BlogWritingCourse

So you are starting a new blog, and you want to have more than Aunt Erma and Cousin Grover reading it.  So you begin to explore all the different ways of increasing blog traffic (including taking our terrific Blog Writing Course!!) and yet you still feel like there is something else you could do to get the word out about your site.

And there is!!  It is called Twitter, and unless you have lived in a cave for the past five years you have probably heard of it.  You might have even looked into it, but weren’t sure how it could really benefit you.  Well, if you are a blogger, Twitter might have several benefits for you…

• Twitter can introduce your blog to a whole different set of readers.  Those who follow Twitter aren’t always the same ones who follow blogs, so if you create a Twitter account that is focused on the same subject as your blog, you might garner a whole new audience!
• You can have your new posts automatically post to Twitter!  That’s right…using a service such as Twitterfeed, you can link up your blog to Twitter and let TF do all the work!  Then, your Twitter followers will be immediately notified anytime you add a new post.
• You can get more mileage out of your blog.  Blog posts are very different from Tweets…they are longer, more indepth, and usually have more substance than the average Tweet.  But that doesn’t mean that you stop having things to say about your blog subject after you have posted.  If you want to add to the conversation, post additional remarks, or ask for opinions about what you have posted, Twitter is the perfect outlet!
• You can supplement your blog.  By posting additional information, links, and resources that have to do with your blog theme, you can use your Twitter account to be an all-in-one reference source for your particular subject.  This helps potential readers understand that you are serious about making your blog the Go-To place for info.

To utilize these strategies, you will also want to be sure to include a scrolling feed of your Tweets on your blog sidebar as well.  That way, your blog visitors can quickly view your between-posts information!

One of the great ways to build traffic for your fledgling blog is by both BECOMING a guest blogger and HOSTING a guest blogger.  If you have already made connections with bloggers in your genre, or have been reading a blog with a theme similar to yours for some time now, this may not be too difficult to set up. 

The first thing would be to send an inquiry to someone you would like to have as a guest writer.  You could have them write just one post, a whole week, or a series of posts.  The person should be someone whose blog has a decently strong following, because your hope is that that person’s readers will follow them over to YOUR blog, and be introduced to you in turn.  When you contact the author, you might want to explain to them why you think they would make a good guest poster for your blog (a little flattery never hurts!).  You also will want to ask them to announce their guest post status on their own blog, so you will get a direct link to your blog.

This technique for traffic building will probably have at least a modest effect on your blog.  But an even BIGGER traffic-building strategy is for you to guest post on someone ELSE’S blog.  So how in the world do you go about that?

Well, it requires some tact and some good writing, for sure!  Before offering your guest blogging services to anyone, you need to make sure that your blog is in tip-top shape.  Has your writing been stellar lately?  Is your design up-to-date and eye-catching?  These are the things another blogger will be looking for as they make the decision whether you are guest blogger material!  So before you make even the first inquiry about becoming a guest blogger, do an objective analysis of your recent content to see if it is up to guest blogger standards.

Then, when you feel confident that you have produced some pretty awesome content, go ahead and send your blog link and a request to five of your favorite blogs in your genre, asking them to take a look at your blog and consider you as a fill-in for the next time they are out of town or have hit writer’s block.  Hopefully, if they like what they see, they will keep your info on file, and will contact you with your first ever guest blogger opportunity! 

Then, when you take them up on their offer, be sure to link back to your blog somewhere in your post, so that when (not if) their readers enjoy your writing, they will be able to easily make their way over to your blog and become your next biggest fans!!

Chances are, you are already benefiting from feeds - - those wonderful time saving devices that go out and get the information YOU want, and bring it right to your doorstep. I have feeds for my favorite blogs, my local newspaper, and updates to my frequented websites. I don’t have to go out to all those different sites to get updated information - - instead, it comes to me.

