Did you know, that as of this month, there are over 156 million public blogs in existence? And with that type of competition growing everyday, is the effort worth the prize? What makes a blog a rewarding a home run? and are you still wondering how to attract more visitors to your blog?

We are too.

I did some research regarding this matter and there’s a lot of opinion on the subject. Some say sell advertising, some say to blog every day, some say to not write more than 200 words so the audience doesn’t get bored, others suggest tightly niche your content and others say wake up the dead with extreme controversy.

I do agree with them all, most importantly I believe that businesses need to write stuff that people actually want to read!

Before you start writing, ask yourself who the target audience is and what the do they really care about. Also ask your self these questions:

1. Why do you write your blog? To make money, to serve as marketing tool?
2. Have you clearly identified 3 other highly read blogs in your topic?
3. Can you see their magic formula? Is meaningful content – are they a rock star, have a book and/or a national expert?
4. How is traffic being driven to their site? This takes some digging, but it’s important.
5. Does your niche topic have a big enough audience to tap?
6. Have you looked at Google analytics to see what you have written in the past that really drew readers?
7. Does your content provide pragmatic advice? Is the writing original and thought provoking, Is it entertaining, or is it just sucking up your time and you should be doing something else?

If you answered NO to any of these questions, stop writing, talk a walk, read a book and start again.

Be useful. Be unique. Be engaging.

How do these blogs do it?
HuffingtonPost – 35,000,000 estimated unique monthly visitors.
TMZ – 17,000,000 estimated unique monthly visitors.
engadget – 11,500,000 estimated unique monthly visitors.

For more blogging tips, view: 10-steps to making writing your blog easier.

I think about this a lot. In fact not a day goes by that I don’t ponder this subject.

Oddpodz has experienced a 70% increase in readership. Our SEO report card score is over 96 out of 100. We post content daily. And believe it’s smart, worthy stuff.

I have set high standards for the blogs’ success. I want traffic 10 times what we are getting. I want to generate more revs from Google ads and  from affiliate partners and I want to sell more our products.

What is the magic move to make this a reality?

A killer best selling book?

More inbound links?

A big publicity hit?

Social media swarm of 10,000 friends?

Pay per click?

Advertising?

More content posting?

Befriending other popular bloggers?

Comment luv?

I will keep you posted.

Need some ideas on social media or SEO. Check out our ebooks. Want more small business and entrepreneurial insight read our other business blog. Interested in restaurant marketing visit our latest initiative.

I hate ugly feet. They really bug me. I do my part with mine aiming to have them look their best. I keep the pedicurers in business, along with the nail polish companies. Always step forward in style with nice toes – is my belief.

Footers on web sites are something I’ve not given much thought to until I read a twitter retweet post today from @TimothyWhalin.  Here is one of the featured master pieces from Mecannical.

OMG, my footers were uglier than some dreadful bad feet. I’m totally ashamed and I am re committed to coiffing them up. That’s right, the last thought on my blogs and websites need to be strategic and thoughtful soon. All my sites are going to get revamps within days. This touch point deserves some brain and should not be a skipped step.

How do your footers look? Seen any really hot toes at the end of blog or website, Do share.

Check these out.

For more on feet, view: Hitting the streets in NYC, flavors, history and tired feet.

Yesterday, I pledged to join the daily blogger club. Yep! To be one of those who pumps out a post, like their favorite song – effortlessly, passionately and often.

Since I am somewhat the oxymoron of a creative, structured soul, I must kick off this copy writing cause with a tight, ritural-minded plan.

So here it goes.

Must have tools.
A notebook or two you really like. I carry one with me where ever I go. My recent travel journal notebook sports Audrey Hepburn in her famous glam shot from the Breakfast at Tiffanys movie. I also keep a notebook at my bedside. This one is quirky and covered with colored dots. And of course must have writing instrument too.

