My Podcast Alley feed!

Elle and I have had a lot going on in the personal part of our lives. We’ve been away for awhile, but didn’t stop learning and working on other parts of our business.

One of the things we’re learning about is podcasting and video. We’re playing with methods to add these to our Blog Ladies blog. We’ll talk about some of the Podcasting properties and directories in the future.

Talk soon,

Dee

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Are you obsessed with Facebook?

Do you love wordpress blogs??

Check out these awesome free facebook wordpress blogs.

Kinda cool… kinda funny.. but they work!

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Traffic… it all boils down to traffic (and conversions) if you are trying to make a buck on the net right?

Yip!

Well… there are few ways to get traffic to your blog or website; PPC (pay per click), article marketing, social networking, joint ventures, SEO, and offline promotions.

One of our favorite methods is social networking. Why? Well… because its fun and its free! It allows other people to get a view inside you as a person in the real world. It makes you seem more real and much less than just “words” on a blog.

Recently we have seen a big increase in people joining twitter. You can even integrate twitter into your blog. Perhaps others are just now beginning to understand the impact it is making, or perhaps it is due to the large number of internet marketers adding twitter (such as John Reese, John Chow and Shoemoney)

Twitter is a really great way to get your blog posts or information out to a large group of people (people beyond those you just follow you) and generate a nice little stream of free traffic.

With that said.. just a word of warning.. too much Twitter can be a bad thing.. no one wants to hear every moment of your life… and no one wants sales pitches thrown at them all day, so be yourself, enjoy and have fun. Just remember not to spend all day on there as it can get overly addicting as well!

Here is just a very short list of social networking sites that we actually receive traffic from that you can begin with:

Blog Catalog
Myspace
Mybloglog
Spicy Page
Digg
Stumble
Twitter
Facebook
Digg

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Building up reciprocal links, backlinks, and interlinking… What does this mean to your blog, website, or business?

First off… I should tell you where I am coming from here. Each day we get a fair number of comments and requests asking for reciprocal links. Most of the time it is great. We love to help out others when we can.

We have a couple of individuals that have commented several times. The comments are warranted, valid, and honestly I appreciate and enjoy the conversations. These comments are an asset to us as well as to them. If it’s natural, looks good for both parties, and provides the basis for a relationship, then absolutely.. link away and if we like your information, site, etc. then we would love to share your link to the rest.

However, if you have a website or blog that is really not relevant one bit besides the fact that it is a blog, then the linking really does no good. Honestly, the majority of the time Search Engines will discount them as they are actually considered unnatural.

This also goes for interlinking between your own sites. Just because you own 100 websites does not mean you should be linking them all together. By doing so you risk losing all the benefits there along with the time it took you to add them.

For example, if you have a travel blog and it is linked to a beauty site for no other reason than just thinking.. link.. link.. link. Then it really does you no good.

So, how does it work?

Say you write a post on your travel blog about the importance of wearing sunblock found at the beauty store and include a link to them, and they in-turn write a post about the top travel places to show off your beauty and include a link to you, then it works! This is reciprocal and is much more natural in the eyes (or spiders eyes.. or what have you) of the Search Engines.

It becomes even more beneficial if you link to sites that compliment yours. Such as a travel site and an airline site. You both can provide benefit to your readers by offering one anothers information, at the same time creating natural links, and building a solid relationship.

So, first you look at that and say.. ok, but isn’t is still much easier to leave a post on someones site and hope they approve it to get the backlink, rather than ask them or hope for them to write a post about your site?

Well, it can be, however finding those websites took time, posting comments took time, and you may or may not get a natural quality backlink from it all.

So instead of trying that type of tactic and wasting time, why not contact the blog or website owner of a few sites that are relevant or complimentary to yours and ask them if they would post a review of your site, or perhaps publish an article on their site of yours, or even if they might just mention you!

Many people write up free little ebooks and ask if others might offer it up to their readers. This not only could get you traffic, but could also make you some money by adding affiliate links inside.

Really, what this boils down to, is relationship building. Perhaps, you start out with a few real comments or questions, emails, etc, and then move forward. Think of the targeted traffic you might get out of having one of your articles published on their site along with a link, rather than some comment or request for a backlink that you are not too sure will even get listed?

Just some food for thought the next you are out cruising for backlinks :)

ps.. sorry.. wasn’t the quickie I was going for… lol.

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This is the second blogging tip about driving traffic with forum marketing. I’m not going to rant on about not spamming. That goes without saying. But how can a couple of posts bring you targeted traffic?

After you’ve done a little credibility building in the forum, you ask questions. They can just be low key questions, or….you can go for the controversial.

Many of you understand this concept already. Some of you go for the *out there* type of posts in your blog. Many bloggers regularly stir the opinion pot to boost participation. Forum posts can give you the same mileage.

If you ask smart questions, you can also set the scene for promoting your affiliate product or even your ebook. You can often get a large amount of high quality content generated by the forum readers from just one well thought out question . Your question is just the catalyst that stirs the debate. You can add in additional information as the discussion continues to keep it going.

