Thursday, September 30, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
How NOT to Promote Clickbank Products
OK, I admit I go on a total rant in this video about how NOT to promote Clickbank products — probably because it’s my own product, but also because this is a GREAT example of bottom-of-the-barrel affiliate marketing.
On another note – don’t tell me how great my instruction is and then produce something like shown in this video — this work is the antithesis of everything I teach about becoming a successful affiliate marketer.
Social Promote: Where Clickbank Meets Facebook15 Ways to Sell More of Your Products on ClickbankSell Products to Spanish Markets through ClickbankNew at Clickbank: Recurring BillingPlanning to Sell Through Clickbank? Think Again!
Rosalind Gardner is a Super Affiliate blogger, author, speaker, and Internet marketing consultant. For more info, subscribe to her No-Hype, No-BS, No Spam NPT newsletter and join Affiliate Blogger PRO to get answers to all your affiliate marketing questions. Thanks for visiting!
MLM vs. Affiliate Marketing
In the following video, I go on an almost 15 minute rant against MLM (FHTM in particular).
These guys have the audacity to call their business model ‘relationship marketing’, when in fact what folks are doing is destroying relationships with their friends, family and neighbours while trying to recoup hefty investments in this so-called business opportunity.
For your $300 initial investment plus $70 every month thereafter, you get a cookie-cutter site that Google hates and will slap with a duplicate content penalty. Where’s the relationship in THAT?
In the video, I also show how MOST of the reps are making no money at all, based on FHTM’s own income disclosure statement.
The crux of the matter is that you don’t need to put out big bucks to start a business, especially online.
The model is called affiliate marketing, and for a tiny fraction of what you would invest in an MLM opportunity, you can have a real website and you don’t have to pay to promote REAL name brands.
‘Nuff said. Watch the video and let me know what you think by leaving a comment below. 
Choose Your Affiliate Marketing Model WiselyOne Way to Automate and Increase Your Affiliate CommissionsCan I Really Make Money as an Affiliate Marketer?Video: How Affiliate Marketing WorksThe Best Thing about Affiliate Marketing is…
Rosalind Gardner is a Super Affiliate blogger, author, speaker, and Internet marketing consultant. For more info, subscribe to her No-Hype, No-BS, No Spam NPT newsletter and join Affiliate Blogger PRO to get answers to all your affiliate marketing questions. Thanks for visiting!
Make Money Helping Local Businesses Start a Blog
Home > Blogging > Make Money Helping Local Businesses Start a Blog
You also know which plugins to use to make it functional and how to make it look great with a pretty professional WordPress theme.
You know which pages are must-haves on any blog.
AND you understand the benefits of blogging in terms of getting free traffic, as well as how to use PPC at the local level to reduce advertising costs.
So, why not make money using your knowledge to help businesses in your local area either set up a new blog, or improve an existing web site?
Surely, you’ve come across a few local businesses that could benefit greatly from your blogging knowledge.
I run across awful local business sites all the time.
For example, most of the small resort, motel and private RV park/campground sites I find when doing travel research are just downright ugly. Most of them look like they were designed in 1997 and haven’t been updated since.
Here are two examples…
Typical errors that you find on these sites include:
Fonts and font colors used are either too big, too small, bolded throughout, completely inappropriate or just plain awful.Site navigation is terrible or non-existent, and I refuse to hunt and peck to find either the current rate sheet or a map to the place.Sometimes the pictures do the venue absolutely no justice and probably chase potential visitors away.No thought is given to capturing free traffic through SEO. “Welcome” in H1 isn’t going to bring visitors to XYZ Lodge in ABC county.There is insufficient information posted. Simply placing the words ‘fishing licences’ at the bottom of a page with no link doesn’t tell me anything about what fishing licence I might need to fish in that area, or where to get a fishing licence if I want one.
Those are just a few examples of how these local businesses need help.
Now here’s an example of a resort site that was done right, and it IS a blog.
The blog is attactive and gives visitors all the information they might need, including a number of ways to contact the owners for more information.
Think about it.
How hard would it be to approach a local business and tell them that you can help them get MORE business by helping them improve their online presence?
