Daily Do's

[Nelson Swett]

I've decided to engage myself fully into my affiliate site. It's been a hobby type thing until recently. I have one up, done my keyword research and have some content up on the site. I'm regularly researching article ideas and have quite a list of content I can write and publish. I have a few products up and a list of products that might be a good fit and to date, I've made $1.80.

Obviously I would like to make significantly more. So, what are the things that I should do daily, especially over the next month to really get this thing going. I mean as far as content publishing, link seeking, (traffic generating),etc. What are the things that you do daily that make your sites a success, especially your new ones.

I am seriously motivated to make this happen.:D

[Lynn Terry]

Great topic, Nelson! This should make for a fun discussion :)

You have the site up, you have it monetized, you have a list of keywords & content topic ideas - awesome start. My daily to-do list for the first full month would probably look something like this:



Add one new piece of content every day (with keyword phrase in title)
Submit an article to EzineArticles.com - one a week at least
Set aside 30 minutes/day to find & comment on relevant niche blogs
Set aside 10 minutes to join a new forum and/or post at a niche forum
Research niche directories & rss/blog directories and submit to 3-5/day
Set aside time to create content/properties & publish to: blogger blog, squidoo lens, guest blog posts, etc.
Update Twitter & Facebook daily with something niche-specific & of interest to your target market


Anyone want to add anything to the list?

[WAHumor]

Ooooooh, good thread and one I'm so ready for!!

Great list, Lynn.

It's not a daily, but you need to set up an autoresponder account and then place an optin box on your blog. Aweber (http://www.wahumor.com/aweber.php) is the one of choice amongst most Internet marketers I've ever met.

That way, you can develop a list to receive special offers, notice of new products, etc.


Dan

[David Jackson]

What are the things that I should do daily, to really get this thing going. I am seriously motivated to make this happen.:D

Nelson, if you want to progress as a marketer, learn something new about marketing every single day. Read articles, read books, read newsletters, listens to CD's, whatever it takes. Try to advance your marketing knowledge daily. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise. Marketing is the key to success.

I subscribe to and enjoy reading articles in quality newsletters like SiteProNews, WebProNews, Addme, Web-Source and several others.

David Jackson

[retta719]

Great topic. I love Lynn's bullet point list for getting the site off the ground and running. Maybe look for popular ezines on your topic and subscribe to see what is being talked about and "hot" in that niche. Also, don't overlook trade magazines and in print publications on the topic, they could be good for getting the idea juices flowing.

[Kayla Fay]

Schedule Google Alerts in your niche. You'll get an overview of the latest buzz - and some potential places to leave comments and links.

[Lynn Terry]

I love this thread!

Anyone want to add more ideas?

[Maa]

Ping your blog after you write a new post.

You can also use socialbookmarking sites. I found a new one that I am using. I did a blog post about it if you want to find out more.

[Lynn Terry]

Ping your blog after you write a new post.

WordPress does this automatically...

[StephenT]

WordPress does this automatically...

I don't understand if you have to do anything for WP to ping or not. Do you have to enter anything in the trackback area or does WP just do it?

[Lynn Terry]

I don't understand if you have to do anything for WP to ping or not. Do you have to enter anything in the trackback area or does WP just do it?

This was referring to "blog and ping" which is different than trackbacks. In your WordPress admin panel, look under Settings > Writing Settings. At the bottom of that page is "Update Services". See this link for more:

http://codex.wordpress.org/Update_Services

[RichB]

Does the "All-in-one-SEO" Wordpress Plug-in automatically ping the search engines when a new article is posted on your blog?

Rich

[RichB]

Does the "All-in-one-SEO" Wordpress Plug-in automatically ping the search engines when a new article is posted on your blog?

Rich
I went to the source of the All In One SEO plugin, which I really like. Doesn't look like it does any pinging, just optimizing your posts.

http://semperfiwebdesign.com/portfolio/wordpress/wordpress-plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/#more-59

[StephenT]

Thanks Lynn!

