How To Start A Blog And Make Money Magnetically

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In this post (or better guide) I would like to share with you my blogging and other internet business experiences during my online journey. The advice you will find in this guide is based on what I have learned so far.

I hope by providing the information it will help you to understand the principles to make blogging work for you as a source of income. However the techniques and tactics provided alone are not sufficient. You need to have the right mental focus to use them on a consistent basis to make it really work.

Before you carry on reading I just would like to mention that this is a ‘very long’ blog post Maybe you prefer to print it out and consume the info whilst sitting in a more comfortable chair.

Please click here to download a PDF version. (colour or black & white for ink saving printing)

What Is Blogging?

Blogging is basically where you share your knowledge about a particular topic with like minded people. This way you can really connect with people, provide your personal opinions and even create friendships. It also means that you will be writing posts on a consistent basis for your Blog.

Now I can already here you thinking…”what is a Blog?” There are many descriptions of what a blog is, but to keep it really simple, it is just a website. The word ‘blog’ has been derived from the word ‘weblog’ which means online journal or diary. But there are some important differences in relation to websites, which makes them very popular.

Why Is Blogging So Popular?

The popularity of Blogs has dramatically increased over the last years. So what is this reason of popularity, why are so many people using this type of website. There are 4 main reasons why a Blog is the preferred choice:

1. Building a relationship and trust with your readers

This is a very powerful reason (but is directly related to points 2-4) why Blogs are such a great tool to communicate with your readers. As I mentioned earlier you write about a topic to communicate with like minded people. The blogging platform is a natural way of building a relationship.

Because blogs allow for a more natural interaction between the writer and the reader, it helps to establish a relationship. People start to like you and what you write about and eventually you win their trust. That way you have those people come back to your Blog on a regular basis for life.

2. Ease of publishing your new content

With the traditional type of websites it was hard for the average person to add new content. Most people didn’t have any idea of how a website worked, how to use HTML and how all the other technical stuff worked.

With a blog it has become very easy for anybody to publish their newly written content. It is a bit like using a program that we all have on our computers, which is ‘Word’. If you can write using this program then you can add new content to a Blog. It is that simple

3. Publishing frequency

Because content can be easily added to a blog as mentioned above, it allows the writer to regularly update the blog with fresh content too. This makes it a far more dynamic environment and helps with building a relationship with returning readers. Nothing worse then people come back to a stale site, which means eventually you will loose their interest.

4. Readers Can Leave Comments

There is no better way to interact with your readers then for them to be able to comment on your posts (articles). In return you can also leave a comment based on your reader’s comment. People feel there is a real person behind the information, somebody who cares. Eventually this will result in the creation of a community of returning readers.

It is All About People and Attention

When you start blogging for the first time, the best advice I can give is to make sure you are writing for your readers, not for the search engines. When you write good content the search engines will take care of them selves. This is the first thing you want to concentrate on. Don’t worry about the look of your blog and all the other things. Yes design can be important but some of the worst designed websites or blogs managed to attract a huge number of readers.

In other words to break it down ever further:

1. Through blogging you are communicating with real people
2. Those people are breathing and thinking people. You provide them with what they want and need (know your target audience)

It is your goal to make sure that what you are saying (communicating) is clearly understood by your readers. The content provides value and allows them to take something away that they can identify them selves with. In other words it is something your target audience need to help them to solve a problem.

Having Your Readers’ Attention

Once you managed to communicate with your audience you have their attention. This means they like you, they see the value of what you write about and therefore they will keep coming back to your Blog for more. When you have their attention you can create ‘influence’ eventually. But most important of all as a ‘professional blogger’, you can now sell things.

Choosing a topic for your blog

There is a lot written about how to choose your topic, which is also referred to as ‘niche research’. There are 2 main philosophies out there, which can be broken down as follows:

Topic Selection Based On Profit

This is for me personally a controversial one. Most ‘old-school’ internet marketers will tell you to go after a niche where the money is. When the internet started in 1989 and a lot of these internet marketers made there fortunes in the 90’s it was easy to make money from any niche where there was money, without knowing anything about those niches.

They throw up a rubbish page, with very little work they had that page on the first page of Google or even number one. People who found that page would click the link and buy most of the time. Fast forwarding to 2011, this is not the case anymore. People are very much glued on to the fact that there are a lot of schemes online that rip people off, or just sites that have just been setup to sell without knowing what they really talk about.

Most people are not daft. They are far more careful these days who and where they buy from. Now I know you are going to say, ‘hang on I want to blog to make money’. Yes of course that is our purpose, but that shouldn’t be the main motivator to ‘blog’ about a particular topic. I will touch on this a little later.

If this is the way you want to go, although I don’t recommend you do this, then do some searches in your favourite search engine and see what comes up.

Here is a useful list of finding a topic:

• Amazon.com

• eBay.com

• Yahoo shopping

• Google product search

Obviously it’s a choice you have to make. You may feel that you are more driven by the process of making money then actually writing about something you really care about.

Topic selection based on Passion

Living a spiritual based life, this is what works best for me personally. When you start blogging about a topic you know nothing about or have no passion for, it will soon become a chore to write on an ongoing basis. When you have a strong passion about a particular topic writing becomes easy and enjoyable. And really knowing what you are talking about means you are providing your visitors with real value. That is the only way to build a relationship with your readers in the long-term.

