Sherlock Holmes’ Approach To Building a Popular Blog

Blogging is not an exact science, but there’s some science to it, and thankfully these days it’s easy to track your growth and success.

If you start at the very beginning, then you can take a detective’s view right from the ground up. Before you even buy your domain name, it pays to do research and planning.

The fact is, blogs do fail. Your blog doesn’t have to be a failure, but you’ll need to keep some pragmatic things in mind. Blogs most often fail for the same reason that many retail businesses fail… someone says to themselves, “You know, I’ve always wanted to sell fairy hats,” and they go and open a store of fairy hats but the business flops because the owner didn’t do some research first. It’s a fact of real-life business that you can’t simply follow your passion blindly if you want to build a business and make some real money. What do you need to make money? Customers. And what do customers want? – That’s the thing you’ve got to find out.

So before someone dives in selling fairy hats, first they should find out if anybody actually wants to BUY fairy hats, and if they do, then where are those customers? Where do they shop? What do they look for? What aspect of this niche is yet untapped? Could you sell dress-up fairy hats… children’s fairy hats… dolls with fairy hats… handmade fairy hats… etc? Embrace your passion, embrace your chosen niche, but do the research to find out who your customers are and what problem they have that you can solve. Maybe there are fairy fans out there, but rather than fairy hats, they want to buy fairy dresses. Or maybe a fairy parties business would be the way to go, if there’s a market out there for it. Yes, there are some compromises when it comes to making money, but they’re not the end of the world. After all, a fairy party service can still sell fairy hats to those who want them; you just don’t need to rely on that micro-niche to bring you the dollars.

Likewise, if you want to run a blog, whether it’s on fairy hats or F1 racing or anything in-between, you need to do your research before you dive in. Otherwise you might pour a lot of hard work and money down the drain; if you get no blog visitors, traffic and conversions, then you’re potentially wasting a lot of time and effort.

This is not to say that you cannot write or blog about the things which interest you and which you are passionate about, but if you want to succeed in getting plenty of visitors to read, purchase or click on your ads, then just like a business you may need to compromise somewhat. And that’s OK… but find it out now, not after you’re knee deep in boxes of the “wrong kind of fairy hat”!

Get out your magnifying glass, Sherlock… we’re going to have a look at 7 tips to help you build a popular blog.

Tip 1: Choose a realistic niche - Here’s where you have to really dig deep in your research. It’s not hard to tell which niches are overdone – payday loans, credit cards, diet and weight loss, acne, breast enlargement… Avoid these, dear Watson! They are not worth your time as there are companies out there who already dominate these niches with their sheer mass of website content and highly-paid SEO experts. Obviously, don’t get too narrowly focused as that will prevent you from going in any other directions later, but pick a niche in which you can realistically succeed. Ideally, the sweet spot will be where “your passion/interest” and “what people want” intersect. If you can find a niche like this, and there isn’t much competition there, then you’re set!

Tip 2: Look at the best blogs in your existing niche, and don’t plagiarize or make it look like you’re copying them but do learn what they are doing and emulate parts of that. There is clearly something to learn from these blogs because one way or the other they have succeeded in the same way you want to succeed. Also, do some general research into what makes a successful and popular blog – check out a comprehensive resource such as Problogger as a starting point.

Tip 3: Learn some basic on-site SEO and implement it from the start. Although you don’t have to get carried away with SEO – remember, “content is still king”. You need a little SEO, though, as this is what will allow you compete with other blogs in the SERPs (search engine rankings) so that other people can actually find your blog when they search in Google, Yahoo, etc.

Tip 4: Get in touch with people who are running similar blogs so that you can participate in the online community, link into the networks, and send and receive reciprocal links. This will not only make your blog look more alive, it will also result in more traffic and hopefully some good advice from the successful people in your field/niche.

Tip 5: Assess your blog and reassess your blog – there needs to be a cycle so you do all the above things and then assess again to see if you are getting what you want. What do you need to change to do even better? Contact someone who runs a blog you respect and ask them to look at your blog and give their honest opinion – “what do they think as a visitor of your blog”. Use tools such as Ethnio and CrazyEgg to find out what people want and where people are clicking on your site.

