In our fledgling online marketing efforts we are all super busy doing more and more tasks associated with building our blogs and getting traffic to them. Whether it’s following Alex Jeffreys or any of the other individuals successful with internet marketing, these methods work but only if kept up on a regular basis.

The question is, are you keeping up with those tasks that should be done repeatedly on a regular basis. Like visiting other blogs and commenting, writing articles, bookmarking and what ever else you have done. What is important is to schedule in all these kinds of repetitive tasks so that you keep up with them or their effect will diminish.

Connie wrote a nice short article called, “Writing Articles, Blog Posts, and Ebooks - 5 Ways to Set a Schedule For Your Writing That Works” that I think is worth reading. I know, long name, but the article is short and to the point and will help.

The key to building any business is the creation of systems. So as you build up your blog, systematize your needed actions as much as possible. In the beginning you will likely be doing them all yourself, but as revenue comes in, and it will, you will want to look at outsourcing many of these tasks.

The time to start is now, when it is small, so it will be manageable when it is big.

John

OK, I did something cool I think! It should help us research intenet marketing topics such as blog set up, making and using videos, plugins, traffic methods, any sort of ‘how to’ pertaining to building your online business.

I have set up a Custom Search on this blog. What this does is search essentially what I want it to search. My intention is to put the links to all of the Marketing With Alex students blogs in there .

Now everyone can use this to research specific topics to find the answers, tools, videos, tips and such that support what you are trying to do without having to search around manually all the blogs until you find something. So you don’t have to overload your busy mind with trying to remember who has what on their blog.

I will put a few other of my sites and others that I know and work with as well to help round it out. But is should be much more specific than searching the entire web, plus this way we frequent the groups blog more. Why not give traffic to Alex’s students blogs first, and there is a lot of good information coming on within the group all the time. The search is just over in the right side column near the top, have a try . . .

I have loaded a few of the blogs in there already, but getting all of the links take time, and as you can see I have not yet added all of the addresses in my blogroll list yet.

So if you add a comment here with your blog URL I can get it easily and I will add it to both the search and blogroll.

John

In my quest to learn what works for effective, profitable blogging and share it here, I have come across a couple of sources for useful information on how to set your blog up to encourage more useful comments. Also, one of these sources reveals an effective way to do your blog posting and tie it in with making good comments on other blogs and creating two huge benefits.

You will be benefiting from increasing the socialization on your blog as well as getting more nice links. Now anybody can get links, well trashy links. But this is not what you want, you want nice relevant links that add value to your blog. And if you want to build a good reputation amongst your piers, you want to contribute well to their blogs as well by interacting with a relevant comment, something more than, “hey, nice post man.” (gimme a link!)

Add quality to other related blogs, so anyone new coming into any of the interconnected sites says, “Wow, this is where the good stuff is!” You will get yours . . .profits, when you do this. Because you will be linked favorably with other quality sites.

The Wordpress plugin, Commentluv is becoming a powerful tool to help enhance the socialization of your blog by encouraging others to place comments on your blog. Simply, they get more in return for their effort. Jack Humphrey blogged on his Friday Traffic Report about using this plug in and some others where he talks about getting more blog comments with Wordpress plugins. He shows how using some plugins create an environment on your blog where people will want to leave comments. This is good, right

It’s just part of the ‘helping’ mentality one needs to be successful in business – that’s helpful to potential customers and your potential associates in business. If you look at other businesses as competition, they always will be. If you look at them as potential business associates, you never know!

Since this is such an important topic I want to show you another source that adds to what you just saw – to complete the package of getting your blog comment friendly and link strong.

Alex Sysoef gives some good information with a clear explanation how to implement it all in his posting on his Wordpress Web 2.0 Spot-Er blog. If you want to get real effective with your efforts in blogging I suggest going through his post titled, “CommentLuv Plus DoFollow Equal Link Love”

He shows you how to use Commentluv to get more comments, and incoming links. And how to use the LuciaLinkyLove plugin to share link power with ‘good’ commenters and keeping the robots and spammers out.

Plus, did you know that Feedburner was eating up your ‘link-juice;? Yea, if using Feedburner you are not getting the benefit of those feed links – Feedburner is! There is a simple quick fix to modify your Feedburner account, read Alex’s item 2.

