Blogging Bible

The Beginning Blogger’s Bible :
How to Make Money, Make a Difference, and

Make a Name Online
Copyright (c) 2008 - Stephen Palmer

Book design by : CharfishDesign.com
The Beginning Blogger’s Bible 2

About the Author
Stephen Palmer is a freelance writer, entrepreneur, scholar, and the New York Times
bestselling co-author of Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are
Destroying Your Prosperity.
Stephen began blogging to share his passion for liberty. His passion soon grew into
expertise in blogging, and Wordpress specifically. He created The Wordpress Coach to
share his expertise and help bloggers succeed. He offers personal coaching and other
resources that make blogging simple for the most technologically-challenged individuals.
Stephen resides in Round Rock, Texas with his wife Karina, son Alex, and daughters Libby
and Avery. He can be contacted here.

Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................... 6
Chapter 1......................................................................................................................................... 8
Who, What, Why............................................................................................................................. 8
Who Should Blog? ................................................................................................................................... 9
What is a Blog? ........................................................................................................................................ 9
Why Should You Blog?......................................................................................................................... 11
Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 18
Additional Resources:..........................................................................................................................................19
Chapter 2....................................................................................................................................... 20
Advertising .............................................................................................................................................21
Affiliate Marketing ................................................................................................................................24
Product Sales ......................................................................................................................................... 26
Donations................................................................................................................................................27
Paid Blogging Sites ................................................................................................................................ 28
Sell Text Links........................................................................................................................................29
Marketing Your Core Business Through Blogging ............................................................................ 30
Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 31
Chapter 3....................................................................................................................................... 35
Steps To Choosing Your Platform ........................................................................................................ 37
Step 1: Determine Your Purposes & Goals..........................................................................................................38
Step 2: Determine Your Budget........................................................................................................................... 39
Step 3: Determine Your Level of Technology Savvy.......................................................................................... 40
Why Choose Wordpress?...................................................................................................................... 41
Wordpress Resources ............................................................................................................................ 42
Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 43
Chapter 4....................................................................................................................................... 46
Domain Name Registration .................................................................................................................. 47
Hosting....................................................................................................................................................48
Design ..................................................................................................................................................... 48
Technical Support.................................................................................................................................. 50
Marketing .............................................................................................................................................. 50

My Story .................................................................................................................................................51
Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 55
Chapter 5....................................................................................................................................... 57
Create Value .......................................................................................................................................... 58
Optimize Technicalities......................................................................................................................... 59
Make Friends......................................................................................................................................... 61
Online.................................................................................................................................................................. 61
Offline.................................................................................................................................................................. 63
Build Community .................................................................................................................................. 63
Promote .................................................................................................................................................. 65
Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 67
Chapter 6....................................................................................................................................... 68
Challenges of Internet Publishing ........................................................................................................68
Specific Techniques For Effective Blog Writing................................................................................. 70
Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 74
Chapter 7....................................................................................................................................... 76
Track Statistics ...................................................................................................................................... 77
How to Operate a Newsletter................................................................................................................79
Utilize Images ........................................................................................................................................ 82
Subscribe to RSS Feeds ........................................................................................................................ 83

Introduction
Time To Harness the Power
“Until recently, 'the Blogosphere' referred to a small cluster of geeks circled

around a single tool. Now it refers to hundreds of millions of people using a vast
warehouse of tools that allow people to behave increasingly online like they do in
real life. We have entered the Age of Normalization in the Blogosphere.”
-Shel Israel, Social Media Writer & Speaker & the Co-Author of Naked Conversations
Y ou have the power. Above

all, that’s what you should
learn from this e-book. In the
past, if you wanted to write a
book, you needed to either get
accepted by a publisher or pay for
one. If you had a passion, you
were limited to sharing it with
your family and close friends. If
your interests were unique, you
were limited to networking with
people in your local area. If your family was spread out, you were limited to expensive
phone calls and inconvenient letters to stay connected. Business marketing used to be
confined to depersonalized, interruptive mass media.
Blogging has torn down walls and flung doors open that have been closed to all but a select
few. It’s leveled the playing field and brought the power down.

Now, every writer has an immediate publishing platform, as
“Your family can
well as the ability to market his or her book. You can broadcast
your passions and interests across the globe. Your family can stay connected
stay connected like never before. You can market your
business through intimate permission marketing to create like never before.”
loyal customers.
None of this matters, however, if you don’t take advantage of it. Isn’t it time for you to
harness the power of the blogosphere?

Chapter 1
Who, What, Why
“The word blog is irrelevant, what’s important is that it is now common, and will
soon be expected, that every intelligent person (and quite a few unintelligent
ones) will have a media platform where they share what they care about with the
world.”
-Seth Godin, New York Times Bestselling Author of Purple Cow, Unleashing The
Ideavirus, and Tribes
T he Information Age is a
raging wildfire. Those who
are unprepared and behind the
times will get torched to the ground
and left in the dust. Those who
understand it and harness
technology will blaze new trails and
burn holes in their pockets with all
their new wealth.
Blogging is one of the best ways to control the wild flames of technology to your benefit. A
blog in the 21st Century is what a horse was in the 18th Century.

Who Should Blog?
You should have a blog if any of the following describe you:
You’re a business owner

You have a family
You want to increase your income
You have a passion for anything
You want to make a name for yourself
You want to increase your impact and sphere of influence
You have anything to say to anyone
Is there anyone imaginable that one or more of these don’t apply to?
“Blogging is getting easier and easier and some day, we'll all have blogs of one sort or
another…I am not envisioning anything other than this; every single human being
posting their thoughts and experiences in any number of ways to the Internet. That's
where we are headed and blogging is a big part of that.”
-Fred Wilson, Managing Partner, Union Square Ventures
What is a Blog?
Imagine piling a publishing firm, TV studio, radio station, art/photography gallery, retail
store, wholesale product distributor, news outlet, living room, and community hall into one
tiny box that you control with your mind and fingers. Imagine stroking a few keys to reach
thousands of people—or a small handful of targeted people—instantaneously. That’s a blog.

A blog can be anything you want it to be, but
the simplest explanation is that it’s an outlet
for you to self-publish your thoughts and
interests to the world. It can be a family
gathering place; a soapbox; a diary; an online
scrapbook/photo gallery; a news outlet; a
platform to share your passions, such as
poetry, photography, a love for pets, etc.; a
community. You can do it alone or you can do it with a group of friends or business
associates.
The term “blog” is a contraction of “web log.” It’s a self-managed website that facilitates
adding content on an ongoing basis. Content can include text, images, videos, and podcasts
(audio downloads). Content is added in the form of blog articles, or posts. Posts are
displayed in reverse-chronological order; when you publish a new article all old articles are
pushed down and the most recent article appears at the top of your blog page.
The beauty of a blog—and of the Internet in general—is the ability to link to other sites,
articles, and resources and to interact with your readers through discussion. Unlike a book,
which is the reader talking to you and only gives you access to the page in front of you, a
blog is a conversational approach to sharing information. While you’re speaking to your
audience, you’re linking and referring to outside resources, just as you would in a
conversation. And your audience has the ability to respond and interact with you, your
content, and other readers.
In short, a blog allows for connectivity and interactivity, which together comprise the
Information Age currency.

Why Should You Blog?
You should blog for the following reasons:
Stay connected with family and friends.

I’ve got family in seven states, from California to Washington to Maryland. Blogging allows
us to stay up to date on the events of our lives, the growth of our children, our struggles
and our triumphs. It’s like the telephone on steroids. Not only can I speak with them, but I
can also share pictures, videos, and audio instantaneously. It’s the next best thing to
visiting with them in my living room.
Document your life.

What would you give to have the personal journals of your ancestors? What would it mean to
you to get into the mind and heart of your great-great-great-great grandfather/mother?
And forget about ancient history—what would it mean to read thoughts from your parents
about your birth and childhood, about their struggles as young parents? What would it do
for your relationships to have that kind of personal insight documented through the years?
Because of blogging, my children will have access to infinitely more information about
themselves and their family than I will ever have. A blog is a multi-faceted diary that will
never fade and never get lost. Once you’ve published content it’s available forever, and
accessible to whomever you choose. (And yes, you can keep it private.)
Establish trust and credibility.

Since it’s rare that consumers buy anything anymore without researching it on the Internet
first, this is a key benefit of blogging for business owners.

This recent Yahoo! study displays stunning statistics and concludes by saying, “Consumers
are using a range of online and offline resources to do research before making purchase
decisions or choosing service providers. From a marketing perspective, the world is a great
deal more complex than it used to be. And while traditional ‘word of mouth’ remains
powerful and influential, the Internet is heavily used in the research process; so is search, in
a majority of cases. In addition, websites are often a very influential factor in the ultimate
choice of local contractor or service provider.”
An Opinion Research Corporation survey in 2008 discovered that a staggering “83% of

consumers use online product reviews to make purchases. In fact, 61% used online reviews,
blogs and other sources of online customer feedback before purchasing a new product or
service. They mainly used search engines to conduct their research. In addition, 38% of the
survey respondents first consulted online product or service reviews when they began their
shopping research, while 27% used the Internet when deciding between two or three
products or services. Another 21% used online reviews to confirm their decision to buy a
particular product or service.”
This 2005 study showed that 78% of Internet users research products and services online
before buying.
Blogging allows you to showcase your expertise on your product and/or service, like Garrett
Gunderson and I have done on the blog for our New York Times bestseller Killing Sacred
Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity. It gives
your customers insights into who you are and why you do what you do. It also gives them
the ability to see how you deal with negative publicity or customer complaints.
Since relatively few business owners and professionals understand the power of blogging, it
gives you an edge on your competition. For example, real estate agents compete with

