How to Significanty Increase Your Blog Subscribers

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Your most important asset as a blogger is not the people who visit your blog daily or those who comment on your blog but those who take the pain and time to subscribe to your blog so that they can be receiving more updates from you in the future. A lot of bloggers now make a very deadly blogging mistake of focusing on getting more daily visitors instead of subscribers. Your subscribers are the ones who trust you, they’re the ones who read your content regularly and truly know you and they are the ones that will most likely take action based on what you preach or buy from you in the nearest future. This post will be giving you some tips to significantly improve your blog subscribers.

Focus on Getting Quality Traffic

There are many factors that come into place as far as increasing your blog subscribers is concerned; one factor is conversion and another major factor is the quality of the traffic you get. You shouldn’t expect to see any significant conversion if your traffic are from paid to click sites, pop unders or other aggressive traffic generation strategies.  Trust is a major factor that has to be associated with any traffic you get before there can be any significant result; for example, if someone like Darren Rowse interviews me or writes a post in which he encourages his readers to visit and subscribe to my blog it will bring more results than from someone discovering my blog through a comment on another blog even if they result in the same number of visitors.

There are a lot of ways to get quality traffic and I wrote a post here recently on getting quality traffic – I suggest you read it. While tactics are great and sometimes important real results only come from trust. There will be more interaction and result when people start spreading the word about you and encouraging others to read your blog. This type of traffic can only be gotten by you producing great content that builds trust with your readers.

Have a Great Design

It doesn’t matter how great your content is you also need a great design. While you can give a lot of examples of people writing great content with bad design the truth is that many of these bloggers are getting less results than they would have gotten if they had a better design.

People need to be able to interact with your site and not just read your content. A great design makes it easy for people to share your content and spread the word about your blog, a great design makes it easy for people to locate your subscription options and subscribe to your blog and a great design makes your content more presentable.

I saw this in action recently when I paid a custom designer to help me make a unique design for my blog; this design was recently released and since its release I have noticed a significant increase in the number of people subscribing to my blog. In fact, the number of people subscribing to my blog daily have doubled and this was only possible because of the great design my blog has.

Be Transparent

The internet is a free world where any content can easily be circulated, the internet isn’t censored and anybody from anywhere in the world can easily set up a blog and begin to teach people what he/she knows nothing about. A great way to significantly increase the number of people subscribing to your blog is by letting people know that you can be trusted and the best way to do this is by being transparent on your blog.

I recently started displaying my income report on my blog every month, ever since then I have noticed a significant increase in my subscriber base (especially on the first day) and my first income report is my most popular post this year – it still keeps on getting links and traffic even after a month of me posting it.

You don’t necessarily need to be displaying your income report on your blog since our reasons and aims for blogging are different and what we want to achieve is different. All you need to do is look for a way to build credibility on your blog, this can be by showing live examples of the results you get, by doing a lot of things to prove that you truly know what you’re saying and by getting true expert endorsement for your work.

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Using a Lead Generation Campaign Successfully

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Your list is your connection to hundreds if not thousands of people who are interested in your products or services. They’re qualified leads. As a business owner, these are the people you want to talk to. However, finding those people can be a challenge. Here’s how to implement a successful lead generation campaign.

#1 Identify your ideal customer

This is important because you’re going to want to get inside their head. You want to know what their most pressing problems are so you can solve them. Spend some time researching your audience. What do they need or want?

#2 Create a high value giveaway

Many business owners turn to digital downloads. This is because they can offer prospects instant gratification. All the person has to do to access the information they want is hand over an email address. Digital downloads can be something as simple as a free report. They can also be:

* An interview (audio and transcript)

* A video

* A downloadable course

* An audio file

* An e-book

* A worksheet or workbook

* A checklist, blueprint or template

Don’t let this list limit your imagination. Take a look at what your prospects need and then brainstorm how you can solve their problems with a giveaway. You can also provide them with an autoresponder e-course delivered over a period of time. This ensures consistent communication until the course ends.

#3 Create an irresistable opt-in form

You have a few choices here. You can create a form and place it on your landing page. The form can be simple and straightforward with a benefit and a call to action. For example, “Learn how to eat all you want and still lose weight. Download this free report now.”

You can insert the form on your website, have it slide over, pop up or pop under – it’s your decision. You may want to test and track which method offers the highest conversion rate.

