Leonard Bartholomew has given me great tips and insight on how to make my articles and blogging more effective. He has also shared what he has learned and developed with other PIPS members. I wanted to get firsthand his blog secrets and tips. Len hails from Michigan but resides in my birth state of North Carolina and I have received an amazing amount of info from Len.
Tell us about yourself please.
"I promote myself as a Computer Scientist because that is what I am. I have a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. I have specialized in Cardiac Computer Systems for over 8 years. I have worked for 3 different IT (Information Technology) departments over the last 14 years. My background includes several programming languages including Visual Basic, C++, and now HTML & PHP. I am currently working on learning CSS programming. For the most part, I am self taught since I graduated college. A programming language is a programming language is a... The internet based languages are not that much different. It is very structured."
How is a blog different from a normal website? What exactly is a blog?
"I don't find them that much different except in one way. Google indexed my blog posts in less than one hour. I think this is because they own Blogger.com. It was actually called a weblog a number of years ago. "Blog" means binary log. Basically it is an electronic journal. You can write anything you want to. Of course, if you decide to write something that is not legal or questionable, you can expect the FBI on your doorstep. I'm still waiting for them. Most blogs contain news items, rambling, or promotion material."
What is one error you see people making when they use a blog for Internet marketing?
"They do not optimize their keywords. It is one thing to just write whatever comes out of your head (rambling). It is another to try to get your page placed well in the search engines."
Which is better? Blogger or Wordpress or another variation?
"I hear that both are better than the other. Like I said before, Blogger has the advantage of being owned by Google and will get indexed faster. It has the disadvantage that it does not have all the plugins that Wordpress has, which are a lot of fun. But I think that both are suitable for promotion purposes. Blogger requires some modification to the title and description tags in the template to be effective. I have written about this in my blog already at:
http://www.moxie-drive.com/blog/2007/08/changing-bloggercom-blog.html ,
http://www.moxie-drive.com/blog/2007/08/changing-bloggercom-blog-part-two.html , and
http://www.moxie-drive.com/blog/2007/09/changing-bloggercom-blog-part-3.html ."
How have blogs grown your PIPS business?
"I use a lead capture table in all of my pages. I get subscribers from readers of my blog, article directory and my main webpage."
You have shown that Stumbleupon is a fantastic tool. What is the key to it and what future do you see for Stumbleupon?
"I hit almost 2,000 visits last Saturday for a blog post and an article from Moxie Drive Expressions. There are basically three things you need to work on. I have written about fresh content at:
http://www.moxie-drive.com/blog/2007/10/secrets-to-stumbleupon-fresh-content.html
The importance of tagging:
http://www.moxie-drive.com/blog/2007/10/secrets-of-stumbleupon-tagging-your.html
My final installment on making friends is in the works. So content, tagging and friends are the keys to make Stumbleupon work. I like to keep things simple. It only takes me about 15 minutes to 30 minutes to do what I want in Stumbleupon to generate over 200 visits a day. Some days I hit a nerve and the statistics go much higher."
"The future of Stumbleupon? I think there are going to be a lot more Pipsters using it. They would be smart to make me a friend while I still have some room. Stumbleupon only allows 200 and I already have over 140. As a team we could own the internet marketing topics of Stumbleupon."
What would you tell anyone new in the PIPS business to do right away when starting out?
"Research your keywords, optimize your website for them, and submit articles to Moxie Drive Expressions exclusively. I submit the best to Stumbleupon, so if you don't, I will. I am hoping that some of my authors have benefited from my posts to Stumbleupon."
What advice can you give to those who have some time under their belt in PIPS?
"Don't be selfish with what you have learned. You may be helping one of my affiliates. I think I can say that I am helping yours to a fault."
Lastly, can you give the best blog tip secrets in a nutshell?
Secret Blog Tips - "Post daily and optimize your keywords. Keyword density should be between 2-5%. Keywords need to occur in title, description, h1 & h2 tags, and in the body bold, italic & underlined. I usually put the h2 tag at the end of a post indicating who submitted {article title}. This will optimize for all the search engines including Google."
Through Len I have realized the power of keyword optimization and the true effectiveness of using blogs to make your articles fly to the top of search engines. I want to thank Len again for sharing and I know he will continue to do so in the PIPS forum and on his blog. Everyone pick up on these tips...they are invaluable.
Learn more from and about Len here >>>
Best Home Based Business Opportunity
Moxie Drive Expressions
Turnkey Business Blog
Atomic Blogging -
"Atomic Blogging is using social media on steroids. Alvin Phang, a relatively new internet marketer, has already made $40,000 since May of 2007. Brilliant young man. He got the title from me. No, I have not seen a penny of it.:-)"
Think Success,
Doug Gorman
Work Be Gone!
The Home Biz of Home Business