Brian Tracy will present a FREE seminar in the afternoon on October 7, 2008 from 1:30pm - 4:30pm at the Minneapolis Convention Center titled “Maximum Achievements.”

Sandy was able to setup a Special Leadership Lunch Meeting with Brian Tracy at Porter and Frye Restaurant which is located at the Hotel Ivy. The price of your lunch will run $10-$20 and the tip will be included on to each persons bill. Sandy needs to have your name and menu selection by Sunday night if you are coming to the leadership lunch with Brian. You can email your lunch confirmation to her HERE.

Please email Sandy and ask for a copy of the menu. She would like you to print out a copy, circle what you want and bring it along for faster service.

You can also attend the FREE presentation that Brian Tracy will do in the afternoon at the Minneapolis Convention Center. 1:30 - 4:30 PM - “Maximum Achievements”

Brian presents a proven system of powerful ideas and principles you can use to rapidly improve every area of your life. Brian has combined insights and methods from psychology, philosophy, and human potential research into a unique blend of fast-acting techniques that raise self-esteem, improve personal performance, give greater focus to your efforts, and put you in complete control of every aspect of your personal and professional life.

I hope those of you in Minnesota and the Twin Cities area will join us for the special event with Brian Tracy.

Also, please take time to look over the resources that Brian Tracy and others have put together at iLearning Global TV. This is a great way to learn and be motivated by the top business minds in our country.

Have you considered how to make money off-line by teaching your Internet Marketing skills to those in your city? I have. As a matter of fact, that is how I got started in 1994 with computers and using the Internet.

I attended a local college planning on taking a 2 year business management program. One of my first classes was learning MS PowerPoint. I did my first project on how to use the Internet. The campus just got connected the summer before I started going there.

My instructor thought Idid a great job with my project saying I knew more about the Internet than any other staff members. He said I should talk to the person in charge of the continuing education department and offer to teach my class. I did and the rest is, as they say, history.

After talking with Willie Crawford about teaching business owners how to use the Internet I plan to go back to where I started and do more of this again. If you need some help to do the same, checkout the resources he has in this article that he wrote.

Make An Absolute Fortune Teaching Ecommerce To Local Businesses

Copyright 2008 by Willie Crawford

I’ve been marketing goods and services online since late-1996,
and I have never seen a better time to start your own
Internet marketing business. Current economic conditions
around the world are driving millions to the Internet looking
for additional income and a better lifestyle.

Sadly, thousands of people coming online every month enter the
WRONG niche. They enter the most challenging niche that I can
imagine. They enter the niche of people earning a living by
teaching people how to earn a living online, teaching people
how to earn a living online.

No, I didn’t make a mistake. That’s how I’d describe the
“Internet marketing niche” that I’m most familiar with.

However, anyone who has studied ecommerce for more than six
month probably knows enough about leveraging the power of the
Internet to easily earn a six-figure income serving an entirely
different market.

Many “Internet marketers” with YEARS of experience are foolishly
ignoring this market.

This market is local businesses who need to learn how to use the
Internet to drive more leads, and more buying customers through
their doors.

Local business owners understand that they MUST spend money to
grow their business or they’ll quickly be out of business.
Those that have been in business for more than a few years
understand that even during an economic downturn, they MUST
invest in advertising or lose market share.

That’s where you can enter the picture, help them, and earn a
nice six-figure income for yourself.

You contact local businesses and explain how to use the Internet
for direct response marketing that’s infinitely more powerful
than advertising in the yellow pages or local newspapers. You
explain to them how to leverage the power of things that you
already understand such as:

- Autoresponders
- Building and following up with an email list
- Search engine optimization… especially for longtail keyword
- Testing and tracking
- Linking campaigns
- Direct response copywriting

Yes - all of those things that we Internet marketers consider
common knowledge are totally foreign to most local business
owners.

All you really have to do is find a place, schedule a local
workshop, and spend a day or two teaching ecommerce to local
businesses. Local business owners will see the value in what
you teach and many of them will want to tap into it
immediately.

Many local business owners will also understand what you are
teaching but also “gloss over” and ask if you can simply do it
for them. At that point, you simply smile and tell them that
your website ecommerce packages cost $3000, $5000, even
$10,000.

