Hot Topic #4 – Choosing a Blog Theme: Squeeze Theme vs Thesis Theme

WordPress is one of the most (if not the most) used blog theme management systems. It’s actually so popular that for a few years now lots of people use it for their sites as well, and not only their blogs. There is now a very large choice of free and paid WordPress themes available on the web. You can find great a free blog theme range: they look great, they seem to perfectly fit your needs… but are they as good as they look? How about search engine-friendliness? How about conversion?

Some of the best looking blog themes are actually not search engine-friendly (enough) and/or have a poor conversion rate… These are very important aspects to take into consideration if you’re in the internet marketing or home business industry. Don’t let your competitors outrank you in search engines because they have a more search engine-friendly blog theme than you. When you get people to visit your site or blog, you also want them to take action: opting in your mailing list, clicking your ads, etc.

This blog post compares two of the most search engine-friendly, high converting WordPress blog themes available on the market at the moment: Squeeze Theme and Thesis Theme. These two themes are used by thousands of internet marketers and home business owners all over the world because they know that they can make a difference. Each blog theme is paid but rather inexpensive if you take into consideration all the benefits of using them.

Blog Theme

Squeeze Theme Review

Blog Theme

Squeeze Theme is a great affiliate WordPress theme for marketers. It is search engine-friendly, and most importantly proven to be highly converting. This is great news if you want to squeeze the email addresses out of your visitors. As an internet marketer or home business owner, this is something you should definitely be doing.

Squeeze Theme is actually one of the highest converting WordPress theme available. It was specifically designed to grab people’s attention and make them take action (most importantly by opting in). If you use WordPress and take online marketing seriously, you should definitely consider purchasing Squeeze Theme (or Affiliate Theme, another theme by the same developers).

Squeeze Theme is very easy to install and has an easy-to-use main options panel. You can change the general settings very easily, change all the colors in just a few clicks… Whether you’re a newbie or a developer, if you try Squeeze Theme, you’re quite likely to fall in love with it! If you struggle customizing your current blog theme, make sure you give it a try. You can change almost anything in just a few clicks, no need to change any code!

Blog Theme

Thesis Theme Review

Blog Theme

Thesis Theme is more for niche sites and blogs. If you plan to have a lot of content, you should definitely consider purchasing this blog theme. It is one of the most (if not the most) search engine-friendly themes available on the market. It’s actually used by thousands of site and blog owners already. You just can’t ignore all the benefits of using this blog theme.

Thesis Theme is very popular in the internet marketing industry because it’s just perfect for content-based sites and blogs… and we all know how important content is for search engines. It is considered by many as the best blog theme on the market. Customizing this blog theme is a little more complex than customizing Squeeze Theme, but overall it’s still pretty easy. You may have to get your hands a little dirty though (by editing a few lines of code).

Thesis Theme was created by DIYthemes. The best news is… they just released a new version: Thesis 1.7. The 1.6 version was already a great, very advanced version but the 1.7 version seems to be even better! They keep improving it, and this is a major upside because only few developers keep significantly improving their blog themes… and let’s not talk about free themes!

Blog Theme

Final words

Squeeze Theme: 9/10
Click here to get Squeeze Theme
Squeeze Theme is ideal if you want to capture your visitors’ email addresses. It’s a very high converting, easy-to-customize blog theme, and as an internet marketer or home business owner with a product to promote, you should definitely consider purchasing it. Ease of use, high conversion… this blog theme is a must-have!

Thesis Theme: 8/10
Click here to get Thesis Theme
As previously mentioned, Thesis Theme is ideal for niche sites and blogs. Many consider it as the best blog theme. It’s search engine-friendly and fairly easy to customize (not as easy as Squeeze Theme though). Thesis Theme will help you set up and run a killer site or blog in no time. It’s a rather minimal design, so your visitors focus on your content… which is actually a great thing!

Whether you’re a beginner or a guru, Squeeze Theme and Thesis Theme are very good, long-term investment that will help you make your sites and blogs work. If you’re on a tight budget, visit the Free Themes Directory or sites like WordPress Themes Base and Top WP Themes. Make a few bucks and invest in one of these proper, premium themes. Get yourself the best blog theme for your needs.

This blog post is part of a series of hot topics for making money online. Stay tuned for more and feel free to share your own experience on blog themes with us!

This was Hot Topic #4. Wondering where the first three are?
Hot Topic #1: Keyword Research Tips and Tools
Hot Topic #2: Choosing a Web Host: ViralHosts vs HostGator
Hot Topic #3: Autoresponder Marketing Strategy

Author:
Colin Klinkert
Hot Topic #3 – Autoresponder Marketing Strategy

Autoresponder marketing is one of the most effective ways to make money online. The idea behind autoresponders is to establish a strong, durable relationship with your subscribers. Everyone has heard the saying “the money is in the list” but the saying to remember is actually “the money is in the relationship with the list”.

