Common Blog Mistakes and Users Can't Distinguish Blogs

A recent study by the Catalyst Group shows that users couldn't distinguish a blog from a standard site and also points at some other common blog mistakes.

A full summary of this limited study, which only took a look at one blog (the Well Spent blog from BusinessWeek) and studying only the reactions of 9 people, can be found here. [link via WebProNews]

Here are the key points you should understand and learn from ...

"1) The participants looked at the site and were surprised to find out they were on a blog. Whatever "fuzzy ideas" the participants had about what blogs are, they didn't match what they found. "

This point really isn't that important, but it does show that no one really cares that much if they're reading a blog or not, since they're only looking for information. Basically, what matters is the source and the content, not how it's called.

And why should they care?

"3) Participants didn't understand what would happen when they posted a comment, whether all posts appear or just an edited selection. It was not clear why the subjects might want to post."

Just goes to show that adding a nice little explanation above the comments form really wouldn't hurt, unless of course you're only using your blog to communicate with other bloggers. You're probably not ...

"4) The concept and mechanics of RSS "failed utterly with test participants," the executive summary said. While frequent blog users see RSS feeds as a central part of a blog's value, the test participants didn't understand that at all."

This is the one field where most blogs and other sites, with the exception of larger media sites, fail the test.

The lesson is simple - create an RSS presentation page, on which you explain:
- What RSS is
- How the visitor will benefit from using RSS
- Where they can get a free RSS aggregator (recommend one yourself!)
- How they can install it (provide step-by-step instructions)
- How they can subscribe to your RSS feeds
- Why they should subscribe to your own RSS feeds

"5) XML and RSS buttons, even brightly colored ones, didn't attract the subjects' interest. Terms more common to newsletters and e-mail (subscribe, update, etc.) would be more easily understood."

And for the final key points, which I've been trying to make for a few months now:

a] Blogs also need e-mail newsletters / e-zines. RSS is a great content delivery channel, but if you're using it instead of e-mail, as opposed to using it as a supplementary channel, you're wasting your visitors and subscribers.

b] Even for your RSS feeds, bring them closer to your visitors. What this simply means is promoting your RSS feed directly below your e-mail newsletter subscription box, telling people they'll be subscribing to your newsletter delivered via RSS.

And for the final piece of direct marketing advice ...

A visitor that visits your site and does not subscribe (either via RSS or e-mail) is more or less lost to you, as they will quickly forget about your site and move on.

One of the key functions of e-mail and RSS is to bring people back to your site, to remind them that you exist and bring your content directly to them. Without this, you're wasting your visitors.

Consequently, each website (including a blog) should strive towards generating subscribers.

But how can you expect to achieve that, if you're generating subscribers with a little XML button at the bottom of your page where no one really looks, and that by not giving a compelling reason to subscribe?

Passion versus Pay versus Profile: Blogging deal or no deal?

You’ve a finite amount of time to write, you have to pay the bills, but perhaps you don’t love the subject as much as you used to. How do you know when it’s the right time to leave a project?

This post is primarily targeted at bloggers who have one or more regular, paid writing positions with a blog network/company and may be considering their current position.

It might also be useful for those bloggers running their own blogs (over which they have complete editorial and publishing control).

Passion | Pay | Profile

Blogging for a liveable wage isn’t easy — at least if you’re keen to do it ethically and above board.

Getting a paid writing gig with a large company can get you money and exposure much more quickly than you’d likely attain it (if at all) by publishing your own blog.

You’ll likely have access to on-tap resources to help you improve as a writer. At very least, you’ll probably be working for an editor who will critique your work, give you post ideas, and generally encourage you onwards.

Assuming you applied for the position because you had a decent amount of knowledge and passion for the subject, it’s the near perfect experience.

Isn’t it?

The longer you blog for high profile sites, the more you’ll be noticed. The more you’re noticed, the more opportunities present themselves. You also have the potential to earn more, either because your payment per post increases (often with a new position) or your posts become more popular and you get a proportional share of revenue.

The trouble begins when your passion goes, the amount of work you’re required to do is worth more than you’re being paid, or you don’t believe the work improves your own profile – only that of the company you’re working for.

It’s worth reassessing the work you’re doing on a regular basis. Think of it as a self-appraisal — when you work for yourself, no-one else is going to appraise everything you do.

Consider:

Passion

• What are your main passions?
• Do you want to blog about all of your passions?
• Are you blogging about something you have little interest/enthusiasm for?
• Are some passionate blogging subjects worth keeping for yourself rather than giving to someone else? (in other words, should you be running your own blog instead of relinquishing control and writing for a company?)

Pay

• Are you still being paid enough for the work you’re doing?
• Would you be able to make more money working for someone else or for yourself, or changing project priorities to give more room to new money-earners?
• Is the work you’re currently doing taking so much time or energy that you have no resources left to do things your heart tells you to?
• Are you sacrificing long term gain (sidelined projects) for short term gain? (fixed pay working)

Profile

• Is your blogging gig still giving you, as a person / brand, the exposure you desire?
• Do your efforts seem to be rewarding the company’s profile at the expense of yours?
• Would your personal brand be improved by moving on?

Contracts and Bridges

If you have a written contract in place then you need to consider that before taking any action that may breach the terms it lays out.

You may have a notice period which must be worked out before you can leave. If you want to change the level of work you do for someone else, it may have to be negotiated and a new contract drawn up.

If you have a verbal agreement then you may have no legal/contractual obligations, but think very carefully about burning your bridges with any one company. You never know when they may be a useful contact or source of work in the future.

Final thoughts

These are just a few points to think about, whatever situation you’re currently in.

It may be that you don’t think there’s anything wrong, and if you’re enjoying what you’re doing and getting what you want, digging around may not be helpful (if it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it).

Then again, if there’s even a niggle that you’re selling yourself short, skimping on projects you really care about because you’re bogged down by a regular contract, or running yourself ragged without the passion to energise you, then it really is time to sit down and consider what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.

The three elements — passion, pay, profile — need to be weighed together, and any decisions you make will be based on your current situation and how much of a risk-taker you are.

Doing a regular check-up like this will help to ensure that you’re giving your best and being fairly rewarded, while still enjoying blogging. After all, that’s the main reason you started, right?

Success in the Business of Blogging is More than Passion

Over the last four years, I have watched as many successful bloggers stopped blogging, and new bloggers took their place. Having success in the business of blogging requires more than passion, and I think that is something far too few people make sure to mention.

