Profitable Mommy Blogging

Top 10 Ways to Increase Affiliate Commissions Fast!

Keisha Foster — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:24:27 +0000

Affiliate marketing is still one of the best ways to make money blogging. The problem is the market is flooded with thousands of affiliate marketers promoting the same products, the same way. Use these ten strategies to increase your chance of searchers buying through your affiliate links.

1. Pick 3 Core Products at Multiple Price Points

Core products are ones that you will repeatedly recommend. Think about 3 products that you use on a a regular basis e.g. email service, keyword research tool, and a membership site. Try to cover three price points to appeal to a wider audience. Select a low priced option to increase the chance of people purchasing through you just because it’s inexpensive/low risk. Also locate a product that offers recurring commission. This will provide you steady money to keep you going between the spikes and drops in overall affiliate earnings. Lastly, pick a high-priced offer for your market. Not only will it generate more cash, it also helps you identify the more serious buyers to market to .

2. Add Blog Posts Featuring the Product to Emails.

People will come across your blog at different points in time. They may never see your posts about your core affiliate products. A good way to get your affiliate offers in front of new subscribers is to add affiliate blog posts to your email marketing series as you publish them.

3. Find Affiliate Products with Ready-Made Promotion Materials

Saving time is saving money when it comes to business. Look for products that provide affiliates with ready- to-articles, emails, blog posts and buttons. The sooner you can get content out about the product, the sooner you will make money.

4. Flip Affiliate Marketing Materials

Once you have those marketing materials flip them. Use the articles as an email and rework the emails as blog posts. Taking that extra step to customize the information will help you stand out in search results from hundreds of affiliates who are too lazy to do so.

5. Work in Campaigns

This is especially true for your recurring commission and high-end products. Instead of writing a random post here and there, in one designated period of time develop a variety of promotions. It’s easier to gain momentum working on the same topic at one time. An example campaign could be to write 3 articles, 3 blog posts and answer 3 forum questions around the product. Do the work once and the campaign is set to work again and again.

6. Guest Blog to Promote Affiliate Offers

This doesn’t mean to write a guest post blatantly promoting an offer. Write with an angle to direct readers back to your blog where your post will pre-sell. You may write a guest post about the importance of backing up your computer. In the guest post/bio, mention you love writing about the woes of digital life and how to keep your sanity at (your blog). When you know the guest post will be published, be sure to have a relevant affiliate post ready for readers.

7. Follow the Leader, Your Competition

Who’s already ranking for the product you’re promoting? Take a look at the top 10 postings and take notes. You can cut out wasting time by doing what’s already working for your competitors. Where are they getting backlinks? What type of blog post did they write to get a top ranking-a how-to, list, or review post? If a result shows a site like ezinearticles.com or squidoo.com, consider posting your own article to these sites.

8. Create a Case Study or Follow Along Series

Personally, this kind of content is very appealing to me because it gives me a real-life, sneak peek before buying. Document your experience using a product. Make it a series so people will check-in to see how you’re doing. This works really well because it subtly suggests if you can do it, then they can too.

9. Offer a Product or Service to Supplement the Offer

Building on #8, develop an extra piece to the puzzle that will help buyers “implement” the product. Think checklists, quick start videos and consulting. Most readers are overwhelmed with information and ideas. They really need more help doing than learning. You may want to make your own training course around the offer.

10. Be a News Reporter

Some affiliate offers are upgraded regularly. Potential buyers and even current customers get confused on how the updates affect their business. Clear the confusion for them. Stay on top of any new developments with your 3 core affiliate products. Become the go to source for all news around the offers.

Are you using any of the strategies for affiliate marketing? Share your favorite in the comments below.

photo credit: sam_churchill

Philadelphia Charges $300 to Blog?

Keisha Foster — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 23:37:01 +0000

Do earnings of $50 qualify your blog as a business? Well Philadelphia thinks so-to the tune of $300.

Social media sites are buzzing about an article published in the Philadelphia City Paper featuring a story of Marilyn Bess who blogs at Ms Philly Organic. The irony of the situation is that all this press will bring plenty of traffic which could generate more revenue for the blog. Interesting predicament to be in…

On one hand, I agree with the charge. A business is a business whether it’s online or offline. If you expect benefits of a business, mainly being paid money, then you have to take the responsibilities of owning a business-paying taxes. The part that’s a little touchy for me is that such small amounts($50 and even $11!) in earnings classifies you as a business. As Andrea Mannio of the Philadelphia Department of Revenue puts it, just making the choice to possibly earn revenue from ads (aka Adsense), regardless of the amount earned, means you have identified your blog as a business.