You might not, however, have been on the actual "feeding" side of a feed until now. But when your blog starts to grow its readership, your followers will want the same convenience you do in having your blog updates sent directly to them. So, you will need to register with a feed service, to make sure this is accomplished easily. Another advantage of having a feed service, is that it tracks your feed subscribers. So you will know exactly how many people are accessing your feeds on a regular basis.

Sometimes, setting up an RSS feed for your blog is as easy as going into your dashboard or layout and tweaking a few settings.  In Blogger, for instance, you go into your “Settings” menu and look for “Site Feed”.  From there, you can choose how much of your site to syndicate.  Once you have enabled these settings, your site feed will automatically be generated.  Some Blogger templates will immediately begin showing a subscription option to your readers.  Others may require you to install a separate gadget for this purpose.

In Wordpress, feed subscriptions are enabled with a widget called the “blog subscription widget.”  Your blog stats page will then show you how many people are subscribed to your blog. 

If you prefer more detailed or in-depth information about your feeds and subscribers, you might consider signing up for a separate RSS feed via an external feed site such as Feedburner or Bloglines.

You can write the most exciting, engaging, and even mind-blowing blog in the world, but unless people can subscribe to your content, they will never know when you have something new to say.  So make creating a feed for your blog a priority!!

This week, I only blogged twice on my personal blog, but I happened to notice that traffic - - especially new visitor traffic was way up.  I looked at my statistics a little more closely to see what might have created the boost, and couldn’t find any huge surge in backlinks or referrals.  There was no big Google search trend for anything I had posted about.  The only thing different that I could see was that I had used a couple particularly clever titles for my posts this week.

This got me intrigued, so I pulled up some older statistics and compared it to other weeks where my titles had been particularly interesting, and sure enough, there was a spike definite traffic/title correlation going on.

I guess this shouldn’t have been a real revelation, but of all the things about my blog, my titles are usually only given an afterthought.  Usually they just make me laugh, so I’ve always been good with that.

But now, I’m considering putting a little more thought into my blog post titles. Based on my short investigation, this is what I have come to conclude are the best choices for blog titles:

• Titillating words or phrases - - throw in a “Viagra” anywhere within a title, and you are bound to get a few extra clicks that week
• Things that make you go awwww - - some of my most traffic-inducing titles sound like they came from the inside of a Hallmark card.  Obviously we’re suckers for sap.
• Rhyming Words - - I’ll admit I’m still stumped by this one, but for some reason people simply can’t resist a good “Junk in the Trunk” story.  Must go back to all those “Hop on Pop” moments we shared with our mothers as toddlers.
• All Caps - - I beg you to use this one WITH CAUTION, but if you are desperate for a little bloggy action on a particular day, go ahead and give us the cyber shout.  We’re gluttons for punishment, it would seem.

Those are my simple, yet weirdly profound conclusions as far as titles go.  Granted, I didn’t give you the skinny on keywords, SEO, and other stuff that professional bloggers would wax eloquently about, but if you want real (albeit, temporary) results, then I’m telling you…add in your favorite E.D. drug of choice in your next post title and watch those stats surge! 

Until next time,

I read the most interesting article today!  Over at WebProNews, Chris Crum writes that: Blogs Can Still Drive Big Traffic

Here is what Chris said:

You would almost think blogging was dead, the way headlines are dominated by Twitter, Facebook, and social media in general. I’ve always considered blogging to be a part of social media anyway, as the commenting factor lends to engagement between author and user. But blogging is so five years ago right? It’s all about microblogging and status updates now isn’t it?