If you want to have a successful business where your primary product is your blog, then you might want to think long and hard before you dive in.

Creating a business from blogging is like any other business. You need to think about what you are trying to build, and come up with a plan to get there.

Organize Your Thoughts and Ideas
If you can write down an idea map, or even just a procedural list of your goals and how you want to accomplish them, you’ll be further along than many. Giving yourself clear points of comparison is key. While many people become successful by accident, there are just as many that do so because they know what they want.

I consider myself fairly successful in the niche that I targeted, but the wider web audience don’t know me from Adam. The reason for this is that I wasn’t trying to make myself successful and well-known in all niches, but instead, I focused in, and since the competition was less in the niche I chose, I was able to make great strides and earned enough community clout and success to keep myself employed for the past four years.

Network, network, NETWORK!
If there is one tip regarding business success that I enjoy giving out, it is to network with others. I feel like I go back and forth between being an introvert and an extrovert, but in the end, I have met many people, and connected with my fair share. I can pull out an e-mail list of network connections, and if I’ve done things right, I can get more than a few of them to help me out, give ideas or feedback, and even help promote my work. Network connections can mean the difference between getting your site, business or idea in front of a few hundred and a few hundred thousand.

Timing and Luck
With success, there is always an “X-Factor”. You can do everything right, and keep within budgets, meet metrics, and never see the doubling effect growth curve that some of your competitors might see, and that is because there is something to be said for luck and timing.

Many people recognize the name Jeff Chandler within the WordPress circle of enthusiasts, and I would hazard a guess that more recognize his name than my own. I’ve been using and talking about WordPress since I began, four years ago, while Jeff is relatively new to the software and the community. What he was able to do in such a short amount of time was bring a community and brand around himself in a way that I’ve never been able to do. I’ve had more people recognize me as the co-host of his successful podcast, than for any of the other projects I’ve ever done.

Other Factors
Of course there are many other factors regarding success in the business of blogging, and for each person, the goals or point of success might be different, but what far too many people forget is that blogging can be a business, and like any business there is more to it than just creating a product, or being a service. Marketing, network connections, skill, timing, luck, and a savvy mind can help your business go a long way.

Would You Withhold Information If It Meant Saving a Life?

A lot of bloggers tend to be trigger happy with publishing information. There’s always the desire to be the first to post about breaking news, especially if it’s fresh and yet unpublished by the more mainstream news sources. Bloggers and editors of new media publications take pride in this. But how far will we go with the desire to be first? What if it meant possibly endangering the life of a person–a fellow writer or journalist at that?

Back in November of 2008, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist David Rohde was kidnapped in Afghanistan. His employer, the New York Times, has struggled to keep this information under wraps for about nine months until Rohde’s escape from his captors just a few days ago. The reason: word going out would potentially endanger the life of the kidnapped reporter.

However, some Wikipedia editors (which means virtually anyone who knows how to edit content on the site) felt the need to make the information public, and Wikipedia’s administrators likewise fought a “convoluted game of cat-and-mouse” in preventing this information from being included in Rohde’s Wikipedia page. They were met with much criticism and outrage from these editors. And the administrators felt they could not arbitrarily suppress this information without attracting too much attention. So they kept trying, keeping a low-profile, and trying to stick within the limits of Wikipedia’s terms of service.

In hindsight, the Wikipedia editors who wanted to include the information on Rohde’s kidnapping probably meant no ill will. But looking at the big picture, their actions could have, indeed, led to trouble on the kidnapped journalist’s part. Even if this piece of information on Wikipedia will probably not have any direct bearing on the captors’ activities, it could perhaps be a catalyst to bigger things. People do trust Wikipedia, after all (or at least that is my perception), and if adequate sources are cited, then bloggers, Twitterers and social media users of all kinds would post, link and discuss. And as the Times’ executives fear, the publicity could, indeed, “raise Mr. Rohde’s value to his captors as a bargaining chip and reduce his chance of survival.”

As a social media user, what do you think if this dichotomy between security and freedom of information? I know this has been a pressing issue in many oppressive regimes where information is curtailed in the name of national security or such ideals. But when the risk is concrete and identifiable, and when you know that someone could, indeed, die if you leak out sensitive information, doesn’t that make you think twice before hitting the “save” or “publish” button? Which do you value more: freedom of information or life?

At the very least, this makes me realize that I should be more mindful of what I post online, whether it’s on a blog, Twitter, Flickr, and other public places.

Would you withhold information if it meant possibly saving a life?

Tablet Input: Helpful for Blogging?

I just finished writing a review of the Adesso CyberTablet Z12 on Forever Geek, where I took a look at the tablet, comparing it to other devices in its class, and it made me wonder if a drawing tablet could be useful for blogging.

I usually try to stick to only things that I can easily adopt and use as part of my blogging duties, and so I wasn’t too impressed with what I, as a blogger specifically, could do with a tablet input system.

This doesn’t have any effect on my review of the tablet, as I found the Z12 to be a great product, but what could I use it for on a daily basis?

It has the ability to convert writing into text using handwriting recognition, but I type faster than I can hand write a sentence (in part because writing with a stylus or pen is a one handed experience, and typing is a two handed one).

Even if the handwriting recognition was perfect, which it isn’t due to my horrible chicken-scratch, it would still take me longer to pen out an entry than typing it on my computer.

For doing mock-ups of designs, annotating pictures and drawings, and doing other simple editing tasks, I found the tablet to be helpful, but I don’t do these things every day, and I don’t have a very still hand, leading to graphics that aren’t as clean as I’d like them to be.

Sure, the technology is great, but I feel like for blogging, there isn’t much that beats a keyboard and mouse. Hopefully, this doesn’t erupt into the same kind of battle people see with console gamers (game pad users) versus keyboard and mouse users, but do you have any input device that you enjoy for blogging above and beyond the keyboard and mouse?

Writing vs. Blogging: Is There a Difference?

A lot of bloggers are proud of the fact that with blogs, they are finding a medium for sharing content with the rest of the world. They have become writers. Similarly, a lot of writers have found a new medium to publish their works. They have become bloggers. You often see published and famous authors starting blogs, and sometimes discussing the differences in publishing a blog post and the process of publishing a book.

