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10 Valuable Articles From The Archives

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Archives

The problem with any blog is that as more content gets added to them, other content gets completely forgotten about. A tweet can only do so much to bring back attention to older blog posts that got published months ago. There are many blog posts on this blog that were written last year with methods that still work to this day. In fact, some of those blog posts are still popular, but they still don’t appear on the front page. I decided to dig through my blog to find 10 valuable articles that you should give a second look. They contain oodles of knowledge and things to think about. Some are longer than others.

100 Amazing Blogging Tips

100 Amazing Pinterest Tips

70 Amazing Twitter Tips

20 Thoughts To Live By

The Problem With Waiting For Something To Happen

What Do You Want To Be Remembered For?

Every Blogger Needs To See This Picture

New Year’s Resolutions: Memory Or Lifestyle?

Esurance Won The Ad Bowl By A Landslide. That’s what everyone was raving about when Esurance did its giveaway. The follow-up blog post is “Reanalyzing The Day After The Super Bowl: Was The $1.5 Million Giveaway Worth It?”

What The New York Times, Apple, Twitter, And JetBlue Have In Common

As a bonus article, I present Why Fast Food Restaurants Are Successful.

Which one was your favorite?

 

3 Reasons To Ask Questions In Your Blog Posts

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Questions

In a world where everyone focuses on quality content, SEO, and getting more traffic, there is a tiny detail that many bloggers forget to include in their blog post. Not including this element of a blog post makes these bloggers lose engagement and strong connections (some of those connections lead to sales). The element of a blog post that most people forget about is asking questions.

I always make sure I see one question in a blog post that I publish. I actually search for the question mark using the word finder just to make sure. The reason I make sure I am asking questions in my blog posts is because there are three powerful outcomes of asking questions in your blog posts.

  1. Your visitors will feel as if they are having a conversation with you. Asking a question in one of your blog posts starts a dialogue. The visitor has to think of an answer to that question. Then, as you ask more questions in your blog posts, the conversation will build. How do you think I am doing with this blog post so far? Your response is the continuation of our conversation that is currently taking place.
  2. You blog posts will get more comments. If you ask questions, you will start a conversation. The only problem for the particular conversation taking place (such as the one in this blog post), a visitor cannot ask a blogger a question and get a quick response. I can ask you how your day was and get a quick response. If you ask me how my day was, you would still be staring at a blank screen. In order to get a response from me or any other blogger who asks questions, a visitor would have to leave a comment below to get the proper response. How many comments do your blog posts get? Imagine what would happen if you could double that number. Asking questions throughout your blog posts makes that possible.
  3. Passive reading turns into active reading. If there are no questions in a blog post, then the visitor is passively reading that blog post. When you ask a question, you are turning passive reading into active reading. You are forcing your visitor to go from scrolling through your content to think of an honest answer.

Those are the three big reasons why you need to ask more questions in your blog posts. How did you like the blog post? What are your thoughts on asking questions in your blog posts? Please share your thoughts below.

 

How To Put More Of You In Your Own Writing

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Chances are as you write more blog posts, you will do more digging on the web to find good ideas. For most bloggers, that means reading other people’s blogs and writing similar blog posts. Chances are people do the same thing to your blog and write similar blog posts. I have a blog post called 10 Ways To Get More Twitter Followers, but I am sure that there are numerous blog posts that are similar. Performing a Google search on this phrase leads to many results.

An additional problem is that as we read enough content, we start to like some of the writers. Then, we write content just like those writers without putting our own personalities into our content. It is important to look up to writers for idea, but it is also important to put who you are into your content. Other writers are here to give you ideas, but in the end, you need to express your inner voice.

There are hundreds of blogs like yours. I’d even take it a step further and say that there are thousands of blogs like yours, and that also applies for blog posts on the web that are similar to yours. The answer isn’t to accuse the other bloggers of plagiarism. The answer is you. To be more specific, your personality is the answer.

The key to expressing your personality is by writing something that no one else could have (or had the guts to) write. Mike Michalowicz does a fantastic job at expressing his personality in his blog posts. Here was one of his blog posts he used to promote his book Profit First. You’ll either get a good kick out of the blog post or wonder why I even decided to mention it in the first place. That’s Mike’s personality, and he is not afraid to show it.

The point of this blog post is not for you to rave about yourself. The point of this blog post is that it is okay to show your personality. This blog post isn’t going to destroy Mike Michalowicz’s reputation. In fact, most of the people in his audience probably liked the blog post. They respect the honesty in sharing a personal perspective (and some of us also appreciated the laughter).

Be who you are. Don’t act as one person at home and act as another person through your content. Then how are you going to act when you speak at the podium? The best thing to do is to read your content out loud as if you were having a conversation with someone, and they wanted you to recite one of your blog posts. Then, think of side comments you would have said if you were having a conversation with your friends. Then, add those side comments into the exact location of your content in which the mock conversation was taking place.

Show off your personality so people know who you are. Act as the same person in everything you do.

 

I Heard That The Same Blogger Gets Boring After A While

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I must be really boring then!

Here’s how I heard about this: I happened to be looking on the web for articles about blogging. I am always on the lookout for new nuggets of information about my niche. One of the articles I stumbled across mentioned that reading content written by the same blogger gets boring after a while. The article went on to explain why a blogger needs to get guest bloggers to write for them.

