I have many different success stories I can go into but here are two very simple ones.

The first is for a young mand in Omaha who has started his own lawn care company.  He had a zero advertising budget so he could not take advantage of adwords but he did have a little cash and wanted not just a website built but SEO work so he would rank higher in the search engines and get him clients for free.  I took on the job charging next to nothing for him because I love to help out young business owners because I was only 19 when I started my first company and no one would give me the time of day.

Here he is 6 months later and he now has a nice list of clients.  He did no other advertising.  NO PHONE BOOK AD.  NO PAYING FOR ADVERTISEMENT AT ALL.  I spoke with him just this last week and he got a total of 6 calls over the weekend and booked 4 of those jobs.  I should also mention that 3 of them are now wanting him to mow every week for them.

Another great example is a man in Fort Collins CO.  After 20 years of carpet cleaning he started his own company.  Like most small business owners he had very little funds and no clients.  He spent a total of 700 dollars with me for a website and SEO work and now he brings in clients every week from his website.  That 700 was a one time fee.  It’s been nearly 8 months since I did anything for his website and he is still bringing in the cash.

When it comes to small local businesses who offer a service like the above it can often times be the best investment they will ever make to have a website built for them and SEO work done.  It is not too hard to have a company rank for their service if they only serve a local area.  Getting ranked high for omaha lawn mowing or carpet cleaning fort collins is far easier then most think.

So to sum it up yes a website is a must for small businesses.

Another great story comes out of this recession we are in.  A small horse tack supplier in a smaller city of 100,000 thousand people was seeing his company go under.  He worked hard but people just wasn’t spending money on horses.  After all for most people, having a horse costs a ton of money.

He turned to the internet for salvation.  He now makes most of his sales online and ships out product to places all over the world.  Sure it did cost him an up front investment of three thousand to fully set-up his website, SEO and training but he has already made his investment back and he swears that if he did not open a store online he would not have a company today.

For those super micro companies with no budget at all you can still get a website up and going for very little cash.  All you need to do is purchase a domain name at a place like godday.  Setup a hosting account some were like hostgator.  Then find someone who will build you out a site.  Many people can get a great looking site built for under 200 bucks.

When it comes to SEO work you can always find tips online for doing it yourself.  This site in fact has many guides on doing SEO to rank higher.

If you want a free consultation on your website I may be able to help.  Just post a comment bellow with your website and I will get back to you soon.

Today we are going to examine one such site.  The burl is http://www.destinationstationseries.com/. The company is Iron Fire publishing and they just finished their first children’s book called “The Greedy Race Car Driver”.  I my self ended up making an order because it is a rather unique product.  More on that later.

The reason we wanted to examine the site is because it’s 100% flash based.  That means that the on page SEO factors (Search Engine Optimization) will be very limited.  They can still place in Meta tags like Description and Keywords as well as a title but that is it.

Situations like these require a blog.  Luckily they must of known this because they implemented one.  It is very important for all based flash sites to have an area of the site that can be used for on page SEO factors.  Search engines can not read flash pages and if your site is all flash they will not understand what your site is about and you will have to focus on off page SEO as well as other means of marketing to drive traffic to the site.

Having a blog will not only help them drive more traffic to the site but if you examine theirs you will see they are using it to relay information to their potent ional customers and make announcements about their first book.  This is the perfect example of a business that would require a Blog.

I do think they should implement a kind of newsletter that members could subscribe to.  This would enable fans who like the book being able to keep up to date with the next book in the series and it’s a great way to gain repeat customers.

Now I mentioned earlier that I purchased the book.  The reason was from the article I found on Ezine articles called Teaching Children Values Through Reading.  This book series is called a project book.  In a nut shell you not only get the book but a rather large wooden race car that goes with the book.  The car has to be assembled and thus the term project book.  I think this is a great way for me to spend time with my 7 years old and at the same time build the toy with him and read the book.  The book is about teaching a very important life lesson.  Read the Ezine review for a full review or just visit their site and see how it is built.

Think how much harder it would be to sell this book if they did not have a blog.

Be sure to post your comments.  I have already contacted the owner of this site so he should chime in soon as well.  I’m sure this publisher would love to hear your feedback.