Tip 6: Keep your blog active, reply to comments, and utilise social media such as Facebook. The static website is now “so yesterday”. Keep your blog regularly updated, keep people informed even in person as well as online, and remember you have a global and local presence as well as within the online network. Print business cards and tell people about your blog. Participate in blog carnivals regularly.

Tip 7: The ultimate key to a successful blog is to give your visitors what they want while keeping it interesting for them and for you. If you want people to keep coming back, then it is important that you stay in touch with your blog’s theme and not post garbage or late night drunken rants (save that for your private Facebook friend group!!) In taking the Sherlock Holmes approach, keep evaluating what you are doing all the time (assess, reassess, reasses!) and don’t become complacent in case a competitor rises up in your place while you weren’t looking. Finally – make your visitors repeat visitors just as a retail business seeks repeat customers. Keep people coming back for more on your blog; get them on your email list and provide value, not just advertising. This way, with a strong readership, you won’t have to rely solely on search engine traffic, which makes your business more independent.  And that’s elementary, dear Watson!

Done Writing Quality Content – What’s Next?

This is a follow up article for the how do I start a blog and make money online series that we have been publishing on this site to help users get started and create a successful blog.

Indisputably, quality content is what makes any successful blog what it is today. Writing a remarkable article of 500 words is ten times better than investing $500 for your blog. That is because the visitors might fail to notice the investment of $500, but that extraordinary article on the blog will definitely be perceived and cherished as well.

All bloggers are contemplating to have the word “Successful” as a predecessor and for that, they play a ‘game’ on a daily basis. The game is called “Blogging”. The primary mission in this ‘game’ is producing unique, quality, helpful and exceptional content and this mission begins along with the game, and does not have any end.

This article is going to discuss about the things one has to do along and after writing the so-called quality content.

First Things First

Always remember that as mentioned above, there is no end to the ‘mission’ of writing quality content. This means that the title doesn’t ask you to stop writing. It just advises you on what to do after writing it. So basically, it opines you about the activities one should perform after publishing individual posts/pages. Similarly, if you just own a site about something and don’t have a blog on it – this yet applies to you as well.

Following are some ideas you should follow once you’re done with the quality content.

Updating The Former Posts Regularly

If your blog publishes a new post on a regular basis (frequency depends on the blog owner), then always keep an alarm in your mind about updating the earlier posts as well. You’re advised to do so because when new posts are published, information about them might have been mentioned inside the previous posts. To add some hint about the new post, what you should do is known as “Interlinking” inside the old post.

Interlinking the posts is something that search engines love to see. The benefits are also rich. Following are a few –

• Increased Pageviews
• Potential To Increase Average Time Of User On Blog
• Search Engine Friendly

Social Media Presence

Believe it or not, some famous bloggers often used to depend on social media for massive traffic than search engines at some point. Social media has always proven to be an outstanding source of targeted traffic for any site/blog provided that the promotion is done in an effective manner.

A quality post proves itself when it is read.

To let your posts be read by others, you first need to let them know that there is something out there for them to read. Social media is a crucial platform for this activity. There are quite a lot of pages/accounts on social networking sites, which do nothing except posting links. Doing this not only increases the chances of losing the likes/followers etc, but also increases the chance of the account being terminated at some point. Hence, a solution to this is engagement without links. Every now and then, you should try to ‘talk’ about something important within the niche. This keeps the fan base engaged with the page all the time.

Regular SEO Checks

This might sound somewhat useless for now, but it is really important. Regular SEO checks are not so much necessary, but doing so will help you optimize all your posts perfectly, hence making the most of what search engines can provide you with. Usually, posts are optimized at the time of writing them and before publishing them. But SEO checks are mandatory because you might want to change the keywords, alternate texts in images etc. Following are some key things that should be included within the SEO checks –

• New interlinks (as mentioned in the first point)
• New outbound links – If you find out that there is a part in the post which is explained in a detailed manner elsewhere, you might want to link there.
• Keyword changes – if your post isn’t getting ranked well for the current keywords, you might want to change the same and probably keep a long tail keyword or even change it completely.

Regular SEO checks are highly recommended if you’re not getting as much organic traffic as you expected. Doing so not only helps you increase your organic traffic, but also makes you a strong SEO enthusiast!

