The following is a guest post by Sam Bakker. If you would like to guest post on this blog, please contact me.

It’s no secret that Facebook is an excellent source to make money online. With over 400 million members, the money is there for the taking. Many online marketers have come out and said that Facebook fan pages are currently the best free way to make money on the site. This is because of their viral nature. In this article, I am going to discuss an effective technique for increasing fans on your page with the intention of taking it viral.

The first time I discovered Facebook’s viral nature, I was looking at my news feed. A friend of mine had joined a pretty funny group. I clicked into the page out of casual curiosity and found out that the page had only been running for the past 24 hours, but had managed to have over 100,000 people “Like” it. I refreshed the page to see how fast its rate growth was, each time I did, at least 100 new people had joined. Over the next week, more than 1.5 million people joined that page as fans gave the owner exposure to all of their news feeds when they placed a message on the fan page.

So how do we create this incredible viral effect? The first way is to gather enough members in a short space of time. The rule I like to use is that if you can get a fan page to 20,000 people within four days then the page will go viral.

The best way to get these first 20,000 friends is to use a method which I like to call the “Rapid Movement Method”. It consists of utilizing the fans of other pages in order to help build your fan page. Look for fan pages which have similar subjects to yours and about 100,000 fans already (we want these pages so that we can tap into their growth while it’s still happening). Some fan pages will have the contact details of the admin. But if they don’t, you will need to ask them to contact you using the “Discussion tab”. This option which the majority of Facebook fan pages have gives you the opportunity to get in touch with the owner by placing a quick comment asking the administrator to contact you. When they do, you have the chance to negotiate a price for the post. If you have got it right and your topic is one which could potentially go viral, then you can expect your page to grow to a stage where you can use it to make money online.

Sam Bakker has been making money online for the past 7 years. If you would like to get a free copy of Sam’s new Facebook marketing report visit his Internet business website now.

In my recent post about Guest Blogging Tips, I had mentioned that getting a guest post on a high authority blog can bring you massive exposure because the blog owner is essentially endorsing you, your blog, your business, etc. This is true, whether that blog owner realizes it or not.

I didn’t touch on this subject in that post, but I wanted to expand on that more and bring up some strong points and tips that blog owners should be aware of. Thanks to Dennis Edell for bringing up the subject in his comment on that post.

Now, say you own a high authority blog, and you have thousands of readers. You’re well-liked, people trust you, and they enjoy the killer content you give them and have no problem spreading the word about you to their friends.

You’re in your glory, as you have a loyal readership and you’re on top of the world. However, the top can come crumbling to the ground if you’re not very careful.

And here’s why…

We know that guest posting not only benefits the guest poster, but it also benefits you. If you didn’t know that, you do now. Allowing guest posts on your blog is healthy, for both you and your readers. You may think you’re inviting the competition in to steal away your readers, but that’s not the case. You’ve already won them over; they’re there to stay.

BUT…

They’ll be running for the exits if you “endorse” a guest poster that has a bad reputation and is known for misleading readers and shady marketing tactics. There are plenty of other examples I could give, but I think you get the point here.

Basically, use some common sense (which I know is hard for some people, so if that’s you, see below).

You have to be careful about who you let guest post on your blog. I don’t want to tell you to be picky, but there are some guidelines that should be met before you ever publish someone else’s article on your blog.

5 Things to Consider Before Publishing a Guest Post on Your Blog

1. The Person Submitting the Guest Post – If you don’t know the person who’s submitting the guest post, then do some research about them. At the very least, visit their blog, read some of their posts and get an idea of what they normally blog about. Get a better understanding of the person behind the guest post.

2. Quality of the Writing – Is there post written in fluent English? Or, is it hard to understand because their English is obviously not their first language. If the substance of their article is good, then perhaps you could correct their grammar a little for them. If it’s way off the deep-end, then kindly reject it.

3. Subject of the Writing – Did the guest poster do their part and write on a subject that will appeal to YOUR readers? Or, is the post way off-base and has nothing to do with the topic of your blog? This will be very obvious and should be a factor in whether you accept or deny the submission.

4. Style of the Writing – For most people this won’t matter. Everyone has their own style of writing. What I’m getting at here are those people who come across cocky or arrogent in their post. Not sure why anyone would, but if you come across, just hit delete. I don’t think your readers would appreciate it too much.

5. The Website the Post Links To – This is critical, and goes hand-in-hand with tip #1. Take a look around their website/blog. See who they link out to, as well as see what kind of Page Rank their site has. If it doesn’t have a Page Rank, Google “site:http://www.theirsite.com” without quotes. If nothing comes up, you may want to stay away.

