This has become a bit of a pet peeve with me (and it is not directed at anyone in particular). The thing that gets me most, is the fact that this was something that I not only did with my blog for the majority of it’s existence – but something that I also promoted as a good idea.
What I am talking about is bloggers incessant need promote their blog before themselves.
You know what I am talking about, people who:
- Use Their Logo As Their Gravatar
- Leave Comments With Their Blogs Name
Everything is about people knowing about their blog.
Like I said, I used to follow this ‘marketing strategy’ but since dropping it, I am starting to realise how annoying it really is.
Who Want’s To Communicate With A Brand?
I don’t know about you, but I want to talk to people. I want to know about the face behind the blog.
I love reading ‘about’ pages.
I love it when I can find and use a persons real name in social media conversations, comments and emails.
I want to know that I am talking to a person a and not a product! (more…)
Have you ever felt like your goals just seem unattainable? I felt exactly the same, and this is how I went about fixing things (without lowering my expectations).
Goals Are Great.
Everyone should have them. But with everyone talking about dreaming big and setting BHAG’s (big, hairy, audacious goals), I think it can be easy to get overwhelmed in inaction and leave you 6 months down the track wondering why nothing has changed.
Does This Mean That We Should Give Up On Goals?
Of course not!
I know just like you that goals are important if you really want to create change in any area of your life. But why is it that some people seem to create and grow and improve with such ease – smashing their goals, while the rest of us are left resetting our targets after we failed to achieve them once again.
Are we just dreaming? (more…)
What You Need To Get Started:
I am starting to get this question a lot, and it is becoming more frequently from my offline friends as they see my Facebook status’ and or ask me what I do to make a living.
When they hear that I am making about $3,000 a month blogging I always get two questions:
1. Is It Hard To Make Money Blogging?
This is probably the hardest question to answer because it is different for each person. But my answers is always that to start blogging for money it is not HARD it is just A LOT of work.
Blogging for money is not a get rich quick scheme, it is like anything, if you follow a proven system then work the system and you will get the result – but a lot of people think they know better or give up before the results start to show.
2. Can You Teach Me How To Start Blogging For Money?
If you want more personal teaching from me then make sure you are signed up for my ‘7 Traits Of A Successful Blogger e-course‘.
This is something that really irks me. You see, I run a blog about building a successful blog and people come to me personally and ask if I can take the time to teach them how to start blogging for money. How about you just start reading my blog?
You see, the reason I don’t personally teach individual people is because then I am only helping one person – and I don’t see that as a good use of my time (don’t get me wrong, I really do want you to start blogging successfully). But I can reach so many more people through my blog and my email list – so that is how I choose to teach people.
Now that doesn’t mean don’t contact me. If you have a more specific question in regard to your blogging – I’d love to hear from you. But if you are just starting out, all of the answers are in my free e-course and in this blog – so just start looking.
(more…)
I put the question out to my readers,’What is stopping your blog from success?‘ and wanted to take the time to address the response from Julian from Corner Paradise:
For me it’s finding the necessary time to blog…
This is a problem that the majority of bloggers face more than they would be happy to admit. So I wanted to tackle the topic head on, with my list of:
5 Ways To Find Time To Blog
1. Make The Time
Have you ever noticed how busy everyone seems to always be? Unless things are scheduled into peoples days, they are easily forgotten or become neglected. So if you have a diary, block out an hour each day as your ‘blogging time’ this can be anytime during the day – just set the time and do everything else around it.
You can’t honestly tell me that your life is so busy that every single one of 24 hours in your day filled by necessities?
2. Turn Off The Television
Following on from my last point, one of the reasons that people say that they have no time is because their day is filled with a lot of little things that are not really that important. Tell me one person for which the television saved a persons life! It is purely entertainment (and usually meaningless entertainment at that).
So do yourself a favour, turn the TV off and put that time into your blog.
3. Become Accountable To Someone
Have you ever noticed that if you tell yourself that you are going to get something done there is a good chance that it is not going to happen, but if you find someone that you trust that you tell that you are going to do something – you will make the time because you don’t want to be seen as a failure in the eyes of someone you trust.
Find someone you trust and ask if you can be accountable to them with your blogging frequency.
4. Gather For The Winter
There will be days when you have a lot of free time and other days when you will have none. They key is to use the time that you have, so if you have extra time – write extra posts. This will give you spare draft posts sitting there waiting for the times that you want to post to your blog, but don’t have the time.
Are you making the most of the days where you have extra time?
5. Blog Your Passion
And when it call comes down to it, if your blog is about your passion you will make the time to write! So if you are struggling to find the time to blog, maybe it is time to step back and think – ‘Am I really in the right niche?’. Because if you aren’t passionate about what you blog about, not only will you get distracted by the smallest things, but the lack of passion will show in your posts….
And who wants to read a passionless blog?
So now what is your excuse for not having time to blog? If you want to blog, you will make the time.
Michael Dunlop, the creator of Popup Domination was kind enough to let me trial his new WordPress plugin on my blogs for the last couple of days so that I would be able to do a more detailed review/case study for it’s launch today. Here is my experience.
So let’s start at the beginning,
What is Popup Domination?
Popup Domination is a premium WordPress plugin that allows you to create some of the best looking light box popups that are proven to increase opt-in email list conversion on your blogs.
What Do They Actually Look Like?
Well you should have already experienced the one that I have created for StandOutBlogger so let me show you one that I have created for a brand new blog (where I am signing people up for a product that I haven’t even created yet).
I added the Popup Domination plugin onto my blog WebsiteBuildr.com on Saturday morning, and since then I have only had 17 unique visitors (brand new blog) and I have already had 2 opt-ins through the popup! That is over 10% conversion! (more…)
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