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Free Pursuits Guest Post and Internet Business Path Interview

September 16, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Today, I want to point you in a couple of different directions. First, Corbett Barr from Free Pursuits and I did a guest post swap between my site and his. You might have read his guest post “So You Blog, So What?” already on this blog, but if you haven’t…check it out as he had some great things to say. My guest post on getting out of your own way to realize blogging success went live yesterday on Free Pursuits and it has generated some great conversation around blogging and building a successful blog over time. Take a minute today to head over to Free Pursuits and check out my guest post along with the other articles Corbett publishes on a regular basis. He is a true believer in designing your own lifestyle and his articles can really help you design your own life.

Video Podcast with Tyrone at Internet Business Path

Interview with Robb Sutton on Internet Business PathThe second site I want to shoot you over to today is Internet Business Path. Tyrone and I did a recorded interview about blogging, review blogging and getting free stuff into review on your blog. We went into depth into how you can really monetize your site through product reviews and use those same product reviews as a huge traffic generator. In the 34 minute recorded conversation, you will find tons of information about blogging from both or our perspectives. The interview was a blast to do, so when you get a minute…head over to Internet Business Path and check it out.

If you want to see the same results out of your review blogging, check out my eBook…Ramped Reviews…that spells out how you can see the exact same results I have with getting in free product to review on your blog.

Filed Under: Blogging, Generating Cash, The Web Tagged With: , ,

How Much Time Do We Waste On Spam?

September 14, 2009 By 3 Comments

Every morning I go through the same routine. I wake up…take the dogs out…open the laptop…and then proceed to spend the next 10 minutes of my life clearing out all of the spam in my email, comments and Twitter accounts that has mysteriously found its way into my Internet life while I was asleep. It is getting ridiculous how much of our lives now are consumed with worthless tidbits of text that we really don’t want. It is getting to the point that we are having to take drastic measures that take away from the overall user experience of the web…and that is sad.

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Filed Under: Lifestyle Design, The Web Tagged With: ,

3 Things We Can Learn From New York City Water Taxis

September 8, 2009 By 4 Comments

Note from Robb: A friend of mine, Mike Davenport, shot me an email the other day asking to write up a guest post for robbsutton.com to help promote his leadership survey for an upcoming launch. Like any good friend…I said “Sure! Send it over!” So here is Mike’s guest post for robbsutton.com and you can find his survey link at the bottom of the post.

Take a quick second out of your day to take a look. It will only take a minute to fill out (you are not signing up for anything if you don’t want to).

I took off this weekend and blasted up to NYC to visit family and see some sites. Part of what we did was to take the kids to Manhattan by Water Taxi.

It wasn’t my first time on the Taxis, but by far my longest trips. After about an hour touring around a few lessons leaped out, ones that I know can help me with my online biz.

Lesson 1: Be prepared, cause you never know . . .

Looking at the Ship's LayoutAs we sat on our Taxi I noticed a plaque in the corner, by one of the doors. My son wandered over to check it out (not many folks riding). As he started reading it he yelled over, “Dad check this out. These guys were involved in the plane crash rescue.”

Sure enough, the Taxi we were on was the first boat to respond to USAir Flight 1549 that had to ditch in the Hudson. I asked one of the dock hands and he told us about the crash, and how they were right there. The ins and outs.

He told us that they were ready for such events, had plenty of gear, and although it wasn’t part of the normal day by any means they were ready.

Crazy, ready for a plane ditching in front of you! But someone had thought that through.

My learning . . .be ready for what may be weird, but COULD happen (like Google hating you one morning)

Lesson 2: Perform a valuable service.

Walking Up the RampThis photo shows not only folks getting off the Taxi but folks glad that the Taxi got them were they wanted to go, for a decent price, and did it well.

What isn’t shown is the huge line of folks behind me waiting to get on. And they were not all tourists like me. I bet a bunch were locals who relied on the Taxi’s service for their daily routine.

My learning: give more than people pay for, and do it well, and they will line up for you.

Lesson 3: There will be businesses a lot bigger than me, so find a good niche.

