Tuesday 4 June 2013

HOW TO BECOME A FULL TIME PAID BLOGGER

BLOGGING is becoming fast an indispensable on the internet today as businesses and organizations are becoming more prominent on the internet. The new era for advertisement and public relations is the dawn of the internet whose usage increases on a daily basis than ever imagined.
    forthwith, anything can get online presence no matter how. the beauty of this position lies with the fact that anybody can use the internet no matter the age and educational background. one of those methods of getting online presence is through blogging.

Blogging is easy.  At least it is if you have any interest in writing.  You don't need any other special skills really...... If you just want to blog.

Blogging successfully is a completely different beast all together.  But, what does that really mean? The idea of being a successful  blogger will differ between individuals.  But, in general the essence of what makes a good blogger is the same.  A successful blogger is one who is able to keep up with the times in his or her own demographic.  One who stays a little ahead of everyone else, in order to produce fresh posts that are different from anyone else on the blog.  A successful blogger understands that there is more to blogging than just writing an occasional post.  In fact, that is just the tip of the iceberg.

What is blogging today?  In previous times blogs were considered online journals of sorts.  Things for anyone to read, where individuals waxed poetically about whatever it was that was on their mind.  I guess blogs are still that.  But they have become much, much more than just a journal.  They have become a tool for many online entrepreneurs.  A blog is a very versatile way to convey your goals on the internet.  the format is easy to understand and the basic setups and costs are minimal.  This allows almost anyone with a couple bucks to get themselves a blog up and running.

But, just because you are able to get a blog going does not make you a successful blogger.  Blogging is a long term battle, one that requires a lot of hours typing away on your keyboard, and one that will almost never show instant gratification.  So, not only do you need to have some writing ability, but you will also need a heaping pile of patience. (Not one of MY stronger suits)  But patience and writing ability is not the extent of what you will need, oh no, not even close!

In many ways, blogging requires a multi-tasker. You have to be capable of understanding many different aspects of the process and implementing those.  You have to be able to not only write, but you have to be able to write in a way that grabs your readers and compels them to return and read more.  You have to not only be able to write compelling, but you have to be able to write in a way that gets your points across to the search engines.  This means that occasionally you have to be able to naturally place keywords\ (not talking about stuffing or anything of that sort).  And on top of that you have to remember what you have written in the past and be able to use properly anchored keyword back links in order to drive traffic to your older works.  It is more than just writing words....A lot more.

But blogging is more than just the writing part.  You have to be able to set up a blog.  whether you are using something easy like a blogger blog, or something more involved like a Wordpress setup, it still requires you to understand some basics of setting up your own website,  and you will need to understand what works and what doesn't.

On top of that, you will need a basic understanding of SEO.  Or search engine optimization.  You will have to learn basic backlinking, and you will need to understand keywords.  You will need to know that your word count matters and that too many links out can be a bad thing.

The point is.  Blogging is not one dimensional.   You need to have a grasp on many aspects of the internet.  And on top of all that, it will be an ever changing experience.  Trends and tactics are always changing, they will affect you and you will have to conform to them.  You will need to be able to change what you have been doing for months and maybe years, just to maintain yourself.  It can be difficult and it can be frustrating, but if you get it done write, it can be highly rewarding.

WAYS TO MAKE MONEY WITH A BLOG

when I go to family functions or social events I often get a blank stare when I explain what I do for a living. I think people understand the part that I write articles and put them on a website, but when it comes to making money from it, they don’t get it. In this section I will lay it out and hopefully it will help bring some clarity…

CPC Ad Networks

There are a few different ad networks that I use on CPF. The most successful one has been Google’s Adsense program. Basically what they do is read the article that I write and find ads that are relevant to it and display them next to the article. The great thing about it is that by having extremely relevant ads, it actually can be quite beneficial to the readers as well.
For example, if I write an article explaining what an IRA was, but didn’t mention where you could open one, Adsense would likely be displaying ads of places to open an IRA. So as a reader, if I read that article and decided that I did want to open an IRA, the ads would be providing options that the article did not. I am currently doing a few tests with another CPC network called Chitika. Apparently, you can use it in conjunction with Adsense. The jury is still out, but I am interested to see how it compares to Adsense. All things considered, I have found that if optimized correctly, Adsense really can work well. I will explain more about how to optimize it in sections below.

