I think the number one issue people have is getting enough traffic to thier site.  I’m sure everyone can agree that you can NEVER have enough traffic to your site.

With that in mind I’ve put together my list of things that are sure to help you increase your traffic to your site.

Here are my TOP 40 tips to blogging and getting better traffic to your site.

1. Write posts that are current and about whats hot today.
2. Bookmark your site to social bookmarking websites, i.e. stumbleupon, del.icio.us, reddit.
3. Be consistent and post regularly.
4. Join groups in your niche on Google and Yahoo groups, and then include your URL in yoru signature.
5. Share your experiences with anyone you can, be an authority in what you’ve learned.
6. Write posts that are easy scan.
7. Article Marketing, Article Marketing, Article Marketing
8. Have an e-mail signature and put your URL in your signature when contacting someone through e-mail.
9. Join mybloglog, its a great way to socialize.
10. Use feedburner to easily add RSS subscriptions to your blog.
11. Add Lucia’s Link Love plugin – inspire visitors to comment by offering do-follow links after 5-9 comments.
12. Be honest.
13. Be original.
14. Comment on other blogs, not just the top blogs.
15. Make or use a good design.
16. dont ignore questions in your email.
17. Read other blogs and tell others about them.
18. Write about blogging.
19. Give credit to those that inspired, it makes your writing more useful.
20. Create a lens or hubpage that highlights your best posts.
21. Make content or info product that is worth buying but you give it free this will build a great list.
22. Use original images/photos on your posts and use the alt tags on those images – this will gain you tons of traffic from google images.
23. Share your secrets.
24. Try and become a guest poster on other blogs.
25. Submit to EzineArticles, ArticlesBase, GoArticles, Buzzle, and ArticleAlley.
26. Add tweetmeme to your posts.
27. Never copy posts or use duplicate content.
28. Work on your SEO and make it as good as you can.
29. Create a WordPress Theme, and submit it to the WordPress directory. Don’t forget to include with your link credit.
30. Comment in forums.
31. Add a sitemap, This helps search engines index your site.
32. Use pingoat to ping your blog after every post.
33. Target keyword phrases in the titles of your posts.
34. Write eye catching blog post titles.
35. Spell check and grammar check your articles and posts.
36. Use YouTube to promote your blog.
37. Admit your mistakes.
38. Take one day and dedicate it to building more traffic to your site
39. Write long, definitive posts.
40. Be patient.

Do you have tips of your own that you use? Leave me a comment and let us know how you get traffic to your blog!

There are several ways to generate income online.   Creating affiliate niche sites, advertising, and info products are just some of these ways.  Having these multiple streams of income into your business is how you maintain stability and consistence.  You never want to be dependent on any one method of income generation. Especially if, say you Google de-indexes all of your sites.  If all of your income is coming from Google your business will fail.

One way to ensure at least part of your business is not be dependent on someone else, is to add information products to your revenue streams.

Lately I’ve been focusing a lot of my time on information products.  There are three ways you can implement info products into your business.  Each depend on how much time you have to devote to this new business model.

Roll Your Own

The first method is of course to create your own information product. Write an eBook yourself on a subject you know well and are passionate about.  This will take the most time but if you have the time, this can be  a veery inexpensive way to get a new income stream going.  The big key is to do your market research first!  Don’t go off half cocked and write an ebook if you don’t know if it will sell or not.

Pay to have it written

Another way to create an info product is to have a ghost writer or someone else write it for you. This method is a little more expensive but you can have creative over sight into the product.  The product is still 100% yours, its unique, and you save tons of time and get it to market quickly.

PLR Content

The last way is to use PLR content to jump start your Info Product revenue streams.  Good quality PLR content that is not over sold is a fantastic way to jump start your own info product.  You can easily re-write part or all of an eBook (or have it re-written for you), add new graphics, and give it your own flavor to then have your own product very quickly.

No matter which way you choose getting started can be a little daunting.  Knowing where to start and what steps to take can leave you feeling lost.

Two resources I’ve used that have been extremely helpful to me has been Josh Spaulding‘s Info Product Success Formula and Niche Profit Classroom.

Info Product Success Formula

This is an amazing eBook.  In typical Josh Spaulding fashion he lays out everything you need to do in an honest, cut-to-the-chase way.  He takes you down two paths, of either writing your own or using PLR content,  to show you how to setup an effective info product business.   Its a great read and a must have for anyone who is considering selling information products.

