Cara Tingkatkan CTR Adsense Dengan Perletakan Iklan Yang
Betul.
CTR Google Adsense yang tinggi pun boleh mendatangkan hasil yang
bagus kepada blogger. Cuma kena tahu caranya untuk meningkatkan CTR (Click
Through Rate) iklan demi mencapai sasaran tersebut.
Dalam artikel ringkas tentang Adsense ini, saya hanya menyentuh sedikit cara
meningkatkan CTR iaitu dengan menempatkan iklan yang betul dengan saiz yang
sesuai. Ini memang banyak digunapakai oleh blogger terkenal di luar sana untuk
meningkatkan CTR. Caranya pun tak salah. Kalau guna cara salah takut nanti
akaun anda di ban oleh pihak Google..
CTR (Click Through Rate) adalah peratusan jumlah klik iklan
dari jumlah tampilan/tayangan iklan. Maksudnya sebanyak mana pun iklan keluar,
berapa ramai yang klik? Gitulah lebih kurang maksudnya..
Cara Tingkatkan CTR Adsense Dengan Perletakan Iklan Yang
Tepat
Berikut ini adalah cadangan penempatan iklan yang tepat dan betul
supaya mendapatkan CTR yang tinggi:
Di bawah judul postingan ukuran 300×250 atau 336×280
Di tengah postingan ukuran Responsive, 300×250 atau 336×280
Di bawah postingan ukuran 300×250 atau 336×280
Di sidebar ukuran 300×600, 300×250, atau 160×600
Di header ukuran Responsive atau 728×90
Gunakan kombinasi iklan jenis gambar, text, dan link unit. Google AdSense
menyediakan 3 jenis iklan, iaitu iklan jenis gambar, text dan juga link
unit. Gunakan kombinasi ketiganya supaya iklan yang muncul lebih
bervariasi. Peluang untuk iklan anda di klik adalah lebih tinggi dan
sekaligus meningkatkan CTR Adsense anda.
Google Adsense Heatmap
Nota: Dicadangkan oleh Google (sini), Google
Adsense heatmap ini menunjukkan perletakan iklan terbaik untuk normal blog
layout. Warna oren-pekat menunjukkan perletakan terbaik manakala yang berwarna
cerah menunjukkan perletakkan iklan yang tidak digalakkan.
Let’s be honest; Jon isn’t exactly famous for pulling his punches. He’s in blistering form in this post which lays bare the ten reasons you’re not getting the traffic you think you deserve for your blog. Uncommon insight – check. Hard truths – check. Mindset realignment – check. Oh, and he says “fart” in the opening paragraph. What more could you want?
It’s hard to tell which is more obviously attention-seeking – the headline of this post by Philip Kleudgen or Mrs. Kanye West herself. But once the author’s won your attention, he quickly proves that there’s substance behind his showy tactics with this carefully curated monster list of quality traffic resources. While it’s true that sometimes less is more, other times, more is more. (I’m sure Kim would agree.)
You’ve heard of Canva, right? They’re the guys that made it possible for design-challenged, Photoshop-allergic writer types like me (and possibly you) to create attractive web graphics for our posts. Well, it turns out they know a thing or two about traffic. This post gives you an insider view on the valuable lessons the fine folks at Canva learned when they more than tripled their blog’s traffic in just two months. So, not just a pretty face then.
Here’s quick riddle. Question: When is a good traffic tactic not a good traffic tactic? Answer: When you use it at the wrong time. You see, though it’s far from obvious, different techniques are effective at different stages of your blog’s growth. (And some techniques are never really effective.) Jon’s post names and shames the techniques that hopeful beginners are likely to try but will almost never produce worthwhile results. You’d better check you’re not doing any of these.
Can I ask you a weird question? Is your content lazy? Because some content barely lifts a finger. It just sits there, attracting the occasional comment and idling while waiting for Google to send some traffic. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Republishing your content on a popular platform like Medium can make your content sweat from day one. Which means more traffic without creating more content. Cool, huh? Of course, you need to know how to get the best from the platform. Fortunately, it’s all covered in this guest post by Chelsea Baldwin.
In magic blogging fantasy land, where herds of smiling unicorns tap out perfect posts on golden keyboards while butterflies look on in awe, no content promotion is required whatsoever. Instead, all content effortlessly attracts exactly the amount of attention it deserves. But here in the real world, even great content needs promotion. This guest post by Andy Crestodina shows you how to promote the ever living crap out of your content, unicorns be damned.
