Last year at the Blog World Expo 2008, I was totally inspired by all the talks given by the Fab Five – four of whom are shown in the photograph below (Zac Johnson, Jim Kukral, Darren Rouse and John Chow). Notice that ShoeMoney is not in the photograph shown. He must have been off networking.

Anyway, I learned so many things at the conference that helped me with my business plans and I will always be grateful for that.  I don’t really like to reveal numbers about my income levels, but since last year in September, my affiliate income has increased by 660%. My blog traffic is now getting 14,444 unique hits a month and I can live on my affiliate earnings. I owe a lot of this success to the great information that I received from the Fab Five at the Blog World Expo 08.

I was also recently invited to attend the Shareasale ThinkTank that is going to be held in Newport Beach, California.  Without the training that I received at the conference, I never would have been successful enough to be invited to attend. So I thank you Fab Five again. Should you consider me to receive a pass to the conference I would be so grateful. I look forward to learning much more about being successful on the Internet.

Sure, you can get readers to your blog when you have already established some notoriety for yourself, such as writing a best selling book like The 4 hour Work Week by Tim Ferris.  Maybe you have somehow gotten masses of people to a website through some special offer like Zac Johnson did. Or you could be a popular blogger like John Chow who now has such wildly successful friends that they sit around discussing how they can’t live on $10,000 a month income anymore.

The question is, how do you get people to read your blog when you are first starting out and you don’t have these incredible stories to tell people?

Well, the answer is given to us by Denise Wakerman, co-founder of The Blog Squad. She has been assisting professionals and small businesses to use marketing strategies on the internet to improve their businesses.

Here are her 23 best tips to get more traffic to your blog

1. Post nearly every day  on your blog; the more you post, the more readers you’ll have.
2. If you have more than one blog and it’s appropriate, cross post to drive readers to each blog
3. Write and submit articles to directories with links to the appropriate blog
4. Write and post news releases online, about onece a week, with links back to the appropriate blog
5. Provide links to blogs in email signatures
6. Comment on other blogs
7. Write posts with links to other blogs and mention the blogger’s name (if they’re watching Google Alerts then they know you’ve posted about them and will usually visit your blog)
8. Thank people who post comments via email
9. Put links to your blog in product than-you emails
10. Put links to your blog on than you pages people see when they purchase your product and services
11. Encourage people to subscribe to your blog in follow up email autoresponder messages
12. Put blog links on LinkedIn profile, MySpace profile, Facebook profile and Twitter
13. Put links to your blog in your ebooks
14. Put links to your blog in your bios
15. Tell people about your blog when you do presentations
16. Encourage people to visit your blog when they sign up for your ezine so they can get even more free info
17. Put a featured blog post with a link in your weekly ezine
18. Pull blog feeds into your Facebook profile and other social networks
19. Include blog links in signature blocks on forum posts
20. Submit your blog to all the blog directories and search engines
21. when appropriate, direct people to specific blog posts to answer their questions in discussion forums
22. If you post videos on video sharing sites, include the URL for you blog in the description
23. Most importantly, write informative content using keywords that will be picked up in organic searches

When planning strategies to get more traffic to your blog, be sure to make a committment to yourself to post as frequently as possible and to provide your readers with some fresh new ideas. They’ll be glad you did.

Next post: Getting People to Comment on Your Blog Posts

John Chow

Have you ever wondered why some blogs become wildly successful while other blogs become ghost towns that no one visits?

In a recent interview on Breakfast Television, expert blogger John Chow was asked what is the biggest mistake that new bloggers make when they start blogging. His response was that it is a big mistake to start blogging just for the money. He recommends doing a blog just for fun.

When people start blogging just for the money, they neglect the passionate side of themselves. People like to read good content from others who are passionate about their topic. Choosing something to write about that you feel a lot of passion for basically makes the job, well, not a job. John said, If you are passionate about it, it’s not really work, is it?