Cruise ShipThe cruise liner behind the Water Taxi in the photo is fully loaded with tourists traveling probably to the Caribbean. The Taxi is traveling about 1/2 mile up the river.

The liners have their business, the Taxis have theirs. Both move people, both have a niche.

My learning . . . find a dang good niche, ace what the customer needs, and provide it well.

Mike Davenport is an educator focusing on helping emerging leaders thrive in today’s wild work place. Take a snap interview and sign up for a free mini report to learn how to quickly improving your leadership skills.

Link to survey: Lightning Blog Leading

Filed Under: Marketing, The Web Tagged With: , , ,

Are you giving your readers what they want or want you want them to have?

August 27, 2009 By 1 Comment

This is one the most common mistakes among aspiring bloggers. As you continually pump out content and free ebooks, you have to look at this content and ask yourself one simple question that most bloggers never even bother to ask themselves as their blogs continue to lose traction and not gain the readership they had planned in their head.

Are you giving your readers what they want or want you want them to have?

There you are…spending your hard earned time and effort pouring your heart and soul into your blog. You are confident that what you are putting forth is amazing content that will be absorbed like water in a Sham-Wow (beware of imitators!), but comments are low…subscriptions are low…no one is signing up to receive your new and amazing eBook…what is going on? Your stats are showing that people are visiting your blog, but nothing is happening! Instead of taking a look at several factors on your blog that might be leading to this low converting result, you continue to push, shove and force this content on a potential reader with the same result. During your frustration, you become even more adiment and push harder. Eventually, you are left with a lot of work and readers telling you to “talk to the hand” because they are not picking up what you are putting down.

You don’t understand why. If they would only trust you and convert…they would see the genius behind your work! I just have to make them understand!

You Are Not Going To “Make” Readers Understand

When it comes to blogging and blog content, you are not going to make readers love your content. They are going to visit your site and within the first minute of browsing your content, they are going to make the decision to read or move on. The more you try to force feed your content down the throats of potential blog subscribers or stick with methods that are not working, the more disappointment you are going to find as you keep doing the same actions expecting different results.

There are several factors that you need to look at when you are creating content to test whether your content is working for you or you are working hard at producing results that equal nothing.

How To Tell If Your Content Is Not Working

So how can we tell if the content we are slaving over is not working for our readers and our blog?

  1. Comments – Are there any comments left on your posts? If you are getting a decent amount of traffic and there is zero interaction, you need to either look at your content or how you structure your articles. Blogging is an interaction with your readers and if they are not interacting with your content, you will see little results over time.
  2. Bounce Rate and Average Page Views – Hopefully you are using Google Analytics to track the how, when, where, why’s of your blog visitors. Historically, blogs tend to have higher bounce rates than most other internet sites because of the viral nature of the content, but if your average page views are very low and your bounce rate is very high…you need to look at why your readers are jumping off your site so quickly. What pages are they landing on and why are they leaving those pages or posts? Do you need to edit, reformat those posts to insure they are more “sticky”? How long are visitors hanging out on your little slice of the web? If this is a small amount of time, what can you do to keep them on a convert them into regular readers? By analyzing your site stats (try to watch trends and not just that day), you can see if your content is working.
  3. Emails – If you are not getting a single email through the contact form of your blog, you need to look at your setup. Bloggers that are interacting with their readership through engaging content get flooded with emails. You are either not asking the right questions or not solving the correct problems if you are not getting some form of email contact from readers.
  4. No One Is Signing Up - You have a great landing page…great cover design…but no one is signing up for your newsletter! Why aren’t they signing up? They are not signing up because that is not what they want! Seems like a pretty simple correlation but there are a lot of bloggers out there who continually beat their head against a wall hoping…that if they just spend more time on it…people will see the light. If no one is signing up to receive something for free, it is either overdone or not what they want…period.

How To Get Out Of The Force Fed Content Trap

So…you analyzed everything that is going on with your blog and you are finally at the point where you have to make a decision. As with any business…including blogging…you have to know when to abandon an idea and move onto the next. Many times, you can even tweak current ideas by taking a new look at the situation and make them successful, but one thing is for certain…what you are doing now is not working and you can not continue to waste your valuable time on it. It can be disheartening when you pour everything you have into an idea just to watch it fail, but hugely successful entrepreneurs know when to fold and learn from that project to be successful at the next. What you learn from your failures (harsh word…but true) is the driving force behind your successes.

