5 Reasons You Should Not Be A Blogger

I know the title is a little dramatic, but it got you here and the truth is, not everyone is ready to be a blogger.

If I knew what blogging was really about, I may not have started as a blogger, but now that I am here, let me share some reasons why I think you need to rethink the be a blogger route.

Before I get to far into this, let me first say that I think blogging has many many benefits and those benefits keep me blogging every day. I don’t want to block you from being a blogger, what I do want is you to know exactly what you are getting into so you will have a stronger foundation to get started from.

Blogging Takes Work

People think they can setup a new blog and shove some content to it here and there and  expect to see success.

Reality is writing content is only your first step in blogging, let me say that again… writing content is only your first step!

Once that post is written, you then need to promote it, then you need to interact with your readers in the comments by replying to every comment.  You will also need to interact with readers from Facebook and Twitter, and try to bring the conversation back to your blog.

Replying to comments is the best way to show you are an active participant in your blog, and that you are available to your readers.

You want to stand out from all the bloggers out there, and the best way to do that is to be actively social on your blog. This will also make it easier for you to build a brand around your name and blog.

Blogging takes work, hard work every day.

I get deeper into this on Underground Secret To Making Money With A Blog Revealed

You will have to write better content then other bloggers, you will have to be more social then other bloggers, you will have to learn to promote a new post better then other bloggers, you will have to use social media better then other bloggers, you will need to learn SEO better then other bloggers.

If you can do all that better then other bloggers, then you will see success as a blogger.

Are you willing to put in the hard work?

You Can’t Blog Alone

You look at blogging and it seems to be a “one man show” thing to do, but truth is, blogging alone is the fastest way to fail.

I was lucky to find a few great bloggers in my learning phase of my blogging journey 1.5 ago. Even today I continue to build blogging friendships that are a benefit to myself and the other blogger.

One shoutout is to Hesham at FamousBloggers.net Hesham is smart, helpful and a great guy…What more do you need in a blogging friend?

Bottom line is If you are not willing to work with others and build mutually beneficial relationships with other bloggers then you are one step closer to failing as a blogger.

Now a side note to this is to be careful which bloggers you connect with, there are so many great helpful bloggers out there, but unfortunately, there are many scumbags too.. When connecting with bloggers, make sure you look “behind” the scenes and see that what they preach is reality.

Example: If a blogger preaches they know how to get traffic to their blog and they know SEO and you look at there “numbers” and see they have a 3 yr old blog with an Alexa of 500,000 and a PR 2.  Then you may want to be careful taking their advice.

So make sure you look “behind” the scenes before you take their advice.

Don’t Think Like A Blogger

I know it’s a little confusing, to be a blogger and not think like one.

Here is what I mean, blogging has changed. Writing great content and sitting back and expecting the money to come in isn’t going to happen.

To be a successful blogger you will need to build your blog like a business.

I talk more about this at To Make Money With A Blog You Need To Think Like A Internet Marketer

Yes to be a blogger that makes money, you need to grow your blog like a business.

You can do this by –

Build your list
Develop and sell your own product
Learn to promote a new post
Marketing, Marketing, Marketing

Negativity Will Find You

One of the best things about having a blog, is you get to say and express yourself in any way you like, and one of the worse things about having a blog, is you can say and express yourself in any way you want. haha

What I mean is once you say it on your blog, it is there for EVERYONE to read!

There will be many people that will like what you write and find it helpful, but there will also be people that dislike it and will have no problem telling you that. It still amazes me just how verbal and rude people can be online. I guess the internet makes everyone a tough guy..lol

To be a blogger you will need to have thick skin and understand you will not be loved by everyone.. I know hard to believe when your as lovable as you are huh

Keep this in mind, If you write a post and 30 people leave friendly supportive comments, and you get 1 or 2 negative comments, then doesn’t it make sense to focus on the 30 good and not the 2 bad?

You Must Have Patience

Finally we come to the biggest issue for most new bloggers.  We all want results now, and with blogging you will need to relax this and have a good amount of patience.

Let me tell you this now so you don’t waste your time…

You will not make a full time income from blogging for at least 1 – 2 years!

Every thing in blogging takes time. Getting comments, growing your traffic numbers, seeing results from your SEO efforts, all these things will take time to see the results you really want.

I know this post might be kinda depressing, but that’s ok, reality sometimes is depressing..lol

But if you can handle everything I talked about above then blogging will be one of the best things you ever do online.

So ask yourself, can I work hard every day, with no real income for at least 1 year, blogging as a team sport, blogging without thinking like a blogger, defending rude comments, and having patience thru it all?

