Blogging

  • Growing Your Blog Following: I’ve Got Good and Bad News

    Just about every blogger would love to have a larger following. A bigger audience means we can get our message out to more people and ultimately, we can achieve more profit from our work. But when it comes to growing your following, I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news.

    The good news is, it’s not that difficult to grow your following.

    The bad news is, it’s going to take time and work, but if you’re willing to put in the time and effort, it will be well worth it.

    A lot of bloggers are so focused on the writing part of blogging; they neglect the work they need to grow their blog’s audience. While writing great content is a definite way to attract traffic and grow your word-of-mouth, it’s rarely enough. Make sure you dedicate time, effort and even some cash to growing your following.

    A few ways to get more eyeballs on your blog:

    – Make your RSS feed readily available and encourage visitors to sign up. You can have the obligatory RSS button in your side bar, but also encourage visitors to sign up in your posts and remind them directly how to sign up.

    – Build your mailing list. We’ll be talking about list building next as it is very important; probably even more important than your RSS feed. Unless you serve a real techie audience, more of your readers will email than use RSS, so make sure to ask your visitors to sign up every chance you get.

    – Make friends with others in your niche. Here’s another people never seem to take the time to do. Make meaningful friendship with other bloggers, product sellers and website owners in your niche. This means more than liking someone’s status on Facebook. It means talking directly with people and developing friendships.

    And why should you make friends? Well, it’s very simple. Friends are more likely to share your blog URL, your content and your products. So make lots of friends and do the same for them.

    – Use social media to supplement your following. It’s a sign of the times, but social media is often the focal point of many people’s web experiences, particularly younger generations. They go to Facebook or go to Twitter and they read blog posts, find news and other information there. You definitely want to be seen in social media, so there are a couple of things you can do:

    – Include sharing buttons on all your posts. That way your readers can pass your content onto their social media connections.

    – Get involved in a few strategic networks where you can reach a large part of your potential audience.

    – Buy ads. Sometimes buying traffic is the quickest way to growing your following. You can buy ads in newsletters, on other websites, on Facebook and even through Google Adwords. Don’t be afraid to spend a little money to make a lot.

    – Guest blogging and other content contributions. Contribute content to other people’s blogs, podcasts, reports and websites wherever you can. It’s an easy, free and effective way to reach new audiences and establish your credibility. Seek out opportunities that will give you a lot of exposure, but don’t turn your nose up at opportunities that allow you to reach small, but very targeted activities.

    As you can see, becoming a successful blogger isn’t just about blogging. It would be nice if we could just write and things fell into place, but it’s not how it works. Carve out time in every single work day to build your following.

    At Strategize Your Success we help entrepreneurs, coaches and small business owners with strategic goal setting, marketing and planning.  We know what struggles you face and offer solutions to help make your business THRIVE.
    Visit our website for information at  strategizeyoursuccess.com.

    [category_specific_rss_menu]

    Read more

  • Is Anybody Listening? How to Get More Comments on Your Blog

    It’s the frustration of many a blogger. They keep writing, writing, writing, but the comments are few and far between. If you’ve dealt with this, you may have felt like you were talking to yourself. I’ve been there myself, so know how you feel.

    The good news is that commenting is not a true indicator of success for anyone who blogs for profit. You can measure your success by whether or not you are reaching profit goals for your blog. The fact of the matter is, we can have a nice sized audience reading our content, appreciating it and taking action on it, but they may never leave a comment.

    Still, a nice steady stream of comments is good for community building and provides a sort of social proof for your blog. It shows that people are reading your content and like it, so others may follow suit. So the goal of increasing comments is a good one, as long as that is not your main focus in your blogging for profit journey.

    To help you, here are 14 ways you can encourage more comments on your blog:

    1. The first key to more comments is simple. It’s traffic. If you’re only getting a few hundred visitors per day or less, you probably won’t see a lot of comment activity. That doesn’t mean the traffic isn’t valuable, but it means you shouldn’t be alarmed by low comment volume. So your first step is to increase your traffic and we’ll actually talk about growing your following in the next post, so be sure to come back for that one.

    2. Ask questions in your posts. If you want people to leave a comment, ask them a direct question. Ask questions about things people are passionate about to get a bigger response.

    3. Use Controversy. When a post is controversial or shows a very strong opinion, that’s when you’ll find the commenters come out of the wood work. That doesn’t mean you have to be rude or offend, but just make people think and don’t be afraid to express yourself.

