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Of WordPress and Widgets

By on May 9, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, article directory, article plugin, article themes, Blog Business, Blog Platform, Blog Posting, blogging, Blogs, Conversion, Domains, Free Reports, Google Adsense, Membership sites, Mobil Blogging, New Blogging, SEO, Themes, Traffic, Web Design, Websites, widgets, wordpress, World Internet Summit, Wp Headers, Wp Themes, Youtube Video

Of WordPress and Widgets

One of the world’s largest blog hosting sites, WordPress, achieved its status by offering users with loads of features, apparently more than its competitors do. However, one feature that truly sets them apart from the rest is WordPress Widgets which is quite simply, the use of widgets on WordPress blogs.

Widgets are basically plugins or tiny applications which can be placed on your blog’s sidebar. In WordPress, the most convenient aspect of putting up widgets is it is easily done without the need of html or web page editing expertise. With the ability to add and arrange widgets at your fingertips, it’s you can get your blog to look the way you want it to be making it a personalized one indeed in no time at all.

There are also huge amounts of widgets available online apart from those available in WordPress and can be obtained from websites such as www.widgetbox.com. Other than providing you with widgets of all sorts, they provide you guides on creating your own widgets to truly add a touch of personality and originality. These guides are even handy for the really tech-savvy individuals like developers and theme and plugin authors. Widget creating is important for them who work for WordPress as they have to keep tabs on the thousands of people from over 130000 blogs many of whom are constantly downloading WordPress programs each day.

With the use of Javascripts as well as Ajax, widgets are quite simply little boxes which represent content elements located within the sidebar of your theme. One downside to this is that once the widget is what it is, its look and the way it works can’t be modified. Among the elements which come as standard are;

Archives – A collection of links for older posts sorted by month.

Blogstats – A display of statcounter as well as a record of the amount of traffic coming into your blog.

Calendar – A calendar which dates can be used as links if there were any entries posted on that date.

Categories – A list of categories for post sorting and searching purposes.

Links – Quite simply, a blogroll arranged according to their respective categories.

Pages – A list of links to every page.

Most Recent Posts & Comments – A list of the most recent posts as well as comments that have been approved.

Meta/admin – A collection of links directing you to meta functions such as logging in and logging out, entries and comments RSS, Site Admin and WordPress’ homepage.

Search – A search tool to search within your blog.

Text – A feature allowing the insertion of HTML, Javascript or simply any form of plain text and can open up possibilities for miscellaneous text widgets.

Another interesting thing is the ability to add RSS feeds sourced from elsewhere using the new widgets available. With functions like these, the uses of widgets encompass almost every thinkable thing where only your imagination is the limit. However, too many widgets may not only cause your blog to slow down, but may end up spoiling the look of your blog as it is never advisable to have too much of a thing and this includes widgets.

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How to Make Money Off Of Affiliates

By on May 8, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, Blog Business, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

How to Make Money Off Of Affiliates

Most bloggers who are blogging to make money already have some experience with affiliates most likely but for those of you who don’t an affiliate is simply someone who sells a product for someone and receives a commission. You can also get leads that pay money too and this can actually be easier in the beginning and I would recommend that if you’re new you work with getting leads rather then sales. People are more inclined to join something free then to buy something, especially off of a new blog which doesn’t have too much reputation so for the first while stick with leads. I actually wouldn’t even introduce affiliate sales or leads into your blog until at least one month after you begin it. Also it’s only one month if you post everyday if you post less frequently then give it a couple months before introducing affiliates. The last thing you want to do is bombard all your new readers with affiliate ads, instead you want to first build up a readership and then move forward with affiliate ads.

Once you’ve decided to start working with affiliates you need to decide how you’ll go about the task. Some people will make a separate page for affiliates and list them all on one page so that it’s somewhat tucked away and then only people interested in the offers will have to look through them. Other people will add banners or links into their sidebar pointing to the affiliate and then others will make a new blog post with the affiliate lead or product. I find that creating a new post for the product or lead is the best way to go about getting sales, because this way you can write a review of the product and let people know a bit about what there buying. You’ll notice you get more sales from the products and leads that you offer some guidance or knowledge on rather then just posting a banner or link.