You can also create what’s called a squeeze page. This is where your visitors land. They must opt-in in order to move on and further into your website. Your squeeze page can read a little more like a sales page. It can offer benefits and promise to solve your prospect’s most pressing problem. Make sure you deliver on your promises!

Regardless of the format you choose, you’ll want to ask for an email address from your prospect. You can ask for more information like a first and last name. However, remember that the more hoops a prospect has to jump through, the more likely they are to click away.

#4 Market your offer

PPC has been effective for driving traffic to an opt-in page. You can also use social networking and article marketing to effectively drive traffic to your offer. The more people who learn about your opt-in offer, the more people you will have signing up. You can also look at other marketing strategies.

Once you start building your list, immediately take advantage of it. Thank your subscriber for signing up and provide them with an abundance of value. Make sure they never regret adding their name to your list. And of course, market to them to build your business and your bottom line.

image credit: Vinogradovisoleksii

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5 Beginner Blogging Mistakes

Because of how easy it is to get into the market, two new blogs are made every single second. In one day, 172,800 blogs were made. Now, how many of those do you think are going to make it to the top? How many are going to make as much money as Jon does on his blog?

Probably very few. And the reason for that is because so many of them are going to make some really typical beginner mistakes right from the beginning. So, they'll give up and won't make any money, let alone an amount even close to Jon.

To better your chances in getting to a point where you are making a little money on your blog, you need to make sure that you don't make these typical blogging mistakes.

Five Mistakes to Avoid

1. Get a Domain and Paid Hosting

There's no denying that it's easy to get started online. And, with sites like WordPress.com, Tumblr, and Blogger, it is very seducing to get a free account. Why pay the $10 (or less with a coupon code) for a domain and then the $5.00 a month for hosting? Why not just get the free hosting?

There are two real reasons. The first is control. I have complete control over what my site looks like, where my ads go and what kind of content I publish when I have my own domain and hosting. However, on sites like WordPress.com and Blogger, you have to follow their rules. Why give up that power?

The second reason is simple branding. It's easier to tell someone www.domain.com than www.blogger.com/domain. It's easier to remember the former and therefore, easier to spread it on from person to person.

I hope you understand the importance of having your own domain and hosting. It's a small investment, but in the long run, it will definitely pay off.

2. Don't Get a Custom Made Logo

Do you know why big companies (and really all companies) hire someone to make a custom logo? Do you know why Jonathan has that diamond with the JV in it?

It's because they are hoping to build a brand. Remember in the last point how I said it's easier to brand www.domain.com than anything else? Well, a logo adds to the brand. When we think of Google, one of the first thoughts that might cross our minds is the logo. What about Nike? I think of their logo too. Wal-Mart? Target? The logos really do come to mind.

That's effective branding. An effective logo is one in which a visitor sees it and immediately knows that they are reading something important. So, if I see the diamond with a JV, I know it's by Jonathan Volk and therefore, I know it can be taken seriously.

While it's a slightly bigger investment, having a custom logo shows new readers that you are:

• A serious person who actually takes their blog seriously.
• Not some random spammer who doesn't know what they're talking about.
• A brand.

By showing you're a brand, people will begin to follow you a lot more than they'll follow the random blog with the words as their logo.

3. Use a Run of the Mill Design

I really should just group one and two together, but we'll keep them separate for now. CNN, NY Times, NY Post, Washington Post, LA Times and Wall Street Journal are all what? News sites. And, they all provide the same news, for the most part. And yet, if you visit each of their sites, are they identical?

They have created a unique look to their site. If two sites look the same, the bigger one gets the credit. So, if you were to copy your blog design exactly from J. Volk's, people will remember his over yours because he is bigger.

Therefore, get your own design. I don't mean that you need to hire a designer and get a completely custom one. That's ridiculous and expensive. However, there are a lot of premium designs out there that could really be useful on your site. Personally, I'm a fan of StudioPress. You can get a premium design (that you can then customize) on your site for under $100. Again...It's an investment, but in the long run, it pays off.

The alternative is to use a free design. If you are going to use a free design, do yourself a favor and only download from WordPress' gallery. They have reached a certain level of quality and therefore, are not going to have glitches in them.

For the most part, though, I advocate spending a bit of money, getting a premium theme that is designed for security, seo, and everything else.

