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Writing Great Content

July 3, 2011 By 10 Comments

creating great content

For many, the thought of writing may seem a little frightening, I mean even with spell check we all seem to let a few spelling mistakes fall through the cracks that then appear for the entire world to see, and criticize.

So how exactly do we offer up great content for our readers? I mean we’d all agree that our readers are important and deserving of something special, and interesting to read on a regular basis. And furthermore since we as blog owners love the resulting traffic, we’d of course prefer it if they were getting those great articles from us!

So what is a blogger/writer to do?

  • Write ahead of time, don’t wake up at 8:00 am knowing you need to publish at 9:00 because chances are you won’t be mentally prepared, and by waiting till the last minute you are forcing yourself to produce quality, rather than letting it come naturally.

I don’t know about you, but creativity isn’t something I can turn on at will. I have days where I can write a great article in no time at all, and others where I simply sit and stare at the screen, occasionally writing and then deleting the drivel I’d written, and hoping for some creative inspiration to strike.

  • Have a planned writing schedule. Sometimes having a schedule of what topics you’d like to cover, and when can take some of the stress of continually finding new subjects to write about out of the equation. Many sites have something similar to a calendar of events, only it’s more of an editorial calendar.
  • Research your topic. This might seem like common sense to some, but I often see articles that could be bolstered up with a few pertinent facts and figures that would go a long way toward shoring up the article, and giving it more substance.
  • Stay on topic. If you have a personal development blog where you go through the trials and tribulations of life, and how to get the most out of it, then wandering off to discuss your favorite keyword research tool, might not be the best idea. The readers you’ve attracted are there for the current topic, and articles, and many won’t even own a website or blog.
  • Make sure you follow through, if you tell your readers you are going to join the gym next week, and start sharing your experience, and successes with them, and then simply forget, or change your mind many of them will see it as a lack of commitment to not only yourself, but also to them, your readers!
  • Write informative “how to” articles that do something to either help your reader, or simply improve some aspect of their lives. Too often we are being sold in life, and too few seem to be the help we need from time to time.
  • Interact with your readers. We all know how much we appreciate comments on our blog, but if we don’t take the time to respond to as many readers (hopefully all if it’s possible) as we can, we’ll soon find fewer and fewer people taking the time to engage with us. The comments section of your blog is a great place to not only get to know your readers, but also find out what they enjoy most about your site, and perhaps what they’d like to see in the future.
  • Read through the finished post to make sure you’ve covered all the point’s you wanted to make. From time to time while I’m writing I’ll skip from one paragraph to the next, and if ever I forgot to head back and finish that first paragraph, I’m sure my readers would be wondering what the heck I was trying to get across. The simple act of reading your post before you publish it, can often show you things you might otherwise have overlooked.
  • Two words, “spell check”. Most programs have it built in, and even most email services include it as a standard feature. Nobody (least of all your loyal readers) expects you to be perfect, or even 90% grammatically correct, but taking the time to read through, and spell check a document can often show you a spelling mistake or two that take no more than a second to fix. The end result will be well worth it!
  • And last, but not least have fun with it! This isn’t like when we were back in college and being graded on every aspect of what we wrote. Most of us (including the professional bloggers among us) write because we enjoy it and have a need to share our knowledge, thoughts and experiences with others. In most cases it is this willingness to help others that determines how successful we are at what we do.

 

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Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: blog, Blogging, content, create, proof, readers, schedule, spell check, writing

How to Drive Guest Posts Submissions

January 29, 2011 By 1 Comment

Guest Posting

As bloggers we tend to take on so many different tasks and roles in our lives. We are writer, and editor, designer, marketer, but once in a while it’s a nice break to let someone else write for us. Guest posting is beneficial to me as a blogger, because it give me a break from writing, and lets me see a topic from another bloggers perspective. It is also a nice change for the readers of my blog because they to get to see a different writing style, as well as someone else who’s writing they might enjoy. And finally the guest blogger himself gets to reach a whole new audience, as well as a back link to his website. It’s a winning situation for all those involved.

