Who do you blog for?

The experts tell us that we should blog with a single person
in mind. This means using words such as "you" and "your",
not "them" and "they".

It can really help you to write if you treat your blogging
as a conversation - a bit less formal writing than an article.

The secret to writing is clearly to keep the audience in mind
as you write - this is often difficult given the diversity of
levels of experience and knowledge of your readers.

I have to own up that I also blog for my own benefit.
In part, this is to get my head around some concepts
or to record some important information I want to
access later.

Invariably, I find that I have to put something into
practice after I make a post - some aspect that I have
forgotten about or overlooked. The blog post can
be a salutary reminder for me.

This just reinforces the fact that blogging has multiple
benefits for the author as well as the reader.

Related Posts:

Squidoo: The Importance of Blogging

7 Key Reasons to Blog


********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources for Squidoo
affiliate marketing on his Squidoo lens:
http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing
check out:
http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:
http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the ebook:
Squidoo Marketing Strategies

********************************************

Squidoo: Google Blog Search Module

The Google Blog Search module on Squidoo lenses gives you
the option of obtaining a blog feed or news feed from Google
for your specified keyword.

You will need to nominate which feed you want for a
particular lens and identify the desired keyword for the
feed.

If you want both feeds, news and blog, on the one lens,
you will need to create two separate Google modules.
This would also apply if you wanted to add a feed for
two different keywords.

Besides providing up to date information for your lens,
the Google Blog Search feed can provide you with ideas for
websites that you can add to your Squidoo Link Module.
Similarly, the blog feeds may suggest tags for your
Squidoo lens.

Another use for the blog feed is to click on a blog entry to
track back to the original post on the blog so that you can
leave a comment with a link back to your Squidoo lens.

I did that this morning for the following lens, because the
Blogger was seeking resources in the area of digital
storytelling for primary school children:
http://www.squidoo.com/digital-storytelling

I’m hoping the Blogger will add my Squidoo lens as a
resource link on their blog. In this way, I gain another
in-bound link for my lens.

By the way, in-bound links, like clickouts from your
Squidoo lens, contribute to lensrank.

********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resourcesfor Squidoo
affiliate marketing on his Squidoo lens:
http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing
check out:
http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:
http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the ebook:
Squidoo Marketing Strategies

********************************************

Video: Google Insights for Search Update

In my post on 23 March 2009, I discussed Google
Insights for Search and showed how it could be used
for targeting Squidoo lenses to key niche keywords.

Well, Google has done it again and upgraded
this tool significantly.

Howie Schwartz gives you the lowdown on these
changes in his video which highlights the new
found power of Google Insights for search:
Howie Schwartz on Google Insights


********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources
for Squidoo affiliate marketing on his Squidoo lens:

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing

check out:

http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:

http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the ebook:

Squidoo Marketing Strategies

********************************************

Squidoo: how to build lensrank

Spirituality, Squidoo Angel and Giant Squid,
has built a lens on how to improve lensrank.

In previous posts, I mentiond the importance
of regular updating of Squidoo lenses and the value
of blog feeds for improving lensrank.

Spirituality explains the nature of lensrank,
its purpose and how lensrank can be improved.

She indicates that lensrank is influenced by
lens freshness, visitors, whether you're a Giant Squid,
number of clickouts, blessing by a Squidoo Angel
(temporary boost), etc. Check it out on the link:
How is Squidoo Lensrank Determined?

While you are there make sure you visit and comment
in the Guestbook - that's where you find the current
discussion on what's impacting lensrank:
What's impacting lensrank today

**********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources
for Squidoo affiliate marketing on his Squidoo lens:

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing

check out:

http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:

http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the e-Book:

Squidoo Marketing Strategies

Squidoo Lens on How To Use Twitter:
http://www.squidoo.com/howtousetwitter

************************************************

Twitter Hints: Promote Your Articles on Twitter

Why promote your articles on Twitter?

Well Twitter has a Google PR9 ranking
and is growing like crazy (a growth of 7oo%
since February 2008 - now 10,000,000 users).

Tweeting about your articles on Twitter can
give you these benefits:

• widen your audience for your article
• provide a high quality backlink to the article
• bring new followers to your Twitter account
• encourage people to subscribe to your articles RSS feed

To ensure that you get the whole article title into
your tweet, use Tinyurl.com to create a shorter
URL (usually article URLs are very long and may
take up your whole 140 characters of your tweet!).
e.g. my article on affiliate marketing for stay at home
mums:
http://tinyurl.com/ckx3f7

For more information on how to earn cash
with Twitter marketing, visit:
Twitter Traffic Exposed.


**********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources
for Squidoo affiliate marketing on his Squidoo lens:

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing

check out:

http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:

http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the e-Book:

Squidoo Marketing Strategies

Squidoo Lens on How To Use Twitter:
http://www.squidoo.com/howtousetwitter

************************************************

Why Create an Authority Site?

In his recent e-Book, Authority Site 2.0 Blueprint,
Mike Paetzold identifies the search engine benefits of
an authority site.

Mike argues that an authority site will enable you to
gain top search engine rankings, attract free traffic
and boost your income accordingly. He suggests
that Web 2.0 with its social networking capabilities
makes it even easier today to create an authority
site that is attractive to Google and the other search
engines.

