(Part 2 in a series of 2)
In the previous lesson, we talked about how a blog can be integrated into your online business, and I covered several ways of monetizing your blog.
Today I’m going to be covering the most important aspect of blogging for your business…
(Watch this video…)
Main points:
4) Influence, authority, and positioning
For most businesses, these are THE greatest assets that you can gain from your blog.
Rich Schefren: you need to become a maven in your market.
Frank Kern: you need to be a celebrity in your marketplace.
You want to position yourself and your products in the top of your prospects’ minds.
5) Selling your blog.
-Create a blog with… good content, loyal readership, steady traffic, decent Pagerank.
-Investors, entrepreneurs, and aspiring entrepreneurs buy websites…
-If your site is valued over $100k, consider a broker
-Do it yourself:
http://marketplace.sitepoint.com/
http://www.businessesforsale.com/
Ebay
-Some marketers also “flip” blogs. (buy ugly ones and make them nice)
(see examples on video)
-John Chow vs. Shoemoney vs. Darren Rowse
– On the one hand, branding your blog with your own name, image, and personality can give you an edge over the competition. On the other hand, it can also make it harder to sell.
– If your priority is selling your blog, you need to take this into consideration, but for MOST people I would recommend going for a strong personal brand.
Action steps:
1) Decide what the primary objective of your blog is going to be.
2) Think about how you will monetize it.
3) Start blogging!
I’ve been teaching a lot about building your website. But what if you don’t want to build it yourself? The next lesson is for you!
As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below.
If you have a blog, this would be a great time to show it off! Feel free to tell us your blog’s primary objective, or you can let us guess 🙂
Have a great day!
Eric I appreciate your encouragement. I purchased exit splash 2 nights ago. However I did not know how to receive the product. I know I’m still a newbie. So your friend has my money and I have now product. I don’t think I left my name. So he has my money and I have nothing.
Hi! I used and still have the Templates from Joel and you and the beauty is that you can start with them and slightly or hardly modify them but the frame remains the same and the functionality is great. Using xSitePro was easy for me to modify if I want to.
Michey
http://michaelacernescu.com
Hi Eric
Congratulations on your superb training series and your willingness to share your knowledge. Also I truly admire your life ethics and your adherence to the adage that we should practice what we preach.
My question may be answered in a future lesson of Erics Tips but I am anxious to generate some momentum in my business!
Can you recommend an autoresponder program please? I note that you use Aweber but is there a low (or no) cost option that starters can use, and then perhaps transfer to a professional system later?
Thanks and regards, Peter.
PS Your ebook Information Product in 30 Days is brilliant – it has all the answers to questions I have agonized over for the past year!
Eric, I do not have your Lesson #39 for 3 days.
I still await your Lesson #39. Please reply asap. Thanks!
Hello James,
Lesson #39: Outsourcing Your Website has been posted at the following link:
Thanks James!
Thanks Peter 🙂
There are a few autoresponders cheaper than Aweber… the cheapest would be to simply install a script on your domain and run your own…
However, I can not recommend those options, for a couple reasons…
1) Aweber and similar autoresponders maintain relationships with all the ISP’s, to ensure email deliverability and to keep you out of trouble. You simply can not do this yourself, and you don’t want to use a low-end provider that doesn’t do a good job of it. Of the good ones, Aweber is certainly as cheap or even less expensive than the others.
2) It’s a huge hassle if you want to transfer later. In the case of Aweber, and other good A/R’s, you are not allowed to simply transfer in a list from elsewhere without them re-opting in. This would result in losing a big percentage of your list that you worked to build. Therefore, its better to start off with them, even if it’s a stretch for your budget at first. Keep in mind that your list is your biggest asset as a marketer, and therefore an area worth investing in 🙂
He will help you download it. Dave provides super customer service, so just let me know if you still haven’t downloaded it, and I’ll put you in touch with this support department. don’t worry!
Eric, I have something I want to discuss with you or someone on your team, but I do not feel comfortable putting it on a public forum like this. Can you please give me either an email to write to or a phone number that I might call to be able to discuss this with you and your staff? I would greatly appreciate it.
Dana
You are a great teacher. Thank you very much for your lessons.
The point of pen name vs. real name is something I can´t resolve for myself. As you know, latin names are not very respected within anglo-saxon speaking people, therefore I´m considering to have a double personality, being myself within sites written in Spanish, and using a pen name for english speaking sites. Do you think I´ll need a psychologist to treat my schizophrenia?
Hi again Eric:
I´m a little confused. Based on your recommendations several lessons before I have purchased Memberfire, I didn´t installed yet because I have been captured for this fascinating lessons about blogs. But, if I use WordPress and WordPress WishList I don´t need Memberfire, do I? Tell me your opinion before asking a refund. Thanks in advance.
