BLOGGING

TO THE THIRD POWER

BLOGGING
TO THE THIRD POWER
THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO BUILDING A POWERFUL & INFLUENTIAL BLOG

NICHOLAS Z. CARDOT
WWW.SITESKETCH101.COM

This book is dedicated to my beautiful wife and daughter who have steadfastly supported my writing and my blogging.

CONTENTS
PREFACE ....................................................................... 9 FOREWARD ................................................................. 13 INTRODUCTION........................................................... 15 AWESOME CONTENT .................................................. 25 Avid Consistency............................................................ 29 Bold Creativity ............................................................... 43 Compelling Articles........................................................ 49 Distinguished Value ....................................................... 61 BRILLIANT DESIGN....................................................... 73 Amazing Experience ...................................................... 77 Better Coding................................................................. 87 Clear Navigation ............................................................ 93 Detailed Layout ........................................................... 105 COMMANDING INFLUENCE ....................................... 113 Authentic Connections ................................................ 119 Bold Vision ................................................................... 135 Community Presence .................................................. 145 Dependable SEO .......................................................... 173 BONUS MATERIAL ..................................................... 193 Brandon Cox: Chasing the Elusive Target of Success . 195 Nathan Hangen: A Different Kind of Success ............. 201

PREFACE
THE KEY TO ONLINE SUCCESS IS WORKING SMARTER AND HARDER

My eyes are steady and my hands are calm. My body is stretched out prone on the ground. My knee is bent out to the side to provide comfort and support. I pull my M4 rifle firmly into my shoulder knowing that this will help reduce recoil allowing me to aim my next shot faster. My hand is wrapped around the pistol grip with my thumb near the safety and my firing finger resting alongside the trigger well. My eyes are vigilantly scanning the horizon searching for targets to engage. At 300 meters a green silhouette rises from the ground. I prepare to fire. I move the rifle to focus the red dot of my optics on the chest of the silhouette but with this much distance between me and my target I find that my slightest breath moves the red dot
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in and out of the target. I slowly breathe in and hold it. My rifle is now steady and the red dot comes to rest right where I need it. I move my finger onto the trigger and gently squeeze careful not to move the rifle from its intended target. Boom. Just as fast as it rose from the ground, I lay it back down. This all happens in a matter of a few seconds and I prepare myself to engage the next target. As an Infantryman in the United States Army, I'm a trained professional and I know exactly what I have to do to achieve success. I've studied, practiced and observed the military tactics that will allow my fire team to accomplish every mission that gets handed to us. Every day I stand confident that I can achieve success. It's not because I have an overgrown ego. It's not because I'm naive. It's because I've worked long hours to prepare myself to face the obstacles that may come my way in the Military. I've worked hard to arrive where I'm now at and to achieve the successes that I now enjoy. This principle is so incredibly universal. If you want to experience success online then you're going to have to take this lesson from a United States Army Infantryman: Success demands hard work and long hours of preparation.

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If you're taking the time to read this book then you're... well... smarter than most people. I'm not even puffing my ego at you by stating this. I'm being honest. You aren't looking for a chance to get rich quick overnight and you probably realize by now that making it big like Chris Brogan or Darren Rowse requires a lot of work and an incredible amount of study. It's all about working smarter and harder and it's not about chasing pipe dreams. You're smarter than most people because you're actually looking for solid advice on how to focus your efforts into meaningful, productive work. You want to know how to build your blog from having 1 reader to having thousands of readers. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand the principles found in this book and to begin growing your readership but you do have to be mentally challenged to believe some of the fairy tales that are being marketed online. Success isn't built in a day...it's built day by day. Success requires a steadfast character and work ethic that your grandparents probably lectured you and your parents about combined with a knowledge of writing, marketing, networking and more.

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FOREWARD
BY DANIEL SCOCCO

Nicholas has been a fresh and reinvigorating addition to the blogging scene. The articles on his blog, Site Sketch 101 are always creative and packed with value, and that is why I accepted promptly when he asked if I would like to write the foreword for this book. After reading through "Blogging To The Third Power" I must say that the book puts together all the information you need to start building a successful blog. And what is more interesting, Nicholas is not just regurgitating what other people have said in the past, he is giving you his own take on the issue. His three pillars of blogging success - awesome content, brilliant design and commanding influence - create a really efficient framework that will channel your blogging efforts in the right direction.
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You might think that once you know about these three pillars that you've already got the meat of the book, but this is not the case. Inside each of these sections Nicholas dissects the concepts and techniques that you must master if you want to achieve your blogging goals. For example, inside the "Awesome Content" section he talks about the need for consistency when producing quality content, and why being bold and creative often times will yield outstanding results for your blog. Finally, you'll find that the pragmatic approach used throughout the book makes the reading very pleasant. Most chapters are illustrated with real examples, and you'll also find links to relevant resources around the web. Put it all that together and you get a reference document that should remain close at hand whenever you are working on your blog. Now roll up your sleeves, read through this book, and immediately start implementing what you'll learn. As Nicholas says in the very beginning, and I couldn't agree more, the key to online success is working smarter and harder. Good luck, Daniel Scocco

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INTRODUCTION
THE 3 PILLARS THAT WILL EXPLODE YOUR BLOG'S SUCCESS

What is it that separates the millions of mediocre bloggers from the ones who build traffic and achieve amazing results? What is it that propels some onward and upward into fame and fortune while others find themselves struggling just to get a small handful of readers? If youre like most bloggers, then youve probably been kicking yourself trying to figure out the answer to these questionstrying to find the key that unlocks the large steel doors that are holding you back from the success you've been looking for. Im very excited because Ive discovered the essential elements necessary to connect with people on a large scale. I've found the three principles that can exponentially magnify the success of a blog.
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Put these tools to work at your blog and you will see your traffic, comments, and subscribers skyrocket. Ignore them and you will continue to wallow in the mediocrity in which so many of your peers are trapped.

THE 3 ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS FOR REAL SUCCESS

There are three essential elements of a blog that must be absolutely maximized in order to see success at the highest levels. It takes all three of these concepts to propel your blog to the top. Awesome Content: Articles need to be fun, compelling, easy-toread, meeting users needs, providing excellent information, and well-written. Brilliant Design: Blog layouts need to be easy on the eyes, be easy to navigate, be professional looking, be able to set you apart from the crowd, and be warm and inviting to the readers. Commanding Influence: You as the author must be connecting personally, answering questions, exhibiting strong leadership, demonstrating sacrifice by putting the readers needs before your own, and getting involved in the greater blogging community.

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THE TOTAL PACKAGE = MULTIPLICATION

Don't be mistaken. There are millions of blogs. It's not enough anymore to simply be strong in only one of these three powers. If you want to set yourself apart from the millions of mediocre bloggers then you have to have all three. It's all or none if you want to make it big. Each of these principles has a multiplier effect on your influence throughout the internet. In our next exercise here, the idea is to openly and honestly rate you and your website in each of these categories using a scale of 1-10. If your content is a 10, your design is a 2 and your influence is a 4 then your overall potential is 10 x 2 x 4 = 80 points of online success potential.

CONTENT IS KING...NOW BUILD HIS ARMY

Youve heard it said that content is king and that is true but only if it is supported by the principle of the total package. Its not enough anymore to have just great content. You absolutely have to have all three elements in order to accelerate your success. Arguing about which one is the most important is a dead point. The most important of these three is the total package and not any single element. In other words, if you want to experience online success then its either all or none.

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Lets say that in our example you increase your design until it can be rated a 4. Our new equation would look like this: 10 x 4 x 4 = 160 points of online success potential. Push them all up to 10s and you would have something like this 10 x 10 x 10 = 1000 points. Great content all by itself will only give you a fraction of what you can achieve when you combine it with an amazing layout and a personalized, genuine style of connecting with people. I disagree with the spirit of the popular adage Content is King. In fact, Ive written much about this at Site Sketch 101. I believe that at one time content was all that was necessary but is no longer. Now don't mistake what I'm saying. I agree with the fact that content is king, but I don't agree with the spirit of it. The truth is that content is vital. You can't build a successful blog without it. But the attitude that often accompanies this truth is to forget everything else. Too often I see people forgetting every other aspect of their online presence in an effort to simply write articles. That simply doesn't work anymore. I do believe that you can build a strong following with nothing more than content. It will, however, take you a very long time. If you want to accelerate the growth of your site then you are going to have to back up your king with an army of design,
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marketing, influence, personal connections, war elephantserruhand more. What good is great content that never gets noticed? It is no good. Its worthless. Why not just print out your amazing articles and store them in the attic? Theyll have the same impact on the world as publishing them and not promoting them or not making your site attractive and easy to navigate for your readers. IN THE WORDS OF THE PROBLOGGER: AS I LIKE TO SAY, CONTENT MIGHT BE KING, BUT WITHOUT POSH
CLOTHES AND AN ARMY TO BACK HIM UP , WHAT IS A KING BUT AN ARROGANT BLOKE IN A FUNNY SHINY HAT ?

~ DARREN ROWSE IN

PRO BLOGGER: THE BOOK Now content is a mandatory part of the success formula but not all of it. I believe in the concept of a total package. If you want to successfully brand yourself and your blog then you have to have awesome content multiplied by a brilliant design multiplied by a commanding influence. Its not enough anymore just to have great content. Its not enough just to have an outstanding design with excellent usability. Its not enough to just be a mover and shaker throughout the blogosphere. If you really want resultsyou have
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to have all three.

A CASE STUDY PROVING THAT IT TAKES THE TOTAL PACKAGE TO MULTIPLY SUCCESS
In an article at Site Sketch 101 on this topic, I had several people point out that Jacob Nielson at useit.com has built up a huge following by simply providing great content even though the layout of his site is poor and the navigation is difficult. This was my response to those comments and I firmly hold to them today. YOU GUYS MAY LOOK AT HIM AS AN EXCEPTION TO THE RULE, BUT I
WOULD ARGUE THAT HE IS AN EXAMPLE PROVING THIS RULE .

ACCORDING TO HIS SITE, HES BEEN DOING THIS SINCE 1995. IVE BEEN RUNNING MY SITE, SITE SKETCH 101, SINCE JUNE OF 2009
AND ACCORDING TO ALEXA .COM , MY SITE RANKED HIGHER THAN

N IELSON 'S SITE ON THE DAILY RANK FOR SEVERAL TIMES OVER THE PAST
FEW WEEKS . I T HAS TAKEN ME 3 1/2 MONTHS TO GAIN WHAT HAS TAKEN HIM 14 YEARS.

IF YOU WANT TO FOLLOW HIS EXAMPLE THEN I INVITE YOU TO DO SO

BUT I WOULDNT RECOMMEND IT .

ITS ALL OR NONE IF YOU WANT TO QUICKLY AND BOLDLY GET YOUR MESSAGE OUT.
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If you dont have a great environment for your readers to view your content then many will choose not to stick around. If you dont engage with people personally then the content may not mean as much to some readers. Some visitors are looking for engagement or authority which adds to the power of our influence. When we successfully build the total package of content, design, and influence then we can really brand ourselves and our sites. We must cater to every visitor: the ones looking for great design, the ones looking for connections, and the ones looking for information. Why only take the time to please one of those three people when you can multiply your effectiveness by having all three? I hope you understand that my disagreement with the adage Content is King is a very minor one and in the greater sense I still agree with the determination to produce great content. Its just that it is a mandatory part of something more than that.

BUILD A GREAT BRAND AROUND YOUR BLOG

Brand marketing is everything if it can be done to actually drive people to action. Ive heard people say that branding is sometimes an excuse for lack of actually accomplishing anything. For example, someone
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might say that they are not seeing any traffic but that is because they are more focused on just branding their website, themselves and their content. But brand marketing that is not delivering visitors isnt really branding. If people arent actively searching for you, then your branding is basically worthless. Real branding is that which drives people to seek you out. It compels people to read what youve written, to follow your advice, and to purchase your products. Branding that doesnt lead to action is not branding.

THE GENERIC BRAND VS. THE NAME BRAND

Those brands at the supermarket that cost only half as much as the box sitting right next to it are referred to as generic brands. They are considered to be less valuable than the name brands even though they are often very similar. Somehow the company behind Cheerios has developed themselves as a respectable household name and Wheatie Os are laughed at. Cheerios has developed a better marketing campaign. Theyve produced a better product. Theyve created real value and consumers know it. So what kind of value are you creating at your blog? Are you creating content that is fun to read? Are you providing
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information that is in demand? Are you meeting the needs of your readers? Because if not, then you might as well pull up a chair next to the Wheatie Os because youre playing second fiddle now.

HOW DO YOU DEVELOP A SOLID NAME BRAND?

The three principles found on the pages of this book are the keys to developing powerful branding that people will come flocking toward. Ive listed them below to help cement them into your mind as we begin our journey. Awesome Content Brilliant Design Commanding Influence These three concepts have the power to provide you with a massively successful brand. You will be able to attract and build a large number of readers. These three concepts are the pillars of online success. And so our journey begins...

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THE FIRST POWER

AWESOME CONTENT
CONTENT IS THE FOUNDATION FOR ANY SUCCESSFUL BLOG

If you've been around the internet for any period of time then you've probably heard it repeated: Content is King. In fact, many of us have heard it so many times that it probably sounds redundant. Yet there are so many people who still don't get it...or if they do they don't put it into practice. The adage has been around since the dawn of blogging: Content is King. And it's true. Content is king. Content is the foundation upon which the rest of a successful blog is built. It's the information that consumers are searching for. It's the meat and potatoes at a nice dinner. It's the pavement on the internet superhighway. Content is the first step
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on our journey to the top of the blogosphere.

NOT JUST CONTENT...BUT AMAZING CONTENT

Amazing content is all about creating articles that are easy to read, full of information, funny, engaging, and well-written. It's about consistently creating value at your site day after day. It's about pouring your personality into your writing and creating masterpieces in every post. It's not the only point, but it is the first. Without great content, you have nothing on which to build your blog and you have nothing of value to provide to your readers. Content is so incredibly important and yet so many people focus so little of their time working to improve the quality of their articles. Lets change that today. Lets learn new writing styles. Lets explore new ideas. Lets grow as writers and authors and ultimately lets build stronger, better blogs. There are four key areas to building great content that we're going to explore throughout this book. Avid Consistency: Success isn't built in a day... it's built day by day. Producing terrific content once in a while isn't good enough. We've got to learn how to deliver top quality, award26

worthy content day after day. Bold Creativity: Dazzle your visitors with new and bold ideas. If you do the same thing as the millions of other bloggers then you're most likely going to experience the same results as them: dismal failure. Be creative. Explore new ideas. Think outside the box. Compelling Articles: As an author, you have to learn how to entertain your readers as well as educate them. Even those who are looking for clear advice, instructions, or information will still be impressed if you can make use of all their emotions while delivering your content. Tell jokes or use sarcasm to make people laugh. Tell stories that make people cry or even get angry. Inspire your readers passions to fuel their cravings to keep reading your content. Dynamite Value: How much is your site worth to those who follow you? Value is determined by how much people would be willing to pay for something if they had to purchase the same product a second time. Or if your product is free, it's the amount that they would be willing to pay if your site actually cost something. Would people be willing to pay for your advice and expertise? Do people feel ripped off when they make purchases at your blog or from your affiliates? As we dive into this, you'll learn quickly that creating highly
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successful content is not the same as chasing a get-rich-quick scheme. There's no easy step by step guide to building the foundation of our online presence. Success requires developing yourself as an author who really knows how to provide information and connect with people in a way that draws them in and leaves them longing for more.

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CHAPTER #1

AVID CONSISTENCY
SUCCESS ISN'T BUILT IN A DAY... IT'S BUILT DAY BY DAY

The word prolific means producing abundant works or results. As bloggers, we want to be able to produce a plethora of useful, meaty articles about topics within our respective niches. I want to be able to produce well written articles on blogging and website design that are so dynamic that people flock from around the web to read them. I want to be able to produce article after article that meets needs, delivers information, teaches blogging and web design principles, and reaches out and grabs readers driving them to come back again and again for more. Yet its so difficult to keep up with an aggressive writing
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schedule. One award-quality post per day is really what it takes to drive people to your site by the thousands but how in the world can we begin to keep up with a schedule like that? Sure we know a lot of information about our subjects, but that doesnt mean that we know enough to keep pouring out an unlimited supply of information to our readers. More often than not, bloggers very quickly reach the end of their supply of wisdom and instantly begin scaling their article production rate back. So what are the keys to producing quality articles on a consistent basis? What are the principles that the most proficient online authors practice in order to maintain a steady stream of posts on their sites? The simple answer is hard work. The more accurate answerwell for that youll have to keep reading. READ EXPERT BLOGS ABOUT BLOGGING Each day I read several articles from others who blog about blogging. I read articles that cover every topic related to this subject including search engine optimization, professional design, creative writing, link exchanges, traffic building, and more. I have several blogs that I visit nearly every day in order to ensure that I am practicing every last principle that may influence the success of my blog. Here are a few blogs to get you started: Problogger, Daily Blog Tips, Copy Blogger and of course my blog, Site Sketch 101. I highly recommend that you subscribe by either email or RSS to
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each of these blogs and that you devote time each day to read each article. These will fill your mind with ways to continue growing your blog into something that will reflect expertise in your field. READ EXPERT BLOGS IN YOUR NICHE I have heard it said that our mind is like a barrel with holes. As we take in information about a subject it is like pouring water into that barrel. As you pour the water in some of it begins to leak out just as we tend to forget things that we have learned or as we use that information in articles. As you climb closer to having the barrel filled with water you have to increase the amount of water that you are pouring in to compensate for the increased amount that will be leaking out. The same is true with knowledge. As you increase the amount of information that you are pouring out to your readers, you need to increase the amount of knowledge that you take in so that you can keep up. You need to keep learning enough about your subject in order to have enough expertise to continually write new posts and keep up with your readers questions. The best way to take in information in your niche is to read and follow other bloggers. This is also a great way to build relationships and even further establish yourself as an expert
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throughout your niche.

