Why You Shouldn’t Do What I Did

I started out in Denmark, it was quite big, to be honest. I got lots of views each day, I got a responsive audience built up in under 30 days. It was good. I kept improving.

I have been blogging about blogging in over 2 years. I am the kind of person who can concentrate on one thing in a long time, and I have done that. If I still thought that I could give you any knowledge I would. I am empty at the moment.

I know I probably are going to regret this, but I started out to harsh. I have blogged a lot lately (or not so lately.) I need a break. A big break.

I’m not done with blogging, far from.. I love blogging, blogging is what keeps me up, it’s dying funny, all the networking and stuff. It’s great.

I just don’t see the potential in this blog anymore, do you?

I really want to thank everyone who have supported me, in building this blog and the persons who have helped a lot in the good and the bad times.

These names include Jordan Cooper, Rob Rammuny (robsfriedchickentips.com (internal joke)), Derek Jensen, Chris Brogan (awesome tutor), Henrik Blunck, Nicholas Cardot, Tee Riddle, Joe Boyle(pikachu!), Keith Bloemendaal, Michael Stenger, Eren McKay(boots? what?), Andrew Kolyvas, Suzanne Vara.

And lots more. These person have helped me being where I am now, I am exceptionally happy for all the help you guys have done. I really wouldn’t be here without, your advice, your humor, your everything. Your support. Everything thank you!

I have had fun with you guess, and I still want to be in touch with all of you, even though I am not gonna be in the same niche as many of you are.. Though I will still be blogging. That’s the point. I will still be here.

I also want to blog about blogging. But just not on this blog, not on any specific blog. I will be blogging everywhere, just in a more minimal way.. You will eventually see my name pop-up here and there..

I doubt this decision of mine, but I still can feel that it is the right thing to do.

You have been a beautiful audience. Beautiful I tell you, really.. Thanks for all the love and support, I hope that I have helped all of you a lot, and that if you have anything to ask me about, then ask me. I will still be as friendly as I were before and I don’t bite.

I am ready to move on. I will still as I have stated before, be active. I will be more active in the comments area of all blogs, because I will have the energy. I want to connect with all of you.

The reasons isn’t you, it is a mixed thing between the time it takes to find new topics, to be unique in this niche, every marketing technique is already written about, and then there’s school. The stuff in school is getting serious now, I just got the best grade in a presentation. It was heavy work, definitely.

I want to thank everyone. Don’t make up a passion, it will not be worthwhile. Follow your heart.

So this will probably be my last DaneBlogger post. See you all soon. Somewhere else!

How to Get Something Out of Rainy Days

Today in Denmark it’s a rainy day. So what to do on a rainy day?

Well of course I started off in school, last two hours was gymnastic, then I had to bicycle home, around 5 kilometers, then a shower. Then I could start being productive.

First I started with a few tweets, then I removed some stuff from my primary computer to my laptop (music etc.). After that I watched some television, there’s a series that I follow, normally I don’t watch that much television, but well I do watch a few series.

After the tv series, I tweeted some more. And just promoting my blog, and now I sit here writing.

What I Should Have Done

I know I could have done more stuff and been more productive. What I could have done, was:

1. Skipped the television show
2. Tweeted more, than these few tweets
3. Promoted some more
4. Written more than one blog post
5. Interacted with more people

I chose to priority in a more fun way, watching the series, written only this blog post. I could have done much more. What I’m trying to tell you is that you should organize your time.

Set up a schedule, for every day. In a day when you have nothing to do, just get some sleep and get up early and work. Work on your blog, latest project or something like that.

I like to have a clean desk when I’m working, so I usually always have a clean desk. It just gives me more space and room for thinking.

So when I make sure everything is clean, I can work and I want to work. I hear music and then I’m productive. So when you are having a rainy day, do something, don’t just stand there and do nothing, get something out of the day.

