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Note from Glen: This is the first post in ViperChill history that isn’t written by me. That’s all I need to say for now…
In the early 90’s my recently divorced mother started dating a man with a horrible son who wore sweater vests and would trash the kitchen in his sleep. Soon our parents fell in love, got married and Mom and I moved on over to their house; a house of learned doctors.
I’ll never forget seeing his ugly face on the front lawn as we pulled up in their drive. I decided right then and there that I was going to bury him alive. But something strange happened.
Soon we realized that we shared the same favorite dinosaur (Velociraptor) and that by nailing our bunk beds together we could create so much extra room to do activities. That boy and I became best friends.
His name was Glen Allsopp.
Well, actually, that is the plot to Step Brothers with Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. I’ve never really met Glen but because that sounded so boring I thought I’d borrow a more interesting storyline.
It was either that or the one where he and I met while staying in a mansion that had a wardrobe which would transport us into a magical snow world where we ruled as young princes with a pet lion.
Okay, so what’s the real deal here?
The real deal is that I’m the guy called the Blog Tyrant and that intro was an attempt at humor.
The true story is that earlier this year I was in Bali having a holiday with all my emails turned off on my iPhone and in Gmail. It’s an advanced marketing technique many entrepreneurs will be familiar with called “turtling” where you block out the world and hope it all just goes away for a while.
After a week though I had to check Twitter and noticed a message from Glen saying just “Nudge…” and had no idea what he was talking about.
Two weeks later I sent him an unrelated email and he replied by saying, “Reply to my other email”.
Ah, what the heck are you talking about Allsopp?
Oh crud!
I forgot to add my Blog Tyrant email address back into Gmail and as such I’d ignored (for almost two weeks) an email from Glen asking me to be the first ever non-Glen person to write for ViperChill.
I’m pretty sure he thought I was ignoring him and now I’m pretty sure you all think I’m crazy as bat poo. Perfect.
Unmasking the Blog Tyrant
For all of you who have been to Blog Tyrant or seen my posts on Copyblogger, Problogger, Smart Passive Income, etc. you’ll know that I’ve done it all anonymously.
For almost two years now I’ve written articles, replied to comments and made friends with my readers as the Blog Tyrant.
And it’s worked astoundingly well.
By a stroke of genius luck I’ve managed to create a loyal community of amazing human beings who leave comments, email me, share my content and increase levels of awesomeness.
Being anonymous has also created quite a bit of buzz around the place. Other bloggers would mention me in mysterious tones and help to generate a sense of intrigue.
But after a while I started to notice that it felt weird to have my readers call me “Tyrant” or “BT” when we had actually become really good friends. I decided that it was time to show my face so that we could take the relationship to the next level. Any success I’ve had as the Blog Tyrant has been thanks to this brilliant group of people – I at least owe them a photo and a name.
So when Glen asked me to join the ViperChill team I asked him how he felt about me revealing my identity as my first post. He replied that he’d been hoping I’d say that!
*Internet jumping high five*
Name: Ramsay (I’ve been told it means Sheep Island or Sword of the people. You decide.)
Age: 26.
Location: South Australia.
Occupation: Blogger, online marketer, aspiring video game addict.
Likes: Walks on the beach, kittens, girls (my fiance) with a sense of humor.
To all my long time readers: it’s nice to finally meet you properly… across the internet… in a blog post.
To all of Glen’s long time readers: thanks for reading this far.
I’m the kind of person who stays up all night worrying about Government conspiracies so showing my face and name online was a big deal for me.
The reason I went anonymous in the first place, however, was because I thought it would be easier to sell the blog down the line if no name was attached to it. After all, I’ve sold several other blogs for around $20,000 doing something similar.
About a year into it, however, I realized that my readers meant too much to me and that I wasn’t going to sell Blog Tyrant like the others.
And now I find myself paranoid for a different reason: I’m dreading the thought that you’ll prefer the anonymous scepter to my human mug.
Who am I?
I really don’t like sugar coating anything so I’ll keep it brief.
I’m just a 26 year old guy who decided early on that an office job wasn’t for me. I’ve sold several blogs for good sums of money, work from home full time and run several internet businesses.
Am I rich? Nope. But I work from home (or Chinatown on my laptop), play tennis with my brother during the day and travel overseas at least once a year. And because I don’t want give away all the mystery, I’m going to leave things there.
So what’s next?
Glen has got some pretty massive things planned for ViperChill so when he asked me to write I said, “how high?”.
And when he told me that he’d be interested in teaming up on some of my projects as well I was so excited that I told him how bad I am at executing witty sayings.
In all seriousness, I really believe in the ViperChill blogging philosophy and when Glen says that people are going to get their information from less and less sources I know I want to be part of that small group.
Usually when you read a ViperChill article you know it is going to change the way you do business. I can’t promise that my articles are going to be anywhere near that level but I can promise I’ll try and give you a few things to think about.
Interruption from Glen
If you’ve been following ViperChill for a long time then you’ll know I’ve never accepted a single guest post on this site; that’s in over two years of writing here. It’s not because I don’t think other people have valuable things to say, it’s just that you can get other content styles in other places, and I wanted ViperChill to stand out in an industry where there is a lot of generic, repeated information.
I mentioned in my Future of Blogging post that a lot of my research was done because I want to continue to grow the readership of this blog and more importantly the impact that it has on our current readers. Hundreds of people have been able to make a living online thanks to this website, and I want to get that into the thousands.
It made sense for me that to continue pumping out high-quality articles but on a more regular basis, I should bring somebody else on board to help with that. I could produce a lot more of my own posts than I do, but the last thing I want is to write for the sake of writing. I have been thinking about this for a long time, and chatted with Pat Flynn about it almost a year ago, so it’s not a decision I’ve rushed into. Once I made the decision to bring in another writer, it was easy to rush to Ramsay, and see if he would be interested in the opportunity.
Besides the obvious quality of him being able to produce great content, I like Ramsay because he’s young and unlike a lot of people who write about this stuff, he has actually had a lot of success online in a number of different verticals. This makes him a perfect fit to give advice on an array of different subjects. He’s really been there and done that, and together I think we can both help you all to do a hell of a lot more online.
We actually agreed to do this almost two months ago, but we’ve spent a lot of time discussing the future of our individual businesses and getting to know each other, to make sure that working together more would be a good fit. I already related to his ‘hidden’ approach – my first link from Google’s Matt Cutts when I was 17 was to ViperChill, but to an alter ego I had for myself named Dave – which was my first inkling we would be a good match.
It has actually been quiet freaky to see how many things we agree on and what our predictions for the future of the web look like, so I’m excited to see what success stories come from you the readers, now that we’re teaming up. His arrival brings our small but thriving company to four, with Jason in Shanghai, Graeme now living in San Francisco, myself in Singapore and Ramsay in Australia.
Welcome to the team, Ramsay.
Back to you…
Will you “unmask” too? It might be worth your while…
Lastly, and most importantly, I’m here to help you. I attempt to reply to every single email, comment and Tweet that I get and I hope that I always will. I care about people a lot more than I care about success or money.
So, in the spirit of today’s unmasking I’d love it if you’d drop a comment, introduce yourself and tell me and Glen what your biggest blogging problems, fears or frustrations are. (Glen: Feel free to post links in the actual comment text — just make sure you tell us a bit about yourself first)
I really believe that the best blog posts are the ones that solve problems so I’m going to use your comments on this post to form the basis of epic future articles. And if your comment gets chosen I’ll give you a shout out and a link in future posts.
Introduce away…
Edit: There seems to be some confusion in the comments so I just wanted to clarify. The site is not being opened for guest posts. Ramsay is now officially a member of the team, and will be contributing to the site on a regular basis. This is his ‘welcome’ to the audience — thanks to all of you who have left comments so far. It’s awesome to hear from you all!
445 Comments
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That’s awesome! You guys rock! So happy to see that things are flowing in the right direction for so many people from one site. Ramsay and Glen, you guys are fantastic with great things to teach! Thanks!
My biggest problem is growing. Finding my right readers is what’s holding me back – or so I think! How do you get your word out to people past your own following? Thanks!
I’m Tania and I help people thrive where life, fitness, and productivity collide (well I will be back to after my relaunch on June 3rd!). It’s nice to meet you all and looking forward to great things from Viperchill!
http://www.taniadakka.com
Hey Tania,
Thanks for the comment (and the tweet)
Appreciate the feedback! I think that’s something quite a lot of people struggle with, so we’ll definitely do more to address that.
Nice to “meet” you 🙂
Thanks Tania!
Like Glen said, that is something a lot of people struggle with and I’m sure we’ll work hard to help our readers change that.
Congrats on getting the first comment!
😉
I’ve signed up and following you on Twitter, Tania
Hi,
How about taking a case and leaning from it and along the way help someone to do it right?
Tania,
I visited your site and I want to be honest, I got discouraged. What I found was mostly how hard it is to make money this way. I had to look hard to find the fitness content. I mean to help and this is my layman observation. I am just a newbie.
Hana
I guess it’s Hi guy’s now not just Hi Glen,
Great post and awesome introduction. I had no idea you were in South Australia BT howcome you haven’t moved from there? (Not that I am saying it’s a bad place or anything) I’m from Sydney myself.
I think my biggest problem would be I am too afraid to press the publish button. My spelling and grammar are so bad I feel it’s not worth while sharing my information with anyone either that or I’m just embarrassed.
So how do you know when your post is up to par or do you just write and go for it? I’d love to hear of your processes are for finalising blog posts.
Thanks and all the best,
Peter.
Hey Peter,
You can call him Ramsay now 😉
Great question — thanks for getting involved!
– G
Peter I love the way you opened this comment with a diss to beautiful old Adelaide! That proves you are brave! Ha ha.
I know that feeling well though – I’m going through it BADLY right now wondering whether this unmasking thing was the right idea!
Haha sorry dude no disrespect intended!
It’s just amazing that such an influential blogger has come from such a small part!
I wanna take a road trip there later this year. Keep an eye out! Might buy you a beer!
All the best,
Peter.
Hi Peter, I’ve commented on one of your posts, and signed up to your newsletter!
Finally, the Blog Tyrant unmasks himself, right on my fav blog. Nice to meet you, Ramsey.
So Glen, does that mean you are now accepting guest posts?
Hey Obinna,
No changes as far as guest posting goes. Ramsay is going to be a regular contributor, rather than once-off like guest posters usually are.
Thanks for the comment 🙂
Thanks Obinna – nice to meet you too.
Nice site Obinna. I’m reading your Facebook Ad credits page with great interest!
Thanks Haroun, hope you like it. Feel free to drop by often.
I didn’t knew your website Ramsay though i read CopyBlogger and ProBlogger.
You have a very informative blog.. I thing it would take me a while to read it..
Lol..
Thank you so much for the info you are sharing with us..
Thanks for commenting PV. Look forward to getting to know you.
Hey Glenn,
I give you thumbs up for opening this site for guest posts..
Though i think you should not do it in regular basis..
Viperchill is a true diamond regarding the information that relies here…
This is my little opinion…
Nice post though.. 🙂
Hey GH,
Sorry if there was any confusion. I’m not opening the site up to guest posts. Ramsay is now an ‘official’ member of the ViperChill team, and will be a regular contributor here. He will be the only other writer besides myself 🙂
Thanks for the comment and feedback!
I’ll do my best to live up to the ViperChill standard. I know how loyal Glen’s readers are. It’s a big responsibility!
Hey Glen and Ramsay,
cool decision to build a team. (cannot believe I’m the 1st commenter, but I assume by the time I click submit there are already 10+ comments). So here’s my unmasking:
My name is Phil and my web passions (should I get a patent for that term?) currently lie with two topics: MS Excel and Powerpoint. I love great spreadsheets and I am shocked by the sheer amount of bad presentation I have to see every month (except those few that really leave an impact). So I decided to create two sites (which may have been not the wisest decision): One about Excel and one where I teach people to do better presentations. At the time of writing I am 38 yrs old, married to a wonderful wife and father of a 15 mth old son (who is my true sunshine and makes me smile every single day). I work in procurement of a large global company and dream of working from home using one (or even both) of the above mentioned passions … ups, sorry, web passions.
My problems currently are traffic (what’s a ethical way to get it) and monetization (have currently no clue how to monetize). I think my posts and my stuff is excellent (don’t want to brag) and I really enjoy and creating posts. Usually my articles are of good quality providing a lot of practical how to approaches. I also ask questions (trying to engage with my visitors) and write pretty long posts (>1500 words each)l.
So here it is, maybe you have some tips especially on the traffic (currently I would describe my strategy as “hopefully Google sees the quality and sends me visitors”).
Cheers, Phil
Phil that is an absolutely awesome introduction! Thanks man.
Congrats on the little fella by the way! That is very cool.
Your blogging problem seems to be a really common one – got a great topic but struggling a little bit with traffic. Will do my best to get on this really soon.
Thanks again.
Ramsay
Phil,
The first thing you should do is link to your website from this comment box.
I’m personally very interested in how I can get better at those exact 2 things you’re good at. I’ve used them for what seems like all my life, but never took the time to be very good at presenting with either, I’d be a natural visitor for BOTH your websites.
The second thing is to think about the questions someone like me would ask, based on problems we might have.
The third is to outline your answers to those questions/problems and create an editorial calendar of content addressing those questions/problems.
After that, depending on what exactly you want to achieve with your websites, you can start posting, join communities (blogs, forums, linkedIn groups) that are interested in those tools or their common uses, and share your links to those groups.
Remember to make your content somewhat keyword/ keyphrase oriented so you can leverage search engine traffic.
These are just some of the simplest things you can start with, and come here and let us know where your website is 🙂
Congratulations Glen for moving forward with your plan, and Ramsey for joining this effort. This is a great blog.
Gogo
Thanks Gogo!
I’ve done a lot of anonymous work online and built several comedy personas who have become celebrities in their own right. I think there’s a lot more to this area than people realise, and anonymity allows you to experiment with something that you might not want to commit to in the long term.
In the meanwhile, I’ve built my ‘real’ name to the point that I can write for sites like Gizmodo and the Guardian, but the anonymous sites are still close to my heart. Maybe one day I’ll figure out how to *really* monetize their internet-celebrity status. Till then…
Hey Tom.
Yeah the anonymous style really hooked me in for a while. I was surprised at how loyal people still were to the brand.
But the last few months in particular I just felt weird talking to my readers using the logo and the name instead of my own. Some of us have become really close and it felt odd. Perhaps up until that point it works fine?
First:
I have no idea how the heck u showed up in my in box-but glad you did.
Second:
I’m in-I need all the help I can get to help Christina grow her blog. It’s hard to be transparent even as Anonymom. The web seems crowded, how in this noise do you stand out?
Great to meet both of you and Viper – amazing luck!
Ha ha. Great name! I’m sure one of us can write something about this one!
Thanks for stopping by.
Yeah, great name. I just subscribed to your blog.
Wow – big bar to hit Ramsey but if Glenn says welcome than so do I. Congratulations – looking forward to reading your stuff here (I’ve seen a few of your posts on CopyBlogger and for a while I was a 3T member).
My biggest blogging challenge has been finding my voice. For a while I was doing really well with the “list” posts and I’ll still do them, but I’ve recently moved my blog a bit more into what is going on inside my head – granted I’m still focused on my space but instead of trying to compete I’ve begun to swim in a new direction. I’ve had fun with it so far but it’s still a “voice in progress”.
Hey David.
Yeah I have some really big posts to write don’t I? No pressure. Ha ha.
The voice question is a really good one. I feel like mine changes all the time.
Do you feel like having a “voice in progress” holds you back?
Thanks Ramsay.
Truthfully yes and no. The evolving voice has I think both held me back in that I’m not as confident in how to “talk” – I’m really starting to write with a bit of structured stream of thought which has been scary (at least for me).
Also oddly by refocusing it has allowed me to grow in terms of how I run my business and how I communicate my business story – it was a big leap in my own mind, and I’m still mid-stream. I’ve also been happier with some of my posts even though they have landed nowhere near the reading/social shares of the list posts.
I have had some mental paralysis as I’ve continued to develop this type of writing – it’s almost been manic – last week – three posts, the week before one, the week before that none – granted I’m not a “volume poster” but I’m sure you understand what I’m getting at.
As for your comment on the big posts – don’t sweat it – I’m sure Glenn is the one feeling the pressure : ) – as a reader it will be a win/win for me!
I just started following you David!
Hi Glen and Ramsey,
Great post! For a moment I thought Glen was BT! 🙂
Anyway, I’m sure you’ve thought it through and you will make a successful team – and the viperchill brand will flourish! Keep up!
Man that would have been AWESOME! Glen, why didn’t we think of that? 😉
Haha, I’m sure there will be a few more surprise along the way! Keep up guys! 😀
The wizard of Oz finally reveals himself!
Cool to finally match a photo with the writer. Nice reveal by the way, using ViperChill to do it is the equivalent of the press that LeBron used to say he was taking his talents to South Beach.
Side note: Blog Tyrant aka Ramsey, your eBook was the first one I ever downloaded, and started to convince me that all online businesses were not scams.
Best of luck!
Dan
Dan that comment means so much to me. Thanks a lot.
Nice post! And Glen, nice website in general. I’m a female screenwriter from Ireland and I blog about following my dream by moving from Dublin to Hollywood. Also screenwriting and movies in general and I occasionally have interviews with film types or reports on festivals.
I guess my biggest frustration about my blog is that I started it as a passion project for me, so I’ve never really learned about attracting a big audience or a lot of followers. I’m probably doing a lot of things wrong with it, but I really enjoy blogging nonetheless.
Hey Ellis.
Nice to meet you.
What are your blogging goals? Is the blog something you are doing to help get you to LA?
Hi Ramsay/Glen
Great post and a thoroughly entertaining read.
Glen: Your emailer is one of the few I don’t mark as spam…solid advice every time.
In terms of my blog ( http://www.boguslavskysisters.com ) I know exactly how I want to evolve it as it needs to be so much more interactive but the problem is to do this properly and in line with an actual strategy for it, it will be a costly exercise. What little adjustments would you recommend in terms of engaging our readers more?
Thanks!
Marianna
Great question Marianna. Tweaking/building a web business on a budget is really tricky.
I’ll be sure to think about this for a post.
Glad you liked the post Marianna,
More on that coming soon 🙂
Hi Glen and welcome Ramsay, great to finally meet you.
One question I’m struggling with in niche blogging/websites is geography.
Should I limit myself to national geography with a co.uk domain name? If I do and I then use USA based article marketing like eZine does it make a difference that the people going to the site won’t actually be interested as it’s not relevant to them?
I know a back link is a backlink but I’m keen to have quality all over my sites.
