Although I’m not anywhere near a “super affiliate” status, I can see that I’m getting there and will be there one day. Personally, I’d rather sell my own products because I can make more money, but the great thing about affiliate marketing is that you can test the waters with someone else’s product first and if you see there’s high demand, you can create your own similar product.

E-Junkie and ClickBank

There are lots of places you can go to find affiliate products to promote on your blog, but two of the more popular ones I’ve been working with (the most) are E-Junkie and ClickBank (yep, those are my affiliate links).

Since this article is about 1 way to find hot products to promote on your blog, I’ll leave my comparison of the two for my next blog post, so be sure to stay connect via my RSS.

However in this article, we’re going to focus on how I find hot products that sell in ClickBank.

Researching ClickBank

The first two things I consider when looking for affiliate products to promote on my sites (not just my blog here), are:

1. Is the product relevant to my site or article
2. Does the page I send people to convert

I think most bloggers consider #1 above, but I’m willing to bet that not as many novice affiliate marketers really take a look at #2… so let’s focus on that.

Watch the video below and I’ll show you how I use ClickBank to find products that convert well for affiliates (be sure to click the full screen viewing mode [the little TV box]).

Questions and comments are welcome below. And if you have a method for finding hot products to sell on your site(s), please share and let’s discuss it.

Related posts:

1. My Take On Blog Posting Frequency and Making Money
2. Blogging For Money: What's The Best Way To Make A Profit?
3. Choosing The Best Kind Of Affiliate Marketing For Your Website

How to Use Emotional Copywriting to Kick-Start Your Sales.

I’ll see you there!

Related posts:

1. 3 Sentences, Post 1: Marketing

This post is meant as the second part to an SEO article I wrote a short time ago called, The Ingenious Way To Use SEO. In that article, I talked about how great SEO isn’t just about keywords and backlinks, it’s mostly about research and investigation.

To quote, I said:

But with a little in-depth research into what people are looking for online, how they’re looking for it, what keywords they are using, and what my competition looks like, I can create a site which can get ranked relatively easy with some high quality backlinks.

That’s a pretty bold statement, yeah? So let’s talk about it.

In that article I showed an example of how I do some investigative research into “what keywords they are using” and in this article I’m going to talk a little about the last two statements in that sentence:

1. What my competition looks like
2. Finding dofollow links

The Two Firefox Add-ons Needed

In this exercise, you’ll be needing 2 Firefox add-ons:

• SEO Quake – Used to check out your competition in the serps.
• NoDoFollow – Used to check if links are dofollow.

1. SEO Quake Add-on

I love this add-on. What it does is allow you to check out what your competition looks like in the search engines. Here’s a screenshot:

In the example above, I did a Google Search for “car repair”–and yes I used the quotes, and if you’re not sure why, it’s because putting your keyword phrase in quotes tells Google to only return websites with those keywords together in them.

Without the quotes, Google might return a site with just one keyword in it, but I want both so I used the quotes (Tip: This information tells us the correct number of returned [competing] results)

For each site, I typically look only at two things:

• The PageRank of the competing site
• How many backlinks are pointed to that particular article / url

So in the image above, the first returned result (DIY Auto Repair Help) has a PageRank of 6 and 3,698 inlinks.

What specifically I’m looking at in the returned results…

I’m looking at the first page or two of returned results and examining my competition.

If most of the returned resulting pages are PageRanks 0-2, I know I can beat them; if it’s 3 or 4, I know it’ll take a little more work, if their PR is 5 or above, I look for another keyword phrase to rank for.

I also look at the inlinks Yahoo Site Explorer shows. It’s good to know how many links this page has pointing to it. If you’re not sure why, leave a comment below and I’ll explain it.

SEO Quake Settings

This part is important, because I had to learn the hard way that SEO Quake can get your computer’s IP banned from the Google Search engine. This is because we’ll be pulling lots of information from their database and if we hit their database too hard all at once, they’ll ban us for about an hour or so.

If it happens, don’t worry too much, in about an hour you’ll be back on.

However, I’ve since learned a decent setting for SEO Quake that I’m happy with.

Once SEO Quake is installed, go to Tools => SEO Quake => Preferences and use the settings I’ve shown in the screenshots below (unless you want more information than I’m looking at):

2. NoDoFollow Add-on

This is another awesome Firefox add-on which can help with your SEO investigation.

