After over a year into the blogging world I felt I had to discuss conformity. Most of us are suffering from a severe case of blogging conformity. Because we just ran out of the uniqueness in blogging.

What is conformity?

Conformity is when you conform or comply or behave according to certain rules and standards because they are perceived as the “norm”. Let me make it easier. You act in a particular manner and stick to it because that manner is perceived as socially acceptable. Okay, this might work in the actual social world. But it really is something to think about when we enter the blogging scene.

Many of us have this tendency to stick to the same pattern of blogging behavior because we feel it might “work”; it will do the “trick” and because others are saying so. We tend to get into the trap that we feel will lead to blogging success and help us make money.

Two major symptoms of the conformity case:

• You don’t know what your passion is

That’s right. You are just blogging because everybody seems to be doing it. You don’t have any idea as to what you want to be blogging about and where your core interests lie. So, you blog hop and see how blogging is done and then seem to know it all. And begin your own blog about how it’s all done.  Not everybody out there is blogging about blogging and social media. And not all top blogs have to do with social media. There are loads of topics, why stick to one?

• You have nothing new to offer

All your topics have been discussed and written about a million times over. You talk about the same old tricks and tips about making your blog number one, blogging ideas, making money, optimization and all that jazz. Why didn’t you think of something new? No one is going to read another SEO tutorial. There are major sites already telling them how it is done. What’s the point about talking about it all over again?

The conformity cure:

Though there isn’t one way to find the cure, there sure are a lot of things that can be thought about.

• Find your passion. I can’t stress this anymore. What do you really like talking about and writing about? What kind of posts do you enjoy? Where does your passion lie?
• If you HAVE to talk about the same topics, have your own twist to it. Be fresh, be interesting.
• Bring in new ideas. Loads of us are all waiting for new ideas to come by and strike us. Inspire us.
• Experiment, push your abilities, test your ideas.

Final thoughts:

Do you think there is such a thing as too much conformity in blogging?

Do you think you have fallen into the conformity trap?

Any other conformity symptoms that you have noticed?

Are you following your passion in blogging?

What is your take on the conformity cure?

I love talking and I love your thoughts! Jump right in! 

P.S. A special thanks to Holly for her anti-conformity comment that started this discussion!

I write for a blog and read many blogs as well. Whenever I find a blog with even a little piece of useful information for me, I just follow it via email, Google connect, Facebook, or RSS subscription. But there are many blogs out there which aren’t on my list OR which I will soon remove from my daily blogs to read list, most probably because I’m not getting what I expected.

I’d like to be more descriptive and share my personal reasons for “Why I don’t visit some blogs again?” My 10 reasons with descriptions can help you to know why your readers may not like your blog.

10 Reasons – Why I will not visit your blog again?

#1 I don’t like your pop-ups

Maybe, you think it’s cool but I don’t. I think most readers out there don’t like that. Whether those pop-ups are for subscribing options or any of your eBooks, they interrupt me in reading. Do you think you need to force me to subscribe? Or will it be worthy enough to overcome my irritation? I don’t think so. I can find my way to subscribe or buy your eBook if I need it, myself.

A simple and small widget in the sidebar is enough to offer subscribing options. But it really feels like an interruption when a box pops up to my face and asks me something while I’m reading.

#2 You never reply to my comments

I come to your blog, read your tips and query via comments when I’m stuck somewhere. But I never see you replying to my comments. It looks like no one is out there on the other side of the blog. I don’t think it would be worthwhile to follow an unresponsive blogger who will not help me while I work on his or her tips.
Blogging is about building relationship with your readers. But it’s not possible if you don’t listen to them. Ignoring your readers can be the biggest mistake in blogging. I reply to every comment on my blog. Even to the comments like “Thanks for sharing” or “Nice post,” I reply – Thank you for stopping by.

#3 You’re sharing the same stuff with old style

Believe me; I’ve seen 100 times that “How to make a Facebook fan page for your blog?” From little blogs to top blogs, many have already shared the complete tutorial for that. Then why are you sharing it again? Sharing popular stories from top sites like Mashable is not blogging. It’s okay to share the same information if you can add your own perspective on it, or express it in your own, original style. But why copy Mashable when you can just provide a link to the original post?”

Moreover, I’ve never seen anything other than simple text on your blog. Don’t you like images or audio files and videos on your blog? Don’t you think images speak more than words sometimes? I think these are important to make your blog interesting. They can help to break up big blocks of text and are more appealing to visual learners.

#4 Your blog is for ads not for me

Are you really blogging just for money? I can see ads all the way on your blog. I need to get my spectacles to find the content to read in a big forest of advertisements.

If you think stuffing your blog with advertisements will help you to earn money, then most probably you are wrong. Losing readers will obviously lead to losing traffic. Consequently, there will be NO REVENUE.

Blog and web sites are to share knowledge and provide useful information, NOT to share advertisements. It’s not wrong to advertise on a blog but anything in excess is bad.

#5 You are not regular in updating

I cannot expect when you’ll update next. Sometimes you write a bunch of articles at once and sometimes you do not come for a week. So, I’ve NO idea when I can come to check for more.  Sometimes it looks like a DEAD blog.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t write everyday but it’s important to write with consistency. If you decide to write three articles a week, then don’t miss any. Readers should know on which days they can expect new articles.

#6 Your blog loading time makes me sleepy

Your blog takes too much time to load. Those unnecessary widgets and scripts running behind makes my surfing slow when I’m on your blog. Those flash widgets and banners take all my time. It sometimes hangs and crashes my browser.

I’m really not interested in rotating a globe that is showing your online readers around the world.

#7 I cannot navigate easily to my favorite category

You have only a HOME button on your blog. I have to go to the next page, one page at a time, if I want to read some old posts. You have no category or label tags associated with the article.

You might consider adding a widget with most popular tags or categories? That way, one can see all the posts under a particular topic. A sitemap can also help in making navigation easy.

#8 Your theme’s color combination hurts my eyes

Who gave you the idea to have a dark background with brighter text on your blog? Do you know it’s really uncomfortable to read that on a monitor? I have to stress my eyes for reading. Even after finishing, my eyes ask for some rest and few eye drops.

A good blog doesn’t need a sparkling look. A clean and elegant theme with a simple and easy to read font is preferred by almost all readers.

#9 You keep sharing useless stuff on your Facebook Page

I LIKED your blog’s Facebook fanpage to get latest post updates of your blog, not for some funny stupid jokes and images. I’ve already subscribed to some pages for jokes but I subscribed to yours to stay connected with your article updates on your blog. There’s no reason to share something completely irrelevant on your fanpage.

I share my blog’s fanpage to share articles from my blog, and sometimes from other blogs too. But I’ve never shared anything which is irrelevant to my blog, there.

#10 You don’t give proper credits

I’ve seen you using images, videos, infographics, and other information on your blog but I have never seen you give a link to the original author, creator, or source. Simply, it means plagiarism. And I can never support anyone who plagiarizes others.

I’ll also feel bad if someone uses my creation without giving me proper credits or without mentioning me with it.

CONCLUSION…

Don’t feel bad – I liked your blog enough, once, that I’m a bit disappointed to be taking it off my daily “blogs to read” list. All reasons may not be true for your blog but if you really want me to come back, a few simple changes ought to do the trick. It will not make only me to return back but may be, your thousands of previous readers.

The Blog Engage Giveaway here on Basic Blog Tips lasted for an entire month! Many of the contestants threw their hats in the ring the very first day the contest started and they did an outstanding job of tweeting and promoting the contest. Each contestant was also required to subscribe to my YouTube channel, comment on the post and follow @BasicBlogTips on Twitter. Brian, owner of Blog Engage, convinced me to use Rafflecopter to manage the contest and tabulate the votes. I’m so glad he did! The winners were picked by Random.org and this helps keep the results fair and makes any contest easier to manage.

If you ever want to use Rafflecopter for a contest or giveaway, watch the tutorial from Justin at DragonBlogger who does an awesome job of explaining how the system works (you’ll find his video at the bottom of this post).

I’m pleased to announce…

The winners of the Blog Engage Giveaway for February 2012

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The 2 Gold Blog Engage RSS Accounts go to

Tim Arthur from Tim Ponders and Podcasting Tutor and John Komatsoulis from Learn About.

