Courtesy of blog.marginmedia.com.au

Blogging For Income According To Darren

Darren is the brain behind ‘Problogger’ one of the internet’s most prolific sites on ‘how to blog.’ Because having a blog is as essential these days as having something to sell – it’s important to model yours after the experts. You don’t get much better than this guy.

He has his own unique set of money making methods that help him earn an income from his blog. If you ever wondered how the pros do it, here’s how. For Darren Rowse, blogging is about exchanging superb information for income.

The Top Ways To Monetize Your Blog

• Darren admits that every blog is unique, and finding what works best for you is important. That’s why it’s essential to try out as many monetization techniques as possible. You never know which one will bring in the most income.

• To Darren Rowse, blogging monetization begins with Google Adsense. Show image and text-based ads to get clicks, and earn yourself a decent ad income. With these ads the more traffic you can generate from your content, the better off you are.

Courtesy of thehopkinsonreport.com

• The next money-earner is affiliate programs – and Darren runs several on his blogs. When you are a prominent blogger you can endorse certain relevant products, and earn yourself decent money from being an affiliate. Best of all, these products basically sell themselves, says Darren.

• Continuity programs are an up-and-comer for Darren Rowse. Blogging is about earning continuous passive income, and this is one way to do that. Simply make your blog a membership site and charge a monthly income to members.

• For Darren Rowse, blogging means the opportunity to sell e-books and other longer material on his blog. He earned over $72,000 the first week from his one single e-book launch. That’s no small amount of money!

• Amazon adverts are another way to improve your blog income. Sign up to the Amazon Affiliate Program and sell their products right from your blog. Just remember to only choose products that are relevant.

• Private ad sales happen when your blog starts hitting those high numbers. Various brands will approach you, because of your reach. To Darren Rowse, blogging is so popular now that many tech companies approach him for private sponsorships.

Courtesy of problogger.net

Let’s be honest – it can take years to build a blog powerful enough to be your sole income. That means hundreds of thousands of people need to visit every month. But there are so many ways that your business can benefit from high traffic.

People like Mari Smith and Brian Clark have established businesses based on traffic and influence in their niches. This is extra cash for your business! Work on your content and then use these monetization techniques from the master!

Check out our Facebook page here!

How do you monetize your blog?

Courtesy of marketingtechblog.com

The Internet is Ruled By Bloggers

In Chris’s social media news post, he begins by detailing how many business owners are afraid of actually approaching bloggers for help. It’s true that many horror stories exist on the subject, but in my opinion, there are far more success stories online.

If you want a social media news blogger to blog for you, on your blog – then you have to learn about the three ‘E’s’ of blogging.

Bloggers can’t resist the 3 E’s, and if you can provide this for them – they’ll quickly contribute to your monthly blog posts.

The 3 E’s are: Equality, Exposure and Equity.

Equality: Bloggers don’t want to be treated like employees. They want to be treated like friends, or colleagues. That means being honest with them, being fair and not taking it for granted when they contribute to your blog.

Exposure: Bloggers definitely look for blogs that will help them extend their own personal reputation and reach. In the social media news niche for example, there are always bloggers waiting for a good partner site to publish on. Make sure your site is worthy and busy.

Equity: Perhaps above all, bloggers want to be treated as professionals, or like the experts they are. Give them an author’s credit, and go above and beyond to include them in your other articles. All of it will help you build a successful relationship with them.

Chris Abraham on What NOT To Do

On the other hand, if you’re looking to get your post published on a top blog – Chris has some great advice for you. This is hot social media news so listen up!

Courtesy of publicrelationsblogger.com

• Never incorrectly address the blogger. Chris often gets people calling him ‘blogger’ or ‘Abraham’ which tells Chris one of 2 things – a) They can’t be bothered finding out who he is, and b) They don’t really care about his blog. DENIED.
• The ‘I read your blog all the time’ LIE. It’s easy to tell who is sucking up, because they complement you in a really general way, or about something very recent. This proves they are only out to flatter. Avoid it says social media news buff, Chris.
• Don’t forget bloggers are REAL people. They can tell that your formatting is wrong, and that you are copying and pasting your requests to hundreds of blogs – in the hopes of landing just one. DENIED.

Chris Abraham goes on to remind us that bloggers can see through people that aren’t sincere in their pitch. If you’re going to truly approach a blogger for social media news for example, to ask to have your post published on their blog, do yourself a favor and DO the homework!

