Thursday, June 12, 2008

Blogs, Bloggers, Blogging from the Renegade . . .

Blogs - The Fastest And Cheapest Way
To Put Up Your Own Website And Start Pulling
In Free Traffic From The Search Engines

Recommended Resources In This Section:

Blogs, blogging, bloggers. These are just some of the popular terms flying around online today. Maybe you've heard of them and maybe you haven't. Regardless, I'll attempt to explain to you in plain English what a blog actually is and how it can be used to generate leads for your business.

Without a blog or website you are limited to what can be done online. With one, you'll discover the full potential of every traffic generation method available to internet marketers.

A small disclaimer before we get started: The hints, advice, and resources contained in this section are just the tip of an enormous iceberg of information that is available on this subject. This is a very broad overview that barely scratches the surface and should not by any means be considered a complete guide. If it were, this document would be the size of a medium to large sized book. Much of the researching, learning and discovering will be left up to you. Just keep in mind this section is a mere appetizer.

We'll start with the basics. What is a blog? I'll give you a few definitions that I pulled off of Google.

  • Blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal (or newsletter) that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or the website.
  • A blog is a website in which items are posted on a regular basis.
  • A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and web links.
  • An online journal.

Obviously a blogger is someone who owns or operates a blog and blogging is considered updating or writing posts on your blog.

When you set up a blog for yourself you're instantly adding to the professionalism of you and your business. Establishing yourself as an expert and authoritative figure is crucial to success in any industry. Having your own online presence with your own customized website that you have control over will help accomplish this.

Just ask yourself: What professional business doesn't have their own website or blog? It's hard to imagine any without one. Even supermarkets and gas stations have websites these days.

A major benefit of having your own blog that you cannot get with just an affiliate url is the free "organic" or "natural" search engine traffic that you'll receive.

Just so you don't get the wrong impression though, this isn't something that happens overnight after your blog is built. You have to put some work into optimizing it so the search engines can easily find you. And also know that the search engine optimization process is never really over - there are things that can be done on a daily basis to improve your position or rankings in the search engines. But for now, just realize that if you have a blog you open yourself up to another (free) traffic opportunity that normally wouldn't be available to you.

Plus, with your own blog you have complete control over everything. You control the domain name, the layout and design, the color scheme, the content that goes on it, and just about everything else that you can think of.

Which brings us to the most important benefit, by far, of having your own blog: The ability to build an opt-in list.

If you're not familiar with an opt-in list I'll give a quick explanation. An opt-in list is built when people who visit your blog submit (opt-in) their name and email address in exchange for something that will benefit them. In most cases it's a free newsletter or special report containing high-quality information that is of great interest to the visitor.

The concept of retaining your website visitors by building a list is often overlooked by many internet marketers and is extremely important! If you're not doing this you're losing money. Because if they don't opt in to anything and they leave your website, they're gone forever! Never to be heard from again. You think bookmarks work? They don't. 95% of people never go back to them. But once you have their info, it allows you to keep in touch and continually build a relationship with them.

And if you provide them with unbelievable free content, how do you think they're going to respond when you offer them a product to buy? And if the product that you sell to them is simply amazing and produces fantastic results, how do you think they're going to respond when you offer them another product to buy?

By capturing their name and email address, it allows you to market to them again and again. And it is always easier to sell to an existing customer than it is to generate a new one.

This is important to understand though: The money is not in the list itself or even the size of the list... but rather... it's in the relationship that you've built with your list.

You could have a list that has 100,000 opt-in subscribers from your blog, but if you relentlessly pound them with emails every other day asking them to buy something, chances are they won't be too responsive. Over deliver with your free newsletter or special report and they'll be much more willing to listen to what you have to say when you are selling something.

By going this extra step, you're taking affiliate marketing and internet marketing to a whole new level. Doors will open for you that would normally be closed and you'll pull in streams of money that you otherwise wouldn't have known about.

This doesn't happen by snapping your fingers though. These are definitely advanced traffic generation methods that will involve perseverance and hard work. There is a learning curve to overcome. However, it is a necessary step that you have to take if you want to achieve maximum and long-term success on the internet. It's my goal to provide you with the best resources available to make this go as smoothly as possible.

The first thing you need to need to do is make one critical decision: Are you going to learn how to create a blog yourself or are you going to outsource the project?

This will depend on a number of things unique to your situation and I cannot make this decision for you. Both options present different sets of pros and cons and ultimately it's up to you.

