Every blogger wants good-looking blog posts.  There are times when you just wish you had the same editing capability in WordPress that you have say, in MS Word.  No problem - the folks at Microsoft have you covered with some free software.  It’s called Windows Live Writer - and for the average user, I think it’s the best thing to come from Microsoft in a long time. Basically, you use LiveWriter to create and manage your posts and the software uploads to your blog automatically.  There are... Read Full Story

Another nice backlink method that does not cost a dime - and really takes just a few minutes to set up - is Jon Ledger’s ShareAPost.com site. The site features posts from blogs covering all categories - and these authors have authorized others to use or syndicate their content.  You can’t change the wording or content of the original posts, and must include all links as the original author intended.  This is great news for those who contribute content - you can get your links, author bio... Read Full Story

Guest Post: Trish Jones Trish Jones, MBA, is an online marketing consultant and has created and managed her own Internet business, since 2004. Trish teaches entrepreneurs, independent professionals and small business owners how to attract more clients and make more money using a simple blog. For more blogging tips, go to www.trishjones.com Techno Who!? This is the response I usually get from my clients when I suggest that they need to link their blog to Technorati. But, if you have a blog... Read Full Story

A blog carnival is a simple concept - here’s the description from the Blog Carnival web site: “…where someone takes the time to find really good blog posts on a given topic, and then puts all those posts together in a blog post called a “carnival”.” So why would you want to do this?  Yes, it’s just another ‘thing’ you have to do with your blog posts (submit to bookmarking sites, Digg, etc…) - but the payoff is that this technique really works.  You get great relevant backlinks from sites... Read Full Story

Remember the door-to-door salesmen who used to call on your house when you were a kid? I often wondered how hard those guys had to work just to make a few sales. They had the advantage of ‘being there’ with the customer so their sales pitches could not easily be ignored. But many, if not most of these face-to-face prospects would listen politely, but never buy anything. On the web, we don’t come to the buyer, he or she comes to us. We call out to those who may be interested in what we are... Read Full Story

My friend Robert Phillps teamed up with traffic guru Fred Black for a great 2 hour SEO audio session. I’ve waded through tons of SEO material over the past 2 years, and this interview manages to distill the important stuff down to a manageable plan of action. Robert does a great interview with Fred, and takes you through their linking stratgegies, along with the tools and services they both used to get to the top of Google for the competitive search term ‘Internet Business’. If you are new... Read Full Story

Real estate agents comprise my biggest group of clients. I get lots of requests for help setting up websites, linking to MLS systems, etc. But when I suggest they set up autoresponders and AdWords campaigns, they usually give me a funny look - like “how much more is this going to cost me?”. Truly, adding AdWords and an autoresponder to your web marketing activities will not ‘cost’ you - it will actually ‘pay’ you. A well-crafted AdWords campaign might cost you $50-$1000 per month, depending... Read Full Story

Since you spend so much time working on traffic to your ‘flagship’ blog - it only makes sense that you should be able to offer both free and premium content on the same site. I do that here on my site - and I’m ready to show you how you can do it, too. All you need is a neat little program from iDevSpot called iSubscribe. In this video post, I walk you through step by step how to set up your WordPress blog just like I have mine- with pages that require payment via PayPal and secure login... Read Full Story

One of the most often overlooked aspects of long-term copywriting success is testing. Top copywriters and marketers are always be testing their successful ad copy against variations. Will shorter or longer sentences work better in a sales letter? Should the headline be changed? The only way to ever know the truth is to test. It is ultimately the buyer who decides which is best. Don’t allow yourself to come to any conclusions about your ad copy unless it is supported by testing evidence. If... Read Full Story

Here is an easy recommendation if you want a ‘real-time’ web analytics solution:  StatCounter.com. It’s free, and has tons of stats - you can even make the counter code invisible on your page.  I use Google Analytics, but I like to add StatCounter’s code to my pages as well, so I can get ‘real time’ stats - Google Analytics only refreshes their stat report daily. StatCounter has zillions of features: Log-Size Invisible Counter Option Configurable Counter Configurable Summary Stats Magnify... Read Full Story