The Rockstar Guide to Getting More Traffic, Fame, and Success

Have you ever been to a concert where the opening act was just awful?

Maybe their music was okay, but there was something about the performance that undermined your ability to enjoy it. The group just lacked that special something that would make them stand out, that would draw you in.

That quality they’re lacking is called showmanship — and it’s not just for musicians.

You can spot a blogger who lacks showmanship a mile away.

Even after they’ve built a small and loyal following of readers, they still never seem to reach the level of success that the “A-List” bloggers in their niche have achieved. They sometimes spend years trying to overcome that plateau. They can’t figure out why they never get past being the “opening act” for the real rockstars in their niche.

They get frustrated and discouraged. Many of them give up. They hang up their metaphorical guitars and get regular 9-to-5 jobs and tell stories about how rough the industry is.

Don’t become one of those. I’m going to show you how to get the showmanship and stage presence you need to become the main act in anyone’s feed reader.

What is showmanship, and how does it apply to blogging?

Showmanship, according to the infallible Wikipedia, is “the skill of performing in such a manner that will appeal to an audience or aid in conveying the performance’s essential theme or message.”

That should sound familiar. Conveying a theme or message to an audience is exactly what we’re doing with blogging and content marketing. Yet so many people struggle to develop a style that will set them apart from everyone else in their niche.

But even the most mundane niches can be made new and interesting if you’re willing to find something special you can bring to the table.

For example, one of my favorite performers is pianist Victor Borge, who could easily have achieved a fine career as a traditional classical pianist in front of a hushed concert audience.

Instead, he found a way to make the music interesting and entertaining by adding comedy to his performance.

His shows elicit roars of laughter from his audience — and when was the last time you saw the formally-dressed concert hall crowd rolling in the aisles? It was completely unconventional, but his audiences loved him for it.

And his mastery of the piano was undiminished.

What showmanship isn’t

Showmanship isn’t a gimmick. It isn’t tricking the audience.

If Borge had been a less-than-stellar pianist, he wouldn’t have been able to transcend the concert hall standards to create his own way of approaching the music. Putting on a show isn’t putting on a mask.

Find something that works for you and pursue it. No trickery or attempting to be someone else required.

Good showmanship, the kind that engages your audience, needs to have authenticity at its core in order to work. If you become a sleazy Internet marketer, resort to spamming, or engage in bait-and-switch schemes, your audience won’t care if you have the best show on earth.

No amount of showmanship can hide a scumbag. Instead, take your authentic self and add some style to create a “wow” factor that grabs the attention of your audience and won’t let go.

Showmanship and stage presence

Your showmanship is what you bring that’s unique.

But “unique” doesn’t necessarily mean “good.” You could be the only blogger out there dressing in bacon and playing a ukulele, but that doesn’t mean you have valuable information to impart.

If you’re going to help your audience feel confident about your authority, you’re going to need something more than showmanship.

You need stage presence.

Stage presence is your ability to connect with an audience.

At this year’s BlogWorld, Brian Clark gave an excellent example of how to use stage presence.

Especially when it comes to marketing, people are like ‘Oh, well I’m supposed to do this, or I’m supposed to do that.’ No you’re not, because then you’re going to do exactly what everyone else does and you’re not unique.

So don’t feel like you need to be Naomi Dunford. I’m probably more like her in real life, but I choose to keep that on the down-low.

(…) I try to help people out. I try to help them learn something and make a business related to that.

And it’s as [much] the “real” me as any other part of me, but we all play different roles.

So that’s just my two cents on authenticity. Be who you want to be to your people. Be the best “you” you can be for them — not for you, for them.

That’s stage presence. Knowing what part of your authentic self connects with your audience — and then choosing to emphasize that aspect — is the first step to becoming the main act instead of just the ho-hum opener.

7 ways to use showmanship to command the attention of your audience

1. Choose a style that belongs to you. In order to be unique in your niche, you need to create a style that conveys who you are and what you do, in a way that your audience can get excited about. Find that “sweet spot” that will set you apart.
2. Immerse yourself in the style you’ve chosen. Once you’ve decided on your style, immerse everything you do in that style. That’s what showmanship is all about — taking what you do and wrapping it in a unique angle that gets your audience’s attention. If you don’t infuse everything you do with a single style, your audience will be confused by the conflicting brands you’re presenting.
3. Know what part of your personality connects with your audience. Being authentic doesn’t mean baring everything about yourself to the world. As Brian says, it’s about being the best “you” that you can be for your audience. Figure out what part of your personality “clicks” with your audience, and show more of that.
4. Focus on your audience, not yourself. I love what Sonia said at BlogWorld right after Brian finished his definition of authenticity. She said: “It’s not about you. It’s never about you. In business, it’s always about your customer.” If you want an engaged audience, you need to focus on what they want, what they need, and what they like.
5. Know the difference between authenticity and “too much information.” There’s a fine line between being authentic and telling your audience something they really didn’t want to know. Don’t cross the line into TMI. As Sonia says, “No one wants that much authenticity.”
6. Act like an authority if you want to be seen as one. If you want to be seen as an authority in your niche, you need to present yourself in a way that’s consistent with that level of respect. If you’re a financial advisor and you constantly complain about being broke, no one’s going to be very interested in your advice. Be mindful of how you present yourself.
7. Be consistent. At its core, branding is all about consistency — giving your audience the same positive experience every time they interact with you. If you want to command the attention of your audience, you need to be consistent in everything you do. Make sure everything you publish is in line with your overall brand, and stick to a consistent publishing schedule.