6 Ways to Be Circled and Not Squared

I got this idea of this blog post when I was at work last night.. I saw a board that was formed as a square. And then a circled-formed bread basket, but that’s a completely different story. Let’s jump straight to this blog post.

This is a blog post on how to stand out from the crowd. And you will look different from the other bloggers/marketers in your niche. In this case difference is good. So when you stand out from the crowd you are circled, when you follow the stream of marketers/bloggers you are squared.

It’s all about being circled.

1. Start a Blog

If you are in a offline or online business and your business do not have a blog, you should start on now. IMO starting a blog is probably the main marketing you should do online. If you want to be very social (ie. use social media) you have to have a central location to send people to, with all your content.

What blog platform?

2. Develop an Outstanding Brand

Branding is huge. My brand is DaneBlogger, start your own brand. Darren Rowse’s brand is ProBlogger. Almost every successful Internet marketer is having a brand, lots of people doesn’t think that a brand is needed. You can definitely live without a brand. But, a brand is easier to remember than, a name.

People tend to call me Dane, as of DaneBlogger.. It’s like my nickname, just bear in mind that my name is Mikkel Juhl, but if you like, just call me Dane, because that’s like my nickname.

3. Use E-mail Marketing to Stay in Front

Email Marketing ins’t dead, far from, it will give you an edge over the competition if it’s done right. You can see some stuff about email marketing at this blog.

4. Network With Your Customers

Be on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, wherever your customers are located, be there interact, build a strong bound to them. They liked to be interacted with.. Anyway, here’s how to dominate your niche using Twitter. Be social, and whenever there’s coming a new social media up, join and see if it has a future, it may have.

5. Give Value. Receive Second

(This is probably one of the best advises I have for you)

You should really expect nothing in return, and just give them value first, regardless of whether they will buy your products or not.

Maybe start with a free product and then when they’ve read the awesome product you will be able to sell.

6. Get Your Own Theme, or A Premium Theme

This is relatively important. If you buy a premium theme of WordPress, you will be seen as serious. Because you want to pay for your blog. If you get you own design, you will be able to build a brand from that theme. The theme can follow you everywhere.

Hope you enjoyed todays blog post.

You Need A Mentor

Yep, I can promise you that a mentor will be more useful to you than almost anything else.

Now, I could end the post at that… but somehow I don’t think Mikkel would publish it, would he?! Haha, nope… I am going to explain what a mentor is, how they can help and possibly even give you some examples of who mentors can be.

What is a Mentor?

“A wise and trusted counsellor or teacher”

Wiktionary.org

“Someone who guides another through a process”

Joe Boyle

“Someone that gives guidance, a teacher.”

Keith Bloemendaal

Right, so a mentor is somebody that you can talk to and learn from… that makes sense!

My personal definition of a mentor is:

“Somebody that you can turn to for advice and who lets you learn from their mistakes and successes”

Shane Hudson

Now we know what a mentor is…

How can I learn from a Mentor?

If you are planning to copy everything they do… STOP! Your mentors will have had a lot of experience in certain areas, learn from their mistakes and successes. Simple as that. If they did something wrong (though I am sure as mentors they would be clever enough to know to learn from their own mistakes!) then you should figure out why they did it, what went wrong and how you can prevent yourself from being in the same boat.

You can also do the same to their successes, what did they do right? How can you replicate, but not copy, their success?

Who can be my Mentor?

Well, in theory… everyone. Of course, some people may not be as good as others at teaching and giving advice but that does not mean their advice is not worth listening to! In fact, I do not believe that the person you think of as a mentor even has to know who you are!

What you may not realise is that you almost certainly already have many mentors! Think: parents, family, friends, teachers, authors, celebrities.

Although I do not recommend doing everything your favourite celebrities are doing (maybe I just don’t like fashion!) there can be things you can learn from them. It is also a good idea to have mentors in completely different areas to you, this way you do not just copy them!

