www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC_6RNbujvI

This is just one of the many tricks you will learn during our Marketing Your Self Hosted WordPress Blog course coming January 9 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern.  For full information on the course, visit this page.

Sign Up Today for the Marketing Your Self Hosted WordPress blog:

Marketing Your WordPress Blog

Meeting Dates and Times: 01/09/2012-02/13/2012 from 1:00-3:00 PM US/Eastern. This 6-week course will be focused on all of the ins and outs of marketing a WordPress blog that is hosted on your own domain. If you are using another blog platform, you will still benefit from the program, and there will be times when the information will not apply to your platform. The program includes 4 (90 minute) private coaching sessions with Bea Fields. For more information, visit this page for full details.

Price: $375.00

Marketing Your WordPress Self Hosted Blog

Dates: 6 Consecutive Mondays from January 9-February 13, 2012

Location: Phone and Webinar

Course Includes: 4 (90 minute) private coaching sessions with Bea Fields and access to the past Become a Blogging Maniac library.

Cost: $375.00

Calls will be both video and audio recorded for playback.

Please Note: This course will be focused on using the WordPress platform. If you are using another blog platform, you may still benefit from the program, yet we will be focusing on the use os WordPress. This course will not cover how to set up a blog or the technical issues of using WordPress. This course is designed for people who have an existing WordPress blog hosted on their own domain.

Week 1: Writing Your Blog Marketing Plan

During this lesson, we will focus on:

1. Defining your target market. The more refined your target market, the better your chances are of attracting readers to your blog.

2. How to write blog titles so that it pulls your target market to you.

3. Partnering with other bloggers who are also attracting your target market. Collaboration on guest posting is key.

4. Using assessments and forms on your blog which address the needs of your target market.

5. Choosing 10 critical keywords that will draw your market in your direction.

6. Introduction to social networks and finding networks that are filled with people you want to attract.

Week 2: All About SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

During this lesson, we will focus on:

1. How to configure an SEO plugin so that it clearly identifies what your blog is all about and pushes your blog to the top of the search engines.

2. Using your SEO plugin to optimize each page and post for your WordPress blog. The more you optimize each post and page, the more your blog will be found through the major search engines: Google, Ask.com, Yahoo and Bing.

3. Post Headlines to Get Readers Excited and to Jump from the Search Engines to Your Blog.

4. How to link your blog posts to maximize your search engine results.

5. How to use the Digg Digg plugin to invite others to share your blog. The more your posts are spread around, the more you will be found through search.

Week 3 : Using Video and Podcasting to Help Your Blog Reach the Masses

During this lesson, we will focus on:

1. Basics of creating a video and audio (we will not be spending a great deal of time on this subject)

2. Building a YouTube channel for optimizing your blog.

3. How to share and tag videos on your blog to pull your target market to your blog.

4. How to share your videos for free with the top seven video sharing sites.

5. Turning your video collection or podcast collection into a mini “feed” to submit your blog to iTunes.

6. Becoming a radio start using the largest internet radio site on the internet: Blog Talk Radio

Week 4: Social Networking

1. How to choose the social networking sites that will be most useful for your marketing goals.

2. The “Big 5″ Social Networking Sites: The pros and the cons.

3. How to schedule your week for social networking.

4. Connecting your blog to the social networking sites so that current blog posts are automatically sent to the world of social networks.

Week 5: All About Feedburner

1. How to “burn” your feed so that anyone, anywhere can read your blog.

2. How to optimize feedburner for the best results for your blog.

3. How to publicize your feed, including getting people to subscribe by email to your blog feed.

4. How to invite people to add your feed to their favorite reader.

Week 6: Using Your Sidebar to Market Your Blog

1. The most important information to add to your sidebar.

2. Choosing a subscription management system for your business and adding an opt in box to your sidebar using a compelling offer to get people to sign up for your mailing list.

3. How to add social networking icons and “like” buttons to your sidebar to co-market your social networking sites on your blog.

4. Promoting your authored books in your sidebar using the Amazon widget system.

5. Plugins and widgets available for use in your sidebar.

These are just the “basics” of what we will be covering. There are over 100 methods used to market your blog, and you will be given a list of these during the course.