Picture three would-be entrepreneurs, each signing up for a seminar on Starting Your Own Business.

· The first one thinks, “Great. I’d love to leave my job and work for myself. I’d rather work hard and be my own boss, even if it’s risky.”

· Another one smiles, as he imagines the endless possibility of being able to pursue his hobby as a business. “I could take the early retirement my company is offering, and make a little extra money doing something I enjoy.”

· The last one envisions something entirely different. She’s been working on a new invention. She thinks to herself, “If I can get the funding, I know I can build a business that will make millions of dollars.”

Each of these entrepreneurs might use the same words, but they have quite different concepts in mind when they say, “I want to start my own business.”

My experience

When I first went to work for myself 12 years ago, I fell into the first category. Like most self-employed individuals, I was looking for a way to be my own boss, to make sufficient income to support myself, and to have interesting work to do. But I didn’t want to have any employees or added responsibilities. It worked. For well over a decade, I provided consulting services as a self-employed individual. I had independence, interesting clients, challenging work. I worked hard, but also had enough spare time. I made enough money to support myself. But eventually, I realized that, as a consultant, I was selling my time, not leveraging my work into more lasting value. The minute I stopped working, the money stopped.

That’s when I decided to start a different kind of business, not just have a job. I wanted something of lasting value not just current income.

The Four types of Businesses

Based on two primary factors — the role of the business for the entrepreneur and their long-term plans for the business — I developed a set of four classifications to describe the different scale and scope of businesses. These are:

1. Additional Activity: Entrepreneurs who are launching an “Additional Activity” business have additional sources of income or can survive on very little income. These fortunate entrepreneurs are able to choose which business to start based primarily on how it meets their personal goals, not their financial requirements.
2. One Man/Woman Band: The largest group of businesses falls into the classification of “One Man/Woman Band” companies. These are simply one-person businesses that provide critical income for only the entrepreneur. You know many people who have One Man/Woman Band businesses — consultants, hair dressers, construction workers, doctors, Lawyers, and on and on.
3. Career Business: Overwhelmingly, the majority of businesses with employees fall into the category of “Career Business.” By “Career,” I don’t mean that they have gone to school to do this, although I certainly wouldn’t blame them if they did. Instead, what I mean by “Career Business,” is that the goals of the founders/owners for the business are fairly well balanced: the business is designed to be a career for the owner, and it provides jobs for others. The business provides current income and may be capable of providing lasting value. The business is big enough to support growth but small enough for the owner to be able to control it. You deal with “Career Businesses” every day. They generally have two to 25 employees, in all kinds of industries.
4. Visionary: These are the businesses that get all the press — the exciting, sexy, risky new businesses that aspire to great heights. The entrepreneurs who starts a “Visionary” business hopes to grow huge and one day sell the business or go public. They require greater amounts of money to fund. Obviously, only a very small number of companies succeed as Visionary businesses. Many fail completely; others are revised into more manageable, career businesses.

Remember, having a bigger business isn’t the right choice for everyone. When I decided to change my “One Man/Woman Band” company into a “Career Business”, it didn’t solve anything, my problems and my debts increased, and my income and spare time decreased.

So find the right kind of business for you and your needs and lifestyle. And remember, your goals may change over time — just as mine did.

Jesus was a Failure too! I don’t want to get into a pissing match with you about the fact that you think that Jesus was perfect, but in fact he was not, now don’t get me wrong, i don’t believe he ever committed a sin, but I have to believe he made mistakes.

This should make you at least feel better about your own life, if you are emulating Jesus. This might come to you as a surprise but I will allow you to process the information below.

Think for a minute, Jesus was a carpenter, now I am willing to stake my entire existence on the fact that while Jesus was perfect in the site of God, he still failed as a carpenter.

You are a Failure too!

Have you ever experimented with power tools? I have and the old adage of “measure twice, cut once” has yet to be a fool proof way for me to make a perfect cut. Typically I have to take multiple cuts to get the board the right length, and I have a Bosch 18” radial arm miter saw with a Laser line to make sure that you cut it in the right spot. Home Depot loves me for this, not only did I buy the saw there, but typically when I’m doing a project I make at least 3- 5 trips that day, all because i either forgot something or i failed and doing it right and need more materials.

