How to Use Your Blog to Build Your Email List

Filed Under (Blog Lessons, Website Promotion) by Jon Hook on 18-08-2008

Every blog marketer knows the importance of having a list.  It can’t be stressed enough.  The bigger the list, the more business potential you have at your fingertips.  It is essential that you know how to use your blog to build your email list exponentially to keep that potential alive and flourishing.  So how do you do that?

The most obvious and basic thing you can do to encourage sign ups is to provide genuinely helpful and unique content.  If you do nothing else, practise this essential consistently to ensure return readers and interested opt-ins.

If you are providing a blog that people are considering valuable, they will be easily encouraged to share and forward your newsletter to others.  Naturally, your newsletter should have an opt-in box for the recipients to easily register with.  This step presents the opportunity to double your list of email addresses.  Think about that – double, with very little effort.  All you’re doing is asking your readers to share.  If they’re enjoying your writing, they’ll be happy to oblige.

Should you find that you’re not getting as many referrals as you’d hoped from doing the above, try a little motivation.

    Offer an incentive to those who help you increase your number of registrants.  It doesn’t have to be costly, though you could offer cash payable through PayPal.  People are often pleased to receive a free report about a subject they’re interested in that pertains to your business.
    If you really want to thrill and excite them into helping you, offer to write a blog post about them.  Every person who brings you X number of new sign ups will have their business highlighted on your blog.
    You may already be offering a free report on your blog site to entice new sign ups.  If so, don’t forget to explain that the email address being entered will be added to your list.  People don’t like feeling that they’ve been tricked onto a list.  Honesty may lose you an address or two, but will win you an integrity that will take you much farther.
    Along the same vein, give your readers a feeling of being in control by segmenting your lists according to subject matter.  Readers can then sign up only for the topics they’re interested in.
    Why not try something that survey sites use?   Offer a contest ballot each time a reader gets a referral to join your list.  The prize could be anything mentioned above, or something else your loyal supporters deem worth winning.

Another benefit to the personal touch is that your readers will feel part of a fold that has the inside track to success.  It creates a team atmosphere that will in turn create motivation to help build your list.  When this happens, you have people on board that feel rewarded and really want to help.  The more interested and involved your opt-ins are, the better your list and therefore the selling potential within it.

Tons of people are using their blogs to implement subscriptions, as well as increase their numbers and keep everyone happy that they signed up in the first place.  Have fun with the process and enjoy the interactions with your faithful readers, and the subsequent increase in sales.

Once you learn how to use your blog to build your email list, you’ll wish you’d started using the strategy sooner.  It’s easy, and only involves a little work.  The return you’ll get on the time spent will be more than worth it.

5 Effective Ways To Increase Reader’s Loyalty On Your Blog

Filed Under (Blog Lessons, Content, Make Money With Your Blog) by Jon Hook on 14-08-2008

Seems like almost everyone has a blog these days.  A lot of profitable niches have developed, and it’s no secret that blogging is big business.  With so much competition in nearly every area, you have to pay attention and be proactive to ensure that you get your share of the market.  Do you know how to increase reader loyalty on your blog?  Can you develop a site that puts you ahead of the rest and gives people a reason to return?

Make Reading Your blog A Habit They Can’t Shake

It may seem obvious, but the most important thing that you can do to endear yourself to your readers is to give them a steady supply of great, original content.  That means plenty of entertainment and value packed into an easy to read format. Don’t forget to make your words positive.  Negativity turns people off and readers away.  If you can perfect all that, you’ll turn the blog reader into a junkie for your words.  They won’t be able to resist coming back for more.

Feed The Habit

Once you get those repeat returns, don’t ignore them!  Use your brilliant copy to encourage comments, and be sure that you respond.  Answer any questions posed, and make a remark or two about notes left.  Don’t forget to thank anyone who takes the time and trouble to leave a few words.  Make sure your loyal followers know that you appreciate them, and they’ll respond in kind.