BALANCING YOUR LIFE & YOUR BLOG

Are you juggling lifes demands like a job and a family while struggling to figure out how to blog with the power and passion necessary to make it big? Youre not alone. For those of you who dont already know, I currently serve as an Infantryman in the United States Army. Each week, I work an average of 50 or more hours while at the same time maintaining my amazing (in my opinion ) blog, Site Sketch 101. In fact, just last December, I was gone for field training from Monday morning until late Thursday night. During that time I had no access to any electronics including laptops, cell phones or any means of accessing the internet. I arrived home Thursday night at about 9:30 pm and was back at work on Friday morning at 5:30 am. This is a regular occurrence in my line of work. SUCCESS DEMANDS HARD WORK Now Im not saying this to brag on myself for being able to do this, but rather to encourage you. If I can handle this then anyone can. Its not because Im so great at doing this stuff, but because Ive learned a few simple principles that can help to simplify a complicated lifestyle. Grab these principles from me and put them to work in your own life.
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Juggling a busy life and a successful blog can be a difficult task. Those who tell you that you can rise to the top without working very hard are mistaken, lying to you, or trying to sell you something. Success demands hard work. Most people arent full-time bloggers. We have to work and sometimes that means long hours away from our blogs, our families and our passions. SIMPLE TIPS TO BALANCE YOUR LIFE & YOUR JOB Let me share with you some of the things that I do to help me write, design, interact and work a job. Pen & Paper: Always carry a pen and paper with you. You never know when youre going to think of something useful. When you do, write it down immediately. We all forget things. For most of us we probably forget more than we remember. Because of this it is vital that we write down everything that we read or think of related to our blog. If you are mowing your yard and you think of a great topic for a blog article, pull a pen and notepad out of your pocket and write it down. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, you should always write down information that can help you grow your site. Brainstorm: Make use of time that would otherwise be wasted
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by brainstorming ideas for your website. Use the time that youre in the shower or the time that youre in the car driving to or from work. Discipline: Schedule time to work on your blog and then stick to your schedule. Use the ideas that you brainstormed throughout the week and put them into articles. Streamline: Figure out what it takes to produce a great article and then speed up that process. Get rid of anything that slows you down and develop your system so that you can quickly and efficiently produce high quality content. Relax: Dont get overwhelmed. If you feel like youre too stressed out then take a break. I blog because its a way for me to relax. I enjoy it. I love interacting with my readers. Enjoy what you do. And when necessary, take breaks. It is possible to operate an amazing blog and work a full-time job. Dont think that your limited by your situation. Youre not. You can accomplish amazing things. Don't stop learning and growing. Those of us who work full time have a major disadvantage. We have less time to learn and develop ourselves as bloggers than those who blog full time. But that is no excuse. Lets continually strive to be the best that we can be.
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BUILD YOUR BLOG WITH IDEA MAPPING

As bloggers, one of the worst setbacks that we can face is the daunting task of coming up with and developing topics about which we can write. Corporations spend millions of dollars a year on research and development so that they can come up with the products and services that will sell. You probably dont have millions of dollars to put into this task, but you do need to find a way to develop new and exciting ideas for your blog. I am bombarded with questions from bloggers related to this idea. Sometimes it can be incredibly difficult to come up with ideas day after day. Well, heres some good news. It doesnt have to be such a miserable task. In fact, generating ideas for your blog can actually be a fun project when you learn how to put into practice this amazing concept.

ARE YOU STRUGGLING TO DEVELOP TOPICS? Idea mapping is the practice of creating a diagram or chart to layout your ideas and organize your thoughts. It might sound complicated but its actually incredibly simple. It can be done on paper or by using some popular mind mapping websites like Mind Meister. I use Mind Meister to create mine.
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Its free and its a lot of fun. The easiest way to explain this unique concept is to simply start by showing you a picture of my idea map. Notice how I break my diagram down into the basic categories of my website. I then work to think of topics and ideas that could be covered under each category.

4 STEPS TO BUILD YOUR IDEA MAP Heres a few simple steps to get you started on your idea mapping journey. Take them and use them or modify them into a system that works for you. Write the name of your site in the middle of the page. Write the name of 5 categories surrounding the site name. Work to create at least one topic in each category.
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Repeat step 3 until you have 5 or 6 topics in each category. If you apply those steps then you can come up with 25-30 topics for your blog in about an hour or so. Thats enough topics to write for a month or more every single day. Since most bloggers dont post every daythis can last you even longer. This single practice can provide an amazing jolt to your work of generating topics for your blog. Get out a piece of paper or head over to Mind Meister and create a free account and start getting your ideas down on paper today.

HOW TO EFFECTIVELY RECYCLE OLD BLOG POSTS

If you really want to build content on your site that's worth visiting then you need to learn the art of writing articles that are timeless in nature. In other words, it's acceptable to write about things that are taking place this week, but visitors six months from now are going to click away immediately if they land on that article. It's important to be writing about subjects within your blog's topic that can be used both today and a year from today. Once you've mastered the concept of writing timeless articles then you can move onto this lesson with ease. WHY SHOULD YOU RECYCLE BLOG POSTS? The art of recycling an old post simply means that you take an
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article that was previously published, let's say five or six months ago, and add new life and excitement to it and republishing it. It's a great practice to get yourself into for several reasons. It saves time: If you're stuck trying to think of what to write or if you want to get a head start on your coming articles then this is the perfect way to do it. It builds Page Rank: I'm very fortunate to receive back-links on the articles at Site Sketch 101. In fact I have several articles on the site with a 2 or 3 Page Rank. Bringing a six month old PR3 page back to the front of everyone's attention is a great way to snowball the success that article has already achieved. Here's an example of a recycled PR3 Article on Site Sketch 101: 15 Incredible WordPress Plugins You Need After having affectively recycled this article, this post now receives hundreds of visits from Google each day. This method really does work. It builds on previous successes: If you have a topic that was incredibly popular in the past then what better way to rebuild excitement and momentum on your website than to bring it back to life? MAXIMIZE THE QUALITY OF A RECYCLED ARTICLE
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Now if you think you can simply change the date on the article and bring it back to your front page then you're most likely going to be met with dismal failure. Here's some tips to keep in mind as you work to revive an old article. Leave the Permalink Alone: If you want to keep growing the page rank of your article then be sure to leave the permalink alone. This allows you to bring in a fresh wave of links to a page that already has links. Build Fresh Excitement into the Title: The first thing that people see is the title. Take everything you know about writing titles and put it into practice. Make it bold, exciting, and catchy. We'll cover more about this in chapter 3. Revise / Rewrite the article: Now when you recycle the article don't think that you're going to get away with republishing the exact same thing. Use the old version as a starting point for a new more vibrant article. Add Fresh Ideas and Experiences: Infuse into your writing everything that you've learned or experienced since you first published the article. Don't leave the experiences in there that you lived six months ago. Make it fresh. Remove Obsolete Concepts: If you made reference to something that's no longer valid like something in the news or a personal
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opinion that is now developed in a different direction then pull it out and replace it with your new ideas.

CHAPTER REFLECTION
People aren't going to come flocking to your website if your posting schedule is sporadic or nonexistent. Whether you post 3 days a week or every day of the week, choose a schedule, be consistent and use the principles outlined in this chapter to guide you as you work to consistently create content that your readers are looking for. Putting these principles to work for you at your blog will lead to amazing results. As you go away from this chapter be sure to remember these important concepts. Read expert blogs about blogging. Read expert blogs in your niche. Always carry a pen and paper. Brainstorm during your spare time. Streamline your workflow. Relax and take breaks when necessary. Practice idea mapping.
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Effectively recycle old blog posts.

PERSONAL CHALLENGE
Now seriously focus on taking the lessons that you encountered in this chapter and work hard to make them your own. Take these blogging principles and start acting on them today. Revolutionize your posting consistency. As you work to take these concepts home with you, challenge yourself with the following questions: Have I been posting consistently or has my sporadic schedule been driving users from my site? Which of these concepts can I use to improve the consistency of my blog the most? Which of these can help me find the strength that I need to develop a consistent posting schedule on my blog? How many posts per week can I reasonably post? On which days of the week should I consistently aim to publish them?

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CHAPTER #2

BOLD CREATIVITY
DAZZLE YOUR VISITORS WITH NEW AND BOLD IDEAS

As they say in the corporate world, Think Outside The Box! Or as they used to say at Taco Bell, Think Outside The Bun! When you create headlines and articles that are unique and eye catching then you grab the reader's attention. Dont follow the same mold that everyone around you seems to follow. Be bold. Challenge people to think differently. Use personal and creative stories to illustrate your articles. Be different. The more creative you can be, the more effective your writing will be. Though I can't provide you with the exact ideas for you to use on
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your site, I can show you some of the tools that have worked for me. Hopefully, you'll learn from my example and work to develop your own creative essence.

CREATIVITY MAKES WILDLY POPULAR CONTENT

At Site Sketch 101, I've been fortunate to have several articles go viral across Twitter, Delicious and other social websites. Some of these articles have quickly become very popular. They've received hundreds of retweets. They've secured hundreds of delicious bookmarks. They've had over 50+ comments on them by the morning after they were published and many of them are still receiving new comments each day. They even spiked my visitor count by the thousands. It brought a lot of attention to Site Sketch 101. In my mind these article are a success. They are a huge success and Im incredibly happy with them. But although Im happy with what happened, Im not happy to just sit back and enjoy a onetime achievement. And I'm certainly not just sitting back and gloating in a successful achievement. I want more. I want to experience this again and again. And I want you to experience it as well. So I sat back and I began to break these articles apart. I began to
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think about the qualities that may have contributed to their momentum and strength. A look at one of these articles will help us to understand how to create the same type of bold and creative content again and again. Consider the article The 15 Best WordPress Plugins for 2010 and let's explore how we can continuously create wildly popular content. It was bold: The title itself claims that these are the absolute best plugins available for the WordPress content management system. These are the premiere plugins. I didnt claim that they were great. I went beyond that. I shouted from the housetops that these plugins are the best availableand I believe that they are. It appealed to a large number of people. That article was essentially written for every WordPress user on the planet. Beginners, intermediates users, and advanced users can find a new plugin to explore. Any one of the millions of WordPress users can engage with the content with the hope of improving themselves and their blogs. Its call-to-action was simple and clear. Although you may not have even noticed the call-to-action as you read the post, it was there and many readers took action. The take-home challenge was to install and try some of those plugins and it
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worked. Comments and emails came pouring in that people were installing amazing plugins that they were so thankful to have now found. Asking people to do something complicated will always minimize the outreach and effectiveness of an article. Its content was rock solid. If you saw the title and came into it looking for The 15 Best WP Plugins for 2010 then you would have found exactly what you were looking for. I didnt choose nasty plugins that nobody uses. I chose the ones that are highly rated, highly useful and highly needed. The quality of the content supported the bold title and the calls-to-action. It added value to those who read it. The core concept of the article was to provide people with incredibly easy-to-use ways to enhance their online experience. I was providing ways for people to grow their blogs and add new features to their websites. The value of each plugin was far more than the price: free.

CHAPTER REFLECTION
If you dont want to create wildly popular content then something might just be wrong with you. I cant imagine that there are many people who wake up in the morning who want to be failures. I know that I dont. Here's a recap on what it takes to make it big:
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Be Bold. Appeal to Large Audiences. Have easy calls-to-action. Provide rock-solid content. Add value to your readers. PERSONAL CHALLENGE Now get out there and revolutionize the way that you blog. Add that new vibrancy that you've been lacking and show off to the world that you can be bold and creative. Challenge yourself with these questions: How can I be creative in such a way as to add a new level of excitement to my blog? What can I do to rally the community at my blog that I've never done before? Who do I know that is highly creative that I can learn from?

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CHAPTER #3

COMPELLING ARTICLES
SMACK YOUR READERS WITH A COMPULSION TO KEEP READING

Hey. I was just reading your blog and I got so bored that it actually hurt my head. It was so bad that it made Moby Dick, Herman Melville's 2,000 page epic about a whale, look like an exciting children's fairytale. In fact, I'd rather be hanging out with Chuck Noland, Tom Hanks' character from Castaway, trapped on a deserted island with nobody to talk to except for a volleyball named Wilson. After reading your blog, I had to go take two Tylenol and then go stand with my face in the corner. It was more exciting than your article. Then after my head stopped hurting, I had to jump in here and write up this chapter right away to let you know about
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it. Which one of you am I writing this about? Oh, you know who you are. Most people think that their articles are much more exciting than they actually are. I think that it's the same instinct that makes people talk about their kids. I think that my daughter is the cutest thing in the world, but sometimes I get bored hearing other people talk about their kids. I don't care if they did just win the 1st grade student of the week award. NOBODY THINKS YOUR BLOG IS AS CUTE AS YOU DO Nobody thinks that your blog is as cute or as exciting as you do. You've really got to think outside of your usual scope of things and find out how other people feel about it. You've got to put yourself in your reader's seat and see things as they see them. Most websites about creating successful blogs seem to cover a wide variety of topics. Each day I find articles about connecting with other bloggers, setting up link exchanges, building page rank, using social media, and marketing your blog. And yet, even though I hear bloggers seemingly shouting out from the housetops that content is king , I still find very few
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articles about content. If content is king then why do bloggers focus on everything except content? If you ask me, it seems kind of backwards. Generally speaking, people visit your site for one of two reasons. First, they come because you engage with them personally. They are your friends and they visit to connect with you. Second, they come for your articles. They come because they view you as an authority in your field and they want to learn from you. Or maybe they come because your writing entertains them. You can certainly get a long ways by engaging with your readers personally. Answering comments and reaching out to them will fuel your drive to success. But it wont get you very far in grabbing the attention of the Google crowd. If someone finds your site in a search engine like Google, Yahoo, or Bing they want information. They want to find an article that is well-written, that entertains them, that engages with them, and that provides them a reason to dig through your site for more articles.

ELEMENTS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE ARTICLES

Heres the bottom line: If you want to keep a majority of your visitors then you have to be able to produce amazing articles. Period.
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Here's some principles about successful writing that you need to keep in mind if you plan on building awesome articles. Excitement - After you write a post, go back through it and try to add adjectives anywhere you can. Put in power words that add strength to your writing and demonstrate your passion for the topic. Personality - Let yourself shine through your articles. Blogging isn't like writing college essays. Sure, it's about sharing information but it's also about sharing yourself. Proper Grammar - When you fail to use proper grammar you make yourself appear less intelligent than you really are which takes away from your credibility and authority. Take the time to proofread your work and make edits when necessary. No Jargon - I know that you want to impress your readers but using big words is the wrong way to do it. Use simple words and sentences to make reading easy and fun. Readers don't want to have to open a dictionary to understand your content. Personal Experiences - One of the most effective ways to connect with your readers is to share yourself with them. Dont be afraid to put your successes and your failures out for everyone to see. There are few things more effective to building your credibility in an article than being genuinely
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open with your readers. Humor - A great way to captivate your readers attention is to make them smile. If you can intermingle jokes, irony or satire into a post people will stick with you much longer. Laughter is an incredibly powerful tool for conveying information. Stories If you want your readers to understand the point you are trying to make then tell them a story. Remember Aasops fables? Spruce up your points with some captivating stories. Readable in One Sitting Long posts can be useful, but Ive found that more often they scare away readers. Readers either leave the article or they only skim the highlights. The solution: Keep em short. A Call to Action Whens the last time you asked your readers to get out and do something after reading your article? Theres never a better time to do it. Get out and call someone to action in your next article. A Call to Interaction Most bloggers wonder why they dont get a lot of comments. Heres a quick tip: ask your readers questions and ask for their feedback. To quote the Bible, "Ye have not because ye ask not." Vital Information Explain how something works. Provide a
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how-to. Build a step-by-step tutorial. Provide really valuable information and people will read it and then they'll tell their friends to read it. Organization People are skimmersso you might as well make it easy for them. Provide your readers with lists and large headlines throughout the article. Make information easy to find throughout your articles. These are just a few ways to get your reader's faces off of their keyboards and help them ease up their snoring.

ELEMENTS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE HEADLINES

Headlines are drastically under rated. Most bloggers fail to realize that their post titles are the number one advertisements for their articles. Post titles have to put on the gloves and go head-to-head with dozens of other post titles in peoples RSS readers, email accounts and search engines. It's your job to get your post titles ready to perform like the champs they have the potential to be. I want my headlines to be so compelling that they seemingly smack my readers in the face with a sudden compulsion to read it. I want my post titles to be so dramatic that casual internet browsers cant help themselves but to dig deeper and find out what I have to say. Heres how Darren Rowse from
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problogger.net puts it: MANY BLOGGERS POUR A LOT OF EFFORT INTO WRITING ENGAGING AND
INTERESTING POSTS , BUT THEN JUST SLAP ANY OLD TITLE ONTO IT WITHOUT REALIZING THAT IN DOING SO THEY MIGHT BE ENSURING THAT THEIR POST IS NEVER READ . ~ DARREN ROWSE

Heres 10 tips that have assisted my blog in rapid growth: Be bold: Just as we emphasized in chapter 2, boldness adds tremendous power to our blogs. Strong, powerful headlines grab peoples attention much more effectively and dramatically than passive ones. Make a bold statement about your topic that is sure to get their attention like 14 Ways to Increase Your Blog Traffic or 5 Vital Reasons to Use List Posts. Use dynamic words: There are certain words that quite simply sound more exciting than others. Try to make use of words like awesome, killer, amazing, heart-pounding, thrilling, surefire, etc. Select exciting words that that you could use to review your favorite action movie. Heres a few examples: Notice the word Sure-fire in '5 Sure-Fire Strategies For Better Blogging' or the word Crucial in '5 Crucial Tips For Wordpress Users.' Get personal: Personal stories are much more meaningful than
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articles that appear as if they were written by a computer. Try some article titles like these: Why I Dont Use NoFollow on my Links or How I Made $10,000 From Google Last Month. Be short: Enough said. Really though. I preview all of my articles using the Wordpress preview button in the editor. If the title pushes onto a second line on the post page then I shorten it until it only uses one line. Find a rule like that that works for you on your blog and stick with it. Be direct: If your headline isnt a clear representation of what the article is about then the reader will likely not take the time to actually read your post. They will more likely feel like you tricked them and they will just leave your site and not return. Ask a question: I see a lot of intriguing post titles that come in the form of provocative questions. Let me share a few examples with you: Would you like to quit your job and make money online? or How would you like more traffic to your website? Be commanding: Tell your readers to do something amazing. Throw out an order that is extreme and your readers will follow. Heres some examples: Get More Traffic to your Website or maybe something like Create Awesome Content and Keep Your Readers!

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Be creative: This one is really the key to the whole list. Your only limitation in creating effective headlines for your blog articles is your own imagination. If you can create ways to break the mold on your post titles then you will be able to draw in users like never before. Use lists: Every day that I visit delicious.com nearly half of their bookmarks that made it to the front page are some form or another of a list. List posts are extremely attractive to a lot of readers. Check out these examples: 5 Things You Need to Know About Trackbacks or 11 Beautiful Free Wordpress Themes. These also make excellent link bait for others bloggers to link to and tweet about. Use Keywords: I listed this one last because I view it as the least important. Using strong keywords in your title can help your listings on Google but using them in the wrong way can take away from their effectiveness to human readers. Strike up a good balance here and youll be setup for success. Sometimes its hard work to create the kind of websites and blogs that bring visitors flocking to them but that doesnt mean that we should give up or that it cant be done. We need to step up to the challenge and do what it takes to create content that educates, entertains, and engages our users.

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Developing powerful post titles is paramount to driving people into your articles and winning the competition against other sites in your readers' RSS reader accounts. Make your titles boring and people won't even read the most well written articles on your site. Make them exciting enough and it be as if you are receiving free advertizing around the internet.

