All the training, resources, support, and new member signups are still functioning properly.

MASSIVE changes are coming to the program! New training, new teachers, new resources, and an even better, easier to use interface. Oh yea… And a new name.

More details on that in the coming days. Existing members will receive details in their inbox this week. Everyone else… Keep an eye out!

2012 saw the launch of my publishing company as well as the launch of my service business. Both businesses should add six-figures per year to my income each.

The WordPress Classroom got it’s first major overhaul in 2 years as well as some new team members and a ton of new training. A ton of new members have joined and I’m more motivated than ever to over-deliver and teach everything I can possibly think to teach to the members that have put their trust in me to teach them.

2013 is going to be huge for The WordPress Classroom and I want it to be huge for everyone who joins and everyone who trusts me to teach them what I’ve learned from trial and error over the years.

So, in this post, I thought I’d do something a little different…

I’m going to teach you some interesting little tips that I’ve learned over the past year. These are little things that I’ve learned through experimentation that I’ve yet to see anyone else teach or talk about.

Follow these little tips and ideas and you will be one step ahead of everyone else in 2013.

These aren’t your typically mindset or personal empowerment type tips either… These are actionable tips that you can implement online today to start seeing more results in your business.

So here you go…

1. 2013 is going to be the year of Google+ (Google Plus). People are going to continue to use Facebook to interact with personal friends and family. However, I believe people are going to begin to embrace Google+ in 2013 as the place to connect with new people with common interests and passions. It will be the place to discover new communities of like-minded people. Get in on the game early and start learning and embracing Google+ yourself so that when the migration begins, you will be ready.

Start racking up as many followers as possible now. Find like-minded people and add them to your circles. Encourage them to add you back. There is a huge SEO benefit to having a lot of followers. When you make blog posts or websites and “+1″ them (Google’s equivalent of “Liking”), your followers will see your recommendations in their search results. The more followers you have, the more people that will see your recommendations. This is where Google is taking their SEO. Those with the most followers will win in the search engines.

Google+ doesn’t have what Facebook calls “edgerank”. Edgerank is what causes only a limited number of your Facebook followers to see your posts. With Google+ pretty much anyone who follows you will see your postings. You will quickly notice that people engage much more on Google+ because everyone sees your posts and not just the people that Facebook wants to see your posts…

If you start embracing Google+ now, you will have a leg up in 2013.

2. Press Releases are probably the easiest way to get fast traffic. This isn’t something that’s new at all. This is something that I’ve just recently learned myself because no one really talks about it. It’s kind of one of those things that people that are “in the know” keep to themselves because it is so effective.

If you create a new website, new epic blog post, new business, write a book, or do anything noteworthy, you can write a press release and have it submitted to hundreds of websites. Sometimes the press releases even get picked up by huge news sites. These releases give you a quick boost in traffic because the news quickly shoots up the ranks of Google for a limited time. However, the backlinks that these press releases create are there for good, giving your websites valuable SEO backlinks.

One trick that I’ve learned for getting even more traffic to a press release is to relate that release to some sort of current event or hot topic. If you’re promoting something related to health and fitness, mention a tredy celebrity that’s recently lost a lot of weight in your press release. This helps even more people find your press release that may be searching for that trending topic.

Press releases aren’t usually cheap. However, I find them to be cheaper than paying for pay-per-click ads and the long-term effects of your press releases is where the real value is.

Check out PRWeb and WebWire for places to submit your press releases.

3. YouTube videos are still awesome traffic tools. This is another lesson that I had to re-learn in 2012. I’ve never really put much focus on YouTube until this past year and now I’m kicking myself because I didn’t embrace it earlier.

YouTube videos rank really fast in Google by simply creating some backlinks to the videos. Creating videos helps build credibility to you and your brand and gives people a bit of an idea of what to expect when they finally land on your webpage.

Since I’ve began using YouTube videos again to generate traffic to my websites, YouTube has jumped to my 3rd largest traffic source.

4. Create articles and embed your YouTube videos from free blogs that you create on places like WordPress.com, Tumblr, LiveJournal, and Blogger. These sites are already high authority and if you link them back to your main website, you will get SEO juice that will help you climb the search engines.

These sites are free to create and you can buy loads of backlinks from places like Fiverr to these sites without getting penalized. Google already expects these sites to have a ton of backlinks. So creating hundreds or thousands of backlinks to these sites doesn’t really harm them and helps your main site (that these sites all point to) grow.

5. Use PingFarm to ping every page you make. Using PingFarm tells the search engines that you’ve updated a site and expedites the process of the search engines indexing them.

I ping every YouTube video, every press release, every blog post, every WordPress.com, tumblr, livejournal, and blogger post… Ping everything and watch how quickly your pages begin to appear in Google.

6. Facebook groups are MUCH more powerful that Facebook pages. I used to attempt to create a ton of different pages on Facebook and then persuade people to join them. Then once you have the page, you make posts and most people ignore them or Facebook’s edgerank makes them so no one sees them.

