Blogging

How To Write Blog Articles Fast (This Template Will Save Time)

July 24, 2019 by Jason Brubaker

With a gazillion blog articles getting published every minute, finding ways to write blog articles fast can help you rise above the noise and get noticed. The problem is, if you’re trying to grow your blog while managing a job, kids, a two week vacation and your 401k, where the heck to do you find the time?

To solve this problem, I am going to share the super awesome template I use for all my blog articles. This has been perfected over the past decade and I think you’ll love it. Additionally, this is the also the same template I send to any guest blogger.

How To Write Blog Articles Fast

The following blog article template works great for a 350-500 word article. If you adopt this pattern for writing blog articles, you’ll be able to bust out easy to read, informative blog articles faster than most!

01.) Short paragraph one (w/keyword)
02.) Short paragraph two
03.) Image one (w/keyword alt tag)
04.) h2 Sub Heading (w/keyword)
05.) Short paragraph three
06.) Short paragraph four (w/keyword)
07.) Short paragraph five with brief call to action

If the article goes longer, remove the CTA and extend the pattern.

07.) Short paragraph five
08.) Image two (w/keyword alt tag)
09.) h2 Sub Heading
10.) Short paragraph six (w/keyword)
11.) Short paragraph seven
12.) Short paragraph eight with brief call to action

As you can tell, I sort of followed the pattern for this article. (Can you guess the keyword?)

Additionally, your image selection is super important for driving social shares and engagement. For images, take a quick minute to research Snappa (it’s an affiliate link… if you sign up for the software, I get paid.) Affiliate promotion aside, Snappa is an easy to use online photo editing program with a built in royalty free photo library. For this article, I chose a photo (and added the text in Snappa) because it’s something my ideal reader can relate to.

How To Solve The Great Blogging Paradox This Year

July 1, 2019 by Jason Brubaker

When I started blogging, my goal was to pay all bills and travel at will. I also planned to share all my blogging successes with you. What I didn’t anticipate was just how much blog notoriety can distract you from your goals. And this situation is what I think of as the great blogging paradox. Let me explain…

Growing my blog gave me credibility. And the credibility helped me land lucrative consulting gigs. And one of those gigs turned into a six figure salary, complete with a VP title. As a result, any time I thought about blogging full time, I first compared my online income to my blog income. And without fail, I always made more money on the job. Ugh!

The Great Blogging Paradox

You’ll know you’re in the blogging paradox when your job income continually surpasses your blog income. And no matter what you do, you can’t seem to find any way to get ahead. Then when you combine your blog income with your job income, it’s a lot of money. At those moments, it hardly makes sense to quit your job. So you end up working longer hours to improve both your blog and job success. And it’s an endless cycle.

To break free from the “day job” you need to get super serious about your blogging goals. When I started out, making $5 dollars a day was the goal. Now I’m aiming to make at least $500 dollars per day. I imagine your goal falls somewhere in the middle. To break free of this blogging paradox, you need to increase your numbers (while keeping things simple).

Here Are Some Numbers To Focus On:

1. Increase email subscribers: Despite what the latest and greatest blogging trends will have you believe, focusing on getting email subscribers is the primary goal of your blog. Focus on increasing email subscribers and the sales will follow.

2. Find the value per email subscriber: You can roughly find the value of each email subscriber by dividing your monthly revenue by your monthly subscribers. With my blog, each subscriber is worth $2.40. This number is considered low by most internet marketing standards. But theoretically, it means I can spend up to $2.39 to acquire a subscriber and still be profitable.

3. Get more organic email subscribers: Aside from being free, organic subscribers are often the most engaged (and the most ready to buy). So you need to figure out how to get more. Since a lot of people find my blog through my daily article posts on Facebook, I started sharing more articles each day. This sounds obvious, but it has already increased my organic subscriber rate.

Again, my goal is to create at least $500 dollars per day in blogging revenue by the end of this year. If you are interested in following my journey, you may want to download my toolkit.

Some Practical Thoughts On Building A Marketing Funnel

June 23, 2019 by Jason Brubaker

A marketing funnel is the most essential component of your web business. When working properly, your marketing funnel allows you to automatically convert visitors to leads, leads to customers and customers to repeat customers!

The problem is, with all the fancy software options available, setting up a funnel can be confusing. When I started my web business, I was frustrated by all the complicated technical stuff. As a result, it took me years to learn what I’m about to share with you…

Building A Marketing Funnel?

Here’s the thing. Despite all the marketing guru flowcharts that would make you believe otherwise, a marketing funnel is NOT linear. People don’t just come in the top of your funnel and then fall out of the bottom.

A marketing funnel is messy. It’s complex. And it has nothing to do with software. Paradoxically, a marketing funnel is also extremely simple. It is really just a way to get you (or your brand) in front of as many people as possible. Then you offer value, gain trust, and gain subscribers.

From there your goal is to create engaging campaigns (through email, retargeting, chat bots, videos, post cards, phone calls, and… smoke signals?) so you can add more value, create more trust… And eventually, you can make your pitch.

Then you build more trust.
Then you offer more value.
Then you make a BIGGER pitch.
Then you build more trust.
Then you offer more value.
Then you make an even BIGGER pitch.
Then you build more trust.
Then you offer more value.
Then you make an even BIGGER, BIG pitch.
And then you repeat the process. . . Again and again.

Don’t make this process overly complicated. All the fancy software (like this email service I promote) are just tools to help you accelerate this process and reach more people. The more people like you and trust you, the more they buy from you.

