3 Simple Steps to Pull in Crazy Cash Using Blogs

[Shannon Herod]

Hello fellow warriors.

I have been fortunate enough to be able to go full-time in Internet marketing. One of the reasons I was able to do that is because of this forum. This forum truly is the number one Internet marketing guru. So, as a thank you I would like to reveal three key components to a successful blog network.

What I'm about to reveal below is something you can take to the bank. If you focus on these three strategies to build a blog network, you will have a profitable blog network in my opinion. It has worked for me so there is no doubt it can work for you.

So, what is a profitable blog network? Well, simply it is a blog network that brings in a ton of cash. It is a network that brings in a ton of opt in subscribers. These three components I'm about to list below will help you build a list, and build a revenue stream. But, this is something you cannot do without work. So, if you do not want to work please do not attempt this.

But, if you are willing to put the work into a blog network, this can be a very profitable venture for you. But it all depends on what you do. So, it is up to you to go out there and do it. Also, I am not making any income guarantees in this post. Use of the information in this post at your own risk. (Just a little disclaimer)

So, let's get started. These three components to a successful blog network are going to be content, promotion, and conversion. If you can get these three things right you can destroy it when it comes to building a profitable opt in list and doing affiliate marketing.

So, let's get into the meat and potatoes...

Content

Okay, so this sounds very obvious. Unfortunately most people get this totally wrong. You see, you are given advice every day to go out and buy cheap articles. It doesn't matter if the articles are of great quality, only if they are readable. This is probably the worst advice I've ever heard. People that put this type of content on their blogs are always fighting an uphill battle.

Let me explain... good content does a lot more than just a draw in the search engines. Good content allows you to easily and effortlessly build your blog content and blog traffic on autopilot. How?

Well, when you have great content on your blog it is natural for other blogs to start linking to you. This alone will bring in traffic. Plus, this will allow you to start moving up in the search engines.

Plus, people will comment on great content. They want to feel like a part of the community. They want to give back. They want to say thank you. So, people usually comment on great content. Now, if you don't have the traffic you will not get the comments. But, if you have the traffic and great content you will start seeing some comments.

This might not seem like a big deal to you but it is huge. Let me explain. I get hundreds of visitors to my blogs from comments alone. Why? Well, the search engines love fresh content. So, if tons of people are commenting on your blog they are constantly getting that fresh content. Plus, they are getting new keywords and keyword phrases to index. This works really well. Plus, you will start seeing traffic from people names. I have not actually tracked how well that traffic converts, but you will start seeing it.

So, content is just not for the search engines. It is for the long-term success of your blog. The better your content the more productive your blog will be.

Promotion

Unfortunately, you cannot rely on just your content and the search engines. You need to put in a little promotion in order to promote your blog network. So, the first thing you need to do is think about a linking strategy. You want to be able to interlink all of your blogs in that blog network. So, if you are building a blog network around natural health, you will start to link all of your natural health blogs together. You want to make these blogs different types of natural health, all relating back to natural health. This will really give your site a boost. But, you need to be careful and not over link.

This will throw up some red flags in the search engines. So, I like to link in a loop. I basically do not link every single blog to every single blog. I will link the blogs into a circle. I hope that makes sense.

Next, submit articles. Okay, this sounds like an obvious one to. But, here's the trick. What I do is rewrite the articles that are on my blogs. Note I did not say I put the articles in spinners. I said I rewrite them. Once the articles are rewritten, I will then submit them to the article directories. But, I will not link to the main page of the blog. I will link back to the actual blog post the article is rewritten from.

What this does is allow me to build inbound links to internal pages. This not only will help drive those long tail keywords up to the top of the search engines, but it will also help drive my main keywords to the top also.

There are many other ways you can promote your blog, but if you use this linking strategy you'll start to see great results.

Conversions

If your site is not converting and you are getting a ton of readers... what's the point? The reason why we are building a blog network is to make money. We want to educate and inform at the same time, but our main focus is to make money.

In my opinion, the best way to make money is by building an opt in list. So, my blogs main purpose is to drive traffic to my opt in list. There are three ways I do this.

The first way is by using a Popover. This popover will give people the option to sign up to my newsletter for a free report.