Add Value To Other Blogs

There is one simple fact of engagement in blogging. If you are expecting others to comment on your blog posts, so are they. It’s not a must that you need to comment on every article on other’s blog, but at least one or two so that the blog owner knows that you’ve been through their blog and their content. There are several benefits of commenting on other blogs. Mentioned below are just two (there are others that are not mentioned here) –

• Building relationships – If you want to make a name and get an identity that is known by many in your blog’s niche, you need to build relationships with as many fellow niche members as you can. Blog commenting has proven to be an ultimate way of doing this. Here’s an example – If you leave your words on a post in someone’s blog for the first time, the author/blog owner is likely to visit your blog and add value to it as well provided that the comment you left was worth reading. Hence, the cycle often leads to a short chat on Twitter and then the engagement continues.
• Backlinks – If you’re not an SEO enthusiast, you might not have any tool to check whether the blog you’re commenting is do-follow or no-follow. But if you’re really looking to build backlinks, you can find out if it is a do-follow blog and hence leave a comment there. However, this is not at all recommended becausecomments are not exchanged, they’re made.

Follow the above mentioned points and over time you should start to see more readers to your blog.

The 3 Ingredients of The Secret Sauce of Successful Blogging

With millions of blog websites already in existence and many more sprouting daily, you might already be aware that there are a relatively small number of incredibly popular and successful blogs out there on virtually any topic you care to think of.

When you visit a number of these successful blogs you quickly see a common thread – there is a certain quality inherent in most of them and furthermore, they provide something useful or amusing for the people who follow or visit them.

Conversely you may have also come across a disproportionately larger number of not-so-good blogs that don’t seem to provide any usefulness or make any sense because they are so poorly put together or badly written or jammed with so many spammy advertisements that the first word that comes to mind when you see them, is “junk”.

So it might not surprise you to know that the number of poor quality blogs far outnumbers those that are even remotely useful or interesting. When I first came to this realization I was excited because this means that the opportunity for people like you and I to produce a blog which shines amongst the competition should be fairly achievable given that the majority of our competition is in the “junk” category. (I’m an incurable optimist!  )

Producing a good blog or website isn’t rocket science but it does involve some science. Just like cooking or chemistry there are certain ingredients that are critical to how the end product turns out. I’ve listed 3 of what I believe to be the most important ingredients to maximize your blogging success although I’m sure other people will have differing opinions which may all be just as valid.

Before I go on, I want to point out that “success” in terms of a blog can mean different things to different people, but ultimately the common ground of success in the blogosphere is usually the amount of people who actually visit your blog – ie, the amount of quality organic traffic. The more visitors you consistently get who actually spend some time on your blog, the more successful your blog is perceived to be. What you then choose to do with the traffic is up to you; you may try to monetize it or simply just enjoy providing your visitors with some good reading or advice etc.

So the 3 main ingredients of the secret sauce of successful blogging are as follows:

1. The Subject Matter or Niche of your blog

This ingredient determines what your blog is about or the purpose of your blog’s existence. When you create a blog you usually do it to showcase something to the world that you’re interested in or that you’ve created. In other words, your blog’s subject matter should be something that not only you’re interested in, but also other fellow web travelers may find useful or interesting too. This can range from writing about your daily experiences as a vet to writing reviews about products such as hi-fi systems or coffee machines.

Alternatively, if you’re providing a service or selling a product via your blog then the service or product you’re offering should be something that will provide value or be useful to other people to make it worthwhile doing. When creating a paid product or offering a service for money, there’s a basic rule of thumb which you should keep in mind: if it solves somebody’s problem OR makes their life or job easier OR helps them make money, then they will usually be happy to pay you for your service or product.

2. (Quality) Content

I know it’s probably beginning to sound like a cliché, but quality content is KING! Actually let me slightly rephrase this: Original, quality content is king.  A lot of people get frightened by the word “original” because they think they’re not smart enough to produce something new. But by “original” I simply mean that you’ve written something using your own words and perspectives and have NOT copied or plagiarized or badly recycled someone else’s work using some crappy spinner software.

It really isn’t that difficult to do. For example, maybe you might write about something you learned from a book or article you recently read, or a song which inspired you. Doing this will increase your chances of connecting with your readers because when you write the articles using your own words you are presenting a fresh perspective on what might be a not-so-fresh topic.
This will also have a beneficial effect on your search rankings over time because Google is continuously rewarding those websites that are producing original, relevant and quality content by ranking them higher in search results. As time goes on and you become more successful, you can of course always hire someone to write the original, quality content for you.

