Blogging

10 Methods To Turbocharge Your Blog’s Growth

December 30, 2015 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Most blogs see a consistent level of traffic. No big increase and no big decrease. Stuck at the same level whether that by 10 daily visitors or 100 daily visitors.

Just because a blog is stuck at the same level does not mean that will always be the case. By striving to turbocharge your blog’s growth, you may get thousands of daily visitors to your blog in just a few months.

It all depends on how much work you are willing to put in.

Turbocharging blog traffic is what allows people to get twice as many visitors in just one month. It results in the exponential growth of your blog.

Interested in learning how you can make that happen for your blog? Here’s how you can start turbocharging your blog traffic today:

#1: Get Hyper Active On Social Media

Getting active on social media means going on social media often and posting content whenever you feel like it.

Getting hyper active on social media means going on social media and scheduling numerous posts to get published each day.

On Twitter, I tweet more than 100 times per day. On Pinterest, I have a freelancer pinning my content dozens of times throughout the day.

90% of these posts should focus on promoting your blog posts. Most of the tweets I send promote my blog posts. That’s why Twitter is my #1 source of blog traffic and routinely brings in hundreds of daily visitors.

If you want to get hyper active on social media, then you need to use HootSuite. HootSuite does a great job at connecting all of the social networks together.

That way, you don’t have to log into and out of each of them.

HootSuite Dashboard

If there was a holy grail to social media, it would be this dashboard. I don’t need to have 10 tabs open on my browser to update all of my social media accounts. I don’t have to use my iPhone to post something on Instagram.

My social media strategy’s foundation is within the HootSuite dashboard.

#2: Become Comfortable With Writing Blog Posts

The more comfortable you become with writing blog posts, the easier it will be to provide value. The more valuable your content is, the longer people will stick around.

Becoming comfortable with writing blog posts also enforces consistency. Consistently updating your blog will help out with SEO since your blog would always be fresh with new content.

The more important benefit of consistent blog posts is that some of your readers will discover your publishing pattern.

Just as all Big Bang Theory fans tune in on Thursday nights for new episodes, your readers will learn what times to tune in for new content on your blog.

I publish content on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and always at 9 am. Maintaining that consistency for over a year creates a schedule that my readers can rely on.

I’m sure some of my blog readers are back on my blog during those days and times just to see what I published next.

The more comfortable you get with applying a skill, the better you get at applying that skill. Writing blog posts is no different.

#3: Focus On Growing Your Email List

I won’t go into the spiel about why it’s so important. I have done so before, and I’m sure you have heard many marketers go into their spiels about the email list.

I’ll save you the speech and end off by saying focus on growing your email list. That’s how you get consistently rising traffic and revenue.

I wrote a blog post that goes into detail about growing your email list.

#4: Communicate With Your Email List Often

No matter how large your email list is, if you don’t communicate with that email list, it is worthless.

You could have one million subscribers, but if you don’t communicate with them, then you’re no better than the person with one subscriber.

Don’t wait until you have that many subscribers to start communicating with them. Communicate with them now, even if you have less than 10 people on your list.

Communicate with the people on your email list at least once per week. The more they see you in their inboxes, the more these people will remember you.

Get in the inbox too much, and then people will get annoyed, so be careful.

What would you tell your email list about? Here are a few suggestions;

Your blog posts
Your YouTube videos
New project you are working on
New product

Just start somewhere. Get to know the people on your email list and see what they engage with the most.

If you realize that your email list responds well to blog posts about Twitter, then continue writing blog posts about Twitter.

If you realize that your email list responds poorly to blog posts about chess, then don’t write any blog posts about chess for a while (or forever depending on you, your blog, and your audience).

I can’t give you the silver bullet and tell you how to communicate with your email list word-for-word.

The truth is that we all have our own silver bullet. We just have to find it in the very bottom of our toolbox. The way we find that silver bullet is by looking for it (also known as taking action).

In this case, you take action by actually communicating with your email list.

#5: Write Guest Posts

Every guest post you write gives you and your blog a little more exposure. If you write a guest post on a popular blog, your blog could get hundreds of extra visitors from that one guest post.

You would definitely get more credibility.

But what does that mean for blog traffic? The first thing is that a guest post on a popular blog is bound to get a lot of exposure. You also get to build a relationship with the guest blogger, and that guest blogger may decide to help you out someday (i.e. by promoting one of your products).

But there is an advanced way to get the best out of your guest post. Turn it into a series. The guest post acts as Part One and should end by leading readers to a specific blog post on your blog.

That specific blog post is Part Two of the guest post. If people loved Part One, they’ll enjoy Part Two.

That’s why Avengers is so successful and why The Dark Knight trilogy is the best trilogy on the planet.

The lessons we learn from multi-billion dollar businesses can greatly transform the way we blog.

#6: Have An Outreach Strategy In Place

This is the big one. The results can get quite incredible, but it also takes a massive amount of time to pull it off.

The concept of an outreach strategy is that when you publish a new blog post, you tell as many influential bloggers about it as possible.

All of these influential bloggers must be bloggers within your niche.

The masters of the outreach strategy are routinely telling dozens (if not hundreds) of other bloggers about their new blog posts.

A simple email with five or fewer sentences kindly encouraging the person to share your blog post will do the trick. It is critical that you say that sharing the blog post is optional and that you’ll continue reading the influential blogger’s content either way.

