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nRelate Related Content Plugin is Gone — What Now?

January 2, 2015 by Zack lu Leave a Comment

10 New Year’s Resolutions You Should Make as a Blogger

December 17, 2014 by Zack lu 2 Comments

new years resolutions for bloggers

Well, 2015 is already creeping up (or is here, depending on when you are reading this) and it’s time to make some blogging resolutions. Several of these, I am making for my own sites. New Year’s is such a great time to re-evaluate and try to start fresh in a few areas. I plan on doing this and recommend you do the same! 2015 will be the year that we take our business to the next level and I hope that’s the case for you as well!

Explore YouTube
If you have been ignoring YouTube, it’s time to face the music. Get over your shyness and start making some videos. Whether they are tutorials, daily vlogs, weekly recaps or whatever, start building your YouTube channel ASAP. It’s pretty clear that YouTube is becoming very popular with advertisers and is a widely underutilized business tool for bloggers.

Perfect your consistency.
If you’ve been blogging twice one week and 5 times the next, then following that up with a post-less 3rd week, it’s time to get consistent. In general, people like to know what to expect when it comes to how often you post. Feel free to keep people on their toes about the actual content, but maintain consistency when it comes to releasing your content.

Start disclosing!
I still see tons of bloggers doing sponsored posts without disclosing the fact that the content is paid for. This is against the terms set forth by the FTC and the penalties are only going to increase in 2015. Plus, why try to hide the fact that your content is paid. Shouldn’t your readers know something is sponsored on your blog?

Consume other content – but do so very particularly.
Read, watch or listen to content from the leading bloggers and entrepreneurs related to your industry. It’s easy to get caught up in the feel-good content that is full of fluff that we all like hearing. The fact is, you’re taking time to consume this content, so try and make it actually meaningful. Some of my favorites are Gary Vaynerchuck’s #AskGaryVee show, Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income, and John Lee Dumas from Entrepreneur on Fire, who has a ton of podcasts that you can sort through to listen to people relevant to you industry. I also regularly find helpful relevant content on ProBlogger.net.

Engage with your readers.
Respond to comments more often. Visit other blogs and leave comments. Share content from people in your network. Ask questions and acknowledge responses. Reach out to followers on social media for advice.

Commit to the direction of your blog.
Is it going to be a business? Treat it like one. Make investments where necessary. (ie: Premium PicMonkey, Email service, hire a VA, etc.) Are you a fashion blog? Be sure you have a plan to product consistent fashion-related content. Want to incorporate more food on your blog? Have a plan so the content doesn’t run out after a month.

Stay on your toes.
The internet is changing every single day. SEO, social networks and everything else is changing all of the time, and it’s up to you do adapt. Look into Snapchat. Don’t ignore up and coming networks like Ello, Medium and whatever else will pop up in 2015. Commit to maintaining an open mind and exploring the many options that pop up seemingly every other week.

Analyze your blog’s design and performance.
Take a step back and look at your blog as a reader. Better yet, ask a few of your friends to look at your blog and give you an honest view of what they think is going on with every single thing they see there. Do they recognize ads as ads? Do they know the banner in your sidebar highlighting a segment on your blog is actually content produced by you and not an ad?

As far as performance goes: analyze every banner and ad on your blog for performance. If any ad is not making more than $50/month for you, it’s time to re-think it. That’s not to say you should delete it, just think about maybe an alternative ad, or consider moving the ad somewhere else. I completely pulled that $50 number out of the air – you have to decide what your magic number is.

Get back to basics.
If your content has suffered because you are spending too much time focusing on Instagram or Pinterest, it’s time to re-evaluate and get back to basics. Focus on great blog content. After all, you’re most likely building your social networks to push traffic to your blog. Don’t forget to keep your blog interesting and fresh. I am guilty of this one on my own site, and will look to correct this in 2015.

Be more selective.
I mostly mean with your time. Does every email you receive really warrant a reply? Hint: any email that starts with “Dear Sir/Madam” does not need a reply. Additionally, is that sponsored post that requires original photos, social promotion across 4 networks and links back really worth $40? Think about everything that you are putting effort into right now and re-evaluate.

That’s all I’ve got! What do you think?
Will you be making any blogging New Year’s resolutions?

More Low Competition Keywords for YOU!

November 12, 2014 by Zack lu Leave a Comment

low competition keyword ideas

It’s been a while since I posted my original low competition niche site ideas post and I figured it was time for some more!

The only thing I asked before is that if you use any of these keywords and need hosting, consider using . It’s no extra cost to you and helps me out a bit. You can actually save 25% when you use coupon code EASYKEYWORDS at checkout.

I should also note that if you plan on adding a niche site to your portfolio and are going to use your existing sites to help build links to the new site, it’s best to get a separate hosting account. Google has recently picked up on people boosting their own sites by including a “sniffer” in their algorithm that dings sites on the same hosting IP linking to each other.

What does this mean? If you plan on doing a niche site, go all in and spend the $5 or so a month to get a separate account for the new site. Remember EASYKEYWORDS saves you 25%.

