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!

However, this is just one of the 4 different popup styles, here is another one that Michael personally uses on his blog:

As you can see, the light box plugins are extremely eye catching and look nothing like the spammy popups that people find annoying.

So How Has It Performed On StandOutBlogger?

As I mentioned earlier, Michael has allowed me to access this plugin before it launches, and that has given me the opportunity to test it out on StandOutBlogger to see if I can replicate his ‘300% increase in conversion‘ for myself.

List Building Has Always Been Difficult For Me

I am going to be completely honest and say that I have always had trouble converting traffic into subscribers on my blogs. Last year since the introduction of my email course I have only had a trickle of new subscribers each week. I think my previous record was 5 new subscribers in one week, and considering I was average about 200 visitors a day – this was pretty abysmal. This is why I was so excited to test out Popup Domination to see if it was my product on my method that was failing.

Turns out it was my method:

Remember how I said that I only added Popup Domination on Saturday morning (two days ago)?

Well I am sure that I don’t have to point out the dramatic difference that this plugin has made to my email list conversion.

The way Popup Domination has converted so far, I will double my list in a few short weeks!

Imagine if you were adding 10 new subscribers a day (now I know Michael is pulling 100 a day), but if you are just starting out with list building – 10 new subscribers a day equals 3,650 subscribers in 12 months time! If you are not making good money off a list of that size then you need to take a look at the way you are promoting to you list!

You Are Not Going To Annoy Your Regular Readers!

If you are worried about frustrating your regular readers by having your new  popup displaying each time they visit – don’t stress. Michael thought this one through, and you can set the amount of days before your light box popup shows to that same reader again. It is automatically set at 7 days, but you can change this to whatever you prefer.

But How Hard Is It To Set Up?

Popup Domination installs just like any other WordPress plugin – easily. And I know Michael claims that you will have your light box popup set up and running on your blog in 2 minutes, well maybe I am slow, but it probably took me a little closer to 5. But the main thing is that it is incredibly simple to set up your popup!

There is no coding involved at all, to create your popup you paste the code that your autoresponder (I use Aweber) gives you in a text box, choose the popup style and colours that you want and then fill in the text boxes with the text and bullet points that want to use. Oh, and if you choose the one that includes an image, then you just have to upload the image from your computer (and it will automatically be re-sized for you!).

This is incredibly beginner friendly!

You Need This Plugin!

I don’t usually give such raving reviews, but as you can see by results so far, Popup Domination will be a game changer for your blogging career!

You may have noticed that all the probloggers are starting to focus on building email lists, and the reason is simply that ‘responsive email lists make money‘ and the bigger you can grow your list the better it will be for you.

One of my goals is to be a top 10 affiliate for a product launch by the end of 2011 – I can now see this becoming a reality as I know my email list will continue to grow thanks to Popup Domination.

How Much Does It Cost?

This is a premium WordPress plugin, and considering the results that I have achieved in such a short period of time, as well as Michael’s results of 300% increase (which he shares on the Popup Domination sales page) it does have a cost attributed to it.

But it is not expensive, at just $37 I personally believe that it is costing you money each day that you DO NOT buy it.

So what I recommend you do, is head over to the Popup Domination website and watch the video that Michael has created which explains a little bit more about how it works, as well as shares his personal experiences with Popup Domination, and if you honestly believe that it will not be of benefit to you, then don’t buy it!

But, if you are serious about making money blogging, and are looking to optimise your list building, then I cannot recommend Popup Domination enough!

My FREE e-course will show you the 7 Things Every Successful Blogger Has!

I just wanted to clear up a couple of things when it comes to purchasing the SEO software Market Samurai.

Quite a few people are coming to my blog through the keyword ‘Market Samurai promo code‘ (well that is what the SEO Power Plugin is telling me) and probably leave straight away – obviously when they find out that I don’t have a promo code for them to use.

The Truth Is…’There Is No Market Samurai Promo Code!’

It’s true!

But wait, before you go and buy the full version for the recommended price of $149, there is a simple way to save 35% (or $52) off the RRP – which means it is just $97!

