Are You Building a List With Your Blog?

By Shannon T. Herod

Blogging is a great way to build traffic to your website and also build great relationships with your potential customers and clients. But, are you monetizing that traffic to the fullest extent?

There are many different ways to monetize the traffic that you are getting to a blog, but the absolute best way, in my opinion, is building a list.

When you build a list with your blog, you are not only setting yourself up for long-term profits, but you are building an instant traffic stream whenever you need it.

When you are building a blog, your day-to-day efforts concentrate on building traffic. That is all good and we all need to do that, but there comes a time where you need to stop working on building traffic and start working on long-term traffic.

In my opinion, the best long-term traffic model is building a mailing list. With an opt in mailing list you can send one e-mail and send a boatload of traffic wherever you want.

Now I will reveal to you the top three locations to build subscribers to your mailing list.

1. Using a hover ad. This is simply a box that will drop in or pop up in your visitors browser with your opt in message.

2. In the sidebar. You can set up a quick and simple message in the sidebar of your blog with an opt in box. This is the easiest way and what most people use.

3. Under each post. This is one of the best ways in my opinion, but one of the more difficult to set up. This is where underneath each post you have an opt in box with an offer to get people to sign up for your list.

These are the three techniques I personally use on my blog to build an opt in list. You can see an example live by going to my make money online blog.

Once you start building a list from your blog you will quickly realize how valuable that list is. Don't wait, start building your list today.

Next, discover the secret game plan to making thousands online. I have revealed a Step-by-Step formula to making a fortune online. Grab your FREE Internet Marketing CD now and make Your Very First Dollar in thirty days or less!

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5 Reasons You Should Use Wordpress

By Neil Bergh

The five best reasons why you should use wordpress

I have started many blogs and I always seem to return to wordpress after trying something else. And here are the five reasons why I think wordpress is the best blogscript today.

1. The plugins.

Wordpress has so many plugins that you can download for free. The installation is very easy just upload the plugin and activate it om your site. Whatever you need, you can be sure that there is some plugin that can help you.

2. The Themes.

Most people want to customize their blog. There are literally thousands of different themes out there with one column, two columns, pink or black whatever you want.

3. The possibility to autoping

Many scripts probably have this possibility, but if you use some of the free bloghosts you probably have to ping yourself after each post. It just saves time and makes your life easier.

4. Trackback

I like the trackback feature. If I link to a post in another blog that use wordpress, wordpress will automatically make a comment in the post I linked to.

5. The overall simplicity

Wordpress is extremely user friendly. If you use cpanel you can install wordpress by just one click at your site. After that you are pretty much ready to go if you don't care about changing themes. You don't have to know anything about computers to set up a wordpress blog. When it's installed you just log in to your wordpress panel which also is extremely easy to use.

For more guides check out my new article: the top 3 wordpress plugins you must have.

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The Niche Blogger - What to Look For in a WordPress Theme

By Sebastian Vandershunt

With all the competition out there among niche blogs, there is more to getting and retaining readers, and profiting from your traffic than just your content. If you decide to become a niche blogger, you will quickly realize that the design of your wordpress theme plays a large role in the success of your blog. Here's a quick list of the things I look out for in a WordPress theme:

1)Reader Friendly - The overall layout must be one that is very reader friendly. I don't want my visitors to spend more than a few seconds figuring out where important information is found on the page. The key sections should stand out from the rest of the niche blog content and menu options.

2)Number of Columns - This is totally dependent upon the niche blogger and his/her preferences. I often prefer to use a 3-column wordpress theme. This setup allows many of the site navigation widgets to be in the far right column, and the ads/banners/intro text in the column directly right of the main page content.

3)Header Friendly - A header can quickly help to brand your niche website in the minds of your visitors. If they can put a picture next to their image of your blog in their head, then they are more likely to become a repeat reader. This will definitely help increase profit from such traffic as repeat visitors are more likely to trust you and thus will have an lower threshhold for buying from your site or affiliate links.

4)SEO Optimization - This is perhaps the most important factor that I consider when choosing a niche blogger WordPress theme. SEO optimization is what will help increase your blog's value to the search engine. Some blogs are very well designed to help increase the number of on-site backlinks to your homepage. Things to look out for are the text headings and tagline. If they are missing, then skip right by that theme and find one with better default SEO optimization strategies.

5)Speed of loading - You only have a few seconds to capture the attention of new visitors to your niche blog. If that time is wasted waiting for the site to load, they may rush to the "back" button and never actually read a word on your site. Any WordPress theme you are are considering must load very quickly. Remember, a significant percentage of internet users still use dialup to access webpages.

Now that you know what to look for in your next niche blog's WordPress theme, you may still be looking for information on how to research and develop the content of your blog. Sebastian Vandershunt has setup a free informational site tracking his progress of starting a niche blogger empire. He shares every step he takes and invites you to follow along at squidoo.com/thenicheblogger

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How to Improve Entrecard Traffic in 3 Easy Steps

By Keith Goodrum

Wait... I can already hear what you're thinking. Entrecard is just a new version of cheap traffic exchange. Yeah, it will create a spike in your traffic. But all that traffic will be junk traffic. Other bloggers just hop in, drop their card and zoom off to the next blog. A total waste of time.

