Marc Guberti

3 Ways To Avoid Running Out Of Blog Post Ideas

July 13, 2014 by Marc Guberti 6 Comments

Blog Post Idea Box

Blogging is an art, and blogging every day is a skill. However, there will be some moments when it will be difficult for you to come up with ideas. These will be the times when you look at other bloggers with envy as they are able to publish 1 blog post every day without running out of ideas. The surprising thing is that although these expert bloggers are able to publish 1 blog post every day, there are some points when they run out of ideas and have to think of new ones. In order to avoid running out of blogging ideas, follow these three steps.

Schedule more blog posts. On some days, I schedule two blog posts while I am able to schedule 10 blog posts on other days. Before implementing the other two methods, I would run out of ideas for topics to write blog posts about. The only topics I could think of were the ones that I covered in recent blog post. However, since I always schedule blog posts in advance, I would have a few days to think of more ideas for blog posts.
Read one book every week. That may sound like a lot to read, but some books are longer than others. While some books are 500 pages, other books are only 150 pages. When you read these books, you need to be sure that they are either related to your niche or fiction books (90% of books you read should be related to your niche). Each time you see a topic you can write about, write that topic in a notebook. Soon enough, you will have a big list of blog post ideas.
Create knock-offs of your past blog posts. A while ago, I wrote a blog post called 5 Pinterest Mistakes To Avoid. That evolved into a Part 2 and then a Part 3. Some of the ideas for your future blog posts can be provoked by the blog posts that you have already published.

By implementing these three tactics, you will find it easier to come up with blog post ideas. What are your thoughts on the list? Do you have any additional tips on thinking of more blog post ideas? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

7 Ways To Get More Followers On Vine Fast

July 13, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Although Vine is not as big as Twitter or Facebook, it has millions of members that generate a lot of engagement. When Instagram came out with its 15 second video loop, many people thought that Vine was dead. Remember when people tweeted out things like, “Vine (2013-2013)?” Those days are over, and people are now searching for ways to get more followers on Vine. Speaking of getting more followers on Vine, here are seven ways that you can do that.

Follow other people. I follow the people who are following those “I Follow Back” accounts. Vine is the only social network that I do this for, but it works. On a typical day, when I follow enough people, I am able to gain 300 followers every day. This even happened when I didn’t send a Vine for an entire month. I just continued to follow these people’s followers to grow my audience.
Post 1 Vine every day. Although the first method grows your following without requiring you to post on Vine, you will be able to spread faster on Vine by posting often. The people with millions of followers on Vine are the ones who post new vines consistently. Their audience shares their content and ultimately results in the vines spreading. If people who happen to see your vines think they are good, then those people will decide to follow you.
Tweet out your vines. Tweets with vines get more engagement than the tweets without vines. In addition, you get to tap into the audience that you already built on Twitter. If you continue tweeting your vines, your Vine audience will grow as your Twitter audience grows.
Tell your friends about your Vine account. Your friends may be the first ones to like and revine your vines (which allows your vines to spread). The likes and revines may not come right away, but if you tell enough of your friends about your vines, some of those friends will help your vines spread.
Get a group of friends together and do vines together. It seems as if there multiple groups of famous viners who happen to know each other and appear in each other’s vines. If you get a group of friends together to do the same thing, you will all have each other’s audiences. If you get five of your friends who have 1,000 followers each, that’s an audience of 5,000. As you tag each other in various vines, members of the audience will learn to enjoy your vines and your friends’ vines.
Use Instagram. Vine allows you to create 6 second videos that repeat in a loop, but they do not allow you to take pictures. Instagram is the solution. When you need to take a picture, take one with Instagram. Then, be sure to tell people on Vine to follow you on Instagram. The more social networks people follow you on, the less likely they will be to forget about you.
Comment on other people’s vines. Leaving comments on other people’s vines is an easy way to get noticed. When you comment on other people’s vines, don’t just ask for a shoutout or a follow back. Instead, leave a relevant comment. Leaving a relevant comment will also boost your chances of getting another follower.

Growing your audience on Vine does not have to be impossible. Most of the people on Vine with over 1 million followers are teenagers. Anyone has the ability to thrive on Vine if they know how. Implementing these methods will allow you to build a big audience on Vine fast.

The Claw Machine And The Free Prize

July 12, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Claw Machine

To children, the claw machine is the thrill of a lifetime. To adults, the claw machine is another money draining vortex. It’s quite obvious why claw machines lose their popularity as an individual becomes older. While some people happen to be really good with claw machines, most people never get a prize from the claw machine. You only have an 8.33% chance of winning something with a claw machine. In addition, as we get older, the stuffed animals in the claw machine that used to be attractive lose their appeal.