How?

All you have to do to access this discount is to signup for a trial of Market Samurai and purchase the software within the first 6 days of signing up.

It is really that simple, so don’t fall for marketers trying to give you a Market Samurai promo code because:1. They don’t exist & 2. you don’t need them.

All You Have To Do Is:

1. Just sign up for a trial

2. Take Market Samurai for a test drive for a couple of days

3. Purchase within 6 days of signing up (to take advantage of the $97 discounted price)

**NOTE**

For those of you wondering if they do actually jack up the price after the 6 days, they do. First to $127 and then to the full price of $147. So make sure that if you test out Market Samurai and love it – get it in the first 6 days.

My FREE e-course will show you the 7 Things Every Successful Blogger Has!

A couple of weeks ago I made a post about the new SEOpower plugin.

It looks like quite a few of your took advantage of the plugin and installed in on your blog – and if you did, you would have some great research statistics like the image above!

These statistics are for my ‘Outsourcing Jobs Overseas‘ and I find my initial keywords to target using Market Samurai. But the think that I find interesting is that out of the keyphrases above, only 3 of them are ones that I was officially targeting (based off my Market Samurai research).

The SEOpower plugin let’s me know how much traffic I am getting from Google from those phrases (based on my current rank) and also shows me hidden phrases that I didn’t even know I was getting traffic for.

However the main thing I love is comparing the hits to position ratio.

If I have previously got 41 hits because I rank 10th on Google for ‘tim ferriss scam‘ then imagine what that number will be if I rank 1?

So I mainly use the SEO power plugin for finding which keywords are really working for me – so I know which one to outsource link building on (so I rank higher and get more traffic to my blogs!)

So if you haven’t downloaded this free seo plugin I highly recommend that you install it and give it a go for yourself.

Download The SEOpower Plugin

My FREE e-course will show you the 7 Things Every Successful Blogger Has!

If you have been a reader of my blog for a while now, you may know that my brother run a house design business. Well he has made the decision to expand to include a construction business and I have been working with him on the design aspects – and just today we got him the domain and some hosting (I have been hosting his other sites).

Now if you know me, I have always been a major fan of HostGator (see my ‘best blog hosts‘ post) – having been with them for over 2 years now with no problems. However, compared to other unlimited bandwidth hosting companies they are quite expensive, so I decided to do a bit of research and decided on FatCow.

The FatCow Promotion – And Why I Chose FatCow

Now like the other major web hosts, I found a heap of positive reviews for FatCow so in all honesty it came down to price. All hosts pretty much have the same features:

• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Unlimited Space
• Unlimited Domains

So in reality all it can come down to is credibility and price.

The latest FatCow promotion currently makes it the cheapest hosting available from a major hosting company at just $3.67/month! Which happens to be a 50% discount on their usual price.

But the good thing is, you do not have to commit to 36 months of hosting to get that price! (which is what most hosts make you do)

I was able to secure my brother 12 months of hosting at just $44!

The Win A Car FatCow Promotion

Plus if you are from the United States then when you purchase any FatCow hosting before September 30th, then you go in the draw to win a ‘Smart fortwo’ car or a Vespa scooter.

So What Do I Think?

Well as I handle all my brothers website work, I was the one who set everything up in his new FatCow account and I was pleasantly surprised. Now I know it has only been a couple of hours, but I really like their interface (they use vDeck 4.0 as opposed to cPanel – but it was really easy to navigate. While the don’t have Fantastico, they do have InstallCentral which also allows quick WordPress installs.

Currently I would definitely recommend them, and consider them exceptional value  if you take advantage of the current 50% off FatCow promotion.

My FREE e-course will show you the 7 Things Every Successful Blogger Has!

I recently got notified that there was a new SEO plugin on the market and being the type of person who is always looking to improve his search engine rankings, I decided to test it out. Here are my thoughts after the first 48 hours of installing it!

SEO Power – What Is It?

The plugin is called SEO Power and was created by internet marketer Mark Dulisse.

Now before you get too excited let me warn you that you do have to sign up to his email list that is for his new product ‘Dominating Google’ – but if you’re not interested in that, just unsubscribe after downloading!