3. Time

This ingredient has two aspects to it. The first is that you will have to give some of your time and effort to build your blog up with the quality content discussed above. The amount of time required is really up to you but even half an hour a day spent writing an article or working on an e-book or other digital product over a period of months will significantly increase the chances of your blog’s success. Regular submissions of fresh content are an excellent way of getting the search engine crawlers to visit your site more regularly which will in turn speed up the time it takes to index any new pages or posts you create.

The second aspect of the time ingredient is related to your patience. Just like growing a vegetable patch, a good blog usually takes time to bear fruits. A rudimentary inspection of blog sites which rank in various top 100 lists for popularity and success will reveal something in common – ie, almost all of these blogs have been in existence for at least a couple of years and are aged nicely just like a good wine.

In other words the owners of these sites have nurtured and honed their blog over years with fresh, mostly useful information or products which always keeps people interested and coming back for more.
It is also believed that the age of a blog site is one of the factors which Google uses to determine the Google Page Rank (PR) of a site. Sites which are more than a year old and consistently drawing quality organic traffic and producing fresh relevant content, usually rise higher in the rankings over time.

Just like any cooking recipe, you can always add some extra ingredients or things you can do to spice up your blog, but invariably, the above 3 ingredients will usually determine your blog’s basic success.

Creating Content to Attract Links

We all know the old song and dance about how content is king, but what does it mean? Does it mean Google just loves content? Well yes but largely because they rely on great content to attract links naturally, giving honest, trustworthy signals of value. So obviously you want some of those signals to say that your site is the man. Not to mention having link worthy content is something every site wants for the traffic, for the ranking benefits and for the credibility. All of these things help make a site stand apart from the competition. So what exactly are the secrets of creating content that attracts links?

Research

The first step to figuring out what you can do that might get links is to see what’s out there that already IS getting them. There are a few key places to look in your quest:

Competitors - Find the best performing content on your competitors’ sites. Some of it may be impossible to replicate, but other efforts may inspire you with strategies you can use on your own site.

Top Bloggers and Information Sites - When you find relevant blogs or popular resource sites you can look at all of the posts, questions and other leads that give you an indicator of what people have gladly linked to. Then you can then take those assets to the next level.

Tools - Keyword tools are extremely helpful in figuring out what long-tail phrases and questions people may be asking related to your site. You can use that information to write articles or build info graphics that address those well searched topics.

When you take the time to analyze what performs well, you can improve your odds of hitting your mark. You can’t give people what they want if you have no idea what that is.

Titles

Writing great titles is an important part of having content that gets links. There’s no secret formula to writing titles but there are a few things which are just good practices

Match the Subject - Sometimes its fun to mislead people with some title like “Clown Cars for Everybody” which actually leads to a post about the history of the Mini-Cooper. Yeah it makes sense and all but it’s not really what people were looking for when they clicked on it. It’s better to be straightforward about what you’re presenting so that you can keep the readers you do get.

Cute is Good, Searchable is Better - Taking a cue from the last point, while it’s great to write clever titles that will intrigue people, like “The Deep, Dark secrets of the One-eyed Jack”  which is a tutorial on Black Jack, but is anyone EVER going to search for that combination of words if they aren’t directly looking for your article? Probably not.  However, “Learn to Play Black Jack like a Pro” has a much better chance of being returned in a search by someone looking to “learn to play black jack”. Except Online gambling is super competitive, so that niche takes a ton of work.

Buzzwords Still Work - You know how everybody likes to slap words like “guaranteed” and “new and improved” on everything? Well that’s because it works. Certain words like “Free”, “Quick” and “Best” still grab people’s attention. It seems commercial and over done, I know. But they do work so don’t neglect them.

Promotion

You can create all the content you want, and it can be amazing, but if no one ever sees it, it’s not going to do you much good. Promoting your content well is almost as important as making it great. The problem is that getting your content in front of people is one of the hardest parts of getting links. Fortunately there are a few ways to make it happen.