Courtesy of socialmedia.biz

• Find out who they are, and what they do
• Read more than 10 of their blog posts
• Link to their blog, so that they know your name before you ask
• Follow their social pages, and share for them
• Don’t beg, flatter or be insincere
• Bloggers usually have above-average intelligence and they HATE spammers

Use this excellent social media news from Chris Abraham to improve your chances of getting your posts published. Blog outreach programs can be tricky, but if you do them right, there’s no limit to how many influential friends you can make!

Read Chris’s original post here!

Are your blog pitches turned down often? Do you turn many pitches down? Tell me why!

Courtesy of profitguide.com

#1: Blogging Ideas on Alltop

Alltop.com is a news aggregator that collects all the best trending news on the internet, organizes it in order of importance, and shows it to you in handy categories. You can find a host of incredible blogging ideas, and they are all relevant and fresh.

#2: Pinterest Images Become Posts

If your business is highly active on Pinterest, why not turn a very popular trending image into a blog post for your blog. It will attract all the fans that liked the image, not to mention the image owner – and will get you additional likes, shares and comments.

#3: Facebook Page Comments

Fans will leave posts on your page that you can turn into blogging ideas. A question or statement that leads to a full and enriching post will show that you care about your fans. No interaction on Facebook? Find a question on a competitors brand page!

Courtesy of stuffedweb.com

#4: Random Hashtag Search

If you want to get the scoop on how people feel about something, come up with a hashtag, and plug it into Twitter search. Chances are, you’ll find lots and lots of people talking about that exact subject – and it makes for excellent blogging ideas.

#5: Bottlenose Real Time Search

Bottlenose.com is a great little search engine that brings you blogging ideas in real time – sourced from the latest news that is trending all over the internet. That’s no small feat, and it works like a charm.

#6: Response Blog Posts

A response blog post is a post that is written in response to someone else’s published media. Respond to a video, an image or an article by crafting a witty post from it. These blogging ideas are endless, just search for media created by niche authorities.

#7: Write Something Personal

In business, sometimes the best blogging ideas come from personal experience, or sharing something intimate with your readership. Don’t forget to think about the experiences and trials of your average day, and let that passion flow!

Courtesy of bloggingcage.com

#8: Join a Forum

Forums may seem old hat to you, but they’re still a great place to get blogging ideas. Simply join an industry related forum and ask people what their core challenges are. Then respond by crafting a series of expertly written blog posts.

#9: Break The Rules

Throw SEO to the wind, abandon sensible title suggestions and do something strange or quirky for your blog. When you break the rules that you’ve made for yourself, you might find that your community responds a lot more than usual.

#10: Blogging Ideas From Cat

If you want to do something interesting, but have no idea where to begin – use popular internet trends like cats, memes, baby animals, dancing or another hot topic and integrate it into your own post. Blogging ideas come from interesting places!

Did you like my post on blogging ideas today? Then share it with your friends, please!

Also – can you suggest another creative way to come up with blog ideas?

Courtesy of almightydad.com

#1: Blogs are Not Article Syndication Sites

A blog is supposed to have variations in content. You can’t treat it like an article marketing campaign. You’ll get bored, and so will your readers. List posts, guest posts, how-to’s, interviews, commentary posts, infographics, social opinion – use them all!

#2: Be Extremely Relevant and Time Specific

The Internet is all about relevance, so make sure that your blog posts are about hot topics. If it’s breaking news, you’ll get more hits and more readers super-fast!

#3: Short, Punchy, Epic Titles

Can you say in 5 words or less what your post is about, and why people should it? Work on this skill, it will make a huge difference. Titles sell your blog post, and that’s 30% of the struggle.

#4: Yes, Keywords are Still Important

We might be living in a post Panda, Penguin world, but keywords are still vital if you want your content to show up in the search engines. Don’t leave it out, or you’ll regret it.

#5: Find 5 Influential Friends and Publish There

Guest posting is essential for a good blog strategy. Find 5 blogs that are brilliant in your niche, and befriend the bloggers. Post on these sites often to attract new readers.

#6: Comment on Authority Blogs

Spend some time every day commenting on at least one or two authority blogs in your niche. Be yourself, use a gravatar – and add some quality insights there. Great for backlinks and building credibility.

#7: Promote User Generated Content

Your blog is a community centre, and it’s more fun to hang out there when there is more than one voice attached to the place. Get your fans to interact or create content!

