Yaro Starak
Traffic Tips For Your Blog
by Hans Kristian Anderson on Dec.03, 2010, under Blogging, Yaro Starak
The day they first launch a new blog is a special day in every bloggers life. Chances are your blog launched with only one very loyal reader – you, unless you went out and purchased someone else’s blog. Maybe a few days later you received a few hits when you told your best friend, father, girlfriend and sister, father, girlfriend about your new blog. But when it comes to finding readers that’s about as far you went .
Traffic to your website Webinar.
Below are tips specifically for new bloggers, those people who have next-to-no audience at the moment and want to get the ball rolling. The top 10 techniques new bloggers can use to find readers.
It helps if you work on this list from top to bottom as each technique builds on the previous step to help you create momentum. Eventually once you establish enough momentum you gain what is called "traction", which is a large enough audience base (about 500 readers a day is good) that you no longer have to work too hard on finding new readers. Instead your current loyal readers do the work for you through word of mouth.
Top 10 Tips
10. Write at least five major “pillar” articles. A pillar article is a tutorial style article aimed to teach your audience something. Generally they are longer than 500 words and have lots of very practical tips or advice. This article you are currently reading could be considered a pillar article since it is very practical and a good “how-to” lesson. This style of article has long term appeal, stays current (it isn’t news or time dependent) and offers real value and insight. The more pillars you have on your blog the better.
9. Write one new blog post per day minimum. Not every post has to be a pillar, but you should work on getting those five pillars done at the same time as you keep your blog fresh with a daily news or short article style post. The important thing here is to demonstrate to first time visitors that your blog is updated all the time so they feel that if they come back tomorrow they will likely find something new. This causes them to bookmark your site or subscribe to your blog feed.
You don’t have to produce one post per day all the time but it is important you do when your blog is brand new. Once you get traction you still need to keep the fresh content coming but your loyal audience will be more forgiving if you slow down to a few per week instead. The first few months are critical so the more content you can produce at this time the better.
8. Use a proper domain name. If you are serious about blogging be serious about what you call your blog. In order for people to easily spread the word about your blog you need a easily rememberable domain name. People often talk about blogs they like when they are speaking to friends in the real world (that’s the offline world, you remember that place right?) so you need to make it easy for them to spread the word and pass on your URL. Try and get a .com if you can and focus on small easy to remember domains rather than worry about having the correct keywords (of course if you can get great keywords and easy to remember then you’ve done a good job!).
7. Start commenting on other blogs. Once you have your pillar articles and your daily fresh smaller articles your blog is ready to be exposed to the world. One of the best ways to find the right type of reader for your blog is to comment on other people’s blogs. You should aim to comment on blogs focused on a similar niche topic to yours since the readers there will be more likely to be interested in your blog.
Most blog commenting systems allow you to have your name/title linked to your blog when you leave a comment. This is how people find your blog. If you are a prolific commenter and always have something valuable to say then people will be interested to read more of your work and hence click through to visit your blog.
6. Trackback and link to other blogs in your blog posts. A trackback is sort of like a blog conversation. When you write a new article to your blog and it links or references another blogger’s article you can do a trackback to their entry. What this does is leave a truncated summary of your blog post on their blog entry – it’s sort of like your blog telling someone else’s blog that you wrote an article mentioning them. Trackbacks often appear like comments.
This is a good technique because like leaving comments a trackback leaves a link from another blog back to yours for readers to follow, but it also does something very important – it gets the attention of another blogger. The other blogger will likely come and read your post eager to see what you wrote about them. They may then become a loyal reader of yours or at least monitor you and if you are lucky some time down the road they may do a post linking to your blog bringing in more new readers.
5. Encourage comments on your own blog. One of the most powerful ways to convince someone to become a loyal reader is to show there are other loyal readers already following your work. If they see people commenting on your blog then they infer that your content must be good since you have readers so they should stick around and see what all the fuss is about. To encourage comments you can simply pose a question in a blog post. Be sure to always respond to comments as well so you can keep the conversation going.
