Work-At-Home Success University. Course: Blogging For Bucks Lesson 3

Transcription

1 Work-At-Home Success University Course: Blogging For Bucks Lesson 3

2 NOTICE: You Do NOT Have the Right to Reprint or Resell this Report! You Also MAY NOT Give Away, Sell or Share the Content Herein If you obtained this report from anywhere other than you have a pirated copy. Please help stop Internet crime by reporting this to: mailto:success@workathomesuccess.com 2011 Copyright Leslie Truex ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this report may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informational storage or retrieval system without express written, dated and signed permission from the author. DISCLAIMER AND/OR LEGAL NOTICES: The information presented herein represents the view of the author as of the date of publication. Because of the rate with which conditions change, the author reserves the right to alter and update his opinion based on the new conditions. The report is for informational purposes only. While every attempt has been made to verify the information provided in this report, neither the author nor his affiliates/partners assume any responsibility for errors, inaccuracies or omissions. Any slights of people or organizations are unintentional. If advice concerning legal or related matters is needed, the services of a fully qualified professional should be sought. This report is not intended for use as a source of legal or accounting advice. You should be aware of any laws, which govern business transactions or other business practices in your country and state. Any reference to any person or business whether living or dead is purely coincidental. URGENT: Your Address Potential Delivery Problems There are a couple of ISPs that are spam trigger happy and unfortunately yours may be one of them. Oftentimes whitelisting success@workathomesuccess.com will remedy this. However, in some cases it is necessary to use a different address.

3 Introduction Welcome to Work-At-Home Success University and Blogging for Bucks! I m excited to have you as a valued student in this four-week training program! While blogging is well known now, many people are skeptical about its moneymaking potential. How can you make money posting stuff for free? It is true that blogs have the potential to make money, but like any other work-at-home venture, whether or not YOU make money will depend on the decisions you make, how you implement what you learn and whether or not you do the work. In this four-week course you are going to learn about blogging; what it is, how it makes money and what steps you need to take to be successful. Before we begin with the lessons, there are three important things that I need to mention to you... 1) Worksheets - The course comes with instructional materials as you see here, but it also includes worksheets. These handouts are crucial to your success so don't skip them. They are designed to help you gather and organize information so that you can use it to be a successful blogger. 2) Audio and Video Materials - When appropriate you'll find audio or video supplements to the instructional materials. These are designed to assist in providing the information in a clear and concise manner. 3) Weekly Lessons - Here is the schedule of lessons for Blogging For Bucks. Week 1 - What is blogging? Blog types Choosing a blog topic Determining if you have enough content to support a blog. Week 2 - Starting Your Blog Three different blog options

4 Setting up the blog Creating/getting content Making a blog calendar Week 3 - Monetizing Your Blog AdSense - Fast and free Affiliate marketing Advertising Sponsored Reviews Sponsorships Week 4 - Getting people to your blog with little or no advertising (or money) The content in the later lessens may look sparse, but each topic area has a ton of information and step-by-step details. Some of the information will be technical, but every effort has been made to walk you through the steps one-by-one. Now that we ve gotten the housekeeping out of the way, let s get to the reason why you re here the lesson!

5 Monetizing Your Blog Now it s time to monetize your blog so you can make money! There are several different ways you can add revenue streams to your blog such as Google AdSense Ads, Affiliate Links, and selling your own products. We ll also cover how to start collecting subscribers to your blog and building your list. Ad Codes Ads are added to your site using codes supplied by the advertisers. This is where things can get a little challenging because placed improperly, codes don't appear correctly. Here are a couple of tips: 1) If you want to place adds within your blog post (the article) make sure that you've clicked the tab that says "HTML" before pasting. Pasting it in the "Visual" area won't work. Your article will show the code. If you post ad code under "Visual"...

