If you want to buy one of these Squidoo Lenses here’s how it happens ….

1. Decide on the lens you are interested in from the lenses listed below.
2. Email me at kelly[@]kelly-stone.com letting me know your PAYPAL email address and the lens that you want to buy.
3. I send you a PayPal invoice for the lens (until you have sent the funds the lens is open to anyone else) which you need to send back ASAP.
4. I’ll send you an email once payment is received asking for some details about your Squidoo account etc.
5. There is the option to leave it with me and have me update your lens on a regular basis and mention it on Facebook from time to time.  This is discussed in my email to you.
6. I transfer the lens to your Squidoo account.

That’s it!

Squidoo Lenses Available To Buy

The lenses below were all built by me – some have been promoted a little, some had nothing at all done to them and some are getting traffic etc.  This is reflected in the price, the one’s with the most traffic and/or sales are in the top band etc.

$150 Lenses For Sale

Present Ideas For Sisters – A seasonal lens, this lens BOOMs at Christmas and makes sales via Amazon and via the lens itself.  Through the rest of the year there is some traffic coming through and some random sales.

SOLD – Another seasonal lens, this lens really takes off at Christmas but does well all year round.  Sales are made via Amazon and made all year.

SOLD – This lens gets heaps of traffic but has yet to be monetised.  The new owner could easily do this by adding in some Amazon links or even their own product links.

$99 Lenses For Sale

Cheap Canvas Wardrobes – This lens has had no promotion done to it yet does get some traffic through.  It has made a few random sales last year.

Brad Pitt Films – This lens has had no promotion done to it but it does receive a small amount of traffic.  Any Brad Pitt fan could give this the attention and promtion that it deserves.

SOLD – This lens has had a little promotion done but needs more to get it to where it should be.  The new owner would have a really popular lens if they took the time on this lens.

Lego Agents – This lens has had no promotion done to it yet also gets some traffic through.  Aimed at the UK market it’s links point to Amazon UK, the new owner could easily change this to Amazon.com.

SOLD – No promotion has been done to this lens but the url itself would benefit a keen new owner.  This lens started out as a hobby lens and did make some sales in the early days.

$50 Lenses For Sale

List Building Tips – This lens just sort of got forgotten along the way and never had any promotion done.  It is linked to via other lenses so wouldn’t take much to get it back to where it deserves to be.  This lens does get a little traffic.

What Is Affiliate Marketing – Again, this lens just seems to get forgotten about.  Some traffic does come through although no promotion has been done.

SOLD – This lens was made and then forgotten about.  There was no promotion done at all although there is a trickle of traffic.

Digital Photo Frames – This lens has had no promotion done to it but does get a tiny amount of traffic.

SOLD – This lens was made and then forgotten about.  There was no promotion done at all although there is a trickle of traffic.

Susan Boyle – This lens was made and forgotten – no promotion and is aimed at the UK market.  The new owner could easily change that to US.  There is a small amount of traffic to this lens.

SOLD – This lens was made and then forgotten about.  There was no promotion done at all although there is a trickle of traffic.

SOLD – This lens was made and then forgotten about.  There was no promotion done at all although there is a trickle of traffic.

Please note that other lenses are not for sale as these are existing customers that I maintain for them OR that I still use myself.  If you are aware of my other Squidoo accounts, please note that those lenses are not for sale either.

I’m getting a LOT of emails asking me if/when I will be releasing more lenses or custom building again.  Let me know what niche you want to see more readymade lenses in or if you would be interested in the custom lens building below.

You've been reading Squidoo Lenses For Sale that can be found at Kelly Stone. Did you enjoy this post? You can find more from Kelly at her blog or you can keep in touch with her via Twitter, Facebook or over at Google +1.

To be honest it turned into a pretty confusing time for me as I am a complete tech-idiot!  Anything that tells me to go and read over at Google Code has me lost straight off the bat – I know it’s going to be technical in nature and I get scared – I’m sure that I am not alone in feeling this way so I have created this really short tutorial on Fat Pings for you.

What Are Fat Pings?

Just like when you ping your content, Fat Pings essentially do the same thing – they let others know that you have published something new and your blog has been updated.

