First of all, you can see that the local game is hot right now.  Sites like Yelp are cashing in on these opportunities.  Even Google has continued to drive their local search focus.  Local is starting to spread across multiple products within Google, including:

• Local Search
• Google Maps
• Google Directory
• Adsense
• Adwords
• Google Voice
• Goog411

All of these products rely on the thirst for local content and information.  Sites like Yelp are cashing in on the local directory and review market where users generate local content about everything from restaurants to dry cleaners.

How to cash in on “local” with your blog?

Try to incorporate a local element with every post you write.  It does not have to be local to you, but local to the post.

For example, right now I am posting about the importance of localizing content.  For this post, a great example of what I am talking about would be a blog called Hoboken411.  This site is all about the city of Hoboken, NJ, right outside New York City.  By mentioning how great this local site is and talking about their content in a local sense, I will increase my odds of someone finding this post when Hoboken is typed into the search query.

Ok, maybe not the best example.  Here’s a few more.

Running blog. When you review that new pair of Nike running shoes for your blog, you should consider talking about the stores, cities, addresses, and websites of the stores that are going to get the first shipments of these hot shoes.  (A great example)

Reality TV blog. When you’re giving the play by play review of last night’s episode of The Apprentice, you should try to find out the name and address of the diner that the episode was shot.  Or the corner that they setup their street cart.  Or really any major landmark/scene from the episode.  There will be a lot of people out there that want to find out the name of the place.  They may be able to figure out that it was New York, but they won’t know much more than that.  If your post answers the “where” question, you will rank well for that search term.

Baseball blog. Let’s say that you write a blog about the New York Mets.  Each time the team hits the road, you could incorporate a post about the most “Mets Friendly” bar in that town to watch the game.  You’d be surprised how many displaced fans are spread all over the country looking for places to watch their favorite out-of-state teams. Here’s a good example of what I mean.  Here is where you can see Yelp cashing in on this idea.

In most cases, you should be able to come up with a local angle for your post.

For anyone looking to start a new blog, starting as a local blog is the place to go.  Most small or even mid-sized towns/cities are in desperate need for good local content.  You could dominate the niche by turning out great content focused on that local audience.

It is much easier to start local and attempt to expand than it is to start with a national focus.  There are a lot more players in the national game right now.  Local is the place to be!

Are you tired of hearing about it yet?  Well that is unfortunate because it is not going away in our lifetime.   As the cost of video production continues to head towards zero, more and more videos are being uploaded to the web.

Why is this important for you?

If you’re business (or blog) plans to compete in this space, you need to embrace video.

So, are you going to do some video blogging or are you going to put some video on your blog.  There is a huge difference.

Video for your Blog (Meh).

What I’ve done below is put some video on my blog.  It happens to be a very cool video called, The Machine is us\ing us.  It is a 5 minute clip that sums up the coolness of the Internet.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Normally, you would want this video clip to have some significance for being in your post.  In this case, I just thought it was a cool clip.

However, video is great for demonstrating your point, talking about a current event, showing and explaining a complex point, conveying humor, etc.  There’s no shortage of great video clips for you to include in your posts.

Adding video to your site will increase user engagement, and make your content even more valuable (provided you are finding great clips).

Video blogging (winner!)

If you’ve got the chops, video blogging is a great play for you to make.

Text is great.

Video is great.

Combine the two.  That’s awesome.

For bloggers and site owners, combining the power of well written text with a great, unique video cannot be beat.  The stuff is content gold.

The real trick is to produce the video yourself.  It is getting easier and cheaper to do with $150 cameras and free video editing software, but the prospect of being on camera intimidates most people.

That’s ok.  If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.  However, you still need to seriously consider it.

There is also an added search value when you create and publish video.  Users will find you through YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler, Facebook, etc. because of your videos.  They’ll eventually find their way back to your blog.

Keep in mind that most content can be made better with video.

Practice what you preach.

