Blog To Great

BlogRush Shuts Down !

     BLOG NEWS-  John Reese Announces That BlogRush Is Shutting Down Effective Immediately! 
You may have heard of BlogRush and have even signed on to this blog syndication service.  It's now over, John's closing up shop. This news shows that even the top Internet marketing experts / gurus can have a failure now and then.  John Reese, you may recall, is the marketeer who made over a million dollars in one day from a huge crowd at one of his seminars.  His blog traffic exchange service, a viral blog marketing tool that he created back in 2007 caused quite a stir with as many fans as detractors who claimed it was a SEO scam.  Whatever you thought of it, it's done now.  See John's message, here .

Here are some safer ways from BtG to build your blog traffic and readership-

Blog Deep Linking to Build Blog Readership

     BLOG TIPS-  Some of the best links come through natural or, "organic" means.  Buying links is to be avoided and links sharing may prove to be disastrous too.  Try these methods to increase blog traffic with SEO tactic called, “Deep Linking”  If you're not familiar with Deep Linking, read on; it's a strategy where you build links for other posts within your blog instead of the main page .  You might think this unnecessary like many bloggers do.  Many believe:

"There's no point in building links to pages that you don’t want to rank for keywords”

Don't believer that it's a waste of your time and energy. There are at least three benefits of using “Deep Linking Strategy”:

1. Your blog will rank much faster for the keyword that you want. If a lot of blog posts have a higher page rank (PR), the backlinks from each of your posts to the main page became much stronger. You’ll rank higher because Google rank blogs/websites by including the backlinks of the entire blog.

2. Your great blog will receive unexpected (and welcomed) search engine traffic from each of yourblog posts. When your individual blog posts have backlinks, they have some authority to them. When readers search for those terms included in your post, Google puts you blog post on the first page; you’ll then get more visitors as readers spot your blog sooner. That’s how the top blogs get search engine traffic from the thousands of keywords they rank with little extra effort.

3. Your blog will rank faster and will be less likely to get "buried".  By building backlinks too aggressively, Google may hold traffic from your page.   I don't recommend building more than 10 links on a page for a new blog. If you want to move up faster, you'll need tocreate ten other quality pages and build four/five links to each page. That way, you'll end up with 50-60 backlinks to your blog.

Well known ‘Deep Link Strategies’ to consider :

1. Submit To Blog Carnivals - Submit your post to BlogCarnival.com. For every post you submit to blog carnival, you'll create an additional link to your blog’s main page and one link to your post you submitted !

2. Article Submission - Most article directories allow you to have three links on your resource box or author bio. Use one of the links for your main page and the remaining two to other pages.

3. Interlinking - Link your posts to each other. When you finish writing a new post, you should link back to some related,  previous post on your blog.  Avoid using ‘click here’ or ‘read here’ to link to those posts.  Very boring and un-original.   Use the post title or keywords that you want the post to rank for. Try using the term ‘Similar Posts’ too.

4. Blog Commenting - You visit other great blogs everyday anyway for enjoyment, research, networking.  While there, make sure you comment, especially if you can be first! List your url blog post on the ‘URL’ line when you makecomments.  But avoid listing the url in the comment body, not good blog etiquette !

5. Web 2.0 Sites - Use other web 2.0 sites such as Squidoo, Newsvine, Hubpages, to do so. But, don't use them too aggressively or often. You will be tagged as spam and thrown off.

Good SEO-ing.  Feel free to comment below or ask any questions, thanks !

REDDIT to Spread its Reach !!!

     BLOG NEWS-  Popular social news site Reddit, which was purchased by Conde Nast's Wired Digital division in 2006, recently made public their new strategy to distribute its technology around the Web (an globe). They've partnered with the U.K.'s Independentnewspaper to instal Reddit technology on the paper's Web site and to ask readers to vote up or down on the news (check it out, here) . The plan calls for a prominent button for the Independent's internal voting system to appear on each of the paper's online news stories it will also accept links submitted from around the Web.

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian said in an e-mail message, "It's this kind of open mentality that really excited us about working with them" .

Though much smaller than it's main rival Digg, but does seem to have a clear focus; that Reddit is about distribution, not a standalone site and this move should be a great boost to them.  Reddit, as with most social network sites, is a great way to grow your blog through networking with others.