What do you think? Share in the comments below.

photo credit: rychlepozicky.com

Link Love-Niche Blogging Helpers

Keisha Foster — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 17:29:27 +0000

This week I touched on the topic of niche blogging. I didn’t get a chance to really dig into the subject as much as I would have liked. So I pulled together some blog posts that I think will guide you in starting on the right foot with niche blogging, or getting back on track if you’re not getting the expected results.

Let the Market Change You – Glenn Livingston shares his personal story of how it took more than research data and SEO tactics to make an impact in his niche market-guinea pigs.

Online Marketing Starts With Results Not Reasons – Some of you developed a niche blog around a passion. Your reasons probably fall into the areas of wanting to help people and share all you know about your niche. Cathy Goodwin breaks it down on why reasons aren’t enough. She shows you how to turn your reasons into tangible results for your readers.

5 Habits of Unusually Lazy Web Content Writers and Marketers – To rise in the ranks of niche blogging, you’re gonna need a lot of content! When you’re producing content day, after day, after day… it’s easy to get in a rut and not know it. Run through this checklist for signs of lazy blogging to see if any sound familiar.

How I Gained 3,323 Subscribers in 3 Months – If you failed the lazy blogger test, this is a great post by Celestine Chua to re-energize your blogging. She provides a 6-point strategy to increase your subscription. Once you have more subscribers, you can survey them and let them tell you what to write about. This will take some of the pressure off from constantly trying to come up ideas.

photo credit: lisaclarke

One of My Favorite Books – Free Until 9/2/10

Keisha Foster — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 22:31:01 +0000

One of my all-time favorite books, “Work the System” by Sam Carpenter, is available as a free download for
the next 7 days. If someone were to ask me what are the top 10 books that have influenced me the most, this book would definitely be on the list.

Sam brilliantly reveals a new paradigm of managing business and every area of life- and I do mean EVERY area- by approaching them through the age-old tool of systems. I know, I know…it sounds boring, technical and you’ve heard it before. But how many times have you also heard that the answers to moving out of our problems are usually right in front of us…it just takes an adjustment in perspective.

You’ll discover how he went from a severely ill and depressed, nearly bankrupt, single parent of two children living in his office building to become the thriving husband, father, business owner, and author he is today-all by working the systems in his life.

There are numerous ideas, revelations and insights that I could share with you. Here’s the first paragraph from the book that immediately grabbed my attention and got the mental juices flowing:

I work the system, but not just one. I work all the systems in my control-professional, financial, social, biological, and mechanical. You have your own systems. Do you see them? Do you control them? It doesn’t matter whether you are a CEO, employee, stay-at-home mom or dad, retiree, or student. Your life is composed of systems that are yours to control-or not control.

Sam even sent me an autographed copy of the hardback version. My daughter and I were so geeked. Two true bookworms at heart! I really tried getting a good photo of the signed page, but it didn’t come out clear. I’m not skilled with digital cameras. The flash caused a reflection off the page, and it comes out as a big white blur. I got tired of messing with it and left it alone. I wanted to make sure you got your free book versus being wowed by my picture!

Get your free e-book today! Come back and let me know if you read the book.

Free Copywriting Telesummit – Learn From the Pros

Keisha Foster — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:23:58 +0000

Online copywriting, whether you develop the skill or outsource it, is a must to build a blogging business. Search around the web for copywriting training and you’ll quickly see it’s not cheap. It’s common to find courses priced at $500 up into the thousands! Many bloggers struggle not only with learning copywriting but with being able to pay for training. Definitely a catch-22! You need the training but can afford to pay for it. If you could get more sales, which is why you need copywriting in the first place, then you could invest in training.

But guess what? You have the opportunity to learn from the SAME experts charging those high fees for FREE! Learn from copywriting experts like:

Kevin Hogan on the Science of Persuasion
Michel Fortin on Sales Letters 2.0
Lynn Terry on Blogging
Jeff Herring on Article Writing
Shannon Cherry on Press Release Writing
Brian Massey on Landing Page Creation

Online Copywriting 101 will be held from September 1-10, 2010. Be sure to register today before you forget. Here is the full lineup:

September 1: Copywriting’s First Commandment: Know Thy Target Audience by Karon Thackston

September 2: Copywriting Basics & Planning: Two Steps Pros Never Skip by Karon Thackston

September 3: Sales Letters 2.0: More Than Long, Scrolling Copy by Michel Fortin

September 4: Busting the Press Release Writing Myths by Shannon Cherry

September 5: Blogging Basics That Make All the Difference by Lynn Terry

September 6: Article Writing Secrets Your Mother Never Told You About by Jeff Herring