hundreds of other agents in their area. If you’re in the market to buy a house, the most
likely place for you to start is with a Google search, for both houses and agents.
Which agent are you going to choose: the agent that you know little about because you
can’t find any information about them, or the agent with massive amounts of insightful
information that you can access on their blog? Are you going to choose the complete
stranger, or the agent with whom you have a relative relationship?
Business and marketing have undergone massive transformations in the last 10-20 years.
But the single biggest change has been the shift of control, from corporations to
consumers. Prior to the Internet and blogging, corporations were largely in control. They
amassed capital, created products, then bought up TV, radio, magazine, and newspaper ad
space to sell those products to us. It’s what we saw, and so we bought.
The new model puts the consumer in the driver seat. Since
we have access to so much information, we’re able to “The new model
research much more thoroughly before purchasing. Not only
do we have more options and outlets to buy from, but also
puts the consumer
we can research them to find the best deals, identify
in the driver seat.”
companies that share our values, and become aware of
problems/defects before we buy.
To put it in real estate terms, business used to be a seller’s market; now it’s a buyer’s
market. The proliferation of information has drastically shifted the scale of influence to
consumers and away from producers.
Business is no longer about being big; it’s about being nimble and responsive. It’s not about
mass media cover-ups; it’s about intimate transparency. It’s not about pushing what you

have onto customers; it’s about taking orders from them. And blogging is key to staying on
the front edge of this massive wave.
“…blogging has transformed the venture business—entrepreneurs expect a level of

transparency that simply didn't exist before venture investors started blogging. I can
not imagine staying current in this fast moving, high tech world without using blogs
and bloggers as a powerful filter of the overwhelming torrent of information we all
face.”
-David Hornik, August Capital
In the past, companies could bury defects and/or bad business practices under layers of
advertising make-up. The Information Age is like seeing a woman without make-up—if we
don’t like what we see we’re not going to buy. A business blog makes you and your
business naturally beautiful, without the make-up of fancy and expensive marketing. If you
do have defects and complaints, a blog allows you to respond appropriately and manage the
situation on your terms.
“Blogs represent the best chance for companies to inform the conversation.”
-Richard Edelman, President and CEO, Edelman
Build relationships and community.

Seth Godin’s recent landmark book Tribes articulates this aspect of
blogging well. Seth writes, “People want connection and growth and
something new. They want change…You can’t have a tribe without a
leader—and you can’t be a leader without a tribe.”
He explains that it takes only two things to turn a group of people into a

tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate. Increasing the effectiveness of your
“tribe” is a product of 1) transforming the shared interest into a passionate goal and desire
for change, 2) providing tools to allow members to tighten their communications, and 3)
leveraging the tribe to allow it to grow and gain new members.
A blog is one of the most powerful tools on the planet to achieve these goals.
“Blogging has gone from a cutting edge, mostly American phenomenon to a global
main-stream activity generating an increasing larger share of the world's ‘user
generated content’ and the sharing economy driving up the value of search and
advertising worldwide. In addition to increasing in scale, bloggers continue to become
increasingly diverse become both a core economic as well as social driver online.”
-Joichi Ito, CEO, Creative Commons, Venture Capitalist
The Cause of Liberty, for example, started out as my personal blog, my passionate
thoughts to the world. It has taken time, but it has slowly built into a community of loyal
readers and frequent contributors. At the time of writing this I have 571 subscribers to my
weekly newsletter.
To give you a frame of reference, the site was launched on January 25th, 2008 and I’ve had
an average of 670 unique visitors and 3,392 page views per month. While these aren’t
record-breaking numbers, it’s certainly better than me talking to myself. It’s no longer a
personal blog; it’s a community, or a “tribe,” of people with shared interests. The blog is the
platform that facilitates our connections, which wouldn’t otherwise exist.
Click here to download an excellent resource from Seth Godin on how to build community—
and how not to.

Speak your mind and share your passion.
Blogging communities exist for every topic and purpose imaginable, from art lovers to
photography buffs, environmentalists to dog lovers, technology geeks to marketing gurus.
In the past you may have had the excuse that your passion is such a narrow niche that no
one is interested. A blog gives you access to millions of people and takes away that excuse.
You’re a human being. By definition this means that you have important things to say and
you have things that you care about. Don’t keep them to yourself—create value for others
by blogging about them. A blog is your outlet for sharing your gifts and interests.
“Blogging continues to splinter into many different categories, providing an incredibly

rich ecosystem of self expression tools and compelling content for readers. The
prototypical personal blog, where a single writer simply writes their daily thoughts on
their life and/or topics that interest them, will always be hugely popular. But multi-
author blogs will continue to thrive as well. And a huge percentage of blogs focus on
single topics of interest, from tech news to wine to knitting. Whatever it is you are
interested in, it's likely to have a community of people who share that interest.”
-Michael Arrington, Founder, TechCrunch
Steer the conversation.

Have you ever been involved in a conversation where your conversant held all the cards?
Have you ever attended a political debate where, in your view, the moderator did a poor job?
Isn’t that frustrating?
A blog is the solution to that frustration. You no longer have to cater to existing media
outlets, or suffer as you witness incompetence or injustice. All you have to do is start your

own blog, then you control the conversation. A blog is your house. You own it. You decide
what gets discussed, and how. You make the rules.
Make money.
This topic will be explained in further detail in chapter 2. Suffice it to say for now that a
number of viable options exist for you to monetize your blog. In fact, it’s becoming a
common occurrence for people to start a blog as a hobby, then are surprised as it makes
enough money for them to quit their job and blog full-time. And it’s possible for you, too.
Make a difference.
Blogging is shaping the world and every aspect of it including culture, business, media,
community, family, religion, and politics and government. In the Industrial Age, almost
everything was a top-down model.
For example, corporations and the media largely determined our purchasing preferences
and habits. Blogging has opened up a brave new, democratic world. It’s leveled the playing
field. Every individual with a computer and Internet access now has a viable voice in the
conversations about everything important to us.
Drive traffic.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art and science of making your site appear on the
first few pages of a Google or other search engine search, based on key words and phrases.
For example, one website I wrote in my freelance writing practice was for Images Salon in
Tucson, Arizona. If you Google “salon” + “Tucson”, their website shows up on the first
page, because of Search Engine Optimization.

The three primary components of SEO are 1) keyword-rich content, 2) the frequency that
your site content is updated, and 3) backlinks.
Keyword-rich content refers to the words on your web pages. When a search engine
explores your site, it’s looking for, among other things, specific terms to your business/
industry/niche in order to determine how relevant your website is to searches by Internet
users. For example, I wrote the content for my dad’s website Real Estate Marketplace.
Search the home page and you’ll find a variety of deliberately placed key words and phrases
including six instances of the term “real estate.”
Search engines also like websites that are always being updated and added to. It tells them
that it’s a happening site, that it’s being managed well, which means a greater likelihood of
relevance to Internet browsers.
Backlinks refer to other websites that link to your website. The more links you have to your
site, the more weight you have with search engines.
There are hundreds of ways to execute Search Engine Optimization, but blogging is one of
the single best ways to do it. Search engines love blogs. Blogging continually adds new,
keyword-rich content to your site. It draws visitors and conversations and secures
backlinks. And it does all of this as a natural process, without you having to be technically
savvy—all you have to do is blog on a regular basis.
Conclusion
Blogging is one bandwagon that you cannot afford to miss. You may be resisting starting a
blog for various reasons. But resisting blogging is like a carpenter resisting using tools.

Blogging is one of the most powerful tools for thriving in the Information Age. It allows you
to stay connected with the people who matter most to you, document your life, establish
trust and credibility, build relationships and community, speak your mind and share your
passions, steer conversations, make money, make a difference, and drive traffic to your
website.
Additional Resources:
Introduction to Blogging by Wordpress
What is a Blog? by Darren Rowse of ProBlogger
Technorati “State of the Blogosphere 2008”
What is a Blog and Why Do We Need Them? by Trudy W. Schuett
Should You Blog? by Sally Falkow
10 Reasons Business Blogging is the Top Marketing and Advertising Value Proposition
by Chris Frerecks

Chapter 2
Show Me the Money!
“These days, when I bump into other mothers on play dates, or when I see people
I haven’t seen for some time, I get asked how and what I’ve been doing lately. I
pause, then tell them that I ‘blog.’ That of course, inspires a lengthy discussion
about the subject of ‘blogging’; I tell them why I do it and why I’ve traded my
almost 20 year-old career in technology and software development for this new-
fangled activity.”
-Silicon Valley Blogger
I t’s
bloggers
becoming
phenomenon
to
a
become
frequent
for casual
accidental
entrepreneurs. They begin sharing
their passions on a blog to a
handful of readers. Soon, more
and more people are attracted. It
dawns on the bloggers that their
content has commercial viability.
They start researching and
discover ways to leverage their
blog. The money starts rolling in. They quit their job and live happily ever after.

Okay, so the “happily ever after” part may be a stretch, but this is certainly no fairytale. It
doesn’t mean it’s necessarily going to happen to you. It doesn’t mean that it’s easy or that
it will happen overnight. But it is possible.
Before learning specific strategies for earning money by blogging, however, you need to
decide if you even want to monetize your blog. For example, if your purpose is to simply
have a family blog, then skip this chapter entirely. You’ve got to analyze your interests and
passions and determine if monetizing your blog is appropriate for you.
If you decide that it is, then here are the main ways to earn money blogging:
Advertising
Affiliate Marketing
Product Sales
Donations
Paid Blogging Sites
Sell Text Links
Marketing A Core Business Through Blogging
Advertising
Advertising is the most common and easiest way to make money from a blog. You can
advertise on your blog in three main ways: 1) Google Adsense, 2) flat-fee banner ad space,
and 3) pay-per-click banner ads.

Google Adsense
Google Adsense “automatically crawls the content of your pages and delivers ads (you can
choose both text or image ads) that are relevant to your audience and your site content—
ads so well-matched, in fact, that your readers will actually find them useful.” It’s easy to
set up an account, and once you have one you’re given code to insert into your site, which
allows Google Ads to display anywhere you want them to on your site.
When people click on the ads, you get paid a small commission.
Adsense Pros: Easy to set up, ads are automatically generated to be relevant to your site’s
content.
Adsense Cons: Relatively small income potential, can clutter up your site if used
excessively, advertising may marginalize your particular message (which is why I don’t
advertise on my community blog).

