by Robert Plank

How to Find a Business Partner That’s a Good Match for You


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Whether you are marketing on or off the internet, you don't want to go about it alone. That means you should find someone who you can promote and can promote you to introduce you to a new audience, more traffic and a new set of subscribers. But you should be independent and able to survive without that partner, you should have similar goals and similar styles of marketing, and you should also be in the same niche.

I recommend against finding a business partner just because you can't market or you can't survive on your own. What if you find a business partner and they decide to go in a different direction than you, or to partner with someone else, or that person goes out of business. Now you are out of business as well. That is why I think you should stand on your own at first, have your own websites, your own blog posts, your own products, your own subscriber lists and then market with someone and join with someone because you want to not because you have to.

When you do connect with someone make sure this is a person with common goals similar to yours. This means that they market at the same prices as you, they have similar products as you and they just generally do business and market themselves in a similar way as you. What I mean by this is let's say you were very protective of your email subscribers and you only promoted offers that you have tried and believe in but your business partner promoted any and all offers that came his or her way.

There is nothing wrong with this, but it means that if you partner with this person you are going to conflict more often than not. That is why it's important to have someone who markets the same way as you and thinks the same as you.

And finally, this partner should be in the same niche. If you are in the jewerly niche you don't want to partner with someone is in the weight loss niche because their subscribers will not be interested in your offer and vice versa. You won't be able to promote each other, or even make products together when the time comes. That is why if you are in the list building niche, you should partner with someone who has similar skills in the list building niche. If you are in the self help niche, partner with someone in the self help niche and so on.

I hope this gives you a good idea of how to find a business partner you will work well with. Make sure you can survive without that business partner, that you have similar goals, and you are in the same niche.

Robert Plank wants to get your entire online business set up from your domain name, web host, opt-in page, sales letter, membership site, joint ventures, and more at www.newbiecrusher.com.

by Robert Plank

What Content And How Often To Post That Content To The Web


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If you want any amount of traiffic or credibility on the internet you need to have lots of content spread out across various sites. The good news is there are plenty of sites who are eager, in fact begging, for you to post your articles, blog posts and thoughts, and you can easily set up your own sites to hold your content.

You need to consistently be making forum posts, blog posts, and write auto-responder emails to guarantee you get consistent traffic.

A very easy place for you to speak your mind about any topic is on what's called a Message Board, Discussion Board, or a Forum. Sure, there are groups and there are areas on sites like Facebook to discuss a particular topic, but there have always been complete sites dedicated to one singlular topic. Anything from teaching your parrot how to talk to how to lose weight to dog obedience.

There are discussion boards around any subject and all you have to do is do a Google search for the name of your niche, and the word "forum".

Look at a few results in the first page and see which of these sites get posted to over and over. These are the sites where you should hang out, and establish yourself as a credible source in this field. You do this for two reasons. First, you get back links, you get links back to your site from your forum posts and you are getting your name out there so if you put out a book about how to train your dog and someone searched your name they see you have posted all over these sites.

You also want people to come back to your site, right. That is why you should reserve your best content for your blog. There is nothing wrong with you answering a forum post and maybe giving the short response on the forum, but then providing the longer response on your own site in a well-thoughtout blog post. This way people can see your replies on forums and if they like what you are all about, if they like your advice, and they like you they will click over to your blog, read it, and view your content there.

What is the point of getting someone over to your site?

You want to add them to your following or your email list. That is why you should get yourself an email auto-responder. You can get a free one at MailChimp.com, and a paid one at Aweber.com.

What you can do now is add a newsletter sign up form to your blog, and when someone likes the blog posts you make they can sign up for your list and get notified about new blog posts you make.

The final type of writing you should make are these reminders, these auto-responder emails that every few days simply send people back to your site. You might send them back to comment on an old blog post, a new blog post, or just click on any link that you happen to have for them which may include an affiliate link or a link to one of your products.