Many of you have probably heard of the “nofollow” tag, if not, here’s an article explaining the nofollow and dofollow tags.

What this add-on will do for you is tell you if a place where you’d like to leave a link is going to be a dofollow or nofollow link; obviously, you’d like it to be a dofollow link.

Here’s a snapshot of how this add-on makes links look and how you can tell the difference between dofollow and nofollow links:

I think that image above is kind of funny. It’s a snapshot from the Problogger.net comment section. Everyone knows that site is a major authority site and carries heavy weight in Google. Therefore, many people leave comments with their keyword terms as their Name value “thinking” that’s going to help their website’s SEO.

Wrong!

By using this add-on, we can see that the person who left a comment with their name as, “Webmasterfind Blog Blogging for Beginners”, is being a bit silly. Because Darren’s comment section is nofollow, leaving that keyword phrase as a link back to their site adds no SEO value whatsoever.

So how do I use this add-on for my research?

First let me say that I don’t only leave comments on blogs which give me SEO juice. I only do this kind of research for sites I’m interested in upping its SEO.

So using this add-on, I’ll check out some blog articles, forums, and .edu and .gov sites which might let me leave a comment or link with a dofollow. I’ve even emailed a few college website owners if they wouldn’t mind linking back to one of my articles on SecureMyBlog.com.

I learned about it a long time ago and I don’t really remember where, but as far as I know, Google carries heavy weight on .edu and .gov links. When you can get them and they are on the same topic as your article or site, go for it!

One thing to remember, though.

Google likes to see things as if they are happening naturally and not all planned out. So if you leave a comment on a blog or forum which isn’t a dofollow site, no worries, that actually might be a good thing. Do I know that for sure, no not really. But I do know that Google likes things to look unplanned and not plotted out, so that would seem a little more natural.

Your Turn

So there you go, between my last SEO article and this one, we’ve learned about finding the right keywords to go for in your niche, how to analyze your search engine competition, and how to make sure the links you leave on other sites are dofollow.

What SEO products do you use and like… or dislike?

Related posts:

1. The Ingenious Way To Use SEO
2. Google Keyword Tool + Top 50 Google Tools Bloggers Can Use
3. 25+ SEO Tips For Getting Ranked Well In Search Engines

Yes I admit it, I’ve never been a fan of websites which interrupt me and pop up a banner telling me “You need to do this!” But you know what, if you’re wanting to attract newsletter subscribers, it’s a great way to increase how many people sign up for it.

Recently, I’ve completely reworked the layout, feel, and what’s on my WordPress security site. There’s an about page, articles page, contact page, but the big change was the addition of a free video mini course on securing your blog which is prominently displayed on the home page.

You see, if you really want to connect with people… and I mean really connect, you need a newsletter. I’ve always wanted to start one and knew they were powerful, but for some reason or another it’s never been at the top of my to-do list.

Well it is now and I’m sure I’ll be talking more about using one in the future as I gain more experience.

So today’s experience is about a new WordPress plugin I’m using called PopUp Domination.

As the owner of a niche site which deals with WordPress security (SecureMyBlog.com) and also the owner of a blog which talks about my experiences with WordPress and other related blogging ventures of mine, by default my blog becomes the authority site for my niche site, or at least that’s how it should be.

Since I get more traffic to my blog than I do SecureMyBlog.com, I set up the PopUp Domination plugin here so that my optin for my free mini course is made easily available to all my blog’s visitors, who ideally are primarily WordPress bloggers.

Since the installation of this plugin, I can easily say that I’ve noticed 3x the amount of people signing up for my newsletter.

That’s pretty good!

Why does the PopUp Domination Plugin Work So Well

Because standard popups you get from your Newsletter company (I use MailChimp) use popups which aren’t all that exciting. This plugin makes your popup more attractive and inviting.

Why I Wait 20 Seconds To Show My PopUp

Last night I attended a Webinar from a somewhat famous and most definitely very rich guy from New Zealand named Mark Ling. He’s an affiliate marketer and during the webinar someone asked the question as to what he’s found is the best wait time to pop up an optin banner.

He said 20 seconds.

He makes millions of dollars a year doing this stuff and when he speaks, I listen!

So there you go. The low-down on my new popup you see here on my blog. If you want it, get it here:

Popup Domination WordPress Plugin.