I disagree with that. And it’s not just because I am the only one who writes content for this blog.

A blog does not get boring just because the blog posts are being written by the same person every time. This blog has over 1,000 blog posts written by the same person (that would be me) and readers stick around anyway.

There is certain content that does get boring after a while. This is repetitive content in which a blogger writes about the same thing every week. It gets annoying to see something similar to what you read a week ago. Imagine reading a blog post called “10 Ways To Get More Twitter Followers” today and then later in the week reading a blog post called “11 Ways To Get More Twitter Followers” written by the same person with the same methods except one method got added. That is the typical boredom that readers to not appreciate.

If a blogger’s content is valuable and worth sharing, then people will stick around regardless of who is writing the blog posts. Everything on the Quick Sprout blog was written by Neil Patel, and that blog also happens to be one of the most popular blogs on the web.

In the beginning, people don’t care about the author. They only care about the author if they believe the author’s content was valuable and worth sharing. It is at this point when the reader cares about who the author is. Instead of wanting another author, the typical reader will look for more content written by the same person. If all of the blog posts on your blog are written by you, then your readers won’t have to search all over the web for you. They are already at your home on the web–your blog.

If your blog is all you, readers will only be able to read your content. That means when a reader likes one of your blog posts and reads others as well, that reader starts to like you. The reader likes what you offer to the masses with no price tag attached. The more free content your readers go through on your blog, the better the chances are that the reader buys one of your products.

If the content never gets boring, then the blogger never gets boring. Chances are this is not the only blog you will visit today. Chances are you will read other blog posts on the web with different perspectives on different (or possibly similar) topics. If you build a powerful presence on your own blog by being the person who writes the content every time, then you will grow a strong reputation for providing valuable content. Having the kind of reputation is what encourages people to spread your content and buy your products.

Anyway, you must be really bored right now since this blog post was written by the same person…AGAIN.

 

4 Blog Post Ideas That You Can Always Reuse

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Reuse Blog Post Ideas

Blog posts come in many forms. Some are lengthy while others are concise. What does not change is the need for the blogger to know what his/her next blog post is going to be about. Many bloggers go through rough patches of writer’s block and can’t think of new ideas to write about. These bloggers look on the web for inspiration, but thinking of an idea for the next blog post is still a tedious process when writer’s block is in control.

I recently went to a Constant Contact event held at Microsoft Headquarters in NYC. One of the speakers at the event provided numerous ideas for blog posts. After examining the list, I determined that there were four on the list that can always be reused over and over again, and reusing these blog post ideas will make writer’s block harder to come across. Here are the four blog post ideas.

  1. Mistakes people make in your niche. I have found this one to be very helpful. I have written multiple blog posts about the mistakes people make on Twitter, Pinterest, blogging, social media, and other places as well.
  2. Interviews with other people. You can interview other people and then turn those interviews into blog posts. Anyone from the newbie blogger to a Forbes writer publishes the interviews they have with notable people in their niche.
  3. Lessons to learn about your niche. You can use a variety of examples. I explain how we can learn lessons from Jeff Bezos and high school sports. If you know how to make the connection, the possibilities are endless.
  4. Personal articles. Personal articles can include your journey to success, lessons you learned along the way, your hobbies, and other parts of your personal life as well. Writing blog posts about your personal life will allow your visitors to know you more as a person, but don’t get carried away. Chances are you are not at the point where people want to know what you ate for breakfast yesterday.

Writer’s block is one of the biggest problems that bloggers face. The only way to solve the problem is by writing through it. These four blog post ideas will decrease your chances of getting writer’s block and give you the framework you need to have when writer’s block strikes. What are your thoughts on the list? Do you have any additional blog post ideas? Please share your thoughts and ideas below.

 

Three Super Easy Methods To Increase Your Blog’s SEO

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SEO Blueprint

There are many methods to increase a blog’s SEO. Some of those methods are highlighted here, but most of the SEO increasing methods out there take several months of work before they pay off. However, there are certain methods to boost your SEO that do not take much time. In addition, these methods are super easy to implement. Here are the methods.

  1. Include categories for your blog posts. Categories make it easier for people to navigate through your blog. This will result in more people clicking on links and sticking on your blog. As a result, categories lower your blog’s bounce rate, and as people stay on your blog for a longer period of time, they will be more likely to buy your products or subscribe.
  2. Add tags to your blog posts. A tag is a word or phrase that someone searches into Google (or another search engine) and finds your blog. Tags work like exclamation points which means the more tags you have, the less useful they are. My recommendation is to have 2-5 tags for each of your blog posts.
  3. Include keywords in your blog posts. Keywords strengthen your tags and allow people on search engines to easily find your blog based on search terms. When you include keywords in your blog, you must avoid stuffing keywords in your blog posts. A good rule of thumb is to use a keyword at least five times, but if that keyword appears in every sentence or every other sentence, that keyword needs to be reduced. Just come up with synonyms for your keywords and you’ll be fine.

Those are the three super easy ways to boost your blog’s SEO. What are your thoughts on the list? Do you have any additional super easy methods you would like to share? Please share your thoughts and advice below.