CPM Ad Networks

While Adsense pays on a click basis (CPC), I use other ad networks that pay by the total # of impressions (CPM). At the beginning, these networks didn’t produce much income, but as the traffic grows CPM networks seem to work well in conjunction with Adsense. I use (or have used) Pulsepoint, AdClickMedia, Adbrite, Adify, BuzzLogic, and Casale Media. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses and may be suitable for one kind of a site and not another.

Affiliate Product Sales

Basically an example of an affiliate sale would be if you sold lawn mowers and I referred a customer to you, if they purchased you would pay me back a % of the sale for referring them. There are a million options for this on the internet now. The main programs I use are
There are many others, but these are a few of the more popular ones available.
(Added 10/20/10 – I recently found out about a new site called Viglink which allows you to automatically turn all our links on your site to affiliate links. I am testing it out and am pretty excited about it since it greatly simplifies the process of adding affiliate links.)
I have a very strong policy about honest recommendations. I give my honest opinions about products that I find regardless of how it will affect affiliate sales. For example, I wrote about Cash Crate and updated the article to show what I didn’t like about them. Because Cash Crate has such a generous referral program, I know some people making lots of money from it, but I just don’t feel comfortable recommending it since I had a bad experience using it.
On the other hand there are products like Ebates, Perkstreet FinancialSwagbucks.com, and Sharebuilder that I recommend and also have some sort of affiliate or referral program as well. These are what I love because I can help readers by pointing them to good resources and tools that have helped me and get paid in the process. I know some people don’t have a problem promoting anything that will pay them, but I just can’t, in good conscience, recommend something to someone that I don’t genuinely believe will help them.

Direct Ad Sales

I also sell ad space directly to advertisers. This hasn’t provided much income for me yet and may or may not even be worth my time. I know that in certain niche markets direct ad sales can work out very well, but thus far it hasn’t been a big money maker on CPF

by VICTOR OSAKWE ESQ

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Monday 3 June 2013

AFFILIATE MARKETING PRINCIPLES FOR BEGINNERS

There are tons of companies and webmasters using affiliate programs to boost their online sales and most of these affiliate programs are free to join. When you sign up for an affiliate program, an affiliate link with a unique affiliate ID will be assigned to you. The affiliate link is used for marketing the products of your merchant. When a visitor buys an item through your affiliate link, you earn affiliate commission. Here are the steps to starting an affiliate marketing business:


 Steps

  1. Research affliate programs. Find out which products are most popular and what is its conversion rate. Visit the seller's website to see whether their sales letters are enough to generate sales. A conversion rate of 5% is reasonably good. This means that for every 100 people landing on your merchant’s website, 5 visitors will place an order.
  2. 2
    Join an affiliate program.
    • Choose a program that offers recurring commissions that compound each month as you refer more customers.
  3. 3
    Promote an affiliate program through a website. You will have more options in sending potential buyers to your affiliate programs if you create a website to promote your affiliate programs. Visiting other professional websites of your niche is a good way to get some ideas on how to design your website.
  4. 4
    Make your website content relevant. For example, if your affiliate sells e-books, you can write a review or make a YouTube video for each e-book with an affiliate link to the sales website.
  5. 5
    Drive targeted traffic to your website. To earn affiliate commission you need to drive targeted traffic to your website. The more traffic your website gets, the more likely you’ll generate sales. There are several ways to drive targeted traffic to your site in short period of time:
    • Pay-per-click (PPC) Advertising. You can get a lot of targeted traffic from PPC advertising programs. The two most popular and effective PPC advertising programs are Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing. These programs allow you to bid for top rankings on the keywords of your choice. When someone enters a search term matches your keyword in the PPC search engine and press the search button, your contextual ad will appear on the sidebar of the search result page. If the visitor clicks through your ad to your website, you’ll be charged based on your bid amount. Also, PPC advertising programs will distribute your ads to websites of their content networks also.
    • Article Marketing. Write an article related to your affiliate products with a link to your website in the article’s resource box and submit it to credible article directories. To get more and continuous targeted traffic, you need to write more articles, however make sure that the articles are quality. Try to publish a new article every week. Doing this for a year can drive truckloads of free traffic to your website.
    • Post Messages on Forums. Post messages on community forums with a link to your site in the signature of each message. Make sure your forum profile includes your website link within the signature option. Spend a few hours navigating the pages of the forums. You can ask questions and post informative and helpful replies to other peoples’ questions or messages to build your status. The more people trust you, the more likely they will click your link.
    • Post videos on youtube about the product. These video reviews are the quickest and the most effective way to build trust by showing the benefits of the product in real time. Since Google owns youtube your videos can even rank high in the google organic search.You can even provide a link under the video and you can encourage your visitors to purchase the product through your affiliate link.

