Author Archives: Admin

Teaching Sells: I’ve Signed Up

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Teaching SellsSo, I am sure by now everyone has heard of Brian Clark’s new program, Teaching Sells. It is a course that will help people learn to create successful multimedia membership sites. I have a feeling that the majority of those that sign up will not create anything as successful as this training course, but I trust Brian, and wanted to learn more about what all this was about.

After reading the free PDF report he released, I still was concerned that as a professional blogger for the last two years, I wouldn’t be able to learn anything new from Teaching Sells, and even more worrying that I wouldn’t get my $97 worth. Then I read about how the price was going to go up at midnight tonight, and I wanted to be part of it for at least the first three months.

There are already over 500 members active within the service, and if nothing else, I am sure I can learn something from one of the active members, and that alone says something about these private forums. If people are willing to invest nearly $100 into themselves and their businesses online, then they understand the value of information.

If you want to get in before the price increase, that time is now, as there is less than six hours before Brian and team change it from the low price of $97 for three months, to whatever amount they choose.

I will continue to talk about what results Teaching Sells has produced for me, and I look forward with networking with all those that have also joined this training service from Copyblogger.

Originally posted on October 31, 2007 @ 6:54 pm

Looking For Weekly Columnists at Xfep

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With my new responsibilities at Splashpress Media, I am going to be a very busy person, and so I am looking to hire two weekly columnists for this site. You have to have strong experience in blogging, advertising, search engine optimization, social networking, site promotion, WordPress ninja’ing, content management, and/or other relevant topics. You must be willing to publish one or two articles a week of five hundred words or more.

I am looking for people with passion and personality, and so if you fit the bill, please contact me with your rates and any relevant blog URL’s.

Update: Since so many people have asked me about the rates, I figured I would post them here. Honestly, it is dependent on experience and ability but I have been saying this to most people.

I am looking for two people willing to each write two posts a week of five hundred words a post or more for $10 a post. On top of that, I am willing to pay a $20 traffic bonus if the site’s traffic beats the previous month’s by a minimum of 1,000 unique visitors, something that the blog is on course to do already. Even better, there is also a $25 bonus if an article reaches the front page of reddit, digg, sphinn or delicious up to a maximum of $100 a month. This means that any selected writer has an upper starting limit of $200 for eight posts a month.

Originally posted on November 4, 2007 @ 8:01 am

Blog World Expo – Wish I Was Attending

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Blog World Expo LogoIn a few days the Blog World Expo conference will begin, and in my industry, it is the conference to attend. With names like Matt Mullenweg, Jeremy Wright, Leo Laporte, Brian Clark and many others attending, it would be silly for a full time blogger not to attend right? Well, despite the fact that I totally agree with my previous statement, I won’t be able to attend. Not because I have previous arrangements, but instead because of the recent transition from Bloggy Network to Splashpress Media.

See, I didn’t expect to change companies this year. Early in 2007, I assumed everything was looking good, but like everything in the world, things change, and so do priorities. I had assumed that the Blog World Expo would be the last conference I attended this year. I was really looking forward to going to Las Vegas for the first time since I was a child, but with the change in focus, it just didn’t work out that way. Bloggy Network sold some of its powerful blogs to Splashpress Media, and unfortunately, it is just too late to arrange everything now, even if Splashpress could dump money into me going down south for the event.

I am hoping that the event will go well, that everything will be recorded, pictures taken, articles written, and I can live vicariously through the experiences of others. Even more important to me is that it is so successful that they do it again next year, when I will hopefully attend. If you are going to Blog World Expo and plan on recording the event in one way or another, please let me know so I can follow what you write, photograph, or otherwise record.

Maybe next year they will ask me to come down and speak on a panel? *Hint hint, nudge nudge*

Originally posted on November 5, 2007 @ 8:53 pm

How I Outpaced 20 of My Competitors

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Climbing past your competitorsI haven’t yet received a PageRank from Google, I am in a highly saturated niche, and this site is only coming up on its fourth month of being active, yet despite having so many things going against it, the growth of this site has outpaced over twenty of its competitors.

Where am I getting this comparison? Well, earlier this month, I was at the 121st position on the 45n5.com Top 100 Make Money Online Blogs list, and I made it my goal to get into the Top 100. A goal that some friends of mine said was pretty much impossible. Heck, some were surprised that once the list was expanded to over two hundred, that I was still sitting so high, but I was already working hard to build this site, and make it the best it could be.