Get Them Addicted

Another way to give your readers warm, fuzzies about you and your blog is to link to them.  Allow hyperlinking of their name, have a sidebar list of recent visitors with the hyperlinked name, or if appropriate, occasionally incorporate a reader’s link into your copy, making sure that you do it in such a way that it makes sense, of course.  Your popularity will skyrocket with readers who will feel like they’re part of your ‘club’.    You’ll have spotlighted them and made them feel important.  That’s like gluing a person to your blog.

Seal A Bonus Deal

If you want to go one step further, then surprise your loyal readers by visiting their blogs or sites and leaving comments.  You may even want to invite some of the more talented folks to submit a guest post.  You’ll be building relationships that will last a long time, assuming you continue good care.

Get The Word Out

It probably goes without saying, but make it easy for people to sign up for email alerts.  You’ve gone to all the trouble of making a really good blog and taking good care of those who read it, so now encourage them to leave their names and email addresses in a simple and easy to find form.  Let them know that their life will be made simpler by taking a second to go to the trouble.  Every time you post a new entry, they will receive a notification in their inbox, complete with handy link back to your blog.  Initially, if it’s a new blog, you may only get a few, but if you’re providing a really good, useful read, the numbers will continue to grow and grow.

Not all people are into using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds yet, but it’s a good idea to make the option available for those who aren’t shy to use it and for those who dislike signing up for emails.  You may still get some of the traffic with the feed button that would otherwise be missed.  As it is automatic and time saving, there will be some for whom this quick method will be perfect.

So, now you know how to increase reader loyalty on your blog.  If you follow the suggestions in this article, you will have a dedicated group of readers who will support you for a long time to come.
Happy blogging!

Google AdSense – An Insight Into What Wonders It Can Do For You

Filed Under (Blog Lessons, Make Money With Your Blog) by Jon Hook on 11-08-2008

Anyone who bought Google’s shares a few years back must be really happy now with the returns. But most of these investors know Google only as a search engine and nothing else. There’s no denial to the fact that Google started off as a search engine but the guys at Google were smart enough to realize the true potential of internet and branched out the company into several other businesses.One of these subsidiaries of Google is called AdSense. Most of you must have heard of it but are not sure of what it is and how it helps people make a lot of money online. We’ll tell you here all that you need to know about Google AdSense and how you too can benefit from it.

In layman’s terms Google AdSense is a marketing company. But you must rise above that level if you really want it to also work for you. It is not just any other ordinary marketing company. It is an online marketing company and its marketing techniques are to say the least very innovative. It is an advertising company that is paid only if people see the advertisements and click on it.

Google AdSense ads are one of the most convenient and hassle free ways of advertising on your website. You just have to sign up with Google AdSense, accept their terms and then just sit back and do your part of the bargain, that is blogging and posting relevant content on your blog. After Google places ads on your blog and the visitors click on it Google will pay you fee based on Pay Per Click basis.

So what’s in it for Google? Well, Google does not pay you the entire advertising fee to you but only a smaller percentage of what it gets. So Google also makes a good amount of money in all this exercise.

Now you must be thinking that why should you share the advertising revenue with Google when you are doing all the hard work of attracting visitors to your blogs? Well, that is because Google has a brand name which you perhaps don’t have right now. Apart from that Google being a huge organization has more credibility amongst the advertisers than an individual or a small company. So there’s nothing to fret about if you have to share the revenue generated out of advertising with Google AdSense. If you want to see what I am saying try and persuade 4 companies to advertise on your website and pay you on per click basis.

The form which you have to fill in for subscribing to Google AdSense will ask for some of your information like bank account number, Social Security number, Tax account number, address etc. Feel free to give it them because your information will be encrypted and stored only to be retrieved in case of a legal issue.

Google AdSense also pays the subscribers for referrals. Referrals basically mean that you will get paid an amount of money if you refer someone else to become a subscriber of Google AdSense. Also if you place Google’s toolbar on your blog and somebody downloads it, then also you get a commission for that based on every download.

