Archive for: Blogging
Maybe you were told the lie that if you just set up a blog people would flock to it. But owning a blog is not even half the battle. It is just the beginning. If you own a blog and you are getting traffic but it is still not enough, it is time to take things to the next level. You don’t have to be satisfied with dismal traffic numbers on your blog. Here are some ways you can give your site the boost it needs to go beyond mediocre.
- Start networking with other bloggers. So you think you can do everything yourself, hah? Well if you don’t try to network and build relationships with other bloggers in your niche you are missing out on a huge opportunity. And I don’t just mean that you should spam a bunch of bloggers with your email begging for a link. Just write them like you would a friend and ask if you can submit an article to their site. If it is well written and it fits their niche, I’m sure they will accept it. And then you have “an in” to be able to contact that site owner in the future to ask about other networking opportunities. I have seen boat loads of traffic simply by networking with other bloggers, and it’s the single best advice I could ever give on taking your blog to the next level.
- Focus on interacting with your social media fans. Whether it’s Twitter followers or Facebook fans, you should be making it a point to interact with them. If you just use your Twitter account to let people know about a new post on your blog they will hardly pay attention to it. Social media is much more powerful when it is much more personal. When you take the time to ask them a question, when you answer their questions, and when you take the time to comment on a photo, you are making your entire blog more personal to them. And the more your readers feel like they know you, the more they will trust you and come back to your site more often.
- Try something new and completely different. Most bloggers are just trying to copy someone. But this only helps the person you are copying. Why not try a technique that no one has even though of it. This can involve using video on your blog in a different way, creating unique infographics that your readers will love, or it can be as simple as having a contest now and then. Anything to break the monotony of blogging will help give you that much needed boost. Dukeo.com did something creative by having silly caricatures drawn of some of the top bloggers in the world and it generated a huge buzz in the internet marketing community. That idea has been taken, but find another one and run with it.
- Tap into new traffic sources. So your traffic levels aren’t changing much? Well where are you getting that traffic from? The internet is huge and only getting more users on a daily basis. Find out where they are and build roads to your site. You can get these traffic sources through other blogs, traffic exchanges, email lists, PPV and PPC marketing efforts, article marketing, and many other places. This game is always changing and there is always a new source of traffic out there. But don’t forget the old ones either.
Phillip is a writer for a how to tips website at www.EZhowtotips.com where you can find all kinds of answers to how to questions.
It seems as though everyone is starting to develop Windows Phone 7 looking themes for all different software and device. The latest is a new WordPress theme called Metro Style. This theme is taken from the very popular Windows Phone 7 Metro UI.
Check out and download the theme here for free.
via LifeRocks
As with anything in life, if you want to be a pro it pays to start young. Blogging is exception and although the most successful blogs are ran by well established, authoritative, big players, there is no reason why you, as a young blogger, can’t get your content out there and make an impact. Internet usage is extremely high amongst teens and even pre-teens so if you are aiming for this demographic there is plenty of opportunities out there to gain traction. The blogosphere is heaving with content and popular topics include tech news and posts about how to make money online, despite the reams of content out there, there are in effect an infinite number of niches, if you can generate a healthy following by blogging about a particular topic, you will have a captive audience on which you can begin to build and improve.
So what are my top tips for all the budding young bloggers out there?
Pick a platform, and stick to it
There are many different applications out there which can facilitate your blogging adventure. You could easily spend months trawling through all the different platforms to find the one that’s perfect for you, but in my experience you’ll just be spinning your wheels. At this stage, the relative merits of Tumblr over Posterous are irrelevant. A successful blog isn’t grounded on bells ‘n’ whistles, but great content. Pick a platform and start writing, you can make changes to the look of your blog at a later date.
Stick to a Niche
Pick a subject you want to write about, and stick to it. Writing solely about that subject, exploiting every little intricacy, and keeping up with the latest news is far more valuable than going off on a tangent. Doing this alienates readers and will likely leave your blog with very few visitors. It doesn’t matter if the subject matter is Apple products or pet Newts, immersing yourself in a niche is far more rewarding than taking a scattergun approach to blogging.
