Doing SEO for websites is nothing unusual and I bet most of us hear this term a lot especially in the internet marketing industry. Without any doubt, we know the importance of SEO don’t we?

Although we write for our audience who are “real people” and not bots, we still tweak and twist our blog posts in someway so that even the search engines love it and rank it well. Whether you talk about ranking a blog, a video, a simple website or even niche sites, you need to know at least the basic SEO.

Most of us fail to realize that SEO which stands for Search Engine Optimization is not as hard as it sounds like; most of my clients stare at my face when I tell them, “You need to do a little bit SEO to get your site on top”, …….. and then I tell myself, “Gosh, who am I talking to about SEO ”. I love my clients so I decided to write up 7 simple steps to help you better understand wordpress seo.

I found a re-brand able infographic which had 8 steps listed. I believe these points are legit and can still be applied today to do simple yet effective search engine optimization on your blog. I was not satisfied with the order in which they were listed so I decided to do some photoshopping and wala, its right in front of you.

So without further ado, I present to you the

7 simple steps to wordpress seo

1. Keyword Rich Domain

If you think that only niche sites should have keyword rich domains then sorry my friend, I have no idea who told you that. Look at problogger.net which has the term “blogger” in it. It is not only awesome for SEO but tells us what the domain or website is about. How about this blog? It also has the term “blogger” in it and I do rank for certain keywords just because I have the term “blogger” in the domain name; just like Pat Flynn’s smartpassiveincome.com that ranks for “passive income”.

However, don’t mistake me. It is NOT necessary to have your keyword in your domain name. Although you should try going with an EMD (exact match domain) for your niche sites, it’s not required that you do the same for your personal or even business blogs.

I chose “mastermind blogger” because I thought it was a cool name for a brand. My choice is solely for branding because I wanted to stand out. Blogs like johnchow.com, viperchill.com, davidrisley.com might not have any generic keyword in the domain name but they have established themselves as a Brand and rank very high in the search engines.

An awesome name like socialtriggers.com or zenhabits.net is already rich in keyword . Have a cool name? Go for it!

2. Permalinks

You got your domain, your hosting and installed wordpress, now what? First thing I always do after installing a fresh copy of wordpress is setup permalinks. Those who are new to the term, according to Wikipedia: A permalink is a URL that points to a specific blog or forum entry after it has passed from the front page to the archives. Because a permalink remains unchanged indefinitely, it is less susceptible to link rot.

Most bloggers who complain that their website links are messed up or not working is usually having problems with their permalink setup. The name might be fancy but there is nothing fancy about it Although, it’s a must do after wordpress installation.

Go to your wordpress, dashboard, settings, permalinks and then change the link structure to “/%postname%/” without the quotes. I think this is the best setup and is awesome for SEO. Some people even include months and years in their link; however, I don’t prefer that.

/%postname%/

3. SEO plugins

This is probably the best thing about wordpress; lots of awesome plugins and widgets to help you make SEO easier. There are ton of wordpress seo plugins out there. I often receive emails from my readers requesting me to post my recommended plugins. I use a few free ones and some premium ones.

Do not just use any random plugins without having much knowledge on it. You might end up with something messy or at most, download a malware that will hijack your blog.

I have listed several wordpress seo plugins in the past and I would still recommend them.

I do not want to post any other new ones that I am using on my blogs at the moment because I don’t want to confuse you. But the GOOD NEWS, I will write a detailed post on the top seo plugins that I personally use and recommend very soon.

4. Keyword Research

If you don’t do research before you purchase an item, you end up being scammed or getting the wrong stuff. In the similar way, if you don’t research your keywords well, you might end up writing on an unpopular topic or even do seo on a keyword that no one searches for. I am sure you get the point. Keyword research is very important.

Whether you write for a niche site or for your readers, you must find out what people are actually looking for and to do that, you need to do some keyword research. I would highly recommend the free google keyword tool which is just awesome. You can also use wordtracker or Market Samurai if you want to take it to the next level. However, stick to the basic for now.

Once you find the keyword you want to rank for, come up with a catchy headline for a blog post and then do SEO based on that specific keyword. I am not going to explain On-Site and On-Page SEO on this post but I will definitely write a guide on that too. Btw, if you are using Thesis theme, you shouldn’t find on-site seo that difficult.

5. Quality Content

Writing hundreds of rehashed articles to impress Google will take you no where my friend. Google has become smart and you cannot fool it by spinning articles or copying them from elsewhere. If you want to survive in the search engines and rank high, you need QUALITY CONTENT, period!

It’s pretty easy to get your blog sandboxed these days. In simple term, if your articles suck, google will penalize your blog and may even remove it from their search result.

So how do we write quality content? What makes an article worth reading or interesting? I bet these are some of the questions hitting your mind at the moment.

Now let me tell you, I don’t think I am a “great” writer but not bad either what do you think? I am so jealous of Glen Alsopp and his awesome style of writing long detailed posts. I also don’t know how Seth Godin writes less than 500 words which get tweeted out x 1000 times. Or, was there anytime when I have not clicked on the email link sent by copyblogger.com; these guys know how to write killer headlines and content.

I cannot teach you how to write. It is either inherent or something that you master in the long run. The more you write, the better you get. Don’t write just for the sake of writing; write when you really want to do it.

Have an idea? Don’t wait! Take out a paper, list down the points or draw an outline. Once you have those ready, do a research and try to find relevant but popular blog posts that talk about your topic or idea.

List down the blogs and take notes from their posts. I said take notes; don’t copy their work. If you decide to use a large chunk from one of the blog posts then at least mention them on your post or give credit.

Now I bet you have enough content that you can put into a blog post. Think, research, write! Be passionate, practice often, read some of the popular blogs that I have mentioned and you will definitely produce some quality content for your blog. I have faith in you.

6. Social Media

Ok, I ran out of words now. Hey, do you have a facebook? Nah joking I don’t think I even have to explain the importance of social media when you know that most of us are active on social media sites everyday.

First of all, you must install a social plugin on your wordpress blog. As I said earlier, wordpress plugins make things easier so why not make use of it. You can either use digg digg or simple social bar plugin which will display social icons on your blog posts. And whenever you write a post, make sure you share it with your network.

If you are blogger then you probably use facebook, twitter, google +1 in general. I highly suggest that you be active on these network and share your content with your fans and followers.

Why share on social network? What a stupid question! Are you willing to lose tonne of targeted FREE social traffic? Alright, how about this… Social sites also help with SEO and it has been proven many times before. As a matter of fact, I still remember when some of my tweets were re-tweeted by the mass, it went viral and not only it brought in some extra traffic but also got my link ranked in the first page of google. Now beat that!

7. Backlinks

Backlinks are like the backbones of SEO. If done wrong, might penalize your blog. If done right, it will increase your page rank.

Most newbie bloggers make several common mistakes when creating backlinks to their blog. Don’t fall into the trap of push button softwares that promise to create legit links. I am not saying that all softwares are bad and even I use some . But, sadly, most people who purchase such software have less to no knowledge about it and they end up abusing it; hence, causing backlinking disaster.

Creating hundreds of backlinks in a short time is considered SPAM and trust me, you don’t want to make daddy google mad.

So how do you get backlinks? When and from where? Alright, I won’t tell you to comment on hundreds of blogs relevant or irrelevant because both just don’t seem right. This is very common and we all know that most people who comment on the popular blogs are trying to get a backlink to their site. Maybe not all but most.

Don’t let this discourage you to comment. I love your comments so keep them coming . Again, I am not saying it is something bad to do and my opinion is that I comment on blogs only if I have something to say. Most of the time you see people leaving irrelevant or short comments like “hey, nice article” or “ok thanks” or “some long weird story with porn links…” I mean w.t.heck…

It’s all good when you genuinely follow a blog and provide feedback; in return get some backlink juice . Some other basic backlinking strategy includes articles directory submission, paid links, contextual links etc which I will get into details in the upcoming posts.

And if you want to build some awesome backlinks Pat Flynn’s way, then check out THE Backlinking Strategy That Works. Pretty awesome guide but once I write my version, his will look peanuts…ouch (PS: I love Pat)

When I write a guide, I make sure I include each and everything so if you see me MIA for a while, don’t panic. Know that I am working on something awesome for you guys.

Now go get that awesome blog with seo, quality content and backlinks… you know you can do it. If this blog post was too basic for you then go get some pop corn and get ready for the advance seo and wordpress guides coming soon. I would love to see your comments. Let me know what do you think and would like to see more on this blog.

Blogs are like trees in a forest, there are thousands of them that all look the same until you get up close, and even close up sometimes it is hard to tell one from another! If your blog is like one tree in a huge forest, indistinguishable from hundreds or thousands of others and struggling to be noticed, then you need to concentrate on your marketing strategy.