4. Throw Adsense Up to Make Money

When I think of Adsense, I think of missed opportunities. There once was a time when Adsense made a lot of money for people. And people still do make a lot of money. And, there are times where it's appropriate. However, Google now gives less money to their publishers.

I can remember when John Chow had his big 300x250 ad block floated left in his blog posts. He did pretty well with that ad and made a nice chunk of change. But, he realized that we all have realized--I would say--that Adsense can be beat out by a private advertisement.

And that's the real truth about it. Selling private advertising has become a much more economical way of earning on your blog. You'll make more if you sell private advertising than you will with Adsense.

Okay, okay, I know. It's hard to sell private advertising. Then focus on what matters most at the start of your blog: the content. When you're bringing in more traffic, people will try to advertise with you. There are entire divisions of companies that go out looking for places to advertise. If you're big enough, they'll find you.

Does that mean you shouldn't use Adsense at all? Of course not. If you can justify the ad placement and it is making you money, then do it. If Adsense is really earning for you in your particular niche, go for it. But, keep your eye on the much higher quality private ad sale.

5. Don't Start Building Your List from the Beginning

Aweber is king. It is probably the best newsletter software out there. You want to begin building your list from the beginning for a few different reasons.

1. It's another way of bringing people back to your site. If you send out an e-mail every two weeks with the blog posts you've written in that time frame, people are likely to come check it out. So, you start creating return visitors.
2. When you do--if you do--create a product that you are going to sell, having that list of people subscribed to your newsletter will be a great base to start selling to.
3. Any product that you want to sell will have a lot of success on your newsletter. These are people are trust you enough with their e-mail. They'll probably trust you with some money too.

Now, I say Aweber is king specifically because I advocate for signing up with Aweber. It is, by far, the best on the market. And while it is $19 a month for your first 500 subscribers, that's an investment that you want to make. If you're doing good work, you should be able to make that back from those 500 subscribers.

People, though, argue that they shouldn't build their list until they have traffic coming in already. John Chow thought that too. He didn't make his list until much later. Can you imagine how much money he'd be making each month if he had made his list from the beginning?

Make your list. It's a well worth investment.

Have You Done Any of These?

What sort of mistakes have you made? Did you fall into these and notice that they really were valid mistakes. I've made the mistake of relying too much on Adsense and have missed out on a lot of potential profits. Don't make these mistakes. They're easy to prevent.

Jacob is the owner of Blog Revolter. He's all about revolting against the norm of blogging. Check him out on Twitter or Facebook.

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Say Hello to the New ZacJohnson.com Genesis Blog Theme

Since going live with the blog nearly four years ago, I’ve also prided myself to have one of the best themes around. This not only means having a great theme, but also changing it up year after year, and hopefully for the better. The latest theme change is my favorite yet, which a much cleaner, faster and user friendly design. The new ZacJohnson.com theme is run off the Genesis Framework theme from StudioPress and was put together by one of their designers. Rafal.

You can see a comparison of past ZacJohnson.com blog themes below.

As you can see from the screen shots above, the design just kept progressing over time. The first theme was created mainly for content and was the launching theme for the site. The next release was the first test for monetizing the site, and the introduction of banner ads displayed on the site. The last version above was an amazing update, which leads us to the blog theme you see on ZacJohnson.com today. The first theme was created by a designer I used a while back, the previous two themes were created by Unique Blog Designs, and the new theme is from Genesis Framework.

I am proudly promoting Genesis Framework to all of my visitors, as it’s an amazing theme and the customization and design features are just amazing. If you are thinking about redesigning your web site, I would definitely approve of the Genesis Framework, and any other themes available through StudioPress. At the bottom of every post, before the comments, you will see the following:

ZacJohnson.com runs on the Genesis Framework

The Genesis Framework empowers you to quickly and easily build incredible websites with WordPress. Genesis provides the secure and search-engine-optimized foundation that takes WordPress to places you never thought it could go.

Check out the incredible features and the selection of designs. It’s that simple – start using Genesis now!

Genesis Framework is more of a foundation for a blog, then a complete theme. You can buy Genesis Framework, then buy other themes at a much discounted rate to which work with Genesis. For more information on how Genesis Framework works, head over to StudioPress and they have a ton of examples and themes to work with. The StudioPress team were also amazing to work with, and I would recommend their services to anyone.

