Master Blog Class: February 2012

It's finally here. I just completed the step by step guide to adding an Amazon.com widget on your blog. This has pictures etc. as to how it's done.

In “Add Amazon Widgets to Blogger and Add Money in Your Pocket”, How using just one Widget can make you money, and how using more widgets can make your wickedly rich~, Ter Scott shows you step by step how to take just one Amazon Widget and place it on your Blogger site. From this initial step, you can experiment with other widgets found on Amazon.com and use them to monetize your blogger blog, or other blogs and web sites. The reader can get continuing support at http://masterblogclass.blogspot.com/.

Here are the steps, yes right here in this blog post. However, if you want the step by step with the screen shots, you’ll need to buy it for the low price of only 99 cents at www.amazon.com. (Or, if you have attended Ter Scott’s Master Blog Class either in person or via the online purchase at www.terscott.com/blogability, you can get your free by emailing Ter Scott’s office at the email address given you in class or with your materials when ordered online).

Here are the steps to add an easy widget and offer some things from Amazon to sell to your readers.

First let’s go to www.amazon.com. Either sign in, or sign up if you haven’t done so.
Now scroll all the way to the bottom and you’ll see headings and click on
“Make Money With Us”:
For now, let’s find the widgets.
Click on “Become an Affiliate”:
Note the tabs at the top. Again, you’ll see many places you can go to, but let’s click on the Widgets tab.
Click on the Carousel Widget.
In the search box, add your key words or search phrase.
Click on the “add product” to move it from the left box to the right box. Continue to scroll down, adding a minimum of six, and a maximum of ten.
Choose the blog where you’ll add this widget and open it in a separate web browser window. I’m making the assumption that you have a blog with blogger. If not, visit: www.blogger.com, create and account and voila, you’ve got yourself a blog. For more in-depth “how to do it” and profit, visit: www.terscott.com/blogability.
Return to Amazon.com and continue to add the products to a maximum of ten.
Click on “next step”.
This will now open the widget options.
I like the horizontal carousel Orientation option so I click on that if it’s not already there. This depends on which “add a gadget” element you choose in your blog; I’ve used both. To see an example of the horizontal option, visit: http://duluthmnlife.blogspot.com/.
To see an example of the vertical carousel used, visit: http://www.attainmentrules.com/, a blog which I turned into website simply by purchasing a domain name and redirecting it to the blog address. If you’d like to know how to do that, watch for it at the http://masterblogclass.blogspot.com/.
Scroll down and click on “next step”:
Now, you click on “add to my web page”
Click on the “copy” button and everything will become “highlighted” which means you’ve captured the HTML code
Open another window in your web browser and log in to Blogger if you are not there already.
Find your blog that you want to add this carousel widget, and click on “design”. This opens the workable area template that has all the changeable elements.
Click on the “add a gadget” at the top center (this will accommodate the “horizontal carousel” widget) which opens the gadget options box, scroll down until you find the HTML box, and click on it:
When it opens, paste the HTML code that was captured, into the box (I choose to leave the “title” area blank which is optional):
then click save and voila, the box closes and it should now be on the blog. Let’s go and see!

Ah yes, a beautiful Amazon Widget for my readers to enjoy is attractively displayed. It looks great and maybe I’ll make a few sales. So these are the steps but just for 99 cents you can find it all in living color and with more detail by yours truly by placing the title or simply Ter Scott in the search bar at http://www.amazon.com/.

If you aren’t a Master Blog Class student, and don’t have the Master Blog Materials yet, no worries, in this new Kindle edition available at http://www.amazon.com/ and using “Ter Scott” in the search box, you’ll still get all you need to know on how to add one such Amazon Widget to your Blogger site. Both Amazon and Blogger can take some time to “learn” and “tweak” to your liking and to profit. Please give it time; just spend a little time in each daily.

Make any page on your blog or site Print friendly.

Hello all. Do you have your blog up and running yet? Let me know your blog address and I’ll let everyone know and you can have some visitors.

Today I’m going to share how you can make your blog (and website) printer friendly. This is a very easy thing to do and your visitors will appreciate it; especially when you offer content worth printing!