[Lynn Terry]

Right, Rich - just imagine the spamming holiday if search engines allowed random pinging! lol

[RichB]

Right, Rich - just imagine the spamming holiday if search engines allowed random pinging! lol
I obviously have a lot to learn! LOL.
Rich

[wade_watson]

WordPress automatically sends a XML-RPC ping whenever you update a post. This notifies a number of ping services that you have updated your blog. It should be noted that some web hosts (freebies, for instance) don't allow pinging, but with most common paid services like HostGator, you're good. In other words, you don't have to worry about anything in order to ping. With WP, you do have the option of changing the default ping services it sends to, so if you're interested, you might want to Google "ping list" and read up on the options.

Wade Watson

[Steve]

This is a great thread.. I know I'm jumping ahead here.. but in the 2nd month I would concentrate on starting to build a list using Aweber, etc.. along with the stuff you are doing in month one.

Steve

[FrankDickinson]

I want to add more, but a quick one on the way to bed:

Check out Social Marker. Great place to social bookmark your blog posts to may sites.

ooo...always use Propeller as well!

LOVE this thread too - I'll add more. :)

[FrankDickinson]

This was one of Lynn's suggestions for "daily dos"

"Set aside time to create content/properties & publish to: blogger blog, squidoo lens, guest blog posts, etc."

I truly like sites like Squidoo and Blogger as they have good authority with the search engines. HubPages is another good one.

Using these free services is not like building your own site where, in the end, you are building your brand and not Bloggers, but they certainly do help in the beginning of your marketing efforts.

I use them a good deal.

[Sheakay]

I love Lynn's list here and absolutely must print it out. A couple other things: for blogs I'd create an account with Blog Catalog and Technorati, and I would start in on Bob the Teacher's free 30 day Auto Responder training. That way once you start driving traffic, you can build the list and start building that relationship. (Man I wish I had done this!)

[Nelson Swett]

I love Lynn's list here and absolutely must print it out.

I loved Lynn's list enough that I used it to make a Daily to do list form and every night when I finally finish doing the things that Lynn suggested, I fill out one for the next day...It helps to keep me on task.

[TrishL]

I just copied and printed out Lynn's list, too. Love it!

The only other thing I can think of - if you can find a newsworthy angle related to your site/topic, you may want to consider writing and distributing an optimized press release.

I haven't done much with submitting to directories - and definitely need to add that to my "to-do" list.

[TrishL]

Shannon - thanks for the pointer/reminder re: Bob's 30-Day autoresponder series. Great advice!

[tek95969]

Do you have a link for Bob's auto repsonder training? I searched the forum but haven't been able to locate it.

[PpcJen]

I found Bob The Teacher at AskBobTheTeacher.com (http://askbobtheteacher.com/blog/). Tons of great, helpful info.

[tek95969]

Thank you! I'll be checking it out.

[Nelson Swett]

when Lynn originally answered by question she listed this as one of the things that we should be doing every day


Research niche directories & rss/blog directories and submit to 3-5/day

This morning as I was making my list of things to do using the form I made from Lynn's Daily Do's, I realized that I wasn't quite sure what this was or how I should do this. Anyone care to elaborate so that I can complete this task daily as well.

Specifically what kinds of directories am i looking for?

[WAHumor]

I'm a little unsure what exactly she meant by "niche directories", but offhand I would guess that to mean whatever relevant directories of any kind exist in a particular niche.

Some rss/blog directories include Technorati and Google Blog Search.



Dan



P.S. That's so cool you made a form for those suggestions! You should share it here, it'd be well appreciated.

[Lynn Terry]

When you do a search on Google, search for:

blog directory
blog directories
rss directory
rss directories
keyword directory (using YOUR keyword - this is "niche directories")

So submitting a pet site to a pet directory, or a parrot site to a bird directory, is what I mean by niche directories.

You can also search for local directories if you incorporate location into your site (using YOUR city, state, country, etc):

city directory
county directory
community directory
state directory
region directory
country directory

[Nelson Swett]

Thanks for answering that Lynn. I thought that was what you meant and had tried the "keyword niche"+directory search and found some places to post and did the same thing "keyword niche"+blog and actually found some blogs that were soliciting guest writers...let you know if they accept me.

This was posted earlier

That's so cool you made a form for those suggestions! You should share it here, it'd be well appreciated.