If the answer is YES, then your ready to be a blogger!

Shoemoney System Weapons Of Marketing Blueprint

If you want to make more money online, then you really need to get better at selling.

As a blogger you need to learn how to “sell” too, sell that new post, sell why readers should visit your blog again, sell the benefits of joining your newsletter, sell your new product.

Well, my man Shoemoney has sold over $10,000,000 (yes that’s 10 million!) worth of products and affiliate offers online, so when he talks I listen and so should you.

And today he just put out a free video detailing some of his best and “sneakiest” sales tricks that have helped him to make over $10,000,000!

You can check out the free video here

Also make sure you download the PDF Cheat Sheet and print it out. It’s an excellent resource. (Just Opt-In)

Weapons Of Marketing Blueprint Video

Let me know what you thought about the video after you watch it.

4 Steps To More Twitter Traffic and Re-Tweets

People are always asking me how they can get their tweets re-tweeted and how to drive traffic from twitter. So I wanted to put this post together to give you an overview of how I get more RTs and more traffic

When I first started on Twitter with my @JohnAguiar account, I had the same problem as you, I couldn’t get an RT even with some begging..lol  It took me about 3 months to bring together what I needed to start driving more traffic to my blog and getting more RT’s.

At first I felt I was doing all the things I needed to, writing decent content, I had a decent amount of followers, I was posting to Twitter on a good schedule and yet I was lucky if I got 5 RTs.

Asking Questions

I was questioning everything I was doing…

Do they not like my content?

Did I send out my post to many times?

Was my post worth RTing??

I went on for a couple hours and it hit me… I wasn’t doing anything wrong, I was actually doing almost everything right…Almost!

4 Steps To More Re-Tweets

Good Content

More followers

Engage with your followers

Build a community around your followers

I was writing good content, I was tweeting it out at the best times of the day, I was engaging pretty well, but I was lacking in the community building.

Quick Tip: Best Times To Tweet Are At 4pm – 7:45pm – 11:30pm eastern time

Most bloggers start on twitter and think they can show up a few minutes a day or even worse, they want to schedule all their tweets (big mistake) and think this will drive huge traffic and RTs, when all this will get you is the complete opposite result.

The more attention you give to all 4 steps together every day, then the more traffic and RTs you will get for your blog posts over time.  Be There – Be Consistent!

Getting Re-Tweets Is 4 Step Process

You see doing any one of the 4 steps alone is ok, and will get you some traffic and a few RTs but if you are trying to get the most out of twitter and as much traffic back to your blog, then you need to hit all 4 steps combined.

Write good content.

Continue to add new followers each week

Engage with your followers, you need to “be there” to get most out of twitter

Build a strong community around your followers, RT their tweets, engage them, do #FollowFridays etc..

Quick Tip: Follow Fridays is the best and easiest way to get yourself in front a huge amount of people.  When you #FF someone, they most likely will #FF you back and all their followers will see that, now multiply that by 5 10 40 people you #FF for… see the potential?

It takes a little time each day to be there and engage with your followers and you will start to see why Twitter is your #1 source for Free Traffic!

Does This 4 Step Plan Work?

Ok talk is cheap…Right?

Let’s see how well I have done following my own advice, and remember I’m not using any “secret software“ or any magic “get more RT’s website”  all I do is follow the 4 step plan.

RTs  45 – 10 Effective Ways To Make Money With Your Blog

RTs  64 – Top 50 Places To Advertise Your Website For Under $25

RTs  24 – Breaking Into The Top 20 Internet Marketers Online With No List

RTs  39 – There Is A New Blogging Star Born Everyday, Are You Next?

RTs  81 – My Crazy Simple 7 Step Plan To Promote A New Post

I know what your thinking, “but JP you have 56,000 followers that’s why you get more RT’s”  and in a small way you would be right, but….  I have seen people with the same and even more followers then me and they don’t get that many RT’s, I have also seen people with much less followers then me and they are killin it with RT’s.

The amount of followers you have is a very small piece of the puzzle when it comes to getting your tweets RT’d, so don’t let the fact that you only have 500 or 200 followers stop you from getting the most from twitter.

Twitter can be one of your best free traffic sources if you just use it correctly. All it takes is a little effort and time on the things that matter.

I talk about these steps in more detail and all my other Twitter Marketing advice in my Twitter Dummy Guide.