The problem with a claw machine is that it is very difficult to win, and most of the prizes in the claw machine are not even worth the trouble. The only prizes that are worth it tend to be all the way at the very back and bottom of the prizes. It seems as if the only way to get a prize is by smashing the glass (not recommended).

The reason why a claw machine works like this is because the people who offer the claw machines want to make a profit. These people make a profit at the cost of losing customers. In the end, people say that the claw machines are just a scam and then give up on it. For these people, it’s no longer worth continuing.

What the claw machine makers don’t want is a loss in profit. Many businesses will strive to make a profit at the cost of the customer’s satisfaction. If everyone had a 50% chance of winning the claw machine, they’d be in trouble. Customers would actually be getting what they want at the cost of a profit.

The claw machine is an example of a win-lose situation. If customers can’t get the prize, they lose, but the people with the claw machines win. If customers get the prize, they win, but the claw machine people lose. So many people live in a win-lose world in so many different ways of either winning or losing that they forget that a win-win world still exists.

What does a win-win look like? Distributing a free prize at no cost to you (PDF or video) and then sending a series of follow up emails that promote a paid product. You give away valuable information (your customers win), and some of your customers will tell others about you and also buy your paid product (you win). There are plenty of ways to turn a win-lose situation into a win-win solution.

The claw machine is a win-lose situation that gets left behind and becomes a dust collector, just like the prizes inside. The win-win solution shines bright and results in everyone being happy.

10 Pinterest Mistakes That You Need To Avoid

July 12, 2014 by Marc Guberti 6 Comments

Pinterest is the fastest growing website on the web, and there are over 70 million users on the social network. As Pinterest continues to grow, it becomes more important to avoid making mistakes on Pinterest. Sure, no one is perfect, but there are common mistakes people are making on Pinterest that you need to avoid. These are the 10 Pinterest mistakes that you need to avoid.

Pinning on one board. The difference between Pinterest and other social networks is that Pinterest allows you to categories your content and organize that content on various boards. If you pin on one board, you are losing out on what makes Pinterest unique.
Only pinning about your business. There are a plethora of topics that you can pin about. Do not limit yourself to your business. Pin about some arts and crafts, food, clothing, shoes, or anything you want to pin about.
Not commenting on other pins. Only 1% of the average pinner’s time is actually spent commenting on other people’s pins. That means even if a pin goes viral, few people will comment on that pin. If you are one of the first people to comment on those pins, you will get extra spotlight, and possibly, more followers.
Not repinning or liking other people’s pins. When you like and repin other people’s pins, those people will be grateful that you helped to spread their content. Some of these people will decide to follow you and engage with your pins in return. Since you have the power to repin other people’s pins onto your boards, you can also create more boards and have all of your repinned pins from a certain category go on that board.
Not interacting with the followers you have. Comments are rare, but when they come, you need to interact with those followers. Leaving a comment below someone else’s comment will encourage a conversation to develop. The longer the conversation goes, the more likely that person is to visit your blog, subscribe to your blog, and eventually buy one of your products.
Not following your followers on their other social networks. There are many Pinterest users who also display their Twitter and Facebook accounts in their bio (in the form of tiny icons). Clicking on those icons will allow you to get to those social networks where you can follow your Pinterest followers on their other social networks. If people are following you on Pinterest, and you follow those people on their other social networks, those people will be more than likely to follow you back.
Not pinning videos. Videos are a great way to increase engagement, but few people pin videos on Pinterest. People can watch videos without leaving Pinterest, so if you have a board with all of your videos on it, your followers can watch all of those videos without leaving Pinterest. When all of the videos are done, you get extra views, and your followers may decide to take a look at your other boards.
Not having group boards. If you decide to take the week off from Pinterest, your boards will be left inactive, and engagement will slowly go away. However, if you have group boards, you can rely on individuals to update your group boards. As your group board gets more contributors, it may eventually be able to get updated once every hour without you logging in.
Worrying about how many times you pin. People do not mind that you pin too many times as long as what you pin is valuable. If you read 7 books written by the same author in two weeks, and you were given an 8th book by the same author to read again in two days, chances are you would read that book. You like the author enough since the books provide value and decide to read the 8th book.
Getting trapped on Pinterest. Pinterest is a great tool to get more traffic and exposure because it is a very addictive social network. Although Pinterest is an addictive social network, there are other things that you need to do as well. You need to grow your presence on your other social networks and focus on the methods you use to bring in your income. Don’t let 10 minutes on Pinterest turn into a few hours.