My own mentors include (but are not limited to): my parents, friends, family, teachers, Roland Millward, Paul Sabaj, Lindsay Branscombe, Sir Richard Branson (though he stole my childhood dreams.. but that’s another story, haha!), Gary Vaynerchuk and indeed… every person I have learned a thing from.

The mentors that I have listed I have spoken to the majority of them before (though not met in person!), this does not have to be true. Most people that you are not able to speak to (eg. celebrities and historic people) usually have a lot written about them. Read some (auto)biographies, you can learn a lot from them!

Who are your Mentors?

Now you know mine, who are your mentors?

10 Tips to Attract New Readers to Your Blog

Blogging is a means of putting down your thoughts and ideas for others to read and take some sort of action. The reasons behind blogging are not really what matters much unless it is a chore or the feeling like you would rather go to the dentist and have four teeth pulled than write an article. What really matters is that you know why you are there, writing some really good content that drives people to do something, a call to action.

New bloggers struggle to get readership as much as intermediate or even long standing bloggers. Growth is a big part of your blog as lead generation and finding new people to do something not only pays the bills, it also intensifies your passion for blogging. I know that there are those out there that believe that they would have the same passion for blogging if they were not making a dime or of they were making millions. Ok, I trust you but if the readership is down, sales are down – ultimately the blog goes down. It is a cycle that we do not like to think about but encompassed in passion is drive and when there is no drive, the passion is lost and the preverbal wall is hit and little by little the blog articles decrease until one day you realize it has been a month and nothing has been posted.

Bloggers alike will agree that growing your blog never stops. Sure, you may be happy with your 200 or even 2000 or so readers each day as you have probably connected with each one of them in one way or another and built an online community around your blog. But what if you could reach 25 or 50 new readers each day and you can interact with them and then their friends and their friends. If you are a follow the numbers person this is music to your ears as watching the traffic numbers increase is really something pretty to look at. How do you grow your blog, isn’t just writing great content and pushing it out to your regulars enough?

10 Tips to Attract New Readers to Your Blog

1. Social Networking Sites

The ones that come to mind are Twitter and Facebook. You are more than likely already doing this. What about LinkedIn and industry niche platforms? LinkedIn is for job seekers right? Think again. It is a business platform where you connect and share information with others in groups and by answering questions. People will buy from people they know – and read blogs of people they know.

2. Webinars

Webinars that you tune into live almost always have a hashtag to follow on Twitter. You are exposed to others who share your interest of the webinar subject and can connect with new people by sharing thoughts about the webinar on Twitter. Connecting with people is exposing yourself to them and building a relationship.

3. Forums

Oh how I love Forums. American Express Open Forum, Third Tribe Marketing, LinkedIn Groups. Forums pack the most punch when it comes to meeting, engaging and helping others. Talking with people and helping them solve a problem is not only exposing your knowledge, willingness to help another but having your signature line have your company name, blog link and possibly an email address, is that inviting subtleness that lets them know that you have a blog and also that you are open to receive communication outside the forum.

4. Monitor Trends

Monitoring trends and getting your article up before everyone else is no easy task however, if you are on top of what is going on and keep a close eye the just when the trend starts or right after it peaks, you can get great exposure to the article and your blog. Follow Twitter trends directly from your twitter page or a freehandly tool is Trendistic. Remember, Google loves new, fresh content.

5. Read and Comment on Blogs

This is not just the a-listers. Find up and comers and read and and comment. They will be very appreciative and return the favor. They will relate to you well as you share a common thread – both up and comers and searching for ways to get new traffic. Friends read friends.

6. Read Other Commenter Blogs

Ever see the same person over and over commenting on a blog but you never really paid much mind to see if they have a blog? Find it! If they are loyal to the blog that you both are reading and commenting on, they very possibly will be loyal to those that read and comment on theirs.

