Thursday, November 25, 2010

How Changing My Intentions Made Me Money

This guest post is by Roman from how this website makes money.

Two years ago I stumbled across the concept of blogging for money.  Instantly it hit me as the perfect thing: sit behind a computer, design a site, write, be my own boss, work from home, what could be better? I knew nothing about traffic, SEO, backlinks, Pagerank, or keywords.  I knew nothing about how to make money with a website.  So what did I do next?  I registered the domain name howthiswebsitemakesmoney.

Looking back all I can do is laugh at my arrogance.  Like thousands before me and thousands who will come after me, my first attempt at blogging was a site about making money online.

Two years later, I know how to start a site, I know how to write content, I know about SEO, I know about backlinks, I know how to add advertisements … but I still do not know how to make good money online.  The site makes dimes a day, not dollars.

The site has been two years of disappointment.  Two  years of waking up in the morning and seeing the same green egg in AdSense.  Two years of waiting for a four-digit affiliate check with my name on it.  Two years of working without pay.  Two years of scratching my head.

So I asked for advice, and every time the reply was the same: create a site about something else. Create a site about what you know and what you enjoy.  Do not create a site with the intent to make money, create a site with the intent to help people by doing something you enjoy doing.

What happened when I changed my intent

Six months ago I created a new site.  This time my intent was pure pleasure.

I live in Prague and I love it here.  So I made a little site about how great Prague is and what people should do when they come for a visit.  It was built in a month.  In a gust of activity I designed the site and wrote the content.

It was so easy.   I did not agonize over what to write about.  The content flowed effortlessly from my head to the keyboard.  I did not have to take long walks with the dog or waste water standing dazed in the shower coming up with new ideas.  I just sat down at the computer and wrote about what I know.  It was so easy I actually looked forward to it.

As an afterthought, I created a simple page where people can order a real postcard from Prague.  Visitors select a picture of Prague and fill out a form indicating what they want written on the postcard.  After they hit the Submit button I get the request by email.  I grab a postcard and, like an ancient scribe long before computers, lick the tip of the pen and write.  After pounding a Prague stamp on the postcard I toss it into the mailbox on my way to work. I charge $4.00 for this five minutes of work.

I created this site with no aspirations of becoming rich, no day dreams of shaking hands with Oprah, no imagined scenes of telling my employer to find some other donkey to kick around. I created the website because it was easy for me to do and I enjoyed it. I made it because I needed a break from my ‘real’ website. I expected nothing to happen.

Again, I was wrong.

My hand is ink blue from all the postcards I have written.

I wrote a postcard from a son playing a trick on his mother: “Hi, Mom!  Sorry for not calling in last few days.  But I am in Prague with friends.  Having a great time and the beer is sooo cheap.  Say hi to Dad.”

I have written postcards to countries all over the world.  Some of them in languages other then English—I have no idea what I am writing. Fortunately, the order form does not allow Chinese characters!

I get emails from people thanking me for the information they found on the site, thanking me for the postcard, asking for more information.

I feel like I am making the world a better place.  I made a website about something I know about and am interested in and people are thanking me. Emotionally it is a soft, warm, fuzzy ball.

And yes, I am making money.

Intend to enjoy and you might make money

I learned a lot about making money online not from my site about making money, but from licking postage stamps.

New arrivals to the make-money-online scene go through the same initiation—they start out with the intent to make money, then fail to make more then a pile of pennies.  For some it means the end and they quit, but for others this brutal introduction teaches them that their intent needs to change.

Of course, making money is about traffic, clicks, affiliates, backlinks SEO, but it’s also about finding something you enjoy doing.  If your intent is only to make money the odds are stacked against you: you will probably quit.  But if your intent is to do something you enjoy then you will keep moving forward until one day, you will be surprised to find that you are making money.

What’s your intent?

Roman intends to figure out how this website makes money.  He has been trying to do that for two long years, so when he needs a break and do something fun he goes onto his other website to send a real postcard to his mother who misses him very much.

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Start Creating Killer Content

You know you need great content in order to succeed at blogging, but how do you keep coming up with interesting and useful ideas? How do you keep your blog content compelling over the long haul?

