I went with a co-worker a little bit ago to grab some lunch at a corner market that sells incredibly overpriced food and half the time screws up the order you placed, using their little “build your own sandwich” form they make you fill out. My co-worker checked the box for ONLY mustard - they left off the mustard and gave him a ton of mayo. Luckily, all I needed was a Mountain Dew.
Anyways, while we were waiting for the slow ladies behind the counter to make the sandwich their own way, I was looking at the flyers they had hanging up advertising various things. Once of which was for seminar called “Blogging Basics & Beyond” that is being run by a man named Edward Mills, who has been blogging for “almost two-years”. In this 8-hour info dump you’ll learn the following:
* What blogging really is.
* What RSS is and why it is so powerful.
* How to choose a blog platform.
* Search Engine Optimization techniques for blogs.
* The most effective monetization sources.
* How to drive potentially massive traffic to your blog using social networking sites.
* Which social networking sites you should focus on.
* Why it’s important to be an active participant in the blogoshpere.
* Some powerful blogging tools to increase your efficiency and speed.
* What it takes to be a “Pro” blogger.
* How to effectively monetize your blog: What works and what doesn’t.
* Should you monetize your blog from the beginning or wait until you have traffic?
* How to set yourself up for long-term success.
* If you still need a website if you have a blog.
* How to use a blog to as an marketing tool.
The price for this? $149.00. Yep, almost $200.00 will teach you some very useful things which you can find out for free by not being lazy and having a smidgeon of initiative (laziness will kill any chances of a blog being successful, by the way). Here are my thoughts on the specific bullet-pointed subjects:
What blogging really is.
You can learn what blogging is by going, practically anywhere, online. Like here. And here. Or here. I would argue that if you don’t know what a blog is, years after the craze began, then you probably shouldn’t have a blog.
What RSS is and why it is so powerful.
RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”. Click here for more. If you know what syndication is, then you already know why syndication that is really simple is so “powerful”.
How to choose a blog platform.
Most of the time, when people want to now why they should settle on something, they look at the features it offered. To do this one can easily find a list of blogging programs by Googling for “blogging platform” or “blogging software”, but here are some places to start for a free blog:
WordPress - Hosted or Self hosted
Blogger
Livejournal
Hell, even MySpace lets you have a blog for free.
Search Engine Optimization techniques for blogs.
Here’s an oldie but a goodie: Buy a book for $20-$50 on Search Engine Optimization. Such as “Professional Search Engine Optimization with PHP”, Chapter 16 is titled “WordPress: Creating an SE-Friendly Blog”. Alternatively, you can search nearly any search engine for “Search Engine Optimization techniques for blogs”.
The most effective monetization sources.
Become an affiliate of something. Such as Amazon, ThinkGeek, NewEgg, and so forth. Also put ads on your blog so people buy stuff using your affiliate links. This isn’t exactly a new idea, and most people know that if you want to earn money, sometimes that means you have to do a few minutes of research.
How to drive potentially massive traffic to your blog using social networking sites.
This one’s easy: Link to your blog from your social networking profiles such as MySpace, Friendster, Digg, Del.icio.us and so forth.
Which social networking sites you should focus on.
All of them.
Why it’s important to be an active participant in the blogoshpere.
Because we all think everyone needs to read what we have to say. This opens a can of worms that I’m sure Mr. I-obviously-don’t-embrace-free-information won’t touch on such as being exposed to other ways of thinking, even those you may not agree with and how that an help you become a better, more tolerant, understanding and accepting human being.
Some powerful blogging tools to increase your efficiency and speed.
Typing. Typing is the single greatest “tool” to increacing your efficiency and speed. If you can type reasonably accurate and quick, you can post more quality content, faster.
What it takes to be a “Pro” blogger.
Money coming in, either from your blog or from other means. Either way, to be a problogger takes time - time that most people don’t have unless they can blog while at work or don’t have to work. Note: Having insomnia How do you generate income from your blog? By producing quality, relevant posts that enough people want to read and maybe some of those readers will click on the ads you have scattered around your blog and possibly an advertiser or two will pay you just to feature/review their product.
How to effectively monetize your blog: What works and what doesn’t.
This isn’t something that can be taught to you, because each person has their own tolerance level for ads in their content.
Should you monetize your blog from the beginning or wait until you have traffic?
This one might be interesting to hear other’s opinions on. But the answer I doubt is worth $149.00 and the bulk of your Saturday.
How to set yourself up for long-term success.
Get a domain name you’ll want to use for a while. And find a nice design. Poor design will kill your blog traffic, which, oddly enough, isn’t something he’ll be covering in enough depth to justify that topic having its own bullet point. You can look at the event web page for an example of bad design elements which may possibly drive readers away and affect the impact of your message. Such as a site that obviously wasn’t “proofed” in browsers other than Internet Explorer.
If you still need a website if you have a blog.
This depends on why you’re blogging in the first place.
How to use a blog to as an marketing tool.
Again, this depends on why you’re blogging. This, too, is something that would be interesting to hear Edward’s opinion on. Of course, you could also email any blogger and ask them. Chances are, you’ll get an answer pretty quickly. For free.
There you go, my fine readers. I’ve addressed the same issues Edward will on November 10th for free. I’ll end this post by saying, simple, “Google is your friend”.
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2 comments ↓
Who are you to tell the nice man that he is ripping people off? What made you kind of the interwebs?
You sir are despicable ala Daffy Duck!
LOL
Hopefully people search for this thing and find this blog and be like wow… amazing information.
Awesome. Where do I send the check for $149?
There have always been people who don’t know what they’re doing giving money to people who barely know what they’re saying to get information that they could get by going to the library and cracking a book. Now that we have the internet, the barrier to entry is lower for the hucksters. It’s also lower for the marks, but they have no way to recognize that. That’s what makes them marks.
At least they’re only spending $150 and a day to learn what might be a very enjoyable hobby. They could have spent $3000 and a weekend on one of those real estate seminars that, as far as I can tell, have only one strategy: Leverage yourself absurdly and hope the market goes up.
I did get a kick out of the “almost two years” bit. Shit, that must make me an… uh, ultra-expert by now!
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