Things that make you go hmmmm. (Stole that line from my friend Jon Olson who uses it as a section of his Hit Exchange News Letter each week.)

Yesterday my neighbor had a party and they had a slip and slide going and had a lot of fun playing with it. This morning the cost of that fun was clear.

It destroyed the grass and this was not the first time. See they have a lovely black lab that last fall destroyed the yard. So this spring they fenced off the back portion. They did all the right things.

They loosened the soil, fertilized it and seeded it. They kept the dog off of it and kept it watered. The yard was really looking good. One night though changed it.

Now if they did the same thing at Labor Day instead of Memorial Day week end it probably would not have created much damage. The grass would have been much better rooted and put up with a bit of abuse better.

So this morning when I saw it I went hmmm.

I know how much work they had put into getting the yard looking great and it was a shame to see that all destroyed in a night.

You see the same thing with blogs though. Someone will do all the right things and get their blog up and looking good. They are working hard and providing good content.

Taking part in their niche and building good backlinks through article marketing, videos, blog comments, bookmarking, etc. Really putting in the work to make it a place you want to visit.

Then frustration sets in and they start looking for short cuts. Buying links, using plr content without adapting it and all of a sudden all the hard work is gone.

The traffic declines or Google bounces it out of the listings.

Is the shortcut worth it?

Haven’t talked to Steve yet today but I think if he had it to do over he may have foregone some of the fun and have the yard they way it looked yesterday. What do you think? Leave your comments below.

P.S. Still looking for blogs to guest on in August and a kick butt title for the tour. Submit your blog at the support desk and leave your tour title below. Prize for the winner and good content for the blogs I visit.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps

Technorati Tags: blogging, google, shortcut

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WordPress is continuing the march to the final release of 3.0. After two beta releases they have just issued the first release candidate.

You can see the full announcement here.

Once the release candidate hits the actual release is not far behind. Now is the time to find out the themes and plugins that are not compatible.

So far this has been a very good process for me. All of the themes and plugins that I use have been playing nice with the newest version.

The menu functions seem to be working quite well and I am looking forward to the final release.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps

Technorati Tags: wordpress, WordPress 3.0, wordpress 3.0 rc1

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Here in PA we are approaching the first long week end of summer. The temperature is going to be very summer like and not making me happy as 90 degrees F and 90% + humidity can make me irritable.

Time to get the air conditioner out of the back and into the window again. Knew this was coming and if I had been smart it would already be in place and ready but it isn’t so guess I have work to do today.

Logged in today to the back of the blog and see that WordPress has their seventh birthday today.

Now those little factoids don’t by themselves have a lot to do with blogging per se but then maybe they do.

Things change over time and weather is always a big one for most of us. WordPress continues to change and 3.0 should be here shortly. WordPress has changed drastically over the years and continues to evolve today.

Much as we would love to have things stay the same it is the changes that offer you opportunity.

Are you getting in front of the changes in your niche or are you reacting to the change like the majority of people?

If you are looking for more readers and followers they will find you when you are in front. Hard to be followed when you are lagging behind.

On another note I am still looking for a title for my new blog tour to take place in August this year along with blogs to visit. There will be a prize for the winning name and if I visit your blog for the week you will get 5 days of posts from me and any references to any of my products will be your affiliate links. I will be promoting the tour on Squidoo and my own blog network so your blog will get extra promotion from me.

I will write on any of the following topics…

• Blogging
• Blog SEO
• List building
• Affiliate marketing
• Traffic generation
• Private label rights
• Product creation

So if you have a blog on any of those topics contact me at the support desk with details. If you have a name for the blog tour leave it in the comments.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketing, blogs, followers, squidoo, traffic generation, weather, wordpress

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Writing blog posts can be hard at times. I have often written about ways to make it easier for you but there are times that it is still hard. Once you have put out that effort though are you maximizing it?

Quality content is valuable and just using it for your blog post is actually a waste when with a bit more effort you can get it out in multiple formats or on multiple sites.

Now I am guilty of this all too often. Are you?

It does not take that much to read the article and make an mp3 out of it and have a podcast.

You can rewrite a bit and add a signature file and you have an article to submit.

Put the article into power point format and read and record it. You now have a video.

Reuse the content as content on Hub Pages, Squidoo, etc to create back links to your blog or the page your post was promoting.

None of these will take you a long time to accomplish and the benefit you can get from doing this is immense.

You have done the hard work of creating quality content and you can easily get more from that effort.

Once I finish writing this post I can convert it into a video and podcast quite easily. I will be doing just that and with video uploading and rendering it will add about 45 minutes.

When I am done I will have a podcast delivered to a variety of services through Podpress from this blog and 7-8 new listings on a variety of video sites.

Think I might get a bit more traffic from that effort?

You can do it easily if you just follow the steps in Sunday Night Cash Plan too.