You don’t want to aggressively ask for the influential blogger to share your content. Influential bloggers get plenty of emails like that.

You want to take a more gentle approach similar to this email (from Brian Dean’s skyscraper technique):

skyscraper-technique-outreach-template1

To increase your chances of these people sharing your new blog posts, here are some actions you can take:

Share some of their content on social media first
Mention them with the @username so they can see you shared their content
Comment on their blog posts and try engaging with them on social media

The more action you take to build the relationship, the more likely these people will share your content.

Depending on how strong you build the relationship, some influential bloggers will feel obligated to share your blog post with their audience.

Especially if you mention the influential blogger within the blog post.

But it takes a lot of time to make it happen. If you have the time, then go for it. If not, here’s how you can open up more time.

#7: Outsource As Much Of The Work As Possible

I like to believe I am a full-time blogger and entrepreneur. The reality is that I am not. I am a full-time student which means, by definition, everything else is part-time.

Don’t tell that to the entrepreneur within me 🙂

It was hard to acknowledge that as of now, all of this is technically part-time. In the long-run, this acknowledgement helped me change the way I work on my business.

My junior year of high school taught me many lessons about work and life. The school workload was challenging. That workload decreased the amount of time I had left for my business.

In the end, my business remained intact and grew a little. I also got good grades so it was worth it.

But I learned a very important lesson about business that applies to all of us.

No matter how productive we are (or think we are), we can’t do it all alone.

When the workload got challenging and I was taking standardized tests, I only had time to do what I already knew how to do.

Grow my Twitter audience and write blog posts. I did other things, but those two activities probably took up 90% of the time I put towards my business that year.

I gained over 100,000 new Twitter followers and wrote dozens of blog posts. That work looks good on the surface, but there was no expansion.

I was just expanding on my current platforms without opening the doors to more possibilities.

I recognized this was due to a lack of time. So I made a big decision. I began outsourcing most of my work.

The days of scheduling tweets, manually growing my Twitter audience, sending pins, and creating pictures for this blog were over.

The days of Udemy, rediscovery, and affiliate marketing were beginning. My business began expanding in different directions.

All because I suddenly had more time available. And it makes sense, even for a part-timer.

The reason part-timers don’t have enough time to focus on their side work is because time is so short. However, if you outsource some of your workload, you buy back some of your time.

For the sake of argument, let’s say working full-time means working for 40 hours every week. As a part-time worker, you may only be able to work for 15 hours every week. That’s typically how much time I utilize for my business each week.

That’s why summer is my best season for getting stuff done.

Going back to the main point, there is a 25 hour/week deficit. What if, each week, you paid freelancers to do 25 hours of your business work. Then you do the other 15 hours of work on your own every week.

The sum is 40 hours per week. Outsourcing some of the work can turn you from a part-time worker to a full-time income. Even if you put in the same amount of time as a part-time worker.

Even if you are a full-time blogger, outsourcing will still open up a massive amount of time for you. You can’t do it alone. You need a team behind you.

#8: Make Your Blog Load Faster

Blog speed is one of the most underrated elements of a successful blog. Google pays attention to blog speed when determining how to rank your content.

Your blog’s speed also determines how long your visitors stick around. If your blog only takes 1-2 seconds to load, then visitors will stick around.

If, on the other hand, it takes your blog over 10 seconds to load, you will lose a large percentage of your fan base.

We are busy people who are becoming increasingly busy with the rise of new opportunities and workloads. Every second counts. For Amazon, each second is the difference between making and not making an extra $1.6 billion.

You can use a site speed test to determine how fast your blog is. I recommend QuickSprout because it lets you see…

How long it takes for your blog to load
What is slowing your blog down
Other cool information

Once QuickSprout tells you what to do, the next step is to take action. Every action you take will make your blog load faster. Then your readers will stick around for a longer period of time.

#9: Look At The Data

When you get blog traffic, you get to see where that traffic is coming from. WordPress provides statistics that let you see your daily visitors, where the traffic is coming from, and which of your blog posts are receiving the most traffic.

Depending on how you interpret the data, you can discover what your audience wants, which source you get the most traffic from, and which sources of traffic you need to work on.

The way you interpret the data can impact the future of your blog’s growth. You can choose to focus on your strengths, address your weaknesses, or change what type of content appears on your blog.

The possibilities are endless, but you only discover the possibilities through exploration.

#10: Get People To Stick Around

Once you get a visitor on your blog, you want that visitor to stick around for as long as possible. You can get people to stick around with these following tactics:

Write valuable, attention-grabbing content
Include links to your older blog posts in your new ones
Introduce your previous blog post at the beginning of each new blog post
Include a teaser to your next blog post at the end of each new blog post
Get your visitor to enter an email address

Alexa lets you discover how long your average visitor sticks around. You can also use it to see how long the average visitor on your favorite blog sticks around.

In Conclusion

Turbocharging your blog’s traffic requires a lot of work. It isn’t easy, but once you put in the work and see the fruits of your labor, you will be happy with the results.

The way to approach blog traffic is to focus on the following:

Grow your platform
Leverage other people’s platforms in a symbiotic relationship

Putting in the work is what makes it happen.

Which of these tips was your favorite? How do you increase your blog traffic? Sound off in the comments section below.

5 Reasons Blogging Is Not Working For You

December 28, 2015 by Marc Guberti 8 Comments

We have all read the case studies. We know some of the bloggers who get hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors and are absolutely crushing it.

