What I Didn’t Learn At School

Right now I’m working on a super cool product for my subscribers in the Internet Marketing Niche. And one of the questions that always comes up is how to generate more traffic to your blog. There is of course many different way to attract visitors to your blog, but this is the way we did it before everyone went looking for free traffic on social media sites.

Trade Your Traffic
In the old days when I first started out, the Internet seamed like a peaceful place. Everyone shared traffic with each other and when you sent traffic to a blog you will be linked up the next day and receive traffic back. For open minded bloggers this strategy can still work today. But for it to work perfectly you need to find blogs that are in the same size as your blog so that the trade of traffic is fear. It’s also important to find blogs that are in the same niche as your blog. That way you will get better quality on the traffic you receive and send.

Find Good Traffic Partners
When finding good traffic partners I look for 3 things. The first two things are the Google Page Rank (PR) and the Alexa Rank. The need to be around the same level as me or higher. Not to much higher because then the trade will not be fear. The PR and Alexa rank tells me something about the blogs SEO and traffic. If a blogger tells you that the site is doing 20.000 visits a day but have a very high number on the Alexe rank the blogger is probably lying and you don’t want to do business with them. The third thing I’m looking at is the quality of the potential partners blog. I divide quality in blog design, the way the blog is written and also how often it’s updated. I don’t want to send my visitors to an ugly looking blog with a lot of bad written post that doesn’t give my readers some kind of value. If I do that I’ll probably lose my visitors since they will not believe that I will send them to good content. So do some searches in google or look around on other blogs  in your niche and look also at who they are linking to. That way you will find blogs in the same size that yours that you can partner with.

Different ways of trading traffic
There is a lot of ways bloggers can trade traffic. You can do hard links trading, something that will give you more backlinks that again gives you a better PR over time. You can do quest posts on each other blogs once every week or 14 day depending on how often you blog. You can swap bannar ads. Those 125 x 125 pixel banners are on almost every blog now days and many of them are not earning any money from them. So why not putting that ad space in to good use? You can also do a weekly roundup blogpost where you link to a couple of blogposts that you read during the week and some of them could easily be from your traffic partners. Start networking on various social media sites, together you can build backlinks for each other with twittering and ReTweeting each others blog posts. You can also Digg and Stumble each others post to bring backlinks to the next level.

Contact potential partners
I would recommend that you do some research and find 20-50 potential blogging partners and start contacting the first 10 that you really want to trade traffic with. If your blog meets the criteria many blog owners would love to trade traffic with you to get some traffic boost on their blog.

Own a Marketing blog?
Well you may be in luck. Half of the reason for writing this blog post was to connect with bloggers in the same niche as me to work together on getting more traffic to our blogs. So I’m currently open for business with a few good sites out there. If you are interested please contact me and let’s see what we can do.

If you like the content on my blog, please subscribe to my RSS Feed here and don’t forget to click the ReTweet button and leave a comment..

Here is a new weekly post I will try to do every Friday. My recomendations for #FollowFriday on Twitter and why I follow them. Many people just list the people they are following on twitter without even giving a reason on why they follow that person. Is he or she a fun person? Doe’s he or she post valuable tweets? Do you got some kind of connection or did they do anything special for you? That what I will use this new and weekly blog post for. To give the people I follow some extra cred.

Week 37: The people you should follow on twitter and why.

@PeterParks is a top Internet Marketer that is trained by the legend Frank Kern And Super Affiliate Ewen Chia. This week Peter Parks was launching his new super coaching program called Aggressive Affiliates. Where he opened up for 300 students that where highly motivated to join in. I must admit I did not sign up for his class, but I received a from a black hat marketer that wanted to sell me Peter Parks coaching program for $50. I claimed he had downloaded everything and I could download it from him. That’s just crazy stuff. So I contacted Peter on Twitter, got his email addresses and forwarded the mail to him. This proves two things, Peter Parks care about the people following him and he helps other that helps him. All over great guy.

@SeanDonahoe is a highly successful entrepreneur, author and innovative marketer. I started to follow Sean Donahoe some time ago and mostly because he tweets a lot of good SEO tips. I look at myself an Marketer with very good SEO skills so every tips that Sean Donahoe provides are alway well appreciated. Sean Danahoe’s blog is also very informative. He covers everything from SEO, Social Media and other marketing techniques. Sean also introduced me to Odiogo, that is a service that makes mp3 files of all your blog posts.