Congratulations to all the winners! Be sure to read a post that I wrote just for you called 5 Tips to Super-Charge Your Brand New Blog Engage Membership

Sign up bonus being offered for Affiliate Lights

As members of Blog Engage we can also be part of the affiliate program called Affiliate Lights. Click on the image and sign up for Affiliate Lights and you can get a $10 USD sign up bonus, and if you write a post about the Blog Engage RSS Service and earn another $5 bonus!

Here’s the video from DragonBlogger about Rafflecopter

Blog Engage is a great community and I’m pleased to welcome these new members. Visit Blog Engage to find out about more of the upcoming giveaways so that you can come and join us.

WordPress is an amazing tool and of the Content Managment Systems I have used, it is by far the most SEO Friendly out of the box. However, there are still issues with pages on your site straight out of the box. A lot of the pages on your blog can cause duplicate content issues. However, straight out of the box this isn’t an issue. Your blog will still rank for all your keywords and there is no danger of your blog – which is full of unique content – from being deindexed. Not actioning the duplicate content issues on the pages I’ve detailed below won’t harm your site.

However, if you make changes to your site detailed below, you’ll find more of your site will be indexed in search engines. More of your site indexed in search engines means more long tail phrases will rank highly in search engines, which should give your more traffic.

Monthly/Yearly Archive Pages

Okay, this is a bit of a lie here. Archives of months and years, whilst important, hold no easily changed SEO value. They are simply archive pages that hold very little SEO value. So you’re best off disabling them.

This is easily done though in WordPress using Yoast’s WordPress SEO. After installing the plugin (if you don’t already have it, which you should), go to the SEO > Indexation page in the WordPress Administration and tick the boxes next to “Subpages of archives and taxonomies” and “Date-based archives”. This will prevent search engines from indexing the pages:-

(The other boxes I’d recommend unticking, for reasons I’ll highlight below)

Note: These pages will still be crawled by search engines, so any links will still pass juice, just that the pages won’t be in the search engines. This is important as you want to highlight your best and most relevant pages. Your archives are likely less relevant than individual posts.

Tag Pages

Tag pages can be a great source for long tail traffic. But you need to treat them with respect.

First of all, you need a structure for the tags. You shouldn’t call tags the same as your categories. Furthermore, you should try to limit tags as much as possible (so don’t have a separate “SEO” and “Search Engine Optimization” tag). Furthermore, you need to push your tag pages. They are automatically linked but need some content on them. If you introduce tags using the description (a paragraph or two will suffice), then you can turn your tag pages into effective landing pages by adding a couple of lines of code to your tag.php template file (I have written about how to add tag descriptions to your tag.php file here).

I also use the plugin Tag Images to add images to the page, making it more user friendly. An example of this is on one of my blogs, which has a Chester FC landing page.

Author Pages

Rich Author pages are going to be vital for your blog in the next few years. By creating a rich author page, with an author bio, links to social networks and other websites that the author helps run, you can rank for the author’s name. This could lead to an influx of traffic when – say – an author of your blog gets a bit of coverage in the major press.

Furthermore, with effective implementation of rich snippets, and you have authoritive guest bloggers on your site, you can increase clickthroughs to your site by having familiar avatars appear in the Search Engines by your link. Here’s an example of one of my posts on Famous Bloggers:-

Implementing rich snippets is fairly straightforward with a tool such as Author Plus, though it does take time for Google to show them in the search engines.

However basic implementation can be done fairly easily using your current author bio (the one shown at the end of posts) – a tutorial is available here. This will give you rich author pages such as the ones seen on this very blog.

In Conclusion

None of the above is mandatory for your blog, your site won’t drop from search engines because you fail to do the above. However, if you want to make your site get more traffic from search engines, by optimizing less obvious pages, you will give yourself a competitive advantage over other bloggers in the search engines.

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google + we know all the big names don’t we?

But what if I was to tell you the potential of getting new readers to your blog could be higher in some smaller named communities? All of a sudden size doesn’t matter does it? Blog Engage, Blokube, BizSugar, Blog Interact are some of my favorite social communities on the internet.

You’re probably asking yourself, why would anyone like these small little communities over the big guys like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Google +? I find it’s easier to build strong relationships on the smaller communities then it is to on the larger ones. I also find these smaller communities have more article based content as opposed to personal opinion or status update like mentions.

When I join a smaller community I feel as if I belong more then just another number on the big sites. Let’s face it, we are never going to be the Brad Pitt of Twitter, but we can be of the smaller communities. Let’s take a look at some of the benefits we can find by joining the smaller sized blog communities.

Benefits of Small Communities

• Targeted Audience

• Known by first name

• More one on one Exposure

• Higher Quality Links

• Easier Relationship Building Process

In fact when you sit and think about what I’m saying the benefits continue to grow stronger. Some small communities, like Blog Engage and BloKube, have Blog Forums where you can engage on another level with like minded bloggers.

All I’m saying is perhaps it’s time to rethink your marketing strategy. If you are frustrated with the long hours and days on the big sites maybes it’s time to start using a smaller community to feel more accomplished. I still use all the big sites as much as I can but I far prefer some of these smaller sites.

Feedback and Discussions

I hope to see you all on the smaller sites! If you see me, make sure to add me as a friend I’m very social and love sharing on all the social media platforms! Let me know your thoughts on small and large communities. Do you share the same feeling as me and if not let us know why!

Marcie Hill from The Write Design Company is a prolific writer and live blogger. For those of you who are curious about what live blogging is, check out Marcie’s guest post where she gives us Quick Lessons in Live Blogging. I was introduced to Marcie during the Small Business Influencers Awards in 2011 and we have been Twitter buds ever since. I jumped at the opportunity to interview her and gain more insights into her expertise in freelancing, writing and of course to learn even more about the process of live blogging.

Interview with Marcie Hill from The Write Design

Q1. Marcie, some of the readers here might remember you from the guest post you did here about live blogging. But for those who don’t know you, please introduce yourself and give a little bit of insight into your background and how you starting blogging.

I am a gifted writer with a creative soul. I left my job in 2008 to pursue my passion of writing. After submitting a few freelance stories, which resulted in one response from Essence magazine, which wasn’t published, I got discouraged and stopped trying. A few months later, I attended a journalism conference, and a few of the presenters encouraged the use of blogs. I jumped on the blogging bandwagon and have been riding ever since.

 Q2. Now tell us more about live-blogging and why you decided to get involved with it. What attracted you to that format?

Honestly, I cannot recall how I found out about live blogging. I do remember that Cover It Live was the first software I found. Live blogging allows you to share information instantly. You can also share audio, images and videos in real-time. The ability to engage your online and offline audiences is really cool. However, if your online audience is not very savvy, you may not have much activity, but you are building your brand as you live blog.

Q3. When you do your live-blogging does that include interviews? Have you ever interviewed someone famous or someone that you look up to? How did you get the opportunity to speak with them?

I don’t conduct formal interviews during the live blog, but I do ask random people questions about themselves and the particular event, and share those details. There are two benefits of doing this. First, you give someone their 10 seconds of fame; second, you may create an ally who will share your live blog and expand your reach.

As for interviews with famous people, I was blessed with the opportunity to interview Chaka Khan for a cover story for N’Digo MagaPaper in 2010. Zondra Hughes, one of my most favorite people and former editor at the publication, extended the opportunity.

Q4. Most of the events you attend, I’m sure they are pretty packed with attendees. Have you ever attended an event that was a flop? By that I mean, the attendance was poor or the speakers weren’t that great – or maybe the event just didn’t live up to your expectations.

I am pleased to say that all of the events I have attended have been pretty good overall. However, many were flops as far as networking was concerned. I am finding that not many people respond to attempts to connect in person after the event. However, I will make several attempts before I stop trying.

Q5. Let’s talk more about blogging in general and the blogs you’re involved with. How many blogs do you have and do you also write for other blogs?

I currently have four blogs: Marcie Writes (personal), Shorty: Your Chicago South Side Resource (community), The Write Design Company (business) and Real Skate Stories (roller skating). Right now, I am guest posting on other sites. However, I am looking for paying blog gigs.

 Q6. If there is one thing that you learned since you started blogging that you wish you knew when you first started out – what would that be? And can you talk a little about some mistakes you might have made as a blogger so that others don’t make the same mistakes?

I wish I had more knowledge about affiliate marketing starting out. I read many books and guides, but I never had a full understanding. This goes along with my my biggest mistakes which were blogging for three years with no efforts to get paid and not having a defined target. I was blogging for the love it. However, I really couldn’t offer anything to sell or advertisements if I didn’t know who I was catering to. Thus, my advice for other bloggers: Start blogging as soon as bug hits, but try to define your target market as soon as possible. Also, watch your analytics, which will help with your blogging goals.