Being interesting isn’t enough

Being interesting isn’t enough if you want to establish yourself as an authority. Being talented isn’t enough, either.

Let’s face it, talented bands that are one-hit wonders are interesting for a time — then they fade into obscurity. No one wants that for their blog.

If you want to build a sustainable business model, you need to create a unique style that commands the attention of your audience, builds a solid connection with that audience, and establishes you as an expert.

Develop your showmanship and stage presence and you’ll be headliner for years to come. Even after you’ve turned old and gray, you’ll still be a rockstar.

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Setting the Hook: Fishing for New Readers with Social Media Lures

This guest post is by Ben Harack of the Vision of Earth project.

Regarding readers as fish, and bloggers as fisherman, might seem strange. Bear with me as I show you part of why I like the idea of blogging as being similar to fishing.

Those of you who are familiar with fishing know that getting the fish to bite the lure is only the first step of the process. A good yank from your end is often advisable in order to “set the hook”, ensuring that the fish will be less likely to escape.

A new reader to your page doesn’t have the hook set yet, in fact, they might not have bit at all. They might just be moving closer, perhaps to sniff the lure.

Modern media speed and information overload has caused readers to be more cautious with the way they spend their time reading or browsing. The fish might just swim in a bit closer to see if the lure looks tasty. If the lure looks dead or unappetizing the fish will likely swim on to find something more interesting.

Lure readers in

One of the major topics on ProBlogger lately has been social media. While search engines have been very important in the development of the Internet, social media has led a revolution in how we interact with content.

I feel that the onslaught of social media has exacerbated the short attention spans of Internet readers. Social media information tends to come in small bites. I feel that this evidenced by the naturally short nature of Facebook statuses, tweets, and news headlines on Digg, Reddit, and others.

How is it best to lure people in with social media? This website is absolutely full of tips on this subject. To capture the power of social media, I can honestly recommend reading about:

• Social media in general: The 5 Foundations of Social Media Success that No One Talks About
• Digg: 4 Ways I Compose Posts to Drive Millions of Pageviews to Blogs Through Digg
• Facebook:5 Ways I’m Using Facebook to Drive Traffic, Build Brand and Increase Reader Engagement
• LinkedIn: Top 10 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog Using LinkedIn
• Twitter: Top Ten Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Small Business Blog Using Twitter

In a recent post about the small size of tweets, Darren raised the idea of a possible swing towards long-form content. From his post, and my own experience in the area, I have concluded that social media tends to facilitate the creation of connectivity, conversation, and community around content of value.

For bloggers, the hub of our content tends to be our blogs and websites. Social media can be regarded to some extent as the cloud of human interaction around a website. Darren illustrates this well in his post Home Bases and Outposts – How I use Social Media in My Blogging.

It is important to note that social media is not just another outlet for your standard content. If you only use it to link directly back to your blog, you are missing out on most of its potential. Social media is primarily a conversation created around you and by you. Without your interaction, conversations will still happen, but they will progress without you being involved. A megaphone isn’t a good conversation partner. To create a strong following, you need to connect with the people who are interested in what you do.

In the world of social media, quality of communication is key. Being restricted to about 30 words per unit of communication means you have to make each one count. With practice and care, it is possible to show that brevity does not preclude quality. It is possible to convey great meaning with even a single tweet.

We live in the age of the sound bite, the slogan, and the catch-phrase. In order to tame the beast of social media, we need to master its language.

Set the hook

You can’t force people to read what is on your page, but you can certainly encourage them. You can’t force them to come back, but you can provide some good reasons why they might choose to.

The specific techniques that I try to use are:

• Blog titles: 15 Ways to Rework Your Next Blog Title
• Opening lines: 11 Ways to Open a Post and Get Reader Engagement
• Scannable text: Writing Blog Content – Make it Scannable
• Lists: 8 Reasons Why Lists are Good for Getting Traffic to your Blog

These tools cater to the tendencies of Internet readers. The intent is to grab their attention so that they will actually consume your content more fully rather than scanning it.

It is hard to set a dull hook. Sharpen your hook by making your website easier to navigate. Highlight your social media connections, and provide clearly visible ways for people to subscribe to your content or newsletter. Provide interactive elements such as contests and polls to generate additional interest.

I experimented recently with the creation of my own blog carnival called the Renewable Energy Review. Unfortunately as I found out, there is extremely little in the way of quality writing being pushed around the blogosphere on this topic. Our standards at Vision of Earth are high enough that only one article submitted thus far merited a link from us. This might sound harsh, but we have established standards of editing and fact-checking that are not matched outside of professional periodicals.

So what did I do? My team and I simply transitioned into creating a high-quality periodical of our own. Even with the publication so early in its life, we have noticed that it has already begun to draw some substantial interest. As a fledgling volunteer project/blog, we have been happy with the results.

