Combine the Power of Twitter and Wordpress to Make You Money
By Aiden | Tuesday
Since we’re talking about blogging to generate traffic to your site, I just want to share with you a little tool that I recently discovered. It’s called “Tweet My Blog” which is a pretty cool Twitter plugin for Wordpress.
In case you’re not familiar with Twitter, it’s a site where you can post updates on what you’re doing that might be of interest to others (particularly your “followers”). Your updates can contain only 140 characters maximum, so it’s very short. It’s just like blogging but because of the brevity of your posts (updates), Twitter is also known as “micro blog.” If you don’t already have a Twitter account, you can go there and sign up for free. Once you sign up you’re welcome to follow me on Twitter :)
OK, back to the plugin i was telling you about. If you have a Wordpress blog (like this one) you can use the Tweet My Blog plugin and set it so that every time you make a blog post, it will automatically generate a “tweet” for you on Twitter. Your followers can then click on the link to your blog, giving your site even more traffic.
There’s other neat stuff this plugin can do including making extra money for you. No, I’m not talking about the extra money you make from the additional traffic you get, which is a great possibility. But you can also make money by recommending the tool to others. The greatest thing is that you can download it for free! You may be wondering, if it’s free how can you make money? Well, just check it out for yourself and find out ;)
Download Tweet My Blog now! I would hurry if I were you ‘cos the owners may start charging for it soon!
Topics: Web Site Traffic | No Comments »
Blogging to Generate Web Site Traffic
By Aiden | Tuesday
Posting comments on other people’s blog is a great way to generate and increase traffic to your web site. We previously talked about creating your own blog. As you remember, one advantage of a blog over a static site is that a blog is interactive. Your readers can write their comments about your posts, adding more to the content of your blog, keeping it “fresh.” That in itself will keep the search engines happy and they’ll visit your blog more often, increasing your blog’s ranking and ultimately bringing your site more free traffic.
Since other people post comments on your blog, you can do the same on other blogs. You should first find blogs that are in the same niche as yours or general interest blogs, read a few of the most recent posts, and then add your comments. Most blogs will allow you to include the URL of your site on your comments. This is how you get more traffic to your website. First, through direct clicks from the readers of the blogs you posted your comments on, and second, by posting your URL on other blogs you create back links to your site which will in time increase your web site traffic.
Your comment should add value to the posts. Don’t just write something like “great and informative post.” If the blog is moderated, you comment will most likely not be posted, or it will be soon deleted once the owner reads it. They will know that you were just commenting to get a back link to your site and generate traffic. It’s considered spamming. So you should elaborate on why you believe it’s a great an informative post. Maybe you can also include some of your own experiences in your comments.
A couple more things are worth mentioning regarding posting comments on other blogs as a traffic generating technique. The first one is that you should create a relevant text link to your site, containing your main keyword. For example, your name is Andy and you have a web site about golfing, you can type something like “Andy’s Golfing Tips” as your name instead of just “Andy.”
The second thing is that preferably you should find blogs that don’t place a “no follow tag” (which instructs the search engines not to follow the link to your site hence, ignoring the back link). In other word, a “no follow tag” prevents your site from getting credit from the search engines for the back link. So all you get is direct traffic from readers of that blog if they click on your links. There is a great software that helps you search for blogs in your niche that don’t have the “no follow tag.” It’s called Comment Kahuna which is free to download and is a powerful tool to help you increase traffic to your website.
I was gonna write more but it’s past my bedtime and I’m really sleepy (yawn) so I’ll talk to you some other time. In the mean time, have fun driving traffic to your web site.
Topics: Web Site Traffic | No Comments »
Celebrating 4th of July - What Does Freedom Mean to You?
By Aiden | Friday
Today is the 4th of July which is the American Independence Day. Being independent means being free from the power of others. So that leads to the basic question: what does freedom mean?
To me being free means being able to do whatever I please. But wait a second! I can’t certainly do whatever I please because I’m not the only one that lives on this planet. So freedom actually has its limitations as long as there are other people involved. Then let me rephrase the definition of freedom: being able to do whatever I please as long as I don’t infringe on other people’s right to do the same. It’s actually pretty simple but unfortunately, not everyone respects the rights of others, and that’s how conflicts develop. However, I didn’t write this post to discuss that :) So let’s get back talking about freedom.
Let me elaborate on freedom by giving some examples of it.
Freedom means being able to spend my time the way I want it without others telling me I have to be at a certain place at a certain time, doing whatever they tell me to do. It means I can spend time with those whom I love and care about.