Use your knowledge about blogging and blog design to make extra money helping local businesses improve their sites or put a blog online.
Interested?
Learn HOW to set up your freelance business as a blog designer / installer / builder, join Affiliate Blogger PRO and see the Grow Your Business section.
You’ll find instructions on how to set up your business blog, how to price your offering and how to market to local businesses.
Is Your Blog Topic Truly Obvious?If I Had to Start Over as an Affiliate Marketer…Blog Commenting Tactic Benefits Trainer… NOT Students10 Reasons to Start a Discussion ForumShawn’s Passion for Helping Young Scientists
Rosalind Gardner is a Super Affiliate blogger, author, speaker, and Internet marketing consultant. For more info, subscribe to her No-Hype, No-BS, No Spam NPT newsletter and join Affiliate Blogger PRO to get answers to all your affiliate marketing questions. Thanks for visiting!
View the original article here
You also know which plugins to use to make it functional and how to make it look great with a pretty professional WordPress theme.
You know which pages are must-haves on any blog.
AND you understand the benefits of blogging in terms of getting free traffic, as well as how to use PPC at the local level to reduce advertising costs.
So, why not make money using your knowledge to help businesses in your local area either set up a new blog, or improve an existing web site?
Surely, you’ve come across a few local businesses that could benefit greatly from your blogging knowledge.
I run across awful local business sites all the time.
For example, most of the small resort, motel and private RV park/campground sites I find when doing travel research are just downright ugly. Most of them look like they were designed in 1997 and haven’t been updated since.
Typical errors that you find on these sites include:
Fonts and font colors used are either too big, too small, bolded throughout, completely inappropriate or just plain awful.Site navigation is terrible or non-existent, and I refuse to hunt and peck to find either the current rate sheet or a map to the place.Sometimes the pictures do the venue absolutely no justice and probably chase potential visitors away.No thought is given to capturing free traffic through SEO. “Welcome” in H1 isn’t going to bring visitors to XYZ Lodge in ABC county.There is insufficient information posted. Simply placing the words ‘fishing licences’ at the bottom of a page with no link doesn’t tell me anything about what fishing licence I might need to fish in that area, or where to get a fishing licence if I want one.
Those are just a few examples of how these local businesses need help.
Now here’s an example of a resort site that was done right, and it IS a blog.
The blog is attactive and gives visitors all the information they might need, including a number of ways to contact the owners for more information.
Think about it.
How hard would it be to approach a local business and tell them that you can help them get MORE business by helping them improve their online presence?
Use your knowledge about blogging and blog design to make extra money helping local businesses improve their sites or put a blog online.
Interested?
Learn HOW to set up your freelance business as a blog designer / installer / builder, join Affiliate Blogger PRO and see the Grow Your Business section.
You’ll find instructions on how to set up your business blog, how to price your offering and how to market to local businesses.
Is Your Blog Topic Truly Obvious?If I Had to Start Over as an Affiliate Marketer…Blog Commenting Tactic Benefits Trainer… NOT Students10 Reasons to Start a Discussion ForumShawn’s Passion for Helping Young Scientists
Rosalind Gardner is a Super Affiliate blogger, author, speaker, and Internet marketing consultant. For more info, subscribe to her No-Hype, No-BS, No Spam NPT newsletter and join Affiliate Blogger PRO to get answers to all your affiliate marketing questions. Thanks for visiting!
View the original article here
Email Scam: Urgent Request from a “Friend”
Home > News+ > Email Scam: Urgent Request from a “Friend”
Website Advertising Enquiry SpamCredit Card Scam WarningAlmost Fooled by PayPal ScamDid You Get This Email Too?Latest Scam Emails
Have you come across the “urgent request from a friend” money-making email scam? Well, someone is making money with these ones, but it won’t be you. You could lose money if you’re not careful.
The way it works is you receive an email that originates from the real email address of a real friend of yours with “Urgent” or “Emergency” in the subject line.
Even the email headers look correct.
The body of the email contains an explanation about that friend’s trip abroad (they apologize for not letting you know that they went) along with an urgent request for money because they’ve been robbed.
If the language used had sounded more like my friend, I might have been fooled with the first one I received — because the signature used exactly the same script that my friend uses.
