“Make Your Blog Viral, Vital & Valuable”
Marlon's Marketing Minute
August 22, 2009
Hello,
Marlon here.
This week's Marlon's Marketing Minute article:
“4 Easy Tweaks To Your Blog That Make It Viral, Vital & Valuable”
Subtitle: Get your plugins installed, spruce up your sidebar,
add recent comments, fix those blasted permalinks and add the
Twitter viral script you won't believe — all in a jiffy!
This issue could easily sell for $12.
IN THIS ISSUE:
— 4 steps to set up your permalinks to be a Google magnet
— 6 steps to set up permalink redirects so your old links don't
result in error messages
— How to install plugins — step-by-step
— How to set up Tweetmeme — the coolest viral twitter script!
— 3 steps to adding recent comments on your sidebar
— How to find your widgets if they've dissapeared
— How to re-order your sidebar
This is another detailed step-by-step plan.
Feel free to take this PDF and stick it on your web site, blog,
Facebook blog, Myspace blog, Hub Page, Squidoo lens, or Google
Pages.
Put it up and announce it on Facebook, Twitter, your blog,
email, or whatever else you have.
This IS an article people will want to read. You WILL make
sales from the link in the resource box.
If you don't have a reseller ID, just go to:
http://www.getyourprofits.com and sign up. It only takes
2 minutes.
There are 4 ADS at the end of this ezine. You can replace
all THOSE with reseller links if you want.
Marlon Sanders
P.S. After you read today's article, please pass it along
on your blog, email or just to a few good friends.
Then hit me back on my blog.
I personally comment back. Let me hear from YOU!
https://www.marlonsnews.com/
Go there today to see what all the cool stuff looks like that I'm
showing you how to add today.
PPS: Other marketers ONLY send you good content during their
product launch. I'm with you every week, motivating, inspiring,
educating. Where are THEY when a product launch isn't going down?
I'm here every week delivering rock solid content based on years
of experience. If you like what you get here, and want more of
it, please pass the word along on forums, blogs and so forth…
that THIS is the ezine to come to for real world marketing help.
******************************************
Marlon's Marketing Minute
Electronic Newsletter
http://www.promotemarlon.com
Vol. 4, #30, August 22, 2009
******************************************
This issue contains:
A. Sponsor Advertisement: I got 500,000 reasons!
B. Announcements from Marlon (Important)
C. Main Article: Pimp out your blog in 4 easy steps!
D. Services You Can Use
Brought to you by: Marlon Sanders – Publisher
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A. Sponsor Advertisement
“I got 500,000,000 REASONS that prove Promo Dashboard will
rock your sales and color your world green”
Who else wants to find out how Ben Hart sold and raised
500,000,000 PLUS hauls in 90 g's a month online — with
only 1 or 2 employees?
That's 500 gazillion GOOD reasons to get the Promo Dash.
Grab my interview with him PLUS get on the Quick Start call
this next week.
http://www.TurboProfits.com/tracking/go.php?c=913ezinetopsponsor
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
B. Announcements from Marlon
==> Do NOT email us for customer support
Do NOT email us for customer support. We are anxious to
serve you at: http://www.getyoursupport.com
We have LIVE CHAT to serve you better. Most people in this
business skimp on this. I don't. Tim is an award winning
customer service person.
==> New forum for AFFILIATES —
http://www.getyourprofits.com
We're just beginning so there aren't any posts yet. But
feel free to break the ice.
==> Give Away “The Best Of Marlon Sanders” to your friends
or list and snag spending cash and prizes!
I've just released “The Best Of Marlon Sanders”
Give it away to your friends or list and snag affiliate
commissions as well as prizes.
==> Download your FREEBIE ebook now.
“The Best of Marlon Sanders”
http://www.bestofmarlonsanders.com
There is a squeeze page. The idea is for you to enter
the email address you actually READ! I'll send out a version
later where you can bypass the squeeze if it bugs you.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
C. 3 Easy Tweaks To Your Blog That Make It Viral, Vital &
Valuable
Subtitle: Subtitle: Get your plugins installed, spruce up your
sidebar, add recent comments, fix those blasted permalinks and add
the Twitter viral script you won't believe — all in a jiffy!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Do you have a blog?
If you don't it's an easy thing to set up.
That little product right there from my Ateamer Mike
Paetzold will get you going — fast! It's also a great
example of how to create a simple product with a built-in audience.
I'm the King of Step-By-Step Internet Marketing, NOT the
king of blogging. But I did spend yesterday tweaking out a
few things on my blog, inspired by RobertPlank.com.
