Blogging in Action Updated for WP 2.6

WordPress 2.6 brought with it some questionable improvements. Personally, the release methodology of combining bug fixes with new functionality is a poor practice, as it requires the user to open himself up to more bugs to download patches to existing bugs. It’s a MSFT-esque strategy that is alarming, but it doesn’t change the fact that WordPress is still the best blogging platform on the market, regardless of its recent bloat.

Blogging in Action has now been updated to reflect these latest changes, and includes an additional 10-minute QuickStart video detailing each significant change.

Additionally, the Six-Figure Plugin Suite has been updated for WordPress 2.6 compatibility, and will soon be available for public purchase.

Forum Marketing: Hated, But Devastatingly Effective!

If I had to name one thing that shocks more people about blogging than any other topic, it’s traffic generation. Namely, that there is no “magic” tool that will send hordes of visitors to your blog for no effort. Rather, it’s a systematic and labor-intensive process to build readership over time.

Sure, I use traffic programs like Traffic Kahuna, Ethic Links, and the like, but they are just tools that help me manage the work that must be done. The bottom line is that no matter how they’re wrapped up, and no matter what fancy names people apply to them, the top traffic generation methods are simple. Today I’d like to go into a little more detail about one of those effective methods: forum participation.

The concept is simple:

1) Find good forums in your niche that use “dofollow” links, meaning the “nofollow” attribute is absent. Good means high traffic, high Page Rank forums that allow signatures.

2) Create a profile, learn the rules of the forum, and create an effective signature.

3) Post frequently on each forum, visiting several times a week, and write good posts. No spam!

Proper execution, though, is lost on 90 percent of those who try forum marketing. Here are some additional tips to help you market your blog effectively through the forums.

1) Fill out your profile completely, and show off your personality. You’re trying to attract readers! Give forum viewers an opportunity to see what they’ll find on your blog each day. That includes a GOOD avatar. Silly, but it makes a big difference.

2) FOCUS. Limit posting to 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, whatever. Time your efforts and constantly remind yourself to stay focused. You’re participating, yes, but participating with a purpose. Be careful that you don’t end up browsing and lurking.

3) Shoot for 10 good posts per forum per week. A good post is filled with good, informational content.

4) Make a list of your top blog posts, their URL’s, and related keywords. Use the list to help you find the right discussions.

5) If you can’t find the right discussion, create them. Ask a question, solicit opinions, and be sure to state your position.

6) Craft a compelling signature. Point to your anchor posts, a special offer, a review page, a freebie. This serves two purposes: increases your direct traffic and builds a deep backlink to your blog.

7) If you don’t have time (or the will) to make these posts, find someone on Elance who will post for you. Post a descriptive project, make sure the poster has good writing skills, give him or her posting guidelines (length, frequency, quality). Be specific!

It’s always best to go with someone who already has knowledge in your niche. I usually request an average of 10 posts per day for 10 days, for a price of $100. I also request no active promotion — just participation and a signature file. When the contract is complete, I retain rights to the posting account so that I can change the signature for any future promotion effort. Instant links!

Track your results. You need to track the traffic you get from each forum so you know which efforts to ramp up and which ones to cut off. “You can expect what you inspect.” Measure everything!

This isn’t rocket science, but it requires effort. And this is what turns most people off blog promotion. You need to virtually shake a lot of hands to build good readership, but the effort will pay off in the long run.

To speed this process up, you can use software — not for spamming, but for managing your comment campaign. The software will help you manage your accounts, manage your logins, track the forums that
you’ve posted in, track responses to your posts, and so on. Not such a big deal when you only post to one forum, but when you’re managing 20-30 accounts, it becomes a lifesaver.

How much does this software cost? Why, it’s free for members of this group! Download it here

Good luck with your promotion efforts.

Using Keywords to Title Your Blog Posts

This is another topic that is so vital that it can’t be said enough. You absolutely MUST pay attention to the keywords you are focusing your content around if you want to maximize your search traffic and improve your blog’s profitability. Here are a few reasons why you should do keyword research:

• It helps you keep your blog content tightly focused
• It helps you determine which post titles will attract the most search traffic
• It helps you gauge competition
• It helps you attract highly qualified traffic
• It allows you to see how much search traffic there is for a niche
• It prevents you from wasting time on topics that aren’t searched or profitable

All of which lead to more relevant content, which is the cornerstone of highly profitable contextual advertising. Profitability isn’t everything, but we all have to eat!

