Posts Tagged ‘blogging tips’
What is the one criteria to become a successful blogger? Avoid mistakes like plagues. While it’s definitely forgivable to make mistakes due to carelessness, it’s wrong if you are not even aware of it in the first place. Recognize these 7 mistakes to avoid falling into the same trap millions have before you.
1. Your writing is boring – Ever come across writing that are both educative and entertaining? The simplest way to add life into your articles is by writing your post the same way you talk. It adds personality in your post.
2. Your blog revolves around you – Here’s the thing with sharing personal experience with your readers, only do it if you think it would be helpful, and be brief about it. No one wants to know the details of some stranger on the net. Believe me, most simply don’t have the time for it.
3. You’re repeating what others are saying – If this is your plan to reach blogging success, you’re not going to make it. What every blog needs is uniqueness, and unique certainly doesn’t come from repeating what has been said.
4. Oh no, not your favorite music on auto-play! – So as soon as I access your blog, the ukulele string quartet starts playing? I’d rather hear an accordion band. Don’t add music to your site. Half the people won’t like it and the other half will find it’s a distraction.
5. Nothing but a wall of text – I’ve written many articles on what makes a good articles. Not once is this point missed out. It’s that important. And remember to put some relevant pictures to go along with your articles. It may take some time to find one, but it’s well worth the effort.
6. You post once a month – The worst you could do to kill your blog is by writing one hell of an article and leave it till next month before you get your new post up. For established bloggers, they might be able to pull this off. But if your blog is new, I recommend at least three posts a week for the first couple of months.
7. Your blog design is lame – I’m sure you heard of the importance of having a good first impression. That applies to blog, unfortunately. If your design is unprofessional and clumsy, chances are, they are not going to read what you have to say. It’s sad, I know.
Good news is, its never too late to correct these mistakes.
Nik Imran is the author of IMakeABlog, a blog that provides guide on blog setup. If you have no clue as to what constitute a blog, you can check his article where he answers the most basic question in elaborate fashion. What is a blog?
One popular post can bring your more traffic and links than a month’s worth of your usual content. In this post, I want to set you a challenge with the potential to launch your blog into the stratosphere. So make sure to use these tips and make the next post you write your most popular post ever.
1. Time is more important than talent – After blogging for some time, I’m more than convinced that writing has nothing to do with talent. Assuming you have acceptable grammar and vocabulary, writing is more about editing and coming up with ideas. Obviously, the longer you spend on an article, the better it will be. With the extra time spent, you can refine, format and fill your post with plenty of value.
2. Use your best idea – A post will never become wildly popular unless it fulfills a need, and does so emphatically. To generate ideas, there are lots of questions you can ask yourselves. For example, what is something your niche wants but hasn’t got yet?
3. Use formatting to your advantage – These days, a post can never become popular without the help of social media. However, social media users are notoriously spoiled for choice. Use formatting to emphasize the best aspects of your post. Hone in on your funniest lines, your most profound bits of advice, your best resources. Make them stand out.
4. Brainstorm headlines – Headline is important as it serves the purpose of drawing attention of readers to read your articles. If a headline does not instantly give an indication – i.e., an idea or hint, not the entire story – of not only what the page is all about but also the reasons why people should read further the moment they read it, it will actually deter prospects. So make sure to take some time to brainstorm your headlines.
5. Invest plenty of value in your post – Ever bookmarked or voted for something without completely reading it? We’ve all done it. It’s because of the ‘Wow’ factor – the presence of enough promised value in one place gets the reader enthusiastic about the post straight away. Instead of 5 tips, why not share 50? Instead of 9 resources, why not 40 or more?
6. Utilize your network – If you want people to Digg, Stumble or Reddit your post, there’s no reason why you need to sit back with fingers crossed and hope it happens. Ask them. Your loyal readers like you. You entertain them, or teach them, or help them. If voting is a simple matter of clicking a link they’ll be more than happy to do so. Ask for votes in your post and email readers and social media influencers. In most cases you will need to get the snowball rolling. After that, others will do most of the work for you.
7. Proof-read for typos and glaring grammatical errors – You wouldn’t go out of the house with dirty hair or missing a sock, so why would you publish spelling mistakes? Respect your readers by polishing up your stuff.
