Business Blogging - How to Build A Better Blog

Bloggers - How do you package your expertise? #BWELA

A recurring theme discussed among bloggers is how to make money from their blog -- how to package and profit from their expertise.

Well, I'm very excited to announce that the speaking proposal my colleague Rich Brooks, of Flyte New Media, and I submitted to Blog World and New Media Expo has been accepted and we'll be presenting a session on...

How Any Blogger Can Package, Promote and Profit from Their Expertise

I've attended three out of four BlogWorld Expos and it's by far the best conference going when it comes to education and networking with peers involved in business blogging, social media and new media (podcasting and video). So, I'm thrilled to be speaking once at again at this premier conference. In fact, Rich and I co-presented at both the first and second events so this will be our third time sharing the stage at BlogWorld Expo.

Now, here's what I'd like to know from you...

What is your #1 challenge or burning question about packaging, promoting and profiting from your expertise?

We plan to create a killer presentation and want to deliver maximum value in the 60 minutes session. As Rich told me when we were hashing out a theme...

"I want to teach the average blogger who has a job to put together a workable, sustainable program."

What would that look like to you?

What strategies, tactics and details would you want to get out the presentation so you felt ready, willing and able to take action?

Please post your presentation wish list in the comments. Then, register for BlogWorld Expo (November 3-5 in Los Angeles) and we'll see you there! Right now you can save 30% with early bird registration AND get an additional 20% off with the special speaker discount code I was able to wrangle for your: BLOGSQUAD20

If you cannot make it to BWE, you may be able to twist our arms to share our presentation on a webinar...no promises though since I haven't talked with Rich about that yet!

See you at BlogWorld!

Your Blog Becomes A Bestseller?

You know how I love repurposing blog content? Well so does my guest blogger, Daniel Hall. In this post he shares how a repurposed blog post became an Amazon Kindle bestseller! And, how you can learn to do it too!

Your Blog Becomes A Bestseller?
By Daniel Hall

I have been blogging for about five years.  Not consistently.  Just anytime I had something to say or contribute or promote.  Often times - because I am all about getting the biggest bang for my buck - I will take my blog posts and re-purpose them. 

That is, I will turn posts into articles and distribute them in the article directories.  I will also arrange to republish the piece as a guest post. Sometimes I will convert the post into a PowerPoint and make what is in effect a video article which is then posted on youtube and other video portals.

So, as you can tell, I love re-purposing content. 

Along the way I learned how to publish books through Print on Demand technology and soon after I mastered how to publish content through Amazon's Kindle.  In fact, I started to write and publish a bunch of original Kindle books.  It was about this time that it dawned on me, why not republish some of my best blog posts as separate Kindle books.

The results of my first attempt astonished me... here's what happened.

I wrote what I thought was a really good Fourth of July post called "Book Marketing:  The Long Tail of Freedom".  It was a long post (for me) and I thought it might be a great piece to publish on Kindle. I changed the name of the post to "Information Product Marketing: The Long Tail of Freedom" and did some light editing.  I then published the piece to Kindle.

To my amazement it started to consistently sell and before I knew it the book popped on to the Kindle bestseller list!

So what's the lesson in this?

You're a blogger.  You have great stuff.  Get it out there and working for you on Kindle.  You never know what's going to gain some traction and really start selling.  Maybe even make your post (Kindle book) into a bestseller.  At a minimum you'll create a residual income source and disseminate your message to a larger audience.

The question now is how do you master publishing through Kindle? Good news! Denise is hosting a webinar training with me called "Publish Your Ebook Today Using Amazon's Kindle - The Complete Step-By-Step Instructions" on Tuesday, November 30 at 3 pm ET. Register here - https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/547078297.  Although the webinar is free the content is solid gold and you WILL learn how to publish your blog content to Kindle the night of event.  That's my promise.

Daniel Hall is an author, speaker, consultant, coach, lawyer, nurse and sometimes blogger.  He is also the creator of the popular Real Fast Book program, designed to help people crank out high-quality, highly profitable books real fast. He gave up a lucrative law practice to earn his living online 5 years ago and has never looked back.

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Amazon Kindle Provides A Revenue Stream for Your Blog

When the price on the Amazon Kindle dropped by $70 recently, I decided to go for it as I had been curious for some time about the electronic reading gadget. When I turned it on and went to the Kindle Store, I noticed that there is an option to subscribe to thousands of blogs, each for $.99 month.