If you think that’s the case, think again, because blogs can still drive big-time traffic to websites. An example of this has been illustrated by the launch of e-commerce site Alice.com. How much traffic are you getting from blogs? Let us know. If you are not familiar with Alice.com, it is a site where consumers can buy everyday household items like toothpaste, toilet paper, laundry detergent, diapers, etc., right from the manufacturers, rather than through middleman retailers. It launched in June, and by July it had doubled its traffic to 387,000 unique visitors, according to Compete. Alice.com Guess where the majority of that traffic came from. According to Compete, it came from word-of-mouth from blogs. In fact, its number one traffic source was Blogger.com. Not Twitter. Not Facebook. Not search. Although each of these no doubt played valuable roles as well., Blogger.com has been the biggest factor in driving traffic for this site, and from the looks of things, that traffic is showing no signs of slowing down.

So that got me thinking about the differences between Twitter/Facebook and blogs.  Twitter and Facebook, I think, are probably more useful for fluid content.  In other words:  promotionals, sales, site updates, new product additions and news.  Whereas blogs are perfect for highlighting static information.  Product details, explanations, human interest stories, behind-the-scenes info, letters from the president, and editorials.

That might possibly mean that Twitter/FB has more appeal to bargain-hunters and promotion-junkies, but that true potential, long-term customers might be more persuaded by the more substantial content of a blog post.  It also might be true that blogs have more weight for SEO purposes.  After all, tweets generally link BACK to blogs!

So if you are a business owner, and are trying to decide how to best integrate blogs, Twitter, and Facebook into your marketing scheme, remember to save your in-depth copy and strongest content for your blog, and then drive traffic to that copy via the microblogging avenues.

For more information on blogging, and how to start a blog, check out our course offerings at BlogWritingCourse.com.

Until next time…

If you are a relative newbie to the world of blogging, you may or may not know much about Twitter.  I tend to find that a lot of Twitterers are bloggers.  I became kind of curious about the relationship between the two.  Here are some of my thoughts about the Twitter/blogging connection.

1. Bloggers are often told that Twitter is a good way to grow their blog readership.  First of all, you can easily feed your blog to Twitter, so that each time you blog, your new post is announced as a Tweet.  If discussion builds around either your post, or your tags, then you can quickly add a follower or two.  Also, your website or blog is prominently displayed in your Twitter profile, so that your followers can find out about it if they stop in. 
2. Twitter is kind of an in-between-blog-posts vehicle for some people.  Blogs are generally at least a couple of paragraphs long.  You have something to say, and you take a few minutes (or in my case, occasionally a whole darn hour) to compose your thoughts and put them down in your blog.  But what about when something comes to mind that you may not have time to write a whole post about, but you still want to share?  You tweet it.  140 little characters of burning info that just can’t wait until the next post?  You tweet it. 
3. Twitter is the ultimate networking tool.  Whether or not we quite accept it, blogging is about building networks.  But in most cases, network building for bloggers can take a long time.  Network building on Twitter, however, is much faster, and there are multiple ways to push it forward even more quickly: TwittGroups has a seemingly unending list of ways to network with people of similar interests, backgrounds, work affiliations, geographic locations, etc.  And building a network on Twitter is a highly effective way of getting new people to find out about your blog.

If you have a blog, or are thinking about starting a blog, you might want to give Twitter a chance.  It is an effective jump-start for building blog traffic, and networking with other like-minded bloggers.

Until next time,

In tough economic times, every penny counts, right?  Some of you may have been wondering if you could make money from blog writing.  It is definitely possible to make money blogging, and one of the most popular ways is through affiliate marketing.

At its most basic, affiliate marketing is simply promoting a product or service on the web using a special link.  For a blog, this would involve either direct advertising, reviews, or posts about this product that readers would click on. 

Some affiliate programs pay you just for that click.  Others require that those readers purchase the product through your link, and then you receive a percentage of commission off of that sale.

Amazon.com is probably one of the best known affiliate programs.  They have a multitude of ways to promote themselves via your blog.  One is by simply creating customized links to their products on your site.  Another is by displaying Amazon banners on your blog. Amazon has also created many different widgets that you can highlight in your blog sidebar.  They even have recently created the ability to embed a professional looking online store right within your blog.

