Blogging ABCs

This is an ABCs Plus Special edition podcast that is being posted to Affiliate ABCs, Blogging ABCs and Merchant ABCs because of the importance of the issue. Your hosts Vinny O'Hare and Deborah Carney are joined by Karen Garcia, Outsourced Affiliate Program Manager to try and explain the Affiliate Nexus sales tax laws that states are enacting to attempt to get more companies to collect their state sales tax even though the companies do not have a physical presence in their state. States are trying to establish that affiliates and affiliate marketing gives companies a physical presence in their state, making the merchants liable to collect sales taxes in states they shouldn't have to. Some Resources we mention: Coffee Talk with James Martell, Karen Garcia and Jeannine Crooks PMA List of States and their status and links to their bills. NexusAware - a listing of what companies already have to collect sales taxes in what states There is a lot of information out there and much confusion by affiliates, merchants, bloggers and even the legislators themselves. If you are in a state that hasn't passed this tax yet, check and see if they have a law drafted or on the table. Basically states are treating this as an amendment to their state sales tax laws and not as new laws, so they pass easier and sometimes with no press about it at all. Please feel free to contribute additional information in the comments. We are not lawyers, so you need to check with a local lawyer familiar with internet law if you are in an affected state. What we also discuss in this podcast is how affiliates can find merchants that already collect sales tax in their state, what types of merchants that sell items that are exempt and how to talk to your merchants to find out how they are going to handle it if their state passes such a law.

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Vinny O'Hare, Liz Fogg and Trica Meyer discuss what affiliate marketing is. Vinny attended Blog World and had many bloggers ask what affiliate marketing is. Simply put affiliate marketing is affiliates (bloggers) putting special tracking links (affiliate links from a network or merchant) on their websites (blogs). When a visitor to a blog clicks an affiliate link and makes a purchase, the blogger makes a commission on that sale. That is the simple explanation :) Listen for lots more great information and how affiliate marketing can be one way to possibly monetize your blog. Links to some affiliate networks. ShareASale Commission Junction Linkshare buy.at We would like to challenge you to find one network or merchant that you would want to work with and see how it would fit into your blog. Find Us On Twitter: Blogging ABCs Loxly SunshineTricia TeamLoxlyLiz Vinny O'Hare Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts and many other educational and entertaining podcasts related to all things geeky.

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Liz Fogg and Trica Meyer discuss why bloggers should attend Affiliate Summit. Attending Affiliate Summit is the dividing line between dabbling and going full time for many people.  Networking happens more in the follow up after the conference. Meet Market is most important day if you can only afford to be there one day, that is Sunday afternoon from Noon to 6pm. If this is your first time attending, be sure to sign up for the Newcomers Program where you will be paired up with a mentor who can answer general questions and introduce you to people.  Be sure to visit the Affiliate Summit Forum to start meeting people before the conference. The deadline for Affiliate Summit Scholarship Program submission is Friday, November 4, 2011 for passes for Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas in January. Find Us On Twitter: Blogging ABCs Loxly SunshineTricia TeamLoxlyLiz Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts and many other educational and entertaining podcasts related to all things geeky.

James Martell joins Blogging ABCs hosts Vinny O'Hare and Deborah Carney discuss guest posting and how it differs from submitting articles to article directories. Article directories have too many similar articles, they are focused on quantity over quality. Guest posts are higher quality and are related to the topic of the blog they are guest posting for. Be picky about who you guest post for, and who guest posts for you. Guest posts give a blog different voices which can give your blog a new vitality. Listen to the audio for more great advice from our panel of experts. Affiliate Marketers Boot Camp Twitter: James Martell Vinny O'Hare Deborah aka Loxly Blogging ABCs Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts. Please go visit them to hear more podcasts about internet marketing.

Blogging ABCs hosts Tricia Meyer and Deborah Carney discuss why bloggers should attend conferences. Some Conference Links: Shareasale Network Think Tank BlogWorld Affiliate Summit SheCon CJU AdTech BlogHer   Follow us on Twitter: Tricia Meyer Deborah aka Loxly Blogging ABCs Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts. Please go visit them to hear more great podcasts about internet marketing.

