Blog Coaching Call Now Available To Download…
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Download the MP3 [ 139 Minutes - 54 MB]
We just wrapped up a mammoth, 2-hour 19 minute call with over 140 people live. The questions kept coming and Gideon and I didn’t want to stop until everyone’s question was responded to, so we kept at it.
This is a great call covering all kinds of topics such as -
- What is important when choosing a theme for your blog
- Using Ustream and video on your blog
- Why you need a strategy behind your blog
- How we host teleconference calls
- What systems we use to store and distribute video
- What the four successful components are to become a professional blogger
- How many blogs should you start when you begin blogging
- How to use blogging as a lead generation tool
- and loads more…
We even had one caller ask where Gideon and I get our accents from!
This is a full-on content call and if you’re new to blogging or looking to learn more about what it takes to succeed as a professional blogger, then make sure you download the MP3 now.
Become A Blogger Premium Almost Closed
If you enjoy this recording and want more opportunities to listen in or ask questions during a live coaching call, we’re doing plenty more of them for our members.
You have until midnight, Friday the 3rd of July to join here -
www.becomeablogger.com/signup/
Gideon and I are looking forward to properly starting the course with the new group of students from next week onwards, starting with a special session focused on topic selection for bloggers.
I hope to see you on the inside too. Even if you can’t join, have a listen to the call recording, you will be glad you did.
Do You Want To Become A Professional Blogger?
Back in 2004 when I started blogging there really wasn’t anything such as a professional blogger. Those who were making money as a blogger weren’t talking about it… yet.
Over the next two years the idea of blogging for money, possibly even as a career, became a reality. Blog networks started up paying bloggers a salary, thanks to programs like Google Adsense generating income became easier for the average Internet user, and eventually blogging went mainstream.
Today thousands of bloggers make money and while the number of those who do it as their main job is small in comparison to the number of blogs in existence, for those who realize the lifestyle of a professional blogger, life is good.
I never intended to make money as a blogger when I started. It was an experiment aimed solely at gaining more traffic from search engines. Little did I know that my blog would eventually become my business and just a few short years later I’d sell off all my other businesses just to pursue blogging.
Today my blog has helped pay for my house, my car, an 8 month trip around the world and I’ve just purchased a plush two bedroom apartment in my favorite suburb, where I will be moving to next month just before my 30th birthday (pictures coming soon!).
Needless to say, I am extremely blessed by what blogging has done for my life, and part of my mission as a blogger is to help other people realize similar benefits and freedoms thanks to blogging. Here are some of the resources I offer that can help you follow in my footsteps…
Would You Like To Become A Blogger?
If you’re interested in starting your own blog, the first thing I recommend you do is go to the free video training site Gideon Shalwick and myself provide for absolute newbie bloggers called “Become A Blogger” -
This site offers ten free videos that take you from zero, to setting up an optimized WordPress blog (and if you go to the blog portion of the site, you will find some additional free videos that give away even more powerful secrets to successful blogging).
While you are at the Become A Blogger site, make sure you download the free report - The Roadmap to Become A Blogger - which is a solid introduction to what it takes to build a successful blog.
Pay particular attention to the second half of the report where Gideon, who is an expert at leveraging social media, especially video, takes you through a series of techniques we call the “X-Factor”.
X-Factor techniques are particularly powerful leverage tools that combine multi-media with social media to bring traffic to your blog. In today’s online marketing world, if you don’t leverage new media when building your blog, you’re going to struggle to stand out from the crowd, which is exactly why we offer the “X-Factor” techniques to teach you how to be better than “average” blogger.
You can download the Roadmap report in both text and audio here -
www.BecomeABlogger.com/roadmap/
I strongly recommend you watch the free videos, get your blog set up and then devour the Roadmap report in one sitting (or listen to the audio version). You will then be a in a great starting position, better than most people who begin blogging, to really profit from your efforts.
Follow a roadmap and you are much more likely to succeed, especially if you are very new to the blogging game and want your hand held along the way.
Become A Blogger Premium 2.0 Opens Next Week
Next Monday, June 29th, for five days only, Gideon and I are opening up Become A Blogger Premium 2.0, the latest updated version of our introductory video training program for bloggers.
This course had over 1,000 students complete the training over the past six months (the best retention rate of any of my programs).
Now that the program is finished, the entire course is there laid out, including over 60 videos with discussion on each video, a private forum for members only, plus all the additional resources we offer like live group coaching calls twice a month with me and Gideon, master the mindset audio series and more.
The videos are split into two types -
- Strategy presentations from me where I lay out my system for successful blogging to you
- Practical how-to videos presented by Gideon, who teaches you the step-by-step to set-up and optimize your blog, and how to implement the techniques we teach
We’re now ready to begin training the next group of eager bloggers and I’m inviting you to work with me and Gideon over the next six months (if you haven’t already!). This time we’re opening the doors only for five days and then shutting down. If you want in, you have to decide next week.
This program really is for beginners who want to learn the how-to of successful blogging. If you’re confused by technology and blogs and websites, etc, and want your hand held throughout the process and prefer to be shown visually through video, there is no better blog trainer than Gideon and the resources inside Become A Blogger Premium 2.0.
If you don’t believe me, go watch the first ten free videos we give away -
If you like the style of presentation in those videos, are eager to learn more (and DO more) and want to work closely with someone who is currently living out the professional blogger lifestyle, then stay tuned for next week to claim your spot in Become A Blogger Premium 2.0, the last public run through of the program for 2009.