Those are the reasons why you should consistently post content to the web, so that people can find you and recognize you as an expert on a forum, click over to your blog and get more information, and finally sign up to your email newsletter to get regular updates.

Set up your entire blog, auto-responder, and traffic funnel using the training available at www.newbiecrusher.com.

by Robert Plank

Get Traffic Using Other People’s Blogs


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You need more traffic. It doesn't matter who you are. There are many ways to get more eyeballs on your websites, including your blog. And because you want people to visit your blog, what better source of visitors could you have than people who are already reading and responding on other people's blogs? You can get blog traffic from guest blogging, from blog commenting, and from joint ventures and affiliates.

Guest blogging is pretty simple and effective on the right blogs, but very few people do it. What you do is write a blog post. But instead of posting it on your own site, contact someone you know, and see if they accept guest content. In this post, you're going to be showing some of your best material, some of your best tips, but it's going on someone else's website. The good news is that your name is still attached to the blog post, even though it's someone else's website, and you usually have a link back to your blog. That way, if someone who was reading this post likes what they see, likes what you have to offer, then they will click on the link back to your blog and read more about you.

I have some blogs that give me consistent traffic even years later and consistent sales every week from something I wrote years and years ago. The only problem with this method is that you need to build your relationships, you need to know the person whose blog you're writing for. But the worst case scenario is that they say no, and you go and find someone else who will host this guest blog content.

Another strategy that is somewhat effective but easier to do is blog commenting. When you leave a comment on someone else's blog, you usually have the ability to type in a URL or a web address of your website. That means that on this website, there will be a blog pos, and underneath it, your blog comment, but your name is hyperlinked. And that means if someone decides they like your blog comment, if it contributed to the discussion and was not spammy, then they might click on that link and go back to your site. Many people mess this up and leave out the link, or have a link to a normal website. But if you're leaving a comment on a blog, what better place to send people than back to your blog. What's an even better idea is if you have a post on your blog about a similar topic, then link directly to that blog post instead of the front page of your blog.

And finally, there's nothing wrong with simply contacting people. If someone is promoting you as an affiliate and they're making even a handful of sales and you see they have a blog, why not ask them to place their existing affiliate link right on their blog. And even if they are not promoting you yet, it can't hurt to contact different blog owners and ask if they will place your link or banner ad in exchange for something. Maybe it is in exchange for a blog post, or a monthly fee, or maybe they just need to sign up as an affiliate, and promote your blog or your products and get a commission for the sales they bring in.

And that's how you can get blog traffic: through guest blogging, blog commenting, joint ventures, and affiliates.

Set up your blog today and get unlimited traffic to it at www.newbiecrusher.com.

by Robert Plank

The Best Way To Monetize Your Blog


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It's one thing to set up a blog. It's another thing to fill up that blog with content, but you'll have a lot more fun tweaking and editing and responding to commenters if your blog at least makes a little bit of money.

Let's talk about how to monetize your blog from ads, links, and subscription forms. The easiest but probably worst way to monetize a blog is with banner ads or text ads. What you can do at first is find someone else's site and link to them. Some people will contact you and offer to pay you $20 or $50 per month in exchange for a link on every page of your blog. And if it's worth the $20 or $50 for you, then go ahead and add that graphic or text to your theme or to your sidebar. But an even better thing to do is find an affiliate program on your own and sign up, and have that link on your blog. That way, you aren't given a flat fee. People can click on that link, and if they buy, you get a commission. The downside to that is if no one clicks and buys, then you send people off of your site and you don't make any money.

That's why the best way to monetize your blog is with an e-mail sign up form, an opt-in form, and a link to a product that you have made. That way, when you have an opt-in form on your blog, people are subscribing to your newsletter, and they can come back to your site when you make a new post or have a new offer. Likewise when you link to one of your products, if they end up buying and signing up for updates, you can still send them back to your blog or back to other offers, but that person is not lost forever.

As far as monetizing a blog, the easy way is to make a banner or text ad. A better way is to link to an affiliate program. And the best thing to do is to set up an opt-in form and link to one of your paid products.

