Let me start this post with a question. What is common with successful bloggers? Yes, they get a lot of traffic. Yes, they all make good money with their blog and again you’re right, they are web celebrities. All those things and many more are the things that you can easily find out common with them. But probably you missed this one.

They all have built great relationships with each other and many other bloggers.

It never ceases to surprise that people don’t put this as one of their goals in successful blogging. Bloggers are mostly just like “Oh, I’m going to build traffic, increase my rss readers” or “I’m going to put ads on this and that”. They just never give building relationships a thought in each day.

One of the reasons for the growth of my blog is actually when I started interacting more with bloggers, when I started networking with them, and began establishing relationships.

I don’t know but I think most bloggers are still stucked in that old blog marketing practice of going to each and every social site, signing up and then posting a mass message saying “hey check out my blog, its the coolest thing ever and blah blah” or commenting on 100 blogs a day and just saying “great post, I learned a lot” kind of thing.

Not that it doesn’t work anymore but there’s just so much return for actually exerting effort by connecting with bloggers genuinely and building something into that. It builds trust, it builds reputation and overall it increases your overall brand as a blogger.

I have quite done some guest posts on big blogs and people always kinda approach me and say “how did you get that accepted? How come he doesn’t even reply to me?” The short answer is “because I built relationship with him”.

Look at the big blog Problogger.net. The blog receives myriads of guest posts every day and people wonder how come Darren let all these people just write on his blog? Do you think Darren know these guest posters personally?

It’s surprising but the answer is yes. Put yourself in the big bloggers position. Someone you just heard for the first time emailed you and asked you some favor, are you going to give some time to that favor?

Obviously no is the answer. But compare that to let’s say a blogger who’s been actively commenting on your blog (not annoyingly) and interacting with you through twitter or other sites. What do you think?

The things that I mentioned above aren’t really old and obsolete marketing practices. What makes them look obsolete though is on how bloggers use them. Like in blog commenting, by posting those short generic comments do you think you’re adding value? Definitely no and you don’t expect to make relationships when you’re not giving any value.

Bloggers are smart people. They know if you are on the same level as them, they understand the things that they can get in return and they generalize it based on how good you are. It can be really tough but it’s all worth it because on the other side of the fence, bloggers are friendly animals. They don’t treat you like a competitor, they accommodate you well and the best thing is, they share you their pre-eminence. That’s why I always believe that blogging is the best industry.

In the end it’s all about making connections and trying to justify that ‘hey I’m here to talk with you’. Sure it doesn’t happen overnight and it takes time to build but that’s how every successful blogger was able to do it anyway.

They didn’t just spring out in one place and all of a sudden made friends, they didn’t just write content, they didn’t just go to those high traffic sites to throw their links. They built relationships genuinely with people, worked on increasing their credibility and started stamping their expertise. I’d repeat it all happens over time.

The end result? They benefit altogether from that shared connections established through relationships. What do you think?

Are You Missing Out The Most Important Piece In Blogging? is a post from: SmartBloggerz - Blogging Tips & Make Money Online Tips

I’m not quite sure if this is really the “in” thing these days but it seems like in every corner, you’ll easily find a kid (also means a teenager) who either has his own blog/website or is doing client work as a business. I know this phenomenon has started even in the earlier part of this decade but I just couldn’t help but get amazed on how these young kids get to work and be crafty on starting their own mini business.

Even though I’m speaking like an old man, I, myself is only 19 years old so I kinda understand why young people like us (including the owner of this blog) are so determined on carving our way into entrepreneurial success. Of course, the ratio of successful youngsters against those who are not is pretty small. But that is understandable. I mean most of them are not yet even in college so how do you expect them to know all those marketing and entrepreneurial stuffs?

Fail or not though, I still think that we, youngsters are still gaining a lot of values that is very beneficial to our growth, and in long term, the success. I have written a short post before on why teenagers should try making money by now but I feel that’s just a small part.

So now I am going to list here the different reasons why it’s helping us become a better entrepreneur:

1. We Realize That It’s Not Like Playing Games

Kids, teenagers, youngsters all have one thing in common, we love to play. Whether it’s playing sports, toys, computer games and stuffs, we enjoy playing every time. When starting something online though, we come to a hard realization that it’s not just like playing a game. That we are not going to emerge victorious most of times like in the computer games. All in all it’s fun, but it’s giving us a good taste of what to expect in reality. Obviously it’s a big factor for a kid to have a realization like that.

