Names of the domain and WordPress Sites, you are 100% protected?

Hesham of FamousBloggers.net recently had an unfortunately incident of his domain name is stolen. Fortunately, four days later, he is now a backup and sailing away. This issue was resolved relatively quickly, mainly due to his determination to get back what is rightfully his, and because he took action, instead of waiting for things to unfold. You can read the full story about his journey here and how he got his site back up here. Reading is highly recommended as there are many things that you can learn, should this ever happen to you. I recommend you to bookmark it for future use, just in case actually.

What lesson can you learn from this?

Unfortunately, most of the time, we only learn and take action as soon as ' bad ' things happen. What happened to Hesham just proves that there is no sure fire way to our assets to protect against intentional attacks and online thieves. They exist and they are out there, ready to do you damage without hesitation.

Out of this, I cannot stress enough the importance of the "protection" of your assets. This applies to your domain names, hosting accounts and your websites (Special WordPress). As I said, there is no such thing as 100 percent guarantees, but you can take measures to make it difficult ...

Remember the saying "don't put all eggs in one basket"? -If you have multiple domains, try as much as possible to them on different and reliable agents. This is especially true for your main domains. While it is convenient to have everything under one roof "", will the final damage control that you need to do much worst. If you can, have two or three different hosting accounts and have your main domains and hosting account together to avoid. For example, I have my main domains in one Registrar and hosting in another.Use "all" security measures that are delivered to you. If they have a two step authentication, use. If they allow you to lock your domains, use. There is something else they offer, use. They use all

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Link building Lust, Olympics 2012, FamousBloggers, SPEEDLink 30: 2012

Hello everyone! Hope you all have a great week. I'm sure everyone already knows that the London Olympics has finally "kicked-off" yesterday. If you're like me, there are some certain events that I am more interested in, than the other. Thanks to the internet, there are numerous opportunities to follow the Olympics in your own pace. If you are not yet aware of them, you should know that there is an official YouTube channel, attend a special Twitter hashtag and a list of broadcasters, where you can watch the Olympic in your country.

On a different front, Duane Forrester of Bing, has posted two articles this week, related to link building. Both are very interesting and offers you some useful tips about the "real" importance of link building, how to get them, what matters, and most importantly, why would you not "lust" about it so much. He notes also that link building tactics is not dead, is still important, but sends a message that it connects is only one signal for search engines. What do you do to work with the other signals?

Finally, I would like to in this roundup, a "shout out" for those of you who are enthusiastic readers or visitors to include FamousBloggers.net. Hesham, the owner of this domain and a very good friend of mine, has a very unfortunate incident around his domain names. I can't really express in words what I feel about this situation. I just wanted to let you know about it and ask you to join me in wishing him all the best for this matter quickly resolved. Also, if you have links on your site are pointed and stats as "broken links page", give it a little time and not delete.

As usual, in no particular order:

Marketing/Online Business Hard hitting ways to grow your YouTube Bites7 Audience21 reasons people Don't Trust to protect your your company the most important CompanyHow asset content (no, it's not your Website) 12 things you must do after writing a blog post (shameless promotion, pls votes) SEO/inbound Marketing Google Webmaster: new notification about incoming internal linking-Whiteboard LinksSmarter FridayOutranking Google Traffic of Youtube Is like gold

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Top Sites for Premium WordPress Themes

In my last guest post, I wrote about picking the right theme for your blog, and in this one I’m going to show you some of my favorite sites for downloading premium themes that you can use. Before jumping into my favorite premium themes directories, I also wanted to cover the differences between the different types of WordPress themes out there.

Free WordPress Themes

There are literally millions of WordPress themes out there for you to choose from, and many of them are free. The reason there are so many free themes out there is because they are mostly used for building backlinks. By this I mean you will find a link at the bottom footer of the theme that usually says something like “Theme designed by”, and it will link to their sites. Some sites will offer just about any kind of theme, even responsive themes, just to get links backs, mentions and free publicity. Either way, if you aren’t too concerned about your wordpress theme and just want to throw a free one up on your site, there are millions of them out there to choose from. Just make sure you know the important facts about free WordPress themes first.

