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I need your help - what do you want to know about blogs?
By Ross Goldberg | April 23, 2008
Can you take a moment to answer a question for me?
You see, I’m working on a project to help you out with something
that is critical these days in helping you get more traffic,
convert that traffic to sales, and earn revenue from those visitors
in other ways, whether they buy from you or not.
What I’m talking about can also SAVE you money.
When Google slapped everyone a couple of years ago, it’s GOOD
CONTENT that got your cost per click back down to where it belonged.
There was no better place to put that content than blogs.
I’ve got about a dozen friends who make thousands of dollars a
month (some make $1,000 to $2,000 per day) on their blog.
If you knew that this much money was flowing into your bank account
every day, how much would that change your life?
Or…what if it was just $100 a day. That might be a more reachable
goal for now, right? ($3k/month)
But blogs can do more than generate advertising revenue. They can
also help you make more sales of your ebook, your teleseminars,
your physical products…ANYTHING at all.
In any case, to generate even a dollar on your blog, you’ve got to
actually HAVE a blog.
So my question is…
Do you have a blog now?
And if so, what kind of help do you need in order to set it up,
make it look better, work better, or actually generate revenue for
you?
Yeah, so maybe that’s more than one question.
I just want to know how I can help you.
So if you can let me know by:
Simply type in your question as a comment here and I’ll be answering them shortly.
I look forward to answering your questions!
Knowledge Can Never Die!
Ross Goldberg
blog question your help
Topics: Ross' Thoughts |
April 23rd, 2008 at 12:47 pm
My questions about blogs is two-fold and that is the best way to get traffic and how to make the most money from your blog quickly.
April 23rd, 2008 at 12:49 pm
This is very timely, Ross… very timely.
What I’d really like to see is a step-by-step guide for people who have ZERO internet experience… the basics on domain registration, hosting choices, blog install, blog design, content, adding advertising, list building basics for blogs specifically, and then affiliate promotions and integrating the blog announce with the list management.
I come across people every day who just want to answer the question: “How do I get started when I have and know nothing?”
I spend a good amount of time helping people understand WHAT they need to get started online. With so much information out there, there’s a lot of misinformation about what is the best solution for a specific person.
I have only so much time in the day. Yesterday I was on phone with somebody and after understanding her goals, I knew instantly that a blog was perfect for her. I spent time giving her the very first basics.
I would have loved to be able to refer her to a comprehensive “Blogging: From Basics to Business” type of guide. I’ve even thought about doing it myself, but if you’re already doing it I’d rather just support you and keep working on projects I’m more passionate about.
April 23rd, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Have you ever guest posted on someone else’s blog? What have been the results? Do you think it is worth having blog groups in which multiple bloggers post on each others blogs as guest posters?
April 23rd, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Hi Ross,
The answer would have to be no I don’t have a blog set up yet, haven’t figured it out not to mention have the time for it. I have to say the best help would be starting with step one then so on.
Gaining more knowlege all the time.
Steve
April 23rd, 2008 at 1:12 pm
I have no blogs yet. I know I will definitely have one soon . So what are some of the best ways to bring traffic to my blog ? Is keywords the most important ? What is the minimum words should I have in my content ?
Thank you, Ross
April 23rd, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Afternoon Mr.Goldberg,
Thanks for the informative e-mail. You seem to know what your doing regarding blogs,obviously more than I at this juncture.
I have a few sites where I have blogs posted,most are Affiliate Marketing related,others general.
What steps are necessary to actually get your blog posts in front of the rising amount of web surfers today,absent paying to do so?
I do a Google search on struckjeffrey@yahoo.com and see one or two but thats that.
Did I err in allowing some to post on a blog or two at my http://www.dada.net/struck2007 site?
I also have three more posted at http://www.yuwie.com/struck
I am going to be attempting to get an actual WordPress Blog site up this week,need to watch some Step by Step videos I have here on how to do it properly though. Any tips?
Thanks.
Jeffrey Struck
Gardner,Massachusetts,01440
April 23rd, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Hi Ross
At first I wish for you more success in your coming work.
About blogs, there are many things needed to be covered.
1- How can you make your blog contain excellent and unique posts. Where can you get really excellent materials?
2- How can you get huge traffics to your blog?
3- How can you set up your blog with an excellent theme?
4- What are the necessary plugins? Where can you find them? Are there free or you have to pay?
5- How and where in your blog can you set up different ads, like Adsense ads, Affiliate ads, other people ads, and your own products?
6- What is the best arrangement for materials and ads which will result in high CTR?
Thank you and good luck.
Hilal
April 23rd, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Hi Ross. I now make a pretty good income off my blog, but I want to make more. My problem is that I am a writer and not a techie. So I want to transfer my Wordpress blog to a private site so I can use Adsense and benefit from other monetizing strategies.
