Over the years, I have seen great posts that I have learned from and every day I look for more and more because one little thing can make a big difference to my online business. You see everyday there is a new skill to learn, or a new contact that you should be in touch with and unless your finger is directly on the pulse, you are going to miss out. Now I know I have some very loyal readers here at IncomeDiary.com and I would hate for you to miss out on some great skills, techniques and simple tricks and tips that can make the difference between 10 website views and 10,000 website views so here we have a huge list of what I feel are the best lessons you could learn TODAY.

Remember that as online entrepreneurs and website owners we run the risk of being left behind because the internet is a very fast paced industry to work within. That being said, these neat little articles and resources should have you up-to-date and ahead of the game. I hope these all help you massively, and if you Know some blog posts that should have been featured in this post then please do leave them in the comments and we will add them!

#1 Optimizing Your Blog For Search Engines

Optimization of your blog is one of the biggest tasks that you can do to aid your blog on the internet. With literally millions of other people and blogs to compete with; you have to work hard to stay ahead of the game. So many people manage to cover most areas of importance when starting a blog with the exception of SEO. This can be disastrous for your blogs future and because of this you need to learn as much as you possibly can about the subject. Get clued up on SEO and you will be one step ahead of the competition! Here are some useful resources for you to get geared up and start optimizing your blog the right way.

Articles:

The Definitive Guide To Higher Rankings For Your Blog
WordPress SEO: The Only Guide You Need Your Blog
How To Optimize Your Blog For Search Engines

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#2 Get More Back-Links (For SEO And Traffic)

Back-links are an integral part of blogging which massively aids your visibility in the search engines which in turn converts to a higher amount of traffic coming through to your blog. I see a lot emails everyday that are basically asking questions such as “Are back-links important?”, “Should I be setting my sights on gaining more back-links?” and ” How can I get more back-links for my blog?”. All of the above questions are valid and important ones which need answering because understanding back-links, their purpose and their importance can aid you a great deal in becoming a top competitor in your choice of niche. To help you I have searched through dozens of websites to find the very best articles to further your knowledge of this mysterious topic.

Articles:

How To Really Build Backlinks And Dominate Google
How To Get Backlinks To Increase Your Traffic
How to Get Piles of Links, Subscribers and Comments

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#3 Split Test Your Website

Split testing is another topic that can dazzle blogging newcomers and can leave them dazed and confused in the wake of a ton of supposedly informative articles. The problem with many of the articles you may read on this subject is that they are usually aimed at the more advanced bloggers which can really hinder those with little to zero understanding of what split-testing actually is. I then feel it is my duty to you my readers to aid you in understanding this mysterious subject matter because I want you to succeed and to succeed as well as possible. To relieve you of suffering from an attack of information overload I  have scoured the internet yet again to find you these very well informed articles which even the newest of bloggers can easily understand; on top of this I have also added a few resources which you will find very helpful.

Articles:

The Definitive How-To Guide For Conversion Rate Optimization
What I Learned About You Through 4 Redesigns
The Ultimate Guide To A-B Testing

Websites and Resources:

Unbounce.com, CrazyEgg.com, KISSmetrics.com

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#4 Make Your Website Run Faster

It amazes me to this day that there are so few people out there that actually help their websites and blogs to run faster; the majority of people tend to create pages and posts and continue in doing so without any second thought to how their site is performing in speed. This can be a very major issue at times and it is one that I think you will great suffer from if I do not aid you in understanding how to make your website or blog run faster. I’m sure a great deal of you reading this will have, at times, been patiently waiting for a website to load only to click the ‘Back button’ and search for something different instead? If you have, and you HAVE clicked that button; what makes you think that your readers will not do the same if YOUR site is running at a snails pace? Let’s get your site moving faster than a speeding bullet (well almost) with these great articles and a brilliant resource that I have found for you.

Articles:

Speeding Up WordPress
How to speed up your blog (the non technical guide)
11 Ways to Speed Up WordPress

Websites and Resources:

MaxCDN.com

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#5 Launch Your Own Product

Launching your own product is a great way to make more money online and depending on the product you choose to create it can can cost you anything from zero to thousands of dollars. Obviously whilst starting up your online blog or website you are going to be a little strapped for cash so it makes sense to capitalize on the products that can make you the most money without having to spend any (or at least not much of it). How you decide to go about releasing your own product is entirely your choice but there are ways of doing this that are just better than others. To help you understand more here are some really great articles and resources for you to take in.