In blogging (as in life) it’s not what you know that leads you to success, it’s who you know. Frustrating but true. But if persuading popular bloggers to promote your humble content to their humongous audiences seems like a crazy dream, it just means you haven’t read this guest post by Brian Dean’s yet. He distils the potentially terrifying process of outreach to a simple-to-follow strategy even the shyest blogger can follow.
It’s tough to hear, but some blogs don’t have a hope in hell of getting more traffic. You can work your ass off, create great content, promote it like crazy – basically doing all of the “right” things – and it doesn’t make the slightest difference. Why? Because at its core, it’s fundamentally flawed. Maybe it’s the topic. Maybe it’s the audience. Maybe it’s something else. But whatever it is, you’d rather find out sooner rather than later, right? Jon’s post reveals seven tests your blog must pass or be doomed to fail.
You know Quora, the Q&A site which invites you to tackle the questions you’ve been itching to answer (and a good number you haven’t)? Well, it can be a surprisingly good source of blog traffic – if you know what you’re doing. Fortunately, Imran Esmail is the perfect guide to becoming a traffic-savvy Quoran – after all, his answers have attracted over one million views on the platform. Use his strategy to divert traffic from this popular platform to your own blog.
So here’s the thing, when you’re starting out, building a following on social media often isn’t the best use of your time. But if you already have a following on, say, Twitter, you’d be crazy not to use it to generate traffic for your blog. And as a smart blogger, you’ll naturally want to focus on the tactics that bring you the most traffic. In that case, Brian Honigman has you covered in this post about exploiting the true traffic potential of the little blue bird.
What’s That? You Want to Learn Even More about Traffic?
So there it is. An entire education in traffic generation in just ten posts.
Read them all and you’ll soon know more about traffic than 99% of your blogging peers.
Read even a handful and you’ll be overflowing with ideas about how to attract traffic to your own blog.
And if you’re still hungry to learn more about traffic – maybe you’d like to discover the perfect traffic strategy for you – keep an eye on your inbox over the next couple of weeks.
We have a little something in the pipeline you might just be interested to see.
In the meantime try to not to lord your newly acquired traffic expertise over your fellow bloggers too much.
You secretly wish your blog was more than just a hobby.
But it’s costing you more than it earns. And that’s the hallmark of a hobby, not a serious endeavor.
Even if you have no desire to transform your blog into a business, you’d like it to at least pay its way, right?
Because blogging costs are many – web hosting, email lists, domain renewals, social media tools. They all cost money – and every month your blog comes up short.
Of course, you already know one popular option for monetizing your blog – you could create a product. But you just don’t feel ready yet. And besides, creating and promoting a product takes time.
What you need right now is a way to earn a little money from your blog without a ton of work.
Fortunately, a way exists that’s highly effective, requires little ramp-up time, and is used by some of the most respected names on the web.
Many bloggers have heard of it, but for a silly reason completely ignore it…
Why Most Bloggers Ignore the Easiest Way to Earn Money from Their Blogs
If you don’t have a product to sell, one of the best ways to earn money from your blog is to sell products that other people have created.
It’s usually referred to as affiliate marketing. Here’s how it works…
You introduce your readers to a product, and if they happen to make a purchase as a result of your introduction, you get a commission as a thank you.
It’s pretty simple, but you’d be hard pressed to find a topic that inspires as many strong opinions.
Some revere it; some despise it.
Some use it; some abuse it.
But you don’t consider it because hawking someone else’s products has always felt, well…
A little bit sleazy.
You see some other bloggers doing it, and you can’t help but feel they’re just in it to make some fast cash and couldn’t give a damn about their audiences.
But here’s the straight-up truth:
When done the right way, affiliate marketing is one of the most powerful ways to earn some money from your blog and actually help your audience.
The Living Proof That Affiliate Marketing Doesn’t Have to be Sleazy
Do some people abuse affiliate marketing for their own gain? People who will do – and say – anything for a quick sale? Sure.
But for as long as people having been selling things to other people, unscrupulous operators have always lurked on the fringes.
And you won’t have to look far to find such operators in the world of affiliate marketing.
That said, affiliate marketing is also used by some of the most ethical people you’ll find in blogging and online marketing.
People like Pat Flynn. John Lee Dumas. Even, yup, you already knew it – Jon Morrow, the man behind this very blog.
All three of these massively popular and respected bloggers promote affiliate products as a way of earning more revenue from their blogs.
How are they able to do so, while also maintaining an enviably close relationship with their audiences?
After interviewing both Pat Flynn and Jon Lee Dumas, and carefully dissecting one of Jon Morrow’s finely crafted promotional affiliate emails, I’ve put together five golden rules for earning money from affiliate marketing and staying squeaky clean.