When people opt into your list, they usually expect something in return: valuable content, tips and tricks, special offers, product bonuses… They gave you the permission to email them, and that’s already a first step to a relationship. That’s what autoresponder marketing is all about. However, to build a strong, durable relationship, you must constantly provide them with value. The best way to achieve this is by (effectively) using autoresponders.

Autoresponder Marketing

All internet marketers and home business owners should use autoresponder marketing and have an email series ready to be sent out. It is indeed much easier to sell to an existing customer than it is to get a new one. It has been proven that people only buy from you if they know and trust you so having the ability to follow up with them allows you to build that trust. It has also been proven that it usually takes 6 to 7 follow ups for a customer to purchase.

Creating an email series requires some time and efforts at first, but once it’s up and running, all you have to do is sit back and watch. The whole process should be automated as much as possible so you can then focus on other important tasks like monitoring, improvements, etc.

There are several autoresponder marketing programs available on the market. Two of them distinguish themselves from others. The first one is Aweber, which is certainly the most popular of all email marketing programs. Plenty of top industry players use this program because it has a great range of features including of course an autoresponder system.

Another autoresponder marketing program you should consider is Imnica Mail. While Imnica Mail isn’t as popular as Aweber, it has a few very interesting advantages over its competitors. For example, the plans are much cheaper, which is great if you’re on a tight budget. It also has a great analytics system that will help you analyze your email marketing campaign in depth with ease.

Autoresponder Marketing

Highly recommended tools

Autoresponder Marketing

Aweber

Autoresponder Marketing

Imnica Mail

Autoresponder Marketing

What you basically need to do with your autoresponder marketing program is setting up an email series to be sent to your subscribers. Once they subscribed, they should receive a welcome email, with some information about your business, products or services (for example). Then, every few days (or at least once a week), they should receive other emails, in which you provide them with valuable content. It MUST be related to the topic of your online presence, otherwise your subscribers are likely to unsubscribe.

Autoresponder marketing is great for building a relationship with your list. If you email people with valuable content, on a regular basis, they are more likely to read your emails, maybe even respond to them, visit your site or blog… and ultimately purchase your products or the products you promote. Building a list isn’t only about size but also conversion, hence the need for a relationship.

It may take you a little while to write email copies and set up the autoresponders at first. However, these efforts are definitely worth the time spent. As previously mentioned, autoresponder marketing is one of the most effective ways to make money online. It’s a proven technique and remains very popular among internet marketers and home business owners.

Bonus tip: Instead of writing long email copies, simply send short, eye-catching emails to your subscribers with a short description and a link to a page of your site or blog. Pages can easily be bookmarked and shared around, unlike emails… and this will drive additional traffic to your site or blog.

This blog post is part of a series of hot topics for making money online. Stay tuned for more and feel free to share your own experience on autoresponder marketing with us!

Did you miss out on the two first hot topics? Here they are:
Hot Topic #1: Keyword Research Tips and Tools
Hot Topic #2: Choosing a Web Host: ViralHosts vs HostGator

Author:
Julien
Hot Topic #2 – Choosing a Web Host: ViralHosts vs HostGator

Choosing a web host isn’t as easy as it looks. There are hundreds of web hosting providers on the market but not all of them provide the same services. You have to make sure that the one you choose perfectly fits your hosting and marketing needs. For internet marketers or home business owners, two of them stand out from the crowd: ViralHosts and HostGator. Are you wondering why? Then continue reading for a review of ViralHosts and HostGator.

ViralHosts Review

ViralHosts logo

ViralHosts is free to join, which is great if you want to give the system a try first or just host a squeeze page. However, the free membership comes with a basic version of cPanel and no SQL database slot, so you won’t be able to set up a WordPress blog for example. If you’re on a tight budget, you may join free and upgrade at a later time.

Upgrades are pretty cheap. If you upgrade to Silver ($17 per month), you get Fantastico De Luxe, which is a point-and-click installer that allows you to set up WordPress in just a few seconds, as well as RV Site Builder and SiteReptile Website Builder. If you upgrade to Gold ($197 per year, which is approximately $16.4 per month), you also get access to the system mailer, which allows you to email 3,000 random members every 3 days. This is truly a great advantages if you want to promote your products or other people’s products.

The system mailer is truly great for lead generation. As an internet marketer or home business owner, you should definitely consider upgrading to Gold or Platinum or higher. As a Diamond or Elite member you can email not 3,000 but 6,000 random members every 3 days. This in on top of all the upgraded hosting features you get with these memberships.

