Archive for February, 2005
“Blogging” For Fun & Profits
Jim Edwards here with an update that can literally revolutionize your business…
It’s summed up in one word: “Blogs”
Now this probably isn’t a huge news flash for you.
I’d bet $20 bucks you’ve heard the term “blog” before.
But my question is…
Have you done anything about it?
Have you started using blogs to take your online business, customer interaction, and traffic generation to the next level?
If not, it’s time to start… and this article (below) will help you get started… NOW!
By the way, if you like this article and want to post it on your mini-site, in your newsletter, on your blog, or in your autoresponder… feel free. See the simple reprint instructions at the end.
To your success,
Jim
PS – Everything good I’ve discovered about blogging up to this point I learned from a “mystery man” you may never have even heard of.
His name is Thomas Pierce (Stephen Pierce’s brother) and his course taught to me a TON about the in’s an out’s of blogging for profit. If you need a solid basic training in how to *really* set up a blog and generate traffic… check out this website:
=> http://www.BlogMasterSecrets.com
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“Blogging” For Fun & Profits
– by Jim Edwards
© Jim Edwards – All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
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Unless you’ve been under a rock for the last year, you’ve heard the term “blog” once or twice.
To most people, a “blog” simply represents a glorified online “diary” where geeks, computer nerds, and lonely teenagers record their thoughts in cyber-space.
However, many people don’t realize that “blogs” are quietly revolutionizing the way companies and customers interact about everything from existing products to new ideas and improvements in customer service.
In short, “blog” style communication has come of age and anyone with an online business better sit up and take notice fast!
In the beginning, “blogs” were basically an online diary to record your thoughts; but “blogs” have now evolved into dynamic websites that non-technical people can update immediately without html editors or ftp programs.
Blogs allow their authors to make instant website updates through a computer anywhere in the world with a Web browser and Internet connection.
Blogs also allow readers to respond to the author’s posts, provide additional information, links, expanded opinions, and more.
In short, an active “blog” creates an interactive community with the author as the hub and the readers as the spokes of the wheel that keep the whole cycle turning round.
Unlike traditional “static” web pages where content rarely (if ever) changes, an active blog evolves in a state of constant and never-ending renewal.
With blogs, smart online businesses re-discovered a principal that small “mom and pop” stores understood for years: know your customers and stay in close tune with their wants, needs, and desires.
Large companies throw billions of dollars down a black hole every year to literally “guess” what people want to buy. Most call it the “Marketing Department.”
On the flipside, smart online businesses understand that blogs allow you to avoid guessing what’s on your customers’ minds and provide an active and up-to-the-minute means for them to tell you exactly what they do and don’t like about your services, products, and virtually any other aspect of the market.
This lightning fast communication makes it possible for small companies to literally snatch huge market share away from more traditional companies.
Blogging also has a distinct advantage over traditional email newsletters in that subscribers can get udpates without having to receive an email message. Through the power of RSS (real simple syndication), subscribers get notified of updated content though an rss news reader.
Bottom Line: publishing a blog with an RSS feed that your readers can subscribe to means your content NEVER gets blocked by a SPAM filter.
Blog software basically comes in 2 flavors: hosted and stand-alone. Hosted blogging solutions make it extremely easy to get set up with a blog, often in just a couple of minutes.
If you know how to type, you can create a blog. Log on to Blogger.com and you can set up a blog free of charge and start posting in just a few minutes.
Blogger.com (owned by search giant, Google) will even host your blog on their servers.
Typepad.com, which charges as little as $4.95 per month, is also an excellent hosted service offering additional features that enable you to quickly get your own blog up and running.
The alternative is stand-alone blogging software installed on your own website.
A very popular solution is Moveable Type, available from moveabletype.org, which provides a very versatile and powerful suite of tools for creating a full-featured blog to rival that of any size company in the world.
Whichever blogging solution you choose, if you plan to successfully conduct any form of business online, understand that a “blog” must form an integral part of your overall plan for customer communication and interaction.
–
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how
to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted
visitors to your website or affiliate links…
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Need MORE TRAFFIC to your website or affiliate links?
“Turn Words Into Traffic” reveals the secrets for driving
Thousands of NEW visitors to your website or affiliate
links… without spending a dime on advertising!
Click Here> Money Making Ezine Articles
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** Attn Ezine editors / Site owners **
Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety
in your ezine or on your site so long as you leave
all links in place, do not modify the content and
include our resource box as listed above.
Feel free to substitute your affiliate link in place of
our link in the resource box.