Articles:

How I Wrote a $30,000 eBook (And You Can Too)
How To Launch Your First Product Using Clickbank
Selling Your Own Product Online – 6 Easy Steps To 6 Figures

Websites & Resources:

OptimizePress, ClickBank, Digital Access Pass

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#6 Improve Your Affiliate Marketing On Your Website

Affiliate marketing is a great way to start earning money with your blog or website but do you know all that you need to in order to make your campaigns successful? There are a lot of people out there that understand what an affiliate marketing campaign is but they often do not understand how to effectively use these campaigns to their advantage. Here is a quick article for you to get clued up with, I hope you find it useful! IncomeDiary.com

Article:

How To Monetize Your Blog – How I Really Make Money From My Website
How to Increase Your Site Traffic and Succeed with Your Affiliate Marketing Programs
Improve Your Affiliate Marketing With Web Analytics Reports

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#7 Try Different Forms Of Monetization

It’s important to diversify your income in order to make more of it, it sounds simple and in reality it is a simple thing to do; however there are a lot of people out there blogging that simply stay focused on just one stream of income and this can be detrimental to what they are trying to achieve. Maybe you are one of these people? Have you started to make money in one certain way and just stuck to that technique? If you have I commend you in taking action and giving yourself a great head-start; the problem is that you are too focused on that one stream of income to see that there are probably a dozen other ways to make even more money online. Some of those ways may even be 100% more effective! Here are some great articles as well as a handy resource for you all to digest.

Article:

Top 7 tips I used to make $41,438.42 in 2009 with Amazon Associates
101 Ways to Monetize Your Blog Without Irritating Your Readers
101 Ways to Monetize Your Website or Blog

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#8 Increase Your Subscribers

This is another major question that a lot of new bloggers ask and while it is a valid and important question it is also very simple to put into effect. Some bloggers give up when they are unable to find new subscribers and this should not be the case, instead it should make you even more passionate about your blog because you want it to be the best it can be; subscribers are definitely the way forward for numerous reasons and loyal ones will aid you greatly whether by spreading the word about your blog by mouth or by a review on your site or maybe even a YouTube video, there is no question that subscribers are the life support that your blog needs in order to stay top of the ladder. Here are a couple of articles to help you discover new ways to attract and keep potential subscribers of your blog or website.

Articles:

How I Grew My RSS Subscription Count By 243
10 Effective Ways To Get More Blog Subscribers
11 Ways to Find New RSS Subscribers for Your Blog

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#9 Work On Your Email Marketing

So you have created your blog, you have traffic heading to it on a daily basis and you have even started to build up an email list; how do you go about marketing via email? Well to help you find out the answers to that question I have swept the net in order to bring you some very good articles. Email marketing can be very good at bringing in extra income so it is vitally important for you to understand the hows and whys of the subject matter. I hope you find these articles really a big help and who knows if you take action today you could see a new stream of income heading your way tomorrow!

Articles:

A Plain Text User’s Guide To HTML Email
More Opt-ins, More Leads, More Sales – Email Marketing Made Easy
How To Build An Email List – A Getting Started Guide

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#10 Effectively Network With Your Competition and Other Bloggers

Networking is a very important part of being a blogger, businessman or entrepreneur! People can get so fixated on what they are doing at their desks that they disconnect with the real world and forget it even exists! This can have a very bad effect on both your blog and your personal life; yes it is important to get the work that needs to be done, done. However it is even more important to have a work-life balance that will allow you to enjoy what you have. Networking is a great way to enjoy the best of both worlds; you can go out to events and to seminars, meet your mentors, meet your fans, it’s just a very satisfying part of the business of working online. You aso get to meet your competition which is great because you can build rapport with them which could potentially turn into something that will aid both of you, maybe a joint venture of some sort? Who knows? Here’s an article on effectively networking with your comptition and other bloggers.

Article:

Why No One Links To Your Best Posts (And What To Do About It)
Why Networking with Other Bloggers is Important
10 Ways to Let Your Competition Be Your Guide

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#11 Make Sure Your Blog Is Secure!

Hackers, Spammers they are all out to get you, no matter who you are, what niche your blog is involved in or even how long you have been online. It can feel as though it is a personal vendetta against you but don’t take it personally it happens to the best of us. This is why it is important to look after your blogs security so that you can continue to give your readers valuable content without being constantly attacked by an unknown force. Spammers are constantly sending emails to just about every blog on the planet and although they in themselves are not damaging, the messages that they can leave all over your blog can be. It’s better to be safe than sorry so check out this article to help you understand how to secure your blog better.