That piqued my curiosity. I have no idea how many people actually read blogs on the Kindle or if anyone is making money from their blog being available on Kindle, but why not list it?

Finding out how to submit your blog is not obvious. I did a search, found a forum post asking that very question and followed the thread to find the answer >> https://kindlepublishing.amazon.com

You must set up a publishing account (different from your Amazon account), fill out a few fields, upload a couple of images and submit. Easy.

Here's the info you need to have in order to submit your blog in just a few minutes:

1. RSS feed for blog
2. Blog Title
3. Blog Tagline
4. Blog Description
5. Blog author
6. Screen shot of blog home page
7. Blog banner image
8. Blog author name
9. Web address
10. blog language
11. Keywords
12. Categories
13. Frequency of posting

Save. Preview. Publish.

Isn't this cool? This is how my blog will look on the Kindle.

Your blog will be reviewed and added to the Kindle Store in 48-72 hours (so they say).

Even if no one ever subscribes to my blog on the Kindle, it doesn't really matter. It's there when people search both on the Kindle AND on Amazon - a great place to get more visibility for your blog and your business! Plus people can get a 14 day free trial and may get hooked on your great content.

NOTE: Just found the easy way to submit your blog >> On Amazon, go to the Kindle Store, then click on Blogs. You'll see a link to take you to the publishing site in the left column.

Is your blog listed on the Kindle? If so, post the link to your listing on Amazon so we can check it out. And, let us know how it's working for you. Are you making any money?

Blogging Success Stories Wanted!

Do you have a business success story that you can attribute to blogging? I frequently speak at conferences, on teleseminars and give interviews and always love to share success stories from blogging. I would love to share YOUR story - with full attribution and link to your blog, of course.

If you have success in your business that you can directly attribute your blog, let's hear it! Some things to consider:

Did your revenues increase as a result of your blog, like in the case of Mark Siegel?

Did you get a paid speaking gig like Tim Wright?

Has traffic to your website increased?

Does your blog attract new clients like it does for Dr. Eben Davis?

Has your blog helped you gain international exposure, get more consulting jobs, attract more speaking gigs, and develop joint venture partnerships like it has for Bud Bilanich?

If you have a blogging success story, please post it in the comments below and don't forget to include a link to your blog!

Remember, be specific about the results you got with your blog. Here are a few questions to consider:

1. What was your business like BEFORE you started a blog?
2. What happened after you started the blog; what was the first sign you knew it would work?
3. What specific results have you experienced?
4. What would you tell someone who was considering starting a blog?

I look forward to hearing your blogging success stories and introducing you and your business to my audiences (with permission of course!).

Blog on!

More blogging testimonials..

Funny Blog Authors Laugh all the Way to the Bank

 I had a good time this weekend looking at some pretty silly blogs...and guess what. they are ones that have landed big book deals with publishers. So don't scoff. These blog authors are laughing themselves all the way to the bank. The kicker is that most of them get their content from blog readers...they don't even write original stuff.

Thanks to this NY Times article, I had a few chuckles with these sites:

• Postcards From Yo Momma 
• This Is Why You’re Fat 
• I Can Has Cheezburger?
• Stuff White People Like 
• Pets Who Want to Kill Themselves

Apparently certain themes attract millions of eyeballs and publishers are betting they will love the material so much they'll shell out a few bucks to buy a printed book. Who says we're in a recession?

GolfAsian Blog: 3 Years Old & Still Posting

Just have to share this email (with permission of course) that arrived in our email box last night, from client Mark Siegel.  We frequently point to Mark Siegel's business blog success when we present to groups and we love that he sends us unsolicited progress reports from time to time. Here's Mark's latest business blog success story...

Hi Denise and Patsi,

The Thailandgolfzone is 3 years old today and still remains the single best investment I have made in marketing and client communications, by a long mile. From your excellent set-up work and encouragement my blog has grown to over 387 posts (and counting), generated new leads that resulted in $2,000,000 US dollars (yes 2 Million!) in new business, and even catapulted me into becoming the “Thailand Golf Guru.”

For the latter I have been asked to write for Asian Golf Monthly, a major golf publication here, invited to speak on golf tourism at the Asian Golf Business Summit, interviewed by Forbes magazine along side of billionaire Herbert Kohler, and even contracted by the Thai government to be Thailand’s golf ambassador to the world! Wow, now the fun really starts!

