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These are some of the highlights from September.

Site Design (Packaging Your Site)

I wrote these three posts to help webmasters improve their site designs.

• How’s The Packaging And Formatting Of Your Site?
• Blog Design: Improve Your Site Packaging
• Usability and Navigation: Improve Your Site Packaging

The One Site Business Model

Why Building One Site is Better Than Building Multiple Sites
This is my favorite post so far. I took me awhile to write it. It went viral on StumbleUpon. In this post, I give reasons why focusing on one site will earn you more money than building multiple sites.

Attention Grabbing Headlines

22 World Class Headline Templates
Try these headline templates and watch your traffic increase.

How to Outsource Well

10 Outsourcing Tips That Actually Work
Here are a couple of tips if you are considering outsourcing or you currently outsource some of your work. Outsourcing is an excellent way to grow your business and improve efficiency.

Feedback

What were your favorite posts in September? What would you like me to write about in October?

Advertise Here

Popularity: 4% [?]

Popularity: 4% [?]

I just realized I’ve been making a rookie blogging mistake. About two week ago, I asked Adie (the owner of this blog) if I could post lower my posting schedule to 3-4 times a week instead of 7 times a week. I asked for this because I wanted to spend time marketing instead of just blogging. He was kind enough to let me start marketing and post less often.

Well, I think so far it’s been a good idea. I did some marketing on StumbleUpon for a couple of my posts and got a bunch of traffic. However, while StumbleUpon has been working out well, I also had a huge drop in traffic. I think a big reason for the drop is because I’ve posting on the weekend.

Oops.

The weekend is when traffic numbers go down. In fact, I think even on Friday traffic goes down. From Friday to Sunday, less people are online.

Many of you bloggers probably already know about the lower weekend traffic. However, for those that don’t, if you’re posting less than 5 times a week, try to make all your posts between Monday and Thursday.

Posting Frequency

I’d like your feedback on my posting frequency. I’ve been writing at least 1400 words a week. If you had your choice, would you like three 400 word posts weekly or seven 200 word posts?

I’m not saying I will do whatever you all want, but I will definitely take it into consideration. I know I can’t write 400 word posts everyday. There’s marketing to be done and that takes time. Also, I don’t write very fast and I need time for my full-time job. And I still want a social life :)

So, if you have time, please leave your opinion below about my posting frequency. Thanks beforehand and also thanks for reading.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Popularity: 10% [?]

One of the best books I’ve read about business is Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton. In the book, they argue that is the secret to having a fulfilling and successful work life is to know your strengths and use them as much as possible.

I remember a passage from the book where they talk about Warren Buffett, a famous investor and billionaire. Here is the exact passage found on page 15:

“I am really no different from any of you.”

Warren Buffett, with his usual down-home style and slightly disheveled appearance, is talking to a roomful of students at the University of Nebraska. Since he is one of the richest men in the world and since most of the students can barely cover their phone bill, they start to chuckle.

“I may have more money than you do, but money doesn’t make the difference. Sure, I can buy the most luxurious handmade suit, but I put it on and it just looks cheap. I would rather have a cheeseburger from Dairy Queen than a hundred-dollar meal.” The students seem unconvinced, and so Buffett concedes on one point. “If there is any difference between you and me, it may simply be that I get up every day and have a chance to do what I love to do, every day. If you want to learn anything from me, this is the best advice I can give you.”

On the surface this sounds like the kind of glib throwaway line you tell people after you have already banked your first billion. But Buffett is sincere. He loves what he does and genuinely believes that his reputation as the world’s greatest investor is due to his ability to carve out a role that plays to his particular strengths.

This passage stuck in my mind. In the fast paced environment of internet business, I think many of us have never really intentionally tried to figure out what our strengths are. But Buffett claims the reason he is so successful is because he uses his strengths all the time in his business.

So, let me ask you 2 questions.

1. Do you know what your strengths are?
2. If you do, are you using them often in your online business?

I’ll have more to say about this, but until then, feel free to answer the 2 questions in the comment section below.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Popularity: 3% [?]