Article:

WordPress Security
7 simple steps to make your WordPress blog more secure
5 Ways to Secure Your Blog

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#12 Improve Your Blog Design

This is yet another topic that brings with it numerous amounts of daily emails; improving the design of your blog is right up there with SEO in terms of bringing in new subscribers. Sure the SEO does all of the hard work, bringing the traffic to your site; but the design can be just as important. I’m sure most of you have had the experience of clicking on a top ranked result in Google for one of your searches, only to find that once the website has loaded the design is absolutely dire! So what do you do? You go ahead and click on the ‘Back button’ yet again, and this is something that your very own readers could end up doing. That’s why it is important to get the design just right from the word go; this isn’t to say you should pour thousands of dollars into it (you can do that later when you are ready to upgrade) it simply means that you should try and stand out from the crowd and become a shepherd instead of a sheep.

Articles:

20 Design Features That Will Make Your Blog Stand Out From The Crowd!
20 Ways To Make Your Website Crap!
What Makes Good Blog Design?

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#13 Improve Your Website Code

I think this is something that 80% of bloggers know nothing about; and it is a shame really because improving the code on your site can be very rewarding. The internet is built on the foundations of thousands of codes and algorithms, so are the search engines and believe it or not so is your blog or website. It may sound a little confusing but by making your coding look ‘beautiful’ you can really get the best out of your blog; the question you may have on your lips is “How can code be beautiful?” a very valid point. Beautiful code is what helps; the search engines find you, the browsers to correctly display your content and your readers read your content. So when I say make your code beautiful I mean it.

Articles:

10 Basic Tips For Improving WordPress Themes
10 Ways To Improve Your Web Page Performance
8 useful recipes to improve your WordPress theme

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#14 Drive More Traffic To Your Website

Red means stop, green means go right? So why is it that so many bloggers have put a red light on their blogs traffic? It is so easy to bring in traffic when you understand how but the majority of bloggers seem to think that by adding a few keyword and tags they will have the planets population flowing towards their site like a huge gravitational pull within the online world. In reality this very rarely works. Sure there have been over-night success stories but the majority of people will find that if all they are doing is adding a few tags; they will receive a few readers. It stands to reason doesn’t it? If people out on the internet do not know that your blog or website even exists then how can they come and view it? Like wise with the search engines, can you really blame them for placing you on the 5th or 6th page of results if you only have a couple of one-word keywords? Never fear though, because as always IncomeDiary.com is at hand to give you the vital information you need. Check out these two articles to learn more.

Articles:

Blog Traffic Secrets – The Fastest Way To 1000 Visitors Per Day
19 Tips For Driving Traffic To Your Blog
How to Attract Links and Increase Web Traffic – The Ultimate Guide

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#15 Work On Your Blog Content

Fresh ideas are sometimes hard to come by, it’s not that you have lost passion, or that you care less its that you feel you have ran out of things to say, or how to make them jump out the page to your readers. This can all be remedied with a couple of articles (below) and some good old fashioned elbow-grease. Remember that blogging is not just about adding page after page of content, it is about inspiring people, aiding them in their daily tasks, showing them the pitfalls so they can go around them. It’s also about creating content that simply appeals to the masses; whether that means adding fewer or more images, a video or maybe an mp3 audio file on your posts. Never worry about a lack of content it’s all there you just need to find it and make it interesting.

Articles:

10 Tips For Content Marketing Success
How To Write Great Blog Content – The Pillar Article
Make Your Blog Content Work Twice as Hard

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#16 Work On Your Blog Pages

Pages, Posts and Categories can become confusing, some bloggers get lost at the very start because they do not understand the difference, and it really can be confusing when you are starting off and learning a ton of different things all at once – information overload! Whilst blogging there are going to be certain pages that you just need to have and you can easily forget all about them until it is too late, which is not a good thing. However as always I’d hate to see you get stuck right off the bat, so I have managed to find you a couple of golden nuggets to help you out. (okay so I wrote one of them but hey, its certainly helped many others).

Articles:

20 Pages Every Blogger Needs To Have On their Blog
404 Error pages in WordPress
The First Week of Your Blog: Set Up Key Pages

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#17 Working On Your Social Media

Social networks can be devastating to your competitors if you know how to use them to your advantage, and I am sure that at least the majority of you reading this will have accounts with at least one of the big three (Facebook, Twitter, Myspace) so why not use these accounts to bring you more traffic, more subscribers and more importantly more income! My good friend Pat has written an article on exactly this subject matter so if you want to learn more about how social networks can help you then I suggest you click the link below and find out more!