• Make contacts – Your contacts and network are crucial to getting people to look at your content and consider linking to it or sharing it in other ways. You can spend time making contacts by

• • Contributing to popular blogs in your niche
  • Sending individual emails to webmasters with relevant sites
  • Trying to get into weekly or monthly “round ups”
  • Talking to local press
  • Collaborating with charities and not-for-profits

Obviously there are many more ways to expand your contact base, but the point is the more people you can build relationships with the more of a platform you will have to distribute your content.

• Social Networking – Social media is one of the better ways to build your network of contacts. But make sure you use it well. Interact with others, re-tweet other people’s content and make some completely non-promotional updates and/or Tweets. Humanity drives social networking, not automation. By being personal and interactive you can gain friends and allies.  Just make sure your stream isn’t limited to sales pitches and self-promotion, or you will only bore and alienate people.

• Authority – Making your company an authority in your field is another highly valuable part of attracting links. When you are a recognized leader in your industry your content will be considered more credible. When other’s reference you as an expert it builds up your brand name and increase your visibility. Making in-roads and establishing collaborations with other giants in your space is one of the best ways to use other people’s authority to build up your own.

Attracting links is a huge part of the life of a website, but in the vast landscape of the internet, it’s a huge challenge. The content that you add to your site can be the make or break factor in how many links you are able to procure. But when you research your content ideas, write the titles to gain the most search traction and promote your best content in the right ways, you can get the links you need. Resource development is an on-going part of maintaining a website and one that will always remain vital. But when you master the finer point of content creation and promotion, your site can become a link magnet.

Awesome Tips on Writing Headlines for Your Articles and Landing Pages

Copy-writing experts say that 5 times as many people read your headlines compared to anything else on your page.

In many situations in the online realm, your headline is THE most important thing you have which you can use to convince somebody to become your customer, client or reader.

The competition for attention on the internet is fierce and becoming tougher as time goes on with countless new sites coming online daily, therefore good headline writing skills are becoming more important than ever.

To put the importance of headlines and good headline-writing skills into perspective, just look at the common things you see people using every day on the web.

For example, when you tweet about your latest post or special offer you are in effect tweeting a headline.

Thus, if the people reading your tweet are not intrigued enough to stop and read your message and then click through to your main website then you need to seriously re-consider your headline writing skills and techniques.

It doesn’t matter how great you think your content inside your pages is, if your headline isn’t doing its job in convincing people to read on or click-through then all of that hard work you put into writing the great content or producing that amazing product is wasted.

Therefore it is imperative that you learn how to write good headlines if you want to succeed on the internet.

You could be excused if you have the impression that smart and eloquent people are the only ones who would be good enough to come up with amazing headlines, but in reality almost anybody (including you) can learn the ingredients and techniques necessary to write an effective headline which will be relevant for your website.

Below are some points which you might want to consider next time you are writing your headline.

1. You can use your headline to demonstrate that you understand the reader’s problems

Demonstrating understanding and empathy regarding somebody’s situation or problem is another role which your headline can play.

When people are dealing with somebody who understands their problems it usually becomes easier for them to trust somebody enough that they at least give them a chance to say their piece.

In other words, it is more likely that people will give you the opportunity to state your message by continuing to read past your headline.

2. You can be brutally honest about outcomes and worst case scenarios in a headline

This is a sort of mirror opposite of the point earlier where we talked about encouraging people’s dreams and aspirations.

You can also use your headline to highlight a negative scenario instead of a positive one because most people fall roughly into two categories – optimists and pessimists.

In order to get certain people’s attention, sometimes you need to shock them into reading your page by highlighting worst case scenarios or undesirable outcomes if a problem or situation is not addressed.

An excellent point in case is something like the following headline used in an anti-smoking campaign:

“Every breath you take will eventually destroy your future”

3. Confirm people’s suspicions about something in your headline

People love reading something which reinforces to them that they are right.

This couldn’t be more true for situations where people are suspicious or wary about something.

In psychological terms, when a headline confirms a suspicion somebody might have about something, they will seek to have their thoughts reinforced by continuing to read past your headline.

To see what I mean, next time you are reading some news or other articles, look for headlines which might start with words such as:

“What <xyz> are not telling you about <insert topic here>“

The above style of headline is a classic way in which online copywriters and businesses will reel you into reading further by sparking your own suspicions about a topic or thing.