Blogging works, but it does not work for everyone.

Most blogs aren’t getting 100,000 monthly visitors. Most blogs don’t even get 1,000 monthly visitors. When looking at epic case studies, it is easy to either get very motivated or very discouraged.

I look at these case studies as motivation for what I can do in the future.

But there is more behind a blog’s success than your motivation. That motivation must be combined with the right work ethic.

More specifically, you must know what works and what does not work. Blogging doesn’t work for most people. Some of them still consider it a hobby while others give up on it.

I don’t want you to be one of those people. I want you to be one of those people who eventually gets hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors to your blog.

Don’t believe it’s possible? Consider the FACT that all of those people with the glamorous case studies started with NOTHING. They started with less than what you have now.

Still don’t believe it’s possible for your blog to get so many visitors? I hope the answer is no.

It’s just a matter of avoiding what does not work and focusing on what does work. This blog post discusses what you should avoid.

But in discussing what you should avoid, this blog post also discusses what you should do. Without any further adieu, these are the five reasons blogging is not working for you.

#1: You Aren’t Focused On Growing Your Email List

I could have put this method anywhere on the list. I decided to list it as Method #1 for a reason.

If you haven’t heard people mention the power of the email list, you’re going to hear about it later.

With an email list, you get to know your readers and develop a bond with some of them. In addition, email by far gets more response than social media posts.

Some people get over 20% of their subscribers to click on a message. While this is well above the average level, it does happen.

If you have an email list of 100 people, and 20% of them click on the link to your blog post, then you got 20 new visitors.

To fully understand the power of an email list, we need to inflate the numbers. The marketers with over 1 million subscribers and the 20% clickthrough rate get over 200,000 visitors to the blog post.

Juicy.

But you don’t need a massive email list before you get a lot of traffic and revenue from that email list. You just have to start growing your email list.

But maintaining an email list can get expensive. If you don’t want to spend money in the beginning, then use MailChimp.

MailChimp lets you have up to 2,000 subscribers for free before you pay a single penny.

Right now, I use iContact for my email list. As I continue to grow my email list, the cost increases. That’s the nature of the game. However, as I grow my email list, my profit increases.

Just focus on growing your email list. Don’t overthink it. Just get to the step in which you are gaining a new subscriber each day.

I discussed some of the tactics I use to grow my email list in an earlier blog post.

#2: You Publish And Pray

It’s good to pray. I pray five or more times per day. Publishing and praying on the other hand. That ain’t good.

The Publish and Pray approach was first coined by Brian Dean. Here’s how the approach works:

You publish a new blog post
You don’t promote it in any way, shape, or form
You pray that it will get a lot of visitors

If you rely on this approach for getting more blog traffic, then prepare to be disappointed. It’s like expecting that if you create something the people will somehow, magically come.

The Publish and Pray approach does not work. What works then? Promotion through a variety of platforms:

Social media promotion
Outreach strategy. Check out Brian Dean’s skyscraper technique.
Email list promotion

There are plenty of ways to promote your blog post. As long as you are actually promoting your blog posts in one way or the other, you are doing more than publishing and praying.

You are actually taking action.

#3: You Don’t Write Blog Posts Consistently

The interesting thing about blogging and entrepreneurship in general is that it’s all on you. You don’t get a wage for writing blog posts. You can’t get fired.

But it’s all on you.

You have to find the willpower and the time to write your blog posts at a consistent rate. If you don’t write blog posts at a consistent rate, then it is more difficult to grow an audience.

The reason is that when you write blog posts and always publish them at specific times and days of the week, people know when to check in for new content.

It’s the reason why every successful TV show is successful. The next time you watch your favorite TV show, pay attention to the marketing.

At the end of every The Big Bang Theory show, fans like myself are reminded that the next episode is on Thursday night at the same time.

As an experienced fan, you don’t have to tell me that The Big Bang Theory is on every Thursday at 8 pm eastern. I know.

When I first started watching the show, I had to be told.

Once people know when you publish your blog posts, and they check in enough times, they don’t have to be told when you are publishing new blog posts. They know and check in.

The blogger I admire the most is Seth Godin. You don’t have to tell me when he publishes his blog post. I know that he publishes a new blog post at 6:30 am eastern.

That’s what happens when you write blog posts consistently. But in addition to giving your readers a time and day to check in, writing consistently also boosts your accountability.

Once you write blog posts consistently for a long enough period of time, you have a strong desire to continue writing them.

I have easily spent thousands of hours writing blog posts for this blog. I’m not giving up on it now. I never will.

The only way you will get to that point is by consistently writing blog posts.

#4: You Don’t Enjoy Writing The Blog Posts

I don’t like the blogs that are inspired by shiny object syndrome. There is no passion behind the content. These blogs just focus on the next big thing and try to run away with it.

When revolutionary ideas and tools get introduced, there are passionate people who write awesome blog posts.

However, some people will jump on just for the sake of making the buck. Once the shiny object isn’t so shiny anymore, the blogs inspired by shiny object syndrome die out.

Then these bloggers move onto the next shiny object.

Shiny object syndrome is one reason why bloggers get stuck with topics they don’t want to write about.

In other words, these bloggers ask themselves “What content would make me the most money?” before asking themselves “What do I actually want to write about?”

Only write blog posts about topics that you enjoy. No matter what topic you choose, it will take a long time before your blog ends up making money.

