I don’t think this will surprise many people. John Reese has decided to shut down BlogRush. It just didn’t work out the way he hoped.

Users got very poor clickthrough rates on their traffic. Quite simply, that was the problem. It wasn’t as beneficial as hoped.

Of course, many people spotted this problem early on. I long ago removed the BlogRush code from this site. It was a nice experiment, but I soon decided it wasn’t worth the space it took up in my sidebar. That may seem like a small thing, especially since I didn’t add anything to replace it, but it matters to me.

Overall, though, the concept could have been great. The only way to find out was to try it. Just because one idea fails doesn’t mean the next one will too. That’s an important lesson for any business.

The recent opening of Google’s Knol has a lot of people thinking about what they can put on there. The theory is that Google pages should rank well. Early tests show that to be likely, and so many people are creating Knol pages to see what they can get.

I’m always cautious about these things. Creating a Knol page is working on something that you do not have complete control over. I have no doubt that Google will delete Knols anytime they feel one is inappropriate.

It is, of course, entirely possible that people will make money from their Knol pages. There are many people already making money from sites on Blogger and pages on sites such as Squidoo or HubPages. Some even do pretty well.

It’s a cheap way of creating web pages, which appeals to many a tight-budgeted marketer. And so many pages do get some pretty good traffic that this can be appealing.

But what you give up is control.

Don’t assume that just because you have legitimate information to share that someone won’t try to get you removed from a particular service. It has happened to many on Blogger, for example, and not just to spammy pages. It is possible for legitimate content to be flagged by competitors. Creating pages on a service you aren’t paying for means that you risk the account being deleted, sometimes with poor warning.

On the plus side, creating a Knol, Squidoo Lens or what have you means that you are listed on a site that may get traffic with less of your own effort. There can be a benefit to that, especially for keywords that you are having trouble ranking for anyhow, even if the links to your own sites are No Follow.

The key to these is to add to your own image as an expert on your topic. Create a good page and be sure to have links to relevant pages of your own. Not to excess, as the page you are creating should stand mostly on its own. But as a reference for more information or details that are related to the topic at hand, the occasional link to your own site can help to drive traffic.

Do it too much and your page will look more like spam.

Overall, there’s nothing wrong with creating pages on services such as these, so long as you build a solid core business that you have more control over. It’s rather like article submission in some ways. You’re spreading content out in the hopes of bringing in more traffic and income. So long as you are not relying on any one page or group of pages for your livelihood, you’ll probably do all right.

You’ll hear it said many times that the money is in the list. And in most online businesses, that’s absolutely true.

Where Do You Build a List?

The first thing you want to do is to sign up with a good autoresponder service. It doesn’t matter if your main focus will be on sending out a weekly newsletter or having a series of emails sent out to subscribers, you need to have a good autoresponder service.

I suggest AWeber or GetResponse.

Both offer excellent service and work hard to keep their emails delivered. AWeber has perhaps the best reputation, but I’ve found GetResponse to work well too.

The important thing is to start with a service that you can stick with. You might be surprised at how very, very painful it is to change autoresponder services. As a rule you will have to have your subscribers confirm that they want to remain on your list. It’s not uncommon to lose about 90% of your list at that point, although a more responsive list can do much better than that.

The advantage to using a paid service rather than a free script that runs on your own server is that they handle blacklisting issues and keeping track of how users subscribed for you, which is useful in case of spam complaints. Free services may have the price right, but you generally lose out in other ways in the long run.

How Do You Build a List?

Building a list is not easy. Especially if you are using a reputable service such as AWeber or GetResponse, you cannot just buy leads from anywhere. That’s a good way to flat out lose your account. But that helps with your deliverability and cuts way back on spam complaints.

The simplest of the legitimate ways is to use the form your autoresponder company generates for your website. You should do at least some light customization. You should have a subscription form on every page of your site to maximize the chances of getting subscribers.
If you offer something free in return for subscribing, you can increase the rate at which people subscribe. It can be an ecourse that you offer alongside your regular newsletter, an ebook, just something easy to offer electronically that is relevant to your subscribers’ needs.

I like the results I’ve been getting using the forms through Optin Design. It’s a bit more work if you want to customize the images, but they are attention getting and did increase the number of subscribers I’ve been getting. It’s pretty nice.

Running ads on other sites can be helpful too. This is one of those places where having a freebie helps, as well as a dedicated subscription page. This gives you the best chance to sell people on subscribing to your site.

There are several ways to do this. You can do pay per click advertising on Google. You can buy ads on other sites. You can buy ads in other people’s newsletters. You can even trade ads with other sites.

What Do You Do with Your List?

Sell to it, of course! But not to excess!