Now to my point, when Jesus lived they didn’t have power tools, everything was made by hand. Therefore it leads me to believe, while I can’t prove it, that Jesus cut a few boards the wrong length,  they were either too short or too long from time to time and so while you look at Him as a perfect being, He was in fact a failure at his profession.

However the thing that made him a perfect teacher was that He knew that Failure was part of the learning process, so He happily Failed, He would say to himself (I’m totally making this up) “So what if I cut the board the wrong length, or so what if I chiseled it down too far, I’ll get it right the next time, because there will be a next time.  I’m not going to let a little mistake from allowing me to get it right.”

“What the hell does this have to do with making your BlogSavvy?”

The main difference between people who are successful and YOU, is they didn’t give up when they made a few or a ton of mistakes. If Your like 90% of the people in this world, you simply have a bad habit of giving up after a few times of Failure, but that’s the secret, here it is, you are supposed to fail, SO now you know it do something about it, if you publish a post with spelling errors make a point not to do that again, if you aren’t very good at affiliate marketing, then learn how to do it better, learn how to get a better conversion rate.  My point is blogging is hard, and while there are those that succeed, we have faild over and over, and it only looks like we don’t fail as much, simply because we already have done what you are now starting to do.

Really Nice Shot, If you were trying to NOT hit the target then you are the best I’ve ever seen.  If you were trying to hit the target then. YOU SUCK!.  The problem is if I asked Blogger’s what their Target is most won’t be able to come up with anything specific other than: “lot’s of traffic”.  But what exactly does that mean.

Traffic

There are 3 types of blog traffic Direct, Referral and Search Engine Traffic.

• Direct Traffic

Direct traffic is from someone, anyone typing in your web address into their browser and coming directly to your site, this also counts for those who have your site stored in the Bookmarks part of their browser.  This traffic is specific to you, these are you everyday readers, they come to your site “often” to check out what’s new and to catchup on what has been happening.

• Referral Traffic

Referral Traffic, comes from many sources, but the most common is any link on another site to your site.  There are multiple ways of getting referral traffic and that will be discussed in length in a follow up post, but for now, know that it could come from a comment you left that intrigued a reader, they liked it they clicked on your name in the comments, if you remembered to add the URL to your name so they could jump directly to your site.  They could have come from a link, such as a blogger mentioned you, and but a link to your site within a post, simply put, Referral Traffic comes from other bloggers or websites.

• Search Engine Traffic

This ones a little more difficult to explain, let’s use an example:  you go to Google and type in “Blog consultant” you then choose a site based upon the information given, most of the time the user is going to select out of the top 4-6 links, depending upon relevance.  Then the user comes to your site, they are looking for the specific search term they entered into the search engine.  If they find it right away they check it out, if they don’t they “bounce”.

What kind of traffic are you aiming for?

That is the problem,most bloggers are simply aiming for one type of traffic, referral, and while this is a good source for the short term if you don’t convert them into regular readers all of the work and effort has been wasted.

Check out this post if you liked this one

I have been looking around for a site that has listed the best blogs, and ran into 45n5.com which is run by Mark Wielgus.  I took a good look at the site, and while I was impressed with such a compilation I was curious to see if while it says it was updated weekly if it truely was.  The Top 50 were sure to be all active, meaning active within the last week, So I started at the bottom and you can see the results below.

It’s no wonder why so many blogs are unsuccessful, you can see it, most blogs start out with fire, 20+ post within their first month, then maybe a repeat the next month, but the 3rd month it seems to be the hardest,  there’s an imaginary wall.  Why?  Is it blog cramp? Is it lethargy? What exactly is it?

No Commitment

Yes it is, you can fight me on this, and I would love it if you did, but those who don’t stick with something are simply not comitted to it.  I think of someone running a marathon, while I have never ran a marathon, I’m not committed enough to do it.  So this is more metiphorical than a real life example,  but you have to “REALLY” be committed to running inorder to run a marathon.  You not only have to train everyday, run like crazy but you have to also eat healthy, you have to take care of your body, you can’t smoke, or drink too much and you have to be committed not only to running but to multiple aspect in your life.

