This is a guest article by Kevin Moor. You too can be part of this great knowledge sharing community. Take a look at our guest blogging guidelines.

Blogging is a very popular activity; many folks that you know have a blog, and many of those folks will have more than one blog. Blogs are a great way to express yourself or share your knowledge and expertise, so it makes sense that you would want one too.

As you get started, you probably have done a little bit of research on blogging. It is important to know what to do with your blog, but it is equally vital to know what you shouldn’t do. The following tips are only 10 of the things that you should not do with your new blog.

Don't do this!

1.) DON’T overdo your layout. For your blog, simple is probably better. If you do a more elaborate layout with lots of logos you may end up making your blog too busy and hard to read. It could also end up making your blog look a bit unprofessional.

2.) DON’T create a big header. A big header with a logo is sure tempting to create as it can make you site look sharp. It will also make your blog hard to read. Big,slick headers can push the text down. If your visitors can’t see any actual text or content when they first visit your blog, they are more likely to simply surf away from your site before reading any of your posts.

3.) DON’T put too many ads on your blog. You want ads because you want to make money off of your blog; monetizing your blog with ads is one of the prime ways that the average blogger earns money for all of their hard work. You may like ads, but your readers definitely don’t. If you have too many obvious ads on you blog, you will turn your readers off and they may not end up coming back for more.

4.) DON’T disable comments. Turning comments off can be tempting for new bloggers. If you allow comments, you leave yourself and your posts open for critique and may put yourself at risk for someone saying something negative about your work. If you turn off comments, you won’t know all of the awesome things people are saying about your site either. Also, blogging is a type of social media, and this means that you are cutting off the conversation if you disable comments.

5.) DON’T forget to post. If you want a successful blog with lots of visitors, you need to post often. Some say that once or twice a week is often enough, and others say that once a day isn’t enough. However often you intend to post, you need to remember to do it. If you stop posting, viewers will stop checking back to see if there is new content.

6.) DON’T ignore social sites. Social media is a great way to get more eyes on your blog. Share your content via these sites, and be sure to open up accounts on the most popular sites for your blog.

7.) DON’T have a general blog. General blogs can be fun, but niche specific blogs can attract more readers. If you want a widely read, successful or profitable blog you should have it be on a particular topic.

8.) DON’T have music or video autoplay on your blog. You may think that these features make it easy to find the media, but all it actually does is make viewers want to click away from your blog as soon as they can. Visitors who may be checking your site at work or at class or another time when they aren’t supposed to will not appreciate this.

9.) DON’T use blackhat techniques to get people to your blog. If you don’t know what these are, don’t worry; you probably are safe. Otherwise, please know that these spammy, slightly underhanded methods will turn off your readers and may get you banned from search results.

10.) DON’T forget to read other blogs. By reading other blogs, you will get a lot of benefits, including learning about what does and does not work when blogging. You should also leave honest, pertinent comments on these blogs, as this will surely lead to even more hits for your own site.

10 Things You Shouldn’t Do With Your New Blog is a post from: Blog Godown

When the holidays descend upon us in full force, as bloggers we’re faced with a constant demand to stay on our toes and give our readers the holiday information, spirit and content that they’re seeking.  However, for every way that holiday blogging can become more difficult than normal, it also offers the opportunity to improve and grow our blog.  Readers are now, more than ever, passionate about making the internet an integral part of their holidays in every way from planning and organizing to shopping and avoiding the crowds.  No matter what your blog topic is, the holidays provide you with the opportunity to stretch and grow your reader borders.

Be in the Holiday Spirit..

Reach out with Holiday Spirit

In order to really reach readers during the holiday season, you’re going to need to bring a little holiday into your blog.  For whatever reason, when December hits, we become a culture obsessed with everything gone holiday.  We expect everything we see and everything we read to have a little holiday sparkle, and if it doesn’t, then we generally don’t want much to do with it!  So whether you do a little site redesign, you include some holiday themed content or even just place a unique holiday countdown tool in the corner of your blog, you’d be amazed how many people will be drawn to your blog or stay with your blog to see how you incorporate the holiday theme.  If you can come up with something extra innovative, you’ll have an even bigger opportunity for your blog to garner new readers as the word spreads and you have an opportunity to see something go viral.

Take Advantage of Some Bragging Opportunity

Holidays allow for a personal touch in the blog world like almost nothing else.  We expect people to open up and become almost like family during this time of year and we appreciate it when they do. You can take advantage of this by doing a few personal pieces on what your blog/business has accomplished over the year.  This allows you to put the post out there as more of a personal reflection piece than a bragging piece that would have the potential to put people off.  Share your highs (and even your lows if you can show how you overcame them) as you conclude your year, encouraging your reader with how far you’ve come and how far you expect to go in the next year.

Lure Readers in With Holiday Specials

If at all possible, take advantage of the blogging gift phenomenon and offer your readers holiday specials.  Whether you can provide special discounts; buy one, get this; or even freebies, you’ll be amazed at the spike your readership will get.  And, remember, getting people to the site is more than half the battle.  Once there, then it’s just up to you to keep them there with stellar content!

Point the Way to Other Specials

Even if you yourself don’t have anything to “offer” per se, as in your blog is not a business with product or discounts to offer, you are by no means out of luck.  When this is the case, all you have to do is do some research.  Compile lists of where all the best deals are.  Find every site listing free shipping and put together a guide by category.  Find the gift guides that you think your readers would love most.  If they can come to you for a concise list that will show them all the best deals and freebies that will save them having to put in all that research time, you’ll gain very affectionate, thankful, loyal readers.

Festive & Helpful

In the end, it mainly comes down to these two aspects: being festive and helpful.  Decorate the blog; provide fun, festive holiday themed content (you can tailor any content to be at least a little holiday-like) and try to put something like a countdown or a “25 posts of ________,” etc. that will keep your readers coming back for more every day.  And finally, do your best to offer them something tangible or direct them to where they can get something tangible!

Making the Most of Holiday Blogging is a post from: Blog Godown

This title is not meant to instigate. Take as much time as you need to craft a well written, thoughtful blog post that your readers will look forward to reading. Then, spend the next few weeks checking in with the comment board. For better or worse, comment boards are everywhere now. Most of them you can completely ignore, but that’s not the board’s fault.  The comment board is really a great tool for promoting your blog and getting your readers engaged. Here are five reasons to spend a good amount of time fostering the comment board on your blog.

Listen to what others have to say!

1. Provides an Open Forum

Of course, this reason will have its high points and low points, but when used as a tool to increase one’s knowledge, the comment board is fantastic. Your readers come to your page to read what you have to say, hoping to gain something new from you on a regular basis. Since the internet universe is pretty much infinite, there’s a good chance you may have missed an article or source your reader can bring to light for you. Giving your readers the chance to enhance the article for you and your other readers is a great idea, regardless of whether it supports or refutes your post. The more people that weigh in on your post, the better.

2. Allows for a Q & A

Not every post is ideal for a Q & A, but the ones that are can wind up being a valuable resource for a long time. On tech blogs, SEO blogs, and other industry specific blogs, you can get a lot of “Hows” and “Whys” answered from the educated readers sharing their experiences with you and your other readers. Promote the Q & A aspect by asking your own question when appropriate, asking for their experiences or knowledge. These posts can then show up when people with similar questions type them into the search engines. If they like what they read and it helps them, you can count on some new readers.

3. Develops the Social Aspect

There’s every argument for how important the social aspect is for every almost every website right now. Have your readers create a brief profile to comment. You can get to know the names and faces of your readers, and they can get to know you and each other. There is more weight to the comments of people with a history of good comments and helpful advice then the folks commenting behind the anonymous title. Getting to know your base in this way will only help to promote your blog, and understand more of what they look for in your posts. And that’s the point.

4. Reward Your Readers

Comment boards can be a great source for a quick link to your reader’s website. If one of your readers has taken the time to create a profile, read your posts, and interact with your story or other readers; show them some luv. Keyword luv that is. There are many blogs that allow their loyal users to use a keyword they want to be associated with as their username, which is a valuable anchor text for their site. As the moderator, you’ll be able to tell who is coming to your site for the right reasons. Reward these readers, and they’ll reward you with loyalty and spreading your blog.

5. Become a Better Writer

I don’t know if there has been an influx of English majors online lately, but for every few posts about an article, I see a comment about the author’s writing style or lack thereof. Granted, most times this is far from constructive criticism. In fact sometimes it’s downright mean. But if you are hearing feedback from your readers about a change of style or errors, use this as an opportunity to grow. Now it is your blog and they are coming to you, but one should never stop learning. So if there is anything of value to take out of these types of posts, give it a shot.

5 Reasons to Spend More Time on Blog Comments Than Your Blog Post is a post from: Blog Godown

A guest article by Elena Vakhromova. You too can be part of this great knowledge sharing community. Take a look at our guest blogging guidelines.