To get the address of the site and to see how it works, go to my webpage: www.terscott.com/rolodexfile. You’ll want to bookmark this page as I’m always adding good stuff there that will improve your blogs and websites. Click on the "make any page on your site print friendly". You’ll be directed to the site and all you need to do is “fill in the blanks” and copy and paste the html code into your blog “html” gadget. Play around with it yourself and if after a while you find that you need help, then contact me by email (if you are a member of the master blog class, you have my email) or you can leave you comments after this post.

On my rolodexfile page, you’ll see the icon in the upper right part of the page. Also, I’ve placed it on my 6 Points for Productive Personal PR so people can print the poster; see it here: www.terscott.com/ppr.

You’ll find many places to use this gadget. Let me know how you like it.

Ter

I write to write.

...that is not to say that I don’t care about the reader; obviously I’d love my words to be read (if not adored) by the reader and at least to have value to the reader. But I don’t focus on building a blog simply to profit monetarily by it. Sure I teach others to add elements such as AdSense, Amazon and other affiliate links, use search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to get people to know your blog is in existence so they visit in the first place and then watch the money start to come to them, however slowly at first. But again I remind all: “Do what you love, and the money will follow”. In all of my time in “sales”, and we are all involved in sales in one way or another, I’ve always tried to put the customer first and got my thoughts of my commission “out of the way, and out of my mind”. When I have a good (repeat) customer, my commissions and needs are met.

Also read, read, read. Many of my ideas come to me when I meld minds with other authors. Usually for me it’s from a book from my regular “quiet time” collection I read from every morning with my tall cup of coffee companion. Today was no exception.

I was reading about SEO and was reminded of 3 things to ask visitors to your site or store. (Remember that as the Bricks to Clicks Marketing Consultant, I work with business owners both offline and online; the two must work together). I then took these 3 points and added my own twist and take on them using my thoughts, and knowledge gleaned from my experiences. You can see the article by clicking here at: http://marketingmasterclass.blogspot.com/

I just shared another blog technique. I’m writing to you here at this blog and told you about another blog, using it as an example. Pretty cool, huh? For those readers who click and visit that blog, they will be rewarded with good content that has value that will help them and their business improve and it will also reward me with favorable search engine link rankings.

Think of your reader and offer great content but don’t be concerned if you don’t have an audience or earning AdSense dollars at first. All will come in time. Just write regularly in your blog, and dear reader, write to write.

Write to Write

Good day fellow bloggers.

In my blog classes, I promote ways bloggers can earn money from their blog because everyone seems to be interested in making more money; it’s a common trait. However, I’m reminded that there is a greater purpose to blogging- writing. And, I’ve not forgotten, those of you from my Master Blog Class will soon be getting a step by step procedure to add Amazon on your blog to sell books and other things to your blog visitors! You can sign up for the Online Version of the Master Blog Class here.

Writing helps you become a better writer, period. When you write, you become more interested in better ways to write so you take more classes, read more about improvement, and hang around others who share your passion. So you become better at writing and in turn love to write. Then hopefully, people like what you write and return to your blog again and again to enjoy your posts. “When you do what you love, you never have to “work” another day in your life” is a quote I’ve heard and remind myself daily. You probably know of people who say that they would continue doing what they do (public speaking, teaching, and writing) even if they didn’t get paid, and of course many have until they were to the “show me the money” stage of their careers.

As I was writing my “as I was reading” blog post for today (you can go there by clicking the previous line in quotes) I thought of my blog class students. Today’s post was about reading the acknowledgments in the book: Chicken Soup for the Golden Soul and how the writers acknowledged others and how I wondered what goes on in the mind of those being acknowledged. I feel that one can learn great gems of wisdom from so many places, and the acknowledgement in a book is like discovering a rare ruby.

But while I was writing this post, I thought about just how many people would really be interested in my goings on about the acknowledgement in a book in which most may never even read. My answer to my bloggers is this, sometimes you write to write. You can only become better.

So please, create your blog and write a minimum of one post per week; daily when you can. Those who are in the blogger’s class have my email and can always ask me questions by stating “BLOG QUESTION” in the subject line (remember, unlike the government- I really am here to help; just kidding). For other readers here, I encourage you to enroll in the Online Master Blog Class and/or simply state any questions/comments you may have at the end of this post.

Ter

http://asiwasreading.blogspot.com/

http://www.terscott.com/blogclass