May 13th is a special date to me. It's the day I got engaged (1976), it's the day I got divorced (1990), it's the day my youngest son died (2002). Each year on May 13th I try to do something he would be proud of. He was a big supporter of my photography skills and my writing ability (although he was the one with all the writing talent :) ) so every year for the past several years I would go somewhere and photograph something. Some years while I was in Rochester it was the lilacs at Highland Park and other years it was Red Rock Canyon, and still others NYC parks. This year I had a bad fall this week and can't hold a camera or go for a walk. So I challenged myself to do something I don't normally do. I recorded a solo podcast. It is meant to be an inspiration to other parents of children with disabilities and a peek into life before the World Wide Web, when the internet was just green letters on a black screen, but that still allowed you to do research you would ordinarily take months to do. I kept it to 20 minutes and didn't say all that I had to say, but will add more later. For this special edition I just wanted to tell part of the tale, the part that will hopefully inspire other parents to reach out, start a blog, use online resources to make their lives and their children's lives the best they can be. I'm posting this under Affiliate ABCs because as the story progresses it will lead to how I became an affiliate, and eventually an affiliate manager. I'm posting this under Blogging ABCs because I want people to blog about their life challenges. To follow my blog go to DeborahCarney.com

Blogging ABCs hosts Tricia Meyer, Deborah Carney, and Vinny O'Hare, are joined by guest Stephanie Lichtenstein to discuss how bloggers can get started with a social media strategy. Great discussion, listen and learn. Some Facebook Like Buttons http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/share-button-on-facebook http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/topsy/ http://mashable.com/2010/05/07/wordpress-facebook-like-buttons/ Find Stephanie on the internet: http://micromediamarketing.com/ http://facebook.com/micromediamarketing http://twitter.com/micromediamktg http://twitter.com/microsteph http://facebook.com/microsteph Follow us on Twitter: Tricia Meyer Vinny O'Hare Deborah aka Loxly Blogging ABCs Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts. Please go visit them to hear more great podcasts about internet marketing.

SEO Tips for Bloggers Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Tricia Meyer, Vinny O'Hare, are joined by guest Eric Nagel to discuss the basics of SEO tactics for bloggers. Eric supplied us with an excellent outline below, but be sure to listen and not just read, there is excellent discussion on each of these bullet points, plus a ton of great stuff that came out within the discussion. Keyword research Take your idea, and think about how people are going to search for it "How to..." Google search suggestions AdWords tool Title Tag This should be your keyword. Don't be cute here The title tag in WordPress is inside an H1 tag, which helps with on-site SEO WordPress SEO Plugin by Joost de Valk http://yoast.com/wordpress/seo/ Allows you to set Title, Meta Description Meta Description is sometimes used for the snippet shown in organic search results No need to have your site name repeated in the title tag, unless your site brand is commonly searched for Permalinks Don't use default of ?p=87 Choose one of the options that has %postname% (either Day and name, or Month and name) Images Don't hotlink images Use the Title, Alternate Text & Caption fields Name the image with your keyword ex: your-keyword-here.jpg Social Sharing Twitter button Facebook share button If you use Thesis & want to specify the Facebook thumbnail, read http://www.ericnagel.com/2011/03/specify-thumbnail-image-sharing-link-facebook-from-thesis.html Twitter Official Instructions for Tweet Button Your social circle influences Google search results Sitemaps Google XML Sitemaps by Arne Brachhold http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/ Eric's XML Image Sitemap Plugin http://www.ericnagel.com/2010/10/image-sitemap-for-wordpress.html Submit to Google Webmaster Tools http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ Submit to Bing Webmaster Tools http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmasters/ Follow all of us on Twitter: Tricia Meyer Eric Nagel Vinny O'Hare Deborah aka Loxly Blogging ABCs Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts. Please go visit them to hear more podcasts about internet marketing.

