eBay DevCon 08 Video 3

This is with Kumar Kandaswamy, Sr mgr eBay developer & innovation team.
To explain all about what the the eBay devcon.

10 Blog Traffic Tips From Yaro Starak

This is from the desk of Yaro Starak ( The reason I started blogging as a business):

In every bloggers life comes a special day - the day they first launch a new blog. Now unless you went out and purchased someone else’’s blog chances are your blog launched with only one very loyal reader - you. Maybe a few days later you received a few hits when you told your sister, father, girlfriend and best friend about your new blog but that’’s about as far you went when it comes to finding readers.

Here are the top 10 techniques new bloggers can use to find readers. These are tips specifically for new bloggers, those people who have next-to-no audience at the moment and want to get the ball rolling.

It helps if you work on this list from top to bottom as each technique builds on the previous step to help you create momentum. Eventually once you establish enough momentum you gain what is called “traction”, which is a large enough audience base (about 500 readers a day is good) that you no longer have to work too hard on finding new readers. Instead your current loyal readers do the work for you through word of mouth.

Top 10 Tips

10. Write at least five major “pillar” articles. A pillar article is a tutorial style article aimed to teach your audience something. Generally they are longer than 500 words and have lots of very practical tips or advice. This article you are currently reading could be considered a pillar article since it is very practical and a good “how-to” lesson. This style of article has long term appeal, stays current (it isn’t news or time dependent) and offers real value and insight. The more pillars you have on your blog the better.

9. Write one new blog post per day minimum. Not every post has to be a pillar, but you should work on getting those five pillars done at the same time as you keep your blog fresh with a daily news or short article style post. The important thing here is to demonstrate to first time visitors that your blog is updated all the time so they feel that if they come back tomorrow they will likely find something new. This causes them to bookmark your site or subscribe to your blog feed.

You don”t have to produce one post per day all the time but it is important you do when your blog is brand new. Once you get traction you still need to keep the fresh content coming but your loyal audience will be more forgiving if you slow down to a few per week instead. The first few months are critical so the more content you can produce at this time the better.

8. Use a proper domain name. If you are serious about blogging be serious about what you call your blog. In order for people to easily spread the word about your blog you need a easily rememberable domain name. People often talk about blogs they like when they are speaking to friends in the real world (that’’s the offline world, you remember that place right?) so you need to make it easy for them to spread the word and pass on your URL. Try and get a .com if you can and focus on small easy to remember domains rather than worry about having the correct keywords (of course if you can get great keywords and easy to remember then you’ve done a good job!).

7. Start commenting on other blogs. Once you have your pillar articles and your daily fresh smaller articles your blog is ready to be exposed to the world. One of the best ways to find the right type of reader for your blog is to comment on other people’s blogs. You should aim to comment on blogs focused on a similar niche topic to yours since the readers there will be more likely to be interested in your blog.

Most blog commenting systems allow you to have your name/title linked to your blog when you leave a comment. This is how people find your blog. If you are a prolific commentor and always have something valuable to say then people will be interested to read more of your work and hence click through to visit your blog.

6. Trackback and link to other blogs in your blog posts. A trackback is sort of like a blog conversation. When you write a new article to your blog and it links or references another blogger’’s article you can do a trackback to their entry. What this does is leave a truncated summary of your blog post on their blog entry - it’’s sort of like your blog telling someone else’s blog that you wrote an article mentioning them. Trackbacks often appear like comments.

This is a good technique because like leaving comments a trackback leaves a link from another blog back to yours for readers to follow, but it also does something very important - it gets the attention of another blogger. The other blogger will likely come and read your post eager to see what you wrote about them. They may then become a loyal reader of yours or at least monitor you and if you are lucky some time down the road they may do a post linking to your blog bringing in more new readers.

5. Encourage comments on your own blog. One of the most powerful ways to convince someone to become a loyal reader is to show there are other loyal readers already following your work. If they see people commenting on your blog then they infer that your content must be good since you have readers so they should stick around and see what all the fuss is about. To encourage comments you can simply pose a question in a blog post. Be sure to always respond to comments as well so you can keep the conversation going.

