Archive for October, 2009
Want to See a Video of Me???
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photo credit: Ramón Cutanda
I'm going to do a short video for the blog explaining what The Blog Builder Guy will do for you. I'm working on a script for it. And I use the word script very loosely as this won't be anything fancy. In fact, it will be my first foray into the world of video.
I'm a little on the nervous side but I've been practicing my "lines" and the jitters are starting to go away…until the camera starts to roll!
So stay tuned and hopefully by Monday the video will be live!!!!
Blogging Mini-Course Coming Soon!
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I've been working on an email mini-course on blogging. It's about half done at this point. Once it is completed I'll put a sign up form on the site. After you sign up, you'll receive a short lesson related to blogging everyday in your email.
Some of the topics will include tips for personal blogging, blogs for business and how to earn a blog income. I'm looking at a total of 10 to 14 topics at this time with maybe an advanced course sometime in the future.
So stay tuned for futher updates
Power Blogging Tips (2)
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Here is Part 2 of 50 Rapid Fire Tips for Power Blogging
16. Research and choose your mailing list option correctly the first time. I recommend Aweber. What you choose is up to you, however moving a mailing list later can be a huge pain. I know from experience.
17. When choosing a topic to focus your blog on, two things should be considered: (1) Your interest in the topic, (2) How MARKETABLE your topic is.
18. Learn to SELL. The way to a full-time income by blogging is to learn how to MARKET and sell things using your blog. Yaro Starak does a good job of selling via his blog, for example.
19. Don’t discount Facebook. It is a powerful networking tool and you should take the time to build your network, just as you might on Twitter.
20. Create a Facebook page. On Facebook, create a page for your blog or yourself and invite your readers and Facebook friends to become fans. This page can be your blog’s outpost on Facebook. Be sure to import your blog posts as notes.
21. Don’t Be a Me-Too Blogger. You don’t want to become a copy-cat news blog, where you type news-style posts about what is happening in a saturated market. In technology, this is common. Offer something unique that cannot be found everywhere else in your market.
22. Learn to think about your blog as a business. The blog is a promotional and delivery mechanism to your ultimate product or service.
23. When writing your About Page, pay attention to what you write. Don’t just rattle off some dumb, cookie cutter facts. Your About Page should tell a story of who you are and why your blog is worth reading.
24. Do lots of videos. Use TubeMogul to publish them in as many places as you can. And make sure your blog URL is not only in the video, but in the text description that accompanies the video.
25. When making videos, be REAL and be personable. Your videos are an important component to your blog’s brand. Don’t waste the opportunity.
26. Link to other, related blog posts regularly in your own posts. Not only your OWN posts, but the posts of others.
27. Remember, blogging is a SOCIAL business. Be accessible to your readers and proactively get out there and talk with other people in your niche.
28. If you can afford it, travel to blogging conferences. Not only can you learn a lot, but socializing with successful people often breeds so much motivation and success in yourself that is simply beyond words.
29. Write an e-book, create some videos – whatever – but the idea is to create something which is of value to your readers on your subject, and have it available to SELL to them on your blog.
Power Blogging Tips (1)
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I ran across this list in The Social Media Bible by Lon Safko & David K. Brake. The list itself is from a blog post by David Risley. It is titled "50 Rapid Fire Tips for Power Blogging". I've included 15 in this post and will post the rest in other posts. Read them and apply them!
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Use WordPress. No other platform is as flexible with all the plug-ins, in my opinion.
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Post often. I usually default to one post per day, when I’m asked. I try to do at least one per day on this blog, except for weekends.
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Use catchy blog post titles. Put yourself in the shoes of a person who is casually surfing the Internet, seeing your post along with hundreds of others. Will your blog headline stand out? Copyblogger is an awesome source for information on writing.
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Ask open ended questions. One of the best ways to invite commentary on your posts is to ask for it. Ask your readers questions and tell them to answer in the form of a comment.
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Comment on other blogs – often. I actually maintain a separate folder in Google Reader for relevant blogs I want to follow more closely than others. And, on those blogs, I comment regularly whenever I have something to say.
