Entrepreneurs-Journey.com

I’ve had a few queries asking what is going on with my RSS feedcount. As I type this article, my feedcount according to the Feedburner chicklet looks like this -

Yeah, 34,015 readers, not bad considering I was around 6,000 a few days ago, then I jumped to around 17,000 and now it’s doubled that number.

So what’s going on?

As reported in this article where I asked - Will Feedburner Feed Counts Include AWeber Email Subscribers? - the answer is yes, they do.

I had set up my blog blaster (RSS-to-email service) in AWeber a LONG time ago, in fact, before I even used Feedburner and I realized I had my old standard WordPress RSS feed plugged into AWeber, so it wasn’t reporting to Feedburner.

I went into AWeber, switched over to my Feedburner “burned” feed and now my AWeber email subscribers are also included in the feedcount. Here’s how the feedcount breaks down now -

However, something is not quite right with these numbers because I do not have 27,000 AWeber subscribers - not yet anyway. I suspect AWeber and Feedburner haven’t quite got the communication right and no doubt tomorrow or the next day the numbers will settle to a true reflection of reality. I suspect it will fall to around the 22,000 mark, still a nice improvement.

Gobala stated - Aweber/Feedburner Integration is Good News For Marketers - and I have to agree. What will be interesting to see is if some of the Internet marketers out there with email list sizes in the hundreds of thousands begin using Feedburner chicklets on their blogs, thus catapulting them into the top of blog rankings even if the blog itself doesn’t get that much traffic.

Does this mean the Feedcount chicklet will lose its position as the standard measure of blog status, just like PageRank has? I doubt it, people still look to PageRank as a measure of a site’s worth and I suspect Feedburner chicklets will continue to be the social proof tool of choice for blogs, regardless of how accurate a measure it is. Once a standard is adopted, it’s hard to change it.

In the meantime I’m going to go and enjoy the one moment in history where I can pretend I was almost as popular as Darren. Even when the numbers are broken I can’t beat him! (…it’s not a competition Yaro ).

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In the second half of 2007 I was contacted about whether I was interested in buying the domain name, becomeablogger.com.

Initially I said no because I was wearing my “too busy” hat at the time. A few days later I changed my mind and decided to grab the domain for an idea I had previously considered.

Helping Beginner Bloggers

As those who have studied Blog Mastermind know, I don’t provide absolute beginner training in the program on the simple technical tasks, like buying a domain name, setting up hosting and installing WordPress.

Instead I recommend my students immediately begin outsourcing the technical aspect of blogging if that is not your strong point. In the long run it’s definitely a smarter tactic, something I wish I did myself from day one, but instead I decided to struggle with technology myself and thus slow my progress down considerably.

In 2007 I started to attract more press coverage. To leverage the publicity I directed the attention towards my Blog Profits Blueprint download form, which I realized was not the smartest thing to do. The Blueprint is a great report, but it’s really suited towards more experienced bloggers and is not a good entry level book.

People who discover me via mainstream press are usually brand new to anything about making money online, thus they really need a very basic introduction to the world of blogging.

I wanted to make a site where I could offer basic training to get a blog set up using video tutorials, so I could direct people to the site as a first contact point with my training and blogging in general. I wanted a “doorway” site into the world of blogging and also to begin a relationship with my business. Something I could easily say on radio or podcast interviews or in emails from newbies.

When the domain Becomeablogger.com was offered to me I thought it was perfect for my objective. Initially the project was put on the back burner while I was busy with Blog Mastermind creating the lessons, but I kept my eyes open and put some feelers out for someone good at video to produce the tutorials.

I met Gideon Shalwick at a conference in Brisbane and began watching his work interviewing Internet marketing experts at his site Internet Marketing Wizards. I was impressed with his video production and asked if he was interested in the Become A Blogger project and he said yes.

Three months later, and we have just finished the final touches on the site.

Free Video Tutorials To Help You Start Your Very Own Blog

If you are new to blogging and you need help setting up a WordPress blog, then you definitely want to check out www.becomeablogger.com.

The site currently has a series of ten videos covering:

1. Why You Should Use WordPress
2. How To Get Your Own Domain Name
3. How To Get A Web Host
4. How To Install WordPress With One Click
5. How To Upload Files To Your Webhost Using FTP
6. Choosing A WordPress Theme For Your New Blog
7. How To Install And Use WordPress Plugins
8. How To Create Your First Blog Post And Blog Page
9. What RSS Is And Why You Need It
10. How To Use Feedburner For Supercharging Your RSS Capabilities

Many of the readers of this blog already have WordPress installed and these videos will be too basic for you, however I hope that whenever someone asks you about how to get into blogging that you send them towards BecomeABlogger.com as a great place to learn the basics.

I’d also really appreciate it if you could write a post to your blog about these new videos as I’m sure all the beginners out there would appreciate knowing the site exists.

