A rainy Sunday here in the coal region. Has me moving a bit slow as the weather often times creeps into the bones of this old bald guy. Time to start through the bookmarks and see what I really liked this week in my travels through the blogosphere.

Each week as I am roaming through out the old www and tutoring myself I try and grab the posts that ring true or just make me laugh. This week has been more of a truth week.

Lets start with a trip to a biggie, Pro Blogger, for a guest post that really resonated with me from Arsene Hodali titled “7 Good Things that Blogging Brings“.

Our next stop is to visit with the Sales Lion, Marcus Sheridan. What caught my eye this week was his post “Google Search Results, the Death of Niche Sites, and Why Inbound Marketing is the Future of SEO“. An interesting view and one you should consider.

Our last stop but certainly not least is at Search Engine Land for a good article from Vanessa Fox titled “Your Site’s Traffic Has Plummeted Since Google’s Farmer/Panda Update. Now What?” More of a report but one of the better articles I have seen about the hot topic of Google’s Farmer Update. (Besides if the weather is like here you have time and could definitely get some great ideas.)

That is all for this week. Hope you enjoy and hopefully increase your knowledge this week.

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. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: blogger, google, hot topic, marcus sheridan, panda, search-engine

Closing out the month of February and this week I decided to change a couple things up. As a rule I don’t link to the “big guy’s blogs” that are super well known even though I regularly read them. Most people are already aware of them and I prefer to focus on the second tier.

Occasionally there is something there that I just feel you need to see. It won’t be a regular thing but this week there was a post that I needed to highlight.

Also have not previously linked to a post that is primarily a podcast but really enjoyed thr content on one this week. Lets start our travels there.

The first stop is DIYBlogger for a podcast which is an interview with Dan Cristo. It starts a bit slow but the content is excellent. Check out “No Bullshit Approach to Search engine Optimization and Page Rank With Dan Cristo“. Content is sometimes rated PG.

Our second stop is to Pro Blogger for a guest post by Stefanie Flaxman. Now I am not a grammar Nazi and often disagree with super strict grammarians but there are some excellent points in this post to pay attention to. Check out “Eliminate 21 Reputation-Crushing Writing Mistakes from Your Blog“.

And for our last stop this week but certainly not least lets stop by Income Diary. Load speed has become a factor in the way Google ranks your content so this is a post from Michael Dunlap titled “15 Ways To Speed Up WordPress“. Definitely some things to consider there.

That is it or this week but I will be back with more next week.

Let me know which ones you liked and if you found a good one this week leave it in the 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. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: blog, blogger, blogs, engine optimization, google, grammar, grammarians, load speed, page rank, reputation, travels

The start of another good week and time for a quick review of what I have liked this past week. Each week I try (I am old and bald after all) to pay attention as I travel through the blogosphere and keep track of some of the gems I find.

Come early Sunday I review what I have uncovered and grab 3 items to share. This week they are about images and video. Two easily overlooked items that you can add to your arsenal.

We’ll start with a good friend and fellow caffeine addict Barbara Ling and her blog Online Success. Her post was “Google Secrets #2 – Make Dynamic Viral Photo Galleries That Your Delighted Readers Crave To Share” and not only is it a funny read there is a neat lesson woven into the post.

Our second stop this week is to The Friendly Blogger and Lisa Drucbec’s post titled “Deep Linking: YouTube Video Linking“. It has some neat tricks on getting more traffic to your You Tube videos.

Our last stop (but certainly not least) this week id to Search Engine Journal and Scott Cowley’s post “23 Reasons To Add Video Blogging To Your Content Repertoire“.

Hope you enjoy these as much as I have and find them useful for improving your blogging. 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. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: Barbara Ling, blog, blogger, blogging, blogosphere, caffeine addict, cowley, gems, google, neat lesson, neat tricks, photo galleries, traffic, video two

Most bloggers are using Twitter and if you are a blogger and not using Twitter you should be.

Recently I started seeing mentions of me on Twitter and when I followed to the url I found this tool called Paper.li.

Paper.li allows you to create your own newspaper with the Twitter posts sent from the source you select.

This can be your Twitter followers, a specific hash tag, or a Twitter list you have created.

Then you can set the page to promote itself through your Twitter feed.

For the paper I created I added a few people to a Twitter list I called marketers and then used that list to pull the content.