But if you are thinking of blogging about a particular topic, it might be more applicable to choose affiliates that are relevant to your blog theme.  For this you might want to search through some of the many online affiliate directories to discover affiliate programs you are interested in.

No matter what type of affiliate you choose, the important thing is drawing traffic to your blog.  No matter how many affiliate links you have within your blog, if there is no one to click them, they won’t be doing you any good.  So creating a quality blog that has a steady readership is a must.

If you would like to find out more about creating a blog, and growing an audience, sign up today for our free online blogging course.  This course will give you valuable information on designing a blog, writing quality content, and building traffic. 

You can make money with affiliate marketing, and we would like to help you get started, so sign up today!

The most asked question by new bloggers is always…”How can I drive traffic to my blog?”  We’ve talked about many traffic-building ideas in this blog, but today we are going to explore one we haven’t yet covered.

One of the easiest, most painless, and free ways to increase traffic to your blog is by participating in a blog carnival.  For those of you unfamiliar with blog carnivals, the best way to explain them is to compare them to well…a carnival.  Just as a carnival travels from town to town, blog carnivals travel from blog to blog.  And just as a carnival draws a crowd…so does a blog carnival!

A blog carnival begins with a host - - a blogger who is willing to oversee the carnival, choose the topic and date of publication,take submissions, promote the upcoming carnival, and ultimately gather the submissions and publish them in a single post.  The host, though, is reliant on submitters - - bloggers who are willing to follow the guidelines of the carnival and submit a blog post from their blog that corresponds with the carnival theme.  Finally, you have the readers - - folks who are interested in the carnival subject and enjoy coming to a one-stop-shopping destination where they can read posts related to that subject.

You can see that the possibilities for blog promotion are tremendous with a blog carnival.  The host benefits by having submitters become familiar with his or her site, by networking with like-minded bloggers, and by receiving lots of hits on his blog following the carnival posting.  But even carnival participants can see spikes in traffic after their post has been featured in the carnival.  A carnival is a chance to showcase your work, and without much effort, readers will be flocking to your site to see more of what you have to offer.  A blog carnival directly links to one of your posts, so readers who have never heard of you before will click on your link to see what you have to say about the topic they are interested in.

Blog carnivals can be on almost any subject.  If you would like to find a blog carnival that matches your interests, go to Blogcarnival.com, which is a directory of all ongoing carnivals.  Not only is it a great way to increase traffic for your blog, but it is also a terrific outlet for meeting people with similar interests.

If you would like to learn more specific ways to grow your blog, sign up for our eight-week online blogging course, where you will cover all aspects of blogging from building a blog to writing quality content to promoting your blog.  This instructor-led course will guide you every step of the way toward creating a successful blog.  So….step right up!

Until next time,

Small business owners are constantly competing in an overwhelming market of corporate collateral.  Their competitive edge is often the personal touch they are able to offer vs. the aloof persona of a chain or large corporation.  The website of a small business owner can be a strong tool for making connections with potential and current clients or customers - - especially those who like having personal relationships with their community service organizations or retailers.  It can be an even more powerful tool if you use a blog on your website to draw traffic, and to create a sense of community between your customers and you.

The first thing to be sure of is your target audience.  Who are you trying to reach with your blog?  Are you trying to create a line of communication between you and your current customers, or are you trying to grow your business and get the word out to a wider audience.  Or maybe you are trying to do both.  Knowing your audience helps you create better content for your blog posts, and makes sure that you have goals for them.

The next thing to focus on is providing quality content.  If you aren’t a natural writer, find someone else within your company, or even hire someone to write your blog.  No one will visit your blog if it is poorly written, and doesn’t contain useful information.  Use your blog to go in-depth about your field of expertise - - this is the time to pull out all the stops and write something that people will be eager to visit your website for.  Good writing draws traffic, and traffic increases business.