The most basic benefit of pinging is that your content gets found by the search engines faster.  If you use WordPress (.org) then each time you publish new content, you automatically ping a list of sites that can be found in your ‘settings’ tab.

You can read more about this over at WordPress.  For lots of people they won’t even bother changing the settings, for others, they might read posts that gives updated lists etc and change them but for most of us, the list stays the same year after year.

Lots of people have different advice on which services you should ping and most of it differs from person to person – I stick to a relatively small ping list of just four main ones.

What’s The Difference Between A Ping And A Fat Ping?

A ping normally uses the title or headline of your post – sometimes just your blog url.  With a Fat Ping you not only tell Google that you have new content, you actually send them your whole post!

Why You Should Be Using Fat Pings

When you create a post there is a chance that your brand new content that you spent time and effort creating will get scraped and used around the net – this can happen within minutes, especially if your blog is well known within its niche!

Even though search engines such as Google are getting better at finding the rubbish on the net there is always the chance that your new content, along with the scraped content, manage to get them a little confused about who wrote it and when.

Google aims to list the site with the original content anyone else but it has been known to get it wrong whilst in its confused state!

Using Fat Pings means that the risk of your content getting seen as duplicate content is more or less gone – you let Google know you are the original author by sending them the whole lot.

Does Google Recognise Fat Pings?

In a word – yes!

Matt Cutts spoke about using them at PubCon 2011 and recommended that you set up Fat Pings to let Google find you fast and first – you don’t get a higher recommendation than that.

How Do I Set Up Fat Pings For My Blog?

For those using WordPress (.org) there is a fantastic plugin that you can use to set your site up to use Fat Pings – PubSubHubbub.

Just install the plugin and activate it – it’s that simple!

There is a lot of reading over at Google Code about the plugin and to be honest, it made it all sound a lot more complicated than it is.  Once activated the plugin has two default ‘hubs’ in the settings – I found a lot of people asking if there was a list of hubs to use with the plugin but couldn’t find anymore.

After spending a few hours searching around for answers I decided to email the plugin creator to get some clarification and only using the two default hubs is enough.

Should You Still Ping Your Content?

Yes.  Although they are similar in nature they do work slightly differently so leave your ping list set up for your favourites.

More reading ….

What Is PubSubHubBub?

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When you decided to start your site you knew that you HAD to create great content – what you forgot along the way (or perhaps just don’t know) is that Google has more boxes for you to tick than just writing a good post!

Great content IS something that you should create, if it’s not something that you’re aiming for – why bother?

Google already has a lot of friends who are working in your niche and in order for you to take the top spot in the search results, you have to push one of them out the way – here’s my top ten tips for making Google your new best friend.

1.  Have A Clear Plan Of Action For Your Site

When you first decided to create your site it was for a reason, perhaps you wanted to share your passion with others or maybe it was there to promote your products.  No matter WHY you created it, you need to know where you are taking it and how you are going to get there.

Keep on track and if you find yourself losing focus, step back and see where its going wrong for you.  If your main goal is to promote your products (or affiliate) then make sure that you do that but keep a balance between promotional posts and helpful posts.

2.  Know Which Keywords Will Get You Found

Getting found in the search engines is all about thinking about WHAT someone is searching for and WHY.  Put yourself in your readers shoes and think about what you would type into the search engine to find what you’re looking for.

Understanding your readers is vital to your success.  Know who is looking for you and know why they are looking for you and you’ll find keyword research becomes much easier.

3.  Stop Going After Too Many Keywords In A Post

Posts that attempt to put multiple keyword phrases in end up looking messy and cluttered and are far less optimised.  A well crafted post that concentrates on a single keyword phrase is targeted and at the end of the day Google wants to give the searcher exactly what they are looking for.

4.  Checking For Broken Links

Broken links do nothing for your readers experience and can actually harm your SEO efforts.  Google will see a site with lots of broken links as badly maintained and won’t send their traffic there.

5.  Your Site Has Duplicate Content Issues

If you use articles from other sites (even your own) then your content isn’t unique.  Google loves unique content and will reward sites that publish it – don’t ever get tempted to scrape content – it’s going to do you more harm than good.

Outsource your content?  Always check that their work clears Copyscape or similar before posting it – even if you have been using the same writer for a long time.

