Blog Marketing Academy

Blog comments used to be simple. If you used Wordpress, then your comments used Wordpress, too. But, then the world of blogging got more complicated. Disqus came around and offered us an alternative to Wordpress's comment system. Disqus came with some nice bells and whistles, such as social media integration. Then Facebook came in and furthered their own quest of world domination with the Facebook comments system. This got even easier to integrate into Wordpress blogs with the more … [Read more...]

What would you say if an author was working on a new book, but they spent all their time around the water cooler chatting? You'd probably tell them they were wasting their time. Because chit-chatting doesn't create books. Now, what if that author was taught that the chit-chatting was important for their marketing? So, they went out and spent several hours doing this chit-chatting with the excuse that it was somehow important. Yet, STILL… from the outside, you'd probably be thinking, … [Read more...]

There are two facets to growing your blog: (a) getting more traffic, and (b) keeping the traffic and making it convert well. Today, we're going to talk about (b). How do you fine tune a blog to keep more of the visitors who arrive? How to you make sure the message the site communicates "jives"? These are some of the questions I was looking into when I looked at John Corcoran's site: Smart Business Revolution. John signed up for a public blog critique with me. I issued a private report for … [Read more...]

If I asked you what the #1 problem is for you when it comes to your blog or internet business, what would you say? Now, obviously everybody reading this will have their own answer. But, odds are, I can guess. :) I've been helping bloggers online for 4 years now - was a tech blogger for 10 years before that - so I have a pretty good feeling that I can peg it for a good majority of you. And that problem is... TECHNICAL STUFF Under this category of "technical stuff", we've got things … [Read more...]

I have been a heavy user of Evernote for over a year now. Today, I use Evernote as a digital extension of my own brain. I also use it as a digital filing system, complete with a scanner. Many people I talk to, however, are still in that stage of wondering exactly what to do with Evernote. In some ways, it seems as if Evernote is a little like the initial days of using Twitter. We all go through that stage of wondering exactly what the hell to do with it. Then, if you persist, something … [Read more...]

There is a plug-in that I have installed on every single site that I operate. And that plug-in is Gravity Forms. In a nutshell, this plug-in will allow you to make web forms on your blog. At first glance, it seems a bit boring and unrelated. The only form you think you might want is a contact form - and there are several free contact form plug-ins out there already. But, let me tell you a little about Gravity Forms... In my post Why Buy A Premium Forms Plug-in For Wordpress?, I spell out … [Read more...]

Last week, I started to put together a new product reviews section on this site. This will be a replacement for the old "Toolbox" page which has been on this site for awhile now. One of the things I'm going to be doing for this section of the site is having a video to go along with each recommendation. The video will fully explain why I like the product and any pros and cons of note. See, it is one thing for somebody to just drop a bunch of affiliate links. It is one thing for somebody to … [Read more...]

This is a guest post by Logan Marshall. Is it just me...or do people have attention spans about the size of a pygmy marmoset these days? In our fast moving, caffeine drinking, hyperactive society...if something isn’t immediately captivating we are gone in a heartbeat. And this is even more apparent online. Studies now show that you have a whopping 7 SECONDS to convince a new visitor that your site is worthy of their attention. If you don’t...they will leave and never come … [Read more...]

Over the last few days, I've told you that I am making some changes to my company. I'm not yet going to divulge every detail of that, but I AM going to tell you why I'm doing it. It is because the "make money blogging" space that I'm in is inherently BROKEN. ... and the "gurus" of this space have failed. And the result of this is plain as day. Most bloggers are: Confused on what to do. Overwhelmed. Concentrating on the wrong things... if they even have a real focus at … [Read more...]