Robert's blog has some really nice tweaks on it I liked,
so I added a few to mine. And you might want to add them
to yours.
I cover how to set up your blog in Promo Dashboard, if you
have it. Normally, I reserve highly detailed step-by-step
information for my products. For one thing, to get it
right takes more time than I have to write my ezine.
Also, you often need supporting video. But I'm brave
today, so in the 45 minutes I have to write this ezine,
I'm going to hammer out a few step-by-step procedures for
you. Understand that when we do this in products, we
support it with screen caps and videos.
This is a very small taste of how we do things around here
in our Dashboard products. It really takes a lot of time
and attention to detail to do steps like this with screen
caps and video so they are as goof proof as we can get
them.
THAT'S that value we offer others don't. No one has stuff
as step-by-step as our Dashboards.
Here we go:
After you have it set up, here's what you do:
=========================
1. Set up your permalinks
=========================
Your permalinks are the way your blog post url's read.
Here's what mine looked like before:
https://www.marlonsnews.com/?p=123
The problem with that structure is it has a number at then
end instead of your keywords.
After fixing my permalinks, my url's now look like this:
https://www.marlonsnews.com/7-ways-to-kick-your-sales-profits-up-a-
notch-starting-this-week/
That's much better for your search engine optimization
(seo). Here's how you do it:
a. On the left menu, click on “settings.”
This will drop down a little sub-menu of things you can tweak your settings for.
b. Under settings, click on “permalinks.”
You'll see several buttons you can click under “Common Settings”
c. Click Custom Structure
d. Put this in the custom structure field:
/%postname%/
2. Redirect links to your blog
If you already have your blog set up, you'll have inbound
links to your blog posts from readers and from Google. If
you change your permalinks setting, then all those links
go bad.
This is NOT good!
When I originally set up my blog in March of 2007, I
didn't feel the permalinks were important. Later, when I
decided I wanted the seo boost, I already had inbound
links and didn't wan to muck up what I was doing.
So how can you FIX your permalinks WITHOUT mucking up your
existing inbound links?
Here's the solution:
a. On your left wordpress menu, click PLUGINS
b. You should see one called “permalink redirect”
If you don't have the permalinks redirect in your plugins,
go here and follow the instructions to download and install:
http://scott.yang.id.au/code/permalink-redirect/
b.1 Download the plug b.2 Unzip the contents
(If you don't know how to do this, go to youtube and
search “unzipping” and HOPE you find children safe
videos!}
b3. Ftp the whole “permalink-redirect” folder to your
wp-content > plugins folder b4. Go back to your plugins
menu under settings and you will now see a listing for
permalinks redirect. b5. Click activate
If you get lost on the above, go to youtube and search:
“How to install plugins on wordpress”
c. Click activate on the right side.
d. In your settings, you will now see a link for
“permalink redirect”
e. Click it and scroll down to the text box labelled “old
permalink structures”
f. Paste in there the way your OLD links were structured.
In my case, here is what I pasted in:
https://www.marlonsnews.com/?p=123
g. Click “update options” and you'll be good to go. Your
old links will now redirect to the new ones. So you don't
lose any links.
And the best part is, your URL'S now have keywords in them
for the search engines.
=======================================================
2. Set up Tweetmeme — the coolest viral Twitter script
=======================================================
I'm excited about this one. It shows the number of tweets
for a blog post. And lets people tweet the post just by
clicking.
Go to: https://www.marlonsnews.com and tweet one of my
articles. You'll see how easy it is to use and why you
need it on your blog.
a. Go to — http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tweetmeme/
b. Just as you did in number one above, download the plugin
c. Upload to wp-content > Plugins just as you did above
and then activate
That takes care of that one. Now, I'm going to have
someone tweak my template to get it located where I want
it. And you may need to hire someone to do that.
Or if you're smart, you've used outsourceplan.com to hire
a virtual assistant like I have. The Sultan of Speed
Internet Marketing and my friend Jason Fladlien just used
the system to hire someone for $2.50 an hour!
So now you have your VIRAL component installed.
====================================
3. Add Recent Comments With Avatars
====================================
One of the things Robert has at RobertPlank.com is the
most recent comments on the right hand sidebar. His have
photos. Now, I found a great little plugin that adds
user's avatars. However, most of my folks don't have a picture.
So I'm pretty sure Robert has a different plugin or a
tweak. I'll find out from him. In the meantime, you can
add your comments on the right side easy peasy.
Yours will look like mine does right now at marlonsnews.com.
a. Download the plugin:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/recent-comments-with-avatars/
b. Install same as above.
c. Click “Recent Comments” under settings to tweak your look
Now you have it.