It will update and tweet each day. Here is an example.

Now I have just started playing with this but I can see a few ways to use this.

A lot of it is dependent on how you use Twitter. It will work best if you have created lists and use hash tags regularly.

Much like the techniques used in Twitter Time Saver to use your feed reader to add value to your Twitter followers this can be used to create and compile content that your followers will find helpful.

Setting up a paper to pull in the latest use of certain hash tags will allow you to provide the latest every day to your followers on that topic.

If you are tweeting using that hash tag your content will be added along with others so it can be a great way to help your followers and promote your content at the same time.

Like wise if you have lists of people that consistently interact with you and provide good content you can set up a paper to promote those.

I know that I pay attention when I see my content promoted by others and tend to help those that do this by retweeting and interacting with them on Twitter.

All in all this looks like another tool that can be added to the arsenal to build relationships with others and anything that can do that is worth checking out and testing.

It is easy to create your own paper and if there is an interest I will post step by step instructions. Just leave your comments below if you would like to see a post on that.

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. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: blogger, bloggers, hash tag, paper li, relationships with others, twitter

Building a subscriber list and letting your subscribers know when you have added new content is an excellent way to generate extra repeat traffic. I have used Aweber for this for a long time because of the ease of automating the sending of these notices.

You can set up the emails to happen at any schedule you make and they check your feed for new items for you. No extra work to login and set up an email it can al be automated.

Aweber has just made it easier to use their service to add a form to your blog. They just released a new plugin that will allow you to add your form without doing any html to your sidebar.

First you need to install the plugin. Search for “Aweber web form” then click the Install Now.

Once it is installed you need to set up the settings. This is a two part session. 1) Get your authorization code. 2) Once you get it paste it in the box and make the connection.

When you click the link you will need to log in to your Aweber account.

When you login you will get the code you need to put in step 2 above. Just copy and paste it and click Make Connection.

Now your widget is ready to work. Now you will need a list set up at Aweber and as they have good tutorials on how to do that I will skip that part here.

Go to Appearance Widgets and drag the Aweber Web Form to your sidebar where you want it to appear. That will open like this when you have drug it into place.

Select your list and you will get a drop down for your forms.

Select the form you want to display then click save and your form is added to your blog. No HTML needed.

Makes it very easy for anyone to add an opt in form to their blog. Add in the ease of their form designer and Aweber makes it a good choice for any blogger to use to keep their subscribers updated.

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. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: aweber, blog, blogger, email, sidebar, step 2, subscribers, traffic, widget

Guest blogging is an excellent way to get more exposure for your blog. There are lots of people that are more than willing to let you provide content for them.

So why would you give your content to someone else? What’s in it for you?

See it is easy to understand the blog owner wanting more content. We never get enough but why would you want to give yours away?

Here are 3 reasons why…

• Exposure
• Backlinks
• Expertise

When you guest blog you reach a different audience. Providing quality content on another blog on your topic allows you to get exposure to people that may or may not find your blog normally.

If they like your material and your style they will go check you out and may become regular readers. Quite often if someone guest blogs on a blog I regularly read and impresses me I add their blog into my regular stops.

You can control the backlinks in your bio and get links from the blog you visited using the anchor text you created. These are the best types of links to help you rank in the search engines.

Finally you can leverage off of the expertise of the person accepting your guest post. The blogger that you are guest posting for is letting their audience know that you are someone they trust to add content for their site.

This is a personal endorsement of sorts and definitely will increase the expertise you are viewed to have to their audience. Obviously the bigger their following the more this helps you.

So there are 3 reasons to start guest blogging. I will be talking about how to find places to guest blog in another post.

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. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: anchor-text, backlinks, blogger, blogging, blogs, personal endorsement, search engines

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

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. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

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

Exercise your writing muscles [ 3:11 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Just came back from my first trip to the golf course. Went ot the driving range and hit a large bucket of balls. I now hurt – badly.

See it has been a long snowy winter here in Pennsylvania and the weather has finally changed. Usually enjoy the exercise I get from going out to golf but the first couple of times each season I find pains in places I didn’t know I have.

Another week or two and it will feel good to get the exercise as my muscles that have not been used over the course of the winter get back in shape. The muscle memory will start to come back and I will hit the ball better. (Notice the use of words better not good).