4. Submit your latest pillar article to a blog carnival. A blog carnival is a post in a blog that summarizes a collection of articles from many different blogs on a specific topic. The idea is to collect some of the best content on a topic in a given week. Often many other blogs link back to a carnival host and as such the people that have articles featured in the carnival often enjoy a spike in new readers.

To find the right blog carnival for your blog, do a search at blogcarnival.com.

3. Submit your blog to blogtopsites.com. To be honest this tip is not going to bring in a flood of new readers but it’’s so easy to do and only takes five minutes so it’’s worth the effort. Go to Blog Top Sites, find the appropriate category for your blog and submit it. You have to copy and paste a couple of lines of code on to your blog so you can rank and then sit back and watch the traffic come in. You will probably only get 1-10 incoming readers per day with this technique but over time it can build up as you climb the rankings. It all helps!

2. Submit your articles to EzineArticles.com. This is another tip that doesn’t bring in hundreds of new visitors immediately (although it can if you keep doing it) but it’’s worthwhile because you simply leverage what you already have - your pillar articles. Once a week or so take one of your pillar articles and submit it to Ezine Articles. Your article then becomes available to other people who can republish your article on their website or in their newsletter.

How you benefit is through what is called your “Resource Box”. You create your own resource box which is like a signature file where you include one to two sentences and link back to your website (or blog in this case). Anyone who publishes your article has to include your resource box so you get incoming links. If someone with a large newsletter publishes your article you can get a lot of new readers at once.

1. Write more pillar articles. Everything you do above will help you to find blog readers however all of the techniques I’ve listed only work when you have strong pillars in place. Without them if you do everything above you may bring in readers but they won’t stay or bother to come back. Aim for one solid pillar article per week and by the end of the year you will have a database of over 50 fantastic feature articles that will work hard for you to bring in more and more readers.

I hope you enjoyed my list of traffic tips. Everything listed above are techniques I’ve put into place myself for my blogs and have worked for me, however it’’s certainly not a comprehensive list. There are many more things you can do. Finding readers is all about testing to see what works best for you and your audience and I have no doubt if you put your mind to it you will find a balance that works for you.

This article was by Yaro Starak, a professional blogger and the reason I started blogging. He is the leader of the Blog Mastermind mentoring program designed to teach bloggers how to earn a full time income blogging part time.

To get more information about Blog Mastermind click this link:

www.BlogMastermind.com

New: Guru Of Sales version 1.6!!

The Celebrity Apprentice (Great Lessons)

As a conclusion of this season, and as a continued effort from me to educate all my readers, I included all the lessons learned from the 2008 Celebrity Apprentice, enjoy:

1. The season premiere taught great lessons about thinking outside the box.
2. Identify your real goal and go straight for it. If you’ll win or lose based on the money you earn, go straight for the dollars - not for the hot dogs.
3. Select a leader with prior experience. True, Omarosa led her team to a defeat. But she was still the best choice anyway. When you’re in unfamiliar circumstances, aligning yourself with an experienced leader is your best choice.
4. Think ahead and act early. Even the best idea can’t save you if it comes too late.
5. Rely on your resources now. Why wait until tomorrow, when you might not still be around?
6. Picking the best leader doesn’t always guarantee a win. You’re more likely to cross the finish line first if everyone contributes.
7. Go to the decision-maker. Why try to second-guess what an important boss, customer or client wants? Just ask, find out - and then deliver.
8. Sabotaging your own team is a bad career strategy. It might let you survive until tomorrow. But in the long run, it will only cripple your chances of success.
9. Don’t let your leader smother you. Step out, stand up and fight for the responsibilities that let you shine.
10. Give decision-makers exactly what they ask for - even if you think you know better. Doing anything else only invites failure.
11. Simpler is smarter. Over-thinking and over-complicating will never get you to the top.
12. Listening is more powerful than talking. When you open your ears and your mind, you empower yourself to give people what they want. That’s a powerful way to build your success.
13. Always back up your data. If Hydra had simply kept handwritten notes about their plans, that would have saved the day. (I learned this lesson the hard way).
14. A bloated ego will sink your career. Of course you are smart. But use your intelligence to advance your team and your organization.
15. Set your own pace when negotiating. This is a concept that Donald Trump often stresses in his books - and we saw work on tonight’s episode. When you control the pace of negotiations, you control the outcome.
16. Just let it go. Holding grudges hurts your career, not anyone else’s. So take a deep breath and move on.
17. It’s not personal, it’s business. If you have to fire someone, why try to decimate their self-esteem? You can show this kind of greatness.
18. Never get too big to get your hands dirty. “Piers brought in the high rollers,” Vinnie summed up, “then he put on the sandwich board.” That was high praise indeed - and well deserved. It explains why Hydra is scoring win after win: unlike the women, the men never hesitate to jump onto the front lines of any battle.
19. It takes time and consideration to make sound business decisions. People like Piers and Vinny who shoot from the hip only put themselves and their teams in danger.

