Love them or hate them Google is the big fish in the search engines. A high ranking in the Google search engine results can be a great boon to getting traffic to your blog.

There is a lot more to it than just the search engine.

Two tools that they provide that you really need to be using are Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools.

Analytics will help you find out exactly what traffic you are getting and how they find you. This is a topic that is written up often here and in other places.

Often though we overlook the webmaster tools. Taking the time to set your blog up here can be quite helpful. Webmaster Tools will allow you to see how Google sees your blog.

You can see if they are having a problem crawling your site. You can see what they think your blog is about.

It is easy to get set up and the information will help you improve your blog. Just click on add site and submit your url.

If the site is already set up with Google Analytics (and it should be) then you are set up. Now take the time to submit your sitemap. This way you will make sure that Google is reading it properly.

Click on the more link under site maps.

Then you need top resubmit it. Just check the box and click resubmit.

Stop back the next day to make sure that it is working.

Analytics is great but there is even more you can get from using Webmaster Tools so take the few minutes to add it and then stop weekly to see exactly how Google sees your site.

As always your questions and comments are welcomed. Leave them below.

ĜȁoŬੀǗŸ‘plication Data\BlogDesk\UserData\Images\sitemap.png”
width=450 height=152>

Then you need top resubmit it. Just check the box and click resubmit.

src="file://C:\Documents and Settings\Michael Paetzold\Application Data\BlogDesk\UserData\Images\sitemap1.png"
width=450 height=128/>

Stop back the next day to make sure that it is working.

Analytics is great but there is even more you can get from using Webmaster
Tools so take the few minutes to add it and then stop weekly to see exactly how
Google sees your site.

As always your questions and comments are welcomed. Leave them below.

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, google, google search engine, Google webmaster tools, search engine results, site maps, traffic

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Google Reader is one of my favorite tools. I use it in many ways. Now it could be another feed reader if you like it better. Feed readers are one of the best ways to keep updated on topics.

Here is how you can us a feed reader to keep current.

When you find a blog you want to keep up with (like hopefully this one) add the feed into your reader. That way you can check your reader and see the latest posts for this blog and any others that you follow.

Go to Google News and add in the topic you want to be current on. Grab the rss feed for that search and add it to your reader. Now every time the Big G finds new content on that topic it will show up in your feed reader.

This is a real easy way to follow a lot of topics quickly.

Here is how you can grab a Google News feed and add it to your reader.

Type in your topic and search news. Once you get the results scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the RSS icon.

This will send you through to the actual feed.

Copy the url and go to your reader.

Click the add subscription button.

Paste in the url and click add.

You can do this for any search or to add any blogs rss feed and now you will have one place where you can go and see all the new things in a few minutes.

Take advantage of the power of feed readers and keep current with what is new without wasting a lot of time going from place to place.

Your questions and comments are welcomed. Use the comment box below.

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: big g, blog, blogs, favorite tools, feed reader, feed readers, google, news feed, search news, subscription button, time saver

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Yesterday I did the weekly Get Referrals Fast training and the topic was Blogging and Social Media. Unfortunately because of the upgrade with Hot Conference I could not record it. It was doing some goofy things.

Despite that we had a great session and we do these on a weekly basis going through all 4 of the sessions over again so in 4 weeks it will be done again.

After the presentation though is the really good stuff and that never gets recorded. When we get into questions and answers we go through a wide range of topics.

One of the best from that was the power of relationships. All too often people try to use the various social media to sell instead of building relationships.

So the question became do you use Facebook, Twitter, and others to build a relationship with people first?

If you are not then you are missing the power of these sites.

Just like your blog you really need to build a relationship with your followers and readers. That will be the real key to being able to use these sites for your marketing.

You can occasionally sell things this way but you really need to be building relationships and sharing quality information with your followers/readers or they will not trust you to purchase from you.

So are you building relationships with your blog and social networks?

Leave your comments below and any questions you may have on WordPress or blogging. After all interaction allows you to start building relationships.

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, building relationships, marketing, relationship, social networks, twitter, wordpress

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Amazing what happens when you ask. Yesterday I asked for more questions and now I have them. Before I get into answering questions there is a bigger point here.

It is important that you actually have a point in mind when you are crafting your blog post. This can be an action you want your reader to take or a point you want to educate your reader on. Having that point in mind before you start writing will help you create more focused posts.

This was brought up last night during the Get Referrals Fast conference.

Originally the discussion was how long should a blog post be.

Now there is definitely no single right answer for it. A lot of it depends on your style but too many of the really long posts I see can be confusing to say the least.