When you’re placing links on your blog that point to affiliate URL’s you should use a cloaking plug-in so that you can make friendlier URL’s. A lot of people won’t click links if they know it’s an affiliate link and it’s easy to tell because most affiliate networks use there URL to forward you to the affiliate product. There are plug-ins for WordPress which make this simple though and a quick Google search will do the trick for finding the right plug-in. I’ve noticed on blogs where I cloak my affiliate links up to 30% more action on the links then when I simply use the affiliate link normally and when you’re dealing with money 30% is a fairly large percentage.

That’s about all you need to do in order to display your affiliate links properly so that you can maximize your profits and apart from that all you should be concerned about is making sure the affiliate banners and links you use on your blog fit in the blog. Meanings don’t promote a shoe affiliate on a hat blog, only choose affiliate leads or products that are directly involved with your niche. Also ensure you don’t overdo any affiliate ads because people will quickly become turned off from your blog if everything is an affiliate ad. You should use them sparsely throughout the blog posts to make sure you don’t come off as someone just trying to make a quick buck. People are far more inclined to buy something off of someone who has taught them stuff through the content on the blog, so make sure you continue writing solid content and mix in the affiliate ads as you go.

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What You Need to Successfully Run a Blog Network

By on May 5, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, article directory, article plugin, article themes, Blog Business, Blog Platform, Blog Posting, blogging, Blogs, Conversion, Domains, Free Reports, Google Adsense, Membership sites, Mobil Blogging, New Blogging, SEO, Themes, Traffic, Web Design, Websites, widgets, wordpress, World Internet Summit, Wp Headers, Wp Themes, Youtube Video

What You Need to Successfully Run a Blog Network

A lot of bloggers who run either one or a few blogs have been looking into expanding their reach and creating what’s known as a blog network. There are lots of companies who own blog networks nowadays and more are created each day, but only a select few of them are well known and profitable. You can’t expect too be able too run a blog network on your own and that’s the main mistake a lot of bloggers are doing. They think that they can do everything, but the fact is there is only so much time in a day and you won’t be able to do everything needed by yourself if you want too become successful. The one thing all the profitable and well known blog networks have in common is that they outsource a lot of the tedious work and capitalize on cheap outsourcing rates around the web.

Outsourcing too international countries has become a popular way for webmasters too get work done for the lowest possible rates and it’s vital to a blog network. If you want to run a blog network you’ll need an entire team of people working for you, and you’ll basically need to spend your time managing the workers and also working on the small details.

To have any success with a blog network it will take a lot of time as you need to establish each one of the blogs in their market. This isn’t an easy task for one blog let alone multiple blogs so make sure you’re ready to put in the time and work. The first thing you’ll need to purchase is a server in which you can purchase C-Class IP’s with because you’ll need quite a few of these. You should put each blog on there own C-Class IP as it will only cost you roughly $1 per month per IP which is definitely worth it. You don’t want the blogs on the same IP because then Google might see them as a link farm and could punish them severely without any notice. You’ll also need to purchase all of the domains you want to use and set them up on WordPress each on there own IP. Once this is done you’ll need to begin outsourcing too get the blogs going.

At first you’ll only need to be concerned about content and should you hire a couple freelance writers to complete some article packs for you on the niches you’ve chosen for your blog network. Add the articles to post on the blogs once daily and timestamp each article accordingly so that you don’t need to go to each blog each day to make the post. In these early stages you’ll want to make sure you install all your stat counters so that everything is ready to be tracked. Once the content begins too compile on the blogs and they start getting indexed in Google then you’ll need to start finding link builders to build some links. You won’t need too many links in the beginning and should only get a few of them so that you gain some SE recognition. A lot of links can be built down the road for free once you become popular so don’t spend too much money on link building. The most important part to spend money on is the content and you should make sure you have lots of it.

There is a lot more to running a blog network, but this guide should give you a brief outline of what you’re thinking about getting into. Unless you have a fairly nice budget then don’t even consider doing it because you won’t stand a chance. You’ll just burn yourself out quickly and then become bored with blogging in general. You can’t do something that isn’t possible so realize early that if you want to run a blog network you’ll need to outsource most of the work. This means you’ll be running in the negatives for the first few months and then you may start moving into the green. There is a chance you won’t even move into the profits though and this is the risk you take when starting a blog network.