If you’d like to increase the number of submissions that you are receiving, it’s important to outline your guidelines somewhere on your blog. This serves a few purposes. One it lets them know that you not only accept guest posts, but are so professional about the situation; you’ve written a page regarding it. Two, it also informs them just what it is you expect from a guest blogger, and what guidelines he should adhere to. And lastly it gives him the contact information on where he should send his completed post, or if you have some other method of submission.

If you have a minimum length you expect your articles to be, make sure you mention it in your “Guest Posting” page, as well as to remind them that you expect the content to be theirs and unique. You would think this one would go without saying, but unfortunately this isn’t the case. I’ve seen instances (recently) where a guest poster submitted a post to another blogger, and she published it, only to realize later on that he was submitting the exact same post to every blogger he could find in the same niche.

You might also want to include whether or not you do guest blogging, and what they can expect from you in that situation. Also here is a great spot to let them know the benefits of guest blogging for your site, and what they can expect in return. A resource box, or bio page, perhaps you want to share your traffic stats with them so they understand the value and reach that guest posting on your blog will have for them.

By having a dedicated page to handle questions that fellow bloggers might have on the topic of guest blogging for you, you’ll eliminate much of the need for guesswork on their part, and by making the process smoother, and more structured, you should start to see an increase in the number of submissions that your blog receives.

If you would like to see my guest blogging page as an example, or if you’d like to submit a guest post to us, please check out the guest post page here:

http://www.plrinternetmarketing.com/services/guest-blogging/

Podcast version

 

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Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: blog, Blogging, guest blog, guest blogging, guest post, guidelines, readers, submission

What is Bounce Rate?

November 7, 2010 By 7 Comments

What is bounce rate

Bounce rate is definitely something you’re going to want to take into consideration when you’re evaluating the analytics for your website or blog. If you’ve installed Google Analytics you will have a screen that looks something like the one below.

Bounce Rate

Now from this graph you can see that they have a bounce rate of 36.6% and people are spending close to three minutes on the site when they arrive which is pretty good. This allows quite a bit of time for you to show your visitors your writing style, the products or services you’re promoting, and maybe even make a sale.

So what is bounce rate? Well typically every visitor to your site will “bounce” or leave your site eventually through various methods, but bounce rate will only take into consideration the visitors who came, and left while only visiting one page. The formula used to calculate bounce rate is:

Bounce Rate = Total Number of Visits Viewing Only One Page / Total Number of Visits

Some will leave through an advertisement that you have displayed on your site, they may simply close the browser window after they finish reading your blog post. Some will arrive via Google after typing in a keyword, or key phrase, that is related to the topic on your page. The more relevant the page is to what they typed into Google, chances are the longer that person will stay. For instance if someone types in “What is bounce rate?” and this article comes up, then hopefully I did a good job in explaining it, and that person will stick around to read the article. If however I mistitled or did a poor job of explaining the concept that person might simply hit the back button and check out one of the other websites that were listed in the search results, which would increase my bounce rate. Obviously If Google sends me 1000 people for that search term, and they all hit the back button and go visit another site, they will not only record the high bounce rate, but will also stop sending me traffic for that search term as well. So it’s important to try and write for your readers and not for Google.

Typically the lower the bounce rate of a site the better, however this may not always be true. MFA sites (made for AdSense) would probably appreciate having a higher bounce rate since the goal for these sites (which I personally dislike) is not to keep your interest, but to get you to click out of the site using one of the Google ads on the page. I personally like seeing a very low bounce rate and will continue to work on my sites to see this number go lower, because this will mean I’ve engaged my audience and kept their interest which in turn means I’m providing them value through my content and hopefully showcased some of the products and services available on my site so that when they are in the frame of mind to make a purchase, it will hopefully be through my site, or my link.