Nik Imran is the writer of IMakeABlog, a blog that provides guide on how to make a blog. You can check out his guide on how to install wordpress.
When I started blogging, I always remember what has to be done. Overtime however, these things are often forgotten. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one here. I hope this post will serve as a healthy reminder for us bloggers.
1. Backup – Over the past year I had around five friends coming to me on MSN and asking: “Hey Nik, my blog crashed, and I had no backups, any tips on how to solve it?” Trust me, you really don’t want to find yourself in that position.
2. Link to older posts – This is a bad habit most bloggers make once they blog for some time. Somewhat we always tend to forget to link to our older posts. There are many benefits to linking to older posts that you don’t want to miss. Firstly, more information could be given to your readers. Secondly, it gives your readers options to keep reading your blog. One thing I find about the behavior of visitors. Usually, the longer they stay in your blog, reading your stuff, the higher the probability that they will subscribe to your blog.
3. Network – Ask ten bloggers what is the secret of their success, and I am sure that at least half of them will mention their network of contacts and friends. Keep that in mind and try to network with people as often as possible.
4. Proofread – If you browse around the blogosphere you will notice that the vast majority of the bloggers do not proofread. Confusions with its and it’s, your and you’re, and their and they’re are very common. So the next time you finish writing a post or article, remember to proofread it.
5. Answer to comments – You just started blogging not too long ago and few comments comes in. You got excited, and you answer each of them. Usually, this is the case. However, over time, when your blog has become more popular, it’s easy to start neglecting the comments. Although it can be very time consuming to reply all the comments, at the very minimum you want to answer the people that post direct questions to you.
6. Answer your e-mails – E-mails can get overwhelming at times. I’m not going to lie to you and say I reply to all of them. That would be wasting too much of my time. However, I always make sure to reply to any genuine inquiries and questions that relate to my blogs topic. It might be the difference between an upset visitor and a faithful reader.
7. Upgrade Wordpress – I must admit, I usually only upgrade my Wordpress every few months. This is a bad habit as there could be updates that is related to the security hole in the Wordpress version. Try to update it on a regular basis, whenever new version is available.
Nik Imran is the author of IMakeABlog, a blog that provides guide on how to make a blog. If you are interested in creating a blog, be sure to check out his guide on how to choose domain name.
Are you tired of reading countless of blogging tips and still see no improvement in your blog? Truth is, there are plenty of tips that will only waste your time if you try to follow it. If you really want to build a career blogging, you won’t go wrong using these 7 timeless blogging tips.
1. Reply to comments on your blog – Replying to questions or comments from readers is your way of letting people know that your blog is “alive.” It gives readers the opportunity to interact and engage in conversation.
2. Avoid grammar mistakes by proofreading – One thing that really annoys me about a blog is poor grammar. If you were listening to your teacher lecture about quantum physics and his grammar is dreadful, you would want to leave that class in a heartbeat. It’s the same thing with blogs. You came looking for value but it’s all mixed up with a misplaced “has” and “their” and terrible spelling. Would you want to keep reading? Probably not.
3. Show personality in your writing – Establishing a voice in your writing is a crucial element is producing content that people will read. Having your own style of writing can also help differentiate yourself with other bloggers. A good example would be Brian Clark of Copyblogger. His writing style is short, precise and interesting. Don’t be that Average Joe in a sea of Average Joes.
4. Focus on your topic – All big blogs have a clear focus on the subject of their topic. If you write on 5 different and non-related topics, people won’t know what to expect from your blog. This is highly ineffective in gaining subscribers and building a blog that people appreciate.
5. Publish new posts frequently and consistently – In order to gain more subscribers, you should post frequently and consistently. It’s not a coincidence that most big blogs post almost daily. Though I would not recommend doing daily posting, the best posting frequency for individual blog is around 3 posts a week.
6. Study seo like your life depended on it – Driving traffic to your blog through search engines is what you call “organic traffic.” Other types include referral sites, and direct traffic. Of the three mentioned, organic traffic is what you need to be able to sustain long-term visibility of your blog.
