Do you want to make money online? Are you a business owner looking for ways to improve your website’s visibility and increase traffic? Then, you need to focus on your website’s Search Engine Optimization or SEO. SEO is the practice of optimizing your website to make it more visible to search engines like Google. The better your SEO, the higher your website will rank in search results, which leads to more traffic and more income.

In this blog post, we’ll share some top SEO ideas and tips to consider if you’re looking to make money from SEO.

Top 10 SEO Ideas to Consider If You’re Looking to Make Money With SEO in 2024

1. Start and Make money with Your Blog

Starting a blog and monetizing it with SEO is great way to make money. You can focus on creating content related to your niche and optimizing it for search engines so that more people can find your blog. Once you have established an audience, you can start monetizing your website by integrating affiliate links in your content or by selling ad space on your site. This can be a great way to earn money with SEO and increase your website traffic. Some of the best ways to monetize your blog include running display ads, creating sponsored posts or reviews, and digital marketing.

2. Provide drop shipping services.

If you have a good understanding of SEO and want to earn money with it, consider providing drop shipping services. Dropshipping is an e-commerce business model in which products are sold directly from the supplier or manufacturer to the customer without ever passing through the seller’s hands. Providing dropshipping services can be a great way to monetize your knowledge of SEO and have successful seo career. You can help merchants optimize their web pages, improve their website ranking, and increase the visibility of their products. This can be a great way to make money with SEO without having to invest in marketing yourself or managing your inventory.

3. Sell SEO Services and Products on your Website

Another tip for earning income with SEO is by building an eCommerce store and selling services and digital products. Digital products, such as software, music, video tutorials, and online courses are becoming increasingly popular with consumers. By optimizing your website for search engines, you can increase traffic to your store and help more people discover your digital products. Optimize product pages with relevant keywords and create content related to your products, such as blog posts, videos, or podcasts. This will help search engines better recognize what you are selling and increase the visibility of your online store.

4. Sell Backlinks and Guest posts.

Selling backlinks and guest posts can be a great strategy to earn money with SEO. Backlinks are essentially links that point from another website to yours, helping search engines recognize the relevance of your page. You can offer backlink services to other websites in exchange for a fee or start a blog network and sell links within your site. This can be an effective tip to earn with SEO and help other businesses improve their website ranking. Similarly, you can offer guest post services on high-ranking websites in exchange for a fee. This will help your clients’ pages rank higher in SERPs and get more visibility.

5. Become a SEO Specialist

Becoming a SEO Specialist is one of the most lucrative career in 2023. There are many ways to make money online as a SEO specialist as you can offer services such as SEO consultant, keyword research,digital marketing, seo copywriting services, link building, and website optimization. You can find clients through job sites such as Upwork or Freelancer and charge them for your services. This is a great way to monetize your SEO skills and help local businesses increase their online visibility.

To become an SEO expert, you should learn seo in order to have a good understanding of Internet marketing and keep up with the latest trends in SEO. There are many free SEO course on the internet for those who are new to sea and want have a successful seo career. Having a portfolio of past work is also helpful when seeking clients. With dedication and hard work, becoming an SEO freelancer can be a good way to earn income with SEO.

6. Create YouTube videos with high-ranking potential.

Creating YouTube videos with high-ranking potential is another perfect way to earn with SEO. You can use a service such as FlexClip. YouTube is the second largest search engine, after Google, and optimizing your videos for search can help you reach a broader audience. To optimize your videos for search engines, include relevant keywords in the titles and descriptions, create engaging thumbnails, add transcripts of your videos, and link to relevant websites. This will help your videos rank higher in SERPs and increase the visibility of your content. Once your videos start ranking, you can monetize them by using YouTube’s ad platform or selling products an services related to the video topics.

7. Website flipping

Website flipping is another good way to make money with SEO. Website flipping involves buying websites that have potential and then making improvements to increase their value and selling them for a profit. To successfully flip websites, you need a good understanding of technical SEO as well as basic web development skills. Research popular keywords related to the website’s niche and perform SEO engine optimization to earn money. You can also add new features and improve the website’s design to increase its value. Once you have improved the website, you can sell it for a profit on websites such as Flippa or Empire Flippers.

8.Make Money by Working for SEO Agency

Another good way to earn money with SEO is by working for an SEO agency. Most companies hire SEO agencies to help optimize their websites and rank higher in SERPs. As an SEO specialist, you would be responsible for creating content, optimizing pages, and implementing strategies that will improve website visibility. This can be a great way to earn money while gaining experience in SEO. The average salary for a SEO consultant is is $65000 per year in United States.

9. Choose the Right Affiliate Marketing

Research and select reputable affiliate marketing programs that align with your niche and target audience. Look for programs that offer competitive commissions and provide high-quality products and services. Such as Amazon Associates,ClickBank and eBay Partner Network. Additionally, consider the commission rates, product quality, and the level of support and resources the program provides.

10. Make Money Online Through SEO Writing

You can earn money online with seo by becoming a SEO Writer. Becoming an SEO writer can be a lucrative opportunity. As an SEO writer, your job is to create content that incorporates specific keywords and phrases that are relevant to a website. By doing this, you help the website rank higher in search engine results, attracting more organic traffic. Many businesses owners understand the importance of SEO and are willing to pay top dollar for quality SEO content. As an SEO writer, you can take advantage of this demand and offer your services to these clients. With the right SEO tools and skills , you can easily find work as an SEO writer and start earning money online. Whether you choose to work as a SEO professional freelancer or as part of an agency, the opportunities for make a lot of money are abundant in the field of SEO writing.

Tactics That You Should Apply If You Want to Make Money With SEO

1.Focus on Quality Content

Quality content is one of the most important aspects of SEO business, as search engines like Google prioritize content that is relevant and engaging. When writing SEO content for your website or blog, make sure to provide useful and interesting information that will keep visitors engaged. Focus on producing high-quality and informative content that adds value to your readers. This will help you rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) and draw more organic traffic to your site.

2.Optimize Your Site for Mobile

More and more people are using their mobile devices to browse the internet, so your website must be optimized for all device types. Make sure that your site is responsive and mobile-friendly, as this will improve user experience and help you rank better in SERPs. Your website’s meta tags, including the title tag, meta description, and header tags, are important for seo ranking. Make sure you’re using the right keywords and long-tail phrases to optimize your content for search engines.

3.Use Keywords Effectively

One of the best ways to optimize your website is by using the right keywords. Research relevant and popular keywords related to your topic or niche, and use them naturally throughout your content. This will help search engines recognize what your website is about and give you a higher ranking in SERPs.Don’t stuff your content with too many keywords, or it might be considered spammy by search engines. Instead, use them organically throughout your content, including in your title tags, meta descriptions, and headers. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush to discover the most popular and relevant keywords in your niche. Incorporate these keywords into your content and compare seo competitor analysisto to boost your website’s search engine rankings.

4.Improve Website Speed

Page speed is an important factor for SEO, as slow page loading times can negatively impact user experience and decrease the time visitors spend on your site. To improve website speed, optimize image sizes, compress files, and use a content delivery network (CDN). You can also use a caching plugin such as WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache to improve website loading times. This reduction of loading time can significantly reduce your bounce rate, enhancing user experience, and making your site more competitive in the ranking.

5.Utilize Social Media

Social media is an important part of SEO, as it helps to increase brand awareness and boost website traffic. Create social media profiles for your site on popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and post regular updates and content. Use hashtags to increase engagement and direct traffic to your website.

6.Leverage Internal Linking

Internal linking is another important SEO strategy, as it helps search engine crawlers better index your website. When you link from one page of your site to another, you are providing search engines with more information about the structure and content of your site. Internal links also help to keep visitors engaged on your website and improve user experience.

7.Utilize Local SEO

If you’re targeting local customers, you need to focus on local SEO. Local SEO involves optimizing your website for local search queries, such as “coffee shops near me” or “best pizza in town.” To improve your local SEO, make sure your website includes your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) in prominent places such as your header and footer. You should also focus on creating high-quality seo content that is relevant to your target audience.

8.Make Your Website Easy to Navigate

A well-organized website that is easy to navigate is essential for great SEO. Make sure your website is structured logically, including an intuitive menu and a clear hierarchy. This not only helps search engines crawl your site more effectively but also helps your readers find the content they’re looking for. You should also include relevant categories and tags on each page, as this will make it easier for search engine crawlers to index your content.

9.Monitor SEO Performance

After you have implemented SEO strategies on your website, it’s important to monitor the performance of your efforts. Regularly tracking your website’s analytics and doing SEO audits can give you insights into how your SEO efforts are paying off. Use tools such as Google Analytics and Search Console to track your website traffic and ranking positions. This data will help you better understand how visitors are interacting with your site, identify areas for improvement, and measure the success of your SEO tactics.

10. Learn SEO Trends and Stay up-to-date

SEO is an ever-evolving field, and it’s important to stay up-to-date with the latest trends. Keep reading relevant industry blogs and publications, attend webinars and conferences, and join online communities to learn more about SEO best practices. This will help you keep up with the latest changes in search engine algorithms so you can ensure your website is up-to-date.

Wrap Up!

Making money from SEO is possible, but it requires time and effort. You need to have a well-rounded approach that covers all aspects of SEO including content, keywords, social media, internal linking, website speed optimization, local SEO, and more. It’s important to stay up-to-date with the latest trends in search engine algorithms so you can continue to optimize your website for higher rankings. Remember, SEO is a long-term strategy, so don’t expect to see results overnight. But with persistence and patience, you’ll soon start to see the benefits of your SEO work.

The post 10 Effective Strategies To Make Money With SEO in 2024 appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Two tiny words will help you build instant rapport with your readers: I and you.

If you’re used to writing essays for school or business reports, you’ve probably been taught to avoid writing “I”. But online, readers expect — and want — informal, conversational writing which speaks to them directly.

I’m guessing that you’d like more repeat traffic, more comments, more tweets and more subscribers. That means learning how to use “you” and “I” effectively, so that you draw readers in — rather than turning them off.

Using “You” and “Your”

If you look at recent posts on Daily Blog Tips, you’ll see that many of them include the word “You” or “Your”. They have titles like:

• How to Take Your Writing to the Next Level
• Are You Missing The TED Presentations?

Would these titles be so engaging if they didn’t use “you” and “your”?

I don’t think so — and I expect you’d agree. The “you” and “your” make the posts personal, not generic. Try working one of those words into your next blog post title — and see what happens.

The biggest mistake I see bloggers making with “you” is to make it plural. They’ll write things like:

• “Some of you may be wondering…”
• “Most of you are writers…”
• “There are hundreds of you reading this blog…”

Each reader is reading on their own. Your readers are not gathered in an auditorium, listening to you read your post out loud — so it jars them to read the plural “you”. Make your readers feel special: write as if you’re speaking to just one person.

When to avoid “you”

There’s one clear case for avoiding the word “you” — and that’s when you’re writing something negative or critical. For instance, change “You’re a chronic procrastinator” to “Some people are chronic procrastinators.”

Using “I”

It’s perfectly appropriate to use “I” when you’re writing about your own experiences or opinions. You might worry that too much “me me me” will bore the reader — but a well-chosen personal anecdote can bring life to a post.

You might consider sharing:

• Some of your own failures and frustrations. (“I find it hard not to procrastinate.”) This helps make the reader feel that you’re on their side.
• Your personal success story — with an emphasis on the idea that “you can do this too.”
• Brief snippets about your life. With so many blogs to choose from, readers stay engaged because they feel like they know you as a person.

Make sure you’re delivering value to the reader, too: you’re not writing a personal diary. If I’m writing a very “I”-centered post, I try to bring out clear points which apply to the reader’s life too.

When to avoid “I”

If you want to sound authoritative, too much use of phrase like “I think” or “I believe” can weaken your post. Readers know that what you’re writing is your opinion — you don’t need to keep saying so.

Over to you … do you have any experiences to share about using “I” and “you” in your posts? Have these little words helped you build engagement, or do you struggle to use them effectively?

The post Why You Should Use “You” and “I” In Your Posts appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

The Klingon Way

In the world of Star Trek, Klingons are known as a warrior people, formidable in battle, fierce in their passions, and concerned with honor above all. But the life of a Klingon has lessons for humans, even for that sedentary class known as bloggers. Here are three proverbs that can help you learn to blog the Klingon way.

Act and you shall have dinner. Think and you shall be dinner.

Because so much of Klingon life is centered around battle and the hunt, the ability to act quickly and decisively is highly prized. When your opponent is swinging a bat’leth at you, there isn’t any time to contemplate the best course of action. You need to act instinctively to avoid a painful death.

In blogging too, taking action can be much more important than thinking things through. One of my most popular posts was just written up quickly and when I did allow myself to think about whether I should publish it, I hesitated wondering whether my readers would like it or not. Fortunately I decided to act instead of overthinking it.

Four thousand throats may be cut in one night by a running man.

This proverb also emphasizes speed, but even more importantly, it warns against underestimating someone’s abilities, whether that is you or someone else. If a warrior can cut a single person’s throat, then the only obstacle to cutting four thousand is how quickly he can repeat this act. The warrior who can not only cut throats, but do it quickly, is the warrior capable of achieving greatness.

In blogging as well, the limiting factor for most blogs is how quickly and strongly they pursue their goals. Often they underestimate themselves, thinking that they can only do so much in a given period of time. That’s true enough, but if you perfect your technique by eliminating distractions and systematically pursuing your goals, gaining a few thousand subscribers might not be so impossible after all.

Mere life is not a victory, mere death is not a defeat.

To a Klingon, it isn’t enough to merely live. One must also live well. This means fighting great battles, going on great hunts, serving the Empire well, and finally dying a glorious death knowing that you have passionately pursued the things you want most.

Then too, it isn’t enough to merely blog. One must also blog well. This means writing great articles, posting great comments, supporting your blogger friends, and when the time is right, retiring your blog honorably knowing that you pursued blogging passionately.

The Vulcan Way

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few

When considering two courses of action, Vulcans are trained to choose the one which will achieve the greatest good to the greatest number. A common example of this in blogging is the choice between offering full feeds or partial feeds. While some prefer partial feeds, most polls show that full feeds are preferred by a substantial majority. In this case, the Vulcan thing to do is offer full feeds unless there is a compelling reason not to.

Infinite diversity in infinite combinations

Though Vulcans are extremely dedicated to their logical philosophy, that same philosophy teaches them to value diversity. This is one reason that Vulcans continue to work with humans despite their “emotional excesses.”

Valuing diversity of opinion and background is a crucial part of fostering conversation and interactions on a blog. Who wants to participate in a conversation which consists entirely of self-congratulatory back patting?

Live long and prosper

This precept is also a traditional greeting and farewell. It is a wish for the well being and happiness of the recipient.

I think that many times bloggers can get so caught up in focusing on their blog and their comments that they fail to wish for and contribute to the good of others. A little bit more of this Vulcan philosophy couldn’t hurt, and it might just help!

May you too live long and prosper.

Qapla’!*

* Success!

The post Star Trek Blogging appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

To be a successful blogger, you must be a good writer.

That doesn’t mean you need a PhD in English Literature, or a bunch of books to your name. Over time, as you read other blogs and write more posts, your writing style will naturally improve.

But you don’t have to wait months or years for that to happen. There are plenty of ways you can improve almost instantly.

These tricks work for all sorts of writing – not just for blog posts. If you’re working on an email marketing campaign, or if you’re creating your first ebook, you can use them too.

Trick #1: Plan Ahead Before You Start Writing

Planning ahead makes a huge difference to the quality of your writing. It results in a better writing experience for you, and a better reading experience for your audience.

Taking just five minutes to plan ahead means:

• You’ll spot any major problems up-front (e.g. your topic is too big for a single post).
• You’ll be able to see the structure of your post – and amend it if necessary.
• You’ll have a roadmap to keep you on track as you write.

There are plenty of different ways to plan, but one of my favourites is to create a mindmap.

Trick #2: Imagine You’re Writing to a Single Person

Do you ever get stuck because you’re not sure how to express something? The easiest way to get past this is to imagine you’re writing to just one person.

You may even want to have a specific reader in mind for this: perhaps someone who’s always supportive in their comments and emails. Some bloggers even turn their emails to readers into blog posts, if the reader has a question that others are likely to want to know the answer to.

Trick #3: Write Shorter Sentences and Paragraphs

Although this trick won’t always work, it’s usually a great way to strengthen your writing. If you look at blogs like Copyblogger, you’ll see they generally use short sentences and paragraphs (sometimes really short).

By writing short, punchy sentences and paragraphs, you not only hold the reader’s attention, you also make your life easier. It’s often much simpler to have two short sentences than a single long, convoluted one.

Trick #4: Talk to the Reader Using “You” and “Your”

Instead of writing in general terms, talk directly to your reader. (Just glance back through this post and you’ll see I’ve done that a lot!) This helps make your post, ebook or email feel like part of a conversation.

Generally, it’s best to write as though you’re talking to just one reader (see Trick #2). So rather than writing “some of you may know…” write “you may know…”

Trick #5: Cut Out 10% of the Words

Most people over-write – they use more words than they need. When you edit your work, see if you can cut out 10% of the words. (So if you wrote an 800 word blog post, cut it to 720.)

You might be surprised how much you can trim your post and still keep all the meaning. Unnecessary words waste the reader’s time and can break their concentration.

Trick #6: Read Your Post Aloud, or Print it Out

It’s really difficult to spot your own typos and spelling mistakes, since you know what you think you wrote! Reading aloud forces you to slow down and can bring those mistakes to light.

Alternatively, you can print out your post or ebook and read on paper. This helps you get some distance from it, and can make it easier to read in a focused way – without the glare of the screen and the distractions of social media.

The post Six Simple Tricks That Will Improve Your Writing Straight Away appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Ever tried to read a blog post that felt like a jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces? That’s what happens when writing conventions take a backseat! Writing conventions are the traffic signals of language – they guide us to express our thoughts clearly and effectively. Stick around as we dive into the nitty-gritty of these rules, and I promise, by the end of this article, you’ll be navigating the writing highway like a pro! Buckle up, it’s going to be an exciting ride!

Understanding Writing Conventions

Writing conventions are the rules of the road for writers. They include grammar, punctuation, spelling, and syntax. These conventions help us structure our sentences and organize our thoughts. And trust me, as bloggers, we know how important it is to get our message across clearly!

Writing conventions are not just about following rules. They’re the building blocks of our blog posts. They ensure that our readers understand our message. Without these conventions, our writing can be confusing and hard to follow.

The Different Types of Writing Conventions

There are several types of writing conventions that we bloggers need to be aware of. Each one plays a vital role in making our blog posts clear and engaging.

1. Grammar

Grammar is the system and structure of a language. It includes rules about word forms, sentence structures, verb tenses, and more. Trust me, proper grammar is essential for clarity and precision in our blog posts.

2. Punctuation

Punctuation marks are symbols that help to structure and organize our writing. They indicate pauses, separations, and other types of relationships among words and phrases. As bloggers, we know how important it is to use punctuation correctly to make our posts easy to read.

3. Spelling

Correct spelling is crucial for reader comprehension. Misspelled words can confuse our readers and disrupt the flow of our blog posts. And let’s be honest, we all want our posts to look professional, right?

4. Capitalization

Capitalization rules determine which words in a sentence should be capitalized. They help to distinguish between proper nouns and common nouns, and they also indicate the beginning of a new sentence. When we’re writing content for the web we need to get these rules right to ensure our posts are easy to read.

5. Syntax

Syntax refers to the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences. It involves word order, sentence length, sentence focus, and the use of patterns and rhythms. In blogging, we often play with syntax to create a unique voice and style in our posts.

Mastering Writing Conventions For Blogging

Mastering writing conventions requires practice and patience. Here are some strategies that have helped me improve my writing.

1. Read Regularly

Reading regularly can help you become familiar with writing conventions. Pay attention to how professional writers use grammar, punctuation, spelling, and syntax. I’ve learned so much from reading other blogs and books!

2. Practice Writing

The more you write, the better you’ll get at using writing conventions. Try writing different types of blog posts to practice your skills. Remember, practice makes perfect!

3. Use Writing Resources

There are many writing resources available, including grammar handbooks, online writing labs, and writing software. These resources can provide guidance and feedback on your writing. I’ve found them incredibly helpful in my blogging journey.

4. Seek Feedback

Don’t be afraid to seek feedback on your writing from friends & family or writing groups can provide valuable insights and suggestions. I’ve learned so much from the feedback I’ve received from my blogging community!

Types of Writing

Understanding the different types of writing is fundamental to mastering writing conventions. Each type of writing has its unique style and conventions. I can often switch between these types depending on our topic and audience. Let’s take a closer look at these types of writing:

Writing for SEO

When we’re blogging, we’re not just writing for our readers. We’re also writing for search engines. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a crucial part of our blogging strategy. It helps our blog posts rank higher in search engine results, increasing our visibility and attracting more readers. Let’s explore how we can use writing conventions to optimize our blog posts for SEO.

According to HubSpot, 70% of marketers are actively investing in content marketing. This shows the importance of content in attracting and retaining customers. Also 64% of marketers actively invest time in search engine optimization (SEO). That’s why it’s important to invest in proper SEO in order to drive organic traffic.

Common Mistakes in Writing Conventions

Even the best of us can make mistakes when it comes to writing conventions. Recognizing and avoiding these common mistakes can significantly improve the quality of our writing. Here are some of these common mistakes and how to avoid them:

FAQs about Writing Conventions

Here are some FAQs that I’ve come across in my blogging journey.

Why are writing conventions important?

Writing conventions are important because they help make our blog posts clear, understandable, and professional. They guide the structure and organization of our writing, ensuring that our message is effectively conveyed to our readers.

Do writing conventions change?

Yes, writing conventions can change over time. Language is constantly evolving, and writing conventions can change to reflect new usage patterns, cultural shifts, and technological advancements. As bloggers, we need to stay updated on these changes to keep our writing relevant.

Can I break writing conventions in my blog posts?

Yes, you can bend or break writing conventions in your blog posts to create a certain effect or voice. However, it’s important to understand the conventions before you break them. I’ve found that breaking conventions can be a powerful tool when used wisely!

How can I improve my understanding of writing conventions?

You can improve your understanding of writing conventions by reading widely, practicing writing, using writing resources, and seeking feedback from others. Trust me, it’s a journey, but it’s worth it!

What are some common mistakes in writing conventions?

Common mistakes in writing conventions include run-on sentences, fragment sentences, incorrect verb tense, misplaced modifiers, and spelling errors. As bloggers, we need to be aware of these mistakes and strive to avoid them in our blog posts.

Mastering writing conventions is a crucial part of our journey as bloggers. These conventions help us communicate effectively and professionally, enhancing the quality of our blog posts. While it can be challenging to master these conventions, the effort is definitely worth it. So let’s embrace the challenge and continue to improve our writing skills. After all, our readers deserve the best!

The post Writing Conventions 101: The Rules All Writers (Especially Bloggers) Need to Follow in 2024 appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Call me an idealist, but I believe in open blog commenting. Anonymous comments, harshly critical comments (even if they attack me personally), and controversial comments are always allowed on my blogs because I feel that censoring them would restrict an open exchange of ideas.

However, despite my idealistic beliefs on censorship, I’ve learned the hard way that allowing a total comment free-for-all is bad for business. Completely unregulated comments can quickly devolve into a low-quality exchange that your loyal blog readers won’t enjoy, not to mention that “bad” comments can distract you and take control of the conversation around your site.

So, after more than five years of blogging, I’ve come up with a system for managing comments that I feel strikes a balance between open exchange and effective blogging. Here’s how it works and how my team and I implement this policy on the blogs we manage.

Rule #1 — You Need A Comment Policy

One of the many blogging mistakes I’ve made over the years was failing to have an official blog comment policy. Comment policies are important because:

• Believe it or not, some bad commenters genuinely don’t realize that they’re acting inappropriately. These people don’t have a filter, which is why they’re so obnoxious in the first place.
• Your loyal readers like a stated comment policy – it gives them permission to help you police your site and report bad actors.
• It gives you the confidence to deal with negative comments in a consistent manner without fear of reacting emotionally.

Prior to implementing this blog comment policy on TundraHeadquarters.com, I had a lot of personal difficulty moderating comments because of my views on censorship and my fear that I might be reacting emotionally. Rather than deleting or editing comments that were clearly over the line, I just admonished the commenters for being inappropriate…which only inspired them to comment more often. I spent a lot of time and energy dealing with these people, most of which was wasted.

Even worse, my hesitation to deal with inappropriate comments in a fair, uniform manner was beginning to alienate my core audience. I noticed that some of my loyal visitors were commenting less frequently, and on many occasions I received an email from a loyal blog reader who was irritated by the way I was managing comments – a sure sign that I was losing readers because I refused to set boundaries.

When it comes to writing a comment policy, there are two critical components:

1. Commenters must leave a valid email address
2. Comments must be conversational

The first component is brutally simple: If a blog commenter won’t own up to their own speech in even a minor way like sharing a valid email address (which is basically anonymous anyways), they don’t need to be taken seriously.

The second component addresses comments that are designed to “stir the pot” and/or people who don’t have any sense of accountability. These “pot stirrers” (a.k.a. trolls) will frequently focus on comments made by others without responding to anyone who addresses them directly. If you add the “conversational commenting” rule to your policy, you can eliminate most of the boorish behavior.

Rule #2 – Avoid and Diffuse Confrontation

When I first started blogging, I enjoyed confrontational commenting. However, a few years later I began to recognize that confrontation isn’t effective at building an audience or growing credibility. Today, whenever someone leaves a critical comment about a blog post author and/or the content of a post, we use the following process.

1. Recognize and validate differing viewpoints (if only partially). When someone leaves a critical comment, it’s important to try to find some validity in their viewpoint. I start by saying something like “I can definitely understand where you’re coming from in regards to [issue], but here’s why I don’t agree…”.

Taking time to validate opposing viewpoints has been great because it has encouraged more commenting – it’s opened the door for others to agree or disagree. It’s also helped me become a better blogger by forcing me to re-evaluate my own point of view.

2. Don’t anticipate a conflict. It’s easy to find yourself planning for a confrontation whenever someone leaves a critical comment on your blog. However, this is a bad practice in blogging (not to mention life in general). Defensive responses to critical comments often create a confrontation. Instead, take every comment at face value and don’t try to defend yourself against attacks that haven’t happened yet.

3. Implement a zero tolerance policy for personal attacks between commenters. When someone attacks the post author personally, I don’t automatically delete their comment. I feel that part of a blogger’s job is subjecting themselves to personal attacks. After all, if a blogger isn’t willing to accept a little criticism, they have no business sharing their opinions so openly.

However, we do not allow personal attacks directed at anyone other than the author. This keeps blog comments civil, and — perhaps not coincidentally — since we implemented this rule, the number of personal attacks directed at blog post authors has fallen as well.

Rule #3 — Deal with Trolls Swiftly

If I were to define a troll, I would say that it’s a blog commenter who has absolutely no interest in conversation. They’re angry, they’re arrogant, and they’re unwilling to acknowledge any other opinions or points of view. They’re the worst the Internet has to offer.

