Last night, Eric Souza won a free trip to Hawaii, during the OPM’s and appetizers session. We had to collect stamps at the tables in the room and to get our chance at winning the trip and I thought I had a great shot as this was the first time that I participated in a task like this. Oh well, congrats to Eric and his wife who will be having a great time.

Today, we pounded out sessions on testing our content and then visited the new functions in the Share-a-Sale control panel. Every year, Share-a-Sale introduces tools to make affiliate marketing easier for both publishers and advertisers and this year didn’t disappoint.

After the sessions we had a wonderful barbecue on the lawn while we conversed with colleagues and worked on new relationships. A short time later it’s off to hit the water with skiing, tubing, riding wave runners or simply relaxing inside the yacht. We all are having a great time.

Tonight, we’re set for a feast and then off to the Affiliate Summit sponsored dance with a live band. These people know how to put on an event, making sure everyone has a great time.

Tomorrow, we’ll be doing one-on-one meetings, I neglected to add that we did the same today. The meetings are great for building relationships for both affiliate marketers and program managers. This proves how important face-to-face relationships are even in the online marketing world.

We’ll close the sessions tomorrow when we have a meeting with Share-a-Sale founder and CEO, Brian Littleton. He spends an incredible amount of time listening to the people that he works with in the industry and is likely the most solid and consistent icons in the Affiliate Marketing world.

Let’s face it, many competing companies are failing but Share-a-Sale is clearly on solid ground and it’s not wonder why. If you are around the team for even just a little while, you know you’re dealing with a professional, solid organization.

Hat’s off to them and thanks for a superb event.

I’ve never heard of domaiurlregis.com which prompted me to research the company. Turns out, the company is actually Moniker Online Services, a company that has so many IP addresses blocked, that only one other organization has more IP’s blocked, according to Spamwiki.

I’m not surprised that domaiurlregis.com is owned by a company like this, given that the email is warning me of a registration expiration and want’s me to renew with them at $75 per year, when legitimate domain registrars typically charge less than $20 such a GoDaddy, my preferred domain registrar.

If you’re reading this, the last thing you want to do is to use domaiulrregis.com or Moniker Online Services to register a domain. With so many blocked IP’s, you don’t want to risk having your domain or IP address placed on a blacklist. Companies such as GoDaddy will keep your domain in good standing as long you’re using your web address for legit purposes.

The domaiurlregis.com has a notice on the bottom of their email claims it is CAN-SPAM compliant, which is not the case. The company is sending unsolicited misleading email which really appears fraudulent and a scam, at least to me. Worse, domaiurlregis claims that it will take up to four weeks to remove your address, which is totally unacceptable.

Domaiurlregis.com provides no telephone number, only a Post office box at the bottom of the page and sends you to an unsecured web form, even though they say, process secure payment on the email. I’m not sure that you’ll be taken off the list with this company and make sure you have virus protection, and spyware software before clicking on any link from domaiurlregis.com.

Companies like Domaiurlregis.com are able to get unsuspecting people and businesses to fall for this because the bill for domain names often go to the accounting department, where. Make sure you let you’re accounting department know who you have your domain names registered with and stick with a company that has a strong brand such as GoDaddy. That way, the people who pay the bills won’t need to question invoices for domain name renewals.

The thought is writing about what you already know is easier than writing about a topic that you don’t know. This is what most bloggers do, however, it’s also the reason most blogs aren’t that good.

Great bloggers are often information hoarders, looking to learn and gather even more. We would rather be learning then spending time rehashing what we know. That makes writing what we know, boring and often causes our content to read poorly.

I’ve got another suggestion, that is, write about what we’re learning as we’re learning. If we write while we’re learning the process, we’re sharing valuable information with our readers. That’s significant, because we’re teaching what they want to know.

Besides writing about what we are learning, we need to focus on niche topics with significant traffic. I have two reasons for doing this. The first is to build a relationship with others interested in same topics. The second reason is to have reasonable opportunity to generate revenue from the blog.

Some bloggers don’t need to agree with their readers, and may even agitate them intentionally to engage them. That’s not really my style, but some do it really well, others alienate the audience.

Monetizing your blog is another reason to pick a topic with a significant traffic opportunity. If you focus on one blog, you’ll need more traffic, while other bloggers focus on doing multiple blogs. Either way, traffic potential is important.

Many tools exist to discover topics with traffic.  Start out with Google Adwords and search exact match keywords. Search words ideally in a phrase of two or more words and watch for other interpretations, which could inflate numbers. We’ll go into this more in the future.

Neither Rob nor I know how to go about getting a book written, but fortunately we have a friend that does. Our friend, Jim Krukral is a published author and professional speaker. Rob suggested we get in contact with Jim and see if he would help us out and as we expected, he said he would.

Initially, Jim suggested that we do a meeting online to go over the plan, and then he suggested that we invite our friends to join in for a Webinar.

We felt this is a great idea, so we have set up Monday, May 14^th at 8PM Eastern Time to learn how to create our own book. Because we’ve invited a ton of people, we need you to sign up as early as possible if you want to be included. I’m not saying we’ll have so many people we can’t get you in, but sign up early anyway, just in case.