An important point I would like to make is that you don’t necessarily need to be an ‘expert’ in the topic you are passionate about. This may go against a lot of the advice you find online. Personally I think if you are passionate about a topic you have a lot of knowledge already, but you also need to have a desire to want to learn more or continue to learn about the topic you are passionate about. This new found knowledge you can share with your readers.

As I mentioned earlier you should not blog for money as the main motivator, but if you blog about a topic you are really passionate about then the money will come by itself.

So you need to start to look at what your passion really is. For some that is very obvious and can answer that question immediately. But for others it may not be as easy, so I thought I outline an easy way to perform some topic brainstorming, for those who need some help with this:

A lot of Bloggers fail to make money because they think being passionate about a particular topic is enough…but that is not enough!

One of the main problems is either you have not enough to say about the topic or you don’t have something new to bring to the market that stands out. To test this out for yourself take a piece of paper and write down 25 different ideas you can write about.

(Don’t read any further until you have written the 25 ideas down – got you there :)

If you really have a great interest in a particular topic, it will be very easy to come up with many ideas / topics to write about. But if that is not the case I would recommend you steer clear of that topic and find another one. Go back to the above ‘Topic Brainstorm sheet’ and re-evaluate.

The next step is one of evaluating the topic or market you have chosen. The main factor is the level of demand, because this tells you if you can make money from blogging about your chosen topic. There are various ways of doing this, please find some below:

• Amazon – This is my favourite one because Amazon is a great indicator of what is in demand. This site is a trusted place for people to buy, in other words the information you find about demand is about what people are ‘buying’. In other words not just searching for free information about the topic. As a general rule the more books or magazines of a particular topic the bigger the market and the more money can be made. Also if you see a book called – ‘your topic’ for dummies – that is great indicator for your chosen topic!

Please click the video to watch – will open up in new tab

• Book Stores – Why not go to your local bookstore, to get you away from the computer (bit of exercise and fresh air…great time to come up with more ideas), and look at the magazines shelves or book shelves and see what is popular. Again see how many magazines there are for a particular topic on the shelf.

• Forums – This is not just a great place to find out if there is demand of your topic, but also if there are sub-niches in your chosen topic that people have maybe even more interest in. If your chosen topic is fishing, it maybe that a lot of forums show that the topic trout fishing is very popular.

• Professional Blogs – Do a search for your chosen topic in Google and find some of the top bloggers in that niche. See what the most popular posts are which is an indication of what people are interested in.

• Keyword Research – There are numerous FREE tools available online to help you with keyword research. Here is a list of what I class as the best ones… I use Market Samurai myself as it provides features that the others don’t:

Google Keyword Tool

Market Samurai

Keyword Discovery

Word Tracker

SEO Book

The above mentioned tools are all free but each brings something different to the table. Therefore I thought I mention all of them to get the best possible overview of a market / niche to make the best possible choice.

I won’t go into depth of keyword research in this report because it is an extensive topic in it’s own right. But I have done a quick video using both Google keyword tool and Market Samurai for you, about some of the basics and which info you should be looking at for this exercise.

Click the video to watch – opens in new tab!

Emotional Drivers

Once you have looked at the demand of your chosen topic (your market) then you need to take one more critical step. Are there emotional drivers that make the people in your market potential customers. Let’s look at this in a bit more detail…

1) Do the people in your market have a desire, problem or need?

If we look at the trout fishing market then it may be that those passionate about this hobby have a problem or a need… they want to be more successful at catching trout. They want to figure what they are doing wrong if they are not successful at it.

2) Are they aware of there need or problem?

In this example I would say they are. They know that they don’t catch any trout or not many. They may be wondering if they use the wrong lure, bait or just using the wrong technique.

3) Do they want a solution?

This follows on from point 2 above… they are aware that they have an issue with not being successful in catching trout. So they want information that can help them solve this problem.

4) Are they willing to pay for the information?

This is a tougher question to answer, but generally speaking if a person wants it bad enough they will pay for it. In other words the stronger the emotional driver, the more likely they will buy. Other things like the price of a product can be important.

Remember! If your chosen topic / market consists of people who generally don’t buy then you may have a much harder task on your hands.

The above information should help you to decide if your chosen topic is worth while blogging about. But remember this is not a science, just a guideline to improve your changes of success. If you feel that regardless your research you want to blog about your passion and believe there is money to be made, then please do so. The good thing about online marketing is that you very quickly know if it works or not.

I personally belief that the best markets are those where there are people who have a problem to solve, something they feel strongly about or they just have a nagging fear.

The 3 biggest markets where there are the biggest fears and needs are…

1) Health

2) Wealth and…

3) Relationships

Some would say the self help market in particular the ‘saving time’ market… but I don’t belief that we should get stuck in living a fast and stressful life in the first place. But that is another topic altogether J

A Last Bit Of Advice

As I mentioned before I strongly belief you should choose a topic you are passionate about. And after you have determent the demand of the market you either decide to go ahead or not. Although at the end of the day it is only guidance and not a science… you need to do what you feel is best for you.

But the one thing I would say is don’t get to hung up about all the analysis you have done or try not to over analyse things. That is recipe for ‘analysis paralysis’… ‘just do it’ (to use a famous company’s tagline) and you will quickly find if it works or not. If not, you move on to something else.

