Jade Craven

1. Get a copywriting mentor

In his Copyblogger guest post, Dave detailed how you can learn how to 'get all the mentoring you need … for free.'

This post was so useful that I can't summarize it, but the principle applies beyond copywriting.  Find ways you can learn by emulating those you admire.

2. Spend money on training

I reviewed product and it got slammed with people commenting about the price. Here are some of the balanced comments Dave left in reply.

“Price is what you pay, value is what you get.”

Think of it from a business standpoint, from ROI (Return on Investment). If you can spend X to learn how to make 5X, or 10X, or whatever, it doesn’t matter what “X” is. If you’re not committed to working your business, then any amount of money is going to be too expensive.

Can you get a high ROI, and How fast can you get it? If it doesn’t live up to its promise, return it. But invest in yourself, rather than typing up comments about how something you’ve never even tried is overpriced.

This is the part where I say that I'm really poor.  I struggle to buy some of the information products, but I recognize that it is necessary to spend money on training.

I've often spent money on products I don't need, but use it to make the initial connection with the blogger or person. This has led to many more opportunnities, as well as making the money back by reviewing it.

Everything Dave creates is awesome. You are burning money if you doubt this.

3. Focus on being a contributer

Dave was featured as one of the rising stars of blogging on North * East. He discussed how he focused on become a contributer:

To anyone starting out in blogging, I’d recommend that you focus on being a contributor to others. Add value to their blog comments with conversation provoking questions, talk about them on your own blog, get to know them via email and discover ways you can help them out. That’s the simplest and most ethical way to get on someone’s radar - and what goes around comes around often enough to make this a winning strategy.

This is a technique I have been using to great success. I do it all the time and it really makes an impact. Here are some of the things I've contributed.

• Send someone a link to a website that could help them
• Respond to their questions on social media sites and provide useful responses
• Refer them to someone who can improve their business
• Ask how you can help.
• Give them ideas and help for promotion.

4. Choose your peer group consciously

In the comment section of that post, Dave also spoke about choosing your peer group wisely:

Bottom line is - you want to be a rising star, hang out with other rising stars so they can motivate you to push harder and get the most out of the time you spend working. You live according to the expectations of your peer group - choose it consciously!

I do this too but it doesn't mean you have to ignore those who you think aren't as successful. I'm friends with some pretty famous bloggers, but I chose them because I respected their work. I'm also friends with people you may never hear about. I chose them because they are good people and make me want to be a better person.

5. Ask questions in the conclusion.

This is a technique that Dave uses in a lot of his popular posts. Its successful because of the information he provides prior to it. He provides a quality post, and then gives a compelling call to action. This technique can really improve your comment rate if used correctly.

6  Keep A Tangent Journal As You Write

On his guest post at Write To Done, Dave spoke about keeping a tangent journal.

Just as conversations often branch off into unrelated tangents, whatever you’re writing about now can be the catalyst for many other things you may write about later. However, like shopping list items and people’s phone numbers, you know how easy it is to forget them after even a short time has passed. Don’t risk having your best ideas become nothing more than faded memories - keep a “tangent journal” with you as you write and jot down incoming ideas. Capture just enough detail that you can use them later when you need a great writing prompt, and you’ll give yourself a great resource without breaking your current writing flow.

I have a notebook beside me at all times and often write down the ideas that come to me when I'm working on another post. Often, these are the ideas that resonate the most with others.

7. Raise Your Damn Rates, Already (Or Pull In More Per Project)

In a Freelance Folder article, Dave talked about making more money as a freelancer.

Too many freelancers underestimate what their services are worth, and it bites them hard. Are you working for less than what you think you are worth? Why? Look inside and ask yourself what the deal is … are you just intimidated by others who are more established than you are? We’ve all been there. Are you afraid to turn off clients? That’s a normal anxiety to have.

This is a criticism I often get. I have been to scared to launch my website because I didn't think anyone would pay for my marketing services. Reading Dave's articles have helped me decide to charge what I think I'm worth and not what I think others would be willing to pay.