So what is considered a good bounce rate? That will depend entirely on the site in question, I have blogs with bounce rates under 5% and others with 65% and both do quite well in terms of traffic, subscribers, etc. But I also have websites with very little text and a buy it now button at the bottom with bounce rates in the 90’s that is only there to sell a PayPal Donation script www.paypaldonationscript.com and as such does quite well at Its job. This is a zero maintenance website that makes money month in and month out, so while I’m sure I could lower the bounce rate, what would be the purpose?

It’s important to have a clear idea of the goal of the website in order to determine which you’re your bounce rate should be heading. Once you’ve determined that, it is a simple matter of either providing higher quality content, or perhaps more interactive media in order to lower your rate, or perhaps tweaking and improving your sales copy if you’d like to try to convert visitors quicker, or make them take an action that suits your needs. Either way bounce rate is something you should be aware of, as well as keeping an eye on it and the direction it’s heading to ensure that it’s in line with your particular marketing model.

I’ll use PLR Internet Marketing as an example; the bounce rate for this site is up around 67% despite the fact that visitors spend an average of 2 minutes here.  It would be a simple matter for me to lower this number, I could simply take out my fade in popup that new visitors see asking them to optin to my list in exchange for downloading my 79 page eBook that I’m offering. Many people when they see any sort of popup will instantly click out to escape. Now I know this is true, so why do I leave it in there? Because bounce rate isn’t the only thing I’m tracking. I’m also tracking subscribers to this site, and with that subscriber fade in, I have a much higher subscription rate than without it, so it ends up being a personal choice. But it brings into focus the fact that you need a clear idea of what the goal of your website is.

Podcast version

 

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Filed Under: SEO Tagged With: blog, Blogging, bounce rate, content, engaged, Google Analytics, leave your site, page, readers, seo, subscribers, visitors, what is bounce rate

Make Money Blogging

October 16, 2010 By 1 Comment

Write an Ebook

For a lot of you reading this post, you already have an existing blog, or perhaps are considering starting one up. Some of you will be making money with your blog, and still others will find making any amount at all a challenge. There are literally thousands of sites out there claiming to be able to teach you how to make money blogging and some will have some truth in them, while others will be filled with hype and promises that never deliver. I’m going to share with you one method for earning money with your blog, while also setting you up as an expert in your field.

Being a blogger is rewarding in and of itself, but at the same time we all need to pay the bills. For some of you, this is a hobby and making some extra money with your blog is just a side bonus and perhaps a way to make the car payment or some such. For others who are more dedicated, or are willing to treat it more like a business, it can be a full time income that provides for you and your family. Regardless of which group you’re in, you can all benefit from this method, which you can all manage quite easily with just the skills that you already possess.

When someone types into Google’s search bar that they are looking for cooking recipes, whatever sites they find listed and click through to already have the preconceived perception as being a bit of an expert or authority on that particular topic. If you’ve done your job, and are passionate about the topic that you cover, you’ve probably read numerous articles, written even more and are probably more than a little passionate about that topic, I mean after all you went to the trouble to start up a website devoted to it so I’m going to assume you know a fair bit on that subject, and will most likely continue to learn and teach even more.

One way that you can make money blogging is to write a book on the subject matter of your blog. Incidentally this is also a great way to set yourself apart as an expert in your field or niche since not everyone will invest the time and effort into such an endeavor. Many of you will respond that you aren’t writers but let’s face it, you write all the time, and people are interested in what you have to say (your readers). A book is just a large collection of blog posts basically, so if you’re able to write a post, you are more than capable of writing an eBook, or even a hard copy book.

I would suggest starting off with an eBook, and devote a part of each day to writing 1000 words or so to the project that you choose.  If you’re going to sell your book, then plan to write anywhere from 10,000 to 50,000 words depending on the subject matter and how much you plan to charge for your eBook. This number is of course going to vary hugely upon both the writer and the subject matter.  I’d suggest trying to give your reader more value for his money if possible. What I mean is if you are charging $20.00 per copy, then try to write $40.00 worth of value into the book. This will provide you will a lot of free word of mouth advertising because people will experience the value you’ve provided them with, and they will wish to share it with others.