Flat-Fee Banner Ads
Heavily-trafficked sites can sell banner advertising space. Pricing is determined by the
amount of traffic the site receives and the size of the ad. Advertisers pay you a flat fee per
week or per month.
Below, on the right had side of the image, is an example of banner ads on a popular blog
called Dosh Dosh. Note the red banner ad in the bottom right corner.
Clicking on the red advertisement takes you to this page, which makes the case for why
you should advertise on the site.
Banner Ad Pros: Great money, you get paid regardless of if the ads get clicked or not.
Banner Ad Cons: Not a great option unless you’re getting substantial traffic, can lead to
site clutter.

Pay-Per-Click Banner Ads
Like Google ads, pay-per-click banner ads only generate a commission when readers click
on them. Such ads are brokered through sites such as AdToll, or you can secure them
personally in the same way that flat-fee ads are secured.
The Key To Success For Advertising: Consistently deliver quality content and
market your blog well in order to drive massive amounts of traffic. If you’re getting less
than 10,000 page views per month, your ad revenues will be marginal at best.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing allows you to earn a commission by recommending and selling the
products of others to your audience. It’s a revenue sharing agreement between you and
online merchants. Depending on your niche and your audience, this can be one of the most
powerful and lucrative ways to earn money blogging. It’s a beautiful arrangement because it
eliminates the need for you to develop and market your own products.
There are three ways to earn money through affiliate marketing: 1) pay per click, 2) pay per
sale, and 3) pay per lead.
Pay Per Click

Every time a potential customer clicks on a link on your site leading to the online
merchant’s site, you receive a commission. This can be pennies or dollars depending on the
product and the commission rate.
Pay Per Sale

This is simple: you get paid a commission for selling products for others.

Pay Per Lead
If a potential customer ends up on an online merchant’s site from your site, then gives the
merchant information by filling out a form, you get a commission.
One of the best resources to learn about and to start affiliate marketing is Click Bank. Click
Bank is a clearinghouse for online affiliate products. Users can set up a free account, then
browse through thousands of product listings to identify relevant and lucrative
opportunities.
E-Junkie is also a clearinghouse of online products, as well as a provider for a host of

online commerce tools.
Affiliate Marketing Pros: High commission rates, you don’t have to develop your own
product, you can rely upon the credibility and marketing power of experts.
Affiliate Marketing Cons: Deceptive and hyped information and practices in affiliate
marketing (see this article I wrote), unscrupulous merchants can close down programs
without informing you and without paying your commissions.
The Key To Success For Affiliate Marketing: Perform diligent research to

identify products that create real value in the marketplace, rather than hyped products that
aren’t much more than Internet “fluff.” Don’t try to sell things that people don’t need; find
affiliate products where there is actual market demand, then market them with integrity.
The best affiliate programs are the ones where you’re friends with the producer(s) and can
endorse them with confidence.

Product Sales
The types of products that you can sell through a blog are
“The types of
unlimited. You can sell e-products such as e-books, audio
and video downloads, newsletters, and informational products that you
courses. The advantage of e-products is that there is no
client fulfillment, no warehousing and inventory can sell through a
management, and no shipping. You set up the
infrastructure one time and customers download the blog are unlimited.”
products automatically. For many blogs, physical products, such as t-shirts, merchandise,
books, and hard copy newsletters, can also be great sources of supplemental income.
In either case, various product store platforms exist which can be plugged into your existing
blog platform. In addition, resources such as E-Junkie provide a variety of tools and
resources to streamline and simplify your e-commerce. Café Press is also a great resource
for product sales.
Proprietary Product Pros: For blogs with a large following and a strong “tribal” brand,
products are an excellent option. They build the sense of community by giving members
tangible representations of their informal membership. E-products are beautiful because of
their automated, passive income-generating nature.
Proprietary Product Cons: Online retailing can be very difficult and requires a lot of
specialized training and knowledge to make it cost effective. Handling physical products is
time and resource consuming and opens the door to mistakes in the storage and
distribution process.

The Key To Success For Product Sales: Build a strong brand based on loyalty
and a distinct sense of belonging among community members. The Grateful Dead and The
Onion are two excellent examples of this.
Donations
Yet another way to earn money from your blog is to simply ask your readers to donate.
Delivering quality content is what gives you the right to ask for donations. This is a
particularly relevant model for non-profit oriented blogs. The Populist Party website is a
great example of this. Below is a picture of the bottom of one of their blog posts. The
donation button and text that you see appears at the end of every blog post.

Donation Pros: Running on donations is a great way to gauge the quality of your content;
the higher the quality the greater the likelihood readers will be to support you. It’s an
excellent fit for non-profit organizations and non-commercial blogs especially.
Donation Cons: You have no guarantees that anyone will actually contribute, it may be a
turn-off for some readers.
The Key To Success For Donations: Use this model if your message is non-
profit in nature. Deliver high-quality content consistently. Don’t place ads on your site; this
sends conflicting messages to your readers. Be consistent with your placement of a
“Donate” button and text.
Paid Blogging Sites

Many writers and bloggers leverage sites other than their own to generate income through
blogging. Many “content broker” sites exist, such as Triond and Helium, which allow you to
publish original content and get paid to do so.
The model is usually generated by Google Adsense. The sites place Google ads throughout
your articles and you get a commission for every ad click within your articles. This
incentivizes writers to produce a constant flow of articles; the more articles you publish the
more you can earn.
Paid Blogging Site Pros: You can generate income without maintaining your own site—all
infrastructure is handled for you and you can just focus on writing, these sites generally
generate a lot of traffic, if you also have your own blog you can build backlinks back to your
personal site within your articles.

Paid Blogging Site Cons: Commissions are generally just pennies per click, making it very
difficult to generate enough income to be worth the time and effort.
The Key To Success For Paid Blogging Sites: Write, write, write. And
then write some more. You’ve got to generate content daily to build income from this
model. This is true for any blogging model, but especially true here.
Sell Text Links

Since a significant component of Search Engine Optimization is backlinks to your site, many
webmasters and businesses will pay you a commission to link to their site from yours. The
emphasis in this model is on Google PageRank, which requires that your niche be relevant
to those you approach to sell this service to.
For example, let’s suppose you start a blog on health and wellness. You can approach a site
such as Health and Wellness Blog and offer to link back to their site using relevant search
terms. You write articles on the same topic, then link to relevant articles on their site for
terms such as “blood sugar,” “skin care,” “nutrition,” and “exercise.” Websites such as
LinkXL and facilitate monetized linking.
Text Link Pros: It doesn’t involve much work and traffic is not a factor in these blogs. In
other words, even if you have very few visitors, the sites you link to still have incentive to
pay you for links.
Text Link Cons: Fluctuating income because of your reliance upon the Google PageRank
algorithm, potential income ceiling due to limits on the number of links you can sell.

Key To Success For Text Links: The more specific the niche, the greater
likelihood you’ll have of selling links.
Marketing Your Core Business Through Blogging

If writing/blogging is not your passion, but you understand the marketing benefits, then
leverage a blog to market your core business.
In my case, my Writing Captain blog markets my freelance writing services by giving

potential customers insights into my skill and expertise. I don’t monetize the blog in any
other way because I don’t want to clutter up the site with ads and I don’t want to detract
people from my core services.
I helped my dad, a real estate broker, set up a blog on his website to promote his agents
and their services. Michael Drew, our publicist for Killing Sacred Cows, markets his services
through Beneath the Cover, a book industry blog that he set up and manages.
Core Business Marketing Pros: It establishes trust and credibility by showcasing your
personality and expertise, it increases traffic to your website, it helps you to manage defects
and complaints, it builds and strengthens relationships with your customers.
Core Business Marketing Cons: There really are no cons to marketing your business
through blogging, other than that it takes time, patience, and trust to stick with it long
enough to see tangible results.
The Key To Success With Core Business Marketing Through Blogging:

Trust in the power of blogging enough to write consistently, daily if possible, and at least
bi-weekly. Hire a freelance writer if you have difficulty writing or thinking of topics to write

about. Do whatever it takes; it will give you significant competitive advantages in the
long-term.
Conclusion
Earning income through blogging comes primarily through seven outlets: advertising,
affiliate marketing, product sales, donations, paid blogging sites, selling text links, and
marketing your core business.
Like anything, making blogging money is simple, but it’s not easy. It’s not a get-rich-quick
scheme. It doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t happen with casual effort.
Before you even consider any of the monetizing options, get clear about why you’re starting
a blog. Specifically, there are four primary reasons for starting a blog: 1) to stay connected
with family and friends, 2) to share your passions and interests, 3) to market your core
business (other than your blog), and 4) to make money directly from your blog.
If your reason is number one, then forget about monetizing your blog. Connect with your
family and leave it at that.
If your reason is number two, the next step is to determine if your particular passions are
conducive to monetizing your blog. In other words, determine if your interests are
commercially viable. For example, if your passion is photography, sharing tips and
resources for photographers is commercially viable and such a blog could be a great money
maker. A philosophy or religious blog, on the other hand, is probably not as commercially
viable, if at all.

Examples of Passion-Oriented Blogging:
The Cause of Liberty
My Growing Passion
The Will 2 Learn
Cooking Is My Passion
If your reason is number three, my recommendation is to not do much, if anything at all, to

monetize your blog itself. Don’t clutter up your site with ads because it will detract from
your content and your purpose. Affiliate marketing and other forms of monetizing are just
distractions in this case. Focus on driving interest to your business and securing clients by
sharing your expertise. Don’t let your blog tail wag the dog of your core business.
Examples of Core Business Marketing Through Blogging:

Seth Godin
Future Now
Killing Sacred Cows
Real Estate Marketplace
Writing Captain
Manasco Marketing
Made to Stick
Men With Pens (monetized)
If your reason is number four, then read this chapter again and click on every link
throughout, as well as in the additional resources below, and become an expert on
monetizing blogs.