The only way bloggers survive to eventually thrive is by writing about topics that they enjoy writing about.

#5: You Overthink Successful Blogging

You can view the path to success in two ways:

An impossible to solve maze
A staircase

Most people view success as an impossible maze. They don’t know where to start.

They think about all of the possible ways they can complete the maze. But by thinking too much about how they will complete the maze, people stay stuck at the starting line.

If we did everything we thought about, we’d all have successful blogs right now.

The challenge is to take action.

A while ago, I gave up on thinking about how I would get through the maze. The maze indicates luck and that success is all chance. Make the right turn and then you’re closer. Make the wrong turn and then it will take you longer to complete the maze.

I decided to view success as a staircase. You don’t know how many steps are on the staircase, but what you do know is that the final destination is success.

Small things like promoting my blog posts on social media, sending out email blasts, and writing the blog posts in the first place. Those are some of the steps on the staircase.

Sometimes I like to stop where I am and look back at all of the steps I walked up.

I like looking at my past achievements, but the only part of the future I look at is the grand vision. If I think about all of the steps I have to take to get there, it would be overwhelming.

Instead, I focus on the task at hand. Only once I complete the task at hand do I start acknowledging the next task that I must complete.

If you spend too much time thinking, then you won’t spend enough time doing.

In Conclusion

Blogs are powerful tools for building audiences and thriving by following your passion.

Knowing what works and what does not work will aid in your quest to become a successful blogger. But having the knowledge is just half of the story.

The other half of the story is taking action. Writing that blog post. Tweeting the one you wrote a few days ago. Growing that email list. Letting as many people know about your blog as possible.

Which of these tips was your favorite? Do you have any other advice on what we shouldn’t do with our blogs? Sound off in the comments section below.

7 Power Tips To Make Your Blog Crazy Addictive

December 21, 2015 by Marc Guberti 10 Comments

What makes certain blogs so special? I’m talking about the blogs that we stay on for hours upon hours. We lose track of time and find ourselves reading blog post after blog post. What makes them tick?

As a blogger visiting other people’s blogs, I often find myself stuck on certain blogs for a long period of time. However, as a blogger, I also ask myself why these blogs were so addictive.

All of these blogs follow a common pattern. Some of these blogs also have a secret sauce to them (I’ll spill the beans in this can’t miss blog post).

Without any further adieu, here are the seven power tips to make your blog crazy addictive.

#1: Behold: Your Blog Posts Are Now Picture Books!

Remember the time when bloggers could get by with writing a short 250-500 word blog post without any pictures? Few of these bloggers exist today.

While it’s still possible to write viral blog posts that are only a few hundred words long (take a look at BuzzFeed), many people have now shifted to writing 1,000+ word blog posts.

Neil Patel inspired me to make that shift in a fascinating blog post that explained why word count matters in search engine traffic.

Good thing I took his advice to heart. Now I have more fun writing my blog posts because I get to go more in-depth.

But there is another shift taking place. In fact, we are in the middle of it.

Blog posts are now becoming picture books!

One picture per blog post is no longer enough. We are visual learners whose minds can process images 60,000 times faster than text.

Pictures can clearly illustrate concepts that you can’t convey with text. For instance, it’s better to draw a circle than describe what it is. What exactly does that sentence mean? This picture will help illustrate the concept.

Adding pictures throughout your blog posts will make them easier for your visitors to read through. Therefore, they will stick around for a longer period of time. You can get advanced with incorporating pictures into your content by following these data driven tips for using pictures in blog posts.

#2: Did You Watch The Superhero Movie Teaser?

It’s difficult for me to decide which Avenger is my favorite (right now I am deciding amongst Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man. UPDATE: Probably Iron Man). I wouldn’t have cared much about them before Marvel started releasing their movies.

Now I eagerly await to see them in action yet again. Why? For many reasons, but here’s one of them:

Good marketing.

What started as the beginning of Iron Man has evolved into an extravaganza in which we can expect several Avengers movies to get released every year. Marvel even posted a list of movies that we can expect to see between now and 2020 (now past 2020).

Personally, I prefer DC Comics and The Dark Knight is by far my favorite superhero. In recent memory however, Marvel has done a much better job at marketing their heroes.

At the end of each Marvel movie is a teaser leading into the next movie. Since this is the teaser section, I won’t go into spoilers. However, if you have watched any of the recent Marvel movies, you know one of those teasers.

You know the status of Odin, who the big villain is after watching the first Avengers, and what Captain America intends to do at the end of the second movie.

And if you are like most Marvel fans, your mouth is watering as you think about how awesome the next movie will be.

Blogs work in the same way, and few people are capitalizing on it.

At the end of all of your blog posts, you can provide a teaser to your upcoming blog post. The teaser builds anticipation and reminds people to return to your blog for more content.

Imagine a blog post that ended off like this:

“In next week’s blog post, you will learn how Warren Buffet invests in stocks. Buffet allowed me to stop by at his mansion in California and ask him a few questions about some of his most important stock decisions.”

Guess where you’ll be next week.

The important thing to note is that you don’t have to meet famous people like Warren Buffet and interview them to have a great teaser. Here’s a typical teaser you can find on Bryan Harris’ blog:

Teaser For Upcoming Blog Post

This is the strategy Marvel uses to get you mouth watering at the end of their movies. You can use this strategy to make your readers eager for more.