We all wish that the first idea that hit our heads will be the golden ticket to success. Unfortunately, that is almost never true and we are going to have a lot of ideas that do not pan out. The trick to success is knowing when to fold your hand and start with something fresh and new. As much as you want everyone to have that great idea, content or ebook, if that is not what the market wants…you are just going to continue to loath in failure.

As you look at your metrics, are you giving your blog readers what they want or are you driving forward with an idea that isn’t working just because it your idea?

Talk to the Hand Image by mattfoster

Filed Under: Blogging, The Web Tagged With: , ,

Why SEO is Important for Every Blog Post

August 3, 2009 By 2 Comments

This guest post was written by Jerry Rodriguez from Rank High Solutions.

It used to be that if you mentioned the term search engine optimization, you’d just get a bunch of blank stares. Nobody knew what it meant or how to use it. However, SEO has grown increasingly prominent since when it first came on the scene, and now pretty much anyone who has posted content on the web has an idea of what SEO is. Ironically, despite it becoming the latest craze in Internet marketing, many people still underestimate the power of SEO.

Take blogging, for instance. Many individuals and companies have taken to using blogging to help promote their sites, products and services. Blogging is a natural fit with search engine optimization, and a lot of blogging elements are naturally SEO friendly. However, most people make a mistake and don’t go the extra mile to really make their blogs search engine friendly. They figure it’s just not necessary and that the gains don’t just justify the extra work. This is a huge mistake.

It’s important to optimize each and every blog post that you make to be search engine friendly. If you are really dedicated to making your blog successful, then every post you make will be loaded with quality content. If you’re going that far, why not take it one step further and make sure that the world can find it? Even if you make a post that you don’t deem to be especially important, keep in mind that traffic is traffic. It doesnít matter how people are getting to your site, so long as they are getting there.

Spend some time getting to know the Google keyword tool. Using this tool, you can input your blog posts URL and quickly have a list informing you of potentially untapped keywords that are related to your blog’s content. This tool can help you find keywords that you didn’t even realize were popular that could greatly improve incoming traffic to your blog. The tool works right alongside the standard Google AdWords tools to help improve your site’s visibility.

Now the problem that some people run into is that they just don’t have enough time to fully optimize every blog post for search engines. Or, they simply lack the know-how and don’t understand the nuances of search engine optimization, such as putting keywords in the meta title and description of the site. Fortunately, there’s an easy-to-use tool that practically automates this entire process, making optimizing a blog easier than ever.

It’s called the All in One SEO Plug-in, and works with any WordPress blog. This comprehensive plug-in does all kinds of things to make optimizing a blog easier. It provides easy ways of templating and editing your meta title and description, which are very important to SEO. It can also help you find new keywords and provide easy workarounds for duplicate content problems.

All in all, this great plug-in reduces the work it takes to optimize individual blog posts for search engines by a huge margin. With this tool, there’s really no reason not to optimize every post you make.

This guest post was written by Jerry Rodriguez from Rank High Solutions.

Filed Under: Blogging, The Web Tagged With: , ,

eBook Publishing – Do I Give My eBook Away for Free or Charge Money?

July 28, 2009 By 1 Comment

In today’s online arena, eBooks are a fantastic way to build lists, generate revenue and spread your words to a large audience. eBooks can gain you reputation in a niche and bring credibility to your site in ways you never though possible while at the same time generating affiliate and direct revenue for your business. By publishing eBooks on your blog or website, you are participating in the most popular form of making money online outside of pure affiliate marketing. When you look into publishing your first or 12th eBook on your website or blog, you have to look into the options and see what kind of eBook publishing method is going to best suit your needs and end goal. When you look closely at popular eBooks, online eBook publishing falls into two basic categories.