Not only do these five rules give you an ethical blueprint for affiliate marketing, but they also provide a system for building long-term trust with your audience.
Rule #1: Start with the Right Question
Here’s the number one question most bloggers ask themselves when they start exploring affiliate marketing.
“What product should I promote?”
Unfortunately, it’s totally the wrong question. It will either:
Freeze you in your tracks, or
Lead you down a slow road to ruin.
The question you should ask instead is this: “What is my audience trying to accomplish?”
Answering that question will point you toward the products, tools, and resources that will help your audience accomplish what they desire.
If you don’t already know the answer, finding out is much simpler than it sounds. All you have to do is come right out and ask them.
The first time I ever built an email list, I added a simple P.S. to the auto-response email they received right after signing up:
P.S. I’d love to hear more about you and your business! What do you do, and how can I help? Hit “Reply” to this email and let’s chat. Your response will go to my personal inbox instead of a robot.
Simple, conversational – and a surprisingly large percentage of people took the time to write back and tell me exactly what they needed help with. You can incorporate this type of P.S. into any email you send to your list, or you can even send them a dedicated email.
Once you understand the needs your audience has, ask yourself: “What products will help them achieve that?”
Rule #2: Never Promote a Product You Don’t Use
One of the worst dinner parties I’ve ever been to centered around a pork belly dish the host had never tried making before.
Rather than going with a recipe he loved and had cooked before, he went with something brand new from a random blog he’d only just found.
The party itself wasn’t bad, but the food most definitely was. Fortunately, everyone was able to laugh about it.
Offering a product to your audience sight unseen, risks a similar catastrophe. And your readers might not be as forgiving as those dinner party guests.
Think about it – would you recommend to a friend a restaurant you’ve never visited? Would you put your in-laws up in a hotel in a strange part of town you don’t know? (Well, depending on your in-laws, maybe you would! But you get the picture.)
Just as you normally wouldn’t do those things, you should never promote a product you haven’t used.
As Pat Flynn says, “Before deciding to actually promote it as an affiliate, it’s always best to use that product first so you can understand the user experience that THEIR PRODUCT will provide for YOUR AUDIENCE. You have to understand what that’s like because the trust that you have with your audience is the most important thing in the world.”
Using a product that you recommend also opens the door for a better way to promote that product, according to John Lee Dumas:
The most effective way to promote affiliate products is to have genuine success USING the affiliate products. Recently, I was the number 2 affiliate for the launch of Easy Webinar. The reason I was able to have such a successful launch is because my audience saw me using their platform to run streaming webinars 7 days a week and report the results via our income reports. Fire Nation trusts us and the results we have, and it turned out to be a total win win!
The results you’ve personally achieved with a product speak louder than anything else and can save you from having to be too “salesy” with your audience.
At LeadPages, we’ve found that the best affiliates are always the ones who truly love using the product and believe in its value, which is one of the reasons why the affiliate program is exclusive to customers.
No sales pitch in the world can outperform a story of personal success from a person the audience trusts.
Rule #3: Pick a Product That Builds Their Trust
Many bloggers choose a product based on the commission structure – how much it pays, whether it’s recurring, etc.
It might sound like greed, but more likely whenever they ask their readers to buy something, they feel like they’re asking for a favor. And since you can’t ask favors too often, they figure they might as well make as much money as they can when they do.
But that’s totally the wrong way to look at it. Promoting a product is not a withdrawal from the “trust bank.” It’s a deposit – if you choose the right product.
According to Pat Flynn, commission levels shouldn’t factor into the decision you make to promote a product as an affiliate:
It’s not about the commission… it’s whether or not that product will completely help your target audience. You’ll have more click-throughs, more conversions, and more trust with your audience.
Pat’s answer hints at an often-overlooked benefit of making a successful affiliate sale – if your audience buys the product through you and has a great experience with the product, their purchasing trust in you increases.
To put it simply, they’ll more likely buy from you in the future, whether you’re recommending another affiliate product or launching your own.
And even if they don’t buy from you again, you’ll have strengthened the relationship by introducing them to a product they love.
So when analyzing affiliate opportunities, consider more than just the amount you’ll make off each sale. Consider how many outstanding experiences you can create and, ultimately, how much trust you can build.
If you get a sizeable commission – great. If the commissions are recurring – even better. But consider these details bonuses or cherries on top rather than key factors that guide your decision-making.
Rule #4: Promote Valuable Free Content, Not the Product
Even when a product is outstanding and you’ve achieved great results with it, directly asking your audience to purchase it can sometimes be daunting.
