Weekend Roundup II

Two weeks ago I decided that I was going to get three new blog posts written every week after being very inconsistent for a long time. Later in the week I decided I would also write a Weekend Roundup post here, promote some of the other bloggers that I have read during the week, and also highlight the content that I created during the week. Here we are at the end of week two of this new challenge and I have been able to stay on schedule so far.

I have read some very interesting things this week but there have been several about blogging and online marketing, so I’ll go with that as a theme. Here’s the Weekend Roundup:

Blogging and Online Marketing Advice

First up is John W. Newman from Australia. He is a lifestyle entrepreneur, investor, online business mentor, #1 Amazon best-selling author and proud family man. We have been following each other on Facebook for a while and I really enjoy what he has to share.

In a recent post on his website, John talks about how to make money from blogging. There are some important things that you have to do before you can start making money on your blog and John explains them very well. Let’s just say that there is more to it than just creating a link to a product. Check him out here – How to Make Money From Home Blogging.

The next post I want to share comes from Sherman Smith. He’s one of the many bloggers that I was introduced to through Adrienne Smith’s blog (you may remember that I shared one of her blog posts last week). Sherman is from Southern California, says he’s 75% introvert / 25% extrovert, an IT professional and a salsa dancer. We should be good friends because introverted IT professional is my background too. His blog is about building your online business by building relationships.

In his post that I read this week Sherman talks about the three elements that you need to focus on when building your online business. He speaks from his own experience of building his online business while still working a full-time job, so spare time is sometimes hard to come by. He recommends one task at the end of his post that will really build up your credibility in the blogging world. Read what Sherman has to say here – 3 Elements To Focus On To Help You Save Time.

Leona Hinton is a young writer, blogger and educator from Chicago who loves reading classic literature and dreams about space travel to the moon. She wrote a guest post on Sue Anne Dunlevie’s Successful Blogging website that I would like to share.

We are always looking for ways to improve our blog to make it look better, attract more visitors, and generate more income. That’s what Sue’s blog is about and Leona’s post lists 30 things that you can do toward that. She talks about them as ways to improve your established blog but I think it’s excellent advice for brand new blogs too. Check out 30 Ways to Breathe New Life into a Frumpy Blog.

The remote Thai Village Blogger, Peter Beckenham is originally from Australia but now lives in a remote Thai village and helps people achieve success online. At 70+ years of age he also shows you that success on the internet isn’t just for the young.

In Peter’s post he shares how you can make more affiliate sales by actually trying to sell people in your blog posts. He actually says that he has made his blog an “affiliate marketing free zone” yet he still makes money through affiliate marketing. To find out how he does that, go read his blog post – Make More Affiliate Sales By NOT Selling on Your Blog! He’s definitely got the right idea.

My New Posts

As I said last week, I am a network marketer with Nikken, a company that designs and sells a broad range of wellness products. There have been some changes in the company recently to shift the focus more toward building a stronger customer following, and there’s been a lot of talk about it. In What’s All the Talk About in Nikken? I look at the changes and try to figure out if the changes are really are as radical as some of the people say they are.

One of the changes was a big price decrease on most of the products last November. Along with that Nikken also discontinued a few of their products, some of my favorites. With the lower prices their sales picked up a lot and Nikken decided to bring them back. I talk about those items in They’re Back, Saved By the New Low Prices.

Finally, completely unrelated to Nikken, network marketing, or anything related to being online at all, I talk about a song that I’ve loved from when I was little – The Logical Song by Supertramp. There are a lot of songs that have a message that we can use to improve our lives. What can you get from this song? Read The Logical Song: Is Being Logical Always a Good Thing?

What Should I Be Reading?

There are thousands of bloggers out there and I’d love to be able to showcase at least a couple new bloggers each week in this roundup post. Have you come across any that are worthy of sharing? Maybe your own? Let me know in a comment below.