I recently came across blogger and copywriter Ryan Healy, and really enjoyed his blog. I took the liberty of sending him an email with a few questions, and what follows are Ryan’s responses…

Hear Ryan’s top 3 tips for growing your online business, and why copywriting is an important skill for all bloggers to learn!

Hi Ryan! You have an impressive history of working online as a copywriter for the last 8 years. What was it that inspired your transition to working online?

When I went freelance back in 2005, I had already been doing a lot of online marketing for the company I worked for. Plus, online advertising was exploding. So it seemed to make the most sense to focus on helping online businesses to improve their marketing.

Of course, I’ve been fortunate to have been involved with a few off-line projects as well. But to this day most of my work is online.

In addition to being a highly referred Direct Response Copywriter, you’re also known as a Business Growth Expert. Do you focus mainly on the growth of online business?

Yes. I help online businesses get more sales from their current advertising efforts. If they’re making 1 sale for every 200 visitors, I want to help them make 2 or 3 sales from the same volume of traffic.

Most times I’m hired to write a direct response sales letter. Sometimes I’m hired to do a copy critique or write emails or run some split-tests. Every situation is unique.

I’ve also helped a few off-line businesses in the sense that they generate leads online and close them off-line. Or vice versa: They generate the lead off-line (through direct mail or space ads), then bring them online.

With every year that passes it becomes harder to define businesses strictly in terms of “online” or “off-line.” Many businesses choose a hybrid approach. And why not? There’s money to be made in both places, and it’s silly to cut off one or the other “just because.”

What 3 tips would you share with ClickNewz readers to help them grow or improve their online business?

Only three?? Just kidding.

Here are three tips that come to mind…

Improve Your Online Business Tip #1:
Master the Execution of Fundamentals

The fundamentals of building and growing an online business never change. The basic formula is:

Targeted Traffic + Conversion + Remarkable Product = Sustainable Online Business

What have you done today to get more targeted traffic to your site? What have you done today to improve your conversion rate? What have you done today to make your product better?

You don’t necessarily have to tackle all three areas in a single day. But I believe you should be doing one of these things every single working day.

It’s work — but it works.

Improve Your Online Business Tip #2:
Automate What Can Be Automated

If you were a door-to-door salesman, you’d have to knock on dozens of doors every single day to have even a fighting chance at earning a living. This is not something you could automate. You’d have to do it yourself.

One of the advantages of running an online business is that many sales functions and even fulfillment functions can be automated.

For instance: You can load up an autoresponder sequence with quality content and a few sales messages mixed in. The emails will be sent out automatically on the schedule you determine.

Surely I’m not telling you anything new. Most people who’ve been online for more than a couple months understand the importance of an autoresponder sequence. And yet very few people actually build out their follow-up sequence like they know they should.

This gets back to Tip #1. You need to become an expert at execution.

Here are a few things that can be automated: follow-up emails, opt-in processes, delivery of electronic products, delivery of physical products, etc.

If you begin to automate your business, you get to do the work once and then enjoy the fruits of that labor for a long time. (There is almost always a degree of ongoing maintenance involved, but it’s minimal compared to the initial work.)

Somebody will point out: “But Ryan, you’re a copywriter! You’re just trading hours for dollars!”

Point taken. And it’s something I continue to work on: Shifting my income away from activities that pay only once and toward activities that generate income for the long-term.

Improve Your Online Business Tip #3:
Avoid Unnecessary Distractions

There are a million and one things demanding your attention when you’re online.

There are emails, Facebook updates, news alerts, RSS feeds, tweets, etc. If you’re not careful, an entire day can flash by — without you getting a single thing done to advance or improve your online business.

So whereas the first two tips I shared were “offensive,” this one is “defensive.” It’s imperative that you stay focused and cut out unnecessary distractions.

Do you have email alerts turned on? Turn them off. Does Tweetdeck run in the background alerting you to every new tweet? Turn it off.

Half the battle is usually just managing and controlling the tyranny of the urgent-yet-unimportant things that crop up every day.

Do you feel copywriting is important to bloggers, since they don’t create products & sales letters?

Absolutely! After all, every blog post title has to “sell” people on taking the time to read what follows.

(I’ve actually studied the most popular posts on my blog and on other people’s blogs and have made some interesting discoveries, particularly about blog post titles.)

One commonality among all top bloggers is their ability to write well and be entertaining. Too many blogs have no life in them, no passion. They just bore me (and everybody else) to tears.

Plus, there’s much to be said for learning how to engage people. By studying copywriting, you can learn a lot about how to capture people’s attention and engage them — both important skills for bloggers.

You offer a Free 39-Point Copywriting Checklist on your blog. Who is this checklist best suited for, and can you tell us what to expect from the download?

The check list is specifically designed for people who are selling things online. But affiliate marketers and bloggers can pick up a few good ideas as well.

When you get the check list, you’ll see that each item is phrased as a question. And there is a check box next to it. After you read the question, you can then check it off if it is complete.

For instance, the first question is, “Does your headline enter the conversation that’s already happening in your prospect’s mind?” There’s a check box to the left of the question so you can check it off.