As an example, say you were given a choice between a truckload of peaches or a truckload of pears to sell at a farmer’s market. What would you choose? Probably whichever one you liked the best, but
the question you would be asking is “Which fruit sells the best?” If you knew that, on average, 100 peaches sold every day at the market, but 1000 pears sold every day, you would choose pears in a
heartbeat. That’s what keyword research tells you: exactly what people are looking for every time they search; but even better, it allows you to find out how much competition there is for a keyword.

Keyword research is not an optional activity for professional bloggers. It is a necessity. This is one of the things that will set you apart from all of those people who are killing themselves trying to churn out a few Adsense dollars each day. You’ve simply got to do it.

Craft a Compelling Title with Keywords

For each of your anchor posts, you should be doing keyword research. This doesn’t mean that you should limit your writing to only those topics that generate search traffic, but it does mean that you should describe your posts in such a way that they attract maximum traffic.

The process is just as you would expect. Extract the keywords from your post, and plug them into your keyword software. Your software will present you with a long list of related keywords that you might not have even thought of. Analyze those words with the software and look for the number of searches, the number of competing results, and the KEI, which is a measurement of the effectiveness of a keyword. A good strategy is to keyword the title and first paragraph of your story with those words with the highest KEI’s.

It’s a wonderfully simple way to grab extra search traffic, and many of your competitors aren’t doing it, so get a leg up on them!

Learn More About Keywords + Free e-books

Keywords are so important that I address keyword topics exclusively in another member group. Learn more about keyword research or join this group. I am giving away two free e-books, “AdSense Arbitrage” and “AdWords Made Easy,” for new members of this group. I hope you’ll join us because we have plenty of great tips to share!

Good luck and USE YOUR KEYWORDS!

What to Do When You Run Out of Content Ideas

I’m guessing that you’re right in the thick of things by now, hopefully generating unique content hand over fist. But I wanted to address what happens when you run out of ideas — and it will happen! Here are some ideas to help you uncover new blog posts, or worst case scenario, give you content even when you’ve run out of ideas for new posts. Don’t worry, if it does happen, it’s just temporary.

How to Find Content Inspiration

1) Subscribe to like-minded blogs. What are they writing about? Can you respond to a post, add to a post, or dispute a post of theirs? Do their posts give you any ideas?

Don’t short-change this tactic. You will be amazed at the number of posts you can create by pseudo-collaborating with other bloggers, and it’s also a great way to get links and establish your credibility.

2) Browse forums in your field. What are people talking about? What problems are they having?

3) Try StumbleUpon! You can find clever, inspiring content with a few clicks.

4) Create a video of yourself doing something in your niche or completing a task. What’s second-nature to you could be news to someone else.

5) Review your blog comments — write about a common thread in those comments, or answer them in a new post.

6) Use Twitter! With Twitter, I really feel like I have my fingertips on the pulse of the niches I follow.

7) Write a tutorial.

Review a new service, business, web site, or book in your niche. This also gives you a way to earn some commissions. You could even set up a regular review day — maybe once every two weeks or so.

9) Interview your peers, and posts the results. Most bloggers are open to surveys from their peers, provided that it doesn’t look like social climbing.

“I Have NOTHING to Blog About!”

1) Write a recap post. Recap the week’s events, recap your favorite blog posts over the past week, recap the comments left on your blog, etc.

2) Start reaching out to guest bloggers. You can create an author account in your WordPress blog, allowing them to write content, but not publish it.

3) Use private label content (PLR). Private label content can be purchased, rewritten, and rebranded. Its quality varies, with the best stuff being available from PLR Pro. They limit distribution to 200 people and it’s well-written. Another option is InfoGoRound. The quality is not quite as good, and the content is not as exclusive, but it’s cheaper and you’re not limited to whatever the content of the month is.

Almost all other PLR content I have found is very, very, very, very bad.

4) Take a break, gather your best post ideas from the past, and go on a blog commenting campaign (see the book for how to do this). You can gain traffic, backlinks, and find ideas at the same time.

Writer’s block happens to every blogger from time to time, but if approached methodically, there’s no reason that it should slow you down.

Watch your Blog’s Tagline

I wanted to take a few moments today to address a very common situation that occurs after one first installs Wordpress and begins tinkering around with its themes and plug-ins.

Keep your Header and Tagline Synched

Wordpress is a snap to customize. Find a theme you like, upload and unzip it, then apply it and you’re done. Further customizations can be done in the theme editor or by editing the images that install with the theme.