  1. Free eBooks for performing an action
  2. Purchased eBooks

Unfortunately, for many eBook publishers, the decision on free or paid for their latest eBook is not an easy decision. Before we jump into what you should do with your eBook as you prepare to publish it to the eagerly awaiting online world, lets take a look at the benefits and drawbacks of each eBook publishing method. The following article weighs the benefits and drawbacks of paid vs. free eBook publishing. As I continue to dive into eBook subject matter, we will cover eBook content and subject matter in a later article. For the purposes of this article, assume great content on a particular subject matter.

Free eBooks for Performing an Action

In today’s online world, blog readers and search engine visitors have grown very accustomed to getting everything for free. First, I want to dispel the myth…nothing is free. While your reader did not shell out any cash to pick up this form of eBook, the end goal is revenue generation and list building. By giving away a free eBook on your site if your visitor signs up for your newsletter, you are putting off a small amount of money up front with the hope that the reader will perform another call to action in the future that generates revenue for your blog. In most cases, your free eBook also contains revenue generating links that further increases your bottom line. The term “free” is coined because no money changes hands at the time of download.

Benefits of free eBook publishing…

  • Drastically more downloads than paid eBooks.
  • Does not have to be as unique or in depth as a paid eBook, but if you want it to really be successful…the more in depth and unique…the better.
  • Generates email lists through newsletter subscription services like Aweber for further affiliate and direct sales opportunities.

Drawbacks of free eBook publishing…

  • No direct money through the sale. Reader could never generate revenue for your blog.
  • Highly specialized techniques can reach the wrong hands and diminish you brand name (more on this later).

When you look at your eBook and contemplate whether or not you need to give it away for free or charge money, you need to look at other sites and blogs in your niche. Are they giving away for free what you want to charge for? Are there other, more in depth and popular free versions out there already? As you consider the competition, you are going to have to follow their lead in some ways.

Let’s take a look at the Make Money Online niche. There are hundreds (maybe thousands) of free eBooks on the net all promising to make you an online millionaire if you just follow the steps they did. Now…many of these eBook publishers have not made one dime online, but there are several highly successful online marketers that are giving away their information for free. If you expect to jump into this market with a paid eBook, you are going to watch the sales drop off the map if you sell even one. Since there is so much competition that is already free, you are going to have to follow suit unless you are immensely successful (and everyone knows it) or you are coming to the market with a completely unique idea.

Free eBooks are one of the best ways to grow your presence online. They increase your subscriber count and make you money down the long haul even if you don’t see the direct result right away. I highly recommend that everyone have at least one free eBook publication for that reason.

Paid eBooks- Publishing eBooks for Money

As you look around online, you will see numerous, highly successful paid eBooks that are published on blogs just like robbsutton.com. These eBooks have generated revenue for blogs and websites through the direct sale of online content. Successful eBooks with timeless information can bring in revenue for long periods of time with minimal work after the eBook is complete and published.

Benefits of paid eBook publishing…

  • Instant money generated from the sale.
  • Still builds credibility and lists for eBook publisher (just smaller numbers than free).
  • Your information is more protected by the money qualifier before download (relates to specialized techniques comment above).

Drawbacks of paid eBook publishing…

  • Smaller amount of downloads over free for obvious reasons.
  • Affiliate marketing is a great way to spread the news, but you have to give up profit to achieve true success.
  • Needs to be very in depth and sometimes highly unique in the marketplace to be successful.

Typically, paid eBooks are unique in the marketplace. Their content is not easily found anyone else’s blog for free and it is relevant to a large audience. Either someone else has not filled that gap in the industry, or you have found online success through a new resource that is unique and can be replicated through your instruction. When a reader pays and downloads a paid eBook, they need to feel like they received something of real value that will add value to whatever subject you are writing about. There are numerous, highly successful paid eBooks on blogging, health and wellness, money and other subjects that affect us in our daily lives. If you already have a strong name in the industry, a paid eBook can bring you another huge source of revenue that was previously untapped.

To better illustrate the thought process that goes into the paid eBook decision, I will outline why I went with the paid option on Ramped Reviews on robbsutton.com. In Ramped Reviews, you will find step by step instructions on how to start a review blog, deal with companies as you seek and receive free product to review on your blog and how to treat your blog like a company instead of a hobby that you just do on the side. The following list is why I went with a paid eBook.