With that out of the way, let’s take a look at what this plugin actually does and whether it is something that you should add to your blog.

What Does This Plugin It Do?

SEO Power is a really simple plugin that will:

• Detect when any visitor finds ANY page or post on your WordPress site in Google and clicks over…
• Discover the exact keyword phrase that visitor searched in Google to find you…
• Convert that keyword phrase into a WordPress “Tag”, which reinforces your on-site SEO for that term…
• Then instantly apply that tag to EVERY post or page that contains that keyword phrase…

And finally, it will track your site’s “before” and “after” rankings on Google so you can see exactly how much this plugin is AUTOMATICALLY improving your Google Rankings!

What Are The Benefits Of SEO Power?

It is a simple concept, but is it something that bloggers should be utilizing, AND will it start driving more search engine traffic?

I think that every blogger should at least try this plugin for themselves, and here is why!

1. It Simplifies The Process
   Yes, this is something that we could do ourselves, using Google Analytics and then manually go and add the additional WordPress tag to the post, but this would be a bit arduous. This plugin simplifies the whole process and allows you to easily check the pages that are driving traffic, the keywords that people are searching for and lets you add the tag all on one page! I don’t know about you, but anything that makes things simpler is good in my books!
2. It Shows What People Want
   I think a  lot of the time we have a strange misconception that people who read our posts are looking for exactly what you have written. The majority of the time they are coming from obscure search terms that only semi-relate to what your article is about. Know the search terms that visitors are using to access your page allows you to rework your articles towards the people who are reading them!
3. It Tracks Your Rankings For The Terms
   This is an incredibly handy statistic to have, because by look at the traffic that we are receiving (based on the current rank we have for that keyword) we are able to find golden key phrases that we can focus on – that maybe we didn’t know we had at the time. This is especially good to know if you don’t use a keyword research program such as Market Samurai.

Over the past couple of days I have been running this plugin on a couple of my blogs and am really liking it. If you are looking for a plugin to give your search results that extra little boost than SEO Power might be something you will be interested in (plus it is free, so what have you got to lose?).

Get SEO Power

My FREE e-course will show you the 7 Things Every Successful Blogger Has!

I want to be completely honest from the start. I have never been that big a fan of John Chow. which is why when I heard he had a new free ebook on offer – I wasn’t really that interested.

The reason I downloaded it was pretty much just for research (I like to keep tabs on what other bloggers are offering), and because the topic was blog profits – and pulling $40k a month from his blog, profit is something I could not fault John on.

If you want to skip the rest of the posts, here is my honest feedback on John Chows latest ebook in a couple of sentences:

If you are serious about making money with your blog – and I am talking full-time income, then you need to grab this ebook. It contains 60 pages of pure gold and I really like the direction that John has taken with this ebook!

Grab the ‘Ultimate Blog Profit Model‘ ebook now!

Now Onto The Review

Who Is John Chow?

On the off chance that you have no idea who John is, he obviously is a blogger that is doing incredibly well for himself. In just 4 1/2 years he has build his blog from nothing to over $500,000 a year! And the great thing is that he isn’t doing anything that you or I cannot easily duplicate.

So What’s This Ebook Got?

This isn’t your typical short ‘created to grab emails but lacks content’ type of ebook. I actually found myself stopping the stuff I was working on and spending a good 30 minutes digesting the content, and here is a lowdown on what you can expect.

• The 6 Reasons Most Bloggers Aren’t Making Money
• The Average Blog Business Model
• The 5 Point Ultimate Blog Profit Model

With the restructure of StandOutBlogger that I am currently working on, I am really happy to see that I am thinking along the same lines of what John talks about in the ebook.

Who Needs To Download This Ebook

Now I am going to be honest with you. The blog profit model ebook isn’t for everyone. In fact, I know a lot of bloggers are going to take offence to this ebook – but that is because it is counter to what we are told to be doing.

