Latest Blog Posts

April Fools a Day for Salivating Dogs?

By Mikkel Juhl On April 1, 2010 4 Comments

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!

How to Write a Great Call to Action

By Mikkel Juhl On March 31, 2010 9 Comments

When you write posts and you forget to make a call to action, you leave your readers in a passive mode. Some of them will not respond to anything, they will not take action, because you doesn’t make it clear enough.

I bet if you include some of these “techniques” your blog readers will be less passive, and start interacting with you.

If you don’t call your readers to action, they are less likely to take action.

• If you want your readers to subscribe, ask them to do it – show how to do it too
• If you want them to buy something, give them a way to do it
• If you want a rate/vote on YouTube ask them to vote for you.

What Exactly is Call-to-Action?
Some people are confused with the term ‘call to action’ it is what you want people to do. Like clicking a link in the end of a blog post, reply your email, or whatsoever you want the person to do, after they’ve read your call to action.

You can call it a request to ‘do something’ – it will often be the step that the consumer could take towards the purchase of a product.

Why Call to Actions are Important

I have experimented with some call to action methods. I know some great techniques, that works on my blog, and I have compiled a short list consisting of two things why call to actions are important

• Action Cause Action – when people see, that someone else is taking action (comment, etc.) they will also be more likely to take action. They see that it’s normal to write a comment, it’s normal to retweet, it’s normal to dugg.

• Some People Need to Get a Shot in The Arm – some people only respond to comments if they are told so. If they see the author is encouraging them to take a comment, and express their opinions, they might do so.

Tips for a Better Call to Action

The following call to action “techniques” are from my experience and that means that it may not work on your blog, with your audience, though it works on this blog and,you should, from these techniques I give you, be able to customize them to make them fit your blog.

1. Use a Mix of Call to Actions

You need to keep experimenting, though you can’t use the same call to action, because that would not have the same effect every time, and the effect will probably be all gone if you use the same call to action every time. If you keep making different call to actions you will also notice that you will know why one will work, and why another one wouldn’t work.

You will get more experience on the topic, which definitely is important. You need to experiment, that’s the key when working with copy-writing. You need to keep tweaking.

2. Build up The Call to Action

A call to action doesn’t have to be at the end. You can build it up in the post. So you keep building up the call to action. Then the last line you give the last call to action – this have been very effective to me.

When you build a call to action, you will keep talking about stuff that leads to a call to action at the last point. You should talk about the call to action in every sentence though,

3. Make the Call to Action Obvious

We make our headlines big and we want people to see our headlines. The headline good headline makes people read the content, but what is a good headline without a good call to action? With a bad call to action, the good headline would have definitely no effect. Make it obvious what you want them to do and where the call to action is. Make it big and clear.

4. Make the Call to Action Simple and Obtainable

A good example is when you want to host contest. if the prizes are good, great audience, though the following rules: write a blog post linking to them, comment on their blog 10 times, retweet 3  of their articles.

Why do you think no one entered the contest? It wasn’t simple nor was it achievable. If you have a simple and achievable call to action the action will be much more likelier to be completed, thus a better result.

What Was Your Most Effective Call to Action?

I just shared my experience of call to actions, but I am still learning the aspects of copy writing, especially on this topic. I would love to hear what you have learned on this topic? I would love for you to give an example in the comments below, then we can all improve.

(Photo credit: Hiddedevries)

Become a Blogstar: What is a Blogstar?

By Mikkel Juhl On March 30, 2010 7 Comments

Have you noticed that there was zero posts the last 3 days? That was because I have been busy. I have developed an idea.

I want to make you a blog star.

I have created lots of videos on “How to Become a Blog Star.” It teaches just from the beginning of a blog, how to get started and how to keep rocking the blogosphere.

The first video is online. It is all free, and available on DaneBlogger.

The videos will teach so everyone can understand.

What is a Blogstar?

For the best use of the video, I recommend that you press the full-screen button.

Want a Transcript?

When?

The first Become a BlogStar video is already available. You just need to press ‘Play’ to play the video. You can watch every video on this address: http://daneblogger.com/becomeablogstar/

When we start out with Become A Blogstar, it will be basic. Though as the time moves on, it will be more advanced. Hope you like it.

Why You Will Get Better Results With Educated Readers

By Mikkel Juhl On March 24, 2010 4 Comments

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

By Mikkel Juhl On March 23, 2010 9 Comments

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!

Find The Focus of Yours

By Mikkel Juhl On March 22, 2010 5 Comments

What is Your Passion

What you need to know is what your passion is. What you really want to write about. What you really want to educate other people on. When you first start doing that you will be a “generalist.”

A generalist is a person who already is tells you what everybody else is telling you. It takes time to define what you really want to write about. It is not only taking time, but also experience.

When you start writing you will get an image of what your focus really should be about. It can be that you start writing about horses, but you can eventually end up to write about something else in the horse niche.