    4. Humor. Just like controversy, humor is something that gets people talking. Make people laugh and they’ll thank you, share their own jokes and more. Making people smile is a good thing too.

    5. Reply to comments. Think of comments as the start of a conversation. Where possible, reply to your comments and engage your readers. They’ll be more likely to come back and comment more if they feel like someone listens to and appreciates what they have to say.

    6. Make response posts. If you get a great comment that opens up a new discussion, make a new post out of it. It’s a continued conversation and encourages the same people to come back and add even more to the conversation.

    7. Ask friends and family to give you a boost. If you’re just getting started, ask people you know to come by and get a little discussion going. Others are more likely to speak up if they see others doing it too.

    8. Don’t require registration. If you feel you’re in need of comments, don’t put up barriers for your readers to make comments, including registration. Requiring registration just creates a couple more steps for someone before they comments and most people will simply click away, rather than bother.

    9. If comments are moderated, do it swiftly. If you moderate all your comments before they’re posted, make sure you do so quickly and frequently. Making people wait is a definite conversation killer.

    10. Consider using a Facebook commenting plugin. There are a variety of plugins that allow your readers to post their comments through Facebook. This can encourage discussion because the comments can appear on your visitor’s timelines and then their friends can join in the discussion as well. Just remember, not everyone has a Facebook account, so it’s a good idea to have other options too.

    11. Make it easy to reply directly to specific comments. Make sure that your commenting system is set up so people can comment to specific posts. It makes is easier to create sub-conversations from the main post and it’s also easier for your readers to follow the comments.

    12. Use your mailing list. Tell your subscribers about new blog posts and encourage them to come by. These are people who have already indicated they are interested in your content, so share it with them.

    13. Respect and encourage the opinions of others. People will disagree with you, but you can still respond respectfully and engage them in a discussion that is educational for both sides. It’s a great opportunity to show that you’re open to other ideas and you’re willing to discuss the issues.

    14. Acknowledge your regulars. If people comment more than once, welcome that back and thank them for their contribution. After all, by commenting they are contributing to your blog and making it more vibrant. Show you’re grateful for that and they’ll be back to do it again.

    Think of your blog as your community. If you want people to be active, you need to be a gracious host and be active yourself. While traffic will usually increase your comment volume, there are other things you can do to encourage comments from the visitors you already have.

    Read more

  • Using Images to Create Unique Blog Content

    Today’s web is far more visual than it was just 5, 7 or 10 years ago. These days, with faster Internet speeds and sophisticated mobile devices, it’s possible to use more images in your content. 

    In the past, you’d have to be worried about page load speeds and while you still need to aware of it today, more web users expect a more visual experience when consuming content. The good news is, not only do your readers expect it, using images also benefits you and your blog.

    Using images in your content has a number of benefits including:

    – They have visual appeal and grab attention.
    – Images can make people laugh, cry or bring out other emotions.
    – Personal pictures from your own life can create deeper connections with your readers.
    – Photos and screenshots can illustrate concepts and processes.
    – Your content is easier to absorb by visual learners.
    – Images break up your writing into easier to read written chunks.

    It’s easier than ever to make your own image and to find commercial-use images online…even for free…so there is no excuse not to start experimenting with them.

    A few ways to use images in your blogging:

    – Adding an image to the top of your posts can get attention, instantly provide clues as to what the content is and keep your readers interested.

    – If you’re creating how-to posts, you can use photos or screenshots to show each step or the critical steps in the process.

    – If you write reviews, add images of the product being used, the results of using the product, pictures of you with the product and more.

    – Upload a photo and have fun with it. Ask your readers to caption it.

    – Create eye-catching and thought-provoking images that you can use for social media and then link them to your content. Try adding quotations, funny sayings and giving them food for thought.

    – Get your readers to submit images. You can run photo contests, ask them to show them using your product and so forth.

    No one said you had to make or find all the images for your blog. 

    Of course, knowing how to quickly and easily find images is going to make this a lot easier.

    So here are a few ideas and resources for you: 

    Obviously, you can make your own. Sometimes an iPhone or mobile phone works, but it doesn’t hurt to invest in a good camera to produce top quality images.

    – Take screenshots. You can take a picture of anything you do on your computer and edit the screenshot with any graphics editing program.