Should I be aiming at a US market anyway as it’s far larger?
Any thoughts?
Cheers
Tim
One of the sites in question is http://foodforagingcourses.co.uk/
Hey Tim.
GREAT question. My clients ask about this all the time.
To me the answer always comes back to whatever your product is. If it is a local store or business that deals only within a certain geography then it is best to stick to the local domain name.
For example, in Australia .com.au domains rank so much faster and easier than a .com
To me there is not much point going after US traffic if it doesn’t convert to a sale.
Thoughts?
Thanks Ramsay, totally agree on domain names, what are your thoughts around link building?
All of the info I’ve read so far suggests the majority of article submission sites (ezine for example) are US based which to my mind degrades the quality of the link from a humans perspective but creates a valid link for Google.
In my mind one negates the other as increasing links from outside the geography would surely just result in a increase in bounce rate and then a negative score from Google.
However….I haven’t seen any UK based article marketing sites so can’t build links through that route, where should I start?
Really appreciate you taking the time to answer mine, and everyone’s posts.
Regards
Tim
Hey Tim.
It really depends on your level of competition in the niche I think. On one hand, outside links can’t hurt but on another you might find local ones have more “juice”.
Hi there. Love the idea of unmasking on a guest post! I also have a blogging alter ego – Girl on the River – on my rowing blog called (unsurprisingly) http://www.girlontheriver.com. My true identity is no secret, though; in real life I’m a journalist and copywriter and go by the name of Patricia Carswell.
My main challenge is to extend beyond my initial, lovely, loyal following. It can be done; a rowing blog monster, Rowing Journal, has just arrived on the scene and because anyone can post on it – and they do – it’s become huge and massively popular in no time. I feel a little like a corner shop just after Tesco has arrived in town.
I have reacted so far by welcoming them warmly and guest blogging there (once so far), in the hope that some of their followers will join me, too. And by not stressing too much; after all, it’s not just about the numbers.
Patricia.
Patricia that is a really interesting analogy you use there. I know exactly what you mean. I’m going to have a big think about this one.
Thanks for stopping by.
Oh, and the great thing about the internet (and Google) is that it somewhat levels the playing field in terms of small businesses being able to compete with bigger ones.
Aha! At last! Nice to meet you Ramsay!
Keep up the good work, and what a team you and Glen will be together 🙂
Thanks Johanna. I think people were starting to think it was never going to happen! Ha.
Thanks for being a great commenter over the months and years.
Hi Ramsay,
nice to meet you. I didn’t know you but I already like your style.
I don’t doubt that you’re googd at what you’re going to teach because I trust Glen.
My name is Ling-en, I’m a 26yo French-born Chinese, living in Paris.
My main blog http://www.hsia.fr is about problogging and affiliate marketing.
Basically I learn a LOT in the English speaking blogosphere and I’ll bring this knowledge to the French audience adding my personality and my own experience.
I also have a personal dev blog: http://EspritVif.com for guys.
I don’t blog to make millions. I aim to earn $3000-5000 and I want to spend my free time to make a change in the world through online or offline activities.
“Be the change you want to see in the world” (Ghandi)
my biggest challenges:
– productivity as a solopreneur
– email marketing: what to write to the subscribers
– affiliate marketing: how to bring traffic without linkbuilding (I hate that)
Thanks in advance and cheers to both of you !! I believe you’re going to do a great job.
A few ideas for you guys: membership site, paid forum.
Ling-en
Thanks for the kind words and encouragement Ling-en.
Your question about writing to email subscribers is a really good one. I’m definitely going to try and cover that.
How is the web traffic in France?
My blog is 13 months now. I blog on average twice a week.
I’m using Tweeter, Facebook, Youtube and podcasting.(http://www.hsia.fr/podcast)
Feel free to have a look at my stats: http://getclicky.com/?site_id=66416409&sitekey=16826724bdae0a92
I’m around 3500 UV/month now.
The best blogs about blogging are around 15 000 UV/month I would say.
Cheers
Thanks for sharing that. Appreciate it.
Well, I was caught hook, line and sinker from the email that just landed to the post I see before me.
Really looking forward to seeing more from you Ramsay and more of Glen’s wordsmanship.
As an intro, I am Luke. Fairly new to the IM side of things. I ran a mixed martial arts site for a few years which did well. Got bored, lost focus and wandered off, let the domain drop, came back and kicked myself. Now I am back to try out some new things.
I work in tech during the day (Mobile Security) and so am lucky to do what I love. In the evening I work on my sites, train at my club doing brazilian jiu jitsu or play far to much video games until 3am each night.
My main point is really now trying to find my own group of online friends to click with and help support each other. I think I need to stop being a one man show so much.
Cheers,
Luke
Dang! Forgot to mention my site:
http://www.metasmash.net
Its for showcasing Plugins that I develop and other tricks and tips that I feel I should share.
Hey Luke.
As an ex-kung fu practitioner I’m sure we’ll get on well.
Did anyone else pick up your old MMA site? That would suck! 🙂
Thanks for your reply mate. Only the internet wayback machine has it now! :-/
I had some big links from the likes of the telegraph and numerous other sites. Everything was totally whitehat, as I had no clue about SEO at all! I let it go as it just got to be to much work. News Sites need to be updated at the drop of a dime as events break. Trying to do that with a full time job, new baby at home, just got to much.
If only I knew about flippa back then. Oh well, everything for a reason.
Subscribed to your list and just been reading more over at blogtyrant.com!
Hi guys!
Enjoying the blog, thanks for the post! I’m the Eatures Editor of Food For Friends Yeah!, a UK recipe and food blog, and work alongside Matt Hall, the Editor-in-Chef. He won’t mind me saying that we do well for readership (around 1,000 hits per day) but could always increase it; but apart from the odd sponsored post, we’re a bit stumped on monetisation. Any help or advice would be gladly taken; we’ve been running for nearly 3 years now.
Laura xx
Just a thought but what about affiliate marketing? Let me know if you want some U.K. based contacts.
Hey Laura.
Have you had a look at some of the Australian sites like Taste.com.au to see what they are doing?
I’ve heard that a few of them are doing really well.
I’ll have a think.
Ramsay mentioned Taste.com.au which is a great example of a food and recipe website with a large following. One monetization method they appear to use is higher level sponsorship with food brands: offering featured articles, competitions, sponsored email newsletters and higher profile advertising.
I’ve been involved in IM for a couple of years and have had some small successes. I’m now working on a site and set of products that I think will be my first big success. It’s in the niche of learning guitar music theory.
The problem I’m now facing is that I don’t know how to keep creating content without giving away the valuable info that I sell in my product and the future products I intend to create.
The site is: http://www.guitartheoryrevolution.info
Hey Neill.
I’m learning blues guitar at the moment so that sounds really interesting to me. I learn everything I know from Marty Schwartz on Youtube. Ha ha. I reckon he does pretty well from his tutorials and products.
Recently I was helping a client develop an online product (still in the works) in the fitness niche and they ran in to the same problem. The solution for them was to simplify all their free content in to super basic “how to” and “tutorial” articles and try and be all over the internet. They then made their product more advanced versions of what people were interested in.
Does that help?
That’s roughly what I’m doing so far. I’m also going to sell my book on Amazon and run a PPC campaign (I’ve got a lot of experience with the latter).
The goal right now is to grow my list as big as possible. The real money will come from the video product I’m creating.
Good to meet you Ramsay. You definitely don’t look like a tyrant 🙂
My biggest blogging problem is time management, or choosing how to focus my efforts. I’ve started my own business doing a little business blogging to promote UK narrowboat businesses! and have a personal blog called The Real Life of a Narrowboat Wife. It started as the incredibly true adventures of myself and my husband travelling the canals and bringing up two very young children. Now I would like this blog to be my business and my income… I have millions of ideas but not enough time to implement them…
Hi Glen *waves* My Dad lives in Capetown: beautiful!
Thanks for the compliment!
Time management is a HUGE issue for me as well. I’m absolutely going to cover this at some point – when I figure out how to do it myself!
I have never heard of a narrow boat! Going to check it out.
I’m….Batman!
My greatest fears? The Joker, the Riddler, the Penguin….you get the idea.
My greatest frustrations? Finding time to blog. The Batmobile doesn’t fix itself. And my suit…you think it looks like that fresh out of the closet? Ah, I’ve got to hit it with a gallon of industrial-strength cleaner to remove all the blood and guts every time I return to the batcave. Not to mention my day job. Ugh, I just don’t have that much spare time!
The good news is that I’m solid on branding.
Glen and Ramsay…please help…creative solutions appreciated.
That part about the branding made me snort out tea! Ha.
Nice one Chris. How did the advertising thing go? Never heard back from you.
Your email reply was very very helpful! Looking at everything you said, it made me ask “what am I willing to sacrifice?” My answer…”not as much as they want.” So, it’s a no-deal and that’s ok with me. 🙂
Thanks for your insight in your email,
Chris
Wow, took me an hour to read this post because of all the great links, awesome stuff, bookmarked and subscribed! You guys rock! A year a ago I created a blog for painters on a whim and it has snowballed into a very popular blog, been a great ride! I am now looking at monetizing it, so I will be spending a lot of time reading “the guys”!
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Chris! Hope we have lots more to keep you occupied.
I’ve been following Blog Tyrant almost from the very beginning and I was one the few people Ramsay shared his real identity and new blog design with a couple months ago.
It sounds amazing that such talented marketers are teaming up. I can’t even imagine what projects you will create together. Looking forward to seeing it.
About me, my biggest frustration is that I keep giving away my services. I can’t find the way to charge for my job. It might sound silly, but it’s serious stuff.
All the best to you both,
Cristina
Hey Cristina.
Yep, you’re one of the good ones! 😉
Do you mean that you have trouble “asking” for money?
Exactly, Ramsey.
People ask me for help with their online businesses and I always end up helping them… for free.
This is something I’ve struggled with as well. Here’s a good article that helped me a lot: “No, you can’t pick my brain. It costs too much.”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2011/03/28/no-you-cant-pick-my-brain-it-costs-too-much/
Some tips my friends and I have come up with:
–If your advice helps people make money, charge them.
–Compliments are not cash. Yes, it’s nice if praise you and say you’re an expert. But that won’t pay your bills.
–If it takes more than 2 minutes to write an e-mail that fully answers their question, charge them. One thing I’ve done is send them a tutorial video off YouTube. I say, “If you still need help after watching this, hire me.”
–Refer them to your blog for your free advice.
–If someone says, “I can’t pay you now, but can give you a lot of future business,” ignore them. That just means they’ll approach you with more unpaid work. Someone who doesn’t pay you IS NOT A CUSTOMER. They’re a liability.
–Tell them the what and the why. Charge them for the how. The execution. Either for explaining it step-by-step or by actually doing it for them.
–If they don’t want to pay money, ask for a favor right then. Cut a deal: “I’ll install an e-mail signup box on your website for free if you get me a free invitation to your business association meetup.” If they won’t agree to a fair exchange, drop them.
Unfortunately, I learned all this the hard way. I once applied for an online marketing coordinator job. During the interview, I told them all the web apps they should use and how to implement an Internet awareness campaign. The interviewers wrote a ton of notes and said they’d never learned so much before. Then they didn’t give me the job. Ouch.
Maybe I should be charging you for this advice? 🙂 Just kidding, hope it helps someone else to avoid these problems.
HI guys!
I am a Fertility Coach, which is a pretty untapped field. This means I’m on the first page of Google (YAY) if you use the search term “Fertility Coach” (Huh?). 🙂
Having a new market is such a great opportunity, and I’m good at what I do. My dilemma is that I suck at getting the word out there that I am here and I can help couples going through recurrent miscarriages and IVF to deal with the emotional baggage and relationship minefield that goes hand in hand with infertility.
I am a bit overwhelmed with the whole branding and social media aspect of things, and I believe that I’m not using it as effectively as I could, which I’d love some help with!
Hey Janet.
Is that a term that is used all over the world?
My first thought is that you’d want to rank for basic key terms that those couples are going through like, “How to Cope with a…” as they can lead people to your services.
Are you “geo-specific” or can you help people anywhere?
Hi Ramsay!
BTW, it’s awesome that you so obviously have the knack for identifying gaps and for creating a following, and that you are using your talent to connect with and help others! Thanks!
It is a global term, but I’m not kidding when I say it’s a new field. There are psychologists who specialise in the field, but they deal with different aspects. From a coaching perspective, there are about 4 in the world. I can help people over skype, so am not geo-specific, which is cool.
Thank you for your tip – it’s something that I’m working on, though kind of blindly. It all gets so confusing!
I’ll go through some “how to cope with” ideas and create posts around that.. 🙂 Thank you.
Ah, to live anonymously. I’m looking forward to reading your insights into the world of blogging.
For myself, after years of quiet service in healing/coaching/mentoring people on their spiritual paths and avoiding the public eye I’m starting to put myself out there. Tango, Martial Arts, Energy Healing, and Nature Awareness all come together to open our hearts. What we find in our open hearts are pragmatic tools for living in the very physical world and growing as spiritual beings at the same time.
Peace,
Eric
Hi Eric.
Yeah the anonymous thing is a lot easier right?
Thanks for stopping by.
Hello Glen and Ramsay. Just wanted to say the content on this site has been so helpful in setting up http://www.bestingarden.co.uk it has certainly helped plan and implement the route to go and as important what pitfalls to avoid. Great stuff gents, keep up the fantastic work!
Yep, Glen is awesome!
Ahh, good job, you. I know all about how that pen name thing works, but it’s always nice to put a face to the pseudonym.
Here’s to your success!
You’re a great example of someone who knows his exact position, James.
Good to see you here!
No one will ever do it as well as you James. That was freaking amazing. Greatest blogging event ever.
Well i have been trying to start a blog, for some time, i dont feel like being the center of too much attention.
I run an education related community with around 30k members (not much buzz lately in it).
Well i am going to re-haul the site n will be launching it again next month. Thinking of introducing community members blogs so according to you
a)Will it be a good idea?
b)If so any suggestions or pointers that would be helpful?
Cheers,
Kamal
Hi Kamal.
Do you mean that you have 30k subscribers? That is really awesome!
How will the community blogs work? Will it be open slather or will you choose some people?
My biggest blogging fear would have to be… ‘am I too late?’. I set up a blog on myname.com a few months ago without any particular direction, more just because I wanted to express myself and couldn’t keep it all in my head anymore. Now I’m trying to decide where I want to go with the whole thing. I figure I could keep the site as a self-indulgent personal blog and not worry too much about the size of my audience, or start taking things seriously and try and create a ‘real’ blog that people will actually subscribe to.
The second option appeals to me, but self-doubt creeps in when I realise that the things I want to write about (personal development, travel, lifestyle design) are already pretty saturated and I wonder if I really have enough to add to the discussion at age 21. Part of me thinks ‘go for it now, it’s only going to get more crowded if you wait!’ and another thinks ‘wait a while and write about these things when you actually have more life experience to base your writing on’.
Are these legitimate doubts or are they just bullshit rationalisations being conjured up by the resistance? (Using ‘resistance’ in the Stephen Pressfield sense)
Hey George.
You sound a lot like me bro!
Firstly, competition in this sense is not important. Imagine if McDonald’s never opened up because KFC was already around!
The question about doubts can only be answered by you. Are those thoughts just your fear talking? Or are you not sure if you have enough to write about? Sounds like a good first post to me… 😉
Hey Guys,
As a new blogger my biggest challenge has been getting traffic… My blog (www.desktodirtbag.com) is in the niche of climbing, alpinism, and ultralight backpacking. I’ve been able to drive some traffic with comments on related niche sites, but certainly nothing consistent. I’ve got a guest blog post scheduled to post soon on a popular related niche site, so we’ll see if that helps a little!
Ryan sounds like you are doing all the right things. Let us know how that guest post goes.
Hi Guys
Loved this post, but had to read it twice to work out who Glenn was and who the other Glenn was – or maybe it was Glenn after all and the other Glenn was in-fact Glenn himself…
Anyway, welcome Ramsay !
Im a thirty-something British expat who has been living in Paris for 15 years. Following 13 years in big E-commerce companies where I had to wear ties (OMG) and kiss quite a lot of @ss, I started my own company last year doing consulting (conversion marketing, E-commerce) and affiliate marketing.
All my sites are in French so I outsource all content writing as it’s not my mother tongue. I am currently putting finishing touches to what will be my biggest project to-date : a “real” blog in English about a secret topic : I miss the English language too much not to be doing something in English !
Biggest problem = fear of outsourcing (difficult to accept 80/20)
Biggest fear = mobile killing the classic affiliation model
Frustration = not being able to clone myself
Paul
Hey Paul.
Nice to meet you.
What is a “tie”? Just kidding.
Your fear about mobile is pretty common nowadays I reckon. Even Zuck is worried about it. Bet there are some good opportunities though?
Ramsay! How exciting! Nice to see a photo of you and to see you over here on ViperChill. Super exciting!
I write a business blog for photographers called The Modern Tog and it is currently about 15 months old. It’s been quite successful, in part from the great info I’ve learned from reading Blog Tyrant (thanks Ramsay!!!) and I’ve found myself with decent traffic and a modest audience with just shy of 5000 email subscribers with a fabulous open/click through rate and a decent monthly income through affiliate sales and selling my own products. It’s been a fun ride, and it’s been amazing to see that this stuff actually works.
So my main question is, how to I take it to the next level?
I’d like it to get to the point where I can fully support myself from the blog, and I’m thinking about the best way to build a true community to help make readers even more loyal to the site. While I have regular readers and people who comment regularly on my posts, I’m pretty sure these readers don’t have any feeling of a relationship with the other readers but rather just with myself. Or is this even something I should strive for?
I’ve considered a forum, but am not sure if that’s really the direction I want to take it, and I don’t want to grow something on Facebook that can change at a moment’s notice. So that’s something I’m thinking about.
To sum it up, I know the basics and I’ve had success with them, so how do I really step it up and bring it to the next level?
Thanks Glenn & Ramsay! Looking forward to more epic posts in the future!
What does the professional photographer think of the photo? Ha ha.
Great question. I’m going to have to give this one some serious thought.
I like the photo, actually. It’s well-lit, which is the important thing in my opinion, and you look open and friendly so I think it reflects you well (despite the fact that you were “in hiding” for so long!)
Thanks for your thoughts on this. Hoping to see the two of you tackle this one at some point. 🙂
Hi Glen & Ramsay,
This is Ming from Singapore (@Glen, didn’t know you are staying in Singapore too, lol) . @Ramsay, are you from Adelaide? I have stayed in Adelaide for 4 years…
I am a full time blogger, writer and marketer.