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Tricia Meyer, Vinny O'Hare, are joined by James Martell to have a panel discussion about why bloggers should consider podcasting, plus having guests on podcasts. Here is a link to a page where we show you the show you the basic software and equipment you need to get started podcasting. Here are some of our notes on why you should start podcasting on your blog: Connect on a personal level. Listen instead of read, listen while you do other things - on top of Mt Kilimanjaro, on a plane, while running, while working. Affiliate Buzz - Every two weeks at the start, weekly now. Charles Johnston got James started as a way to get readers of James' book to be able to hear James answer questions and let people get to know him. Gives your blog a personality in addition to words on a page. Affiliate Thing - another long lasting podcast that is on a regular schedule and widely listened too about issues in the affiliate marketing industry, but that covers other topics as well. Hosted by Shawn Collins and Lisa Picarille. People recognize your voice at conferences. Personalities come through better via voice or video. After listening to a podcast people can "hear" your voice when reading your posts. She Shops Around - Podcast that Tricia produces that helped her site's members get to know her better. Exposure: iTunes, podcast directory, podcatchers drive traffic to website from other locations. Be sure to leave contact information and clearly spoken links to your website at the end of your podcast so people can find your site that got the show from iTunes. Spell things out so that people have time to write it down or type it into their browsers. Article by James that includes list of podcasting directories to submit to. (Note: after podcast Deborah started down that page adding podcast rss feeds.) Force yourself into a schedule by having a live call and then record and post. Some conference call services: AccuConference Free Conference Call Another way is to have a co-host, so you keep each other to a schedule. Plus people generally like to here different voices and different opinions. Then add guests so that you have even more voice and regularity. Discussion creates new and better ideas. Arlene Martell's Podcast - initially pushed back from the idea for a podcast on her site EpilepsyMoms.com. Instead of a long term podcast she decided to have interviews and have a limited series of podcasts on specific topics with specific physicians and nutritionists. Her goal with her podcast was to educate parents of children with epilepsy and have them try the diet that has made such a difference in her child's life. Interviews via podcast instead of print interviews are more interactive. Makes your website comes to life, and when on a podcast the participants gain from the discussion, which gives the listeners new information as well. Blogger challenge: Think about the topic of your blog, find someone similar and just get on a call, talk about a topic and record your discussion for 20 mins. Put your contact info at the end. Post the link to your podcast here :) James: Some people don't like to hear their own voices: Get over it. Get a headset, write an outline and just do it. Tricia: Fresh content, give new life to your site, inspire yourself with new topics Vinny: New traffic for your site from your iTunes stream. Vinny and Deborah's Podcasting resources: Post with the info you need for the technical side of starting a podcast. Twitter: Tricia Meyer James Martell Vinny O'Hare Deborah aka Loxly Blogging ABCs Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts. Please go visit them to hear more podcasts about internet marketing.