4. Submit your latest pillar article to a blog carnival. A blog carnival is a post in a blog that summarizes a collection of articles from many different blogs on a specific topic. The idea is to collect some of the best content on a topic in a given week. Often many other blogs link back to a carnival host and as such the people that have articles featured in the carnival often enjoy a spike in new readers.
To find the right blog carnival for your blog, do a search at blogcarnival.com.
3. Submit your blog to blogtopsites.com. To be honest this tip is not going to bring in a flood of new readers but it’s so easy to do and only takes five minutes so it’s worth the effort. Go to Blog Top Sites, find the appropriate category for your blog and submit it. You have to copy and paste a couple of lines of code on to your blog so you can rank and then sit back and watch the traffic come in. You will probably only get 1-10 incoming readers per day with this technique but over time it can build up as you climb the rankings. It all helps!
2. Submit your articles to EzineArticles.com. This is another tip that doesn’t bring in hundreds of new visitors immediately (although it can if you keep doing it) but it’s worthwhile because you simply leverage what you already have – your pillar articles. Once a week or so take one of your pillar articles and submit it to Ezine Articles. Your article then becomes available to other people who can republish your article on their website or in their newsletter.
How you benefit is through what is called your “Resource Box”. You create your own resource box which is like a signature file where you include one to two sentences and link back to your website (or blog in this case). Anyone who publishes your article has to include your resource box so you get incoming links. If someone with a large newsletter publishes your article you can get a lot of new readers at once.
1. Write more pillar articles. Everything you do above will help you to find blog readers however all of the techniques I’ve listed only work when you have strong pillars in place. Without them if you do everything above you may bring in readers but they won’t stay or bother to come back. Aim for one solid pillar article per week and by the end of the year you will have a database of over 50 fantastic feature articles that will work hard for you to bring in more and more readers.
I hope you enjoyed my list of traffic tips. Everything listed above are techniques I’ve put into place myself for my blogs and have worked for me, however it’s certainly not a comprehensive list. There are many more things you can do. Finding readers is all about testing to see what works best for you and your audience and I have no doubt if you put your mind to it you will find a balance that works for you.
To get more information about Blog Mastermind click this link:
John Assaraf , his incredible story and revolutionary Brain Training System!!
The leader of the Blog Mastermind mentoring program designed to teach bloggers how to earn a full time income blogging part time.This article was written by Yaro Starak, a professional blogger and my blog mentor.
Blog Tips Newsletter by Yaro Starak
by Hans Kristian Anderson on Jun.22, 2010, under Yaro Starak
This is another great tip from Yaro Starak’s Blog Tips Newsletter. The information that Yaro provides is always interesting and very informative.
By Yaro Starak Money Blog
This is a story from the very early days of my blog, when I
joined a “blog network”.
I think you will find this relevant if your blog is new…
Let’s get a definition out of the way before I go on to discuss the traffic virtues of being a member of a blog network.
For me, and for the purposes of this article, I’m going to define a blog network as any group of blogs that share links under the banner of a “network”.
The blogs in the network may overtly link to other blogs, for example writing a post directly discussing a post made at another blog in the network, or more covertly by including links in a blogroll, footer or header area.
The idea is that blogs in the network trade links with other blogs specifically because of their affiliation. There may be a central blog network homepage that links all the blogs together or a banner or icon that signifies the link.
It doesn’t matter the form, it’s the function (the purpose) – to get traffic moving between blogs and improve search engine rankings because of increased backlinks – that matters.
ALL BLOG NETWORKS ARE NOT THE SAME
Across the web you will find all kinds of different blog network formats. Some will be loose affiliations under a banner or title. Others have revenue sharing arrangements where the blogger splits advertising profits with the blog network owners, or where the blogger doesn’t own his or her blog and is considered an employee who is paid a regular salary in return for blogging.
