Man its been awhile since Ive posted I apologize but I am happy to see people are still commenting (new people to) as well as my faithful subscribers (which count is going up some by the looks of it).

I love you all and I hope you still find use out of these posts

OK so today I want to talk about all the connections Ive made in the blogging sphere. I know so many people but when I went blog a-wall there for awhile I lost contact. That doesn’t mean anyone forgot me (in fact quite the opposite) but it can happen.

I did however lose contact in the sense that I lost there email addresses and info about what we were discussing at that time.

My main point is to encourage you to save and backup all this info “right now” so this doesn’t happen to you.

Its a simple point but a vital one you will thank me for, seriously you never know when you may need a guest post, sell an advert etc… If you keep all those email contact info’s you can do so pretty easily

Enjoy and have a great day!

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So today I want to get back to a little old school post type, I used to make list posts like all the time and you seemed to like them. I really need to post more here on IBB but I’m so busy these days with other things I can’t seem to find the time!

However today I am going to list off 5 must have tools of our blogging trade. Its up to you all to get in on the goods and start making money of your own! Not all these tools are money makers but they are worth having and doing regularly!

1. Twitter – Believe it or not a ton of bloggers have never heard of twitter or they have simply not found the time to fill out the 25 second form to get there twitter account. Granted twitter is time consuming and aggravating at times it really is a great tool that over time you can use and build up into a great advertising tool as well as a money maker! Be sure and follow me @shblogger today!

2. Facebook - Believe it or not but facebook is now for more then just your friends and family to connect! As a blogger you can use it to your advantage and create an account or page for your blog on facebook that people can become a fan of! Its easy to setup and well worth the few minutes of time, just be sure to update it every now and then so it doesn’t look dead!

3. Aweber – I have said it before and I will say it again, aweber is the best email marketing tool out there. Its easy to setup and use, not only that but I have seen significant growth since starting to use the hover pop up that it comes with! It seriously is worth the $20/mo and I suggest everyone get in on the goods!

4.  Wordpress - Really do I even need to list this? If your not using wordpress for your blog then your either Stupid or completely have no idea what your doing…. Seriously use wordpress people!

5.  Flip Mino HD, Mac & iMovie - If you ever want to get your name out there on sites like YouTube or Vidler then you need a flip vid cam, a mac and imovie for video editing and of course a little spunk to get noticed! I have made lots of posts on video blogging that you can checkout

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Is your dream to make big money? Online or off it all comes down to two things “desire” and “working hard”. Nothing in life comes easy and if you want to make it big you need to prepare yourself for hard work and lots of it!

I have come to realize that I am a slacker of sorts, I need a good kick in the pants every now and again.

That’s were desire comes in, if you have desire or you are working towards something then you will most likely be able to achieve it if you set a goal and stick to your daily plan to get there.

For instance, I now have a girlfriend and I want to treat her right, take her out to eat, to the movies, spend time with her, pay for gas to drive to her place etc… How am I going to do this? WORK HARD!

I am going to work more hours and try to be more productive in those hours.

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Today I want to talk a little bit about ways to maximize click traffic on your blog. There are several tools you can use to help and today were going to reveal ways you can convert those visitors into $$$ every time!

See the problem isn’t that we don’t get traffic, in fact nearly every website on the net gets some traffic. The problem is turning the traffic we do have (even if its only a little) into either a paying customer or some form of $$$ maker.

Its the art of click persuasion I am talking about, you need to somehow be able to persuade your visitors to click on something and in turn generate a commission from that (affiliates are pros’s at this).

Some general things to remember are:

- Ad positions on page, they matter more then you think!
- Use multiple spots and track how they do with diff color ads, especially if your using adsense!
- Encourage companies to grab more then one spot for max benefits, this works if you word it right!

Keep those tips in mind and you should be converting those visitors into cold hard cash in no time!

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When it comes to blogging there are few things more important then comments, these are the little sentances that your readers write back to you about your posts.

Believe it or not some advertisers will actually look at comment counts per post before advertising on your site. Although not a perfect metric it does show how important your blog is to people and advertisers like to see active commenters!

Today we are going to reveal 6 methods to encourage your readers to start commenting. Try them out and be sure to comment below and let us know what you think and how they work for you!

1. Engage your readers – When your writing your blog posts try to engage your audience, tell them and ask them questions in the post, don’t be afraid to bluntly say “comment below”, you do not have because you do not ask as the old saying goes!

2. Pick there brains – Its time to pick your readers minds, make a post asking them what would make them comment more, once you find out DELIVER!

3. Install Top Commenters plugin – This plugin will really encourage people to post comments on your blog, everyone is more willing to contribute to your blog if they get something out of it!

4. Comment trades – One good way to get conversation going is to make trades with other bloggers, simply ask them to comment on your blog and you will do the same on there’s! But comment on there site first that way they know you mean business and aren’t just begging for comments!

5. Comment around – This one goes hand in hand with the above, read the other mid sized blogs in your niche, on all the new posts they make simply comment about it. Try being the first or second commenter to, it really helps a lot!

