My Must-See Blog Posts From 2008

As 2008 comes to an end, I thought I’d highlight some of the key posts from this year. Before I do that, however, I just want to say 2008 has been an amazing year for my affiliate business.

Not only was it a record year earnings-wise, but I was able to generate two significant sources of traffic for my main website…

1) This blog

2) My YouTube videos

When I switched from Blogger to WordPress last December, I had 400 RSS subscribers.  Now I’m up to nearly 1200.  In addition, my YouTube videos are now ranked #3 in terms of referring traffic to my website (the search engines and this blog are #1 and #2 respectively.)

Overall it’s been a great year and I look forward to seeing what 2009 will bring.

So without further ado, let’s get to the key posts of 2008.  If you’re a new subscriber/follower, perhaps you’ll find some useful articles you missed.  Go find your favorite chair, grab a drink, sit back and relax while I take you through the highlights of 2008…

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January

In January, I wrote quite a few posts that targeted people just getting started online.  I learned that a lot of you tend to feel overwhelmed by all the information and options so I wrote, “I Want a Website But I’m Stuck and Overwhelmed” and “Help! I’m Clueless About Web Design“.

These posts will suggest some key areas you should focus on if you’re just starting.

Then I followed up with “Do You Struggle With Creativity?” This was my response to those who want to stand out in their niche but have trouble coming up with creative ways to do it.

February

One of my favorite and most popular posts from this month was “One Website Niche You Should Avoid.”  I also link to this post from my site’s homepage because I think there is such an important message here.

The “make money online” niche is heavily saturated and one you should avoid especially if you aren’t making anything yourself.  That post was a real eye-opener for many of my visitors.

A few days later I wrote about how I doubled my blog traffic in 2 months.  This was pretty exciting considering I just started blogging seriously just 2 months before this post was created.

Finally, I rounded out the month by redesigning my SBI! site, Flat Stomach Exercises.  I stopped using SBI!’s template builder and used Dreamweaver to design my own layout from scratch and provided the 3-column template for free in this post.

Note: I have since redesigned my site so the template you will download no longer looks like my current site.

March

March was an amazing month.  I received my largest monthly affiliate check ever from SiteSell.  I decided to use it as an example to teach you what to do and what NOT to do as an affiliate.

By the way, SiteSell is holding their annual Holiday Special where you can buy one Site Build It! and get a 2nd one free.  The special ends January 5, 2009 so if you’ve been thinking about trying Site Build It!, now’s the time!

Next up is my post titled “How to Test Drive WordPress Themes in Windows.”  At the time I wrote this post, you could not preview your themes in the Admin panel before going live.

Even though you can now preview them, I still like having a fully functional version of WordPress on my computer for testing.  The above post shows you how to install it.

April

By April I was really starting to reap the benefits from having a YouTube channel so I wrote “YouTube – Your Ticket to More Traffic.”  If you haven’t started YouTub-ing, you might want to put that on your “To Do” list for 2009.

The following week, I showed what can happen when you pay attention to people who don’t use RSS. After allowing people to subscribe to my blog using Feedburner’s e-mail feature, I instantly gained 200 followers by e-mail. Read about that here.

Next, I wrote a post that caused a bit of a stir.

Ken Evoy (Site Build It!’s creator) wrote a very bold article about blogging and why it can be a mistake for many.  If you are trying to decide between a blog or a website you might want to read this post.

May

My first post in May titled “Are You a Robotic Webmaster” didn’t generate a lot of traffic or feedback.  Perhaps my title was a too ambiguous or maybe people didn’t get what I was trying to say here.

I wanted to highlight this post here because too many people focus on quantity over quality when it comes to building a website or blog.  What I mean is that it’s not about how much content you put out or how long your pages are.

It’s about producing QUALITY, USEFUL information that targets a specific audience.  So rather than focusing so much on “how much” you have to do/write, focus more on doing what you feel is relevant for YOUR audience.

And if you don’t know who your audience is, then you need to take the time to define it.  The more you know about who you are talking to, the easier it will be to write content and produce quality work.

Later on that month I wrote “Lessons From a Teenage Affiliate“.  This was my response to the many people who were using Nori Evoy’s successful travel website as an example for their own.

If you want to be successful with a travel information website, you have to go above and beyond just listing basic facts that can be found anywhere on the Web (airport and restaurant info, etc.).

You have to add your own personal experiences and give your site a personality (And of course that goes for any niche.)  One of the reasons Nori’s site was able to help fund her college education was because it is not just a travel information site with copied or paraphrased information.

It’s an in-depth guide filled with reviews, stories and family photos that give the website a very personal feel, and it is continually updated with fresh information that you can’t find by going to Google or Yahoo.

My last post that month answered the popular question “Blog or Website?”  Here is my response based on my own experiences of owning a blog and a website.

June

In June I quieted a lot of noise and hype about making a lot of money online with my video, “The Story Behind My Six Figure Income.”  This is one of my most popular YouTube videos to date.

And since we’re on the subject of money, I followed up with a post talking about my top 7 online money makers. This satisfied a lot of curiosity from those wondering how I earn a living online.

July

After blogging continuously for 6 months, I began to notice some bad habits picked up by myself and other bloggers.  So I wrote about them in “10 Awful Blogging Practices.”

My last post for that month highlighted some of the common reasons people fail online.  This post struck a chord with many who just can’t seem to get off the ground.

August

As the economy continued to decline, I began to get more e-mails from people who were panicked and desperate to make money online.  This compelled me to make a video addressing this issue.

About a week later, a check I received from Amazon.com sparked the post “Don’t Discount Amazon.com’s Affiliate Program.”

September

I love Yaro Starak and I believe he is a great example of what you can do with a blog if you plan and execute accordingly.  In one of his reports, he talks about how most Bloggers fail because they are poor marketers.  I expanded on his point in this post.

A few weeks later I created “Is Google AdSense Dead?” as a response to the many questions I kept receiving about the potential earnings of the AdSense program.

My last post of the month addressed the topic of creating social networking websites.  The success of Twitter, MySpace and Facebook generated a plethora of ideas and curiosity among people who wanted to build their own social networking sites.  Here is my response.

October

I spent a lot of time in front of my video camera in October. 🙂 In fact, all three videos are worth watching if you are an affiliate like me or thinking of getting into affiliate marketing.  Check them out below…

– Are You Cashing in With ClickBank

– Be Careful of Affiliate Program Hopping

– MLM vs. Affiliate Marketing

November

I got a little frustrated with the amount of lazy people contacting me so I sounded off in the post “My Thoughts on Lazy People.” 🙂

Then to round out the month I dispelled a lot of myths about SEO (search engine optimization) with my video “Stop The SEO Madness.”

December

I realize I just wrote the following post a week ago, but it’s probably one of my favorite blog posts of all time.

There’s a big myth circulating around the Web that has people believing they have to know everything about a certain topic in order to be qualified to build a successful information website.

In my post, “The Problem With The Word Expert“, I show you why this is not true and use my own success as an example of why the word “expert” often has too much power.

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As 2008 comes to a close I’d like to say THANK YOU for your support of my websites, forum and blog.  I am truly humbled by my success and all the support I’ve received from all of you.

Let’s set big goals in 2009 and I’ll see you in the new year! 🙂