In addition to the new theme going live, I will be working on some new additions on the blog, including some new guides, wordpress themes area, tools references and more. Let me know what you think about the new blog theme. I love it!

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Is Your Low Social IQ Dooming Your Blog?

What’s wrong with my blog?

That’s a very frustrating question that many bloggers ask.

You’re passionate about your topic and you provide great advice to solve reader’s problems. You wrap up your posts with interesting questions, inviting readers to share their opinions in the comments. You offer clear calls to action. 

Unfortunately, no one seems to be listening. 

Post after post reveals no more than a handful of comments (and half of those are your own replies). Your subscriber numbers have flatlined. And forget fan mail, that showing up seems as likely as finding a tall glass of water in the desert. 

I hate to be the one to tell you, but the problem might not be your blog. The problem might be you.

Why bloggers need good people skills

Considering you don’t share the same room, or perhaps even the same continent with your readers, the vital need for interpersonal skills on your blog may be a bit puzzling. 

But as Jon Morrow points out, “Those traffic figures in your analytics account aren’t just numbers, they’re people.”

And people with high social intelligence are magnetic.

Have you ever noticed how popular bloggers have a knack for writing about their readers’ hopes and frustrations? Popular blogs sound like they were written just for you. The comments are filled with statements like, “This is just what I needed to hear,” or “Wow, I could have written those same words.”

Successful bloggers build the confidence of their readers, not just themselves. They create rapport by making readers feel valued, one person at a time. 

Good writing alone won’t drive people to subscribe, leave thoughtful comments, or share your material. Social intelligence is the currency of the blogosphere. In fact, it’s the key to good business too.

And the best part? It can be learned.

Sizing up your social IQ

In his book, Social Intelligence: The New Science of Success, Karl Albrecht highlights the five dimensions of social intelligence. The trick is understanding how to translate those often nonverbal dynamics into the text-based world of blogging. 

1. Situational Awareness Having situational awareness means you understand the social context of situations and respond appropriately. People missing this skill take phone calls in the middle of meetings or blast their car stereo while returning home late at night. They’re not purposely rude, just oblivious to the wants (and reactions) of others. In the online world, this is the equivalent of committing the blogging sin of boorishness.

Need help developing better situational awareness? Check out LaVonne Ellis and David Crandall’s Customer Love e-book.

2. Presence Presence is the ability to project confidence and self-respect, and as a blogger, it derives primarily from your voice. If you’re used to writing term papers or corporate vision statements, finding your writing voice can be tricky. When you get it right, it’s an extremely powerful way to build connections with readers.

3. Authenticity The blogosphere likes to talk about the importance of authenticity, but what is it really?  Albrecht calls it the “opposite of being phony.” Seth Godin describes authenticity as ”doing what you promise, not being who you are.” Many associate authenticity with revealing the person behind the ideas, like Corbett Barr’s blog post “33 Things I Never Told You.” For bloggers, authenticity is probably somewhere in between ideology and action. The point is to be genuine: express opinions you believe in, endorse products you use, and network with people you actually like.

4. Clarity How well you present ideas and influence others comes, in part, from your clarity. It’s a balance between knowing enough to be specific and having enough distance to speak directly. The classic advice is to explain a topic like you were speaking to your grandmother. This is particularly relevant for bloggers, who often assume their audience is social media savvy instead of the “average Grandma Minnie.”

5. Empathy Empathy involves understanding the experiences and motivations of another person. Looking for a topic that has viral potential? Want to invoke an emotional reaction to your post? Empathy is the cornerstone of social intelligence.

Creating the complete social intelligence package

The best way to improve your social IQ is to spend some quality time alone. After all, if you don’t understand your own motivations, how can you hope to predict the fears and desires of your readers? 

You’ll be surprised how hard this is.

I recently left a 20-year career in science. As I was evaluating new career options, I wrote down all the jobs I’d considered as a kid, before (I thought) society had imposed its expectations on me.

I’d always dreamed of becoming an actor. But the more I thought about it, I realized my interest in acting was more an interest in fame. I wasn’t actually very interested in joining a local theater company.

Many writers use journaling as an effective way to explore the undercurrent of their emotions. 

What’s the first thing you worry about when you wake up in the morning? If the doctor gave you three months to live, what would you do with the time? Why aren’t you doing that now? What makes you cry tears of joy? Why aren’t you doing that? 

