As I promised, I'm constantly researching the internet to find out what is working for marketers and what is not.
I came across this great site and here's an author who tells it like it is:
"Why Many Good People Fail, When They Try to Make Money!
I now hold in my hands years of moneymaking experience on the Internet.Since I'm not exactly Einstein, it has always puzzled me how I did so well, while so many others, who tried, failed miserably to succeed earning a decent permanent income on the net.This question occupied me for years and I found the answer gradually, after talking both to other successful home based business people like me and to people who tried to succeed online, but failed.
I believe that now I have a pretty good answer to this question and here's a summary of the reasons that lead many to online disappointments.
Having Unrealistic Expectations
A lot of people expect to become ”millionaires” instantly or barely after two-three days of online learning and work.When these two-three days are over and when they see that they're not millionaires yet, they feel cheated, betrayed and they think that the entire ”Internet thing” is a vicious scam.Then, they usually stop their efforts and go back to their previous offline routine.
Lack of Willingness to Invest Time Becoming an online success, takes both time and hard work.In most cases, it's a gradual process, where you have to do some reading, learn, digest and then, put into practice what you've learned.Successful web entrepreneurs usually fail in their first couple of tries, but then, after some fine tuning of their skills and performance, they start to achieve some initial small successes.After a while, they start to increase their success even further and only then - gradually, pace after pace, they get closer to the Holy Grail, which means seeing some serious money from their online activities.
A lot of people don't invest the necessary time resources to properly learn the territory, master it, experiment and improve their results.This happens for various reasons, such as lack of enough free time, lack of willpower and sometimes even sheer laziness.Either way, it leads many to throw in the towel at very early stages, disappointed.
A Misperception of the Internet
A lot of beginners have a false perception of the net. Sometimes, they wrongly see it as some kind of a magical, fairyland type place, where you can earn lots of money very easily and get rich pretty quickly, without investing the necessary hard work and efforts.Instead of seeing the net as another business environment, where many of the ”old rules” of business still apply, they adopt a distorted view, which doesn't go hand in hand with reality.When they find out that making money online is not ”that” easy and that they didn't become rich ”quick” enough, they usually get frustrated, angry and then go back to their usual routine, outside the web.
Lack of Enough Knowledge
In order to actually succeed online, people need to KNOW how to make money on the web.Getting this knowledge requires learning, research and proper self-education.Without getting this crucial guidance and without properly studying the know-how of this business, it's very hard to become productive and successful – just like in any other business sector.Some people jump too high too fast, without having the right tools in their toolbox, instead of adopting a safer and more prudent policy of gradual progress, which combines learning and practicing, one step after the other.
Being Cheap
People can feel very comfortable when they invest tens of thousands of dollars in college tuition fee in order to get a degree that, in some cases, they will never use.Yet, many find it extremely difficult to invest $50 or $100 in a high quality ebook, which will drastically shorten their learning curve and teach them in just a few hours or days, valuable material that would otherwise take months to master.This close fisted attitude and the reluctance to invest relatively small amounts of money in one of the most crucial factors for online success - one's education and training - leads to a much longer learning curve and stalls one's results and success.
Problems in Handling Obstacles
Just like beginners in any other business niche, people who try to start online business activities, face obstacles, difficulties and problems.This happens to anybody who has too little knowledge or experience and most newbies face difficulties right from their first step.In many cases, instead of increasing their energy and overcoming these obstacles, finding out what did they do wrong or where they have made mistakes, people just give up and quit their efforts.
Over Skepticism
The Internet is loaded with real opportunities, which actually work.Although it's wrong to be naïve and gullible, being the complete opposite of that, in an excessive way, can also prevent a lot of people from succeeding.Some rookies tend to develop a stubborn habit of dismissing almost any good opportunity or method, due to their over skepticism or mistrust, instead of actually giving good ideas a decent chance and trying them out."
I told you it was good. Read the next chapter and find out what it take to succeed online.
"Next Chapter: Now, let's examine what it takes to succeed making money on the net."
The Golden Keys to Succeed in Earning Long Term Income Online
Most people who actually succeeded to turn the Internet into their primary source for long-term income have used the same keys to success.I've summarized all the factors that can convert almost any average person to a successful web entrepreneur.This list includes the personal ingredients and the characteristic components of probably every successful web entrepreneur out there.If you want to be successful at your Internet home business quest, here is what it takes.
The Desire for Success
You'll need high levels of motivation, a passionate inner desire to succeed, a strong urge to achieve great things and a burning ambition to make it all work.Having a passion for success, a vision for a prosperous and happy future, is where it all starts.Overcoming FearsYou'll need to overcome personal fears and anxieties, which prevent people from making life-changing decisions.It requires being courageous enough to make unorthodox decisions, face changes, take certain risks and sometimes, walk into uncharted waters.
Passion for Business
It's the desire to start your own business, become your own boss and reach financial independence, freedom and success.It's the entrepreneurial spirit within you and the constant aspiration to run your own prosperous business, make it bloom and leave your mark.Ability to ChangeIt's the ability to change and adapt to new realities, new lines of work and keep an open mind about new possibilities.It's about your ability to do things differently from what you're used to, break your old patterns and molds and be creative when you're faced both with difficulties on the one hand and opportunities on the other.
Willingness to Learn
It's about being able to focus and learn new material, concepts and models, all by yourself.It's the aspiration to ever expand your knowledge, expertise and skills, in order to improve, polish and fine-tune your performance and business results.
Optimism
You'll need to be optimistic, hopeful and have faith in yourself and in your ability to make it all work, eventually. It's about keeping a positive mindset and always seeing your glass as half-full – not half-empty, while constantly striving to fill the other half. It's also about not letting temporary failures or hardships, take you off course or affect your strategic decisions.
