Spending your precious time on your blog should be compensated in some way, right? I mean, why put forth all of that effort if no one cares to read what you have to say and just leaves right away?

Notice in the title I used “visitors” and not readers. You first have to convince your blog visitors to stay awhile and actually read your blog before you can call them readers. Makes sense… I hope.

Getting people to stick around and become a reader, which in turn provides comments on your posts, involves a few factors. These factors can include your blog design, the content (what you write) and the style of your writing.

This certainly isn’t the all-inclusive list to go by, but these are some of the main factors you may want to consider if you just can’t seem to get anyone to take notice of your hard work.

I wrote a guest post on HowToSpoter about 3 Tips to a Better Blog where I go more in-depth regarding these three factors and what you can do to turn that sucky blog of yours into a masterpiece worthy of readers.

Be sure to read the post and comment. You’ll see me over there as well replying back.

What have I done to improve this blog?

One of the major updates I made to this blog was installing a new blog theme. Granted, I didn’t think my blog sucked (hopefully not), but it certainly was due for a face-lift, I thought. The new FlexSqueeze Theme is definitely way more modern than what I used to have and allowed me to customize every aspect of the design.

The content on here I think is pretty good, but I’d love to hear what you have to say about. I try to be as personable as possible and provide a relaxed reading environment, something I hope you all enjoy. Of course, there’s always something to learn here, so let me know if I need to clarify/expand on anything. Afterall, I try to write for you, my readers.

The 4th of July is just hours away. What a great time to be with family and friends and to watch some spectacular fireworks displays!

On that exciting note, I’m excited to announce my first ever comment contest winners!

June was a rather busy month, and July is already proving to be just as busy, if not busier. There was a lot going on with the growth of this site and blog, and I was pleased with the turnout that was received.

I felt there could have been more commenters and more competition among the ones who did comment, but overall I’m happy as I gained more traffic and new readers, and hopefully kept them.

Without further ado…

Top 5 comment contest winners:

• Mici @ Click On P… (46)
• JR @ Internet Mar… (43)
• Cebu Tech Blogger… (10)
• Neil (5)
• andy @ jordan II … (4)

Congratulations to Mici for coming out on top. It was a tough battle with JR there towards the end, but you pulled it off!

Congrats to the rest of the winners… you all deserve it. To those who commented but didn’t make it on the list… I want personally thank you for taking the time to read my blog and comment. I truly appreciate it.

If you remember, I announced a bonus award to anyone who spread the word about my contest. To my surprise there were only three of you who shared this contest. But anyway, here are your permanent backlinks from me…

• Dennis Edell from Personal Coaching
• David Hurley from Grasp The Nettle
• Mici from Entertainment Reviews

Claim Your Prizes…

Okay, this is a request. The top 5 winners must contact me to claim their prizes. There are many reasons for this, but I feel this is a better approach than me trying to hunt you all down to get a hold of you. You can simply use the contact form or email me directly.

UPDATE:

Mici has opted for the cash. So, the remaining prizes look like this:

JR – One-month banner ad (125X125) provided by Peter Lee, plus 10 free .edu backlinks package. JR, you can go ahead and contact Peter directly to claim your prizes.

Bert and Neil – One month free access to David Hurley’s Internet Marketing Articles PLR site.

Andy – One month free link or banner ad on my home page.

I am still waiting to hear from Neil and Andy.

I guess that’s about it. I want to thank you all again for your support and readership. If you’re coming to my blog for the first time, I urge you to stay a while as you’ll learn a thing or two, and maybe subscribe to my feed so you don’t miss anything new as well as contests I’m planning for the near future.

P.S. Just because the comment contest is over, I still encourage you to leave your thoughts in the comment section. It helps add value to the posts and is also helpful to other readers. Plus, all comments are “do follow” so my juicy PR power will spread your way.

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!

The following is a guest post by Sam Bakker…

I recall when I first started trying to use blogging to make money online. I had arrived at the entrance of a cyber metropolis armed with an idea and a daft look on my face. It was a multifaceted space teeming with online users, all I had to do was establish myself and I’d be crowded with customers in no time. I had bought a product that would teach me how to build a home-based business. It told me I should start a blog and begin sharing with the rest of the internet world how to be successful making money through a home-based business.

