Having a blog if you are an Internet Marketer is like having a hammer if you are a carpenter. A successful blog should provide value to your reader and provide information that helps them learn, grow from or apply to their businesses. Creating great content on a regular basis is a big responsibility and a challenge. Recently our friends over at CopyBlogger shared 50 techniques to get the content to write a kick butt blog.

50 Techniques for generating kick butt blog posts:

1. Two words: Google alerts. Set an alert with a few industry key words, and ask it to deliver at least 20 stories a day. Read the headlines and throw interesting links into a file for future use. When you get several related stories, you’ve got an instant roundup piece.
2. Skim national newspapers and magazine stories. How does national news such as the recession affect your readers? Talk about national trends, and your audience will come to rely on you to tailor big news to address their concerns.
3. Ask yourself, “What’s missing?” or “What will happen next?” Answer the questions those national rags didn’t address. What’s the next domino that will likely fall as a result of this piece of news? Point it out, and your readers will feel you (and they) are ahead of the curve.
4. Read small publications. If you have an expertise blog, check the experts’ columns in local papers or business weeklies. Few people outside your community will have read these, and their topics are often easily recycled.
5. Read trade publications. Trade pubs cover every imaginable industry and they’re a great source of trend ideas, from Ad Age to TWICE (This Week in Electronics). They’ll also track new companies and products you might mention (see #39).
6. Read your competitors. I subscribe to several competing blogs on my iGoogle desktop, for real-time headline scanning. If you write on a similar topic, you can give the other blog link love.
7. Riff on a popular post. Grab yourself some high-powered linkage by posting your reaction to a big-time blogger’s thoughts.
8. Try a new medium. Burned out on the blogosphere? Look at YouTube videos, listen to podcasts, or watch good ol’ fashioned TV shows or radio broadcasts.
9. Think about pain. What are the biggest problems your readers face? Focus on topics that would provide balm to their wounds.
10. Talk to a friend. That’s right — use your lifeline, just like on the reality TV shows. Jawing about a problem usually helps ideas bubble up.
11. Tackle a controversy. Weigh in on your industry’s hot topic. This can be especially effective if you have a contrarian viewpoint.
12. Join a blogger’s group. Knowing your group will ask what you’re posting should help concentrate the mind. Hearing what they’re blogging on will no doubt suggest subjects for you to cover, too.
13. Scan industry conference schedules. The list of session topics offers a quick guide to your audience’s hot-button issues.
14. Get a critique. Find a mentor. Have them look over your blog and point out what’s missing.
15. Mine your hobbies. People love posts that offer an unusual perspective on your topic. For instance, I once did a post called 7 Things I Learned About Business From Playing Bejeweled Blitz.
16. Do an interview. Do you have a favorite thinker in your space? Get in touch. You’ll be surprised how many authors and thought leaders are game for a quick Q&A.
17. Review your greatest hits. Read your most popular past blogs. Look for ways to take a slightly different angle and further illuminate the same topic.
18. Write a sequel. If something has happened recently that puts a new light on a past blog post, update your readers. Write a new entry and link it back to the old one.
19. Have a debate.
20. Stop worrying you’ll look dumb. Buck up and be brave. Try a post idea that you’ve been scared to tackle.
21. Ask a question. Is there an industry issue that you’re undecided about? Discuss your mixed feelings.
22. Write something else. Anything. Like, a letter to your mom. A wish list for Santa. Anything that gets you into a completely different mental space. Return to your blog once the writing wheels are turning.
23. Talk about your mistakes. Folks love to hear about how other people screwed up. Be honest and talk about what you learned.
24. Make a prediction. Everybody — everybody — wants to know what’s going to happen next. Grab attention with your thoughts on the future of your sector.
25. Review the past. How has your industry changed in the past 5 years? 10 years? Look for milestones for reflection.
26. Create a regular feature. For instance, if you do a weekly news wrapup every Saturday, that’s one post you know you have covered.
27. Where are they now? If you know of an industry bigwig who’s been out of the spotlight but now they’re back, check in with them. Write about their new venture.
28. Change your view. Go to the park, a (different) coffeeshop, a museum, your backyard deck. Leave your usual writing cave.
29. Eavesdrop. While you’re out, tune in to other conversations and see where they take you.
30. Take a hike. Most writers could really stand to exercise more. It stimulates the brain, and topics will come to you naturally. Just make sure you bring something to take a few notes with.
31. Take a bath. Ideally, after the walk. Ahhhhh. That warm water just seems to release the creativity, doesn’t it?
32. Take an entire day off — every week. It’s a life-changer. Mine is Saturdays. Hit your own “refresh” button and return ready to rock your blog.
33. Take a poll. When in doubt, ask readers what they’d like you to write about.
34. Hold a contest. Provide a provocative fill-in-the-blank line, or give a prize for the best question. Presto: Instant post idea list.
35. Keep a journal. Ideally, that you write in first or last thing daily, when you’re unfocused and allow uncensored thoughts.
36. Free associate. Take five minutes and just scribble about your blog. See what percolates up.
37. Do a mind map. If you’re not familiar, mind mapping is a technique for visualizing how topics are related to each other. Draw a chart with branches for all the main topics you cover, to get a picture of where they might sprout new stems.
38. Do a book review. Tell readers if the hot new book in your niche is insightful or inane.
39. Do a product review. Ditto the book reviews, only for stuff. Is it a ripoff, or valuable?
40. Run your analytics. The most popular keyword phrases that bring people to your site provide a ready-made road map to your next post topics.
41. Read your comments. See what readers have asked about that you haven’t answered yet.
42. Read your competitors’ comments. If your blog doesn’t have a lot of comments yet, go mine someone else’s.
43. Read your social-media group’s questions. What are people chatting about? Answer on your blog, then go back and provide a link.
44. Tweet about needing ideas. Or post it on your Facebook or LinkedIn status. Let your connections do the work for you.
45. Hit an industry networking event. As you chat people up, mention your blog. Ask what they like to read about.
46. Attend a local community event. Compete in a zucchini race, volunteer at a charity auction. Get out of your head and laugh a little.
47. Think funny. While you’re laughing, consider writing a post that’s satirical or humorous for a change. I know funny bloggers are among my personal favorites.
48. Take the headline challenge. Tell yourself you need to come up with 50 story ideas today, or else. Jot down anything and everything. (This one helped me write this post.)
49. Take the one-hour challenge. You must find a post idea in the next hour. Go downtown, stick your head in shops, chat people up.
50. Recruit a guest. Or two. When all else fails, call for backup. Sometimes you just need to take the pressure off so your post-generator has a little time to recuperate.