Outsourcing can save quite a bit of time, but it will cost you money. Doing it yourself will save you money and you'll gain experience... however... it won't be done as quickly and you may screw some things up along the way.

If you want to outsource the creation of your blog, I would check out these websites listed below. Also, if you do a search on Google for a website developer in your area. You'll find plenty that are capable of creating one for you.

The Blog Mill
E.Webscapes

Now if you're really determined to create a blog by yourself, the first thing I would do is check out Wordpress Tutorials and subscribe to these video tutorials.

Doing this will save you hours and hours of time while keeping your stress levels at a minimum. When I built my first blog I spent the $75 bucks for a three-month membership and the information I learned from these tutorials was invaluable. If you want to build a blog on your own and have no idea where to start, a membership with this website is a necessity.

Which brings me to my next point. Regardless of whether you decide to build a blog yourself or choose to have it outsourced, I recommend using WordPress as your blog platform.

There are a few reasons for this. The first being that WordPress is a completely free service. The second being, you have the ability to use outside hosting for your blog. This is very important because you don't want to use a platform like Blogger or even Wordpress (yes they are different - you want the .org version, not the .com version).

The reason you don't want these ones is because they're shared platforms. In other words, your blog would be www.blogger.com/bob, instead of www.bob.com.

This is bad because it means that your blog will have a hard time getting picked up by the search engines. So be sure to only use stand-alone blog platforms where you're responsible for the hosting. If you're not sure about the meaning of some of the terms used in this paragraph please see the definitions below.

Stand Alone Blog Platform - The type of platform that you want to use for setting up your blog. This allows you to select the domain name that you want without any restrictions. You're responsible for setting up the hosting with this type of platform.

Shared Blog Platform - The type of platform you want to stay away from. Hosting is taken care of for you, which results in limited control over your domain name.

Website/Blog Hosting - This is where your website/blog files are stored. Typically you'll pay a monthly fee to an online hosting company for this service.

Domain Name - The address or "url" of a particular website or blog.

The next thing you'll want to do is run over to GoDaddy and select a domain name for your blog. This decision is an important one and should be planned out carefully.

  • Always buy the .com version of a domain name. Never ever go after .net, .biz, or .org!
  • Keep your domain name as short as possible and make sure it's easy to remember.
  • Always use correct spelling and try to avoid using any numbers or hyphens in your domain name. The idea is to make it as easy as possible for someone to remember.

  • In The Renegade Network Marketer, you heard Ann say that her domain name annsieg.com out-pulled all the other generic mlm sounding domain names.

    This doesn't mean you shouldn't have a generic mlm domain name! Since domains are so cheap and since it's such an important decision, you want to grab both and test them! Heck, grab a few!

    Everything in marketing should always be tested because one little variable can change things. Just because Ann's domain with her first and last name worked well for her doesn't guarantee it will be that way for everyone. So you'll want to come up with some others as well. Use popular keywords in your domain name. Use Wordtracker (keyword research tool) to find out what terms are the best. Try to incorporate benefits as well into the domain so that people will have an idea of "what's in it for them" just by looking at the url.

    Now, here's what you want to do and here's how I would recommend deciding on which domain to go with. Open up a Google Adwords account and set up a campaign for a given set of keywords (for the purposes of this test, go with a broad range of keywords). I won't go over the specifics of how to do that here because that's a whole subject in and of itself, but Google provides free tutorials on how to navigate your way through your account.

    Once you've setup a campaign and an ad group, you have the ability to split test two different ads against each other. The key to doing this is to have two identical ads and then change just one small thing between the two of them. One will work better than the other and then you'll know exactly what made the difference. If you create two ads to split test, Google will automatically alternate your traffic between them evenly.

    Take all your domain names that you've registered and have them all redirect to the same url.

    Then, create your two identical ads within Adwords, except use a different domain name for each one. What will happen is one domain name will get a higher click-through-ratio than the other. This is the one you want to go with. If you have multiple domains, just make sure you test them all against each other.

    How long does it take to determine the winner of a split test? There is no set amount of actions or time period, it all depends on how big the difference is between the two. If the difference in conversions is substantial, it may only take 20 or so clicks to determine the winner. If the difference is minute, it may take more. Use this free resource to help you: SplitTester

    The reason you want to go with the highest converting domain name is because this factor will affect every single spot your url ever appears. If you place your domain name at the end of all your emails, the conversion rate will affect how many people visit your site. If you place your domain name at the bottom of all your forum posts, the conversion rate will affect how many people visit you. Any ad of any type where your domain name appears, the conversion rate will affect how many people click on the ad. Even when your blog url appears in the search engine results themselves, the conversion rate will affect how many people visit your site.