Premium WordPress Themes

With a premium theme you are starting to get serious and are demanding the visual attention of your audience. Premium themes aren’t free, but they are usually under $100. Some of the best sites online are based off premium themes, it’s just a matter of finding the right design and feel for your site and content. Once you purchase your premium theme, you can contact a WordPress designer to customize the look and feel to make it even more original.

Custom WordPress Themes

The most expensive option, but also the best… a full custom WordPress design is what every blogger dreams of. Depending on who you go with, the pricing can heavily vary. I always wanted to make a lasting impression with my blog at ZacJohnson.com, so I always went with a custom design. The current design is made by the team at StudioPress Themes (aff), and would probably run a few thousand dollars for something similar. Depending on the complexities of your design and who you go with, you can get a custom theme for your blog for a few hundred of a few thousand dollars.

Now it’s time to list some of my favorite sites for access to premium WordPress themes. Many of these sites offer monthly or annual memberships which allow you to access all of their themes for one low price, which is always a great option.

Mojo Themes

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12 things you must do after writing a blog post [infographic]

Blog Post promotion checklist

So you've just finished writing your new blog posts and you are quite satisfied with it, because you've written a "masterpiece" and can't wait for people to read and their feedback. After all, you wrote an article for "like-minded individuals" to appreciate, and for that you're excited about it. Admittedly, that is the main objective of every blog post, to write for "people" first and ultimately optimize for search engines.

Unfortunately, it seems that some people still cannot understand that writing quality content alone is not enough, and to get people to appreciate what you have to offer, they must clearly know that it exists, or simply put, your content must be found. This is particularly the case, if you have not yet established audience. For those who already have a readership base, it is still advisable to "promote" your new blog posts as much as possible, always in accordance with the best and ethical practices. And BTW, your blog post is a blog post, regardless of where it is published. I tell you this because these tips also applies for your guest posts. Don't ever forget that. It is only good for all parties concerned and also makes you look good in the eyes of the blog owner.

Don't know what to write or how to get new ideas for your next blog post?

It is a "circle" is not it? If you want to promote something, you must first promote something, and once you have, you must promote ... With that in mind here are some articles to give you ideas of what to write next, or how, in the event that you lack inspiration.

6 tactics to write posts you know people want content that's worth ReadCreating FollowingHow to continue blogging if you're from ideas and short on TimeA 7-step Content Creator's creativity cleaning

Below are some of the things you can do, after writing a blog post to help you promote your article and expand your reach. The blog promotion checklist, courtesy of DivvyHQ.com, contains some useful tips that work.

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Pinterest Links, Google Alerts, reconstruction Digg, SPEEDLink 29: 2012 block

Hello everyone! Hope you all have a great week. Last week, it was announced that Digg was taken over by the Betaworks for $ 500 k. as expected, reacted the "sphere" say that the amount was low, despite the network lose its traction. This week, further clarification has been made and if it seems so, $ 500 K that Betaworks paid for Digg was only for the domain name and copyrights. Digg as you know it is actually dismantled and the new owners are promising a fully new Digg August 1. Don't know about you, but I'm very curious to see what's coming. BTW, they also ask you to help them "think Digg", by filling out a short survey form.

Other notable news include Google buy the popular email app Sparrow, and some webmasters receive link warnings of GWT again this week. This time though, it appears that you can safely ignore these warnings. Go figure!

On a side note, Pinterest, in its efforts to combat spam makes it easy for marketers not use of the network for affiliate marketing. So if you have Amazon links, URL shorteners, or some kind of URL builders, you can think about your strategy. Instead, better link to a landing page.

Finally, and if this whole "link" stuff finds are common sense, you should know that asks for "link deletions" can cost you money. Yes, crazy, but there seems to be some folders that are charging money to have links removed. If this pans out, maybe I will build my own "spammy" dierctory, include links from everyone and cost a few bucks have links removed, just kidding, lol. Anyway, if for some reason, your face the need to go that route (request remove link), you can always try other measures first.