Then you simply outsource the work - pocketing 50% or more.

Can it really be that easy?

Yes, that’s EXACTLY what I’m doing.

“But, I don’t know enough to actually teach a class or
workshop,” you argue!

Not a problem - enterprising individuals who have already blazed
this trail will make their material available to you. You can
find complete seminar packages that include:

- Newspaper ads to run to find outside sales people to sell the
seminar seats for you

- Newspaper ads to run to get attendees

- PowerPoint Presentations for 1 or 2 day seminars ready-to-use

- Complete scripts to go along with the PowerPoint Presentations

- Handouts to give your attendees

- Supplement materials to give or sell to attendees

In other words, others who are already doing this will provide
the material for you. If you’re really lazy, you could just
hand the materials to an assistant, and let him/her run the
events for you!

My friend Rachel Rofe created the very presentation package that
I use. That’s right, I didn’t create the presentation that I
use, I got it here: http://TeachingEcommerceToLocalBusinesses.com

If you don’t feel comfortable contacting local businesses and
getting them into your events, my friend David Preston taught me
a technique where you get the local governmental agencies to
promote you and fill the room for you.

David wrote an ebook that tells how the U.S. government
actually advertises for you on radio, television, in newspaper,
etc. They actually send you the business owners who come to them
for guidance!

When David showed me his system, I so fell in love with it that
I invited David and his wife out to dinner so that I could
really pick him mind. You can see a photo of the David and I on
his website Smile

I’m telling you, if you’re marketing to “Internet marketers”
and ignoring local businesses that have money already budgeted
for building their businesses, “you’re barking up the wrong
tree!”

You can read more about what David does at:
http://HelpingOfflineBusinesses.com

After reading David’s and Rachel’s material, I serious
considered getting out of the “Internet marketing niche”
altogether. I’m someone who’s built a solid reputation, and
lots of name recognition in the niche. Yet, when I saw how
serving local “brick and mortal” businesses was so much
easier, the sift made a lot of sense.

Let me close with one example of how easy it is to make $50k
when you use what I’ve just shared with you.

In most cities, during certain times of the year, you’ll notice
civic and fraternal organizations, such as The Knights of
Columbus, or the Kiwanis, holding fundraisers. All you need to
do is get THEM to promote your event, you teach the workshop,
and split the proceeds with them.

If they get 100 local businesses owners to pay $1000 each for
a 2-day workshop, and you split it 50/50 with the sponsors, you
walk away with $50k, plus you’ll have 100 business owners
wanting you to continue teaching them.

Can it really be that simple? Yes, you can get an organization
that also has facilities and lots of business owners as members
to sponsor an event for you. They’d actually prefer doing that
to holding dozens of car washes, or collecting donations on
street corners.

Think about it!

—————

Willie Crawford has been teaching others how to build their own
home-based Internet businesses since late-1996. He teaches easy,
proven methods that he and other leading Internet marketers
actually use. Discover more of Willie’s hype-free teachings at
The Internet Marketing Inner Circle

Top Five Ways You Can Use Social Media to Drive Traffic to Your Website

Your social connections can translate to site popularity if you only know how to use them. Think about it:  all those connections mean real people that can translate to several things for a website: members, readers, a paying market, a free means for promotions and marketing. If you own a website, you can take advantage of your connections through social media to drive traffic to your site.  Here’s how:

#1 Offer High Value Content

If there’s one thing you have that will find high acceptance in the social media, it’s content. If you can produce good content; the kind that people actually read from the first word to the last, the kind that gets passed on from one person to the next and talked about, you’ll find a good audience waiting for you in social media.

High value content is highly sought after in social media networks and elsewhere on the internet. After all, content is what makes the internet interesting. If you want to drive traffic to your website using social media, be popular with its users by offering them something they can’t refuse.

#2 Make Content Usable

Aside from creating original and high value content, you also need to provide your target audience with a way to find it. Your content is more likely to be noticed and read if it’s organized and can be located quickly. Make sure your articles are easy to use and are optimized so anyone looking for topics related to your write-up will find them easily.

#3 Increase Your Presence

Were you a hit with one write-up? Did you cause a sensation with your previous submission, driving massive traffic to your website in the process? Don’t just stop there.