I opened an account with Blogger.com and put my hands to the keyboard. For two months I typed away, completing a design and posting content up on a daily basis. For all this effort, I had one member and no sign of traffic. My blog was floating around in an alleyway when I wanted it to be across the street from Facebook. I wasn’t making money and my website wasn’t going anywhere.

It wasn’t until a year later that I found out (and corrected) what I had done wrong. In this article today, I am going to discuss what mistakes I made in my first attempt to make money blogging online and how you can avoid them. By dodging these classic mistakes, your journey to success will help you obtain an internet marketing lifestyle that is greatly to your advantage.

Firstly, it must be said that before anything else, you must plan out what your blog’s central focus will be. As is the general nature of entrepreneurs, we get an idea and jump in head-first without planting a base for ourselves. Planning is essential especially when it comes to blogging; you not only need to identify your audience and the value you can offer them, but you also need to find effective keywords.

Keywords are the driving force behind a blog’s organic search engine traffic. You need to find the most effective ones using a tool such as “Google Adwords Keywords” to research. This will show you where you can get your search engine traffic from and what terms will be most profitable when it comes to making money. If you launch your blog without keywords in mind, often Google will struggle to place you in the index. Much of the time this means that your blog’s potential is capped very early on and your chance of getting decent traffic flow from Google is reduced. Be sure that you conduct the appropriate keyword research for your website before buying your domain name.

When you first launch your blog online, it feels great. However, now the challenge is in getting it seen. In order for search engines to rank your website based on targeted key terms, you will need to generate some external links back to your website. Use websites such as Ezine Articles, Squidoo and write for other websites in your niche to get your blog rising in the search engines and producing traffic.

Use these tips to ensure that your blog doesn’t end up like my first one, gathering dust along some forgotten nook in cyberspace. Instead, implement the techniques I have discussed with you here to get your blog off to an excellent start.

Sam Bakker has been making money online for the past 7 years. If you would like to find out more about Sam Bakker or internet marketing you can view Sam’s website at SamBakker.com

I’ve been talking a lot lately about Guest Blogging, providing both perspectives on the issue; from the guest blogger perspective, with The “Holy Grail” of Guest Blogging Tips, and from the blog owner perspective, with 5 Things to Consider Before Publishing a Guest Post on Your Blog.

Now, I’ve been thinking of a way to wrap up this series, and I think I found the perfect solution, or rather, it found me.

After my first guest blogging post, I was contacted by Ann Smarty of SEOSmarty.com. Ann wanted to invite me to her new project, MyBlogGuest.com, which is a forum-based website that helps connect guest bloggers and blog owners all in one place.

I immediately thought… this is the perfect resource! This is exactly what I was looking for, not only for you my readers, but also for myself as I plan to do my own fair share of guest posting.

Let’s face it, finding relevant guest bloggers or blog owners can be time-consuming. Wouldn’t it be easier and quicker if you could showcase your blog with the most pertinent information about it (and yourself), and then people can come to you, and vice versa?

I think Ann is onto something here with her new project, and I’d like to invite you to check it out as well. Signing up takes just a minute, and there’s no upsell to worry about it. Of course, Ann does offer a premium membership in which you can upgrade at any time. But again, she’s not going to bug you about it, ever. Something I can truly respect.

Once you login you’ll be taken to the main forum page, which looks like this…

At this time you’ll be prompted to enter information about yourself and your blog. You’ll be able to include links to your sites, tags to help people find you, some social sites that people can find you on, and an Avatar so people can see who you are. You’ll also be able to add your Blogging Experience in which you can share about yourself, what you do and what experience you have with blogging. There is even room to set up a forum signature if you wish.

I haven’t gotten a chance to visit the different threads or post in the forum yet, but looking at the numbers I’d say there’s a pretty active community of bloggers.

It’s definitely worth checking out if you’d like to find relevant blogs to guest post on or find guest bloggers for your own blog.

Go ahead… sign up and see what it’s like.

Then, add your own thoughts about MyBlogGuest in the comments below.

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…

A problem that many new bloggers and website owners face is building up traffic and readership right from the start. So, what can one do to get traffic and gain readers early on? The simple answer is that there are numerous ways to drive traffic to a new site or blog, and there are many things you can and should be doing to gain exposure.

I’ve been talking lately about writing reviews to earn affiliate commissions or directly getting paid to write reviews. But, what if you simply reverse the idea and now think of yourself as the advertiser paying a blogger to write a review about your website, blog, etc?