4. A good headline will encourage people’s dreams and aspirations

Most humans have desires, dreams and aspirations. Actually it can be argued for better or for worse that the modern consumer culture is a testament to these human traits.

People will buy that new shiny toy because they believe their dreams will be fulfilled in some way or they might seek to find ways to learn how they can aspire to be better than they are by buying a self-help book.

Thus if you have something to offer to people which will help them get closer to their goals or dreams, try weaving this into your headline.

Here’s an example from a popular men’s health magazine:

“3 ways to last longer in bed”

5. Try writing your headline first next time you are writing a post or landing page

By spending some time thinking about and writing your headline first, you can be better prepared to craft more meaningful and relevant sales copy in the main body of your page.

After all, the headline is a prelude to what your readers expect to get or read when they progress past it.

Thus by writing your headline first, you can often get a clearer understanding of the content you will need to write to fulfil the expectations or promises you made in your headline.

6. Observe how the experts write and use headlines

If you don’t make the time and effort to watch and observe how the masters do it you don’t stand a chance of coming up amazing headlines of your own.

Thus as a diligent student and hence competent headline writer, you will firstly need to understand why a great headline works before you can intelligently adapt the same technique for your own needs.

Next time you are reading something on the internet or newspaper or magazine, try becoming more aware of the headlines of the material you are reading.

See if you can identify patterns and the use of certain types of words and sentence structures which you can mimic in your own headlines.

8 Steps for Building a Successful Internet Business Partnership

Many successful Internet businesses have some kind of partnership which is instrumental in the continued success of the business.

Whether you are currently flying solo or thinking of setting up your own Internet business, at some point you may need or want a business partner to help you expand or take your venture to the next level.

Putting the steps below into practice will go a long way in ensuring that your Internet business stands a greater chance of succeeding and your partnership lasts for the long haul.

1. Seek out the right partner for you and your business aspirations

Finding the right business partner is a much easier task when you have in mind what you want and need from people to make your business a success, and then put yourself in the right place to meet them. For instance you could set up or join a mastermind group or forum which contains other like-minded people which you can meet.

Similarly you could attend conferences where you can meet your prospective business partner(s) face to face. It is a good idea at this early point to know your strengths and then find a partner that can complement your strengths with their own unique strengths. (Discussed further in step 3)

2. Discuss with your prospective partner what each of you wants to achieve and accomplish with the business

Lay your cards on the table early and encourage your prospective Internet business partner to do the same. This will give both parties a clearer picture of the direction that each person wants to steer the Internet business and it will help highlight the motivations of each person behind the business partnership in the first place.

Some questions you could ask are:

• What do we want to offer to the world with the business?
• What sort of values do you want to instill in your business? Do they intersect with your partners values?
• What is each person bringing to the table in terms of motivations for creating the business?
• Where does each of you see the partnership going in the short/medium/long term?
• Will the partnership have a shared responsibility in the management of the business or will one person be responsible for managing the troops?
• How will money and work be divided up?
• What are the different hats or positions that exist in this business, eg, affiliate income coordinator, VP of customer service, VP of finance.
• Break up the org charts by roles and strengths first then divide up the roles that no one wants. This exercise alone can be very useful in identifying what can potentially be outsourced.
• Following from above, the org chart is a perfect place to put all of your outsourcing arrangements such as the names and details of your outsourced personnel.

3. Identify each others strengths and work with them to complement your Internet business

A successful business partnership, especially one that is Internet focused, usually relies on people with different strengths and skill sets working synergistically to achieve a common goal.

At the onset of the partnership, everybody should identify their skills and strengths as well as their prospective partner’s strengths and skills.

In a lot of cases you may be pleasantly surprised to find that the whole will usually be greater than the sum of the parts because of how well the skills and different perspectives complement each other.

It is crucial that in the beginning you play to the strengths of each person and highlight skills which complement each other.

As the Internet business becomes established, there will be a natural accumulation of new knowledge and skills across the partnership which will further enhance the partnership’s synergy.

4. Be very clear about expectations from the beginning

Similar to step 2 but subtly different. In this step you are identifying what you expect from each other as partners regarding the day to day operation of the business.

5. Start with a small project together to test the workability of the partnership

This is akin to the civil engineer building a model bridge to test the stresses and strains before committing large funds and effort to build the big bridge. The same should be done with your Internet business partnership.