6 It will look like this... If you post under the "HTML" Tab... It will look like...

7 Of course, you'll have text there as well. I just wanted you to see how the codes appear in a blog post if you don't paste them under the correct tab. 2) You can put ad code in your sidebar as well using gadgets in Blogger and widgets in WordPress. See below for adding ad code to Blogger. In WordPress, you can use a text widget and paste the code directly in the widget. You don't need to worry about an HTML tab. 3) At each monetization source you use, look for "Get Code" or something similar to access codes to paste ads on your site. Every monetization source does it a little differently, but most have tutorials to help you. 4) To create text links within your article, use the world icon in Blogger or the chain link icon in Wordpress. Highlight the word(s) you want to link to, and then click the appropriate icon. Enter the URL and click OK.

8 WordPress

9 5) To add a list of links for example a list of your recommended or favorite resources (some of which can be affiliate options), use the Link options in Blogger and WordPress. Blogger - Add a Gadget - Link list WordPress - Links - Add links WordPress allows you to have link categories. So you can have a recommended list and blogroll. Us the Link Categories to create your

10 categories. When you add a new link, you can indicate what category you want it filed under. To add the list to your sidebar, - Click on Appearance, then Widgets. - Drag the Links widget to your sidebar where you want the list to appear.

11 4) Watch that you don't get "ad happy". People are coming to you site for information. If you site looks like an online version of Vegas, they might leave. There needs to be a balance between content and advertising. Google AdSense Ads Google AdSense is the first stop for any blogger wanting to make money. It's free, fast, and easy. Plus Google offers the option of direct deposit (or you can ask for a check). And as soon as you have visitors to the site, you can start making money. The Google AdSense program feeds text, graphic or video ads to your site. You can decide everything from the size and color of the ads, to the location of them on your site. Once you apply for the program and get approved, Google will display relevant AdSense ads on your website that look like these:

12 How it works is that every time a visitor to your site clicks on one of the Google ads displayed on your blog, you will get a small commission. It's

13 tiny and may not seem worth it. But there are many bloggers making significant income through AdSense alone. Google won't tell you how much you'll earn per click. But earlier when we did a keyword search, we learned how much people were paying per click to advertise. In theory, you can assume that the more expensive keywords probably pay more. You can apply for the Google Ad Sense program here: To add the code, login to AdSense, and click on AdSense Setup. Start by using AdSense for Content. 1) Click on "AdSense for Content" 2) Choose ad Unit or Link Unit. In the Ad Unit you can indicate whether you want image ads, text ads or both. Click "Continue" 3) Format your ad by choosing the ad size to fit the area you want to place an ad. 4) You can also change the colors to match your site. Experts suggest that you have your AdSense code fit with your site, without making them stand out too much as ads. For example, the ad box should be the same color as the area it will be placed in. Click "Continue". 5) If you want to track which ads are doing the best, you can use channels to identify what site or page the code will be put on. Click continue. 6) AdSense will generate a name based on the size of the ad and date. Or you change the name. Click "Submit and Get Code"

14 7) Copy the code and paste it into your site. If you're putting it in a page or post, be sure you have the HTML tab open. Or you can put it in a Text widget. Many Themes are "AdSense Ready" and you simply have access the Theme's settings and input all the AdSense codes (usually various sizes) in one place and theme take care of the rest. To access ads you've already made, click on "AdSense Setup" and then "Manage Ads". To see your stats or how much you've earned, click on the Reports tab. Where to Place AdSense Ads According to Google, the closer the ad runs to your content, the better. The brighter the orange the hotter the spot. You can't put Google AdSense in all the spots as only three are allowed per page. Also, careful not to overdo it. Make it easy for readers to find what they are looking for. If they come into your site and all they see are ads, they'll leave. Finally, you have other monetization options, so you'll want to weigh AdSense with the other sources to see which produces the most income.

