The other day I wrote that blogging leads to new skills. I asked you guys in the comments to say what new skills you’ve gained because you wanted your blogs to succeed. A good number of you said SEO skills were an important new skillset that you picked up.

Considering the success of my WordPress SEO Teleseminar, I’m not surprised. People are hungry for this stuff. In my audio post today, I tell you a little bit about a new course I’m developing that will soon be ready. It’s based on the WordPress SEO Teleseminar, and it will teach you what you need to know to improve and manage your WordPress blog’s search engine optimization.

By the way, this product already exists in pre-release form. You can get it for nothing if you buy Naomi Dunford’s Online Business School, because it’s included as a bonus.

Did you know there are cool links and insider information sent to people every week by email?

Yup. It's true. I have an email list. It's called Remarkanotes. It's a different kind of email list. Most bloggers try to create bigger, meatier newsletter-ish type content for their email list content.

I'm going in the opposite direction: shorter, value-packed cool links and thought-provoking content.

How often? Once or twice a week (remember, they're short).

Sign up now and download a free audio recording of me working with a new blogger on a consulting call.

Learn more and sign up here.

Check Out

Check out other bloggers who are writing for the same audience as you. Do a blog search on Google or just type the niche you’re in followed by the word “blog” (I know, ridiculously simple, right?). Another search you can do is “top [insert niche name here] blogs”. Focus on bloggers with more traffic and subscribers than you.

Choose bloggers who aren’t too far ahead of you. You can go straight for the top blogs, but they’re used to people trying to ride their coattails and get their notice. You can still bust through if your blogging is top-notch, but I think you’ll get better results if you set your sights a little closer to home.

Link Out

Now link to these bloggers. When you find other bloggers in your niche who are a bit ahead of you in traffic and subscribers, begin linking to them in your own posts. Don’t do it in a blitz from outta nowhere. Don’t do it in every single post–that comes across as a little crazy. But you can find natural ways to link to a fellow blogger’s posts from your own in relevant ways. The blogger will notice the trackbacks. Your linking helps spread their message, and so they will value you for that.

That blogger’s readers will also click on the trackback links if their curiosity has been aroused by what they read in the trackback text. This is a piece of the puzzle for how this win-win strategy helps to grow your traffic. This is not some cold, calculated, heartless move. You’re extending value and contributing your own value to the post, if you do it in the spirit I’m suggesting. This is the kind of thing spammers don’t understand or don’t care about: they flood a blog with automated spam trackbacks that don’t make anyone curious enough to click on the links (should the blogger fail to mark them as spam in the first place). Your goal is always to provide value to others, because it’s the right thing to do and because it comes back to you in the form of new friends, new opportunities, and new traffic.

Reach Out

The next step is to make contact. Commenting on the blog is the most natural first step in this, and it’s a must. If you comment at least every few posts on that person’s blog, he or she will begin to recognize you and come to know you (again, don’t go nuts with this or you look like a spaz). Provide value to the conversation in the comments. That is your mantra. I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to comment on a post on other blogs, but didn’t, simply because I realized I had nothing good to offer that blogger or the readers.

The next step after that is to make direct contact. Send the blogger you want to reach a direct message on Twitter (if they’re following you back) or contact them through their blog’s contact form or posted email address. Just say hi, tell him or her honestly something you like about a particular post or about what they do in general, and begin to build rapport.

Be yourself, and be honest. This is not about being a phony and just using people (that will get you nowhere). Tell the blogger you’re interested in getting to know more people in your niche and that you believe there can be a mutually beneficial relationship… which is perfectly true. Then, make an offer. Say something like: “If you ever need anything, like a digg or a stumble, just let me know.” Making that offer can often cause the blogger to write back and, before you know it, that mutually beneficial relationship begins to take root.

Don’t assume that because a blogger is “bigger” in name than you are that you have nothing good to offer.
To most good bloggers, great writing and an engaging personality are far more important. You can suggest links for them to include in posts (not links to your own content). You can offer to write a guest post. Maybe even you can engage them in discussions of what’s important to them. Social media voting isn’t the only thing you bring to the table.

