Blogging like many other things has the good, the bad and ugly side.

Let’s go straight to it.

The Good Side Of Blogging

1. It Can Improve You

There are many things you can gain from blogging apart from making money. It can improve your skills and knowledge about a lot of stuff about the internet.

2. Make Friends

Blogging can help you build relationships and friendship with other bloggers on the internet and other people from different countries.

For example, 4 months ago I knew nothing about strictlyonlinebiz.com but now, Chuks and I speak on phone and have become friends.

I now have friends in America and in many parts of the world.

3. Fame And Fortune

Blogging can make you very popular and also help you make cash too although it is not as easy as many people make it seem. Just throwing up a blog online will not automatically vomit $1000 bills from your computer.

4. Build Traffic /Promotion

It can help you build traffic in the promotions of a product or a service. Some businesses own a blog for this purpose. This is because Google is a sucker for fresh great content and with blogs you can easily update fresh content.

5. Build An Audience

Blogging can build you an audience, a community of people who will believe in your ideas and help spreads them.

An audience is a great asset that can make a huge difference in terms of profit, cost and sales.

Jason fried of 37signals blames his audience for their huge success.

6. Build Authority

Blogging is a great way to build authority and credibility in whatever subject you are blogging about.

Building authority and credibility is very important as long as online business is concerned.

The Bad Side Of Blogging

1. Time Consuming

Blogging is very time consuming especially if you decide to do everything on your own. That is, if you don’t outsource.

You can spend hours to research and write up a post. It takes hours to promote that post; it takes hours to comment on other blogs.

If you calculate how long you have spent on blogging related activities, you will be shocked.

2. Affect Your Health

Blogging can also affect your health because it requires being in front of the computer screen. It has it own job hazard.

3. It May Distract You

Yes, blogging might be a major source of distraction if it does not directly help your purpose online .The amount of time it takes from you is a good example of that.

The Ugly Side Of Blogging

Blogging also has an ugly side.

1. You Might Not Succeed.

One of the most terrible and ugly truth about blogging is that you might not succeed even with all your efforts.

This is because all the good things blogging gives don’t come easy.

It is sad but true.

Well, that’s it, the good, bad and ugly side of blogging.

Do you know any other good, bad or ugly side of blogging?

Thank you and don’t forget to learn about making money online in Nigeria  from my other website.

Getting blog post ideas is sometimes difficult and could be a pain in the butt. I made a series of posts and created an e-book about the how to development blog post ideas.

I think I may not have mentioned this.

You can get blog post ideas by visiting a forum that is related to your niche and browsing through the post titles, problems and complains people have in your niche.

It is as simple as that.

Say you have a blog about growing pimple..(Okay I know that sounds very absurd, but I will do for this post).

Let’s also assume that you have run out of posts or blog post ideas or that you are looking for fresh ideas for your blog.

Here is what you can do.

Method 1

Go to www.Google.com and search for forums related to your niche. It could be as simple as searching for “niche forum”. Where you should replace the word niche with the main keywords in your niche.

Using the growing pimple example, you could search for “growing pimple forum” or something similar.

Many forums will appear in the search results.

Visit as many as you can or just limit yourself to 2 or 5 top forums in your niche (your choice).

Browse through forums, the different categories and topics posted on the forums. You will find people freely discussing their problems and headaches about your niche (for the example growing pimples)

From these titles and threads you can have a good idea of the problems people have and what people are likely searching for in your niche. These are the kinds of posts and articles you should be writing about on your blog or website.

Take note of these titles and topics. You have just found great blog post ideas.

Trust me if you do this just once, you will find blog posts ideas for maybe over a year worth blog posts.

Method 2

You can also head to www.boardtracker.com , an aggregator of discussions made on thousands of forums online.

A simple search on this website will reveal lots of titles, problems and complains made by real people in your niche.