Why do people guest-blog? For self- or product promotion, for traffic, money or just for interest’s sake. Indeed, guest blogging has become a marketing goldmine and all self-respecting online business owners tend to create a discourse around their product or service in blogosphere. Not all of them have the ability to write excellent posts which make the readers beg for more. Still any writing skills aren’t inherent or intuitive. Instead, good writing is a learned skill and it may be easily developed through practice.

If you’re preparing to plunge into guest-posting, you will need not only a knack for writing but a bunch of good tools to aid you in daily chores. Here is a roundup of handy web and PC-based applications which I find indispensable for everyone aiming at comfortable and effective guest-posting.

Evernote

Those who get tired of MS Word and OpenOffice, will definitely love this free note-taking app. Evernote is an ideal solution for drafting a guest post. Its main asset is being perfectly cross-platform: notes are easily accessible from a PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android phone and from the Web. Beside text notes, Evernote can keep whole web pages or excerpts, images, HTML code, PDFs, music, business cards, etc. Everything added to Evernote is automatically synchronized and made searchable. Evernote is also remarkable for its auto-saving, absence of cumbersome editing tools and ability to email notes.

FastStone Capture

Flickr

NoDoFollow

Bufferapp

WordWeb

It’s needless to say how grammar and spelling are important for a guest blogger, especially for a non-native speaker. Here WordWeb comes to the aid. This is a free powerful dictionary and thesaurus program that provides the definition, synonyms, antonyms of any given word without requiring you to go online. It has about 150,000 words in its database and allows you to look up a word in online reference sites. The app is also notable for its hot key support: you simply use a hot key combo when the cursor is pointed over any word, and WordWeb will pop up onscreen with all pertinent information. The Pro version ($19.50) includes more word definitions, advanced Web search options and other features.

Freemake Video Converter

Guest posts may get better coverage due to multimedia addons. If you’d like to put a video into a post, you can’t do without Freemake Video Converter. This is a free Windows-based software that lets turn any offline video into web-compatible format (Flash FVL or SWF) or easily upload it to YouTube. You can also cut unnecessary video parts, choose a custom video resolution and even create video out of photos and music.

7 Must Have Tools for Guest Bloggers is a post from: Blog Godown

Here are the most obvious LinkedIn benefits for bloggers.

1. Brand yourself

LinkedIn profile is an excellent way to build personal brand and promote yourself as a blogging expert. A complete, well-planned, and linked profile is a powerful way to show off your professional achievements and expertise. Your LinkedIn profile sums up your professional experience, career history, education, skills and interests. It gives you an opportunity to demonstrate what you can do for others (your target audience). LinkedIn profile is an important part of your public image and credibility. Promote it on your blog and in your email signature by adding link View my profile on LinkedIn.

2. Promote your blog

LinkedIn gives you an opportunity to add customized links to your blogs or websites. You can add up to three personal links in your profile. But, you can also use LinkedIn applications like WordPress and Blog Link to promote your blog feed on your LinkedIn profile. This is an awesome way to give you profile visitors the sneak preview of your blog content.

3. Increase blog Traffic

It is a well known fact that as bloggers we use social networks to promote our blog content and increase traffic to our blogs. When it comes to LinkedIn, you can share links with your connections only, groups you belong to, or publicly, with everyone who visits your profile. But, use this opportunity wisely and don’t bombard your connections and groups with links. That may have counter effect. You certainly don’t want to brand yourself as a spammer.

4. Build your network

LinkedIn enables you to quickly grow your network and connect with others. You can easily search through your email contacts and see who already has a LinkedIn profile, find your ex-coworkers, school  and college friends. LinkedIn also uses the system of connections to recommend users whom you may already know. LinkedIn logic is simple: The more connections you have, the more your network will grow. By adding connections you are increasing findability of your LinkedIn profile.

5. Build reputation and authority

There are authorities and leading experts in every field. If you want to position yourself as a blogging expert or blogging consultant, then you have to build your reputation in that field. LinkedIn can help you in this pursuit a lot. You can build your reputation and authority on LinkedIn through LinkedIn Groups and Linkedin Answers. LinkedIn answers and LinkedIn groups enable you to easily demonstrate your expertise in your field. By answering other users’ questions, you demonstrate your knowledge and prove that you can help others. As an active and helpful member of the groups you joined, you can increase your visibility and recognizability.
Another powerful way to position yourself as an expert is to get recommendations. Recommendations are personal endorsements and proofs that you deliver what you promise.

6) Find ideas for blog posts

LinkedIn questions and group discussions are absolutely amazing tools for generating blog post ideas. They provide an insight into what people want to know and need to learn. You may want to subscribe to new questions in your area of expertise. For example, if you are blogging about technology, it would be wise to subscribe to new questions in this category.

This is by no means a comprehensive list of LinkedIn benefits for bloggers. But these six are certainly good enough reasons to visit the site and click the button Join Now.

Six LinkedIn Benefits for Bloggers is a post from: Blog Godown

Once in a while, we come across blogs that just makes us feel irritated. While there are so many great writers, bloggers and online writers in today’s Blogosphere, there are simply those who irritate you effortlessly – either on purpose or inadvertently.

This article lists seven of the most irritating things that make even the most loyal follower heading out your blog. And if we’re not too careful, we too might fall into this pitfall. So before you get your readers annoyed, here are six of the most annoying things you could do to leave your readers irritated.

You simply don’t know what you’re talking about

An informative blog, from the name itself, should inform and informing means telling what you know – but what if the blogger doesn’t seem to know what he’s talking about? – That’s a deal breaker.

The reason why most expert bloggers advise blogging about things you are passionate about is that it would be easier for you to communicate and explain such topic. If a blogger doesn’t know what he’s talking about, it will surely manifest which can lead to the lost of his online reputation.

The know-it all blogger

A blogger who doesn’t know what he’s talking about is irritating but what about a blogger who knows what he’s talking about… but seems to rub his ingenuity and expertise all over your face.

To put it in its simplest terms, nobody loves know-it-alls.

The Jester

Injecting humor into a blog is a tried and tested method of attracting readers and loyal followers but what if your humor is just so horrific that it scares away your visitors? – might as well be serious.

You’ll just irritate your readers with your failed attempts at humor.

Grammar, punctuation and spelling mistakes… over and over again

Grammar, punctuation and spelling are important in blogging. The argument that blogging is different from academic writing is quite silly. While you don’t need superb academic writing expertise when blogging, you should at least make it a point to write in an error-free manner.

Check your grammar for God’s sake.

Pop ups and audios and videos that automatically play

Pop ups will scare away visitors. Audios and videos that automatically play, on the other hand, breeds hatred – well, not really but they will also scare away your blog’s visitors.

Excessive advertising banners – too desperate in making money!

Excessive adverting banners are a sign that you are really desperate in making money with your blog. A blog splashed with banners only creates a perception that you’re living under the bridge on less than a dollar a day but also makes your blog look too cluttered.

With the millions of blog scattered all over the Blogosphere, nobody would be desperate enough to live with your excessive advertising banners.

The Six Most Annoying Things Bloggers Do is a post from: Blog Godown

With all of the latest Google Webmaster Guideline Updates and Changes, it’s no wonder that the blogosphere is scattering to make improvements to their content and site structure. Of course, they own more than 65% of the search market, so abiding by what they say may be a good idea. Likewise, it’s been proven that search giants like Bing and Yahoo have mimicked the way Google has done things for years. Yet, their version of “best practice” blogging and content development is consistent of common sense, mostly.

When you’re trying to reach a specific crowd, I’ve learned that there are few really helpful techniques. First and foremost, you should always present some form of contact information, whether it be via twitter or a simple e-mail address. Users like to verify that what they’re reading is coming from an actual person. Similarly, they like to know that this person has a bit of an “expertise” in what they’re writing about. Bounce rates aren’t only the after effects of a poorly designed site; they’re certainly dependant on authorship. If you aren’t represented as an authority on anything, nor have you really made a name for yourself in that particular niche, you’re probably not on the right path to successful blogging.

Become Known as an Expert

And as I mentioned before, Twitter can be greatly useful to demonstrate authority and authorship. At the same time, it can be a great tool for spreading the word about your writings. The same can be applied for Facebook – I recommend updating statuses and sending out media regularly to your followers. Google + claims it has over 25 million users currently, which means it’s certainly worth exploring as well. Using http://www.clintonglobalinitiative.org (Clinton Global Initiative) as a great example, you can clearly see they’ve done some tremendous work garner visitors and asking for help via Facebook. Brainchild of President Clinton and Doug Band, the CGI continues to flourish and provide unique and relevant content to its audience – Those interested in providing foreign aid.

Last but not least, you want to not only reach the right crowd, but also deliver something of substance. Don’t tell your readers the same thing that everybody else is saying, and certainly don’t post the same thing twice. It’s important to avoid paraphrasing, repetition and keyword stuffing for the pure sake of increasing traffic. If you’re content is noteworthy, people will find it. Accompany it with images and videos to solidify return rates and represent your blog as a real authority on the matter.