 Q7. Talk a little more about the writing process is it any different for you as a live-blogger than it might be for others? For example, to you research keywords or do any other type of SEO work on your blog posts?

The writing process for live blogging is very similar to Twitter. You want to share as much relevant information in as few characters as possible. Although you are not restricted by character limitations, you still want to be concise and engaging. You can’t share a full story, but you can provide background information to draw your audience in and keep them interested. And this is also a way to share your personality online. Be witty and funny.

Because you embed or link the live blog into your blog, you can use the same keywords and tags you currently use on your site.

Q8. Let’s switch gears and talk about social media. What’s your favorite social network and why? And what’s your least favorite social network and why?

I love Twitter. I like the fact that all of the social things that separate people offline are erased online. There is so much positive energy flowing through the people I’m connected with, it’s great.

I’d have to say that Facebook is my least preferred site because of the shallow conversations, and people have started using it as a primary communications tool. Really?? It’s easier to get a response from a friend through Facebook than from a telephone call.

Q9. Do you get a lot of traffic to your blog through social media? When you look at your stats, what are some of the social sites you see in the top ten referrers to your blog?

Traffic to Marcie Writes has picked up because of my Twitter activity. However, I am finding that the keyword entered into Google sends the most traffic my way. Of course, the keywords depend on the site.

Q10. Finally Marcie, what are some of the goals you have set for yourself or your blog in 2012? Any advice you’d like to pass along to people who are reading this?

Increasing my cash flow through writing and blogging trainings, information products and speaking engagements are my top goals this year. I am going to share more engaging content, conduct more audio and video interviews, incorporate affiliate marketing on ALL my sites.

Advice from Marcie

Here’s my advice to others reading. Don’t be afraid to share your thoughts and opinions. Blogging helped give me the courage to speak my thoughts online and I’m working on tact in person. Second, know that your efforts are not in vain. You may not have the number of followers you desire, but someone is reading your work and gaining much from your knowledge and experience – even if they don’t leave comments. Third, if you share love by leaving comments and guest posting on other sites, I assure you, it will be returned. It may not come from those people but you will be blessed greater than you ever expected. Lastly, be you. At the end of the day, people are not only coming to your site because of the things you share; they appreciate who you are.

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights. I appreciate you doing this interview Marcie and best wishes! 

In 2012, companies and brands are more committed than ever to building a strong community around them, after having good experiences with social media over the past year. They have realized that creating a community around their brand is more than a simple promotion message and when it’s done, well the whole sales process will benefit from it. However, not all companies know how to build a community around their business or brand. Here are some tips that companies must take into account when taking the big plunge and start the real adventure in social media.

Create a business community in social networks

Observed before the big jump - 

The first step is to observe, find out where people are talking about your brand or business and where to find your niche market, so you can best serve your audience of potential customers. Not all networks will hold the same value and if we did not assess our strengths, our efforts could eventually lead to us not getting the benefits we expect. Nor should we suffer an ‘anxiety attack’ and open accounts in all social networks. The best thing is to focus on one or two, that are more suited to our business or brand and strive to increase visibility in them.

Know your users and supporters -

Once you have determined the social network you want to target,  get to know the users in it. Relationships must be bidirectional but we should not start desperately tracking everyone who crosses our path, but do it more strategically and selectively according to our objectives and priorities. We can use different tools and options to find topics related to our business, analyze conversations, competitors, etc … and start following people truly interested in what we offer.

Slowly but surely - 

The “rush” is not the best partner in this adventure. A community is not built overnight. The ideal is to make a conscious effort to get to know who composes your community, how they react or behave and stop worrying about the amount or volume of users, fans or followers.

Patience and perseverance as a virtue - 

To succeed in creating a community around our company, brand, or business will certainly take lots of of patience not to mention the all of the continuous work. The evolution in this adventure will pass through different stages and phases in which we will have to face all kinds of challenges and goals. The idea is to establish a solid, stable foundation and we must be aware that we can not have high expectations at the beginning of our journey.

Quality not quantity - 

That’s what we used to have thousands of followers, but if you do not know them, how can you generate reactions or interact effectively with them? The number of followers can be an important indicator of our success in social networks, but this should not preclude us to improve the relationships and connections with them. We earn trust based on transparency, humility and good practices in our relationships or conversations so that our fans continue to increase, thanks to our own supporters.

Experiment without fear - 

A community allows us to experiment, to venture and try new things, especially during the first steps. Yet we must be aware that every action we take can cause reactions accordingly. However, this does not cause insecurity or fear at the time we are doing an experiment or being innovative, we can get good ideas from everywhere and put them into practice to see how they are received by the community.

Use all possible connections of your community - 

Jason Keath, CEO of Social Fresh, makes us a very interesting reminder in this regard: “The mailing lists are often missed when using them to ask our contacts, or if they would be in our community.” We must use all possible channels to attract our current customers. Therefore, it is important to understand the importance of integrating the elements such as icons or social ties and support all areas of our business or any business.

Listen, engage, interact, help - 

If we have taken the leap to maintain a strong presence in social networks and create a strong community around our business, we’re not limited to being mere spectators. The number of followers is not important in itself, a lot of fans does not mean that our community enjoys excellent health. The community needs our constant participation and interaction. Listening is just as important so that we actually provide value to our community by giving answers to questions and solutions to their problems. This can have a positive impact on our business, customer loyalty and lead to increased sales.

Show some personality. We should not be boring. It is best to present a close and friendly nature where conversations can be nurtured in an open, relaxed and transparent environment.

Analysis, goals and objectives - 

These are perhaps some of the most important aspects that must not be forgotten. Metrics and indicators will be our allies in setting up or keeping a record of good performance and progress of our community. But we must also note that we must set goals and objectives to define the way we want our community progress as our social networks continue to grow. If we decided to take the plunge, we must take this into account without involving a barrier to continue our adventure. The results will come sooner or later but not initially appear noticeable, so it is advisable not to be obsessed with the results that we generate after our first steps.

If you liked this article and want to express or share your opinion about building community, you can participate by adding your own comment.

Guest blogging, if done correctly, has good potential to attract traffic from all corners. The power of guest posting is so vast that you start experience it almost instantaneously when you start posting articles on various sites.

You will be bombarded with innumerable opportunities which you might not have anticipated at all. It has been proven time and again that guest posting will help you achieve success that you cannot make through other ways. The success rate is so high and so quick. I am one of the living proofs

By the way, don’t forget to check out my guest blogging guide that will help you get quicker blogging success with guest posting.

Guest blogging: Mutual benefit

Guest blogging help bloggers mutually. As a guest blogger you can share your views, ideas and thoughts to a new segment of audience. You will get the opportunity to tap traffic from new locations.

As an author you will get exposure. If your articles are enjoyed by the audience, you will be encouraged to write more for those sites. The blog owners who give you the opportunity to contribute will not hesitate to even hire you for paid blogging.

You might be invited for potential revenue sharing agreements (like sharing adsense revenue) also on the articles contributed by you. Hence, a new set of opportunities are generated when you win through guest posting.

On the other hand, bloggers can engage experts in the domain through guest posting. Even though a blogger confines to a niche topic, he or she cannot be an expert in every sub-topic and may not satisfy all kinds of audience. By allowing guest posts, a blogger can give a different perspective or style of writing to audience. This will help attract new visitors and retain current regular visitors.

By inviting guest bloggers who are specialized in a particular topic, the subject can be covered in-depth plus more authority can be established.

Back links and new visitors

High quality back-links can be created through guest blogging.  These back-links are crucial in SEO as they will give good rank on Google and other search engines. The links placed on other sites through guest blogging will help promote your own blog.

The links are also searchable through search engines like Google, Yahoo Search, etc. Thus, you will be benefited through direct traffic and search engine traffic.

Guest blogging gives you an opportunity to present unique and wonderful content. It is an opportunity to fill the thirst of the audience. You should be better informed of the type of audience that you are going to face through your post. The content should be adapted to their level of understanding.

If you are made available to be found and connected by them, there will be great chance to win new set of visitors to your blog. You can utilize the opportunity of serving first time visitors to your site by offering food for thought.

You can even create a fresh contact list by offering free stuff or free subscription to your monthly newsletter. These are some hidden possibilities that you can convert into cash through guest blogging.

Whom to write and how to write?