Type in the main keywords in your niche and make a search. You can also use modifiers like, problem, solution, how to, where to, when to and others side by side with the keyword. Example, still using the growing pimple example, search for “growing pimple problem”, “growing pimple solution”, “how to grow pimples”, “where to grow pimple”, etc and you will get a variety of titles and problems people have talked about related to that topic in your niche.

I hope you get the idea.

If you do this, you will get loads of ideas from the search results.

From there, you can take note of the title or click to see details of what the person is talking about.

Final Word

This strategy works in any niche because you can hardly find a niche without a forum.

You can also use this strategy to research problems for creating a product in a niche.

You can use it for SEO.

You can use it for many other things.

Thank you.

Please Do Something For Me.

If this article has been helpful, please:

1. Click the facebook like button below this post to share it with your friends.
2. 2. Retweet it and share it on twitter with your followers
3. 3. Email or forward it to your friends on facebook or email
4. 4. Download and read the lies and truth about making money online from Nigeria

Thank you.

I have been online for about 2 years now learning about making online from Nigeria. The journey has been good. I have met and learnt a lot from so many successful people online. I am now using the points made in this post. Everything stems from treating your blog or everything you do online as a business.

You may know some of these things already you may not know but whatever the case is, these points are valid and useful.

Here Are 20 Most Important Things I Learnt From Making Money Online

1. It is very possible from anyway in the world

This is important to know because it will affect one’s mindset and efforts. It is possible to make money online from Nigeria or from any nation in the world.

2. It is commerce (business)

Making money online always involves some form of exchange of money. Money will not just appear in your PayPal or bank account. Someone has to pay for something for money to be exchanged.Making money online involves having a business online.

3.You have to sell something

This is one of the most important lessons I learnt about making money online. If you are not selling something, you will not make any money. Period. Anyone making money online is selling something. (Directly or indirectly) Never forget this point. Ever.

 4.It happens when someone buys something from you.

Selling something is one thing, getting people to buy from you is another. And the latter is the most important thing. If you are selling something and no one is buying, you are as bad as one not selling at all.So , sell what people want to buy or will buy.That is why we do keyword  research .

5.You can sell your product

You can make money by selling your own products to people that are ready to buy. Your products could be any thing and in any format and I can be sold in any niche.

6.You can sell your service

Like the last point, you get paid for rendering some form of services to people. A service could be anything. It could be a web service or a service rendered by an individual online. Email marketing and web hosting are webs services that make tons of cash for the owners.

My friend Chuks has a blog set up service.

7.You can sell someone’s product

It is called affiliate marketing and could be done using blog or a mini site but the single goal is to sell someone’s product. This is something I am presently focused on. It is the easiest way to sell something online.

8.You can Sell someone’s service

Like the last point, you can promote another persons service or a company’s service and earn money from affiliate sales. It is also called affiliate marketing. Blogs and websites can be used to do this.

9.It is easier to sell to people who want to buy what you are selling.

People who already decided to buy a product or service are easier to sell than people you have to convince before they buy. These people usually search for buying keywords and are usually very specific with what they want. They are people who have come to the end of the buying cycle and have decided on what they finally want.

These are the best people to sell to.

10.Making Online Does Usually Happen Overnight

There is a lot to learn, a lot to do. Success does not just happen overnight in this online thing especially if you are not concentrating on the right things. (I am a witness to this).

Even overnight success takes time, so pick a business model that works and push till you start making some success.

11.Solving problems and creating valuable solutions you can sell

This is why some products and services are bought by people. It is because or solves their problem or helps them achieve whatever they want.  People buy solutions to their problems so making money online start by helping people solve their problems.

13.Marketing of whatever business you have is important

Marketing whether offline or online is very important especially if you plan to make money online or run an online business. The reason why Seth Godin blog is so popular is because he talks about Marketing.

Link building, blogging, article marketing, guest blogging etc are all parts of marketing needed to make money online.

14.Does Not Just Happen Because You Own A Blog Or Website

It is the mistake I made and the mistake many people make. I have started and abandoned a few websites and blog because I did not first know or plan what I was going to sell or how I was going to make money from it. A blog or website is not a business if there is nothing that will make you money from it.