Let me ask you this...

Would you be surprised to discover that if done right, you can increase the quality of the traffic landing on your blog from Entrecard?

Well, in this article I'm going to show you 3 specific steps you can take that will have a direct impact on the quality of traffic you get from Entrecard. It can be done.

Let's take a look at 3 steps to improving Entrecard traffic quality.

1. Drop in categories related to the subject of your blog - First of all traffic from Entrecard is not junk traffic. It's just unfocused traffic. Unfocused traffic will fly in, drop and dash. However you can avoid that by dropping cards in categories that match up to the subject of your blog. These are people who are interested in the same things as you are. When they reciprocate your drop, they are more likely to stick around and check out your blog.

2. Drop upon those who drop upon you - Make sure you return drops to people who come to your blog & drop their cards. "But, wait didn't you say to only drop on blogs with similar subjects." You're right I did say that, thanks for pointing that out. I use to drop on anyone who would drop a card on my blog. But, then I realized to get better quality of traffic I should only return drops on blogs with similar subjects.

3. Buy ads on other blogs in similar catagories - The credits you build up by dropping need to be spent on buying a 125X125 ad on other blogs. To get better quality traffic make sure you buy ads from similar blogs. I would ignore the adivce from others telling you to buy all the cheap ads. You will get your ad out to more places, but your traffic quailty will drop like a stone. Remember, you want people coming to your blog who are interseted in your content.

As you can see following these 3 steps can improve the traffic from Entrecard. You might not get tons of traffic from there, but the traffic will be more focused. And more focused traffic means more interaction, better readership and more sales.

Now get out there and take advantage of improved Entrecard traffic.

Want to discover even more blog traffic secerts? My name is Keith Goodrum. I invite you to head on over to http://www.zerotoheroblog.com and grab your free ebook detailing how I took my blog from zero visitors to over 10,000 unique visitors a month. It's easy once you know the right steps to take.

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How to Be a Good Blog Citizen

By Keith Goodrum

The blogosphere can have a tremendous impact on a blog. One list blogger writing about your blog can send thousands of visitors to you. So can several bloggers from the next level, or even a bunch of smaller blogs. Getting people to want to write about you in such glowing terms has a lot to do with how you establish yourself as a good citizen of the blogosphere.

Here's the number one rule of being a good blog citizen. Give with the expectation of receiving nothing in return. That's right figure out how you can help other people, and show that you care. You just need to get involved in the community. How you may ask? Well, it simple... blog about other bloggers. Your blog is your best tool to help other bloggers.

Here Are Five Things You Can Do to Help Out Fellow Bloggers...

1.One of the things you can do is have lots of outbound links to other blogs. Talk about what they wrote, and send readers over there to check it out for themselves. I like to use trackbacks for this purpose.

2.Promote other bloggers offers without always having an affiliate link. I'm not telling you to abandon affiliate marketing. What I'm telling you is to promote other bloggers offers even if they don't have an affiliate program.

3.If you have a product or service to offer... why not give it to another blogger who is having a contest. You are adding value to their contest, which is something a blogger will appreciate.

4.Offer to be a guest blogger. This is a great way to help out other bloggers. Original content is something every blogger is on the look out for. Take one of your best posts haven't published and give it to another blogger to use on their blog. You help them out by providing content. It becomes one less thing for the blogger to worry about for at least a day.

5.Read and comment on other blogs. This shows you are paying attention to what others are writing about. Make sure you are adding to the conversation. Participate in the community. Bloggers like to see people commenting about the subjects they are writing about.

These are a five ways I found that will help you establish yourself as a good blogosphere citizen. You will be helping out other bloggers, and that will help with your reputation.

One word of caution here... Don't think because you are a new blog you won't be able to help. This is far from the truth. Now if you aim for only "A" list bloggers then it will be hard for you to get noticed. The "A" list bloggers receive dozens if not hundreds of people contacting them daily; and it will be easy for you to go unnoticed.

Instead, I encourage you to focus on the bloggers who are at the next level or two up from you. They are the bloggers who are most likely to notice, and appreciate your help. This gives you the best chance of building relationships, and becoming activity involved with the community.

Want to discover even more blog traffic secerts? My name is Keith Goodrum. I invite you to head on over to http://www.zerotoheroblog.com and grab your free ebook detailing how I took my blog from zero vistors to over 10,000 unique visitors a month. It's easy once you know the right steps to take.

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Traffic Tactics For Your Blog

By Brett Schaefer

Use the right software

Selecting the right software for blogging can go a great way in making you stand out among the crowd. Custom blog software would be very useful, since users can customize it themselves.