My biggest problem is monetize the blog traffic. At the moment blogging is not my main traffic and income source so I can’t justify to spend more time in blogging… Driving the traffic straight to a squeeze page is a lot more effective than blog…
Cheers,
Ming
http://www.mingjongtey.com
Yep. That’s where I am. Did you like Adelaide?
Great question!
em… It is an excellent place to study as I don’t have much distraction, lol…I prefer Melbourne (stayed there for 2 years)… It is a lot more happening in Melbourne.
Hi Glen and Ramsay,
Wow! Now I know who is this Blog Tyrant is. Lol! I’ve been a follower of BT since I first visited the site. Anyway one of my biggest Blogging Problem is WRITING GREAT CONTENT WITH CORRECT GRAMMAR AND THAT CAN GRAB READER’S ATTENTION.
I’ve been a fan of Glen’s writings though most of his writings are very long, I love reading this content because in every line of his articles, it drives me to read the next line. And I am wondering how Glen did those things.
By the way, I am Felix Albutra and I started blogging since January 2009. Last 2010, I manage to sold one of my Blogspot Blog for $700. Not bad for a free hosted blogging platform. Since then I tried other internet marketing stuffs but I don’t have much success on it. Maybe my writings and not consistent attitude is one of the factors why I failed.
On the other hand, I tried to become a Virtual Assistant since July of 2010 and received a good amount of money from the job done. Because of the latest Panda and Penguin Update, many Online Businesses gone down and many Online Jobs Employees (including me) loss their jobs. That’s why, I tried to do Network Marketing.
I guess that’s it for now and thank you very much for letting us share our Blogging failures and problems. God Bless.
– Felix Albutra
Great comment Felix! Nice to meet you.
Sad about the Panda hit. Sounds like you’re a clever guy though!
Absolutely THRILLED to finally *meet* you Ramsay! I must confess that calling you BT in conversations was unsettling…
Fantastic news about joining VC, I can’t wait to see what you guys have in store for us!
I am in the process of changing things up with my blogging and businesses, so this is just PERFECT TIMING 🙂
I can’t stop smiling. Thanks for the fab reveal, you have definitely done the right thing.
Thanks Magz! That means a lot!
When I received Glen’s email about this post, I did a double take and wondered if he’d gone mad. However, I’m here and I see that it’s true. There’s a guest post (and a great one too) on Viperchill AND he’s asked us to leave a link.
My name is Anne and I’m an editor and published author. My inspirational memoir, Sunday’s Child was just published by Pulse and I’m still on a high. Apart from writing, I blog. The most frustrating thing about my blogging is that while I don’t want a make-money-rich scheme, I do want to be compensated for all the work I do online. My blogs are always helpful because my readers come first – always. I provide a service and spend a vast amount of time online.
This considered, I’ve still to make any decent money from my blogs (there are 4 of them). I’m obviously doing something (a lot) wrong, but don’t know what. Added to this, my technical skills aren’t that great. I don’t really feel bad about this. No one can do everything. I have lots of skills and I write well. I’m just not technical-minded.
I’ve followed Glen for years now. I went step-by-step with him when he was doing the butterfly project blog and created http://getconfidence.net By then I’d had a few blogger blogs, and based on Glen’s ideas that Blogger blogs aren’t worth their salt, I migrated the newest one (at the time) and made this self hosted DIY blog http://our diyprojects.net
What is it I’m doing so wrong (and just in case anyone knows) why can’t I get any of my side widgets to the footer?
Lovely to meet you Anne!
Do you get many sales through your blog?
Hi Ramsay, No. I don’t.
Hi Guys,
Another great post, as always.
My blog Sandbag Fitness has been steadily growing for the past 2 years and it’s clearly quite a niche topic. That said, improving the health and fitness of others (my true passion) is very broad.
I have written guest posts for a number of other publications and sites but would really like some advice on generating more mainstream traffic. And (to confuse matters), do you think mainstream traffic would help or hinder my niche blog?
Matt
http://sandbagfitness.blogspot.co.uk/
Thanks for stopping by Matthew! Traffic is always good as long as it is targeted.
Great stuff Glen
All the big blogs are taking on contributors these days. Make sense to leverage great people and great content.
Anyway, enough of my gibberish.
http://www.soccermastermind.com
The best kids soccer blog that makes $0 per month
Hey Glen, Ramsay and everyone else who’s posted here above, I’ll briefly introduce myself, and then work through this blog slowly, visiting each of your sites individually and engage with you there more.
On my main blog, http://harounkola.com/blog, I explore my own expression of life and been mainly using it as a platform, an announcement board, a PRO website on a site with a 5 (dropped to 4PR, but that’s Googe:)
And been inspired to create a satellite internet business opportunity, more of that in a future comment.
Thanks for this opportunity and I wish everyone great success with their online businesses. Please keep in touch!
Thanks Haroun! Great to meet you.
Thanks Ramsay, great to meet you too. And in the time since my last comment, I’ve sketched the idea for a business that I need traffic too.
Please visit http://yahpreneur.mysticohana.com/ and help me test the viability of the idea for an affiliate marketing driven site, bringing broadband satellite internet access to everyone (including rural people) and to teach kids affiliate marketing.
Thanks
I did enjoy this post, so I’ll leave a comment. I don’t have any problems with my blog since I don’t have one. I tried out internet marketing but it just did not work out for me – I have worked four months on two sites and when BlogBlueprint got hit it all went south. Living in Romania does kind of kill you, I work a 9 to 6 job for $220 / month, witch barely covers my expenses (I have to not buy something if I want to pay $10 for hosting, not to mention other stuff). Anyway I was forced to quit IM a few months ago because of money constraints but I still read Viperchill purely for entertainment. Well, that’s me in a nutshell, good luck, Ramsay // depressing rant over.
Boti I’m going to email you later and see if we can work something out for you.
I’m kind of stifled actually, the level of professionalism on this site is amazing, the mere thought of working with someone affiliated with VC seems overwhelming, but I’ll be awaiting your email and promise to give it my best!
This is such a generous gesture 🙂
Indeed, very generous. Are we still on?
The e-mail never arrived. No hate though.
Hey Boti.
So sorry man. Been really busy with all this.
Email just sent now.
Ramsay
First, congrats to the new team of Glen and Ramsay! I like all the stuff from you Glen, especially podcasts, and I wish you both much success in the future!
As for me, I started a new “blog” related to mazes. At the moment I am checking out how interesting it is to visitors. In the future I plan to create an ebook or two.. and even start to monetize, worldwide.
The plan is to create super interesting, great (“purple cow”), mazes and share them, some for free, some for pay. There is some need, but I am not shure if it is strong enough to make money too. It is a bit weird niche..
This is also a part of my question. How do you know niche is viable enough? What kind of tests can one do, to check that out.
PS: I just started to use OptinSkin, which works great for now, I already have a couple of subscribers! Best!
Hey Igor.
Check out Smart Passive Income’s work on niches. That is some good stuff!
Thanks for stopping by.
Igor, I love your idea about mazes and I think the mazes you have already look great. It sounds like your niche might be similar to mine. Have you been doing keyword research? I think you’d be reassured by how many people are searching for puzzles and similar search terms online.
I’m still deliberating over whether I will go with the freemium model for my trivia quizzes (some free, some for pay, as you mentioned). I think a free sample (or a small collection of free samples) is a good idea.
And for your product, an ebook may turn out to be very popular. I hope so. Good luck.
Welcome to the team! I hope this means more frequent posts from the ViperChill crew! Best of luck.
Yep!
Looking forward to seeing more from you Ramsay, and I understand the concept of finally backing away from an online name. For years, I went by DazzlinDonna, but that got old fast (for me), yet it had turned into a brand of sorts, and it took a long time for me to finally decide to ditch it. I fairly recently switched the domain of dazzlindonna.com over to donnafontenot.com so I could finally be…just me. 🙂 Oh, and I also got rid of the Dazzlin handles on social networks too – or at least the ones I still frequent.
My biggest problem is that I’ve been blogging for so many years – eight in fact – that I feel as though I’ve said everything I could possibly say. And of course, in that time, my interests have shifted. I started out as an SEO blogging for SEO Scoop (remember that one, Glen?). It was one of the earlier SEO related blogs, and Glen was a guest poster for me back then when he was young and adorable. (You still are, no doubt, Glen). I finally moved on from SEO and started blogging on the DD blog focusing on just general online marketing. Now, years later, my interests are changing again.
Now, I’m writing a novel – soon to be published (within the next month). I don’t know that I’ll switch to blogging about that, but I might. At least it would be new territory for me to cover. In the meantime, I don’t want to fail my readers, so I’ve been letting a lot of guest posting happen (although I am very picky about what goes on my blog), but stilll…help this old dog learn new tricks. 🙂
http://www.donnafontenot.com/blog/
Awesome comment Donna. Lots to think about when it’s not 1:30am!
See you tomorrow.
Hi Glen and welcome Ramsay!
Viperchill is one of the mailing lists I have remained subscribed to and I read the posts here in all their thousand-plus-words-goodness from beginning to end.
And now I’ve learned about the Blog Tyrant as another resource so thank you for bringing him in Glen. I can tell you guys are gonna do some amazing work together.
I’m Jayme and there are three topics I’m absolutely passionate about:
Positive parenting which I blog about at http://optimommy.com
Blogging and blog building at http://momblogger.net
Journaling + LOA at http://jaymeemerald.com (under construction)
I’ve only recently decided to get serious about being an online mompreneur and my main challenge at this point is getting more subscribers.
With all the social networks available, guest posting and shiny new things that pop up everyday, it would be good to sift through these and just focus on those that do work.
I remember you mentioned before about a strategy where you can do an email publication instead of a blog. Are there updates about results for people who may have tried it?
I see Copyblogger’s Bryan Clark is doing something like this for Entreproducer and I am thinking if maybe this is a great way to go.
Would love to hear your insights and inputs!
Thanks guys!
This is great. I am subscribed and read both of you regularly and always felt a commonality in what you guys do. Can’t wait to see what else is in store.
That is very good to hear. Thanks for the comment!
Really enjoyed this post. And have been a fan of the copyblogger site for a while, so it’s really interesting to now link it all together 🙂
Looking forward to even more great content here.
I’m based in the UK and provide outsourced marketing and social media services to IT companies mostly.
My blog is here: http://www.indentmarketing.com/blog
Cheers guys, and hello from Blighty!
Nice to meet you!
Hey guys! I’ve been a follower of Glen for a while, but this is my first time to hear about Ramsay, so at least for me, you don’t have to worry about if I will like you better as Ramsay or the Blog Tyrant 😉
P.S. I immediately thought about Step Brothers BEFORE I saw that it was indeed about Stepbrothers in the intro. Nice!
But anyways hello everyone! My name is Ryan O’Loughlin and I currently live in Seoul, South Korea. I am originally from Philadelphia, PA in the USA. I never really wanted a desk job, so I dove into SEO and internet marketing. I had a few minisites with small successes. I ran a printer review blog and started to make some sales, but then the google algo changed and my site disappeared. My end goal all along was to create a blog and build an audience anyway, so I finally took action on that! In a few weeks I will launch my site. It is called http://www.realworldmyth.com , feel free to check it out! It is about my journey to escape the rat race, but I also blog about lessons Iv’e learned, and experiences I’ve had. I also talk about investing, travel, changing your mindset, and how others can also try to escape cubicle nation. The link is live but I am still working on some blog posts.
I love connecting with people so you can also find me on twitter. Follow me @realworldmyth
Thanks Glen for giving us the opportunity to introduce ourselves, and Ramsay, thanks for unmasking yourself (even though I am hearing about you for the first time). I look forward to your content.
As for a problem for future posts, I am not scared to launch my blog. In fact I have about 10 posts done, but I am waiting or my designer to finish and then I can launch in. But one concern I have is how to be unique. I know everyone has their own story, but others have blogged about/ are blogging about how to escape the rat race, how to make passive income, travel, etc. So hopefully my blog angle is unique enough to stand out in a crowded (albeit valuable) Internet niche.
Cheers guys!
(P.S. If you made it down this far, thanks for reading my “blog post of a comment” 😉
Hey man your link isn’t working. Fixed it for ya. http://www.realworldmyth.com
Thanks, Ryan! Somehow I added a comma in there instead of a period. The one time to put a link to my website, and I screw it up 😉 cheers for fixing it 🙂
Great intro Ryan! Nice to meet you.
Very interesting question as well.
My biggest problem is finding the time to generate more content! Not necessarily the kinds of things you can solve with a how-to list, I guess. (I spend all my time writing for other peoples’ blogs and taking on other writing/editing projects, so my own website/blog is woefully bare.) But I want to say that Blog Tyrant has been as valuable to me as all the webinars and conferences on blogging combined! Thank you so much for all of your efforts.
Seems like this is a really common one. Thanks Kimberly.
Awesome. Somehow a comma got thrown in there instead of a period. Here is the real link to my website:
http://www.realworldmyth.com
If it’s going about future of blogging, I’m sure that’s good idea to build a little but strong army. It’s so much easier to work and struggle together. I’d like to say that your articles made made huge impact in my thinking about blogging. Thanks and keep it.
I’m building community around new way of entrepreneurship. I believe that anyone has skills and experience to work on yourself and I teach it. There’s only one exception among other websites because I’m writing in my native language – polish.
I was thinking much time about that. There are only 40m people in Poland and more less interested in my topic but I see that there are much work to do. I can say that it’s kind of niche itself 😉 Don’t you think?
Cheers,
Matt
Hey Matt.
Very interesting question. Is the niche too small.
I’ll have a think about that one!
Well that was all quite exciting! Good reveal!
I’m Kate and I write about life in Devon and Cornwall in South West England – with a bit of an emphasis on food. A good blog for people to consult if they’re visiting the area or want a bit of insider info on the best places to eat out.
I’m having fun with my blog and I’m finding it’s getting my name out there – I have had some people contact me with job offers of part-time work which suits me fine!
Nice to meet you Kate!
Well that was all quite exciting! Good reveal!
I’m Kate and I write about life in Devon and Cornwall in South West England – with a bit of an emphasis on food. A good blog for people to consult if they’re visiting the area or want a bit of insider info on the best places to eat out.
I’m having fun with my blog and I’m finding it’s getting my name out there – I have had some people contact me with job offers of part-time work which suits me fine!
http://grazingkate.blogspot.co.uk/
Hey guys!
Thanks for all this great juicy info. I consider you the “masters” when I read your stuff 🙂
I blog irregularly at pictureyourlife.com. It’s my personal site and topics are all over the map. Trying to get a grip on that one. My purpose, why, what need am I filling in the world. Tech made easy, how a mother of 4 who also holds a full time job gets things done, bringing Jesus into all these spaces with me, etc.
But I’m super excited about FireFighterWife.com. This is a site I just took over and for which I and the community of followers have a lot of zeal. There is a clear direction here and lots of ways to run with it and make it super awesome. Can’t wait to apply some of your tactics and strategy in this space. It is a perfect example of a contained niche with focus and interest!
I’d be interested in knowing how I should tie in my personal blog – pictureyourlife.com and my web design business, into these other spaces? Do I need to build the “platform of me” as so many people are telling us online? I’m not liking that thought because what I’m doing is not about me. I’m just the vessel. I’m here to serve and make the world a better place.
Thoughts?
Lori
Great question Lori!
How much of your work comes from repeat customers? If it’s a lot it might be about your personal brand and service as much as the product.
Good through Ramsay. I’ll need to reflect on that a bit. I’m not big enough yet to have repeat business. I’m still building my sales funnel. But if I build a business around me, I worry about scalability. One me can only do so much. I’m hoping to replicate my system into mentees who can represent the brand (with quality!) But I can see that starts with branding me plus my system.
Thanks for the answer!
Lori
Excellent post, and inspiring one too, selling blogs for five figures has just got me excited and given me a great idea for a blog post. Welcome to the ViperChill team Ramsey.
Cheers
Andi
Thanks Andi!
Ok, I’ll be a bit more real than my first comment…
I blog on a very small niche – church audio production. Churches are no longer “the pastor and the choir.” Choirs have been replaced by 7-piece bands playing contemporary style music. Sound tech’s are mixing on $1,000 sound boards all the way up to $40,000 mixing boards.
My blog focuses on teaching the fundamentals of live audio production while also addressing non-tech skills like meeting the needs and expectations of the church staff, the congregation, and the musicians.
My biggest struggle is getting blog comments. For example, I can post a blog with a call-to-action such as “how do you deal with xyz?” Instead of people posting in the comments, they post a response in twitter. Twitter simply tends to be the medium in which my niche communications. Other bloggers in this niche have the same problem.
For the time being, I either don’t have a CTA or I don’t ask a question as a CTA. While I do have a wordpress plugin that pulls in tweets as comments, I’m wondering if there is anything else I can do?
Great question Chris. I’ll have a think.
It sounds like a great party, cheers. 2 of my favorite bloggers. We’re just missing Pat (Flynn) here 😉 Btw, you got me with the Step Brothers plot. I was like ‘hey, I remember this from somewhere but…’ lol
PS. I’m too tired and sleepless for seriousness atm, but a serious question… Will you guys publish more often?
Glad you got the Step Brothers joke! 🙂
Hi guys!
How cool is that! When I read your email Glen, I was quite anxious to get onto the site to read the latest post. Firstly I was almost dying to find out who the newest member was as I think that it would be an honor to anyone out there. Secondly, I thought “who could possibly be unmasked that is obviously still unknown?” and “why would I care?”. Little did I know I most definitely WILL care!
What an awesome surprize Ramsey, as I basically left everything else when I got your mail shortly after Glen’s, being an enthusiastic reader on BT myself, and then saw something in the lines of “unmasking myself on ViperChill”!!
I wish you guys the best of success together as a team and I have the most amazing feeling for great things to come from you guys together with knowledge that is priceless.
Ramsey, you might remember me as the guy approaching you a couple of months ago about a possible guest post on BT around the subject of web hosting. You said you’ll get back to me sometime but heck, I completely understand man! This day and thrilling thought of unmasking yourself must have been playing through your mind back then already, so I completely forgive you if it might have slipped your mind 😉
Glen, I came across you a few days ago after getting a mail from Jon Morrow that sounded a bit hysterical about “a South African trying to take over the internet” which gave me a good laugh, being South African myself. I found your site and immediately wrote you a mail after I just had to share my excitement.
Ramsey (almost got back to calling you BT), you’ll be proud to hear that I will be relaunching my website soon on the subject of “Complete Domain Management” that would be found on http://ultimatedomainmanager.com/ where I will be covering everything there is to know on complete and effective domain management, from registration through to hosting and then some. I am also going to pursue things further by launching a blog on this subject but first I am planning on releasing a FREE email course on Complete Domain Management and getting some credibility and the reader base implemented before the blog launch.