Whenever you start to see a troll-like pattern, you need to respond to it swiftly. Here’s what I do when I think I’ve found a troll:

1. When I first suspect a troll, I email them personally. I thank them for commenting, and then ask them to review the comment policy for me. Sometimes the people I contact are so shocked by the personal outreach that they apologize, but more often they just disappear, never to be heard from again.

2. Public warning only after personal contact. If my personal email doesn’t change a commenter’s behavior (or if they haven’t provided a legitimate email address), I will warn them publicly to adhere to the comment policy.

3. Probation via moderation. If these two steps fail, it’s time to put them on probation. I add the commenter’s name, email address, and IP address to my blog’s moderation queue, ensuring that the only way they can comment freely is to change computers and call themselves a different name.

4. Ban the IP when all else fails. Finally, if the commenter is indeed a troll and no amount of moderation seems to stop them, I ban their IP address from the site by adding a few lines of code to my htaccess file.

A note about step #4: IP banning is hazardous because you can accidentally ban innocent readers, but the instructions in the link I provided will help you avoid this possibility as well as give you a fail safe just in case you ban a legit reader (full disclosure: I own YouHaveBeenBanned.com, but I created it as a public service and it’s completely free).

While I don’t think of myself to be a blogging expert, I like to think I’ve made enough mistakes to help others avoid potential pitfalls. However, if you disagree with my process, I encourage you to comment below!

The post How To Deal with Trolls and Rude Comments appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

If you are struggling for content or want to expand the number of posts your blog has, having regular features that highlight existing content, whether on your blog or elsewhere, is a good approach. Below are some of the most common and popular features that you can implement on your site.

1. Best or Popular Posts

A common feature on many blogs. It basically involves listing the best or most popular posts over the previous week or month (depending on how often you update). If you are an avid reader of the blog this may not offer much, but for everyone else it’s a great way of showcasing your best content without all the filler in between. Be sure to encourage readers to check out and leave comments on any posts they missed.

2. Best Comments

An excellent way of boosting reader interaction as it rewards those who comment regularly. When doing a post like this try and tie the highlighted comments together rather than just picking random ones. Also, prioritize regular commentators by mentioning their name and website.

3. A Year Ago

Similar to the best post feature, only this one delves into the misty past to highlight top content from a year ago. Not much good if you don’t have an old enough blog or a deep archive, but it’s still a great way of showcasing all those forgotten about posts and giving them a bit of extra life

4. Coming soon

Enticing readers with upcoming, intriguing content is a great way of encouraging people to subscribe to your feed. Just make sure you can deliver on it. If you are a regular poster who sticks to a solid schedule this can be a great way of creating anticipation for a new week or month. If you just post when you feel like it this may not work for you.

5. Interesting links

An old school technique. This feature has the added benefit of attracting the attention of other bloggers, who are usually appreciative of others linking to their posts. Just be sure to provide a solid amount of links for the reader to delve into.

6. Ask the Readers

A great way of encouraging reader interaction. It allows you to take the backseat while the readers provide the value with their comments. Just be sure to join in the conversation and help it along as necessary. Try combining this with a best comments feature for maximum benefit.

7. Recap

If you feel you may struggle to provide value with the features above, why not combine them together? It’s a good way of summarizing what’s happened with the blog over the last week or month, highlighting posts, linking to interesting sites and describing what’s upcoming.

8. Something Different

Offer something a little different to your usual content. It could be a funny video, interesting picture… whatever. As long as you are providing plenty of the content your blog is known for, this feature can provide a nice break from the usual ritual

The post 8 Post Types To Expand and Highlight Your Blog’s Content appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Commenting on other blogs, specially those that are on the same niche, is a very efficient method to promote your site and receive new visitors. Some bloggers, however, are used to leave their blog names on the NAME field of comment forms, arguably losing some credibility.

I confess that when I started blogging I used to do that as well, after all I thought that no one would be interested in clicking on “Daniel” while if I left the name of my blog more people would be tempted to click on it.

The problem with that logic is that many readers might think that you are just spamming the comment section. Some of them will certainly click the comment with the blog name, but overall it might hurt your reputation.

Secondly the whole blog phenomenon exploded because it enabled people to establish relationships and to interact with other bloggers. Comments are trackbacks are supposed to generate conversations, and conversations must be personal if they are to be valuable.

Bear in mind that there are some exceptions for that rule. If your blog is named after yourself (e.g. ajaydsouza.com) or if you are speaking on behalf of a blog entity you could possibly leave the blog name and not your personal name. Also, if you really want to leave your blog name consider placing it under brackets after your personal name.

The post Avoid leaving your blog name on comments appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

There are a lot of posts written about blogging success, but perhaps not quite as many written on why blogs fail. Since I believe failure is such a great part of the entrepreneurial learning process, and you really only fail when you quit, I thought I’d write an “homage” to failure if you will. Here you go: 33 ways to fail at blogging:

1. Not having a plan. Your blog just be a business some day, but you should run it like one now. That means spend time writing down your goals (like physically writing them down!) about where you hope to be in a month, six months, a year, etc.
2. Stop trying. I can’t tell you how many blogs I’ve started, worked on regularly for about three weeks, and abandoned. Of course, sometimes it is better to realize when you’ve hit a brick wall, but other times it just takes perseverance to break through The Dip and push on.
3. Stop caring. Apathy for your topic is a close second to #1, but it is slightly different. Lack of caring happens when you forget why you’re blogging in the first place–the energy for your topic is lost; all the great ideas fleshed out, overworked, and drained.
4. Having the wrong expectations. Similarly, if you have impossibly high expectations for your site that don’t align with the real world, burnout and apathy might be nearby.
5. Bad design. Having a site that projects the wrong image can be like trying to open a 5-star restaurant in a strip-mall. Possible? Sure. Likely to succeed? Probably not.
6. Too many ads. Corbett Barr of Think Traffic likes to start his students on a “no ads” blogging approach, only adding them in when the blogs are ready. “Ready” is obviously subjective, but it seems to me like having fewer than 2,000 visits a day might be pushing it.
7. Not having a big orange RSS button. This is a small thing seemingly, but I’m of the type where if I don’t have a super-easy way to subscribe to your content, I won’t come back (it’s not that I don’t love you, it’s just that I’ll forget). It doesn’t need to be orange, but you know…
8. Writing bad headlines. Or at least, not writing awesome headlines. Take the time to read how to write the best headlines possible, and practice them.
9. Not optimizing your About page. People who read your stuff want to read about who you are. Some guys can get away with being a meme, but you’re a person. Give us a big ‘ol mugshot of yourself and a couple paragraphs about why we should want to buy you a beer.
10. Not cross-linking your posts. Blogging–and the web, if you think about it–is ALL about links. Don’t go overboard, but remember that once you get someone on your site, you don’t want them to leave. Link to old posts, new ones, and pages on your site they might enjoy. Lead them to your product, if you have one.
11. Not setting up systems. I love systems. My first post at ProBlogger was on blogging systems, and I recommend it now, too.
12. Having a site that looks like an MFA (Made-for-AdSense) site. Unless, of course, you’re solely trying to blog for profit (nothing wrong with that, but it’s much harder to do when it’s a personal blog). If your design reeks of over-the-top AdSense ads, banners, and in-text link ads, it’s distracting and off-putting for visitors.
13. Bad SEO. Sure, you might not be trying to focus on organic search results for your “personal experiences” blog, but there’s a reason Google’s algorithm is such a proprietary equation: it KNOWS what’s good and bad, when it comes to content. If you haven’t taken at least a little time to optimize your content for a few keywords and add links, it can seem stale, vague, and boring for your readers.
14. No images. If there’s one universal truth that seems to still be pervasive in blogging (and even then there are exceptions), it’s “have at least one image in every post.” Images add color, depth, and flow to otherwise stagnant content.
15. Bad writing style. Your writing should certainly reflect who you are, but I doubt you talk in long-winded paragraphs. You probably also don’t sound like an advanced legal professor–tone it down, trim it down, and let us “hear” who you are.
16. Bad content layout. Going with the prior example, you shouldn’t let large paragraphs of content into your writing. Take a look at the LiveHacked blog, Jeff Goins’ blog, and read some Ernest Hemingway to get an idea for what short, easy-to-read text is all about.
17. Not using lists. This concept is not something that needs to be in every post, but if you visit some of the more popular blogs (including this one!), you’ll often see that the most popular content is blog posts organized into lists.
18. Having too many categories. The guys over at Thesis have a great policy on how many categories a blog should have. You’re not Huffington Post or Yahoo! Don’t have a thousand categories with one post in each.
19. Placing posts in too many categories. Also, don’t stick each post into every single possible category that seems like it might fit. Give each post one–maybe two–categories. It will help Google as well as your visitors find information faster.
20. Being annoying. Some bloggers have an “air” of rudeness to their writing–let them do it, because they’ve figured out how. For you, it’s better to be nice, humble, and kind–especially to your commenters.
21. Not having comments enabled. This is certainly a topic for debate, but I like to be able to leave a comment (looking at you, Mr. Godin!). I do understand, however, how huge sites can’t maintain the massive amounts of comments–and spam–that comes in. But you’re not that big yet–turn them on!
22. Placing too much on the sidebars. Again, this fault seems to plague “little-guys-trying-to-be-big-guys.” It’s not that you don’t have as much to say, it’s just that in the early years of your site, you need to be especially clear, almost to the point of minimalistic, about your site design.
23. Not capturing visitors’ attention. I highly recommend going through a copywriting course like Copyblogger–even if you’re writing about your trip to Africa, you can probably learn a few tips about drawing your readers in with a great writing style. See #9 and #14.
24. Not building a list. If you ever want to build a site that can generate income–even a little–start building a mailing list now. Even without ads, your visitors–if you’re offering great content–want that extra “connection” with you. Let them sign up to a mailing list. (I prefer MailChimp or Aweber).
25. Not engaging with visitors. Engagement can look like following up to commenters, starting dialogue through social media, etc.–just be available to your readers when they want to discuss your topic.
26. Not adding value. This one’s easy–if you’re not giving me a reason to come back, I won’t.
27. Too much self-promotion. If your site only links to other posts you’ve written on your site, and completely disregards the fact that there might be another blog with a somewhat similar topic, and your Twitter account is full of “check me out!” tweets, I’m gone like Donkey Kong.
28. Not enough self-promotion. Okay, okay–there is another side to the coin. You must take the time (I recommend an hour a week) to practice reaching out, engaging, and yeah–self-promoting your work. You did work hard on it, right?
29. “Shiny Object Syndrome.” There’s always another course to sign up for, always another product to buy teaching yada yada, and there’s always another traffic-generation tactic that you must try and implement now. Please resist–I’ve tried many (not all, but more than I should have). These products and “shiny objects” aren’t bad, they’re just probably bad for where you are in your blogging journey. Instead, read #25.
30. Not guest posting. Guess what? The best way of generating traffic, attention, and leading visitors back to your site is free. It’s called guest posting, and if you’ve not really put in the time to try it, check out Jon Morrow’s course at www.guestblogging.com (yeah, I know I just said not to grab at the shiny objects, but at least check out his free videos. He has quite a story, too!).
31. Not interacting with other “small fries.” Or “medium fries,” or “large fries” (or “ProBlogger-size fries”). I’m currently working with a few bloggers who have similar niche markets and are of similar sizes to my blog. If you’re not reaching out to these people, and trying to build relationships, don’t come crying to me when the world moves on without you.
32. Not reading. Read more. Period. Whether it’s news related to your industry, other blogs (I have about 300 blogs I read in my RSS reader), or just awesome fiction thrillers, you need to read as much as you can. It helps your understanding of your marketplace and it can greatly enhance your writing abilities.
33. Not writing enough. Back to #1 and #25, if you feel stuck, write. If you feel like quitting, write. If you feel like you’ve made it (yay! My post just went live on ProBlogger!) write. There’s never enough you can write–since blogging is directly monetized through words, you need more of them to make more of it. Kapeesh?

There you go–33 things to go work on right now. And I do realize there are more–many more. Let’s get it going in the comments section and see what else you can come up with (and what I forgot!).

You can read more from Nick Thacker on LiveHacked.com, where he publishes tips and tricks to hack your life and make it more suitable to your lifestyle.

The post 33 Ways to Instant Blogging Failure appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

This is a guest post by Danny Iny. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

How do you feel about a blank screen?

I mean when you sit down to write — does it taunt you? Does it remind you that you’ve got to hit “publish” in two hours, and you’ve got nothing to write about?

I wouldn’t be surprised if it does, because the blank screen is the tormenter of many a blogger.

Not me, though.

I’ve written 30+ guest posts in the last few months, on top of a regular posting schedule on my own blog. I was able to do this, and not run out of ideas, because of a process that I use to make sure that I’ve always got a fresh supply.

I’m going to share that process with you. It starts with a formula…

The Blog Post Idea Formula

Sometimes, you’re inspired — you know exactly what you want to write about, and you just need to sit down and get started. In that case, you don’t need any help at all.

But other times, you don’t know what to write, and you need some help. That’s when the Formula comes in.

The formula follows one of the following formulations:

“What [EXAMPLE] Can Teach You about [SUBJECT]”

“What We Can Learn from [EXAMPLE] about [SUBJECT]”

“Lessons on [SUBJECT] from [EXAMPLE]”

Do you see the pattern? You just need to fill in the blanks, like this:

Subject — This is the subject that you’re writing about. Be as specific as possible; instead of “writing”, try “writing great headlines”, instead of “health”, try “a healthy heart”, and instead of “finance”, try “managing your savings”… you get the idea, right?

Example — This could be anything and everything, and I’ll give you a long list of ideas just a little further along in the post. The important thing is that it should be at least somewhat unrelated to your subject — this makes people wonder what you mean, and compels them to read your post.

Once you’ve got the headline, think about what single insight your example can convey about your subject — and then write the post!

Okay, now let’s get to the heart of this post: places you can look for ideas…

The A to Z of Places to Look

Just for fun, and to give the post a little structure, I’m going to follow the A to Z model — one idea for each letter of the alphabet. Many will plug into the formula that I shared above, but there will be some other places to look, too.

Apples and Oranges — Look for a situation where two things are compared to each other, but shouldn’t be, because it’s not an “apples to apples” comparison. Why do people make these comparisons? What’s wrong with these comparisons? An explanation could make a great blog post! Good examples of these posts are Why Getting Funded Is Not the Same As Succeeding and Nonconformity is not the same as Individuality.

Brainstorming — Sit down with a piece of blank paper, and divide it into two columns. Label one column “subjects”, and the other column “examples”. Now set a timer for 3 minutes, and start jotting down ideas. Don’t filter, just write. Non-stop. For three minutes. When you’re done, go through the list, and circle the ones that you like. Now put them together, and start writing. If you don’t like making lists, try a process like mind mapping instead.

Celebrities — Celebrities are great examples, because they’re in the public eye — this means that people will recognize the name and want to read the post, and it also means that it shouldn’t be hard for you to think of something that they might have to say about your subject! Good examples of this sort of post include Has Steve Jobs Overturned the Apple Cart and How To Keep Kevin Costner From Ruining Your Blog and Business.

Diary Writing — Imagine you’re writing a diary entry. Share your most memorable experience from the last week — what happened, and why it was meaningful to you. Now explain what you learned from the experience. Voila, you’ve got a blog post — you might have to sanitize it a bit if you don’t want to share too much personal information, but with a bit of editing, you’ll have a captivating post that your readers will love. A couple of good examples of posts like these are Breakfast Misadventures: How to Destroy a Customer Relationship in 30 Minutes or Less and High Impact Entrepreneurship: Confessions, Milestones, and Focusing On What Matters.

Everyday Activities — Your example could be an everyday activity — something that is part of your weekly routine, like brushing your teeth, driving to work, going to the gym, or making dinner. Since most people have similar routines, they’ll relate to your example, and enjoy the post. Here are a couple of examples: Give Your Business the Workout of Its Life and Book marketing is like brushing your teeth — you have to do it every day.

Free Writing — Set a timer for ten minutes. Get some paper and a pen, or open up your word processor. Shut down your email, and turn off your phone. Start the timer, and start writing. The rules are simple: you have to keep writing. It doesn’t matter how nonsensical or inane — write whatever comes to mind, but keep on writing. You’ll probably go through a minute or two of nonsense, and then hit onto an interesting train of thought that you can develop into a post.

Gesture — Gestures are a form of alternative communication — we use them when we can’t communicate with words. Think about a common task related to your subject, and then ask yourself — what would you do if you couldn’t do it in the regular way? How would you get the job done? Why would you do it that way? It might make for an interesting post…

Hiatus — Sometimes taking a break from regular content is a good idea. What if you decide not to put up a blog post, and instead just put up a short message saying “I’m out of ideas and taking a break — leave a comment to let me know what you’d like to read about when I get back!” Like my friend Stephen Guise did with Off To The Beach.

Interview — If you’re stuck for content, plan an interview blog post. Make a list of the 5-10 most interesting people that you’d like to talk to, and fire off an interview request. You’ll be surprised how amenable people are to the idea — that’s how I landed interviews with Guy Kawasaki, Randy Komisar, Corbett Barr, and many others!

Justice — Do you know someone who isn’t getting what is fairly owed to them? Either they’re getting way more than they deserve, or they’re working hard and the recognition isn’t there? Write about it — if they deserve more credit, then give it to them. If they deserve less credit, then you don’t have to mention them by name, but you could explore why they are getting the undeserved attention that they’re getting.

Karma — Why not go out of your way to do something nice for someone else? You could repay a favor, or just be the first one to take that positive action — either way, you’re making deposits in your Bank of Social Capital, and creating good work to boot!

Lateral Thinking — You know the game where you start with one word, and then write down a related word, and then a word that is related to that one, and so on? Play that game, and let the thought process lead you to an interesting blog post idea.

Movies — Like celebrities, movies make for great examples, because they’re a part of popular culture. This means that a lot of people will read the post and relate to what you are saying. Good examples of these posts are The Inigo Montoya Guide to 27 Commonly Misused Words and The Blockbuster Secret to Seducing Your Audience.

Nature — Go for a walk in the great outdoors. Go camping, and have a picnic. While you do, pay attention to the world around you. What is beautiful? What is peaceful? What is unpleasant and annoying? Make a list of all these things, and then pick one as an example to plug into our formula.

Obvious — Go back to basics — what are the obvious fundamentals about your subject area? I mean the ones that you take completely for granted that everyone in your audience already knows about, but if you think about, you realize that a lot of them don’t. Write a “back to basics” post about that, and you’ll be surprised at how well it performs. Good examples of this sort of thing include Getting to Know SEO! and A New Look At the 4Ps of Marketing.

Parents’ Wisdom — All parents have stories that they tell us again and again, either because they forget having told it to us the first thousand times, or because they’re hoping that we’ll finally get the message! Well, what is the message? How does it relate to your subject of interest? Why not write a post all about it? If you do, make sure to give credit to your parents — they’ll appreciate it!

Quirky Facts — Do you have a favorite quirky factoid? Maybe it’s the one about frogs not jumping out of pots of water that are slowly brought to boil, or maybe it’s compasses spinning at the South Pole, because every way is North… what’s your favorite factoid? And what lessons can you draw from it about your subject?

Read Fiction — Fiction is fun — it transports you to another world, and connects you with a set of characters that may or may not be more interesting than your real friends. Read about one of those characters, and then ask yourself what questions they might have about your subject of interest. Then write a post answering their questions!

Scientific Journals — Speculation can be nice, but cold hard facts are even better — especially when you take interesting research and then apply it to your topic of interest. That’s what John Medina did in his blockbuster science books Brain Rules and Brain Rules for Baby. So what research is relevant to what you write about? Why not explain that to your audience?

Television — Like movies and celebrities, television is a great way to tap into popular culture in your writing. Think about your favorite television show or television character, and what they can teach about your subject area. Then write a post about it! There are tons of examples of this — a couple of them are The Mad Men Guide to Changing the World With Words and Desperate Housewives on Marketing, Storytelling, and Selling.

Upset — What makes you upset? I don’t mean mildly annoyed — what makes your blood boil at the injustice of it all? Ranting about it might make you feel better, and if you’re going to rant, why not do it in writing? Make sure to edit it after the fact, and edit out any identifying information — you don’t want to flame anyone in a blog post. But post-editing, you might find that your catharsis has led to an interesting and captivating post!

Victory — I love asking people what their greatest victory was. I love it because they often surprise you with their answer — they tell you about personal victories — things they did in college, high school, and in the context of relationships. Things that might not seem huge, but were very important and meaningful to them. Why not share your greatest victory with your audience? Tell them why it was great, and why it mattered to you.

Walk — Take a break. Go for a walk. Breath some fresh air. Don’t worry about the blog post, and don’t worry about writing at all. Set yourself a timer — for the next twenty minutes, you think of nothing other than enjoying the weather and the exercise. When you return to your desk, you might be pleasantly surprised by the ideas that your subconscious has assembled for you.

X Marks the Spot — Make a map of the path to mastery in your field. What are the different milestones and waypoints that travelers pass through along the way? Why not take that map, and expand it into a blog post? Maybe even outline the biggest challenges at each step along the way, and how to best avoid or overcome those challenges?

Year — Take some time to reflect on your big achievements or most interesting lessons learned from the past year. It’s a great way to share and connect with your audience, and it’ll help you gain some perspective on where you’ve been, and where you’re going. That’s exactly what I did in my post 365 Days and 9 Big Things — why don’t you try writing one, too?

Zoo — Take a break — go to the zoo, walk around, and look at all the animals. Pay attention to how they behave, and how their habitats are laid out. Pay attention to the signs for visitors, and the behavior of those visitors. You might find surprising insights — for example, Dino Dogan pointed out that the automatic response to a beware of pickpockets sign triggers a reflexive touch of the pocket in which you keep your wallet — telegraphing its location to nearby pickpockets! What odd or interesting behaviors can you point to and learn from?

Capturing Ideas for Later Use

This process doesn’t just work when you need to write and you’re out of ideas — it works all the time, and it often works best when you AREN’T trying to write!

The lesson here is that you should keep your eyes open for ideas that would work, and jot them down (I carry a small notebook around at all times for this exact purpose). Over time, you’ll develop a crib-sheet of blog post ideas that you can refer to in a pinch.

Over to you — which of these ideas could you see yourself using? Have you already tried any of them? What’s your favorite go-to strategy when you have to write and you’re out of ideas?

The post The A to Z of Blog Post Idea Generation appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

I am glad to finally release the “Make Money Blogging” ebook. I started writing it around two months ago, and the content is completely unique. Some of the concepts had been covered in this blog before, but it is the first time that I have put them together in a structured and logical way. I am sure you guys will get some valuable information from it.

My Story with Blogs

I created my first blog back in 2005, when I was 21 and about to graduate. Initially it was just a hobby, a place where I would share my ideas online. After some months, however, the traffic started picking up, and I realized that the Internet had a huge potential.

In 2006 I started trying to make money with the blog. During the first month experimenting with ads I made $15 or so. Not much, but definitely enough to get me excited. After all I was just working an hour or so per day on the blog. That same year I quit my job and started working full time on the Internet.

I launched several other blogs along the way (including this one, DailyWritingTips.com, DailyBits.com, TechCult.com and some smaller ones), and today I am already making six figures annually. All that money can be traced back to my blogs. Some of it directly, via advertising and affiliate marketing deals, and some indirectly, via online projects that were launched thanks to the blogs.

The “Make Money Blogging” eBook

In this eBook I am sharing the core principles that I learned along these years and that you need to keep in mind if you want to make money blogging. There are 54 pages, divided in 5 main chapters: Content, Design & Usability, Networking, Promotion and Monetization. Here are some of the stuff covered:

• The three mistakes that bloggers make when choosing a niche.
• The three characteristics of good content.
• Why your content strategy should have one cornerstone.
• The two factors that create magnetic headlines (and how to apply them).
• A deadly mistake that bloggers make when designing their blogs.
• Practical tips that you can use to network efficiently.
• A promotional strategy that most people forget to use.
• The two requirements for making money with Google AdSense.
• The best trick available to make money with CPM deals.

Sign-up to My Newsletter and Get Immediate Access

After signing-up to my email newsletter you’ll immediately be able to download your copy of the ebook. On top of that you’ll also receive my exclusive tips and tricks to optimize your blog (stuff that is not published anywhere else), insider’s information about my upcoming projects and so on. The newsletter is completely free and you can unsubscribe anytime as well.

Testimonials

Here is what people who downloaded the ebook said about it:

A must read. Simply beats all the other readings on the same topic. (ACZafra.com)

I am a fan of Daniel’s simple way of writing. He is among the few who make it possible to understand what he is trying to say. (88blogger.com)

Not only is the ebook free, but it’s from someone who’s been making a good amount of money from blogging as well. (ZacJohnson.com)

In his book Daniel is very real and direct with what is required to be successful at making money with a blog. (Frusketing.com)

Over the past year I have probably read over 100 eBooks teaching you how to make money online, but Daniel Scocco’s latest eBook has got to be one of the best so far. (RajaieTalks.com)

Much like his newsletter, the ebook doesn’t contain any fluff. You get the meat directly, so it is time saving and valuable. (TechnoTip.org)

Daniel provides simple yet effective techniques on how to start, grow, monetize and leverage your blog to become an authority in your niche. (IgorHelpsYouSucceed.com)

If you are thinking of starting your own blog or have just started it, I would recommend that you download and read the free eBook. (ZParacha.com)

This eBook is the best guide for the bloggers, because Daniel covered all the topics that are required in your blogging journey. (Technogati.com)

The post Make Money Blogging Free eBook appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

So many bloggers put tons of time and effort into getting more traffic – but perhaps that sounds like trying way too hard. Your ideas are so awesome, your personality so strong, that readers will just come to you.

I’m going to give you ten straightforward ways to make sure the whole world knows you’re not going to pander to your readers. (Oh, and if you would like to have a few more readers – try doing the opposite of everything on this list.)

1. Give Your Post the First Title You Come Up With

You’re in a hurry, right? So your post will do just fine with the first title that pops into your head. Sure, that title might not be descriptive or engaging – but hey, you’re not worried about enticing people to click through and read your post.

2. Write Whatever Comes Into Your Head

Instead of sifting through some great ideas or coming up with a plan, just write whatever comes into your head. What you had for breakfast, that cute thing your cat did, your favorite rant about the government … put it all in.

3. Write Long, Dense Paragraphs

Subheadings, lists and bold text are for the weak. If someone really wants your content, they’ll manage to get through those long blocks of grey text that you’ve written.

4. Use Formal Language

You were probably taught about writing in school: why not simply apply all those rules to blogging? Write in a dry, academic way, with plenty of long words, and you’ll be certain that your posts are worth an A (even though no-one’s reading).