Luckily, many product creators also develop high-value free resources for you to promote instead – resources that ultimately tie into an offer to buy one of their products.
Usually, they work like this:
You send your audience (via a unique link) to a free resource created by a second party that will teach them something valuable (a free video course, for example).
After going through the free resource, they will be sent an offer to purchase a more expansive, related product.
If they purchase that product, you receive a commission.
Recently, John Lee Dumas made his affiliates very happy by offering exactly this type of free resource. As he said:
It may seem to go against the grain, but free is proving to be incredibly valuable for our affiliates in 2015. With the launch of FreePodcastCourse.com and TheWebinarCourse.com, our affilates are now able to offer their audience a completely free and very valuable product that doesn’t require an intial investment. Both of the courses are great funnels into our paid communities, but only after delivering massive value.
If you’ve been following Boost Blog Traffic for a while, you’ve even occasionally seen these offers for yourself.
Back in January 2015, Jon Morrow sent out an email recommending a new free video series from Danny Iny of Firepole Marketing about building online courses.
The video series had tons of value for anyone interested in building a product, but it also acted as an on-ramp for people to register an interest in Danny’s paid product.
Jon’s email to his list is an excellent example of how to promote this kind of offer in a way that is 100% transparent and keeps your audience’s best interests in mind.
So let’s take a look at a few of the finer points…
First, Jon introduced Danny as one of the best online course experts he knows:
Danny has made almost as much money as me from online courses. And to be frank, I’m intensely jealous of his Superman T-shirt (watch the videos, and you’ll see what I mean).
What’s more, he’s a smart dude, a great teacher, and a standup guy. I have absolutely zero problem recommending him.
In lieu of me, he’s the absolute best guy you can go to for this information. Maybe the only guy.
So, go watch the videos.
This segment of the email does something very important – it tells Jon’s audience, “I know Danny. I trust Danny. He will add value to what you do.”
Jon is letting us know that he follows and trusts Danny’s advice, and we can too. In a sense, Danny is the product, and Jon’s recommendation is based on his personal experience with Danny.
Next, and perhaps most importantly, Jon is 100% transparent in acting as an affiliate for the course that will be coming out:
To be totally transparent, I’m also partnering with Danny, so if you buy anything, it benefits me. That’s just another sign of how much I believe in him, though. I only partner with the best of the best.
This leaves no questions in the audience’s minds about Jon’s motivation for promoting the course. He takes control of the conversation and let’s them know that, yes, he will make some money if they buy, but that’s not his primary motivation for sharing the series with them.
Last but not least, Jon signs off with a sentence that takes any remaining pressure off:
If you’re interested, take a look at the free videos and then decide for yourself. And if not, I’ll be back with another great blog post for you shortly.
This leaves the decision entirely in the reader’s hands, with no pushiness. It’s the opposite of that word that makes so many bloggers cringe: salesy.
In fact, Jon’s subtly saying: “Whether you buy Danny’s product or not, it’s not going to affect your relationship with me.”
So if you’re looking for a way to ease into promoting affiliate offers, take a cue from Jon and find out if the product you’d like to sell as an affiliate has relevant free resources you can promote instead.
Rule #5: Create Your Own Collateral
Of course, promoting free resources isn’t the only way to promote affiliate products without being salesy.
Let’s take Pat Flynn as an example. He’s been wildly successful promoting paid products on his website, SmartPassiveIncome.com.
In fact, a quick look at his latest income report shows that Pat made just under $60,000 in affiliate earnings during February 2015. The month before that he made over $70,000.
If you didn’t know Pat, you’d probably think he’d have to be pushing other people’s products pretty damn hard to make that kind of money. Maybe even engaging in a few unscrupulous tactics to squeeze every last dollar.
And yet Pat is widely considered one of the most ethical bloggers out there – he’d be the last person to shove a sales pitch down your throat. So how in the world is he earning so much affiliate income month after month?
By providing his own content, not sales pitches. As he puts it:
Don’t just talk about [the product] a little bit, include a call to action, and then a link. Get into the insides of that product, and show people what it’s like. Like those popular unboxing videos on YouTube, share every part of it and how to use it, what’s cool about it, what’s not cool about it, and let these potential customers understand what they’re going to get when they get it.
Creating walk-through YouTube videos which provide massive value on their own even without a hard sell at the end always perform best for me. You’re giving a tutorial on a hot topic, and you just happen to be using that product to either make things easier or faster, or become the solution they need.
