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by Lee Gilbert
The 7 Biggest Internet Marketing Mistakes






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Do You Read Niche Blogs?
One of the most popular business models for Internet Marketing is Niche Blogging and my question to you is, if you're a niche blogger, do you read any other niche blogs other than your own? And I don't mean do you go to look at them to see what you're competition is doing. I mean do you actually have a niche blog or two, or maybe even three, that you read on a regular basis? 

Do you go back to that blog two or three times a week to see what new information has been added, have you signed up to that list, are you receiving that RSS feed so that you're notified every time that blogger makes a new post?
 
I'm willing to bet you don't. You might follow a few blogs regularly. I know I do. But I'll just bet that not one single blog you follow is a niche blog.   Take a look at the blogs that you do follow and then compare them to your niche blogs.
 
Before we go any further into this, let's define a niche blog so you can see what I'm talking about. If you have a niche blog, you're not just talking about a topic, like Dogs or Babies or Investing. You're talking about a little corner of the Dog market – like Dog Collars or Dog Food. You're talking about a small segment of the Baby topic – Baby Bedding, Baby Clothing. And you're talking about one area of investing – Investing in Property or the FTSE or what have you.
 
When you create the content for a niche blog you have to use specific keywords to make sure you show up in the search engines and attract exactly the visitors who will be interested in the product you're trying to sell. If you have a niche blog about dogs, you don't want to write an article about cats because you're not selling anything that has to do with cats. Therefore, if someone who had a cat came to your blog it would basically be wasted traffic. 
 
Now go back and look at those blogs that you read every day or so. You might read a celebrity gossip blog that talks about everything having to do with celebrities, and they feature videos and Red Carpet pictures. Or you might read a sports blog that covers all areas of sports like ESPN or Sky Sports. 
 
I happen to follow 5 different blogs, too, and not one of them is a niche blog. One is written by a waiter and he tells stories about what goes on in his restaurant. Another is written by a barmaid and she talks about her customers and her personal life. Two of the blogs I follow are written by teenagers – only thirteen years old and they are the most entertaining blogs I follow! The fifth is a Formula 1 blog (a personal passion).
 
None of these blogs is a niche blog. When you look at all of them you won't see them focusing on keywords or SEO or trying to sell you something. Their blog posts aren't full of facts and information about why you should use THIS acne medication. Their posts are just... interesting. Sometimes funny, too. They use videos and images and polls along with their written content to keep their blogs light and entertaining.
 
And each one of these blogs is making money. Three of them have been approached by publishers offering them book deals. The Waiter is on his second book now. I know of two women who write a fashion blog and not only do they have a book deal, they've also been syndicated and they get free tickets to all the major fashion shows – in New York and Paris! The teenage girl also gets free tickets to those same fashion shows, gets free clothes from the different designers, and has a contract with Target, while the teenage boy has a band and gets bookings from his blog. James Allen is a Formula 1 journalist and he has numerous books he uses his blog traffic to promote
 
The point I'm trying to make is that each of these blogs, that I read 3 or 4 times a week, was started with no intention of making money. They were all started as personal blogs, with no attention to keywords or SEO and if you look at them they all have hundreds, sometimes thousands of followers. And they all make money.
 
Now I'm not trying to tell you that niche blogging is a bad business model and that SEO and keywords should be tossed out the window. Just the opposite. Look at the blogs that you follow and ask yourself why you follow them? What keeps you coming back day after day?
 
When I need to find out information about Dog Collars, I go to my Google search box and I type in Dog Collars and go to the top two or three links until I get my information. If those sites happen to be niche blogs, I don't stick around and read them. All I want is information on dog collars. And typically I find niche blogs extremely boring. Because all the bloggers do is feed you information and statistics and then try to sell you something. There's nothing interesting to hold me on the page or to make me want to come back. 
 
But I do follow these other 5 blogs. And it's because of their content. It's informative, fun, entertaining, and engaging. These bloggers aren't trying to sell me anything and they don't care if I read their blog, they don't care if it shows up in the search engines, all they care about is expressing their opinions on the Internet and engaging the followers that they do have.
 
Now, here are my questions. Do you read niche blogs? How many niche blogs do you follow on a regular basis? If the answer is none, why not? And the even bigger question – would you come to your own niche blog every two or three days to see if there was anything new posted? And if no, why not? 
 
There's nothing that says a niche blog has to sound like an encyclopedia. And we all get so caught up in using keywords and SEO that after 4 or 5 posts we start to sound like robots. If you have a Dog blog, try this. Write a blog post about your own dog, some cute little story, and don't even think about keywords. But talk about YOU and YOUR dog so you can connect with your readers. And then after you've written your post, go back through and see where you can put in your keyword and make it sound natural. Better yet, write a blog post about a cat! You're readers will be so surprised they might just come back tomorrow to see what you're going to write about next.
 
And so what if you use cat as one of your keywords? A lot of dog owners also own cats. That doesn't mean you have to make every other post about cats. But don't be afraid to shake it up a little bit. One post out of 10 or 12 isn't going to hurt your rankings. But 70 or 80 posts that all sound like they were written by the same boring person certainly won't help. You need content that's compelling and engaging to not only attract your visitor and hold them on the page, but to keep them coming back, too.
 

If you forget about keywords, SEO and selling when you write yout posts they'll sound more like YOU and your readers are much more interested in hearing what YOU have to say than reading an encyclopedia.   Since the average reader has to return to your site at least 7 times before they'll buy your product, then you need to make it your business to write content that's compelling and engaging enough to make them want to return 7 times.   You not only have to be concerned about generating new traffic, but you have to keep the existing traffic engaged enough that they'll come back 7 times. Think about the blogs that you return to over and over again, determine why you keep going back, and try to add some of that into your niche blog. 

