It’s all about what you know, how you apply what you know, how consistent you are with the application of knowledge, and how much overall effort you put in.

I’ve been at it for a few years now and I’ve learned a lot about myself, business and other people in the process.

Today, I’m going to show you seven things essential to successful blogging; This is the good stuff, so pay attention!

You do want to be a professional blogger, don’t you?

And, by professional, I mean you make a very nice living from it.

7 Things Nobody Tells You About Successful Blogging

#1. There’s A Lot More To Blogging Than Writing

Writing is only half the battle. A lot of people who start blogs love to write, and they think blogging is a natural fit. They figure they can make money hand over fist – because all they have to do is write. There is a lot more to that component. 

Instead of thinking about it in terms of writing, think about it in terms of content creation:

• Adding pictures
• Adding captions
• Embedding videos
• Reviewing products
• Provide case studies / tutorials
• And then offer your unique perspective.

Search engines look favorably on blogs that have rich media content and a broad overview of a subject. Your unique perspective, however, is the finishing touch, and true essence, of your blog. That’s what will cause readers to follow you and search engines to take note of your popularity.

Be as authentic and transparent as possible, people will trust and respect you for it. Forget the fluff.

Tracy Raftl from The Love Vitamin is a great example of somebody giving her brand a very unique essence online.

#2. SEO Is Still Important

Even though you’re just maintaining a blog, and not an “official” website, you still need to keep SEO in mind. Why? Your blog posts can show up in Google search results just like specific web pages. Ideally, you want people linking to your blog posts.

You should never use black hat SEO techniques, which can compromise the long-term success of your blog. Instead, focus on creating awesome content and the keywords will naturally find their ways into your posts.

If people are linking to your blog posts, that’s a great combination. If you want to ensure your posts see some search engine traffic, create blog posts based around keywords – from doing keyword research. But never keyword stuff. Just write a natural blog post that happens to include the keyword a couple of times.

Here are 16 keyword research resources for total niche domination.

#3. Inconsistency Will Cost You Followers

One of the main goals of blogs is to generate followers. However, if you don’t update your blog on a consistent basis, readers will never know when to expect new posts. They’ll have no reason to check back if they don’t expect to see something new. Having an army of loyal blog followers is like money in the bank. Make sure you update on a daily, every other day, or weekly basis. However, you decide to update, be consistent about it.

If you’re consistent with your updates and still need/want more followers, check out the top 10 traffic tips straight from Michael Dunlop.

#4. Build An Email List

Most blog owners don’t actively solicit the opt-in emails of their followers. If you do, however, you’ll be ahead of the curve.

Every month or so, send out an email to your list with a really great blog post. This will remind your subscribers that you’re still around and updating the site.

If every search engine visitor that comes to your website is just lost (and nobody puts in their email), then you have no way to follow up unless they choose to come back and keep reading again. They might forget, though – so emailing them periodically remind them you’re still alive.

If you struggle to build an email list, PopUp Domination is my favorite list building resource as it’s proven time and time again to increase subscriber optins by over 500%

#5. Social Media Isn’t A Choice

If you want your blog to be successful, make money, and retain followers, then social media is essential. The goal is that your social media accounts point at your blog and your blog points at your social media accounts.

This way, visitors coming from either source will find the other one. Make sure every social media account uses the name of your blog, or your website.

If you’re struggling with your online presence, I’d definitely check out the 10 reasons why you suck at social media.

#6. Create Shareable Content

Go above and beyond the call of duty.

If you’re not creating shareable content, then people aren’t going to share it. You can ask them to share it, but they won’t if it’s not worthwhile. If people aren’t sharing your posts, then search engines like Google aren’t going to rate them favorably.

You can’t just write posts – you have to make them great. That said, these are my top 10 writing tips for more engaging content.

#7. Creating Valuable Content Isn’t Enough

We all remember when we were little kids and our parents tried to tell us to do something. We didn’t listen, and now that we look back we realize that often times they knew best. The same is true when creating valuable content on the web.

You can provide great information that’s intended to help people, but unless you make it palatable to your audience, no one will like or share your blog posts. You have to imbue your posts with excitement, images, and catchy headlines – and you have to get them shared on social media!

If you liked this, you’ll love my post on the 20 mistakes bloggers are still making.