As usual, in no particular order:

Content Marketing/Online Business Bites

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How to guest post requests, the wrong way

Guest posting for those of you who don't know what it is, in simple terms, is the Act of providing content (as a form of an article, video, infographics, etc.), with a website or blog that belongs to someone else. The numerous benefits of guest posting can be found all over the place and with the recent changes that "search engines" have done to grade sites on their results, this form of "linkbuilding" getting out of control.

Why Is Guest Posting so popular?

The real benefits of guest posting is mainly to build credibility, gain exposure. It is a win/win scenario for both the blog owner and guest blogger. That is my humble opinion. A guest blogger should know how to do things right, and on the contrary, the blog owner has some few to apply ethical standards when accept reviews messages. It works both ways you know?

However, and as mentioned earlier, search engines, in their quest for the best possible user experience, has been devalued and will continue to do this, many link building techniques. The main reason for this is because many link building tactics are only done to manipulate results. Link building is an important factor of SEO, but only if they are of good quality. Quality is here translates to back links of authority and relevant sites, of course, and preferably of an editorial content. This is best achieved through guest posting.

With that said, here is where the problem starts to happen. Link builders, spammers, and it keeps, its gone crazy sending request blog owners for guest posting. There must be a "Guide" who circulates the area that is the "ultimate, blah, blah to link building". It offers probably even "templates" of how to approach the blog owner of a for submitting a guest post.

MyBlogGuest, in case you haven't heard about it yet, a free community that connects with guest bloggers blog owners. Since this is a community that is tailored to helping bloggers to connect with one another, they have extensive experience in how to do good all things guest blogging. Recently, they have a video, which reflects exactly what is going on currently published. Take a moment to watch it as this is exactly what you hit away from blog owners, apart from other bad side effects that lead to you that can will get. It's actually even humorous ...

WRONG ways to ask for a guest post

Here is another example of an email I received today (one among the dozens).

Hello Admin,

This is xxxx. I am a experienced writer bought write about Web development, social media, wordpress and mobile application development. I wish free writing for your blog. It would be great to hear back from you! I want some link to my website if approved.

Thanks,

Need I say more? I think that the message on that video speaks for itself. Even if you're a link Builder, there are always some "creative" ways to go by. Here are a few tips:

Actually visit the blog and scroll through the time itTake to get familiar with the blogs topic Take the time to read the guest posting guidelinesShow that you're credible because some examples of your previous writingBe honest and the blog owner tell that it is part of a campaign outreach, they will anywayAbove all know, submit a guest post that is worth the "salt". Waiving of General, broad, what to do and how to 's, executable instead give step-by-step guides, real and well researched stuff, the whole shebang.How to guest post, the Right Way

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Get Your Hobby to Pay

Is your hobby a drain on your budget? Would you like it if your hobby paid for itself, or even made you a few extra bucks each month?

I have a friend at work who is really getting into beer brewing. He’s been experimenting with different kits, recipes, ingredients and techniques and has found a real passion with it.

His kid-like enthusiasm got me thinking about how he could expand his hobby into something more, so I suggested that he start a blog to journal his progress, recipes, and notes. He might be able to make a little extra money and/or get his beer supplies given to him in exchange for writing a review, and depending on his plans to turn his beer making into a business, he might even be able to get some tax write-offs for his supplies, beer making space in his home, etc. Needless to say, a couple of hours later, he’d bought a domain name.

You should definitely consult with an accountant and attorney before starting any business or claiming deductions on your taxes for a home based business, but I can speak from experience that a home based business centered around your passions and hobbies can pay for itself.

My personal struggle to learn how to market a home based business became a quest for marketing knowledge. Experimenting with marketing became my hobby, which developed into a passion of teaching others how to build and market their small business. It’s given me a very nice extra paycheck every month, led me to my career in social media and saved me thousands of dollars in tax deductions over the past several years because it.

There are lots of ways to both save money on your hobby as well as possibly turn it into an additional stream of income.

Save money on your hobby:

Don’t pay retail for the supplies you need for your hobby.