As of today, I am sitting at a ranking of 101, and while that is still one spot away from my goal, it is still a jump of twenty positions over other blogs working hard to improve their ranks in the same niche.

Competition Doesn’t Matter

One of the biggest complains I hear from bloggers is that the niche they selected is too crowded, or that it has all been done before, and if you are going to go around believing that, then you are setting yourself up for failure.

You can’t concern yourself with your competition. They are great to help you set goals, and think up content ideas, but otherwise, you can’t let them make you feel inferior. If you have something to say, even if it has been said before, it is still worth getting your opinion out there.

Do Something New

With this blog, I added a weekly podcast, showcasing other people’s content and ideas, as well as adding my own thoughts and opinions to the subjects at hand. This lead me to stand out in this niche, and it is not like podcasting is a new idea.

Mark at 45n5.com came out with a Top 100 list, another idea that has been around for ages, but he made it his own by focusing it on a single niche, and promoting it well.

If you are going to really stand out from the crowd, you need to do something different. It doesn’t have to be innovative or new, but it has to set you apart from others in your niche, and help spread your message, and build your popularity.

Promote Your Content

If no one knows about your blog, then no one will read it. Seems to be a simple path of logic for me, but so many people don’t promote their content, and those that do, don’t always give it enough time or effort.

On some of my best articles, I will spend upwards of an hour promoting it. I contact my friends via e-mail that are willing to help me out from time to time. I have found e-mail newsgroups that help each other out with a link or an approving thumbs up if they like the article. I ask friends to submit the link to social bookmarking sites.

I come up with custom, personalized e-mails for a variety of site owners that are in the same niche as me, and ask them to look over the article and send me any for of feedback they have time for.

Sure this might seem laborious and tedious, but done well on your best posts, you can gain a huge influx of links, traffic, and new ideas. A few links, placed on really popular sites, can double all the stats on a new site, over night.

Make Friends

One of the biggest avenues for promotion, and one of the best tips I can give you is to make friends. Network with people both inside and outside your niche. Surrounding yourself with people that understand you can lead to great feedback, the occasional link, and help with every bit of your site, from the design, to the content.

Also, as a side note, friends can open avenues of promotion through their blogs, but allowing you to guest post, and I have said how amazing guest posts can be for your blogs, numerous times. It has been one of my largest sources of traffic this month.

Conclusion

So there you have it, with a little hard work, a positive attitude, and a lot of promotion, you can push your site up the rankings as well. Don’t let a little hard work scare you away. Pick a niche you are passionate about and enjoy your blogging time.

Originally posted on October 23, 2007 @ 8:00 am

Commenter Appreciation: October 2007

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It is the end of the month and time for me to thank two of the people that helped make eXtra for Every Publisher the great place it is.

If you want to know more about my Commenter Appreciation Project, please check out my previous post explaining the idea.

Last month, I mentioned two great commenters, W. Thomas Leroux of leroux.ca and Mark of 45n5.com and over the course of October they have continued to be a huge driving force in the interactivity of this site, and so I want to thank them again, but I am going to try hard to feature different people every month.

This month, the two commenters I want to focus on are John Leschinski of Leschinski Design, and Ahmed Bilal of Soccerlens. Both of these guys are multi-talented, having blogged on a variety of sites and providing some great advice to me and my readers on a number of posts.

John Leschinski

Leschinski Design

Another Canadian, and one of the few people I have met in real life, John runs his own design company, and I have seen him blogging on Blogging Tips.

He attended one of the local Geek Meetups in London, Ontario when I lived there, and has been popping up more and more in the blogging scene.

Ahmed Bilal

Soccerlens

Where isn’t Ahmed? He runs some amazing sites, and writes on others. He is one of the big names over on Performancing, and has become a good online friend of mine. I highly respect his work, and am overjoyed that he has taken the time to leave a few comments here on my blog.

Soccerlens is an amazing football related website, and by football, I mean soccer. With over 1000 RSS readers currently, it is definitely one of THE best resources for the subject.

Wrap-up

Great blogs, great bloggers, and I appreciate their comments. A big thanks from me, and again, I recommend you all check out every appreciated commenter on this blog, as all the best people comment on eXtra for Every Publisher.

Originally posted on October 31, 2007 @ 5:50 pm