September 7: Dissecting, Diagramming and Delivering Exceptional Landing Pages by Brian Massey

September 8: Applying the Science of Persuasion to Copywriting by Kevin Hogan

September 9: The Myths & Musts of Writing Search Engine Optimized Copy by Karon Thackston

September 10: Crafting Intriguing Headlines That Pull by Karon Thackston

photo credit: FindYourSearch

Pay to Post Opportunity: Crafting & Homemaking Bloggers

Kelly — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 17:11:17 +0000

We are seeking bloggers to write a simple post (150-300 words) this week recommending a simple crafting tutorial on their blog with one good keyword link pointing to the tutorial.

If you accept the opportunity you agree to keep the post and live link on your blog permanently.

We are seeking blogs that have been on the net for at least twelve months and that have been updated regularly during that time.

The pay being offered is $6 and will be made via PayPal when your post is live.

If you are interested, please leave a comment here with a link to your blog and be sure to use a good email address so that we can get in touch.

The Ugly Truth about Passionate Niche Bloggers

Keisha Foster — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 15:04:28 +0000

Passion doesn’t pay the bills. Passion is not enough to sustain a business. Online you generally have two camps when it comes to niche blogging. Those that are passionate about providing content for their niche, and those passionate about marketing the niche.

So which camp do you fall in? Are you a content purist who focuses solely on providing the best information with the idea the money will come as a result? Or do you focus more on a marketing approach, in particular search marketing? For you it’s about mastering SEO and then filling in good enough content as good measure.

Both methods have their advantages. But what do you need to do to make them both work seamlessly for your niche blog? To find out, read this excellent article by Dee Barizio at Search Engine Journal .

He’s written his article from the standpoint of what a search marketer lacks in niche blogging. As a blogger, just flip the script to gain perspective on what you need to improve to profit from your niche blog.

Blogging Jobs for Monday, August 23rd

Tami — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:44:15 +0000

Here’s a list of blogging jobs available for you to check out this week. While these have been researched and seemed to be legitimate work at home jobs you still need to be careful and watch out for scams! Just remember that you should NEVER have to pay someone to work for them! If someone asks for money that’s a red flag!

Hoping that you find the perfect blogging job for you.

Niche Blogging-How to Get More Business By Marketing Less

Keisha Foster — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 19:30:53 +0000

In my post One Reason Why You’re Blog’s Not Making Money, I talked about connecting the subject of your blog with an evergreen niche. Expanding more on this angle, I want to introduce niche blogging which falls into the category of niche marketing.

What is Niche Marketing aka Niche Blogging?

A distinct group of people who share a common something (problem, like, activity) is a basic definition of a niche. Marketing to this specific group is known as niche marketing. Add to that using a blog to reach them, and you have niche blogging. From a business perspective, a niche is a category of consumers to zone in on since they’re more likely to buy your products and services. Note: A demographic by itself is not a niche.

Why Niche Marketing?

Are you a mom blogger who thinks that other moms are your target market? By making this generalization, you fail to reach the moms who really want your services. Keep in mind that not everyone needs everything at one time. This fact of life makes niche marketing effective. The stages of motherhood in itself can lead to narrowing down a market in hundreds of ways. The more you can speak specifically to a market’s situation, the greater the return for your advertising. If you’re in a noisy crowd would you respond better to your name being called or a call for “moms” in general?

When you can call a customer by name, their unique need, you’ll command their attention every time.

Both offline and online, but especially online since you don’t have a storefront for people to notice in passing, niche marketing is a solid business strategy. Whether you’re looking to test a market or to minimize marketing expenses, niche marketing is a simple way for you to make a mark without spreading yourself too thin.

photo credit: EvelynGiggles

Do Blog Readers Matter to You?

Keisha Foster — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 03:22:26 +0000

Do you really blog for your readers or for the craft? Over the weekend, stew on these posts to see what’s really cooking behind your blog. They’re real eye openers and may call you out. What will win-community or craft? Either way there’s no right or wrong answers. Some of the greatest artistic contributions to society were created by people who were better off left alone.

Why I Leave Comments Open

Are You Making It Hard for People to Comment?

What a Timeshare Presentation and Blogging Have in Common

photo credit: derekGavey

Facebook Places: What Do You Think?