  • Ramped Reviews is unique to the industry, so the competition is extremely low.
  • I have had published success on large blogs that gives credibility to the information.
  • Not everyone should have this information (protecting techniques comments above). I did not want bloggers that were not serious about review blogging using this information to bug companies online and then use my name to say why they did it. If you are not willing to shell out the $20.00 it takes to buy the eBook, then you are not serious enough to contact companies for free product.
  • The return on investment is HUGE. I have received over $70k in free product to review…so 20 bones is nothing in comparison.

As you can see…there are several different factors that I considered before deciding to publish a paid eBook. Most importantly, I did not want this highly successful information to get in the hands of bloggers that are not absolutely serious about writing reviews or running their blog as a business. I like to think of the $20.00 as a fee of entry into the world of review blogging.

Do I publish a free or paid eBook on my blog?

As you can see by the lists above, there are many different considerations you have to ponder in your quest to publish an eBook on your blog. In most cases, if there is a large amount of free competition in your market, you need to release a free eBook to help grow your list and your blog. If you are in a market with low competition and you have unique information that will really help other readers reach their goals, a paid eBook may be your ticket to another revenue source on your blog.

One thing is for certain, there is no one right way to publish an eBook and you need to weigh your individual needs against the positives and negatives of each method. I do recommend that you at least giveaway one eBook (or something else valuable to your readers) for free to continue list building and blog promotion. After that…it is up to you on paid or free.

Of course, all of this information assumes that you have quality content backing up your decision…

Free image by tonx

Filed Under: Blogging, Marketing, The Web Tagged With: , , ,

Unique Blog Designs – Theme Wars – Premium WordPress Theme Battle

July 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I woke up this morning to find an email from Unique Blog Designs crew outlining their new site Theme Wars. Pretty cool concept really. Theme Wars is going to host premium themes that you can pick up through their store, but…even cooler…they are going to pit these themes against each other for your votes. Just think of it as a premium theme cage fight! Anyway…two themes are already up and running for your votes, so go check them out at Theme Wars.

Here is  a snipit of the email from the UBD crew…

Hey there,

We know you’re busy, so we’ll keep this short and sweet.

Today, UBD is announcing the launch of a new WordPress theme
store!

Theme Wars is our new theme store with a twist. Top designers
battle and the community votes for the top WordPress themes.

Every week there will be a “Weekly War” between two themes,
and you decide who wins! Luckily for you, we still build both of
them!

We have filled the Theme Wars store with a bunch of awesome
WordPress themes to choose from, all including easy to use control
panels!

We also have a support forum and resource center packed with
tutorials so that  you can take your blog(s) to a whole new level!

Theme Wars is also going to be completely GPL compliant, which means
all of the themes can be used on unlimited websites!

Oh yeah, don’t forget to vote on this week’s war – click “Vote Now”
on the home page.

To your success,
UBD Team
(Josh, Matt & Nate)

Knowing the quality that comes out of Unique Blog Designs, I would expect to see some pretty kick ass themes in Theme Wars over the next couple of months.

Click here to check out Theme Wars and vote for your favorite

Filed Under: Blogging, Marketing, The Web Tagged With: , , , ,

Micro-blogging – Are Facebook and Twitter replacing personal blogs?

July 10, 2009 By 4 Comments

With Facebook and the 140 character or under explosion Twitter, are we starting to see a decrease in smaller, personal blogs as these two monsters continue to grow in epic proportions? Are Twitter and Facebook going to take over the micro-blogging world as they continue to compliment each other rather than compete for your eyes on the screen?

With millions of Tweets and updates hitting the web at one time, we now know exactly what everyone is doing and when. In my opinion, we are going to continue to see Twitter and Facebook set sign up records with a continual decline in the “just sharing with the family” blogs, and I believe this is a good thing. Now, let me explain why…

First…what is micro-blogging?

According to Wikipedia:

Micro blogging is a form of multimedia blogging that allows users to send brief text updates or micromedia such as photos or audio clips and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user. These messages can be submitted by a variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, digital audio or the web.