If you’re an online marketer, you likely know who Jim Krukral is, if not, he’s a great guy that’s published several books, is professional having worked with FedEx, Sherman Williams, Ernst & Young and Progressive Auto Insurance.  He’s been an expert for many news programs including one of my favorites, Neil Cavuto on FoxNews.

The Webinar is free, nothing to pay to take part.  Be ready to take lots of notes, as Jim will give us a ton of information that we’ll be able to put to work immediately.

We’re doing the Webinar around our Shark Tank blog, hence the Webinar Titled “Write a Book Like A Shark” I’m sure you’re going to love it.

To sign up for the Webinar, go to https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/509731778

It’s not surprising bloggers neglect, Competition Research, even totally ignored by the so-called “experts”, given that they rarely do keyword or niche investigation themselves. That’s not their strategy, so when you do Competitive Research, you suddenly jump ahead of so-called, highly competitive all bloggers.

Unlike other industries, Competitive Research in the online world has an unbelievable amount of data readily available, free as well as on a fee base.  Literally, you can find out just about anything you could ask, however understanding some data comes with a learning curve.

The simplest strategy for competitive research is to start with doing a search on Google, for terms related to your niche. Chances are, sites like Wikipedia and about.com will come up in the results.

For now, we want to look for sites that are specifically targeting your niche. That means that you want to look past Wikipedia, about.com and the likes, forcing you to go several pages deep in the search results.

Bloggers often look for untapped niches, allowing them to profit from an untapped niche.  That’s difficult to do, as there are likely hundreds of thousands of people who dabble into blogging.

Instead of searching for untapped markets, I prefer to jump into highly competitive markets. My goal is to create rich content that covers the niche completely and gives me the authority to compete with the best blogs where I know significant interest already exists, and it’s easier selling to a market that is already interested in buying.

Many tools cost money, such as SEOMOZ, one of the most well-known SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tools. They have a 30-day, free trial at the time of writing this, which I highly recommend using.  The site has so much information; you can’t possibly leverage all of it, but if used, is a great investment.

Later, when we start blogging, I will suggest using ScribeSEO to help you perfect your posts. This tool has features to point out sites that are competitive, but could be turned into supporting tools.

Many competitive sites are willing to exchange links, which might prove beneficial to both of you, and others are willing to give links unconditionally, which is even better.  I will talk more about that in the future, when we work on link building.

Over the years, I’ve learned that we Entrepreneurs aren’t very good at setting expectations. In this case, I’m aiming to change that by sharing realistic expectations instead.

Some times, the “coach” sets realistic expectations, but the student choses to ignore what the coach says, instead the student ends up with loftier goals. That’s not a good game plan. Always opt for the conservative numbers so you spend more time focused on building your business and less time looking at your numbers. After all, you can’t get rich observing, instead continue working your business.

Now, I can’t tell you how many times I hear the “Make Money doing X” types say that they only work a few hours a day.  That’s kind of like your friends saying, you aren’t overweight when you can’t get out of your chair. If you’re making big money in this business, it’s because you’re working for it, even if it’s not in an ethical way (which is something that I don’t teach or condone).

Professional Bloggers doing well, often say they only work a few hours a day, if that, because they love what they do and they don’t consider it work. Personally, I work all hours of the day and for the most part, I love what I do. It’s still work to me…

Now, I make a claim that I have a plan that has proved profitable in just the second month. I’ve accomplished that because I’ve figured out how to build blogs with minimal expenses, while creating revenue. That’s allowed me to not only cover my expenses, but actually take in positive cash-flow.

That doesn’t mean that I took a paycheck, I didn’t. My business partner and I were able to take a small payout from the company, but certainly not enough to live on. The third month has doubled what we accomplished in the second month, and it looks the fourth month will again double the previous month.

The fastest way to profitability comes through creating a plan with reasonable expectations and then cutting your numbers in half, the same way Investors do when considering putting their money into start-up companies.

Stay tuned for the next post in 90 Days to 100k visitors

You might be wondering why I would say a Professional Blogger needs an elevator pitch, especially considering you don’t need investors to make money blogging, or do you? Just because you aren’t giving out shares, doesn’t mean you aren’t raising capital. You are.

Your readers are your investors in a sense. They are the people who are going to buy the products and services that you offer through your blog. Don’t worry, you don’t need products and services of your own, other people will go out of their way to help you sell theirs.

The elevator pitch will help you attract people to your blog. You will write content and offer products and services that relate to that content. You don’t even have to say good things about the products or services. If you reader clicks on an affiliate link or banner advertisement and then purchases, you’re likely to get paid for referring them on to the product.

Have a great Elevator Pitch and business cards with your blog address. It takes little time to gain this reader and this person is more likely to make purchases’ through your blog. They’ve got a relationship with you even if it was only for a few minutes which makes them more likely engage in transactions with companies advertising or linked on your blog.

The Elevator Pitch has another and almost more important purpose for bloggers. This statement helps to keep your blog focused on the niche topic at hand. Digress and you’re likely to lose readers as fast as you gain them. Stay focused and you’re likely to get referrals from your readers.