This is by no means all that is involved are very important points to remember .These points are guiding my online journey.

Do you have other points to add to this? Please add in the comments.

To easily read more helpful posts in future, don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS , follow   @MkAkan and sign up for MkAkan’s newsletter. Read my free blog post development guide and learn how to write and develop blog posts for your blog and also download my free guide for making money online from Nigeria.

Recommended Resources Mentioned In The Post

1. making online from Nigeria

2. Blog set up service.

3. Seth Godin

4.Treating your blog or everything you do online as a business.

5.web hosting

6.buying keywords

Darren Rowse of Problogger once said that, it was

only when he started treating his blog and his blogging as a business that he started making money online.

So the big question is:

How can one treat his or her blog or blogging as a business?

Getting the answer to this question is very important as far as making money online is concerned.
So let’s get back to it;

How can one treat a blog or blogging as a business?

Let’s attempt to answer it.
The most important term in the question above is the word “business”.

So what is business?

You can read up the definition of business but the summary of the important concepts in the definition of a business is this:

It is the creation, provision or sale of goods, products and services that people pay for.

Now that we understand what a business is, how can we add it to our blogs?

How can we take our blogs as a business?

Let me rephrase the question?
How can we take our blogs as the creation of goods, products and services that people pay for that brings you or the company profits?
That may not really make sense, but you get the picture.

How Offline Businesses Make Money

If we take a look offline at how businesses make money, we can learn a thing or two from them and see how we can do same to our blogs.
These are what offline businesses do in their businesses to generate money.

1. They Have A Product Or Service

Think about all the offline businesses that you know. I bet you that they have a product(s) or service that they offer to you.
Take a look at the super market where you buy groceries. Look at the bar where you take a drink(s) with friends or your date?
Look at the local laundry shop. They all have something in common:
They provide products and services that people pay for.
So if your blog does not offer a product or service for people to pay for, you are not treating it as a business.
This is why Darren talked about the importance of having a product to sell and David Risley said poor bloggers focus too much on blog post

2. They Solve A Problem By Creating Value

Think about this, if you had no super market in your town how would you feel. If you had to travel 2 hours before you could buy cereal for breakfast, how would you love it?
You see, the businesses in your town are solving your problem. They are creating value for you and that is why you patronize them.
They are saving you the trouble of going out of town or to the factory before you can buy stuff.
If they provide a product or service that is not wanted, they will go bankrupt like Enron.
So if your blog offers products and services that is not valued or needed by people (solving problems they don’t have), then you are not treating your blog as a business.

3. Time And Schedule

The offline business in your town has an opening and closing time. Some run overnight but whatever the case, they have a time schedule. This is when the run their business.
On the internet, this may be quite different and works more in our favour. Your blog is open 247 to any one in the world. But the time schedule here refers to when you are working on your business.
When you are creating, launching, writing, promoting and doing all the other things businesses do to grow.
If you don’t have this kind of schedule, you are not treating your blog as a business. It can be as simple as planning 2 hours a day, 6 hours a day etc. if you can be specific, better.

4.They Invest/Reinvest  In Their Businesses

Offline businesses invest in a lot of things to grow. They invest in their rents, their branding, their services, their employees, adverts and promotion etc.
They do this by spending money and time. They even reinvest their profits. They might even get bank loans to finance these investments. They do it because it will ultimately grow their businesses.
On the internet and on your blog, the investments you can make maybe a bit different but your blog needs investments in order to be seen as a business.
Here are a few things you will have to invest in other to treat blogging as a business.

1. Your domain name
2. Your hosting
3. premium WordPress themes
4. Your Knowledge
5. Premium WordPress plug ins
6. Your branding(logo and favicons)
7. Software to automate your online activities
8. Paid web services
9. Paid products (e-books, online courses etc)
10. Outsourced work
11. Product creation
12. Website design/graphic work
13. Email marketing services
14. Your time(very important resource)

The list goes on.
All these things cost money and are very important. If you have a problem with investing in any of these products and services, you are not treating your blog as a business.

