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25 Free Tips for Marketing your Blog

With so many blogs being created every day, it’s a mystery to many bloggers how to make their blog stand out. It’s simple. People want to read good content, and with good content comes ad revenue. Well, maybe it’s not that easy… We’ve finally unleashed the secrets of successful blog marketing. Do note that these are not guaranteed to increase your click-through ratios and they will not bring good karma to you or your ads.. If only.. Nonetheless, these tips should benefit your blog and make it more user-friendly, more easily accessible, and more content-enabled.

Our Twenty-Five (25) Blog Tips

There are many types of blogs or purposes for blogs and a certain number of tactics are applicable to just about all of them, so here is a -short- list of tips for marketing and optimizing a blog:

1. Decide on a stand alone domain name www.myblog.com or directory of existing site www.mysite.com/blog. Sub domain is also an option blog.mysite.com. Avoid hosted services that do not allow you to use your own domain name!
2. Obtain and install customizable blog software – WordPress and Movable Type are my favorites.
3. Customize blog look and feel templates – aka design.
4. Research keywords and develop a glossary – Keyword Discovery, WordTracker, SitePoint, SEOBook Keyword Research.
5. Optimize the blog: Use a program like SEOPressor to optimize each and every post. It’s worth the time to get great placement on Google, Yahoo and the other search engines.
* Template optimization – RSS subscription options, social bookmark links, HTML code, Unique title tags, URLs, Sitemap
* Add helper plug-ins specific to WordPress or MT
* Create keyword rich categories (reference your keyword glossary)
6. Enable automatic trackback and ping functionality.
7. Create Feedburner Pro account and enable feed tracking.
8. Setup Google account for Sitemap, validate and prep for future submission.
9. Identify authoritative blogs, web sites and hubs for outbound resource links and blogroll.
10. Format archived posts, related posts.
11. Enable statistics for tracking – Performance, Google Analytics, ClickTracks.
12. Submit RSS feed and Blog URL to prominent RSS and Blog directories / search engines.
13. Engage in an ongoing link building campaign.
14. If podcast or video content are available, submit to Podcast and Vlog directories.
15. Submit blog URL to paid directories with categories for blogs – Yahoo, BOTW, bCentral, WOW, JoeAnt.
16. Optimize and distribute a press release announcing blog.
17. Request feedback or reviews of your blog in relevant forums, discussion threads. If you have a resourceful post that will help others, point to it.
18. Research and comment on relevant industry related blogs and blogs with significant centers of influence.
19. Post regularly. If it’s a news oriented blog, 3-5 times per day. If it’s an authoritative blog, 3-5 times per week, but each post must be unique and high value.
20. Monitor inbound links, traffic, comments and mentions of your blog – Google Alerts, Technorati, Blogpulse, Yahoo News, Ask Blogs and Feeds.
21. Always respond to comments on your blog and when you detect a mention of your blog on another blog, thank that blogger in the comments of the post.
22. Make contact with related bloggers on AND offline if possible.
23. When making blog posts always cite the source with a link and don’t be afraid to mention popular bloggers by name. Use keywords in the blog post title, in the body of the post and use anchor text when you link to previous posts you’ve made.
24. Use social networking services, forums and discussion threads to connect with other bloggers. If they like your stuff, they will link to you.
25. Remember when web sites were a new concept and the sage advice to print your web address everywhere you print your phone number? The same advice applies for your blog.

Other Blog Tips

If you are looking for additional blog tips you need to check out our Video Library. Your blog will thank you.

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Just in case you didn’t receive this announcement in your email or it ended up in trash, here is the email I received just now. Twitter is making a couple of changes and I thought you should know about them.

“Hi,

Over the coming weeks, we will be making two important updates that will impact how you interact with Twitter applications. We are sending this notice to all Twitter users to make sure you are aware of these changes.

What are applications?

There are over 250,000 applications built using the Twitter API. To use most applications, you first authorize the application to access your Twitter account, after which you can use it to read and post Tweets, discover new users and more. Applications come in many varieties, including desktop applications like TweetDeck, Seesmic, or EchoFon, websites such as TweetMeme, fflick, or Topsy, or mobile applications such as Twitter for iPhone, Twitter for Blackberry, or Foursquare.

Update 1: New authorization rules for applications

Starting August 31, all applications will be required to use “OAuth” to access your twitter account.

What’s OAuth?

• OAuth is a technology that enables applications to access Twitter on your behalf with your approval without asking you directly for your password.
• Desktop and mobile applications may still ask for your password once, but after that request, they are required to use OAuth in order to access your timeline or allow you to tweet.

What does this mean for me?

• Applications are no longer allowed to store your password.
• If you change your password, the applications will continue to work.
• Some applications you have been using may require you to reauthorize them or may stop functioning at the time of this change.
• All applications you have authorized will be listed at http://twitter.com/settings/connections.
• You can revoke access to any application at any time from the list.

