There are a lot of blogs out there that publish so much bland content that it’s refreshing to come across a collection of blogs that are interesting and intriguing.

Today’s post is a list of the Top 10 Blog Posts of 2011 published by The Exponential Growth Strategist, Dr Marc Dussault.

Listed in no particular order since each one has its own merit based on who you are and what your area of improvement (focus) is, this short list of the best blog posts of the year will inspire you to get started on your New Year’s Resolutions for 2012 right away!

Don’t forget 2012 is a leap year, that means you have an extra 24 hours to realise your dream(s)!

How To Find Hidden Assets In Your Business

Belief Builders and Credibility Creators

Can one idea be worth $50,000?

Why spruikers will never go away

Mentor or Motivator?

Facebook Wall Of Shame Infographic

The more you do, the more you can get done

From ‘Just A Job’ To Finding Your Calling

Cinemagraphs: “Stills” that move

2011 Australian Masters Games Gold Medallist

Is your blog bland and boring like the one shown here on the left? Then there’s no wonder no one’s coming back! To get more people to read and subscribe to your blog, you need to make it visually enticing to match the intriguing content that adds value to the reader. Many writers forget that blogging is a VISUAL experience. With today’s visual media, you need to make sure you add pictures, diagrams, images, MindMaps and of course embed videos from YouTube.

A bland blog like this is created purely for SEO purposes and that won’t be worth much in the long run. Sure the immediate SEO effect will be there, but without HUMANS going to the pages, STAYING on the pages AND coming back, it will die a slow death within the indexes.

Don’t forget that when you launch a blog, you’re doing it for the end game – to have a loyal readership that wants to hear from you.

Make what you have to say exciting, appealing and attractive. Go from Bland To Brand!

Otherwise your blog will languish and all your effort will be for naught.

If you’re going to put in 90% of the effort (writing the content), why not go the extra 10% and get the REWARDS?

Just ask yourself one simple question…

“Would I read and come back to this blog?”

As Australians we are proud of our landmarks – especially the Sydney Opera House.

Here is a time lapse to give an insight into the incredible week-long construction of the Opera House cake. Watch as the monolithic, chocolate-brown structure transforms into the alabaster iconic Opera House. Like little worker bees inside a hive, this glimpse inside the Planet Cake kitchen shows how hard Paris and the volunteers worked, every step of the way. I

t is incredible to see a weeks worth of work in a short snapshot like this. It is a privilege to get a behind the scenes look inside Australia’s Number One cake kitchen, Planet Cake.

We’re not taking sides, but this is an interesting debate . As a blogger, you want to pick sides (or not) when there is heated debate. That means there’s interest and traffic – INTERESTED people. In this instance, we’re staying out of it, We decided to post it because it’s obviously an issue of interest to many!

The Internet is full of spam – most of it useless ads for viagra and other sexual dysfunctions. But some spam is junk mail people with nothing better to do than sending it to all their so-called ‘friends’…

Then there is the pearl that rises above it all – the gem that shines bright as something different, unique and special.

Today’s blog post is one such gem – a collection of the best photos from National Geographic for 2010. It was sent to me by Toni Fitzgerald of Purpose Marketing in Sydney.

I posted them on my iWeb Antimimeticisomorphism site that you can access by clicking the hyperlink.

Once there, click on Cool Photos and scroll to the bottom, where you’ll find the album of the photos.

So that’s today’s quick lesson – collect content from ALL sources. Pay it forward by giving your sources valuable link juice and entertain your readers all at the same time.

It’s a win-win-win proposition!

Every blogger wants more traffic to his or her site. So how do you get it? Simple – give people a REASON to come to your site.

Find something interesting, intriguing or even funny and share it with them. Create an experience that readers want to have. When you maintain that level of quality, you’ll be rewarded with loyalty and the free organic traffic will flow to your blog effortlessly.

My gift for you today is the cover of a recent Economist Magazine – the magazine read by more millionaires than any other publication in the world!

I bet you didn’t know that. That’s what you need to do – EDUCATE and INFORM your readers and a little humour like this doesn’t hurt either! 