Often they are not focused and meander between topics. This creates a problem for a couple reasons.

If people get confused because you go off topic they tend to leave your blog. The other problem is that the spiders have the same problem figuring out your topic and where to add it in the search results.

Both are not good for getting more readers.

The second is that there are some that can use long posts effectively but it takes a bit of skill that only a few have. You really need the ability to be a great story teller to get away with this.

If you have a great story and can keep it related to your topic you can write novellas and have them work but those that can are an extreme minority.

If you start with an end result in mind it is easier to keep your posts focused and that will benefit you in many ways. If you have other topics you want to address save them for your next post.

Let me know what you think and even though I got some questions yesterday I am always looking to answer your questions here so leave them 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: blog posts, end result, referrals, spiders

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One of the things I really like doing is teaching. Whether it is in conference rooms like I do each Thursday for Get Referrals Fast, the training I do each month for upgraded members at Profitable Blog Steps or answering your questions here.

Lately though the number of questions coming in has dried up. This could be that we have already answered all of the questions you may have about blogging and WordPress but some how I doubt it.

So it is time to answer the questions you have but you need to be asking them.

This is very easy just leave it in the comments.

Part of the reason the questions have dried up is that I stopped asking so today is the day to ask. For a long time I always ended my post asking for questions to be posted in the comments.

Over the last week or two I stopped doing that for whatever reason. Maybe just laziness or maybe figuring that readers know I want questions asked. You know I became enamored with that dangerous word assume.

I assumed that all my readers would ask questions even when I did not ask.

A good point to remember is that if you are not specifically asking for what you want to happen the odds are it won’t.

Time to get back to the old way so let me know what you think and please leave any questions you have about WordPress or blogging in the comments.

Technorati Tags: answering your questions, blogging, wordpress

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One of the ways to get better results is through creating content consistently. Finding topics can be a big problem at times.

Here are 3 ways to come up with ideas when you sit down and just stare at the screen.

Forums

You probably are already a member of forums on your topic. If not you should be. Just take your keyword and go search Google with “keyword + forum”. This will give you forums on your topic and a quick look through the forums will show you what is hot.

Hot topics are perfect ideas for you to address on your blog. Finding the active forums and becoming an active part of them can help you in many ways.

Twitter search

Plug your keyword into Twitter search and you can find what is being talked about on that topic. Go through the results and the neat part is that you can see how many retweets different tweets have gotten.

Now you can find hot topics easily.

Google News

Often overlooked but usually one of the first places I go when the dreaded writers block hits me is Google News. A quick search there on your topic and you can usually come up with ideas for your next post.

So rather than just sit there frustrated try these sources and you will find that you can easily find topics to write about.

Usually when I do this I get more than one idea and when you do make sure to write them all down. That way you have your idea for tomorrow too.

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 ideas, forums, Google News, twitter search, writers block

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Each Thursday evening at 8 pm I do a training class for new marketers. This week the topic is Blogging and Social Media.

Now these are set up for very new marketers to the internet as part of our support for Get Referrals Fast members. They are open to everyone.

You can access them online at our Hot Conference room.

Was a bit disappointed at the lack of response for resuming the Blog Talk Radio series yesterday but will ask again once the summer is over. This is one of the big vacation weeks of summer here in the US so that may have had a result on the response.

So if you are interested in getting started with blogging and social media make sure to mark your calendar and stop by tonight at 8 pm edt.

Here is the time in your area.

You can access the conference here.

Hope to see you there and as always look forward to your questions and 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: blogging, conference, social-media, training

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There are two big questions that I get over and over every time I do a talk on blogging.

1. What do I write about?
2. How do I get traffic to my blog?

Today we will give you 5 ways to help you answer the first question. This will help you with the second question because regular quality content is one of the big pieces to answering the second question.

You need to be active in your community no matter what the topic is. If you are you will see what types of questions are being asked. So forums on your topic are one of the easiest places to see what questions are being asked.

What problems are people having? Answer these questions as your blog post. Now you have a topic and are providing information your audience wants. Think that might even help you with getting traffic?

Use Google News to keep track of what is new on your topic. Let Google find the latest news. Now I find it easier for me to add the feed from that topic to a feed reader so I can just open that in the morning and catch up on the latest news quickly.

Yahoo Answers is another place where you can search on your topic and see what type of questions are being asked. You can use the best or most common questions as blog post topics. Answer a few while you are there and link back to your blog and you have more potential traffic too.

While you are going through Google News you will be finding other blogs in your niche. Take a minute or two to comment on some of the better posts but pay attention to the comments. Often people will be asking questions in the comments and this can be a great place to get topic ideas. Commenting is a good way to generate traffic to your blog at the same time.