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Tricia Meyer, Vinny O'Hare, are joined by James Martell to have a panel discussion about guest posting (blogging on other people's blogs) and have guest bloggers on their own sites. More exposure for you and for the guest poster Adds more variety of "voices" to your blog Guest bloggers encourage their followers to follow you as well. Some guest bloggers might not have their own sites, so they send you traffic so their followers can read what they wrote. Where you guest blog can give you instant authority if you are a guest blogger or regular contributor to a larger site in your niche. Multi-user blogs that share revenue Plan your guest blogging, so you are contributing regularly to new audience Guest blogging is going to be the next "big thing" other than social media Bloggers are more open to cross promoting than traditional webmasters with static sites that take webmaster intervention to post content to. Can outsource as long as the voice is yours. Give an outsourced writer an outline and then you edit it, so it is your content. Common question: Do you use a unique post for each site or can you reuse articles from your own site? James: Original content but not necessarily new topics. Change up the slant to fit the personality of the blog you are guest posting on. Duplicate content is not as issue because it is in front of a different audience. We want to get in front of more real people and not as much from search engines. Delivery of some content is different also, rss to various devices could mean people aren't even getting to your actual site. Google punishing the people that blast garbage content to 500-700 crappy blogs and bad article directories. People that have good content even on several locations are still going to rank for the same article at all those places. Print publishing rules: First world rights for one-time use and electronic use, then reprint rights belong to the author once the article is published on the blog you are guest posting on. BloggerLinkUp - Great place to hook up with potential guest bloggers Podcast with Cathy Stucker about using BloggerLinkUp Peter Shankman's Help a Reporter Out, but BLU is more focused as a tool to create relationships between webmasters/bloggers and HARO is more focused on actual media connections. They are complimentary tools, and you probably want to subscribe to both. Affiliate Summit Panel request on HARO got posters, podcasters, and the panel members. Tricia suggests some additional ways to find guest posters - Twitter hashtags, follow some in a specific niche, watch the links they post and when you see writing you like, send them an @message to contact you about being a guest poster. Tricia and James both have found writers via: Paper.li - watch who your paper is pulling in and go see who has content you like or who you would like to write for or who you would like to write for you. James: Watching people that comment regularly on blogs you are on and ask them to blog for you. Nice things to do when you Guest Post: Include a graphic Promote the post Subscribe to the post comments so you know you have comments to respond to More sophisticated than article marketing via article sharing sites. Plugin that allows guest posters to set up profile, submit the posts, and manage their posts they have submitted to your site: Kish Guest Post Plugin for WordPress Gravity Forms Contact Form Plugin for WordPress Can create guest post form templates Twitter: Tricia Meyer James Martell Vinny O'Hare Deborah aka Loxly Blogging ABCs Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts. Please go visit them to hear more podcasts about internet marketing.

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Liz Fogg and Trica Meyer discuss how to structure giveaways on your blog. Some of the things to think about when doing a giveaway are what are you looking to get out of it and how much is your time & advertising/backlinks worth?  We suggest using Facebook likes, twitter followers, subscribe to blog rss for entries rather than newsletter subscriptions.  Always remember what your blog is about when considering giveaways and considering how many to do and be sure that your disclosure and privacy statements are thorough enough on your site. Feel free to post links to your blog for us to take a look at in the comments below!   Also suggestions for future podcast topics or guests.   Find Us On Twitter: Blogging ABCs Loxly SunshineTricia TeamLoxlyLiz Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts and many other educational and entertaining podcasts related to all things geeky.

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Liz Fogg and Trica Meyer discuss how to use giveaways on your blog including where to get giveaways, what are you expecting to get out of it and what are companies expecting to get out of it. It's easiest to start with your own product to get going.  You can then contact the affiliate managers for programs that you are an affiliate of and also contact national brands that you currently use.  When possible, request a promo code for your users so that they can place an order after the contest is over.  Be sure to set realistic expectations for both sides so that you can possibly partner again later. Feel free to post links to your blog for us to take a look at in the comments below!   Also suggestions for future podcast topics or guests. Find Us On Twitter: Blogging ABCs Loxly SunshineTricia TeamLoxlyLiz Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts and many other educational and entertaining podcasts related to all things geeky.

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Liz Fogg and Trica Meyer discuss how to structure your blog including how to pick the software and platform. Recommended blog platforms: Unanimously recommend Wordpress.org with the blog hosted on your own domain. Tricia and Deborah both use the Thesis Wordpress theme, while Liz uses themes from the Wordpress.org repository to find themes that fit the subject of her blogs.  It was suggested that you do not have any auto play music, video etc that can distract your visitors, or even detract visitors. When using WordPress.com - You are not allowed to monetize your blog at all. Blogger.com/Blogspot.com - You can monetize but it looks unprofessional and you don't own your content. Feel free to post links to your blog for us to take a look at in the comments below! Also suggestions for future podcast topics or guests are welcome. Find Us On Twitter: Blogging ABCs Loxly SunshineTricia TeamLoxlyLiz Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts and many other educational and entertaining podcasts related to all things geeky.