We posted a week ago that we’re doing this but wanted to give a final opportunity. In 3 hours from now (1pm Easter US time) the price goes up from $1.95 USD a month to $5.95 USD a month. If you get in before the cut off you’re locked into the lower price forever.

Update: The introductory offer is now over.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Your Final Chance to Get ProBlogger.com Membership for Just $1.95 – 3 Hours to Go

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A number of people have been asking how ProBlogger.com (the new community section of ProBlogger) has been going since we launched a month ago – so today I thought I’d give a bit of an update – including giving some news on the new price which will go live 1 week from today..

Some stats:

• As things currently stand we have 2080 paying members.
• In the first month the forum has had 1,400+ threads of conversation started and 15,000+ actual posts.
• Less than 1% of those who registered for the first month decided not to renew their subscription.
• The section with the most new threads in the first month was the ‘Critique’ section where members post a link to their blog or something that they’ve done and ask for others to review it.
• The section with the most posts/responses (apart from the ‘general chit chat’ area) is the ‘blog promotion/finding readers’ section.

Here’s a quick screen grab of the different areas (taken a few days back pretty late at night US time so not a lot of people in the forum at the time).

As you can see the topics being discussed are far reaching and in most areas there is a fair bit of discussion. The new(ish) Tutorials area is an area I’d like to see a bit more action in and I’m going to recruit a few experts in different fields of blogging to contribute some tutorials here in the coming months.

We’ve passed the point where most members have had the chance to stop their subscription if they choose to. As mentioned above we’ve had just under 1% of people decide to leave. While I’d love everyone to stay it’s not feasible to expect that the site will suit every need.

We did have a few issues with the subscription renewals at the end of the month which caused some confusion but along with a few other growing pains the first month of ProBlogger.com has been well worthwhile and I’m getting a lot of really great feedback from members.

As with all membership sites it is those who are throwing themselves into it most who seem to be getting the most out of it.

The Price Rises in One Week from Today

Now that we’ve achieved the 2000 member mark and retained that amount of members we’re moving towards ending the introductory price of $1.95 a month. Anyone who has signed up at this price already (and who signs up in the next week) and stays a member is locked in at this level.

However in a week’s time we’ll be putting the price up to $5.95 a month for new members. This gives everyone a chance to get in at the introductory price – so if you’re thinking of joining – now’s the time to get locked in at $1.95.

$5.95 is a price that we still feel is accessible to many but will enable us to make the site sustainable.

You have one week to get in at this price before we raise it – your time starts….. now.

New Feature – Social Groups

Now that we’re at 2000 members we’re starting to see enough bloggers in different niches to make the collaboration area of the blog more and more useful as there are now little ‘clusters’ of bloggers in different topics.

To help with this collaboration we’ll be adding the ’social groups’ feature in the coming week. This will enable bloggers to group themselves a little more and set up areas to discuss common interests.

I foresee this ’social groups’ feature to be used in a number of ways:

• Niche Based Groups – for example the gadget bloggers might find it useful to set up an area where they can all come together to work together, discuss their niche, ask for and offer help to each other. Groups for Mommy Bloggers, Photography Bloggers, Sports Bloggers…. etc
• Location Based Groups – for bloggers from a particular city, region, state, country who are interested in talking about issues of their part of the world.
• Platform Based Groups – for bloggers who want to talk about a particular blogging platform or tool. I could foresee a group for WordPress bloggers, for Joomla bloggers, for Blogger.com bloggers….

Really the way that these groups can be used is only going to be limited to the imagination of members. I hope that they provide bloggers with the ability to find others like them but also discuss some of the more obscure topics that might not be relevant to everyone.

At first we’ll be choosing the topics for these groups but would like to soon open it up for anyone to start one.

New Feature – Weekly Chats

We will also be adding a weekly chat session for members in the coming couple of weeks. This will not go live until after the price rise but will give members the opportunity to interact live with one another on a weekly basis in a chat room – the hope is that we’ll nominate a topic each week to focus the chat around, do a little quick teaching at the start and then open it up for discussion.

Other Benefits

Discounts – The 50% off the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog offer has been used by many of our members. Getting $9.98 off the workbook effectively gives those members 5 months free membership.

I’ll be extending this offer indefinitely for ProBlogger.com members and also offering discounts on future ProBlogger resources (expect to see another one released in the next 2-3 months with more to follow).

I’m also talking to a number of blogging related companies about them coming into the forums to offer special discounts on their products to members. More on this in the coming weeks.

Guest Experts – as mentioned above – I want to beef up the ‘tutorials’ area of the forum by bringing in some special guests to provide some teaching around different topics. This will not be a formal curriculum or syllabus but rather regular input from people with experience in different areas of blogging and the opportunity to pick their brains a little.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

ProBlogger.com Price Rise Coming in 1 Week – Lock in the Intro Price Today

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If you’re one of the thousands of people with the workbook I’d love to hear your feedback on it!

