It’s Sunday, and time for another round of updates in the form of… Sunday Link Love!

This week was a bit sloppy, but I feel like I put out some decent material including some great ways to monetize your blog and techniques to build up that all important RSS subscriber base. You all probably know that I was really busy this time through, but I managed to get posts up 4 out of 6 days so things weren’t too bad. Before I get too far ahead of myself, let’s have a look at some of the best posts for the week ending August 30, 2008.

• Big Ben Patton – You NEED a 404 Error Page, So Let’s Make One
• Ian Fernando – Exit Pop-Ups: The Reason They Convert
• Jason Boom – The Future of Social Media Sites and Networks
• Blogging Tips – 3 Best Free Ways to Get Quick Visibility to Your Blog
• Desmond Blog – How I Make $20/Day Bum Marketing

Most of our blogs have built in 404 error pages, but you should make sure that this is true or even make a custom one ot add some humor… check out Ben Patton’s post for more on that. Ian Fernando explains the value behind exit pop-ups, a great analysis there. Jason Boom get’s into the future of social media bookmarking, an interesting concept post by all means; and Desmond blogs about a great way to make money in bum marketing with little work.

Stock Market Update
The big news for the weekend is centering on two things, the first of which being John McCain’s Vice President pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the first woman on a Republican ticket. The other big theme is Hurricane Gustav, called “the mother of all storms” by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin after he issued a mandatory evacuation of the city. What does weather have to do with the stock market? Surprisingly, quite a lot. For a storm that has already caused 81 deaths and is picking up speed to levels beyond which we had originally forecast, our crude oil resources in the Gulf region could be ransacked. As the supply-demand equation tells us, the lowered supply is going to send prices of gasoline toward $5 in a jiffy unless the U.S. releases their emergency oil reserves. The balance in commodity trading b/t fear of the U.S. releasing reserves and fear of the storm’s impact have caused a volatile reaction in the markets.

So that’s the look forward, let’s take a step back and see how we did this week. On low volume, the market was surprisingly jumpy… ending the week down 0.7%. This week really had everything, capped off by a huge upside surprise in second-quarter GDP readings… which was at a whopping 3.3% from 1.9%. Take that in. I’ll wait. 3.3%… and they call this a recession?

A gloomy report from Dell (NYSE: DELL), which was hit by overseas manufacturing issues, on top of a larger than expected fall in personal income really dismantled what would have been a huge week to the upside. Existing & new home sales, consumer confidence, durable goods and initial claims were all on the up and up. Really, I saw this as a pretty good week all things considering. GDP was huge, but I expect this week to be shaky and downward-spiraling because of Hurricane Gustav.

Blogosphere News and Ramblings
I like to tell you guys what I thought of the posts coming out on the week, good or bad, and I feel that this week put up some surprisingly helpful information. I spent one of my longer periods running through my RSS Reader to pick the top five posts I saw because there were a lot of interesting articles. Granted, I can’t mention them all, but I’d have a look back on your favorite blogs if you can because there was some good stuff. If nothing else, learn some grammar with my friend at Miss Write.

My friend Jason from The University Kid passed 1,000 RSS subscribers (finally!), so go congratulate him on that accomplishment. Also, apparently Normal Joe thinks that he can put up a post without a video on IMWithJoe.com, so go ahead and comment on his post telling him he needs a video.

A lot of contests just wrapped up this last week as it is the end of the month, so it’s going to be interesting to see what else pops up. I’m trying still to wrangle up some prizes and stuff, as I’m not really sure of the direction that I want to go with this one. I definitely need to start a contest though, as not doing one really is my personal mark of being lazy and losing ground as a result.

The Week In Focus
Second week of classes, now is when it gets serious, eh? Luckily, we have (in America at least) a nice three-day weekend to be as unproductive as possible!  I still have projects to finish, and haven’t really done much in the way of work on the computer as I’ve been really busy with the whole college experience. Hopefully I can wrap up the web design project I am contracted to and finish the two speculative blogs that I was planning on launching.