@AndrewWarner is  the the man behind one of my favourite websites at the moment mixergy.com. Mixergy is a place where the ambitious learn from a mix of experienced mentors as Andrew put’s it. And it’s absolutly true. Andrew Warner has put himself out there and interviewed I guess over 100 startup entrepreneurs, and counting, about their story of success. Now I haven’t really connected that good with Andrew at the moment, but in many of his live interviews he uses twitter to pick questions fro his guests, and he have always brought my questions up on every show. Thanks Andrew, and this is why I follow you.

Last I want to thank my ReTweeters this week.
They are all developers and designers of the website 44tips.com and did a real good job of picking up my Review of their website yesterday. And I guess they liked it too since they ReTweeted my blog post and got my blog even more visitors yesterday. Thank you for the ReTweets and thanks for a great website

Eric Visser – @ericv	Michael Kattenbeld – @kattenbeld
Teun Roodvoets – @redfeet

That’s my #FollowFriday of week 37. Be active on twitter and contact me at @skavhellen or ReTweet my blogposts to get mentioned on next week’s #FollowFriday.

For a long time I have been using Google reader for all my RSS Feed’s and later turned more and more over to LazyFeed to get more inspiration for new sites in the topics that I’m interested in. Now I’m looking at 44tips.com, something completely fresh and cool that in the end of the day might be my new startup page.

One of my marketing strategies to get more traffic and build backlinks is to comment on other blogs. I want to be one of the first to comment on a blog for 2 reasons:

1. I get more traffic that way since there is a bigger chance that other comment readers are reading the first comments then the 48th comment.
2. I have a bigger chance of getting noticed by the blogs owner for the same reason as described above.

Here is my 44tips.com Review
To keep track of all the latest blog posts on the blogs that I follow I use Google Reader, but after trying out 44tips.com I now see that login in to Google reader to catch up on important blogs is a lot of job and takes time that 44tips.com saves me.

As an Internet Marketer I’m also monitoring my Twitter, Facebook and a few other social medias. I’m searching for pictures for my blog posts and  I often watch youtube clips on various topics. And don’t forget music. I always need my music when I’m working and I stream it from youtube or get the latest re-mixes from many different music sites.

Am I getting to the point soon?
Yes! My point is, 44tips.com has gathered all this information on one nice start page. You can connect to every social network and at the same time get faster to your bookmarked websites and follow all your RSS subscribes sites in one place. It’s super awesome and time saving from an Internet Marketing view.

You should absolutely try it out.

You have probably heard the fuzz about this on the Internets this week. There something new out there and it’s called RSS Cloud, but what is it? Do you need to take some kind of action on this? Would RSS Cloud help you in some way and how?

What was RSS Feeds again?
Hopefully you know all about RSS feeds and how they help you out. In short, when you post a new blog post, people that are subscribed to your RSS feed will get your latest blog post in their RSS reader or email depending on their way of subscribing. That way they have one place where they read all their post of interests and don’t have to surf around to see if their favourite blogs are updated or not. In most cases this means more traffic to your site.

Before in the old days it could take up to one hour after you posted your blog post until all your subscribers would get your latest post in their favourite RSS reader. You would have to ping all the directories and make sure everyone got noticed. And by the old days I mean before RSS cloud was born. Now the game has changed.

Why is RSS Cloud better then regular RSS?
RSS Cloud brings new technology to the table that pushes your latest blog post to your readers the very same second your push your publish button. No more waiting for their favourite updates of the day, your blog post. This is awesome in so many ways. We will soon see a bunch of new applications that will make this look super cool and it will benefit the traffic to your site in big time. Big RSS directories will have live updates in various categories and if your blog post will probably reach a level of new readers that will subscribe to your content that way.

RSS Cloud Installed on all Wordpress.com blogs
The best part is that Wordpress.com is already supporting this. That means that over 7.5 million blogs are ready to use this. So companies out there needs to take some serious action the next couple of weeks. At this point only 1 RSS aggregator, River2, is supporting RSS Cloud. But it’s said that the ultra cool and hip RSS reader LazyFeed will support this very soon to.

How to install RSS Cloud on hosted Wordpress blog
If you are using a self hosted wordpress blog like me there is a Plugin to help you get started right away. Joseph Scott’s easy to install plugin can be downloaded here. You just upload the folder to your plugin directory and find it under plugins in your wordpress admin panel.

Now you should be ready for the future. Today there is an RSS Cloud Meetup in the US, so I’m guessing more fantastic news will get spread around about RSS Cloud later today.

This is the first tips about podcast’s of many to come that I want you to listen to every week. Last night I gave you a great tips about the very new Internet show, TWiST or This Week in Startups. Today I want to give you a tips about a show that is more for all you Internet Marketers out there.