My problem is that this is more complicated than my experience. I need some “techie help” or advice as to how to make this all happen as seamlessly as possible.
I have pretty good traffice (#5 on Google), so I don’t want to lose the traffic either.
Be blessed, dear man. I am so thankful for your willingness and your support.
Susan Gregory
The Daniel Fast Blogger
Ellensburg, WA 98926
http://DanielFast.wordpress.com
April 23rd, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Hi Ross,
Thanks for asking for our input. What would be great is to see strategies and tactics to convert traffic into buyers. Especially how to convert with a small amount of traffic.
Keith Goodrum
April 23rd, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Yes Ross, we need help setting up blogs, using blogs, what plug-ins to use, what layouts to use, even what colors is best!
I, personally waited for over 12 months to start my wordpress blog on my website because I did not find a suitable theme to use. Most seemed non-professional to me- bad color schemes or bad layouts. Theme, “notso_freshe” looked ok but I was still not pleased, so I have settle on “studiopress”
April 23rd, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Hi Ross,
Can you come up with a video and show us how can we set up a web site as a blog where the landing page points to static index page (it can be a squeeze page) while the we have the ability to post the comments etc.. like other blogs.
If you see, most of the big launches they set up the blog first and as the get closer to the launch they change it to the sales copy and then change it to the squeeze page after the launch happened in order create the scarcity.
Looking forward to hear back from you
Thanks,
-Gaj
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Hey Ross? How was Mass Control? I missed that one on my List somehow - or was it a private thing? Was it even a Seminar???
Anywho.
About your question (thought you’d have a survey actually!).
I have a blog. In fact, I have several.
I am getting some google adsense clicks on the Seminar site. The money is still stuck in google at the moment since I have yet to reach their threshold of $100.
Same with Kontera. And THEY pay lousy too. I removed it from the blog makeover recently. I was getting 1 penny to 25 cents a click and their payout is about $20 I think. I have MORE clicks there than at google yet I was up to a whopping $2-5, I don’t remember. Seemed too much interference for the money.
I’m getting ok traffic to the Seminar blog. I can see clicks since I track them thru viralurl.
The issue is getting conversions.
I started several other blogs because of what you said about the Seminar blog. Things might be a bit more hoppin’ on them since I picked different topics.
I don’t seem to get to posting to those other blogs much though for some reason.
I can fix that.
I can get traffic and I’m learning more ways all the time.
I need to learn how to CONVERT that traffic to customers though!
I understand backend stuff.
Thanks for all you do Ross! I am so very grateful to you.
Pam Hoffman
http://seminarlist.blogspot.com
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Hay Ross,
As you know I have a blog up and running. I am currently working on a I’ll call it a cheat sheet for lack of a better term to use with social networking sites to add comments with links to my posts in them. Any other traffic generating tips to make the process more automated?
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Ross,
I’m in the midst of this
dance now, and will try
to recall both the questions
I’ve solved for myself,
and the ones that are still
a mystery.
Blog vs static site
Why Wordpress
Niche keyword searching
for domain name
Meta tags
Purpose of the site
(how is it monetized)
Should you use up old
domain names you have
for Adsense blogs,
even if they are not
good from SEO
perspective?
Evaluating a theme
How to tell if theme or
plug-in are currently
supported
Navigating wordpress.org
wordpress.org vs
wordpress.com
What do different types
of blogs need to be set up–
ie, a blog for adsense?
a blog for affiliate sales?
Sales page blog vs
a genuine content blog
Having blog as homepage
of website, vs a lesser page
Number of characters allowed
in a blog title
SEO and the blog title
Picking the right plug-ins–
What each plug-in does.
How many plug-ins can
you have and still
operate well?
Vocabulary–
plug-in,
widget,
What’s a sub-domain?
What’s a root?
Housing domain name at
a different webhost
vs not doing so.
Pointing domain name
to webhost–
how to do it.
DNS
Picking webhost–
What’s all this bandwidth
stuff, and other terms?
Resolving domain at
webhost
C-panel set-up-
passwords
Storing and organizing
passwords
Email set-up
FTP
Do follow vs No follow
How to change font size
on posts
Photo hosting
How to transfer pics to
site
How to transfer video
How to keep blog secure
How to back-up blog
How hard is it really to–
change theme?
move blog to another webhost?
How to post on blog
How to edit a post
How to add Adsense
onto old posts (but
not have it on the
freshest one)
How to connect back
to previous posts
Hypertext
Contextual links
HTML
Getting Adsense
account
Registering with
search engines
Buy now button
installation
Opt-in box
installation
Legal disclaimers
and requirements
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Hi Ross,
I have 10 blogs up, and so far I’ve only managed to make about $6 in adsense revenue. That’s pretty sad.
