I just wanted to say I really blew it this month looking like I am going to take a couple steps backwards but that is ok.  I completely lost my focus and motivation.  I stop publishing regularly, I stopped spending time on just about everything.  I really took some time off from my blog and business which is not good for traffic or progress but I just couldn’t find the motivation and didn’t want to deliver crap.  So what can I learn and share from this.  First I going to look at some of my mistakes and then cause for lack of motivation.

Mistake #1 Regular Posting

With a newer blog or a regular posting schedule is extremely important to traffic and readership.  The good news is my traffic didn’t completely die but it did drop.  If your a rockstar blogger or have an more established blog you can probably get away with only a couple post a per month but  for me I need to continue to post at least 3 post or more per week.  That what been working so I need to continue this.  I think I might even have to kick it up a notch and do more as punishment for taking off the last 10 days.

Mistake #2 Failure to Following Though

I had a few things lined up that would have resulted in some very good content and interviews but didn’t carry though with them.  Let’s see if I can recover, it seems it is very easy to connect with people the key here is to connect the right people and when things don’t work out as you planned don’t let it stop you move on don’t let it become your excuse.

Mistake #3 Looking for Shortcut’s

I still find myself more interesting in the learn vs. doing.  I still find myself subscribing to just about everything under the sun.  I still find myself constantly analyzing what other peoples are doing and trying to figure out their systems.  I need to take more action.  I need to learn more from trial and error.  Focus on more on the things that help my business.  Producing content, traffic generation, connecting with others, building list, building systems and products.

Mistake #4 Time Management

What little time I spend I poorly managed.  Not exactly sure if this is a time management issue or lack of spending any time.  I pretty much only checked my e-mail for the last 10 days and left a few comment here and their.  I should have at least make a point to get a post in but didn’t like feel anything I was going to write about had purpose.

Enough with the mistakes I could go on for a while on these but lets talk a little bit about while I lost or am losing my motivation.

Reason #1 Money

I know it shouldn’t all be about money but time is money and I have put in a lot of time this year to my business and have not seen the result that I would have expected.  I now have more realistic goals and understand it will all come in due time with with right amount of effort and time but lets face it money is a motivator.  When it is not coming in then you have to ask yourself why are you doing it.

Reason #2 Distraction

Ok I must admin since hockey and football and a few of the new TV shows started back up I been spending some more time in front of the TV vs. plugging away on the computer.  Earlier in the year I had pretty much given up TV and replace that time with time spend on my business.  Also it seems since my personal laptop died back in August I just haven’t found my writing zone.  Back then when I had that I could socialize with my wife and the TV and still get things done now I have to enter my man cave and be away from everyone which seems to be a hard place to find myself going to late at night.

Reason #3 Time & Effort

Let’s face it running a blog and online business requires a lot of time and effort.  I could easily spend 40-50 hours a week doing this but I only have 10-20.  So I find that since I not able to spend the time I need I get frustrated and behind.  It’s not that I don’t want to spend the time it that I only have so much of it to spend as this is a part time venture for me at this point.  Another thing is I really like to do quality work in everything I do so I don’t like it when I get behind and try to make up time by taking shortcuts.

So what does all this mean?

Not exactly sure yet but I am going to continue blogging.  As punishment for taking some on un-expected time off I going to post M-F for the next 2 weeks.  The post are going to be more about my thoughts and what I need to do to fix this site and my motivation.  The goal of the post is really to come up with a future direction and action plan for this site.  YOUR COMMENTS ARE WELCOME as all this is for you.  I think part of the problem is I find myself posting about blogging vs. the original intent of this site.  I feel that I need to find a way to write faster.  So this punishment should help get me with getting in to the habit of publishing daily and also help me with learning how to do some faster post.

Back in August I started a three part post on SEO.  My goal with was to create a basic seo how to guide and learn enough about SEO to make sure I wasn’t hurting myself or my blog in anyway.  A lot of people get very confused when the try to understand or learn SEO.  Let’s face it SEO can be very complex. 

Honestly I didn’t think it would take me almost 2 months to finish this seo how to guide but I decided I didn’t feel right about posting part three until I did a some personal test cases.  Over the last month I focused on SEO keyword research and targeting keywords that I felt I could compete for.  One of the nice thing about waiting is you can see what has happened to my traffic as a result of these efforts.

Google Analytics tells a nice story here.

My traffic doubled monthly because of my SEO efforts!

Here you see the last three months of traffic for The Money Cult.  Now I didn’t really start focusing on this blog or traffic till July.  In August I started teaching myself about SEO.  In September I started doing some keyword case studies and more SEO keyword research.  I started to target keywords that I felt I could compete with.  If you look at the search traffic you will see that I have 4x as much search traffic.