15 Other Text Ads Here are few other programs that can offer text ads on your site. AdBrite TextLinkAds Kontera Chitika Bidvertiser Kanoodle Miva

16 Affiliate Programs The most popular affiliate programs out there for blogs are Clickbank, Commission Junction, Amazon, and Ebay. A great way to integrate these into your blog is either through banners ads or reviews. When writing a review make sure you include a description of the product, the benefits, the disadvantages (don t leave this out because adding the negative points about a product will make your review more credible to your readers), how the product has helped you, and add your affiliate link to the site where they can buy the product. This is a great technique because it s pre-selling to your readers and will help to encourage a higher conversion rate. ClickBank ClickBank sells only digital products such as video courses, ebooks and software. It's free for affiliates and you can you can find a huge range of products to promote many of which pay 50%-75%. Plus ClickBank pays twice a month and offers direct deposit. ClickBank allows you sort products by categories, popularity and other features. It is recommended that you be familiar with or buy the product so you can attest to its quality. Promoting bad products on your blog will hurt your credibility. Use the "Promote Products" tab to find products to sell. When you find a product you like, click on "Promote" and a box will open up where you can put your ClickBank nickname and get your

17 special affiliate link. This is the link you use to promote the item on your site. To get buttons and other marketing materials for the product, check the ClickBank information on the product to see if there is a URL to get affiliate marketing help. If not, visit the product site and see if there is a link that says "Affiliates". Many products have additional marketing materials such as ads, articles and even free reports you can use to help sell the item. For example, the Jobs Online Toolkit affiliate site helps people create their ClickBank link, and offers buttons, articles and a rebrandable report. Commission Junction Commission Junction has a range of different affiliate programs for a range of products; both physical and digital. You can get paid for either a lead or a sale. It's free to join and offers direct deposit. Like the other sites, you need to get the code to use on your site. Most companies working with Commission Junction offer a variety of banners, buttons and text links. Amazon Although Amazon doesn t pay as big of a commission as Clickbank and Commission Junction does, it is good at converting clicks to sales. Plus there s a variety of marketing tools to promote their products on your website, such as rotating widgets displaying lots of products and

18 Amazon astores that allow you to have a whole customized Amazon product store on your blog. Ebay EBay is similar to Amazon and has a large range of products you can promote on your blog. It has a Pay Per Click program as well. Placing Affiliate Ads on Your Site Like AdSense, affiliate ads can go just about anywhere you can find a button or banner that fits. You can even create a "Store" page filled with your "Favorite Things". Different from Google AdSense is that affiliate programs have you marketing specific products and services. This allows you to write reviews and use text links in the article, or have a page or list of your favorite or recommended resources using text links. You can also use graphic or other marketing tools the affiliate vendor has available. Sponsored Posts It is possible to get paid to review or make a post and get paid for it. There is debate about how ethical this is. Readers are trusting you, but if you're getting paid for the post, how reliable is your information? And with the new FTC law that states bloggers need to disclose when they

19 get free stuff or compensation, it's a challenge to sell reviews. But there are a few sites that can help if that is an option you want to pursue. NOTE: You'll need to show that you have a page rank and regular traffic before you'll be accepted into a paid post program. Sponsored Reviews PayPerPost ReviewMe Selling Your Own Products Another great way to monetize your blog is to sell your own products. It builds credibility and popularity for your blog, and establishes you as an authority in your niche. Plus you get to keep 100% of the sales! Creating Products Yourself Two of the most popular forms of products are ebooks and video courses. For ebooks, all you need to do is have Microsoft word or Open Office (free open-source software you can download from the internet), and convert your word document into a pdf so your customers can download it. For video courses, I suggest making power point slides with Microsoft PowerPoint or Open Office and then using a screen capture software such as Camtasia or Camstudio (which is free), or Jing (which has free and paid versions), to record the PowerPoint slides as you narrate them.

