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- Got 30 Minutes? Learn How The Ninja Turns Blogs Into Real Businesses
Skip the Backstory and Take me to the Free Video and MindMap!
In 2002 I started my first blog without even the hint that blogging would be anything more to me than a hobby.
Over the years that have followed I began to see the potential of blogging to make money and began to experiment – growing blogging from a hobby, to a part time job to a full time job and beyond.
The evolution of my blogs was wonderful in many ways but meant I ended up with…. a bit of a mess.
A couple of years ago I sat down to do some strategic thinking about my blogging and realised that I’d created something that resembled a house that had had many extensions added to it.
It all worked – but it was far from the strategic business that it could be.
Really what it needed was an Architect.
Meet the Architect
Today I’m excited to introduce you to someone who in many ways has become the Architect of my business – The Web Marketing Ninja.
The Ninja has literally added 0′s to my blogs revenue with his advice. He’s smart, humble, warm hearted and ethical (and a little shy). Just my kind of online marketer.
Regular readers of ProBlogger already are familiar with the Ninja – he’s been guest posting here for a year or so.
Get inside the Ninjas Mind with this Free In Depth MindMap
But today the Ninja is stepping things up a notch and is going to reveal an in depth overview of how he approaches helping blogs transition from hobbies to businesses.
I was meeting with the Ninja recently to talk about a product launch that I’m doing and as we chatted I realised this guy has so much great strategy in his head that we just had to capture it somehow.
I issued him a challenge – get your approach down and share it with ProBlogger readers. Off the cuff I suggested he create a Mind Map outlining what he does.
Little did I know that the Ninja would not only create a MindMap – but he’d also go on to create a complete 31 chapter guide to online marketing complete with a heap of other tools for bloggers!
We’ll launch the full online marketing kit that he’s produced in the coming week or so but in the lead up to it I’ve asked the Ninja to share the Mind Map with ProBlogger readers today and to talk us through it step by step in a video.
The free video he’s created is not for the light hearted – it is 30 minutes long and is a meaty overview into the topic of online marketing. You’ll need to set aside some time, make yourself comfy and grab something to take notes with to make the most of this.
The Ninja is a little nervous about presenting it – it’s his first foray into the public limelight – but I love his gentle and yet smart approach and trust you will to.
The video is completely free and we’re not asking for your email address to watch it. We’ve also included the actual MindMap as a free PDF download too.
It is part of the lead up to launching the Online Marketing Kit but I’m confident that it’ll provide value to any blogger wanting to make money from their blog – whether you go on to buy the full kit or not.
Check out the Video and Download the Mind Map here.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Got 30 Minutes? Learn How The Ninja Turns Blogs Into Real Businesses
Переслать - Reading Blogs for Fun and Profit
This guest post is by Danny Iny of Firepole Marketing.
How much time do you spend reading blogs? A few hours per week? Maybe even a few hours per day?
I spend at least an hour per day, and sometimes more. You have to, if you want to keep up with the happenings in an online community.
Now let's do some math.
Let's say that you spend 90 minutes per day reading blogs. Weekdays only, so that works out to seven and a half hours per week. Thirty hours per month.
Three hundred and sixty hours per year. Yes, that's right—three hundred and sixty hours per year. That's fifteen straight days of blog reading.
If you're spending that much time, shouldn't you be sure that it isn't going to waste?
The first thing we need to do is figure out why we even read blogs. Putting entertainment value aside (yes, I know it can be fun, but we're professionals, right?), I think there are two main reasons we do it: to learn, and to build relationships.
Copyright Ana Blazic - Fotolia.com
Other than entertainment, these are the two reasons that we read blogs. Either we're trying to learn something, or we're trying to build a relationship with the blogger or their community. Ideally, we're trying to do both.
Well, if we're going to spend this much time trying to learn and connect, maybe we should think about how these processes really work!
How learning works
Learning is one of those things that we all do all the time, but never stop to really think about. There are a few steps to a learning process:
- You're exposed to new ideas and information.
- You filter out the information that isn't relevant to you (this is something like 95% of what's going on around you at any given time!).
- You encode that information in long-term memory, so that you can remember it later.
- You integrate that information with your understandings and worldview, so that you can apply it in appropriate situations.
- You remember it at the right time, and adapt your behavior based on the new learning.
Reading the blog posts is just Step 1—exposing yourself to new ideas and information.