Fortunately, the writing in these emails is usually horrible, which should make you stop and ponder the message more closely.
Here are 2 examples.
I am in a hurry writing you this message cause I don’t, have much time on the pc here, so I have to brief you my present situation which requires your urgent response Actually, I had a trip to Africa. yesterday but unfortunately for me all my money got stolen at the hotel where I lodged due to a robbery incident that happened in the hotel.I have been so restless since last night cause I have been without money, I am even owing the hotel here as well moreover the Hotel’s telephone lines here got disconnected by the robbers and they are trying to get them fixed back. I have access to only emails at the library because my mobile cant work here so I didn’t bring it along, please I want you to help me with money.please can you send me 1,500.Pounds To enable me return back I would refund it back to you as soon as I get home, I am so confused right now and don’t know what to do, you can have it sent through western union money transfer with my name and the address bellow.
Name : [friend's full name]
name and the address bellow.
Name : Calvin Brennan
Address is: 30 Leicester Square
City : London.
country : United Kingdom.
zip code : WC2H 7LA.
Thanks a lot for your kindness;I will really appreciate your quick response.
Best Regards,
Don
I Hope you get this on time,sorry I didn’t inform you about my trip in Cyprus for a program,I’m presently in Nicosia and am having some difficulties here because i misplaced my wallet on my way to the hotel where my money and other valuable things were kept.I want you to assist me with a loan of 2500Euro to sort-out my hotel bills and to get myself back home.I have spoken to the embassy here but they are not responding to the matter effectively,I will appreciate whatever you can afford to assist me with,I’ll Refund the money back to you as soon as i return, let me know if you can be of any help. I don’t have a phone where i can be reached. Please let me know immediately.
Archie
The really sad thing about this scam is that those of your friends from whom these emails originate have just had their email accounts hacked — which for most people is a major hassle.
So, 2 words of warning here. Don’t be fooled by this email scam and don’t let your email account be subjected to a hacker. Change your password regularly!
Website Advertising Enquiry SpamCredit Card Scam WarningAlmost Fooled by PayPal ScamDid You Get This Email Too?Latest Scam Emails
Rosalind Gardner is a Super Affiliate blogger, author, speaker, and Internet marketing consultant. For more info, subscribe to her No-Hype, No-BS, No Spam NPT newsletter and join Affiliate Blogger PRO to get answers to all your affiliate marketing questions. Thanks for visiting!
My BIG Facebook Faux Pas
I created a profile and let everyone and his brother become my “friend”.
That was all well and good until I had nearly 5,000 friends and realized that was going to be all that Facebook allowed.
Limiting friends?
I have 100's of thousands of subscribers on my email lists and only a certain percentage buy. I want to GROW my lists, NOT limit their numbers.
Egads.
Hmmm… 5000 friends and there was no way to tell which of them was interested in my personal exploits vs. BUYING products I recommended.
Had I bothered to do some research, I would have learned that profiles were limited in terms of the number of friends you can have — not to mention that things get completely confusing between REAL friends and those folks who wanted to stay in touch for my business acumen… DESPIITE my obvious lack of Facebook expertise.
Argh.
So, what to do?
It turns out that what I should have done after creating my profile, was create a Facebook PAGE for people who are interested in my affiliate marketing and blogging business teachings to LIKE (or FAN).
Talk about embarrassing.
I had to create a Welcome Page and install Facebook code on each post for folks to ‘Like This’ and get my work recognized.
Then I had to cull all those ‘friends’ from the original profile and try to redirect them to my new pages. That was pretty much a bust.
Talk about a waste of time.
I could have accessed Jonathon Volk’s book on Facebook advertising beforehand, but NO…. I thought I knew better.
I blew $100 in the space of 15 minutes on a Facebook ad.
Granted, $100 isn’t a great deal of money to me, but considering it brought me only one “Like”, there’s NO way my short Facebook advertising adventure was worth the trouble considering none of my products sells for more than $47.00.
Stupid, stupid me.
Anyway, please avoid making the same mistakes with Facebook.
Get professional help as suggested above – save your time and do Facebook right the first time.