There is nothing to be ashamed about as many other successful bloggers went through error and trial and have tried various topics before they found the right one for them.

As most would say ‘take action’, but I would like to take that a step further… ‘take the right action’. Feeling like you are doing things is one thing, but doing the right things to move forward to achieving your goals is another thing. I won’t touch on that here though…

Magnetic Attention

Now you have selected your topic the next thing you need to do is to get ‘attention’. I like to use the word ‘attention’ and not ‘traffic’. Everyone is using the word ‘traffic’ online, which reminds me of sitting stuck in traffic, but most importantly I belief it is not specific enough.

Targeted Traffic versus Magnetic Attention

Traffic basically means you get people to come to your site, who will read your posts or will get your free report on a page they found somewhere on the net. Most old school internet marketers will say that as long as they are interested in the subject it means they are ‘targeted traffic’.

And if they sign up to your email list, they are so called ‘targeted leads’… but are they?!

With the above analogy it basically means that most internet marketing ideas are about going out to find traffic, or in other words to find leads. The problem with this is that this ‘traffic’ often signs up for your free product or whatever else it may be out of curiosity. But the real question is, do they really like what you are writing about, the service you provide… I can’t give you that answer right now, but probably if you look at how many people return to your blog, open future emails, click through from your emails or even buy from you…

…I’ll bet it is only a small percentage. But what if you could easily triple or quadruple that percentage, or even get most people to listen to you, keep coming back for more…build real relationships!

I belief that it is much better to get people to come to you (and not like above, going out to find people / leads), in other words they came across your pod-cast show, video or content somewhere on the net. They enjoyed your content and are keen to get more of your content. This is the kind of person (real ‘targeted traffic’’ you want to attract to your Blog), as they will keep coming back for more and eventually you build a true relationship and trust with them. Now you have there attention, I call this ‘magnetic attention’ – as they keep coming back for more and that is what you really want, not some passers by…

‘Magnetic Content + Magnetic Media = Magnetic Attention’

Your success of ‘magnetic attention’ is based on the 2 main fundamentals – Magnetic Content and Magnetic Media. Let’s look at ‘magnetic content’ first…

1) Magnetic content

Your first magnetic content should be content that will lay the foundations of your Blog. When you start blogging for the first time you have no audience or nobody reading your information. When you start to attract attention for the first time you want to ‘wow’ those people when they arrive at your Blog. In other words you want to provide value, giving them a reason to come back. The first content you write is know as ‘Pillar Articles’ (main magnetic content) or also referred to as ‘Evergreen content’. You want to write at least 5 ‘pillar articles’

The word ‘Pillar article’ was first used by Yaro Starak, a very successful professional Blogger from Australia. So what makes a ‘pillar article’ different from all your other blog posts?

Here are some important concepts that your ‘pillar articles’ will provide:

• Attracts the attention of a lot of new readers immediately
• Continues to attract the attention of new readers over time – ‘magnetic content’
• It is ‘evergreen’ – continues to be relevant in years to come
• Creates back links (others link to your site) and thus ranking higher in search engines over time – longer posts/articles will generally do better in Google too
• Pillar or Evergreen content has a Long term profitability

NOTE! Make sure to place your ‘pillar content’ in a special area – a page mentioned in the top menu bar and also create a nice banner / logo for your sidebar to make it easy for people to find your ‘pillar content’ when they come to your site for the first time!

How To Create Magnetic ‘Pillar’ Content?

There is no exact science to explain why one article does really well, attract a lot of attention and the next one doesn’t. You can write a very detailed report but maybe doesn’t do as well as a very short article you write next…

But there are some guidelines you can follow to increase the success of your magnetic ‘pillar’ content:

1) Free Report or e-Course

This is a commonly used concept and is one that works really well as it often provides real value to the readers. Like this report you can write a blueprint about how something works, like this report you are reading now.

There are 5 ways to present this –

• Create a PDF (like this report) – your readers can download this and read whenever and where ever. It also allows for ease of sharing with others who you feel may be interested… a bit like viral marketing.

Note! What most people don’t do and I think it is a great service to provide is to also include in the download a ‘black & white’ copy of your PDF…that way people can save on ink. People will really thank you for that!

• Create a series for your Blog – you can present the info as separate blog posts, this way you create a series by linking the posts together. Don’t forget to add this also to your special ‘magnetic content’ page! And when your readers have subscribed to your Blog feed then each time you add the follow up series then they will get that automatically send to their RSS reader.
• Create a podcast show – you can make your report into a podcast (audio format)… that way people can listen to your info on the go.
• Create an e-Course – divide the info into different sections and send to your readers via email (using an autoresponder service)
• A Video presentation – If you feel really creative you could present the report in video format.

2) List Article

This is one of the most popular ‘magnetic content’ concepts. This is based on the fact that people like to read a list which is easy to scan and absorb. I am sure you have seen many of these when reading various blogs, probably you read those yourself as it was easy to follow. An example could be ’10 Reasons Why People Fail To Make Money Blogging”…

Ever shared one of those list to your friends? As that is what happens too with lists as they are easy to share. And because they are shared they get linked from to your Blog… which means more traffic and more backlinks!

