All Entries in the "Blog Post Tips" Category

Increase Your Blog’s Page Views 10 Ways

With Google Adsense or Yahoo Publisher, having people click onto more pages helps your revenue immensely, but how do you get them to read more than one page when they visit your website? Here are a few tips.

1. Create pages within the blog that contain reference material you refer to often in your posts. These static pages will also get crawled and indexed by the search engines and as you write posts about your topics you can refer people to these static pages as references to what you are posting about.

2. Use articles as static pages. You can reprint articles on any topic for free by visiting one of the many article directories like http://www.articlecontentprovider.com/articlesubmit/ Then refer people to read the articles that relate to the post you are making. You could even add one article as a new page every time you make a post.

3. Refer to other posts you have made on your blog or on another one of your blogs while posting. This gets the reader to click over to previous posts. You can even decide your posts by browsing previous posts and deciding which one to follow up on. Those archives are not to be lost and forgotten. Its great material, (you wrote it right?), so use it.

4. Create a page that links to your favorite posts that are timeless. You browse your old posts, find posts that you want readers to find easily, then build a links page with those posts directly linked. Then add a link to that page from your front page. Call it favorite posts or whatever and you will benefit by those that click through and follow those links.

5. I’ve posted here before about the “more” tag. You write your post as normal, then decide where you want to break the post up onto a new page. You put the more tag in and readers have to click to a new page to read the rest of the story.

6. Write once per week special projects. These are a series of articles on a particular topic. You will be offering it once per week giving readers a week to comment on it, then have them hanging on for next weeks special post in the series. Each time add links to previous posts in that series.

7. Using your content from your other websites or blogs is also a great way to get more pageviews for all of them. Use the target new tag and refer to material on your other blogs and websites. It will open a new window leaving the current blog open while they visit your other website or blog. You can quickly double up your pageviews while also introducing your readers to your other websites and blogs.

8. Make a list of 10 previous posts and the links to those posts. Make a post in your blog about 10 things you want your readers to know and read in case they have not done so before. At your suggestion they will at least go see if they have read those posts before, increasing your pageviews once again plus bringing old material to new readers. That also lets them know they should browse the archives for things they have missed.

9. Using that same list of 10 posts or a new one, visit other blogs on your topic. Find posts that talk about something similar to one of those 10 posts, then instead of adding a link in your signature to the home page, make a comment there and refer to the post that is similar and that contains helpful information to that blogger and their readers. You will also be increasing your link popularity while doing this. Do not spam the link. Make sure it actually contains useful information. Don’t be trolls or spammers and you will end up with new readers and more page views for your blog.

10. Do not stop being creative. Use the tips in this article, plus invent some of your own ways to interlink your blogposts together. Create pages. Don’t just post and forget. That content is valuable, use it. Do not make people search your blog. They are lazy and busy. Bring it to them. That is just good customer service.

I hope this article helps you learn there is more to blogging than just writing a post once in awhile or even daily. If you employ the tips I just gave you into your blog I guarantee you will increase your pageviews which in turn will increase your revenue if using an ad program in your blog.

How Long Should A Blog Post Be?

When Seth Godin became an evangelist for blogging, he advocated short posts. He still writes that way. But his posts are full of wisdom and good graces.

Nevertheless, there are plenty of bloggers who write long posts and they provide great insight into their topics every day. That’s great. A blog post has to be as long as it needs to be to get the point across. But it need not be any longer.

So how long should it be?

Not long. But it’s entirely up to you. You’re writing it so write it your way.

But if you have a ghostwriter write your blog for you then find out what the minimum and maximum number of words are going to be in their blog posts. Here at Blog Content Provider, our posts are typically between 250-500 words each. We sometimes write longer posts, but we rarely write shorter. We believe in delivering value.

How Do You Make Boring Blog Content Exciting?

Nothing is boring. Eveything is boring. Depending on who you ask, _______________ is boring. So how do you get some excitement into that blank you just filled in?

Well, there are no right or wrong answers when it come to creativity, and writing interesting blog content is a form of creativity. Understandably, some content is inherently more exciting than others. But everyone has a different excitometer. One person may thing scantily clad bathing beauties is exciting. Someone else may think computer hardware is exciting (though I can’t imagine who). But what matters the most is how you write, not what you write.

Even pin up girls can be boring if you don’t write well (unless all you have are photos). Computer hardware can bore even the greatest enthusiast if the writing doesn’t capture them head on. So what do you do?