7. Guest post – The best way to market your blog is through guest posting. Not only will your articles introduced new readers, but it will also help you gain more linkback to your blog. This is so you can rank better in search engines.
Nik Imran is the writer of IMakeABlog, a blog that provides guide on how to make blog. If you are interested in creating a blog, be sure to check his guide on how to choose domain names.
When it comes to blogging success, the larger the number of subscriptions one has, the better the chances of making money through your blog. In order to increase your number of subscribers, make sure to use these 8 simple tips.
1. Have clear focus – Unless your blog has a clear focus, it’s going to be hard to convince people to subscribe. Think of it this way – They won’t know what to expect from your post. If you write about ten different topics, the chances are likely that they are going to pass on subscribing to your blog.
2. Write valuable content – Content is king. No matter how your blog design rocks, if your blog’s articles do not offer value to your readers, they are most likely not going to visit your blog again. In order to grow your blog, offer as many value to your readers.
3. Publish new posts frequently and consistently – So here’s the deal. People don’t subscribe to dead blogs. If your blog is post regularly and consistently, this will indicate that your blog is active. This way, more readers will subscribe to your blog.
4. As few steps as possible – Truth be told, people are a lazy bunch. If you want your readers to subscribe, make it as easy as possible for them to do so. Keep the steps low, and you will find your visitors – conversion rate to be higher.
5. Write an ebook and ask people to subscribe in order to download it – Whether you like them or not, eBooks are a part of the Internet. Many people write them, many others download and read them. If the content and the promotion are well structured, you have thousands of people wanting to read yours. What if you then require people to subscribe first before they can download it? That would bring a heck lot of new subscribers.
6. Offer email subscriptions – Like it or not, only a small percentage of the Internet users know about or use RSS feeds. Studies confirm that this number is below 10% around the world. Why would you want to miss the other 90% of the pie? If you use Feedburner, you just need to go on the “Publicize” tab to activate your email subscriptions.
7. Run a contest – Contests are very popular on the blogosphere. If you have a somewhat popular blog, in fact, it is not difficult to raise some prizes and create one. By making subscribing to your RSS feed a requirement to participate, you could quickly boost the number of subscribers that you have. If you want to control who is going to take this action, use the email subscription method.
8. Display the RSS icon on every page of your blog – When I started blogging I did this mistake. Only my homepage used to have an RSS icon. As soon as I added it to every single page on the blog, the number of subscribers jumped.
Nik Imran is the author of IMakeABlog, a blog that provides guide on how to make a blog. If you are interested in creating a blog, be sure to check out his guide on how to choose domain name.
I’m sure you have heard that blogging takes time to take off. Yet I have seen many bloggers who make the mistakes of giving up early when the matter of fact is, they are on the right track. So how do you tell?
1. Growing subscriber count – If your blog’s subscriber base is growing, even slowly, you are making some progress. Gaining trust and subscribers is not easy, so try not to get your expectations unrealistically high. If you have realistic goals for subscriber growth you will more likely be able to feel good about your progress and stay consistent with your blogging.
2. Increasing numbers of inbound links – Links determine your search engine rankings. It makes it easy for people to find your site. There’s only two ways you can increase your links. It’s either you write long useful articles or you do guest blogging. Personally, I recommend both.
3. Increasing Numbers of Valuable Comments – If your blog is receiving a decent amount of thought-provoking comments, that is a good sign that people are reading and paying attention to you. Comments are the lifeblood of blogs, and those that have a lot of valuable comments from readers become even more useful for readers.
4. Increasing visitors and pageviews – There are a couple of ways to increase a blog’s visitors and pageviews. Assuming that you do it right, it’s not hard to get few thousands visitors a month, for starters. If you don’t however, you need to start market your blog to the people. Visitors don’t find you. It’s you who find them. At least that is the case usually, in the beginning.
5. Consistent posting – If you are posting consistently on your blog, you’re already one step ahead of the vast majority of bloggers. It sounds pretty easy, but consistent posting is a huge challenge for many. However, if you’re able to do it, good things are likely to happen over the long run.
6. Improving quality of articles – Though this may be a subjective issue, but I think most bloggers can make good comparison through going through their older posts. If the quality of your articles improves overtime, which it should, you’re on the right track.