-David Aston

The post 7 Things Nobody Tells You About Successful Blogging appeared first on Young Entrepreneurs.

Since publishing this post, my younger brother has began his own website about photography called Expert Photography. Check it out and wish him good luck!

30 Greatest Young Bloggers of 2010

Who’s your favorite Top Young Blogger?

The post Top 30 Young Bloggers appeared first on Young Entrepreneurs.

Hi Everyone,

Today we have video post on that all important subject – How Do I Increase My Email Opt-ins?

If you have been following me over at IncomeDiary.com you will have noticed that I have started to do quite a number of video posts. They are turning out to be very popular and my confidence and skill level is improving.

This video is one of my earlier videos which I have just put on YouTube and includes some very important tips on ways to maximize the number of site visitors that join your mailing list.

Business owners and Internet Marketers in particular have always said:

The Money Is In The List

Strangely recently I have seen some Internet Marketers seeming almost embarrassed about list building. Well if you are not offering anything of value and your only goal with getting someones email address is so that you can continuously email offers for out of date products just because it may earn you commission them then yes, I’d be embarrassed to. But on the other hand if you have a good offer and a credible offer as I explain in this video then people will want to be on your subscribers list and will even recommend friends (as had happened many times with my Blogging eCourse).

I mean just about every business I know has a mailing list – even my hairdresser has an email list, my dry-cleaners, hotels I stay in – all use email marketing. So never be embarrassed to grow your list – people who follow you, like what you are presenting are also likely to purchase products you recommend. After all – it is where the money is.

One other point – I use the word OPT-IN in this blog post but words you use with your visitors should be terms like: Subscribe or Join Me or Grab My Free Report. Words used do make a difference (any Top Salesperson will confirm that) – so make sure you never use words that turn your visitors off. Many visitors will not know what OPT-IN means, so for that reason avoid it on your site.

I hope you enjoy the video. As always I would appreciate your feedback and comments. You may also like to check out my new IncomeDiary.com YouTube Channel You can also Friend me and Subscribe to my channel there.

I have also include a transcript along with some additional resources and links – so make sure to check it out also.

To Our Success

Michael

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Video Transcript – with additional links and resources

So you’re probably thinking how do I make money with a mailing list and how to get more to email opt‑ins?

That is what this video is about.

I will break it into two sections. First thing you need to look at is – why should people opt-in? What is your offer? After all people need a reason to give their email address away these days.

Back in 1998 when the Internet was first becoming popular it was easy to get people to opt-in. People loved getting email – this new found medium was exciting and believe it or not, people wanted to get more of it. So lots of people joined lots of lists.

So how do you increase your opt-ins?

Offering something free is great. I do it with a free 7 day eCourse. I know lots of people that do other things, such as video series, free eBook, coupon codes, videos from a seminar, audio, interviews, anything.

The next thing to look at is your whole opt‑in area. Where are you going to get your visitors to opt‑in. How’s it going to work? So I do this in a few ways. I started with just at a single page on my site, with my opt‑in box and some text about why people should subscribe (Opt-in)

I also did things like add testimonials from people who’ve already opted‑in. The funny thing was it became a SALES PAGE for something that was actually FREE. It converted very well.

My Top Tip

If you tell people to go to your site and request free report (or whatever you are offering) then it doesn’t matter how easy you make it – some people are still going to fail (be confused by even that).

So what I do is have a separate page (a bit like ‘sales page’ mentioned above which I send visitors to) – all they need to do is go to that page rather than hunt around on the site for a place to subscribe. Here is an example of a page like this on one on my sites: How To Create A Profitable Blog

The other thing I do now is that on my home page I add a huge big SUBSCRIBE AREA (opt-in). In the case of IncomeDiary.com – this subscribe area promotes my 7 Day Blogging eCourse.

The next tip I got from my friend Timothy Sykes of TimothySykes.com. I can’t remember the exact percentage but his earnings were up significantly in the year and he mentioned that on his blog.

So I calculated how much my earnings were up and made a banner to put on my site – saying how much they were up and Click Here to find out more, which took visitors to a subscribe area. That got a lot of subscribers!

Another Tip – Make Your Thank You Page Sell

When people subscribe I nearly always make sure that the Thank you page is a sales page with ACTION my visitors can take straight away.