Because it’s so easy, it’s very common to experiment with themes, jumping from theme to theme, attempting to find one that “fits” with the overall style of your blog. I gravitate towards newspaper themes, because they provide multiple template options, the front page can be easily customized, and because they are able to convey a lot of information and advertising in a small piece of real estate. By the way, be sure to check out the premium themes in Chapter 8 — many of those themes are very hard to track down, so you won’t find too many people using them.

The situation that I see very often is that a custom theme completely replaces the textual header that contains your blog name and headline. When you look at your blog, all looks well, because you see the header that shipped with the theme. The problem is in your RSS feed however, which pulls your blog description from the “Options” tab. This description is vital for folks who might be searching for relevant blogs at blog or RSS directory sites, so it’s important that you keep it updated.

The moral: always keep your tagline in the “Options” tab of your blog’s control panel in synch with the text that might be on any custom header you use.

Wordpress, Migration, and a Free e-book

Wordpress is a very popular and professional blogging platform, but not EVERYONE uses it. I received an e-mail last night asking why I focused exclusively on Wordpress in Blogging in Action.

Chapter 3 discusses many of the reasons, but I can really narrow it down to just one, and it’s a biggie:

Wordpress is Future-Proof: it is constantly updated, entirely customizable, and you control the installation from top to bottom. There is other software out there (like Movable Type) that is similar, but Wordpress is backed by a very strong community. To make a recommendation, I need to be very certain that the product WILL work for you. Wordpress is the only blogging platform that I can recommend with 100 percent confidence.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t have a successful blog on another platform, like Blogger for example. But your chances of long-term success are much higher with Wordpress, and my role is to point you
towards those things that will improve your odds of success by the greatest amount — hence, Wordpress.

WordPress Migration Guide

If you’re not on WordPress, but are considering a move, do your research. A carefully crafted plan is the way to go. Prepare for the unexpected so that it goes as smoothly as possible.

Please use the e-book I’ve prepared for you with my compliments. The guide is a comprehensive look at the many topics you should address during migration, and has received a lot of great feedback
from the blogging community.

Wordpress Migration Guide

Blogging in Action Web Site Updated

To reflect the premium content in Blogging in Action, the BIA web site has been updated. This marks one of the final steps before we release Blogging in Action and the Six-Figure Plugin Suite to the public.

$500 to $2000 in 4 months with PLR Content

Before we dive back into the final tips for getting the most out of article marketing, I wanted to present a short case study — really just a usage example — of PLR content.

Chris Marshall uses PLR content very effectively, and in a conversation I had with him, he shared some of his tips for rewriting PLR content to get the most value out of it.

Chris started in PPC advertising, so he knows a thing or two about optimization. Before Chris began using PLR content, he was doing quite well in AdSense compared to most average users. He went from
doing about $500 per month with just 15-20 sites, to spring boarding to $2000 per month and 170 sites, in just 4 short months using PLR content.

Chris attributes this growth directly to his usage of PLR Pro content.

Now, is $2,000 a lot? Well that depends on your perspective. For auto-pilot sites, $2,000 a month for little maintenance effort is better than a kick in the pants. And if one can attract search traffic to PLR-driven sites, just how powerful do you think the marketing benefits are of using PLR content in your article marketing efforts?

Right, pretty powerful. And fast.

I asked Chris what he would say to someone considering using PLR content from PLR Pro. And his response:

“I think the guidance from me would be that you get regular content very cost effectively, if you don’t expect miracles. Just make sure you keep up with the packs - i.e. don’t put them to one side and think ‘I’ll sort them later.’ Don’t just cut and paste — find a way to put your own touch to them, whatever that may be.”

PLR Rewriting

One of the biggest problems that people have when they get their articles is that they don’t know how to rewrite them. This is the beauty of PLR Pro’s content. It is already expertly researched, targeted, and written, so you can use the existing content and structure as an outline of sorts for your new article.

It’s not really that hard; all you need to do is look at the article you are rewriting, and just break it down into bite-sized chunks so that you can digest it effectively.

The most common strategy is to read each paragraph individually and then rewrite it in your own words. This is a very effective form of rewriting, and generally takes me about 15-20 minutes per article (a 75% time savings).

The second way you can go about the rewrite is to do a mind map of what is covered in the article, and then write about each of the major points. Mind maps are simple to learn, and are fantastic for keeping ideas, taking notes, and rewriting articles.

So those are the the two primary ways to rewrite articles. They’re not fancy, and it’s not out of this world stuff, but it works. As a side note, there are plenty of services out there that will compare an article side by side, and tell you how different they are from one another.