So again, if you’re an authority on something, and are helping to spread the word about this important matter, you’re golden. But remember, people won’t always trust you and your information if you’re not making your contact details available to them.

Substance, Authorship and Social Media is a post from: Blog Godown

Are you spending every waking moment planning for your blog? Do you spend hours and hours searching other high ranked blogs related to your niche, reading blog after blog to find inspiration and ideas, checking traffic of your blog or sometimes just starring at your laptop’s blank screen and finally going to bed exhausted?

If the answer to the above mentioned question is yes, then you are over indulging in your blog. If, despite all of your efforts, you fail to be inspired and are not generating any new ideas for your blog then you’re suffering from blogger’s burnout.

Getting Frustrated is not the solution!

Questions to ask yourself

If you are not quite convinced yet that you are suffering from writer’s block or blogger’s burnout then ask yourself the following questions.

Ask yourself if all of your practices helped you achieve something remarkable?

If it helped you make any improvements to your blog?

If your answer is no then here’s the first sign that you just might be a victim of the notorious condition called blogger’s burnout. If you have any doubts then look around at the condition your room is in. Are there coffee stains on your table, energy drinks cans, chocolate wrappers or pile of cups? If yes, then there is no denying the fact that you, indeed, are undergoing a blogger’s burnout.

Dealing with Blogger’s Burnout

If you are in a state of denial about your condition then you can seriously aggravate it and take your “blogging burnout” to a point where you will be unable to post something new for your readers.

It’s a normal condition and happens with a lot of other bloggers too who have been blogging for a long time without having anything else to do. But rather than fretting too much about it, you can simply use the following tips to deal with it.

Make a schedule

There are certain rules of doing things. Blogging is like working from home for which you need to work by a strict schedule. Dedicate a few hours to your blog while taking out time for other things as well. You should not overwork or burden yourself too much just because it’s your blog you are working on. Take short breaks even within day and after some interval.

Create a proper working ambiance

Open up your windows and curtains, let light flood your room. Continuously working in a darkened room can affect your eyesight. Besides, working in little or no light can also cause stress which snubs the generation of idea.

Spare some time for yourself

It is not advisable to work continuously. You need to take out the time to allow yourself to live life. Go out for a walk, a jog or a swim. Make your limbs move and take in ample oxygen into your lungs. Meet your friends, plan some lunch or go out for coffee even. Not only will it be refreshing for you but you’d also feel much better.

Find inspiration

There is no specific time duration within which you can brew up an “exceptional idea” to work with. Go easy on yourself, relax and you will definitely come up with something new, something brilliant for your blog.

If for example, you come up with more than one idea then it is not necessary for you to start working on both of them. Note it down and schedule for some other time. Keep a notepad with you at all times to write down your ideas for later.

Learn to relax

You have got a blog like everyone else has, then what were you doing so exceptional to get it going? Once you are relaxed, prioritize your activities to allocate time to each one of them.

Once you will be back, even you write one post, make sure to optimize it for SEO, do some promotion and see the results. Instead of a big leap, take small steps towards your destination. All of these things will help you to get rid of your stress but also re-energize you. You’d see the affect of it all on your blog in the form of better response.

Telltale signs of Blogger’s Burnout and how to deal with it is a post from: Blog Godown

Blogging is an excellent tool to establish expertise in a particular subject. Blogs offer you the ability to connect with readers from all over the world.

Getting readers on your blog takes hard work, dedication, and time. Blogging also requires you to have a plan. A tactic. Half the battle is proving that you know what you’re talking about and establishing yourself as an expert. If you do not know what you’re talking about on your blog, then what value does your blog have to the reader?

If you want to be an expert, act like one!

Here are 5 ways to prove yourself in your niche and keep those readers coming back for more.

• Take it slow. It’s going to take time to establish yourself in your particular niche. Depending on your niche, there may be hundreds of websites that are writing or blogging about the same thing. When you’re the new kid on the block, people are going to be waiting to see if you really know what you’re talking about. It also takes time for search engines to realize that you’re blog is out there.
• Keep updating. Do not get discouraged at first by the lack of visitors. Update as often as you can, but also remember to have something to say. Do not blog for the hits. If you do, it will reflect in your writing. To maximize exposure you want to understand your audience and when they are reading your material. If your readers love graphics, then may be you would want more graphic posts. Try video blogging or having guest blogging on your website. By finding the right balance by keeping your website updated you’ll provide fresh content for your readers.
• Offer something new. How are you setting yourself apart from the competition? This is a great way to show you are an expert in your field. While the others are posting about “x” why not post something the industry could use. What’s something that would make it easier for people to do their jobs?
• Get off the computer. Hard to believe when you are writing and posting content using a computer. Sometimes going to conferences or looking toward your community will help you develop offline contacts. Sharing your website and blog with your contacts will help promote your blog and also help build your credibility. It also demonstrates to people that you are passionate about the field you’re blogging about. You’re not just writing about it, you’re going out there and actually practicing what you’re writing about.
• Blogging Idea: You can also attend a conference and blog about it through text, pictures, and video. This is a good way to prove to people online (people you may not be able to network with in person) that you’re active in your niche.
• Link and use industry drivers. What organization, company, group has a powerful influence in your niche? Find out. Use them as a tool to help you connect with others both online and offline. These industry drivers also offer key terminology and current events and news that are going on in your niche. Also linking and announcing information about recent studies in your niche may also be helpful to establishing expertise on your blog.

5 ways to prove your expertise in your niche is a post from: Blog Godown

Blogs take time, effort, and a whole lot of content. While having one isn’t a bad thing, they can quickly become detrimental to your brand if started for the wrong reasons. A blog started with the wrong intent is almost guaranteed to fail.

Although blogging is the cornerstone of online activity for many people, there are still companies and businesses that misinterpret their intentions.

 credit: Webtreats

The following are 6 poor reasons for starting a blog.

1. Competition

Do not start a blog simply because your competition has one and you feel intimidated. The reasons for starting a blog should be your own, derived from the progressive behavior and marketing strategy of your own brand. Remember that what works for one company, may not necessarily work for the other.

Do not let your actions become reactions of your competitions’ behavior. Think before you make the commitment to start writing. If you are blogging just because you think you should, there’s a high probability that you won’t dedicate the time needed to make it successful.

2. SEO

Adding a blog to an existing site is a great way to consistently attract a fresh stream of visitors and increase traffic and exposure. With that said, if the main motivation behind wanting to start a blog is to optimize search engine results, then stop while you’re ahead.

While a blog can deliver better search results, it can only do so with quality, optimized content. Ensure that the initial launch of your blog can be executed with the ability to continuously provide this type of content.

3. To encourage feedback

Admittedly, applying what you learn from feedback to help critique products and services of your company is a great reason to create an online presence. On the other hard, not only are there other facets of social media that perform better for this function, but remember that feedback can be both positive and negative. Ensure that your business is prepared to face both before launching a blog.

4. To generate content

Do not start a blog because you think that someone else will be made responsible for generating content. The most crucial aspect of a blog is that it needs an author that understands exactly what your niche subject area is, and have plenty to say about it.

Whether you believe it or not, the passion you have for the subject will be reflected in the writing. In turn, readers will feel the excitement or lack thereof, making it evermore pertinent that you write your own content when launching a blog.

5. Cutting corners

Do not assume that just writing a blog will bring you visitors. It is a terrible decision to start a blog if you are not willing to back it up with any other marketing.

A blog will never take the place of good ol’ fashion marketing strategies like press releases and research groups. It will only ever work as an extraneous entity of your marketing efforts. Do not utilize it for more.

6. Broadcast marketing

Do not make the mistake of thinking that a blog is just a digital form of broadcast marketing that you control. Again, a blog will never take the place of the marketing strategies you already utilize.

If you can’t market your business without a blog, a blog is not going to save it. A blog is a great way to get more out of social networking and expanding your brand’s presence online, but you need a brand first.

While this may seem negative, it is only because blogging is not simple and requires a lot of thought and patience. Take the time to think through and determine whether starting a blog would be the most effective move for your company. If it is, then do some research and best of luck.

6 Poor Reasons For Starting A Blog is a post from: Blog Godown

I’m surprised that I see so few articles about writing a great author bio because it really is one of the most essential aspects of a guest blog post. It might not be the most important thing you do to get your article accepted, but before it’s posted I hope you put in some quality thought ahead of time to benefit as much as possible.  Let’s take a look at a few basic tips and some other broad marketing campaign suggestions to make sure you’re addressing the key components of what goes into your author bio and why you do it.

Short And Sweet

No matter what blog or website you try to get your article submitted on, they are not going to want you to have an extremely detailed author bio explaining your life story.  If the article you’re writing is about facts and you are sharing knowledge with a sense of expertise it does help to back that up with some references, but keep it concise.  50 words should be more than enough to share your name, your experience, your interests and your links.

