Keith Goodrum

Archive for April, 2008

Start A Blog, and Get Off The Fence  

Now is the time to start a blog. Many people have discovered that they are a great tool to get your ideas out to promote you and your business; it builds a relationship with your readers, and the platform simpler than ever to get your message out. For this reason they are more popular than ever.

Here are three reasons why you should start a blog.

1. It’s the best form of marketing and branding you can do for your online business - One of the easiest ways to market your business is to build trust with your market. Relationships and trust build a sense of community. And when you have a sense of community there is no need to use hardcore marketing to make sales.

2. You can use a blog as a direct line of communication - Ryan Healy in his post titled Copywriting Is Not the Most Important Skill said: “It’s my belief that communication is the most important skill you could ever learn.” A blog opens a direct line of communication between you and your readers. This is a great platform for communication. In fact many times you start getting feedback within hours of posting… priceless information.

3. A blog is easier than ever to start - The tools to start a blog are easy to learn & use. You can have a blog started within minutes if you choose to use one of the free services like blogger.com, wordpress.com, or typepad.com. If you wish to host the blog on your own domain, you can be up and running within a couple hours. Where else can you start a business so fast, or so inexpensive?

One of the complaints I hear is people hesitate to start blogging because they believe it would take huge amounts of time to write a blog post everyday. Many people abandon their blogs because they cannot find the time to write blog posts. They are caught up in a busy life, and it tough to carve out the time.

It would take me hours to write a simple blog post…

I had the same problem. It use to take me hours to write a simple 300-word post. It was agonizing, slow and frankly became a drag. I would go through spurts of writing several posts at a time…. then go weeks, even months without posting. My blog looked like it was abandoned at times.

I finally made the decision to figure out how to write faster. After trying many methods without much success… I finally figured it out. I found a speed writing technique, and modified it to make writing blog posts. I can now write a regular blog post in 10 minutes or less. It has been working great, and producing great results.

I’ve recorded this technique, and will be releasing it as a new product called “10 Minute Blog Post”. In it I show you how to write a blog post in 10 minutes. You get to see how I prepare, write and edit a blog post. You get to look over my shoulder as I write one of the posts I wrote for this blog.

Tomorrow Thursday May 1st “10 Minute Blog Post” will be released…

Of course there will be special pricing. Now, I have to warn you these recordings are not pretty. I’m not a professional presenter, and my Camtasia skills suck. It ain’t going to win any awards… it ain’t even going to be nominated.

So, if you are looking for pretty, flashy recordings with fancy graphics… save your money. This is not the product for you. But the information is valuable, and that’s what’s important… how to write a blog post in 10 minutes.

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Written by Keith Goodrum

April 30th, 2008 at 7:32 pm

10 Things You Can Do To Get Traffic… Today  

One of the big questions asked is… How do I get traffic? I’ve even found myself asking this question. In fact I found myself asking someone this very question just the other day. As soon as I asked… I realized I knew the answer, and got a little angry with myself.

My hard drive is full of traffic generation ’secrets’ in one form or another. Some were paid; others were included as bonuses and the rest were free. So, I started reading them. A pattern started to emerge; the same tactics, strategies and techniques kept popping up. Of course many would have a different twist, but the principles remain the same.

Then the light bulb went off (or on) in my head……and got me thinking. So I sat down and wrote out all the things I do to get traffic to this blog.

Here are top 10 things you can do, right now, to get traffic…

1.Put up a blog post - Yep original content will get traffic to your blog. Search engines are looking for new, original content. They do this because their customers (people looking for information) demand it.

2.Submit a post to a blog carnival - This is a powerful way to pull traffic from the blogosphere. Submit one of your best posts to blogcarnival.com.

3.Leave a relevant comment on another blog - Leave a strong comment and people reading will click on your link to see what else you have to say. Leave a lame comment and you will be ignored. Avoid comments such as “I agree.” “Good Info.” –these are lame-o! If you have a relevant comment to post, then write it out.

4.Write and submit an article - Articles still work… Articles still work… Articles still work. Hope I made the point clear. I still get traffic from articles I wrote months and months ago. Don’t know what to write about? Why not rewrite one of your blog posts?