While writing guest posts, you should target blogs that pertain to your niche. You can Google for sites that are relevant to your niche. You should narrow down the list to high ranking, high performing and high trafficking sites. You should connect with lively sites. Blogging will be fruitful when your voice is heard and when you can respond to your audience’s comment or suggestion or feedback.

The content should be cured or crafted as per the taste of audience. Even though if you want to present your own flavor, it is always better to start with the native flavor i.e., the taste the audience is accustomed to. Spending few minutes to understand about the targeted audience is useful.

When you are able to strike the audience at a level they are resonating, you job is made easy. You should not forget to deliver the best of your stuff through guest blogging. It is a great opportunity to connect through diverse audience through commenting and active participation through forums and social networking sites.

Adding value to the audience in your unique tone and unique way will boost your chances of winning as a guest blogger.

Guest blogging: Takeaway

When you are aiming high as a guest blogger, the efforts you put-in should push you to the next level of success.  This will not happen without sticking to the basics of blogging.

With guest blogging the rules of the game are not changed rather they are implemented in a more rigorous mode. Hence, you should be prepared to present fresh content that is not hoisted by anyone at any point of time before you present on a site that you guest blog for.

You can include one or two related images in every blog post to get the attention of passive visitors. You should be prepared to present your master pieces through guest blogging. It is not only the addition of new blog post but also the addition of value that matters most. The best efforts that you place through guest blogging will improve your blogging prospects to a great extent.

Jane encourages you to check out webhostingpad coupons and register.com coupon code if you are interested in web hosting deals. She also writes for a blog that features cool discount deals as that of webhosting pad and register.com.

What is your blog post?

I will give you two options:

An essay or a novel.

Which one do you want your blog post to be compared to?

To make things easier for you, I will describe it a little more:

An Informative Essay and an Interesting Novel.

Key: Take a close look at the words: Informative and Interesting.

Would you want your blog post to be informative like an essay or interesting like a novel?

You know, I have written many blog posts. Some of them got more success than I expected. Some of them didn’t. Some of them – I spent a little time writing it – but still brought me lots of traffic. Some of them, I spent a lot of time writing, didn’t get me any traffic at all.

In this blog post, I will share you what I have found about writing interesting or informative post and help you decide whether you should write an informative or interesting blog post.

Your Blog Post – An Essay?

How do you describe an informative essay?

Think about what an essay is supposed to do.

An Informative Essay is supposed to:

• Teach you,
• Teach you, so that you can teach others,
• Try to change your perspective on an issue or help you to look from another perspective,
• Get you thinking about the issue, and,
• Provide More Information than you already know

Well, that’s basically how I would describe an informative essay. Now, let’s talk about the pros of writing a blog post like an Essay:

• Teach Your Readers,
• Get You More Readers,
• Help You Readers to Do Better at Blogging – If you blogging about blogging, and,
• Get Your readers think about it.

The cons of writing an informative post is that if you don’t have traffic already (or if you don’t do effective marketing), the chances of your blog post going viral is very very small.

For Bloggers who blog about blogging:

Information is rather small nowadays (especially in blogging). We can’t really give any new information (unless you talk about a new strategy, method or whatever). Otherwise, it is all the same content. What we have to do is to write it in a different perspective, a perspective that is interesting (this is where the Interesting part comes in).

 Your Blog Post – A Novel?

What does a Novel do to you? An Interesting novel?

As far as I understand, an interesting novel is one that gives me fresh experience (what is a novel anyways? A “big” short story right? kind of, right?).

Well, here is how I would describe a Interesting Novel: An Interesting Novel is supposed to

• Entertain you ,
• Entertain you once again,
• Have a plot (a story),
• Be Interesting to read (of course)
• and blah blah…

Let’s see how that relates back to a blog post:

An Interesting Blog post is supposed to have

• A story,
• Be interesting and entertaining,
• Get your readers to continue reading,
• Get your readers to be loyal,
• Get your readers to comment (better chance here – than at informative side),
• Get your readers to share (again better chance here), and,
• so on…

So, What Does That Mean To You?

Well, nothing.

And, possibly everything.

About writing a blog post

 Your Blog Post – Be Interesting and Informative

Your Blog post must be interesting and informative at the same time – if you want it to go beyond your expectations.

It should be informative because:

Your Blog is supposed to teach your readers –  to blog better. And your blog is supposed to reflect your blog’s  goal to teach others. So, it has to be informative.

Well, information is good. But, don’t you want your readers to read your blog post?

That’s why we should let our blog posts be interesting.

I don’t have any tips for making your blog post informative. You just have to work on that on your own. But, I can tell you how you could make it interesting

Make your Blog Post Interesting

• Include a story in your blog post – How about your experience? Did you know that your experience is the best blogging tip that you can provide? Blend your experience into your blog post.
• Write in an interesting format – Don’t be like other bloggers. Write in a different format. Write as you like
• Be Creative – Change things up a while. Do things in different ways. For instance: Instead of starting with a whole new paragraph, start your blog post with a question
• Write from your heart – You have read a lot of stories (I bet, you have!). What were your favorites? Why? What did those authors include in their stories? Incorporate that into your blog post.

From my 2+ years of blogging experience, I can surely tell you that I got the most traffic for blog posts that were interesting and informative at the same time.

Try to make your blog posts informative and interesting.

Inform.

Entertain.

And do the writing.

Just write

For any webmaster, getting free website traffic is such an important thing to do. You can’t obtain traffic and reap its benefits overnight. Getting traffic for website is an enduring task and you need to sure you’re doing it the right and proper way.

There are systems and ad networks to jump-start traffic streams to websites, but a lot of sites don’t have the resources that others have in place in order to create additional traffic. The good thing is, you don’t need to spend a single cent; all you need to have is the appropriate state of mind and enough enthusiasm. You also need to have drive and the determination to work hard and learn the proper techniques that will help you maintain a steady flow of free website traffic.

Tips to Get Free Website Traffic

Participate on Forums and Online Communities

You can use online forums and online website communities. The best thing in relation to forums and online website communities is that you be able to target a particular group that suits the particular demographic that you are in search of. You can talk about many topics concerning the niche market that you’re trying to attract.  One greater thing about it is that you know what you really aware on what you are doing and you have ideas of what may be the outcome of it.

Through online communities and forums you’ll be able to make a name for your business and build authority for your brand. Prove to the community what you are capable of and surprise them with your various skills about the topic, with that you’ll be able to make a name and build up reliance with people in your level of skill and awareness.

Send Newsletters

You can take advantage of newsletters as well. Give people a list of your products with attractive and amusing articles. If you make it motivating and amusing, people will be glad to subscribe to your newsletter and suggest it to other people they know. The more people who subscribe for your newsletter, the more people will visit your website escalating your traffic.

Trade and Exchange Links

Another good plan is trading links with other websites. You don’t need to spend a cent for this. All you need to do is attain a contract with another website owner. Through links exchange, both sites will sure profit from it. All traffic that arrives to the website could possibly click on the link of your website and stay on your website as well. This works fine for generating free website traffic, particularly when both websites contain the same niche.

Submit Articles on Free Articles Directories

Make articles that could temper the mind of people that have interest in your product. Write articles that will provide instructions and guidelines to other enthusiasts. Writing articles that give good service and information to other people would give the essential mileage your traffic stream requires.

A lot of sites offer free submission of your articles. As soon as people find interest in your articles they have a good possibility of following the track by knowing where the article came from. Take in a link or a concise depiction of your company with the article and there’s a great chance that they will visit your site.

Final Words on getting free website traffic

Make good content for your website. A lot of search engines capture good keywords your site utilizes and how they are utilized. It is not a must that content have to be done by an expert content writer. You can do it on your own but you need to make content for your website that is enjoyable and also informational. It has to give particular requirements and also great quality.

Internet users utilize search engines to hit upon what they are seeking. Search engines in response make use of keyword searching in giving their search results. By means of using accurate keywords, you can obtain high rankings in search engine results without spending any money.

Each and every one of these processes will drive more free website traffic. All you need is a little of effort and enough time. Study everything you can regarding the methods shown in this article and you will shortly own a website with a brilliant traffic flow devoid of using a great deal of money from your pocket.

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Podcasting is one of the many vehicles we can use to get our message across to our audience of readers, listeners, clients and customers. If you’re a regular visitor here you probably know about my YouTube channel, but it might come as a surprise to you that I’ve been podcasting for almost two years. Earlier this week, I made the podcast available to a wider audience and you’ll be happy to know that you can download the Ms. Ileane Speaks podcast on iTunes. Yay!