Assuming that I get my work done, I’m going to try to make a post this week about the crude oil market and how it effects you (think gasoline prices among other things). I don’t like it when bloggers in the MMO niche (or others) try to convince you to stage a protest against buying oil to lower the price… because that’s just foolish. I’m going to give the facts on that one. Other than that, definitely expect some posts about the projects I have finished assuming those get done. If they don’t? Well… I’ll be writing about something money-related. It’s going to be a solid week, so stay tuned for more… and stay BULLISH on the net!

-Jimvesting

There are certain misunderstandings about the internet marketing world that I feel you should all be aware of. Setting itself up as kind of an “elitist” group of people, internet marketers are the ones making thousands off of websites, products and other online trades… sometimes even at your expense! But things really aren’t as bad as they appear, and hopefully after reading this you will realize that the barriers to entry are all made of glass.

A lot of marketers are going to make arguments that the following points aren’t true; in fact, they couldn’t be truer. People who tell you that it requires a lot of work, money, effort etc. just to get your bearings are trying to persuade you to stay away from their market. Don’t believe it. The bottom line is that being an internet marketer is a lot easier than you think. You all know that I don’t work as or consider myself an internet marketer, but this is really just a choice I made a while back to limit my exposure to the internet. If I wanted to sit down and make some money, it wouldn’t be very difficult at all to get in the game. Let’s get to the top five incorrect thoughts.

1. You Need a Lot of Money In Order to Make Money
Say what?! Too many people are trapped in the notion that they need to spend to earn. While you certainly can accelerate your earnings with a bit of an investment from the start, I came into the online money making business with literally an empty PayPal account and gradually built it up.

The internet is probably the only place where you can get an entire online business built for under $25 and be successful. I got my start by generating so-called “seed” money, which you can earn through any Get Paid To (GPT) website in a few minutes, and investing that in a domain name. Eventually, I had enough built up to afford nice web hosting, advertising money and the whole lot. This all started from an empty PayPal account!

2. Traffic = Sales
Too many people think that traffic is traffic is traffic… that couldn’t be further from the truth. Unless you are spinning off a website that isn’t even yours and couldn’t care less about where the traffic comes from, you are going to want the visitors that make it to your website to be legitimately interested. Furthermore, having more traffic doesn’t mean you are going to increase your sales. I have seen tons of Pay-Pay-Click and similar marketing plans fail because of poor traffic. In fact, these cases actually involved marketers that shifted away from profitable campaigns in favor of faster traffic… which eventually drained their margins.

Want an example? Say I am starting up a website about planting trees to save the environment (aw, how nice). I’m not going to put money down to target the word “tree” because that could bring me people who want anything from birdhouses to gardening tips… not the environmentalist spin I was going for and not the people who will make me rich. Relevancy in marketing campaigns is more important than you’d think!

3. The Internet Marketing Business is Over-Saturated
Ever feel like someone is trying to close the door on you? Lot’s of successful bloggers or internet marketers tell you that there is no room for you to get in the business. In fact, there is plenty of wiggle room in every niche (yes, even the “make money online” niche). Online business is accelerating at a rate in excess of 20% annually. I feel like the current levels of participation on the internet are only a fraction of what they will be, so get in now… we still aren’t even close to fruition.

Now that more and more marketing companies are coming to the table, it appears that somebody thinks there is potential there. The trend is your friend! If you see more and more internet businesses popping up, namely internet marketing companies, then it is obvious that people see huge gaps to be filled and want a piece of the pie. Why not you too?

4. You Need This Product To Succeed
In all my time online, I have never bought anything over $100 in value that I didn’t say to myself: “hey, this shouldn’t be worth more than $50.” There are literally hundreds of so-called “miracle” programs and products out there that are essentially exploiting our gullible sides into thinking that they will help. You can do anything and everything yourself. Once you get a bit more established, sure, go for it. But if you are a beginner you really don’t need any of the stuff marketers through at you to make money… bottom line.

I’m planning on launching a post soon where I analyze the appropriate value of products that I have tried and paid for personally on the internet. It’s true that if you have the money to spare, certain programs may accelerate your ability to work. However, nobody actually needs the things they recommend… and the help provided is only marginally better than what you can do yourself. For a slight increase in productivity, you probably will be better off without it.