3) ‘How To…’ Article

This is another popular concept for a ‘pillar article’. I am sure you have read many of these articles too. An example could be ‘How To Make Money Blogging’ or ‘How To Write Magnetic Content For Your Blog’.

The general guidance online is too write about something you really know about, understand the concept. As I mentioned before, you won’t know everything, regardless how passionate you are about a topic. There is always something new to learn, even I continue to learn new things on my journey. So once you have learned something new, you can present that new found knowledge into a ‘how to’ article for your readers.

4) Theory or Argument Article

As you certainly will be following other authors in your market (highly recommend you do) you will continue to come across new information, new theories or discussions on various topics. You could present an argument about that new information or get involved in the discussion by providing your own unique thoughts to it. The discussion could be about something you don’t agree with from your experience. That can create controversy and with it draws a lot of new readers to your blog.

5) Technical Report

This is very similar to the earlier type of blueprint (PDF reports) and ‘how to…’ articles I discussed. The only main difference is that it concentrates more on the technical aspects of a particular problem and involves a lot of diagrams, pictures or even videos to explain something.

In other words you are visually enhancing how something works step-by-step. For example you could write a technical report of ‘how to set up a magnetic Blog in 7 days’. You explain each step in detail with pictures and ‘how to’ videos to help people to successfully complete each step.

This may not be for you as you may find it easier to express yourself in words rather then with pics etc. Another reason could be that you are just starting out and can’t afford the fancy screen capture softwares available like screenflow and camtasia. But there is also the option of a free version of Camtasia, known as Jing (has a few of the capabilities and is limited to 5 mins videos) or camstudio is a great option too.

If you use Firefox a great extension to use is ‘ScreenGrab’ – this allows you to capture still pics of anything on your monitor.

6) Glossary Article

Many markets or industries use ‘jargon’ or ‘terminology’ that may be obvious for you but not your readers. Your readers come to you for advice, so there is a good change they don’t know all the meanings of the industry jargon.

Personally I just refer my readers to Wikipedia for any explanation of terms when appropriate. But that doesn’t mean you should be doing that too, because you may find this a great concept for a ‘pillar article’.

If you decide to go down this road then the easiest thing to do is to write an explanation for each and there you go, a glossary article. Your readers may love you for it and other bloggers may even keep linking back to this article as for reference to their readers.

So there you have it, 6 great concepts for your ‘main magnetic content’. Please don’t under estimate the importance of this. You need to first write some great ‘pillar content’ before you start attracting attention to your Blog.

So once you have written this content, what now?

Continue writing!

There is no sitting still and doing nothing, because you need to write on an ongoing basis. You want to continue to provide relevant info for your readers on a regular basis to keep their attention and build that all important long-term relationship. Make sure to be consistent as most readers will hate inconsistency.

Don’t forget to keep writing ‘Pillar Content’ too as that will get you ‘Magnetic Attention’ for a long time!

Finding the continuous drive or focus to write daily, or working on other projects for that matter, can be daunting. So how can you stay focused and get things done…

Have a plan in place, because it will really help you to get things done. You could plan to post 3 new posts each week… one day you spend an hour preparing and researching the content and the next day of posting you write the blog post. Each day you spend an hour doing so and of course the other time you have each day you do other projects. That could be…

• Writing a great report (more ‘pillar content) over a 2 week period (writing each day another chapter or sub chapter) – breaking into small chunks keeps you focused
• Spend 1 hour daily creating ‘magnetic attention’ (Marketing) for your blog
• Create a podcast show for your blog
• Spend 1 hour Backlink building for a niche site you have developed
• And other projects you work on…

And maybe give yourself a little treat after you finish each small goal, in other words reward yourself when you have taken a step closer to finishing your projects. Don’t have too many projects going at ones, as you will over strech yourself.

I won’t go into detail about the subject of planning as it is an extensive topic in it’s own right. But if you wish to find out more about ‘How to stop procrastination and get things done’ then listen to my ‘podcast show’ I created on this topic. I share how I stay focused and get things done on a daily basis.

Now you have written your fantastic ‘main magnetic content’ and have a plan to write consistently new content you need to attract the attention of readers to your blog. In other words you need to start marketing your blog for people to find your fantastic content’.

2) Magnetic Media

By marketing your blog you are creating channels through which people can find your content on your blog. You need to find the right media to create these channels from… I call this ‘magnetic media’.

Magnetic media is not just effective media to build channels from, but will also provide you with ongoing increasing attention from new readers over time. I also refer to this as ‘new age media’.

Using the right ‘magnetic media channels’ you can quickly create what I call the ‘Mini Simon Cowell effect’ or ‘Mini Oprah effect’ or even ‘Mini Cheryl Cole Effect’…you get my drift…

It’s like becoming a celebrity’ in your market!

You become a person of influence… if Simon Cowell or Oprah says I like this book or music, you bet that a lot of people go out next day and buy that book or CD.

Imagine having that affect when you launch your first product or even recommend another product!

Some of the media channels are easier and quicker to implement then others. Others may be more technical or just take more time to implement. The ones that take more time to implement are often the ones to provide you with the greatest rewards.

But there are also media channels which are difficult to tap into especially when you are just starting out. A great example is when a well-know professional blogger in your niche links back to one of your ‘pillar articles’ as reference for his or her readers. This will provide you with a large amount of new readers in a short space of time.