Don’t jump into a big complicated or expensive project but start with something small at first such as a webinar or perhaps produce a video series on YouTube together or create and market a small product.

An exercise such as a real-life mini-project can quickly demonstrate whether the partnership will work or whether it needs some tweaking or whether it simply just won’t be tenable at all.

People react differently to things and little annoyances that might be present during a small project can quickly turn into big annoyances when the big projects start. Therefore if you feel that

6. Make things official

This might seem unnecessary if your business partner is a close friend or family member, but irrespective of whether you’ve known the person(s) for 3 months or 20 years, it is still a good idea to get the legalities and official side of your partnership defined clearly from the onset, even if it is a written agreement between yourselves.

For instance you could create a Legal Liability Company (LLC) which can be beneficial to the partnership on many levels such as tax and protection of liabilities for acts and debts of the LLC. (It is recommended that you do your own research about LLCs and other legal matters and seek independent advice from a professional before jumping into anything)

7. Create an Org Chart

In this step you are getting into the nuts and bolts of dividing up the work and tasks.

This step becomes more and more necessary as the business grows or becomes more complex.

This ensures your business is well organized and clearly defines who does what task:

• What are the different hats or positions that exist in this business, eg, affiliate income coordinator, VP of customer service, VP of finance.
• Break up the org charts by roles and strengths first then divide up the roles that no one wants. This exercise alone can be very useful in identifying what can potentially be outsourced.
• Following from above, the org chart is a perfect place to put all of your outsourcing arrangements such as the names and details of your outsourced personnel.

8. Have weekly meetings

This gives everyone the opportunity to catch up and ask questions or clarify any concerns.

Free conference calls can be made using Skype or you could meet in person if possible.

This helps keep things in focus and ensures the direction of the business is maintained.

I’m sure there are successful Internet business partnerships out there who may not employ all of the suggestions above but the fact is if YOU follow most or all of these steps then you will at least maximize the chances of YOUR partnership succeeding.

CreAction: A New Formula For Blog Success

Action Trumps Everything is a book about a new principle called CreAction, which is how entrepreneurs balance thought and action in the face of an uncertain future. This principle can be used by anyone, entrepreneur or not, to help guide yourself though the good, the bad, and the unexpected in life.

Through extensive research, we have concluded that entrepreneurs function in a different way than people who do not define themselves as entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs tend to act rather than think their way through almost any situation—a formula we call “CreAction.” Of course, this does not imply that they are impulsive and/or irrational; it does, however, emphasize the importance of action versus thought about the next step or move, or how to handle a situation.

This principle and way of acting can be applied to blog writing.

1. Be timely: Thought and consideration for writing each blog post is necessary, but what is most important is the relevance and timeliness of a blog. Ideally, spend some time researching your next blog topic by looking at what is big in the news that day, what is being searched, and how it can apply to the theme of your blog. Now, write it the same day!

2. Don’t procrastinate: Don’t agonize over every detail, delaying the output of your work. We have seen many bloggers pine over what they are going to write and every word that is in their blog, when what they should be concentrating on is finding a topic that is newsworthy, relevant in that moment. Just get the blog written and posted immediately.

3. Get your readers acting: Concentrate on promoting conversation and interaction between you and your readers, as well as the readers amongst themselves. Getting your readers intrigued and involved in a topic that is sensitive and timely will help attract new visitors to your site as they search for that topic, and keep old visitors engaged. Isn’t that the goal, after all?

4. Promote quickly: Last but not least is getting your blog “out there.” It is key to act immediately after your blog is posted to gain visibility and traction to your site right away. Obviously, you will want to post it on your Facebook page, “tweet” a link to it on Twitter, etc., but don’t forget to use your contacts and networks to help spread the word. Email your friends, colleagues, fellow bloggers, etc. and ask them to help get the word out. Use services like Delicious.com, Stumbleupon.com, Reddit.com, Sharethis.com to get the word out as well. In addition, a great way to promote visibility for your blog is to network with other bloggers and link over to eachother’s sites or make a guest blogging arrangement. This is mutually beneficial and most bloggers are happy to build these types of relationships.

Let us know if you agree with these principals or not in the comment area below.