5. You Can Make Hundreds/Thousands in One Day by _____________
One common misconception in ANY online business is that you can make hundreds of dollars, or even a few thousand, in just one day. If anyone tells you that this is possible, you should be a skeptic. Option one is that they have used days in advance to prepare in order to launch their campaign successfully with all the right keywords and niche exposure. Option two is that they are professionals doing this already, and have gradually built up positions that now make them $X dollars every day.

Lesson learned, if you are new to any business… it’s not going to be possible, at least at first, to make that kind of outlandish profit in a day. Sorry to burst your bubble, but the odds of being successful without a professional background in one day’s work are close to none. Taking your time and gradually making your presence known is the best way to fly every time.

Bottom Line: There are many internet marketing misunderstandings, but I have chosen to highlight those that deal with the whole “elitist” point of view. Never say never, but also don’t fall for things that seem too good to be true. Anyone can be an internet marketer by building up gradual positions… put in the work and you’ll succeed!

-Jimvesting

Let’s talk about Ancient Greece… a bit of a change in pace, eh? Back then, the “sophists” were a group of teachers of philosophy who had mastered the so-called “art of flattery.” The word “sophistry” has meant many things throughout time, ranging from “poet” to “sage.” At any rate, I believe firmly in using sophistry to boost your RSS numbers… it’s a lesson you shouldn’t soon forget.

The theory follows that by asking things in a different manner, you can extract much more in return. For example, if I asked you to borrow your cell phone for a call, you might simply walk away saying that you are busy. However, if I complemented your new shoes beforehand, you’d probably be much more inclined to lend me a minute of air time. The sophists were the best of the best, and grew wealthy by flattering the masses. Let’s use this brief culture lesson to dominate the web!

Setting Yourself Up – RSS Readers and Dedicated Emails
The first thing you will need to successfully grab anywhere from 10 to 25 subscribers day after day is a dedicated space to dump all of your RSS feeds. Most of you probably have RSS readers by this point… if you don’t, I highly recommend using either Google Reader or Bloglines to collect and organize your thoughts. With one of these “readers,” you can subscribe to as many blogs as you want and see all their updates in an easy to follow manager that sorts things based on your personal preferences.

Our second option would be to set up a dedicated email account for subscribing to RSS feeds. The downside is that you always need to confirm email subscriptions, but you may prefer the convenience of inbox updates to an RSS readers. At any rate, using flattery means you will be collecting quite a few registrations, so we don’t want our mail emails cluttered. I recommend registering a fresh GMail strictly for email subscriptions if this is your favorite.

Research for RSS Potential – The Hunt is On!

Now that we have accounts to use for RSS registration, it’s time to use the art of sophistry to get what we want. What we are looking for is blogs with less then 100 RSS subscribers that seem new and active. As far as the blogging crowd goes, those writers that have just begun (1-6 months) are going to be a lot more likely to actively seek out subscriber numbers. Anyone who is putting out content multiple times every week (preferably daily) and has around 50 RSS readers is ideal.

By using RSS solicitation, or the art of flattery, we can get them to subscribe for our own blog in seconds with literally the click of a button. Most bloggers at this stage just want acceptance. So regardless of niche, though your own niche would be best, you can get them to register as a reader to your blog simply by writing them a nice comment or email telling them that you love their website, want to support it, and have already subscribed to their blog. Of course, use your RSS Reader or dedicated email to sign yourself up to their feed. We want to mention our blog off hand, as a side note, and hope that they take the bait.

The Key: Do NOT ask them to subscribe to your blog. This comes off as spam, selfish or just not genuine. What you should do, is simply tell them you support their website (hopefully you do), and mention that you are also a blogger looking to boost your own exposure. Anything along these lines should be enough for them to return the favor, and you have yourself +1 reader in a few seconds!

Sophistry, the art of flattery, is just as useful as it was for the Ancient Greeks as it is now in the internet age. You can very easily boost your RSS subscriber numbers by 10-20 people a day with just a few minutes work if you do this correctly. Again, nobody likes false numbers… so unless you have a good blog that can support the growth, people will examine your traffic and know what you are doing. Regardless, this is a most powerful technique that can be used to dominate your competition.