7. An increasing network of bloggers – Blogging, in the end of the day is all about making friends with other bloggers and support each other. This is why networking is probably one of the most crucial in blogging success. If you are continually meeting new bloggers and strengthening the relationships that you have made, you will drastically be in a better position for the future.
Nik Imran is the writer of IMakeABlog, a blog that provides guide on how to make a blog. If you are interested in building your own blog, check out his guide on how to install wordpress.
Blogging is a great tool to express yourself to the world, and better yet, make money online. But few really tasted the kind of financial success the blogosphere promised. Below a list of things that I hope will help make you more prepared of what to come before starting your blogging journey.
1. Be realistic – Don’t expect overnight success. It hardly happens. Of course there are few exceptions, but you don’t want to compare to them. These people not only have the skills and knowledge, but also got the timing right. It’s better to set a more realistic goal, break it down into stages and work on your plans.
2. Don’t quit your regular job – The blogosphere is full of enthusiastic people. The promise of financial success can lure people to make silly decisions, like quitting your day job to focus on your blog. This is a big mistake. Blogging takes time to take off. If you quit your day job, you’re putting yourself into a big risk, when you don’t need to. Sure, sometimes this risk pays off. But it doesn’t happen to everyone. A better option is to spent a few hours each day on your blog, after work.
3. Be passionate – One thing that sets apart professional bloggers from others is their passion for the topic of discussion. We can tell from reading their posts, how passionate they are in the topic they are covering. The details provided in their articles, along with the consistency to post articles on a regular basis are some of the major factor why readers subscribe to their blog.
4. Finding your niche – Having a niche is important. Most blogs that fare well are those that talks on a specific topic. It can be anything from religion, personal development, etc. The main reason for having a niche is so that your readers will know what to expect from you. This is important because if your topic is something that they find interesting, they most likely will subscribe to your blog, of course provided that they find your articles useful.
5. Knowing that patience pays – Blogging is a great opportunity to make money, don’t get me wrong. But there seem to be a wide misconception when it comes to money, and blogging. Blogging provides platform to make quick and easy money. If that is what you have in mind, stop. Like any other things in life, if you don’t put effort, and have patience, chances are, you’re not going to make it. And that applies to blogging as well. I’d say, give yourself 2 years.
6. Spend some money – Blogging is cheap. Unlike other businesses, you doesn’t require any startup capital. There are free hosting and free themes for anyone to choose from. However, I recommend to at least get your own hosting, as it is more beneficial to do so in the long run.
Blogging is easy, but it’s also easy to make mistakes, as there are plenty of ways to go about reaching blogging success. I think the key to blogging success, in the end of the day is persistence.
Nik Imran is the creator of IMakeABlog, a blog that provides guide on how to make a blog. If you are interested in building your first blog, you can check out his guide on how to choose domain name.
Most of the rules and tips that are associated with writing for eZines and newsletters also apply to writing blog entries, though there are some truly important differences as well. If you keep these top ten tips for writing a blog entry in mind, you will be creating excellent blog content in no time at all.
1. Headline is important – The first thing that your visitors will notice is your blog post titles. While it’s great to use clever titles sometimes, make sure you have enough clear and concise titles, so visitors don’t have to search very far to know what your blog posts are about.
2. Write in the same way that you talk – It is okay to use common expressions and to write conversationally. Let your blog be fluid, conversational and friendly, and your readers will keep coming back for more.
3. Proof read every entry and comment – Look for typos and for grammatical errors. Don’t publish spelling mistakes. Polish your content to show that you respect your readers.
4. Make Lists – Bulleted and numbered lists work equally well in turning text that could be published as long paragraphs into easily scannable content. Use lists whenever you can to break up long blocks of text.
5. Cut the boring parts – Unless you’re writing for personal reasons alone, you need to consider the attention of your readers. There’s no point is publishing content that isn’t useful, interesting, or both.
6. Keep it short and simple, sweetie. (KISS) – Most people are scanners. You may have a lot to say and think it interesting, and it may be. But people are reading online and out of time. Get to the point quickly. Publishing short posts more frequently is a better format than publishing lengthy articles every few weeks.