Mari Smith’s 240-page digital guidebook is jam-packed with how-to’s, strategies, checklists, templates, screenshots and diagrams from which you’ll learn how to build profitable relationships using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media marketing venues.
Not only that, but you’ll also get Monthly live open Social Media Q&A calls, PLUS, over a dozen archived Facebook & Twitter Q&A calls and webinars!
Very reasonably priced, Mari’s Social Marketing Method is worth it’s weight in Gold!
Nailing the Facebook News FeedIvy Bean: The World’s Oldest Person on FacebookIncrease Your Facebook Network with ApplicationsHow to Connect with Influential People on FacebookHow I Got 2198 Facebook Friends With NO Profile
Rosalind Gardner is a Super Affiliate blogger, author, speaker, and Internet marketing consultant. For more info, subscribe to her No-Hype, No-BS, No Spam NPT newsletter and join Affiliate Blogger PRO to get answers to all your affiliate marketing questions. Thanks for visiting!
View the original article here
That was all well and good until I had nearly 5,000 friends and realized that was going to be all that Facebook allowed.
Limiting friends?
I have 100's of thousands of subscribers on my email lists and only a certain percentage buy. I want to GROW my lists, NOT limit their numbers.
Egads.
Hmmm… 5000 friends and there was no way to tell which of them was interested in my personal exploits vs. BUYING products I recommended.
Had I bothered to do some research, I would have learned that profiles were limited in terms of the number of friends you can have — not to mention that things get completely confusing between REAL friends and those folks who wanted to stay in touch for my business acumen… DESPIITE my obvious lack of Facebook expertise.
Argh.
So, what to do?
It turns out that what I should have done after creating my profile, was create a Facebook PAGE for people who are interested in my affiliate marketing and blogging business teachings to LIKE (or FAN).
Talk about embarrassing.
I had to create a Welcome Page and install Facebook code on each post for folks to ‘Like This’ and get my work recognized.
Then I had to cull all those ‘friends’ from the original profile and try to redirect them to my new pages. That was pretty much a bust.
Talk about a waste of time.
I could have accessed Jonathon Volk’s book on Facebook advertising beforehand, but NO…. I thought I knew better.
I blew $100 in the space of 15 minutes on a Facebook ad.
Granted, $100 isn’t a great deal of money to me, but considering it brought me only one “Like”, there’s NO way my short Facebook advertising adventure was worth the trouble considering none of my products sells for more than $47.00.
Stupid, stupid me.
Anyway, please avoid making the same mistakes with Facebook.
Get professional help as suggested above – save your time and do Facebook right the first time.
Mari Smith’s 240-page digital guidebook is jam-packed with how-to’s, strategies, checklists, templates, screenshots and diagrams from which you’ll learn how to build profitable relationships using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media marketing venues.
Not only that, but you’ll also get Monthly live open Social Media Q&A calls, PLUS, over a dozen archived Facebook & Twitter Q&A calls and webinars!
Very reasonably priced, Mari’s Social Marketing Method is worth it’s weight in Gold!
Nailing the Facebook News FeedIvy Bean: The World’s Oldest Person on FacebookIncrease Your Facebook Network with ApplicationsHow to Connect with Influential People on FacebookHow I Got 2198 Facebook Friends With NO Profile
Rosalind Gardner is a Super Affiliate blogger, author, speaker, and Internet marketing consultant. For more info, subscribe to her No-Hype, No-BS, No Spam NPT newsletter and join Affiliate Blogger PRO to get answers to all your affiliate marketing questions. Thanks for visiting!
View the original article here
Wearing Green
Just updated my video proof that there is money to be made as an affiliate marketer video. Includes shots of my checks, Clickbank & Paypal accounts (from July and August 2010) in real time.
For those who don’t recognize my voice during the ‘checks’ portion of the video and question whether or not my name is on all of those different checks, please check out the following pic.
National Broadband Plan for the U.S.The Perfect Time to Go and Sell GreenPosted / Revised on September 5, 2010 under Videos
Tags:
Rosalind Gardner is a Super Affiliate blogger, author, speaker, and Internet marketing consultant. For more info, subscribe to her No-Hype, No-BS, No Spam NPT newsletter and join Affiliate Blogger PRO to get answers to all your affiliate marketing questions. Thanks for visiting!