5. Make Your Blog All About You

It’s your blog, so make it about you. Every example you give should be drawn from your own experience. Don’t bother phrasing talking to the reader as “you” – instead, use “I” as often as you can. [link to my post on you & I]

6. Don’t Edit or Proof-Read

No-one cares about good writing online, do they? Don’t bother re-reading what you’ve written: those typos won’t matter. And if your general point is a bit vague and unclear, perhaps that’s for the best…

7. Never Link to Old Posts

All your (three) readers have been with you from day one, so don’t link back to old posts: they’ll already have read them. New readers can just use that handy “Archives” page that’s definitely on your blog somewhere.

8. Don’t Promote Your Post

If you build it, they will come. Don’t bother tweeting your post or mentioning it on Facebook: you need that space to moan about the long line at the grocery store and that weird guy on the bus.

9. Post Erratically

Sometimes you’re filled with the desire to create – and sometimes not. Post whever the muse descends, even if that means twenty posts in a week followed by nothing for two months. Your real fans will stick with you … won’t they?

10. Plaster Your Blog With Ads

You don’t actually care about the readers: you’re into blogging for the money. And you’re pretty sure that the best way to monetize is to shove as many ads onto your site as possible, so that the actual content almost vanishes.

The post 10 Ways to Ensure No-One Will Read Your Content appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

This post is part of the weekly Q&A section. Just use the contact form if you want to submit a question.

Suppose one blogger has got multiple interests , like Books, Gadgets and Cars. Will he get more readers and traffic when he writes about them in separate blogs, or if he writes about all of them on a single blog?

Both strategies can work. Let’s analyze the pros and cons of each of them.

Pros of One Blog with Many Topics

The largest advantage of this model is that you will have a very strong domain, since it will receive the link juice from all the different topics and content channels. Over time it will become relatively easy to rank for keywords because of the high trust that the root domain has. That is why websites like Wikipedia or Digg rank so well in Google.

Another advantage of this model is the unlimited potential for expansion. Provided your domain is a generic one, you will be able to add and remove topics over the time without needing to rework the brand.

Cons of One Blog with Many Topics

The main disadvantage of one large blog covering many topics is the fact that it will require a huge amount of time, energy and money to become successful.

Why? Because you would need to shape it as a content portal. That means that you should have a design that supports the portal structure, different channels inside it, and different writers to keep each of the channels updated regularly.

Trying to do a content portal by yourself and with no investment would probably yield mediocre results.

Pros of Many Blogs with One Topic

The advantage of having many blogs, each with a niche topic, is the fact that it will be easier to attract loyal visitors on each of those sites. The sharper your focus, the easier it is to convince a first time visitor that he should come back tomorrow or subscribe to your RSS feed.

Secondly, niche websites are also easier to be monetized. Advertisers like to be able to control the audience that is going to see their ads.

Cons of Many Blogs with One Topic

The disadvantage of having many blogs, each with a niche topic, is the time and energy that you will need to spend managing them. You will inevitably need to worry about the web hosting, web design, software, maintenance so on. The higher the number of sites you have, the more time they will consume with those tasks.

Additionally, there is always the risk to spread yourself too thin. If you can’t keep up with the content production and promotion activities on all the blogs, they will probably tank over the time.

As you can see there are pros and cons related to both strategies. Choosing one over the other is a personal decision.

My preferred strategy is to go with niche blogs. You just need to make sure that your niche is not too narrow. For example creating a blog about “Nepal Photography” would probably not be a good idea. If you choose “Digital Photography,” however, you should be fine.

I also prefer to focus on the development of one website or blog at a time. Trying to do too many things at once is one of the most common business mistakes.

What do you think?

The post One Blog and Many Topics, or Many Blogs with One Topic? appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Starting a new blog or growing an existing one can certainly be frustrating, as it may seem like you are not on pace to achieve your goals. Like anything worthwhile, building a solid and effective blog will take some time and hard work. As Daniel wrote recently, it gets easier with time if you can stick with it.

I see many bloggers completely give up or seriously slow down their activity because they feel like they are not getting anywhere, when in my opinion they are on the right track.

Hopefully if you are doing the right things and making progress you will recognize your growth and accomplishments, but not all do. Here are 10 signs that your blog is on the right track. If several of these items apply to you, don’t give up just because the achievements are not coming fast enough. I think if you give it some time and continue to work, you will reach your goals in time.

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 are important for any blog. They help with click-through traffic, search engine rankings, and recognition. For bloggers, incoming links are also representative of how well you are known in your industry and your number of links will grow as you start to become recognized as an authority.

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, Pageviews, and/or Pagviews Per Visit

Many bloggers are stats junkies. While growth in traffic isn’t always representative of meeting or surpassing your blogging goals, it certainly isn’t a bad thing. Hopefully, over time your blog stats will increase as more and more readers visit and subscribe to your blog.

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. If you’re able to keep posting consistently, good things are likely to happen.

6. Improving Quality of Articles

Quality is always going to be a somewhat subjective issue, but I think most bloggers can look back through their archives and get a pretty accurate idea of how the quality has trended over time. I know that when I look back at my first few months of blog posts I’m kind of embarrassed at the low level of quality, and I don’t think I’m alone. Growth in quality is natural as you will become more knowledgeable about your topics and as you learn about blogging and writing in general. Take a look back at how your quality of writing has improved and I think you will be encouraged to keep going and see what happens.

7. An Ability to Clearly Define Your Niche

One of the most overlooked items when starting a new blog is being able to accurately define the audience that you will be targeting. As time goes by, you’ll learn what types of content your readers appreciate (and what they don’t respond to) and you’ll most likely get a better idea of where you fit into your niche. Knowing your place is very important for branding and creating a blog that is appealing to the readers that you are targeting. If you know precisely where you fit into your niche, you’re on the right track.

8. An Increasing Network of Bloggers

Networking is probably the most crucial aspect of blogging outside of content creation, and in some cases it can be even more important. 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. Building a network will help you to learn from others, gain valuable and loyal readers, increase inbound links, increase votes at social media sites, and much more.

9. A Knowledge of at Least 1 Specific Way to Get Targeted Readers to Your Blog

As you continue to blog, you will learn more about traffic generation and getting people to read and recognize what you have written. If you have even one specific method that consistently helps you to reach your target audience, you are better off than most bloggers. Maybe you have spent some time writing guest posts for other blogs in your niche, maybe you’ve had success with leaving intelligent and relevant comments at other blogs, or maybe you’ve developed a strong profile at a niche-specific social media website. Whatever the source is, if it is something that you can continue to use in the future, you are one step closer to blogging success.

10. Achievement of Goals

Many bloggers have long-term goals, such as making a living with a blog, or getting 10,000 subscribers. But what many bloggers lack are short-term goals that will help them to take the necessary steps towards those long-term goals. If you are setting monthly goals for blogging revenue, subscribers, traffic, etc. and you are achieving those goals, don’t give up because you are not getting to the long-term goals fast enough. Take pleasure in meeting your short-term goals and keep challenging yourself.

The post 10 Signs That Your Blog Is On The Right Track appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

On the first part of this series we covered how you can generate traffic to your website via Web Design and CSS galleries. On the this second part I want to cover one of the most basic traffic generation methods for bloggers: Blog Carnivals. (By the way, this will be a long series. The basic stuff is coming first, but soon we’ll have more salty techniques, so stay tuned!)

Concept: A Blog Carnival is basically an event where bloggers that cover a particular topic will get together and post a collection of their articles. Usually you have one hosting blog and the participants. The participants send the links to their articles and posts, and the hosting blog will then publish all the links in a single post.

There are all sorts of carnivals around the web: weekly, monthly, with fixed host, with variable host, standalone editions and so on.

Does it work?: Yes. If you manage to participate in a Blog Carnival, at the very minimum you will gain a couple of backlinks and some incoming visitors. Obviously the overall result will depend on the quality and size of the carnival in question.

When I was promoting my first blog a couple of years ago I used to participate in many blog carnivals, and some of them would bring as much as 500 visitors and dozens of backlinks.

Here is a quote from Steve Pavlina who also used them:

In my early traffic-building days, I’d do carnivals submissions once a week, and it helped a great deal in going from nothing to about 50,000 visitors per month

Over the time this practice lost some popularity, but you can still find valuable blog carnivals around the Internet, or even try to create your own.

How to get started: The easiest way to get started is to visit http://blogcarnival.com/bc/ and to browse around for carnivals that are aligned with your niche. Check the ones that have a “Next edition” coming out soon, and submit your best articles.

There are also many self-hosted carnivals around the web, where a blog owner will just publish a post asking for its readers to contribute with articles around a given topic, so keep an eye open for those as well.

Finally, depending on the size of your readership, you could also try to start your own carnival. You could host the first edition on your blog and then get other bloggers to host the subsequent editions.

Website Traffic Series

• Part 1: Web Design and CSS Galleries
• Part 2: Blog Carnivals
• Part 3: Leave Comments on Other Blogs
• Part 4: Faking A Website Sale
• Part 5: Pulling an April Fools Prank
• Part 6: Using Forum Signatures
• Part 7: Putting A Blog on Your Static Website
• Part 8: Adding a Forum to Your Site or Blog
• Part 9: Buying Targeted Traffic
• Part 10: Email Signatures
• Part 11: Put Your URL On Online Profiles
• Part 12: Email Bloggers to Showcase Your Best Content
• Part 13: Faking a Hacker Attack
• Part 14: Promoting Your Content on Social Bookmarking Sites
• Part 15: Promoting Posts That Link to You on Social Bookmarking Sites
• Part 16: Promoting Your Content on Social Networking Sites
• Part 17: Using Article Directories
• Part 18: Exchanging Links with Partner Sites

The post Website Traffic Series Part 2: Submtting Your Content to Blog Carnivals appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Ever considered joining a blog network? Well, then you will probably like this edition of the Bloggers Face-Off. Those bloggers created two of the biggest blog networks on the Internet.

Jeremy Wright is the founder of b5media, a very successful network that includes some flagship blogs like Problogger.net and Copyblogger. Nandini Maheshwari, on the other hand, is the mind behind the Instablogs community, a blog network that is growing very fast. Enjoy!

	Jeremy Wright	Nandini Maheshwari
1. How long have you been blogging?	4 glorious, heartbreaking, wonderful, fun-filled, tear-jerking years 😉	1.5 years
2. How many blogs does your network have?	We’re at about 200 now, give or take	133 blogs and growing
3. What is the main advantage of joining a blog network?	It takes most of the stress of blogging away (design issues, software updates, finding advertisers, etc)	Great community, traffic, exposure, higher revenue potential, and technical expertise
4. How much money does the average blogger on the network make?	With our new pay system, most of our bloggers will earn 150-250$/month doing 4-5 hours work a week	Instablogs, being a large community, it varies a lot from person to person
5. What is your favorite social bookmarking site?	To be honest, I don’t use any social bookmarking sites	Stumble Upon
6. What is the main revenue source for the network?	Banner advertising through premier partners, without question	Private Ad sales
7. Do you think AdSense units make a blog look unprofessional?	It depends. But even the “most professional” AdSense unit will rarely pay as a low-end inventory banner (50c-1$)	Yes, if you overdo them
8. Does the network invest money into promotion?	We invest back into our bloggers. We have 2 people full time (Shai and Darren) training other bloggers	So far, we have not spent any money but in coming days, we are planning few ad campaigns for our upcoming community features
9. How many RSS feeds do you read daily?	Probably 40-50. But I spend a lot of time on TechMeme	200+
10. If you could give one advice for a novice blogger, what would it be?	Find your passion and never lose it. No matter what anyone says, if you’re having fun and expressing yourself, that’s what matters	Go read Problogger.net. However seriously, best advice would be to have patience, be consistent, and network with fellow bloggers in early days
11. If you could read only one blog, which one would you pick?	No question, it’s Savage Chickens	My own (http://www.bornrich.org)
12. What is the secret of your success, expressed in one word?	Community	Passion

The post Bloggers Face-Off: Jeremy Wright vs. Nandini Maheshwari appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

I have always been a fan of Darren Rowse’s group writing projects (I was very lucky to be among the winners of the last edition, in fact). The only problem I have ever encountered there is that some of the participants are exclusively interested in getting a backlink from Problogger. They do not interact with the other people or link to posts from other blogs.

In order to solve this problem I will try to create a monthly Blog Project here at Daily Blog Tips with two simple rules:

1. Send me your tip about the current topic (the first one will be “Traffic Generation Tips”). You can use the contact form or post a comment below.

2. After I publish the list of participants and their tips you write a post with a link to everyone that participated in the project.

The aim of this project is to share useful tips, spread the link love and give everyone the possibility to discover new blogs. If 10 people participate you will receive 10 tips, link to 10 people and get 10 backlinks in exchange (sounds good, right?).

As I mentioned before the first topic is “Traffic Generation Tips”, so share what has worked to increase your traffic over the past. You can send your tips until Sunday, February 3rd.

The post Blog Project: Traffic Generation Tips appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Creating backups of your blog is like drinking water. You know you should do it at regular intervals, but often times other activities get in the middle and you just forget about it.

The possible consequences of not backing up your blog, however, are much more serious than missing the middle-morning water glass. Should your server crash for some reason, or your websibe get hacked, you will lose valuable data.

Personally, I try to backup all my websites weekly (but I am lazy, so if you have time you can even do it daily!). Below you will find a quick checklist for backing up your blog.

1. Use an FTP client to download all the site files (the WordPress folder)
2. Log into phpMyAdmin and select your WordPress database
3. Click on “Export” and make sure that all the WordPress tables are there
4. On the “Structure” section tick “Add Drop Tables,” “Add AUTO_INCREMENT,” and “Enclose table and field names with backquotes”
5. On the “Data” section leave all the boxes unticked
6. Tick “Save as file” and download the database (you can use compression if your database is big)

If you don’t have access to phpMyAdmin, you can use the WordPress Database Backup plugin.

The post Backup Your Blog Regularly appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

As most bloggers know, Google Analytics is a powerful (and free) way to track your blog’s web metrics. Unfortunately, it was designed with AdWords advertisers in mind, so it comes with a lot more information than most bloggers need. Cluttered as it is with campaign and landing page reports, you might be tempted to look no further than the dashboard.

Don’t be daunted! Google Analytics is a veritable goldmine of information about your blog. Here is a list of the reports that you may actually find useful (and where to find them).

1. Referring Sites (under Traffic Sources)

Especially important if your blog is heavy into social media sites like Digg and Reddit, this report shows you where your visitors are coming from.

2. Keywords (under Traffic Sources)

If your blog is blessed with (or engineered for) high rankings on a term, this report will tell you what that term is and just how many visitors it’s producing.

3. Content by Title (under Content)

We all want to know what posts are being read and this report will tell you. It’s worth paying attention to the “Time on Page” and “Bounce Rate” columns, since a short time on page and high bounce rate might indicate a page driving visitors away from your blog. A quick look at this report is also a great way to generate that “Most Popular Posts” list.

4. New vs. Returning (under Visitors)

Everybody wants to know if they’ve got fans, and this report tells you just that. Granted, it doesn’t tell you exactly how many people you have subscribed to your feed. Google’s got Reader, though, and it’s about to buy up Feedburner, so it probably won’t be long before there’s a subscription report, too.

5. Map Overlay (under Visitors)

You’ll probably have to drill down to the country level for it to be useful, but knowing where your readers are in the world can be important information. You may discover that your audience is more international or localized than you would have guessed, allowing you to better target the content and timing of your posts. Are all of your visitors in California? Time your post for 8:00 PST so it’s at the top of their feed readers in the morning.

Perhaps best of all, the new Google Analytics interface allows you to save these reports to your dashboard (using the “Add to Dashboard” button at the top left), so you can still be lazy without losing sight of potentially useful data.

The post Top 5 Google Analytics Reports for Bloggers appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

If you are writing a “top notch” article for your blog, it would be a good idea to publish it on the most trafficked day of the week. This will maximize the number of potential readers, also increasing your chances of receiving backlinks and appearing on social bookmarking sites.

But what is the most trafficked day of the Internet? Getting an accurate answer for this questions is quite difficult, specially if we consider the large variations that might appear from country to country and during different seasons of the year.

That being said there are some studies around the web, and most of them agree that Monday and Tuesday are the most trafficked days of the Internet, followed closely by Wednesday. Below you will find the numbers provided by OneStat in 2004 (apparently that is the most recent report):

A good rule of thumb, therefore, is to publish your popular posts early in the week. Bear in mind that your blog readership might behave differently, so check your statistics and adapt this strategy accordingly.

The post Leveraging Weekly Internet Traffic appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Most bloggers love their RSS readers. Not only that, but they also love to gain new RSS readers. It is such a joy when you wake up one day and see that your Feedburner count jumped by 200 or 300, right?

Is there anything you can do about it? Any way to efficiently attract more RSS subscribers?

Sure there is. Many people wrote about this topic in the past, but I wanted to give my take on the issue too. I wrote those 50 ideas as they were coming to my head, as briefly as possible. Enjoy.

1. Have a big RSS icon. People are lazy. You need to keep that fact always in mind. If you use a little RSS icon, visitors might have a problem finding it. Most of those will just give up after a couple of seconds, so make sure the RSS icon is big and easily recognizable.

2. Display the RSS icon above the fold. Apart from using a big RSS icon, you must make sure that you display it above the fold. That is where most blogs have one, and that is where people are used to look for when they want to subscribe, so go with the flow.

3. 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.

4. Use words. Depending on your audience, just using an RSS icon might not be effective. If they aren’t tech-savvy, they might not know what that little orange thing is. In those cases, you can write a small message explaining that subscribing will allow them to keep updated with your posts and so on.

5. Write a post asking for people to subscribe. Ever heard the saying “Ask and thou shalt receive”? This principle works on most areas of our lives. Blogging is no exception. If you want people to subscribe to your feed, ask them to! Write a post about it, give them some reasons and you will see how they respond.

6. Use the FeedSmith plugin. Unless you hand code a lot of redirects on your blog, readers will still be able to subscribe to different RSS feeds provided by WordPress. This plugin will make sure that all your subscribers will be forwarded to the Feedburner feed, so that you can track them and control how your feed is formatted.

7. 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.

8. Use an email subscription form. For most bloggers, an email subscription form will convert better than a simple “Subscribe via email” link. That is because Internet users are used to seeing those forms around, and typing their email address there is quite intuitive. The top of your sidebar is a good spot to place one.

9. Encourage readers to subscribe at the bottom of every post. Apart from having an RSS icon and email subscription form above the fold, it is also important to place them below each single post. Why? Because right after people finish reading your articles, they will look for something to do next, and subscribing to your blog is a good option. Additionally, if the article they just read was really good, they will be on the right mindset to subscribe and receive more of your articles in the future.

10. As few steps as possible. People are lazy (I know I mentioned it before, but it is worth re-emphasizing). The fewer the steps required for them to subscribe to your blog, the better. If you can reduce the number of clicks required, therefore, do it!

11. Use icons to offer subscription on the most popular RSS readers. One practical thing that you can do to reduce the number of steps required to subscribe to your feed is to use RSS reader specific icons (e.g., “Add to Google Reader” or “Subscribe on Bloglines”). Just analyze the most common RSS readers among your subscribers and add those icons to the sidebar.

12. Have clear focus on your blog. If you write about 10 different topics, it will be hard to convince people to subscribe to your blog. They might like your articles about technology, but they would hate to receive the house cleaning ones…. Having a clear focus is one of the most efficient ways to attract subscribers.

13. Publish new posts frequently and consistently. By frequently I mean publishing many posts per week or even per day, and by consistently I mean sticking with that frequency religiously. Those two factors will communicate to the visitors that your blog is active, and that subscribing to the RSS feed might be the best way to stay updated with it indeed.

14. Don’t exaggerate. While writing many posts per week or per day is usually a good thing, there is a limit to it. Many people mention that if a certain blog starts overwhelming them with dozens of new posts a day, they will just unsubscribe. The exceptions to this rule are the blogs on fast paced niches like gadget news.

15. Write valuable content. People will only subscribe to your RSS feed if there is some value that they can derive from it. This value might come from different different factors depending on your audience: it may come from the breaking news that you offer, from the deep analysis that you write, or from the funny things you say and so on, but it must be there.

16. Write unique content. You content might be valuable, but if people can find it elsewhere, they will have no reason to subscribe to your RSS feed. For example, suppose you copy all posts from a popular blog on your niche, say Lifehacker. You content would still be valuable, but it would not be unique, and most people would end up subscribing to the original source.

17. Don’t ramble or go off topic. If your blog has a clear focus as we suggested before, readers will subscribe to it for a very specific reason. If you then start writing about off topic stuff, it will annoy a great part of them. Just consider that a bad or unrelated post is worse than no post at all, since it might make some of your readers actually unsubscribe.

18. Use your RSS feed link when commenting on other blogs. Many bloggers have the habit of commenting on other people’s blogs. Some do it simply to join the conversation. Others because they want to promote their own blogs and generate some traffic. Either way, you can leave your RSS feed link instead of the website one to encourage people to subscribe to your feed (if you use Feedburner, they will be able to see your content anyway).

19. 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.

20. Offer random prizes to your subscribers. If you are not a fan of contests and competitions, you could always entice people to subscribe to your RSS feed by giving away random prizes. For example, if some company approaches you to donate some free copies of its product, you could in turn donate it to your subscribers

21. Write guest posts. Guest posts represent a very efficient technique for generating both brand awareness and traffic. If you guest blog on a popular blog on your same niche, there is also a good chance that a good percentage of that incoming traffic will end up subscribing to your feed.

22. Welcome the new readers. Whenever you manage to land a guest post on a really popular blog, or when you get mentioned on a larger website or mainstream site, it could be a good idea to write a specific post to welcome those readers. Use that post to describe your blog briefly, to talk a bit about yourself, and to encourage them to subscribe.

23. Go popular on social bookmarking sites. Some people say that the quality of the traffic coming from social bookmarking sites (e.g., Digg and StumbleUpon) is very low. This is true to some extent, because those visitors will rarely click on anything on your page (including on the subscribe link). Because of the sheer amount of traffic that you can get on those sites, however, even a really small conversion rate could easily mean 200 or 300 new subscribers in a matter of 24 hours.

24. Explain to your readers what is RSS. As we mentioned before, it is estimated that less than 10% of the popular know about or use RSS feeds. Can you do anything about this? Sure you can! Write a post teaching your readers what RSS is, why it is good, and how they can start using it. It works particularly well on blogs that have a non tech-savvy audience.

25. Have a special “Subscribe” page with all the info and links there. Apart from writing a specific post teaching your readers about RSS, you can also create a special “Subscribe” page on your blog where you explain briefly how to use RSS feeds, and place all the subscription links, badges, and email forms. You could then link to that page from the sidebar, with a link that would say “Subscription Options” or “How to subscribe.”

26. Create a landing page on your blog to convert visitors in subscribers. If you are going to purchase some banners or other type of advertising, it is highly recommended that you create a landing page to receive those visitors on the best way possible. Use that page to describe your blog, to highlight your best content, and to ask them to subscribe. When doing guest blogging, you could use this page as the byline link as well.

27. Send traffic to that page using PPC. Pay-per-Click advertising, like Google AdWords, is one of the cheapest ways to send targeted traffic to your site. Depending on the quality score that you get (this is calculated from the AdWords side) you could start getting visitors for as low as $0.01 each. That is, with $100, you could send up to 10,000 visitors to your landing page. With a 1% conversion rate this would mean 100 new subscribers.

28. 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.

29. Launch an email newsletter with Aweber. An email newsletter can be used to complement the content on most blogs. You send a weekly email to those subscribers with your insider views of your niche, with some extra tips, tools and so on. If you then choose Aweber for your newsletter, you can use the “Blog Broadcast” feature to turn those newsletter subscribers into RSS readers too (they will receive a weekly summary from your feed).

30. Offer a full feed. If your goal is to have as many subscribers as possible, then offering a full RSS feed is the only way to go. Many people get annoyed by partial feeds, and even if that does not discourage them from subscribing at first, it might make them unsubscribe shortly after.

31. Clutter your website with ads. This point is a funny/weird addition to the list, and I don’t recommend anyone doing it. I didn’t invent this though, and I saw some people in the past talking about it. The idea is simple: if you clutter your website with many flashy and intrusive ads, but offer top quality content anyway, some people might get an urge to subscribe to your RSS feed just to avoid the clutter on the website….

32. Don’t clutter your RSS feed with ads. Just as too many ads on your site can scare visitors away, too many ads or badges or links on your RSS feed can make people unsubscribe. Keep the RSS feed as clean as possible. That is what people expect to have when they subscribe to an XML file, after all.

33. Use social proof. Ever entered into a restaurant because the place was packed with people, or didn’t enter one because it was empty? That is social proof in action. If you have a good number of RSS subscribers already (I would say over 500), you could display it on your site using the Feedburner feed count widget. This might motivate people to give your RSS feed a shot.

34. Offer breaking news. RSS feeds are one of the most efficient ways to keep up with sites that are frequently updated with information that you care about. If you manage to break some news, or to offer frequent updates on popular topics (like stock market alerts), people would have a stronger motivation to subscribe.

35. Mention that subscribing to your blog is free. It might sound strange, but many people actually get confused with the “Subscribe” terminology. I received dozens of emails over the past year from people that wanted to know if there was any cost associated with subscribing to my RSS feeds! To avoid any confusion, it could be worth mentioning that subscribing to your blog is free, so instead of “Subscribe to my RSS feed” you could use “Receive our updates for free.”

36. Use pop-ups to encourage subscription to your newsletter. Darren managed to increase his conversion rate by more than 700% using pop-ups. Sure, they are intrusive, but they work like nothing else. If you already have an established and loyal following, perhaps using this technique wouldn’t hurt your traffic. We also did a recent poll on the topic.

37. Use an animated RSS feed icon to draw attention. Animated ads get a much higher click-through rate, exactly because they move around and draw people’s attention. You can use the same technique with your RSS feed icon, and make it an animated GIF to call the attention of the visitors.

38. Use feed directories. Don’t expect to receive hundreds of new subscribers by using this technique, but every small bit helps right? Some people use feed directories to find new RSS feeds and content to subscribe to, so if you have some free time you could submit yours on those sites. Here is a list with almost 20 feed directories.

39. Email first time commentators encouraging them to subscribe. Sending a personal email to your first time commentators is a kind gesture, and many will thank you for that. You could use this opportunity to remind them that they can stay updated with your blog via the RSS feed. There is also plugin called Comment Relish that can automate this process, although it becomes less personal.

40. Make sure the feed auto-discovery feature is working. Most modern browsers have an auto-discovery feature that tried to identify if the website you are visiting has a valid RSS feed. If they do, the browser will present a small RSS icon on the right side of the address bar. So make sure that your can see that icon while visiting your blog, and click on it to see if the right RSS feed will pop. On WordPress you can edit this part on the header.php file.

41. Offer a comments feed. If you have an active community of readers who often engage in discussions on the comments section of your blog, you could consider offering a comments RSS feed.

42. Offer category feeds. If you have many categories on your blog, you could offer an RSS feed for each of them individually. This would enable visitors that are interested only in specific topics to subscribe to them and not to the whole blog. At the same time this granularity could increase the overall number of RSS subscribers you have.