Keep an Eye on Your Traffic
If you really want your blog to be successful, you need to know how it’s performing, the best way to do this is to keep tabs on your traffic with Google Analytics. Despite its scary sounding name, the software is free and easy to use. With analytics you can get an insight into traffic fluctuations which can go some way to helping yoyr blog become more successful, for example if you recognised a traffic spike on the same day as you published a post about the best feed for pet Newts, then you’ll know there is a demand for information on this particular sub topic. You can then leverage this knowledge to gain more traffic in future.
Promote your blog
If you don’t promote your blog, no one’s going to know about it, and no one’s going to read it. The best way to promote your posts is through existing networks you might already have in place. This means publicising your posts on social sites like Twitter and Facebook. You could even create dedicated feeds that compliment your blog, which will get you more targeted followers.
Be Regular
If you can, make a post everyday. It doesn’t have to be a considered, one-thousand word article, it can be anything from a top 5 tips post, few sentences accompanied by an image, or a funny video. Whatever it is you chose to post, regularity is important, if visitors come to your site, see a great post but recognise that your blog hasn’t been updated they will be more likely not to come back. If you can’t post everyday, make it every other day, or even twice a week, so long as your posts are spaced evenly and are predictable.
Respond to Comments
If your posts are funny. Controversial, or informative as they all should be, the likelihood is they will attract comments. Reply to these comments. Ignoring comments will not only turn readers off, it will make them think of you as rude and arrogant, hardly the way to build a large following.
Heed these tips, sprinkle in a little passion, dedication and knowledge and you as a young blogger will be able to take on the best.
Guest post by: Joe is a blogger working for a company that specialise in personal car leasing
Some people see business blogs as a big waste of both time and good money. This is because so many people just think of them as marketing tools. But that doesn’t by any means make them less effective. They are truly one of the most useful and successful tools that a business website can utilize. They can help to pull in massive amounts of targeted traffic to your main business website.
Whether viewed as marketing tools or not, people still read them and get a glimpse of the blog’s writer. This gives the company a very important voice that relates to their public and to their customers. The general public has always liked companies with a distinct personality that can connect with them. It makes them seem more like the people next door than some far away conglomerate.
These blogs give people a feel for what the company is truly about. They feel as though they have a voice and a say-so about the goings on, being able to give feedback and suggestions. They feel more like participants than just someone who comes to leave their money.
Aside from the benefit of giving your company a voice, there are more advantages to be had. One is having an industry authority in regards to your business blog. If your blog shows that your company can change and grow with your industry, then by sharing this with your visitors, they will gain you respect for your professionalism. This really enhances a company’s reputation. Once the public catches on that you’re on top of things, it snowballs, word gets out, and your business grows.
Because of this, your company is able to gain public trust, and they’ll find your products more appealing. Let’s face it, if you thought your products were sub-par, you wouldn’t be selling them.
A business blog can really reap big benefits for any company, and for your main site as well. By regularly keeping fresh updated content on your blog, the search engines will constantly index the site, giving it a higher page rank in the results pages. If you do some SEO work and optimize your blog for keywords that you add to your contextual links, you could see a massive surge in your page ranks. Using these things along with wise choices of domain names can give your website quite a boost toward success, and this is why so many businesses are adding blog to compliment their sites and business.
Guest post is written by Thomas Alling, the owner of the successful make money online niche blog. His blog features reviews and a free home business classifieds section.
Every blog needs to have goals. Without goals you are just shooting in the dark, trying to succeed without knowing what success really is. The problem most bloggers have is that they have very general goals that cannot be quantified. They say their goals are to make money, to never have to work a 9-5 job again, or to go on a big vacation every year from the money they make on their blog.
But there are 2 problems with that mindset:
1. Those are not really goals but a result of reaching set goals.
2. There are no numbers associated with those goals.
In this article I will show you some goals you need to start setting with your blog. Anything worth doing is worth doing right, and you will never hit a target if you are not aiming at it. Having no target in your blogging is like using the lottery as a retirement plan. Yes, some may hit the jackpot, but most will just end up losing money.
So what are some quantitative goals you can start setting?
Remember your goals need to be real numbers– something subjective and not objective.