Bloggers are, by definition, writers. Yes, you can even pardon the fact that a lot of bloggers write as if they need lessons in grammar, spelling and sentence construction. But are writers automatically bloggers? Well, the moment someone hits the publish button on his first ever blog post, then that person can technically be considered a blogger. But even if you’re a topnotch writer with dozens of books published, or if you have a regular newspaper column, or if you’re a literary genius, you don’t automatically become a good blogger, in the fullest sense of it.

Blogging involves more than writing. Blogging involves interaction, being part of the community, and having your blog serve as your online identity and persona. When you blog, you don’t just write a 500-word essay and publish it on a static page. You open up that essay to the world for critique right there and then. You let people talk back to you on your comment threads and on other blogs. You respond, and you talk back.

When you blog, you don’t just publish a column on a newspaper page. You join in on the conversation. You can react to other blog posts of interest. You link, you get linked to, and you link back. You create a big web of conversations and intelligible discussions.

Whe you blog, you don’t rest on your laurels the minute you publish that scathing commentary. You brace yourself for an onslaught of responses, positive and negative, and you prepare to defend your position.

When you blog, you don’t hide your face behind the written word. Rather, your written word is your face in the online world–your identity to your readers.

Simply put, blogging is not solely about writing. It’s about learning how to interact, how to establish a presence, how to make recommendations, how to be reactive and proactive. If you consider yourself a writer, then well and good. But if you want to be a good blogger, ask yourself these. How far have you gone in terms of being interactive? Have you helped a friend online? Have you added value to the ocean of commentaries out there? Are you just another nameless, faceless entity churning out words, or are you being someone–someone who matters?

Blogging is a social medium, after all. And as such, blogging goes far beyond writing.

How to handle blog comments left in another language

David has already raised the issue of real comments with spammy URLs, and that’s something to deal with in its own right, but what I often find is comments left in another language (sometimes including a link) which I have to debate what to do with.

What can you do with comments left in a language that differs from you and your blog’s native tongue? Here are three ideas.

Delete the comment outright

This seems a little unfair, though it could be argued that if someone is genuinely leaving a comment on your blog (and has therefore understood the blog post well enough to leave an informed response) then they should be able to leave the comment in the same language.

However, the visitor may have used an automatic translation service to read your article and yet feels more comfortable leaving a comment in their own language.

They may be able to read and understand the language you use but find it hard to write in that language.

Simply deleting the comment outright may save you time but it could potentially alienate one of your visitors, and who knows how influential that person might be?

You could add this as part of the comment policy for your blog, of course, but it could still be perceived as a snub.

Translate and leave comment in original language

If you’re fortunate enough to speak the same language as the person who commented, or are happy to trust an automatic translation tool such as Google Translate, you can check to ensure that the comment is relevant to the entry and that the link doesn’t lead to a spam site.

Doing an automatic translation may miss some nuances, but you should get the overall flavor of the comment and be able to work out whether it’s a keeper.

Translate and publish a translation

As above, but instead of simply checking out the comment for your own peace of mind, publish a translation (either verbatim, paraphrase, or summary) in the primary language of the blog.

This is done more for the benefit of your other visitors, but be particularly careful with automatic translations because you may well miss nuances or find that some words (especially “slang” for that particular language) are incorrectly translated or not translated at all.

Getting help

If you receive a large amount of traffic from a particular region where another language is predominantly spoken, it might be worth investigating partnering with someone who speaks that language to handle comment moderation for you.

Conclusions

The admin involved in dealing with comments can be fairly high, whatever language they’re left in.

I don’t have statistics for how much spam is left in other languages, or whether spammers are deliberately using non-English languages to try to fool automated spam filters and human detection, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised.

At the end of the day, it’s your blog and you can choose how to handle the comments you receive. However, I’d recommend making some effort to check them out rather than simply purging them.

What’s your strategy for handling comments left in other languages?

Useful Firefox SEO tools and extensions for bloggers & Web Designers

Today, we are going to look into 15+ Useful Firefox SEO tools and extensions for bloggers. Web designers who run blog may also need these tools.

1. SEO for Firefox

SEO for Firefox is definitely the most powerful Firefox SEO plugin. This plugin pulls useful marketing data points and integrate into your search results. For example, it pulls the PR, delicious save counts, Technorati links, Alexa rank, WhoIs information and etc. You can selectively turn it on and off by using the icon at Firefox status bar.

2. SeoQuake

SeoQuake is a program that integrated in Firefox so that users can view a large number of search engine parameters on the fly. It consists of SeoToolbar, Seobar, and output of requested parameters on Search Engine Result Pages.

3. SEO Link Analysis

SEO Link Analysis enriches the link data in Google Webmaster Tools & Yahoo! Site Explorer by showing the PageRank of the linking page, the anchor text and whether the link is followed, nofollowed or no longer exists.

4. Rank Checker

Rank Checker is another tool from SeoBook. This tool can track and record search engine ranking for a page in Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Live Search. The results are saved in the PC, so users no need to worry about the privacy issue.

5. LinkDiagnosis Firefox Extension

This plugin allow users to see Google PR and anchor text of every backlink, most popular anchor texts and charts with breakdown of pagerank and link types.

6. Smart PageRank

Smart PageRank is a small, simple yet powerful Firefox extension that gain you quick access to Alexa Rank, Google PR, value, WhoIs and backlinks’ PR of the current page that you are viewing.

7. RankQuest SEO Toolbar

The Rankquest SEO Toolbar provides you quick access to more than 30 intuitive SEO tools. Example of the tools are Validation tools, Content tools, Meta tools, Popularity tools, Search Engine tools and SEM tools.

8. Quirk Search Status

SearchStatus is a toolbar extension for Firefox and Mozilla that allows you to see how any and every website in the world is performing. It provide a lot of useful information such as Google PR, Alexa Rank, Compete Rank, mozRank, WhoIs, quick link to robos.txt and sitemap.xml, and etc. You can easily access these information from the Searc Status icon at the status bar.

9. HTML Validator

I had covered this plugin from my previous post about useful Firefox plugins for Web designers and developers. So, why i am saying this plugin is useful for SEO? It is because errors in the HTML structure will affects your page ranking and this tool can helps you to validate those errors. Basically, you should ask your designers to perform validation using this tool before he passes the themes to you.

10. SEOpen

Provides some basic tools to help with search engine optimization. Including google backlinks, yahoo backlinks, PageRank check, http header viewer, and more. All features are available by right-clicking on an open area of a web page, or by using the included toolbar.