2. We Become More Independent

Admit it, sometimes you are in the situation where you have to make a decision. And worse, you know that nothing older than you in your family could help you. Even in as simple as blogging, each and every one of us makes our own decisions. Should I implement this strategy? Should I pay for this product? Is doing this thing going to help me? Even though we can pretty much ask other people in forums or social networks for some help, in the end it is still going to be our own decision. That’s decision-making skills!

3. We Get To Be More Competitive

Kids, by nature are competitive. How many times have you seen two or more kids in a tussle? That alone is a proof that we are naturally competitive. I have a good own story to share as well and it’s basically about when I got banned from Google Adsense. That time that was my only source and when I got banned, I was forced to look into online business from a wider perspective.  By starting and doing our own things, we are enabling ourselves to learn a lot and also develop that competitive spirit that is a powerful weapon in the long haul.

4. Better Budgeting Skills

When I was in my early days, I was like “if I started earning I will buy myself 2 shirts and 2 jeans every month”. Ironically when I started earning, I became more frugal. I started becoming a tight ass and instead of going out partying with the money I made, I began to take down notes, do a little accounting and stuffs. I don’t know but our parents oftentimes tell us that it’s easy for us to spend big because we ourselves don’t make the money and I think it’s true. If there’s one thing that I improved the most, it’s probably the budget skills.

5. Communication Skills (Communicating Professionally)

Communication is not a problem for most people, professional communication is! Most of us need to get rid of those jargon, taboo terms when communicating with a potential client or talking to a wide audience in form of a blog post. And on the flip side, we have to learn to adapt quick, try to understand what it seems like wordy conversations and stuffs. Being a young entrepreneur, we already have a feeling of what a corporate world can be.

6. Learning All The Tech Stuffs

It’s funny but every time I tell a story to my relative on how I am managing multiple websites and blogs, they were almost always shocked. They think that it would take a nerd to run a website, a wordpress blog or just about anything online. And having a website is just one part of this business. Running automated scripts, database management, graphics stuff, testing and tweaking, etc are all other tech stuffs that we unknowingly discover and learn along the way. And for some people, they even take a specific short-course to study that.

Conclusion

If you’re a young fella who’s very passionate into what you are doing online then I really hope you can realize your potential and not quit. After all, we’re young (how many times did I use this adjective already? ), and we can still afford to fail a hundred times and still be successful in the end.  With all those things I listed above, I do hope that it will only motivate you more and continue to strive and be thirsty for success.

I would very much love your opinion about this. If you can add something more to the list, then speak out your minds!

How Young Bloggers Are Benefitting From Starting Out Early is a post from: SmartBloggerz - Blogging Tips & Make Money Online Tips

Do you ever wonder why big bloggers never lose their followers? Why it seems like they always get chased even though they’re not really doing anything special?  Today I am very elated to share to you guys how you can keep your readers for the long haul.

Getting readers is easy. In fact, I can get 50 new people every day to read my blog. What is a bit tricky is how to make them stay for long. If you’re blogging you’d easily notice the trend of new readers following you, then after couple of months not following you anymore and stuffs. It happens for reasons like sometimes they started liking other blog content more than you or maybe you started adding those intrusive ads that they became annoyed and etc.

Fact is, it’s very possible to let your readers be readers for a long time. And here I’m going to list down three factors why very few bloggers manage to get their readers reading and following their blog for life.

Over Delivering

Over delivering is simply stuffing your readers with superb and timely content. You don’t need to do it every day (timely) but still can have a huge impact on your readers’ loyalty.

Try writing superb content every once in a while (superb content means an article with more than a thousand words). Or maybe get them to read a series posts of yours. You can also do well by providing walkthrough guides and articles. Either way as long as you are over delivering, you’re not gonna have any problems with keeping them staying.

The problem though is that not too many bloggers do well with over delivering. Are you one of them? Maybe it’s time to prove me wrong.

Transparency

Being a transparent person is one quality I admire a lot. One of my favorite blogger with the name of Shoemoney is probably the most hated person out there (along with Chow). He receives flak a lot of times, some claims he is fake, some thinks he is retarded but who cares? He just shows himself transparently, just writes his stuff as what his mind dictates.

I recently wrote a post entitled “It’s not about controversy, its just being me” which received a really good and warm response from different people. The truth about being transparent is that you are letting people realize that you stand for something. I mean surprisingly not a lot of people stand for things. Most of the times they follow the majority, they prefer to be like the many.