Who would have imagined that a small one man operation like Golfasian armed with great service and a Blog Squad business blog and a customized newsletter to get the word out could have achieved so much success and fame in just 3 short years, and this is in spite of the world’s economic and equity crisis.

Well once again I have to thank you, Denise and Patsi, for your initial consultations, advice, and encouragement. I am 100% convinced that without your assistance on the Thailandgolfzone, these accomplishments over the past 3 years would have not been realized.

Keep up the great work, count me in as a true believer in your services, and feel free to use me as a reference for business blogs as well as your current venture, social networking for business success.

Best Regards,

Mark Siegel
Managing Director
Golfasian Co. Ltd.
+66-(0)2-714-8470
http://www.golfasian.com,   http://www.vietnamgolfvacation.com, and  http://www.thailandgolfzone.com

The golf experts in Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia!

Business Blog Content: Telling Beats Selling

The evidence keeps adding up by market researchers: content marketing wins over readers more than advertising. This means business bloggers have the clear advantage since blogs are the best way to communicate stories.

According to an Adfusion survey, article-based advertising is preferred by 51% of respondents who are “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to read and act upon the material.

The survey asked respondents to rate their likelihood to read and act upon five types of online advertising: banner ads, pop-up ads, e-mail offers, articles that include brand information, and sponsored search engine links. By ad type, respondents said they were “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to read and respond to:  

    * Articles that include brand information: 51%
    * Email offers: 47%
    * Sponsored search engine links: 39%
    * Banner ads: 25%
    * Pop-up ads: 13%

Thanks to Chris Baggott from Compendium Blogware for the heads up on this survey.

Chris says, "Seth Godin has a great line about websites being for facts and figures and business blogs being for stories.

Business Blogging: What's the Point?

We've been teaching how to gain massive online visibility to a group of smart and savvy professionals in our mentoring program. The background theme has been blogging, Twitter, Facebook, and multiple forms of online content so that people with problems can find your solutions.

The idea is to be everywhere on the Web. For example, a remark on Twitter can lead someone back to read more about you on your blog. But, wait a minute, what's the point?

What's your purpose once you've got a new visitor over to your blog? Sure, you want to impress them with your expertise. Sure, you want to build a relationship with them. Sure, you want them to subscribe to your blog updates and become a fan.

But  hey, this isn't high school and you're not running for prom queen. This isn't a popularity contest. So you can forget about your numbers. All you bean-counters and Google Analytic-types can groan all you want. It's so easy to get distracted by numbers and widgets and glitter and buzz.

Money-making Blog Tips from Experts on CDs

Are there any business bloggers out there who want to learn a few money-making tricks? At the risk of sounding like Fast Eddy, have we got a deal for you! Come on down...

This is a quick commercial about a 61% discount on CDs. For the few remaining days of January 09, you can find out what the experts like Tom Antion, Joan Stewart, and ourselves, The Blog Squad, do to boost business with blogs, viral campaigns, book blogs, and other tips.

Learn about key marketing tactics with these programs:

=> Blog Your Book: The Easy Way to Write and Market Your Book

=> How to Lure Prospects with Words: Using White Papers to Attract New Clients

=> Protecting Your Intellectual Property Rights

=> How to Pitch the Best Bloggers and Create a Publicity Explosion

=> 32,000 Readers and a 2-Book Deal: How to Launch & Profit from a Viral Blogging Campaign

=>Packaging is Everything! How the Right Words Can Sell Your Book or Product in 15 Seconds or Less

=> Blogging to Gain Expert Status

Content into Cash: 5 Steps to Blogging Profits

Let's talk turkey: How do you turn blog content into cash?

On our Massive Online Visibility teleseminar last week we got a lot of questions from the 600 people registered for the call. What came up frequently is how to increase traffic to a blog. But what's that about, really? Traffic is only an indicator of numbers of eyeballs. What really counts is action and sales.

I believe that underlying that question is the desire to unravel the mysterious link between content and cash. As one caller put it, what are the "5 most important things a person new to blogging, article writing, ebook writing, etc. should do, and in what order, what would they be?"

Here we go:

1. Make a list of keywords you will be writing about in your niche. This may be similar to your categories and your cornerstone content. What do your ideal clients most want to know? Do some keyword research to find out how exactly people are searching for information (www.freekeywords.wordtracker.com)