With Facebook groups, you are creating more of a community. Anyone can post in the group and start a new topic of discussion. This creates a much more engaging way to get people listening to you on Facebook. Most of my Facebook pages have become ghost towns. However, the groups that I’ve created are thriving and responsive.

I can still moderate the groups as well. So if people post something that I don’t like, I can remove it or even ban users if necessary. I can pin important topics or posts to the top of the group and change the header image. I still maintain control over the group but I open it up for much more engagement and people pay much more attention.

Just don’t go creating a group and everyone you know to it without asking them first. This is a recipe for people hating you.

7. Use Facebook promoted posts to encourage engagement. Facebook now gives you the option to promote a post. This allows you to pay so that your post is seen by more people than it would be seen by normally. This works exceptionally well when you want to engage people but it doesn’t work well when you want to promote something.

Use promoted posts to post cool tips or share something funny or cool. Don’t use them to promote your product or affiliate link. The goal is to get more followers and get more people paying attention to you. Not to make the immediate sale. Get people engaged and wanting to hear from you and you can go after the sale later… After they already know, like and trust you.

Those are my hot tips for making 2013 awesome. Follow those tips and you will be able to send traffic anywhere you want at will. If you can send traffic to your pages and others, there’s no limit to your income potential.

I know this post isn’t specifically related to WordPress… However, I know that everyone needs more traffic. Follow what I taught and you’re blog will grow by leaps and bounds in 2013.

Have a happy and safe New Year! There are plenty more posts just like this one on the way in 2013.

If you enjoyed this post and want to see more like it, share it on Facebook and leave me a comment. I’d love to hear your comments and discuss further. I’d also love to hear your best tip that you learned in 2012. The group will thank you for them!

Thanks again for helping make 2012 an outstanding year!

If you’re not already a Lifetime Member, sign up here before the Lifetime option is gone!

Keep an eye out for a couple new videos in the coming days. I will be continuing on with more training in the List Building With WordPress course. We’re going to discuss ways convince people to join your list (aka how to create great freebies to get them opting-in). Those videos should be online within the next few days or so.

I’m expecting most of you are going to be spending time with loved ones next week and setting goals to really crank up the heat with your business in 2013. Don’t worry, I’m doing the same thing! So don’t feel bad if you don’t get around to checking out all of the new stuff until the following week.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Let’s all make 2013 amazing!

These in-depth training videos are now available for all Pro and Lifetime members here.

If you’re not already a Lifetime member, be sure to sign up soon. The Lifetime option will be discontinued very shortly.

Enjoy the latest videos!

If you haven’t checked it out yet, be sure to check out the course, The Business of Building Blogs. It’s well underway and has some amazing training on how you can land clients and sell services to them. You can pretty much sell any of the services that we teach inside The WordPress Classroom.

Doing the actual services for them is the easy part. That’s why this course is very heavily focused on finding the clients and getting them to say yes. If you haven’t started watching this course by Connor Gallagher, you are definitely missing out.

New videos were added to this course this week.

List Building With WordPress

This course is just getting started but there’s already several lessons available to begin laying the groundwork for your list building campaign. If you’re not building a mailing list yet, you are leaving a lot of money and potential traffic on the table.

The simplest way to earn income with a website is to use that website to generate mailing list leads. You can then promote products or services to these leads. You can also use this list to make sure that every time you make a new blog post, people come back over and over again. Do not skip this imperative step in your online business or blog!

New videos were added to this course this week.

Check out List Building With WordPress.

The WordPress Classroom Pricing Structure Changes

As a final announcement, I wanted to let everyone know that there will be some changes over the coming months to the way pricing is structured on the WordPress Classroom. Due to the fact that our team is growing and we’re adding more and more experts to train members in the ways of WordPress, we will soon be discontinuing the Lifetime Membership option.

Of course anyone who is already a Lifetime Member will be grandfathered in and remain a Lifetime Member. However, starting at the beginning of the year, there will only be options for monthly memberships and annual memberships. This will ensure that we can continue to bring in the best educators and teach the most cutting-edge, up to date courses on WordPress.

It also ensures that we will be able to continue producing new awesome plugins for members to use on their sites to do things like generate traffic and build affiliate commissions.

If you’re not already a Lifetime member, make sure you sign up before it’s gone!

Become A Lifetime Member Here

The courses that we’re diving in to now are the building blocks to generate six and seven-figure per year businesses. Lifetime and Pro members can now access the first videos in both courses with more videos coming over the next several days and weeks.

The Business of Building Blogs

In this series, expert teacher, Connor Gallagher, teaches the steps of selling the service of creating websites for small businesses. You will learn the types of services you can offer, how to find ideal clients, how to land the client (without ever talking to them) , and what to charge them once you’ve got them. *Hint* You can basically sell them any service that we teach here in the Classroom.

Once you’ve landed the clients, we teach you how to automate the services you offer so that you can charge in the thousands of dollars for tasks that take you mere minutes to complete. I know this may sound like a lot of other offline marketing courses you’ve seen around but, I guarantee, the method that we’re teaching you have not seen anywhere else before!