8. Don’t think that a less creative job is beneath you

In his assessment of his freelance smackdown, Dave said

If you’re just starting out, take it, generate some income and then use the magic of dissatisfaction to push you to seek out higher-paying projects as quickly as possible.

I have sometimes avoided doing jobs that I thought were beneath me. But then I looked at my income, and decided that it was worth taking on other work. Sometimes, this work can lead to other opportunities. It also shows you have a good work ethic.

9.  Pulling the trigger and taking action is more important than anything.

Later in the smackdown, he also said that

Just jumping in to “see what might happen” has been invaluable – and profitable as well. I have to admit I had my doubts that I could bag writing work at my ideal rate of $X so quickly … but it happened. Not because I was one slick marketer, but because I just got the word out about what I do and what my rates were. Lucky roll of the dice? Perhaps. But the point is that I actually rolled the dice, instead of wondering “what if.”

I've been working on this series for a year. I suffer from anxiety, it got worse. I decided that I wasn't worth being listened to.

I've been taking a lot of action in the past two months. I've got interviews with top bloggers. I've gotten thousands of dollars of review products. All because I just took action, and focused on providing value while doing so.

10. You Need A Product Line To Keep Your Business From Becoming A Prison

In a post on The Launch Coach, Dave discussed the benefits of having a product line:

But if you’re building out a product line, you’re going to experience an enormous drop in the amount of work it takes to sell new products. You’ll be starting out with a target market that you know the needs of. You’ll have a product base to work from, whether it’s taking what’s covered in the first product to the next level or building on the “what’s next?” feedback from that product.

One of the benefits of having a product line is attracting more customers in the upsell. Dave gives lots of tips on profitable upsells in his workshop, Upsell 101.

11. Just listen

In his Launch Coach post about creating your next product, Dave said that

It’s much easier selling people things they already want. Listen to the conversations around you and take your cues from that, and creating that next (or first) product will be a lot easier.

There are many ways you can listen. You can:

• See what posts generate the most traffic and comments
• Take notice of the type of information people request on twitter and in email.

One thing to stress is to make sure you listen to the right type of people. Its futile creating something requested by people who have no intention of buying it.

12. When You Give, Give Strategically

In his post on networking with magnetic people, Dave talked about being strategic with your favours.

Think about what your end goals are, and begin to give accordingly to the types of people who can not only benefit from what you give, but also are in a position to give back according to your goals.
This is also the reason that links to other blogs work so well when connecting to bloggers. You’re giving them something they want (exposure) without asking for anything in return. And more often than not, what goes around comes around.

Here are some ideas on how I give strategically:

• Provide free marketing reports on my blog in return for being able to advertise my marketing services
• Doing work in exchange for linked in referrals or testimonials
• Doing a guest post on a blog that I can add to my online testimonial
• Promote other people in my high profile guest posts.

13. Be Confident.

When talking about confidence as part of your networking strategy, Dave recommend that you think of successful people as just that, people.

It’s tempting to put successful people on a pedestal and think that they are larger than life – especially when they’re more “established” than you are in your industry. But get this into your head: No one is out of your league. Every one of those people you “just can’t imagine” easily connecting with is a person just like you are. Stuff keeps them up at night sometimes, just like you. They have people who they look up to, just like you. And they have unbelievably sh*tty days, just like you.
Bottom Line: Look at people as people, and not as a list of achievements and skill sets. Don’t let yourself become intimidated by how much more they’ve done than you. Talk to them, person to person.

I've met Darren Rowse a couple of times. I see him as the guy who goes for a crappy football team, can have a geeky chat and has a lot to teach. He is just as much of a person as all the other fabulous people I meet at networking events.

I try to treat everyone equally. I interview anyone with an interesting story. If I own their product, I ask for an autograph. Treating people as equals has helped me reach out to more people.

