Tag Archives: Blog
8 ‘Creative’ Types of Blog Posts
If you own a blog you know the importance of keeping your blog fresh and your audience interested. It can be challenging to come up with blog posts that won’t bore your visitors and is interesting enough to keep them coming back.
It doesn’t matter whether you are blogging for fun or blogging to make money, if visitors are your goal then here are eight types of blog posts that you can use to keep your blog interesting, promote sharing, increase followers and encourage comments.
Type 1 – The ‘QUICK TIPS’ Blog Post
Quick tips are great “in between” posts. They are short and normally between 100 and 250 words. If you have ideas that you want to share with your readers but it doesn’t justify a full blog post, posting quick tips are ideal. The tip should be focused on one key area of your niche. For example, “How to eat less when eating out” is a perfect ‘quick tip’ for a dieting blog.
Type 2 – The ‘HOW TO’ Blog Post
Expanding on the quick tips blog post, let’s look at the ‘how to’ posts. These provide expanded and much more detailed information to your readers on how to do specific things related to your niche such as step-by-step instructional detail or specific examples. You could even separate these posts into two or three part courses.
For ideas on ‘how to’ posts, have a look at niche topic forums or other related blogs for questions that others are asking on how to do specific things. Well written, detailed informative ‘how to’ posts are typically very popular and can help recognize you as an authority in your field.
Type 3 – The ‘REVIEW’ Blog Post
Product or service reviews are especially useful to readers because it helps them with the decision buying process. It’s also a great way to monetize your blog. This is particularly beneficial to affiliate marketers. When you review a product and include your affiliate link, this gives you the opportunity to make a commission from each sale you generate.
The key to writing a credible ‘review’ blog post is not to simply go over the major benefits and highlights of the product, but to also mention things about the product that could be improved. This keeps your review balanced and also gives your reader a more objective view. Your blog visitors will appreciate your candid honesty and will be more likely to trust your recommendation.
Type 4 – The RESOURCE Blog Post
Some of the most popular blogs use resource lists. Blog readers love lists because they can easily scan the information and focus on what they are most interested in reading.
For example, if writing a post on the ’10 ways to lose weight fast’ a resource list would mention the posts from related blogs that also have this information. This gives your reader a much broader view of ideas and tips available to them.
By doing this you will also find that readers will look to you as a useful resource for finding as much well-rounded information as possible on the topic at hand.
Type 5 – The INTERVIEW Blog Post
People love interviews, especially if it’s with someone they like and admire. Try interviewing someone in your niche and sharing the results of the interview with your blog readers. This is also a powerful traffic generator as the person you interview will most likely post the interview on their blog and around the web, bringing more traffic back to you!
Type 6 – The ‘BEST OF’ Blog Post
These are great end of the year or end of season posts. For example, if you do a lot of reading, you might list the ‘best of’ articles, books or guides that you read during the past year. Additionally, you could also create a post highlighting your most popular blog posts of the year. Whatever your niche, have a look back at the items, events or ideas that were the year’s best and create a post around them. This can be a fun, especially for the nostalgic reader.
Type 7 – The PERSONAL STORY’ Blog Post
Everyone loves a personal story. Anyone that follows you or your blog would be interested in a personal event or happening related to your niche. Did you attend a seminar? Did you buy a new product? Did you have a mishap that could be made an example of? Without getting too personal or overly detailed, writing a blog post on you personal achievements or activities almost always draws interest and feedback.
Type 8 – The ‘NEWS’ Blog Post
Every niche has some news related items or happenings. Keep your eyes and ears open to what’s going on, then find a newsworthy item and write your personal comments. This is not only an easy to create, quick post; it also encourages feedback from readers. Be sure to link to the post you are referring to along with your comments.
Liz McGee, author and marketing specialist, offers free tips and help for those that want to make money online, not lose it. Join Liz’s free newsletter, blog & discussion forum where you can find out How to start an internet home business & learn internet marketing, free
Nine Tips for a Profitable Blog
There’s no doubt that more businesses are realizing the power of blogging to establish their expertise, rank higher at the search engines, and improve their communication with prospects and customers.
But as more companies jump into the blogosphere it becomes more difficult for your blog to get noticed, and therefore to make you money. Here are nine quick tips to make your blog a profitable marketing tool.