I think the key to writing interestingly about content that can ordinarily be boring boils down to two things:

• Personality and writing style
• Relevance

I can’t help you writing style. That’s yours. You either develop it or your don’t. But you have to put your personality into it. Many an average writer has increased her readership just by doing that alone.

Relevance. That’s a different story. I can help you there.

The key to making your blog content relevant is to picture the one person your blog post applies to most sitting on the sofa, or the train, curled up with his laptop and reading what you are writing right now. How would you talk to that person? If you were sitting across the table from him telling him what you are about to tell him through your blog post, how would you do it? What phrases would you use? What anecdotes or supporting stories would you use?

There is no substitute for relevant context. Make your reader understand why what you are writing is so important, and do it with your own personal style.

How To Benefit As A Guest Blogger

Guest blogging has become one of the best ways to promote your own blog online. Similar to article marketing it does have its advantages with slight differences. First and foremost, you aren’t submitting one article to several sites at once. With guest blogging, you submit one original article to one blog and see if it is accepted. If so then you don’t want to send it out anywhere else. If rejected then you might rewrite it and submit it elsewhere.

There are several benefits to being a guest blogger.

1. As always, you get a link back to your blog. If you are guest blogging on a high authority site then that link could count as a valuable link for you
2. You can also get a big boost in credibility. If the blog you are guest writing for is a high authority blog written by a person with a lot of credibility then the readers of that blog will see your relationship as something of an endorsement from your host.
3. Of course, you’ll always get some traffic from a well-written blog post on another blog. More traffic will always be in your favor.
4. Increased exposure in the marketplace. Getting your name into as many places as possible is a must in today’s online business climate. Guest blogging does that well.

To really benefit from guest blogging, it helps if you have something to offer those you are guest blogging for. Read their blogs and comment from time to time. Understand the types of content that they use on their blogs and tailor your guest post to their audience. That will go a long way to making you more credible among your host’s readership.

Tags And Categories: What’s The Difference?

One thing that confuses beginning bloggers often is the distinction between a tag and a category. Knowing the difference can mean driving traffic to the best parts of your blog or the most important parts for your visitors. At any rate, you can help your visitors better find the information they are looking for by knowing the difference between these two methods of cataloging your blog posts.

Generally speaking, categories are like folders in a paper filing system. If you have a smaller number of categories, that works best. They should be broad enough that you can fit a large swath of blog posts into each category. For instance, under “internet marketing” you can put anything related to blog marketing, article marketing, SEO, pay per click marketing, affiliate marketing, contextual links, or any number of other subjects related to marketing a business online.

Tags can be a great compliment to categories and they should be more narrow in scope. One blog post can have several tags. Some people say you should put each blog post only into one category. I think you can have a blog in more than one category, but if your categories are broad enough you’ll never have a blog post in more than two or three categories. If you find yourself putting many of your blog posts into more than one category then you probably need to broaden the scope of your categories.

However, you could be using categories like they were tags. A tag can be narrow in scope because it pertains to that specfic blog post and not a broad range of blog posts as the category does. You can have several blog posts use the same tag, but often you’ll find that blog posts in different categories reference the same or similar tags because, just like in a book, you’ll have the same subject pop up in different chapters because it might relate in several different ways to broader areas of knowledge.

I hope this clears up any questions you might have about tags and categories. Think of it this way: Categories are like chapters in a book. You want fewer of them. But tags are like entries in the subject index of the book and you’ll often have hundreds of those in a ten chapter book.

13 Ways To Write Knock Out Blog Posts In 10 Minutes Or Less

Since I write several blogs I day I’ve learned a few ways to write fast. I can usually knock out a decent blog post in 10 minutes. Of course, I’ve spent as many as four hours writing blog posts too. So there’s both ends of the spectrum.

But what if you absolutely have to do it fast? You’re in a time crunch, the day is almost done, you haven’t made your post for the day, and time is a tickin’. Now what?

Well, Michael Martine at Remarkablogger, one of my favorite bloggers on blogging, has 10 suggestions for you on his blog. In a nutshell, Michael recommends:

1. Pick three blogs you respect and introduce your readers to them
2. Go to the main category page for one of your categories, copy and paste five of your best posts
3. Ask your readers to ask you questions
4. Answer a question from your readers
5. Ask a question of your readers and have them answer it in the comments
6. In the same vein, put together a poll and post it
7. Google for the top ten sites in your niche and post them
8. Record a video at YouTube
9. Embed a video
10. Write something nice about the coolest new person you’ve met, recently

All of these are good ideas and with the exception of recording a video at YouTube, I’ve done them all. One of these days I may get around to actually posting a video at YouTube.