14. Paying for a good ebook cover will give you many more sales.

In his post discussing ebook covers,

This is straightforward enough - but it’s ignored so often I need to call it out. Ebook covers don’t have to be expensive - you can get some great work done in the $75-$100 range. And if that amount makes you cringe, you’re thinking cost, not return on investment. Take that $100, divide it by the cost of your ebook, and you’ll see how few sales you need to make your money back.

I agree with this statement. It doesn't cost that much to get a cover. A poor cover makes me think that you are sloppy and don't care about your product. It's a shallow though, but its true.

15. Paying for a good ebook cover will give you many more affiliates.

Later in the post, he said that:

Affiliates do not want to promote crap. And if your cover looks homemade or hokey, they’re not going to want to promote it. When you’re putting banners on your site (which can be a pic of your ebook or a cropped image of the title), you want something that looks clean and compelling.

Affiliates can be just as shallow as the buyers. Some decisions can be made quickly and they may move onto the next product. Does your ebook cover look enticing without the sales copy?

16. Make it easier for your customers to bring you new customers.

If you’ve got a product or service that’s even remotely good, this will happen organically to some extent. But it’s always helpful to make the process easier so you’re not relying on blind luck to bring new customers into your fold. The question is, are you actively doing something to make it simple (and even obvious) for your existing customers to do so?

Are there any ways you can make it easier for people to refer you. You can provide them incentives, like giving a referral bonus. You could give them marketing materials, to share with their friends. You could also give them a discount in return for referring customers to you.

17. Take a look at who is defining your brand

Dave discussed this further in a Freelance Folder post:

Second, look at every way you interact with your customers - from packaging, to websites, to emails, to follow-ups, and ask yourself if you’re reinforcing those rockin’ associations every single step of the way. If you ain’t, hop to it. Don’t leave your customers wondering how to know without a doubt who you are. Make it easy.

This is something that you should do regularly.

18. Regularly cull the blogs you read

In his post discussing how to stop blogging killing your business, he recommended people regularly cull your blog feeds:

This is a hard pill for most people to swallow, since it’s just so easy to become a pack rat when it comes to the list of blogs you’re subscribed to. There are so many great blogs out there it’s hard not to subscribe to them all, especially when you’ve read articles that you know will change your business. But in reality, you’re not going to have time to read everything, or do everything. So there comes a point where you simply have to narrow your list down to the blogs that will make the most impact on your business (and your life).

I now let twitter and friends tell me when there is a good blog post, and just subscribe to 20. This helps me avoid feeling overwhelmed while skill keeping up to date.

19. Ensure you backup strategy

Dave discussed this in a freelance folder post.

Its very important that you have a backup strategy for your online and offline work. This can save you a lot of time and hassle later.

20. Re-release products for donation

Dave did this with his 30 Hour A Day mentoring program. He had it for sale for $197, but decided to offer it for a $10 donation. This is a really cool strategy. It:

• Reinforces his brand as someone who likes helping people
• Gets his work out there for more people to see
• Can be used to show the quality of his information products.

21. Occasionally offer your consulting at a discount

Dave did this recently when he had a spare couple of hours. He sent an email to his advance discount list saying he could offer a limited number of consulting spots and $100 off. Another of my friends, took him up on that offer.

This can be bad if used too often, but it can also help by picking up new clients.

22. Make your customer a winner

Dave discussed this is a post on how to double your customer base

Make it a habit to talk to each customer before/during/after the job about their expectations for the work you do, how they were exceeded, and how that made a difference for them. Notice that you’re not looking for them to brag on you - you want them to brag on themselves.
Here’s why this works: Ask yourself what’s a more effective sell: “My accountant is the best!” … or, I saved $4,000 by calling this guy.” When your customers brag about the results they achieved, the people who trust them want to hop on the gravy train themselves. Make your customers focus on how they’re winners because of working with you, and their trusted contacts will follow.

23. Hold an unsale

Dave once held an 'unsale' where he advertised that his prices would be going up in a week. This actually convinced me to buy two of his products. Its an effective technique, but can only be used very, very occasionally.