-Jimvesting

Disclaimer: I do not approve of using this method to blindly ask anyone and everyone to subscribe to your feed. I have use this method sparingly on blogs that I legitimately like, and only endorse the method if you subscribe to their feeds in return.

In my experience as a blogger, one thing that I have learned the hard way is how to blog effectively. There are days when I’m sure you’d love to write about how you shot one under par, or why your new job is a drag… but you need to take things from the readers point of view in order to boost your numbers.

It is my firm belief that one of the best ways to retain blog readers, encourage commenting… and ultimately increase your traffic is to simply stick to your niche, your focus area. Sure, there are a few blogs about nothing… but it’s tough to get any interest if your readers are interested in internet marketing and you get side-tracked into talking about web design.

Jimvesting Dot Com Trims the Fat
Over the past few months, I have taken a blog that had WAY too many “focus areas” for its own good, to a fine-tuned machine capable of unspeakable destruction producing great growth numbers. The following is a little about my history. Jimvesting.com was originally started up with three focuses: stock market, sportsbooks and get paid to programs. You’ll notice that nowhere on that list is the more obvious “make money online” niche. I started out making myself way too many promises. I was going to update sports spreads and my personal wagers every week, post multiple stock pitches and review GPT programs. What was I thinking? I suffered through 4-5 months with less than 25 subscribers because I didn’t understand how to trim the fat and focus on what I really wanted to say.

“Make money online” was ultimately a combination of my interests, as all three topics were essentially ploys to try and make revenue on the internet. It wasn’t until I rejuvenated my blog into a focused website that I really saw growth develop. This brings me to the most important rule of blogging:

Rule #1: Start Small, and Gradually Increase Your Niche Focus Area

There’s no doubt in my mind that every successful blogger has started small and gradually expanded their focus outward as subscriber numbers grow. There is really no other way to do it, because without a following you can not… and should not… attempt to diversity your portfolio. Nobody is going to be able to follow along, and you are throwing away otherwise interested subscribers that will boost your rankings and exposure. Don’t sacrifice quality for quantity!

Taking a Break v. Taking a Break
There are two different types of break-taking activity that I would like to talk about here. I feel that it’s nearly impossible to keep putting out techniques, tutorials and the like day after day. With this in mind, lots of bloggers, myself included, like to fill dead time with some personal time with readers… anywhere from looking at payment proof to talking about a new website you think is interesting in your niche. However, many bloggers confuse this type of relaxation with taking a break from their focus areas, and put out posts that, quite frankly, are a complete waste of time.

Jimvesting Calls You Out!
A few examples of this that caught my eye: Garry Conn, an internet marketing blogger, wrote about… rotator cuff excercises? The Germz, a make money online blogger, wrote about… T.I. music lyrics? This happens all the time. While I can give these guys the pass because they are obviously doing it just to try to place higher on Google for random search results, I still feel that articles like this are a waste of time. Why? Well you aren’t trying to sell your product to a hip-hop dance crew (or a rotator-cuff injury ward?), so you are probably putting out useless content.

Don’t get me wrong, traffic is great… but we want the traffic flowing to our blog to be real, not from something completely unrelated that will soon dwindle. For me, I want to cater to the subscribers that I already have and expand my reach gradually. If you get so large that you have nothing else to write about but your cousins new truck, be my guest. Until that point, you are much better off focusing on your target area, trimming the fat, and increasing your rss subscriber numbers the right way… with superior, and relevant, content.

-Jimvesting

Many people ask me how I get all these sponsored posts, a sold-out sidebar and 30-day text links all bought up month after month. While it’s important to preach that advertisers will eventually find their way to your blog, you need a killer plan to get the word out and get paid.

I’m going to take you through the best strategies to get immediate bids for your ads, and with any luck you’ll soon have publishers clawing at the gates in order to get a piece of the action. First things first, it’s imperative to have an easy to use ad management system in place. For WordPress, there is simply no alternative to OIO Publisher. It’s the system I use, and it rocks. Everything will be automated, your customers will get free ad reports, and it’s just $37… some of the best money I’ve ever spent on this blog.

