Contributing to my “successful blogs” section of Andrew Pavelski dot com last week was an analysis of John Cow dot com. I discussed what has made the John Chow copycat so successful, what you can learn from his great blogging strategies and online persona. This week, I’ve decided to analyze a blog that I always enjoy visiting for quality advice. This blog has been packed with useful content since my first visit. Though I haven’t been visiting Courtney Tuttle’s Internet Marketing School religiously since it’s startup in 2007, I do enjoy following Court’s progress. Since it’s St. Patrick’s day and Courtney’s got the little “shamrocks” embedded throughout his theme, I felt it most appropriate to take a closer look inside the blog of this successful internet marketer!

What has made Courtney Tuttle’s Internet Marketing School so successful?

• Post Length - Court is definitely no slouch when it comes to post length. Don’t believe me? Go check out this post: “Starting A Blog That Isn’t A Time Sucking Money Pit” and see for yourself! How long did it take you to read this? The better question would be: did you even finish it? Post length is definitely an important factor when visiting a blog. When looking at the length of a post, you’ve got to consider the fact that longer posts could be filled with a lot of rambled and regurgitated information. Courtney does a great job at keeping his information fresh throughout his longer posts. Long posts can be the best thing for your blog if you can consistently pack them with as much relative information as possible. Longer posts are usually filled with knowledge, experience, and can help that blogger rank closer to #1 in google with proper marketing and keywords. Courtney knows how to write long posts to help boost his success!

• Post Quality - It doesn’t matter how long your posts are as a blogger, but what does matter is that you provide value to your readers. Court definitely knows how to write quality posts, no matter how long or short. As I scanned through Court’s archives on my first visit, I found tons of posts that taught me how to do something and ways to improve my blog. As I emphasize in my post “Why You Should Create Timeless Content,” you should always strive to pack each post with quality. (Courtney Tuttle was listed as an example…) Since there is so much quality content over at Court’s blog, you can really learn a lot from digging through Court’s archives. Most of the work in the archives section of blogs often goes unnoticed, yet still has potential to improve your blogging skills: take a look at Court’s and see what you can learn.

• Offering Services - A phenomenal way that Court creates a win-win situation for himself and his readers is by offering services. Services that Courtney offers include: WordPress Theme Installation ($55), WordPress Plugin Installation ($75), WordPress Theme SEO ($95), and WordPress Update ($95). Though Court does charge for his services, he is still helping his readers out. If something is extremely difficult for you to learn or do, it may be better to just pay the money to have it done. The readers get Court’s services and Court gets some extra money: another win-win situation. I’ve never thought about offering services to my readers, but Court’s business model has made me reconsider. Court has created a great way to help others, while making a little money doing it. Offering services is a great way to provide value, create a solid reputation, and establish yourself as an online entrepreneur!

• His customized theme - Court’s theme is literally a perfect fit for his blog and extremely unique compared to other blogs. I’ve seen so many of the same “copycat” themes, that it’s extremely refreshing to see Court’s. The theme design includes shamrocks and has an attractive look. I really like how Courtney has three categories beneath his main header image that include: “Get Started” “Boost Traffic” and “Earn Money.” These three subheadings offer something for everyone to improve on and really catch his visitor’s attention. Courtney’s header image that displays: “Courts Internet Marketing School” isn’t too bold, but looks good and will be memorable enough to get a second visit. His customized RSS subscriber box looks awesome, fits his theme well, and really entices readers to give it a click.  The layout of the theme is organized, everything fits into place well, and it is definitely appealing to his visitors.

• Offering free themes - I don’t know if Courtney created his own themes to give away to his readers, or if he paid someone to create them, but either way his site offers some great free WordPress themes to his visitors. All of his themes are search engine optimized and are quite impressive. Court understands that providing value for free is what will get people to return to his website. By offering themes, not only is he helping out his visitors improve their blog’s look, he is doing it for free. He offers a total of 10 free themes that you should really check out if you cannot find a good free theme. Providing some free value to your readers can work out extremely well.

• Offering helpful plugins - Not only does Court impress his readers by offering free themes, he also has made a list of 14 helpful plugins that he recommends using. By listing helpful plugins in a link above his header, he allows his readers to easily find and download great plugins without having to do a bunch of searching. This is an idea that I’ve considered doing with my blog as well because the posts that I’ve compiled great lists of recommended plugins have gone largely unnoticed in the archives. Showcasing helpful plugins is yet another great way to provide value and services to his readers.

• Being a great marketer - Courtney is a great internet marketer that knows his stuff, period. He knows what to do to make his website successful in SEO, promotion, and building up a loyal community. Being a great marketer and having the knowledge that he does has really made an impact on the success of his blog. Court gives his readers tips about what he is doing to market his blog and make his website more successful and really offers some great marketing advice to his readers. I’m not a marketing pro (yet…) and Court’s work gives me some very helpful suggestions such as submitting my articles to article marketer and other article directories.

• Inspiring his readers - Not only does Court push his standards, he encourages his readers to push their standards and always do their best. Check out this “best article of your life” challenge and see what Courtney has done. I submitted my article “10 Things More Important Than Making Money Online.” I really like how Courtney tries to inspire others and himself by trying to constantly push existing limits and improve in every aspect of writing, blogging, etc. Though Courtney may not interact with every reader in the comments section, he will answer any questions you may have through his contact form. I’ve asked Courtney a few questions in the past and was very happy to have him respond with some nice advice!

• RSS Subscriber Count - Nearing the 2,000 RSS subscriber count mark, Courtney has built up a great community! Court interacts with his readers in his comments section, offers free themes, offers services, and most importantly, provides value. Establishing a great connection with your readers is key to building up RSS subscribers and you get the impression that Court understands this concept. What will work in Court’s favor now, is the fact that he already has a big subscriber count built up. Like I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, a big subscriber count will make it much easier to gain more subscribers. Face it, most people don’t really feel comfortable subscribing to a blog with a low subscriber count! It is much harder to lure people into subscribing to your blog without displaying some numbers and stats.  Court’s subscriber count looks as if it won’t stop growing anytime soon!

• Providing Value - There is no secret when it comes to blogging, the number 1 rule to make your blog successful is: providing value to your readers. Courtney is a master at providing value and really has some useful tips in each of his blog posts. By reading some of Court’s work, you’ll quickly get the impression that Court really knows his stuff. Focusing his blog’s niche on internet marketing and taking the time to compile some timeless resources. Value is an attribute that should never be underestimated when trying to build a successful blog!

My final opinion about this successful blog

Since it’s creation in February 2007, Court’s Internet Marketing School has really come a long way. It is a phenomenal resource and has rightfully been ranked as one of the top 10 internet marketing blogs in the world. I check up on it from time to time and have really enjoyed some of the advice that I’ve come across. New articles over at Court’s website have not died down and valuable content is still being produced! Court has made his marketing school a success story and has done a wonderful job creating a great online presence. There is definitely something we all can learn from Courts online experience and strategies!

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