This isn’t just advice for those woo-woo, self-help bloggers either.

Social media junkies are scared they’ll sell their soul to get 5,000 friends on Facebook and still won’t have anyone to call when they have a bad accident on the interstate. New tech users worry they’ll drop their iPhone on the subway platform and will never, ever re-create their contacts list.

That little voice whispering insecurities in your ear all day long? He’s a blogger’s best friend.

Listen to your insecurities carefully, then find a way around them. This will likely bring up more insecurities. Find a way around those too. 

Write about the solutions you find, with all the social intelligence you can muster.

You’ll not only be a better blogger, you’ll be a better person.

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Are We Having Fun Yet?

This guest post is by Justin P Lambert of Words That Begin With You .

Quick question: are you having fun?

I mean, you’re sitting here reading Problogger, so you’re likely a blogger, or at least thinking about jumping in. And you’re likely interested in making some money from your efforts. There’s nothing wrong with that at all.

But are you having fun?

Courtesy
of Douglas R. Witt (flickr)

Maybe you’ve been at it for a while, or maybe, like me, you’re just a babe learning to crawl at this point. Either way, there’s a universal truth of blogging you’ve probably already figured out: it ain’t easy.

A tough gig

If you’ve done what you’re “supposed” to do blogging is tough. Editorial calendars, social media, building a list, seeking subscribers, tweaking the theme, ads or no ads… Wow.

Back in the ancient days of online journals, (you know, like 1996) most of the folks who “blogged” before “blogging” was even a word did it for fun. They had a particular interest, or just a desire to share their thoughts and activities with the world long before status updates and tweets were even on the horizon.

These folks probably didn’t think about making money from their online activities at all, or at least not seriously. Not long ago, Skelliewag wrote a really beautiful post about the transition that happened later on.

Darren also shared a quote from his wise-beyond-his-years son: “tell the world something important.”

Together, these two uber-experienced bloggers taught me a valuable lesson, grabbing my metaphorical wheel just before I hit the metaphorical guardrail, if that makes any sense.

You see, I started my blog just over six months ago, and I learned quickly that it was hard work. But good writing always is. The payoff, for most of us any way, is that we enjoy writing. Or, at least, we enjoy getting our thoughts out there for others to read/see/hear and interact with. This is something I lost track of, somewhere around post #13.

I started getting so wrapped up in my posting schedule and my analytics, actually writing the posts became an annoyance. “Man,” I’d think, “I wish I could get this over with so I can get back to Twitter!” It got to the point, only four months into my blogging, where I burnt out and suddenly went from posting daily to three posts in a month!

I spent most of that month kicking myself and desperately trying to figure out what happened. The answer blew me away when it finally arrived: I had sucked every ounce of enjoyment out of writing a blog because I had gotten too involved in “blogging”.

So, I ask you again: are you having fun?

How to have fun

Now I’m not going to sit here and try to preach to you about how to fix this issue. I’m still trying to figure it out myself. But since I realized how close I came to giving up, I’ve done a lot of thinking about why things changed. And I’ve come up with a few items that I know are going to help me.

I’d absolutely love to hear your thoughts in the comments too, because most of you are far more experienced than I am in struggling with this issue, so I know you’re going to have more ideas to share.

Relax

You know what? While consistency is important and your readers deserve to receive what they’ve come to expect, no one’s going to lynch you if your post is a day late every now and then.

I had a tough time figuring this out, and when life got in the way and I missed a post or sent it out late, I felt the need to fire off apologies to my subscribers and wallow in self-pity.

Give me a break. Do your best. Then relax. It’s just a blog.

Converse

I quickly morphed from sharing interesting information that I thought would be of real value to my readers to slicing off chunks of pre-made content and stringing it out over weeks in order to ensure that a post on a particular subject would go out every Monday for the next four weeks.

This approach is kind of like inviting people over for a turkey dinner and then serving them Spam. I was short-changing my readers and my conscience was nagging me like mad, which is no fun. I lost the conversational aspect of my blog in favor of a series of mini-lectures that (not surprisingly) got little if any comments.

Make sure you give your readers what they deserve: your best every time. Even if that means you can’t post as often. Make sure it stays a conversation, not a choppy lecture. Who has fun at a lecture?

