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Take your blog to the next level
Associate Programs Newsletter #379
You can turn a blog into a serious business, if you know how.
Also...
When times are tough, sharpen your skills - and teach other people how to sharpen their skills.
CONTENTS:
1. Take your blog to the next level
2. Are you scared of a recession?
3. Are you still scared?
4. A Knol traffic experiment which failed - so far
5. Thought for today: Recessions
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1. Take your blog to the next level
===================================
When times are tough, one of the most effective things to do is to sharpen your skills. One good way to do that is to closely examine what professional blogger Yaro Starak is doing, because he's much more than just a blogger.
After mentoring 500 students, Yaro has re-opened his Blog Mastermind coaching course.
(It's due to re-open about the time you receive this: 10am EST Tuesday, July 29.)
Yaro is VERY smart. He doesn't just blog. He doesn't just churn out articles for cash. He's developed a cleverly designed business strategy, which combines a blog, an email list and automation to earn a 6-figure income while working only part-time on his blog.
I like his refreshing, no-hype style.
Yaro gave me access to his Blog Mastermind course to review it. Simply put, it's superb.
I recommend his 27-week course to anyone who's serious about making serious money online.
I recommend it to any blogger who wants to stop churning out endless articles and start working LESS and start working SMARTER.
Learn how to achieve explosive growth.
Learn how to generate REAL money...
Blog Mastermind
(TIP: When you get there, watch the video for a good quick overview.)
=================================
2. Are you scared of a recession?
=================================
Don't let scary recession-type talk scare you.
You're an entrepreneur. You CAN shrug off bad times.
When times are tough, you stop wasting time. You FOCUS. You get stuck in. You learn new skills, you adapt to changing times. You do the 80/20 stuff.
You keep saying to yourself, "If it's going to be, it's up to me." But as well as that you TAKE ACTION.
As I like telling people, my business grew 30% in the worst year of the dot-com crash. (Hint: As well as acquiring new skills, help other people acquire new skills.)
Don't merely aim to survive bad times, aim to prosper. You can do it.
Here's a surprising article written by entrepreneur Marlon Sanders. I think it's designed to shock you out of any rut you happen to be in.
Think you can't sell?
Believe it or not, you were a marketer the day you were born. It's your destiny.
Can you believe that?
Read Marlon's fascinating theory.
It's zany and a bit crazy, but it makes a lot sense...
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/your-destiny
========================
3. Are you still scared?
========================
If you're STILL scared of the effects of tough times, you may want to have a look at two ebooks Scott Aughtmon has written called "How Your Business Can Survive And Prosper In A Recession".
Scott interviewed 38 experts in business, sales and marketing.
He asked them these questions:
* What's the common mistake most businesses make in a recession?
* What are the methods you would use to survive and prosper in a recession?
* What moneymaking opportunities do you see available for business owners during this time?
Amid the doom and gloom, these experts' answers are uplifting because they know they have the skills and the insights to survive and prosper no matter what the world throws at them.
It's interesting to see how often these 38 marketers come up with very similar answers.
Note: Scott's books are not specifically about affiliate marketing. If you need to get a good, solid grounding in affiliate marketing, read or re-read Rosalind Gardner's Super Affiliate Handbook...
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/rosalind
To decide whether you need "How Your Business Can Survive And Prosper In A Recession" have a look at the testimonials from people whose names you'll recognize...
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/prosper
==================================================
4. A Knol traffic experiment which failed - so far
==================================================
Google's new Knol - http://knol.google.com - is now open to the public. It's a bit like Wikipedia except you can stop other people from editing your articles.
Also, you can place Google AdSense ads on the pages you create and earn revenue from them - IF your pages are popular.
You can add comments to the bottom of articles, like comments added to blog posts. The links are "nofollowed" so they don't pass PageRank.
I figured a LOT of people would be typing various words into Knol and checking out popular topics.
So about 24 hours ago, I decided to get in quick and add some comments, hoping for direct traffic.
I chose a popular topic and did searches for "blogging", "blog", "blogs" and "blogger". Then I quickly added comments to about 8 articles.
I was surprised that in nearly all cases I was the first person to add a comment.
I've just used Google Analytics to check our traffic stats. How many visits did we get from knol.google.com?
Just ONE visit in 24 hours.
Oh well, I wasted only a few minutes on the experiment. If I'd spent more time, perhaps the results would have been better.
Where did I go wrong?
* Perhaps people aren't interested in Knol? (I find that hard to believe.)
* In my hurry did I under-estimate how well crafted the comments would need to be to attract clicks? (That's certainly possible.)