Selling a $20.00 eBook can be a nice source of income for you and your blog. If you sell just one book a day to one of your readers then that will provide you with an extra $600.00 a month for doing something that you’re doing for free anyway. I’ve seen many people take this even further and they end up publishing books that they feel offer exceptional value, and allow them to reach an even wider audience while also providing you with more expertise and revenue in the form of royalties. Self-publishing is also an option, and easier than most people think.

There are hundreds of ways to make money blogging, and this is just one of the easiest of them that is within your reach with no other tool than your mind, and your time. You’ve already proven that people wish to read what your write, hear what you have to say by the number of readers you’ve attracted to your blog. Do yourself and them a service, and write a book that will benefit them further, and offer it up for sale, you might be surprised by the results.

Another way that you can put your writing to good use is to offer up a valuable eBook in exchange for a readers email address, that you can then use to market to them occasionally. I’m not saying try to sell to your list day in and day out, but if you can develop a rhythm where you email them helpful information or tips that will improve some aspect of their lives while at the same time sprinkling in some suggestive selling then it will be worth both your readers and your time.

If you’re serious about making money with your blog, then go ahead and take that next step, brainstorm a topic that will benefit your readers in some way, settle on a topic, and then start doing some research and begin the project today!

Good luck in your endeavors!

Warren

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Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: blog, Blogging, ebook, make money blogging, money, readers, rewarding, selling ebooks, writing

Twelve More Blog Improvement Tips

October 15, 2010 By 3 Comments

More blogging tips

So following up with yesterday’s post, and since I wasn’t sure what to write about today I thought I’d continue with another twelve tips to help you improve your blog, and help drive some extra traffic to it.

Tip #1
Time release your posts, unlike this one where I was late sending it out, I should have written it on the previous day, and scheduled it to go out at my peak time which happens to be 8 or 9 am central time. To In order to maximize the post’s exposure I should probably have scheduled it for 7am in order to capitalize on the two highest traffic hours in my day. You can find out what is your blog’s busiest times by checking your analytics or traffic statistics and scheduling your releases accordingly, also try to have tomorrows article pre-written and ready to go out the following day.

Tip #2
While I was searching the net I’ve come across many posts or questions related to the optimal size for a blog post.
It has been my experience that readers tend to prefer posts somewhere around the 500 word limit when they are looking for some quick information, and between 1000 and 1500 words when they need more in depth information, there are exceptions when doing more in depth pieces, but generally anything more than 1500 words and you risk losing the reader, and anything less than 500 and there isn’t enough room to get your point across sufficiently, as well as there isn’t enough meat in the article for search engines to get their teeth into. Now both of these considered, I find articles over 1000 words provide me with greater search engine authority and these articles tend to rank higher than the shorter pieces.

Tip #3
Take part in the Yahoo answers program and offer your expertise on matters that pertain to your blogs topic, and when possible site your own posts as the source for the answer. The more posts that you have the easier this will be so try to write consistently on your blog and over time you’ll have a great wealth of knowledge to pull from.

Tip #4
Dig deep, and try to outdo yourself on occasion and post articles that are above and beyond the norm, occasionally you’ll write something that gets linked to by hundreds of sites, and drives traffic like crazy. You’ll know them when you see them, and if you ever get to the point where you can write one of these even monthly you’ll see an incredible response!

Tip #5
Be part of the blogging community, there is a huge blogging community out there, and if you can befriend some of the one’s that inspire you, you will both be the better for it. I love being the inspiration for someone else’s blog, and I also love being inspired by the many blogs I read. A short time ago I came across a totally unrelated blog called www.wellreadreviews.com run by a great lady named Allison she had a similar design as I do, with one difference. On her main page she had the entire post showing where the theme only allowed a snippet usually. I liked this feature so much that I reached out to her, and was able to modify my own theme (with the help of Brian Gardner over at Studiopress) and now my readers are able to read todays post without having to click through to it. By exploring the blogging community around me, I’m able to discover new and exciting ways that I can improve upon my blog, and offer a richer experience for my readers.