To really learn something, and get as much as you can out of what you're reading, you still have to make sure you don't filter out anything important, encode it in a meaningful way so that you can access it later, learn to apply it in your life, and actually do so.
Don't worry, it's not as complicated as it sounds.
Repetition, association, processing, and meta-cognition
There are a few principles that you can harness to your advantage when you're trying to learn new things; repetition, association, processing, and meta-cognition:
- Repetition. This is what it sounds like—the greater the number of times you hear something, the more likely you are to remember it. I'll say it again: the greater the number of times you hear something, the more likely you are to remember it. This is how we all learned our multiplication tables as kids.
- Association. We learn and remember by drawing associations between the new concepts that we're trying to learn, and older concepts that we're already understand. This could mean thinking about how the new idea is like an old idea, or how it's different, or how it is connected. For example, in what way is Peter Pan like an entrepreneur?
- Processing. The more you think about something, the more likely you are to remember it; by turning an idea over and over in your head, you get to know it that much better. Thinking through scenarios and applications of the things you read about is a good way to improve the learning.
- Meta-Cognition. Meta-cognition means thinking about thinking. In other words, paying attention to your thinking processes—things like your assumptions and your feelings as you explore the new ideas that you are reading about.
Okay, okay, obviously you aren't going to spend three hours on every blog post—and you don't have to. There are simple tricks that you can use to apply these principles, and I'll share them with you in a little while.
But first, let's talk about how relationships work.
How relationships work
Relationships… connections… community… These are some of the hottest buzz-words of social media. But do we ever stop to think about how they really work? How do you build a relationship with someone?
I think there are four important things that are required:
- Show that you know them. Relationships depend on familiarity and understanding—you have to feel that someone really knows you in order to have a relationship with them. That's the difficulty in connecting through blog comments—you're just one in a hundred, and the comments all start blurring together.
- Show that you think and care about them. When a relationship is genuine, we care enough about someone to occasionally think about them when they're not around. By the same token, we like to see that someone else has been thinking about you—that's why we get such a kick out of a simple @mention on Twitter.
- Show that you're making an effort. Real relationships take effort, because before we emotionally invest, we want to see that someone is in it for the long haul. This means that a single blog comment is not enough to build a connection, and even a dozen might not do the job. It just takes more.
- Actually being helpful. As well as we know someone, as much as they care about us, and as hard as they may try, we will quickly get tired of someone who wastes our time without ever being useful (or fun to be around). We may tolerate this sort of thing with family (because we have to), but we won't do it in the blogosphere.
And now for the 64-million-dollar question: how do we do all these things while reading blog posts, without having to turn it into a full-time job?
Funny you should ask…
How to improve learning and relationships
Now it's time for the fun part, where I outline the strategies that you can actually use to improve your learning and build relationships while you do your regular blog reading.
I won't lie and say that this takes no extra time, because it does take some.
Honestly, though, it doesn't take much more, and it multiplies the benefits that you get from the reading. Try them for a week and see for yourself!
- After reading a post, take a moment to think about who might benefit from it, and send it to that person. You'll remember more, because you took the time to think about how the content was relevant to someone, and you'll build relationships by showing someone that you thought of them. You can get extra credit by sending it to them on Twitter and @-mentioning the blogger, too.
- After reading a post that you like, explain the gist of it to someone else. You can do this via email, over the phone, or in person, and you don't have to do it right away—you can even do it with your family over dinner. Whoever you talk to will appreciate your sharing, and you will remember much, much more of the post.
- Leave a comment explaining how the post was insightful for you, when you've seen an example of whatever is being described, and how it relates to your life. You can even write a whole response post. The blogger will appreciate the well-thought-out comment, and you will remember a lot more of the post for having drawn these associations.
- Bookmark the best posts that you read. Once every week or two, spend 30-60 minutes re-reading the best posts, and really savor them (I try to do this every other weekend, when I write our Best of the Web posts).
- Keep a journal of good ideas that you come across. Just write them down, but don't rush to implement them. That way you avoid shiny object syndrome, but still have the repetition that helps you remember. For extra credit, you can review the journal every few months and pick out two or three of the best ideas to implement.
- Whenever you finish reading a post and take an action based on what you've read, take a moment to think about why. What did the blogger do to get you to take an action? What worked for them, and how could you apply it in your own work and writing?
These strategies, when taken together, only add a small amount of reading time to your day, but they will help you learn dramatically more, and build more and better relationships—which is what it's really all about.