43. Run periodic checks on your feeds. It is not rare to find blogs around the web with a broken RSS feed. Click on your own feed once in a while to make sure that the link is working, that the feed is working, and that it is a valid XML document.

44. Recover unverified email subscribers. You will notice that good percentage of your email subscribers will never confirm their subscription. Some are lazy, some just don’t understand the process. This percentage can go as high as 30%, so you could end up losing many would-be subscribers there. Fortunately you can email those unverified subscribers and remind them about the problem. It works for some.

45. Leverage an existing blog or audience. If you already have a popular blog, newsletter, forum, twitter account and so on, you could leverage that presence to get new subscribers. People that already follow you in some place will have a higher chance of subscribing to you new blog, especially if they like your work or person.

46. Use cross feed promotion. Find some related blogs that have a similar RSS subscriber base, and propose to the blogger to use a cross feed promotion deal. That is, you promote his blog on your feed footer, and he promotes your blog on his feed footer.

47. Use testimonials on your “Subscribe” page. You probably have seen how most product sales pages on the web use testimonials, right? That is because a personal recommendation from a third party goes a long way into convincing a prospect. If that is the case, why not use testimonials to convince people to subscribe to your RSS feed?

48. Get friends to recommend your site and RSS feed on their blog. Even stronger than having a testimonial on your “Subscribe” page is to have someone recommend you on his own blog or website. Many of his readers will pay attention to the message and head over to your blog to check what the fuzz is about.

49. Do something funny or weird while asking for people to subscribe. People love blogs with a sense of humor. If you can make them laugh, you have took them half way into subscribing. Some months ago I published the Huge RSS Icon Experiment, and gained 300 new subscribers in 3 days.

50. Start a long series so people subscribe to keep update with it. Long and structured series of posts are not only traffic magnets, but also RSS readers magnets. If a casual visitor discovers that you are publishing a long series about a topic he is interested on, he will think about subscribing in order to not miss the future posts of the series.

So, if you came this far reading the post, you should already be convinced that you need to grab my RSS feed, right?!

The post 50 Simple Ways to Gain RSS Subscribers appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

It is Friday folks, and time for another set of questions and answers. Next week I will tap the questions that were sent via email, so if you sent one stay tuned.

If you want to ask a question, you can do that via the comments section on this post.

1. James Madara asks:

What are the best ways to attract readers to a new blog? How many posts should you have before attracting visitors?

Unfortunately there isn’t a list with the best ways to attract readers that would work on all new blogs. In other words, you will need to try a wide range of methods to see what works with your blog and niche, and what does not work.

A good place to get started is our Promotion category, and the Website Traffic Series.

If you have some money to spend on the promotion of your new venture, check the article 7 Ways to Promote your Site with a Bit of Money.

As for the number of posts that you should have published before attracting the visitors, I would say that 10 is a good number, and 5 the minimum you wanna go with.

Make sure those initial posts are top notch as well, because people will not give you the benefit of the doubt.

2. Yawza asks:

What type of security measures are taken for DBT to prevent browsing of subfolders.

If your website is hosted on a Linux server (and it should!) you just need to insert the following line on the .htaccess file:

Options -Indexes

3. Rarul Bansal asks:

After blogging for 2 years, I am thinking on making my blog my multi-author blog. Of course, all co-author will get revenue share but I am worried about readers. Will this change turn them off? We know that many top blogs are multi-author but they are all famous blogs like TechCrunch.

My blog is very small and also my co-authors are not so experienced. So please let me know what do you think about my decision?

It depends on the topic of your blog and on your writing style.

If your topic is pretty generic (say technology or finance) and if your writing style is neutral, bringing new authors aboard should not turn off the current audience.

If your topic is more connected with personal experiences (say personal development), however, and if your writing style is very idiosyncratic, then you would need to be more careful on the decision of bringing more authors.

Keep in mind, though, that the result of this decision is more closely connected with the experience and writing skills of the authors that you will bring to your team. I have seen very personal blogs that successfully introduced new authors because their content was outstanding, therefore readers rejoiced.

So the key factor would be making sure that whomever you are going to get as co-author will add value to the blog.

4. Cherran asks:

Do you think paid traffic (CPC or anyother ads) can be used to grow a blog’s traffic steadily?

In theory yes. But you would need to have very big pockets for that. Someone with a marketing budget of $10,000 monthly, for example, would be able to grow the traffic to a blog steadily only using PPC ads.

In practice, as you probably know, very few companies have such pockets, so the answer for the rest of us is “no.”

Even if you had a good money to spend on promotion, I would encourage you to use that money to hire some good writers and to put some outstanding content on the blog. Over the long run, as far as traffic and links are concerned, nothing beats quality content.

That being said, PPC and banner ads do can be used on the launch phase of any blog or website. They are good to send an initial flux of traffic, and to put a small reader base in place. Think about 1 to 3 months, after that you want to have traffic coming from organic sources.

5. Kelly asks:

As most bloggers do, I spend many hours researching, writing, answering email, responding to comments, etc. I’m seriously considering adding a “donate” option at my site. Do you think this will turn people off?

It might turn some people off, but they would be the minority.

One problem with that monetization method, however, is that it only works on particular niches. Personal development is a good example, because those blogs usually help readers with important issues on their lives, hence they feel more compelled to contribute financially to the blog.

If you think your content does help people on many ways, however, you could give it a try regardless of your niche. At the worst of the scenarios you won’t make any money, and you will just remove the tip jar after a while.

6. Medical Transcription asks:

1.) Sometimes I am noticing that you and your colleagues are making typos deliberately like “becomeing” “gasmes” etc. Is it a SEO move concentrating on typos in search words?

2.) How many times do you proofread as I could see errors creeping in on multiple occasions like this one on this post “If you are a RSS footer plugin?” (I think I’m not hurting you.) I remember you saying earlier that you do it two times. Is it that you’re becoming blinded to your own mistakes?

1) There are some SEOs that target common typos. But the examples you mentioned were not deliberate . The “becomening” one was my mistake. Despite my own advice of proof reading everything twice, I often times need to rush posts and end up publishing some typos. The “gasmes” one came from one of my writers on Daily Bits, and he got fired for that! (nah just joking)

Anyway to give you a more concrete answer, targeting misspellings is an advanced SEO tactic, and sometimes it works, but I don’t think it is worth spending time there unless you want to specialize on that.

2) When I proof read, I do it twice. That is what I recommend every one to do as well. Sometimes, however, I get pressed between too many projects and things to do, so I end up neglecting the proof reading part. Shame on me, I know.

I will try harder to avoid typos in the future, as I know you guys are watching me .

7. SEO Genius asks:

My website has been running for around about 9 months now, with in this time i have focused on getting high ranks for certain keywords.

However with lack of motivation being my top priority due to low levels of traffic and no money coming in from my website, although i have monetized the website i am wondering whether it is a normal occurance for the first 12 months of a blog running to have no money coming in from the website?

I am also finding it hard to monetize my site, as most advertising programs such as text link ads are built for some sort of blogging website where as mine uses normal html and css with PHP it is manually updated instead of using wordpress or any other software, can you recommend to me any programs which you have used or been recommended or highly appraised which would be easy to install on my website and could help with monetizing my site.

It is normal for websites not to make any money on the first 12 months of existence. That is when the authors decide to not monetize them and prioritize the traffic growth, however.

In other words, the traffic at least should be there. After 12 months I would aim for 5,000 daily page views. If you are not even close to that number I would reconsider my strategies.

As for the monetization part, most programs support all types of websites. You mentioned Text Link Ads. As long as you support PHP (any Linux server should) you can install them on your website. They are not built for any specific blogging platform.

CPM networks and Google Adsense would work as well. They usually provide you with a Javascript code, and you can plug that even on a static HTML page.

So if the traffic is there, the monetization options are plenty.

8. Dave re-asks:

Update to my question: I’m now noticing that the WordPress-inserted “more” tag is not sending abbreviated text out my RSS feed. My bad – I thought that was the case, that it was just like a text summary break, only I could decide where the break happened.

Now it makes perfect sense why my feed subscription is much higher than traffic on the site. So my question remains: how to drive traffic to the site without arbitrarily using feed summaries.

There aren’t many thing that you can do to make RSS subscribers visit your website. They use an RSS readers exactly because they don’t want to have to browse each of their favorite sites individually.

You could try engaging the audience a bit more, by asking questions for example, to encourage them to visit the website either to leave a comment or to read other readers’ comments.

That being said, I don’t think those methods would have a noticeable impact.

So overall you just need to live with the fact that RSS subscribers will read most of your content on their RSS reader.

Does this mean that perhaps you should offer partial feeds or no feeds at all? I don’t think so, because those subscribers would probably just skip your content altogether (and not visit your website daily as one could wrongly assume).

In other words, it is better to have an RSS reader than no reader at all.

The post Blogging Questions & Answers 15 appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Not many people like to hear the harsh realities of blogging. I didn’t want to either.

Like many people, I read some of the top personality development blogs online. If there is one message everyone has to say in common, then it is “Think positive.”

In my opinion something’s in life are better said than kept silent. One of those is the reality concerning blogging.

It took me a long time to understand the how’s, the why’s the when’s of blogging and online business. I have given up blogging 2 times in the past. Then I started to focus on the facts. This has helped me sustain my blogging as well as online business. And, I want to help you too.

Ugly Truth #1: Blogging isn’t Easy

If you regularly read blogs, or have been blogging for any length of time, you’d straight away agree with me that “blogging isn’t easy.”

It takes a lot of time to set up your blog (idea, research, hosting, design, schedule, content creation), and even more time to see it build some momentum. You have to create compelling content, read and comment on other blogs, learn SEO, and write guest posts, network with other bloggers and so on.

However, blogger burn out happens faster than most people anticipate it. Lot of people lose sight of their goals when they don’t see traffic coming their way. You can’t be blamed. It’s just human nature. We want results. Our actions are inspired by results.

We need motivation to do something. If you are working on a 9-5 job, then maybe it’s the paycheck that motivates you. Sometimes it may be the work culture or even the job itself that motivates you. Whatever you do, you need to be constantly motivated. It’s no different with blogging.

When you start blogging you are really motivated and super excited. How can you be not so? You are doing it for the first time. You are thrilled by the experience. Your expectations are sky high.

Six months down the road, you still do what you were doing when you started off. You are yet to receive loyal readership or feedback. It’s kind of de-motivating. I know. I have been through it when I launched my first blog. My second blog also had a short life. Heck even my third blog suffered the same fate.

Success happens when you slowly learn to swim against the flow. You keep pushing until you reach your goal. When you exercise, you keep pushing yourself to do an extra set. Just like that, when you think you have failed, you keep on pushing until success is in sight.

Take away tip: Authority blogging takes a while. If you need instant result, either become a celebrity and start blogging or develop patience. It takes 1 or 2 or even more number of years to achieve success.

Ugly Truth #2: Blogging Isn’t a Viable Business Model

Let’s face it, blogging is not a viable business model. Sure, you can be a web publisher and make money by selling ads on your blog, but this won’t be a business per se. Plus, the people who can make significant money with this model can be counted on a the fingers of your hand.

A better way to see it is that a blog is a tool to promote your business. Not the business itself. So you need to have a product, a service, or something else that you sell/offer to your customers.

If you want to build a successful business, then you need to use the blog to build trust, authority, generate leads and build customer relationship.

Take away tip: Blogging should be taken as a means to boost your main business

Ugly Truth #3: Blogging isn’t all about you

Many blogs about blogging advice people that your blog reflects your personality. They tell that a blog is all about you, you and only you.

Well, I’d like to say a blog is all about them, them and only them. Who’d I refer to as them? “Them” are the readers who visit your blog.

If people came to your blog because they liked you, then they’d be interested in your personal life as well. Try posting articles about your personal life and you will soon see people going away. This is because people come to your blog for niche specific contents. They want advice, tips and a little bit of motivation.

If a blog is all about the author, then I’d say problogger would be dead by now. How many posts does Darren from problogger post these days? Many of them are guest articles. Yet, problogger is as heavily trafficked as ever.

Take away tip: Blog with your readers in mind. Not your personality.

Ugly Truth #4: You don’t need to interact much with your readers

Reader interaction is supposed to be one of the holy grails of blogging.

Reader interaction happens most when people comment on your article. But do you really need other people’s comments on your blog?

It depends.

Most of the time, people comment on your blogs only to get a link back to their blog. There are some exceptions though. You’d argue that we must give some sort of recognition to people who take their time to comment on our blog.

Would you really want to be thankful to someone if they hit your son with a truck and then later rescue him with the intention of getting money from you for saving your kid’s life?

I don’t want to portray other bloggers as criminals or something. It’s just that not all posts are worth commenting and not all comments are worth publishing. You have to be judicious while allowing comments and also while commenting on other blogs.

If the reader needs to ask something, let them use the contact form. If they have some outstanding contribution to make, let them provide it through the contact form and you edit the post and include it. You are now giving more value to the person who shares his ideas.

If you want to build a community, building a forum is much better where your readers can freely interact with each other. Having a forum section for your blog is also a good move.

Take away tip: Don’t worry too much about reader interaction. Provide them quality content, gather feedback and improvise.

Ugly Truth #5: Practice doesn’t make you perfect

Many writing blogs offer this advice. Write, write more and write even more.

I really don’t understand the concept. If you mix the wrong ingredients in the lab to make a new compound, you simply can’t make it. What use is it to do it over and over again, only to fail each time?

You must use some sort of feedback mechanism to constantly improve your process workflow. If you keep repeating the mistake, you get better at making the mistake, not avoiding it.

Take help from your friends, family members or even pay others to give constructive criticism. Forums are a great way to gather feedback for your site. And, it is absolutely free as well.

Take away tip: Use a feedback mechanism to improve your blog.

Ugly Truth #6: You don’t need a lot of blogging advice

Sad, but it’s the truth. You don’t need to read blog tips every-day. Keep the basic points in mind.

• Understand and listen to your readers (Using analytics, feedbacks etc)
• Write quality content and killer articles
• Promote your blog posts through guest posts or other means
• Observe what others in your niche are talking about

I am not saying that you shouldn’t read the tips online. It’s good that you have an understanding about these tips because it worked for some. But, it needn’t work for you.

The only thing you need to do is start doing things your way. If you keep reading articles about blogging and wait for the right moment to start a blog after grasping everything, that moment will never come.

Nothing can teach you better than experience. Go ahead, try blogging your own way, and see what works and what doesn’t work.

What do you think will add to the list of ugly truths? Do you think some points aren’t as ugly as I make it out to be? Speak up!

About the Author: Adarsh helps other people start their own online business. You can read more from him on CoversionChamp.com.

The post The 6 Ugly Truths About Blogging appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

What do Mashable.com, BusinessInsider.com and Huffington Post all have in common? For one, each blog captures thousands of unique visitors and tens of thousands of page views in a single day. Second, they all accept contributions from guest authors, creating the potential to drive massive amounts of traffic to your website with just a single guest post.

But there’s got to be a catch. You’ve probably got to be a big name blogger with a huge audience like ProBlogger.com’s Darren Rowse to be eligible for publication on major blogs like that… Right?

No Name? No Audience? No Problem.

Believe it or not, you need neither name nor audience to get published. I used to think you did until I began to look more critically at the bylines of the writers listed on authority websites like BusinessInsider.com, currently listed in the top 500 most popular websites on the internet according to Alexa.

What did I discover upon closer examination? BusinessInsider.com publishes a lot of content from guest authors, most of which is from unkown writers you would not know, don’t have audience or fancy qualifications like an advanced degree from a prestigious school.

Best of all, these websites need a lot of regular outside contributions from guest writers. How much? Enough to dedicate a category
of the website just to content exclusively provided by writers/bloggers referred to as “Contributors”. None of the writer’s listed here are on the BusinessInsider.com payroll.

So if you don’t need a big name or any specific qualifications to contribute to these major blogs, what’s preventing you or me from getting our content published on behemoth blogs like this? That’s the question I posed to three regular contributors of BusinessInsider.com–Frank Gullo of RavenWeb.net, Hillel Fuld of TechnMarketing.com, and Sudy Bharadwaj of JackalopeJobs.com–to get a sense of what the average blogger/marketer should do to be considered for publication on a major blog.

While you’re probably not familiar with the writing or names of the writers I interviewed for this piece, collectively these three have been published on the biggest blogs with names you do know including the Huffington Post, Mashable and Gigom in addition to BusinessInsider.com.

What separates these guys from the rest of us?

I emailed each of these gentlemen to pick their brains and get advice on how they were each able to be featured on these blogs. Fortunately, for me (and you) they were generous with their expertise and provided a simple outline of do’s and don’ts that if followed greatly increases your odds of getting published on these sites.

Interestingly, but not surprisingly, each of the blogger’s I interviewed shared creepily similar recommendations for getting content published. There do’s and don’ts have been summarized below and edited slightly for readability purposes:

When submitting guest content to major blogs, do the following:

– Read and Follow Submission Guidelines to the Letter: Big blogs have much stricter requirements for what they can and can’t publish. Make sure the content you submit to these blogs aligns with posts that are regularly published by the blog both in content and style. Many of these blogs provide information about how to submit guest posts or contributions on a contact or contributor page.

In the case of becoming a contributor to BusinessInsider.com, all you need to do is to submit an email (contributor@businessinsider.com)
stating that you’re interested in writing for them.

– Respect the Editor’s Time: When you submit guest posts to major blogs, they’ll need to be reviewed by an editor or writer before they can be published. Again, make sure you have formatted your posts correctly, do not have any spelling errors, and provided a high-quality piece of content that can be published. The more time an editor must spend rewriting your post, the less likely it is to be published.

– Keep Communication Short: This related to the previous point. Don’t write long emails explaining your story ideas to editors or your career highlights. Keep pitches concise and to the point.

– Be Persistent: The folks that work at these blogs are extremely busy and being emailed, Tweeted, and instant messaged by people just like you all day, every day. As a result, it’s typical that at some point your message could be forgotten about or looked over. If an editor doesn’t respond to your request after 5 – 7 days feel free to send them a reminder. If you still don’t get a response, move on and try contacting a different blog or editor.

When submitting content to major blogs, don’t do the following:

– Don’t miss a Deadline: This is a deal breaker for most editors. If you say you’re going to get an article out
to them by January, 17th, stick to it. Miss one deadline and you won’t get a second chance with many editors.

– Don’t complain if you’re article is rejected: Believe it or not, even strong writers have their content rejected from time to time. If you’re article is rejected, simply ask how you can improve it or suggest writing a new article on a different topic. If you believe the rejected article is valuable, you can always submit it somewhere else later.

– Don’t Pester Editors: While you need to be consistent and occasionally send followup emails regarding the status of a post, don’t be a pain. Do not contact editors via social media daily much less hourly. A good rule of thumb is to provide at least 5 – 7 business days of breathing room between messages to an editor.

While you may not need a big name to contribute to today’s most popular websites, you will need to closely follow the editorial guidelines of each particular website and stick to the do’s and don’ts outlined in this article to get published on the biggest blogs.

Brett Lindenberg does a lot of guest writing in his own right. Read more of his stuff at 500aMonth.com and be sure to download his routine for building an email list when you sign up for his email list.

The post The Do’s and Don’ts of Guest Posting for Major Blogs appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Promoting a new blog can be quite daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. As you might expect, breaking down blog promotion into small, actionable tasks eliminates the mental road block you’ve probably experienced when trying to wrap you head around how to get people’s attention. You don’t have to do everything in this list, and some items will have a greater effect then others, but every tactic will at least drive some traffic, and any traffic is better than no traffic.

Content
1. Write a list of over 100+ resources or ideas.
2. Write the definitive guide to something. Spend time making this awesome.
3. Release a manifesto.
4. Release 2 manifestos.
5. Interview cool people. People like talking about cool people.
6. After your articles are indexed in search engines, break them up into smaller articles and submit them to ezinearticles.com (and other article directories).
7. Or just pay someone to submit the articles for you.
8. Write a list of all the cool blogs and people in your niche.
9. Check out the most popular content on high trafficked blogs. Create similar content but applied to your own niche.

Facebook

10. Start a page.
11. Make that page awesome.
12. Start a group.
13. Make that group awesome.
14. Create a Facebook app for your blog.

Fundamentals
15. Wait. After you’ve taken action it can take a short while for traffic to arrive.
16. Be patient. Some bloggers may seem like overnight successes, but if you look back in their archives, they’ve been creating content for a long time.
17. Motivate yourself.
18. Read The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing.
19. Have an interesting story and overall purpose.
20. Embrace the Law of Reciprocity. Everything you give will come back exponentially.
21. Make blogging easier.
22. Take action every day. Just get one important thing done every day and eventually you’ll start getting traffic. The more you do each day the faster your blog gets traction.
23. Find people with blogs at a similar level to yours and help each other out.
24. Turn off your computer, do some cool stuff, turn on your computer again and blog about it.
25. Understand the importance of context.
26. Be consistent. You don’t need to blog every day but try to stick to at least some sort of schedule.
27. Make it a numbers game. Decide upon a definite plan of action (eg. 20 blog comments per day, 1 guest post per week etc) and stick with that.

Online Video
28. Create videos and distribute them through tubemogul.com
29. Or for wider video distribution trafficgeyser.com may work for you (expensive though).
30. Respond to YouTube videos with your content.
31. Include your full blog address at the TOP of your video descriptions.
32. Take your time with devising video titles and tags.
33. Convert your video to multiple formats, with slight editing changes, and upload it to video sites multiple times, targeting different keywords. The content remains the same but you can test what videos and titles work the best.
34. Buy the accounts of popular YouTubers and then add your blog address to the descriptions of their videos.
35. Start the first live show in your niche (Ustream, Justin.tv and LiveStream are popular choices). Make sure you record the shows too so they can be distributed as a podcast later on.

Other Blogs
36. Be the first commenter on the posts of popular blogs. But still provide value.
37. If you can’t be the first then comment anyway. But try to be the first.
38. Stumble and Digg cool blog posts you find and let the blogger know via a comment. If you have something worthy on your blog, they’ll probably reciprocate.
39. Use google.com/blogsearch to find fresh blog posts and then leave intelligent comments.
40. Link to blogs of a similar size. They’ll notice and then good stuff may happen.
41. Write a guest post for a large blog. You may not always get published, but when you do the traffic spike will be significant.
42. Write a guest post for a small blog. You’re more likely to get published and build relationships with the next wave of A-List bloggers.
43. Write some more guest posts. Can’t hurt, that’s for sure.
44. Join a blog network.

Paid
45. Start a StumbleUpon Ads campaign.
46. Get reviewed.
47. Buy some ad space.
48. Send out a press release.

People
49. Attend relevant meetups.
50. Tell your friends and family about your blog. Have them tell everyone they know.

Podcasting

51. Start a podcast and submit it to the iTunes directory.
52. Convert audio files to video files (just use Windows Movie Maker or iMovie) and send them out via tubemogul.com
53. Submit it to some other podcast directories.

Search engine optimization
54. Write linkbait.
55. Have any video or audio content transcribed and posted to your blog.
56. Register your domain name for 10 years.
57. Take advantage of sites scraping your blog’s feed by interlinking posts. Simple way to get deep inbound links.
58. Use Thesis.

Social networks
59. Join every social network you can.
60. Or, just join a couple and be really active.
61. Become active in relevant ning.com communities.
62. Convert blog posts to PDF files and submit them to Scribd — include your blog url in the description and document itself.
63. Add your Scribd documents to relevant groups.
64. Submit your best posts to blog carnivals.
65. Join relevant forums, add your blog address to your signature and start posting intelligently.
66. Sign up at ping.fm and use twitterfeed.com to auto post your latest blog content to a bunch of social networks.
67. Create lists on Amazon.com
68. Write reviews on Amazon.com
69. Better yet, create video reviews for Amazon.com
70. Answer relevant questions on Yahoo Answers, leaving your website as the source.
71. Or on Mahalo Answers.
72. Or even through LinkedIn Answers.
73. Start your own Slinkset, and feed your RSS feed into it automatically.
74. Submit your site to alltop.com
75. Write an article aimed at Digg (okay, that article won’t help much).
76. Also, befriend one of the many Digg powerusers.
77. Create a new thread on a forum and write up a really great guide with no self promotion. Simple way to be seen as an authority figure and to elicit comments on your writing (don’t forget that signature link though!).
78. Submit your content to dofollow social bookmarking sites.
79. Or have Bookmarking Demon do it for you (certainly a bend in ethics though).

StumbleUpon
80. Become an active stumbler to understand what stumblers like.
81. Friend people who stumble your content (they may just want to stumble more in the future)..
82. Have other people initially submit content (or “Discover” it as it’s known).
83. Place a Stumble button in your post template.

Su.pr
84. Sign up at su.pr and use it for all your short url needs.
85. Post content to your Facebook and Twitter stream.
86. Install the WordPress plugin to automate the process.
87. Identify the times that result in the most clicks and schedule tweets for them.
88. Setup your blog as a promoted website.

Twitter
89. Include hash tags (#tagname) in your tweets.
90. Search for your niche and answer any questions people have.
91. Place a Retweet button in your post template.
92. Follow relevant, popular, and interesting people.
93. Send @replies to relevant, popular and interesting people.
94. Tweet links to your content at multiple times during the day.
95. Love a product from a company that’s on Twitter? Review it and they may just notice and tweet about the review. It’s happened to me.
96. Sponsor some tweets.
97. Find cool people in your niche who live nearby and organize a tweet up (a meet up where you invite anyone on Twitter).

WordPress
98. Install All In One SEO Pack.
99. Automatically ping lots of ping services.
100. Create a theme, include a link to your blog in the footer, and then release it for free.
101. Create a plugin and release it for free. Add a link to your blog within the admin area. If it’s a good plugin people will love you for it.

The post 101 Ways to Promote a New Blog appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

As you probably know, Darren Rowse from Problogger run a challenge last month titled “31 Days to Build a Better Blog.” Here is how he described it:

The idea is simple. By the end of this challenge you’ll have learned 31 aspects of blogging and put them into practice. It is designed not only to fill your head with knowledge ABOUT blogging, but also to give you some concrete things to actually DO something with the knowledge.

Basically each day you had a teaching and a task. The teaching would give you the concepts and theory, and the task would force you to take action on what you had just learned. Over 13,000 people participated in the challenge, and the feedback that Darren got was very good. So good, in fact, that he decided to create a workbook out of it.

He sent me a copy of it via email, and it is packed with information. There are 94 pages of pure content, with all the 31 tasks, teachings, images and links to useful posts and tools. Here is a screenshot of one of the tasks:

The workbook costs $19.95. Check out Darren’s post about the workbook for more info, or purchase it on this direct link.

The post Don’t Miss This One: “31 Days to Build a Better Blog” Workbook appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Between the interviews with up and coming bloggers series that I ran on my personal blog and the launch of BlogcastFM.com, I’ve had the opportunity to interview more than 30 bloggers. Not only have I learned quite a bit about blogging but I’ve learned about people and how to to conduct interviews with bloggers.