CHAPTER REFLECTION
As we reflect on this chapter, here's a few of the core concepts that you need to keep in mind. Use humor to entertain your readers. Let your excitement pour out into your writing. Tell stories to convey the information that you're sharing. Let your personality shine through. Use proper grammar to demonstrate your credibility. Call your readers to act and to interact. Develop headlines that compel your readers to dig deeper.

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PERSONAL CHALLENGE As you go away from this chapter, you've got to find a way to put this into practice at your site. It you don't make it personal then reading this has been a waste of your time. Challenge yourself to be a better writer. Challenge yourself to engage your audience more effectively than you have ever done before. Here's a few questions to get you started. Which of the questions above busted your bubble? Which one really nailed you to wall? What about number six? Oh thats right. There were only five questions. Well then why dont you go ahead and give us a number six? What else can you think of that might be holding us back from really connecting with our audiences? What other things can you think of that can spice up a good blog? Can you think of some other elements of writing that can make our articles more enjoyable? Are my headlines bold and exciting or are they most likely the type of headlines that get quickly overlooked by casual browsers? Do my post titles accurately describe my article's content or are people quickly clicking back out feeling deceived?
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CHAPTER #4

DISTINGUISHED VALUE
HOW MUCH IS YOUR SITE WORTH TO THOSE WHO FOLLOW YOU?

There were few things in life as relaxing and as enjoyable for me during 2009 as my Christmas leave. My two brothers, my sister and our families moved back into our parents house for a week and half of holiday celebrations. It was 13 of us living together under one roof. We laughed like hyenas. We broke the buzzer on the Taboo game. We gorged ourselves with turkey, ham, stuffing and biscuits. And then we gorged ourselves with leftover turkey, ham, stuffing and biscuits. I even made it successfully all the way through several days without ever changing out of my brand new fleece superman
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pajamas. Theyre so comfortable. If you saw them then youd understand.

THE INTANGIBLE VALUE OF RELATIONSHIPS

But as I lounged around, slept in, and wrestled with my brother and his kids, I began to realize that the time we were having together had real value. In fact, it was so valuable to me that I was willing to drive for 15 hours from Washington DC to northern Illinois. It was worth spending hundreds of dollars in gas and tolls and then spending the same on the return trip. I cant place a number on it. In fact, I feel like the amount I spent was incredibly cheap compared to the value that I got from being there. I dont know exactly how much Id be willing to spend to do it again next year. But I know that it would take a lot to stop me. Those times and those experiences are valuable. Theres an intangible price that we all place on connections and relationships. And its important to recognize that as we work to provide value at our websites. Ive come to believe that there are three primary reasons that people are exploring the internet and two of them are directly related to the value I experienced on Christmas break. As you look at these three areas, I dont want you to sit back and
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think about which category you are the strongest but rather figure out how you can build strength from all three of these areas. Success wont come from power-housing in any one of these categories. You need to work to build strength in all three. Education: Many visitors, especially those coming from search engines, are looking for information on specific topics. They want guides that explain how to do something in a way that is quick and easy to understand. They want to be educated on a particular skill or on a specific bit of knowledge. Wikipedia is a perfect example of a site that appeals to users seeking knowledge. Entertainment: Many users browse the internet simply to pass the time, to amuse themselves, or to find something to make them laugh. Many television networks are now broadcasting their programming across the internet to draw in this group of online traffic. Youtube is an amazingly popular example of a site that appeals to entertainment focused users. Engagement: With the advent of social media like Twitter, MySpace and Facebook, there is an ever growing demographic of users online who are searching for ways to connect and engage with other people. People are drawn to sites where the authors respond to readers' questions and comments.

PRICE VS. VALUE

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A couple of times each year, Yaro Starak reopens his Membership Site Mastermind program. His program promises to provide people with the tools necessary to build a membership site that can literally bring in thousands of dollars a month in recurring income. Simply get people to become a paying member of your forum, your training seminar or some other recurring service and the money will come in month after month. Imagine this scenario: Month 1: 20 People Sign Up at $8 / Month = $160 / Month Month 2: 20 People Sign Up at $8 / Month = $320 / Month Month 3: 20 People Sign Up at $8 / Month = $480 / Month Month 6: 20 People Sign Up at $8 / Month = $960 / Month Month 12: 20 People Sign Up at $8 / Month = $1920 / Month Month 24: 20 People Sign Up at $8 / Month = $3840 / Month Maybe that's an ideal situation, but the idea is that each month you'll make the recurring income from the first month's sales and from every month since then. Over time, the income can continue to grow without limits. It's a terrific way to build an online income.

YOU WANT THE MONEY BUT CAN YOU PROVIDE REAL VALUE?
When he reopened his product, I had a wave of people asking
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me about it. People with little or no experience about certain topics were asking me if they should create membership sites so that they could get in on the explosive potential of this type of a passive income. I even had a couple of people suggest to me that I do the same thing with Site Sketch 101. Some people offered to coach me how to make it big with this business type. I'm very familiar with how to make it work but I operate on a different business model than most people. I'm patient. I develop my products and I wait until I believe that I can provide much more value than what I'm charging. I want to give people great value. If I want people to make a purchase on Site Sketch 101, then I believe that I have to be able to provide tremendous value. I believe that you have to be able to provide $100 worth of value to make a $25 sale. I don't want a single visitor to my site to feel slighted or cheated. Value in its simplest form is the amount of money that someone would be willing to pay for something if they were to make the purchase all over again. Once your reader has made a purchase for $25 from your site, do they feel slighted? Or do they feel like they've just been given a
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great deal? Here's a checklist to go over the next time you're trying to figure out if your product or even your blog articles provide real value to your readers. Qualified: Have you made $100,000 online? Then why are you trying to teach something you don't know? If you really know how to do something then you'll do it yourself first as proof and then you'll have the credibility necessary to teach others. Helpful: Is your article or product actually going to help someone or solve someone's problem or are you just putting it up to take up space? Many of you are talking a lot but actually saying very little. There are words and pictures all over your website but they don't actually mean anything to the readers. Legitimate: Is it going to give what it promises? Does the product provide what you advertise? A lot of online salesman try to create killer sales pages and prop it up with strong adjectives and overbearing promises that aren't ever delivered. Timely: Are you writing opinions about news and events that are current or ancient? Is your product out-dated or up to current standards? If you're still writing articles about Michael Jackson's death, you might be a little behind the times.
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Easy to Use: Is your material easy to understand and simple for your readers to put into practice? Complicated solutions aren't worth anything to your users. People are looking for fast and simple solutions to their issues. When you think of value, I'm sure you think of products that people pay for. Certainly we want to make sure that people feel like they're getting their money's worth from the content that we sell on our websites. Real value, however, goes well beyond that. If you're not striving to make every piece of content at your site contain real value then your site probably isn't worth visiting. You may have just discovered why you can't get people to come back and visit your website. You're not adding enough value to your work. Add value to your articles, not so you can charge for your articles, but so that your readers don't feel like their time is wasted just by looking at your website. I want Site Sketch 101 readers to feel like they're receiving entertainment, education, and engagement that is worth paying for...and they're getting it all for free. You should be doing the same.

WORK HARD AND MAKE YOUR OWN LUCK

I receive a lot of requests each week to link to other blogs.
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Smaller bloggers are constantly asking larger, more established bloggers for links to build their direct traffic, their search engine listings and their online exposure. Most smaller bloggers mistakenly believe that if they can just win the lottery and score one or two big links that their site will be set and they can roll in the cash and traffic that will result. LINKS, LUCK & LASTING SUCCESS Far too often when the link is not given, the smaller blogger becomes upset and they start expressing that the larger blogger is stuck up, selfish or that they dont care about the little guy . The fact is, however, that this couldnt be farther from the truth. In the world of websites links are as powerful as dynamite. If used right they can clear a path for our users to find amazing resources but if used wrong they can explode in our faces leaving a trail of carnage and casualties. THE POTENTIAL HARM OF A BAD OUTBOUND LINK Often times we overlook a huge part of the equation when we randomly ask someone for a link. When were denied the link we feel that the webmaster is unkind but in reality we are failing to realize that if they link to our sites then it could be potentially fatal for their website. Lets discuss a few of the reasons why links can be dangerous to a webmaster.

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Quality: A link to a low quality website will cause readers to no longer value the recommendations of the linking website. Relevance: A link to a site that has little to do with the linking site will confuse readers and encourage them not to return. Value: A link to a site that doesnt present an absolutely amazing level of value to its visitors will make readers skeptical about clicking on any links on a website. Search Engines: Many people believe that Google weighs the value of our sites as much on the sites that we link to as by the sites that link to us. This means that if your site becomes full of links to websites that Google considers as spam then Google will assume that your site is spam. Credibility: In essence, each of the first three points either build or destroy a websites credibility and authority. If they selectively present their readers with only the most highquality links available then people will value and respect that blogger and his or her recommendations. WORK HARD PROVIDE VALUE MAKE YOUR OWN LUCK Let me be honest. If your plan at making it big is praying that you get lucky and strike up an awesome link from a professional blogger then you probably arent going to find much luck on the internet. Youll probably get discouraged and feel like everyone
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is mean and unkind. Thats the wrong attitude to have. Heres the right attitude to have. Determine to develop your blog into something amazing. Motivate yourself into developing something that attracts users all by itself. Develop your content, your design, and your online presence. Word hard and make your own luck. Determine right now that youll be the master of your own online destiny. If others can figure out what it takes to become successful then so can we. So how about it? Have you ever had sites request links from you that you felt uncomfortable linking from your blog? Have you requested a link from another blogger and been shot down?

CHAPTER REFLECTION
When you can learn how to add value to the lives of your readers then you will have unlocked the key to driving people en masse to your website. Word of mouth advertizing will be more than enough to powerhouse you onward and upward to brand new levels of success. As we recap this chapter be sure to remember these key points:
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Educate, Entertain and Engage. Provide more value than the price you charge. Share what you're qualified to share. Be genuinely helpful. Provide resources that are easy to use. Provide current, up-to-date information. Deliver what you promise. Provide something that people can be proud to link. Link to only the best possible resources. PERSONAL CHALLENG Now let me stick it to you. As you work to apply this chapter into your own blogging journey, I want you to challenge yourself with these questions: Am I providing value at my site or am I ripping people off of their time and money? Are my readers and customers go away feeling ripped off after doing work with me or do they come back time after time
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bringing their friends with them? Am I delivering so much value at my site that people feel like they are getting a good deal just being allowed to read it? What are some actions that I can do right now to make my site appeal to more people with these principles in mind? What can I do to make my site so amazing that people want to link to it without us having to ask for it?

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THE SECOND POWER

BRILLIANT DESIGN
FIRST IMPRESSIONS REALLY ARE LASTING IMPRESSIONS

Now that you've established a solid foundation for your blog in the amazing content that you can now produce, it's time to take it to the next level. Without content you have nothing but now that we've built the core of our blog it's time to move on. Having a brilliant design at your blog that makes navigating your site and engaging with your content fun and easy will multiply the effectiveness of your writing. Have you ever been to the Microsoft website? Unfortunately I have. Even for an expert in all things internet, I have a hard time navigating it. Its painfully difficult. I have to admit that it's much better now than it used to be but I
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still remember how miserable their site was to browse. I remember the one time that I was searching for some information there. It was nearly impossible and every minute that I wasted made it more and more painful to continue. Finally I broke. Excuse me, Microsoft. Ill be right back. I pushed my chair away from my desk and stepped over toward the door. Immediately I began bashing my head into the door frame until my face was bruised, bloody and swollen. After several minutes of mercilessly smashing my face into the door, I finally reached the point where the pain in my face was more than the pain of navigating their site. I returned to the desk and tried to continue my quest. Visiting some sites is simply more painful than getting a root canal with a plastic spoon. Is your site like that? No, really. Is it? If youre wondering why nobody visits your site then maybe its because its so painful for people to visit it that they would rather play leap frog with a unicorn. The guys know what Im talking about on that one. Dont get your feelings hurt thinking about this. We all have to learn and grow. Thats part of life. In fact, thats why this book
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exists to help you transform your site into something beautiful. Just study, work hard, and get better. There are four key points to maximizing the potential of your websites design. Amazing Experience: If you want your readers to come back again and again then you have to give them something theyre going to remember. Deliver an awesome first impression and watch as people flock toward it. Better Coding: Take the time to ensure that every browser displays your content the same and by doing so you can gaurantee that every one of your users enjoys the same outstanding experience. Crisp Usability: Usability is the measure of how easy it is for your users to navigate your site, locate information that theyre looking for, and engage with the content. Simplify the layout of your site. Make it easy for your users to interact with it. Dynamite Features: Pay attention to the details of your site to deliver an enjoyable visit to everyone that stops by. Clean up your sidebar, use a fresh font, and streamline your site to really stand apart from the crowd.

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CHAPTER #5

AMAZING EXPERIENCE
GIVE YOUR READERS SOMETHING THEY'LL NEVER FORGET

Just three short weeks before I made the plunge into married life, I decided to take a chance on something that was at that time quite unfamiliar to me. I logged onto Priceline and for the first time ever, I named my own price. I placed a ridiculously low bid for a hotel in Chicago where my wife and I could stay during our honeymoon. Back then I was a college student and I didn't have much money. I was willing to take the chance in the faint hope that I might score a great deal. At 55 dollars per night, I was sure that there were no results that were going to come up positive. But I was wrong.
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As the screen flashed and the Priceline website notified me that my hotel room had been reserved at that low price, there was immediately a swelling lump in my gut. At that price, I reasoned, the hotel must be trash. There's no way that I can rent a nice hotel room in the Chicagoland area at that price. Fortunately I was wrong again. We soon discovered that Priceline had landed us on the 11th floor of a Hyatt Regency just outside of Chicago in a suburb named Lisle. As we excitedly approached the building, our jaws dropped to the ground. Neither of us were from wealthy families and so as we looked in front of us we saw the nicest hotel that either of us had ever stayed at. We were both amazed and incredibly grateful. When we checked in and found our way to our room, the excitement intensified. Inside we found an enormous king size bed that was raised high off of the floor. The room was decorated in the nicest contemporary fashions available. The flat screen TV was huge. We stepped into the room and quickly began to explore. As I pushed the curtains apart, we discovered a view of the surrounding cityscape that went on for miles. Over the course of our week at that hotel, we would stand by that window holding one another and staring off at the lights late into the night. The
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view was amazing. The lump that had been in my stomach was gone and replaced with excitement. Over the course of the next few days, my wife and I would enjoy an amazing experience. We stared out the window at the horizon. We watched TV on the huge flat screen. We saw the sights around town and we had a terrific time. People are visually stimulated critters. We judge books by their covers. We form opinions about cars by how they look. We see king sized beds, big screen TV's, and beautiful scenery and it creates memories that last a lifetime. We see something that looks professional and as a result it sticks out in our minds.

PEOPLE ARE INSPIRED BY WHAT THEY SEE

As I think back over the course of my honeymoon, the things that really stand out are the things that we saw. I remember taking in the sights. I remember enjoying a contemporary hotel room. I recall exploring the city and taking pictures of the historic shops. Those things that looked amazing stood out to me. They left an impression that I won't ever forget. This same principle carries over into the online world. Websites that look nice and deliver dynamic first impressions are the ones that really grab their visitors' attentions. When we find a website that is so much fun that we can literally
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describe it as an amazing experience then we tend to bookmark, share, and return to that site again and again. FIRST IMPRESSIONS ARE LASTING IMPRESSIONS Average bloggers tend to fail on this onea lot. Most people get into blogging because they have a passion to write about something. The majority of bloggers assume that as long as they write about what they love then they will be successful. Instead of ever beautifying their site they just plug away creating articles. The problem is that every visitor that hits a less-than-amazing blog ends up leaving before even looking at the first post titles. Visitors never even make it far enough to see the amazing content that the blogger has put together. First impressions are, after all, lasting impressions. Let me give you a specific example that demonstrates this principle perfectly. In an article on my blog, Site Sketch 101, I recommended to my readers that they should read and follow one of the more prominent bloggers in the blogging tips niche. The author there produces a lot of useful advice for creating and growing successful blogs and he has certainly achieved a certain level of success himself with over 40,000 RSS subscribers. In the comments section of the article where I praised that blog, one of my readers left me this comment:

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I FIND THAT BLOG TO BE PROOF OF THE IMPORTANCE OF DESIGN . IT

LOOKS BORING. IVE SEEN THAT BLOG RECOMMENDED A FEW TIMES AND

IVE NEVER BOTHERED TO EVEN READ THE FIRST TITLE, BECAUSE OF ITS
APPEARANCE .

My reader's comments are very insightful. In fact, he's hit the nail right on the head. He and many other users have found that blog and have simply passed it over not even looking at the first title because the design was not appealing. THE IMPORTANCE OF FIRST IMPRESSIONS There are two ways to increase the number of visits to your site each day. First is to get out and attract as many people as you can through advertising, dropping links and telling friends about your site. The second is to have such a great site that a large percentage of your visitors decide to return day after day and share it with their friends.. When a user stumbles upon your site, they only need a few seconds to decide whether or not it is worth their time to dig into your material. If your site isn't making a powerful first impression then you can probably rest assured that you're losing potential readers and subscribers every day. In fact, the next time they see your link at another website they will most likely just pass it over as they remember their last experience at your less-than-desirable blog.
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If you only focus on attracting users and not on keeping them, then you are wasting a lot of energy and you are only fighting half of the battle. What's the purpose of getting people to view your website if they immediately click away because they aren't interested in your presentation? The answer is simple. There is no purpose to that.

TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR SITES THEME

Search some of the popular template clubs that are available like Elegant Themes, Woo Themes, and Theme Forest. Google search for unique themes. Stand on the corner of the street and shout if you have to but find a beautiful template for your blog. Dont be afraid to spend a few dollars to make your site into something amazing. You can buy templates for less that $20 that are absolutely inspiring. TAKE YOUR TIME. LOOK AROUND. F IND THE THEME THAT WILL DRIVE
YOUR SITE TO THE NEXT LEVEL AND THEN GO FOR IT .

Take your time and carefully browse through many themes before you settle on the one that is right for you. Remember that first impressions are lasting impressions so it's incredibly important to find something that really stands out.

SEEK VALUABLE NEGATIVE FEEDBACK

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We all love hearing people tell us how great our blogs are. I love to hear that a principle from my blog helped someone achieve a higher level of success or that something I wrote motivated someone to try something at their site. I enjoy it when people tell me that the site looks great or that they are enjoying what they find. I love hearing those things but the truth is this: critical, negative comments are usually more helpful. When those people who dislike our site are willing to tell you why they won't be back, it is then that you can find out what elements you've been overlooking. Most of the time bloggers get discouraged or hurt when someone attacks them or their site. This is the wrong answer. We should happily accept criticisms. We should value people's complaints like gold and we should seriously consider every piece of advice regardless of how negative it may seem.