Consistently and frequently update your submissions to social media networks. You want to make sure that people remember you not for that one great write-up you produced but for being a reliable source of excellent content.

That way, each time you submit an article, it can ride on the buzz you have already created for yourself. Once you’re a recognizable name in social media, your target audience will gladly follow your link back to your website. They’ll even find you on their own.

#4 Promote Your Content and Your Website

Don’t be shy about promoting yourself. Each time you have a new write-up or significant changes in your website, inform your target audience through e-mail. Mention the same in your podcasts and other articles you might submit to a directory.

Make sure you let people know who you are and what you have to offer. However, make sure you don’t overdo it. Promoting your write-up or website too aggressively in social media networks might make you look too desperate.

People are also more likely to be suspicious of your intentions if you sell yourself too hard. You should share about yourself, give free information or offer help but no “hard selling” in the social networks. Just point visitors to your main websites and the products and services you have to offer.

#5 Encourage Interaction

Sure, people like the anonymity the internet provides but they can’t help but communicate with other people they find online. That’s why you should provide them with a means to use your website or write-up to air their views.  Allow interaction such as comments, polls, surveys and feedback forms.

Using social media to drive traffic to a website is not exactly an easy task. In fact, it can often become labor intensive. However, if it’s done well, it can be a very effective and inexpensive method to increase awareness for a website. Try to explore what you can contribute to social media and take advantage of this great source for traffic.

You Can Contact Me Using Any Of The Following Social Media Tools

FaceBook

Twitter

Linked In

WordPress blogs are wonderful tools for building your home based business for many reasons. One of the reasons that blogs work so well is something called pinging. No, it’s not the pinging of sonar in those submarine movies but, in the same way that sonar helps to locate other vessels in the ocean, blog pinging helps to let others know that your website is there.

Blog Building Using Pinging for One Way Links

What is pinging?

Pinging is a way of letting search engines know that you’ve created a new post, or updated an existing post on your blog. A ‘ping’ is a message sent to a ‘ping server’ notifying it that the blog has been updated with new content.

What is a ping server?

A ping server is a web-based service that accepts messages in the XML-RPC format. It uses the information in these XML-RPC messages to publish a list of blogs which have updated content. Some of these ping servers run their own blog search engines, and some propagate the information to a number of other ping servers and search engines.

How does pinging work?

Many blog publishing platforms, such as Wordpress, have a built-in pinging tool. In the case of Wordpress, pinging is turned on by default and pings go out to one ping server which updates several search engines.

You can also notify a ping server that you have updated content manually by going to their website and submitting your blog’s name and URL.

One popular ping server is PingOMatic, found at http://pingomatic.com/. When your blog pings PingOMatic it then notifies a number of search engines that your blog has been updated. Many of these search engines also have their own ping server as well.

These search engines can then update their listings with new content almost instantly. This of course will give you one-way backlinks to your blog from these search engines, many of which have a high Google PageRank.

Four things you should know about pinging

1. Only ping when you have updated content. Otherwise, your site might be blacklisted as a spam blog, also known as a splog.

2. If you tend to post to your blog and then re-write the post frequently you might want to make sure you only ping when you actually post new content, not on updates. If you are using Wordpress there are a few plugins that make sure that pings are only sent when a post is created.

3. It’s a good idea to ping several ping services, especially the ones that notify several search engines. Don’t overdo it though. Make sure that if you are pinging a niche search engine that your blog falls into the relevant niche.

4. Make sure that if a search engine is notified by a ping server you are already using that you don’t add that search engines own ping service to your list of servers to ping. Because blog spammers have abused ping servers if you are pinging a search engine multiple times your site might end up being blacklisted, and not appear in the search engines at all.

Popular ping servers

Finally, here’s a list of popular ping servers you might try to get you started.

http://rpc.pingomatic.com
http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://ping.blo.gs
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2

Blogging With WordPress Blogs Are The Future For Online Business

If you conduct any business online or maintain a website to compliment your offline business, then blogging is quickly becoming a mandatory part of your future. And if you are not currently blogging, chances are after realizing the potential of these traffic-enhancing goldmines, you soon will be!