5.Record a video - There are people who don’t have time to read, and get their information by watching videos. A video is a great way to find another source of traffic that would normally miss your blog. Hey, look at how popular You Tube is!!

6. Add some friends at Twitter - Go to Twitter, and start looking for people who have the same interest you have. Add them as a friend. They will usually check out your profile, and visit your blog. Make sure your profile is good, and gives them a reason to visit your blog.

7.Sign up for MyBlogLog & add some friends - For the same reasons you add friends at Twitter you add friends at MyBlogLog.

8.Drop some Entrecards - There has been a lot of talk about Entrecard driving junk traffic… but I can tell you that many people who comment here are coming from Entrecard… nuff said.

9.respond to a forum post - It in vogue to bash forums, but it still gets you traffic. Make sure your are adding valuable comments. This will get people curious to see what you are doing on your blog. One quick tip… make sure your signature file only has one or at most 2 links.

10.Make sure you are using trackbacks - Trackbacks kill two birds with one stone… you get to write a blog post responding to the other bloggers post, and you get to add a relevant comment.

These are 10 things you can do to start getting traffic to your site today.

Here are a few other posts I found about driving traffic to your blog:

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/01/04/7-types-of-blog-posts-which-always-seem-to-get-links-and-traffic/

http://www.blogtrepreneur.com/2008/03/03/increase-blog-traffic/

http://blog.2createawebsite.com/2008/02/18/how-i-doubled-my-blog-traffic-in-2-months/

http://newsletter.theebookcavern.co.uk/6-creative-ways-to-generate-traffic-for-your-blog.html

http://www.searchengineguide.com/mack-collier/10-easy-ways-to-grow-your-blog-traffic.php

But, once again it is only as good as the action you take on these tips…

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Written by Keith Goodrum

April 29th, 2008 at 10:41 pm

Posted in Marketing, Traffic

We Can All Make Our Ideal Business A Reality  

Mike Ambrosia gave me my first break as an online copywriter. I sent him a direct marketing letter for my copywriting services. He called, we met and he hired me to write Easy Product Profits. It was fun, and exciting seeing how a product gets created from the inside.

I now consider Mike a friend, and we still keep in touch. His story about starting his online business is interesting. Today he wrote a little about it on his blog. The post is titled I’m Better Than You? He worked a full time job, and still managed to build his business. Check out his daily schedule…

All of my on line success (until recently) has been PART TIME. I had a full time J-O-B and worked on my business at night. For about 4 years I averaged just four hours of sleep per night. Here was my typical day:- 4:30 AM, wake up
- shower
- breakfast/newspaper
- 5:15 am, emails, misc. stuff on business
- 6:15 am, go to work
- 4:30 pm, home from work - check emails
- 5:00 pm, family time
- 6:00 pm, dinner
- 6:30 to 8:00 pm, work on sites
- 8:00 to 8:45 pm, play with son and put to bed
- 9:00 pm to midnight, work on business
- Midnight, go to bed

That was it for four years. Lots of work and commitment.

Of course, there is a lot of things I did, people I met and so on that have helped me along the way. We call
that networking.

But I hear the same excuses all the time…

Mike of course is not better than any of us. He is making the point that anyone can create the business of their dreams. We all have the same 24 hours each day.

Head on over to his blog and check out the rest of the post…

http://www.mikeambrosio.com/im-better-than-you?

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Written by Keith Goodrum

April 28th, 2008 at 10:57 pm

WordPress 2.5.1… Is It Time To Upgrade?  

Did you see it?

WordPress released a new version 2.5.1. It is an update for version 2.5. It cool to see how quickly WordPress works on fixing bugs and security issues.

Here are some of the fixes…

In addition to the security fix, 2.5.1 contains many bug fixes. If you are interested only in the security fixes, you can download these corrected copies of wp-includes/pluggable.php, wp-admin/includes/media.php, and wp-admin/media.php. Replace your existing copies of these files with these new copies.

