In this video I have explained how you can change the head feed link in your blog. This is a necessary step if you are using Feedburner RSS feeds, otherwise you would lose subscriber counts and other statistics!

Find the following code in your theme’s header.php file and delete it.

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS 2.0" href="<?php bloginfo('rss2_url'); ?>" />
<link rel="alternate" type="text/xml" title="RSS .92" href="<?php bloginfo('rss_url'); ?>" />
<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Atom 1.0" href="<?php bloginfo('atom_url'); ?>" />

Replace it with:

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Your Blog Feed Title" href="http://your-feedburner-feed-link.com" />

Sitemaps will help you get more traffic from search engines. Who doesn’t love free traffic? Inside this video you will learn the defnition and purpose of Sitemaps, how to create a Sitemap for your wordpress blog and how to submit your Sitemap to Google.

In the last video you learned about RSS Feeds in general. In this video you will learn how to implement Feedburner RSS Feeds to your blog. Feedburner is a free service from Google which will enhance the capabilities of your blog’s RSS Feed. You will also learn how to activate email subscriptions and display the feed count on your blog.

RSS Feeds are one of the most important elements of blogging. In this video I have explained RSS in simple terms. It will be useful for you as a reader of blogs and as a blogger as well.

In this video you will learn how to install themes and plugins for your WordPress blog. If you have any questions, leave it in the comments below.

Lee Rowley

Lee Rowley started Blogger’s Workshop as an accessible resource for people who want to earn extra money, or even earn a living, from their blogging efforts. Lee spent nearly a decade working in Corporate America, and he was miserable the entire time.

Through blogging, he was able to finally free himself from having to answer to someone else. According to Lee, what sets Blogger’s Workshop apart from other make money online blogs is that he lays it all out.

He lets people watch both his successes and failures unfold, and he is not afraid to admit it when a project blows up in his face.

Deepak: How do you define the success of a blog? Is it traffic, readership, revenue, brand image or anything else?

Lee: For me, blogging success comes from knowing you provide something of real value for your readers. If you can’t wait to blog when you get up in the morning, you’ve found your success. (Of course, being able to keep the lights on and the house off the auction block is a big plus, too.)

Deepak: When did you decide that you finally reached success with your blog?

Lee: I think it was when a reader referred to one of my posts as an ‘indespensible manifesto’. That was also when I realized I had a reputation to uphold!

Deepak: How long does it take to become a successful blogger?

Lee: 12.563. Exactly that long. No, really, it’s all dependent on motivation, willingness to learn, a bit of luck, and a steady supply of beer. It goes back to how you define success. If success means personal satisfaction, then you can achieve it on day one. If you’re talking about earning enough to make a living, it depends on the size and profitability of your niche market, and how much money is ‘enough’.

If we’re talking $10,000 a month, then you’d better pack a big lunch, because it’s going to take a while to build that kind of traction – maybe a year or two if you blog consistently and promote yourself shamelessly.

Deepak: In your opinion, who are the most successful bloggers on the Internet today?

Lee: Whoo. Well, John Chow comes to mind first, because he earns over $40,000 a month from a single blog, and still manages to have a lot of fun with it. You can tell he really enjoys what he does. Yaro Starak is probably on that list too. He’s happy with the amount of money he makes, and he’s one of the most influential bloggers I’ve run across. And though it makes me cringe to admit it, I guess you have to give Perez Hilton props for building a million dollar blogging empire simply by being a juvenile douche-waffle.

Deepak: What are the three blogs which you most often read?

Lee: Well, I read Yaro Starak’s blog, Entrepreneurs-Journey.com, almost daily. Ditto for Darren Rowse’s Problogger.net. My third entry is a bit left field – I’ve been a vegetarian for about 15 years and a vegan for about 7, and I really love Veggie Girl’s vegan desserts and such. Can’t be all business, you know.

Deepak: If you saw that your close friend had the potential to be a successful blogger, what would you say to him to motivate him to start a blog?

Lee: Man alive, yol u’re not pulling any punches here, are you? Okay… my first thought is this: You’ve got unique knowledge and insights to share, and the world needs to hear them. Seriously, I can’t think of too many niches or interests that can’t be parlayed into successful blogs.

Deepak: What is your advice for new bloggers who are just getting started to help them build a successful blog?

Lee: Nail down your niche before you ever write the first damned word. If you don’t know what your blog is about, your readers won’t know either. Oh, and get a good, customizable WordPress theme. You’ve got enough work ahead of you that you can’t afford to spend time screwing with your blog’s code.

Finally, you have to remember that blogging is a marathon, not a sprint. If you expect to receive tons of traffic and make insane money overnight, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you (and probably trying to get you to buy an overpriced ebook).

Deepak: What is your advice with regard to the length of the blog articles and the frequency of posting?