List Building With WordPress

In this course, Matt Wolfe teaches the trick to true sustainable income online. Successful marketers know that “the money is in the list”. No one here at the WordPress Classroom disagrees with that statement. In fact, we’re going to devote an entire training course to it.

Not only will this course dive in to the technical aspects of how to build websites that grab email addresses, but it will discuss the factors that make email marketing effective. You will learn why some lists generate a lot of money per subscriber and why some generate next to nothing. This isn’t just list building with WordPress, this is going to be an advanced crash course in everything list building.

If you’re already a member of The WordPress Classroom, the first videos in these courses are available for you know in the section titled “Courses”.

If you’re not already a member of the WordPress Classroom, check out this page to learn some of the benefits of joining.

I’ve had a lot of interest in the premium plugins that I’ve been developing. However, some people are interested in just purchasing the plugins without purchasing a WordPress Classroom pro membership. As a Pro Member, you have access to all current and future plugins that we develop and put in to the site. However, for a limited time, I’m going to allow non-members to purchase the plugins individually if they would like.

Here is the details on the two currently available plugins…

Viral Bully

Purchase Viral Bully Now For $17

Amazon Scraper

Purchase Amazon Scrapper Now For $7

If you want to make sure that you get access to these plugins and ALL future plugins, I recommend joining as a Lifetime member. Simply pay one time and have access to life to all of my future projects. Click here to sign up as a Lifetime member.

I’d like to take a moment to briefly introduce myself. My name is Connor Gallagher and I’m an Internet Marketer and Copywriter.

Over the past few years, I’ve worked as an Internet Marketing Consultant to many offline business owners in an aim to improve their online presence and increase sales of various products and services.

I’ve also worked as a Copywriter to several of Internet Marketing’s biggest names including our very own Matt Wolfe and Easy Video Player creator Josh Bartlett. In short, I help people make more money online…

In the coming weeks and months, I’ll be revealing some killer techniques for creating sales pages that convert like crazy, in addition to helping the brick and mortar business owners amongst you gain more exposure online.

Firstly though, I’ll be teaching you about one of the biggest opportunities in Internet Marketing – and that’s the Business of Building Blogs!

I’ll reveal – through a series of step-by-step video training modules – the exact steps you need to take to get started building websites for offline business owners and grow your income exponentially…

You’ll learn everything from how to actually find clients, how much to charge and how to position yourself as an expert…

If you’ve ever dreamed of running your own home business working just a few hours each week, WITHOUT having to meet with clients or do any “selling”, you’re going to absolutely love this!

So, if you’re looking for a proven way to make five to six figures every month from home, building simple WordPress websites that take just a few hours to set-up, make sure you stay tuned to the “Business of Building Blogs” in the very near future!

If you’re not already a member, be sure to sign up to be involved in this new class!

Thanks for reading and I’ll talk to you soon.

Connor

P.S – If you have any ideas about what kind of content you’d like to see inside the “Business of Building Blogs” please feel free to leave your feedback in the comments section below. I’d love to hear from you!

The first plugin is called Amazon Scraper and it allows you to enter a small line of code in to any post or page. The code then goes and pulls the image, the title, and the description from Amazon of whatever product you’d like. It also automatically embeds your affiliate link on the image and the title.

This makes it really simple for anyone to create an Amazon review blog and pull all the data straight out of Amazon.

Check it out now in the plugins section.

If you’re not yet a WordPress Classroom member, now is a perfect time to sign up! My goal is to add new video training every single week and new plugins every single month.

Join now, if you’re not already a member.

The timing was a little odd. I ended having to move the day after I opened up the new site. The move caused me to have no internet for a few days. It was horrible timing. Luckily I’m back now and getting started on all the new training as well as working on some new plugins just for members.

Unfortunately, I’ve noticed a few bugs in the site since I’ve been back. I just wanted to give you a heads up so that you know that it’s actually the site acting up and not you or your computer.

At the moment, the forum isn’t quite working. It’s returning an error message when people try to make new posts. I have my best guys on this right now and we should have it fixed within an hour or so.

You will also notice that there a couple of courses inside the members area that aren’t available yet. I put those courses in there so that you know what I’m working on. Those are the videos that I’m in the process of recording and you’ll see those pop up as there done. I’ll keep you posted in this blog with the progress of them.

I also wanted to make sure that you keep an eye on this blog here. I will be updating it very frequently with what’s new in the site. We also brought some staff writers on board to teach you some cool free tips and tricks through this blog. Keep an eye out for a couple posts per week similar to this post about WordPress for Small Businesses by Sherm Stevens.

I’m really sorry about the bugs in the new site. I will have them all worked out by the end of the day today. The forum is the main one. If you notice any other issues, please feel free to report them in the comments below or in the forum once I give you word that it’s back online.

Enjoy the new site and I can’t wait to interact with you more on the inside.