    Now here's the thing about this: If you've got your own single page website (not a blog) that you use as a landing page where you capture people's info, you always want to go with the highest converting domain name. The reason is, you're not going to rely on free search engine traffic for that website - most of it's going to come from other forms of advertising. A blog however, is definitely designed to get free organic traffic, so a search engine friendly domain name is a little more important. But this is why I would have multiple domains.

    (For your blog) if the difference between two domains is relatively small but one has more popular keywords in it that would help you get more organic traffic, go with the one that has the better keywords. But if the difference is HUGE, go with the one that converts the best.

Okay. After you've got a domain name selected and purchased the next thing you need to do is decide where your blog is going to be hosted. There are a plethora of hosting companies online. Here are a few recommendations. (When you sign-up with a hosting company, start with the smallest, most basic package that they offer, and then if you need to you can always upgrade later).

  • HostGator (I believe this is the hosting company that Sherman Hu of Wordpress Tutorials recommends)
  • Wordpress Tutorials (These are the companies that WordPress recommends for hosting your blog)

Now that we've taken care of some of the technicalities surrounding the creation of your blog, let's get into some other specifics. What exactly should go on your blog? And how are you going to get traffic to it?

I briefly touched on this point earlier - and you're probably starting to notice a very definite trend here when it comes to anything you do online! - but it's very important and needs to emphasized whenever possible. When adding content to your blog, make sure it's high-quality stuff.

Remember that your blog is a reflection of you and your business. You have to make it worthwhile for the visitor to stay and read your latest article or post. You don't want to cut corners or post just for the sake of posting something. There's nothing more pointless than reading someone's blog post about how they sorted their laundry the other day.

You'll want to write fairly short articles or posts about important topics within the industry. I read somewhere that the average amount of time that someone stays on your blog is 96 seconds. So you've only got about a minute and a half to get your visitor to do what you want! Make your articles/posts short and somewhat incomplete - the visitor needs a reason to sign-up for your newsletter or report.

At the end of each article/post provide a link to either one of your own landing pages or the landing page of a product or service that you're recommending. If you want to build an opt-in list of subscribers, you'll want to create your own landing page where you can capture your visitor's name, email address and other info. You also want to put an opt-in form directly on your blog. This allows a visitor to sign-up for your newsletter or special report immediately, instead of having to click on the link to your landing page. Combining both of these methods will insure the highest level of success.

If you don't have the time to consistently write high-quality articles to post to your blog, you should check out RSS to Blog. This product has the ability to automatically post news stories and content within your industry from rss feeds to your blog. It's an automated way for you to constantly add fresh, new content to your blog. I haven't used this product myself... yet. But it's highly recommend by all the top internet marketers and definitely worth a look.

Now we need to talk a little bit about getting targeted traffic to your blog, because without this even the most professional looking blog with the best content is useless.

You want the search engines to be able to find your blog and there are certain things you can do to optimize it that will make it easier for them. The first thing to keep in mind is whenever you add an article/post to your blog, always include the primary keywords that you're targeting in the title of your post and throughout the article. This goes back to keyword research, finding out what keywords are popular and using them accordingly. There is a lot more information available on this subject and we can't even come close to covering it all here. You'll want to check out Wordpress Tutorials to learn more about optimization.

The next thing you should familiarize yourself with is a technique called "pinging." Whenever you add an article or post, you'll want to let the search engines know that you've just added some new content to your blog and they need to come and check it out. This helps search engines and blog directories index your content. There is a free service available at Ping-o-Matic that is very simple to use. Do not abuse this method by pinging the search engines three times a day in an effort to climb the search engine rankings. Keep it natural and only ping when you have updated quality content to your blog.

The topic of natural search engine optimization is enormous and I am no expert on it by any stretch of the imagination. So I'm going to stop here and leave the rest to people more knowledgeable than myself. Not to mention optimizing a blog vs. optimizing a website is different. If you want to get the full scoop on getting traffic to your blog you should take a look at a product called Blogging to The Bank. This is an excellent how-to manual put out by Rob Benwell and it's very cheap. Only $27 bucks if I remember right. This will fill you in on the techniques we haven't covered here.

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