And this is hot, point #4. He gives a nice little system for increasing the links to your best posts even if you are super busy. This is something to set up in your schedule every week - make a key post, then go out and make comments.

And one more recommended plug in from Doug Champigny as he commented on Jack’s post. He uses the HashCash plugin to filter robot spam, he says it works. This one may require inserting a code depending on your blog theme, check the instructions.

Personally I’m going to hold off on the math verification one until I see if all the other plugins handle the spam.

Here are all of the plugins discussed in both mentioned blog posts:

Keywordluv - This allows commenters to leave a keyword in the name line improving their link back.

WP-Twitip-Twitter ID - Commentators can leave their Twitter ID along with comments.

WP Gravatar Plugin - Get a commentators’ Gravetar like pics in their comments.

LuciaLinkyLove - Share Link PR with commenters based on predefined settings.

Akismet - For spam

Did You Pass Math - For spam

HashCash - To filter robot spam.

This is socialization people! You need it, I need it – and everyone successful is doing it. And remember, don’t be greedy, give before you receive and you will receive! I suggest that you set your blog up as suggested in these resources I’ve linked for you here. You want blog become user friendly for all the people you want to be interacting with - right!

Oh, and leave your comment here — see how it all works. . .

I’m setting up registration of this blog with Technorati which is the largest blog registration directory online, I think! Many people use Technorati to search for blogs on specific topics so it’s a good place to register your blog to help it get found and receives some additional traffic.

Seems to be a fairly simple procedure, but it includes having to publish a bit of code on your blog long enough for them to verify that it is there. Just a way for them to verify that you actually own the blog, if you can add the code on it.

Another benefit may be in linking with Technorati since they have a Google pagerank of 8, we’ll see.

So here’s the code they want posted to check on –
Technorati Profile

This is just one more brick in building the ‘house of success’ here with this blog, easy, you should do it as well.

John

I will address how this is done with wordpress blogs, as that is what the people in Alex’s coaching group are using.

To start, what are ‘Trackbacks” and ‘Permalinks”? They are used when you want to link to a post I another persons blog in your post on your blog. This is another way to set up a permanent link with another blog. It is also a great way to come up with ways to get ideas for content for your site.

Now this should not be done in a trashy way, only if you have something more of value to add to what you read on the other blog. If you are not adding value for other readers, the readers and the other blog owner would see this as spamming.

It is also the accepted protocol that when you do a ‘Trackback’ which places a note on the other blog, that  you must put the ‘Permalink’ in your post to lead back to the other blog post. Both ways, not just one way to your blog from theirs.. I hope you get this, otherwise other bloggers will see you as a spammer.

First
The link you want to use to refer from your blog post is called the ‘Permalink’ which is the full URL of the separate page that the article is on, in the other blog. Don’t link to the main page URL of the other blog, as the articles will always be changing. Just copy this from the bar on your browser showing the URL of the full article page.

• In your ‘Write Post’ page where you enter your post, you can “insert a link” to some text that you have entered there.
• Just highlight the word or words you want to hyperlink to the other blog post page, then click o the ‘chain link’ symbol in the text editor.
• A small window will come up.
• Then, on the line, “Link URL” add the ‘Permalink’.
• Note, get rid of the ‘http://’ that will already be there, the link you copied for the other blog post.
• Then paste the URL link on that line.  You don’t need to do anything with the other lines, just click ‘Insert’ at the lower right corner.

Second
You will need to make sure your blog is properly set up for Wordpress to automatically do the ‘Trackback’ with the other blog.

• In your WP blog control panel,
• Click on ‘Settings’,
• Then ‘Discussion’
• In the ‘Default article settings’ section make sure that the box is checked at, “Attempt to notify any   blogs linked to from the article”

This function works if the blog you are linking to is also a Wordpress blog. There is a slightly different method to use if the other blog is not WP.

Third
Make sure that you allow ‘Trackbacks’ to occur on your blog. This is part of the fairness protocol in dealing with other bloggers. If I allow your ‘Trackback’ you should allow mine.

• In the same place you just were above,
• the ‘Default article settings’
• check the box in front of  “Allow link notifications from other blogs”
• Go to the ‘Write/Post’ page
• Down near the bottom of the page
• At ‘Comments & Pings’
• Check - “Allow Pings” This way each post you do is set to allow ‘Trackbacks’

That should do it.

