Step 13 - Driving Traffic & Building Your List w/Blogs & Forums

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[William Knotts]

Welcome To Lesson 13 In Your 30-Day IM Challenge Training Program "The Magical Formula For Creating Life Changing Income!" Copyright© 2008 by The Abundance Group, LLC for www.TheIMUniversity.com . All Rights Reserved. "Discover Three Insider 'Warp Speed' Techniques That Are Instrumental In Driving Traffic To Your Site And Building Your List" Well... Here we are ... Lesson 9 already! Boy... How time flies! Let me tell you right from the start that today we're going to finish up our discussions about your "fictitious website" Candle Lite Cooking. Yes-sir-eee! We're going to dissect all of the remaining links that we've setup on the site and talk about a few of them in infinite detail - especially BLOGS. We're also going to finish up all your sub-pages (unless I get sidetracked again.. or tired... or my dog starts his crazy nonsense...) Also, we're going to go over a few amazingly simple yet extremely profitable tricks of the trade that you'll want to take advantage of and implement into your own marketing plan, ASAP. These techniques are "grand slams" when it comes to bringing in FREE traffic and converting that traffic into sales! So let's get started... shall we? Lesson 9 Begins NOW! The first thing I want to address today is your blog. There are a number of different reasons that you want to use a blog: Blogs are becoming more and more instrumental in getting traffic to your website. Blogging allows you (as a business owner) to express yourself to your audience in an informal, unique way - and that's very important. Blogs allow you to generate additional income for your business. Blogs allow you to have a 2-way communication with your readers because they can leave you comments. This helps to build stronger relationships. Of course, there are entire courses written on the subject of blogging. In my opinion, not many of them are very good or very comprehensive. That's why I've created my own step-by-step, drop dead simple course called 21 Days to Blogging Profits. Here's the problem I've found with the subject of Blogs. Too many folks get intimidated. Worse yet, too many "gurus" make the subject way to complicated! It's really not confusing or complicated at all. And that's what we're going to avoid! Confusion... In Step 4 - Creating Your Web Presence, I already gave you the simplest, easiest ways to create, publish, and advertise your blog with the least amount of effort -- skipping all that "techno-geek" babble! Today, I want to focus on the most important aspects of your blog - content and monetization! Some Comments on Your Blog Setup If you haven't already set up your blog, then make sure that you go back to Step 4 - Creating Your Web Presence right now and do so!) And don't fret because you don't even have to have a niche lined up yet. Try to get at least a basic idea of what you want to do to get started. You can always change things later. One thing that you do NOT want to do is setup your blog as your "FULL NAME". For example: http://johnsmith.com You see many experts doing this. So why do you NOT want to do this? Well, for those experts, their identity is integrally related to their business. In other words, the reason that people buy from John Reese is because he is John Reese. Things do NOT work this way in the niches! And, if you ever hope to sell your business, who the heck is going to want to buy it when your name is all over it, right? So avoid using your name as the domain for your blog unless your identity is somehow integrally related to your business, i.e. you are a coach or mentor. Here's a few other tips to consider when setting up your blog: Choose a theme (design template) that both fits your personality AND is attractive to your target audience. You'll find hundreds of pre-designed themes free if you search for "free wordpress themes" in Google. Be creative in choosing a "title" for your blog, but make sure that you get KEYWORDS into the title! This is your MOST important piece of real estate where the search engines are concerned and adding a keyword to the title can boost search rankings. Don't simply call your blog "Dave's Blog" or "Floral World" or "Home Cooking Ideas"! Who cares. Be unique and show some personality! For example: Twisted Times - The "Twisted" Logic Of An Internet Entrepreneur! Designers Digest - "Simple Designs For A Simple Lifestyle!" Vacationer's Cove - "Exotic Vacations For Traveling Enthusiasts! The Coupon Queen - "Tips And Tricks For The Thrifty Shopper!" Add a photo to your profile. A simple photograph goes a long way in connecting with your audience. Post content to your blog often and CONSISTENTLY. The search engines (and your readers) love it and the rewards for your efforts will pay off! Be yourself, be controversial, be genuine... and most importantly... show your personality often. Encourage your readers to submit feedback with questions and opinion polls. Clever Ways To Use Your Blog Effectively: Tell Stories - Everybody loves a good story. Don't be afraid to get personal and post some interesting, real-life stories on your blog. Once you find your niche, stay on course and weave stories into your blog in every post. You can use your story to set up the problem that you are going to solve for your reader. For example, let's