As interest in the format continues to gain popularity, now is an excellent time for you to educate yourself about podcasting and how you can use it to expand your audience and perhaps grow your business. By definition, (according to Wikipedia) a podcast:

“is a type of digital media consisting of an episodic series of files (either audio or video) subscribed to and downloaded through web syndication.”

One crucial component to starting a podcast that cannot be overlooked, is getting the right podcasting gear. You might find podcasting gear to be one of the most fascinating and down-right fun aspects of the whole concept of podcasting. And just like anything else, you can take the high road and make a huge investment or you can try to do it on the cheap. I started out using a really cheap headset microphone that picked up tons of background noise and hum. I ended up somewhere in the middle of the road with a USB mic from Samson.

Podcasting Gear I’m Currently Using

The Samson C03U is the condenser mic that I’ve been using since 2010. I admit that when I first started using the mic, I didn’t know what I was doing  I was fortunate enough to meet up with @mediacastguy on Twitter which was a blessing (and one of the reasons Twitter is my favorite social network). When he saw that I needed help with my mic he was nice enough to meet with me on Skype and walk me through all of the settings and explained how each one can be used. Once I got the mic set-up properly and found the “sweet spot” in terms of how far I need to place the mic from my mouth, the sound quality of my recordings was improved 100%. If you decide to get this mic, let me know and I’ll be more than happy to pass along the settings to you. At around $100.00, this is a great mic if you’re not ready to make the huge investment of a professional recording studio and it does a great job of capturing your voice without making you sound like you’re in a wind tunnel or an echo chamber.

Podcasting Software

When it comes to software, once again, you can take the high road and invest in professional software or you can take advantage of some of the low cost and in some cases, free alternatives for recording your podcast. I use a two step process, that starts off with Screencast-o-matic and ends with free software called Audacity. I talked about using Screencast-o-matic for recording YouTube videos but did you know you can use it for producing audio recordings also? In this video, I’ll walk you through the process and talk more about some other podcasting tools I’m using including the Logitech HD Pro C910 Webcam. Please watch this video I recorded called Podcasting with Samson C03U Mic and Logitech C910 Webcam

What podcasting gear are you using?

Have you started a podcast yet? If not, what’s holding you back? If you are podcasting, please let me know what gear you’re using so we can compare notes.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Ms. Ileane Speaks podcast on iTunes and give it a 5 star ratings and review. Happy podcasting!

I’m sure many of you have read a really good book in the past year that helped you get your small business off the ground. I’ve got good news, if the book was written between November 2010 and December 2011 you can head over to the Small Business Book Awards website and show your support for the author by nominating the book for the 4th Annual Best Small Business Book Awards today! For example, here is an excerpt from the website describing the types of books that are eligible to be nominated.

“Books must be business books relevant to small businesses and/or entrepreneurs…..We’re also accepting business books published solely in electronic form, such as PDF books, Kindle books, Google ebooks, and similar electronic formats. But they must be eBooks that have price tags. FREE eBooks (such as might be used as an incentive to encourage people to sign up for an email newsletter) are not eligible. Why? Because typically “free incentive” ebooks don’t have the in-depth content of other business books. “

You might remember that last year Small Biz Trends along with Small Biz Technology hosted the Small Business Influencers Awards and we all got a chance to nominate someone or a company who had significant impact on the success of small businesses. Anita Campbell, the CEO of BizSugar and Small Business Trends, is spearheading this effort and I’m proud to be one of the media partners for these distinguished awards along with the other supporters of small business whose logos appear below.

Now is your chance to come out in support of a book that has helped you build your small business in the following categories:

Small Business Book Awards categories

• Marketing
• Social Media
• Management
• Economics
• Technology
• StartUp

It’s super easy to submit your nomination. Just grab the URL from the Amazon.com page (or Barnes & Noble page) for the book, and enter it on the submission page here: Nominate the Best Small Business Book.

Have you written a book that might qualify for the awards? Authors are welcome to self-nominate too. Once the nomination has been reviewed and accepted, you can use one of the promotional badges like this to get the word out and prompt your readers to vote for your book when the voting begins next month.

You can also show your support for small business in a big way, by becoming a sponsor for the awards. “Show your support of small business by sponsoring the Small Business Book Awards. Sponsorship opportunities available for $2,000 to 10,000. Something to fit every budget. Please contact Anita Campbell, Founder of the Small Business Book Awards at: anita@smallbiztrends.com.”

Follow BizBookAwards on Twitter to keep up with all the announcements and nominations and add Small Business Trends to your circles on Google+

January 31, 2012 – Twitter chat, 7:00 pm New York time

Have you always dreamed of writing and publishing a book? Join us for a Twitter chat January 31, 2012, to get inside tips for getting the word out about your book.

Presented by the 4th Annual Small Business Book Awards, this hour-long Twitter chat will help authors and aspiring authors learn the secrets to marketing your book.

Today, even the largest publishers do a limited amount to market a book. As an author, it’s up to you to take charge, make your book known, and find buyers. And today many of the sales efforts focus online, or a combination of online and offline.

This chat on Twitter, from 7 to 8 pm Eastern time, will features authors like John Locke, Bruce Brown, Phil Simon and book publicists who will share insight into what it takes to sell copies of both print and electronic books.  To participate, simply follow the hashtag #BizBookAwards.

Twitter chat sponsored by JustRetweet.com a website designed to help you drive traffic to your Twitter account.

Hurry! The final deadline for nominations for the Best Small Business Book Awards is Tuesday January 31, 2012!  

We all know how easy it is to build a WordPress website from scratch but what can you do when you start getting real blog visitors but they do not seem to stick around. Wouldn’t you love to grab these visitors and stop them from leaving your blog? Of course you would.

Here are a few basic tips:

Captivating Content

This is not going to be the good old clique “content is king” but I will say that it is important! In fact, if you do not understand what great content is then this is the first thing that you should learn. How to fulfill your visitors needs. How to give them exactly what they were searching for?

If you fill your blog with GOB SMAKCING content you have a better chance of keeping your website visitor engaged and also willing to make a return visit. This way you will not have to worry about trying to keep your blog visitors hostage because they will be breaking down the doors to return to your blog.

This brings me to my next tip…

The Right Content

Having the right content for your audience is probably more important than having great content. You can have all the great content you want, but if your website visitors are not looking for that, you are relying on luck to run your website. To really keep your blog visitors hostage, you need to have the content that they are looking for.

Your website visitors will tell you which content they like the best but you need to keep your eyes open.

Some signs to watch out for are:

• Indepth, interesting comments. Definitely not general stuff.
• Popular accidental content: This is content that you haven’t really promoted but seems to be popular anyway.
• Posts that are shared the most. Some posts go viral. Find out why and try to write similar posts like that.
• High traffic posts: They might not be getting shared or commented on but get traffic. The best way to see these is in your Google analytics account.
• Popular posts on other sites.

I know how to create great content but I am not an expert at reading peoples minds so I use the signs listed above to help me work out what people want.

Walk the Walk before you talk the Talk

This is essentially saying, before you start giving advice on particular topic; make sure you are experienced enough and can actually give advice. There is nothing worse than someone publishing content that they really know nothing about.

I have learnt this lesson earlier on when creating content for my computer tips website. The absolute minute I published something out of my league, a person would come and ask a technical question that I simply could not answer. It just happened that way, almost guaranteed!

Now I do not even publish content written by other people unless they are answering the comments themselves or I am knowledgeable enough to do so for them.

Internal linking merry-go-round

So you are writing great content and your website visitors love it, but why not lead them to some more great content with internal linking. Get your website visitor’s heads spinning with all your fantastic content? Get them on your merry-go-round and don’t let them off!

This is where internal linking comes into the plan. You need to place your links within your content to not only add further value, but other options for your visitor to read. It is better for them to click on an internal link than leave your blog altogether. Do you agree?

Get other people to brag about your blog

Sometimes it sounds stupid when people talk about how great their own website is. This is why we need other people to start talking about our blogs and websites.

One way you can do this by talking mentioning other Webmasters on your website and then some do return the favor. (No guarantees)

This does not work for Webmasters out of your league though, so choose an approachable, down to earth webmaster that is not too famous to talk about you.

Another way that costs money is to get a professional review done. But make sure you are ready to handle the truth. Onibalusi from Youngprepro.com ordered a critique of his website from Chris Garret and the results were harsh to say the least. But Onibalusi used this information and took action on every piece of advice. People fell in love with Oni because he showed courage and they could see the action in progress.

