Part of the
Kenno's Blog series.
By Ken Brown
Editor, You Can Learn Series
Updated: January 6, 2008
Here it is just a few hours before we welcome in the New Year, 2008. For some
it is a time of excitement. For others, they just want to crawl into bed and
never come out.
What is the difference between the two? The excited person has goals. They have
taken the time to decide what they want in life. They have a plan for
achievement. They want something bad enough to get off their butt and make it
happen.
Which one are you? Are you excited about the new year? Is this the year you
reach out and
grab the golden ring? Have you made your plans and calculated
each step so precisely, that all you have to do is walk out the front door and
success will come to you? Do you want it so bad it hurts?
Here is a sweet deal for you. An opportunity to win a contest with AdToll
paying out 10,000 Entrecard credits.
If you have never heard of AdToll
here is your opportunity to learn more and to find out how you
can make some sweet cash. I have been involved with AdToll for over 6 months
now.
As 2008 quickly approaches it is time for us to consider what we can do to
improve our websites and blogs. We need to look back over what we accomplished
in 2007 and determine if we are happy with the results. Did we get the number
of visitors we wished for? Did our visitors click on revenue producing links
and ads? Were our page views up for the year or down? Did users visit more than
one page. Did they make it to the order form and then abandon or did they
continue and purchase our products?
Are we doing the fundamentals?
Sometimes we are so busy writing articles, fulfilling orders and commenting on
other blogs, we never take the time to see if all the things we are doing are
producing the best results. I encourage you to stop today and evaluate where
you have been. If you could analyze your current results and see holes in your
strategies that could up your numbers by 25%; wouldn't that be excellent?
The year in review. I have to say that 2007 has to be considered a successful
year for the You Can Learn Series website.
Page Views were through the roof as measured by Google AdSense.
I had nearly half a million page views this year. That totally blows me away.
I am drawing my numbers from Google AdSense because I didn't sign up for
Analytics until late in the year. Historically, my numbers drop in November and
December. I guess everyone is out shopping and they don't have time to visit?
No, actually it is because of the different categories on my website.
This light hearted rendition of the Night Before Christmas was changed to a
poem about blogging. Share this with your
favorite SEO specialists many are mentioned by name. It is sure
to become a classic to be repeated to blogging newbies each December.
Mary and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!
I recently was wandering around the web and I found this article about driving
traffic to your website by
dropping comments on other blogs. Now, if you are an active
reader on this website you might say, "hey, haven't you already written about
this activity?" Well, yes I have but this is something new.
I am a little older and wiser now, so my take and perspective on this activity
is a little different than it has been in the past.
Have you been going to blogs and getting distracted by all the noise on the web
site? Is the monetization of the Internet becoming overwhelming to you? Are
there so many ads on the blog that you just leave? Are the load times for these
blogs going up, up, up?
Is blogging supposed to be about money or should it be more focused on the
community? Remember earlier times (okay that is only 6 months ago on the
internet) when you went to blogs to get information and you weren't inundated
with so much noise? What do you think, are all these
advertisements good for blogging?
Are you looking for new traffic to your website? There is a new way to interact
with other websites. Is it social? Well it is kind of a new social network, but
it is more than just a social network. It is also an
advertising network. A FREE advertising network.
The name of the company is Entrecard.com.
They recommend you pass out business cards, virtually. Well, passing out
business cards is how the company entrecard.com talks about their business. If
you haven't heard about EntreCard here is a quick summary of their business.
I read an article the other day that has cleaned off my desk workspace. Every
blogger should begin doing this today. The life you save will be yours. It
might save your marriage, too.
When I wander around the internet or read books; sometimes an idea will spark
inside my brain. This is interesting stuff. I wonder if I can write an article
about this. So, I will do a couple of different things. I might jot a note on a
piece of paper or I might email a link to myself. At the end of the day I will
remove all these little notes from my pocket and put them on my
workdesk. They are all ready for when I am ready to take action.
Well, I do take action on many of them. When I write that article or contact a
supplier or visit a website to get more information then I will throw the piece
of paper away. But, sometimes I might write 5 excellent ideas on that one piece
of paper. Maybe 3 of them are actionable items, but the other two are just long
term ideas. That slip of paper will then go in a pile on my desk. Here's a way
to fix this problem.
You have taken the plunge. You signed up with WordPress and you have written
your first article. Now what? Do you just wait for someone to comment? Do you
check the stats page every hour to see if anyone has read your first article?
Your little baby. Your entry into the World Wide Web?
You might want to start
thinking about your next article. And, oh yeah, the article
after the second article you write. The days will pass fast and furious the
first 3 days. You have been storing words in jumbled form in your brain for
weeks, months and maybe even years. They are begging to be released. "Start
writing", they scream from behind the cerebral cortex. (Actually, I don't know
where they are screaming from, I just hear them screaming.)
