Earlier this month, I received an e-mail from Jimmy D. Brown where he introduced the custom one-of-a-kind theme he uses for his blog.  It was designed and coded for his exclusive use by a first-rate graphics guy.  He charges $499 per project!

Whenever someone stumbles across his site, they often wonder “which theme did he use?” looking at the features with envy and wishing they could get one just like it.  Most people can’t afford $499 for a custom theme.  I can’t even afford $499 for a custom theme.

But when I heard that Jimmy D. Brown hired his graphics guy to create a theme that is very similar to his own that he could sell to the general public at a very small and affordable price…

I knew I had to get my hands on it.

The result was a wonderful theme entitled…

Multiple Streams Theme

And I’ve gotta admit: I’m impressed! The multiple streams theme has ten built-in ways to make money just by using the theme at your own blog.  And it was super easy to install and configure.

You can read all about it at… http://ideborah.com/blog/multiplestreamstheme/

IN FACT, if you’re a blogger, I’d highly recommend you buy a copy of the theme right now before you forget.

What do you think?

• Do you like the look of the theme installed at http://ideborah.com?
• Do you think it will significantly increase passive income streams?
• Have you seen any comparable themes?

Share your thoughts below.

I can’t believe I’m almost at the end of Mark Joyner’s “Learn to Blog For Profit & Fun“. Two weeks certainly have blown by quickly. I can already see improvements in my web traffic on this blog and the other blogs that I have online. I’ve also reworked my marketing strategies for my websites and have seen improvements there as well. And this morning, I got my first Google Alert for the new blog so that means that it’s being indexed – not bad considering the blog is only about two weeks old.

Today is Lesson 14 which talks about why small business owners should have a blog. Funny place to put that lesson but I guess the target market is just bloggers in general rather than it being specifically geared to business owners. So why should small business owners and online entrepreneurs have a blog? To quote Mark Joyner: “The answer is very simple: Because you need it.”

He digs a little further into the reasons why in this lesson but Mark Joyner is one of the smartest marketing guys around and even though he was a little slow to jump on the blog bandwagon… if he says your online business needs a blog, then you can be sure you need one.

I’ll be finishing my review series tomorrow and I can tell you that I’ve only scratched the surface. You really should enroll for Mark Joyner’s Learn to Blog for Profit & Fun yourself in order to take full advantage of Mark’s expertise. It’s easy… you can find the details here.

Next we’ll be taking a look at viral marketing, courtesy of a new course by Mark. Stay tuned!

We’re nearing the end of Mark Joyner’s “Learn to Blog for Profit & Fun“ and lesson 13 is dedicated to the final way to earn income from blogging: getting paid for blogging. Blogging is getting noticed in the corporate world and you can now find a job as a professional blogger. As we’ve seen through out the pages of my own blog, blogging is one of the fastest ways to get online and build credibility with your readers. It’s also a great way to generate oodles of search engine traffic. So it’s no surprise that Corporate is taking note and wanting to get in on the action. What better way to get your product known than being featured in a blog post that takes off and is quoted by hundreds of other bloggers worldwide?

Aside from Corporate Blogging, you can also earn a decent income by being paid to review products on your blog. The “Learn to Blog for Profit & Fun” course offers two fantastic resources to check out. I haven’t checked them out myself yet so I won’t review them here but if you’re interested – be sure to sign up for Mark Joyner’s course today by clicking here.

Affiliate programs are the cornerstone of my passive revenue. I’ve been a big fan of affiliate marketing since the first time I was exposed to the concept. So lesson 12 of Mark Joyner’s “Learn to Blog for Profit & Fun“ didn’t contain any new information for me, it still serves as a powerful reminder that blogs are an easy way to get exposure to your affiliate links. An affiliate marketing newbie is even given a few good programs to check out. As a dedicated blogger, you can earn a steady stream of revenue providing product reviews and information on programs and services you recommend. While everyone ultimately hopes to create their own products, you can earn some passive revenue by recommending the work of others. If you haven’t jumped on the affiliate bandwagon yet, here is a program I highly recommend:

Simpleology Partner Program This program is by invitation only but if you feel that your blog or website qualifies, by all means fill out an application.

Lesson 11 of Mark Joyner’s “Learn to Blog For Profit & Fun“ focused exclusively on advertising. Google Adsense was introduced as the most popular way to earn income on your blog. The course goes on to introduce a few other good advertising programs and gives you some of the parameters they use to evaluate your site for inclusion in their advertising programs. Lesson 11 stresses what I hinted at in yesterday’s review: “to make [advertising] work, you should focus on your content and improve your traffic”. Then things like ad positioning and good ad display are just gravy.

Just finished Lesson 10 of Mark Joyner’s “Learn to Blog for Profit & Fun“ and while I admit that there’s fantastic content and great strategies for using multiple revenue streams to make money off your blog, the revenue isn’t going to magically start accruing unless you do some of the work in the previous lessons – especially the work to drive traffic to your blog. If there’s no one reading, then there’s no one who is going to be taking advantage of the offers and affiliate links, etc. that are displayed on your blog.

It can be relatively easy to earn income from your blog but unless you attract the readers and have fantastic content to offer them to keep them coming back, then the income isn’t going to manifest on its own. So while it’s true that there are at least six ways to make money from your blog, unless you implement the strategies you’ve learned to this point, you’re not going to make a penny.