Blogs, derived from the words “web log” were originally thought of as simply online diaries a place for people to record their thoughts and inspirations. At first, no one took blogging very seriously and these collections of online thoughts were simply passed off by many as hobbies or creative outlets and nothing more.

But then Google came along and started to recognize the unique and original content that these trite little sites presented and the rules of the game suddenly changed. After all, unique content is what makes the Google world go round, and what better way to command the attention of Google than by creating a dynamic environment with content that is solely your own.

At this stage, a whole new SEO world emerged and in the process, brought with it traffic opportunities like never before. People began blogging on more than what they had for dinner last night. They started to blog about new products, exciting travel adventures and all things related to online commerce.

The evolution quickly continued and today, with RSS feeds, sites like pingoat.com and many other content clearinghouses, blogging is big business and not to be overlooked by hungry entrepreneurs looking to establish a web presence.

What currently makes blogging so attractive is the sheer speed with which blogs and blog posts are able to get indexed in the search engines. It is a simple matter of static versus dynamic and the search engines love the dynamic.

Let’s take two different scenarios to see how traditional websites and blogs differ in their index-ability:

Scenario One:

One person creates a website to advertise gardening products and services. Each page of the site contains the traditional information about the company; it’s founders, the services they offer and the products they sell. Maybe, at best, the site has articles and content that is updated with some small frequency that are relevant to the avid gardener. When visitors arrive at the site, they have the option of signing up for the company newsletter and receiving valuable tips and new offerings.

In this scenario, the Webmaster or business owner will need to tend to many SEO related tasks in order to get and maintain high search engine ranking for a tight list of selected keywords related to the gardening niche. Not only will this activity require great skill, it will also involve many hours to achieve the intended results.

Scenario Two:

The same business owner as above also creates a WordPress blog to supplement their company website. Now, instead of focusing on simply one set of tightly selected keywords, the blog itself remains a broad overview of the gardening niche, while each individual post reflects a drilled down topic within that same niche.

So when the business owner writes a blog post about the benefits of “organic vegetable gardening in backyard containers,” this individual post becomes a keyword rich, targeted wonder and when indexed by the search engines has a far greater opportunity to bringing highly targeted traffic to the blog based upon that single post.

Through time, the blog expands with many similar posts that are targeted to sub niches within the broader gardening niche and can even be categorized from inside the blog structure itself. What has now been created in Google’s eyes is an extremely dynamic, naturally evolving site that is content rich and niche specific.

When properly constructed and promoted, each time the business owner posts to the blog, that individual post can get indexed in anywhere from two to twenty four hours on average. Indexing happens within less than one hour if you include a video embeded in the blog. This opportunity is far greater than any options available at the static website.

Additionally, when the business owner endeavors to have a visitor signup for a newsletter, further segmenting can occur and subscriber lists can be refined and targeted. And because the blog is the front-end showcase to the original website, each blog post has the opportunity to link back to specific and relevant products at the main site.

When properly structured, WordPress blogs are the biggest SEO asset to a website that currently exists. The WordPress Dream Theme by Ben Cope is a great theme package for any online marketer.

The wise online business owner will recognize these benefits and when implemented, will enjoy many opportunities that do not currently exist with traditional websites alone.

Jeff wrote…

I have a very big announcement, and I’ll be releasing it on my live free training call tonight. It actually does not have anything to do on the training, but making the announcement there, means… I’ll have a good crowd to hear it, which means… well.. good news for you, if you come out and listen.

E-newsletters should engage their readers by actively clicking on various links and by creatively leading them from one valuable resource to another. Whether the targeted market of the e-newsletter is a list of current customers or prospects, to be fully effective it should contain interactive contents, should be entertaining and should prove to be valuable to its readers. E-newsletters are perceived as worthwhile reading when they disclose the latest company news, tell human interest stories, recount the history of the company, declare company’s achievements such as inclusion among Fortune 500 companies or its rapid growth rate, share fun facts, discuss employee benefits and perks, address personnel changes, announce money saving sales, broadcast research and production goals and so on. Transactional emails that include updates and general information such as registrations, subscriptions, shipping notifications and order confirmations can also be very effective.

Every emailed communication with current and with potential customers must include website links, contact email addresses, telephone numbers and physical addresses for receiving of, responding to and collecting recipient feedback on the company’s products or services, about the e-newsletters and about the company’s website.