Please note the PopUp Domination links are affiliate links of mine

Related posts:

1. How To Install Google Analytics On A WordPress Blog Without Using A Plugin
2. 2 Killer WordPress Security Plugins You Probably Don’t Know About

Simple.

It illustrates how easy I’ve made it for my blog to be backed up. I figure this is where I was the other day right about the time my computer kicked on and backed up my blog for me.

How easy have I made this process? As easy as me doing nothing after the initial set up.

Yep, that’s right. My entire blog’s backup process is on autopilot and takes no further work from me to do–and in this article, I’m going to show you how I do it. (Note that SyncBackSE links are affiliate links)

2 Methods You Can Use To Automate Back Ups

The best two methods I know of to automate your blog’s full backup process is either:

1. A combination of a free database backup plugin and the program SyncBackSE . . . or
2. The BackupBuddy plugin

Each method will cost you a little money up front, but hey… your blog is worth it, right?

I use method #1; but let me first explain how these two methods work and then I’ll explain why I use method #1.

Method 1: Using SyncBackSE and a Plugin (way I do it)

Cost: $30

Backing up the database on autopilot

There are a number of database backup plugins for WordPress you can use. If you don’t already have one, Google “WordPress database backup plugins” and I’m sure you’ll find a few. I use the WP-DB-Backup plugin by filosofo.

Make sure whichever database backup plugin you install lets you run “Scheduled backups” and then set up the plugin to email you your database backup once or twice a week.

Okay… database backup set on autopilot, now let’s move on to your web hosting files.

Backing up your hosting files

To create a full backup of your site, you need both your database backed up and your web hosting files.

SyncBackSE is an AWESOME program.

There’s a one time fee of $30 to buy the program (free to try) and it’s well worth the money. Imagine one day if you or a developer mess up your blog, or your blog gets hacked… this one time charge of $30 could save you hundreds, if not more, down the road.

Here’s a screenshot from their site of some of the things you can do with SyncBackSE

Once you got the program, use the scheduling feature to automatically download all the files on your web hosting account to your computer. You can even have it zipped up. The scheduling can be set to back up your site however often you want, and it’s so easy to set up.

One question you might have is, “How does this program automatically back up my hosting files if my computer is turned off?”

Yes this is a program which runs on your computer, not your web hosting account like plugins do. So the way around this is to simply tell your computer to “Hibernate” rather than do a full shut down when you turn off your computer. It’s perfectly safe.

This will let SyncBackSE automatically turn on your computer and run its scheduled backup.

Pros: For $30 you can back up an unlimited number of any kind of website–yours, your clients, test blogs, html sites, blogs, etc. Also, you don’t have to store backups online, they can be downloaded to your computer automatically.

Cons: You’ll have to make sure your computer is on for a scheduled back up. This can be worked around through the use of putting your computer in hibernation mode.

Method 2: Using the BackupBuddy Plugin

Cost: $45-$150

This is an excellent premium plugin (hence the cost) and it will back up your web hosting files and database. You can even set it up to run on autopilot. Here’s a screenshot:

Backing up the database

Just like other database back up plugins, make sure to set this one to regularly email you backups of your database. Database file sizes are usually small enough to do this.

Backing up your files

Have the plugin scheduled to automatically back up your hosting files and store them on a web server. From there, you’ll then be able to manually download this zip file to your computer. For security purposes, I highly recommend that you don’t leave full backups of your site on a web hosting server, so be sure to delete the backup which is stored online once downloaded.

PROS: Since the plugin resides on your web hosting account, it doesn’t matter if your computer is turned on or off, the script will run either way.

CONS:

More expensive to set up than Method 1 and without shelling out $150, you’re limited to a specific number of sites you can use this plugin for. Also, this plugin only works if you have a WordPress blog. If one of your other sites is an HTML site on another domain, it won’t back it up.

Conclusion

If you don’t have a good system in place for backing up your blog, find one! Keeping regular backups is extremely important and as a blogger it’s something you need to put on your to-do list.

I personally use Method #1 because for $30, I can use a plugin and SyncBackSE to automate the back up of however many sites I want, regardless if they’re a WordPress site or not. BackupBuddy is still a good option, though.

So pick a method and check that item off your blogger’s “to-do” list.

Related posts:

1. How To Fully Backup WordPress Anytime With Just A Few Clicks
2. More Web Tools To Make Your Life Easier & More Profitable Online
3. Blog Hacking Alert and What You Need to Do Today!