say you wanted to put up an interesting story on your blog for Candle Lite Cooking. You do do something like this... Hi folks, You'll never guess what happened to me last night while I was cooking dinner for the family (my favorite Chicken Parmesan Recipe... of course). Really, this is TOTALLY true (and you can look at the pic I uploaded to my website at the end of this post if you don't believe me - for proof!) I'm still laughing my noodles off! Anyway... I was in the middle of putting dinner on the table when in walks my brother John... followed by two police officers. John's got a gaping gash down his right arm and he looks pissed off at the world! I couldn't imagine what the heck happened (and why he was at my house instead of his own)... Blah.. Blah... Blah... So, after almost burning the meal, I had to pull things together QUICKLY! But, I still wanted to make it romantic. Here's what you can do if you're ever in this spot to pull dinner together without burning it, in a HURRY, while still being romantic .... You see, you don't always have to be stale and boring on your blog (like most)... JUST BE YOU! Tell me a story once in a while for God's sake!. Tell a joke or call somebody a "fart-knocker" once in a while... It keeps folks interested... Naturally, if your expertise is politics or child abuse or the homeless, you have a certain rapport you need to convey to your audience, but I hope you're catching my drift. Show some personality! Serious, intellectual subjects can still be very interesting and appeal to an even larger audience just by the way the content is delivered! Don't BORE your readers! Product Reviews - Your blog is a great way to not only interact with your readers, but you can also use it to review your own products and also affiliate products as well. This can generate a nice additional income. The important thing to remember when providing product reviews is to be HONEST. If a product you tried out sucks... give your readers your true opinion. Yes... you might not make any money on referrals for that product, but when you do strongly endorse a product in the future, your readers will be much more responsive and trust you (TRUST -- now there's a cool concept ...eh?). Special Offers - It very common practice now for blog owners to promote "special offers" to blog readers "ONLY"! This is a great way to help insure your customers are visiting your blog regularly and it's also a great way for you generate additional sales. Just be sure to keep those "specials" for blog readers only as promised! Contests - Use your ingenuity and come up with some clever contests for your readers. You can offer valuable prizes that don't cost you anything to produce and deliver. For instance - a FREE download of your latest ebook, a special report, a free membership into your discount club, etc. Again, be creative and you'll see the rewards pay off quick! Surveys and Polls - This is a great opportunity for you to get some much needed feedback from your customers. Do it right and you'll have an army of readers telling you exactly what they want to buy from you. Then, it's just your job to "Give It To Them"! And there are 2 special ways that you can use an additional blog set up on your site: FAQ's - Here's a clever way to keep all your customers updated about your products and services in an informal way. Use a blog to address "frequently asked questions" and use those questions as a "selling tool" to further illustrate the benefits of your products and services. Customer Service - Many companies (both small and large) are now using blogs to handle customer service issues. What a marvelous idea! Let your customers know that they can visit your blog at any time to have their concerns addressed -- and they'll love you for it. Monetizing Your Blog: In reality, there are dozens and dozens of ways to start profiting from your blog. Below I've listed some of the most lucrative. Remember, this is just a small list so start brainstorming about other ways you can take advantage (be creative): Amazon.com - As I mentioned previously, Amazon is one of the largest drop shippers on the net. Surprised to hear me say that? Don't be. I'm not talking just about selling books through Amazon. You can sell golf clubs, power tools, makeup and just about anything else you can think of too! Amazon will pay you a commission for each sale you referral to their website. These commission fees can add up to a lucrative additional revenue stream when used effectively. They stock tens of thousands of items and they have the largest book store on the net. Simply add a few display ads to your blog post and leave the rest to Amazon. Here are a few examples You could consider for your website at Candle Lite Cooking: Scenario 1 - Let's say you submit a post on your blog about how to make your own cappuccino. Let's also assume that in the post you mention that it's very important to use a quality "coffee bean grinder" for the recipe. You can then simply place an add from Amazon.com at the end of the post for a "Deluxe Coffee Bean Grinder" that's on sale. If someone found the article interesting, they just might jump on over to Amazon.com (from your link) and make a purchase. Scenario 2 - You just published a post discussing the benefits of eating fish once a week to keep your body healthy. You can have a small banner at the end of your post such as: Scenario 