Keisha Foster — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:12:35 +0000

Facebook Places has officially launched. Following in the steps of services like Foursquare and Gowalla, Places is Facebook’s venture into the geolocation space. Basically, it’s a check-in tool where users can notify their online friends of their whereabouts offline. One distinct feature of Places is the ability to tag friends who are in the same location. Mashable has created A Field Guide to Using Facebook Places to get you going. It shares important tweaks for the service if privacy is an issue for you. I could see this being fun for Tweetups and conferences. What do you think?

photo credit: dnfisher

Blogging Jobs for Monday, August 16th

Tami — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 18:46:23 +0000

Blogging jobs for this week:

Five Favorite Gifts for Mom Bloggers

Keisha Foster — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:10:36 +0000

All profitable businesses need tools and resources to perform their best. As a mom blogger who owns a blogging business- yes that’s you- you’re no exception. One way to acquire what you need for your blog is through gifts. Have you ever thought about it that way? Instead of another blouse you’re not going to wear, why not ask for items that will improve your blog? According to me, here is a gift list to have ready whenever someone asks. Even better, they’re service providers who specifically cater to the mom blogger/internet marketer market.

Website Makeover by Freshnets
Don’t you feel better when you look better? It’s not vain it’s just a fact of life. The same goes for your blog. HGTV is one of my favorite channels. A constant theme throughout all of their shows is the makeover. Time after time, they’ll feature a story where a house has been unable to sell for months. Only to generate renewed interest after a few cosmetic upgrades. Once again the owner and buyers are excited about the potential of the house. A blog makeover could be just what’s needed to get your blog flowing again.

Personal blog coaching with Kelly McCausey
Just about every person who has been successful in a certain field will reveal at one time or another they had a coach or a mentor. Why would successful blogging be any different? A coach can step back and take an objective look at the whole playing field. While you’re in the game, no matter how talented you are, it’s impossible to know what’s coming from every angle. A coach will help you develop customized strategies to maximize your strengths and minimize shortcomings.

Virtual Assistant by Tishia Lee
As I stated before the mechanics of blogging can keep you in a perpetual rut. You learn one task only to find that it requires to master another skill. You’re locked in this pattern and never make it to the activities that energize you-a recipe for blog abandonment. Virtual assistants are specialists at handling these things. Let them be the experts on the technical issues, or whatever hangs you up, so you can focus on what you do best.

Web Hosting by Mom Webs
If you’re online you have some type of hosting. Of course the best option is to have hosting that you control which means you’ll have to pay. A penny saved is a penny earned. The average cost for basic hosting runs about $9.95 per month-that adds ups. A year of free hosting could be just what the doctor ordered for blogging blues. I don’t care how minimal the amount, it’s a challenge to pay for a service month after month when you’re not earning a certain amount of money.

iPhone (or some Mobile Device to blog on the go)

Mom blogger or not, who doesn’t want an iPhone? Well maybe not everyone, but I sure want one! And what better excuse reason to get one than to help for the “professional advancement of your blog.” Ideas and inspiration don’t care about your obligations as a mom. A smart phone is the perfect way to capture those fleeting moments of creativity. So get that blog polished up and your virtual assistant on board so you can present the perfect case, your blog, on why an iPhone would make the best gift.

What’s on your blogging gift list? Share in the comments below.

photo credit: wolfsavard

How to Host Your Own Videos

Keisha Foster — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 15:06:22 +0000

Video blogging is a simple way to make your blog more engaging. But what happens when you want some of those videos to be exclusive? Like only for paid subscribers of your membership site. In this situation, hosting your own videos may be the best route. Lynnette Chandler of Tech Based Marketing shows you step-by-step how to do so in these videos.

How to Host Your Own Video Files Pt. 1

How to Host Your Own Video Files Pt. 2

Do you have a need to host your own videos? Share your plans in the comments below.

Back to School and Blogging

Keisha Foster — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 13:52:15 +0000

Next week school starts for our children. Normally, this time of year is marked by me mad dashing from store to store, mega stocking all the discount school supplies. This year not so much. Don’t get me wrong, I will take advantage of all the sales. It makes sense money wise. Actually, I can be a savvy shoppingnista when I want to be. I just didn’t feel like bothering with the crowds. I plan to take some time during the slow times at stores this week to see what I can find. I probably won’t get the spoils of the .01 deals. But you never know!

For some reason these posts put me in a new school year kind of mood-first days, structure and a commitment to learning. I’m sure they will make for some good weekend reading too!

You’ll Never Get Everything Done, and That’s Ok

The Best Bloggers are Learners

5 Things to Remember While Writing Guest Post

If Your Blog Writing Stinks

Tips for Staying Disciplined and Organized When Working from Home

photo credit: stevendepolo

One Reason Why Your Blog’s Not Making Money

Keisha Foster — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 03:39:13 +0000

The niche market you choose to blog around is an important factor in its profitability. There are literally thousands of topics to focus on and new interests develop daily. To ensure that you’re positioned to profit you should evaluate if yours is what’s considered evergreen.