7. Exceptional Content

Do you homework and write great content … content that targets keywords and also asks people do do something. The content can be the best in the world however if no -one is reading it then it is pointless especially if it does not drive it back to providing value for your business. Yes, it’s about the readers but giving them the information and them clicking off to go on to somewhere else is not providing any value to your business. Value is determined by your business strategy and what you want out of it. Are you solely looking to build your online community? Are you looking to attract new customers, new people to comment on the blog? Determine why you are blogging and then write with that in mind.

8. Interests

You have other other interests outside of work right? Well, so does everyone else. You never know who may meet that could become a customer from a shared love of futbol. It is always very easy to find fans of teams that we love and come together as one but yet when it comes to business, it seems as if we lose our ability to connect easily and freely.

9. Local Community

There is a world on the other side of the computer that is waiting for you to emerge. Going to meet-ups, networking events, sporting events is another way to meet new people and get exposure to your blog. People will be curious to see what this blog is all about especially if they are a blogger. Competition is high to see if your blog matches up to theirs.

10. Article Marketing

Ezines, GoArticles are two very popular sites that you post your articles to with the understanding that the articles may be and most likely will be republished. The articles are required to be republished “as is” with your bio paragraph as well copyright information.

There are many ways to grow your blog and increase readership. These have proven to be effective for me. The best advice to grow your blog is to first to identify why you want to grow your readership. While this may seem like it is obvious to increase sales or get new clients, the articles are not always written with this in mind. An article that is a list of how to or ways, etc. needs to have enough usable information for the reader to go and put it into motion. If it works for them, they become a loyalist. An article with an affiliate link needs to entice the reader enough that they have to click the link. Growing your blog is a long term strategy as it involves time and a whole lot of commitment. People want to connect with the author and learn more about them and know that they really care about their readers by interacting with them. We know that people love to share any mentions of themselves and who they are friends with. Be that person.

What have you done to grow your blog? What has worked and not worked for you?

Suzanne is the founder of Kherize5.com, an advertising and social media marketing agency for small businesses and publisher of a blog that provides advertising and marketing tips.

One of The Biggest Blogging Mistakes

Back in the day, no one even knew what blogging was. Now, blogging is so popular that many of us couldn’t do what we do, without one. In fact, more than 133 million blogs have been indexed by Technorati since 2002 and 77% of Internet users read blogs according to Universal McCann.

However, out of all these blogs, how many actually succeed? Well, not too many sadly. You by now know all the great benefits of blogging. It’s blatantly obvious what is possible. With all that is possible though, too many get caught in one of the biggest mistakes of them all:

Being Boring!

I don’t know how many blogs I come across every single day that are just lifeless and make you really scratch your head. They’re just like everyone else. Their design is like everyone else. Their content is just like everyone else. Sure, you may think that your blog is great but if it really isn’t after analyzing your competition, exactly what are you trying to do?

One of the biggest things you can do to set your blog apart from the rest is really bring something unique to the table. We’re not talking about content people have never read before on a concept that’s never been thought of.

See that plain design? Get rid of it. Read those, in all reality, boring posts now from a different perspective? Become a better writer. You see, the bloggers that tend to do the best, are those who are unique. They’re different but at the end of the day, they’re pumping out content just like everyone else.
The difference? They add their own personality and flair and really stack the value. Their blog isn’t a huge turn-off and even if some are basic, they’ve done something decent to them.

Over 133 million blogs…just think about that number for a second. Are you REALLY bringing something different to the table or are you just lying to yourself? Either way, you’ve got two options: Either on the list or crumbled up and thrown in the trash can.

What things are you doing differently with your blog and what, in your opinion, makes you unique from others?

Mike Stenger is a social media consultant with a strong passion of business and all things Internet. You can find Mike at his blog where he talks about success, business and social media strategies. You can also follow Mike on Twitter

April Fools a Day for Salivating Dogs?

Everyone keep asking me, what I have planned for april fools. I might disappoint you, I have got NOTHING planned.

Doesn’t it kind of ruin the point of april fools when everyone is sitting there like salivating dogs waiting to see what’s going to happen?

