Standard Blog Model Most bloggers start their blogging journey from here. This is a model that can define you as a blogger, but making money from this will involve consistent content creation, community build up and PR. This is a good model if you want to get into selling high end products.

Review Blog Model Reviews are pretty powerful and they inject very well in the buying thought of the visitor. Imagine providing a crucial review of ipad to a target visitor who is just one click away from buying it. If your review stands out, there are chances that your will make a commission from the sale.

There is a lot that happens in a review site. The layout, content, structure, reviews all matter. You cannot take a standard blog, write a bunch of reviews and expect to make money from the page. Even though people do that all the time. If you are getting 40,000 page views a day probably you don’t care much about layout and presentations, but to get some serious conversions on small amount traffic you have to focus on the presentation, otherwise the conversions could be pretty frustrating.

Article Blog If creating unique content on a daily basis is not your forte then you can explore this option. Install a few auto-content plugins and your blog will be populated with content pretty much instantly. You can build lists, monetize with small ads etc. But again you cannot make $1000s of dollars a day with this model unless you start 1000s of blogs.

Forum Blog Want unique content? then focus on User Generated Content(UGC) imagine how much money sites likes warrior forum make on a daily basis. Go to BigBoards.com and do a search for forums in your niche and look at the traffic numbers, you will be astonished. There is money to be maid if you understand the power of a community.

Let your users create the content, google provide you the ads and you make money just by doing nothing. Like it? and yes you can start a forum using wordpress.

Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment here.

This brings us to a situation where we need to align our efforts and win the game between 2 different important parameters.

TRUST : Transparency and good rapport with our ideal clients/customers so that they will be able to see you as the viable solution for their problem/need.

NEED : The real source of their problem and fundamental reason why they are seeking the solution.

If you think deeper, in offline world The trust factor can be accomplished  easily  but there is a challenge in connecting with the real need of people without meeting with them face to face.

In fact it is even more challenging to connect with the real need of people all over the world if you  don’t have a established network of people to take care of this responsibility.

Unfortunately  the puts a limit on many businesses in terms of how big and how fast they can grow.

In online world it makes easier , faster and more effective for any business owner  to grow and profit faster by playing globally and reaching out to ideal prospects and customers.

The single biggest reason is  Internet provides “CRITICAL LEVERAGE” in terms of
• a. Market Research
• b.Understanding The Need (Through Search Engines, Forums and Social Media)
• c. Price Comparision (Review Sites)
• d.Brand Analysis
• e.New Technology and Social Media ( Transparency and Trust)

It is a creating an entire new realm of opportunities as well as business dynamics which has never anticipated before.

In today’s age,  even a small player can win the trust of an ideal customer and fulfill their needs  in shortest possible time because of the power of traditional and mobile internet.

Hope this gives you a clear understanding about how you can identify your unique leverage for generating profit from the internet and grow fast while  offering your products and services all over the world .

In my next post I am going to discuss about how you can  make your  online business sustainable and grow rapidly while overcoming all possible road blocks you currently have .

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This post was guest blogged by Gaj Subudhi of superstarsmarketing.com, A site dedicated to helping people establish themselves as a superstar in their personal and business life FAST
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You think going in that you’ll never run out of ideas to write about. We all run out of ideas sooner or later, talk about writers block, we all have it one way or the other.

And, even if you are supernatural and can continue coming up with new ideas for years and years, the demands of updating your blog with new content requires discipline that most of us just don’t possess.

Structurally most blog platforms are created for content uploading and sharing. That’s why they are known as the publishing platforms of common people. While its very much possible to monetize a blog that is filled with neat content, yet a deliberate plan for monetization is a must.

It’s the persuasive language, nice presentation and proper eye ball management that matter the most.

Expectations Challenge: Most bloggers start out with great expectations and build their blog with all kinds of ideas and inspirations.

In the short run everything seems go well for these bloggers, when other life commitments, priorities take precedence they soon find themselves drifted away and their blogs take a back seat…(Oops! when did I make my last post on this blog ..a month ago?)

Lack or Limited Time Challenge: You have images to upload, content to format, comments to respond, plugins to configure, themes to edit and a variety of other tasks. Blogging needs a significant investment of your time.

