The blogosphere isn't supposed to be like the universe, where each blog is a star, twinkling at it's neighbors from several light years away. Instead, it should be interconnected like a group of islands with bridges between them. If you feel like you're sitting alone on your star, this post is for you. When you're...
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Way back in the last millenium, I took a high school debate class. One of our assignments was to perform a "dramatic interpretation". I had a week or two to prepare. I skimmed through a file of short stories, but didn't find anything I liked. So I decided to write my own. To make a...
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David Frey asked his Twitter followers a question this morning: QUESTION: I'm building a new blog. Should I use a commenting system like Disqus or Facebook comments? What say you? I'd been thinking of blogging on the subject, so I guess today's the day. I, for one, don't like third party comment systems, for a...
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A few days ago, I shared a checklist for creating a marketing story that hooks readers and holds them long enough for you to show the benefits of your product. The first two points were that your story should be unique and interesting. Today, Troy White posted an article over at The Makepeace Total Package...
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I've never had a blogroll on my site because a simple list of blogs with no explanation doesn't seem very useful to me. In the early days of blogging, when visitors were looking for more blogs to read, a blogroll may have made sense. These days, with millions of blogs to choose from an any...
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Last month, Leigh Peele posted 11 Tips For Writing A 15 Minute Article over at Yaro Starak's blog. I usually spend more than 15 minutes on my blog posts. But the tips are useful whether you spend two minutes or two hours per post. Today, I'd like to share my thoughts on a few of...
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We chased our pleasures here Dug our treasures there But can you still recall The time we cried Break on through to the other side! Yesterday, I talked about the importance of choosing a marketing niche that you enjoy to help you keep moving forward when the going gets tough. But even that isn't always...
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The first concrete step in internet marketing is choosing your niche -- choosing what market you're going to serve. Until you've done that, you can't choose a relevant domain name and create a website. You also can't decide which products promote or develop. Since profit potential varies widely from niche to niche, it's worth spending...
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Bloggers Widgetitis is an insidious disease. In the early stages of infection, the victim feels mild euphoria with few adverse effects. Later, as the disease enters it's virulent phase, they become overwhelmed with insatiable cravings for bright, shiny objects, and exhibit self-destructive behavior in an attempt to satisfy them. In the late stages, their blogs...
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Blogging experts talk about writing "anchor posts" or "pillar articles" -- posts that get links, rank high in the search engines, and pull in lots of traffic over the long haul. Sounds great, but how do you write them? Yesterday, I got a little curious. I've been blogging daily for a few months now (as...
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