As promised yesterday, here’s the list of May’s awesome blog posts that you may not have gotten a chance to check out or comment on. BTW, there’s only 9 days left for a chance to win in this month’s comment contest, so check out these posts and get commenting!

Without further ado, here they are:

Free Teleseminar – Learn How To Build A Profitable Business In Today’s Economy – This post will be updated whenever there is a new teleseminar scheduled. Right now you can register for the one on June 23rd.

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

My Blog Guest – An Active Community of Guest Bloggers and Blog Owners

Don’t Make The Same Stupid Mistake I Made… Seriously! – You definitely want to check this post out… One of my toughest website lessons ever learned is talked about here. Don’t let happen to you what happened to me.

Where Do You Get Images and Photos For Your Website or Blog?

There you have it. If you haven’t yet checked these posts out then I invite you to do so.

Don’t forget… The comment contest ends on June 30th at whatever time at night I check the list for the final time. Right now Cebu is commanding a strong lead with Mici close behind. It’s anyone’s game at this point. Don’t give up now!

If you’ve been following along this past week, you’ll know that I had to pay $450 to Getty Images for a copyright infringement. I explain everything in full detail in this post, so check it out and leave your comments.

Dennis Edell was very kind to donate to my cause. He has been a great friend and a true example of paying it forward. That’s what community is all about, and I feel blessed to have the online friends that I do. I suggest you check out his blog as he’s got some great stuff going on over there.

If you’ve ever been in my situation, or just want to avoid it at all costs, then this post is for you. It’s actually for me, too, as I wanted to find quality sites where I could get images, photos and clip art free to use for my site and blog.

I hope you’ll benefit from this as well as images should be a part of every blogger’s arsenal. They add character and flavor to blog posts. They keep them from being plain and boring, not that the content alone is boring (at least it shouldn’t be).

Every now and then I just like to add an image that corresponds with what I’m talking about. The problem is that there are so many places and avenues in which you can get photos and images.

What I used to do was go to Google Images and search by keyword or topic in relation to my post. From there, I would browse the images, and if I found a suitable one, I would just open it and save it to my computer.

While that’s a very simple and easy way to get images to use, it’s also not the very smartest way. As I found out the hard way, the images can contain a copyright, and without obtaining a proper license or giving proper recognition, you’re breaking the law.

However, there are websites that offer free images and photos for personal and commercial use. Some require a link back to the author or source, while others don’t require anything. Most provide a higher resolution photo for a small price, but this isn’t necessary.

Here are some of the Photo and Image sites I’ve found to be reliable and easy to navigate and offer free to use images:

SXC.HU – Stock.Xchng requires a free account to download images to your computer, but you’re able to use them for personal and commercial use. Most come with royalty-free rights, meaning you can use the standard images however you like, but certain restrictions apply. Make sure to read the usage rights for each image before you download them.

PDClipart.org – Public Domain Clip Art offers 25,000+ clip art images. Since these images are in the public domain, anyone can use these free of charge with no limitations or restrictions. Sometimes clip art is more ideal than using a high-resolution photo, depending on the situation.

PlublicDomainPictures.net – This is similar to PDClipart, but this site offers high quality photos that are in the public domain. You’re free to use these however you like. They encourage you to link back to the source, but it’s completely up to you.

FreeDigitalPhotos.net – This site offers a wide variety of images that are free to use. The only restriction is that you HAVE to link back to the image author.

FreeByte.com – There is a clip art, images, photos, fonts, icons and backgrounds section, which is basically a big directory of sites that offer all of the above. I didn’t take the time to check out all the sites listed (there are a lot of them), but I’m sure you’ll find this useful to find sites that offer what you’re looking for.

Last but not least, Flickr.com allows for photo sharing and usage. I’m not a member of Flickr, but from what I know you have to link back to the source and give credit to the user that posted the image. Correct me if I’m wrong.

So there you have it, those are the sites I’ll be using from now on to use for my site and blog.

Make sure to read the Terms and Usage Rights for each site and also for each picture you’d like to use. They are all different and can change for each picture. Some of the sites I listed have premium photos which require a small fee.

Where do you get your images from? Know of any other good image sites you’d like to share? Add your comments below…

No one likes getting scammed, especially when it involves losing your heard earned money. I’ve been there myself, so I know exactly what it’s like. That’s why I put an article together to help you avoid getting scammed. I don’t want to see the same thing happen to you.

Let’s face it, scams are everywhere, and it’s hard to tell sometimes if they’re really legitimate opportunities or jobs. When all else fails, use your gut feeling, and dare I say it, common sense. If it sounds too good to be true, it most likely is.

Read Legitimate Work From Home Jobs – How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off to learn what you can do to avoid the scams and find legitimate work from home jobs.