Steps and guidelines to stress-free and gushing good blog posts.
1.) Keep an ongoing list of ideas, words and topics that you grab throughout the day. When it’s time to write refer to to this list.

2.) Before you go to bed, pick your topic for the next day. This may change when you dream or read page 6 of the New York Post.

3.) Pick a highly creative-flow time zone in your day. For me, my blog writing will become a morning scheduled ritual, like brushing my teeth and reading my affirmations.

4.) Set a goal of sharing at least 1 strong point. Some days this will be enough. A point can be an answer or a question.

5.) Don’t strive for perfection, 2,000 pithy words or a Pulitzer Prize.

6.) Do strive for strengthening your brand, deepening your online presence, expanding your brain and challenging your reader to think and take action.

7.) Say something in your voice. Cutting and pasting someone else’s quote is lame and lazy and does not add to your unique brand, or your stature of authority and expertise.

8.) Find inspiration from new words (sign up for a word of the day alert like: Wordspy or Visual Thesaurus), bizarre photos, videos and things you are curious about.

9.) Have fun. Push the envelope off the table and drop a rubber toad into someone’s purse or briefcase.

10.) And for some reason you can’t crank it out as you promised your read, post a creative excuse.

Now write on!

Share what works for you too!

Don’t forget to check out: Ladybugs, VW bugs, bed bugs and technology bugs.

Guilty as charged. I was listening to Seth Godin, one of my favorite creative-brainys (that is a made up word), on 57 ways to get the world to spread your stuff and suddenly  I needed to go to the little girls’ room. OMG, there were at least 40 minutes left in his Webinar on MarketingProfs,  and even though I have a Pro MarketingProf membership (which is so worth it) and could have replayed it later, I was not willing to put this learning session on hold. I was engaged in every word he was saying.

How did that happen? How do you get people that glued to what you have to say?
Here’s my take on the Seth factor. He’s cool. He’s never boring. He challenges my thinking. He’s nice to listen to, compelling and calm all at the same time. He’s earned the very smart cat badge, a combination of status from credibility builders like his books, speeches and blogging and what others say the big media and fans around globe.

While he did share 57 ideas and some bonuses, here are my top four and what I going to do differently.

1) He does not have guest bloggers.
Why? Because it fuzzes it up.  It is his brand promise to his readers.

As I’m evaluating the guest bloggers on Oddpodz,and I have been thinking about this for a while, he has an excellent point. Plus, guest posts are  a lot of work. And unless they are highly read and  driving traffic, which unfortunately my guest bloggers have not been, the ROI is just not there. So starting next week, the guest bloggers section will be laid to rest. The posts will be archived  and remain on the site, but no new guest bloggers.

2) He blogs everyday.
That’s heavy. and scare the crap out of me to commit to that.

I said he challenged me. OK, then. I love to write. I do interesting stuff every single day. And even if I’m sick or staying in my cave, I think about really interesting things that I know others can benefit from.  If I can’t pump out at least a paragraph a day, then shame on me.

3) He does not tweet.
That’s a side-line of the next takeaway for me. The actual big idea is: he consciously decides that he will not do everything, Tweeting is an activity like golf or collecting fish bones. He knows he does not have the bandwidth to do it well and right, so he’s not going there. I respect that.

I think all to often we put pressure on ourselves to do stuff that’s not really required or in our “do it freakin well zone”.  For me this means not doing stuff that does not deliver happiness, money or peace in your soul. Personally, I like to tweet, it’s a good outlet for my inner soundbite, snarky side.

4) Try. Fail. Repeat.
That’s not a new one for me. But felt it was important for this list. Thank you Seth.

Love your thoughts on any of this.

Check out this Book review – “Tribes” by Seth Godin.

My wish list for the Branding Diva is fairly simple: make my projected profit numbers, live a high standard life, beat most of my opponents in tennis, have fun, stay healthy and earn the #1 organic search result on Google. The first five I mastered and was not surprised. The last one (a pleasant surprise) happened this last quarter.