Taking Action
It's about being able to accept decisions and move from the theoretical world of thoughts and ideas, to the world of concrete action.It's the willingness to try and test new ways, ideas and strategies.It means constantly making the effort, investing considerable time resources and giving all you've got in order to ensure that you meet your long terms goals.PatienceIt's about being patient and knowing that although results take both time and perseverance, they do come to those who put up the work and practice self-discipline.It's the ability to maintain the course calmly and steadily, even when results are not immediate.
Willpower
It's about being able to be stubborn (in a positive way), persistent and totally committed to your game plan.It's about overcoming temporary difficulties and frustrations, maintaining self-control, confronting weaknesses and resisting temptations - all in order to achieve the long-term goals.All of the above factors and parameters are the components that lead a person to online success and prosperity.If you have these characteristics – great!If you don't (and most people don't have them all) – grow them, it's doable.
Next Chapter: How can you actually start making money?"
You don't even have to get off the page, here's the next chapter:
"Tips for Beginners: How Can You Start Earning Money Online?
Every successful home based moneymaker on the Internet, started as a novice, a clueless beginner with nothing but dreams, aspirations and a true hunger for success.After years of online experience and a lot of successes (alongside some failures), I decided to provide my best newbie tips and advice for those of you who would like to embark on a long-term successful online career.I've gathered a few thoughts, insights, and strategies that I hope will help you in your endeavor.
Be Realistic: Forget About Instant SuccessIf you came to this business because you think that you can get rich quickly or earn some easy money fast, then think again.It's not going to happen.Becoming a success story in this online world is more than possible, but it takes time, patience and perseverance.If you don't find this acceptable, save your time and your energy and don't even start.
Acknowledge Your Ignorance, But Work to Fix It
Successful web entrepreneurs already know how to make money.You don't!Accept this fact, but aspire to close the knowledge gap between you and them.It will take huge efforts and a lot of time, but this is the only way to achieve your goal and start earning serious money.The more you know, the better tools you'll have to pull it off.
Adopt a Reasonable, Gradual Game PlanWalk before you run. Start with small, relatively easy and very achievable steps, before you start with the more complex and ambitious endeavors.Use your experience with the easier, risk free opportunities as a platform to learn the nuts and bolts of the online moneymaking industry, in order to become a professional.After you’ve accumulated more experience, expertise and confidence, you'll feel more ripe and ready to proceed to more advanced strategies.
Take Action!
Even during your learning period, start taking action.Balance between educating yourself and participating online moneymaking activities.You will gain experience, confidence and even start getting paid - receiving your first checks through the mail.Those initial checks will provide you with more fuel to double your efforts.
Don't Buy Expensive Products
A lot of beginners buy expensive products and business kits, while they're still taking their first steps. This is a big mistake.There's no justification to buy anything which costs $10,000, $5,000 or even $1,000.Allocating $50-$200 to buy good educating ebooks is a wise move, but don't go beyond this, until you've gained meaningful experience.
Don't Quit Your Day Job, Yet
The beauty of online business is that you don't have to leave your job in order to take your first steps online.It can be done simultaneously, while you're still working as an employee.If everything works as you've planned, great! You can kiss your day job goodbye and work from home full time, permanently.However, if you don't do well, you still have a reliable source for income, until you figure out how to make it all work.
Want to get started?Go to the homepage, read some of our quick start guides, choose a couple of opportunities that you feel comfortable with that don't require having a website – and start making money."
Alright, since I basically copied and pasted this guy's work, I think it's only fair that I send you to his homepage:
"Good luck!Back to Homepage "
Brought to you by The fighter
Are you a new Internet Marketer? Want to make money online? This blog will dispel some of the myths. You'll learn as quickly as possible how to create money making blogs.
Create great Websites and Blogs and web sites!
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
How to get traffic to your website or blog
For the Super frugal:
I understand that some of you may be strapped for cash and don't like to spend money before you start seeing results. But here's my take on it. The most valuable thing that you have is TIME. Sure you can get free traffic by getting the Feedjit map and corresponding gadget. You can publish in Blog catalog, like I do, you can do article submissions till you're blue in the face and get traffic. You can post comments on popular sites and get a back link to your site. You can do the social networks like Twitter and Facebook. That's all fine and good and you WILL get FREE traffic, like I have.
But Google favors custom domain names for your blogs. It costs a measly ten bucks a year. Custom domains will rank you higher with the Google bot. That is just a fact. I've been too cheap to have wanted to do it. After I did it with one of my blogs Inspiration for your day , Google ranked me on second page with the keyword "Inspiration for your day". I've only had the custom domain for about 1 week. Not bad.
So if you're feeling like a "big spender", I suggest you buy a $10 custom domain name for your blog in order to rank higher and get more traffic to your blog or website via organic placement. I don't think you'll regret it.
If you want traffic, the fastest way to do it is to start spending a little. You don't have to, but time is your most valuable possession. Why wait 2,3 or 4 years to rank high by only doing it the free way, when you can get near instant results for so little.
Here's how you do "Custom domain name" from your blog at blogger.com settings:
1. Go to the "Settings" tab. 2. Press "publishing" tab. You'll see a new window which will give you an option to get a "Custom Domain". It will say "Switch to custom domain". 3. Click on that. You will be re directed to another page where you can search for your new domain name. Go daddy is the new host.