Far more important than this, however, is creating actual value in the marketplace. Don’t
clutter up the Internet and the world with yet another dummy site whose sole purpose is to
get people to click out of it to earn paltry commissions.
Choose a topic where real market demand exists. Create energy-worthy content
consistently. Post at least five articles per week. Market your blog tirelessly. Don’t get
discouraged if it takes six months, or even a year, before you start seeing substantial
results. The prize goes to the persistent and to those who create real value.
Examples of Blogging as a Business:

ProBlogger
Copyblogger
Entrepreneur’s Journey
The Digerati Life
Zen Habits
Dosh Dosh
Make Money Blogging by Darren Rowse
Can You REALLY Make Money Blogging? by Darren Rowse
How To Make Money From Your Blog by Steve Pavlina
Top Bloggers & How Much They Earn By Silicon Valley Blogger
How Do Bloggers Make Money by Michael Agger
How To Make Money Blogging by Dosh Dosh
What is Affiliate Marketing?
10 Tips For Using Affiliate Programs On Your Blog by Darren Rowse

Maybe You Can’t Make Money Doing What You Love by Seth Godin
How Bloggers Make Money From Blogs by Darren Rowse
Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a 6-Figure Income by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett

Chapter 3
Choosing the Right Platform
plat · form: (noun) a place for public discussion; forum.

-Dictionary.com
A lthough it has many definitions, think

of the word “platform” as a stage or
venue for giving speeches and/or facilitating
discussions. Think of the many types and
sizes of platforms used for different purposes.
A stage in a high school gym is basic and

multi-purposeful. A living room is an intimate
“platform” setting for a small handful of
family/friends. A concert or theater stage is
optimized for viewing and listening by large
groups of people. The President has access to a global media platform to broadcast his
agenda.
In blogging and website creation, a platform refers to the specific software you use to
create, manage, and broadcast your content. It provides administrative functionality to
create, update, arrange, and publish your articles, images, videos, and audio content.

A stage consists of the front stage, which is what event attendees see, and a backstage,
which facilitates everything that happens behind the curtain. A blog platform is the same. It
provides a front end, which determines the look, feel, layout, and functionality of what your
Internet viewers see and interact with. It also provides the “backstage” administrative
dashboard, which is where you manage your content.
Currently, the most popular blogging platforms include Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad,
Movable Type, Expression Engine, Live Journal, Tripod, Square Space, BlogHarbor, and
Drupal.
For our purposes, I’m only going to highlight and compare the top three: Blogger,
Wordpress, and Typepad. My purpose isn’t to exclude options; it’s to simplify the process
for you. If you’re a researcher, feel free to explore each of the platforms and make your own
decision. For those who want to eliminate information clutter and take advantage of my
intense research, trust me when I say that those three provide any type of functionality you
can ever dream of, especially Wordpress.
Blog platforms are easy-to-use, yet powerful “content management systems.” A content
management system (CMS) is, according to Wikipedia, “a computer application used to
create, edit, manage, and publish content in a consistently organized fashion.”
Powerful content management systems, such as Wordpress, allow you to build fully-
functional websites for every purpose imaginable. In other words, they’re far more than just
a blog platform.

Steps To Choosing Your Platform
Choosing your blog/website platform is the product of the following steps:
1. Determine your purposes and goals.
2. Determine your budget.
3. Determine your level of technology savvy and commitment to learn.
Before we examine these steps and apply them to you, you must understand the difference
between hosted and stand-alone platforms.
Hosted Platforms vs. Stand-Alone Platforms

Hosted platforms are absolutely free and are easy to use for beginners, yet possess limited
functionality. Being hosted means that the provider of the platform (such as Blogger or
Wordpress) stores all of your information at no cost to you.
A hosted platform prevents you from using your own url, or website address. For example,
anyone who sets up a blog using Blogger automatically has the extension .blogspot.com
placed at the end of their preferred web address.
So if I wanted to start a “Stephen Palmer Family” blog using Blogger, my web address could
not be www.stephenpalmerfamily.com; it would have to be
www.stephenpalmerfamily.blogspot.com. If I were using Wordpress.com, my url would be
www.stephenpalmerfamily.wordpress.com. This limitation carries serious disadvantages for
professional bloggers.
Stand-alone platforms give you increased functionality, yet require more knowledge and
money. First, they require you to register your own domain name using a site such as
GoDaddy. Secondly, they require that you pay for hosting, which generally runs between $5

and $25 per month, depending on the quality of the service and how much storage space
you require. Third, depending on your goals and purposes, you may need to pay for the
actual platform itself, as well as a custom design, if desired.
Blogger is a free, hosted platform. Wordpress provides both a free, hosted version
(Wordpress.com), as well as a stand-alone version (Wordpress.org). Typepad is a
subscription-based service, with the cheapest level being $4.95 per month or $49.50 per
year.
Examples of Free, Hosted Blogs (note the extensions on the urls)

The Internet Dark Ages (Blogger)
Leadership Education Uganda (Wordpress.com)
Seth Godin (Typepad—not entirely free, but comparable for our purposes here)
Examples of Stand Alone Blogs

Boing Boing (platform unknown)
Lifehacker (platform unknown)
Michelle Malkin (Wordpress)
With this foundation, now lets examine the steps above. To save you time and hassle, I’m
going to be very direct with my recommendations, without much commentary. If you’re
inclined to research further, additional resources have been provided throughout this e-
book.
Step 1: Determine Your Purposes & Goals

What is the main purpose of your blog? Is blogging something you’ll be doing long-term?
Do you plan on putting ads on your blog, or monetizing it in any other way? Does your blog

have a professional application, or is it just a hobby? Who is your intended audience? Private
groups of family and friends, or the whole world?
If you’re starting a private/family/hobby-oriented (and non-monetized) blog, then use

Blogger. It’s simple, user-friendly, and gives you all the tools you need, absolutely free. It
also provides more functionality than Wordpress.com, including the ability to edit the
design of your template.
If your purposes are professional and if you intend on monetizing your blog, then use either
Wordpress.org or Typepad. You’ll want your own url without
a .blogspot.com/.wordpress.com/.typepad.com extension, as well as increased functionality
and versatility.
Step 2: Determine Your Budget

If your budget is limited and your blog is for private/family/hobby use, use one of the free
versions (again, I recommend Blogger). If your budget is limited to $500 or less now, yet
your blog is professional in nature and your long-term goal is to monetize it, you still need
to start with the right stand alone platform (I recommend Wordpress.org).
You can choose from thousands of free templates, and your only costs will be purchasing a
domain name and hosting. Then, as your blog and budget grow, you can hire a designer to
give you a custom design.
If you start with a free version with an extension on the url, then later decide to purchase a
stand-alone domain name, you’ll have to transfer all your content to the new site, and
change every single link within your site. I’ve done this before—trust me, it’s a nightmare.

If your budget is $500 or more, you definitely want to go with Wordpress.org. You can
choose from thousands of custom templates, both free and paid. You can hire a designer to
customize your template. The right template will allow you to build a complete website for a
fraction of the cost of a custom-built site, yet with the exact same functionality, if not more
so.
You can set up your site as a static business website that has a blog, or with the blog being
the main feature and home page. For example, The Cause of Liberty, Real Estate
Marketplace, and Writing Captain are all sites I’ve built using Wordpress templates. I hired
designers to give me custom designs for each. They’re all set up as business sites, with a
static home page and a blog added as a secondary page. Write to Done, on the other hand,
features the blog as the home page.
Step 3: Determine Your Level of Technology Savvy

If you’re a beginner, Blogger and Wordpress.com are the easiest platforms to learn.
However, your purpose and goals must be the main factors in your decision.
Just as with your budget, if your long-term goal is to monetize your blog and if you have a
professional purpose, you need to start with the right platform, even if it means getting out
of your comfort zone and learning some technology.
This may require teaming up with a tech-savvy individual, but it’s worth it. My friend and
partner Randy Hinton, IT genius extraordinaire and founder of Fusioncore, has been an
invaluable resource for me in this regard, and he can help you as well.

To conclude this section, your choices are really very simple: if you’re a beginner wanting to
start a blog with very little up-front cost and for private and family purposes, go with
Blogger. If you have professional purposes and a goal to monetize your blog, regardless of
your budget and/or technological knowledge, go with Wordpress.org or Typepad.
Why Choose Wordpress?

I’m personally a huge fan of Wordpress.org, for the following reasons,
among others. While not all of these benefits are unique to Wordpress,
few, if any, platforms provide such a full package.
• Functionality: From flash presentations to photo galleries, Google map integration to

contact forms, polls to event calendars, e-commerce to database management and
email marketing, Adsense to forum integration, Wordpress has every type of website
functionality imaginable. This is provided by over 3,300 “plugins,” which are free
downloads, built by members of the community, which enhance the functionality of
your website/blog. One excellent example is this real estate listing plugin.
• Versatility/Customization: With literally thousands of templates to choose from,
Wordpress allows you to build a custom website on the most user-friendly content
management system on the planet. From static business sites to blogs, social
networking sites to media outlets, Wordpress can do it all with ease. We began this
chapter by speaking of different types of “platforms” for different purposes.
Wordpress can be any platform you need it to be, whereas most blog platforms are
limited to very specific functions.
• Multiple Users: Run your blog as an individual or as a team with Wordpress.

• Internet Community Support: Since Wordpress is such a powerful, open-source
platform, thousands of programmers across the globe are constantly creating add-on
features that integrate with Wordpress.
• Categories: Categories allow you to organize your content, making for ease of
searchability. Not every blog platform allows you to create and manage categories.
• Search Engine Optimization: In addition to being coded to optimize SEO, Wordpress
has the most powerful SEO tools available.
• Spam Protection: With the right plugins, Wordpress kills all spam automatically,
saving you time and energy.
• Money-Making Potential: Few blog platforms rival the versatility of Wordpress in
terms of monetizing a blog.
Wordpress Resources
Free Templates:
Wordpress Directory
Wordpress Templates
Natty WP
Top WP Themes
WP Theme Spot
Premium Templates:
WP Remix
Revolution Two
Wordpress Designers
Thesis Theme
Woo Themes

Theme Spinner
iThemes
Recommended Wordpress Designers:

Men With Pens
Wordpress Designers
The Revolution Team
Charfish Design
Plugins:
Wordpress Plugin Directory
Plugin Resources
Miscellaneous:
Search Engine Optimization
Wordpress Support Forums
Lorelle on Wordpress
Vladimir Prelovac’s Blog
Randy Hinton (Tech Support)
Conclusion
You can spend tons of time researching and comparing blog and website platforms, as have
I. Or you can get straight to creating your blog. Use Blogger or Wordpress.com for private,
family, and hobby-oriented blogs that you have no intention of monetizing. Use
Wordpress.org for professional blogs that you plan on monetizing.