If they decline they are then taken to my blog. Next, they will see a opt in form on the right hand side of the blog. I put this in the sidebar. Now, if you can get this in the right-hand side of the header that is much better. It will convert better. But, that is hard to do unless you are a graphical and Web design guru. Which, I am not.

Next, underneath every single post is an opt in box. Now, if you go to my main page you will not see the opt in boxes. But if you click on the single post you will see it. The reason I did this is because I do not want my main page to look like a opt in crazy man's page. So, what I did was put the opt in box at the end of each single post.

So, if you click on a post and go to the actual post page at the end of the post you will see the opt in box.

The way I did this is put the code in the bottom of the singlepost.php file. You can do this by going into the template editor inside your WordPress admin panel

Unfortunately, I do not have the space or the time to show you exactly how to do that in this post, but it's not that hard.

You can see how I tried to get options by going to my Internet marketing blog... Making Money on the Internet - Internet Marketing Strategies

Next, once I have them on my list I set up an autoresponder that sends them affiliate offers. Now, these do not have to be actual affiliate products. They can be CPA offers and things of that nature. I try to stay away from things that are going to give me pennies for clicks. I'd much rather send people to where I can make $30, $40 $50 or more.

If I am using CPA offers I will usually send them to an offer that gives me money for an action. That way they do not need to buy, all they need to do is take an action like give them their e-mail address or zip code.

This seems to work well.

Okay, I think that gives you enough material to start working on. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask them below.

Regards,

Shannon Herod

[clint48]

Thank you Shannon, incredible information, thank you for being so generous and taking the time to share.

Clint

[jdmitchell]

Thank you for this Shannon. MUCH appreciated man.

Quick question. Why do you re write each article you post on your blog before you submit to the directories?

[George Wright]

Hi Shannon,

Thank you very much for taking the time to break this down. Sounds like a plan!

I've always liked the $$s per clikc rather than the pennies. I would think these could be your own other products also.

George Wright

[Shannon Herod]

Quick question. Why do you re write each article you post on your blog before you submit to the directories?

I want the content on my blog to be 100% unique. You can start a huge debate about the dup content penalty, but hopefully we do not need to go there again.

Basically I do not care about duplicate content as long as it is not on my blog. Once the article is rewritten I then submit to different directories with that same article.

Shannon

[mookinman]

Some very useful tips there Shannon, thanks for sharing. I love the optin form on your blog.

Dave

[alertinvestor]

Great information Shannon...

And I agree, this forum is the GURU when it comes to Internet marketing.

[Shannon Herod]

I've always liked the $ per clikc rather than the pennies. I would think these could be your own other products also.

Hey George,

Thank you for pointing that out. If you have your own product this is a great way to dive sales to that product.

Shannon

[Ben_Curtis]

This is the first time I've heard of the wisdom for putting an optin on each blog post. Kind of an invitation after you've enjoyed the info on the post, and probably ignored once you've opted-in, so it does not feel annoying.
Good job. Thanks for the food for thought!

[faridaziz]

Nice info Shannon.

I visited your blog and I could see that
you have filled it with lots of content...

BTW, I also saw that you insert the
"Firepow" banner between each post
on your front page.

I personally think that it's a nice effort
to monetize your blog.

The only weakness about the banner is
that you do not apply the "target"_blank" tag
so that every time some one clicks on it,
the page will open on a new window.

What do you think?

[jazzyjeff]

Shannon,

How big is your blog network? The reason I ask this question is because the it could cost you a lot of money for each separate domain name right? But I'm sure it doesn't matter since you make a whole bunch of money now? It could seem rather expensive in the beginning buying up domain names when no money is coming.

Jeff

[melanied]

What a great step by step! This is one for the "printed out" binder.

[SaSeoPete]

Great info! Thanks very much. I am actually just getting started on a blog network in the weight loss industry. I am going to build a list. I am going to give this a good shot, thanks!

[Spike SpiegelIM]

Good Stuff Shannon, I do blog myself and I'm sure this will come in handy. Thank you for sharing this..

[Shannon Herod]

Originally Posted by jazzyjeff

Shannon,

How big is your blog network? The reason I ask this question is because the it could cost you a lot of money for each separate domain name right? But I'm sure it doesn't matter since you make a whole bunch of money now? It could seem rather expensive in the beginning buying up domain names when no money is coming.