3 - You just published a post explaining the perfect table setting for a romantic dinner. Low and behold... look what's displayed at the end of your post: So... You see, you can use Amazon.com for thousands of products and generate a nice secondary income stream... and that's just one additional way to monetize your blog! Clickbank - This is a great way of generating affiliate commissions. Here's why: Thousands of information products to choose from Huge commissions on every sale (as much as 70%) Commission are monitored and paid out by Clickbank themselves so you never have to worry about not getting paid! NOTE: We're going to talk much more about Clickbank in your lesson 10 of Step 5, so if you don't yet have an account setup with them - get one now! Commission Junction - I love C.J. I've made a lot of money promoting many of the companies on their website. And, once again, CJ handles all the accounting aspects for their accounts so you know you're gettin paid for your referrals. Here's how I look at things when I'm developing a website and want to add some affilaite links, etc. -- Amazon.com for "Hard Goods" like books and toys and blenders, etc. -- Clickbank for Info-Products - very lucrative! -- Commission Junction For Business Services Simple as that! C.J. has thousands of companies in their directory who offer phenomenal services at very affordable prices. Don't be afraid to (subtly) let your readers know about some of them. For instance, if you searched C.J. looking for cheap web hosting affiliates, you'll find dozens (even hundreds) of top notch companies who will pay you a very generous commission for your referrals. You simply let your readers know about some great deals and savings on those service (subtly) in your blog post... they buy... and you make money! Opt In Forms - Never setup your blog without a link (preferably a form) in the sidebar of your blog that offers some type of opt-in offer! The whole purpose of having a blog in the first place is to get folks to opt-in to your list! Make it obvious, blatant, FLASHING if needed, but get folks to give you their email addy! One way that is very effective is a "notify me of any new posts" link that you can easily setup. This way, you can send one email to your entire list letting them know you've made a new post. Then, when you publish an offer or promotion to your blog simply send an email to your list letting them know you've published a new post. No need to email those offers any longer! (we'll cover much more on email marketing in upcoming lessons). You can also use FeedBurner to set this up. FeedBurner will then email your subscribers on your behalf every time you put up a new post You lose the benefit of being able to add an ad in the email, but it gets them coming back to your blog. The critical point to this is that you keep your posts "Valuable". If you hold a reader's interest, stimulate their brain, and provide exceptional insight and wisdom, your blog will become a treasure chest. But bottom line - get the email address! Links - You can place navigation links in the sidebar of your blog. WordPress has a section called BlogRoll that is designed for this purpose. Again, opt-ins are what you really want so keep that in mind at all times, even when creating the links on your blog. Write your links to entice your readers to click them. For example: * Don't write - Subscribe to my newsletter - Golfing Tips * Instead say - Take Seven Strokes Off Your Game This Weekend * Don't write - Visit My Article Archive * Instead say - If this one-armed golfer can shoot under par... so can you! * Don't write - Sign Up For My Free E-Course here * Instead say - My Guarantee - Chop Three Strokes Off Your Game - Or I'll Buy Your Next Round Of Golf! * Don't write - Download My Newest Ebook - Shoot Par Every Time! * Instead say - Shoot Par Every Time - Unlock Your Three Complimentary Chapters **Free** Direct Sales And Promotions - You can do special sales and affiliate promotions directly in your published posts. Let's say you wanted to offer $5.00 off your newest ebook that you just wrote. Publish a post outlining all the benefits your book has to offer and make the offer - right in the post. Just be sure you put a link directly to your "Buy Now" page in the post as well. You'll see a much better conversion rate on your offer when you do this. Be creative... Use your BRAIN! Content, Content, Content - Last but not least, the main focus of your blog should be to provide quality, entertaining content for your readers. Sales will follow once you start building and strengthening your relationships with your readers. Plus, the search engines love content so your chances of moving on up in the ranks will tip in your favor the more you add new content to your blog. Do NOT hold back on the content thinking that you need to do so in order to get people to buy something! People will pay to save time, get better results, get a step-by-step system, or get access to you. If you skimp in the content, they'll see through that and think that you have a scarcity mindset. Instead, it will send them running away. Remember: - keep it fresh - keep it entertaining - keep it real - keep it informative - and keep it coming! Promoting Your Blog: This is - by far - most important. After all, what's the sense of having a blog in the first place if no one knows it exists. All the clever