Tip #6
Stick to your theme or niche. I’m not sure about the rest of you, but I for one am not a fan of blogs that try to cover too wide a range of topics. I’ve seen sites that try to cover health and fitness related articles, and then all of a sudden will all of a sudden write for a week on make money online topics, only to switch to writing about video games the following month.  Stick to the topics your passionate about and try not to get sidetracked. I myself have made this mistake, and it usually comes from having widely varied interests. I soon realized I was better off creating a second or third site so that I could focus each one on the topic at hand. Another blog that I own is www.thehappyself.com and I was trying to fit internet marketing articles into it, but it wasn’t a healthy fit, I was much better off creating a second site where I could write articles that were more focused, and didn’t confuse the majority of my current readers.

Tip #7
Consider installing a translator plugin into your blog, or website. You might be surprised by the fact that a single country like China holds more than four times the population of the US and by installing a simple translation plugin you are effectively opening your doors to over one point four billion new readers.

Tip #8
Try to be the blog or website that “breaks” news, be a source to your readers on topics that have just happened. You’d be surprised at how much traffic your website will get when you’re one of only a handful of sites talking about something newsworthy (in your niche) that has just taken place.

Tip #9
unlike the previous tip, you can also try to write posts that are “timeless” and will apply to your readers for years to come. You’d be surprised by the number of times I’ve needed information on a topic, and the most current article I can find is from four or five years previous, but because it was written in such a way as to be still relevant it is still receiving traffic years later. Just imagine if you’re writing twice a week consistently how many articles you will have circulating the net in five years.

Tip #10
Link to your previous articles, if you’ve just written a post on a certain topic and you know that you have more information on your blog that a reader might be interested in, don’t be afraid to link to it. It gives your reader a chance to explore more of your blog, as well as providing certain SEO benefits as well. When possible use relevant keywords to link to it with also.

Tip #11
Take the time to email one of your readers after they take the time to leave a comment on your blog, this is such a simple thing, but most of us never take the time to do it. It will go a long way in setting your blog apart from the rest and will probably leave a lasting impression with the reader you choose to write to. I know I’d remember a busy site owner that took the time to personally email and thank me for commenting on his or her blog.

Tip #12
Create an about me video to introduce yourself to your readers. Most people will click on an about us tab to see exactly who it is that owns a site, in order to feel more connected with them. Take it that extra mile, and have a short video introducing yourself, and thanking the viewer for stopping by. Perhaps tell them a little bit about what they can expect to come across in their visit.

And there you have another few ideas for ways to improve or spruce up your blog, I apologize for sending this out so late today, I just couldn’t find the inspiration to write. Perhaps I’ll have to write an article on where to find inspiration on days like this tomorrow!
Take care, and thanks for stopping by.

Warren

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Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: article length, blog, bloggging, blogging tips, Brian Gardner, improve your blog, readers, Studiopress, theme, time release your posts, traffic, translator plugin, video, www.thehappyself.com, www.wellreadreviews.com, yahoo answers

12 Tips for a Better Blog

October 14, 2010 By 7 Comments

Here’s a list of ideas that you may or may not have heard of already, perhaps you’ve taken the time to implement some, but are still waiting for others. I hope this gives you that push to take your blog to the next level. You can choose to implement just one or two, or you may decide on several, either way I want to wish you all the success with your blog.

1.       Install Google’s analytics, this might seem like a no brainer for those who are already using it, but I’m always amazed at how many people still haven’t taken advantage of it. It’s simple to setup, free to use, and gives you access to a wealth of data that will tell you exactly where your readers are coming from, which ads they are clicking, how long they stay on your site and so much more. It is one of the most powerful tools I have as an internet marketer, and did I mention that it’s free?

2.       Check the html code on your site for errors with sites like http://validator.w3.org where you type in your URL and they tell you how many errors and warnings you may have, as well as where they occur in the page, and they even offer suggestions on how to fix them.