• Tweaks to WordPress
• WP Security
• Online Marketing
• Blogging Tips
• Content Writing
• SEO

And a few others, but lately I’ve been reading a few SEO articles and forum posts and I gotta say, so many people get “good” SEO keyword research wrong.

Maybe not wrong, I suppose–just not well thought out enough.

You see, to truly succeed in whatever it is you want to do online, you must realize that 90% of the game is “Intelligence” (i.e. research).

Think about how this works in war. Assuming both sides have the same technology to work with, who would you say has the competitive edge, the ones who spend a lot of time doing reconnaissance and research into their enemy, or the ones who simply learned how to use their weapons and blindly jumped out of their holes shooting?

SEO is the same way.

You need to research what people are looking for. The problem is, so many people only do the job half way.

Okay, so what do I mean.

Basically, SEO is about finding what people are searching for online–yes, but it’s also about finding what people are searching for online which also returns very little results (i.e. competition). In other words, don’t go for the big piece of the pie unless you’re willing to put years and tons of work into content, backlinks, etc.

So for example, one of the reasons why I don’t blog on a consistent schedule is because I’m busy making money online. I make more money online doing other things than I do through my blogging endeavors.

Right now I’m starting the process where I’m building a niche website for my mother. She knows a ton about how to incorporate your business in Nevada, the best state to incorporate in. But simply designing a site is not enough; I need to drive traffic to the site and make it sustainable without much work from me down the road. I’m just too busy to keep going back and “working on SEO” for my mom’s site.

But with a little in-depth research into what people are looking for online, how they’re looking for it, what keywords they are using, and what my competition looks like, I can create a site which can get ranked relatively easy with some high quality backlinks.

My mother’s target customers are people looking to incorporate in Nevada.

So typically what you’d do is head over to the Google Keyword Tool and do a search for that keyword and see how many people are looking for that keyword phrase online.

Here’s the snapshot:

Looks like there’s 9,900 searches each month for that keyword phrase. Now the next step is the part that so many people forget to do. Now we need to know how many sites we will be competing with.

So head over to Google.com and type in the search, “incorporate in Nevada” (with the quotes) and see how many returned results you get. I get 15,500.

That’s actually not that bad. But can we do better?

Let’s take a look at “incorporating in Nevada”. It only has 2,400 searches each month but guess what? When we head over to Google and type in “incorporating in Nevada”, the returned results I get are less than HALF.

That means I have just cut my competition down by over half.

So I might want to really try and target, incorporating in Nevada as my keyword because there’s a lot less competition.

There of course is a lot more to market research than this, but I hope this example made it clear how good SEO keyword research not only involves how many people are searching for something, but also takes a good look at who you’re going to be competing with.

If you want to rank near the top of Google, try to pick something you can easily rank for.

Related posts:

1. 2 Firefox Add-Ons Which Can Get You To The Top of Google
2. SEO Tips For WordPress Bloggers by Matt Cutts
3. Google Keyword Tool + Top 50 Google Tools Bloggers Can Use

An online buddy of mine, Keith Davis, asked me a great question in regards to WordPress 3.0 security. He asked:

Hi John

I notice that WordPress 3.0 has now been released and we are all urged to upgrade.
I would have to make changes to my theme to make it compatible with WP 3.0 and since I’m not looking for additional functionality, the only reason I would upgrade is for added security.

The only reference I can find to increased security in version 3 is the ability to change the default username from admin – but most of us will have done that anyway as per your advice.

Would you say that an upgrade to version 3 is essential on security grounds?

Great question… and here’s my response.

It seems the security enhancements in WordPress 3.0 really only apply to those end-users who are installing WordPress for the first time (manual install).

For better WordPress security and help keep malicious hackers locked out, it’s a good idea to do the following three things:

• Choose a different username than the default “admin”
• Change the default database table prefix to something other than wp_
• Add WordPress security keys

As Keith mentioned, I’ve shown him (and others) how to do those things in my ebook, WordPress Defender. WordPress 3.0 just makes it easier for you to do those things all during the setup process; in fact, the security keys are created automatically for you (see the video below).

So Keith, to answer your question about upgrading, no it’s not necessary in my opinion to upgrade right away; however, realize that although WordPress says they aren’t planning on a 3.1 right away, you never know. Tomorrow we might all discover one major security hole and every one must upgrade immediately.