How much you sell to your list depends on what you teach your subscribers to expect. Your mailings need to provide good value to them; otherwise they’ll be quick to unsubscribe.

If your list is all about products going on sale, people will expect you to be telling them about a lot of products. But if you’re mostly informational, they won’t want to be hearing every week about the latest product. You have to think about how much you push products at them.

You’ll find some subscribers are very touchy about you discussing products with them. If they say they’ll unsubscribe if you don’t ease up on the advertising, think about what you’re doing. If you haven’t been overdoing and haven’t been getting a lot of other unsubscriptions (note: most won’t say a word, they’ll just unsubscribe), you may be just fine and only be dealing with a complainer. It’s your list and you do get to decide how much you advertise.

Basic ad links don’t seem to bother subscribers that much. After all, look at how many ads are in your typical print newspaper or magazine. Many are far worse than even a fairly cluttered website. People aren’t as accepting of ads online in many cases.

But it’s the constant product recommendations that tend to get the reactions I described above. I’ve had people threaten to leave my list after a single product promotion. It was on a list where I very rarely do direct product promotions, so my subscribers weren’t used to it. But I did explain that my opinion was that it was an excellent product, and if I chose to run a promotion I would, but I had no plans to take it to excess. So far as I’m concerned, if that makes a subscriber want to leave, they can go.

The thing to remember here is that it’s not the freebie seekers who make your list valuable. It’s the buyers. Anyone who wants only your free advice that doesn’t concern buying things isn’t going to help you bring in much money, if any at all.

Starting a Home Business Series:

Get Your Home Business Going in the New Year
Brainstorming Your Home Business Ideas
How I Research a Market for a Product
How Do You Get a Website Going?
How Much Does an Online Business Really Cost?
How Complex Does a Website Need to Be?
How to Set Up a Wordpress Blog
These Are a Few of My Favorite Themes
Can Article Marketing Work for You?
It Sounds Like a Lot of Work - Is It Really That Hard?
Building Your List (current page)
Getting Social with Your Blog
Is Your Site Ready for Pay Per Click?
Article Marketing Statistics
Putting the Pieces Together

Having links to your site can make a big difference in whether or not you succeed. Not only do search engines like seeing good quality links pointing to your site; so do users.

It’s important to note that distinction… good links. Not junk.

Good links come from relevant reputable sources. They not only attract search engine spiders, but real visitors as well. They should be a part of your marketing strategy.

Some links are harder to come by than others, of course. Others turn out to not be such a good idea. Google went after paid links hard earlier this year, much to the dismay of many a webmaster. While you cannot be sure that a particular source will always be reputable to all search engines, thinking about how and why you are getting the links, and what else you can see on that site, can help to minimize any trouble you may get into.

Some kinds of links take the building of a good reputation to gain. The challenge is that you need a lot of readers to build that reputation, and that can mean needing a lot of links. It’s a circle that can be difficult to break into.

Other links are easier to get. Their quality can be controlled by you in that you decide which to go for. Sometimes they will have the “nofollow” attribute, but if you’re focusing on links that real users will follow as well as search engines, you may see that these can be worth your time.

Relatively Easy Links to Get

Blog Comments

These can be time consuming to get, and saying “good post” is not enough to get more traffic even from highly ranked blogs. The earlier you can comment on a post the more people may read your comment and follow your link.

Do not overdo the use of keywords in the “Name” field for your comments. Most blog owners prefer real names. Use your website name if you must, but do not cram in keywords. Think of it as building your brand with a name, not trying to get more keyword links back to your site.

I like using Comment Sniper to know when new posts have been made at blogs I read. I don’t comment unless I have something real to say. This tool allows me to be an early commenter anytime a post is made on a blog while I’m at the computer.

Participate in Blog Carnivals

Blog Carnival.com has a great list of these. You find appropriate ones, and submit your articles. Maybe it gets chosen, maybe not. Some have high standards while others seem to take just about anything. But when you’re posting the information anyhow it certainly can’t hurt to submit it to carnivals to get more attention.

Submit Your Site to Directories

This one may or may not do a lot of good anymore. A lot of directories lost PageRank recently, and links from them may not carry any search engine benefit now. But other directories may still give you a benefit.

A big question arises in the free vs. paid directory issue. Free ones are of course quite kind to your budget, but if they allow a lot of spammy links you do not want to be listed with them.

Paid directories, on the other hand, tend to be pickier. They probably will not guarantee that they will accept your site. The fee for the best paid directories is for review, not for inclusion. Make a quality site to give yourself the best chance to be accepted.

Be on the lookout for directories specific to your area of expertise. More focused directories may be more beneficial to your website.