Wordpress.org is far more than just a blog platform. It allows you to build a fully-
functional, customized website, with or without blog integration. Or, you can have your blog
be the main component of the site, but still have supporting pages and resources.
You can choose from thousands of existing templates, all of which can be customized, or
you can have a designer give you a custom design from the start.
In short, Wordpress.org is like building a custom website at a fraction of the cost, at with
even greater functionality than you’ll get with most custom sites.
ProBlogger polled their readers to see which blog platforms they used. Here’s a picture of
the results:
It doesn’t necessarily mean that Wordpress.org is for you, but it’s definitely worked wonders
for me.

The sky is the limit with blogging, and Wordpress is a rocket. Ready to get started on your
blog/custom website?
Choosing a Blog Platform by Darren Rowse
Are You Using the Right Blogging Tool? by Susannah Gardner
Blog Software Comparison Chart
Starting Your Blog—Choose a Blog Platform by Alex Cohen
Blogger Versus Wordpress.com by Pulsed
Blogging Wars: Wordpress Vs. Blogger by Mert Erkal
Beyond a Blog—Running a Full Website Using Wordpress by Amir Helzer

Chapter 4
The Costs of Blogging
“Price certainly is and should be one factor in our financial decisions—just not
the main basis for our buying decisions. Instead of focusing on the price of items,
the overriding factor of all our financial decisions should be value. By value I
mean quality and utility. When we’re considering any purchase, before we ask,
‘How much does it cost?’ our thought process should be, ‘Is this what I really
want?’ ‘Does this item do everything that I want it to do?’ ‘Is it the best quality?’
‘How long will it last?’ and other such questions.”
-Garrett Gunderson
T he costs of blogging are determined

by your purposes. If all you want is a
place to share news, stories, and pictures
with your family, then blogging can be
absolutely free, aside from the time you
spend at it. If this is the case for you, then
skip this chapter entirely.
On the other hand, if your goal is to build a

community, draw massive traffic, and/or monetize your blog, then, like any business, it can
get pricey. And like anything else, you get what you pay for.

Assuming you have professional goals for your blog, your potential costs are in the
following five areas:
Domain name registration

Hosting
Design
Technical Support
Marketing
Domain Name Registration

Registering a domain name can be as cheap as about $10 per year. But if you do it right,
you’ll probably spend $30-45 per year. The reason is because you’ll want to register your
name with more than just a .com extension—you’ll also want to get variations such
as .net, .org, .info, and .biz. This ensures that your site won’t get “leeched” by others.
In other words, if your website is www.iamcool.com and you fail to purchase other
variations, someone else can buy www.iamcool.org and leech traffic from your site. I
recommend buying as many alternative extensions as you can afford to avoid any such
confusion.
You may also consider variations of your actual url. For example, when I started The Cause
of Liberty, www.causeofliberty.com had been taken. I initially registered
www.thecauseofliberty.com, but I was concerned that people would confuse one for the
other. I purchased and used wwww.movingthecauseofliberty.com to avoid such confusion.
Fortunately, I was able to purchase causeofliberty.com from the owner, so now all of my

other urls get redirected to www.causeofliberty.com. In other words, typing
www.movingthecauseofliberty.com will take you straight to www.causeofliberty.com.
Hosting
Hosting means the digital storage of your site content on external servers, or data centers.
Hosting can be as cheap as $60 per year, and as much as $250 per year or more. Pricing
depends on how much storage space you need and the level of service the hosting company
provides.
I personally pay $250 a year to my friend and partner Randy Hinton, who operates a hosting
service. Even though I can get it for much cheaper, the quality that he provides is worth it.
While cheaper hosting companies host thousands of websites per server, Randy limits his to
100 per server, which reduces potential problems. He’s also available for top-notch
customer support any time I need him. Many people leave Randy’s service for something
cheaper, only to come back after experiencing horrible customer support.
Randy has agreed to host sites for those who use our coaching services at a price of $150
per year. Contact us to get this deal. Wordpress also features a number of hosting
services.
Design
A custom design is important for drawing and keeping visitors. It says that you’re
professional, that you’re serious about your message. Assuming you’re using Wordpress,
there are two potential costs to a custom design: 1) purchasing a premium theme/layout/
template and 2) customizing your theme.

Premium Themes
Premium themes offer enhanced functionality over free themes. For example, some of them
offer sub-navigation functionality (drop down menus), which is something you won’t find on
a free theme.
Premium themes can cost as little as $49 for use on one website only. Most premium theme
designers offer unlimited theme usage for a higher price.
For example, when I was looking for a theme for The Cause of Liberty, I came across
Revolution Themes. At the time they were offering nine themes, which have all been
changed since then (they’re also cheaper). I could have purchased the one I wanted for that
particular site for $79. Instead, I chose to spend $399 to purchase unlimited usage of all
nine themes, because I knew that I would be building many more Wordpress sites.
Custom Design
You can either have a designer build you a Wordpress theme from scratch, or customize an
existing theme. I had Wordpress Designers customize two Revolution Themes for The
Cause of Liberty and Writing Captain. But any good Wordpress designer can build you one
from scratch.
The key is to choose a designer who works solely with Wordpress. As I mentioned in the
previous chapter, I recommend Wordpress Designers, the Revolution Team, Men With
Pens, and Charfish Design.
A custom Wordpress design will cost you anywhere from $400 to $2,000, depending on the
complexity of the design and the designer.

Technical Support
If you’re like me, you like to outsource as much technical stuff as possible to stay free to do
what you do best—blog. Enough resources exist to make it possible for the layman to
navigate the technical aspects of setting up and operating a blog (start at Wordpress.org).
However, you may also consider finding a Wordpress technical expert to handle all technical
aspects for you.
My trusty geek for all my sites is Randy Hinton, whom I highly recommend. He knows as
much, if not more, about Wordpress as anyone. Every time I start a new site, I just tell him
what the domain name is and he sets up the site. Whenever I experience technical
difficulties I give him a call and he unwinds the problem. I’ve picked up a lot throughout the
process, but utilizing Randy is still a regular occurrence.
Randy has agreed to provide technical support for customers of The Wordpress Coach at the
rate of $55 per hour, which is a steal. Contact us to get access to this deal.
Marketing
Marketing is the grand daddy of all blogging expenses. You can do it on a shoestring, like I
have, if you’re patient. Or, if you have the budget, you may want to do a targeted media
blast to ensure high traffic right out of the gate.
Marketing is handled in far greater detail in the next chapter. For now, suffice it to say that
you can spend nothing on marketing, or you can spend $5,000 per month or more on
online marketing. The average professional blogger, however, probably spends about $100
to $500 per month on marketing.

My Story
You won’t care about my story, except that it will give you a tangible feel for what you can
expect to spend on a professional blog.
The first website I ever started was The Cause of Liberty. I was operating with a tight
budget. I initially used a really bad content management system, which will remain
unnamed, before switching to Wordpress. The first template I used was free, which I
customized with the help of Randy Hinton. Here’s a picture of the free template (Violla),
followed by a picture of the template after customization:
Basic Theme:

After Customization:
That site worked for awhile, but it was built and functioned as a private blog, not as the
community site that I really wanted to build. After much research I found the Revolution
Themes, which allowed me to build the site as a static business site, complete with sub-
navigation functionality, with the blog as just one feature of the site, rather than the main
page.

As I mentioned earlier, I bought unlimited access to all nine Revolution themes for $399. I
chose the basic Revolution theme, as pictured below:

I then researched and found Daved Brosche, founder of Wordpress Designers. Using the
Revolution theme, he designed the site you see below for $400:
Once I had the new design in place, I was left with just marketing. Since my budget is tight
for this project (it’s not a money-maker), I’ve been creative and patient with my marketing
efforts.
The most important thing I focus on is simply producing quality content. I never throw up a
blog post for the sake of producing content. Each article is created painstakingly. I don’t
blog as frequently as I would like, but each article is high quality. I also direct the bulk of

my marketing efforts towards my newsletter subscription in order to build a permission
marketing database.
To date, my marketing expenses have included designing a newsletter ($85), sponsoring a

contest ($123.22), and paying for my email marketing software ($193.80 for one year),
which together total just over $400.
All other expenses, including website hosting and design, total $925, which means that in
the last year I’ve spent $1,325 on The Cause of Liberty. (Keep in mind that $399 of that was
on nine premium templates that I can use to build other sites.)
What has that bought me? A fully-functional, professional website, email marketing
software, and a current list of 571 newsletter subscribers. The foundation has been laid and
I’m poised to grow. My fixed annual costs, including hosting and email marketing software,
come to $473, or $39.42 per month.
Conclusion
The costs for starting and maintaining a professional blog depend on your goals and
purposes and your budget. If you want to do it right, but are operating on a tight budget,
you can design and operate a professional blog for less than $1,000 up front, and about
$20 per month. If you have the budget and you want to make a big initial splash, the sky is
the limit.
I’ve tried to give you a functional framework for the costs you can expect, but it’s a difficult
task since so many factors are involved. Keep in mind that there are no shortage of options

for starting a blog for free, or at least less than $250. A blog is easy to bootstrap while
you’re building content over time.
Also keep in mind that the most important factor to your success is consistently producing
high-quality content. Seth Godin operates one of the most wildly successful blogs on the
planet on one of the most basic platforms available. He has no frills, no bells and whistles—
just excellent content.
If your purposes extend beyond a simple blog, such as building a static business site or a
community outlet, then a custom design is highly recommended, if not required. But
remember that spending $1,500 on a custom Wordpress site is paltry compared to the
$5,000-10,000 you’ll spend on a custom-built site, yet you’ll have the same, if not more,
functionality.
It all depends on your purposes, your timeframe, and your budget.
How Much Does a Blog Cost? By Lorelle VanFossen
Blogging Overhead—How Much Does it Cost? by Darren Rowse
How Much Should A Web Design Cost? by Chris Pearson

Chapter 5
How To Market Your Blog
“It breaks my heart to see blogs with great content languish in utter anonymity,
devoid of comments, saddled with a seven-figure Alexa traffic ranking, and
rotting in pagerank purgatory.”
-Tony Hung
W ith blogging, the Field of

Dreams maxim, “If you build it,
they will come,” is limited at best.
Creating excellent content and
optimizing your Search Engine
Optimization efforts will bring occasional
visitors over the long-term. But the
Internet is a vast and complicated ocean.
Passive online marketing is like being
stranded on an island with no way to
signal passing ships.
The only way to get found by a significant amount of visitors is to actively market your blog.
There are countless ways to do this. This e-book doesn’t detail every possible way to
market your blog; rather it’s intended to give you solid direction so that you can choose the
marketing strategy suited to you and your purposes. In other words, I give you the big
picture, as well as links to resources on the small pieces of the puzzle.