5.Get Paid

If a business man sets up a supermarket and allows people to pick whatever they want without paying, is he running a business?
No, he is a philanthropist which is very commendable. But the fact still remains that he is a not a business man (as far as that supermarket is concerned).
Only when he starts charging money or gets paid in another way, that he makes money and can be considered to be a business man.
Okay, I know sometimes offline businesses act like philanthropist during bonanzas, discount sales and other activities. But these are all marketing activities that still help in growing the business. And they don’t usually do it forever.
On the internet and on your blog, this also holds true.
I know giving out free products and information is important for growth of the blog(I do it a lot too). It is cool to give out free reports and e-books. It is good to teach people stuff for free (it is highly recommended and I know, teaching sells). But just teaching without having something to get paid for does not earn you jack (or Jill).
If you do it to build and e-mail list or to grow your blog, it is fine but until you find a way to charge for something or get paid for something, you are also a philanthropist (which is still fine).
And what you get paid for doesn’t have to be your product, supermarket don’t sell their products, they sell products made by manufacturers (call it offline affiliate marketing if you like) on your blog you can do the same.
Affiliate marketing works even better online, so if you don’t have your own products, get paid by selling other people’s products (like the supermarkets)

6.They Market Their Businesses

Businesses offline do a lot of marketing to succeed. They use the print and electronic media to advertise their businesses.
They use the internet too.
If you want to treat your blog as a business, you need to do this too.
But internet marketing may be different from what is obtained offline but whatever the case you need it to grow your blog and business.
So learn internet marketing and use it.  It is how to treat your blog as a business.

7.Get Help ,Outsource ,Employ Others

Offline businesses usually have workers or employees. These people help to run the business and makes sure things go according to plan.
A business where the owner tries to do everything on his own doesn’t grow well and is usually inefficient.
Online many people think of business and blogging as a one man show. This is possible, you can handle many things but to really treat your blog as a business you need people who can do stuff much better than you.
Entrepreneurs don’t try to do everything and you can’t really do every thing. For example, if I have an idea for a WordPress plug-in, I wouldn’t try to make it myself because the only thing I know about coding is “NOTHING”.
I would rather outsource it.

8.They Own Assets

Robert Kiyosaki in his book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” defines an Asset as
“Anything that brings in money to your pocket”
In addition to that, I would say “an asset is also anything that has the potential of bringing in money to your pocket in the future”.
An asset can also be anything you can sell off at a higher price (it brings in money)
Many offline businesses own assets. Their business first of all is an asset. They can sell it off as a single entity. They own other types of assets like their brand (intangible assets), real estate property (if they have one), and others.
If you want to treat your blog as a business, you need to also own assets. So what can of asset can your blog have or can bring in money to your pocket.

1. Your domain name
2. Your branding
3. Your products
4. Your list
5. Your service
6. Your website or blog(it must be making before you can call it an asset, or has the potential of doing so)

9.Take Risks

If there is anything I know about business, it is the fact that you are taking a risk and you need to take a risk to succeed.
Offline businesses take a lot of risks in order to succeed.
They risk includes:

1. Wasting your time
2. Losing money
3. Incurring debt
4. Failure

If you want to treat your blog as a business, you need to also take some risks.
You need to take bold steps, you need to try new things, and you need to try ideas, you need to risk failure.
I am not advocating that you just take a sure fail risk, I mean calculated risks but like we know even calculated risk do fail. All the analysis and research and due diligence can only be confirmed when we actually go out and try our ideas.
And they may fail because nothing really goes according to plan.
Summary:
To treat your blog as a business you need:

1. To have products ad services sold on your blog
2. You need to solve a problem by creating value
3. Have a time and schedule
4. Invest in yourself and your blog
5. Get paid for something
6. Market and promote your blog
7. Get help, employ others
8. Assets

Are there other ways to treat you business as a blog?