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STEPS ON HOW TO START A BUSINESS ONLINE


According to Forrester Research retail sales rose 2.5% in 2009. While that is surprising enough, consider this: Online sales rose 11%.
If you are looking to start a business, even a part-time business, you would be hard-pressed, in this economy, to find a sector growing at an 11% clip. Forrester forecasts that e-sales in the U.S ,Nigeria and the rest of the world will go from about $173 billion this year to about $250 billion in 2014. That's booming China kinda growth my friends.
So the answer is yes, starting an online business is a smart move.
Here are the pros and cons:
Pros: The cost of entry is low; you have access to global markets; it is an automated, 24/7 profit center; you can look every bit as big as the big boys; the overhead is low (more on that in a minute); and the profit potential is large.
Cons: It takes work to get people to learn of the site; there is no personal contact as with a retail store; creating credibility (and thus customers) can be a challenge; it takes time to get things really cooking; and customers cannot physically see or feel your products.
The pros definitely outweigh the cons.
Here are 7 Steps to Starting an E-Commerce Business:
1. Create a great site: This is No. 1 for a reason. You have to have a great-looking, intuitive, easy-to-navigate site if you are going to be taken seriously by potential e-customers. Your site must look professional. Pictures and content must load quickly. There can be no dead links. Have a robust "About" page.
The good news is that it is easy and affordable to create a great site – look for online hosts that have pre-made templates you can customize.
Web surfers who come to your site will judge it in about three seconds. That's all you've got. You better impress them the moment they hit it.
2. Pick your products: I have a buddy who owns an antiques store. His business success motto is: "It's all in the buying." He knows if he can find the right product at the right price, he will make a profit.
The same is true for you.
Where do you find great, inexpensive products? It depends on what you plan to sell. It may be a matter of spending weekends at yard sales and on Craigslist picking up some good, cheap stuff. If you want a more formal arrangement, there are wholesalers and distributors for almost any product you need.
3. Have an online catalog or store: When you shop online, there is usually a catalog of products to choose from: Tiny pictures with product descriptions. That is what you have to do. Happily, you do not have to create this from scratch. Your e-commerce site host (see below) will offer a store creation tool, with point-and-click ways to add products, pictures, and descriptions.
4. Have the ability to process payments: This issue is two-fold: The financial ability to process credit card payments comes when you have a merchant account. Search for that term online. The physical ability to process such payments is, again, something your host will offer. Search for "online merchant services" or "E-commerce hosting."
5. Market and promote your site: All these steps are important, but this one may be a little more important. People have to find your site. No matter how nice it looks or how cool your products, if no one knows about the site, it is a waste of time, money, and effort.
Master search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. Engage in viral marketing. Tweet. Have a Facebook fan page. Try pay-per-click. Advertise.
6. Fulfillment: You have to deliver what you sell, on budget and on time. Don't forget to add the cost of shipping to your prices.
7. After-sales support: How will you handle returns? What should you upsell? Support is the difference between a one-time sale and creating a customer for life.

by VICTOR OSAKWE ESQ

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GREAT WAYS TO DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG


Writing your blog posts is just a small part of growing your blog. The rest is getting readers to your blog…and that’s not always as easy. While there are some tried and true means of growing your blog, there are infinite ways to get your message in front of new people. Here are just a few to get started with!

The Basics (Social Media)