View the original article here
For those who don’t recognize my voice during the ‘checks’ portion of the video and question whether or not my name is on all of those different checks, please check out the following pic.
National Broadband Plan for the U.S.The Perfect Time to Go and Sell GreenPosted / Revised on September 5, 2010 under Videos
Tags:
Rosalind Gardner is a Super Affiliate blogger, author, speaker, and Internet marketing consultant. For more info, subscribe to her No-Hype, No-BS, No Spam NPT newsletter and join Affiliate Blogger PRO to get answers to all your affiliate marketing questions. Thanks for visiting!
View the original article here
That Plugin is Messing Up Your Google Listings
Home > Blogging > That Plugin is Messing Up Your Google Listings
Do you use either the WP Greet Box or WWSGD (What Would Seth Godin Do?) plugins on your WordPress blogs?
Have you placed them to show at the top of your posts and/or pages?
If so, you might be losing some valuable free traffic from the search engines.
Take a look at the screenshot above to the right. The “if you are new here” text shown in bold shows up in the Google search results description when bloggers allow the code from those two plugins to render at the top of their posts.
By result they lose the space alotted for a proper description — which when written correctly can generate LOTS of extra traffic.
This problem can be solved in one of 2 ways:
Have the plugin set to render at the bottom of the post.A better alternative is to enter a proper meta description either through your Custom Fields or by using a plugin like the Platinum SEO Pack.
Your choice.
Do one or the other, but please don’t waste valuable free search engine traffic — it hurts my head when I see you doing that!
BTW, if you liked this post, you might also be interested in reading “WordPress Plugins and How I Use Them“.
Search and Replace Plugin for WordPress Ends MUCH FrustrationBlog Bloat? Pull that Plugin!Plugin Checks for Broken LinksWP-Polls Plugin Upgrade Needed with WP 2.5+Just Added the Simple Recent Comments Plugin
Rosalind Gardner is a Super Affiliate blogger, author, speaker, and Internet marketing consultant. For more info, subscribe to her No-Hype, No-BS, No Spam NPT newsletter and join Affiliate Blogger PRO to get answers to all your affiliate marketing questions. Thanks for visiting!
View the original article here
Do you use either the WP Greet Box or WWSGD (What Would Seth Godin Do?) plugins on your WordPress blogs?Have you placed them to show at the top of your posts and/or pages?
If so, you might be losing some valuable free traffic from the search engines.
Take a look at the screenshot above to the right. The “if you are new here” text shown in bold shows up in the Google search results description when bloggers allow the code from those two plugins to render at the top of their posts.
By result they lose the space alotted for a proper description — which when written correctly can generate LOTS of extra traffic.
This problem can be solved in one of 2 ways:
Have the plugin set to render at the bottom of the post.A better alternative is to enter a proper meta description either through your Custom Fields or by using a plugin like the Platinum SEO Pack.
Your choice.
Do one or the other, but please don’t waste valuable free search engine traffic — it hurts my head when I see you doing that!
BTW, if you liked this post, you might also be interested in reading “WordPress Plugins and How I Use Them“.
Search and Replace Plugin for WordPress Ends MUCH FrustrationBlog Bloat? Pull that Plugin!Plugin Checks for Broken LinksWP-Polls Plugin Upgrade Needed with WP 2.5+Just Added the Simple Recent Comments Plugin
Rosalind Gardner is a Super Affiliate blogger, author, speaker, and Internet marketing consultant. For more info, subscribe to her No-Hype, No-BS, No Spam NPT newsletter and join Affiliate Blogger PRO to get answers to all your affiliate marketing questions. Thanks for visiting!
View the original article here
WP Shopping Pages: Review Posts Before Publishing
I’ve had the WP Shopping Pages plugin for quite awhile now and absolutely love it.
I use it to auto-post products — mostly romantic movie DVD’s from Amazon — to my dating blog on a regular basis.
Actually, the WP Shopping Pages plugin has been a real blessing.
