Archive for the ‘Blogging Tips’ Category
by Guest Author on March 22nd, 2010
This is a guest post written by Ann Smarty, founder of My Blog Guest, a community for guest bloggers.
Accepting guest posts on your blog is a great way to give your site fresh insight and to offer some variety. Most of popular blogs in any niche take advantage of guest contributions for a few reasons:
- Guest authors bring in new ideas and unique style. They also contribute some new information you were not aware of (and thus make your blog comprehensive). Here’s a simple example: as a search expert I am aware of quite a few search tricks few people know or use. Therefore my post on using Google creatively to save money on a popular personal finance blog seemed so fresh and interesting to the blog author and the readers.
- Guest contributions allow you to take a day off. No, seriously, blogging is a continuous commitment. It is so refreshing to take some rest and relax while keeping your blog updated. I do agree you shouldn’t overuse that because your blog might lose voice but keeping one day a week for guest contributions is a great idea!
- Guest contributions can be an awesome source of inspiration. You blog daily and a day comes when you realize you don’t know what to write about. You have no ideas and everything that comes to mind have already been covered. Now imagine that a new person enters your community and offers something completely different. Or maybe he even writes something that you have already mentioned – but he uses a unique style, a different perspective and a new format. And your readers find that awesome! Now you feel inspired! You feel you know how to re-use your previously published ideas to find new ones and how to re-think your previously published opinions to spur new discussion.
So I guess, the benefits of accepting guest posts are quite clear. Now, let see how to do that painlessly, almost effortlessly and to the maximum efficiency. Read More
Categories: Blogging Tips
Tags: Ann Smarty, guest post, guest posting, My Blog Guest, tips
by Dee Barizo on March 21st, 2010
I sometimes hear bloggers say they don’t do keyword research. They have various reasons for ignoring this fundamental SEO strategy.
They say it’s too boring and laborious. They’re afraid it will make their writing too wooden and stiff. They believe it stifles their creativity as a wordsmith. They want to focus on their writing without resorting to a crutch.
They are similar to some of the writers I know who won’t use a thesaurus. (My response has always been, “Don’t you want to use every available writing tool?” I understand that it’s not good to use the thesaurus too much but I don’t see what’s wrong with using it occassionally.)
Many of these bloggers don’t really care about getting more search traffic so the traffic benefits from keyword research falls on deaf ears. But I’m here to tell you that keyword research, instead of stifling your writing, actually makes you a better writer.
Read More
Categories: Blogging Tips
Tags: keywords, seo, Sunday Morning SEO
by Darnell Clayton on March 19th, 2010
If there is anything I hate more than content thieves, it’s spammers!
Unlike the former who simply steal your content and claim it as their own, spammers attempt to destroy your site by linking to either “enhancements,” products or their own sad blog.
Since many bloggers power their weblogs with Blogger (aka BlogSpot) or WordPress (both WP.com and WP.org), here are 3 tips to help keep your blog free from spammers (and perhaps make them cry). Read More
Categories: Blogging Tips
Tags: Blogger, spam, wordpress
by Jennifer Brown Banks on March 19th, 2010
It happens to the best of us. We start our blogs with childlike enthusiasm, super geeked to have our own online “space” that is totally ours and where we can finally be heard and uncensored.
Let’s face it, in real life our words of wisdom often fall upon deaf ears. Our mates have us on “mute” buttons, our kids think we’re from a different world, and our families know too much about us to care.
But on line we can strut our stuff, be the divas we dare to be. We can even take on a whole new personality if we choose.
So you start this blog thing, and actually find that some folks are digging what you have to say. Okay, so maybe it’s just the creepy guy with stalker tendencies that lives in your building, and your Avon rep, but still, it’s somebody.
Because practice often makes perfect, you find that the more you blog the better you become. Then 2 “fans” become 5, 5 become 10, and 10 become 20. You hit your stride and then people start talking. Before you know it, you’ve actually built a little “following” along the way.
Then comes the pressure… Read More
Categories: Blogging Tips
Tags: Blogging Tips, Guides
by David Krug on March 17th, 2010
We’ve all made mistakes when it comes to our blogging careers. No one is perfect. Mistakes are natural. Some of us leave our blogs to rot on the vine, after inspiring so much greatness. It’s tantamount to meeting an amazing girl at the bar only to find out she’s a prude. It’s a terrible heartache. Others of us have Post Blog Sale Depression Disorder.