6.  You Have Ad’s All Over The Place

Google hates sites that are cluttered with ad’s – even Adsense!  With each update that takes place, they seem to be cracking down on sites that have lots of adverts, seem to promote everything and not produce content and have irrelevant ad’s.  Consider cutting down and concentrate on the content

7.  Not Making It Easy For Readers To Share Content

With so much importance being placed upon social media in the advertising world it clearly wasn’t going to be long until Google started using it as part of their algorithm.  Just like word of mouth advertising, social media is just as powerful and Google knows this – make it simple and easy for your readers to share your content and don’t be afraid to make it prominent on your sites.

Some sites are getting some serious growth with the likes of Google + so ignore it if you want to fail – take a look at Google’s case study of Mashable for some great advice and tips.

8.  You Have Little Or No Outbound Links

You want to keep your readers on your site and outbound links seems like a sure-fire way to let them escape – sharing is a powerful thing and Google will reward you for doing it!

Make sure that you link to content that is worthy, relevant and helpful to YOUR readers.  Finding a great article and linking to it is only part of what you need to do – always check that the site as a whole is in good standing.  There are lots of link building tools and advice out there to help you.

Site owners (good ones anyway) will generally monitor links to their sites and you could find that they return the favour – a win, win situation!

9.  Buying Heaps Of Backlinks That Are Actually Worthless

Anyone can buy thousands of backlinks for next to nothing – don’t bother, you’re wasting your time and likely to get on the wrong side of Google because of it.

Backlinks are still important but they need to be relevant to your site – getting links from all over the net overnight isn’t going to help you either.  Quality links from relevant sites count and social media links are seriously important for your ranking.

10.  Not Posting Enough Or Posting Too Much

This one I left until last because I am so guilty of it myself!  I don’t post often enough – I had no clear plan of action and found posting to a schedule hard.  At first I aimed at posting once a day but realistically that just wouldn’t have happened.  Now I am aiming to post at least twice a week – enough that people stay connected but not too much where it can become too diluted.

Getting the right balance depends on your own commitments, audience and niche.  Make sure you get the balance that fits in nicely with all three.

Summary

This list could go on and on – Google is ever changing and you need to ensure that the basics are covered before you move on to the more advanced reasons.  Getting in their good books is vital to your success so make sure that you stay on the right side of them and never try and take the short route – the results generally don’t last too long!

You've been reading Ten Ways To Make Google Your New Best Friend that can be found at Kelly Stone. Did you enjoy this post? You can find more from Kelly at her blog or you can keep in touch with her via Twitter, Facebook or over at Google +1.

Here’s why ….

Over the last year or so this site has been pretty badly neglected.  My traffic has dropped (mainly from returning visitors) and I lost page rank – probably because I have let the little things go which in turn have developed into some major problems.

When I find problems the first thing I do is to start with the basics and take it from there first.  I like to follow checklists and the first place I went to was Google Webmaster Tools to go through theirs.

One thing that jumped right out at me was this ….

How many times have you followed a link to a dead site?  It’s annoying and a little frustrating at times but are you aware that it’s also bad for your SEO efforts?

If you have a site that only has a few posts/pages then keeping up to date with your outbound links can be fairly easy – larger sites can quickly get out of control as I found out yesterday!

Checking And Fixing Broken Links

I’ve often used the plugin Broken Link Checker on my other sites and it does what I want it to do.  It checks for broken links and monitors your site letting you know if your links break.

I wish that I had taken a screen capture of the results I first got after activating the plugin!  There were hundreds of broken links!

As you can see above, I have more than 1,300 outbound links and a few hundred of them led NOWHERE!  That is going to hurt my sites ranking in the search engines – no doubt about it.

My heart quite literally sank when I realised that I had to fix ALL of them – there were 216 broken links.  What you do need to remember is that the plugin has limits and will let you know when your link leads to a dead end – it’s down to you to go and check if the website is down or gone completely.

I quickly realised that most of the dead links were in comments – people had put their site in when commenting and years later that site is dead and gone leaving me with broken links all over the place.

Another reason why leaving your comment section ‘follow’ is a bad idea.  Once upon a time I thought that you should always reward your readers for taking the time to comment – I soon realised that I was being very naive when all my time was spent fighting spam, checking for genuine comments caught up in my spam filter and basically getting really crappy comments just for the links.