11. Google Global Firefox Extension

Google Global Firefox Extension lets users to view organic and paid Google search results as they appear in almost any location on Earth. You can access this tool from the content menu or toolbar.

12. Foxy SEO Tool

Foxy SEO Tool is a free, open source Firefox add-on that offers tools for search engine optimization (SEO), web traffic and page analysis, for webmasters and web professionals.

13. Socialphile

Socialphile Firefox Extension assists users with comfortable searching based on ranking of each search result at social news websites. It allows users to submit search result directly to social news websites. Currently, Socialphile only supports Digg.com, but the developers will add more social news websites in the future.

14. KGen

KGen allows you to get the most important keywords of a webpage. It’s really usefull to analyze the SEO strategy of your competitors or simply know what’s the main subject of a webpage.

15. Niche Watch Tool

Niche Watch Tool gives you backlinks number, indexed pages, keyword occurences on the page, page rank, all in anchor, all in title and all in text rank for both domain and webpage information.

16. User Agent Switcher

User Agent Switcher is a useful Firefox plugin which able to switch the user agent of the browser. Users can use this tool to pretend themselves to be a search engine and see what search engine sees the webpage.

Make Money Blogging - How to Make Money from Blogs

Make Money with Your Blog - Blogging to the Bank

Whether to Make Money Blogging or Not?

If your question is whether you should make money blogging, I would answer yes and I want to prove it to you!

A young guy from the UK has blown the lid off all the blogging money game. His name is Rob Benwell and he's making up to $34,244 per month from blogging. The best news is that he is sharing his exact system he uses with a limited number of the public now. His latest blogging ebook - Blogging To The Bank 3.0 looks like it's going to be another best seller as it's selling really quick.

Go to visit : www.bloggingtothebank.com

Make Money Blogging with Blogging to the Bank 3.0 

Have you ever tried to make serious money from blogging? If you've already got blogs that are struggling to earn a few dollars or you're sick of spending thousands of dollars on Google Adwords or other paid advertising then you need the blogger's blueprint - Blogging To The Bank 3.0

Blogging To The Bank 3.0 is a new step-by-step roadmap on how to create a new successful blog that will bring money in automatically for years to come, even if you know nothing about blogging but just want to learn a fool proof way to generate thousands of dollars per month.

The Million Dollar Blueprint's Results Are SHOCKING!

$90,480.34 In One Month
256,667 Visitors In 30 Days

You can click here to see more details.

There's nothing but hard hitting, proven techniques to build blogging empire that brings in thousands of dollars every month. Here's just a tiny fraction of what you'll discover...

An ingeniously simple formula to create cash on demand without a product or website of your own
Why making sure you actually own your blog is an absolute must... it's amazing how many people don't know this
Which hosting company you should use if you're just starting out... This will save you a huge headache
Discovered... How to tap into the hottest new niches that have little or no decent competition
The Most Successful Step-By-Step Blueprint For Long Term Blogging Success
Which keyphrases to target to generate the most money in as fast a time as possible
The 2 stats you need to analyse when choosing an affiliate program
How to pass the 7 seconds test... Fail this and your blog is as good as dead
The Secrets To Selling Your Blogs For Six Figure Paydays
How To Create Real Blogs In Just A Few Minutes

Take a look at what you actually get when inside the download area(main manual):

Introduction
The 2 Big Changes In Big Money Blogging
The 5 Blogging Commandments For 2009
The Blogging to the Bank Million Dollar Blueprint
Market Research & Keyphrase Lists
Domains & Hosting
Creating Your Blog
Optimizing Your Blog
Content
Promotion & Backlinks
Advanced SEO Techniques
Web 2.0 Strategies
Outsourcing & Building Your Blog Empire
Selling Your Blog
Getting Your Blog Indexed Within Hours
How To Get Thousands Of Link For Free
The Sneaky Theme Sponsor Trick
Make Money From This Ebook
Final Words

The previous versions of Blogging To The Bank were both really great, but due to the every changing nature of the way search engines work, some of the information was not as effective as it once was. With Blogging To The Bank 3.0, there is even more information on how to effectively dominate the search engines and use excellent free techniques and strategies that will catapult your blog to the top of the search engines in the shortest possible time.

Blogging To The Bank 3.0 is laid out in an easy to follow manner and all the newest techniques and search engine strategies are fully explained. The complete system shows you how to identify profitable online markets and products, how to find the right keywords and properly promote them and the fastest way to set up your blog to start making money quickly. I'd say that only people willing to follow through and actually put some time and effort into this guide should actually invest in this product.
Who Created the Blogging to the Bank 3.0? 
The creator of Blogging To The Bank 3.0 is Rob Benwell, who created the original Blogging To The Bank back in 2006. Rob Benwell is a successful blogger who knows what he is talking about when it comes to making money with blogs. His strategies and techniques have been proven time and again and his new strategies are even better. You will learn everything you need to know to start a successful blog and more importantly how to make money with it. If you have always wanted to start blogging and felt intimidated or that it might be difficult, you can rest assured that Rob spells out eveything you need to know in a clear and easy to follow blueprint.

Photo: Speaking On Stage At The Underground Seminar
Who Need Blogging to the Bank 3.0? 
Blogging To The Bank 3.0 is a guide and tool to help one set up a blog that generates money. Once set up the blog will generate money over time with little to no maintenance. While making money on the side or using blogs as your sole income as I do sounds great, it is not for everybody.

Everyone can set up a blog at one of the major sites like MSN or Google, but what Blogging To The Bank teaches you is how to set up your own personal blog and how this is much more efficient in generating page views. For one to do this on their own would require knowledge of setting up websites and simple web design. With Blogging To The Bank 3.0 though, it will show you step by step what to do to set up a professional blog system that once set up, requires not much more work, but will continue to generate revenue. So if you are good at following directions and have some extra time Blogging To The Bank will show you how to generate money while sitting at your computer at home.

Blogging To The Bank 3.0 is good for people who have computers and have about 15-30 minutes a day to spend maintaining their blogs. If you just want to set up one blog you will only to work for a couple days, but if you want to set up multiple blogs, this will obviously take more time. The more blogs you set up, the more time it will take, but also the more money you will make. It is all up to you.