Now what

In shut up and blog, I talk about commitment, if you are truely commited to doing something you will do it no matter what, even if you aren’t making any money or becomming famous by it, you do it because you love it.  The example below is simply the facts, many, many blogs are started each day, and yet 3 months later they are DEAD.

Watch for Part 2  (200 – 299) coming later , but for now what can you learn from seeing what others have done, or better yet not done.

If you just so happen to be on the list and haven’t updated in a while, recommit yourself, and for those who are DEAD, good luck and God Speed!

It’s funny, blogging as it comes to mind create opportunities and gives you the ability to create something of value. Darren Rouse over at ProBlogger has a post today that I wanted to take the time and mention because it is something that makes all the difference when it comes to blogging.

The thought of just cranking out an article is great when you have something to say, but if that is what you tried to do everyday, it is no wonder why so many give up, trying to crank out a blog post every day would eat you alive. So Darren shares some great things to think about as you “Craft” a post, rather than just “punch” one out.

Here is the list to consider:

Choosing a Topic – take a little extra time defining your topic and the post will flow better and you’ll develop something that matters to readers.

Your Post’s Title – perhaps the most crucial part of actually getting readers to start reading your post when they see it in an RSS reader or search engine results page.

The Opening Line – first impressions matter. Once you’ve got someone past your post’s title your opening line draws them deeper into your post.

Your ‘point/s’ - a post needs to have a point. If it’s just an intriguing title and opening you’ll get people to read – but if the post doesn’t ‘matter’ to them it’ll never get traction.

Call to Action – driving readers to do something cements a post in their mind and helps them to apply it and helps you to make a deeper connection with them.

Adding Depth – before publishing your post – ask yourself how you could add depth to it and make it even more useful and memorable to readers?

Quality Control and Polishing – small mistakes can be barriers to engagement for some readers. Spending time fixing errors and making a post ‘look’ good can take it to the next level.

Timing of Publishing Your Post – timing can be everything – strategic timing of posts can ensure the right people see it at the right time.

Promotion – having hit publish – don’t just leave it to chance that your post will be read by people. Giving it a few strategic ‘nudges’ can increase the exposure it gets exponentially.

Conversation – often the real action happens once your post is published and being interacted with by readers and other bloggers. Taking time to dialogue can be very fruitful.

Become a Craftsman

I have taken this to heart long ago, as it is easier to “Craft” a post, instead of trying to figure it out in 15 min. Too many times we as information providers want to create something, and in order to do so, we need to provide Value, or so enough you will have a little audience to provide you useless information to. So, That being said, you need to think of your self as a Craftsman, instead of just simply a blogger, while the idea of blogging is unique and has it’s place, such as this post, that was done after readying Darren’s post.

The majority of posts need to be Crafted and developed over a period of time, while it doesn’t make sense to take a month to write every post, and while some posts come directly from inspiration, and can be done quickly and give value, most are going to take time.

Develop a Blog not just a bunch of posts

Part of developing your blog should be the idea that it is more than just a blog it is a Blog, and has inherent value in it’s name, the site, the content, you as a contributor, etc, etc. You should keep in mind that if you ever hope to make any money from your blog you will have to create demand. Just as Problogger has done, can you think of a stronger Blogging brand? Other than BlogSavvy of course! You can’t ProBlogger has developed his entire business model into one large revenue stream. Think of the whole picture give you the sense that Blogging is more than just making posts.

Yes i’m being serious, shut up and blog, too often I hear people talk and talk and talk about how they wish the blogged or started a business, or went skydiving or whatever. The sad part is in 5 years from now they will still be talking about how they will or should do … insert your own unfulfilled promise here. Simply put talk is cheap, which is why most people do a lot of it, acomplishment has value, both of what you put in and what you get out. Ask anyone who has done something you admire if now that they look back on the journey to do this amazing thing, if the learned anything, chances are they will say somehting to the effect of more than I will ever know.

