Entrepreneurs-Journey.com Down-To-Earth Advice For Bloggers and Internet Marketers

It was early 2006. I had been blogging for over a year and felt I had achieved something.

My blog had recently surpassed 1,000 RSS subscribers (what is RSS), making it at the time the most popular website I had ever built. The income was solid – up to $2,000 a month at best – and it was growing. I loved what I was doing.

My plan, based on all the Internet marketing advice I studied from the experts to “create a product”, was to start by releasing an ebook to test the waters as my first product. I had already begun to grow my email list, focusing on the idea of teaching other bloggers how to build traffic, since I felt that was something I was becoming good at.

One of the keys to my success with traffic was how well I was doing in organic search results. I was literally famous in the Internet marketing space because all the top Internet marketers would find my blog when searching for their name or their products or terms related to our industry.

This is incredibly powerful leverage, if you want to meet important people in your industry, or as an affiliate marketing technique, because you can just write about something often enough if you want a top ranking for a certain term or name.

My blog’s solid search engine performance has continued as a trend today, with about half the traffic I attract to this blog still coming from Google search queries. Considering how much more competitive the environment is now, with so many blogs on the same topic as this one, I consider my consistency an achievement.

I don’t really talk about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) much on this blog anymore, mainly because I don’t believe much has really changed over the past few years. The fundamentals are still the fundamentals. You will find plenty of articles on SEO in my archives under the SEO category if you’re keen for study materials.

However, SEO was a huge part of my early studies of Internet marketing, primarily focused on attracting more traffic to the business I used to own, BetterEdit.com, a proofreading service. When I was running that business, 50% of new client acquisition came from Google search, which was important – it made the business much more hands off for me to run when you have a steady stream of customers coming in without advertising expense.

As a result of the focus I had back then and the results with my blog, I considered myself half-decent at SEO. By no means was I an expert, and I certainly didn’t pretend to be one, but I felt I knew enough that I had something to share.

As a result of this, my intended first product, was to be an ebook called “The Definitive Guide To SEO For Bloggers“, which as you can guess, was designed as a guide to help bloggers improve their search engine rankings and attract traffic from Google and the other search engines. The ebook was almost complete and I even went so far as to have a cover created for it, which you can see inset (including the big haired, old suit photo version of me).

The book was never sold publicly because I decided to release a course on traffic. I can’t really remember why I decided to switch gears so late in the development of this product. It could have been because I thought selling a course at a higher price would make more money, but it was more likely due to some kind of fear based decision making or distractions. I just didn’t have the follow-through at the time to do a launch.

I registered the domain name BlogTrafficSchool.com, which I still own, and focused on releasing that program instead.

Of course if you know my story, the product never saw the light of day either, so I ended up having a 75% complete course on Blog Traffic, and a near complete ebook on SEO for blogs. Thankfully the third time I finally got something out the door, and released Blog Mastermind as my first product. The rest is history.

Definitive Guide To SEO For Bloggers – Revamped And Ready For Release

I recently began reviewing my ebook on SEO for blogs and was quite impressed to see that it’s still full of fantastic advice. It only requires about 10% revision work and I believe it could become one of the most helpful, and true to my style – simple guides – to follow on how to get more traffic from Google to your blog.

The book is over 100 pages and includes insights into how search engines work, how to optimize the internal structure of your blog, some very solid advice on linking strategies – including 75 link building techniques, with some case studies of my own experience using them – a quick launch checklist, and more.

It’s all content of course, direct from my experience and research, into your hands.

So do you want a copy?

I will release the book for sale later in the year, however I have some good news for you if you want a copy now.

Read the rest of this entry >>

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Download the MP3 [ 25 Minutes - 11 MB]

Robb Sutton is the owner of Mountain Biking by 198, a blog devoted to mountain biking, a subject that Robb is passionate about.

Robb is a member of Blog Mastermind and also runs a personal blog at RobbSutton.com. He came to my attention after he revealed how he was able to score over $10,000 worth of free biking products for review on his blog. His blog is growing well and while I tend to focus on the direct monetization aspect of blogging, there’s a perk that isn’t talked about too much when it comes to blogging – how much free stuff you can get – and Robb is definitely enjoying this benefit.

It’s usually easier to get free products for review from companies rather than convince them to spend money sponsoring your blog, so this is an especially good tactic to get a reward for your hard work when your blog isn’t super big yet. Assuming the companies can see the benefit that your blog can potentially deliver, working a proactive approach to secure free goods is a good strategy, and certainly something Robb has done extremely well.