Connect with me @JohnAguiar

I’m here to debunk a myth that you must have heard a lot in the Internet Marketing circles. The money is in the list. Strike that, what it should be is, The money is in your relationship with the list. This is the new paradigm you should be following if you want to make it as a Top Affiliate in Internet Marketing today.

How else would someone make it into the Top 20 Affiliates in a group of people with lists 10 times bigger than his. The world evolves daily and so does the consumer. If you are still using strategies that used to work 2 years ago to promote your affiliate products, you will be crushed by your competition in no time.

A couple of years ago, you were taught to write an eBook, slap it up on a lead capture page and drive traffic and give it up for free

to build a list. Then bombard the list with offer after offer on an auto responder to make money on autopilot. Well I am sorry to say that doesn’t work anymore and so will any get rich quick tactic you may be implementing right now. The effectiveness of these tactics always expire at some point.

The only way to build a sustainable business that will generate an income for you is to be genuinely interested in what your customer wants and offering them quality products that will help their situation. This helps you build a relationship with your list. That has been the fundamentals of doing business for thousands of years and it is not about to change now.

How can you build a relationship with your list?

Dale Carnegie’s book, How to Win Friends and Influence People is packed with tons of wisdom that can be used in almost any facet of life. Here are 4 points I extracted from the book that can help you start building a relationship with your list today.

Become genuinely interested in other people

Do not focus always on the money, the people on your list are humans with feelings too. People these days can smell a pitch from a mile away. If your pitch will address their urgent needs right now, they will buy what you are promoting regardless of how you pitch it. But if you are promoting a product just because the affiliate commissions are great but offer no value, you will put off the people on your list and that will make them less responsive.

Talk in the terms of the other man’s interest

Start seeing your list like a bank account. If you pitch to your list, you make a withdrawal. If you offer valuable content for free, you make a deposit. So now what happens when you withdraw from an account constantly? It becomes overdrawn and your card gets declined. Make sure you give away mind-blowing content to your list so when the time comes to pitch your offer, they gladly take you up on it.

Make the other person feel important and do it sincerely

I hate the word “list” because it makes it look like the people on that list are just statistics. Some people call it subscribers, some call it a tribe or whatever euphemism that may exist out there. The smart marketer knows that each person likes to feel important. You can do this with something as simple as personally replying to every email you receive or twitter reply/retweet you get. If you want to find out how to do this, just follow John Paul’s  twitter stream.

Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves

This related to the previous point of making people feel important. Listening to people not only makes them feel important, it also gives you free, valuable, insider-only research into their minds and what they want right now. The best products are the ones that solve an urgent need or an irrational passion. The only way to find out what these needs and passions are, is to listen to your audience. Send emails asking them to ask you any question and answer them on your blog. It is amazing how much good karma you can generate with those two actions.

The action of asking a question will make them go “Oh my God, he really is interested in me”.

The action of actually answering the question will make them feel important and respect you even more.

The important person on your list that knows you care about them is worth 200 cold people that receive the odd affiliate offer from you every week.

Do you have more questions about this, please ask them in the comments and I will answer them. I am genuinely interested in what you have to say.

(Did you get the practice what you preach angle in that statement? )

About Author: James Tayo runs a blog for entrepreneurs at Entrepreneur Blog’r. He shares tips on how you can build a profitable business online by getting customers through email list building and turn them into raving fans.

10 Ways To Make Money With Your Blog

Every day people ask me “how do you make money with your blog”, so today I wanted to go over my top ways to monetize your blog.

First thing you should know is if you want to make money with your blog long term, then you will need more then one way to monetize it. You know the old saying mom used to say “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” lol  who knew moms advise would come in handy with my blog

You need to understand that “blogging” alone will not make you money, but using some or all of the ways I share below will get you on track to making money.

My list includes some fast to start ways and some long term with a little effort ways to monetize your blog. So regardless of where you stand with your blog today, you can see results.

Also the list will help you whether you have a lot of traffic or not so much traffic.

Ex: Google Adsense will make you more money if you have a lot of traffic.

But selling an ebook with a high converting rate will make you money even with a small targeted amount of traffic.

Your goal should be to drive HUGE amount of traffic, because then even a small converting percentage will still make you a good amount of money.

Top 10 Ways To Make Money With Your Blog

1. Google Adsense

This is the easiest way to start making money with your blog, and it is very simple to set up. But the two biggest issues I have with Adsense is.

It takes a lot of traffic to make some decent money with Adsense.

If your selling your own product or affiliate products then you want to see what is being sold in your Adsense ads, chances are it will be in direct competition with your product.