Your goals can be to reach a certain number of…
1. RSS feed subscribers
2. Email subscribers
3. Twitter followers
4. Unique visitors in one month
5. Rank in Google for a given keyword
6. Indexed backlinks
You will notice that none of these goals have anything to do with money– at least not yet. You see, when all of our goals have to do with making money we lose focus on how to actually DO it. But when we focus on getting more email subscribers on our list and getting more targeted traffic to our blog then we will most certainly see a rise in our income levels as well.
One trap bloggers fall into is worrying so much on monetizing their blogs that they forget about the people that will be coming to their sites with the money. These are the people that will allow you to quite your day job, so your focus needs to be on them. What content are they looking for? What questions do they have? What will make them want to buy a product that you recommend?
Once you have determined what your goals are in real numbers you can set up a game plan. How can you reach that level of email subscribers? What do you need to do in order to get more quality backlinks to your site?
Your goals also need to have time frames.
Without a dead line for your goal to be reached you might as well not have a goal at all. For instance, I can say I want to have 20,000 Twitter followers as my goal. Then 3 years go by and I am still sitting at 5,000. There is no urgency to reach that 20,000 goal if I have until the rest of my life to reach it. The whole point in having goals is to reach them, and to make them a priority. A dead line will put some fire to your feet to get things done.
You cannot succeed in reaching a goal if you make it impossible to fail. It’s the chance that you might fail that makes reaching a goal so rewarding. You may not reach every goal. You probably won’t. And if you find you are reaching every goal you set in a short period of time then you are probably not aiming high enough. Set the bar a little higher and give yourself a challenge.
Set that time frame for those 20,000 followers. Try to reach that goal in 3 months, 6 months, or a year. Allow yourself the opportunity for failure, and then work as hard as you can to avoid it.
So to sum it all up:
1. Set goals with numbers.
2. Have deadlines with your goals.
3. Setup yourself for failure.
4. Will yourself to succeed and avoid that failure.
Guest Post by: Jonathan Souza is owner of CashCoach.net where you can find daily tips on internet marketing, social media, blogging, SEO, and more creative marketing techniques to get more traffic to your website.
Over at QuickOnlineTips they have put together a great list of the top 50 ways to promote your blog. All of these ways are purely online and they will provide a solid foundation for your blog.
Blog Promotion Basics
- Make blogging easier and navigational.
- Have good looking and attractive web design, so that people revisit your blog.
- Patience is the key.
- Self Motivation is required.
- Have controversial articles and interesting discussions.
- Have positive attitude and don’t frustrate yourself.
- Be sure on your context, which belong to your niche.
- Do some thing to your blog everyday, and traffic is seen. The more you do, the more you get.
- Help out people with blogs similar to your level.
- Be consistent and scheduled. Most importantly plan you every move.
Content is King
- Write more and more unique posts.
- Have more than 150+ resources and articles.
- Guide people about something, teach them something new.
- After you article is indexed by search engines, submit it to various article directories like ezinearticles.com
- Write about Big shots and their controversy.
- Interview big cool bloggers in your niche, and share about their views and ideas.
- Look out for popular content that’s gaining traffic, and write about it in a humorous way.
- Give a press release about unique news, if you have any.
- Pay others to write good articles for you.
- Be the first commenter on the posts of popular blogs, but let it be worth.
Viral and Social Networks
- Create a Fan page on facebook. Also create a facebook app for your blog.
- Customize the landing page of facebook.
- Start an open group on Yahoo and invite people or have a widget on your blog.
- Buy the accounts of popular YouTubers and then add your blog address to the descriptions of their videos.
- Start Stumbleupon promotional ads campaign
- Sign up at ping.fm and use twitterfeed.com to auto post your latest blog content to a bunch of social networks.
- Have a facebook share and retweet button for every other post.
- Have a squidoo page, as it will get indexed faster in search engines.
- Include hash(#) tags in your tweets.
- Twitter – Follow relevant, popular, and interesting people. And some will follow you back.
Bloggers and People
- Tell you neighbourhood, family and friends about your blog.
- Search for your niche and answer any questions people have.
- Submit your content to dofollow social bookmarking sites.
- Send out a Press release.
- Signup for various communities and be active in relevant Ning.com communities.
- Write some content as a linkbait.
- If your post is relevant to other blogging sites, then try interlinking posts, so as to get deep inbound links.