Get your website set up in under 48 hours at www.newbiecrusher.com!

by Robert Plank

How To Install a WordPress Blog On Your Own Site


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Adding a blog to your site is a very good idea because you can list all of the articles, old e-mail messages, and basically thoughts and tips easily on a site, and you can do it to a point-and-click interface. You add a post and it's on there. You can categorize these posts, they're grouped by date, you can make them searchable, all built in.

Installing WordPress on your site is probably easier than you thought, especially if you have a Cpanel webhost. When you log in to Cpanel which is the back end of your website, there are many icons to click on but there is a blue smiley face labeled Fantastico. Once you are on this area, on the left side bar, there is a link to install WordPress. When you load that page, they are going to ask you for the title of your new blog, description, the web address if you want to set this up, and your log in, and that's it. Click a few buttons and now you have a WordPress blog set up, ready for a theme, ready for plugins, ready for content. You just fill in a form. It's super simple.

On the off chance you don't have a Cpanel webhost, there still are not a lot of extra steps and you can find many freelancers who will install WordPress for you for about $5. It's very simple. You got to wordpress.org, you click on the giant download button, and you will download what's called a zip file. You right-click the zip file and unzip it, basically just by double-clicking the file, opening it, and dragging the contents out of that folder. Then you will upload using an ftp client, and use your webhost to add a database. With many webhosts, you can simply ask the host and they will set up the database for you as WordPress instructs. Once you've compeleted these steps, you will then load your blog and it will ask you to fill in details like your database name, user name, and title of your blog. After taking those four steps, you're back to simply filling out a form, click a button, and again, your WordPress blog is now set up, ready for you to write your first post, choose a theme, and add some of your favorite plugins.

WordPress is easy to install on a Cpanel host. It's just point and click. But even on a non-Cpanel host, you take a few steps of downloading, unzipping, uploading, and setting up a database, and then you just fill in a form, and WordPress is installed anyway.

And that is how you install WordPress on your site. Look over my shoulder as I set up WordPress, add the proper plug-ins and fill it with content at www.newbiecrusher.com.

by Robert Plank

Decide Between A Blogger.com, WordPress.com, Or Self-Hosted Blog Solution


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You have many choices. You can either have your blog hosted by someone else for free, or you can host a blog on your very own site. I would highly recommend that you host your own blog on your own site, and here is why.

First of all, Blogger and WordPress will host your blog for free and it will even allow you to park your very own dotcom name to point to it. But the problem with this is that you are building someone else's site. They could shut the site down at any time if they decide they don't like you, and you have limited control about what exact themes and plugins you use on this blog. It's easy to set up, but you have less control.

If you host your own blog on your site, you have a lot more flexibility as far as extra plugins, extra themes, and you are not at risk of being shut down as much. What's great is that if you have a cpanel webhost, there is a section called Fantastico that will allow you to install a WordPress blog anywhere on your site with one click.

The good news is that when it's installed on your own site, it does not promote anyone else's site and you can easily move it anywhere you want – to a different domain main, different webhost, whatever. Even though Blogger.com and WordPress.com make it easier for you to get set up, you have less control and it's worth it to take those few steps to set up your very own blog on your very own website.

I want to help you get set up with your own blog that you control 100% at www.newbiecrusher.com.

by Robert Plank

The Top Ten Recommended Plugins For Bloggers


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When you set up a WordPress blog on your own site, you have the chance to select a single theme and install various plug-ins. The theme is the design of your blog, which means you can change it from a blue background site to a site with a white background for example, and a plug-in extends what the blog does, which means you can turn your blog into a forum, or add a pop-up, for example.

We're going to go over my top ten plug-ins to have a blog that is easy to find, easy to navigate, and encourages people to comment. We're going to be talking about the plug-ins for best visibility, most discussions, and easiest management.

As far as visibility goes, my favorite is the All In One SEO Plugin. By default, search engines like Google and Bing will not spider your blog correctly. They might not show the title in the right way, in the excerpt if someone searches, it might not show the exact part of the post, but the All In One SEO Plug-in makes sure that your sites appear correctly in the search engines.