The “big picture” of online marketing consists of the following components:
• Create Value
• Optimize Technicalities
• Make Friends
• Build Community
• Promote
Create Value
Everything starts with creating valuable content. A blog swimming in ads and affiliate
marketing offers but with poor content is fool’s gold. If you want to start a gold rush to your
site, your content must be dripping with gold and gleaming with diamond dust. People
don’t come to your site because you have a good layout or good ads. They come to read
great content.
Don’t be hooked into blogging simply because you think you can make money. You’ve got
to be the one doing the baiting and hooking—with valuable content. The line you cast into
the Internet sea must be baited with a fresh angle, juicy style, and pungent expertise.
Don’t expect to succeed with a professional blog unless one or more of the following apply
to you:
• You’re an expert on a particular topic

• You’re so passionate about something that poignant ideas and articles gush
from your mind

• You’re funny, creative, profound, controversial, provocative, or otherwise
interesting
• You have immediate access to a large audience
• You have insider knowledge of something important
• You have a unique angle or niche that can stand out without being drowned by
existing competition
Before you even consider making money or marketing your blog, build a solid foundation of
quality content. Without it, your blog is just a house of cards.
Optimize Technicalities
Design: Quality design arouses surfing-numb Internet browsers and makes them sit up and
pay attention. Bootstrap if you must, but make a sharp, original design a priority.
Search Engine Optimization: This is an entire book on its own. At the minimum you need
to have your own domain name and host your own blogging software, create meta data
using this plugin and a good keyword-generating tool, create keyword rich headlines and
pages, and enable permalinks, trackbacks, and ping functionality. Here’s a good guide to
learn more, and this blog is also a great resource.
Google Sitemap: A Sitemap is key to your SEO efforts. It displays a full list of all your pages
to search engines to enable them to “crawl” (i.e. read) your content. Read this article, and
add this plugin to your Wordpress blog.

Categories: Each blog post is—or should be—labeled with a category, or topic,
identification. Categories are valuable for both SEO and site navigation by users. Here’s a
great article explaining more.
Blog Directories: Blog directories are the yellow pages of blogging—except for they’re free.
Submitting your blog to directories helps you get found, since browsers surf them by topic.
It also helps you to secure backlinks to your site. Click here and here for directory lists.
Here’s a good list of directories.
RSS Feed: RSS stands for Rich Site Summary. An RSS Feed allows
you to syndicate, or publish, your content to RSS Readers. Suppose
you like 20 blogs. Without an RSS Reader you have to visit each
blog every day to check for updated content. An RSS Reader pulls
the RSS Feed from the blogs and places them in one central
location. Now, instead of visiting 20 blogs, you can read all 20
from one location.
You can determine if you want the full text of all your articles syndicated, or just
summaries. There are differing opinions on which is better. Some say to just summarize to
prevent people from stealing your content and using it in other locations (RSS Feeds makes
this easy). Others, including myself, say to publish full articles. You’ll have to do some
research and make this determination for yourself. In either case, make sure that your blog
publishes an RSS Feed. (This is automatically built into Wordpress.) For more information
click here, here, and here.
Widgets: Blog widgets are often referred to as “accessorizing” your blog. They are optional
features that you can add to side columns for increased functionality, interaction, or just

pure entertainment value. There are countless widgets for every purpose imaginable.
Choose your widgets carefully to support your core purposes, and start by reading this.
Make Friends
Your blog will only be as big as your network. The beauty of networking is that it brings
exponential results—add one person to your circle of friends and you add many of their
friends as well. Friends are people you respect, trust, and like. These are the people you talk
about with others—and they’ll do the same for you. This step can and should be done both
online and offline.
Online
Social Networking: Join as many online social networks as makes sense for you. The web is
crawling with them, but some of the more popular ones include Facebook, MySpace,
Twitter, LinkedIn, Gather, Reunion, and Bebo. Here’s a more complete list.
Online social networking is just like offline networking, but with a bigger potential audience.
You still have to work it consistently for it to pay dividends; you can’t just throw up a profile
and hope people come to your site. You’ve got to actively make friends.
Also, don’t join social networks just for the sake of doing so. Do it if it actually works. For
example, I’ve had great success with Facebook. I’ve been able to build a decent group for
The Cause of Liberty, and it’s one of my main traffic generators. On the other hand, I spent
a lot of time on Gather but have never seen any results, so I stopped using it.

Forums: Participating in forums can be a great source of traffic generation to your site.
Search the web for forums dealing with your particular niche. Like social networking sites,
the key is active participation and value creation. Don’t just comment to give a link to your
site; be subtle and artful about your approach. Make valuable comments that build others
and add insight. Earn your social currency before you start spending it on promoting your
site.
Comment on other Blogs: When you’re at a party having a discussion, doesn’t it make you
feel good if other people come and join because they’re interested in the conversation and
they want to hear what you have to say? Bloggers are the same—they love comments. It tells
them that they’re affecting people, that their content is relevant, that they’re generating
interest.
Like forums, don’t be overly eager to promote your site. Most blog platforms allow you to
link your name in comments to your website anyway; create value and people will naturally
click on your name to learn more about you. Search for relevant, popular blogs, then be
sincere in your approach. Add value to the site and the discussions with your comments.
Don’t just throw out one or two-liners to get your name on the comment list. Take your
time and do it right.
Link Love: A significant aspect of your SEO efforts is to secure backlinks to your site.
Remember the principle that givers get, and consciously and consistently link to other sites.
Make it a rule to link out to at least one site with every blog post. The more links you give,
the more you’ll receive in return.

Offline
Networking Organizations: I’ve had great success with Business Networking
International (BNI), the largest business networking organization in the world. I joined for
my freelance writing business, but it’s also helped me to promote The Cause of Liberty. You
may also find great groups in your local area on Meet Up. Birds of a feather flock together—
and network with each other.
Build Community
Drawing visitors is one thing; keeping them
coming back consistently is quite another.
The better the community you build, the
less work you’ll have to do in the long run.
Not only will people keep coming back, but
they’ll also become evangelists and you’ll
get free advertising. The following are a just
a few ways to build community on your
blog:
Unite: Create stated values, purposes, and goals and a coherent philosophy and make
them visible and accessible on your site. In other words, give people something to unite
behind, or against. Give them a cause, something to believe in.
Exclusive Newsletter: People love the feeling of being on the “inside.” Exclusivity means
special privileges and a feeling of belonging. An exclusive newsletter has been my primary
driver for my website. It also provides a ready-built platform to promote events and affiliate
products, share news, and promote activism.

Contests, Promotions, & Giveaways: One simple contest on my site brought in 119 new
subscribers in one week. People love contests, trivia, and freebies. Make them fun and
interactive. Most importantly, make them effective—ensure that they actually promote your
core goals.
Ask Questions: Finish posts with a question to encourage participation. Don’t just talk to
people; discuss with them. Make it clear that you welcome feedback added insights, and
disagreement. Don’t feel threatened by disagreement—feel flattered that people think your
content is important enough to take the time and effort to comment.
Respond to Comments: Make people feel welcome by responding to comments and

interacting with your readers. Show them that you respect them and their insights by taking
time with them. Be a member of the community, not just an aloof leader. Be patient and
respectful with disagreements, and show appreciation for compliments.
Add a Forum: This isn’t the right choice for every blog, but it may be right for yours. Give
community members an outlet for discussion other than commenting on blog posts. This
article will help you integrate a forum to your Wordpress blog.
Solicit Articles From Community Members: Sharing your platform with community
members is an act of generosity, respect, and trust. It doesn’t mean that you’re obligated to
publish every submitted article, but it can be an excellent way to encourage participation
and secure loyalty.

Promote
Offline Publicity: Press releases, interviews, speaking
engagements, and news coverage can boost your site
traffic significantly. My friend Randy Hinton, for
example, organized a political rally at the Utah State
Capitol shortly after launching his site, Pyrolitical.
The major local news outlets covered the story and
his site traffic spiked.
Online Publicity: Submit your content to content

promotion and bookmarking sites such as Digg,
Reddit, StumbleUpon, Technorati, Furl, Newsvine,
and Squidoo. Also leverage social media, such as your Facebook and other social media
profiles, to actively promote your blog.
Merchandise: Bumper stickers, t-shirts, coffee mugs, and other similar merchandise help to
spread the word, create brand recognition, and drive traffic.
Advertise: If you’ve got the budget, pay for banner ads, advertise with Google Adwords,
and use text link ads. Choose the right sites to advertise on and become an expert on
Persuasion Architecture and Landing Page Optimization to make sure that your
advertising dollars aren’t wasted.
Guest Blog: If your content is of high enough quality, even A-list bloggers welcome the
opportunity to post it on their blog. The first step, however, is to make friends with such
bloggers by interacting and commenting on their blog, as well as initiating private
conversations and doing what you can to help them out.