LET YOUR USERS SHOW YOU THE DEFICIENCIES THAT YOUVE BEEN OVERLOOKING
Remember all the times that you've complained about the cell phone company, the cable company, the car dealer, or someone else? If they would just change some silly policy then their services would be great but you can't just call up the president of their company and let them know to adjust something.
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You blog is the same way. People get frustrated with it or they don't like it and they often never take the time to let you know how they feel. So when someone does take that time you need to realize that this is your opportunity to hone your product and create something much better.

ARE YOU STRONG ENOUGH FOR THE TRUTH OR DO YOU JUST WANT TO FEEL GOOD?
If you ask a friend to review your site and provide you with some feedback and they tell you that it is great...then they aren't really helping you. If you ask me to look over your site and provide you with some feedback for improvement then you had better have some thick skin because I will make it my goal to point out what is wrong with it. It's not because I think I'm better than you or that my site is amazing. That's not the point of critical feedback. It's because I want you to understand what you can do to make your user's experience more enjoyable. It's because I want to help you become the success that you have the potential to be. When I've invited my friends to review my site I've expected the same kind of brutal honesty. I want the comments that tell me what people like and dislike. I want to know what I can fix and I value people's criticisms. You should too.

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CHAPTER REFLECTION
Design is so incredibly important and yet far too often it is the most underappreciated aspect of blogging. Too often we forget about creating a site that our users enjoy navigating and interacting on. Bloggers become blind to the fact that their designs are often the very reason that they are struggling to retain visitors. We forget that people dont just want great content. They want great content thats also easy to read, to look at, and to interact with. As you think back on the concepts that we discussed throughout this chapter, remember these highlights: People are inspired by what they see. First impressions really are lasting impressions. A great design allows readers to be drawn to your content. You are the master of your sites layout. Negative feedback is crucial to finding our design weakness. PERSONAL CHALLENGE Dont leave this chapter without taking what youve learned and making it real in your life. If you dont go away from these pages
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with an increased passion to dazzle your site visitors with the most enjoyable layout they have ever experienced then you are going to be sorely disappointed in your online attempts at greatness. Youre not going to build a powerful and influential blog with an ugly layout. As you work to make this chapter a part of your online life, let these questions guide you: Can you think of any first impressions that still stand out in your mind? What sites can you think of that provided you with a great first impression? Which ones were lousy? How do you think you can improve on your sites design to make it more visually appealing? Do you invite negative feedback at your site? If so, how do you respond to it? Do you delete or ignore negative comments or do you accept and consider them? Are you actively seeking for critical feedback from your peers? If not, why?

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CHAPTER #6

BETTER CODING
BUILD A SITE THAT LOOKS GREAT ON EVERYONES BROWSER

For most bloggers, the code that powers the blog is completely unfamiliar territory. And that's understandable. When most of us began blogging, we did it because of our passion to write and to connect with people and not because we were professional web developers. Don't let your unfamiliarity drive you to pass over this chapter of the book. There's never been a better time to expand your knowledge and develop your skills. Im proud today to announce to the world that my blog, Site Sketch 101, has been validated by the World Wide Web Consortium as valid XHTML 1.0 Strict. Each week I return to the
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validation screen at the W3C website and fix any errors that I may have created while installing plugins or modifying my layout during the week. When I first stopped by W3Cs validator, I was faced with over 180 major errors on my home page. Yet after about 3 hours of carefully digging through the suggestions that it provided, I was able to receive the hearty approval of W3C. I actually started out to earn the gold star for XHTML 1.0 Transitional which Ive learned is a bit easier to obtain than the XHTML 1.0 Strict. Im sure that some of you are sitting back and wondering what Im talking about. I know that if I would have read the beginning of this chapter about 2 years ago, I wouldnt have had a clue what I was reading. Stick with me. Let me teach you what you need to know to get going.

WHAT IS W3C VALIDATION?

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international organization that develops the standards on which web pages are built. It develops rules for coding and development that the online community agrees to use in order to create a consistent online experience across browsers and across operating systems. In other words, they are the organization that brings Internet
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Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari web browsers into agreement to deliver the same browsing experience to people on each platform. If a website is coded according to the standards setup by W3C then it should appear the same in all browsers. If youre a website designer then youve probably experienced the headache that is trying to get a web page to appear the same across multiple internet browsers. Validating your sites code according to the W3C standards is the first step to simplifying that sometimes daunting task. Most of the variations in display that we see across browsers are simply the result of various browsers attempting to make their best guess at how to display broken or invalid code. If your source code has unclosed tags or elements that arent universally accepted then they can display it however they want to. If the code is valid, however, then it should appear the same in all browsers.

WHY IS W3C VALIDATION IMPORTANT?

There are, in fact, several reasons that you should take the time to validate your website to the standards of the World Wide Web Consortium. Validation creates consistency across multiple internet browsers. As was explained on the previous page, W3C
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validation is the first step toward creating a consistent user experience on each of the various web browsers. Validation supports better search engine listings. Independent studies have suggested that search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing actually favor websites that present them with valid code. Most people speculate that this is directly related to the fact that clean code makes it easy for Google to scan and index our websites pages. Validation is a sign of professionalism. In the website development community, W3C validation is very important. If youre site isnt W3C valid then you may appear as less than professional to those who are familiar with it. Theres really no wrong reason to get your sites code to be W3C validated.

HOW DO I GET STARTED WITH VALIDATION?

If you know anything about the basics of html then getting started wont be difficult. Simply click through to the W3C Validator, type in the name of your website, and then follow the instructions that it provides you for resolving each issue.

GROUP REFLECTION
At first glance, jumping into the code on your website and
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working on creating a site that validates with W3C can seem like a daunting task. But don't give up. Use the validation page on the W3C websit to guide you to a greater level of success at your blog. As youve learned, W3C validation is incredibly important. So much so that I decided to devote an entire chapter to this subject. As you consider the value of validating your website, remember these concepts that we covered throughout this chapter. Validation creates consistency. Validation helps our listings on search engines. Validation is a sign of professionalism. PERSONAL CHALLENGE Although this chapter was a bit shorter than the others throughout this book, dont let that convince you that this topic is not important. Go away from this chapter with a determination to validate your website to the standards of the World Wide Web Consortium. Youll be glad that you did. Below you wil find a couple of questions with which to challenge yourself as you continue to develop your blog.
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Have you validated your site with the W3C validator?

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CHAPTER #7

CLEAR NAVIGATION
USE YOUR DESIGN TO EFFECTIVELY GUIDE VISITORS

When most bloggers think of navigation they usually think of nothing more than the menu bar across the top of their blog. In this book, however, this idea includes much more. When I use the term navigation Im referring to the overall interaction that your user has with your site. NAVIGATION IS THE MEASURE OF HOW EASY IT IS FOR YOUR USERS TO
FIND THEIR WAY AROUND YOUR SITE AND HOW EASY IT IS FOR THEM TO JOURNEY THEIR WAY INTO ENGAGING WITH YOUR CONTENT .

This includes their navigating throughout the pages and posts, their interacting with the dynamic content like polls and comment forms, and their ease in finding the information that
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you want them to find.

A LESSON FROM CAPTAIN JACK SPARROW

Navigation in its most common usage usually refers to guiding large vessels like ships or aircraft. In the third installment of Pirates of the Caribbean, Captain Jack Sparrow demonstrated this concept perfectly. It was in that movie that Jack Sparrow used a unique compass that others thought was broken to direct him toward 'his heart's desire.' Instead of pointing its tip toward the north, this compass would point toward the person's most desired object.

GOOGLE USES JACK'S MAGIC COMPASS.

Why don't you? For most internet users Google is that magic compass. Someone trying to navigate the internet can input a few keywords and then Google sends them off in the right direction to find whatever it is that they're looking for. They've made it easy to find useful information. As a result of Google's simplistic approach to finding information, its brand and logo are now synonymous with finding anything on the internet. In fact, the name of their company has now become a verb in common usage throughout the world. For example, you might
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hear people say something like, "I'm not sure about this topic. I'm going to Google it." I believe whole-heartedly that if you want to dramatically increase the success of your blog then you need to copy this principle from Google's playbook: Keep it simple. As you work to make it easier for your users to journey throughout your site and to find points of engagement, you will see a dramatic increase in repeat visitors and in user interaction.

THE FINE ART OF LEADING YOUR READERS

A while ago at Site Sketch 101, I ran a poll to discover why my readers had blogs and it was no surprise to find out that the reasons varied greatly. As I surf across the internet meeting different bloggers and webmasters, I seem to find that everyone has a different motive that fuels their drive for a prominent online presence. For some the dream of online riches empowers them to drive forward. For others it may be the opportunity to connect with other people with similar interests and passions. The truth is this: everyones motives are a little bit different. This means that your concept or definition of success will not be the same as mine. It also means that you will have to apply different techniques than other bloggers and that youll have to
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personalize your sites experience in order to accomplish your dreams. Heres the results of a poll that I ran at Site Sketch 101 where I asked the simple question, "What is the most important to you at your website or blog?"

Some people start their blog in order to pursue some dream of becoming rich from the internet. Others write each article as a way of achieving a certain level of recognition. Some do it just to connect with other like-minded people. There is no wrong answer to this question. In Chapter 10 in a section entitled 10 Killer Ways to Boost Your Sites Usability, I'm going to introduce you to the idea of enhancing your readers interactions by simplifying their experience at your website.
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As you work to put into practice the principles from that chapter and you begin to develop your sites usability, its important that you constantly refer back to the goals and objectives that inspired you to start your site in the first place. Whichever category in that poll that you fall into, its important to realize that you are going to have to use different styles and techniques to achieve success than what your peers are using. If you are blogging to make mega cash then you are going to position your advertisements in a different way than if you were blogging with the sole purpose of creating a community. In this way, your goals will direct the way that you set up your site's usability. In most cases you'll probably be working to blend and balance a certain level of success in several categories at the same time. Consider the following three areas that you may wish to lead your readers toward. Be sure to stop on each point and assess whether or not it is an area that supports your objectives at your website. If it is then be sure to implement its usability principle at your site. If it isnt something that is important to you then simply skip over to the next point. LEAD YOUR READERS TOWARDS YOUR CONTENT Your readers are at your site for one reason: content. They want to read your articles and discover more information about
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whatever topic you write on. You need to make it as easy as possible for them to locate your best articles. There are several ways that you can do this. I recommend that you put a section in your blogs sidebar that lists the most popular posts from the past month. You should also be sure to include related posts in the footer of each article. If your reader makes it to the end of your article then you should be able to lead them to other articles. LEAD YOUR READERS TOWARDS YOUR ADVERTISEMENTS If you are trying to make money on your site through advertising programs like Googles Adsense or through personally sold ads then you need to make it very easy for your users to interact with them. Ensure that they visually correspond with the layout and color scheme of your site. Place them in a prominent position near the top of the page while at the same time not placing them in such a way as to subtract from the quality of your content. By optimizing your advertisements you can lead your readers to generate profits for you on your site. LEAD YOUR READERS TOWARDS YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS A growing trend among bloggers is to relate a persons subscriber count with their credibility. If a blogger has hundreds or thousands of followers then they are considered to be well98

established and reliable. Subscriptions are also the best way to get users to return to your site again and again. Make it easy for your users to subscribe to your website. I recommend that you find a large RSS icon that matches the overall look of the site and that you place it on several parts of your website. You should place one in the header, one in the sidebar, and one in the footer of each post. If you can prominently display your subscription options in a classy, non-overbearing way then your readers will be led to click through and subscribe to your feed. LEAD YOUR READERS TOWARDS YOUR GOALS Ive demonstrated three popular goals that bloggers desire to lead their readers toward: articles, advertisements, and subscription options. Your goals, however, may be different. The important thing to remember is that you can develop principles and practices on your blog that will lead your readers towards the accomplishment of your goals. Make the links clear and large. Place the most imporant information above the fold of the page. Usability is the measure of how easy it is for a user who has never seen your site before to be able to navigate throughout its pages, to find information theyre looking for and to interact with its content.
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In the following list, Im going to be providing you with some practical tips for dramatically enhancing your sites simplicity. Ill walk you step-by-step through the best ways to drastically increase the overall quality of your users journey through your website. Follow these simple guidelines and you will dynamically improve the usability of your website or blog. Make the most important links large and easy to read. Create multiple access points to important content like subscription options. Eliminate unnecessary obstacles like captcha systems or mandatory logins. Move your advertisements so that they dont get in the way of the content. Place a link to the home page on every page in case a user gets lost. Provide a clear and complete about page and contact page. Dont clutter your sidebar with unnecessary links or widgets. Provide targeted content and links in the post footers. Use a large, comfortable font and provide space between each
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paragraph. Conduct simple, old-fashioned usability testing.

AN EXERCISE IN USABILITY TESTING

For many of you that last point was probably a bit confusing. Usability testing simply means that you allow a user who has little knowledge of your site to browse it and to provide you with honest feedback. Take a few minutes out of your day to perform the following practical exercise at your site. This is usability testing in its simplest form and it will provide you with invaluable feedback that can empower you to take your site to the next level. PRACTICAL EXERCISE Find someone who has never seen your site before. Have them browse your site for 3 minutes as you stand over their shoulder and watch. You are not allowed to talk to them or answer any of their questions during those 3 minutes. You are only allowed to watch. At the end of the 3 minutes ask them for their feedback. Do not get defensive about anything they say or ask. For emphasis I feel that I need to repeat this: do not get defensive. Write down their questions or confusions on a piece of paper and make it your goal to eliminate any other users from having those confusions.
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Youre natural reaction will be to explain to your test subject the answers to their questions. Remember that when a new user hits your site, you wont be there by their side to answer their questions so you have to make it easy for them.

BEAUTIFY THE HOME PAGE WITH EXCERPTS

Youve probably noticed that I dont show the full text of every article on the home page of Site Sketch 101. If I did, the ten articles that I list on the front page would probably run down for about ten miles before you reached the end of the first page. Actually, that is what it looks like. I actually see that all the time on blogs. But this is bad for several reasons. Annoyance of Scrolling: Users will quickly get tired of scrolling to find what theyre looking for. Limited Page Views: With the entire article on the homepage they can view 10 or so articles with one page view. Less Interaction: When they finish reading the article they wont be presented with the related articles, share buttons, comment section or anything else in the footer section of your post pages which will decrease interaction with all of these. Cluttered & Unprofessional Looking: It looks cluttered which makes you look less professional than you really are.
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Its much better to show a few sentences or maybe a paragraph or two of text on the homepage rather than showing off the entire article. Heres a quick video from the WordPress website that explains a little bit more about this concept and it demonstrates how to make it happen on your website. If your viewing this article in your RSS reader or in your email inbox then you may need to click through to the website to view this video.

CHAPTER REFLECTION
Jack Sparrow had it easy. He had a compass that would take him wherever he wanted to go. Google hands out those compasses for free at their search engine to guide their users to the information that they're looking for. Do you do the same at your website? If you're not making it easy for your visitors to browse your site then they won't hesitate to go somewhere else. Remember that you have to give people a reason to stick around. As you go away from this chapter remember these important concepts: Navigating your site should be as easy as using a magic compass.
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A proper design will lead your readers to the areas of your site that are the most important. You can lead your readers towards your content, your advertisements, your subscriptions and your goals. PERSONAL CHALLENGE Now let's make it personal. You need to make a conscious effort to take the principles found in this chapter and make them a reality at your website. Use these questions to guide you. Can you think of a site that you've visited that you eventually left because it was too difficult to find what you were looking for? Can you think of a blog that you refused to participate at because there were too many obstacles to hurdle in order to leave a comment? What others area can you think of that bloggers can improve by simplifying?

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CHAPTER #8

DETAILED LAYOUT
DETAILS WILL MAKE YOU OR DETAILS WILL BREAK YOU

When a brand new visitor stumbles onto your website theyre going to decide within a matter of seconds whether or not theyre going to stick around. Its vital to create a powerful first impression if you plan on keeping your visitors at your site. For that matter, if you want your regular visitors to remain regular visitors then youve got to maintain a site thats well organized, easy to navigate and fun to interact with. Weve already covered most of the elements necessary to create a design thats easy to use and fun to interact with but its important to note that every single detail matters. Every detail
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that you overlook results in one more area where competing blogs can gain the advantage over you. This chapter will help provide you with a good overview of your entire site which will ensure that you maintain that competitive advantage as much as is possible. Heres a collection of some great tips to help you get started in creating a powerful first impression on your website or blog. CLEAN UP THAT MESSY SIDEBAR Most people use their sidebars as the catch-all for anything they find on the internet that happens to be labeled as a widget. This day in history? Put it in the sidebar. My astrological fortune? Put it in the sidebar. My pet cats latest tweets? Put it in the sidebar. But good sidebars arent built like that. Effective sidebars support the focus of your website. They provide information and links that build your sites overall theme. In other words, if the widget has nothing to do with the rest of your site then get rid of it. Put items in your sidebar only if they make sense with the rest of your blog. Get that sidebar cleaned up. CHOOSE A FONT WE CAN READ
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If your users are squinting to read your material then you can count on the fact that theyre probably not going to stick around for very long. Since our fonts are carrying the actual content of our blogs, its vital that they provide the support necessary to really bring the readers in. Heres four principles to guide you in selecting the fonts for your blog: Get rid of the Times New Roman family of fonts. Serifs are out. Pick something thats easier on the eyes like Calibri, Tahoma or Arial. Use a large, comfortable font-size and provide space between each paragraph. Keep the font style the same across all of your pages. If you use different fonts for headers and titles then limit the number of fonts site wide to only 3 or 4. Anymore and it will be a distraction to the reader. OPTIMIZE YOUR POST FOOTERS If you have a visitor that just read one of your articles and enjoyed it then what would you like for them to do next? Regardless of your answer to that question, optimizing your post footer is the key to achieving it.
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I have five specific things that I would like my users to do after reading an article and you can see these five options at the bottom of every post at Site Sketch 101. I recommend that you develop something similar to this. View and read other similar articles. Subscribe to updates via either RSS or Email. Use a social bookmarking site to share the article. Visit an advertisers website. Contribute feedback in the comments section. You can see that I have the bottom of each article at Site Sketch 101 designed to specifically support these five goals. LEARN HOW TO CREATE EMPHASIS There are certain things on your site that you may choose to draw more attention to than others. Whatever it is that you may be trying to accomplish at your site, you can accomplish it more effectively by learning to place emphasis on it. You can do that by placing links above the fold, by making them larger or bolder than the surrounding features and by making them very clear and easy to navigate for the user. We all want to get more subscribers at our websites so lets
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explore this concept using our subscription links as an example. If you want to make it easy for your users to subscribe to your website, I recommend that you find a large RSS icon that matches the overall look of the site and that you place it on several parts of your website. You should place one in the header, one in the sidebar, and one in the footer of each post. If you can prominently display your subscription options in a classy, non-overbearing way then your readers will be led to click through and subscribe to your feed. OVERHAUL WITH A WHOLE NEW THEME Of course, if youve already tried everything else and you still cant seem to come up with something that you and your readers really fancy then you can also install a new theme altogether. Sometimes a fresh start with a new template is the perfect way to create a buzz around your site. Need help picking out a new template? Check out these premium templates and template clubs to help you get started. Elegant Themes $20/Year: Elegant Themes offers one of the best Wordpress themes club available online at one of the lowest possible prices. Its no wonder this is one of the fastest growing template clubs.