Also, here are some resources that I didn’t include in that article that will help you out tremendously if you come across an opportunity that you’re not sure about.

Ripoff Report – This is a very high authority source if you’re searching for practically anything that someone may have gotten ripped off from. You can also submit your own ripoff report if you’ve fallen victim to a scam.

Scam.com – A forum with many different threads about various scams.

Have you ever been the victim of an internet scam or opportunity that took your hard earned money and ran? Share your experiences below and also any tips you can share to help others avoid the scams.

It’s December already, and we just got our first snowfall of the season. I took this picture with my cell phone while hunting this morning. The snow was coming down hard, but you can’t tell. There was already about an inch of snow after an hour and a half.

I like this time of year, although it can sometimes get too cold.

I’ve been very busy lately, so the amount of posts I made last month were very few. If you happened to miss one you’ll find it below.

Thanks for being a reader of my blog, and I hope you’ll find what you’re looking for. If you have any ideas or would like me to blog about something, just let me know.

Monetize Twitter – Sokule Makes You Money

3 Tips To Create Blog Content That Gets Noticed

October Income Report

Are You Losing Blog Readers?

What Are You Thankful For This Year?

Join Me On These Social Network Sites

New FTC Regulations For Bloggers and Affiliate Marketers

Don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed so you’re sure to be updated when I add anything new to my blog.

If you’re a blogger and/or affiliate marketer and you live in the United States, then you’re probably aware of the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that will go into affect December 1, 2009. That’s in less than 4 hours from now, by the way.

Here’s the official release of the new regulations on the FTC website: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm

I’m a blogger (obviously) and an affiliate marketer AND I live in the U.S., so I needed to listen up to these new changes and how they were going to effect how I do business.

When these new regulations first came out, there was a lot of confusion and not many people knew exactly what needed to be changed to be in compliance. I’ll be honest, I was very confused myself, and I still am, kind of. Maybe you were in the same boat, or still am. If you are, that’s good because I’m going to provide you with everything you need to know. Well, I’ll provide you with the links that will provide you with everything you need to know.

I wanted to get the facts about what I needed to change, if anything, so I wouldn’t become non-compliant and get in trouble with the FTC. That would be a very bad thing. I want to avoid this at all cost because it can be costly if the FTC comes after you.

After reading Peter Lee’s blog post on the New FTC Guidelines, I was just left with a million questions because everything was left up in the air. There weren’t any definitive answers, and that wasn’t Peter’s fault by any means. No one was sure at that point.

After a couple weeks or so, I finally started getting answers. I found a couple of resources that I found very helpful in getting some concrete answers. The first resource is an interview that Jim Edwards did with Mr. Rich Cleland, Assistant Deputy at The Federal Trade Commission. I took the time to listen to the interview. It’s lengthy but worth every second of it.

Listening to this FTC Interview is a must if you want the facts about what these new regulations entail and how they’re going to affect you as a blogger and affiliate marketer.

Another great resource I found through Twitter is: http://www.clicknewz.com/?s=ftc

Here’s one more from Mike Young’s Internet Law blog: http://mikeyounglaw.com/wp/2009/10/16/testimonials-federal-trade-commission-ftc-websites/

These resources should give you the information you need to stay FTC compliant in your blogging, affiliate marketing or online business venture.

What do you think about the new FTC regulations? Do you agree with them? What do you like or not like about these new regulations? Share your thoughts 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.

If you run a blog I’m sure one of your many goals is to create content that brings in a large readership. Afterall, your content is what matters the most when it comes to getting to gaining readers and having them continue to come back for more. A problem you may face is coming up with ideas on what to write about that’s going to attract a readership.

I’ve put together 3 tips that you can put into action right now to create blog content that gets noticed.

So, without further delay, let’s get right into it…

Tip 1: Find content to write about with YouTube videos

Videos are the new medium on the internet, and there is a TON of information in the form of videos, not just on YouTube, but on every other video site. Videos are great for spreading content in a more personal way. However, there’s no actual content, or text, about what is being talked about.

This is where you can benefit. Find a video that relates to your blog content, and create an article based on what the video is about. It’s just like transcribing an audio file into print form, but with a video instead.

This will be completely unique content, and you can do it for any niche or subject. There’s really no limit as there are a massive amount of videos on literally any subject you can think of.

Tip 2: Use Twitter and other Social Networks to find hot subjects to write about

This strategy will take a little more work, but it can be very effective. With this technique you’ll be blogging about current, hot topics that everyone is buzzing about. This should no doubt get your blog some exposure.

If you’re on Twitter I’m sure you’ve seen a particular subject that everyone is talking about. This could be true for any number of social sites. Start blogging about that subject, if it’s suitable for your blog, of course.

