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.

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.

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.

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.

Most marketers have this wrong assumption about content marketing. Perhaps, you are one of those marketers which think that your job is done after you have published your work. But the truth is; the real work begins before and after you have successfully published your article.

As a marketer, it is also your job to optimize your content. But don’t get me wrong. I’m not talking about the nitty-gritty technical details about the SEO or keywords or the Meta data.

In this content-driven digital world, content optimization is now more about how the quality, the relevance and the connection you can build with your audience through your content.

Content Optimization Influence How Content Is Consumed

How well you optimize your content has an impact on how your content is delivered to your readers. If you optimize it right, you increase the likelihood that your content will reach and consumed by the intended audience.

A study revealed the top three factors that make content effective are relevancy, engagement and storytelling and call to action. With these factors in mind, content personalization is something that is getting more and more valuable in content optimization.

Optimize Content With Personalization

Content personalization involves analyzing accurate audience data to create and deliver relevant content that will stir their curiosity, encourage engagement and compels them to do an action.

According to statistics, about 74% of customers feel frustrated if the website content is not personalized. Nowadays, you have to be real. Not everyone is the same. Your target market may be of the same generation but their buying behavior is not the same. Their purchasing journey varies because of various factors such as location, culture and interests.

So whether you are creating our content for lead generation, for engagement or for brand awareness, it is crucial that you create a personalized content. Create a content that a specific group of audience can understand and related to so you can send you message across.

But amidst the hype of personalization, how marketers can utilize it in content optimization is still a conundrum. So to help, here are some pre and post-publishing steps that will help you start you content personalization strategies.

Understanding Your Audience

Basically, the pre-publishing process is the steps you need to follow before you start creating your content. It is vital to understand who your audience is and how or when they consume your content.

Systematize Your Data Gathering

If you keep on gathering data here and there without any systematic process, you will end up cluttered with various data which seemed to have no use.

A systematic data gathering needs technology to maximize and organize your efforts. Strategically, you may use a CMS which provides effective CRM features and allows you to be connected to data sources, thus, giving you a useful and seamless way of gathering user’s data.

Moreover, a systematic data gathering goes way more than just observing your users behavior. It is more than just surveys and statistics. It involves various factors such as online real-time behavior, social media activities, demographic information, activity on your website and a lot more.

You need to figure out how to align these factors to create a systematic and organize approach in data gathering.

Segment Them With The Right Data

After you have successfully gathered the significant data, you need to segment your list. Group together those with similar attributes. You need to be aware that you have different types of customers. Identify each key factor that makes each of them different with one another. You need these key factors to help you create an experience map needed for the next step.

Creating An Experience Map

Each group of target consumers has a distinct behavior which sets them apart from another. You have to determine and understand what they are to create an experience map.

An experience map is your guide to content creation. Using each distinct features of your audience you can create a map of their specific purchasing journey which increases your chance of transmitting your message successfully through a personalized content. You should be able to take your content to the distinct purchasing journey of your target consumers; from awareness to consideration to decision.

Deliver Gather Results & Automate

The publishing process itself is difficult but getting to the post-publishing process could be another headache. But unless you can deliver to content to the right audience, your published content can only do so much.

Use The Right Automation

In content delivery, using the right automation is the light at the end of the tunnel. It allows you to reach out to your target consumers. With the right content marketing tool, you will efficiently and effectively attract your ideal consumers as they consume your content.

Choosing the right marketing automation is not as complicated as it seems. You just need to find the one that uses the data you gathered in order to reach out to your specified audience. It should create a delivery pattern based on your data to send your content across.

When choosing your automation tool, keep one thing in mind; it should help you deliver the right content to the right audience.

Measure, Analyze And Reinvent

At the end of your campaign, you need to have a solid way of measuring and analyzing your audience response. This is a critical element which is not just about clicks or about page views. This is the stage where you need to track data about how your audience responds with your content base on how you segment them.

You need to measure your content’s performance in each group of audience. You have metrics to track to help you find some loopholes and determine areas of improvement. Then, leverage the data and insights you gathered to figure out your personalization strategy’s weakness and improve them for your next optimization campaign.