Get on the email list of the companies you buy your materials and equipment from, so you can be notified of their sales and coupons.Visit sites like eBay and Craig’s list to find used equipment for sale.Look for promo codes and coupons online.Forums often contain industry secrets as far as where to find the best deals related to your hobbies and many allow you to subscribe to certain threads or topics so you know when they’ve been updated.For example: my friend set up  so that any time the words “beer” or “brew” are posted in the FatWallet forums, he gets an email. This allows him to snag the best deals before they’re gone or to jump into a conversation with other home brew enthusiasts.If you’re looking to turn your hobby into a business you may be able to apply for a tax id number to purchase your supplies wholesale.How do you monetize your hobby?

Building an email list, Facebook fan page, Twitter following and a blog can give you the ability to round up a community of people who are also interested in your hobby. That community is valuable to companies who are looking for people interested in buying their products and services.

Here are a few of the ways that companies will reward hobby bloggers:Companies often pay bloggers for advertising space on their blogs, e-zines, or newsletters.Companies may offer free products in exchange for a written or recorded review on a blog.May companies pay commissions on the sale of products that affiliates, or people who help spread the word of their products or services, generate through word of mouth advertising.Here are a few other ways that a hobby blogger can make money:If you are creating a physical product, you may be able to sell it on a site like Etsy, Craig’s List, or eBay.If your hobby requires specialized knowledge or skill you could teach others how to do it or how to do it better.Sell step-by-step instructions, recipes, guides or patterns that you have made.Sell your time coaching or consulting to people who are trying to learn your hobby.The “recipe” for a successful hobby blogI highly recommend you have a self hosted WordPress site. That means that you buy a domain name and hosting from a place like GoDaddy and install WordPress blogging software on it. It is very easy and most hosting companies can walk you through setting up a WordPress blog through their support desk or you can hire someone to set it up for you for around $60-$70.To start building an email list, you could use a free service such as MailChimp or a paid service like Aweber. They will give you a form you can put on your blog to gather leads. I recommend you write a free report, a list of resources or tips or some other kind of free gift that people will be willing to exchange their email address for.Write on your blog as frequently as possible, staying focused on the topic of your hobby. You could write about products, techniques, resources, your personal experiences, etc.Follow and friend people who are also interested in your hobby on your social media channels. You can find them by typing in descriptive key words about your hobby into http://search.twitter.com and use the Facebook search function to find Facebook groups on your topic.You can also expand your circle of followers by creating a Facebook group and a Facebook page of your own on your topic. You can create a free Facebook landing page very easily using the website ShortStack.Share your blog posts on Twitter, Facebook, and to your new email list so your friends and followers know when it’s been updated. If you have great images, perhaps you may consider launching a Pinterest campaign too.Be patient, it may take some time until people start to follow your blog, but if you’re updating it frequently and sharing helpful information, people will have a reason to visit. In addition, applying a bit of SEO best practices, could help.When your blog grows in value as you add more and more helpful articles and you’ve gained some loyal readers, you can start to approach the businesses whose products and services you use and invite them to advertise or offer to review their products.

With a the right actions and a little bit of effort your hobby could result in a home based business that allows you to get paid doing what you love. Who knows, it could lead to a whole new career like it did for me!

Happy blogging!

No related posts.

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Google Webmaster Tools, New Digg, Infographics LInks, Speedlink 28:2012

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a great week. This week, most noteworthy news include “a hint” from Matt Cutts saying in an interview that Google is thinking of devaluing links from infographics.

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Reputatiemanagement voor individuen: schoonmaken van uw Online imago

Online reputation management is big business, and it is a company that more and more companies seriously. Both small businesses and Fortune 500 brands invest large parts of their marketing dollars on reputation management services, excited for the opportunity to determine how their brand is played on the Web. Given the prevalence of online review sites like Yelp, this is hardly a big surprise.

Online reputation management is not only the province of businesses, however. It is also something that very real benefits to individuals. Sure, the need is there. You can bet that the prospective employer to Google your name goes before you apply for a job offer. And how about ask someone on a date, or even move to a new building or neighborhood? There are plenty of cases where people are bound to curious maybe (a bit curious), and see what your reputation of Google is really like.