20 Using PLR Products If you re not up to making your own products or you re short on time, a good option is to purchase Private Label Rights Products. If you do a search, you will find plenty of ebooks, and video courses in all sorts of niches that come with PLR. Simply purchase the products you want, edit it to suit your brand if you want to, and then it s ready to be sold as your own product on your blog! NicheEmpires is a great resource for tons of PRL and Master Resale Rights with new products added monthly. Remember to write at least 70% to make them unique, higher quality and your own. The Big Bucks Strategy All the methods above can make you good money through a blog. But the super successful bloggers and online entrepreneurs achieve greater results by building a list. If it's your goal to quit your job and live off of blogging, you need to build a list. Why is the list so important? Most people who come to your website will may read, but they won't buy. When they leave your site, they're gone and you don't have another chance to sell to them unless you've got their address. The list allows you to stay in contact with people and through it, you build a rapport and credibility, and of course can promote affiliate products. For example, at Work-At-Home Success I give away several work-athome related reports with a subscription to the newsletter (a form of

21 list). Subscribers get a weekly newsletter (you don't have use the newsletter format) and important updates or information such as free events or scam alerts. And occasionally, they'll get information about an offer I think they should check out. With the list, you have a highly targeted market of people who are interested in what you have to say and offer. They are more likely to buy than cold visitors to your site are, as long as they trust you and aren't bombarded with offers, (we'll cover this more later). There are affiliate marketers that make hundreds if not thousands of dollars sending an out to their list about a hot new "thing". That is the power of the list. Having a list is a marketing tactic, but I feel it is so important to making money that I've included it in the monetization section instead of marketing. It is optional, so if you don't want to set it up right away, you don't have to. But, all the most successful online marketers have a list and regret not setting one up sooner than they did. The basics of list building are (we'll go over all this in more detail): 1) Find or create a freebie to give away in return for the name and of the visitor to your site. 2) Sign-up for a list service. 3) Paste the sign-up form code on your blog. 4) Promote your free offer and blog.

22 5) When people sign up for your list, they'll receive an with your free offer. 6) Drip your list with great information and other resources (with affiliate programs). The FREE Offer Some affiliate programs provide free reports that you can use as a giveaway to build a list. For example, at Jobs Online Toolkit, I have a free re-brandable report (the links inside have your affiliate URLs). But many affiliate programs don't have anything you can give away in which case, you need to create it yourself. Don't panic, because it's not hard. The easiest giveaway to create and offer is a free report of 4 to 20 pages. If you have a knowledge and interest in your topic, you can create the report yourself. Or you can buy private label right (PLR) reports, which you can re-write to fit your style. Or you can hire someone to write it. Fortunately, I have a few items you can use if they match your topic. I don't have a giveaway for every topic, but I've included some in the major topic areas that you can use. I've also included links to other resources for finding content you can give away to your list.

23 Setting up the List The three main list services are Aweber, GetResponse and Constant Contact. I use Aweber and highly recommend it. There are other options such as using a list script with your hosting service, but the list services offer you protection from being accused of spam (which can carry a fine) as well as other great features. For example, Aweber can pull your blog RSS feed and it your list. Using a service isn't free, but if you want to make a living with affiliate programs, it's a must have expense. At about $20 a month, it is well worth the investment. List services do three important things: 1) Capture and maintain the names and of people who visit your site and give their information. 2) Automatically delivers a preset message or messages to your list. For our purposes, it will automatically send an with a link to the free report you are offering. You can create additional reports to go out automatically. For example, this course is set to send each course every 7 days. 3) blast your list. The autoresponder (#2) automatically sends pre-set messages, but sometimes you may want to a newsletter or special offer. In that case, you "blast" an out to your list.