This is just one step that I am taking to ensure that this site gets the attention that it deserves – I hope that this helps you to take notice of your own links and keep them working and in order.

Fixing Your Broken Links

1. Ensure your WordPress version is up to date (including all your plugins).
2. Backup your site before doing anything to it – this should always include installing any new themes or plugins.
3. Install and activate Broken Link Checker.
4. Check any links to make sure that the site is dead and not just down.
5. Fix the broken links by either ‘unlinking’, ‘editing the url’ or ‘marking as not broken’.
6. Set the plugin to email you any broken links it finds.
7. Consider setting comments to ‘no follow’.  You can check for ‘no follow’ links using tools like SEO For Firefox.

When your readers find what they were searching for they are more likely to look around and share your site with others – these two acts are both important for your SEO and I intend to do some posts on them next week.

You've been reading Checking Broken Links To Improve Your SEO that can be found at Kelly Stone. Did you enjoy this post? You can find more from Kelly at her blog or you can keep in touch with her via Twitter, Facebook or over at Google +1.

Take a look at this site and you’ll find a really great example of what will happen to you if you have no clear direction of what you want to do and how you want to do it – something that could easily become a failure!

When I started this blog I had really big plans but somehow along the way they just kind of got lost.

Any of you that have followed me for a while will already know that I have struggled on many occasions with direction, passion and burn out.  I get easily distracted, my brain is always coming up with new and exciting ways to grow my business.  Over the years I cannot tell you how many projects I have started and never finished – too many for sure!

Last week I got my ‘ah ha!’ moment when I sat down and planned out what I would be working on and when.  There was a list the length of my arm that needed to be done – too much and the thought of getting around to it all just overwhelmed me.  After TWO days of pretending that I was working on my list and getting NOTHING done I finally realised what was wrong with me ….

I HATE WHAT I SHOULD BE DOING!

I’ve spread myself too thin and just trying to keep up has made me hate what I do!

Even though I have not been blogging, not released any new products and not really been seen around, I’ve still been working really hard over the last year or so.

My main advice to anyone is to create multiple income streams – you never know when one could be taken from you.  It seems that I have taken that advice a little too far and have ended up working at least 12 hour days just trying to keep up with everything!  Running my online business, my offline business and all of my affiliate sites has become a full time job that has got way too big for just one person.

Last week I shut down (literally deleted) 16 sites.  Almost all of them were making me money but depended on me keeping them updated in order to do so.  They went – I had no passion for them and kept putting off working on them because of it.

I’ve sat down and worked out that I only actually WANTED to work on three of my sites.  The problem was that I had let so much work build up that I was overwhelmed from actually starting any of it.

This site was one of the ones that I wanted to keep and work on but something was bugging me – I didn’t know what I wanted to do with it!  The direction for it was gone, I had no idea what to write about anymore because there was no forward movement, the whole site was stale.

At one point I even thought about pressing delete and starting again with clear direction.  Reading through older posts made me realise that some advice was out of date, some things I wouldn’t want to recommend anymore and some just made me want to hide with embarrassment!

I guess we all live and learn.

The site is vague and more like random thoughts instead of being any help to readers.  My passion has always been helping others – I don’t care if that’s corny, it’s what I love to do and where I want to direct my efforts.  I also want to make money from it too and I don’t think that its wrong of me either.

Major changes have already started on this blog, mainly ones that you won’t be able to see but that make a real difference.  I’ve deleted a lot of categories from the blog too so that I can become more focused.

I’m excited, I’m feeling enthusiastic and more to the point I know where I want to be now and how to get there – I’m back on track!

It’s all about having clear direction.

You've been reading This Is What Happens When You Have No Clear Direction that can be found at Kelly Stone. Did you enjoy this post? You can find more from Kelly at her blog or you can keep in touch with her via Twitter, Facebook or over at Google +1.

One thing that I have always wanted to do was to show a genuine ‘case study’ that everyone can follow along with so when my niece got some really bad luck – it gave me the perfect opportunity!