Earn up to 50% on every purchaser you refer!
Affiliate details are available here:
http://www.ebookfire.com
If you do use the material please send us a note
so we can take a look. Thanks.
“I Gotta Tell You” Tips Update!
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How Drastic Changes At Google AdWords® Can Put HUGE Profits In Your Pocket!Recent changes at Google mean everyone has a level playing field again when it comes to advertising on the world’s biggest search engine. A lot of people have emailed me this week wanting to know if this change is "good" or "bad"… watch the video to see why this could literally revolutionize your business. ** Note: This video is actually part of just one bonus in my new "Mini-Site" Creator course… you’re getting a behind-the-scenes preview of 1 of the 177+ step-by-step videos that make up the course.
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How To Build A HUGE Email List… For FREE!Very few people know the "secret" I’ve used to build up several LARGE email lists (tens-of-thousands of subscribers)… but I’ll tell you right now, it comes down to two words: "Mini-Courses!" Here’s a video that explains the mechanics of HOW a mini-course works… and you’ll see WHY it’s so SIMPLE yet so POWERFUL for building a list FAST! (This is also a sample video from just 1 of the bonuses included with my "Mini-Site Creator" Course) Additional Resource: Free Mini-Course About Mini-Courses Here |
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Welcome To a New Format for "I Gotta Tell You!"
How To Pull Subscribers Like Flies To Honey!
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5 Tips To Create A Kick-Butt Mini-Course
That Pulls In Thousands of Rabid
Subscribers… in a Flash!
© Jim Edwards – All Rights Reserved
======================================
One of the fastest ways to develop, build, and grow your own
list of subscribers is to develop a “mini” course with an
incredibly compelling promise.
I have personally used “mini” courses to build lists of
several thousand subscribers in as little as a week.
A “mini” course is simply a series of e-mail’s where you
teach people a specific skill, set of skills, or reveal
other information they really want to know.
In the process of providing this focused, valuable
information, you prove to your subscribers that you are THE
expert in a particular area – and, you also encourage people
to pay you to get even BETTER information from ebooks and
information products you’ve either written or recommend.
An example of a “mini” course offer I’ve used with great
success is the free mini course at www.7dayebook.com that
appears in the exit pop up window when you leave the site.
The promise of this “mini” course is strong and compelling.
Here’s what it says…
FREE eBook Mini-Course
“How to Write and Profit from your own eBook…
while you’re still young enough to enjoy it!”
All the registration page asks for is first name and email
address… and this mini-course has generated thousands of
subscribers!
So here’s the basic formula in a nutshell:
Strong promise+ low risk+ high perceived reward= Subscribers
Now, if you’d like to build your own list of rabid
subscribers, here are 5 sure-fire tips for creating a mini-
course that truly kicks butt!
Tip #1 – The Promise
If you want to launch a successful mini-course, target an
audience with a specific need and then make them the biggest
possible promise you can deliver on.
People are pressed for time and rarely see as much value in
something they get for free as opposed to something they pay
a lot of money for.
Add to this the fact that the Internet gets more and more
crowded everyday and you can see that the best offers are
the ones that grab people’s attention by making a benefit-
driven promise they can’t resist.
Even though you offer your mini-course for free, you still
must SELL people on WHY they should pay you with their time
and attention.
Example: If you want to do a mini-course on real estate
investing, look for the biggest and best promise you can
make for people.
Let’s look at these various promises for identical mini-
course content:
Good: How to make a fortune in foreclosures.
Better: How to find and buy a profitable foreclosure within
2 weeks.
Best: How to find and buy a profitable foreclosure property
in your area within 2 weeks – using none of your own money!
** The promise you make has everything to do with whether or
not people sign up. IMPORTANT: After they sign up, make sure
you deliver on the promise.
Tip #2 – Don’t reinvent the wheel
Look for existing content – your own or other people’s – you
can adapt directly or indirectly into the mini-course.
Hey, I understand you’re busy… I’m busy too!
Why would you want to spend 2 days coming up with all the
content for your mini-course if you already have past
information you can adapt!?
If you don’t have any existing material, then find someone
else who has written an article and use that for part of
your mini-course – with their permission of course.
You’d be surprised at all the pieces of the puzzle that are
out there independently which you could combine into a great
mini-course without nearly the mountain of effort you might
expect.
Tip #3 – Give yourself lots of chances to make money
One way to build more value into your mini-course and make
sure people hang onto your messages instead of deleting them
is to put lots of quality links into your mini-course.
This allows people to get additional information on specific
aspects of the mini-course.