There are 38 more questions like this. And while there isn’t a precise order, the check list is organized so that things you should think about first are at the top, and things you should think about later are at the bottom.

The 39-Point Copywriting Checklist is available for free (with opt-in). Or feel free to simply peruse the 200+ free articles on my business growth and copywriting blog.

Ryan M. Healy

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TELEPHONE:
Open call-in hours 2-4 p.m. MST,
Monday-Thursday: 720-344-7788

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WEB SITES:
Blog – http://www.RyanHealy.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/healymonster
Copywriting – http://www.CopywritingCode.com

Ever found your eyes glazing over when you read through your own copy or blog posts?

I hate to break it to you, but a lot of the products, services, or niches that we write about just aren’t that thrilling. Although the finer points of search engine optimization might keep you glued to your screen, most of your clients or blog readers aren’t feeling the excitement.

So what can you do?

You bring in a register which deals with excitement: the heroic. We’ve all read advertisements encouraging us to “win the battle” with our email, or our paperwork, or our tendency to procrastinate. They grab our interest by making a frankly unexciting activity sound like a heroic quest.

The use of heroic language in decidedly non-heroic contexts isn’t anything new. Poets have been doing it for centuries, though generally in a satirical context (if you’re interested, Alexander Pope is a great example of the mock-heroic with The Rape of the Lock and The Dunciad).

You can definitely still use heroic language for comic effect. (It’s possible to do this unintentionally, too, by going over the top in your copy.) But the heroic is a powerful way to tap into our need for drama, for excitement, for a story, a quest . . . and a hero your reader can identify with.

So how do you do it?

Heroic Words Work

Certain words can turn dry topics – like writing, personal finance, small business and marketing – into something that makes you feel a frisson of excitement. You can almost hear the rallying notes of a battle horn, and see the sun glinting from swords. A few favorite heroic words are:

“Battle”

(Writers seem especially fond of this one: I think we just like to make our struggles sound more exciting than they really are…)

• “I have had my battles with writer’s block.” from Writer’s Block … A Thing of the Past
• Also see Battling Blogger’s Block on Problogger

“Dragon”

• “You can think of each project like being sent on a big quest to slay a dragon. Your client is the king of the realm. The project is the dragon threatening his kingdom. You go out and slay that dragon, and the client will give you a nifty monetary reward. You fail, and so does his kingdom, and he is justifiably pissed” from The Dragons of Writing and How to Fight Them on Men with Pens

“Enemy” / “Nemesis”

• “Blogger’s block is the arch nemesis of productivity” in 10 Simple Productivity Tips for Bloggers on Daily Blog Tips
• “When it comes to taking payment from international clients, your number one enemy is processing fees” from Taking Payment with PayPal, Escrow and Other Online Options on Freelance Switch

“Fight”

• See Grow Up, Green Up: How to Fight the Impulse Purchase on Dumb Little Man
• “When you feel as if your head’s underwater, don’t wait to drown. Kick and thrash like a motherf*cker. Fight like your life depended on it.” from Johnny Talks about Motivation on IttyBiz

“Quest”

• “Has your quest for project efficiency ever led you to rely on outdated tools and methods?” in Why Every Freelancer Should Slow Down and Brainstorm on Freelance Folder

“Treasure”

• “Your library website and departmental webpages should help you find the treasure,” in Research via Google alone: Are you crazy or just lazy? on The University Blog

“War”

• “Having one day can give you the space to zoom outside of the war zone” in 10 Lesser Known Ways to Increase Productivity on Pick the Brain

Metaphor, Hyperbole, and Overkill

Heroic language can become a running metaphor when you theme the entire post around it – see Taylor’s The Dragons of Writing and How to Fight Them series on Men With Pens. Like using pop culture references, this gives you a hook to hang your post (or series) on, and potentially a structure.

Heroic language can also be used as hyperbole, to set a powerful tone. Some writers can pull this off well, but for others, it’s too aggressive. Dave Navarro uses it to great effect in How To Kick That Habit’s Ass (When It’s Been Beating Yours) on Rock Your Day – just look at these excerpts:

“You get knocked down, punched out, kicked to the curb, beaten to a pulp … hell, pardon my French, but you get your frigging ass kicked emotionally and psychologically, big time.”

“It All Starts With Declaring One Word: War.”

“Finally, build your battle plan…”

But for some bloggers, that’s too much, and would be jarring for readers. (Can you imagine gentle, pink-haired Sonia Simone writing like that?) If in doubt, go sparingly. Try using heroic language for a punchy introduction and conclusion to your post, and ease up in the middle.

Take Up Your Sword Pen

Heroic language combines exaggeration with metaphor – both powerful tools for grabbing attention. If you have sales copy which seems a little bland, why not add a touch of the heroic?

• “Solve Email Problems” becomes “Battle Your Email Overload”
• “Stop Procrastinating” becomes “Defeat Procrastination”
• “Advice to Help You Do Better” becomes “Advice to Help You Win”
• “Ditch Your Bad Habits” becomes “Conquer Your Bad Habits”

If you’ve got a blog on a topic that’s not inherently gripping (productivity, personal finance, writing, small business marketing, habit-breaking), introduce some of the heroic words. Make it a quest, not a project. Look for treasure, not results.