I haven’t been that keen to write about dating for awhile now, yet with the auto-posts my subscribers still receive updates through my Aweber blog broadcasts on a regular basis and therefore keep returning to visit the site. By result, my Google Analytics stats show no real decline in traffic despite the fact that I’ve done very little work on the site for months.
There are a couple of issues with the plugin that I’ve noticed just recently, however.
Despite selecting Skip Products if No Description Found in the options, one post came up empty as shown in the screenshot below.
Egads! The lack of a description doesn’t exactly compel the reader to click through the link to buy the product. Not only that, but can you imagine what would happen to your subscriber numbers if all the posts for a month or more showed up like that? Bar the thought!
Another smaller issue I have with WP Shopping Pages is that the descriptions show up as one very long paragraph, instead of being separated into smaller, easy to read chunks.
Here’s an example of how a post will show up if I don’t edit it. And here’s how I edited the blog post for the movie Titanic in just a couple of seconds.
Much better, eh?
So, although automation is great, you still have to invest a little bit of time and effort to make sure your blog doesn’t come across looking like a ‘splog’.
Put those autoposts into draft mode and make them reader-friendly by adding paragraph breaks. Delete those without descriptions. Last, but certainly not least — add your own commentary about the product to avoid duplicate content penalties.
Learn more about WP Shopping Pages.
Watch my video or visit the WP Shopping Pages Plugin site.
That Plugin is Messing Up Your Google ListingsWP Shopping Pages Plugin for AffiliatesWishlist Member Review: How to Turn Your WordPress Blog into a Membership SiteAnother Good Reason to Write Your Blog Posts OfflineHoliday shopping forecast, webinar & Wordtracker…
Rosalind Gardner is a Super Affiliate blogger, author, speaker, and Internet marketing consultant. For more info, subscribe to her No-Hype, No-BS, No Spam NPT newsletter and join Affiliate Blogger PRO to get answers to all your affiliate marketing questions. Thanks for visiting!
View the original article here
I use it to auto-post products — mostly romantic movie DVD’s from Amazon — to my dating blog on a regular basis.
Actually, the WP Shopping Pages plugin has been a real blessing.
I haven’t been that keen to write about dating for awhile now, yet with the auto-posts my subscribers still receive updates through my Aweber blog broadcasts on a regular basis and therefore keep returning to visit the site. By result, my Google Analytics stats show no real decline in traffic despite the fact that I’ve done very little work on the site for months.
There are a couple of issues with the plugin that I’ve noticed just recently, however.
Despite selecting Skip Products if No Description Found in the options, one post came up empty as shown in the screenshot below.
Egads! The lack of a description doesn’t exactly compel the reader to click through the link to buy the product. Not only that, but can you imagine what would happen to your subscriber numbers if all the posts for a month or more showed up like that? Bar the thought!
Another smaller issue I have with WP Shopping Pages is that the descriptions show up as one very long paragraph, instead of being separated into smaller, easy to read chunks.
Here’s an example of how a post will show up if I don’t edit it. And here’s how I edited the blog post for the movie Titanic in just a couple of seconds.
Much better, eh?
So, although automation is great, you still have to invest a little bit of time and effort to make sure your blog doesn’t come across looking like a ‘splog’.
Put those autoposts into draft mode and make them reader-friendly by adding paragraph breaks. Delete those without descriptions. Last, but certainly not least — add your own commentary about the product to avoid duplicate content penalties.
Learn more about WP Shopping Pages.
Watch my video or visit the WP Shopping Pages Plugin site.
That Plugin is Messing Up Your Google ListingsWP Shopping Pages Plugin for AffiliatesWishlist Member Review: How to Turn Your WordPress Blog into a Membership SiteAnother Good Reason to Write Your Blog Posts OfflineHoliday shopping forecast, webinar & Wordtracker…
Rosalind Gardner is a Super Affiliate blogger, author, speaker, and Internet marketing consultant. For more info, subscribe to her No-Hype, No-BS, No Spam NPT newsletter and join Affiliate Blogger PRO to get answers to all your affiliate marketing questions. Thanks for visiting!