    – Pay for stock photos at sites like iStockPhoto and BigStockPhoto. Some of the photos can be a bit on the expensive side, but the image quality is very good and they have a good selection.

    – There are also free stock photos sites that offer a pretty decent selection. Try sites like Stock.xchng, MorgueFile.com and Public-Domain-Photos.com.

    – If you use the advanced image search on Google Images, you can search by “usage rights” and look for images that are “labeled for commercial use”. Be aware that the search may not always be accurate and you should double check image licenses before using them. Attribution may be required and there may be other restrictions.

    – You can do a similar advanced search on Flickr for commercially available images. Just like with a Google Images search, make sure to double check all licenses.

    There are many uses for images and plenty of sources where you can find them for little to no cost, so there’s no excuse for not using them in your blogging. Test different types of images for different purposes and see what works well for you. You may find you have a more engaged and interested audience as a result.

    Read more

  • Beat Blogger’s Block: Fifteen Blog Topic Brainstorming Methods

    There’s nothing worse than sitting down at your computer and finding you have absolutely nothing to write about. And even though you might be a prolific blogger, it happens to all of us at one point or another. The great thing is that there are plenty of brainstorming methods we can use to hear the tap, tap, tap of our keyboards again.

    Here are 15 of those methods

    1. Be ready anytime. It’s funny how blogging ideas strike as at odd times. Sometimes, it’s when we’re watching a movie or standing in line at the bank. Other times, it might be when we’re exercising or watching our kid’s soccer game. While you can’t always take the time to blog the moment an idea strikes, you can certainly take note of those great ideas. Always keep a notebook with you or keep your mobile device handy. You can write down your ideas in the notes feature of your device or use the audio recorder for later review, if you prefer. It doesn’t matter how you record your ideas, just make sure you do.

    2. Expand. There is always so much more that can be said on just about any topic. If you’ve written a popular post about teaching children how to save money and it turns out to be very popular, do more with it. You can expand on each point you made in the original post, create budget spreadsheets for kids, recommend related products and so much more. Always leverage the work you’ve done in the past to create more of what your audience wants now.

    3. Fill your RSS reader. Other bloggers can be a great source of inspiration. Fill your RSS reader with blogs in your niche and scan them regularly to find the hot topics and latest news that you can incorporate into your own blog.

    4. Take or share a picture. There is so much truth to the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Pictures can evoke emotions, make people think and get them to pay attention. If you don’t feel like writing, take a picture or share one you already have. Let the picture tell your story.

    5. Ask questions. It’s one of the easiest types of posts to make and they often get the best response. Instead of lecturing to your audience, ask them a question instead. Think of something controversial or something they’ll be passionate about and ask them their opinion.

    6. Accept questions. Create a submission form so that your readers can submit questions to you. It’s an easy way to come up with ready-made topic ideas that you know that your audience is ALREADY interested in. Include your readers name and blog (if they have one) to give them a little recognition and exposure as well.

    7. Write a response to someone else’s post. Once again, the writing of other bloggers can be a great inspiration. If you read a post that you really resonate with or one you vehemently disagree with, you’ve got yourself a brand new topic idea. Of course, if you happen to disagree with a blogger and you don’t want to burn any bridges, always state your case logically and respectfully. Not only is it good content for your readers, but it could be the start of a mutually beneficial relationship with the other blogger.

    8. Have regular topic brainstorming sessions. Coming up with topics on the fly is hard. If you don’t already have that great idea before you sit in front of the screen, you may find yourself dumbfounded, distracted and the next thing you know, a few hours have gone by. Instead, set aside time each week or each month to brainstorm topic ideas. Once you get one idea, it’s easier to come up with more, so making brainstorming a focused activity is very beneficial.

    9. Reintroduce old topics and give a new reason to read it. When you’re super busy, you may not have time to write something new. But if you’ve been blogging for a while, certainly you have a nice library of great posts that much of your audience has probably never seen. Let’s say you’ve been talking to your readers about the importance of composting lately and your readers are really responding to this. Turns out, you wrote about 5 posts on the topic in the past 3 years. This is the perfect opportunity to point your readers to those posts. It’s likely new information for them, but even if they read it before, it’s a great refresher and extra exposure for your existing content.