Marketing Your WordPress Blog

Meeting Dates and Times: 01/09/2012-02/13/2012 from 1:00-3:00 PM US/Eastern. This 6-week course will be focused on all of the ins and outs of marketing a WordPress blog that is hosted on your own domain. If you are using another blog platform, you will still benefit from the program, and there will be times when the information will not apply to your platform. The program includes 4 (90 minute) private coaching sessions with Bea Fields. For more information, visit this page for full details.

Price: $375.00

If you are unable to check out using the above system, you may check out through the catalog system through the Bea Fields Companies, Inc. website: http://beafields.com/catalog. The item is at the bottom of the page.

Today, Monday, December 19, Dr.  Ron Paul has raised over $4,100,000.00.

His secret?  Online social networking through Facebook, Twitter and You Tube.

He also has a powerful tool in his pocket:  The under 30 voter.  While voter apathy is a concern with this demographic, voter turnout for President Obama showed that the under 30 crowd pushed him over the top.  There are over 78 million voters under the age of 30.  While all are not registered, even 5% of this demographic is close to 4 million voters.  The reason for Generation Y’s support of Dr. Paul?  Generation Y’s biggest value is freedom, and Dr. Paul has been talking freedom for the last 24 years

Just watch this video below, and you will hear more about why the youngest demographic is behind the veteran Congressman.  And…just a side note.  Most Gen Y’s will tell you that they listen more to their grandparents than their parents.  They see wisdom and experience in our more senior leaders.

The point here is this:  You may or may not like Ron Paul, but he has proved to us all that if you are blogging and bombarding online social networks with your name and message, that online social networking works!  As a business owner, you too can make this happen, but only with commitment and a team of people who can spread your message to the masses.  This approach to fundraising worked for President Obama and it is working for Dr. Paul.

Video from the Jay Leno show last week:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMUZIVYuluc

Are You Ready To Blog? Answer These 5 Questions Before You Get Started

Before you begin to blog, you must know your target audience and as much about them.  As a blogger, these are the 5 most critical questions you need to ask before you write your first post.

1.  Who is your target market?  Gather this information:

• Age
• Education level
• Gender
• Do they own or rent?
• Hobbies
• What is keeping them awake at night?

2.  What is your target market searching for online?

If no one in your target market is searching for your topic, chances are pretty good they won’t find you.   If you don’t know what your target market is searching for online, the best way to find out is to ask them.

3.  What does your target market most want to achieve in life, business, family, community or politics?

Everyone has a goal, and as a blogger, it is your job to find out what your target market really wants out of life.

4. As a blogger, are you going to be a reporter or an original writer?

Many bloggers simply report news.  Many write original posts.  I recommend doing a bit of both, yet writing original content is what the public is searching for online.

5.  What is the most current trend circling around your target market?

The attention span of the public is short, so do your best to take advantage of a current trend that is important to your target market.

How Will Google Plus Affect SEO? (readwriteweb.com)

I just discovered a new tool to learn the rankings of key words you are searching. It’s called LSI Keywords.com.  From How it Works: “This tool searches the top 10 in Google for a phrase you like to rank highly for. Then it collects all the text from these 10 result pages and calculate the most used words and phrases on these pages. It then orders them by number of times used. With this data you know exactly why these pages rank highly in Google. It’s all about theming and using LSI Keywords.” You will see your key phrase in the top ranking pages, and how often your key phrase is being used in the top search engine results. It searches every sentence, titles, H1-H3, image alt tags, Meta-keywords and Meta-description.

Here is how a sample query result looks for “executive media training.”  If you go the site there is a video by a user that describes just how it works.

Jami Kelmenson
American Express OPEN SM
Content Editor
Tel: 212.640.1504 | Fax: 212.640.8921
Jami.A.Kelmenson@aexp.com
OPENforum.com

Please do a search within the Forum first to see if your topic has already been written about. If it has, then find another angle. It’s very important to them that you promote your blog, once it’s published, so be sure to include that you will. American Express is an authority site and Google will reward you for being there. Good luck!

By Jeannette Paladino, Become a Blogging Maniac graduate.  Social media enthusiast helping organizations to leverage social media to build brand awareness, increase revenues, and engage employees as brand advocates. Visit Write Speak Sell.

On the other hand, people do want to know that you know your stuff.  So, if you are a business owner, here are the 20 reasons I believe you should blog, and these are all from my own personal experiences of having been a blogger since 2005.

