Monetization Magic

Colorado Website Development

Archives for January 2011

Do You REALLY Need Membership Software?

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According to the author of the following video, membership software is imperative.  Oddly enough, he also happens to be selling membership software and only gives one choice of membership software.

I respectfully disagree.  Watch the video because his other tips are valuable and read below to learn about creating your membership program without membership software.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8rZxNtcT4k
All you need for a basic membership program is an e-mail program.  It could be something as simple as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird (which is still free!).  Depending on the size of your list, you could use an actual autoresponder program like AWeber or iContact.

If you’re just starting out, think about what you are offering in your membership program and how many clients you wish to serve.  For example, let’s say you have a $97/mo coaching membership and you have 20 clients, you may not need a membership software program.  Once you’ve gotten a few $2k months under your belt, you may decide to begin another membership program and are better able to handle the additional software expense.

You want your membership program to deliver content to your membership clients in a timely manner and you want them to be able to “opt out” when they’ve had enough.  It’s really that simple.

If you provide too much content to your members at one time, they may become overwhelmed by the amount and opt out because they cannot possibly digest that much in one session.  So spoon feed them a bit at a time and give them time to process the information and put it into use.

Remember to employ the simple solutions first and fully utilize the resources you already possess before you invest in software that may or may not give you a return on your money.  The software does not always determine the success of your membership program.

The marketing of your membership program will give you a much larger return on your investment…then you can afford and will need the fancy software.  Get the clients in the door first and use the magic of OPM (other people’s money) to purchase the membership tools.

8 Things to NOT Do when Link Building

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  • Don’t go requesting reciprocal links from every website on the planet. This might have helped several years ago, but you can be penalized for it today.  If you do engage in reciprocal links, make sure they are with related sites and make the links natural within your site. In other words, don’t just make a “Links Page” and list links. Add your partner’s link to relevant content pages or wherever it just “makes sense” to do so.
  • Don’t engage in comment spam. In most cases it’s a complete waste of time, because filters do a good job of catching spam comments.  It’s also a good way to make bloggers angry with you. Only add your link in the space provided for your link and don’t add links within the body of your comment, unless it’s very relevant and you know it’s acceptable to the blogger.
  • Don’t submit every page of your site to social news sites. We’re talking about sites like digg.com, reddit.com, etc. You’ll just end up getting ignored, and you’ll probably be banned too. A better idea is to encourage others to submit you instead.
  • Resist the urge to submit to every directory you run across. There are only a few that are worth your time.  Directories that post sites without reviewing them are usually considered link farms, and their links are penalized in the search engines.
  • Show Restraint and Be Relevant. Avoid posting links to your site in forum posts unless they are extremely relevant to the subject at hand and is allowed. That’s what your signature is for.
  • Don’t bother with web rings and other dated link building techniques. Concentrate on creating good content and promoting it, and links will come.
  • Don’t make outrageous claims if you’re offering a service or selling a product. You’re credibility is worth more than any sale and it’s cheapens any legitimate offers that you are making.
  • Don’t make ugly comments to the webmaster about their website or the webmaster personally if you want your links listed. This was covered well in “How to Win Friends and Influence People”.  Even if the comment is grammatically incorrect, generally I will accept it and give folks the benefit of the doubt.  Constructive criticism = good, just plain meanness = delete.  😉