#8: Find Problems, Then Solve Them

People online want simple, fast solutions to their problems. If you can create a blog post that does this, better than anyone else – you can bet that it will be a high traffic post.

#9: Feed Off Other Successful Posts

Find popular posts online, and create opinion posts about them. Add a new dimension to a heated argument, and you’ll nab more than a few readers along the way.

#10: Use Images and Videos Properly

Images should enhance your copy, and videos should be extremely relevant – if you’re going to use one. That’s why making your own video is a good idea. If that’s too time consuming, at least choose media that fits well.

Use these 10 insightful tips to build a successful blog with a large, thriving readership. It’s not impossible, it just takes time and strategy. You can do it!

Do you have a pro blogging tip to share with your SMM community? Share it with us here!

Courtesy of blog.abn.org.au

Your 10 Core Blog Networks

Now that your blog is up and running, you need to gather a solid readership. One of the most effective ways to do this, is by creating a ‘blog network.’ Your network should consist of the 10 absolute best blogs in your niche. Once you’ve found them all, you’re going to concentrate on becoming one their best readers.

Dismiss what you’ve heard about blog commenting. It’s perfectly acceptable to sign off with your name, company and blog URL. But don’t think for a second that you can do this for nothing. You’ll need to really read the posts, and think of an insightful, positive comment to leave behind.

There are a number of benefits to doing this. First of all, you’re backlinking to your blog. But at the same time, you’re promoting your blog and your expertise on the ten best blogs in your niche. You’re also forming personal relationships with these blog owners, which opens up possibilities down the line. Eventually, once they know who you are, you can request guest posts from them, or contribute posts to their blog.

Subscribe to all ten of these blogs, and watch out for specific posts that will enhance your authority when you comment.

Focus on 10 blogs – you don’t need any more than that to grow.

Random Comments For Added Exposure

Assuming you are using a useful site like StumbleUpon to find fresh blogs in your niche, you can hop around the net leaving comments. These random blog comments are strictly for backlinking purposes, but that doesn’t mean you can skimp on effort! Every comment you leave is an advert for your blog or business. When people see engaging comments, they will click through to your blog.

A lot of commenting programs embed your blog URL in your name, which is then published above your comment. There are also programs that allow html embedding in the comment, or they link to your Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn accounts. It’s a good practice to set up a separate email address that you can use to track your comments. If people respond or reply – you must continue the conversation.

This can become difficult if you use your normal business email. The more comments you post, the more likely it is that you’ll have a ton of comment spam coming your way. Keep it separate, to keep it simple.

Whatever you do, don’t use blog commenting programs. Never spam people, ever. If the blog owner is good at what they do, they’ll never publish these comments. It’s a huge waste of time. Sacrificing your reputation to get a few backlinks is black hat marketing. It won’t help you build your readership. Time and effort will!

Do you think blog commenting is a great way to connect with page owners? Speak your mind, and be heard!

courtesy of massholemommy.com

You’re probably aware of 5 or more big blogging names in your field. But do they know who you are? The first step to blogging success is gaining credibility as a specific niche blogger. The only way you can do this, is by meeting, chatting to and becoming friends with other top bloggers in your field. These are real relationships that require time and effort to keep alive.

Blogging is about sharing – but more than that, it’s about connecting. Posting single blog posts might seem like you are connecting with your readership, but this is just one dimension to the total picture. In fact, you should spend the same amount of time connecting with other bloggers as you do maintaining your own blog. That way, you’ll be able to start a ‘give and take’ relationship, which almost always results in more traffic, higher readerships and widespread acclaim.

When you become online friends with other niche bloggers, you can take advantage of these relationships. Learn from the information you discuss together, swap ideas, plan a series of posts together or offer them advertising space on your blog. Once a great relationship is in place, you can trade guest posts, work on digital products together and help keep each others social profiles alive.

Imagine making three great friends, who are also big niche bloggers in your industry. When they post on your Facebook wall, reply to your tweets or comment on your blog posts – it tells your readership that you are in fact, social. These bloggers share their credibility, authority and likeability with you. Remember the phrase – birds of feather, flock together? Chances are if their blogs are great, yours will be too – as a direct result of your friendship, and the learning opportunities you’ll come across.

So you see, making friends through blogging is really crucial for you. It will bring you a ton of backlinks, endless business opportunities and great content on your blog. But being in the ‘it’ crowd means you have to put in the time investment. The more you comment, share, like, repost, guest post, buy and syndicate – the closer your relationship will become. Bloggers notice who their top contributors are, they really do! You need to get into the ‘it’ crowd now, for guaranteed success.