I have it in .pdf form and anyone who wants it can download it here (http://www.ldssinglesdating101.com/downloads/DailyToDo.pdf). It's pretty basic actually, but keeps me on task. I finish filling it out every night for the next day after I finish that day's work (I keep a copy to write on while working, I never know when I will run across an idea for content, blog post I want to comment on, etc...) It keeps me on task and when I've completed a task, I just put a great big star by it!! I've got stars in the first 4 groups right now and thanks to Lynn's response I'm going to go get some more! I also keep these sheets in a binder as a way of marketing my progress. I can take a look and see my progress which helps when I'm feeling overwhelmed by how much is still left to do!

[Nelson Swett]

So I have another question for the more experienced.

When I'm commenting on someone else's blog when is it acceptable, permissible and encouraged to link to your site or a post on your site that might be relevant?

I know with all of the comment boxes, you are allowed to put in the URL of your website. My question is more along the lines of when posting when is it okay to direct link? Or are you better off doing a post on your site that links to their blog and commenting on it directly?

[Lynn Terry]

If you have a related blog, and their blog displays trackbacks, write up a post and reference theirs when appropriate. Otherwise, if just a short comment, it's fine to deep link to a related page/post of yours.

See: Stop Linking To Your Home Page! (http://www.clicknewz.com/1427/stop-linking-to-your-home-page/) :)

[Nelson Swett]

As always Lynn thank you. I appreciate the information and will quickly put it into play!

[KarenMcG]

Man, I've just finished reading this terrific thread. Somehow I missed it when it first began.

I'm like some of the others; I've jumped on the Daily To Do list as a model. And, I've added the additional comments to my list that were posted along the way.

Thank you everyone for your input.

Oh, and Nelson, you rock!

[KathleenGageSpeaker]

Use the first hour of your day to monetize your business. Avoid going directly into your emails as this is a surefire way to waste time. Rather, write down what you are committed to doing in the first hour such as write an article, invite 3 new friends on FB, do 3 tweets that you schedule throughout the day, work on a landing page, write 5 pages for a report you can sell, etc.

Making money with the Internet is a discipline. It is very easy to get sidetracked with "the bright shiny objects" we are all exposed to. One's success is directly proportionate to how focused they are.

[WAHumor]

This thread is one of at least a handful I know of that should be stickied.

This can save so many people not only time and frustration, but unnecessary questions that this thread can more quickly address.



Dan

[encsteph]

Have you ever felt so overwhelmed with all the information out there about internet marketing that you don't know where to start?

I'm kind of in that boat.

I have a blog site that is getting some traffic and a little bit of income and I want to build it so it makes somewhat serious money and am kind of overwhelmed when trying to figure out what to do!

I have gotten some great suggestions on this forum for products, affiliates, adsense, etc...

I also know that I need to keep adding content.

I also know that I need to be out there building additional traffic to the site...I'm averaging about 150 a day or so right now and I know that if I want to start making "real" money with it I need to increase that by about 10 fold.

I have roughly 2 hours a day 5-6 days a week I can devote to this business...and yes I am finally beginning to treat this like an actual business instead of just a personal hobby.

How do I prioritize my time?

There are some really great ideas in this thread about to do lists but when coupled with all the other "stuff" I feel should be done I don't know where to start!!!

Anybody got an electronic version of a paper bag I can breathe into to calm me down and help point me in the right direction?

I would really appreciate it!

Eric

[Nelson Swett]

Eric,

That was sort of what prompted me to start this thread. I encourage you to read through it and make notes. But some highlights. In answer to my question Lynn posted this response (http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com/members/showpost.php?p=15919&postcount=2) Several other people answered with great ideas as well. I decided that everyday, I was going to do what Lynn told me to do so I created a form I use everday to prioritize and keep on task. I provided a download for people who wanted the form in this post (http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com/members/showpost.php?p=19555&postcount=32)

I will tell you that following this has made a huge, huge difference. And basically, it is prioritized...you have to have new content everyday to tweet and facebook about, etc...
Questions...just ask!
Good Luck and may the clicks be with you!

[KathleenGageSpeaker]

I would add work on information products. But for those who don't write their own products this would not apply.

[Nelson Swett]

I'm sure that many of you know the importance of the to-do list. I received an article in my email today that reinforced it's necessity which highlights the advantages of printing out the Daily Do list. It an article called Secrets of the Rich and Famous (http://www.ziglar.com/newsletter/?p=420) by Zig Ziglar