Your "Custom domain" window should look like this:
I picked my Make money blogging settings as an example:
Note: If you have a blog that is already ranking well, disregard this. Why mess with something that's already working. Do this only if your blog is getting almost no traffic. You want to get about 100 clicks a week at the beginning. If that is the case, you will get many more, the more you optimize you page. Remember to refer to the tips by Griz below.
Let's get lots and lots and lots of traffic! Did I already say "lots"? But getting lots of traffic requires being a "big spender" like me.
Carlos
I subscribed to Today.com just today and stumbled upon this great article by Griz and it goes as follows:
"In general there are two free sources of traffic online. These sources are broadly defined as Social traffic and Search Engine traffic. 99% of all newcomers online set up a blog or website and proceed to try and obtain social traffic. They do this simply because everyone else does it.
Social traffic consists of using social networks like Stumbleupon, Digg, Reddit, Entrecard, Forums and hundreds of other services that allow you to sign up and promote your site on them. These services are the backbone of what is known as Web 2.0 and has evolved into a newer version centered around Facebook, MySpace and the current craze - Twitter.
The general idea is to get out there and make friends online using these networks, draw them in to your site, wow them with your content and wait for the links to come pouring in from your adoring fans. As the links increase your traffic increases as more and more people find your site and in turn tell more people through the use of more links and one day you will become famous just like Darren Rowse of Problogger or failing personal fame you may still develop a hugely popular site like Engadget or the Huffington Post.
There is a certain appeal to all this - becoming popular has many advantages aside from the most obvious monetary considerations. Many people blog because they have something to say and just want an outlet for their views. Others dream of being a writer and use the net to publish their stories. Get your work out there and get discovered. Musicians and filmmakers use the net in the same way. Whatever your reason for starting a blog or website there will come a day when you say to yourself, “what is the point if no one is reading or watching or listening to my creative output?”
It is at that point that you will begin your quest to find traffic and invariably you will turn to the social networks. You will discover quite quickly that you can get social traffic fairly easily using Stumbleupon or even easier using Entrecard. Twitter might be the easiest of all. You will join forums and work at becoming an “authority” in your niche. You will make friends. They will send links. All will be wonderful… for a while.
Six months to a year down the road two things will happen - it always happens and it happens whether you have achieved a large readership or not. You wake up one day and realize that you are working like a dog and there is little to no benefit from all that work. Driving social traffic is a constant grind. If you stop posting, twittering, digging, stumbling, dropping entrecards, leaving comments on other blogs or any of the other daily chores needed to keep your name out there the traffic dries up. Moreover your health deteriorates and your friends and family are neglected as you spend hours and hours sitting in front of your computer single mindedly developing your brand. Even if you have managed to develope a few thousand RSS subscribers - something most beginners think of as a successful blogger - you will still ask yourself “is all this work worth it?”
Why? Because at some point everyone wants to be compensated for all that work. You may say now that you are just doing it because you like to “write” or you just need an outlet to release your opinions and I believe you. The problem is that you will not be satisfied just writing or opinionating if no one is reading your output. You will get sucked into the social traffic cycle and find out that it is work. And when you work that hard you will eventually want a monetary reward for it - in one form or another. Having 10,000 readers coming and reading just wont cut it if a book deal doesn’t materialize. Or you can’t make money from advertisers. Or JV (joint venture) offers don’t show up. No matter what your reason for blogging at some point you are going to want a reward for it and the more work you put into it the more return on time invested will be expected.
And that is the problem - you wont get a return from social traffic. They don’t spend money - they don’t click ads and the advertisers are no longer supplying inventory to social sites as that fact has become known. Today.com claims 10 million page views a month. That is fairly significant traffic. So why don’t we see the big advertisers on this site? Where are the finance/credit/bank advertisements? The auto company ads? The big brand names? What we see are ads for dating sites. And Adsense.
The advertisers are not coming to this domain in spite of the traffic. Today.com has had to find a means to monetize this site using affiliate marketing platforms which they are currently rolling out. Adsense does not perform well as the sub-domains are not targeted for premium CPC (cost per click) and are smart priced. They get pennies per click from adsense and the CTR is dismal at best. Today.com is a successful domain based on traffic but like many others online they have found out that all traffic is not equal. The majority of this domains traffic comes from social networks and social traffic does not convert well - meaning they can’t make much profit from it.
If you are reading this then chances are you have a site yourself and you spend a fair amount of time reading blogs and surfing the net. You are social traffic. When was the last time you bought something on a friends site? Or clicked on an Ad? You don’t do it often if at all and neither do all the other social bloggers and social network users. You are here to read. You are online looking for information and not looking to buy something.
Search engine traffic is quite different. Most people use the search engines - Google by far - when they need to find something. You don’t go to Today.com when you want tickets to a Broadway musical or are looking for a hotel in New York. You use Google. You have a purpose in mind and that usually entails buying something or at the least you need specific information about a specific thing. Search traffic is targeted and whether you are trying to make money online or just want readers, search traffic is the traffic you want because it consists of people looking specifically for what you are offering.
If you have a humor blog for no other reason than just to entertain then why not target people looking for humor blogs? The easiest way to do that is to rank number 1 in Google for the term “humor blog”. On average 2400 people a month will find your site. If you rank for more related keywords like “humorous photos”, “Humor writer”, “humor”, “funny pics”, “funny stories” etc then you will eventually have thousands of daily visitors to your site. And this is the best part - you can post when you want or not at all and the same traffic will show up every day. Moreover you will never have to spend 1 minute commenting on other blogs or stumbling or dropping entrecards or doing any of the other chores involved in social marketing. And the icing on the cake - your search traffic will click your ads. They will read your humorous post and because they found you while searching for humor they are likely going to click on those ads that point them to other humorous sites. They don’t care if they make you money or not - they are not bloggers. They are civilians looking for something and will click anything that leads them to their goal.