In this post, I will focus on 7 basic tips which are actually very important and should be considered a part of blog marketing strategy. Some of you might not find it new but as I said, these are basic tips that are often ignored by lots of bloggers. Your job is to pick 1 at a time and implement them because I know they work. Whether you are a pro blogger or just starting out in blogging, make sure you put these tips to work if you really want to see results

1. Host your own blog

Marketing from a hosted solution such as wordpress.com will limit your options. I have always preferred self hosted blogs since you own it and you have total control over it. Let’s assume that you have a blog hosted on blogspot.com which is owned by Google. You start building backlinks day and night and do a lot of marketing. One day you wake up and find out that your blog was suspended for whatever reason, how would you feel? This is some freaky stuff that you don’t want to encounter. The solution is not that expensive. Purchase your own domain name from namecheap, select a good reputable host like hostgator and then start working on the marketing strategy for your blog.

2. Select a stable platform

Marketing your blog becomes easier when you host your blog on a stable platform. There are many options for bloggers and marketers for choosing a platform for their online business. Your selection of which platform to use will dictate how easy your blog updates are and how well they are picked up by search engines. WordPress, Blogspot, Joomla, Drupal, Moveable Type and Typepad are 6 of the largest blogging platforms and they are all well supported. According to me, in marketing perspective, I feel that WordPress beats the rest. Selecting a stable and popular platform should definitely be a part of your blog marketing strategy. Why? Simply because the structure and architecture of some blogging platforms like WordPress is good for SEO. Beside that, WordPress has some amazing plugins and search engine optimized themes that can take your blog to the next level. I am sure you know that SEO can be related to marketing. If you can rank, you are getting better

3. Stand Out

Make it Unique. Remember the forest and tree analogy? You need to make your blog stand out from the rest, and if you have selected wordpress as your blogging platform then this will be easy. This is because wordpress has ton of themes, plugins, hacks etc which you can easily customize and use it on your blog. There are several free themes if you search on google but, if you are serious about blogging and want to look professional then go for thesis; its one of the best search engine optimized wordpress theme available today. With just a few tweaks and clicks, you can customize the theme to suit the requirement for your blog. I have been running my blogs on thesis since the beginning and I can vouch for it. Check out some awesome thesis skins from Kolakube.

I. Unique Logo – Design a unique logo for your blog that stands out and serves as a visual reminder to your visitors. A logo is the most important part of marketing. It represents your blog, company or website. If you don’t have the Photoshop skills then, outsource it and get something done professionally. I recommend logonerds for all your logo designs. They are simply awesome and cost effective. They have created some of my logos including the one on my personal blog. Check them out

II. Tagline – Your blogs tagline is the short piece of text next to the logo or header. It needs to be short, memorable and unique to your blog. It usually describes the mission, purpose or goal of the site. Taglines help increase your blog’s brand identity and are often underestimated in marketing strategy. Sometimes your visitors will remember your tagline more than your domain name. If you look at some of the popular blogs and my favourites like Amish Shah, he has a unique logo and his tagline is “Make Money, Give Back, Create Happiness” which is pretty neat. Another example would be on this blog itself where the tagline reads “Learn the Skills To Build a Profitable blog” which tells you the mission of this blog. Sometimes a logo is powerful enough to create brand awareness. However, taglines make it even stronger.

4. Proper On-site SEO

As I mentioned earlier in point #2, SEO should be a part of your marketing strategy; It is actually a very essential part. Remember that marketing means exposing your blog to search engines, not just visitors. Spend a couple of days researching your keywords and on-page SEO strategy. If you use themes like thesis then, on-site Seo will be easy breezy.

There are plenty of tools out there to help you with keyword research, Meta tags and keyword density. Check out Google Keyword tool, wordtracker and Market Samurai for choosing the best keywords. Use these tools to ensure you stand the very best chance of getting good results from search engines. I have also listed some nice wordpress seo plugins that work and I am sure you will find it handy. Last but not the least, here is an easy wordpress seo guide and a comprehensive wordpress seo guide, check them out and read them all the way to make your blog seo proof Make sure you take action.

5. Marketing your Blog with Press Releases

Most bloggers think that a press release is something that large corporations do when they have an announcement to make, but it is actually a viable way of marketing your blog. When I started blogmasterpoint, I hired some writers to create some awesome press releases for the site. I then had someone send it to major outlets and just in a few days, I had several pages indexed. There was also an increase in visitors on the site. Press Releases might not give you tonne of traffic but if you do it right, you can get huge benefits from them in the long run. Use Press Release outlets such as www.prweb.com to distribute new content on your blog. It’ll reach all the search engines, thousands of journalists and bloggers bringing you new traffic on a regular basis. Writing a press release is a no-brainer. If you can blog, I am sure you can write one up and start marketing your blog.

6. Leverage the Power of Social Media

Social Media is so powerful that some marketers are starting to rate it above backlinks. And you know what, it’s free. You can easily create a facebook page for your blog, a twitter account, a google page, a linkedin page and more. These are free to create and if you can optimize them well, you can get huge amount of traffic. One other important benefits from creating pages on these popular social network sites is that you get free traffic from search engines; because, these sites have a high PR and rank pretty well on Google. For example, if you search for “Mastermind Blogger” on google, you are most likely to see its official facebook page and twitter account on the first page of the search result. This should explain the power of social media.

With the introduction of the new Google +1, it is obvious that google gives priority and importance to the links that get lots of quality +1s. This means the more +1 your website or link gets, the higher it will rank in Google. This is a great time to create an official Google page for your blog and optimize it for more visitors and better conversions. Same thing goes for a facebook page and a twitter account if you haven’t already created one for your site.

Sign up for ping.fm. Make sure you are at least signed up with the popular social networks. Now link them all together in ping.fm. In this way, when you make a blog post, your post gets directly sent to the connected social networks and then instantly gets indexed This not only saves time but gives you lots of backlinks and traffic.

Social media is just growing enormously and if you are not scaling up with it, you are missing out on a lot of important stuff. Get on with it and rock it.

7. Collaborate!

Collaborating with blogs in the same niche can reap rewards if you can find a way to encourage this participation without seeming too competitive. You can reach a new audience and potential visitor numbers can increase as a result of project collaborations, so be creative, think outside the box and use your initiative.

I. Guest Post- I have seen lots of great minds collaborate and create something astonishing. Guest posting is a great way to reach out to different audiences and start collaboration. For example, let’s assume that I write a guest post on Smart Passive Income Blog. Pat Flynn, the owner of the blog never got to know me until I made the guest post. Since my post was awesome Pat saw my skills and decided to collaborate with me on creating a new product. How cool is that? I am sure you get the point. Guest posting allows you to network, reach out to new audience and get more traffic; you also get backlinks, media attention and maybe future JV opportunities. This is huge so get on with it and show your skills.

II. Reciprocal Promotion- John Chow has collaborated with Shoemoney in some projects in the past. John mentions about Shoe’s stuff on his blog and Shoe does the same for John on his blog. Both of them are a leader in the industry and are exchanging links and promotions. I call this the “Reciprocal Promotion”. Can you see the power of collaboration now? It doesn’t only open doors to new opportunities but also to new relationships which could be really profitable in the long run. Have a great idea? Don’t wait! Find an industry leader and collaborate. This is actually one best way of marketing your blog which is pretty much Free. You just have to know the art of networking

Bonus – Build that List!

Probably one most important aspect of marketing is building your email list. Whenever you decide to start a blog, try signing up for an email list program like aweber which I use and recommend. I realized the power of list building and email marketing after 1 year of starting this blog and today, I feel I have wasted that particular year for not implementing one of the most powerful marketing systems available today.

Building an email list is more than making money online. It helps to keep track of the subscribers who are serious about your stuff, who look up to you and want more stuff from you in the future. An easy example would be the “14 days Blogging Course” I offer on this blog. People who sign up for this course should definitely be interested in blogging and want to learn more. This means, I can send them more blogging tutorials and related stuff down the road.

If you see this from a money making perspective, imagine you have a list of 1000 targeted loyal subscribers. These people are hungry for your stuff ‘cuz they love what you provide. These people see value in your stuff. Let’s assume that I have created an awesome product which is related to blogging and priced it at $27. I feel that the product will help my subscribers so I sent out an email to the 1000 loyal subscribers. Guess what? 50% converted which means $27 x 500 (50%) = $13,500 in sales Now note that I said only 50% converted. If you have a targeted list and if you really deliver the best stuff, I wouldn’t doubt 80%+ conversion rate. Can you now see the power of email marketing?

Verdict

I have seen a lot of articles on blog marketing and frankly speaking, most have somewhat similar points. The main purpose of this post is to educate you on the importance of several marketing aspects that most bloggers often ignore or are not aware of.

