Give Away your Best Stuff

May 17 2009

We are all freebie seekers.  It has been proven that giving some of your best away for free is one of the best ways to get customers.  Ask Mike F, or Frank Kern, or Eben when their businesses turned the corner.  I believe the answer will be when they started giving away their best stuff.

If your free stuff is really good the user will think–Wow Rick’s stuff that he sells must be really awesome.  And if it is just good they will not be bummed because you have already over delivered.

One Step at a Time

Give away the first step and make it really good.  Think through what they will really want if they succeed with your free product.

Whet their Appetite with the Free First Step
Get them on your email list with your free first step.  What will they need next?   Sell them the second step and make it really good.  Then Sell them the next step.

Rick

No responses yet

Fast Backlinks to your WordPress Website

May 16 2009

There are basically two things that Google uses to rate your webpage.

  1. Content on your page
  2. Backlinks to your Page

There are other factors but these seem to be the most important.

I believe that building links is the most critical thing you can do .

Fast Backlinks
The easiest way I have come up with to get a few quick links to a new page I have just posted is to make a couple of quick blog comments with links back to my “Page.”  Most of my links I direct at a page on my site if I can.

Ezine Articles
My next step is to go to Ezine Articles and search for the keyword I have targeted this page at.  I will then make relevan comments on the top four or five Ezine Articles that come up for this keyword.

Hubpages
Next I go to Hubpages and do the same thing.  I comment on a hubpages article that comes up for this keyword.  If there is nothing very relevant in Hubpages I will modify my recently built page and then link from my Hub Page to my website page.

Build an Ezine Article
This takes a little more time but is well worth it.  The article once accepted by Ezine Articles gives you two very powerful links and often your article will get picked up and put in ezines and other websites.  There are a number of article directories but I will normally only post to the top 5.

Blog Commenting
I have a bunch of blogs I add comments to regularly.  I have several websites and I have several identities that I use to comment on blogs with.  I store my favorite blogs to comment on in a file in my favorites.  I use Firefox and I store them in a folder in my favorites.  When I decide to start commenting I just open a new window and pull down my

No responses yet

WordPress Static Home Page, How to Build One

May 14 2009

How to build a WordPress Static Home Page.  This is a great video that breaks down the very simple steps to converting any wordpress blog to a Website with a static home page.

The main difference between a Blog and a Website is the front page of a blog will always show the last post you made.  A website will normally show your home page and then have links to the different pages on your site.  A website will have a “Static Home Page.”


Step One
Create a new “Home Page” page.  This is not a “post” page but a “page” page.  I usually title this the Home Page.  This is the page I will use as my Static Home page.  You can also name this page the same as your website name with another word or two added.


Step Two
Build another “PAGE” and call it either “Recent Articles” or “My Website Blog” or “Blog.”  Only put a title on this page and then publish it without any content in the main content area of the page.  This page will replace the normal front page of your blog and will show the latest articles you have posted in reverse chronological order.

Change your WordPress Settings
Once you have the two pages published you can go to your  Settings, Reading tab.  On this page you will be able to click on “A static page.”  Then go to the front page window right below and choose the “page” you want for your front page.  Then go to the Posts Page window and choose the “recent articles” or whatever page you built to show your blog posts.

The Video shows the steps to take in a little more detail.  Your Blog is now a Website.

Happy WordPress Website Building
Rick Kern

No responses yet

Build your own Membership Site?

May 07 2009

It is really popular to start building a membership site these days. The lure of regular income long term customers that keep buying month after month. The dream is to get this up on autopilot and run with it.



What to build your membership site on?
One of the best ways to learn about a good membership site is to join a couple of them. The problem with that approach is you may get intimidated and think your own site needs to be as awesome as theirs. I am there I do not have the answer to that question. I am working on it though.

Another way to get Monthly Membership checks. Continue Reading »

2 responses so far

Buying a Web Hosting Account

Apr 30 2009

It is Very simple to get a hosting account.

I have almost completely converted to building websites with WordPress. Then you can very easily install your WordPress blog/website by using Simple Scripts which will install WordPress in a couple of clicks and allow you to update all your WordPress sites with just two clicks.

It is simple to do after the first time you have done it. Any problem and you can call customer support at your host. I have dealt with customer support at Blue host, 1&1, and Powerweb. All of them have been very helpful and easy to deal with. Bluehost has a video on how to install WordPress. There are several Videos on YouTube also that will help you.


Bluehost.com Web Hosting $6.95

With Bluehost I can host up to 100 WordPress blog/websites. They allow you to use up to 100 MySQL Databases. You need one for most Websites and two for some Websites.

Free Domain With $6.95 Bluehost Hosting Package I buy all my domains from DomainCheap but I used the free one that comes with BlueHost.

This is the name that my account is set up on so I would recommend using the free Domain Name you get with your hosting as a domain you are planning on keeping not a Domain name you are planning on flipping.

Bluehost Customer Service
I have been with Bluehost for a while and have had occasion to call them three times. I had very little wait time and they solved my problems quickly.

There are a lot of highly rated webhosts. Here are some links to 1&1 and iPower. Both very highly rated web hosts.