Let your readers, prospects, and customers be the heroes while you help them solve their problems.

About the Author: Conqueror of the keyboard, battler with the blank screen, Ali is a hired wordsmith for several blogs, as well as writing for her own Aliventures.

@BarbraSundquist: How do I keep track of and make the best of all the programs that I am an affiliate for?

Hi Barbara – Great question!

Everyone does this differently, so I’ll share how I organize things myself and also some different options to consider.

Being a Super Affiliate, I am usually promoting 20-30 (minimum) different merchants or products in any given month.

And the programs, and number of programs vary from month to month, too.

That really adds up to a lot of log-in pages, passwords, emails, offers, stats and links to manage & keep up with over time!

Let me start by saying that my system may not work for you. We all operate differently, so it’s important to create a system of organizing your affiliate marketing data in a way that works best for you. I have tried to use recommended methods & systems in the past, but found they didn’t work with my personal style.

You might actually be surprised at how simple my method is for keeping the data organized. I like simple. Less is better in my book.

There are 4 main things that I keep up with…

Affiliate Log-in Pages & Passwords

Every time I sign up for a new affiliate program, I do two things: bookmark the log-in page in a dedicated bookmark folder, and file the welcome email that contains my log-in details in a special folder in my inbox.

My inbox is organized with filters and folders. I have a main folder for Affiliate Marketing, and sub-folders for affiliate programs I work with regularly.

The reason I use my inbox to store and manage my log-ins is because 1) it is backed up regularly by Mozy, and 2) it has a handy dandy search feature for easily finding anything I need.

Some people use spreadsheets or index cards to organize this type of information. Personally I think that creates an extra step (that I’m likely to forget to do), plus it creates an extra file to keep up with – and my inbox is already open.

Also, I mentioned Mozy – they will also backup spreadsheets if you prefer to use them, but anything offline is subject to loss unless you store it off-site. Consider a house fire. With Mozy you could grab a laptop from Wal-Mart and restore your data – and be back in business from any location in a matter of hours.

When it comes time to check my stats, I simply go to my browser’s bookmarks and click on the Affiliate folder and it shows me every single affiliate log-in page. I can then go through them each and log in to check stats. Very simple.

Bookmarks are also backed up regularly, and they are easy to transfer from one computer or browser to another. I often have my bookmarks file on a USB stick in my bag so I can access things anywhere.

If I need a password (me, or my computer, forgot one) I just go to my inbox and run a search on the Affiliate folder and have it in a matter of seconds.

Special Offers & Current Promotions

I like to stay on top of these as some of the promotions, coupon codes or offers are time sensitive. I allow these to come into my main inbox instead of filtering them straight into the Affiliate folder automatically.

I usually do a quick scan first thing in the morning to see if there’s anything I want to share right away. If so, I’ll compose a blog post or a mailing on the spot – and then file the email in the Affiliate email folder after. I also have a sub-folder for offers I might want to come back to later instead.

Timing can be everything. Be first, or at least be fast. Get the word out, because special deals and brand new products are a great way to serve your target market.

Affiliate Commissions

Many merchants will send commission notifications every time you make a sale. I filter these emails automatically into a sub-folder for commissions. Unlike offers and promotions, this is not something I need to be distracted with in my main inbox.

I often check on my commissions throughout the month to manage my promotions, but at the end of the month I sit down to reconcile my earnings. I use a regular college ruled notebook for this, but a spreadsheet would be a great option too – probably a better option, even. I just happen to be old school -lol.

My notebook is set up as one page per month, and is a detailed list of each program or merchant and the total commissions earned that month. I keep two things at the top right of the page: monthly earnings, and YTD earnings.

This is important to me as I am constantly working towards specific financial goals. I can usually get a YTD figure within half an hour at any time.

I can also match payments easily as they come in, either via PayPal or by check. This lets me know at a glance if a payment is missing or I need to follow up with a particular merchant. Not getting paid affiliate commissions is rare, but I don’t let those rare cases go untended.

Your Promotions and Stats

I don’t really have a super-organized way of keeping up with every single page, promotion, keyword phrase or blog post that I have floating out there. For this I use the memory method. This is something you might want to keep a spreadsheet for as well, but I’m not quite that organized. That said, I have a pretty good memory when it comes to money matters *grin*.

At the first of each month, I sit down to analyze site stats for each of my niche affiliate sites. I look over keyword phrases, rankings, incoming links, referring sites, etc and get a feel for how well things are going and what/where I need to make improvements.

I check in on stats throughout the month, same as affiliate commissions, but it’s sitting down with it all at the end of each month that really gives me the birds eye view of the prior month. I use that data to map out the month ahead.

As I said, very simple. You could easily go overboard on the organization end of it all, but that would leave less time for the actual promotions. I prefer to be out there creating pages, getting rankings and making sales!

How do YOU keep your affiliate marketing data organized? We want to know! Leave a comment below

Best,

p.s. Rosalind Gardner mentions an Affiliate Organizer software in her Super Affiliate Handbook. I will get a copy of that software and give it a proper review for you. Stay tuned for that – I’ll let you know how it goes!