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posted by: Lee Gilbert
10th Mar 2010
All Work And No Play Makes Jacks Blog Very Boring

Is blogging becoming a job for you?  I'm sure you've heard the saying “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”.   That saying is just as true for Internet Marketers as it is for any other job.  After you've written your thirty or fortieth article about dog training, you become a little bored with the topic. 

You have to push yourself to continue and you can't find anything new and fresh to say.  And your visitors notice it, too.  Your blog has become lifeless and dull and it sounds like it was written by a robot.  All of a sudden blogging, and reading your blog, has become a job!  Wait a minute...blogging was supposed to be your ticket to freedom!   And reading a blog is supposed to be not only informative, but engaging and entertaining.
 

Nobody said that your blog had to be one continuous stream of informative data.  In fact, quite the contrary.  People come to the Internet looking for information, but they also want to be entertained.  If all they wanted were facts and data, they'd go to Wikipedia. 


Think back to your school days and your favourite teachers were those who made learning fun – you learned your ABCs by singing a little song, your English teacher let you dress up in costume while you were presenting your book report or your Maths teacher used roller coasters to demonstrate the laws of physics.  And in between your lessons you had recess or physical education class or some other form of activity to break up the monotony of sitting at a desk and listening to a constant drone of information.  


Take those lessons you learned back in school and apply them to your blog.  Break up that information stream with a little bit of fun every now and then to keep your visitors, and yourself, entertained and engaged.  That doesn't mean you have to learn how to be a stand-up comedian.  There are several ways you can add some excitement to your blog and let your visitors entertain themselves.


Polls – Bloggers have been using polls for years as a way to engage their readers and gather various statistics.  But a poll doesn't always have to be a boring fact gathering mission.  At the end of that informative post about how to choose the most nutritious dog food, include a poll asking your readers something silly like – What is your dog's favorite pizza topping?  Or, which does your dog prefer – Markies, Milk Bones or the postman's leg?
 

But then also go one step further and tell your visitors to vote and then tell you in the comments section why they made that choice.  People love to be asked for their opinion but they love it even more if you ask them to explain it.
 

If you're using Wordpress for your blogging platform it's very easy to set up any number of polls.  First, go to PollDaddy.com and sign up for a free account.  Then, from the plug-ins menu on your Wordpress dashboard, download the PollDaddy.com plug-in.  After you enter your PollDaddy.com account information, you can create polls right on your dashboard by clicking on the Polls radio button in the left sidebar.


Surveys – A poll is typically one question with a multiple choice of answers and your reader simply clicks a radio button.  But a survey is generally a number of questions with either multiple choice answers or spaces for the reader to fill in their own answer.  These are also great for finding out what your visitors like or dislike about your blog but again, they can be a great source of entertainment as well. 
 

SurveyMonkey.com offers a free version that will allow you to create and unlimited number of surveys with up to ten questions.  With the free version you'll only be able to see the first 100 responses but there is no limit to the number of people who can actually respond.  If you have a large readership, once you hit one hundred responses you can just go back in a duplicate the survey.
 

SurveyMonkey.com also allows you to collect responses via email.  What a great way to get those stragglers from your list to come back to your blog for another visit!


Treasure Hunts – A treasure hunt can be as easy or as difficult as you want to make it but think of all the things you could accomplish – while you're having fun. 
 

1) You could grow your list – In your blog post where you tell people about your exciting, upcoming treasure hunt, tell your visitors that they have to sign up for you email to participate and get their first clue.

2) Grow your Twitter Followers – Tell your visitors that in order to get the next clue they have to follow you on Twitter and send you a DM letting you know that they're following you.  (Be sure to check your DMs so you can Tweet them the next clue.)

3) Grow your Face Book Friends – Post a clue on your wall at Facebook.

4) Bookmarking – Tell them they have to bookmark one of your posts or send it out in a Tweet.


5) Send them searching for a clue in a previous post on your blog, send them to someone else's blog for a clue, send them to one of YOUR other blogs for a clue.  The possibilities are endless.


Be sure to send your treasure hunters to fun and interesting pages – the joke of the day or one of those funny videos you find on YouTube or even a page where they can get a free download of something fun, whether it's relevant to your blog or not. 
 

A Treasure Hunt is a little more work than a survey or a poll because you'll need to remember to set it up so that one clue either leads to the next or to an autoresponder where they can submit their information to get the next clue automatically delivered.   Just be sure you've created an easy to follow path from the beginning of the treasure hunt to the final prize at the end.
 

Have your treasure hunters end up at a contact page on your blog so they can email you with answers or just to let you know they made it to the page.  And make sure you have a prize for everyone – a free guide or a free sample of dog food or something fun.  It doesn't even have to be something that's relevant to your blog. 
 

Whether you decide to use a poll, a survey, a treasure hunt, or some other type of contest, make it fun for your visitors.  Never make it ALL about marketing.  And you certainly don't want them to have to end up buying something in order to participate.  You spend all your time selling and they spend all of theirs thinking about whether or not to buy.  Give yourself a break, and your visitors, too, and just have a little fun for a post or two.

And always remember to point your visitors to the comment section.  The whole point of these activities is to entertain your readers and get them engaged in the conversation.  Remember, all work and no play make's Jack's blog very boring

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posted by: Lee Gilbert
28th Feb 2010
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