6. Get lucky – This one is kind of silly but you may just get lucky and get comments because your content is great, if your lucky then tell me by commenting below!

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Have your blogging juices come to a hault, are you out of post ideas? Its times like these that you need to turn to something outside of blogging, work and the normal everyday grunt work to rejuvenate your blogging senses!

Today I want to encourage you with a 4 step plan to developing new blog post ideas, these are non internet related but they do work for me and I encourage you to test them out for yourself!

- Get outside and work your butt off – I have done this one many times, it can be anything from yard work to painting your house or whatever it is that you have been putting off for months. Its time to be active outside in the sun and stimulate those happy endomorphs your body is craving for! You may just love it enough to schedule a daily activity to help you get that 3 year old spring cleaning list done!

- Pump some iron – This one is great and I workout nearly every day to stay in shape and stay on top of my game. Blogging is bad on the body because we sit in the same chair everyday and our body starts to conform to it after months of sitting the same way. By pumping iron especially doing chin ups, pull ups and general back exercises we can build our muscles to hold our back and bones straight like there suppose to be so we don’t suffer injuries and stressful pain as we get older!

- Eat a full course meal and sleep it off – Believe it or not for some people (including myself) eating and then sleeping will rejuvenate your body fully and help you get new blogging ideas flowing. Don’t over do it and eat to much, we only want to stimulate here not leave you for dead!

- Play a sport – There is nothing nicer to me then going on a Saturday or even any weeknight and heading out to play volleyball or paintball with some friends. Its exciting and excelerating to play a sport even if your not good at it, its time to dominate the play field guys! LETS DO IT!

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Today is a little strange for me, I am actually encouraging you NOT to work! That’s right, today is your day to sit back, relax and drink lemonade (unless your on a diet like me so its water with lemons for me).

OK so we all work A TON in our lives, lets just look at my past 30 days, I have worked 4/10 hr days for the last month, that’s 160 hours of work! That’s so much work that life can become stressful and we all need to learn to aleve stress.

I recently came across Volleyball, although its a sport and actually tires me out to play, its so fun that I don’t even mind. I think if we all found more hobbies we would enjoy life better, granted I understand when you have a family to feed taking time for yourself seems impossible but I hope you at least try to squeeze 30 minutes a day for yourself to do whatever you want to do!

Maybe thats painting, designing or playing a sport, whatever it is I encourage you to give it a go for atleast 30 minutes a day. I think after awhile you will become more productive because you will get your mind off things and in turn think of ideas you would have never had before.

Here is a video of me and my gang playing volleyball last night! Can you spot where I am at on the court?

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Today I have some exciting news for you, we are re-introducing videos on IBB! I am really excited about it and I hope you love them, I am going to try and stick to 1-2 videos per week or more so be sure and send me your ideas for topics to talk about!

In todays video we will be discussing how and why its important to have an email list and how you can make money off of it!

Lets get started!

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Today I want to talk about cleaning up your blogs for summer, I know summer is nearly half over but its better late then never.

Today I went through my blog sidebar and cleaned things up a bit, I removed the Clickbooth affiliate banner because it has not been doing well and instead replaced it with a banner for my ebook.

I also took out unneeded links and added an about me section as well as a quick easy way for you all to connect with me via twitter, youtube and technorati.

I believe this new setup will prove to be more useful then the last sidebar (be sure and let me know what you think).

I hope you all take the opportunity to look at your blogs this summer and clean up your sidebar a little bit!

IBB Update

So I am going to bring back the videos here on ibb! That’s right, those awesome video casts I used to do will be back starting sept 1st provided the blog has generated enough income itself for me to invest in a flip mino hd camera. I’m half way there this month so if you want to help out and make it happen grab a advert slot today.

I will also be working on a little something for all my current and new newsletter subscribers, I think its time to really give back to you all and I am going to develop a little section I like to call Free Wordpress Themes for anyone who wants them! The great part is all you have to do is signup to my newsletter and you will get free access to them!

I will also be putting a new theme for the blog up once I have time to work on it, right now this one will suffice for atleast the summer time but come winter I want something different and more organized so be watching out for that to!

Life News

So I found out this morning that my grandma died last night, she and my grandpa had moved back up north a year or so ago and my grandma became ill with cancer for I believe it was the 3rd time. This time it got her and she passed away but she is in heaven now and I know she is happy there! I look forward to seeing her again one day!

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I see a lot of people approaching companies to sell adverts on there sites as I showed you all how to do before on the how to get advertisers post I wrote.

I just want to make sure you all don’t approach these companies before its time to for your own blogs.

Remember, when I do it I have a big readership and lots of traffic / results proof to show them.

Things you may not have yet!

Here is a quick checklist of minimum requirements I believe you need for the technique I explained before to work.

• 350+ RSS Readers
• 500 Unique Page Views Daily
• Prominent Advert Slots In Place
• 5+ Comment Average Per Post

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