1. Everybody is approachable

One of the things I absolutely love about the world we live in today is that we have access to people like we have never had before. However, one of the things that holds us back is fear. We see a well known blogger and we become intimidated by their RSS counter that says 5000. Surprisingly, these people are not much different than a blogger who’s just starting out. They’ve just been around longer and know more. They started out just like you with nobody reading their blog. Most people are very approachable and you just have to make the effort and reach out.

2. Listen more than you talk

In the first interview I ever did, I got some unsolicited advice. I was told that I talk too much. When I went back and listened to it, I realized that I did talk too much. If you’re interviewing somebody, the spotlight is on them. It’s a chance for that person to talk about themselves and their blog. Embrace that and your interviews will be much better.

3. Ask questions based on the answers you receive

This ties into the above point about listening. Part of what has made my interviews get smoother and smoother is that I start with one simple question “How did you get started?” and then I build all the rest of the questions I ask on the answers I get. Not only does this force you to listen, it makes the whole thing flow much better.

4. Treat it as conversation

In a recent interview I did, the interviewee was actually nervous. While it was challenging I told him to think of it as two guys at a bar just having a beer and chatting. When you get too formal then you become unnatural and it’s really obvious to the people listening. The interview is an opportunity for everybody to eavesdrop on your conversation. If you are really formal, nobody will really want to eavesdrop. One of the things we love as human beings are stories. Let the interviewee tell a story. It’s a conversation, not an interrogation.

5. Provide Value to your listeners

This is kind of a no-brainer. The clear goal behind interviewing a blogger should be to draw out valuable advice that your listeners can put to use right away. I try to make sure that every blogger I talk to offers at least one tip that I haven’t heard of before that listeners can implement right away.

6. Everybody has value to add

Regardless of whether they are big or small, people can offer a valuable perspective on things. Just because somebody has only been around for a short time, don’t discount what they have to say. It’s also really useful to interview bloggers completely out your topic area. The other day I interviewed a parenting blogger. As a single 30-something male, I don’t spend any time reading mom blogs, but I still learned some very useful things from talking to a parenting blogger.

7. Research the person you are interviewing

Spend a little bit of time learning about the person you are interviewing before you do the interview. This way if you ever do hit a point in the interview where you lose your flow, you’ll have a list of things to go back to and ask about. Some things you could ask about include:

• the most recent post they wrote
• a product they just released
• something about their personal life

8. Maintain/Nurture Relationships

Once you have interviewed a blogger, you have formed a relationship. But just remember that it doesn’t end after the interview. It’s important to maintain and nurture that relationship. If it hadn’t been for the relationships I maintained with everybody I’ve interviewed, I would not have had nearly as much support in getting the word out about the ebook that went along with a new site launch. Some ways to maintain/nurture relationship include:

• Follow the interviewee on Twitter
• Comment on their blog posts
• Add them on Facebook or Linkedin

I’m a big believer in the power of interviews. I think it’s really a tremendously valuable way to improve your knowledge and provide great value to your readers. Don’t underestimate the value you can gain from both listening to and conducting interviews with bloggers.

The post 8 Tips for Conducting Effective Interviews with Bloggers appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

This is a guest post by Ali Luke. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

Yes, you did read that title correctly.

You need to stop learning about blogging.

Sure, there’s a wealth of great advice to be found — here on Daily Blog Tips, and on several other top blogging sites.

Sure, blogging is a huge and sometimes crazy world, where you need to know about writing, marketing, technology, design…

But you could spend years learning everything there is to know — and you still wouldn’t make any progress.

At some point, you need to stop learning and start doing.

How to Get Moving

You might feel overwhelmed right now. You’ve probably been soaking up as much advice as you can — but when you do write a blog post, you’re woefully aware that it’s not as great as it could be.

The problem is, there’s so much to learn, you don’t know where to begin.

So start small. Don’t try to write the perfect blog post — because there’s no such thing.

I know you’re busy, but you can find an hour, today or tomorrow, to put together a single post.

Here’s how to make it great:

• Write a strong introduction. You might say something surprising, like I did in this post. You might ask a question which will compel the reader to continue.
• Write about a single topic. Keep the focus on the reader, using “you” and “your”. Teach the reader how to do something, or give them some ideas.
• Finish with one call to action. Ask your reader to subscribe to your blog or newsletter, or to follow you on Twitter, or to leave a comment. It’s up to you which to ask for — but don’t give them too many options or they won’t do anything.
• Craft a great headline. (Words like “Tips”, “Secrets”, “How To” and “You” all work well here. And numbers are always going to be popular.) If you get stuck, take a look at any headline on Copyblogger for inspiration — or pick up a magazine.

Yes, there’s a lot more you could do. But really, who’s going to come out top — the blogger who reads dozens of posts every day (but only writes one post a month) or the blogger who puts great advice into practice and writes three posts a week?

You’ve read enough.

Now it’s time for you to go and do something which will really take your blogging forwards.

About the Author: Ali Luke has just released a free mini-ebook, “Ten Powerful Ways to Make Your Blog Posts Stronger”. It’s a short, fast read packed with great advice, clear examples and — most importantly — quick, high-impact exercises which will let you strengthen your existing blog posts in just a few minutes. Just click here to get your free copy.

The post Why You Need to Stop Learning About Blogging appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

This post is part of the Blog Writing Project Tutorials. There are $300 in cash prizes, so make sure to participate if you have not done so yet!

Despite what some people might think, the Internet is no big book. This means one thing: if you write in large, monotonous blocks of text, people will just ignore you and your message.

Internet users are natural multi-taskers. It is very likely that they will browse your site while editing a document in Word, chatting with some friends via instant messaging software and so on. As a result, they need to be able to filter and scan specific information on your site easily; else they will just go somewhere else.

Whether you are a blogger, Internet marketer or copywriter, therefore, making your content scannable is essential. Below you will find six steps to accomplish that.

1. Use an appropriate line length

If your visitors need to move their eyes and neck to follow the words across your lines, they are probably too long. There are many studies on this topic, and most of them confirm that an ideal line should have between 400 and 600 pixels. You are aiming for 12-16 words per line, so it also depends on the font and spacing used.

2. Break the text into many paragraphs

A friend of mine once said, “when you try to process an unbroken block of text, it’s like trying to eat a whole apple pie in one gulp.” Use paragraphs abundantly if you are writing for an online audience. Apart from improving the flow of the text, it will also add some pleasant white space around your copy.

3. Use headers and subheaders

Headers and sub-headers can greatly improve the user experience. It will help the readers to get an idea of what the content is about before they actually read it, and it will also enable the reader to move back and forth between your ideas easily.

4. Lists and bullet points, please!

You can’t go wrong with breaking down your content into ordered lists and bullet points. Readers will understand your message much more clearly if it’s separated into single elements. Secondly, lists also make very catchy headlines, since people will know exactly what they can expect from the content.

5. Use bold and italics typefaces

Proper usage of the bold and italics typefaces can greatly improve the clarity of your content. Use the bold attribute on words that need to be highlighted or that are delivering important messages. Italicize the title of books, publications, movies and so on.

6. Images are your friends

Apart from grabbing the attention from the readers, images can also help you to structure your content more efficiently. You can use them to divide different segments of the text, or to complement specific parts and elements.

The post How to Write Scannable Content: A 6-Step Approach appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

If you are not familiar with the term, whois privacy is a service offered by most domain name registrars that protects your information as a domain registrant from people performing a “whois” on your domains.

Here is a screenshot of a domain using that service (it is actually one of my domains, and I am about to remove the privacy from it):

And here is one of a domain without the whois privacy:

As you can see the one with whois privacy does not reveal the information about the registrant. Instead it displays the name and contact information of DomainsByProxy, which is one of the companies offering these privacy services (you also have WhoisGuard, WhoisProtect and so on).

Until some years ago many people would recommend you to use a whois privacy service. It would protect your contact information, after all, and given the privacy issues on the web this could only be a good thing.

Well, I believe this advice is no longer valid. If you are planning to make money with your blogs or websites, or if you want to build an online business, you should not use a whois privacy service on your domains. Why? Because these days using such a service will actually reduce your credibility.

Spammers and scammers use whois privacy on all their domains, but they have a reason to do so. If you are building a legitimate website or business, why would you want or need to hide your contact information?

And I have heard many stories from experts on different segments that back up this theory. For instance, last week I heard an email marketer saying that whois privacy on the domain that is sending newsletter emails is a bad sign, and it is one of the factors that spam control organizations take into consideration.

Another day I read an article about safe online shopping, and one of the points used to verify the credibility of an online store was to check the whois information for the domain. If it was protected, the article stated, you should get suspicious. So on and so forth.

If you are creating a website as a hobby and prefer to keep your contact information private, then using a whois privacy service is fine. If you are building an online business, however, I would not recommend trying to hide your contact information.

Finally, if your reasoning for using the privacy protection is the fear of getting spam on that email address, well, the solution is as simple as creating a unique address to be used just for domain registrations (and if you are worried about your security register a business name and make it the owner of your domains).

The post Time to Stop Using Whois Privacy? appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

I strongly believe that behind every successful person there is a huge amount of hard work, and that is why I am always interested in learning how long and how hard other entrepreneurs work (maybe to confirm that I am not the only one crazy out there….).

Thinking about this issue I decided to run a group interview, asking some of the most successful people I know how hard they work. Below you’ll find an introduction with the interviewees, and then straight to the questions.

Darren Rowse: The original Problogger, Darren has created a web publishing empire over the past few years, and has been included in the “Top 25 Web Celebrities” list by Forbes in 2007.

Rand Fishkin: Rand is the CEO and co-founder of SEOMoz, a leader in the field of search engine optimization. In 2009 he was named among the “30 Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs Under 30” by BusinessWeek.

Aaron Wall: One of the most respected SEOs around the world, Aaron is the founder of SEO Book, a leading SEO resource and training program.

Neil Patel: By the age of 21 Neil had already co-founded three Internet companies. He blogs at Quicksprout, where he also offers a course for aspiring web entrepreneurs, called Quicksprout PRO.

Chris Pearson: One of the most talented web designers around, Chris is the creator of the hugely popular Thesis Theme for WordPress, which is used by over 20,000 webmasters.

Shawn Collins: Shawn is an authority inside the affiliate marketing industry, and he is also co-founder of the Affiliate Summit, the most successful affiliate conference around.

Yaro Starak: Yaro is a very successful online entrepreneur from Australia. Combining all his ventures he makes a 7-figure income yearly. You’ll find his blog at Entrepreneurs-Journey.com.

Dan Schawbel: Dan is the leading expert in personal branding around the world. He founded the Personal Branding Blog, and his articles are syndicated by Reuters, Forbes and Fox Business.

Jonathan Volk: A super affiliate who generates millions in sales promoting affiliate offers every year. At JonathanVolk.com you’ll find his tips on affiliate marketing, making money online, advertising and so on.

Chris Garrett: Chris is a successful blogging and Internet marketing consultant. He blogs at Chrisg.com, and he is also the co-author of the Problogger book, an Amazon best-seller.

Collis Ta’eed: Collis is the founder of Envato, one of the largest blog networks on the Internet. Combined his blogs generate over 20 million page views per month.

Trent Hamm: Trent is the owner of The Simple Dollar. With over 80,000 RSS subscribers, the blog is a must read for anyone interested in personal finance.

1. How many days do you work per week week?

Darren Rowse: 7 – but on the weekends its for only an hour or two.

Rand Fishkin: 5 full days plus mornings and nights on the weekend.

Aaron Wall: 6.5 to 7… mostly 7.

Neil Patel: I work 7 days a week.

Chris Pearson: Some weeks every day, and other weeks only a couple of days.

Shawn Collins: 7, but lighter on the weekend.

Yaro Stark: 7 days per week.

Jonathan Volk: 6 days, plus a couple of hours on Sunday.

Dan Schawbel: 7 days per week.

Chris Garrett: 7 days per week.

Collis Ta’eed: 5, but often times I work on weekends as well.

Trent Hamm: I work at least a little every day of the week, so 7.

2. How many hours do you work, in total, every week?

Darren Rowse: From 60 to 65.

Rand Fishkin: Between 65 and 70, but some weeks as low as 55.

Aaron Wall: 90+ hours typically, and often 100.

Neil Patel: I work anywhere from 60 to 80 hours a week.

Chris Pearson: I’ve definitely pulled my share of 80+ hour weeks, but to balance things out, I’ve also pulled my share of 20 hour weeks, too. As an average, I probably work 30—50 hours per week.

Shawn Collins: Around 60 hours per week.

Yaro Stark: In terms of productive output I probably do about 10-20 hours
a week, but there’s plenty more time spent in front of the computer.

Jonathan Volk: Around 60 hours per week.

Dan Schawbel: I work approximately 110 hours per week depending if I’m traveling or not.

Chris Garrett: As many as it takes. So up to 90 hours on some weeks, and only 50 on others.

Collis Ta’eed: 40 to 60 hours usually.

Trent Hamm: 40 to 45 hours.

3. Do you have a fixed work routine? Hoes does it look like?

Darren Rowse: Most mornings I usually spend a couple of hours in a local cafe working. This is often writing time. Mid morning to lunch time usually has more of an admin/networking function. Afternoons are often more about email, commenting in forums, networking. Evenings are about finalizing posts for the next day, writing newsletters etc.

Rand Fishkin: Not at all fixed – very inconsistent based on travel, meetings, phone calls, engagements, etc.

Aaron Wall: Not really…I try to do something until I feel I am getting tired of it or losing efficiency (or am done with it), and then I will either take a break or do another task.

Neil Patel: I don’t have a fix routine. Most of my days are spent meeting with other entrepreneurs and answering emails.

Chris Pearson: Generally speaking, I like to knock out “near zero sum” tasks like email, Twitter DM responses, and accounting first thing in the morning. In theory, this leaves me with the rest of the day to focus my attention on problems that I actually care about.

Shawn Collins: I do on the weekdays – I help get my kids off to school (4 kids in 3 schools) and then get to my desk around 8:30 am. I work through 6:00 pm and then stop to hang out with the family and have dinner. After the kids go to sleep, I work another hour or so – sometimes I work more after my wife goes to sleep.

Yaro Stark: Not fixed no, but loosely made up of some work on the computer when I wake up, usually around 9-10am and I do most of my solid writing at cafes, so about 2-3 hours every second or third day during the afternoons or evenings.

Jonathan Volk: Normally I work on routine stuff in the morning such as responding to emails, updating stats, checking profits, etc. By the time I am done with this, I normally break for lunch. After lunch I begin working on developing new projects and marketing campaigns.

Dan Schawbel: I don’t have a fixed work routine at all. I make a top ten list of things I need to get done each week and then commit to it.

Chris Garrett: No, one of the reasons I went to work for myself was to have freedom. There are things that I do to be productive, and stuff I have to do every day, but I do not have a fixed routine.

Collis Ta’eed: I certainly do, every day I begin by traversing my email in an attempt to keep my inbox down to zero (something I’ve only ever achieved twice!) Then I usually update my to-do list and check my calendar. And then of course it’s “real” work time!

Trent Hamm: On weekdays, I have a fixed routine. I usually block out several
hour-long chunks throughout the day for various tasks, blocking out
all interruptions.

4. How many times per year do you take vacations, and how long are they?

Darren Rowse: We try to do a combination of different types of vacations as a family. We would typically have 3-4 weekends away (often we’d do it over 3-4 days) each year. We usually would also take a week over our summer or autumn and 10-14 days in our Spring. I also tend to travel to the US for conferences twice a year (two weeks) which isn’t a vacation but it’s a break from the normal routine.

Rand Fishkin: When I travel for work to interesting locations, I’ll often spend the weekend or an extra day there with my wife when possible, but I haven’t had a serious, true vacation since my wedding in September 2008.

Aaron Wall: Roughly 0 🙂 . Need to work on that, and we will hire some folks soon to help out on that front.

Neil Patel: I don’t take vacations.

Chris Pearson: I prefer short trips to big vacations. My favorites are 3—4 day jaunts where I can either relax in an epic setting or else conquer something physically–like snowboarding, scuba diving, hiking, or launching myself off a rope swing into a freshwater lake!

Shawn Collins: I take long weekends here and there, but always bring my computer. I think the last time I took a week-long vacation was in 2002, and I was on my computer during that week. I can’t relax if I’m not caught up.

Yaro Stark: I don’t really have vacations. If I travel, I do my writing and other work wherever I am. There really is no solid line between holidays and work time for me, it’s all the same.

Jonathan Volk: I take a few vacations per year usually. I go to help out at my church’s youth camp each year for a week. I also am trying to take 2 vacations per year with my wife.

Dan Schawbel: Everyday is vacation when you’re doing what you love 😉

Chris Garrett: We try to get away somewhere as much as possible, even if it is just a short trip to the mainland. I work hard and can not always get as much family time as I would like, so it’s important for us.

Collis Ta’eed: I like to vary it up, sometimes a few little ones and sometimes one big vacation. My favorite type of vacation is to go away for a week to somewhere very peaceful in the countryside and then write lots.

Trent Hamm: 4 or so times a year, usually for a week at a time.

5. How many hours per day do you spend on email?

Darren Rowse: 1-2 – although it’s a bit scattered through the day into 15 minute blocks.

Rand Fishkin: 3-4, sometimes more. I do lots of “work” inside email that’s not what I’d consider just classic communication (product/project reviews, scope documents, etc).

Aaron Wall: Roughly 1.5 to 2 hours. Need to work on that, and we will hire some folks soon to help out on that front.

Neil Patel: I spend at least 2 hours a day on email.

Chris Pearson: I spend about 20 minutes a day on email, and 0 minutes if I’m lucky.

Shawn Collins: No way to really calculate it – I check email every waking hour and constantly clear it out as much as I can.

Yaro Stark: I review my email and respond to really urgent things for about an hour a day, then every two weeks or so I’ll do a proper batch process and clear the inbox entirely.

Jonathan Volk: 2-3 hours per day. I spend the most amount of time on email in the morning and then leave outlook open during the entire work day. I get a lot of proposals, joint venture requests, and questions from people who have subscribed to my affiliate marketing guide and I like to try to at least reply to everyone.

Dan Schawbel: 2 hours

Chris Garrett: I am trying to kick the habit, but at worst I could be checking email all day and right into the night. Not healthy!

Collis Ta’eed: I spend the majority of my time with email open, though sometimes I’m doing the task that the email is about (like filling in this interview!) So I would say about 5 hours a day.

Trent Hamm: 1 to 2 hours per day.

6. When you are not working, what are you doing?

Darren Rowse: Sleeping, being a dad, reading novels, playing with my cameras, watching sport (either going live to the football or TV).

Rand Fishkin: I like cooking, having friends over for dinner, traveling (www.everywhereist.com) and sight-seeing and meeting other entrepreneurs and search folks around the world 🙂 .

Aaron Wall: I like hanging out with my wonderful wife and our shih tzu. And video games are fun, as is reading books.

Neil Patel: I am having fun with friends when I am not working.

Chris Pearson: Over the last few years, I’ve established a pattern of learning and exploring new things when I’m not working. These range from cycling to reading books about neuroscience and economics. That is, when I’m not playing Modern Warfare 2 or Rock Band on my XBOX 360 🙂 .

Shawn Collins: Hanging out with my family and friends, exercising, going to baseball games.

Yaro Stark: I like sport – like tennis and skating. I also socialize and eat out with friends a lot. We head to the beach sometimes, see movies, travel locally around Australia, attend events in my industry, the usual.

Jonathan Volk: I enjoying hanging out with friends, playing wii or PS3 with my wife (She is awesome at modern warfare 2 haha), going to church, drumming, and finally flying my RC airplanes and helicopters.

Dan Schawbel: Going out and enjoying the nightlife here in Boston, MA.

Chris Garrett: Like many bloggers I read a *lot*, and there are a few TV programs I really enjoy, but really when I am not working it’s all family time. We like to eat out, go shopping, take the dog on long walks, and take snaps with my camera (we live quite near Sherwood Forest of Robin Hood fame, which is one of our favorite walks).

Collis Ta’eed: It’s embarrassing to say, but I’m usually thinking about work 🙂 Although I do really love movies as well as I can switch off when I’m watching a good movie. My current favorite is the movie “Kick-Ass” which really lived up to its name!

Trent Hamm: Mostly spending time with my family – a wife, a four year old son, a two year old daughter, and a newborn son.

The post Interview: 12 Top Online Entrepreneurs Share How Hard They Work appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Yesterday we had a guest post talking about the importance of having a low bounce rate. In the past I had also written about this topic, with the posts What Is Bounce Rate? and What Is High, Normal And Low Bounce Rates?.

Apart from talking about the definition and explaining how one can lower his bounce rate, though, I figured it would be interesting to actually compare your own bounce rate to that of other bloggers, so that you can analyze their sites and understand what you/them might be doing right and wrong.

That is the purpose of this post. I invite you all to write a comment below sharing your own bounce rate. Feel free to explain why it’s high/low, and what strategies you used to lower it in the past.

Depending on the amount/type of answers I might compile the best ones into a post, with practical tips for those who want to lower their own bounce rates.

The post Ask The Reader: What Is Your Bounce Rate? appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

It is time to cover another niche on our Top 25 series – this time I cover top celebrity blogs. Celebrity blogs are among the most popular on the Internet. People just love gossip. As a result, they tend to receive a lot of traffic, and to be very profitable. Mainly because these blogs are full of scandalous romances, latest scoops, rumors, exclusive insights and all the juicy details that make the lives of stars so intriguing to many.

If you’re wondering, “How much do these blogs actually make?” Well, it’s a bit tricky to get exact numbers because, let’s face it, who wants to reveal their earnings to the world? But, according to some folks at Digiday, popular celeb gossip sites can rake in a whopping $10,000 to $500,000 per month just from ads! Of course, this depends on a bunch of stuff like how many people visit the site, how engaged the readers are, and how well the ads are doing.

Business Insider also did some digging and found out that celebrity blogs with a big fan base and lots of engagement can pull in yearly revenues from $1 million to $10 million. This cash flow comes from a mix of ad partnerships, sponsored content, and affiliate marketing. TMZ, the big daddy of celeb blogs. The New York Times did a feature on them and revealed that TMZ pulls in an estimated $15 million to $20 million a year from their online platform. This includes money from ads, syndication deals, and exclusive content partnerships.

Here is a list of the top 25 as of 2024.

1. TMZ: TMZ is one of the most popular celebrity gossip sites with an estimated 30 million visits per month. It’s known for breaking celebrity news and has a wide range of content, including videos and exclusive interviews. TMZ updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It has a reputation for accuracy and often breaks news stories before other outlets.
2. Perez Hilton: Perez Hilton receives around 2.5 million visits per month. The site covers celebrity news and gossip, and is known for its unique and often humorous commentary. Perez Hilton updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It has a reputation for its unique take on celebrity news, though it has been involved in controversies in the past.
3. E! Online: E! Online is a well-known entertainment news site with about 26 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and TV shows. E! Online updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its reliable information and wide range of entertainment news.
4. People: People is a popular celebrity news and lifestyle magazine with an online presence that gets around 60 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, human-interest stories, and lifestyle content. People updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its reliable information and human-interest stories.
5. Vanity Fair: Vanity Fair is a popular culture, fashion, and politics magazine with an online presence that gets around 11 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and politics. Vanity Fair updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its in-depth articles and high-quality journalism.
6. BuzzFeed Celeb: BuzzFeed Celeb is a section of BuzzFeed that focuses on celebrity news and gossip. It gets around 160 million visits per month. BuzzFeed Celeb updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its fun and often humorous take on celebrity news.
7. Hollywood Life: Hollywood Life is a celebrity news and lifestyle site that gets around 7 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and beauty. Hollywood Life updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its wide range of lifestyle content in addition to celebrity news.
8. Us Weekly: Us Weekly is a popular celebrity news magazine with an online presence that gets around 20 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. Us Weekly updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its reliable information and wide range of celebrity news.
9. Just Jared: Just Jared is a popular celebrity news and gossip site that gets around 2 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. Just Jared updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its exclusive celebrity photos.
10. The Shade Room: The Shade Room is a celebrity news and gossip site that gets around 16 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. The Shade Room updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its focus on African American celebrities.
11. Page Six: Page Six is a celebrity news and gossip site that gets around 11 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. Page Six updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its focus on New York City celebrities.
12. PopSugar: PopSugar is a popular lifestyle and entertainment site that gets around 13 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. PopSugar updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its wide range of lifestyle content in addition to celebrity news.
13. Radar Online: Radar Online is a celebrity news and gossip site that gets around 7 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, scandals, and exclusives. Radar Online updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its exclusive celebrity news stories.
14. Celebuzz: Celebuzz is a celebrity news and gossip site that gets around 1 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. Celebuzz updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its wide range of celebrity news content.
15. Dlisted: Dlisted is a celebrity news and gossip site that gets around 1 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, scandals, and humor. Dlisted updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its humorous and often sarcastic take on celebrity news.
16. Jezebel: Jezebel is a popular culture and lifestyle site that gets around 8 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. Jezebel updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its feminist perspective on popular culture.
17. The Hollywood Gossip: The Hollywood Gossip is a celebrity news and gossip site that gets around 2 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, scandals, and exclusives. The Hollywood Gossip updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its exclusive celebrity news stories.
18. Celebrity Insider: Celebrity Insider is a celebrity news and gossip site that gets around 1 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. Celebrity Insider updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its wide range of celebrity news content.
19. The Blast: The Blast is a celebrity news and gossip site that gets around 2 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, scandals, and exclusives. The Blast updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its exclusive celebrity news stories.
20. Cele|bitchy: Cele|bitchy is a celebrity news and gossip site that gets around 2 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. Cele|bitchy updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its humorous and often sarcastic take on celebrity news.
21. Lainey Gossip: Lainey Gossip is a celebrity news and gossip site that gets around 1 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. Lainey Gossip updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its in-depth analysis of celebrity news.
22. Gossip Cop: Gossip Cop is a celebrity news and gossip site that gets around 1 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, scandals, and exclusives. Gossip Cop updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its fact-checking of celebrity news stories.
23. OK! Magazine: OK! Magazine is a popular celebrity news magazine with an online presence that gets around 3 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. OK! Magazine updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its wide range of celebrity news content.
24. Life & Style: Life & Style is a popular celebrity news and lifestyle magazine with an online presence that gets around 3 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. Life & Style updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its lifestyle content in addition to celebrity news.
25. In Touch Weekly: In Touch Weekly is a popular celebrity news magazine with an online presence that gets around 3 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. In Touch Weekly updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its wide range of celebrity news content.