Darren Rowse and I have put together a brand new short online course called Creating Killer Content for your Blog that shows you exactly that.

The course is presented using lots of bite-sized videos in 5 modules (over 5 days or work through at your own pace):

  1. Planning your content – understand what your audience really wants, never run out of topics for your blog and prepare your content so it hits the mark.
  2. Structuring your content – writing your content in a way that works well
  3. Polishing your content – taking good content and making it great
  4. Killer Multimedia Content – I walk you through creating, editing and uploading multimedia content to add an extra boost to your blogging
  5. Live Webinar – Q&A call with myself and Darren at the end of the week where you can ask us anything about blogging, writing and creating content

This course starts Monday 6th December and it costs just $29.95 (or $99 to have it bundled with the other 3 upcoming Pillars of ProBlogger courses).

If you can’t do it all live with us over a week, don’t worry because after you join you will have access for 12 months. Review everything at your own pace whenever you want to.

Who is this Short Course For?

Creating Killer content is for you if …

  • you’re struggling with producing content for your blog
  • you’re trying to find your voice as a blogger
  • you’ve run out of ideas to write about
  • you’re just looking for a little refresher and/or inspiration

Note: we’re assuming participants of this course have a blog. If you don’t yet – check out the free Getting Started Blogging course.

So if you’d like to inject your blog with some killer content – this is a course for you. Sign up here right now.

We’re looking forward to seeing you on the inside :)

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Wednesday, November 24, 2010

StudioPress Offer 25% Off Themes – Last Sale Ever

If you’re looking to start a new blog or redesign a current one you’ll want to check this out.

StudioPress Premium WordPress ThemesStarting today – StudioPress (the creators of some amazing themes) are offering 25% off all of the products that they make – if you use the word ‘BLACK’ as a coupon code. It’s part of their BlackFriday sale which ends Tuesday.

This is a discount that applies to all of their themes and frameworks including:

I’ve switched two of my main blogs over to StudioPress themes in the last few weeks and have been very impressed by the results. Fast loading, well optimized for search engines, simple to use and secure.

The team at StudioPress also tell me that as of Tuesday (when this ends) they’ll not be doing any more discounting – so this is their last sale.

Make the most of it and secure a StudioPress theme today.

Disclaimer: I’m an affiliate of StudioPress. As a user of StudioPress products I’m more than happy to recommend them – it’s why my face is on the front page of their site telling the world how much I love them!

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Top 5 Affiliate Sales Techniques

This guest post is by the team at E-junkie.com.

Working with so many merchants and affiliates gives us a great opportunity to see what different bloggers are trying to do to generate sales of affiliate products, and over time we’ve noticed that some strategies work much better than others.

These are the top five affiliate sales techniques we’ve seen work time and time again.

1. Only promote products you’re willing to stand behind 100%.

We had one incident on our site where someone bought something from a third party, didn’t like it, and got so mad that they launched a Denial of Service attack on us!

It’s very common for us to receive emails from people who buy stuff from our merchants but get mad at us for allowing people to sell what they see as substandard products. Initially we used to tell them that this is akin to writing to Bill Gates complaining that someone who made budgeting software using Excel didn’t do a good job, but now if we get too many complaints we just get rid of the product.

We have a certain brand that gets attached to whatever is being sold using our platform, and if a product is bad, people view us negatively, even though we have nothing to do with it.

The same applies to your blog.

Your customers will see very little difference between your products and the affiliate products you sell. They’ll blame you if they don’t like the affiliate product. Only promote products you really love, and are willing to back 100%—or your readers will lose their faith in you.

2. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

The range of products that our merchants sell never ceases to amaze me. Recently we featured a seller whose product is poo-shaped pillows! No, that’s not a typo: these pillows are colored and shaped like poo.

You never know what will work until you try it out—many times you’ll think about something, assume it won’t work, and move on to something else. Yet the Internet makes experimentation so cheap and so easily measurable that you should give all your ideas some time before you drop them. You never know what will bring you the next million!