The process for obtaining search traffic is actually very simple but it does take work and most of all patience. It can also be done in conjunction with social traffic. The problem is 99% of bloggers only chase social traffic and completely shut the door on search traffic right from the get go. This doesn’t have to be and I will show you how to optimize for the search engines using some basic SEO techniques that will pay off hugely by the time you wane on social traffic. You can use social networks for immediate traffic while building your site for long term search traffic. If you don’t achieve search traffic then you will eventually burn out and all the social traffic in the world will not change that fact.
SEO Basics that must be used in order to drive search traffic to your blog are as follows;
You must use your keyword in your URL.
You must use your keyword in your Blog Title.
You must use your keywords in your Post Titles.
You must use your keywords and related terms in your post content.
You will get the best search results by only posting one post per page unless all your posts are related to the same keywords.
If using Adsense then always stick to one post per page.
If using photos then your keywords should be used in the alt tags.
You must use html for the bulk of your pages content. (plain old text)
These simple little steps are all you need to do to optimize your site for the search engines. You will get indexed for your keywords and ranked well. How high you get ranked depends on the competition. If there is little competition you could achieve top ranking doing little else. (Many of you experience some Google traffic for long tail keywords. This is because you used a term in your content that has little competition and Google found your site when someone searched for that term - unfortunately these terms don’t often provide much traffic) If there is a lot of competition then you will need backlinks pointing to your site using your keyword in the anchored text of the link pointing to you.
That is all that is required to dominate any keyword online. Simple yes. In practice the hard part will be obtaining all the anchored backlinks needed to dominate a competitive keyword but following my on-site advice will make this task much easier - especially if you use social networks.
Now let me demonstrate what I am talking about.
I mentioned “humor” a few paragraphs ago as a lead in for my example site. But first a pre-amble to fill you in.
It seems I ruffled a few feathers in a post on my main site a few weeks ago. I mentioned that the bloggers on Today.com were beginners and the reason was to point out that most of the bloggers on here are following a failed strategy. They are almost without exception chasing social traffic and will eventually quit blogging for all the reasons I mentioned above. They will work their butts off making a few dollars a day and burn out. Most will not even do the social chasing and will quit long before they make a few dollars a day.
This isn’t any different here or with beginners who start a self hosted blog or use free domains like Blogger that can be fully monetized. The fact is most of the people blogging today will not be blogging in six months. They give it a go, fail to attract readers, fail to attract money or both and quit. I have seen this cycle for years and anyone that has lasted as long as a year knows this is true. We see it time and again. Very few people actually do the work - the majority of my readers have been reading my blogs for a year or two and still haven’t built a site. It is what it is.
I highlighted one blogger in particular in my post - not to bash her - but because she is one of the few on Today that has the work ethic to succeed. She has a “humorous Photo ” blog and drives the most traffic to her site of all the Today bloggers. She does it using social traffic and works her tail off to do it. She is the type of person who could succeed online with a little SEO knowledge. It is unfortunate that her reaction was quite negative.
Note: The screenshot of Melissa’s post on the forum has been removed as it was inappropriate of me to show it - the forum is private and hence the comments made are as well. - Griz
Tact is not my strong suit and those who know me have seen this kind of reaction before. The thing is you also know I am going to show Melissa how she can improve her traffic stats whether she wants to listen or not. Her site is the perfect example of what not to do in regards to search traffic and by illustrating the mistakes it will become clear to both her and others how some simple tweaks could make a huge difference in her long term success. If it’s any consolation to Melissa she should know I only “pick on” bloggers who have the talent to succeed - there is no point in highlighting those that don’t.
This post is long enough so I will demonstrate on-site SEO next post and illustrate exactly why you should follow my advice regarding keywords using both Melissa’s site and mine. The results will not leave you in doubt about how effective it is at building links and traffic.
For those who are members of Today.com you can follow Melissa’s forum thread here - Grizzly is a Douche Bag - I think they were about to tar and feather me last I checked.
Cheers
Griz
Share and Enjoy:"
Brought to you by:
Carlos, The fighter
I understand that some of you may be strapped for cash and don't like to spend money before you start seeing results. But here's my take on it. The most valuable thing that you have is TIME. Sure you can get free traffic by getting the Feedjit map and corresponding gadget. You can publish in Blog catalog, like I do, you can do article submissions till you're blue in the face and get traffic. You can post comments on popular sites and get a back link to your site. You can do the social networks like Twitter and Facebook. That's all fine and good and you WILL get FREE traffic, like I have.
But Google favors custom domain names for your blogs. It costs a measly ten bucks a year. Custom domains will rank you higher with the Google bot. That is just a fact. I've been too cheap to have wanted to do it. After I did it with one of my blogs Inspiration for your day , Google ranked me on second page with the keyword "Inspiration for your day". I've only had the custom domain for about 1 week. Not bad.
So if you're feeling like a "big spender", I suggest you buy a $10 custom domain name for your blog in order to rank higher and get more traffic to your blog or website via organic placement. I don't think you'll regret it.
If you want traffic, the fastest way to do it is to start spending a little. You don't have to, but time is your most valuable possession. Why wait 2,3 or 4 years to rank high by only doing it the free way, when you can get near instant results for so little.
Here's how you do "Custom domain name" from your blog at blogger.com settings:
1. Go to the "Settings" tab. 2. Press "publishing" tab. You'll see a new window which will give you an option to get a "Custom Domain". It will say "Switch to custom domain". 3. Click on that. You will be re directed to another page where you can search for your new domain name. Go daddy is the new host.
