The Open Source Marketer

So, do you think it’s difficult to make money online? If you answered yes, then let me show you how you can make money online using nothing but a text editor, a web browser, your brain and a paid blogging network. I’ll also explain how you can take a few basic wealth building concepts and combine them with paid blogging to help reach your financial goals.

Now, I know your probably thinking, “What about all those million dollar ideas out there?” Well, most of them require an investment of your money and there isn’t any real guarantee that they will produce a dime. This method of making money won’t take much of your time or require you to spend your money.

I’m talking about paid blogging and if you can write a letter to dear old mom you can get paid to write on your blog. If you didn’t know, there are a number of websites out there that will pay you to blog about everything from lemon laws to office supplies. You may have heard about a few of them, or maybe not. So let’s narrow the discussion just a bit by taking a look at my personal favorite paid blogging website, PayPerPost.com. Read the rest of this entry »

Blog comments are extremely important to the health of a successful blog. But responding to comments in a blog tool like WordPress can be time consuming and awkward. Today we’re going to talk about a WordPress plug-in that can make replying to comments painless.

Successful bloggers know that blogs are fueled by content. In fact, it’s been said many times that it’s important for the blogger to produce content on a daily basis. Publishing articles and short posts on a regular basis is what brings in new visitors and what keeps veteran readers coming back. But, did you know that comments are just as important as the content that bloggers create.

You see comments are free content that the blogger doesn’t have to produce. Comments create a sense of community and encourage reader participation. Comments are an active expression of the reader’s opinion that can add a unique voice to a blog beyond what even the blogger envisioned. Smart bloggers know that in order to increase their content, they must encourage and nurture comments from their readers. Read the rest of this entry »

Do you ever wonder why some bloggers seem to enjoy greater success while exerting what seems like less effort than other bloggers who work twice as hard and only seem to get half as much done? Well, in this post I’m going to show you how the successful bloggers cheat the daily clock to get more benefit out of their efforts.

No matter what you might think, blogging is hard work. Blogging it’s just about writing a few paragraphs and going outside to play. There are search engine rankings to optimize, articles to tag, comments to respond to, rss feeds to promote, mailing lists to promote and manage, and ads to manage. So with all that to do, anything you can to reduce your labor is a good thing. Read the rest of this entry »

In article one, How To Create Text To Speech Blog Posts, of this three part series we used a free service to convert your text blog posts into downloadable audio files. In article two, How To Add Podcast Audio To Blog Posts, we examined what it takes to add a podcast to your blog. In this third and final article in the series we are going to learn how you can use your cell phone to create audio content for your blog using some pretty handy commercial services.

Okay, I bet you’re thinking. Why on earth would I ever use a cell phone to create content for my blog? And, even if I wanted to, how could I possibly do such a thing? Well the answer is simple on both points.

The logic is simple really. We all want to get more done in the day and we are all looking for ways to make better use of the time we do have. But, during the course of the day you probably still have some dead time that could be better utilized. This is probably while you are in the car traveling to work, traveling to lunch, traveling back from lunch, or on your travel time back from work. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like to space out during drive time as much as the next guy, but I bet you’ve thought to yourself at least once that it would be good if there was a way to make better use of your travel time. Read the rest of this entry »

In the previous article of this three part series on adding audio to your blog we explored Talkr.com as a solution for offering text to speech audio publishing on your blog. In this article we’re going to cover the fundamentals of what it takes to include a podcast in your blog posts. Podcasting is very popular and a natural extension of blogging.

But, before we get into the how of podcasting, let’s take a quick look at why you might want to add podcast audio to your blog in the first place.

To start, podcasting is the “in demand” thing. It offers portable content to busy people who are on the move. Today’s mobile lifestyle is all about doing things when you want and not when “the schedule” says it can be done. In this way podcasting has transformed the way people take in information online. They download it and stick it on their MP3 players. They listen to it in their cars and at their desks, while they exercise and while they clean the house. If you want your audience to take your content with them wherever they go, then podcasting can help you do that. Read the rest of this entry »

If you want to put audio on your blog but don’t know where to start then the next few articles in this series will introduce you to some of the available solutions for adding audio to your blog. In this article we’ll start by looking at a text to speech option. Then in the next few articles we’ll look at podcasting, paid services, and a free conference call solution. When we’re done you should have enough information to mix and match to get what you want. Read the rest of this entry »

If you are looking for creative ways to generate content and value for your blog readers or podcast listeners, then consider hosting a recorded call with someone who is an expert in you topic of interest.

The recorded call can be turned into a downloadable MP3 as part of a series of audios, as content for a podcast, or as the basis for articles on your blog. You can even have the audio transcribed for a minimal fee. The transcript can also be made available on your blog as a search engine friendly version of the call.

The number of possible options is inspiring. But, before we get caught up on our options, let’s look at what goes into creating an interesting, well structured call.

The following list of suggested activities is simply a rough guide for conducting a call and I highly recommend that you listen to existing successful calls to understand how different formats work best for different subjects and audiences. Take note of how the host of the call leads the conversation and how they create value for both the listener and the guest speaker. The more value everyone takes away from the call the most successful the call will be. Valuable content is something people will pay for and something they will distribute on your behalf, free of charge. Read the rest of this entry »

Overview: A motivational speech.

Last night I took my family to see the Pixar film Ratatouille and for over an hour and a half we were amazed by an animated world of imagination, exploration, dream seeking, and creativity. For those of you who don’t know, Ratouille is about a rat in Paris who wants to be a French cook. Let me tell you, when I left the theater I felt totally inspired and energized.

Now this article is not a movie review. But it is about belief that you can do great things right where you are with what you have regardless of who you are, where you come from, or how you got there. In most ways that is all of us. The subject of interest and the circumstances might vary, but the fact remains that we only fail to win when we fail to try. Read the rest of this entry »