Over to you: if you had to pick just one of these strategies to implement for a week, which one would it be? Do you have a good tip for learning and building relationships while reading? If you do, share it with us in the comments!
Danny Iny is an author, strategist, serial entrepreneur, and proud co-founder of Firepole Marketing, the definitive marketing training program for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and non-marketers. Visit his site today for a free cheat sheet about Why Guru Strategies for Blog Growth DON'T WORK… and What Does!, or follow him on Twitter @DannyIny.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Reading Blogs for Fun and Profit
Переслать - How to Optimize Your WordPress Database for Better Performance
This guest post is by Lior Levin.
Optimizing the databases of your WordPress blog sounds like it might be a difficult task, but it's a lot easier than it sounds. In most situations it can be done in just one or two clicks—no need for complicated steps or terminology.
You're probably wondering why you would even want to optimize your database tables. Well, that's easy: it can drastically speed up the load time of your blog. On top of that, it can help you with SEO and improve your rankings because "Google, along with the majority of other search engines, continues to place a high value on user experience." We have seen this profound impact at a psd to html company I work for. No matter how old your blog is, there is sure to be some clutter in your MySQL database tables. If you're not cleaning them on a regular basis, the backup can have a huge effect on your blog and slow it down drastically.
So, we'll briefly look at five simple ways that you can quickly optimize your WordPress database for better performance.
WP-Optimize
This is a WordPress plugin that helps you clean up your database tables and optimize them within a few clicks. It does all of this without the use of phpMyAdmin (a program used to handle the administration of your MySQL servers). It will show you which tables are already optimized and the ones that need to be optimized.
WP Optimize
TentBlogger Optimize WordPress Database
With TentBlogger Optimize, you can quickly free up space and optimize your databases for faster loading, with just one click. It will let you know how much space you can free up and you can even view your databases if needed. That's all there is to it. Additionally, it will also let you know if you ever need a "tune up" with a quick message.
TentBlogger Optimize
WP Database Optimizer
This is another plugin similar to WP-Optimize and TentBlogger Optimize, but with the addition of automatic scheduling. You can go in and set WP Database Optimizer to automatically optimize your tables every certain number of days. You'll be able to see all of your tables and whether or not they have any overhead (in other words, whether or not they need to be optimized).
WordPress Database Optimizer
Via phpMyAdmin
The WordPress Experts has a great tutorial on optimizing your database tables using phpMyAdmin. While the plugins above focus on not using this method, it can be done without having to install any plugins on your blog. You'll need to sign into phpMyAdmin and check your tables for overhead.
Via WordPress Database Repair
Many users are not aware of this option, but you can repair and optimize your database right from within your blog's dashboard. This is done by going to /wp-admin/maint/repair.php on your blog and inserting the code shown at that page into your wp-config.php file.
WordPress Database Repair
Once you do that, you'll see two options on that page: repair database, repair and optimize database. Simply click the option of your choice and WordPress will do the rest. If you're looking for a step-by-step guide on this, you can find it on WPveda.
Now that you have five different ways of optimizing your WordPress tables, you're well on your way to even faster blog. As a reminder, be sure that you always backup your databases before optimizing them. This way if something goes wrong, you can restore your databases back to the way they were before you changed them.
This was a post by Lior Levin who is a marketing advisor to Internet startups and companies. Lior advises to a neon signs store and many other business online.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
How to Optimize Your WordPress Database for Better Performance
Переслать - Talking Funny: What Can Bloggers Learn from Comedians?
This guest post is by Dan Meyers of Your Life, Their Life.
I recently watched Ricky Gervais' new show on HBO, Talking Funny, with guest comedians Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, and Louis C.K. These guys are the top of their field and use the show to discuss their strategies.
If you’ve read Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers, you know they didn’t get to where they are by luck. They've practiced and performed for more hours than we can imagine.
I picked up some important concepts that are relevant to a comedian's success as well as a blogger's success.
Comedy is a relationship
Chris Rock says comedy "is like a relationship. Your woman is with you because you assume she loves you. She's there every day but you still have to work on her liking you for this to work as a relationship. You have to put out effort. You can't just come home and say hey, I paid the rent, like me."
The same is obviously true for blogs. You must continually develop the relationship with your readers and put out effort to keep them around. ProBlogger is full of great examples of relationship building, such as showing your readers you care by responding to their comments.
