Great question today and one that does get asked frequently. After all everyone I know is looking for ways to automate as much of their business as possible and creating content can definitely be time intensive.

Remember that you can leave your questions in the comments and I do answer questions here regularly that are left in the comments. Right now the queue is down so your questions are appreciated.

Would like to learn more about autoblogging and if you think it is worthwhile. Keep hearing a lot about it.

I have tried some auto blogging and five years ago it worked and worked well for Adsense blogs. Now it has not been effective for quite some time.

It is good for supplementing what you are doing and if you have new content of your own and supplement it with automation it can be helpful.

What I use is Automatic Blog Posting plugin which is a paid plugin. It pulls articles based on your keywords from Article Base so first check how much content they have for your niche.

I only use it to supplement my efforts and add an extra post or two a week to keep the blog fresh but have not found any set up I could make work over the last few years that are truly set and forget.

They are great to supplement your efforts and add new content but as the prime way of generating your content I would not recommend it.

Your comments and questions are welcomed and appreciated.

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: answer questions, auto blog, blogging, blogs, niche

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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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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. Get the details at Profitable Blog Steps

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

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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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Now I have been playing with the release candidate and the various beta versions of 3.0 on the beta blog since they first came out. Today I took a bit of time to view Matt Mullenweg’s presentation from WordCamp in San Francisco.

By the way if you are not checking out WordPress TV regularly you are missing some killer content. A ton of good videos there and I will be using it more.

One of the neat things that I did not realize was that with the new 2010 theme you could use custom headers per page.

So for example I could have a different header for my about page. It works with all different pages and posts too so you could designate different headers for different sections of your blog.

The deeper I keep digging into all of the new features the more impressed I am with this new version.

Look for lots more information to come once it is released and I start testing some of these new features and how to implement them on my various blogs.

Definitely will have a learning curve to start using the new features but the good part is you don’t need to use them right away and looks like everything existing works quite well.

Should not be long before it is released.

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: beta versions, blog, blogs, custom headers, learning curve, new features, release candidate, wordcamp, WordPress 3.0 beta, wordpress tv

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Well yesterday I skipped the soap box for my rant because of being thankful. Today it is a time for reminders that we tend to skip.

If 10 minutes from now your web server crashed because the hard drive died and your host did not have backup files would you be okay?

The first part actually happened to me with a hard drive getting fried on the server I was on but my host had backups so I had to do nothing but wait.

But what if they didn’t have a backup?

At the point I was a brand new blogger and had been blogging for about 2 months. I had spent hours tweaking out the look of the blog (this was before WordPress) but I had done it all through cpanel.

I was new enough to blogging that I did not even use FTP at that point. Boy was I ever lucky. Part of that was having a good host too.

But as a long term member of the Murphy club (you know anything that can go wrong will) I now make sure that I have everything backed up.

Lets go over what you need to recover from a catastrophe like this with your WordPress blog.

Step one you will need a backup of your data base. The easiest way to do this is with a plugin. (WP Data Base Backup) I have it email me a copy every day to a special Gmail account. You do need to check the account to make sure it is actually happening. Monday is the day I check that account and make sure it is receiving a copy from all of my blogs,

I keep a backup of all the files in my wp-content/uploads folder too. Once a week I back that up. That has all of your images and audio/video files you have uploaded.

Finally I keep a current set of my theme files on my computer. This has all of the edits I have made to the theme.

That is the minimum you need to backup. There is no need to keep plugins (unless you have edited them or they are premium ones) or the actual WordPress software unless you want to have everything in one place.

If you have those pieces as soon as your server is fixed you can get things back together. Hopefully you never need to do this but if you ever do you will be glad that you have them. After all Murphy doesn’t live just at my house .

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: backup files, blog, blogs, hard drive, web server, wordpress, wp data

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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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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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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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