Quick single-question surveys in the form of pop quizzes or other kinds of games can also prove to be extremely effective. Results of quizzes and the surveys can be published on the company website as well as in its e-newsletter. In addition, positive feedback, good customer reviews and stories which talk about how this company’s products improved someone’s life are good ways to attract new customers and retain old ones. Features such as “Frequently Asked Questions” within the website as well as in the e-newsletter tend to be appealing and capture reader’s attention and interest.

Building blogs that link directly to the e-newsletters are effective means of getting subscribers’ and customers’ to help improve company’s products and customer services by collecting useful comments and feedback. The most constructive comments and problem solving feedback can then be published for all to see. Videos that can ultimately lead to video blogs can be used to promote the company, its e-newsletters as well as its products.

Personifying the company’s e-newsletters adds an element of fun, charm, warmth and charisma, all of which will attract more and more readers. And finally, a personal note from the editor of the e-newsletter will strengthen the bond between the e-newsletter and its readers which will in turn lead to a stronger connection to the company and its products.

One of my favorite Sunday afternoon pastimes is watching NASCAR racing and, when not taking a Sunday nap, reading blog postings by some of the master bloggers like Yaro Starak, Darren Rowse and Chris Brogan.

If you want to learn how to make money by Blogging using WordPress I highly recommend that you find and follow successful Bloggers who have already learned the techniques and tricks.

Of course the main “trick” to building a successful business in blogging is content. When you post content that is useful to your readers you will attract not only the search engines but also real “eyeballs” to your website.

When you build a following to your blog you can then begin to monetize your website by adding affiliate links, ad banners and product reviews. You can also market your own products and services using your blog.

To be successful with any form of Internet Marketing and particularly with blogging, you need to stay focused on your goal and post good content often. Today I read a post from Darren Rowse where he talks about the, “16 Important but Potentially Distracting Blogging Tasks.”

Another great post by Chris Brogan gives us, “50 Ways to Take Your Blog to the Next Level” which I have reposted before by permission from Chris. Be sure to add to his list by posting your comments on his blog at www.chrisbrogan.com

[BTW, Jimmie Johnson can in second today in the first Race to The Sprint Cup, oh well]

50 Ways to Take Your Blog to the Next Level

Blogging is as varied in its applications as using the telephone or taking a picture. The tool doesn’t predict the output. You might be using your blog to post recipes, or to inform the local community about information you find elsewhere on the web. Maybe you’re just trying your hand at writing, and the web is as good a place as any.

If you’re looking to go beyond that, however, you’ll need to take steps to improve your blog from at least five different perspectives. In 50 Ways to Take Your Blog to the Next Level, I wanted to share my thoughts on how you should consider your goal, your design, your content, how you promote it, and the business aspects of your blog. Please add to these ideas in the comments, and let’s grow the list out.

50 Ways to Take Your Blog to the Next Level

Make Your Goal and Target Audience Crystal Clear

My point with this entire post, but most especially this section is to ask you to admit what your real goals are with your blog. If you’re not sure, that’s fine. You might not really want to take your blog to the next level just yet. But if you’re feeling as if you want to get serious (in whatever direction that takes your efforts), give strong consideration to the following.

1. If your goal is to be an entertainment or news blog, be very clear that it’s that and not a “fun” blog. Consider splitting off your personal or fun blog.
2. If your blog is to be your business, treat it like that. Get into stats. Get into building audience. Get into delivering something unique. Don’t straddle back and forth on this.
3. If the goal is to be a great community resource, mix your blogging time with time spent reaching out to the community you propose to serve. If that’s an offline opportunity, like something local, be there. Be active. Be a connector.
4. If you’re going to be a professional about your blog, carve out the time to do it right. Never, ever, ever post a “sorry I haven’t posted lately” blog post again. Ever.
5. Up the ante on delivering original material. Get outside the echo chamber. Writing a me-too blog isn’t the way to build your blog to the levels you seek to attain.
6. It’s okay to use a personal voice. In fact, there’s no point blogging if you’re going to write like a cold robot. But keep personal and useful in balance.
7. If you are attempting to do real business via your blog, look for ways to convert readers into customers.
8. If it’s just an ad revenue business, compete, and be honest about that. Compete with others in your space for audience, value, and better deals. My point in this regard is that going halfway into the water doesn’t make you less wet.
9. If your blog is the premier source of information for nonprofits, for photographers, for whatever, then be sure you’re scouring news feeds and finding information outside the blogosphere to keep that relationship informed.
10. Make a point of engaging your community often in the comments section, on their blogs, on the other social networks where you cross paths.

