If you haven’t started using article marketing to drive targeted traffic to your blog, you’re leaving money on the table. Now that I’ve shown you how article marketing works here:

Article Marketing Made Simple

I want to share with you some tips that will help make the process of actually systematizing your article writing super simple.

First of all, know that I’m not looking for journalistic quality articles.  The only thing I try to keep is my spelling and grammar correct, but other than that, the articles are generally very quickly written.

Now the way that I do that is before I sit down to write I determine how many articles I’m going to write. I have gotten to the point where I can write about seven articles per hour very comfortably.  I can actually write up to fifteen in an hour, but I’m speeding and I burn out quickly.

So I start out by setting aside however many minutes or hours I know I need based on my goal.  You’ll learn your comfort zone in no time with a bit of practice.  Some days you might be able to whip out twenty articles and other days mustering the energy to even write a word will be like pulling teeth.

So what I would do is I sit down and let’s just say I plan to work for two hours. I would say I could usually do 15 articles.

Step 1 is to write out my topics – 15 topics – and then type them right into Word so they’re there ready for me to fill them in with content. That way I don’t have to stop being creative at any point when I actually get to writing.  Alternatively, you can save article titles right into EzineArticles and write your posts there.

Step 2 is to start writing. One thing is, I write from my personal experience. I don’t do any research at all to write my articles.

When I first started, I did some research, but I don’t do any research anymore. I write from personal experience.  I give tips that share what already works for me, so I don’t spend any time researching.

I write 300-word articles on average. I write about 100 words for my introduction. For me that’s about three sentences.

1. The first sentence tells the reader what I’m getting ready to talk about.
2. The second sentence will normally set up a situation or pose a challenge. Whatever problem it is I’m trying to solve, I indicate what that problem is here.
3. The third sentence basically tells the reader that I’m going to teach them how to do it.

Then I’ll just go through a series of points, tips, answers, options, etc.  Usually this ends up being two to three paragraphs with three to four sentences in each.  By the end of that, the article is 250-350 words.

That’s about it. I don’t spend much time thinking. I just write what comes to my mind.  Don’t make it any more difficult than that because it isn’t.

Now get to writing!

It’s important when you first start out as an entrepreneur to keep a key philosophy in mind. Your goal is not to make money. Your mission is to solve problems.

This blog you’re looking at right now has been one of my most successful and that’s precisely because my goal in every action I take from posts I create to the way I answer emails to the products I promote and those I create, is to solve your problems and those of the other people who look to me for help. In doing so, I am always rewarded (in more ways than just monetarily).

That being said, there’s something I should warn you about. Success doesn’t happen magically over night out of nowhere. Success comes with effort. My goal is to minimize that effort by helping you strategize. And that sums up the story behind this blog. I took a particular interest and talent of mine (blogging) and created a niche that solves a problem people have (starting their own blog from scratch). I keep my goal straight every day in every action and always put my people first above myself. I remind myself with every action that in staying true to my people, I will be rewarded.

What does that mean? That means that when someone offers me a nearly irresistible affiliate offer and tells me I’ll receive 95% of all profits made, I turn it down if I don’t think it will benefit my people. My goal is not to make money. My goal is to solve your problems. What I’m trying to say is, in order to get, you must give.

And that’s the lesson I want you to take away with you today. You might get tired and frustrated during the initial process of setting up your blog and getting your first bit of traffic. You might not make a sale on the very first day your blog goes live. But you will make sales eventually if you keep my philosophy in mind through everything you do.

So without further ado, let me give you a quick rundown of how I went about creating The Challenge. It’s a very atypical blog because it’s a blog about blogging, but the general process can be similar for you.

1. I came up with a business model. I decided what I wanted to blog about and drafted out my vision for the future of the blog.
2. I named the blog and got it physically set up (what you did or will do in the first few steps of the 7-day free course.
3. I began creating the first blog posts and organizing The Challenge.
4. I created an optin so that people could get automated emails from me that took them through The Challenge.
5. I drove my first bit of traffic through article marketing techniques and connected with the people on my list through email.
6. I began creating books that answered some of the questions that my people asked.  I then gave them away for free, asked for feedback, improved the books, then asked them how much they felt they were worth.  I priced them accordingly.
7. I began promoting the books when people asked the specific questions they answered while continuing to create and provide free help through blog posts and email support.

That’s really about it.  Stick with me and I’ll show you the ins-and-outs.  And remember, my goal is and will always be to help you, so hit me up in the comments below and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.  

Many people who have started blogs under my guidance have come to me frustrated when they feel they’ve hit a plateau with their blogs. They were motivated and enthusiastic as they watched their blogs bring in more and more money every day but then at some point, for some reason, it all just leveled out for them and their income has leveled out no matter what they do to boost it.