On Twitter, an easy way to find the most talked about subject is to go to the home page, and on the right-hand side, you’ll see Trending Topics. These are the topics that are most talked about, and this will save you a lot time to find them.

Tip 3: Read other blogs to get ideas for your own blog

Most bloggers are subscribed to RRS feeds of other blogs that they find interesting and are related to their own blogs. Sometimes a blogger you follow might write about something that really perks your interest.

One particular blog I follow is Peter Lee’s Work From Home Blog.

When this happens, what you can do is expand on what they talked about or even create a spin on the subject. You can even get a little controversial if you have a different point of view. This is another way to get exposure and a lot of comments.

When going this route, just be sure you don’t copy the post, as this is stealing. It’s okay if you want to quote a portion so that people reading your post can understand what you’re talking about. A link back to the other post wouldn’t hurt either.

What do you do to create blog content that gets noticed? Share your tips in the comments below…

If you liked my last post on Free Keyword Research, then you’re going to like this post even more. I created another video to show you a very cool way to determine whether the keywords you’re using are keywords that people are searching for with the intent to buy something.

Sounds awesome, right? I know that if you could rank your website for a keyword phrase that people search for to find stuff to buy, that you’d make more money. That’s the whole purpose of this amazing free tool.

Check out the video to learn more…

Here’s the link that I referred to in the video:

adlab.microsoft.com/Online-Commercial-Intention/

Let me know what you think!

After reading the title you’re probably thinking there’s no way that keyword research can be easy, let alone free. I think that too many people make keyword research a lot harder than it has to be. And, while paid tools are great when researching keywords, I think that for the majority of people they’re not needed.

What IS needed though is knowing how to do some basic keyword research when you’re looking to rank your articles, blog posts, and web pages on the first page of Google.

Keyword research is essential, and it’s a lot easier than you might think. I put together a video explaining how you can use a free tool to find “golden nuggets” that are going to provide the traffic you need. Follow that up with a little research on your competition, and you’ll be well on your way to getting a top 10 listing.

Once you find the keywords you want to use, remember to include those keywords when building backlinks to that article, blog post or web page. That’s how you’re going to build up your rankings in the search engines.

And, speaking of backlinks, the two methods of backlink building I recommend to get the fastest results is using Angela and Paul’s backlink building services. They are worth every penny and can produce massive results.

I hope with this little tip you’ll be able to bring in more traffic and sales for your online business.

By now you should know how effective article marketing is for your online business. However, there’s another way in which you can use your articles that a lot of people overlook or never think of.

There are thousands if not hundreds of thousands of ezines (electronic magazines) available on the internet. In fact, if you have an email list of subscribers, then essentially you own an ezine. And I’m guessing you provide your subscribers with useful ezine articles on a regular basis.

Keeping this in mind, have you ever found it difficult to keep creating ezine articles to send to your list? A lot of successful ezines have been around for years and have tens of thousands of subscribers. That’s a long time to try to keep creating ezine articles to keep the subscribers interested.

So, what does an ezine owner do in this case? It’s very simple. They allow other people to submit ezine articles to them which will be sent to their subscribers. Can you see the possibilities here?

This opens the doorway for you to get your message out there to thousands of people that might have never known about you otherwise. This is absolutely huge!

Here’s how it works…

You first find ezines that are related to what you do or what you provide. If you own a website or online business, then find ezines related to that. Next thing you’ll want to do is contact the ezine owner and ask if you could write articles for their ezine on a weekly basis.

If they agree, you’ve just set up a very good proposition for yourself. Now all you have to do is create an article every week for that ezine. It shouldn’t be very difficult as you should already be familiar with the niche.

Now, the most important part is to then create an “about the author” section at the end of your articles. This only has to be one or two sentences about yourself, what you do and what you provide. Of course, you’ll want to leave a link to your website so that the readers can check it out.

This results in getting interested people to visit your website. The goal is to get them to subscribe to your ezine (newsletter), make a purchase, fill out a form, click a link, etc. You want them to take action!

Ezine articles can be an effective way to promote your website and should be part of your overall marketing strategy. Now, a problem with this is that it can take a lot of time to search for and find related ezines.

I recommend you use the Directory of Ezines to find ezines to write articles for. Not all ezines will allow article submissions, but the Directory of Ezines has an awesome search interface that will allow you to search for only ezines that do. There are many other search parameters as well, including categories, specific keywords, ezines that allow solo ads and more.

There are many perks to becoming a member of the Directory of Ezines, especially if you become a lifetime member, which is what I am. At least check it out and see if it’s right for you.

No matter how you find potential ezines to partner with, just remember, this is free advertising for your website that has a lot of positive potential, so don’t ignore it. Ezine articles can have a huge impact on your online business.