Once you’re on their radar, offer them an article or two. Make sure that it’s relevant to their
blog and audience, and don’t publish it in any other venue, including your own blog. Give
them exclusive rights. The idea is to “piggy-back” the traffic of popular blogs, rather than
creating your own traffic organically. Here’s a great series on the pros and cons and how to
do it effectively.
Article Directory Marketing: This is a huge topic and one paragraph won’t do it justice. But
you should know that this is a potentially huge source of traffic. Article directories, such as
Ezine Articles and GoArticles, are clearinghouses for articles from experts on every topic
imaginable. You give them free content and anyone can come to their site and re-publish
that content on any website.
What you get out of it is backlinks, which are built into your articles. Assuming your content
is relevant and written well, these articles can explode and spread exponentially. For
example, here’s an article I wrote for a client. At the time of writing this, the article appears
on 277 pages on a Google search.
Like anything, this requires work and dedication. Those who make it work swear by it, and
it’s worked well for me.
Here are a couple more examples:
What People REALLY Want—And How To Give it to Them

The Top 5 Reasons Why You Should NOT Invest Your Home Equity
Here are a few resources to learn more about Article Directory Marketing:
The Article Marketing Blueprint by Matt Callen
Simply PLR

Submit Your Article
Article Directory Marketing Blog
Conclusion
Marketing your blog must be an active and consistent process. It takes time, effort, and
knowledge. It’s not something you can leave to chance. Focus the majority of your efforts
on creating real value for others. Create world-class content at least bi-weekly, and daily if
possible. Be patient as you grow your content. Optimize all technical aspects of your blog,
such as Search Engine Optimization. Make friends both online and offline. Build a sense of
community on your blog, then promote the heck out of it.
How To Market Your Blog by Tony Hung
5 Uncommon Ways To Market Your Blog by Neil Patel
25 Tips For Marketing Your Blog by Lee Odden
8 Tips To More Effective Blogging by Aaron Wall
Top Bloggers Reveal How To Build Traffic Off-Blog Without Spending A Dime by
Jonathan Fields
Chris Garrett’s Blog
Kinetic Knowledge Blog

Chapter 6
Writing Effective Blog Posts
“People don’t ‘read’ a computer screen the way they read print publications. They
don’t curl up with their computers for a couple of pages just before dropping off to
sleep. And you generally won’t find computers on the ‘reading shelves’ of their
bathrooms.”
-Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg
B efore you learn how to write effective

blog posts, you must realize why writing
on the Internet is different than any other
venue. With blogging, it’s not enough to be a
good writer—you have to be a good writer
specifically for the web. You have to cater
your words, format, and style to Internet
readers if you want to capture them.
There are techniques for doing this, but techniques flow from principles. The following are
realities of Internet publishing that dictate strategies and techniques.
Challenges of Internet Publishing

The challenges of writing for the web include the “skim factor,” losing readers through
complicated content, and attention deficit disorder.

The Skim Factor
Internet readers don’t bury themselves in mountains of text; they scroll quickly, skimming
your content for the most relevant details. If your posts aren’t formatted to facilitate
skimming, your chances of gaining a long-term reader are reduced.
Complicated/Lengthy Content + Big Words = Lost Readers

Unless you’re blog is specifically intended for intellectuals, write to an 8th grade reading
level. This does not mean dumbing down your content by way of condescension—it means
simplifying for clarity. It means condensing lengthy thought processes into core concepts.
Your goal shouldn’t be to prove how smart you are. It should be to be understood and to
create value. Internet readers aren’t dumb—they’re just in a hurry. They’re assimilating
mountains of information. If they encounter complicated content that takes too much effort
to understand, they’ll bounce out of your site.
One of the best books I’ve ever read on this topic is Made to Stick by Chip & Dan Heath. I
highly recommend it.
Attention Deficit Disorder

To use a cliché, reading on the Internet is like trying to drink from a
“reading on
fire hydrant. Your readers have interesting content and links gushing
at them. Internet content is a wave—and users are surfing it. In other the Internet is
words, it’s extremely difficult to get them to lounge on the beach of
like trying to
your website. If your content isn’t exciting, relevant, or otherwise
interesting, they’re going to catch another wave. There are ways to drink from a
manage this phenomenon, but trying to fully overcome it is an
fire hydrant”
exercise in futility.

In short, Internet readers are impatient, quick-reading, interest-hungry bottom-liners. They
want interesting content and they want it fast. Trying to make them work to get the point is
like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
Now that you understand the challenges, it’s time to learn specific techniques for
overcoming them.
Specific Techniques For Effective Blog Writing

The most important techniques to learn for writing for the web include writing effective
headlines, making your content “skimmable,” exploiting images, providing tools and
resources, and utilizing effective copywriting.
Sharp Headlines
Headlines are both the bait and hook of your articles. Your headlines must accomplish two
primary purposes: tell exactly what the post is about (bait) while being catchy (hook). Being
specific without being catchy is like throwing a worm to fish—they like it, but there’s no
hook. Being catchy without being specific is like trying to hook fish with spinners when they
actually want worms.
For example, suppose you own a real estate investing blog and you’re writing a post about
lease options. A specific-but-boring title would be “Lease Options Explained.” A catchy-
but-ambiguous title would be “How to Create Cash Flow.” A few possible options for better
headlines could include “How to Create Safer Cash Flow With Lease Options,” “Lease
Options: The Safer Way to Create Cash Flow,” or “Do You Know How to Increase Your Cash
Flow Through Lease Options?”

There are a number of techniques for creating effective headlines. I recommend reading the
articles found in the additional resources at the end of this chapter.
“Skimmable” Content
If your content is intelligent without being skimmable, you may catch a small number of
readers. If it’s both intelligent and skimmable, you’ll catch both the skimmers and the deep
readers.
Techniques for making your content skimmable include using bullets and lists, throwing in
numerous headlines to break up the content, and keeping your paragraphs short.
Bullet points and lists are great because you can write your core points, then expound on
them. Some may read your deeper explanations, but those who don’t are still going to get
value from your post.
Headlines to break up sections give readers a welcome break from text.
Keeping paragraphs short is an absolute must. If your paragraphs are long, most readers
are only going to read the first and second sentence. They may skip to the last sentence if
you’re lucky. Everything in the middle is wasted space. My basic rule is to keep paragraphs
to four to five lines at the most.
Images
Images add a visual element to your content, thus increasing the interest factor. A quirky—
though relevant—image can often draw visitors as much as a good headline. Its makes your
blog more of an experience than a visit. It adds greater depth by touching upon more
senses.

Tools & Resources
By tools and resources I mean giving readers the ability to share your content, explore it in
further detail, and interact with you and other readers. These include providing print format
and email links, allowing people to post it on social media sites, including links throughout
your articles, and providing a way for them to comment.
When readers click on a “Print This Article” link, it takes them to a printer-friendly format.
An “Email This Article” link brings up a window where they input information to send it to
family and friends. Social media sites include Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Furl, and others.
The more your articles get posted on such sites, the more traffic and readers you get.
Wordpress provides a number of plugins, such as “Share This” and obsocialbookmarker,”
which allow you to embed sharing links within each post.
Providing links throughout your articles is important for a few reasons. You can link out to
other sites and bloggers, which increases your chances of getting links back to your site. It
also gives readers places to read more on specific concepts you discuss. You can also link
to other articles on your own site, which accomplishes the same thing.
Unlike a static book, the Internet is an interactive, real-time environment. The tools and
resources you employ must both reflect and enhance that fact.
Effective Writing
This is a book in and of itself. Step one of effective writing is to subscribe to and read the
blogs found in chapter seven of this e-book. Any serious blogger needs to immerse
themselves in tips and resources for increasing the effectiveness of their writing.
Effective web writing is simple, vivid, active, concrete, and credible.

Simple
Write using short sentences and short paragraphs. Boil your points down to their essence.
Limit the use of big words.
Vivid
Paint a picture for your readers. Use colorful language to evoke images. Touch upon as
many senses as you can. Bang out your words with the passion of a brawny wordsmith.
Employ metaphors and analogies to make your points ring and shower sparks of
imagination. Give your words texture to explore and form to embrace.
Active
Passive writing is academic and boring. Active writing lights the interest of your readers.
The primary key to unlocking the door of active writing is to employ powerful verbs. The
phrase “consider these questions” becomes “grapple with these questions.” The action of
going to the store is heightened by changing “going” to “rushing” or “scurrying.”
Master the use of verbs to bring your words to life and grip your readers.
Concrete
Vague and hyped claims turn off Internet readers faster than flipping a light switch. Don’t
claim that you’ve helped hundreds of people to save money—calmly assert that you’ve
helped 214 people save at least $15.83 per month.
Sonia Simone wrote an excellent piece on concreteness wherein she compares the
following claims:
“A local business used my marketing services and attracted significantly more customers.”
vs.