Update 2: t.co URL wrapping

In the coming weeks, we will be expanding the roll-out of our link wrapping service t.co, which wraps links in tweets with a new, simplified link. Wrapped links are displayed in a way that is easier to read, with the actual domain and part of the URL showing, so that you know what you are clicking on. When you click on a wrapped link, your request will pass through the Twitter service to check if the destination site is known to contain malware, and we then will forward you on to the destination URL. All of that should happen in an instant.

You will start seeing these links on certain accounts that have opted-in to the service; we expect to roll this out to all users by the end of the year. When this happens, all links shared on Twitter.com or third-party apps will be wrapped with a t.co URL.

What does this mean for me?

• A really long link such as http://www.amazon.com/Delivering-Happiness-Profits-Passion-Purpose/dp/0446563048 might be wrapped as http://t.co/DRo0trj for display on SMS, but it could be displayed to web or application users as amazon.com/Delivering- or as the whole URL or page title.
• You will start seeing links in a way that removes the obscurity of shortened links and lets you know where each link will take you.
• When you click on these links from Twitter.com or a Twitter application, Twitter will log that click. We hope to use this data to provide better and more relevant content to you over time.

Thanks for reading this important update. Come and check what’s new at http://twitter.com.

Thanks,
The Twitter Team

Popularity: 4% [?]

The Six (6) Apps and Plug-ins You Need Now!

I thought in this post I’d give you a short, but important, list of applications and plug-ins you need to really include in order to make your new blog function as an efficient marketing machine.As we’ve discussed I believe that one of the most effective ways to brand and market products on the web (or promote your off line, brick and mortar, business0 is via The Internet Trifecta. The integration of WordPress, YouTube and Twitter can be a truly unique and productive way to get your new business going in the right direction

The Short List of Critical Apps and Plug-ins

1. SEOPressor or All in One SEO – Both of these plug-ins for WordPress assist you in maximizing and optimizing your posts for the various search engines. Remember, you can have the greatest products or services but if there is no traffic, there is no business. SEO, and these plug-ins,  can help direct traffic to your blog. Click Here for More Info.
2. Tweet Adder or Tweet Spinner – Twitter is a major component of The Internet Trifecta and be a huge source of traffic is used correctly, ethically and professionally. Both of the application provide just such a product. The difference lies in how they work. Tweet Adder is a local app that you load onto your local computer and you pay once for the product. Tweet Spinner is a web application and you pay monthly for the service. Both products provide similar functionality and can really make a difference in finding targeted followers. Click Here for More Info on Tweet Adder and Tweet Spinner.
3. StatCounter – When choosing which plug-ins to use you need to think about how you are going to evaluate if they are working for you or not. StatCounter provides you with statistics for your blog so that you can see if you are obtaining the kind of traffic you need to be successful. I know it is a boring and tedious topic, but statistics is very important if you are going to make it on the web, or in just about any business. Click Here for More Info.
4. twitter Tools – Simply said there are numerous plug-ins that send your posts automatically to your Twitter account. This is just one of them that I use. You can search for Twitter plug-ins and you may find one that you like even more. The important thing is that after you post to your blog, that your Twitter followers see the post. You can find this plug-in by going to Plug-ins -> Add New -> Search for Twitter Tools -> Install -> Activate  and then go to Settings.
5. JumpStart2 - This is one of the best applications I have found to automate YouTube. The problem with YouTube is that there is so much competition for ‘eyeballs’ out there that your video is easily lost. As a business owner, you need to get your videos seen and indexed for the search engines. Getting page 1 on Google, for example, should be your goal. One of the metrics that Google uses when selecting a video for page 1 is the number of views. This application does this very well and automatically. It also follows all of YouTube’s rules so you won’t lose your channel. Click Here for More Info.
6. HelloTxt – Getting the word out to all of your various social sites, video sites, blogs etc. can be an enormous and difficult task if you have to post to each them, one at a time. HelloTxt posts to all of them with just one click. It really makes this process a pleasure while at the same time getting your message out to ALL of your friends, followers, contacts etc. It takes a moment to set up (you need to connect to each of you social sites etc.) but once setup it works on autopilot. Click Here for More Info.

Why Do You Need These Applications and Plug-ins

As you start setting up your trifecta, you want to make sure to follow the goals of AIM; Automation, Integration and Monetization. In this post I purposely gave you some of the most important applications and plug-ins to achieve these goals. It is not a complete list but it does provide you with a great start. Stay tuned, in future posts I’ll try to provide you with the apps and plug-ins you should have in your bag in order to monetize you blog.