Focus … or not

I struggled for a long time with the question of niches and specializing, and felt like a failure from the start because I just couldn’t narrow myself down to a niche.

I created my blog as a means of sharing my expertise and engaging an audience in connection to my work as a freelance writer. But I don’t specialize on a particular writing format or project group, so how could I blog on just one niche? Yet the experts say I should. Oh woe is me!

It took me a long time to realize that my generalist scope is who I am. Anything less would be boring to me and that would automatically become boring to my readers. So if you’re like me, having a tough time finding a niche that satisfies you,

Get over it!

Think about what you want to write, then think hard about how to connect it all in an understandable frame that your readers can latch onto. It’s better for everyone involved. Like I said, I’m still learning. But I’m finally having fun with my blog, like I was back in June when I first started. I hope you’re doing the same. Because if you’re not, it shows. Believe me.

Please, share in the comments your suggestions for having fun with your blog, how you overcame issues that were keeping you from having fun, or how you plan to do so starting now!

Justin P Lambert is a freelance writer who has been blogging for seven months and has enjoyed it for two. He’s working on it. Drop by Words That Begin With You to see how it goes. You can also follow him on Twitter.

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Direct Response Marketing – Ways to Crush Your Competition

Every once in a while I will meet someone who is very smart about the industry in one area, but not taking a full advantage of what they have available to them. One of these instances was when I met with Rich Gorman at DK’s ThinkTank last year. Rich is a really smart guy, and he’s making some serious money online. Rich is already fully dedicated to his work at Health Converter, but once I told him about the power and benefits of blogging, he just had to get started. A few months later and Rich is up and running with his own flashy and content loaded blog at DirectResponse.net.

Direct Response Blog – Must Read Content

Rich’s blog is off to a great start. What’s going to be exciting for Rich, is that he most likely has hundreds if not thousands of awesome topics to write about, and since he just started, his blog will be full of killer content for a while. Here are some of my favorite and most useful posts since DirectResponse.net went live.

• Building A Million Dollar Offer – For Less Than 2k

This post might seem like generic information, but once you actually put everything in place and realize how crucial it is to your success and business, you will appreciate the value in this post.

• How To Improve Conversion Rates By 2,100%

An excellent post that walks through various ad copies and landing pages. The easier and more direct you make your ad campaigns and landing pages for your customers, the more money you will make.

• How Experts Get Paid For Their Time

This one is a personal favorite, and perfect for anyone that has ever has someone come up to them and say, “I’d love to sit down with you at the show and pick your brain sometime.”. Believe it or not… we really do value our time!

What Can Direct Response Marketing do for You?

Having a blog is all about getting your name out there and building contacts. Rich is now putting his name out there and wants to help others succeed, and build a super networking group around himself and his blog. Whether it means partnering on a new project, or simply hiring Rich for his wealth of knowledge and consulting, I’m sure you will be happy with the results. Just from sitting down with Rich at ThinkTank, I still think back at some of the crazy ideas, insane numbers and potential projects we discussed over breakfast.

Be sure to check out DirectResponse.net and add it to your blog reading arsenal.

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Massive Growth at HostGator is Exciting to Watch

It’s always great to see awesome companies online succeed, especially ones that you have been working with for many years. The funny thing about online companies, is that they really don’t need to do “real world advertising”, since they can do it so cost effectively and well online. An extremely well known hosting company in the internet marketing space is HostGator, and not only do they host a great majority of affiliate related sites, but they also make affiliates a massive amount of money as well! Over $400,000 is paid out to Host Gator affiliates every month! How sick is that!?

Host Gator just sent out one of their monthly mailing and it had some pretty exciting highlights for the company, which saw explosive growth in 2010. Here are just a few of their company highlights.

HostGator in the News

In 2010, HostGator grew by over 2 MILLION domains! At the beginning of 2010, the company had 2.9 million domains, and are now at nearly 5 million domains. The company has also expanded to over 500 employees, along with 64 new reps to handle customer support. But even more fun and exciting is how HostGator is making a big name for themselves in the offline world… look out GoDaddy, here comes HostGator!

The latest additions to the HostGator branding and marketing campaigns include billboards, a real NASCAR sponsorship and even being seen in an EA Sports UFC video game. Will we soon see a new celebrity sponsor for HostGator next? HostGator doesn’t just spend mad cash on ad campaigns… they’ve also donated $100,000 to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief and Development Fund.

