Change Is Good…Right?

This new design and direction for Money Dummy Blog has been a long time coming, about 1.5 years.

I didn’t want to complete overhaul the new design, but I wanted to a cleaner, more focused and professional looking design that didn’t pull away from the original black theme too much.  I think we did that nicely  

At the end of 2009 when I started this blog as a way to help people learn how to use a blog to make money and also help people make money online in general.

Over time, I have had success with Social Media, Twitter in general and have been sharing what I know on both topics. Money Dummy blog has not been a “make money blogging” only blog for a long time.

This new design and direction is a better fit to what I have been sharing for a long time. The new direction is about how I can better help you into the future build a successful blog that makes you money.

Basically The Design Now Matches The Content.

Blogging has changed!  What helped Darren Rowse and John Chow build huge blogs 10 years ago just won’t work for you today.  They had less competition, they didn’t have social media, they were in a new niche.

To stand out from the millions of bloggers out there and build a successful blog then you need to hit it from all areas…

Blogging – You need to write Helpful content from with your own personality.

Social Media – You need to know how to share the right things to the right people and engage and build relationships.

Marketing - You need to know how to promote that new content.

Entrepreneur – You need to treat your blog like a business if you want to succeed and make money.

Inspiration – You need to surround yourself with people that keep you up and moving forward when things get hard.

My focus with the New Money Dummy blog going into the future is to continue to help you learn all this and how to take action on it!

What’s New?

With the new design also came new pages and resources to better help you on your blogging and social media journey.

New  eCourse Opt-In Box
New About Me page
New Are You New Here How To Blog page
New Blog Reviews page
New Social Media Review page
New Build A Blog page
New Blog Resources page
New Work With Me page
New How To Build An Email List page
New Blog Tutorials page
New eCourse Blog Marketing page (coming soon)
New Starting A Blog page (coming soon)

Social Matching

With a the new design, I have also designed a new Facebook Header image and Twitter background to keep the branding and style from the blogs new design.

Twitter Background @JohnAguiar

Facebook Header @MoneyDummyBlog

As you can see I stayed with my same head shot on Facebook and Twitter and across all my social sites.

I did this for a couple reasons.

1.  I have noticed that a few times friends I talk to on Twitter and Facebook have changed their pictures and I found it hard to remember who they were.

For me, it’s easier to remember a face then a name since the face is the first thing you see and not everyone uses their name.

So I want it to be very easy for people to find me on social sites and not have to think if they got the right JP.

2. This is and will always be the closest I get to “striking a pose” like a model for a picture and since I’m not getting any younger, I’m staying with it for now

Thank You To…

The new Money Dummy blog wouldn’t of happened without some help from some great people and friends.

First, a BIG Thank You to my designer Jeremy. We have become friends over the past few months, just a creative and smart guy.

Second, a BIG Thank You to Matt Smith from onlineincometeacher.com.  Matt took my ideas for my eCourse cover, My Facebook Header and My Twitter background and made them better then I wanted. Professional and all around nice guy man.

Third, a BIG Thank You to Justin Germino at dragonblogger.com. Justin came in help me with some back-end work and led me in the right direction to get my page load time down. I am happy to say that  we are loading at a speedy 1.5 – 3 seconds    Another great guy that I am happy to be friends with.

A final Thank You to you as my reader.

If it wasn’t for you and many more like you Money Dummy blog wouldn’t have done half as well as it has the past 2 years.  I hope you enjoy the new design and focus of the blog and continue to stay along for the ride

Make Money Blogging By Helping First

What would you say to this…

Tutors Make More Money Than Lawyers!

Silly right?

That’s what I would have said before I read an old article in Smart Money magazine as I sat waiting at my doctor’s appointment a few weeks back.

Since my doc assumed I had all day to sit around, I was stuck reading thru old magazines like Good Housekeeping.

I know sad, but don’t judge me, when you are that bored even good housekeeping will work lol

Then I saw my chance to grab the Smart Money magazine and that’s when I read the article about how tutors make more money than lawyers because they are in such demand now with all the kids falling behind.

Tutors make more because they are helping people.

That got me thinking about how this can apply to blogging.

“to get what you truly want, you must help people get what they want”

If you want to make money with your blog for the long haul you MUST help as many people as you can succeed with their blogs first.