Like your blog posts, forum content (or threads) is quickly indexed by the search engines. We’ve already mentioned that search engine listings last for a very long time. You’ll get highly targeted traffic, not only from the forum readers, but from organic searches also.

You can learn a lot about what matters to your readers in your niche from this strategy, as well as, reading the other threads in the forum. This gives clues for future product development. Remember the best products solve a problem or make an existing product better.

You can often find the problems that exist in your niche in forum posts. You can learn a great deal about a new niche by visiting a few forums…or even a few highly ranked blogs in your new niche and reading the threads or posts.

This may sound like it’s very time consuming…it can be. Forums can become a giant time sink. Some people just love them and the community aspect. Reading threads can swallow large chunks of time. But, in the end, it will save you time on the learning curve.

How so?

You can study and research to become a niche expert. You learn facts and statistics. But, the lessons you can learn from a forum are what your future readers think and feel about these facts…and the impact they have on them personally.

Of course, this gives you endless ideas for future posts. But more importantly, this type of knowledge is invaluable for positioning yourself to provide products and information to your new niche blog…

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A method of driving traffic to your new niche blog that you may not have considered or possibly have forgotten about is forum marketing. Most bloggers belong to at least one of the social blogging communities. But before these came into existence with Web 2.0, forums or even farther back message boards fulfilled the same function.

Many forums are still alive and well. You can find a forum in your niche by doing a search for your keyword+forum. Take a look– poke around. You’ll want to check out the post dates…if the posts are old, you may get a backlink, but it’s unlikely you’ll get a traffic boost. You want to find a forum with active members.

Forums are a different context. It’s a community. Hopefully, your readers feel something similar when they visit your blog. There is a sense of trust there among the readers…

However, when a new visitor comes from a search, this potential reader knows somewhere in the back of their mind they are probably going to be sold to. So, unconsciously their guard is up.

In a forum, the reader is there to get and share information. Your information and opinions are open to comment and criticism just like in your blog. The information and opinions aren’t always the best. You want to be the one to provide your high quality content.

Since a forum is a community, you’ll be the new kid on the block. Try to spend some time following the threads, before you jump in with both feet. Posting in a forum is similar to participating in a group on Facebook. If you spam or try to hard sell, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

This why you’ll take some time to get to know the dynamics of the forum. Most forums, like the article directories, allow you to have a link in your signature. You’ll want to use one of your best keywords in your title. This is basic linking strategy.

Next time, we’ll talk about posting strategies in a forum. How they can attract readers to your blog, and how you can use a forum as a research tool.

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Today’s blogging tip is a logical extension of doing an offline affiliate venture in my last post. When you start a new niche blog, you’ll need to keep focused. In this case, you want to see the trees– not the forest. The same way that good keyword research can open your eyes to new niches– the details can be signposts that open opportunities for you.

Your competition is great for doing your market research for you. Check out the top blogs in your new niche. It’s likely you will find a myriad of offers on their pages. Smart business people (including you) don’t put all their eggs in one basket.

Adsense used to be an easy way to make money–Adwords was a breeze before the Google slap. Then, many people saw their businesses go poof overnight. Ideally, you want to take advantage of all the various ways to monetize your blog. This gives you a solid foundation.

If one product goes off the market or stops converting, you have other income streams in place. You can take clues from the top blogs’ ads, products, and affiliate offers–then, go out there and find them, or something similar.

It’s never too soon to begin making contacts in your new niche. If your competition has a opt in list, sign up for it. You can see their marketing strategy. You can look for holes in it that you can fill. Believe it or not, you can even get some copywriting strategies from these emails.

Pay attention to the subject lines, you can use those ideas yourself when you progress to the point you have your own list to email for an ezine or offers. The subject lines and the email text can also give you valuable insight into what content makes it through the spam filters.

One of the most important results of signing up to their list is you now have an additional connection to the blogger. When you contact them, you’re not just a competing blogger: you’re a member of their list. This fact can go a long way towards furthering your budding relationship.

Why would you want to build a relationship with your competition?

Because, as long as, you’re not covering exactly the same content in your niche, you have an opportunity to joint venture with this blogger after you’ve got a relationship going.

Puzzled?

Let’s say, you see the blogger has a product, but no bonuses. Hmmm….Remember how we talked about an ebook not being just an ebook?

It can be many, many things…like reports… audio… video. So, propose this: the blogger offers your teaser report…your audio or video as a bonus with their product. This has the effect of giving you an audience with their customers. Your quality content adds value to their offering, but it’s just a tease. For the full story, their readers need to come check out your blog. They might even buy your ebook as a result.

Basically, you can get the same opportunity when you have built a relationship to the point where you can be invited to do a guest post. This is a JV opportunity at it’s most basic level. Your content is provided to their *list* or in this case, their readers. The other blogger hopes that your readers will check out his/her blog. You hope their readers will be enticed by your high quality content to become a reader of your blog.

The relationship between you and your competition could even develop to the point where you create a joint product together. Is it going to work out this way every time? Of course not. You just have to keep working at it. If one says no, move on and ask another.