About the author.  Carol Tice had to find four story ideas each week during her 12 years as a staff writer. Now she blogs for BNET, Entrepreneur magazine, and about the business of writing on her Make a Living Writing blog.

Social Media Marketing in a very short time has gone from Geek Street to Main Street. It is truly ubiquitous and global ranging from young to old, novice to expert marketer. As an Internet Marketer implementing proven tips will help take your Social Media Marketing to the next level.

Let’s start with the mindset that you should begin with, courtesy of Social Media Expert Joey Smith shared at the Epic Masters Live Event in Atlanta last month, “How you do anything is how you do everything” and “Over, under, around or through, whatever it takes, I’ll do!” I love starting with mindset as true success is born and manifests there. So if you forget all of the content in this article, remember the mindset quotes as they will have the biggest impact on your business and life.

So let’s get started,

1. Apply the mental fundamentals to your business. Enough said.

2. Utilizing Social Media Marketing in your business allows you to shorten the typical sales cycle of establishing rapport, building credibility, communicating a compelling value proposition, call to action and closing that could take anywhere from a few hours to a few days, weeks, months and reduce it to a few minutes. Social Media Marketing provides an efficient platform for networking, adding value, sharing experience, collaborating ideas, thoughts, referring products in minutes.

3. Leverage everyone’s favorite four letter word FREE by giving and sharing your expertise, knowledge and help others solve problems while you build your list of advocates that you can later market to.

4. Credibility and trust take time to establish and no time to lose. Therefore, operate from a frame of reference of unquestionable integrity and credibility that is part of the solution and never part of the problem.

5. Think of you, your products and your business as a a social media channel that needs to be congruent at all times. Meaning that when you are interacting with suspects, prospects, customers, colleagues and associates, you want your channel, your personality, your story, your products and services to be in alignment and congruent. A common thread that ties them all together needs to be apparent and easily recognizable.

These 5 proven Social Media Marketing Tips are typically not written about and yet so very vital to the long range success of businesses large and small. So take a quick inventory of your current Social Media Marketing strategy and be sure to implement any of these tips that you may not be utilizing and are consistent with your game plan.