If you download the entire 2.5.1 release, you will be getting over 70 other fixes. 2.5.1 focuses on fixing the most annoying bugs and improving performance. Here are some highlights:

  • Performance improvements for the Dashboard, Write Post, and Edit Comments pages.
  • Better performance for those who have many categories
  • Media Uploader fixes
  • An upgrade to TinyMCE 3.0.7
  • Widget Administration fixes
  • Various usability improvements
  • Layout fixes for IE

I’m excited to see an update already. I have to admit is was tempting to upgrade. Many people told me it was OK… but I decided to wait.

I’ll install this new version on one of my domains, and see how it goes. Then will upgrade here.

OH, by the way we get to start this all over again in August. That’s the rumored date of the release of 2.6.

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Written by Keith Goodrum

April 25th, 2008 at 10:13 pm

Posted in Wordpress Stuff

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Be A Guest Poster For Sam Carrara…  

Sam Carrara Over at Sam Carra’s Marketing Education made a post today asking for guest posters. He is going Sao Paulo to help build a church. It sounds like he is going to work hard, but I bet he’ll have fun.

Pray for a safe trip for everyone, and that nobody gets hurt on the construction site.

Sam I would like to be a guest poster for you while you are gone. If you still need someone let me know.

Anyone else looking for a guest poster? You can contact me by filling out the contact on the about me page here.

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Written by Keith Goodrum

April 24th, 2008 at 8:34 pm

Posted in Writing

7 Tips to Bust Writers Block  

Stress! Writers block can bring on stress like few other things in life. Many bloggers experience this at one time or another. I know I’ve experience my share of writers block. Stress, frustrations and panic are some of the emotions that seem to go hand in hand with writers block.

Now, there are people who claim they’ve never experience writers block. This post is not for them… but for us mere mortals who have an occasional bout of writers block here are a few tips I’ve found useful:

1. Take a break - Sometimes I’ll reach a point of frustration, and have to get up and take a break. I just need some time away from the computer. I’ll take the dog for a walk, or do some reading. Any distraction will do to that lets me escape for an hour or so. Find something you enjoy, and go do it.

2. Have Posts Ready To Go In Reserve - Having a few posts ready to go is a great safety net, just in case you can’t get one done. A post in your back will help maintain your publishing schedule.

One thing I’ve found is if I know there is one in the bullpen, I’ll relax and find it easier to write. Just having it there makes me feel better, and that will often get the writing juices flowing.

3. Switch Projects - Another way is to be working on several projects at once. If I get stuck, I’ll switch and work on a sales letter, or an article or another blog post. A change of perspective can many times spark new ideas. And that is usually all I’ll need to rekindle my writing.

4. Just Start Typing - I learned this one from Gary Halbert. He said to just start typing. If you have nothing to say just type the words… blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I thought this was the stupid, and resisted it for a while. Then one day I was desperate and shut the door, unhooked the phone and disconnected from online. I started typing blah, blah, blah… and after a while I started writing! It was weird… it worked.

5. Do More Research - Sometimes I’ll get stuck because I’m not sure what to write about. This is a sure indication that I’ve not learned enough about the subject. At this point I’ll know its time to learn more about my subject. Remember you can write when you have information flowing out your ears.

6. Write in small chunks - This one is good. Break your writing down into smaller chunks. I’ll make a goal to just write one paragraph, or one point. When I’m done I’ll move on to the next one, and the next… before you know it you’re done.

7. Schedule your writing time - Scheduling a regular time for writing gets your brain into the habit of writing. We are creatures of habit, and like to have routines. Get your brain use to writing at a certain time… and it will comply.

I hope you find these helpful, and put them into action. What are some of your favorite ways to cure writers block?

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Written by Keith Goodrum

April 23rd, 2008 at 10:54 pm

Stop Linking To Your Homepage, Be More Interactive & Give’me What They Want…  

Links of the day.

Whew! That’s a long title…

But I wanted to point out 3 blog posts you might have missed.

Stop Linking To Your Home Page! from Lynn Terry over at Clicknewz. I knew that deep links are something that the search engines like to see. I also know you should add your URL to blog comments because it’s a good way to get backlinks and traffic. The one thing that I haven’t thought of was putting them together. She sums it up perfectly here…

Stop being general, and start being super specific with your links. Of course, you’ll want to make sure that your website has good navigation, and that each individual web page contains a strong Call To Action. Remember: what makes visitors happy, usually makes search engines happy too

One thing… I know the back links don’t work is a blog is no-follow.