3.       Optimize the images on your site both so that they load quickly and also so they are named in such a way as to provide you with some SEO benefit. Each day I receive a handful of visitors to my site through Google Images, and you never know which reader may stay on to become a loyal reader for years to come.

4.       Turn on your comments. Most of you already do this, but for the few out there that don’t (I was one for a while) it really is a great way to interact with your readers, as well as it provides you with free content that other’s write for you, and as we all know Google loves content!

5.       Install the subscribe to comments plugin, so that people are notified about subsequent comments left on the same post, often when I answer a question, I’ll get a response back right away because that person who asked the question had checked the box asking to be notified when a new comment was posted. It’s also a great way to get people to come back to your blog. If I leave a comment somewhere, and subscribe often I will return to read each subsequent comment left which then gives the blog owner another chance to capture my attention and I might just stay to read another article, or perhaps I’ll see an ad that interests me enough to click on it, and the site owner will earn anywhere from a few cents to several dollars.

6.       Go through and check your site for broken or dead links so that your readers will have less chance of stumbling into a dead end 404 page, there is plenty of software out there that can do it quite quickly.

7.       Add a Tweet this button to your posts so that others may share them with their own followers, remember I’m a blogger and if I find your article interesting and retweet it, I’ve now exposed your article as well as your site to my followers. This could open you up to thousands of new people who might not otherwise have stumbled upon your blog. It twitter isn’t your thing there are other social media tools such as stumble buttons, or Digg buttons, etc. Try and find one that works best for you. I was getting thousands of visitors from Stumbleupon, but ended up going with my retweet button because the people that came from Stumbleupon are used to quickly clicking in and out, so my bounce rate was getting higher and higher the more traffic I received from them. With Twitter if someone retweet an article on affiliate marketing chances are the only people who will click through are people who are interested in that topic, and there is a much greater chance they will stick around to read the article and perhaps check out the rest of what my site has to offer.

8.       Try doing some competitive shopping, spend a day visiting blogs around the net, and find things that they have implemented that you think your blog and readers would benefit from, this is the best way to go, because you can see what it looks like implemented before you even add it. Another blog might inspire you to add a certain plugin, or add some add space, perhaps take some away. Owning a blog is great because your site is continually changing and improving as you grow with your readers and it’s so much fun to see it progress, both for you and your readers. I love when a blog I frequent experiences positive change, I’m happy and excited for them.

9.       Create a video in the form of a commercial for your blog or website, I’ve seen some really cool work out there, and even if you don’t have the skills yourself you can usually get a pretty good one made up for under $200.00 depending on what you’re looking for.

10.   Spend an entire day visiting other blogs in your niche, and leave great comments on their blogs. Trust me, they love great content as much as you do, and your comment will stay there for years and people will be inclined to click through to your blog to see what else you have to say. The blog owner himself will most likely stop in and check you out, turn him into your next new reader!

11.   Create a Facebook fan page for your blog or website. I created a fan page a few months ago, and I have my blog posts and twitter feed post to it automatically for the fans. It didn’t take long before I soon had an audience of a few thousand people who stop in from time to time.

12.   Write an eBook that you can offer to your readers as a gift for opting in to your email list. You can then communicate with them more fully and individually and start to build your relationship with them further.

There are so many things that you can do to improve both the reader’s experience as well as the functionality of your site if you are willing to invest the time and effort into it.

Good luck to all of you.
Warren

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: blog, Blogging, ebook, Facebook, Google Analytics, optin fan page, readers, retweet, tips for a better blog, twitter, visitors

Can You Make a Living Blogging?

August 18, 2010 By 2 Comments

Blogging for a living

You’ve probably heard a lot of stories about people on the internet being able to make a fortune from blogging, and you may (rightly so) have questioned the legitimacy of these claims. Just how realistic is it to expect to be able to make money blogging, and if it can be done, then how much work does it take? The answer is not as simple as you might think, and here we’ll go over a few of the different aspects that go into blogging for a living, as well as how you can work from home with your very own blog if you decide you want to take a crack at it.