If you can follow all the 7 tips mentioned on this post, then you will have developed a great strategy for marketing your blog, and be several steps closer to blogging success, talk soon!

Running a successful and popular blog means completing several steps that work together to increase your chances of achieving your target visitor numbers. Your blog will need good on-page search engine optimisation (SEO), good off-site SEO, good content that is regularly updated, and good anchor text backlinks from high Page Rank websites.

Once your blog has all those factors lining up with good results, the visitor numbers will start to increase. But once you have all these new visitors, how do you retain them? To make your blog successful you must learn how to increase blog subscribers, also known as the art of blog subscriptions, guaranteeing that your visitors can’t help but return, again and again.

Increasing blog subscribers is one of the most important aspects of a successful blog yet surprisingly under appreciated by many internet marketers and bloggers. Now don’t confuse yourself with Blog Traffic and Blog Subscribers. It’s fine to have several thousand unique visitors every day, but if they never come back, then you will have had only one isolated opportunity to achieve your blog’s target. Whether it be an adsense click, an affiliate purchase, or a product sale, how much more likely would that objective be if your visitor returned twice instead of once, or 5 times, or every day?!

What do the pro bloggers mean when they say “Money is in the list”; even in this case, we are trying to get the email lead of the visitor which means turning the visitor into a subscriber so we can send them follow ups and blog updates. I bet now you can understand the value of return visits, and the very best vehicle for that return traffic is a subscription. If you can persuade your visitors to subscribe to your blog, they will return over and over again, and every time they return, they are increasing the value of your blog; in terms of traffic, sales, higher click through etc.

Whether you know this or not, if you can’t convince your visitors to subscribe to your blog, you will not be that successful in blogging industry. This is the bitter fact but you always have an option . Keep reading…

When a visitor subscribes to your blog, they are basically saying “yes, I like this blog and I appreciate the content”. Subscribers (not visitors) are most likely to fulfil your blog’s ultimate goal in the long run by purchasing your stuff, supporting you and looking up to you. There really is no better way to quickly increase return traffic than to increase blog subscribers.

So how do we entice blog visitors to click on to the RSS feed and become a loyal subscriber? There are lots of ways to get subscribers and retain them and I have posted several related articles previously such as Top 4 Methods to increase RSS subscribers but today, I will post my top 2 essential steps that always work. If you seriously follow them, I bet you will start to see an immediate increase in subscribers count.

The 2 Essential Steps to Increase Subscribers

Step 1 – Don’t Make it Difficult!

I know this sounds easy but I still see lots of blogs that are not following it. There are entire books on website usability; it is such an expansive topic. When it comes to persuading a site visitor to make a choice and actually click on something, usability has to be perfect. Anything less than perfect is a lost subscriber. So how do you make it easy, simple and a no brainier for your visitors to subscribe to your blog?

The most frequently used method of syndicating content and allowing visitors to subscribe to your blog updates is using an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed. Thousands if not millions of blogs have an RSS feed, but how many of them actually describe how to use the RSS feed? RSS means Really Simple Syndication, however to anyone who has never come across it before, it is far from simple.

You may be surprised to learn that many visitors simply click on the RSS logo, see a page of text, and then failing to understand what they have done, close the page and leave the blog! 80% of my friends and family do not know what RSS is. Surprised? Don’t be. Everyday the number of new internet users is increasing which means a lot of them will have/have no idea what RSS is and needs to be educated about it.

To ensure that these new visitors actually understand about RSS and subscribe to your blog, next to your RSS button or image, you can place a link to a page on your blog that explains what an RSS feed is and how to use it. To make it even better, you can include the following details:

• explain that RSS feeds are web-pages for computers, not visitors
• explain and link to example browser based RSS readers
• explain and link to downloadable desktop RSS readers
• describe where to find your RSS feed buttons, including the Firefox RSS feature
• explain how to subscribe using each type of RSS reader

By explaining these five crucial steps to understanding RSS feeds, you are massively increasing the chances of your visitors actually using your RSS feed and seeing content that they want to return and read in full. Make sure the link to this page is prominently displayed near to every RSS logo on your blog, and reap the benefits of RSS subscribers. This is a tip that you won’t find in many places; you will see this method in action on this blog in a few days so, I am giving you a head start

Step 2 – Encourage Visitors to Subscribe

With your RSS beginners guide in place, and your RSS feed button or link displayed on every page, you might think you have done enough to encourage visitors to subscribe, but no, you are only half way there!

Every web marketer should know that visitors need told what to do in order to close a sale, they need what is known as a “call to action” button. It is no different with RSS subscribers, they need a call to action i.e. you need to tell them to click that RSS feed button.

The best and most natural way to do this is to include a reminder at the end of the blog post along the lines of “if you liked this article, please subscribe to our blog!” You could make a subscriber link as your blog entry footer. On this blog, I have an intro plugin that asks to subscribe at the beginning of the post . You can also notice an email subscription option on the sidebar that clearly says what it does. I hope you get the point. I am listing some plugins that I personally use on my blogs. These will help you with the RSS stuff.

WordPress Plugins I found useful

1. What Would Seth Godin Do – Displays a custom welcome message to new visitors and another to return visitors. I am sure you know what to do with it You can have a customized RSS or even Email Subscription form at the end or beginning of your posts by using this plugin.

2. WP Greet Box – I have this installed on this blog. It simply greets visitors with a small message. You have the option to include the RSS link and various other social icons. Just check it out.

Enough said; if you can follow these two essential steps on every blog you run, you will definitely see an increase in blog subscribers – taking you one massive step closer to achieving your goals!

Maintaining a popular blog means following the rules of the “i”s; insightful, innovative, interesting. If you can make each and every one of your blog entries follow one or all of those rules then you are well on the way to blogging success and maintaining a popular blog with great traffic, and lots of return visitors.

However, sometimes inspiration does not come easy, sometimes writers block can set it, your blog posts can start sounding a little stale, and worse, your traffic might start to drop off. If you ever find yourself in a place like that, with subscriber numbers slowing, follow my three critical steps for Blogging Success below and re-invigorate your blogging!

Step 1 – Fresh Ideas!

If you are suffering from writers block and cannot think of the next subject for your blog there are a number of ways to find new subject matter of interest to your readership. Do you use bullet point lists in your blog entries? I hope so because they are a great way of making your blog posts pleasing to the eye and less hard work for the lazy reader. Just make sure you get your points out in a nice orderly matter. There is another use for these bullet lists in old blog posts though, and this tip is gold – read on!

Revisit the most popular posts on your blog, identified either by visitor stats, or by comment count, and take another look at those bullet points you have in there. Every one of those listed items can be a blog post of its own! You have already proved the blog post was a popular one, so now create a new blog post for each of the bullet point items! In this way you can find inspiration for half a dozen, a dozen, or even more brand new blog posts. This is a golden tip that keeps your blog relevant, interesting and insightful! Trust me, this stuff really works.

Here’s another golden idea for finding inspiration for your next blog post – check print media for ideas! Offline sources such as printed media can offer a blog owner a lot in addition to online sources. Many bloggers will simply Google for related topics to find inspiration for their next blog post, but there are even more powerful ideas waiting for you in the offline world – namely magazines. There are magazines for just about every subject these days and there is almost definitely at least one for your blog’s subject matter. There are two major benefits with researching offline articles; First, your blog is less likely to be penalised for duplicate content. And second, Professional writers from magazines come up with some great titles and innovative content!

So, visit your local magazine stand, find the best magazine in your niche, and buy a subscription for a regular stream of new ideas for your blog! Or, just google it and you will find tonne of good ones related to your niche.

You don’t have to steal any ideas or copy other’s stuff; instead, you can curate it

Step 2 – Connect with your Audience

When I say connect with your audience, what does it mean to you? When you are blogging, you are writing for people and not bots. When you write about a topic, try to solve a problem, direct a problem and seek solution or talk about personal experience/story. Post questions that people can comment on, post something that can be related to a group of people. Always remember your target audience for whom you are writing. You have to get this straight: connecting means relating to another, helping, answering questions, getting back, responding to emails and feedback etc. Here’s some more tips for making that all important connection:

I’ve already told you the first way to connect, that’s right, the three “i”s – insightful, innovative, and interesting. If you re-read your latest blog post and you can honestly say it has at least one of those elements, it’s all good. If it is lacking by either not having any, or perhaps having all three, but in diluted form, you have a decision to make. Do you publish the blog post and let the search engines put a value on it, but at the expense of boring your readers and losing a subscription opportunity – or, do you scrap it and go back to Step 1? Only you can decide, but for a long term successful blog, you should take the brave step of scrapping it and starting again!