Are You Committing This Cardinal Marketing Sin? from James Lee over at Online Business tells you to give your customers what they want… not what they need. What he says here is the tightrope you need to follow marketing to your customers…

A side note - Something important to bring up here is that we don’t simply give our prospects a bunch of flash in the pan products that they will buy, then not accomplish anything with.

As someone who understands the path they are currently on, this would be an abuse of your power. It’s unethical and karmacally unclean.

Instead, it’s up to you to take your prospects and customers by the hand, and gently lead them to what they need through the doorway of what they want.

12 Ways to Be a More Interactive and Accessible Blogger by Darren Rowse over at Problogger makes the point that you need to have a strong line of communication with your readers. I like these tips because they show many different ways to open that line of communication. And you can do this without becoming a slave to your blog…

Today I want to share a few tips on how to remain accessible to readers even when your blog is growing and the demands on your time become greater. By no means am I an expert in this - but here are a few things I’ve learned.

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Written by Keith Goodrum

April 22nd, 2008 at 10:59 pm

5 Types Of Posts To Write  

Content is King online plain and simple. Putting up good content on a regular basis gets the search engines attention real fast.  It is one of the traffic tactics that gets left off most lists.

I know some folks would argue with this. They say that putting up a lot of content with no traffic is a waste of time. And to a point they are right. If you drive a ton of traffic to a site with no content… you’ll have 1st time visitors. But will they return? Probably not.

Content and Traffic go hand in hand. You need both to have a thriving blog.

Creating content can be tough, and one of the drawbacks of blogging.  Writing posts is time consuming especially if you don’t have a plan to follow.  One way to do this is by writing posts that other bloggers have found to be popular and easy to write.

I’ve seen lists with as many of 25 or more types of blog posts you can write.  I’ve narrowed my list to 5 my favorite types of posts.  I like these types of posts because they are easy to write., and when it’s easy to do I’m more likely to get it done…

1. Lists or tips posts – This is a popular type of post. Can be a list of tips, or a resource list. People like to read lists because they can get to the information quick. This is an example of a list post.

2. Comment posts – Let’s say you are writing a comment on another blog. You find that your comment is a couple hundred words long. Instead of adding a long comment why not expand it a little and post it to your blog? This is one I wrote in February: Are Questions The Answer In Your Copy?

3. Rant posts – Want to get something off your chest? Is something bugging you? Well then write a post about it… You’ll find this is an easy post to write. Especially when you are a little riled up. Here is a good example of a rant post from Michel Fortin titled: The Real Sinister Side of Forced Continuity

4. Interview posts – One of my most popular posts is An Interview With Copywriter Stephen Dean. Good part about this post is I only had to write the questions & opening paragraph.

5. Meme posts – Some one writes a post about their favorite books or movies. Then they ask readers to make a blog post about the same. This is fun to write. Here is one in response to Ryan Healy’s meme: 9 Books That Influenced Me The Most…

It’s informative to read lists, but the real question is… What are you going to do with this information?

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April 21st, 2008 at 10:48 pm

You’re Invited To The Hochstadt Party…  

Marcus Hochstadt at http://www.hochstadt.com/ started a contest yesterday, and it’s a doozie…

He has lined up over 65 other people to contribute prizes for this contest. He is calling it the biggest Entrecard contest ever… I have to agree with him. Take a look at all of the prizes available:

Consultations, Products & Services

Ad Space

  • KiwiPulse from KiwiPulse gives 3 x 125×125 top ad space for one month worth $15 each = $45
  • Deimos Tel´Arin from ahkong.net gives a 468×60 top ad banner box for one month worth $36
  • Anna from My Cornerstone Trio gives a 125×125 top ad space for one month worth $35
  • Turnip from Turnip of Power gives a 125×125 top ad space for one month worth $35
  • Wayne from Ez DIY Electricity gives a top ad space (125×125 or 468×60) for one month worth up to $30
  • Caleb from environmentastic! gives a 125×125 top ad space for one month worth $25
  • Kathleen from Entrepreneurs Only gives a 125×125 top ad space for one month worth $25
  • Marty from Money Maker Times gives a 125×125 top ad space for one month worth $25
  • Constantin Codreanu from INconstantIN gives a 125×125 top ad space for one month worth $15
  • Mirjam from Me Myself and I gives a 125×125 top ad space for one month worth $10
  • Lee Doyle from Lee Doyle - Contains Nuts gives a 125×125 top ad space for one month worth $10

Entrecard Credits

Phew! I’m grateful for cut-n-past or I might still be typing!