If I were you or someone else in your position, I’d start planning how I’m going to upgrade real soon. You might contact your theme’s author and see what their plans are.

How To Install WordPress 3.0 Manually

Don’t forget, before you do a WordPress upgrade, it’s important to first fully back up your blog.

Related posts:

1. WordPress 2.8.2 Has Been Released & Provides Security Fixes
2. How To Install WordPress Manually and Why Beginners Should Do It
3. How To Upgrade WordPress Manually Video

Okay, I’ve been online for quite a while now and blogging for about three years and without reading any further, I already knew what this post was going to be about. Ironically, that post itself was a post similar to three or four other posts I’ve read before, but those were put in a much more elegant way… and I’m sure if you’ve been blogging for awhile, you probably know what this article was about as well.

In case you’re new to blogging though, let me explain.

Every now and then you’re going to come across some seasoned blogger’s blog and see an article telling you the following things:

• Everything that needs to be said has already been said online
• Stop writing what everyone else has already blogged about
• Why don’t you come up with your own ideas once-in-a-while for an original blog article
• I hate blogs about blogging tips–there are 10 billion blogs out there about it already (same for making money online blogs)

…you get the idea.

Aside from the more seasoned and successful bloggers being extremely limited on time because they are busy making money online, realize that one of the reasons why they typically won’t stop by and comment on your blog is because chances are if you blog about blogging tips, they are way ahead of you in that game.

But I’m here to tell you that it’s okay. If you want to blog about making money online or blogging tips, then blog about it.

Let me tell you, in my 35 years of life on this Earth, I’ve learned a few things. Such things as:

• Follow your heart, but be mindful of the logic in your brain
• It’s impossible to keep everyone happy, especially if you’re trying to make money
• People don’t always know what’s best for you
• To be successful, you need to discover your true self and build from there

If you’re blogging about blogging tips, these seasoned bloggers aren’t going to be your target readers anyway.

I’m not saying what they are saying doesn’t have merit, because it does to some degree. Unless you’re coming up with something really unique, then many of these bloggers are just going to skip you by and read someone else’s blog.

But so help me if you don’t write an article on using banner ads on your blog simply because blogger A tells you not to.

New Blogger’s Game Plan

The first thing you need to understand is that unless you’re writing on a very rare subject, like Keeping a Healthy Bearded Dragon, it almost doesn’t matter what you blog about, somewhere online someone has probably already hit on the subject and the only way you can “be different” is by mixing your own experiences into it.

Also, realize that you’re not going to make everyone happy, so brush that off your shoulder right now. In fact, I can’t think of anything really that will make everyone happy.

Here’s the secret ingredient for being successful online. Are you ready for it? Okay, here it comes…

The secret ingredient is, good research and planning.

Yes there’s more to it than that, but without that… that “secret ingredient”, you will work really really hard and probably get somewhere really really slow. It’s only after you’ve done your due diligence in researching your target market that you can move on to pissing off the people I mentioned above and moving on to being a success.

Good research and planning might include:

• Clearly defining your goals
• Getting a clear understanding of who your target blog readers (and customers) are going to be
• What your blog is going to be about (create a quick elevator pitch)
• Researching forums and taking a look at the kinds of questions and concerns your target readers are asking
• Going to Amazon.com and searching for best selling books in your target market. Look at the Table of Contents and be sure to hit on those topics on your blog
• Using the Google Keyword Tool to see what kinds of things your target market are searching for

The list goes on, but I think you get my point.

To be successful online, it takes having a good attitude, planning, strategy, heart, tools of the trade, and execution. I’m sure there’s some A-list blogger out there who has a better list, but that’s mine.

So to those bloggers who tell new bloggers, “Stop F’n writing the same shit”, I say to them, “Stop F’n telling people what to do with their lives”.

Okay… so there’s my rant for the day.

Related posts:

1. A-List Bloggers & Everyday Bloggers, They Do Things Differently
2. John’s Top 5 Crash and Burn Blogger Mistakes Which Keep You Poor
3. New Regulations For USA Bloggers May Be Around The Corner

There are many more questions I could list out and answer, but one came in the other day which I’ve briefly mentioned before but felt maybe I should go into a little more detail on.

Question: Is it better to put my blog in the root of my domain, a subdirectory like /blog directory, or in a subdomain? Also, what’s the difference between them?