When you start your blog you will release content, and you will see what your real focus is. You will find your true direction.

You will find another direction. When you have published some content, you will find the direction. Without even thinking of it.

When you find your new direction, you will have to analyze the niche and you will see whether you can use the niche for anything, or if it is too narrow.

Of course it can be too narrow now, but what about the future? You have to think about that. You see, if you can spot what’s “going on” in the future you will be a step beyond everybody else.

Be More Specific

When find your refined niche you will have to refine your goals as well. You have to be very specific about that.

You shouldn’t set goals like “I want to earn $1000 each month” – it should be much more specific. It should be more like “I am going to make $1000 each month, by building relationships with people. I am gonna turn those relationships into “sales” and by building relationships I will make money.”

Be very, very specific. That will help you reach your goals.

When Do You Have The Right Focus?

You will see when you have the right focus.

It should be very clear that your traffic is growing. You will maybe only see a growth by 30% each month in the beginning, but if you can continue to have 30% growth, then how much traffic would you have in a year?
Do the math yourself.

To increase your traffic, I can suggest that you start analyzing your traffic. When you get a spike, what did you do to make the spike?

Also when you think you have the right focus, you need to see why people read your blog. Is it because they like your content, do they find your entertaining? By doing that you will be able to see what people eventually would buy from you.

Don’t Be a Generalist

You shouldn’t be a generalist. Because that is what everybody else is doing. You need to narrow down, find your own content through your own mind.

You don’t want to write about, the same stuff that the experts are writing about. You want to find your own stuff to write about. Dig into a sub-niche, become a specialist there.
Come up with your own ideas or maybe redefine other’s ideas, so they get more powerful and gives you a twist.

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

By Mikkel Juhl On March 18, 2010 10 Comments

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.

Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

By Mikkel Juhl On March 17, 2010 7 Comments

When you build a blog, traffic is what you want. You should try to build up a strong traffic source. It could be from Google, from other blogs etc.

There is endless possibilities when you want to build traffic sources. You can build up one very strong traffic source, but that wouldn’t be safe.

Let’s face it, if you only build up one traffic source, and that one shuts down, you will be screwed. If you only optimize for search engines and Google completely changes its algorithm, then what are you going to do? You will end up with no traffic at all.

It is all like food chains. If an animal only has one food chain, it can easily die. Let’s say one animal only eats grass, and there was no grass left on earth. Then that animal would die, and if that animal only ate that animal which ate the grass, then the other animal would die.

So if one traffic stream died and you only relied on that one, your blog would “die” too. So you need to have more than just one. I know lots of people who only rely on just one type of traffic, and I have told them that they should try to build some traffic from other ways, but they wont.

I think it is ridiculous to do it in that way. You really need to do this. I can’t state the importance of that.

Another example is if you get fired from your regular job, then you will make no money. That would be bad wouldn’t it?

Which leads us to the next point.

Don’t Rely on Just one Income Stream

The same goes with your income. When you make money online you risk that one of your income streams just stops

This is even more important than the traffic streams. Because this can eventually take a long time to build up again.

So if you just quit your job, and rely on one income stream online, and that one is dying. You are screwed. You will have no money, and that suck.

So you can build up different income streams. It could be:

• Affiliate income
• Own product/service (probably the most powerful one)
• Banner advertising
• Membership income (from a membership site, could equal product)

If you build up at least two of these streams, then you are most likely to keep getting money in. Of course you have to update the stuff and come up with new products or stuff like that.

But as long as you have more than one stream then everything would be good. Or at least you will have enough time to build up a new stream, when you can see one is going down.

How to Increase Your Creativity in 7 Simple Steps

By Mikkel Juhl On March 16, 2010 4 Comments

We all need to be creative once in a while. In fact some of us has to be creative every single day. It will be hard, though with some methods I have to share with you, it can become much easier.

“Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts.” -Rita Mae Brown

Listen to music

Whenever I am at my Mac or just my laptop I listen to music. I become creative by listening to music. It opens up my mind. Though it has to be music that I really like, or find inspiring.

It could be Babyshambles, Blue Foundation, Bloc Party, Band of Horses, Kashmir, Libertines, The Streets, The Strokes, Veto etc. The list goes on, I just feel inspired when I listen to some good music, especially if the lyrics is well written.

Read Posts or Just Read

As a blogger you should keep up with your niche. You should read other blogs in your niche, you should connect with other people in your niche. I read like 10 articles each days, I just pick from my Google Reader. Then I pick 10 articles I think sounds good and read them later on.

While reading those, I often come up with ideas to new blog posts. Which is cool. I can read and then get ideas, which means that I do two thing I should do at one time, isn’t that cool?

If you aren’t reading what’s new in your niche, or just other posts from your niche, you wouldn’t be able to keep it up, because you will not know the newest trends etc.

