic and increase your visibility on the web, including:

Optimize your website like the SEO pros without having to pay thousands of dollars for consulting.
Discover creative new ways to build links that drive huge amounts of traffic and catapult your search rankings in Google.
Explode your blog readership and gain a loyal following of fans who give you your undivided attention.
Generate traffic through little-known strategies in social media, local search, PPC, multimedia, and guerilla marketing.
Finally monetize your traffic and make money online – your first step towards financial freedom.
And much much more, all for FREE.

DailyBlogTips: Make Money Blogging

The free eBook titled simply, Make Money Blogging is a compilation of Daniel Scocco’s experiences with blogging to make money.

What the Book Covers:

The three mistakes that bloggers make when choosing a niche.
The three characteristics of good content.
Why your content strategy should have one cornerstone.
The two factors that create magnetic headlines (and how to apply them).
A deadly mistake that bloggers make when designing their blogs.
Practical tips that you can use to network efficiently.
A promotional strategy that most people forget to use.
The two requirements for making money with Google AdSense.
The best trick available to make money with CPM deals.

How to Optimize an E-mail Generating Newsletter

Jacob Barnes — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 12:00:55 +0000

It’s easy to understand why a newsletter is so imperative to a site’s growth. By getting subscribers, you turn random readers into potential customers and, if nothing else, consistent readers. However, the most difficult part is getting people to sign up for your newsletter. Once they’ve signed up, you can begin the slow process of converting them into loyal readers. If they’re not signed up, though, they can just as easily leave the site and never return.

Knowing how to optimize your email collecting newsletter is very important to ensure that the maximum number of people sign up. While this guide is far from complete, it does provide a basis for you to experiment with and expand on. When dealing with anything on a website, experimentation is the best way to ensure that you’ve found the right method.

Give Something Away For Free

One of the things that has popped up a lot on blogs is people giving away free e-books with the hope of getting people to sign up for their newsletter. They write an e-book, hook it up to their newsletter software and then when someone signs up, they get the e-book delivered to them. This is a really great way to get people to sign up because it gives them an incentive. Just saying, “sign up” won’t persuade them to. But, giving them something for signing up might do the trick. People love stuff. That’s just a fact of life.

The problem many people have is that they don’t know what to write an e-book on. That’s the easy part. Compile blog posts and put them together into an e-book. For example, if you owned a site on self help, you could make a “Overcoming Obstacles in Your Work Life” e-book and compile all your blog posts that were on that topic. You’d organize them so that they went in a good order, edit them to get rid of grammar and add images so that it looked even better.

Once you’ve made the e-book, create an auto-respond email so that, once the reader confirms they want to be a part of the newsletter, they get it. Attached to the auto-respond email should be the e-book. This way, they can get a great thank you page from you and, more importantly, get the e-book that they wanted.

You didn’t have to do very much work because you had already written the e-book and now you’ve got someone following your newsletter. The argument here is that people will unsubscribe once they get the e-book. This is a possibility and will happen with some people, but many more will stay.

Offer Many Ways to Sign Up

Different people respond well to different things. One of the most powerful methods of gaining sign ups is the pop-under. This is a sign in form that appears after a certain amount of seconds to every new visitor that comes to the site. By having the e-book made available, a new visitor can see an easy way to get something free right away and then sign up.

However, the problem is, some people don’t react well to that. They click out of it immediately because they don’t want to be bothered by pop-ups. But, you still want them to become a newsletter subscriber. Therefore, add a second section for them to sign up. Typically, this is found near the top of the website below the header. Or, it can be on the sidebar near the top. Regardless, create a section where they can sign up for your newsletter and show them that the e-book can be obtained from there.

In the end, a newsletter is an incredible way to turn new visitors into consistent readers and then, hopefully, customers. However, you have to provide numerous different ways for readers to sign up for it. Otherwise, you’re going to miss out on potential customers. And remember, this is just the tip of how to optimize a newsletter. There are so many more things to consider, but as mentioned above, anything pertaining to internet marketing is all about experimentation, practice and hopefully, perfection.

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