Comedians who don't have good material won't be around for long
Louis CK said comedians that don't have great material get to a place and stay there. They might have one or two hits but they don't continue building and they won't sustain over time.
Chris Rock said, "Anyone can have a hot year but who the hell has sustained a career not being funny"?
Bloggers have the same reality. We must sustainably create good material that will keep users coming back.
Jerry Seinfeld said one thing that bothered him about acting was that a lot of people say they can do it and they actually can. He went back to stand-up comedy because there is no faking it. You're either good or you're not.
It's easy for people to start a new blog as is evident by the total number of blogs doubling every six months.
Blogging is a combination of Seinfeld's assessment of acting and comedy. You can fake blogging for a while, but if you don't step up and produce over time, you won’t last.
Stand-up comedy is a great responsibility
This group of comedians all agreed that stand-up comedy is a great responsibility. There are multiple reasons, but one of the biggest is they recognize people give up a chunk of their lives to see them perform.
They had to get a babysitter, get dressed up, find a parking spot, and spend their hard earned money. They feel responsible for leaving with them something lasting. According to Seinfeld, really good bits go deep into your head and keep coming back.
In an example Seinfeld uses, Letterman talks about how he would spit toothpaste into the sink, let it dry, and serve it as after dinner mints.
It's not the best joke I’ve ever heard, but Seinfeld said there's something in that joke that has made it stick with him ever since. Are your posts going to stick with people?
People also give up their most valuable commodity to view your blog post. They give up their time. You must make it worth their while or they won't be back.
You must also ensure you're not putting bad information out as recommendations. Ricky Gervais said he feels a great responsibility not to hurt an innocent person. The same is true for people dispensing information.
In comedy, talk about what they do, not what they are
Chris Rock said one of his most important principles in comedy is to talk about what people do, not what they are. He said some people do some crazy stuff that you can talk about, but if you think they're actually crazy, you shouldn’t mention that!
To avoid making too many people angry, remember to talk about what they do and not what they are. Don't say, "You're poor because you're an idiot." Try, "You're poor because you wasted your paycheck on hookers and alcohol." Okay, maybe that’s not quote right either!
Take a subject and don't leave it alone until you've totally covered it
The great comedians have a way of going deeper into an everyday situation than you and I could ever imagine possible. Jerry Seinfeld is a genius at doing this.
Chris Rock takes a somewhat different approach because some of his jokes are 'richer ideas' and won't be funny without the full premise of the story. He explains what he's talking about because he knows if he sets up the premise right, the joke will always work.
The most successful bloggers take something, break it down, break it down again, and then break it down even more. Most of this is finding your niche. For example, Darren has more information on AdSense than the rest of the Internet put together!
What if people discover they can do comedy themselves?
Ricky Gervais asks the question, “What happens if people discover they can do comedy themselves?” The other comedians don't view this as a threat because they view themselves as professionals with a level of talent much higher than most people.
Louis CK explains that the guys who make money on the Superbowl aren’t concerned by people who play football in the back yard.
This is even more relevant for bloggers. We live in a world where we aren't cut throat competitors. Sure, we're competing over products and content, but for the most part we all benefit as more people get involved in blogging.
These are examples from four of the elite comedians. One thing I observed was how they all have different styles. There is no one way to succeed as a comedian. It would be even harder to succeed if you tried to be the next Jerry Seinfeld or Chris Rock (or Darren Rowse).
The points they make during the interview are very relevant for comedians as they are for bloggers. Do you agree with any of the points? I would love to see your thoughts in the comments.
Dan Meyers wants to help you take control of your life so you OWN IT. He started Your Life, Their Life to help you control your money, get out of debt, and find what you really want in life. Interested? Check out YourLifeTheirLife.com and follow him on Twitter (@YLTL).
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Talking Funny: What Can Bloggers Learn from Comedians?
Переслать - 8 Tips for Using Quotes and Dialogue in Your Blog Posts
This guest post is by Aman Basanti of Ageofmarketing.com.
Quotes and dialogue are one of the most powerful tools in the writer's toolbox. They bring your writing to life. They give your piece voice and make the words jump off the page. As the famous writer Stephen King once said, “What people say often conveys their character to others in ways of which they—the speakers—are completely unaware.”
While most bloggers understand the power of quotes, they do not know how to format them properly. This post is a crash course in how to use and punctuate quotes in your writing.