20. Creativity is not enough. In business, dollars always count.

21. You can’t undo a lie. When you lie, you never know what a “tangled web” you have started to weave. Honesty really is the best policy – and the most effective – as you build a solid career.

22. Let’s get real here. Attacking a colleague’s heritage, religion or race has no place in business. If you break this rule just once, you’ll end your career.

23. Have you ever wanted to fire a colleague? Of course! But in business, it doesn’t work that way. Grabbing boss’s authority will land you in trouble.

24. You’ve got to play with the cards you’re dealt. We all have to work with less-than-ideal colleagues. That’s part of any job. But if you can produce great results anyway, you will be a standout.

25. Listening isn’t enough. You have to deliver too. A few weeks ago, Gene Simmons got fired for giving judges what he wanted, not what they asked for. Why did Omarosa forget that lesson?

26. There is no “correct” leadership style. If you have to resort to a show of hands or another unorthodox strategy to put the lid on an overbearing team member like Piers, do it. Results count, not any nonexistent “rules.”

27. Don’t judge people on appearances. Trace looks tough, he used to work on an oil rig, but he speaks with the voice of a poet, as his song lyrics show. So as a leader, be sure to dig for people’s hidden skills.

28. Step up and show a strong work ethic every day. Over time, it will protect you from harm and advance your position. Don’t be like Nely, who held back and created her own failure.

29. Don’t be a legend in your own mind. Ego might keep you in the game for a while - but eventually you have to produce results in the world of business.

30. You can’t gain a big advantage over your competitors by doing exactly what they do. Either team could have solicited corporate sponsors for its cab. Either could have created a contest to record a song or have a workout with a celebrity - but they stuck to safe ground instead. Remember that to get a lead in your career, you need the guts to try new things.

31. Leaders let people know how their performance will be judged. Clearly stated expectations build your leadership effectiveness and get results.

32. Playing dirty might give you a temporary edge over your adversaries. But once your game is exposed, your career will suffer.

33. People who behave honorably do get ahead. They even win the favor of bosses as tough as Donald Trump!

34. If you want to inspire the people on your team, give them assignments that let them achieve not just the group’s goals, but their personal goals too. It’s a terrific way to motivate them.

35. Learn everything about the product you are selling. The knowledge you gain will give you a competitive edge.

36. Don’t drop the details when you are selling. Enthusiasm is great, but people will never buy any product until you convince them that it meets their needs.

37. Keep your professional image spic and span. Any lapse in professionalism can make you vulnerable in times of trouble when people are trying to deflect blame from themselves.

38. Learn from experience. To become successful in the future, you need to absorb and apply the lessons of the past.

39. Stick to your goals. Even the most appealing concepts - like Empresario’s picture of Trace serenading a model in a bathtub - won’t carry the day if they don’t support your business objectives.

40. Be subtle when you have to play politics. The real masters of office politics are never as blatant about it as Omarosa is. Whatever is left of her professional image is now in tatters.

41. Treat people kindly. Consideration counts in business - and in every encounter in your life. People with Tito’s kind of character can only succeed in life.

42. Never forget the law of supply and demand. You will always have a greater profit potential with a bigger inventory, period. Marketing counts – but you still need to have something to sell.