Beauty Is More Than Skin Deep

Consider the design elements of your blog. They do change the way people perceive your work. And, they can help you improve your potential business opportunities.

1. Get your own unique URL. It matters in the long run, especially should you choose to change hosts. For instance, if you move off a blogger account at *.blogspot.com , you lose all link equity and page rank for that domain. This means you’d have to start again from scratch. Already in that position? Make the switch now.
2. Consider moving to a hosted blog. You can get a hosted WordPress blog set up and running for only $10 USD a year at Bloghost.me. (Note: if you use code “brogan,” you can get it for $9 a year. Andy’s a friend.)
3. Consider using a professional theme. I am an advocate for Thesis by Chris Pearson. There are other premium themes out there, as well.
4. Consider getting a customized Wordpress theme. That link goes to Nico Pin, who designed [chrisbrogan.com]. There are others who do this kind of work, obviously.
5. Are there several unnecessary widgets on your blog? Review them and decide which add value to your audience.
6. Is your layout readable? Are your fonts clean and easy to read? Are your color choices all they can be? A little time with your stylesheet goes a long way.
7. If you have ads, are you choking your community with them? Do you actually endorse the products on them? How effective have they been?
8. Is your blog design and layout configured well for SEO? Several blogging platforms now have SEO plug-ins/add-ons to help with this. That doesn’t beat having a professional take a swing at improving your blog’s SEO, but it’s a good first step.
9. A logo and matching favicon doesn’t hurt. You can find various price points for this, and many different people offering the service. Mine was created by Justin Evans and his team at StressLimit Design. I also have friends in California that I highly recommend, as well.
10. Consider the graphics you post on your site. Do they add to the story you’re trying to tell? If not, seek upgrades. There are many freely available graphics at Flickr, if you search by the appropriate Creative Commons license level.

Make Your Content Top Notch

Growing quality blog posts isn’t magic. We don’t sprinkle cookies all over the house and hope that the Blogging Fairy comes along and writes us posts in exchange for the cookies. It takes lots of work, and a strong commitment. And if it doesn’t come naturally, you CAN learn how to improve.

1. Put your blog posts on a diet. Read them with your audience in mind. Can you thin them out? Remove unnecessary words. Make them tight.
2. Lead with the main point. If you’re attempting to be a quality news or opinion blog, make your main point at the top of the post. Don’t make us dig.
3. Link. If you’re writing about another person, post, or website, link appropriately and thread the web. It fleshes out the story, gives us places to explore, and shows a “good neighbor” practice.
4. Vary up post lengths. If you write a “feature length” post, have something brief come next to avoid reader fatigue. (Unless you’re writing an essay-length blog all the time, and hey, good luck.)
5. Read. Read. Read. Get outside the blogosphere. Find sources of information that span far beyond what your competitors are covering.
6. Get on a regular writing/posting schedule. Extra points for writing a few posts ahead of time for those days when you can’t get to it right away.
7. Work on your titles. A great title drives visits, but also informs us as to what we’re going to learn.
8. Refrain from “me too” posts. If you’ve got something to add, do that and link to the original post, but if you’re moving up to the next level, lose the “pointer” posts. (Your mileage may vary on this one).
9. Consider video, audio, and rich media. If you’re doing a text-mostly blog, consider mixing it up from time to time. It might find you new audience, and it might also give people a more dimensional sense of who you are.
10. Review your blog posts monthly to see if you’re covering the same ground. If you are, consider building an editorial calendar to post from, so that you don’t overlap and repeat topics too often.

Promoting Your Blog

No one loves someone who talks about themselves all the time, but if you’re going to work on bringing your blog up a few notches, make sure your efforts aren’t for nothing.