I know.  We don’t do much video (at all) here at BlogCraving.  But that is something we are quickly working to remedy.  We are planning on releasing some video training series on commonly asked questions when it comes to Wordpress.  The goal will be to create a video based user guide for Wordpress functions.

Each little lesson will be less than 60 seconds.  Just enough to show you what you need to know, and get it done.

More on that coming soon.

I was able to talk him off the ledge quickly because there are a lot of quick plugins to handle making a mobile version of your site.  More on those in a minute.  But it made me think, how important is it really that he have a smoking hot mobile version of his theme?

In his case, it turned out to be pretty important.  He runs a popular baseball blog in the New York/Tri-State area.  Through some dives into his website analytics, we discovered that there is a fairly sizable audience checking out his site in the morning from mobile devices.  We attributed this to people riding mass transit to work and checking in on their teams during their ride to work.

He happens to write a pretty funny recap of every game.  He’s pretty good about getting it up late at night around the time the game ends.  He had done this simply to catch the SEO wave in time for it to get some SERPs results by the time the next morning rolled around.   Unknowingly, people were looking to get his posts on their mobile devices as well.

We had just completed a more graphically intense redesign of his site that was wreaking havoc on smart phones.

I think it is safe to say that publishers should be very concerned about their sites rendering properly on mobile devices.  Everything is going mobile, so it smart to get in the game early.

With that in mind, don’t panic if your site is note especially mobile friendly just yet.  It isn’t critically important for most publishers.  In the case of my client, there was a very time specific point where his content was being consumed.  However, for most publishers that will not be the case.

For now, we have implemented some simple plugins on his site to better accommodate his mobile users. Over the next few weeks, we will be building a custom mobile treatment for his site to better monetize this niche audience.

Here are the best mobile plugins for Wordpress

• WPTouch – Primarily focused on touch based mobile devices such as iPhone, Andriod, Blackberry Storm, etc.
• Wordpress Mobile Edition – Great generic mobile site.  Very text-based, therefore loads quickly.
• MobilePress – Cross platform compatible.
• Wordpress Mobile Pack – Lots of configurable options.

Photo by Mike Licht via Flickr.

So what’s the best video plugin to handle all of your video embed needs?  Viper’s Video Quicktags is the absolute best.

I’ve been using this plugin for years now.  It is regularly updated and improved.  Each time Wordpress itself is updated, the plugin is always compatible.

The plugin is so good that the creator was just recently hired by Automatic.  (He’s made many other plugins as well.)

If you would like to start embedding videos from various major video hosting providers, get Viper’s plugin installed ASAP.

Video embed possibilities with this plugin include:

• YouTube
• Google Video
• Daily Motion
• Vimeo
• Veoh
• Viddler
• Metacafe
• Blip.tv
• Flickr Video
• Spike
• MySpace Video
• Generic FLV or Mov files (self hosted)

With that, here are the Top 5 Twitter Plugins for Wordpress.

1) Twitter Widget Pro:

This plugin creates a sidebar widget with tons of configurable controls to adjust the Twitter feed’s display.  You can also control things like showing the date/time stamps, etc.  This is great for pulling your Tweets right into your site, or pulling in Tweets from a group of people based on a subject.  It is also a great way to keep some fresh, active content going on your site until your next post.

2) Twitter Feed:

Got friends? Ha.  By that I mean do you have multiple people working on your blog?  Or do you have multiple Twitter followers/accounts that you would like to display on your site’s sidebar?  This is the plugin for you.  Easily pull in Tweets from multiple users and control the slick graphic display of them on your site.  Includes the Twitter user picture and more.

3) Twitter Friends:

Show the loooove!  This widget allows you to show who is following you on Twitter.  This is a great way to thank loyal followers and to encourage people to follow you.  This plugin will show the user’s Twitter photo, bio line, and most recent Tweet.  You can toggle on/off each feature as well allowing you to show more details about each person (or not).

