Marketing
The Blogging Ninja Guide To Strategic Positioning
What I’m about to share with you is a bit meaty, but it can have a huge impact on your blogging income. I want to address questions like:
- How accessible should you be with your readers?
- How do you deal with the issue of pricing of your products and avoid “sticker shock”?
I’m aware that some bloggers (those who aren’t making much money, mind you) may potentially take issue with what I’m about to share. However, this blog is all about being REAL with you and help you guys make as much money as possible from your blogging. Click Here To Continue Reading »
Talking About Making Money Online In Order To Make Money Online
One of the most common confusions any new blogger asks themselves is… What should I blog about in order to make money?
Many of the times, the conclusion ends up as follows: The people making good money online are the ones who talk about making money online.
It leads to a huge catch-22. It leads to skepticism. But, is it true?
Click Here To Continue Reading »
Are Long-Form Sales Letters Dead?
Alright, let’s be honest. We’ve all seen people say things are “dead” just to get attention. Email is dead. Blogging is dead. I’ve heard it all, and each time, they are stupid ploys for attention.
Today, however, is no ploy for attention. I am asking an honest question. This has been rolling around in my head for several days now. At this point, I am leaning toward the conclusion that the long-form sales letter has passed on into the white light. Must send flowers. Click Here To Continue Reading »
How To Pause The Aweber Autoresponder
My readers know that I am a big proponent of Aweber for mailing list management. Out of the many things that you can do with Aweber, one of them is an autoresponder.
If you’re not already familiar, an autoresponder is simply a pre-scheduled series of emails that get sent out to a new subscriber on automatic after they subscribe to your list.
For many months, I was using an autoresponder sequence. I still am a supporter of the idea, however I’m currently in the process of re-evaluating the idea. That said, there is certainly an issue with an autoresponder when you’re engaging in a structured marketing campaign.
Click Here To Continue Reading »
How To Psychologically Evaluate Any Blog Niche
I have a new video for you today.
This video shows a simple way of evaluating any potential blogging niche from a psychological standpoint. I’m getting down to the emotional core of the reader here.
In this video, I mention two particular (big) markets and how they measure up. But, the power comes in getting into the minds of YOUR reader, in YOUR market, and seeing how you can apply this test. And, if you’re finding a shortcoming, usually you can shift your approach and stay within the same market… but, all of a sudden you’re gaining a lot more traction with your audience.
You may have heard before that people buy based on emotion and they justify with logic. Your key, as a blogger, is to tap into that emotional motivator.
The material in this video represents one of the many principles I teach my students in the Blog Masters Club. This concept is covered in Module 2 – Market Research.
Click Here To Watch This Video.
After you’ve watched the video (about 8 minutes long), let me know what you thought about it by posting below. 
How A Blogger Makes Money Without Being a Slimeball
OK, well perhaps the topic is a little bit misleading. In reality, it is not any kind of requirement that you have to be a slimeball to make a buck in this business.
The reality is, though, that there is a segment of the blogger population who thinks this is the case.
Are you adverse to the idea of marketing on your blog? Do you feel as if you have to become one of “those people” to make a buck?
Shooting Yourself In The Foot Sucks
… and if you answered “yes” to any of the above questions, that’s exactly what you’re doing. Shooting yourself in the foot.
Click Here To Continue Reading »
Never Underestimate The Value of Free
This is a guest post from Sharron Field from KKomp.com.
Do you get the feeling that internet marketing is becoming difficult? These days, unless people know and like you, it’s harder and harder every day to get started.
If an unknown internet marketer offers a product that guarantees to make the customer a millionaire overnight, without any effort on the customer’s part; everyone, probably quite rightly, shouts “SCAM!” and walks away. If that same unknown person offers a product where the customer needs to do something themselves in addition to leaving it all to the product to do for them, everyone shouts “CRAP PRODUCT”, moans that they have to get off their arse, and they walk away. Result = no sales in either case.
If the product claims to do everything for the customer with no effort on the customer’s part, the customer sees it as a scam and doesn’t buy it. Yet when a product turns up that asks the customer to do something more than sitting on their arse waiting for results, the customer complains because they have to do something rather than having the product do it all for them.
Sometimes you just can’t win. It’s heads they win or tails you lose. But, if you’re already known, it’s a different matter.
Click Here To Continue Reading »
$2,918 In 55 hours With A Blog – How It Was Done
Yes, this last Black Friday weekend, I ran a special (as pretty much everybody does) and I brought in almost 3-grand in a little over 48 hours. I thought I would give you the scoop on how it was done. It is so insanely easy, and the marketing behind it is just about as simple as it gets.
The special began on Friday at a little after 1PM EST when I sent out my first email to the mailing list. On Sunday at 3AM EST, I sent a “final notice” to let them know the deal was coming to a close. The deadline was 8PM EST on Sunday. Why 8PM? Because it would be easy to pop onto the computer after dinner and turn the special off. And why did I send the last notice at 3AM? So that the people on the west coast would be after midnight and I could tell them that the special was ending on the same day (more urgency).
So, in total, the entire promo consisted of 2 emails to the list, and about 15 minutes of work on the site itself. I think I had about 45 minutes of my time in this promotion – total.
Here’s how it was done… Click Here To Continue Reading »
Why The New FTC Guidelines Are A HUGE Opportunity For Bloggers
While so many people are getting their tighties in a bunch over the new FTC guidelines and how it affects our industry, my opinion is that you should not be concerned.
In fact, you should be THRILLED.
Better yet, you should be using it as a huge kick in the ass to put on your A-game, get into gear, and start creating a real business.
I’ll go more into this in an upcoming report I plan to write (stay tuned for it), however let me give you the long-and-short of it.
Blogging as a business is RELATIONSHIP MARKETING. If you want to make money as a blogger, this is the short version of what you do:
- Create a product line.
- Attract people to you through quality content.
- Get people into your sales funnel. In other words, capture them as a lead. Get ‘em on your list.
- Build the RELATIONSHIP. Get them to know, like and trust you. Be a real person. You want them to trust your expertise, but also view you as a friend.
- Sell them things by providing quality recommendations they can trust.
Now, traditional internet marketers are all consulting their lawyers over the new FTC regulations. One of the biggest things that will affect the industry is the use of testimonials to sell. To make a long story short, you will not be able to throw out a bunch of glowing testimonials, throw in a “results not typical” footnote in tiny print at the bottom of the page, and move on with your life.
In fact, in a recent report put out by John Reese, he said to forget using testimonials! That’s right. No testimonials. By not using testimonials, you just avoid that whole FTC mess.
Why is this a huge piece of good news for smart bloggers? Click Here To Continue Reading »
The Secret To A Huge Mailing List – EXPOSED
This is the secret to list building that they don’t want you to know.
- Find or create something which people in your market will find valuable or helpful,
- Give it to them in exchange for their email address.
- Do this a lot.
Now you know. If you tell anybody else this secret, be sure to whisper.
P.S. Oh, just one more thing. It also helps to have a mailing list solution worthy of building a big list with. and for that, I recommend Aweber. That one isn’t any secret because most people worth their salt like Aweber, too.
I'm David Risley. I've been making my living as a blogger for over a decade. Blogging is my business and how I support my family. With this blog, I'm just gettin' REAL and telling you how this business works. 