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Epic Traffic Systems is a traffic generation product that was created by three Master Internet Marketers Joey Smith who specializes in Social Media, Keith Baxter who specializes in Organic Search Engine Optimization and Jon Shugert who specializes in Paid Traffic Systems.

Epic Traffic Masters was the live event the culminated the training 3 month training course that was attended by several hundred Internet Marketers from August 27th and 28th, 2010 in Atlanta Georgia. Epic Traffic Systems was truly Epic as six and seven figure Masters of the three different traffic generation methods shared their best secrets.

The list of traffic experts the shared golden nuggets at the event included: Joey Smith who served as the Master of Ceremony, Leon Jay who created the Fusion HQ product that generates websites in minutes, Greg Davis who is a Partner at Elite Clicks Media and 7 Figure Master Affiliate, Robert Stanley who create Local Niche Spy and the istreetfighter.com local marketing site, Jack Mize who is the Master Local Internet Marketing Expert and creator of the offlinexfactor.com, Luke Sample who in a partner of Elite Clicks Media and 7 figure Master Affiliate, Brian Horn who is a Search Optimization expert and Keith Baxter who is a Master of Organic Search Engine Optimization traffic.

In upcoming articles, all of the golden nuggets shared by each of these leaders will be shared as an opportunity to leverage them in your business. This article will focus on the mindset for success the was shared by Joey Smith and is really the place where the seeds of prosperity grow and become reality.

Two of the most important secrets that anyone will ever reveal to you are,

1. Become very comfortable with being uncomfortable.

2. Take Action! ~ of the brain.

Most people want to be comfortable. The challenge with that desire is that at every phase of your life you are either growing or dieing. When you are comfortable, you are not pushed, challenged and hence you are not developing your skills or growing. Therefore, look for opportunities to be challenge, to be uncomfortable, to grow.

Take action. Take action and did I mention to Take Action! Show me someone that is not succeeding and I will show you someone that is not taking consistent action. Action begins in your brain via your Reticular Activation System.

Per Wikipedia, the RAS is a part of the reticular formation that extends from the brain stem to the midbrain and thalamus with connections distributed throughout the cerebral cortex and that controls the degree of activity of the central nervous system (as in maintaining sleep and wakefulness and in making transitions between the two states).

Success begins in your mind and manifests through your frame of reference. Two essential golden nuggets that characterize the frame of reference that Joey Smith and other successful Internet Marketers live by are,

1. How you do anything is how you do everything.

2. Over, under, around or through, whatever it takes, I will do!

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How To Dominate The Small Business Market is a topic that comes up frequently amongst Internet Marketers. You see, there is a tremendous window of opportunity right now to provide value to small businesses and create very profitable and lucrative consulting practice.

The opportunity is so big that even Verizon and Intuit are jumping in an effort to bring, online expertise to millions of small businesses that find themselves intimidated and confused about how they can leverage the internet.

Internet Marketers possess all of the knowledge to serve a trusted advisers and provide step by step solutions to help these business increase the exposure, traffic, customer base and sales. On the surface it appears to be a marriage made in heaven.

So why are so many Internet Marketers finding it hard to crack into to the local business market or unable to fully leverage their knowledge and experience into a six figure per year business?

The answer is so simple that it reminds of a famous saying that goes like this, “The minor adjustment that a leader has to make to be totally successful and win are so simple are so simple and basic that most leaders won’t make them and that is why most leaders don’t win.”

Simple, yes the answer is KISS, “Keep It Simple Stupid.” You see, we are so used to talking about squeeze pages, landing pages, auto responders, click through rates, conversion rates, sales pages, tracking pixels, analytics and on and on and on.

So most marketers throw up some or all of the Internet Marketing lingo on the average small business owner, who is intimidated by the perceived complexity of the internet and yet feel they need a painless way to leverage the its power.

After they clean themselves up and the smoke stops coming out of their heads, the average Small Business owner says to themselves, “Wow, this Internet Marketing stuff is alot harder than I ever imagined, I am going to stick with what I know, forget that stuff.”

The typical Internet Marketer is scratching their heads thinking what is wrong with this person and why can’t they see how they are leaving so much money on the table.

Playing the typical scenario out yields the solution where everybody wins, the Small Business owner has a system and plan to leverage the internet to grow their business and the Internet Marketer is building their six figure Local Small Business Consulting Practice.

