This morning, while talking with Janet Giacoma, we discussed the value of guest posting, or more precisely, pursuing the idea of guest posting on other people’s blogs.

So after a lengthy conversation about marketing strategies for the upcoming New Year (and of course once I was off the phone), I started doing a bit of digging. (Guest posting is not something new to us, but it never hurts to do a bit of background research to bring yourself up to speed.)

Guest Posting Secrets (How to Get Published on An A-List Blog), posted a little over a year ago, provides the information anyone considering adding such a marketing strategy to their business should take the time to read… first!

“In this post, I want to share the strategies I used to secure guest-posting spots at three Technorati Top 100 blogs (ProBlogger, Copyblogger and Zen Habits) without any prior contact with the owner. I don’t include that information to boast – I simply want to show you that these methods work. If they worked for me, they can work for you.”

This informational post provides specific guest post directions such as:

o  Why guest post on popular blogs?
o   Choosing where to guest post
o   Coming up with the perfect idea
o   Pitching your post (includes email template)
o   Opportunities to look out for
o   And important things to remember

Not surprising, it also appears that the post about guest posting may itself BE a guest post. How clever is that?

Our suggestion? Make the time to study up on, and implement, this social media marketing concept as soon as possible, and reap the benefits.

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We love comments! Please do and gain a valued backlink.

Living in Las Vegas, snow is a rare commodity. It gets cold, and snow up on Mt. Charleston, but generally it’s once in a blue moon for it to snow in the Valley and stick. However, as I type we are getting flurries. Who knows, we might be making snowmen in a little bit (they did on the other side of the valley day before yesterday).

And… in my continuing odd post for the day, I read something interesting in the Las Vegas Review Journal. A commentary written by Gail Collins, a columnist for The New York Times.

I’m not going to replicate the entire article, but the section that caught my eye about dogs:

“Folks at the University of Vienna conducted a test in which dogs were asked to shake hands over and over and over again. If you have any experience with dogs, you will not be surprised to hear that they were absolutely delighted. And they didn’t care about being paid! The opportunity to perform the same trick endlessly with a stranger in a white coat was reward enough.

Then the researchers brought in new dogs that were given a piece of bread as a reward for every handshake. The uncompensated dogs watched, lost their innate love of mindless repetition and grew sullen.

“They get so mad that they look at you and just don’t give you the paw anymore,” said Friederike Range, one of the scientists.

So OK. Dogs are secretly obsessed with fairness. (And bread. Who knew?)”

Strangely enough, as I read that portion it reminds me of so many individuals I’ve “met” online. They work their little buns off for nothing, yet some “bigger dog” comes along, steals all the thunder, and gets all the bread.

This might sound familiar to anyone who’s joined an affiliate program, promoted it with real heart, and gotten squat (or peanuts) for their efforts. While the “big dog” made tons of money from your efforts.

But there is hope… and a way around this… Start your own thing!

However, you must be picky! By that we mean, so specifically “niche” picky that you’ve taken a big old umbrella of a website (or blog) down to its finest points.

“Health” is not a niche, it is an umbrella. However, “colon cleansing” is a specific niche under the umbrella of Health.

“Home business” is not a niche. However, joining a specific home business (or starting your own service or product oriented website narrowed to a single product or service) IS a niche.

This particular blog you are reading right now is NOT a niche. It is an umbrella, encompassing all sorts of niche-like features to internet marketing and social media – from monetizing blogs, to social bookmarking, to freelance writing… and so much more (hang out a while and read the archives there’s tons of help and direction in this here blog!).

Get the idea?

Another valuable thing to keep in mind is choosing something you are passionate about. If you sign up for something that just sounds like a money maker, with no real understanding of what it is or how to run it, what’s the point? You’ll merely be out the money it took to join (and maybe maintain) because you lack passion.

So snow, dogs, umbrellas, niche markets, passion… and that wraps up today’s post

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We love comments! So please do!

One of the most valuable, free, and overlooked forms of marketing and advertising is commenting on blogs. We state it over and over at the end of every post we make, and while many take us up on the offer, there are hundreds if not thousands who visit and completely miss the boat.

Below, we’ve inserted a video that will give you complete and meaningful instructions on how to choose the right blogs to comment on, why, and the tools to set this all up to make your life a whole lot easier (and all the tools are free). (more…)