So today we’re going to talk about a strategy I use that vastly increased my income when I first implemented it (I’m talking 10-times as much money). It’s called email marketing and it can literally turn your blog into a money-minting machine. Here’s how it works.

Remember how I mentioned that to really succeed, your visitors need to see an ad several times to ever even consider making a purchase? Well email marketing is a way to kill two birds with one stone. By communicating with your visitors regularly through email, you not only expose them to your “brand” more than once, but you also build a level of trust with your readers that you could never achieve with your blog alone. So let’s get right into it.

Email marketing involves signing up with an autoresponder, which allows you to pre-write emails and send them out to an email list you will build on your blog. I use AWeber for this on all my blogs. To get people to subscribe to your email list, your autoresponder provides opt-in boxes (AWeber lets you customize them to your heart’s content) where your readers input their name and email address so you can send them your email series.

In this email series you create in your autoresponder, you can send special information that goes into more depth than your blog does. Or you can offer extra information that you explicitly state is not available on your blog. You can talk in a more relaxed tone or a more serious tone to your email subscribers. Whatever you like. Whatever you think your email list wants. And then when it’s appropriate, you can recommend products or services to your list and watch as your hard work pays off.

Your blog then serves as a launching pad for a whole new level of monetization and more importantly, relationship building. I talk about relationship building (and email marketing) and its importance to blog success extensively in my newest book, The Make Money Blogging Blueprint. If you aren’t actively monetizing through email marketing on your blog, I suggest you seriously consider it. Your blog readers may come and go but your email list is yours forever.

It’s one thing getting people to come to your blog, but it’s another getting them to stick.

So it’s time to look at some techniques that will get people browsing around and coming back again for more.  You know how they say that marketers follow a certain ‘Rule of Seven’ – that a customer has to see an ad seven times before they act on it and actually make a purchase?  Whether or not it’s true is irrelevant.  What we can learn from this notion is that the more times a person visits your blog posts and sees that you’re there to help, that you’re an expert in your niche, and that your word is worth something, the more likely they are to take your word on the affiliate products you’re recommending.  So let’s see how we can go about adding value to your name and to your blog.

First and foremost, you want to make sure your readers know that you care about them and that you want to hear their voices.  Blogs are brilliant because they provide an open forum for people to communicate.  Although it’s a somewhat controversial subject in the blogging world, I personally feel that it is crucial that you open up the comments function of your blog allowing for a free-flowing discussion between you and your readers.  This shows that you value what they have to say and that you’re a real person and that you are living and breathing your niche.

To get people to feel comfortable commenting, try asking a question within your blog post.  Tell your readers outright that you want to know how they feel about the subject.  Respond to any comments that come in as soon as you can and provide value within those responses.  I have read blog posts before where I’ve gotten as much out of the comments thread as I have from the post itself.  That’s a good thing!  Blogs are about exchanging information and being real and honest with your readers.  Remember: your blog is not about selling.  Your blog is about helping your readers find solutions to their problems.  If that means recommending a great product that will help them, then that’s where you’ll be rewarded.

Earning the trust of your readers is your top priority as a blogger.  So if you really want to get personal and open yourself up to them, consider starting a Facebook page or a Twitter profile and linking to it from your blog.  This will allow your readers to follow you and stay updated when you write new posts.  Remember, it’s about getting them exposed to you more than just the first time they land on your blog.  Plus, these tools give your readers one more way to get in touch with you.  So don’t be shy.  Get out there and get to mingling!  You’ll be surprised how much fun you can have while implementing some of the most effective marketing strategies out there.

All bloggers know that the only thing between you and blogging success is a continuous stream of targeted traffic.  So today we’re going to have a look at some of the key aspects of traffic generation and how you can go about getting the right visitors to your blog (and lots of them).

First of all, it must be said that the much-used phrase “content is king” is undeniably true.  Without good content, it will be hard to get people to your blog.  And even if you do get traffic to your blog, if what they see is garbage, they won’t stick around.  They won’t take your advice and so you won’t make any money.  The quality of the content on your blog is of utmost importance.  Try to think of your readers as friends of yours.  After you write each post, think to yourself, “Would I show this to a friend if they came to me for this advice?”

Now the challenge to blogging is that even if you do have great content, it can still be difficult to get people to your blog so they can see all your great content.  So here’s where a little concept called search engine optimization (SEO) comes in.  Optimizing your blog for the search engines simply means choosing specific keywords and phrases for your content – as well as the titles, tags and categories of your blog posts – strategically in an attempt to harness the power of the search engines (most importantly, Google).