Do you have any other tips or suggestions for blog owners that accept guest posts? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below…

P.S. If you like this blog and would like to submit a Guest Post for possible inclusion, simply Contact Me.

Going off from what I talked about in a previous post, writing guest blog posts can in many ways be more effective in building traffic and gaining readership, sales, etc than paying for reviews or buying advertising slots or links on blogs.

Not only can this free method of advertising be more effective, but it also brings with it many more benefits.

The fact that you don’t have to pay anything to get exposure on a high authority blog, or any blog of your choice, is the most obvious. There are two other main benefits, and they are:

Being seen as an expert in your field – The fact that your post is being published on a high authority blog speaks volumes for your credibility, whether you’re actually credible or not. Common sense says that you are if you managed to get this far, and the readers of the blog are automatically going to trust you just as much as they trust the blog owner. Well, maybe not quite as much, but if the blogger is endorsing you, and they are since they’re publishing you’re article, then that’s going to build trust between you and the readers.

This holds a lot more weight to the blog readers because you’re providing valid and relevant information that they can relate to and use, rather than just paying the blogger to write a review about you. The readers are going to respond much better to a guest post because the blogger isn’t obligated to post your article at all. If they’re being paid to write a review, then they have to talk about you.

Automatic trust among readers – I touched briefly on this in the first point, but I feel I need to elaborate on this further. Don’t underestimate the power of trust. Trust is critical to your online success, no matter what your business.

No matter what activities you’re involved in with your business, you want to make sure that what you do and say is creating and building trust with others. It could be the slightest, littlest thing, but believe me, one miniscule little thing can completely ruin any trust you had. You want to do whatever you can to build and keep the trust you have.

The first thing to do to create trust is build relationships, and keeping in line with the topic of guest blog posts, the blogger has already done the hard part in building a relationship with his/her readers. As a guest author, you get to reap the rewards.

That’s not to say that you can slack off and write a mediocre article. For one, it won’t get published. Second, the readers will take notice and decide they have better things to do than check out another wannabe blogger. A lot of care and time needs to be taken when writing your guest post.

Here are some tips to help you write killer guest blog posts…

This should really be part of your overall marketing strategy for many different reasons, but knowing what to do, and what not to do, can really go a long way. Read each and every post I link to and learn them well. Save them, favorite them, bookmark them… whatever you do… so when you’re ready to do a guest post, you’ll start off on the right foot.

Instead of making this into a VERY long and drawn-out post, I thought I’d keep it somewhat short and give out some link love to other bloggers who have already taken the time to share their guest blogging tips. I call this the “Holy Grail” of guest blogging tips… tips from the A-List bloggers themselves.

The first set of tips comes from none other than “ProBlogger” Darren Rowse. Darren writes about How to be a Good Guest Blogger. Be sure to check out his full Guest Blogging Series at the end of his post for even more great killer content. Also check out his How to Guest Post to Promote Your Blog article.

Our second round of tips comes from Copyblogger, which just happens to be a guest post by Jordan Cooper. Neat how that works, huh? Jordan’s article is 10 Proven Steps to Snag a Guest Post on an A-List Blog. If nothing else, read it for the humor and sarcasm Jordan incorporates into the post… if you like that sort of thing. I think you know which way I lean.

The third set of tips comes from Chris Garrett about How To Guest Blog Without Disaster. Chris provides some great advice for bloggers who are ready to tackle the challenge guest posting.

As mentioned earlier, check out every single one of these articles. The content is beyond excellent.

Another reason I decided to go this route is because I’ll soon be venturing into this area as well, and linking out to articles I find helpful makes it easier for me to find for future reference. That’s my own personal blogging tip… did you get it?

Know of any other bloggers who’ve shared guest blgging tips that you’ve found helpful that I didn’t link to? Share them below to make my “Holy Grail” list even bigger!

What other benefits are there from guest posting on other blogs? Share your thoughts and personal experiences below…

Learn how to build a website and make money by monetizing and marketing it. This no-cost, step-by-step guide will show you from start to finish how to build a money making website.

From preparation, finding affiliate programs, getting a domain name and hosting, building your website, adding content and marketing your website, this guide will help you every step of the way.

At only 13 pages long, it provides simple and easy to understand instructions that you can put into practice immediately.

Experienced webmasters and marketers won’t find anything new here. Complete beginners who are looking to start their own website and start making money online will find this guide very useful.

There are two main components to building a website: A domain name and web hosting. This guide will explain the process of registering a domain name and getting web hosting. From there, you’ll learn about affiliate marketing and how to earn commissions promoting other people’s products and services.

The key ingredient to making a website profitable is building traffic to your website. This guide will explain some proven techniques to market your website and generate targeted traffic to your site.