Another way of connecting with your blog’s audience, is to harness the power of social media. Twitter and Facebook alone have accelerated beyond all belief to reach unprecedented membership. If you can offer your visitors a means of connecting your blog to their social media, with a simple click, they will do it at the drop of a hat – no hesitation! So jump on the social media bandwagon if you still haven’t and make sure you have like buttons and all those cool social icons posted with every blog post. WordPress has several cool plugins for it such as Digg Digg which is my favourite.

I also suggest that you Install the facebook comment platform on your blog because over 800 million people are on facebook and most are always logged into it. When they land on your blog post, they might simply post a comment because there is no hassle of logging since they are already logged in. On top of that, their comment gets posted on their profile which means more exposure and more connection.

Make your blog appealing to the eye. This does not mean you have to employ a graphics artist, but making “reading your blog” an easy process for the eye. This is an important step that many bloggers either forget or are blissfully unaware of. Make your blog easy to use and easy to read. In practice this means following these vital guidelines; Focus on a simple design and easy navigation. Do you like the design of this green blog ? What about the simplicity?

Try to keep your blog posts below 600 words like Seth Godin if you can’t write long interesting articles like viperchill; both kick-ass in their posting styles.

Make use of paragraphs, bold, italics whenever necessary.

Paragraphs make it easier to read and focus on sentences.

Make proper use of bullet points to list out points and important stuff.

Remember, don’t make its difficult for readers to be able to read stuff on your blog.

Having a strong Black Background with a weird light font will be a pain in the eyes. Try to keep it simple stupid. If you don’t like how it looks or if something sucks in your eyes then you know that you have to work on it.

Step 3 – Retain your Readership!

If your blog is leaking readers, or if your subscription stats are on a downward trend, it’s time to reassess and figure out why you are losing subscribers. I have experienced this before; Wise are those who make mistakes and take steps to fix it. So if you start losing subscribers all of a sudden, don’t panic. There can be many reasons for this, for example, perhaps your blog is based on a seasonal niche and will naturally have peaks and troughs of interest. However, here are the top three reasons why your blog is losing subscribers.

• Too many updates! Yes it is true; you can update your blog too often. There is a misconception that Google expects to see updates every day to be of value – don’t fall into this trap. Maybe 1 post a day can get indexed and bring you more search traffic, but your subscribers will hate you for it. Let me explain why. First of all, if you really don’t have anything awesome to post then its better to sit down, think about it, come out with something awesome and then post it. Secondly, you might be able to commit to your blog and make a post everyday. But, in reality, we all know that most of us are busy in our trade and it’s hard to keep up with several blogs on a daily basis. You don’t want to annoy your readers by sending them daily updates through aweber, feedburner, or twitter feed EVERYDAY. Make your readership wait, then hit them with the three “i”s couple of times a week. They’ll love you for it.
• Don’t be negative. There is always a way to put a positive spin on almost everything, and your readers will appreciate positivity more than negativity – every time. Some bloggers even agree that it is better to say nothing than to be negative, while other bloggers make a habit out of being negative and it becomes their Unique Selling Point. For the most part though, as a blogger looking for both new and returning visitors, keep it positive! If you are addressing something negative then try to find a positive outcome
• Over Promoting sucks. Are you writing promotional blog posts more than quality and informational ones? If this is the case, then your blog sucks and I wouldn’t doubt if you are losing subscribers. As a blogger, you should try to post useful and informational articles that will help others or make a difference in the community. There is nothing wrong with promoting stuffs and I love doing it myself but there is always a right time for everything. A lot of my readers emailed me asking why don’t I have that many promotional posts on this blog and how am I still able to make money from it ; well the secret is : the ultimate guide to blog monetization . Promote stuff that is worth it; a product that you will personally use and can vouch for. When is the best time to make a promotional blog post ? Let’s say, you are a regular blogger making 3-4 posts a week. In this case, you can make 2-3 promotional blog posts per month. I would try not to go above that.

Always remember, the more you share free ideas and help others, the more money you will make in the long run. Its a crazy psychology , I know, and maybe i’ll write a blog post on it someday soon.

Bottom Line

Successful blogs were not created over night and the fact is that you need to work hard on your first blog if you really want blogging success. Be truthful to yourself and take the shot. If you think your blog sucks and is not doing well then stop procrastinating and implement the three important tips mentioned on this blog post for your blogging success.

Finally after the long wait, the fourth part of the “get paid to blog” list is here. This post was requested by several of my readers so here it is. I didn’t know I would be able to discover some new sites that pay to blog. After going through several sources, I somehow came across some good ones but before you check them out, you should know: Truth hurts and the fact is, after going through some of the previous list, I found out that a few of the sites have turned rotten.

Some of my readers reported on the VIP forum that a few sites they signed up with wasn’t paying or were fraud. I have decided to update all the 4 lists but I still can’t guarantee the legitimacy of these sites. I do my best and post after I have thoroughly researched but mistakes are bound to happen. If you come across any new sites then let me know and ill add it to the list; if you find out some of the sites listed are scam then please let me know that as well. You guys can help me sort out things and keep the blog clean so feedbacks are always welcome.

Now sit back and check out the sites.

Sites That Pay You to Blog IV

1. Blogitive

Blogitive helps you generate buzz online and build up links to your company website. With a network of bloggers established over years of business Blogitive provides you with a way to get thousands of qualified websites to reference your business in their own words. Check them out!

2. Mashable

Mashable requires no introduction. Its one of the largest social media news sites and they are constantly seeking authors and writers to join their community. Check out their job section which has several posting for bloggers. You can use the filter option when searching for jobs; thiss will make it easier for you too look for jobs only in the blogging niche.

3. Digital Journal

Digital Journal is a great site with ton of stuff to do. You can post news, blogs, embed videos, join groups, discuss, debate or whatever. And get paid for it Work as a digital journalist and do all the above and make money. Fill out and application provided in their page and you might just qualify.

4. Wise Bread

Do you know a lot about personal finance or frugal living? You can share that knowledge with devoted readers while earning money for your writing. Not only you can get great exposure because Wise Bread has been featured on several media such as PC World, MSN money, CNBC, New York Times and more. Join the community, share knowledge and make money.

5. Shared Reviews

Create your contributor profile, develop your writing and feedback skills, and strategize your way through 50 different levels to unlock new abilities, collect fun rewards, and earn real cash each month. It’s challenging, fun, and like no other publishing platform you’ve ever seen according to them. Join the Game.

6. Software Judge

If you have strong opinions about software, whether positive or negative, and want to get paid for your reviews, this is the right place. They pay up to 50 dollars for tell-it-like-it-is, no marketing BS, straight talking software reviews. However, they don’t accept random reviews. They only accept real honest reviews of softwares that are listed on their website.  Obviously, your review has to be damn good in order to make 50$ from it. However, you get paid at least a buck for any review published. Ten reviews – ten bucks. Twenty reviews – twenty bucks. You do the math. The better your work, the more money you get for writing fewer reviews.

7. myLot

Their goal is to provide internet users a place to earn money using the web on a day to day basis. It’s easy, sign up and start discussions, post responses or comments to current discussions or blogs, perform searches, or refer friends! Referring friends is a great way to earn passive income on myLot.

8. Constant Content

No fluffs, not but, no b/S ..you simply write for them, write on any topics that you like and you get paid when your content sells. If you really are interested to write content for others, how about doing it for your own blog . Just a friendly tip

9. Oboulo

YOU can become an author with Oboulo in a few clicks. Publish your documents with “The publication search engine on the net” and reach out to more than a million unique users a month. In a few simple steps you will be able to sell your documents to earn money, and continue to do so at your own frequency. Pretty interesting network and worth checking out regardless of their weird interface

10. About

Become a guide at about and get paid. Every month, About Guides and contributors create content that helps 75 million visitors in their moment of need. They offer solutions and create community experiences on everything from health care and parenting issues to travel, cooking, technology, hobbies and more.

Verdict

Just wanted to mention again, I did my best to check out the relevancy and legitimacy of all the websites but I still suggest that you do your own research before you sign up.

So right now, I have listed about 40 websites that pay you to blog. I hope you guys find it useful and as said earlier, I will update whichever posts that require an update so make sure you stay in the loop.

Last but not the least, a closing tip that might be helpful If you are really serious about making money blogging then try considering writing for yourself, your company and your blog; instead of focusing on other sites and making them rich. Although you can make some money from these sites, you won’t get rich. Use the money earned from these sites to create your own blog and make a killing in the long run while connecting with your readers. Talk soon!

In order for your blog to be popular, widely read, and—ultimately—profitable, you have to launch a social media marketing campaign. Not only are platforms like Facebook and Twitter free marketing outlets, they also represent a new paradigm of communication, one in which messages are sent instantly, and to a mass audience. It’s an environment that puts word of mouth on speed, getting news to millions of people in the blink of an eye.