Here Is Who Will Get The Most Out Of It:

• Bloggers who are in this for the long term
• People looking to build their blog as a business
• Bloggers who are not afraid to go against the grain – and actually create profitable blogs

If this is you, then make sure you grab a free copy of  The Blog Profit Model!

My FREE e-course will show you the 7 Things Every Successful Blogger Has!

Today I am launching one of the latest features of my blog, that is sure to quickly become one of the most popular. You may have noticed on the SOB homepage a box titled ‘Free Blog Reviews’, well the funny thing is, that I put that over a week ago however I got zero entries – seemed like no one was interested in getting their blog reviewed for FREE (what is going on there?).

I decided to take my new feature to the StandOutBlogger family and sent an email to my list (scroll up to subscribe) letting them know about the offer -  and got 11 entries (not bad for the first one!)

However there can be only one lucky blogger each week so if that wasn’t you then head over to the “Free Blog Review” page and put your entry in for next week!

This weeks Stand Out Blog is:

BloggingElements.com

Mike, the owner of BloggingElements.com captured my attention with just one short sentence.

If you are not willing to be criticized you probably are not willing to do what it takes to be great.

As soon as I read this I knew Mike was serious about creating a ‘stand out’ blog, and helping bloggers achieve that is the goal of StandOutBlogger.com. So without anything further, let’s take a deep look at BloggingElements.com and if you as readers have anything to add at the end, Mike would love to hear your comments!

• Design & Aesthetics

  
  Let’s start with the first thing that people see when they visit BloggingElements.com.

  MY INITIAL THOUGHTS are that the design is very clean, with a great deal of focus on the content – I LIKE THIS A LOT!

  Scrolling to the footer I find that the blog is using the Vigilance Theme, I have no problems with free themes as long as they do not detract from the content or contain a heap of footer links. This theme does neither of these and I think it is perfect for the blog.

  Another thing that I really like is the limited amount of advertising.

  I think for a professional blog, that a lot of advertising really detracts from the quality of the content AND could limit the chances of new visitors returning.

  How I Would Improve The Design
  I just wanted to throw a few thoughts around that I think may just optimise your design a little bit, they are just my opinions and you can take them or leave them.

  1. Get  A Logo
     One of the things I push frequently on SOB is BRANDING, you want people to instantly recognize your blog and while your layout is important, having a recognizable logo is just as vital. Your logo is great for getting noticed when you comment other blogs, as most blogs now days have gravatars enabled – which shows a selected image with each comment you leave.
  2. Greater Focus On Newsletter Sign Up
     I don’t know if it is just me, but your newsletter sign up form seems to just blend into your content and sidebar. Find a way to draw visitors attention to your signup – without doing it in a off-putting way. Start with putting a border around the whole form and consider using graphics to draw people in.

• Content & Direction

  I really cannot flaw the content of this blog. The quality of the articles are great and they are short and sharp – a quick and easy read with lots of quick tips.

  The only thing I will add to this is that the length of articles is usually associated with the frequency of posting. Blogs posting longer articles are known to usually post one, maybe two times a week while blogs posting shorter articles usually post 3 or more times a week.  Just a thought…but keep the quality content coming!

• Branding & Marketing

  Branding
  This is definitely my favourite part of blogging because it is the one thing that can either make a blog successful or give it an early last breath.

  When I look at BloggingElements.com I definitely see a lack of branding. You have a fantastic brandable image as your gravatar picture, but when I visit the blog I do not see that photo anywhere. When people visit through one of the comments you have left on another blog, they are looking for an instant connection – something that is familiar. This is why I usually recommend that people use one of two things as their gravatar picture:

  1. Their Logo
     Unless you are branding yourself using your blog , then this is the method I recommend. I personally have successful branded StandOutBlogger quite successfully using this method. If you are commenting frequently then this is definitely a fantastic to get your logo well recognized in your blogging niche.
  2. A Photo Of The Blogger
     The only time I recommend doing this is when you also have a picture of yourself above the fold of your blog homepage.

  Marketing
  This is definitely just a preference based on each blogger. All you have to do is find what works for you and do that. For StandOutBlogger it has always been blog commenting that has worked best, but for you it may be social networking, guest blogging, or anything else that gets you traffic. The main thing is that you are marketing your blog.