Niche Profit Classroom

Like the name states, NPC is a university or classroom style web site.   Breaking each step down into lessons,  NPC really holds your hands and breaks everything down into very small steps.  Every lesson is a series of video’s design to teach you a particular subject.   They have an extensive amount of video’s too and each lesson walks you through exactly what you need to do next.  NPC is a recurring monthly service currently priced at $67.  Each month you get two high quality PLR niche products that you can promote.  Each product come complete with ebook, sales page, email mini-course, graphics, and keywords. They even include the market research for each niche to show you how they chose the niche and why the market is good for this particular subject.  They even have an introductory price of only $1 for the first 7 days so that you can give it a test spin.  Check it out at Niche Profit Classroom

Unfortunately both products do cost money, but if you are wanting to start creating your own information products, both will help you immensely.  Either way, you owe it to yourself to include information products into your revenue stream for your business.

Until next time — I wish you the best success!

Joe

THIS IS ONLY A TEST

In my last post I discussed using WPtouch to optimize your website for mobile devices like iPhone, Blackberry or Android (google).  But what if you don’t own one of these devices, like an iPhone? How can you test to see if your website looks good on an iPhone if you don’t own one?

Designing web content for a particular device can be tough.  Especially for cell phones.  And the coolest ones out there aren’t cheap!!  Today everyone wants an iPhone.  And I have to say I understand why.  It is the coolest new gadget to be invented this decade.  I love my iPhone.   But even if you don’t have an iPhone, there are millions of people (many who maybe your customers and readers) who do own one.   What you need is an iPhone Browser simulator.

And yes of course, Shaun Sullivan at Blackbaud Labs has come to our rescue and created a really cool iPhone browser simulator … and best of all he has made it available to download for free!

To install the iPhone browser emulator you need to have Safari installed first.

Next simply cruise on over to Blackbaud Labs and download the iBBDemo iPhone Browser Simulator and run it.

Its that easy.  You can now test out your web site layout and designs for the iPhone …

Then again you could just use it to pretend you have an iPhone.  Tell your friends you have connections at Apple and are testing the new “soft iPhone”  from Apple! See how many people you can fool!

Hey everyone. This week I WAS going to write a post about setting up a membership site using some pretty nifty wordpress plugins.  But just as I was going to hit POST on my blog I got an email from Yaro Starak…

Now Yaro is an amazing blogger and marketer.  He is someone I often look to for my own tips and advice. If you haven’t visited his blog Entrepreneurs Journey you should check it out.. it’s really good.

The reason I bring this up is because Yaro is giving away a free report starting today telling you how to setup a membership site! I was really blown away with the timing of this. And the report is just fantastic in itself.

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:
http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/go.php?offer=joesbans&pid=3

In the report 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.

Now we are talking an established blogger and marketer so its no doubt he has made $250k last year… but to promise he will help me make $100k is pretty gutsy.  Of course this report is the teaser as he is getting ready to launch a new Mastermind Membership Site product.  I will tell you many people highly recommend his courses (including Caroline Middlebrooke), though I have NEVER attended one.  His courses aren’t cheap  which is why I haven’t tried any.

The report however is FREE and is full of great tips and advise for those wanting to start a membership site.

Many of the topics covered in his report were in my original post.  Which is why I chose to re-write this to tell about his report.

MemberWing

One thing Yaro does not cover is a really cool WordPress plugin that is an alternative to Amember called Memberwing.  Memberwing does much of what Amember does but it is FREE!  It installs very quickly and integrates with paypay easily.  There is also a paid version that adds even more functionality such as more payment processors like, 2Chekcout, Clickbank, etc. and recurring subscribtions.  Memberwing also has a great way to simply add premium content to your site!

My recommendation is to check out Yaro’s report.  It has a lot of great info in it as well as some of his trials and troubles setting up his first membership site.  It’s a very good read and remember it’s FREE  Then go check out Memberwing and setup your own membership site!

If you do the numbers a membership site will really add a great revenue stream to your business.  If you can get just 200 members overtime paying $20/ea per month… you have $4000/mo of recurring income!  Not bad for just one site.  The key is to OVER DELIVER on content so that you have very happy members!

Again you can download Yaro Starak’s report from here:
http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/go.php?offer=joesbans&pid=3

I would love to hear what you think about membership sites and any issues you ‘ve ran into setting your own membership site up?  What questions do you have about setting up a membership site?

Photo credit: Ikonic