If you have noticed,on this blog right now,i am not practicing all what this article says…There are so many things i am not doing yet and right…for some blogs you need to grow an audience before you can actually practice these things and trust me ..they work . I am practicing some of this on my other niche blogs i will make a major change on this blog very soon so stay tuned…thank you

To easily read more helpful posts in future, don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS , follow  @MkAkan and sign up for MkAkan’s newsletter. Read my free blog post development guide and learn how to write and develop blog posts for your blog.

Please retweet this post and share it on facebook.

Thank you.

Recommended Resources Mentioned In This Post

1.definition of business

2.importance of having a product to sell 

3. poor bloggers focus too much on blog post

4.Your hosting

The basic truth about making money online is that it involves the creation and sale of products and services people value and pay for.

Okay, that is just one way.

Just a reminder, having a website or blog, product ,eBook ,service , software, application etc does not make you money but having some things that is valuable to people, will make you money.

So How Does One Produce Valuable Product And Services?

Well, that should be the second question to ask.

The first question should be -what is value?

What does value mean to people?

Let’s answer that.

The word value is a relative term and means many things to different people but, generally, value means things that do the following:

BTW, please don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed and follow @MkAkan

1. It Saves Time

We always value products, services and ideas that can save our time. We don’t mind paying for the time we can save. That is why we would rather buy e-book cover software than spends hours trying to produce one on Corel draw and Photoshop. Soft wares are tools used to save time.

That is why I bought bookmarkingdemon and affiliateskin.

2. Save Money

This is a big one. We always value products and services that can help us save money. This is a no brainer. We love to pay less and get more.

It is human nature. That is why I love FatCow and MailChimp

3. Convenience

This is what valuable products and services give. It helps you get things done without too much stress. That is why we rather take a taxi than take trek to work. That is why we rather take a flight than take a bus.

4. It Entertains

The world wants to be entertained. The world wants to relax and have fun. If you can create a product or service that fills this need, you have something valuable people will pay for. This is why I love the Gregory brothers and IShatOnU. That is why people buy Fela Kuti, afrobeat music albums.

5. It Automates

Automation involves getting normal things done in a fast, easier, better and systematic way. If you can automate normal activities and help people do them faster and easily, you are creating value. This is why people are buying market samurai instead of find niches manually. That is why bookmarking demon is very useful.

6. It Solves A Problem

Any product or service that helps to solve any of our problems is valuable to us. The problem or solution could be offline or online, it doesn’t matter. We will value it if it helps us solve a problem. That is why people buy Pamela to help them solve the problem of recording Skype calls.

7. It Simplifies

We all hate complexity. If a product or service can simplify a process, an activity or can just do the work for us, we will value it tremendously.

For example,  years ago during the baby days of the internet, finding websites and valuable information was not easy, now search engines have made search possible and simple. That is why we love and use Google search.

Now that we understand how value can be created, let’s zero in on it:

How We Can Create Valuable Products And Services Online.

Think about all the points raised ,if you can produce a blog, a website, an e-book, a software, an application, a game, a service, a product , a tool that has any of these qualities, then you have something of value that people will pay for.

Are there other qualities of valuable products and services?

If you love this post and would want to easily read more posts in future, don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS ,follow @MkAkan and sign up for MkAkan’s newsletter .Download my free blog post development guide and learn how to write and develop blog posts for your blog.

Please retweet this post and share it on facebook.

Thank you.

Recommended Resources Mentioned In This Post

1. FatCow
2. MailChimp
3. Gregory brothers
4. IShatOnU
5. Buy Fela Kuti, afrobeat music albums.
6. market samurai
7. Pamela
8. Bookmarking demon
9. blog post development guide

I have been blogging for over a year now. When I started I didn’t know much about blogging. My first blog was on blogger.com. I abandoned it after a while before starting some other blogs using WordPress software.

I made my first post on www.MkAkan.com on the 31^st of December 2009. That is almost a year now. During that period I have learnt a lot from so many bloggers and online entrepreneurs.

I have also made lots of mistakes.

This post will showcase 5 of those mistakes and how you can avoid them in your own blog or online business.

