It's a well known fact that if 1 person asks a question then there are others with the same question but afraid to ask. So today I am going to answer the 5 questions I've received over the last few days.
Question 1: How do I post comments on your blog?
Since Alan and Paul have both asked this question and because posting comments on blogs is a good way to get links back to your site, everyone needs to know how to post comments on a blog.
Answer: - For my 2 blogs where I've asked for your comments you simply go to the bottom of the article and find the line that has:
Comments (xx) Trackback
(The x's above are a number.)
Click the word Comments and a popup box appears where you can read the current comments. Scroll to the end of the box and that's where you will find the form to fill out to leave your comments.
The form has a place for your name, email address, URL (that's the page you want to be your "Homepage" in your comment) and, of course, your comment. When you click the "Publish" button, the name you entered, the URL and your comments are added to the article's other comments. Your email address is optional and if you include it, it will not appear in your comments. Your comment will appear on my blog almost instantly and you can read it if you click the "Comments" link again.
As for other blogs that accept comments, their method of getting your comments may be slightly different but it will be very similar. Just look for a place at the end of their blog post that identifies the comments for the posted article and click the link. Then follow the directions for posting your comment. Because some blog owners must approve all comments before they allow them to appear, it may take some time before you'll see your comment.
If you search a blog and can not find a link to read the posted comments then you are probably reading a blog that does not allow comments.
Question 2: I've just taken over a site and need help getting members
While Chris's question was specifically about getting members for a new site, others have asked similar questions because they wanted help with getting traffic or conversions.
Answer (First Part): To get members/conversions you must first get some targeted traffic to your site and because most of those who write don't have money to spend to get targeted traffic I usually recommend the following free methods of getting traffic:
- Writing and submitting articles for article directories.
- Free or inexpensive ezine ads.
- Offering something in a give away (this is a form of Joint Venture).
- Listing your site in a directory of similar sites if there are any.
- Joining and posting comments on blogs and forums where readers are interested in things related to your site.
- Do what you can to optimize your site for the search engines.
Depending on the type of site the reader has, I sometimes recommend:
- Traffic exchange programs.
- Safelists.
- Setting up an eBay store.
- Finding sites offering related products/services and partner with them to promote each others site. (A Partner or Joint Venture, Not Just Adding A Link On A Links Page.) This may include putting a link on each others site and sending out a recommendations to their list.
Answer (Second Part): If you are getting some targeted traffic and not getting members/conversions then make sure:
- Your site is focused on the 1 thing you want your site visitors to do. Do not confuse or distract them by making too many offers, posting a lot of banner ads or sending them off your site to check out other things of interest.
- Your site doesn't have a lot of typos, bad grammar and misspellings.
- You've got an attention grabbing headline that can be seen when the visitor first arrives on your site.
- You've listed the benefits of your product/service.
- You've told the site visitor exactly what to do.
- You've made it easy for them to perform the desired action.
Question 3: My site has been hacked into, what do I do?
Since mine was not the only site hacked into recently, Gaida asked what she should do.
Answer: From my own experience, I found that the following steps worked the best.
- Contact your hosting provider immediately if they have not contacted you first and work with them to get your site clean.
- If your host hasn't disabled your site then you must while you're cleaning it up. The easiest way would be to set up a redirect link to another site or a page stating the "site is temporarily out of service" for your index page.
- Before you start cleaning, make sure your pc is virus and spyware free and keep it that way. It's easy to re-infect your pc while working the pages of your infected site so you'll need to check it often.
- When your pc is clean, immediately login to the admin panel of your site and change your password. You may have to do this again if you infect your pc while cleaning your site. Just make sure your pc is clean every time you do this.
- If you have a clean copy of the pages of your site then you can simply upload all of them except for your index (home) page. Then check to make sure everything is working correctly. If it is then upload your index page and check it.
- If you don't have a clean copy of all the pages on your site then kick yourself really hard because you should. But if you don't or if you have a really large site with lots of pages then you may want to do some spot checking and only replace the infected pages. Because it is easy to re-infect your pc doing this, you'll need to check your pc often.
Since you know at least 1 of the pages that was hacked, start there by either reading the code or uploading a clean copy. Also, you'll want to either read or upload all the other files that may be used by this page, i.e. javascript, xml, shtml, etc. Then check to make sure this page works correctly.
After you've gotten your corrupted page working properly, surf your site and see if you can find any other corrupted pages. If you do then clean them and their called files. - After you've gotten your site cleaned, contact your host provider so they can reactivate you site. If they did not deactivate your site, you should still contact them so they know you've worked the issue. (You should always try to keep a good working relationship with your host provider.)
Question 4: Will you join me or will you look at...?
These types of questions come in a lot, too many times to list all the senders' names.
Answer: I read them all, look at the offer and try to send a reply. Hopefully I haven't missed any. Usually the answer is, thanks for sending me the information however I am not joining anything right now. However, there are always exceptions.
If the offer is for something that would really benefit you, my reader, I usually accept even when I don't get anything more than you. Examples include the free hosting we had available for awhile and some of the free ebooks donated by readers.
If the offer is for something that I think can help me with my business but I'm not ready for it yet, I save the offer so I can use the sent link when I do join or signup. (Recently I pulled up an old email to join a paid membership site.)
Telling you this doesn't mean I want you to send me an offer nor does it mean I want you to stop sending them. It simply means that, like most people who have been online for awhile, I am already in a lot of things and have become more selective with what I join and do. Also, I know more about what works for me and what I am planning for the next step in my business. If I don't accept your offer it doesn't mean that I necessarily think your offer is bad (I'll tell you if I do) or that what your recommending is bad. Remember, there's only 1 of me and I can't do everything everybody does. So if something is working for you, stay with it.
Question 5: Solo Ad
This is not really a question but I get several every week from readers so I've decided to respond to these mailings.
Answer: When I receive an email with a subject line that looks like an ad from an email address I don't recognize I always delete it without even opening it and this may include yours. Sorry to have to admit this but I don't have everyone's email address memorized.
If you use my contact email address to send a pre-written solo ad I can almost guarantee I didn't read it. But whether I read it or not, I can guarantee I didn't click the included link unless I was somehow able to identify you as a reader. And using the standard statement of "I read your ezine and thought you would be interested in ..." doesn't work.
While I don't use a spam blocker of any type, I do have my email automatically sorted into the proper folders when it arrives. 99% or more of your email will find it's way into the proper folder and the remainder will land in my Junk folder. The subject line of all the email in my readers folder gets read and unless its a pre-written solo ad subject line, it will get opened. As for the ones that make it to the Junk folder, most of them will get automatically deleted unless you are using a subject line I've directed you to use. (Some of your classified ads go into the Junk folder but I retrieve them and file them correctly. It's because of these ads that I post the classifieds online rather than email them since the classified announcement has a better chance of not being filed as Junk.)
The reason I am mentioning the solo ads from readers is so you'll know that you are wasting your valuable time sending them to me. While I love getting personal messages from you, solo ads I can live without.
I hope the above answers helped you. If your question didn't appear then send it to me and I'll get back to you.
Remember, there's no such thing as a dumb question if you don't know the answer. And if more people asked these questions there would be a lot less confusion in working your business.
To Your Success,
Susan