If you then do a ‘Trackback’ and nothing shows up below the article on the other blog, they have not set their blog to allow this, as you just have. Contact the blog owner and ask them if they will check their settings to allow your ‘Trackback’ because you want to link to their blog post in one of yours.

You can refer them to this article so they can see how it is done.

Happy, happy, happy

John

This is really not very difficult. Here is a general rundown of what to do to get a basic blog up and running.

You Own URL Is Best
First you will want to get your own URL to put the blog on. It is better for your blog to be on your own URL rather than using the WordPress URL. This way you are building traffic and an identity for yourself uniquely. In being hosted with Wordpress your blog is a file extension of their domain. You also have more flexibility with your own url in terms of other things you may want to do with your site.

Wordpress Blog
The most recommended blog program is WordPress for a business blog, because of its ease of use and multitude of either built in features or readily available ad-ons. The other choices are mostly either very basic or more complicated than most people have the ability to work with alone

Easy Installation
Most hosting accounts, such as c-panel have a program called Fantastico. This program installs various other softwares on your site automatically. There is a choice as to whether you want your blog to be as the main URL or an extension. This means, will it show up with www.xa-y-z.com or www.xa-y-z.com/blog.

If your hosting account does not have Fantastico or any other installation tool, you another easy way to go about it, although it does require you to do the install. Wordpress has their “famous 5-minute install” that is quite easy to do. Their instructions are fairly clear for most people, just carefully follow their instructions.

Changing Themes
Once you have this up, then you can change the way it looks, the basic theme is not too pleasing. The theme is easy to change. You can find many free theme templates online, just search for ‘Wordpress theme’. You can certainly also pay for a theme as well, if you want something more specific. Upload several themes if you are unsure of which one to use.. You can turn off one theme and on another as often as you want from the control panel and this does not affect your content. Try each out for a while to see how you feel about it.

One thing to be careful of in choosing a theme for the look and function of your blog, don’t let it be too busy looking. The cleaner the look generally the pleasing to the eye it is. Remember that you want people to feel comfortable visiting there. Some themes look really cool but they don’t lend themselves to a professional looking business blog. It must be easy to read, remember some people don’t have super good eyesight so dark lettering on a dark background is not good.

Changing Header
You can with most themes change the header to something of your choosing. However, some themes are easier to do this with than others, it depends on how the theme was coded. If a theme you are looking at using say in the description something about changing the header, they have set it up to be done easily. Otherwise you will need to carefully find out exactly what to take out to get rid of the original and add in the new one, which you will need to have code for.

Watch out about using a header graphic that is too busy, it could distract form the pleasing look of the page. You don’t want a design that overpowers the rest of the page. It can be helpful to look around at other blogs and identify the ones you like and dislike so you can pinpoint the features and look you want for yours.

Plug-ins
You can change and add to the features and functionality of your blog is with plug-ins. These are small programs that are built to add into a Wordpress blog to perform a specific function. Just search Google for ‘Wordpress Plug-in’, and you will find out there all kinds of plug-ins that do so many different things. I would suggest beginning it fairly simple, then as you go along you will discover a need that a plug in may solve. Some blog themes come with some plug-ins already installed in the blog code. There is a way that you can turn them on and off in the Wordpress control panel.

Widgets
A widget, also called a “sidebar accessory”, is another add-on feature now available for Wordpress blogs. These are usually add on for the sidebars that are visible on the blog, similar to a text box that can hold certain text, ads, gadgets, images and such. These make it a bit easier to add blog features without having to get into the coding. Many blog themes now come either with widgets installed or widget capable. You can usually turn them on or off in the blog control panel.

Get Familiar
Once installed, just take the time to look around in the control panel to familiarize yourself with the controls and features. Try doing things and then seeing what the results are, in a short time it will be easy.

There’s Help Available
When you need additional help with working with blogs, there are many videos available online not that you can access for free. Just Google what you want like, ‘wordpress install video’, or ‘changing wordpress header video’. Just add ‘video’ to your desired search.

Just Do It
Well, that’s that basics. Should get you up with a running blog. Most all things that you would want to change on a blog will not affect the content, so don’t worry about thinking that you need to figure everything out up from before posting. The important thing is to get posting as soon as you can. Changes and fine-tuning can be done along the way as you discover what you want and need.