Participate in Forums

Another time consuming one. In some areas it can be hard to find sites that will allow you to have links to your business in your signature line, but others do not mind at all. Some just require you to pay a fee for the priviledge.

Do not just advertise yourself. People do not come to forums to read blatant ads. They come to forums to relax with friends, learn solutions to problems and often just have fun. Be there for that even as you market. The better you are as a forum member and resource the more likely people are to follow your signature links.

Give a Testimonial

Bought anything online recently? Give a testimonial and include a link to your website. The person you bought from may be happy to include that link because it makes you into more of a real person when people read your testimonial.

Make Online Friends

Online friends may be willing to link to you, even as you link to them or do something else to benefit their website.

Use del.icio.us

Well-tagged pages can bring in some very good traffic from this source, and all it takes is a del.icio.us account and a little time. The links may be “nofollow”, but if people follow them the bots don’t matter too much.

Use Other Social Marketing Networks

Which will be best for you depends on your topic. Digg is definitely not for everyone. Make friends and use the networks honestly, only trying to include your best work. Plopping your everyday efforts into the social media sites really won’t benefit your site that much. Focus your efforts on your standout pieces.

Link Out

The more freely you link, the more freely people link to you. It won’t work every time, but it can increase the overall quality of your site and help it to get noticed.

Ping

If you’re blogging, make sure you are thorough with your pinging. There’s a great list of sites to ping at Daily Blog Tips that I won’t bother to repeat here.

Harder Links to Get

Article Writing and Submission

Writing high quality articles gives you a great chance to bring attention to your site and your knowledge. I’ve seen loads of articles submitted to article directories that are so poorly written they give me a negative view of the website owner, not a positive one.

Let me make this clear. You can get links with junk articles easily. Quality links from quality articles that good sites want to publish is hard. But if you write good articles, submit them to the better directories and directly to relevant webmasters, they can do a lot of good for a very long time without costing you anything other than time. For some that’s easier than it is for others.

Guest Blogging

Guest blogging can be a great way to network. Not only do you get your article published on someone else’s website (potentially a much more popular site), you can make a great contact.

A guest post needs to be some of your best work. You need to impress the other blogger as well as their readers. Show your stuff so that they see you as an expert whose blog they would like to read too.

Write Authority Articles for Your Site

This is tough. They take a lot of work, and then you still have to get it noticed so that it builds the links for you. If you haven’t started building your name, who knows whether or not this will happen. A solid authority article can do a lot to make your reputation as an expert.

The beauty of this is that people like linking to authority articles, and the links are of far superior quality than your typical forum or directory link. Jim Boykin had a great post about this in 2006.

Linkbait

In theory easy, in reality hard.

All you have to do is create something that people want to link to. They might not even be in your general field, depending on the bait offered.

A lot of people have a dislike for obvious linkbait, but if it works you may not particularly care. But the very best linkbait is so useful or interesting that people aren’t particularly worried about that.

This is far from a comprehensive list, but I like to think of it as a nice start. Keep brainstorming and researching and you can come up with plenty of other ways to get links to your site. Even with all these tips it is not always easy, but taking the time to work on it and being persistent can pay off in the long run.

Technorati Tags: link building

About a month ago, I switched the optin form on this site to a design from OptinDesign. The idea, of course, is to increase the number of subscriptions to my newsletter.

Is it working?

While I’m not going to discuss actual numbers, I can tell you that I had about 70% more subscribers join my list over the past month than in the month before that. Traffic was up slightly, but not nearly by 70%.

In other words, I’d say the results are pretty good.

I did check earlier months, and the subscription rate was pretty consistent. The increase I’m seeing since starting to use OptinDesign is quite definite.

I’m definitely going to make the time to add this to more of my websites. Anything that brings in more qualified subscribers legitimately is a good thing for a home business.

Technorati Tags: optindesign, newsletter subscribers, list building

I’ve developed quite a fondness for StumbleUpon. Not only is it good for marketing a website, it’s fun. It’s hard to beat that kind of a combination.

Now, I know a lot of articles on building up a Stumble account really annoys regular Stumble users. That’s reasonable, considering that many tactics do nothing more than annoy people who Stumble because they enjoy it so much. I think it’s important to consider how to use StumbleUpon correctly.

Take the time to Stumble

People debate whether or not you should Stumble your own content. I don’t necessarily see anything wrong with it, provided the content is something that is likely to be enjoyed by other users. Before you start submitting your own content, figure out what appeals to other Stumblers.

The easiest way to do this is to pick interests to show in your profile related to your topic, and start stumbling. Look at the reviews the pages that get your attention get.

Doing this will help you to figure out just a little of what appeals to Stumblers. There’s no easy formula, but you can get some idea as to what qualities you should consider when creating your own content.