You can apply this for old and new content. While I believe that consistently creating new content is overrated, I am a big advocate for going back and updating your old content. That way, you strengthen your library of existing content.

You don’t want to be a mile wide but only an inch deep.

But anyway, you can let your audience know what blog post they’ll get next even if it’s an old blog post that you plan to bring back to life.

~FREE BOOK: Content Marketing Secrets (grab your free copy here)~

#3: Last Time On Justice League…

I occasionally watch the animated Justice League series (I have a lot of DVDs for Justice League and DC Comics superheroes in general). I only occasionally watch that series because watching it turns into a binge.

One interesting approach the producers used for Justice League episodes was frequently incorporating two-part episodes to boost engagement for the following week.

The second episode would begin with a recap of the first episode. The first episode would be briefly explained in less than two minutes. It’s nothing unique. Many TV producers follow that pattern for two-part episodes.

This same strategy TV producers use is hard to find in blogging. I almost never see it happen. Most bloggers think that “Previous Page” does the trick

Nope. Not enough.

At the beginning of all of your blog posts, you can briefly summarize what your previous blog post was all about in less than a paragraph. I got this idea from Bryan Harris who I mentioned earlier.

Previous Blog Post Summary

He’s got some magic going on with his blog. It’s the perfect blog-post-sandwich:

The summary of a previous blog post to start off
The valuable content from the actual blog post
The teaser for what the next blog post will be

This works better if you write a series of connected blog posts on a similar topic. You can plan your content calendar and blog post updates around an overarching theme to get the best results from this strategy.

I’ll talk about providing valuable content soon. However, there’s one important tip that needs to be discussed first.

#4: Creating The Chain…To The Rhythm

Yes, I like Katy Perry, and I also like Taylor Swift. But going on with the blog post…

If you only implement the second and third tip to one of your blog posts, your blog won’t be addictive. Only that one blog post will result in more people sticking around. The rest of your blog posts won’t have the same amount of power.

The more blog posts you write that follow this approach, the more people will stick around. People will go back to a previous blog post you wrote and then decide to visit the other previous blog post on your blog.

Some visitors may end up going through dozens of your blog posts in one sitting. Creating the chain makes that possible.

No matter where one of your readers starts on your blog, that reader can advance to the very beginning or very end of your blog just by reading previous or more recent blog posts.

#5: Provide A Lot Of Valuable Content

Once you have the chain in place, the next step is to grab people with your content. If you do a good job at summarizing past blog posts and introducing upcoming blog posts, then you will get people to browse through some your content.

However, the only way people will browse through your content for a long period of time is if the content is valuable.

Valuable content adds the wow factor that makes people happy they spent time on your blog. The actual Marvel movies grab our attention because we know they are going to be awesome.

Once they have our attention, they know how to keep it and make our mouths water as we await the next movie.

Providing a lot of valuable content allows you to get the attention. Everything else allows you to keep that attention and make your readers’ mouths water as they await your next blog post.

It’s great to provide valuable content. It’s even better to provide a lot of valuable content. However, providing a lot of valuable content can potentially create a problem.

~FREE BOOK: Content Marketing Secrets (grab your free copy here)~

#6: Make Sure Your Blog Is Easy To Navigate Through

Having a lot of content on your blog can potentially make it difficult for your readers to navigate through your blog.

You can easily solve this problem by creating categories so your readers can easily access blog posts about specific topics.

Then you need to clearly display those categories so your readers know how they can access your blog posts about a specific topic. Few people do this better than Jeff Bullas.

Click on any of those links and you will only see blog posts associated with the category you chose. It’s a simple but ingenious way to make it easier for people to navigate through your blog.

You can also make it easier for people to navigate through your blog with a menu bar that focuses on categories. Mashable is one of the websites that places a strong focus on providing categories in its menu.

Mashable Categories

Once you have these six tips down, it’s just about smooth sailing. But there’s one more tip that provides the icing on the cake.

#7: Cap It Off With A Great Story

As readers spend more time on your blog, they will become curious about who you are.

If you spent an hour on someone’s blog, wouldn’t you want to learn a little more about that blogger?

If you are like most people, the answer is yes. And it’s easy for readers to access your story (that you provided on your blog). Many blogs use “About Me” as the page name for the bio.

Readers understand this. They will click on the About Me section and read through your story.

If you have a captivating (and true) story about your journey, then people will remember you for your story and your valuable content. That’s the perfect combination.

Some people at this point will argue that they don’t have a captivating story. My argument back is that no matter who you are, you have a captivating story.

Some people refuse to admit their greatness. Don’t be one of those people. Let people know about your story, and then they’ll come back for more. You may even go viral for your story.

Also, storytelling is one of the most important skills you can ever learn as a marketer and for life in general.

In Conclusion

Making your blog crazy addictive requires a crazy (but doable) amount of work. You get what you put into it.

The most successful blogs are the ones we can’t get away from. We think about them every day and eagerly await new blog posts. We look forward to receiving an email blast each time new methods get discussed.

Most importantly, we enjoy reading through the blog posts. We either get empowered or entertained. Choose which of the two paths your blog will take, pursue that path, and be sure to make your blog crazy addictive.

Which of these tips was your favorite? Do you have any other tips on making a blog crazy addictive? Which blog do you find yourself coming back to again and again (if it is not this one, I will not be offended. We can still be friends)? Sound off in the comments section below.