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Woo Themes $125/Year: Woo Themes may cost a bit more than my first recommendation, but its also my theme club of choice. I use a Woo Themes template at Site Sketch 101. Theme Forest As low as $25/Template: With Theme Forest, youre given an entire marketplace with 100s of premium themes for WordPress, Joomla and other blogging platforms.

GROUP REFLECTION
As an Infantryman in the United States Army, I've had this simple phrase pumped into my head throughout my career: Details will make you or break you. In my line of work, an overlooked piece of debris in the firing mechanism could cause my rifle not to fire in the critical moment which could cost me my life. As a result of this simple truth, I spend a lot of time cleaning and maintaining my rifle. In blogging an overlooked detail may not cost you your life, but it will cost you visitors. When people see clutter, ugly fonts or an overall theme that doesn't look professional then they're going to leave...and they're usually going to leave fast. As you think about the details that really matter at your site, remember these core concepts that were discussed in this chapter. Sidebars and widgets should support your blog rather than add
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clutter to it. Fonts should be large, clear and easy to read. They should add to the enjoyment of reading your content. The portion below your articles should be working for you to draw your readers to take action or to interact with your site. You can emphasize links or information to encourage your readers to notice them. Sometimes a fresh start is the perfect way to build a strong design. You can always overhaul with a new theme. PERSONAL CHALLENGE Now make it personal. Take a few minutes to reflect on this chapter and to seriously think about how you can practically take these concepts and put them to work for you on your website or blog. Here are a few questions that you can ask yourself as you work to spur the creative side of your mind. Does the content in my sidebar support my blog or is a collection of random links and content? Is my font as easy to read as it could be or could I manage to make some adjustments to it to draw in more readers?
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Am I properly emphasizing important concepts or are my readers left to wander around the site? Is the portion below my articles neat, organized and useful in calling my readers to action? Am I ignoring the details that may be turning people away from my blog?

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THE THIRD POWER

COMMANDING INFLUENCE
LEADERSHIP IS INFLUENCE NOTHING MORE, NOTHING LESS

Todays modern internet is rapidly evolving. A few short years into its history when it was just sprouting the internet was commonly known as the information superhighway . And although that phrase still applies, we now tend hear that term increasingly less often. But its not just that term thats disappearing. Its the powerful concept that it carries. As the internet was quickly growing and developing, it was known for the amazing amounts of information that could be made available instantly in our homes. Entire libraries could be replaced with Google books. Encyclopedias were loaded onto websites. Dictionaries became available online. News began popping up at Fox News online, CNN online and others. The
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internet was information. The internet was consumer content.

INFORMATION VERSUS INTERACTION

Today the phrase Information Superhighway is no longer at the front and center drawing in all the attention. Its not because theres less information available online then there has been in the past. In fact, online information is still continuing to grow at a staggeringly fast pace. Yet somehow information has been replaced as the prominent feature of the online world.

The new trend of social networking has taken the internet by storm. Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and others now control strong portions of online traffic. Internet users are drawn now to genuine connections not just valuable content. Average people spend two or three hours each day online not for the informationbut for the interaction. If you ignore this powerful fact then youre destined to miss the dramatic potential that the internet has to offer. Its no longer good enough to steadfastly focus on building outstanding content while ignoring the opportunities to build relationships.
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Our readers focus has changed and its vital that we adapt to overcome that change. I dont want you to produce less amazing content. In fact, I want you to continue learning how to improve your writing. I want you to find better facts than ever for your readers. I want you to continuously improve the design of your blog or website. But more important than any of these, I want you to focus on connecting with real people and building valuable, genuine relationships.

THE NEW RULES OF THE ROAD

If you want to take your online presence to the next level then youve got to start focusing on the human side of the internet. Think about these principles and let them guide your actions online. Influence: Remember that 1,000 visitors a day is nothing if they all immediately click away whereas 50 visitors who interact with your content, purchase your products, and bookmark your site to return again and again is the most valuable thing you could hope for. The difference? 1,000 random people are useless. Theyre only numbers that look nice in our stats. Building your influence with 50 people is priceless.
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Integrity: Being honest and standing for what you really believe is a powerful tool for a successful leader. Its this kind of character that inspires people to rally around someone and support their efforts. Generosity: This simple principle can be summed up in this simple quote from New York Times Bestselling Author John C. Maxwell, People dont care how much you know until they
know how much you care.

TRAFFIC VS. INFLUENCE

Im convinced that the number one issue bloggers seem to be facing today is the simple challenge of driving traffic to their websites. Were driven to believe that more traffic equals more comments. More traffic equates to more money. More traffic translates to more everything. This philosophy is driven into our heads and were left with little else to focus on while growing our websites. But more traffic isnt always the answer. More traffic isnt always the best step to focus on building comments, cash and community. If your site is poorly designed, 1,000 visitors per day who immediately click away from your site arent going to help you even though that is a lot of traffic for a growing website. A high bounce rate reveals wasted site traffic.
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Developing bloggers and webmasters need to start focusing on Influence. Influence is an abstract term that measures how many people are really impacted by your website compared to how many people actually visit it. In other words, out of every 100 people that visit your site, how many are moved to action by your writing? For example, I would rather have 25 people who I interact with and who are willing to comment, purchase products I recommend and recommend their friends to my site than 1,000 visitors that immediately click away. Those 25 readers that you have influence with will provide you with more rewards and value than those 1,000. But hey, 1,000 visitors sure will look nice on your analytics charts.

TEASER RSS FEED VS. FULL RSS FEED

In 2009, I changed the way that my RSS feed is delivered. I used to only deliver a small portion of each article via RSS. This compelled my readers to visit my website if they wanted to read the whole post and it pumped up my visitor numbers. I just did away with that and started delivering full articles to my readers. As soon as I did, traffic on Site Sketch 101 went down and the number of people who respond to my calls to action to purchase products went up. I believe its related. Instead of focusing solely on building traffic, I changed my
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mindset to reflect ways that I could provide greater convenience to my readers. Im still getting my posts out to the world, but now they dont have to come to the site to read them. This hurts traffic levels but its helping my influence greatly. Stop looking at your analytics program every ten minutes all day every day. I used to do that also and I wasted a lot of valuable time. Switch your focus. Start building relationships. Start connecting with people. Start influencing the internet one person at a time. Youre already strapped for time so dont waste the few valuable minutes that you do have available on things that dont really matter. Focus on improving your site design. Focus on improving your writing ability and providing better content. Hone in on building relationships and really getting to know the bloggers around you.

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CHAPTER #9

AUTHENTIC CONNECTIONS
BUILD ALLIANCES THAT WILL TAKE YOU TO THE TOP

Im an Infantryman in the United States Army. In the army we have what we call battle buddies. If I get pinned down in a fire fight, I need someone to yell to me what they see, to provide cover fire for me, and to throw grenades for me from their positionand I strive to provide the same for them. In my line of work, this relationship is absolutely vital. In some circumstance not only my success but also my life may even depend on it. ALLIANCES ARE STARTED BY BEING THERE FOR OTHERS.
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When I first arrived in Basic Training for the United States Army, I met another soldier named Sean Callahan. He was assigned to sleep on the bunk beneath mine and was therefore my battle buddy for the duration of basic training. Wherever one of us went, the other was there. Only a week into basic training and my battle buddy, Callahan, found himself in the cross-hairs of our Drill Sergant. Within moments, the Drill Sergeants had something special for us in the form of push-ups, flutter kicks and other gut-wrenching exercises. The whole time that we were being punished for his infraction, Callahan kept looking at me and telling me how sorry he was that I was being punished for his mistake. I smiled back at him and I assured him that I didnt mind. I reminded him that this is all part of the training, that this is what being a battle buddy was all about, and that I knew he would readily bear the same burden for me. He thanked me and we finished our session of punishment together. Less than a week later, Callahan would have his chance to pay me back. ALLIANCES RESULT IN OTHERS BEING THERE FOR YOU I sat my weapon down and walked away. I only left it for just a moment. I stepped away to ask another soldier a question about
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something and rather than take my M16 with me, I sat it down and walked to the other end of the barracks without it. When I returned to what I had been working on, it was gone. I knew immediately that I had done wrong. We had been instructed never to leave our rifles more than an arms distance away from us. If we could not reach out and grab it from right where we are standing, we are too far away from it. I had been much too far away from it. Immediately I went to the drill Sergeants office. Knock. Knock. Knock. What? I heard from inside. Drill Sergeant, Private Cardot requests permission to speak, I said. Speak, I heard. So I continued, Drill Sergeant, Private Cardot requests permission to enter. Enter, he replied. I stepped into his office and began to tell him the situation. As I spoke, I saw the rifle sitting right next to his desk. I knew that I had something special coming for my lack of discipline. He told
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me to go back to the barracks. He would be out in a minute to take care of the situation. A minute later he stepped out of his office and began yelling, Toe the line! We knew what to do. We all lined up at the position of attention standing right in front of our bunks. Cardot he bellowed. Yes, Drill Sergeant! I shouted back. Who is your battle buddy? I am without hesitation Callahan shouted and stepped forward. He was willing and ready to have my back and to dredge through the ensuing punishment. I had been there for him without complaint and now he was actually eager to be there for me. WHEN DID WE FORGET THAT SOCIAL MEDIA IS ABOUT BEING SOCIAL? You cant buy relationships like that at the supermarket. You dont find them laying around on the side of the street. Theyre earned through hard work and sacrifice. But once they are built they are one of the most powerful assets you can have. Too many people are knocking down the walls of social media trying to promote their blogs and websites and by doing so theyre completely missing the point. Social media
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iswellabout being social. Its about building genuine relationships that result in the type of blogging alliances that are so vital to our success. Its not about plastering Twitter and Facebook with links. Its not about spamming 20,000 twitter followers with useless junk. Its not about trying to make yourself look like you're the man or the woman with all the answers. ITS ABOUT BUILDING VIBRANT RELATIONSHIPS. Now I understand that you cant build relationships like the one Callahan and I shared simply by tweeting. But we can tweet with that in mind. We can add value to people. We can be personal with people. We can get involved. And we can use social media as a bridge to connect with people more personally like via Skype, Google Talk or other instant messengers. We can look for those people who have similar goals and work to connect with them. We can grow those connections working to communicate, collaborate and help with those we interact with. We can get to know people. We can be there for them. We can exchange ideas and information. We need these blogging alliances to make it big online. You need them. I need them. So connect with me and lets be there for each other.

THE REAL PURPOSE OF A BLOGGING ALLIANCE

Often when I encourage people to build blogging alliances, I
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receive feedback from people letting me know that they have already formed these relationships and then they explain to me what they are doing with them. Many people are creating these alliances and relationships for only one reason: content promotion. In other words, you tweet, stumble, digg, or comment my material and I'll return the favor. Commenting and digging isnt nearly the most important things that we do for each other inside of these alliances. In fact, if youre commenting and digging worthless content for a handful other people, then youre going to destroy your own reputation and you won't be helping those in your alliance at all. Im actually becoming a little bit dissatisfied with stumble exchanges, tweet exchanges, digg exchanges, etc. They bloat the internet with content that isn't good enough to get shared organically. Check out this incredibly insightful comment that one of my close blogging friends shared when I asked him about this subject: WHEN WE ARE JUST RETWEETING SOMETHING JUST TO BE NICE WE ARE
NOT HELPING MEASURE THE QUALITY OF THE CONTENT AND FOR ME I WOULD NOT BENEFIT FROM OTHER BLOGGERS THAT BLOG ABOUT BLOGGING RETWEETING COLLEGE LIFE TIPS .

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I WOULD SAY THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WE DO IN THESE ALLIANCES

IS HEAVILY CRITIQUE EACH OTHER AND HAVE IN- DEPTH CONVERSATIONS THAT USUALLY TAKE PLACE VIA SKYPE .

DEREK JENSEN FROM LIFENOTION We should be critiquing each other's work. If you asked me to tweet your article and I didnt like it, then I would do something that would be much better for you than a tweet. I would tell you what I dont like about it so that you can improve it. Then you can go out and write something thats good enough to get 10 tweets on its own and that is worth far more than my single tweet. We need to be improving one another and not just promoting stale content. I dont mean to sound unkind, but simple promotion is worthless. We say that content is king so then why arent we using our alliances to build better content and not just to promote it.

DEVELOPING YOUR ONLINE CHARISMA

According to dictionary.com, Charisma is a rare personal quality
attributed to leaders who arouse fervent popular devotion and enthusiasm.

Charisma is the quality that drives people to flock to you and to

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follow you to the ends of the earth. Its the essential trait that fuels real influence. When I was in high school, I spent my summers working at a Christian summer camp. Id spend 12 weeks each summer, helping to organize games and events for campers. Dave Smith, the director of that camp, demonstrated Charisma more than almost any man I have ever met. Youll meet a lot of people in life who will have you convinced upon meeting them that they are incredible beyond measure. Bro. Dave, as we called him, was exactly the opposite. If you met him, it would be only seconds before he would have you convinced that you were the most incredible person in the world.

CHARISMA IS OFTEN CHARACTERIZED BY CARE FOR OTHERS AND AN EXCITEMENT FOR LIFE.
Bro. Dave would drive each conversation by asking questions about what interested you. He always displayed a sincerity and interest that went far beyond what most people demonstrate. He actually got excited about our interests. There was no doubt in my mind or in the mind of anyone else that he genuinely cared for us. Too many people mistakenly believe that Charisma is something that people are either born with or born without. That is simply
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not true. Some people may be born with a better start than others, but charisma as a quality can be developed. You dont need to hide behind the far-too-popular adage, Well thats just the way I was born! You can develop Charisma and build a following around your cause. If you want to build a massive following at your blog, then youre going to have to develop a high level of charisma. You have to demonstrate to your readers and followers that you care about their needs. You have to convince them that they are your number one priority. People are tired of sales pitches. Theyre fed up with cons. Theyre looking for the real deal.

WAYS TO BUILD YOUR PERSONAL CHARISMA

Heres four things that you can do to drastically improve your own charisma to begin building an army of followers at your blog today! CHANGE YOUR FOCUS Most people that you meet in life will waste your time trying to convince you of their value. Theyll brag to you about their accomplishments and trophies. Theyll work to convince you that theyre the most cunning person ever to live.
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Dont be that guy! Dont be the guy who is driven by selfishness. Shift the focus from yourself to others. Brag on your friends and followers. Praise their strengths and value their accomplishments. BELIEVE IN PEOPLE Its easy not to trust people. Its easy to think that others will fail you and let you down. Weve all experienced our share of letdowns and we know that pain that comes from them. Its sometimes much easier to keep our distance from people and play it safe. But the risk is worth the reward. No matter what others might do to disappoint, we can still keep believing. We can encourage people. We can inspire people. We can let our friends and followers know that we believe in their efforts. CELEBRATE LIFE Who would you rather spend your time with? Would you rather spend time with someone who mopes and complains or with someone who lives an excited and happy life? The answer to that question is easy. People follow happy people. Put a smile on your face and choose to be happy. Whether you realize it or not, writers moods often impact their writing. People can tell at your blog if
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you are an excited person or if you are a whiner. LAUGH AT YOURSELF Youre going to make mistakes. We all do. The key isnt to stop making mistakes. Its to start responding to them in the best possible way. When Thomas Edison was working to create the incandescent light bulb, he failed thousands of times before he finally achieved what he was looking for. When asked about his many failures, he laughed and claimed that each one was not a failure, but rather an opportunity to learn a new way that didnt work. Dont get upset when you err. Smile, learn from it, and move on.

DEVELOPING GENUINE APPRECIATION

I once read an article by Leo Babauta at Zen Habits called 3 Jedi Mind Tricks to Feel Better in a Nanosecond. Although that title might sound a bit strange, the article is a terrific challenge to build up your own personal happiness by demonstrating genuine appreciation for the people around you. WELL IT WORKS AND HERES WHY. WHEN YOU TELL SOMEONE HOW
MUCH YOU APPRECIATE THEM, YOU MAKE THEM FEEL BETTER; AND WHEN YOU MAKE SOMEONE ELSE FEEL BETTER , YOU ALSO FEEL BETTER .

THATS THE TRICK . MAKE OTHERS FEEL BETTER AND YOULL FEEL BETTER
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 AND WHAT BETTER WAY TO MAKE OTHERS FEEL BETTER THAN BY

LETTING THEM KNOW THAT YOU APPRECIATE THEM .

~ Q UOTED FROM 3 JEDI MIND T RICKS TO FEEL BETTER IN A NANOSECOND Generally speaking, people want to experience a sense of selfworth. They want their actions and behavior to be validated in the eyes of those that they interact with. Appreciation demonstrates to people the value that we place on them and on what they do. In essence, it provides them with that sense of value that theyre seekingand quite often it motivates them to reciprocate. Can you remember the last time someone genuinely thanked you for something? It probably made you feel good that you had helped them or done something worthy of their thanks. At Zen Habits, Steve, the guest author of that article, challenges us to show appreciation toward three groups of people: our bosses, our parents and our neighbors. In this book, I want to challenge you to apply this dynamic principle to your blogging experience. I want you to find a way to show appreciation to your readers, to fellow bloggers and to those who leave comments. Heres a few tips on how to express appreciation to these groups of people:
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TIPS TO SHOW PEOPLE YOUR APPRECIATION

Respond to each comment. Provide something more than just thanks for the comment. Engage them in real conversation and make it obvious that you appreciate their being a part of your sites overall conversation. Email those who comment. Dont just send a generic email to your readers. Send them a genuine invitation to connect with you. Let them feel like theyre being invited into your inner circle. Comment on your readers blogs. Comments make people feel great. I know that I love it when people comment on my blog. It lets me know that people enjoy my article enough to connect with me. Pass that same feeling on to your readers. Mention other blogs in your posts. My mentioning of the article at Zen Habits is a perfect example of this. Let the whole world know that you found an amazing article that you want them to know aboutand at the same time let that author know that you appreciate their writing. These are only four tips that can get the ball rolling. There are actually many other things that you can do to demonstrate appreciation. Remember that fake appreciation is worthless. If you cant
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genuinely be thankful for the people who interact with you then dont fake it. Find it in your heart to show people that you really value them and youll be able to build an enormous community around your site.