Yesterday I watched this quick 3-minute video by Darren Rowse (aka Problogger) where he tells a great story and brings up a very good point…

This video really got my wheels churning, so I thought I would share it with you and bring the topic up for discussion. This question goes out mainly to those who create blogs, affiliate sites and/or Adsense-based content sites.

Do you have an info product of your own that you sell on your blog or website? If so, what has been your experience with that? If you don’t yet have your own product – have you considered it?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

I actually have two products that are both a good fit here at ClickNewz, but I barely promote either of them. In fact, I’d guess that the majority of you aren’t even aware of them. One is available “secretly” only after you subscribe by email, the other I’ve rarely ever mentioned at all. Something I may change in the New Year.

Let the discussion begin…

Best,

With all this talk I’ve been doing about guest blogging & blog interviews, and one way link opportunities…
I completely forgot that my dear friend (and brilliant marketer) – Nicole Dean – recently published a complete guide on that very topic!

It’s called the Blog World Tour Planner and it comes with a 38 page detailed guide, an idea generator, research worksheet, sample email for contacting bloggers, and a “blog tour” planning spreadsheet.

The price? Only $17!

Not mentioning this earlier was a major oversight on my part. I’ve been a bit out of the loop lately after that spell of my daughter being ill, and in a mad catch-up phase ever since. At any rate – my apologies. This is definitely something you’ll want to hear about, so I sat down last night to give it a proper Lynn-style review…

Nicole Dean’s Summer Blog Tour

You may recall that Nicole was a guest blogger here at ClickNewz for an entire week over the summer. My blog was just one of her many stops in what she called her Blog World Tour where she made appearances as a guest blogger across popular blogs all over the web, week after week.

It was a huge success in many respects – from high-quality inbound links to tons of exposure & traffic, and even setting up long-term passive streams of income.

Nicole is brilliant like that, coming up with creative new ideas and documenting every detail. Not only do I like and respect her as a friend, but as a marketer – I pick her brain every chance I get!

The Blog World Tour Guide for Guest Blogging

As I mentioned, this package comes with a detailed guide and a number of super-helpful bonuses to help you take immediate action and get started with your own guest blogging venture.

Sure you can go it alone, and figure everything out as you go – or you can take all the guesswork out of it and just get started for only 17 bucks. That’s kind of a no-brainer, if you ask me.

The guide starts out giving you some insight into how people think, and how Nicole’s idea was born. If you’re smart, you’ll read those couple of pages carefully and consider other ways you can apply that to your business. It’s a simple but brilliant thought process – just one of the things I love about Nicole.

Even though I was part of her summer blog tour, I never knew exactly what all went into it – or that she ultimately wrote 75 blog posts across 15 different blogs (not including her own). Wow!

Obviously you don’t have to go to that extreme – or you could set out to out-blog Nicole Dean if you like – but either way just ONE of those blog posts is worth way more than 17 dollars. Consider that just one post on one blog equals a permanent high quality one-way inbound link.

Or let’s say you have a product of your own that you sell, and your guest post ranks high for a specific keyword phrase. That one blog post could result in ongoing product sales for months – or even years…

Nicole discusses the benefits of guest blogging, or doing a “blog tour” as she calls it, and she also discusses the benefits to the bloggers – why they would agree to let you guest blog, and how to make the offer even more enticing to them.

Having been involved in her blog tour personally, I can tell you that what she did was a HUGE benefit to me. I’d let her come back and guest blog here anytime! And my personal experience from that side of her guide gets me even more excited about using her methods myself…

By the way – she details out tips for you in the guide that make blog owners LOVE having you as a guest, and BEG you to come back and write for them again. Obviously those tips worked on me, so I paid special attention there!

The guide is laid out in steps, starting with choosing your commitment and your objective. You might need inbound links, or you might use this as part of a pre-launch buzz campaign for your product, or you may be recruiting affiliates.

There are a number of reasons to consider guest blogging, and a variety of ways to use it for major leverage and advantage.

Nicole goes through the process of finding the right blogs in great detail, as well as which blogs to avoid (and why). She also gives you a spreadsheet to keep track of each blog and their details, with screenshots of how she used it herself.

Organization & scheduling is covered as well – such as creating an editorial calendar you can share with an assistant, if you choose to outsource some of the groundwork. Even if you’re doing this on a small scale and managing the details yourself, this part is very helpful. Nothing like dropping the ball on a promise made…

By the way, Page 18 shares 3 resources I had NO idea even existed. Be sure to check those out

The Bonus Planning Tools

The guide itself is incredibly rich in ideas and step-by-step instructions, but the tools included is where this product really overdelivers. The “idea generator” that I mentioned earlier is a brainstorming resource for coming up with topics to blog about. Very helpful for those that struggle with writing but really want to make this work for them.

Also included is a guest blogging planner – particularly helpful if you’re going to be doing a full-on blog tour like Nicole, but also a very handy spreadsheet to use as an editorial planner for your own blog plus your guest blogging opps.

To recap the bonus tools included, you get the 38-page guide plus:

• Content Idea Generator
• Blog Research Spreadsheet
• Same Email To Bloggers
• Editorial Calendar Spreadsheet

All that, for only $17. Click here to get started!