More commonly, bloggers will write a series of posts on a topic to generate interest and subscribers. When people like what you write, and know that you will have more of it soon, they have an incentive to come back. All of the techniques for setting the hook eventually depend on you having content that is of value to readers to such an extent that they will come back again to experience more of it.

Eat your readers

Analogy taken too far? I think not!

Your readers consume your content, but you are the one who is attempting to make a living off them. If you are a Professional Blogger, the number and quality of your relationships with your readers are what literally put the food on your table.

Try to understand your readers and cultivate respect for them. Understand, because you may be fishing with the wrong lures or in the wrong part of the lake. Respect, because a genuine conversation requires some degree of shared positive regard.

Ben Harack is the leader of the Vision of Earth project, which attempts to study the key challenges facing society today. They publish on topics as wide-ranging as nuclear energy, ending poverty, and deliberate social change.

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How Many Hours Do You Spend Working On Your Blog?

This post is part of the Friday Q&A section. If you want to ask a question just send it via the contact form.

Bill Yann asks:

How many hours do you spend working on your blog every day? I am a new blogger, and I am having trouble to set a schedule for my blog.

There were basically three periods in my blogging journey, and during each I would work a different amount of time on the blogs.

When I first started blogging it was just a hobby, and I remember I used to work around one hour per day on it, usually at night, before going to sleep. This period lasted around one year.

After that I started monetizing the blogs, and eventually I quit my job to work full time on the Internet. The three blogs I was running at the time represented the bulk of my revenues, so I spent all day working on them (around 8 hours per day). Activities included search engine optimization, web design, research, content writing, promotion and networking. This period last around three years.

Then around one year ago I started diversifying my projects, and launched new websites. Some of these make money with affiliate marketing, others selling products directly to the end user. As a result I sold a couple of blogs, and kept only this one and Daily Writing Tips (where I have staff writers so I don’t need to put too much work).

So right now I spend around 2 hours per day on both blogs. Half of that time is spent moderating comments, answering to emails and running other maintenance related tasks, and the other half is spent writing content here.

I have some tips regarding how you can create an efficient schedule for your blog, but I’ll save that for a separate post.

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Building Your Business Through Logo Branding

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Logo Mojo. All opinions are 100% mine.

If there is one thing I’ve learned over the past few years while running this blog, it’s the power of a good logo. The Zac Johnson toon has taken on a life of it’s own and has become a very recognized symbol in the affiliate marketing and blogging niche. Without the extra branding from this logo and having it seen all over the place, it would be tough to achieve the same success the blog has seen over the past few years.

Not currently using a logo or design to brand your blog or business? You should be. Imprint an imagine in the minds of your followers, readers and customers. Doing so will not only allow them to remember a symbol and not just a name, but it helps extraordinarily for your branding purposes. Pepsi, Apple and Nike are all recognized by their logos… not their names. Twitter has been an amazing tool for branding purposes. If you are using Twitter and just have a basic background, you are missing out free branding and advertising every day. Most of the big name bloggers and branded companies have their own Twitter backgrounds which usually include their logo, web site name and personal or company info.

As easy as it sounds to brand yourself, it’s actually one of the hardest tasks to accomplish. First you have to think about what type of message and visual appearance your logo is going to display. Since the majority of us are not designers, you will also have to find someone to design your logo and make it look professional. I’m going through this process all the time, as I like to launch new web sites with only the highest designs and with their own unique logos. Logo Mojo

is a design company that actually covers the majority of what I talked about above. I’m always looking for new quality designers to work on projects. After looking through their site and portfolio, they have a nice selection of logos that they’ve designed, and compared to other design services, they prices are quite reasonable. The design process is laid out really well on the web site, as it walks you through the process on how to best describe your logo concept and how you would like it to be perceived.

Whether you are looking to have a new logo identity created for your web site, blog or Twitter, it’s a great idea to visit Logo Mojo. Not only can you get inspired by their designs and tips, but walking through their design questionnaire will also help you determine the look and feel you are trying to get with your new logo.

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What Can BloggingTips.com Do For You?

With the year coming to a close, and a 2011 just around the corner, it's time to get ready for some exciting improvements coming to BloggingTips.com. When I first acquired BloggingTips.com earlier this year, I knew the potential growth and tight niche community that was already established with the site. I look forward to continuing in these same area, while bringing improvements where the site has been lacking.

Here are just a few of the improvements that will be coming to BloggingTips.com soon:

New Blog Design
I'm all about keeping blog designs fresh and standing out from the crowd. A new blog design is in the works, which will consist of a new logo, better social networking placement and easier access to the best areas of the site. What else would you like to see in the new blog design?

New Writers and Interviews
We have a great staff of writers here at BloggingTips.com, and I'd like to bring in a few more high end writers to keep providing you with only the best content. There will also be a weekly interview series added to the writing schedule, which will feature bloggers of all sizes, which should help inspire and motivation you even more.

Job Board
A few other ideas I have for the blog are to build a better community around the site and help my readers. A Job Board may soon be added to the site, which can help you find new outsource solutions, or to even make some extra money as a freelance blogger/writer. This concept is still in the works, and depending on feedback, it will determine when and if this addition is placed on the site.