jargon, entertaining posts, superb affiliate endorsements and brilliant content won't mean a darn thing to your traffic or sales if no one even knows your blog exists. You have to get your blog out there. So, let's take a quick look at some of the most effective ways you can promote your blog quickly and easily: Provide "RSS" Feeds For Your Blog RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication". RSS allows your readers to access the content of your blog anytime through what is called a "Feed Reader". I'm sure you've seen these small images before... just like those on the right. These images allow your readers to subscribe to your blog feed with their preferred RSS reader. You really don't need to know the technical side of what an RSS feed is or how it works. You need to know 2 things: What is an RSS Feed? There's a great video that explains this. You'll find it at http://www.commoncraft.com How do you create RSS feeds? Good question.. and I'm going to show you the easiest, quickest way to get it done. Just login to your WordPress dashboard and go to the Widgets section of the Presentation tab (or Design tab in the newer versions of WordPress). In your widgets, add the widget for "Meta". Then go and view your blog. You'll see the link for your RSS feed. This is all you need to get started. Make sure that you take the "Meta" off your sidebar when you're done as you don't want others seeing all of that unnecessary info! I've been a little lazy this week, so I didn't take the time to set up a WordPress blog for your Candle Lite Cooking site. You can get the idea of what one would look like by looking at the Blogger blog that I have up at: http://candlelitecooking.blogspot.com/ The URL for the feed for this blog is http://candlelitecooking.blogspot.com/atom.xml. Now, you want to add a link to your sidebar that lets people subscribe to your RSS feed. Each of these (see the images above) is a different type of RSS Feed Reader. Think of them this way ... some people use Internet Explorer, others use Firefox, and still others use Opera. These are each different types of browsers, right? Each one allows you to view webpages, but they have slightly different features and layouts. Well, the same is true with each of those cutesy little images above. MyYahoo, Bloglines, Newsgator, BittyBrowser, MyAOL, and the others are all different types of Feed Readers. Your visitors will each have a personal preference. So, you'll want to make sure that they can get your feed in their favorite reader. There are a number of different ways that you can do this. 1. You can add all of those cutesy little images for your blog that will allow your readers to subscribe to your site's feed in their favorite reader. The easiest, quickest way to create all of those buttons is to go to: http://www.toprankresults.com/tools/button-maker.php Top Rank will ask you a few simple questions. You'll need to provide the answers into a form and they'll automatically generate all the code for you. Then, all you have to do is paste that code into your blog template and you're ready to rock! That's it! That's all you need to do to get those images for your website and allow your readers to subscribe. 2. My favorite way of creating your "Subscribe to My Feed" for your sidebar is to use FeedBurner. Inside of FeedBurner, you can have a generic "Subscribe to My Feed" using FeedBurner. FeedBurner then allows them to choose which reader they want. To get set up with FeedBurner, simply go to: http://www.feedburner.com and create an account. Once you have added your feed, login to your account, go to that feed, and select the "Optimize" tab. Then go to the "Browser Friendly" link in the left side. As you'll see, this will allow you to select which of the readers you want to make your feed available in. It will then give you a small piece of code that you copy and paste into your sidebar. It's that simple! Once your readers are subscribed to your site's feed, it's actually better than having them opt-in to your list. You no longer have to worry about getting your emails delivered or having folks change their email addresses, etc. You simply post to your blog and your subscribers will automatically be able to access your content immediately through their feed reader. Brilliant... eh? Submit Your Blog Feed To Feed Directories - There are too many RSS directories online to list here, but here are a few of the most popular: www.syndic8.com www.feedster.com www.2rss.com www.newsisfree.com www.rss-network.com www.blogdigger.com www.blogarama.com www.bloguniverse.com www.bloglines.com You can also do a search on Google for "RSS Directories" and you'll find many more. You should add your blog to at least 5 new RSS Directories each day. Submit your blog to popular blog directories - Again, there are literally hundreds of blog directories however here is a list of the most popular: www.blogwise.com www.technorati.com www.search.blogger.com www.blogsearch.google.com www.blogsearchengine.com www.blogdex.com Submit your blog to these directories for added exposure and traffic! As with RSS Directories, you'll want to submit your blog to at least 5 new blog directories each day. Getting your blog in the top of the search engines Let the search engines know about your blog. You'll do this by "pinging" the search engines. With WordPress you can ping the search engines automatically