1. Domain name

When I started this blog I decided to use Mk Akan –a derivative of my first and second name. Then it seemed cool. It was short but later on after running the blog for a while I noticed something. Many people could not pronounce the name of my blog. A domain name should be easy to remember and pronounce. I had failed right there.

If you are picking a domain for your blog, try and make sure it is memorable and easy to pronounce.

For me, am still going to keep this domain name. People will eventually get used to it. And by the way, it is pronounced “emkay Akan”.

2. Blog Design

Many top bloggers advice that you can start a blog without worrying about blog theme or design. It is good advice so that one doesn’t worry about design more than content. But it is also bad advice. Your blog is your house, your business, your spot, your room. It needs to make a good first impression. Many people can form an opinion of you and your blog by the design of the blog.

Unfortunately, I took the wrong advice and have been struggling to pick a free unique, cool blog design.

I failed again.

Having a unique blog design can help make or mar you blog. Get a nice unique blog theme as soon as you can. I am changing mine very soon.

Just visit www.BloggingTeacher and www.chrisguillebeau.com and see what impressions the design tells you about the bloggers.

3. Hosting

Another very important thing you should seriously think about is the web host for your blog. When I started, I hosted this blog using a third party reseller. It was a cool thing to do because I could pay in my local currency and not have to worry about online debit cards.

It was another mistake.

Some days ago my bandwidth got exhausted and my blog was off for a few days. Very bad. My other blogs are hosted on FatCow but I delayed transferring this blog to that account.

I will be doing so soon.

If you want to start a blog, you get good affordable hosting from Fatcow .

BTW, to easily read more posts in future subscribe to my RSS and follow @Mkakan

4. No Story, No USP

After reading a manifesto by Corbett from Thinktraffic.net and another from Chris from the art of conformity blog, I knew I had work to do on my story and USP. By the way, a USP is something, a reason why people should or would want to read your blog. This will help you differentiate your blog from the millions of blogs in the blogosphere.

Take a look at the top popular blogs. Read their stories. Look at what they say the do and you will realize the importance of having a story and unique selling point.

I have a story. I have a USP but it wasn’t well said and presented, I will change and improve all of that.

If you want to start a new blog consider having one fast. Read this post on thinktraffic for inspiration.

5. Running Many Blogs

This is not to brag or anything – I am an idea person. I tend to get ideas everyday from the blogs I read and things I see around me. This is good and bad at the same time.

After I started blogging (and currently as I write), I have so many ideas and have bought many domain names. I have started some blogs, have abandoned some and still have some I am yet to start.

Now you might wonder-is there anything wrong with owning many blogs and domains? Of course not, no but there is something wrong with running so many blogs. And it was the mistake I was making. I was spreading myself too thin.

I have learnt from this mistake and am currently running only 3 blogs. I will abandon those that don’t have any kind of prospect and I won’t start any kind of blog until I make some success with these three.

If I have any ideas I must start, I will outsource it.

Those are some of the mistakes I made. What are yours?

To easily read more helpful posts in future, don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS , follow @MkAkan and sign up for MkAkan’s newsletter. Read my free blog post development guide and learn how to write and develop blog posts for your blog.

Please retweet this post and share it on facebook.

Thank you.

Recommended Resources Mentioned In This Post

1. www.BloggingTeacher
2. www.chrisguillebeau.com
3. Fatcow
4. manifesto by Corbett from Thinktraffic.net
5. post on thinktraffic
6. Chris from the art of conformity blog

 Before and after I wrote how being more observant can improve your blogging learning and earning online , I have been observing and sharing some of my observations on this blog.

Today I will be sharing a new observation I found on another blog.

BTW, subscribe to my RSS and be the first person to read my new articles.

It is something I recently noticed and learnt from Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income. It is one of my favorite blogs online.

I observed how one could increase the amount of clicks on his or her recommended links. It is something Pat Flynn is doing on his blog posts.

How To Increase Clicks On Recommended Products and resources

The simple thing to do is

“List all the products, services, links or resources you mentioned in your post at the end of the post”.

