Archive for December, 2007
Building Blog Traffic: Using Flickr
Written by Brandon on December 16, 2007 – 4:48 am -
Flickr is an online photo sharing website that also has a strong social element to browsing photos. Like most social websites, Flickr has strong social tools such as Flickr’s Contacts, Blogging Capabilities, Groups, and Tags. Using these capabilities to their fullest extent is paramount to gaining traffic to your site from Flickr. I can say that if the content and posts are well done, then you may be able to drive hundreds if not thousands of visitors to your site in no time. I will explain exactly how to drive traffic to your site, but first I wanted to give you a scenario: Let’s say your site is on the subject of architecture and you use Wordpress. Also in this scenario, it’s crucial to use a plugin called FeedWordPress which is a tool that lets you post RSS feeds as individual posts on your blog. I’ll explain why a tool like this is important in a moment. Now that we have a premise, let’s use Flickr to the Max!
- Before you start blogging, I suggest you put up a bunch of photos on Flickr that is of your blog subject. Then join as many groups as you can find when searching for your subject. Keep in mind that your subject may fit within literally dozens of groups and will be seen by thousands of people. I also like to start making everyone in groups I like a contact of mine. When these people are contacts, it means your photos will show up on their page and they will check out your stuff. So, in the end, you may have thousands of contacts.
Then: Uploading a picture and writing out the tags. I’m going to assume you already have an account on Flickr and that you’ve already managed to figure out how to upload pictures. During the upload phase is probably the most important phase of this exercise. When you upload a picture you are given two forms: tags and description. (HINT) In the tags form, I like to write as many tags to describe a photograph as possible. This will make it much easier for people to find your photograph, which they will. You are allowed up to 75 tags and if you can use them all then do that. You might not want to write all these tags out every time, so I use a text file to keep all my most used comma separated tags. Finally, don’t forget to add one tag with your website’s name. You’ll know why you add this in a moment.- Next, there is the description form. This description will eventually become the text of your blog post. I tend to write a description that is maybe a couple of hundred words long with many keywords to describe the photo. At the End of the description I write “you can find more photos like this at www.mysitename.com” which will show up as a link in the description.
- Now that the photo is uploaded, tagged, and described, you will want to add the photo to the appropriate groups on Flickr. Let’s say you have an architecture blog, for instance, there are possibly dozens of groups you could add your photo to. Add this photo to as many groups as possible.
- If you would like to go one step further, you could even add a location to your photo which will make your data that much more easy to find. I personally don’t tend to see much benefit from this.
Now, you’ve possibly created a great deal of buzz for your photo or at least exposed the photo to potentially thousands of viewers. Next, you want to get the photo on your blog as a post. I do this by using Flickr’s awesome and very flexible RSS feeds. With Flickr, you can literally choose an RSS feed for one of your tags. Here’s an example of a feed for my “baby” tag. So, all photos for your website should have a tag with the name of your website. Then, you can create an RSS feed just for the photos for the website.- Using the plug-in mentioned before called FeedWordPress, I can import each feed item as an individual post on my website. What happens is that the website just updates itself. Pretty Spiffy!
FeedWordPress Screenshot: Adding a feed to your blog
To recap, I’ve shown you how to:
- build an audience on Flickr for your photograph
- link that photograph back to your website
- turn the photograph and description into an automatic post using Wordpress
I also wanted to point out that you can track your photo’s popularity because Flickr tells you how many times your phot was viewed. So, you can kind of figure out a photo’s click through rate by checking your referrals from Flickr in your stats compared to Flickrs “times viewed” stat. Some more great resources include:
Tags: blogging, building traffic, flickr, web trafficPosted in Blogs, Building Web Traffic | No Comments »
Starting a For-Profit Blog Part 1: Research Your Niche
Written by Brandon on December 14, 2007 – 3:52 pm -As I mentioned in a previous article, there are a number of online businesses that you can build your wealth from. I’ve listed the businesses from least risky to most risky, and today I’m starting with the least risky which I will call the media company. Media Companies would be composed of such businesses as blogs, podcasts, video blogs, news agregators, and even things like how-to sites and fan sites. Their primary money making opportunities include:
- Advertising
- E-book Sales
- Premium Content
- Fan Sales
- Affiliate Sales
Let’s take the most common business as the very beginning starting point: the blog. How do you start a business? I will give you broad steps at first, and then cover specifics in later articles.