Being transparent is crucial as you cannot please everyone. There will be times that you’ll be hated but that are all part of the process. Be yourself and your readers will thank you soon.

Rewards

Most people mistakenly think that by saying reward, it’s about physical gadgets. It actually is not. Not a long time I ago I wrote about how to show appreciation to your readers and in that post I emphasized that small ways can mean a lot to them. A simple comment back to their blog, or a re-tweet on one of their posts can mean a lot to them. As a result, they are more likely to feel that you’re not just a blogger, but actually someone who’s a friend.

Try to become accommodating to them, be as nice as possible and they’ll feel their special. As a result, they’ll keep coming back for more.

Conclusion

These are three simple yet every effective means on how to make your blog like a sticky to them.  Building a blogging relationship is no different from building a personal relationship. You are benefiting because they are benefiting too and they would start liking you and your blog because of simply what it is.

How To Make Your Blog a ‘Sticky’ to Your Readers is a post from: SmartBloggerz - Blogging Tips & Make Money Online Tips

Each and everyone who owns a blog definitely wants to build an audience towards the brand of their own. And of course, we want to spread it and have it exposed to as much people as possible. Since millions of new blogs are created every day, it’s an uphill battle for us, bloggers to spread our own and stand out from the rest.

But we should never get worried. Obviously most of the blogs are just junk blogs, either blogs who are just created for SEO benefits or blogs that are created by inexperienced bloggers. Overall we still have a good chance of getting recognized, acquiring new readers and reaping good benefits for spreading our brand.

So without further ado, here are those 5 top notch ways and methods to get the brand of your blog across vast demographics:

1.Facebook Fan Page

By just surfing around the internet, you could easily notice that a lot of blogs are now starting to add that Facebook Fan Page widget. What this thing does is enable your site to have its own Facebook page where Facebook users could keep track of it by becoming Fans. It’s very evident how powerful Facebook is as a social tool and by having it, you’re expanding your blog to a wider audience while reaping the SEO benefits of getting listed in Facebook. Do one now for your blog by going here.

2.Google Friend Connect

Google Friend Connect, although is not new, is something that hasn‘t been yet utilized by a lot of bloggers yet. I‘ve seen few blogs using this and obviously it‘s another solid way to get traffic. It basically works like Facebook Fan Page but with different demographics and focus. If your blog doesn‘t have one, consider using it now.

3.Issue a Press Release

Who says press release is dead? Press Release is another powerful way to get a blog out there if done properly. Press release works in 2 ways, first is the traffic and second is the links. Most press release sites cater great traffic and if you write a good release then chances are your writeup would be viewed a lot. Then because press sites work like news sites, a lot of website and blogs pull RSS feeds and data from them. In a few weeks Google will have indexed thousands of websites with your info in it. Doing press release can be challenging at start. You might even get rejected for a couple of times but that‘s part of learning. Eventually in the future once you get how it works, you can really maximize it to your advantage.

4.Doing Guest Posts

Guest posting is the quickest way to get readers and spread the brand of your blog if you‘re not going to spend any dime in advertising. By guest posting, you are entering the door of another variety of audience, audience who probably have never heard of your blog before. It‘s like you are reaching for a totally different viewers. If you have a superb quality guest post (which you should!), then they will more likely add your blog to their feed readers as well.

5.Creating a Twitter Account for Your Blog

We‘ve seen how Twitter users have skyrocketed since the day tweeting has started. Not creating one for your blog is too much of a good opportunity to pass for. By creating an account, we don‘t really need to use it like a personal twitter account, but we can utilize it to bring more and more brand awareness and traffic to our blog.

Conclusion

With those five steps, it‘s evident that it isn‘t really hard to bring a blog up from scratch and have it recognized by a huge audience. Doing all of those things that I mentioned above, you can be assured that your blog can be recognized as well as get read by more and more people. And if you already have that good amount of traffic and readers in your blog, it‘s now time to start reaping the benefits.

5 Ways to Spread the Brand of your Blog Like Fire is a post from: SmartBloggerz - Blogging Tips & Make Money Online Tips

This is guest blogged by Melvin from MelvinBlog.com, a super duper cool blog.

These days, I have observed many school kids, college graduates and even the individuals who are doing regular 9 to 5 jobs are considering blogging and internet marketing as a source of part time income. However, I am not saying that this is not a wise decision to make but as we all know that blogging and internet marketing requires sufficient time and efforts from your side if you want to succeed.