How To Link

How do you link? Duh! It’s a hyperlink, not rocket science.  Wrong! Creating a link is easy, but how you use that link for marketing purposes is where the skill comes into play.  If you’ve simply determined that the anchor text of your hyperlink should be “computer software” because you have a website that sells software, you’re not getting as much value as possible.  I say this because unless you are a massive computer software company, good luck fighting your way to the top of the search results for that keyword search.  Instead, try focusing on longer, more specific keyword searches such as “macbook pro laptop software.”

It’s Part of the Bigger Picture

The anchor text you use to link back to your website should be part of your larger Internet marketing campaign. Determine the most important and easy to compete keyword searches and have individual “landing pages” within your website that focus on those specific keyword searches. Now that you’re in the blogosphere taking the time to write quality guests posts you can really benefit by linking back to certain pages within your website that are focused on searching better for a few specific keyword searches.

How Many Links Should I Use?

Again, check the author guidelines within each specific page for this question, but a general answer would be 1-3.  If you’re allowed more than one, you might as well take advantage by linking to your different landings pages or to multiple different sites if you have them.  Most blogs just don’t want the author bio to look spammy or trashy, so as long as you’re within the author guidelines and everything looks professional I’d use as many links as you’re allowed.

Bringing it All Together

The main point of this article is to point out that your link building campaign is part of a larger marketing strategy.  If you realize this and put effort into making sure they are working together instead of separate entities, the benefits will be exponential.

Author Bio Essentials to Benefit Your SEO Campaign is a post from: Blog Godown

With more than 150 million blogs in existence, it can be hard to get the word out about one specific blog. Getting users to come to an individual site requires following seven steps to get the links out there on sites that have high traffic regularly.

How to get the word out!

1. Interaction

Interact with users on the blog. Responding to comments and asking for feedback are great ways to get more users interested in what the writer has to say.

2. Filling in as a Guest

Look for ways to be a guest blogger on other websites. When the entry is posted on the site, there will usually be links to a social media profile and bio, which allow for more exposure and access to the main blog. When choosing to follow this step, it is important to carefully read all guidelines and restrictions listed on the host blog, because breaking a rule could result in removal of the post.

3. Getting the Word Out

Comment on other blogs since anyone reading these comments can click on the profile to access another person’s blog. Online services such as commentluv and back linking also provide more access to the blog via comments. Those who are interested in the content of the comment may want to read more, and could thus become a loyal reader.

4. Participate in Contests

The next step is to participate in as many blogging contests as possible. There are many contests available online, and include a chance to become a guest blogger.

5. Then, Host a Contest

A fifth way is to be the host of a blogging contest as visitors can lead to more subscribers. When planning to host a contest, bloggers can gain sponsors, which can lead to advertising opportunities, meaning more income.

6. Linking to Other Sites

Along with this is the sixth step, which is to offer promotional pages. These allow fellow bloggers to be featured, which can lead to links on other individuals’ pages. This is a form of marketing that won’t cost the blogger anything.

7. Be Everywhere

The final way to increase accessibility to a blog is to market within social networking websites. The Facebook home page offers a news feed where a blogger could post frequent links to the topics on the blog as often as desired. It is estimated that Facebook currently has over 500 million users, and many of these individuals are accessing the site multiple times per day through a mobile application. Utilizing website development courses can also help users understand how to maximize the potential growth of the blog through these sites.

Making a blog stand out can result in higher traffic and interest in advertising opportunities for the writer, and interest in the opinions and thoughts of what is being discussed on the blog. Some bloggers start out with few readers, and then end up becoming some of the most highly visited sites on the web. Why not give blogging a try and increase readers with every step?

7 Ways to Market and Get your Blog Out There is a post from: Blog Godown

When I started blogging, I made a terrible mistake. I annoyed a few bloggers –unintentionally I might add- but I am sure that I did.

Every time I liked a post and commented on it, I thought – oh, here is where I am going to get discovered. This is my chance.

So while I truly liked the post, I somehow made the response about ME.

I wrote in the comments to get attention. Ouch!

Only because …

I had listened to the advice every new blogger gets. Comment on other blogs to generate traffic to your blog. How many times have you heard this? Heck, I am also guilty of saying the same to people who care to listen – the gullible newbies.

That’s just plain wrong.

You might get some views by commenting on other blogs, but not many. And that is not why you should be commenting anyway. You comment because you honestly have something to say. You have liked something and you want to add to it. Or you might feel to the contrary and want to say your two cents worth.

Beleive me when I say this, it’s not about you, it’s about them.

Think of how much time you spend on commenting on a post. Think again of how many comments you read and click on to follow to their blogs. I am thinking – not many. You won’t want to spend hours commenting on posts hoping other readers will click through. You need to be spending that time on

• Writing amazing posts (I get sick of word ‘content’ sometimes)
• Replying to comments on your own blog
• Reading up on books, magazines and other blogs
• Making sure your blog looks the way you want it to, and most importantly
• Creating mutually beneficial relationships in the blogging world

Case in point: Me

I had no business being online. I was a marketer and a business writer for a leading University. I had given up on practising law to become a teacher/writer.

Then I had a genius thought – hang on – why don’t I move my writing to online? Become a webpreneur. I have the skill – I’ll start a blog. All I need is people to find me, that shouldn’t be too hard.

Except a teeny tiny problem – I don’t know anybody online. Just like real life, I stink at networking. So what do I do? I start following the advice that is most frequently doled out to newcomers.

“Start commenting on other blogs to drive traffic to yourself.”

This is the biggest piece of crap I have heard.

Assuming you are awesome at what you do but you are just starting out – stop with the goddamn commenting on hundred random blogs. The other 89 readers on a post are NOT checking you out. No matter how interesting your comment is – or how brilliant your blog is – they are just not that into you. Don’t take it personally.

The other readers just don’t have the time to read each and every comment. Sure, they might read a few but they won’t necessarily follow the link to check out the blogs. I know I don’t do it, how can I expect this from others.

The only person who does seem to care about what you think is the blogger themselves. And they will not like it either if your sole purpose to comment on their blog is to attract attention – to yourself.

The biggest favour you can do for yourself is to start making friends with other bloggers.

I am sure you follow a few blogs. Are there any blogs that you absolutely can’t live without? Well you need to develop some sort of relationship with these people – network with these bloggers, because frankly you like them right?

Also you want allies in the world of blogging. You need people on your side.

How can you create networking opportunities with these people. Well, they already exist so no need to reinvent the wheel.

Participate in their Blogs

Comment on their posts – for the right reasons. If you are not quite sure, go back up and read my case study again.

Extend offers of help. Point them to resources you think might help them out.

Link to their Posts

Only because its necessary that you do. And when the timing is right, they will link back to you.

After a while you might be ready to approach them to do a guest post. By now you have known them for a while, hopefully you know you a bit too and like you as well. It doesn’t have to be a purely business pitch, it can be mate writing to another one.

Connect on Social Media

You are not a social media enthusiast? No worries – do something that even your grandma can do.

Connect with them on twitter. Follow their feeds and slowly start to establish a relationship with them. Reply to their tweets, RT them and say thanks for being an inspiration. And mean it.

Share the posts you love on facebook. Interact with them so they know you exist and you care. That in turn will show that you matter.

Then when you approach people for guest posting, it truly is because you have enjoyed reading their blog so much that you want to contribute. And there is no harm in admitting (secretly – to yourself) that you could use their help promoting yourself.

You cannot do more than that, as it is not under your control. Worry about what you can change and play nice. In time you will start to see steady rise in traffic. And this time around, the best thing is that the people are coming to stay.

Now is the time to start that joy of dance – let us begin.

Remember your days a low grade new blogger? Is this the advice you came across most often? How much time did you spend on commenting and what initially worked for you to bring in serious traffic? Do share in the comments below.

Commenting for the Wrong Reason? 3 Simple Ways for Effective Networking is a post from: Blog Godown

Stream of consciousness writing is not something reserved only for the literary greats like James Joyce or Virginia Woolf. It is something that any blogger with even the slightest control of words can incorporate into their blog. Most importantly, stream of consciousness posts come with a great number of benefits and possibilities.

What Is Stream of Consciousness Style

While the term carries a lot of literary weight and tradition, stream of consciousness can essentially be defined as the written equivalent of a person or character’s thought process. In literary practices, stream of consciousness generally has leaps in syntax and punctuation, but this is not a requisite. All you really need is a continuous flow of perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and memories.

Writing yoru thoughts out without stressing!

How to Write a Stream of Consciousness Post

To write a stream of consciousness post, you only need to do the following:

• Write non-stop for a set period of time.
• Do not allow yourself to slow down and edit while you are writing.

Of course, if you want to create material in the least bit relevant to your blog, you may also want to include the rule:

• Try to keep your stream of thoughts somewhat related to your blog.

But even here, I say it’s good to let your mind wander some. Perhaps you’ll hit a really close gold-mine of content that extends naturally from the theme of your blog. There is no rule that your blog has to cover one and only one topic over its entire existence. In fact, I would say that a good blog takes risks in changing or expanding its content in order to adapt to the wants of its writers and its audience.