When it comes to writing, it’s a work in progress for everyone. The important thing is to keep working it at, because good writing starts with writing.
Nik Imran is the writer of IMakeABlog, a blog that provides guide on how to make a blog. He also reviews blog products in his site. You can check out his review on blog mastermind review, the most recommended blog coaching program.
There are many thousands of blogs being started each day and there are what seems like a myriad of blogs in each niche. It can be overwhelming to step back and look at the blogosphere – an organism that is churning out millions of new pages of content each month. How will your single blog rise above the rest? By being unique and different of course.
1. Voice – Your style of writing makes the difference between interesting read or uninteresting. Manolo the shoe blogger is the blogger was the first blogger I remember reading with a really unique voice (he writes in the third person). I’m not saying all style of writing is acceptable, but those that do will make your blog more memorable. Take Copyblogger for example.
2, Design – The way your blog looks is a great way to make an impression, grab attention and stand out from the crowd. The cheapest way to get a unique design is through purchasing a custom theme.
3. Being first – not easy to do but if you can be one of the first blogs in a niche it can help you stand out. ProBlogger would be a great example of this – at the time, no one else was blogging about making a living from blogs.
4. A memorable domain name – Your blog name is your brand. It’s wise to remember that a good domain name is both short and memorable. To stand out, a domain name can be either confronting, funny or otherwise.
5. Give your opinion – I came across a lot of blogs that do nothing but state the facts. Although this could work, I always recommend my readers to also state their opinions whenever applicable. Remember, your blog is your outlet for personal expression and thoughts.
6. Connectors – other bloggers are successful because they are so well connected in their niche. They not only know a lot of people but they have a gift in helping others to connect with those in their network.
7. Expertise – Assuming you have authority in a given field, your blog can rise to the top of the field easily, because people are more willing to read and trust the content of your blog. A good way to showcase your expertise is through providing extensive details in your articles, beyond what others would normally provide.
8. Personal – Don’t just share information, share yourself to the readers as well. Share your experience whenever applicable. This technique is not only useful to explain to your readers your reasoning, but also bond with your readers.
Nik Imran is the author of IMakeABlog, a blog that provides guide on how to make a blog, your ultimate guide to setup blog.
Who are you? This is not a philosophical question. It’s the question every visitor to your blog asks you. Can you answer it and be clear, engaging, and open? The place where you need to answer this question is in the About page. Writing an About page is one of the most difficult tasks facing a blogger. I know – because I’ve struggled with my About page a number of times. It’s hard to write enthusiastically about oneself.
What should a basic About page include?
1. Your picture – Having a picture of yourself in the “About” page is important. It helps you readers connect with you better.
2. An overview of your blog – What is your blog all about? Share them with your readers here. A good way to write is to start off with an elevator pitch (short description of what your blog is about) and then expand the explanation.
3. Contact information – Your readers want to have the feeling that you’re within reach. Of course you should never publish your email address directly into your blog because there are spambots that harvest email addresses. You can use a contact form. Or you can put an image of your email address into your blog, so it can’t be picked up by spambots.
4. Share interesting information about yourself – Maybe you like old music? Perhaps you’re good at tennis? This is the time to introduce yourself to the world. Make sure to not only include why people should read your blog. Have something to share that others might find interesting as well.
5. Write in first person – This may be more personal, but I find it annoying reading an “About” page that writes in third person, especially when it’s obvious that they write it themselves. How would I know? They’re not well known nor do they have a big audience.
6. Share your goals -So you want to conquer the world. Share it to your readers. If you have a goal which is related to your blog or what your blog is about, make sure to share it with them as well.
Think about the last time you read a book – chances are you checked out the author’s bio and maybe wanted to see his picture in addition to the bio. This helps you get a feel for the person writing the words you’re reading, helps you feel more connected to the words, helps you to care about them more deeply than if you were reading an anonymous person’s post. So remember to get your About page up if you still haven’t.
Nik Imran is the writer for IMakeABlog, A blog that provides guide on how to make a blog. Besides blogging tips, he also provide blogging tool reviews. You can check out his thesis review to learn more.