3. Reviews work much better for affiliate sales than buttons, widgets, or advertisements.

In Darren’s 31 Days to a Better Blog book, the exercise for Day 28 is writing a review post that includes an affiliate link.

We’ve seen this approach work much better, as far as conversions are concerned, than advertisements, widgets, or buttons on your website. You may drive a lot more traffic to your sales page using buttons, but contextual links in reviews have much better conversion rates.

4. Think of your customer service as your product.

If we see a merchant who offers first-rate customer service, we know that they’re going to be big. There’s so much commoditization in so many industries that it becomes difficult for customers to choose between products, and for merchants to be heard. Great customer service is something that easily cuts through this clutter.

Sometimes people will buy your product just because they know that you will pick up their call or answer their emails. When you put customer service on the same pedestal as your core product, you will see an attitude shift in the way you deal with your customers, and also the way they see you.

5. Don’t lose your customer at the last step.

One of our core mantras is to make our product as easy to use as possible, and we see a lot of other successful merchants do that too.

There are two key ways of doing this: simplify your product, and provide as much detailed documentation as you can on how to use it.

While there are limits to simplifying the product, you can always provide a great amount of detail on how to use your product, or how to become your affiliate.

Leo Babauta’s step-by-step directions on what to do when you want to join Zen Habits as an affiliate are a great example of what I’m talking about.

A user can walk through that whole process without any confusion, and providing such great detail can vastly improve your conversion rates. You really don’t want to lose your customer at the last step just because your instructions weren’t clear. It’s so hard to get people’s attention, and convince them to try your product. Don’t let them fail to sign up just because they can’t understand the directions on your site—that’s the last thing you want to happen.

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out any of this stuff—it all makes so sense when you think about it.
The reason why affiliates and merchants fail to follow this advice isn’t because it’s hard to figure, but because execution is difficult. Doing the right thing, day in and day out, over and over for years, is what makes the difference between generating a six-figure income online, and the rest of the blogosphere.

Keep these best practices in mind—but also focus on executing them as much as you can. What tips can you add to this list?

E-junkie.com is a hosted shopping cart and digital service that lets you sell just about anything on your website, blog or social network. Our mission is to lower the barrier of entry in online selling. Our blog is about small business, e-commerce, self publishing and all the awesomeness in them. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook or

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Will Your Site Survive the Google Shrink Ray?

image of robot with ray gun

Google likes to play a little game with those of us who do business online.

The game is called “change all the rules and see who survives.” It’s often a fun and rewarding game for Google users, but it can be painful for business owners.

In the latest version, Google has rolled out a feature called Instant Previews.

When enabled, users see a cute little magnifying glass sitting next to their search results. The user can view a quick snapshot of sites simply by hovering over links.

Remember the three-second rule for websites? The one that said that your visitor will decide within the first three seconds whether or not they’ll stay on your site?

Forget that: it’s now the 0.3 second rule. Does your site have what it takes to make the cut?

Let’s find out. (And if not, let’s get it fixed.)

Snap judgments served here

With Instant Preview, potential visitors are going to make a judgment about whether or not to visit your site without even reading the content. It’s too small to see in the pop up window. They’re going to decide based purely on — (drumroll, please) — design.

Potential site visitors don’t have to leave Google to get a peek at your pages. What will they find when they see your site reduced so that it’s just large enough to read the name, the headlines, and maybe the subheads?

Don’t despair if you don’t like what you see. You can polish up your site so it holds up when viewed under Google’s magnifying glass. Just follow these few simple steps.

Clear the clutter

Some pages are cluttered with so many ads, sidebar entries, social media icons and sign up boxes the visitor won’t want to see them full size. Why magnify clutter?

To remedy this, decide what one action you want users to take on your page. You may have more than one possible path to send visitors down, but which one takes priority?

Once you know what you’d most like them to do, set up your page so that this action stands out. Put it toward the top, make it larger, use brighter colors to emphasize it.

Then don’t be afraid to strip off the ads, sidebar items and icons that are distracting from that one action. Push them down the page, and display them in colors that are subtle and low-key.