1. Use a social bookmarking plugin like AddThis or Share This on your blog posts so that people who like your work can share it easily.
2. Make a very prominent option to subscribe by email available on your site. More than 50% of my readers do so via email.
3. Add your blog URL to your email signature.
4. Make sure your blog URL is on your twitter profile, your facebook profile, added into Friendfeed, and several other outposts. This helps people discover you who might not have noticed your work before. (Note: Steve Rubel said that to me many months back. He told me that he “discovered” my blog via Facebook. I’ve been a believer ever since.)
5. If you’re going to promote your blog via places like Twitter, be sure to do it tastefully instead of just dumping links into the stream. Consider asking a question, or pointing out a rather insightful comment.
6. Make sure you’re doing the basics, like listing your site in Yahoo!, Google, DMOZ, and claiming it in Technorati.com (each of those sites shows you how via the help function).
7. Commenting on other well-known blogs in your same space in a not-spammy way is a great way for people who might like your work to discover you. Don’t put blatant links or otherwise be rude. Just be thoughtful and helpful to the community at that site, and leave a useful comment. They’ll come, if they like what you said.
8. Don’t forget posting the occasional blog post in LinkedIn’s status message. It reaches some interesting people from time to time.
9. Is it fair to Digg or Stumble your own posts? There are mixed opinions on this. I’ve had little to no success with Digg in this regard. StumbleUpon is a different story. Decide for yourself if you think this is okay to do. I’ve heard it called “patting yourself on the back in public.”
10. Write the occasional post that’s worthy of bookmarking. When someone adds a blog post of mine to Delicious, I often get lots more traffic than from other promotional angles.

Building Business From Your Blog

You might be trying to make money from your blog directly, perhaps through advertising or affiliate marketing. Or you might be seeking to establish thought leadership and promote consulting opportunities. You might be simply looking to drive even better awareness of a social cause or have a nonprofit or educational motive in mind. In any case, think of “business” to mean “value beyond the blogging itself.”

1. Build conversion opportunities. If you’re selling something directly, think of clever ways to post about it that educate, inform, and encourage a call to action.
2. Make sure your blog design points people towards the action you want them to take. (See Financial Aid Podcast for an easy example).
3. Ask for the sale. If you’re selling something, don’t be shy. Ask for it. Do so in a blog post, or in an ad of your own creation. Be direct and honest about this.
4. Mix free value and additional opportunities. If you’re selling something that’s not unlike what’s available on your blog for free, demonstrate the dividing line. Even consider giving a hint of what’s on the other side.
5. Make it easy to opt in. Like asking for the sale, make sure you help your prospective customers/cleints/partners know how to get into your sales funnel, should they be interested.
6. Make content that sells. If you’re blogging or posting video to promote a business objective, work at building the content such that it drives that end decision. Too 1.0 for you? At least open conversations up about what you’re trying to accomplish.
7. Make it very easy to contact you. Make your About page very clean and easy to read. Put some real human names on the website, and even consider adding a photo, so that people know who they’re addressing. (I say this all the time, but I see so many examples daily of people who could use this advice.)
8. Build relationships with similar blogs and share opportunities. If you’re blogging about real estate, get to know the other real estate bloggers and learn from each other.
9. Give “serving suggestions” on your blog. If you’re blogging a particular kind of offering, is there a way to share what it does, or how you want to be involved?
10. Remember: even if your blog’s main goal is selling, be human, be interesting, be involved. This isn’t the old Internet. We have these nifty social tools that remind us to be human. Let’s use them that way.

My goal in writing this was to offer advice and suggestions for how one might transform their blog from “another one in the pack” to something of a destination on the web. It’s not my opinion that we should all be following this advice. There are several blogs that I love exactly the way they are, and I’m sure their respective owners do, too.

We all do this for different reasons, and one size does not fit all. For those of you who DO intend their blog to be an authoritative, professional-minded presence on the web, I hope this helps.

Do you have something more to add? What’s your take? What have I missed completely? What other questions to you have?

]]> http://whoishenry.com/watching-nascar-cup-race-studying-some-master-bloggers.htm/feed http://whoishenry.com/911-the-attack-on-america-we-remember.htm http://whoishenry.com/911-the-attack-on-america-we-remember.htm#comments Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:20:52 +0000 Henry http://whoishenry.com/?p=247 Here we are now 7 years later after our country suffered the worst attack ever on out own soil. Many people have been affected by the 911 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington DC. Today as our nation stops to remember and honor those who died and those who served to rescue and aid in the recovery and rebuilding after the 911 attacks, I wanted to take time and remember and honor them as well.