Implemented correctly, social media marketing campaigns can boost your blog’s SEO rankings, attract more regular readers, and significantly increase your income generated by blogging. In the hands of an amateur, however, social media marketing campaigns can easily go horribly wrong and kill your blog and your blogging status faster than the speed of light. Not something to be taken lightly.

Here are some of the easiest ways to shoot yourself in the foot with social media marketing:

Let your campaign play unsupervised.

Think of your blog’s reputation as a little child with no sense of the dangers of the world. You tell your little naïve blog to go play outside and as soon as you nurture it out the door, you turn your back, close the door, and have a nice long bubble bath. Later, when you open the door again, your little blog’s reputation is gone, kidnapped and possibly murdered.

So maybe that metaphor is a little extreme, but the point should be clear: You can’t just leave your image unsupervised on the internet. Once you create a network, you have to be vigilant; any errors on your part will be magnified by the voices of a thousand naysayers if you don’t respond to what people are saying immediately. Even if the mistake is not your fault (think of Amazon’s recent GLBT scandal), you will be held accountable by your network—so watch your image like a hawk, and never let it play alone.

Take a week to formulate the perfect response.

Let’s say you post an entry to your blog that has some latent racist comments buried in it. They weren’t intentional, but somebody reads into it the wrong way, and angrily appeals to you for a response, a crowd with a rope waiting close behind (metaphorically speaking, of course). Would you make that mob wait as you crafted a response to your inadvertent racism, knowing that every second you don’t respond that crowd will grow larger, angrier, and more liable to betray you at any moment? No.

What you would do is put out a statement immediately, apologizing for the unintentional racism, and try your best to smooth it over. Then put out another statement, and another. If you forget an ‘e’ in deepest (as in, “my deepest apologies”) no one will care; if you forget to respond, however, people will not only care, they will probably abandon you and destroy your reputation.

Invent imaginary fans and proclaim your own genius.

Tempting as it is to create several Facebook or Twitter accounts and use those accounts to spread the word further about your blog, don’t do it. It will not work. It would be the equivalent of a robber walking up to your door with a wig, telling you that he was your toddler son. Your followers on the internet have a nose for phoniness like you wouldn’t believe, and will sniff you out like bloodhounds.

Yes, it is difficult to get the word out about your blog. It doesn’t happen overnight, and sometimes your popularity peaks and plateaus. But hard work will always yield better results than deception. Fake praise might spike your blog views initially, but once your readers detect the ruse, you’ll lose all your new readers plus many of your old ones. It’s just really not worth it.

End the campaign when you start to see some success. Or better yet, just end the campaign.

I’ve noticed an inexplicable trend in amateur marketers, where they stop as soon as they’re ahead. Yes, there is an adage that tells you to always stop while you’re ahead—that adage does not apply to social media marketing. Period.
If you’re running a race, you don’t slow down as soon as you’re out in front. You keep up the intensity all the way to finish. Only in this case (the social media marketing case) there is no finish. It’s a constant battle, but only if you see it that way. I recommend coming to understand your efforts for what they really are: a way to get to know and attract people. Stop treating your readers or customers like they are dispensable and really try to put out a message that will appeal to them. Build relationships. That’s what this whole social media marketing thing is about in the first place.

I hope that this short guide has helped you understand what not to do when running a social media marketing campaign. Building a following is a complex and dynamic thing that requires constant supervision, and immediate responses, as well as consistent, deliberate effort. And in case you didn’t catch on, the 4 titles in red were ironic . Don’t do those things.

This guest post is contributed by Mariana Ashley, who is a freelance writer and particularly enjoys writing about online colleges. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031 @gmail.com.

If your blog isn’t getting the big unique visitor numbers you need for decent conversions, or if your blog isn’t getting enough return traffic to keep the impression count up, your blog sucks! But why does it suck, what is it about your blog that’s making it fail when others are managing great with good visitor numbers and healthy commissions every month from Affiliate sales, Amazon or Adsense?

If you are trying to monetize your blog, you’re going to need to figure out why your blog sucks – and to understand that, all you need is our ten point hit list! Read it, and recognize your own blog in this list, and make sure you read all the way to the end to see why a blog that sucks can still make some great money!

This is Why Your Blog Sucks

1. You’re Too Greedy!

What’s the first thing you did once you had your blog up and running? If it was to add Adsense code or plaster it with affiliate links, then you’re being too greedy. The problem with your impatience is that when Google’s spiders come around and find your brand new blog, all they see is ton of adsense and less quality content. This sets off the Google “Made for Adsense” alarm, and before you have even got going, your blog is being marked down!

2. You’re Too Cheap Pt 1!

Did you hire a content writer to prepare your articles so you could concentrate on SEO and link building? Did you pay less than $2 per hundred words for that content? Chances are, you got what you paid for and that article is neither interesting enough to keep your visitors returning, or poor on page SEO means Google has flagged it as spammy and your blog just lost another opportunity to gain some value in the eyes of Google. With Google Panda in effect, if you can’t produce quality articles, your blog will disappear from google search in a matter of time.

3. You’re Too Cheap Pt 2!

So you decided that having your blog sit on a free blogging server somewhere was just too tacky for you, you’d rather host it somewhere yourself so you can fully customise it and have full control. Sounds good, sounds great even, but where did you go to host your blog? Did you go to a host that was so cheap you couldn’t possibly fail to make enough money to cover the pitiful annual cost? Did you choose Godaddy? The problem here is that you just put your valuable blog on the same shared server as around 100 other sites, mostly of dubious origins. You don’t think Google knows this? Here’s a clue cheapskate … Reverse DNS. If you are starting out and are looking for a reliable wordpress hosting then go for either wpwebhost or hostgator.

4. You Backed the Wrong Horse!

This is a hard one to bear, but sometimes you have to re-evaluate the worth of your blog’s niche. You did check out the value of the niche using the Adwords Tool didn’t you? You did check out the competition didn’t you? If you haven’t checked the value of the niche and the likely traffic numbers, and if you haven’t checked if it is even remotely likely that you can rank for that niche, then the chances are, you backed the wrong horse by picking a poor niche, and you should call it quits and start again.

5. You are Impatient

Your blog is suffering because you are too impatient. Rather than waiting for natural backlinks to start coming in, you took some other action (see points 6 and 7), paid for stuff, and now it is all happening a little bit too quickly for Google to award your site a “natural” bonus. Google likes “natural” linkage, and “natural” growth, and you just blew it by creating a monster in 31 short days. Sometimes slow and steady wins the race

6. You Bought a Tool that Sucks

So you did all your SEO research and you learned that the most important thing for ranking is backlinks. That’s great, but then you fell foul of point number 5 again, you got impatient. So what did you do you hasten all those glorious high page ranking, EDU backlinks? You went and bought a backlinking tool that you don’t know about! Worse than that, you even used it. Now you have hundreds of backlinks from worthless sites – do you really think Google is going to listen to that kind of action? Remember the guys at Google, they are clever. If you think you can fool them, you are only fooling yourself.

7. You paid for a service

Taking short cuts is fine. You paid a guy to check your on page SEO. You paid a guy to do your off site SEO. You paid a guy to create your blog for you, and you paid a guy to write your content. You’ve been paying a lot of guys to work on your blog! The only problem there is that it is no longer your blog. It’s a mish mash of contributions from different people of different skill sets and different capabilities, it’s a mess. Your blog is a mess of contributions, and it’s missing a vital feature – you! Unless you take a hand in your own blogs development it will not have consistent and appealing stamp of “you”, and this means a lack of stickiness that will cost you return visitors.

8. Your blog domain is worthless

Google posted in their blog recently that they were devaluing exact match domains (EMD)’s. Well I don’t know if you noticed, but it doesn’t take much research to see that EMD’s still rank consistently higher than random names. I have several niche sites with EMDs that are on the first page. If you are chasing a niche and you thought of a cool quirky domain name for it, then your blog sucks. You should have went EMD!

9. Your blog has no strategy

You need a strategy for a successful money making blog. How often will you publish new content? How often will do off page SEO? How often will you check your Adsense account for income? If you answered in the following order: rarely, when I am bored, and every freaking day, then your blog sucks!

10. Make Your Blog Suck ?

Finally, here’s one reason why you might actually WANT your blog to suck, and some internet marketers actually plan a blog that sucks! If you have a decent domain and you are getting decent organic traffic, you can win with a blog that sucks by making sure the only outbound links on a page are Adsense ads. This strategy works for a lot of people, who see the type of massive Click Through Rates that are the stuff dreams are made of. I am not a big fan of this but trust me, it works

So now you know why your blog sucks, and by using this information, you can turn it around and start making money from your blog! Always be patient, consistent and focused. If you think this blog sucks then please let me know why do you think so by posting in the comments below.