4 Secret Methods To Get More Landing Page Traffic

December 11, 2015 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

If you were a Jedi Knight, your landing page would be your lightsaber. It is the life-line of your blog.

The landing page allows you to grow your email list by offering a free eBook, report, or video. The free prize encourages people to enter their email addresses into the form. Here’s my most popular landing page:

Landing Page

Since the landing page is like my lightsaber, I want to direct as much traffic to it as possible. I promote it like it’s my gem.

To be a successful blogger with a big email list, you must promote your landing page like it’s the gem of your blog.

I ran through some of the more common methods of promotion in a previous blog post.

This blog post is going to discuss the less traditional methods. These secret methods don’t get as much attention, but they are critical nevertheless.

These are the four secret methods to get more landing page traffic.

#1: Link To It In Your Social Media Bios

Many people believe that they should have a link to their website in their bio. That’s only half true.

Yes, you want a link to your website. However, you have full control over which page on your website you link to.

On my social media accounts, I link to my landing page. Take a look at my Twitter bio. The link isn’t “marcguberti.com.” The link is to my landing page.

Twitter Bio

It’s the simplest change you can make to get more traffic to your landing page.

#2: Link To It In Guest Posts

All guest blogs allow you to write a bio for yourself. If you give them content, and you aren’t a ghostwriter, they will feature you as the author.

Most guest blogs provide you with the opportunity to talk about yourself in a few sentences. Within that small blurb, you need to create a call-to-action.

After people read your guest post, you want people to get led away from that guest post and to your landing page.

But how?

The easiest way is to tell people about your landing page in your bio:

Business2Community Bio

The blurb at the bottom of the guest post matters the most. On Business2Community, my bio could be several paragraphs long.

However, the small blurb only contains a few lines of my long bio. I put the landing page at the beginning of the bio so it makes it into the blurb.

After reading the guest post, people will then click the link and go to my landing page.

Some guest bloggers will let you link to various posts on your blog throughout the guest post. One of those links should be to your landing page.

Capitalize on any opportunity you get to promote your landing page in your guest post. Of course, if you link to your landing page 10 times in the same guest post, people will get annoyed. The person who owns the guest blog probably won’t want you back.

But don’t be afraid of promoting the landing page in your guest posts. It’s the gem of your blog. It’s your lightsaber.

#3: Share The Landing Pages On All Of Your Social Networks More Often

On the surface, this method doesn’t seem like a secret. If anything, it seems like the most common method out there. Promote on social media and that’s where the magic happens.

But within that surface lies some secrets.

It’s not good enough to promote a landing page once in a while. It’s not even good enough to promote the same landing page several times per day.

I tweet about my landing page every other hour. That’s the amount of effort it takes to maximize the landing page traffic you get from Twitter. On Facebook, I am posting a link to one of my landing pages every day.

I share my landing pages as much as possible without annoying my audience. That’s how you get traffic to a landing page from social media without paying a penny.

You can use social media advertising to speed up the process, but I recommend avoiding social media ads until you feel more comfortable with social media.

#4: Have Your Own Affiliate Network

I was recently involved in an affiliate opportunity where I promoted a high-priced training course. I received over $100 in commissions for every sale I made.

I saw other affiliate marketers take part in the promotion of other people’s training courses. I knew that it was lucrative.

What I didn’t know is that affiliate marketing done right can help you dramatically grow your email list.

Part of the affiliate promotion was to promote the landing page with the preset autoresponder. In other words, part of the affiliate promotion was me and every other affiliate helping one person grow his email list.

We made money too, but we also helped to grow an email list.

There was a competition in place where the Top 5 people received some awesome prizes (Apple products or a TV depending on placement. People who didn’t want the prize could just get additional cash instead).

I finished in 17th place. It was very fitting since I was 17 years old at the time of the affiliate promotion. I brought in 139 opt-ins.

I was by no means the biggest player in the affiliate promotion. The numbers of everyone else didn’t get published, but since 16 people were ahead of me, here’s what I do know:

The 17 of us put together brought in at least 2,400 subscribers. I wouldn’t be shocked if in less than a month, all of us put together brought in 5,000-10,000 new opt-ins.
My username was a41 so my guess is that I was the 41st affiliate. Chances are over 100 people promoted the training course and landing page.

Creating your own affiliate network is where the magic happens. It’s how a lot of marketers make their money nowadays. If you have the right affiliate network in place, that can also mean thousands of new subscribers for you in just a few days.

Imagine the most influential people in your niche promoting your landing page to their audiences. That’s what can happen with an affiliate promotion in place.

I’ll just let that sink in as I move on to the conclusion.

In Conclusion

There are many ways to promote a landing page. Some of those methods will lead to some traffic while other methods can completely transform your business.

The only way to know which methods will yield the best results is to give them a try. Then you will know for certain which methods work the best.

Which of these methods was your favorite? Do you know any other methods for getting more landing page traffic? Sound off in the comments section below.

5 Facts That Will Change Your View Of Blogging

December 4, 2015 by Marc Guberti 4 Comments

The definition of a blog has rapidly changed. What was once nothing more than an online diary is now the must-have platform for any business. Blogging has transformed from a cocoon to a butterfly and then to an eagle.

Blogging has defied many limits that had a stronghold just a few decades ago.

Our view of blogging is constantly changing with every new day. My view of blogging is always changing based on what I do and what I observe. Out of everything that has impacted my view of blogging, these five facts changed my view of blogging the most.