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About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps

 How Often Do You Repurpose Your Content? [1:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Technorati Tags: hub pages, mp3, podcast, power point template, quality content, traffic, video sites, video uploading

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One of the best ways that I know of to get more traffic to your blog is to guest blog. At the end of last year I put together a blog tour which I called The Old Bald Guy’s Blog Tour.

I spent 5 days a week posting to someone else’s blog for 8 weeks moving to a different blog each week. It was fun to get to visit with other people’s audience and I had a good time.

I followed the steps Nicole Dean teaches in her “Blog World Tour Guide“.

Well the summer is coming and I think it is time to do it again but I need your help.

To pull this off I need to come up with a catchy name for the tour and I need 4 people that are willing to let me come in and rant and rave on their blog. I am planning this for the month of August.

Now if you would like me to stop and spend the week send in a ticket to the support desk and let me know…

• What topic your blog is on
• Why I would be a good fit for your audience
• Why I should pick you

What you get if selected is…

• 5 days of good content from me
• Promotion from the Squidoo lens I will create for the tour
• Promotion from my blogs as I discuss the blog tour

So if you are interested let me know I need to get this planned now.

Even if you don’t want me to visit I am looking for a kick butt name for this tour and if you can supply it you can win a blog installation from me on your hosting ($120 value) or one hour of my coaching time.

Leave your tour name ideas below and the one I choose will be the winner.

Looking forward to getting back on the road again.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps

Technorati Tags: blog, Blog Tour, blog tour guide, blogs, Nicole Dean, traffic

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It is once again Sunday morning and this may ramble a bit. That being said if this is to become a regular habit it need to be written rambling or not.

That brings up one of the big items that I see cause trouble for people. Over preparation and lack of doing.

This was really brought to light while following what Paul Evans has been doing for his 6th Anniversary Celebration at Nicheology. He had a 24 hour challenge and showed people how they could take a plr package and get it up and sell something in 24 hours or less. The whole point of the whole thing (other than obviously creating buzz for Nicheology which I strongly recommend) is to get people to just do things.

Now I am not here to pimp what Paul is doing so lets talk about this in relation to blogging.

You have decided that you want or need to be blogging. Using that assumption (and regulars know how I feel about doing that ) and that you are brand new, what will help you more?

• Create a blogger blog and start posting?
• Figure out how to use Fantastico to create a blog of your own?
• Do all the research and get a properly set up and optimized blog on your server?

Now the best answer for me personally would be the latter as I have a product that will walk you through that and more at WordPress Made Easy. But it is NOT what you should be doing to start. (Typing that last sentence hurt;) )

Taking action and accomplishing something is much more important for you even though it may not ultimately be the best way. It is the best way in that you will actually get something finished.

If you are brand new and know you need a blog then just do it the easiest way. The Ready, Fire, Aim formula.

Go sign up at blogger and create the blog in a few minutes and start posting. Accomplish that much and you are already ahead of 95% of your competition because even though it isn’t the best way you actually have content on line NOW.

Continue with it while you go learn how to get more from your efforts.

Will you want to get your own blog on your domain set up securely and properly optimized? Absolutely but you can start with a much lesser method and have some success with it.

It is way too easy to spend so much time, effort and money in perfecting things before you expose it to the world that you never get anything done. Just do it and keep improving it as you go.

In this example if you get the blogger blog going you can add your own blog later. You can import the information from there as you reach the next level and get more exposure. You may even find out that your original idea was a loser but that is okay because you did not waste months getting everything perfected before you started doing.

Fail quickly so you can try a different way.

The whole point today is get something done and online even if it is not perfect.

End of todays rant so follow the Nike method and JUST DO IT!

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps

 Sunday Rant - Nike has it right [3:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Technorati Tags: blog, blogger, Fantastico, nicheology, ready fire aim, sunday morning

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Last month I did a post titled “Comment Spam – Are you contributing to the problem? “. One of the comments brought up a good point to consider. Rosie wrote…

On a couple of occasions I have deleted the url with he comment if the comment related to the post. The url’s are usually one page adsense driven sites. There are no authors for the material discussed. It is very obvious that the goal is a backlink.
However, recently, I suspected that there might be code hidden that tracks approvals. There was a surge in comments after approval of one and deletion of the url.
So, I deleted all the spam PLUS deleted all prior comments that I approved without the url. This post is bring attention to a new wave of comment strategy. I would not be surprised if this is taught in an internet marketing workshop somewhere.Hope you post more about this.

rosie´s last blog ..Are Financial Woes Hitting Baby Boomers Below the Belt?

Now the major point of the post was that these comments that do not seem spammy initially are really spam and you need to deal with them.

Now one of the initial replies was to just keep the comment and remove the back link from it. After all we all want our blogs to be active and having more comments gives that impression.

Seems there may be a downside from reading Rosie’s recent comment on that post.

I do not know this personally because I always delete them as spam. Quite truthfully if you do not add value to my blog I don’t want the comment on my blog even if it means no comments on my blog. May be a bit harsh but that is my viewpoint.