So you’re sitting at your computer, looking over the latest statistics about your blog’s traffic, and you’re asking yourself why. Why why why do I have 13 unique visitors a week? You’ve read all the blogs geared towards new bloggers and you think you have the basics down: Search engine optimization, tasteful ad placement, awesome blog design and an interesting topic. So if you’re doing everything right (supposedly) then why the lack of interest from the blogosphere at large? Here are five most common causes that may lessen your blogging success.

Why not getting enough blog traffic ?

1. Weak Writing

Weak or generic writing could be the reason behind your blog’s lack of appeal. Check your previous posts for proper grammar, strong action verbs, and correct spelling. If you find your posts lacking in any of these qualities, you may want to consider a stylistic overhaul of your writing. This is not to say that your content should read as high literature—you should simply aim to connect with your audience. Sometimes simplicity works best. Think of your writing as a reflection of yourself; it should show your readers that you (and your blog) are interesting, informed, intelligent, unique and reliable. A post full of typos and “to be” verbs only guarantees that you’ll lose readers in the long run. Always be yourself and try to bring something different to the table; no one wants to read rehashed stuff.

2. Unfocused approach

Try to distill the content of your blog so that it covers one topic. If you blog about different subjects regularly—posts on Italian sports cars one day, search engine optimization the next, and fashion trends the post after that—then you’ll have a hard time establishing a core of readers who share your interests. Try to stick with your blog niche, but do not get too narrow. You don’t need to write solely about Italian sports cars, for instance; you could easily write about automobiles in general and attract a likeminded audience. If you write about blogging tips then you can also write on relevant and similar topics such as blog traffic, email marketing, conversions etc.

3. Few Links to External Sites

Posting quality and relevant links are particularly useful from an SEO perspective. The more popular and relevant links you include on your blog, the higher your blog is likely to rank on Google when people search for topics related to those covered in your posts. But don’t clog your homepage with dozens of links—only post topical links to sites that offer compelling content that directly contributes to your blog’s conversation. Linking to good content also increases the chances that newcomers will stumble across your blog. Simple!

4. Lack of Guest Posts

It’s a personal peeve of mine to read through struggling blogs that refuse to utilize other writers for guest posts. Guest posting serves the struggling blogger well; it allows you to open the blog to other opinions and benefit potential audience that could follow the guest writer. Guest posting also shows your readers that you’re open to dialog among your audience. When you post a piece from a guest writer, you’re effectively telling your readers, “This is one writer’s take on what we talk about here. What do you think?” Additionally, guest posters are most likely to share and promote their posts on your blog through social media and their own sites which means added traffic.

5. Impatience

A successful blog demands constant attention and hard work from its author. Although may popular blogs look like they became superstars in the blogosphere overnight, most bloggers make it big by putting the time into their posts and growing a dedicated following over time. Allow yourself the time to sharpen your blogging skills. It takes solid writing, interesting content, clever marketing, and a little bit of luck to become a successful writer and a blogger. If low traffic dissuades you from writing, particularly if your blog is only a few months old, you may want to reconsider your calling.

This guest post is contributed by Lauren Bailey, who regularly writes for best online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: blauren99 @gmail.com.

Backup buddy is a must have tool for all bloggers, period! Whether you are a full time blogger or part time, as long as you are serious about your blog, you need this plugin. There are many reasons why you should have backup buddy in your wordpress plugin list.

What is Backup Buddy?

Backup buddy is an amazing wordpress plugin developed by ithemes. It comes with several awesome features such as wordpress security, migration/restoration, full wordpress backup and more. Although it is not free, it is very reasonable and totally worth it. Check it out and see it for yourself.

Imagine how would you feel if you blog was hacked. It could take hours and even days to clean your database and recover everything. In some cases, you may even lose the database. Let me remind you, wordpress doesn’t handle backups by itself which means you need to have a backup plugin in order to backup your files. Most of the time people forget how important it is to backup wordpress blogs.

I have learned this the hard way; my blog was hacked more than three times and I am glad I was able to rescue them. If you think that relying on your web hosting company is the best thing to do then you are completely wrong. My blogs were hacked because the web hosting company I used had open security holes which were vulnerable. Do not rely on your hosting company for backups because they cannot help you if your database gets corrupted. In most cases, they can only recover data lost 1-2 days ago. What if some hacker injects some malicious code into your blog? You might not even notice it. I know it sounds scary and that is why I recommend backup buddy. You will be amazed to see what it can do.

No, it doesn’t backup only your database, it backups your entire blog which means wp-content, wp-admin files, images, databases, each and everything in your root folder.

Beside being the ultimate wordpress backup plugin, it can also move wordpress to different hosting without a hassle and that is the topic for today. I will show you how to move your wordpress blog to a different hosting in several easy steps. Trust me, if I knew about this plugin before, I wouldn’t write this article here: Moving WordPress to New Host

Moving WordPress Blog Using Backup Buddy

Step 1

First, using your favorite ftp client (I use filezilla), upload the plugin to your wp-content/plugins folder. Then login to your dashboard, go to plugin’s tab and activate backup buddy.

Once you have activated the plugin, it will be displayed as a tab on the left sidebar on your dashboard. See the picture above for reference. Simply click on “backup and restore”.

Step 2

Click on Full Backup.

Step 3

Depending on the size of your blog and speed of your internet, backup time will vary. It may take from 1 minute to even 15 minutes for backing up your entire blog so be patient and have a drink while doing it.

Once backup is completed, it will display a link. Click on it to download the backup to your computer. Alternatively, you can also directly send the completed backup file to amazon’s server or any other host with ftp instead of downloading it on your computer. Either way, it’s your choice.

Step 4

Now go back to the main backup buddy tab and this time click on “Restore/Migrate”. When clicked, you will download a file called “importbuddy.php”

Step 5

You should have 2 files; backup file and the “importbuddy.php” file. Assuming that you have already added the domain to your new host, open your ftp and login to your new host (where you would like to move).

Upload the 2 files in the root folder of your domain. See the picture above for clarification.

Step 6

Now you need to create a new database for the new host. Creating a database using cpanel is pretty easy and most web hosting companies like hostgator have cpanels

I have still added screenshots on how to create a mysql database for your new blog. If you have already created a database then skip this and go to the next step.

Its quite easy to locate the MySQL database in the cpanel.

Give a desired name and create your database.

That covers up how to create a database in mysql.

Step 7

Once you have created the database, type the following in your search bar: http://domain.com/importbuddy.php. Replace domain.com with your domain name and hit enter. You should see a screen like above. This is the first step of blog restoration using backup buddy. Simply click next.

 Step 8

We are going to move to a new server so select “Migrate to new server” in the options and click next.

Step 9

This might take a little while because backup buddy will extract your entire blog on the new server. Once files extracted, click next.

Step 10

In this step, you enter your blog’s details, url and newly created mysql admin and pass, database name etc. Make sure the details are accurate. Once doubled checked, click next.

Step 11

If you have followed all the steps correctly, your blog should be up and running right now. Good job in moving your blog to a new host.

Step 12

Probably the most important one; after you have restored your entire wordpress. Login to your server and delete the importbuddy.php and any other backup zip files (if any) from your root. This is very important because if you leave your backup files with the importbuddy.php on your server, others can easily hack into it and copy your entire site. Just delete it and you are done.

Take Action! Backup your wordpress database on a regular basis. If you can’t keep up with the daily backup, let Backup Buddy make your life easy

Some Awesome Features of Backup Buddy

• FTP off-site backups
• Send backups via e-mail
• Schedule backups & transfers
• Directory exclusion
• Full backup & database only options
• Compatibility features for picky servers
• Back up non-WordPress tables (optional)
• Backup file integrity checking
• E-mail notifications
• Limit number of local backups
• Built-in help system
• Automatic upgrades
• Malware Scanner included free from security pros
• Background manual backups (start a backup, close your browser, and walk away)
• Manage remote Amazon S3, FTP, within BackupBuddy
• And more than 50 additional features and enhancements!

Bottom Line

Backing up and moving wordpress to different host  is made simpler with this amazing wordpress plugin. I have lots of blogs and if i knew about this fantastic backup plugin then I wouldn’t have thought twice before getting it. This is a must have tool for all bloggers. Whether a newbie or a professional blogger, no one wants to lose their hard earned most valuable content. What do you think about backup buddy?

When I first decided to start a blog in 2009, I focused on building an audience rather than blog monetization. I created this blog to share top notch blogging tips, wordpress tutorials and pillar articles which will always be useful and can be used till the existence of blogs and wordpress. There are no banner ads on this blog, no text links or any kind of annoying stuff that would be a distraction for my readers – then, how does this blog make money?