Pedro
that’s correct, if you’re using Wishlist then you would not need to use Memberfire.
Memberfire is a stand alone membership site script that you can use with any type of site, whereas Wishlist is specifically a WordPress plugin.
Also keep in mind, I’m not selling Memberfire by itself… I was selling an entire home study course to show how to set up a membership site.
You may submit it in a ticket to our helpdesk: http://www.ericsupport.com
thanks!
Erik, you rock! all these free lessons are just great!! keep up the good work!
Marc,
http://www.hiltonheadislandnightlife.com
Good morning Eric. As usual a very informative presentation.
I have a question involving my web site. When I input the web site name in explorer the result comes up as INDEXOF/. I believe you explained that in one of your lessons, but I can’t find that. What do I do to change the result so it shows http://www.millionaireshorizon and what lesson was it.
Thankint you in advance
Anthony Durkac
Eric, another great lesson! Can a syndicated video be used rather than a personal video to develop your brand. I don’t have the ability to make myown videos now so until I do is it better to do without or use a syndicated video that’s relative (obviously) to my niche?
Fiver has some great video producers and Warrior Forum has easy video software, both are great investments for growing your business. Don’t forget to post it on all video forums not just u tube.
Syndicated videos can definitely be used as content, but they will probably not help much with your branding, because…
They are probably designed to brand the person/company who created the videos. Ultimately, you want your brand to be so powerful that other sites want to syndicate you 😉
As far as going without… it just depends. If the syndicated videos are very “white label” (not much advertising, links, etc), then it’s probably OK. But if they are sending traffic back to the creator of them, then it could be hurting you in the long run.
I’m not sure if there are any available in your niche, but what you may want to look for are videos that you can “private label”. In other words, you can put your own name on them.
Just rename your index1.html to index.html 😉
I think that was lesson #28
For me, everything turned out very difficult, but I look forward to the start of the earnings on the Internet! It is very tempting!
Thanks Eric. I really like how you put that presentation together and it really gives me much to think about as I continue to build my blog. I appreciate your Tips!
-JL
Eric, these two lessons were super!!! Many good points addressed that will require alot of thinking, planning and research to develop content for my blog. Also I realize Aweber is the only way to go for a newsletter.
The discussion in comments about pen names led me to a great realization. I have used pen names in the past few months to open blogs at blogger.com and and at wordpress to try them out and become familiar. I also realized that I did this out of fear of the unknown. The internet is a big huge scary place until you understand it. Fear of being hacked, sensitive information being stolen etc.
Your course has helped me feel less vulnerable and more confident and I’m using my own information on my new .com. Thanks again for all you have done.
Eric, thanks for the info. I going to be setting up a blog just for this
Hi Eric, I think establishing myself as an expert within my main site which is a blog is best for me…
The primary objective is what I am struggling with…I have to relieve pain or increase pleasure and in doing so I would like to
drive traffic to my sites where I sell information products or gear…
I am waiting impatiently for a dropship site which I did outsource. I would like to brand
the site name rather than myself.
Oh…I also was thinking of brand my mascot of my company…not my name but the mascot’s name…the last name being my website name.
This lesson has been very useful to me even though my blog is not a money making venture but meant to be a helpful resource to older teens. I look forward to improving my site and marketing for more traffic. Thanks for the guidance.
Oh…..I forgot to say, it’s called mylifeforeal.com
Eric. That was wonderful. But to be honest with you, I don’t understand anything. I have tried creating a blog on word press.com, the name is concernmom and I want to talk on bed wetting. But i don’t know how to go about it. please go to this blog and check it and advice me on how to move forward. Please help me, I am completely new on this. I am willing to learn or if possible spend some money to be hooked on. Thanks
Hello Ngozi,
We recommend that you view this lesson on getting started with WordPress:
Hi Ngozi,
I just read your request and I’d love to help you build your blog.
I was once in your shoes!
Could you send me the details of what you are trying to blog about?
Send it to surveywrd@gmail.com
thanks
Eric,
What about tech blogs like mine http://timewasteblog.com. Will any resale value for this kind of niche?. I am not getting proper info / tips about tech blogs. Everywhere info about about other niches only. Eric why don’t you add tips about promotion of tech blogs.
Sure, there is definitely value in tech blogs. In fact several of the most popular blogs in the world are tech blogs.
The promotion techniques that I will cover in the later lessons will be applicable to all niches, including tech.
I noticed that I had a browser crash on your site. I think it may be a plugin or script that you are running.