Blog Brand Marketing - Sell It to a Larger Crowd

     Blog Tips-  You're serious about growing your blog, you visit BtG and other "how to blog" blogs.  You look at as many blog tips as you can handle and at some point have read - content, comments, carnivals, organic linksa hundred times.  Important stuff, but you need to go beyond that.  Study up on marketing for small businesses and how the internet is being embraced by even large corporations to market new products.  That's no different for a blog.  Past the blogging basics, you'll have to brand your blog as your own.   You have to make it special and unique if you're wanting it to grow it beyond the casual reading that might bump into your blog.  Don't hesitate to try new (or old) marketing ideas to spread the word.  Use press releases, giveaways, sponsorships, etc as if you were marketing your new clothing line or store!!!  The point is that nothing is off limits to try to attract readers to your blog.  Be creative, stick to it and constantly spread the word. Be consistent, and send the right message to potential readers.

What inventive things have you done to promote your blog?  Share below with comment, thanks.

Down Economy Makes a Great Time for Blogging !!

Blog Tips-  In a recent article at Portfolio.com, Six Apart's (Movable Type, Vox, TypePad, Blogs.com) CEO, Chris Alden spoke with optimism of the firm and blogging, as a bad economy will likely lead to an overall increase in blogging, Alden says. "When you don't know where else to invest," he explains, "you invest in yourself".  His feeling is that blogs / blogging and social networks will continue to evolve, "Social networking and blogging are converging," Alden says.  It's a valid point, since blogging has evolved to make it easier to share information with others, create "community" and to learn together.  Sure, many want to monetize blogs, which is likely the reason you visit BtG, and social networks have already shown their benefit to blogs in helping bloggers increase their readership.  So the convergence and creation of more niche social networks will certainly be a boom to us!  It continues to be an exciting time to blog, take advantage of all it has to offer!  Short term, many will enter into blogger, but the dedicated, sincere bloggers will continue with it and reap the benefits.  Blog on, and Blog to Great !!

Question- Has the downturn in the economy changed your outlook on your blog or blogging ???  Share your thoughts.

RSS to Keep Your Blog's Readers Informed and To Increase Readership

BLOG TIPS- We've talked about the benefits of a blog for small businesses just a few weeks ago.   As mentioned, a lot of businesses which use a blog as a marketing strategy, especially because a blog reaches real people; it allows you to keep in touch with existing and potential clients. A blog can supply the personal touch, to sell your products, services, etc.  And if you're a blogger, you of course want to increase your blog's readership.  A great tool for bloggers, blogs & blogging is RSS ( Really Simple Syndication).  Using RSS you don’t have to e-mail your subscribers, all you is do produce new content/information, post it and you can be sure that you’re reaching your readers.  Compare this to email marketing, RSS is more effective because only the people who are really interested in your blog will subscribe to your RSS. !  Are there advantages to RSS over Email Marketing?  Yes, the main advantage is that you won't get spam complaints and you have a 100% delivery without any problems.

Once you have set up your blog with an RSS feed, you should submit it to the RSS Feed Directories. This way, your posts will have a much greater exposure to readers. You can do this in a matter of minutes and reach a bigger audience.   RSS is a fantastic tool for increasing rankings on the search engines too. You probably already know that search engines regard websites that continually update their content higher.  RSS Feeds will help your website to accomplish this. You will get higher rankings on search engines as well as increasing your website traffic, so what's not to lose ???   If you don’t take advantage of this great tool, you will be missing out and tons of opportunities to inform your blog readers and gain new readers to your blog.  Subscribe to my feed and learn more about FeedBurner (our choice at BtG).

Need More Blog Traffic? Join in Forums

      BLOG TIPS - In case you didn't know (or haven't used them), an internet forum is a site discussion area. Site members post discussion topics and read/respond to other's posts.  A forum can cover any subject and has a sense of a virtual community, an online community, amongst the forum members.  It's also called a message board, discussion group, bulletin board or web forum. But, it's different from a blog in that a blog is usually written by one user and usually only allows for the responses of others to the blog material. An Internet forum usually allows all members to make posts and begin new topics.  When you participate in discussions on internet forums you can not only learn more about your topic and blogging in general, it's also a good means to draw additional traffic to your blog.  When you pick the right forum for you, you can find others with interests in the same topic as yours and show off your "stuff" and get them interested in your blog!  Just don't try to join in only spread around your blog's URL, don't be a spammer.  First, you'll be tossed off the forum and second, it's rude!  Instead, participate and add to the discussion, readers to your blog will follow naturally.  When you're helpful and courteous you'll build good reputation, will respect you and will be more likely to visit your blog.  The list below is a good start, give some a try and share your results with other BtG readers (please comment below with other forums too!).