Your "Custom domain" window should look like this:
I picked my Make money blogging settings as an example:
You're publishing on blogspot.com
Switch to: • Custom Domain (Point your own registered domain name to your blog)http:// .blogspot.com Subject to availability. | |
 Type the characters you see in the picture. | |
Note: If you have a blog that is already ranking well, disregard this. Why mess with something that's already working. Do this only if your blog is getting almost no traffic. You want to get about 100 clicks a week at the beginning. If that is the case, you will get many more, the more you optimize you page. Remember to refer to the tips by Griz below.
Let's get lots and lots and lots of traffic! Did I already say "lots"? But getting lots of traffic requires being a "big spender" like me.
Carlos
On Today.com
I subscribed to Today.com just today and stumbled upon this great article by Griz and it goes as follows:
"In general there are two free sources of traffic online. These sources are broadly defined as Social traffic and Search Engine traffic. 99% of all newcomers online set up a blog or website and proceed to try and obtain social traffic. They do this simply because everyone else does it.
Social traffic consists of using social networks like Stumbleupon, Digg, Reddit, Entrecard, Forums and hundreds of other services that allow you to sign up and promote your site on them. These services are the backbone of what is known as Web 2.0 and has evolved into a newer version centered around Facebook, MySpace and the current craze - Twitter.
The general idea is to get out there and make friends online using these networks, draw them in to your site, wow them with your content and wait for the links to come pouring in from your adoring fans. As the links increase your traffic increases as more and more people find your site and in turn tell more people through the use of more links and one day you will become famous just like Darren Rowse of Problogger or failing personal fame you may still develop a hugely popular site like Engadget or the Huffington Post.
There is a certain appeal to all this - becoming popular has many advantages aside from the most obvious monetary considerations. Many people blog because they have something to say and just want an outlet for their views. Others dream of being a writer and use the net to publish their stories. Get your work out there and get discovered. Musicians and filmmakers use the net in the same way. Whatever your reason for starting a blog or website there will come a day when you say to yourself, “what is the point if no one is reading or watching or listening to my creative output?”
It is at that point that you will begin your quest to find traffic and invariably you will turn to the social networks. You will discover quite quickly that you can get social traffic fairly easily using Stumbleupon or even easier using Entrecard. Twitter might be the easiest of all. You will join forums and work at becoming an “authority” in your niche. You will make friends. They will send links. All will be wonderful… for a while.
Six months to a year down the road two things will happen - it always happens and it happens whether you have achieved a large readership or not. You wake up one day and realize that you are working like a dog and there is little to no benefit from all that work. Driving social traffic is a constant grind. If you stop posting, twittering, digging, stumbling, dropping entrecards, leaving comments on other blogs or any of the other daily chores needed to keep your name out there the traffic dries up. Moreover your health deteriorates and your friends and family are neglected as you spend hours and hours sitting in front of your computer single mindedly developing your brand. Even if you have managed to develope a few thousand RSS subscribers - something most beginners think of as a successful blogger - you will still ask yourself “is all this work worth it?”
Why? Because at some point everyone wants to be compensated for all that work. You may say now that you are just doing it because you like to “write” or you just need an outlet to release your opinions and I believe you. The problem is that you will not be satisfied just writing or opinionating if no one is reading your output. You will get sucked into the social traffic cycle and find out that it is work. And when you work that hard you will eventually want a monetary reward for it - in one form or another. Having 10,000 readers coming and reading just wont cut it if a book deal doesn’t materialize. Or you can’t make money from advertisers. Or JV (joint venture) offers don’t show up. No matter what your reason for blogging at some point you are going to want a reward for it and the more work you put into it the more return on time invested will be expected.
And that is the problem - you wont get a return from social traffic. They don’t spend money - they don’t click ads and the advertisers are no longer supplying inventory to social sites as that fact has become known. Today.com claims 10 million page views a month. That is fairly significant traffic. So why don’t we see the big advertisers on this site? Where are the finance/credit/bank advertisements? The auto company ads? The big brand names? What we see are ads for dating sites. And Adsense.
The advertisers are not coming to this domain in spite of the traffic. Today.com has had to find a means to monetize this site using affiliate marketing platforms which they are currently rolling out. Adsense does not perform well as the sub-domains are not targeted for premium CPC (cost per click) and are smart priced. They get pennies per click from adsense and the CTR is dismal at best. Today.com is a successful domain based on traffic but like many others online they have found out that all traffic is not equal. The majority of this domains traffic comes from social networks and social traffic does not convert well - meaning they can’t make much profit from it.
If you are reading this then chances are you have a site yourself and you spend a fair amount of time reading blogs and surfing the net. You are social traffic. When was the last time you bought something on a friends site? Or clicked on an Ad? You don’t do it often if at all and neither do all the other social bloggers and social network users. You are here to read. You are online looking for information and not looking to buy something.
Search engine traffic is quite different. Most people use the search engines - Google by far - when they need to find something. You don’t go to Today.com when you want tickets to a Broadway musical or are looking for a hotel in New York. You use Google. You have a purpose in mind and that usually entails buying something or at the least you need specific information about a specific thing. Search traffic is targeted and whether you are trying to make money online or just want readers, search traffic is the traffic you want because it consists of people looking specifically for what you are offering.