I earned the #1 spot in Google results under Branding Speaker.

So how did I do that?
I did not invest any money with an SEO specialist or ranking company.
I did not call Google and beg.
I did not do the search result dance around a bonfire.

Here’s what I did.
The 10 steps that got me the #1 listing on Google for Branding Speaker.

1. I did my own keyword research.
2. I added as many of these keywords into my web copy as I could.
3. I updated my meta tags.
4. I secured my URL for more than three years.
5. I tagged all my images with ALT tags.
6. I wrote relevant keyword content and posted it everywhere, creating links back to my site.
7. I set up and tagged all of my videos on YouTube which is owned by Google.
8. I repurposed every piece of content I ever wrote and posted it everywhere.
9. I set up all of my social media that link to my site.
10. I set up RSS feeds on my site.

If it worked for me, it can work for you. Good luck!

For more on how to get search results, view: Making history in Saudi and 5 lessons from the experience.

Want return visitors, got to provide fresh stuff. I’m guilty. Been busy working on content and other things and failed to see the mold growing on my site that hadn’t changed much since the relaunch in early 2010. Wow how time flies when you are having so much fun!

This week I’ve been in the learning cave. I joined Marketing Profs, bought the PRO membership, which offers a heck of deal for $300. You get tons of awesome learning from webinars to premium content. I tuned in this week to the seven deadly sins of landing pages. Presented by Tim Ash, a guru in website conversion. It was well worth the entire annual fee. I learned so much about what matters if you are looking for action on your website. In addition to the seven sins which you don’t want to commit, I learned about a very cool free tool that Tim’s company offers. It’s called Attentionwizard.com. It’s basically a heatmap of your site and it’s FREE. This is way worth checking out. Just send them a jpeg of your landing page and they show you where the eyeballs are going. And what I learned about our site was the focus was not directed to our desired call to action.

That’s going to change. I just sent a bunch of tweaks to my web designer, so you you get some fresh stuff and no stale website from Oddpodz. Infact, after the webinar, I’ve decided to freshen our homepage look monthly, like a hot fashion boutique that moves around merchandise often.

The big take-aways from the MarketingProfs webinar by Tim Ash were:

1) Make  sure your call to action is clear and pops out!

2) Don’t have too many choices for your readers, it wears them down

3) Don’t ask them for too much info, it’s not needed and you will loose em fast.

4) Watch the amount of text you dish out, too much will give you a headache.

5) Don’t make a promise you can’t keep

6) Watch the visual distractions that blur your message

7) Always include evidence of credibility, media coverage, partners other kudos

It didn’t stop there. I’ve also enrolled in the Clay Collins Pre-launch Formula mentor program, which also totally rocks. It’s a three month class that focuses on how to build and launch digital products. It covers product development, list building, video marketing, conversion, SEO and so much more. The content is great, but the bonus is how he delivers and organizes it with video modules, downloadable PDFs and a weekly call in session with other students for an incredibly low price of $1500 and change that you can pay out in three months. I can’t share everything in this blog, cause that just would not be right. But here’s two of top take-aways and I’ve not even finished the class.

• Did you know that blogs generally only convert 5% to opt-ins.
• And landing pages can deliver up to 50% in opt-ins. This is where your focus should be.
• Asking for too much info in your opt-in form will loose your sign ups faster than the hotels and guest with bedbugs.
• And while SEO is great, however, it’s not the life raft unless you are already sailing in some pretty big winds.
• Joint venture partners are sweeter than honey. In the program you learn how to find them and attract them.
• If you use WordPress you can set up many pings in the backend that will help spread your content while you are sleeping.

With in the next couple weeks, you’ll see some changes to our site and I will report back on how they impacted our list building, product sales and traffic.

Stay tuned.

That is a million dollar question. Email continues to get high marks as an effective channel to reach customers and prospects, but it can also cross the line of too much, too frequent and even feel pest-like.