For example, the $37,650 in commissions he earned from Bluehost.com (check out his income report) came from a video he put together called “How to Create a Blog in Less Than 4 Minutes.” In the video, he doesn’t just pitch Bluehost; he teaches viewers how to do something valuable (create a blog) and shows off a product that makes it easier (Bluehost).
Another effective strategy is to create a “Resources” page on your website so visitors can see the tools you personally use and recommend. As a matter of fact, Boost Blog Traffic implements this strategy in the form of a “Tools We Recommend” post.
To give another example, networking expert and BBT contributor John Corcoran wrote a post on his blog featuring this video showing how to use the relationship management tool Contactually to handle email follow-ups:
Not only is the video genuinely useful, but it subtly signposts the fact that this is a tool John personally uses. And under the video there’s a clearly marked affiliate link to use if readers do want to find out more.
Regardless of the content format you choose to go with, the formula is simple:
If you don’t already know, learn how to successfully accomplish that thing.
Give your audience a piece of content that takes them step-by-step through accomplishing that thing, and show them the products you use to do it.
Additionally, if you really want to go above and beyond (and you should), Pat Flynn recommends offering support for the products you recommend:
Offer support. Ask for questions. Yes, you’d need to know the product well in order to do that (remember, I said treat it as if it were your own, so would you sell something of your own you didn’t know much about?), but those people who will take you up on that offer are the ones who are on the fence, and you and your reply could be the little nudge they need to feel secure and comfortable with their purchase.
It’s Time Your Blog Became More Than Just a Hobby
Let’s face it.
It’s about time your blog stopped freeloading and started paying its way.
And if you don’t have your own product to offer, affiliate products are the perfect solution.
But promoting them isn’t about pushy sales pitches and sky-high commissions.
It’s about understanding what your readers need.
It’s about finding products that can help them get it.
And it’s about supporting them so they can reach their goals.
When you do it right, you’ll further enhance the trust you’re building with your blog.
So let’s shift your blog from being just a hobby to something a little more serious.
Go out and find a product your readers will genuinely love. And they’ll love you a little more too.
You read the headline on this post and thought, “Cool!” Then a little voice in your head whispered something like, “Why do I need another post on all the cool tools I don’t have time to use?”
That is the key, isn’t it? Time. Having the time to set up, play with and truly put to work all the amazing tools that will rocket your blog into the heavens.
And having time to write. And time to follow other bloggers. And time to network on social media.
After your blog is set up, after that technical part is over, every new blogger is fundamentally the same. You’re full of excitement and plans. You have a bright, shiny new blog, bursting with potential and ideas.
And zero readers.
Time then becomes the key factor that separates new bloggers into three dramatically different kinds of bloggers. That’s why all the standard advice about the tools you need is confusing. Tools don’t make the blogger. Time does.
Because it’s how much time you can spend studying the top bloggers in your niche, improving your writing and cultivating relationships with readers and influencers that determines how fast your blog will grow. And how fast your blog grows determines the tools you need.
Tools are essential, but time is the magic elixir.
Again, bloggers span a wide spectrum, but fall into three distinct groups. Read the following descriptions, and then jump to each group’s tool section to discover what you need.
The Minimalist Blogger
You have ideas you want to share but you may not be too sure about this blogging thing. You’re willing to dip your toe in the water, because it seems like it could work, but the tech part is still a challenge. You don’t need the fancy tools.
Most of all, you don’t want to spend a lot of time on it yet, or you don’t have a lot of extra time in your life right now. Maybe you just want to write and follow others in your niche. Whether your topic is a passion, a hobby or related to what you do for a living, a blog is a side project that you can give no more than 10 hours per week, if that.
The Serious and Committed Blogger
You’ve gotten your feet wet in blogging, and you’re committed to what you’re doing. You want to build a business from your blog, but your income and readership are not big enough for you to quit your job. You’re squeezing out as much time as you can, maybe 10 to 20 hours every week, and you need tools that won’t suck up much time but will deliver a big impact.
The Entrepreneur Blogger
You look at blogging differently than everyone else:
You’re not running a blog; you’re operating a business. Blogging is a promotion strategy, but it’s not an end in itself.
Because you’re doing this more or less full time, you have significantly more time to spend experimenting with tools that others can’t.
Because this is your business, you’re willing to invest money in it, so the higher price tags on the more sophisticated services don’t put you off – IF they make sense for growing the business and saving you time and effort that can be used better elsewhere.
The Blogger’s Tool List
We’re listing all tools we’re familiar with and use. Many of the links that follow are affiliate links, for which we’ll earn a small commission if you choose to buy (at no additional cost to you.) Expect additions and changes as we find better tools. We’ll also be adding sections on courses and books that will help you in your blogging business.