You’re basically paying a blogger to write a review about your site. There are a lot of people that pay for reviews, whether it is for a new product, service, or a new website or blog to get exposure.

Is this method of advertising ideal? Is it worth spending that kind of money ($500 is a lot)?

Here are what some other bloggers have to say about paying for reviews:

Jason Pereira at TUK states that “You Are a Moron if You Pay for Reviews.”

Fabien at Small Fish Big Money reports that “Paid reviews are good for exposure and publicity…nothing more, I repeat, nothing more.” Check out Fabien’s Shocking Revelations post to read more.

Disadvantages of Paying for Review Posts

The most obvious disadvantage is actually forking over all of your hard-earned money for a review.  The amount differs depending on the blogger you plan to have write the review. For high authority blogs, you can expect to pay $300 and up, or if you want a review on John Chow’s website, you’ll have to hand out a whopping $500. For small to medium sized blogs, $50 is around normal.

The other disadvantage as pointed out by Fabien is that the amount of exposure is actually very dismal. Not only that, any exposure you do get will be gone within 24 to 48 hours. Buzz only lasts as long as the subject is still being talked about. Since the review is a one-time thing, as soon as the review is written and published, any buzz created will be gone soon after it’s read.

All in all, I think if done right (promoting the review yourself and building buzz about your new site/blog), and you choose the right blog, this can be beneficial to gain traffic and readers right from the start. You’ll have to weigh the pros and cons and see if the money you’re about to spend will justify the amount of exposure you think you’ll get.

Something else to consider is that there are sites out there that will review your site, blog, etc. for free. Anthony Dinh of Diaries Of A Blogger asked the question, “Why Pay for Reviews When You Can Get Them FREE? In his post he shares a list of sites that will write reviews about your blog for free.

I urge you to check it out these other blog posts before you pay for reviews. A better method, in my opinion, and something Jason touched on, was writing guest blog posts. I’ll talk about guest blog posting in an upcoming post and explain how you can get much better exposure than paying for reviews, all for free.

What do you think about paid reviews? Is it worth spending the money? Leave your comments below and let’s discuss it.

This is a follow-up post to my recent make money writing product reviews post. If you recall, an excellent way to make money online is to write product reviews and include your affiliate links within the review. This not only informs your readers and allows them to make an informed decision, but it helps you to gain trust and earn extra income.

Taking a different approach to this method is getting paid to write review posts. While the first method involves making money when someone clicks on your affiliate link and buys the product, this method allows you to get paid directly from writing the review.

Here’s what I mean…

Instead of relying on affiliate commissions to make money from your review posts, this way you’ll get paid either before or directly after you write the review. There are people and companies who pay bloggers to write reviews about websites and products.

Another difference is that you’ll only get paid one time, whereas the first method can provide a passive income if you keep building traffic to the posts. Is this good or bad? Well, it depends… mainly on how bad you need the money.

If you want some quick cash, then getting paid to write review posts is pretty easy to do. There are a number of sites that you can sign up with for free that will connect advertisers and bloggers.

Here are a few of them:

SponsoredReviews.com

ReviewMe.com

PayPerPost.com

PayU2Blog.com

Don’t expect to make a huge amount of income with this. If you need a few extra bucks for this or that, then this is certainly a viable option. But, don’t plan on making this your only source of income from blogging or from the internet in general.

From what I’ve seen, if you hope to make a large amount of money from each review post that you write, then you’ll first need to build up your blog’s authority to a pretty high level. Most advertisers aren’t going to pay a whole lot for just a small-time blogger.

There are also certain guidelines that will have to be met when writing the review. Pay close attention to these when you get accepted for the review as you’ll want to follow them carefully.

Also, don’t forget about the big bad FTC and their new “guidelines” as well. You’ll want to state within the review, either beginning or end, that your post IS a review and that you were compensated for it. No need in getting in trouble (with a hefty fine) over a simple oversight while trying to make an honest living.

One last thing…

Be honest in your review. Just like the previous method, it’s always better to be honest, upfront and unbiased about the website/product you’re reviewing. If you’re not, people will see right through it, and you’ll ruin any sense of trust your readers had in you.

This method can be a bit controversial as there are some bloggers that feel you’re “selling out” if you get paid to write review posts.

What do you think?

Would you write a review post on your blog if you were paid for it? Why or why not?

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…