Lee: Don’t make all of your posts the same length. It will bore your readers, and lock you into a blogging “formula”. Most of my posts are 500-600 words long, but I use shorter posts for quick announcements and brain farts, and really long posts (2500+ words) when I really want to go in depth with a topic. The long posts are important, because they’ll keep bringing in organic traffic for years… but use them sparingly, because no one wants to wade through a 2000 word post every single day. Save those for the important stuff.

As for frequency… don’t worry too much about posting every day. I’d focus more on keeping a sense of consistency. If you start out posting three times a week, your readers will learn to expect that. If you go a month without posting, you’ll lose your readership base.

Deepak: What has been your most effective marketing method so far for bringing new readers to your blog?

Lee: Really, organic traffic has been my mainstay. I’m not big on paying for traffic, although I’ve done it on occasion. Proper keyword research has done me the most good of anything.

Deepak: In your opinion, what are the most common mistakes that new bloggers make?

Lee: Expecting overnight success. For the first couple of months, you’re probably going to feel like you’re just talking to yourself (because you will be). It can take 50 posts or so before you start getting indexed, and a whole lot more before you really start getting targeted traffic. I can’t tell you how many bloggers I’ve met who give up after a half dozen posts or so.

Also, failing to make a plan before you begin is a big one. You really have to know why you’re doing this, and how you’re going to reach your goals, if you expect to keep writing about the same topics for years on end.

Deepak: If you had ever said to yourself ‘I wish I had done that when I started my blog’ what would it have been?

Lee: I would have used internal linking right from the beginning. Going back and building a directory by hand is a major pain in the ass when you’ve already written hundreds of posts.

Deepak: What turns you off from other blogs (such as lack of quality content, blatant advertising, etc.)?

Lee: Really, the biggest thing for me is lack of blogging personality. I care as much about the blogger as I do the content. I want to know that your heart is in it, and you’re not just spitting out information to show how smart you are. Bloggers without a sense of humor also tend to bore me pretty quickly.

Deepak: How much money do you make from your blog per month (approximately), and which has been your best monetization strategy?

Lee: Right now I’m at about $4000 to $5000 a month… but a lot of that is indirect. My blog brings a lot of business to my copywriting/marketing company, Java Joint Media, which has been great. Aside from the copywriting gigs, affiliate marketing is my best monetization strategy.

Deepak: What is your most interesting story related to your blog and blogging experience?

Lee: Well, I was in a bookstore about a mile from my house, and this guy walks up to me and starts ripping into me. Apparently, he read my blog, and he was mad because he hadn’t yet made a pile of cash using my advice. It was completely surreal, having some guy who knows you from your blog (although he only lives six blocks away) blaming you for his failures. I mean, I can tell you how to use a hammer, but if you don’t practice pounding nails, you’re never going to build a house.

Deepak: What is the biggest opportunity that came your way because of your blog?

Lee: A couple of months ago, I landed a $10,000 copywriting project with a guy who found me through the blog. That was a pretty happy day. I also did an interview with Odesk’s Brian Goler a while back, which brought me a nice bump in long-term traffic. I applied to give a speech at BlogWorld Expo this year, but I apparently didn’t make the final cut. Imperialists…

Deepak: Any other comments that you would like to share?

Lee: As I frequently tell my readers, there are a lot easier ways to make money (both online and offline) than through blogging. I just can’t stress that enough. Blogging takes patience, persistence, and personal development. If you’re going to do it full time, it also takes approximately 297,364 ibuprofen tablets. It’s fine to make money with your blog, but if that’s your primary focus, you’re going to have a long, hard slog ahead of you.

Also, make friends in the business. Leave sincere blog comments, use social media, link to other blogs without their owners asking you to, and if you find a great post on someone else’s blog, tell your readers about it. As much as blogging may seem like a competition, it’s not. Some of your strongest allies will be bloggers targeting the same niche market, if you play nice. They can help you succeed, especially if you show them you’re willing to put forth the effort to build your blog correctly. See, that’s how I approach it – talk dirty, but play nice. It seems to have worked so far…

Have you just installed WordPress on your website? Haven’t switched to a self hosted WordPress blog from the free blog platforms yet? In either case, you will find this video useful. You will know about the benefits of WordPress and learn how to use the basic features.

This morning as I walked into my portico, I was once again mesmerized by the beauty of my brand new Honda – a black sedan with alloys and chrome all over it. Then a thought struck me. Why do I consider this car beautiful? Where does the beauty actually come from? This car model did not even exist a few years back. A few decades ago when cars were released by companies like Mercedes and BMW, they did not look beautiful at all, relative to our present perspective. In those days, however, people found these cars very beautiful. How can this be? We are still the same, right? How can one object be beautiful at one point of time and not so nice at another?