View the original article here
Why I Switched Back to StudioPress Genesis
Home > Blogging > Why I Switched Back to StudioPress Genesis
After sporting the Thesis theme by DIYThemes on RosalindGardner.com for several months, I switched back to using a StudioPress theme on that blog.
It wasn’t that I didn’t like Thesis. I do. It’s an excellent theme and I still highly recommend it to those looking for a professional theme for WordPress.
Once you get past the learning curve (which all themes have), manipulating Thesis is pretty straightforward. I especially liked the number of design and SEO tweaks available within the options. The Thesis OpenHooks plugin turned out to be a big help too.
Well, after writing “How Many Blogs?“, I realized that working with too many themes was almost the same as working with too many blogs.
With only one exception (AffiliateBloggerPRO), all my other blogs were sporting StudioPress themes.
So, instead of researching, writing and marketing – activities that are significantly more important (and lucrative) to a professional blogger – I felt I was wasting precious time tweaking every time an update for either theme was released.
Not only that, but moving back and forth from one theme to another always involved having to take time to ‘stop and think’ about how that particular theme worked.
On the other hand, when you use only one theme across all your blogs, there is no transition time. You’re always working with the same theme and SEO options and all the upgrades can be done at once when a theme or framework update becomes available.
So, my suggestion is this.
Unless you work for others installing and tweaking out themes for WordPress, use a single theme framework for each your blogs… whichever theme that might be – StudioPress, Thesis, Woo or Socrates.
P.S. The new theme on RosalindGardner isn’t quite finished yet… I still have to tweak it out a little with a nice header.
Is Your Blog Topic Truly Obvious?Thesis Theme for WordPress: An OverviewWordPress in a DayWhere to Find Professional WordPress ThemesFresh News Theme by Adii
Rosalind Gardner is a Super Affiliate blogger, author, speaker, and Internet marketing consultant. For more info, subscribe to her No-Hype, No-BS, No Spam NPT newsletter and join Affiliate Blogger PRO to get answers to all your affiliate marketing questions. Thanks for visiting!
View the original article here
After sporting the Thesis theme by DIYThemes on RosalindGardner.com for several months, I switched back to using a StudioPress theme on that blog.
It wasn’t that I didn’t like Thesis. I do. It’s an excellent theme and I still highly recommend it to those looking for a professional theme for WordPress.
Once you get past the learning curve (which all themes have), manipulating Thesis is pretty straightforward. I especially liked the number of design and SEO tweaks available within the options. The Thesis OpenHooks plugin turned out to be a big help too.
Well, after writing “How Many Blogs?“, I realized that working with too many themes was almost the same as working with too many blogs.
With only one exception (AffiliateBloggerPRO), all my other blogs were sporting StudioPress themes.
So, instead of researching, writing and marketing – activities that are significantly more important (and lucrative) to a professional blogger – I felt I was wasting precious time tweaking every time an update for either theme was released.
Not only that, but moving back and forth from one theme to another always involved having to take time to ‘stop and think’ about how that particular theme worked.
On the other hand, when you use only one theme across all your blogs, there is no transition time. You’re always working with the same theme and SEO options and all the upgrades can be done at once when a theme or framework update becomes available.
So, my suggestion is this.
Unless you work for others installing and tweaking out themes for WordPress, use a single theme framework for each your blogs… whichever theme that might be – StudioPress, Thesis, Woo or Socrates.
P.S. The new theme on RosalindGardner isn’t quite finished yet… I still have to tweak it out a little with a nice header.
Is Your Blog Topic Truly Obvious?Thesis Theme for WordPress: An OverviewWordPress in a DayWhere to Find Professional WordPress ThemesFresh News Theme by Adii
Rosalind Gardner is a Super Affiliate blogger, author, speaker, and Internet marketing consultant. For more info, subscribe to her No-Hype, No-BS, No Spam NPT newsletter and join Affiliate Blogger PRO to get answers to all your affiliate marketing questions. Thanks for visiting!
View the original article here
WP Shopping Pages: Review Posts Before Publishing
I’ve had the WP Shopping Pages plugin for quite awhile now and absolutely love it.
I use it to auto-post products — mostly romantic movie DVD’s from Amazon — to my dating blog on a regular basis.