That answer is, “Speak to that Small Business owner in a language using the words that are comfortable to them and that they want to hear.” Tell them as Mike Stewart says, “We are going to build you a pretty website and get you some clicks and customers.”

When they ask you to share with them what is it that you do, say what Jack Mize teaches, “I help small businesses get more customers by making them findable on the Internet.”

Simple, simpler and even more simple. The most powerful things in life are simple and marketing to small businesses is no exception.

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Video Marketing is the rave and people in many industries are utilizing and harnessing its power to supercharge exposure for their businesses Leveraging its power and maximizing Video Marketing’s ubiquitous attraction requires that you avoid the top 10 newbie mistakes.

Video expert, Mike Koenigs, shared the bullet version of the top 10 newbie mistakes and I will expand on them and provide additional insight. So let’s start with number 10 and work our way to the number one.

10. Not testing a campaign before submission. The is one of those mistakes that is notorious for plaguing newbie and veterans alike. So much success and business prosperity is often left on the table due to lack of testing. Laziness and pride are usually at the root.

9. Not using the lower third of the video. The lower third of a video provides great real estate to provide a call to action and link to your site and so many marketers do not take advantage of it.

8. No content to keyword relevance. These days, other than laziness there is really no excuse as using the Google Wonder Wheel will insure that you are using relevant keywords that Google loves. In other words, Google is handing a keyword relevant video or any content for that matter on a silver platter.

7. Not creating an RSS (Podcast) channel. This is a simple thing to do and yet it is amazing how many folks overlook creating an RSS channel.

6. Not going through the training videos. You know what they say, “Practice makes perfect” and although you can outsource just about anything, you need to do enough training to understand the process of creating high quality videos.

5. Not setting up analytics. Success is based on your ability to make adjustments, capture data, evaluate it and make more adjustments. Setting up analytics, will provide you the data that you can then make your adjustments and tweaks.

4. Poor keyword research. Most people do cursory keyword research and choose not to invest that little extra time to find those money making keywords that will separate you from your competition.

3. Lack of understanding about how Search Engine Optimization works. SEO is an art form that can be learned and mastered. It takes time, effort and the good news is that you can outsource this piece entirely.

2. Not listing a phone number in the description of the video or the lower third of the video. Get into the habit of sharing your phone number every chance you get.

1. Giving up to soon. Internet Marketing is not rocket science. Focus, hard work and implementing all of the tips, strategies and systems you learn will yield massive success. The reality is that most people quite before the success happens. Make sure that, that will not be you.

On September 8, 2010, Google announced the release of the whispered, “Google Instant” modification and enhancement to their algorithm and the immediate question that followed was, “Is Search Engine Optimization, SEO Dead?”

For those that might not be familiar with Google Instant, it automatically populates the search results page below as you type. The first couple of times you try it, it will work your peripheral vision and pull your attention to the search results being automatically populated.

Before the code was activated globally, the industry experts where making predictions about the impending sudden death of SEO at the hands of Google Instant. As you can imagine all of the folks that presently implement SEO as their partial or only marketing strategy experienced a sudden drop in their blood pressure.

The obvious question on their mind and of most concern is, “Does Google Instant really change the Search Engine Optimization marketing strategy? The second question is, “If Google is dynamically populating the search results for each letter that is typed on the search field, does that now mean that you have to optimize your pages on each letter the makes up your keyword?”

As I read through blog posts on Google Instant, exerts from an article on PC World and a detailed explanation on the subject from SEO Guru Jonathan Leger, I believe that the predicted death of SEO is very premature, overrated and not something that should be feared.

Jonathan does an excellent job of providing facts to pour cold water on the cries for SEO’s death. “Let’s first debunk the “letter ranking” myth. SEO will not start to rely on letter rankings, at least not in the current form of Google Instant, because Instant populates the search results for the most popular keywords in the suggested terms drop-down — not for the fragment of keywords the user has typed.”

As with every change that is experienced in our industry, there will be some adjusting and leveraging of the trickle down affects that arise. An example that comes to mind is that many folks search and are not sure how to phrase their search. In those instances, they will be more like to accept Google’s suggestions as they are displayed. That scenario will certainly increase the total number of searches being performed for the Google suggested keyword phrases.

Like everything else in our industry the one thing that you can count on is change. So what does this all mean to you? Continue to do today what you have been doing all along, adapt, adjust, overcome and succeed!