24. Strategically ask for retweets on twitter.

This only works if you have a good relationship with the people you are asking - and intend to return the favour.

Dave does this occasionally because he knows that I’d retweet his content. Due to time zone difference, I often don’t see his stuff and separate twitter time and rss time. In return, he has answered questions though DM and helped me when I ask.

25. Create follow ups of reviews

In his 'Tools' section, Dave did two followups to his original review of SEO School. This is actually one of the best techniques for affiliate promotion, especially when you follow it up through social media.

1. Be Willing to Explore New Ideas

In his guest post on Life Dev, Glen discussed ways you can stay creative:

If you ever get too stuck in a mindset that your way is the only way and you know everything about a topic that you need to know, then you could be missing out on some purely genius information.

This applies to many facets of blogging and earning an income. People can get stuck using one form of social media, or continue to rely on one or two main methods of monetization. You don't have to agree with the new ideas, but just be willing to test them out.

2.  Follow Other Creative People

Later in that post, Glen explored how you can learn from your idols:

If there are people you look up to in your niche, see if you can find out how they structure their days, where they get their inspiration from and what makes them ‘tick’. If they’re well known it’s likely someone has done an interview with them and asked them questions like this.

I love this tip - and it is something I do often! Before I do my interviews, I try to read up as much about the person as possible. I then ask the questions that were still remaining. Also, my case studies, taught me a LOT about how creative people work. If Glen motivates you, I highly recommend checking out his interview.

3. Use Your Real Name

In his guest post on Write To Done, he comments about how leaving your site name in the comments puts a barrier between you and the reader,

Even if you only want to use your first name, at least choose something that people can call and remember you by.

You'll do more for your personal brand by leaving your real name and providing an incentive for people to visit your site.

4. Have A Picture

Later in that post, he discusses how most popular blogs include pictures of the author.

This can really help the reader connect with you but it doesn't have to be limited to your about page. You can regularly link to your flickr account, upload images to twitpic and use your own images in your blog posts.

5. Reclaim Lost Subscribers

Glenn discusses how to get back lost subscribers in his Problogger guest post. I highly recommend you read it to get back the unverified readers.

6. People will always talk about you.

In his post on Alex Shalman, Glen said that what people say about you is none of your business. "People will talk about you unfavorably whether you are there to witness it or not."

Regardless of what you do, there are some people that will object. They might direct there criticism at you. They may discuss it in other mediums.  If you plan to become successful, you will have to  learn how to deal with criticism.

7. Not Everyone Is Ready To Hear Your Advice

Later in the post, he says that

Sometimes, no matter how positive or encouraging your advice is, people aren’t ready to hear it. Accept this and don’t see someone’s resistance to change as a reflection on you.

`I've seen so many bloggers complain about the price of something, accuse people of being scammers and completely reject solid ideas. Rather than trying to show them, simply realize that some people just aren't ready. As a blogger, your job is to be there when they are.

He gave two useful tips in his guest post on Life Optimiser

8. Plan Before You Execute - Unless you are one very efficient and productive individual, you’ll find that there are times where we sit down to do a project and then we just wander off into doing something completely different.

9. Outsource What You Can - Before you think you can’t afford outsourcing, think again. You can hire virtual assistants for as little as $3 per hour who are very capable of: If you are dealing with sensitive information, it’s probably best to have your virtual assistant or freelancer sign an NDA (Non-disclosure agreement) so that your confidential information actually stays confidential.

Both of these tips are really useful. I always have plans for my blog, and find they increase my productivity dramatically. I have never outsourced, but can definitely see its benefit. I've wasted about 30 hours trying to fix free blog themes, when I could have bought one and launched my blog sooner.

10. Promote affiliate products you believe in.

On his guest post on Caroline Middlebrooks blog, he gave some tips on ethical affiliate promotions.