    10. Interview someone. Instead of you answering the questions all the time, interview someone else. You can interview popular bloggers or experts in your niche, bringing your readers some new perspective and valuable content. You can even ask your readers to help you with the questions you’ll ask in the interview, so they can be part of the interview process as well.

    11. Conduct a case study. A case study allows you to showcase a clients or customers experience with your product, service or advice. It not only provides useful information to your audience, it’s also a source of social proof because your readers can see that you are actually helping real live people. Always keep track of your success stories so that you can showcase them in a case study.

    12. Let someone guest post on your blog. Be open to the idea of having guest bloggers on your blog. Many bloggers will write for free, in return for a byline and link back to their website. Just be selective in the guest posts you publish. It’s your blog and reputation on the line, so choose posts that understand your audience well and delivery exactly the kind of content your readers are looking for.

    13. Review a product. If you’ve recently tried a product that you think would be of interest to your readers, review it. Audiences appreciate detailed and honest reviews from someone they trust (you). Not only do reviews provide your readers with valuable consumer information, you can earn commissions through your recommendations as well.

    14. Search current news and relate it to your topic. In addition to adding bloggers to your RSS feed, you can also sign up for topic notifications from various news sites. For example, at Google News, you can customize their site, so they show more of the stories you’re interested in, you can sign up for RSS feeds in specific categories and more. Staying up-to-date in your niche is crucial and there are plenty of tools to make it quick and easy for you.

    15. Share content and add your commentary. For super easy content on the fly, all it takes is a trip to YouTube, SlideShare or EzineArticles and you can find useful content to share with your readers. Be sure to add your own commentary, so your readers know why you’re sharing it and so they get your unique perspective.

    Coming up with fresh and interesting content, is an important job for any blogger and it’s easy to get stuck sometimes.

    Read more

  • 10 Ways You Can Monetize Your Blog

    How do you make money from your blog?

    A lot of people start blogs without any monetization plan in mind. While that can be corrected, it’s always easier if you’re clear on how you will monetize from the beginning.

    To give you some ideas, here are 10 ways you can monetize your blog:

    1. Sell Advertising: Many bloggers capitalize on their traffic by selling advertising for their blog. This works well for high traffic blogs that can attract high paying advertisers. It is often the choice of bloggers who don’t want to do any selling on their blog and want to focus solely on content. Still, there is selling involved in attracting advertisers and there is plenty of work involved in serving advertising clients.

    2. Affiliate Marketing: A common choice for many is to go the affiliate marketing route by earning commissions through recommending products. Many bloggers place ads in their side bars, at the bottom of posts and so forth, but the affiliates who make the most money make product recommendations directly to their audience. They write about products, recommend relevant products in their posts and so forth.

    3. Product Sponsorship – Sponsorship is a similar concept to advertising, but in many cases, no money exchanges hands. Instead, bloggers are treated to free product in return for mentioning their product, running a giveaway and so forth. Many large and small companies are actively looking for the opportunity to reach their target audience through bloggers, so there is plenty of opportunity to enjoy a variety of perks.

    4. Sponsored Posts – Like successful bloggers, many companies understand that the most premium ad space on a blog is the blog post itself. Sure, you can put ad banners in your sidebar, but those are most likely to be ignored because people focus on your content. That’s why many companies are willing to pay for the opportunity to post on your blog. Sponsored posts are usually more commercial in nature, but as the blog owner, you ultimately decide which posts you will accept and which you won’t.

    5. Bolster Your Product Sales – If you already have an existing online business where you sell your own products, a blog can be the perfect complement to this. Engaging your audience, building a more loyal relationship and educating them on your product is a win-win for everyone.

    6. Ebooks and Info Products – If you’re into blogging, chances are you love writing. This is the perfect path to creating your own information products and ebooks. You can sell them on your website, through Kindle, Smashwords and more. If your blog readers love your content, they’ll love to get even more that they can add to their mobile device and take wherever they go.

    7. Contextual Advertising – You’ve probably heard of Google Adsense and Chitika. These are advertising networks that display content on your pages. The ads displayed are related to the topics of your specific blog posts…thus, the term “contextual”. Working with an ad network means you don’t have to find your own advertisers and you don’t have to deal with client service either. It’s all taken care of by the ad network and you get a percentage of the profits. Or you can maximize your revenue by displaying contextual ads and accepting advertisers on your blog as well.