It may seem really simple and basic but it really works.

For example if you scroll down to the end of this post, you will find links to some resources that I recommend and mentioned in this post.

How And Why Does Listing Recommended Resources Increase The Number Of Clicks?

Before I answer that let me quickly discuss why some people don’t click links on some blog post.

1. we are in a hurry and can’t wait to read and may hardly find your  recommended links scattered all round the post

So listing out these resources will.

1. Help them easily and quickly find the recommended links and resources.
2. Point them to important resources all at once at the end of the post
3. Save them some time

What Kind Of Links And Resources Can You Add In The List

Basically, any resource you link to can be on the recommended list.

(I don’t know what Pat uses as his own criteria)

It could be:

1. Blog posts or pages from your blog or other blogs
2. Recommended products with your affiliate links
3. Recommended services with you affiliate links. An Example is FatCow web hosting that I use to host some of my blogs

One reason why I love it is its visibility .

By the way one way to make this strategy effective is giving it a cool title.

Pat calls his,Items Mentioned in this Session:

I will be calling mine “Recommended Resources Mentioned In This Post Are”.

You can call yours anything but remember to make it interesting for people to want to check out.An interesting title will get readers interested in the links.

Conclusion

What do you think about this technique?

Are you using it already?

Please share in the comments.

BTW, Pat (if you are reading this and if you don’t mind, please could you reveal how this strategy is working on your blog. Thank you)

If you love this post and would want to read more posts in future, don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS ,follow @MkAkan and sign up for MkAkan’s newsletter . Download my Blog development guide e-book for free.

Please retweet this post and share it on facebook.

Recommended Resources Mentioned In This Posts are

1. how being more observant can improve your blogging ,learning and earning online
2. SmartPassiveIncome
3. FatCow web hosting

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

Recently while reading an article on smashing magazine, I discover a simple strategy that will increase anyone’s twitter followers and RSS subscribers.

But before that, let me remind you of a post I made about how being observant can improve your blogging and money making skills online.

Sequel to this, I have decided to document and post any thing useful that I find or observe on other blogs that will be useful to me or other bloggers in the blogosphere.

Here is one of them.

How To Increase Your RSS Subscription And Twitter Followers

While I was reading that article I noticed something,

There was a link to the RSS feed of the blog in the middle of the post and at the end of the post.

Something like this.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS if you want to read my next article.

Is This Effective? And How Is It So?

If you take a good look at the top right corner of the blog, you will see that it has over 100 000 RSS readers and twitter followers.

I know that the website is a popular and long standing website but I am quite certain that this strategy has helped in making their numbers grow.

Okay, Of course you need great content to make this work.

General Lessons From Using This Strategy

1. Always showcase whatever you want people to do or see in places where they are looking

Here is what I mean.

People reading an article usually look at the article so to get them to see or do something you want, put it in the article.

A lot of people just have their twitter and rss links on the, right or left columns of their blog.

They don’t have it showcased along with the content.

This may not work well in growing your numbers.

They guys at Smashing Magazine insert their RSS links and in obvious places and many times (twice).

This means that we will not miss an opportunity to subscribe.

How I Am Adapting This Strategy To My Blog

I must confess that I have not been using this strategy on my blog but I will make a change.

Here are the things I will do from now on

1. I will display and solicit people to subscribe to my rss feed at the end of every post I make
2. I will display and solicit readers to follow @MkAkan at end of every post I make
3. I will display and solicit readers to subscribe to my mailing list and news letter at the end of every post I make
4. I will  display and ask readers to take actions on anything I would love them todo

I know there may a WordPress plug-in to do this, but I am more comfortable with doing it this way.

Please make a comment about what you think about this.

If you love this post and would want to read more posts in future, don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS ,follow @MkAkan and sign up for MkAkan’s newsletter .Please retweet this post and share it on facebook.