ViralHosts is cPanel-based, but it also comes with ‘Simple Panel’, a simplified version of cPanel (still under development at the time this blog post is published) that allows you to set up your hosting in a matter of minutes: adding domain names, creating FTP accounts, installing WordPress… cPanel is rather intuitive and easy to use but if you want to keep things simple, ‘Simple Panel’ is a must-have!

For more information on the hosting and marketing features, please read this blog post: 9 Reasons to Join ViralHosts.

HostGator Review

HostGator logo

HostGator isn’t free to join but you can try the system for only 1 cent if you enter the following coupon code at sign up: “HGC25”. It’s then $9.95 per month for the Baby Plan (which is good enough, as it has all the features you need). HostGator is more mainstream than ViralHosts. It’s a very popular web host among bloggers of all industries.

HostGator is also cPanel-based but doesn’t come with ‘Simple Panel’. However, it has a few other advantages such as the possibility to add an unlimited number of domain names (if you have chosen the Baby Plan or higher), unlimited disk space and unlimited bandwidth. You can also create an unlimited number of subdomain names, FTP accounts and email accounts.

HostGator is very reliable and provides very good customer support. The customer service is very quick to respond, which is a plus if you’re in a rush. HostGator is also labeled as green hosting (they have invested in wind power to offset server emissions).

Final words

ViralHosts: 9/10
Click here to join ViralHosts
ViralHosts is great for internet marketers and home business owners for several reasons. Setting up a WordPress blog only takes a few minutes, and with the system mailer, you can generate hundreds of leads every single month.

HostGator: 8/10
Click here to join HostGator
HostGator is great for the general public, because it’s cheap, reliable and you get unlimited disk space and unlimited bandwidth. You can also add as many domain names as you want (if you have chosen the Baby Plan or higher).

If you’re still undecided, always remember that the decision should be mainly based on your hosting and marketing needs. Choose wisely, but don’t forget that you can then upgrade at any time (at least with these two web hosts). If you decide to go with HostGator, you may still create a free account on ViralHosts to upload a webpage for inbound links to your main site or blog.

This blog post is part of a series of hot topics for making money online. Stay tuned for more and feel free to share your own experience on web hosting with us!

If you missed out on the first hot topic, please click the following link:
Hot Topic #1: Keyword Research Tips and Tools

Author:
Julien
Hot Topic #1 – Keyword Research Tips and Tools

Optimizing your pages for search engines is very important to get a chance to rank well and receive free traffic on a daily basis. This is called SEO (short for Search Engine Optimization) but you should already know what this is. In theory, the process is rather simple: you optimize your pages and build inbound links to them to influence search engines in the way they rank them.

However, you must first determine the keywords your site, blog or squeeze page should rank for. Broad keywords are usually very competitive and pretty hard to rank for, and generally don’t send targeted traffic. However, narrow keywords are usually less competitive and thus easier to rank for, and most importantly, they send targeted traffic, which is a real advantage over broader search terms.

Don’t even think about starting to optimize your pages and build inbound links to them if you’re unsure of the keywords to target. Keyword research is vital when optimizing your online presence for search engines. If you skip this step, you’re likely to waste a lot of time on your way to online success. Effective keyword research is a key to enhanced results.

Make a list of keywords you think your online presence should rank for and use a free keyword suggestion tool like Google Keyword Tool or even better, a paid keyword research software like Keyword Elite to determine which ones you should target for maximum results. This kind of program will help you target the right keywords, which should ideally be high search, low competition, buying keywords.

Keyword Elite is truly a great investment as it will help you determine if a keyword is a browsing keyword or a buying keyword. A browsing keyword is a keyword usually searched to find information about something, while a buying keyword is a keyword usually searched with the intent to purchase something. This can make a huge difference to your business!

Highly recommended tools

Keyword Tool

Google Keyword Tool

Keyword Elite

Keyword Elite

Once you have a short list of high search, low competition, buying keywords, you may start optimizing your online presence on the pages (on-page optimization: title tags, headings, body content, etc.) and off the pages (off-page optimization: link building, social media marketing, etc.). Do not hesitate to do some further keyword research if you feel like you’re missing out on a potential buying keyword!

Keyword research is also very useful in the early stages of setting up an online business. It is indeed strongly recommended to do some research before choosing a domain name for your online presence. There are lots of different domain name registrars where you can perform domain name searches. Try 1and1 and NameCheap (which is great for bulk search). However, the whole process can be a little time-consuming…

Luckily, there is a tool that automates almost everything and will help you save a lot of time: Easy Domain Research (available on CK Tools). With this tool, all you need to do is import a list of keywords (generated via Google Keyword Tool), and the application does all the work for you (by checking if the domain names are available or not).

This blog post is part of a series of hot topics for making money online. Stay tuned for more and feel free to share your own experience on keyword research with us!

Author:
Julien