Once again, I look forward to following you guys on your journey and hope to come into contact sometime! Keep the good and exciting coming!
Cheers,
Ruan
Hey Ruan!
How are you man?
I haven’t forgotten about the hosting post. I’ve just been really busy moving house and what not.
Thanks for stopping by!
Hi there
I bought Cloud Living a while ago, and have just recently set up my first affiliate site based on what I am learning from Glenn. I’m also an avid ViperChill reader and squeal every time I see a new post! That’s squeal with excitement 🙂
I’m still very new to the whole game and learning as I go along but I am thoroughly enjoying dedicating time to my online project.
Kind regards
Claire
http://www.learn-how-to-trade-forex.eu/index.html
Thanks for stopping by Claire.
Glen and Ramsay,
I have been reading Viperchill off and on for a few years now and no matter what I am doing I always get sucked back in. I guess I just can’t stay away. Anyways congrats on all of your success. You really put out quality work. I am not familiar with Ramsay’s stuff but you seem like a cool character and I am looking forward to future posts.
As for me, I run a motivational blog (who doesn’t these days) called Motivated Quotes http://www.motivatedquotes.com
Each day I put up a quote, I write a little message about the quote, and I post a bad ass picture to go along with it. Then of course my readers become more motivated than a priest visiting an all boys school and go on to do wonderful productive things. Okay maybe not just yet. But soon… soon.
Thanks for everything and keep up the good work.
Ryan that is the scariest analogy I have ever heard! lol
Hi there
Sounds like a good plan to me! Welcome Ramsay.
I’m Susan and I started a blog about losing my sense of smell (anosmia) after a head injury and how food remained important to me, even though it was in a different way as I couldn’t taste anymore. I wanted to write about my experiences as there is so little ‘out there’ for people who lose their sense of smell so my idea was to write the usual food blogging stuff alongside my story and ideas for keeping your appetite during illness. I followed along with Andrea’s blogging case study ( so SO good- thanks) and all going well until suddenly I started getting some really awful posts through the ‘contact’ page and then on twitter. I know rationally that this happens but it can be hard to ‘talk in your own voice’ when this abuse actually happens.
I’ve chosen to ignore the person who is saying obnoxious things about my illness and recovery – is that the right thing? If you look at my blog http://www.considerfood.com you can see that the whole thing really knocked my confidence and I’ve stopped blogging – I need to get started again. How do you get your motivation up after a blow like this ? Any tips on managing this kind of abuse?
Susan I went and read your blog post and you are a really good writer. I’m sorry about your injury and about the insensitive people.
I think maybe this is a question only you can answer as it has a lot to do with how you choose to deal with the issues that come up as a result of what has happened.
Perhaps once you decide what your position is you could create a comment policy that outlines what your stance is and then delete comments that aren’t in line.
Keep up the good work.
Excellent – my 2 favourite bloggers unified – love it!
Glen, you never fail to surprise!
Ramsay, pleasure to meet you 🙂
(That said – I’m signed up to your email list, but I keep rather quiet so you might not remember me…)
One of my biggest blogging fears and frustrations is that I feel stuck in a content creation loop.
Now the thing is this – my blog is aimed at helping people overcome specific health issues (http://candidadietplan.com)
So the people that come to my site are generally really poorly, and I don’t want to let them down.
Hence I keep posting the stuff that I know will help them the most instead of the stuff that I would like to write about.
And because I keep dealing with the day to day subscriber requests I don’t get round to:
A. creating an info product to actually help the people and also make money and
B. to making my blog way cooler!
How can I break out of this loop and create the epic health rebel blog that I envisage in my minds eye?! Any ideas?
A lot of awesomeness will come from you guys joining forces – bring it on 😉
Hey Sandra!
Sounds like you have a great vision. Might be time to hire some more writers or microworkers?
Thanks Ramsay,
that’s a great idea. But my blog is only two months old – it’s early days…
I cannot justify to hire writers just yet 😉
Hey BT!
Wow. That was some introduction there!
I have been taking some tips from here and there to help my blog (http://singularitycometh.blogspot.com) grow.
Glen’s words and articles have been a great guide for most of the way, but I sure hope you won’t mind me saying it here that I had only recently started following yours!
Anyways, both of you have been just great and full of ideas!
You rock guys! Keep up the good work!
And, I sure hope that the best is yet to come!
Cheers!
Chetan
Thanks Chetan. Glad something is helping!
You said I should introduce myself – so here goes.
I create training products for people in home party businesses. With a 22 year history in the business, what sets me apart from most is I actually built and maintained an organization that produced 6-figure residual income for 11-years straight.
So I’m capitalizing on that by teaching others the systems and strategies that I used to make it happen.
I just launched a book on Kindle (http://www.amazon.com/Build-Party-Business-Figures-ebook/dp/B00848FT5G), and I’m starting a blog so people can “look over my shoulder” as I build another home party business to six figures…AGAIN!
I’d love your ideas and feedback. Also looking for affiliates. Thanks.
Susie sounds like you are doing really well!
I started unfollowing a lot of blogs 1 year back because the blog became multi author blogs. I like to associate 1 blog with 1 person and I expect consistency in writing style while reading the posts.
I was excited to see a new post from viperchill, I just jumped into the post, but soon found out that it is not written by Glen and I just did not read more than 10 lines in this post.
Heavily disappointed with ViperChill. Now its Viper-not-so-Chill 🙁
Sorry to disappoint you Deepak.
Hopefully I can write some stuff up to the ViperChill standard and get you back again.
Loved this one, and good to meet you, BT. But can one really “aspire” to addiction? 😉
Ha. Probably not.
I haven’t been reading your blog long but you captured me with your gift of giving back. You mentioned that because of your website, hundreds have been able to make a living online and you want to get that to the thousands. That my friend is truly giving back.
I don’t get a sense that that’s some sort of trick of yours, I feel it in your writing. Thanks! Obviously it doesn’t go unnoticed.
Ramsay, looking forward to learning from you.
My passion is pretty simple. I love to inspire people, http://www.windowofinspiration.com.
I started it a couple of months ago so my biggest struggle is getting some traction with traffic. I’ll take any constructive criticism on it.
Nice to meet you Geoff. Yep, I think Glen is genuinely trying to help people.
Hey Glen and Ramsay,
This is one of the last blogs of its kind that I still read (having aggressively cut down the noise coming through my email inbox) and I’m looking forward to reading more posts from the both of you. Ramsay, congrats for coming out of your blogging closet! I’m a travel blogger named Jasmine (http://jasminewanders.com). No specific blogging questions for now but I’m always interested in case studies!
Coming out of the closet! Ha. That sounds hilarious!
Sweet bro,
interesting read and good to finally see the Blog Tyrant 🙂
I’m looking forward to seeing how VC will continue to grow exponentially in the near future!
Let me know if I can be of any help!
Cheers
Diggy
Hey Diggy!
Long time no see!
Hope you are well.
Two of the most helpful, honest, and all-around awesome bloggers teaming up?! This is sweet!
My name is Shayna, and I used to go by “ShadowCat” online (ya know, pre-Facebook when we were supposed to not post personal details on the internet :-p) There are still a couple people who actually call me that offline, believe it or not.
I’m an American ex-pat living in Brazil, and I run a blog called Espresso English for students studying English as a Second Language, and I have another blog in the works (English Speaking Only) that will focus exclusively on spoken English and will probably be a membership site to get access to themed conversation lessons.
My biggest challenge at the moment is the mental game – PATIENCE – and dedication to continue cranking out good content on faith that someday my audience will be big enough for this to support me financially. I’ve experienced pretty good subscriber and traffic growth for a 5-month-old blog, but I’m just not really in a field that tends to grow explosively (personal development, blogging, marketing, etc.) This month I’ve seen my first (very modest) financial results, and my initial customers have given me GREAT feedback about the product – so that’s encouraging. Still, I can’t help wonder, “will this venture ever be truly economically viable?”
Great question! That is a really big one.
Thanks Shayna.
The only thing that surprises me, and not all that much, is that you’re a blonde. In my mind’s eyes, you’ve always been a brunette. I figured you weren’t all that old and I suspected that you were a one-woman type man.
It’s nice to put a face with all that you have taught me.
Ha. Funny how we make mental pictures.
Hi Guys! Welcome to Ramsay, looking forward to reading your new posts and I’m off to look at your old blog now. Viperchill is one of the five or so blogs I look to see if they have new content nearly every day so I’m looking forward to more.
I’m UK based and my biggest blogging challenge is making the leap over about 2500 uniques a month. Don’t get me wrong, I make money from both my blogs, business and internet mentoring in the case of http://TheBusinessSuccessFactory.com and consultancy / “all done for you” in the case of http://CairncrossMedia.com – but I can’t seem to take the next leap in terms of traffic.
Not hit by Panda or Penguin, only ever built genuine links and Twitter / Facebook / Google + followers so that’s all good. Up to about 900 blog posts now, mostly original and meaty content but just don’t know what to do next. Guest blogging…..hmmm, not sure, it’s hard to give away your content!
So if you can help, that would be very cool.
Cheers
Nicola
Hi Nicola. Thanks for the kind words.
Will have a look and a think. I got lots to get through!
Hi guys,
Great to get some background knowledge on you. The information you provide for free is much better than what your “competitors” charge heavily for. You both deserve all the success you get for sharing your time and knowledge so graciously – keep it coming 🙂
I created a kindle fire review site based on a few of your recommendations – I still have a lot of work to do on it but with the great tips and information you share I am confident I will get there.
Best wishes to you both from Ireland.
Thanks Brian. That means a lot.
Well friend…you write better than you look :lol. Nice to meet you BT!
Ouch!
Hi guys,
Great post. I am one of those guys who is happy that glen does not post too often. It means, I can come any time and consume the treasure here.
I’m looking forward to more awesomeness. You HELP me a great deal Glen.
Welcome Ramsay.
My question – How can one stand out from those who use black hat SEO and other link bait strategies to gather views in order to attract advertisers? They get more clicks and views.
I am a mobile technology blogger from Lagos [http://otekbits.com]
Hi Jesse.
Nice to meet you.
My first response is not not even worry about those guys. They are playing a very short term game.
Hey Glen and Ramsay!
First off, I want to thank you for continually bringing value to the world.
My name is Tim, I’m 24 and in a ton of school debt with no degree. It was more than a year ago when for the first time I came across Glen’s program Cloud Living over at pluginid.com. I wasn’t really able to get started because I just couldn’t settle on a niche, and I was completely new to the world of online marketing. Despite this, I was hooked and on the quest to find success online.
From there, I visited ViperChill.com and read every article including the CloudBlueprint model. But still I had trouble just starting. How can I write so many emails on a niche – and sell something?
I then found Pat Flynn at SmartPassiveIncomeOnline.com and read through his articles and his income reports. I also found his recommendations for starting online entrepreneurs – his first being writing articles on InfoBarrel.com. Even though writing is my worst subject, I was more determined than ever to start. But how do I keep going?
I then found on zenhabits.com a book called the Habit Factor and read through it completely and decided to start a blog reporting my progress working toward goals – and how working toward these goals resulted in success. But what goals should I work toward? That is the huge speed-bump I ran over. The daily work I set was completely unreasonable and everything grinded to a halt.
I did write some articles on InfoBarrel, but I posted them randomly. After writing only a few articles, I couldn’t figure out what to write about!
I then came across Pat Flynn’s article recommending the book, the $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau which was awesome! I read it completely through. But my question still persisted, how does he do it? I then found his brief guide to world domination. And here I found the answer. He uses David Allen’s organization method described in the book Getting Things Done. I’m reading through that now. I figure that after getting my world organized, I will have my mind clear and be able to work on projects.
But my question is what niche should I follow? Is something a worthwhile pursuit despite not knowing a great deal about any specific topic?
For instance, one of my interests is the world of politics. In fact, it is one of the only things I can say I am passionate about. I have a huge stack of ideas regarding politics – but that are complete theory – ideas that I think will make people happier and more satisfied with their representatives. I figured it may be better to chose a ‘practice niche’ before trying the politics niche, despite the politics niche being a passion.
So, all-in-all my biggest blogging: problem includes choosing a profitable niche that I am passionate about; fears include spending a great deal of time on something that I may or may not enjoy but will not gain enough subscribers; and frustration is writing high-quality, high-value articles in a reasonable amount of time. I am still a new-born to this field, but hey its still frustrating.
Anyway, thanks for keeping the blog world on its feet! I’ll keep faithfully reading all ViperChill blog posts, and look forward to reading more from Ramsay. I hope that in time I can join you guys in the world of online entrepreneurship.
Dude that is a wonderful story and comment. I’m going to think about this one.
You are obviously a very good writer.
Congratulations Ramsay! This is very exciting.
I don’t know Mr. Viper but he’s very lucky to have you writing for him. You are a very intelligent and hard working creative young man.
If you’re writing over here, that means I’ll be reading over here.
Your old fan,
TJ
PS – if your friend Glen wants to know my biggest problem, it is this: as an artist I want all the imagery and photos on my site to be mine. So it’s pretty hard to make the artwork/illustrations/photography AND write a post. What artists like myself really want is to just have our stuff used by the big boys so that we get more fans/exposure while we develop a recognizable style and get jobs. I really wish there was a place that writers could put a call out for artwork and artists could put links to their imagery as a submission. And I bet writers would love it because they wouldn’t have to troll the web endlessly searching for illustrations. So basically I want a dating site built between bloggers and artists. Please build me that, would you?
PSS – can we still call you BT? I don’t know if I can change your name in my brain (and heart)!
TJ you are one of my longest readers – you can call me anything you want.
Very interesting! Just started reading Blog Tyrant around a week ago – never knew it was such a big secret 🙂 Anyway, I’m glad that you decided to reveal yourself though as I really do think that it will be better for you in the long run.
My biggest trouble with my blog http://www.MobileAppTycoon.com is getting traffic. I know it’s too early to be worried about that though. I’m just going to keep plugging away with epic content and hopefully get a few guest posts here and there. Like both of you always mention though, blogging’s a long term thing and I’m definitely in it for the long haul!
Thomas
Thanks for stopping by Thomas!
Like your domain name! 😉
Interesting to know your real identity Ramsay.
Now that you have decided not to sell your blog, I was wondering how are you going to earn money? I mean you use affiliate marketing but no ads. I remember once you did a video about AdSense. May I ask why don’t you use AdSense on your blog?
Hi Farhan.
I wrote an article about Adsense over on Daily Blog Tips a while ago. It might answer your question better.
http://www.dailyblogtips.com/why-i-will-never-use-adsense-on-a-blog-again/
Great news guys! Welcome Ramsey. 🙂 I look forward to your great writing.
Glen, glad to have some new content from you (well, Ramsey today). I love you stuff and look forward your emails in my in-box. I do miss, however, your business ideas that you would share because you didn’t have time to do them. I wish those would come back.
Maybe you could briefly give some quick advice on a problem I’m having with opt-ins? I’m just not getting them. My site, http://www.crazyeye.com is a niche music production site for my service. My blog is mainly curation from other sources about techniques for musician. Eventually I’d like to offer a product, but I need to get my list going first. Any info would be much appreciate.
Thanks guys. I look forward to more great stuff from ViperChill!
Hey Dave.
I reckon you should try a free giveaway to help grow that list.
Hey Glen and Ramsay,
Hi five!
And thanks for the opportunity.
Started my site in the crowded social media/digital marketing. Want to make it big and going on a different route – creating time less content (and almost no news based content).
What is the best way to bring good writers on board?
How to grow community for a blog?
If you and fellow community can take a look at ALLOUTDigital – dot – com (without spaces) and share your thoughts about design – that will be great.
Is RSS still relevant?
Tons of questions in one post.
But thanks in advance for your response.
Best wishes for your future endeavors!
Whoa lots of good questions there! Thanks Ranjan!
Hi Glen and Ramsay,
I’m Wanxuan here, currently a student at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, graduating this July 2012. I don’t know why but I chanced upon Glen’s blog a year ago but I do enjoy reading your blog. Sorry Ramsay, I only got to know your blog today through Glen 😛 Both of you really write excellent content though and I can really sense your ‘real personas through your writings !
Basically a movie “Missrepresentation” got me thinking about life revolving more than just looking good, shopping and makeup ( I still do enjoy these hobbies ) and diversifying the technology sector is something that inspires me. So I created a website about cheap mobile phones using Site Build it (through Steve Pavlina’s recommendation plus I had no technical skills) . I just finished my exam on May 3 and have more time on my hands now 😀 Grateful for that. My humble site is fairly new, (6 months) and I’m still learning 🙂
Hi Wanxuan!
I am Simon, living in Kuala Lumpur over 9 months now.
I would love to contribute and give your website fresh and awesome look.. oh and yes, that mean for FREE 😉
Lets keep in touch! (link in my name)
Simon, KL
Nice to meet both of you!
Congrats on finishing your exams and finding some “deeper” meaning to life. I wish you well on your journey.
Hi Simon,
Nice to meet you! Thanks for your nice reply 🙂 I saw a fb link to evoreactor. Is that you? I nv expected it but i’m so thankful u offered to help me with website design !!! I’m such a noob – I spent two entire days twiddling with Photoshop and ended up with a website header but it looked meh so I had to trash it 🙁
Hi Ramsay,
Nice to meet you too! Thanks for your well wishes 🙂 Out of the comfort zone of studying(I really enjoyed the intellectual challenges), I’m venturing into the exciting unknown …Hopefully deeper discoveries 🙂
Wanxuan
I followed Glen’s awesome series in The Guardian about building a blog. It took me on the hardest technical journey ever but it was really exciting to follow it over the weeks (thank you: forever in awe of your talents and generosity).
Today’s announcement is really timely for me. I feel I’ve been stumbling over the whole anonymous posting angle.
I work freelance and I really do deliver my best for my clients but they’d be upset if they saw me blogging. There’s nothing nefarious about my intentions but I haven’t been able to get my head around blogging anonymously – I feel like it’s a massive fudge – especially the ‘about me’ page. So I was really interested to hear about your choices along the way. Would love to read more about the pros and cons of it all.
Cheers
Jo
Hi Jo.
Why wouldn’t your clients be happy about you blogging?
I wasn’t aware of Blog Tyrant. Is that an unforgivable sin? I hope not…*shaking*
Congratulation on your new team up effort, Glen and Ramsay.
I’m Sean and I try to answer a question or two about online selling in my blog Truth Galore (here’s the link if it’s not obvious: http://www.truthgalore.com ).