Robb’s also become an excellent review writer, which as you will hear in this interview is a powerful technique for affiliate marketing on blogs, something I’ve been doing for a long time and making very good money with.

Show Notes

• Robb explains how he got into blogging and his topic of mountain biking
• We learn how Robb is able to secure so much free stuff
• Robb breaks down his approach strategy to proactively seek free goods for review on his blog
• We learn how Robb was able to initially build traffic to his mountain bike blog, including three specific techniques that have worked really well for him
• Robb offers some feedback on how helpful participating in the Blog Mastermind course was for his blogging

Click Here to Download the MP3 [ 25 Minutes - 11 MB]

Thanks to everyone who replied with such positive feedback about the Conversion Blogging video and the interview with Alborz, a million dollar blogger. It’s been truly overwhelming how many messages I’ve received plus there’s nearly 200 comments made to my blog in reply to the content, and it’s not even a week since I released it!

What I’m most happy about is how inspired you all sound and how you are ready to take your blogging seriously. If I can help a few more people realize the full time income from a blog dream, then I consider it job well done.

But we’re not finished yet!

How Does A Blog Make Money?

Next I have two videos, which are not quite as long as the previous videos, but definitely as compelling and full of great tips to help you make more from blogging.

Both videos are completely free and take you behind the scenes of this blog. The first shows you how I make money and the second shows how much I make. You can view the practical implementation and the financial outcome as a result.

These two videos should help demystify ambiguity you might be experiencing regarding how a blog like mine can make $10,000+ a month. Here are the videos…

Please reply with comments and let me know what you think of the videos.

Blog Mastermind Opens This Tuesday at 10 AM

By now you should well and truly realize that I’m not just giving away these videos because I can (well, I am in some ways… it is gratifying to see my work benefit people regardless of financial outcomes for me).

I’ve distributed all of this great content in part because I want to convince you to come work with me in my blog coaching program, Blog Mastermind.

I showed you some of the concepts I teach with Conversion Blogging and the Blog Profits Blueprint. I brought Alborz on stage to demonstrate that other, normal people just like you, can do this if you stick to it long enough to realize success. Today I’m showing you how I do it and giving you proof of what I earn.

All I want you to do in return is consider whether what I’ve shown you has been helpful and if so, whether more training of this quality, delivered in a structured format and all nicely packaged in a friendly community environment, is something you would like to take part in.

My coaching program opens on Tuesday July 29th – that’s this Tuesday. I’m aiming for a 10 AM EST USA time opening.

We should make that deadline, but of course I’ll let you know if there are delays. We have a couple of tests to run Monday and if they go okay, we will be good to go on Tuesday.

You might be wondering whether there will be a time limit or a limited number of spaces in the program. Let me put your mind at ease – I’m not closing the doors this time, nor will I be capping the number of people who can become members.

I will have some fast-action bonuses for the first 100 people who sign up, thus demonstrating their eagerness to participate (I like to reward the eager beavers with extra goodies). However, if you live on the other side of the world (Hi Australia – I miss you – I’ll be back soon!) or for whatever reason you can’t get to a computer when the doors open, don’t worry, you won’t miss out.

Get to a computer when you can and you will still be able to join my program.

How Much Will Blog Mastermind Cost?

The program is six months worth of training plus a members resources area and online community. You can participate in two ways -

Option 1: Pay $97 for the first month, try it and if you like it, continue to pay $97 a month for six months total. You will have immediate access to the member resources and online community and receive one lesson per week until you graduate in six months.

Option 2: Pay $497 upfront, save yourself $85 and get access to all the materials at once. You get instant downloads for all the lessons, the member resources and access to the online community.

There’s also a third “all you can eat” option, where you get all of the Blog Mastermind content (all of option 2 above) PLUS my second course, Membership Site Mastermind (currently not available to the public), which is my coaching program for people who want to start a membership site using a blog as a launch pad. You can get instant access to both these programs for the one time fee of $1497.

The sign-up page will break down every tiny detail about my coaching program, so bookmark the page below and on Tuesday you will be able to see all the details and join the program -

http://www.blogmastermind.com/coaching/

That’s it from me, enjoy the videos and get ready to begin your training with me from Tuesday onwards.

Yaro Starak
Demystifying Ambiguity