Customize, simplify, implement consistently

Here are a few ways to know if your site looks bargain basement:

  • Does your header feature cheap clip art?
  • Are you using lots of different colors with no discernible visual branding?
  • How about typefaces? If you need more than two or three fingers to count the different typefaces used on your site, you’re in trouble.

You can create a custom header image for your site using a nice, clear typeface and a textured background you download from free or inexpensive photo sharing sites. Combine them using free image editing software, and you have a no-cost, unique header image you can use on your site and in your email marketing. You’ll stand out, even if you can’t afford to hire a designer right now.

When it comes to colors, pick two main colors, and make sure all your headlines, subheads and site graphics reinforce these choices. Black or grey text don’t count toward this total.

This doesn’t mean you can only use two colors: just give your two main colors priority, because that will reinforce your visual brand.

Stick to two typefaces as well. Your graphic style will be clearer and easier to capture in a glance if you’ve used two typefaces consistently throughout your site.

And of course, you can always take a “shortcut” by getting a turn-key premium WordPress theme that incorporates these professional design elements without having to pay for a designer.

Headlines always matter

In a “snap judgment” environment, a great headline is one of the most valuable tools that can stack the deck in your favor.

If headlines aren’t your strong suit, be sure to check out the great resources here on Copyblogger for creating more compelling headlines.

While you’re at it, make sure your subheads also tell a compelling story. Since your readers can often read them from the preview, they’ll help entice and attract the reader to click through and learn more.

And while we’re talking subheads …

Make your content scannable

Readers can’t see individual sentences from Instant Preview.

But they can see if your content has been broken up into short paragraphs, with plenty of white space.

Long stretches of unbroken text can intimidate your searcher. They make your content look difficult and painful to digest.

Just about any piece of writing can be made more reader-friendly by breaking it into short sentences, short paragraphs, and using strong subheads to keep the reader oriented.

Time to clean up your act

I’ve said it in this space before. Sure, content is king. But if your handsome king looks like an ugly toad, who’s going to pay attention?

It’s more important now than ever to spend time polishing up the visual presentation of your site. Not only will it help you with Instant Preview, but all of these enhancements will make your site look better on small mobile device screens as well.

And — added bonus — they even improve reader experience on a full-sized screen. Come take a look at the brand new Copyblogger design for ideas you can implement on your own site.

What will you do to survive the Google shrink ray? Tell us about it in the comments.

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How to Nurture Your Creativity

This guest post is by Ali Luke, from The Creativity Toolbox.

How creative are you? A lot of bloggers feel that they’re not very creative people. Perhaps they come from a technical background. Perhaps they’ve never picked up a paintbrush in their life, and think that means they’re not creative. Perhaps they see creativity as something for other people.

The truth is, if you’re blogging—or even planning a blog—then you’re already much more creative than a lot of folks.
As a blogger, you’re not just creating content (though that’s the biggest area where you’ll be exercising your creative muscles).

Right from the start, you’re also creating:

  • the brand for your blog
  • your business plan and blogging strategy.

And if you’re bootstrapping your blog (almost all of us are, when we start out), you may well be creating:

  • your logo and site header
  • the look and feel of your blog (the fonts and colors you choose, for instance).

If you’re a little further along with blogging, you’ll be looking at creating extras like:

  • a regular email newsletter
  • ebooks
  • audio programs
  • physical books
  • membership content.

All that involves a lot of focused thinking, hard work, and a few sparks of inspiration.

Why creativity is so important for bloggers

When you visit a new blog, what encourages you to stick around? I’d guess it’s the quality of the content and the overall design.

If the posts are original and well-written, the blog looks good, and the topics fit together, then you’ll probably read on.

But if the posts comprise scrappy content, or long quotes from other people’s blogs, you’ll be gone within seconds. If the blog’s design looks like something from 1995, you probably won’t stay long. And if there’s no sense of cohesion—no plan or brand—then even if the content is good, you’ll probably not want to read yet another post about that cute thing the blogger’s cat did.

Your blog will succeed or fail on the strength of your creativity.

Blogs start to fail when bloggers:

  • get burnt out and carry on posting substandard content out of a sense of obligation
  • get tired and just post links to other people’s content
  • get bored and stop posting for weeks on end.