Recommended Resources Mentioned in This Post are :

1.smashing magazine

2.how being observant can improve your blogging and money making skills online.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

Writing a review for a product or service basically involves giving out precise and useful information to other people who want to make a buying decision regarding the   product or service.

This post shows some important parameters or information that should be considered and included when writing a  review.

These parameters can still be used in article type reviews too.

Important information to Discuss when writing Reviews

1. Price

How much does it cost?

2. Payment Method

How can one pay for it.

3. Author, Maker, Producer ,Owner

Who made the product? Who produced it?

4. Number Of Pages

How many are found in he book, e-book or other similar products?

5. Other Products Made Or Owned By The Author Or Creator

Does the owner, maker, producer or author have other popular products or services found in the market?

6. Number Sold

How many of the products have been sold? How many people have bought it?

7. Number Of Users

How many people are currently using the product or service?

8. Popular Users

Who are the popular people using the products or service?

9. Recommend By

Who are the authorities or popular people that have recommended the product or service in the past?

10. Reviews /What People Say

Whathave people generally said about the product and service?

11. Buying Options, Formats Or Mediums

Does the product come in different consumer format? Is it an Electron or physical product or otherwise.

12. Free Trials

Does the product or service come with trial versions? How long does the trial last?

13. Money Back Guarantee

Does the product or service have a functional money back guarantee? What does it say?

14. Discounts

Is there any form of discount for bulk purchase, long subscription or long term purchase?

15. Drawbacks/Negatives

Is there anything negative about the service or product? This is very important. Be candid and objective about it.

16. Remarks

What do you have to say about the service or product? Would you recommend it? Why?

Be candid and objective about it putting the readers’ interest first.

17. Join /Buy /Subscribe

At the end of the review, you should give your readers the option to buy, subscribe or register for the product by placing a link to the product or service usually using your affiliate code.

Should You Use All There Product Review Parameters

Now, I am not recommending that you give all these information when reviewing a product or service.

I am recommending that you choose the best ones that will provide useful information to readers. The best ones will usually help readers   effectively make the best buying decision suiting his or her needs and pocket.

Please if you feel there are many other parameters that should be added to the list above or any thing at all, please say it in the comments.

If you love this post and would want to easily read more posts in future, don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS ,follow @MkAkan and sign up for MkAkan’s newsletter .

Please retweet this post and share it on facebook.

Thank you.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

Buying keywords are very important as far as targeted buying traffic is concerned. Buying keywords are very useful because there are many things you can do with them.

What Are Buying Keywords?

Buying keywords can be simply seen as keywords used by people who are searching for information that will help them make a buying decision.

A Buying keyword is a keyword used by a ready to buy person uses to search for information online.

Here Is A List Of Buying Keywords

Here is a list of buying keywords you should know and use:

1. How to buy
2. Where to buy
3. Buy
4. Review
5. Compare
6. Versus
7. Retail
8. Wholesale
9. Coupon code
10. Coupon
11. Discount
12. Discount code

These buying keywords are usually added in front or behind other keywords or phrases when a search is made.

Examples of searches that can be made with buying keywords are:

1. How to Buy Woothemes
2. Hostgator review
3. BlueHost coupon code
4. Headway versus thesis theme

These kinds of searches are made by people who are about to make a buying decision.

Are there other buying keywords you know? Please share in the comments.

5 Things You Can Do With Buying Keywords

1.  Domain Names

Domain names created from buying keywords are very valuable. This will help the blog or website rank high for they buying keyword.

This strategy is used in niche blogging and affiliate marketing.

2.  Tagging

Buying keywords can also be used in tagging a blog post or online resource. Tagging helps people find relevant resources from a list of other resources.

3.  Anchor Text

Using buying keywords as anchor text linking to a blog or website is a great way of improving the Google rank of the resource in the search engines.

4.  Page , Post Title or URL

Using buying keywords in the page, post title or URL is also a way of improving your ranking in the search engines.

what else do you know about buying keywords?please share in the comments.

If you love this post and would want to read more posts in future, don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS ,follow @MkAkan on twitter and please re-tweet this post