Best,

p.s. I was hanging out with Nicole over the summer, during her vacation here in TN and at an event where we roomed together in early August. She was right in the middle of her now famous Blog Tour both of those times, so I got to see her in action firsthand.

That’s in addition to seeing how it all worked when she made her stop here at my blog – and experiencing the sales & traffic that she brought to ClickNewz. Nothing short of amazing. But what was most amazing about it was that, while Nicole IS brilliant in her creative marketing ideas, she simply rolled up her sleeves and did it.

And that my friends is what sets Nicole Dean, and other successful online marketers, apart from the rest- apart from the hopefuls and wannabe’s.

You can sit around and need inbound links, want to sell more product, or wish you could recruit more affiliates- or you can download these tools and take action.

I’m off to quit talking about it, and get started setting up these awesome tools…

One way link building is an important part of your overall SEO strategy. The major search engines view these as high quality inbound links – when done right.

In this post I’ll give you 7 simple one way link building strategies that give your Link Reputation a nice little boost, and also bring in highly targeted traffic all on their own.

One Way Links are valuable because they are viewed as truer votes towards your web page. The exception is sponsored links, or one way links that are obviously purchased. There are a number of ways that Google can tell this, which is one of the reasons that a permanent inbound link tends to gain more weight over time.

Easy One Way Link Building Strategies

The goal is to get permanent one way links pointing to your web pages, whether that be the main page of your site or internal pages or blog posts on your domain. You need a good number of quality deep links to those internal pages to boost your overall Link Reputation. Following are 7 very easy ways to achieve that…

1. Interviews

Interviews come in all shapes and sizes, and you can really get creative with this one. A traditional audio interview on a webinar, podcast or online radio show will usually get you a link on the host’s site and also a mention to their mailing list (even better if those newsletters are archived online).

I prefer text interviews on relevant blogs, as they give you a high quality contextual link from a relevant content page. This can be done by answering a series of questions via email that are then published on the blog.

Another option is Q&A style, which is fun and easy.

Examples:
Advantage & Disadvantage of Outsourcing Q&A Style
Lynn Terry of ClickNewz an interview Text Interview
Life Change: Interview with Lynn Terry Text Interview
On Becoming a Market Leader Audio Interview
Lynn Terry Affiliate Marketing Success BlogTalkRadio Interview

2. Guest Blogging

Interviews are great, but guest blogging is even better for one way link building. Why? Because as the author of the content on the page that is linking to your page, you have full control over that link.

You can choose the keyword phrase to optimize the blog post, choose the page you want to link to that is relevant to that topic, and use your preferred anchor text in that backlink. And if that wasn’t reason enough to start guest blogging, you’re also putting yourself in front of an established readership in your niche!

Examples:
My Guest Post on Problogger
Guest Post on ClickNewz by Danny Cutts

3. Private Paid Link

One thing you really want to stay away from is programs or schemes designed to create your one way links, or text link brokers that sell you one way links.

These programs and brokers are really frowned upon by the major search engines and could hurt your Link Reputation rather than improving it.

This being the case, I still purchase text links from time to time – I just do it smarter. And I never purchase a temporary link, but rather a permanent contextual inbound link on a relevant content page or blog post.

How do I manage to do that? Simple: I offer bloggers a one-time payment to blog about a specific link on my site. Most of the “pay per post” brokers pay their bloggers $5-$15 for blog posts, so that price range is suitable – particularly for B-list or C-list bloggers. I usually use Job Boards on forums to make the offer.

I do not specify anchor text, give them more than one page or blog post to choose from, and just request that they blog about the topic and link back to the page/post. I do this because I want link variation, and because I’m buying “advertising” or “buzz” – rather than specifically buying text links.

Never use a broker. Do it yourself, or hire a virtual assistant to manage it. Period.

4. Article Marketing

Submitting articles to article directories is similar to guest blogging in that you have complete control over the content and the link. This is a great method that people have been using successfully for years.

In addition to getting indirect rankings when your submitted article ranks well, and then funnels traffic into your site, your article can also get republished all over the web – resulting in numerous quality one way links.

Sidenote: A lot of us – newbies and experienced marketers alike – are taking Jeff Herrings new article marketing e-course. It’s cheap and it’s awesome – super great investment to really nail this strategy.

Examples:
My latest article on EzineArticles.com
Quick Start To Setting Up Your First Blog Article at EzineArticles
Republished here, here and here (to name a few).

5. Testimonials

Most merchants won’t publish a live outbound link to your site from their sales page, but if you get creative you might just be able to get a link from their blog or an internal page on their website pointing to your review or case study of their product.

I’m actually seeing an example of this in the SERPs now with a page I’m trying to beat out for their #3 listing. By analyzing their backlinks, I discovered the merchant was linking to their review.

Look for merchants that link out to reviews, give live links in testimonials, or that have blogs. If they have a blog you can offer a detailed case study or success story as a guest post, which includes the link to your review of their product.

6. DMOZ Directory

Meh. Good luck. But if you can manage to get a one way link by submitting and getting an approved listing in the DMOZ directory – go you!