To learn more about how to act like an entrepreneur, as well as to find out more about CreAction to work for your goals, please go towww.actiontrumpseverything.com for a free copy of the Action Trumps Everything online book.

Tips On How To Become A Better Blogger

This is a follow up article for the How do I Start a Blog and Make Money Online series that we have been publishing on this blog to help the newbie’s get started with a blog. This article covers some good practices that you should develop to become a better blogger.

1. Chose The Right Topic For Your Blog

There is usually a big debate on which path to go down when choosing the topic of your blog. Some will advice you to find a niche that people spend money in and focus purely on the profitability. Others will say don’t go for the money at first, focus on your passion because things that you personally enjoy and know about will be easy to create good content on and in the process you will make money. I will leave it up to you to decide but I can only suggest that you consider both sides of the story before making up your mind. Some people can remain motivated because of the process, not the topic but that doesn’t work for me. I need to enjoy the topic.

2. Challenge Yourself

You might be an expert on the topic that you cover but it can become boring if you write from the same angle all the time. Get out of your comfort zone a little, learn more about the complex areas of your topic and present some interesting facts of your discovery to your readers and they will respect your effort.

3. Create Your Own Style

When you write try to add your own opinion or flavor that will make your posts unique. If you write about something technical then think how you can make it easy for the average readers who are not very familiar with the technical terms. Why should visitors keep coming to your blog when other bloggers are also writing on the same topic? It is your unique styles that will help you stand out in the crowd and make your blog different than a regular one.

4. Show Your Passion And Credibility

Building your reputation is very important. You need to gain the trust of your readers before they listen to you. If you talk about Green Peace then you need to let your readers know how passionate you are about it. This is where choosing a blog topic that you are passionate about helps. Let your visitors know how involved you are and what you have achieved so far. Humans can smell bullshit very easily so don’t just lie to your readers as this will ruin your credibility. The visitors who will be coming to your blog are most likely passionate about your blog topic so if you are not seriously involved then why should they listen to you and read your blog?

5. Know Your Readers

If you have a good understanding of your reader’s motivation, passion, need then it will be a lot easier for you to write articles that your readers will appreciate. Visitors most likely come to your blog because they either want to learn something or they are looking for a solution so you need to provide them with what they are after. Try to put yourself in their shoe and be on the lookout as to how you can satisfy them.

6. Be Consistent

Consistency is one of the keys to be a successful blogger. Make a routine of how often you want to publish new posts on your blog and try to stick to this routine. Do not worry too much about profit when you are starting out. Think in terms of adding tons of value consistently and the money will come.

7. Be Clear, Short And To The Point

The trick is to get your readers’ attention quickly. Statistics show that on an average most readers will decide if they are going to read the full post or not in the first few seconds after they land on an article. Having a nicely formatted structured post with short paragraphs and bullet point does the job. Don’t make the post unnecessarily long, divide them into short paragraphs and use bullet points or numbered list for ease of reading. Also use sub-heading so the readers can easily find the information they are looking for and always stay on topic. If you fill up your post with irrelevant information, readers will loose interest and leave your blog.

8. Proofread Before Publishing

I used to get too excited to publish a post as soon as I was finished writing it when I first started blogging. I didn’t used to spend any time to find spelling and grammatical errors. Lots of grammatical and spelling mistakes on an article will turn off the readers. So proofread your article before you hit the publish button. If possible, ask a friend to proofread your article. This can help greatly when you are starting out as it’s hard to find your own mistakes at first.

9. Involve Your Readers

As I have mentioned before that a blog is more interactive than a traditional website which is the reason blogs are so popular. Through interaction you can create a good bonding with your readers. So try to get your readers involved in your blog by asking them to leave comments, participating in surveys etc.

10. Reply To Comments

Reply to the comments left by your blog visitors. If someone has taken the time and effort to leave a comment on your blog then the least you can do is reply with a simple “Thank You” or answer their question. If you have a really popular blog and you get tons of comments daily then it may not be practical to reply to every comment left on your blog but in general replying to a comment shows that you care about your visitors so try to do it.

11. No Shortcuts

You need to understand that there are no shortcuts to success and it’s definitely not going to come overnight. Try to add value to the community, be consistent, hard working and patient and blog success will follow.

Please share your tips on how to be a better blogger in the comment section below.