Freedom means being able to go anywhere I want whenever I want without fear or restrictions; whether it’s walking around the neighborhood enjoying the beauty of nature and the fresh, clean air, or traveling to far-away places to enjoy the many different cultures, cuisines, and other wonderful things.
Freedom means being able to afford all kinds of fine things in life without worrying about getting in debt and not being able to pay it back. So what are “the fine things in life?” A waterfront mansion with a home theater, a gourmet kitchen, and an infinity pool; a luxury automobile like the Mercedes-Benz S65 AMG and BMW 760Li Sedan; healthy gourmet meals everyday. OK, I don’t wanna get carried away ;) but those are some of the fine things in life to me. You may have other things you like. Feel free to mention them in the comment section.
Why internet marketing is conducive to freedom.
Well, first of all in internet marketing you’re your own boss. You can work on your business anytime you want even in the middle of the night or the wee hours of the morning wearing (or not wearing ;) ) anything you like. This is a major advantage to me.
Second, internet marketing has the potential to eventually replace the income from your “real job” and go even further… to make you lots of money and allow you to live the lifestyle of your dreams. Again, you won’t get there overnight, and I’m not there myself. It takes focussed and consistent efforts as well as perseverance to get yourself there. You also need to BELIEVE that you will get there.
Enjoy the journey as much as the destination. So don’t fret while you’re on your way like the little kid who keeps asking “are we there yet?” every 5 minutes. Be grateful for all the freedom and the good things in life that you ALREADY have (yes, there’s plenty of them in your life right now; they may not be immediately obvious to you, but you’ll find them if you take the time to look), and more will come your way.
So while you’re barbecuing or traveling this long weekend, take the time to appreciate the things around you, big and small. The delicious food, the warm weather, even the rain that makes everything green and beautiful, the sound of birds singing in the morning and insects chirping at night, the car that you’re driving or the plane that you’re flying in, the love and great company you share with your family and friends. Aren’t you richly blessed? It would be hard to say no!
So happy birthday America, and let’s celebrate life!
Topics: Enjoy Life | 1 Comment »
How to Generate Website Traffic
By Aiden | Wednesday
Generating Website Traffic is a very important part of internet marketing. You can have the best web site selling the best product or service, but if very few people visit your site, you will make very little money if at all. I heard someone compared it to opening a Wal Mart in the middle of a desert.
There are several ways to generate traffic to your web site either using paid or free methods (also known as organic traffic). With the paid methods obviously you have to spend money to generate website traffic, and these include PPC (pay per click) advertising, network advertising, and ezine advertising. When you’re first starting out, it’s better to learn and use the free ways to generate traffic because they’re… free! :) So you basically have nothing to lose. Believe me, it’s easy to lose money very quickly on paid traffic methods unless you really know what you’re doing. There are special courses offered on using PPC and other paid methods for those interested.
So here we’ll just focus on the free ways of generating web site traffic, and there are several of them. It may take more than one post to cover them all, but let’s just start with a few today.
Creating a blog
Blogging is a great way to get more traffic to your website. Yes, you’ve heard this before. Search engines love blogs. First of all because blogs are dynamic; whenever you add a new post, the contents of your pages change. So you can see why it’s important to post often to your blog. The second reason is that blogs are interactive since you can (and should) allow others to post comments on your blog, thus adding more content to it. Isn’t it great when you can get other people to add content to your web site for free? :)
Getting links from other sites
Search engines find a new web site through a link from a different site. This is the best way of getting your new site indexed (instead of submitting it to the search engines). So the more links from other sites your website gets, the more popular it is with the search engines, which in turn will increase your website traffic. There are several ways to (yeah, I know there are a lot of ways to implement all these traffic generating techniques, and that’s good! :) ) obtain links to your web site which include…
Exchanging links with other web sites
When you find other websites in the same niche as yours, you can contact the owner and ask if they would be interested in exchanging links with you. This is a win-win situation because both of you will benefit from getting more web site traffic.
Submitting your web site to directories
You can submit your website to several directories to help drive traffic. Some directories require a reciprocal link, some don’t. A one-way link carries more weight than a mutual link. Therefore, I would concentrate on those directories that don’t require you to link back to them. Click here for a list of directories.
Submitting your site to social networking and online bookmarking sites
This is also a great way to increase web site traffic by getting one-way links. There are a couple of things you need to keep in mind about social networking and bookmarking sites in order to make them effective. First, you need to participate in their communities by voting on other people’s sites, posting your comments about their submission, etc.