I have learned some lessons when selling products online the hard way so I’m trying to help people learn those lessons the easy way.
Hey Sean.
No problems. But now that you have heard, don’t forget! Ha ha.
🙂
Hi Ramsay, and welcome to Viperchill.
Hope you’ll continue the great work on this blog.
This is amazing article, on the beginning I was like??????
It’s definitely good to see humor in the blog posts 🙂
I’m coming from Europe, blogging and internet marketing is my “thing”.
My biggest blogging problems are related to “how to bring business to the next level”?
Looking forward to your next posts.
thanks
Thanks James. I’ll do my best to keep the quality as high as possible.
Very good, Glen and BT. (Always BT to me!) I’ve been a long time follower/subscriber of both your blogs. There’s just one thing that froke (past tense of freak) me out. BT – in my mind, I put a face to your emails – and I am not surprised to see your picture. 🙂 Talk about connecting with your readers, eh?
Rock on, you both. It’s a good life. As a ViperChill reader, lemme say “Welcome, BT” if I may, Glen.
Be well.
Love, Vidya
Wow that’s impressive Vidya.
I think your name means Saraswasti and she is associated with artists and writers right? Maybe she helped you?
🙂
🙂 Maybe. Trivia – but I was born on Saraswati pooja day all those aeons ago.
But seriously, i very much appreciate the value you always provide in your long blog posts (love them) – I’ve learnt lots in a very pleasant way… even though my blog is not a business blog.
Best, Vidya 😀
Hello Ramsay! Welcome to ViperChill! I just started following Glen so I’m still reading back posts, especially the really loooonnng one Glen just wrote (you know which one, I’m sure)!
I have to say–Glen’s blog is one of the best blogs out there for entrepreneurs and those seeking to avoid the 9-to-5 grind (I include myself in this category); he’s got a terrific approach to his subject matter, making it super accessible for nearly everyone to digest and learn. I feel like it’s a blessing to have “discovered” him, and I’m really excited to read your posts, Ramsay. 🙂
The main problem for me is finding a “niche” subject for my blog. I created Weebly and WP accounts and then deleted them. My expertise involves proofreading and copyediting, but I have other interests so this is the hardest part for me. Aiii!
Again… welcome, Ramsay! x
Thanks Juana. Lots of work to do!
Better late than never Ramsey. Here I am commenting goodness knows how far down the order.
Viperchill is one of a few blogs I have time to read, so I’m happy to help in my small way.
I like the huge help given for free plus the fact that you don’t inflate the perceived value and price of whatever paid products you put out.
A brief “About Me”
I don’t make money online, but I already a great Lifestyle via passive income from commercial energy deals in the UK. Just paid for my Wedding with one deal.
What I’m up to
My side hustle, http://bootstrapcafe.com is a meeting place for Innovative Solopreneurs and Artists to launch businesses they love – that pay well, on a shoestring budget.
Here’s my fear.
Although the feedback so far has been awesome and my content is pretty solid there’s not enough people reading my blog.
I suspect the solution lies in more Social Proof : from association with other trusted people like yourselves – so here I am reaching out and connecting.
It’s a start, so let’s see who gets in touch with me as a result of this comment?
Thanks for everything so far guys
Hey Adam.
Thanks for stopping by.
Social proof is a really tricky one. But comments like this are an awesome way to start the process.
This is quite interesting… Ramsay can now push Glen to write more often (healthy competition). If you know what I mean! I own a couple of sites (both in the education field), unfortunately they have been severely hit by Penguin/panda.
http://www.mottobiz.com
http://www.teachingdegreeprograms.info
Hi Mokshanti.
Can you tell us more about what happened after the Google updates?
I’m glad to finally put a name and face to Blog Tyrant. And I think he’s going to be quite an asset to the Viper Chill team, Glen.
My biggest problem online is trying to do it all. 🙂
Peggy
Hi Peggy.
Your blogging problem is short but to the point. I think we all feel that one.
Thanks for the kind words.
Hi there, this is a great post, thanks 🙂
I followed all of Glen’s updates with regards to working with the lady called Andrea on her website late last year. It was a real help to me at the time as I was setting up my site http://www.lifephilosophy.co.uk which has been a huge learning curve as I have never done this type of thing before – so thank you very much for your well written and informative updates.
I think I am the same as many others, in trying to build up readership (my website is more a content niche site than a blog) but I’m having to re-think my strategies – I took off comments because all I got was spam (I do comment on other’s Blogs personally but for genuine reasons and not just for the sake of it). Then I’ve tried to build a Twitter following to encourage people back to my site but that only resulted in clicks in double figures (and no-one retweeted them), then I looked at getting backlinks and those that offer them for a price sound dodgy to me but I don’t know anyone else personally in this ‘business’ to get any advantages there….so I seem to have hit a bit of a brick wall at the moment…….but I will keep going as I’ve enjoyed building my site and hopefully there are people out there that will benefit from the information on it.
So let me know if there anything else I could be doing to ‘enhance’ traffic and therefore revenue as it would be greatly appreciated!!
Cheers and keep up the good work
Alex
Great comment Alex.
Seems like this issue is a really common one. Lots to think about for up coming posts.
This post killed me inside. I’ve really enjoyed Glen’s content and offerings for the past couple years. Honestly, I simply have no interest in Blog Tyrant or anything that Ramsay has to say.
A step back for Viperchill. While the introduction was creative, I can’t help but feel like Glen is simply outsourcing his blog to someone else now.
Thanks for everything so far Glen and good luck with your future online endeavors but this was egregious enough for me to retire your blog from my subscribe list.
“You have been unsubscribed from casestudyblog.
You have been unsubscribed from cloudniche.”
It’s a shame you didn’t read the post, but I guess you didn’t enjoy my content as much as you say.
Adios amigo 🙂
Glen is not going anywhere Tim. In fact, he’ll be writing a lot more than usual!
🙁
Hello,
I started following the advice on building a blog from the Guardian. Like the comment above it was technically very challenging coming from blogger where everything is done for you.
I used WordPress plus Thesis…and hostgator as advised…finally I got there and now have a blog that is totally mine. http://theceramicgardener.com
It only worked however as you kept the jargon out of the explanations and it was understandable (on the whole) by a computer dunce, I even understand a little about code now.
I use my blog/website in a different way to most that I have seen, I am an artist and use if for profile raising etc. Although initially I was thinking of using advertising on it I finally decided not to as I think the advertising would alienate my audience…unless of course there was a way of using affiliate advertising. For instance in my case, ceramic supplies etc. I haven’t noticed if you have written about this…but perhaps I missed it?
Anyway, thanks for enabling me to create my own blog, the readership is slowly building, and I now have regular readers…great!
Frances
Awesome,
Finally I can refer BT as Ramsay 🙂
But you know what, you have built quite a brand with BT. May I continue to call you as BT?
Just kidding 🙂
Great job guys.
Lots of people have been asking that! 🙂
Ramsay er…BT?
Epic introduction, and awesome collab with Glen. When Glen makes a business decision that takes that long, it says a lot about who he finally allows on the team.
Since I read you both (usually by RSS), this should be really good. I assume you’ll both keep your respective blogs going?
For an intro to me, it can be found at my blog:
TheAverageGenius.net/my-story
My entrepreneurship came after a lot of frustration in an uncertain job market, the last job being a “family” venture and I didn’t exactly leave feeling anything but utterly frustrated. So I knew I had to do something for my family where I had the reigns, and writing was it.
Now, a couple of books into my publishing, I do have other concerns: Google’s aggressive changes in the SERPs, the ever-changing landscape in SEO (white hat or otherwise doesn’t make too much a difference, please see my latest where I interview Tim Carter of AskTheBuilder.com), and the actual ROI on SEO efforts.
Before I’d say to begin with SEO and other traffic sources can come later, if at all. Now, not so much, I’d flip that dependency on Google.
So I do wonder if you or Glen have felt any repercussions in your traffic from the Penguin and Panda algo changes? If so, have you changed anything?
Looking forward to more from you both, the web just got that much better from the partnership. (And congrats on the fiancee – I married my high school sweatheart about 18 years ago, but I’m only 10 years your senior, so Glen can’t call me old…I don’t think he can…OK, Glen, don’t call me old.)
Yes. I just called my wife my “sweatheart,” but I meant “SWEETheart.” Thankfully she won’t be reading the comment. :/
Hey James.
Yeah, Glen does such a good job here. And yep, I’ll be writing on Blog Tyrant same as usual.
I haven’t been affected by any Google updates on Blog Tyrant. But, to be honest, I don’t rely on them much and instead put a lot more effort on getting referrals from other blogs, not SEs.
For me it is too risky to rely on Google rankings for my income.
Then I’d like to pose a question (in reply to your email to do so)…
First of all, THANKS for replying (I don’t sub to Glen’s comments b/c he’s too popular: I get hundreds of comment emails – so I didn’t know!).
Second – please describe how a niche marketer w/ a product-review type of site would go about getting referral traffic like you describe?
I’m thinking you mean guest blogging – but does your marketing approach encompass more than that?
Feel free to pose a response in a new blog post, but FWIW your answer solidifies your genius. 🙂
Sorry, Ramsay – just to clarify your answer to me – when you mention your income, what sort of income?
I mean: from niche marketing efforts, or…? What *kind of site* are you talking about getting referral traffic *to* I guess is another part of my question.
My sites that were affected by Penguin were niche websites – reviewing products in a given market, w/aff links. I did very well at that, in fact – but w/no rankings (out of the blue), I can’t make sales…so I’m wondering if what you’re talking about here would apply to *my kind of sites.*
I mean: quality writing, solid reviews on products, supporting articles for those products and niche, etc. (I just want to clarify b/c I think it’s easy to get traffic to a blog if you know what you’re talking about, less easy to do so with a niche site, but maybe I’m just going about it wrong.)
Hey James.
Thanks for that great question. I reckon that is something we need to address for sure in the upcoming post.
As for the income question, you might like this post I did on ProBlogger about how Google once de-indexed one of my sites. It was a huge lesson to me on how I was relying on Google far far too much: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2010/11/10/why-your-blog-is-not-going-to-make-you-rich-or-pay-the-bills/
Hit me up on Twitter if you want more info before the post.
@Ramsay: I’m still going to call you “Tyrant.” Heh. But seriously, awesome news and nice to put a face to the name. Congrats to both of you and cheers to what’s ahead!
Thanks bro. And thanks for all your support over the years.
Hi guys,
I’ve been a reader and subscriber of Viperchill for some time. I had no prior knowledge of the Blog Tyrant though and I look forward to following your blog as well Ramsay.
My name is Edrick and I’ve started my blog sometime back in the Personal Development niche, my problem has been that I’ve been dragging my feet in thinking that my content just won’t be good enough. It also doesn’t help that I let my hosting subs fall out :(. So you could say I’m still stuck at square one.
Reading these posts makes me feel that a lot is possible though and I will be looking to change all that. Looking forward to the continuing epic posts and let me say welcome again to Viperchill!
Nice to meet you Edrick!
Hopefully we can give you some more inspirational material to kick you off again. 🙂
Welcome, Ramsay!
Looking forward to more from you.
I’m pretty new to the online business thing and still working in a cubicle, but trying to find a way out.
I have a few online sites related to my creative projects as a writer and filmmaker, but I’ve also created a niche site that I’m in the process of trying to monetize.
It revolves around canker sores and mouth ulcers. I’ve had them my whole life and know there’s a plethora of misinformation about them, but also an abundance of treatments that most people don’t know about. So I created a blog at http://www.cankerboy.com.
Right now, I’m trying out Glen’s cloud blueprint model and creating ebooks to sell, as well as a vitamin supplement that has worked wonders for me.
With roughly 20% of the world population dealing with recurrent canker sores and, as far as I can tell, nobody running any sites that test out all the products, it looked like a good opportunity for me to turn a lemon into lemonade. (both of which would hurt like hell…).
If anybody reading this gets canker sores, check out the site – I can guarantee you’ll find some information you’ve never seen before.
Good luck to everybody!
-Joe
Hi Joe.
Now I’m wondering what the supplement is!
Hi guys
I knew Glen, but I just discovered BT (hi Ramsay)
My Name is Dimitri Kiselkov. I’m a young 25 years old mechanical engineer. My passions are sports and moutains. And when both are combined, I’m in para… para… paradise.
I blog (in french) about my goal to climb the Aconcagua in january 2013 and the journey that will take me there (trainings, preparation, triathlons, etc…) . you can check it out here : http://www.dimjanaconcagua.wordpress.com
My audience consists of 94 facebook fans (who liked our FB page but they do not necessarily read the blogposts), 20-50 post readers in the days following a new post publish, and a steady 10-30 post views each day from google searches.
I’d eventually like to make a couple of bucks with the blog by selling books and outdoor stuff throught adds, but I absolutly don’t know where to start.
Keep up the good work.
Dimitri
Nice to meet you Dimitri. And nice Coldplay singing!
Wow!
The Blog Tyrant and Viperchill on one team.
Love both of you guys, your styles. I’ve learned a ton from both your blogs and posts.
Now mind you, I still don’t have a brand, haven’t written epic content, don’t know who my audience is, nor do I have a tribe or thousands of subscribers.
Still, I’ve been inspired by both your successes and it’s been fun trying to carve out a space on this incredible platform that is changing the world (and entrepreneurship) as we speak.
Looking forward to the work of the dynamic duo (and the rest of the Viperchill team)…
P.S. My passion is bible / theology which just goes to show that your readers are spread out among many industries / interests.
Gustavo
http://www.free-bible-study-lessons.net
Thanks Gustavo! I’m glad you are excited about the team-up as well!
Hi Ramsay,
Welcome to the Viperchill team. I’ve been a reader of Glen’s blog for over a year and it’s been a tremendous benefit to our blogging efforts at all our sites, including http://mybrooklynreport.com.
I’m a real estate broker in Brooklyn NYC whose using hyper local sites to market our brokerage agency, communities we serve and new web based leasing and buyer services to as wide an audience as possible.
Glen’s post on WordPress SEO was the catalyst that ignited our curren efforts. I’ve been a loyal fan for a while, especially after purchasing OptinSkin.
Looking forward seeing great contributions from you here.
Sounds like you are using blogging perfectly! Love it.
Hey Guys,
I always love the content that comes out on Viperchill, Glen’s posts are awesome and I love the long post format, no mater what others say!
Looking forward to more great things now that Ramsay’s on board and I am busy checking out blogtryrant.com right now too. 🙂
As for me I’m a part timer putting all my spare time into some niche sites and one blog that’s quite personal for me.
http://www.runningtoloseweight.co.uk/ is the blog.
And okay, its the “weight loss” niche, talk about crowded and full of cr*p…. but back when I was doing initial research I wanted something I could stick with and use as a learning tool.
To put this in perspective, here are some of the reasons why I started Running to Lose Weight (UK)?
* I wanted to learn how to write, blog and get sites ranking
* There are some decent low competition keywords left with room to develop, especially regionally like the UK
* The niche is full of sales funnel, scammy looking and hyped sites leading to dubious looking info products. Its pretty awful. There is a chance to add some real value for people in the same position as me.
* I love running, I find it tough but I love it.
* I need to lose weight and I needed something to keep me honest, accountable
* I saw a lot of development potential, if I could build an audience
In terms of my frustrations, there are a few:
* Finding my voice – i’m just beginning to get there
* Handling all the content ideas I have and planning the site out
* Keeping tabs on all the todo’s! content + article marketing + blog commenting + social bookmarking….. it gets too much.
but my biggest fear & frustration is engagement. Traffic is on the increase, so my banklinking is working but I’ve very little audience engagement, 45+ posts and 1 comment (!) ouch.
Thanks for the invite to linkback(!) and I’ll be looking out for more awesome content on Viperchill that I can use to take my blog forward.
Thanks Glen & the team!
Steve
Hey Steve.
The first blog I ever sold was a fitness one. There is lots of room to succeed despite the competition.
Great comment!
Great Post. Glad to see you’re adding him to Viperchill.
🙂
This is a great idea Glenn!
I believe (and hope) that Tyrant will provide the Viperchill-quality and your readers get more frequent updates!
Welcome Tyrant! Look forward to your writings!
I’m Frederik Trovatten. I’m a 23 year old Danish internet marketeer. I quit my corporate six-figure job, three months ago. And now traveling around the world, while working with some clients in Denmark, to make the trip possible. Right now I’m exploring the beautiful San Diego and enjoying the great things life has to offer 🙂
I also just started http://www.trovatten.com about a month ago, where I blog days ago, which is my first blog in english. On Trovatten.com do I write about internet marketing, blogging and SEO. (For Example: What to do before you launch a new blog: http://www.trovatten.com/blog-launch/ ).
I’m not quite sure what the goal of my blog is yet, but after blogging for about 3 years in my native language did I think it would be fun to go international. And so far I’m really excited about it.
Nice to meet you Frederik!
Sounds like you are having an awesome time.
Really looking forward to seeing the awesome content you two will come up with over the next few months.
Thanks Tom!
Hi Glenn,
I’m a regular reader of your posts but barely leave comments.
I just want to use this opportunity to welcome Ramsay to Viperchill unofficially.
Hey Ramsay,
You’re welcome to viperchill and I hope to learn a lot from you just like I’ve been learning from Glenn.
Peace!
here is my blog: http://fitness-beginners.com
It’s about fitness and health aimed at beginners. Check it out and leave your comments. Thanks!
Thanks for the warm welcome Saeed!
So glad you two have teamed up! My two favorite blogs. Excited to see what you two come up with together!
Lindsay
Awesome! Thanks Lindsay.
Ramsay welcomed the team!
I’m not the team more I read this blog
so long that I feel like a member.
It was by reading this blog I took the initiative to create a niche site: SaudeBucalInfantil.com
I never thanked Glen, I think this is the time: Thank you.
Thanks for quality content and I am your tips Ramsay!
SaudeBucalInfantil.com (Under construction)
Clau Felip
Sao Paulo – Brazil
Thanks Clau.
Hi,
Well I wanted to start out light hearted but Tim’s comment above has put a downer on things, which was probably his intention. Having a bad day there Mr Priest?
My name is James and I founded a website called http://www.cometocapetown.com (hope penguin likes this link?)
It’s not my first foray into the digital arena, but it’s certainly my most successful.
I must say, that I have never openly hidden behind a “mask” as such, but I have always preferred to remain somewhat anonymous, which probably also has something to do with my conspiracy theory induced paranoid (ever read David Icke …on weed?)
Lately I have been a lot more open about putting my name to my work, and standing by my business, as I feel like I have commanded enough respect to stop worrying about what everyone thinks anyway.
I have been lucky enough to spend a bit of time with Glen in real life, and have made respect for every word that he writes.