The content of a micro-blog differs from a traditional blog in that it is typically smaller in actual size and aggregate file size. A single entry could consist of a single sentence or fragment or an image or a brief, ten second video. But, still, its purpose is similar to that of a traditional blog. Users micro-blog about particular topics that can range from the simple, such as “what one is doing at a given moment,” to the thematic, such as “sports cars,” to business topics, such as particular products. Many micro-blogs provide short commentary on a person-to-person level, share news about a company’s products and services, or provide logs of the events of one’s life.

Simply put…every time you update your Facebook status, send out a Tweet on Twitter, update your MySpace account or even text message a friend, you are engaging in micro-blogging as you tell the world your thoughts, feelings and daily activities. Over the past couple of years, micro-blogging has expanded rapidly with the aid of new technologies and it is now widespread among all age groups…many of which…don’t even realize they are participating in the act.

Why is micro-blogging going to take over personal blogging?

Stating that micro-blogging is going to take over the small blogging world might be a stretch, but it is absolutely going to cut down on the amount of blogs started per year and it is going to contribute to the amount of blogs that eventually go un-updated. The average Joe blogger is not going to make a significant income from their blog as only about the top 5% even make a 5 figure income. Where does this leave the pleasure blogger that just wants to update friends and family? He basically has two options to choose from…

  1. Start a blog and update it regularly.
  2. Spend that energy toward Facebook and Twitter.

9 times out of 10, even Joe blogger is going to either start or convert to Twitter and Facebook for one simple reason…

Ease of Use

With micro-blogging platforms, you can update in seconds with pictures, video, text or anything else as you strive to update friends, family and followers with your thoughts and dreams. Setting up a quality blog that people will read takes a lot of time and energy that is basically wasted for someone that just wants to share a couple of pictures and what they are doing that day.

As we look at all of the Blogger accounts that are started with all the intention in the world of updating on a regular basis, we often see these blogs fall off the map as people realize that they can reach a larger audience with a more efficient platform to achieve the same goal. Micro-blogging can also be accomplished on the fly through the aid of a cellular device or mp3 player that makes providing instant information easier than fastening your seat belt.

Who is still going to start blogging?

However, there are going to be the select few that still start and update their blogs regularly.

  • Business Builders – Those bloggers with the dream of making it big by blogging. Business builders have a defined goal and the willingness to put in that extra work that creates a successful blog years down the road. These individuals will look to micro-blogging to compliment their blogs, but never replace them.
  • Writers – There are people in this world that just love to write. It is an outlet for their thoughts and they find pleasure in putting words on a page. Blogging has opened a whole new avenue for them as they continue to hone their skills as a writer and share their type with the world. For the writer, micro-blogging will never satisfy the itch to put down some serious content. Like the business builder, they might use micro-blogging to compliment their writing…but it will never replace it.
  • I need more than 140 characters! – Much like the writer, these bloggers need to efficiently distribute much more content than micro-blogging is designed to publish. As these bloggers set up their blogs, they will still only share with family and friends, but they will do so in the form of stories, pictures and video that will not fit on micro-blogging platforms. Due to the mass amount of content, they are willing to put in the sweat and tears of updating, managing and content production that a blog requires.

The great news for everyone else!

All of this is great news for web users that would have started a blog a couple of years ago. We are on the growing trend of a revolution on the web. It has never been so easy to share your life with everyone around you because of the evolving platform of micro-blogging. Who would have ever thought that grandma was going to sit down at a computer and engage in social media?! These are crazy times and individuals from all over the globe are getting involved in the movement. Instant information is on the rise as we can update from mobile devices and computers shouting to the rooftops that we just ate the best steak we ever have. Better yet…I just showed it to you by taking a picture on my phone and uploading it within seconds. Aren’t you jealous??

Filed Under: Blogging, Social Media, The Web Tagged With: , , , ,

Ramped Reviews eBook Released – Free Review Product and Pro Review Blogging

July 2, 2009 By 6 Comments

It is finally here! The ultimate eBook guide to review blogging. Ramped Reviews takes you step by step through every process in review blogging.