What this means is that it's harder than ever to maintain a squeaky record. There was a time when all you had to do was avoid DUI arrests and you were good to go. Now, can a few embarrassing photo, taken at a frat party 15 years ago, are your undo. If it makes his way on Google, your job prospects — and maybe that first date — be endangered!

Control of your reputation

There are, of course, some things you can do to fight back, and it all starts with the control of your online reputation. The worst fate that can befall you get is to walk into a job interview and blindsided, totally ambushed by an unsavory Google post that you didn't know was there. You have all the relevant information, well, that's a start-and at least you won't be caught off guard!

The process of running Google, Bing and Yahoo searches for yourself is important then. Do it on a regular basis, as a way to know what people say about you online. Search engine set up alerts to let you know if no new offers must arise.

Here are a few further pointers. One is to Google logs off before looking for yourself; because Google customizes the search results, it is probably you already have your own social media and blog posts show, rather than offer a more objective look at what others will see when they Google you. Also remember to check of spelling variants for your name; If your name is John Niel, there is a decent change people also to John Neal, John Neil, etc will search.

Finally, make sure you are looking at social networks, too. Remember, it is not only Google and Bing that form of your online reputation. It is Facebook and Twitter, too. Use the properties of the internal examination of these social networks to see if everyone used your name in vain!

Protect your good name

Control of your online reputation can you know where you stand, but it is also important to proactively in defending your good name. Here it is important to remember one of the fundamental points of online reputation management. Most internet users never click beyond the first page of search engine results — so if ever there was no negative offers, you want to verify them on the second or third or fourth page of search results, in which case they are essentially non-issues.

The trick, then should suppress negative listings — something you can do by inundating the search engines with positive information about yourself. You are actually building a wall here, a defensive wall of positive press, surrounding yourself and your reputation to protect. Firstly snatching the best online real estate. Let's get back to our example of John Niel; What Mr Niel has to do is buy the domain JohnNiel.com, .org, .net, etc powers. These are domains that probably "rank" the best for your name, so if you have them, they are no good defense against potential negative listings.

Then fill the Web with as much positive content about yourself as you are able. Publish content and blog posts on those domains that you purchased is important, but don't forget about social media. Maintain an active presence on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest-basically, as many social networks as you can be. The more you are able to publish content, the better off your reputation will be.

Remember that negative listings can be displayed on the Web at any time, and there's really nothing you can do to stop them. Your best bet is to suppress, and want to ensure that they are non-issues continue, stuck somewhere on page 3 of Google and never really interfere with your own online reputation! This requires constant vigilance, both in monitoring and in content creation, but that is a small price to pay for something so valuable as a good reputation.

Related content-Check them out:

Brandify: small business owners get help for managing Online Business Software: Online Project overview on Cloud ReputationQuick Managementthe memberstrips benefits of Remarketing for the future of Online MarketingHow to develop and maintain a successful brand for your Online business

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There is No Perfect Niche

I spent a lot of time looking for the perfect niche when I was new to internet marketing. I thought that if I could just find a high-profit niche with low competition that my life would be set and making money would be easy. If you look around webmaster/SEO discussion forums today, you’ll see dozens of posts from newbies asking for help finding the best niches.

What I eventually learned is that . Some niches are definitely better than others, but there is no magical niche that will lead you to internet fame and fortune. The key to making money online is not to find the perfect niche; it is to become an expert in any niche.

Become the Authority in Your Niche

You can make money with any niche if you become THE authority in that niche. What I mean is that you don’t just put up a quick blog and rehash a bunch of articles that you find elsewhere. Instead, you learn everything you can about the niche and provide information that is unique, high quality and genuinely useful to your readers.

Let’s use an example to make sense of all this. Let’s say that you do your research and decide that online file storage is a niche that you’d like to tackle. The easy way to get started would be to throw up a bunch of reviews, do a little keyword research and write blog posts that cover those keywords. You might make a little money with this approach, but you’ll have a hard time building a highly profitable, long lasting website.