SEO Keyword Research

The final part of this basic SEO how to guide is to cover SEO keyword research.  I going to share my step by step approach to this.   Using free tools and following these steps I was able to most of the time land on page one or two within a couple days.

Step 1 – Open Google adwords – keyword tool.

Step 2 – Search for the root of blog post topic word

Step 3 – Filter by local search traffic

Step 4 – Add keywords that have between 1000-10,000 monthly searches and have high or average advertiser competition.

Step 5 – Take this list and then google these words.

Step 6 – Your looking at how many returns and who you would be competing against for your word list.  You will have to get a feel for what site you think you can compete with.  If you see any site like squidoo, ezine articles or sub domain blogs like wordpress or blogger on page one or two this is a good sign that no one is really targeting this.  I jump on these words.

Step 7 – Hopefully you have found some word to target now.  You want to write your post using the tips from Part 1 and 2.  Try to use the word or words as part of your title and url.  I also make sure to repeat the target word or words at least 3 time in the post.  Remember they say that header tags and bolding can have more weight with google.  So you might want to try to work them in to your post that way.

Step 8 – Meta Title, Description, Keywords – I use the All-In-One SEO plug-in and I make sure to reword the title so it is different but still included the target keywords.  I also make sure to include it again in the description and then of course list it in the keyword section.

Step 9 – Publish your post following your posting routine.  When I post I have some built in automatic and manual syndication that occurs.  When I post, I manually submit to Blogengage, I have auto feeds setup to post to facebook, twitter, squidoo and some others.

Then I sit back and wait and see what happens after a couple days. 

P.S. Remember if you now go and comment on blogs that support comment luv you will get backlinks to your article with your keyword in the the tile/url back this should help with your ranking.

Following the above steps I been able to compete pretty well over the last month following this approach.  I can generally find myself within the top 20 positions for the targeted keywords and often reach page one over time.

The nice thing about organic traffic is it seem to be consistent.  So once you reach page one or two you will see a couple hits each day for that word on that post.  So over time if you spend an extra 15 minutes to do this you should see your search and organic traffic grow.

Final Thought’s for my Basic SEO How To Guide

Many that teach this stuff teach it a level that is way to hard to understand for the average person.  I am pretty lucky I have always had pretty good success with learning and teaching myself very technically things.  Part of what I have been doing for years is taking very technical things and simplifying them so I can explain to others. 

Part 1 Learn SEO in 15 Minutes

Part 2 Learn SEO in 15 Minutes

I hope I was able to accomplish and share this here.  If you missed 1st two parts please take a few minutes read them.  Now look I do not claim to be an SEO expert as I am just learning this myself.  However I will say that I have taken all the basic important stuff that I feel everyone should know and put it in to this 3 part series which I call Learn SEO in 15 Minutes.  You could read all 3 posts in less then 15 minutes and you will learn the basic stuff that you should know if you have a blog.

Please let me know if you have any thing to add but I strongly suggest everyone take some try to target keywords and let me know how you make out.

Keywords

seo how to,seo keyword research

I want to give a little credit to David Risley for this one.  Recently David been doing a few post like this where he asks his readers a question to get their thoughts.  I really like this approach as it really encourages readers commenting.  So I am stealing his idea because I like it and part of what I do is take idea’s from other blog that I like and try them on my blog.  This is an open invite to share your blog advice.

What’s the biggest mistake you made when you started your blog or online business?

Everyone makes mistakes what is important is that we learn from our mistakes and move on.  Often you learn more from making mistakes vs. getting it right the 1st time.  So with that I want to ask everyone to share some blog advice and what their biggest mistake that they remember or care to share.

I hope that everyone can learn a little from each other here as we share.  So to start thing off I and going to take about mine which is not focusing on the fundementals. 

The key fundemental I overlooked was TRAFFIC. 

When I started I went more down the road of making a product and didn’t even thing about how important traffic or difficult getting traffic would be.  I also bought in to the hype that I was going to make all kinds of money right away and from what I read or heard about driving traffic was easy just do some PPC and some adwords campaigns and the traffic would come. 

Well I gave that a try and nothing.  I then realized I forgot all about one of the key fundamental of the internet TRAFFIC.  I immediately changed my focus on finding out how to drive traffic.  I started to play and experiment with youtube and my blog and many other things like social networking.  Prior I didn’t really post much on my blog but crap.  I even forgot to install google analytics huge mistake.  I was using my hosting stats that doesn’t even compare.  I didn’t even know that I wasn’t getting traffic and what little traffic I was getting I didn’t know where it was coming from or why I was getting it.

Since July I have made a lot of progress with my blog.  I have since doubled my traffic every month.  I found out which actions produce positive results for this site.  I have learned techniques that work I can use and repeat them.  I will continue to build a nice steady stream of traffic for years to come.  I will continue to learn as that is just how this business is and the rules change form time to time.