Host unlimited domains + get up to 5 FREE domains with your 1&1 hosting account. Must see monthly hosting specials!

iPower offers the most complete Web Hosting Solution in the world.
#1 in the World at only $7.95/month – includes Free Domain

No responses yet

WordPress Videos #3

Apr 30 2009

Andrew Hanson Video #5



This page shows Andrew Hanson’s Video #5 which covers setting up the WordPress All In One Seo Pack Plugin. Have you been confused on what is important and what isn’t when you are setting up you site?  This will clue you in on how to minimize duplicate content and get the best SEO results from the natural talent from your WordPress site.  Meta Tag usage on your WordPress Site.

Andrew Hanson Video #6

This is Video #6 which is the final video that Andrew built on Building WordPress Websites.  This video continues with setting up the SEO plugin.

I hope you enjoyed these as very basic WordPress tips to use while setting up your site.

No responses yet

WordPress Videos #2

Apr 30 2009

This is Video #3 of Andrew Hanson’s Series on Building WordPress Sites. What is LSI and how does this relate to your post.  How can you actually tell what Google finds relevant to your page?  This is a really simple process to figure out what Google finds relevant to your keyword. 


This video is well thought out and simple for anyone to analyse with the Google Keyword Tool.  I found this to be a very helpful video.

This is Andrew Hanson WordPress Website SEO Video Number 4

Andrew explains how and why to select the Category for your post. He states that you only choose only one category per page and why he believes this.

The use of Tags for your blog post.  This is a simple explanation of what tags are and how to use them on your site.  How to optimize you website organization and navigation with Tags for your site.  I also found this very helpful.

Check out How to set up the SEO Plugin for your site.

No responses yet

WordPress Videos #1

Apr 30 2009

These are very good Building WordPress Starter Videos.  This is a simple series from Andrew Hanson.  He is a very accomplished web marketer from Australia.  The first video gives you two tweaks to use when setting up your brand new blog. 


Setting your permalinks, I like using just the /%postname/  also.  His Creating a Post title advise is good .

Second video in the Andrew Hanson Building a WordPress Website series.  In this Video Article he gives you tips to use while writing your content.  Keyword Density, and where your keyword needs to be.  What is a ” More Tag” and how to use it to minimize Duplicate content on your site.  This is a great explanation on how the “More” tag works.

Check out Building a Worpress Website Video Page 2.

No responses yet

Affiliate Programs

Apr 29 2009

What is an Affiliate Program?
It is a program where you will get paid when one of your website visitors does something.  Usually the action required of the Visitor is for them to buy something.  The Amazon Affiliate program started out as a program where you could talk about a certain book and then if your Visitor goes through your link to Amazon and buys the book you would get a percentage of the sale.  There are thousands and thousands of affiliate programs out there.


Single Pay vs Recurring Payment Affiliate Programs
A single pay affiliate
Google Adsense

Recurring affilite payment plans
1 way links

3 way links

Site Build it

Many Membership sites

Link building software from Josh?

Jonathon Leger page building software?

2 responses so far

WordPress Membership Site

Apr 29 2009

What is a WordPress Membership site?

A membership site is any site that charges a monthly, quarterly, or yearly fee to belong.  Most Membership sites will have a Trial period or a $1 special trial and then charge a regular monthly fee.


Membership sites can be broken down into a couple of main types.

Informational Membership
The Informational model would be like this site where you have a group of people that are being taught how to do something.  Building a WordPress Website might be a model of an informational membership site but at this time I am using a free membership model for this site.

Membership Coaching Site
If you are an expert or have access to a couple of experts then you could build a coaching site.  You can make a lot more money from the membership site by answering questions and having your recommendations out in front of your members than from private coaching.  Just having a coaching site will help to position you as an expert.  You could partner with a couple of other experts and share the work and share the profits.

The “Expert” in any field has at least one hour more knowledge than the students.  Teaching what you just learned is often the best way to fully absorb the information.  Often you “teach best what you most need to learn”  quote from Richard Bach.

Software Membership
The Software model would be where you build a software program and instead of selling the software you charge a monthly fee to use it.  Often this type of membership site will have a lot of regular updates to the software.  You normally get a bigger check up front from selling your software but the long term monthly payments will usually add up to a lot more with a membership model.  Also the monthly plan keeps money coming in so you can continue developing and improving your product.  Also it makes it easy to pay for customer support.

PLR Membership Site
You can easily build a PLR membership site and put more content out monthly.  This is more like a subscription.  With many Membership scripts you can drip out the content.  The content you allow your first month members will be available to all members.  The second months content will be available the second month of their membership.

Interview Subscription
You can build a subscription service which interviews another Guru every month or something like that.  Dripping content works here also.

Membership Site Advantages

The really cool thing about a membership site is the regular monthly income.  If your site is good and keeps your members happy it can be very profitable to have a membership site.  Retension is important

Membership site disadvantages
Coming up with enough good stuff to keep your members happy.

Turnover in many sites is huge so you are always prospecting for more members.

Simple solution to building your own membership site

Join and promote some of the best membership sites out there.  With most membership sites any members you refer you get a percentage of the monthly fee.  This solves all of your membership site ownership issues.

No responses yet

« Newer posts Older posts »