I know it’s a sucky answer, but there is no right or wrong answer with this one. Here let me give you the differences and then you can decide which option is best for you.

Here’s a quick look at the different URL structures these options come with:

Case for your blog in the root

Your blog’s web address is easier to remember and from my experience, it seems the top level domain (i.e. the root domain name) seems to be liked more by Google than subdirectories. Aside from that, this option might be good if your blog is the only reason why you have a website.

Case for your blog being in a subdirectory, like /blog

The best reason to put your blog in its own subdirectory would be if the main part of your website was set up to sell something or do something other than being a blog.

For example, let’s say you sell shoes online.

In this case, it would make more sense to create a website for selling shoes and then stick your blog in some subdirectory, like /blog, where people can click over and read what you have to say. Also, from an SEO standpoint, many times people who talk about your company might give you two links, one to your root domain and one to your blog. That’s link juice times two.

Case for putting your blog in a subdomain

This is a major change and decision.

Subdomains don’t work like subdirectories when it comes to search engines. A subdirectory (see above) is considered to be part of the website contained above the subdirectory whereas a subdomain is considered by search engines to be like it’s very own mini website.

So a link to http://yoursite.com/blog will give link juice to http://yoursite.com whereas a link to http://blog.yoursite.com will only give link juice to http://blog.yoursite.com and not http://yoursite.com.

I know, it’s a little confusing. Let’s look at an example to clarify.

Let’s take another look at the example of a website which sells shoes.

Your root domain might be an e-commerce site where people can search for the shoes they want and make a purchase. To help with your search engine rankings, it’s great if people link to you with words like, “buy shoes” or “insanely cheap high quality shoes”. These links are what helps Google determine what your website is all about.

Now let’s say your blog, which is contained in the subdomain blog.yoursite.com, is all about making money selling shoes online. Well, that’s not what your main website is about, right? That’s about getting people to your site and making a purchase, not about how they can make money selling shoes online.

Since your blog is contained in its own subdomain, it keeps all its own link juice for “selling shoes online” while your primary site keeps all its own link juice for “buy shoes here”.

See the difference?

In another example, you might want to put your blog in a subdomain vs. a sudirectory because your blog is about support issues or product service upgrades. You don’t want Google indexing your primary website as a product support site, right? That might happen though if your blog was in a subdirectory.

Confused? Comment below.

Related posts:

1. WordPress Management: Cleaning Up Your Root Folder
2. My Take On Blog Posting Frequency and Making Money
3. Start A Blog: Free or Paid? WordPress or Blogger?

And as any good experience does, I’ve been taught a lesson or two along the way and since my blog is mostly about things WordPress bloggers might like to know, I’ve been asked many questions over the years.

After thinking about it for awhile and also digging into my email / blog comment archives, I’ve noticed a few questions asked more than once by different bloggers, mostly newbies.

So I’d like to take a moment and do a Q&A session in hopes this article might help newer bloggers skip ahead in their learning curve so they can quickly forge ahead in their blogging endeavors. Realize, however, that every blog is different and what works for one person doesn’t always work for the next.

6 Blogger Questions and Answers

1. Should I go with a free blog or hosted blog?

This is probably one of the first questions bloggers are faced with when deciding to start a blog.

“Why pay money when I can get one for free?”

It makes me think of that song with the lyric, “The best things in life are free… (that’s, what I want)”.

However, as a blogger that’s not what you always want.

I wrote an article awhile back, called Start a Blog: Free or Paid? WordPress or Blogger?, where I talk about this question. If you really want a more in-depth look into this issue, check out that article.

The general answer, though, is to ask yourself “What is it I really want to do with my blog?”

Free blogs are good if you only care about your content and not much else. You could also toss in there that they’re good for those who are completely computer illiterate. But if you know even a little on how to get around on your computer and the Internet, that might not be a factor.

Hosted (paid) blogs are good if you’re looking to do more than just write articles online for the purpose of conversation. In my opinion, if you’re looking to make money from blogging and have total control over your blog’s design and options, then this is the option for you.

If you’re still unsure which to go with, I’d choose the hosted option if for no other reason than the fact that if you start with a free one and then one day realize you need a hosted blog (graduate up), you’re going to find yourself with a BIG mess in trying to figure out how to move your blog without losing search engine traction and blog subscribers.