- Signup for every other social network you can.
- Start a podcast and submit it to various podcast directories.
- Talk to professional bloggers about your post and ask them to review it.
Viral Marketing
- This one’s my favorite, (Funky) Forward a SMS saying “Forward this mssg to atleast 49 people, to get RC of 49 for full TT instantly” with a link of your blog address. And, its viral.
- Install All In One SEO Pack for WordPress blogs.
- Create a theme, that includes a link to your blog in the footer, and then release it for free.
- If you are a developer, create a wordpress plugin and release it for free with a link to your blog within the admin area.
- Sponsor some tweets and be an active stumbler to know what stumblers like.
- Use blog search from Google to find fresh blog posts and then leave comments.
- Write a guest post for a popular blog. You may not always get published, but when you do you observe a spike in Google analytics.
- Use Thesis for better optimization and plugins.
- Join relevant forums, add your blog address to your signature and start posting smartly.
- Join a social blog network.
A new set of free social media icons has been released by Noel Tock with a grunge theme and a very neat design. Check them out.
You can download the entire set from here.
The download is completely free and Noel is just asking for you not to forget about the attribution if you are using those in your blog or web site.
Features:
- 256 x 256 px
- 64 x 64 px
- With & Without Gloss/Highlight
- StumbleUpon, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, Delicious, YouTube, Flickr, Digg & RSS.
I just might become the “icon guy” from Crenk, but that’s OK, I’d rather be the icon guy instead of no guy, right? 
WordPress dev team released just recently a new build version: 3.0.1; which does not include any changes in the functionalities but solves errors encountered in the 3.0 version.
We’ve discussed earlier about the big impact generated by WordPress 3.0 and the positive feedback around it; 54 bugs were found on the 3.0 version with only two critical. We can track the errors and tickets generated in WordPress with WordPress Trac.
Since version 2.7, WordPress includes the “Automatic Update” option, which works smoothly. But if you need a manual update you can always follow this guide.
In case you were wondering about the WordPress counter, the number is over 11 million downloads now.
CatsWhoBlog presents a very interesting and effective option to display an average feed reader value using FeedBurner stats.
There are three facts existing in today’s 2.0 worls about feeds:
- FeedBurner represents, even before Google acquired this company, the preferred service used for RSS feeds.
- All bloggers, web sites and companies, which base most of their strategy in number of visitors; know that having a nice way to show the popularity of your website is a key factor for attracting more loyal visitors, advertisements, etc.
- FeedBurner values change tremendously every day, if you are not publishing on daily basis.
To fix this problem, we can use this code in functions.php which will use the average readers from the last 7 days, a number more accurate for our RSS feed (download the TXT for functions.php):
function get_average_readers($feed_id,$interval = 7){
$today = date('Y-m-d', strtotime("now"));
$ago = date('Y-m-d', strtotime("-".$interval." days"));
$feed_url="https://feedburner.google.com/api/awareness/1.0/GetFeedData?uri=".$feed_id."&dates=".$ago.",".$today;
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $feed_url);
$data = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($data);
$fb = $xml->feed->entry['circulation'];
$nb = 0;
foreach($xml->feed->children() as $circ){
$nb += $circ['circulation'];
}
return round($nb/$interval);
}
Once done, you can call the function wherever you want in your theme files. Pass your Feedburner feed id as a parameter (download the TXT for this example):
<?php
$nb = get_average_readers('catswhocode');
echo "I have ".$nb." RSS readers";
?>
There’s no news to you if I say that having a lot of Facebook shares for your articles can bring you a lot of traffic; and also you should know that the time schedule for publishing articles it is an important factor to get a lot of hits. So, when is the best time to publish an article and get a lot of shares on Facebook? Weekends says this report.
Dan Zarrella always brings some interesting reports about social networks, the name of social media scientist fits perfectly on him; and this special report could make a huge difference among bloggers and writers. Here’s the graph:
Besides the massive Facebook sharing over the weekend, notice the following:
- The weekend is the time where fewer articles are posted but most of the sharing is happening there.
- The data is considering and remarking an average sharing line.
- One of the considerations of this increase over the weekend could be, as Dan says, that the most of the companies in the US blocks Facebook.
And you? When do you share the most?