If you are thinking that banners ads, text links, adsense are the only ways to make money from blogs then, too bad, you are wrong. Well, I am not saying that you can’t make money with these methods but its time that we all think outside the box. Just think about it, how does viperchill and zenhabbits make money? They don’t have any annoying ads on their blog but still are making a lump sum . I will talk about this later on this post. Keep reading and by the end of the post, you will be able to master all the blog monetization methods and strategies for real.

As of 16 February 2011, there were over 156 million public blogs in existence. More marketers are trying to secure a space in the blogosphere because blogging has become an easy and cost effective way to build brand presence. Also, not all blogs make money online. If you want to make it to the level where you can make a consistent income from your blog then, it is vital that you stay on top of the curve and make the best out of your blog. Visitors make you money and in order to get that quality traffic, a blog has to be neat with easy navigation, proper headings, graphics etc. These are the basic stuff you need to know before considering blog monetization.

I know a lot of people who make a big sum from their blogs; not from adsense or banner ads but by implementing different and creative monetization methods. And today, on this post, I will share almost everything I have learned and compiled from popular blogs.

Disclaimer: Some of the blog monetization strategies might be new and some old to you. Some methods are basic and some are advanced. Whatever it is, they work and the result may vary individually. Not all methods and ideas mentioned on this post are mine. I have taken ideas from other popular blogs such as problogger, entrepreneurs-journey etc and I would like to thank them for their amazing contribution. Last but not the least, I don’t see myself as an expert writer (not bad either, what say?) so please excuse all the grammatical errors if you find any Now sit back and enjoy the post!

Blog Monetization Guide That Works

List Building

This is one of the core money making methods in the industry. Everyone is talking about building that list that would make them the next millionaire. I am sure you have heard the phrase “the money is in the list”.

Why list?

First of all, why build a list? Think about this: if you owned a restaurant, your priority is your customers. Lets say, one day you have 10 awesome customers who dined at your restaurant. As a business owner, I am sure you would want them to come again and become a loyal customer so you could make consistent money from them plus of course, provide good food . How the heck would you do that? How would you make them come again? You simply cannot ask them for their contact details, but you can definitely get them to sign up and give out their email address. How to get them to do that? I will talk about that in a bit. The same rule applies for blogging; the success of a blog depends on its growth and loyal audience. Your main focus should be your readers and how to get them back on your blog on a regular basis. And to do that, you have to setup an opt-in form where your readers can subscribe to your list. Aweber is the best and recommended since I use them. Mailchimp is also good because they are free for managing a 1000 and below subscribers. Check out both and suit your needs.

List building is very important if you want to make a lump sump while providing value to your community. No doubt, its listed #1 on my blog monetization guide

How to get visitors to opt-in?

Now, the important question is how to get your visitors to sign up to your opt-in. Most marketers or bloggers will tell you to create a squeeze page, setup a popup or give out free stuff. They are not wrong and I agree with them but, when you give out free stuff, ask yourself first: is it worth it? Would you personally use it? Is it related to your niche? Would your audience like it?

This is important because I have seen bloggers and marketers incentivising their list with B/S products or e-books and they ask their readers to do the same. I don’t agree with this strategy and it is a shame. I feel that regardless of what you are trying to achieve online, you should always provide the best. It not only boosts your reputation but increases your followers and readership.

Incentive options

Again, the restaurant story: imagine you have 10 new customers and you want their email. What would you do? The best and easy way would be to give them a free sample of your new dish and in exchange request them to signup to your list. Was that difficult? Trust me, it works.

There are ton of stuffs that you can giveaway for free to your readers. You can find quality e-books, plrs and free tools that are not bullshit and worth giving away. You can also create an e-book where you can share your secret/personal tips which haven’t been shared elsewhere. This makes it unique and gives a good reason to sign up. No one wants to subscribe for some crappy rehashed e-book.

First impression is the last one: the first product or e-book your readers receive from you will decide if they remain as a loyal subscriber or not. If your sample dish doesn’t taste good then there is a great chance that you will lose the 10 new customers. If it takes a click to subscribe, it also takes a click to unsubscribe. Remember, always think outside the box. If you have nothing to giveaway that’s worth it, then wait, create something good and then start building your list.

What are the best list building tools?

• Aweber
• Popupdomination
• OptimizePress

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is really one of the best ways to make money online. The best part is; you don’t have to own or create any product. You simply promote ready made products created by others and make a commission from it when purchased through your link. Most of the popular blogs make money from affiliate marketing and there is no reason why you can’t.

You can do affiliate marketing in several ways such as promoting your offers through ppc, media buys etc. But, when you are implementing it in your blog, you must be very careful when choosing products to promote. It’s easy to promote a shitty product using facebook ads or google adsense because no one knows who is running the ad but, when promoting on your blog, you are putting your rep on the line.

If you find something useful and want to recommend it to your readers then affiliate marketing is awesome. Look out for that product, check out their affiliate page (most have one), sign up and link it to your review. This way you are sharing your personal experience with your readers as well as making a commission from it when purchased through your link. You can earn up to 75% commission on some products and as a matter of fact, you can build a successful online business on the back of affiliate marketing.

Recursive Affiliate Income

Not much different: in this case, you just get commission on a regular basis. This type of affiliate programs are known to be the best. For example: let’s say you promote a product that has a monthly fee. The visitor who purchases through your link will have to maintain his/her membership every month. Whenever he she makes a payment, you get a commission. To make this even simpler, let’s assume member ship costs $20 monthly and your cut is $10; this means you will make $10 each month as long as the visitor remains a member. If you have 100 people signed up through your link then you make 10 x 100 = $1000 each month without any hard work sweeet ain’t it!

Just go around and find a recursive affiliate program that is relevant to your niche and your audience and start promoting it on your blog. Clickbank is not the only option; it’s rather getting saturated. There are several other affiliate marketing companies, just google.

I prefer to be transparent and I have no problem mentioning if it’s an affiliate link. This way I gain more trust from my readers/visitors thus make more sales. I like it this way. If a product works out for me, I enjoy promoting it.

Referral Marketing

Another type of affiliate marketing based on referrals. Due to the rise of affiliate marketing, ad networks have been competing against each other. They are doing their best to attract as many advertisers and publishers. As bloggers, we have a platform to discuss about the ad networks and recommend the best ones to our readers. This is one reason why residual referral program was created. With this system, if you refer a new affiliate (friend/reader) to an ad network using your unique referral link, you will make a 5-10% bonus commission on that referral’s earnings. As of now, it’s pretty hard to make a good sum from referrals because not all new affiliates get accepted in the ad network. However, if you have a decent amount of traffic, niche and targeted audience, it might work well for you.

Things to ask yourself when choosing a product to promote

• Is it worth promoting?
• Is it related to your niche?
• Did you use the stuff personally?
• Would you use it for your personal use?
• Why should your readers check it out?

The best way to promote an affiliate product is by reviewing it and backing it up with solid proof. It’s better to promote one product that you have tried and support than multiple products that you don’t know about. Don’t do for the sake of money, do it for people and they will make you money. Educate your readers and tell them how the product will change their life. Don’t fake it, just be real

Sponsored Reviews

Paid reviews are a nice way to make some solid income. It depends on the traffic of your blog. More traffic means more chances of getting offers. Most businesses and individuals are seeking ways to get more exposure for their brand, blog, product or even service. This is where you can help them. Although not all blogs offer review posts but they are on the rise and a lot of bloggers are considering this method. I am sure you have heard about SocialSpark or ReviewMe. If not then check out this post I have made earlier: Sites that pay you to blog

Review only products that are relevant to your niche. You have the right to decline any offer which you should when the offers are not worth the hype.

Product Reviews

One of my favorites . I will tell you the reason shortly. First of all, I call this “buy-experience-review-money” method. Sounds cool right? In simple terms, you buy a product, use it, and experience it. If it’s good, review it and insert your affiliate link. Trust me, if you do a little seo and have some good traffic, the money will roll in.

Writing a review on a product that you have used is easy because all you do is explain how the product helped you and why others should consider purchasing it. Find a product that you have used or currently using and write your personal experience with it. Best way to get more sales is by providing lots of images, proof and sources; it also helps to back your claim. Also make sure you provide the disclosure as required by the FTC. I will be adding some examples of product reviews when I do some in the upcoming days. Do check it out.

When I didn’t have a blog, I used squidoo to review a lot of stuff; some worked for me and some didn’t. I have learned from my mistakes.