Check Out, Link Out, and Reach Out

This simple three-step strategy can guide you to very profitable relationships, opportunities, and more blog traffic if you carry it out in the right spirit. You can get anything in life you want if you help enough other people get what they want.

Did you know there are cool links and insider information sent to people every week by email?

Yup. It's true. I have an email list. It's called Remarkanotes. It's a different kind of email list. Most bloggers try to create bigger, meatier newsletter-ish type content for their email list content.

I'm going in the opposite direction: shorter, value-packed cool links and thought-provoking content.

How often? Once or twice a week (remember, they're short).

Sign up now and download a free audio recording of me working with a new blogger on a consulting call.

Learn more and sign up here.

The Catch

Is there a catch?

Yes: from time to time, I will expect you to answer a survey or provide feedback, in order to help me get the product ready for public launch. That’s it. That’s the “catch”. That’s all I ask of you in return for giving you advance product availability and never charging you full price again for any products I sell. The advantage is tilted heavily in your favor. This does not include blog consulting.

The advance notice discount list will not be used for any other purpose, and your email will never be shared or sold. Should you be overtaken by an insane urge to pay full price for my stuff, you can unsubscribe at any time with one click. After you sign up you’ll get an email with a confirmation link. You must click that confirmation link to join the list.

Limited to 100 People

I’m limiting the list to only 100 people for now. I want to see how it goes with a small group before I consider expanding the list to include more people. I may re-open the list at a later time, I may not.

UPDATE: The list is now more than half full. It’s filling up fast and time is slipping away.

Sign Up Now

If you can’t see the sign-up form or it dosn’t work in your email/feed reader, please visit the blog directly.

PS - Yes, I have something coming soon. You have already received an advance copy of it as a free bonus if you bought Online Business School.

Did you know there are cool links and insider information sent to people every week by email?

Yup. It's true. I have an email list. It's called Remarkanotes. It's a different kind of email list. Most bloggers try to create bigger, meatier newsletter-ish type content for their email list content.

I'm going in the opposite direction: shorter, value-packed cool links and thought-provoking content.

How often? Once or twice a week (remember, they're short).

Sign up now and download a free audio recording of me working with a new blogger on a consulting call.

Learn more and sign up here.

Cool. Remarkablogger is in the top 100 internet marketing blogs. Yay for you! Why do I say “yay for you” and not “yay for me”? Because this is just one more little piece of proof you get the good stuff, here.

So… like I said: yay for you!

Did you know there are cool links and insider information sent to people every week by email?

Yup. It's true. I have an email list. It's called Remarkanotes. It's a different kind of email list. Most bloggers try to create bigger, meatier newsletter-ish type content for their email list content.

I'm going in the opposite direction: shorter, value-packed cool links and thought-provoking content.

How often? Once or twice a week (remember, they're short).

Sign up now and download a free audio recording of me working with a new blogger on a consulting call.

Learn more and sign up here.

Most of us need to learn new skills in order to truly succeed online. I already had a background in web design, which gave me a head start, but even I have been surprised at the constant barrage of new things I’ve had to learn in order to succeed with my blogs, past and present. If you’re a new blogger, you may be experiencing that sinking feeling of dread at all the stuff you have to learn.

Since I’ve already been there, let me give you a roadmap of new skills you should pick up that will best help you.

Writing

Many of us think we’re much better writers than we really are. Suddenly writing for a blog when you haven’t done much writing recently will make that painfully obvious. Writing coherently, consicely, and skillfully takes practice. See my recent Blog Writing Series of posts for more help on this.

Despite all the fun I like to have with techniques, social media, and SEO, good content is still the foundation upon which everything is built. Do what you can to improve your writing, and specifically learn about copywriting.