If you have a humor blog for no other reason than just to entertain then why not target people looking for humor blogs? The easiest way to do that is to rank number 1 in Google for the term “humor blog”. On average 2400 people a month will find your site. If you rank for more related keywords like “humorous photos”, “Humor writer”, “humor”, “funny pics”, “funny stories” etc then you will eventually have thousands of daily visitors to your site. And this is the best part - you can post when you want or not at all and the same traffic will show up every day. Moreover you will never have to spend 1 minute commenting on other blogs or stumbling or dropping entrecards or doing any of the other chores involved in social marketing. And the icing on the cake - your search traffic will click your ads. They will read your humorous post and because they found you while searching for humor they are likely going to click on those ads that point them to other humorous sites. They don’t care if they make you money or not - they are not bloggers. They are civilians looking for something and will click anything that leads them to their goal.
The process for obtaining search traffic is actually very simple but it does take work and most of all patience. It can also be done in conjunction with social traffic. The problem is 99% of bloggers only chase social traffic and completely shut the door on search traffic right from the get go. This doesn’t have to be and I will show you how to optimize for the search engines using some basic SEO techniques that will pay off hugely by the time you wane on social traffic. You can use social networks for immediate traffic while building your site for long term search traffic. If you don’t achieve search traffic then you will eventually burn out and all the social traffic in the world will not change that fact.
SEO Basics that must be used in order to drive search traffic to your blog are as follows;
You must use your keyword in your URL.
You must use your keyword in your Blog Title.
You must use your keywords in your Post Titles.
You must use your keywords and related terms in your post content.
You will get the best search results by only posting one post per page unless all your posts are related to the same keywords.
If using Adsense then always stick to one post per page.
If using photos then your keywords should be used in the alt tags.
You must use html for the bulk of your pages content. (plain old text)
These simple little steps are all you need to do to optimize your site for the search engines. You will get indexed for your keywords and ranked well. How high you get ranked depends on the competition. If there is little competition you could achieve top ranking doing little else. (Many of you experience some Google traffic for long tail keywords. This is because you used a term in your content that has little competition and Google found your site when someone searched for that term - unfortunately these terms don’t often provide much traffic) If there is a lot of competition then you will need backlinks pointing to your site using your keyword in the anchored text of the link pointing to you.
That is all that is required to dominate any keyword online. Simple yes. In practice the hard part will be obtaining all the anchored backlinks needed to dominate a competitive keyword but following my on-site advice will make this task much easier - especially if you use social networks.
Now let me demonstrate what I am talking about.
I mentioned “humor” a few paragraphs ago as a lead in for my example site. But first a pre-amble to fill you in.
It seems I ruffled a few feathers in a post on my main site a few weeks ago. I mentioned that the bloggers on Today.com were beginners and the reason was to point out that most of the bloggers on here are following a failed strategy. They are almost without exception chasing social traffic and will eventually quit blogging for all the reasons I mentioned above. They will work their butts off making a few dollars a day and burn out. Most will not even do the social chasing and will quit long before they make a few dollars a day.
This isn’t any different here or with beginners who start a self hosted blog or use free domains like Blogger that can be fully monetized. The fact is most of the people blogging today will not be blogging in six months. They give it a go, fail to attract readers, fail to attract money or both and quit. I have seen this cycle for years and anyone that has lasted as long as a year knows this is true. We see it time and again. Very few people actually do the work - the majority of my readers have been reading my blogs for a year or two and still haven’t built a site. It is what it is.
I highlighted one blogger in particular in my post - not to bash her - but because she is one of the few on Today that has the work ethic to succeed. She has a “humorous Photo ” blog and drives the most traffic to her site of all the Today bloggers. She does it using social traffic and works her tail off to do it. She is the type of person who could succeed online with a little SEO knowledge. It is unfortunate that her reaction was quite negative.
Note: The screenshot of Melissa’s post on the forum has been removed as it was inappropriate of me to show it - the forum is private and hence the comments made are as well. - Griz
Tact is not my strong suit and those who know me have seen this kind of reaction before. The thing is you also know I am going to show Melissa how she can improve her traffic stats whether she wants to listen or not. Her site is the perfect example of what not to do in regards to search traffic and by illustrating the mistakes it will become clear to both her and others how some simple tweaks could make a huge difference in her long term success. If it’s any consolation to Melissa she should know I only “pick on” bloggers who have the talent to succeed - there is no point in highlighting those that don’t.
This post is long enough so I will demonstrate on-site SEO next post and illustrate exactly why you should follow my advice regarding keywords using both Melissa’s site and mine. The results will not leave you in doubt about how effective it is at building links and traffic.
For those who are members of Today.com you can follow Melissa’s forum thread here - Grizzly is a Douche Bag - I think they were about to tar and feather me last I checked.
Cheers
Griz
Share and Enjoy:"
Brought to you by:
Carlos, The fighter
Update March 22, 2010
This is a pretty good blog about getting traffic to it. It's simple and to the point. The author recommends Word press to create your blog. If you are a bit cheap like me and want to stick top blogger.com, go ahead, but you can still follow this guy. The rules still apply about properly anchoring text, Search Engine Optimization and all that good stuff. Oh yeah, he's got some pretty good hints on "inbound links" I think his content is pretty good and on the nose. I like the layout and the transparency of the author. Here's the link:
How To Get Blog Traffic – Inbound Links And Anchor Text
Keep blogging,
Carlos
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Vision makes the difference
I want to share with you one of the most inspiring and moving e mails I got from my friend Jonathan Budd, I hope it makes a difference in your lives:
(I copied it and pasted it un-edited, so please forgive typos)
"Hey Carlos,You know, I've discovered something that makes a REAL BIGdifference in the success of an entrepreneur. Call it oneof those defining characteristics, if you will, of the most successful people there are.And you know what that defining characteristic is Carlos?