My current challenges are always how to generate more traffic, but am now a lot more focused on user experience, and conversion optimization. I am probably the worst SEO who has ever lived, and after 4 years of studying it, still can’t get into googles pants.
Cheers
James
@net0krat
Thanks for commenting James. Appreciate it.
After reading your blogging journey and helping Andre Wren was truly inspirational and so I started my blog. The name of the blog is The Happy Monk – a little guidance on the path to liberation. Have a read tell me what you think? http://thehappymonk.net/
The hardest thing is finding the time to write inspirational and amazing content. A single blog posts takes me between 2 -3 weeks.
I like your blog theme Mitesh!
Hi Ramsay and Glen!
I love when the mask removed reveals the hidden smile!
I’m always delighted when I receive one of Glen’s posts because he is always sharing something juicy.
My biggest challenge with online marketing…choosing my direction.
Thanks for asking and allowing us to share
Kater
Nice to meet you Kater!
Hey Ramsay & Glen
I am all for you both teaming up if it means we get more great articles more often, sounds like a plan 🙂
Being honest here Ramsay, I’ve seen your site a few times but never read it, not for any reason but the fact that I only read very few blogs these days, so I can definitely relate to what you and Glen say about people reading less and less sites in the future.
I will say though now I have read this post I will definitely spend time looking over your posts.
Anyway enough of me moaning on.
My problem is as of right now trying to find unique selling point, or a small section of my niche that I can try to dominate and then build on from there.
If you could help me with that it would be awesome!
Regards
Bobby Thomas
Hey Bobby.
Yep, there should be more going on around here now.
Thanks for introducing yourself.
Hey Glen,
Congrats on having Ramsay on board!
I thoroughly enjoy your posts and your insight into the ways of the web.
I don’t run a dedicated blog with the view to make money from it but I’ve applied your wisdom by integrating your ideas with an eCommerce site and and off-line service orientated business.
http://www.PlatinumRepairs.co.za is the site of my on-site iPhone and iPad repair business in South Africa. Using your SEO advice as well as a mix of other things I have learnt from yourself and leaders such as Pat Flynn, our off-line business is driven almost solely by our website. I’m still working on the blog but so far it is working well to attract eyes to the site.
http:www.Cashflow101.co.za is an eCommerce site selling Robert Kiyosaki’s Cashflow board games. I’ve just rebuilt the site using WordPress and WooCommerce. The blog component is still to come.
While I really admire people who can make a living through blogging, I’ve found it very useful to apply the same techniques to promote “physical” businesses, which, from my experience, requires less commitment and time to become profitable, when compared to the average full time blogger. Obviously, selling an 8 month old blog for $20,000 does have its appeal too but it seems very few people are able to pull those kinds of deals off.
Brad your last paragraph is so true. Nice work!
As someone just starting out online, I’m getting a lot of great ideas from ViperChill. I just have to prioritize these ideas and take action. My site is in the health and fitness niche and began December 2011. I wouldn’t say it’s been easy, but I keep trying to move forward. The toughest thing I find is getting traffic to my site and then getting the traffic I do get to Optin. I’m looking forward to Ramsay’s posts. Great job!
http://athleticabs.com/
Thanks Scott!
Aah, welcome Ramsay! I’ve read some of your blogposts in the past and actually subscribed to your rss. It’s nice to see that ViperChill is adding a new member to its team. Glen knows what he’s doing so it must be something special to have Ramsay on the team now. I’m curious to what kind of plans you guys have for this blog!
I am working for the website http://acnevitaal.nl/ (Dutch) where I help adding new and fresh content. Viperchill’s Blueprint has helped us to overcome some of the obstacles we were facing with blogging. We’re now focusing on building a large community for our market.
Keep up the good work guys! Can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next 🙂
Thanks for being a subscriber! Hope I can keep pumping out stuff you enjoy.
Welcome, Ramsay, and congratulations to Glen on your new team member. You both provide so much value, and it’s much appreciated. Keep up the good work!
Thanks Pamela. That’s very nice of you.
What’s up guys,
My name is Eric. First off, congrats to Ramsay.
I would say my biggest blogging hurdle right now is quality traffic growth. For a while, I was blogging 3 times a week. Then I went to 5 times a week. After switching to 5x, I noticed an increase in traffic. But the traffic seemed to be mostly bots and uninterested readers (most of the time the visitor bounced after less than 30 seconds).
I know I have to keep a steady flow of content; but I don’t want to write just for the sake of writing. What do you guys suggest as a “happy medium”?
Nice to meet you Eric. And awesome question.
I was wondering how for a while who Blog Tyrant was… and yes I did spend some time on Google to find out 😉
I only visited Adelaide once or twice but a very laid back place, very nice!
Looking forward on the how progress of Glen and Ramsay.
G’day from Sydney 🙂
And my attempt to put my mark on the online world: http://www.nichewebsites.com.au
How to build your first Niche Website 🙂
Ralph
Nice to see you here Ralph!
🙂
My name is Kerry Traylor, and I’m a parent coach. I’ve been following BOTH you guys for about 6 months now so am thrilled to see you join forces. You two help me regularly with my greatest challenge…..which is learning all the things I need to know to get a website up that generates traffic, converts well, and is monetized in a variety of ways.
As an English/history major type, a serious lifelong reader, and a former editor I have no worries about creating useful, engaging content. I also know EXACTLY what I want to do to monetize my site.
But oh my good Lord, there is a LOT to learn. For instance, learning social media is a vast topic, as is learning to produce quality video, learning how to optimize blog posts for SEO, learning about 50 million WordPress plug-ins I absolutely need to have for my site, and learning about the best way to create a membership site, killer joint ventures, sales pages and other marketing vehicles….the list goes on and on. Can you say overwhelm???
But I’m getting there, with a little help from my friends at ViperChill and Blog Tyrant. This old lady (about to be 50, baby) is grateful for you smart, savvy youngsters! What would I do without you?
Awesome Kerry! Love it.
Wow! Another massive development – you just go from strength to strenght.
Well, I’m Ian, run Alpha Male Examples where I use cool characters from entertainment and real life, show guys what they do that is great for getting girls etc and how to be like it.
My biggest problem is getting regular readers. I seem to get facebook ‘well dones’, big hits after doing guest posts, even a few emails but I don’t get comments! Hardly a one unless I know them well. I write irregular and more as and when I can (also looking for a job). Most of my readers seem to be new people from different places. I’d love to know how to build a ‘proper’ community and get regular comments etc and not the typical garbage to read on all these so called ‘expert’ sites.
I believe that my site can take off but it’s getting to that stage. I’d love to write and develop the site for a living but that seems too big a goal for now. It’s a pity as I do love it.
Great intro Ian. Thank you.
Hey guys, thanks for this post. Welcome to ViperChill Ramsay. I’m excited to see what kind of twist you bring to the blog 🙂
I started delving into blogging about a year ago and I buried myself in research for months. In August 2011, I decided to start a blog about all the research I was doing and help others do the same thing I’m doing. I was doing so much research, I might as well put it out there for the world to see, all in one place.
My blog is called Blog and Retire, and you can reach it through the link connected to my name in the fill out fields 🙂
Thanks for opening this up and getting to know everyone. I think that says a lot about you Ramsay! And I’m glad you revealed your identity because it makes it a much more personal experience when reading what you have to say.
~Lisha
Nice to meet you Lisha!
Hey guys,
Firstly, I’d like to say what a great site you have here Glen 🙂 The quality of content & simplicity of design are both outstanding – it even inspired me to clean up & simplify my blog layout too 🙂
Secondly, welcome on-board Ramsay 🙂 I’m also from SA – it’s a great place – look forward to reading more of your posts as I enjoyed the humour at the beginning 😉
I’ve been around online since around 1996 when I used a BBS as my ISP.. prior to that I’d make weekly visits to the library where I’d download 30 second wav files of music I was into & save onto my 3.5 floppy disk. Times have changed a lot but my presence online has always been somewhat secretive. I’ve noticed greater improvement as I’ve become more & more transparent It’s a risk & a lot comes from the fear of the unknown. It’s great once you do it though 🙂
I work in the inbound marketing space & have created a site that doesn’t really push what I do but aims to deliver quality content – very much like this one… if you have a sec please check it out.. I’d love some feedback – http://www.kwasistudios.com
Have a fantastic day y’all!
Cheers,
Woj
Nice to meet you Woj!
You’ve been online a really long time! I was in Grade 6 in 1996!
Wow that was a surprise-im a newby so much goes over my head-maybe one day i can build a team of talented people. Have a great day on purpose and thanks for the post’s glen.
I’ve been blogging now for just about 4 years, and as it seems is a common theme in the comments, I’m having a lot of trouble growing my following. Unfortunately I’ve actually become a bit disillusioned with online advise on blogging as I’ve been trying to follow it all to the T for at least a year now. I’ve taught myself HTML, CSS, and PHP so as to be able to redesign my website using a self-hosted wordpress, highlighting calls to actions, making it easy to interact, sign up, etc., I write what I believe to be unique and engaging content in a not overly crowded niche. The blog/website is a motorcycling website with a focus on motorcycle adventure travel with some maintenance and restoration tips. We’ve covered long distance trips in the US, Canada, Australia, and a continuing story line in China (where I currently reside). I’ve had friends say that they read through entire 2 months worth of trip diaries, which tells me that my content is at least somewhat engaging. Despite all this though for whatever reason, I’m struggling to get more than 1 signup a week, if that, and so I’m stuck at about 100 visitors per day. I also here lots of blogging advice include “don’t give up. they will come!” but… it’s been 4 years now.
Anyway! I don’t plan on giving up because I still love sharing my stories and when the occasional blog comment comes along I love interacting with the readers! This is the first time I’ve commented on a blog post like this though so I’m hoping this will be the one that helps me solve my growing reader list issues once and for all!
Unfortunately, this is terrible timing for me as thanks to a truly awful web hosting service called Canaca, our site http://www.rubberonroad.com has been down now for over a week thanks to a whole string of disasters and terrible service related to our domain name registration. I did want to get into the conversation though while this post was still fresh and relevant and I’m looking forward to the contributions!
Hey Bucko.
Don’t give up! Not if you love it.
Hey, super late reply (no email notifications) but thanks! I do love it and it’s why I haven’t stopped yet. Would still be nice for some growth/income from it though 😛
Welcome Ramsay,
Nice to have you aboard here. I really got a big chuckle out of the “reveal”, because you may remember, a year or so ago I was exchanging comments with you on BT and for some reason I started calling you Glen.
I guess I secretly knew you were brothers, LoL.
Looking forward to the ‘coming attractions’, both VC and BP are always must reads for me.
Thanks Dave. I do remember that. I was quite confused! Ha ha.
Hi Guys,
Great introduction of yourself Ramsay. I’m sorry to say I don’t know who Blog Tyrant is but I will now definitely look you up. I’ve been a reader of Glen for a while and this is my first comment. I look forward to see what you guys come up with. I just started my site and need to work on getting traffic there so thank you for this. and I hope it can save you money when you use it. Thank You Squire
http://bestravelsiteonline.com/
Great to meet you!
Hi Ramsay and Glen,
Great post! Nice to put a face and name to BT after reading the blog for so long. Looking forward to some great collaborations. I particularly enjoy BT’s (sorry, Ramsay’s) ‘How To’ type posts as I am often looking for small, ‘up-skilling’ type projects to continue to improve my online marketing.
Keep up the great work guys!
Thanks you!
Hey Glen and Ramsay,
I must admit, I am brand new to the Viperchill community, but this seems like a great time to be jumping on board. My developers turned me on to your blog only a couple weeks ago and I have been hooked ever since.
I create download codes and print them on plastic or paper cards for authors and publishers. This system allows creators of digital content to hand out their e-books, MP3s, or any sort of digital content out at tradeshows, bookstores, cafes, etc….It allows them to give or sell digital content in a physical environment, with no computers involved.
Anyways, thanks again for all you do, and please keep up the great work. Our blog has only ever been used for company updates, but now my eyes are open to so many more opportunities….My objective from what I’m learning here is to leverage our blog to increase awareness of our products.
I’ve got a long way to go…
Thanks again.
Best,
Lucas
http://www.greeenersidedigital.com
Awesome to see someone expanding the company blog to something more organic and external Great decision Lucas.
Welcome Ramsay!
I’m Ivete and I sell my original knitting patterns at http://chiagu.com (as well as several other things on other sites . . . )
My biggest challenge is FOCUSING — I have too many interests and get sucked into each new thing, neglecting my established sites for the latest new shiny project. I’d love to find a way to stay focused and engaged with one (ok, let’s be honest, 3?) thing(s) so that I can put all my energy into making that thing great, but I haven’t figure out how to do that without getting bored . . . would love your insight into that!
Thanks in advance! I look forward to reading your articles here and on your own site (which I’m off to check out now!)
Ivete
Hi Ivete.
Focusing is a really big interest of mine as well. I think this and the time management issue go well together.
Thanks for stopping by!
Hi Glen! What a way to unmask.
I’m Nica Mandigma, a virtual assistant and blogger. My Virtual assistant blog suffer from some kind of schizophrenia because I still haven’t worked on it branding. But I do know this : I love being a virtual assistant and I love doing small tutorials for my clients and fellow VAs.
And yes, I agree that the best blog posts are those that solve a problem (or teach.)
Hi Glen and Ramsay,
Thank you for the post and for Viperchill in general. Your detailed posts have been instrumental to the success of my site, including #1 google ranking for my keyword and top 5 ranking for many profitable keywords.
I run a site called IPassTheCPAExam.com which helps accountants to plan, study and pass the CPA exam. Since the site has established authority I have been invited to become affiliates of almost all CPA review course providers. My #1 page is the CPA review course comparison page which I think is THE page to go to for this topic. As you can imagine this page is also very profitable.
Everything is good but the challenge for me is to walk the fine line between further monetizing my site vs annoying my readers and thinking that I am biased on certain providers.
I don’t have much problem declaring my affiliate relationship with these providers (they all pay me anyway, so I don’t need to be biased), but I have difficulty in making myself more transparent on this than I am now (i.e. with one separate page on disclosure policy) because:
(1) my readers are not internet marketers. They don’t understand affiliate marketing and further explanation makes things too complicated;
(2) the content itself is already pretty technical and it doesn’t “fit” to talk about this sort of stuff. My readers either don’t care or they would misunderstand if I talk about this too explicitly.
Other than that, I enjoy building my site e.g. getting the site translated into Chinese, relaunch my eBook on study tactics and launch a consultancy service to help non-US candidates with the application process.
Thanks a lot for reading all this. Cheers, Stephanie
Awesome comment Stephanie!
That’s a lot to look at and I think some of it will make a really good post.
Interesting writing, as a upcoming blogger, this is really useful. We have our own travel site, which is documenting the flashpacking adventures of our around the world trip, we’ve been nearly 6 months on the road and who knows when this journey of a lifetime will end. Love to hear from travel enthusiasts anywhere in the world. http://flashpackatforty.com/ or follow us on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Flashpackatforty
Hi guys,
What a way to unmask.
I am Jeffrey, a blogger and affiliate marketer. I have been in this IM for almost 4 years. The only thing I am suffering at the moment is lots of traffics to my sites. Guys, can you help me out with this. I mean, how to get hordes of targeted visitors to your sites and make money with affiliate sales, adsense and etc…
Hope what I say make sense..
Hey Jeffrey.
Hordes… we all want them!
Hello guys,
I am really proud to be your reader and see Ramsey be part of your team.
I am affiliate marketer for a number of years but with little success. Still learning from you, Glen and implement stuffs to my sites.
Thank you.
http://www.naturalhealthcarereviewsinfo.com
Thanks Janet!
Hey, I know I’m late coming to the comment party, but welcome Ramsay! As a new blogger, here is my question/issue/concern:
Obviously the “making money online” niche is HUGE, but what about smaller niches (like mine, Real Estate Investing). It seems easy to make money with “making money” sites or “how to blog” sites (just refer people to Hostgator and you got it). But what about the rest?
Again, keep up the good work guys. Great content. Its a breath of fresh air in a crowded room.
Brandon that defo is not a small niche as such. I know a few people doing well in that exact subject.
Do you do consulting or sales yourself?
Congratulations Ramsay! I’ve often wondered who was the man behind Blog Tyrant. This was a great way to introduce yourself.
Even though I’ve yet to capitalize on any of your good advice, I always enjoy reading your work. I’ll probably start frequenting ViperChll too, now that you’ll be writing here as well.
Cheers,
~Jeff Mitchell
Thanks Jeff. I’m sure you will love VC.
Hi,
Subscribed to the niche ideas emails from Glen. Usually, I have a couple ideas a week and keep them in a spreadsheet. Most people I know don’t have much of an entrepreneurial bent so thought it would be interesting to read someone else’s thoughts.
Biggest blogging problem is finding time (I have a full & part-time job) & reaching the right audience. So far just over 30 posts. New visitors referred from tech sites average about 30 seconds on the site while those referred from Facebook average about 1 minute.
For now, I’ve just had a couple little spikes of traffic but I’m at the mercy of the few readers who find an article to share it.
http://www.pressednews.com
Thanks all who shared.
It was a very good intro. Totally attention-getting. For a moment, Glen’s history is going to be unmasked…
This blog has really provided insights which are not there elsewhere. That’s why I choose to remain a happy subscriber.
Additions to the team means more value on the way. Thanks.
Thanks Sammy.
Looking forward to to experience now different view points here in Viperchill.
When I started to market our line of tie-dye 2.0 clothing some 6-7 years ago online I learned that you have to have a blog to go with your web site – born was http://www.ThaiTiedye.com, but my biggest problem with that blog has always been to find something to write about – there is only so much you can say about tie-dye, even though it is the most amazing stuff you have ever seen (sorry for that 🙂
I also blog away my private rantings, without any monetization, on http://www.merlinsilk.com and that goes a lot easier – there is always something dropping into my lap that I just need to rant about, but this very narrow niche of tie-dye – don’t know what to write about that might be interesting enough for people to actually come back. And traffic is also better on the main commercial site where I more or less just say – look, what cool stuff I have, you can buy it.
Thanks Merlin. Is that your real name? If so your parents are awesome!
Great Article Dude!! Although it was a bit lengthy, you never lost me as a reader. It was like a guide for me atleast about how to go about blogging. I am a newbie and it was more than what one can ask for. Keep it Up.
http://www.bachelorsworld.com
Also thanks for allowing to put up my blog link here.
I’ve always found this blog pretty interesting and strangely enough very attractive even if I’m not that much into long posts but these are certainly not boring and full of real info and not gurus’ stuff. So if there is a new member I’m sure it will just add quality to the site.