Two days ago, I wrote about the importance of headlines. I wrote about the need to spend more time crafting an attractive headline. To help you, here are some excellent headline templates you can try out. These templates will make your article titles more interesting and less boring. Feel free to bookmark this post or print it out and use as a cheat sheet.

All the templates come from Brian Clark of Copyblogger. He wrote the following 3 list posts. I simply aggregated the templates in the posts. Also, I included my own examples. For maximum effectiveness, read the posts to learn why these titles work.

• 10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work
• 7 More Sure-Fire Headline Templates That Work
• Warning: Use These 5 Surefire Headline Formulas at Your Own Risk

Finally, feel free to modify the titles to fit your article.

1. Who Else Wants [blank]?

• Who Else Wants to Gain 472 RSS Subscribers in One Month?
• Who Else Wants To Hit the Digg Front Page?

2. The Secret of [blank]

• The Secret of Profitable Online Marketing in 2 Words
• The Secret of Getting Noticed in a Crowded Niche

3. Here is a Method That is Helping [blank] to [blank]

• Here is a Method That is Helping New Bloggers Get Links from Popular Sites
• Here is a Method That is Helping Publishers Sell More Ads

4. Little Known Ways to [blank]

• Little Known Ways to Work Less and Earn More
• Little Known Ways to Conquer Procrastination

5. Get Rid of [problem] Once and For All

• Get Rid of Comment Spam Once and For All
• Get Rid of Unprofitable Activities Once and For All

6. Here’s a Quick Way to [solve a problem]

• Here’s a Quick Way to Get a PR7 Link
• Here’s a Quick Way to Find a Low-Competition Yet Profitable Niche

7. Now You Can Have [something desirable] [great circumstance]

• Now You Can Write Less and Get More Traffic
• Now You Can Exercise While Working Online

8. [Do something] like [world-class example]

• Create Buzz Like John Chow
• Build Links Like an SEO expert

9. Have a [or] Build a [blank] You Can Be Proud Of

• Build a Wordpress Theme You Can Be Proud Of
• Build an Online Business You Can Be Proud Of

10. What Everybody Ought to Know About [blank]

• What Everybody Ought to Know About SEO
• What Everybody Ought to Know About Monetization

11. Give Me [short time period] and I’ll Give You [blank].

• Give Me 1 Month and I’ll Give You a Top 10 Google Ranking
• Give Me 5 Days and I’ll Give You 10,000 Visitors from Digg

12. If You Don’t [blank] Now, You’ll Hate Yourself Later.

• If You Don’t Work on Less Sites Now, You’ll Hate Yourself Later.
• If You Don’t Read This Free Ebook Now, You’ll Hate Yourself Later.

13. The Lazy [blank’s] Way to [blank].

• The Lazy Freelancer’s Way to Get More Clients.
• The Lazy Webmaster’s Way to Increase Traffic.

14. Do You Recognize the [number] Early Warning Signs of [blank]?

• Do You Recognize the 12 Early Warning Signs of Entrepreneur Burnout?
• Do You Recognize the 5 Early Warning Signs of a Crappy Idea?

15. See How Easily You Can [desirable result].

• See How Easily You Can Increase Sales With Google Adwords.
• See How Easily You Can Promote Your Site Through StumbleUpon.

16. You Don’t Have to Be [something challenging] to be [desired result].

• You Don’t Have to Be a Genius to Make a Living Online.
• You Don’t Have to Read Google Patents to Understand SEO.

17. Do You Make These Mistakes?

• Do You Make These Link Building Mistakes?
• Do You Make These Common Usability Mistakes?

18. Warning: [blank].

• Warning: If You Don’t Create a Unique Brand, You’ll Lose Your Rankings To Big Corporations.
• Warning: Online ADD can Wreck Your Business.

19. How [blank] Made Me [blank].

• How Playing Poker Made Me a Better Salesman.
• How Watching Reality TV Made Me a Better Marketer.

20. Are You [blank]?

• Are You Networking Out of Your Comfort Zone?
• Are You Losing Confidence Because of Your Low Adsense Earnings?

21. [Blank] Ways to [blank].