4) Post to Twitter (and Twitter to Post)

Oh how magical a world it would be if you could somehow get your Wordpress posts to automatically show up in your Twitter account as Tweets?  How insane would it be if you could turn your Tweets into actual posts within Wordpress?  Dream no more my friends.  Post to Twitter does exactly that.  It allows you to control the direction of information  (Twitter to WP  vs  WP to Twitter).  Control the follow of Tweetalicious in either way you choose, or both!

5) Twitter Blaster:

Kind of a unique way to use Twitter and Wordpress.  This plugin allows your users to publish to your Twitter account.  Their Tweets get held as a “pending” post for your review.  You can then approve the Tweet and have it show up in your Twitter feed.  You can also approve the Tweet as a page/post.

Have one you really enjoy?  Tell me about it!

Post links to your favorite Twitter plugins for Wordpress in the comments below.

Wait…what do you mean you don’t have a list?

You have no idea how much traffic, loyalty, and revenue you have already missed.

If you have a fairly new blog, you’re off the hook.  I will just assume you did not know any better.

However, if your site has been around a for while and you’re getting over a thousand visits a day, you should already be in the process of building an email list.

The benefits of good old-fashioned, home-grown email lists cannot be understated.

So how do you start your list?

First, you need an email system to manage your list. At BlogCraving, we use Aweber to run our mini courses and newsletters. Constant Contact is another good one that I’ve used in the past. I just prefer Aweber.

Once you’ve signed up, I believe both will allow you a 30 day free trial, so there’s no risk.

The next thing you have to do is start getting your blog readers to subscribe. Unfortunately, it is not as easy as it sounds. You could throw up a post that says, “Hey…sign up for my newsletter.”  You’ll probably get a few people to actually sign up, but not the volume that you are looking for.

Instead, you have to put a nice juicy reason out there for people to join your list. You are asking people to give you something that they find very private and valuable: their email address. You had better give them a great reason for giving it to you.

Unfortunately, spammers have ruined the names of good, honest emailers.  People are very cautious when giving out an address.

Therefore, you must offer valuable content and incentives to join. Whatever your niche is, put together some killer content that will only be available to newsletter subscribers. Tell them about all the great stuff that subscribers are going to get sent, like insider tips, knowledge, and timely alerts.

Of course, you then have to deliver on that promise.

With programs like Aweber, you can automate the sending of your emails. For example, you can automate the sending of 5-part emails and spread them over 5 weeks.

When a user signs up, they instantly receive content piece #1. Then over the next 4 weeks, they get 4 more content nuggets sent to them automatically.

It could be anything, as long as you are delivering great content value.

Remember, great content is the name of the game.

If your content is no good, you’ll know right away because you will see your unsubscribe rates drop like a rock. You should really spend extra time with your email auto responders or broadcasts. Make sure that your emails are something that people are going to WANT to get in their inbox.

What’s the benefit for you?

Your emails will drive visitors back to your site. From the email itself, you can drive people back to articles, sections, photos, and more on your site.  Every time a broadcast goes out, you will see an influx of traffic back to your site.

You can also include advertising messages in your emails. You don’t want your emails to look like a big Penny Saver flyer, but you can include some monetization elements.

For example, if you are running a “mommy blog” and find an affiliate program that Baby Gap is having a sale this weekend, you can include a subtle affiliate link back to BabyGap.com. Some folks might click it and buy some stuff, earning you a commission.

In that case, sales on baby clothes are seen as valuable content/information since your site is a “mommy blog.” Good advertising can actually be valuable content for your audience.

It is very easy to tell if you are sending people information they want. Just look at your unsubscribe rate. If you’re unsubscribe rate is low, and you are getting a handful of new subscribers each day, you are in excellent shape.

As your list grows, so does the value of your online product.

[Photo Credit]

Most of the advice published here on BlogCraving comes from the perspective of taking your hobby blog and turning it into a small business.  Do we mean “quit your day job” type business?  That would be awesome, but no.

By business we mean a site that can easily pay for itself (hosting cost and what not) as well as put a few extra bucks in your pocket each month.

For those that are really dedicated, you can keep your forward momentum going right into the kind of business that becomes a full-time job.

