Trust is a big word right now in the internet. Everyone is talking about being open and honest, transparency and a willingness to lay it all on the table. You’ve got to be seen as trustworthy before you can expect anyone to listen to you. Earning trust isn’t as simple as just telling people they can trust you. You’ve got to earn it. You have to know exactly what people need before they can start trusting you. Show them your expertise. People will trust other people who know what they are talking about. Make...

photo credit: freezelight We’ve all been there at least once. You open your blog to check for comments and find a handful fo spam sitting staring back at you. Or maybe you’ve checked your spam folder in case any real comments were misfiled and become shocked at the jumble of links and keywords staring back at you. And then there’s what I call grey-spam. It’s kind of like spam, but not exactly. A friend of mine has a small personal blog where she mostly writes about family life. It’s tiny, but...

photo credit: nDevilTV I’m back from a short, unplanned, break from blogging. I won’t go into details, but let’s just say I might have been another victim of the Swine Flu. I suppose that will teach me not to joke about it ever again. While I was gone, however, the blog had a nice little spike in traffic. Most of it coming from a single post, my review of FirePow, that was loved on StumbleUpon. That simple review managed to get almost 1000 hits in a single day, which is fairly impressive for this small blog....

photo credit: trumanlo Viral Marketing is a powerful way to generate traffic to your blog, and in turn generate additional money for you. Think about how a virus spreads from on person to another. One person gets sick and just by sneezing they can give the virus to many more people. Those people get sick and share their germs with everyone they know and the next thing you know everyone is out with the flu. That is the very concept behind viral marketing. The idea is to get everyone to spread your marketing message to everyone...

photo credit: jondoeforty1 Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective and powerful ways of earning some money online. This kind of marketing gives everybody a chance to make a profit through sales. Since these affiliate marketing programs are easy to join, implement and pays a commission on a regular basis, more an more people are taking the leap. However, like all businesses, there are lots of pitfalls in the affiliate marketing business. Committing some of the most common mistakes will cost you a large portion of the...

I spent much of the weekend hanging out over at the new ProBlogger community forum. And I still can’t get over what a great idea it is. Like I said before, creating a paid forum was simple perfection as far as making money online goes. OK, so you’re probably thinking that’s great for Darren, but the average person just couldn’t do that. And that’s where I tell you that you’re wrong. Want to make a couple hundred extra month? Follow Darren’s lead, give people something they want but charge...

photo credit: ian_ransley Unless you’ve been living under a rock you have heard about the ProBlogger community forum that Darren Rowse opened up. It was the logical next step for him to take. After years of offering free advice and building a community of readers, opening up a space for everyone to come together and share makes perfect sense. And because Darren is a genius he is charging a meager $1.95 for membership each month. Yes, most forums are free. But this is different, this one is created by one of the top names...