So I’ve decided, I’m not doing anything this april fool. Or next april fools. Until people stop expecting it. Then… BAM!

Why You Will Get Better Results With Educated Readers

In Denmark blogging ins’t that rare. You don’t see every second person blog, far from. I do not have any numbers, but far from everyone is blogging. Still a lot of people don’t know what a blog is.

I don’t tell my friends about my blog, my Twitter profile, you could say that I separate private stuff away from business, or reverse?

The case is as following: in Denmark not everyone knows what a blog is. How to set one up, they definitely doesn’t know that. One of my friends once was bored, he did a simple Google search for the term “mikkel juhl” – and my blog was there.

He thought, hmm, that’s cool. He asked me ‘how do I get a blog?’ And I just told him some basic stuff. Though he wasn’t that serious.

He told it to a mutual friend, which is a sports freak, we run together twice each week. So we talk about everything, that just is going on our minds, while running. (It’s fun, you should try it.)

So while we’re running, he told me that he had done a Google search for me and my blog, because he heard about it from my other friend. He thought it looked cool, also because I make money from it. (This guy is a bit more serious.)

So because we were out running, we talked about how to set up a blog. He thought it was, crazy. He was ready to start out with some blogging.

He is starting out with a blogspot blog. And because of his sports freakishness he chose to write about football (soccer for some) he is going to write weekly reports from matches in Denmark. I shared a few tips with him, how to get some traffic.

To be honest, I think as the time moves on he will get some serious traffic, he will probably not be able to live of selling stuff in that niche. Though I think that you definitely can make some good AdSense earnings, at least a couple of bucks. And if you just enjoy it, then you don’t have to make the big money to keep rockin’.

Today’s Lesson

What you want to learn from this is that you need to educate your readers. Not everyone is that Internet savvy. I talked to the redhead of our universe and he said that around 60% of all Americans would know what a blog is.

Then how many do you think would know how to subscribe to your RSS feed?

How many would know how to grow oregano? Or potatoes?

People wants to learn new stuff. They do not want to just shit there, and feel like they are morons. They need to learn stuff, make it simple.

Simplicity rocks!

How to Get a Consistent Rush of New Followers Everyday

We are in a time, which is like a “twitter-period” which means every time someone mentions social media, you probably would be thinking of Twitter or “microblogging”. This is not a bad thing. Everyone is on Twitter, even some bicyclers have a passion for Twitter. Lance Armstrong, Andy Schleck including many other riders are on Twitter.

Now Twitter isn’t only for riders, many are using it. Including me and some of my closest Internet marketing friends. Actually I met one of the coolest Internet marketer on Twitter. His name is David King, he is helping everyone.

He knows some of the keys to get lots of followers daily.

Following Targeted People

This should make sense, to follow people and they will follow back.

But most people will only follow you back if:

• You have a profile picture of you (should be a smiling picture)
• You have a custom background (looks more professional)
• You are writing quality Tweets (you would be worth to follow)

So if you can pass on these things people are more likely to follow you. Well number one and three are the most important rules. If you have a profile picture, people will remember you for the picture. People remember picture better than text (it’s actually proven). So when they see that profile picture they will check the background (if there is one) and after that the Tweets.

After the Tweets they see the follow button, if they want to follow you. Now everybody haven’t set the Twitter notifications on, when getting a new follower, so they might not see that you are following them. How to do that?

It’s simple, just write them a reply. Write something like “@DaneBlogger Hello, how are you today? Hope you enjoy writing on your blog.” Be sure to praise the Twitter-er for his/hers work with the blog or something else that the Twitter-er is doing/working on.

Interacting With the Targeted People

When you are following them, they may not follow you back just like that. Even though if you have written a reply to them, then you have to try in another way to make them following you. It could be by replying to their tweets. Reply does not mean a tweet like this “@DaneBlogger That’s right.” You have to debate and give your opinion.