24 The most important thing to remember about your list is that you are building trust and rapport. If the people on the list trust you, they will buy from you, not just once, but often. Here are the directions for using Aweber. The other services offer tutorials and customer support if you want to use something else and need guidance. 1) Visit Aweber to sign up for an account. 2) Click on the "Order" tab and choose your service option. 3) Login and choose "Create and Manage Lists" 4) Click on "Create New List" 5) Aweber gives a default list name, but for simplicity, give your list a name related to your website such as "Diet Report". 6) Type in your list's description and other info. At this point, you can ignore the social media info. Give your name and under Notifications to get an every time someone joins or unsubscribes. 7) Click on "Go to Step 2" 8) You can edit your confirmation or leave as is. To protect you from spam complaints, Aweber requires double-opt in which means after a subscriber gives you his name and , he will get an asking him to confirm that he wants to subscribe. I always edit the intro

25 to remind people what they're subscribing to: "We've received your request for the FREE Raw Diet Recipes Report..." 9) Enter the Affiliate URL of your program where it says "Success Page: Confirmation Success Page URL". When a subscriber clicks on the "Confirm" link in the , they will be taken to your program page. Another option is to send them to the PDF link to the report or to a thank you page, letting them know the report will arrive in their shortly. Since the report is what they want, this second option is most customer-friendly. A thank you page can also be a place to promote your main or additional programs. See the Jobs Online Toolkit confirmation thank you page below. However, using Blogger or Wordpress, it's not easy to create such a page because you want to hide it from regular visitors. In this case, send them either back to your blog site or to your affiliate offer directly. Aweber has a step-by-step guide that runs at the bottom of the page during your list set up. It even has video tutorials if you need them. The next step is to create your first message. 1) Click on Messages and then "Follow up" to create your first message. 2) Enter the subject line. Use a subject with the report title so that subscribers know what it is. Click on "Personalize" and choose one of the options such as name if you would like the subscribers name to be included in the subject such as "Sally, Here's the Raw Diet Recipes You Requested".

26 3)You can use the HTML Message and templates, but for this lesson, we'll stick with easy and scroll down the Text Message box. 4) Enter your message. You can use the "Personalize" option in the as well. I always thank people for signing up and then give them the link for the report. I let them know that I'll occasionally send tips and resources related to the topic of the report as well. I end with my name and underneath it a signature line that has information about my product. Instead of including a link to your product in the signature line, you can include a little information about your offer in the body of the , but the focus of the should be delivering the free report. If you seem to salesy, people will unsubscribe. 5) Click on the Attach button at the bottom to attach your free report to the (Blogger users only.)

27 Using Blogger means you don't have an easy place to store your report online to send a URL for download to subscribers. So instead, you need to attach it to the first . Using Aweber to Send Your Blog Posts to Your list One of the best features of Aweber for bloggers, is the ability of the service grab your RSS feed and send your blog posts to your subscribers. This eliminates your need to them a newsletter or other materials every week. To set this up: 1) Click on "Blog Broadcast" under the Messages tab.

28 2) Click on "Create New Blog Broadcast" 3) Get your blog's RSS feed. Look for the little orange RSS feed button on your blog. Or if you use Wordpress, there is a link that says RSS feed entries under Meta on your blog's navigation. 4) Enter your RSS feed URL at the top. 5) Choose a template. At this point, I suggest choosing the basic plain one as the others require knowledge of HTML to customize them. The template will fill in coded information for you in both the HTML and Plain Text options.

29 6) Tell Aweber when you want blog posts sent. You can choose as they are posted or once a certain number is posted or a set time every week. My recommendation is to do either once a certain number is posted or once a week. You want to avoid more than one automatic every week. For Jobs Online Toolkit, I have it set to send every Friday at 12 pm eastern. 7) Click on "Save Blog Broadcast" 8) Click on send "Test" to see how it will look (you should have blog posts up already). 9) Make sure you are subscribed to your own list so you know when is sent and how it looks.