We’ve organized it into four sections to match where you’re at as a blogger.
Setting Up Your Blog: This is the tech list. If you’re thinking about starting a blog go here first to find out what you need.
NameCheap is our favorite cheap domain registrar. There’s no good reason to pay more. We recommend you don’t purchase your domain name through your web hosting company either, because if you decide to switch web hosts later, which is likely, it can be more complicated.
HOW TO CHOOSE A WEB HOST
The standard advice to go with a large web hosting company for long-term stability is sound. Small web hosting companies still disappear without warning, a terrifying situation. You will also require different levels of bandwidth and service as your blog grows.
For minimalist to serious bloggers, we recommend SiteGround, which offers several low-priced plans for new and small blogs. You can purchase shared hosting for as low as $3.95 per month and the support is excellent.
WHY YOU MUST START WITH WORDPRESS
We’re adamant on this tool: only WordPress. Forget Blogger, Weebly and all the other free amateur platforms if you want people to take your blog seriously. WordPress has become the industry standard.
Most large web hosts already have WordPress available for installation from within your hosting account. But you can do it yourself by downloading it from http://wordpress.org/. It’s customizable to support a range of functions as your blog grows and you can set up a good-looking blog without knowing how to code.
HOW TO GET A GREAT WORDPRESS DESIGN FOR YOUR BLOG
WordPress provides the behind-the-scenes guts of your blog. A “theme” provides the template and design. You can pay a web designer or you can buy a customizable WordPress theme. A lot of graphic designers will get angry at us for saying this, but don’t spend money for graphic design at this point. As you will see in a minute, premium WordPress themes can be very attractive by themselves and have robust code, making them more than enough for your beginning needs.
While you can get your blog started on the built-in WordPress theme, your blog will immediately look more professional with a premium theme. We don’t recommend you use a free theme. The differences between free and premium themes are in the backend: While both may look good to visitors, free themes don’t come with a technical support desk and are almost always ignored by their developers when they move onto other projects, leaving you with an outdated theme that will become more vulnerable to hackers and more prone to break over time.
Premium themes are updated regularly to keep pace with WordPress upgrades and new trends. Plus, they maintain support desks that will help you with setup, problems, customization, upgrades and maintenance.
We use themes from ElegantThemes for several sites. It doesn’t take much effort to customize an Elegant theme. For $39 a year you have access to all 86 themes plus customer support. Developer pricing and a lifetime one-time fee are available.
StudioPress is the leader in premium WordPress themes. Built on the Genesis WordPress platform, StudioPress is used by many top social media bloggers. Although pricier than Elegant Themes, you can buy Genesis plus an individual theme or the entire theme package.
A BASIC SET OF WORDPRESS PLUGINS
With plugins, more is not always better and in fact more can slow your site down or cause code conflicts. You only need a few basic plugins to add enhanced functionality for social media sharing, email capture, analytics and site performance.
Social sharing: Dozens of social sharing plugins are available for WordPress. We like the free Digg Digg plugin because it floats on the side of the screen and follows the reader up or down the page as they read, so it’s always visible.
Popups: We didn’t like the aggressive way popup boxes take the reader’s screen hostage, so we designed a better one – Unpop, a polite popup that slides up the screen, doesn’t annoy the reader and goes away when your reader tells it to. You can use it to get email subscribers, likes for your Facebook page and register readers for a webinar. Try it for 30 days free at GetUnpop.
Analytics: Be sure to get some form of tracking or analytics code on your blog from the start. Google Analytics is free and easy to install. Later as your traffic increases you may want to invest in a paid analytics program but for the short- and mid-term Google Analytics will provide enough data to make your head spin.
Site performance: We recommend installing WPSuperCache to maximize the speed at which your blog’s pages load for a visitor. Consider it fine-tuning for your blog’s engine; knowing the technical details at this point won’t make you a better blogger but your blog won’t annoy your visitors.
SEO: The degree of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) you need to implement generates intense debate among bloggers. For beginners, we say forget about it. Seriously. Other than creating the very basic metadata so your posts show up correctly in a Google search, your time is better spent writing great content and promoting it.
Many WordPress themes, like StudioPress, have SEO built in that makes the basic set up quick and painless. Don’t overthink this part.
WHERE TO FIND IMAGES AND PHOTOS
Everyone has their favorite stock photo site, and ours is Bigstockphoto. The prices are inexpensive for small photos, which are the right size and resolution for blog post images. Searching for appropriate images to illustrate a blog post can become a huge time suck, so limit yourself to one or two stock sites.