Blogging for a living is certainly possible, but it takes determination and hard work. At first, your blog will likely have few readers, and might not generate any income at all. By building up posts, promoting your blog by linking to it on forums, sending the address to friends, and more, you can start to attract new readers. Blogs that have more readers and have more incoming links (other sites that link to your blog) tend to naturally be featured earlier on in search results, giving you even more readership.

The first thing you need to know about trying to make a living from blogging is that there are, quite literally, tens, even hundreds of thousands of other active blogs with which you will be competing for readership. Thus, it is important to try and find something that is not only unique and interesting, but also something you know well enough to draw readers based on your experience and expertise. The rules for blogging are much the same as those in any writing: you write what you know. Choose a topic that you not only know well, but enjoy writing about.

If you want to make money blogging, there are a few ways to do so. Some sites will sponsor bloggers, so simply by having people read your work, you can start to make money. These sites typically encourage bloggers to write about a specific area or theme, such as travel, food, health, and so on. If your blog generates enough readership, it’s possible to sell advertising space on your page in order to generate extra income. You can also get sponsored by online businesses, in order to plug their products in your posts. The possibilities are limited only by your creativity.

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Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: bloggers, Blogging, forums, hard work, make a living blogging, posts, readers, theme

Tips for Generating More Readers to your Blog

August 14, 2010 By 3 Comments

Generating More Readers

One of the toughest things to do when trying to work seriously on a blog is draw in more readers. However, this is also an important aspect of getting exposure for your work, and if you work from home on a blog for a living, then it’s also crucial for making money. Regardless of how your blog generates income, it likely relies heavily on bringing in traffic in order to do so. Here, we’ll go over a few simple tips for getting more readership, both in terms of the blog itself as well as outside it.

The obvious answer to the problem of bringing in more readers is to expand the amount of content your blog contains. This is effective for several reasons: firstly, because the more content your blog has, the more content there is that has a chance of attracting a particular reader. Secondly, web pages with large amounts of rich content (that is, text, video, etc.) are more likely to be crawled by search engines than sites that are relatively devoid of it. This means that simply by creating more content for your blog, you are effectively optimizing it for certain key terms in search engine queries. For example, writing a few entries or posting a video about your dog doing hilarious tricks will dramatically increase the number of readers who see your blog when they search the internet for blogs, videos, and so forth regarding dogs doing hilarious tricks.

A somewhat more convoluted way of increasing your readership is to actively promote your blog. This can be done in a number of ways, either by posting links to your blog on related forums (if you have a fishing blog, registering at some fishing forums and promoting it there will get the best results), or by sending your friends in social networking groups a link to your site.

Lastly, you can try to increase your blog’s readership by improving its link popularity. Link popularity relies on the number of incoming links from other sites, and the quality of those links (are they sites that are frequently visited by real users, or not). It also directly impacts the likelihood of your site coming up on a search engine results page. That said, often the easiest way to get more readers for your blog is simply by blogging, although other tactics can also help you tip the scales.

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Filed Under: Internet Marketing Tagged With: attracting more readers, blog, blog generates income, link popularity, making money, readers, readership, rich content, Work from home

A Few Tips for a Successful Blog

August 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Blogging tips

Running a blog isn’t an easy task, but can certainly be a rewarding one. In order to keep your blog running smoothly I’ve compiled a few tips to keep you on track, and heading in the right direction.

Tip #1

Blog consistently – I personally strive to blog once daily, and will even go back and fill in days I’ve missed due to illnesses on my part, or heaven forbid a virus on my website puts me down for a day. It doesn’t matter if you’re going to commit to once a day, once a week, or once a month, but be consistent. If you’re going to commit to once a week, make sure you’ve got your post out on time, nothing loses a readers interest in a blog faster than no updates in an extended period. You can even use the scheduling function in wordpress to have your blog post go out at a set time and date.