* Perhaps everyone is too busy writing content for Knol, not reading stuff there?
* Were the Knol articles so boring no one read as far as my comments?
* Or was I simply too quick, and traffic will come eventually as more people get to know about Knol?
Commenting on blogs to try to get traffic is SO overdone these days. I blame Problogger Darren Rowse. He says that when he was getting started, he used to make 100 blog comments a DAY.
However, I liked being the first person to make a comment on several Knol articles. That should be a prime spot, unless those Knols get buried by new, better Knols, which seems quite likely. Even if my little experiment failed, I still think there's an opportunity here for fast movers.
The comments I made were all fairly similar, like this...
====
Professional blogger Yaro Starak doesn't just "blog for money". He has cleverly combined a blog, email and automation to create a 6-figure business. He describes exactly how he does it in his Blog Mastermind coaching. For details, see my Blog Mastermind review.
====
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5. Thought for today: Recessions
================================
"The stock market has predicted nine of the last five recessions." - economist Paul Samuelson.
All the best
Allan Gardyne
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"Did you know that ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN have predicted 40 out of the last 2 recessions?"
[Good one! I like it. Allan.]
However, it just seems as of late your newsletters are mostly plugs for products you promote. You used to do in depth case studies and analysis of products you bought. This Yaro product doesn't entice me one bit'cause I don't know much about it other than you said it was "superb". I guess you've gotten too busy to review things like you used to but I miss that Allan. I used to run to open your newsletters, now I don't even read them all anymore.
I also resent that comment you made about Darren Rowse. That was a bold statement to make about blaming him for commenting on blogs. I think I would have had more respect for it if you were a blogger yourself or you proved yourself to be a more credible blogging source. Do you even own a blog? Of course you don't have to own a blog to promote a course, but it was just wierd to see you promoting a product when I've never heard you experimenting with blogging or talking about blogging before.
So to sum it up, your quality has really dipped in the last year and it seems like you are just out to push a few products every now and then. Maybe you realize this and that was your goal. You certainly earned some time to take it easy. But I just wanted you to know how a long-time follower feels.
I have been feeling this way about your newsletters for some time, but this last one took the cake so I had to comment. You are the one who taught credibility with affiliate programs, now I feel you've lost a great deal (from me anyway) I hope I haven't offended you, but just wanted to be honest.
Take care and hope you are doing well.
[Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I'm doing well. I still believe in doing in-depth reviews. You obviously missed the link to my in-depth review of Blog Mastermind. Actually, I wrote so much that while I was writing it I wondered if I was writing too much. But after studying the whole course carefuly, there was a lot I wanted to say. The link to the in-depth review is at the bottom of the first item in the newsletter. The remark about ProBlogger Darren was intended as humor. Unfortunately, humor doesn't work the same on everyone. Yes, our ccompany owns blogs. One example is KeywordWorkshop.com. I know from experiencee how easy to use WordPress is. Also, for quite a while now the whole of AssociatePrograms.com has been a sort of blog. You can join RSS feeds for the affiliate forum, new affiliate programs and for articles and newsletters. I've written about this in the newsletter. We have more new stuff planned. It's a shame you didn't provide a working email address to give me a chance to respond by email. Allan.]
Just about everybody wants to make money online, and live the net biz dream. It's a beautiful dream, and a reality for many.
As a result, we're creating an online culture where everybody is selling to everybody else, all the time.
Me too. I find chats between old friends turning in to JV pitches before I even realize what I'm typing.
It's inevitable that there will be push back and resistance to this, given that we already live in a very commercial culture, before the Net ever opened for business.
We've been stimulating each other's desires nonstop for a dozen years now, reveling in a historic new marketplace, and we're starting to poop ourselves out psychologically. Human brains can only take so much stimulation, just a fact of biology, not anybody's fault.
Our pitches and products get bigger and better all the time, and we're caring less and less.
Imho, the net business world isn't quite ready to turn and face this yet.
We're all praying the party will never end and so such observations, which you can probably verify with your own experience, are typically branded as negativity.
Congrats to both the original poster and Allan for having the class and honestly to address this important subject with grace and dignity.
[Thanks, Phil. In many ways the future for Internet marketers is quite scary. I think one way to have a GOOD business online is to avoid slavishly copying everyone else. Yaro is thinking for himself, and it shows. Allan.]
[What did you think of the recent 8-part series of articles by Jay Stockwell on how to make $1000 a month starting from scratch? Did you think that was nothing but selling? Allan.]