• What did you like about it?
• What did you find too challenging?
• What would have made it easier to digest?
• What impact did it have on your blogging (what results did it have)?
• How did you use it?
• What would you like included in future editions?

This feedback will be used both to improve the e-book and help me develop further resources and write future blog posts. A few of your comments will also be used as testimonials (with credit to you) in presenting the e-book to others in future sales pages.

Your constructive feedback long/short and positive/negative is greatly appreciated – please leave it in the form of a comment below.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Tell Me What You Thought of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook

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Because it’s a private, walled community it can be a little difficult for those not on the inside to assess whether it’s something for them – so I thought today I’d highlight some of what’s going on inside:

1. Community Challenges

Something that we’re going to run this week is a ProBlogger Community Challenge. In the challenge I nominate a type of post for our members to go away and write up and then everyone shares their links to those posts over the coming days. Then members are encouraged to surf through the list, comment, give feedback and then share those links that they resonated most with their own network.

The idea is that we all do something together, there’s opportunity to learn from how others approach the task and of course there’s opportunity for extra traffic both from other members and from where they share the links that they like.

Update: I’ve just launched the first community challenge – it’s now live.

2. Blog Critiques

We’ve set up a specific area of the forum where any member can share a link to their blog and ask others to give feedback on it.

Members putting their heads together on this means that people asking for critiques are getting a variety of responses on their blogs from a community with diverse experiences, skills and ideas. There’s also the opportunity to learn by watching critiques of other blogs.

3. Opportunities for Collaboration

The collaboration area of the community is one of the most active. This is one of the key reasons I wanted to start the forum – putting bloggers together to work together for mutual benefit can lead to wonderful outcomes.

We’re still only seeing the beginnings of where these collaborations will lead but to this point we’re already seeing some creative ideas. Bloggers are hooking up with other bloggers in their niches to work together, we’re seeing bloggers working together on social media campaigns in groups, bloggers are helping one another with content creation and more.

The effectiveness of this area will only grow as more bloggers join which will open up possibilities to work together with other bloggers in similar niches and locations.

4. Secondary Connections

One of the cool things that I’ve already seen start to happen is people making connections with other bloggers outside of the community. For example in a thread where I invited members to share their Twitter ID’s we’ve had hundreds of people share them and people reporting seeing marked increases in their follower numbers.

While having more followers is nice – the real benefit of this is that these connections have the potential to build the depth of interaction between bloggers, strengthening networks and opening opportunities for fruitful interactions.

Another example of this is groups of bloggers already planning to meet in person at different blogging events. For example there’s a group going to get together at Blog World Expo and a few people asking if there are bloggers in their local areas who might like to have a meet up.

Member Tutorials

Yesterday I added a new area to ProBlogger.com – one for ‘Tutorials’.

There are two main reasons I wanted this area – firstly I’ve already seen a couple of really excellent posts by members exploring different topics. I want to highlight this type of content as I think there’s a lot we can learn from it. Secondly I’d like to give community members the opportunity to have some of their ideas featured here on ProBlogger.net occasionally as guest posts. I won’t use all tutorials submitted here on ProBlogger – but from time to time will use the best and most interesting submissions with the permission and credit to the author.

6. Our Members

1300+ members in less than a week isn’t a bad result if you’re thinking purely about numbers, but what I’m thankful for and excited about is the quality of those who’ve joined.

Members come from all parts of the world, all levels and with an amazing variety of experiences. Already there have been numerous threads where bloggers have shared different opinions on topics in a way that doesn’t tear anyone down but instead where the diversity of opinion and experiences help facilitate learning.

What our 6 of our Members Say about ProBlogger.com

On that note – let me share 6 testimonials from these very same members to finish off this post:

“After recently rebranding my blog and website, I’ve felt as if my blogging attempts have been floundering, and with no support and no one to lean on, I’ve had difficulty finding the inspiration and focus to write. Since joining the ProBlogger Community just a few days ago, I now feel like I’m part of a family who has already supported, encouraged, and helped me to get my focus and determination back! Thanks for creating this community, Darren – I’m truly excited to see it evolve in the coming months!” – Ursula Comeau from UCWebCreations.com

“Without doubt, the new home of bloggers. In less than a week it has established a community spirit that most forums can only dream of.” - Kevin Muldoon from Blogging Tips

“The thing that I’ve really gained from the forums is motivation! Most forums tend to suck up my time, I think I’m barely on ProBlogger.com for more than ten minute before I have to go and write a post, go searching for inspiration or look into a new form of monetisation. Within the first week it’s impressive to see that there’s already a strong sense of community among the members and it’s great to see everyone so willing to help other bloggers reach their goal.” – fern from Craft Blog

“After signing up for Problogger.Community I submitted Summer Tomato to the critique section. I’d never had anyone but friends and family give me their thoughts on my design, and I’ve always been curious what “real” bloggers might think. Within a couple hours of signing up I had wonderful positive and constructive advice on my blog from experienced bloggers, and even a few new readers! As far as I’m concerned this subscription has paid for itself already.” - darya from Summer Tomato