You don’t have to be wacky and weird in your creativity. It’s fine if your style is quite straight-laced, or casual and laid back, rather than humorous. You don’t have to have a complex metaphor or a really neat hook for every single post.

But you do need to create. Which means crafting your blog posts, not dashing them off. It takes energy, focus and dedication.

How to be creative—all the time

A lot of the folks I talk to seem a bit scared of creativity. They’re convinced that it’s something mystical or magical, like a bolt of lightning from the heavens.

The reality is that we’re all naturally creative. Not convinced? Think about your dreams: we’re all capable of making up wonderful stories and vivid pictures in our minds.

It’s important, though, to nurture your creativity—especially as you go further and further with your blogging. You might well feel hugely excited and motivated when you’re getting started with your blog, only to gradually lose that sense of inspiration and run out of steam. There’s nothing wrong with you—you just haven’t been focused on keeping your creativity bubbling away.

Write on topics you care about

This is crucial for me, and for many of the bloggers I talk to. You’ll find it tough to write consistently on a topic which bores you.

Sure, celebrity blogs might be big business. But if you couldn’t care less who’s sleeping with whom, then you’re better off writing about something else. Comic books, fine art, food, personal finance—whatever interests you.

If you’ve got a blog on a topic in which you’ve lost interest, see if you can find a particular angle that gives you a way back in. Maybe you’re fed up with writing about the technical specifications of the latest gadgets, but you could easily create a series on the innovative use of technology in the developing world.

Keeping learning more

Whenever I go to a conference, like BlogWorld, I come back with a bunch of ideas. There’s something invigorating about learning new things—and it often gets me back into a creative mood if I’ve been in a bit of a rut.

Of course, you don’t need to go to conferences to learn (though if you can make it to South by South West or BlogWorld, they’re well worth the investment). There’s a huge amount of learning material available for bloggers, including:

I’d suggest setting aside one hour, twice a week, just for learning. That might mean listening to an audio program, reading a section of an ebook, or browsing through blog archives. Use a notebook or blank document on your computer to jot down your thoughts.

Write down all your ideas

Ever had a great idea when you were out walking, on the bus, or watching TV?

Often, ideas don’t crop up when you’re at your computer. They’re sparked off by something which you see or do, and they pop into your head at the oddest moments.

It’s so easy for those ideas to slip away, or to end up half-remembered. If you’ve got a notebook in your bag, you can just scribble them down—you may even find yourself outlining a whole blog post or an entirely new strategy.

In fact, any time that you’re fleshing out an idea, try writing it down. It’s often easier to think things through when you start to put them into a physical form, rather than trying to hold everything in your head.

Don’t force yourself to create

Some days, you don’t want to sit down at the computer and write. But you drag yourself there anyway. You open up a document and stare at it for a bit. You resist the urge to check email, or play on Twitter.

You make yourself write.

You think you’re doing the right thing—after all, isn’t this what all the productivity experts would advise?
So after a couple of miserable hours, when you’ve finally managed a half-hearted post, you shove it onto your blog and go and do something fun.

You don’t get as many comments as usual. You don’t get retweets or links. And the next day, you feel even more fed up. But you sit down to write anyway…

I’m hoping you can see why this is a mistake. Creativity isn’t something you can force. Sure, you can probably apply a bit of self-discipline when you need to get the dishes done or clear your emails—but writing blog posts takes energy, and a certain amount of enthusiasm.

A number of the bloggers I talked to at BlogWorld said that they’d rather not write a post at all if they’re really not inspired—and I agree with them.

Don’t force yourself to create. Give yourself a regular time and place to write, but if you’re really not in the mood, take a break and do something else instead.

When you need inspiration

Sometimes, you’re keen to write, but you’re just not sure where to start. You want to write a blog post, or come up with an ebook outline, or get a brilliant headline for your latest piece—but that creative spark needs lighting first.

Here are four easy ways to find that inspiration.

Start with an image

If you use images for your posts, you probably write the post first and choose the image afterwards, right?

When you’re stuck, head over to Flickr, looking for a great image, then write the post to go with it.

