So the first step we're shown is finding a product to promote and an affiliate. At this point, I didn't realize that this guide was aimed at people who want to be affiliates and not product owners themselves, but this is ok as I guess the same principles apply once you've got your own product.

So, we're shown the usual steps required to find a profitable product on Clickbank (popular affiliate network). So far so good, but to the most seasoned marketers, you'll likely skip right past this step.

The next thing, which again is standard practice in these types of guides, is keyword research. The system shows you how to identify broad keywords and pick out themes for your upcoming content for the blog.

It's pretty basic stuff still, at least for the most experienced marketers amongst us, but either way it's solid advice so far and very important...especially the points about search volume for your given keywords as getting that part wrong could mean failure in itself.

There's also a couple of other crucial points mentioned here that are crucial when picking keywords, but possibly some beginners might totally overlook, such as keyword profitability etc.

The following few steps cover the technical aspects of physically setting up your website and blog properly. Again, nothing particularly ground breaking here but I suppose useful for newbies or people unfamiliar with blog installs.

The value in this section is where Rob talks about how he sets out to optimize his blogs using a specific set of plug ins. These are all used for a specific purpose and benefit so it's worthwhile following along and installing what he suggests. I'd never heard of some of these plug ins before, but Rob assures me that they are key to a successful blog.

So far, speaking from experience I can say that the way Rob has introduced us to market research and setting up a website blog is spot on. There's no skimming info and not too much rambling, so at this point the guide definitely works...but we've not really got into any in-depth specifics yet.

Before we even get to writing our first post for our new blog, Rob goes through setting up the blog to be Search Engine friendly and to be ready to be monetized. He lists several steps which allow the blog to be found easily in the search engines and also several methods of monetizing your blog, some of which I didn't actually consider in the past. Let's just say that it's not all about Google Adsense!

Once the set up is complete, the next logical progression is the actual content creation. Now, speaking from experience I can tell you that this is always a tough aspect of blogging (or any type of online marketing). I was pleased to see that Rob outlines several methods of obtaining fresh and quality content that you can use for your blogs.

Whilst one or two methods involve money, he also explains how to make the most out of the free resources online such as republishing articles. This section dispels a few myths about using other people's content and did make me realize that content creation for your own blogs or websites really doesn't have to be the struggle that people make out.

At this point, you've got your blog set up, monetized and full of content. You can get to this point in about a week part time or if you do this full time probably in just a few days at the most.

So Rob then takes us onto the promotional side of things.

This section is all about getting links back to your blog. I know that there are numerous ways to get traffic to your site but I do agree with Rob's methodology that backlinks help with not only direct traffic but of course with rankings too. Rob covers all of the fundamental ways to get backlinks which although not ground breaking, certainly well proven and time tested.

This is probably the most time consuming part of the course so far and I'd look at this as an ongoing task more than a one off section.

Then Rob talks about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) but from the viewpoint of what you can do when you write/publish your content so that your posts get a better ranking in the search engines naturally. This is where Rob talks about LSI, which is a new technical term for the way in which search engines read web pages to determine what the content is all about and whether the content is actually worth ranking in the results.

Rob does a good job of explaining this and gives a great example of how to write your pages with this new LSI approach in place. It's actually not as complicated as it sounds, honestly!

Next, we're onto Web 2.0 marketing strategies which has always been a confusing subject for not only myself, but many fellow marketers both novice and professional.

Rob details several of the most powerful Web 2.0 websites that you should start working with to get traffic and backlinks from. Although in this entire section, I do feel as though he could have gone into a lot more detail, because the majority of his advice covers things like how to set up an account or post content...which is pretty self explanatory to most of us.

However for what it's worth, on some parts he does go into some impressive detail about his strategies to using these sites to gain more traffic than usual.

This section leaves me with mixed opinions - both that he could have left out a lot of the basic info and replaced it with more detailed material, but on the other hand he does give some great advice and specific tricks to use on these Web 2.0 sites to get the most out of them as possible.

Either way, I've still got some useful tidbits to take away from this Web 2.0 section of the guide, but I do still feel that even with all of the techniques he describes for Web 2.0 marketing, you still need to be able think a little creatively, so don't expect a complete paint by numbers approach here if you want to get the most out of this section.

At this point, after a few weeks of work you should be on your way to seeing some initial money roll in, providing you've set things up properly. This is where most people get tired and drop the ball (myself included). That's why I openly welcomed Rob's section on outsourcing, as this is the missing link that many intensive guides seem to forget about.

The thing about outsourcing is that it lets you win back your time but still keep the ball (and the money) rolling. Rob's advice on outsourcing is impressively detailed and shows you how to get it set up properly and maintain it effectively. This is a fairly short section, but invaluable if you're new to the idea of outsourcing and does contain some clear cut and sound advice.

Finally, we're onto the selling of your blog. Whilst I never saw the point in selling something you've worked so hard to create, Rob explains how this final step in his system has created so much money for him and can easily do the same for you.

Personally, I'm not so sure I'd rush to sell a blog that was making me consistent money, unless of course I could sell it for at least the value of a year or two's worth of revenue. (That way I could get some really nice upfront cash and put that into an even bigger project without needing to do the hard work upfront or relying on getting a bank loan).

So again, this is a solid section on selling your blog including where to sell for the best profits and numerous steps to take to make sure you get the highest bids for it. In particular, Rob mentions three aspects that you need to address before you even think about listing it for sale, which I doubt would be things that spring to mind for many people.

Before the end, there's a series of bonus chapters which cover some very specific tricks and tips to accompany the main guide. These include:

1. Getting your blog indexed in 24 hours.
This means getting the search engines to list your blog in their database literally overnight, so you can start getting traffic and ranking from the search engines immediately. I've never seen this particular approach before but it seems to work like a charm and actually costs nothing to implement, which is great news for me.

2. Thousands of free links to your blog.
This is a great addition to the main backlink building section which can mean major rankings for your blog's keywords in a very short amount of time. I do however question this technique a little as getting so many links to your blog too quickly could raise a flag in the search engines eyes, so proceed with caution and don't be tempted by greed here!

3. The sneaky theme sponsor trick.
I've heard of this many times before, but funnily enough I never got round to trying it out for real. This is all about sponsoring blogs in a particular fashion and I would say that the effectiveness of this is more down to luck and trial and error more than anything else and if you've already followed the other techniques properly, you will probably not need to implement this sort of trick to be honest...still worth a try though if you've got the time/money.

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Blogging To The Bank 3.0