“If you want to grow your blog, you need to work with other like minded bloggers…plain and simple. Problogger.com has been an incredible avenue for blogging collaboration and it is just getting started. It is really a no-brain’er.” – Robb Sutton

“Not being much of a forum user I was a little hesitant at first to sign up at problogger.com, especially since it was going to cost a whopping $1.95 (gasp!), but I’m glad I did. Already I’ve connected with some great people and just having a more personal interaction with Darren makes the cost worth it.” - David Turnbull from Adventures of a Barefoot Geek

“I’m not the best networker in the world but problogger.com has made a massive difference. Without even asking for it, members have gone out of their way to help promote my blog further and being a member has given me so much extra motivation for blogging that my traffic has doubled in the week that I’ve been there! It’s paid for itself many times over already.” – Lee from Smash and Pees

Join us Today

If ProBlogger.com sounds like a community that you’d benefit from we’d love you to join us today. The cost is $1.95 a month (you can unsubscribe at any time) – we plan to increase this price but if you sign up at $1.95 you’ll be locked in at that price and never pay more to get access to the forum.

The process for joining is simple:

1. just head to the registration page – this registers you as a forum member (but doesn’t give you access to threads until you’ve done the next step and paid.
2. once you’ve registered and logged in head to the payment page where you select the $1.95 option and will be then taken to PayPal.

Once you’re paid – you’re in! If you have any problems along the way let us know via the contact form on the forum.

PS: I’ve set up a ProBlogger.com Twitter Account to keep people up to date on problogger.com specific news.

PS2: One thing that has naturally started happening is that groups of bloggers have been joining up together. A few bloggers told me that they felt a little overwhelmed by joining and participating in this community as they felt a little out of their league – so they convinced a friend or two to join with them.

A couple have even bought memberships for friends so that they’re entering in with someone familiar that they can buddy up with from the start.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

6 Reasons to Join the ProBlogger.com Community

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This is a question that has been on my mind lately – I thought it was time to find out what the answer is.

So far 800 1200+ bloggers have agreed to join me in finding out – will you join us too? We’re offering it as a special introductory price of $1.95 a month for access to the forum (once you’re in at that rate you’re locked in at it and it won’t rise).

I’ve been asked to add a forum area to ProBlogger for almost as long as this site has been live (5 years last week). It’s something I’ve been open to but never quite got around to doing – but lately a number of things have changed my mind including:

1. The success of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Forum – this temporary forum/community rocked and led to quite a few bloggers going into partnerships and collaborations with other bloggers.

2. More and more reports of bloggers forming alliances or collaborative relationships – bloggers have joined together in networks and groups for years now – but lately I’ve been hearing a lot more stories of bloggers forming alliances and collaborating.

3. The realization that while here on ProBlogger people do collaborate in comments – that a blog is really not the medium for it to go to its potential.

Out of all this – I’ve decided to finally launch ProBlogger.com in collaboration with the team at b5media who are looking after the back end of the site.

So far I’ve invited those on my email list to join and 800 1200+ have signed up. Today I’m launching it to the wider community.

Note: You can get much of the information below in a video at the bottom of this post if you prefer that format.

What is ProBlogger.com

• ProBlogger.com is all about community, collaboration and learning together.
• It is a paid forum ($1.95 USD per month subscription – more on why it’s paid below)
• It is a private and moderated forum – walled from the general public, search engines and spammers
• It’s currently in version 1.0 – a forum but we plan to add features as it grows.

Why is it a Paid Community?

I’m aware that the idea of paying to join a forum is not going to suit everyone and I don’t pretend that it will appeal to all – but there are a number of reasons I’ve taken the decision to put a $1.95 monthly subscription fee on it.

1. I want to staff the forum – there’s nothing wrong with volunteer moderation (and we’ll add this as we go) but I wanted this community to be administrated by a paid and dedicated staff member (Lara Kulpa who many of you are familiar with) to ensure that the forum is as useful as possible. We’re dedicating 100% of the income of the first 1200 or so members purely to cover this (and then a % of all further membership). My goal is to have Lara full time on this task.

Having a paid community manager is important to me because I know it’ll be run well, well moderated, more useful and that members will be looked after by someone accountable and focused on the task.

2. It’s valuable and I want it to be seen as such – my experience of forums in the past is that they tend to attract a lot of lurkers who join but rarely turn up and contribute. While having a cost on the forum may keep some away I believe it gives those who do join a little more reason to participate. If something costs you’re hopefully more likely to use it and a forum that is actually used is more valuable for everyone.

3. Discourage Spammers – while I fully expect members will successfully promote their blogs in this community – that’s not what it’s really about and I hope that putting a fee on it will keep spammers and self promoters a little more at bay. Feel free to tell us about your blog – but do it appropriately and as a good citizen of the forum. Spammers are not welcome.

The Details on Price and Introductory Offers

The introductory price of ProBlogger.com is $1.95 USD per month. Payment is via PayPal (sorry to those who are not able to use PayPal but at this point it’s the system that is easiest for us to use and is the most widely used option).

