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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…
Continuing on my product reviews, today I want to discuss OptimizePress. I’ve made no secret of the fact that I strongly recommend this theme. But, why?
It is because I use it personally on several different sites. It is because the cost compared to the multiple uses of this theme make it one HELL of a buy.
So, first… the video. Then, I’ll lay it out – pros and cons.
OK, news alert: I recommend Aweber.
Of course, that’s not news. I’ve been recommending Aweber for years now, and so do many others.
But, why? Is it just because they have an affiliate program? I know people have thrown that claim out there, especially with the likes of Mailchimp around. Mailchimp offers a free account, so obviously many bloggers prefer to use that and often wonder why people like me continue to recommend Aweber.
I have long recommended the themes over at Elegant Themes to people who want something better than a freebie theme can offer. One of the reasons I recommend them is because of the price, quite frankly. 🙂
Here’s a video to explain…
Click Here To Learn More About Aweber Here are some other posts on this site where I have talked about Aweber: Switching to Aweber – Part 1. Written back when I originally began switching to Aweber myself. 2 Quick Ways To Easily Modify Your Opt-In Forms (Without Being a Code Junkie) Using Multiple Opt-Ins To…
Click Here To Learn More About OptimizePress Here are some other posts on this site where I have talked about Optimizepress: OptimizePress Versus Premise OptimizePress Review OptimizePress – On The Inside [VIDEO] I freakin’ love this theme. And I think you will, too. Buyer’s Bonus! If you buy your copy of OptimizePress via this link…
I’ve been to Blogworld many, many times now. Pretty much ever since I knew it existed, I’ve never missed a conference. And for 3 events now, I’ve been the “track leader” for monetization.
In all the Blogworlds I’ve gone to, the 2012 event in New York City is one of the best I’ve attended. For me, this event stood out for a couple of reasons:
When you change the domain name of your blog, there is an unfortunate and annoying side effect…
If you use any social media sharing buttons, then they will all now show ZERO.
Any social proof that goes along with having retweets, Facebook shares or +1’s is now gone and you feel like you need to start over in that regard.
But, there is a fairly easy solution to this. It requires a little bit of PHP code, but I’ll spare you the time and simply share it with you. 🙂
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.
You put it out there and…. hardly anybody notices. It is kind of frustrating, too, because you poured your heart and soul into all that writing.
People should really read your stuff. What’s wrong here?
That headline was a saying I learned from my family. Despite the colorful language, the motto is a life lesson that all of us need to operate by.
See, too many people live their lives in a constant state of “someday, maybe I will….”. It doesn’t matter how that sentence ends (it is different for everybody), but one thing is common. It is a maybe. Not a yes or a no, but a maybe.
I was sitting there on the aft deck of the Carnival Paradise. We were in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. Cruise with the wife – no kids, no Internet. Nothing but time to chill out.
I went into brainstorming mode and let the ideas happen. I sat there with a notebook and a pen… and just… brainstormed.
What came out of it were some changes to my company…
You’ve probably heard this before…
They say that it is a good idea to post to your blog every single day. They say that the more you post, the more Google will like you and that your audience will grow faster.
Some people don’t even start blogging or doing content marketing because they think it will be too demanding. They don’t have time, or so they think.
I have done my share of hourly consulting for my usual rate of $250/hour. Does the money suck? Of course, not.
But, I’m shutting it down. And I’ll explain why. And why – if you do hourly billing for clients – you might want to think about the consequences.
Hidden expectations → endless procrastination → zero progress. Break the cycle, ship the damn thing, and watch momentum take over.
Sometimes, people like me can’t help but wonder why others read our advice and don’t actually apply it.
Case in point…
A recent survey I ran over the weekend shows that 56.4% of bloggers (at least in my audience) don’t engage in any kind of email marketing.
The 80/20 rule is a pretty well known fact. It goes like this:
80% of your results will come from 20% of your efforts.
Which means that approximately 20% of the things we actually do are responsible for a huge majority of the results we achieve.
We’ve all heard the saying “the money is in the list”.
You’ve heard about the importance of building your list. And the whole free giveaway thing to get on the list.
But, that is SUCH an incomplete story!
Bad, BAD idea to send mass email from your own web server. I know. I used to do it. I was the cheap-ass who hosted my email list in-house (in order to save money), and it was a seriously stupid decision.
Fortunately, there are other types of options.
Political campaigns are an interesting thing to watch, from the perspective of marketing. And you can learn alot by watching the political campaigns in action.
If you remove yourself from the emotions of whichever candidate you support (or hate) and instead just watch from a MARKETING perspective, the lessons are many.
For most blogs, the life cycle of a blog post is pretty short. Unless you do a pretty good job with post SEO and it brings you long-term search traffic, your post which you worked so hard on will simply fall into the archives of your blog – never to be seen again.
What a waste! Because, I don’t know about you, but I have a lot of good stuff back in the archives of my blogs. And it is a real shame when they don’t serve me longer.
Well, there ARE things you can do in order to lengthen the life cycle of a blog post.
There are certain actions that you should try to execute before you hit the publish button on any blog post. Some of these actions are for readability, others for SEO purposes, others just for organization.
Having a checklist is of paramount importance.
I see too many bloggers who just brain dump into Wordpress and hit “Publish”. No strategy in mind – no nothing. Then, nobody comes. Not only that, if you had an opportunity to sit over the shoulders of most of your readers (if you have any), you’d find that most of them aren’t even reading your post at all. No comments. No tweets.
[insert cricket noises here]
So, what I’m going to do in this post is give you a checklist. I’ll go over it and give the reasons why each step is there.
Why so many people end up doing business with GoDaddy, I have no idea. But, there are better options. Here’s why I recommend you not use Godaddy.
Banner ads continue to be the de facto way to make money with a blog – or so it seems. But, the headline says it all: click-through rates on banners are typically pretty horrible.
This has an effect on everybody involved.
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