Tips to Make Money Blogging 
Everything you read about how to succeed with your blog recommends writing frequently. Blogging to the Bank 3.0 is no exception to this rule. As a matter of fact, Rob offers several recommended resources for finding and creating content for your blog.

The importance of posting often and regularly to your blog is a critical part of your success formula. If you establish a consistent routine for posting, your readers will eventually begin to anticipate the days when you post. These are the repeat readers with whom you must establish a relationship if you plan to make money blogging.

Literally hundreds of blogs are launched each day, but very few will survive more than a few weeks. No matter how passionate you are or how much you know about your topic, in time you will run out of things to say. But don't despair.

Everything you post does not have to be written by you. Discuss another blog post on the same topic. Perhaps, you want to praise a new perspective. Can you add a tidbit of information? Exposing your readers to other blogs in your niche shows your confidence and builds trust.

Be sure to provide a link to the other blog and credit the author. This is a great way to network with others in your niche. It also demonstrates your interest in providing fresh new information.

Making money with blogs is much easier if you post often and build a large base of repeat visitors. Blogging to the Bank 3.0 is a great source of techniques to assist you in reaching this goal.

5 Keys to Make Money Blogging

Mindset: learn what it takes to be a successful blogger from people who make thousands to tens of thousands of dollars per month with their blogs.
Content: learn how to develop attractive content for your blog that gets people talking, linking to you, and makes the search engines fall in love with your blog.
Traffic: learn all the latest techniques for getting into the search engines, building links to your site, social marketing, networking and much more. These are the techniques the pros use and you can use them too, no matter what your blog is about!
Monetization: learn the best ways to make the most money with your site from people who are actually using those methods with great success.
Technical: learn how to use blogging software, how to get hosting, choose a domain name, and everything else it takes to set up and run a cutting-edge blog using the latest technology available. (And learn it from non-geeky training videos, text, and audio.)

Google webmaster tools

It had been a while since I last visited Google’s sitemaps page. My movie weblog has a sitemap plugin installed that generates a feed that Google uses to index the site. It turns out Sitemaps has grown into “Webmaster tools”, and it’s great. Not only does it offer lots of details about how your is indexed, they’ve just added a tab that displays exactly who’s linking to what page on your site.

I’m very new to SEO techniques, but this seems like the perfect starting point for optimizing your site for Google. You can see what keywords are recognized in your site and how you rank for them.

Three Sutras of Blogging

Think Beyond Optimization

Define Objectives: Plan effectively, develop your funnel, be motivated.

Million of blogs take birth and die. This is because bloggers do not define their objectives properly. After the initial push, they find other priorities, and interests.

Blog is not about posting articles. Sometimes a well researched post and thoughtful content may not be enough to make the blog successful. The need is to define the very reason of the existence of the blog, and communicating with your readers.

Blog don't Splog

One can splog for various reasons- for earning money, for bringing search engine traffic or for building backlinks. Whatever your reason be, do NOT do it.

If your objective is to make money, sell your product/service or you want to sell affiliate products, a blog cannot be your online store. Internet is great direct selling machine, but unfortunately Blog is NOT. Blogging is not a sales channel but a marketing one. Most successful blogs which are monetized are done essentially from advertisement.

To do this you need to work to get articles (truth actually need not to be very original, but need to be very you)

If you want get traffic or build backlinks, there are ethical ways to do it. You will be able to find lots of articles online to follow. Any splogging in the long run do not benefit anyways.

Understand SEO vs Social Media

As one of the very popular posts of this Blog on Search Engine Domination, things eventually came true. SEO is good if you can dominate in search engine rankings on popular and on demand keywords. You have a great inflow of targeted traffic. But if not SMO can help you out.

As Rohit Bhargava said “The concept behind SMO is simple: implement changes to optimize a site so that it is more easily linked to, more highly visible in social media searches on custom search engines (such as Technorati), and more frequently included in relevant posts on blogs, podcasts and vlogs.”

It helps you increase linkability and helps your content flow to the people interested. If you are interested to know the rules of SMO, please go through “5 Rules of SMO”.

How to Revive a Dead Blog?

Citing a Gartner study there are eventually "200 million people call themselves ex-bloggers." That's a ton of dead blogs but it won't matter to most blog readers. Lots of these ex-bloggers want to get back to scene. Quoting a question by David-

So, I am not sure how to go about this, but I need to know what everyone thinks. I have a few blogs that I have let fade away, but I really want to revive them, and over the next two weeks especially, I feel like I have the time, energy and hopefully continual focus to make them part of my daily routine.

Do I just start writing on them again and act like they never faded? Do I give up on them, and start again fresh without any of the baggage and the apparent break in posting? What do you think? What is the best way to revive a dead blog?

To start with- This post is about reviving your old blog… and Not starting Afresh.


You may not have been blogging well for a year. Or Your blog has been one of the known blogs of its time, but now everybody seems to have forgotten it. Even I did not blog at regular intervals and other things in life took priority. What happened to “blogging to fame” could have happened to anybody in the blogosphere.

Now you want your readers back. You want them to know about your coming back to the blogosphere. What do you do to revive your dead blog?


Do this and bring your blog back to life…


1. Start Blogging- A No-Brainer you would say… It may sound obvious, but, it takes time. Bringing a blog back to life is not easy. It needs the same energy and enthusiasm that you started your blog once with. Give your blog some time.


2. Reconnect with fellow Bloggers- Blogging is all about relationships. Make your old fellow bloggers remember you. Talk to them, comment on their blogs, and re-build your relationships. Oh great! If you have already kept the friendship alive, but if not, now is the time to do so.


3. Blog Networks- If you blogged earlier, you would be most probably be a member of sites like MyBlogLog and BlogCatalogue. Spend time on them (the site), and with them (the blogger members). Use Twitter, and other sites to get your voice up and going, and trust me, you are definitely going to feel good about it.


4. Redesign for a fresh feel- A full facelift. Like starting a new day, this will help you to get your creativity to flow again. This is totally your choice. You can continue with the old one.


And this time maintain your commitment to blogging... :) posted by Divya Uttam

What is Blogging: The New Form of Journalism

Ever wonder why most all of the teens today are addicted to the internet? Well it has everything a young exploring mind needs. From browsing the net for document researches, shopping, cooking, gaming, chat, and a whole bunch of stuff going inside a website’s offer.