• 5 Ways to Monetize your Forum
• 27 Ways to Get Noticed on the Internet

22. If You’re [blank], You Can [blank].

• If You’re Detail-Oriented, You Can Hamper the Growth of Your Business.
• If You Don’t Test, You Will Leave a Lot of Money on the Table.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Popularity: 11% [?]

Patrick Altoft sometimes spends 20 minutes crafting his titles. Why?

The headline or title contains the most important words in your article or blog post.

It’s the first thing your readers will see. It determines whether or not they will continue reading. So, you can take 3 hours to write a useful 1000 word post, but if your headline is boring, well… you’re missing out on a lot of traffic.

You’ll get more clicks from the search engines because your title is attractive. In the same way, you’ll get more clicks from Blog Rush. Also, some RSS readers only show the title.

Attractive titles make your site stand out from the sea of sites with crappy headlines.

What You Can Do With The 37% More Time

Edit your title. Rewrite your headline. Try different variations of the title. You proofread your body text, right? Do the same for your headline.

Be Specific. 37% is more interesting than 50% :) Also, list posts are great because they force you to be specific.

Use successful headline templates. (I’ll aggregate some of the best headline templates this week, so stick around.)

Popularity: 6% [?]

Popularity: 6% [?]

Outsourcing is an important part of expanding and growing an online business. If you produce all the content and do all the promotion, you’ll reach a point of diminishing returns. You’ll have to work harder to earn more revenue. This oftentimes backfires as many entrepreneurs burn out and have to take a break to recuperate.

With the popularity of The 4-Hour Workweek, more internet marketers are looking to outsource. If you have cash to spare, outsourcing can greatly increase your bottom line by adding value to your site through the labor of other skilled workers.

Even if you’re not in a position to outsource, bookmark this page. When your online business begins to grow and your cash flow improves, these 10 tips will help you reinvest your money so that your business can become even more profitable.

1. Lean towards hiring outsourcing firms rather than individuals.
The problem with individuals is they can leave you when they find a better offer. Also, if your they get sick, your business suffers. By going to reputable companies, you’ll delegate the responsibility of finding replacement workers.

However, don’t be dogmatic about this. If you find awesome individual workers especially for one-time projects and highly skilled tasks, feel free to hire them.

What you’ll avoid: Spending the time and money it takes to find a replacement worker.

2. Know your hourly rate.
Figure out how much you’re making an hour. Then, begin to outsource all the tasks that can be done for less than your hourly rate. This will save you time. Spend that time on the more profitable tasks.

What you’ll avoid: Doing low-profit tasks instead of the tasks that actually bring in the most money.

3. Find people more skilled than you.
Set your ego aside. If you’re expanding your business through outsourcing, you might as well expand with workers more talented than you. The super rich understand this principle. They may not be the most talented people in the world. However, they know how to find, hire, and retain excellent workers.

What you’ll avoid: Stunting the growth of your business by not seeking qualified help.

4. Know your strengths.
Do you know what your strengths are? Most of us live such busy, multi-tasked lives that we are not sure what our strengths are. Slow down and assess your talents and skills. Take a strengths test. Ask your friends and business contacts for feedback.

Once you know your strengths, outsource the business activities that don’t correspond to them.

What you’ll avoid: Doing activities you’re not really good at.

5. Outsource the tedious and mundane parts of your work.
A happy entrepreneur is a entrepreneur that stands to make a lot of money :) What don’t you like doing?

See value in blog commenting, but don’t want to do it? Find someone who’s passionate about your niche and have them comment. Think of writing as a necessary evil? Hire a blogger or copywriter. Love writing but hate marketing? Hire a search or social media marketer.

What you’ll avoid: Doing tasks you don’t enjoy.

6. Take time to assess job candidates/firms.
The huge value in outsourcing is finding someone you can count on for the long-term. If you have to keep firing and hiring, you’re wasting time. If you have to micromanage your workers to get them to produce quality work, you’re wasting time.

Spend as much time as you need to find the perfect person/firm for the job. Even if you have to go through 15+ candidates, don’t settle for average. Your business is at stake. Hire top quality workers and your bottom line will increase.