The videos are 100% free and as you will see, are easy to follow and of a high standard. You are also welcome to embed the videos in your blog if you like, you can grab the code from within any video.

I’m distributing the Blog Profits Blueprint from Become A Blogger as an option for those people who decide they want to pursue an income stream from blogging after their blog is set up.

I spent several thousand dollars to have Becomeablogger.com created, and if you are wondering why, it’s because I hope to foster new relationships with my email list from people who subscribe via the site. I also hope it becomes a really popular destination for anyone new to blogging.

So what are you waiting for, go visit - BecomeABlogger.com - and tell your friends!

Yaro Starak
Blog Trainer

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This is the third and final installment of my year 2007 round-up report. You should read part one and two first, before reading this. Here are links to the previous articles -

• How I Made Six Figures In One Day - 2007 Year In Review Part 1
• What Do You Do When Everything Happens At Once? - 2007 Year In Review Part 2

Forming A Routine

I moved from my dad’s place into my own place in July and in August I began settling in, slowly buying furniture and household items. It’s amazing how many things you have to do when you first move into an empty house. Ikea certainly benefited from my money during this time as I stocked up on stuff.

My working life became quite routine and although initially I had trouble keeping up with all the new tasks, I eventually found a balance.

This is what I do most days when working at home

Each week I had to produce one lesson for the students and I would usually create one additional piece of multi-media, like a video case study, or an audio interview. In between this, I would man the helpdesk, write blog articles and prepare little mini-promotions, one of which I did with Darren Rowse of Problogger and another with Anita Campbell of SmallBizTrends and one with Jason Katzenback of Portalfeeder.

Rob Kingston took over the helpdesk and Fran Kerr started assisting with other Blog Mastermind tasks, like adding materials to the members area. This freed up some time and meant I could focus my energy on producing the best content for my blog and Blog Mastermind. It felt good to practice what I preach about working less by outsourcing, focusing your energies on your core skills and of course, increasing your income at the same time.

Breaking $10,000/month in Blog Income

Read the rest of this entry >>

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If you missed the first part of this 2007 rap-up article, please go back and read it first here -

• How I Made Six Figures In One Day - 2007 Year In Review Part 1

The Eye of the Storm

The span of May - June - July was simply crazy. During this period I conducted my first online product launch, which is a massive task in itself, I bought a house, moved from my mother’s place to house sit my father’s place while I waited for the tenants to move out of my new house, completed the transfer of BetterEdit and maintained the status quo here at Entrepreneurs-Journey.com, writing several times a week.

Oh, and I bought a new car too.

Looking back it’s hard to imagine I managed to do all these things at once, but besides the few days around the launch of Blog Mastermind, I was quite calm and relaxed the entire time.

Nothing is more important than your health, so I made sure I kept exercising, sleeping and eating well, and avoided too much continuous computer use. I also have a core belief that despite how “major” all of these things might be to a person’s life, they are still all related to material possessions and not that important in the grand scheme of things.

If something went wrong, for example, I didn’t get the house loan or the BetterEdit sale fell through, or my membership site tanked at launch, it wasn’t that big a deal. I would move on and be okay. However, I was confident if I focused on staying patient and just getting things done, it would all unravel fine and I could look back with a feeling of satisfaction.

I’m happy to say, that is exactly what happened.

Choosing A Car

For about six years I didn’t have a car. I got my first car when I was 21, a second hand $3,000 Mitsubishi Cordia, but it was written off in a car accident a couple of years later. I then moved to West End, which was close to everything and has access to trains and buses to get anywhere I wanted to go. Then I headed to Canada for six months, so I didn’t need a car.

Posing in front of my new car

With the sale of BetterEdit and moving further away from town, I knew it was time to get mobile. Given the world is the way it is, with the rising price of petrol and the environment falling apart around us, fuel economy and low environmental impact were top priorities for my new car.

In 2007 Toyota released the Yaris in Australia, a car that matched most of my criteria and just happened to have a “cool” name - Yaro in his Yaris was already being bantered around by my friends. However the car isn’t all that pretty and I briefly fell under the temptation to purchase a more fancy car with part of the proceeds of the BetterEdit sale.

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As per Blaine Moore’s instructions, many bloggers are completing a year in review blog post recapping their blogging for the year before it rolls over into 2008.

Instead of highlighting my best articles from this blog during 2007 I’m going to do something a bit different - look at my business achievements for the year that was. This is part one of a three part series I will publish recapping the big events of 2007. Part two is coming tomorrow and part three is out on new years eve.

This year was quite simply the most amazing year I have had in many ways, but none more so than financially. This was the first year that I broke the fabled six figure income, I bought a new car, bought a house, sold a business, and started a new one, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Here’s how the year broke down…

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