CHAPTER REFLECTION:
Relationships are so incredibly powerful and yet so few bloggers are actually working to create and build powerful, meaningful relationships with other bloggers. It was Theodore Roosevelt that opined, The most important
single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people. It was true in his day and even today with all

of our technology clouding up our focus it still holds true today. As you reflect on the relationship-building principles that were discussed throughout this chapter be sure to remember these important concepts. Building valuable relationships with other bloggers takes hard work and yields equally amazing rewards. Alliances should be used to help ourselves and others grow as authors and bloggers...not just for shameless promotion. Developing a vibrant level of charisma will multiply your effectiveness in connecting with those around you.
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Genuine appreciation is a powerful force amongst friends so don't be afraid to be thankful. PERSONAL CHALLENGE Now is the time to make it personal. As you think about how you can do make these principles a reality in your life, use these questions to guide you. How am I reaching out to my peers to create new and exciting relationships? Am I even reaching out at all? What am I doing to develop my presence on the social media circuits like Twitter, Facebook and Myspace? Do I even have a presence at those sites? Can I think of someone I know that demonstrates great Charisma? Can I think of a blogger who is very exciting and fun to read? Can I improve my level of Charisma? Which of the four points do I need to work on the most? Changing my focus? Believing in others? Celebrating life? Laughing at myself? What groups of people do I think I can show more appreciation? What are some other methods that I can use to demonstrate my thankfulness for people?

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CHAPTER #10

BOLD VISION
WE ARE LIMITED, NOT BY OUR ABILITIES, BUT BY OUR VISION

"THE MOST PATHETIC PERSON IN THE WORLD IS SOMEONE WHO HAS

SIGHT, BUT HAS NO VISION ."

HELEN KELLER

In 1930, two brothers overcome with the entrepreneurial spirit that drives so many Americans, picked up their lives and moved from New Hampshire to California. Fresh out of High School, Dick and Maurice saw few opportunities to make it big in their hometown so they headed West to chase after the American dream. After a little while in California, their desire to own a business drove them to open a small theater a few miles from Hollywood
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in Glendale, CA. Five years later, however, they were still struggling to consistently make the $100 that was necessary to pay the rent for their theater so they closed the doors and set out to find new opportunities. They were determined to succeed and so they kept searching for new avenues to achieve success. In 1937, they found something that worked.

A CHANGING CULTURE PRESENTED DICK AND MAURICE WITH NEW OPPORTUNITIES

Drive in diners were a brand new concept in the 1930s. With the growing use of the automobile, these park-and-dine restaurants quickly exploded in popularity. Instead of going into the dining room, customers could park outside the diner and carhops would take their orders and deliver the food on trays right to their car windows. Dick and Maurice embraced this new change in American culture and opened a small drive-in diner in Pasadena just east of Glendale. The tiny restaurant was an instant success and so in 1940, they moved their operation to San Bernardino to take advantage of the larger population just outside of Los Angeles. Their success exploded. They made $200,000 at their diner that year and they
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split over $50,000 in profits. In 1948, they revamped their business model. They eliminated the carhops and started catering to walk-up customers. They streamlined their food production by creating an assembly line style food delivery system. They made it their goal to be able to serve every customer in 30 seconds or lessand they nailed that goal. In the 1950s, Dick and Maurice plateaued at $350,000 in annual revenue and they were splitting $100,000 in take-home profits each year. They had arrived. They had achieved their goals and they had no desire to go any higher. So what was the name of their restaurant? Back in the 1950s, you could have driven by their small restaurant in San Bernardino. On the front of the building was a sign that read simply, McDonalds Hamburgers. Dick and Maurice McDonald had found the American dream. Today we enjoy cheap hamburgers and delicious Oreo McFlurries from the worlds largest drive-through restaurant because of the amazing vision and leadership of these two brothersright?

WRONG
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IT TOOK A PARTNERSHIP WITH A VISIONARY

Dick and Maurice were financially secure and never worked to grow their business any farther. They never expanded their franchise. They never grew their business model. And if it werent for the amazing vision of another man, the McDonalds name would never have left San Bernerdino, CA. In 1954, Dick and Maurice were introduced to a man named Ray Kroc who had an amazing vision for what their restaurant could become. Kroc owned a small company that did business with McDonalds. His company sold machines that made milkshakes. On his first visit to their thriving diner, he immediately envisioned colossal potential. In 1955, McDonalds System Inc (later the McDonalds Corporation) was formed. Kroc partnered with McDonalds to pursue a dream of creating a national franchise. He foresaw great things and immediately began working long hours to expand the business until ultimately in 1961, he purchased the company for $2.7 million. Ray Krocs extraordinary vision and leadership led him to transform this small company into a global household name. By 1959, Kroc had opened over 100 restaurants. By 1963, he had over 500. Today, McDonalds has over 21,000 restaurants worldwide.
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Dick and Maurice McDonald were limited because they had no vision for creating a global corporation whereas Ray Krocs potential was driven sky-high by his limitless vision for success. I believe that success can be achieved by almost anyone. Although we are certainly born with certain traits, gifts, and characteristics that define who we are, many of the concepts and principles that fuel success can be learned, practiced and developed. Vision is one of the cornerstone principles at the heart of this. Vision is everything to a motivated professional. Its what leads a leader. It creates the target and inspires those who would be followers. A man without a vision is destined to travel in circles. CAN YOU SEE IT? I was 10 years old and in front of me was a stack of wood and materials that the lumber truck had just dropped off. Next to the wood was a giant rectangular hole in the ground. It was about 4 feet deep and ran perhaps 100 feet long and 60 feet wide. Someday it would hold a concrete foundation, but right now it was nothing more than a giant mud puddle. Yeah, dad. I see it. Theres a bunch of wood and a hole in the ground. I pointed at them as I spoke. He laughed at my response. Can you see the house there? Can
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you see the picture window right there in front? The bushes over there? The garage over there? I was only 10 years old. I had no idea what he was talking about. At my young age, I didnt have the foresight to see what hard work applied to those materials could produce. I couldnt see the potential for that work site but soon I would come to learn what he was talking about. A few months later that small lot sported a new building on it. My fathers experiences in carpentry allowed him the ability to see that building before it actually existed. He visualized the final product and it was his vision that fueled him and his crew toward its completion.

BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF A LEADERS VISION

Vision Starts Inside You. Although I hope to inspire and excite you about building and growing your blog, I cant create a vision for you. I cant lay out the direction that you should go or the goals that you should have. Your vision needs to start with you. It needs to be your dream. Vision Draws From Your Experiences. My father was able to visualize his final project so easily because he had seen it happen before starting this project. Either he had built houses before that or he had seen it done. Either way, he had the experience necessary to project in his mind what could be and
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what it would take to make it a reality. Take a few minutes and think about the great things that youve seen or experienced. What have you seen that you would like to accomplish? Vision Inspires Those Around You. One of the most powerful things about vision isnt just the impact that it has on us, but the impact that it has on those who we interact with. When you empower your blog readers with the ability to see your vision, they will rally around you. People inherently love to help. If you can effectively get them to see your vision then you can get them to be a part of it. Vision Fuels & Directs You. Vision is the compass to a great leader. Without vision you will wander in circles hoping to randomly win the lottery or inherit a fortune. With a vision, you are able to set goals, prioritize, move forward toward great success. Vision inspires and enables you.

STEPS TO BUILDING YOUR OWN VISION

Take an Honest Look at Your Abilities. When youre starting out, you need to set dreams and goals that you honestly believe you can accomplish. If something is outside of your scope then you either need to adjust the vision or make plans for continued self-improvement like going back to school or
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learning a new skill. Stay True to Your Passions. What is it that makes you truly happy? What makes you sad? What is it that really makes you smile? Figure these things out and develop a vision catered to who you are and what you want out of life. You dont have to follow after anyone else. You have to find out what really makes you happy. Write it Down. Take the time to sketch your ideas on a piece of paper. This will help you to visualize your dreams even more and it will help you to commit yourself to your vision.

CHAPTER REFLECTION
Ray Kroc was fueled with a passionate vision that propelled him and his company to great heights. My father was inspired by his vision of building a new house and it allowed him to see it before it was built. It was Helen Keller who opined, "The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision." As you go away from this chapter and you reflect on the concept of developing a powerful vision, be sure to remember these important points that we discussed. Vision allows you to see your success before they become a
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reality. Vision provides direction. It fuels your passions. It ignites and enflames your drive towards accomplishments. Although you can learn from others, your vision must start inside of yourself. An exciting vision will excite those around you and rally them to be a part of your community. PERSONAL CHALLENGE Now make it personal. Don't view these incredibly important truths about developing a vision as simply entertainment. Take these concepts and plant a vision in your heart and allow it to fuel your drive for success. Allow these questions to guide you as you work to build your vision. What is my vision? Is it propelling me to learn, explore and grow? If so, in what ways? What are my passions? What do I dream about? What is it that really gets my heart pumping about blogging? Lets take the blinders off of our eyes and try to see what great things we can accomplish.
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CHAPTER #11

COMMUNITY PRESENCE
RALLY A VIBRANT COMMUNITY AROUND YOUR BLOG

Blogs have evolved into so much more than just random thoughts splattered onto the internet. Theyre more than just words now. Theyve grown into communities and meeting places. Theyve become sources of information and discussion where people can rally together around things that theyre really passionate about. Blogs are communities now. Theyre villages of people banding together to learn and grow with friends. WE'RE COMING TOGETHER FROM AROUND THE GLOBE Theyre not villages in the traditional sense because theyre not bound or limited by geographical location. These communities
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bring people together as neighbors from opposite corners of the globe. A man from Iowa can share his passion for college with a group of people from India, Russia, Nigeria and Brazil as though they were all standing in a room together discussing their college experiences. But although these villages are not limited by geography, they are still being held back from reaching their fullest potential. There are still restraints holding them back. These communities are limited by the lack of vision and leadership of those who would rally them together. THEY ARE LOOKING FOR PEOPLE WHO WILL LEAD THEM People are looking for leaders. Theyre looking for people who will draw them in and set on fire their passion for writing, for fences, for blogging, for football or for anything else that excites them. If you have a blog then you have a community and its looking to you to lead them. Its not enough anymore just to chase after blogging tactics and techniques. Its not enough to quickly skim through the easy-to-read list posts. Its time to start transforming yourself into the leader that people want to follow. Its time to start connecting with people. Its time to infuse a fresh wave of excitement into your blog.
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ITS TIME TO START LEADING YOUR COMMUNITY. I grew up in a small town where everyone knew and trusted everyone else. We didnt lock the doors on our houses or our cars. If I saw the neighbor kids sneaking around our house in the dark of night then I knew that it meant only one thingI could run outside and join in a festive game of hide and go seek. We didnt need to organize some program or post neighborhood watch stickers. All of our neighbors were watching our house and we were always watching our neighbors houses. If we forgot and left the garage door open when we left the house, nothing would be stolen. One of the neighbors would walk over and close it for us. On one occasion, I had just arrived home for summer break from college and I had arrived a few hours earlier than I had told my family I would be getting in. My family wasnt home. They were out at Wal-Mart or something. I parked and let myself in. I didnt need a key. I just let myself in using our secret button. My dad had installed a garage door opener button inside of a wall where it couldnt be seen. He then drilled a small hole in the wall and set a nail in the hole so that it barely stuck out of the wall. It looked completely like part of the wall. I pushed on the
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nail and the garage door opened and let me in. A few minutes later, I received a phone call from my mom. Are you already home? she asked. Yeahwhy? The neighbors called and said that someone in a PT Cruiser just broke into the garage. Apparently the neighbors couldnt tell it was me from a distance and they just wanted to play it safe so they called my folks. I had just been gone for several months so I cant really blame them. But the bottom line is that they were watching out for us.

A GOOD COMMUNITY IS BUILT ON TRUST

Thats just how it was where I lived. Maybe its because of the size of the town. There were, after all, only 950 people in my hometown of Franklin Grove, IL. My RSS subscribers have already passed up the number of people who live in my home town. I certainly wouldnt trust my neighbors here in Washington DC to watch out for me in that same way. That hometown community trust was comforting. We all enjoyed it. We built great relationships around that trust that impacted the way that we did business together.
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If the neighbor girl was selling Girl Scout Cookies we would always buy several boxes to support her and her Girl Scout troop. When the neighbor boy sold Boy Scout wreaths during the Christmas season wed always get a couple. Why? Because they were our friends. We wanted to support them and they did the same for us. We didnt feel like they were trying to take advantage of us or trying to get all of our money. We trusted them and we believed in and supported their goals.

Too many bloggers are looking only at the technical aspects of running their websites and theyre forgetting about the human side of it. Its certainly important to build a beautiful theme, to provide amazing, entertaining content and to focus on traffic, subscribers and stats. Youve heard me advocating all of these things and a whole lot more right here in this book. But heres the kicker. If thats all youre doing to build your blog then youre missing out on the real key to success in this line of business. If you want to make it big, build strong traffic, sell affiliate products or your own products and call people to action, then
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youve got to focus on building trust with your readers. Focus on caring for people. As you consider what youll write about, how youll design your site, how youll optimize it for search engines, think about how it will benefit your readers.

ARE YOU HONEST WITH YOUR READERS?

Some of the links on Site Sketch 101 may be affiliate links. This simply means that I may make some money if you click through and make a purchase at some of the sites that I link. I wont make enough to buy that BMW that I dream about owning, but I will get some money. You can still rest assured that this doesnt drive me to promote products that I dont believe in. If you hang out here for very long you might actually catch me bashing some companies that actually pay a pretty strong commission on their affiliate sales. I let you know whats worked for me and if I can get paid to do that then its just that much more enjoyable. ARE YOU A NO GOOD USED CAR SALESMAN? Were all tired of bogus sales pitches. Were sick of seeing
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banners plasters all over our screens that offer to make us $8,000 per month if well invest $300 in a some program. Were tired of the lies and we want to get straight to the truth about products. In fact, some blogs and websites have gotten so out of control that theyve caught the attention of the U.S. Government and in response the FTC has recently published a new act that actually governs how bloggers are able to endorse certain affiliate products. Thats pretty annoying. Its sad that you money-hungry mongrels have driven them to that. Why couldnt we just tell the truth because its fun and it feels good to be honest with our readers? CREDIBILITY IS WORTH MORE THAN A SALE. In the long run, youre going to make a lot more money if you can develop credibility with your readers. If you recommend a bonus product just because they offer a high payout and one of your readers buys into it then youre probably never going to see that reader again. On the flip side, if youre honest and only recommend products because you believe that they will actually be useful to your readers then they will keep coming back for more. E VEN THE B IBLE HAS SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT THIS, A GOOD NAME
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IS RATHER TO BE CHOSEN THAN GREAT RICHES FROM PROVERBS 22:1

I like to think of myself as the ethical affiliate marketer. I dont have a problem letting people know that I get paid for certain sales or links. In my experiences, Ive found that transparency and honesty will take you a lot further than deceptive sales practices. At Site Sketch 101, Im all about transparency. If you ask me about an affiliate link, Ill let you know what I like and dislike about it. Ill even let you know my share of the profit if you ask. I have nothing to hide and because of this, I sleep like a baby at night. I go to bed with a clean conscience knowing that Im helping my readers. So are you interested in some of the products that I get paid for? Or maybe youre one of those people who hates clicking on another persons affiliate links. Either way, heres a list of some of the companies that Im currently partnered with. Theyve got some great products and some good affiliate programs so check out their products or sign up with their affiliate programs to start making some money at your site today. But rememberbe honest with your readers.

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GREAT BLOGS ARE FUELED BY PASSIONATE PEOPLE If youve been following me or my blog then youve probably already realized that I approach the concept of how to blog from an entirely different perspective than most people. While most people are working to figure out how to develop their blogs, I focus on developing the bloggers. While others may focus on the best tactics for building dynamite bragging rights, I focus on building dynamite relationships. While others focus on pumping their stats, I focus on entertaining, informing, educating and connecting. PRESENT YOURSELFNOT JUST YOUR PRODUCT When I sold candles as a fundraiser in high school. I was taught that I had to sell myself to potential buyers before I could sell my candles. I was trained on how to be friendly and cheerful. I was coached on how to articulate the praises of our candles and the worthiness of our cause. After I presented myself as a friendly, competent young man then I was able to present them with an amazing candle which supported a great school. But before they would even take the time to consider my candles, I had to get them to see a good product in me. I had to get them to buy in to myself before they would buy into my product. This tactic worked wonders and every year I was either
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the top seller or runner up. I have friends in sales who tell me that they practice this same principle. You have to sell yourself before you can sell your product.

COMMENTS AND COMMUNITY

We all understand that after a while it gets boring just talking to yourself. If you don't believe me, just ask Chuck Nolan, Tom Hanks' character from castaway. If he's not talking to his friend Wilson, the volleyball, he might have the time to answer you. Comments are the life-blood of a successful blog. They reveal the level of engagement between the author and the readers. They bring the ideas and experiences of the community together and can result in a wealth of knowledge being shared at your blog and a level of excitement being built. My blog is not very old and yet I have many posts at my blog with comments numbering over 100 comments on a single article. In other words, it doesn't matter how old your blog is, you can incorporate a few simple concepts into your blogging and you can develop a thriving community around your blog. When I first began blogging, I was reaching out and trying anything that I could to get people to comment at my blog. I begged for comments. I added incentives to commenting. I
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even stood on the street corner with a big sign...okay, maybe I never did that last one, but I was desperate enough. Those first comments were so precious to me. I'm sure we all know that feeling. I wanted more and more comments so I set out to figure out how to encourage my readers to do it. I began to look outside of my own blog and observe what other bloggers were doing to encourage comments at their sites. I thought about which sites had inspired me to join their conversations and what they had done to provide that inspiration. I set out to incorporate the principles that I saw being used around me. And the results were amazing. I now get tons of valuable comments on nearly every article and I truly believe that you can also. Here's 9 tips that have helped me and I'm sure that if you put them to work at your site that they'll help you too.

WHY YOU SHOULD COMMENT ON OTHER BLOGS

Comments are the life-blood of a successful blog. The comment section of a blog reveals the level of communication between an author and his readers. Its also one of the fundamental features that seems to make a blog stand out from regular websites. As much as I love receiving comments at Site Sketch 101, I also find great joy from leaving comments at other blogs. I find that
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not only am I able to connect with other bloggers about our common interests, but Im also able to use comments on other blogs to benefit my own blog. Heres a list of ways that commenting on other blogs can be a great benefit to your own blog: BUILD YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE As you increase the number of places that you leave your mark on the internet, you will also increase the number of people that will be exposed to who you are. DEVELOP PROFESSIONAL RELATIONSHIPS If you are a really good blogger then you can accomplish a lot of great things on your own. But if you want to be a great blogger then you will need to learn that working together with others will multiply your chances at being truly successful. Engaging comments are a great way to begin connecting with other bloggers. ENHANCE YOUR SITES BRAND When you leave well-written comments that grab the attention of the other readers then its as if you are getting to advertise for free in the feedback section of other blogs. GROW YOUR CREDIBILITY When people see you out and about in the community and your
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actually contributing meaningful content to the conversations then they usually take note of you. Especially if they start to see your name around a lot. CREATE LINKS TO YOUR SITE Most blogs give you a field to put in your website address which creates a link back to your website along with your comment. I have many people tell me that they found Site Sketch 101 by clicking through on one of my comments at another blog. BUILD YOUR PAGE RANK This benefit, of course, only applies to blogs who do not use the nofollow tag on their outbound links. Google will use these links to add more weight to your website which will in turn increase your chances of being found in their search engine. After perusing that list of benefits, youre probably ready to get out there in the blogosphere and start leaving your mark. Thats great. But make sure that you take the time to make each comment genuine and credible. Dont start spamming other bloggers with junk. Make your comments really worthwhile and you will build your name into a recognizable online authority.