What you’ll avoid: Headaches, frustration, and low income.

7. Assess your candidates well.
I like to give job candidates small tasks before hiring them. These small tasks help evaluate me their skills more accurately. For example, if you’re looking for a blogger, have them post 3 times and gauge the traffic and reaction of your readers. If you want to hire a search marketer, ask them to build a couple links. If you want a new site design, ask them to send you a couple sample drafts.

Also, ask for prior work. A writer worth their salt should have a couple articles published. A good programmer should have some programs already built. An excellent virtual assistant should have great references.

Finally, check for plagiarism with your writer/blogger candidates.

What you’ll avoid: Low quality work.

8. Once you find great workers, treat them VERY well.
These workers are among the most important assets in your business. Give them a percentage share of your profits. Hand out bonuses when they reach goals. Increase their wages when your business grows significantly.

Encourage them when they make your site look good. Train them and give them skills so they’ll feel like they’re improving personally. Give them room to take calculated risks. Allow them to come up with their own ideas.

Finally, keep this in mind. Great workers know they can find other jobs. Give them reasons to stay with you.

What you’ll avoid: A high turnover rate of quality workers.

9. Don’t micromanage.
Talented workers hate this. It makes them feel like robots. Micromanaging is definitely a real reason why many workers leave their job. Also, micromanaging is an inefficient use of time.

Outsourcing is about finding people who can do a job without you instant messaging them every 15 minutes. If you’re gonna micromanage, save the money, skip outsourcing, and do the job yourself.

What you’ll avoid: Low morale between you and your workers.

10. Get referrals.
This is one of the best ways to find a valuable worker. Ask your business contacts if they have any recommendations. If you don’t have any business contacts, now is the time to start networking with other webmasters.

What you’ll avoid: The time it takes to sift through 50 Elance proposals.

Feedback

Join the conversation by leaving a comment. Which outsourcing tips did you like? Also, can you think of more tips?

Popularity: 8% [?]

Popularity: 8% [?]

Unless you haven’t read a make money online blog in the last couple of days, you’ve probably heard about BlogRush. Blog Rush is the new product from John Reese of Income.com. It’s a free widget that can increase your targeted traffic. You can see our widget on the sidebar. You’ll have to scroll down a bit.

How Does BlogRush Work?

Basically, you sign up for BlogRush, submit your blog in the proper category, and then add the widget. The widget shows 5 links to blog posts in your same category. For every pageview you get, one of your posts will show up on another BlogRush widget on someone else’s blog. The other person’s blog will be in the same category as your blog.

You can get more exposure by referring other bloggers to BlogRush. The referrals go down to ten levels. Here’s the BlogRush video if you want to learn more.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiDxZmRino4[/youtube]

Increase Your BlogRush Traffic

Here are 5 practical ways to drive more traffic through BlogRush.

1. Write a post recommending BlogRush.

Many BlogRush users have not done this. On this blog, I clicked through the 5 links on the widget. Three of the blogs had not posted about BlogRush. One of them wrote a 70 word post about it. And the last blog wrote about BlogRush twice.

If the BlogRush widget is going to take up space on your blog, at least tell your readers about it. Some of your readers may have blogs, so write an informative post recommending BlogRush and include your affiliate link. Who knows, a popular blogger might read your post and join BlogRush. This one referral can lead to a lot of traffic since that blogger might recommend BlogRush too.

2. Contact bloggers you know.

If you’ve been blogging for any length of time, you’ve probably built friendships with other bloggers. Send them an email and ask them to consider BlogRush.

3. Build friendships with bloggers and then tell them about BlogRush.

Obviously, this is directly related to #2. This tip is especially relevant if you’re in the make money online niche. Most bloggers in this niche already know about BlogRush. Even if you’re friends with them, they probably signed up under someone else.

However, if you network with bloggers from other niches, your referral success rate will increase. Pick a niche you’re passionate about. Find popular blogs in that niche and start dropping insightful comments. Also, you can email them interesting links. After some time of emailing and commenting, tell them about BlogRush.