The GoogleXML Site Maps plugin creates a special file that it submits to search engines that makes sure that they can get access to every single post and page on your blog. In the old days, spiders used to have to go to your front page and see what you linked to. But now with the Site Map, they can see every single page on your blog.

The Robots Meta plugin will make sure that no duplicate content appears in those search results, which will allow you to rank higher in search engines.

The WPTouch plugin will allow users with smart phones like iPhones, iPods, Android phones, to view your site in a mobile phone-friendly format, which means that all the text will appear in giant print, and it will be easy to navigate from a phone.

As far as discussion goes, the Subscribe to Comments plugin will make it so when someone leaves a comment under one of your posts, there is a box to check and if they check that box, they will be notified when other people leave comments under them.

The Get Recent Comments plugin will make a list of all the commenters on your side bar so people can easily see what new discussions have been taking place on your blog since they were last here.

The Akismet plugin, which is built into WordPress, keeps spammers away.

To manage your blog, install PsychicSearch, which will record everything people type in the search box of your blog. If someone comes to your blog and they are making a search for "time management" over and over again, that's an indication that you should make more posts about time management because that is what your visitors are looking for.

The Top Posts plugin will list all of your blog posts on a page, but it will show the post with the most comments first. That means that if you have a new blog about certain subjects that get the most response, then other people can find those hot topics and comment even more on those.

And finally, the Top Commentators widget will list which of your users or blog commenters talk on your blog the most. You can see who's the top ten bloggers, who's made 50 comments on your site or more, basically see who talks the most on your site so you can see who to reward, who to talk about, or who's blog you should comment on as well.

Those are my top ten WordPress plugins for visibility, discussion, and management on a WordPress blog.

Claim your setp-by-step blog set up video tutorials at www.newbiecrusher.com!

by Robert Plank

Include Graphics, Sub-Headlines, And Bullet Points In Your Blog Posts For Maximum Effect


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It's a really good idea to check out your competition and to observe other bloggers and see what they do and why they do it. One thing that many successful bloggers do is add graphics, sub-headlines, and bullet points in their blog posts. Why do they do that? The reasons are: for readability, to emphasize what's important, and to make any component of the post easy to access.

When you add these components like graphics, sub-headlines, even bullet points, it's easy to skip around and to see what is on the page. If I'm reading an article about Twitter and there's a picture of the blue Twitter bird on my blog post, it's pretty clear that I am reading about Twitter. And if I'm scrolling through a long post, I can easily stop and see this picture that is something important, or see a picture on a topic I'm interested in, and read just that part of the blog post. So I'm reading your blog post, not necessarily a long novel. It's okay for me to skip around and it's better because if I don't see what I'm looking for on your blog post, I might leave.

Next, for sub-headlines, this makes it very easy to structure your post so people can see what's important. If you are listing five things that everyone should improve on their websites, I want to know the five things. Because maybe, I'm just going to read one of the five things, or I want to know what the five things are upfront, or I want to start at one of the middle five things. By having a sub-headline, we can easily emphasize what's important. And at least in WordPress, you can type in the sub-headline to tip number 1: what the tip is, and in the editor, you can select Heading3. Select the text and choose Heading3, and now you have a sub-headline built directly into your blog post. So when I visit your blog, I know exactly what's important.

Within that editor, there is also a button to create a bulleted list, or a list of bullet points where you can say, "Here are the benefits to Tip #1" and list bullet points. That way, I don't have to comb through long sentences or long paragraphs. I can see exactly what the list is. And you aren't limited to just having a list. You can actually share the long version and underneath that, have the bulleted list so that if I want to read the long version, I can. But if I just want the summary, I can read that bulleted list.

And that's why you should include graphis, sub-headlines, and bullet points in your blog posts for better readability, to emphasize what's important, and so that I can pick and choose exactly what content I need.

