I took an opportunity on the 29th of August about a secret shopper site and while I was checking out the site I also decided to sign up as a mystery shopper because I think it would be cool to go to individual establishments and evaluate their customer service.

The application was easy to fill out so I applied. So I received an email today giving me some specifics on the openings around Pennsylvania. If I am a new shopper I am only allowed to take one shop, I guess this would be an evaluation shop to see how well you do.

Because of the distance I would have to travel for one of these shops and the amount that was being offered just didn’t make sense for me to accept any of them. Especially with the price of gas.

If they had been able to supply businesses around the immediate area I live in then I could have accepted and done my first secret shopper assignment because then I would be making money instead of spending more to make less and traveling a couple of hours for $10.00, just isn’t feasible for me.

Maybe down the road they might have something I can accept. They seem to cover all the states so if your interested in something like this and the assignments are near you then it could be a way to make extra spending money. Maybe there are local companies in your area that provide this secret shopper type of service. It can’t hurt to check.

Blog marketing is a great way to make extra income, you just need to get your blog out there and get it known. If this is your first marketing blog it can be confusing and seem difficult and complicated and it may seem like a lot of work with little or no pay off to be seen as quickly as you might think. However, just know that marketing is something that you have to build and you do have to be dedicated and consistent in marketing your blog and it does take a lot of hard work.

Try using the techniques listed below to get more traffic and readers and keep adding usable content and you will eventually reap the rewards.

One of the most important things is to visit other blogs that are relevant to yours and leave comments not just” Hi I was here, hope you are fine”. Try to make an intelligent comment about the post you are viewing. Doing this will get your blog out there to readers of others blogs. And in return can get you some new visitors as well as readers. While all of this might seem confusing at first, after a while you will get the hang of it and it will fall in place and make more sense to you.

Most importantly you need to post on your blog on a regular basis, who wants to read a blog that is never updated? I know I don’t bother if they don’t care enough to add something new a few times a week. Try to give your readers what they want with new content and as often as possible. Whether you post daily, weekly or bi weekly you have to be consistent so your readers and visitors will know how often to check back for a new post unless you are added to their reader.

Find out where your traffic is coming from. Find out which search engines are sending you traffic and which ones aren’t. Find out what keywords are bringing people to your blog as well. If you know all of this all ready, use it to your advantage. Write more content on the keywords that are working for you and monitor where you fall on the search engine pages that are sending visitors.

Make sure you acknowledge comments left on your blog. People don’t like to feel like they are having a conversation with themselves and it only takes a second to respond and let them know you appreciate them leaving a reply. Using your head and treating others as you would want to be treated is a big part of marketing. If you have a section full of comments and you haven’t replied, chances are you wont be getting many more. Of course if you have the do follow plug-in they might just be leaving a comment to get a back link and they wouldn’t care if you replied or not.

If you are quoting an article from another source or blog, always be sure to provide a link back to the original content. If you don’t then you could be accused of plagiarism and this is looked down on in the world of marketing. Stealing someone elses content is not a good idea and you will not get away with it. You will get caught if you try to say someone elses work is your own if it isn’t. This is definitely not a good way to start off in the blog marketing world.

A good idea is to make friends with other bloggers. Learn to network and find out what they do to bring in so much traffic and how they keep their readers interested. Sharing with other bloggers that are successful is a great idea and a good way to make friends.You can even become friends with other bloggers off-line as well, it’s fun to meet in person. Use this to your advantage, but don’t just be a taker be sure that you share your blog marketing techniques also.