In this piece of writing, I will (try to) shed some light on the most important issue which is associated with blogging and internet marketing, “time management”.

As we all are aware that time management is an important aspect of every virtue of life, so we cannot overlook this aspect in online businesses as well. Time management for bloggers and internet marketers is very important because they have to take care of multiple things at one time. If they will fail to devote sufficient amount of time to their online business then they will not get the outcomes as they desire and on the other hand, if they devote all their time to their online business then they will not actively participate in their daily routine activities.

Considering the above mentioned scenario in my mind, I would like to elaborate the importance of time management for bloggers and internet marketers and how they can manage their time in an organized manner so they can take care of their online business as well as their daily routine activities.

Disclaimer: I’m not a professional counselor or whatever. Anything laid out here is entirely based on my opinion, and my experience with it myself and from my close colleagues. As always, consult a professional person first.

1. For School Going Kids

If you are a kid  going to school everyday, then you must devote sufficient amount of time to your studies, it is your first responsibility. After coming back from your school session, take some rest and have your meal. Then, get rid of your home work (if you have any). After getting rid of all these issues, devote 1-2 hours to your online business.

For students, 1-2 hours will be enough because they are still at their learning stage and too much on anything can cause stress in the child. Remember, as a kid, making money SHOULD NEVER be a serious goal. The reason you’re blogging is for early exposures that can benefit you in the future.

2. For College Students

For college students, it’s much easier to manage their time and organize their daily routine schedule properly. College students can take care of their online business while they are at their college or university. They can divert their attention towards the computer lab of the college of university in their free time and can take care of their online business quite comfortably. T

his will assure that they are utilizing their free time to their most. This is easier since college life is a life of more freedom where as you could do a lot without hurting your studies that much.

3. For People Working In A Job

For individuals who are doing regular 9 to 5 job, It’s important that these types of individuals must understand the importance of time management if they want to keep a balance in their personal and professional life. Their responsibilities are more as compared to school going children and college graduates.

For them, it would be hard to manage time for business but if they put some efforts then this won’t be a difficult task. They must devote sometime to their online business on regular basis, maybe 2-3 hours. But, they must put some extra efforts in their weekends. In this way, they would devote sufficient amount of time to their online business as well as to their daily routine activities.

Conclusion

Time management for bloggers and internet marketers is very important. Proper time management will assure you a stress free life as it makes sure you’re maximizing everything without hurting your other responsibilities and stressing yourself. What do you think? What’s your own tactic that you’re using?

Time Management For Bloggers And Marketers is a post from: SmartBloggerz - Blogging Tips & Make Money Online Tips

Over the past few years the make money online niche has grown rapidly and enormously. While it is still growing constantly up to now, it has become evident to people that blogging in make money online space doesn’t really guarantee them money.

In the past, I’ve talked about how diluted the mmo world is. Many people agreed with me that succeeding in this niche is not as easy as what most newbies think. Another problem with that mindset is that people see it in John Chow, the one who revolutionized the make money online blogging thing.

What happen is that they saw John became so successful with it and now they think they can be as well, w/c is not wrong anyway. What’s wrong though, is that they replicate what John did and is doing, and we all know what worked a year ago is now completely extinct today (debatable).

The Proof!

If you’re oftentimes hopping on blogs like me, you’d probably notice that a lot of bloggers who talk about that topic (that three-word thing) is probably dead not blogging anymore or has completely abandoned his blog. What others did, w/c I thought was a clever move, was they shifted their topic in a more interesting and more targeted one (i.e. blogging about SEO instead or marketing and stuff). This is a great proof to testify that blogging for money is dead.

Wait! Don’t get Discouraged

Well the main point of the topic is not to tell you guys to stop trying/making money from your blogs. We’re not hypocrite to do that (if you see me remove my sidebar ads, then I’m a hypocrite!). What I would like to say is that we should shift our focus from the “money-making” thing to actually handing out real values to our readers by posting real content. Sure, some of our audience want to read something that would make them money. And our goal is to make them understand that they can, but it goes within a process and is affected by several factors. In that way our blogs can become more niche-targeted (whether specifics to blogging, SEO and etc.), help more people and can enjoy a tight community. All in all it benefits everyone.

Now the question for you: Are you adding something to the blogosphere by posting real content and good value to your readers or your just adding up to the pollution of the make money online thing? I hope that by now we have all clearly defined our own goals.

Move Away From the Make Money Online Niche! is a post from: SmartBloggerz - Blogging Tips & Make Money Online Tips