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How Bloggers Could Make Thousands A Month

By on May 5, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, Blog Business, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

How Bloggers Could Make Thousands A Month

There are a ton methods that bloggers can use to make money on there blog but some are less known then others and often bloggers don’t use some of the most profitable and effective methods of monetization. A lot of bloggers use affiliate networks, me included but the fact is there is also another method to make more money. If you’re wondering what that method is, it’s simply to either make your own products or to buy products with master resale rights or private label rights. Make sure they come with the rights listed above so that you have the complete documentation to be able to sell the products or else you could run into legal troubles for illegally selling a product you’re not aloud to. Believe me when I tell you this it’s definitely something you don’t want to get into because it’s a battle you’ll lose nine times out of time and many product owners will go through the troubles of suing you.

Once you buy some products with master resale rights you can then create a review for it and make a new page on your blog selling the product. You now will be able to retain 100% of the money that you sell the product for instead of only receiving a commission like you do from affiliates. This is a method often overlooked by your average webmaster and it’s why lots of A list bloggers are making such good money. If you notice most of the products they promote are either their own products or products they retain full profit from because of owning rights to sell it. There is still money in affiliate networks and I don’t recommend selling your own products until you’ve got an established blog, but once you do and you have your marketing techniques down to a science then promoting your own products is amazingly beneficial.

There are also benefits of selling your own product or a product with master resale rights over selling affiliate products. The main benefit would obviously be that you keep all the profit and you don’t give any of it to anyone. Apart from that though there are still so other benefits like the fact you can set whatever price you choose for the products and also how you promote them. Many affiliate products have huge sets of terms and conditions which usually save their butt, when you sell your own product then you make the rules of how everything goes and you simply do as you please.

Selling your own products or products you’ve bought rights to is definitely the best way to earn a full-time income on the internet. One product can make sales for years down the road without doing anything except a bit of promotion in the early stages. There are lots of products on the internet that you can buy rights to as well you just need to make sure that you buy the right products that will sell. There is no point in buying products that are ten years old because the information will be outdated and you’ll have trouble making any sales.

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Highest Paying Niches to Work in

By on May 2, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, Blog Business, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

Highest Paying Niches to Work in

There are thousands upon thousands of niches you can work in and some of them are obviously more competitive then others which are why choosing your niche is important. Another important reason of choosing a good niche is that some niches just don’t have the potential too make money like some of the other niches out there. Today we’re going to look at some of the highest paying niches and how you can make money in those niches by blogging.

Health

The health niche is one of the most competitive niches on the internet and companies spend millions on promoting there websites on the internet in this niche. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to make some money in this niche though including pay-per-click ads, private ads and affiliate sales. You can make upwards of $1 per click on Adsense in this niche which is incredible as most niches pay $.10 or less per click. There is also a magnitude of products to sell in this niche and they usually range in the $100+ price range which allows room for high commission payments. If you can manage to build traffic in this niche then you stand an excellent chance at making some serious money in the health niche.

Finance

With the world’s economy lowering on a daily basis right now there is no better time to get into the financial market online. The competition is very stiff in this market and gaining a market share is nearly impossible, but in a billion dollar industry if you get a fraction of a percent of the market share then you’d be laughing. Commissions are amongst the highest out there in this niche as well as you can make money from credit card applications, payday loan applications and much more.

Adult

If you want to leave the mainstream industry and move into the adult industry then there is tons of money to be made. You can make blogs very quickly in this niche and content isn’t as important as the mainstream niches. You can get away with small blog posts and still make a nice income if you build links and traffic to your blog. Sponsors pay up to $100 per paying customer or you could also take a lifetime percentage per customer although $100 per person is usually more profitable and you get it at one time.

These three niches in my opinion offer the most opportunity for making a full-time income and if you can draw in the traffic then they’ll spend money. It’s proven that these three niches are amongst the top for people spending money in, which means that if you can achieve traffic you’ll usually make money. It needs to be targeted qualified traffic in order to make money, but if you want the best chance of succeeding online and don’t know where to start then I recommend starting with one of these niches. They are very competitive, but a lot of niches these days are so you need to find out how to better then your competitors.