I couldn't stop laughing on Tuesday after reading a post by randfish on his
SEOmoz blog. He has come up with a solution to the paid links debate.
Seriously, it was the dumbest idea I have read about. Why do I think it is so
dumb? Because it is still paid links.
Rand's great idea is to create something called Sponsored Editorials.
According to Rand, webmasters would pay money to have someone review their
website. The people reviewing the website can do one of three things.... Read
more about the battle in Google's
PageRank Paid Links Smack Down Update.
Are you doing everything you can to
protect your copyrighted articles? In the fast moving internet
blogging world there are many articles and many websites looking to hook up
with each other. Some people think nothing of grabbing sentences, paragraphs or
even whole sections of your copyrighted articles and placing them on their blog
or forums. What can you do to protect yourself?
So you want to send out an email newsletter. What are
Good Strategies of an Email Newsletter? What should your email
newsletter campaign contain? Do you want new information? Do you want to tell
you customer what you have done the last week or month? What format is best for
your information, HTML or regular text? Do you include a video or photos? Do
you only include information about your company or do you have links in the
email to other relevant companies? Do you include an article that is not in
your website but is exclusive to your email recipients?
As you sit in front of your favorite computer each day to put words onto the
internet, make these steps a lifelong habit. Blogging is more than just
spitting out words onto a computer screen.
You need to communicate ideas that are important to you. You
cannot just sit in your ivory tower issuing orders from on high. You need to be
concise in your writing, you need to be simple. Have you ever been to a blog
and then left after the first two paragraphs because you just didn't get it?
You need to have courage in your writing. Courage to write what you feel and
not be threatened by people who disagree with you. Courage to step out of your
comfort zone and really write the truth as you know it.
Know Your Customer - Make a Lot of Money
Identify Your Customer and
Build a Web Page Just for Her. Do you have problems identifying
your target audience? Are you unsure which unique selling proposition to
present to your potential customers? Are you afraid you are leaving money on
the table because you aren't targeting the right people?
Do You Use Google Adsense Channels Report to be More Profitable?
Adsense makes it
real easy to track revenue from the different sections of your
website. Do you analyze your Adsense reports to make your business, website or
blog more profitable? Where do your customers land? Which channel is the most
profitable? Should you concentrate more attention on one channel over another
channel? This article will lead you to create channels if you haven't already
and then to analyze the Adsense reports more thoroughly to make sure you are
getting the most revenue you can.
FeedBurner, StumbleUpon, Surveys and Comments
Read about my forays into these different
Tools and Plugins. Maybe they will give you some ideas about
your website. I added FeedBurner, Surveys and Comments to my blog this week. I
am anxious to get your feedback to see if you like these additions or if you
think I should pull them?
Make Your Email Campaign a Profit Center
Are you getting the most out of your
email campaigns? Are you reaching the right people with the
message they need to make a buying decision? Are you sending out enough emails
to generate results? What is the proper amount of emails? Do you have the
reverse problem and you are turning off your customers with too much of a good
thing? Whenever you send out emails you need to ask yourself some simple
questions. Who are you sending the email to? Have they requested the email? Why
are you sending the email? When should you send the email? What do you want the
recipient to do when they get your email?
Don't Quit Your Day Job
You don't have money in the bank. You don't have any customers. You don't have
any experience in the industry. You don't like your boss. You don't like your
coworkers. I don't care,
Don't Quit Your Day Job. It is important you read this little
how to stay out of trouble when you want to go into business for yourself.
Converting Images for Your Website
Are you looking for an easy way to convert your images for use on your web
pages? This article was prompted by a couple of experiences I have had
recently. I have a cousin named Peggy who is building her first web site for
her booming embroidery business. She sent me a link to review, looking for any
tips or hints I could provide. The website was good, but one of the pages had a
number of images on it that were huge in size. I was running a T1 line and the
page was taking a long time to load. Looking for a fast software tool to
Convert Images for Your Website? This easy to use tool can make
the job of resizing and changing images for your website a snap.
Driving Traffic to Your Website or Blog
Are you looking for some tips on how to
Drive Traffic to Your Website or Blog? This article lists
different ways to encourage visitors to your website. Use them all and see the
jump in your numbers immediately.
I Got Spanked by Google.
Last week Google smacked down web sites that had paid text link ads on their
websites.
I got spanked by Google and here is my chance to rant and rave
about the issue. Many websites were hit negatively by Google's latest page rank
indicator update. Google has made a statement and it is time for websites to
get in line with Google's rules.
My First Blog Entry - Influence, How and Why People Agree to Things
My first topic I am blogging about is really nothing more than a book review. I
was recently made aware of the book and actually found it a fascinating read.
The title, Influence,
How and Why People Agree to Things. Find out how prisoners of
war were influenced to go against their country. How to get life saving help
from a crowd of people when it appears they are all ignoring you. This is an
excellent read.
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