I’ll have more information for you later in the week. For the time being, go watch the videos and read the Roadmap, it’s a brilliant report.
www.BecomeABlogger.com/roadmap/
Yaro Starak
Professional Blogger
The Triangle Of Trust Technique
I just watched Frank Kern’s latest free video called “Sneak Attack“, which for the first half is a bit of Frank’s usual silly antics where he attempts to sneak attack John Reese at his new south coast headquarters.
If you don’t have much time and want to zip through to the practical stuff, go through about half way when Frank starts revealing his “Triangle of Trust” technique.
I found this concept particularly relevant for us as bloggers because the method relates to combining a content video with a short pitch at the end, with a blog post and then a link to a sales page (conversion point) for either an affiliate product or your own product.
You can watch the video here -
The Triangle of Trust Technique
Although the concept is simple enough, it’s worth watching the second half of this video because Frank highlights some really powerful ideas, such as -
- Using the word “blog” instead of website attracts a higher click through rate when sending out email newsletters. This occurs because the word blog is more trustworthy for the time being because it’s not perceived as a sales tool. This is particularly true in non-marketing niches, so if you’re selling in any other markets host content on your blog and use the phrase “Go check it out on my blog” to improve response.
- Using a video as a hook point is presently powerful because of the perceived value of video. Again the trust factor here is high because videos are “cool” as Frank would put it.
- Combining the trust of the video and the blog enhances the likelihood that a person will click through to view the product on offer. Frank’s used the technique himself to make hundreds of thousands in affiliate sales.
As a long term blogger these ideas shouldn’t surprise you, but Frank brings a strictly marketing style education to the process that’s worth watching, so go check out the video (remember the first half of the video is not the content, it comes in the second half after Frank’s messing around with John Reese).
If You Can’t Write Words That Sell You Don’t Make Money
As you likely know, Gideon and I wrapped up the opening marketing campaign for Become A Blogger Premium a couple of weeks ago. During that period we both wrote lots of emails to our various subscribers, email being the primary communication method and also the distribution channel for delivering resources like the Roadmap report.
Most of you haven’t met Gideon or myself in person, but if you did, you would see we are both down to earth and soft spoken - not your typical extroverted, in-your-face marketers. Of course what you perceive as over-the-top might be different to another person so you may not agree, but I’m pretty comfortable saying that Gideon and I are way below average when it comes to the hype-o-meter.
One interesting observation I made during our launch that you probably weren’t aware of, was Gideon’s email marketing style (his writing style when promoting), compared to how he is in his videos.
Gideon has difficulty doing any kind of “sales pitch” in his videos, he much prefers to focus on content, and if you watch the few parts at the end of his videos where he was promoting our paid course, you could tell he wasn’t pushing very hard at all.
However, when Gideon wrote emails, he wasn’t afraid to use his marketing skills. He knows the triggers, is quite comfortable pushing all the right buttons and isn’t afraid of saying whatever it takes to convince you that you need to do what he suggests.
This is important because if Gideon couldn’t sell the premium course when it came time to sell it, then our results would have been negatively impacted. At some point in business you have to be prepared to sell.
The same goes for anything else we promote through email, whether it’s to convince people to watch a free video, or download a report or read a blog post. It’s not always about eliciting a purchase, it’s any time you want people to click a link or even just open an email in the first place - any action at all is impacted by your ability to “sell” the benefits of taking that action through the words that you use.
I asked Gideon if he had studied copywriting - and he has - which explains his ability to talk in marketing speak when communicating via email when necessary, yet it doesn’t show up in other forms of communication with him. Gideon has learned skills that are vital to his success as an Internet marketer, and you can too.
Be Your Self
Podcast: How Much Traffic Should A New Blog Have After 2 Months?
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- Download the MP3 [ 30 Minutes - 14 MB ]
- Download Text Transcript [ 15 Pages - PDF ]
Thousands Of Blog Readers Within Two Months
Mitch, who runs a college football blog called CFBPlace.com, joined Blog Mastermind when the program reopened in 2008. At the time we did this recording Mitch had been in the program for about two months and as you will hear, was up to lesson nine, so still very fresh to the course and growing his blog.
The reason I invited Mitch to do this interview is because he showed himself to be a standout performer and achieved above average results in a short period of time. After two months his traffic was already hitting 3,000+ unique visitors per day and I wanted to know how he did it.
Mitch came to my attention because he was clearly an action taker. He asked many questions in the private forums as soon as the program started and is always one of the first to ask a question during the live question and answer sessions teleconferences with me.
In this interview we find out…
- What Mitch does different from most people new to blogging
- How he was able to drive so much traffic so quickly
- How Mitch comes up with content ideas and is never short of something to write about
- Why I’m glad Mitch is not good with technology and how that helps him become a better blogger
- Why he loves the Blog Mastermind program
- A specific example of a technique Mitch used to drive a lot of traffic quickly
- What I consider the key to Mitch’s early success
This interview should serve as serious inspiration for anyone new to blogging. I expect within the next year or two Mitch could very well be a six figure blogger and this interview explains the foundation he’s building to get himself there. Interestingly enough though, Mitch states he never intended to make money from blogging, which is part of why he has been successful so far (passion before profits).
Ready To Be Coached?
If you have decided to commit yourself to the blogging journey and would like to follow the same process Mitch is currently working through, please consider working with me and join the Blog Mastermind coaching program. You can sign-up here -
It’s Not Rocket Science
Mitch’s case is certainly not typical but you can see the steps to replicate his success are not complicated. You just need to do enough with your blog to give yourself the chance.
Here’s to your blogging success,
Yaro Starak
Blog Coach