My niece lost her job last month and has decided that she wants to build an online business.  Callie is no stranger to the online world, I introduced her to it a few years back and as much as she did have some success she was soon taken over by ‘shinny new object’ syndrome!  She basically got sucked in by each and every new sales page she saw – in fact, if she read a blog post that she liked, she would buy their materials because ‘she liked them’!

Soon she had thrown in the towel and felt frustrated by the whole experience.  When I tried to explain to her that she had basically been surfing the net instead of getting her head down and getting on with things, I think she felt a little insulted and insisted that she had tried hard.

Callie is starting with The Challenge – she likes (and knows) niche sites and wants to go in that direction.  The Challenge will give her the basic marketing knowledge that she needs in order to succeed.  It all starts with the basics and those basics apply to all aspects of internet/information marketing.

Along the way she’ll be documenting her progress – the good and the bad – at her new site www.ProBloggingPlan.com where others can share the journey with her.

Please lend her your support as she feels silly talking to herself when she makes a blog post lol.  I know that there is going to be so much great information on that site over the next few months that can help a lot of people.

She’s working really hard at the moment and I know that she’ll appreciate some moral support.

You've been reading A Real Life Internet Marketing Case Study To Follow that can be found at Kelly Stone. Did you enjoy this post? You can find more from Kelly at her blog or you can keep in touch with her via Twitter, Facebook or over at Google +1.

Now that we’ve got that out the way    …..

Ready made niche blogs is a fantastic way of getting yourself a nice looking blog without having to worry about the ‘design’ aspect of it.  Yes, there will be other people out there using the ‘exact’ same design of blog as you but YOU will be working on your blog to make it stand out – with good quality UNIQUE content!

At the end of the day, the design aspect of niche blogging can really take a hold of people.  The stress of getting the header just right, getting the blog set up in the first place and then getting the ‘look and feel’ just right can all play a big part in keeping you from doing the really important parts – the content.

Niche blogs can take all the stress away and get you started the easy way.  Recently I promoted the offer of 10 PLR Niche Blogs (opens in new window) and have to say that they really are an excellent investment for anyone who is struggling to get going.

This offer came with PLR articles to go with the niche blog – these should probably only be used for ideas when you are writing your own content.  Using these articles is going to make your site identical to (potentially) hundreds of other blogs.  This is the downside of PLR – lazy people!  People are just too tempted to use PLR as it comes without making any changes at all and then you start to run into problems.

Other PLR Niche Blog Offers:

Niche PLR Blogs Pack

PLR Niche Blogs Ready To Earn

Niche Blogging Pack

So now that we’ve solved the problem of getting started, you might find that you run into another problem with the content.  Writing that very first article (then the second, third and fourth too) can be a struggle, each word and sentence becomes hard work.

Each time you get a line of text out there, you feel that it could be writen better, differently and somehow with more authority!  It takes time for it to come naturally but it shouldn’t stop you from getting the content out there – after all, if you do nothing, your results are never going to change.

Using PLR (quality PLR) is a good way of getting content out there – BUT ONLY IF YOU USE IT AS A GUIDE FOR YOUR OWN WRITING and not as is.

There are two places that I go to for my own PLR:

Tiffany Dow’s PLR MiniMart

Nicole Dean’s Easy PLR

I can personally say that both of these sites offer you excellent value for your money.

In my Getting Started Survival Course —> I show you how you can get started online using niche blogs so if you are not already signed up do it today.

Good luck!

You've been reading Should You Use Ready Made Niche Blogs? that can be found at Kelly Stone. Did you enjoy this post? You can find more from Kelly at her blog or you can keep in touch with her via Twitter, Facebook or over at Google +1.

This week I’ve been working on my new Amazon course (this will be free) and you’ll get it anyway for being on my list – I’ve changed the sidebar signup already but the course has not changed yet!  By the end of this week I’m hoping to have it all rolled out and I’ll be letting you know when I do.

Squidoo has also been a major thing this week as I’ve been building some lenses for other people and have loved doing this.  I’ve not done it for a long, long time and it’s been fun learning the new topics that people are working with if I’ve not been familiar with them.  You can view my own lenses at my lensmaster page.

I also took a look at the Warrior Forum this week and stumbled upon a product that looked pretty interesting to me as it involved Kindle and I’ve got a couple of my own products on Kindle but don’t make as much money on there that I think I could – Kindle Clone Method is something well worth taking a look at if you want to use Kindle.