I am sure they will change the way you view blogging too. You won’t want to miss this list.

#1: Your Blog Is A Novel

That means two things. The first thing is that your blog is going to have a boatload of content. Right now, if I took all of the content on this blog and turn it into a book, it would be over 1,000 pages long.

Part of the reason is that bloggers think of a variety of ideas and turn them into blog posts. The way most bloggers approach blogging is to write about a common topic without structure from one blog post to the next.

What makes people reading today’s blog post then want to read yesterday’s blog post and eagerly wait for the next blog post?

And more specifically, what allows this interest to remain the same regardless of which page your visitor starts on?

When optimized properly, a blog can be more attention grabbing than a novel. That’s because regardless of whether a visitor is reading your first blog post or your 100th blog post, that visitor can still find interesting content that provides a proper transition.

If you start reading a novel at Chapter 10, the novel won’t be as attention grabbing since you missed some of the important stuff. The first blog post a visitor reads on your blog, regardless of when it was published, is (for that person) the first page of your novel.

So how do you transition from one blog post to the next. The answer is to briefly mention the previous blog post and then end with a teaser to the upcoming blog post. No one does this better than Bryan Harris:

Bryan Harris Blogging Strategy

And now for the teaser to the next blog post.

Blog Post Teaser

I am immediately (but non-aggressively) presented with another option and am then told what will come next.

All of his blog posts follow this structure, so it’s easy to get stuck on his blog and lose track of the time. In 2016, you may see something similar on my blog.

#2: Popular Blogs Are Starting To Turn Into Picture Books

When I first wrote blog posts for this blog, I didn’t want to include any pictures. It’s a good thing I changed my mind.

For a while now, I have been posting a picture at the top of all of my blog posts. The picture presents a lead-in that gives people an idea of what they can expect from the blog post. The pictures also generate more social shares for my blog posts.

In light of a common pattern and a 2016 resolution, I am trying something different. I am making it a point to include more pictures throughout my blog posts. I

The human mind processes an images 60,000 times faster than text. That’s powerful.

I like to read several social media blogs to enhance my knowledge. Over the years, these blog posts continue providing valuable content. What I also noticed is that over time, these blog posts also turned into mini picture books.

Some of these blog posts now have over 10 pictures within the blog post. But social media experts aren’t the only ones with picture book style blog posts.

BuzzFeed was built on those types of blog posts. Most of their blog posts are only a few hundred words and stuffed with pictures and GIFs. And it’s been working quite nicely for them.

I recently wrote a guest post for BlueLog. I heard about BlueLog after I wrote a guest post for Jeff Bullas. For both Jeff Bullas and BlueLog, I had to write guest posts that included several pictures throughout the post.

If I didn’t have those extra pictures, my guest posts wouldn’t have been published.

The top people in the game understand the value of pictures. They are providing value in a picture book style. If you are not writing blog posts with multiple pictures per blog post, then you are missing out on engaging with your readers in a more powerful way.

#3: A Successful Blog Is A Team Effort

This is true about so many areas of life, and especially blogging. You need a team around you to grow. Part of the reason is that your team can increase your blog traffic.

When my guest post got published on BlueLog, the people who worked for BlueLog tweeted my guest post several times throughout the day. All of these people have thousands of followers which meant the blog post got a nice pinch of traffic on the day it got published.

When I wrote my guest post for Jeff Bullas, I learned about who helps make his blog a success. He has an editor who proofreads the content, and guest bloggers like me provide him with free content.

If Jeff managed his blog without any help, it would be a very different experience. With Jeff in mind, I decided to ask for help. More specifically, I outsourced parts of the process.

Now I never create the picture that goes on the top of my blog posts. Someone else does that for me. Someone else is growing my Twitter audience by implementing my tactics. Someone else is scheduling my tweets and promoting my content.

If I didn’t have all of this help, I wouldn’t have enough time to explore the opportunities that I am exploring now.

#4: Blog Readers Are Busy Skimmers

Let’s face reality.

When a blogger writes a 1,000+ word blog post (much like this one), readers skim through and look for the most important stuff.

So is it a waste to write these long blog posts? The answer is no. Some people do read through the entire blog post, but most readers are skimmers.

What you have to do is write a blog post for skimmers. Make it easy for your readers to find the key points. For example, using the bold font makes it easy for some of your content to stand out.

Using shorter paragraphs will also make it easier for people to read your blog posts. People don’t want the giant block of text. They want tiny paragraphs.

I once had a policy of no more than five lines per paragraph. Now I’m looking at a maximum of three lines per paragraph. These ridiculously short paragraphs, although numerous, are easier to read than a block of text.

What else works? Using pictures. It’s the main reason more blog posts are turning into picture books. Even if you were just skimming through this blog post and didn’t bother reading this paragraph, I bet my lucky horseshoe that this got your attention.

Picture Attracting Attention

That’s what pictures do. They are much easier for the human mind to process than text. As a result, you get to keep the attention of your readers for a longer period of time.

#5: The Competition Is Thick

Nothing new. But the way you interpret old information can lead to new discoveries.

There are thousands of bloggers doing the same thing as you. You need differentiating factors that give your content a unique voice. That way, your readers will recognize you within the crowd. They’ll remember to return to your blog.

Thick competition also provides more opportunities. Most people think of competitors as bitter enemies. However, you can team up with your competition so you pull each other upward. Writing blog posts about each other will result in more awareness for both of you.