Also why not put your hand up for an interview. I know Ileane is looking for interesting bloggers to interview all the time. You do not have to be making a million in your blogging career because that’s not what it is all about. I would say it comes down to your experiences and knowledge.

Get Blog Visitors to Sign Up

Yes this seems to be the main goal for many webmasters and I do this too. There is no doubt that building a list and maintaining is a great way to keep your blog visitors hostage… BUT.. This is also the best way to burn your blog visitors and make them hate you forever. I am sure I do this sometimes even though I do not send those ugly sales emails to my list. It is a fine line between love and hate when it comes to email lists and I believe it is a very skilled avenue to study.

If you can be honest with your list and give more than you take, this method can see your blog visitors staying by your side through thick or thin.

If you are having trouble with your list you can try writing a blog post using the title “Do you really want to be on my list” and then send this to your list.. I did this and only a handful of people unsubscribe (luckily I guess)  but many commented and provided me with highly valuable information.

Answer comments from your blog visitors

This is a bit obvious! We all know we should enter comments but we often forget that entering a comment can bring your visitor back to your website. For example I have the REPLYME WordPress plug-in that notifies a person that a reply has been made to their comment. I know that people often have a “subscribe to comments button”, however not many people like to tick this. Having the reply me WordPress plug-in is a way to definitely let your visitor know that there is a reply to their comment.

That’s not the end of the story though; you need to give an interesting or informational answer, along with maybe another question, will to entice your visitor act to your blog to comment again. Once you do this, most people are very grateful for the personal reply and this adds to your trust factor.

Of course there are thousands of ways to make your blog visitors stick around and the good old fashioned way always win in the end. Make your blog a great place and continue to test and tweak various ways to keep your website visitors enthralled! Sometimes it can be that simple.

Have fun with Facebok applications

Facebook recently launched the new biography so you can recover and collect the most important moments of your life. Starting today, you can choose from more than 60 applications to add to your life and express the things you like.

The applications are available from Foodspotting.com biography, Foodily, Ticketmaster, Pinterest, RottenTomatoes, Pose, Kobo, Tripadvisor.com Gogobot.com and among others. Now you can improve your life with applications that help you tell your story: If you enjoy cooking, eating, traveling, jogging or watching movies.

Encourage your bio applications

Once you have added an application, you can start updating your biography with the things you do, as they occur. For example, if you love fashion, you can update your Facebook biography with design, favorite products etc. are part of your biography. If you enjoy cooking you can add the Foodily application to your biography and add your latest dishes. If your friends have also added this application you can see and share new recipes and you will see updates in your respective biographies. If you like traveling you can add TripAdvisor or Gogobot application  and turn your life into a virtual passport. You can show where you are and share tips on your favorite places around the world.

Soon there will be applications for all tastes and interests and eventually Facebook will launch even more applications. If you like snowboarding, gardening, climbing and sewing there will be an application for you.

How to add applications to your life?

The applications of the biography are activities you want to share with friends. You can choose when to add applications and who can see them. And after adding, you can always delete comments directly from your bio or you can edit and change your preferences from the Activity Log located under the cover of the biography.

Your apps

The films you quote. The songs you have on repeat. The activities you love. Now there’s a new class of social apps that let you express who you are through all the things you do.

Do you plan before writing blog posts? 

Or do you just plan the title and write the article sometime later?

Or do you write and plan at the same time?

What’s the difference?

Simple, but complex. Different times, different thinking. When I usually get article ideas, I write them down in my blogging ideas diary (I just ran out of pages yesterday, so from now, I will be using just filler paper to write my ideas down) and then write the article when I actually want to publish it (I don’t write early, nor do I think about the post body until I start to write the article). So every single word that you are reading now, is what I came up with just now (now as in the time of writing this article ).

Do you do that? Do you know why I do that? Well, I wrote this post just to explain that. I will give you all the reasons (good and bad) that I can find for planning articles earlier and for writing at the moment.

Planning  Before Writing blog posts?

A lot of bloggers I know, do this kind of stuff. They plan their post body. They plan what the post is going to be about, the post format, how long the post is going to be and so forth. And they jot all this down. And write the post based on their notes (well, I guessed those last two points).

I have tried writing blog posts by planning the content even before I start to write. But, it doesn’t work for me. Because the problem is that, If I think of some ideas for the post body, then I will be restricted to thinking within those ideas (It is hard for me to think out of those ideas). So, I usually don’t try to plan my post body before I start writing blog posts.

Obviously, I understand that there are problems with this method. All of our college/high school professors/teachers tell us to plan our essay even before writing them (The only time I actually do some planning for writing is when I write essays for college). Planning and writing blog posts helps us to get our ideas out and then analyze, elaborate and explain them to convey our message, pursue the audience or just for the sake of writing.

Planning and writing blog posts blocks creativity?

I understand that for some people, it is just better to plan everything out and then start writing blog posts. But let me tell you something: It will be harder for you to come up with new ideas for the post if you already plan out everything Planning in a way, blocks your creative side of writing. Yes, you will still get ideas while writing the post, but it will be much harder to get those ideas and blend them into what you have planned.

But, that might not be the case for everyone. I do know people who write great articles by planning them ahead. I might saying that there will be a compromise for quality if you plan earlier. I am just saying that once you plan out everything, it will be much harder to get out of those points, think out of them, and get new ideas (Well, I will just use my psychology knowledge to support it; The idea of Fixation by Freud. You will have more like a fixated perspective on the subject that you are writing on. See, its all about perspective (Note: By the way, I will be writing another blog post on perspectives, somewhere on the blog world, just keep a look on my Twitter account).

Brainstorming and Writing blog posts at the Same time?

I just love writing blog posts. Just keep on writing them. In fact, I rarely change any word from the articles that I write (unless of course there is a spelling error). This is because I just love the posts as they are. If I even try to change one sentence, then my mind would prompt me to change the entire paragraph or add something new to it (which I don’t really like, provided that I have finished writing the article).

For me, brainstorming and writing blog posts at the same time has proved to be effective. The best articles that I have written so far, are all posts written without any planning on the post content (and all of them were guest articles – I don’t think that is a wonder at all). Anyways, back to our topic. I will give you an example to illustrate my thoughts:

Think about this: An artist who draws non-representational art doesn’t really plan or think about his art before he draws it. Because he really can’t. If his idea for art is really non representational, then he can’t compare the idea to anything that is existing in this world (if he could, then the art would be representational). As far as I understand, he would just draw out his idea, play with it and use his creativity and artistic skill to improve the piece.

For me, I get more and better ideas when I write and brainstorm at the same time. What about you? Have you ever tried doing it at the same time? If not, you should try it. Try it once or twice. And let me know what you think.

Ta Da!

At the end, I just want to ask you a question (Just curious ): Do you publish articles that you are not satisfied with? When I write articles, I only publish those I am entirely satisfied with (or else I won’t have the motivation to promote it to my friends and ask them their opinion). Anyways, don’t forget to tell you what you think about the idea(s) presented in this article. Try them out.

I appreciate your time and effort spent on reading this article. I would also appreciate if you really help me out by sharing and commenting on this article (For those people who didn’t like this article: just tell me why you didn’t. Thanks a million!

Just  write.

It’s no secret that you can embed videos from YouTube on your WordPress blog to keep readers on the page longer and to add interest and variety to your blog. You can also add attractive, eye-catching images to help set the mood or tone of your post and instantly grab the attention of anyone who visits your blog as well as those who find it when it’s shared on Facebook or Google+.

Using multimedia like video, audio and presentations are a fantastic way to promote products and get your point across to your audience. Your readers will be delighted to find engaging content that gives them a break from reading and a reason to spend more time on your blog which in turn lessens your bounce rate. However, you might not know that now you can embed content from hundreds of different multimedia sites into your WordPress blog posts.