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Monetize Your Blog

By on May 1, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, article directory, article plugin, article themes, Blog Business, Blog Platform, Blog Posting, blogging, Blogs, Conversion, Domains, Free Reports, Google Adsense, Membership sites, Mobil Blogging, New Blogging, SEO, Themes, Traffic, Web Design, Websites, widgets, wordpress, World Internet Summit, Wp Headers, Wp Themes, Youtube Video

Monetize Your Blog

A blog is certainly the best possible platform for your creative outlet.
But, if it can earn you a regular income, then it undoubtedly is the
cream of the cake. Contrary to the popular belief, blogging does not
have to be limited to your pastime. With a bit of effort and dedication,
it is indeed possible to turn your blog into a money making machine.
In this chapter, we are going to discuss some easy yet smart ways of
monetizing your blog.

Make money through Google Adsense or other pay per click
programs

Joining Google Adsense or any other pay per click (PPC) program is
undoubtedly the easiest way to monetize your blog. One must
understand that these pay per click programs allow you display ads on
your website and you get paid for every click on those ads. Though it
is the easiest and smartest way of getting money, it might be difficult
to earn a considerable amount in the initial stage of the blog as
majority of the pay per click programs including Google Adsense only
pay a few cents per click.

Sell Affiliate Products

Using your blog to sell products can prove to be very profitable way of
making money. Selling affiliate products do not require you to supply
them yourself; you don’t even have to deal with any issues regarding
the deal. Selling affiliate products can result in very good profits,
provided you are smart enough to sell products or services which are
closely related to your blog’s niche.

Sell Ad areas or spaces on your blog

If you have worked hard enough to make your blog popular and if you
have already earned one of the top three page ranks on search
engines, then it is more than a probability that many advertisers will
be more than willing to advertise on your blog. You can sell ad spaces
on your blog at a very good price.

Advertising link publications
In this case, you strike a deal with the owners of websites or blogs
who are trying to increase traffic for their blogs or websites. You offer
to publish the link to their website in your blog statement, at an
agreed rate. If your blog has a good traffic rate then it is more than a
probability that you might be contacted by numerous potential
advertisers.

Monetize with your own products

After getting assured of regular traffic, you can concentrate on
creating your own products. These products can be anything like an e-
book or a membership site which can be promoted through your blog.
Since you already are aware of the pulse of your readers, it would not
be a difficult task to encourage them to purchase something which
could be of use to them. You can even go one step ahead to offer an
e-course to your readers.

It is highly recommended that you concentrate on one way of
monetizing your blog in the initial stages. Once you see that the
strategy is giving you guaranteed returns then you can spread your
wings over other methods as well. It also pays to take ideas from
popular blogs on the same niche.

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Having a blog is something very common in cyber world

By on April 29, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, Blog Business, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

Having a blog is something very common in cyber world. What makes a blog more superior than other millions of blogs is its friendliness with SEO. The acronym “SEO’’ refers to “search engine optimization” which means the process of improving and elevating volume of traffic to a website from search engines via normal search results. Blogs with better SEO gets heavier traffic and readership compared to the ones with poor SEO. In this case, WordPress websites are able to create SEO friendly sites.
Nothing beats WordPress when it comes to content management systems. WordPress works with themes that are CSS- based. Therefore, it is wise to pick SEO- compliant designs for WordPress which will propel your blog to success. Search engines prefer designs that are CSS- based whether you have a static site or content management systems. It is advisable to exclude Flash or large amount of Javascript because search engines do not read these well. Design features that take ages to load despite fast connection also makes your site less popular in search engines. WordPress countered the problem with its structured configuration that disallows too many design features.
WordPress is also very versatile when it comes to choosing themes. Choosing appropriate theme for you blog is very important to narrow down search. Themes or designs that are associated with certain keywords or keyword phrases are equally important. This is because when your site is indexed by search engines, they will actually review the blog contents and themes. WordPress makes this possible with its easy customization of blog themes. Whether it is Kubrick theme or custom theme, WordPress setup is so user- friendly that switching themes is not difficult to match your website. Your theme is a fundamental approach to appeal to search engines.
WordPress is SEO friendly with its easier customization of URL structure. Users can easily modify and edit their permalinks through WordPress dashboard. All they need to do is to go to ‘Customize Permalink Structure’ page and select ‘Custom Structure’ Option. The main purpose of doing this is to list the Post Name and Post ID number in URL to customize it as /%postname%/%post_id%/. After installing and activating Permalink Redirect WordPress Plugin, you are able to change your .htaccess file before updating your new permalink structure. Simple steps like these will ensure that only one URL is associated with one blog entry. This makes your WordPress URL very SEO friendly.
Furthermore, permanent texts on your WordPress front page make your website more SEO friendly. This can be achieved with WordPress template which can be easily modified to include a text box right under blog header. Bloggers just need to write texts that show up on permanent basis. Texts that are associated only with your blog makes your blog pop out in search results. From this way, your blog will stand out among crowds of other findings because of your significant permanent texts.
It is advisable to sign up for RSS feed for to optimize search for your WordPress blog. “Really Simple Syndication” of simply RSS is a feed format used for blog entries, news and headlines in a standardized format. Each update of your blog entry will be featured in mailbox of people who subscribe to your feed. Also, with RSS feed, it is easier for people to track down your blog titles. WordPress makes RSS customization a simple job with its clear instructions that even beginners can follow. Resolving your RSS customization would mean that the chance of your blog entries being found in search engines is rather high.
To make your WordPress more SEO friendly, there are many plug- ins that you can install. There are as much as 24 plug –ins that WordPress bloggers are recommended to install. Although having a matched theme for your website is sufficient, you can always make your website outstanding since your downloaded theme might be used by other bloggers too. WordPress bloggers can install Akismet, All in one SEO Pack, Feed Copyrighter Plugin and Homepage Excerpts. These plug- ins make your website popular to readers as well as appealing to search engines.
In conclusion, the presence of your blog among a sea of other blogs does not mean that yours will be engulfed quite easily. Making your blog SEO friendly solves the problem easily as well as creating a path to your blog success in long- term.