Unless you are famous already, the changes for that happening are very slim. But there are things you can do to increase the changes for professional bloggers to find you. You need to start with the smaller ‘magnetic media’ channels first to get the word out. These channels don’t provide you with an enormous influx of new readers immediately though.

It is about using a variety of these channels to get your content spread over the net to build your reader base initially. You may have readers who themselves have a few thousand subscribers to his or her newsletter. They may decide to list your ‘pillar content’ in their newsletter.

This way, your content works as leverage – the more subscribers the bigger the change somebody will link to your content.

Who knows one of your readers is a ‘well know’ blogger in your niche and decides to link back to your ‘magnetic content’…

Wham! Instant big media channel and large influx of new readers!

Yes you can spend big money on advertising to develop the big media channels, but I presume you don’t have a big budget at this moment in time.

So you need to start working the smaller ‘magnetic media’ channels first on a consistent basis, because eventually this will lead to opening up the big ‘magnetic media’ channels.

Let’s look at the smaller ‘magnetic media’ channels first…

Phase 1 – Small ‘Magnetic Media’ Channels

Remember! Don’t start this process until you have at least 5 ‘Pillar Articles’ on your Blog. When people start arriving at your Blog and there is no real value people won’t come back again but also you have wasted your time creating these ‘magnetic media’ channels.

Your ‘magnetic content’ and the creation of ‘magnetic media’ channels should result in readers that want to come back and eventually you build a relationship. That way you create ‘magnetic attention’, which is our purpose here.

So let’s get in to it…

• iTunes

This one is my favourite, but is also the most effective one. But it still surprises me that not many bloggers out there talk about it or mention this in the many blogging guides out there!

Now you may think hang on, is iTunes not about music. The answer is yes and no… there is a lot more to iTunes then most think.

If you head over to ‘store’ you will in the top menu lot’s of other choices. One of them is ‘podcasts’ and if you click on that you will see many podcasts which are divided again in various categories.

Last year (2010) saw an gradual increase of the use of this ‘magnetic media’ channel. 2011 will see an even bigger increase in people starting to add their podcast shows to iTunes for creating massive ‘magnetic attention’.

iTunes wants to provide people with great content in the form of podcasts, which iphone and ipod users (or any media player for that matter) can download and listen to on the go for FREE.

People have busy lifes, so it is convenient to listen to your info whilst driving to and from work, when on the train or even when out walking or running.

This does require a little more work and is a little more technical but can be easily done. There are just 2 things you need…

1) A service to create your podcast (free ofcourse…)

2) A microphone

The best service to create your podcasts with is Audacity… this is the free tool I use to record my podcasts, very easy to use. They have great videos showing how to use the tool.

Secondly you will need a microphone, one you connect to one of your USB ports and is ready to go without the need for any software to install etc… the one I use and highly recommend is the ‘Blue – Snowball Microphone’… (Note affiliate link!)

It provides professional quality sound for a fraction of the price… but you can also just search for ‘USB microphones’ and see what suits you.

Or if you don’t have any money to spend try to use the build in microphone of your monitor or the web-cam. (don’t expect high quality sound though, but is better then nothing)

I won’t go into detail how to create a good podcast or how to add your podcast to iTunes and how to get the maximum benefit of using iTunes. I am in the process of creating a free video series for this in the near future. (you can subscribe to my newsletter or RSS feed if you wish to find out when finished )

Don’t forget to add your podcast shows to other podcast directories as well!

• Facebook Fan Page

This is also know as a ‘Facebook Business Page’… if used in the right way this can draw in hundreds of new readers over night.

Now most of you reading this will probably think that Facebook is just a place for people to share what their favourite restaurant is, how work was today, what they have been up to in the weekend or even what they are doing right now… just social networking basically.

Did you know that Facebook is now bigger then Google?!

Facebook has now more visitors then Google!

Yep…

So don’t you think you should be using this to your advantage? Of course you should…

But you will need to create a ‘Fan Page’ (or ‘Business Page)… but in a way that it works as a proper ‘magnetic media’ channel for your Blog.

This is an extensive topic in it’s own right which I can’t all explain here, but try and do some searches in Google to find info to help you with this. Also look at some examples on Facebook, look at some of the blogs you follow, some brands maybe you are interested in (Coca Cola for example does a great job).

I am in the process of creating the definitive guide to using Facebook Fan Pages, with videos to accompany this. So if you wish you can subscribe to my newsletter (The SMART Internet Business Newsletter for Smart People) or RSS feed to be updated when this is finished.

NOTE! Please do not use ‘third party’ applications’ like ‘Posterous’ to update your fan page with new posts as that way you won’t get many people reading your updates (facebook feed won’t be updated that way!), resulting in less ‘comments’ and or ‘likes’ and resulting in a lot less new readers for your Blog.

• Forums

A lot has already been said about forum marketing. This is a great place to develop relationships with others in your market, by adding value to the forum.

You need to do this on a regular basis for it to be effective!

Another great thing to do is to add your free reports (your pillar articles) to the forums you visit. People love free reports…

If used in the right way they are a great way to attract ‘magnetic attention’ but also a great way to ‘sell without selling’ … You can add some affiliate links inside the report without trying to sell it. Just make it a part of the content.