Plus, web hosting for your blog is dirt cheap. If you can’t afford $6.95/mo. for something you’re going to spend many upon many hours working on, you need to rethink where you’re putting your money.

2. What’s the best way to secure my blog?

Buy WordPress Defender of course.

It’s impossible for me to tell someone with just one email how to secure their WordPress blog from attack. There’s more to it than simply installing plugins and keeping a strong password.

The best way to secure your blog is to first understand that you are a target–no matter what you blog about, and then take a little time and invest in learning what you need to do.

That is the best way to secure your blog… education and implementation!

3. Why is duplicate content such a big issue?

This might seem a bit complicated to understand at first, but I think with a simple analogy it will become crystal clear.

Let’s say you wrote an article called, “How I Met an Alien from Zibwaggy”.

You’d expect that Google would index your article in its search engine and most likely since there are literally NO other articles on the Web about this topic, you would be listed at the top of the search engine results.

But before you published your article, you had sent it to someone for a review and they liked it so much, they decided to steal your content and publish the article, word-for-word, on the their blog at the exact same time you published yours.

Who’s article should Google give original credit to?

Who’s should be listed first?

See the dilemma?

If you have duplicate content laying around all over the Web, it’s difficult for search engines to sift through it all and determine which article should be returned for that search. After all, who would use Google if for every search returned were duplicate copies of the same article.

You could have duplicate articles like this:

http://yourblog.com/how-i-met-an-alien

http://yourblog.com/archives/09/how-i-met-an-alien

http://yourblog.com/tags/space/how-i-met-an-alien

Google would not want to return all three of these to their users, just one. But which one is the right one to return?

The only way to be sure Google knows is if you tell it where to look and where not to look.

4. I want to start a blog to make money. What should I do first?

In this case, before you even start your blog you really need to take a close look at yourself.

Do you have that needed entrepreneurial spirit? Or are you just looking to make a little money without working too hard?

To make money online, you need to become a business minded person to some extent: study data, learn where to put money, how and where to advertise, etc. Trust me, it’s not easy at first (but it does get easier). Surround yourself in the beginning around people smarter than you and try to soak up everything they are doing and learn from them.

Above all, be humble. Realize that you don’t know everything, but then again, neither does anyone else. You rarely will make mistakes, instead you’ll simply be making progress.

Find your passion, discover the message you want to tell people, create a good story around it, and push yourself. And don’t forget that a good entrepreneur must first truly discover who they are.

5. Should I incorporate my blogging business?

If you sell something, I always advise to form either a LLC or corporation.

If you make money by selling other people’s stuff, I always advise forming a LLC or corporation.

So in general, if you do business online, I suggest forming a business structure. You’ve got to protect yourself and your assets. I don’t know about you, but I don’t keep up with every small change that happens in what’s lawful and what’s not; what’s going to get you in trouble with the FTC and what doesn’t.

If you’re going to make money from other people, form a business structure.

6. What are 3 important SEO considerations I should make when first starting my blog?

Okay, I did reword this question and narrow it down to 3 comments because, well, if I didn’t then we could be here a long time talking about SEO considerations.

The first is platform. I’d recommend a self hosted WordPress blog for that.

Next is crawlability. You want clean URLs (no parameters like ? or = in it), no flash on your site, and limited amounts of scripting, like Javascript.

Then it is all about how you focus your blog. You want to focus the site on just a few key areas of your business. In other words, focus your blog on a specific topic so it gets ranked well for that specific topic.

I must admit, I’ve have fallen short on item number three in the list.

My blog is about things WordPress bloggers might like to know (in general). But back in the early days of my blogging career, I didn’t know a whole lot about WordPress; so my blog was about things I did know, like real estate investing and being an entrepreneur.

As a result, I’ve noticed Google is a little confused on what my blog is about. I’m still working on splitting up parts of my blog into other mini sites… it’s on the list!

To be completely honest, the best SEO strategy for my blog and WP Blog Host would be if my blog was all about web hosting. But who writes a blog for SEO purposes only? Not me!

So there you go, six questions bloggers ask me from time-to-time.

What kinds of questions have people asked you about starting a blog and what is your response?

Related posts:

1. A-List Bloggers & Everyday Bloggers, They Do Things Differently
2. Start A Blog: Free or Paid? WordPress or Blogger?
3. 6 Things I Tell People Who Are Looking To Start A Blog