The answer to this question came to me in a flash. True beauty is more than skin deep. Beauty is what is on the inside, not what meets the eye. In earlier years, those ‘old’ cars were the most advanced cars ever released. No matter what the external appearance, we believed the cars were beautiful due to the performance and price of the cars. Now that those cars are outdated and have been replaced by better cars in the market, their external appearance has become less appealing to us. The cars that will be released in a few decades from now, no matter how strange they look, will be perceived as beautiful because they will run faster, smoother and on cleaner fuel than our present generation of cars. Beauty is not what we see, but rather what we feel. 

By now you must be wondering why I am posting such thoughts in a business blog. I decided to write about these ideas as I pondered the answer to the question: Does my blog look good enough, or could it be better!? Many new web-masters worry a lot about how a blog looks when it is first set up. We think that people will not read our blog if it does not have the best look and design. Yet no matter how many days one spends designing and tweaking the placements of different objects in a blog, one can never be satisfied. Sooner or later, the web master must stop worrying about the design – and this stopping point comes where he realizes that design does not matter at all. If the website serves a good purpose, our minds will perceive it as beautiful.

So friends, do not spend too much time worrying about how your blog or website looks. Instead, care about what the blog does. Beauty lies in its purpose. If your blog provides valuable content and improves people’s lives, it is an attractive blog. That said, you should still place importance on the basics of a good blog layout. What I want to communicate is that you should not worry extensively about how your blog looks. Do not compare two designs and pull your hair out over which one looks better. I have made those mistakes, and I hope you don’t do the same. Good luck!

In this video I have explained how you can install a WordPress blog automatically using the Fantastico application in the cPanel of your web server. I hope that you have already setup your domain and hosting. If you haven’t, you can find ‘how to’ video tutorials in the Learning Resources section

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At one time or another, we have all presented a gift to a friend or a loved one on a special occasion. Thinking back, you will likely remember that making such selections is not always easy. We usually think long and hard about the recipient before we choose the gift.

If so much time and energy is spent choosing a gift for a loved one, imagine the importance and toil involved in the process of choosing the right niche for your online business or blog! After all, the products and services that your business creates are not about you. The bottom line is to deliver value to the customer.

Choosing the right niche is the most important and perhaps the most difficult step in building your online business. You must consider numerous factors, such as the market demand, your passions and strengths, and, most importantly, the competition.

Thousands of new blogs are created every hour, yet most bloggers miss out on success because they neglect the importance of the niche selection process. If a blogger is sure to get this part of the process right, he or she will be ahead of the game and all the other factors will fall into place.

Discover Your Passions

I am sure you have heard a million times that if you do not have passion for what you do, money and joy will escape you. Many bloggers wrongly assume that they have a passion for a particular topic, so they start blogging on that topic. Then, after several months, they end up realizing that their real passion is for something else.

I made this very mistake a year ago. I was interested in riding motorcycles with friends, and I assumed that since I liked to ride motorcycles, I could start a successful blog about motorcycles. After a few months of blogging, I realized that even though I did like to ride them, staying up to date on motorcycle news and sharing that information with readers was not something that I loved to do. Anyway, I did not let the blog die. I was fortunate to find someone who had a passion for motorcycles and also loved writing about it.

Being passionate about a particular topic does not guarantee that your blog on that topic will be a success. You need to find a topic about which you love to teach and share information with others. Think about situations in which you have found yourself talking endlessly about a particular topic with friends or colleagues without expecting anything in return. Also, make a list of the books and magazines that you read often. Blogging is just one form of communication, and it is not much different than talking to people. If you love to talk about a topic, chances are that you will also love blogging about it.

In addition to the joy you will get from sharing your knowledge with others, money is the extrinsic reward you will receive for your blogging efforts. Once you start writing in your blog, you will still need to wait several months, or perhaps even years in some cases, to realize the handsome profits blogging can bring. If earning money is your primary motivation for blogging, you may quickly get disappointed and abandon your blog. The driving force keeping you on track should be the pleasure you gain through sharing information with like-minded people.

After I discovered that writing about motorcycles wasn’t as enjoyable as I thought it would be, I did some serious thinking and realized that I frequently talk to my friends about business, blogging, and marketing. I have given guest lectures at many universities about blogging and Internet marketing without expecting any monetary benefits. Since I love to talk about these subjects, I knew blogging about them would be no different. That day I decided to start my blog at BusinessAttitude.com. I found my blogging passion.

Analyze the Market Demand and Competition

Once you have discovered your potential blog topics, the next obvious step is to measure the market demand within those niches. Remember that you need to first and foremost give people what they want, not simply what you like. Some of your topics may be well received in the market, and some of them may fail. You need to be sure to select the topic from your list which will garner the maximum results in terms of readership and profit.