• Don’t overly push it on your audience
• Don’t just pick the best paying products, pick what works
• Don’t just do it for the money, because your visitors will quickly lose faith

Two Tips on learning:

Glen gave two useful tips on learning in his Lite Mind guest post:

11. Give a Lecture. Although receiving a lecture is one of the worst ways to remember what you are being told, giving a lecture is one of the most effective. You could go into any college or university and offer to give a lecture on the topic of yoga and the many positions that are used.
12. Make a Video. Even if you don’t have your own blog or website, there are plenty of video portals such as Youtube and Metacafe that will allow you to upload your own videos for free. This will be effective as you can teach in the lecture format but know that you are instructing to a potentially worldwide audience.

You learn more when you create something. You have to process the information and try and communicate something that is easier to understand. Not only do you get the chance to learn more, but you can share your ideas rapidly and gain credibility.

13. Keep Notes of Success by Others.

In his post on Zen Habits, he said that

It’s very likely that whatever you want to achieve, someone has came along and done it before you. Who are they? How did they do it? What helped them along the way? These are questions that you need to answer, as in the answers may lie some valuable help to aid you in your own journey.

This is something I did over the past two years. An effective way of learning even more about others success is turning those notes into case studies. Quite like the one you are reading now.

If there is someone you admire, or are jealous of, keep notes about what makes them successful. Then try to find ways to emulate that success.

Two Tips from an interview

In his interview on Aboundless World, he gave two examples of what you can learn from him.

14. Secondly, I would say that I interact. This probably shouldn’t, but it really bugs me when I see successful bloggers really distance themselves from their audience. Like how Steve Pavlina says he gives auto responses to certain emails or how some bloggers don’t take the time to reply to the questions of their commenters.Your blog is only successful because of them. People matter and I try my best to respond to 100+ emails per day, messages on Twitter, Facebook and that kind of thing. It can get a little overwhelming at times, but I feel it is worth it.

15 Stay Consistent – Nothing is going to happen for you dramatically overnight. It takes consistent work to get where you want to be. I sold my blog, PluginID (which now has over 3,000 subscribers) for $1,500 when it only had 350. I wasn’t happy with the ’slow’ growth and decided to start another project. Then I realised that I’m just going to end up starting something else from scratch and that I had made a big mistake. Thankfully I was able to get the site back with a bit of bartering.

These two tips are awesome, especially the ones about interacting. This isn't necessary for success, but is very important in your early days. Over the coming weeks and months, you'll see my name pop up in guest posts all around the blogosphere. This because because of online relationships I created months, or years, ago.

Staying consistent is also very important. If you are inconsistent with your brand or your writing, you may alienate some of your following. This if fine it its a permanent shift. If not, all you are doing is working hard to create a cycle of new visitors interested in your content.

16. Be interesting

In an interview on Social Media Rockstar,  Glen said that

Something has to be interesting to go anywhere. Clients will come to us with a boring and static website and expect us to get them thousands of visitors because they’ve read about the potentials of social media somewhere online.”

There are many ways to make your content interesting. The best way is to make sure its valuable, and relevant over a large period of time. This will ensure more interest and leads in the long run.

17. Success seems largely to be a matter of hanging on after others have let go

LAter, he said that:

If you look at all the big bloggers now they’ve been consistent in what they are doing. Darren Rowse at Problogger has been writing almost daily for years and Brian at Copyblogger always makes sure there are updates from guest bloggers if he isn’t writing much. Success doesn’t happen overnight so it’s definitely about hard work and consistency

Many people, in all fields, give up early. I haven't blogged consistently for two years, but I've definitely hung on. Whether or not I'm successful remains to be seen.

18. Resubmit linkbain posts

In his post on reigniting your linkbait, he gave some tips on making it easier:

• Including social bookmarking buttons
• Removing any annoying or excessive ads
• Keeping all the content on one page
• Not trying to push something such as services on the user

You don't have to necessarily resubmit the post to social networking sites. You could simply try to draw attention to it on twitter and get others to share the content.