Not only have I added time to my marketing each week to work on this method, I am confident in the product and recommended it to you guys.  What I didn’t know would happen is that a simple setting inside PayPal would stop the downloads being sent out – at 7am on Sunday morning I was attempting to work out what had gone so wrong and working with the product owner Ed to get things sorted.  It took a while but it worked itself out in the end.

It’s been a productive few weeks!

You've been reading Squidoo, Kindle & A Problem that can be found at Kelly Stone. Did you enjoy this post? You can find more from Kelly at her blog or you can keep in touch with her via Twitter, Facebook or over at Google +1.

Almost a year ago now I was diagnosed with a cyst on my brain after I had a mini stroke.  At that minute my whole life changed drastically – I’m sure you can imagine. It was a tough few weeks waiting to find out what would happen and I’m pleased to say that I have not needed an operation (so far) and the cyst is not causing me any further problems.  Last week though, I was diagnosed with morton’s neuroma- a small growth in the foot which I need to have operated on.  It’s not life threatening in any way though and it shouldn’t take more than a few weeks to get over.

Over the last year it’s been tough going and to be honest, the last few years have taken their toll – I’ve been neglecting my work more and more and I think it’s started to show (perhaps for a while now).

Along the way I kinda just burnt out and made a few bad choices.

I think that I have turned into someone that I would not like to be doing business with, you guys hear me say one thing and then I do the complete opposite!  Now I think I have had good reason 12 months ago – but not now.  Now it’s not a reason it’s an excuse and that doesn’t sit well with me.

I’m not ashamed to say that I got lost over the last few months and lacked direction and drive.  My direction is all sorted now and my motivation is back with a vengeance

Things have got to change and I’ve spent the last week putting changes into place – some of which you might notice straight away and others will start to roll out over the coming weeks.  My ‘to do’ list is pretty long at the moment and I’m fairly certain that it’s going to take some time to get to where I want to be – I already know that it’s going to be worth it though.

I hope that you join me over the coming weeks and watch as I document the changes that need to be made – more importantly, I WANT to make them and I’m looking forward to what the future holds!

You've been reading Making Some Much Needed Changes that can be found at Kelly Stone. Did you enjoy this post? You can find more from Kelly at her blog or you can keep in touch with her via Twitter, Facebook or over at Google +1.

One of the most common reasons that people are unable to increase their sales is because they are not targeting the right people or they are being too broad in their efforts.  With millions of people online, you are never going to please everyone all the time – it’s simply a case of hooking up with the one’s who are actively searching for you anyway.

Regardless of the market or niche you work in, you want to make sales so you need to know who is out there looking for that product or service.  Trying to sell gaming products to grandmothers is not going to be the easiest thing in the world to do.  It’s down to you to know your niche inside out and back to front – get this part right and the rest becomes much, much easier.

Take 10 minutes to give some thought to campaigns that you already have running and grab a pen and paper and write down what your potential customers demographics are  …..

• Male or Female
• Age Range
• Local Buyers/Online Buyers
• The Problems
• The Reasons
• The Trigger
• The Benefits

Once you get a real ‘feel’ for your potential customers, increasing your online sales just got a whole lot easier.  Without this information it’s all hit and miss and more luck if you make sales.

Targeting your campaigns around this information means that you can quite literally laser target each one for maximum results.

One of my own niche markets has a large target audience but rather than attempt to take on everyone within that niche, I simply aim at a tightly focused group where I can  use the information that I have to really impact them.

Knowing what the problems are (cannot lose weight/cannot gain weight/cannot get six pack etc) give you a good niche to aim at.  Understanding the REASONS is critical to your campaigns success (always seem to be hungry/diets not effective/no time to exercise etc) and means that you now have the basic information down.

The triggers are just as important and are what triggers the person to seek out help or assistance – wanting to lose weight for health reasons, attracting a partner, feel good about themselves etc.  You are now in a prime position to highly target your offer to a very specific group.

Using this method will help you increase your sales and help you understand the niche you are working within.  Take the time to get this right and you’ll start to see the pieces fall into place and sales increase.