1.   To establish credibility.  Once you learn to blog, your articles can demonstrate your knowledge and your true commitment to your industry.

2.   To repurpose articles, podcasts and video. If you have a library of articles you have written, you can use a tool such as Article Architect or Article Spinner to rewrite an oldie but goody article as a blog post.

3.   To increase your ranking on Google, Bing, Ask and Yahoo.  Search engines love blogs, because search engines love valuable, rich content.  If you are truly committed to blogging on a regular basis (at least two times per week), your site will get crawled more frequently and a stronger ranking in the search engines.

4.   Your own work is showcased on your own blog on your own domain. With a blog, your articles live on your own site, not on an article directory or on another domain like WordPress.com, Blogspot or Typepad.

5.   Your blog entries live online forever. Unless you get banned from the search engines, your blog posts will live on the internet for a lifetime (unless the search engines choose to delete old posts).

6.    On a self hosted blog, you can do just about anything to make it look great and function the way you want it to. By using plugins (similar to apps for an iPhone), you can add audio, video, slide shows, photographs, opt in boxes, pop up windows, advertising, your recent tweets on Twitter and scores of other things to make your blog the hub of your marketing.

7.    With a self hosted blog, you can invite other people to become guest authors for your blog. Once you get into guest authoring, those authors will link back to your blog, giving you more visibility and more strength on Google

8.    With a self hosted blog, you are in control of your site…not someone else. Many business owners complain that their assistant or webmaster holds the keys to their websites, and they are often left stranded without a way to get into their websites to make changes or update the site.  With a blog, it is simple…you log in, find your page you want to update, and in five minutes, you are up and running.

9.    To post upcoming events. With a blog, you can host an events page and place a nice events logo in the sidebar of your blog.

10.  You automatically get a link building structure. With a blog, you can categorize posts, use a search feature and a recent posts section to make it easy for visitors to find the information they want to find.

11.  With a blog, you can syndicate it using something called RSS (Real Simple Syndication). With RSS, people can download your blog into their reader, subscribe by email to read your blog or add it to their desktop reader in a snap.

12.  Each time you blog, you are adding one more content rich page to your blog for Google to grab. With a website, you may have 10-20 pages,  With a blog, you can have 1,000 content rich pages.  In one year alone, if you choose to blog every day, you can build 365 new pages with rich content that Google will grab and pull into their system.  By adding strong keywords to each post you write, people who may have never heard of you can find you by using unique keywords designed for niche audiences.

13.  You can design pages to include content that is unique to you. With the newer WordPress templates, you can build a blog that looks just like a website, which includes pages which look just like static pages.  The only difference is that once again…you are in control of what you put on your pages and how you update and change those pages.

14.  Each time you write a post, you can optimize that post for Google and the other big search engines. Studio Press offers templates which come with an area to fill out all information for the search engines, including the Title of your blog, description and keywords.  The same mission can be accomplished using a plugin by the name of the All In One SEO Pack.

15.  You will become a much better writer. If you blog on a consistent basis, trust me….you will become a better writer.

16.  You will become a more creative thinker. With a blog, it is often hard to think of “what to write about”, and with some creative thinking, you can pull a subject that is indirectly related to your niche and tie it back in to a topic your target audience will want to read.

17.  You can make money from blogging. For more on this topic, read our post 12 Ways to Make Money By Blogging.

18.  You will expand your network. In the last four years, I have met over 500 people that I either did not know or only knew by name.  I now feel that my network is stronger and more personal.

19.  You can use your blog posts to jumpstart a strong profile and posts on the social networks. With a few tools added to your blog, your posts can automatically be sent to Facebook,  Twitter, Linked In and about 20 other social networking sites.

20.  Hosting a blog can either be no cost or very low cost. To operate a self hosted blog on a hosting company like Host Gator or Blue Host can be as low as $6.00 per month.  To build your blog, you can use free templates or buy a template for about $59.00.  This is so much cheaper than a website designed by someone for $2500-5000.00.  I know…I’ve been that route, and I felt like I really was not getting what I truly wanted from this process.  Because blog templates are so inexpensive, I can change my look whenever I want it without feeling the pinch in my wallet.

Sign Up Today for Become a Blogging Maniac