  • Tweet your post: Tweeting posts should be a regular thing. But one thing bloggers tend to do is just Tweet, “New post! [Link]” Truth be told, I NEVER click on those links. Write a snappy tweet with a link to your post. It could be your post title, but something that you know your Tweeps will click on. And change it up so you can tweet your post more than once.
  • Facebook: Don’t forget your readers on Facebook! Be sure to include an image on your post and test different times of days to see when your readers click on your links.
  • Pinterest: A powerful traffic driver, Pimp your images for Pinterest, and be sure to include this in you promotional strategy. You may have to test a few things to see what works best for your blog.. including adding text, pinning close up shots, whatever it is your followers best respond to.
  • Stumbleupon: This is an oldie but a goodie. It doesn’t take long to “Stumble” posts, but you never know which posts might get “Stumbled” so you wouldn’t want a chance to miss out on additional traffic boosts. It’s a really great way to get exposure beyond your regular circles.
  • Instagram: While there is no real way to link directly to your posts (yet) in Instagram, it’s always great to let your followers there know you have new content on your blog. Be sure to let them know that your ‘gram is for a new post!
  • Google+: There might be a lot of things disappearing from Google these days, but Google+ isn’t one of them. Google+ give some added value with their SEO features, along with sharing capabilities.
  • Include a “Follow me on Bloglovin” link in all of your posts: Now that Google reader is going away, more and more people are using Bloglovin. Bloglovin actually drives traffic the more followers you have, so make sure you give your readers every chance to follow you on that site so they never miss a post.
  • Do a Twitter chat around a blog topic: Tweeting your posts might not be enough… perhaps another way to promote your content (and your Twitter presence) is to host a Twitter chat and use a hashtag. Here you would write a post on your blog, invite a few blog friends to participate and have a conversation on Twitter.

SEO Promotion

  • Use Google Keywords to promote via SEO: One of the best ways to promote content is to use SEO. It is still the number one traffic driver for all of my websites, and should not be overlooked. Google has a nifty Keyword Tool which allows you to search keywords and see how many people are looking for particular topics, and how competitive the keywords are.
  • Look in your Google Analytics for to see how people find your blog (and expand on that): In Google Analyitcs you can find under “Site Content–>Search Engine Optimization–>Queries” What keywords people are using to find your site. We found a lot of people found IFB through our GIF tutorial, so maybe it’s time to revisit that post topic.
  • Link to other posts within your site to boost SEO: Links within your site do two things, they build authority for your posts, and they keep your readers on your website. Erika Miller noted we shouldn’t overdo it with the links in our post, so be strategic and try not to get carried away.
  • Put relevant keywords in your image “Alt” Tags: Don’t forget your images can be searched too!
  • Guest Post: A lot of people complain that guest posts don’t drive traffic. But maybe if you play it right, driving traffic could be secondary to your SEO goals. Use your guest post opportunities as a chance to link to specific posts within your site to help boost the SEO results and that will get you more traffic.

Good Old-Fashioned Email

  • Email Newsletter to your readers: It’s never to early to start building your newsletter. It may take time, but after all blogging is a long haul game. Email your readers once a week, or once a month to let them know about what’s going on with your blog. It’s the perfect time to promote specific content.
  • Ask your blog friends to promote a post: If you have a post you’d like to promote, and you have a great relationship with your blog friends, asking them once in a while to promote a post for you is no big deal.
  • Pitch your post to other blogs: Say you write a post that would be perfect for another blog, it would be a good time to let that other blogger know about your post. Who knows, maybe you’ll get a link!
  • Pitch your post to the press: Say you’ve done an independent study, maybe you’re an expert in budget fashion or did something newsworthy, or have the perfect post for a website, developing relationships with the press would be a great way to get added exposure on news sites in addition to blogs.

Create Sharable Content

  • Create a free download to share with your readers: Whether it be a calendar, desktop or even a template, free downloads are a great way to get readers to download, keep, and possibly share with others. Everyone likes a freebie!
  • Write content that solves a problem: Do you have a solution to a problem everyone has? Getting rid of muffin top? If you solve a problem, it will help your readers, AND if your readers have friends with the same problem, they’ll probably share your blog post too.
  • Write a catchy headline: I cannot say enough about how important it is to have a straightforward, yet catchy post title. This is often times the first impression people get of your website whether it be through search or through social media. You only have fractions of a second to catch their eye!
  • Write a controversial post: Maybe you don’t agree with what’s going on, maybe you’re on the fence, maybe you have a juicy piece of information to share with your readers. A controversial post will get people talking.
  • Feature another blogger: If you’re new, maybe you can do a feature swap with a blog friend with similar traffic, but featuring other bloggers helps build community along with you might get social media promotion from the other blogger. Word of advice, the other blogger may not share, so don’t expect or demand them to do so, as you may end up burning a bridge.
  • Start a blog meme: Whether it be something like the IFB Project, or the various ones out there, bloggers love to engage with others by sharing content. If you provide a service to share their content, you can always ask that they share your content as well.
  • Create an infographic, and pitch it to other blogs: Infographics… they are fun, and shareable, and most of all pitchable. If you think of a clever way to make information into a graphic, it could really lead to some amazing promotion for your blog!


by VICTOR OSAKWE ESQ

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