Experiment With Time

You will need to experiment what time of the day you like to work. Night time, in the morning, or in the afternoon. Or only on Mondays?

This all depends on your mind. If you only is in your “writing mood” on Mondays, then you should during the week find ideas to posts, which you can write on Monday. You should write every article you want to publish on Mondays then.

Then you have all the other days for marketing and stuff like that. Though there will be days where you want to read, even though it isn’t Monday, and then of course you should do that. No doubt you should.

Change Location

It can be going public, taking to a café and work there. Or just change the way your desktop is placed.

I recently did that. I moved my desktop 90 degrees and I really like it. Now I really feel “isolated.” I concentrate on my 27” screen only, which improves not only my creativity but also my productivity.

Change Your Use of Breaks

Every person needs to take breaks. You can’t work 24/7. So the breaks are necessary. You should take a break as few times as possible, so it is needed that you maximize your use breaks.

Instead of you are watching television you should just take a walk, or even better take a run. Just for 20-40 minutes. When you take a walk you will enjoy the fresh air and just in general feel more fresh.

Relax Properly

When you relax (could be in your break) instead of lying in the bed and watching television, you should lie in your bed and just think. Relax instead of watching television. It will open your mind.

You will find that you will come up with ideas this way, because you are focused. I know at least I can’t come up with any ideas when I’m watching television. Hmm maybe because I’m a boy, and not a girl, who knows?

Plan Your Writing

I have talked about this before, that if you plan your writing to just write for the entire week, you will have so much time to do other things. Like marketing and stuff like that, connect. In that way you can benefit from it. But if you aren’t that type, that’s cool.

Then I think you need a schedule, where you fill in what you need to do, and for how long. Maybe write a post for one hour, marketing for one hour. Just keep moving, and you should follow you schedule.

Play Sudoku

I love playing Sudoku. The thing with those numbers you fill in, on the empty spaces. It is so fun, and it is a great way to start the morning. I feel fresh after I have had a play of Sudoku.

It is definitely a mind opener. At least a mind opener for me, I really are creative and productive after playing a Sudoku game.

Group Discussion

What about you? What are your methods for being creative? Any tips you want to share with us?

When is Blogging Going to Die?

By Mikkel Juhl On March 15, 2010 7 Comments

New social media sites is created every day and old social media sites is dying every day. It is a normal substitution. MySpace was popular, though the most of its hype is down now. It wasn’t as popular as it were a couple of years ago. Social media websites is like snake-skin. It is being replaced by better skin, as the social media sites gets replaced with better sites.

We are used to see new sites, trying to replace old sites. Like Buzz, Plurk with Twitter. They are somewhat doing the same as Twitter, though Twitter was there first (and has a better service) so they stick there.

It is as I have said totally normal that social media sites die, or just social media stuff dies. MySpace was founded in 2003 and I think it have had its big years. We’ve moved on to Facebook. Which is more I’m your friend, and not focused on music. So with Facebook it is easier to keep up with friends.

So we have moved from MySpace to Facebook. Why haven’t we moved from blogging to something much cooler? Is there such thing?

A Blog Dies

Though we see blog who dies everyday. Single blogs, can be because the author have lost his passion to blogging, because the person died, there are lots of reasons why a blog can die.

But with a blog being created every second second. Does that really matter? Okay a lots of blogs probably doesn’t last too long, though if just a couple of percent of those blogs who is being created last longer than 3 years the blogosphere will never die.

We will always have new people to come with new blogging stuff, new inspiring stuff. Of course one blog can die, though I don’t think the blogosphere will die.

Will The Blogosphere Die?

This should be the question Darren Rowse needs to ask himself, if it is he’s screwed. That’s where we makes living. We alle need to think long-term, when it comes to this.

If the blogosphere dies, it wouldn’t die quickly and people will probably still read those blogs who actually is bringing in value. There will probably just be a thing which is cooler than blogging and then people jump on to that hype.

So when if the blogosphere dies, it will die steadily. There will not be as many blogs created every minute, and more people will stop their blogs, then eventually at last point there will be no blogs left.

As the time moves on I think that the competition will get even harder in the blogosphere, because that the blogs that deliver “crappy content” will not be so passionate about their niche, so they will shut down their blogs. And when the non-scammers educate the regular people how to spot a scammer, the scammer will realize that they have to move on, find another thing.

So they will shut down their blogs, and at the last point we will have very popular blogs. This means that the competition will rise. So we will see much better content on much more popular blogs.

So what you should do, is to get started. Create a blog now. Produce quality content, market your blog, be productive. Then you will grow as the time moves on, your blog will grow. If you do this properly you will get big when/if the blogosphere dies.

There will probably go years before the blogosphere will die, but wouldn’t it be nice to be able to be one of the big guys, who actually gets read, when it dies out?