It could potentially leave you with no time for list-building, traffic generation or product development. Answer this in your mind, Are you an Internet Marketer or a Blogger?

Traffic Challenge: Here’s a fact most people don’t tell you about: ‘getting traffic to you blog is not that different from getting traffic to any static site’.

You have to spend a lot of time to get the traffic and then there are no guarantees that this traffic will ever translate into any money for you.

You could be very happy seeing your RSS subscriber list grow( Many Bloggers fake their RSS Reader count to imply social proof), but in reality this means nothing if you are not making any money from it.

A majority of these reader also subscribe to similar or identical blogs in your marketplace that are like yours. Factor in indifference, a lack of effort, poor results and a never ending amount of other enticing offers and you’ll be lucky to get them to keep coming back a few times to read your blog.

Click Here For The Replay

Here is the list of all the sites I mentioned on the call.
1. Banner Ads -> Source 125X125 ad creatives from affiliate netowrks
2. Affiliate Programs -> Become a member of Amazon.com, CJ.com Clickbank.com, Itunes.com & Chitika Contextual ads
3. Adsense – Google Adsense
4. Text Link Ads – Clicksor.com, Text-Link-Ads.com, Kontera.com
5. Paid Reviews – Reviewme.com Payperpost.com
6. Job listings – Indeed
7. RSS Ads – Feedm8.com, Feedburner Ads, Crisp Ads, Pheedo
8. Photo sharing – Shareapic.net
9. Sell Content – scoopt.com ( I talked about this on the call, but forgot they went out of business)

My favorite methods

10. Membership programs
11. Info Products – Ebooks, DVD’s, CDs, Home Study Courses etc
12. Donations
13. Consulting & Services
14. Buying & Selling Blogs for maximum one time payout

Membership Site Hands-On-Workshop

Also on the call I mentioned about a live hands on workshop on creating membership sites form your blogs.

If you are interested in joining the live workshop. Please make a $1( one dollar) deposit to get into the front-line. My admin will get in touch with you for us to speak one-on-one. If I feel you will benefit from this workshop I will have you join me live. I’m very selective on whom I get into my workshops. Its mandatory that I either meet you in person or know you well enough before you get into any of my hands-on workshops.

The idea with this workshop is that you walk in with your membership site idea and get your entire site up and running when you leave the workshop.

Most of my workshops are hands-on workshops where I move people to take action. I don’t believe in preaching from the stage and certainly don’t believe in all the pitch fests.

If you are interested in the workshop, just get into the front-line by putting in a $1(one dollar) deposit.

CLICK HERE TO GET INTO THE FRONT LINE

I can only take 10 people into the workshop as I truly believe in delivering immense 1:1 value like nobody else.

Lets talk soon!

To your membership site success!

Srini Saripalli

P.S: I need to know your thoughts on this, so please leave a comment for me here…

While I’m responding to these questions individually many of these questions are repetative. To make sure that my answers are consistent and serve everyone, I request all of you to post your question on my blog.

This is a placeover post to accomodate your questions. If you don’t have any questions you don’t need to ask, but just in case if you do?, please post it on the blog that way I can serve a larger audience with my answers.

Alternatively I can setup a Q&A if you feel its required.

Always to your success!

Over the last five weeks I spent a considerable amount time reading this e-book off and on. Not only just reading but internalizing some of the key concepts that Erica emphasizes. .

The internet is filled with all kinds of free and paid e-books on blogging. While they do all have their place, its always a treat to see the work of a blogger who walks the talk.

Erica has hit a home run with her Blog Success Manifesto. The content, layout, structure, flow and above all her intent for writing this book is simply noble. It’s written by a blogger for a blogger and as a blogger. Very Methodical, to the point & precise. Most importantly the tips are highly actionable.

Here are some highlights of the e-book.

• Specificity is the key to success. Don’t be vague with your content.
• Make your key goals interesting. Your goals will draw likeminded readers more to your blog.
• Use blogging as a tool will enable you to accomplish any big goal you have in your life.
• Your ideal audience isn’t likely to the same audience commenting on your blog
• Survey’s are the key to the successful evolution of a blog. Periodically ask your readers what topics they want you to listen
• You just cannot make everyone of your visitors happy.
• Your about page will set you apart from the rest. Don’t be intimidated to write about yourself. Paint a larger picture of yourself.