My biggest concern regards traffic as Penguin has killed my website at http://www.ipnostudio.com
Nothing wrong as regards messages from webmasters tools or being blacklisted or such only that after one year of continuous growth Google decided my blog isn’t good. Might be because I don’t use AdWords or G+ but that’s what happened.
Have a great week!
Hey Andrea. What happened after Penguin?
OMG OMG OMG I just had a mini-heart attack because I thought that you (Glen) were saying that you were the Blog Tyrant 😛
But anyway, it’s nice to meet you Ramsay. And I’m sure you and Glen will make the best team ever xD
Ha ha! That would have been great.
My biggest blogging challenge is blog design. I know there are fabulous tools out there to help me and I spent hours working out exactly how to implement them.
I’m a fifty year old mum who decided one day to get to grips with blogging and social media; I’m loving the ride but always feel I’m barely clinging on by the skin of my teeth – everything moves so fast!
I look at other super stylish blogs (Glen!!) and think “How did they do that..?” More sleepless nights as I grapple with html 🙂
My blog is a newcomer http://ladyhiker.com/ so I’m still at the stage of steadily building content.
Looking forward to your future posts guys! Welcome Ramsay 🙂
Please pardon me for posting twice here. I thought that I’d do so too with my url in the correct field to give this new domain some traction and exposure. I’m investigating the viablity of introducing affiliate marketing business model to Vox Telecoms new product offering, YahClick, which they’re touting as “Broadband for all”.
I’m telling me story at the linked domain, and will appreciate your feedback to the business idea as comments to the blog post, or sign up as an affiliate right away and help me build a strong case to present to the people @ lantic (an ISP here in South Africa)
Thanks again for the opportunity Glenn, and I have a question for both of you, how to continue to flesh this idea out, and make the system easy for affiliates to sign up and promote. Are you exclusively using ClickBank to promote Optin Skin?
Great as usual.
I blog as a photographer and photojournalist in the adventure sport, outdoor niche. I showcase my work and do some gear reviews.
http://alexekins.co.uk
Thanks for the link
Cheers
Alex Ekins
Welcome aboard! I am sticking to your philosophy of writing longer better quality posts. My blog is about teaching small business owners to build and market their own websites so most of my posts are naturally long tutorial type affairs. Gonna focus on getting some great feedback this year – 277 comments like here though seems a long way off!
Hey Paul. Sounds like you are on the right track!
Hi Glen and Ramsay,
I have been following Glen for a short while now and its great to see you are now on board Ramsay and being Scottish then anyone with the name Glen or Ramsay are good in my book! I really believe that by adding another well respected person to viperchill will be a great multiplier for the site and will take it to the next level, so good luck with your future endeavours.
So my name is Rob and I usually sit on the side reading and never really interact, until today! (first post on VC)
I, like a lot of others that have posted still work a day job, and I work as a regional manager/development chef in the UK and last year bought a business with my Wife that she now runs and I do the SEO on the website.
So life is quite busy, at least that’s what I thought until 6 weeks ago when we had our first baby 🙂 🙂 (had to do two smiley’s as one just isn’t enough!) oh and its a girl! 🙂 Can you tell I am happy?
I have dipped in and out of Internet Marketing for the last 3 years and have had success and failure.My best success being a $1000 day which was never to be repeated lol, and my worst failure was building a complete niche product website only to have it de-indexed by google shortly after getting my first 5 sales! (bought a back-link package off Warrior!, another lesson learned)
I have learned so much and have so many idea’s for things like WP plugins but I just can’t seem to stitch it all together and that is my main problem, but thanks to Glen I have unsubscribed from all the S*’t that was pouring into my inbox and I am really starting to see things a little clearer now so I am trying to put a strategy together for a website I have had for a while.
I used this site for a biz opp I used to promote http://www.theonlinementor.com and currently I just use it as a list builder and I am getting about 4000 UV per month as I rank highly in the UK for “make money online” and “making money online” so my problem isn’t traffic.
The look of the site now makes me cringe and reminds me of when I first started so I want to really change it and make it a great resource for people trying to start out. Would love some feedback from you guys when you get chance!
I am sorry this post is so long but I have decided to get more involved and there is no point in doing a half arsed introduction, and if I can help anyone I will always try just get in touch.
Thanks for all the great info Glen you have really helped me in the last few month’s and I look forward to the same from you Ramsay!
Cheers
Rob
Rob that is an awesome comment!
Thanks so much and congrats on that $1k day. I’m sure you can get it there again.
What a wonderful and dramatic way to unveil yourself Ramsay! So great to “meet” you at last, and bravo to Glenn for having you do it this way!
You have been such a source of inspiration, encouragement, information, and common sense….thanking you and ciao Lisa
Lisa thank you so much for all your support!
How’d the NYT article go?
And how could we not all love that cute baby face at much as a shiny gold sceptre?? Congrats on the new role and look forward to following viperchill now.
Thank you Kate!
The dynamic duo, a bit like when Darth Vadder announces to Luke Skywalker, “I am your father”!!
Great stuff, look forward to some incredible content.
By the way, I have the best kids soccer blog that doesn’t make any money.
Check it out http://www.soccermastermind.com
Ha ha. Love the Star Wars reference.
Hi Ramsay, (Glenn)
I like the photo, and as usual the blog was funny and interesting, thank you!
I know you asked for comments and questions, so here goes: I have a web development company with my brother (www.hallnet.co.uk) and one of our side projects is a herbal information website and associated blog (www.herbwisdom.com/blog). My problem is that although the scientific information on both the main website and the blog is correct I just feel it’s still a bit boring and nowhere near as catchy and easy to read as viperchill blogs! However when I attempt to add a bit of character it just sounds cheesy! Any thoughts? Should I just stay technical as it is an information website after all?
Any feedback would be much appreciated!
Cheers 🙂
Great question Cath. Thanks for adding it!
Never heard of Blog Tyrant until this post. I look forward to learning more!
My site is a collision of the topics that consume me: faith, simple living, and global needs.
I want to help people experience an amazing life and enlarge their worldview through simple, faithful living.
Nice to meet you Gene!
Hi Glen and welcome Ramsay,
I was reading Glens (‘short’ 😉 ) Posts for almost 1 Year now and it helped me a lot, and I hope it will be more helpful from now on.
As I was still searching ‘my’ niche where I had some knowledge about (and found it by accident when somebody asked in a comment in another Blog how to install WordPress – and I offered to do it).
The Idea came to me 14 days ago -and I’m still working to setting up the Website and writing some Content – and still it will take some time as I’m a 53 y.o. Internet-starter (since 3 years – from 0) but I found my way.
Glen, is ‘your secret’ for the fast rankings your Posts with more than 11.000 words?
I haven’t written too much up to now but am on 2nd Page at Bing after 10 days already – is that a good way to go?
Thank you so far Glen, ‘m in hope to read twice the amount of ‘good stuff’ in Future
Man I sure hope that’s not his secret. It takes so long!
Hi Guys,
thanks for your posts, they have been really helpful. Following Glen and Andrea through the Guardian series finally got me motivated to start my own blog – on German food:
http://www.morethansausages.com
Certainly a niche topic, but I have lots to say! Feedback has been positive, especially on my photos, and it’s huge fun doing it. I also have a Facebook page, more than sausages, and tweet under @morethansausage.
My following so far is small, but loyal and as I’m beefing up the content I’d love to get the word out to a wider audience. I’ve seen this is the issue for many fellow bloggers and I’ll be following your further posts to find help on this.
Thanks for inspiring me to get up and running! I’d love any kind of feedback you might have on my site.
Linda
Still can’t believe Glen got in the Guardian. Amazing.
your blog has really been an inspiration. i have been able to develop and understanding blogging just by reading your post. you are like a blogger father. thanks men.
Great works are done by you guys. Glen you rock. I just want some help from you. Do reply..
Welcome to Viper Chill!
I am the community manager of an online support community for insomnia sufferers:
http://www.insomnialand.com/
Keep the great posts coming!
– Martin
Might have to stop by that forum – I don’t sleep well.
This is my first time commenting, and I just want to say thanks for the great information and resources, as well as for being so inspiring. Adding Ramsay to the team, I believe can only make things superb.
I been trying for 3 years now to make a living online, and it’s just not happening. I must say I have learnt quite a lot, but it appears one has to have money to make money.
I love your blog, and many thanks!
Thanks for the encouragement Jen!
Hi guys!
The reason I love ViperChill so much is because of the rock solid content. In fact Glen, you were one of my inspirations when I decided to slow down my blogging (doing that now bi-weekly).
I figured that my biggest pain point was growing my blog. I was also exhausted. Even by publishing twice per week, I felt that I was always working on my next blog post.
Things have changed and instead of publishing majority of content to my own blog, I’m doing heavy guest posting as we speak. By doing that, I have been able to grow my audience.
So what is my blog about? It’s about time management for work at home dads:
http://www.productivesuperdad.com.
Cheers,
Timo
Hi Glen and Ramsey, great post and congrats on getting the job on the ViperChill team, how can people stay anonymous these days when many blogs either automatically or manual delete comments from people that do not use a real name? They often think it is spammy if you do not use a real name, I for one have a real reason why I cannot show my identity. I certainly don’t think I am or want to be the next Blog Tyrant, I just want to share my thoughts without risking my job 😉
All the best and
Regards
SI
Hi SI.
Yeah I think that is a real issue for a lot of workers nowadays. Companies are really worried about things their staff say on social media and blogs.
Someone needs to write a really good policy that people can use.
What an awesome way to reveal your identity, Ramsay. Seeing you team up with Glenn is like reading about two blogging superheroes joining forces.
I run a travel blog at http://www.MarcusGoesGlobal.com. I started getting e-mails from people who liked my stories and photos, and wanted to know how they could travel too. Since that site is more of a personal journal, I thought it would be better to build a new site. More focused on the audience and sharing advice.
The process took a lot longer than I expected. Made myself learn web design, Internet marketing, and now video production. I feel like video would be a great way to stand out from other travel bloggers and make a personal connection with my audience.
My fears:
–YouTube commenters. There a lot of nasty, hurtful things written on that site.
–Not being “expert” enough. Maybe it’s because I was an academic overachiever, I feel like I should always have a piece of paper or a long track record of success before I feel qualified to give advice. Really need to just give myself permission to get out there and let the audience be the judge.
–Not having cool travel footage. The videos will be about the information, not on showing off amazing destinations. I worry that people might expect postcard-style scenes and be disappointed that it’s a video blog of me talking about travel tips.
–Targeting the wrong audience. By that I mean attracting people who like my content, but aren’t interested in buying anything. Sometimes it’s easy to fall under the spell of increasing “vanity metrics” like the number of Twitter followers instead of trying to get real customers.
–Failing to hit that sweet spot of doing something I’m passionate about, good at, and has income potential. Dan Andrews from the Lifestyle Business Podcast put it best when he said something like, “Solve market problems with your personal passion.”
To get over the shyness, I got Camtasia Studio and a good USB microphone. That allows me to make screencasts where you can see my computer screen and hear my voice, but not see my face. Eventually, I’ll make the jump to doing “talking head” videos.
For the sake of speed, I might outsource some design work, like getting custom YouTube and Twitter backgrounds.
The big challenge will naturally to build up targeted traffic and an e-mail list of true fans.
Thanks to you and Glenn for helping me get there sooner. I’d have wasted years figuring out stuff without your blogs.
Marcus I’m so glad you left a comment! It wouldn’t feel complete without one of your essays!
Great questions and interesting fears. Lots of material for a post or two there.
Thanks again for all your support.
Hi Marcus, are you open to guest posts on your blog? I see you don’t have any info about South Africa, at the moment? Let me know. James
I’ve become a big fan of Ramsay’s work after being directed to his blog from another travel blogger. It’s great to see him featured here 🙂
Awesome. Me too! 😉
Me too! 😉
I was so delighted to see Blog Tyrant um I mean Ramsay reveal himself, that I forgot to tell you my deepest problems!
Actually I’m not going to tell you those …
But I am prepared to divulge my deep blog fear, the recurring nightmare … that http://www.zigazag.com is never going to grow, and that I’ll still be sitting at my computer in fluffy pink dressing gown and slippers on my dying day without ever having experienced any real success.
Success = readers = subscribers = income to feed the (not too crazy) desires of my imagination.
So how to get readers. How to retain readers. And how to turn readers into subscribers. That’s what I’m prepared to work hard on given some pointers from the pros.
Thanks Guys. Can’t wait to see where you both go from here 🙂
Great to see you here Johanna!
Again… 😉
Ha Ha! That you noticed is amazing 🙂
Brains the size of universes. It’s a worry.
Or not!
Good to see the ViperChill team expanding. On your blog Ramsay you say
“I’ve sold several blogs for around $20,000. Its fair to say I’ve discovered the formula for a successful blog. I’ve worked full time from home since age 24. This is all about helping you build a blog or online business worth at least $50,000 – possibly a whole lot more.”
Sorry, I’ve only discovered your blog since reading this post, but do you give any examples of the blogs you sold for 20k e.g. the actual URLs so we can take a look at them?
Thanks
Kieran
Hey Kieran.
I don’t normally share the URLs because I didn’t really want everyone to know what exact sub niches/topics I’m working on. But also the new owners kind of screwed up the sites since I sold them and it’s kind of embarrassing.
Generally speaking though they were in the fitness and one in the personal development field.
If you really want to know shoot me an email and we can chat about them there.
Hope that helps.
Hi folks, great idea for a blog post 🙂 enjoyed meeting you via your ‘unmasking’ 🙂
I am passionate about London and have been blogging for just on two years now and also writing articles for other online travel sites, like Travel Dudes and GotSaga. I constantly read articles on how to blog and on what makes a good blog and try to convert that to my own writing.
I am now at the point where I want to learn how to monetise my site without taking away the personality of the blog. Any idea would be gratefully received as although I have done a few internet marketing courses, they are usually rushed and filled with so much information that I walk away filled with knowledge & info that I can’t convert as I missed some of the steps (I am a baby-boomer so technology takes a while to gets to grips with) 🙂
My site is http://3daysinlondon.info/ if you’re interested in London and want to know more. I would also appreciate any feedback you may make.
Regards to you both.
Cindy
p.s. I would prefer ‘Sword of the People’ 😉
Thanks Cindy!
I have a friend in London who said that knife crime is getting really bad. Is that true?
Nice to see talents teaming up. Haven’t heard about TB but will definitely check it out.
Been following VC for a while and absolutely love the high quality contents, and I trust whoever GA partners with has the same quality.
About myself, I am in Digital industry (office job) but ironically not really making any moolah online. I have a simple blog (http://motivationaldiary.com/) that I maintain to motivate myself hah!
TB = tuberculosis?
😉
Hey Ramsay!
I apologize for only replying to your message now but things have been quite busy the last day or two.
I am doing very well thanks, especially now that my new site is launched! If you could find a minute please have a quick look over at http://ultimatedomainmanager.com and tell me what you think! I have compiled a FREE email course on the subject of complete domain management that is available to my subscribers. I trust that the course will give people the basic knowledge and understanding on how to effectively manage their domains for optimal results.
Then something else I am very excited about is my latest eBook on traffic generation that should be releasing early next week! I have worked together with 10 highly successful bloggers with the likes of Jon Morrow, Derek Halpern, Ana Hoffman and a few others to put together a comprehensive publication of their personal tested and proved strategies used by themselves on a regular basis that are the driving force behind their personal traffic generation success. How cool is that!
Would have been nice though had I known you two maestros before I started the book! I think you guys would have been a priceless addition to the already insightful content. Maybe next time! 😉
Hope to see some more great stuff from you guys in the near future! Keep it up!
-Ruan
Sounds like an amazing eBook man! Well done.
It’s great to hear that two of my most favorite bloggers are now standing together, in a team aiming to rock the blogosphere with their skills and experiences 🙂
I think my most serious problem is the language. My native language isn’t English. I do know how to write in English, but making a post enticing and attracting is far different from putting some words together. I don’t know how I could improve my posts (use more specific words, layout the structure, create a killer introduction..) I am always get stucked at writing. It usually takes me 2 hours to write a 500 words post 🙁
Maybe I should blame on myself for lacking of knowledge. But I want to improve (I desire improvement). So can you give me some tips to, you know, enhance my writing skills day by day?
Thank you so much 🙂
Interesting question, I’m going to have a think about that one.
Thanks for all your kind words!
Hello Ramsay.
I think it is great that you will be working in conjunction with Glen on VC, I have no doubt that this decision will only enhance the experience that we already receive from Glen at the moment.
I also think the decision to unmask in this way and at this time is a stand out move by both of you. The fact that you have explained your thinking behind the move reassures everyone that you will be forthright, straightforward and honest with your opinions and articles while writing for VC, this can only be a good thing for all concerned.
I hope you enjoy the time you have working with Glen and VC, and I look forward to reading more of your posts and as to how VC will evolve over time.
Paul.
Thanks Paul.
It was a big step for me but I think it was the right one.
Hope to see you around more.
Hi Guys, thanks for all the awesome job you guys are doing. Providing valuable information all the time is really priceless. Am trying to get into internet marketing and your post on email marketing was awesome. My biggest problem is how to do SEO for my blog and posts.
Thanks again
Hi Glen and BT/Ramsay
I didn’t know about ViperChill until Ramsay mentioned it. I’m one of Ramsays fab community that has followed his blog from the start.
You’re right Glen when you say that Ramsay [feels weird writing his name as I’m used to calling him BT] provides real and practical advice. There’s a nugget or three of wisdom in all his posts.
I really like his community and we really do support and help each other. Just the other day I sent over my ‘How to use WordPress.com’ workbook [that I only give to my face to face clients http://sitedesignin1day.wordpress.com/%5D to one of Ramsays commenters. We really do help each other out when we can.
I’m going to have a wander on your blog and have a read.
Congrats on the great new team.
Liz
Liz you are absolutely awesome. None of this would be possible for me without you original guys.
You provide real value on your blog mate and that’s why me and a pile of others stay with you.
I’m thinking of all the tiny but important practical things that we all have to do to make the whole blog and site work.
I think the biggest challenge for me is how to get people to subscribe and keep following my blog. I get a lot of people dropping in and about 40% end up staying and reading for quite while. I also have a small but loyal following that have been with me for years.
I’ve been trying to think about what other blogs to go visit and say hi to that would also have my target market [mainly women aged from mid 30’s to 60’s who want to make some decisions about their lives and need a pile of practical and beautiful tools].
And in the next 4 to 6 weeks we’ll be doing a pilot launch of the Life Dreaming Expedition and I’m tres nervous about all the things that have to be done.