Copyright Gino Santa Maria - Fotolia.com
Please note that there are exceptions to some of these rules (depending on whether you use the American standard or the UK standard). But for most part if you follow these rules you will be fine.
How to capitalize a quote
All quotes should be capitalized, except for fragments. If your quotes are not capitalised, your readers may think it is a partial quote with the ellipsis omitted.
Even when you quote someone mid-sentence, you should capitalise the quote.
As George Santayana famously said, “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
How to extend a quote over multiple paragraphs
Say you want to break up the following quote into two paragraphs:
"I always say to people," said Archer in an interview, "don't write about goblins; don't write about wizards just because they're in. Write what you feel at ease with. Always remember Jane Austen. [She] lived in a small village, and wrote about her mother being unable to get rid of four daughters. Then she wrote about her mother being unable to get rid of three daughters. Then she wrote about her mother being unable to get rid of two daughters."
Most people open and close the quote in each paragraph:
"I always say to people," said Archer in an interview, "don't write about goblins; don't write about wizards just because they're in. Write what you feel at ease with."
"Always remember Jane Austen. [She] lived in a small village, and wrote about her mother being unable to get rid of four daughters. Then she wrote about her mother being unable to get rid of three daughters. Then she wrote about her mother being unable to get rid of two daughters."
The correct way of doing this is not to close the quote at the end of each paragraph, only the last one:
"I always say to people," said Archer in an interview, "don't write about goblins; don't write about wizards just because they're in. Write what you feel at ease with.
"Always remember Jane Austen. [She] lived in a small village, and wrote about her mother being unable to get rid of four daughters. Then she wrote about her mother being unable to get rid of three daughters. Then she wrote about her mother being unable to get rid of two daughters."
How to edit a quote
It is amazing how many mistakes we make when speaking. It is only when you transcribe the speech to paper that you see these mistakes. As a writer then, you are allowed to clean up quotes.
For example, consider the following quote:
"There's a 1000 people in the hall and they all love what I do."
Clean it up so the verb agrees with the plural “people.”
"There are 1000 people in the hall and they all love what I do."
The only exception is that if you want to make the author sound uneducated that you leave the quote in its original form.
How to add to a quote
If you need to add to a quote, do not simply include the extra words in the quote. Use the “[ ]” marker to show your additions.
As he said in an interview, "[The prosecution's case] was weaker than Columbus's claim that China was 10,000 miles closer than was the accepted wisdom at the time."
How to include original errors without making yourself look silly
Say you want to insert a quote that is written incorrectly in its original form (whether by design or by mistake) but you do not want your readers to think that you are the source of the mistake.
The poster read, "Old skool remixes are the koolest."
“Skool” and “koolest” are written incorrectly. To fix this, simply include [sic] after each of the words.
The poster read, "Old skool [sic] remixes are the koolest [sic]."
This lets the reader know that you are not the source of the error.
How to handle a quote within a quote
If you want to insert a quote that has a quote inside of it, use a pair of single quotation marks (' ') to enclose the sub-quote.
"The driver said to me, 'Where would you like to go today?'"
How to handle commas and periods in your quotes
Do you place commas and periods (full stops) outside or inside of the quotation marks? Answer: It depends. The American standard is that commas and periods go inside the quotation marks, regardless of logic:
As my grandfather used to say, "Better out than an angry tenant."
The English standard is that commas and periods follow logic:
As my grandfather used to say, "Better out than an angry tenant".
If you are unsure which standard to follow, include the commas and periods inside the quotation marks.
How to handle question marks and exclamation marks in your quotes
When it comes question marks (?) and exclamation marks (!) both American and English standards follow logic. So if the question is in the quote itself, place it inside of the quotation marks. Otherwise place it outside the quotation marks.
At that point he asked himself, "Is this worth the effort?"
Do you agree with the adage, "Familiarity breeds contempt"?Conclusion
Follow these rules and your writing will look more professional, helping you establish authority in the mind of your blog readers.
If you know of other mistakes that I have not covered here (I know there are a few more) please share them with us in the comments section.
Aman Basanti writes about the psychology of buying and teaches you how you can use the principles of consumer psychology to boost your sales. Visit www.Ageofmarketing.com/free-ebook to get his new ebook—Marketing to the Pre-Historic Mind: How the Hot New Science of Behavioural Economics Can Help You Boost Your Sales—for FREE.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
8 Tips for Using Quotes and Dialogue in Your Blog Posts
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