Here is an example from IncomeDiary.com http://../www.incomediary.com/thankyou.html

Note – the page explains the Next Steps – 1,2,3 (Check your email, Register a Domain, Get Hosting)

Even before people have had a chance to confirm their email they have chance to take action on their dream of being a Blogger

Note: I strongly recommend you have your subscribers Double Opt-in – it avoids malicious filling in my people of other peoples email address PLUS it double confirms that people really want this info. (and avoids you being labeled a spammer)

AWeber has my strongest recommendation for managing your email delivery and you can find out more about email marketing and setting up auto-responers with AWeber here

Once your visitor has confirmed their email, they get their first email from you – along with what ever incentive you offered. This is when the new subscriber is most interested and in my experience also when people are most likely to TAKE ACTION. So make sure you give them something to TAKE ACTION on.

I do two other things. I promote some products and new product launches (as an affiliate). In addition I usually email details of my most recent Blog Posts or anything else of interest or of VALUE to the subscriber. If the subscriber is getting lots of FREE stuff of a high quality they will not object to the occasional sales promotion – and of course if they don’t like it, they can always un-subscribe.

What you should not do is inundate people with constant sales promotions — sometimes I go a month or more between sales promotions but that in part is because I am very fussy about who I promote.

I hope this helps – do go check out AWeber they have a number of special offers and you can get started for very little money.

Join Me On YouTube

Check out my new YouTube Channel at The IncomeDiary.com YouTube Channel You can also Friend me and Subscribe to my channel there.

And here are some popular blog posts to check out:

The True Story Of My Overnight Success
AND
My Personal Story, How I Created IncomeDiary.com

The post More Email Opt-in Secrets | Email List Building Tips appeared first on Young Entrepreneurs.

A couple of weeks ago I did a post at my IncomeDiary.com website titled: The True Story Of My Overnight Success

Partly confessional and partly inspirational the post got a lot of good responses. You see a lot of people seem to think that successful people ALWAYS were successful or they are in someway different from everyone else, yet I have discovered that just about every successful Internet Marketer was unsuccessful first. Most of us made a few false starts before we hit the Big Time. I know I did

Likewise today’s featured Young Entrepreneur, Adam Horwitz had a few interesting starts before finding something that really would make him money.

At age 18, Adam is one of the brightest young entrepreneurs I know and it was my pleasure to interview him for IncomeDiary.com recently. You can see Adams interview including podcast here

I think the secret that Adam and so many successful entrepreneurs have is that they just keep trying – they never give up and therefore eventually the do succeed.

Ben Franklin made a great quote which I admire:

To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions

That is something I try to remember.

Below is a short video from Adam explaining how he got started online.

ADAMS WEBSITES:
http://www.adamhorwitz.tv
http://www.tycooncashflow.com (Watch the Introduction Video – look how Adam connects with people, builds rapport)

X4KB7BY7KZTA

The post Adam Horwitz – How I Got Started Online appeared first on Young Entrepreneurs.

Hi Folks

Another Gary Vaynerchuk Young Entrepreneur Video for you.

This is from my visit to New York in September. I really love Gary’s message – very inspiring.

To Quote Gary:

“Entrepreneurs get knocked down because were taking chances. Were taking risks. But we love the game, dont we? Just keep loving the game.”

“Dont listen to your parents, or your teachers, or anybody else besides yourself. If youre entrepreneurial enough to be watching this man, to be part of this community, or listening, that already means that you have something different”

Highly Recommended – Gary’s new book: Crush It

You can watch the complete Gary Vaynerchuk Interview and read a transcript over at my other website: IncomeDiary.com

To Our Success

Michael

The post Gary Vaynerchuk Young Entrepreneur Advice appeared first on Young Entrepreneurs.

Hi Folks

Another Gary Vaynerchuk Video from our recent Meet-up in New York

This time Gary Discusses Video Blogging and Customer Care. No question about it – Gary cares about his customers and his followers – and it shows!