Yep, all of these including one secluded part of a teen’s life which is their journal. Don’t believe me? Then try hooking up on the internet now and see how much there is that is available today.

Aside from being a window for the readers to see what’s on the author’s mind, a blog lets him elaborate on facts or scribble out whatever idea that pops out his head. A blog is a simplified term for “web blog”-a new generation medium for writing articles, essays, statements and the like.

It’s usually composed of texts or sometimes pictures and multimedia topics. If you’re tired of jotting down every single detail of your life’s worth on paper, why not try the new fad of journalism which is blogging. Blogging literally means sharing a comment of life through the internet.

It is an up-to-date source. A sequence of events. A timeless exhibit of creativity and style. An outlet for one’s self.

The popularity of blog comes in different areas. Anyone can write anything that comes out of his head. Whether a walk on a sunny day or a dip into California ’s wild waters, it serves as a diary and is readily updated. What’s good about blogging is that it is not bounded by editing and is cheap.

The commercial velocity of a blog depends on a writer’s instinct to create a worthy article. Either formative or informative, rational or irrational, for as long as the readers can visualize what the author has posted your blog’s a hit.

Technical specialties and skills, not necessary. Publishing freedom, an advantage. All that is needed is for you to have a witty mind, a desire to share ideas and part of your story, and a bit of knowledge to toggle into the internet. Grammatical errors are welcome. No editors and publishing companies to please. Journalism without rules or guidelines to follow and what’s best is that readers could post a comment or be inspired to write one too.

Blogging wouldn’t be difficult if you have the right recipes. Not just a simple-text article, a blog may be enhanced or converted into other types like an audio blog or a video blog. Nowadays, blogs are more sophisticated and advanced. Element of a blog starts from a good and captivating headline down to the author’s personal profile. Included herewith are the blog post, permalink (combined term for “permanent link”), and the reader’s comments.

A friend of mine is a blogger. He would entertain herself by posting blogs on his web page. He told me that blogging is an advantage for his to speak up to the world of the things that’s keeping his shut. And I quote, “I am an internet junkie. I am not a big fan of journalism or any kind of writing.

But it all changed when the blogging fever entered internet society. I appreciated it more when I felt everything that’s written are real and not just a compulsory decoy to deliver information. Right then, I became a part of a bigger picture.”

Trapped in a world of unwanted opinions, blogging is a benefit. But everything has its own consequences. Blogs are much harder to manage than that of the broadcast media. In politically sensitive issues, blogs can be considered as a political misfit. Results are triggered through suppression of bloggers and punishments were made. Another grave case is the issue of defamation and liability.

Nevertheless, blogging is still out there. So if you’re the type who has the snap for writing, give blogging a shot. You never know how much it would contribute to the society and to your pockets.

Ready to start your own blog but don't know how to start? I already published a tutorial regarding how to start a blog particularly for beginners and you can find that article in Blog for Beginners category. That tutorial was written in MSWord file.

Well, here's another gift I want you to have which called 'Blog Action Plan Report'. This is a step-by-step Guide On How To Make Money with WordPress & Blogging. Download here.

Blog Content Strategy – How To Select Great Blog Topics?

Ever wonder why most all of the teens today are addicted to the internet? Well it has everything a young exploring mind needs. From browsing the net for document researches, shopping, cooking, gaming, chat, and a whole bunch of stuff going inside a website’s offer.

Yep, all of these including one secluded part of a teen’s life which is their journal. Don’t believe me? Then try hooking up on the internet now and see how much there is that is available today.

Aside from being a window for the readers to see what’s on the author’s mind, a blog lets him elaborate on facts or scribble out whatever idea that pops out his head. A blog is a simplified term for “web blog”-a new generation medium for writing articles, essays, statements and the like.

It’s usually composed of texts or sometimes pictures and multimedia topics. If you’re tired of jotting down every single detail of your life’s worth on paper, why not try the new fad of journalism which is blogging. Blogging literally means sharing a comment of life through the internet.

It is an up-to-date source. A sequence of events. A timeless exhibit of creativity and style. An outlet for one’s self.

The popularity of blog comes in different areas. Anyone can write anything that comes out of his head. Whether a walk on a sunny day or a dip into California ’s wild waters, it serves as a diary and is readily updated. What’s good about blogging is that it is not bounded by editing and is cheap.

The commercial velocity of a blog depends on a writer’s instinct to create a worthy article. Either formative or informative, rational or irrational, for as long as the readers can visualize what the author has posted your blog’s a hit.

Technical specialties and skills, not necessary. Publishing freedom, an advantage. All that is needed is for you to have a witty mind, a desire to share ideas and part of your story, and a bit of knowledge to toggle into the internet. Grammatical errors are welcome. No editors and publishing companies to please. Journalism without rules or guidelines to follow and what’s best is that readers could post a comment or be inspired to write one too.

Blogging wouldn’t be difficult if you have the right recipes. Not just a simple-text article, a blog may be enhanced or converted into other types like an audio blog or a video blog. Nowadays, blogs are more sophisticated and advanced. Element of a blog starts from a good and captivating headline down to the author’s personal profile. Included herewith are the blog post, permalink (combined term for “permanent link”), and the reader’s comments.

A friend of mine is a blogger. He would entertain herself by posting blogs on his web page. He told me that blogging is an advantage for his to speak up to the world of the things that’s keeping his shut. And I quote, “I am an internet junkie. I am not a big fan of journalism or any kind of writing.

But it all changed when the blogging fever entered internet society. I appreciated it more when I felt everything that’s written are real and not just a compulsory decoy to deliver information. Right then, I became a part of a bigger picture.”

Trapped in a world of unwanted opinions, blogging is a benefit. But everything has its own consequences. Blogs are much harder to manage than that of the broadcast media. In politically sensitive issues, blogs can be considered as a political misfit. Results are triggered through suppression of bloggers and punishments were made. Another grave case is the issue of defamation and liability.

Nevertheless, blogging is still out there. So if you’re the type who has the snap for writing, give blogging a shot. You never know how much it would contribute to the society and to your pockets.

Ready to start your own blog but don't know how to start? I already published a tutorial regarding how to start a blog particularly for beginners and you can find that article in Blog for Beginners category. That tutorial was written in MSWord file.

Well, here's another gift I want you to have which called 'Blog Action Plan Report'. This is a step-by-step Guide On How To Make Money with WordPress & Blogging. Download here.