Mini Guides and Learning Tools
BloggingTips.com is all about helping bloggers "Taking Your Blog to the Next Level!"... look forward to seeing new mini ebooks and mini guides on how to improve your blogging experience.

With all of that said, I would greatly appreciate any comments (positive or negative), recommendations and what you would like to see from BloggingTips.com in the coming months.

Thank you to everyone for making BloggingTips.com what it is today!

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Everything You Need to Import and Display RSS Feeds with WordPress

WordPress makes it super-easy to publish your own content, and even easier to import and display content from other great sites around the Web. Just as other people are displaying and reading your feed in their apps and devices, you can use external RSS feeds to supplement and strengthen your site’s primary content.

Whether you’re displaying feeds from similar sites or aggregating news from around the world, importing feeds means taking advantage of the best that the Web has to offer. In this post, you’ll see how easy it is to grab external RSS feeds and display them anywhere on your WordPress-powered site

Why do it?

No website is an island, and with a virtually infinite assortment of content and services around the Web, there’s no reason not to take advantage of content that will benefit your readers and help improve the overall quality and content of your site. Feeding external RSS content to WordPress:

• adds relevant, useful content for your readers to enjoy
• adds relevant, targeted keywords for search-engine robots
• keep visitors on your site by giving them the content they want.

Depending on your niche, using external content opens up many possibilities. Here are some concrete examples to help illustrate some common ways RSS feeds are used to create and supplement content:

• news sites importing weather feeds to display current conditions
• sports sites importing news feeds reporting the latest sports news
• investment sites displaying current market values and stock prices.

For blogs, the possibilities are only limited by your imagination. I’ve seen some great independent sites that make excellent use of external feeds. Here are some examples:

• blogs that display their social media feeds, such as Twitter and Facebook
• bloggers with more than one website displaying posts from their other sites
• news-portal sites that aggregate the best blogging and/or web design feeds.

And the best part? WordPress makes it so easy to integrate external RSS feeds that it’s almost funny. Depending on your goals and experience with WordPress, there are several ways to go about doing it: using widgets, plugins, or manual coding. Let’s examine these different techniques and explore everything you need to import and display RSS feeds with WordPress.

Displaying feeds with the default RSS widget

Right out of the box, WordPress includes a handy RSS widget that can be used in any widgetized area on any widgetized theme. Just drag the widget to your widget area and choose your options:

The default RSS widget

As seen in the screenshot above, the default RSS widget provides several basic options, including number of feed items and which elements to display. Yes, it’s super-easy, but your customization choices are limited. As a general rule, the more stuff (e.g. post title, post date, author name, and so on) you include with each feed item, the more cluttered it tends to look.

Seriously, a linked title and post excerpt is all you really need to display, and doing so keeps things looking clean. Unfortunately, even after limiting our display options to only “title and excerpt”, the output using the default WordPress theme looks sloppy:

The default widget output

…and the posts just continue all the way down the sidebar. If you’re handy with CSS, adding a few rules to your style.php may be all that’s needed to slap things into shape, but clearly more control is desired for better customization.

Displaying feeds with WordPress plugins

For more control when you’re working with external feeds, there a number of excellent plugins available. Let’s have a look at the best plugins for importing and displaying external RSS feeds. Note: all plugins have been tested/reviewed with current versions at the time of this posting, and working with the latest version of WordPress, 3.0.2.

• FeedWordPress: import feed content as posts.
• WP-o-Matic: import feed content as posts.
• RSSImport: display feed content anywhere.

FeedWordPress

A good sign of a reputable WordPress plugin is how many times it has been downloaded. So with over 300,000 downloads, FeedWordPress by Charles Johnson is definitely worth checking out. It’s an incredibly powerful, flexible plugin that makes importing and customizing feed content extremely easy. Here’s a screenshot of the Settings page:

The FeedWordPress Settings page

But FeedWordPress does way more than just display external feed content on your site—it actually creates a post for each imported feed item. So, for example, if I want to back up my latest Twitter tweets, I can either create an entire tweet archive, or I can let FeedWordPress do it for me. FeedWordPress installs easily, and imports any number of feeds using the following default settings:

• Auto-updates are turned off by default; cron may be configured, or just use manual fetching.
• Auto-import and create categories, tags, and even authors (as contributors) for each feed item.
• Titles for feed items are auto-linked to the source, so there are no single-page views or comments.

Of course, all of these options may be configured to your liking using the FeedWordPress Settings page. Other useful settings enable you to mark imported posts as drafts or private, update posts to match changed feed content, and much more. To get started, check out the FeedWordPress Quick-start Guide.

WP-o-Matic

Another incredible plugin for importing feed content as posts, WP-o-Matic is very similar to FeedWordPress, but with some different features and slightly easier configuration. After installing the plugin, hit the Settings page for an easy, four-step configuration process:

1. Run compatibility check.
2. Configure time-zone settings.
3. Configure cron settings (via WebCron, crontab, unix cron, or manual fetching).
4. You’re done!

