Be Your Own Boss!

Slide 1: Be Your Independent Publishing is for everyone Own Boss! How to use your blog to: • Be more popular • Increase your credibility • Create an alternative revenue stream • Become independent from the 9- to-5 system A presentation by

Slide 2: The other day an old friend of mine called and said to me: “ Listen Robin, I would like to do a blog... I have lots of things I want to say, I would like to earn some money doing this and see whether I can create a work alternative to my Bank job. I have already made up my mind.... Do not try to discourage me.... Tell me rather... What do I need to start? A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.2 of 40

Slide 3: 1 Find your passion A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.3 of 40

Slide 4: 1 1. Find what you really like 2. Give way to your true interests – follow your passions – think of what you would do the whole time if Find your passion you didn’t have to work (aside from eating, sleeping and loving) and focus on that. 3. Do not follow what others do as a reference for what choices you have available to yourself. A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.4 of 40

Slide 5: 2 Create your shack A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.5 of 40

Slide 6: 1. Do not think of being able to do it all by yourself. 2. Unless you are an expert geek who knows everything about “valid” XHTML, CSS, DIV layers, PHP scripting and Create your shack more, I would suggest you to find someone who will give you a hand everytime you want to do something beyond your technical abilities (add new components to your site, change the layout, etc.). 3. Find a server for you – avoid “cheap” and “free” offerings with the excuse that “...I am just starting” 4. Select a blogging software which will not make your life too complicated. • eLance – http://www.elance.com • WordPress – http://www.wordpress.org • MovableType – http://www.movabletype.org • Link Sleuth – http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.6 of 40

Slide 7: 3 Niche, Theme, Focus A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.7 of 40

Slide 8: 1. Find a specific “theme – topic”. 2. The more precise and defined, the easier and faster it will be Niche, Theme, Focus for you to build a revenue around it (as long as a commercial sector of products and services exists around your selected area of interest) 3. Do not fear of “niching” yourself too much. If your theme can be clearly defined and if Google shows relevant results and ads when you place a query containing your theme (it should be a 2-4 words definition) you are ready to set up your micro publishing house. • WordTracker – http://www.wordtracker.com • HitTail – Tap the long tail to find your niche • Niche Blogs Can Be Outstanding Advertising Channels A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.8 of 40

Slide 9: 4 Write daily A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.9 of 40

Slide 10: 1. If you can, write daily. 2. Be regular in your publishing schedule. 3. Publish at the same hour or at around the same time each time. 4. If you cannot write daily, consider the possibility of Write daily integrating some newsmastering activity with your writing / reporting one A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.10 of 40

Slide 11: 5 Become a Newsmaster A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.11 of 40

Slide 12: 1. A newsmaster is a News-DJ 2. A newsmaster selects, edits, filters, corrects and publishes the most relevant news for a very specific topic. Become a Newsmaster 3. No RSS, no newsmaster – Newsmastering is made possible thanks to the huge quantity of content s and news in RSS format, which standardizes contents by separating them from their looks and from the sources from which they are gathered. 4. To be a newsmaster you need one or more tools that would allow you to aggregate, filter, deduplicate and splice together a thematic news digest via the Internet. 5. By devoting a relatively limited time a quest’attività si può offrire un servizio molto utile ai lettori che mantiene il tuo sito aggiornato anche quando non hai articoli nuovi Newsmastering tools MySyndicaat – http://www.mysyndicaat Yahoo Pipes – http://pipes.yahoo.com A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.12 of 40

Slide 13: 6 Quality not Quantity A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.13 of 40

Slide 14: 1. Spell check – your contents before publsihing them: always 2. Let someone else read your text before publishing it. 3. Add reference links without economy – as well as define Quality not Quantity always new terms and buzzwords. 4. If you can write in more than one language. If not, find some partners that can help you do it. 5. Read and research what others have written on a topic, before writing an article yourself. 6. Take up new topics, those that interest you the most, instead of always giving echo to what others talk about. 7. Do a quality control pass also after having published your article. You may be able to spot lots of extra things you didn’t see in draft. Online spell checker IE Spell, Google Toolbar Off-line blogging tools Qumana, Ecto, wBloggar A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.14 of 40