This introductory price of $1.95 is a limited time offer. I’m yet to decide on the price that we’ll put it up to but if you join at this rate you’ll only ever be charged this much per month for access to the forum. Those who join later will be charged at the higher rate.

I’m also offering 50% off the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog workbook to anyone who joins the forum in the first month. This is purely an optional thing and not something that I expect everyone will want or need. You’ll be given a discount code once you register and pay for your first month on the inside of the forum for this.

To join simply follow this process:

1. head to the registration page of the forum here – add your details and join the forum.
2. go to the forum and hit the ‘complete the registration process by clicking here‘ link
3. hit the ‘$1.95′ option in the ‘cost’ drop down menu and click ‘order’
4. this will take you through a process where you can pay with PayPal and set up the subscription – once you have you can head back to the forum and start posting.

Will You Join Us?

At this point we’ve had 800 1000+ members join as paid up members and we’d love to have you join us. You can unsubscribe at any point if you find that it doesn’t fit your needs and stop future payments. While I know it won’t fit with everyone’s situation I do hope that you check it out and join the community as an active member – this will be as good as we make it so get involved!

Here a video (also on the front page of ProBlogger.com) where I go through a lot of the above information for those who prefer to watch and listen over reading!

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

ProBlogger.com is Live! JOIN with 1200+ Bloggers to Improve Your Blog

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—

I just realized that yesterday was ProBlogger’s 5th birthday (I imported a lot of previously written posts onto the ProBlogger.net domain on 23 September 2004 and started adding new content that day).

I had been planning on doing a big birthday post but with events of the last couple of weeks it slipped off my radar.

So so that the day doesn’t go completely by without any celebration (and because it’s still 23 Sept in some parts of the world as I write this) I thought I’d offer a 24 hour 50% discount on the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog workbook. If you don’t yet have a copy of this ebook you can read about what it is here or purchase it directly here.

To get the discount you need to use this coupon code – ‘probloggeris5′ when prompted to add a code during the buying process.

This sale ends at 8pm MST (US Mountain Time) on 24th September.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

ProBlogger Birthday Sale – For 24 Hours Only Get 50% off the 31DBBB Workbook

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Tomorrow morning I’m heading into a local hospital for a small procedure on my wrist which will leave my left hand out of action for a week or two.

It’s not carpal tunnel or RSI (I’m told it’s nothing to do with typing all day every day) and it’s unlikely to be anything serious. I’ll attempt to write a fuller post at some point on my personal blog about the experience.

As a result I’ve invited a small group of bloggers to take over the reins here at ProBlogger over the coming week and a bit.

Their posts will be a mixture of normal guest posts on assorted topics as well as a few ‘interviews’ with successful bloggers who have unpacked one post on their blog that has had huge traffic (telling us how it happened and what they learned through the experience).

Apart from tomorrow and possibly Tuesday I’ll be hovering (one handed) in the background, particularly on Twitter and I might even pop in for a live video streaming post during the week.

Lara will also be here moderating comments and looking after any potential problems so if you need anything urgent shoot her a Tweet.

So if I don’t see you around in the mean time – I’ll hopefully see you again in 7-10 days! Have a great week!

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

A Quick Note about the Next Week at ProBlogger

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3 questions that I get a lot are:

1. You seem to do a lot of ’stuff’ – can you give me a quick overview?
2. I know you from (insert blog/social network name here) but today discovered you also are at (insert blog/network here) – what else do you do?
3. How is your business going – you used to give us income updates – can you give us another update?

As a result today I want to create a post that attempts to summarize all of the activities that I’m actively involved with these days (ie it doesn’t include about 30 blogs that I have previously owned or blogged on which today are dormant).

I’m not going to give an income update as such except to say that revenue from my blogging related activities remains well into the Six Figure bracket (annually) and that each year since I’ve started blogging as an income source has seen it grow in healthy increases.

I hope that what follows is of use to those who’re interested:

My Blogs

These days I own three active blogs. They are visited collectively by around 2.8 million people per month, subscribed to via RSS and email by around 480,000 subscribers and have social media network between them of around 110,000 people. Let me break it down from largest to smallest:

Digital Photography School

DPS has enjoyed continued growth over the last 12 months. While finding advertisers has been a little difficult in this climate (although we did run a very successful campaign with Lenovo earlier in the year) I’ve seen increases in income as a result of more effort in affiliate promotions but also AdSense and Chitika.

I have seen a bit of an increase in expenses though as we’ve hired a number of writers as well as a community manager for the forum area.

Redesigning the site, adding new areas for cameras and post production tips and getting onto Twitter have all helped to grow DPS. The future looks really bright for this community – I’m particularly looking forward to the release of the communities first products (two ebooks) later in the year.