In addition Erica provides many technical tips on Permalinks, Design, photo placement, Feedburner integration, plugins, stock photos, Content creation tactics, Content Consistency & SEO etc.

It amazing how much Erica has covered in just 62 pages. Both experts and novice will find this e-book immensly valuable.

Finally I want to leave you with this thought. If MrFire. Joe Vitale with all his 25+ years of marketing experience can take advice from Erica and change his blog then we all have something to learn here. Don’t you agree?

Go download a free copy of the Blog Success Manifesto @ www.Erica.biz/manifesto

Not All Blog Posts are Created Equal

When you’re blogging for the fun of it rather than as a way to attract potential leads to your business you don’t have to worry about what you’re blogging about. It doesn’t matter! You’re only there to have a good time. When you start blogging for a particular niche (i.e. your potential clientele) the rules change. The possibilities narrow. Suddenly you find yourself honing in on current events and updates in your industry. You begin using your own professional experience to put a new spin on what might otherwise be a very boring enterprise. And before you know it you’ve developed a niche blog

Niche blogs deal with a particular industry, but your niche blog for your business probably still has plenty of wriggle room. The catch is, you’re never going to receive the same volume of responses and enthusiasm for every blog post you write. (Unless you do, in which case you’re just that good and really don’t need to be reading this!) Chances are, you’re going to have some blog posts that receive a huge amount of attention while others go by unnoticed.

It’s a cold, cruel world like that

Choosing a Sub-Niche

Those blog posts that generate huge numbers of responses are the ones you want to focus on when you’re identifying a sub-niche for your blog. Sub-niches are when you take your niche and narrow it down even farther. The easiest way to do that is to look at the posts you’re already posting and see what’s getting your readers fired up.

The easiest way to explain this is to use an example, so bear with me. Let’s say you’re a history nut. You absolutely love history, so you decide to go into business selling historical relics. You launch a blog called “A Step in Time: Greatest Moments in World History” in which you regularly blog about the greatest events in world history and the artifacts they left behind. While you’re blogging you happen to notice that every time you do a post on the Civil War you get a tremendous number of responses, especially from your readers south of the Mason Dixon line (where everyone knows the war’s not really over, it’s just taking a breather for a little sweet tea).

This is the perfect opportunity to create a sub-niche. You could choose to target the Civil War as the topic of the blogs you write. Since you don’t want to risk isolating your other readers, however, this is the perfect opportunity to consider capitalizing on the parallel blog strategy. By using the parallel blog strategy and launching a second blog dealing solely with the Civil War you can expand your reading audience to include Civil War buffs who couldn’t care less about the habits of the Mayan civilization. This gives you twice the readers for twice the fun!

These bloggers know that they’re working with an audience with a limited attention span and more to do than can reasonably be done in a 24 hour period. That means if they’re going to keep them coming back day after day they have to give them something that’s going to make it worth it. And the only way that’s going to happen is if they shake things up a little bit and make their blog a multi-media event!

For everyone who’s been shaking in their shoes at the thought of having to produce a video blog, relax. Making videos and posting them on the web isn’t nearly as hard as it used to be. As a matter of fact, with today’s software capabilities and the number of free tools and resources available on the web you can make a cheap video blog post for your blog without even breaking a sweat!

Ingredient number two: A webcam or digital camcorder with audio capabilities. I say this because there are many digital cameras out there with incredibly inferior microphone capabilities that don’t translate to good video, even for a cheap video blog post! Remember, you want the cost of your blog to be cheap-not the quality. Once you’ve got your camera in place all you have to do is sit down and give the performance of your lifetime. Have some fun with it!

When you’re in front of that camera it’s all about you.

Once you’ve made your video it’s time to do some editing. There are a number of software programs out there like Avid and Adobe that give you professional editing tools, or you can take advantage of the ones offered by YouTube, Viddler or similar online programs.

Personally, I like Viddler-but I never was one to conform! Using these tools you can splice your videos, add audio background, play around with your color scheme and audio and essentially put together a professional quality, cheap video blog post at a fraction of the cost you’d have paid five or six years ago.