Slide 15: 7 Make Yourself Be Found A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.15 of 40

Slide 16: 1. Title your articles effectively. Throw away all traditional journalism rules and re-think how to create titles that will help your potential readers find what you have written Make Yourself Be Found about without knowing you (via search engines). 2. Make sure that page titles on your site contain the title of your articles first and not the name of your blog. 3. Give a descriptive and meaningful name to your blog / site and if you can, select a domain name and URL that are as much descriptive and meaningful too. • How To Write Great Titles And Headlines For The Web • How To Optimize Your Site For Major Search Engines: The Top • 38 Web Marketing Myths A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.16 of 40

Slide 17: 8 Make Yourself Be Read A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.17 of 40

Slide 18: 1. Learn what chunking is and start using it in a methodical fashion. Make Yourself Be Read 2. Use bolds and hyperlinks untraditionally as visual hook points that can help your readers find your key content more easily.l 3. Line length – do not your readers screen resolution and monitor size determine how difficult it will be to read your contents. 4. Attention to details – extreme care in watching after details may appear secondary to a reporter, but it does generally instill a sense of credibility, competence and professionalism to the contents and topics you write about. A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.18 of 40

Slide 19: 9 Communicate Visually A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.19 of 40

Slide 20: 1. Utilize images to support your articles everytime you can. 2. Select images with care – this is a little art in and of itself that requires skill and dedication – start by modelling and Communicate Visually emulating the work of others. 3. Consider text and other page components as a whole visual universe. Go and discover what is Information Design and apply it ruthlessly to everything you do. • How To Select Appropriate Images For Publication • Online Picture Editing: Free Web-Based Image Editing Tools • How To Search For Images Online • Where to Find Free Images and Visuals for My Blog A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.20 of 40

Slide 21: 10 If you want them to return, send them away A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.21 of 40

Slide 22: 1. Provide links and pointers to external resources without hesitation. If you want them to return, send them away 2. Go the extra mile and find complementary sources and references to your content and promote them. 3. Select the best from others and offer it to your readers. 4. To become a point of reference for others, you need to become a hub for all information that is relevant to the topic you cover. 5. Think of yourself as a guide, a cicerone, a tour operator, a content dj. • Want Some Attention? Tell Your Readers To Go Away! A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.22 of 40

Slide 23: 11. Open the conversation A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.23 of 40

Slide 24: 1. Open comments on your site. 2. Pose questions to your readers: they always know Open the conversation more than you do. 3. Make it easy for your readers to post and follow all comments on your site. A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.24 of 40

Slide 25: 12 Create your own “brand” A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.25 of 40

Slide 26: 2. Think like a free agent. 3. Discover what sets you apart and market it shamelessly. Create your own “brand” 4. Get visible. 5. Stop networking, and build a network. 6. Add value - and then some. 7. Accelerate your brand power by getting in sync with a major trend in your field and moving to the head of it. " I would add: 8. Marry an important, ethical cause as a complement to what you like to do 9. Share before looking for profit 10. Help others become as successful as you 11. Question yourself and your approach systematically - get forever • Brand your brilliance • Brands are inside-out A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.26 of 40

Slide 27: 13 Promote your contents A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.27 of 40

Slide 28: 1. Utilize a Creative Commons license. 2. Let others use your contents freely, expecting only proper credit for your work. Promote your contents 3. Do not limit, but rather help others take up and re-use your contents. 4. Learn all you can about RSS and use it to the max to distribute your contents online. 5. Submit your RSS feed to the most popular RSS search engines and blog directories. 6. Leverage the potential ofered by social bookmarking tools. 7. Help your feed / content be included within tools and services that re-distribute content to others. 8. Provide always your bio, references and link-backs in the bottom of your articles. 9. Comment with relevance on blogs and important news sites and forums. • Give wings to your dreams – Top ten tips for becoming independent A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.28 of 40