Unfortunately, what most people don’t realize is the time it takes to reach these milestones.

Waking up one day and deciding that you want to turn your hobby blog into a money-making enterprise is definitely the first step.  Congratulations!

Step 2: Don’t stop.  It won’t happen in 3 months.  It might not happen in 6 months.  Honestly, it may be well over a year before your site really starts to get traction.   That’s totally normal.

The trick is to just keep going.  There are so many opportunities along the way just give up.  It can be depressing in the early days when you don’t have many people reading your great content.  That’s ok.  Just keep moving forward.

Patience is the key.  And if you don’t believe me, take it from social media and video blogger Gary Vaynerchuk in the clip above.

Not exactly.  One common mistake made by noob bloggers looking to start monetizing their sites is getting over excited by how easy it is to put up ads.

9 time out of 10, the new blogger joins every ad network they find and starts putting up one skyscraper after another.  Before you know it, there’s 8 ads on a single page from 4 different ad networks.

It’s a flashy, animated, blinking, weight loss, acai berry drinking good time all right.

Unfortunately, that means they’ve made one of the critical mistakes in blog business.  They took their eyes off the ball.

Content is your #1 priority.  Your users come first.

Don’t get me wrong, it is really exciting.  Here’s all these companies that want to hand you money just for putting their ads on your website.  Who wouldn’t get excited.  That’s why I can’t believe everyone isn’t blogging.

However, focusing all your time and attention on stuffing every available inch of your site with ads is a proven way to drive away the traffic you have worked so hard to attain.

When users feel like they are being bombarded with advertisements, they are going to get distracted from your content.  Eventually, they will lose interest.

Another problem that is often overlooked is the page load time of your site.  If you have a lot of different ad networks running on your blog, you have to make sure that they are not causing any page load delays.

Remember that each time your website is loaded by a user, a number of call outs to the ad network server are happening.  Each call out can ad loadtime and overall page weight to your site.

You can pretty easily spot these issues when you visit a poorly optimized blog.  The body content will load almost immediately.  Then it might be another second or two of delay before the right sidebars finally load.  Or perhaps only part of the sidebar loads followed a couple seconds later by the rest of it.

Page load time is a great way to drive away even more users.  The longer someone has to wait to surf around your site, the less likely they become to ever do it again.

When you are first starting out, try to resist temptation and just go with one ad network.  You can always switch or add more later.  From there, just pick 2-3 ad units and leave it at that.

There is the IAB standard pack that includes:  729×90 Leaderboard, 160×600 Skyscraper, and a 300×250 Square.  Just go with those and you will have all of the basic IAB standard sizes covered.

First some perspective.

Let’s say you really do have your blog hosted for free right now on a site like Blogger or Wordpress.com.  That’s great.  If you are happy, god bless.  If you want to step up you game a little, you are going to have to move on to a self hosted solution.

What are we talking about price wise?  Roughly $80 – $120 per year.  You can pretty easily get your hosting done for about $7.95 per month.  That’s really cheap.  Granted, that is much more expensive than free…I will give you that.  However, it is a small price to pay for the potential increase in revenue and content flexibility that is then afforded to you.

How to get your hosting for free?

There are two easy ways, but first consider our goal.  We need to come up with $7.95 in revenue every month to offset the cost of hosting.  That is not a lot of money.

Method #1: Google Adsense

Adsense is probably the easiest, most turn-key way to start making advertising revenue on your website.  If you’ve never used it before, it is simple.  Just add the Google ad units to your page template and start getting paid.  You will get a few cents every time someone clicks an ad on your website.

Let’s break it out even further.  You need to generate $0.27.  When you think about it, that is not that hard at all.

You’re first couple of months, you might only make a dollar or two.  By the last month or two, you will probably be making around $12+.  So on average for the year, you should be right on target.

The big guys are going to turn their noses up at this idea and say that you should get into affiliate marketing, etc.  Sure, there are a variety of other networks you can get involved with and eventually make more money.  There is no question about that.

However, this is just the quickest way to get started.