This is something that I knew would happen and I know that I need to go through it to be able to enjoy my time out on the golf course.

Writing causes the same thing. When I first started wring a blog 5 years ago it was often painful to try and come up with a topic. Create a post and get it formatted the way I wanted and finally hit the publish button.

Not quite the same pain as I am feeling in my muscles but a pain none the less. Part of that was the striving for perfection we discussed yesterday.

If you find writing painful and we all do at times you need to just do it. If you are in the perfection mode go create a blogger blog and make it private. Go post every day for 20 minutes about anything there for 2 weeks.

No one will see it and you can delete it when you are done but if you actually exercise your writing muscles they will get stronger. Will it be painful? Probably will but it won’t take long for you to get in “writing shape”.

Take the time to exercise your writing muscles and you will be surprised how much easier it will become to write your blog regularly.

As always your questions and comments are welcomed.

Mike Paetzold

Technorati Tags: blog post, blogger, writing, writing blog post

Todays question:

If I host a blogger blog or a wordpress blog on my own hosting account will I still have the same Page Rank as if it were hosted by blogger and wordpress?

Well this is a bit of a tough question because only Google knows what goes into your page rank. We get hints from results and what we see along with some of their patent filings but nobody but Google knows for sure and they try their best to keep it that way.

That being said for the most part your page rank is helped by incoming links and having the same linking to each type should generate the same page rank.

There is a big difference between hosting a Blogger blog and using the WordPress software on your own domain unless blogger has changed (I don’t stay up to date with blogger). You are still using their data base and software and it is primarily just a redirect when you host a blogger blog on your domain.

This leaves you open to them removing your blog at their discretion. Both Blogger and WordPress.com are not always affiliate friendly which is why I prefer if I am going to host it to use WordPress software on my site with my data base where I have complete control.

As always your questions and comments are welcomed.

Mike Paetzold

Technorati Tags: blogger, host blog, page rank, wordpress

You need to take advantage of the many free services to help get your blog started.

Caveat: The center of your hub should always a WordPress blog or a squeeze page on a domain that you control and own in my opinion.

Now that we have gotten rid of the caveat, lets look at some of the free tools that are available.

• Squidoo – my absolute favorite
• Hub Pages
• Blogger
• WordPress.com
• MSN Live

For the purposes of illustration we will pick a topic and use a bad word in my vocabulary ass/u/me that you have done the research and found to have profit potential about Turtles. (Turtles are my marketing topic of the day today bare with me here.)

You buy a domain, create your blog and start putting content there to draw traffic. You are posting at least daily to get started and more often if Turtles is a very competitive keyword. (Yes, I know I just picked that and have no idea if it is a competitive word. Boo hiss on me.)

Now go to Squidoo and create a lens on your topic. Add your RSS feed to your blog as one of the modules and make sure that use at least 20 tags. (You did keyword research before you entered this market didn’t you?) Add a short text article or two. Grab a You Tube module, a Flcikr module on your topic and add a guest book..

Go to Hub Pages, create a new Hub on your topic and add your RSS feed again. Make sure that you add tags here too. (For both of these you can do a quick re-write of your content to meet the content requirements . Do not use the same content on both sites or what you posted on the blog.)

Create a Blogger blog using your main keyword in the title you sign up with and create a short post about the great article you just found that links to a specific post on your blog with the keyword that post was focused on as your anchor text.

At WordPress.com and MSN Live you will be doing the same basic tasks except you will link to a different post on your blog with the corresponding anchor text for that keyword phrase.

Once a week you will want to add something to each of these sites. When you visit Squidoo you can add a module or just add a few more keywords and re-publish the lens plus the rss feed from your blog will be constantly updated.

Hub Pages will follow the same pattern as Squidoo. I usually add a new content module every other week.

Each week you will link to a new post from each of the free blog services with the anchor text for that post.

This allows you to take 5 minutes extra a day 5 days a week and keep a constant stream of links coming into your interior pages on a regular basis.

Want to take it up another level? Add a commenting and bookmarking strategy along with this you can easily increase the traffic and ranking to your blog quite quickly with very little extra effort. Add in article marketing and you may have to pay more for your server

There are many more of these types of sites that you can use to get even more links. If you have a favorite share with us and leave a comment below.

Mike Paetzold

Technorati Tags: blogger, hub pages, increase traffic, linking, seo, squidoo, wordpress