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It’s been a crazy last few days. I sent out a lesson to Blog Mastermind students about direct advertising and it was a huge lesson, more than 5,000 words, plus an extra video and audio - there is so much to teach about making money with blogs!

In between finishing that lesson for the current students I’ve also been putting together a few resources to give to the public because I’ve decided to close the Blog Mastermind doors to new students on Monday, December 10.

Yep, that’s right - I won’t be taking on any new students from Monday and only the people in the program now or who join before Monday will get to complete their training.

I must say that the course has come together very nicely, I think there is something in it for everybody if you are interested in making blogging an income source and a lifestyle.

How To Market Your Blog With Conversations

I know a lot of people are not sure whether Blog Mastermind is right for them, so rather than send out a bunch of emails and blog posts telling people how good it is, I decided to release one of the lessons to the public and let you make a decision for yourself.

You can read and/or listen to the lesson here -

Lesson 11: Marketing With Conversations

The lesson covers the most popular topic in blogging - how to get traffic. It’s actually the very first lesson on traffic in the program and introduces you to some core concepts about building an audience and then teaches you one of the most powerful yet simple techniques available. I actually debunk a few myths about this particular traffic technique, because sadly, most bloggers get it wrong.

From that point forward in the program there are another eight lessons on building traffic, then the we dive into monetization.

If you want to see what sort of content and structure Blog Mastermind contains, this free lesson should give you a good idea. Note that most lessons also have a video or additional audio component as well (lessons come in audio and text format). All lessons have actions steps at the end so you know what you have to do after the lesson is done.

Remember, the doors to Blog Mastermind close on Monday, so if you want to join, you have to decide between now and then. There is a 30 day money back guarantee, so if you don’t like it, there is no risk, plus you can cancel at any point beyond the first month.

The program goes for six months and you get one lesson per week, plus lots of extra resources like interviews with professional bloggers, my Master The Mindset audio series, case study videos where I review the blogs of students and offer recommendations to help them improve their performance, plus loads more.

If any of this is appealing, please check out the free lesson and consider signing up. Here’s that free preview lesson again.

Lesson 11: Marketing With Conversations

If you have any questions about the program or the advice I talk about in lesson 11, leave a comment.

Yaro Starak
Blog Mastermind Mentor

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Vittorio Bosio, the very first member of Blog Mastermind, sent me an email today about releasing some new videos on his blog in response to the advice I gave him in a video case study (in fact the first ever video case study I did for members - Vittorio had a lot of firsts!).

When I went to check out his blog, TechSavvyMarketer.com, I was very pleased to see the changes he had implemented since I did the case study review for him a few months ago. He had taken my advice and implemented it perfectly, so well in fact that I decided to do a video today to show you how to use a blog, or in this case a video blog, to drive opt-ins to your email list.

Vittorio has set up a great process, where he offers free video content, which drives people into an opt-in process for more, higher resolution video content, and it’s all done quite simply with his blog. Watch this video to see how he does it…

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I’m in a unique position compared to most Internet marketers who have recently completed product launches. I was possibly one of the first to do a “Product Launch Formula” style launch with the advantage of an established blog, with an RSS readership as large as my email list. Most well known Internet Marketers have blogs, but they are not in the same position as Entrepreneurs-Journey - usually their email list is their main marketing tool. My blog is almost a business in itself, while for other marketers their blog is just another marketing tool, and one they don’t devote much time too (although that’s changing, John Reese is blogging frequently lately, as just one example).

Most “traditional” Internet marketing product launches use a blog, but they are usually created just for the launch process and serve as a proofing tool, focusing on the power of user comments to demonstrate social proof. Once the launch is complete the blog is often abandoned, or at least never becomes a force in the blogosphere. There may still be readers, but the blog is far from a destination point online.

My blog has been around for two and half years. I used it as a social proofing tool and as “proof of concept” for the launch of Blog Mastermind. You can’t exactly expect people to sign up to a mentoring program unless you have actually done what you are teaching people how to do, so I had to have a blog that makes good money in order to be a credible professional blogging trainer. There’s a good point for all would-be coaches and mentors out there - it helps if you have done what you are planning on helping people to do.

What was unique about my recent experience launching Blog Mastermind is that my RSS readership was as large as my email list. I had roughly 4,000 RSS readers when I entered pre-launch mode about two months ago, and my email list at the time was just over 4,000 as well. After releasing the Blog Profits Blueprint I have closer to 8,000 readers on my email list now, so it did surpass my RSS readership, but still makes for an interesting observation to compare the differences between marketing through a blog (primarily RSS since most of my audience access is through RSS) and through an email list, the tried and tested communication tool for marketing online.

Powerful List Building

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As an entrepreneur and a blogger I’ve been afforded a unique outlook on the whole blogging as a business discussion. Bloggers look at blogging as something they do for fun, for creative expression, for meeting people, for making money directly from advertising and affiliate promotions or indirectly by promoting a business. Most bloggers are either not blogging for money or are self employed content publishers. While there is nothing wrong with that, and I’ve been living the self employment life myself for a long time, it’s not my end goal.

Because of my entrepreneur mindset I always look at things from a strategic business point of view, not an employee mindset. This attitude has led me to study business strategy and systems and implement what I learn both in my business and in my blogging. I doubt there are many other bloggers out there who think and act as I do in this regard, which is why I enjoy writing about blogging as a business model so much - it’s not territory many people cover since they just don’t think about it.

Today I have a topic for you that clearly is from the entrepreneur mindset and if your goal is to use blogs for business, possibly as your business (the blogging business model), as a lead generator for your business, or as a cashflow source for bootstrapping your business, you will definitely find the ideas below of interest.

How To Leverage The Talent Of Others To Help Grow Your Blog

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It’s taken four articles to get here, but at last the final chapter in the series on sustainable business models that use blogs. If this is the first time you have read this series please read the articles in sequence. Here are links to the previous articles -

• Part 1: Is Professional Blogging A Sustainable Business Model?
• Part 2: Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Professional Blogger?
• Part 3: The Advantages Top Bloggers Have That You Don’t
• Part 4: The Key Resource For A Sustainable Blogging Business

If you have stuck with me and read all the articles in this series you are probably eagerly awaiting my recommendation for professional blogging business models that ARE sustainable. I have compiled my suggestions below and I offer one main method for using blogs as the focus of a business, but the picture I paint is not an ideal business model in my opinion.

It is still very early days in the blogging world and there are not many people currently using a blog or several blogs as the main focus of their business model. Thousands of people use blogs to augment an existing business, but not many focus on blogs as the business and of course there are many successful professional bloggers, but that’s not a business as I have explained over the course of this series.

In order to become a professional blog business owner you must establish a small business model that uses blogs, but does not require you to always blog. In order for this to work for you, as I hinted in previous articles, you need to learn how to create something that is not dependent on your own input for success and adjust your preconceptions of how to build wealth.

The Blog Network

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