Then there are some of us who just plain fall off the face of the planet. No worries, it happens to the best of us. There is hope however. A few years ago I fell off the face of the planet ended up in a podunk town in Mexico, with a cervecia in one hand, and a cuban cigar in another. Picking up the ashes of a cumulative stretch of poor decisions. There is a path to get back into the swing of things. There is a path to redemption. It takes hard work. Just like any bad habit can be beat so can beating your bad habits around your blogging career. The relationships might never be able to be restored, but new relationships can be kindled, and consistency and trust can be earned again. Read More
Categories: Blogging Tips
Tags: Advice, Blogging Tips, Career
by Franky Branckaute on March 15th, 2010
For months I have been receiving emails sent via the contact form of one site for Blogger Jobs. Dee covered the advantages of cold call guest posts in his SEO Sunday column and as can be read in the comments, although the cold call strategy can work, there certainly are disadvantages as well. Mainly for site editors and owners.
If I received a guest post from an unknown player in my niche, I would delete it almost as if it were spam.
My energy is better spent focusing on long-term relationship strategies as opposed to a few links.
As Barry Deutsch mentions in his comment, the yield of cold calls is very low and often it’s a bigger waste of time on our end, because of the poor quality submitted, than for the application/submitter. This brings me back to the daily emails of writers interested in a paid blogging gig that land in my inbox. Let’s start the week with a selection of how not to ‘cold call’ apply for a blogging gigs. The best of 8 months of email applications and yes it’s a list. It’s also Monday.
Words fail me. Maybe it would be a good start NOT TO SHOUT AT ME WHEN TRYING TO LAND A BLOGGING GIG!!!!!1!!!1 Read More
Categories: Blogging Tips
Tags: Blogging Jobs, Blogging Tips
by Dee Barizo on March 14th, 2010
I’ve argued before that writing guest posts is the best SEO strategy for bloggers. But how can you implement a guest posting campaign that’s both efficient and effective?
In this post, I’ll share my favorite method of guest posting that’s given me a lot of link building success. I call it the “Cold Call Guest Post Method”.
It’s probably not the best name since cold calling has bad connotations. But the method has worked very well for me and the bloggers I targeted have been very happy with my guest posts.
Read More
Categories: Blogging Tips
Tags: guest posting, link building, seo, Sunday Morning SEO
by Franky Branckaute on March 9th, 2010
Ever since Ars Technica raised the issue there has been a higher focus by bloggers on blocking adblockers. Say that 5 times in a row quickly: ‘ focus by bloggers on blocking adblockers’.
The issue is obviously an important one, especially for many bloggers who make a living from their content, but at the same time it is a total and utter waste of time and takes away from what self-employed online authors should be doing, write valuable content. Some content producers even go as far as calling adblock users ‘thief’.
The issue of adblockers, and ‘lost revenue’ is rather simple to break down and although I entirely support sites relying on ads revenue, all I can say about this is to Get over it.
Before you get upset now, let me honestly tell you that my blogging revenues depend mainly on ad revenue, but I also use ClickToFlash to improve my web experience and thus regularly block ads. Feel free to call me a thief, if I steal I also steal revenue of myself.
Decisive About Adblock Usage Statistics Is The Niche You Are In
The main decisive factor about the popularity of adblockers on your site is the niche you are in. When your content is tech focused, whether about new gadgets or about blogging (platforms), you probably will have more readers using Firefox and other standard compliant browsers, and also adblockers. Chances are high that you have also used an adblocker, during your many years online, or use a plugin such as ClickToFlash to at least limit the annoyances of Flash.
Tech minded users, surfers are the most active and often most prolific ones. They read sites such as Lifehacker and usually stay up-to-date about what the fastest browser is and how they can tweak their browser and internet connection, or network settings, to enjoy the fastest browsing experience. Read More
Categories: Blogging Tips
Tags: Ads, content, Revenue, Strategy
by Dee Barizo on March 7th, 2010
A couple weeks ago, I published my regular post on a recurring event in my niche. The event was a product release that comes out about once every three months. Typically, I rank right away for the relevant keywords because most of my competitors are not very knowledgeable about SEO. However, this time I did not get my usual traffic spike.
So, being the curious cat that I am :), I did some investigating.
I looked at the search engine results page (SERP) for the most relevant keyword and saw that my post was not in the top 50 results. Instead, a site had scraped (copied through automatic means) the opening sentences of my blog entry and was ranking on the third results page. Also, they cloaked their post. In other words, they redirected it to a unrelated product.
Read More
Categories: Blogging Tips
Tags: scraper, seo, spam, Sunday Morning SEO
by Dee Barizo on February 21st, 2010
Creating content that attracts links is one of the most efficient ways to build links. Link building is usually a time consuming task so anything that makes it easier is a welcome strategy.
If you read about linkworthy content, you’ll often find articles about the qualities the content should have. For example, some SEO experts talk about using humor or controversy. Others say you should be the first to scoop the latest news while there’s another camp that recommends giveaways and contests.
While these tips can definitely help, I favor a more pragmatic approach. I like to look at the content in my niche (including my own) that’s already getting links and then create similar content. I like this tactic because it takes a lot of the guesswork out of the equation.
Read More
Categories: Blogging Tips
Tags: content, link building, seo, Sunday Morning SEO
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