While a lot of people have made a lot of money with Google AdSense, there are many others who just can’t stop complaining that it is just another fraud. The crux of the matter is that you have to be smart and write content that is search engine friendly while being informative or interesting to the reader at the same time if you really want Google AdSense to work for you.

Use Your Blog To Promote Yourself

Filed Under (Blogging) by Jon Hook on 08-08-2008

Each one of us is special in our own little ways and often we don’t realize it. Most of us spend our entire lives doing something that we don’t want to do but have to so that we make two ends meet. But it does not have to be like this anymore. In this age of internet and blogs you can now do what you really want to and make money too. Wondering how? Keep reading to find out how.Well, consulting is a big business and it is all about giving people ideas, tips, suggestions and solutions when they have a problem. People blog because they want to talk about something and at times just about themselves. But often such people end up rediscovering what they have always wanted to do in life or what they are good at.

But if you already know that then you are a few steps ahead of them and already on your way to making money online. And believe me when I say that, if you are really good at it then you might as well end up earning a fortune for yourself. Want to know more? Keep reading.

There are people who have worked all their lives amongst various kinds of people, people of different temperaments, people of different colors, people from different backgrounds and parts of the world etc. I know one of them who quit his job because he was way too much frustrated because of the constant tension and running around and trying to adjust with all different kinds of people to get the job done. He started blogging to pass his post retirement time. Do you what happened? While telling people all about his work life he discovered what was wrong with him and why people were behaving in such a difficult manner all the time. He started telling people how they too could change for better and helped hundreds of people transform before a publishing house found him and offered him a chance to write a book about self improvement and how to transform self so as to fit better in the social and professional circle. He is now paid hundreds of dollars every hour to share his knowledge and help transform employees of some of the biggest corporate in the world. He gives all the credit to blogging.

There are hundreds of other such examples where people started showing and doing on blogs what they have been really good at. People have been writing poems on their blogs which have fetched them hundreds of dollars and contracts from publishers.

You might be passionate about reading and people are willing to pay you the price of a book to find out if it’s worth reading and their time. So while you get to read a lot of books, which you obviously like to, you also get a chance to make some money.

What I am trying to tell you here is that blogs are a great marketing tool if used properly. It’s like you have a skill and you want people to know about it. But then most of us don’t have enough resources to advertise the same. Blogs are a great way to do marketing while spending just about nothing. You can start blogging and then invite friends, family, peers and professionals, companies to take a look at your blog and leave their feedback and who knows? And who knows if they like your work you might well be on your way to a great future doing what you’ve always wanted to do.

And in the meantime make money by posting some ads on pay per click basis or by allowing companies like Google AdSense to place them and pay you for whosoever checks out that ad through your website.

Blogging - An Easy Way To Make Money Online

Filed Under (Blogging, Make Money With Your Blog) by Jon Hook on 04-08-2008

Blogging is the latest and the hippest thing in the virtual world of internet these days. Almost everyone’s blogging, be it a sit at home mom who is doing it to pass her time constructively or be it a superstar who is doing it to reach out to his fans. But why should you do it?

Well, blogging has its own advantages. Not only does it provide you with a place to express yourself and your thoughts, it also acts as a great place for people to interact with each other, share their thoughts and participate in a debate or a discussion.

Blogs and blogging have come a long way since their early days. But what lead to the exponential increase in their popularity was the fact that they had become one of the most popular online marketing tools. How? Well, We’ll tell you here how and also how it can also fill your pockets with a few hundreds if not thousands of extra $$$ each month.

People blog only when they feel strongly about a certain issue or when they want to share something with others. Well, this is the general perception of most of the people you’ll come across. But blogging can also be done to discuss about a certain product or a certain service or anything else that can be sold or bought on internet or the real world.