30 Autoresponders If you don't want to send blog posts, or if you want to add a little more value by sending more information, you can set up additional s to go out automatically. These s should enhance the report you've given the subscriber. For every four or so informational s you send, you can include one that is directly about the offer. For example, three days after sending the raw diet recipe report, you can send an about raw food safety, and a few days after that another one on raw food and children, etc. After about four of informational s, you can send one about the great offer on the raw food diet product. Beyond that, you can set up autoresponders to send a message every week or every two weeks. Or you can simply set a schedule and use the "Blast" option ( marketing will be covered in more detail next week). Be careful again that you are not overwhelming your subscribers with . At Work-At-Home Success subscribers get their free reports right away, and then over the course of a couple of weeks they get five more s automatically that give work-at-home information and how they can use Work-At-Home Success to learn more. They get a newsletter once a week and occasionally additional about site updates or special offers. 1) To add follow-up s, click on "Messages" and "Follow-Up" and "Add new message".

31 2) Enter your subject and message just as you did on the first message. 3) Enter the time frame that this will be sent from the previous one. For example, will it go out 1 day after the first one or 4 days? You can set up intervals as well such as weekly. For example, in this course, the s are set to go out every seven days. 4) Repeat these steps for each follow-up . Remember the intervals are based on the previous . In the sample below, message two goes out three days after message one. Message three is sent two days after message two. And message four is sent three days after message three. Posting the Sign-Up Form on Your Blog The first step to getting a web-form is to create it at Aweber. 1. From your Aweber account, click on the tab that says "Web Forms".

32 2. Click on "Create Web Form" 3. Choose a template. 4. Edit the template. There isn't a lot of room so just include something like "Yes, Send me the Raw Diet Recipes Now!" 5. Click on "Save Web Form" 6. Click on "Go to Step 2" - Enter a name for your form such as raw diet blogger. This name is just for you to keep track of the forms. You can create more than one form for the same list. So if you later create a squeeze page, you can have a form your blog and different one for the squeeze page, and can track which brings in the most subscribers. 7. Enter the Thank You Page information. The easiest option is to choose one of the Aweber provided options that tell the subscriber to confirm the subscription. 8. Click on "Save Web Form" and "Go to Step 3". 9. Click on "I will install my form", unless you've hired a web designer. 10. Aweber provides a java snippet or html version. The Java version is best because you can come back and make changes to the form without having to re-paste the code onto your blog. 11. Copy the java snippet from where it says <script> to where it ends with </script>

33 12. For the time being, paste this code into Notepad to hold it until we stick on your Blogger site. Add Your List Code Onto Your Blogger Page. 1. Log into blogger. 2. Click on "Design" 3. Click on "Add Gadget" in your sidebar. This is the best place to put it because it shows up on all pages of your blog. 4. Click on "HTML /Java Script" option. 5. Paste the code from Aweber into the box and click save.

34 Preview: Adding Your Subscription to WordPress Aweber offers a plugin for Aweber, but for now we're just going to use that piece of java script and put it in a widget in your sidebar. 1. Login to your WordPress dashboard. 2. Click on "Appearance" and then "Widgets" 3. Drag and drop a "Text" widget to where you'd like your form to appear in your sidebar. Ideally you'd like it to be near the top to grab attention right away. 4. The Text Box will open. You can put a title in the "Title Area". If you couldn't put all the info you wanted in the Aweber form, you can add a little blurb in the widget about what subscribers will get if you want. 5. Paste the java script from Aweber into the box.

35 6. Click "Save" and then "Close". 7. Check your blog to see how it looks. If its too wide, you can adjust the size at Aweber. You won't need to repaste the code when you make changes at Aweber if you use the java script option. The changes will automatically appear.

36 Whew, you've gotten a lot done! You've: 1) Signed up for monetization programs and added them to your site. 2) Created a free report. 4) Set up a list. 5) Added the list to your blog. Your blog should have at least 10 posts live on the site and 10 more getting ready to post. Write another 10 post this week. Once you have a surplus of posts ready to go over the next few weeks, you can change your blog schedule to whatever suits you and your topic. For example, you can write a bunch at once and set them to post in the future. Or you can write them one at a time posting them when you've written them. Next week we'll begin to let the world know about your blog so that you can start making money!