It's Vision my friend. Vision.I see a lot of people enter our beautiful industry with onething on their mind and one thing only...Money. And youknow what else I see...I see many of those people not creating thesuccess they really want for themselves because as soon as their expectations aren't met right away...they quit.You want to know why the quit? Because they have no vision.
There is not something of REAL POWER driving them. They arebeing driven by images of success, and fantasies of how theirlife would be if only they had money.And guess what? Even if we all had 5 million bucks in the bankright now...We'd still be OURSELVES. haha! Do we think our problems go away just because we got money? Do we think all of a sudden life magically transforms becauseWe've hit this goal in our head of having a certain amountof numbers on a screen when we check our bank accounts?
There is a reason why 80% of all the people who WIN the lottery,and come across large sums of money, are MORE MISERABLE ANDBROKE 5 years from the day they got that money.Did you know the statistics were that high? Think about that...80% of all the people who won the lottery, and were surveyed 5 years later, were just as broke and actually more unhappy then they were before.Because WEALTH is not about money my friends. In fact, truewealth is FAR from it.
Real wealth is developed inside of you.Wealth is something you cultivate within you...that ALLOWS you to create money. Money is not wealth. Money is a by product of Wealth.Wealth...is something inside of you. Wealth...is your attitudes,thoughts, feelings, heart, mind, body, soul, in alignment with TRUE abundance.And true abundance is love, kindness, empathy, concern, sharing,wisdom, and a whole bunch of other things that are tough to put in words.And then people WONDER why they aren't making money!! Have you created the wealth first Carlos?
Do you really know how powerful it is to have a VISION Carlos?Do you know how powerful it is to have a purpose behind whatyou do that is FAR above and beyond just satisfying your owndesires?The entire COSMOS will stand behind you when you have a vision...When you have a purpose that transcends just the day to daystuff. That's when you get some REAL momentum building.That's when people interact with you and just FEEL something.People can just feel...Whoa. Now that is a wealthy person.That is someone who has aligned themselves with everythingthat is ACTUALLY going to create wealth.
Here's whats funny...I have barely told anyone within my friendsand even extended family what's happened in my life over thepast 3 months.And yesterday I was chatting with a friend who called me upand wanted to hang out, and he asked me "how's business going."And I said it was going good. And he asked me "what I was upto" cause last time we talked it was around $10k a month.And I told him I did $65k profit last month and he just aboutcrapped himself.
That's more then he makes in about 2 years.And the entire time I couldn't help but notice that I hadn'teven really thought about what that money means to any one else.It clearly meant something to him that it did not mean to me.It hasn't crossed my mind for a second that, "this is a lotof money." Or that I have reached some goal or something. Not one second do I feel like I've done anything special whatsoever. Do you want to know why?Because I could care less about that money. That's not why I do this. To me the money is absolutely NOTHING and completely useless UNTIL I have manifested my vision.
Until I have manifested my vision...I will never stop. I willnot slow down, I will not think I reached any goals, I willnot stop working ever, until I have manifested my vision.My vision is what drives me every single day. It is whatcreated everything I now have, and it is what will createa multi Hundred Million Dollar company long before I'm 40 years old.It's the vision.It's not you, nor me, nor anyone else. It is something above and beyond us that simply drives and pushes us towards thebrink of what we are truly capable of.So what is your vision, and why does it need to exist right now?Why is it so important that you fulfill that vision?
THAT my friends...is what I have noticed makes the differencebetween real entrepreneurs who will go out and create thingsthat boggle the mind, and the many who won't.So if you want truly mammoth success this is what you need to do...You NEED to build yourself a STRONG and solid foundation to stand upon when being an entreprenuer.You need to make sure that you are standing on a total brick...That your foundation is SO SOLID that nothing can ever blowyou away. You will withstand all hurricanes, earthquakes,everything. No matter what, You will still be standing.In fact, the only thing that could stop you is if the entireearth blew up right now and vanished back into the space itcame from.
THAT is the kind of foundation you should have if you wantto Guarentee you create any amount of success you can ENVISIONin life.Of course...there are varying degrees of success. I hardlythink anyone wants the same thing I want, or you want, oranyone else wants.We all want different things. But I'm just sharing withyou today some of what I've learned about building a company,a business, something REAL and bringing it to dazzling heights of success.If you want dazzling heights of success and beyond Carlos,then you have to LEARN from those that create it.
You have to get inside their heads, and figure out what theinternal circuitry is that allows them to use the exact samemediums, the exact same techniques, the exact same everythingyet create massive success with it.And once you have the KNOWLEDGE...your success comes down tohow QUICKLY you can implement it.How quickly do you take that knowledge...and IMPLEMENT IT INTOYOUR BUSINESS.Not sit around and wonder about it, not sit around and thinkit sounds good, but HOW QUICKLY are you putting it to action.That is what the most successful people do.
They take real knowledge, and they implement it as quickly as possible intheir business.Ok Carlos, I'm in one of those moods when I'll probablynever stop talking. There feels like a whole lot more in hereto be shared...and this email is getting to long already. Hopefully you took from this email something of value thatwill help you to cultivate more of the Wealth, in which moneyis just a by product.And I urge you to reflect on what your REAL vision is...andwhy you do what you do...so you can be empowered at all coststo create it. With that behind you...the only thing leftyou have to worry about is the entire earth blowing up.
Yours In Knowledge,Jonathan Budd"
Chech out my blog "Five Stages of Vision". I'm pretty sure Jonathan is a "Stage Five".
(I copied it and pasted it un-edited, so please forgive typos)
"Hey Carlos,You know, I've discovered something that makes a REAL BIGdifference in the success of an entrepreneur. Call it oneof those defining characteristics, if you will, of the most successful people there are.And you know what that defining characteristic is Carlos?