Eric, it has been wonderful and fruitful listening to your lessons on my mail. However, of late, the plugin has been crashing after I have been listening to the video say for half its length. So I visited ur site and there too i had the same problem.In short, I am unable to see the video in ur lessons for its full length. And, I’d appreciate if you could visit my site and criticize. Thanx
Please try these solutions:
Your blog looks like it has some good content. I do recommend hosting it on your own domain. See lesson #23 and #24:
When you get to the list building lessons (#59-70) you will learn how to start capturing subscribers from your blog, which is probably the best way to use it to build your business.
Thanks Eric. That was quick. Point taken and action started. Sanjiv.
Helpful Eric… I was thinking along the lines of a personal blog, promoting another site which would be the long term real estate so to speak?
Depends what you mean by a personal blog. If you’re talking about blogging about your daily activities and random stuff, it’s not gonna make money unless you’re a great writer with an intriguing life. It needs to appeal to your niche. Like my blog… I do write about personal stuff sometimes, but people are here because they want to learn how to make money online, not because they want to know what I’m doing every day.
On the other hand, a successful blog DOES need PERSONALITY. So if you can tie together an attractive (to your market) personality with your business objectives… that’s a good combination.
Eric,
I appreciate your info. I have one of the better blogs in the internet, but it has never been optimized to make any revenue. I have to say, yours is the best, easiest to follow advice I have ever read!
_Wolf
hi Eric,
I have a question can you please tell me something about ptc sites.Are they useful to earn small amount of money or just waste of time.
like payingclub.com.
Great lesson. missed the prior vid. Where can I find it?
Here: http://www.ericstips.com/tips/lesson37/
PTC (paid to click) and other types of GPT (get paid to) sites CAN be a legitmate way to make a bit of money for your time. However, in my opinion they are a waste of time for anyone who wants to build a sustainable online business. Participating in GPT sites is not really a scalable business model, and as you’ve mentioned… scams also prevail.
I’m also planning to build a blog, so this is helpful informations. I am following you. Thanks
We have been already for a while considering auto responder services for our business (because doing it manually is really a pain you know where), holiday apartments and creative courses in Italy. Information at http://www.rogaia.com (Please click the english version).
Yet it seems that mails to mail adresses that can´t be delivered are deleted from the systems. This happens for instance even when the mailbox of a client is full.
By experience we know that in that cases once the mailbox is emptied we can send mails again and are supposed by our clients to do so.
Using an autoresponder we would lose the adresses of this clients. Do you know this problem and if yes, do you know a solution.
Thank you very much
Wolfgang
Hallo.
here another question about our website http://www.rogaia.com (holidays and creative classes in Italy.
This website is in two languages English and German. Years ago our webmaster at that time recommended us to combine these two language versions in one website to improve the page rank.
Lately however we are not so sure anymore whether this was the best decision and if it wasn´t better to make two completely different websites (Content is mainly the same only in different languages).
Do you have any counsels concerning this questions.
Thank you very much
Wolfgang
Do you
Oh, and by the way you asked us to present our blog(s) to get some feedback.
I have several blogs.
It would be nice if you could take a look at three of them.
Honestly sometimes I have the feeling that with my interests (niches:-) I am a little bit out of the “normal” internet marketing world.
However every feedback is appreciated.
Thank you very much
Wolfgang
http://www.tango-lessons.com
http://holidaysitaly.wordpress.com
http:sculptureblog.wordpress.com
I am very glad I found your tips. I am in awe of what you have created here, and how it pays it forward. I am learning how much work is involved in just getting a toe hold. It is difficult to establish yourself as an authority when you are just in the process of learning myself. Thanks for the help.
Actually our community of internet marketers are in all sorts of niches. Looks like you’re off to a great start! For your tango blog, I would definitely recommend turning on the user-friendly URL’s. I talk about this is lesson #34.
That’s really a tough call. It does make your link building efforts easier by only having one domain. And the way you’re doing it now seems to be working. I just checked Google for some of your page’s keywords, and they were ranking well in English. (#1 Holiday apartments umbrien, #2 salsa vacation italy, #2 olive tree adoption, etc). So I would say keep doing what’s working!
In the case of AWeber, they generally only remove an address from your list after multiple failed attempts. This is really a good thing, because if you keep emailing a bad address, the ISP’s may think you are a spammer. In my opinion, the benefits of using a service like AWeber definitely outweigh the negatives. Also you can back up your list at any time, and you can view your reports to see which email addresses were removed. So you could follow up with those people individually to try to get in touch with them.
Eric, I have a WordPress Blog, and a affilliate squeeze page, how to I set up a link from my post, to the squeeze page? THANKS, JOE
Eric, I’m a total newbie and in the last few weeks with your lessons only, I’ve put up a website, and feel extremlly comfortable doing things on the web. Thank you so much!!!!