Embed Multimedia from hundreds of sites on your blog

But the question is, have you ever tried to embed YouTube videos in your WordPress blog posts but you weren’t really sure how to do it? I’ve been there, so don’t worry. WordPress has made it simpler than ever to embed videos and images from Flickr by simply adding the unlinked URL in your post editor.  I’m going to show you how easy it is to do. For example, here’s a short list of the sites and services you can embed content from:

• Amazon
• Animoto
• Audioboo
• DailyBooth
• Facebook
• Flickr
• Google Maps
• Instagram
• iTunes
• MixCloud
• Prezi
• Screenr
• SlideShare
• SoundCloud
• Storify
• Tumblr
• Twitter
• Xtranormal
• YouTube

Tutorial – How To Embed YouTube Videos, Podcasts and other Multimedia on a WordPress Blog

In this video I demonstrate 4 different methods for embedding multimedia into your blog posts. Three of these are exclusive to WordPress however there is one technique (using the embed code) that can be used on any type of blog or website. Don’t worry this is very easy to do and I’ve already received feedback on the video, which you might notice from the comments on YouTube, that indicates the video is a pleasure to watch and listen to as well. Btw – if YouTube is blocked in your country you can watch on Viddler or Vimeo.

Resources from the video:

• How to control the size of embedded videos and images from your WordPress dashboard
• How to embed a YouTube video or Flickr image without using a plugin or embed code
• How to find and install the embed code of a YouTube video
• How to use the Viper’s Video Quicktags Plugin (YouTube, Vimeo, Daily Motion, MetaCafe, Blip.tv and Viddler – great for those of us who host guests authors!)
• How to embed a podcast from MixCloud or AudioBoo
• How to embed Storify in a blog post
• How to use the Embed.ly plugin to embed content from over 200 multimedia services

I love to read blogs that contain embedded content from other sources because it keeps me interested in the topic at hand. I feel good when I find that someone has taken the time to prepare a recording of a video or audio podcast and added it to a post and it really does get my attention. How about you? What plugins are you using to embed multimedia content on your blog?

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Tom Shivers a few weeks ago, and you can listen to the audio podcast of the interview, on his SEO blog Capture Commerce in this post How to Blog Successfully – Tips from Ileane Smith. Now I get my chance to ask the questions and in this interview we get the inside scoop on Tom, as he shares his blogging journey with us.

Introducing Tom Shivers – SEO Guy from Capture Commerce

1. Tom, please introduce yourself to the readers here and tell us a little something about your offline life that most of your online audience might not know.

I’ve been an SEO consultant for 11 years now – yes, I got started in this space a long time ago when Yahoo was the most popular search engine until Google eclipsed them and has remained the dominant player. My philosophy of SEO is what makes me different from others.

One thing most of my online friends don’t know is I’m addicted to racquetball and play 3 or 4 times every week. It’s a great sport to get involved in because it’s fairly easy to learn, and there are always challenging players to hone my skills. I enjoy it because I can unload stress, it’s good cardio, I’ve made lots of friends and I win a lot.

2. How many blogs do you have right now and what got you interested in starting a blog?

I run three blogs of my own in addition to my client’s blogs. I got interested in blogging around ‘06 because I was writing business articles for both my clients and prospects and saw that Google indexed blog posts rather quickly. My goal with the articles I write is to get in the conversation that is already on the web or in someone’s head to build up a following for the brand. But it was two years later that I setup my first blog for my business – one of my employees pushed for the blog and helped get it going.

3. What are some of the biggest mistakes you see bloggers and internet marketers making that might be causing them to fail? Have you made similar mistakes in the past yourself?

The number 1 mistake I see from businesses and individuals who want to be found in search engines and social media is they are not intentional about building relationships. You may laugh but it’s true; for some reason people think they can manufacture relationships without doing anything… ummm, no. Here’s some advice:

Build relationships both online and offline

• Do what you say you will do even if it hurts
• Stop doing things for the sole purpose of getting higher search rank, instead do things to help others… like your target audience
• Link out from your own blog posts to other sites and blogs
• Provide helpful, interesting comments on other people’s blogs, rather than just trying to get a link
• Get involved in social voting and social media sites where other bloggers and marketers participate – pick one or two and invest some time there
• Reach out to other bloggers with a phone call
• Invite others to guest post on your blog
• Give, give, give before expecting to receive – the golden rule of building relationships

I’ve noticed that people trying to build links in particular can be so task oriented that they often lose out on a relationship opportunity that could supply them with boat loads of links, but instead they settle for one or two. Oh well…

I’ve made plenty of mistakes in building relationships, but I’ve also learned how to do it by watching those who are great at it. I might drop a few names in the comments if people want to know who I follow.

4. I know that you enjoy podcasting as much as I do and you are using it to conduct interviews for your blog. Tell us about how you got started with podcasting and give us some insights about the process that you use to produce your show.

I got started podcasting a year ago with one of my businesses where we sell an information product that comes with a weekly Q&A session with the expert. I got us setup on freeconferencecall.com so I could record the session. It has worked out well.

Sometimes I edit the podcast before publishing it using Audacity. Sometimes I add music to the podcast to make it more interesting and professional; I use royalty free music for that. Then I mix it all together and out comes an in stereo podcast that’s great for downloading to your ipod or smart phone. If it makes sense for the podcast, I create an iTunes channel to add a little extra exposure.

5. Right now, we are starting to see a shift from traditional marketing in terms of direct mail, and newspaper or magazine advertising. How has the impacted your marketing efforts, for example are you doing more email marketing these days? Where do you think offline marketing is going away – or is it still a viable option for small businesses?

Offline marketing won’t be going away, but it has been significantly impacted by online marketing for a number of obvious reasons. Magazine advertising is still interesting for many niche markets because the publishers are so tuned into what their audience wants. One well placed magazine ad can more than pay for itself, but it may take some trial and error to get there.

I do very little offline advertising for my own businesses, but I’m definitely into email marketing so I do a few things to build my lists up.

6. Let’s talk more specifically about social networking and the role it plays in your online life. What’s your favorite social network and why? Also, can you mention some blogging communities that you support like BizSugar, Blog Engage or Blokube.

LinkedIn is my favorite of the big social networks because it is truly the business network. For instance, company pages on LinkedIn are far better than Facebook pages because you can showcase products, recruit, offer specials all within a network where people want to communicate about business rather than the latest movie. A couple months ago I interviewed Sherry Hyle on how to use LinkedIn for business intelligence gathering. Check it out.

I’m involved in BizSugar, Blokube, Blog Engage, SerpD, fwisp, NewsMeBack, Triberr, and others, my handle is tomshark so vote for me please

7. People are always asking the question – Blogger or WordPress. I’m assuming you like WordPress over Blogger, but why do you feel that way? Have you ever had a Blogger blog before? In general do you think Blogger blogs have lower quality or authority on the Internet?

I’ve not tried Blogger or other free-hosted blogs because most of my clients need the versatility and power of a self-hosted WordPress blog. I setup WordPress blogs to complement business websites. When they are setup and fed properly, WordPress blogs become a powerful machine of influence that can reach out across the web and tug at the target audience it is intended to reach. I feed mine ravenously.

Most of the free-hosted blogs I’ve seen tend to be run by individuals who are writing for their friends or family rather than for business. I wouldn’t say they are lower quality blogs, they just have a different purpose.

8. Moving over into the topic of SEO, give us your top 5 SEO tips that you’re seeing results from.

Tom’s Top 5 SEO Tips for Bloggers:

5. Utilize your RSS feed. Register your feed with RSS feed directories like feedage.com and feedagg.com; make sure your RSS feed is on your social media profiles. Get involved with the ComLuv Network which utilizes your RSS feed when you comment on blogs with the CommentLuv plugin installed.

4. Use SEO plugins properly. One of my pet peeves about SEO plugins is that many think their rankings will improve just by activating it and that’s usually not true. The plugins that actually do help with SEO can so easily be abused that some users end up doing more harm than good. So, I’m not comfortable sharing my plugins that help with SEO publicly here, but I’ll offer some tips to those who contact me with a good question about them. Having said that, one plugin that can make a difference is WordPress SEO by Yoast, but again this plugin is complex compared to most and if you don’t understand how to use it then get some help first.

3. Publish killer content. Great content is the currency of social media and the reason people link to blog posts today. Put a content marketing strategy together that complements your strengths so you can “Wow” your audience more consistently.

2. Build up an audience who become raving fans and cheerleaders for your cause or organization.

1. Focus more on conversions than on rankings.

9. Lastly Tom, I want to thank you for doing this interview and find out what your plans are for the future. What would you like to accomplish in 2012?

Thanks Ileane for inviting me, it’s been fun.

One of my goals for the new year is to find a few new partners with whom I can form a mutually beneficial business relationship with. Sometimes I find that web designers, social media consultants and conversion optimizers make great partners for me, but I like influential bloggers too.

The first thing that attracted me to JustRetweet was the name. I love simplicity and that’s exactly what the site offers – an easy way to find stuff you want to share and retweet it with one click. I have been using the site as an antidote to my growing Triberr fatigue and so far, I like it a lot.