Help! My Blog is Boring!

o you have this really great idea to start a blog on a particular niche. And perhaps, maybe you even want to make some revenue off of AdSense, Infolinks, or other contextual advertising. Super. You’ve wrote your heart out and posted some blog content. Great! No problems there. But what do you do to keep the content fresh and insightful? Are you feeling that the content you offer on your blog just "lacks"? Is your blog boring? Maybe you can’t even pinpoint what exactly is "lacking", but you just feel it. Possibly, you just do not have the time to put forth to writing 1000 word articles every couple days. If this is you, it is time you look into using other people’s articles!

"WHAT?" you say. No, I am not suggesting you steal or copy others articles. However, I am suggesting that you utilize websites that offer free web content on your particular niche. There are many free web content sites or ‘article directories’ that offer free articles for you to use on your blog or website. You are able to use these articles totally free without a problem. The only thing you are required is to give credit to the author who wrote the article. Fair enough?

Now you ask, "Why would I want to use someone else’s articles? How lame is that?!" It’s actually not lame at all. Think about it. There are thousands of other people offering new, unique insight on exactly what you are writing about. You will find that people offer a different point of view or perspective on the particular subject. A different perspective or a new idea can be very refreshing for your blog. To even go further, find those articles that offer new thoughts and respond to the author’s thoughts.

Consider the benefits of using free content articles for your blog or website:

• When you use other quality articles, you are offering your visitor with useful content, and in effect, your visitor comes back for more.
• Using free web content will allow you to keep your blog fresh and updated on a daily basis with valuable information.
• Other people's articles can inspire new thoughts and ideas for your blog.

How do you find quality free web content for your blog? When you find an article that you would like to put on your website, make sure you are permitted to actually use it. You can usually find that information right on the article page or the website’s terms of service. When you are positive that you can use the article, read it over to make sure it is even applicable to your website. Do run it through a spell check to make sure that level of quality is portrayed in the article. If there are a bunch of errors, do not change the errors because that would violate the terms for the article. Instead, move on to finding another article. So do some searching and reading. Find that interesting web content and post that interesting web content for your readers! Delight your readers with something interesting and exciting!

Does Sex Matter When Blogging?

The idea that men and women communicate differently has gained momentum in recent years and it’s a common topic in the areas of relationship advice and couple therapy. This communication theory mainly revolves around the idea that men tend to value information, facts and just want to get to the point quickly, while women tend to want more discussion and support.

Whether this idea is a proven scientific fact or not, most people I’ve come in contact with seem to agree and corroborate the theory and it’s an interesting item to take into consideration for your blog.

Consider the blogs you like to read. Do they tend to be more along the lines of “just the facts, ma’am,” or are you attracted to a style that appears to be geared more toward discussion, support and developing relationships? Do your apparent preferences appear to correlate with the theory based on your particular gender? Or, do you even notice a difference in the first place?

Consider your own blogs and your blogging style. Do you think the communication theory is valid for you as far as how you blog? Have you noticed that some blogging entries seem to be much more popular than others? If so, maybe this communication theory is something to learn more about and see if it points you in any helpful direction for future blog posts.

Consider your prospective audience. Is your blog intended primarily for one gender over the other? Or do you hope to reach both sexes with your blog? Understanding your audience is important to developing your blog and reaching your goals, so understanding the differences between the sexes as to communication theory may be another tool to add to your resources.

You might want to do some experimentation in relation to this communication theory on your blog. Pay attention to how you communicate in your posts. Do you think you have been doing a good job of posting entries that match the communication theory for the gender you hope to attract? If your blog is geared for both sexes, do you think you have a good balance?

Can you think of any changes you’d like to try? Maybe it will be worth doing some testing. If nothing else, just thinking about your posts in this new way could put some fresh energy into the time you spend creating your posts.

You could also have some fun analyzing the blogs you enjoy reading and the ones that drive you crazy. See if there are any patterns that correlate to the gender communication differences we are discussing here.

For starters, you might want to analyze this post. Since this blog is geared towards both sexes, do you think I did a good job in striking a balance or can you see something I could have done differently?

3 Great ways to attract traffic to your Blog!

While new methods of attracting traffic to your blog are coming out all the time, there are a few that remains as timeless classics and continue to be relevant today.

1. Pump Out Better Content

Before you do anything else, take a look at your content if it sucks, there is your answer to why you don’t have traffic. A blog post consists of several elements which are the title and the body copy. Most new bloggers fail to realize that blog headlines are so important they could make or break their blog.

Before your visitors read your content, they’d have to read the headline first. Writing a poor and uninspiring headline could result in you losing the majority of your visitors. Lets me give you an example: which of the following headline would you likely click? Leave you choice in the comments.

1. Popular blogs by Technorati
2. 50 Most Influential Blogs

The second element that you have to pay attention to is of course the body copy. Here’s a tip, you don’t need to produce good content with a perfect grammar and so on.

You just have to write posts that your readers want to read. See, when it comes to blogging, it is often not about what you want but what your readers want. While you might not be the best writer in town, that doesn’t stop many people from visiting your blog daily.

2. Optimize, Optimise, Optimise

As time goes by, it’s becoming increasing difficult to get your blog listed high up in the search engine results. While you can perform some on page search engine optimizations which undoubtedly are important, but it won’t guarantee a good ranking because obviously the external factors play a much bigger role these days.

Off page optimization factors include anything from the number of sites linking to your blog, the anchor text used by those sites that are linking to you, primarily your Google PageRank and so on. They all influence your ultimate ranking on the search engines.

While you can’t directly adjust the external factors to your advantage, you can do things such as improving your blog content (my first point), attracting links from other blogs and making your blog more social by participating in the comments.

3. Link are link handshakes

Again, this comes back to your content. You are more likely to attract links from other bloggers if you offer something that people want to read and more importantly want to share with their readers, thus saying they agree or find interesting your content. The online handshake. You should also be lining out to others great content.

Also bear in mind that not all links are created equal. Those that will benefit you most are links from trusted, authoritative, high PageRank’d sites, links that use relevant keywords in their anchor text, links from relevant sites, and links from variety of sources instead of just from one or two of your own sites for instance. I’m Blogging That… What are you blogging?

Blogging issue? Ask your question here.

Have a blogging problem? Ask your questions here and get answers within 24hrs.Feel free to post your query.

Ideas for writing posts-What do you do to generate ideas?