That’s not to say that you can’t implement some of the revenue generating ideas right away (affiliate programs and advertising programs) and have them in place for when you do start driving steady traffic. By all means, go right ahead and pop a few affiliate links here and there or sprinkle google adsense code through out your blog. But realize that unless someone reading, you’re not likely to make money from your blog. Don’t get frustrated if the first time you post an affiliate link on your blog, no one buys.

Another thing you may want to consider is using tracking links on your affiliate links… especially if you promote those links elsewhere. Most affiliate programs aren’t sophisticated enough to show you where a click came from. So if you’re interested in learning how many sales are generated by your blog as compared to your e-zine or website, then the links on your blog should be coded to track the lead. If you use 1Shopping Cart (or one of it’s many brands) then you can use the ad tracker feature to track the affiliate links that you place on your blog to see how many hits they get.

And if you’re looking for some inspiration to get you started, be sure to check out some of my other blogs. I’ve been earning a steady stream of revenue from all of them and use different strategies on each.

http://www.million-dollar-rolodex.com

http://www.mondayniteraw.com

Ping! Today’s lesson in Mark Joyner’s “Learn To Blog For Profit & Fun“ discussed some additional strategies for driving traffic to your blog. Anyone who has taken any online business building course would be familiar with these strategies but they’re worth reviewing. Again, it will take work to really start driving traffic to your blog. But if you hope to expand your readership beyond your friends and family, then the work’s gotta be done. So buckle down and do it. Find some forums related to your topic and contribute. Check out the FeedBlitz service and a few other advertising services. Consider adding a podcast. Though the course didn’t really go into too much detail or even give you a list of resources to check out, a few minutes on Google will point you in the right direction.

Only a few more lessons left. Stay tuned.

I’m getting into the nitty gritty of blog traffic now in Mark Joyner’s “Learn to Blog for Profit & Fun“ and I’ve got to say, like Mark, I’m a blogging moron at times. Today we covered linking with other blogs and that’s a strategy that I’ve never really taken the time to implement. And believe me, it does take time. Search Engine Optimization (or SEO) takes time which is probably why some people outsource the task and pay buckets o’ cash to get their sites optimized.

Essentially, search engines look at a few things when ranking your blog, does it have good content and is it linked to other blogs. You’re judged on the relevancy of your inbound links (links coming in to your blog) and your outbound links. Then there’s trackbacks which is another ballgame all together. That’s been something I’ve never done – mainly because I don’t tend to read a lot of other blogs – at least none related to what I blog about. And that’s a mistake. I really should make the time to do the things that I know will drive traffic to my blog. I know what needs to be done – I’ve known for years as I’ve been in the Internet Marketing game for a while and have worked with some pretty smart cookies.

The strategies in Mark Joyner’s Learn to Blog course are really simple but they will take effort on your part. As with pretty much any goal or target in your business or your life, it takes a certain amount of work elbow grease and dedication. I’m going to commit now to doing the work needed to increase readership of my blog and drive traffic. And I have just the tools to help me succeed. I’m a big fan of another of Mark’s courses, “Simpleology 101.” The daily praxis, though simple, really help keep me on target. I’ve done the course before and every once in a while I fall out of practice and lose focus so I go through it again.

I do have the tools to succeed and have had them for a while – now I just need to get into action. Thanks Mark for the kick in the pants you probably didn’t realize would result from lesson 8.

If you haven’t yet signed up for Mark Joyner’s “Learn to Blog For Profit & Fun“ then you are not harnessing the full power of your blog. I’ve just completed lesson 7 of Mark’s course and had a d’oh! moment. Mark’s blogging course shared another fantastic strategy for driving traffic to your website. No need to hire an expensive SEO expert to optimize your website. Simple SEO can be done by you and Mark Joyner’s blogging course gets you pointed in the right direction.

Today’s lesson was all about making your blog search engine friendly. Make sure there’s good navigation, have plenty of keyword rich content (remember: content is king!) and make sure you update frequently. It also helps to have a blog URL that contains one or more of your keywords. That was my d’oh moment. I just re-branded my blog and haven’t yet secured a keyword rich URL. Well technically I have one, I just haven’t installed my blog on it. If I find a spare hour this week, I’ll reinstall my blog over there. Sheesh – how silly is that?!?!?

Don’t make the same mistakes I made. Sign up for Mark Joyner’s “Learn to Blog For Profit & Fun“ and get your own step-by-step blogging blueprint.

Finally, I’ve reached the lesson that I’ve been waiting for, Lesson 6 of Mark Joyner’s Learn to Blog for Profit & Fun. Mark covered three great strategies for increasing traffic to your blog. Content is still key to driving traffic but now you’re focusing on posting keyword rich content. He gives an example of a post that ranks #1 on Google for particular keywords. If you go on to read the blog post, you discover the of the three keywords he uses, one was used seven times, the next was used ten times and the final keyword was used a total of seventeen times. Now it may seem that with all those keywords in there that it would be a poorly written post but the text flows naturally. So keyword rich content is essential to driving traffic to your blog.

Mark also covered two other fantastic strategies for driving traffic: article marketing and RSS. Both are well known strategies for driving traffic and are taught in many search engine optimization courses. Article marketing is one of the key ways I have used for myself and my clients to drive a steady stream of traffic to my websites and blogs.