You've been reading How To Increase Your Online Sales In 2011 that can be found at Kelly Stone. Did you enjoy this post? You can find more from Kelly at her blog or you can keep in touch with her via Twitter, Facebook or over at Google +1.

Other bloggers continue to march forwards without making much headway and wondering why their blogging dreams have yet to come true.  On closer inspection it’s clear to see that many of them are commiting some of the most common mistakes that bloggers do (myself included!) – they are making stupid blogging mistakes that are simple to fix when you know what they are.

Mistake #1:  Thinking That Content Is Everything

Many bloggers spend hours trying to write that perfect post.  Each word and sentance is painstakingly crafted and the delete key is starting to look worn.  Writing pillar articles that will stand the test of time is becoming an unhealthy obsession for many bloggers, yet some of them will come to see that their efforts can be put to better use elsewhere, others though will continue to slave away.

Whilst it is true that your content needs to be good quality, your writing means nothing if there is no one there to read it!

Once bloggers realise that  more is needed from them to create a great blog, other than their version of War & Peace, they can decide if the whole blogging concept is sounding more like hard work or something that they need to plan better.

Remember, you could have created something spectacular that has the potential to be a major payday for you but without readers no one knows.

Mistake #2:  Catching Social Media Mania

When something works as well as social media does its easy to suddenly find yourself devoting more and more time to it.  It’s not uncommon these days to hear of people getting sidetracked by all the ‘noise’ that goes with Facebook and Twitter etc.

The problem is that when bloggers start to devote more time and energy at social marketing, something else is normally suffering.  One thing that people start to believe is that social marketing carried more weight than some of the most basic marketing techniques out there.

Basic SEO is normally the main casualty – Getting Google to rank your site well is mainly down to solid, basic SEO and ignoring backlinks etc is done at your own peril.

Mistake #3:  Losing Your Sense Of Direction

Most of us who suffer from a not having a great sense of direction find ourselves lost every now and then and the same goes for bloggers who have very little direction (or none at all).  They really just end up going around in circles and never really making any headway.

When you start a blog it’s vital to know what your blog is about and where you want to go with it.  Do you want to use it to drive traffic to your products/services or is it your main business website? Is your aim to build a list of subscribers or become an authority on your chosen subject?

Understanding what your blog is about and knowing how you are going to achieve your goals is key to making your blog a success.  Plan your goals and then work your plan.

It’s easy to lose sight of what you were aiming for but when you have clear plans in place and understand what it takes to reach your goals, the rest is easy.

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Let’s quickly move on shall we?  The latest newsletter is now online to give you help and advice.  You can download your copy now from the Kelly Stone Newsletter.

Inside this edition you’ll find …..

• When Focus Becomes A Problem
• Wasting Time On Non Profitable Tasks
• Squidoo Queen Update
• Just How Selfish Are You?
• Building Backlinks For More Profits
• Adding A ‘ReTweet’ Button To Squidoo Lenses
• Time Running Out For Christmas Lenses

So download it now and get reading!

Read – Take Action – Profit

You've been reading Kelly Stone Newsletter Back Online that can be found at Kelly Stone. Did you enjoy this post? You can find more from Kelly at her blog or you can keep in touch with her via Twitter, Facebook or over at Google +1.

A top tip for increasing your Squidoo lens traffic is to make sure that your lens is ready to receive the traffic in the first place.  You can read more about getting your lens in tip top condition at my lens How To Get More Squidoo Traffic.

Another great tool for helping you get the best from your lens is Squidutils health checker – a great tool for helping you get some essential parts right.  It’s easy to become a little obsessed with this tool and you do need to just tackle one step at a time and not feel overwhelmed.

You know that you have achieved something when all the right hand side come back “Okay” like the image.

It took me quite a while to get through all my lenses but when I did it was fantastic.  

Another great tip is to understand that your lens is not going to be built, ranking in Google and making sales within a few hours.  Just like Google, Squidoo lenses take time to settle, you’ll probably notice that they can climb fairly fast in the first few days and then start to ease off.

So long as you keep working on your lens and trying to improve there is no reason why you won’t see good results.  Just remember that lenses (just like blogs) can go up and down in Google too – this could be down to nothing that you can identify.  I’ve had lenses that were pulling in hundreds of visitors per day just drop off the radar only to appear a few days or even weeks later as if nothing had happened!