Phase One: research your niche topic
Before even starting the blog you should choose a handful of niche topics that you are interested in. Let’s say you’ve chosen bicycling. Now, you will want to start to search for bicycling in Google’s Blog Search or at Technorati to find out what bicycle blogs are popular. Next, you will want to write down a number of blogs on your topic.
I then like to go to Alexa and compare blogs in my niche to blogs in very popular niches to see how they stack up. So, for instance, here is a link to two very popular design blogs and Engadget which is arguably the most popular blog in the world. What this might start telling you after doing a bunch of searches is that tech gadgets are more popular or that Engadget has some features that could be better done in your niche. There is a lot to infer which I can help with in future posts.
Also, I highly suggest using Google Trends to start to see if your niche is a heavily searched topic compared to other topics. A simple starting point is to check the trend on “cycling” versus a random topic like maybe “jewelry” and a topic you know must be popular like “ipod”. What you find is that iPod is, in-fact, a much more popular search term, and surprisingly, jewelry is much more popular than cycling. This might give you more insight as to what topic you want to blog about based on its overall popularity. Maybe jewelry is better than cycling. This might also clue you in on topics that people often search for, but no good media outlet has developed for that topic.
Regardless of what your searches begin to tell you, do something you like. Again, this is just scratching the surface of how you might prepare for your blog, but I will cover more in the near future. AT least this gives you a simple base for how you might choose your topic.
Tags: blogging, Blogs, business, entrepreneurshipPosted in Blogs, Creating Wealth, Fundamentals, Starting a Business | No Comments »
Starting an Online Business Part One: Choosing What To Do
Written by Brandon on December 13, 2007 – 2:02 am -In the next few weeks I will consider the five business model types that are good general categories for starting an online business. I’ve ranked them in order from least risky meaning you could, in theory, make a living without investing much money, to most risky meaning that a significant amount of capital, time, and/or coordination would need to be invested. All business models can bring in a fair income, but in general, the more capital intensive the company the more wealth you can build for yourself. I will go into great depth in the future, but for now, let me just list the five models:
- Media Company
- Sales or Affiliate Marketing
- Services
- E-Commerce
- Web Applications
Media Companies would be composed of such businesses as blogs, podcasts, video blogs, news agregators, and even things like how-to sites and fan sites. Their primary money making opportunities include:
- Advertising
- E-book Sales
- Premium Content
- Fan Sales
- Affiliate Sales
My general feeling is that small media companies are not huge wealth creation vehicles themselves, but are best suited to create large audiences for future businesses. In other words, the media business builds your voice and your future businesses build your wealth.
Sales and Affiliate Marketing Businesses are things like e-malls, niche product shops, and online incentive shops where you give back savings to the customers or offer prizes for shopping. These businesses can be much more nebulous as well where you don’t even have a website and you wealth is made simply by creating effective Google ads to attract customers to a site. I will go into great detail in the future about how this model works, though.
Services are an awesome way to make your income online especially if you can find a particular skill that you can exploit. These services can be vastly diverse. One example of a service you might provide is logo design or graphic design services. If you have a good voice, you might provide announcement services. If you speak a foreign langiuage you might do translation services. The possibilities are endless. The essential rule is that anytime you or a friend or someone in a forum says why does’t anyone do (whatever), this is something that could be exploited as a service if properly marketed to the right people.
Real E-Commerce sites are where real money begins to flow into and out of your pocket. E-commerce again can take a multiplicity of forms and I hope in the future to identify untapped niches, but I will definitely focus future articles on affective marketing, curating your stock list, and building a loyal brand follow whatever products you decide to sell.
Finally, web applications are ventures that should not be approached without some knowledge of how to write a software specification, and who to have create the software per your specifications. If you do not know what a specification is, then stop right here. I will say that you DO NOT need to know how to program to create a great web applications. You just need to surround yourself with the people that do know how to program. Web applications as an example include things like Flickr, a site where you can upload and share your photos to things as simple as a really handy financial calculator. The key here is do you have an idea that would just be so damn useful that you’d want it desperately yourself. But making something useful does not mean you’ve made it user friendly. I will spend eons on this subject in future articles. We all know the reward of making really useful things, though. Once people find it, they will come back again and again. And they will tell alltheir friends.
That is my quick introduction to the five basic business models I will discuss for starting a business. Now, on to the meat!
Posted in Fundamentals, Starting a Business | 1 Comment »The Big Picture: 10 Questions for Creating Your Wealth Online
Written by Brandon on December 10, 2007 – 1:47 am -
Creating your wealth online is a difficult journey that should not be attempted alone. My goal with YourWealth.org is to supply that help you need to stay focused and excited, give you fresh ideas, and let you know of the latest trends in online business models. But first, I think it’s important that I start with the big picture and work into the details of creating wealth online as time progresses.