Ok, onto the keywords. First of all, I use Long Tail Pro to quickly and easily find awesome keywords that have high search volume and low competition. The keywords you see below were found by me in about 15 minutes of searching. Each of them, with a little work, can turn into a nice money-making site.

Long Tail Pro makes finding keywords a breeze. Pretty much every time I have an idea for a blog post, I spend 10-15 minutes in LTP doing some light keyword research. Countless times, I have modified the wording to avoid going after an impossible-to-rank-for keyword. I definitely recommend checking it out today.

Ok, below are the keywords. I’m not going to lay it all out for you, because I think it’s fairly clear how each site idea would make money. Ones revolving around products could make money on Amazon and through other affiliate programs. Relationship based words can make a killing on the extremely high CPC dating affiliate sites. These methods are all in addition to AdSense, which is always an idea for passive income.

I have pasted these as an image, so as to not increase any competition for these keywords.

low competition keywords

There you go!

I really think there are some great niches there. Take the stroller keyword for example. Double strollers average about $150 on Amazon, so you’re looking at about $8-$10 per sale depending on your commission level. Those commissions can add up quickly!

Remember, it’s a good idea to separate the hosting plans (in addition to Google Analytics/Webmaster Tools/AdSense) if you’re going to be linking to your niche sites with your other sites.

Good luck!

7 Frustrating Things About Blogging (and solutions for each one)

October 15, 2014 by Zack lu Leave a Comment

frustrating things about blogging
Blogging is a great thing. Blogging for a living (or for a partial income) is really great! however, it does come with frustrations. Here are some of the more common frustrations that happen while blogging. I’ve provided solutions for each frustration in an effort to make blogging less stressful for you!

Problem: explaining to your friends and family what it is that you do.
It can be tough sometimes explaining the fact that you earn an income from a blog. A lot of people simply don’t understand how that is possible and many don’t even know what a blog is. It really is tough to explain anything about the blogging world to anyone who is not in it themselves.
Solution: I like to keep it simple and just say that we own and operate a few websites. Usually people just nod and say something like, “cool”. If they start asking questions, I just say we make money via online advertising. That usually satisfies their curiosity.

Problem: websites that are down.

Doesn't this picture make you cringe?? — Doesn’t this picture make you cringe??

Whether it is your own blog, or a social network that you frequent, websites being down can feel crippling to your blog and your business. The good news is that they tend to get back up quickly, although it certainly doesn’t feel quick at the time.
Solution: stay calm and try and find something else productive to do. If your blog is down, go to other blogs and leave comments, or interact on social media. If a social network is down, go to a different one for the time being or again, go blog commenting. Also, check DownforEveryoneOrJustMe to make sure it’s not something on your end that is causing the site to be down.

Problem: high resolution product photos
I used to hear several bloggers complain about this happening and didn’t think much of it. Then it started happening to us. PR companies send a great pitch and by the end of the email, we’re all excited to work with them only to find out the sole source of “compensation” being offered are hi-res photos of their products. Not only is this a ridiculous offer, but we like to take our own high-quality photos to use on our blogs to have a more personal feel. I truly hope these pitches don’t work very often.
Solution: we respond to the ones that interest us telling them that we’d love to work with them, followed by our rates. We usually don’t hear back, but there have been a few cases where we have turned it into a nice business relationship.

drop by
Problem: surprise visits
Just because we work from home, doesn’t mean that we are available 24/7. I’ve talked with a lot of bloggers who say that this is their biggest frustration. It takes a TON of discipline to be self-employed and when your income relies on hard work, you can’t just go do this and that at the drop of a hat. Bloggers who earn a full-time income spend upwards of 60 hours a week working and it’s frustrating when others don’t realize this.
Solution: I feel like this is the toughest one, but you just have to keep reminding whoever needs it that even though you work from home, you give yourself a strict work schedule and you have to stick to it or your business will suffer.

Problem: bad lighting
A huge part of many blogs are high-quality photos. It’s tough to make that happen with bad lighting and photos in perfect daylight are not always possible.
Solution: if you can’t do everything during the daytime try and at least stock up on photos at that time. Now, when you go to write your post at night, you’ll have nice, well-lit photos to go with it. You could also invest in lighting systems, but that might not be in your budget. We have “daylight” light bulbs in many rooms in our house which provide a nice, natural-looking light.

Problem: changing affiliates
Companies have their own agendas, which is fine. That doesn’t mean it’s not incredibly frustrating getting an email saying “our company is moving from x affiliate network to y affiliate network”. For a blogger who uses their links, this means applying for their program with the new network, getting links and going back and changing out all of their old links. You see, the old links will no longer generate income once a company has moved on from the network, so it has to be addressed.
Solution: WordPress has a nice Find and Replace plugin to handle the changing of the links, but the rest doesn’t really come with a solution – it’s just annoying.