To Quote Gary:

As big as I am and listen, I’m going to be big ass but as big ass as I’m going to be, I’m going to be and sometimes people think Im a big ass, too. But as big as I’m going to be, I’m never, ever going to forget where I came from, and that’s a very big differentiator. The reason Im winning is because I care more than my competitors”

Gary Vaynerchuk Talks about Video Blogging and Customer Care

Highly Recommended – Gary’s new book: Crush It

You can watch the complete Gary Vaynerchuk Interview and read a transcript over at my other website: IncomeDiary.com

To Our Success

Michael

PS: Do you have any hot Young Entrepreneurs that you suggest I interview? Individuals doing well online or offline? I would love to hear about them and interview them. Please CONTACT ME here

The post Gary Vaynerchuk Video | Video Blogging and Customer Care appeared first on Young Entrepreneurs.

Without adequate initial curb appeals, your web site does not have a chance to strongly establish itself in visitor’s thoughts. Without strong content, visitors do not have a better reason to stay on your web site long enough to determine what you have to offer.

With the lack of reasons to return, visitors might never build enough interest to visit your site regularly.

Catching the Viewer’s Attention

There are only five seconds – that is right – five seconds to make a lasting first impression. That is not enough time for a web site visitor to read your content and understand your idea.

It is only enough for their emotion-based brains and perceptions to react to layout, design, color, navigation (perhaps), and maybe a headline. If you have not caught people attention by then, they are gone quickly, probably never to return again.

Smart web design may try to catch visitor’s attention with rotating images and catchy slogans.

Fonts, activities, images, everything on the web site must appeal to the target visitor you are trying to reach out. You should not put pastels on a site targeted for teenagers or vivid colors on a web site selling pet ashes urns.

A high-tech web site in black and silver has a very different feel and look than one selling country interior decoration with duckies and gingham. A site selling high-priced products needs lots of empty (white) space to look spacious and rich; a discount web site does well with crowded pictures.

That is why I advise finding a web designer who understands about marketing communications.

Understanding Stickiness

Stickiness is a technical jargon for keeping visitors on a Website. If the average viewers go to fewer than a couple of pages of your web site or stay no more than thirty seconds, most of them read only your home page and flee!

Generally, you want the average site visitor to stay with the site for at least three pages and a minimum of a few minutes. Otherwise these visitors have not spent enough time to find out what you have to offer.

You need to lay down a sticky trail with an impressive content, calls to action, interactions with site elements, things to do and media to download. Every click they make, every action visitors take, binds them kinesthetically to a web site.

Bringing Visitors Back for More

Studies reveal that many people do not buy on the early visits to a web site. Some use the Web only for research before deciding on a purchase in a real life store. Others research many sites for comparison shopping and return only if they decide to buy. You can offer visitors many reasons to return, from great articles, great prices to attractive contest.

All in all, the rule remains the same – you’ve only got five seconds to make a lasting first impression.

The post Simple Anatomy of A Good Website appeared first on Young Entrepreneurs.

So, what is the magical formula for building the subscriber relationship?

Building subscribers is not a hard process when you get down to the basics. Your aim is to provide a quality product, and an incentive for readers to continue to get the information you’re giving them.

There are a couple of factors that readers make in their decision to subscribe to your blog:

Frequency of Updates: This preference varies from reader to reader, but an active blog is essential to building subscribers. Some subscribers won’t like blogs that update multiple times a day, while some will get irritated if you go one day without a new post.

Finding a rhythm will help you cater to your subscribers and help convince them to subscribe to your posts.

Length of Posts: Some people actually read what you’re writing, and online, length is a major issue. The tried and true length is anywhere from 300-500 words, with “pillar articles” every so often for more
information. Keeping with a consistent post length will build loyalty and encourage subscriptions.

Quality: This one is a given, but many new bloggers seem to forget that the quality of posts is a major factor in subscriptions. Even if you write at a fifth grade level, having a good voice and acceptable grammar is a standard that you should conform to if you want to get subscribers.

So what can you do to really encourage people to start following your blog?

How to Increase Your Blog Subscribers

There are a few essential tips that you can follow to increase your subscriber count and build readership over time.

Place your RSS button in a prominent area: if people can’t see where to sign up, they won’t. Don’t make your readers search for a form to sign up to your feed. As well, don’t make subscribing complicated or
hard to understand.

Offer email subscription: Even in this age of information, many people do not understand RSS and how it works, or simply don’t like the way that it works. Offering email subscriptions doubles the amount of
people you can cater to, and provides readers a choice in receiving your posts.