And to gain a big picture of your wealth strategy, you should answer several difficult questions that will affect your life before choosing a direction for building online wealth. Here are what I consider to be the top ten most important big picture questions:
- What are you really interested in? This can be a very difficult question, but I suggest that you focus on an interest that you have and look for an extremely novel approach to whatever you like. Let’s say you like bicycles, for instance. After a bit of quick research, I discovered that there are very few resources on bicycle maintenance and repair and no online resources that give you step by step instructions on repair. If you love bicycles, then this may be an approach to take. And if you are unsure what a novel angle might be on your topic, then brainstorm with friends and family or write a comment to me and I’ll help you out.
- What is your tolerance for risk? This is possibly the most important question simply because a lot of people start an online business thinking that they can start with very little or no capital when, in fact, sometimes a lot of capital is needed and you may want to quit your job, thus cutting your money supply. My suggestion to you is know your risk tolerance way ahead of time. If you hate risk, have to support a family, or just like a challenge, you may start a modest how-to business, affiliate business, or niche blog that only takes some of your free time. If you are unafraid of risk, then you may feel compelled to spend every bit of time and money on an e-commerce business or online application. I warn you, if your start down a risky road you do not want to turn back or cut your risks because your product will likely suffer or die. In the future, I hope to teach you how to start with low risk and steadily increase your risk as you reinvest your income into the business.
- Would you like to supplement your income or create all of your wealth online? This question is tied to the risk question. If you want to make what I call “hobby money”, then it will cost very little and take little free time, but you won’t see any real financial returns for years. If you want big returns then you will need complete focus and commitment.
- What is your personality like? Are you a people person or are you a quiet worker who does not socialize. Determining your personality early on is extremely important because there are certain personalities that make a business successful and if you don’t fit in that mold then you will need to hire someone who does. It’s a hard fact to face that you can’t always do everything, but it’s true.
- How long can you wait to create your wealth? Do you want to create wealth slowly or quickly? If you can wait then the risk is lower and the topics you can choose are broad. If you want to get rich quick you need an extremely novel idea and the funds to build and promote it. Quick wealth is a pipe dream, but it is attainable.
- How good are your computer skills? Your computer skills do not necessarily need to be good, but you do need to understand what the latest technologies are and how to use them to create your wealth online. Try to assess your skills from one to ten. One being you know nothing about computers ten means you can program in PHP and Javascript efficiently. 5 means you know what these things are, and you know how programs work, but you don’t necessarily know how to use PHP. If you are a five, then you are good to go. If you are lower than a five, then I suggest reading blogs such as DoshDosh and Problogger.net to become familiar with the layman’s technical jargon. You will need this skill to some extent even if someone else is creating the infrastructure for you.
- How good are your writing skills? Writing skills are key to success when developing an online wealth vehicle. I will certainly talk about this more in multiple posts, but a quick introduction to skills you will need is the ability to write clearly and concisely, the ability to back up your thesis with simple to understand examples, and the ability to influence with either your humor, strength of tone, or wealth of knowledge. If you don’t have this strength, consider hiring people who do.
- Will your family and friends help you to create your wealth? This is important to know quickly for a number of reasons. If you are depending on your circle of associates to help you out then test them quickly on their devotion to the project. I have wrongly discovered that some of my previous attempts at wealth building would be made easier by employing my friends and family to help me out. The truth is they are not as passionate as you are about your topic. Go out and seek a community of like-minded zealots and recruit them all.
- Who do you look up to? This is not a question I think most people ask themselves, but an important one. Why is it important? Because this will give you a tangible model to follow or look up to. For instance, I work in architecture and I look up to my boss. He’s successful and charismatic, and he is a great designer. Now that I’ve identified my boss as someone I look up to, I can ask him questions about his success and observe how he has become successful. Having this tangible model allows you to see what works for you and what doesn’t.
- Where do you want to be in ten years? This is a loaded question. You probably want to be successfu, but when you ask this question you can sort of plan where you want to be and then work backwards. Working backwards from the future is a great way to be able to map out the plan, year by year, that will help you achieve your success in incremental, real, tangible steps.
These are a few basic and extremely broad questions, but you will need to answer these questions to start a broad plan to create your wealth. From here, you can start to hone in on the specifics which I hope to address, piece by piece, on this blog over the next few years.
Posted in Analysis, Creating Wealth, Fundamentals | No Comments »