Web Design

It’s hard to get your blog to do what you want if you don’t know a thing about FTP, HTML, CSS, and a bunch of other alphabet soup. My suggestions are to:

• Learn how to use an FTP program to upload files to your blog. This is how you get plugins for WordPress. Even if you get plugins that let you install stuff more easily, those plugins still have to be added to your blog via FTP. I use FileZilla, which is free and open source software.
• Learn HTML/CSS. Hypertext Markup Language is not as tough as you might think. Not only does knowing HTML help you with design issues, it helps you write better-formatted posts, too. Cascading Style Sheets is how web pages are visually formatted now. It’s easy to get yourself into a formatting jam the visual controls in your blog software won’t get you out of. Only people who can write a little code can do that. You can learn HTML from several sources. I recommend the W3C Schools. HTML.net is also a good place to learn.

Marketing

Blogging is often a form of marketing. People market a product or service with their blog. You need to have some understanding (the more the better) of these areas:

• Copywriting
• Conversion
• Email marketing

Research

In order to learn all this stuff and write great blog posts, you’ll need to learn how to find the information you need quickly and efficiently. You need to become adept at searching online. You need to learn how to take notes on paper or electronically.

People Skills and Networking

Perhaps the most important new skills of all are the ones you have to develop in communicating with others and networking. I can attribute my success directly to an intense focus on this, which has been difficult, since I’m a bit of an introvert. But by forcing myself to make contact with people, I have made excellent friends and now have a posse that has got my back. Opportunities come my way through my network. Social media helps a lot with this, especially Twitter.

Have Your Say

What new skills has blogging brought you? Tell us in the comments below.

Did you know there are cool links and insider information sent to people every week by email?

Yup. It's true. I have an email list. It's called Remarkanotes. It's a different kind of email list. Most bloggers try to create bigger, meatier newsletter-ish type content for their email list content.

I'm going in the opposite direction: shorter, value-packed cool links and thought-provoking content.

How often? Once or twice a week (remember, they're short).

Sign up now and download a free audio recording of me working with a new blogger on a consulting call.

Learn more and sign up here.

And that’s true. But in a greater context, it’s not true. No, I didn’t yank your chain, I really did make that much money in one evening. But in the greater context, we have to look at how I reached the point where it’s possible for me to make 1k in one night.

You see, in another sense, that headline could just have easily read “How I made $1,000.20 in a Year”. Doesn’t quite have the same impact, though, does it? But it has been a little over a year since I made Remarkablogger into a real business.

Over that time:

• I grew my subscribers to over 2,600 by providing the best free content I could create. 
• I grew my Twitter followers in a few months to over 2,100 by providing value and engaging with people. 
• In less than a month, I have grown my Remarkanotes email list to over 300 subscribers by providing cool links and information you can’t get on the blog.

Sometimes, what I have to offer is not free. Sometimes, it costs a little money. My strategy is dead simple, and it works: make the free stuff great, but make the paid stuff flat-out amazing. There’s your big internet marketing “secret”, right there. Really sleazy and spammy, huh?

So before I go off on a tangent about internet marketing, let me make my main point: it took me at least a year of hard work and intense study to achieve my “overnight” success. Luck had nothing to do with it. I am not part of some “elite” or “A-list”. I started at the beginning, just like everyone else.

Many of you are at the beginning right now.

Yes, You Can

What I’m doing and what I’m showing is attainable. When I started doing this, I made anywhere from a couple hundred bucks extra a month to several thousand dollars… but in some months I made nothing beyond my day job at all. We’re not talking about insane, unbelievable amounts of money, here. 

Example

Say you write an ebook and you want to sell it online. Let’s do a little math here to show you what I mean (by the way, I hate math, but I hate it much less when there are dollar signs involved). Let’s say your ebook sells for only $19.99 and you sell only 10 copies of it. That’s about $200 you didn’t have before. If you take out hosting and domain costs for a product website and pay-per-click advertising costs, you should still have a profit.

But if you sold that product from your self-hosted blog, and you have been building up an audience that is hungry for what you have to offer, your costs are less and your sales will be greater. Let’s say you sold 10 ebooks without the expenses of a new domain/hosting and online advertising: that’s $200 free and clear.