Other Notable Celebrities / Blogs

• Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle blog Goop, is a one-stop-shop for everything from health and wellness tips to fashion advice. With its sleek design and high-quality content, it’s no wonder Goop has become a go-to source for lifestyle inspiration.
• Reese Witherspoon’s Draper James Blog – Her blog is a celebration of Southern charm and style. From delicious recipes to style tips, this blog is a must-follow for anyone who loves all things Southern.
• Miley Cyrus actually uses YouTube
• Katy Perry – has a blog page she uses to communicate with her fans
• Vanessa Hudgens has a personal blog that’s quite fun to read
• Zooey Deschanel blogs a lot about positivity and shares a whole bunch of cute stuff
• Beyoncé Beyonce loves to share photos & videos on her personal site
• Kourtney Kardashian likes to blog and share tips to her mom followers on her blog.
• Lady Gaga likes to share her latest news on her blog
• Nicole Richie shares personal photos, videos and tips on her blog part of her website.
• JAY-Z likes to curate a lifestyle blog
• Lauren Conrad talks about fashion tips and loves to give design advice on her website
• Hayley Williams kept her fans up to date on Paramore’s blog to. Now she’s most active on Instagram
• Aziz Ansari is hilarious in his writing and updates his fans frequently on his site
• Joseph Gordon is also a Tumblr user. He shares many creative projects he worked on
• Whitney Port loves about fashion gives style tips on her site as well
• Pete Wentz, share his thoughts and tips on his blog
• Billy Corgan shares the latest news about the Smashing Pumpkins and his other projects on the blog
• Matthew Gray Gubler has a famous blog at matthewgraygubler.com
• Wil Wheaton from star trek became yet another internet sensation

FAQs

What is a celebrity blog?

A celebrity blog is a website or online platform that focuses on providing news, updates, gossip, and insights about celebrities. It typically covers the latest happenings, events, rumors, and scandals related to famous individuals in the entertainment industry.

Are all celebrity blogs trustworthy / reliable?

The reliability of celebrity blogs can vary significantly. While some blogs strive to provide accurate information and fact-check their content, others may prioritize sensationalism and rely on unverified sources. It’s important to critically evaluate the credibility of the blog, consider multiple sources, and be cautious of potentially misleading or false information.

Are celebrity blogs ethical?

Ethics in celebrity blogging can be subjective and dependent on individual perspectives. Some blogs prioritize respecting celebrities’ privacy, providing accurate information, and avoiding harmful content. However, others may engage in invasive practices, paparazzi stalking, or publishing unverified rumors. It’s essential for bloggers to maintain a balance between entertainment value and responsible journalism.

Are celebrity blogs legal?

In general, celebrity blogs are legal as long as they adhere to the laws and regulations governing content creation and publication. However, blogs that engage in defamatory, malicious, or invasive practices may face legal consequences. It’s crucial for bloggers to respect privacy rights and avoid spreading false information that can harm someone’s reputation.

Can I interact with celebrities on their blogs?

Yes for some, many celebrity blogs allow for comments or have social media links where you can interact. However, remember to always be respectful and considerate in your interactions.

How do celebrity blogs gather their information?

Celebrity blogs obtain information from various sources, including news agencies, interviews, press releases, paparazzi photographs, social media posts, and insider tips. Some bloggers may have connections within the industry or rely on anonymous sources, which can impact the accuracy and reliability of the information presented.

Original Comparison from 2011

Google Pagerank (0 to 10): the actual Pagerank was used on the algorithm.

Alexa Rank (0 to 10): Ranges were determined based on the Alexa Rank (i.e., 150k and up, 150k-100k, 100k-75k, 75k-50k) and each range was assigned a number (1 to 10). To get an idea of Alexa Rank, now in 2016 celebrity trivia website Taddlr reportedly averages 1 million monthly visitors with an 80k Alexa Rank.

Bloglines Subscribers (0 to 10): Subscriber ranges were determined (i.e., 1-50, 50-100, 100-150, 150-200) and each range was assigned a number (1 to 10).

Technorati Authority (0 to 10): Ranges were determined based on Technorati’s Authority rank (i.e., 1-100, 100-200, 200-400,400-600) and each range was assigned a number (1 to 10).

#1	Perez Hilton	7	10	10	10	37
#2	TMZ	8	10	8	10	36
#3	ValleyWag	7	8	10	10	35
#4	The Superficial	7	9	9	9	34
#5	Defamer	7	7	9	8	31
#6	Gawker	7	9	5	10	31
#7	WWTDD	6	9	8	7	30
#8	Egotastic	6	10	7	7	30
#9	Jezebel	7	7	7	9	30
#10	Go Fug Yourself	7	7	10	6	30
#11	Pink is the new blog	7	6	9	7	29
#12	Celebrity Babies	4	7	10	8	29
#13	PopSugar	7	8	5	8	28
#14	Dlisted	6	9	4	9	28
#15	I am Not Obsessed	6	7	4	7	24
#16	Celebitchy	5	8	5	7	23
#27	CityRag	6	7	4	5	22
#18	Jossip	4	5	7	6	22
#19	PopCrunch	4	8	2	7	21
#20	HollyScoop	6	6	2	7	21
#21	Dotspotter	7	7	1	5	20
#22	Celebrity Gossip	5	7	1	7	20
#23	Hollywood Rag	6	6	1	6	19
#24	The Bosh	6	6	3	4	19
#25	Splash News	6	5	1	6	18

The post Top 25 Celebrity Blogs – Rank, Revenue & Traffic Stats for 2024 appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Should we create a bloggers union? This idea was floating on my head, so I decided to share with everyone.

Sometime ago there were already rumors on the Internet that some bloggers on the U.S. wanted to create such a union. Their purpose, however, was completely different from what I have in mind.

Basically they wanted to unionize the blogger profession, just like you have the dentists or writers union. Their main concern was health care and similar issues.

Now while this could be a good idea, I think that we need something more practical on the Web. That is, a union focused on helping and protecting bloggers with several problems, including:

1. Copyright infringement and content scraping
2. Online scams
3. Legal threats from companies and third parties

The union would be able to provide help for bloggers with similar problems in different ways. First of all it could have a fund, based on donations of members and other volunteers, to help bloggers facing legal issues.

Secondly, it would also provide advice on those issues. Ideally we would have some attorneys aboard, counseling the members on what action to take on the different situations,

Finally, the members itself could help each other to solve potential problems by blogging about them. Suppose one day the union grows to 2,000 members. If one of the members gets scammed by an online company, he would forward the problem to the union, and upon verification that the problem is real, we could ask all the 2,000 members to write a post outing that company.

I am not sure about you, but if I were an online company, I would think twice before messing around with such large group of bloggers. Combined we could reach millions of people on a matter of days, and probably hurt the reputation of some small businesses for good.

Obviously all matters would need to be taken seriously and not lightly. Each problem would need to be evaluated by a board before actions were to be taken.

Still I think it could work. Right now small bloggers are just too isolated to be able to fight for their rights. You see pretty every day a case where someone is getting scammed, someone else is getting threatened by a company just because he expressed his opinions and so on.

Should we get together, I am sure people would think twice before messing up.

What do you think about the idea? Would you be interested in joining? Any suggestions on how it could work?

I have created a private mailing list on Google to discuss the idea (the mailing itself come evolve to become the union). If you want to join just use the contact form and let me know in what email I should send you an invite.

Update: The union would work for all bloggers, regardless of their location or in what language they blog.

Update 2: Looks like many people are misunderstanding my idea. When I used the word “union” it was not on the strict sense of the term. This has nothing to do with getting people to pay money or anything like traditional unions. Perhaps it is more a kind of association or simply a group.

The post The Bloggers Union (or Association) appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

I must admit that I tend to forget some of these myself, so hopefully this post will also serve as a checklist to go through once in a while. What about you, do you forget them?

1. 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. If it is a guest article or a linkbait piece, proofread it one more time. Check out the article 8 Proofreading Tips And Techniques for tips on this topic.

2. Backup. Over the past year I had around five friends coming to me on MSN and asking: “Hey Daniel, 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. Backup regularly if you do it manually. The best option, however, would be to get a script or your hosting provider to do automatic daily backups. Read Backup Your Blog Regularly to find more instructions on how to backup a WordPress blog.

3. Link to older posts. Linking to older posts can increase your traffic and search engine rankings. Additionally, it can also give more information for the readers that want to go deeper into certain subjects. If you have been blogging for months already you probably have a vast and rich archive, so use it. Read more about this on 10 Easy Ways to Improve Internal Linking on Your Blog.

4. Answer to comments. When you started blogging I am pretty sure that you got excited with the first few comments that arrived. You would even take the time to answer to each of them individually. That approach helps to create loyal readers and to build a community around them. Even if your blog is much more popular now, do not neglect the comments. At the very minimum you want to answer the people that post direct questions to you.

5. Answer to emails. Depending on the size of your audience it might become cumbersome to answer to all emails, but you should try nonetheless. Create a standard letter to common questions that you get asked. Answer to them in batches. Do whatever it takes, but try to be responsive to people that want to interact with you. It might be the difference between an upset visitor and a faithful reader. If you have a hard time dealing with your email, check these 10 tips to manage it more efficiently.

6. Approve comments. If you use comment moderation (and you should unless you get very low volumes of spam) you should approve pending comments on a regular basis. There is nothing worse than taking the time to leave a meaningful comment on a blog and not being able to see it published within a couple of hours. Not to mention when your comment doesn’t get published at all.

7. Check the spam folder. This point is valid both for your blog comments and for your emails. Some legitimate comments and emails might slip to the spam folder. This is not your fault, but it is not fault of the sender either, so check these folders once in a while to make sure people are not getting ignored.

8. Upgrade WordPress. Common sense, yet many bloggers are reluctant to upgrade their WordPress software. Some people deliberately choose to use older versions. That could be possible if you know what you are doing (i.e. if you know to patch the security holes). If that is not your case, though, just stick with the latest version. Here is a guide to update WordPress.

9. Update WordPress plugins. Not all plugins are compatible with all WordPress versions. Some require special functions or features that are found only on a particular version, and they might end up messing up your blog. Some of them also come with bugs and security problems, which get fixed by the author on consecutive versions.

10. 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. Sometimes who you know is more important than what you know. Keep that in mind and try to network with people as often as possible. As a blogger you have numerous way to do it.

Is there anything else that we tend to forget but shouldn’t?

The post 10 Things That Bloggers Tend to Forget, But Shouldn’t! appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

In a recent interview, Steven Spielberg, the famous Hollywood film director of hit films, Jaws, E.T. and The Color Purple, admitted to a strange habit. He said he liked to seek out distractions while working on a film.

“I’m more lucid about my own work if I have got something to distract me” said Spielberg of his peculiar practice. “I can be making a movie and then I can go off that movie for a half an hour while they are lighting the set and I can be looking at the script and making changes with the writer on my next movie.”

To most people Spielberg’s appetite for distractions is a little puzzling. To them it sounds counter intuitive at best and downright destructive at worst. After all, why would somebody purposely seek out interruptions while working on a project?

Spielberg’s Subjectivity Problem

The answer comes down to what Spielberg calls the subjectivity problem. When you are working on a piece – be it an article, a music track or a film scene – you get too involved and lost in your work. You lose perspective of how a first time viewer would see the work. In Spielberg’s words, you lose your objectivity, which he defines as “losing sight of what you are doing and not being able to see it from the 15th row back, where the audience lives.”

The only remedy for this problem is time away from the work at hand. You have to take a step back from that piece in order to gain a fresh perspective. But spending time away from work is counterproductive as it wastes time. It slows down the rate at which you can create content.

This is where the Spielberg method comes into play. Rather than working on one project at a time, he works on multiple projects. That way the time away from one film is time spent on another. That is, the down time of one project becomes the up time of another project — allowing Spielberg to complete more projects in less time without sacrificing quality.

How to Turn Downtime into Work time

If you want to write more quality blog posts in less time, then consider the Spielberg method. Rather than working on one post and seeing it through till the end, work on multiple posts at a time.

When you start feeling stale and lost in one, switch to the next and work on that. Similarly, when you have run out of ideas or lost your train of thought on the second post, jump to the next one or go back to your first post and continue working.

Like Spielberg, you too will find that you return to your blog posts with greater clarity and direction than when you left them.

The post The Steven Spielberg Method: How to Write More Blog Posts In Less Time appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

You’re trying to get your blog off the ground. You write diligently, you keep publishing new posts, you check your stats obsessively — but you’re just not seeing the success that you expected.

I’m pretty sure that you’re doing a lot of things right. You’re showing up, you’re working hard, you’re reading about blogging and trying your best to use what you learn.

It’s hard, though, to remember everything. It’s hard to always get it right. Today, I’m going to go through a few all-too-common mistakes that bloggers make when posting. None of these are hard to fix. But, for your readers, they can be deal-breakers.

Are you making any of these mistakes?

Mistake #1: Writing Posts With No Point

If you’re blogging seriously —aiming to make money, to promote your business, and/or to gain a readership — then every post you write needs to have a point.

Too often, I see blog posts that aren’t going anywhere. They’re like journal entries: this is what happened to me today or this is what I’m thinking about. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that — if you want your blog to be a personal journal. If you’re hoping to reach a wider audience, though, your posts need to have a point.

That means that each post should:

• Have a clear topic, reflected in a compelling title
• Deliver something valuable to the reader — whether that’s entertainment or information

Mistake #2: Posting Inconsistently

A lot of bloggers start out posting daily — and then end up letting weeks go by without a post.

You don’t have to post every single day. Yes, many large blogs do (it’s Daily Blog Tips for a reason…) but when you’re getting started, you can post once a week or even once every two weeks.

What’s important is that you post consistently. Figure out a comfortable writing routine that works for you: maybe two posts each week. Ideally, you want to give yourself a bit of slack, so that you can get ahead and “bank” posts for busier times.

Mistake #3: Forgetting to Proof-Read

When you’re rushing to get a post out — or when you’re getting really into your writing — it’s easy to go so fast that you hit the wrong key, or accidentally type the wrong word.

Your readers won’t expect your posts to be flawless — but they will be put off by constant typos and spelling mistakes. If your posts look sloppy and slap-dash, this reflects badly on your content: you might be an expert in your subject, but readers won’t have much confidence in your words.

After you write a post, take a few minutes to read it through. Even better, swap draft posts with a fellow blogger: it’s often easier to spot other people’s typos than your own.

Mistake #4: Ignoring Formatting

Every so often, I’ll come across a blog that looks like a dull mass of grey text. The blogger might have written a brilliant post — but I probably won’t read it (and the same goes for other readers).

Make your post look attractive, so that readers don’t get put off before they’ve even begun. Use subheadings, bold text, lists, and short paragraphs to improve readability: the more white space, the better.

And if all of that sounds like too much work, at least bump up your font size. This one tiny change can make a huge difference.

Mistake #5: Publishing Without Promoting

Your blog could be full of laugh-out-loud anecdotes and brilliantly-valuable information … but that’s no good if readers never find it.

When you publish a post, don’t just sit back and think that you’ve finished. You need to promote that post — which could mean Tweeting it, mentioning it on Facebook, emailing it to any friends who might be interested (don’t overdo this), asking a few other bloggers to link to it, entering it into a blogging carnival, mentioning it in your guest post bio… and so on.

Are you making any of these five mistakes? Or have you got your blogging sorted? Share your blogging successes — and lessons learned — in the comments below…

If you know your writing skills could do with a brush-up, you’ll want to check out Ali Luke’s ebook The Blogger’s Guide to Effective Writing, described by Colin Beveridge as “full of the tricks the pros use so that bloggers like me can put together posts and series that look halfway competent.” Read all about it here.

The post Are You Making These Five Common Blogging Mistakes? appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

You check your traffic every day but all you find are tumbleweeds blowing across the landscape of your blog. Well, there’s a reason you’re not building readership. Your blog sucks.

Most do, and all for the same reasons. The same 10 reasons.

1. You use syndicated content. You can download badly-written articles on the topic of your website at ezine.com, helium.com, goarticles.com and other places on the web. You can cut and paste these pieces on your blog and all you have to do is provide a link back to the author’s site or blog. You can, but you shouldn’t. Without unique content your blog is nothing.

2. Your blog is boring. There I said it. Write about topics that interest me, your reader, not topics that interest you. I want you to keep me engaged, entertain me and teach me. Otherwise, you’re boring me.

3. Your blog revolves around your person. Stop talking about yourself already. I don’t know you personally, and I couldn’t care less about your ramblings. Tell me something I can use in my own life. Facts, stories, not boring personal stuff.

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. You use clip art. I can spot it a mile away. The model smiling, the perfect family spending the day at the beach, the marathon runner — all license free clip art. And with free clip art, you get what you pay for.

6. I can’t find the post I want to read. So I have to scroll down through pages and pages to find the piece you posted two months ago. First, even the simplest blog platforms allow for categories and search boxes.

7. Your writing totally sucks. Oh, not the writing itself. You’ve got a good writing style. Easy to read. But your posts are loaded with typos, misspellings, lost punctuation and other mistakes that signal you don’t care enough about your readers.

8. You’re spinning articles. You might not be using software to actually spin the articles, but you are writing about the same stuff everyone else inside your niche is. This is not as bad as getting content from article directories, as you are actually using your own words here, but it won’t cut it all the same. Write something interesting or go home.

9. You post once a month. How often you think I’m coming back to see if there’s some new, pithy pearl of wisdom I can glean from your blog? If you can’t update your blog at least a couple of times a week, forget about it.

10. Your blog looks like 12023532989 other blogs. WordPress offers hundreds of templates from which to choose. So, if you choose Minima Brown, your blog will look like all the other writers who build blogs using Minima Brown (or Blue).

Does your blog suck? Well, roll up your sleeves and do something about it. It is still time!

The post 10 Reasons Why Your Blog Sucks appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

A big thank you for all the 71 participants. There were some very interesting tutorials among the submissions (one of them is even reporting a “Bandwidth Limit Exceeded” error; I guess the article was very popular…).

Participants have until next Thursday (January 31) to post a list with their favorite tutorials, and the winners will be declared on the following day.

Now to the list with all the tutorials. Browse around them, subscribe to the blogs you will discover, and have fun!

Blogging

• Google Analytics for n00bs – Using statistics by Viraj.
• How To Run A Fantabulous Blog Contest by Vijay.
• How to make a Killer Blog by Honeytech.
• Backup guide for bloggers by Mehmet.
• Tutorial: How to print blog articles the smart way by Jacob.
• A complete guide: How to make your post attractive using images by Vijay
• 5+1 Ways of promoting your Blog/Site/Brand name in your college by Ashfame.
• 8 Effective Ways to Increase RSS Readership by Tejvan.
• How to Feature Your Best Posts in Your Sidebar by Matt.
• Effective Linking With Your Old Post in 10 Steps by Dexter.
• How To Launch a Blog Successfully? by Mr. Gee.
• How to incorporate Google Custom Search engine with Adsense into your WordPress blog by Zaheer.
• How to Install WordPress (Chinese) by Young
• How to Add More Sidebar Text Widgets by Lori.
• How to Write Scannable Content: A 6-Step Approach by Daniel.
• Double Your FeedBurner RSS Numbers Overnight by Joel.
• Absolute Guide to Losing Readers by Ronald.

Health & Lifestyle

• How To Stop Worrying by Dee.

Make Money Online

• How to list an eBay auction for maximum profit by Mike Panic.
• How to go from $0 to $7000 per month and back to $0 again by Patrick.
• How To Make Money Online By Exploiting Your Grandma (An Easy 7 Step Program) by Sucker.
• How I made $1,000+ from Dead Blogspot Blogs with SedoParking! by Jacky

Other Topics

• How to Take Someone Down that is MUCH Bigger than You by Max.
• Fussy’s Handy Ways To Ruin Your Marriage by Mrs. Fussypants.
• Shopping at Adambeauty.com – simple tutorial by Paris.
• How to Write a Memoir to Remember by Nancy.
• How To Write A Letter of Complaint to Your Bank by Pettinger
• How to buy Wedding Invitations Online by Rhonda.
• Questions on Economics You’ve Always Wanted to Ask by Tejvan
• WFMW: Jon Udell’s Library Lookup by Melanie.
• Tutorial: How to Write a Business Letter by Chrissy.
• How To Eat Healthy At Fast Food Joints by Levi.
• Possessive vs. Plural: Getting it Right by Corner Scribe.
• Tutorial on Forward Motion Application with Transcription and Video by Rewsnat.
• How to do your Due Diligence when purchasing land on eBay by Carol.
• Drain and Flush Your Water Heater To Extend Its Life by Chester.

SEO & Web Development

• Optimize your Blog Post for Google – Tips that you might not have heard by Shankar.
• How do you make a scroll box for HTML code? by Melanie.

Technology & Software

• How to connect your Laptop/PC/Computer to your TV by Aseem.
• Ghid de instalare Windows XP (Romanian) by Napster.
• How to extract and open .daa files for free by Sumesh.
• A tutorial on mastering Digital Photography in minutes! by Praval
• How to Remove CD/DVD Scratches Using a Toothpaste by Rhodilee.
• How to RSS like a Rockstar… (Part 1) by Lucy.
• How to Play Downloaded Videos on Your iPod, Xbox 360, or DVD Player by Engtech.
• Como criar sua pandoras battery para o psp (Portuguese) by Leandro.
• How To Assemble And Build A PC by JohnTP.

The post Blog Writing Project: 71 Tutorials for Your Delight appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

The concept: Once your blog becomes popular and with a loyal following, you will probably be able to focus on the content creation alone. Until you arrive on that level, however, merely publishing top notch content will not be enough.

You will need to actively promote it, and one very effective way to do so is to email bloggers and webmasters on your niche to let them know about your best articles. Should they like what you are sending them, there are good chances that they will link to it, sending both visitors and link juice to your website.

Does it work?: Yes, although the overall success of this technique will depend on several factors. First of all, the higher the quality of the content that you are emailing away, the higher the chances of receiving links.

Secondly, the pitch that you include on your email will play an important role. If you add too much unrelated information the person on the other side might just think that you are spamming him, and skip your email.

Finally, if you take the time to develop your network slowly over time, and with a genuine interest for building win-win relationships, this technique will work better.

How to get started: As stated before, you will need to work on the content first. There is no use in emailing people around if you just have some average quality articles to show them. Check out the post Use These 10 Tips to Write Your Most Popular Post Ever for more info on how to create killer content.

In parallel to the content development strategy you should start to network with bloggers and webmasters on your niche. Do some guest posts on their blogs, invite them to guest post on yours, link to their articles and so on.

Once you have both of those in place, it is a matter of publishing your killer article and emailing your contacts and friends to let them know about it. Don’t beg for a link on the email, this is plain annoying. Just mention that you think they will find it interesting. If they do, they will be glad to link spontaneously.

Over to the readers: Do you email bloggers and webmasters on your niche to let them know about your best content? Has this strategy worked well for you in the past?

Website Traffic Series

• Part 1: Web Design and CSS Galleries
• Part 2: Blog Carnivals
• Part 3: Leave Comments on Other Blogs
• Part 4: Faking A Website Sale
• Part 5: Pulling an April Fools Prank
• Part 6: Using Forum Signatures
• Part 7: Putting A Blog on Your Static Website
• Part 8: Adding a Forum to Your Site or Blog
• Part 9: Buying Targeted Traffic
• Part 10: Email Signatures
• Part 11: Put Your URL On Online Profiles
• Part 12: Email Bloggers to Showcase Your Best Content
• Part 13: Faking a Hacker Attack
• Part 14: Promoting Your Content on Social Bookmarking Sites
• Part 15: Promoting Posts That Link to You on Social Bookmarking Sites
• Part 16: Promoting Your Content on Social Networking Sites
• Part 17: Using Article Directories
• Part 18: Exchanging Links with Partner Sites

The post Website Traffic Series Part 12: Emailing Bloggers to Showcase Your Best Content appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Have you ever thought about what it actually takes to become a successful blogger? Well, there are certainly a lot of successes out there and we can all learn from the best of the best. So I got to thinking about what it actually takes to run a successful blog and here is a list that I came up with.

1. Loves to write

You must admit that in order to blog successfully then loving to write must be #1. You really shouldn’t be blogging if writing to you is a chore. Your own writing style is what endears you to your readers.

2. Knows his grammar

Maybe you didn’t expect to see this one on the list but it is very difficult for me to read anyone’s blog who isn’t very particular about proper grammar. A case in point is Daniel Scocco, the owner of this extremely successful blog. If you didn’t know, he also runs a blog called DailyWritingTips. It is my guess that Daniel also feels that writing properly is very important to a successful blogger.

3. Hard Worker

If you’ve run a blog for a while, as I have, you certainly know that you must work hard. If you don’t, then it will show in your writing and your blog will not be well read. You can’t fool people and put your blog on auto-pilot. If you do then you will lose readership.

4. Entrepreneurial

After a while you will want to make some money from the online presence and brand that you have established with your blog. A lot of people get into blogging for this sole reason. Whatever your situation entails, chances are you want to supplement your income. I plead guilty to this as well. It’s hard to be in the blogging world and hear about how others are making money online and not want to have a piece of the pie.

5. Creative

You can make a blog anything you want it to be. You have the choice of a myriad of themes and plugins that you can tweak to make your blog site unique. This is what makes the world of blogging great. No blog is the same and it’s simply up to the creativity of the blogger to make it that way.

6. Life Lover

This is one of the most positive aspects of the blogging world. Have you run across a blogger who doesn’t love life? This is why I added this attribute to my list. And since I started my blog I have come across the most engaging, pleasant, and helpful people I have ever met.

7. Personal Developer

Personal Development is a huge niche when it comes to the blogging world. Well, I’m here to say that all bloggers want to develop personally. We all have this in common. Without this trait would we really be doing what we are doing? I don’t think so. I try to learn and grow as a person every day but I don’t think I’m unique.

8. Communicator

This one is no big surprise is it? A blog is basically a means by which we can communicate with our readers. Communication is not only good for the blogger but also hopefully for the reader. A successful blogger wants to connect the audience. Replying to comments is very important and that is why I respond to every comment on my blog.

9. Helps Others

This was one attribute that blew me away. When I started blogging I emailed some fairly high profile blog owners and they actually responded to my email. I wanted an opinion on the design of my blog and I also asked to interview them for my blog. They helped me out and it got me off on a very positive note when it came to blogging. It showed me how compassionate and helpful even high profile bloggers can be.

10. Efficient

We all have a certain amount of time in our lives. And unless you are blogging full-time, you are trying to squeeze in the time to create new blog posts or to guest post on other blogs. Successful bloggers are very efficient with their time because they know that their time is limited. A successful blogger will work in high quality guest posts at certain times which allow them to maintain content but not at the expense of publishing subpar posts.

What about the steps needed for a successful blog?

Below you’ll find the five basic steps you need to make your blog a successful one.

1. Think about who your audience will be

It’s always better to target your blog for a particular audience. You can then focus to write something which could help your audience immensely. For example, if you are well-versed into internet marketing, you should target people who are just new to the world of internet marketing and eager to learn from scratch. But try to choose a niche which is expandable so that you can find more and more topics to write on. Don’t shy away from sharing all your secrets. Write every bit of useful information, you can think of, to make your blog stand out. It’s an old saying that “Knowledge grows, the more you give away”. So give away everything like a good teacher and you will get much more in return in the form of ever growing audience.