The best way of course would be to write a free eBook that ‘pre-sells’ your own product. And when combined with an ‘ingenious twist’ (some already call this a ‘revolutionary marketing’ technique)…

…you will have affiliates literally falling over themselves to market your eBook to their readers and subscribers.

“Magnetic Attention” at it’s best!

Click here to get your free copy to discover this ’ingenious twist’.

• Commenting on Blogs

Again a lot has already been said about this subject, but it remains an effective way to build relationships with other professional bloggers in your niche. Make sure to add value within your comments…

Don’t just say “thanks for this great post”, as that definitely won’t get the owner or others who read your comments to visit your Blog. If you add value to the conversation and do this on a regular basis you will build strong relationships…

And maybe one of the owners of the blogs will link to your content one day!

• Blog Carnivals

Blog carnivals are collections of the best content of various blogs. The owners try to collect the best content on a particular topic each week. Other bloggers often link back to these, so this is a great way to get your ‘magnetic content’ in front of potential new readers.

Have a look at this site – blogcarnival.com – for an extensive list.

• Twitter & LinkedIn

These are like Facebook, social networking sites, although no where near as effective. There is also a lot of talk of the ‘death of Twitter’ lately (watch this space)… I would say it should be used as one of your smaller ‘magnetic media’ channels as part of your strategy.

There is a lot of information out there explaining how to setup a Twitter page, how to personalise it (a must) and the best way of using it… do a search in Google.

There are a lot more media channels, but the above are what I would class as the ‘magnetic media’ channels. Also it is important for you to focus on just a few as consistency is important here.

If you have a full-time job or even part-time and find it hard to find the time each day I would suggest to concentrate on commenting on popular blogs and forum posting. And as soon you finished another article, submit to blog carnivals too.

But if you have more time and can afford the investment of a microphone I would advice you to create Podcasts and submit to iTunes and other blog directories too and setup your Facebook Fan Page for greater rewards.

Let’s recap…

>> Not a lot of time Strategy

• Post quality comments on popular blogs – follow 5 top blogs
• Post on Forums – look for the top 3 forums (now and then free eBooks)
• Submit your ‘main magnetic content’ to blog carnivals on a regular basis
• Remember to keep writing (try to link to top blogs in your articles)

>> More time (and money) Strategy

• Create podcasts at least every 10 days (plan ahead) – submit to iTunes
• Setup Facebook Fan Page – submit posts ‘directly’ (which connect to your blog)
• Comments on your top 5 blogs
• Forum posting on your top 3 forums
• Submit your ‘main magnetic content’ to blog carnivals, regularly
• Continue writing (link in articles to top blogs)

So now you have a strategy to work on each and everyday. These are the small ‘magnetic media’ channels you need to work first before you eventually will tap into the big ‘magnetic media’ channels.

Phase 2 – Big ‘Magnetic Media’ Channels

I already touched on this a little bit, but the only real big ‘magnetic media’ channel is getting a link from one of the top bloggers in your market. None of the major bloggers will know you or your blog at first. You can work the small channels and hope that at one stage one of the probloggers will find your great content at some stage.

But there are ways to increase the changes of your blog and content to be found quicker. You want to make the afford to make friends with other peers in your market. In other words you try to establish peer relationships.

I will list a few that I belief have worked well for me:

1. Add links to top blogs within your ‘magnetic content’ on your blog.

This will be picked up by the owner of that blog and may decide to have a look at who links to his or her blog. In time the owner may decide to link back to you if your content is of good quality.

2. email the blog owner you linked to

emailing the owner to introduce yourself is a great way of people getting to know you and your blog. Make sure not to ask for a link at this stage though!

But there is another great way to ‘break the ice’ when you email the owner…

I belief it is courtesy to email the owner of a blog I link to. Even though it is in their benefit and therefore everybody just does it. It is good practice to email the owner to ask if they don’t mind, to give them the choice as they may not want to be associated with that content or blog.

And at the same time you can introduce yourself as well. I think this is a great way to communicate for the first time with fellow bloggers.

3. Let top bloggers now when you published great ‘magnetic content’

When you have written another great ‘pillar article’ let the top bloggers know about it. They may even decide to link to it if they feel it provides value to their readers.

NOTE! As top bloggers get a lot of email don’t be surprised they don’t react to your email or not even get opened.

4. Interview Top Bloggers

Doing an interview with a top blogger provides great value to your readers, is easy content generation and helps to develop a relationship with the blogger. The top blogger will generally also link to his or her interview on your blog so his or her readers can listen to it as well.

The interview generally will be done over the phone, unless you life close to the other blogger. Use skype for this as it is free that way. There are 2 ways you can present this:

1) Written Blog post – transcript

2) Podcast (add to iTunes to become ‘magnetic’)

At the end of the day you have to make the afford to develop relationships, it’s like networking. Just like how you met your friends you have today or even how you met your partner. By sitting at home it won’t happen. The same goes for developing online relationships, you need to take the time to do it.

Even better would be to be able to meet some of your fellow bloggers in real life, through maybe an internet event somewhere. I always prefer to meet people in the flesh, but that is not always possible.

Why not start developing relationships with other beginner bloggers in your niche!

Building relationships this way is much easier. As you have similar needs and goals it is more likely that they will be open to the idea of promoting your ‘magnetic content’.

What About The Search Engines?

You probably noticed that I haven’t talked about the search engines. Personally I am not a great advocate of search engines.