After configuration, you can begin importing feeds by creating a new Campaign and setting the following options:

• feed title, slug, URL, and category
• any regex pattern-matching on key terms (optional)
• configuration of optional Custom import/post template and polling frequency
• setting discussion preferences and whether to send pingbacks
• setting whether title links should point to single-view page or content source.

In addition to importing and customizing any number of feeds, WP-o-Matic also enables image caching and provides some great import/export tools. Also worth mentioning is that WP-o-Matic doesn’t import any categories, tags, or users by default. Here’s a screenshot of the Settings page:

The WP-o-Matic Settings page

For importing feeds as post content, WP-o-Matic and FeedWordPress are excellent plugins that make things easy while providing much control over the configuration and customization of the entire process.

RSSImport

If you want to display external feeds without creating posts, the RSSImport plugin is really all you need. RSSImport enables you to import and display feeds using a shortcode, widget, or PHP template tags. And it does this using WordPress’s built-in feed-parsing functionality, via MagpieRSS (for WP 2.8+) or SimplePie (for older WP).

RSSImport makes it seriously easy to display any feed anywhere in your theme—and with massive flexibility. Here are three ways to do it with RSSImport:

• Display feeds in any widgetized area.
• Display feeds in posts using a shortcode.
• Display feed content anywhere in your theme.

Display feed content using the RSSImport widget

To display external feeds in the sidebar (or any other widgetized area), just install the plugin and visit the Widgets page. There you will find options for everything under the sun, giving you full control over many configuration options. Here is a screenshot showing a few of the widget’s many settings:

The RSSImport Settings page

Setting things up with the widget is really just a matter of going through the options and making sure everything is exactly how you want it. Bada-boom, bada-bing, as they say.

Display feed content using a shortcode

RSSImport also makes it easy to display feed content right in your posts and pages using a shortcode. Here is the simplest example, showing the five most-recent feed items from Digging into WordPress:

[RSSImport display="5" feedurl="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/DiggingIntoWordpress"]

That works perfectly, but there are many parameters available for customization. I’ve included a more involved example, using as many parameters as possible, in the downloadable code for this post.

So with the widget, RSSImport lets us display feed content in any widgetized area. And now with the shortcode, we can display feeds right in your posts and pages. But if we still desire even more control, we can get our hands dirty and modify our theme template files directly.

Display feed content anywhere in your theme

Direct modification of theme (or child theme) template files isn’t for everyone, but for complete control over configuration and customization, you may need to go there. I’s really no big deal, though—just pick a spot in your theme and add the following line of PHP code:

Just like with the widget and shortcode methods, you can use any of the RSSImport parameters to customize feed display any way you wish. Check out RSSImport at the Plugin Directory for complete details.

Displaying Feeds with WordPress’s built-in functionality

WordPress has a built-in way of displaying feeds using the fetch_feed function. Using the fetch_feed function means we have one less plugin to fiddle with and maintain, so if you feel comfortable working with basic PHP and WordPress template tags, then you’ll love how easy it is to import and display external feeds. To illustrate, paste this snippet anywhere in your theme (e.g. sidebar.php):

$rss = fetch_feed('http://feeds2.feedburner.com/DiggingIntoWordpress');
$rss_items = $rss->get_items(0, 3);
foreach($rss_items as $item) echo '
'.$item->get_title().'

';

…and we’re done. Just specify your feed URL in the first line, and you’re up and running.

Way back when, importing feeds was

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Why “Writing a Post a Day for 30 Days” Is a Brilliant Deception

They were so excited about starting in blogging. They tuned their themes and placed RSS buttons, they wrote their posts and submitted guest posts. They’ve done everything themselves to make their guests feel at home.

The only thing that didn’t do right was outsourcing the reason to blog to the Goal.

Now nobody knows their names and their blogs are sitting quietly waiting for time to take their domain names back to bits they’ve arrived from.

It wasn’t just any goal that destroyed them, but a particularly appealing Goal. The Goal of “writing a blog post every day for 30 days”.

At first it seems like it’s inncuous. I mean “write a blog post” – that seems fair, “every day” – that’s about right, “for 30 days” – I can do it.

But there’s a great evil lurking underneath this niceness that leads to wasted effort and exhaustion.

The first part of evil is that if you’ve set this goal – you obviously chose a wrong topic for your blog. Nobody that chosen the right topic had to setup a goal to write on it.

Most of successful blogger had chosen the topic so important to them that their friends actually have a goal “Make John shut up about [that topic]” in their New Year Resolutions. That’s the topic John should’ve chosen.

Admit it – you would feel stupid setting up a goal to “watch my favorite TV show a day for 30 days”? You are probably starting to feel the first part of “why”.

The Internet gets more and more new blood every day. Some of those guys actually write about topics they love and enjoy. If that’s the topic you are writing about and you don’t enjoy it – you can’t compete with them. They’ll kick your virtual butt with hardly any effort.

Imagine yourself in Cairo, near Sphinx and Egyptian Pyramids. Now imagine a huge glowing title over the desert: “The Internet”.

The web right now is a endless field with pyramids. Each of those is a topic. At the very top of it stand A-bloggers. Those are the people that know that theme in-and-out and they have a great way to shout around (from the top), so that almost everyone below hears them.