19. Produce Quality Content

In his post detailing how ViperChill reached 500 feed subscribers, he said that

Quality content is the main reason people subscribe to a feed and continual posting of quality information is the reason they don’t unsubscribe. Quality depends on what people want out of the content, for this site people want to know how to build traffic, what is working and how to have success online. For some sites, such as Flickrbabes it might just be finding an image that the site visitors can enjoy, know your audience and you will know what quality content is.

Poor content is one of the main reason for people unsubscribe from your feed. Your subscribers will grow if you provide consistent, useful and quality content.

20. Get an Avatar

In his post about getting blog traffic, he said that:

Your avatar should be something that stands out, is catchy and most importantly…memorable. If you sign-up on social sites and don’t fill in your details or upload an image then you are going to look like every other lazy member of that community.

One many sites, if you don't have an avatar people may assume you are a spammer and block you. You don't need a photo of yourself, although that helps. You just need something to show that you are trying to be part of the community.

21.  Interlink

Later in the post, Glen mentioned the two benefits of interlinking:

The first benefit is that you increase the inbound links to these pages and thus increase their importance in the eyes of the search engines. This can help you get more pages indexed. The second benefit is that you can keep your website visitors on your site for longer. Instead of just having them read an article and leave, you’ll find a lot of them clicking through to other sections and checking out your other content.

Excessive interlinking will piss off readers. However, you can also use it to draw attention to useful and relevant posts that may not get as much attention. The key, like with all links, is to provide value to your audience.

22. Regularly Leave Blog Comments

He also wrote about the benefits of leaving blog comments:

Blog comments are a good way to become ‘closer’ to the author of a blog, in which they might link back to one of your blog posts or simply add you as a friend in other social websites. I tend to find that the authors of small to medium size blogs will comment back on your site as well when they get the time, making yours look a bit more lively.

This is especially useful if you follow up with other forms of communication, like email and twitter. It is great for making that initial connection, while also showing your a valuable member of a community.

23. Read Relevant Books

In his post on Marc and Angel, he said that

It’s been said that you can become very knowledgeable about something just by reading 3 quality books on the subject.  Of course, it also helps if you concentrate on reading books that pertain to subjects you have an interest in.

This is another strategy I have been adopting for my blog and its proving really successful. Financially, the affiliate links don't convert as well but it does result in some marketers taking you more seriously. This can be a useful way to network with speakers and writers, and make connections that can help you learn more about social media.

24.  Take and Review Notes

Later in the post, he said that

You’ll probably find that some of your best ideas come when you are doing something completely unrelated to the idea itself.  In such cases, it’s wise to carry a small notebook or smart phone around with you so you can record your ideas on the go.

I carry a notebook and voice recorder around with me constantly. My notebook is full of post ideas, possible ebooks, guest post strategies and a heap of other stuff. I spend a lot of time on public transport getting to meetups and bushwalking locations and have gotten many of my best ideas at a train station.

25. Buy Your Domain Name

Glen expands on this topic in his post Protecting Your Personal Brand: 4 Simple Step

t although you may have not needed to use the domain for anything now, the $8 you can pay, or the multiples of that if you want the .net, .org or any more extensions is good reassurance that you have ways to protect your name if needed.

I was recently advising a friend on naming her business, and the first thing I recommended was that she picks up her domain name. Even if you are not going to brand yourself personally, it is very useful to have to make sure someone else doesn't use it.

1. Keep your tweets short

In his post detailing how he got retweeted by Darren Rowse and Guy Kawasaki, Marko said the following:

You must make your tweets retweetable in order to optimize the chance of going viral on Twitter. When you send a tweet about your post, as you have a limit of 140 characters, you basically only have space for the title and the URL. You must make your title short to keep your tweet short.

There have been several times where I've retweeted something, and had to spend time editing it to make sure it could fit. Sometimes, I wont retweet because I don't have the time to edit.

This simple tip will increase the amount of people who see your tweets.

2. Target the influentials

Later, he wrote about how targeting the influentials can be mutually beneficial.

Don’t be afraid to target Twitter power users. They have a lot of followers and influence and in most cases they are looking for good and relevant articles to read and tweet.