But I have three other ways you can knock out a blog post in 10 minutes or less. Here are my three suggestions:

1. Find a blog within your niche and copy/paste a snippet from it then comment on what you’ve read. Agree or disagree, it doesn’t matter. But start a conversation across blogs. Trackback to the blog that you borrowed from. This invites that blogger and his/her readers to your blog to continue the conversation.
2. Take an article from an article directory and publish it on your blog. You can comment on the article or not. I usually do. Again, agree or disagree; it doesn’t really matter. Just start a conversation. I’ve actually had article authors visit my blog and comment on my response to their articles or thank me for publishing them.
3. Focus on a keyword. Some people might consider this spam, but if you do it right you can take an important keyword for your niche and just focus your blog post on that keyword. Include it in your title, write a first sentence using the keyword, then follow up with two or three paragraphs backing up your thesis (first sentence) statement. End the blog post using your keyword in the last sentence. Now you have a keyword optimized blog post with a little content value for your readers.

Thanks for Michael for giving me something to blog about today. 10 minutes and I’m done.

Has Your PageRank Dropped Unexpectedly?

There are plenty of reasons why PageRank might drop. But one of the chief reasons you could see a drop in PageRank is if you write to your blog less often. I have a blog that I wrote to daily for a year and within 6 months I had achieve a PageRank 5. After one year of daily blogging I scaled back to writing just when I had the time. It averaged out to a couple of times a week. Within 6 months my PageRank had dropped back down to a PageRank of 4.

This is an object lesson. You should write to your blog daily. It will increase your credibility and authority. Anything less than daily blogging will provide fewer benefits.

Notice that the quality of my blog posts did not decline when I wrote less often. The quality has always been high, but now I write less often. That’s a key indicator for Google that your blog is less authoritative than your competition’s is. Don’t let them think that about you. When Google decides that your blog is less authoritative, so will your readers. That’s why you need to write every day.

Blog SEO: As Simple As 1-2-3

I’m going to let the secret out of the bag. Blog SEO is as simple as 1-2-3:

1. Make sure you write a great blog post that uses your most important keywords in just the right amounts
2. Include a link or two with the right anchor text pointing to the right page on your website
3. Optimize your blog post title with your keyword in the first three words of the title

That’s about it. And as an additional measure, you can tag your blog post with the right keyword tags and place it in the right category as well. There’s nothing wrong with writing a blog post that appeals to your readers either.

Christmas Blogging Without Undoing What You’ve Done

It’s officially Christmastime. Today is what many retailers call Black Monday. The day after Thanksgiving Day when many people are still on vacation and the malls are open. They go shopping.

My wife got a call this morning at 7:30 a.m. from her youngest child. It was 6:30 a.m. in Texas where she lives. She and her stepmother were on their way to the mall for some holiday shopping. This is also the day that my wife usually likes to set up the Christmas tree. So it’s a big day in our family (and, I suspect, in most families).

But your business is your business and you have to do what’s right for your business. If you have a retail blog and you are ready to start talking about the Christmas season, how much is too much and how much is enough? Should you discuss Christmas on your non-retail business blog?

I think anything that draws you closer to your customers and the people you want to be your customers is good. But you do have a reputation and you want your customers to respect that. So don’t overdo it. If your business is not a traditional “Christmas” business then it’s OK to post some thoughts on the holiday season as long as you don’t do it every day. The first thing you need to keep in mind is the need of your target audience. Do they expect you to discuss Christmas? Will they be turned off if you do? Is a Happy Holiday greeting appropriate or should you be more specific (Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, etc.)?

In other words, think before you write it, but don’t be afraid to do it. Stay focused on the real mission.

How To Promote Your Blog Posts Through Twitter

There are ever increasing ways to promote your blog posts today. Twitter is another tool that you can use to promote your blog. Here are a few ways to use Twitter to promote your blog posts:

• Open your Twitter account in your blog’s name
• Link to your blog from your Twitter profile
• Install Twitter Tools and set your settings to post a tweet for your blog posts
• Send your tweets from your blog using Twitter Tools
• Set your Twitter Tools settings to post a blog post every time you tweet
• Use the daily tweet rollup feature in Twitter Tools
• Send a tweet with a link to your latest blog post
• DM your Twitter friends and ask them to retweet your blog promotion tweet
• Ask your social networking friends to tweet your newest blog entry
• When you comment on other blogs, include a link to your Twitter profile

Twitter is becoming a powerful force in online marketing. I highly recommend it for every blogger.

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