These are contributions for 200+ winners (!) with a monetary value of more than $7,000+ (!!) and exactly 66,666ec (”ec” = Entrecard Credits)!!! This is by far the BIGGEST Party Contest in Entrecard’s History!

Here are the rules from Marcus’s post…

What? How you can win? I’m glad you asked… ;-)

Here is how to enter the party contest and belong to the lucky winners…

  1. Subscribe to the Hochstadt.com Blog Announcement List (see the sign-up field in the top right hand corner of this page, right below my image? Yup, there it is.) Not only does it bring you 2 points but I may send you a cool gift when you do :-)2 Points
  2. Post a comment to this blog post - 1 Point (one point per person)
  3. Stumble and digg about this contest and fav me on Technorati - 1 Point respectively
  4. Use the below party contest image(s) on your site - 2 Points
  5. Write about this blog and this Hochstadt.com Party Contest on your blog, linking to both this blog and the Hochstadt.com Party Contest. Use your own wording, one that fits to your audience. (It shall be easy because the above prizes fit to ALL audiences!) - 10 Points
  6. Write about this blog and this contest on your blog, AND link to ALL contributors (just like you see my list above including all the prizes) - 30 Points
  7. *PSSST* When you write about this contest on your blog it may be a good idea you indicate which of the above prizes you would like to win most. Perhaps Santa is listening and your wish comes true, who knows… ;-)

Hint: Use the same e-mail address and Web site’s URL when performing the above contest actions. That way, I will be able to track your entries. ;-)
NOTE: I changed the point structure slightly because it turned out to be a bit unfairly weighted. Hopefully it is fair now so more people can win something. And I now give 2 points when using the party contest image below.

The more points you accumulate the higher your chances to win one of the BIG prizes worth up to $357 per single prize! And yes, all above sponsors are entitled to enter the contest, too! :-)

Now let’s party!

Draw of the winners will be held on MAY 1st!

Join in on the fun!

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Written by Keith Goodrum

April 18th, 2008 at 7:07 pm

Posted in Business, Marketing

How To Get Trevor Crook’s Copywriting Secrets for Free…  

Simple you just go to his website and put in your name and email. He will then send you a link to his download page. I personally think he’s nuts for giving away this much information about copywriting for free… not sure how long it will be up so you better hurry.

This was something I found a few months ago while looking for copywriting tips. After reading his website, I figured what the heck, and signed up. Trevor then sent me the link to download the copywriting seminar. Here is the link at this time it’s still active… http://www.trevorcrook.com/.

There are 10 mp3s each about an hour long. I downloaded the seminars to my Ipod, and started listening to them. I quickly started taking notes, and was amazed at the stuff he was teaching. And I started implementing the tips and tactics into my sales letters.

Trevor is a copywriter from Australia, and he has written for some of the big guns in direct response marketing. He is also a great copywriting teacher.

He first made this copywriting course as a 10 week teleseminar. Later he packaged this as an info product and sold it for $197.00. About a year ago he started giving it away for free. And believe me this is a true $197.00 value. Personally I can’t believe he is giving it away.

Pay close attention to the marketing lesson here… Trevor got paid multiple times for working once. He made money off the teleseminar, then turned around and sold it as a stand-alone product. Now he’s giving it away to build his list. This should allow him to make backend sales to his list. No bad… getting paid three ways while working only once.

Now, of course you have to give him your name and email address. But, this is not some worthless eBook used to build a list. You are getting a real value for handing over your information.

Here is the link again go and get this today…

http://www.trevorcrook.com/

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Written by Keith Goodrum

April 17th, 2008 at 7:38 pm

Posted in Copywriting