Another priority for a small business blog should be keeping it updated.  An up-to-date blog is a sign of an engaged retailer - - one that focuses on customers, and knows them well.  The worst thing a business can do with its website is create it, and then forget about it.  This says to potential buyers that you don’t make your customers and their needs a priority.  By writing consistent, current blog posts, your website visitors know that you are interested in them, and willing to go the extra mile to meet their needs.

Lastly, you should learn how to promote your blog.  You can start by inserting your blog address into newsletters, business cards, bulk mailings, and anything that you use for printed advertisement.  But to go a step further, it is important to learn how to promote your website and blog online.  Online marketing opens the door to expanding your business beyond your local venue.  Many small businesses have become large companies just by knowing how to market themselves across the world wide web.  By understanding search engine optimization, keywords, and content strategies, you can go a long way toward bringing in traffic for your blog, and ultimately for your business.

To learn more about blogging, and how it can benefit your small business, you can sign up today for one of our introductory blogging courses.  Our free online Get Ready To Blog course will introduce you to the basics of blogging terminology, platforms, and promotion.  This course will fully prepare you for our eight-week instructor led course, Blogging 101.  This course will guide you every step of the way through setting up your first blog, designing it, writing your first posts, and growing your readership.  Blogging your small business can be a key aspect of your small business marketing strategy, and we are here to help you get started.

Until next time,

So you have your first blog up and running.  You’ve written several posts, and you might have even gotten a comment or two.  So how do you know that things are going the way they are supposed to?  Is there a magic blogging fairy that lets you know that you are on track, and that your blog traffic is growing?  Well, yes and no. 

Although there may or may not be magic wands and pink tutus involved, there are definitely some magical fairy-like tools out there that can help you keep up with the facts and figures of your blog on a daily basis.  Tools such as Statcounter and Google Analytics can seem almost supernatural in their ability to help you understand who your readers are and how they are interacting with your content.

I was quite a novice to web tracking software before I began my blog.  I’ll never forget the feeling of awe that came over me when I realized that I could actually see a virtual “map” of where my visitors were from.  In the first few weeks of monitoring my blog, I saw that I had readers all the way from Punxsutawney, PA to Dublin, Ireland, and many places in between.  That was incredibly cool, but not terribly useful.  I soon realized that it was much more helpful to find out not where they were physically when they dropped by my blog, but virtually.  What sites had sent them my way?  And why did they choose to click on over?

By understanding the “why” behind your traffic, you can begin to tweak your strategy, and appeal to your demographic.  This is very similar to any advertising strategy.  Take the candy company Mars, Inc. for instance.  For years they had marketed their popular M&M confection to children everywhere with their popular slogan, “Melts in Your Mouth, Not In Your Hands.”  Their TV commercials were filled with doe-eyed cuties holding out their hands after chowing down on some of the multicolored treats, to prove that they hadn’t gotten a handful of melty chocolate goo in the process.  But Mars got wise to something after several years of this advertising.  The fact was, that the majority of M&M connoisseurs weren’t actually kids, after all.  Adults were the true core of their market share for the candy.  So naturally, along with this new wisdom came a completely different marketing strategy - - the M&M guys.  These characters were aimed at entertaining the more grown-up set with their tongue-in-cheek humor.  And it has worked incredibly well for Mars, Inc.

It is that ability to take information, and make it work for you that sets you apart as an advertiser - - and as a blogger.  Knowing the stats of your blog is interesting, (and sometimes discouraging!), but it is what you do with those stats that will help you grow your blog audience.  And for most bloggers, that is what it’s all about!

If you are interested in blogging, but just haven’t been sure where to start, you should definitely sign up for our free blogging course that will give you an introduction and a foundation to the world of blogging.  Once you are familiar with the vocabulary and background of blogging, though, you will want to take our Blogging 101 course.  This subscription based course is taught by a successful seasoned blogger who will guide you through all of the steps of designing and setting up your blog, writing quality content, and growing your audience. 

Until next time,