Jeff

The size of your network will vary from niche to niche. The determining factor is going to be on how many good money keywords there are available. If you do not know how to find good money keywords, check out the Bum Marketing Method. It is free and gives you a good idea of what to look for.

So, I guess the answer is it depends on the niche. I personally do not have a blog network with hundreds of blogs. I do not see the point and think it would be overwehming.

Instead work on Building topic targeted blogs within your nice and target the longtail with your posts. This will strengthen your entire network, In my opinion.

Shannon

[Shannon Herod]

Originally Posted by melanied

What a great step by step! This is one for the "printed out" binder.

Thank you very much. I am excited I put something out that is printer worthy. You should check out Elmer's WF Thread Downloader. It makes saving and printing out posts a breeze.


Shannon

[Steve Porcaro]

Very nice Shannon,

Totally agree content is king you need to keep adding great content to get great results. Even if you are re-writing the content when having no new material to work with.

I think the point here is effort and work, meaning you can only take out what you put into it. So if you are re-writing content to be of more value to others than you will be rewareded.

Thanks again!

[Shannon Herod]

I think the point here is effort and work, meaning you can only take out what you put into it. So if you are re-writing content to be of more value to others than you will be rewareded.

That is absolutely correct Steve. Thanks for pointing that out.

Shannon

[Simon_Sezs]

I hate to sound off here and be the squeaky wheel but some of those things you listed are a bit misleading....

Originally Posted by Shannon Herod

Content

Okay, so this sounds very obvious. Unfortunately most people get this totally wrong. You see, you are given advice every day to go out and buy cheap articles. It doesn't matter if the articles are of great quality, only if they are readable. This is probably the worst advice I've ever heard. People that put this type of content on their blogs are always fighting an uphill battle.

Great content may get you mentioned here and there in the blogosphere but unfortunately there isn't really a variable for what "good" is. And that said, in terms of rankings, it means very little.

In fact, most websites that make money are geared towards getting the end user to *click* to another site. Personally, I could care less how important or smart someone thinks I am. The end goal for me is to get them to click and NOT read....this is true whether it is adsense, a CPA ad or an affiliate site.

And nothing will get the user to click away than to throw up poor content that doesn't give a solution to whatever they are searching for.

Case in point...MFA sites.

Good quality content is good if you want readers. But it has been my experience that "good content" doesn't pay the bills because your readers....well, they read.

Originally Posted by Shannon Herod

Well, when you have great content on your blog it is natural for other blogs to start linking to you. This alone will bring in traffic. Plus, this will allow you to start moving up in the search engines.

Great....so we have a few bloggers linking to you without the relevant anchor text (in most cases) so you climb the search engines but NOT for the keyword that you are gunning for.

Worse still, some bloggers will link your name. Talk about a pointless backlink.

I will take purchasing backlinks to get ranked any day of the week. No thanks to hoping that some blogger will recognize a post that merits a spot.

Originally Posted by Shannon Herod

Plus, people will comment on great content. They want to feel like a part of the community. They want to give back. They want to say thank you. So, people usually comment on great content. Now, if you don't have the traffic you will not get the comments. But, if you have the traffic and great content you will start seeing some comments.

This is the whole if you build it, they will come mentality. I believed this 4 years ago. I now know that in most cases this doesn't work as well as prescribed.

As far as people commenting, once again, it doesn't really matter if you are trying to make money. Maybe if you want to build a following, but once again, readers don't generate clicks.

Originally Posted by Shannon Herod

This might not seem like a big deal to you but it is huge. Let me explain. I get hundreds of visitors to my blogs from comments alone. Why? Well, the search engines love fresh content. So, if tons of people are commenting on your blog they are constantly getting that fresh content. Plus, they are getting new keywords and keyword phrases to index. This works really well. Plus, you will start seeing traffic from people names. I have not actually tracked how well that traffic converts, but you will start seeing it.

Very true indeed. Which is why I don't understand why bloggers will flag a well constructed comment if the name is the keyword the commentator is gunning for. You know....I write good content for you...you give me a backlink.