Pick your Stumbles carefully

Whatever you do, do not Stumble just any article you’ve posted on your website. I see far too many sites that I have trouble picturing being of interest to people using StumbleUpon. Pages focused purely on selling something, for example. If it’s something unusual or funny it can work, but without something like that, I have trouble picturing them doing well as Stumbles.

Similar for purely self promotional items. If you wouldn’t want to read it about someone else or their site, your fellow Stumblers probably won’t want to see it from you or your site.

Pick articles that are well-written, have a unique perspective, have a humorous slant, or are otherwise interesting. Same for images, videos and so forth. Stumblers get very tired of seeing the same thing over and over again, so you don’t want to submit something that you’ve seen on several other sites. Be more creative than that.

Don’t Stumble your own site excessively

While the limitations are guesses, most estimates I have seen say you can Stumble a given site no more than about 15 times. However, I have seen some people say you can get cut off after far fewer Stumbles. The more honest you are about your Stumbles, I suspect, the more freedom you have in Stumbling your own site.

Make friends and fans
It’s not entirely clear whether or not having more friends and fans on StumbleUpon improves the power of your Stumbles, but most people believe they do. People who have interests in your field are great choices, especially if they are also regular Stumblers.

Stumble often

And Stumble honestly. Submit pages that aren’t your own that you genuinely enjoy. Thumbs up pages when you like them. Enjoy yourself. Stumbling can be incredibly addictive if you relax and don’t worry about whether or not you’re getting anything out of it.

Think before you contact friends

Contacting StumbleUpon friends is a feature I’ve never taken advantage of personally. I know you can do this, but it is a feature to use with caution. Overuse is a great way to alienate friends. But if you’ve written something that you especially want attention to, and think it will do well, give it a try. But I wouldn’t send it to your entire list of friends right away, or possibly ever. Send it to a few and see if it was really a good idea.

And do so rarely.

Remember that traffic for traffic’s sake means very little

Stumble traffic may not be right for your website. It doesn’t necessarily convert or bring links. But it can.

The better the content, the better your chance of getting something from it. But it’s also the greater the chance you have of getting a ton of traffic, possibly too much for your server. You do want to be aware of this impact and certain about whether or not the potential extra costs will be worth it.

Technorati Tags: stumbleupon, stumble, stumbling, social bookmarks, social networks, building traffic, oneline business, home business

For a couple weeks now, I’ve been using a new optin form I bought from OptinDesign. I like the way the forms look. And yes, I have seen an improvement in newsletter subscriptions.

The forms are nicely attention-getting, much more so than the plain text and fill in the blank forms I had before. A splash of color, which draws the eyes.

Kidino, the designer of these forms has a great deal with these too. You get two of them free just for filling out the form. So you can check them out and decide if you want the full range available to you.

I’m noticing more subscribers/week here. I haven’t calculated the percentage improvement yet, but it is noticeable.

The full selection includes Photoshop  files so that you can change the text and graphics of the forms very easily. I’ve only played with that a little since I’m no Photoshop master, but I can at least cope with it.

Take a look at these by signing up for the two free squeeze page templates now. I think you’ll like them.

Technorati Tags: optin design, opt in, optin rates, subscription, subscribers, newsletter, list building

I’ve been enjoying BlogRush for a while. The traffic it sends is far from plentiful, but I have found some interesting information myself, things I wouldn’t have even thought to research, most likely.

Low clickthrough rates are still a problem, although they report that there has been a 42% increase in free traffic. BlogRush reports a 1-2% clickthrough rate on the widgets in about 1500 blogs. That’s much better than most blogs, but then many blogs have the widget down very low on the blog.

BlogRush will be pushing in a way for good placement on blogs. If your clickthrough rate is too low, you will be asked to improve the visibility of your widget. That’s fair enough, if a bit challenging. I have mine just beneath the main navigation, and it would be hard for me to come up with something more visible. So hopefully my clickthrough rate will be adequate.

Of course, the need for a good clickthrough rate does have me thinking on widget placement, but displacing anything already on my blogs is of course something to be most carefully considered. It’s a balancing act, always.

The bonus credit system is pretty generous. I’m definitely in the low traffic class, and have nearly 4x the bonus credits compared to earned credits. That’s not bad. Two referrals.

The stats are nice to see, even as I grimace to see how low the clickthrough rates I have right now are. On the plus side, it’s solid information about which titles are getting attention.

While I’m not getting great traffic from BlogRush, I’m optimistic as to its utility as an eventual traffic generator and current learning tool. Great, attention getting titles are hard to come by, but with the stats now available I will know a bit more about what works.

Technorati Tags: blogrush, blog rush, blogs, traffic