Any suggestions would be really appreciated.
The site is about to get a major redesign and we’re taking on board the helpful comments you sent me a while ago Ramsay.
Have a great week.
Liz
Great one Liz. Very useful topic to cover so hopefully we can get to it.
Well Ramsay you picked an awesome site to come “unmasked” on, and the very fact that this is the first guest post Glen has allowed sure says a lot.
It’s nice to finally “meet” you! 🙂
Cheers guys!
Thanks Warren.
Yeah, it meant a lot to me that Glen asked me to do it here.
I was so happy to read this (and kinda not too surprised) and I forget to drop a comment. Lol
Ramsay, yeah, I got you man and now you are everywhere online. Sunil used your name to link to your blog few days ago – it would have been the normal BLOGTYRANT but nop!
Glad to have you in here and i expect you to give us more great content just like Glen does.
NOTE: I’d ppreciate a 6-weeks or 5-posts topic other than a single 12, 000 words post.
Sheyi
Hey Sheyi. Do you have that link you mentioned? I can’t find it.
Glen,
I’ve been a fan since I heard about you on Pat’s podcast and a follower ever since you favorited my tweet about entmagazine haha. Thank you for what you do here.
Ramsey,
As someone who wishes to make an income purely from the internet, I look forward to the valuable information you will provide. Welcome!
Here’s my question: I’ve been writing content for a niche website for a while now and will launch by the end of the month. I’m also looking to build a forum and community around the niche; however, there is already a fairly large one in existence, but it’s ugly, filled with spam, unorganized, yada yada. Any tips on pushing people to migrate from a forum they are comfortable at to a new one?
Wow that is an interesting question. Thanks Reggie.
Writing quality content
Bloggers always says write quality content
Write killer content/ pillar posts
Rarely mentions HOW to do it
Would u please help
By the way I’m political activist blogger
Blogs about politics & human rights
Guys,
Let’s get this over 400 comments ;).
Looking forward to the first article Ramsay. Wonder what it will be about.
Thanks Jamie!
Love the “beat 400” help!
Hey, Ramsey so as you said u would reply to every comment here , so I Have a Question ,here’s my question to you :
“there is a girl who has just $ 120 ….nothing more nothing less, to invest in internet business and start getting profit from that , so HOW do you think she should invest and spend her money so that she can at least start her business online ? ”
(remember : she has exactly exactly only $120 dollars , and no other money , and if these go wasted ,she is bankrupt )
Does she have a domain name and host yet?
Hi Glen and welcome Ramsay
Sorry for the late post guyz,
I am 26, live in Cape Town (South Africa), studying Computer Science. I believe that as humans we lived on farms then cities and now we are going to live on the internet (Sean Parker). I am full of excuses, I take almost 4 hours to write one good article. I have a website (http://www.perfectabshq.com) which has been live for over 2yrs now but has never made a single sale online. I have seen some improvements in my life since I now go to the gym often and have picked up a couple of pounds since Glen left SA, I am willing do whatever it takes to turn things around my life situation for the better. However, most importantly I would like to visit my friend/little brother (Glen) in Singapore later this year and the only way to raise the funds is through IM, I hope your awesome input will make a difference and make a dream come true 🙂
My biggest blogging problems, fears or frustrations are:
Google is changing the page-rank algorithms – Do I still have a chance to make it online?
Since writing articles to the likes of ezinearticles are no longer best for page ranking, how do you then increase your google page rank for your website?
What is the perfect strategy to follow for making affiliate sales or attracting customers online?
Where do you start if you want to learn how to tweak and design websites? How long can it take to learn that information?
What are the fundamental calls to action of PHP/CSS codes to look for on wordpress (i.e. wp-admin)? What should you look for on wp-admin when tweaking a website? Where do you find it (Under which headings or sub-headings)? What should you change, how do you change it and what shouldn’t you change on wp-admin?
How do you know if a comment is genuine or automated?
How do you turn off the annoying automated comments that are sent to your email from your blog? (I have disabled them on my blog, but they keep on coming through my gmail).
Looking forward to working with you guyz 😉
All the best
Cheers
Toto
So many questions Toto!
Hopefully we’ll address some of these soon in a post.
Thanks for commenting.
Heres a simple question perhaps: How do you strike a balance between writing awesome content and also making sure it has relevant keywords in so it gets picked up by google? A lot of people in my industry (sports nutrition) just write whatever they want,and their sites never really get going in terms of building an audience. I’m trying to write awesome stuff, but also stuff that people are searching for. Any tips? You both (viperchill &tyrant) bring an air of authenticity & honesty to IM, so cheers!
Hey Mike.
That is an awesome question.
Thanks for stopping by!
Hey guys!
Just got the email about asking questions you’ll be answering in a post real soon. Although I have left a comment, I thought what the %$&*, let’s do it again and get those comments beyond 400!
So here goes…
I am 29 and living in Cape Town, South Africa. I quit my Systems Admin highly-paid day-job last year August in pursuit of my dreams. My family still thinks I’m crazy but today I make more online then they do with their regular JOBS (so they are somewhat quieter these days…)
I have recently launched my new blog after having changed my niche which actually took much consideration and time but I had to do it right as this will become my bread and butter in the long run (hopefully not the only source 🙂 ). So I had to go through what all new bloggers go through when launching a new site, which is re-establishing credibility and trust amongst your target audience (no audience yet) starting from scratch.
Yes, in my previous niche I had a following but as this is a completely different niche and play field, I think you can see why I have to start from scratch.
Now I somewhat have an idea what kind of answer to expect from you guys, both you Ramsay and Glen, as I’m sure that’s what helped both of you the most when you started out. I’ll wait for your answer though before I let my thoughts slip out….just now you guys give me a completely unexpected answer and I feel like sticking my head into a hole.
Anyway, if you give me the answer I expect, then you better get back to me on my offer I sent you a few months ago Ramsey! 😉 No threats, promise lol!
Anyway, can’t wait to hear back from you guys!
Dude you sound like you should be giving us advice! 🙂
Hi Ramsay & Glen,
I run an education website (http://www.amiria.co.nz/artist/) from New Zealand, which aims to help high school art students get excellent grades. I am an experienced art teacher and artist and it seemed like the perfect thing to do while being a stay at home mother to my one year old. The blog was started last April (just over a year ago) and is currently getting about a thousand visitors each week day (and about 600-700 in the weekend).
My main blogging issue is lack of time (I still haven’t adjusted to how demanding and time intensive one tiny child can be)! I can only use the midnight shift for working, once the little darling is asleep (which means my blog post rate is about twice a month – if lucky! – as it takes me a long time to write each article)…but this is not something you can help with. Just something I need to accept!
My other blogging issues are:
– What should I do about the comments? I get so many comments that it often takes me hours to answer them. I try and be brief and refer to other blog posts etc as much as I can, and tell readers I will ‘adding it to my list of future things to discuss’ etc, but basically I spend a significant portion of my time answering comments when I could be writing new blog posts that would help a larger number of people. I do know, however, that my availability to answer questions is part of the appeal of the site, and students (and teachers) genuinely get a lot of value from my comments, which results in a significant percentage of returning traffic. Also, I enjoy the interaction. But then again, maybe the visitors would still come (after all, 75% come straight from google) and perhaps everyone would benefit from me focusing all of my attention and energy on blog posts… I keep deciding to turn the comments off for a while, and having a ‘comment holiday’, but then I change my mind at the last minute and never go through with it!
– I am also contemplating my approach with Adsense. I don’t make very much (obviously I cannot disclose any figures) but I am starting to make enough that it is nice pocket money…and enough that I really start to really step back and wonder how I should approach this. I attended an Adsense event for publishers in Auckland recently and had a personal assessment there with recommendations to put more ads embedded in articles and so on (lots of really helpful, intelligent, genuine advice – it was great) but I kind of have this uneasy feeling when I see ads in my articles (I don’t mind them in the sidebar so much) and I think I am going to delete them soon. My longterm aim is to write resources / build apps / make more video content etc (I have so many exciting ideas!) but alas I don’t have the time to implement them right now (*idly notes that I have the time to type out this long comment)…so in the meantime I am playing with adsense and wondering what to do…
– And finally…I am curious at what point it is good practise to throw money at a blog and hire others to do work for me. You see, I have all these superbly talented dedicated ex-students out there who I know would do fantastic work for me – and it feels like I need to urgently start actioning some of my great ideas (and I just cannot do it myself)! I know I could oversee it well and control the process (entirely) so this is not the issue…the issue is how you tell when it makes good financial sense to invest in a site that is currently earning very little hard cash!
ok…my midnight shift is nearly over. I best go and do some work!
Thank you for reading! 🙂
Hey Amira.
Awesome comment! That is like blog post length.
Hopefully we can get some of those questions into the post.
But for now, the comments issue is something I had to jump on. I really think you just need to find time to keep replying. It has been something that I feel really set me a part from a lot of other bloggers and I reckon it might be doing the same for you.
That leads to the next part: you need your own product instead of Adsense. IMHO every Adsense click is someone leaving your site for $1 that might have bought a product. And replying to comments will build the loyalty needed for that launch.
Hope that helps.
Thanks Ramsay,
Great advice – which yes, mimics my own gut feelings on the issue. Looking forward to your next blog post! 🙂
Hi Ramsay & Glen,
I admire your work and how you’ve able to absolutely shine in this industry in relatively a short amount of time. My name is Lisa Angelettie and I am a content marketer strategist for entrepreneurs and small business — http://LisaAngelettieBlog.com . My strength is writing highly optimized content and getting content ranked, BUT I am struggling with the “community” piece and the “engagement” part.
My list is highly responsive via email after I’ve sent out my newsletter for the week (featuring an article I’ve written, etc.) and they will respond to me via email, but they are not very responsive on my site with comments, etc. where I would like to have the social proof that people are actually reading my stuff and engaging with me.
I’d love to hear your tips and what you think you do “right” to foster this kind of tremendous engagement that you both have on your blogs and in social media.
Best,
Lisa
Great question Lisa. That is something that interests me a lot personally so I’ll try to squeeze it in.
Hi Ramsay and Glen,
I have two sites: http://www.computerandyou.net and http://www.itsfoss.com (the latter is 1 week old ). Bot are technology oriented sites. First one focuses on everything related to computer while the second is for Free and Open Source Niche.
The first site is my main work.
The problem is my visitor count is going down and so is my ad-sense revenue. I know it is all about “quality content” but I have been improved in terms of writing and still the site is getting low hits as the days are passing. My ad-sense revenue has gone to dogs and I have simply no idea what I am doing wrong here.
Moreover, there is virtually no engagement on the site, in the comment section (apart from occasional few) despite of the fact that I have 2400+ facebook fans and 1500+ email subscriber.
Rings alarm? Any suggestion would be much appreciated.
Are your visitors going down because of drops in search, referral, or direct traffic?
visitors are going down because of drops in search traffic… Some of my best-seller posts have bite the dust… and my new posts are not getting that popular.. I am not very good at SEO stuff… earlier I never focused on SEO..now I try a little bit with Yoast plugin but it is of no help..
Suggestions?
Dude, right on with your advice to leave adsense off the blog. I think it makes the blog look like it’s monetizing in any and every way possible. Personally , I wouldn’t be too quick to subscribe to a newsletter from a blog that published adsense ads.
Same here man. Something about a big block of AdSense ads just makes me want to click away.
I’m with you guys.
Having Adsense on a blog where you are asking for email subscriptions is a bit weird anyway considering every time someone clicks an ad you lose them from the blog.
I give you thumbs up for opening this site for guest posts..
Though i think you should not do it in regular basis..
Viperchill is a true diamond regarding the information that relies here…
This is my little opinion…
Hi Mavis.
The site won’t be open for guest posts. Just me and Glen.
🙂
[…] I read blogs regularly. I was one of the few people who knew Blog Tyrant’s real identity before his official announcement at Viperchill, I participate almost daily in the long […]
I am new to this blog site but so far I am loving it. I look forward to reading more. So far I don’t have a question but I certainly will ask when I do.
Peace,
Morgan
Nice to ‘meet’ you Ramsay! 🙂
wow
wonderful post
and what’s more shocking, 400 comments!!!
What’s up Ramsay!
I’m a new reader to the site, but I feel like I’ve read every article in the past week. Viperchill sure is addicting. Your attention to detail, and providing useful, quality content on a regular basis is impressive. I will continue to read for future tips for my own affiliate sites and for my future blog endeavors. Thanks Glen, and welcome Ramsay!
Looking forward to your future blogs.Ramsey. Been following VC for a while, now you as well.
Hey Glen and Ramsay,
My biggest pain point right now is that I don’t have time or energy to create content for various topics. What I do have is around $30 USD a month to pay someone to do it for me.
I’d be willing to use all of that on one article if the content is high quality. I might even be willing to save up and pay $60 per article if it’s like “local newspaper reporting” quality.
Do either of you know of any excellent content writers out there who research and write top-notch articles in that price range?
I’m really going for professional writers here. Not your typical content writing service.
Just wondering about something. Hopefully you both have advice on my issue. I’m 16 years old and looking to start my online career with my own projects. How would you tackle your online identity if you were my age and you got another shot at it? Hide behind a fake name, keep it mysterious, no identity, or full out truth? The only issue I have with using my real name online is when people Google me that I know in real life, and they don’t know about my online endeavors; it’s kind of awkward…
Then there’s also the amateur image people tend to get from a 16 year old; even if their work is more then amateurish.
Anyways I hope you guys can help me out.
Hey Glen and Ramsay,
Nice to hear of your passion to help others succeed more than money and personal success. I think many bloggers would definitely appreciate that. I own a growing self improvement blog. My goal is to create a platform where people can share their problems, get help and support within the community. My greatest challenge is to knowing how to go about building that community. Would you have some suggestions?
Thanks Ramsay,
Many good points made here, which yes, mimics my own gut driving feelings on the issue. Looking forward to your great lessons taught in the next blog posts!
Mike Salisbury
Wow, how did you do it? I guess I need to study your blog more. First time here. I’ve had a blog for over a year, but just started trying to promote it since I wrote my first book. I’ll be back.
What is happening ? How come there are no more posts ?
No inspiration ?
Are you dead guys ?
If only you knew 🙂
Hey Ramsay its always good to know your passion about blogging. The biggest problem that I face in Blogging is traffic generation. I guess no matter how much high quality content we produce unless we get the proper exposure it is useless so just wanted you to help us out beat Google Panda and Google Penguin through backlinks. Could you suggest any tricks to make unlimited backlinks towards a website as I have seen big players exchanging links with each other to boost page rank. How can a newbie build links as Guest Posting is impossible on a thousand blogs. Please help us build backlinks.
🙂 Awesome!
I love internet marketing, mostly when it’s applied on any other niche, not on “online marketing” or “making money online”.
So while I agree with everything you guys say, do and write – and by you guys I mean Glen, Ramsay, Darren Rose, Brian Clark, etc. – I smile at the thought that you’re all selling shovels when everybody’s looking to find gold.
You’re the Heinz and Levi’s of the blogging era – definitely a good position to be in.
There will always be one percenters and by selling shovels you’ve secured your position among them. Sometimes it seems to be just a big scam – even though I know it isn’t.
Not sure what you can make of this but I thought I’d say it. 🙂
Welcome to the Viperchill family Ramsay! I’ve been quite busy these past few months so I haven’t had much time to come on here.
I must say, you’ve made quite an impression with your first article and I look forward to hopefully reading plenty more.
Be peaceful,
Sinatra
hi i read most of the comments i saw on your blog when i bumped into it by chance and i knew i was talking with a real blogger. i’m so new into blogging and i have this site called enrichingliving.com the target content was initially to write on positive living, personal development. for sometime now i’ve been thinking that the target content is too broad and i’ve been and i’ve been using article directories to add content to my website. but of recent i just came up wiith and idea of writing product reviews on my site and posting article related to it on article directories. pls sir feel free to check it and help me with any suggestion. i’m adding u to my rss feed right away. thanks
[…] write blogs. This one and ViperChill are the main ones but I also do copywriting for a very select few clients. And what that means is […]
Fun stuff! How has your world changed, if any Ramsay?
I am sorry I am unable to get your ebook about niche site ideas. I hate both Facebook and Twitter. I don’t have an account to either one. I am probably one of the few. Oh well . . . .
Welcome Ramsey…ViperChill is by far one of my favorite sites for good online marketing info. My biggest struggle is content..which others have already mentioned and the ability to consistently get good content out there. I’ve thought about hiring people to write one off articles…so the true struggle really is..if you don’t enjoy writing…what do you do…
It’s not that I don’t enjoy it..it’s that i don’t enjoy it when I don’t have much to say and have to think of something..lol
Hi Glen,
I’m a teacher dreading returning to the classroom in September, my degree was internet technology way back in 1999-2002 before SEO was very well known about – wish I had studied that after uni rather than becoming a teacher think I would have been rich by now! Anyway thanks for the advice, my question is, as I’m not particulary good at writing articles I’ve decided to create my site base around a product which I’m trying to get ranked on google – http://capsiplexexplained.co.uk – i don’t have a blog even though it is wordpress – the number 4 ranker doesnt have a blog either but seems to have acquired that position through backlinks – would there be any advantage to me adding a blog even though it is really just to sell one particular product , I’m guessing people wouldn’t respond?
It is inspiring to hear that it is possible sell blogs for 20k … It blows my mind when i hear stories like that. Creating something from your own mind and selling it for good money without having high investments besides your time. It is great stuff to hear.
Nice Article,These articles really inspire we beginners in Blogging to reach the heights of success.Glenn Thanks for Introducing Ramsay 😀
It’s good to know that Team ViperChill now has another member.
Glen, I absolutely appreciate your statement about your efforts helping lots of people find a footing in the internet entrepreneurship world. Hope that the good work continues! 🙂
I am so afraid of starting and online biz. So much to learn. This is actually my very first blog response after hearing Glen on the Smartpassiveincomepodcast. How can I learn this stuff faster? Terminology, step by step etc?
Plus I really suck at writing.
🙂
I want to take an minute of mine to say THANK YOU to Ramsay.
Sorry for posting it here. I couldn’t comment for the post 5 minutes in blogging, so ended up commenting it over here.
I was intending to start a blog … I came across your below post
How to Start a WordPress Blog in 5 Minutes – Step by Step.
I was still in dilemma whether to follow on the instructions and to start the blog.
But I don’t know what made me take the step. I just followed the instructions and started my blog.
This all happened in 2 days.
My blog name is unedited-writeup.com
It is live because of your simple 5 minutes guide.
I Just want to SAY a HEART FELT THANK YOU.
thank you so much from jasa seo Indonesia.