Starting Your First Email Newsletter

by Lynn Terry on July 28, 2011 | Business Ramblings

The following is a guest post by the awesome Lynn Terry. Lynn has a ton of experience and solid advice on a topic I don’t. Creating a (successful) email newsletter (actually, she has several of them) from the ground up. I asked her to write a post offering advice to first time newsletter owners so that I could you could benefit from her advice… ;-)

I’ve been publishing newsletters online for more than a decade now, but I still remember the very first email I sent out to my list. It went out to all of NINE subscribers. Yes, just nine.

This was a “weekly tips” newsletter, by the way. The first couple of Monday’s passed by and I waited. It didn’t make any sense to send an email to just a few people.

And then on the Sunday night before the third Monday, just having received my 9th subscriber, it dawned on me that none of those people knew there were only eight other people subscribed. And they didn’t care. Why should they?! They signed up for a weekly tip, and all they knew was that they weren’t getting it…
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Guest Blogging as a (Promotional) Link Building Strategy

by Rae Hoffman-Dolan on July 26, 2011 | Link Development

I’m often asked about the best ways to go about link building. And my first response (because it’s a technique that absolutely anyone can use) is usually guest blogging.

Not only because it helps build links, but when done on the right blogs, it can also bring traffic, exposure and send the various other signals search engines use in today’s ranking algorithms.

Now you’ll often hear people advising on the best way to *get* guest blogging opportunities, but rarely do they discuss what you should be blogging *about* when you do.

So how do you (successfully) utilize guest blogging as a promotional (and link building) vehicle?
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Thesis WordPress Theme Review – Take Two

by Rae Hoffman-Dolan on July 20, 2011 | Blogging Advice,Reviews

It’s been almost three years since I bought Thesis, did my original review of it and became an avid evangelist for it. I don’t think there’s ever been a product that I’ve been a stronger fan of since starting my career in Internet marketing. My original review was on the first version of Thesis and a LOT has changed in the last three years.

Chris Pearson, the creator of the theme, has been very receptive to ideas and improvements from the community and the latest version of the Thesis theme is even better than I ever deemed possible when I originally became a Thesis user. Though we’d never spoken prior to me becoming a loud supporter of Thesis, as a result of my evangelism, writing numerous Thesis tutorials and continued desire to give feedback on the theme, I’m glad to say we’ve become friends.

Even so, if there’s a Thesis “issue”? I bitch loudly. My review is not biased in any way. I said it three years ago before I knew Chris and will say it again now:

What is the Thesis Theme?

I really think the Thesis theme is the best “in the box” premium WordPress theme I’ve ever come across.
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Link Building with the Experts – 2011 Edition

by Rae Hoffman-Dolan on July 14, 2011 | Link Development

Well, it’s that time of year again. Since 2007 I’ve been bringing together some of the best minds on link building for an interview series that has resulted in three amazingly educational posts on link building:

Link Building with the Experts – 2007 Edition
Link Building with the Experts – 2008 Edition
Link Building with the Experts – 2010 Edition

And this year is no exception.

Keeping with the format from prior years, this interview is very unique in my eyes as opposed to other interviews for two reasons.
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Simple Linking Maintenance for WordPress Sites

by Rae Hoffman-Dolan on May 18, 2011 | SEO

The site structure of the Sugarrae blog has changed several times over the years. Sometimes for testing, sometimes for “bettering” SEO.

This blog has been moved from Moveable Type, to Expression Engines, to WordPress.

The internal linking structure has been changed from /blog/post-name/ to /post-name/ to /category/post-name/ and who knows what else.

Category landing page urls have changed from /blog/category/category-name/ to /category/category-name/ to /category-name/.

In short, I’ve messed with this blog a lot – much like many other folks do as they begin to learn SEO and make applicable changes that involve changes to their URL structures and permalink URLs. And I’ve always utilized 301 redirects with every change to save and redirect both visitors and link juice to the proper URL in addition to using standard best practices for WordPress SEO as far as avoiding internal duplicate content that can caused by WordPress goes.