(Also try social media sites like Facebook, Myspace and Linkedin. You should search for groups or forums on those sites that are topical to your blog)

Amazon Associates Program Update-You Can Now Link From Any Amazon Page!

     BLOG NEWS -In checking my Amazon Associates account this morning, I noticed a nice re-design and a cool, new feature for AA publishers. Called ‘Site Stripe’, it allows you to create affiliate links as you surf around Amazon. It’s a small grey stripe that appears at the top of any Amazon.com page if you are logged into Amazon using your same Amazon account as you use for Associates.  It allows you to link to the page, add a product to an aStore, see your Earnings Summary, see ‘what’s New’, go to a discussion board or see ’settings’.

Take a look:

Click on the "link to this page" when you're in and it takes you to an Associates area relevant to the selection that you make. This is a time saver for Amazon affiliates who link to a lot of products on Amazon; it will end your flipping back & forth between Amazon pages and Associates pages.  Log into your Associates Account setting to enable the new feature, and good selling !

Monetize Your Blog With Affiliate Ads

     BLOG TIPS- Many bloggers that I've talked to lately that have been blogging for some time about their topic (crafts, parenting, cars) get to a point where they've thought about trying to make money from their blog.  So far, it's been more of a hobby, a way to meet others with similar interests.  But as their blog has grown, they realize that since they’re putting in the time and energy, why not earn some money too?  Well, why not??  Bloggers have found that basic ad programs such as Google AdSense are a good entry point for monetizing a blog, but really don’t bring in the kind of profits they've hope for.  For most, the real opportunity to monetizing a blog, is with affiliate marketing advertising. Affiliate marketing are programs where you place link/s on your blog for products that relate to your topic and ones that your reader will be interested in.  Such as, if you cover classic '70s supercars on your blog, you would choose products such as car books or car accessories to promote, since your readers would find the products interesting.  After you set up with the network, you place a link on your blog, and when someone clicks on the adlink, and then makes a purchase, you receive a commission on the sale. Some commissions are as high as 75%.  Commissions depend on the product and the network you're signed up with.  But, usually, digital products like ebooks have higher commission rates because they have no manufacturing or inventory costs for the supplier.   Since affiliate marketing is an Internet-based business, there are thousands of entrepreneurs talking about this topic online every day. Protect yourself by taking the needed time to read reviews and comments, and decide on an affiliate marketing opportunity that's best suited to you and your blog's needs. Within your niche, you likely know of many suppliers or manufacturers that promote their own affliate program on their website. Check around and inquire with suppliers of products that you already know and are comfortable with. Some of the best known full service programs are; Chitka, Clickbank, Performancing Ads and Real Girls Media.  The network programs are easy to use and most offer full reporting so that you know you revenue and which ad it came from.  We have Affiliate ads here on BtG, check out some of the products you like & need to get a feel for the process.  Feel free to e-mail or comment with questions or reports on your ad successes!

Don't just advertise on your blog, Blog to Great !

In This Economic Crisis, Recession Proof Your Blog

     BLOG TIPS- With the Dow fluctuating and the "bailout" packages waiting to have their positive impact, here's some advice on how to give a blog (and bloggers) a boost without raising costs (and maybe even reducing them):   

Fight the doomsday machine.  One of the biggest problems is conquering the negative mood and tolk. We're constantly hit with with negative messages from the media and our friends/biz associates daily about how we're all going to hit bottom. It's tough to argue with; People are losing their jobs, their homes, and their hope. It spells difficulty ahead; keeping a successful end (and blog) in mind while pursuing after your business and life goals gets difficult. No one can say with certainly that we know our year-end results, since we don't know what the market's going to do today. Even if we aren't directly effected, we fear that our readers/clients/etc  will be less likely to want to spend money right now, impacting your revenue.

Fortunately, there are thing you can do! Every challenge presents us with opportunities to learn, grow, and dig deeper to find solutions that will move us forward individually thru our blog, but also as a community!  Nelson Mandela once said, "...As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” So we MUST push onward with vision, a plan and a willingness to help others!

Go back to your original blog plan.  What were your goals at the start of the year, at the start of your blog?  Re-fresh and re-focus on what you intend to accomplish ! You may have to approach your vision in a new way, be ready and be adaptable.  There are many methods to use in laying out a new plan;