Finally what are you doing and what is working for you? Last night I did a conference on beginning blogging for my Get Referrals Fast members. This topic was a big question that was asked so it created a topic for me to address today.

Anyone that attended could write a blog post today about what they got from the conference and use that as a post and even promote their Get Referrals Fast link while doing it in a very soft sell approach.

So that gives you 5 ways to get blog post topics so you don’t have to sit down at the keyboard and stare when it is time to go post.

Because I like to over deliver here is a very important sixth tip . Always have a way to write down ideas when you get them. I carry a little spiral notebook with me and often have a small digital recorder. I can and have gotten an idea while out shopping or just walking around. Write it down or record it. If you don’t the odds are that it will be long gone by the time you sit down to write.

Let me know what you think by adding your comments and any ideas you have on generating more blog post topics.

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, blogs, feed reader, topic ideas, traffic

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It is Monday morning once again and time to spend a bit of time making sure I am ready for the week.

First and foremost on Monday mornings is to make sure that I have backups. This will include backups of all of the various data bases being used on blogs and membership sites. Now my blogs are automated to email me a backup but this is the day I actually check that email and make sure that they are still being delivered.

Next step is to check the calendar and see what I have committed to for this week. Are there any launches I have promised to promote or have I made other commitments like a guest post for another blog.

Then I start checking my idea mind map for each of the blogs. This will tell me if I have already scheduled items or if I need to spend some time on them this week. This is when I add more ideas that I have on my note pad each week.

As I get ideas I add them to either the note book I carry or my voice recorder. It is amazing how many more ideas I have because I write them down or record them. If I don’t they are quickly forgotten when other items come to me.

I move what needs to be done to my to do mind map that I work off of each day with notes.

By doing this each week I make sure that the routine things get done regularly and that I can work off of my to do list for the week and not be worried about missing things.

Being organized saves me a lot of time and when I sit down to work I don’t have to think about what I need to do each day. It is laid out for me.

Now I have a daily mind map check list too for the things that I do every day as a second side of my to do list. (One of the reasons I strongly recommend you learn to use Free Mind.) This includes things like going through my Google reader and marking what I want to share each day like I teach in Twitter Time Saver. I check various forums, blogs and the support desk regularly.

It takes time to get these set up but like a lot of things I use it is one time effort that saves me time in an ongoing basis.

The best part of doing this is when I get interrupted with a new launch offer or someone looking to do an ad swap or any other interruption it is really easy to get back into exactly what I need to get done next.

Routines can save you a lot of trouble but you need to make them a habit which will take you some time but it is time well spent in my humble opinion.

So do you have routines and are you using them? Leave your comments below.

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 organization, blogs, mind map, monday mornings, support desk, time saver

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Building your list is one, if not the best, way to grow your affiliate marketing business. If you are an affiliate marketer the majority of your time and effort should be spent doing just that. There is a reason you always hear the money is in the list even though those of us that have been around a while know it is the relationship with the list that is the real money maker.

Here are 3 ways that a blog can help you build that relationship.

The first way to build that relationship is to offer good content to your subscribers. The problem can come up though when you do not
have a call to action in your content and sometimes it just does not fit.

It is important to get your subscribers in the habit of taking action and clicking on links. The easy way to do that is to put your quality content on your blog. Send out a teaser email and link to the content. Your subscriber gets in the habit of clicking your links.

This can be the ultimate leverage of your content. You are providing it to your subscribers but you have put on your blog allowing others that aren’t on your list to access and want more from you.

Email deliverability can be a problem at times. Even when you use a quality autoresponder like Aweber with the spam filters it is very easy to get tripped up using words like free, make money, etc in your emails. If your email doesn’t get delivered and ends up in the spam filter it won’t make you any money.

Here is where a blog can help you.

Put your promotion on your blog. Here you can use the power words like free, automated money maker, etc that will get action from the reader but won’t make it through the spam filters to your subscribers inbox.

Just send a teaser email with a link to your blog post and you can get it past the spam filters and still have a powerful promotion.

The third way is that your content on a blog is drawing additional readers. It is much easier to get permission to continue to contact them when they have already sampled and liked your content style.

Add a way to opt in to your email list on your blog and take advantage of that fact.

For more ways to improve your affiliate marketing using a blog check out Profitable Blog Steps.

 3 Ways Your Blog Can Help You Build Relationships [2:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketer, affiliate marketing, aweber, money maker, profitable blog steps, relationship, spam filters, subscriber

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