Article:

The Bloggers Guide To Facebook
30 videos to build your brand using social networks (season1 wrap-up)
Make Twitter Work For You

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#18 Tracking and Analyzing Your Traffic

Again this is something that a lot of bloggers fail to do, or fail to understand the importance of doing it. Tracking and analyzing can help you with your blog or website in a plethora of ways; all of which can bring in a great deal of income. Do you understand how the average user of your site reads your content? Do you know how many times that ‘Click Here’ link has been clicked? If not then how can you have a definite idea of where you are going right, and more importantly where you are going wrong. If you are able to track and analyze your blog or website then you can find what you are doing wrong, change it, and keep doing so until the problem no longer arises. you see, with tracking and analysis, comes real opportunity to make your blog better, which is what we all want isn’t it?

Article:

Launching a New Website: 18 Steps to Successful Metrics & Marketing
Analyze Your Traffic in Google Analytics
Analytics Toolbox: 50+ Ways to Track Website Traffic

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How Do I Get Products For FREE to Review On My Blog?

Frankly, few people know as much about this subject as Robb does – as her demonstrated in his recent interview for this site.

I think you will agree, Robb has done an awesome job, and just for the record, he is not paying me or rewarding me in any way for featuring him here. Armed with the information Robb has supplied I am confident a good number of you are going to set up some amazing review blogs – gee, I am even considering it myself

If you want to learn more about creating a review blog and getting products for FREE to review on your site, then check out Robb’s eBook, Ramped Blogging!

Enjoy the interview – I look forward to your comments.

Best Wishes

Michael

How To Get Products For FREE To Review On Your Blog

An article by: Robb Sutton

Robb Sutton

With the recent fire from the FTC in the United States requiring full disclosures from bloggers on their relationships with firms in regards to product reviews – product reviewing on blogs has gotten its 5 minutes of fame. The thing is that in reality, legitimate product reviewing on blogs and other media outlets has been going on since the beginning, and they can be a tremendous source of traffic, subscribers and revenue for your blog.

If you take a minute and scour your favorite blogs on the web, you will find a very high percentage of those blogs review a product related to their niche periodically. As you look around, you might find that your favorite blogs are reviewing product a lot more than you originally thought! Before we jump into the how…let’s look at the why on both sides of the fence.

Why Do Bloggers Review Products On Their Blogs?

As a blogger, this is an easy question for you to answer, but lets break it down to the basics. Why do you want to post product reviews on your blog?

Useful, Quality Blog Content - Product reviews are a source of quality content for your blog. Your readers want to know what you think about products and services that relate to your niche. Your blog is their resource for topic related information, and – by providing this resource – you can assist your readers by providing useful information that impacts buying decisions. By offering product reviews on your blog, you are expanding the resourcefulness of your content for your readers.

Search Engine Gold – For quite sometime now, I have been calling product reviews search engine gold for a reason. Properly written product reviews can bring a massive amount of new visitors to your blog. By writing product reviews, you are targeting long and short tail keyword strings that have very low competition. Over time, you will create a massive library of content that is extremely search engine friendly. On top of that, product reviews are attractive link bait as other bloggers, forum users and general internet emailers will link to your review articles as a resource for information.

Increased Blog Revenue – Product reviews are still the number one way to increase affiliate revenue on blogs. Want to increase your affiliate sales outside of the pennies you are generating from banner ad placement? Review that product on your site and include your affiliate link at the bottom of your review to increase conversions. Little tip: Honest reviews that outline both the good and bad on a product convert at a much higher rate than glorified advertisements.

Why Do Companies Give Bloggers Product To Review?

Now we know why you want to review product on your blog, but why do manufactures, firms and service providers actually want to give you their product to review for nothing (or even for a fee!)?

Cheap, Long Lasting Advertising and Promotion – Once a newspaper or magazine hits the newsstand, you see the ads and then throw that mag away until the next issue comes out. That advertisement is only good until the next issue. With the web, your product review stays on your blog unless you decide to shut it down. The company that provides you with the review product get the increased benefit of long term promotion by giving you something to review on your blog. Future readers will find the article in the archives, search engine users will find your review in the results and you will refer back to your product reviews over time. For the company in question, you – as the blogger – provide more value with a product review over the larger media competition.

Did I Mention Cheap? – What many bloggers fail to realize is the true cost of the review product provided to the blogger. For the company involved, their true manufacturing cost is the cost to them. What did it cost the company to product the product for review? Not nearly what it costs off the shelf for the typically retail buyer. When you convert this to software and services, all of their costs are in the back end development, so they are even more willing to work with bloggers to get the word out because the true cost is an email!