So with that what is your blog advice? 

What’s the biggest mistake you made when you started your blog or online business? 

I like to make blogging fun.  Please share any of your blog mistakes, blog advice or tips blogging.

In the 1st part of The Easy Podcasts How to Guideyou learn all about getting ready to record.  Now it time to hit record.  Today we have so many options available to us to record.  Just about any mp3 player,  phone or PDA has a voice recorder.  The key is to make sure you get the best possible quality audio podcast and that you are able to easily transport you audio file to your computer.  Then you can review it and do what you need to get it ready for publishing. 

I going to talk in general about your options for recording podcast.  I will go in to more detail about one super easy podcast option that makes the recording possible for anyone.  Best of all this option is free and can be done from anywhere and setup in a mater of minutes.  Before I get in to that I want to share a couple tips before you hit record.

Tips Before Recording Podcast

• Test Your Equipment
  -Before you begin you want to make sure it works and sound quality is ok other wise your wasting your time
• Hit Record, Make sure mute is off
  -I know doh! I only say it because it happens and when it does it sucks.
• Elimate noise and distractions
  -If your outside beware of wind.  Inside make sure it is as quite as can be elimate any background noise.

Time to Make A Podcast

Here is the easiest way I have found to make a podcast.  This is the service I used for the awesome interview with Keller Hawthorne.  I found a free conference call service that will allow for recording.  http://www.freeconferencecalling.com/ you can learn more about it at the site.  This service is completely free and can handle up to 500 people on a line.  Once you sign up you will be sent a conference line number and host code.  The number they give you is a not toll free but most have skype or free long distance plans now a days. 

With this service all you do is dial the number they give you, enter your passcode, enter your host code then just hit *5 you will here record on.  Thats it see how simple all you do is hit call a phone number and hit *5 to turn on an off recording.  You can also manage the call via the web.  The site has decent FAQ’s and how to guides so now from any phone line you can make a podcast.  Within 60 minutes after the call the mp3 file is available for download.  You can share the link off their server but it will only be available for 30 days.  So if you can talk on a phone you can make a podcast that how easy this option is.  I strongly suggest you give it at try.  So now you can make a podcast in anytime you like as long as you have  a phone.

If you don’t like this option you can alway use other options to record pocast such as an iphone or mp3 player.  Pretty much anything that has a mic will work.  If you have a headset for your PC that will work also.  Another option is your X-Box or WII mic that is lying around, I have used mine before and the qualty was really good.  It’s a Logitech Pro mic yes it will also work on your computer I didn’t even need any addional drivers.  Give it a try you be suprised at the quality.

If your doing a windows podcast for recording software you can download and use Audacity  this is free and very powerful.  Windows does have builting recording program but it is very plain.  I try to make my recording so I don’t have to edit them as it can be a pain and add time to the process but with Audacity you can clean up noise and trim and merge files if necessary.

By now you should understand your options to record podcast.   You have many I say try the phone option everyone can talk on a phone.  Stay tuned for the last part of this serious Easy Podcasts How to Guide Part 3where I going to cover publishing and submittion.  Your learn about wordpress podcast options and plugins.

The hardest part about creating and publishing podcast is getting enough courage to hit that record button and feeling comfortable enough to publish it.  I decided to write this because after last weeks interview I received some comments and e-mails asking if I would share how I did it.  I had planned to do this at some point but was going to wait cause I still don’t like a couple of the things about the publishing process but it does work. 

I encourage others to offer any advice in the comments when it comes to topic as I am still learning.  I am not an expert at this but with a little help from google I was able to find all the answers I needed to create and publish a quality podcast on my wordpress blog with ease.

I going to split this 3 parts as follows.

Part One will Cover Preparation
Part Two will Recording Options
Part Three will be about Publishing…

Preparing for a podcast.

Before you begin I strongly suggest you make an quick little outline or bullet list of the topics you want to cover.  You want to do this for a couple reasons.

• Make sure your cover all your points
• Keeps you going if you lose you mojo (rambling and pauses not good)
• Gives you a little more organization to you podcast
• Create an intro or script to help get you started

Another thing you should do after you listen to yourself it make notes of any bad habits or annoying things you find yourself doing so they are in front of you to help prevent yourself from doing them which will greatly improve the quality of your Podcast. 

Here is a sample of my list.

• Hit Record! (Very Important)
• Don’t Say Umm
• Don’t clear you throat or cough
• Speak Clearly
• Don’t speak to fast
• Focus on your words!!!

Addition Tips if you doing this with another person.