I go into more detail on why this is bad here Stop Stealing Your Own Sales

What I have used instead that I am happy with is Chitika Ads

Cool thing about Chitika ads is they look similar to Adsense but they ONLY show up for traffic that comes from search engines.

So your regular readers never see the ads, great Adsense alternative.

2. Banner Advertising

Ok, I have a love hate relationship with selling advertising on my blog. I do it and I do pretty well with it, but at the same time selling ad space is not the best long term way to monetize your blog.  I much rather you sell your own product and use the ad space to promote your own products, this way you will make more money and won’t have to worry about always attracting advertisers.

Banner advertising also needs a big following on your blog to attract the big advertisers and make decent money.

Another issue with selling ads is it can be a pain to track all your advertisers and when they need to repay or end an ad.  Unless you use something like OIO Publisher that will control all your ad selling tasks automatically, they even find you advertisers in their marketplace.

3. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of my favorite ways to make money.  Affiliate marketing works like this… someone has a product and they let you sell the product for a commission and the best part, is they have marketing material and websites for the product that you can use, also they do all the follow up and or customer service needed.

This is the best and fastest way to make money with your blog, and you don’t need a big following to start making good money. As long as your product is targeted to your blog readers you can get a decent conversion and you will be in the money.

I talked about this on Breaking Into Top Internet Marketers With No List

Best places to go to find high quality affiliate products is ClickBank or Commission Junction

4. Sponsored Reviews

Getting paid to write a sponsored review on a product or website is another great way to make money with your blog. Some people have issue with this because a review should come from honest use of the product or service, others who have no issue with this do very well.

I have written a sponsored review and see no problem as long as you have at least reviewed the service or product and feel it is something you would review any way, and that you state that it is a Sponsored Review so your readers know this up front.

Sponsored Reviews and ReviewMe are two places you can get set up to do sponsored review posts.

I recommend you offer this as a service on your blog and collect all the commission.

5. Selling an eBook

Selling ebooks on your blog has been around for ever and there is good reason…It Works!

I Launched My First eBook a few months ago, and have been very happy with the results.

I suggest that you first build some success and have proof of that success before you set out to write and sell an eBook.  Selling an eBook that is solid and helpful will make it much easier for you to sell to those visitors again in the future.

6. Selling WordPress Themes

This is something I am working on releasing soon. Once you have a nice theme or brand you can them build a WP theme around it and offer it up for a small price.

There are 3 BIG benefits to selling a WP theme…

You make money

It is a great way to build backlinks to your blog. Since each theme sold will have a link back your blog as a reference.

This is also nice way to get some free advertising and traffic.

Nice 1-2-3 Punch…right?

7. Offering Consulting Services

Once you see some results with your blog then you can start to offer consulting services to help people get the same results you have gotten.

Again I have to emphasize that you need to FIRST have some success and proof in the service you are offering.

This is a great way to offer support to your readers and also get paid for your time.

I offer my services offline, since most offline business don’t have a blog or social media presence, so taking it offline has big potential for you..

8. Build Your Email List

We all know how powerful email marketing is and will continue to be. Once you connect and build that relationship with your list, it is the best way to make money online…Period!

Building a list takes time and patience, but great way to help the process go faster is to put that sign up box right in your readers eye balls over and over.

Make it the first thing they see and the last thing they see… Guys think of it as a hot girl, you know what we see when she walks towards us, and you know what we see when she walks past, right? Lol  Ladies this works for you to ha ha.

Now that you have visitor’s seeing the list form, you have to be offering something so good they have to opt in.  Keep your offer very targeted to your blog, and make it great… this will be your first impression to new opt ins, and this will make or break your ability to sell to them in the future.

9.  Merchandise

This is a simple way to make some money with your blog, you won’t get rich, but any money is nice.

Selling t-shirts with your blogs logo can work and if you use a site like Zazzle.com they make it very easy to design sell and even set up your own store front… very cool.

10. Donations

Yes asking for a donation does work, again this won’t make you a huge amount of money, but even if you made enough to cover gas each week it would be helpful.

If your readers enjoy your content and learn something from it, then they will be more motivated to donate.

I have used tipit.to on this blog and on my other sites before and have made enough for my DD Ice Coffee addiction each week…lol

So set it up and place your “Donate” button on your blog and see what happens.

Ok so that’s my small but loooooong list of ways you can make money with your blog.

Like I said earlier, there are many ways to make money, just try not to focus on just one way.

Your goal is to get to the point where the only things your sell or promote on your blog are all yours. So that way you can make 100% of the commission.

Have any different ways to make money? Let me know in comments.