It would be better to instead familiarize yourself with the online storage industry by reading trade publications, subscribing to newsletters and trying out online storage services for yourself. Then, you can create topic ideas that people actually find useful. Instead of regurgitating the same old

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What is SEO, and Who Cares?

Unless you don’t have a blog or a website of your own, chances are,  you have heard about the term SEO (search engine optimization) before. SEO is the process of improving a sites online visibility on search engines results. That really is the simple and short version of what SEO is all about (here’s a longer version of SEO).

As for the “who cares” part, it is no surprise that all who are serious about building an online presence cares about it. Yeah, SEO is far from dead, otherwise, what’s the point of Google and Bing, coming out with a lot of new stuff just to help webmasters improve their sites visibility?

Here’s a quick roundup of what’s new (or relatively recent) and suggested SEO resources:

Google SEO

Webmaster Academy – Webmaster Academy provides practical and easy-to-understand lessons for webmasters to help you improve your site with topics like getting your site indexed, providing search engines with helpful information about your video and image content, and understanding Webmaster Tools features.

SEO for startups in under 10 minutes (June 2012) – Maile Ohye from Google advises your startup as if she had only 10 minutes as your SEO consultant.

Bing SEO

Webmaster Tools – The new webmaster tools of Bing is, guess what, mainly all about SEO. If you have not tried it yet or have forgot all about it, I am sure that you will find the “new” version much more interesting than before. From fixing on-page SEO problems, to their disavowing links, Bing has features for everyone interested in search engine optimization.

Here on iBlogzone

Yeah, I got my own SEO resource page, that I regularly update. It has “tons” of articles, videos, and guides, that are targeted for the DIY SEOers. If you are new to SEO or want to learn a bit more, start there. I am sure that there is something that you will find useful.

SEO Industry

As mentioned above, you can easily come to the conclusion, that both Google and Bing’s webmaster tools are mainly geared towards search engine optimization. Hopefully, that will answer the question about whether or not, SEO is something that you, as an aspiring problogger or small business owner, should care about. Just remember the balance (YIn-Yang), provide quality content for users and optimized them for SEO. After all, you do want your quality content to be found, right? On the other hand, what would you SEO, if you don’t have content?

Anyway, if you are still are not convinced that SEO is something that interest a lot of people, maybe this study, presented in the form of an infographic, would shed a bit of light. This infographic, courtesy of BlueCaribu, shows just how big the SEO industry is. Some interesting facts, include India, being the largest community searching for related SEO topics, and Thursday being the most popular day for looking up on SEO.

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Twitter Search Overhaul, Blekko SEO, DNS Malware, Speedlink 27:2012

HI everyone! Hope you all had a great week. This week, there has been some interesting news coming out from Twitter’s engineering manager, Pankaj Gupta, who said last Thursday that Twitter will

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Blogging at the Par of Steve Jobs

All too often, as bloggers, we get caught up in this morbidly disgusting mindset that we’re doing okay. Some seem to think that there is no room for improvement.

In reality, we often are looped in this mind game that we are who we are, the best are who they are, and everything is good in the world. Quiet frankly, it’s not.

It stops being about improving the quality, and more about keeping it at the same playing ground because, hey, it works. As Steve Jobs once said, though;

Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.

Steve Jobs is Better Than You?

Steve Jobs died at age fifty-six, yet managed to completely revolutionize the computer, phone, music, and film industries.

Whether you like his products or not, a note of respect is demanded – he’s far better than you ever were and, most likely, ever will be.

Before journeying on in this article, I’d like to reference his 2007 keynote that brought a mystical household gift we all know today – the iPhone.

I’ve watched the entire keynote several times (you can quiz me on it later if you’d really like), but the entire presentation is clearly built on three points:

There was always just “one more thing”.He thought he was the best and showed it.He wasn’t afraid of the “big boys”.

When it came to the phone industry in 2007, RIM and Nokia were the top dogs – nobody at the time was brave enough to mess with them.

Steve, though, was smart enough to work on a beautiful product for nearly three years before-hand. The revolution was new to society, but old to the creator – pretty neat.