• Monthly Traffic – 1,960,612 Visitors viewing 6,571,151 pages (based upon the last 30 days – Data from Google Analytics)
• Subscribers – 311,813 (made up of 200,000 newsletter subscribers and 111,000 RSS subscribers)
• Forum Members – 60.644
• Twitter Followers – 16,074 followers
• DPS on Facebook – 2,277 fans

ProBlogger

Traffic wise ProBlogger’s growth has been less spectacular than DPS but steady.

The release of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook earlier in the year was an amazing learning experience and a profitable venture.

The Job boards have also continued to grow both in terms of ads being listed and also traffic/subscriber numbers. It’s certainly not my biggest earner but it’s a daily income that has risen and that is quite passive.

The main income streams from ProBlogger have been direct ad sales (we’ve been sold out for a long time although I’m told we have one slot open at the moment) and healthy affiliate promotions (I’m lucky that there are so many quality products related to this blog).

In the coming weeks ProBlogger will expand with the launch of ProBlogger.Community.

• Monthly Traffic - 531,804 unique visitors viewing 866,093 pages
• Subscribers – 123,000 RSS Subscribers
• Newsletter Subscribers – 29,890 (across a number of different lists)
• Twitter Followers – 76,273 followers
• ProBlogger on Facebook – 15,242 fans
• ProBlogger Job Boards – around 2000 RSS subscriber

TwiTip

My newest blog and seeing a steady growth. Written mainly by a group of guest posts TwiTip has done fairly well. I’m about to launch a redesign of the site which will give it a more professional look but also add some great new features.

Income has been a little tougher on this one – mainly due to my lack of time to actually go after advertisers. Having said that – I’ve run a couple of affiliate programs that have done pretty well (still room for improvement though on the ad front).

• Traffic – 256,430 Visitors viewing 326,484 pages
• Subscribers – 21,512 RSS subscribers

Other Interests

I try to be active on a number of social media sites, networks and maintain an interest in a variety of other projects including:

• LinkedIn – 1940 Connections
• LinkedIn Professional Bloggers Network – 1200 members
• Personal Facebook Page – 5000 friends (the limit)
• Personal Blog – 5000 Visitors a Month (I really should post more)
• Publications – ProBlogger The Book and 31 Days to Build a Better Blog
• Co-Founder and Shareholder – b5media blog network
• Co-Founder – Six Figure Blogging (now fairly inactive)
• Speaking/Training/Media – I’ve had a real increase in the number of invitations to speak and teach at a variety of conferences and do media appearances (interviews/write columns etc). Due to me being in Australia I am not able to do many of them but it’s something I’ve been enjoying when I can do them locally (or occasionally overseas).

Looking Forward

In the next few months there are a number of new things that will add to this list (because I have so much spare time):

• ProBlogger.com (a community site for bloggers)
• Two new ebooks for Digital Photography School (I’m working on two which will hopefully be released before the end of the year)
• Possibly another ebook for ProBlogger – working with another blogger on this
• A New Site with ebook – I can’t say too much about this but I’m looking forward to collaborating with another blogger on a new site that will relate to both ProBlogger and TwiTip.
• One more Bigger Secret Collaboration with a couple of other bloggers – Hopefully with an October launch

All in all I’m fairly busy. While there are opportunities arising every day or two that I could do more on if I had the time (or if I decided to hire a staff) I’m attempting to keep things relatively contained (you might not think so from the above list but it’s the tip of the iceberg of what I get asked to do).

All in all it’s a fun business to be in, a profitable way to make a living and it does still give me flexibility to spend time with my family, friends and community groups that I belong to – doing the things that are important to me.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

The State of the Darren-Sphere

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Yes I’m finally going to fully utilize the ProBlogger.com domain and it’s going to be all about Community. We’re still putting the final touches on it and are not ready to fully unveil it but we’ll be looking for a group of readers to preview it and help it get going before we go to a public launch. If you’re interested – head over to ProBlogger.com where there’s a signup form and leave your details. You’ll get details of how to participate in the next week once we’re ready to move into a beta phase.

Note – if you use a firefox ad blocker you’ll need to either turn it off or use another browser or you’ll not see the signup form.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Coming Soon – ProBlogger.COMmunity

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• 23 July – Melbourne – The Churchill Club’s Blog Smog Event.
• 23 July – Melbourne – TweetupMellers (a meetup for Twitter users – I won’t be speaking at this, just a normal attendee and I’ll try to get there after the other event)
• 30 July – Sydney – Twitter Bootcamp
• 22-23 September – Melbourne – Marketing Now (line up will include Chris Brogan, David Armano, Laurel Papworth and Stephen Johnson).
• October 15-17 – Las Vegas – Blog World and New Media Expo (use the code ‘PROBLOGVIP’ to get a 20% discount).

I hope to connect with you at some of these events.

Also worth noting – due to unforseen personal issues I’ve had to cancel my speaking at IZEAFEST. I really was looking forward to that but needed to pull out of that unfortunately.