Its important to stress that you shouldn't spam the 'influentials.' Rather, you should send them links that their followers might enjoy. That way, you are helping rather than selling.

3. Monetize by carefully choosing products to sell

In his post detailing how he earned $1000 in blog revenue in a month,

One important lesson is that you do not have to sell every product there is. I see many bloggers who post generic promotions for different membership sites regularly.

He earned $1000 through two main methods. one was his Twitter Marketing book, and the other was affiliate commissions from recommending the Thesis Theme. He rarely promotes his products. Instead, he writes useful articles on both twitter and Thesis and uses his affiliate link.

Make your Blogging Idea Spread:

In his post, A 6 Step Plan For Creating Something Big, Marko details a number of ideas to make your blogging idea spread. My favourite three were:

4. Help people, build fans one by one
5. Connect with people that are looking for your knowledge and experience. Help a few people at a time, build your subscribers one by one
8. Use twitter. Do a search on a keyword related to what you do and start helping people

His key focus on this article was that you could make your ideas spread, simply focus on helping people. I've seen people launch blogging careers simply by writing really useful articles.

7 Remove the timestamp from your post.

With popular posts, it can be worth removing the timestamp to remove the impression that the post is outdate.

As the post byline is just underneath the post header, it is one of the first things people notice and I believed that it would give a wrong impression to a new visitor. Impression of outdated and irrelevant blog post, or even worse an impression of an inactive blog. And that is not the image you want when running a blog consulting service.

I agree, especially when it comes to pillar content. Alternatively, you can find ways to highlight how active your blog is.

8. Make it easy for potential advertisers to contact you.

In his post discussing an indirect method to attract advertisers to your blog, Marko says

Mmake sure to have a “contact page” in your blog navigational menu so it is easy for potential advertisers to contact you. WordPress blog plugin like Contact Form 7 lets you easily insert a contact form into a blog page.

An alternate method is having a media page or a page dedicated to press/advertisers. It also helps if you have these processes organized well in advance.

9. Feature a large number of articles on your front page.

In this tutorial, Marko talks about how you can use teaser previews to entice readers to read your best content. Again. he recommends the Thesis theme.

I really agree with this. Many bloggers are changing to have teasers instead of full articles to avoid overwhelming the new reader. It also allows you to show off more of your content, which can help if you cover more than one topic.

Make your Blog Stand out

In his artcle about standing out in a saturated niche, Marko gave two tips on how he differs:

10  Giving away my design / promotional secrets

11 Going deeper in details than competitors do

Many niches in the blogosphere are crowded and it can be hard to differentiate yourself from the competition. Providing extensive case studies is a way to really stand out.

12. Promote content from your commenters.

In his post about turning your blog visitors into loyal commenters, Marko spoke about promote your readers content.

Chris Brogan recently introduced the “Post from the comments” category, where he promotes interesting comments to his posts and publishes them as an entirely new blog post. This encourages visitors to write insightful comments in hope of hitting the front page and getting great exposure.

This can work, provided the content you promote is of high quality. It also work when your promoting content from other social media sites.

13. Ask for help from your loyal commenters.

Marko released a twitter ebook that was downloaded by over 1000 people. He talked about one of this methods of promotion:

On January 22nd I sent an email with the ebook attached to all the people that have commented on my Twitter articles. This was first of all a thank you to all the loyal commentators and second of all a way to build a bit of buzz.

You can also request help from those who have shown their loyalty through email or other social media support.

14. Add Tweet This to your blog posts

Marko discovered early on tha adding tweet this was more modern and helped your blog go viral.

From my Twitter experience I came to the conclusion that Twitter and retweets are the future and adding a “tweet this” to your blog posts is a much better option than having the default “email to friend” button that bloggers use. “Tweet this” is modern, it is simple and it has much better potential of building awareness by helping your blog go viral.

Many other bloggers have shown that tweet this is a very useful button to have.