by adding a list of those search engines you wish to ping to the "Update Services" section which is located in the Options tab (the "Settings" link in newer versions of WordPress), under the "Writing" sub-navigation link. There are entire books written about pinging the search engines, so I'm not going to get into alll the details here. However, there are a few things that you need to know so that you don't get into trouble ... First, if you decide to use the automatic pinging feature of WordPress, you want to proceed with caution! If you ping any search engine more than twice from a single post, you will be accused of spamming the search engines and your blog may be banned. Since WordPress automatically pings both when a new post is published AND whenever an existing post is edited, this is VERY easy to have happen -- even accidentally. It's for this reason that I don't EVER use the WordPress dashboard to ping the search engines. You want to use one of 2 other options. 1. Use a service such as http://www.pingoat.com, http://www.iping.com, or http://pingomatic.com and submit your blog for free. They'll take care of the rest! 2. Use BlogJet to control your pings. BlogJet is a desktop piece of software through which you publish your posts. It allows you to set up a default ping list and then put a little checkmark in a box to indicate whether or not you want to ping that default list. This allows you to have more control over which sites you will ping. You can download BlogJet with a free 30-day trial at http://www.blogjet.com. After your trial, it's about $50 or so, depending upon the exchange rate. Each time you post to your blog, use one of these to methods to "ping" the search engines. That's it! You're all done. Your ping will let the search engines know that there's new content posted on your blog. The search engines will spider your blog, archive your new content, and add it to their search results. Provide quality, informative, "Keyword Rich" content both in your posts and on pages of your blogs. For example, if your blog deals with the subject of cooking, try to use as many keywords for "cooking" and related terms as possible in your posts. This way, when someone does a search for your keywords, you'll have a lot of informative, "Keyword Rich" content to offer and the search engines will certainly reward you for that with a better ranking. Also, be sure to include your best keywords in your titles as well! A great place to find thousands of keywords for your website and you blog is www.wordtracker.com. This is a FREE service (paid services also available) that you can use to find the best, most searched keywords for your niche. Use a linking strategy on your blog. In each of your posts, you want to have at least 2 links, both of them using keywords as the "anchor text" for the link. One of these links should go to another page or post on your blog and the other link should go to another blog in your niche with a Page Rank of 5 or higher. With this second link, you should link to a specific post on that PR5 or higher blog, and NOT to the main URL of the blog. This linking strategy is HUGELY important to getting a Page Rank of your own for your blog. Without incorporating this type of strategy, you'll be unlikely to get anything above a PR of 0 or 1. Commenting on other people's blogs -- you want to comment on at least 5 blogs in your niche with a PR5 or higher each and every day. This creates extremely valuable incoming links to your blog. (NOTE: Make sure that the blog you are commenting on is NOT putting in "No Follow" tags that would prohibit the search engines from following your links!) Consistency is the key here -- make sure you are doing this every day! Social Bookmarking - I covered this in depth in Step 4 - Creating Your Web Presence, so I'll not go back over it here. If you don't remember what I'm talking about, go back and review now! That's the whole "Blog Thing" in a nutshell. Naturally, you should do some research on your own and learn as much as you can about blogging. A good place to start would be with "21 Days To Blogging Profits", a multi-media course that I've created to SHOW YOU every single step of the blogging process -- from setting up your blog and all the sites you'll need to use with it (like FeedBurner and MyBlogLog, for example), to getting traffic to your blog. Complete with screenshots, audio, video, checklists, and flowcharts, this course will have you blogging like a pro overnight! You'll find it at: http://www.askggg.com/newblogging-a9 For now, take my advice and setup your own blog and follow the steps I've outlined above and the benefits for your business will certainly pay off. The Romance Forum Now, lets talk about the next link on your website - Romance Forum A forum is a great way to build a community of loyal readers and followers in your niche. The problem is that most folks think they're too complicated to setup and manage. Well... they can be! But I've got good news for you. If you don't have your own hosting account, there's a resource you can use to build your own forum absolutely FREE with just a few clicks of your mouse! Just go to http://www.boomp.com and click on the "Sign Up" link to get started. This will set up a forum for you on boomp using the phpBB software. phpBB is just one type of forum software. My favorite is Simply Machines Forum, or SMF for short. This