• Monetization

  
  If you are serious about blogging full-time then you need to have a money making blog. Don’t think of it as selling out, instead think of it as a way of funding your ability to post quality, creative content.Now there are definitely right and wrong ways to go about this and I won’t go into all the details, but instead let’s look at BloggingElements.com and see what they are doing and maybe suggest a few things that Mike could try.

  What I like:

  Limited & Well Placed Advertising
  I really like that how there are only a couple of ad spaces available in the side bar, and they are not a distraction from the content (which is the focus). All the ads are well focused towards the blogs target market which is also good.

  A Few Thoughts…

  However, I am guessing that any money earned from those links are not a huge amount of money. So how do you go about increasing your blogs income without filling it with advertising? There are a couple of options:

  1. Focus On One Affiliate Program
     Unless you have a large amount of traffic, chances are that selling private ads are not making you more than $50 a month – total. You can make that from one affiliate sale (depending on the program). So instead of having 4 people pay you $10 for a 125×125 ad spot in your side bar, why not have a larger 250×250 ad spot banner to your favourite affiliate program. I have seem a lot of bloggers doing this with the Thesis Blog Theme. This helps direct your visitors to one common source, instead of confusing them with too many exit options. You could even have a second advertisement for the same affiliate at the bottom of each post.
  2. Build That List
     BloggingElements.com already has a list (and I subscribed), but as everyone keeps quoting, “The money is in the list.”Your list is what will hold your community together. They are the ones that will be interested when you write a new post – so let them know. They are the the people who are wanting to improve their blogging, so will be willing to invest in products that you can prove the value of.

     So I would definitely put the focus on building your list, provide quality information to your subscribers and when you find a product you would like to recommend you will have people who will trust your opinion – just don’t abuse their trust!

     A few quick fixes to the Blogging Elements Newsletter

     Thank You Page – When I subscribed to the newsletter, I confirmed my email address and was directed to an Error 404 page saying that the page I was looking for did not exist. The thank you page is a great way to win instant trust by offering an bonus unadvertised free gift, or some bonus content – so make the most of it!

     Email Formatting – I noticed that the Newsletter is using Aweber (good choice), they have a large selection of fantastic free email templates, which is why I was a little surprised to see the welcome email to be plain text, but the font quite large. I would recommend finding a nice email template or just going with regular size font in plain text (using Awebers width guidelines).

In Conclusion

Definitely a blog with a lot of potential. I would just spend some time working on branding Blogging Elements, keep the quality of your blog posts up, and just keep focusing on building your list. These few things will help take BloggingElements.com to the next level.

Now it is over your you, if you have any input that you believe would help Mike make BloggingElements.com even better, then leave a comment below.

If you would like  a review of your blog like this, then head over to our Free Weekly Blog Review page as I will be giving away a free review each week as a way for us all to gain insight from other blogs.

My FREE e-course will show you the 7 Things Every Successful Blogger Has!

If you don’t know who Michael Dunlop is, then I am sure you will be starting to  hear about him a lot! For the last couple of years Michael (only 20) has been running RetireAt21.com and has turned it into an extremely influential and profitable website, but in recent months he has turned his attention to a domain that he actually purchased from me for $100, IncomeDiary.com and turned it into a $5,000 a month blog in just 3 short months!

This effort is incredible in itself, but the thing is, that he has done all this, while showing you exactly how to do it yourself. A bit confused? Let’s take a look inside IncomeDiary and highlight a few of the things that Michael has implemented in the process of building this blog so quickly into the profitable blog it is today.

First a quick disclaimer: Michael is a personal friend of mine, and has been a fantastic mentor to me. So this may or may not affect the bias of this post :D

What Is Income Diary?

Income Diary is basically a blog with two main focuses, inspiration and action. Michael constantly inspires you with a mixture of interviews with successful Internet entrepreneurs and lists of big money makers online.

Then calls you to action with his free 7 day course that takes you through the exact steps you need to follow to create your first successful blog! As well as that, there also happens to be a fantastic forum that already has over 2,000 members.