Here’s the link: http://www.dmoz.org/help/submit.html

7. Social Bookmarking

Ideally you should include social bookmarking buttons on your blog posts or web pages to encourage your readers to bookmark your content. This is the best and most natural way to get one way links from this source.

You can also set up your own social bookmarking accounts, but my advice is that for every link of your own that you bookmark… you should bookmark 5 or 10 other links on domains or properties you do not own. This keeps it natural, and resourceful.

See: Top DoFollow Social Bookmarking Sites by PageRank & Alexa Rank

Also download and read Social Media Daily by Michelle MacPhearson

8. Bonus One Way Link Building Tip!

This bonus tip is actually one of my favorite one way link building strategies. It’s so slick you’ll be shocked at how simple and effective it is. And it’s easy too – you don’t even have to request a single backlink for this one…

Write content so great that you get unsolicited one-way links to your page from all over the web. That’s it. This post serves as a good example.

Best,

Also See: How Many Backlinks Do I Need?

Last week on Twitter I asked everyone about their favorite WordPress Plugins, specifically for the Comments section.

There were some great responses, so I thought I would share those here for you to check out as well…

PPCmom (Jen) asked How do you “nest” comments on your blog, Lynn? I like how comments and replies are threaded.

My reply: Good question – I outsourced that, but I’ll ask

@PaulShort: threaded comments are built in to WordPress, but your theme or design has to be set to display it that way. There are options in WP that allow you to do that. (Paul actually customized my CSS to create the threaded/nested comments you see here on ClickNewz.com)

What Are Your Favorite WordPress Plugins for Comments?

@BobtheTeacher comment relish is awesome; sends an email to someone first time they comment.

Comment relish is a Wordpress plugin developed to send an e-mail message to users who comment on your website who have never commented before. It allows you to send out a genuine thank-you style / relishing message that informs your readers of what else is going on. Details

@CreativeAgentVA Take a look at @Disqus http://disqus.com/comments/
@Marcglon I’m testing Disqus right now for the social integration – all good so far. It’s pretty sexy

Disqus Comments is a comment system and moderation tool for your site. This service lets you add next-gen community management and social web integrations to any site on any platform. Details

@ShannonCole CommentLuv is pretty good. http://bit.ly/14fx4l
@BigGirlBlue I like “comment luv”.
@JanetBarclay Another #wordpress comment plugin suggestion: Comment Luv

CommentLuv will visit the site of the comment author while they type their comment and retrieve a selection of their last blog posts, tweets or digg submissions which they can choose one from to include at the bottom of their comment when they click submit. Details

@kiwichamp latest comment luv has clean RSS so even better – also my vote is “tweet this”

TweetThis Adds a “Tweet This Post” link to every post and page. Shortens URLs. Can automatically tweet new and scheduled blog posts. Customizable. Details

@bradmarolf I’ve found the Action Comments plugin useful for helping build my list- http://bit.ly/1gfzrj

Action Comments ($17) “SNATCHES your visitors’ information from your blog comment forms… and adds them to your mailing list.” Details

@sweatyshop I also use keyword luv

KeywordLuv is a WordPress plugin, which rewards your commentators by separating their name from their keywords in the link to their website in the comments. (Cool) Details

@AndyBeard Lucia’s Linky Love, Ajax Edit Comments

Lucia’s Linky Love: Are you tired of human comment spammers leaving insipid, irrelevant comments just to get link-juice? Lucia’s Linky Love is the dofollow plugin for you! Details

@BradStCroix Here’s one Lynn http://bit.ly/pcv4N – great for product review blogs. Users rate – conversions skyrocket

GD Star Rating plugin allows you to set up rating and review system for posts, pages and comments in your blog. You can set many options for displaying the rating stars, and also add widgets into the sidebars for displaying top ratings and other statistics. Details

Best,

The developers of XSitePro have come out with a new web design training course titled The Complete Guide to Website Building.

This release comes on the heels of an in-depth study they did last year to find out exactly what type of web design training, online marketing and ebiz training people really wanted and needed – and how they wanted it to be delivered.

The result is an online web design training system (virtual classroom) with 27 modules that you can take at your own pace.

If you devour the course at fast pace you can complete it in as little as one week, but most will complete the course in a month or two. You are actually given an entire year to complete the course, which gives you an opportunity to go back through modules at your leisure.

I have not had opportunity to review The Complete Guide to Website Building myself, but it is getting rave reviews – some of which you’ll see when you visit their website.

I have a background in web development, and so I generally hand-code my HTML – or use Dreamweaver for what little I do in an actual web design software program. That said, creating a website is probably one of the topics that gets raised most in my discussion forum… and the one aspect of starting an online business that people tend to struggle with most.

I have often recommended WordPress, XSitePro, or hiring a web designer – which are the 3 easiest options for someone who is just starting out.

Since this new web design training course was developed by the makers of XSitePro, I emailed them to ask if the course was proprietary – or specific to the XSitePro software. Here is the reply I received:

Hi Lynn,

Thank you for your email.

It is a course totally about web site building. Obviously, to build a web site you need some kind of tool such as Dreamweaver or XSitePro, and obviously we have chosen the latter to base the course round.

In addition to learning about XSitePro the person also learns lots more too so it isn’t an XSitePro training course, per se, it is a Web site building course.