Setting up a blog and filling it up with content is easy when you know how at www.newbiecrusher.com.

by Robert Plank

Integrate Your Blog With Twitter and Facebook


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If you take a few simple steps, you can take advantage of a huge amount of traffic from Twitter and Facebook, and at the same time get access to new people and make new connections that you would not have made just from having a webpage online, or from having a mailing list.

Because with Twitter and Facebook, you have your own private community, your own little groups of friends, you can easily build a relationship and have people clicking over to your blog and leaving comments every time you make an update just by installing a couple of easy plug-ins.

The first plug-in that is great to install is the TweetMeme plug-in. This adds a simple square button on your blog post, and shows how many people have re-tweeted or re-shared your post with their own followers on Twitter. And the great thing about this is that even if you are the only one who has shared this post, it will show that one person has shared your post on Twitter. And guess what, if you share today, tomorrow, or the next day, that shows as number 3. So the TweetMeme plug-in shows a little bit of social proof by showing how many people shared your blog post with the world. And at the same time, gives people an easy way to re-tweet the link to the subscribers with one click.

With Facebook, there is a way to integrate the RSS Feed of your blog so that when you post to your blog, it also posts on Facebook. But what I prefer to do is after you make a post, take that exact link and post it on your profile or on your fan page. The reason for posting this by hand is because you can change the title that appears in the link and your own description to customize for your followers. It's very simple. As soon as you make that blog post, copy out the URL or web address of that post, and paste it on your Facebook profile so that your friends can see it, click the Like button, comment on Facebook, or even better, click over and visit the exact blog post.

As far as sharing your blog on Twitter or GoogleBuzz, Facebook, or any other social networks, it's easy to do. You don't always require a special plug-in and there's no rule that says you can't re-tweet and re-share old blog posts in addition to new ones. What if you went to a blog post that was a week old, and re-shared it? What if you went to a blog post that was six months or a year old, and re-shared it or re-tweeted it? The TweetMeme number would increase, you would have more people seeing this old piece of content, and a chance that new visitors could see this content that they had not previously had access to.

Before you can set up your blog with a Twitter and Facebook, let's get it set up the correct way, with the correct plug-ins on the training at www.newbiecrusher.com.

by Robert Plank

How Long Should Your Blog Posts Be?


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When you're adding a new post to your blog, it's always tough to figure out how long you have to write. But that's the wrong question to ask. In fact, it does not matter how long your blog posts are.

I've checked on my own blog as far as comments, and the short posts get just as much response as the long posts, which means that there's no correlation between the length of your post and how many people read it, and how much response it gets.

This means that if you have a point to make, if you can make it in a shorter amount of time, then that's less work for you. In other words, if you can take the same 1,000-word blog post and say the same message in 100 words, then do it. Because there's no minimum requirement on a blog, and you will still get the same number of comments, but with ten percent of the effort and time as you did before. So your blog post is just as long enough as it has to be.

If you read different people's blog posts, you will find that some bloggers actually have very, very short posts. And if you can follow those bloggers, you can model what they do, and you will see that they use some different techniques to keep the length of their posts at a minimum.

My favorite technique for keeping the length of a blog post down is with lists and bullets. Instead of telling a big long story about the top ten things to use to fix a home, you just list the top ten things, and that in itself is a blog post as long as it condenses the same information down. And even then, you don't have to cram every little thing you have to say into one blog post. If you have ten things to say, those could each be ten short blog posts scheduled over time. And then, blog post number 11 can in itself be a list linking back to the other blog posts, which gives you more content, which provides more easy-to-access solutions and more ways for people to find you from searching something specific on Google or on your website.

The length of your blog post doesn't matter because you get the same number of comments, whether you have a short or long blog post. It just needs to be as long as it has to be to keep attention and make your point, and a great way to do this is lists and bullet points to make it easy to read and easy to jump down to the comments, leave a comment, or click on a link.

The Newbie Crusher Course will set you up with a blog, membership site, traffic, and more at www.newbiecrusher.com.