I AM a techie person. I used One Theme and changed the colors and layouts in the CSS file. The sites have good content, keyword optimized, but I get no traffic.
I put up one blog with one post about how to use CPanel. Well, I got hit with 5 gigs of bandwidth usage in 2 days, so I took it down. LOL…… Was NOT expecting that because I had just put it up and was creating the posts to add in.
I have about 15 domains and tons of bandwidth, but most of the other domains aren’t blogs and get decent traffic.
So, what I need to do is create traffic to these blogs that I have up now. I don’t know how to do that.
Thanks,
Claire
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Hi Ross:
I understand the basic mechanics of setting up WP ‘blogs on one’s own domain as a subdomain, i.e.
===> http://yourdomain.com/yourblog
April 24th, 2008 at 4:47 am
OK here’s an interesting one - I don’t like “formal” blogging! If I have to sit down and write a respectable post, it feels like a school assignment. I found this the other day and it pretty much sums up how I feel http://blogguiltfree.org/
I took the time to write a “good” post today http://fundiva.wordpress.com/2008/04/23/donotwantfacebookchat/ and it took me longer than I wanted, and it just takes away time from me working on my many unfinished projects that would be info products to sell.
I gave up on creating a content blog to run ads and generate revenue cuz I agree with Pam (great last name BTW!) the pay is lousy for the amount of effort it would take me.
Hmmm, I think I answered my own questions, but would love your feedback.
:) @funDivaChristy
April 24th, 2008 at 5:23 am
Writing Blog headlines/titles is my challenge.
And the call to action (getting others engaged enough to want to respond)
April 24th, 2008 at 8:21 am
Hi Ross,
I’m in the process of putting a new website and blog together that needs to make money quickly. I’ve been using google adwords on other sites but that takes forever to make any kind of money to brag about. Also tried the ppc route to drive traffic to an adsense page but that ended up costing me more than I made from adsense.
So, here are my two challenges:
1. Getting search engines to pickup my blogs
2. Making real money from blogs
Thanks!
Robin
April 24th, 2008 at 9:11 am
Ross: Thanks, again, for thinking of our needs in the business.
Yes, I do have a blog. I set it up through Blogger. Have stopped attempting to make money through it and just use it as a public service for autism. It has been very rewarding, but not profitable.
Just received some info that tells me that the mistake I made in setting up a website and blog was the lack of continuity throughout and thus not having the ability to tie them all together.
I am in the process of correcting this and plan to set up a blog on Wordpress this time. As you know, I always need to begin with the basics and then add the more complicated stuff. Yes, I could use your help and even though I know you don’t need my help, I’ll ask anyway. How can I help?
I’m off for a bunch of medical tests beginning today, Great Fun!!
Talk Later,
Meredith
April 24th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
I am new to this, too and have no idea where to begin. I recently started a blog, for personal random thoughts, but I was wondering if I should have a separate blog for each “niche” or can I combine everything in one?
I don’t even know what I don’t know, so I don’t know what else to ask!
Elaine
April 24th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
[…] Both Ross and I asked our readers what they were most interested in about blogging. You’ll find all of the answers that Ross got at http://www.ross-goldberg.com/i-need-your-help-what-do-you-want-to-know-about-blogs/, and you’ll find the questions people asked me at http://www.trafficandconversion.com/your-make-money-blogging-questions/ […]
April 25th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Ross how do I set up a second totally different blog on cPanel? I can’t use adsense with my first blog. Any ideas for monetizing it? Thanks for all the great info.
April 25th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Ross, it’s Bobby from Tampa. I want to know the best way to get a blog up FAST - that’s all about fishing. Are there any special steps involved with making a blog that has to do with fishing?
April 27th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
I have not got a clue what to do.
I need a blog but no clue how to even start == HELP
I have AppleMac osx 10.4.7
Processor 1.5 Ghz PowerPC G4
512 MB DDR SDRAM
Macintosh HD
Safari 2.0.4
April 28th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
My blog started as a food blog and has evolved somewhat into a marathon training blog (for now anyway) . . . I’d like to know how to get people to my blog in the first place. I had my first blog comment/question the other day and was stunned. I’m not sure how they found me, but it was so exciting and rewarding. I would love to make money with my blog, but also want to make it a fun and resourceful place to visit.
April 30th, 2008 at 9:33 am
Ross
I have 3 blogs on the typepad platform. I tried Wordpress but wasn’t able to handle it without constant help.
What part of your training may be applied to blogs on typepad?
ruthan
April 30th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
I have 2 blogs but still fighting how to get a targeted traffic to my blogs.
I’m not a copywriter and to post a professional content to make my blog popular as I would like to do is a big challenge.
Need your recommendations,