Blogging Video Tips
Secret Trick For Dealing With Internet Explorer Problems
Every time I make design changes to a website, I have to deal with Internet Explorer being a piece of crap. It works fine in Safari and Firefox. I’m thinking everything is working. Is it ready to go live?….
Then, I check Internet Explorer and – FAIL! The site looks all screwed up.
I’m not alone. So, as a public service, I am showing you a super secret, ninja tactic for dealing with the issue.
Enjoy the video. 
Google XML Sitemaps And What To Do With It
In this video, I’ll show you what to do with the XML sitemap generated for you by the Google XML Sitemaps plug-in for Wordpress.
I’m going to take you into Google Webmaster Tools and show you how to get it set up.
Tip For Great Photos For Bloggers
Photos add a nice, professional touch to your blog posts. By combining a great headline with eye-catching imagery, your post will have that extra wow factor not seen on many other blogs.
Many of us have used Google Image Search to find images of certain things. It works, but it is also pot luck and you gotta be careful not to swipe images which are copyrighted.
So, I recommend iStockphoto. This is a great resource for quality stock images. There are vector graphics, computer graphics, videos, and yes, photos. Credits are cheap, too. When buying stock photos, you can usually get away with the smallest size if it is for use in a post. If it is for printed material, then you may need a larger high DPI version.
Check it out, though. If you want to know where the big-time bloggers get the cool images from, this is it. 
Is Adsense Still Good For Bloggers?
This video tip is a response to a reader comment here on this blog. The comment was by Matty Byloos.
What is your take on adsense? Are readers blind to these ads at this point? That was where I started, and then I have gone back to building design and content, waiting until later for further monetization.
In short, Adsense remains a good option when first beginning with monetizing your blog. However, realize that it is somewhat like blogger welfare. It is easy and it probably won’t pay that much unless you have quite a bit of traffic.
To optimize your revenue from Adsense, I recommend that you place the ad into the eyepath of your visitors. I have had luck with embedding ads right into the blog post and coloring the links to match your site’s standard link color. Be careful not to overuse Adsense because too many ads not only makes your site look like crap but it oversaturates and dilutes the effect of any one ad. And this reduces click-through’s and hence your earnings.
While Adsense is still a decent way to start, keep your eye on the long-range plan. And that should be selling your own products or a membership program. The money will always remain in direct sales. To the degree that you rely on ads, always pursue direct ad buys. Until you are at that point, use networks like Adsense. Just don’t forget what your ultimate goals are.
Going Viral on Twitter – Cool New Tool
A couple of good buddies of mine are just today launching a brand new piece of software. It is called Viral Tweets. Here’s what it does…
You put a form on your website. You want people to retweet a message of your choosing in order to opt-in to something else. The form has the tweet pre-filled. They just enter their username and password for Twitter and the message is retweeted. In the process, they can also follow you on Twitter.
The power of this is that you are incentivizing them to help your message go viral on Twitter (and you’re gaining followers while you’re at it).
In addition to seeing Ryan’s and Kyle’s message go insanely viral on Twitter, I have also watched Ryan gain about 2,200 followers in the span of a couple weeks. Hell, its probably been less than that. Kyle is about to break 1,000 followers.
I’ve told Ryan that I need to engage in a Twitter war with him because now he’s got more followers than me! Of course, he’s cheating.
But, you can, too. They’re giving this thing away for free right now, so go check it out.
Windows Live Writer
If you are a blogger, I HIGHLY recommend you check out Windows Live Writer. It is free and it is from Microsoft. And, as I show in the video, I am using it even though I am a Mac user. Even though there are native OS X blogging clients available, I still use Live Writer in a virtual machine over the other options.
It is that good.
It beats the crap out of blogging from within Wordpress. The ease of inserting and resizing images alone makes it awesome.
Blog Evaluation: Jim On Light
Today’s video is a response to Jim from Jim On Light. His email was a little long for me to re-post here, however essentially he was asking the following:
- How does he get more growth to his blog?
- How does he make some money with it?
Jim’s site is already doing fairly well (200 visits per day, he said). It is a niche blog which talks about professional lighting design. So, I thought I would turn this question into a quick evaluation of his blog which I hope would help.
Here are some items I would recommend:
- Post an About Page to the site. Tell the story of Jim. Tell who you are, why you do what you do, etc. Also, explain the idea behind lighting design to people (like me) who have hardly a clue.