For example, I’m a NBA basketball fan. I just looked at 3 popular NBA blogs. And lo and behold, none of them had the BlogRush widget.

Warning: don’t be a spammer and randomly email bloggers. Build a relationship first.

4. Block spammy and unrelated blogs on the widget.

Your widget should provide value to your readers. If it provides value, then they’ll be more likely to use it themselves.

BlogRush allows you to filter out blogs and keywords. Occasionally take some time to monitor your widget. If there are unrelated blogs, filter them out. If you see viagra and casino blogs, ban the keywords related to those niches.

5. Improve your post titles.

On the widget, your headline will be competing against 4 other headlines. Get more clicks by improving your headline. I just refreshed this blog and found these 5 links on our widget.

• Sap Launching A1s In New York
• Are You Ready For Some More Traffic?
• Quick Fix Factors
• Sms Post
• Succession Planning Best Practices

Would you click on any of these links? I wouldn’t.

Need help with post titles? Copyblogger is your friend. Also, the widget only has room for 41 characters.

This tip will increase your search traffic too, because internet searchers are more likely to click on a well-crafted title.

Support Us :)

If you want to try out BlogRush and support Net Business Blog, click here. That’s our affiliate link.

Keep us posted on the amount of traffic you receive from BlogRush. You can leave a comment. Also, you can contact Adie, the blog owner, or you can contact me at

We would love to know how BlogRush is working out for you.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Popularity: 7% [?]

Want this rush of traffic to your site?

Then, create and market a top blogs linkbait.

The Top 100 Make Money Online Blogs

You’ve probably seen this top blogs list Mark Wielgus created. This linkbait has attracted over 1000 links so far. I’ve even linked to it in my last two posts.

The type of linkbait works because many bloggers want to know how they compare with other blogs in their niche. Also, bloggers are looking for other quality blogs to read. And bloggers like to show off their rank.

Creating the Linkbait

Create a list of popular blogs in your niche. If you are knowledgeable about your niche, you should know a good number of those blogs. Also, you can ask your readers for suggestions.

Then, create a metric to rank the blogs. Mark uses a combination of PageRank, the Technorati link popularity rank, and Alexa traffic stats. Also, he automated the rankings by doing some coding. This is a great idea that will save you a lot of time.

If you’re not a programmer, hire one at Elance. Alternatively, you can learn programming by going through online tutorials.

Also, make a way for bloggers to submit their blogs. Put your email on the linkbait or create a contact form.

Marketing the Linkbait

Mark has a great post including a video about marketing his linkbait, so I’ll just link to him: Email Promotions - A Powerful Way To Network AND Promote Your Content. He gives these three tips for email marketing:

1. ONLY promote your BEST content.
2. Don’t sell. Maybe suggest they pass the content along, but that’s it. The ONLY goal is to make people aware of your great content. It’s up to them what to do with it.
3. Never email somebody more than once (twice max) per month for promoting your content.

First-Mover Advantage

Since Mark did a good job with the top blogs linkbait for the make money online niche, it doesn’t make too much sense to make your own list and compete against him.

However, if you’re in another niche that doesn’t have a quality list, this type of linkbait is your opportunity for getting much traffic and many links.

Take massive action and be the first to create a quality top blogs linkbait in your niche. Promote it through email and watch your traffic stats go through the roof. :)

Popularity: 7% [?]

Popularity: 7% [?]

I’m a big fan of SiteOverlay but unfortunately with Google Analytics it does not work well, I think it is shit to be honest. I want something that works and I can see immediate results. This is when I came across CrazyEgg.com.

It took me all of five minutes to sign up and stick the code on this blog which I liked, I always want to see what my visitors are interested in and least interested in. Anything that comes along and offers a simple solution to helping me improve this blog has got to be good and I like it so far. I’m hoping I will then be able to drill down and place Ads, Features, Plugins, Sidebar widgets etc in a place that will suit my readers and advertisers.

I’m a bit of a sucker for nice looking graphics and this WEB2.0 site is no different. Good looking and lovely graphical statistics. It will be interesting to see the Heat Map which Google does not offer. Using this data I will be able to make improvements fast which I love to do.

