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Must-Have Resources for Serious Bloggers

Following is a list of resources, guides, books, and services that we’ve found useful and recommend any serious blogger to check out.

They’re focused on making your blogging easier, getting more visitors and web site traffic, and making more money from your blog.

Blog and Web Site Hosting

When we first started looking for a good web host a few years ago, we asked around and got a general shoulder shrug from most of our friends. Yeah, they all had one host or another that was “OK”, but nobody could tell us”the best one to go with”. So after a LOT of painstaking research, we ended up with a “short list” of possible contenders. These are “the ones to choose from”.

  • HostGator – Solid, reliable, and very inexpensive: as low as $5/month. And a unique feature that other low-cost web hosts don’t have: you can sign up monthly, no commitments.
  • ServInt – Great high-end web host, starting at $49/month. Solid, reliable, and very knowledgeable support staff. This is the must-have web host if your website is getting over 200,000 page views/month.

We started with HostGator and stayed very happy customers with them until we passed 200,000 page views. After that it was time to move up from a $5/month hosting plan, so we upgraded to ServInt. If you’re looking to upgrade to a high-end, mission critical web host, then ServInt is your best bet.

If you’re just starting out – or you’re looking to keep your costs as low as possible while working with a solid, reliable web host, do yourself a favor and get started with HostGator.

In fact, HostGator is currently running a special promotion: less than $7/month – with no long-term commitments, or $5/month for a longer term. You just can’t beat that for a solid, reliable web host when you’re starting out. Try HostGator for yourself and see what you think.

Tip: Don’t forget to use Coupon Code BLOGSUCCESS when you sign up with HostGator – and your 1st month is just $0.01! That means you can have your blog up today for just $0.01. Now you’ve really got no excuse to delay, so take a few minutes and do it before you get busy and forget!

Keyword Research

Email Marketing Software

  • Aweber (read our Aweber Review here) – Aweber is the only email marketing software (service) we trust with our own email list. We’ve tried many of the other email marketing providers out there, and have always come back to Aweber. And don’t even think about hosting your own email list on your own server, that stuff only worked before 2001, no you’ll be lucky for any email to actually go out from it. What matters is getting your email delivered (getting through to your subscribers’ inboxes) – and that’s where Aweber delivers. And it just works, which is why we use them.

Try Aweber for yourself for just $1 and you’ll find out why they’re the only email marketing software or service we trust with our own email list.

Email Opt-In Forms (for getting subscribers to your email list)

  • PopUp Domination – This software package allows you to easily create and test visually appealing opt-in forms that pop-up (or better yet, they “hover in”) to entice your 1st time visitors to subscribe to your list. We use something like this and it’s literally increased our opt-ins by 400%! Available as a WordPress plugin or standalone.

Where to Find Good Affiliate Programs

  • Clickbank – search their marketplace for digital products to promote, i.e. eBooks.
  • Commission Junction – another large affiliate marketplace, used by many online dating websites. We think of this as a decoy in a way, since we haven’t known anyone to actually make any substantial money with this site.

Writing and Copywriting (How to Write Effective Headlines and More to Captivate Your Readers)

Copywriting is one of the most overlooked but actually crucial skills for any online marketer – if you have a website or blog, that means you!

  • Copyblogger – Great resource for learning the fine points of writing good, engaging “copy”, especially as it pertains to blogs

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Get more Blog and Web Site Traffic with Social Media

Make Money Online – with Your Blog Through Text Links

  • Google AdSense
  • Yahoo Publisher Network
  • Microsoft AdCenter
  • Amazon Affiliate Program
  • Text-Link-Ads – Don’t sit around waiting for advertisers to come to you. People are out shopping for link ads RIGHT NOW in marketplaces like Text-Link-Ads. If you’re not in there, then someone else is going to get paid to put links on THEIR site today. Disclaimer: these “text links” are technically against Google’s policy and can hurt your natural traffic from Google and other search engines.
  • Chitika – easily add interactive product comparison shopping to your site and product reviews. A must have for product review blogs and sites that mention specific products.
  • AuctionAds – add eBay auctions to your site and make money as a high traffic eBay affiliate

Examples of Successful Blogs

A successful blog can be in virtually any topic / niche, as you can see in the examples below…