Problem: writer’s block
This one kinda speaks for itself. When your business is based on writing and you can’t think of things to write, it sucks.
Solution: don’t force the issue. Make sure to stick to your quality standards when it comes to content. This list of 101 blog post ideas should jog your brain a bit.

What is your biggest frustration when it comes to blogging?

Shareaholic WordPress Plugin Hijacking Affiliate Links

September 5, 2014 by Zack lu 19 Comments

shareaholic hack
The Shareaholic WordPress plugin has recently begun hijacking affiliate links. On September 4th, 2014, without any update required, or any notification to the users of the plugin, Shareaholic began overriding links and placing Viglink affiliate links on sites that use their social sharing plugin.

PS. scroll toward the end of this post to learn how to delete this plugin and for similar plugin suggestions.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting…

According to Shareaholic, “Shareaholic is introducing an additional way for publishers to receive compensation for traffic they drive to e-commerce sites like Amazon and eBay.”

LOL

Rightfully so, Shareaholic is getting blasted on the plugin page, on their blog post, and anywhere else that they can be reached. There are so many things wrong with this it’s not even funny. Let me first say that apparently you can go into your online account and turn off this “feature” if you want. To me, that changes nothing.

First, what they are really doing is preying on sites that do not know about this and don’t have a PayPal email listed in their account. Shareaholic can’t pay them, so where would the money go if this is the case? Charity? Doubt it.

Second, a lot of bloggers have contracts with companies that they have done sponsored posts for to either have no affiliate links in a single post, or to have specific direct links to the sponsor’s website in the post. Now, Viglink is “helping” by changing those links and effectively breaking the contractual agreement that the blogger has with the sponsor.
Example: we recently did a sponsored post where a company paid us and sent us clothing for a post. They wanted direct links to their website and product pages. We did that. (Nofollow of course!) Now those links are being run through VigLink and we get to explain to the advertiser why.

Third, it’s just slimy. Don’t change links on another website with your software, especially without notifying the users first. That’s hacking.

Fourth, it is overwriting existing links!! So if you have a relationship with a company and another affiliate network for a higher payout, too bad! Shareaholic will swap out that link with a VigLink affiliate link instead! Example: We use a personal referral link for my wife’s blog for ThredUp and get $10 for each referral. The plugin swapped out the link for a link that generates 30% of sales for new customers. This means that unless the customer places a $35+ order, we are losing money. We realize this fact and choose to use the referral link instead of the affiliate link. It’s a choice we made and some plugin should not change it.

Fifth, many people don’t have access to their online account because a designer set it up for them. I set my own up and found there was really no need for the online account, so I forgot my login info. For people like this, there is no way of turning off this “helpful” feature.

Sixth, without notification, bloggers are finding these links and thinking their sites have been hacked and spending hours trying to figure out the source. To that I say, your sites WERE hacked – it just happened to be by a hacked that you opened the door for when you installed Shareaholic on your site.

Seventh, many users who now have automatic affiliate links placed on their sites do not know what proper disclosure is. So, by placing links on their site in this “helpful” manner, Shareaholic is causing sites to violate the FTC guidelines for disclosure. My, how helpful Shareaholic is!

There is just so much wrong with what Shareaholic did by making this change. They have violated the trust of their users and have lost countless customers. One thing that every company should realize is that you don’t want to mess with people’s income. That is a very quick way to send your business into an avalanche.

Take a look at a response from Shareaholic regarding the concern of not making this an opt-in feature as opposed to forcing it on all users: “We went with convenience with easy opt-out, so you can benefit out of the gate.”
Come on! Shouldn’t it be the users’ choice!? What a joke.

Something like this really makes you wonder what else Shareaholic has up their sleeve with regard to “helping” its users out. Get out while you can.

On another note, I have reached out to VigLink to let them know what is going on. I mean, if this is happening to all Shareaholic users (which it is), that could be dangerous to VigLink’s relationship wit its partners. I’m sure some of the affected sites have a subject matter (like drugs, guns, porn, etc.) that many of VigLink’s partners would not want their affiliate links on.

The moral of this post is to make you realize that you need to deactivate and delete your Shareaholic plugin and stay far, far away from anything that they ever develop. These events have shown them to be shady, not at all transparent, and willing to make changes to your site without your consent to profit.

————————————————-
Want to delete the Shareaholic plugin? Me too! Here’s how:
Head to your plugins page and scroll until you find it. You’ll see it like this:
deavtivate shareaholic plugin Click “deactivate” and the screen will re-load. Scroll back down to the plugin to see this:

delete shareaholic wordpress plugin Click “delete”.
Then you’ll be brought to this screen:
delete shareaholic plugin
Click yes, delete all files and don’t look back!

Now, to find a comparable plugin. Here’s a few that I have used and currently use: Flare, ShareThis and Social Count Plus. Finding the right social sharing plugin can be a pain, so I recommend looking into these before you install. Read the reviews and make sure you install a plugin with a lot of high ratings. Also remember, you can always install and remove plugins pretty easily, so try a couple out if necessary.