To be honest this is a more of supply and demand business for me and not something I think I would pay for on a monthly basis. Not for blogging anyway. eCommerce stores on the other hand are a totally different kettle of fish and I would look to use this service for one of my clients stores.

Ok, there are paid options that will allow more functionality including more pages to track and live reporting. Unfortunately for me I’m only interested in my HomePage (right now) so the Free Option is going to be sufficient for now. Lets see how it performs and go from there really.

I don’t really see many bloggers wanted much more than their homepage being tracked unless they have huge amount organic results - Why I’m on this subject I thought I’d mention I have added Shylocks Adsense into this blog to monetize older posts that have Organic results. I do not care for Google Adsense but it makes sense to monetise older popular posts. I have done this with Text Link Ads also using their banner ads. I will try out different options always.

Having studied customer buying habits on my eCommerce stores I’m going for an overall consumer activity on this blog and I’m not interested (right now) what my visitors are doing on other pages. It’s enough work tracking one page of data and then using that data to make improvements let alone from 100 pages.

Try it yourself and see if you can make immediate improvements to your blog. I’m sure you will be able too.

Oh, I have set it up to test a full week and then I will post my results here for you to see.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Popularity: 6% [?]

Last week, we started talking about the packaging and formatting of sites. Here are the previous posts:

• How’s The Packaging And Formatting Of Your Site?
• Blog Design: Improve Your Site Packaging

Today, we’ll talk about usability and navigation. How’s the visitor experience on your site? Is it easy to find stuff?

Highlight Your Best Content

First impressions count, so make sure new visitors can easily find your best content. If you publish new content regularly (you should), you need to highlight your best articles especially your more timeless ones.

I looked at the top 3 make money online blogs according to 45n5. (The list is great idea and linkbait, by the way.) Notice how each of the top 3 blogs highlights their best content.

1. Problogger

Cool widget on the home page:

Rotating banner above the fold that points to quality content for newbie bloggers:

2. John Chow

Popular articles section above the fold:

3. Shoemoney

Favorite posts section above the fold:

Know Your Audience

Some people have complained about John Chow’s blog design having too many ads. But his audience is internet marketers. This audience is used to seeing busy site designs with ads, email subscription boxes, and widgets above the fold.

If you’re not in the make money online niche, you probably shouldn’t use a design like John Chow’s. Most other niches have an audience that is not as online-savvy, tech-savvy, or ad-tolerant as internet marketers. In these niches, your site design has to be simpler or your visitors will get confused and leave.

Go to the other sites your target audience is visiting especially the popular and profitable ones. Then, use a design that’s similar to those sites.

Be Clear on Your Call to Action

The call to action is the action you want a visitor to take.

If you want more RSS subscribers, put your feed above the fold with a big RSS button. If you want to build your email list, place an opt-in box with an attractive picture above the fold. If you want more digg votes, insert a digg button in your content. If you want your visitors to buy an affiliate product, write a review about it. Then, in the review, cut out all the AdSense and only link out to the product.

You can have too many calls to action on any given page. It’s better to focus on a few actions or your visitors will get confused and leave. Internet users want to know what they’re supposed to do on a webpage. Help them :)

So, don’t put 3 AdSense blocks, 4 AuctionAd blocks, 20 social voting buttons, a poll, your twitter feed, and 20 technorati tags in one article. Simplicity is beautiful and leads to better conversion rates.

Fast Loading Time

Slow loading times can be caused by many things like images (too big, wrong file type), too many plugins, too many scripts running, and bloated CSS code.

For non-programmers, check out this article: 6 Ways To Speed Up Your Site.

Also, for more complex issues, ask a programmer to streamline your code to make your site run faster.

Conclusion and Feedback

Don’t ignore web usability. It will help you make more money. Your visitors will recommend your site to others if they have an enjoyable experience on your site. Also, they’ll become repeat visitors.

What other tips do you have for improving usability and navigation?

Popularity: 5% [?]

Popularity: 5% [?]