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Commercial Blogging

By on April 27, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, article directory, article plugin, article themes, Blog Business, Blog Platform, Blog Posting, blogging, Blogs, Conversion, Domains, Free Reports, Google Adsense, Membership sites, Mobil Blogging, New Blogging, SEO, Themes, Traffic, Web Design, Websites, widgets, wordpress, World Internet Summit, Wp Headers, Wp Themes, Youtube Video

Commercial Blogging

Experts are of the opinion that commercial blogging is the future of
blogging. Commercial blogging has been accepted as an effective way
of boosting the business of a company and that is one reason why
more and more companies are plunging in blogging to make some
serious money. However, it would not be wrong to say that making
money through commercial blogging is not a direct way of making
money. Commercial blogging can definitely help your business, but by
indirectly influencing the thoughts of the readers and potential clients.

Read on to find out how commercial blogging can help improve the
profits of your company:

Corporate blogs are the best way to interact with customers
and prospects

A corporate blog, if used efficiently can provide the best platform for
interaction with customers and prospects, which in turn will lead to
opportunities to create a positive impression and encourage them to
purchase your products or services.

Engaging employees with good corporate knowledge is ideal
for promoting services and products through blog

It is very important to engage loyal and knowledgeable employees to
blog on behalf of the company. It is very crucial for the success of the
commercial blog, as only such employees would go the extra mile to
impress upon the good qualities of the company on the readers. It is
also important that those employees have a passion for writing and
community building. The blogs written by such employees would make
the potential clients feel the sincerity hidden in the articles. In other
words, such positive impression would definitely lead to improved
business for your corporate.

Commercial blogs can be used as a powerful medium to
increase company’s credibility

While adding the blogs, it is very crucial to keep the primary goal of
the blog in mind, which almost inevitably is to up hold the reputation
of the company by increasing the credibility through the blogs. This
can be done effectively by replying sincerely to the feedback of the
clients on the blog. This will inevitably result in an impression of
enhanced customer service which in turn will encourage the customers
to continue their business with your company, which is nothing but
increased profits.

Update the blog regularly

By updating the blog regularly, you can be assured of continued
loyalty of the customers to your blog and hence to your products and
services. Regular visits by your readers imply that you will have ample
of opportunities to impress your customers with additional news and
information about your products and services.

Be openhanded with links

Like with any other form of blogging, the success of commercial
blogging greatly depends on the success of links. It always pays to be
liberal with links and back links to your corporate blog. This will result
in increased traffic which would lead to additional business.

Many big companies have recognized commercial blogging as a cheap
yet effective marketing tool. However, one of the biggest problems
with commercial blogging is that, the companies have to shell a lot of
money in avoiding articles or blogs which could hamper the reputation
of the company.

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