Some of those links can be to free resources, others to
resources where you earn an affiliate commission, and still
others to your own products and services.
The more links you have that actually contribute to your
students learning the subject of your mini-course and
fulfilling the promise you made to get them to sign up, the
better your chances of them clicking those links.
If you create lessons people save for future reference
because they have great links in them, you’ll make more
money!
For an example look no further than your “in-box”! Almost
everybody has email messages they’ve saved from other people
because they contain links to sites you want to use now or
access in the future.
Tip #4 – Build anticipation for the next message
If you’re going to take the time to put together the mini-
course, wouldn’t it be great of the majority of people who
subscribed actually read your messages!?
If you want to launch a successful mini-course, you’ve got
to rise ABOVE the noise of all the other email messages
people receive every single day.
One way to do this is to always end each lesson with a small
“ad” or excitement builder for the next message. You do this
by really playing up a big benefit they’ll receive as a
result of reading the next message you promise to send them.
Here’s an example:
“The next and final installment in this mini-course will
give you five tips for how to get 10,000 visitors to your
website without spending a dime on pay-per-click traffic! So
stay tuned for the next lesson in 2 days…”
It’s a simple, yet very powerful way to build anticipation
for the next message into EVERY message you send.
This simple step helps make them look forward to the next
message so it gets read… not trashed!
Tip #5 – Tell them what they don’t know!
If you’re using the mini-course to promote a product that
covers a much “bigger picture” of the topic as a whole,
constantly remind people that the mini-course is just a
“tiny piece” of the whole product.
Remind them of what else they need to know and tell them if
they buy the product then they’ll get this benefit, and that
benefit, and even more specific information.
Remember, you didn’t publish this mini-course to practice
your typing skills! You are in this to make money, to get
subscribers, and to make sales!
Once you deliver quality content that gives people a real
taste of what’s in store when they actually purchase, then
it’s time to close the sale… you deserve it!
–
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how
to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted
visitors to your website or affiliate links…
-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Need MORE TRAFFIC to your website or affiliate links?
“Turn Words Into Traffic” reveals the secrets for driving
Thousands of NEW visitors to your website or affiliate
links… without spending a dime on advertising!
Click Here> Create Money-Making Ezine Articles FAST
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** Attn Ezine editors / Site owners **
Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety
in your ezine or on your site so long as you leave
all links in place, do not modify the content and
include our resource box as listed above.
Feel free to substitute your affiliate link in place of
our link in the resource box.
Earn up to 50% on every purchaser you refer!
Affiliate details are available here:
http://www.ebookfire.com
If you do use the material please send us a note
so we can take a look. Thanks.
© Guaranteed Response Marketing, LLC
Cool Websites Everyone Should Bookmark
Jim Edwards here with an article (below) I think you’ll
really enjoy…
In fact, you’re getting the “scoop” on all my newspaper
readers because this article doesn’t even get published
officially until tomorrow’s paper!
It’s about 3 *very* cool websites with tools I use in *my*
business.
You can try all of them out for fr^e… and you’ll find
they help you protect your intellectual property, access
information you need faster, and keep you updated online.
Also, if you like the article, feel free to post it on your
website, share it with your subscribers, post it on your
blog, or add it to your autoresponder.
(See simple reprint instructions below.)
To your success,
Jim
PS – Have you ever wondered what it *really* takes to get a
money-making mini-site posted up on the web (without being
a computer geek, buying expensive software, or paying
outrageous fees to a webmaster)?
If the answer is “YES”, then take a couple of minutes to
check out this website right now…
=> http://www.MiniSiteCreator.com
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Cool Websites Everyone Should Bookmark
– by Jim Edwards
© Jim Edwards – All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
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Often I find websites that offer interesting, innovative,
or just plain cool stuff that doesn’t quite rate a stand-
alone article, but several of them together will get you
jumping all over your computer to check them out.
** Copyright Thieves Beware **
A free service at www.copyscape.com allows you to see if
anyone out on the Web has copied the text from your website
and to what degree.
Just enter the url of your webpage, article, or blog post,
hit the submit button and the site will show you if another
website contains substantially the same text as your page.
If you get a hit, then click the links provided to go to
the sites that may have copied you and see highlighted text
that matches your site.
The free service on the home page only displays 10 results,
and if you want to see more, you can pay $10-20 a month and
the service will monitor your web pages and let you know of
everyone who copies them.
A positive use for this tool I thought of for anyone who
operates an online business: put in your competitors’ url
where they display the ads, articles, and other tools they
give their affiliates, and see who links to them.