How To Leverage Social Stacking In Facebook Boosts

June 15, 2019 by Jason Brubaker

Social stacking is a Facebook ninja hack that allows you to build ad campaigns around popular posts (and other ads) to generate cheap traffic and leverage social proof in an attempt to lower your CPA. One way to test a social stacking campaign is to boost a popular post on Facebook.

To get started, post an article to your business page. Then do nothing for a few hours. If the article has good engagement (sharing, clicks, comments) then you may want to boost it. And just in case you’re unsure of which posts to boost, Facebook will usually prompt you with something like this:

Facebook Social Stacking

Once you have an engaging post, click the Boost Post button. You’ll then have options to choose your targeting and set a budget. As long as you have your pixel correctly installed on your website, Facebook will track all engagement and activity. (And this data will help you in future Facebook ad campaigns.)

Because my primary blog revolves around filmmaking, I usually choose “filmmaking” as the broad interest. I then limit the geographical reach of my ad to the United States. And I then set the budget to $20-$100 dollars per day.

Social Stacking Momentum

When your boost comes to an end, go into your Facebook ads manager and look at the data. If the ad performed well, you will have generated traffic, gained subscribers and possibly made some sales. In this example, my $50 dollar boost converted 3 sales for a total of $291 in revenue.

Since your boosted post will also have likes, shares and comments, you can further benefit from social stacking by recycling your ad into a new campaign. This gives you the advantage of social proof. And because Facebook factors the previous ad data, you should have a head start for achieving your marketing objective.

Get Email Subscribers

While there are multiple marketing objectives worth testing, when it doubt, I recommend you choose conversions and then work to get more email subscribers. You’ll then select your targeting, budget and placement… And you’ll simply select your popular post (as the ad) and get started.

Like all things marketing, nothing works all the time for every campaign. So I suggest you keep your budget low until you start seeing results. And with a little luck and persistence, you might some favorable results with social stacking.

How To Grow A Profitable Blog Working Your Day Job

May 1, 2019 by Jason Brubaker

If you want to grow a profitable blog while working your day job (so you can eventually quit) you’re not alone. A quick Google search on the subject reveals a gazillion training courses promising that four hours is all you need to free up your life. But you and I know this is BS. But yet still buy the courses.

If you think about it, the reason you aren’t yet a full time blogger (or internet marketer) is because you are bound by negative beliefs. Think about it. From a young age you have been conditioned to seek the approval of family and friends. Can I do this? Can I do that? Is this a good idea? What should I do?

How To Grow A Profitable Blog Working Your Day Job

Your ongoing need for outside approval has spilled into your professional life. Instead of growing your own profitable blog (or writing your own book), you feel an intense responsibility to get a good paying job, create a family and buy a home. You do this because this is what people do.

Even though you have the talent, interest and desire to grow an profitable blog, you still have an intense desire to find and keep a job. Heck, if you’re like most budding bloggers, you probably make a few internet sales each week. Then you drive to work and suffer though nine or ten hours of feeling like a caged animal.

Why do you do this? Why do you keep a job when you obviously have the capacity to make money to free yourself to continually grow your own profitable blog? It is because you don’t yet fully believe in yourself enough to take the plunge. You don’t believe your blog will survive. You don’t have enough gumption to quit the dead-end job and live life on your own terms.

Live Life On Your Own Terms

It’s true. You are doing okay at work. And you are on your way to making a modest amount of passive income through your blog. But you are also miserable. You spend each day eager to get out of the office – just so you can rush home and work on your own blog. But by the time you get home, you’re too damn tired to do anything.

One thing is certain. Asking for permission to live your life is a loser’s game. Asking permission makes you feel like a little kid. Asking permission makes you feel like someone else has power over your life. And without venturing too far into hyperbole, asking permission makes you feel like a slave.

The powerful never ask permission to create their world. I learned this lesson the hard way. I learned this lesson after many years spent living in quiet desperation. And I officially learned this lesson when I started hanging out with successful people.

Successful People Leave Tracks

I know you’ve probably heard this voodoo stuff before. So I’ll spare you the eye-rolling nuggets of wisdom. But I will tell you that all the stuff they say about having a network is true. You really do become the people you spend the most time with. And your network becomes your net-worth!

When powerful people want to accomplish something, they do it. So if you want to be powerful, you need to stop asking permission and go after everything you want. Powerful people never ask: “Do you think I can grow a profitable blog?”

The powerful say:

“I’m saving every penny. When I reach 20K, I am going to quit my job and start my own blog.”

Does that mean that you should be reckless? No. Not at all. What I am saying is, you need a prudent plan of action. You need to ask, and then answer some serious questions:

What do I want in life?
How much will it cost?
What small step can I take today?

Since I live in Los Angles, maintaining a reasonable lifestyle is expensive. As a result, my desired baseline is set at $10,000 per month. If I can maintain 10K, I’m doing okay. Depending on where you live, this number may be much lower. And that’s a good thing.

When growing a profitable blog, small steps add up.

One more guest post…

One more blog article…

Build A Sold Foundation

All of these tasks become a solid foundation for your future blog business. But nothing will happen overnight. In fact, you will likely not see any results for weeks or even years. But one thing is certain. If you do NOTHING, you’ll never get there.

Throughout this blog, I’m going to provide you with experience from the front lines and provide you with success secrets I wish someone shared with me a decade ago. I believe growing a profitable blog is possible for anybody smart enough to read this article.

If your definition of success is personal freedom, then there is only one course of action: You need to start today. Your objective is to start small, build your experience and create an internet following. Once you have a following, you can write your own ticket.