It's Vision my friend. Vision.I see a lot of people enter our beautiful industry with onething on their mind and one thing only...Money. And youknow what else I see...I see many of those people not creating thesuccess they really want for themselves because as soon as their expectations aren't met right away...they quit.You want to know why the quit? Because they have no vision.
There is not something of REAL POWER driving them. They arebeing driven by images of success, and fantasies of how theirlife would be if only they had money.And guess what? Even if we all had 5 million bucks in the bankright now...We'd still be OURSELVES. haha! Do we think our problems go away just because we got money? Do we think all of a sudden life magically transforms becauseWe've hit this goal in our head of having a certain amountof numbers on a screen when we check our bank accounts?
There is a reason why 80% of all the people who WIN the lottery,and come across large sums of money, are MORE MISERABLE ANDBROKE 5 years from the day they got that money.Did you know the statistics were that high? Think about that...80% of all the people who won the lottery, and were surveyed 5 years later, were just as broke and actually more unhappy then they were before.Because WEALTH is not about money my friends. In fact, truewealth is FAR from it.
Real wealth is developed inside of you.Wealth is something you cultivate within you...that ALLOWS you to create money. Money is not wealth. Money is a by product of Wealth.Wealth...is something inside of you. Wealth...is your attitudes,thoughts, feelings, heart, mind, body, soul, in alignment with TRUE abundance.And true abundance is love, kindness, empathy, concern, sharing,wisdom, and a whole bunch of other things that are tough to put in words.And then people WONDER why they aren't making money!! Have you created the wealth first Carlos?
Do you really know how powerful it is to have a VISION Carlos?Do you know how powerful it is to have a purpose behind whatyou do that is FAR above and beyond just satisfying your owndesires?The entire COSMOS will stand behind you when you have a vision...When you have a purpose that transcends just the day to daystuff. That's when you get some REAL momentum building.That's when people interact with you and just FEEL something.People can just feel...Whoa. Now that is a wealthy person.That is someone who has aligned themselves with everythingthat is ACTUALLY going to create wealth.
Here's whats funny...I have barely told anyone within my friendsand even extended family what's happened in my life over thepast 3 months.And yesterday I was chatting with a friend who called me upand wanted to hang out, and he asked me "how's business going."And I said it was going good. And he asked me "what I was upto" cause last time we talked it was around $10k a month.And I told him I did $65k profit last month and he just aboutcrapped himself.
That's more then he makes in about 2 years.And the entire time I couldn't help but notice that I hadn'teven really thought about what that money means to any one else.It clearly meant something to him that it did not mean to me.It hasn't crossed my mind for a second that, "this is a lotof money." Or that I have reached some goal or something. Not one second do I feel like I've done anything special whatsoever. Do you want to know why?Because I could care less about that money. That's not why I do this. To me the money is absolutely NOTHING and completely useless UNTIL I have manifested my vision.
Until I have manifested my vision...I will never stop. I willnot slow down, I will not think I reached any goals, I willnot stop working ever, until I have manifested my vision.My vision is what drives me every single day. It is whatcreated everything I now have, and it is what will createa multi Hundred Million Dollar company long before I'm 40 years old.It's the vision.It's not you, nor me, nor anyone else. It is something above and beyond us that simply drives and pushes us towards thebrink of what we are truly capable of.So what is your vision, and why does it need to exist right now?Why is it so important that you fulfill that vision?
THAT my friends...is what I have noticed makes the differencebetween real entrepreneurs who will go out and create thingsthat boggle the mind, and the many who won't.So if you want truly mammoth success this is what you need to do...You NEED to build yourself a STRONG and solid foundation to stand upon when being an entreprenuer.You need to make sure that you are standing on a total brick...That your foundation is SO SOLID that nothing can ever blowyou away. You will withstand all hurricanes, earthquakes,everything. No matter what, You will still be standing.In fact, the only thing that could stop you is if the entireearth blew up right now and vanished back into the space itcame from.
THAT is the kind of foundation you should have if you wantto Guarentee you create any amount of success you can ENVISIONin life.Of course...there are varying degrees of success. I hardlythink anyone wants the same thing I want, or you want, oranyone else wants.We all want different things. But I'm just sharing withyou today some of what I've learned about building a company,a business, something REAL and bringing it to dazzling heights of success.If you want dazzling heights of success and beyond Carlos,then you have to LEARN from those that create it.
You have to get inside their heads, and figure out what theinternal circuitry is that allows them to use the exact samemediums, the exact same techniques, the exact same everythingyet create massive success with it.And once you have the KNOWLEDGE...your success comes down tohow QUICKLY you can implement it.How quickly do you take that knowledge...and IMPLEMENT IT INTOYOUR BUSINESS.Not sit around and wonder about it, not sit around and thinkit sounds good, but HOW QUICKLY are you putting it to action.That is what the most successful people do.
They take real knowledge, and they implement it as quickly as possible intheir business.Ok Carlos, I'm in one of those moods when I'll probablynever stop talking. There feels like a whole lot more in hereto be shared...and this email is getting to long already. Hopefully you took from this email something of value thatwill help you to cultivate more of the Wealth, in which moneyis just a by product.And I urge you to reflect on what your REAL vision is...andwhy you do what you do...so you can be empowered at all coststo create it. With that behind you...the only thing leftyou have to worry about is the entire earth blowing up.
Yours In Knowledge,Jonathan Budd"
Chech out my blog "Five Stages of Vision". I'm pretty sure Jonathan is a "Stage Five".
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