2. Engage your readers

Write your content so that it perfectly makes sense to reflect the title of your post. In other words, you should not go off topic while writing, otherwise, users may leave your blog. Also, think of what other topics you can write and link internally from the existing post so that it is highly likely that the user will click on that internal link. This is important to do to engage your reader for a longer period of time on the site. You can also use external links (links given to third party websites) on some texts which need more detailed explanation. This way users can click on the external links to find the required information related to those texts. Whether the users click on external or internal links, both are signs of user engagement and so good for SEO (search engine optimization).

3. Take care of your content

You should be honest in your approach while writing. Simply publishing the duplicate or re-written content is not going to help, as search engines like Google already have the technology to filter out the duplicate content pages from their search results, and so the duplicate content won’t give you any organic traffic . Another important thing is to provide an evidence of whatever you are writing, by referring to the original source in the form of an external link. This is specifically important if your content is based on some research work and requires authenticity. Content based on your imaginations and personal experiences, however, will not need any authenticity. Also, make sure you know about emotional intelligence while writing, else you may face the criticism in the online community.

4. Participate in online communities

So what are online communities? There are numerous other blogs, forums, discussion boards, FAQ sites, like Stack Overflow, where users can interact with each other to discuss their problems and also share their knowledge and experiences. All such platforms are a part of online communities. Just keep flooding your website with content is not going to help much to generate traffic. Just like you link to third party websites from your own blog, other websites should also link to your blog pages so that your blog can rank better in search engines like Google. This is how Google’s technology works to rank different websites in their search results but user experience (as already mentioned in step 2) is more important for Google than getting links.

You should put all the great efforts so that more and more websites or blogs link to your own blog pages. It doesn’t matter which blog page they link. This is only possible when you participate in online communities to popularize your content and then someone could link your content as a good resource for their website or may be out of sympathy if you requested a link to them. Someone may even ask for money to link your website but then paying for links is against Google webmaster guidelines and so that should be avoided.

5. Take care of the technical aspects

Professionalism is very important to impress anyone you want to. Most of the bloggers make use of readymade templates to create their blog using WordPress. This results in a similar kind of design (like other WordPress blogs over the internet) which doesn’t look professional. If you have money to spend, you should not use these open source website creation tools like WordPress.com or Blogger.com and get the blog done from scratch with your desired design from some individual web designer and programmer or some web developer company who does this. You can hire a lot of such web developers on sites like freelance.com and upwork.com.

It’s also possible to create a blog without CMS or publishing tools. Many blogs have done that. For every post, they have used a unique graphic or image which is not copied from anywhere. It’s easier to get links for your blog with a professional design and content.

Also, make sure to get your blog done with responsive design so that it is compatible with all the latest devices and browsers. Also, make sure to ask the developer to make the site load faster by eliminating all the errors (if any) as mentioned by PageSpeed Insights tool by Google. Hope that helps.

I think that this is a pretty comprehensive list of the top attributes of a successful blogger. Please feel free to share any more traits or characteristics that you think I left out.

The post Top 10 Attributes of a Successful Blogger Who Have Successful Blogs appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Fed up with crafting tutorials that fall flat?

Tired of battling disengagement and baffled readers?

You’re not alone.

How to write a tutorial that truly educate and entertain is a challenge many writers face. The importance of clear communication and engaging content is more critical than ever.

Imagine pouring hours into tutorial writing, only to be met with blank stares and bewildered criticism. The gap between your knowledge and your readers’ understanding can be disheartening.

But fear not!

In this article, we unveil 11 transformative tips on how to write a tutorial that truly resonates with your audience. From structuring to storytelling, we’ll guide you toward crafting tutorials that inspire, educate, and leave a lasting impact.

Get ready to discover techniques that will help you create outstanding tutorials from start to finish.

Why a Well-Written Tutorial Matters

Writing tutorials that provide value-packed content is crucial for attracting and retaining readers.

One of the best ways to create such content is to write an informative tutorial or guide on a subject that is sorely lacking. Such tutorials can bring a host of advantages to you as the creator.

By presenting a well-researched tutorial, you establish yourself as an authority in your field. As your tutorial gains traction and is shared, your reputation grows, earning you admiration and acknowledgment from your peers and readers alike.

Furthermore, a great tutorial that’s formatted correctly can attract numerous incoming links from other websites. As your guide becomes a go-to resource, others are more likely to reference and link to it, bolstering both your website’s credibility and its visibility in search engine rankings.

Such a tutorial has the potential to act as a magnet for web traffic. Unlike regular blog posts that often experience a rapid drop in traffic, tutorials have the ability to consistently attract visitors over time, providing sustained exposure.

It is not a stretch to say that a good tutorial can bring in as much traffic (or more) compared to 20 well-written posts.

For example, Caroline MiddleBrook’s Twitter Guide or this Flickr Guide. Both are great examples of well-written tutorials that greatly enhanced the popularity of the author by providing tremendous value to its readers.

Tip 1: Understand Your Audience’s Needs

Creating tutorials that truly connect with your audience hinges on a fundamental principle: understanding their needs. Your tutorial’s effectiveness depends on aligning its content with your readers’ knowledge level and specific requirements.

So, before you dive into writing your tutorial, take time to grasp your audience’s background, interests, goals, and motivation by answering the following fundamental questions:

Are they beginners seeking a basic understanding or experts looking for advanced insights?

What challenges do they aim to conquer through your tutorial?

What style, tone, format, and length do they gravitate toward?

By meticulously addressing these queries, you set the stage for a tutorial that is not only relevant but also compelling for your audience. This informed approach empowers you to choose the right topic, define clear objectives, structure the content logically, employ suitable language, and furnish relatable examples.

Equally significant is steering clear of common pitfalls that can undermine your tutorial’s effectiveness:

• Right-Size the Topic: Avoid the trap of encompassing too much or too little. For instance, a tutorial catering to beginner Photoshop users should focus on essential functions, not every nuanced feature.
• Assumption Adjustment: Accurately gauge your audience’s familiarity. If you’re writing for Python intermediates, ensure explanations are accessible, and not laden with jargon.
• Tone Matters: Your tone should mirror your readers’ expectations. Connect with teenagers learning guitar using an engaging, non-formal style.

Tip 2: Structure is Key

The second tip for writing a good tutorial is to create a clear and logical structure for your content. Writing tutorials in list format make them more visually appealing and increase their readability.

Some tutorials can get quite large, so developing an organized structure can help your user navigate around the different sections. You can also use a Table of Contents plugin to help you write tutorials.

Breaking your tutorial into multiple pages is another approach to bolster coherence. This ensures each section remains manageable, contributing to an enhanced learning experience. Since some users prefer that all their content is on one page, it can be a good idea to provide both single-page and multi-page options.

Furthermore, incorporating descriptive headings and subheadings aids in maintaining a logical flow, aiding readers in swiftly accessing the information they seek.

Remember, a well-structured tutorial not only enhances comprehension but also fosters a positive user experience, driving engagement and knowledge retention.

Tip 3: Use Relevant Visuals

Harnessing the power of visuals can be a game-changer. Images, screen shots, and diagrams are invaluable tools that amplify comprehension, especially when writing technical tutorials.

It’s often said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Integrating screenshots and edited images can work wonders in illustrating your instructions effectively. These visuals bridge the gap between text and action, ensuring readers grasp concepts swiftly.

The strategic placement of visuals can elevate your tutorial’s impact. By offering clear visual cues, you guide readers through intricate steps, making the difference between a tutorial that shines and one that falls short.

Tip 4: Keep It Interactive

Make your tutorial a dynamic experience by incorporating interaction. Integrate quizzes, checkpoints, and hands-on activities to keep your readers engaged and motivated.

These interactive elements offer multiple advantages:

• Strengthen Learning: Encourage readers to answer questions, perform tasks, and apply skills. This aids in reviewing and solidifying tutorial concepts. Feedback and support help correct errors and enhance performance.
• Fuel Interest: Inject challenges, rewards, and enjoyable aspects into your tutorial. This fosters reader enjoyment, curiosity, and creativity, promoting exploration and experimentation.
• Enhance Retention: Engage readers through their senses, emotions, and actions. This boosts memory and application, facilitating the transfer of learning to real-world situations.

To create an interactive tutorial:

• Utilize quizzes with varied question types (multiple choice, true or false, fill in the blank, and matching) and difficulty levels. Offer immediate feedback, explanations, and rewards.
• Implement checkpoints for progress monitoring. Include self-assessment, peer review, or instructor feedback.
• Incorporate hands-on activities like exercises, projects, and simulations. Provide clear instructions and guidance on how to do the activities, such as steps, examples, tips, warnings, etc.

Tip 5: Provide Real-world Applications

Link your tutorial to real-life situations for better understanding. Helpful and practical examples are key—they show how to apply what’s learned. Talking about something is one thing, doing it is another.

Choose straightforward cases that make your points clear. Examples bridge the gap between theory and action, helping readers truly get it.

Use multiple examples for different situations, if possible. Also, including source files, when relevant, adds more value.

Remember, real-world applications empower readers to not only grasp theoretical concepts but also implement them with confidence

Tips 6-11: Quick-fire Recommendations

In this section, I will list a few things to keep in mind if you want to improve your tutorial. These tips are based on some common best practices, searches, and principles of writing tutorials.

Conciseness

In the world of tutorial writing, brevity is your ally. The art of delivering succinct information wields the power to enhance clarity and understanding.

To write concisely, you should use simple and familiar words, active voice, positive statements, specific and concrete words, short and simple sentences, and most importantly, you should eliminate unnecessary fluff and verbosity.

Readers appreciate tutorials that respect their time and deliver insights without unnecessary embellishments.

Regular Updates

A tutorial, much like the digital landscape it resides in, is subject to constant evolution. Regular updates are the lifeline that sustains its relevance and utility.

As technology advances, concepts evolve, and new insights emerge, keeping your tutorial up to date ensures its continued value. To keep it fresh, you should monitor the changes, developments, or trends in your topic or field, update your tutorial accordingly, and notify your reader about the changes.

Readers seek information that’s current and applicable, and by providing fresh content, you demonstrate your commitment to their learning journey.

Error-Checking

In the pursuit of tutorial excellence, accuracy reigns supreme. A meticulous process of error-checking safeguards your content from inaccuracies and misunderstandings.

Whether it’s verifying facts, reviewing code snippets, or double-checking instructions, the effort invested in error-checking guarantees a seamless learning experience

It is also a good idea to have some other people do the same. The odds are good that they will find stuff you forgot to mention. In addition, they can provide feedback on parts where you failed to explain certain things clearly or parts where more information could have been offered.

Step-by-Step Approach

Navigating the intricate landscape of tutorial creation, whether in written or video tutorials, is akin to guiding readers on a journey. A step-by-step approach serves as the compass that ensures a seamless progression.

Each step should be built upon the previous one, creating a logical and intuitive flow. Also, it’s always better to have two simple steps than one step that is longer and more complicated.

What makes a good tutorial video in English is clear and concise explanations, step-by-step demonstrations, and engaging visual aids. Remember, you’re trying to make it easier on the reader, not harder.

Feedback Collection

The path to tutorial mastery is an ever-evolving one shaped by continuous improvement. Embracing feedback is the catalyst for this evolution. Constructive critique, whether from readers, peers, or experts, provides invaluable insights.

It highlights areas of strength and areas that warrant refinement.

To get feedback from your readers, ask for their thoughts at the end of your tutorial or after each section. When you get their opinion and thoughts about your tutorial or even just writing skills, reply politely and in a helpful way.

Promote Sharing

A tutorial’s impact isn’t limited to its immediate readership. Promoting and sharing broadens its reach and influence.

Encourage readers to share your tutorial on their networks, inviting others to benefit from your insights.

Social media, forums, and online communities serve as avenues to amplify your tutorial’s exposure. So consider providing social media buttons or links at the end of the tutorial.

Incorporating these swift yet potent recommendations fortifies your tutorial’s foundation, propelling it toward becoming a valuable, effective, and enduring educational asset.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

While crafting tutorials, steering clear of common missteps is paramount for delivering an effective learning experience. Here are key pitfalls to sidestep and strategies to ensure your tutorial’s success:

• Neglecting Clarity: Overly complex explanations can bewilder readers. Prioritize simplicity and concise language to foster easy comprehension.
• Skipping Steps: Assuming prior knowledge can alienate beginners. Break the content into detailed steps, ensuring a smooth progression even for beginners.
• Disregarding Visuals: Sparse or irrelevant visuals hinder understanding. Thoughtfully integrate images, and diagrams, and provide code snippets if you’re writing a technical tutorial to enhance clarity.
• Neglecting Structure: A haphazard flow confuses readers. Organize your tutorial logically, providing clear guidance throughout.
• Ignoring Interactivity: Passive learning lacks engagement. Incorporate quizzes, activities, and challenges to keep readers actively involved.
• Neglecting Real-world Context: Disconnecting from practical scenarios undermines relevance. Incorporate relatable examples to illustrate theoretical concepts in more detail.
• Overlooking Feedback: Ignoring reader input hampers improvement. Embrace constructive criticism to refine your tutorial over time.
• Omitting Updates: Stale content loses value. Regularly update your tutorial to reflect the latest insights and trends.

By avoiding these mistakes, you pave the way for a tutorial that enlightens, empowers, and leaves a lasting impact on your readers’ learning journey.

Conclusion

There you go – the 11 essential tips for writing well-crafted tutorials.

From audience awareness to interactive engagement, you’ve explored the pillars of impactful tutorials. Clarity, structure, and visuals form your toolkit, while feedback and updates drive continuous improvement.

As you embark on this tutorial-writing adventure, remember the impact you wield.

Your tutorials can unlock horizons, impart skills, and ignite learning in countless minds. Armed with these insights, you’re poised to shape the future of education—one tutorial at a time.

So, go forth, write purposefully, and witness your tutorials drive knowledge worldwide.

The post Writing Tutorials – 11 Essential Tips to Crafting the Ultimate Tutorial appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Blogs emerged on the Internet as personal diaries where people would publish online their daily activities and personal experiences. As the phenomenon evolved, though, bloggers started to focus on niches, providing services or useful information for readers, blurring the line between blogs and traditional websites.

Nowadays very specialized blogs like TechCrunch or PerezHilton compete directly with mainstream media, and the people behind those ventures arrive to earn tens of thousands of dollars monthly.

Despite those success stories, however, making money through a blog is not a simple task and it will probably take just as much hard work as any other project, be it online or offline.

Below you will find a check list to evaluate whether you have the requisites to become a professional blogger or not. Bear in mind that most of those points can be developed, therefore the list should also work as an action plan to improve your blogging career.

1. Time: the first point on the check list is time, without plenty of it you will find it hard to build a successful blog that generates a good monthly income. Time is important not only for writing content but also for interacting with other bloggers, gathering information, keeping updated and so on. There are bloggers out there managing to generate money despite blogging only for a couple of hours daily (i.e. John Chow), but that is the exception rather than the rule, and most of the times those bloggers already had a lot of online expertise to begin with. If you are planning to earn a full-time income from your blog there is no reason to assume that you will not need to dedicate full-time to its development.

2. Expertise on a topic: apart from having plenty of time to blog you will also need something to blog about, and you must have some expertise around the chosen topic otherwise the blog will not be credible. Do not get me wrong here, you probably will not need a PhD in Physics to blog about “alternative energy sources”, for instance, but you must have a minimum background and you must also be updated with the latest developments on that field.

3. Passion for the topic: even if you know a certain subject inside out you will still need to write about it in a persuasive and engaging way. In simple words, if you are expecting to make money through your writing you better write some damn interesting things! People can feel whether you love what you are writing about or not, and if you do they will be more likely to become loyal readers.

4. Writing skills: are you able to write without grammatical mistakes? Do you have facility to communicate concepts and ideas through words? Those are some questions that you need to answer if you are planning to make a living out of your blog. Some bloggers might get away without outstanding writing skills, but only if the content is really compelling. Do not worry if you are not a Shakespearesque writer, though, as your wiring skills will probably improve naturally along the way.

5. Technical Knowledge: like it or not blogs are based on content management software, which in turn is backed by databases, located on web servers and so on. Hosted blogging solutions (i.e. Blogger or WordPress.com) probably eliminate the need for such technical knowledge, but those platforms do not offer advanced features and they are not completely customizable. If you are planning to create a professional blog you will want to have your own domain name and run it on some paid hosting service, meaning that you will need a basic knowledge of PHP, DNS servers, MySQL (mainly for backup and server transfer issues), scripts, plugins and so on.

6. Blogging Knowledge: apart from the technical knowledge to keep your blog up and running you will also need to understand how the blogosphere is structured and how you can leverage certain features to improve the visibility of your own blog. You will probably need to learn how to use trackbacks, ping services, blog carnivals, social bookmarking sites and the like. Secondly you also want to have a basic knowledge about search engine optimization. Some successful blogs get as much as 50% of their incoming traffic from search engines, so make sure your blog is optimized right from the beginning.

7. Web Design Skills: design plays a very important role on the credibility and success of blogs. Content is surely king but an appealing design will make readers remember your site, it will make it stand out from the crowd. Someone willing to invest money in his blog right from the start could probably outsource this part, but that is not the case with most bloggers. Make sure you study some HTML, CSS and website accessibility.

8. Business/Marketing Knowledge: if your blog is supposed to generate a full-time income you will need to treat it as a business entity. Every successful venture, be it personally or professionally, is based on carefully crafted strategies. Make sure you have goals and action plans for your blog. This will help you to focus your energy and time on important activities. Secondly you also need a basic understanding of marketing and how certain techniques can be used to promote your blog across the Internet.

9. Creativity and Innovative Ideas: are you able to think out of the box? Do you have creative ideas that other people might find interesting? Most professional bloggers were also innovators on their niche. Real value is not created by doing things better but rather by doing things differently. Creativity and innovative ideas will help you to write quality posts, to discover new ways to promote your blog and to find new monetization opportunities.

10. Network of contacts: you know what they say: “It is not about what you know but who you know”. Having a network of online contacts might make the difference between a money making website and a small blog that attracts a hand full of visitors. Contacts include bloggers on your niche, bloggers on complementary niches, web designers, web developers, advertisers and the like. One of the secrets to success is to pursue win-win situations, remember that.

The post 10 Requisites for Professional Bloggers appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Ever scratched your head and asked, “what is a blog,” and why it shows up all the time in your Google searches? Well, you’re in luck! We’re about to jump into the cool world of blogs, SEO, and how they work with Google. No more wondering, no more guessing. We’re going to figure out exactly what is a blog and why Google seems to love them so much.

So, What is a Blog?

You know, lots of folks have read a blog or heard about them. But when you ask, “What’s a blog?” you’ll get a mix of answers. Is it like an online diary? A place where companies share updates? Or a website where experts chat about special topics? Truth is, blogs can be all these things, and even more.

Here’s the cool part. As the Internet keeps changing, blogs do too. They started pretty simple, but now, they’re a big deal for sharing and finding information online.

Let’s throw in a fun twist. Picture this: you’ve just set up an awesome online store in the busiest part of the digital world. You’ve got cool stuff to sell, your website looks slick, but there’s a problem – your store is invisible. Bummer, right? But, what if you had a magic keyword that could not only make your store visible, but also make it super attractive to anyone passing by online? That, my friends, is the power of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). When done right, SEO can take your online store from being a ghost on Google’s back pages to a superstar on the first page. Now, tell me, who wouldn’t want that?

How Blogs Started and How They’ve Changed

To get a good idea of what a blog is, let’s go back to the late 1990s. The Internet was new and full of possibilities. This is when blogs started. They were online diaries where people could write about their lives and share their thoughts.

Now, blogs have changed a lot. They’re not just online diaries anymore. Businesses use them to share updates and promote their products. Experts write blogs to share their knowledge. News websites use blogs to share different kinds of stories.

Blogs have changed from being simple websites for personal stories to complex websites that encourage conversation and share lots of different kinds of information. They’re a big part of how we use the Internet today.

The Importance of SEO in Blogging

SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization,” and it’s a vital tool to help your blog stand out on the internet. SEO is like a spotlight that makes your blog easier to find in the vast world of the internet. It helps search engines like Google find your blog when people are looking for the kind of information you’re sharing.

SEO and Keywords

The first part of SEO is using keywords, the words or phrases people type into search engines. If you’re writing a blog about dogs, for instance, you might include keywords like “best dog food,” “dog training tips,” or “how to groom a dog.”

Linking Strategy

Another part of SEO is linking. You can create links between your blog and other websites or different pages on your own blog. These links help search engines understand what your blog is about and how it connects to other relevant information.

User Engagement

The last piece of the SEO puzzle is user engagement. The more your readers interact with your blog—by reading posts, leaving comments, or sharing your content—the better your blog will do in search results.

To wrap up, SEO is a crucial part of blogging. It makes your blog easier to find and can help boost your visibility on search engines. But remember, the goal isn’t just to rank high on search results—it’s to provide valuable, engaging content to your readers.

Misconceptions About Blogs

Even though blogs are everywhere, some people still get them wrong. Some people think blogs are only online diaries. But while many blogs are personal, they can also be so much more.

Today, businesses use blogs to share updates with their customers and promote new products. News websites use blogs to share stories in a more casual way. Blogs can be about any topic you can think of. This shows how blogs are not all the same—they’re diverse and versatile.

Blogs Today: What Are They?

So, let’s go back to our main question: “What is a blog?” In 2024, a blog is a flexible website where people, businesses, and organizations can share ideas, news, and stories. It’s a tool for making connections, getting people involved, and building communities. Blogs can be personal or professional, promotional or educational, and so much more.

Basically, a blog is like the Internet itself: it’s diverse, dynamic, and always changing. It shows how powerful it is when people connect and communicate. Blogs bring together people from all over the world. As long as the Internet keeps growing, blogs will too, always changing to keep up with new trends. So let’s celebrate blogs, which have changed how we connect, talk, and find information online.

From Online Diaries to Powerful Websites

When blogs first started, they were like online diaries. People would write about their day, their thoughts, and their experiences, and then post it on the internet for everyone to see. This was a big deal because it meant anyone with a computer could share their story with the world.

But as time went on, blogs started to change. Businesses saw that they could use blogs to talk directly to their customers. They could post updates, show off new products, or just share what was going on behind the scenes.

Newspapers and other news websites started to use blogs too. They would post more casual stories or share their opinions.

Even regular people started to use blogs in new ways. They would write about things they were experts in. For example, someone who loves to cook might start a blog to share their recipes. Someone who knows a lot about computers might write reviews of the latest tech gadgets.

Blogs Aren’t Just One Thing

Some people think that all blogs have to be about certain topics or written in a certain way. But that’s not true. One of the best things about blogs is that they can be about anything and take many forms.

Let’s say someone wants to start a website where they answer questions. They could make a forum where people post their questions and other people answer them. They could make a regular website and just post all the questions and answers on one page. They could make a wiki, which is a kind of website where anyone can edit the pages.

Or they could make a blog. Each post could be a question and an answer. Readers could leave comments to talk about the answers. This shows that blogs can be used for lots of different things, not just the stuff people usually think of.

Blogs Today

In 2024, blogs are still a really important part of the internet. People use them to share ideas, businesses use them to talk to their customers, and anyone can use them to learn something new. Blogs have changed a lot to keep up with new trends and technologies, but they still have the same main goal: to help people communicate and share ideas.

As the internet keeps changing, blogs will change too. But no matter what, blogs will always be a key part of the internet. Whether it’s a personal diary, a business update, or a how-to guide, blogs let people share their thoughts with the world.

So, a blog in 2024 is a powerful tool that can be used for many different things. It helps connect people, businesses, and ideas. And as long as there are stories to tell and ideas to share, blogs will always be around.

How Does a Blog Work?

If we think about a blog like a car, we’ve been looking at the outside so far – what it looks like, what it does. But now, let’s lift up the hood and check out the engine. What makes a blog work?

A blog is a type of website, kind of like how a pickup truck is a type of vehicle. And just like cars and trucks have different features, so do websites. Here are some features that make blogs special:

1. Posts go up in order: Just like your Instagram feed, blogs show the newest post first. So, if you’re reading a blog, you’ll always see the latest news right at the top.
2. Regular updates: Blogs aren’t like books where the author writes everything at once. Instead, they keep adding new posts, keeping the content fresh.
3. Comments are welcome: Blogs usually allow readers to leave comments. This lets the readers and the blog author chat, share ideas, and ask questions.
4. Easy to share: Other blog authors can interact using trackbacks and pingbacks, which are fancy ways of saying they can link to each other’s posts.
5. Follow the feed: Blogs usually have RSS feeds, which let readers subscribe and get updates whenever a new post goes up.

Remember, all these features together make a blog a blog. It’s like how a car needs an engine, wheels, and seats to be a car. One feature by itself isn’t enough.

The Different Types of Blogs

Just like there are all kinds of cars – sports cars, family vans, off-roaders – there are all kinds of blogs. Let’s check out some of them.

1. Personal Blogs: This is the original type of blog, like an online diary where people share their thoughts and experiences.
2. Business Blogs: Many companies use blogs to connect with their customers. They can share news, promote products, or just talk about what they do.
3. Professional Blogs: Some people have a lot of knowledge about a specific topic, like cooking, coding, or carpentry. They can use a blog to share their expertise.
4. News and Media Blogs: News outlets use blogs to share news in a more informal way, sometimes letting their readers comment or even write guest posts.
5. Educational Blogs: Teachers and learners alike can use blogs to share information and resources. They’re like virtual classrooms!
6. Community Blogs: These blogs bring together people who share a common interest or experience, like video game fans or new parents.

Just like no two people are the same, no two blogs are the same. Each one is unique, and that’s what makes them so great. So, the next time someone asks you, “What is a blog?”, you’ll be able to tell them it’s not just an online diary, but a powerful tool that comes in many shapes and sizes.

What’s Your Definition of a Blog?

Alright, folks! It’s your turn. We’ve talked a lot about what a blog is, but now we want to know what YOU think. We’ve all come across different kinds of blogs, right? Some are funny, some are serious. Some are about hobbies, and others are about work or study stuff. So, you might have your own unique view on what a blog really is.

Here’s a challenge for you. Can you come up with your own definition of a blog? You’ve heard mine. You’ve read about the history and evolution, how blogs are used today, and even about their technical aspects. But what do YOU think a blog is? What features do you think are most important?

And let’s take this challenge up a notch. Let’s also talk about the future. You know how the Internet is always changing, and things get outdated fast, right? Well, how do you see blogs evolving in the future? How important do you think they will be? Will they change in big ways, or will they stay more or less the same?

Remember, there are no wrong answers here. Your opinion matters because, guess what, you’re a part of this internet world too! Just like how blogs have evolved from being personal diaries to so much more, your ideas could shape what the future holds for them.

So, go ahead and jot down your thoughts in the comments section below. Share your definition of a blog and tell us what you think the future looks like for blogs. This is your chance to join the conversation and shape the narrative about this crucial part of the internet. So don’t be shy, let’s hear what you’ve got to say!