With just a swift hour and twenty minutes of presentation, he easily tore down an entire industry and overwrote it with tomorrow’s technology.

Steve wasn’t afraid to do it for one simple reason – he knew he was better. Why? He had better ideas.

The problem with most people of today’s society is simple – they incorporate one (or maybe two if they’ve gotten that far) big ideas into a product, work on it, and then deliver it.

Steve, however, took hundreds of ideas and put it into one product:

Touch screeniPodFull HTML web-browserFull HTML eMailCustom interface(Watch the Keynote (; )

That simple style of “I just showed you the coolest thing you’ve ever seen, but here’s something better” is what allowed Steve to dominate an entire society.

What Can We Learn?

As a blogger, it may be difficult to gather what you could ever learn from a man like Steve Jobs.

As every A-list blogger will tell you, your website is a business – Apple is a business, too. It’s really easy to make the connection there, then.

The playing field is shrunken… By a lot. The point, though, is still valid – if you aren’t willing to fight to become the best, you don’t deserve to be called the best.

Out of the hundred-thousand

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How to Write Amazing Product Reviews that Converts

I see many people struggling with their affiliate product reviews, they fail for different reasons, and some of them don’t know what to write, or don’t have the gift or the ability to convince someone to buy. Some others don’t have the guts to promote a product, probably because they are shy or don’t feel it’s right! They are afraid it will turn to something bad, losing their readers for example! Well.. If you want to succeed in affiliate marketing, you must find a way.

In this post I will highlight ways that may help you out and increase your reviews conversion.

Be Honest

Something I learned about doing business is to be honest to “myself” before being honest to anyone else.

I see many people do product reviews without actually trying or testing the product they are reviewing. This is a huge mistake!

I get contacted by people who want me to review their products, I always stress on this point telling them that I do only honest reviews, so they will get an honest review, this includes the pros and cons, so if there is anything I see wrong in the product I will point my readers to it.

And, guess what? I mostly get the job because of just being honest!

In my latest projects – the Author hReview (aff) – plugin, I decided to close the affiliate program to members only, so no one can promote it without being a pro member. This ensures that you’ve used the plugin, you know how it works, and you actually like it!

If you haven’t tried the product yourself, or if you don’t have enough knowledge about what it does and how it actually works, then better NOT review it at all. I understand that this could be a problem, but if you approach the product owner or developer, and ask them for a review copy, they may just send you one and that way, you can do a legitimate review about it.

Promote without promoting! (soft sell)

People hate the guy who pushes them to buy something! (I think most of us would agree with that). I know you want to get a lot of sales, but how many times have you tried to promote a product and push it to people with no success?

This happened to me a lot when I first started my online business journey, especially when I write with no passion and hands on experience with what I am writing about! So, if you don’t have a passion about the product you are reviewing, chances to get sales are too low, because if you can not convince yourself, then how do you expect to convince others? In this case I would think of a different way to do my review and still promote the product, but without pushing anyone to buy it. For example: do indirect promotion.

The indirect promotion is a fantastic way to sell or conduct affiliate marketing without pushing, you can simply write about your personal experience with the product, don’t ask anyone to buy it, just talk about how good this product is, how it worked for you, and how it solved your problem. Then, finally include your affiliate links in proper spots in your review.

Some good examples of indirect promotion is to write a tutorial, give examples, and tell a success story.

Do giveaways

Giveaways is a brilliant idea for promotion, yes you are giving it for free, but you benefit from the promotion especially if you have responsive social media followers.

I do a lot of giveaways on my blog, and I do actually have more than one reason to do it. Here is two of my main giveaways goals:

Growing my readership and followersPromoting my affiliate products

You see, people contact me from time to time asking for a review of their products. Sometimes they have short in budget and wondering about the best way to promote their products without spending money on a paid review, I simply tell them to do a giveaway!

Some other times I want to do a giveaway by myself, means sponsor a specific product (mostly because I like it), then give it away for my blog readers, nothing is wrong with that!

Giveaways make everybody happy! Do it.

Use discount codes and coupons

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