They may have active affiliates posting their content (with
permission of course) and you may find some great potential
partners to help you promote your business.
Another way you can watch for this type of activity is by
signing up for alerts at Google.
Go to http://www.google.com/alerts/ and enter in your name,
product title, article title, or some specific keyword
combination that would tip you off that someone had taken
your stuff (or was posting your competitors’ material).
You can then receive an update with links any time Google
finds a new reference to your keyword phrase.
** Surf While You Sleep **
One of the disadvantages of surfing the web, especially
with a 56K modem, involves the fact that your browser
doesn’t allow you to easily and selectively download
content from the World Wide Web.
For anyone who ever experiences this frustration, here
comes GetBot to the rescue!
Available at www.getbot.com, this handy little program
allows you to surf individual sites, view all the page
titles, see all the website links, both internal and
external, and decide which pictures and pages you want
before downloading.
Should you desire to download an entire site, you can set
the program to run before going to bed. When you wake up
the next morning all the information will already reside on
your computer, making for a fast and pleasant perusal of
all the material.
Getbot comes as shareware with limited functionality, which
means you can try the program for free, but if you decide
to keep it, or want all the features, then you must pay $19.
On the bad side, it’s a memory hog, so be prepared for a
restart or two when using it.
GetBot is a decent starter program… but if you want
real power for downloading websites to view offline,
check out www.httrack.com I’ve found it to be MUCH
more versatile… and, it’s 100% no cost 
** Keyword Specific News **
Log on to http://News.Google.com and you can find just
about any breaking news story on virtually any topic.
Though the front page is segmented into main categories
like Science, World News, Technology, and more, Google News
also allows you to search over 4,500 different news sources
for stories containing your keywords.
For example, a search for “Iraqi Elections” returned over
10,000 stories, many of them less than 5 or 6 hours old
when I did the search.
Google News also allows you to sign up for “News Alerts”
via email where the service will email you a link every
time a new story with your search criteria appears in their
database.
If you need keyword-specific information and articles to
post in your blog… this makes an excellent way to get
material sent to you the minute the news breaks.
–
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how
to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted
visitors to your website or affiliate links…
-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Need MORE TRAFFIC to your website or affiliate links?
“Turn Words Into Traffic” reveals the secrets for driving
Thousands of NEW visitors to your website or affiliate
links… without spending a dime on advertising!
Click Here> Money Making Ezine Articles
-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
** Attn Ezine editors / Site owners **
Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety
in your ezine or on your site so long as you leave
all links in place, do not modify the content and
include our resource box as listed above.
Feel free to substitute your affiliate link in place of
our link in the resource box.
Earn up to 50% on every purchaser you refer!
Affiliate details are available here:
Ebook Fire Affiliate Program
If you do use the material please send us a note
so we can take a look. Thanks.
© Guaranteed Response Marketing, LLC
First Entry
Hi,
Jim here with an update…
We are switching our “I Gotta Tell You” Newsletter delivery over from a straight newsletter to a blog format… so you can have the best of both worlds.
I can give you more content more frequently this way… because now I’m going to switch over to a weekly multi-media tips style format.
This will also allow me to keep an archive, something that was missing under the old style.
Also, this will allow YOU to make comments about the posts I make and allow us to have a dialogue about what’s going on.
So stay tuned… because this is going to be a whole lot more fun!
Jim
Reader Question: Do I Need Good Writing Skills To Succeed Online?
Hay! Jim, thanks for the news letter i like it!
i was on Rosland Gardner’s web site yesterday thats how
i found you http://www.AffiliateBusinessBlueprint.com
i read the infomation that you and Rosland had on
the Affiliate Program that you’ll marketing,i’m new to
the hold thing for a beginer who wants to start making
money on the internet
where should i start with e-books or your Affiliate
Program,but my most important question to is can your
programs work for people with not so good
english,gramer,and writing skills?
thanks for your time,
R. J.
——
RJ,
You can always hire someone to help with the writing
skills… i.e. write your articles for you.
Two good places to start are rentacoder.com and elance.com
I’d advise starting with your own site… selling as an
affiliate… in a market you have a high level of passion
for… something from your job, your hobby, spiritual
beliefs…. that will get you excited.
Then, following all the principals out there for driving
traffic, start putting eyeballs across your site.
Make sure to create a list of subscribers… so you can
follow up with people via email.
You should strongly consider starting a blog too!
Do *something* every day to build your business and develop
yourself as a business owner!
Jim