RULES TO CREATE EFFECTIVE COMMENTS

Although comments can greatly benefit you and your blog, there
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are many things that most bloggers fail to get right when interacting on other blogs. Failing to follow these rules will basically result in your comments being nothing more than a complete waste of your time. On the other hand, if you follow these rules, people will trust you more. They will appreciate your input in their conversations. Most importantly they will value you and likely visit your site. USE YOUR NAME. One of the most common traits of spam is that instead of using a real name, the name field is filled in with the name of a website. Here at Site Sketch 101, unless I know the person and have checked out their website, I wont publish comments that dont use a name. How many famous people do you know of that are recognized by something other than their name? There may be a few rappers that get away with this but more often than not a real name builds solid credibility. If you absolutely insist on using your sites name then try something like this: Nicholas Z. Cardot @ Site
Sketch 101 .

USE YOUR WHOLE NAME. The best bloggers that I can think of go by their first and last names: Darren Rowse, Daniel Scuocco, John Chow, etc. I want people to be very familiar with the name Nicholas Z. Cardot.
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Using your whole name demonstrates your confidence in your online presence which in turn builds your credibility. FOLLOW THE TOPIC. Make sure that your comment has something to do with the topic of the post. If you have something else to say then start your comment by talking about the post and then ramble into your question or comment. Or, if you have to, leave the feedback area altogether and use the contact page to email that blogger directly. USE A GRAVATAR. Gravatar.com provides a unique service that allows you to associate an avatar with your email address. If you take 2 minutes to set this up then every time you leave a comment somewhere on a gravatar enabled blog, your image will automatically appear as your avatar. To see this in action simply check out the comments section of this blog. People are visual oriented creatures. When other readers see an image with your name and comment, it provides something to really let them remember you. ADDRESS THE AUTHOR BY NAME. The comments are the ones that create a genuine conversation between the author and the readers. When you engage the author personally you demonstrate that you are real person with
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interest, knowledge and sincerity. Your comments will seldom be confused as spam when you make them very personalized. ASK QUESTIONS. One of the best ways to get the author and other readers begin interacting with you is by simply asking questions about their post. Ask for more information about the subject. Ask for clarification about something. Ask if their principle would be best in a particular situation. Ask questions. PROVIDE PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. If you have personally dealt with something that the author discussed in their post then dont hesitate to share it. Let people know about your mistakes, your successes and the things youve learned. When people leave comments that make me relate to them personally, I not only respond to them but I usually click through to see their site. When someone is personal it makes me want to genuinely connect with them. USE PROPER ENGLISH. Take a few seconds after each comment to proof read it. It really subtracts from your professionalism when your comments are riddled with grammatical errors. Capitalize words that are supposed to be capitalized. Dont use
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all caps to make a point. Use periods. Break up the run on sentences. Break up long paragraphs. Check your spelling. These are a few of the basics that many people seem to fail at. INTERACT WITH OTHER READERS. If another commenter asked a general question about the topic and you have an opinion about it then feel free to share it. Or if another reader left some input that you have a question about then dont hesitate to let them know. POST FEW OR NO PERSONAL LINKS. Unless your comment is about three paragraphs long this will simply end up looking tacky. I see way too many comments that are only a half line long and yet they include a signature and a link back to their website. This looks cheap and self-serving. It only serves to take away from your credibility. If you are posting a short comment then simply place your website address in the appropriate field and leave it at that. The only exception to this rule is if youve taken the time to develop a long comment that really adds substance to the conversation.

WAYS TO ATTRACT EFFECTIVE COMMENTS

ENCOURAGE ENGAGEMENT At the end of nearly every post I write, I create a paragraph called "Group Discussion." I use that final, closing paragraph to
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invite my readers to share with me their thoughts, ideas and experiences. You see, I understand that many of my readers have experienced thing that I haven't. They can provide perspective to some issues that I can't and I want that wisdom. I want to learn from them and so I make it very clear in each post. REACH OUTSIDE YOUR OWN BLOG I learned the Golden Rule when I was a little kid: Do unto others as you would have them to do unto you. Remember that? Then why aren't you out there bringing value to other bloggers in their comment sections? If you want comments on your blog, then get out in the blogosphere and get involved. INTERACT OPENLY WITH YOUR READERS Few things are more aggravating than asking someone a question and not getting an answer. I'd rather talk to a doorpost than to talk to someone who is just going to ignore me. You can rest assured that if you ask me a question at Site Sketch 101, I'm going to give you an open and honest answer. I will respond to you and interact with you. Are you providing that for your readers? PROVIDE VALUE IN YOUR COMMENTS A simple 2 or 3 word comment doesn't connect with people. It makes you look simple. They're all right once in a while, but for the most part they need to be avoided. Here's a couple of rules on how to provide value in your comments: 2 or 3 sentences
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minimum, proper grammar, proof read it, ask a question, mention the person's name that your addressing. These tips will massively improve the effectiveness of your comments. CONNECT ACROSS MULTIPLE PLATFORMS I send one email to each first time commenter at Site Sketch 101. In that email, I thank them for the expressing themselves on the blog here and I invite them to feel free to connect with me at my personal email address. I want every reader here to feel a sense of belonging and a freedom to connect with me in any way they're most comfortable. You need to create that same environment at your site. SIMPLIFY THE COMMENTING PROCESS Every obstacle that your readers have to tackle in order to leave a comment will only result in less comments. Forget about forcing people to login or forcing people to fill out a captcha form. These tools are useless. If you're worried about spam, just use Akismet or the spam filter of your choice. They'll get the job done and you can keep your blog open for comments. REWARD YOUR THOSE WHO JOIN THE DISCUSSION You can increase comments by providing incentives to those who do comment. You can give your readers some page rank by providing 'dofollow' links on your comments. You can advertise their most recent articles from their blogs with the Wordpress CommentLuv plugin.
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SHOW OFF YOUR TOP COMMENTERS Use a widget in the sidebar or in the footer to show off the names of your readers who've really jumped in and gotten involved on your site. This is a great way to puff their ego and to increase their page rank. Those users who are my biggest commenters will receive a dofollow link from every single page on my site. THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX Be creative. Do something that nobody else is doing to increase your comments. Maybe hold a contest to generate comments and offer a prize. Maybe offer to give a book to the person who provides the best comment. Just do something to make it more exciting...to be different.

EFFECTIVELY USE OF THE TRACKBACK FEATURE

Im sure that for many of you a trackback is as foreign to you as seeing a full set of teeth at a Willie Nelson concert. However, if youve been blogging for any time then Im sure you seen the word around the blogosphere. A trackback is actually much simpler than it sounds. Let me break it down for you like my 1st grade teacher used to do for me. If you link to another bloggers article from your blog, then a link back to your site will appear in or around the comments of their article.
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Using trackbacks has many advantages and in this article Im going to explain why you need to jump in and take advantage of them. ITS ONE OF THE BEST GIFTS YOU CAN GIVE It seems that at every holiday you find yourself bombarded with commercials letting you know what the perfect gift is for your friend or loved one. They have the ideal hair restoration kit for your dad at Fathers Day and they have the perfect necklace for mom at Mothers day. They have the perfect toys for your kids at Christmas. Check this out. One of the best gifts that you can give to a fellow blogger doesnt even cost a penny. Not only that, but you can give it at any time of the year. Just link to someones article and you are presenting them with a tremendous compliment and a gift that is really going to benefit them. Remember how upset your wife was the lat time you forgot her birthday and didnt get her anything? Well, most bloggers wont get upset with you when you dont link to their posts, but they probably will be very excited and thankful when you do. IT HELPS DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE. You might be surprised how many people browse through the
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comments and trackbacks and click through to the users websites. I do this nearly every day at the blogs I follow. I figure that if they are reading, commenting, and linking to a site that I really admire then maybe their site will have similar content and be worth looking into. IT INCREASES YOUR GOOGLE PAGE RANK. Page Rank is a 1 through 10 numerical indicator that Google assigns to web pages to note how important that page is. Page rank is then used as a factor in determining where a page should be listed in Googles search engine. Pages with a page rank of 10 will usually get listed above sites with low page ranks. Not all trackbacks, however, will increase your Google Page Rank. In fact, on most sites they dont. This is actually exclusive to some sites as most avoid this. Googles search bot only follows certain links. Links with the nofollow attribute do not count towards page rank. Most webmasters add that tag to comments and trackbacks to avoid getting spammed with peoples useless comments just because they want to build the page rank of their own sites. At Site Sketch 101, we dont use nofollow on our comment and trackback links. If you link here, well share the page rank right back to you. This is a great reason why you should consider both commenting and linking to our articles.
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IT HELPS YOU BUILD RELATIONSHIPS Relationships in every area of life are extremely valuable assets. Its so important, in fact, that well spend most of the third power discussing it. Im sure youve seen the action movie where a spy calls in a favor from an old CIA operative that he knows. Blogging is no different. There are things you can accomplish when you have friends that you just cant get done on your own. You can drive traffic to their site and they can drive traffic to yours which can push both of your stats higher and higher. You may have a big contest going on and you may want to ask them if they would post on it. But you have to build a relationship with someone before you can start calling in favors. Linking to one of their articles is a lot stronger of a way to build relationships than most other things. Linking to a site tells the author that you are excited about their work and that you are not ashamed to let your readers know about it. IT BUILDS YOUR OWN CREDIBILITY. A lot of bloggers are afraid to link to other websites or blogs because they fear losing their visitors. Although you may lose some visitors, I believe whole-heartedly that you will gain even more visitors because of the credibility that you gained by
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sending someone to another site. If people are really pleased with the site that you sent them to then they will respect you and want to come back and see more of your links in the future.

BLOGGING IS INFLUENCING
In blogging, we have to develop ourselves into the type of people who inspire our readers to action. We need to develop the charisma, the integrity, the sense of humor, and the passion that fuels and excites our readers. I dont believe in simply conveying dry, empty facts to our readers. I believe in lighting our content on fire with the flames of our own passions. I believe in the infusion of excitement and humor into our work that comes as we share our personalities with our readers. Recently I was chatting with a friend on Skype when he asked me this incredibly important question about his blog: Why dont I get any traffic or back links? Are my posts really that bad? Most bloggers wonder this at some point. You dig through your Google Analytics reports and you stare at day after day of 30 or 50 visitors and you cant seem to get above those numbers. You sit with a blog that seems great and yet you only see a
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fraction of the audience that you really want. What in the world can we do to change that? How can we get some more people to stop by our site and interact with us? How can we get our articles in front of the masses? How do we make a bigger splash in the blogosphere? How do we do it?

STEPS TO START REACHING MORE PEOPLE

Heres one exercise to get you going. Its a simple practical exercise that I do nearly every day that results in about 20 or more unique visitors per daysometimes even more. Look Around: Locate five blogs with a good community of at least 500 RSS subscribers. Get Involved: Leave a good, solid comment on each of their most recent articles. Provide Value: Ensure that the comment is at least three sentences longand proof read it. Engage Others: In your comment, ask a question related to the article and check back later for a response. Be Genuine: Use a real name. Brand yourself as a credible authority and then branding your site will be easy.

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Put all of those tips into one comment on a site that has 500+ readers and you will probably get 4 or 5 visitors from it. Do that 20 times on blogs that size and you will probably get between 50 and 100 visitors. Also take note that these are the types of visitors you want at your blog. They will likely become repeat visitors to your site because they are obviously already interested in blogs and in engaging with the authors if they are perusing the comments section of an already large blog. I can almost guarantee that this 10 minute exercise will bring in at least four or five visitors per site that you interact with. This practice works wonders. SUCCESS ISN'T ACHIEVED OVERNIGHT. The principle is that youve got to be engaging with others if you want others to engage with you. Youve got to get out and about and start exposing as many people as you can to who you are by leaving well-written and engaging comments at popular blogs. Remember that if you want success that you're going to have to work for it. Its not going to come overnight. THE HEIGHTS BY GREAT MEN REACHED AND KEPT WERE NOT ATTAINED BY SUDDEN FLIGHT , BUT THEY, WHILE THEIR COMPANIONS SLEPT,
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WERE TOILING UPWARD IN THE NIGHT . BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON

CHAPTER REFLECTION
Blogging isnt like the rest of the internet. Its not based on dry, static content. Blogging is all about the engagement between the authors and the readers. Its about developing communities built on common interest and fueled by the relationships, the passion, and the interactions that take place. As you review this chapter remember these important concepts about building communities. Online communities are looking for leaders to rally them together and excite them around different topics and ideals. Communities rally around people they can trust. Comments are more than just back links. They're opportunities to discuss, connect, and engage real people. Success isn't achieved overnight. It's built by consistently engaging and reaching out. PERSONAL REFLECTION These principles are useless if you don't put them to work on your online presence. Here's a few questions to help guide you
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as you work to do that. Does my blog prominently demonstrate to your audience that youre passionate and excited about your topic or are you simply relaying essay-style information each day? Whens the last time I actually focused on building a community around trust and common interests? Are you actually trying to help them or are you trying to use them to move toward another click on your Adsense banners? Are you adding to the conversations taking place around the internet or are you just spamming the comment sections of other blogs?

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CHAPTER #12

DEPENDABLE SEO
BUILDING QUALITY TRAFFIC FROM GOOGLE, YAHOO & BING

One of the most popular means for getting visitors to your website is through search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL or others. So how is it that we can take advantage of peoples ability to Google for something in order to get them to our site. The answer is simple. We need to get our keywords to rank high in the popular search engines. Now I know that this concept sounds extremely complicated so lets step back for a moment and bring it down to the easiest possible level. A keyword is anything that an internet user might search for. A keyword can actually consist of more than one word in this sense. Here are a few examples of search entries separated by commas: Blogging, Blog Tips, Facebook, Bible
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Study. Notice that two of the keywords were individual words and two of them consisted of more than one word. In order to get users to visit our websites, we need to get our site listed near the top of the listings for keywords that are relevant to our site. In other words, if you run a website that deals with dog shelters and adoption in Baltimore, then you would ideally like your website to appear in the top 10 listings on Google when a user searches the keyword Baltimore Dog Shelters. A user who searches for Baltimore Dog Shelters on Google is probably looking for a site just like yours. So if we can get our site listed at the top of the search engines listings for that keyword, we can gain a visitor who is legitimately interested in the information on your site.

SEO FACTORS VS. QUALITY CONTENT

For a while now, Ive noticed a mindset amongst bloggers that seems to pit search engine optimization against writing quality content that genuinely engages readers. In the hearts and minds of many online authors, its as if these two concepts are mutually exclusive. You cannot write content that is attractive to both Google and to a real audience. But is this really true? Is Google forcing us to choose between their search engine and our audiences? Would that even make sense?
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The answer to all three of those questions is a resounding NO. Google is looking for relevant content that their users will actually enjoy and find useful. They want to provide their searchers with articles and content that is engaging and theyve worked hard to create a system that allows bloggers and webmasters to communicate the content of their site to Google while at the same time maintaining the compelling edge that draws in real people. 4 SEO FACTORS THAT WONT HARM YOUR CONTENT Listed below are four examples of the most powerful SEO factors that bloggers can optimize to rapidly increase their presence in search engines while still maintaining stellar content that readers will keep flocking back to your site to read. The Title Tag: Most experts weigh the title as one of the absolute most important elements for ranking well for keywords. This tag is the piece that appears at the top bar of your browser. It doesnt actually show on the page. Its also this title that appears on search engine listings so its important to make it catchy and extremely relevant to what your page is about. Inbound Links: Inbound links are like votes that tell Google and other search engines that your website is important. Its also incredibly helpful to have inbound links that use phrases
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youre trying to rank for as the anchor text. For example, as Im trying to rank Site Sketch 101 for the phrase how to

blog, Im working to build inbound links that use the

phrase how to blog as the link text. (Hint. Hint.) The Description: The meta description for a page is invisible to everyone except for the search engines and those who view your listings on them. A description that makes use of a relevant keywords and provides a very clear representation of what your article is about will always attract the most visitors. The Heading Tags: Doesnt it make sense to use headlines that are relevant and descriptive as to the content of your articles? Your readers should be able to read your headlines and tell exactly what your content is about. Google uses this reasoning to weigh the words in your headlines as more important than the rest of the text. This simply means that you should use your headlines to share important concepts with your readers. Thats a good practice for both SEO and for readability.

THE GROWING POWER OF SOCIAL SEO

With Googles recent launch of social search built into their search results, Google confirmed what many search engine optimization specialists had already believed to be true. One of the growing factors that Google uses to weigh the value of any
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given page on the Internet is the organic social links that point to it. This factor is known as social SEO. The programmers behind Googles search engine are incredibly smart and every day the algorithm that Google uses to populate its search results is evolving to reflect this. Google wants to show its users the highest quality and most relevant information possible and its rapidly improving the way that it does this. MAKE A BIGGER SPLASH IN THE SOCIAL COMMUNITY Google knows that if a page is able to quickly grab the attention of its surrounding social community then it is probably a quality page. And they are right in thinking this way. Those pages with that go viral across social media platforms do so because people are interested in them. This is exactly the type of material that Google is looking for. Google views those inbound links from social media like blogs and twitter as votes in favor of your page. Even though twitter and other social media often use the nofollow tag which is designed to tell Google not to notice that link as a vote, many of these links are still finding their way into our Google Webmaster Tools account as inbound links. This is yet another indication that Google cares about the inbound links that are being created across social networks. With this in mind, you should be able to see how it is more important than ever to create high quality content that your
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visitors are genuinely interested and how important it is to develop and expand your social circle. You should be actively working to expand your network every dayfor the sake of your social SEO. WRITING FOR REAL PEOPLE VS. WRITING FOR SEARCH ENGINES Often people debate the idea of which is more important, writing for search engines or writing for real people. But the answer has now become simplified. Create content that inspires your visitors in such a way so that they feel compelled to share it in their network. Writing for real people in this way is effectively writing for the search engines. Ive heard people complain about the concept that Google favors certain established websites and often discounts the quality of smaller, less-known sites. But this is a good thing. Google knows that those sites who are able to create a buzz in the community
without search engine traffic are exactly the type of results that

they should be delivering to their users. The better attitude is not to get upset that the more established sites find favor in the eyes of Google, but to determine to learn and improve our own social SEO. Find a way to create a buzz around your site. Rally your community. Get people excited and provide dynamite content that they wont find anywhere else. This will drive you to the top.
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ANALYZE YOUR SITE WITH WEBSITE GRADER

In a few pages, I'll explain how keyword rank works in search engines like Google and Yahoo and why it is important to try to rank high in their listings. I also referenced a great tool that can instantly check your keyword ranking across several major search engine platforms. For information about that be sure to check out that article, Keyword Ranking for Dummies. In the comments section of that article I received an excellent question that is exactly the response that I was looking for. Let me share it with you. How do you get key words for a blog? I did Mikes Marketing Tools and I came up 0 for each key word I entered. How could I remedy that? This is exactly the plight of every blogger as they begin their journey into blogging. Let me provide for you a very easy introduction to the world of Search Engine Optimization. Today I am going to provide you with the very first tool that I use to improve my performance on Google and Yahoo: Hubspots Website Grader. As soon as you visit Hubspots Website Grader you will be presented with a form to fill out in order to have your site analyzed. The only field that you have to fill out is the first one. Simply enter the website address of your blog or website and
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press enter. It will take a minute or two in order to process its analysis of your website as it needs to gather information from your site and several other sites. When your report finally loads the fun is ready to begin. At the top right of the page you should see a large number. This is the percentile of sites that your sites ranks above as compared to how many sites they have analyzed. In other words, if you score a 75 it means that your site is better than 75 percent of all sites that they have checked. Below your score you will find an extensive report detailing the good and bad points of your website. This report will cover your meta data like title, keywords, and description. It will provide feedback about how long your domain name is registered for and about the readability of your site. The report will detail Googles view of your scale using Googles 1-10 scale called Page Rank. This report will also provide information about how many links are pointing back at your page. It will show links for the entire web as well as links from Digg, Delicious,Yahoo Directory and other popular directories and social bookmarking sites. Hubspots Website Grader is the perfect tool to begin your journey into the world of Search Engine Optimization. It is the best place to get a good look at where your site stands in its
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readiness to impress Google and other search engines. In future posts I will be spending time discussing the benefits of link exchanges, utilizing social bookmarking sites, getting your site listed in directories, optimizing your meta data and much more. Stay tuned because this single topic of Search Engine Optimization is vital to getting traffic to your site.