That said, a few weeks ago, a friend had mentioned to me he’d noticed the Sugarrae site was linking to several thousand redirects (both internal redirects and external redirects).
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How Affiliate Marketing Works – A Step by Step Visual

by Rae Hoffman-Dolan on May 13, 2011 | Affiliate Marketing

Recently I’ve been doing some articles aimed at the beginner affiliate – like how you can avoid affiliate marketing scams and how you can find reputable affiliate programs to promote.

After spending over a decade in the Internet marketing industry, I think I often forget – and have failed to address – the most obvious question most folks new to the industry have about affiliate marketing.

When I appeared as a guest on Weapons of Mass Marketing earlier this week to discuss the topic of marketing affiliate programs, the hosts evidenced the importance of the often overlooked question by leading off their interview with a variation of it…

“How does affiliate marketing work?”

 
So with the help of (and payment to) a very talented designer I was able to develop a clear, step by step graphic of how basic affiliate marketing works (click on the image below for a larger version):
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Five Books That Changed My Business Mindset

by Rae Hoffman-Dolan on May 11, 2011 | Reviews

I totally admit to having a ton of business books – with 90% of them in the “still have to read” category. As much as I love learning the information in them, I honestly just get bored and eventually decide I’d rather pick up the latest true crime book I’ve received in my last Amazon shipment.

However, there are a few books surrounding business topics that I’ve found to actually be gripping – even if merely from concept rather than great storytelling.

Below are five books I read that had a profound impact on my career as an entrepreneur. I’ve read every book on this list no less than twice. ;-)
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Help Fight Stroke AND Get 1 Year of Raven Tools!

by Rae Hoffman-Dolan on May 9, 2011 | Random

It’s no secret that I am an evangelist for Raven Tools. I’ve used them as an affiliate, as an agency and am now using them as a merchant – and I’ve been consistently blown away by its value to me in every single category.

In addition to being impressed by the Raven products, I’ve also long been impressed with the Raven Tools team – including founder Jon Henshaw and their individual team members like Taylor Pratt.

And just when I thought I couldn’t get any more impressed? They upped their game – both professionally and as people.

The Raven Tools site (both front end and back end) got a sexy new design. And Jon very generously has offered up a one year subscription to the Raven Tools Pro plan (which is worth over $1100!) for me to auction off to support my fundraising efforts for the Heart and Stroke Walk this November.

But wait, it gets better!

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Interview with Affiliate Queen Missy Ward

by Rae Hoffman-Dolan on May 6, 2011 | Interviews

I’m not often impressed by people. I like a lot of people. I think a lot of people are cool. But it’s rare that I see someone who impresses me on both a business and personal level. Missy Ward is one of those people.

I think part of me identifies with Missy because we’re both successful women in a male dominated field who haven’t changed ourselves to fit what people expect of us.

She matches my redneck with her beach chick.

My Jeans and cowboy boots are as much my wardobe staples as her sexy clothing and shoes are hers. She sees my beer and raises me her wine. We both have – and fundraise for – charitable causes close to our hearts (though she kicks my ass on the totals.)

But Missy sets a new bar for women in the affiliate industry. Behind her tan and huge smile, she’s smart (despite being a Jets fan), driven, savvy and will turn hard core in an instant if pushed to it in business. If I can accomplish half of what she has as a business women so far during the entire span of my career? It will have been a hell of a career. I feel even luckier to call her a friend.

Interview with Missy Ward

Rae: I look up to very few people in this industry, but you are definitely one of them. Can you tell us how you got started in the affiliate marketing industry?
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SEO Checklist for Local Small Business Websites

by Rae Hoffman-Dolan on May 4, 2011 | SEO

Hard to believe, but it’s been almost FIVE YEARS since I wrote my original primer for small business SEO basics. Now, the below information is intended to be extremely basic.

If you run an e-Commerce store, dynamically generated website, affiliate website or large website – or if you target very competitive or national terms – the information below isn’t going to do very much for you. You’re likely in need of a professional and custom SEO analysis if you’re in need of SEO help.

This information is intended for very small business owners, like a local landscaper or painter or maybe a daycare establishment. A business that will likely never be able to justify the ROI of hiring a competent and professional SEO. And quite frankly? Likely doesn’t need to.
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