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Use Twitter. You’ve GOT to be out there, being social. Friendfeed, too.
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Use Twitterfeed to pipe your latest posts into Twitter. But, don’t ONLY use Twitterfeed. You’ve got to be a real person on Twitter, first and foremost. Twitter should not replace RSS.
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Make your RSS feed obvious, above the fold, and preferably use the orange RSS icon.
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Provide an RSS-to-Email option so people can subscribe to your latest posts without being forced to use an RSS reader. Many people still don’t use RSS. Feedburner provides a free RSS-to-Email service.
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Use images in your posts. Images communicate on aesthetic wavelengths words cannot.
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Use header tags to separate sections in your blog posts, where applicable. H1, H2, and H3 tags. And use good search engine keywords wherever possible in those headers.
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Structure your blog posts for easy scanning. Use header tags, lists, etc. Avoid long sentences and long paragraphs.
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Avoid Myspace-style blog designs. What I mean by this is super BUSY designs with too much on screen, animated graphics, etc. These things make your blog truly suck and makes your content too hard to pay attention to.
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If possible, use a custom WordPress theme. It is getting to the point where people can recognize cookie-cutter themes. It is OK to use one, but at least modify it so that you have a unique header design.
- Start your blog’s mailing list as early as possible. The sooner you start, the longer you have to grow your list and, trust me, that list can be used to make money later. Jeremy Shoemoney made this mistake. John Reese used to hound him about building a list. When he finally got around to it, he realized how important it was.
Blogging and Teenagers
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Blogging and Teenagers
Every day blogs are created by people of all ages and from all walks of life, but when it comes to blogging, teenage bloggers are truly on the leading edge of the blogging. Because today's teenagers are the first generation to have grown up using the internet at every stage of their life, many adolescents have an almost inborn sense of how to use web technology to express their innermost thoughts and ideas. Older writers often experience a steep learning curve when they begin to blog, but most young people find that using a computer and blogging software feels more natural a mode of communication than writing in a diary ever could.
One of the reasons why blogs have become the "in" thing in the teen world and are growing daily is the fact that they provide a unique mix of visibility and anonymity. A teenage blogger can invite friends and peers to read their blog with a simple email and get attention or even praise for their ideas or skills. Of course, with visibility usually comes the possibility of embarrassment, but it is possible to blog anonymously with a nickname and that negates a lot of the possible for humiliation. Many a blogging teen lives in fear that a parent or guardian will discover their blog, but by publishing under an alias a teenager can spill their secrets without fear of being traced.
Outside the blogging world, teen bloggers often have limited chances to be published. Magazines and journals are often reluctant to publish young writers who so not have as much credibility as writers with a lot of experience and credits to their names. This can discourage young people from writing or from seeking chances to publish their work. By blogging, young people can begin to gain a following of readers without first having to win the attention and support of an editor or publisher who may not be very interested in teenaged authors.
Between the fact that blogs provide young people with a chance to show off their impressive technical skills, to gain visibility without compromising privacy, and to build a readership for their writing without having to jump through the traditional hoops of the publishing industry, it is little wonder that there are so many teenagers with blogs. For some teenagers, blogging is a very social act that allows them to meet people with similar interests from all over the world. Many a blogging teenager has discovered that having a blog is a great way to explore self-expression and, often, to win positive feedback from new friends.
Learn About Blogging and Blogs for Business
Posted by: | CommentsLearn About Blogging and Blogs for Business
Blogs, also known as web logs are all the hot right now. Many people have a blog, and some are even making money wit;h them. The big question is: How are they doing it? What makes using a blog such a great way to earn money? First you need to know that a blog is a lot bit like an online journal or diary if you will. You can make posts to on just about anything that you want and then publish it for the whole world to see. If you are new to blogging, it is a good idea to do so just for fun in the beginning, so that you can get the hang of it.
Once you have become familiar with blogging and have the gotten used to the format, you will be ready to try and make some blog money with it. As a beginning business blogger, you will want to take it slow and easy. You will need to make a plan and do things according to the plan. That will help keep you from getting overwhelmed with it and giving up.