10 Ways to Build Quality Links to Your Website

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  1. Write guest posts on blogs that are related to your field. Many bloggers will be glad to allow you to provide some fresh content for them in exchange for a link back to your site. Just contact the blogger and make an offer.
  2. Answer questions on sites such as Answers.Yahoo.com, AllExperts.com and JustAnswer.com. By providing quality advice on subjects related to your site, you link to your pages as related information. Just understand that sites like this frown on website owners simply linking to their sites. You can link when it’s relevant, but you don’t need to say it’s your own site.
  3. Offer testimonials for the sales pages of products you enjoy. Internet marketers love to get them, and most will gladly post an active link or at least a URL to your site in return.
  4. Find other organizations that link to members’ websites to join. For best results, choose ones related to your niche.
  5. Offer to write articles for a fellow blogger or news media organization. You’ll want to voluntarily send them a sample of your work ahead of time so that they get a taste of what you’re offering.
  6. Join and participate in forums. Add links to your site to your signature.
  7. Comment on blogs whose subject matter is related to your site. If you take the time to read the post and write a good, relevant comment, the blogger is unlikely to consider this spamming. Be respectful; keep your link in the space provided for your link.
  8. Sponsor giveaways on blogs. You supply the product, and the blogger holds the giveaway.  You’ll get a link from the blogger, and you could also request that entrants be required to link to your site.  Make sure that the blog is in a related field and readers are interested in what you’re giving away!
  9. Create profiles on popular social networking sites, and link to your site from them. Some of these will be “no follow” links, but when link building, don’t worry about this…just build good, quality links.
  10. Make yourself available for interviews, not only online, but with offline media. Most media outlets have websites, and they often post transcripts of interviews there along with relevant links.

Do you have other ways that you have used that work well for building quality links?  Please do share what you’ve done and how well it worked in the comment section below!  Hint:  This is a great example of a invitation for #7 above!

The Great Blog Checklist

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We’ve all heard of blogs.  There are free blogs.  There are paid blogs.  Blogs have been around for about 10 years.  How are blogs judged?  Are they judged by the number of unique visitors, amount of income they generate, amount of time a reader spends on the site, value they provide to readers?  Are there different features that need to be included to achieve a given goal?  What is it that makes a blog great?  I’ve combined a list of basic elements that will launch your blog above the rest.

1.       Create value for your reader! Your reader is usually looking for something in particular when they click upon your site.  Determine what they are looking for by posting articles and watching to see what that does to your traffic and providing more if the traffic increases significantly.  Provide the reader the ability to leave comments as they can provide valuable insight in this manner.

2.       Use keywords to attract readers. Using Google Adwords, you can determine valuable keywords to include in your articles to drive traffic to your site.

3.       Provide resources to your readers. What a valuable resource is to your reader will vary depending upon the niche chosen.  Typically checklists, templates, diagrams, how to series are great resources.

4.       Keep the blog active by posting articles every 2-3 days at a minimum. Blogging is not a set it and forget it method of making money.  A lot of blogs are literal electronic ghost towns.  It is very apparent to the reader when the date is not on the article and the information is outdated or they visit several times and nothing has changed in the last week or so.  I’ve been guilty of this myself; however, a good way to work around this is to write several articles at once and schedule them to be released during your busy periods so that the site is still fresh and alive even though you may be basking on the beach in Maui.

5.       Give something to your reader and provide an opt-in box. Provide the reader with valuable content and ask them to provide their name and e-mail so that you can open the communication channel to include e-mail as well as online communication.

6.       Use Google Adsense. Google Adsense is a great way to earn a few pennies here and there to offset the cost of hosting.  While you cannot click on your own Adsense ads, you can give others some “Google Love” by clicking on their ads.  It only takes a moment and it helps the other guy out.

7.       Use video. This is where blogs beat books hands down.  Use video on your blog to further establish a connection with your reader.  Video is a great way to convey your personality to your reader and I’ve seen statistics saying that it boosts readership by over 300%!

8.       Know what sizes and colors to use when placing ads on your blog. In this particular case, size, placement and color do matter!  Humans are sensitized to know what is an ad and typically will not click on it unless they are looking for that particular item.  Ads within the body of the post should be 336×280 or 300×250 for best results.  Ads at the bottom of the post should be 468×60 or 234×60 for best results. The leaderboard display panel which places advertising unit above your posts is best at 728×90 pixels.  Colors of ads should blend into your theme, have no border (color FFFFFF) and the link needs to be blue because most humans are trained to believe that all links are blue.

9.       Know who your competition is and what their keywords are. Use Google search to find some of your keywords.  The blogs that show up in the top 5 results are your competition.  Use SpyFu to determine not only what their keywords are but also for which AdWords they are currently paying.  It’s a great tool!

10.   Personalize the reader experience. Make the reader’s experience fun and valuable and you will create a great following.  Create a contest to add some excitement.  Recommend resources they may not be aware of.  When writing speak to your reader as you would a friend at the coffee shop to create a closer connection.  If you’re having fun chances are your readers are enjoying their experience as well!