43. Sooner or later, lying always gets exposed. When Mr. Trump is in control, it gets exposed even faster. If you don’t play fair, you will eventually get trapped by your own lies.

44. Use your resources strategically if you are the leader. Know what your team members bring to the table and deploy their strengths strategically.

45. Don’t mess with what works. As Ivanka pointed out, there was no need to reinvent the wheel. And it worked. People flocked to see Lennox and they bought the sandwich in droves.

46. Be willing to listen. Very few good leaders lead by dictatorship. When your team members have something to say, hear them out. In this case, Piers has had lots of good ideas in the past and his ideas - to use Lennox and a twist on the best-selling sandwich - probably won the task for Hydra.

47. Know your track record. Everyone makes mistakes. But don’t let one poor performance take you down. In a professional manner, remind people about your past success and hopefully, as in Trace’s case, your past performance will outweigh one bad outing.

48. Be likable. In the cutthroat world of business, this seems like some unusual advice. But in this situation, it was apparent that Trace’s likability had a lot to do with the fact that he earned a spot in the final four while Stephen was fired.

49. Always have an “elevator speech” ready. It’s a short, well-rehearsed explanation of your accomplishments and plans. Write one and practice it - it can be critical to your success.

50. Never say die! Your ability to dig deeper and solve problems ultimately determines your success.

51. Lofty goals and business success really can go hand-in-hand. When you see an opportunity to do well by doing good, explore it.

52. Be assertive and say no. When people are being unreasonable, say so fast - and then explain why. You have to set guidelines quickly about what you can and cannot do.

53. Remember why you are building your success. It’s not for greed or dollars. It’s an expression of care for the people you love.

54. Ask people for help. And do it with your head held high. They will feel good to help you - and you’ll build your success at the same time.

55. Fight for causes that are bigger than you are. If you serve others as unswervingly as Piers did this season, you will enjoy personal success too.

When Mr. Trump created Celebrity Apprentice, he decided that the all the prize money would go to charities. Tito’s charity supported children, Stephen’s supported breast cancer - and the list goes on and on. It was an entertaining season - but the fact that it helped so many people made it stand head and shoulders higher than most any other program on the airwaves.

There you have it. 55 lessons from this season, all credits go to the Trump University, I hope this post was useful to all of you and all comments are welcome.

Do not put all your eggs on eBay!

A wise man once told me not to put all my eggs in one basket, ever since I listened to his words and used it in almost every day of my life, even in my business strategy.

I said it before and I will say it again, a true entrepreneur will try to multi-stream their income as much as they can, let’s use me as an example:

My income is divided in so many ways, that I technically have 17 jobs! Between blogging, in house ad revenue, out of house ad revenue, affiliate commissions, Elance and Craigslist jobs, other writing jobs, teaching and selling on eBay, SEO consulting and more in the same line of business, I have guaranteed my self a steady income that won’t be effected by any failure in any of the jobs I have.

Today, I read a new book by my good friend Steve Lindhorst (Former eBay University instructor) and first thing came to my mind was the wise man’s words above.

The book is targeted for online sellers and retailers to explain how to multiply your income in no time. If you are currently an eBay seller, you will understand what I mean. And if you are an eBay seller that does not sell any where else then shame on you.

The book will not only take you through multi channel selling on eBay as well as on Amazon.com and according to the New York Times, Amazon beat eBay in traffic for the holidays at the end of 2007, you know what that means? I do. It means a lot more sales, specially with all the current and upcoming changes with eBay, I think it’s way much safer to add another selling channel to your online business.

Not only that, but the book (Selling on the River) will explain in great details how to sell on Amazon, and yes, it’s free to list on Amazon, the book will even show you the differences, and the pros and cons of selling on both eBay and Amazon.

It also came with great 2 bonuses:

1. “25 Things eBay Sellers Must Know about Selling on Amazon”

2. “How to Scout for Top Sellers with Your Cell Phone”

I personally liked the first bonus a lot, and I recommend the book to any eBay seller or any one that would like to start selling online the right way.

Download your copy here

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