There are certain websites from which you can gather valuable information about the market. Here, I have explained the websites and tools which I use on a regular basis:

Yahoo Answers: Yahoo Answers is a community where questions and answers are exchanged constantly. If you are a long-time Internet user, you may have used it before, or at least heard of it. Questions are posted in a wide range of categories. Find the category which is closest to your topic and look at the posted questions. These questions provide valuable insight into what people really want and need in your niche.

For example, prior to starting my motorcycle blog, I browsed through Yahoo Answers. I noticed that many people asked questions regarding where they could find good pictures of their favorite motorcycles. I came to the conclusion that even though there are a lot of websites publishing information about bikes, there are very few places where one can find high quality photos.

I thus invested a great deal of energy into producing quality photos of the motorcycles in addition to publishing great content. My investigation of Yahoo Answers ultimately led my blog to grow faster than other similar blogs.

As you browse through various questions, you should look at the resolved questions in addition to the open questions. The answers to resolved questions can provide details regarding the competition in your niche. You can “spy” on your competition and analyze any possible deficiencies they have. Try to overcome these shortcomings in your own product.

Google Keyword Tool: Google owns the lion’s share of the search engine market. Almost everyone uses Google to find information on the Web. The Google AdWords Keyword Tool is a free feature which gives you insights into the keywords people type in the Google search engine. It also provides the monthly search volume of those keywords.

For example, when you type in the keyword “motorcycles,” then click “Get Keyword Ideas,” the tool will generate a list of keywords related to motorcycles. The list might include words such as Harley Davidson, Yamaha, Honda, and so on. Try this tool with different keywords to become familiar with how it works.

You can also enter a website’s URL into this tool to obtain a large list of keywords related to that website, along with their monthly search volume. The higher the search volume, the higher the demand for information. You can use this tool not only to select the topic for your blog, but also to brainstorm ideas for possible articles you will consider publishing in your blog.

To analyze the magnitude of the competition in your niche, take the keywords from this tool and search for them in Google within quotes. For example, if you want a rough estimate of the competition in the “weight loss” niche, search Google for the keywords “weight loss.” This particular search will produce 90.1 million results, which means this exact phrase is repeated in 90.1 million pages across the Web.

So, as you might have guessed, the weight loss niche has incredibly high competition. If the same is true for your topic, try to sub-divide your niche. For example, you might search for “weight loss for teenagers.” This phrase brings up only 20 thousand search results, meaning there is relatively low competition in this niche. It will be much easier to attract prospective readers and buyers if you create a blog or an information product in a smaller niche (a sub-division of a larger niche).

The sponsored links which appear on the right-hand side of the search results also provide valuable data about the competition in your niche. The higher the number of sponsored links, the greater the competition.

ClickBank Marketplace: Clickbank.com is an online payment gateway which enables people to sell digital products online without any hassle. Authors who write small books which cannot be published traditionally rely on ClickBank to sell their books in the form of e-books.

The ClickBank marketplace lists their digital products according to categories. Across each listing of a digital product, they also publish a variable called “gravity.” The higher the gravity, the higher the damand and sales for that product. You can compare various products within your niche, and thus gain valuable insight into the types of products that sell well.

Avoid a Head-on Collision with Your Competition

Many people believe that one can be successful in business only if they can discover a niche where there is no competition. Contrary to popular belief, competition is actually a good thing. If you find a niche where there is no competition, chances are that people are not willing to spend money within that niche. Competition proves that there are profits to be made. Selecting a niche and beating your competition is much better than trying to discover a niche where there is no competition at all.

Another mistake people make when trying to beat the competition is that they try to market a higher quality product for a cheaper price with lower profit margins. Selling cheap is not good marketing. Lowering the price of your product and providing higher quality does not prompt consumers to ditch the competitor’s product and buy yours. You may wonder why this is so. The answer to this question lies in consumer psychology.

When an average consumer buys a product for a particular price, and is then offered a better quality product for a cheaper price, the consumer is not convinced to instantly switch products. By choosing the latter product, the consumer admits that the original decision to buy the former product was a mistake. Consumers hate to admit that they were wrong. You need to give consumers a better reason to buy your product besides just a cheap price.

For example, before I started my motorcycle blog, I observed that automotive blogs received heavy traffic. There were more than five blogs competing with each other. If I too entered that niche and started a general automotive blog – writing about both cars and bikes – readers would have to choose between me and the competitors because they cannot read more than five blogs at a time. Even if I published content of much higher quality, it wouldn’t suffice.

I knew I needed to provide a reason for people to come to my blog. If my blog was just about motorcycles, people interested in automobiles would read the general blogs and those with a special interest in motorcycles would read my blog. In this case I sub-divided the niche and provided a unique reason for readers to visit my blog.

By sub-dividing the niche, you are creating your own category. Edwards Deming, the famous philosopher, said: “It is better to be first, than it is to be better.” It is good to compete as long as you do not end up doing exactly the same thing as your competitors.