If you are looking for examples of blog networks there are three major players you may be aware of that demonstrate the three different formats I just mentioned.
1. 9rules.com – no profit sharing and a loose affiliation under a banner and a “network ethos”
that all member blogs must adhere to.
2. B5media.com – A revenue sharing blog network.
3. WeblogsInc.com – Bloggers are paid to write.
There are many more blog networks out there and if you can’t find one suitable for you then starting your own network is a possibility as well.
I’m not going to recommend a specific network to you because which you join, if any, depends entirely on why you blog. What I can share with you is how joining a blog networked impacted my blog.
A TRAFFIC EXPLOSION
In mid 2005, after I had been blogging solidly for a few months, writing quite a few pillar articles and starting to earn some exposure for my blog I was emailed by Paul Scriven (aka scrivs, the owner of 9rules) and asked whether I wanted to join
9rules.com.
I had heard of 9rules before, but only briefly looked at the site. I confirmed with Paul that by joining 9rules I didn’t lose any control over my content or my revenues and agreed to join. I got access to the member forums, looked around, introduced myself, stuck the 9rules banner and link on my blog, made an announcement about my membership to my readers and then went back to blogging.
A week or so later my “new member” announcement went live on the 9rules blog and my traffic doubled overnight.
I thought it was a traffic spike. I was wrong.
A few weeks later, although my traffic had dropped somewhat I had effectively gained a permanent increase in my blog readership, including my RSS subscribers, of about 25%. I could only attribute it to joining 9rules.
And that was only the start…
ITS ALL ABOUT THE NETWORK EFFECTS
Months later I wrote a pillar article on my blog introducing the concept of Google’s PageRank and explaining how much attention we, as website owners, should pay to it.
This one article did more to bring in traffic to my blog than any article I had written previously. It wasn’t any better than my previous articles. It wasn’t necessarily covering a “hotter” topic. There was one reason why it did so well – One very prominent design blog linked to it.
The owner of this blog just happened to be a 9rules member. His blog was very popular and had a significant audience. When he linked to my article it caused a viral effect, with many other smaller blogs linking to my article and so on and so on.
That one article brought in nearly 100 backlinks and tons of new traffic to my blog. The only reason I received the attention was because I joined a blog network exposing my blog to all the other bloggers in the network.
BLOGGING AWARENESS
The power of a blog network is not just the direct traffic you get when you first become a member. It’s also about the awareness you create in the blogosphere.
Other blogs are one of the most effective traffic building resources available to you and by joining a blog network you suddenly become a member of special bloggers club that share a passion and are eager to help each other grow their blogs.
Blog traffic building is about creating communication channels. Directly you control your own blog and your voice. You then want your voice – your words – to be heard (and listened to) in as many places as possible.
A blog network opens up hundreds of new communication channels for your blogging voice to travel on. You can’t control these channels because they are the voices of all the other bloggers in the network. But hopefully every now and then you will say something interesting enough that other bloggers will pass it on. This can only happen when someone is listening to you in the first place.
Here’s to your blogging success,
Yaro Starak
Click this link to receive Building a List
PS. The great thing about any kind of network is through participation you create awareness of what you are about and also of course, increase exposure of your blog too.
Blog Mastermind has a built in networking function because all students become instant members of the private community forums, full of like minded bloggers all working towards the same goal.
If you want to be part of my network, please consider taking my course -
Yaro Starak Free Guide to Launching a Membership Site
by Hans Kristian Anderson on Jun.18, 2010, under Yaro Starak
Step-By-Step Guide to Launching a Membership Site.
Yaro Starak has written one of the best reports I’ve ever read on how to profit by creating and then selling your own information product.
His report is called the Membership Site Masterplan and as you would guess, it is a step-by-step guide for launching a profitable online membership site.
You can download the report from here:
Yaro’s a great teacher and writer, and whenever he releases a report people always eagerly await what he has to say.