Image by Matt Dickman

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Where I’ll Be Speaking in the Upcoming Months

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I’m not sure why they’ve both come at once – I wasn’t planning on doing either at all even 36 hours ago – but sometimes ideas hit me in groups. Here they are – I hope one or both interest you:

1. @ProBloggerDeals

ProBlogger Deals is a new Twitter account where I’ll be tweeting out deals for bloggers. I’ve written more about the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of it here – but in short it’s a place where I’ll be sharing promotions, deals, discounts, bonuses, coupon codes (and more) for bloggers.

I don’t think that this will be everyone’s cup of tea – but it’s an attempt to pass on more of the offers that come my way that I don’t pass on here on ProBlogger – simply because there are so many of them.

Two Launch Deals

• The first ‘deal’ that we’ve got is an exclusive to ProBlogger readers – 30% off the Ninja Affiliate Plugin for WordPress – a very useful plugin that many ProBlogger readers use to help with their affiliate marketing.
• The second deal is a $20 Discount on any of the licenses at WP Review Site – another great plugin that turns WordPress into a powerful review site engine.

In the coming days I’ll be releasing other ProBlogger Deals including discounts on blogging themes, training resources and more discounts and trial offers on paid tools and plugins.

2. DarrenRowse.com

I’ve been planning to develop this URL for a while now but have never quite gotten around to it. However of late I’ve had many instances where I’ve wanted to write something a little more personal or reflective and didn’t think it was appropriate to do it here on ProBlogger or on one of my other blogs.

One example of this is my launch post on darrenrowse.com – Who Else Wants to Change a Child’s Life? It’s a post telling the story of a need that I came across through a friend – a class of children who have a total of 4 books between them and a request for people to consider a donation to help buy them some books – I hope you can help me with it.

I’m not sure where this new blog will end up – but I know it’ll be a more personal journey. You can read a little more about my thinking behind starting this new blog here.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Want to See My Two New Blogging Projects?

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If you’re interested in getting a copy of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog workbook it’s still only $19.95 – check it out here.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook On Sale (Now Over)

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Regular readers of ProBlogger are familiar with the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog project that we ran here recently.

The concept was simple: bloggers set aside 31 days to be intentional about improving their blogs.

Each day for 31 days readers were presented with a daily task and teaching to give them concrete ways to take their blogs to the next level – the goal being more readers, higher quality content, deeper reader engagement and higher levels of creativity and energy for the blogger.

Challenges included writing tasks, promotion techniques, methods to deepen reader engagement, creating thinking exercises, ideas for breaking through bloggers block and much more.

Today I’m releasing a Workbook that puts a fully updated version of 31 Day Challenge in your hands

If you already know about it and want a copy now – you can buy it now here.

Why a Workbook?

Over 14,000 bloggers have completed the challenge and the feedback was fantastic.

Bloggers who’ve taken the tasks seriously are reporting increases in traffic, greater reader engagement, fresh inspiration for posts and a greater sense of where their blog is headed.

However two common requests came from participants repeatedly:

• 1. People wanted to do the challenge at their own pace (some found daily tasks too fast, some too slow).
• 2. People wanted all the content in the one place (so they could keep it somewhere handy and dip into it again and again over time).

As a result I decided to put together a downloadable workbook version of the challenge.

The work book is professionally edited – contains new content, unique to the workbook and it is available to purchase today in two ways.

Two Ways to Get the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook

1. Get the Book By Itself For $19.95

Download the 31DBBB workbook as described below for $19.95 USD.

To order it with this option simply hit the following ‘buy now’ button and you’ll be taken to PayPal where you can finalize your payment and download the workbook immediately.

2. Get the Workbook + Online Marketing Inside Out Book For $29.95

SitePoint (who helped me with editing the book) are also releasing a new book (a hard cover book not an e-book) today – it’s called Online Marketing Inside Out.

It is a great resource for those wanting to market products or services on the Web. This book shows you how to reach customers through podcasting, blogs, social networks, video, email, and contextual advertising and much more.

To get this 2-for-1 deal simply head over to SitePoint where you can read more about the book they’re offering and will receive both books when you order. Order Now (via SitePoint).

What You Receive with the Workbook

The 31 Days to Build a Better Blog project is all about giving participants a series of 31 daily tasks to help them make improvements in their blogs. This workbook takes this goal a step further with:

• Refreshed and Edited Versions of the Daily Tasks and Teaching
• New Bonus Material – each day has extra tips, questions and reflections (6000 extra words of content to help you extend the daily tasks and help you to apply them)
• Notes Areas – if you print out the book there is room to take notes, record ideas and make plans to help you implement the content
• 94 pages of content – actually we put two pages on each page in the book so it’s actually 188 pages.

Grab Yourself a Copy Today

Whether you’ve completed each of the 31 Daily tasks already and want to have a copy to dip into again and again as you continue to develop your blog or whether you’re yet to really start 31DBBB – I hope you’ll find this workbook helpful.

Grab your copy of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog workbook here

PS: How are Bloggers using 31DBBB?

One of the things that I’ve loved about 31DBBB is seeing how it is being used so differently by different participants.