Blog hosting

Always host your blog on your own domain. If you place your blog on another domain, it may not be able to attract public attention, build confidence, and improve rating in search results. So using a different domain is the biggest mistake one can ever make.

Title tag

Whenever you put a title tag, make sure that it is relevant to the subject matter, and is not just a random one. You put a title to attract your visitors, so ensure that it is short, and snappy.

Article marketing

Notwithstanding which area of article marketing for your blog you have ventured into, there are many public forums for that topic, which you must actively participate in. There are quite a few online communities, where you can post messages or initiate a discussion to increase your visibility, and attract a huge community of people to your website.

Tagging

Tagging is very important. You can visit Technorati for this purpose. If you have many tags on your page, then it will show in the search results.

Technorati

Testing Technorati is extremely important. You must notify Technorati whenever you have made a comment on a blog. For this purpose, you will need to ping Technorati, or else, you may take the help of Ping-o-matic, which automatically alerts Technorati whenever a comment is posted by you.

Boosting blog's visibility

To increase your and your blog's visibility, it has become clear that commenting on other people's blog is extremely important. But a primary concern is that you must comment on a subject which you are comfortable with. You need to search to get across a proper blog where your comment will be appreciated.

WTF at Technorati

Bloggers are allowed to comment on why few of the topics are a hot favorite. This can be done on a Technorati feature known as WTF.

Rate and ranks

Technorati can rate and rank any blog, based on the links to the blog. That is, your blog will get a higher ranking if other blogs link to your blog.

Blog commenting

Commenting on other blogs has also become important because others will then comment on your blog. A blog becomes dry and dull if there are no comments on it.

Choose your blog topics

There are people who simply join in the bandwagon without much knowledge on what it is all about. If there is some great news about something related to your industry, it does not necessarily mean that you should jump to cover it, or even mention it. Yes, that does help to increase your popularity, and sharing something is always good. But if you don't feel the need for doing it, simply leave it!

Intelligent linking

If you link things in your blog, then do so in an intelligent manner. Don't link each and every issue that you want to, but maintain a fine balance between linking important topics. Both under-linking, as well as over-linking, are not good. So conventions and creativity should be used only when the circumstances so warrant.

Invite contributors

You may invite a famous person to contribute something to your blog. It may be something that he specializes in, but that will surely add sheen to your blog. by doing so, other people become aware that you have an association with famed people, and invariably, your blog will get more hits. Also, the celebrated person will feel flattered on the status you provide him or her.

Interaction

Make your blog interactive. Mere textual data becomes monotonous after a point of time. So use graphics, images and charts to make the blog appealing to the readers.

Provide answers!

Whatever niches you might be in, there are always some questions whose answer remains vague. So you can focus on those important issues and provide a concrete answer for those questions.

Tracking visitors

Software which tracks visitors can analyze the areas most frequented by visitors, the ones which hardly get any hits, etc. so these vital information can be used for betterment of your blog. Feedburner is very good for RSS purpose.

Charisma

Online, as well as offline, charisma is always valued. The voice presenting something in a blog is extremely important, as people appreciate honesty, compassion, empathy and other emotions associated with it.

Proper archives

Proper archives need to be maintained. Sorting them out date-wise or subject-wise always helps. Generally, archives must include every article that has ever been posted on the blog, but from the usability point of view, you can just link interrelated topics in a blog post.

Blog URL

URL's are also important as it gives the readers a view of what lies on that page. The best URL's should be short, but having enough information regarding the content of that webpage.

Sharing information

An open source on the internet is always welcome. Sharing private information on the internet is always considered a good marketing strategy.

Don't go overboard

If you over-market all your blog posts, negative sentiments will prevail. So be cautious on this front.

Link bait

Capitalize on linkbait, if you have got it. Your website needs to be very much presentable if it hits the front page of Reddit, Digg or any other place where a constant flow of visitors will be ensuing.

Writing style

Your readers will personally take your style of writing and your focus on subjects. If you constantly modify that style, you will disappoint those segments of people who rely on you for that subject or style.

Branding tool

Building a brand is very important. A good brand is one which people feel pride associating themselves with, so such a brand must be built.

Blog submission

Blog submission to blog directories is very important. BlogCatalog.com, blogarma.com and bloggernity.com are some famous blog directories.

Yahoo feed

You must create a feed on Yahoo! This option is available under the "My Yahoo!" tab.

Google Adwords

Google Adwords is expensive, but a great marketing tool nonetheless. A low-cost option is also available with them.

Blog name

If you can, buy a domain name for the blog, which costs about $10 annually. You won't even have to shell out money for hosting.

Frequency of blog posts

Regularly update your blog.

Signatures

Make it a habit to use signatures. Put a link of your blog in your signature, and use it while sending emails, posting on forums, etc.

Brett Schaefer has been involved in Internet Marketing for a number of years and writes on a variety of topics. If you're interested in learning how to monetize your blog then visit http://www.AtomicBloggingWorld.com

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