Now, imagine if you had two, three, or five of these relationships going on in several niches? Do you begin to see the possibilities in the details?

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Your mindset plays a major role in whether your expanding blog empire succeeds or fails. If you begin another blog, you are diluting your focus from your original one. You will have remember to budget in the time for both.

How can we save some time here?

Look at things you see all the time in a different way. The cliche is think outside of the box. Look at the world online and even offline with an eye to what you can borrow for ways to monetize your blog. I have heard this called putting on your marketer’s hat and looking at the world with a marketer’s eyes.

Other blogs in your niche aren’t just your competition—each is a business model…you can borrow from. If you evaluate their blogs with this in mind, your competition has done 75% of your work for you. Just research and learn and borrow whatever appeals to you… Remember copy the model not the content.

Sometimes…even offline you can find gems. How about an affiliate venture with a local off line company in your niche or laterally in your niche?

For example, one of our Niche Friday Gifts was on a subniche of landscaping. Another of the keywords was hottub landscaping. Find a local hot tub contractor…and do an affiliate project with them once you’ve got traffic and page rank. I have found many offline business are very open to making the transition to the internet. Many times, they just don’t quite know how to go about it. Or, they’ve tried with limited success.

As an experienced blogger, you become the internet expert here. Is every offline business you approach going to say yes? No, but you find many will if you keep asking around.

Following the same idea, consider marketing to demographics. If you do your keyword research thoroughly, you can find many clues that can open up these possibilities. A while back we did another Niche Friday Gift on a subniche in baby adoption. We were asked how to monetize a niche that seems to doom you to only Adsense. When you come right down to it, this is about babies. Babies require a lot of stuff. There are even CPA offers for a lifetime supply of diapers.

Can you train yourself to ask what else might my readers (or even your list members) be interested in? Once you do, you will see more opportunities than you could ever put into practice.

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We’ve been discussing a whole range of topics about starting a new niche blog and expanding your blog empire. Hopefully, you improve your bottom line in the process. This is a lot of work…

There is a new project in the works here. I’m being reminded just how much work starting a new project is. In the next few days, we’ll discuss some tips to make the process go more smoothly.

One thing that has helped me tremendously is to keep notes about the steps and the order I take them in. It may be 6 or 8 months before we pass this way again. Each time it should get easier to get the new niche blog up and running. But, if you’ve forgotten what you did and how you did it, or don’t have the URLs for templates or plugins, you can spend a lot of time searching. (Even if it’s just searching your own hard drive).

Searching for things when I’m trying to take action is usually a bad idea. One thing leads to another and another day is gone. For me, looking for a template, is something like searching an endless mall for a pair of shoes. Just when you think you’ve found the perfect pair….. you find another shoe store down the way. It can become a real time sink.

Now, maybe you didn’t take notes the first time, it’s no big deal…try keeping them this time. Remember that sooner or later, you’ll want to expand again. I’ve found that you can’t just stop with just one blog. It will save you a lot of time in the future.

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Let’s say you’ve written your ebook, done the graphics, and it’s all ready to go. What are some of things you can do with your ebook to monetize your blog? Nearly everyone is familiar with simply selling an ebook. I going to go beyond that obvious step.

What are some of the other things you can do with it to not only promote your blog but attract targeted traffic? In other words…when is an ebook not just an ebook?

It can become an ecourse. You can post a chapter weekly to bring your readers back to your blog. If you watch your traffic figures, you’ll know which day is the slowest. So, pick that day to post your ecourse lesson. Your traffic will pick up on your slowest day of the week.

You can use it as a gift. Give it away in return for a opt-in list sign up. Building a list is very important. It is the cornerstone to building a long term income from your blog. I read a statistic that said: it usually takes seven views of your offer before the average customer buys.

If you don’t have a list, how are you going to have the ability to provide that many views of your offer? So, capturing your readers to your list gives you those seven chances to put your offers in front of your readers.

What else can you do with your eboook? When you wrote your ebook…you wrote a chapter at a time. Almost like making a double post a day to your blog. Once you’re finished, you might have a tendency to think of it just as The Book, as a whole. But, you can take a step backwards, and like the ecourse idea above, break your chapters into mini reports.

Each chapter can be recorded into a podcast or made into a video. Audio and video products have a higher perceived value than a PDF file. Many people prefer to listen or watch to learn about a topic.

Each chapter, podcast, or video can be quickly reworked into a general overview "article" focused on your chosen keyword. You can then submit them to article directories, iTunes, or UTube. Why general? You want to tease your traffic–entice the reader to click your signature link and actually visit your blog to get the details.

At that point, you can offer them a mini report with more detail in return for them signing up to your list. Or you can take the ecourse idea and offer the course through email once the visitor signs up. You would send a link in your autoresponder email to the lesson which is residing on your blog in a private area. Also, you can offer the entire book for sale, throwing in as many of the free reports, podcasts, or videos as you wish as bonuses.

I hope, you can see that an ebook really is a seed. If you tend it, and give it the proper attention, it can send out roots in many directions to entice new visitors to your blog. Giving you the opportunity to make more income from all the offers you have in place.

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