I could not agree more and this has been
confirmed by my own experience with my
Squidoo Marketing Strategies authority site
(Google PR4 ranking and no1. position for a
number of search term results on Google).

But how do you use Web 2.0 to gain recognition
by Google as an authority site?

Well that is the subject of Mike Paetzold's
comprehensive, 159 page e-Book
(that is going for a steal at the moment).

What I want to concentrate on is what I think
Mike underplays - the value of creating
an Authority Site.

Starting your own authority site is perhaps
the critical ingredient for success in Internet
marketing. Think of any successful marketer...
and what comes to mind?

You know them and buy from them because they
are recognized experts in blogging, social
marketing, AdSense, Google AdWords, SEO, list
building, affiliate marketing, article writing,
weight loss or Squidoo.

They have established their reputation
and gained recognition through their
authority sites.

An "authority" by definition is someone who
exerts influence, has credibility, gains followers,
leads by example and commands attention.

People are attracted to "authority figures",
respect their opinions, want to be associated
with them, quote them, talk and write about
them and voluntarily promote the authority's
expertise through buzz, blogging and social
networking.

Once you have established yourself as an authority,
people begin to trust you and follow your
recommendations. Your conversion rate soars
and daily income becomes a reality.

If you are recognized as an expert, people want
to associate with you and want to listen to
what you have to say. They will seek you out
for joint ventures, product development,
interviews and collaborative marketing.

When you think about it, the Internet would
not exist if people had not first created authority
sites to make it worthwhile for others to use the
Internet to search for information.

Those early pioneers offered information because
they were passionate about their topic. It was only
later that we learned to monetize this information
provision.

The sure road to success on the Internet is to become
established as an authority in your own right -
to create your own authority site.

Mike Paetzold has shown the way to create an
authority site within a Web 2.0 environment:
Authority Site 2.0 Blueprint

**********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources
for Squidoo affiliate marketing on his Squidoo lens:

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing

check out:

http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:

http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the e-Book:

Squidoo Marketing Strategies

************************************************

Stick-at-it-ness: a key success factor in squidoo affiliate marketing

I have had two inquiries recently from subscribers to
my mailing list which related to the question, "Why
I am not getting traffic to my Squidoo lens?"

I noticed that one of them had a lens that was not
indexed by Google, had limited tags and was a re-hash
of a sales page - with no original content whatsoever.

How would anyone find the lens and why would they
want to visit the lens - let alone return for a second
visit?

I know I often have to resist the temptation to move
onto new things all the time and leave some things
unfinished or incomplete.

I have just had a few days free from travel and realized
that I could spend a day just improving the lenses that I
had created and integrating my marketing efforts further.
I set about doing that today and was amazed at what
I had overlooked.

Often the solution to growth of your Internet business
and income is right before your eyes, looking you in the
face – you just can’t see it! That's the theme of an
article I wrote some time ago:
Walk to gain insights into your Internet business

The more I study the really successful Internet marketers,
the more I am convinced that their key to success is not
only that they have a marketing plan, but they stick to it.

They have what I termed stick-at-it-ness. They stick to
their marketing plan and don't deviate - they are not
distracted by the latest and greatest.

They do the daily grind as well as the more interesting
aspects of Internet marketing (and when they are successful
they give the daily grind to someone else to do!).

I don't know about you, but I don't like routine - I love
creating new things, learning new ideas and trying out different
ways to do things.

But I have come to realize increasingly that stick-at-it-ness
and a planned routine is what I really need to improve
my online marketing results.

That's why PotPieGirl's One Week Marketing Plan
is good medicine for me. Her detailed, planned approach
builds income weekly through a phased approach to
affiliate marketing. If you follow her plan, your income
will grow week by week. But you have to stick at it!

As PotPieGirl (Jennifer) points out:
If you are willing to do for a year
what others won't,
you can spend a lifetime doing
what others CAN'T.

She goes further and suggests:
There Are NO Short Cuts
To Success…
But, you CAN spend yourself
into failure.

Well, today I have been doing a bit of searching on
terms related to squidoo and affiliate marketing, and
for almost every term I searched, I found one of
PotPieGirl's sites/posts/articles listed in the top
ten Google results - and that is why she gets heaps
of traffic (and makes heaps of sales).

Jennifer has that stick-at-it quality that makes her
highly successful - her One Week Marketing Plan
was recently the third highest selling ClickBank
product for her category. Jennifer's plan combines
the Google pulling power of Squidoo with the viral
marketing power of article marketing and blogging.

I can vouch for the effectiveness of her plan -
I have made over $400 just from applying
her plan (half-heartedly) to marketing her own
product.

So if you want to copy a marketing plan that works,
visit the link below (but don't forget to stick-at-it
and you WILL be successful):
PotPieGirl's One Week Marketing Plan


**********************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
Giant Squid. He provides free resources
for Squidoo affiliate marketing on his Squidoo lens:

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

To learn more about Squidoo Affiliate Marketing

check out:

http://www.squidooaffiliatemarketing.com

Subscribe to Ron's free Squidoo Marketing e-course:

http://www.smsecourse.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron is the author of the ebook:

Squidoo Marketing Strategies

************************************************