You are at the bottom of the pyramid, trying to step up. If you aren’t equally as good as the next guy – you won’t make that step. If you don’t know the topic at hand – you’re going to be walking around the bottom of the pyramid.

But that’s not even the worst thing yet with that goal. Remember it? “Write a blog post a day for 30 days”

The “for 30 days” part might be even worse (or at least on par). You’ve set yourself a deadline when your struggle to write about a topic you don’t know ends.

You are going to force yourself through these 30 days and then finally relax. Ending this awful journey would feel so good that you will never want to return to blogging again.

You’ll be scared of blogging when in reality blogging is really fun. You get to talk to people about interesting things, you get to hear people talking back to you, sometimes very smart people. You’ll get into some fights that won’t end up in emergency and you’ll learn a lot in the process and may even make money.

Don’t outsource your desires to “Goals” – it’s sure way to “Broken Dreams” book. Don’t assume that your “Goals” are actually your desires.

Throw away the goal of “blog a day for 30 days” and replace it with desire to write on the topic you love.

If you want something more physical – open up Google Calendar and setup a daily reminder with an SMS at some time (how’s 8pm for you?) to write a blog post.

Then, when alarm goes off – open up your favorite blogs, read something, write down some ideas while reading, then fire up WordPress and do it! Excite your readers! Burn through their imagination with the images of Great Pyramids and domains blowing back to bits of information the consist of!

About the Author: Slava is the author of TripIdeas.org, where he blogs about the most beautiful destinations around the world.

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How to Monetize Your Website While Keeping Your Visitors Interested

Most website owners create and maintain their sites for the purpose of making money. Maintaining a website requires hard work. Since website owners have to pay for website hosting services, it is important for them to make money while providing valuable information to their visitors. However, some people who run websites don’t know how to properly go about this without compromising their viewers.

People surf the Internet either for business or for leisure and it can be incredibly frustrating to have to deal with countless advertisements about topics that don’t even concern them or the topic they are reading about. While your main priority is to make money, you should still take your visitors into consideration. After all, they are the reason that your website continues to exist. Listed below are some tips on how you can monetize your website without driving away your visitors:

Post Advertisements that are Relevant to their Interests

Since you can easily make money off advertisements, you don’t necessarily have to give them up just to avoid alienating your visitors. You just have to be strategic about the kind of advertisements you place on your website.

If you post advertisements that are relevant to your visitors, there is also a higher chance for you to earn more, as they will most likely be encouraged to check out the products being promoted on your website’s ads. Just make sure that the ads posted on your site are related to the content you provide for your visitors.

Keep Advertisements to a Minimum

Some websites are studded with advertisements, it can be very difficult to find the content. Keep in mind that the purpose of your site is to provide content and not to promote advertisements. When posting advertisements, you can keep them on the sides of the page. You can use all sides if you want but try to avoid the center if you can, as this can be incredibly annoying for your visitors. Sidebars are useful for containing ads.

Promote Products and Services that You have Tried Yourself

You cannot promote something and rave about how amazing it is if you haven’t even tried it yet. You have to make sure that you try out everything you promote. By doing this, you can easily sell the product, since you are speaking from experience. Your visitors are most likely going to notice when you are lying so if you want to be more factual about your promotions, try the products first.

Label Affiliate Links

If you want to add affiliate links to your site, label them. It is better to label them for what they are rather than risk losing your frequent visitors. You can add affiliate links at the very bottom of your site.

If you try to mask these links as something else, your visitors would most likely be annoyed. If you want them to keep their confidence in you, be honest about the links you place on your site.

Keep Your Ads Simple

Ads that are presented in very large images, banners and GIFs can be incredibly annoying. Since no one clicks these ads on purpose anyway, except for when they accidentally click on it because of how large it is, don’t bother with them. These ads wont make you any real money. In fact, you may end up losing visitors because of them. Just keep your ads simple and clean.

Monetizing your website is important but you also have to value your visitors, as they are the reason you are highly in demand for ads anyway. By following the aforementioned tips, you can make money effectively while keeping your visitors interested.

Andre Conferido has been in the internet marketing business for over 5 years mainly doing “niche blogging”. Andre is also a writer at the make money online blog http://www.carlocab.com.

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How to Captivate Your Audience with Story (From America’s Greatest Living Playwright)

There’s been a fevered interest in the art of storytelling among the marketing crowd recently.

The masters and the hacks alike are thumping from every available pulpit that storytelling is the most powerful device on earth in regard to human influence.

We are told that story — applied to salesmanship, preaching, advertising, conversation, marketing, songwriting, and blogging — contains the power to deliver the entire world to the deft storyteller’s door.

This is correct.

The writer runs this show.

But what is a well-told story? How do we know we’re getting down to the true thing?

Libraries are filled with books on craft. You can (and should) read everything from Aristotle to McKee to get your chops. Today, let’s get into a simple note or two from the pen of a contemporary legend.

David Mamet, America’s greatest living playwright, has forgotten more about all this than ten internet marketing gurus sipping mojitos in San Jose will ever know.