Actually, the WP Shopping Pages plugin has been a real blessing.
I haven’t been that keen to write about dating for awhile now, yet with the auto-posts my subscribers still receive updates through my Aweber blog broadcasts on a regular basis and therefore keep returning to visit the site. By result, my Google Analytics stats show no real decline in traffic despite the fact that I’ve done very little work on the site for months.
There are a couple of issues with the plugin that I’ve noticed just recently, however.
Despite selecting Skip Products if No Description Found in the options, one post came up empty as shown in the screenshot below.
Egads! The lack of a description doesn’t exactly compel the reader to click through the link to buy the product. Not only that, but can you imagine what would happen to your subscriber numbers if all the posts for a month or more showed up like that? Bar the thought!
Another smaller issue I have with WP Shopping Pages is that the descriptions show up as one very long paragraph, instead of being separated into smaller, easy to read chunks.
Here’s an example of how a post will show up if I don’t edit it. And here’s how I edited the blog post for the movie Titanic in just a couple of seconds.
Much better, eh?
So, although automation is great, you still have to invest a little bit of time and effort to make sure your blog doesn’t come across looking like a ‘splog’.
Put those autoposts into draft mode and make them reader-friendly by adding paragraph breaks. Delete those without descriptions. Last, but certainly not least — add your own commentary about the product to avoid duplicate content penalties.
Learn more about WP Shopping Pages.
Watch my video or visit the WP Shopping Pages Plugin site.
That Plugin is Messing Up Your Google ListingsWP Shopping Pages Plugin for AffiliatesWishlist Member Review: How to Turn Your WordPress Blog into a Membership SiteAnother Good Reason to Write Your Blog Posts OfflineHoliday shopping forecast, webinar & Wordtracker…
Rosalind Gardner is a Super Affiliate blogger, author, speaker, and Internet marketing consultant. For more info, subscribe to her No-Hype, No-BS, No Spam NPT newsletter and join Affiliate Blogger PRO to get answers to all your affiliate marketing questions. Thanks for visiting!
View the original article here
I use it to auto-post products — mostly romantic movie DVD’s from Amazon — to my dating blog on a regular basis.
Actually, the WP Shopping Pages plugin has been a real blessing.
I haven’t been that keen to write about dating for awhile now, yet with the auto-posts my subscribers still receive updates through my Aweber blog broadcasts on a regular basis and therefore keep returning to visit the site. By result, my Google Analytics stats show no real decline in traffic despite the fact that I’ve done very little work on the site for months.
There are a couple of issues with the plugin that I’ve noticed just recently, however.
Despite selecting Skip Products if No Description Found in the options, one post came up empty as shown in the screenshot below.
Egads! The lack of a description doesn’t exactly compel the reader to click through the link to buy the product. Not only that, but can you imagine what would happen to your subscriber numbers if all the posts for a month or more showed up like that? Bar the thought!
Another smaller issue I have with WP Shopping Pages is that the descriptions show up as one very long paragraph, instead of being separated into smaller, easy to read chunks.
Here’s an example of how a post will show up if I don’t edit it. And here’s how I edited the blog post for the movie Titanic in just a couple of seconds.
Much better, eh?
So, although automation is great, you still have to invest a little bit of time and effort to make sure your blog doesn’t come across looking like a ‘splog’.
Put those autoposts into draft mode and make them reader-friendly by adding paragraph breaks. Delete those without descriptions. Last, but certainly not least — add your own commentary about the product to avoid duplicate content penalties.
Learn more about WP Shopping Pages.
Watch my video or visit the WP Shopping Pages Plugin site.
That Plugin is Messing Up Your Google ListingsWP Shopping Pages Plugin for AffiliatesWishlist Member Review: How to Turn Your WordPress Blog into a Membership SiteAnother Good Reason to Write Your Blog Posts OfflineHoliday shopping forecast, webinar & Wordtracker…
Rosalind Gardner is a Super Affiliate blogger, author, speaker, and Internet marketing consultant. For more info, subscribe to her No-Hype, No-BS, No Spam NPT newsletter and join Affiliate Blogger PRO to get answers to all your affiliate marketing questions. Thanks for visiting!
View the original article here
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