You've fixed your permalink structure, added a killer
VIRAL tool AND added recent comments. One more.
================================
4. Re-order your sidebar widgets
================================
See all those things I have on my right-hand sidebar:
Recent comments, categories, archives, blogroll, tags?
All of those are called “widgets.” And you change the
order of them, add and delete them using widgets.
a. On your left WordPress menu, click “Appearance”
b. Under appearance, you'll now see “widgets”
c. If you have a widgets-approved theme, you should see a
widgets menu.
What's WEIRD is I don't. And this really hampered my
ability to tweak my blog. But when I go to this URL, I get
my widgets menu:
https://www.marlonsnews.com/wp-admin/themes.php
d. Substitute your domain where mine is and you should
find your widgets.
e. Click ADD next to any widget you want to add to your sidebar
f. On the right side, you can just drag and drop to
re-order your widgets! How cool is that?
Alright, your blog should be pimped out now.
Have fun.
PS: If this article was valuable, please go to my blog and tweet
it to others:
———————————————————–
Marlon Sanders is the author of “The Amazing Formula That
Sells Products Like Crazy and the KING of Step-By-Step
Internet Marketing.”
To get on his killer ezine list, to get cheat sheets and all kinds
of other goodies every Saturday and during the week, to get simple,
to-the-point Internet marketing know that works real world without
all the hype, go to: https://www.marlonsnews.com and subscribe
Check out all my products here:
(SIGN UP AS A RESELLER, put YOUR reseller URL and ID where
the above link is, post this on your web site and make some
dough for spreading a killer guide everyone will want to read.)
//////////////////////
REPRINT RIGHTS: You have permission to use the above
article without omission and including the resource box.
You have the right to insert your reseller URL for any
products I mention
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
D. Services You Can Use
(If you want to post this ENTIRE ezine, you can replace the
following links with your RESELLER links)
1. The Marketing Dashboard: Amazing Formula and Gimme
boiled down to icons and step-by-step. Doesn't replace AF
and Gimme but useful. Basically, it spoon feeds all the
things in AF and Gimme. http://www.getitgoing.com
2. The Marketing Diary: Me teaching Matt daily all the
details of the Amazing Formula and Gimme system. This
contains additional insights into The Amazing Formula and
Gimme that you won't find in those products. It's
literally what I taught to Matt in his first 90 days with
me. http://www.themarketingdiary.com
3. After 8 years, thousands of customer emails, thousands of
buyers in virtually every major city in the world (and
many you haven't heard of), 13 web site designs, 4 product
designs, after ebook and CD versions, after endorsements
from major marketers the world over, after hundreds of
marketers and products have come and gone, after attacks
by the world's most notorious criminals, after attempts to
put it under, there is ONE product that remains and stands
tall. There is one product that is stable.
http://www.amazingformula.com
4. Are You Paying Over $10.00 For Hosting? If you are,
you may be getting ripped off. Design Dashboard shows you
not only the basics of doing your own design but really
walks you step by step through setting up your hosting,
autoresponders and shopping cart.
http://www.designdashboard.com
5. LAST CHANCE?
Grab the brilliant video by Adeel Chowdhry on how to mash
together stock video, stock sounds and stock music to create
an attention-grabbing, compelling video you can put on your
sales page, Facebook, Squidoo lenses, Hub Pages, or even
Twitter out to your list.
http://www.PromoDashboard.com
6. Your Own Products?
It's the only step-by-step, A to Z system not JUST for
creating info products …. but that shows you HOW to select
product ideas using my “flanking move” I've built my business
on, HOW to do 12-product surveys with an actual example, that
gives you a tested, proven email & source witha 30% success
rate in getting interviews with experts — PLUS, templates
that would cost your more than the Dashboard to have custom
created! http://www.productsdashboard.com
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
E. Get the Evergreen Traffic System
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Tinu emailed and says she has added new bonuses!
Most All Her Domains Got Shut Down, She Can't Get Out Of Bed Some
Days, Her Hands Swell Up Like Balloons, Her Podcast and Video
Hosting Got Shut Down — And She STILL Snagged 3,579 Average Visits
Per Day In April 2008!
http://www.TurboProfits.com/tracking/go.php?c=7_25_tinue
Evergreen Traffic System is now sold and serviced directly by Tinu
==============================
Copyright 2009 Higher Response Marketing Inc.
