Archives for March 2011

The ONLY Rule in Blogging

March 7, 2011 by

Darren “Problogger” Rowse put up a post on the 11 definitive rules of blogging.  I think I can easily add them here, without risking his ire, or that of his lawyers.  The 11 definitive rules of blogging, according to Darren Rowse:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.

He argues that there aren’t any set in stone rules of blogging. Each niche, blog, and blogger has their own way of going about things and each needs to find their own way to getting to where they want to be.  And, while I completely agree with that train of thought, there is one definitive rule of blogging that must be adhered to for real blogging success.  (sadly, it’s also one that I break rather regularly.)

The ONLY rule in blogging: You’ve got to blog.

That’s it.  If you don’t follow that rule, you’re blog will cease to exist, any traffic that you’ve had built up will dry up, and all those links you amassed will age and lose their search engine luster.

Now, I know that Darren was likely making that rule an assumption in his post, but for some, it’s more than an assumption.  It has to be a rule.  I do my best to not break it too often, but as you’ll likely notice there are several gaps in the archive timeline here.  I can vouch for the effects of the broken rule all too well.

If you want to be a successful blogger, follow Darren’s advice and find your own way to the blog you want to be.  Write your style, your content, and make your blog your online home.  Be comfortable in it’s skin.  But, follow this rule.  You’ve got to blog.  People don’t come back because you have great archives.  They come back because you have fresh content, regularly.

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You Need to be in the Local Market Now

March 1, 2011 by

Y0u need to be in the local market right now.  This very instant.  The internet is a big, wide open, space.  You’re wasting your time trying to compete against all the global marketers out there. Especially when there’s this huge gold mine sitting in your own backyard.

Do me a favor.  Go and do a Google search for your hometown with the term “dentist” following it.  Chances are, you’re looking at a list of dentists in your town.  Depending on the size of your hometown, you could be looking at a search term that gets thousands of searches every month.  What value could you lend to any one of those dentists by increasing their ranking for that term?  How much could that be worth to them?

There are several ways to capitalize on that.  You could do some sort of affiliate program.  Set up a way to track the contacts and then the dentist pays you based on the total number of leads.  Or, pays you on number of people who set up an appointment.  Or, do it as a consultant.  Get a nice little retainer fee as well as ongoing monthly charges for work done.  There are plenty of ways that you could make it work for you.

Heck, why limit yourself to just one dentist?  Set up your own website as a list of local dentists.  Get it to rank #1, and then start charging dentists to appear on the website.  Collect the visitors names and then route the contacts through to a dentist who’s paying you per lead. If you live in a small enough area, you could likely take that number 1 spot pretty easily.

The point is, just because the internet is global, doesn’t mean you have to think globally.  There are plenty of local companies that don’t do global business (like dentists) who are just as in need of your services.  Not only that, but you’ll have far less competition locally.  Get into the local market and start making some money!

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