There are many mistakes that can be made on Pinterest, but these are the 10 biggest ones. By avoiding these mistakes, you will have a better experience on Pinterest and be able to optimize it effectively.

What are your thoughts on these Pinterest mistakes? Do you have any additional tips? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

7 Proven Methods To Keep Visitors On Your Blog Longer

July 11, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

blog traffic growth

The longer you keep a visitor on your blog, the more likely that visitor is to do the following:

Become a returning visitor
Subscribe to your blog
Tell their friends about you
Buy one of your products

There are several benefits associated with getting more visitors, but few people know how to keep visitors on their blog for a longer period of time let alone how much time the typical visitor is spending on their blog. As your blog becomes more popular, you will be able to find out how much time your average visitor spends on your blog on Alexa. Whether you know how long your visitors stay on your blog or not, it is very important to make sure your visitors stay on your blog for as long as possible. Here are 7 proven methods to make people stay on your blog for a longer period of time.

Make your blog load faster. People will not stick around if it takes too long for your blog to load. People have things to do, places to see, and other blogs to visit. The world moves super fast which means your blog needs to load super fast. People will not wait for a few seconds to go by to access your blog.
Include videos in some of your blog posts and on your sidebar. If your visitor watches a 5 minute video on your blog, that means that person was on your blog for an extra 5 minute. Imagine what would happen if half of your blog’s visitors watched a 5 minute video. They would stay on your blog for a very long time.
Include links to your older posts. By including links to your older posts, you will reduce your blog’s bounce rate. In addition, linking to your older blog posts provides your visitor with more content. The more links to have to your own blog posts, the lower your bounce rate will be. You should make it a goal to include at least 1 link to another blog post on your blog in all of the blog posts that you write.
Have a good theme and background for your blog. Your blog’s design is one of the initial deciding factor of whether people stick around or not. Before visitors read your blog posts, they see the theme and background. If your blog’s theme and background look bland, too complex, or unbearable (this can go from only having a bright yellow color as the background to something that shouldn’t be there), visitors will leave your blog before reading the post.
Write longer blog posts. If your visitors have more content to read, then they will stay on your blog longer. It takes longer for someone to read a 1,000 word blog post than it takes for someone to read a 500 word blog post. Writing longer blog posts will also have an impact on your blog’s SEO.
Include eye-catching pictures in your blog posts. Pictures make the entire reading process much easier. Instead of just seeing a giant slab of text, show your visitors a picture. This picture can strengthen the idea of what your blog post is about, provide insights, be humorous, or do something else. Ultimately, the picture engages the visitor and keeps that visitor on your blog for a longer period of time.
Write valuable content. In order to get your visitors to click on the links to your older blog posts and watch the 5 minute video, the content you provide on your blog needs to be valuable. You can write quality content and not make a single spelling or Grammar error. However, you need to write valuable content that people remember you for. You won’t remember every word in this blog post, and I’m not expecting you to (I don’t remember all of the words to my own blog posts, so it’s okay). The only thing your visitors will remember is the value that your blog post provided.

It is important to write quality content, but it is also important to keep people on your blog for a long period of time. That’s how a visitor gets value from your content and becomes a returning visitor for your blog. What are your thoughts on the list? Do you have any additional advice? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

Everything You Need To Know About Writing Powerful Blog Post Titles

July 11, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

blog post headline

Did you know that your blog post’s title is enough for people to decide whether to share your blog post or not? Your blog post’s title is also enough for people to decide whether they will continue to read that blog post or not. Basically, just like the title of a book, the title of your blog post is an important factor that decides how popular the blog post becomes. You may be getting a few visitors every month or a couple of hundred visitors every day. Regardless of how many visitors you get, those visitors will read and share the blog posts with the best titles.

The key to creating a winning blog post title is by writing a catchy or to-the-point title that makes your blog post’s topic clear. One tip is to refrain from using “How To” often. There are some blog posts titles where you will need to use “How To,” but there will be other cases when you can replace the “How To” with something else. Too many blog posts on the web use “How To,” so in order to have a title that stands out, your title needs to be different from the competition. Not using “How To” in your blog post titles may be a start.

You can use numbers in your blog post to indicate how many methods you will discuss or percentages to describe an increase/decrease that occurred. There are other ways to use numbers and percentages in a blog post, but those are the two big ways you can do that.

No matter what your next blog post is about, it can have a winning title. There are 17 other methods out there that go into about writing better headlines, but they all stem from one thing; catchy or to-the-point blog post titles that make your blog post’s topic clear. What are your thoughts on the list? Do you have any additional tips to write better headlines? Please share your thoughts and advice below.