The Story Behind Ramped Reviews

As my cycling blog continued to grow, there was one question that continually flowed across my email inbox.

How do you get all of this product in to review?

For those of you that don’t already know, the reason my readers were asking this question was because Mountain Biking by 198 had seen over $70,000 in review product before it’s first year anniversary. I started searching the web looking for a resource that spelled out exactly what I was doing with MTB by 198 so that others could replicate my success with getting in free product to review for their blog. After a lot of searching and frustration, I realized…there was not a resource on the internet that taught bloggers, website owners and small publications how to get in free product to review for their readers.

After seeing this gaping hole in the internet marketing world, I decided to take on the task of creating an eBook that taught bloggers how to become pro review bloggers that receive thousands in free review product. On that day…the concept for Ramped Reviews was born. Since that day, we have pouring every bit of the review process into this eBook that is now available.

What do you get in Ramped Reviews?

You get every single step in the pro review blogger process.

  • Why bloggers get free product to review.
  • What your site needs to have before you start the pro reviewing process.
  • How to contact companies in your niche about free review product. (including a high converting sample letter)
  • The review process and how to write a successful product review including SEO review tactics that have landed my reviews on the front page of Google.
  • What to do after the review process is complete.
  • How to turn your product reviews into cash.
  • How to rapidly grow your blog through your free review product and product reviews.
  • Bonus Material

As you can see, Ramped Reviews is a complete resource for bloggers looking to get free review product for their blogs. This eBook took months to complete as we were exhaustive in finding every bit of information you guys need to be successful. We did not want to create an up-sale product that only gave you half of what you really needed. Ramped Reviews is a complete guide to pro review blogging and receiving free product to review on your blog.

So how do I get my own copy of Ramped Reviews?

Simple! Follow this link and click purchase.

Buy Ramped Reviews Now

For $20.00 (not a 19.99 marketing trick to make you feel like you won something…a flat 20 bones!), you get everything you ever needed to know about review blogging and getting in free product to review on your blog. As you can already add up in your head, this eBook will more than pay for itself with that first trip from UPS or FedEx.

My experience in the corporate sales and marketing world has allowed me to see massive success in a very short amount of time. Ramp up your learning curve and maximize your success rate by purchasing Ramped Reviews. It will be the smartest step you have taken into the pro review blogger process.

Special Thanks

A special thanks goes out to Justin Shattuck and the crew over at Just The Web for their help with the design and editing of Ramped Reviews. They are the best for a reason!

Filed Under: Blogging, Marketing, Social Media, The Web Tagged With: , , ,

FriendFeed Explodes RSS Feed Counts in FeedBurner

June 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I…like many bloggers…woke up this morning to find an unusually high subscriber increase in my Feedburner feed counts. Just like any abnormality, I further investigated the root cause to the issue and found out that FeedBurner was now counting the amount of subscribers to my FriendFeed as subscribers to my blogs.

While some of you might enjoy the bump in numbers at this time, this is a dangerous road to walk down for FeedBurner as it completely changes the game when it comes to publishing feed subscriber counts…and not in a good way.

The FriendFeed/Feedburner Issue – And A Big One!

FeedBurner has now drastically dilluted the FeedBurner feed count. Let me paint it out like this. Say you have built up a substantial FriendFeed following (which can be as easy as following everyone on Twitter), and you launch a brand new blog with 2 articles on it. You then aggregate that new blog to your FriendFeed and BAM! You instantly have thousands of RSS feed readers on your chiclet with only two articles! How good are you?!

As you can see…the FeedBurner feed count has become an unreliable number in determining the following of a blog.

Now…if I can figure that out in 5 seconds flat, how long will it be until someone completely exploits the system for their own benefit? Granted, after a certain amount of time, one would hope that you can tell the difference between a fake FriendFeed subscriber number and that of a legitimate blog following, but now there is a whole new variable in the game that has to be dealt with.

Dear FeedBurner,

Thank you for the bump in my subscriber count, but…if you don’t mind…I would like to return it in favor of a more accurate count.

Thank you,

Robb Sutton

Filed Under: Blogging, Social Media, The Web Tagged With: , ,
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