“Jenny Lee—who makes a damned fine coconut cream pie, by the way—used my techniques
to promote her bakery. Before she talked to me, she used to see about 60 customers a day.
Last Saturday she served 314 happy customers, and she’s seeing those numbers climb
every day. She told me she was going to take out that little bell that “dings” when a
customer comes in, because the dinging is driving her up the wall. Mind you, it’s her pies
and cakes (and that great smile) that bring them back, but it’s my marketing techniques
that got them through her door in the first place.”
Concreteness is a function of specificity. The more specific you are, the more your content
becomes grounded in the minds of your readers.
Credible
Sharing case studies and testimonials dramatically enhances the credibility of your writing.
Other credibility factors include quotes, facts, statistics, and proof of expertise (e.g.
education/degrees). Avoid the tendency to brag when using credibility factors—bragging is
a huge turn-off to Information Age readers. There’s a fine line between proclaiming that
you’re amazing and quietly stating the reasons why your claims are credible.
Conclusion
Dorothy was startled to find that she “[wasn’t] in Kansas anymore.” Similarly, bloggers must
realize that the Internet is a whole new world of publishing. It’s a much different animal
than books, magazines, and other hard-copy writing venues.
Writing for the web is more challenging, face-paced, and complicated. It requires specific
strategies and techniques in order to capture long-term readers. These include writing

effective headlines, making your content “skimmable,” exploiting images, providing tools
and resources to enhance interactivity, and utilizing effective copywriting.
Made to Stick by Chip & Dan Heath
The 4 Pillars of Writing Exceptional Blogs by Leo Babauta
13 Ways to Add New Dimensions To Your Next Post by Darren Rowse
Nine Signs of an Effective Blog Post by Darren Rowse
10 Tips For Writing a Blog Post by Lyndon
Copywriting 101 by Copyblogger
How to Write Magnetic Headlines, a 9-Part Series by Copyblogger
How to Write Great Headlines by Stuart Brown
Writing Effective Blog Posts by Chris Brogan
Article Writing: 7 Mistakes to Avoid by James Chartrand
How to Be a Better Writer by James Chartrand
Writing Effective, Attention-Getting Headlines & Titles on Your Blog by Lorelle
VanFossen

Chapter 7
Miscellaneous Tools & Tips
“The mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools.”
-Confucius
H ave you
yourself
ever done
home
a do-it-
improvement
project? If your experience is anything like
mine, you learned that the single most
important key of success is to have the
right tools. Whether you’re installing tile,
laminate flooring, or painting a bathroom,
figure out what tools the professionals
use and buy them.
Blogging is similar; without the right tools you’ll feel confused and frustrated and your work
will be that of an amateur. With the right tools, blogging is a breeze and you’ll achieve
professional results.
The following tools and strategies have been integral to my success as a blogger. This is
certainly not an exhaustive list, but it will provide you with a good foundation to build on as
you get more sophisticated.

Track Statistics
Every good business tracks their numbers religiously. Without hard data you don’t know
what’s working and what’s not, nor will you know where things need to be improved.
Professional blogging must be run as a business, and tracking statistics is key.
The best tool for tracking statistics is Google Analytics, which is absolutely free. Site Meter
and Stat Counter are also popular analytics tools, but in my view, they pale in comparison
to Google’s tool.
With astounding depth and comprehensiveness, Google Analytics shows you how many
people visit your blog, what pages they view and how many pages are viewed per visit on
average, where visitors come from, how much time they spend on your blog on average,
and much more. It tracks your conversion rate, which means the percentage of visitors who
become leads or buyers (such as newsletter subscribers). You can also do a variety of
comparisons, such as comparing other websites or month-to-month comparisons.
To give you a feel for this, here’s picture of my Analytics dashboard for The Cause of
Liberty:

Installing Analytics is simple. After setting up an account, Google gives you code, which is
installed into the back end of your blogging platform. You can watch me install analytics on
your website by taking advantage of my personal coaching.
Install Analytics and leverage it constantly. Track your conversion rate. Tweak your copy
(written text) on critical landing pages and see what happens to the data with each change.
Analytics is the key that unlocks the door of ongoing improvement.

How to Operate a Newsletter
Operating The Sentinel newsletter has been the single most important aspect of my
success with The Cause of Liberty. It’s one of the best forms of permission marketing,
which means people actively requesting that you market to them, rather than you
interrupting them with mass advertising.
It helps you build a core community and a platform for broadcasting your message. It’s
perhaps the best way to keep people coming back to your blog—if they haven’t visited in
awhile, it’s a fishing pole that reels them back in. It’s also a great tool for special
promotions.
Choosing the Right Software

Aside from creating quality content, the next most important step to a successful email
newsletter is choosing the right software. There are hundreds to choose from and popular
choices include AWeber, Constant Contact, Sendblaster, iContact, Infusionsoft, Elite
Email, and Bronto.
Most platforms include tracking so you can see how many people open each newsletter,
among other important indicators. Most of them also allow you to segment your list, which
means that you can send emails to selected email addresses based on things such as
geography and/or interactivity (the people who actively read your newsletter). You can also
set up autoresponders and create website signup forms. If you have a product store,
AWeber even allows you to integrate email marketing campaigns with your shopping cart.
Like I mentioned with blogging platforms, feel free to research all your options, or save
yourself time and effort by trusting my exhaustive research. I initially started with iContact,
but when I had trouble with emails not getting delivered, I started looking for better

options. My thorough research led me to choose AWeber, which is the email marketing
software of choice for elite bloggers including Yaro Starak and Darren Rowse.
There are a number of reasons why AWeber is the premier email marketing software, but
for me it came down to two things primarily: deliverability rate and customer support.
AWeber has one of the highest deliverability rates in the industry, which means that your
email newsletters will actually get delivered to your recipients email inboxes, rather than
getting flagged as spam.
They also have an excellent tool that rates your newsletter for spam danger before you send
it out. Not only does it show if your email is in danger of being spammed, it also shows you
exactly why so you can adjust it.
Also, when I first signed up with them, I was blown away at their level of and tools for
customer support. Representatives called me personally on a number of occasions, and I
also spent hours with a couple of them using their online chat support. They make it easy,
and they get your emails delivered. Since making the switch, my deliverability rate has
soared and I’ve never had problems.
Newsletter Design
Email marketing software allows you to either choose from a selection of templates, or you
can design your own as I did with The Sentinel to match my branding. If you choose to
create your own design, you’ll either need to know advanced html, or you’ll need a designer
who can both design and translate your newsletter into html.

Double (Confirmed) Opt-In
A double opt-in list means that when people subscribe on your website, they’re sent a
confirmation email with a link that they must click to confirm their subscription. This
ensures that you’re never sending out spam.
You’re going to be tempted to build your list quickly by not requiring the confirmation.
Don’t do it. It’s critical that you build a healthy, legitimate list. The success of this strategy
depends much more on quality than it does on quantity.
A list of 500 people who love what you do and eagerly await your newsletters is far more
valuable than a list of 5,000 who don’t care who you are and who are bugged that you’re
sending them emails. Being perceived as a spammer means death to your email list.
Website Subscription Forms

By integrating your email marketing software with your website, the entire process is
automated. It’s easy to create a subscription form, whereupon you’re given code to insert
into your website.
For example, you’ll see two places to subscribe to my newsletter on this page, which were
inserted using code generated by AWeber. When people subscribe, it’s handled by the
database in your email software.
Auto Responders
When people subscribe to your newsletter, you’ll want to send them an email to welcome
them. I also use my auto responder to send subscribers free gifts.

Pricing
Depending on the software, pricing is either determined by the number of subscribers or
the number of emails you send out, or both. AWeber gives you unlimited emails, which
means that you’re not penalized for frequent emails to your list. Most bloggers can expect
to pay about $20 per month for email marketing software.
It’s critical that you choose the right email marketing software from the very beginning.
Switching after building a substantial list can be a nightmare (trust me, I’ve done it).
AWeber is the choice of professionals and I heartily endorse it.
Utilize Images
Using images is an excellent way to add visual appeal and excitement to your blog. I include
images with 90% of my blog posts.
As with anything online, you have hundreds of options for finding images, but you only
need a few. My recommendations are iStock Photo, Flickr, and Stock.xchng.
iStock Photo is a paid service, but well worth it. You purchase credits for image downloads,
then browse their excellent selection. Flickr and Stock.xchng are both free. I find that it’s
much easier to find exactly what I’m looking for on iStock Photo. While there are great
images on the others, their search function is much more random, making it more difficult
to find just the right image.
You also need to be aware of Creative Commons licensing to make sure you’re not
violating any laws.

Subscribe to RSS Feeds
If you don’t already have an RSS Reader account, get one now (it’s free). I recommend
subscribing to the following feeds to increase your blogging and writing expertise and skill:
ProBlogger
CopyBlogger
Writing Captain
Pearsonified
Future Now’s GrokDotCom
Men With Pens
Seth Godin
Write to Done
The Wordpress Coach
8 Reasons to Add a Newsletter to Your Blog by Darren Rowse
How To Build a Successful Email Newsletter by Darren Rowse
Why I Use AWeber to Deliver My Newsletters by Darren Rowse
Why Don’t Bloggers Understand Email Marketing? by Yaro Starak
The Lazy Blogger’s Guide To Finding Great Post Images by Sonia Simone
Blog Tools on ProBlogger
20 Analytics Tools for Blogs by Lee Odden

You have the power.
Are you ready to wield it?
ou have people to connect with, a passion to broadcast, a tribe to lead, a business
Y to build. In the Information Age, you can’t do it without a blog.
Don’t worry—you won’t be alone. Luke Skywalker had Yoda. You have me, the Wordpress
Coach, to guide you every step of the way. My personal coaching transforms you into a
blogging Jedi.
I am your one-on-one resource to help you create a viable strategy, navigate

complications, ease frustrations, and make your blog simple and successful. From setting
up your Wordpress website/blog to writing quality articles, marketing to monetizing, I’m
here for you every step of the way.
Become a blogging master by hiring the Wordpress Coach now. You’ll also want to
subscribe to my blog to receive ongoing blogging tips and techniques.
Wordpress
Coach Word
press coach

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The Beginning Blogger’s Bible :

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Copyright (c) 2008 - Stephen Palmer

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You’re a business owner

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Stay connected with family and friends.

Document your life.

Establish trust and credibility.

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An Opinion Research Corporation survey in 2008 discovered that a staggering “83% of

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“…blogging has transformed the venture business—entrepreneurs expect a level of

Build relationships and community.

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“Blogging continues to splinter into many different categories, providing an incredibly

Steer the conversation.

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Pay Per Click

Pay Per Sale

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E-Junkie is also a clearinghouse of online products, as well as a provider for a host of

The Key To Success For Affiliate Marketing: Perform diligent research to

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Paid Blogging Sites

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Sell Text Links

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Marketing Your Core Business Through Blogging

In my case, my Writing Captain blog markets my freelance writing services by giving

The Key To Success With Core Business Marketing Through Blogging:

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If your reason is number three, my recommendation is to not do much, if anything at all, to

Examples of Core Business Marketing Through Blogging:

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Examples of Blogging as a Business:

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plat · form: (noun) a place for public discussion; forum.

A lthough it has many definitions, think

A stage in a high school gym is basic and

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