His gift is the ability to take complex subjects and make them very easy to understand. As you will see in this report, Yaro makes the process of setting up and profiting from a membership site so easy, anyone can do it, including you.
The Masterplan doesn’t disappoint, and once again Yaro has not held anything back. This is a report that is full of CONTENT, it’s not some hype-filled document just designed to sell a product and not really teach you anything.
In the Masterplan Yaro explains how he was able to make $250,000 from just one membership site and then goes on to lay out a plan so you can launch your own membership site and earn at least $100,000 within the next 12 months.
In the report Yaro takes you through the following process:
>
- How to find topics for a membership site
- How to develop preeminence, which means people choose to join your membership site over all the other options
- What sources of traffic Yaro uses to bring members to his site and build his list
- What technology Yaro uses to deliver content (this is so simple, anyone can do it)
- How to make money from a membership site BEFORE you create the content for it
- How to fill your membership site with hundreds of new members in a matter of days by conducting a powerful, yet simple, launch campaign
- and much more…
Download the Masterplan here:
This is by far the most comprehensive report I’ve ever seen on this topic and I can’t believe Yaro is willing to give it away.
Of course Yaro hasn’t put all this work into the report for nothing. He’s launching a training program next week and this report is designed to introduce you to his teachings.
That being said, this report is a complete document – no matter whether you decide to join Yaro’s program or not, you will benefit greatly from this report, I know I did.
If you’re thinking of selling something online, a membership site is definitely the top choice. A product that you sell once, yet continues to deliver income month after month, is by far the best business model.
But listen, I don’t need to convince you of this, read the Masterplan. Yaro has put together a very compelling story and followed it up with a very detailed plan so you can do it yourself.
Go get your copy now –
Good luck with your membership site!
Click this link to Building a List
P.S. You can download an audio MP3 version of the Masterplan too, again at no cost. If you prefer to listen in the car or on your ipod as you run about, you will appreciate this audio file.
You can go register for both versions here –
Yaro Starak Free Membership Site Report
by Hans Kristian Anderson on Jun.10, 2010, under Yaro Starak
This is the table of contents of the free report “The Membership Site Masterplan” How To Make $250,000 By Launching Your Own Membership Site By
Yaro Starak.
Table of Contents
How I Earned $250,000 With Just One Membership Site. …………………………..4
What People Are Saying About Yaro’s Membership Site Training. ……………….. 5
Earnings Disclaimer and Other Legal Things ……………………………………………. 6
Would $100,000 A Year Change Your Life?. ………………………………………………7
Do You Need A Blog To Make This Work?. ………………………………………………10
Chapter 1: Build Your Preeminence. ……………………………………………………… 11
Demonstrate Proof. ………………………………………………………………………………11
Without Preeminence You Will Struggle. ………………………………………………… 12
How A Free Report Established My Preeminence. ……………………………………13
Chapter 2: Marketing Through Communication Channels. ………………………14
You Must Have An Email List. ……………………………………………………………….. 14
The Sales Funnel. ………………………………………………………………………………..16
Chapter 3: Technology. …………………………………………………………………………. 18
What Membership Site Software Should You Use? …………………………………..19
Today I Only Use WordPress. ………………………………………………………………. 21
How To Take Payments. ………………………………………………………………………. 22
Don’t Underestimate PayPal ………………………………………………………………….25
Include Audio, Video and Forums. ………………………………………………………….25
Affiliate Management. ………………………………………………………………………….. 27
Putting It All Together. ………………………………………………………………………….. 28
Chapter 4: Content and Pricing. ……………………………………………………………..29
Two Critical Questions: How and What?. ……………………………………………….. 29
What is Value?. ……………………………………………………………………………………32
How Important Is Pricing? ……………………………………………………………………..33
Chapter 5: Psychological Triggers. ……………………………………………………….. 35
How To Use Triggers To Influence Decision Making. …………………………………36
Trigger #1: Social Proof. ……………………………………………………………………. 36
Trigger #2: Proof. ………………………………………………………………………………37
Trigger #3: Reciprocity. ………………………………………………………………………38