The podcast’s name is Internet Marketing This Week and is brought to you from four of the biggest Internet Marketers out there. You should by now know the name and faces of Ed Dale, Lynn Terry, Michelle MacPhearson and Paul Colligan. Every week they get their skypes together and talks about various topics that is important in the Internet Marketing world.

I really connected with them on a whole new level when listening to them every week talking about their up’s and downs, what type of products are selling best, different kinds of product launches, what mistakes people do and what super cool product creation tools that are out there.

You learn so much more then just jumping around their blogs and you get an insight of how much work it actually is to be one of the best Internet Marketers out there. So start educating yourself on what’s new in your industry. Listen in on Internet Marketing This Week now.

Today I finally got to watching one of my new favourite shows, This Week In Startups. It’s a very new Internet show but with the well connected powerful man Jason McCabe Calacanis in front of the camera, you know you’re getting some valuable stuff to watch.

Jason brings on like minded people from new and upcoming startups on the Internet, and on This Week in Startups it’s one of the 3 founders of Posterious, Garry Tan.

Now I’m a big fan of Posterious and have been a user since the 28th of June 2008. I’ve been using it a bit on and off, but when I use it it’s mostly for posting pictures from my phone. It’s so easy to do. I just send and email with pictures as attachments and Posterious makes it all look perfect on my Posterious blog.

Jason brought Garry Tan on this weeks program for 2 reasons. Not only have Garry Tan and his team made a super easy to use blog platform, they have just recently made a kick ass Autopost to Everywhere future that makes your posterous posts show up automatically on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or your other blogs. That means there is now just one stop to get everyones attention from just one email.

This is such a time saver and really a powerful marketing tool. So if you want to drive traffic to something, this one tool automagically tells all the traffic sources for you. You can be sitting in your car sending an email and soon after, your Twitter list, blog readers, Flickr fans and Facebook friends will all get your message and link . Let the traffic come and the money grow.

So listen to Jason when he talks to Garry Tan about his startup and learn about what’s to come in the near future for Posterous. It’s gone be awsome, that’s for sure.

I really want to go deeper in the topics that I cover in this blog. The result should be some kind of information product that will cover Blogging, Marketing, Self Improvement, SEO and different Tools that I use. I will give this product away for free of course.

While waiting for my good stuff, I want to take some time to give you some great books about Blogging that I have read and that I recommend. They are all free and can be downloaded right away from the writers website.

• Deep Secrets of Successful Bloggers – By Chitika
• Who’s There? Seth Godin’s Incomplete Guide to Blogs and the New Web – By Seth Godin
• How to Start Blogging: A Guide for Business Bloggers – By Icrossing UK
• How to Start a Business Blog – By Remarkablogger
• Blogging Blueprint – By Glen Allsopp
• Blogging On My Mind – By Enkay
• The Zen of Blogging – By Hunter Nuttall

This great collection of Blogging e-books have the same topics but are different in so many ways. Everybody has their own story just like real life. Many people got successful but in their own way. Hopefully you will find one of the authors you can relate to and that will be the guide for you to succeed in the blogging world.

The best of luck and happy reading!

Every now and then I get asked how most of my traffic comes from search engines and not Twitter and Facebook. The answer to that question is Search Engine Optimization. I spend much time on Twitter and Facebook to get new feedback from readers and to connect with other bloggers and marketing gurus out there. But the real work of attracting readers is already done with SEO all through my blog.

I have given many SEO tips on this blog in the past but never really focused on the mistakes many people find them self doing. If you need a refresh on how to optimize your blog, take a look at my first and only episode of WIDLAS TV.

So what is the biggest SEO mistakes that I see people do?

1. To Many Keywords
   It’s important that you write blogposts for your readers, not the Search Engines. If you put to many keywords in one article you may end up with something we call Keyword stuffing and Search Engines punish you for that and will give you some kind of penalty.
2. Dont’ Use Link Networks
   You know the importances of linking to other sites and get links back. But all those big link networks that really don’t have any content just links is not really a good way to start. It can give you an unfair advantage so that you will get an higher Page Rank then you normally would but trust me, Google knows about them and have already punished a lot of sites linking up with them. So stay away from all kinds of networks like this and you will be good.
3. Unnatural Link Growth
   Building up links to your site takes a long time. Often years to get it to sit right. You may be lucky and end up on the front page of Digg.com but a link growth like that is calculated. Also a great backlink can make you an instant success. All that is good but it’s the “I have no time so I just buy 100 hard links in one day” methods that will make the Search Engines see red flags all over. So have some ice in your belly and let link building take it’s time.
4. Don’t Overkill Directory Submissions
   There is tons of directories out there where you can submit your site to. I’ve spoken to many people in forums that outsource this kind of work and pay for this job getting done. And probably with good reason too since it’s an important part of the SEO. But there is two big mistakes that often is done here. First don’t submit to many directories at once. Do a maximum of 10-15 a month. And what ever you do, you need to vary your anchor text for your URL. Don’t use the same anchor text in each directory.
   