Ain’t technology grand?

When you’re trying to build up some backlinks through commenting you have to be careful though. Blogs aren’t really meant to be an advertising medium, despite what some people seem to think. I once had a visitor leave a link to their Rakim and Ken-y website on a fashion blog. I was like, really? I mean, really? How shameless can you get!

Blog commenting requires a certain degree of discretion along with link promotion, or you’re going to find yourself booted by the site admin for SPAM. I take great pleasure in deleting pointless backlinking attempts from my blog! If your blog comments are going to build your backlinks along with your reputation, you have to know what you’re doing first.

There are a couple of simple rules for effective backlinking. First and foremost, choose your blogs with discretion. Your blog caters to a niche market, right? If you’re trying to build a reputation in that niche market you need to comment on blogs in your niche. Common sense!

When you find a blog that seems to cater to a similar target audience, make your comments count. Senseless drivel isn’t going to generate any kind of discussion, and it’s definitely not going to encourage your readers to follow your link back to your website. Blog comments are meant to be a discussion, not a promotion. Pretend you were looking the blog admin in the eyes when you comment on their post. If you wouldn’t say it to their face, don’t say it on their blog.

Don’t actively mention your links in the body of your comments. That’s just a little too obvious. Remember, subtlety is the name of the game in the social media game. You don’t want people to know you’re trying to promote a link. You just want them to know you’ve got something to say! Instead, put your anchor text in the name field of your comment, and include a hyperlink to your site if it will let you. Most blog comments also give you the chance to put your site URL with your name; take advantage of that.

Repeat this process 50-100 times and watch your backlinks boom!

After you’ve written your comment, don’t forget to check back every once in a while. You want to see if you’ve been published, and whether or not you’re getting link value. Plus, there’s always the off chance that someone has commented or asked a question about your comment that you’re going to need to reply to. There’s nothing more irritating to a dedicated blog reader than asking a question and being completely ignored.

Remember, the people reading this blog and responding to your blog comments are going to be the same people reading yours. The last thing you want is for them to think you’re only in it for the exposure. There’s no quicker way to kill your blog following and your own future success.

Sometime ago I posted a video on my personal blog www.SriniSaripalli.com addressing this whole blog commenting issue. Here it is, I’m sure you will find it educational

Let’s say you want to boost traffic volume to your website by creating a corporate blog. You start writing yourself and discover you enjoy blogging, but as it slowly but surely becomes an addiction you find spending your days scouring the headlines and thinking up witty repartee for your blog is sucking way too much time out of your day. Meetings are being ignored. Deadlines are slipping. The office is teetering on the edge of total anarchy!

All right, so it’s probably not that bad. It does take a certain amount of time and effort to stay on top of a corporate blog though, and if you just don’t have that amount of time at your fingertips it’s probably a good idea to look into ways to outsource your blog posts.

You have a couple of options here. Most people choose to join forces with a professional marketing agency or freelancer with experience in SEO and the tiny little factors that separate great blogs from the ones that are both great and efficient. You want bloggers that are guaranteed to get results, this is the place to go.

If you can’t find an agency that meets your expectations or your budget you can look into hiring a freelance writer with a little less experience in the SEO industry but extra points in the creativity department. Remember, marketing strategies can be learned. Creativity comes from the inside. Introduce these writers to the guidelines of SEO being used by your own internal marketing team, then turn them loose and see what happens!

Regardless of which option you choose you’re probably going to end up paying for your professional blogging services by the post. The cost per blog can range from $2.50 per post to $10 or more, depending on the depth and detail you’re looking for, the amount of research they’re going to have to do and how much of their attention you want to command. Remember, you’re not the only one looking to outsource your blog posts. Professional bloggers are busy, and clients who pay more get more of their time. Word to the wise.

Of course, nowhere is it written that you have to pull in a professional to outsource your blog posts. How busy is your marketing team? What about that new hire that’s still getting his feet wet and doesn’t have the gumption to tell you “No” when you tell him what you have in mind? It’s not hard to outsource your blog posts (everyone loves to blog!) but it’s going to cost you. Make sure you don’t have a better option sitting under your nose first!