How To Lock Up Sponsored Reviews
Most bloggers suggest that the best way to get sponsored reviews from advertisers on a consistent basis is to write great content day after day that gets noticed. I do believe that this is true; however, there is a much more effective method that will almost certainly get you sponsored reviews every time a company runs a campaign… which is practically constant. How do you get sponsored reviews, you ask?
Comment on other sponsored reviews.

A bit counter-intuitive at first, it is actually very smart. Granted, you need a decent blog to be able to accomplish this… but usually anything over 50 subscribers and some solid writing will work. All you need to do is drop a very interested sounding comment on another blog that happens to be promoting for an advertiser in a paid post. What happens here is that advertisers typically launch campaigns where they will buy up 5-10 blog posts at a time. Obviously, they check each one and read through the comments. We can exploit this by commenting on the posts, because the advertisers usually visit the blogs of each commenter for more leads. They see your site sells sponsored posts, you get paid. Nearly 40% of my reviews come from this tactic. It really is that simple!

Of course, in order to get an advertiser to buy a sponsored review from you, you are going to need to have great looking posts, and a few examples of past reviews. I recommend creating a new “Sponsored Posts” category, and putting that on your advertise page so that anyone can see what normal reviews look like. Trying to price your reviews appropriately to control demand? Check out Jimvesting’s Suggested Paid Review Rate Chart!

Fill Up Your Sidebar With Interested 125×125 Advertisers
The blogging standard for advertising is the 125×125 advertisement. Most well-monetized blogs will have these ads placed in a sidebar, or somewhere in the footer of their page. What’s the best way to get your ad slots filled and in high demand? I would have to say that the rates drive demand, and those blogs charging less than the spots are worth are going to have an easier time getting advertisers. You will want to track what each of your advertisements does in terms of cost-per-click (CPC)… which you want at LEAST under 1, the lower the better.

Let’s be honest, if nobody knows that you have ads available, nobody will purchase them! You need a way to get the word out. I’ve been contacted multiple times by people through email saying “hey, I have ads available for $X a month (cheap!) so check out my blog if you are interested” and I usually purchase them if the price is right. You can do the same thing by making a generic but informal-sounding email and switching out the names and websites of bloggers that you follow.

My favorite method to get the word out is to use webmaster forums like Bloggeries or even Digital Point to tell people that you are selling advertising for a limited time at just $X a month. Make it sound like a deal, or maybe even offer some exclusive bundle packages, and you’ll be sure to get bids.

One final tip, try to never leave more than one ad slot available. Even if your demand is not high, you can always fill spots with generic affiliate marketing banners to make some extra money. Making things appear in high demand is sometimes just as good as actually having the traffic to support it. Furthermore, if you make it appear that there is “one spot left!“… you can lure all those impulse buyers in for buying up your slots.

Make An Extra Dime with Text Link Ads
I would have to say that standard text links are the least popular advertising derivatives on the internet. But you shouldn’t throw them out of your ad budget just because they aren’t sexy. You can bet on around $5 a link every month, and if you have 5 links sold out then that’s an extra $25… that’s not chump change! One thing you need to make sure of is that you don’t label them as “paid” or “sponsored” because Google might just put the smack-down on your PageRank. Instead, call them “featured” or “friends.”

How can you score more text link sponsors? I actually had some luck using the Text Link Ads network, which is in the business of reselling links for your blog. My favorite method in generating more sponsors for your text links is just like any banner, telling people about it word-of-mouth over forums. I find that text links are the easiest to sell to random visitors on your blog. Why? More than likely because they are cheap, have good exposure, and offer a great way to boost link-backs on the fly.

Bottom Line: Don’t worry about being a sell out, we all like to make money… and ads can support your blog with money to re-invest for faster growth. There are many types of ads I didn’t mention, but keep in mind that you don’t want to go over the top. Experiment with your ad rates to reach the equilibrium point between supply and demand… and watch your monthly revenue soar!

-Jimvesting