The whole area of search engine optimization is imprecise and ever changing.

Because of it a lot of pieces of software have been developed to assist with this SEO task.

Also many different theories are constantly being written about what you need to do to rank high.

Do you really want to spend months of back-link building and a few months down the line the algorithm has changed again and all you have done is probably worthless?

Did you know that Google only provides 4% of all the internet traffic?

When you have a number 1 ranking on Google you get 54% of the clicks. (from Google’s own research data). So why not spend your time where there are far more people?

The choice is yours, but personally I would spend my time using the ‘magnetic media’ channels.

I am not saying not to get your important posts listed in Google, but don’t emphasise all your affords on Google.

Here are some on-site SEO tips to give your ‘main magnetic content’ the best change to rank in the search engines:

• Add a relevant keyword in the title of the post (use any of the free keyword tools)
• Add the m ain keyword (in title) in the first and last paragraph)
• Add some related keywords throughout your content
• Install All In One SEO PLugin – add the main keyword and other related keyword to title, also to description + related keywords in keyword section (3-4 keywords max)

I hope the above helps but if still confused there is lot’s of free information online, do a search.

Making ‘Magnetic Money’ From Your Blog

Now we have established how to create ‘magnetic media’ channels to our blog, we need to start to think about how to monetise our blog to make money – ‘Magnetic Money’…

Magnetic Blogging is NOT a Hobby > Magnetic Blogging is NOT a

Job >> Magneti Blogging IS a Business

Blogging should be treated like a business, even though your goal is to escape the 9-5 like I did, making money from blogging (and maybe other online income streams). No, it is not like running a ‘conventional business’ where you have to be there all the time.

You still need to work on your blog (business) daily but you can decide when and how. By this I mean work the hours you want and work on it when you want, but it does need to be done regularly.

Blogging is NOT a passive income… but then again I don’t belief that you can make a passive income anyway. Everything needs work, more so at the beginning, but always requires ongoing work and attention…

{passive = requires no attention; not doing anything}

Blogging is the model of choice to create an online business… as I belief it is the best way to build relationships and thus trust with your readers in the long term, which eventually will turn into profits as you create influence.

There has already been a lot written on how to make money from blogging, but a lot of it I would not recommend. One of the reasons a lot of people start blogging is that they think it is easy money by adding Google adsense and or banner advertising.

The term ‘banneritis’ is being thrown around a lot… everybody thinks just to stick banners on your blog and you will make a lot of money. The same goes for Google adsense.

It doesn’t work! Why not?

Not enough traffic – unless you are already a ‘celebrity’ in your niche!

Only top bloggers have the amount of traffic to make banner advertising or adsense work financially. But it has been reported that some top bloggers can’t even make adsense work!

So let’s look at the 2 most effective models of monetization that do work…

Affiliate Marketing

When you are just starting out you probably don’t have your own product as yet. Affiliate products are a great way to start. There are 2 types of affiliate products:

1) Single Payment Types

These are often products or services that provide real value to your readers. I am not saying you go out and look for new products that are being launched you can promote.

You preferably want to sell products you use yourself in your own business. A recommendation from personal use is in my eyes the best way to go. Sometimes a product or service is recommended by somebody who is highly regarded in your market, which may be one of those times you can promote that to your readers too.

The mistake a lot of people make is to sell it. You want to write a blog post in which you review the product and highlight the benefits to your readers. This way you are not selling it, but your affiliate link is woven within your content.

As I said before you really want to promote the products you use yourself.

2) Recurring Payment Types

These are often membership type products. This means when your reader subscribes to this service you get paid monthly for as long as they remain a member. Again try to promote the membership services you use too.

This type of affiliate product is very popular amongst bloggers, but nothing beats to have your own product to sell.

Selling Your Own Product

The best way to monetise your blog is to sell your own product. A lot of advice online is to buy an eBook with either PLR (private label rights – can make it your own) or with Resell Rights (rebrand the ebook with your affiliate link)

Personally I don’t like selling ‘old’ rehashed information, that is also been marketed by many other people. Often the info is of low quality, which doesn’t help to build good relationships with your readers.

Not only from a moral perspective is it better to write your own eBook or create an podcast / audiobook of your information, but also you can make sure it is high quality, up to date and brings real value to your readers.

Yes you need to spend a bit of time writing it, but it is worth it in the long run. Let’s say you plan it out over a 2 month period, try to write the content section first and then work backwards over a 2 month period to work out how much you need to write each day to have it finished in 2 months.

Maybe it means you need to write a ‘sub-chapter’ each day or even less. The idea is that if you plan it, set your self little goals each day, that way you are focused and will make sure it is easier to achieve.

Note! Within your eBook you could also have ‘affiliate-links’ throughout the content where applicable.

Communication, communication, communication…

I talked about business systems earlier. One of your business systems should be making it easy for your readers to consume your content, knowing when you have released new content.

Communication or just staying in touch is important!

These are systems that require minimal input from you and make it easy to communicate.

1) Subscribing to your newsletter

You can add an opt-in box to your site, so your readers can subscribe to your email list. Once they are on your email list you can email them with updates, but also share anything else you want to.

What you need for this is an auto-responder. It allows you to add messages in it that will be automatically send out at frequencies and times you tell it to. Every new subscriber will get those messages on auto pilot.