Today a lot of people are making a living through affiliate marketing. But most of the netizens don’t even know what affiliate marketing is. Well, we’ll discuss about it in just a while but before that it is important to know how a search engine works. A search engine locates your website or blog on the internet when someone types a keyword relevant to it. For example if you have a blog where you write about health and fitness products and somebody does a Google search with keyword ‘health and fitness’, then your blog should appear in the search results. But there are hundreds of such blogs and websites then how do you make sure that your site appears in the top few searches? Well that gets done by constantly updating and replacing the content on your blog and writing SEO content.

So if you consistently have a good ranking in the search engine then it makes good sense to tie up with a company like Google AdSense and make some money through advertising, isn’t it? It is not so easy to find advertisers and then convince them about the fact that you’ll certainly help in driving their sales figure northwards and that is why tying up with an affiliate marketing company is really convenient.

Affiliate marketing is a form of advertising where the advertiser pays only if somebody either buys a product or visits their website through your blog or website. It is highly advantageous for the advertisers since it makes sure that they don’t have to pay anything upfront. But it is also a boon for you if you have a lot of visitors.

So how do you go about getting affiliate marketing onto your blog? Well there are many really easy ways and many companies that would happily do it for you. The biggest of all the affiliate marketing companies on the planet is Google Adsense. Google places ads relevant to the content that you have posted on your blog and you get paid for the number of times somebody clicks on those ads to visit a website.

Another slightly different affiliate marketing company is Clickbank. Clickbank is a little different from Adsense in the way that it has limited the products that are to be advertised. They sell products that are transferable online and every time somebody visits and buys these products through your blog or website, you get a commission on the sale done.

Blogging is a great way to make a lot of extra cash online and all that it takes is just 2-3 hours of your time every day.

Different Ways Of Making Money Through Blogging

Filed Under (Blog Lessons) by Jon Hook on 31-07-2008

Internet offers more than just one way of making money these days. You don’t have to particularly be a manufacturer to sell something online. You just have to be really inclined towards marketing a product or a thought or a belief and have good knowledge about it. And that’s it. So what are all these ways of making money on internet? Well, the most popular and the most practiced way is affiliate marketing. We’ll tell you a little bit about it and the many other ways that you can use to make money on internet. There are many people who retired from their professional lives early to get out of the rat race and became full time consultants to the biggest companies just because of their blogs.

The most important thing when you want to make money from blogging is content. Quality content comes from knowledge. So whatever you want to blog about, make sure that you everything about it, make sure that you share as much as you can with the visitors so that those who visit your blog find value. Apart from that you must also keep updating the content regularly because no one likes stale content.

You must be wondering that this guy is just talking all about blogging and nothing about making money. Wait that is next, I am not being rude but you have to learn the alphabets before writing words on paper. The next step after you have started your blog and found a topic you want to talk about and share with people is advertising. Sign up with Google Adsense or any other similar service which places ads on your website and shares the money earned through advertising with you.

So every time somebody visits your blog or webpage and clicks on the advertisements placed by Google AdSense, you get a small amount. So if you get 5 cents for every click and hundred visitors click on the ad, you make a cool $5. And to keep these people coming back again and again and thereby bringing in more money you need to keep the content updated and relevant.

That was all about making money online by blogging and getting paid on Pay Per Click (ppc) basis. We will now talk about what are the other ways that you can make money online.

There are many people who have quit their well paying jobs to help and support certain causes like improving the condition of people in Africa or Asia; you can ask people to donate funds for that cause while letting them know that it will also cover a part of your expenses. If you are really doing something good, be assured that donors would be there sooner than later.

If you have a passion for drawing, you can put up some nice eCards or paintings on your blog or website and then request people to pay if they like your work which is free to download anyways. You can also start a blog through which you share audios or videos with people in downloadable format and ask them to make a donation if they like what you are doing.

There are many people who also offer advice regarding self help and people who find it helpful in improving their personal life give back to the blogger a gift in cash to show their gratitude. There are even such property consultants who offer free of cost advice.

We all have something that we can offer to people and if it’s good, there’s definitely a lot of money to be made.

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