Slide 29: 14. Monetize A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.29 of 40

Slide 30: Adopt a set of complementary services dedicated to monetizing your quality content. Here some ideas with which to start: Se usi i video, considera: 1. Amazon Associate Program 2. Chitika 2. Brightcove 3. Adbrite 3. AdBrite InVideo 4. Blogads Monetize 4. Revver 5. Text-Link-Ads 5. Brightroll 6. Commission Junction 6. Immen.se 7. Zlio Shops 8. Bidvertiser 9. Quigo • How to Make Money with your Blog Site • Create your Online Store • Create your Online Advertising Network • How to Monetize your Blog Content • Internet Video - How To Monetize Your Independent Video Content A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.30 of 40

Slide 31: 1. E-Books 2. Merchandising 3. Direct advertising and sponsorships 4. DVD or Print collections Monetize 5. Ad-free access to your site 6. Access to Premium paid research / content A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.31 of 40

Slide 32: 15 Google AdSense A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.32 of 40

Slide 33: 1. Google AdSense is the monetization tool that offers the greatest opportunity to convert quality contents on the web into revenues that can abundantly pay back Google AdSense production costs. 2. Study with attention the placement, the color and the style of the AdSense ad strips that you integrate in your web pages. 3. Remember that placinjg more ads doesn’t always correspond to making more money. • Google AdSense – https://www.google.com/adsense/ • Optimize AdSense - https://www.google.com/adsense/tips A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.33 of 40

Slide 34: 16 Track, Monitor, Test A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.34 of 40

Slide 35: 1. Measure constantly traffic trends on your site, how individual ads work anmd possible technical issues you may have to address. Track, Monitor, Test 2. Tes, test, test. Experiment with a scientific approach alternative solutions to all that you do onlien and adopt those that work better. Then keep refining. 3. Track your readers’ preferences, as much as their dislikes. Stats can tell you a great deal toward learning what works best and what doesn’t work with the audience that follows you. Following this data you can continuosly improve your editorial direction and the types of services you may want to offer to your readers. • Google Analytics • Google Website Optimizer • Hitbox – www.hitboxprofessional.com • CrazyEgg – www.crazyegg.com • Clicktracks – www.clicktracks.com • Browsercam – www.browsercam.com A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.35 of 40

Slide 36: After I wrote to my friend all these things, he replied back : “Hey Robin, I thought that making money with blogs was all about posting some cool video or new tool that just came out and pastering ads all around it. I now understand it takes a lot more effort, focus, attention and care than I ever would have thought of... So, while I can see this is really something anyone could do, I now understand how much of a difference it makes the approach, style and quality one places into it. Thanks for making this clear to me. A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.36 of 40

Slide 37: A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.37 of 40

Slide 38: Be Your Own Boss! www.robingood.com Robin.Good@masternewmedia.org A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.38 of 40

Slide 39: Photo credits • StockXpert – Gabriel Garcia • StockXpert - Lisa F. Young • StockXpert - Silvia Bukovac • StockXpert – Javarman • StockXpert – Yuri Arcours • StockXpert – Tan Kian Khoon A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.39 of 40

Slide 40: Photo credits • StockXpert – Arrow • StockXpert – Ana Sousa • StockXpert - Graça Victoria • StockXpert – Instamatic • StockXpert – Michal Adamczyk • StockXpert – Michal Adamczyk A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.40 of 40

Slide 41: Photo credits • • StockXpert – Daniel Gilbey StockXpert – Andrey Popov • • StockXpert – Tina Rencelj StockXpert - Marylin Barbone • • StockXpert – Stephen Coburn StockXpert – George Pchemyan • • StockXpert – Mike Flippo Robin & Batman – Batman by Adrian Tranquilli – Art & Photo by: MAP / 7thfloor • StockXpert – Tom McNemar • StockXpert – Pedro Nogueira A presentation by Robin Good – February 24th 2007 slide n.41 of 40