The JustRetweet interface isn’t fancy but it works. Everything you need to know about how the site works is on the rules page.

Visit the home page to follow the three simple steps to joining the site.

1. Authorize the site with Twitter – you get 100 credits to get you started.

2. Write a tweet you want others to share – use your credits to pay them for sharing.

3. Retweet others’ messages and earn credits in return.

Getting Started with JustRetweet

JustRetweet has its own Twitter-based economy. You gain credits for sharing others’ stuff and you give credits so they will share yours. You don’t have to belong to any particular group and you only share what you want to share.

Since part of the purpose is sharing your content, then it’s best to get started by filling in your profile. There’s a settings tab which takes you to a section with several sub-tabs. The general tab has your email, gender, country and interests. The Twitter tab shows whether your profile is active, how many credits you offer for people who follow you (I have mine set at 2) and how many users have followed you so far.

The Retweet tab in your profile is where you set up the tweets you want others to retweet and say how many credits you are willing to spend. You can specify that retweeters have a minimum number of followers before seeing this opportunity.

The website tab allows you to add your sites (or any others you want to promote) so that people can browse them  for credit. You need a title, URL, description, credits per view, and total credit allocation. And in the blogs tab, you add your blog feed and set similar options so that your posts are automatically pulled into the site for people to share if they want to.

How to Earn Credits with JustRetweet

Once you have spent your initial credit allocation on JustRetweet (and it goes pretty quickly at 5 credits or more a tweet), then you need to keep your credits topped up by earning. You can earn credits by:

• following other users (usually between 2 and 10 credits, though sometimes more).
• browsing a site (you have to stay for a few seconds)
• sending a tweet (varying amounts, with some offering 25 credits or more)
• referring people to the site (25 credits)

When logged in, your credits show up immediately in the big blue box on your dashboard. The menu also includes tabs for checking out people who want you to follow them for credit, retweets (it’s called the Retweet Exchange), websites and blogs.

Also on the home page are the most recent tweets available for retweeting. With these you can skip the tweets that don’t interest you, retweet immediately or retweet later so  you don’t flood your stream. I clicked on post later, got the credits and watched my account to see when the tweet appeared.

Once you have been through the list, you can refresh and see more tweets you can choose from. I always check the posts before retweeting, but for bloggers I know and trust, I could just retweet – good deed done for the day for those bloggers and great content shared.

Watch a video showing how to use JustRetweet

Other JustRetweet Features

On the JustRetweet home page, there’s also a credit history tab which shows the credits you have allocated and earned, which essentially is a snapshot of your activity on the site. Interestingly, you can also see who has viewed your site, retweeted your stuff or followed you, potentially helping to build community.

You can also buy credits and ad spots – there are several of different types on the homepage and site wide – at varying prices. The least expensive of these is a 1 day VIP placement plus 200 credits for $5, which is a pretty good deal.

My JustRetweet Verdict and Wishlist

So far, the site isn’t very busy and it addresses some of the issues that have troubled me in the past. With JustRetweet:

• I don’t get any hassle from people who feel their stuff isn’t being shared enough
• I don’t get any hassle from people who have issues with the amount of content some people produce
• I don’t get overwhelmed with long lists of stuff that need to be tweeted; in fact, if I’m busy, I only need to look at the handful of tweets on the home page.

There are still a couple of things that would make it better for me. Now that there’s tweet scheduling, it would be nice to see the tweets I have scheduled somewhere. I’d also like to be able to see what’s happening with my blog content. At the moment, posts are appearing in the blog tab, but there’s no evidence that these have been tweeted. In contrast, when I input a tweet manually, there are always a couple of people who tweet it. I’d love to see at least the date of the tweets for retweeting so I know if I’m tweeting old stuff or new.  Finally, I’m not sure what happens with the people I follow on the site – and whether this translates to also following them on Twitter – that could be clearer.

Overall, though, I like the feeling of being in control of the retweeting and I love that I’ve found some new people’s stuff to share. I am looking forward to seeing more new features as they come on stream on JustRetweet.

With thousands of WordPress plugins to choose from, finding the best ones is not easy.  We all want a blog that’s optimized for the search engines, our visitors, and ultimately our business.  Based on these three objectives, here are 10 of my favorite WordPress plugins you can use right away to make your blogs function a lot better!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Plugins

Creating a blog that is optimized for search engines can increase your number of targeted, high quality visitors.  Here are 6 great WordPress plugins to help you improve your on-page SEO.

1. All-In-One SEO Pack WordPress Plugins

This is one of the most well-known SEO plugins that’s been around.  It automatically optimizes your WordPress blog for the search engines.  Because of its effectiveness, it’s considered a must have plugin and continues to be one of the best free SEO plugins.

In case you have not used it yet, this plugin allows you to add the best meta data, tags, and descriptions about your blog.  It helps the search engines understand what your blog is about and then categorize your site with better accuracy.

In the main settings of this plugin, you can decide on what keywords, titles, and descriptions to be used for your website.  Within each post, you can add more keywords for that specific post.  This is extremely important for the search engines in order for it to place your posts on the top results and drive targeted traffic to your site.

2. Google XML Sitemaps

This is another popular and must-have WordPress Plugin due to its powerful function.  With the sitemap it creates, you can place it anywhere you want to accommodate your site’s layout.  What this plugin does is it helps the search engine spiders to crawl your site to get an accurate layout of its structure.  In addition, it allows the search engines to track your site whenever a new post, page or other contents are added.

3. Scribe SEO

Scribe SEO is a new plugin created by Copyblogger, one of the most influential websites for many bloggers and online marketers.  This is an effective SEO plugin when it comes to SEO for both posts and pages.

This plugin goes through your post and evaluates it based on its keywords, text layout and other relevant factors to give your a score along with tips to optimized it for the search engines.

4. SEO Pressor

SEO Pressor is one of the top picks for 2011.  Similar to Scribe SEO, it provides each post with a score.  It also tracks your H1, H2 and H3 counts and the number of internal links.  It makes your posts more appealing for the search engines and helps improve your rankings

5. SEO Smart Links

This is a simple plugin that saves you a lot of time. It makes internal links automatically within your posts based on your keywords.  This impresses the search engines and helps improve your traffic as well.

6. SEO Friendly Images

Having images in your posts is a plus for SEO and your visitors.  This simple plugin adds an alternate text (alt) and title description to your images for the search engines, making it easier for the spiders to crawl your content.

WordPress Plugins To Encourage Readers Interaction

If you have quality content that gets you traffic and comments, that’s great.  But you may also need some plugins that provide additional functions that help your visitors feel more encouraged and excited about commenting on your blog, right?  Here are 2 WordPress plugins that help you do the work.

7. CommentLuv

CommentLuv is a widely used plugin considered a must have by many bloggers.  This plugin encourages comments, allowing the commenters latest post to be linked back to their blogs.  This is a win-win situation where you get more traffic to your blog, interact with your visitors, and they get the rewards for commenting.

8. WordPress Threaded Comments

As what its name suggests, this plugin allows your readers to interact with each other and the discussion will be displayed threaded.  It also allows you to interact directly with your readers in an organized manner.  You need this plugin if your existing theme doesn’t have this function built in.

Business Boosting Plugins

When you have impressed the search engines and your visitors, you want some WordPress plugins that help boost your business.

9. Popup Domination

Many bloggers think popups are frowned on.  But many high earning bloggers find this plugin extremely effective.  According to Yaro Starak of Entrepreneurs-Journey, this plugin has helped increase his opt-in rate by 150%.  It’s also known for increasing the subscription rate by up to 400%.  It comes with various attractive templates and guides to help you build your list.

Your visitors are greeted with a user-friendly box where you can promote your product or free offer to your potential subscribers.  Within the box you can list the benefits of your product or free offer to new visitors to your blog.

10. Widget Context

This is one of my favorite free WordPress plugins that’s very handy if you want to dictate which pages or posts show which sidebar widgets.

With this plugin you can tailor which widgets to show based on the word counts, categories, tags, etc. of a post.  This is perfect if you have a specific ad, product offering, or list signup that you want to present to a targeted prospects. So the outcome is an increased conversion and more cohesive content.

That’s it, 10 of my favorite WordPress plugins.  This is by no means an exhaustive list, it helps to get you started and you can add some more WordPress plugins to your list as you go to further improve your blog to raise its search rankings, drive more targeted traffic, and increase your conversions.