I say write for a set period of time just as a benchmark for yourself. It could be 10 minutes; could be an hour. If you seem to have trouble starting these sessions, I advise you to set 10 minute intervals, and just keep trying until you have a session that you genuinely want to keep writing. If you can start and stop writing in stream of consciousness on a dime, set however long you want.

The Benefits of Stream of Consciousness Posting

More Content

Well, this one is pretty obvious. Writing a post for your blog will give you more content. But what I’ve discovered – in my case at least – is that one stream of consciousness writing session will get you a ton of content. Because you allow yourself to think and write continuously, without regard to post length or anything, you are sometimes left with more content than you know what to do with. I still recommend saving the writing and perhaps organizing it and breaking it up into several different posts that you can serialize on your blog.

More Variety, Stronger Content

Especially if you felt like your posts were beginning to look all the same, a stream of consciousness post will really break up the monotony and pleasantly surprise your readers. Not to mention, your readers may appreciate your more honest and natural voice that comes through in stream of consciousness writing. Of course, I do recommend editing and possibly omitting some parts of your stream of consciousness; not every thought you have will be a golden nugget of brilliance.

More Content for the Future

Not only are you left with huge amounts of content from your stream of consciousness writing, you will also have a lot of ideas for future posts. Perhaps your stream of consciousness post just grazed the surface of a whole complete area of content for your blog. Maybe you’ll find topics for your blog that you didn’t even realize existed or could even work for your blog. By and far, the best luck I’ve had with stream of consciousness posts has been keeping my blog fresh with ideas for both myself and my readers. Because let’s face it, you don’t like writing the same things over and over just like your audience doesn’t enjoy reading it.

The Miracle of Stream of Consciousness Blogging is a post from: Blog Godown

While some may think otherwise, people start blogs for one reason: to be read by other people. So, one of the most important things to keep in mind when writing posts for your blog is to avoid alienating your potential readers. Here are a few things that will turn your readers against you in no time.

How to scare away your readers

Assume You Are Better Than They Are

There is a big difference between imparting knowledge and climbing on a soapbox. One of the easiest ways to lose an audience is to talk down to them. Of course, it’s always okay to let them know what your opinions are and you should never back down when you believe wholeheartedly in something, but holding fast to a belief and disrespecting others for their beliefs are completely different things. Make sure that you always respect your readers point of view and always give them a chance to respond.

Don’t Allow Comments

This point ties in nicely with the point I tried to make above. Half the reason people read blogs and visit web sites is so that they can throw in their two cents. Everyone wants to be heard, and more importantly, everyone has the right to put their opinion forward. Let your audience interact with you and with each other by maintaining and curating the comments sections for all of your posts. Now, that doesn’t mean that you should let your audience go crazy and post whatever they want in your comments section, but be sure not to discriminate and/or remove comments that may go against the opinions you stated in your post. Remember, a strong comments section is a sure sign of a popular blog.

Ignore Those Mistakes

I know what it’s like to churn out post after post. Sometimes it’s more important to publish for the sake of publishing, as opposed to something that you are truly interested in, just so your readers don’t lose interest. But that is no reason to let the quality of your content let it go by the wayside. If you start letting small grammatical errors and spelling mistakes slip by, you are headed down a road that is incredibly difficult to get back from. Take pride in the work you do, and only publish posts when you are sure that they are error free.

Get Off Subject

Most blogs have a focus. Sales, politics, reviews – there are any number of subjects out there that would provide perfect fodder for a blog. But if you go to a blog whose subject is supposed to be reviewing the latest movies at the cineplex and you start reading a post about the author’s sister’s wedding rehearsal dinner, then there is a problem. Promising your audience that you are going to cover a certain subject and then writing about something completely unrelated is a sure way to get your site knocked off their favorites list.

Break Your Promises

Breaking promises is an easy trap for a blogger to fall into. You get into the swing of things, start posting more and more often, start covering wider and more interesting topics, then you go for the big gun and tell your audience you are going to present them with a jaw dropping, unbelievable post next week – and you don’t. Not only that, you don’t deliver the next week either. It’s easy to promise your readers something, but as soon as you break that promise, as soon as you don’t come through, you start losing your audience.

Become Stagnant

This may go without saying, but there are quite a few blogs out there that forget one of the most important rules of blogging: stay relevant. If you write about the same old things, post after post, week after week, your readers will come to expect the same old thing and lose interest. Evolve with the time, keep your audience on their toes. The more interesting your content, the longer your audience will stay with you.

6 Fast Ways To Alienate Your Audience is a post from: Blog Godown

Search Engine Optimization can be very puzzling for bloggers, beginner as well as for experts. Search engines like Google or Yahoo view what’s going on, on your blog as WordPress is structured in a SEO friendly way. However there are really helpful plugins that which makes life for bloggers simpler and it also helps you to rank better. The SEO plugins below are what I consider the ones that should be installed for every blog you host. No matter what topic you focus on.

1. All in One SEO Pack

The All in One SEO Pack is included in every list you find and with good reason. It allows you to configure your page titles, Meta tags and keywords as well as descriptions for either your whole blog or for individual page by individual page. Another advantage of this plugin is that it is compatible with other WordPress plugins and every beginner can handle it.

2. Permalinks Moved Permanently

A lot of bloggers choose a wrong permalink structure at the beginning of their blogging career. Once you have gathered a few experiences you might notice that the structure needs to be adapted and changed. Herein lays a problem. If you manually change your permalink structure your traffic will come to a standstill until your site is indexed again. This could take a while. This plugin is similar to the Redirect plugin that is also available from WordPress but rather than redirecting traffic it manages your permalink structure.

3. SEO Smart Links

SEO Smart Links is important as it helps you to interlink your subpages to one another. All you have to do is predefine keywords that the plugin should link to other articles that focus on similar subjects. This doesn’t just help your readers to find other relevant posts but it also helps Google to see how well structured your blog is and will eventually turn into a better ranking.

4. Robots Meta

Search engines crawl and index all your pages of your blog. When this occurs, it can happen that it creates duplicate content which you don’t want as Google could punish you for it. The Robots Meta plugin allows you to select which sections of your blog Google should crawl.

5. Akismet

This Plugin is from the makers of WordPress, and although it doesn’t have that much to do with SEO it is always on top of my list no matter what list I create as it is so handy that ever one should have it installed as it protects your blog from comment spam and pingbacks and trackback that you don’t want.

I hope that with the above SEO plugins you’ll be a lot faster and more successful in your blogging. For further questions and suggestions don’t hesitate to contact me.

Finding the best hosting in the United States or the best UK web host may seem overwhelming.  Don’t rush into buying the first one you find, look around and see which one fits your needs better. 

Top 5 SEO Plugins for WordPress Hosting is a post from: Blog Godown

A lot of people want to make money blogging but most of them fail because they forget to work on writing content. You can’t monetize your blog if you haven’t provided enough efforts to create some content. The reason is simple, your readers want to consistently read free information and this is the main reason why they read your blog. People on the internet look for free information all the time and they want solutions to their problems.  You don’t need to be an expert to become a successful blogger because I think that everyone of us can write good content all the time if we start working hard.

Do the right thing! Focus on quality.

Here are Four Simple Tips On How To Always Write Quality Content:

1. Be creative

Creativity is an important skill that every blogger should have.  You can’t always write the same content all the time because your readers will just stop reading you and most likely unsubscribe from your RSS feed. Be original and try to educate your readers on different topics on your niche and you will be in the game!

2. Be Simple

Remember that you aren’t writing to an audience that all have college degrees.Your goal as a blogger should be to write content that can easily be scanned. Use h2-h3 tags to make your subheadings. Try to write short paragraphs and try to create good headlines. It’s better to write a short quality post then a post that contains 1000 words but doesn’t have a good structure!  I have to remind you that your visitors won’t always stay hours on your blog but just enough minutes to read some of your posts. They will be looking to read posts that will help them in their own online business.

3. Do some Researching Before Writing

It’s not everyone of us that are experts in a field or niche. However, it still isn’t an excuse to give up as nobody stops us from researching before writing a post. Try to research on the topic you are writing because this will help you avoid doing writing mistakes and ending up writing low quality content. Do some researching and you will always be able to write quality content!

4. Do Not Be Too Fancy

This is a mistake that you can easily make. You do not need to drop the jaws of your readers each time they read your posts. If you have really good skills at writing, you can always try but remember that bloggers aren’t necessarily experts but they do have a certain amount of knowledge and writing skills. Do not waste time writing 10 pages of boring content but try to aim for quality. Short posts can always be of quality. Quality should always be consireded over ” quantity ”.