Tip #2

Find your voice – After writing for a while, you’ll come to find your style of writing, you may even go through several until you find the one that “feels” right to you. When you start to develop a loyal following of readers, a big part of the reason they visit your blog is because they find YOU interesting, and want to hear what you have to say on a particular subject. When I first started I was writing my blog posts like I was writing for ezine articles, now I’m trying tone it down, and keep it more casual, I’m still in the process of finding the voice or tone that works best for me.

Tip #3

Connect with your readers – Don’t be afraid to open up, and connect to your readers, you’ll build trust and discover new online relationships some of which may even lead to real world encounters  with fans of your blog. It’s a good idea to have a picture of yourself, as well as an “about me” page where you can tell your readers a little bit about yourself, your hobbies, interests, family life, etc. Don’t be afraid to open up. After all, a lot of what makes your blog yours is you!

Tip #4

Spelling and Grammar – While you don’t have to be an English major, you do have to be understood in order to get your point across to your readers without it having to be a guessing game on their part.
John Chow who is one of my personal favorites and a very well-known blogger always has grammatical errors, but it’s in such a way that it only leads to the charm of the site. English is his second language, and for some reason, if you’ve ever heard john speak either in real life, or on video, you’ll soon start reading his blog and “hearing” it with his accent even. But he also makes a point to run spell check, and correct any errors as soon as he finds them.

Tip #5

Be easily found – Do your keyword research, or hire someone to do it for you. Spend the time search engine optimizing your blog so that you’re easily found in the search engines. Also it’s a good idea to have your RSS button easily found so that readers can subscribe to your RSS feed. Make it easy for them , I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found a great site or blog, only to forget to bookmark it, and then search in vain for it at a later date, and never succeeding. Don’t get lost! Remind them to bookmark even. If they like your site, you’ll be doing them a favor, if they don’t well they won’t click the button.
Either way it’s a good idea.
There are a few tips for improving your blog, and keeping your reader’s interested. There are tons more, and I could easily write an eBook on the subject. Hey? Now that might not be a bad idea!

Thanks for stopping in, enjoy the rest of your day!

Warren

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: blog consistently, blog posts, Blogging, readers, rss feed, running a blog

Internet Marketing Tools

August 1, 2010 By 1 Comment

Internet Marketing Tools

Promoting a website or blog is often the best way to increase the amount of traffic it sees, and whether that site makes money by selling products or simply by users viewing ads, it’s important to understand a few basic ways in which you can boost the amount of traffic your blog gets. Blogging for a living relies heavily on a few key internet marketing tools in order to draw in more traffic, and here we’ll go over a few of the simple ways you can increase your readership and, in turn, use your blog to make money from home.

One of the things you’ll have to take into account when deciding how to increase your readership is that many search engines use the content on a page to determine whether it shows up on a search results page. Google AdWords is a handy tool that can tell you how many users are searching for a given set of terms on a monthly and daily basis, as well as how many other websites are in competition for that set of terms. Increasing the frequency with which you use certain key phrases will also increase the likelihood that your site is featured on a search results page for those terms. This is known as search engine optimization, and it is an easy way to bring more readers to your blog.

An example of search engine optimization as it is used in blogging might go like this: suppose you run a blog in which you write about cars. Including commonly searched-for phrases like “auto parts,” “car repair,” and so on will draw more readers who are actually looking for the type of information you provide. This is useful to you because it not only brings in more readers, but guarantees that those readers will be interested in your content.

You can also use a few simple advertising techniques for internet marketing your blog. For example, buying advertising space on a website related to your blog (in the example, you might advertise on a car-related internet forum) can help bring in more readers. Using these internet marketing tools to bring in readers that are invested in your content is one of the best ways to guarantee that they will come back again. That said, one of the best tools you can use for blogging is your own mind. The more content you write, the more readers you get.

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Filed Under: Internet Marketing Tagged With: blog, internet marketing tools, make money from home, makes money, readers, Search Engine Optimization, selling products, traffic, viewing ads
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