If you’ve been running your blog like an island set adrift in a sea of drowned out voices, perhaps it’s time to tune in to the ones that matter. There are a host of untold rewards waiting for the blogger that adopts a social spirit, and it can’t hurt to try. Begin by becoming a prominent member on their blog, then take the relationship further. There’s nothing more important to your overall blogging strategy than making a trustworthy friend or two.

How do you approach other bloggers, and are they willing to be friends? We want to hear your stories right here!

Courtesy of tipsotricks.com

#1: Adjusting Your Strategy

If your blog readers aren’t commenting, then you’re not speaking about the stuff they’re really interested in. Always spend time putting together your topic list, based on research and past success.

#2: Ask a Question

At the end of each blog post, ask your readers a question. Make it something relevant to the post you‘ve just written. Start a conversation by being interested in the opinions of your community.

#3: Offer an Incentive

The easiest way to get comments is to promise a prize, an award or an incentive to the reader with the best comment. The second easiest way is to offer free advice to the winner in the form of a consultation.

#4: Write About a Blog

Bloggers love to see that their posts have been read and written about on other people’s blogs. If you want an instant community of comments, do posts based on other bloggers thoughtful publications.

#5: Products and Services

Reviews are an excellent way to get your readers to offer an opinion. Grab some niche relevant products or review a company’s services on your blog. Spread it around your social sites and wait for the comments to roll in.

#6: Be Controversial

Opinions are nice, but the most entertaining opinions come from controversy. If you don’t agree with something, blog about it – and ask your readers if they agree. Nothing like a heated debate to illicit intriguing comments.

#7: Comment Control

People comment based on your post, and on what others have said about your post. If you have a lot of spam comments, that could be scaring away your readers. These are the “I love your blog, it’s so interesting” posts that don’t add to the conversation.

#8: Buy Comments

Sometimes all your readers need is a little prompt. Employ a writer to create some juicy comments for your posts – and you’ll immediately see an increase in comments from your actual community.

#9: Publish Comments Quickly

When a new reader sees that their comment has still not been moderated, it discourages them from ever commenting again. Publish them quickly and often to reward your readers.

#10: The News

There is a reason why news sites have enormous comment streams. People love to give their opinion on something current that matters in the world. Use this to your advantage by incorporating news posts into your blog strategy.

These ten tips will help your posts get more comments in the long run – use them as often as you can for the best results possible!

Do you comment on blogs? What makes you want to comment? Please leave your opinion below!

Courtesy of digitallabs.com

#1: Adding Multimedia To Blogs

A blog is not only made up of words and ideas. If there’s one thing you can bet on – it’s that at least half or more of your readers prefer multimedia. Adding images, infographics, video and slideshare presentations is an excellent way to gain new readers. Figure out innovative ways to include multimedia in your posts to enhance them or create posts based on singular images or videos.

#2: Institute a Blog Outreach Program

The most successful bloggers know that a blog without an outreach program, is like a movie theatre without ticket sales. Your blog is not an island. It needs to make friends with other blogs. That means approaching experts in your field and offering to write a guest post for them. Or inviting them to write one for your blog. This will expose many readerships to your blog, and they will eventually become your readers too. If your blog isn’t good enough, get a makeover!

#3: Grow Your Facebook Fanbase

How does Facebook help your blog, you ask? A lot! Growing your Facebook fan base rapidly by adding in exciting apps and social games – can feed traffic directly to your blog in several ways. The most obvious being: adding a blog app to your page. Your blog roll will appear there and engage your Facebook fan base, turning them into long term blog readers. Viral sharing is key to great posts, and these happen most here.

#4: Use WordPress Properly

We don’t have to tell you that SEO is important – it makes the cyberworld go round. But getting a good blog readership is also about driving traffic, so it’s time to take your WordPress SEO seriously. Categories, tags and meta-data are the core of each post you publish. These keywords need to be included in your post copy, so that Google and other search engines start to like your copy as well.

#5: Advertising The Easy Way

Everything online happens because somewhere, someone has taken the time to create adverts or promotional material about it. If you want to boost those numbers, you need to invest in a display or PPC advertising campaign – preferably both. Paid media is what separates amateur blogs from pro-blogs. And once yours is bringing in the huge numbers, you can sell ad space there for money.