It true that most of the bloggers face the problem of what to write and how to think on new content to write. Honestly I do have the same problem and so do you and others. The DailyBlog Tips has the answere to this question:

As bloggers we sometimes left without ideas for writing posts. What do you do to generate ideas?
How do you keep coming up with new content, where do you get the ideas from, i think i speak on behalf of a lot of webmasters and especially bloggers when i say that i sometimes lack new and original ideas that will grasp the attention of many readers. How do you keep it going?

Answere:

Ideally you never want to arrive at a point where you don’t have any left ideas to write about. How do you do that? Simply pay attention everyday to possible post ideas, and write them down.

Right now I have 46 drafts saved on WordPress. Most of them contain only a title and a few lines describing the post briefly. Whenever I need to write a new post I just browse to the list, pick an interesting one, and write it.

There will be times when you won’t have time to write, and we already covered how to deal with those on this post: Are You Prepared for a Blogging Emergency?.

Now if you already forgot to write ideas down and arrive to a point where you don’t know what to write about, there are a couple of things you can do to get inspired:

• Take a look on other blogs on your niche: What are they writing about? Can you add an insightful commentary to that? Can you expand on what they covered?
• Take a look on other blogs outside of your niche: What are they writing about? Can you bring that to your own niche?
• Take a look at newspapers and magazines
• Go outside for a walk. Alone.

Finally, you can also use the kind of posts that don’t require any idea: speed linking, asking a question to your readers and so on. Do not rely on those exclusively though.

Why Do Blogs Fail?

In the last month I’ve seen a few blogs stumble. Some have disappeared altogether, others are are still kicking about but are updated infrequently, which ultimately is just the same as if they had ceased to exist.

What did they do wrong? Why did they fail?

There are some common reasons people often bring up:

• Burnout.
• Lack of motivation or time.
• Personal issues.
• Boring writing/topics.
• Nothing left to write about.
• Poor visual design.

These are all valid reasons but something that is often overlooked is the attitude people bring to blogging. The wrong attitude can doom you to failure even if you have the above points covered.

How should you approach blogging?

1. You must be willing to learn.
   The fine details of blogging are far more complex than most people realise. The writing is easy. Learning how to turn your hard work into something successful is the hard part. Very few people stumble into success. You need to learn, adapt, and assimilate what sometimes might seem like an overwhelming amount of information, but that is what it takes to succeed in this game. I’m not afraid to admit that I’m still learning. You can never stop learning. If you do you’ll quickly find yourself left behind. Do you think the big guns are complacent? No, they are constantly looking for new angles they can exploit to solidify or increase their position. Which means you will probably have to work that much harder.
2. You have to put the effort into your content.
   Everyone’s heard the saying “Content is King”, and it’s true. Without quality content what reason do people have to visit your blog, let alone return day to day? You can get away with being a lazy blogger, you might even be able to make a good living from it, but if you want peoples respect you need to earn it. There’s only one way to do that: quality content.
3. Promoting your blog is just as important as its content.
   If content is King, then traffic is Queen. So you’ve written a bunch of great articles, which are well written, link worthy, and are sure to connect with readers. So where are they? There is no magical force that will make people rush to your blog when you’ve got something good to read. You have to get them there yourself. If you aren’t willing to get your hands dirty promoting your blog, it will never live up to the potential it may have.
4. Check your ego at the door.
   At least in the beginning. Pay your dues, learn the ropes, and keep in mind there are people who have been doing this longer than you have. If you show a little respect, they may tip their hat your way from time to time.
5. People don’t owe you anything.
   They don’t have to read your blog. They don’t have to leave comments. They don’t have to link to you. These are rewards for hard work, and not something one is simply entitled to.
6. If you’re not in it for the long haul, your done.
   People are impatient. I’m impatient. We all want to see results immediately, but unless you have enough money to buy success or you’ve got a lucky charm handy you have to take a more long term approach. You can’t plant a seed and come back the next day expecting to see a tree. You have to water constantly, prune on occasion, and if you are vigilant, some time in the future you will have yourself a strong healthy tree. The same goes for your blog.
7. Don’t blog just to make money.
   Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Blogging only for money is the quickest path to failure. Let me be clear I’m not against making money from a blog. If you put in the work you have every right to reap the rewards. The cold hard reality is, you won’t make very much from your blog in the short term. If money is your only motivation you won’t last long enough to see very much of it.
8. Network. Network. Network.
   I spend more time replying to messages, reading other blogs, and commenting, than I do actually blogging. Without that legwork you will find it hard to gain any traction within the blogging community. Until you start seeing some organic traffic from search engines chances are your audience is going to be limited to fellow bloggers. The more of them you interact with, the more traffic you will get to your blog.
9. Be prepared for criticism.
   You have to realise not everyone is going to agree with you. Criticism will eventually come your way and when it does you will need to be able to deal with it. Having a thick-skin helps, but being willing and able to engage in a civil discussion with someone with a polar opinion is far more productive.
10. Don’t expect it to be easy.
    Blogging is hard work. Harder than I ever imagined it would be. But you know what, I’m still here plugging away every day. You have to make sacrifices, you have to push yourself to the edge of burnout, and still keep going. The harder you work now, the more rewarding it will be when success does come your way.
11. Put aside your self-doubt and insecurities.
    I doubt myself all the time. My computer is riddled with an embarrassing number of articles that I’ve chosen not to publish because at the time I thought they weren’t good enough. It’s easy to fall into the trap of wanting every single post to represent the best you have to offer. The problem with this attitude is, you aren’t necessarily the best judge of your own work. Some of my most popular articles are the ones I’ve only grudgingly let into the wild. I’ve learnt my lesson there: Don’t second guess yourself. Write what you have to say and let your readers decide its value. Don’t presume to think you know what will connect with them.

It sometimes amazes me how many misconceptions there are about blogging. Some of these misconceptions have been perpetuated by the media, others are being spread by bloggers themselves who either ignore or reinforce them for their own benefit.

So many bloggers are fixated on the carrot dangling in front of them. With blinkered vision, they keep chasing it around, yet they could be far more productive and successful if only they realised it was attached to a string.

This article isn’t about persuading you to stop blogging. It’s about realising the harsh realities involved in the practice and how you can address your own attitudes and habits to get the most out of your blog. Knowing what needs to be done, and how you need to change, is the first step to avoiding failure.