Social Media Is Changing The Retail Environment - If someone would have told you 10 years ago that Amazon.com would be the largest book retailer in the world and the iTunes music store would be the largest music retailer in the world, would you have believed them? The online world has completely changed how people shop and make purchasing decisions. Firms, companies and service providers know this and they want to tap into your audience. Free review product is their ticket to the big show that converts into increased sales.

How Do I Get Free Product To Review On My Blog?

Unless you are an internet hot shot who already has a huge amount of credibility online, you are going to have to cold call, email and fax your perspective review product companies. For many bloggers, this can be a nerve racking road as they have little experience in the corporate sales and marketing world. Here are a couple of tips to get you going…

Research Before Contacting - If you are just starting out in review blogging, do some research and see which companies in your niche will be receptive to giving out free product for review purposes. Check out other blogs in your niche and look for patterns. Is there one or two companies that seem to have reviews on every site? Contact those companies first with your idea and try to look for one of their products that is not well represented online (not a lot of reviews). This will be a great starting point to get things rolling and increase your chances of success on the first go ’round.

Contact Perspective Companies By Email – Email rules the world at this point in time, so you are going to have to research the company and find a valid email address. Many times, this email address will go to a default inbox, so it is essential that you cut the fluff at the beginning of the email and get straight to the point to insure it gets on the right computer screen. When contacting companies about review product, 100% honesty about traffic, subscribers and expectations is essential to success. With a little research, web savvy companies are going to be able to tell if you are stretching the truth and your credibility is shot. Even small blogs can get a ton of review product if they are creative and stick to the honest truth.

Do Not Limit Yourself To Email - Especially with larger companies, your email can get trashed without even being read. If the companies website lists contact information for sales and marketing professionals within the firm, contact those specific people via fax or snail mail with what you would like to accomplish on your blog. Most bloggers are not doing this and it will show your dedication to targeted results.

Stay In Contact – Once you have reached an agreement, stay in contact with updates. Send an email when you receive the product, when you finish the review process, once the review is posted and a follow up email with educated results. It is your job as the blogger to keep them informed, so take that part of your job seriously.

Reviewing Tips That Equal Affiliate Conversions

There is a misconception among bloggers and other review naysayers that there are glorified advertisements on the web to convert into sales even when the product is terrible. The truth…those glorified advertisement convert at a rate that is much lower than an honest review from a blogger. As a blogger, the credibility of your content is everything. New and old readers are going to absorb your content and present their own educated opinions based upon how you presented the facts. If you throw up a review that is blatantly positive in an attempt to increase revenue on your blog, the reader is going to see straight through it and leave your site (without clicking your affiliate link).

The #1 best way to increase affiliate sales is to be completely honest and fact based in your reviewing.

Spell Out The Perfect Consumer For The Product In Question – A perfect way to convert visitors into affiliate income is to spell out exactly who you think the product would be perfect for! Is there a certain group in your niche that would greatly benefit from that product while another might not see any benefit? Lay that out for them. Your readers want to know if that product will work to fill their needs…so tell them!

Show The Good And Bad - There is no such thing as a perfect product. By specifically stating the good and bad points, you are showing that there is also room for improvement. The side affect to this is that companies eat this information up as constructive feedback to make their product better in future revisions. By stating what you think the high and low points are…you are adding value to your review process.

Keep Things Fact Based – Your opinion is your opinion, but it needs to be based off of fact. If you throw up a review that is a bunch of opinion with no reason why…you are going to have a difficult time with review blogging. Every one of your opinions on the product need to be backed up with facts.

Review Blogging – The Big Picture

Review blogging is a great resource to companies within a niche, the blogger and the readers when done correctly. As with most things in life, when you stay honest and work hard at completing a task, good things result. The reason for the FTC disclosure regulations is from black hat techniques that are completely monetary focused by questionable internet marketers. As a blogger, you should want to continue to provide valuable resources for your readers and your niche. By providing 100% honest product reviews, you are achieving just that.

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A Footnote By Michael:

If you have not already done so then you should check out the recent announcement by the FTC in the USA that Amateur Bloggers must Disclose Freebies when doing a review or be fined (Actually, there is much more to it than this one point)

I know many of you are thinking, well I am not in USA, so this does not apply to me. My view is that is is good practice to have Full Disclosure in any case no matter where up are located.

Here is helpful link that goes into more details:
FTC Tells Amateur Bloggers to Disclose Freebies or Be Fined

I should also here do my usual Legal and Financial disclaimer – namely, I am not qualified to provide such legal or financial advice, anything you read here is merely discussion, you must do your own due diligence before making a decision.