Again, this guide is mainly to help complete beginners. So, if that’s you, I highly recommend you grab your FREE copy now. You’ll be well on your way to building a money making website within a week or less.

There is absolutely zero cost. You don’t even have to give up your e-mail address. Free meaning really free.

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You can simply right-click on the link and choose “Save Target” to download directly to your computer.

If you read this post where I stated I’ll pay you $10 for signing up for a new website and hosting, that offer still stands if you build a website through my links in this guide. I’ll also be available to answer any questions you have about building and marketing your new website.

I’m in the business of helping people, and this one way I can do just that. Let me help you make money online starting today.

Wow, I can’t believe we’re a whole month into 2010 already. January felt like it went so fast. Almost too fast, actually.

But alas, a new month is here, and we gotta keep pushing forward. It’s the beginning of February, so that means another edition of blog post roundup.

If you happened to miss any of my posts in January, you can find them below. Hope you enjoyed them.

Work From Home Cartoon Humor

What Do You Plan To Accomplish In 2010?

Are You Finding It Difficult To Make Money From Work From Home Opportunities?

Affiliate Power Group – Online Business Coaching – Affiliate Marketing Training

6 Tips To Help You Reach Online Success

5 Tips To Market Yourself On The Internet

3 Reasons You Will Never Make Money Online

5 Things You MUST Do To Make Money Online

Marketing yourself on the internet is very crucial to anyone that wishes to reach online success. The days of marketing a particular program or opportunity are over. People want to know about the person promoting them more so than the opportunity or program themselves. If people can get to know you and trust you, they will trust your recommendations and advice.

This is the same concept as online branding which I blogged about before. The internet makes it a little challenging to be transparent, but at the same time there are numerous methods in which you can utilize to become known and seen as an expert in your field.

Here are 5 tips to help you market yourself on the internet:

1. Create Online Profiles – Profiles are an excellent way to get your name out there. They’re also a great way to get backlinks to your site as well. Take advantage of creating profiles on Google, Yahoo and MSN.

2. Post Videos – If you have a simple web cam or digital camera with video capability, it’s very easy to create short videos and post them on YouTube. You can also get free screen capture software like CamStudio to create tutorials. Take advantage of videos to create a web presence and loyal following.

3. Article Marketing -  Writing articles either for your own blog or submitting them to article directories is a great way to get yourself known. Create informational and valuable articles that people will want to read and share with others.

4.  Forums – Forums are not only an excellent source of information, but they can also be used to create credibility within your niche. The more people you can help, the more people will trust you and your recommendations.

Bonus Tip:

5. Blogging – Just as I’m doing here, you should be blogging about your experiences and sharing the knowledge you have about your particular interest. This will help build up a following of interested readers and build relationships with them.

Do you have any branding tips you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments below…

Social media is a great way to get the word out about what you do. It helps build your brand and bring awareness to your online business, products and services. I’m a member of various social networking sites, and I want to invite all of you to join me. There’s some you may not have ever heard of before.

The site that I spend the most time on is Facebook. I’m a huge fan of the site. There’s many networking aspects of the site that you can use to bring awareness to your business, so that’s a huge plus. I use my account for both personal and business. This allows you to see who I really am and helps me to be more transparent and open to everyone. Become my friend on Facebook and get a peek into my personal life and also get to know more about me.

Follow me on Twitter. I don’t spend a whole lot of time on Twitter, but I do find it useful to find resources from others that I follow. If you follow me, I’ll follow you back, assuming you’re not a spammer. Also, I never reply or even read my Direct Messages (DM’s), so if you want to get my attention on Twitter, @ reply me, and I’ll get back to you.

If you like making useful videos, then hit me up on YouTube. I don’t have much time to make a lot of videos, but I’ll slowly be getting more out eventually. I like watching videos that provide real and useful content that I can learn from. If you subscribe to my channel, I’ll subscribe back.

Here’s some other sites you can find me at:

Sokule – Just like Twitter, but you can make money.

DirectMatches – The largest business networking site. You can also make a good bit of money from this site.

LinkedIn

I’d love to have you network with me on these sites, so if you’re a member or want to become a member, just sign up and send a friend request to me.

I’ve been wanting to be a guest blogger for quite some time now but just haven’t gotten around to it. While I was browsing the CYN forums I had responded to a question that someone was asking about how to build up a list of subscribers.

That response prompted another member to ask if I would be interested in doing a guest post for their blog. I’ve been putting off, so since I was asked about it, I decided to finally take action. I wrote up the article yesterday, and after realizing how long it was turning out to be, decided to chop it up into three parts.

If you’d like to check out part one of my article on how to build up your newsletter list, then head on over to Michael Burke’s Project Little Fish blog and read my article titled: Ways To Build Your Email Mailing List – Using a Lead Capture Form.