While originally designed for bloggers to work through over a month – the feedback that we’ve been hearing from bloggers indicates that 31DBBB is being used in a variety of ways including:

• Intense Training – bloggers setting aside days, weekends or weeks to go through multiple tasks at once
• 1 Task a Day – the way we designed it – one day at a time
• 1 Task a Week – bloggers taking their time with the challenge and making the tasks week long tasks
• Monthly Cycle – bloggers using the tasks again and again each month as a monthly routine for their blogging.
• Occasional Inspirational Resource – bloggers dipping into 31DBBB on a more occasional basis – using it on days when they have time or lack inspiration.

The great thing about 31DBBB is that you can do it at your own pace and in your own way. Daily tasks don’t need to be done daily or in any particular order as all but two are independent tasks that can be repeated time and time again to help you grow a dynamic blog.

Grab your copy of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog workbook here

PS: A special thanks to the team at SitePoint who helped with cover design and editing as well as to Reese Spykerman with help with layout and design.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Get Your Own Copy of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog WorkBook

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1. Got a Question? Ask it on Twitter – if you have a question that you’d like me to answer as a post on ProBlogger please feel free to ask it on Twitter with the hashtag of #pbquestions. I can’t do them all but am using it as a way to collect topics that you’re interested in. If we’re not already connected on Twitter follow me at @problogger.

2. Connect on Facebook – As Facebook limit ‘friend numbers’ to 5000 I’ve started a ‘fan page‘ for those who’d like to connect with me on that social network. I’ll be monitoring facebook more than I previously have so if it’s your preferred social network I’d love to connect with you there.

PS: while we’re talking social media – if your preferred network is LinkedIn or FriendFeed I also have accounts there where I’m happy to connect (although at this point I’m not quite as active there). The other place I have a presence is YouTube – subscribe to my channel there and you’ll get an advanced warning of new videos before they hit the blog here.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Got a Question? Want to Connect?

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Until recently this wasn’t an option but in the last couple of months Amazon made it available for Kindle.

For those waiting for it – enjoy!

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

ProBlogger Book Available for Kindle

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1. We’ve got over 12,000 people signed up and at different stages of the process. 100 or so are joining every day. We’ve set it up in such a way that you’ll get emails starting at Day 1 so you can sign up at any time.



2. The 31DBBB forum area is cranking - those that seem to be benefiting the most from 31DBBB seem to be those interacting in the forum area – particularly those who are actively collaborating with other participants. The exciting thing is that while the numbers of people who’ve joined the forum are smaller – most people there are really genuinely interested in working together. A fantastic community is emerging there which I think we’ll continue after the end of the project. I’ll include some of the popular threads in the forum below.

3. Success Stories – A number of participants have reported significant improvements in their blogs. While everyone’s story is different we’re hearing feedback that some bloggers really seeing their blogs lifted to new levels (example).

4. Your Feedback Invited - I’ve just posted a thread in the forum asking for feedback – if you’d like to share some thoughts on how things have gone for you so far (good and bad) share them here.

5. Workbook Coming – I’m still planning on putting together all 31 days tasks into a workbook e-book which we’ll sell at the end of the 31 days at an affordable price.

All in all it’s been a positive experience. While there are a few things I’d do differently I’m really pleased with how it’s been going.

6. Popular Forum Threads – As mentioned above – here are 10 interesting threads in our forum area that have generated some great discussion in the last few days:

1. What does your significant other thinks?
2. Twitter List – Add Yourself
3. Copyrights and How to Protect Your Writing?
4. Donations
5. Favicons
6. How do You make Money?
7. RSS subscription. To do or not to do???
8. Categories vs Tags
9. Statcounter, google analytics, site meter – which one?
10. ProBlogger Budget?

Of course there’s also a discussion thread for each day of the challenge here.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

31 Days to Build a Better Blog – Two Thirds Through Update

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I just wanted to update readers on a few aspects of the project:

Links from the Weekend – firstly I know a lot of you had a long weekend for Easter and may have missed the last few days tasks. Here’s a quick recap on the last four days:

• Day 4 – Analyze a Top Blog in Your Niche
• Day 5 – Email a Reader
• Day 6 – Must Read Advice from Successful Bloggers
• Day 7 – Write a Link Post

Forums – before launching this challenge I mentioned a forum area for registered members to interact. We had a few challenges in setting this up but I’m happy to say that those registered for email notifications will get an invite to join the forums in the next 36 hours.

Workbook – one of the frequently asked questions that I’ve been getting about 31DBBB is whether I can produce a workbook at the end of the challenge that people can use to continue working through the tasks after the 31 days are over. While I’d not previously considered this there does seem to be some demand for it. I’m willing to put it together for sale at a small price (I want to be able to cover the time I put into it – I’m thinking around $10) IF people are interested.

Here’s a poll to gauge whether people are interested.