You must sell YOU… selling you gives you full control of your product with no surprises in the future.

With all the changes with Google lately, making money the old ways can get difficult…

Selling ads on your blog isn’t controlled by you.

Selling Adsense is most def not controlled by you.

Do these things work?

Yes of course, but how long will they work? How much tweaking and changing and updating are you doing to stay ahead of all the changes that come up week after week?

When you sell you, none of these things are an issue.

Here are 4 ways you can sell YOU and make money blogging now and long into the future.

Sell Consulting

Once you start to see some results with your blog in a certain area, then you can start to offer consulting services to your readers.

– If you driving big traffic numbers, then offer how to get traffic help.
- If you are getting good ranks, then offer SEO help.
- If you have learned how to kill it with Social Media, then offer SM help.

You can consult people on anything you want, as long as you REALLY ARE seeing results in that area.

How you deliver that consulting is up to you. For me I use Skype calls and they get recorded for the client has the option to go back and listen again if needed.

Be creative with what types of consulting you can offer, just make sure it is for something that is helpful to your target audience.

Sell Services

Selling services works the same as selling consulting, but now you are selling something that you can do FOR your clients.

What are you good at?

– Good at design? Sell blog design and graphic design services.
- Good at SEO? Sell SEO services.
- Good at writing? Sell article, press release and blog post writing services.

Again once you think about what you know and can do you can come up with many services you can sell that fit your target audience perfectly.

Sell An eBook

Want to sell what you know in a more hands off way?

Selling an eBook is a great way to share what you know, that is setup/written once and can be sold on auto pilot for a long time into the future.

One thing I will say is when writing an eBook, make sure to be clear and descriptive about what your teaching.

I should be able to read your eBook, and take action with the information you shared with no added guess work involved.

A BIG benefit to selling eBooks is you can now sell them on Amazon and Kindle.

Again, make sure your eBook is targeted to YOUR audience and fixes an issues that are having if you want to make money blogging  for a long time to come.

Sell Your Own Product

Instead of just selling an eBook, why not sell you own product?

This can be an information product like a course or a membership site or even an app or plugin.

– Have an idea for a WP plugin?

– Have to much information to share in just an eBook? Then develop a full blown product like a video training course.

– Set up a membership site and share what you know now and what you will know in the future with your customers.

Selling a product is just like selling an eBook, service or consulting, the only difference is how you are packaging and presenting it to your readers.

The Wrap Up

How you decide to SELL YOU, is up to you, all 4 strategies I shared work.

Some people like a more hands on and will sell services and consulting. Some people like a more set it up once and that’s it.

They all work, they are all selling YOU a product you control and will always have full control of.

Now I am not saying that selling ads or selling Adsense won’t work, but if the majority of your income is coming from ads and Adsense alone, then you need to re-think your blog business model Right Now!

If you want to make money blogging today, tomorrow an long into the future then be the Tutor and help.

What you say? Let me know your thoughts in a comment below

#FollowFriday Favorites

Great week on Twitter, Spring like weather and I’m creeping up on a huge milestone in my life… things are good

More on the milestone and possible Twitter Contest coming soon.

But as always I was able to connect with some great people this week and shared some of them below in this week’s Top 10. Butttttttttt let’s talk a little bit first…

My friend @AnnTran_ did a post this week on scheduling tweets on Twitter, if it was good or bad.

So I wanted to share my 2 cents on this.

For me, there is nothing wrong with scheduling your tweets, what you do after the tweets are schedule is what matters.

Scheduling tweets and walking away is bad, but scheduling tweets then being available to reply to any conversation that comes from that tweet is perfectly fine.

Your followers don’t care how the tweets get’s to them, they don’t care if you hand shared it or if it was scheduled. All they care about is if the share is helpful, relevant and if you are there to reply to any comments or questions they send you.

Look at it like this!

Many bloggers write up many blog posts and schedule them to go out thru the week. Now do you care? I know I don’t.

Chances are, neither do you!  All you really care about is if the post was good and if they were available to reply to your comments.

Need more examples?

Ok, the act of buying a gun isn’t bad, it’s what you do with that gun after that makes it good or bad.

Little more dramatic, but you get the idea

Now go connect and follow everyone on the Top 10 List!