In thick competition, you need to learn how to stand out. However, you also have to learn how your competition can help you and why they would want to help you. That way, you can both work towards a common goal.

In Conclusion

The blogging world changes as the days go by. New possibilities are created and more methods get discovered. The way you view blogging impacts the way you write and structure your blog posts.

It is important to view blogging in light of some of the most important changes that have taken place in blogging. Changing the way you view blogging based on new things you come across will allow you to create a strong view that helps you propel your blog forward.

What are your thoughts about these blogging facts? Which one changed your view of blogging the most? Do you have any nuggets of information that would change the way we view blogging? Sound off in the comments section below.

Are Your Blog Posts The Right Length?

October 28, 2015 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

I have written a few blog posts discussing the length of blog posts. It is a very interesting topic with experts taking different sides. Each time I read different blog posts about blog post length, my opinions sometimes change.

The ideal blog post length could very possibly be one of the biggest enigmas the blogging world knows of.

There Are Two Blog Post Lengths

Super long and super short. The super long blog posts are thousands of words long. These blog posts typically outperform the shorter blog posts on search engines. In the eyes of many SEO experts, longer blog posts equate to more traffic.

From a content standpoint, writing longer blog posts makes it possible to use examples to strengthen your claims. If a blogger claims that Facebook advertising is a great way to get more blog traffic, then I’m sure you would want more information. You may also want a case study which shows a brand using Facebook advertising to get more blog traffic at a low price.

Shorter blog posts solve problems that longer blog posts either create or ignore. Shorter blog posts prevent information overload. Imagine reading the 5,000 word blog post versus reading the 250 word blog post. The 250 word blog post can be read much quicker.

Shorter blog posts are designed for a high retention rate. Visitors are more likely to read a 250 word blog post word for word than a 5,000 word blog post. Longer blog posts are designed for more minutes per visitor. Even if a visitor reads 20% of a 5,000 word blog post, that person spends more time on the blog post than the person who read all of the 250 word blog post.

What Should You Do?

You can either choose writing short blog posts or long blog posts. There’s no in between. What you should do depends on four things:

What you are trying to accomplish? Do you want more blog traffic from the search engines? Do you want to construct your blog like a restaurant (when people come, they stay longer) or a fast food restaurant (people come more frequently but don’t stay as long)? There is nothing wrong with constructing your blog like a restaurant or constructing your blog like a fast food restaurant. And unlike the case with traditional restaurants VS McDonald’s, it is possible for both types of blogs to provide value.
What stage of the writing journey are you in? Writing a 250 word blog post is less time consuming than writing a 1,000 word blog post. If you are a new blogger, writing the shorter blog posts every day will allow you to build a strong commitment towards blogging. If you have been blogging for a few years, then you most likely have enough commitment to write 1,000 word blog posts.
What is your writing style? If you find it too tedious to write 1,000 word blog posts, then that’s not your writing style. At the same time, if you believe 250 words isn’t enough to convey your message, then go for the longer blog posts. In the end, blog visitors will only stick around if your blog posts are valuable.
How much time do you have? If you are a blogger who can only find 15 minutes per day to write blog posts, then shorter blog posts would be your cup of tea. If you are a blogger who can commit an hour per day to writing blog posts, then you have enough time to write 1,000+ word blog posts. At that point, it’s a question of whether you would want to write blog posts of that length or not.

The One Thing All Bloggers Need To Do

Regardless of which writing style you choose, there is one thing that you must do. You must make your blog posts easy for your readers to properly digest. That means smaller walls of text, shorter sentences, and tiny paragraphs.

Imagine how different this blog post would be if it were one massive paragraph. If it were, I bet you wouldn’t have reached this point.

When I write my blog posts, I make sure no paragraph is more than five lines long. Most of my paragraphs stop at the 2-3 lines range. If I make them longer, it becomes more difficult for people to read them on their computer screens.

That’s one of the reasons I create small breaks of text like this.

But the way you organize the text of the blog post is just one part of making a blog post more easily digestible.

The second method is just as valuable, and it is something I often forget to do. You must include relevant pictures throughout your blog posts that strengthen the meaning of your content. I don’t always do that on my blog. Some bloggers go as far as adding 10 different pictures per blog post. You can see how I used pictures to strengthen my content in a blog post that got published on Jeff Bullas’ Blog.

The pictures provide value and illustrate my points more effectively. My brother refers to these types of pictures as food for the eyes.

Not only are pictures food for the eyes, but they are also food for the brain. Pictures (especially infographics) have received more attention over the years because of staggering facts such as the human mind being able to comprehend an image 60,000 times faster than text. We like to see pictures, so give us food for the eyes (and brain) whenever you can.

In Conclusion

The length of your blog posts depends on your writing style and ability to provide value. The ultimate goal of every blog post is to provide value. Some bloggers achieve this goal with 250 words while other bloggers achieve this goal with 5,000 words.

Some blog posts provide more value than others, but word count isn’t the only factor that determines the amount of value that gets provided.

This topic on the ideal blog post length will rage on for many decades to come. Some data will suggest writing 2,000 word blog posts while other data may suggest shortening your blog posts.

In the end, if you can enjoy blogging while providing value, you’ve hit the right blog post length. What is your ideal blog post length? What are your thoughts on this topic? Do you have any tips for writing better blog posts? Sound off in the comments section below.