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What You Need to Know About Your WordPress Theme

In previous posts we’ve discussed some great plug-ins and have gotten into a bit about YouTube so it’s time to talk a bit about why it is so important to select the right WordPress theme for your blog. As you know, we are strong believers in The Internet Trifecta; the Automation, Integration and Monetization of the Three Components. (WordPress, twitter and YouTube).

In this post I wanted to talk a bit about your WordPress Theme because this will be one of the first components of your blog that you will need to select.

Why Is Your WordPress Theme So Important?

There are several reasons why selecting the right WordPress theme is so important. They are:

1. The WordPress theme you select for your blog will represent your company to visitors today and forever. Branding you company can be an extremely important aspect of marketing your product. Make sure that the theme you select is appropriate for your business. NOTE: After spending time creating your blog with one WordPress theme, you really don’t want to change it weeks, months or years later. Not all themes look and work the same and changing your theme may create a bit of anguish for you. Also, as you spend more and more time creating your business brand using this theme, changing it can be damaging to your image.
2. Make sure that the WordPress theme you select for you blog is not offensive. This may seem obvious but if you look around the web at other blogs you will be amazed at some of the WordPress themes other business owners have selected.
3. Make sure that the WordPress theme you choose for your blog has the features you need. For example, if you plan on placing widgets on both sides of your blog, you need to select a WordPress theme that has two sidebars (a three column theme) and is widget compatible. If you plan on using your own header, the WordPress theme you select has to have the ability to add, change or alter the header. NOTE: Not all WordPress themes are the same.
4. You also want to make sure that the WordPress theme you select will work with the latest version of WordPress. NOTE: WordPress updates their version all the time. You need to update as well to make sure that all of the features of your blog stay up to date. Your them is one aspect of that upgrade.

Where Can I Find An Appropriate WordPress Theme?

There are several places to find themes. You have to decide first if you want to pay for it or not. I would suggest that there are so many free themes available that unless you have specific needs, free is pretty good. Some place to find a WordPress theme:

1. Take a look at the WordPress.org website. Check out the themes there first. For the most part, these themes are pretty predictable and can be trusted to perform as promised.
2. Google “Free WordPress theme” and you’ll find tons of URLs to check out. Just be sure that before you use any of these that you test them first to make sure that they work as promised. Free is great but it can be more costly if they do not perform as stated.
3. Outsource your WordPress theme to a professional. This can be costly but services like eLance and Rent A Coder are very reasonable. You should be able to find a developer to create a theme for you at a price you can afford. NOTE: Once again, be careful. After you spend hours of time getting your blog up and running just like you want, you need to be sure you can find the developer should a problem with the site occur. This can be an issue so ‘caveat emptor”

So to reiterate, selecting the right WordPress theme is not only important for success, it is critical. Hopefully this brief post will help you select the right WordPress theme for your online or ‘brick and mortar’ business.

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Adding YouTube Videos To your Blog

As mentioned in previous posts and in my ebook “The Internet Trifecta”, one of the major components of The Internet Trifecta is YouTube. There are numerous reasons to use YouTube as you start to get your blog noticed by the major search engines etc. If you look around the web almost every application out there will use the url created by YouTube to add videos to their application.

Examples of the Simplicity of Adding YouTube Videos

For example, I wanted to send a message to all of my friends out there at one time. I use an application called HelloTxt. After typing in my message I was able to include a YouTube video as well by just adding the YouTube video URL. Additionally, if you want to send out a broadcast to your YouTube subscribers and friends, you can also include a video in a similar manner. While in your YouTube channel just click on the Broadcast button at the top of the page. Fill in the text and add your video. Real simple and very effective.

Lots of programs out there use this functionality making it real easy to include your video in your posts, messages, broadcasts etc.

Where Do You Find The YouTube Video’s URL

After you create your video you can find the URL at the bottom of the setup page. Do not use the Embed code. This really is meant more for placement of the video in websites etc. You can use that code in blogs but need to open the HTML section to place the code.

You can also find the URL by playing the video and then Click on the Share button below the video. Copy and Paste this URL where appropriate.

Adding YouTube Videos to Your Blog

Adding YouTube videos into your posts is just as easy. All you need to do is download a plug-in called Viper’s Video Quicktags,.  Click on the YouTube button and paste the YouTube video URL. You can format the way the video appears by changing the plug-ins settings. Using videos from applications like YouTube can help make your posts more interesting, more information and more rewarding for your visitors.

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How Do I Find Trackbacks?

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Search Engine Optimization Is Now Easier with SEOPressor

Normally there is nothing more boring than talking or writing about search engine optimization (SEO)but now, with the introduction of SEOPressor that has all changed. Finally it not only starts to make sense but there is a step by step process to help you along the way.