Besides that you can also do broadcasts, so when you have added new content you can let your readers who have subscribed to your email list know. Yes this is going to cost a little bit of money, but it is worth it. You don’t want to use a third party service to do it.

Here are my reasons for using a quality auto-responder service

• Deliverability – it will guarantee your email arrives at your subscribers inbox
• When one day you do decide to start using an auto-responder service you can’t just add the emails. You need to ask people permission first, which could end up you loosing half your list
• You are not in control, if suddenly they shut you down for whatever reason you lost your list

In other words it is going to save you a lot of hassle later. There are various auto-responder services out there, but my favourite is aWeber. The deliverability is the best, it has great features and is very easy to use. The customer service is also top notch.

2) Subscribing to your Blog Feed

I won’t go into detail what a feed is, as there is a lot of info you can find online. But a feed basically contains all your Blog’s content. It would look like this…

http://www.yourblog.com/feed/

When your readers subscribe to your feed, each time you update your blog the feed gets automatically updated too. Now if they use a free service like Google Feed Reader they will get automatically a message letting them no about the update, how cool is that.

It’s a great way to stay in touch with your readers and for them to stay in touch with you.

Why Most Bloggers Fail

Some of the reasons for this I touched on in the early part of this report, but I wanted to create awareness of this before you go head over heel into your blogging journey…

1) Money Is The Main Motivator

Blogging is not a way to make money fast. Your true motivator should be that you enjoy writing about the topic you have chose, in other words you are passionate about it. You share your ideas and thoughts with others and when you do that eventually you will start to make money. Even though it may take a good number of months before that happens.

You have to give a lot first before you get…

2) Choosing the wrong topic

A lot is said about not entering a crowded market or where there is little interest in the topic. I personally don’t belief that a market can be to crowded, but what does matter is that you stand out from the crowd. Be different, be you… be creative…

If your topic has no interest online, but it is definitely a topic that you know a lot of people are interested in, it may be that you need to focus on offline strategies for your blogging.

The only thing I would say that do not choose a topic you are not passionate about, because very quickly it becomes a chore writing about it 6 months down the line!

3) Not Giving It Enough Time

People often get bored after a few month, because the outcome at that point hasn’t reached expectations. You need to give it time… especially now you have build ‘magnetic media’ channels to that blog.

4) Spreading too thinly

One blog requires enough work to make it work well. Too many people start blogging about other topics too and hence spreading their affords to thinly. It is much better to focus on one blog to give it the best change possible. (yes you can do some other less involving projects on the side)

5) Don’t have time

Most people think it is easy money. This is not the case, because you will need to be able to put in regular hours each day. If you don’t have that time available blogging may not be for you.

It really takes work when you are starting off with a new blog, although gets less time consuming as you progress it does require ongoing work.

A closing word

Before I come to the end of this report I just wanted to touch on something first. In this report you will find the core strategies and tactics you need to succeed with blogging. But unfortunately most people will still fail to make their blog into a success.

Most will go on to browse lot’s of other blogs, read other info and eventually get overwhelmed and frustrated with all the information out there. When people start to consume too much information they become paralyzed and often end up doing nothing.

Information overload!

So what is the best way to avoid information overload? Here’s what works best for me, although you may find other ways that work better for you…

• Choose some of the top blogs in your market and stick to those as reliable sources of information

• Plan your days – knowing what to concentrate on only for the tasks you work on

• Avoid the constant reading of other so called ‘next best thing’ – the ‘shiny object’ syndrome…

Choose what feels right for you, focus on your plan & goals and stick with it.

Congratulations for coming this far!

Hopefully you now have a much better understanding then most of how to start your blogging journey successfully and to make money from it. The only things you have to do now is to setup your blog and start blogging about your passion.

So What Next

Once you have decided to commit to working hard to make your blogging journey a successful one, you just need to take the right action…

Plan your journey and set goals!

Here are the steps I would take if I was starting out today:

Day 1 – Don’t do anything else today, but think about what you have read in this ‘long’ post

Day 2 – Decide on your topic – your passion preferably

Day 3 – Start writing at least 5 ‘pillar articles’ (more is better) >> plan your writing versus how much time you have each day – set small goals to achieve with your writing (even if it means it will take a few weeks to get finished)

Day17 – (presuming it takes about 2 weeks to write your first 5 ‘pillar articles’) Setup your blog (wordpress) – or if you get somebody to do it for you have it done straight away whilst you are writing your ‘main magnetic content’

Day 18 – Sign up for aWeber and add a opt-in box to your site

Day 19 – Add your first 5 (or more) blog posts (reports, articles etc) to your site – also create a special area so visitors to your site can find them easily

Day 20 – Start marketing

Remember!

Continue writing each day – try to have at least 3 blog posts added to your site weekly… also write 1 pillar article each week or every other week

Write autoresponder messages – one each week at least and add to appropriate area

Ideas:

• sign up to one of the top blogs in your niche you have chosen to follow to see how they write their autoresponder messages

• summarise your ‘magnetic content’

Be consistent with writing new blog posts and creating / re-visiting ‘magnetic media’ channels.

Now all you have to do is get to work…

Enjoy!

How did you start your blogging journey – writing magnetic content first before promoting? What Strategies do you use to make money from your blog?