A few months ago, a memo surfaced, written by Mamet to the clan of writers working on his television show. This little “memo,” as Movieline states, is actually more a master class in writing and storytelling.

Let’s let Mamet take us to school …

Information is … information

The audience will not tune in to watch information. You wouldn’t, I wouldn’t. No one would or will. The audience will only tune in and stay tuned in to watch drama. ~ David Mamet

50,000 people were waiting. Untold thousands would watch online in the hours and days ahead.

He walked onto the dark stage in faded jeans and running shoes at 10 am sharp. In his right hand was a simple clicker that moved the images behind him as he spoke.

For two hours, the audience laughed, roared and gasped as the unassuming everyman showed them exactly what they wanted. And then gave it to them, in spades.

Steve Jobs runs one of the greatest theater companies on earth.

What is drama?

Drama, again, is the quest of the hero to overcome those things which prevent him from achieving a specific, acute goal. ~ David Mamet

He landed in this country a small child with nothing but his family. He grew up oppressively poor, but found early on that he had a taste for hard work and persuasion.

He was going to make it in this new world. No matter what.

With a Big Wheel and a fistful of pocket change, he worked to find in-demand products to sell to his buddies in the neighborhood. The kid from Belarus was on the move …

A chain of lemonade stands.

A baseball card empire.

Earning four-figures a week before turning teen.

Then it came to an end. His father demanded he show up every day at the family liquor store to carry out the most menial tasks in the place. Day after day, week after week, he slogged it out for a fraction of what he’d been making on his own.

A few years later, flipping through a wine magazine, he made a connection between the guys who’d bought his baseball cards and his father’s customers that collected wine.

From packing boxes in the basement, to shipping wine out the door, he grew the family business from $4 million to $60 million in less than ten years.

Gary Vaynerchuk was only getting started.

Who cares about drama? I’m in business

If the scene bores you when you read it, rest assured it will bore the actors, and will, then, bore the audience, and we’re all going to be back in the breadline. ~ David Mamet

Read Mamet’s first quote again, about what the audience will or will not tune in to watch (or read, or listen to).

The Information Age is coming to a close. It is crumbling around the ancient foundation of the human desperation for meaningful story, unadorned truth, and compelling drama that holds a mirror to life.

Information is simultaneously too much and not enough.

Information is impotent to reach the hearts and minds of those who can use your idea, product, or service.

If you think I’m swerving into hyperbole, check in with the infobesity epidemic.

Or the minimalist revival.

Or the rise of companies like John’s Phones.

Story is virile, rare, unforgettable. And when done well, more true than plain fact.

You, me, Mamet — we all eat or starve in direct proportion to how good (and truthful) a story we tell.

Every marketer a playwright.

Each prospect an audience.

Every retweet a ticket to your show.

Enter, stage left …

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Put Out the Welcome Mat: How to Run a Blog Contest with Panache

This guest post is by Nathalie Lussier.

Whether you’ve got a new blog or want to jump start your existing blog, you have two options: 1) keep blogging and hope it pans out, 2) try something different.

In this post you’ll learn how to run a blog contest with panache. Just like you want to organize a great party that everyone continues to talk about weeks after, your blog contest should create a great experience for everyone involved.

People love participating in contests: it makes them feel like they’re a part of something special, whether they win or not.

Before we dive in, let’s look at how running a giveaway on your blog can shift your blog into high gear.

Nurture what you’ve got and watch it grow

Ever notice how people who are good at taking care of what they have tend to get more of it? For example, people who are great at saving and investing money tend to make more of it? The same is true when it comes to taking care of your audience.

A new way to look at blog contests is to consider them as:

1. a way to thank your existing readers for their loyalty
2. a way to bring in fresh new readers.

Most of the advice on contests is about creating a buzz and getting more traffic to your blog. But I think it’s even more important to remember that, with a contest, you’re saying thank you to your existing audience.

Contests are also the perfect way to ask people what their challenges are, which will give you an idea of what topics to cover in future blog posts.

Contests create social proof.

If your blog is brand new and you want to build up social proof right off the bat, then consider setting up a simple contest. You will get more comments, social media props, and testimonials than you thought possible.

Giveaways increase engagement.

Ever publish a blog post only to hear crickets chirping? Yuck. No fun.

With a giveaway you’re sure to get lots of responses—if you do it right. The trick is to make your giveaways simple to enter, so you remove the barrier to entry and get more people to participate. The more people participate, the more likely they are to come back for more of your content and become loyal fans.

Start a buzz.

How do you know when something is creating a buzz? When everyone starts talking about it. People love sharing things that are useful, relevant, and fun. If you build your contest with these ideas in mind you’re going to give people something worth spreading.

Share your products or services in a fun, non-spammy way.

One creative way to use contests and giveaways is to offer your services or products as the prize. Structuring a contest around what you offer is a great way to make people aware of your products and services. If people like what you’ve got and they don’t win, they may decide to purchase.

Create a contest with panache

Now let’s look at how to structure your contest to ensure it’s a win-win for everyone involved.

1. To get sponsors or to go it alone?

Depending on the size of your blog, you might be approached by sponsors to offer their products as the contest giveaway. My rule is that you must feel like it’s a good fit for your audience, and stand behind the product, if you’re to give away an external party’s product.