Michael has a good thing going on, and I’m excited to be a part of it. So head on over and show Michael some love, and be sure to leave a comment or two.

You’ll notice that there will be two more parts to the article that you don’t want to miss. You’ll have to stay tuned to Michael’s blog in order to catch them.

Guest posting on other blogs is a great way to get yourself noticed and build up your online brand. I highly recommend you go out and find other blogs in your niche that have built up a large readership. Most bloggers allow others to post articles to their blog, or you can contact them directly and ask.

This is just the beginning of my guest blog posting quest. I’ll keep you informed of any and all new guest posts in the future, but make sure you’re subscribed to my RSS feed so you don’t miss out.

Oh… I almost forgot. For any of you interested in being a guest post on this blog, just contact me, and I’d be happy to have your article on here. Just make sure it’s relevant to my blog.

I’ve decided to start doing a roundup of all of last month’s posts. This is in case you happened to miss one along the way for whatever reason, and it never hurts to refresh your memory with an idea.

I’ll start from the beginning of the month and move to the most recent. So here goes…

Twitter TweetMe Plugin Installed – ReTweet My Posts

This cool Twitter plugin is for all my readers to share my posts with their followers if they feel what I have to say is worthy of being ReTweeted.

Free Traffic Getting SEO Blog Software from Jeff Johnson

If you’re starting up a new blog, or you have a blog that could use more traffic, then you have to get this plugin. It’s free to download and will optimize your blog for the search engines and pull in laster targeted traffic.

List of 31 High Quality Article Directores to Submit Your Articles To

Here’s my personal list of article directories I use. There’s certainly more out there, so don’t feel that this is an all-inclusive list.

HostGator – Cheap CPanel Web Hosting – Host Unlimited Domains

Learn about my experience of switching web hosts and why Host Gator was my preferred choice. If you’re looking for reliable hosting at a super affordable rate, then this is a post you don’t want to miss.

Advertise Your Website on Leading Make Money Online Blog

If you’re looking for big-time exposure for your make money online site, then you must check this out. Learn how to get your site seen by thousands of targeted visitors and make more sales.

GetResponse – My Preferred Email Autoresponder Service

An online marketer knows the importance of using an autoresponder. It’s necessary if you’re going to use email marketing to bring in more sales, and you should be. Learn more about GetResponse and why I chose them.

Need Help with Web Site Promotion & Internet Marketing?

If you’re struggling to do all the necessary tasks of marketing your website or just don’t have the time, leave it up to professionals. Learn more about my partnership with a proven company that can handle all of your internet marketing needs.

Free Directory Submission – Obtain High PR Backlinks

A huge source of high PR web directories that you can submit your site to for free. Get more backlinks, higher search engine rankings and more sales.

Online Branding

Branding is essential in the online world. Learn more about you and your business and why it’s beneficial.

That concludes the month of June posts. Feel free to browse older posts by clicking on a particular month in the Archives section on the left sidebar.

Also, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed to stay up to date with all of my latest posts.

When it comes to online branding, one must make the decision whether to brand the business or brand him/her self. In the online business world, it’s hard to be transparent with site visitors. You don’t have that personal connection as you do with a traditional offline business.

One question that gets asked many times is, “Should I brand myself or my business?” This would depend on what kind of business you have or plan to have. If you’re marketing a specific product or service, you may want to brand that product/service. If you’re an affiliate marketer and promote many different programs, you’ll definitely want to brand yourself.

When it comes to online branding, it’s all about trust. People want to trust you, so you need to give them a reason to trust you or your product/service. Without that trust and personal connection established, your potential clients/customers will go somewhere else where they feel more safe.

I must say, it’s a lot harder to brand yourself online. I’ve made my best effort to make myself known to my site visitors, utilizing a picture of myself and having contact information available. This Work From Home Blog is probably the best way for visitors to see who I really am and learn more about me. That’s important for me, and it helps me build trust in my readers.

While online branding can be difficult, it’s not impossible by any means. Here’s some tips on how you can brand yourself online with social network sites:

• Use a picture whenever possible
• Complete your profile
• Network with others with the same interests

If your branding a specific product/service, you want to make sure you talk about it within your profile. You could even use the product as the picture. Anything to get your product/service or yourself out there and known.

While I was planning this post on branding, I came across a video about Tony Hawk talking about how to brand a business. I thought it was quite interesting, so if you have some time, check it out.

No matter what business you’re in, branding is essential to success. Want more tips on how to brand yourself or your business online? Check out this insightful post on the Even Carmichael Forums about Personal Branding.

Do you have any other online branding tips? Share your thoughts below…