I remember the morning at my office where I worked in Becker, Minnesota as the I.T. Manager for a large furniture retailer. Our company server room was next to my office and I had a TV monitor on a shelf in the server room that I could see from my desk. In those days that TV was usually turned off. Early that morning a lady in the accounting office near my office rushed in saying that someone had just phoned her to tell her about an airplane that had just flown into one of the World Trade Center Twin Towers.

I quickly turned on the TV as most of the staff in our area of the building rushed into my office to watch FOX News. We were watching for maybe 6-7 minutes when all of a sudden the second tower of the World Trade Center complex burst into flames. We could not understand or believe what we were watching.

A little later reports were coming in about other possible planes piloted by more terrorists flying toward other locations. There was one reporter saying that an airplane might be headed towards the Sears Tower in Chicago but that proved to be falsh.

Then all of a sudden video switched from New York City to the Pentagon in Washington DC where a third airplane had now just slammed into the side of the Pentagon. Flames were shooting up into the air and people were running out of the building.

At the time of these attacks I was serving as a volunteer emergency amateur radio operator and as a volunteer with the Air Force Civil Air Patrol. As a volunteer “Ham” radio operator I had worked in several emergency drills for various terrorist attack and weather related emergency scenarios. Nothing in my training had prepared me for the level of disaster that I was watching that morning on September 11, 2001.

Just before noon my Civil Air Patrol commander phoned me to ask me to go to our squadron hanger in Anoka, Minnesota and get on our emergency radio net. Civil Air Patrol along with all the major US government agencies and the military organizations still operate and train on a High Frequency Emergency Radio system that can connect agencies, command centers, emergency operations centers and other served organizations of our government around the world. On September 11, 2001 this nations emergency radio network was activated… and it was not a drill.

I know that I was affected for days after the attacks on 911. Like many others that I talked with, I was waiting for something else to happen. The question in my mind was… where next and would it be Minneapolis or somewhere else that would directly affect me.

To those who have served to rescue and help others after 911 and to our men and women who served and are still serving in our nations military I want to say Thank You and God Bless You. May we never forget that our country has enemies that wish to destroy us and our way of life. We need to pray for and support those who have sworn to protect and defend our country. We also need to pray that our leaders will always do what is best for our nation and keep it strong and secure.

I invite you to comment on this blog posting today or in the next couple days and share your story about where you were, what you were doing and how your were affected by the events of 911. Did you know people that were there in New York or Washington DC? Perhaps you or your family was directly affected by the loss of a loved one. Please take time to reflect and remember.

Do you have your own blog?

Over the Labor Day weekend here in the USA I did a survey of one of my reader lists regarding Blogging. I wanted to find out who those are that are reading blogs and how many on my list are blogers themselves.

I have been blogging, discovering how WordPress works and the cool tools that are available for WordPress for the past year or so. Many of my clients are now using WordPress blogs themselves and finding out how easy it is to build a business, and earn income, blogging.

My survey is not very scientific but it does confirm some things that I have been seeing and what Internet Marketers are telling me… Blogging with WordPress is great.

In a resent interview I did with my friend Willie Crawford, who at last count has over 2000 websites, he said that over 90% of the new websites he is building are WordPress blogs. If Willie Crawford, who has been doing Internet Marketing since about 1996, thinks that blogs are the way to go… well, I think it is always a good idea to copy success.

Below are a few of the questions that I asked in the survey and images of the pie charts of the replies. I will provide more about this in a future posting but I wanted to get this out before any more time goes by.
Thanks to all who replied to this survey. I hope you have taken time to download the free gift and read it over. Lot’s of interesting information in the Blogging Cash Method eBook.

For anyone in need of website hosting or help with setting up your own WordPress blog, please click on the contact link and get in touch with me. If you are not already blogging and using your blog to build you home based or online business… Get Started Now.

If you answered Yes to having your own blog, how often do you post to it?

Do you leave comments on blogs you visit?