If you’ve ever been to work at home research website or small business starting discussion website of any kind chances are you’ve heard Lynn Terry’s name mentioned at least once. If you haven’t, well then I’m mentioning it now so yes you have. LOL Lynn Terry is a full time Internet Marketer with over 10 years of experience in online marketing and home-based business.

My favorite part about Lynn’s blog and forums is that she is very realistic. If something is hard she will tell up front that it’s hard. She’s not afraid to admit that even at her level of success she needs help with certain things, and she tells what those things are. A lot of internet marketers want you to believe that it’s easy and it happens with the wave of a wand. She also doesn’t try to over explain things or load her posts with jargon and keyword stuffing, she talks to you like a normal person so that it makes you want to grab a cup of coffee and sit down and read some more, as if you were sitting in the living room talking about it in the middle of the afternoon.

I’ve learned quite a few things from reading Lynn’s blog ClickNewz. One of the things I learned about was PayPerPost, one of the paid blogging companies. I signed up under Lynn after reading about it on her blog one day. She has some great advice about affiliate marketing and how to get started. All with a realistic outlook on what to expect when you’re just getting started. I’m always on the lookout for anything that Lynn reviews and recommends because I know that she likes programs and products that are easy to use and beneficial to your business and/or website.

lynn terry, affiliate marketing, clicknewz, blog reviews

When talking about paid blogging options, one company that comes to mind is CreamAid. They don’t do things like most of the other paid blogging companies. In fact, you’ll write a post, and hope yours gets chosen so you will get paid! What? That’s right, when you go to the CreamAid site, you’ll see a list of possible jobs to write about. They call the jobs “conversations”.

When you select one that is open, you can click on the little tab and see how much the job pays. It will tell you the royalty, which is what you’ll be paid “if your post is selected”, and you’ll see a referral amount. The referral amount means that if someone reads your post on your blog, and then clicks on your widget to write about that conversation on their blog, you’ll get that referral fee. You will receive emails telling you if your post has been submitted, and if it’s been selected.

That’s a mouthful, but I’m going to break it down a little more for you.

1. Go to CreamAid and choose an open conversation to write about

2. Click on the little blue tab at the bottom, read the terms of service, enter your email address, and click the style of widget that you need.

“Whoa! Widget, I don’t want a widget!”

I can hear you all ready, just stay with me here. You’ll choose the style of blog you have, so you’ll get the proper code for the widget to appear on your blog. Nobody is forcing you to choose this company, but some people enjoy it.

3. Sign into your blog, and write a post linking to the company that it’s about. You’ll then add your widget to the bottom of your post. Simply paste the code, and the widget will do the rest.

4. When you finish and save your work, you will see a regular post, and at the bottom of the post, a small widget will appear. It will contain and show selected posts for that particular campaign.

If you’d like to see one in action, you can see one here.

If you’d like to read the rest of my series on paid blogging, you can go here: Paid Blogging.

I’ll be away next week, so I won’t be adding anything until the following week. Yes, I know about timestamps. I’m taking the week off. Cheers!

Happy Blogging! Deb

If you have ever been a salesperson or know a successful salesperson that lives on a commission based selling job they will likely be able to tell you that there are some commonly met barriers in making a sale.

* getting someone to know you
* getting someone to like you
* getting someone to trust you
* getting them to understand your product
* getting them to believe in your product
* plain ole fashioned timing, which you have no control over really

How does this apply to blogging? Getting readers to subscribe to your blog is basically like selling yourself. You are a salesperson, but in a good way because you are you and that’s all people really want. Someone fun to chat with, interesting to talk to, someone to learn from, someone different from themselves …. you get the idea.

Getting people to know you. This is hard for some bloggers. Your level of openness lets your readers know you and see you as a real regular every day person that they can relate to. You want your readers to know that you’re just like them, you have a family, friends, a computer and you’re not some bot pumping out static blog posts once a week.