That’s your cable bill, or perhaps your electric bill. It’s slightly better or more Christmas presents. It’s you finally taking your wife out for a nice dinner and a movie. The point is, you have it. 

With a little more work, you could have a product that sells for $39, $47, $129, or even $197. If it’s something your audience wants and is willing to pay for, then you’re really in business. Selling 30 copies of a $39 product earns you $1,170. That’s not a lot of sales, by the way–not for something sold online.

Affiliates

Let’s take this to the next step, now. Say you create an affiliate program for your ebook so that other people can sell it for you. You make a chunk and they make a chunk. The profits from the higher sales volume utterly dwarf what you’re paying out to your affiliates in commissions.

Using the previous numbers, let’s say that on top of the 30 sales at $39, you also have 5 affiliates. These 5 affiliates collectively sell a total of 50 of your ebooks for a 50% cut. That’s another $975, for a total of $2,145.

How to Begin

These numbers are ridiculously conservative, because I don’t want you to think I’m exaggerating. The truth is, you could easily sell more than 30 copies. You could easily have more than 5 affiliates, and those affiliates could easily sell more than 50 ebooks collectively.

Again, my point: this is totally realistic and do-able. It’s not some impossible dream that only some people can do but others cannot. You can do this.

But you can’t reach the point where I’m at right now unless you take the first step.

Online Business School will get you started.

Did you know there are cool links and insider information sent to people every week by email?

Yup. It's true. I have an email list. It's called Remarkanotes. It's a different kind of email list. Most bloggers try to create bigger, meatier newsletter-ish type content for their email list content.

I'm going in the opposite direction: shorter, value-packed cool links and thought-provoking content.

How often? Once or twice a week (remember, they're short).

Sign up now and download a free audio recording of me working with a new blogger on a consulting call.

Learn more and sign up here.

Online Business School Now at 50% Off

In this long-ass video I show you how I do exactly what Online Business School teaches you to do, because I want you to see that you can do it, too. I tell you how and why I have diversified my income. In an odd bit of recursiveness, I’m doing this now with Online Business School, which could easily be a product that you might be selling right now.

Which means that headline up there could could have been your headline. The fact that Online Business School exists and that it’s selling well and making me cool $1k in 1 night is proof enough, I think, that you should look into it for yourself. That money could have been your money.

After it has been downloaded 2,000 times (and when Brian Clark and few other big names start to push it, that won’t take long) the price is going up to $397. It doesn’t take long for 2,000 people to buy something on the interwebs, so get down from that fence and make a decision.

» Go Check it Out

Spend the weekend learning how to set up online businesses that diversify your income and protect you and your family from a worsening economy.

Did you know there are cool links and insider information sent to people every week by email?

Yup. It's true. I have an email list. It's called Remarkanotes. It's a different kind of email list. Most bloggers try to create bigger, meatier newsletter-ish type content for their email list content.

I'm going in the opposite direction: shorter, value-packed cool links and thought-provoking content.

How often? Once or twice a week (remember, they're short).

Sign up now and download a free audio recording of me working with a new blogger on a consulting call.

Learn more and sign up here.

Can’t see the audio player? Please head on over to the blog to have a listen.

What can election 2008 teach us about blogging? Plenty, I think. Positive “campaigns” vs. negative ones. Personality vs. issues. Yeah, I think the election can teach us a lot about blogging, if we know how to listen.

Can you think of any other lessons we as bloggers can learn from the election? Your ideas are welcome in the comments!

Did you know there are cool links and insider information sent to people every week by email?

Yup. It's true. I have an email list. It's called Remarkanotes. It's a different kind of email list. Most bloggers try to create bigger, meatier newsletter-ish type content for their email list content.

I'm going in the opposite direction: shorter, value-packed cool links and thought-provoking content.

How often? Once or twice a week (remember, they're short).

Sign up now and download a free audio recording of me working with a new blogger on a consulting call.

Learn more and sign up here.