INDISPENSABLE ELEMENTS OF LINK EXCHANGES

As we continue our efforts in creating exciting, dynamic sites, we as webmasters and bloggers find ourselves looking for ways to enhance our sites and grow our visitor base. In other words, we want to make our sites better and get more people to view our websites. The problem with not having many readers or site visitors isnt caused by the fact that we dont want people to read our material. Usually it is simply caused by a lack of knowledge on the subject of web design and marketingAnd that is where this article comes in. One of the most effective means of getting people to visit your website or blog is also one of the most simple: the link exchange. A link exchange is simply an agreement between two websites wherein they mutually agree to display a link to the other site. In other words, I will link to your site if you will link to mine. Quite often you will see a section of a site with one of the following
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titles: link exchange, links that like us, blog rolling, blogs I read, or something like that. Although this is one of the most simple means to get people to your site, dont be fooled into thinking that all link exchanges are the same. There are many different factors to consider when initiating a link exchange including the following: type, position, size, and page rank. For example: I entered http://www.sitesketch101.com for the url and Blog Tips for the keyword to find out how The Baptist Muse would be listed if a user searches for a Baptist Forum. Here are a few of its listings Yahoo:22, MSN:9, Alta Vista:20. So if you were to go to MSN.com and search the phrase Baptist Forum then you should find the Baptist Muse as the 9th listing. Since the Baptist Muse has a Baptist Forum this should be able to attract visitors who are genuinely interested in that site. Hopefully this quick overview gives you a better understanding of what keyword ranking means in terms of search engines. In future posts we will talk about how to improve your listings and how to move up the ranks toward the top 10. If you have questions about any of these concepts, dont hesitate to leave some comments! 1. THE TYPE OF THE LINK EXCHANGE There are two methods used to link between sites: text and
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banner. The most popular method of this arrangement is to simply create text links in the sidebar of a blog or website. Using this method, webmasters simply type out the name of the other website and use it to link to the site. Although this is the most popular method of link exchange, it is not the most effective. The second and most effective method of link exchange is the banner exchange. In other words, you display my banner on your site, and I will display your banner on mine. Peoples eyes have begun to build up an immunity to the text advertising on the internet. As a result, we need to become more creative in our attempts to generate visitors at our sites. We have to create links that will find their way past our users blinders and into their line of site. 2. THE POSITION OF THE LINK EXCHANGE At the top right of the sidebar on each page at Site Sketch 101, you will notice four banner images. Those banners are considered prime real estate for two main reasons. First, that area of the site is located above the fold of the web page. Above the fold is the portion of the page that is visible to the user without scrolling down the page at all. It is immediately visible upon the loading of the page. This is considered the most effective area of the website to place advertisements because it is on this portion of the page that your banners and links will get the most clicks.
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3. THE SIZE OF THE LINK EXCHANGE The second reason for the high value of those banners at the top of this screen are their size: 125 pixels by 125 pixels. Being large graphics located above the fold of the page, it easily attracts the users eyes. The larger the banner, the greater the chance that it will get clicked. Since the internet is filled with advertisements and text links, it becomes necessary to make your link exchange stand out from the rest of the world. The size and creativity of your banner will help you accomplish just that. Now be careful on this point. If you make the banner too large, nobody is going to want to place it on their website as it will take away from their content. The graphic sizes that I recommend are the following (measured in pixels): 46860 (large banner), 20060 (small banner), 250250 (large square), 200200 (medium square), or 125125 (small square). Although these are the sizes that I recommend, it is important to note that you are limited only by the possibilities of your creative mind. Experiment. Find what sizes work for you and what sizes those around you are using. 4. THE PAGE RANK OF THE LINK EXCHANGE Google has developed a system whereby they rank the pages in their search engine index. Their formula is based in a large part on how many links are pointing in toward a particular page. A
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page that has a whole bunch of links pointing at it will have a higher page rank and will display higher in Googles search results. Understand that their formula is a lot more complicated than just the number of links, but that is a great way to begin understanding how it works. Generally speaking, the higher the page rank, the higher the number of visitors. As a marketer, it should always be your goal to exchange links with someone who is no more than one rank below you or higher. In other words, if my page rank were a three, I should want to link with 2 or better. The higher the page rank the more effective the link. However, as bloggers and webmasters, we should be searching for link exchanges between other sites that are closely related in content. Users who click over to your blog from a similar site are much more likely to be interested in your content than those who come from and unrelated site.

WHAT DO WE REALLY KNOW ABOUT PAGE RANK?

Todays post is written in response to a recent email that I received from a reader asking how they might improve their Google Page Rank. In this question, its apparent to me that they are wondering
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some of the same things that I wondered when I was starting out and its probably some of the same things that you are wondering. So let me share with you their question and then Ill provide you with a basic understanding of Google Page Rank. I HAVE SUBMITTED MY BLOG TO GOOGLE, YAHOO, AND MSN. I ALSO
VERIFIED MY SITE WITH THEM THROUGH M ETA TAGS. GOOGLE, YAHOO AND ALTAVISTA ARE SHOWING MY PAGES AS INDEXED. YET STILL MY

PAGE RANK IN GOOGLE SHOWS AS ZERO. CAN YOU VISIT MY SITE AND
SUGGEST ANY CHANGES FOR QUALITY IMPROVEMENT . THANKS

Google page rank has very little to do with any of your on-page search engine optimization. In fact, it probably has nothing to do with it. THE BASICS OF GOOGLE PAGERANK Page rank is calculated exclusively based on the number and quality of inbound links. The more links that point to your web page the higher your page rank will be. The higher those sites are that link to you, the higher your rank will climb. Rather than just focusing on making sure that you have the right plugins installed to optimize your meta title, description and keywords, focus on building relationships with other bloggers and developing link exchanges. Build those links to your website and youll see your website begin to climb in page rank.

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For the best methods of building inbound links to your website, check out this article: 40 Ways to Build an Army of Inbound Links. STRAIGHT FROM THE EXPERTS To make it even more clear let me provide a video for you from seoMOZ. In this 8 minute video youll be provided with a major crash course on Google Page Rank and how it impacts our listings in Googles search index. Video Link: SEOmoz White Board Friday - What's Page Rank Got to do With it? Its also incredibly important to note that Google only updates their page rank about two to four times a year and we dont know the exact dates. They just updated about a month or so ago so dont expect to see your page rank change for about another 5 months. I hope this helps. SHOULD WE DISMISS PAGERANK? I think its a strange that people keep revisiting the idea that we shouldnt focus on Page Rank but that we should only focus on our readers. The prominent concept of the conversation was that Page Rank is nothing compared to the content that appeals to real users. I find it strange for several reasons. Why arent we appealing to both readers and search engines that bring us new readers? Why choose when its very simple
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to enjoy both? Why choose when the one almost always results in the other? Page Rank is determined by inbound links. Inbound links reveal how much others are enjoying your content. Hence Page Rank is a revelation of how much your actually appealing to real people. If your Page Rank is low then youre likely not accomplishing SEO or writing for real people. I also find most often that those who oppose working on PR are people with less than desirable websites. Im not saying that this is the case here, but often those who cant seem to accomplish the task of creating awesome content in a brilliant design often dismiss building inbound links as unimportant. WHY YOU SHOULD STILL CARE ABOUT PAGERANK If you follow this me or Site Sketch 101 for very long then youll very quickly discover that there are very few people online today that are as passionate about building our online presences through genuine connections, strong relationships, great designs and absolutely unquestionably amazing content. Having said that, I still believe that Page Rank has its place in our arsenal of tools that we use to develop our sites. Although Page Rank may not be the most powerful factor in determining our websites success on the search engines, it still
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helps some and as such we should at least spend a few minutes to become familiar with it. Many people believe that Page Rank is completely unimportant and that people are misguided to judge the credibility of a website at all on Page Rank. Look at this comment that I received yesterday: What do you think if we put below kind statement in out blog, This blog has 0 Page Rank but the knowledge that you will get is the best that you can get. Will it give impact to our visitors/advertisers? My response to that idea? I think that people will immediately click away. A statement like that will destroy your credibility to anyone who understands Page Rank. Essentially you are telling people, I know that nobody else links here. I know that very few other people think the content here is worth viewing or linking, but Im telling you that the content here is amazing and youll love it.

HOW PAGERANK HELPS YOUR WEBSITE

Page Rank is important. Not just because of the help that it provides in being listed on Google, but because of the impact that it has on our websites as we work on building Page Rank. The most effective way of building Page Rank is to improve the
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quality of your website. Transform the content until it is amazing. Make the navigation clean and easy to use. Make the layout beautiful and fun to look at. Engage with your readers and build relationships with other bloggers. These are the keys to building inbound links and these are the keys to building Page Rank. Would you tell me that these steps are bad for your online presence or that they would hurt you in some way? Focusing on those things would be the best thing that many webmasters could do.

GROUP REFLECTION
I hope that youre not simply praying that Google will miraculaously start sending free traffic to your website. If that is your attitude then you are going to be sadly dissappointed. If you want search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing to take notice of your website then you need to start making a bigger splash in the broader social community. You need to start building inbound links, developing your titles, descriptions and keywords, and focus on creating content that truly engages people. As you work to improve your site's search engine optimization, you'll find that it becomes easier and easier as you go. You'll also find that it can complement the effectiveness of your content in amazing ways. Let's review on the ideas that this chapter covered.
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Search engine optimization does not degrade the quality of your content. In fact it can enhance your community by attracting people who are specifically looking for the topics upon which your community is built. Link exchanges are a simple and effective ways to build inbound links and drive traffic to your website. Building content that goes viral on social media is the perfect way to grab the attention of the search engines. Google's PageRank is a terrific snapshot of the level of authority that they view your site as having based heavily on inbound links from other sites. PERSONAL CHALLENGE Now get to work. Transform your blog into a search engine machine and start attracting new people into your community. Here's a few questions to help fuel your drive to making these concepts personal. What am I doing at my website to improve the quality of the content I deliver? What am I doing right now to create a buzz in my community? Am I doing what it takes to get noticed or am I simply praying for a miracle?
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Am I taking the time to build titles, descriptions and content that people are looking for? Am I doing what it takes to build my presence on social media and develop content that can go viral on it?

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BONUS MATERIAL

Now that you've enjoyed nearly 200 pages of my opinion about blogging, it's time to check out what some other folks have to say about it. On the following pages, you'll find exclusive content from other blogging authorities. These folks are making it big online and they're here to tell you exactly what it takes.

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CHASING THE ELUSIVE TARGET OF SUCCESS

SUCCESS IS A MOVING TARGET. - JOHN MAXWELL

BRANDON COX:

Ive learned to live by that motto. When I started blogging in 2004, I didnt have any intentions of becoming a successful blogger. I simply wanted to share some ideas and news with family and friends. At some point between then and now, I came to crave greater success in blogging. Then the target started moving and Im still chasing it. Every blogger defines success differently. Some define successful blogging in terms of cold statistics - page views, unique visitors, and search engine rankings. Others definite it in monetary terms - advertising and affiliate revenues. In my opinion, both of these definitions are quite shallow. Ive come to define successful blogging in terms of influence, which
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includes a variety of metrics such as how many people are finding me, how theyre interacting with what they find, and what they do with the content after consuming it. But it doesnt stop there. Blogging is personal and how people interact with the content I publish relates to how influential I am personally in a world that is increasingly finding resources online. As the elusive target of success remains out in front of me, always taunting me to work a little harder, Ive begun to redefine what successful blogging looks like for me. If you want to chase success with me, Id challenge you to consider these thoughts about how to get to the goal.

EXCELLENCE MATTERS
I believe that influence follows excellence. There are millions of blogs around, but only a handful are excellent enough to grab my attention and draw me back repeatedly. What makes the difference? EXCELLENCE IN DESIGN I agree wholeheartedly with Nicholas - content might be king but good design follows closely and supports the attractiveness of content. I believe that internet users will continue to develop an eye for good design, so content should be framed by a wellbranded, well-designed layout that conveys a high commitment
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to professional quality. EXCELLENCE IN WRITING When youre in the blogging community for a while, you realize that good quality writing separates high impact bloggers from the rest of the pack. Im not referring merely to having proper grammatical skills, but the ability to do what I call writing with umph! The blogs I return to most often are those that stimulate my thinking more deeply about the subject at hand. These writers turn phrases, shoot from the hip, and cut to the heart of an issue so that I am forced to interact with it on a mental, emotional, and volitional level. Excellent writing makes me think, feel, and do.

RELATIONSHIPS MATTER
Blogging isnt merely about pushing out high volumes of good content - it includes the community of readers who will consume that content. Forget about the importance of the individual reader and you can kiss your blogging success goodbye. This is why conversation is such an important principle to understand. A good blogger can tell a great post by the amount of conversation that happens around it. Are people commenting and offering feedback, therefore expanding the content itself?
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Are other bloggers and sites linking into it to highlight it as valuable to their readers? And is it being passed on and talked about over social networking mediums? Even beyond the conversation surrounding a good article, however, is the conversation that takes place between the blogger and the community. Making money by blogging is fine, but I value the relationships Ive formed far more than the income.
LONGEVITY MATTERS

As Chris Brogan has made plain many times before, there isnt such a thing as an overnight success in the realm of blogging and social media. Longevity matters. Consistency matters. And hard work definitely matters. Its not enough to publish a piece of content that people like and talk about. The key to successful blogging is doing this over and over. Ever wonder why Mickey Mantle remained the more popular figure in baseball even though it was Roger Maris who broke the standing single season homerun record at the time with 61? I boil it down to the fact that though Maris hit more homeruns in that season that Mantle did in any of his seasons, it was Mantle who hit homeruns consistently over his entire career while Maris never hit even 40 homeruns the rest of his career.
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So you hit a homerun with your recent article. It made its way around Twitter and Facebook, got mentioned by some wellknown bloggers, and received a ton of comments. Great. But the crowd will stop clapping unless you do it again... and again and again. Success is a moving target. Dont stop chasing it and never for one second decide that youve arrived. It doesnt happen on auto-pilot. It takes midnight oil and elbow grease. So what are you waiting for? Start chasing!

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A DIFFERENT KIND OF SUCCESS

NATHAN HANGEN:

To a lot of people, blogging success means having a lot of traffic, tens of thousands of RSS and email subscribers, and in the endbecoming an A-Lister, and I agree with that, to a degree. While that model works perfectly well if you want to become an A-List blogger, in my opinion, there is much more potential in the blogging realm than becoming an A-Lister.

CHURNING OUT CONTENT

A-List bloggers are constantly churning out content. Some even write more than a post per day, and while that may work in the short term, the reality of that situation is that its like a trap. Youre stuck blogging for money, and the minute you stopthe money dries up.

MAKING AN IMPACT
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I also think that theres much more to life than blogging about blogging. I dont know about you, but I have a lot more to contribute to the world than teaching people how to install AdSense or write E-Books.

IT DOESNT SCALE
Ive had this debate with a lot of bloggers that try to convince me that blogging scales, and my argument is this: What are you going to do if blogging goes away? Blogging isnt a business on its ownit is simply a tool to generate business for your business. You cant develop a business if you spend more time blogging than you do on your business.

TRUE BLOGGING SUCCESS

What blogging success means to me is not status or RSS numbers, but being able to reach out and touch people. Ive used my blog to form a number of fantastic partnerships, JVs, and other income properties. I couldnt have done it without my blog, but these results had little to do with my traffic numbers or email list. Its simply a result of reaching out and making connections with people. My blog is like my internet hangout, and when people want to come find me, they know where to go. I consider my blog a
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success when people come to find me more often than I go find them. But its more than that. When people come, I must have something to offer them, and they must believe that Im the best person to provide it. It could be a product or a message, but a connection has to be made. At that point, you have to find out how you can convert traffic into trust. Without trust, even 100K RSS subscribers cant save you. So, being successful means that people trust me and want to hear more of what I have to say.

THE NEXT LEVEL

Lastly, unless blogging is the only thing you want to do, then youll need to find a way to board other platforms and start moving up the ladder. You can do this with a book deal, speaking gigs, or by leveraging your platform to create new opportunities. Im hesitant to rely on blogging as the sole source of my income, so Ive built other web assets. The reason why Ive started a blog first is because its cheap and easy. Once you have a strong
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platform, then you can leverage it to create new assets. So, in essence, being a successful blogger means that you know how to turn a platform into a portfolio.

SUCCESS ISNT THE END

To sum it up, what Im trying to say is that success, to me, isnt measured in statistics, it is measured in the amount of opportunities I have. Thanks to my blog, I now have more opportunities for income and personal growth than ever before. I have a database of friends and partners that I can call upon at any time when an idea strikes. In fact, I started two new businesses yesterday, just because I had a few talented bloggers in my database. More people know my name today than they did yesterday, and thats cool too, but the fact that people know what my name stands for is much more important to me. Thats true power. Lastly, Ive put in enough time to where this business has become 2nd nature to me. I dont have to think about it anymore, and that is useful. Its kind of like the end of the Matrix, when Neo finally sees the code and realizes he can manipulate the Matrix at will. Thats what being successful feels like, and if you ask me, its pretty cool.
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