The single most important thing that you need to do is find a niche to blog about. A niche is a specialized area of knowledge that can be something that you know, want to know, or want to learn. You don’t have to be an expert in that field but it’s important that you at least have a strong interest in it. But the more you know, the better. The niche can be whatever you want it to be. It can be as complex or as simple as you want. Think about something that you know and love or something that you want to learn about. You will come up with a niche that will be perfect before you in no time.
Now that you know what your blog will be all about, you are ready to get down to get started. First of all you want to decide how often you will update your blog. Will it be daily? Every other day? Maybe even weekly? Whichever you choose, make sure that you don’t miss posting your updates. Once you start getting readers to your blog you want them to know that tey can depend on you for fresh content. They will want to know how often to come back and visit your blog for the latest information. If you post like you say you will, you will end up with a large readership that will stick with you.
So now that you have a niche, and have decided how often your will post to your blog, it is time to do some marketing. First, you need to get back links. Back links are essential and they mean that other websites and blogs are linking to you. There are a number of ways that you can get these important links. You can surf the internet and find some forums that are in your niche and post comments on other them that are relevant and leave a link behind with your comment. You can also ask friends and family if they will put links to your blog on their sites. Both work and they both count as links that you need to your blog.
Are you going to try using your blog for business? If you are, you are going to find that promoting products or services in your blog is a great marketing technique that you can use as well. People do it everyday and make lots of money from it. Whether it is affiliate links, or your own products and services that you are promoting, you are going to find that a home business blog is one of the best ways to get the word out and let people know that you are using a blog for business. Marketing from your blog has never been easier.
With all of the internet marketing ideas that are out there for the business blogger, it is really hard to have a blog fail when you implement the ideas correctly. Make sure that you ping your blog every time it is updated, and work on building those links as they will make a huge difference in your search engine rankings.
Writing Content
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Writing Content and Getting Constant Traffic to Your Blog
Blogging has truly revolutionized the way one experiences the digital age. There is, it seems, no limit to what one can do and learn with the help of blogs. Even the smallest aspect of your daily personal life like recording journal entries has been given an entirely new dimension.
There can be a lot of interesting debates and discussions through blogs. You can even start some of these discussions yourself.
Moreover, there is nothing as interesting or attractive than that fact that you can even earn some money while blogging.
This is, by far, the most recent innovation that has entered the blog sphere. The entry requirements for this are very low. You need not be a scientist who posts revolutionary details about his latest experiment. If you have a product or access to one that you think people would be interested in buying a blog is a excellent venue to sell it.
If you blog well enough for people to visit your site often, your chances of making money by just going about your daily activity of posting blogs increases.
Here are some of the things you can do to make sure that your blogging activities get rewarded by more than just comments and praises:
While writing your blogs you need to keep a few things in mind. This will not only ensure that you get steady traffic, but also ensure that as your following grows so does the ranking of your blog within the search engines.
Here are a few tips that will help you:
· Reader Friendly Content: At all costs keep your content – articles, poems, photographs, videos – reader friendly, that is to say, it should be written with your reader in mind. Your reader must be at the center of your post in such a way that they feel they are receiving something of value. Provide value…this a basic rule in marketing.
· Worthwhile: Never let the reader feel that he has been tricked into reading your post or clicking on your blog link. You are ruining all your long term chances of that reader coming back to your blog, in which case your blog rankings over the long term will go down.
· Check for errors: Making grammatical and spelling errors can be a major put off for many readers. They may not visit your blog again simply because the errors that you make are too high. Always proof read your blog. A small typo here and there can be understood, but make sure you don’t make any major errors.
· KISS: Or, Keep It Short and Simple. This is the rule of thumb you must follow! Long winding posts tend to get boring. And it may contain nothing that is interesting to the reader. Also no one has the time enough for your blog, no matter how well you write. In fact, your blog will be better received if you put your thoughts simply and shortly. If you feel your post is too long break it up into shorter posts and publish them on consecutive days.
There is a lot more that can be written on this topic but in the interest of following my own advice I'll post more on this subject in the future. Thanks for reading!
This is so cool!! I'm writing this post from my iPhone. The typing is taking me forever though…Lol!