Markets that address “timeless” concerns are known as evergreen. Oblivious to trends and fads, they’re usually identified by universal issues that transcend time, location, and demographics.

If your focus is not directly related to an evergreen niche, you may be able to give it an angle that ties into one.

Take a look at these classic general markets and see if you can tweak what you’re already doing to fit.

Health
Relationships
Money
Personal Development

Building a blog around an evergreen market is a secret to long-term growth. You’re content will remain relevant and you’ll have a constant pool of customers.

When evaluating the earning potential of a niche market look for three crucial elements:

Easy to Identify – Are there groups, associations, and events specific to the market that you can readily locate?

Active and Motivated Buyers – There are plenty of markets big on passion, but small on spending money to support their passion. An easy way to find out if your market spends money online is to research the “buying” websites like Amazon and Ebay.

Positioned for Marketing – Is it easy to market to them? In other words, are they already involved with the marketing channels within your reach and budget. Are there magazines, newsletters, and podcasts they use regularly?

Take note of who you are selling to before you decide what you want to sell them. Pick niches that have already proven to profitable.

Does your niche pass the test for profits? Let me know in the comments.

photo credit: SallyB2

3 Tools to Repurpose Your Blog Posts

Keisha Foster — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:00:38 +0000

A couple of days ago at Problogger.com, Darren Browse wrote a post titled “3 Reasons that I Have My Video Posts Transcribed“. He explained the feedback from his readers led to this move. Three main concerns came from his readers about video only blog posts.

Accessibility-Not everyone has the technical abilities to view online videos.
Learning Style-Some people learn better by reading.
SEO-No matter how cutting-edge your video technology, search engine optimization is still about the right words.

Are you using multiple publishing formats to connect with more readers?

The popularity of Kindles, iPods, and iPads show that readers are particular on how they consume information. If people are willing to pay for tools to tailor content to their liking, then how you publish content is not to be taken lightly. Using only one method e.g. written blog posts limits the potential of your post going viral and reaching wider audiences.

Making your information flexible for various preferences is good business.

That’s not to say that every post should be styled for every format imaginable. I suggest you start out with your pillar blog posts. The posts that you intend to use to promote your marketing message or unique selling position.

Add another layer of distribution for your blog with these three tools.

Animoto – Turn a collection of images into a video.

Odiogo – Turn your blog posts into a podcast.

Read the Words – Turn your articles into an audio file.

What tools are you using to repurpose your content? Share in the comments below.

photo credit: remiforall

Is Google Analytics a Mystery To You?

Kelly — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:45:24 +0000

I made the big move from trusting my own server stats to using Google Analytics over the last year or so and I’m glad to have done so. I learn so much more about my traffic and how my content is consumed and linked to.

Initially though, I had to get over the let down of discovering that my websites weren’t getting all of the traffic that my server stats were reporting. I’m not entirely sure why there is such a large difference but there is. If you gave Google Analytics a try and discovered the same thing – don’t let that scare you away. It’s far better to have a realistic understanding of your web traffic than to puff up your vanity with unreliable numbers.

There’s SO much data available in Google Analytics that you can put to good use in your blogging – but overwhelm is normal – and that’s why I’m glad that my friend Courtney Chowning is offering a special Google Analytics Workshop with just that exact focus.

For just ten bucks you can attend her workshop and learn how to install and USE Google Analytics to better your blogging

Blogging Jobs for Monday, August 9th

Tami — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:30:51 +0000

Blogging Jobs you may be interested in:

Hot Seminar Series: Last Chance for Live Questions

Keisha Foster — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 15:41:43 +0000

Would you like to get your blogging questions answered directly by an expert? This Wednesday marks the end of Kelly McCausey’s Hot Seminar Series and your last chance to get your answers live.

E-books and prerecorded audios are great resources to up your blogging skills. But there are times when you need information specific to your situation. If that sounds like you, then you want to be on the chat Wednesday.

Nicole Dean will be the woman of the hour-the tenth and final expert of an informative series all about WordPress. The topics discussed so far:

The WordPress Platform
Themes
Branding
Security
Tech Tweaks
Plugins
RSS
Freelancing
Powering Up Your Posts

Have you had challenges in any of these areas? Hot Seminar Series could be the solution. The good thing about it is all the calls have been recorded, so you can always go back and listen to them. One strategy shared could catapult you from frustrated blogger to FABULOUS blogger. Don’t miss out!

Of the WordPress topics listed, which one have you struggled with lately?