1. Blog for your audience. As the blogosphere matures, the face of business blogging is changing as well. Although the discourse can still be freer than your Web site or email newsletter, people want content they can use. A few posts in a row about what you had for breakfast and you’re toast.
2. Make your blog search engine friendlier. Blogs are search engine friendly by design. By choosing keyword-rich category names and writing keyword-rich post titles you can greatly increase your search engine visibility and drive more qualified leads to your site.
3. Engage your most active commenters. Some blogs naturally attract more comments because of their popular or controversial topics. You can increase the comments on your blog by responding to each commenter in an email, linking back to or commenting at their blogs, and mentioning them by name in later posts.
4. Comment on influential blogs in your niche. Find the influential bloggers in your niche(s) through a Technorati search and read their posts. When you have something intelligent to add to the conversation, comment away. These comments create links to your own blog, and should drive some more traffic your way.
5. Submit your site to blog directories. When I started developing Web sites getting listed in Yahoo took an email. Now it takes $299…a year. Submit your site while it’s (mostly) free.
6. Promote your blog’s newsfeed. Every blog platform creates a feed for syndication, but some blogs don’t have it easily available. Make sure your is obvious.
7. Add an email subscription. Although newsfeeds are important, not all of your readers will understand how to subscribe to one. Everyone, however, understands how to subscribe to an email newsletter. I recommend using Feedburner for this task, as it also allows you to easily create newsfeeds and track subscribers.
8. Include social bookmarking links. Getting a post into Digg, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, or any of the popular social networking/bookmarking sites, can generate thousands of additional page views. Make it easier on visitors to promote your posts by including links to these services within every post.
9. Leverage your blog traffic into real business. Don’t forget that this is your business blog, not your personal one; you’re looking for a return on investment. Create appropriate calls-to-action in the form of links that drive traffic from your blog to your Web site or online store.
Just don’t be too heavy handed; visitors won’t become subscribers or customers if you’re doing nothing but self-promotion. Use a deft hand to establish your expertise and build relationships with readers, but make it easy for them to buy from you when they’re ready.
While every item in this list will help make your blog more profitable, pay most attention to the first and last tips. Blog for your customers because nothing else will have an impact if you don’t focus on their needs. Blog for your business because the purpose of a business blog is to help your company grow and succeed.
Rich Brooks is president of flyte new media a Web design and Internet marketing company. Flyte designs professional Web sites and promotes them with strategic Web marketing campaigns that include search engine optimization, email marketing, business blogs and more.
He blogs on Web marketing topics regularly at flyte blog: web marketing strategies for small business and publishes a monthly email newsletter called flyte log. You may also find articles by Rich at the TalentZoo.com
How to Increase Your Blog Traffic
There are more than 115 millions of blogs now in the world. Majority of those blog are for money making purpose. However, many bloggers fail. They fail because of many reasons, such as no traffic, not willing to invest money, being lazy and so on. Most of these failures are from the problem having no traffic.In this post, I will share some top secrets on how to increase your traffic. Traffic is very important because you cannot make money online without traffic. Actually, you need to increase your blog traffic before you can make 4 figures income or above .
1. Comment on Other Experts’ BlogsFrequently leave comments on some experts blogs which have high traffic and Alexa ranking will increase your blog traffic as well. Do not comment using anonymous. Remember to leave only quality comment instead of saying a word “Hello”. Leave some quality comments so that other people will get interest on you and then visit your blog.
2. Submit Article to Articles DirectoriesArticle marketing is the oldest way to increase traffic but it still very effective. It will bring you tons of traffic. When I mean tons, I mean it. Submit 10 articles to EzineArticles and GoArticles will do. Do not forget to put a link which link back to your blog. For more information about article marketing, click here.
3. Participate in Community ForumsI like forums. It also brings me lots of traffic. I love forums very much because I can boost my traffic. At the same time, I can always update and enhance my knowledge. Remember to put a link which will link back to your blog in your signature. You can ask a question, discuss a topic, post your ideas and articles in the forums.
4. Social BookmarkingSocial Bookmarking can also increase your traffic. Bookmark your blog posts to social bookmark networks like Digg, StumbleUpon and Reddit. Do not forget to submit your blog post every time you publish a post.