The post What Is A Blog? Unraveling the Mysteries of Digital Storytelling in 2024 appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Are you letting your killer posts languish in your archives, sandwiched between January and March? How many great posts have you published in months gone by that new visitors will never see?

Readers come to your blog for its content, so it’s important to show them straight away what you have to offer.

Your recent posts will hopefully go some way towards doing this, but to rely on them alone is to short-change the long-term effort you’ve put into building your blog. This post contains 9 blog hacks you can use to show new (and regular) visitors the best that your blog has to offer.

1. Introduce highlighted content. This could be a list of reader favorites, popular posts, most commented posts, and so on. Most bloggers handle this with a ‘Popular Posts’ widget. This is one of the most important elements of your sidebar, as it shows new visitors straight away why your site is worth exploring.

2. Take control of your highlighted content. Though most bloggers handle ‘Popular Posts’ with a plug-in there are plenty of benefits to doing it manually. You can choose which posts you want to highlight, and mix up new and old content. If you’ve got a guest-post at another blog, or if one of your posts makes it big on social media, you can tailor your ‘Popular Posts’ to suit the incoming audience.

3. Make your highlighted content unmissable. Your list of killer posts is probably more useful and interesting to new visitors than anything else in your sidebar. The perfect place for it is right under your feed button, towards the top of your sidebar. If you want to be more inventive with your placement you can, but keep it above the fold.

4. Use images to draw attention to your best posts. Images are eye-contact magnets. Rather than displaying your best posts as text links, why not create images for them? The strategy I use on my own blog is to make a medium-sized button from the image I included with the post, and add the headline as text over the image. It’s something a lot of readers seem to enjoy interacting with, and it adds some more visual interest to the blog.

5. Regularly change your highlighted content. Don’t forget about regular readers when highlighting content. If your list is static then visitors will engage with it once and forget about it, thinking they’ve seen everything it has to offer.

If you regularly change your highlighted posts you give new and old visitors a reason to engage with the content you’ve highlighted. One advantage to using images to highlight your content, as suggested above, is that it’s immediately clear when you’ve added or subtracted an item from the list.

6. Give readers somewhere to go when they’ve finished reading. Many bloggers use a ‘related posts’ plug-in, and while I do like this plug-in, I suspect that it suffers somewhat from being outside the content of the post. Firstly, feed readers miss it. Secondly, readers turn down their attention levels once they’ve finished an article. One way to best ensure readers explore your related content is to recommend it at the end of your article. For example:

Interested in this topic? You might enjoy another article I’ve written called …

Adding the suggestion to your article will catch readers while they’re still in ‘reading mode’ and devoting maximum attention to your words. However, I’d suggest using this only when you’ve written something else directly related to the topic. If your recommendation is spot-on, readers are likely to listen to other recommendations you make in future.

7. Weave targeted internal links into your posts as you write. This can be done badly, or it can be done well. A good guide is to make sure your links are highly relevant to the keywords you’re making a hyperlink. Linking a specific match (for example, linking the words ‘writing with clarity’ to an article you’ve written on the same topic) will be appreciated by your readers. Linking vague terms (like ‘blogging’, or ‘making money’), however, is not good usability because it’s simply too unclear where the link will lead.

8. Mix up posts linking out with posts linking in. A great way to draw readers deeper into your blog is to highlight great content in dedicated posts. You could highlight a selection of the best posts last month, or the most popular posts on a specific topic. You might highlight posts from this time last-year, as Lifehacker does, or list some undiscovered gems from the early days of your blog.

9. Give readers a birds-eye view of your blog. Your archives present the perfect opportunity to allow readers to view your blog from a top-down perspective, with everything it has to offer on one page. The SRG-Clean Archives plug-in presents all your post headlines under sub-headings for each month, and displays the comment count besides each. This allows readers to browse through your headlines and explore those they’re interested in.

The post 9 Blog Hacks to Help Show Readers Your Best Stuff appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

If you enable comments on your blog (which I’m sure most of you do), then you obviously want your readers to interact by leaving comments after your post. Then why, I ask, does it usually end up being a one-sided conversation?

It’s like giving a presentation to a group of people and not responding to questions and comments from your audience. It just seems rude, but for some reason it has become standard for bloggers not to reply to comments made on their post.

So much for “interaction”.

For big-time bloggers with several comments on each post, it would obviously be tough to respond to each and every single comment. But you have to admit that it is nice to when the big names take the time to respond to some of the comments, right?

The truth is, most of us are not “big time” bloggers and we do have the time to respond. And yet – we don’t.

In Step #6 of 6 Steps To An Effective Guest Post, it mentions:

“If you are fortunate enough to get your site published, the work is not over yet. All your efforts should go into promoting that article and taking part in any comments that may be posted.

Why is this something that only guest posters should do? Every blogger should be doing it on their own posts too.

For the past several months, I’ve been doing my best to respond to each and every single comment on my own blog, just to see what would happen. The response has been nothing less than amazing. In fact, people have pointed out that they love that I respond to almost every comment, and some of my readers have even emailed me just to say thanks.

So what’s the real benefit? Why should you invest a few extra minutes to respond to your readers? Here are 5 reasons to do so:

1. It Encourages People To Comment

People don’t leave comments just so they can be left unread. By replying, you’re not only letting people know that you’re actively involved in reading the comments, but you’re encouraging them to come back and comment again later.

Furthermore, people who don’t normally comment may be happy to do so knowing that their comment will indeed be read.

2. It Adds to the Quality of Your Posts

A reply can often lead to side conversations within the commenting area that add to the content and overall quality of your post. Your points will be explained further, new points will be brought up, and questions that people may have get answered.

Also, new people will join the side conversations and add their own comments that they wouldn’t have normally made otherwise.

3. It Helps With Search Engine Optimization

Comments on your blog posts do in fact help with search engine optimization, although admittedly in a minimal way.

More comments, including your own, usually mean more instances of the keywords that you used in your blog post, which means you’re more likely to be found in the search engines for those terms.

Additionally, new terms that you did not use in your blog post will be brought up and discussed, which could potentially help you for those terms as well.

4. It Adds More Social Proof

Social proof is a psychological phenomenon that occurs when people’s decisions are influenced by making the assumption that surrounding people know more about certain situations than you do.

For example, if you’re at the mall and you see a huge crowd of people around a particular store, chances are that you’re going to walk over and see what the big deal is. In a similar way, you might be more inclined to follow a certain blogger in a niche just because they have more subscribers and followers than others.

In most cases, your own comments will count towards the overall comment count of your post. Respond to 15 comments, and you’ll have a total comment count of 30, which looks more far more impressive and interesting to your readers and any new visitors to your blog.

5. It Helps You Build Authority and Credibility

Finally, by responding to each comment, you’re establishing yourself as a go-to expert in your niche. You become more “real” and are seen as someone who actually takes time to care for your readers, which adds value to you and your blog.

Because responding to comments is abnormal, you’ll stand out of the crowd like no other. And if you can leave thoughtful, meaningful comments, you’ll make that much more of an impact on your readers.

It doesn’t take very much extra time, and the return on investment can be phenomenal. So why not give it a shot?

Try responding to every comment and see what happens.

So What Do You Think?

How do you feel when a blogger responds to a comment you left on his or her blog? Do you think it’s worth the time and effort to do so, or are we just wasting our time?

Please leave a comment below, and tell me what you think.

Cheers!

The post 5 Reasons Why It’s Important to Respond to Every Comment on Your Blog appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Do you know that a simple tweak to your blog can double, triple, or even quadruple your blog growth?

I made slight changes to my blogging strategy and saw some massive results; for example, installing a simple plugin resulted in over a thousand extra subscribers to my blog every month, and I was able to get hundreds of subscribers from several of my guest posts even when people were crying that guest blogging is dead.

With the right plan, you can supercharge your blogging and take your blogging from nobody to superstar status. In this article, I share 7 tips guaranteed to supercharge your blog growth; these tips worked really well for me, and I plan to use them even more this year. Enjoy!

Tip #1: Revise Your Guest Blogging Strategy

While many people claim that guest blogging is dead, I got thousands of visitors directly from my guest posts, and I got hundreds of subscribers each from several of my guest posts. In fact, I got over 1,000 subscribers from one of my guest posts. That was when many people regarded guest blogging – especially for traffic generation – to be dead. Here are some of my tips to help you create a revised, effective guest blogging strategy:

1. Choose Your Target Publication Wisely: While I did a bit of guest blogging, my most successful guest posts were on blogs much bigger than mine: blogs like JeffBullas.com with hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors, ThePennyHoarder.com with millions of monthly visitors, etc.

The key to success with guest blogging lies in making sure you choose a blog that has an audience big enough to impact yours, and to ensure that the blog has an audience that will be interested in your blog because there’s relevance between the topic of your blog and that of your host blog.

2. Submit Resource Content as Guest Posts: I’m a huge advocate of publishing resource content, but I decided to take it to another level: I started submitting resource content as guest posts to other blogs, and the result was massive. Several of my guest posts had thousands of shares, resulting in thousands of visitors and subscribers to my blog.

Here are just a few examples:

• 15 Websites That Pay Writers $200 or More Per Article (over 2,600 shares)
• 20 Amazing Websites that Pay $100+ Per Article (over 2,000 shares)

Resource content can be very powerful. Imagine what can happen when you amplify the power of your resource content by publishing it on a blog much bigger than yours.

3. Implement a Content Upgrade in Your Guest Posts: I believe guest posting should always be a win-win situation: both you and the host blogger should benefit. Oftentimes, it takes significant effort to create a winning guest post, and one of the best ways to make best of this is by introducing a content upgrade inside of your guest posts. I did this in 2015, and the worst that happened was that editors of some of the blogs moved my content upgrade to the bio section. Even with that, those guest posts resulted in hundreds of subscribers.

Whether it is in your bio or directly at the end of your guest post, having a content upgrade will always lead to more traffic and subscribers for you. My student, Clement Lim, can testify to this: he started noticing an improvement in traffic and subscribers from his guest posts simply by implementing content upgrades in them.

Tip #2: Increase Your Blogging Frequency

For a very long time people have been debating whether it is better to publish content more frequently or to simply focus on publishing quality content whenever you feel like it.

If observing the successes of highly successful blogger is anything to go by, we realize that “blogging when I feel like it” does not a successful blogger make.

Seven-figure blogger Neil Patel gets over a million visitors monthly between his two blogs, and he has repeatedly documented that increasing blogging frequency led to significant traffic gains. This was also corroborated by data from Hubspot that revealed that blogging more frequently leads to more traffic, and that it’s better to publish 16 or more articles monthly.

If you want to grow your blog, you need to work on your blogging frequency.

Tip #3: Publish More Comprehensive Articles

Resolve to publish more comprehensive articles; gone are the days where you can just slap articles of 500 words on your blog to meet some content schedule. Various sources have shown that content length matters, and high-profile marketer Neil Patel has repeatedly featured studies to show that content length influences traffic and blog growth. Neil recommends publishing content no less than 2,000 words.

Tip #4: Create a Resource on Your Blog

Resource articles resulted in hundreds of thousands of visitors to my blog; in fact, most of these visits came from resources I had published years ago.

The average article on my blog has a short shelf life, and traffic usually dies down within months of publishing an article. Things are different with resource articles, though: with every resource article I publish, traffic never dies. In fact, after some time, with almost all of my resource articles, traffic starts to pick up, eventually surpassing the traffic the resource generated when it was first published and heavily promoted.

Here are some good examples of resource content to inspire yours:

• 32 Christian Magazines that Pay Writers
• Ranking of Best National Universities by U.S. News
• Ranking of 27 Web Hosts Based on Speed and Uptime
• The Ultimate List of Blogs that Accept Guest Posts

The above examples include resources from 4 different categories: writing, education, web hosting, and marketing. It goes to show that you can create a resource for your blog no matter your niche.

Here are some tips:

• Identify a common pain point in your niche that people need a solution to
• Instead of giving people tips to solve this pain point, give them a solution. For example, instead of telling people to do outreach to promote their business, give them several outreach templates that they can use
• Make sure your resource content is specific; the more specific a resource is, the more likely it will spread.

Tip #5: Install the SumoMe App

If the only thing you can do this year is to install and properly configure the SumoMe app, your blog will thank you for it. Installing the SumoMe app resulted in thousands of extra email subscribers from my blog EVERY MONTH. Here are two key SumoMe apps I recommend installing:

1. The Welcome Mat: The SumoMe “Welcome Mat” shows a full-page opt in form that takes over your screen immediately people visit your blog. They can either cancel the form, scroll down to continue reading, or opt in to your newsletter. Usually, though, a good percentage of your readers will opt in; I get an average of 4.4% conversion rate, site-wide, from the Welcome Mat installed on my blog. For me, that’s over a thousand extra subscribers monthly.

Below is an example of a Welcome Mat in action – screenshot taken from Zac Johnson’s blog:

Here’s a screenshot showing options I’ve gotten through my Welcome Mat:

Here’s a nice tutorial from WPKube.com on how to create a Welcome Mat.

2. The Scroll Box: The SumoMe “Scroll Box” introduces an optin form that is triggered when readers scroll through your blog; you can configure your optin form to trigger after readers scroll to a certain percentage of your blog. Because the form is only triggered when readers scroll, it will only appear to engaged readers, leading to an improved conversion rate.

Tip #6: Create a Content Upgrade

I created my first content upgrade and, thousands of subscribers later, it’s contributed immensely to the success of my blog.

I wrote an article here on DBT about my experience with content upgrades early last year, and, needless to say, it’s a strategy I’ll be leveraging for increased blog growth this year.

Here are some tips to help you with your content upgrade:

1. It Does Not Have to be Complicated: Most people fail to create content upgrades because they assume that it has to be complicated. No, it doesn’t. Most likely, people aren’t interested in your free 165 pages ebook. Instead, they’ll appreciate your short report, compilation of your best blog posts, a quick resource or tool, or even a video.

2. You Don’t Have to Create New Mega Content: The first month of creating my content upgrade last year, I got 700 subscribers directly from the content upgrade; within two months, I already had 1,200 extra subscribers. This wasn’t because I published new content that was a big hit; instead, it was because I updated existing content – popular content I published years ago – to feature my content upgrade.

Simply update some of your popular old articles to feature your content upgrade, and you’re good to go.

Tip #7: Ensure a Faster Website Experience

Research shows that 40% of people will abandon your website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. It has also been established that Google uses site speed as a ranking factor.

A slow blog can cost you half of your traffic. Having a faster website leads to better user experience, more traffic, and improved search engine rankings, and it’s one way to take your website growth to the next level.

Bamidele Onibalusi is an entrepreneur, blogger and freelance writer. He helps people build profitable businesses through his blog, EffectiveBusinessIdeas.com

The post 7 Tips to Supercharge Your Blog Growth appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Adding things to your newly created blog is pretty cool, right? But be careful, there are things that you’d better leave out. Below you’ll find 10 of them.

1. Auto-Music: Nobody, and I mean, nobody wants to hear it. I vow never to subject you to my love of Barry Gibbs and Barbara Streisand duets and implore you to extend the same courtesy to me. Please.

2. Animated Gifs: Sure, they were cool in the late 90s. Now? Not so impressive. Let’s leave them over at My Space where they belong.

3. Tiny Type: If I have to strain my eyes to read your post, I’m just not going to. No matter how good your blog is.

4. Comment Verification: Install a spam preventing plug-in. It will take care of the spam and save people the effort of typing out nonsense words, or even worse, solve math problems just to leave a comment. Even if you’re on Blogger and have to delete a spam comment or two every now and then, it’s a small sacrifice and courteous to your readers. And it will keep them coming back and commenting again.

5. Spelling & Grammar Errors: Proofread. And then proofread again. Preview your post before you publish it. Even have someone else glance at it. Of course, we all make mistakes, but do your best to publish a post free of obvious errors.

6. Badges of prizes and awards you won: Sure, they’re flattering when you start blogging, but if you’ve been around a while your sidebars will start looking like Boy Scout vests. Dedicate a separate page for them and clean up those sidebars. You’ll look no less popular, and the sidebar police will thank you.

7. Regurgitated Content: If you said something that bears repeating, link back to that original post. Your readers will know if you keep spitting out the same old content and Google frowns upon duplicate posts. It’s bad idea all around.

8. Flashy Backgrounds: Your blog is not the Vegas strip. Black backgrounds with flashing lights and neon colors are not only hideous and hard to read, but they also take away what people are really at your blog to see: Great content.

9. Lies: It may be tempting to make things up to gain more traffic, but don’t. You will be found out, and you will look like an idiot.

10. Plagiarism: The only worse thing than blatantly making stuff up? Stealing other people’s stuff. It’s pretty much the biggest no-no there is in blog-land. If you want to quote someone, go for it and link back to them. Otherwise, you’re history.

The post 10 Things Your Blog Doesn’t Need appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Cyber-security is sadly something which has only come into the popular subconscious in the last decade or so. Yes, cyber-security has been around a lot longer than that, and there are plenty of instances where cyber-security will have helped average people secure themselves in previous years but the absolutely vital position it holds nowadays is only recently developed. It’s not hard to see why that is: for hackers and cyber-criminals of all shapes and sizes there are now so many more opportunities for them to take advantage of an innocent user. Technology is ubiquitous: everyone of a certain generation and below has a social media, possibly several, online instant messaging, does online shopping, receives targeted emails, does online banking and just, generally, lives their lives in the online sphere. With each new advancement in technology cyber-crime is given a fresh avenue through which it can exploit users.

An area that is certainly not immune is web hosting and website management. It’s likely that if you have a website then you might pride yourself on already understanding some of the threats which are out there for you and your website. But the truth is you likely don’t know the full extent to the vulnerability and, even if you do, you almost certainly don’t know how to deal with it yourself anyway. WordPress is a great resource for those of us who want simple solutions to website ownership and content management. It’s incredibly usable and it makes for an easy, stress-free way for an average user to get themselves a website or blog that can compete with more complexly coded sites. That being said, it still presents a security risk and it still demands the kind of protection that all sites need nowadays. So, to guide you through what is available, here are 20 security plug-ins for you to sure up your WordPress site.

1. Jetpack

Jetpack is made by people from WordPress itself so it’s one of the more popular options for security for your WordPress. Jetpack has a variety of uses, pertaining to social media, website speed and spam protection. There’s a fair amount of security which is included in the Jetpack free option but if you want the real heavy deal security then you ought to try the paid version, which, crucially, includes the benefit of security scans to check everything is in order at any time.

2. Google Authenticator

Google Authenticator offers a two-factor authentication option for your site. It’s a one-off feature: Google Authenticator only offers this security, in a very simplistic way. And yet, it is actually a fabulously good option for a lot of people. “Whilst some people will shoot for plug-ins which seem to offer it all, Google’s authentication plug-in is the sort of thing which they won’t find in the average package, and it’s very helpful”, writes Jason Alex. GA will offer you a second layer of security at any login portal.

  3. Security Ninja

Security Ninja has a great selection of features attached to its free package, which makes it a valuable resource for those wanting to do security on a budget. The main plug-in, and the only one you can get in the free deal, performs over 50 checks to various points of the login process, as well as monitoring user passwords to get read of weak login information and educate users on security.

 4. Shield Security

Shield Security is a complete plug-in that offers a really wide-spanning site security spectrum. It is a very good resource for anyone who worries that they are not on top of their site security but doesn’t understand where to go from acknowledging that fact. Like many of the others, Shield have a free option, but their ‘Pro’ service is really outstanding, with an incredible 24hr security hotline for your benefit.

 5. Sucuri Security

Far and away one of the most famous options for securing your site. It’s an intuitive and rigorously designed application which will ensure that your site stays well protected even on the free plan. The free plan, impressively, gives you an auditing option which you can use to check how well the software is defending your site for you and allows you to make changes based on that information.

 6. iThemes Security

iThemes Security is an absolute heavy hitter in the world of plug-in security options. Shaking off it’s previous identity as Better WP Security, iThemes gives you 30 or so tools for preventing hacks and cyber-criminals, excelling particularly in recognizing vulnerabilities and old, weak software.

 7. WP fail2ban

Much like Google Authenticator, WP fail2bn only offers the user a single feature: protection against a brute force attack. “Brute force attacks are unsubtle and simplistic but can be deadly for certain sites. An algorithm runs every combination of password and username until it finds one that lets it in, which might take days, or minutes, but will hurt your site when it inevitably works”, write Ahmed Amin. Protecting against this is vital and done well by this software.

 8. SecuPress

New to the market, SecuPress, which used to be known as freemium, SecuPress is deeply user friendly, with an excellently optimized interface for use by anyone of any level of knowledge and understanding. It’s inexpensive in its full form and it is good at identifying attacking bots.

 9. VaultPress

VaultPress is one of the few security add-ons which doesn’t have a free version, so it’s going to be much more useful to you if you have a pre-existing understanding of security. VaultPress excels at its backup scheduling with clear and easy to use out backup monitors.

 10. Defender

Defender is as basic as it gets. Not necessarily in terms of its content being simplistic, but the layout and user-friendly interface makes cyber-security seem like a doddle. It’s specifically good for WordPress and quickly identifies changes made at the directory level and allows you to restore in a matter of seconds.

11. BulletProof

Bulletproof is a retro-esque security software which comes in a free package and a paid package as well. The paid package, conveniently, is a one-off payment not a repeated fee and only costs $69.95. You can try out the free plug-in first off and then see if the added features that come with the paid version are worth the time and money.

 12. Astra Web Security

Astro Web Security is a really complete and complex security add-on. In fact, it’s more like a security suite of sorts with such a broad-spanning range of services available to users. It’s an incredibly valuable service which gets billed annually depending on how much you make use of it. It’s an incredibly reliable brand, used by some of the biggest companies in the world, so, if you want guaranteed quality and an extremely broad range of tools then Astra is your best bet.

 13. All In One WP Security & Firewall

This is an incredibly comprehensive look at WordPress security, with an easy interface and some valuable premium plans available to anyone looking for a wide variety of tools and good usability. With Basic, Intermediate and Advanced levels there is literally something for anyone, no matter how much or how little you know about cyber-security.

14. WordFence Security

WordFence Security is one of the most popular plug-ins for security out of all of the ones on the list. Its biggest appeal is that its free version is as good as some companies’ premium content. It has an active traffic tracker which allows you to monitor activity on your site, both potentially criminal and not. The more you know about cyber-crime, the cheaper it gets, since developers can get a package that is premium but with a huge discount.

15. WordPress Antivirus Site Protection

Another wordy one, this plugin is really helpful for some of the more insidious virus attacks. It’s specifically targeted towards WordPress and allows you to root out worms, spyware, adware and redirection viruses with a few clicks. It’s an active defender as well, so as soon as the plug-in recognizes some sort of breach on the site it will notify you to confirm if it is benevolent or malevolent.

16. VIP Scanner

This is one of those plug-ins which does exactly what it says on the tin: it scans. In this instance, VIP Scanner will scan files on your website to help you to find any vulnerabilities, in a pre-emptive attempt to stop any potential breaches before they have even begun. It’s extremely simplistic which makes it easy to use. However, just because it is user-friendly, doesn’t stop it from being valuable for your site security.

 17. Loginizer

Loginizer is another fairly self-explanatory one for you. It is again a single-minded add-on which deals with security surrounding your log-in portal. In this instance it behaves a bit like WP fail2ban, since its main focus is to identify and defend against brute attacks: bots which behave like they’re in a war of attrition by wearing through all of the log-in options for a website until they find one which works. It only takes one for the breach to be made and, once this has been established, any sort of chaos can be reeked on your website. Loginizer also allows you to customize a threat list, so you can black-ball IP addresses that you consider threatening to stop them before they’ve even begun any sort of attack. A simple but highly utility-oriented resource for site security for your WordPress.

18. Cerber Security And Antispam

Cerber Security and Antispam is a very clear software, much like Loginizer, in terms of its focus. It quickly nips brute force attacks in the bud by using authentication cookies t see if a certain IP access point is trying over and over again to access the log-in portal. Once it knows it black-lists the address until you stop it. As such, the program has a blacklist and whitelist mechanism, whereby you are able to control your site’s relationship with certain users. The antispam mechanism is extremely useful, particularly for bloggers to help them identify repetitive, annoying remark in the comment sections of the sites. It may be simple, but it packs a punch and is great at getting certain jobs done, with a great deal of efficiency and effectiveness.

 19. BBQ (Block Bad Queries)

Despite its humorous name and a lot of its marketing material looking like a college student’s computer science project, BBQ is a really useful, if somewhat simplistic, firewall plugin. It’s super, super easy to use and can be accessed and utilized in a few clicks. It’s a brilliant tool for beginners who don’t know how to jump into the world of cyber-security and want something they can understand as a building block to more complex destinations.

20. Antivirus

It doesn’t really get too much simpler than this, in name or in practical use. Antivirus does exactly what it seems that it might do: it scans your WordPress site and searches for viruses in the form of malware, adware and spam. If anything is discovered on your WordPress you will quickly be notified as it does require a human gaze to establish the exact nature of the threat and, consequently what it is that should be done about the threat itself. Very simple, yet extremely useful.

It is a sad truth of the world that we live in that so many people are ignorant about the rough realities of the cyberworld. Part of this has to do with the fact that technology develops quicker than the solutions for securing it, leaving cyber-security as an industry somewhat lost at sea. But, on the other hand, people are ill-informed. Hopefully with this exhaustive list of options you will find the protection add-on that will keep your WordPress site safe forever. Securing your site will save you a world of pain and struggle in the long run, believe me.

The post Top 20 WordPress Security Plugins in 2024 appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

As you probably know we’ll try to hold one blog writing project every month now, and it is time to launch the January one.

Inspired by the popularity of the article “11 Essential Tips to Writing the Ultimate Tutorial“, the topic of this project will be “Tutorials.”

In order to participate you just need to write a tutorial on your blog. Any subject and format is welcomed. You could instruct people on how to change a car’s wheel quickly, create a Photoshop effects tutorial, a step-by-step guide to cook the perfect pie, a blueprint to achieve the number one position in Google and so on.

Sounds cool, but what can I gain out of it?

Blog writing projects represent a very efficient way to network with fellow bloggers and to gain more traffic and RSS subscribers. After all it should motivate you to write that longer and more structured post that you have been postponing for a while.

Secondly, there is also a cash prize of $300 that will be assigned to the three most popular tutorials participating ($100 each).

I am in! What are the rules?

• Write a tutorial as described above (only one entry per blog).
• Use the Contact form and send me the URL of the post, the title and your name.
• Once I publish the final list of participants, you will browse around them and post a list of your favorite entries (it can be a Top 3, Top 5, Top 10 or anything else).
• Points will be assigned to the entries mentioned on these “favorites” lists (1 point per mention, regardless of the position), and the authors of the 3 entries receiving more points will win $100 each.

This format incentives people to read browse around all the participating blogs. It is also meritocratic since the participants themselves get to vote on the entries and to decide the winners of the cash prize.

The deadline for submissions is the midnight of next Sunday, January 27. Have fun and good luck to everyone!

The post Blog Writing Project: Tutorials appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.