I’m glad to see HostGator doing so well. Not only do they host millions of web sites, but they have also made a ton of affiliates a TON of money over the years with their amazingly successful affiliate program, which is available through their in-house affiliate program and through Commission Junction.

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I have a few servers with HostGator and you should too! Web hosting plans start as low as $4.95 a month. Another excellent perk of hosting with HostGator is they have one click install software for many applications and programs like WordPress. If you are setting up a ton of mini sites or completely clueless when it comes to installing software, HostGator makes this extremely easy to setup. Use coupon code ZACJOHNSON to get your first month of only for only 1 penny!

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7 Signs Your Blog is Bound to Fail

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There are rules to everything if you truly want to succeed; blogging also is not exempted and there are several rules you should follow if you truly want to build a successful blog. Some people are not aware of these rules and some people see them as unimportant and this only leads their blogs to failure.

Bloggers make a lot of mistakes and there is nothing bad in making mistakes because mistakes are one of those things that make us human. However, there are also some very deadly mistakes we shouldn’t make as a blogger. This post will be talking about 7 signs that show that your blog is bound to fail.

1. Your Writing Sucks

Many people make a great mistake of thinking that what matters most when trying to build a successful blog is how they market their blog, but they’re so wrong. Quality content is the foundation of every successful blog and there is now how you can escape this. If you can’t write then you can’t succeed as a blogger.

I was once of the notion that marketing and promotion is all that matters when it comes to blogging; how wrong I was! I learned the hard way that content is what matters most when I wrote a guest post that sent me over 1000 visitors in one day and I was unable to retain at least 50 of those visitors.

2. You Believe Marketing is Unimportant

Another major mistake many bloggers make that end up costing them their blogging career is being of the notion that marketing is unimportant. It doesn’t matter how great or unique your content is, you need people to read it, you need people to spread the word about it and you need people to give you their opinion about it.

Your content is only the beginning and foundation of your blog, you need marketing to get to greater heights.

3. Inconsistency on Your Part as a Blogger

Being inconsistent is also a very deadly mistake most bloggers make. Your readers see you as a leader and they expect you to meet some standards, one of those standards is being consistent with the content you produce on your blog. You shouldn’t just write on your blog once in a month and then start writing everyday; if you want to be posting when you like, stick to it, and if you want to be posting 3 times a week make sure you also stick to it.

4. You Don’t Care About Your Design

Sure! It is content that matters (or at least I have heard that several times) but that also doesn’t make your design unimportant. A lot of bloggers make a very grievous mistake of thinking that all they need to do is put their best in their content and forget about the rest. Doing something like this might seem fine, naturally, but the outcome used to be more dangerous than expected.

Your content is really important but another thing of more importance is how you present your content. Your design makes your content more beautiful, attractive and presentable so you should make sure you give the best of your content.

5. Only Caring About the Ephemeral

Some bloggers also make a great mistake of only caring about the present and completely forgetting the future. As a blogger, your future is far more important than your present and a wise blogger will always make sure he is the one who determines his future.

One great example of this mistake is focusing on getting more traffic than focusing on getting more subscribers. Your daily visitors can stop visiting your blog anytime or they can easily forget about your blog but your subscribers will always get your content no matter what and catering for them is the best way to secure your future.

6. You Take it Solo All the Time

Many bloggers also make this mistake without being aware of the future consequences. In the beginning, even God knew the importance of partnership and being together and that is why he created a woman to support man. You won’t go far doing everything on your own; you will need to launch a product, do one thing or the other which you can’t do all alone and utilizing the power of networking is a great way to get all these done without hassles.

7. You Are Too Selfish

Selfishness is a killer and it has crept into the lives of many bloggers unaware. If everything you think about when it comes to your blog is yourself you should know for sure that the funeral of your blog is around the corner. A wise man will put himself and other people around him into consideration before doing anything. Any decision you will make about your blog that will only benefit is very dangerous and you should make sure you rethink it to see if it is for the best; otherwise, drop it!

Over to You

The above signs are deadly signs of blog about to fail, if you’re a blogger make sure you spread the word about this post so that others can be aware of these mistakes. Also make sure you share this post on your favorite social bookmarking and networking sites.

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