5. Update Your Blog FrequentlyNever let your blog die. You will lost many traffic if you do not update your blog for a long time. I suggest you to publish at least 3 posts per week. If you can update your blog everyday, then that’s good =)
6. Use Paid AdvertisingPaid advertising will definitely boost your traffic. What you need to control is just your budget. Do not spend too much on paid advertising. You can advertise your blog or sales page via service like Google AdWords. Alternatively, you may us BidVertiser as it is not so expensive compare with AdWords. You can also select a blog which have high visits and Alexa ranking to advertise your blog. Remember that only choose blog which have same niche with you so that you can traget your readers.
7. Organize ContestsRun contests on your blog also a way to boost your blog traffic. The form of contest and gift is based on your budget and what your readers need. Think a creative way which can grab more readers to read your blog post. Example, the top commenter of this month will be rewarded a copy of your e-book.
8. Link ExchangeLink exchange is also a great and effective way to boost your traffic. You can go to Google Blog Search and find few blogs which have same niche with you and request link exchange with the webmasters by contact them. If you able to exchange a link with a blog which have high visits and traffic, your traffic also will increase after that =)
9. Submit Your Blog to Blog DirectoriesThis step is very important to get traffic for your blog. Submit your blogs to Technorati, Techmeme, Blogcatalog and other blog directories. Blog directories are places which you can submit your blog to get massive traffic. Thus, do not be lazy on this.
10. Offer Something FreeI realize that many people like free stuff. Even me like free stuff. This way works if you are creative enough and you know what stuff your readers actually need. If you are using auto responder for blogging, you can gift out free stuff to encourage more people join your mailing list. If your free stuff is good, your readers will definitely announce and tell their friends. Then, your traffic will increase too.
These are the main 10 ways you can use to get tons of traffic for your blog. No harm to give out a try. After that what you need is blog with consistency and repeating doing them. Do not ever give out because your are surely failed if you quit. Try to find out your problem and solve it. This article will be helpful if you want to increase your blog traffic.Find out what I am doing by following my twitter. If you need to know more about making money online stuff, don’t forget to subscribe my e-mail updates so that you will not miss any post.
I am Jeen Hao. an ordinary guy, who show high interest in online making money. I am currently running a blog which provide couples of make money online information at his blog. Check it out and you will know the tactics and secrets of make money blogging.
Is Your Blog Marketing Effective?
Blog marketing is not all that hard if you know what you are doing. However, if this is your very first blog and you are wondering how to get readers to it then you are in the right place. First let me just say that marketing your blog is going to require patience, and being consistent. You will have to update your blog frequently if you want to keep readers coming back for more. We are all guilty of making a blog, wanting it to be great, putting only one entry into it and then never going back to update it again. I think everyone in cyber world has done this at one time or another. Here are some great tips to use when trying to get your blog out there and get new readers.
Make sure that your blog has the track back feature. Let me tell you why. When you have the track back feature on your blog, you are allowing other people to link to your blog. Maybe someone has a post to post on their blog that is relevant to one of yours. They can use the talkback to your post, and send their readers to your blog so that they know what they are referring to. Another good thing to remember is that if someone gives you a track back, it is a courtesy to return that to their blog if at all possible.
Having a Google account and submitting a sitemap is almost a must when you are blog marketing. Doing so will allow Google to know how often you are updating your blog and they will automatically know of any changes that you have made to it as well. This will let Google get those new pages indexed faster and get them into search results much quicker than if you did not have the sitemap. There is a certain way you have to do the sitemap for Google, and they can explain that to you. Just know this is an important step to blog marketing.
Exchanging links with authority blogs and websites that are in your same market is another great way to get the word out about your blog. The authority sites are going to have a higher page rank, and will also be listed high in Google’s search results. So do some searches and check those out and see if they are up to exchanging links. If they are not, you could always just add those into your blogroll. You do not need permission to do that if they are not into linking. However, in the world of blogs, most blog owners are thankful for all links, and are willing to return the favor.
You are going to want to be sure that all of your posts are formatted. Doing so will leave out any confusion for the search engines and you will have everything nice and neat and all organized. The label tags are there for a reason when you are dealing with blogs. So using them and not leaving them out is a great idea.
Tracking is another part of blog marketing that is so very important. You want to be able to track your visitors and clickers to know where they are coming from. You want to be able to tell what keywords they searched on to find your blog and where they did their searching. Doing so will help take out all of the guess work when it comes to blog marketing. You will know what keywords are working, and which are not.