Best regards,
Melissa Tafa

That makes sense. The course is $197, and the XSitePro web design software is also $197, so if you wanted a software program with a complete web design training course to go with it, the total price of $394 is actually a really good deal.

Especially compared to the price of hiring a web designer, or to the amount of time it takes to learn web design on your own.

If you’re looking for a website development solution, check out both of these products as a potential all-in-one solution to designing and managing your own websites:

• Web Design Training Course
• XSitePro Web Design Software

Best,

p.s. One of the reasons I recommend XSitePro is because it’s very user friendly for beginners, and you can use it to create as many websites as you like.

There are no additional licensing fees for additional websites, and no recurring fees or monthly charges. It is simply a web design program you can use on unlimited websites, with any host you choose.

Writing content is an integral part of running an online business. From website content to blogging to article marketing, you need a constant flow of various types of content.

Each piece of content should work together to walk your visitor in and through the process, and each is an opportunity to make a positive impression and begin building a relationship.

Your goal is to turn your visitor into a loyal reader or a lifetime customer.

With that in mind, every piece of web content you create must have a clear objective. Knowing exactly what you want to accomplish – or what you want the reader to do – will help you create content in a specific order and with a clear purpose.

Let’s start by looking at an obvious example:

This example is not your typical web content writing – it’s about setting up a simple squeeze page to build an opt-in mailing list. It makes for a good example though, as there are a number of little pieces of content that go into that process.

You need content on the actual offer page, on the redirect page, the confirmation page, in the confirmation email and the follow up message, for the autoresponder series, etc:

That is, of course, my own simplified legal pad version of content mapping

How you map out your web content writing plan is not as important as the fact that you do. It allows you to see each element of the process, and focus on the specific purpose for each of those individual elements.

Last week we talked about Improving the Customer Experience. I used the example of going out to dinner, and all of the elements that make up that experience – the atmosphere, the noise level, the service, quality of food.

But online, the elements of your visitors’ experience are made up of various pieces of content.

Content is your biggest asset in an online business. It helps you rank well in the major search engines, get links from other websites, attract your target market, and convert those visitors into buyers or subscribers.

Good content keeps your list warm, keeps people opening your emails, or keeps people reading your blog – and it’s also going to keep the search engines coming back and give you more and more exposure to new visitors in the search results.

Your content is ultimately what makes the sale.

When you get ready to write, consider your objective upfront. A lot of people will say that their objective is to write content so they’ll get more traffic – you know, that whole thing about fresh content being “spider food” or attracting the search engine spiders?

Just getting traffic is fine if you have large advertisers that pay per impression, but for most of us traffic in general is completely pointless. Our real objective is conversions – whether that be to build our list, sell our products, or sell products as an affiliate.

So figure out your objective upfront – which means: know what you want your visitor to do when they visit your page, or after they’ve read your content. That way you can write in such a way that your web content leads into that specific call-to-action.

Now if you blog, and you’re writing daily for your blog, every single post may not be written for selling. Sometimes your call-to-action can be as simple as asking your readers’ thoughts and engaging them in a discussion through the comments section.

Or you might write a blog post or send an email to your list between promotions that is specifically for relationship building, or keeping that connection warm – and that’s okay too. It’s a necessary part of the process.

On the topic of web content writing, the question I get asked most is how to know what to write, and how to know what to publish where. Should this go on my blog, on my website, or should it be submitted to an article directory? Should I email this content to my subscribers, or put it on my blog and then email them a link to the blog post?

The answer to all of these questions lies in your objective, and in the specific purpose of each piece of content that you write. The best advice that I can offer is that you step back and get a birds-eye view of your business model. Look at it like a map – and look at each piece of content as a segment of that map.

- – - – - – - – - –

Find your ideal visitor. Connect with them where they are. Lead them in a specific direction. Communicate with them on their level at every step. Introduce your solution or offer. Answer their objections or concerns. Show them how or where to order. Follow-up with interest and support. Help them make the most of their purchase. Offer them additional resources or products to achieve their objective.

- – - – - – - – - –

That’s just one simple example of a basic online selling process. Take a close look at your business model, and your overall objective, and consider ways you can improve on your process.

The best way to do that is to create a web content mindmap. It doesn’t matter if you use mindmapping software, a whiteboard, or a plain old legal pad. Map out the content you need to write, and where it needs to be published, in what order… to achieve your specific objective.

Best,

p.s. Stay tuned as I have more web content writing tips in this series, including tips for sending emails your subscribers will love, answers to common content writing questions… and an a-ha moment when I reveal my own purpose for writing this series – and the unexpected source where this series began.

Subscribe below so you don’t miss a thing!

Can social media make you famous?

Come on, you know you’ve thought about it. Who can resist dreaming about a post going viral and getting hundreds of thousands of visitors? Or having tens of thousands of followers on Twitter who follow your every move? Or checking your email and having hundreds of messages from your adoring fans?

It can happen. I know, because I helped make it happen for my friend Brea Grant.

In 2008, Brea called to tell me she had just been offered a major role on the third season of the mega-popular NBC show Heroes, and she wanted me to help her leverage the opportunity. I’d previously created a website to help her connect with casting directors, but now we both realized she was going to need a strategy to connect with fans.