In the next e-mail — the final one on article marketing and PLR content (about time, yes?!) — we’ll look at a few tips to make sure your articles spread like a virus, bringing you backlinks from article directories and through syndication.

Conquer your Blogging Fears

I think I know what you might be thinking.

I think you want to start a blog. Or you are at least considering starting a blog. You might not have a firm idea in your head about what you hope to accomplish, but you are still entertaining the idea.

Here are the three most common thoughts I hear at this stage:

1) “I know it can be done, but I’m not sure if I can do it.”

This is a common thought, and it’s one of the reasons for this e-mail group. Each of these tips should provide you with concrete steps you can take to get a little closer to your goals. If you’ve been implementing the tips, you already know that you CAN do it.

If you haven’t been, then please give it a try, but try it with the full program rather than with these tips. Why? Because the full program starts at the very beginning, and each chapter builds upon the last. You have nothing to lose, and my program makes it very easy to start, even for total newcomers. Try it!

2) “I don’t think I have the time.”

Setting up a true six-figure blog does take some time, so I understand this line of thinking completely. My solution has always been to find ways to free up my time so that I can then focus on six-figure blogging.

So how do you free up your time? You create several passive income streams quickly. After those income streams are created, you can use the passive money earned to work less and delegate more. If it can be done over the phone or via the internet, you can find someone to do it for you inexpensively. That time can then be spent building your blog.

So the action plan is to start earning passive income with auto-pilot sites. Once you have several auto-pilot sites, start your six-figure blog. Hint: to make your auto-pilot sites even more effective, attach a high-quality blog and maximize your chances of success.

3) “I’m not really sure that I know what I want to do.”

Most people with concerns related to this are looking at ways to make a secondary income stream, and have considered blogging as a way to provide that stream. If you find yourself in this situation, you need to take some kind of action quickly. There are plenty of ways to earn a secondary income, but you can’t start earning until you start working.

I’d urge you to send me an e-mail. Tell me a little about what you hope to accomplish, what you’re looking to do, where your interests lie, and so on. I have been working online since 1994, and have tried (both succeeded and failed) at numerous ventures. Perhaps I can point you in the right direction. Even if it’s not with one of my products, I’d like to help you move forward.

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” Whatever that step is for you, take it. Take it today. The timing is never just right, so take the chance while you can and don’t look back.

Blogging in Action

1,037 RSS Subscribers in 1 Month; $33,247 From One Blog

Over the past week and a half, we’ve looked at a few important blogging topics:

• We’ve looked at the absolute importance of choosing a focused niche
• We’ve looked at why you should be blogging for the long-term
• We’ve discussed some of Google’s search and ranking intricacies

That’s a good START. But we still have a long way to go. Blogging is a broad subject, and to be truly successful at blogging, you need to know many things about many subjects. We’ll try to cover them one step at a time.

Learn the Exact Blueprint I Used to Generate 1,037 RSS Subscribers in One Month

That’s 1,037 new subscribers within one month of the blog’s release! It’s not heard often, but it can be done. It doesn’t take years to generate qualified, relevant traffic. It just takes some honest effort and a carefully constructed plan to put into action.

That’s exactly why we’ve written “Blogging in Action” and why it has received such a favorable response from readers. It is the most effective, comprehensive blogging system available today. You don’t need to purchase a book on starting your blog, another on copywriting, another on traffic, another on making money, etc. We’ve got you covered — Blogging in Action is THE blueprint to your blogging success. And it’s proven and safe.

Find Out How I Earned $33,247 in a Year From Just ONE Blog

The best part about that one blog is that it only required TWO hours effort per week to attain those results. Blogging is entirely scalable to fit your lifestyle. If you want to earn more, follow my blueprint to blog more, promote more, and find more offers. If you just want to supplement your income, follow my blueprint to run a successful niche blog. You call the shots!

Blogging In Action, not Blogging Inaction!

The beauty of blogging is that it’s an incredibly easy itch to scratch. It requires no technical expertise, limited time, and limited money.

I’m really excited to have you here with me sharing in this information because I truly believe that Blogging in Action can literally change your financial future. Having said that however, you need to understand that in order to change your future, you have to start by taking some sort of action. Action produces results.

So why not commit to yourself to try a professional blog for a period of three months, and see what kind of results you get? Follow the blueprint in earnest and watch yourself build subscribers and earn extra income. You have very little to lose — a few dollars and a few hours — but you stand to gain greatly. Try it out today!

Don’t put off your future financial success any longer. Download Blogging in Action now, and chart your path forward. You have absolutely nothing to lose!

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