Online Marketing tips for beginners is designed to share a few golden nuggets from the computer field of Internet Marketing. Anyone can start an online business but not everyone succeeds. There are many strategies, techniques and methods that are followed and a considerable amount of time is invested to gather information and set up an business online.

Most beginners are overwhelmed with the how to’s, what to’s, when to’s and where to’s. So, what are the key factors that are very helpful in minimizing the possibilities that you do not waste your valuable time and effort learning by trial and error?

I am going to review some high level basics designed to get you thinking about an approach that aligns best with your strengths and your experience.

Next, I am going to reveal the most important, valuable and universally applicable advise that you are ever going to here and anyone is ever going to share. Wow, with that kind of build up, even I can’t wait to here what it is. Ok so here goes, one word, FOCUS, FOCUS and FOCUS.

It seems very simple and yet lack of focus is at the core of an overwhelming amount of newbies failing or quitting right before they would have succeeded. Chat with any Internet, Online or Network Marketing six, seven or eight figure earner and the common theme is they focused on one thing until they mastered it and did not quite.

Invest time in learning what are the most successful marketing tools and why you should be using them to promote your business. Every tool on the surface and at first glance is the best thing since sliced bread and you need to do you due diligence to insure that it is a fit for where you are in your knowledge growth and development. Make sure that it is consistent with you chosen marketing strategy that you are completely focused on.

You are going to here how important it is for you to have a blog. That is very good advise and you should create one or have one created for you as soon as possible. Why you may ask? Because it gives you a platform to share your growing pains, lessons learned, knowledge and ultimately position yourself as a expert in the area that you decided to focus on until you mastered it.

Next, you are going to hear how important it is to create and market your own products. Yes, this is not only true, it should literally be your number one goal. The reality is that it is not only an intimidating thought, it challenges you at many different levels. So here is the solution. Start as an affiliate marketer, selling other peoples products on your sites, always focused on replacing those products with your own.

These are the Online Marketing basic tips for beginners and old farts alike. The key is to apply these golden nuggets or become a victim of the coulda, shoulda syndrome. If the Tips For Newbies has helped you, I invite you to tweet them and share with your Facebook Friends to maximize the impact and value to our community.

Advanced Video Marketing Strategies were revealed recently at the Social Media Money Making Seminar hosted by the Glazer-Kennedy Inside Circle. The source of the strategies was Mike Koenigs, co-founder and CEO of Traffic Geyser delivered an unbelievable amount of value during his session.

If you are a newbie focus on the more basic strategies presented in the prior posts and work your way up to these. The key is not to feel overwhelmed as it is best to pace yourself. You will be more confident and productive.

1.Tags: Enter generic search terms on YouTube Search (like internet marketing). Model statistics of the video to identify key phrases and keywords to use. Success breeds success and reinventing the wheel is a strategy that you want to stay away from. Never copy and always provide give credit. Feel free to model success.

2.Annotations: Connect your videos with HOT links on the video. Very few folks implement this technique and it is extremely powerful to take advantage of.

3.Segments: If you have segments, name videos with (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) – YouTube Recognizes them. We all have ADD. Why try to cram all of your valuable content into one long video that no one is going to sit through. Break it up into logical parts that flow and present your content best.

4.Your Channel Page: Feature your video and make it AUTOPLAY (the video you want your viewers to see). This is an advanced strategy as you need to pick your spots. In some instances, your audience may not appreciate a video auto-playing while they are at work and their speakers are set to blast.

5.Link: Other similar YouTube channels in your channel. This is another powerful technique that very few folks take advantage of and you shall be different as you will implement this technique.

6.Use Surveys: in Your YouTube Channel (MODERATOR) example at http://www.youtube.com/ videobookends To Get Questions from users. Links (Annotations) can be used to direct from YouTube Video to YouTube Channel.

7.Captions and Subtitles: EMBED LOTs of Keywords for your topic to Youtube. It can be uploaded just a text, or with time code, works either way.

The secrets revealed on this post are some of the most powerful in video online marketing on the internet today. Apply, apply, apply and rinse and repeat. One of the most powerful step by step systems that have taken my business the top is Traffic Geyser and as you can see its creator, Mike Koenigs is a Master at Video marketing. If you are struggling with Video Marketing click on the Traffic Geyser link and take you business to the top.

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