So what does all that mean?  It means that when you create a blog post, don’t title it, “Blog Post #13″.  Title it, “How to Get Traffic to Your Blog”.  Do you know why I’ve selected that as my title?  Because I know people will go to their search engine and they’ll type in “how to get traffic to your blog”.  And because the title of my blog post has certain key phrases in it, I am going to rank higher in the search engines when people type in phrases like that as well as others that I’ve sprinkled throughout this post itself.

So as you write posts yourself, try to think about what people are actually searching for online.  Write your posts for them.  You can do a quick search on Yahoo Answers for examples of questions people are asking about your blog niche.  That’s a great way to find excellent blog titles because you know for a fact people are actually typing those exact phrases to find the answers you want to give them.

As the traffic beings to flow to your blog, remember to check your stats in your dashboard (compliments of the plugin we installed last time).  There you will find some of the phrases people are typing in to find your blog.  Use those as ideas keywords to target in future posts!

Being successful isn’t just about hard work and it isn’t just about luck. It’s about being strategic about your actions.

For me, it’s been about setting a goal, creating a system for checking my progress, and then achieving that goal. But it doesn’t end there.

The most important step is what comes after I achieve my goal. It is analyzing my success (and my failures) and making the adjustments necessary to maximize that success in the future.

Isn’t this what we do in every other aspect of our lives?

We want to achieve something. We set out to do so. We stumble, we fall, we keep trying, and we eventually get there (or not). Then at some point we realize that we’ve learned a lesson in the process (hopefully). We then use what we’ve learned to do things differently next time. This is how we grow and this is how we get better all the time.

Why should we treat our online business any differently?

So today I want to share with you a simple tool I use to track my progress and maximize my efforts for constantly increased success.  It’s called Google Analytics and you can set it up for free right in the dashboard of your WordPress blog.

Using Google Analytics to Track Your Blog’s Success

Google Analytics is a simple-to-use but very powerful tool for tracking just about every aspect of your blogging activities.  It will tell you how many people are coming to your blog each day, how long they’re spending with you, how many of your posts they’re looking at, and how exactly they found you.

You can use this information to increase certain efforts that you can see brings in valuable traffic and also decrease any efforts that you can tell aren’t paying off.  I use Google Analytics every day (actually multiple times a day) and I learn new things about my blogging businesses because of it.  So here’s how you can benefit from it too.

Setting Up Google Analytics for Your WordPress Blog

Before we start, if you do not have a Google Analytics account, get one started here.  It’s quick and it’s free:

http://www.google.com/analytics/

If you already have a Google account of some kind (like gmail), just click the blue “Access Analytics” button.  If not, hit the link below that says “Sign up now” and create an account.  Once you’ve done that, click on “Sign Up” to sign up for Google Analytics.  Set up your account for your blog.

Once you’ve created your account, you’ll get a chunk of scary looking code.  Don’t fear.  We’ll come back to this in a second.  For now, simply right click in the window with the code and “copy” it.  Now we can open up a new window or tab in your browser and head into your WordPress admin panel.

We’re almost done with this step.  In your admin panel under “Appearance”, click “Editor”.  On the right under “Theme Files”, click “Footer”.

You’ll see a mess of ugly code.  At the bottom, put your cursor just above where it says: </body>

In other words:

</div>
HERE
</body>

Now right click and “paste” that Google Analytics code you copied earlier.  Click the blue “Update file” button.  Now back on the Google Analytics site, click “Continue” below the code.  It hasn’t hooked up yet because it takes a minute but at this point, you’re done.  Congratulations!  Within 24 hours, Google will begin tracking everything about your blog and providing you with this valuable information all day and night long.

Now for my favorite little tool to compliment this one.

Seeing Google Analytics from Your WordPress Dashboard

So that you never have to log in to Analytics just to find out stats about your blog, how about seeing it all right there in your dashboard?  There’s a free, easy-to-install plugin called “Google Analytics Dashboard” so in your admin panel, scroll down to “Plugins” and click “Add New”.

Search for “google analytics dashboard” and install it.  Activate the plugin.  Now on the left in your admin panel, under “Settings”, click the new “Google Analytics Dashboard”.  Log in using your google account and then select your blog from the drop down, “Available accounts”.  Save your changes and you’re done!

Click “Dashboard” on the top left of your admin panel and you’ll see where your plugin is going to show from now on.  Once Google Analytics begins tracking, you’ll see detailed stats in your dashboard that will help you adjust your efforts to maximize success.

Now it’s how you use those stats and make those adjustments that will be the key to your success as a blogger.