is a part of the Fantastico plugins that are located on your cpanel. More specifically, my favorite is a small, free plugin for the SMF software that's called "TinyPortal". With TinyPortal, your forum will have the look of a blog, complete with a sidebar, but have the functionality of a forum. The neat thing is that in your sidebar, you can even display your blog posts! How cool is that? You'll find TinyPortal at http://www.tinyportal.net. To get SMF, simply look in the Fantastico Plugins in your cpanel or go to http://www.simplemachinesforum.org/community/ If you haven't yet checked out the forum I've setup for Candle Lite Cooking you can go to your Homepage and select the 'forum link'... Or, you could go directly to your forum at: http://www.boomp.com/board/index.php?mforum=dvn1967 I setup this forum in 5 minutes just to demonstrate how easy it actually is. So... why a forum? And how will this benefit your business? Well, let's take a quick look at some of the benefits and strategies You could implement. Help your customers with their questions, problems, and concerns. Provide great resources and feedback in a professional, relaxed atmosphere. Setup and moderate any forum topic you choose. Add topics specifically beneficial to your forum members only. Offer forum members a "special deals" section where they can submit special offers and discounts on products and services only available to other forum members. Build another opt-in list of email subscribers! (All members will have to register ;-)). Cross promote your blog and your forum for added exposure and higher search rankings. Monetize in the same ways we discussed monetizing your blog: Amazon Clickbank Commission Junction Your own products etc. Create a "Buzz" in your niche Establish credibility and share your knowledge and expertise Build your relationships with your customers And, while we're on the subject of forums... Here's a GOLDMINE technique that you should practice everyday! Are You ready... here goes! VISIT LOTS OF OTHER FORUMS IN YOUR NICHE! Yup! This simple (no cost) method of marketing yourself and your website is by far the most lucrative free advertising you'll ever find! Let me explain... In Lesson 6 we talked about all the benefits of submitting your articles to various article directories and publishers... remember? Well, now you could compound this strategy 100-fold simply by posting on various forums in your niche as well. Here's what I mean... Remember how we also talked about adding a signature file to all your emails in Lesson 7? We talked about creating a sig file that's a "super salesman" at work and takes no prisoners! Here's the example we used from that lesson: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Is your outdoor landscaping the envy of your neighborhood? Would you like it to be? Download your FREE "DO IT YOURSELF" LANDSCAPER'S GUIDE TODAY! "12 Amazing Yet Affordable Ways To Turn Your Lawn Into A Tropical Paradise In One Weekend!" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There! Do you remember now? Cool... Well, a sig file can also be placed at the end of every single post you make in any online forum. And that is a HUGE traffic generator! (But Only If You Know What You're Doing!) Let's analyze... You see, there are online forums that cover every topic imaginable.. Just do a search on Google for the topic your interested in and... Walla! So, if you're an avid gardener and you want to get incredible amounts of "LASER TARGETED" traffic to your website... all you need to do is visit the online forums focused on gardening! If you're niche is cooking, find the cooking newsgroups! If your website focuses on hunting and fishing gear... YEP... Find those forums that talk about hunting and fishing. It doesn't matter what niche you're in, there are forums and newsgroups on that topic. But here's the most important key! Don't become part of an online forum or newsgroup with the sole intent to promote your website! That's VERY important! Folks will see right through you! Do you want to be a leader in your niche? Then you need to give to those looking for advice and direction without expecting anything in return! Be helpful, sympathetic, caring, concerned, and SOLVE PROBLEMS! *************SIDEBAR******************* Follow Life's GOLDEN RULE - "The Law Of Reciprocity" Ah! The Law Of Reciprocity! My personal favorite... We really need to talk about this for just a minute... Perhaps you know about reciprocity, or maybe this is the first time you've heard the term. Let me assure you, if you're not living this by golden rule in all aspects of your life, your chances of finding wealth and fortune, or more importantly, keeping those fortunes you find, are slim to null. The Law Of Reciprocity doesn't only apply to business or money. It applies to every aspect in life..... Simply put... life pays us back "TEN FOLD" for the good You do for others! Give someone in need $50 without any hopes of getting ANYTHING in return. Give it simply because you want to.... because you want to help that person in their time of need. Give it without reservation, and reciprocity will give it back to you TEN FOLD! I live each day trying to give something back to my community, my Church, and my customers. Needless to say, life has paid me back 1000 fold. If you learn to live by the Law Of Reciprocity, I guarantee you this... "You will be handed