Second, don’t just submit pages from your own sites. Every now and then you should submit other sites that aren’t yours. That way you won’t be regarded as a spammer who uses their site just to increase traffic to your website. This can actually get you banned! So be careful and do this wisely. A few of the most popular social networking and bookmarking sites are Digg, StumbleUpon, Propeller, Del.icio.us, and Technorati.
Writing articles and submitting them to article directories
This is one of the most powerful free traffic generating techniques. First you need to write an article pertaining to your niche (or have someone else, like a ghost writer, do it for you) which is at least 250 word long. Then you add something called a resource box at the end of your article which contains brief information about yourself and a link to your web site. Now you submit your article to a few article directories such as Ezine Articles, GoArticles, and Article Dashboard.
This way, besides getting one-way links from the article directories themselves, you will also get back links from other web sites that use your article, increasing your site popularity. Eventually you will increase your targeted web site traffic from this powerful traffic building technique.
For more powerful tips on generating website traffic, check out Killer Traffic Tactics. If you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to submit them below.
Topics: Web Site Traffic | 2 Comments »
The Simplest Way to Make Money Online
By Aiden | Friday
Can you really make money online? Can you do it without spending any money? What is the easiest way to make money online? Those are some of the most frequently asked questions about making money online by people who are new to all this.
Yes, there’s a lot of hype about making money online which are mostly perpetuated by by the so-called “gurus” who just want to sell their products or membership. They make it sound so easy to do that even an eight year old can do it, or just push a button and the money will start pouring into your bank account within 3 days. Those are ridiculous claims that actually bring shame to the industry.
Yes, like I said there are many internet marketers that are millionaires, but they didn’t achieve that overnight. It took them years of research, testing and tracking results, developing products, etc., not to mention sleepless nights. The bottom line is, it takes time and effort to be successful online (or offline for that matter).
Now back to the questions…
Can you really make money online?
The answer is definitely yes! There are many different ways to make money online such as selling your own products, selling other people’s products, selling on eBay or other auction sites, creating a membership site, and through Google Adsense just to name a few.
Can you do it without spending any money?
The answer is again, yes! And again, there are several ways you can accomplish this. You can fill out online surveys, join PTC (paid to click) programs, or post to forums that pay you money to post. Those things are all free. If any of them requires you to pay a fee, run! Most likely it’s a scam, so you have to be careful with those. However, the money you make is usually nothing to write home about, or it takes a long time to make a decent amount. But hey, you can always say you’re making money online, right? :)
What is the easiest way to make money online?
If you want it easy, the above-mentioned methods are really easy in the sense that you don’t have to figure out a lot of things or use many strategies. But if you want something simple, which means it’s not complicated but it may involve more work and implementing various strategies, I can tell you about a different way which also costs nothing to get started. Keep in mind though, that this based on my personal experience after trying may different ways to make money online. Other people may have different ideas.
The simplest way to make money online is by creating a blog in a specific niche (e.g. golfing, fishing, gardening, etc.), promoting affiliate products (other people’s products) on your blog, as well as using Google Adsense where you get paid by Google whenever someone clicks an ad on your site (blog).
It is advisable that you buy your own domain name and host the blog with a paid hosting company so that you have great control over your blog. However, if you really don’t have the money or just don’t want to spend a red cent to get started, no problem! You can create a free blog either at Bloggers.com or Wordpress.com. Google Adsense is free to join, and so are the affiliate programs which you can find through ClickBank (clickbank.com), Commission Junction (cj.com) or other affiliate program directories.
So now you’re all set to start making money online. First you need to choose a niche. You should always try to pick something that you’re passionate about so that writing about it won’t be a bore or a chore. Once you’ve decided on a niche, you should start posting about it on your blog. Make your blog posts informative and interesting so that your readers will want to come back over and over. You should make a post everyday if you can, or at least a few times a week. That way the search engines will see your blog as always fresh with new contents, which they love.
In your posts you should insert an affiliate link or two promoting the products or services related to your niche. You should also add Adsense ads to your blog either on the sidebar or at the top of the page, or both.
That is the simplest way to make money online without spending any money first. Once you earn enough money you can use it to further your business such as purchasing your own domain and hosting, or buying different internet marketing courses or ebooks to increase your knowledge.
However, there’s one very important thing we haven’t covered, and that is getting traffic to your blog. Without traffic, you can have the best blog in the world but nobody will read it and buy your affiliate products or click on your Adsense ads, and you won’t make any money. Getting traffic is one of the most difficult things about internet marketing, and we’ll talk about it in the next post. Stay tuned!
Topics: Make Money Online | 3 Comments »
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