Thesis WordPress Template Product Review February 20, 2009
Posted by Andrew Wee in : Internet Marketing, blogging , 2 commentsChris Pearson is a smart designer/developer who’s latched on to the emerging trend in publishing – the move away from elaborate, bandwidth-heavy, ornate websites to the more subtle, clean design that’s seeing its way on more progressive blogs.
Is this an influence of the minimalist style micro-blogging platforms like Twitter? It’s hard to say, but having a simple, yet intuitive design will give blog visitors easier access to your content and reduce the distraction that a cluttered blog template can create.
Chris’ Thesis WordPress template has been around since last year, so it’s not exactly a new kid on the block. In that time, it’s made its way on a number of blogs, especially based on its strengths.
I’d been looking for a clean and SEO-optimized template for use on a number of new content sites I’m in the process of developing and after reading a Thesis review by Rae Hoffman AKA SugarRae, it sealed the deal for me.
Here’s what the default installation looks like:
As you can see, it consists of a text area on the left and a prominent (more…)
Popularity: 8%
The “Is Blogging Dead” Meme and Other Navel-Gazing Nonsense February 12, 2009
Posted by Andrew Wee in : blogging , 4 commentsIt seems like it’s becoming an annual tradition for a blogger or reporter on a slow news day to observe that a trend of “a-lister” bloggers are retiring from the blogging scene and one of the informal golden rules in reporting is:
- If it happens once, it’s an accident.
- If it happens twice, it’s a coincidence.
- If it happens three times, you have a “trend” story on your hands.
So 3 prominent bloggers quitting the scene within a period of 1-2 years = trend?
The one thing about the “golden rule” was that it generally applied to the brick-and-mortar context, not as much when you’re talking about 3 or more bloggers out of the hundreds of millions of blogs out there.
Statistically, even 100 top bloggers out of a universe of 100 million blogs would be 1 / 1,000,000. In decimal points that would be 0.000001% of the blogging population.
So wondering if “blogging is dead” is akin to wondering if fixed-line telephones are dead or if the fax machine is dead. Nice linkbait, but I don’t think there’s much substance or value to that argument.
Jason Lee Miller notes in his WebProNews piece that fame (or the price of it) might be the cause of (more…)
Popularity: 6%
Evolution of a Blog: CashTactics.net December 1, 2008
Posted by Andrew Wee in : blogging , 3 comments
I first got to meet Ralph “Ruck” Ruckman (right) on the internet marketing forums more than a year ago. He got some attention as an active poster on the Rich Jerk forum, and for blog posts on his CashTactics blog, such as the one where he mentioned making more thant $159,000 from one of his sites. (From about 17 hours of work).
Since then, he’s published more posts related to PPC traffic generation and CPA affiliate marketing. If you’ll read some of his posts like his Questions and Answers post:
His reply to the question about what he should have known as an internet marketer starting out is frank and uncensored: “That 99% of marketers writing ebooks to sell to other marketers are nothing but forum slime who copy other people’s ideas and steal the glory to make a penny. Had I known that when I started I would not have wasted a shitload of money”
Instead, the foundation of how he determines what works and what doesn’t isn’t by reading an ebook, but by testing it out. And it’s not just posts about how he made big money either. In an update to his testing, he removed the entrecard and scratchback blog widgets because they weren’t performing.
One major lessons that internet marketers wanting to be successful from their efforts is to continually research, test, analyze new campaigns and products and services. “Failing” once does not put you out of the game.
The other point is that blogging about the experience (good or bad), helps you (more…)
Popularity: 3%
Blog Earnings Reports – Do They Make Sense? October 22, 2008
Posted by Andrew Wee in : Internet Marketing, blogging , 14 commentsThe trend among some top bloggers is to publish monthly earning reports showing how much income they have generated the previous month.
While it may seem impressive to earn $1,000, $5,000 or even $35,000 a month from your blogging efforts, I feel that the raw number can be a crude way of judging the “success” of your blog and will not be as meaningful as using other metrics.
A more significant statistic is (more…)
Popularity: 5%
Survivor, Big Brother And The Social Dynamics Of Twitter September 30, 2008
Posted by Andrew Wee in : blogging , add a commentI’d been talking to Software Project’s Mike Peters about the value of social media tools like Twitter and how much value they add to your internet business, and he came up with some interesting analogies.
In the “chatterspace” of micro-blogging platforms like twitter, it’s not uncommon to see posts like “Feeling hungry. Going to get a burger” or “Just picked a bunch of lint from my belly button. Yuck!”. The question is, does this help or hurt your brand?
Mike alluded platforms like Twitter to the reality show “Big Brother” where “voting is done by people at home, people at home typically vote out all those who don’t say much, don’t swear, don’t take enemies etc. Those type of people typically end up being the first to leave”
As the current situation stands, the rabble rousers sometimes do end up with the most number of twitter followers by virtue of (more…)
Popularity: 4%
How To Unleash Your Secret Blog Weapon! September 2, 2008
Posted by Andrew Wee in : blogging , 4 commentsWhether you’re a new internet marketer or a SEO or PPC affiliate looking for sources to generate traffic and convert that into profit, chances are you’ve either explored or are harnessing the traffic and profit potential of blogging.
In the last 2 years, since I’ve been growing my internet business, two key steps:
1) posting quality content and
2) achieving authority status in the niches I operate
have played a key part of my success.
Successful, long-term blogging goes beyond just harvesting the most popular and/or profitable tools from keyword tools and bashing out keyword-dense content.
It should also encompass planning skills and management skills to be able to publish original, quality content a year, two years or longer down the road.
What most marketers may not realize is that following a step-by-step system can greatly reduce the amount of effort needed to blog prodictively and effectively.
The Secret Blog Weapon coaching program I’m launching today is a result of more than a year’s worth of research into the most relevant topics and techniques new and experienced bloggers need to have at their fingertips, together with a system designed to either kickstart your blogging efforts or bring them to a new level.
What I’ve done my best to achieve has been to:
- Identify critical skills that bloggers need to possess (and develop them if they don’t already have them)
- Organize your blog effort around a proven system to maxmimize your results
- Create a system to build a brand and effectively use this brand to build your business
You can find more details about this comprehensive 6-month program at: SecretBlogWeapon.com
Popularity: 3%
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