Setup a twitter feed: Along the same lines as setting up email subscriptions, many people into social media enjoy receiving updates via their twitter account. Auto-updating your twitter as your blog posts come and then putting links to subscribe to RSS will increase your readership and spread links to your blog across the internet.

Add a tagline to the end of posts: Adding a simple reminder sentence at the end of every post will increase the chances of someone reading that post, enjoying it, and subscribing to get more of your information. Different readers enjoy your blog for different reasons, so having a prominent link on all of your content will help you to market to all of your readership.

These four simple tips will have you on your way to a subscriber count to be proud of. While quality content is a major part of growing subscribers, visibility and options are also integral parts of building a lasting readership.

The post How to Increase Your Blog Subscribers appeared first on Young Entrepreneurs.

Michael Dunlop here, founder of WebMakeMoney – You haven’t heard from me in a while because I just been so busy with so many projects. Since launching my new project, IncomeDiary, I have had 100s of emails from people asking me how I produce great value in my content and still only work a hour a day. Today I decided to do a quick video for you guys to share how I am able to do it, heres my top 2 tips:

– Do interviews, they take 5 minutes to do over email and make you look an authority in your niche. I get a lot of traffic and links from all around the world to my interviews because I do the with high profile people.

– My other tip is to do top lists, you will have seen some of my top lists, such as Top 30 Earning Websites and Top 30 Young Entrepreneurs. These are great because they also get a lot of love from around the world, my top lists have even been in news papers and on Yahoo and AOL news. The only problem is they take dozens of hours to produce, what I do is outsource the research and then just add an introduction.

Check out the video for more tips and how I am able to make money from it.

The video:

To our success,

Michael Dunlop

PS. Let me know what you would like me to speak about next!

The post Creating Good Content For Your Blog With Little Effort appeared first on Young Entrepreneurs.

What qualities make for compelling content? What is it that makes posts more highly regarded?

Many bloggers strive to find that “formula” for creating the perfect blog post. The post that garners comments and remarks and brings in traffic everyday.

It is the compelling blog posts that stray from the average blogger, and finding the right combination of elements to create that post can be a hassle.

However, all compelling blog posts follow the same basic guidelines.

The Controversial Topic

A blog post about squash is probably not going to compel many people. However, a blog post about how squash will add 20 years to your life will probably draw in a great audience. To write a compelling blog post, you first have to think of a compelling topic.

Great blog posts are controversial, make you think, or solve a problem that few others can’t solve.

The Gripping Introduction

A fantastic blog post has a gripping introduction that pulls your readers in. Whether it’s the promise of success or a personal anecdote that draws their eye, without utilizing the first couple of sentences, you can’t build that compelling blog post that gets people talking.

Hook, line, and sinker, you are aiming to get people to take notice of the situation and sit down to see what solution you have to offer.

The Underlying Message

Even more important than choosing the right topic is making the impact you want to make. An outstanding blog post has an overall message that it gets through clearly to its readers and then drives home.

Make sure that when crafting your compelling posts, you remember that you’re trying to convey a message to your readership. If you miss the entire point, then nobody is going to discuss your ideas.

The Driving Point

Once you have your message, you have to pull together powerful examples to drive it home to your readers. Great blog posts have fantastic examples that give readers that “ah!” moment.

Whether it’s an inspirational story or just a simple logical conclusion, fantastic posts have the force to drive home their message and make it memorable to readers.

It is up to the blogger to find the formula that gets the message across in the most dynamic and dramatic way.

The Wholesome Conclusion

Compelling posts wrap up neatly, and have an ending that make readers think about the topic and the message and connect to their lives or own personal interpretations.

Great blog posts have open ended conclusions that allow readers to share in on the conversation, and prompt your readers for response. Suffice to say, you can lose everything with a poor conclusion, making it an extremely important element of a compelling blog post.

To Sum It Up

Writing unique content is easier than many think. It is writing content that calls people to comment and share that separates the outstanding writers from the average bloggers.

Following these guidelines may not give you the perfect end-all-be-all blog post, but they will have you on your way to crafting posts that make people sit down and read, and even more so, apply your ideas to the world around you.

The post The Structure of a Compelling Blog Post appeared first on Young Entrepreneurs.