    8. Blogging for Pay – One of the simplest ways to start earning money from blogging right away is to simply be a blogger for hire. It’s a guaranteed way to get paid for your work, but it doesn’t have the scalability that doing your own blogging does over time. After all, as a blogger for pay, you only get paid when you blog and most jobs don’t pay incredibly well. Still, it’s a great place to get started and start earning money almost right away.

    9. Feeding Traffic to a Mailing List – You may have heard the term, “the money is in list” and it’s absolutely true. Growing your own email subscribers list ensures that you have a growing audience of people that you can keep in touch with over and over again. Many bloggers keep their focus on content on their blog and simply funnel people into the mailing list, so they can make offers and sell products via email. Email marketing is an important topic, so we’ll definitely be talking about it in a later post.

    10. Speaking – While many bloggers prefer to communicate with their fingertips to the keyboard, many also have a very commanding presence and enjoy speaking to audiences. Speaking is definitely a good skill to cultivate as it can be very profitable. Whether you run your own webinars or speak at various live events, having an active blog following can help you bring more people to your speaking events and increase your income.

    Certainly, this isn’t an exhaustive list of the possible ways to profit from a blog because every blogger and business is different but hopefully these 10 ways to monetize your blog were helpful. You might just use one idea to start with, but most successful bloggers use a combination of a few or more ways to monetize their opportunities. The key is to start exploring ideas, testing them out and further developing those methods that work for you.

    Read more

  • Do you really know your “why” for blogging?

    Do You Know Why You Blog? I Mean Really Know…

    It seems kind of like a silly question, but I would guess that most bloggers don’t know the true reason why they blog. And because of that, they flounder and don’t earn as much as they’d hoped.

    I’m hoping that our discussion today will help you dig really deep and help you find the answers, so you can move even closer to the success you’ve always dreamed of.

    For many, the road to blogging starts with the thought, “Hey, I’d like to have my own blog.” They see another successful blogger and make all kinds of assumptions on how (and if) that blogger earns money and decides they’ll do it themselves too.

    But the problem is, there is no plan. 

    There is no plan to create a focused online presence. 

    There is no plan to grow a faithful audience. 

    And worst of all, there is no financial plan.

    Whether you’re just getting started or you’ve been blogging for a while, it pays (literally) to take a step back and really examine WHY you’re blogging to ensure you’re on the right track to achieve your goals.

    While there are some examples of bloggers who blog their random daily thoughts and grow a large readership, it’s not the norm.

    The most successful blogs have a focus and something unique to deliver to their audience. So even if you are a mom who blogs about their adventures in motherhood or you’re a student who writes about student life, finding a key focus and unique perspective is what will help you grow a faithful audience.  

    Have an edge, have a point of view and deliver something unique to your audience. It’s your uniqueness that will draw people to you.

    Still, being unique isn’t going to magically make your audience grow. You can’t make a few blog posts this week and expect to be Dooce, Problogger or Techcrunch next week.

    Growing your audience takes time, hard work and even some money. We’re going to be talking about growing your following in a later post, so we’ll be visiting this topic again. If you’re satisfied with a few hundred readers on your blog, that’s perfectly fine, but if you want to have an audience of thousands or tens of thousands, you have to have a plan to get there.

    And finally, a lack of financial plan is the kiss of death when it comes to blogging for profit. Knowing your monetization plan before you start makes it easier to shape your blog around those plans.

    For example, if you plan to sell advertising, designing your blog with this in mind makes it easier to add advertisers when you’re ready. You also need large traffic numbers to earn good money through advertising, so a traffic plan needs to be in place too.

    In my next post, I’ll talk about monetization methods and this should help you carve out a financial plan for yourself. 

    If you’ve been blogging and you’re thinking to yourself that you haven’t really thought some or all of these things through below, don’t worry. All is not lost.

    While it’s easier to start with a concrete plan from the outset, everything can be corrected. That’s the beauty of the Internet…everything can be changed and it doesn’t have to cost much to do it. If this describes you, start brainstorming now.

    What makes you unique in your niche? Why do people come to read your stuff?

    How will you grow your audience?

    How will your blog make you money?

    Just write as many ideas you can for each and don’t worry if the ideas don’t flow quickly right now. Keep those brainstorming sheets as we talk about these topics in more depth in the coming posts. You’ll have plenty more ideas by the time I’m finished here. 🙂

    Read more