Tuesday, January 12, 2010

50 Blogging Ideas

What's the hardest thing about blogging? Coming up with fresh, new content! And you have to publish new posts frequently - twice a week at the very least - to keep readers interested and earn search engine love.

If you're feeling stuck, here is a list of 50 blogging ideas that are sure to inspire you to come up with new content for your blog. Most of the ideas can be used more than once, so you won't run out of blog posts for months to come.

And by the way, if you want to make more money from your blog, Blogger's Paycheck shows you how to make passive income from your blog without spending all day at it.

1. Special events - Relate your blog topic to a special event, national day of, or holiday.

2. News - Subscribe to Google news alert on your keywords and write about the latest news in your niche.

3. Book review.

4. Respond to a post on another blog in a niche similar or related to yours.

5. Blog milestone - Write about your blogging milestones, such as publishing your 100th post, getting your 1000th comment....

6. Niche heroes -Blog about a person who made a positive contribution in your niche.

7. Blog memes - Join in blog memes such as "Wordless Wednesday". There's at least one for every day of the week!

8. Product review - An excellent way to work in some affiliate links.

9. FAQs in your niche - Write a short Q & A based on FAQs about your niche.

10. Blog comment response - Write a long and expanded response to a comment on your blog.

11. Predict trends - What do you see happening in your niche in a year? 5 years?

12. Historical view - What was your niche in the past? Or what past event influenced your niche?

13. Top tips on any topic of interest to your readers.

14. Best of... - A good year ender, make a list of your best posts for the year.

15. Contests - Organize a contest for your blog readers, or make a list of contests your readers can join.

16. What I learned from... a current event, a person you met, or an experience you had.

17. Definitions - Define terms that are commonly used in your niche but a beginner may not understand

18. New products - Not a review but simply an announcement of a new product relevant to your niche. This is another good opportunity to drop in some affiliate links.

19. Biggest problem - Ask your readers what their biggest problem is about your blog topic or niche. They post their answers in the comments section.

20. Biggest problem follow up - Summarize the comments from #19 in another post.

21. Biggest problem follow up series - Write a separate blog post tackling each question from #19.

22. Interview somebody knowledgeable in your niche, or has succeeded in it, or is otherwise interesting to your readers.

23. Big list - Compile a big list of various resources, just like this one. The bigger the better!

24. Reader Survey - Put up a brief survey online and blog about the results.

25. Be provocative. Challenge a common belief or widely accepted idea in your niche.

26. New idea - What new idea about your blog topic or niche have you come across lately?

27. YouTube - Embed a funny, moving or insightful video on YouTube. You can even have a "video day" once a week.

28. YouTube version 2 - Make YOUR own YouTube video. Publish it on YouTube then embed on your blog. This way, you can attract traffic from YouTube to your blog.

29. Freebie - Scour the 'net for freebies that your readers will love. Or create a freebie of your own, such as a checklist or special report.

30. Personal story - Use a personal story to illustrate an important concept or principle in your niche.

31. Free to publish articles - Check out relevant articles in article directories such as Ezine Articles... but don't publish them entirely on your blog. Instead, use an article or a group of articles as your take-off point for a blog post, or several.

32. Link love - This is a post with links to other blogs. Some bloggers set aside one day a week to publish a list of the best blog posts on their topic.

33. Photo - A picture is worth thousand words, right? Search Flickr for creative commons pictures that your readers will like.

34. Hot topics - Look at Digg for hot topics in your niche

35. Pros and cons - Examine what's good and bad about something related to your blog topic

36. Respond to relevant questions you find in Ask.com

37. Guest post - Invite another blogger to write a guest post for your blog

38. Reader's post - Invite blog subscribers to submit an article or post to be published on the blog

39. Inspirational post - Write a motivational post for your readers.

40. Update an old post with fresh ideas, new learnings and current research findings.

41. Beginner's guide - What do beginners in your niche struggle with? Write a post to guide them through it.

42. Best list - Patterned after "best dressed lists" make a list of the best ___ in your niche.

43. Worst list - Make your version of the "worst dressed list" for your niche.

44. New uses for - Think of new ways your readers can use gadgets and other stuff.

45. Write about a live event that you attended and what you learned from it.

46. Bribe post - Bribe your readers with a freebie in exchange for subscribing to your newsletter or RSS feed.

47. Around the world - Compare how people in different countries do something related to your niche.

48. Seasonal - Relate the month or season to your blog topic.

49. Blog carnival - Join or host a blog carnival, where several publish posts about the same topic on the same day.

50. Host a virtual "conference" on your blog - Invite "speakers" to publish their post on a specified date and time. Q&A happens in the comments section.