So Get Going

Now that we have an understanding that blogging will be tough, and that there will be work involved, how about you do some of that, yeah i mean work. It doens’t have to be 5 posts a day to start off with, it can be as simple as 1 post a month. Commit to something, anything and then keep your commitments. Most people fair not because they didn’t try, most people fail because they were commited to that failure was an acceptable outcome from the beginning. If that is your mind frame, please do you self a favor ad disreguard my advise, do not start blogging. To you: I say just sit right there on the couch.

What next?

What’s next you ask, it’s simple, commit yourself to “doing” and then DO. I know it sounds way too easy to simply be just that, but honestly it is that simple, yet most people will think I’m full of it and won’t do this simple thing that will essentially provide them all that they are wanting and then some, and to you who doubt, I wish you luck because luck is all your going to get.

Step 1 – First things first.

Chose a domain. This is going to be the most difficult part, as most assuredly the one you really want is already taken, so be creative, use part of the name and part of something else, one of my favorite company names is OGIO, short simply and until they chose it for their domainname it hadn’t been used before, so branding could be developed to create the brand, since there wasn’t one before. The other option is to purchase a domain that is for sale or you if you find that the domain name youreally, really want isn’t for sale you can always use whois to find out who owns it and contact the with an offer to purchase it.

Step 2 – Register your Domain

this one is simple, use BlueHost. I used Bluehost to register my first domain and currently

they are hosting 45 domains for me all with one account, and heres the great part they charge $6.95 per month and you get:

UNLIMITED Hosting Space (NEW!)
UNLIMITED File Transfer (NEW!)
Host UNLIMITED Domains!!!
2,500 POP/Imap Email Accounts
SSH (Secure Shell), SSL, FTP, Stats
CGI, Ruby (RoR), Perl, PHP, MySQL
2000/2002 Front Page Extensions
Free Domain Forever!
Free Site Builder (NEW)
24/7 Superb/Responsive Sales/Support

So i have 45 domain names registered and hosted with one account so i pay just 6.95 per month! It can’t get any simpler than that.

Step 3 – Setting up WordPress

Now that you have found a domain name, registered it with Bluehost and have a Bluehost hosting account you are now ready to set up your WordPress blogging database. Why WordPress you ask? WordPress is simple to navigate, simple to operate and there are tons of free Themes out there to give you your style, and if you really want to brand your self have Blogsavvy help you to design a custom theme. Now login in to your Bluehost cpanel and scroll down to the bottom of the Bluehost cpanel and look for a program similar to the logo below.Click on it and once inside of the program you will see a just how simple it is to install your WordPress blogging software. Below is exactly what you should see, simply click the button, new installation and in 3 simple step it will setup your blog for you! It can’t get any simpler.

Short description: WordPress is a blogging software with a focus on ease of use, elegance, performance, and standards with a huge selection of themes and plugins.
Homepage: http://wordpress.org/

WordPress support forum
(We are not associated with the support forum)

New Installation (2.5.1)
Disk space required: 5.63 MB
Disk space available: 1535718.5 MB

Now you will set up which domain you want to install the database on, select your domain, leave the install in directory space blank, now you will create your administrator User name and Password, this will be your login info into WordPress, then give the Admin a nickname, and enter an email address, this one is used only for the Administrator of the blog, then click Install WordPress,

Install WordPress

The next screen will tell you where it is coing to install it and what the name of the database will be called. Simply click Finish Installation and your ready to begin blogging!

Install WordPress (2/3)

The MySQL database and MySQL user milliot1_wrdp6 will be created and used for this installation.

- You chose to install in the main directory of the domain gettomonkey.com.
- The access URL will be: http://gettomonkey.com/.

Click on Finish installation to continue.

Step 4 – Begin blogging

Now that your blog is set up go to http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin and you will see a screen similar to the one below:

Use you Administroator Username and Password and your done. Now take a look around and you will see that it is very user friendly and if you get brave write a post and send me a link to it in the comments and i’ll check it out.

Congratulations you are now blogging!

So, here’s your chance to get hold of not just a great established PR 5/6 ‘about blogs’ site that could easily be converted into a damn good publication with ads sorta thing, but also a business in it’s own right that’ll get you heaps of contacts for blog consultancy, development, design and whatever else you fancy.

Check out this Google for Blog Consultant, for example.. .not hard to get to number 1 again

Bidding starts at $5K and you can walk away with it today for $10K.