Trigger #4: Risk Reversal ………………………………………………………………….. 38
Trigger #5: Urgency. …………………………………………………………………………. 39
Chapter 6: Prelaunch and Launch. ………………………………………………………… 41
Launch vs. Prelaunch – What is the Difference? ……………………………………….41
What Is A Prelaunch?. …………………………………………………………………………. 41
How Do Affiliates Fit In?. ……………………………………………………………………….43
How To Create Your Sales Page. ………………………………………………………….. 44
The Launch Phase ……………………………………………………………………………….46
It’s Time To Rock and Roll. …………………………………………………………………… 46
Keep Momentum Going ………………………………………………………………………..47
Don’t Forget Your New Customers. ……………………………………………………….. 48
Return To “Normal” Life. ………………………………………………………………………. 48
Chapter 7: How To Deal With Attrition. ……………………………………………………49
Monitor and Combat Attrition. ……………………………………………………………….. 49
How To Reduce Attrition. ……………………………………………………………………….50
72 FREE pages from Yaro Starak “The Membership Site Masterplan” How To Make $250,000 By Launching Your Own Membership Site By Yaro Starak.
Click this link to receive List Building information.
Top 10 Profitable Membership Ideas
by Hans Kristian Anderson on May.31, 2010, under Yaro Starak
Here are a few suggestions about topics that will most likely make for a very successful membership site:
1. Online Gaming: There are those who are so ‘into’ online games that it seems to be the subject that demands all of their time and attention. The only thing that gamers like better than playing online games is talking about playing online games. Gamers like to exchange information about the online games that they play.
2. Employment: There are thousands and thousands of people out there who are looking for jobs. Employment ranks close to the top of everyone’s list of concerns. Job hunting tips, job hunting information, resume writing, etc. are all topics of great concern to a great many people.
3. Medical Information: You can’t give medical advice as such. That would be called ‘practicing medicine without a license’ but you can report on the newest medicines and the newest procedures that are becoming available for a whole variety of human maladies. You can report on the results of studies and trials, too.
4. Relocating: We live in a mobile society. People move from state to state and from country to country in pursuit of their professions or education. Relocating is a project that is fraught with problems. People who have relocated can help those who are about to relocate!
5. Professionals: There are national and international organizations for many professions like doctors for example but how about a website where those who sell gardening supplies can gather and discuss the trade or a site where beauticians can gather and exchange information?
6. Fashion Tips: Men as well as women are very concerned about their appearance. They want to look stylish without looking weird. They want to be ‘today’ but they don’t really want to be ‘cutting edge’. In short, they want to dress well and most people aren’t confident about choosing clothing that is flattering as well as fitting.
7. Starting a Business: Because of corporate downsizing and the exportation of jobs there are people out there who are almost forced to start their own businesses. They may not have ever considered starting their own small business but now that choice is becoming more viable. They want information and they want to talk to others who have ‘taken the plunge’ so to speak.
8. Travel: There are, of course, all kinds of sites where people can book flights and reserve hotel rooms but there aren’t many sites where travelers can exchange information about their travels.
9. Elder Care: The baby boomers are reaching the age where they are caught between having teenage or college age children and elderly parents that all need their attention and their money. Some of these boomers have found creative ways of dealing with being the middle of a generation sandwich and they can share that hard earned knowledge with those that are just beginning the process.
10. Parenting: The most important job on earth that we are ever faced with is bringing a child into this world and guiding them safely to adulthood. New parents have questions and those who have been doing it for awhile have answers. Bring the two groups together and throw in some advice from grandparents while you are at it!
Click this link to Building a list, subscribe for free and you will receive great list building information and tips.
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