Oddpodz is very sensitive concerning how often we reach out to our community. Starting this week, we are going to employ a new schedule of sending ezines to our friends and supporters. Twice a month we will blast our top posts from our three blogs. On the off ezine blast weeks, we will post a wrap up article in the Grow your Business blog. And if you want a daily dose of Oddpodz, please sign up for our RSS feed too.

Let us know what you think? Just enough? Too much? Need more?

I would bet my car, house and even tennis racket that a bunch of other accomplished people, online marketers and entrepreneurs are trying to find the answer to this critical question.

How do I build, boast and breed my blog reader base?
There’s not one day that I have not pondered this issue with intense conviction. In fact, I’m so obsessed with solving this challenge, that I’ve set a goal of doubling my traffic by year end or I will eat a plateful of mushrooms. In case you don’t know me, I hate mushrooms with a purple, brown passion.

All right, to avoid that foul experience, let’s get on with solving this “How to get more readers to love our blogs” dilemma.

There are lots of new books on the subject of traffic building. These are all getting  solid reviews, we could start there . . .

Mom Blog SEO – 30 Days to Boost Traffic, Readers, Influence and Income (Kindle Edition)

Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs (New Rules Social Media Series) [Hardcover]

ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income [Paperback]

Or we can do what Tony Robbins, one of my favorite business coaches would suggest, we could observe what the masters are doing, the other popular bloggers, the modern day cyber celebrities.

Tony believes there are always clear patterns of success with high performers in any industry. If you can identify these patterns, apply the ideas to your situation; you will likely make some great new progress toward achieving your goals.

After doing a little research, I identified 3 top –female, A-list bloggers who have earned a high-level of traffic and readership. Congrats to all. Here are their blogs and a snap shot of their brand.

Elizabeth Potts Weinstein
Elizabeth Potts Weinstein empowers solo-entrepreneurs to make a greater difference in the world and become more successful & fulfilled, by doing what is a natural extension of who they really are. She’s also a mom, attorney, author, speaker, coach, radio show host, twitter chat host, video blogging addict, tweetup connoisseur, aspiring adventurer, amateur pole dancer, people loving introvert, and truth evangelist.

Danielle LaPorte
Danielle is interested in liberating truth, raw reality, and grace. She thinks feminine power and progressive commerce will revolutionize how we live. In her experience, if you steer clear of dogma and muster up more love than you thought you had to give, then your vitality increases, satisfaction sets in, sweetness surfaces. She believes in the creative power of good feelings and is convinced that the desire to be real is everyone’s divine imperative. Yeah!

Gretchen Rubin
Gretchen is an author and the brain behind the Happy Project. The Happy Project is an account of the year she spent test-driving studies and theories about how to be happier. On this blog, she shares her insights to help you create your own happiness project.

I signed up for all of their respected emails, followed their tweets, and connected with them on Facebook or Linkedin . I also purchased two products in order to get in their zone, one of the sites did not have a product available now. I wanted to experience their blog world and their point of view. I’ll be reporting back on the products in a later blog post.

Here’s what I discovered, the 10 patterns of action that seem like they can help breed readership and keep the mushroom out of my mouth in January include:

1. They all seemed friendly and accessible.
2. They all had easy ways to stay connected beyond their blog. Via email, RSS feed, Twitter and Facebook, an assertive mix of active social media was apparent.
3. They all had a strong, authentically real person tone about their copy.
4. They had video on their site.
5. They all had purposeful, passionate content.
6. They all were active tweeters.
7. They all had a branded style (type, graphics, images) on their blog and on all their touch other social media.
8. They all proudly displayed with social media icons, that others were reading their stuff.
9. They all offer high value products (books, classes, events) through their brand or affiliates that they have relationships with.
10. They are all smart chicks (Sorry guys).

Now that you’ve read my take on their formulas, which one do you think is the dominant leader in traffic and readership? And tell me what the #11 action is, the one thing the leader did that is a huge magnet for traffic, readership and income.