Miscellaneous Blog Tips's archives

Writing your first blog post

by moneyvelator | April 20th, 2008 

A newbie in this world of blogging asked me what should his first post be about? Well, in my opinion, the first post is very important because it your blog’s tone. So, here’s what i’ve answered him :
1. Don’t forget to mention who you are!

identity.JPG

Photo by Pepitoid

You should introduce yourself to your potential blog’s readers and tell them something about your business. Sharing some photos with you and providing as many information about yourself and your business will make things easier for the readers to trust you.

2. Why you are blogging?

This is one of the most important questions, because it forces you to spell out your intentions to your audience. Trust me, if you won’t gain your readers trust, they won’t be coming to your blog, so that you can make money on their backs.

3. What’s your niche?

Will you be blogging about your business, or perhaps the lifestyles of your customers? That’s not a difficult question. Answering the above questions makes the reader to be focused on what the goal of your blog is.

4. How I can leave feedback?

Spell out some contact details and don’t be afraid to encourage feedback, and even disagreement. But do everything you can to make sure that my feedback is appreciated, and encouraged.

3 Simple Steps To Build a Successful Niche Blog

by moneyvelator | April 4th, 2008 

blog-photos.jpgSometimes managing and creating content on a niche blog can be tricky. What does that mean ? Well, it means designing a blog dedicated to a specific topic that only a certain group of people will appreciate and will be interested in it. Below you have 3 simple steps in creating a successful niche blog, using a few tried and tested ways. Here we go.

1. Knowing what you want to write about.
It’s very important to know what you write about and to have a strong passion for a certain topic. Don’t stop with what you already know, strive to become an expert about your passion. Read more and learn more. This is a very important step in creating a niche blog that offers quality and reliable content. By doing this you’ll also build yourself a great online reputation.

2. Generating traffic.
The traffic of your blog depends on several things and to achieve your goal, you should pay a close attention to them. Here are some methods of generating traffic :

- Providing quality content
A quality content is always bringing important traffic to your blog, and you know why? Because people like useful, smart and reliable articles and they appreciate when the information is written in a unique form.

- Building relationships.
The more relationships you build, the more people you’ll attract. Read and comment other blogs in order to build links to your blog. It’s simple!

3. Monetizing your blog.
If you provide quality content and you’re a good blogger, there’s no reason why you sholdn’t make money with your niche blog. After a couple of months, and after an important traffic is generated, you should start selling advertisement spaces. Trust me, there are plenty of internet companies that will appreciate the traffic you’ll bring to them and will pay you for it.

6 reasons why it’s best to use images in your posts

by moneyvelator | January 25th, 2008 

karakiri_blog_456347534.jpgUse usually forget to add images to our post, but this just isn’t right. Surprisingly or not, images are very important, there are plenty of reasons your should use then and i will try to give you 6 of them.

So, let’s not waste time and let’s see the 6 big reasons why you should use images in every single post of your blog :

1. Images attract more attention and curiosity.
From my own experience, when i visit a site or i am just browsing through some blogs, i usually pass the posts that doesn’t have an image. Why ? Because i think it is lame not to use it. By using images in your posts, you get people to read your content when they might not otherwise.

2. People are getting bored by a huge mass of words.
Trust me, nobody would like to read paragraph after paragraph. People are getting bored very fast of those articles, and they’ll need some breaks. Images can be the break that they are looking for. When using images, your blog looks a whole more interesting. Think a little, if a new visitor comes to your site, and he will see those attractive images, it creates a perfect first impression.

3. An image can tell more than words.
When a reader isn’t sure what is he reading about, an image can help clear things up a bit. An image can tell more than words. It you’re talking about a confusing concept or a complicated contraption, having an image of the thing in your article it can help clarify things too.

4. Images can bring you search engine traffic.
If tagged correctly, an image can bring you a lot of targeted visitors from seach engines.

5. Images can fill up some space.
It not used for any of the reasons i’ve mentioned until #5, than here’s a good one. If you write a short post and don’t want it to look like something sloppy you didn’t work on, adding an image instantly gives the article a professional feel.

6. Why shouldn’t you use images in your posts ?
There’s no reason of not using images in your posts. Just give me a reason why you shouldn’t do that and i will defenetly think about it.

I will be waiting for your comments guys, and i hope this one has been very useful.

5 Best Plugins To Get More Comments

by moneyvelator | January 16th, 2008 

comments2_w.gifAs you well know, comments are one of the most important element of blogging, and bloggers love to see their articles commented. But, think a little. Who will try to leave a comment if you commenting areas are boring ? Try to make them more enjoyable, to encourage more people to comment and to return to your blog to check if they receive any replies.

1. Visual Text Editor

As i’ve told you before, the default comments field is very boring and quite limited. Don’t worry, this can be fixed with NicEdit (30kb in size) which is a full featured text editor. Using this plugin is a lot much easier to format a comment, so don’t hessitate to use it.