State Of The Union 2011 - The Economist Magazine Cover

Everyone who publishes a blog wants more readers and subscribers. The key is to find interesting and intriguing posts to publish. Like for example, an Eastern Suburb Sydney Dentist, Dr Cary Fraser published this blog post that proves Tom Cruise does not have a perfect smile… C’mon admit it – you’re going to click on the hyperlink. That’s proof that this stuff works. Make it interesting and it will grow organically and automatically…

I have to state up front that I’m a Qantas Platinum Member and consider it one of the world’s top airlines. I think this is a great way to “come clean” about any mistakes, errors or shortcomings. The worst thing that can be done is – nothing.

Qantas Easter Message

I recently traveled on a Virgin Blue flight and one of the articles stood out. We might think that recycling is simple when it’s not that that black and white. Click on the hyperlink to read about whether or not you’re as green as you’d like to think you are!

While I have you here – whenever you come across something valuable or interesting make a note of it and make sure you blog about it. In this case the CONTENT is valuable, but also the delivery mechanism – the ONLINE MAGAZINE is great don’t you think? Easy to navigate, it almost feels like reading the actual magazine… I can’t wait to read it on my new iPad!

I’ve blogged about this before. The only way you can get more people to read your blog is to keep giving them value. Today’s post was sent to me by Doggy Day Care Owner, Bree Robbins of Paddington Pups. You judge for yourself how totally cool this is…
Read More »»

I’ve blogged about how to get MORE people to your blog… The best way is to SHOW you by getting YOU to get MORE people to my blog… Here’s another link you’re going to want to send to your close friends, family and colleagues.

Whether you are a Billy Joel fan or not, you probably remember his great song ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire.’

Here it is, set to pictures … It’s a fabulous flashback through the past half century. Turn up your volume, sit back and enjoy a review of 50 years of history in less than 3 minutes! Thanks to Billy Joel and some guy from the University of Chicago with too much time to Google!

I wonder how many of the images those under 40 will recognise from the early part of the song?? You might have to watch this more than once.

This was sent to me by Gavin Altus, Executive Manager Development at Engineering Education Australia. Thanks Gavin for sharing!

Want to get better results from your email marketing efforts and grow your email list? Here are the elementary steps of list building, as well as some more creative ideas.

The Basics of Blog List Building

When you first get started with email marketing, it’s normal to have a smaller list. It takes a concerted effort to get in the habit of asking for email addresses. There are people who have been email marketing for years and still aren’t taking advantage of all the opportunities they have to grow their list. Don’t let that be you!

Here are a few simple things that you can do to build your list:

• Put a “Join My Email List” sign-up box on your website or blog. Your website is the first place most people look when they want information about your business. It’s great when they visit your website, but are you capturing their email addresses? Don’t miss the chance to start building a relationship with them.
• Ask your customers for their email addresses and permission whether it’s over the phone or in person. Don’t forget to tell customers about your email communications and ask if you can add them to your list. If you have a physical store, put out a sign-up book in a prominent place. If your business is Internet-based and your only customer communication is through email, send them a follow-up email after an order and ask if they want to join your list. If you have employees who interact with customers, train them to ask as well.

• When you meet people at networking events and trade shows tell them about your free e-newsletter or your email-only specials and ask them if they would like to join your list.

Want to take it to the next level?

Here are some creative ideas that you can put into practice: Read More »»

Blogs are an amazing development – allowing anyone to communicate openly, publicly and globally. The big screen movie, Julie & Julia is but one extreme example and I have to admit is a pretty good movie. Anyway, getting back on point – even Engineers can learn to blog. I mean that with all the respect and admiration I have for my fellow colleagues since I too am an engineer.

Ray Keefe of Successful Endeavours in Melbourne has been in our Business Mastery Platinum Program for the past year and has produced some amazing results, but this latest one is definitely one I am really proud of…

An engineer blogging like a pro – who woudda thought?!?!

I mean take a look a Ray’s blog post about what’s so good about being an engineer. He’s used several of the tips I’ve talked about in previous blog posts on this and my other blogs.

For example, he optimises his blog’s SEO expertly for the keywords he knows his prospects are searching for and tells a story that people want to read even tell a few friends.

Go ahead and read his blog post and let him know how good it is by leaving a comment, he’ll really appreciate the encouragement.

