This is a guest post by Srinivas Rao. After interviewing over 100 bloggers for their success strategies and tips, I find myself becoming more and more strategic about everything I do. One of the biggest temptations you will have as an early stage blogger is to continually strive for the attention of any really big blogger, just so you can get your name out there. While this approach will work, it's kind of hit or miss and it's not very strategic. It's like throwing spaghetti against the … [Read more...]
What the Ancient Romans Can Teach You About Your Own Blog
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The ancient Romans did a lot of things right. They were actually quite advanced for their time, with many advances in energy, engineering and construction. One of their major innovations was their system of aqueducts. See, Rome was a bustling metropolis with water demands far beyond what the region would provide without man-made assistance. So, over a span of about 500 years, the Romans built 11 aqueducts to feed the city of Rome. These aqueducts were responsible for bringing potable … [Read more...]
[EXPOSED] Six Figure Blogger Screws Up, Tells All
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Today, I'm going to tell you how I screwed up. In the process, I'm going to divulge some very fundamental marketing concepts that, if you apply, will save you a lot of hassle in the future. The "screw up" has to do with my Inner Circle program. It is a tale of not listening, of ASSumption (caps intended ;) ), and going down the wrong road. Let's jump right in... The Story I set up the Inner Circle a few months ago, right here on this very blog, and powered by Wishlist Member. The … [Read more...]
Blogger, Do You Know Who You Are? Cuz We Don’t.
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Who are you? Do you know? When people visit your blog, do they know? Lately, I've been doing some things to really learn more about YOU. It started with my quick offer of consulting sessions. So far, I've talked to 3 people. I've got a BUNCH of them scheduled for next week. Also, this last weekend, I ran that weird survey. About that.... a quick update: Before We Begin, A Quick Announcement Thanks for everybody who filled out the survey for me. I am busy making some awesome stuff for … [Read more...]
The Decline Of The Ebook, And The Search For “THUD”
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There was a time when an e-book was considered a novel idea. It turned into a gold rush. People throwing stuff into a PDF file, throwing some slick marketing behind it, and basically creating income out of thin air. Obviously an attractive concept. Then the gold rush mentality took over. People sold a lot of crappy ebooks. People also bought a lot of crappy ebooks. Just look at Clickbank's Marketplace and you'll find a LOT of really stupid ebooks - all of them claiming to be the secret to … [Read more...]
Quick Marketing Lesson About Communication
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Yesterday, I got a voice mail from a customer who wanted to cancel his membership on PCMech. That's fine. It happens. No sweat. His voice mail, though, was rather passive aggressive. A bit of a threat that I needed to call him back otherwise he'd have to take it to another level (which I guess means dispute the charge). Today, I canceled his charge for him and sent him a quick email letting him know it was done. Half an hour later, he leaves me another voice mail. I was ignoring him, not … [Read more...]
5 Ways A Marketer Can Hurt Their Reputation
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In this business, a HUGE part of what we do comes down to interpersonal relations. This goes beyond blog posts, our list sizes and marketing strategy. I've said before that this is ultimately a people business and it will always remain true. If relationships aren't kindled and maintained properly, business suffers. It really comes down to the good ol' Golden Rule: Treat others how you yourself would want to be treated. Some marketers forget this. In an effort to form a big launch or … [Read more...]
Remember, Blogging Is A People Business
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People make things too complicated. I see it all the time in the world of blogging. A lot of bloggers out there trying to build up traffic, get recognition and make some money. They read blogs about blogging, which are (hopefully) written by people who have actually done that. Too often, however, I find that they get mired down in minutia. Perhaps you know the type of minutia I'm referring to. Stuff like: "I'm going to keep tinkering with this theme until it is just right." "I'll … [Read more...]
How I Got a 250% Opt-In Rate Increase With No Work… With Popup Domination
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Some of you may have noticed that I silently launched a new lightbox opt-in form on this blog late on Friday afternoon. I've already had emails asking me how I did it. The design is really professional and it also resulted in about a 250% increase in opt-ins from what I was getting using Aweber's lightbox form. And the best thing is.... I didn't have to design it myself or hire anybody to do it. How cool is that? I did it using a brand new Wordpress plug-in called Popup Domination, being … [Read more...]
How To Display Your Feedburner Subscriber Count In Plain Text
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You have likely noticed that many bloggers choose to display their RSS subscriber count on their blogs. The most common way to do that is by using the little button graphic which Feedburner provides. A fancier way to do it is to display it in plain-text format, thereby allowing you to style it in whatever way suits your blog. When I made some recent design changes to DavidRisley.com, I decided to display the FeedCount using plain text. Below is how I went about it… #1 – Enable The … [Read more...]
David has been blogging for 15 years, and generating a six-figure income at it for the last 12. He is the founder of Blog Marketing Academy. 
David Risley has been building and operating authority blogs for 15 years, and operating a six-figure business doing it for a decade.