Interacting is one of the best way to gain new followers and to maintain relationship with your followers. If you interact with your followers they will feel that someone is listening to them, it is especially great when tweeps (twitter people) that doesn’t have that many followers get a reply. They really appreciate replies, because they don’t get them that often.

The reason why we are interacting is NOT only because we want to get followers. We want to build a relationship with the Twitter-er because if we have a strong relationship with our followers they will link to us, retweet our tweets, just being very helpful in general. So after you got the follow you still need to interact with them, because that will give you more influence.

Retweet Other Tweep’s Tweets

Everyone appreciate to get retweeted, it is one of the easiest ways to get a reply to your Twitter account because they might say: “@DaneBlogger thank you for the retweet, I really appreciate it!” then you have a reply and tweeps that follow his Twitter account will see your Twitter account as a link and they may follow you then.

Conclusion

You actually just need to be active interact, follow and retweet, do it daily and you will get lots of new followers every day, it may take you around 1 hour (or more) “work” per day, but it is worth it, if you create a relationship with your followers, get trusted, they will retweet some of your tweets!

If you want to learn more about Twitter and how to get lots of targeted followers I can recommend these free Twitter videos, they are created by David King, remember the guy I told you about before ! Just keep in mind, these videos are completely free!

You can watch the free Twitter Influence videos using the link here. Hope you enjoy the videos, I know I did!

Monetize From Day One vs. Build Up an Audience at First

There is a discussion when it comes to blog monetization which will never end. Before now. Because I am going to end it.

Monetize when you start a blog vs. wait with the monetization till you get an audience.

Ads are ugly. No matter how hard you try, ads will always be ugly. You can make ads look better, though they will always look like ads. So it is impossible to make it look good.

On day one you will probably not get that many views and nor will you have that many the day after the launch. So if there is no people on the launch, and ads require people, then why have ads?

Ads can hurt your brand your brand, could be recognized as the one with the ugly, bad implemented ads. That will be a stupid way to start your blog.

Some people think that monetization is completely wrong, so if you start out with amazing content and no ads, they will stay. Later on you can monetize and they will not care, because they are getting used to your content so they stay.

The Myth

Some people have created a myth that goes somewhat like this: “If you aren’t monetizing from day 1, people will not tolerate when you start getting ads. So they will leave your site.”

I think this is wrong. Because they are used to see ads elsewhere, it is not like it is a completely new world to them. So they will, especially if you deliver great content, tolerate that you want to make money writing these amazing tips to them.

Loyal readers don’t care whether you have ads or if you have no ads. The thing is you have no loyal readers to start with. You build those overtime.

You should start monetize when it is most profitable.

What Monetization Strategy Suits Your Blog?

PPC Advertising – PPC advertising is like AdSense, this is great for blogs which have “cheap” readers. Readers who doesn’t buy stuff, but are looking after solutions. When it comes to PPC advertising you just have to experiment with everything, the location, what colors.

The money you make still depends on how many visitors you have got. But it is easier to make money here, with not that many people.

Affiliate Marketing – Affiliate marketing is used a lot on the Internet. You get paid to refer someone who buys a product.

With this kind of advertising, you will have to have some loyal readers, and readers who trust you. This can be a hard way to make money, in the start.

Sponsored Reviews – sponsored reviews is the way where people buy a review from you, and you place it on your blog. This is a great way to make money.
But you have to have a blog with an audience who interacts and numbers to show. In that way they will be more likely to offer you the job. You should give your honest opinion on this review. Don’t scam your readers.

The list goes on and on. There is no end for the way to monetize your blog.

When is it Most Profitable to Monetize?

It all depends on your audience, the type of blog you run and what kind of monetization strategy you go with.

As a rule I would say you at least should have 100+ unique visitors to start monetizing and then keep providing great content. Just make your ads look good. That’s important. No one want to look at a blog with ads all over the place. If you want ads, show them with style.

When do you think your blog will be able to make money? Now? Then go for it. I just think you shouldn’t do it from day one.