That being said I do believe that some of the automation services do have the ability to check which posts and blogs approve what they send. If you are approving these even if you are removing the links you will have a good possibility of getting even more.

So it is time to fight back and start holding a firm stance on those spam type posts that stroke your ego but add no value to your blog.

Just an old bald guy’s opinion. What is yours?

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps

Technorati Tags: automation services, backlink, blog, blogs, spam

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Traffic that is targeted is one of the keys to monetization. Whether it is your blog, a squeeze page or a sales piece targeted visitors are the key. Here is one of my most effective traffic sources.

Twitter is no where near as much in the news as it was a year ago but…

It has become one of my best ways to drive targeted traffic to my blogs or specific offers.

Now a lot of people say that it is not true. The key is to provide quality information and to be a resource that people want to read. If you are doing that then when you tweet your blog post or offer people will click and often they will retweet it and tell all of their followers. This is the real power of Twitter.

If you are providing quality information from a variety of sources to your followers you become a valued resource not a pitch man.

You get moved to that special column where they put the people that they don’t want to miss their posts in their tweet deck or other twitter app.

Do that and Twitter becomes a great traffic generator.

Now the key is to find and share quality information without spending forever doing that.

That is why I put together Twitter Time Saver.

Use the automation of various free programs to be a great resource without having it take all your time.

If you want to be able to really use Twitter you need to build your authority. The key will be to do it without it becoming all that you do.

Automation is key.

Check out Twitter Time Saver and discover all the secrets I use to do this in a few minutes each day.

Use your time wisely to get the most out of Twitter.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps

Technorati Tags: blogs, targeted visitors, traffic sources, twitter, twitter time saver

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Yesterday we discussed the need to be tracking what is working so that you can improve things. If you do not know what is working or not working it is all too easy to waste your time and your money. I will be covering some other ways to track what is happening in the future but we will start with Google Analytics as it is my preferred method.

You need a Gmail account to use Google Analytics. You can sign up for a Gmail account if you don’t have one at Gmail. Once you have an account you can go directly to Google Analytics and login with your Gmail user name and password.

Once your are in click on Add Website Profile. Fill in the domain you want to track along with your country and time zone. Now that you have it set up you will need to add the code to your site on each page.

Now before we go further the instructions below are for where your blog is in the root of your domain. This means you access your blog by using mydomain.com and not mydomain.com/blog.

If your blog is not in the root you will need to manually add the java script code to the pages in your root (public_html) directory also.

There are many ways to do this with your blog. It will depend on your theme and if you want to use a plugin. On this blog my theme is coded to add the appropriate code. I only need to add the id I get from GA.

I just add the id that was generated when I set the account up in the theme options. You can add the Google Analytics plugin and again just add the id into the settings after you add and activate the plugin.

You can add the java script code into your theme header file if you do not wish to add a plugin or if your theme is not preset for GA.

You will copy and paste this code into your header php file right after the opening <body> tag. This will add the code into each page of your blog.

Inserting all of the code there and saving the file will also set up your blog for Google Analytics.

Once you have added the code whether you did it manually, through your theme or using a plugin you need to check in your analytics account to make sure that Google is finding the code properly.

Open the profile for that domain in your account and you will see if they are getting the information.

Do remember that if your blog is not in the root of your domain you will need to manually add the code to the file that are in the root to get this to work.

Click on the check status link and it will go check your setup and let you know if it is working. Once you have succeeded it will take a day before you start to get the stats when you login to your account.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps

Technorati Tags: gmail account, google analytics, java script code, public html directory

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Generating traffic to your blog is the key to having a successful blog. Unfortunately there are way too many ways to do that and some work better than others.

Quite often generating that traffic can take quite a bit of time. Now I am not adverse to spending time or spending money to outsource some methods to generate traffic but it is extremely important to find out what time or money is well spent and what time or money is being wasted.

That is why taking the time to track where your traffic is coming from is so important. If you do not know what is working it is impossible to do more of it and less of what is not working.

It really does not have to be hard or expensive to do just that. Google has a free service called analytics that can be set up in just a few minutes and allow you to see exactly how people get to your site.

• Do they come from other sites where you have commented?
• Are they finding you in the search engines because of your link building?
• Are they returning because of your email reminders?
• Are they coming from the guest post you did last week for someone else’s blog?

Knowing these things is the key and setting up Google Analytics is quite easy. You sign up for an account and put in your url. Now you add a piece of code to all the pages of your site and the next day you can start getting the information.

If you use WordPress you can do this with a plugin and save a lot of time and aggravation. Add your code once and you are done.

Now you can begin to find out exactly what is working and do more of it. After all you do want more traffic for your blog, don’t you?

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps

 Tracking Traffic To Your Blog [1:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Technorati Tags: analytics, blog, generating traffic, google, search engines

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