The Get Rich Project

A quick tip for those who use Wordpress, and use categories in your SEO-friendly (”pretty”) permalinks - make sure you get your category correct first time! If you don’t, and you go fix it after posting, any links your post sent as trackbacks will be wrong!

I learned this with my earlier eBook links post. Checking my stats a moment a go, I could see links from both John and Yaro getting 404 errors - definitely not the right impression to make!

Thankfully, I could easily fix the problem in this case by adding the original (incorrect) category as an additional category, and it wouldn’t look too out of place. The permalink retains the correct category, but the old, wrong version still works. Definitely one to look out for in the future though!

• John Chow released a free eBook: Making Money with John Chow,
• Then he explained why giving it away was infinitely better than selling it,
• Finally, he shows us how to do the same ourselves.
• Meanwhile, Yaro Starak has released his Blog Profits Blueprint, ahead of the launch of his Blog Mastermind coaching program.

Both these guys released eBooks this week, but from totally opposite monetization angles. Yaro is looking for the upsell to his coaching program, which is exactly the type of thing John wants to avoid. John’s tactic is to drive traffic to his blog, creating more opportunity for high paying affiliate sales and referrals.

I wonder who will have made more money in 6 months time?

Mitchell Harper has written a guest post over at johnchow.com, about bringing a “dead” blog back to life. Mitchell has recently returned from a blogging break (hey! a bit like me!), and is looking to get his traffic numbers back up to pre-break levels.

Some of the tips hold true even if you’re starting a new blog - tips 1 and 2 in particular (guest posts and link bait respectively). Tip 3 is another traffic building 101 lesson - commenting on the blogs of others, particularly the “leaders” of your niche.

Personally I don’t see the point in wasting money on a press release. Press releases seem a bit out dated nowadays. I’d rather take the $80 and put it towards the fund for tip #5 - buying ReviewMe reviews.

The practice of buying reviews for your blog is something I have seen take off recently. In fact, I think I’ve seen 2 in as many days on the same site (not naming or linking them). It’s a fairly good idea, certainly a better option than a simple text link from TLA. After all, you get the benefits of the link (google juice), it doesn’t expire after the billing period, and the reviewer goes into more detail about your blog. Obviously this is a double edged sword - a review can be bad as well as positive, but I think most bloggers would accept the risk.

Adding to the Conversation

If I were to add a tip number 6, it would be this relaunch with something to offer. Launch something at the same time as you come back from your break. Be it a product or service, have something to offer when you “come back”. Give people something worth talking about, before you ask them to talk about you. In case you’re wondering, I do have something to launch. It will be unleashed on Monday next week, so keep your eyes peeled!

I just watched an interesting segment on the news. Stores in the UK are stocking less over this Christmas period so they have less to shift. This comes despite expectations of higher sales this year. The stores are also going to be putting less into their January sales than previous years.

The reason given was consumers are giving less “presents”, preferring instead to give cash. It is, after all, more flexible for the recipient. So really it would seem retailers are looking at lower sales pre-Christmas, but to make it up in the sales with less discounts than in previous years. Why would this be?

Speaking from experience, it’s probably because people realize everyone has increased amounts of debt. By giving others cash, we let them choose how to use it - whether it’s to buy their own gift, or use the money to pay back credit card bills or the like.

I’ll certainly be using any money I get to pay back my credit card; this year I wouldn’t have been able to afford much of anything for others without my Visa. So unfortunately no Wii for me, but it’s not the end of the world. I’d rather be debt-free sooner, no matter how sweet Twilight Princess may look…

It would be easy for me to end with a rant about the crass commercialism of Christmas, and how we should go back to simpler times when we were happy to get an orange in our Christmas stocking, but cliché’s can kill so I’m not going to.

Having a high number of high-quality incoming links is the best way to get your site higher in Google’s esteem (PR and search result placement). This gives you higher traffic, and as a result, more opportunity to increase sales/advertising revenue.

Unfortunately, building your incoming link count can be a slow, clunky process. Thankfully The Business Opportunities Weblog has 6 Secrets Of One Way Inbound Links - 6 tips which should help you grow you linkage (reasonably) quickly.

It’s no secret that having quality inbound links is the first step in an effective online marketing campaign. However, getting those links is a very cumbersome process if you resort to emailing other webmasters and begging for reciprocal link exchanges. For this reason, I have compiled a list of ways you can go about getting inbound link traffic to your website.