As I have been gradually adding more features to my blog here I noticed something that is not widely addressed. At least it never came to my attention before as I was learning about creating the 125 X 125 ads I use in the right sidebar. I have done these ads before and not thought about it either. The common way to write the code for a clickable link behind a graphic or picture closes your blog page to take the visitor to the link they just clicked on.

This is a ‘non-desirable activity’ in my book! Yes, I want them to click on the link, but keep the blog there as well. I want a new page to open for them, leaving the blog page open for them to return to. You want this too, right?  . . . say yes!

You certainly don’t need to allow people to accidentally leave your page until they are ready to. And we all know how many times we get distracted by the links we click on and don’t always go back to the original site when it has disappeared from our browser.

If you click on one of the ads on this blog you will see that it now opens a new window, leaving the blog page sitting right there waiting for you to return. I know you don’t believe me, so try it. Hehe, just for practice, really!

OK, so here is what you do about it. All you need to do is add a little bit more code to the link code you already have for the graphic. All it takes is this –

target=”_blank”

Here is an example of where you place this minor bit of code–<a href=”http://makeinternetmarketingmoney.com/pdf-power-brand” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://www.makeinternetmarketingmoney.com/images/pdf-pb.gif” width=”125″ height=”125″ border=”0″></a>

The thing you must pay close attention to is the quotes ( “ ) see how there is a quote at the end of pdf-power-brand” and the two within the added code, target=”_blank”

The term ‘blank’ is for a new page, you may have seen this before.

It’s interesting to note that as I wanted to figure out exactly how to do this I visited several sites so I could look at their code, and you know what? I couldn’t find one that was doing this. Everyone was letting the new page blow away their page when someone clicked on a link. Sure this may be a small thing, but if you have studied the making of a sales page, the cardinal rule is that you never, never, never - did I say, never? Never provide a link where someone can click off the page and get lost. So why is it not important here with a blog as well?

If someone just landed on your main page and got distracted, heaven forbid, by one of your ad links and got taken away from the blog – got real excited, bought something and never came back. Maybe they don’t come back to receive all the great free content you have, get top know you more, and – well you get it.

So go fix your links that can take people away from your blog and you will feel like you’ve accomplished something – it’s called ‘saving traffic’! It takes effort to get, so take a little more to save it. Help readers get the value you intend for them.

There is a nice site I found that has some great tutorials that help with doing HTML. If you are like me and don’t know it well enough to remember exactly what to do a week later, this site can come in handy. They didn’t have this exact code example there which is why I had to extrapolate a little, but it is a good site for HTML coding help. It’s a resource I will use again, I found it well laid out and easy to use.

http://csshtmltutorial.com/

John Halderman

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

For a couple of weeks now a group of students mentoring under Alex Jeffreys has been building a community of blogs to both help each of their business’s as well as help each other as a group. This blog is one of those blogs. The system of blogs is building larger and larger as the 500 people taking Alex’s training are gradually get their blogs set up and running. If you don’t have a clue as to the potential power of such a group of people blogging together, stick around!

As a group we are putting up vast amounts of useful information not only about setting up blogs, but about all aspects of running a successful online business. We are interacting with each other gradually forming relationships which will lead to business associations. We are explaining and defining what we are doing while following the guidance of a proven online success. We are helping each other to succeed in many ways, from technical ‘how to’ to motivation. The power of many blogs linking together in various random ways will benefit everyone with their site traffic.

But here’s the thing, this group of blogs is not only a benefit to the coaching students but to anyone who gets involved. Think about it, what is the power of watching and following an already proven success formula? For those in the coaching group, I hope you see what you have developing here. If you participate you will get pushed up with the group through the ever increasing traffic.

And for those not in the coaching – I hope you see the potential here for you as well. Getting involved with this blog group will benefit anyone participating through the traffic flowing throughout. You can find details about what everyone is doing just by circulating to the various blogs, it’s almost like getting the coaching. If you want to know generally what we are doing you can get Alex’s free list buiding report on the plan we are following, of course the more detailed video version is offered as well which will just broaden your understanding and clarify exactly how it all works.

This is not a closed group, we openly accept participation from everyone, in fact that’s what we want, as should you if you want to build a presence online. Ad links, make comments and help out as you can, and you will see reciprocation. If you think success modeling is beneficial, if you think a group of like minded people is valuable, if you think building a list is critical, and if you think getting ‘well connected’ is powerful – this is the place.

Stick around - watch, learn and participate.

As with anything, this resource must be used to be of value. Information really only has potential value, it’s only when purposeful action is applied, based on the information, that the power is released.

Yesterday daughter Julie and I traveled from California to Arizona, near Phoenix to my daughter Jens house for Christmas. With the travel, which eats up a half a day even with the short distance, and then picking up some gifts I had ordered online, I still did some blogging and Twitting. My goal is to keep it up everyday - well, we’ll see on Christmas day.

Have been blogging around the blogs of other members in Alex Jeffreys coaching program and doing some twitting as we, working on getting more interaction and traffic, but the holiday activities gobble up much attention - as it should. The family stuff is important to queeze in amungst the work efforts.

Some of the other students are getting some great products put together. I just downoaded Gary Simpson’s “Time in Motion Action Planner“. It’s a really nice planning tool, but also great for helping to identify where you are wasting time . . . don’t we all! This is a powerful feature as we need help un-doing what we don’t want to do just as we need assistance training ourselves to do what we do want to be doing. Seems simple, but the most effective things are.

Wasting time is an obvious distraction from doing what you want But once identified, one must look into why they are doing time wasting activiies. May be just an innocent habit, or could be supported by some deeper feelings, perceptions or beliefs. Take the time to identify your timewasting activities, only then can you address why and do something about it.

It’s well worth checking out and picking up our free copy, it’s worth way more than what he is charging for it!!! If you use it! – http://motivationselfesteem.com/talk/

Well, of to the store, Julie needs to pick up a few more things before they all close today.

John