Keep working hard on your lenses and aim to provide quality – good luck in getting traffic to your Squidoo lenses!

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To be honest, this is probably one of the biggest updates at Squidoo that I have seen.  So how does it all work?

The new monster system has been running for a few weeks now and I’ve been taking a good look around before I decided to comment.  The whole idea is that Squidoo now has a new ‘experience points’ system in place which is better explained by Megan Casey on her lens Monster FAQ.

It comes down to participating more, publishing more lenses and interacting with other lensmasters more.  In return for doing so, you will be rewarded with trophies along the way.  You get these rewards for milestones that you achieve, quests that you complete and for lenses that are top quality.  The trophies that you can unlock along the way (SquidMonsters) are for completing these things and interacting with others.

Some people hate the new system and feel that the monsters are nothing more than childs play.  Others think that have come in like a breath of fresh air and invigorated lensmasters once again.

For me, I love it.  It has invigorated my lenses and my interest alike!  I’ve already had a few level increases, had a few of my lenses blessed and even created a few new lenses (around 15) this week!  Remember not to get confused that Squidoo Queen is my only account, I have several – which is perfectly ok so long as you don’t do it for fraudulant reasons like voting your own lenses etc.

So what is the best way to level up and receive the benefits that go with it?  For me there is only one way that is worth doing – creating great lenses and letting everyone know about it!

Get your lenses built now and if you have not signed up yet – do it now and get started.  If you are already a member of Squidoo remember that everyone can see who is being active on their lenses now and most lensmasters will recipricate – why not join my fan club to keep updated?

[tags]squidoo marketing, squidoo monsters, squidoo trophies, squidoo[/tags]

If you enjoyed this post then why not follow me on Squidoo or subscribe to my RSS Feed so you can stay up to date with all the latest information.  You can also subscribe via email to get all my blog posts direct to your inbox. 

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These are my top 5 marketing blogs that I read and are not ranked in any order

Top 5 Internet Marketing Blogs

#1 – John Chow

John’s blog has managed to grow and grow and is often surrounded with controversy.  Not only has he managed to get banned from Google and Digg he has also come under fire from other bloggers regarding his methods.

Regardless of what you feel about him or his blog, the simple fact is, he gets results and has secured his position as one of the top bloggers around. 

Recently John has written a free guide on how to make money blogging which is the exact blueprint that he uses.  Grab your copy here.

#2 – Yoast

I love this blog and only stumbled upon it when I was looking for a plugin to make certain aspects of my blog ‘nofollow’.  This blog is well written and has some excellent information for anyone who uses WordPress and wants to get the most from it.

Not only can you get some great advice, you can get some great plugins too that will help you with SEO, analytics etc.  Well worth browsing through when you have some time spare.

#3 – Zac Johnson

I’ve been following Zac’s blog for a long time and unlike lots of bloggers out there Zac continues to produce some outstanding posts that WILL help you.  Zac has gone on to establish himself as one of the top affiliates out there and gives you so much information that you would normally expect to pay top dollar for – for free!

Zac has recently released his Siz Figure Affiliate Blogging guide which you can download from here for free – well worth reading and gives you a slightly different approach from the normal ‘Clickbank’ affiliate angle.

#4 – Matt Cutts

Why go anywhere else for information on Google?  When the gossip hits the net, go directly to the person who is in the know!  There are some really useful (and eye opening) articles on Matt’s blog and everyone should take the time to read it.

There are also a whole heap of videos that Matt has released on YouTube that you should take the time to go through.  Whilst I’m sure that Matt is NOT going to give you all the answers you need, he’s more likely to understand what he is talking about more than some others I have heard recently!

#5 – Daily Blog Tips

I’ve been reading this blog for quite some time now and have to say that the quality of posts has increased over time.  Daniel has worked hard on his blog and that hard work has certainly paid off.

Not only can you spend hours going through solid information on the blog you’ll also find Daniel gave an interview in Zac Johnson’s eBook – well worth reading. 

There must be 20 or so other blogs that I read too – usually when I am looking for information on something I’ll go through the ones that I trust.  Whilst this list can help you in your own marketing, it’s important to understand that each one of these blogs has the same thing in common – they worked hard at achieving what they wanted!

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