HOW TO ESTABLISH AN EMAIL LIST
Building your email list should be your primary focus as a blogger from the day you start. Relying on RSS or other email collection programs to maintain your list is foolish. You should aim to collect emails from Day One, or earlier.
We recommend you start with the free version of MailChimp. It has a clean, easy-to-use dashboard and you can not only create multiple lists but also create segments of lists as well. One key thing you can’t do with the free version is create a series of autoresponder emails that will be sent out automatically when a visitor signs up to your list.
You’ll need to upgrade to either a paid MailChimp account or another paid email marketing provider when your blog reaches the point where you’re offering a free email class that requires an autoresponder.
The Minimalist Blogger
SOCIAL MEDIA LISTENING TOOLS
Feedly is a free replacement for Google Reader that you can use for tracking posts from the blogs you’re following in your niche. Set it up with folders by topic or by size or by influence, whatever works best for you.
The free version of Hootsuite is more than enough at this stage to monitor different social media networks in one place as you follow the top bloggers and cool kids in your niche.
ADD CUSTOM EMAIL SIGN UP BOXES
The free version of MailChimp will still be adequate at this point. As you begin guest posting, you might consider a premium plugin like Optin Skin to add custom email sign up boxes for the readers who visit your site.
The Serious and Committed Blogger
UPGRADE YOUR EMAIL PROVIDER TO CREATE A FREE EMAIL COURSE
You are probably ready to develop a simple email autoresponder course on your topic. For that, you’ll need to upgrade from the free MailChimp account to either a paid MailChimp account or one of those listed below. All of these email providers provide pretty much the same service and are competitively priced. Pick the one you like the best or find easiest to use during a free trial period.
Now that you’ve whetted your subscribers’ appetites with your free email course, offer an audio course for your first paid product. It’s quick to produce, technically easier to manage and one of the best ways to gauge if you’re hitting the target without a lot of time invested in production. InstantTeleseminar is the most reliable provider we’ve found. It records automatically and customers can join your teleconference calls via phone, Skype or the Internet.
ADD A SHOPPING CART
You’re wise to keep it simple at this point, until you have multiple products or build an affiliate network. Your best choices are PayPal, eJunkie and Clickbank. Each provides a slightly different set of features, so compare them to find your best fit.
ADD LANDING PAGES TO YOUR BLOG
Offering products or requiring registration for classes, teleconference calls or webinars requires separate landing pages to make the experience seamless for your customers. We recommend OptimizePress for building simple landing pages.
SCHEDULE SOCIAL MEDIA SHARING
You should know by now where your peeps hang out on social media, so use a freeBuffer account to schedule links to useful and relevant content from other bloggers, quotes, tips and links to your guest posts and blog posts.
TWEAK YOUR WORDPRESS THEME
As you build a reader and subscriber base and tweak your blog angle, you may find your theme doesn’t have the look or features you need. Rather than paying big bucks to have someone design a brand new theme, which can create unwanted technical problems while you’re beginning to make money, search out freelance web designers on Odesk or99Designs for customizing your current theme.
You can find a lot of talent on Odesk if you take the time to search carefully, using the competency scores and feedback from previous clients as gauges. 99Designs uses a contest model rather than a fee per hour model. You determine what you’re willing to pay and the design requirements. Designers who are interested respond with samples for you to choose from and you choose the winner.
OPTIMIZE YOUR BLOG FOR SEO
You should have gained enough traffic, page views and links for Google to notice your blog consistently by now. We recommend the Yoast SEO plugin to optimize the content on your site.
BACK UP YOUR SITE
Don’t tempt fate. Install a backup plugin. We use BackWPup and back up to our server, but you can back up to a DropBox or Amazon S3 account automatically.
The Entrepreneur Blogger
UPGRADE YOUR WEBHOSTING
As your traffic grows you’ll want to upgrade your plan and may consider moving to your own server, which you can do with SiteGround or web hosts dedicated to blogging and WordPress, such as WPEngineand Synthesis at Copyblogger Media. Both are expensive, but the peace of mind and higher-level customer support for a large site that hosts your business, community and products are worth it.
UPGRADE YOUR SITE PROTECTION
As your blog gains traffic and becomes known, expect the hack attacks. It’s not pretty and can destroy overnight the goodwill you earned with your readers and subscribers. Sucuricleaned up the nasties when BBT was hacked last year, and continues to keep them at bay. It’s expensive, but not as expensive as losing hundreds of subscribers it took months to win over.