A crash course in connection

Over the next few months, I gave Brea a crash course in social media. She learned how to use Twitter and Facebook, YouTube and Ustream. We also launched a blog.

The purpose of each tool wasn’t just to tell everyone what she was doing or what she thought about something. It was to help her connect directly with her fans and build a relationship with them.

It worked. Or, I should say she worked. Brea did everything I asked her to do and more, and the result is that she’s created a fan base that followed her beyond her character’s untimely demise on Heroes. The contacts she made online also led to the creation and contract with IDW to publish her first comic book We Will Bury You, due in early 2010.

And me? It’s safe to say I learned a ton.

How this applies to you

After his success launching a consulting service here at Copyblogger, Jon Morrow asked me to share some of the lessons I’ve picked up from working with Brea.

Through my work with my own clients, I’ve found that these are universal truths that work for small businesses, professional bloggers, hobby bloggers, and anyone who just wants to raise their online profile.

I hope you enjoy them . . . and be sure to read to the end to see how this applies to you, not just celebrities.

Lesson #1: Find your blog’s core purpose

Here’s a question that never seems to go away: what is a blog?

Is it a public journal? An online magazine? An extended way to connect with friends and family?

And the answer is . . . a blog is whatever your audience needs it to be.

People visit Brea’s blog to experience a personal connection with Brea. Visitors might receive this from chatting with her on Twitter, listening to the same music she listens to, or just getting a glimpse of her day-to-day life.

Whatever your topic, you need to get crystal clear on why people are there.

Is it to read the hilarious details of your personal life? Watch detailed how-to videos on watercolor painting? Hear your latest celebrity rant?

It doesn’t matter what it is, only that you know it and ruthlessly eliminate anything that gets in the way.

Lesson #2: Ditch the distractions

As Brea’s fame has increased, we’ve received countless offers to add bells and whistles that “polish” her site and social media presence. Many of these tools are very cool and cutting edge but would ultimately get in the way of our core purpose: a personal connection with Brea.

So we turned them all down.

I’ve seen lots of my other clients struggle with this problem too, although usually on a smaller scale. If you’re starting a blog, for instance, you might get distracted by polishing and re-polishing your blog design, learning about ad networks, or experimenting with dozens of the latest WordPress plug-ins. More likely than not though, all of those things are just distractions for both you and your audience.

Before you do anything online, always ask yourself: is this in line with the core purpose of what I’m trying to accomplish?

If it’s not, then ditch it. Too many useless bells and whistles don’t increase your fame. They just make it look like you have something to hide.

Lesson #3: Streamline your social networking

One day Brea called me and said, “You know I shut down my Facebook account, right?”

Well NO, I didn’t know, and she is supposed to ask me about these things first! But I agreed that it was the right move.

Why? Because Facebook had become an unmanageable beast rather than a fun place to connect with her fans.

I’m not saying to ditch social media if it’s confusing, because . . . well . . . it’s always confusing. But if you’ve made a genuine attempt to learn the culture of a site and engage with it and it just ain’t doin’ it for you, try something else.

Maybe your tribe isn’t there, or maybe it just makes you cranky. Either way, it’s not going to be effective. Move on.

Lesson #4: Focus on your talents

Brea loves Twitter. She likes the short updates, ease of use, and how easy it is to get into one-on-one dialogue with fans. She also loves blogging, especially sharing the music she’s listening to and books that she’s reading.

Surprisingly, she’d much rather write than video blog. Being yourself on camera is quite different than playing someone else!

You might love podcasts, or video blogging, or writing blog posts. Whatever your flavor, you’re going to shine in a space when you pick the one that is best suited to your natural abilities.

This is NOT a get-out-of-jail-free card for learning new skills! You’ll never know whether or not you thrive in a medium until you practice and get comfortable with it. The point is that you don’t have to do everything. Try it all, and then stick with whatever works best.

Lesson #5: Take advantage of your opportunities

Okay, let’s be honest. Did social media make Brea Grant famous? Or was it all about being on a mega-popular TV show like Heroes?

The honest answer: both.

Lots of actors land a role on a popular show, fail to capitalize on it, and then disappear forever. Lots of aspiring actors also try to build a following with social media and never make it.

To a large extent, success online (or in life in general) is about doing both. You have to work hard until the right opportunity shows up, and then you have to make sure you leverage it to its maximum potential.

Social media can help get other people talking about you, but first you have to do something worth talking about.

Want to learn how?

I’m guessing you’ve figured out that I have a course on how to use social media to generate buzz around your career or business. It’s called Creating Fame, and it builds on my experience in helping clients do exactly that.

But how about some free videos first?

In Creating Fame, I talk about the importance of giving away high-quality free content to create a greater connection with your audience, and that’s exactly what I’d like to do here.

Take a look at my Creating Fans Out Of Thin Air Video. If it looks like something you’re interested in, just leave your name and email address for more than two hours of additional free content, including a video from Brea.

Whether or not you’re interested in the course, I think you’ll learn a lot from the free videos. Click here to check them out.

About the Author: Laura Roeder is a social media consultant and the founder of Creating Fame.