If you can actually take that advice to heart and focus on what moves you everyday, then you are tapping in to an unlimited source of energy and insight that you can share with others.

John Chow was also asked what his original goals for his blog were. He said that he originally wanted to make $2,000 a month. Basically, to make a full time income with part time blogging. Currently making over $30,000 a month from his blog, he has surpassed his goals.

How does he suggest you get people to read your blog? His overall, number one strategy that cannot be overstated enough is to have good content. No one is going to read your blog if you don’t have good content.

Produce good content and then you have got to get your name out there. John suggests that getting your name out there is a matter of finding other bloggers who are writing in your niche area. Stop and say hello. Leave a comment on their blog that will benefit their readers. Link back to something on your blog that will help that audience.

Getting readers is all about linking to each other in the blogging world. A blog is like one big link chain, as far as I’m concerned, said John Chow.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YklanpTMQ8M

What do you have to contribute today? What can you offer the blogging community? Perhaps an attitude of giving is the best one to have when it comes to writing and owning a successful blog on the internet.

Each guest was asked questions about what made their blog successful and what they recommended to others who are starting out a new blog.  They discussed issues such as which programs were making them the most money, whether Google Adsense was really Webmaster Welfare, and what topics are the best to blog about. They talked about how long it takes to establish a good blog and what to expect from your blog at the beginning.  All of them agreed that you need to have a passion for the topic you are going to be blogging about to avoid the dreaded “abandoned blog.”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5T17234L4Q

Superior Blogging Class Videos

Before I continue, I need to say that I have found a much better video of this Blog World Expo Blogging Tips session than the one I took.  It covers the entire 45 minute session and you can even see me sitting in the audience. I’m the blonde on the right, below Jim Kukral.

I found this today after discovering that Twitter has a search feature that you can search for keywords. Just click on that link and replace the word “keyword” with whatever you want to search for. It’s a great way to hear the latest on the topics you are interested in.

Guest Blog Speaker  – John Chow of JohnChow.com

John Chow gave some good advice to people starting a blog. He recommended several things. One of his favorites is making money with the WordPress Themes through the Thesis Showcase Gallery

• Blog about something you feel passionate about
• Lay everything out on your website blog and be honest about all your offerings
• Use residual affiliate programs
• Offer direct advertising to people
• Offer great content

He mentioned that if he were to shut off his website blog, he would still be able to make a five figure income because the affiliate programs he offers people are all producing residual income. He also got to the point where he used his Google adsense advertising areas to offer direct advertising and immediately made more money.

Guest Blog Speaker Brian Clarke of CopyBlogger.com

Brian Clarke gave these blogging tips

• Repetition is the key – Talk about things over and over again
• The worst thing on a site is banners – the best things are product reviews where you convey to people that you are a real person, you used a real thing and you should too – teaching sells
• Don’t be a cat blogger where all you talk about is your cat.
• You may want to check this out with him, but he says that he’s able to make a lot of money from recommending WordPress Themes through the
• Build an audience and find out what they want to buy.
• Build an email list
• For handling newsletters and email lists, use AWeber
• Write for people, not search engines
• Word of mouth traffic is golden
• Use Chitika for advertising

Guest Blog Speaker Zac Johnson of ZacJohnson.com

Zac Johnson’s blogging tips

• Zac started on the internet 12 years ago and he’s only 26
• He makes 5 figures a month
• He likes direct ads and blog ads
• Meet with and talk to affiliate managers on a regular basis
• Zac tells people on his blog how he made $860,538.38 in 4 months

Guest Blog Speaker Darren Rowse of ProBloggers.net

Darren Rowse recommended these blogging tips

• Put ads inside of the content of your posts
• Affiliate products that you personally recommend sell well

Thank you to Jim Kukral who inspired me to invest in a Flip Video camera! He shared with the audience that these five star bloggers, pardon the language…”Bust their ass with blogging.”