Getting people to like you. People are either going to like you or not like you. Really the only advice to give there is to not be a jerk ~lol~ or if you want to stir the pot in the other direction go ahead and be a jerk too! But, if you let your readers know you then I think eventually that leads to them liking you too.

Getting people to trust you. Trust is completely different than knowing and liking someone. Sure, I may know a person and like a person but that doesn’t mean I’m going to trust them with my money or my children … heck I know some people that I wouldn’t even trust to let dog sit while I was shopping or something, you know? How do you get your readers to trust you? Easy. Be honest. That’s all there is to it. Be sincere in your blog posts and your readers will know you, like you and trust you.

Those three things apply not only to sales and blogging, but to life in general. Interaction with people happens in so many ways and in so many places that it’s always something we do, often without even thinking about it. Now, we get into the other three which in sales have to do with the making of the sale.

Get them to understand your product. This can apply in two ways. Sometimes a blog, particular in a niche area is actually selling a product or service in addition to sharing information and opinions. So you may not only be getting them to understand YOU as yourself the blogger, but also introducing them to a product or service that will help them in some way. Make sure they understand everything about it, what it does, how it works, how you provide the product or service etc.

Get them to believe in your product, yourself, your blog. What do you offer? What benefits are there to reading your blog? If you’re selling a product or service what are the benefits of that service? What kind of results are there to show for what your service or product is? Seeing is believing for a lot of folks, so share results and case studies if they apply.

Lastly is that pesky thing called timing. We can’t control timing. People are busy, things happen, the world goes round. There is nothing we can do about that. Your blog, product, and/or services may or may not be what the reader is looking for right now. They may get pulled away from the computer, or the power may go out, they may have just spent all their money paying the electric bill, or maybe their kids needs braces right now. There’s nothing we can do about it except hope that they’ve bookmarked you or grabbed your blog’s feed and will return when the timing is better.

What do you get when you work with paid blogging services, besides extra money? There are other benefits that you may not have thought of.

Networking is an added bonus. Some of the paid blogging companies offer blogs, message boards or links to check out some of the blogs they offer. Working to network with other bloggers is always to your advantage. Find blogs that are similar in topic to your own and link into each other. See what other bloggers are doing to i

You may find an increase in traffic. As more people get to know you and your writing, they may frequent your blog more often. This all ties back into the networking. You may also find that you’re anchor and keyword targeted article is showing up well in search engines, which may in turn bring you more traffic.

With some companies, the more work you do with them, the more they know they can rely on you. You may get extra work, when they know you work in a timely manner, and write strong posts for them. Also work to go above and beyond what is asked of you, and you may find extra work in that inbox.

The more you write, the more comfortable you get writing. You may find yourself writing stronger pieces than you had before you started. On the other hand, this can backfire if you choose to get lazy. Think of your long term goal for your blog, and keep strength in mind.

Twitter and applications just like it are changing the way we communicate. It is a great tool to help you keep in touch with your friends. It also allows you to promote your blogs in a quick, straight to the point, fashion.

Here is an excellent example of just how to do it, and do it right. My friend Fave runs a podcast. Every time he makes a podcast, he allows his Twitter subscribers to “watch” the process of him making the podcast and be notified the minute it has been completed. He even gives a little count down to when the post will show up on his Friday Favecast blog. He uses Twitter to ensure that he has repeat visitors/listeners for his podcast. No wonder he just won the prestigious Black Weblog Award for best podcast of 2007.

I have just begun to use Twitter, myself. I can already see the enormous possibilities. It’s not just about keeping in touch. It is one of the fastest ways to garner free advertising for whatever project you are working on. Those of us who use the web as a means to support ourselves know all too well that promotion can make or break your online business.

There are plenty of ways to make Twitter more user friendly. I have downloaded Twitterfox to use as an add on for my Firefox web browser. I also have also downloaded Twitterbox to my computer, so I don’t have to even have my browser open to get updates and send them. You can find Twitterbox and many other applications like it through the Twitter website.

In response to Jenn’s question as to what Twitter is, I have added some pictures so click for more: Read the rest of this entry »

Twitter