15. Announce your latest blog posts on twitter.

Marko expanded on this idea in his post about how to make your blog go viral with twitter retweets:

Always make sure to announce your latest blog posts in a tweet, as that will make it easy for someone just to click on “retweet” button and retweet your post to their own network.

This works but there are a number of things to consider.

• Don't promote your blog posts too much as people may unfollow you
• Find the right time(s) to tweet your blog posts.

16. Write quality blog comments

In his case study on how he got 230 unique visitors from one blog post, he said the following:

Write a quality comment that creates value and grabs the attention of readers. Add something substantial to your comment. Add your thoughts about the post, provide additional information from your personal experience or from a post you have on your blog.

Being the first comment is no longer the best way of getting a lot of clicks. Being the first quality commenter is.

17. Brand your blog posts.

Later in the post, he gives tips on branding your blog comments.

Brand your comment by using same name, same avatar, same URL and same signature. This should be consistent with your social media profiles. Consistent marketing will build relationships to your blog. When people continue seeing your name repeated in comments sections of blogs and your comments are useful and interesting, it will make them wonder who the person writing is and will get them to click over to your blog.

I've been able to connect with many top bloggers and they've said its the repeated exposure thats made them remember me. I know that consistent branding has also helped me stand out.

18. Write guest posts

In his post detailing how he got his pagerank up to pr 4 in just two months, he recommended writing for blogs with a higher PR. One of the blogs he wrote for was Problogger. He also recommended that you include good anchor text in your links.

19. Follow what happens in your targeted community.

When discussing how he got his guest post featured on Problogger, Marko recommended following the trends.

Subscribe to the blogs in your field, follow what their write about and beware of discussions andtrends. Beware of what people comment on these blogs, what is on their mind and what questions they seek answers for.

Many of my early posts were based on questions raised in the Problogger comment section. Many of my latest posts is by following the

20. Repeatedly add quality comments to the same blogs

In his post about building blog traffic, Marko recommended to stay connected to these blogs

Get involved in discussions multiple times, don’t just post one comment and never return. A profile of a blogger with 100 blog comments on 20 different blogs is going to be a lot stronger than the profile of a blogger with 100 blog comment links from 100 different blogs.

I haven't commented in some while, but I normally stick to the same blogs. This is because I try to become part of the community instead of being another name.

Try to increasse your blog comments

In his post about increasing your blog comments, Marko discussed the following two methods:

21. Participate in the conversation. Be approachable, answer the questions and write your thoughts on your readers contribution. Recognizing your readers will encourage them to keep commenting on your blog posts and will encourage others to join in the conversation.

22. Install WordPress Thread Comment plugin. It enables blog users to reply to an existing blog comment and the discussion will be displayed threaded or nested. It also sends a notification by e-mail when reply is available. The advantage of threaded comments is that it makes it easy to follow and respond to conversations.

I haven't experimented with the second technique, but I definitely get more comments when I participate in the conversation. This also applies to blogs you guest post on.

23. Begin with the conclusion

When Marko wrote about making your blog sticky, he recommended that people start the post with the conclusion. This would 'make the reader excited to read the whole post.' I am experimenting with this, but it definitely is an interesting way to hook the reader.

24. Promote RSS to your blog readers.

In his post about promoting your RSS, marko discussed his use of a plugin:

25.  Another great opportunity to promote your blog RSS feed is to use the What Would Seth Godin Do WordPress plugin. This plugin uses cookies to treat new visitors differently than returning visitors. So for example for your first time visitors you can leave a “Welcome” message on top of your blog post where you ask the blog visitor to subscribe to your RSS feed. See this plugin in action at HowToMakeMyBlog.com.

This is a very effective method of drawing people in to certain pages depending on how they entered. Its well worth checking out the blogging.

25. Have your main promotions above the fold

This is a basic tip - but one worth repeating. When you check out the How To Make My Blog homepage, you will see that his consulting services and Twitter Marketing ebook are promoted above the fold. This means they are noticed, even if they aren't clicked on.