2. Subscribe To Comments

Subscribing to comments lets you keep track of the most important ones. The best part is that it’s a good way to bring people back to your blog, to check if they received a reply to their comments. Subscribe to Comments plugin can be found here.

3. Post Comments Via AJAX

AJAX allows the comment to be posted without reloading, and that is a good thing because it save time. Oh, and this plugin will also give the commenters the chance to head off to other pages on your blog before they get bored.

4. List Recent Comments

A sidebar widget listing the latest comments on your blog can be a good way of showing that your blog is alive, but also that you take the time to interact with your readers. Download it from here.

5. Add User Avatars

A single comment can get lost quite easily so it’s best to use avatars add distinction between individual comments. This plugin will also give you a little smile on your lips when you start seeing faces you recognise. Use : MBLA (for Wordpress users).

I hope this tips will help you a lot in increasing your blog comments.

8 Steps to follow in order to brand your blog

by moneyvelator | December 3rd, 2007 

As we well know, a blog is a place where we share ideas and informations, it’s the perfect place to reflect at our online identity. The design, content and even the broader message gives your blog an identity and it defines our overall image, which in marketing terminilogy this is called “the brand”.

Here are some 8 steps to follow in order to brand your blog :

  1. Your brand strategy definition : What image do you want your brand to inspire? As a matter of fact this thing depends on how do you want other people to view your online presence, a professional one or a fun and family-oriented. You’ll need to define your brand, so the first step is to determine how you like others to view your and your blog.
  2. Create a blog design that suits prefectly to your brand strategy : You have to ensure that your blog’s design communicates your brand image by using graphics and fonts that enhance your brand message. So, don’t use cute clipart images or bubble fonts to a professional financial blog, it’s not right and your brand message will be detracted from the design.
  3. Write content that fits to your brand strategy: Content is the key, no matter what kind of blog you have so every post you publish should reflect your brand image and message. If you have inconsistent messaging, readers will get confused. Consumers need to feel secure with a brand which leads to brand loyalty. Use consistent content messaging to build loyalty to your blog and your brand.
  4. Develop your brand’s image throught appropriate networking and promotion all around the net :
    Your brand need to become known not only in your blog, so you’ll have to find a way to promote it outside your blog. A good way to do that is by commenting on other blogs with messages that are consistent with your brand and through social media sites and networking that similarly capture your brand image.
  5. Build links through your content, your blogroll and your off-blog promotion to further drive your brand message: Every blogger knows the power of links so you’ll have to be very careful with the links you include in your blogroll. For example, don’t add a celebrity gossip blog link to your leadership blog. If you must link to sites that don’t consistently communicate your brand image, list them separately under different headings such as ‘Just for Fun.’
  6. Short term financial monetization damage your brand in the long term : There are a lot of bloggers who want to make money from their blogging efforts, but many blog monetization tactics cand detract from a blog’s brand image. Covering your blog with links, paid ads or paid post is the easiest way to reduce the legitimacy of your blog. The best way to monetize is by using ads minimally and effectively to meet your financial goals without destroying the quality of your brand.
  7. Extend your brand to all parts of your online presence: First, your brand image starts online through your blog but after a while it extends to every part of your online presence. Things you have written today could live for a very, very long time so be sure that if you conduct offline activities that refer to your blog ensure those activities communicate your brand image and message as well.
  8. Live your brand promise: A long term strategy is the best for branding a blog/site. Executing tactics today will help you reaching the goals in the future. Creating a strong brand presence online can lead to opportunities in the future, which may even carry into offline endeavors. Write down your long term goals. Then determine the brand promise that will help you attain those goals. Next, start living that brand promise in all of your online and offline activities.

Now here comes the question : does your blog effectively communicate your brand? I’m sure after you’ve read this articles, you need to make some changes.

List with 99 blog topics

by moneyvelator | November 10th, 2007 

Sometimes, comming up with your blog topic can be the hardes part of blogging. So , here is a list of 99 blog topics , where you can chose from when you just don’t know how to clasificate your blog. The thing you have to remember is that your blog topic should be something that you enjoy, know enough about to write quality content and you won’t run out of material.

1. Internet
2. Technology
3. Computers
4. Software
5. Sports
6. Finance
7. Entertainment
8. Windows
9. Linux
10. OSX
11. PC Hardware
12. Apple Computers
13. Tech Gadgets
14. Voice over IP News
15. FOREX Trading
16. NYSE
17. Travel
18. Hunting
19. Fishing
20. Golf

…read full articles of "List with 99 blog topics"

5 Items Your Blog Sidebar Must Have

by moneyvelator | November 9th, 2007 

Here are the five items your sidebar has to feature, in priority order:

  1. RSS Feed Link - Where do you look for the feed link when you see a new blog? Where is your blog feed link? Yes, as an additional location have the feed link under each post, but you absolutely have to have it in your sidebar, above the fold. Bonus points for doubling up both a text link and the traditional RSS graphic button.
  2. Email subscription option - At least half my subscribers sign up via email. Putting an email form, or at least a link, could well boost your subscriber count by a large percentage.
  3. Flagship Content - To get a flavor for what a blog is about we will look to see what there is to read. You need flagship content, cornerstone, ever green or whatever you want to call it. Put your best stuff, or popular links, right in the sidebar with a title that lets readers know what they are.
  4. About page - When I read a new blog I want to know what the blog is about, who it is by and why I should care. I particularly like when I can put a face to the name. Link through to your full about page.
  5. Categories - Best to use category names that beg to be clicked, mean something to the reader and even better also contain some searchable phrase. Consider how many categories called “misc” or “other” you see!