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Twitter Tip

To be more efficient on Twitter you should schedule your tweets ahead of time.

If you do schedule then make sure the content is relevant, timely and helpful. Also make sure to “Be There” after the tweets go out so you can engage your followers after the tweet.

Take 30 min in the morning to schedule up 10 – 15 tweets thru the day that way for the rest of the day all you have to do is pop into Twitter at the times of each tweet for about 30 min to be available to any replies or comment son your tweet.

This will free up a lot of your time and still have you present on Twitter thru out the day.

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Top 10 – Week 33

Max Dillon Coyle

Bio: Te Maximus | Views are completely my own

Ashley Montgomery

Bio: Blogger (it’s a work in progress), beauty consultant, country girl with a rocker twist and a love for the beach.

gautam

Bio: Tech Freak & Social Media Enthusiast. Blogger and Owner of @BlogGodown. He loves discussions

Michelle Ruble

Bio: Self Proclaimed “info junkie”. Famous for two things. A great laugh and tripping. Nickname “Grace”. But my kids still think I’m cool.

Scott Bergman

Bio: Conservative, freethinker, interested in writing, business, people, positive thinking, self improvement, self education, blogging, social media .

Robert Caruso

Bio: Single Dad, Friend, Geek. I Tweet about Social Media, Mrktg, Tech. Love technology & Coffee! Make me laugh and lets connect!

Chantal Akkary

Bio: Make-up & Fashion Lover. Blogger. Views shared here are my OWN!

Ryan Biddulph

Bio: Ryan Biddulph helps you boost your finances with cash gifting.

Latief Pakpahan

Bio: Inbound Marketing Certified Professional and Full time blogger provide simple blogging tips, making money online, social media, technology and Internet.

Shai Laserson

Bio: Passion & Work Equals Success. I have a passion for People, Marketing & Technology.

I hope you enjoyed the list, Have A Great Weekend.

#FollowFriday Favorites

I hope you had a great week and great week on Twitter.

I did and I have been connecting with some great Twitter personalities, some I shared in the Top 10.

It amazes me how Twitter can help people talk to people they never would have other wise.

The other day I was talking to one of the Barbi Twins (if your a guy over 30 you know who they are ) Just having a conversation with someone famous as if it was no big deal.

A few months ago I was talking to a guy that has a TV on HG TV. He reached out to me just because I tweeted a post about office furniture, he read it and liked it and we had a conversation.

Where else could that happen that easily with everyone’s guard down?

Just wanted to share that since I thought it was pretty cool. Twitter is like your V.I.P Access card to anyone you want to connect with…so use it!

Ok now the Twitter Tip – All about timing your tweets. You want to get the most out of Twitter with the little time you have sooo sending 100 tweets a day is crazy.

Ok, math time haha

If you are tweeting 3 of your own posts today then you only need to tweet 10 – 12 tweets from OTHER people. That will keep you sharing more of others and less of you and have you at a good 70 –30%

Now break up those 15 tweets thru the day and night and you have yourself a full day of presence on Twitter with only 15 tweets.

I see bloggers every day that tweet 100 – 200 tweets a day and their blogs are not benefiting from it, they are not seeing more RTs on their own posts. If you’re not benefiting at all, then WHY WOULD YOU SEND OUT 100 – 200 TWEETS A DAY??!!

Yes, you are here to share other people.

Yes, you want to connect and engage with other people.

Yes, you want to be noticed.

But if all that isn’t benefiting you too – then stop doing it!

Ok class dismissed, now go connect and follow everyone on the Top 10 List!

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Twitter Tip

Why you should separate your tweets by at least 30 min.

Breaking up each tweet this way gives each tweet more time to get seen, read and shared.

I separate my tweets by 40 – 45 min and that has worked well for the past 2 yrs.

I know for my own tweets, I seem to get most of  my RTs 10 – 30 min after the tweet went out.

So knowing that if I was to tweet to fast, say only 5 min apart, I would be losing out on the sharing that I get now.

The other benefit to tweeting with at least 20 min between tweets, is you will need less tweets to go out in a day, freeing up more of your time.