Four Simple Tips On How To Consistently Write Good Content is a post from: Blog Godown

Blogging has changed dramatically since the first blogs hit the internet in 1997. Evolving from online diaries of the writer’s life, today’s blogs have a wide range of faces and functions. Some blogs come and go while others sustain themselves for years becoming niche hubs and popular destinations. Aside from talent and commitment what separates the fly-by-nights from the blogs with longevity? That’s a question every ambitious blogger is dying to answer. But it all starts with a desire for constant improvement. It’s important to have a plan if you want to advance your blogging skills. Dissecting the strengths that makes some blogs surpass others will help you turn your own blog into a more successful venture.

Making improvements is not a tough task

Design

An uncluttered design, focusing on content, is the most attractive to readers. Readers are not looking for dancing bears or blinking lights telling them they are the “one millionth” visitor. They come in search of intelligent content about a topic of interest. Blogs should be organized and easy to navigate. Poor designs can instantly turn off a visitor before they ever read a single word you have to say.

Related posts

Utilize “related posts” plug-ins whenever possible. There are more than a few varieties available online and this plug-in follows each post with links to other posts that have similar subject matter. This can keep readers engaged and reading more on your site rather than leaving. This is particularly useful when visitors come in from search engines via informational queries. When “related posts” are easily accessible it increases the chances they will continue their research on your blog, as opposed to going back to the search engine.

Headlines

An effective headline is the most important way to draw readers. Titles should attempt to summarize the purpose of your post in the headline, but they should also fascinate and intrigue. They should also encapsulate phrases you would like to be found for in search engines. The most important on-page factor in SEO is the title-tag, so the words used there will impact how often each post is returned in searches. Try to use words and topics that people might be searching for.

Be Succinct

Make your point using as few words as possible. Remember, most people have severe Web ADD and giant blocks of text will be not be appealing. Avoid unnecessary verbosity, run-on sentences and big paragraphs. Long posts should be broken up with numerous sub-headings or bulleted lists to make the post more visually “digestible”. Use bold font to highlight the best points, insights, wisdom, humor or clever turns of phrase.

Consistent Style

Whatever your style of writing is, use it consistently. Comedic, technical, academic or casual, pick one and stick to it. Your readers will want to know what to expect. Chameleons may be cute but they aren’t very effective bloggers. It’s ok to have an off-topic section for those days you feel like breaking the mold, but as much as possible stylistic cohesion will be an attractive feature for visitors.

Social Media

Social media has been accused of diminishing the public interest in blogging. Why write 140 words when you can write 140 characters? Perhaps it may have cut into blog growth a bit, but there are still lots of people with plenty to say. Make sure to create social media profiles for your blog in as many places as it makes sense, but particularly Facebook and Twitter. These are great places to promote your logo and to network with other bloggers, readers and other individuals that may become readers in the future. Prominently feature your social media contact information on your blog so that no one has to work too hard to find you.

Branding

Learn to see yourself as a “personal brand”. Site design, blog content and writing style are all aspects of branding your blog.  A logo design will go a long way toward launching your blog’s brand and making it memorable. Once you have a logo, make sure to use it. A small item that not many bloggers think about is a favicon. That’s the tiny little graphic that sits next to your URL and lets readers know who you are. Add a favicon to your blog to give an extra touch of professionalism.

Business Cards

Speaking of professionalism, even if you aren’t necessarily “blogging for money” don’t miss the opportunity to see yourself a business. While there are numerous online channels for you to promote yourself, never neglect the offline ones as well. It’s relatively cheap to print up business cards and having one will be a great way to build your community and be remembered every time you discuss your blog with someone in person.

Keywords

Keywords are important, but use them wisely. When it makes sense, try to incorporate your main keywords in your blog titles. But only use keywords that are truly relevant to the content of your post. Whenever possible, back-link keywords to older posts; strong interlinking can be a boon so search engine rankings. Just keep it natural, overuse of keywords in a post is abusive to your readers, and will impede real community development. Also, in spite of some claims, it’s and not particularly attractive to search engines either.

Credibility

Is your blog content bizarre or believable? Offer some information about yourself that will build credibility with your readers. Let them know what experience you have that contributes relevance to your posts. You can increase your authority by getting interviewed, attending conferences, participating in contests, guest blogging and joining blog carnivals. The more active you are in the community the more likely you will be used as an informational reference point. All of these efforts and citations will add to your credibility and build your readers’ trust in your words. However the flip side is that you must be honest. Any hint of lies or deception will undermine all of your work and could potentially destroy your reputation entirely.

Interesting

If your blog is devoted to the pregnancy suspension ability of female armadillos, don’t expect a large following. Readers look for content that stimulates thinking, provides information, educates and improves their abilities. The broader range of relevant topics and ideas you can incorporate into your blog the more mass appeal you will generate.

Edit Before Posting

Edit your post and then edit it again. Nothing turns readers off faster than a blog full of misspelled words and awkward grammar. Before you can be accepted as credible, your writing must be technically correct. Think about each post as a good pot roast, you need to let it rest before you can serve it. If you can give your work some time to sit and then revisit it with fresh eyes to catch any errors, repetition or unnecessary words.

Blogging for fun or profit is rewarding but only if you make the effort to do it right. When you are always looking for little ways to strengthen and improve your blog you can earn a loyal group of followers and maybe some cash as well. There are a lot of little things you can do every day to build a better blog, but it’s amazing what a difference the “little things” can make. It’s not always easy to pay so much attention to detail but when you do, you’ll find that love you put into your blog will be returned ten fold by your readers.

12 Easy Ways to Improve Your Blog is a post from: Blog Godown

Outsourcing your work saves you time and effort. This free time can be spent on more productive activities which will improve your chances of becoming a successful professional blogger and internet marketer.

When I started out in my internet marketing career, I always had to do everything myself, but as I became more successful I realised I needed to outsource some tasks, otherwise I’d be overwhelmed with my day to day tasks and never become an entrepreneur.

5 years later, I’ve had a lot of experience with outsourcing tasks and here is what I learnt.

1. Be very PICKY when you hire!

The fact is there are hundreds if not thousands of people who are suitable to do the job you want. The worst thing you can do is hire the first person that applies in a rush to get the job done.

If you’re thinking, “He seems OK, I’m sure he’ll do fine” you’re probably making the wrong decision and heading towards a car crash.

I have to be 100% satisfied with the candidate; I put a job out for the max duration of the project timeline to get the maximum possible bids so I can find the best possible candidate. Think of this as an investment, you want to hire workers for long term, if you hire a different worker each time you’re doing this completely wrong.

2. Always pay by the hour rather than per project.

Hourly Jobs are Better!

When I first started out I was always worried that it would cost more to pay by the hour rather than per project, thinking that workers would slack and waste time if they’re paid by the hour, unfortunately it didn’t work out that way.

The reason being is that workers are never sure if they’ll be remunerated properly if they get paid per project, they never spent too much attention to detail in one are in case they go over their projected time and end up losing out. So they rush the job, and meet the absolute minimum criteria asked for.

Being paid hourly, it’s in the interest of the worker to not cut corners and work on the project for as long as it needs. The hourly rate never went out of control, and in many instances it was surprisingly less than budgeted. When you pay hourly, you get far better quality than paid on a per project basis.

3. Always monitor your workers, and keep an eye on QC

The second biggest mistake I made was to delegate a project and simply forget about it, this was a really bad move because; 1) the worker missed my instructions and started to derail from the task or 2) started working slower over time.

How did I solve this? Well I always get my workers to use Hyperhour. It’s a small client software that allows me to monitor them whilst they’re working, how much time they’re spending and even see screen caps of their work. So when they bill me for work done, I always know what for.

With the ability of seeing screenshots, there’s no hassle or disagreements, you have an objective proof of work done, and time spent. Plus it saves on time; because the worker doesn’t need to spend time writing up reports to send to you. I was able to log in and see what the worker was doing at any given time and see if they were on task.

It’s always important to monitor, I use Hyperhour because it’s free but there are many tools out there. If you’re successful enough and working on a large scale you may want to hire a manager to monitor the workers for you.

4. Get to know your employees, personally.

Build a relationship with your workers, understand their lifestyle, talk about your families, and build a personal bond. Remember a good worker is worth keeping and makes your job a lot easier because you don’t have to retrain new staff each time. I made a huge blunder, thinking that money was the answer to all problems. People like working for bosses who are personable and nice to work with. It’s easy to not give a damn about someone if you don’t know them.

What’s the point of retraining new staff every month, training them is very tough, and takes up a lot of resources, so you want to pay your workers fairly, and want them to want to work for you for the long term?

I found that single mothers [and even mothers with husbands/boyfriends] tend to be the best workers. Why? well they have a dependant that they need to take care of they’re not thinking about cheating you or jumping onto the career ladder, they’re going from day to day. The only down side with mums is that they’re not always available to work on demand due to have various different mother issues. The worst workers for long term was students, a lot of college students didn’t have the experience, a lot of them were only doing it as a stop gap, and many were inundated with college work to care about project work

5. Finally, treat your employees as team members.

It’s important to make the worker feel part of a team, some may be working for an agency abroad, but many will be working from their computers at home [probably, just like you], it’s easy to feel demotivated when you’re not seeing the fruits of their labour. Always relay feedback to them, give link builders feedback on traffic results, and tell them what a good job they are doing. Remember them on their birthdays or their kids’ birthdays for example. You may run into the strong boss/worker mentality in some cultures like India or Philippines, which can be tough to break away from. But always treat them like they are on an equal footing to you.