Let’s Dig A Little Deeper

High Profile Interviews

I think the easiest way for me to do this, is to just link to just a small selection of his interviews, and then you can not only see the calibre of Internet entrepreneurs that he is interviewing – but also the quality!

• Joel Comm – ‘Adsense Secrets’ and ‘iFart’ Iphone Application Fame
• Craig Newmark - Founder Of Craigslist.com
• John Chow – Infamous For Making Money Telling People How Much He Makes!

A lot of the more recent interviews also contain a podcast of the interview as well, which is handy if you want to use your driving time to listen to them.

Creative List Posts

Everyone is telling us that social media love lists, but not many people are able to do them well. Check out these lists and telling me if you think Michael knows how to write a good list post:

• 30 Cool Things For Successful Entrepreneurs To Do
• Top 30 Dyslexic Entrepreneurs

Now that is quite a bit of inspiration so let’s get into the education, because I did say that he has built IncomeDiary.com to $5,000/month teaching people how they can do the same…

FREE 7 Day E-Course

A lot of bloggers really struggle to make money from their blog because they do not understand or implement list building. Michael has put a lot of the focus of Income Diary into this money making technique and it is definitely paying off for him.

I personally signed up to receiver the 7 Day E-Course because I understand the value in learning from those who are currently in the position that I am aiming for. While I am not going to go into depth about the content, I will leave that for Michael to explain when you sign up, but I will say that after doing this course personally, I would highly recommend that if you are looking to start your first blog or just wanting to make it something more than it currently is, then you need to sign up.

The Blogging Forum

Have you ever wanted a place where you can just chat with other bloggers and find out what is working for them and just chat with people who can relate with you as a blogger – because I know my friends and family don’t understand!

The Income Diary forum is especially for bloggers and after just 3 months already has over 2,000 members – what a great networking tool! I must say that this is the last feature of this blog that I have taken advantage of (I only just signed up!), but I am looking forward to just having a place that I can go to learn, to share. To celebrate and even to vent! So become a member of this blogging forum today and join the community.

That’s enough from me. What do you think?

Michael Wants Your Thoughts!

When Michael asked me to write this review of Income Diary for him, he specifically said that he wants EVERYONES feedback!

So let Michael know what you think of this blog, what he is doing well and the things that you think he could improve on. Leave your thoughts below and let’s get some discussion happening!

My FREE e-course will show you the 7 Things Every Successful Blogger Has!

I just received an email from a good blogging friend of mine, David Risley. If you haven’t heard of David, He runs a $10,000 a month blog over at PCMech.com and also has a blog about blogging at DavidRisley.com.

This guy doesn’t just talk the talk, he has been blogging for over 10 years now! That is a long time, but who wouldn’t want to be making $10,000 a month – just from blogging?

The reason I am telling you about this, is becuase in the email that he sent me, David let me know about a free ebook that he has  just written called ‘The Blogging Wealth Gap‘ (Click To Visit).

Not Another Ebook About Blogging!

Now I know what you are thinking, ‘Another Ebook About Blogging’, but this one really  surprised me. ‘The Blogging Wealth Gap‘ is all about monetizing your blog (and David obviously knows his stuff there).

David notes that a lot of bloggers do not make good internet marketers – which is why they never make any money! (Are you in that  category?)

Download The Blogging Wealth Gap

In fact the equation he puts across is this:

SOLID BLOGGING + COMPETENT MARKETING = LOTSA MONEY!

This ebook is definately a ‘mindset changing’ ebook, and has made me consider how I run StandOutBlogger.com.

If you are serious about making money from your blog and not Charity Blogging (another concept David discusses in his ebook) then head over and grab this fantastic free resource.

David has even more resources on they way and I am really excited, because David is one of the most ‘no-fluff’ type of bloggers I know. And  what he has got to share is definately worth learning (because I want to be a $10,000 a month blogger).

If you are serious about montizing your blog, I definately recommend that you download The Blogging Wealth Gap.

My FREE e-course will show you the 7 Things Every Successful Blogger Has!