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Top 10 – Week 32

Dino Dogan

Bio: Founder of triberr.com Lousy Martial Artist & recovering Engineer. Pretty good songwriter, dog trainer & a biz blogger. And, global force for badassery.

Neal Schaffer

Bio: Social Media Agency Executive | Author, Maximizing LinkedIn for Sales & Social Media Marketing | Social Media Speaker | ???????????????

Anita

Bio: Fluent in Fitness | Social Media Assistant | Amateur Theatre Actress | Your Social Right Hand | Travel Groupie | Sociolizing your business | People Person

Michael Q Todd

Bio: Author & speaker. Recovering Kiwi lawyer & fossil fuel user. Juggling addict. #lifegasm

Interesting Fireman

Bio: #Best selling #Firefighter #Author #Alcoholic #Speaker for hire Human Being

Cody Ward

Bio: Digital Marketing Professional with Specialties in SEO, PPC, Social Media, Email Marketing, CRM, & Analytics. (My posts are my own)

MJ Gottlieb

Bio: Serial Entrepreneur (Circa 1991) – Internet Marketer – Author – Founder of The Forgotten Souls Foundation

Jen

Bio: Career Renegade with a passion for Bhangra and Bollywood…Zindagi Khubsoorat Hai

czar

Bio: I am a traditional massage practitioner, and doing it since I was a child. My website is about re-establishing massage as the first tool at hand for treatment.

Kevin K. Lau

Bio: Your Network Marketing Business Coach and Social Media Consultant. | I teach people how to to build an online Network Marketing business using Social Media.

I hope you enjoyed the list, Have A Great Weekend.

What Can Golfer Bubba Watson Teach You?

Actually Bubba can teach you a lot, but today I’ll share how he can help you be a better blogger.

Oh and yes his name really is…Bubba

In golf Bubba Watson is the abnormal golfer, on paper he should not be as good as he is, he should not be winning tournaments.

Why?

Well, Bubba does things completely different than any other golfer…

He has never taken golf lessons.
He doesn’t have a coach.
He doesn’t tweak his swing..ever.
He doesn’t have any fancy golf psychologist by his side.
He does MANY things that he knows he shouldn’t.

YET, he is a pro golfer and a damn good one. He just Won the Masters golf tournament over the weekend.

If you don’t know anything about golf, then let’s just say Bubba just won the Super Bowl!

Ok let me say this, I am no golf nerd, well unless it’s mini golf, then I tear shit up

The closest I have been to a golf course was a few years back with my brother and cousins (all wanna-be golf stars) I was bored so I took the golf cart 4-wheeling and flipped it…Ooops!  Let’s just say my brother wasn’t happy and never invited me golfing again… haha good time’s.

But for me, an Inspirational story motivates me no matter where it comes from.

And Bubba’s story can help you be a better blogger.

When you start blogging or even when you have been blogging for a long time, there are always people telling you this and that.

You have to do it this way if you want your blog to succeed.

This is the best way to succeed as a blogger.

Now fundamentally this is great information and will help you BUT. the problem is, people start to think it is the ONLY way to succeed.

Have you noticed how so many blogs look the same? have the same design or layout?

That’s because they copy a successful bloggers blog and advice to a T thinking it is the only way to have a successful blog.

The problem is, there are so many ways to build a successful blog, that to try or believe there is only one way is crazy.

Have you heard these before?

You need to write great content – Not true, good content will work fine if you know how to promote the hell out of that new post.

You must use social media – Not true, you can do fine without SM. I wouldn’t recommend it, but it can be done.

You must post numerous times a week – Not true, two good posts a week promoted correctly will bring you a nice stream of traffic all week.

You must write for SEO – Not true, there are many many blogs that kill it without the need of SEO traffic.

You must have great design – I agree with this, but again not the only way. I see some messy jacked up blogs out there that are doing very well despite their bad design.

All these are good solid fundamental things you can do to build a successful blog, but they are not the only way!

Take Bubbas story.

He does the complete opposite of what almost all golfers believe is the way to be a great golfer, yet he is killing it.

Do you know why Bubba Watson is so good?

He works hard at what he does and he works it hard every day!

That right there is the same exact reason you will either build a successful blog or you won’t. So when someone tells you what you’re doing won’t work..just ignore it and keep going.

Hard work and perseverance will beat out knowledge every time.