5 Things to consider before reviewing a product

• Always be patient and choose products very carefully.
• There is ton of stuff that you can promote and make money but if you don’t personally support it, don’t risk your rep.
• Don’t promote stuff that has a bad sales page.
• Don’t promote stuff that you will never use
• Don’t promote stuff that has no customer support or guarantee

The fun part is, once your blog becomes a little popular, you can get free stuff to review. Companies will send you their products so you can review it for them. Of course, you get to keep it There are several companies that are looking for exposure for their new products and they will love to send it to you for review; everyone knows that bloggers can do wonders.

Paid Content

If you work hard, provide value and be consistent, no one can stop you from being on top of the curve. When you become a successful blogger, you are seen as an expert in your field which means people would love to pay you for your ideas/tip/expertise. It doesn’t end there. A lot of opportunities will open up for you and you will be able to make more money while providing value to your readers. Paid content is a good blog monetization method for bloggers that regularly offer useful information.

Membership Programs

Membership blogs- are one of the best ways to make lots of recurring money. They are on the rise because they are easy to set up, especially on wordpress. Heard the word “freemium”? Its like you create awesome content for your audience for free and then you create some extra awesome premium content for those readers who are willing to pay for it. In simple terms, you provide premium level content and charge a monthly membership fee- this can easily generate a steady income for you. Some good wordpress membership plugins: Wishlist member & Magic members. I have used both and recommend them.

Membership forums- forums are also quite popular because, unlike a blog, it’s an open board where everyone can contribute and share stuff with each other. You can also monetize forums. It’s not necessary to convert your blog to a forum because you can keep both running on the same server. Monetizing a forum is pretty simple: check out Blogmaster point. Before you do, remember that you might find some flaws at the moment because the forum is still being tweaked and developed and, is under beta mode . Anyways, notice that there is a VIP section. You might have to register before this secret thread becomes visible to you. This is a paid section which means there is a monthly fee for maintaining your membership on this forum. While providing the best content in other sections, we created a paid premium section for VIP members who will get some extra awesome stuff which will not be available outside this paid section. Got it? If not then join my forum and ask your questions there. I and my team will do our best to respond to each of them You know I try.

Whether you are providing access to published content or just ad-free content, make sure you are delivering a quality product that your readers are willing to pay for.

Information Products

Idea sells. Knowledge has no limit and sells for big. Once you develop a connection with your audience, you will gain more followers and become popular. This means now you can sell your ideas and knowledge to them. Creating a good product is simple only if you have a solid idea or content to offer. You can create products in the form of an e-book, videos, softwares, audio and digital goods. Trust me it’s not that difficult. Offer something that is unique, something that you specialize in; just think outside the box. The sweetest part of creating your own product is that you get to keep 100% of the profit. One of the best information products I have seen is Frank Kern’s Mass Control. Just google it and check it out for yourself and be prepared to be amazed You can always learn something valuable from other’s products, launches etc.

Consulting, Coaching, Phone Calls & Services

Did you know you could make money by providing services, consulting businesses and coaching individuals? It’s another great method to make some solid side income. A blog is actually a best way to get more clients. Let’s assume that you have a simple html static website where you offer services or coaching. You might not be able to make enough sales because people don’t know about you. There has to be a reason why others should follow your lead and listen to you. A blog is the best way to build a brand presence and targeted audience to whom you could offer consulting, coaching and even services which would lead to a higher rate of sales compared to the previous example (static html boring website). This can be lucrative and a good money making method. Setup a “rent me or hire me” section and list out all the gigs that you can offer. You never know this might just become a good source of side income. A good way of building up your reputation is by providing the best of what you have.

The only drawback of this method is that you are trading time for money which makes it scalable to a certain extent. But what if you could outsource services ; again, think outside the box.

Job board, Directory & Marketplace

Job boards work but not for all blogs. You need to have a massive amount of traffic in order to benefit from a job board. A good example would be Problogger that charges $50 for 30 days membership. If you have good traffic and a target market then give it a shot.

Creating a directory on your wordpress is simple because you can find lots of plugins for it. You can charge businesses/individuals for getting listed in the directory. Again, you need to have good traffic in order to make real money from it.

Ever thought of having a marketplace section on your blog where people would pay for listing their gigs? I haven’t seen this on that many blogs but a good example would be Shoemoney.

Speaking Offers

Your blog can get you noticed by industry leaders and can land you speaking engagements at conferences and seminars. Seth Godin, Chris Brogan & Frank Kern make a ton of money from several speaking gigs. If you become an expert in your niche, you can leverage this method and make not only money but network with other like minded leaders.

Events

Large blogs can easily host events and generate revenue. Project physical events online and make money by charging admission, attracting sponsors and selling subscriptions to future events. A good example would be shoemoney’s elite retreat. At his event, you get to meet many industry experts and get strategic action plans from each on how to accomplish your goals. It’s not easy to setup an event unless you have a huge reach. Start small and see how it goes. If you don’t try, you will not know.

Merchandising

Merchandising is fun. If you build a solid connection with your audience, they will definitely want to support you. You can give them what they want by merchandising. The best part of merchandising is that you make money while getting more exposure. Check out iJustine’s t-shirts and goodies . She has a great following and she knows her stuff quite well. Want to follow similar business model? CafePress and Printfection makes it easy for you to put your blog’s or brand’s logo on t-shirts, bags, mugs and other items.

Direct Advertising

Most people put this on top of their money making list but, it’s at the bottom for me . Not that it doesn’t work; I feel that the above blog monetization methods are more superior. Selling direct ads on your blog is the basic stuff. Everyone does that and there’s nothing new about it.

Remember that direct ad sales do not work well with all niches. It will work with affiliate marketing industry but might not with cooking, sports etc.

Whenever you see a banner ad, I am sure you don’t like it or do you? If you think that no one clicks on banner ads then you are wrong. It depends on the niche and the traffic to your blog. Let’s give a sweet example: if I place irrelevant ads on this blog such as gambling related or health related, it will not make sense; thus, the ads will perform poorly in terms of CTR (click through rate). But, if I place blogging and money making related ads, they will definitely have a higher CTR. John chow charges from $100-$1000 for banner advertising. He gets ton of sponsors because he has a massive flow of traffic to his blog and has a targeted audience. Who doesn’t want a blog like that

Selling direct advertising at the beginning of your blogging journey can be frustrating because you will have to build your rep, grow your blog and get quality traffic. Without these, there are less chances of getting a sponsorship deal. If you really want direct ad sales to work for you, then listen to me and just work hard for the first 6 months. Provide quality content and grow your blog. This will attract readers and convert them to subscribers; more readers means, you will get noticed and may get sponsorship deals.

If you don’t want to sell your own adverts then you can monetize the blog with Adsense, Kontera, Tribal Fusion etc. Adsense didn’t work that well for me but I know people who make a full time living from it. The important thing is to test and find out what works best for you. Don’t assume because something is best for someone else’s blog that is the case for all blogs.

Donation

There is no such thing as free lunch. I wonder who said that . Well, I think there is. There is a difference between begging and asking for a donation. If you blog hard and provide quality content regularly, your audience will definitely want to support your ongoing success. First of all, it doesn’t hurt to set up a donation button on your blog. I have seen a lot of people doing that. “buy me a beer”, “donate”, “keep it alive” are few tabs I have seen around in the blogosphere. Want to implement a donation button on your blog? Use paypal as they allow you to place a donation button with ease. Always remember, if you don’t ask, you don’t get!

Flip Your Blog

Flipping websites is a lucrative business. Let’s say your blog makes $1000 a month. You can easily flip that for $10,000. How does that sound like? If you have put a bunch of work into your blog and it has great stats, you can flip it for a lump-sum payday. Believe me or not, you can also sell dead blogs (blogs that perform poorly). There are people who are willing to buy such sites because by leveraging their marketing and seo skills, they can easily flip the site for a profit.

Flipping blogs have become very popular. If you are interested to learn how to create a simple blog and flip it for a profit then check out Zac Johnson’s Flipping that website. Zac has done a great job in detailing everything you need to know about site flipping. There is a huge industry of individuals building up micro niche blogs then flipping them for a quick profit. If you intend to sell your blog for a big figure then, grow your blog and subscribers count, provide quality content on a regular basis and create legitimate income sources.

Verdict

There are many ways to make money online. Those who have made it big have done so by thinking outside the box. All the blog monetization methods mentioned on this post can work for you only if you take action. You will never know until you try so give it a shot and let me know.

As a personal suggestion, I wouldn’t recommend anyone to monetize their blog if it gets less than 200-500 UV (unique visitors) a day. It is harder to get sponsors for a small and fairly new blog. Once you reach the level, slowly roll out some blog monetization techniques and see what works best for you.

Blog monetization will only work effectively when you have a steady flow of quality traffic and a group of loyal audience. Focus on your content and audience first and blog monetization later.

I will be updating this post with a few more links and content when I have them ready. After all, this is the ultimate blog monetization guide . What do you think about this article? What are your blog monetization strategies?