All rights reserved
Hey Marlon, In one of your older “Marlon’s Marketing Minute” you wrote about a new Direct Response Blog concept, describing it as having a clear focus on one thing: CALLS TO ACTION … and you say ‘there is a HUGE difference in focus between the traditional style of blogs,what most people teach and the new type of Direct Response Blog concept.
Maybe because I’m sooo tired of blogging the Direct Response Blog is something I would like to try and I wonder if you have any more information about it.
Fran
Fran Civile
Hi Fran,
bestinternetmarketer.com/wpdash
Lorraine is updating the screen caps in it.
BUT Fran, you can learn a lot for free at videofruit.com and backlinko.com. Why don’t you start there.
Marlon
Hello Marlon,
Say what would be a good auto responder at a good price. What would you use and why.I am looking for an autoresponder,is aweber good/or to high priced.See you Monday on the Labor day Party.
Ron Ott
[Hi Ron, Aweber, Getresponse, Automateyourwebsite.com are all good. Since you are on a budget, automateyourwebsite.com is a private label of 1shoppingcart. It has affiliate software, ad tracking, autoresponders and everything in 1. It's a pretty good value. But Simon is my friend and Get Response and has a very respected service as is Aweber. I know your wife for very good reasons wants you to put a lid on the spending. The things you MUST have are some decent hosting and an autoresponder. Those are things you DO spend money on. You also need a pretty good computer and Camtasia if you can afford it.]
Thanks Marlon,
I've been following your teachings and products for a very long time now and just wanted you to know how much your appreciated. Your one of a kind!
🙂
Get 152 PREMIUM Niche Websites with “FREE HOSTING†that PAYS Directly to your Paypal Account!
http://www.Instant-Paysites.com
Hey, Marlon,
Thanks for BEing You!
Its good to Know:
'You cherish and relish
every moment life has given
You to be in this Game.'
You're Real Wholesome Presence!
Blessings & take care,
Norm A.
Hello Marlon,
Tellman Knudson called me at my house yesterday and told me that broadcasting would be illegal starting today Sept 1.And sent me to a web site I have already seen.but is this true?
[Ron, commercial broadcast messages without written consent as I read it are illegal. I don't know if they will have a digital signature they accept or not. What I use voice broadcast for is mostly non commercial informative follow ups to my list and as I read the law, that is legal. I'm NOT an attorney and not qualified to give legal advice. But Ron, from what you said this week, you have bought tons of stuff and aren't making money. Voice broadcast is the last thing you need to worry about. You need a product, squeeze page, traffic and email follow ups.]
By golly Marlon, did you know I'm getting a trimmer figure thanks to you? Yup. My butt keeps trimming up every time I read your blog. 🙂 [ ]
But I love ya for your efforts to keep my determination up – and my focus sharp.
Marlon – I wanted to take a minute and let you know that the posts you are putting up from AWeber (that's what's in the address bar) – well, they're a problem inasmuch as you can't highlight links. Or anything else for that matter.
The minute the cursor hits the screen it crashes Firefox. (I have my left mouse button pressed down so I can copy and away goes Firefox.)
I wanted you to be aware this is happening. Makes it a little more time consuming to comment as you have to restore your Firefox session, launch Notebook so you can type up your link, then paste it into the address bar.
All so I can come over here to give you a kiss.
So Smack! You Cutie!
Your forever fan – Linny
[Hey Linny, can you post one of the url's here. I don't know what posts you're talking about.]
Prehaps a better question might be!
ARE YOU GONNA PRODUCE OR
ARE YOU GONNA GET COMSUMED
[Chuck, the thing is, no one else does it to you. You do it to yourself. You choose to not product and to keep consuming. No one forces anyone to consume and not produce. It's a matter of personal responsibility.]
PRODUCE and PROMOTE. Ouch ! That article cut to the quick. I have written those words: PRODUCE and PROMOTE , taped them to the top of my monitor. I thought I was old enough and wise enough, NOT. I am done with buying the latest and greatest ebook and software program to make it in the 'game'. I make a very good living off-line by selling my employers products = PROMOTING. The owner says I am the PRODUCER
for his company. Either way, only one way to look at it at the end of the day, PRODUCE and PROMOTE. I have enough knowledge and software (some yours) to 'make it' in internet sales. As of this very instant, no longer am I a wish, hope, gonna do it, haven't done it, kind of person. I WILL have a web site up and working in the next 48 hours, even if it is butt ugly, as I realize it can and will be fine-tuned over the next weeks and months. I have PRODUCTS that have a 'want factor' , based on keyword research. I have to PROMOTE my ideas to create the revenue streams that lead to the lifestyle I desire. Let me see if I got this right, to be successful, especially on the internet, all one has to do is PRODUCE AND PROMOTE? On an ongoing and consistent basis? I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it………..