I don’t know about you, but I hate having my time wasted. Whenever I write a blog post, including this one, my primary goal is to make sure that whatever time you spend reading the post is worth the time you put in. This one will take you less than 60 seconds.

How to write a blog post that is interesting, intriguing and captivating

With that in mind, I also want to make sure you’re ENGAGED in the process, not just passively reading or skimming.

You’re not skimming this are you?

Aw c’mon… I invested 10 minutes to make sure this is an invaluable tip that made you go Hmmm…

Are you back reading this now?

Thanks.

I appreciate that. Read More »»

Today’s post is a plug-in for WordPress that’s really cool – it’s a Wordle Cloud for WordPress. If you have no idea what Wordle is, you can check previous blog posts that mention Wordle and how you can use it creatively.

Use Wordle to analyse your blog

Use Wordle to create a greeting card

Use Wordle to create a motivational Vision Board

Use Wordle to create lists

Use Wordle to display survey results

As you know by now, my short blog posts are rare. This is one of them. This YouTube video is a must watch for anyone involved in Internet Marketing. It is absolutely priceless. I know you’ll want to watch it more than once and forward this blog link to colleagues and friends.

The Social Media Revolution Is Here

I get a lot of questions about how to optimise a blog, make money with a blog, keep blogging with current information, how to configure and setup a blog and the list goes on… I spent an hour with Blogging Expert Will Swayne of Marketing Results and we recorded the Interview we call “Exponential Blogging 101“. You can have it for free (until the promotion lasts) by clicking on the URL below.

Exponential Blogging 101

Click on the hyperlink-> To find out all about Exponential Blogging 101.

If you’ve never seen this before, boy are you lucky you’ve subscribed to this blog! Wordle is one of the coolest things on the Internet – it’s self explanatory so I’ll just show you want the Wordle of this blog looks like..

Australian Blogs Wordle

And then this WORDLE – which compares

President Obama’s Inauguration Speech to Bush’s

Today’s post is for you if you’ve ever had writer’s block. You know that awful feeling when you KNOW you need to write something, but nothing’s coming… Guess what? The ‘Internet’ has come to your rescue AGAIN! Someone’s figured out how to MOTIVATE you to write those blog posts…

It’s called Write Or Die and if you don’t reach your target, all your text is DELETED!

How’s that for an INCENTIVE?!?! Click on the hyperlink or here >> to get rid of your writer’s block! <<

Once you’ve launched a blog, you quickly realise that it’s an on-going responsibility to keep coming up with interesting and relevant stuff to write about. Creating a MasterMind Group is one way to make it a lot easier – in fact if you do it right, it will become almost ‘effortless’.

How To Create A MasterMind Group

I’ve written a book How to Create a Fun, Effective and Powerful MasterMind Group to Catapult You To Exponential Success that you can purchase and at the same time get the exclusive 66-minute Exponential Mastermind Audio Interview and Word-For Word Transcript.

As a blogger, the MasterMind concept is crucial to make sure you never run out of new, relevant and interesting material.

A MasterMind Group is a handful of people who appreciate what you are blogging about and want to CONTRIBUTE to your cause, message and audience. They are like-minded people who are passionate, generous and insightful. They know what you’re into and give you content without reservation or hesitation.

Your MasterMind Group Members will find stuff you’d never find in a million years. They’ll make connections for you and your audience you otherwise would never consider. By tapping into their collective intelligence, you’ll instantly and continuously expand your circle of influence, awareness and understanding about your subject, cause, discipline.

You’ll become the center point of attention, the nucleus of knowledge – the preeminent source of information.

I have multiple blogs with dozens of contributors who give of themselves and share their ideas, thoughts, tips and tricks with me so that I can then share them with you.

So how do you get this MasterMind Group to form? Buy my book if you want to learn the step-by-step process, but the short and easy answer is – CREATE and GIVE as much VALUE as you can and the Law Of Reciprocity will kick in – it’s the human law of persuasion and influence as documented by Dr Robert Cialdini that will start to reward you.

Leaders amongst your blogging readership will emerge and start to give you stuff – stuff that will make people come to your blog and want to come back AND SUBSCRIBE!