Important Tip: Always Be Human

As a marketer, perhaps you came across this advice several times already. But how well do you understand this step? Being human is more than just profiling your audience. It is about giving your audience a genuine human interaction and content personalization is all about being human.
You need to significantly provide customers with answers to their questions through your content. If you put consumers at the center of your optimization campaign, you will know what they looking for and give them what they want.

Understand that personalization is a consumer-centered strategy which helps you humanize your brand. In personalization, you don’t just talk with your audience; you also have to listen to them. It enhances a two-way communication between consumers and brands. This way, brands can fully understand them and create a compelling and personalized content that help people in their goals.

Gone are the days when your target market is treated in general. It may have worked years ago but as the demand for your market changes so does you marketing approach.

Nearly 100% of consumers surveyed said that they have been discouraged from completing a transaction because of incomplete or incorrect content. Your content no matter how well you craft it would be useless if it does not reflect the needs and wants of your target market. With these in mind, it is safe to say that accurate and personalize content is more important than ever.

Personalization when done right can boost your optimization campaign. There is no doubt about that. The only reason why some marketers fail is that they don’t really understand how content personalization works. But with these tips put into work, hopefully, you can create a personalized content for your next content optimization campaign.

The post How Can Personalization Help In Content Optimization appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

You might have written your best post ever — but without a call to action, it’s not going to get you the results you’re hoping for.

A “call to action” is a copywriting term. It simply means asking or telling the reader to take a specific action. That might be:

• Subscribing to your blog or newsletter
• Buying your ebook
• Sharing the post on Twitter or Facebook
• Downloading a free report
• Trying out a particular technique or idea

… or almost anything that will benefit you and/or the reader.

Your call to action should be clear and specific. Don’t simply link to a post and assume that readers will get the message: tell them “click here to read…” or “find out more by clicking this link” or similar. If you’re asking for comments, give them a specific question to think about.

There are two places to put your calls to action:

#1: At the End of Your Post

The final line of your post is a natural and effective place for a call to action: you’re helping the reader decide what to do next. It’s crucial you don’t leave this to chance. After reading a post, the reader has lots of options open — including leaving your site altogether.

Some great closing lines are:

• What do you think about [topic]? Let us know in the comments below.
• If you enjoyed this post, please share it on Twitter by clicking on the “Tweet” button to the right.
• To find out more about this, read [link to another post on your blog]

#2: Throughout Your Post

You don’t just have to put calls to action at the end of your post. By including them earlier, you prime readers to take action, and get them thinking.

For instance:

• To introduce a list post: See what you think of these ten ideas (and add your own in the comments).
• To sell an ebook: I’ve just launched my new ebook, [title of ebook]. I’ll be saying a few words about that at the end of this post, but if you want to find out all about it now, you can click on this link [link to sales page].

Your own blog might be packed with great content … but it won’t be doing you much good if you don’t have any readers.

One of the best ways to bring readers to your blog is to write guest posts on larger, related, blogs. This not only gets your name and writing in front of people, it also helps your Google rankings (because you’ll get a link to your site from a high-pagerank blog).

If you’ve never guest-posted before, you might not know where to start. Here’s your step-by-step guide:

Step #1: Choose Your Target Blog

Some bloggers come up with an idea and write their post, then look for a blog that’s a good fit. But it’s more efficient to select your target blog first — because this will influence everything from your initial idea to your writing style.

A good target blog is large, on-topic, and clearly accepts guest posts (e.g. you’ve seen other people’s guest posts on that blog).

Step #2: Write Your Guest Post

As you write your guest post, keep in mind any guidelines from your target blog. (Most larger blogs will have guest post guidelines — try using the search box to find these if they’re not immediately obvious.)

Make your guest post focused and useful. Give it a clear structure (introduction, main body, conclusion) and try to write it in a similar style to that used by your target blog.

Step #3: Edit Your Post Carefully

Allow plenty of time for editing your post. You might even want to print it out so you can read it through on paper. Make sure the post flows well — you may find that you need to rearrange sentences or paragraphs to make your progression of ideas clearer.