If you doing the podcast with another person you need to spend more time on the preparation process.  For the interview I did with Keller I did the following things to prepare.
• I spend time learning about her and developing question which I sent ahead of time. 
• I put together a script
  -This included a intro and 8 question for her review so she could have time to prepare her answers and really had a good idea of how things were going to flow.  I wanted to make sure interview went at least 16-40 minutes so 8 questions was a good number which gave about 2-5 minutes per question.
• I included clear bold instructions for Keller as to what she need to do. 
  -Call this number and when, in addition I gave her a couple ways to contact me if she had any problems or additional questions. 
• Before we began to record call we talked for about 20-30 minutes.
  -This helped to break the ice and make the both of use feel more comfortable.  We had never spoken other then e-mail.  This set the tone and made for a nice warm and personable interview.

In Conclusion

You can create an easy podcast just shoot right from the hip and hit record but remember you podcast will not be as good.  I did this for my 1st podcast but really my goal was just to see what I sounded like and how my equipment work.  It will take a while till you get comfortable with your voice so you might just want to hit record to so you can actually hear yourself and see what you sound like.

A couple other things I learned from doing my 1st podcast.  The 1st time I hit record I talked for about 5 minutes and realized that at least for me it took a lot of energy to talk nonstop for 5-10 minutes.  I immediately then challenged myself to do a 15 minute recording just to see if I could do it.  Another reason good reason your should have a outline or some sort of script.  If you plan on doing a 15-30 minute podcast you better be organized, focus and in the right frame of mind.

You will be seeing a lot more podcast and interview on this site as I think that add a lot of value and go over very well with my readers. Please stay tuned for the next two parts of my how to podcast guide.

Everyone this it probably my biggest accomplishment to date with this blog.  I can’t tell you exactly when I 1st started listening to business interviews, podcast and audio books but I am a huge fan of audio and listening to people teach and tell their story.  You can really learn so much from listening to real people, telling real stories about real experiences. 

One of the things that really appealed to me on Yaro Stark’s site was his podcast and interviews.  I started going thought all of his podcast about 9 months ago I said I to myself I can do that.  So last month I made goal to do to my 1st interview.   Doug Dillard – Making Money Online Interview  After I did that I also made it goal to make this a habit.  So from here on out I will strive to do one quality interview per month. 

Please after you listen to this let me know what you think as I really plan to more of this and could learn a lot from your feedback.

The Money Cult Audio Vault

 

Internet Marketing Success Story

 So here is what I got a for everyone I landed the 1st ever phone interview of Keller Hawthorne of fresheventure.com.  In addition to this being her 1st Interview and Podcast this was also my 1st time doing a real recorded call.  No worries everyone somehow we pulled this off and ended up with almost an hour of quality tips, advice and real stories that EVERYONE can learn something from.  This is a fine example of going out and taking ideas from blogs that you like and then figuring out how to do them on your own blog. 

If you haven’t hear visited her blog before you should I must say I was instantly impressed by the content and just how well everything is organized, laid out and delivered.   Great things are coming for this one no doubt.

I thank Keller for spending the time with me and giving me this opportunity learn something new. I can’t tell you the value that you get when you can get inside the head of someone that has been running business online for over 4 years.  

Here is a few quick things you should know about Keller Hawthorne.

• She is 26
• She works for herself fulltime
• She run’s 2 E-Comm website’s Theme Kitchen & Theme Bathroom
• She run’s a Marketing Firm KBH Web Marketing
• Her blog is fresheventure.com (Great Blog Page Rank 6)
• She got a Page Rank of 3 in 3 weeks!
• She knows SEO

I can already tell you 2 weeks after reading and using tactic’s from her free e-book my organic traffic starting to grow!

What’s in the interview.  A lot. I can’t even begin to tell you all that we covered.  So your going to listen to it but some of the key things are.

• Her turning point yes she struggled for a while.
• The Importance of Keyword and organic traffic
• How to deal with crap and information overload
• Make sure you do your work then move on to learning
• How she connected with John Chow, Yaro Stark, and Gilden Shalwick
• Here experience with Blog Mastermind and Become a Blogger Student,
• The importance of learning so you can grow your business.
• What she would do if she only had 10 hours a week to spend on her business
• What’s going on with fresheventure.com and here Best Wordpress Design 2009 contest

BTW-Vote for THEMONEYCULT if you haven’t voted yet CLICK HERE
HELP me WIN a membership to Yaro’s course

If you enjoyed this please let myself and Keller know by commenting here.  I am pretty sure if I get enough positive feedback I can arrange another one of these calls. 

Also if you could take a minute and bookmark or tweet this I really think this is a story that really needs to be shared!

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So one more time.  Act now and get click on the godaddy link in this post and use the following godaddy promo code (gdr917an).  If you have questions about them let me know.  I can help with the process.  Then once you sign up forward me the conformation and I will then be in contact with you to setup a call. 

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