Hope you guys save money and time using my tips, and enjoy!

5 Valuable Tips I Learnt From Outsourcing Work is a post from: Blog Godown

Creative writing is involved. And for many who are passionate about that, the concept of a “hobby” is basically thrown out of the window! So, here’s what you need to do: define your goals.

Choose Your Topic

Because of the tremendous scope behind a blog, you have to absolutely know why you’re blogging. Is it for politics? God? Marriage? Children? Nickelodeon? Sexy women? What’s your blog going to be about? It has to be something you’re at least interested in, if not passionate about – because if you lack interest, you won’t get any kind of pleasure or satisfaction out of the writing.

If you’re not getting any of that, you can bet your content will suffer to the point where you’ll just quit, wasting away all those hours you’ve already spent. Be sure you know your topic.

Focus on Content

Know that it’s not about money. Put aside any myths or rumors about blogging, because the fact is blogs are only about free content. Yes, you’re a writer, and it takes up your time; know, though, that the simple act of writing your thoughts for the whole world to see – published under your name! – would be satisfaction enough. Let the money come as it comes.

Don’t worry about blog optimization either. No matter how you look at it, you’re just writing! So who cares where you stand on the search engine ranks? However, do consider some of the professional blogging advice regarding design and style. Think of your blog as your baby; you want to dress him or her well, right? Of course!

Let Your Personality Flow

Whenever you write creatively – either an aspiring-to-be-published author, poet, or whatever – you almost immediately inject with some essence of you, your personality, into what you write. Know that it’s a good thing. On your blog, make sure you be yourself. Don’t try to be someone you’re not; without a doubt, it’ll show in your writing as archaic, stilted, mechanical, and hardly authentic. Readers don’t like that.

Ignore the Nay-Sayers

Make sure you keep your ears shut to anyone saying that you’re wasting your time. They’ll be around, for sure; there’s nothing you can do about that. But who cares? Don’t let it disappoint you. Writing fuels the heart and soul, and that’s all that matters.

Don’t Give Up

As said before, a blog continues constantly based on your efforts. The moment you stop, the blog stops. So make sure you don’t stop. There’s always other options as well, such a exploring My Blog Guest to expand your talents to other sites, or even looking for news sites that allow you to contribute- you can contribute to sites like NJ.com by applying to guest blog.

Cyberspace is all yours. The blog is your craft to navigate every cyber meteor shower or black hole. Crystallize your goals inside your head, and the trip should be an adventure!

Blogosphere Control: Define Your Goals is a post from: Blog Godown

Many bloggers wonder: “Hey, I am blogging for around x number of years, but that guy has reached the top list in a span of one year. What am I doing wrong?”.

My answer to this query is that each blogger has to complete a journey to become a successful blogger. This journey includes many small stops such as learning, experimentation etc. You cannot complete your journey without stopping at each stop (some might take lesser time to complete).  Also, the final part of the road which leads to success is usually filled with big roadblocks.

You are not able to achieve success, because you are not able to remove the roadblocks and move ahead. You just stand still. The ability to remove these roadblocks transforms you from an average blogger to a problogger. But, you maybe wondering, what types of roadblocks exist and how can one overcome them?

Broadly, there are 6 types of roadblocks:

6 Major Roadblocks

Missing the Right Approach

Blogging is like a puzzle. In order to solve it, you have to use your mind and apply a logical approach. In blogging, there are multiple ways to get traffic, but, only a few of them provide quality traffic which persists. Each and every aspect of blogging can be performed by multiple ways. But, only a few of them can be considered the “right approach”. Mostly, bloggers waste time on using multiple approaches, instead of focusing on a few which will get them better results.

Solution: Experiment with all the possible techniques. Once, you have found a technique that works for you, stick with it and make the most of it.

No Drive

I get extremely lazy when I have to study philosophy because, I don’t like it, I am not passionate about it. But, when i study maths and science, I get super excited. Similarly, I cannot grow my blog, if i don’t like what i do. Any type of work, which is done without any interest, will never be above average. But, a job which is done with full passion, will have the potential of being great!

If you lack the passion, you will not have the required drive to become a consistent blogger. Instead of thinking of blogging as a fun activity, you will think of it as burden which has been loaded on your fragile back. Slowly, you will see your productivity and quality dipping.

Solution: Do what you like. If you like pipes, write about them. There is no point in writing about a topic which does not interest you.

Giving little attention to readers

Most bloggers make the blunder of ignoring their readers. Readers are of paramount importance with respect to a blog. It is the real “social” part of the blog. It is the way you get your feedback and the way you learn what others have to say. Readers have the power to make or break your reputation. A happy reader will always promote your blog and recommend it to others. On the other hand, an unhappy reader will try very hard to tarnish your blog’s reputation.

Solution: Value your readers. Try to involve yourself in regular discussion and try to solve reader’s problems. Also, take reader’s suggestions really seriously and make it a point to make amendments to your blog accordingly. Finally, do not try to satisfy your reader, try to achieve reader’s delight!

Narrow Viewpoint

We are all human beings. We are all born and brought up in a certain environment. While growing up, we start developing opinions and thoughts about various things. These opinions and thoughts are reflected in our way of writing. The best thing about opinions is that they can be changed. But, only if you approach everything with an open mind. A narrow minded approach will always lead to friction. A comment forum can easily convert into an ideological warfare, if a person sticks to his beliefs and doesn’t listen to what others have to say on the issue.

Solution: Be open to new ideas. Even if you disagree with something, politely discuss with the opposite party. Who knows, you might actually learn something useful from the discussion

Procrastination

It is the biggest threat to productivity. People tend to delay writing articles and doing stuff because they are either too lazy or they think they can do it later. But, that time never comes when you actually write the article. If you don’t have enough content, how can you expect your blog to reach the top.

Solution: According to an Indian Saying “Do tomorrow’s work today and today’s work at this moment. You may never know what happens next, so better do the work now!” So, don’t procrastinate and complete each task at the earliest.

Lacking the Basic Skills

A blogger has to have certain basic skills. Firstly, a blogger has to be a good writer (need not be a great one). Writing is an essential part of blogging. Without good writing, a blog has no value. A good piece of writing has the ability to attract as well as engage with readers and also bring huge amount of traffic.

Most bloggers focus on blog promotion but they forget that the blog they are promoting will never get much traffic because it lacks in the quality of writing.

Secondly, a blogger also has to be a good networker. A blogger should be able to build good relationships with other bloggers to create a circle of influence which will help you promote your blog in the future.

Thirdly, a blogger has to be a good manager. He should know how to manage the various resources in hand as well as schedule tasks for efficient functioning of the blog. Also, he should be able to outsource activities which he is not very good at. For eg. if you are not good at seo, you can hire seo experts for that.

Solution: If you lack any one or more than one skill. Try to make it a part of your system. With practise, you will acquire these skills.

Have you faced any roadblocks in your blogging journey? If yes, tell us how you got rid of it?

6 Major Roadblocks in Blogger’s Success is a post from: Blog Godown

Having an e-mail opt-in list is essential. Such a list provides a legitimate way to keep in contact with your customers or potential customers and reduce your chances of losing them to the competition.

Some of the top marketers, when looking into the reasons why some of their students are not making money, will, above all else, check to see whether that person has an e-mail list. It’s that important! There are, however, a few things to keep in mind when creating your opt-in list.

Subscription Software

Choose the best service for your purposes in automating your registration process for would-be subscribers. Once you have such a service up and running, visitors to your blog can automatically opt-in to your list without your supervision or intervention. You can even choose whether the approval of the subscriptions is automated or manual (but manual intervention will be needed only in rare circumstances). Three of the top mailing list companies are AWeber, VerticalResponse and Constant Contact.

The browser you use to access whatever service you choose does matter; for example, Safari for the Mac and AWeber’s site do not get along well with each other. Mac users of AWeber will need to use a browser like Firefox instead.

Make Them An Offer

Offer something of value, such as a free e-book or autoresponder course, to encourage people to join your e-mail list.  Be sure to place your offer in a prominent area of your homepage and, for best results, on every page of your website.

As with all aspects of your website, you should make regular checks to ensure that everything is always in good working order.

Call to Action

Make your offer enticing. You should offer strong encouragement to join your list. Create an effective call to action using short but powerful sentences and action-packed words to create a sense of urgency.

Deadlines

Special incentives can also include membership privileges or special discounts. For certain offers, you can get better results by placing a deadline on your promotion. A “ticking clock” will encourage more blog readers to avail themselves of your offer.

Quality

Do not downplay the value of your newsletter just because you’re offering a free bonus. It will do no good to get subscribers if they immediately unsubscribe after getting your gift. Frame your newsletter as an important benefit of your offer. Then do your best to make sure that your newsletter lives up to its billing.