- Do your own videos. I think videos in the subject would probably be popular. Without looking too much into it, I would doubt there are very many people doing videos in this market.
- Start authoring your own info products. Being in a niche like this, you potentially have the opportunity of being the “go to” person in this niche when it comes to the Internet. This can be the beauty of niche blogging. The audience might be smaller, but the ones who need it will take more interest and you become their man. If there are no or few info products out there to market as an affiliate, you might have a ripe opportunity for doing your own.
- Seek out direct ad deals. I would author up a quick “media kit” for your blog. It does not have to be long (maybe only a page or two). It should describe the purpose of your blog, your audience, how much traffic you receive, and then outline the value of placing an ad there. If you don’t know much about your audience, run a survey and find out more about them. With some information and a media kit in hand, you can then contact companies in the field of professional lighting. Educate them about the possibilities of branding themselves on a blog which is a leader in their niche. You can probably sell some ads. But, with a blog like this, you’re likely going to do much better with direct ad deals than with normal network advertising that so many other blogs try.
If you have any more advice for Jim, feel free to comment.
And, if you would like your blog evaluated, or just a question answered, send it in.
The Curse Of The Freebie?
Today’s reader question comes from Melissa Petrey at WVReviews.com. She asks:
I actually found you on a site called howcast.com. I would love to learn how to make money online without getting ripped off. Is there any real way to make money without having to spend money and be able to do it all online?
First, I will echo the major point I wrote about in this post. That is, do not try to avoid paid, premium information products. The most successful people in this area will almost all attest to the fact that they invest continually in their education. They learn from others. Free content might be good, but rarely will you find a free report or a free site which will go as thorough as you may need or provide a solid, front-to-back, roadmap to follow.
You can either learn to re-invent fire, or you can buy somebody else’s lighter and get their a whole lot quicker.
As for avoiding getting ripped off, my advice is to look into the author’s reputation. When I evaluate an information product that I’m unfamiliar with it’s author, I generally look to see if they have actively applied what they know to a market OUTSIDE of the “make money online” market. If they have and found success at it, it is probably a pretty good indication they know what they’re talking about.
Feel free to comment and, as always, submit your own questions for a future video right here.
A Marketing Lesson In a Gift I Received
I got a nice gift from the kind people over at Systweak. They are a PC optimization software company based in India and they sent me this gift because I run a large tech site. Namely, PCMECH.
It is quite a nice book with my name printed on it. It is decorated in a Hindu fashion and contains a lot of cool stuff inside. It is also a diary or 2009 if I wanted to use it for that.
So, I wanted to publicly thank them. However, I also wanted to use it as an example of good marketing. It comes down to one thing: Reciprocity.
If you do something nice for somebody, they’re more likely to want to do something nice for you.
This is a powerful marketing principle.
Give somebody lots of free content, they’ll be more likely to partake in your paid content. Give somebody a gift and they’re more likely to recommend you to others.
It is a little marketing tactic that works because of good human nature.
So, big thanks to Systweak.
Using a Chatroom As a Sales Tactic
Today, I killed a lot of time in a chatroom that Jim Kukral had set up on Campfirenow.com. Jim was doing a membership drive to his coaching program and was using the chat room as an attention builder. While I was helping out in the chatroom, there are some good marketing lessons here:
- He is using the law of reciprocity. If you give a lot, others will give back. Jim is providing free help and one-on-one time in the chatroom (which he doesn’t do all the time). And, from the looks of it, he was signing people up today.
- He was building relationships. Whether the people in the chat room buy today or not, they now have a relationship with Jim Kukral. It builds awareness.
- He was using Twitter to promote the chat room and some of his contacts retweeted and helped drive people to the chat room.
As I mentioned in the video above, I have seen others use chat as a sales tactic. I’ve seen people embed chatrooms on their sales page for a limited time to build buzz and do the same things. I’ve seen people embed Ustream (video feed and chat) on a sales page. The only thing I think Jim is missing out on by using CampFirenow is that the chat isn’t on his own site which means it is harder for people to make the jump unless he specifically types out his URL.
So, something to think about.
By the way, Jim Kukral knows his stuff. He has a personal coaching program for $1K per month, but he has a group coaching program for only $27/month. If you’re interested in blogging and using social media to make money and improve your business, Jim is a good guy to talk to.
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. 