It’s Going Too Fast! – one of the other pieces of feedback I’ve had is people saying that they feel like they are falling behind. My response has been for people not to stress too much. While I’m going to keep pushing out tasks and challenges each day for the 31 days there’s nothing to stop you slowing down and tackling tasks at your own pace. Quite a few people have been saving the emails that I’m sending and are doing 2-3 tasks a week instead of 7. The workbook idea is also emerging out of this desire for people to move at their own pace. Also – I’m going to try to mix in a few smaller tasks (Day 8’s will be a 5-10 minute one for example) for those of you needing a breather.

Is it too late to Join? – lastly, I’m hearing a few people saying that they missed the start. While the main group of participants are up to Day #7 of the challenge, the way I’ve designed it is that people can start at any time they like. The day you enter your email and first name on the signup page you’ll be taken to the start of the process. You’ll be a bit behind the main group but not alone as hundreds of people are signing up each day.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

31DBBB – Week 1 Recap and Update

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1. Missing Emails – I’m afraid that for some reason a number of those participating are reporting not getting emails. There are a number of reasons for this:

• New Signups – if you signed up since Monday it takes up to 24 hours for the sequence of daily emails to kick in. New signups will be put into an email sequence where you’ll be sent daily emails starting at Day 1. This means you’re a little behind the main group but means you don’t miss anything that the main group has covered already.
• Spam Filtering - some people are finding our emails in their spam/junk mail folders. Please search for them there and mark them as ‘not spam’ and you should get future ones in your inbox.
• Missing Confirmation – some people did not confirm/verify their participation by clicking a link in the email that we sent you soon after you signed up. We need this confirmation before we can send you anything else. Search for this and click the link (it could be in your spam/junkmail folder). If you can’t find it try subscribing again on this page. If you still can’t find it – contact Aweber.com who are managing our list.

2. Email Delays - a few people are concerned that they see posts go up on ProBlogger for days but don’t get emails until hours or even days later. As mentioned above the main reason for this is that emails are sent out in a sequence. Most people reporting this problem have signed up since the program started and will be a day or two behind the main group. You’ll get the emails eventually but will be taken to the start of the sequence of emails.

Other people reporting shorter delays in getting emails will unfortunately just have to wait as we don’t have complete control over when emails will be delivered. Aweber queues these autoresponder emails so that they go out usually 1-3 hours after the posts go live on ProBlogger.

If you want notifications as posts go live please subscribe to our RSS feed. This way you’ll see posts as they go up on the blog. You’ll still get the emails eventually and can see any other information I’m including there.

Apologies for those experiencing delays but there isn’t a lot we can do about it at this point.

All in all though it seems that the project is being well received. We just passed 10,000 registered participants and many are reporting that they’re enjoying the tasks being set so far. Thanks for everyone’s involvement!

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

FAQs about 31 Day Project and Email Delivery Problems

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This isn’t an April Fools prank (beware, some bloggers have started theirs early this year) but a genuine thing that has been the result in a number of unforeseen circumstances.

I probably could have launched it tomorrow but it wouldn’t have been at the standard I wanted to achieve. I’d rather launch it well late than poorly on time. My sincere apologies to those who this is inconvenient for!

While it doesn’t have the same ring to it as 1 April the new start date is 6 April (next Monday) and it’ll run through until early May (yes it’s still 31 days long).

I’ve emailed those who have registered for the challenge to let them know but wanted to spread the news here just in case any missed it.

PS: if you’re still not signed up you can read about and join the challenge here. We’ve now had over 6700 bloggers register so despite the delay it’s going to be an amazing journey of learning together.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

31 Days to Build a Better Blog – Delayed 1 Week

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I’ve been busily writing a lot of the teaching and assignments for it already and am excited to see that well over 4300 people have signed up as registered participants (I suspect we’ll get well over 5000 before it launches next week).

I’m also pretty excited to announce that those who register will be given access to a special forum discussion area just for those participating. We’re still setting it up and it will be a no frills area (light on design and features) – but it will enable those participating in the challenge to interact with others on the journey.

While it’s been a lot of work to pull together I’m pretty pumped about the forum element of the 31 Day Challenge because it means that the project becomes less individual and more communal.

When I started blogging the main reason that I improved both in terms of skills, knowledge, traffic and quality of posts was due to the interactions I had with other bloggers. While blogging is still a very relational medium – back then the blogosphere was a lot smaller and there was a real vibe of cooperation, generosity, working together and helping each other grow.

While those things still exist in the blogosphere of 2009, sometimes it can be a little difficult to find. My hope is that the forum area of the 31 Day Challenge will recapture some of that spirit as 3000 bloggers, all with a commitment to grow their blogs, discover the power of working together.

Anyway – just wanted to update you on my preparations for the challenge next week.

It isn’t too late to join up – you can learn more about what’s involved with it here or just pop your name and email address in the field below and you’ll be included in both the emails of new teaching and assignments as well as get an invitation to the forum.

Looking forward to sharing a few more updates on what we’re planning in the days ahead.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Would you Like Forums With that? [31 Days to Build a Better Blog]

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