For example, your e-mail list may give subscribers regular updates on the latest additions to your blog as well as members-only discounts. Newsletter content can easily be created with a voice dictation program like Dragon Dictate for Mac or Dragon NaturallySpeaking for PC.

Safety and Confidentiality

Another way to encourage people to sign up to your list is by assuring them that their safety and confidentiality will be guaranteed. You should always give your solemn word that their address will not be traded, sold or given away to other parties. A good mailing list service will also have safeguards in place to assure a secure platform that keeps customer data safe from being hacked.

The Bottom Line

Of course, the best clincher in gaining subscribers is your blog itself. If you consistently provide the best possible content on your blog, you will show visitors that you have something to offer and give them the best reason to sign up to your list. If they don’t see anything of value on your blog, they will have no incentive or encouragement to subscribe to your newsletter.

An Email List Can Benefit Your Blog is a post from: Blog Godown

Comments are content. Each comment carries your signature, whether you pen one or not. This is because readers will decide to click or not to click on your link based on the value of your comment.

Leave a positive impression and you might get a few clicks, or maybe even a new reader. Leave a negative impression and you will get no clicks, or much worse, somebody might write a post about your dingbat commenting style. Not good.

Write content rich comments. By crafting your comments in this manner your comments stick out like a sore thumb in a world of comment drive-by’s. One line commentary makes no impression. You’re wasting your time. A well thought out comment leaves a strong impression. The goal is to position yourself as an authority. An authority always brings value to the table with everything they do.

Here’s how you can treat blog comments like content.

Introduction

“Hi (Insert blogger’s name), I enjoyed the insight you shared with us today.”

Don’t have enough time to write a proper header? Fine. Just don’t expect your comments to draw much attention.

I love hearing the sound of my name. So do most of us. Address your fellow blogger by their first name. Guaranteed they appreciate it. Don’t honey coat the compliments but if you liked the post, let ‘em know. We appreciate props and you might just make yourself a buddy.

Even if you disagree with the post be sure to thank the blogger for taking their time to write the post. Gratitude is a conduit to good.

Body

The body should be 2-3 paragraphs long. Note one point the author made; show them you actually read the post. Expound on this point.

Share your insight on the topic. You can disagree but be respectful. Share your experiences. Readers can connect with you when you are open and transparent.

Don’t write for the sake of writing. Write with a purpose. After reading the post sit for a few moments to collect your thoughts and proceed to comment away.

Conclusion

Sum it up. You can add another thank you here, wish your fellow blogger the best and sign your name. When readers see your name twice – once in the Name field and once in the comment box – they tend to remember you.

Wrapping up your comments in this fashion adds a nice touch. Most are in a hurry = Zero Impression. Be mindful. Be present. Make an impression.

Bonus Tip

Be pleasant. You can be passionate without being rude. You can disagree in a respectful manner. The goal is to build positive relationships, not make life-long enemies.

You can take a strong stance with your comment that’s completely opposite to the reader’s opinion but you must do so in a civil manner. Boorishness isn’t tolerated in the blogosphere. Stay away from making controversial comments. You’re a guest. You are in the blogger’s home so be on your best behavior.

Your Turn

Do you treat comments like content? Why? Why not?

How to Treat Blog Comments like Pieces of Content is a post from: Blog Godown

Blog should be the focus of your social media campaign

Full length blogging vs. micro-blogging

Pretty much every company with any some sort of online presence is now on Facebook and Twitter, pumping out micro-blogs by the day (if not minute). Obviously these platforms are fantastic for building a community around your brand, and allow you to make pithy little comments on your industry that may establish you as someone ‘in the know’ within your niche, but character limits alone place strict boundaries on how much you can really get your message across. Similarly, your presence on these platforms can seem oddly disparate.

Establishing a blog isn’t so much blog vs. micro-blog as establishing a hub to create a mutually supportive internal network between your various social media channels.

Setting out your stall

If the gold standard of social media is establishing you as an authority within your niche, and creating a community around that authority, then a blog is a considerable step towards those goals.

As Topshop in the UK have clearly realised, a proper blog gives you the opportunity to really set out your stall in a way Facebook and Twitter don’t. In the same way that publishing a proper book makes you more authoritative in the eyes of the public than a couple of newspaper columns, in the short-format internet a regularly updated, insightful blog means much more than a stream of witty tweets.

Not only that, but amidst the chatter, it gives you somewhere to routinely link back to, that reinforces your brand and provides a larger space for people to get into your world – there’s more content on a blog than a Facebook page, which means more time engaging with your brand, which makes users more likely to buy into your brand.

Taking it on home

Although Topshop have got the idea with their content strategy, where they fall short is in their funnelling.

The blog’s design is closely related to the Topshop website, although the correlation could be stronger. It gives the impression of a web design agency’s rush job of recreating the original site in WordPress, rather than properly integrating it.

Similarly, placing it on a subdomain rather than as a page in its own right is a missed opportunity for visitors to organically navigate their way to products straight from the blog, rather than having to be directed towards them in the posts themselves.
Tighter integration is a clear way to practice a soft sell approach alongside the harder sell of the ecommerce site.

If their blog were more tightly integrated, when linking to it from Facebook and Twitter, they would also be directing people to the main site without actively pushing a product.

Topshop

I’ve taken Topshop as a good example of a company blog, because they advertise it in their shops as well as pointing to it from their social media profiles. They use it not only to show off their products but to establish a more informal character to the brand – it’s clearly a key part of their overall marketing strategy, and provides a hub around which the rest of their online activity can orbit.

At the same time, it still has room for improvement, and lessons for the rest of us can be learned from these mistakes.

Making Your Blog the Focus of Your Social Media Marketing is a post from: Blog Godown

You’ve decided on your blogging platform, and you’re excited. You look at the screen, and your fingers are poised on the keyboard and tingling with anticipation. But what do you type? How do you start well out of the blogging gate in the race for search engine attention and building a reader following?

The biggest question - What to do next?

Keyword Tie-Ins

Regardless of the theme of your blog, keep in mind what gets attention from search engines and from the reading public: keywords, content, and site or blog advertising.

Title your blog with one of the top keywords in your subject area.

Use keywords or phrases with a density of once for every 100 to 150 words, not including your blog signature, which should include your main keyword phrase or blog title. Don’t overuse the keyword in your posts. Search engines block listings from overly-dense content.

Post consistently and always with relevant content. Make a posting schedule and keep it. Try for a minimum of two or three times per week or more often if possible.

Legal Advertising

There are several methods that can legally—as in non-spam—advertise your blog:

1. Related Blogs and Forums: Find blogs and forums that relate to your blog topic. If direct URL posting is not allowed, contact the blog owner or site manager and request a link exchange. If disallowed, continue searching. There are hundreds of thousands of related sites on the Internet.
2. Your Personal Email: On every personal email address you have, you can legally advertise your blog in two ways: Signature Block: Create and use a signature block that includes an automatic link to your blog. Every person you email will get one automatically. Vacation Responder: Periodically use this tool to send a message to every person who sends you an email when it’s activated. The message can read simply, ‘Sorry I can’t answer right away. I’m busy with my blog, Border Collie Lover in Pasadena, found at:’ and include the URL. Finish it with something like, ‘I’ll personally answer your email soon. Thanks for your patience. Meanwhile, come read!’
3. Email List Owners: Sign up for e-zines about your blog topic. When you get a good feel for the content being sent, email the list owner and volunteer content for his or her e-zine. Include the content and the resource box listing your name, your blog’s name, and the blog’s URL. If the list owner likes the content and agrees to send your mini-article in the e-zine, you’ve just succeeded in advertising your blog to potentially thousands of people, and without spamming.
4. Social Networking Sites: Yes, yes, and yes. Yes, create a page, entitled the same or as close to your blog title as you can on every social network site. Yes, link to and from your blog, and yes, include the social sites’ URLs in your signature blocks and resource boxes.
5. Article Writing: Write an information article or series regarding your topic. Meet the submission guidelines regarding no ‘selling’ your particular site, and include your blog, et al, in your resource box. Allow others to use your article—with your name, your copyright notice, and your resource box left intact—freely on their sites. This allows you to advertise your blog on potentially thousands of web pages, creating a back link on each posting site.

Potential to Earn Money

Blogging presents two ways to possibly earn money: paid advertising on your blog and freelance blogging.

Paid advertising is either presenting ad space for others to rent on your blog or signing up for Google AdSense which pays you, as the blog owner, each time someone clicks an AdSense ad on your blog. The more popular your blog becomes to the search engines, the more people who are going to read your blog, which means there are potentially more ads clicked and more money paid to you.

Once you have a consistent, well-designed and maintained blog, others may contact you to write for their blog or you can apply to blog writers’ advertisements, and use your great blog as a sample.

I Have a Blog. Now, What Should I do? is a post from: Blog Godown