Do you agree or not ?

9 Tips to Improve Your Blog

by moneyvelator | October 31st, 2007 

We are all trying to improve our blogs even if some of us uses different ways than other ones. Here’s a list with what i think we should do to improve our blogs.

1. Be personal , but not too much

For example, on business or a themed around making money online blog don’t start posting pictures of your baby or anything that is too personal. Obviously readers of such a blog aren’t interested in how your baby look or things like that, so personal matters will just seem out of place.

2. Be generous to your readers

The best self promote is by promoting others, and helping others achieve what you can or may achieve. By helping others when they request, you will achieve what you really want. Basically give your readers what they wan’t : shout-outs, links, forget Google, think people. So, focus on your readers and providing genuine value for them, do this and I cannot see how you can fail.

3. Make your subscription options clear and visual

I believe the absolute core aspect of a blog should be to get more readers. Without readers, you have; no comments, no community, no feedback, no income. Readers are the core element to a blog, beyond anything else.

4. Write unique (or at least) content

With a lot of blogs around the internet, it’s kinda hard to write content that is so unique that it’s not been said a million times before. Don’t just give in to social blogging standards and blog about what everyone else is blogging about.

5. Use a good grammar

Grammar isn’t a huge issue for some people. So if you’re grammar is sloppy, why give them the satisfaction of leaving your blog for such a trivial reason or the satisfaction of trying to put you down. Wordpress has a spellcheck built in and obviously there are tons of free grammar tools online if you just look for them.

6. Write list posts

A lot of people like to read a good list post because it’s easier to read, usually very helpful in a quick information digest type way and are just nice little trivial posts to provide your readers with. Write list posts now and then to add some quick reading value.

7. Too many ads won’t keep your readers

The content ruled by ads will defenetly kill-off some of your readers. I don’t know what people think when they see a site full of ads ,but the content of your blog is why they come to your blog so it is a bit insulting to compromise their reading quality by shoving image ads, affiliate links, Kontera ads all over posts. Am i right ? Put yourself in their position.

8. Answer questions

If your readers ask questions don’t avoid the answer, just do it fast and simple.Whether they request support through email or posts comments, it’s still important. Don’t take a single reader for granted because soon you’ll be taking 2, 5, 10 readers for granted. Help people out, make your blog an essential blog community to be a part of and communicate with your readers.

9. Popular Articles / Posts Plugin

Having a Popular Articles plugin I think can really help keep people on your blog for longer. You can show off your best work. So even if they don’t like what they see right away, they may be intrigued by some of your most popular post titles.

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Submitting Blogs to Directory Sites

by moneyvelator | October 19th, 2007 

As you well know , there are a lot of site directories out there and I’ve also tried to submit my blog to some of them , but it takes a lot of time and i usually don’t get the result i wanted.
It can be quite annoying submitting one form after the other for each blog, and i think the best way is to submit them to the popular blog directory sites first such as:

http://www.blogcatalog.com
http://www.blogdirs.com
http://www.blogtoplist.com
http://www.blog-directory.org

I usually submit my blogs to this directories first , and to be honest with you to save time i use the free version of Directory Submitter , which can be found here. It’s an interesting program that give you the possibility to scroll through some popular directories. It can be useful sometimes.

What should you do before writing a post?

by moneyvelator | October 8th, 2007 

blogcover1.jpgOriginal and quality content is the most important thing that should preocupate you when you write a blogpost so you need to focus a little when your post an article. You will need to relax your mind and stay away from all the things that can and will distract you while writing a post.

Here are some steps you should follow :

1. Close all your instant messengers
The most annoying thing is to get IMs while writing a post. Somebody asks you something or want some tips and you just can’t concentrate on blogging when IMs pop up. So closing all instant messengers before blogging is the solution.

2. Lower the Music Volume
I listen to music everytime my PC is on, but while i blog , i usually lower the volume so i can concentrate more on the post that i write.

3. Sign out of Gmail Notifier
If you are using Gmail and you have the Gmail Notifier plugin installed you’d better sign out of it , because it will prevent you from checking for new mails while writing a post.

4. Drink juice
I drink juice all the time and i really think it’s something that energizes you and makes me feel like writing.

5. Keep your mobile away
If you won’t keep your mobile away from your desktop , you risk losing ideas after answering a call, so just keep your mobile in another room .

Hope this is usefull.