Method #2: Refer a Friend

I don’t think I have ever found a single hosting company that does not run their own affiliate marketing program.  Basically, this is a program that allows you to sign up as a “partner” with the hosting company.  For every referral or sale that can be attributed to you, they will pay you a commission.

In the traditional sense, you would do this through banners, buttons, text links, CPC campaigns, etc.

But you can do this on a much smaller level.  Just put your host’s affiliate link on your about page.  Then when you talk to your friends, recommend your host.  Tell them to just go to your About page and click the link to find out about your hosting plan.

If they end up buying a plan with your host, you will get paid.

The best part is the commission itself.  Most hosts pay between $50 – $100+ per referral!  With just one or two friend referrals, you could have your entire year of hosting paid off.

If you are the kind of person in the group that others look to for recommendations, this might be a great opportunity for you.

You can’t lose either way you go.

The best part is the revenue is limitless.  The goal here is to completely offset your hosting costs, but why does it have to start there?  You could actually end up making way more than your hosting ends up costing.

Welcome to the world of digital advertising.

Bear with me on the following journey.  I promise, there is an important lesson to be learned that will make you money.

I happen to find myself at a variety of business networking events in New York City through out the year.  I tend to go there because I have to go.  I’m usually dragged there by co-workers.

Hey, if there’s an open bar, why not.

Inevitably, someone ends up trying to force a conversation on me about their business.  Most of the time, I could really care less.

Can you tell I am not in sales?

Well, since I’m not in sales, I end up telling these guys what I do, and start asking some questions about their websites (or lack thereof) because I really don’t want to them give me their hard sell anymore.

Here these guys are, more excited to talk about their business, what they do, and why I should be just as excited about it as them.  They can go on and on for hours about every mind numbing detail about their industry.

Finally one day, I cut a guy off and asked why none of this information was on his website.

Here’s a guy that knows everything you would ever want to know about (in this case) supply chain management.  A nice enough guy, of course.  But here he is chatting my ear off about the subject.  I’m a web developer and content producer.  I am never going to need his services.

Which brings up the point of this little rant.

This guy is a wealth of professional knowledge.  As he told me many times, he has 17 years of experience.  Yet when you look at his website, you would never know it.

Finally, I had a come to Jesus moment with him.  I explained how much business he was potentially losing because he was wasting his time chatting one on one with me rather than sitting at home writing about it.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not knocking face to face networking at all.

However, I am sick and tired of running into these guys all over town that really know their stuff, but don’t realize how to properly channel it.

I explained to him how he should start a blog on his company website and write one new post per day about supply chain management subjects.

Personally, I would never read it.  You would probably never read it either.

But, there are people out there that would read it, and be very glad to be reading it.  That is the point.

Your customers are out there actively searching the Internet for information about your specialty.  Get in front of them by giving them the expert information they are looking for, and give it to them for free.

Before you know it, the person reading your stuff is going to think you are god’s gift to supply chain management.  Guess who this guy is going to call when he’s ready to get someone hired as a consultant?  You big boy.

Talk to the right people!  They are desperate to find you.

So that is my point.  Most professions are fairly specialized, such as this one.  Most people will not care one bit about what you do.  However, there is a group of people out there that are extremely interested in what you do.  They are searching specifically for the knowledge you possess.  They are out there searching right this very second.

Let’s put it this way.  You could spend your time traveling around to supply chain management conferences and networking events.  First of all, how many of those could there be?  And how much is it going to cost you to get there?  How much is the cost of admission.

Or, you could actively seek out your audience online.  Not only can you supplement your website with great info, but you will actually start generating unique traffic through search engines.  Those other people as obsessed with supply chain management as you are will find you.

I guess the point is to spend less time talking to lots of people and focus on talking to the people who want to know what you know.

Trust me, it does not matter how specialized, bizarre, boring, abstract, complicated, geeky, lame, or insane your profession is.  Everyone is an expert at something, and there are others of you out there.   Even more importantly, there are people out there that need your help in the form of products and service.

Talk to them.

[Photo Credit]