CHOOSE EMAIL MARKETING AND SHOPPING CARTS BASED ON SALES
Your growing traffic, subscriber and customer base demand closer attention and more integration. You have several choices.
Under $10,000 in sales
Expect to outgrow PayPal, eJunkie or Clickbank soon and begin researching other options.
Up to $30,000 in sales
Open a business bank account if you haven’t already. Most accountants and bookkeepers would probably advise you to do it earlier.
Over $30,000 in sales
Open a merchant account either through PowerPay or get a Stripe account, an alternative to a merchant account. You will need either one to have a credit card processor.
Up to $100,000 in sales
Keep your paid email marketing provider and add a shopping cart: We recommendUltraCart. It offers the complete range of shopping cart services, such as order pages and affiliate management, and integrates with all the leading email providers.
Over $100,000 in sales
Upgrade to an integrated email, shopping cart and customer relationship management (CRM) system such as Ontraport (formerly OAP). The difference with an integrated provider is automation – many of the email, list segmentation and billing functions can be automated and integrated with the contact profile. You can also track and group clients and contacts in different ways.
LANDING PAGES
LeadPages offers dozens of slick page designs for sales, event registration and other types of landing pages plus easy split testing. It’s easy to set up and customize.
TWEAK YOUR WEB AND GRAPHIC DESIGN
Your blog-based business has finally reached a point where it could benefit from a custom design. Use Dribbble and Behance to find a really good designer.
EXPAND INTO VIDEO AND AUDIO TOOLS
We continually get questions about how Jon creates his videos. The short answer – he’s a geek. The longer answer includes PowerPoint. Seriously. Jon uses advanced PowerPoint animation techniques you can learn from Slideology. He does a screen recording of the presentation in PowerPoint, then imports it into Camtasia, where he records the slideshow with audio, and then renders it as an MP4. On a Mac, you can use the same animation with Keynote and ScreenFlow.
If you like the slides in our webinars, we get the templates from Graphic River.
If you don’t have that much geekiness, you can find a video producer on ODesk or Elancethat knows advanced presentation techniques.
CONSIDER ADDING A MEMBERSHIP SITE
After you’ve grown a substantial list, it may be time to open the doors to a private membership site to offer exclusive products and information. You need several elements to create that private community.
Wishlist Member is our choice for managing your membership. It integrates seamlessly with WordPress and the expanding list of plugins allow you to customize your members’ experience. It’s a bit more expensive than other options, but versatile.
Most membership sites offer a forum for members to interact. We use Simple:Press in the GuestBlogging Apprenticeship Program, which is a large and active forum. The plugin is still free but the excellent customer support is now fee-based.
Consider a subscription to GoToWebinar. The most expensive option, it’s the most reliable despite its occasional glitches.
TAKE A LOOK AT IN-DEPTH ANALYTICS
Up to $100,000 in sales
Tools like CrazyEgg or VisualWebsiteOptimizer make sense for tracking visitor behavior on your landing pages (but not your entire blog). Moz or Raven Tools are also helpful for tracking your traffic from search engines and social media.
Over $100,000 in sales
You have several ultra-sophisticated, pricey options for data-tracking and analysis: Look at Kissmetrics, MixPanel. You’ll probably need a developer to set up these tools and handle campaigns. At this stage, small tweaks in conversion can equal significant gains, so don’t get lost in analysis paralysis.
ADVANCED SOCIAL MEDIA TACTICS
Because your social media following has likely reached a critical mass that now grows organically, reaching out to individual influencers in your niche is a more profitable use of your time. A tool like BuzzStream efficiently helps you search and track your interactions with bloggers, journalists and other people you want to keep your eye on.
ADVANCED EMAIL MARKETING TACTICS
Customer IO, which sends emails triggered by user behavior, can help you refine your customer marketing and engagement and increase conversions.
SCALABLE AFFILIATE SOFTWARE
Depending on your particular product mix, you may need to compare affiliate services.IDevAffiliate is popular and robust affiliate tracking software that will scale as you grow.
We’re not finished yet…
This resource guide will evolve, as our business grows, as we require different tools and as new tools are introduced. We’ll add a tab at the top of the blog so you can find this guide easily when you come back, and we will keep you posted on the changes.
…and neither are you!
Wherever you’re at with your blog, you now have the all tools you need to take it to the next level. We’ve done the research and explored all the dead ends – so you don’t have to. Whether you have 10 hours, 20 hours, or 60+ hours a week to work on your blog, using the right tools will help you fully exploit the time you have.
So let’s “tool up” and get your blog ready for prime time.
If you have a question regarding a particular tool, post it in the comments below. We’ll do our best to help you.