Now that you've got a steady flow of fresh content, how do you actually make money from your blog? Visit Blogger's Paycheck for a step-by-step guide on blogging for profit.


Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Chargebacks

If there is one word most Internet marketers quiver at the sound of, it is chargebacks. A chargeback is a dispute over a charge -usually an unauthorized or fraudulent charge- between the customer and the company.

The merchant must pay back the entire amount along with any credit card fees. This amount is automatically deducted from your merchant account. There are three main problems about chargebacks that concern the merchant:

1. they lose the payment -and also the inventory if it was sent, 2. the fees associated with every chargeback are between $15 to $25, and worse of all 3. chargebacks don’t look good, and you may lose your merchant account. Merchant services are pretty finicky; they do not just hand out accounts to anyone.

The customer could either be dissatisfied with the product, or there could be a duplicate order, or it could be fraud. Whatever the reason may be, it is crucial to your online business to keep chargebacks to a minimum.

One way to stop chargebacks is to stop fraudulent orders by checking to make sure the order seems legit. This may mean you may have to call each customer to confirm the order. You do not want to accept an order if it appears fraudulent. Be suspicious, because in the end, receiving too many chargebacks will damage your profit line.

If, on the other hand, your customer is simply dissatisfied with the product, give them a call and send them an email. Ask them what it is they didn’t like about the product. Ask them if there is anything you can do for them to satisfy them.

If they still seem reluctant to drop the chargeback, your last resort would be to ask them if they wouldn’t mind dropping the chargeback and you can offer them a full refund. Most people wouldn’t mind this option. You will find that a simple phone call to the upset customer may actually turn things around in your favor.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Tried For A Bank Business Loan, Lately?

If you've tried to get a loan from the bank for your business lately, you know it's no slam-dunk. The promos for SBA loans and loans for minority or women owned businesses sounds great, but when you get nose-to-nose with a banker it’s another story.

Some of the reasons that make it seem so difficult are that many lending officers feel that they're lending you their money instead of the bank's. They take almost personal responsibility for maximizing repayment.

Another is that they are particularly suspect of new ventures. Since 4 out of 5 or 80% fail within the first three years, many lenders require a three-year history of doing business.

Lastly, with all the bank merging and acquisitions that have taken place the decision-making process has been moved far off-site from the local branch. Add all of these reasons up, and you had better be prepared to razzle-dazzle the banker.

Here are some tips to make lending you more attractive to the bank. First, start with a two-part presentation. Initially submit a brief overview of your loan request. In this overview include:

Excerpts from your business plan about your business concept, management team, and financial projections.

Credit history overviews of the principals of your business.
Brief answers to key lender questions of how much you’ll need, how you'll use it, and how will you pay it back?

This should be a two to three page document and can be considered a mutual qualifier. It determines if the bank has any interest in lending you funds before you spin your wheels for hours in front of the loan officer. You may want to end the document with your phone number so that the banker can call you back for an appointment or discussion.

If you've dazzled the loan officer sufficiently and have obtained an appointment to meet with him, then it's time to prepare the "big guns". The ammo you’ll come prepared with will be three years of personal tax returns for all the principals of your company and the existing business. Include credit reports on all principals, a complete and impressive business plan, and collateral and capitalization information.

This sounds like a lot of information and will require immense effort, but that's why business ownership isn't for everyone.

In addition to being prepared with all that paperwork be prepared for any off-the-wall questions the lender might throw at you. Take time to think about and originate a 30-second commercial about what you plan on doing and how it will benefit them and the business.

Be prepared to explain away any credit blemishes that show up on the credit reports before the banker has an opportunity to worry about them. Be sure you're able to show "cash-flow" understanding and awareness, without which any business is doomed. Plot your most realistic estimated cash flow and bank account balance. Make sure the bank balance never goes negative, and for a good touch show the loan repayment as a separate line item. This shows the banker that you understand priorities.

Collateral may be needed to satisfy the lender's angst about repayment of the loan, and unfortunately most small businesses have too few assets to satisfy this need. Many entrepreneurs are forced to pledge personal assets such as their home to allay the bank. This may seem scary, and it is, unless you’re really sure of your success.

It sounds like a daunting task, but with some preparation and determination it can be done. It's not as easy as all the ads you’ve heard, and just the fact that you are starting a "woman-owned" business won't cut any ice with a banker, but all of life is a gamble isn't it?

After all, that's why you’re an entrepreneur instead of a corporate lackey isn’t it? GO FOR THE GOLD

Proceed now to Sales Letter

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