Originally Posted by Shannon Herod

Unfortunately, you cannot rely on just your content and the search engines. You need to put in a little promotion in order to promote your blog network. So, the first thing you need to do is think about a linking strategy. You want to be able to interlink all of your blogs in that blog network. So, if you are building a blog network around natural health, you will start to link all of your natural health blogs together. You want to make these blogs different types of natural health, all relating back to natural health. This will really give your site a boost. But, you need to be careful and not over link.

This will throw up some red flags in the search engines. So, I like to link in a loop. I basically do not link every single blog to every single blog. I will link the blogs into a circle. I hope that makes sense.

True again. However, one thing you leave out is that if you are interconnecting, you need to do so smartly...in other words, you need different domains to be on hosts with different c-blocks AND different registrars.

That way, there is very little connection your one health site and the other.

Also, you shouldn't daisy chain your network. If you do, you will get discovered eventually and lose the entire network.

Originally Posted by Shannon Herod

Next, submit articles. Okay, this sounds like an obvious one to. But, here's the trick. What I do is rewrite the articles that are on my blogs. Note I did not say I put the articles in spinners. I said I rewrite them. Once the articles are rewritten, I will then submit them to the article directories. But, I will not link to the main page of the blog. I will link back to the actual blog post the article is rewritten from.

What this does is allow me to build inbound links to internal pages. This not only will help drive those long tail keywords up to the top of the search engines, but it will also help drive my main keywords to the top also.

Article marketing isn't as effective as it used to be. Besides, anything that EZA ranks for, I can rank quickly for as well just by grabbing a couple links from a link broker. Then again, some people wouldn't want to pay.

As far as inbound links and internal pages are concerned, if you can sculpt pagerank and understand internal link schematics, then you can easily do this on your own and just a couple in links can work wonders for a post. Personally, I don't see why anyone would want to link to every page on their site....

If you have a page that is trying to rank for betta fish care, why not build five pages on betta fish care, link all those pages to one page to spread the link juice and then purchase a PR5 backlink using the exact keyword you are committing to to link to you?

Better yet, build a link farm on pets and then link your own network, right?

The conversions section was dead on though (although I never have to worry about readers.)

[Shannon Herod]

And nothing will get the user to click away than to throw up poor content that doesn't give a solution to whatever they are searching for.

Case in point...MFA sites.

Good quality content is good if you want readers. But it has been my experience that "good content" doesn't pay the bills because your readers....well, they read.

I'm sorry, you are correct. If you want to spam the search engines with MFA site you are correct. Put up crap content that no one wants to read so they click on your links so you get paid a couple cents.

Awesome strategy

Great....so we have a few bloggers linking to you without the relevant anchor text (in most cases) so you climb the search engines but NOT for the keyword that you are gunning for.

Worse still, some bloggers will link your name. Talk about a pointless backlink.

I meant they link to your blog content not your name. And most bloggers will either link to a relevant keyword or the title of your post.

Some won't, but who cares.

I will take purchasing backlinks to get ranked any day of the week. No thanks to hoping that some blogger will recognize a post that merits a spot.

That is a great point and something everyone should do. Unfortunately some people start with a very limited budget.

But, I totally agree that you should be buying back links if you can afford it.

True again. However, one thing you leave out is that if you are interconnecting, you need to do so smartly...in other words, you need different domains to be on hosts with different c-blocks AND different registrars.

That way, there is very little connection your one health site and the other.

Also, you shouldn't daisy chain your network. If you do, you will get discovered eventually and lose the entire network.

This is another great point. However, in my experience as long as you use articles and other means to link to your network you will not be in trouble.

But, if you rely solely on linking within the network and that is it, you should be kicked in the rear end.

Plus, this goes back to not spamming the search engines. If you are spamming the search engines with crap MFA sites that are designed to make people click away so you earn a couple of cents, you are going to get caught regardless. Reason why... you do not care about the reader. What I am describing is caring about the reader and providing them with awesome content.

This blog post was meant to inspire people to actually go out and do some work. Not throw up crap content that is designed to make people click.

You may think that good content does not convert, but I'm willing to bet that my... nevermind.