I could go on about other reasons to do an Elevator Pitch, however I feel that I’ve given you enough good reasons and we should move on to the next topic. If you are unsure, write me via the contact form and let’s see if we can get you beyond what’s holding you back.

90 Days to 100k Readers Part 4

You might be surprised to discover posts of lessor quality written more often, out-perform posts that are well written, but less timely. The most important factor in a successful blog post is not that the post be well written, but that it be able to deliver an idea that impacts the reader in a timely fashion. Why else would the most successful bloggers be lousy writers?

Take John Chow, he clearly knows the value of writing two blog posts a day consistently. It is rare that he doesn’t have posts staggered with one in the morning and one in the evening.

Next, consider that John’s posts are often not well written and contain grammar and spelling errors.  Still, John has a message or a purpose behind each post and John makes a ton of money via his blog. Furthermore, his readers check his blog multiple times a day.

Guest posts have become very popular on blogs as of late to support the two blog posts a day, and as a way to build links. I’m not a fan of Guest posts, especially if I don’t know whom the guest post is by.  When I come across the guest post, I often move on without reading the post.

A single blog post might have hundreds of different long tail keyword searches refer to the post. In the-shark-tank blog, we’ve had a single post have over a thousand different keyword variations refer to it in a single day.

Think of how powerful a single post are… They wouldn’t be so powerful if it didn’t have all the other posts that have a direct or indirect relationship t it, supporting it and making it relevant. The more relevant pages you have in a blog, the more likely the search engines and readers will take your blog seriously.

Write two blog posts a day and in 90 days, you’re going to see success in your blog.

Part Three, 90 Days to a Successful Blog

Many people think planning will slow down the process. It doesn’t. It actually speeds it up and increases our chances of success. That’s because with a plan we can measure our progress. We know where we’re at all times making it easy to course correct when we get off track, which will often happen.

Most bloggers don’t like competition. I however, thrive on competition. That means there are people who will read and likely buy. Sure, it’s harder to rank for your target keywords with competition, but that’s why we plan. We come at our topic from a different angle than the other bloggers do.

We focus on building a foundation first, working our way up to the trends, but not until we have a base in place making our content relevant.  We have to cover everything that connects to our target niche.  We actually don’t want the people who are going to our competitor’s blog until we have what they are searching for. After all, what good is breaking news if we have no audience to read it?

We don’t want drive-by readers. They are too expensive. They often are the people looking for the free stuff and won’t spend any money. We want loyal readers who will take action. They are the ones that will make us money and help our reputations.

When we chase drive-by readers, we are chasing money. When we attract readers who dig deeper, we let money come to us. Don’t chase the money, let the money come to you. This strategy appears to take more time, but it’s actually faster, it does take more patience.

Planning keeps us from changing course after we start our blogs. This happens to the best of all bloggers. The great ones simply add a new blog, focusing on the second topic instead of undoing the hard work they’ve done up to this point. You keep from diluting your content, instead, your creating a new opportunity with the additional blog.

Of course, at first, you should focus at being successful with one blog before starting the second blog.  Just think of the old saying, “the grass is always greener on the other side.”

You’ve just read, 90 Days to a Successful Blog, Part Two

Blogs often fail because the blogger isn’t tenacious enough to stick with working their business. They get started but get discouraged quickly and give up before they even get started. This is likely due to unrealistic expectations on their part. If they knew what they were aiming for, they might stick with it, at least long enough to get a taste of some success.

The next group of bloggers fails right after they get their first taste of success. They get a post indexed in search engines and see some traffic and then feel like they’ve accomplished their goal. They think they can take a day off as they have now become a known quantity. That’s a huge mistake.

Two problems arise when you take a day off… 1) You lose momentum, and 2) you lose readers. Momentum is necessary to take your blog from being good to being outstanding. Most people are into good enough, but few are into hitting the home run.

Readers don’t stick with blogs that are inconsistent. They lose interest and they forget about you. That’s why you need fresh content everyday, preferably multiple times a day. That keeps your readers coming back for more and ultimately makes you more money faster.

Another issue that causes blogs to fail is lack of a great foundation. Readers are loyal to blogs that answer the questions they have on the target subject and it keeps them coming back. In fact, blogs with great foundations are the ones that get recommended over and over.

Bloggers make serious mistakes when focusing on trends alone. They tend to write about the same stuff that everybody else writes about, making their blogs redundant.  That makes ranking for highly competitive search keywords and phrases nearly impossible or at the very least, a never-ending battle to get to the top. It’s also the way most “SEO” experts drive their clients.

It’s critical to get history into your blog and build your foundation. That gives you relevance that your competition doesn’t have, no matter how long or how old their blog is. If your content is deeper and more complete, you will ultimately rise to the top.

New blogs are not likely to rank for the targeted keyword in the first 90 days, but you won’t have to worry about it because you’re ranking for keyword phrases instead which give you a reader that’s looking for the specific content you have. That’s more valuable.

Of course, your goal is to rank for your keyword that you’ve targeted. Stay tenaciously focused on achieving that goal along the way, but enjoy the success that comes from building foundation first.

This is Post 1 in 90 Days to a Successful blog