For one giveaway, I mailed out two of my favorite books, so there was a values match there.

You could also approach sponsors that you think would be a good match for your audience. However, like Darren demonstrated in a previous article, it’s actually easier to give away your own products or services if you have them.

Delivering digital products is much easier than following up with someone to ask for their mailing address, and it’s also a great way to debut a new product or service.

2. Keep it simple, sweetie.

The easiest way to invite people to participate in a giveaway is to have them comment on a blog post. The easier you make it for them, the more likely they are to participate. You want people to participate and get excited about the contest.

I also recommend emailing your newsletter and directing them to the contest blog post so they can enter, even if they haven’t visited your blog in a while.

3. Add a social media component.

It’s easy to assume that people will be so excited about your giveaway that they’ll be shouting it from the rooftops. But unless you ask them to spread the word, they probably won’t. We’re all busy and after someone enters a contest they’ll probably be off to the next thing. One way to get the most bang for your contest buck is to build social media sharing into the contest.

Ask participants to tweet, Facebook like, or blog your contest for extra points. If it’s just a matter of clicking a tweet button, they’re a lot more likely to take action.

Be clear that sharing on social media sites (using a hashtag so you can track it, for example) will give them a greater chance to win.

4. Ask people to get creative.

If you’re offering a more highly priced, valuable prize, and you know people will be chomping at the bit to get it, then make them get creative.

The perfect example of this is Marie Forleo’s contest, where she gave away a seat to her live event in New York City, complete with accommodations. Marie was very clear that she wanted to get people to take action in a way that would get them moving toward their goals, whether they won or not. So she fashioned the contest in a way that rewarded people who filmed creative videos. This got many people to post their very first video online!

5. Decide on the winning criteria.

Often the easiest way to identify your winner is to select someone randomly, using a number generator. That may be the most egalitarian way of giving out a prize, but I think you’ll get a lot more engagement if you set selection criteria. For instance, you might let readers know that you’ll pick the response that’s most passionate.

You can also set up your contests using a two-step process, if you’re having a hard time choosing a winner and the prize is substantial. First, gather the contestants and have them comment or film videos, then set up the finalists in a poll. In this case, the numbers will clear show who the winner is. Having a poll will also get the participants to share with their networks to gather votes, thus bringing in more visitors.

Being clear that you’ll be the final decision-maker is just as important as the rest of the criteria I’ve mentioned here.

6. Keep to a timeline

One of the biggest mistakes I see new bloggers make is to have a contest every week. Unless your blog is set up to be a contest blog, you want to build contests in as a fun surprise and not a regular occurrence.

The problem with too many contests is that you’re essentially bribing your readers instead of giving them good value through your content. I recommend running contests once per quarter.

Most giveaways run best with a deadline that’s about a week away. This gives people enough time to enter and to share the contest with friends. The timeframe’s also a short, so it won’t get lost or forgotten on a to-do list.

Your contest giveaway action plan

Here’s a quick recap that you can use as a checklist to plan your first (or next!) contest:

1. Choose your purpose: good will, buzz, engagement, launch.
2. Decide whether you’ll go with a sponsor, give something you possess/buy, or offer a product or service you provide.
3. Choose the scope: make it super-simple or ask people to put some skin in the game.
4. Pick a time frame: no more than a week, and no more often than every quarter.
5. Kick off the contest with your social media network, blog, and email newsletter.
6. Keep the energy going after the contest ends by giving everyone who participated something really cool like a free ebook or special piece of content.

Have you ever used a contest on your blog? How did it go?

Nathalie Lussier is a contest loving blogger and a finalist at the Infusionsoft contest, who will love you forever if you vote for her Raw Foods Witch here. It takes less than 5 seconds, and you’ll see how to run a high-end contest at the same time! Tweet her at @NathLussier.

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U.S. Government Seizes Multiple Domain Names and Sites

Quite some interesting news spreading around the internet today about the government and Homeland Security seizing and shutdown a large amount of domains around the web. “The Hill” has the full articles, which states the following:

The investigative arm of the Homeland Security Department appears to be shutting down websites that facilitate copyright infringement.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has seized dozens of domain names over the past few days, according to TorrentFreak.

ICE appears to be targeting sites that help Internet users download copyrighted music, as well as sites that sell bootleg goods, such as fake designer handbags.

The sites are replaced with a note from the government: “This domain named has been seized by ICE, Homeland Security Investigations.”

For instance, 2009jersey.com, 51607.com, and amoyhy.com have each been seized.

TorrentFreak has another article about the domain seizing and also has a large list of “infringing sites” and domains that are no longer in possession of their original owners. The article includes the following recap:

“Following on the heels of this week’s domain seizure of a large hiphop file-sharing links forum, it’s clear today that the U.S. Government has been very busy. Without any need for COICA, ICE has just seized the domain of a BitTorrent meta-search engine along with those belonging to other music linking sites and several others which appear to be connected to physical counterfeit goods.”

Stay tuned as more information on ICE, site infringements and domain names that have been seized all continue to be released…

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