Allowing RSS feeds from your blog is also another great blog marketing tool. You are going to find that when you allow RSS feeds, your blog is going to end up all over the internet with a link back to it and that is a good thing. This is a wonderful way to get links to your blog with little or no effort. People that subscribe to your blog’s RSS feeds are able to then post your blog posts on their sites or blogs. Which in return gives you a link on their site or page that they have you on.
Blog marketing is only as hard as you make it. Use these tips and get your blog out there and seen today!
Dassana Jayalath is the editor of InternetBizIQ newsletter. Visit http://www.internetbiziq.com/turbo-membership.html to find out how to use Turbo Membership to make money from your Blog.
The Importance of Blog Design
Copyright © Dennis KorayMyFortuneFormula
The Importance of Blog Design
Blogs have increased popularity over this past months. Many people have started to create their personal blogs to express their thoughts and feelings. Internet companies have also started their blogs to inform consumers on the latest product news and reviews.
Because of this, blogs are also being used as internet marketing media. Before, internet marketing is done by placing banners and links on popular websites, such as news and information sites. Links were also included on newsletters and marketing letters sent to the members of their mailing lists.
Many people spend time reading blogs. People read their friend’s blogs, their favorite author’s blogs, blogs on topics that they are interested in, and blogs on product reviews. With the increasing popularity of blogging, it is even feared that people rely on blogs to get the latest news.
While getting news reports from blogs isn’t reliable, some people look for product reviews through blogs. In some cases, this is more dependable. While it is true that some media persons are being paid to write good reviews about a certain product, blog writers write about their actual experiences on products and services from a company.
Since there are many people who read and start their own blogs, blogs are a good medium to market a product. With the increasing blog traffic means increase in product sales.
Blog traffic can be increased by joining affiliate programs and sites, which will list your blog under a certain search category or name. You can also have your blog advertised in popular websites. This, however, will cost some money and is not advisable if you have just started blogging.
A writer who has just launched his/her blog will want as much traffic as possible to increase advertisements on the site. Also, some advertisers pay every time their link is clicked or the page that has their link is viewed.
When you have increased traffic on your blog, you should try to keep you visitors coming back and recommending your blog to friends and colleagues.
This can be done by having informative or amusing content and good blog layout and design. You may develop your blog’s content or you can also acquire the services of a web content writer to provide you with the blog articles.
The blog’s layout and design also plays a big role. While most of the companies offering free blog hosting offer pre-selected templates, there are also some that allows customization that if you utilize this feature correctly can increase your blog’s traffic.
Here are a few tips to make your blog stand out from the millions of blogs out there that have standard designs.
* Customize the banner
The banner usually has the most generic designs that are common to the blogs from a blogging company or service.
You can personalize this banner by having a graphic with the dimensions of the banner. You can also edit the graphic so that it will also include the title of your blog.
In this case, you can create your own graphic or you can purchase professional looking graphics online for less than $10.
* Personalizing photos
Of course, most of the photos that you will be posting will be your own. However, if you don’t customize the photos before posting them, you may miss maximizing the enhancing benefits graphics can add to the page. Adding photo borders can help the photo stand out from the page.
It can also add to the design of your blog. You can choose a standard border or you can also create your own border which can be associated with your blog’s templates.
* Add a favicon
Don’t you think sites with icons on the address bar before the website’s URL are cool? Many people do. These favicons add a professional look to the URL. These easy to do using photo or graphic editing softwares.
* Check out blog templates, layouts, backgrounds, textures and skins from sites
There are sites that offer free blog templates, layouts, backgrounds, textures and skins. You can make use of these so your blog will not look generic like most of the blogs hosted by the service provider.
* Include RSS feeds
This is a cool way to inform people with newsreaders about your blog headlines. Tutorials on RSS feeds are available on the internet.
* Audio makes your blog more personal
Not only does audio personalizes the blog; it can also keep your visitors coming back. You can try having streaming radio stations, mp3 file or playlists loading with your blog.
* Advertisements
If you have signed-up with Google Ad-Sense, which I am sure you would like to do, make sure that the ads are conveniently placed that these will not hinder your readers’ ease in accessing the information on your blog.
Try using these tips and you can definitely increase and retain traffic on your blog.
Dennis Koray is a webdesigner and passionate online marketer since 2001! If You Are Struggling to Get Sign-ups He Will Show You How To Quickly And Easily Generate More Paid Sign-ups To Your Primary Business In 3 Simple Steps… Guaranteed! Sign-up now free for a limited time:
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