great fortunes, each and every day, for the rest of your life!" ...And after you do... promise one thing... Promise you'll start passing on some winning strategies to others. Reveal some of your secrets you never thought you'd dare share with anyone.... Your BIGGEST money makers! Do it because you want to help others succeed like you have. The "Laws Of Reciprocity" will bring it back to you 1000 fold. You can count on it! *************END SIDEBAR*************** So, you've joined several online forums all targeted on your niche. Now, you need to setup your "sig file" that will show up with every post you make to the forum. And here's what you want to keep in mind when setting up your sig file... Don't try to sell something in your signature... Entice folks to sign up for a FREEBIE you're offering and get them on your LIST! Here's that sig file again that You were just looking at... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Is your outdoor landscaping the envy of your neighborhood? Would you like it to be? Download your FREE "DO IT YOURSELF" LANDSCAPER'S GUIDE TODAY! "12 Amazing Yet Affordable Ways To Turn Your Lawn Into A Tropical Paradise In One Weekend!" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Obviously, I'm not trying to sell anything from this sig. I'm simply offering a FREE report that folks could download instantly. If a customer clicked on the link in my sig file, they would simply be taken directly to a page with a sign up form to enter their name and email address to download their free report! Nothing else.. no links, no articles, no sales... NOTHING! JUST AN OPT-IN FORM to get your free report. Now You've Got a Potential Customer For LIFE! Remember, you've joined these forums to simply offer your expertise, help, and advise... and that's what you give. And once you begin to show others in the forum that your a resourceful, intelligent, unselfish, caring individual... an incredible thing will happen... Your opt in list will begin to explode - just from your signature file in your posts! And these names and email addresses will be folks who are "Highly" targeted and very interested (and responsive) to what you have to offer! Cherish the opportunity and don't abuse the privilege to correspond with them. Build a good rapport with your list. Give them some freebies once in a while. Offer Great Advice... And sales will follow. Now, there is one way that you can offer that great advice right in your sig file. Want to know how? Easy! It's another little trick inside of FeedBurner. There's a tool in FeedBurner on the Promote tab called "Headline Animator". This great tool creates a small banner (of a size you select) that contains the title to your blog, a link to subscribe to your RSS feed, and the last 5 to 10 headlines from your blog. It rotates through these headlines one at a time. If someone clicks on a headline, they'll be taken right to that particular post. Now that is one cool tool! Not only does it drive traffic, it also makes people perceive you as an expert each and every time that they see your sig file. It will also bring you GOBS of subscribers to your feed. Okay... so let's quickly recap about this lesson. Setup and market your blog. It's a great traffic generator. It's also a great way to earn additional revenue. Setup an online forum using either Simple Machines or www.boomp.com. Folks in all niches are looking to participate in forums. Join other forums and cross promote your own forum, blog and opt in list. Setup a killer sig file for all your forum (and email) posts and don't try to sell in your sig. Just be helpful, offer solid advice, and show your personality OR setup the Headline Animator as your sig file in the forums to display your latest blog posts.. Learn more about how to monetize your blog and drive stampedes of traffic to it with my favorite blogging course 21 Days to Blogging Profits. Well, that's a wrap for today's lesson. We've covered quite a few great traffic generators. If you follow the lesson closely and step up your pace, you'll find you'll be receiving more traffic to your site than you ever could have imagined - and it cost you a whopping $0 to get it! One little sidenote -- to see your stats for your blog, you're going to want to join MyBlogLog.com's pro service. It's a whopping $25 per YEAR and it will show you not only where your visitors came from and what they viewed, but also what links they clicked on. In lesson 10, we're going to go over your newsletter link. Plus, I've got a nice surprise in store for you! After lesson 10, we'll go over all your email techniques in detail in Lesson 11, and then we'll put it all together in Lesson 12. By the time you're finished... you'll be marching to the beat of a different drummer! So... remember to always showcase your incredible personality and talents... You're magnificent... whether or not you realize it... YET! Bonus PC Video's For This Lesson: This series of videos will cover the topic: "10 Steps To A Google Friendly Page" Click Here To Download Your Videos To Your Abundant Online Success!, Gina Gaudio-Graves "The JV Queen" Author and Mentor Founder & Dean, The IM University P.S. I'd Love to hear your comments or any feedback about this course. Just drop by The IM University forum at www.TheIMUniversity.com/forum anytime to get in touch with me!

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