SEOPressor Plug-in

In past posts I discussed the reason I decided to use WordPress as the platform to build The Internet Trifecta. This is a perfect example that proves the point. Although it is not free, SEOPressor is a tremendous addition to my “required” list of plug-ins. Once purchased it installs just like any other plug-in. Just click on Add New in the Plug-ins section and browse to find the downloaded zip file. Remember to Activate it once it is installed. Then start posting!

Creating an SEOPressor Optimized Post

When you create you new post you’ll see an SEOPressor Keyword section. In that section you need to add the keyword you want to optimize. Then start creating your post. On the right side of the screen you’ll  notice an SEOPressor Score box. If there are x’s next to any line make sure that you fix that issue. Most of the comments are self-explanatory or you can certainly find answers either at the SEOPressor website or by googling the issue. In either case, it is really not much of a problem. After making any changes just click on Save Draft to see the results.

Finally, once you get all of the items with a green check box you want to maximize the Keyword Density without making your post look silly or too repetitive. That’s about it. SEOPressor will show you your score at the top of the box. It hopefully will be as close to 100% as possible. With SEOPressor you finally have a step by step means to maximize the possibly of great placement in search engines without any mystery or complexity. Don’t wait, get SEOPressor today.

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As I mentioned in my last post, making money with the Internet Trifecta, although never guaranteed, is certainly as effective, or more effective, than most of the other concepts on the market. The reason for this has nothing to do with me but rather the three components that make up the trifecta; WordPress, Twitter and YouTube. These three components have incredible power on the web and make provide numerous ways for making money with little or no cost to you; a big bonus for newbies.

Making Money with Your Own Classified Department

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If making money on the web is what you want then I can see no easier way of doing it than by using The Internet Trifecta. That doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways of doing it but the more I delve into this concept the more I am convinced of its ultimate power and predictability.

The Internet Trifecta eBook Is Finally Here – Making Money is Even Easier Than You Thought Before!

As some of you already know I just finished my 56 pg. ebook, “The Internet Trifecta“. While writing this book I wanted to use a real time project so I chose a dating site to create using the products involved in the Trifecta. It is still a work in progress, having only started it yesterday, but already it is taking shape and I wanted to report on some really cool stuff I found to make it work.

Making Money With Membership Sites with a Great WordPress Plug-in

One of the sure ways to making money with your blog/website, assuming that there is interest in your niche, is to create a membership site. Now, that can be a daunting task with a website and require hiring experts to program and set it up. With WordPress and the right plug-in, it took me less than an hour. I used a plug-in called S2Member (you can find this plug-in by going to Plug-ins – Add New and Search by typing in S2Member. Just install and follow the online directions. In the near future I’ll do a video but for now their instructions are pretty easy to follow). The best part of this plug-in is that it’s FREE and the second best part is that it really works as promised. Kind of cool…

Created for The Internet Trifecta  – This is only one of the making money tips found in the new eBook, available now!

You can check this out at Forever Young Dating, the blog I setup as a demo for the eBook. The membership plug-in has amazing features and even allows you to setup integration with PayPal in just a matter of minutes. By creating a membership site you provide the ability to allow visitors to see certain pages etc. and not others. It’s up to you.

After less than an hour I created my membership blog which is free for 7 days and then charges a fee monthly until cancellation. (Should the visitor really ever want to cancel….hopefully not). The site really is not up and running yet as far as SEO etc. It was just a demo for the book but so far I’ve added some real cool features. But, with just a bit of effort, it could be making money today!

In the next post I’ll talk about two of the other components for making money using the Internet Trifecta that I added to make this a real functional, dating site….in just one day with no cost. Making money is never guaranteed, but after reading our new book and a bit of hard work, you too can see an income just like the pros.

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Introducing a New 56 pg. ebook “The Internet Trifecta“

For over three months I’ve been working on a new ebook that I truly believe can change your life. For those newbies, or just about anyone trying to make a living on the Internet, this 56 pg. eBook may prove to be one of the best resources you’ll ever download….and, for now, its’ FREE!

In “The Internet Trifecta“ you’ll find all (or at least most) of the answers to questions on how to install, setup, integrate, automate and monetize the three major components of the Internet Trifecta; WordPress, twitter and YouTube.

You’ll learn why these applications have been chosen and why they are so important to success on the web. Why they can be used to increase traffic to your blog or website and why, I believe, that they are critical to taking your online or ‘brick and mortar’ business to a higher, more predictable level of success.

Download this exciting new ebook for Free!

You can download this brand new 56 pg. ebook (with tons of illustrations) by signing up on the right side of the page. Our privacy statement guarantees that we will never abuse your trust and will never provide your email address or any other information to anyone, at any time for any reason.

If You Like Our ebook, Tell Us.!

All we ask is that if you like what we’ve done either Comment on this blog or send me an ebook testimonial to drg@twitterright.com.

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