   
5. Use Anchor Text The Right Way
   You should always use anchor text on images and all outgoing and internal links in your blogposts. But remember to diversify the anchor text at least for all the links and images in the same blogpost. I will also recommend to do this throughout the blog. Don’t just use SEO as an anchor text, use “How to Optimize For Search Engines” and various form of that. Get it? Look at Anchor text as asking many people to describe the same thing. You would get a lot of different answers wouldn’t you?

Learn from my mistakes and get it right the first time. And please give me feedback if you found this post helpful.

As I wrote in my last blogpost I have been studying how to be more productive.  This is really important for me since I have a lot of projects going on right now. I learned some very interesting thing from one of the top marketing gurus Eben Pagan. The first thing I need to do is to quit multitasking. Multitasking makes you dumber then smoking pot. At least that’s what some scientist found out for Hewlett-Packard in UK.

Get a Good Start
Eben Pagan says that productivity begins with a good morning. With a few easy steps and some good will you can begin your work with great energy and your mind in totally focus.

With only two days of testing this I’m getting some really good and interesting results. I feel much better when I start work and together with less multitasking I have some kind of calm and focus starting at the top of my to-do list.

The Routine
So what’s the big secret you have to dedicate yourself to do every morning to bring more energy and focus to your life? The same energy that will help you out throughout your day and if you take further steps, help you with your productivity?

1. Start your morning by drinking 0,5 liters of water.
   Your body has been sleeping for 7-10 hours and is dehydrated. Starting your day with a drinking a lot of water will get your body back on track.
2. Get your heart beat up.
   This is actually the hardest task of them all but at the same time I found it the most rewarding. All that is needed is 30 min of some kind of exercise. Eben Pagan uses a good example by just running down his staircase in the building he lives in and walk up again. I don’t live in a large building so I get my heart beat up from running around in my neighborhood.  Getting your heart beat up resets your emotions and gets you ready for a new day. You also get some time to think and may find that you will get your best ideas while exercising.
3. 5 Minute Meditation
   After a good 30 minute of exercise you need to calm down and relax. A 5 minute mediation stimulates. It doesn’t need to be weird in anyway. Just sit down and relax and breath for 5 minutes. I found this clip on youtube helping me out to get the right settings and I just sit back in my sofa and plug out from the world.
   
4. Get a really healthy meal
   You have probably heard it before. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day! There is a lot of sayings out there and I also know it sometimes can be heard to get something to eat in the morning when you are tiered and just want to sleep more. But believe me, if you have followed step 1 to 3 you will be ready for some food. And here is 10 Tasty, Easy and Healthy Breakfast Ideas.
5. (Read something)
   I set this up because it’s important to get your brain started but it’s optional. I highly believe if you can read for 10-15 minutes, something really inspirational or something that brings you new knowledge that makes you learn something, is very helpful when starting your new day. We learn something new everyday, why don’t start out with it?

If you manage to use 1 hour of your morning, follow this combination of 5 steps, you have a plan that will set your day up for a winning day. You are truly taking care of yourself and you will then start to take good care of other people around you, be it your customers or colleagues.

Hope you share this with many others and tell me what you think in the comments.

I’ve been studying a lot of productivity techniques lately. I’m so fed up with days that go by without anything important getting done. I start everyday with my to do list, but often end up with just a few tasks getting done. So where did the rest of my day go?

I’m getting a lot of email everyday and I have my email notification popping up with new email every now and then. I also have my TweetDeck up and running all day, answering tweets and tweet my own findings when I surf around on the Internets. At the same time I often click on other links from other Twitter users and end up reading a lot of fun and interesting blogposts.

As you probably understand there is a lot of distractions and interruptions in my daily work life. That’s how it is when you multi task but why does it make you dumb? Well all that I got from an article from Discover Magazine.

Multitasking Makes You Dumber Then Pot
A recent study for the company Hewlett-Packard found that British workers’ IQ test scores drop temporarily by an average of 10 points when juggling phones, e-mails, and other electronic messages—more of an IQ drop than occurs after smoking marijuana or losing a night’s sleep.

The solution? Pull the plug. Shut down your email client while you work and open it up only when you need to send a message. Or simply set it to check for new messages only once an hour. It doesn’t matter that right this moment you’ve got mail. You’ve also got something else more important to do than buy Cialis online.

Source: Life Hacker, Discover Magazine