Now I'm off to GO GET IT !!!!!
Thank You Marlon for your extreme words of wisdom and motivation. Sign me out, The Producer.
If there's one thing I can count on is your solid, no bull information. I subscribe to quite a few "guru" newsletters and although I get good content, I tire of the constant bombardment of sale pitches. I am only in the newbie stage with limited funds so sorting out reputable free info has been a learning curve in itself. You're my man, Marlon, and when I'm ready, I now know who to buy from. Thanks for all you do, Kim
Hi Marlon
This is a killer one and I can't wait to have it on my twitter.
Thank you very much
Hey Marlon
Great Blog my friend. I looked and looked for your retweet link. I looked using IE and FireFox and could not see it.
I tweeted this blog post anyhow:
Check it out 🙂
https://www.marlonsnews.com/ … reading “Make Your Blog Viral, Vital & Valuable” on Marlon Sanders blog… win a Promo Dashboard
Hope you are getting some traffic from this viral element.
Have a Great Day!!
Nick Sanders
Great stuff Marlon. Already knew the permalink trick and just finished adding the tweet button to my blog. Thanks for some great guidance!
Glenn
OK. Now I feel dumb
If I'd read the rest of the hints, I'd have seen how to re-tweet your blog. :o)
It appears that w/ the newest WordPress, all the old posts update to keyword-type extensions. I can't find any more posts w/ numbers at the end after installing permalink redirect.
One of my uploads to blogs put the Tweet-ability in the right place – the other template put the code in an attached page. Don't know how long it'll take me to find the code.
I do not understand css at all, so probably never. Sure was a nice idea, though.
[Chris, if it's a techie issue, just go to rentacoder. Someone can fix it cheap.]
Marlon,
i would add that once having completed….
"g. Click "update options" and you'll be good to go. Your old links will now
redirect to the new ones. So you don't
lose any links."
one needs to make sure they have done….
"d. Put this in the custom structure field:
/%postname%/ "
-Steve
PS: i didn't do that the 1st time around and i would actually use…
/%category%/%postname%
PSS: I've been wondering 4 some time how 2 correct my link structure w/out losing my inbounds……thx ALOT : )
Just retweeted your article. Thanks for some awesome tips Marlon (as always). I loved your TweetDeck video. I learned a lot in those few minutes. Twitter has always been a little confusing as to how to follow so many people and keep it social. Thanks again!
[Nancy, I love Tweetdeck! Really awesome.]
Thanks Marlon: This has been very informative. I kinda lost my way a few years ago and sat on the products I bought from you, but with a new resurgence of passion I'm not about to drop the ball again.
Keep up the great work and I will certainly try, I mean really try to keep up this time.
[Teresa, bite off smaller chunks. Get a SIMPLER product out. Keep things simple.]
[…] This post was Twitted by homebrewers […]
Marlon, for me this could be your best ezine ever!
I screwed up my permalinks many months ago while experimenting. How timely your reference to the redirect plugin.
I haven't totally resolved my permalinks issue, but you've kindly put me on the right path after blindly trying to fix it.
Tweetmeme also is a brilliant tool.
More importantly, Marlon, you are dead on in what you said about marketers throwing us morsels at Launch time when the big guns pull their friends together to fill our email boxes.
I'm not as starry eyed any longer after throwing away many $1,000s on pipe dreams pitched by "gurus" and their well-orchestrated launches.
At one time I mistakenly tossed you out with the bunch of them, sick and tired of throwing my money and time away on expensive dreams. Boy, do "they" know how to sell us "the" dream.
And then, a friend forwarded me one of your ezines where you again offered VALUE…free. You see, I had been on your list, but I never read your emails.
Since that time, I read your emails. I've purchased some of your products. To me at least you do business the old-fashioned way…you solve problems without pitching the hell out of your products or pretending to be some cool "dude" or Hollywood movie producer or rock star or… (well, you get my point).
Ken McCarthy and you have lots in common with a down-to-earth approach to TEACHING "little" guys like me how to keep moving forward.
Thanks, Marlon.
Mike
P.S. The least I could do after receiving so much from you is to comment and retweet.
[…] This post was Twitted by pompapah […]
Hi Marlon,
You always provide excellent content and have for many years.
Consider yourself Retweeted.
Warmly,
Mitch
I enjoy your emails and would gladly help viral. However:
If I knew how to re-tweet, I would.
tweetind an email is new to me.
Sorry.