These five simple steps will help you attract and keep a readership of attentive fans. They’ll visit your blog more often, subscribe to your feed and become a fan of your other social media pages. That’s what you want, and with this 5 step formula – you can have it! Test it out and tell us how it goes.

What one action that you performed resulted in a boost in readership numbers for your blog? Share your experiences with our community below.

Courtesy of johnhaydon.com

#1: Where To Republish Your Blog Posts

Every time you create a blog post, whether it’s an announcement, a promotion or an info piece – you need to share it with your social media networks. If your blog feed is already on your Facebook page it will be auto-published there. If it’s not, then publish a direct link on your fan page wall. You should also publish the link on your Twitter page, and in your chosen LinkedIn group.

#2: Secondary Promotion

Once you have spread the link across your social networks, encourage your fans to share it. They can like or share your link on Facebook, retweet it on Twitter or recommend it to other people on LinkedIn. Social bookmarking is also extremely valuable here. Recommend your original blog post on Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit and Delicious. Encourage your readers to share it here on all of your social pages.

#3: Tertiary Promotion

For a bit of an added boost, you can source other blogs and recommend your link there. It’s also important to include it in your email signature, or in your forum signature when you post comments that day. A creative way of driving more traffic there is to create a new post, based on a popular older post on your blog, and include it in your newsletter or email series.

#4: Themes and Theme Weeks

Many marketers use their blog as the center of their social marketing pursuits. Each week, they create a theme and write a series of blog posts about this specific topic. To support this theme, a number of tweets are created about that keyword, as well as several interesting Facebook updates. A LinkedIn group owner would start a new discussion thread on this topic. Some might even produce two or so Youtube videos supporting the topic.

They all feed each other, and act as a highly efficient way of creating, supporting and maintaining a successful strategy across many social networks. A blog is also an excellent place to gather feedback, have in-depth discussions and really find out what your readers want from you. It’s a five step process – planning, creation, publishing, interacting and listening.

Your blog strategy will fuel the rest of your social media strategies, strengthening them and contributing to an excellent social presence online. So get out there, and start using your blog in conjunction with your other social sites! For a social media strategy that works, your blog is the best place to start.

How do you use your blog to support your other social marketing activities? Please leave your insightful comment below!

Courtesy of blog.ineedhits.com

Your Business Blog Here

Any dedicated social media marketing manager will tell you that a blog sets the tone for all of their other social media pursuits. Think of it this way. Your business website is a place to list all of those boring services and products, mission statements and stuff – quite frankly, not a whole lot of people would ‘enjoy’ reading. People go to your business website when they mean business.

Your blog on the other hand is the place your potential clients go when they want to find out who you are, and what you really know about your industry. It’s the little mirror reflecting back all the positive things you’ve ever said and done – and that’s what converts these passive viewers into clients. There is no other place on the internet, where your brand can express itself better, than on your blog.

Odious Comparisons

A lot of marketers compare blogs with things like Facebook and Linkedin. And yes, these are highly interactive platforms that promote brand visibility online. But where would your Facebook page be without your blog? What would your fans read? At the heart of it all, your blog is the only truly customizable place that your brand has on the internet (aside from your website) – it’s your own tiny slice of the cloud.

Social networking enthusiasts will argue about that last statement. But really, when your business brand is on Facebook, it’s still on Zuck’s platform. Your blog belongs to you, and this means you can do anything you want to it. The reason why a blog is at the very centre of great social marketing, is because it’s your brands permanent home. You own it, you’re not just renting space there.

Brand Visibility on Blogs

A good blog strategy still has the potential to be the mightiest social tool of them all. Sure you have to work harder to attract readers, but once it takes off – you’re home free. Everything on your blog is directly linked to your brand. It’s not only the mouthpiece of your business, it’s the ears and eyes too. When you choose to publish a guest post, you’re saying, “Hey, this person has some great ideas.”

Essentially your brand becomes aligned with other brands or authorities in ways you just can’t do on social networks yet. We’ve always said that blogs are like having your own mini publishing company. It takes an editor, a journalist, a designer, and a marketing specialist to make it work.

So if the question, ‘is blogging still an effective way to promote your brand online?’ – is still on your mind, the answer is a resounding yes. But don’t fool yourself for one second. It’s not easy. It takes years of experience, and expertise to design, plan and implement an effective blog strategy. The best thing you can do is never stop learning. Social media develops at the speed of light, and blogging will too.

Do you think a blog is an effective way to promote brand visibility? Leave your comment below!