As soon as you start looking at an image, your brain will begin to make connections and see possibilities. The picture you choose doesn’t have to have any obvious relationship to your blog’s niche—in fact, a seemingly-unconnected image will usually work best for sparking your creativity.

Brainstorm on paper

Staring at a blank Word document or the text box in WordPress?

Grab a piece of paper and a pen, and start jotting down ideas. If you’ve no clue where to begin, write down your blog’s name or topic in the center, or use your list of categories.

Don’t judge your ideas at this stage—write them all down, however unoriginal or boring they might seem. You’ll find that the ideas start flowing after a few minutes, and often a weak idea can lead to a great one.

Read news articles in your area

This works better for some niches than others, but often a news report can bring you a new idea. If you’re writing about health and fitness, you might look into some of the latest scientific research. If you cover techy topics, there’ll always be something new to write about.

Even evergreen content can be inspired by a news article. A report on average happiness levels, for instance, could lead to a thoughtful post on why we’re less happy today than in the past—despite generally having a better quality of life than people living 50 years ago.

Do something else entirely

When you’re waiting for an idea to develop, try getting away from your computer. Go for a walk, take a shower, tidy your office—anything that doesn’t require much mental effort. The thoughts you’ve been playing around with will continue to develop, and you’ll often find that a great idea comes effortlessly into your mind.

Just don’t forget your notebook so you can write it down…

What could you do, today, to bring the best of your creativity to your blogging?

Along with Thursday Bram, Ali Luke created The Creativity Toolbox—a set of three action-focused guides and seven powerful interviews with creative practitioners and experts. Want a huge creativity boost? Check it out…

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Sunday, November 21, 2010

How to Get Started Video Blogging

Lots of people have been asking me about video recently. Partly because I am pretty vocal on Twitter about finding it difficult but keep doing it anyway, and partly because I have been encouraging my clients to do more of it.

If it is so hard, why do some people make it look easy? And if it is so uncomfortable, why bother?

Fact is technically it does not have to be difficult. In fact I am going to show you that it is very easy technically.

There are many benefits, not least of which are the traffic and attention aspects that you get from video, but also because people really respond to being able to see and hear you.

Video blogs, where all the content is video, are becoming increasingly popular. Man on the Go is one. Here is a video I contributed over there about the best seats to choose on a flight (of all things).

Most people, however, use video occasionally. Either to mix up the content and keep it fresh, or just where visual is more appropriate than words.

Why Video is Hard

My problem with video is because of the performance. I have the technical side pretty much perfected and it really isn’t tough once you know how. Darren can set up his camera and talk out a video on one take. Chris is another “video natural”. You might be the same. I am not.

I’m a writer rather than a natural performer.

The good news is it does get easier! Just practice. The more you do, and the more constructive feedback you get, the easier it becomes. There are more tips and strategies of course but practice really does make the most difference for most people.

How to Do a Video Post in 5 Minutes

Want to know the easiest way to just do video? YouTube.

Go to YouTube, register or log in. Go to “Upload Video” and you will see there is a feature now where you can record direct from your desktop webcam!

Once you have recorded your video you can use the Embed feature to copy the embed code:

Remember though to paste it into the HTML editing tab of your blog rather than “Visual” otherwise screwy things happen when published.

What if Your Video is Not Public?

If you want to run an online course, and most of my video is this type, then obviously YouTube is not a good answer. Fear not though, you can still do it far more easily than it seems.

I use Flowplayer which allows you to embed videos into your WordPress posts that, unlike most Flash-based video players, will even work with iPad and iPhone. There are WordPress plugins that make the whole thing easier but if you are doing for-profit then you really need a license.

Summary

Don’t get caught up thinking that there is a whole lot of super-technical things you need to overcome. Really the hardest part is doing it. You can improve everything incrementally.

Of course there is gear you can buy, techniques for audio and lighting, and obviously ways you can improve scripting and performance, but the main thing is to try it and see if you and your audience like it.

Let me know if this is something you would like me to talk about more or if there are questions you would like answered. Also let me know your own experiences. Looking forward to seeing what you have to share in the comments …

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