The Obvious Error

Many of you are somewhat new to blogging and have no doubt heard it’s possible to make money online from blogging (problogging). It’s possible, alright, but even better are ways of diversifying your income streams that go beyond blogging. You know the old saying, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. We accept that as true, but how many of you have all of your “income eggs” in one basket? This is an obvious error in our thinking, but we often don’t stop to think about it until it’s too late.

My Personal Story - Diversified Online Income Saved My Family

This is something I realized over a year ago. If I have only one method of generating income, and that method dries up or dwindles, me and my family are screwed. Seriously, let’s not kid ouselves. How irresponsible of me as a breadwinner would it be if I only had one way to make money (like a normal job)… and then lost that due to the economy?

It’s my responsibility to bring in the monies. My family depends on me. My four-year-old cutest granddaughter in the world is not going to be homeless, go cold, or run out of food. There will be a roof over our heads, oil in the tank (many homes in New England are heated with fuel oil), and food on the table. All because Grandpa (jeez that makes me feel old) is rockin’ multiple income streams.

I cannot bear the thought of looking into her sweet, sweet, trusting face and telling her that I know she’s cold, she’ll just have to put on a hat. Or that I know she doesn’t like beans and rice, but that’s all we have right now. Or that Santa only had one small gift for her this year. All because Bampa (that’s what she calls me) wasn’t smart enough to get his act together and diversify & grow his income.

Hell, no. I will not let that happen. But it could have. 

Let me share something with you: if I did not have this extra income, my family and I would already be in deep shit. We would have failed to meet our financial obligations, and we would have gone under. I’m not kidding. In better times, the extra income would have shot me ahead. In these sinking economic times, it keeps my head above water (I never claimed to be rich, but I do OK).

You can learn how to do this, yourself. Online Business School will teach you everything you need to know.

As an added incentive, I’m giving away a pre-release version of my newest forthcoming course, SEONomicon: Search Optimization Magic for WordPress Blogs. This isn’t available for sale at any price, but you can get it for nothing, because it will simply be included with Online Business School as a bonus. SEONomicon will probably sell in the $40 - $80 range. I haven’t decided, yet, but that doesn’t matter, since you won’t have to pay for it.

SEONomicon contains killer audio from much of the WordPress SEO Teleseminar I did a few months ago, plus an ebook, all specifically on search optimization for WordPress blogs. SEONomicon will be a powerful complement to Online Business School. SEONomicon is not for sale at this time. This is a pre-release sneak peek you get to keep as a bonus for getting Online Business School.

So, diversified internet income is good; effective WordPress SEO is good. Getting your patootie over to Online Business School is a very good move. The sooner you start, the sooner you may begin to see some extra income roll in. As a person with a brain and an internet connection, you owe it to your family.

See how you can take charge of your income now.

Did you know there are cool links and insider information sent to people every week by email?

Yup. It's true. I have an email list. It's called Remarkanotes. It's a different kind of email list. Most bloggers try to create bigger, meatier newsletter-ish type content for their email list content.

I'm going in the opposite direction: shorter, value-packed cool links and thought-provoking content.

How often? Once or twice a week (remember, they're short).

Sign up now and download a free audio recording of me working with a new blogger on a consulting call.

Learn more and sign up here.

• It fits better with my sense of humor. It’s easy for me to write tongue-in-cheek when you’re trying to instruct people by telling them how to do things the wrong way as a sort of reverse-psychology.
• It gives a different side of a subject that a straightforward “positive” how to post misses.
• It’s constructive venting of a pet peeve without coming off as a complainer.
• It instantly stands out from the noise in an RSS reader.
• It attracts clicks because others will share the same peeve as you, and we all love to gang up on a bad example.

Did you know there are cool links and insider information sent to people every week by email?

Yup. It's true. I have an email list. It's called Remarkanotes. It's a different kind of email list. Most bloggers try to create bigger, meatier newsletter-ish type content for their email list content.

I'm going in the opposite direction: shorter, value-packed cool links and thought-provoking content.

How often? Once or twice a week (remember, they're short).

Sign up now and download a free audio recording of me working with a new blogger on a consulting call.

Learn more and sign up here.