You make some fantastic points in your post. But, from the sound of what you are writing you're most likely out there creating crap sites with the sole intention of just turning a quick profit and that is it.

I design my strategy around long-term profits. Something that is going to benefit people. I'm not out just to make a "quick" buck.

Trust me when I say, what goes around comes around.

The more people you help the more you will make. The more crap you put out there more headaches you will have. You may make a quick buck, but that is it.

Thanks again for your reply,

Shannon Herod

[Elmer Hurlstone]

Hi Shannon,

As always, excellent information.

This one is a must download & save.

I've noticed and respect that when others ask you questions or offer suggestions on your posts you're quick to answer and/or politely incorporate the additional information in the thread.

Keep up the good work,

Elmer

PS. Thanks for the WFTD plug.

[Simon_Sezs]

Originally Posted by Shannon Herod

I'm sorry, you are correct. If you want to spam the search engines with MFA site you are correct. Put up crap content that no one wants to read so they click on your links so you get paid a couple cents.

Awesome strategy

I never said that it was an awesome strategy. I merely pointed out that to say that if someone works really hard and writes good content, that eventually they will be rewarded for.

I know that you have been around the block too in terms of online marketing but many newbies here will translate what you are saying into "all I have to do is constantly post and do article marketing and eventually I will be able to rank for "stock trading' (or whatever keyword they are gunning for). Maybe they will...but probably not.

And definitely not if YOU or I were trying to rank for those very same terms. Why? Because they weren't told that marketing online is one part content and five parts the other stuff. While they were busy writing daily, we would be doing the other stuff (or in my case, outsourcing it) to build business and generate traffic.

Just my 2 cents though.

Originally Posted by Shannon Herod

That is a great point and something everyone should do. Unfortunately some people start with a very limited budget.

But, I totally agree that you should be buying back links if you can afford it.

If they don't have a budget to build their business, they need to deliver pizzas on the side until they do. I mean, come on...what business could you make a living with that doesn't require capital?

And once again, what chances do they really have when pro marketers enter their niche if they don't have capital to sling around?

Originally Posted by Shannon Herod

Plus, this goes back to not spamming the search engines. If you are spamming the search engines with crap MFA sites that are designed to make people click away so you earn a couple of cents, you are going to get caught regardless. Reason why... you do not care about the reader. What I am describing is caring about the reader and providing them with awesome content.

EZA is full of nonsense....in fact most of it is so self serving for most people searching for a solution (free solution) to a problem that in most cases, it is probably just as valuable to a visitor as an MFA site.

Originally Posted by Shannon Herod

This blog post was meant to inspire people to actually go out and do some work. Not throw up crap content that is designed to make people click.

I understand and agree Shannon. But most blogs don't make money and it is usually due to bad information (just to clarify, not this post) from the build it and they will come, folks.

Originally Posted by Shannon Herod

You make some fantastic points in your post. But, from the sound of what you are writing you're most likely out there creating crap sites with the sole intention of just turning a quick profit and that is it.

Not at all, man. MFA's are so last year. However, understanding how they rank and why they rank and how they get their traffic....now that is a lesson worth learning....

But that lesson would be a lot harder than "create good content...get noticed by people in your niche...and make money" kinds of lessons (not a snip at this post btw)

Originally Posted by Shannon Herod

I design my strategy around long-term profits.

Me too.

[zenmagic]

Really great tips and tricks here Shannon. Thanks for taking time to share this article. I believe many bloggers will benefit from this post.

Felix

[tiger325]

Thanks Shannon for taking the time to explain how blogging is so profitable

[Shannon Herod]

Simon,

You are correct in saying that this is not a build it and they will come type of solution. Some blogs will make it some wont. Just like product creation. Some will rock out some wont.

You got to start to know what will work and what wont. The best way to learn is to start doing.


Shannon

[nizhama2]

You are a master in writing. Nice article

[SurviveUnemployment]

Thanks for the good information.

[takingaction]

I too am impressed by the optin form idea at the end of each post. I use adwords most of the time in that spot but am now rethinking that strategy. After all, a click gets me some quick up front cash, but a subscriber could be a long term income stream, especially if they appreciate my content.

I also like the twitter bird in the header.

Nicely done all around Shannon. Thanks.