Watch out for any clumsy phrasings or unclear sentences, as well as spelling mistakes and typos. If you can, get a friend to look over the post for you, so they can give you some feedback.

Step #4: Add Your Bio

Finally, don’t forget to include a bio. This is a sentence or two of text about you, usually written in the third person (for an example, just glance down to the final few words of this post, which start Ali Luke…)

It’s a good idea to tell readers who you are (e.g. “John Smith is a keen gardener…”) as well as giving them a link to a specific resource on your blog. That might be a free ebook, a great post, or a special landing page designed for them. Don’t just link to your main URL, because that’s not enough of an incentive for many people to click on your link.

So there you have it — a completed guest post. It’s as simple as that! Why not do some research today and find a great target blog for your first guest post?

The post A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Your First Guest Post appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

If you don’t write down your goals with clear instructions, your plans will be mere wishes.

I read the post Daniel brought to us to usher in the new year Write Down and Share Your Goals, and I thought it would be a good idea to expand on it to make sure you maximize the potential of your blog in 2014 by being specific about your goals.

Write down Your Goals

This might seem obvious and an echo of what Daniel said earlier, but this is still a very important step. You must be clear and concise with your goal writing. You can’t leave out anything, and you can’t imply it because your subconscious won’t understand it when you see it again.

It is best to have 5-10 goals in present tense, as active, affirmative statements.

• I post 3-5 posts a week on my blog…
• I earn $500-$1000 from my blog a month…
• I am a successful blogger…

Write the Time Frame You Want Your Goal Completed

To reiterate: If you aren’t specific about your goals, you are merely wishing. If your goals do not have a deadline (somewhere between 3 months to 1 year), you’re unlikely to reach them.

Some people are reluctant to set deadlines, but they do three things to help you along.

1. You will have the date in the back of your mind, even if you only write it once.
2. You will be accountable, which will motivate you more than fear or shame from others.
3. You will be able to prioritize your work accordingly.

If you say “I post 3-5 posts a week on my blog by March 31^st, 2014,” you are committing to do just that.

Write What You Will Do to Complete the Goal

Flesh out your goals so that they become real plans. Add a line to each of them explaining what exactly you plan to do.

If you say “I post 3-5 posts a week on my blog by March 31^st, 2014 by writing two short posts in the morning to create a back catalog,” you are now committing to what you’ll do and taking it upon yourself to adjust your morning routine to accomplish this.

Repeat Writing Your Goals until You Complete Them

There is something to be said about repetition. Through the act of writing your goals down every day, you are reinforcing your desire to do the task at hand. It will infuse your day with energy and emotion as you keep going through your day remembering what you wrote down.

It’s fine to change the wording of the goals, and their order, especially early on. You might have your posts goal in the number 3 position, but then the next day you have it in the number 6 position. Just keep writing them down. As your priorities change, so will your goals. This is a necessary part of the process.

Results!

I tested this out for myself from Sept. 1^st, 2013 to December 31^st, 2013. I wrote down 10 goals to start off with, but trimmed it down to 5 to make sure I could accomplish what I set out to do. They were:

• I am a successful writer, completing 5 stories to 2^nd draft by December 31^st, 2013 through dedicated morning writing and taking any opportunity I can to write during the day.
• I am a well-read person, completing 10 books on writing by December 31^st, 2013 through reading first thing in the morning as I wake up for 30 minutes each day.
• I am a learned person, earning two certificates through Coursera by December 31^st, 2013 through focused study and diligent note taking when the classes were released.
• I am a wiser saver, setting aside $2500 by December 31^st, 2013 through a tighter budget and setting aside at least 10% of my income (and whatever bonuses I acquire).
• I am a healthier person, weighing 200 pounds by December 31^st, 2013 through better eating and steady exercise.

I am pleased to say I completed four of the five goals I set out for me by December 31^st, 2013 (sadly, my love affair with burritos keeps me above 200 lbs).

With these steps, even just a few written goals can change your life.

Happy blogging! Once you’ve written down your goals, tell us about them in the comments.

The post 4 Steps to Creating Better Goals for Your Blog [Guest Post] appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.