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5 Ways To Tap Into The Power Of Blogging

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the power of blogging

Blogging has quickly emerged as a powerful resource to make a strong income. Before 2000, if you heard the word blog, you would have no idea what someone was talking about. WordPress did not even exist, and Blogger was launched in the middle of 1999. Less than 10 years after the first few blogs were created, many people reference blogs in their conversations. Blogging has become one of the core components towards online marketers’ successes. Millions of blogs are on the web, and more people want to get a piece of the action.

Now, blogs continue to grow in number. More bloggers want a reliable way to make a full-time income from the comfort of their own homes. The phrase home sweet home now has a new meaning. However, it does not take long for new bloggers to realize that the road to success and a full-time income is a long one. Many bloggers give up before they see their traffic increase at an exponential rate.

You don’t have to be one of those bloggers who gives up in the middle of the journey. You can stick with it and make a full-time income. In fact, with the right knowledge, you can reach the goal of making a full-time income from your blog quicker than most of the successful bloggers out there. In order to tap into the power of blogging, get the traffic you want, and get that full-time income, follow these five tips:

 

#1: Be Committed    

Blogging is not an activity that you can halfheartedly do. In order to become a successful blogger, you must be committed. You must write valuable blog posts that empower your readers, and you must write those blog posts at a consistent rate. I know there are some bloggers who succeed by writing at an inconsistent rate, but new bloggers who are not making as much revenue need to nail the consistency to boost commitment.

As you get more comfortable as a writer, I encourage you to write more blog posts and even increase the length of the blog posts that you write. The best way to become a better writer is by writing often. The amount of commitment you have for blogging determines how much you accomplish in that area of your life.

 

#2: Grow A Large Social Media Audience 

One of the most powerful methods of boosting blog traffic comes from growing a large social media audience and promoting your blog posts to that audience. My Twitter audience brings in a large portion of this blog’s visitors.

Not only does Twitter directly help attract more visitors, but Twitter also indirectly attracts more visitors. I know that there are several readers who visit my blog daily. Many of those people probably heard about my blog post in a tweet. Not only do people remember me from Twitter, but one of the big factors in SEO is the social media traffic that your blog gets. If my blog’s Twitter traffic doubled, then my SEO traffic would eventually double in a few days as well.

A large social media audience provides more direct traffic, better SEO, and more connections. I interact with dozens of my followers every day, and some of those interactions have turned into strong connections.

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/13NEK6j”]A large social media audience provides more direct traffic, better SEO, and more connections.[/tweetthis]

 

#3: Optimize Your Blog For Getting More Subscribers

A blogger’s revenue is defined by how many people are on the email list. The most successful bloggers on the web also happen to have tens of thousands of blog subscribers. That’s not a coincidence. The difference between a blog subscriber and any other visitor is that blog subscribers can be notified about your latest blog posts through email.

I notify my blog subscribers at least once every week about my latest blog post. I don’t overwhelm them with multiple emails every day, and you don’t have to send daily emails in order to see life changing traffic. All you need to do is grow your email list larger and larger so each of the emails you send out attract larger audiences.

One great way to get more subscribers is by creating and effectively promoting a landing page that collects email addresses. Pop-ups are also great at getting more blog subscribers.

 

#4: Create Your Own Products

Most successful bloggers make a large percent of their revenue from the products they create and sell to customers. Creating products such as books and training courses that a service automatically gives to customers will allow you to make money in your sleep. How cool would it be to wake up to an extra $200? I think that would be a great way to start off the day.

Many bloggers decide to offer consultation sessions and have ads on their blogs. I like the idea of offering consultation sessions. However, consultation sessions can only bring in so much revenue since you can only be available for your clients for so many hours. I believe consultation sessions can be used to achieve a five figure income, but a six figure income would be a bit too much (unless you charge a very high price for your consultation sessions or have numerous hours available for sessions).

Having advertisements on a blog, however, is simply not worth it. Most bloggers only make a few dollars from their ads every month. Advertisements can only provide a somewhat stable income for the big players who get hundreds of thousands of visitors every month. Even then, it would be more effective to promote your product instead of an ad. 99% of the time, a product sale leads to more revenue than an ad click. Offering multiple products also brings forth the possibility of returning customers. Who would possibly want to be a returning ad-clicker?

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/13NEK6j”]Most successful bloggers make a large percent of their revenue from the products they create and sell to customers. [/tweetthis]

 

#5: Optimize Your Blog For SEO

SEO is a powerful outlet for getting more blog traffic. Over three billion people search something on Google every day which means understanding the language of SEO will allow you to boost your blog traffic. I wrote an article about boosting SEO, but don’t stop there.

The Huffington Post wrote an article about SEO. So did Forbes. SEO is one of the most important ways to boost your blog traffic. Growing a social media audience is a reliable way to boost your SEO, and there are other methods as well.

To many new bloggers, intermediate, and even some advanced bloggers, SEO sounds very confusing. I remember when I first started blogging and struggled to understand what I needed to do to boost my blog’s SEO. Although writing valuable content is one factor towards good SEO, there are other factors that go deeper than providing valuable content. When I started on my journey, I found SEOmoz extremely helpful. Be sure to take a look at their free guide.

 

In Conclusion

Blogging is a fun activity that has the potential to bring in a large income. There are some bloggers on the web who make over $1 million from their blogs. Regardless of what you think of the idea right now, you could be the next blogger who makes a six figure income, a seven figure income, and beyond.

Blogging, and the web in general, has given our culture the unique ability for anyone to succeed despite the amount of revenue they currently make, age, and any other limiting factors. The web and blogging is filled with limitless possibilities. Utilizing these possibilities to spread your message will allow you to not only make a strong income, but also live the ideal life. I’d rather make no money at all than be at a despised $500,000/yr job that tears my family apart.

You have the option to love what you write blog posts about because you can write about anything that interests you. Frank Kerns, a very successful online marketer, started with dog training videos. His training courses he provided for dog trainers and owners got a large number of sales. No matter what you have a passion for, it can be turned into a blog and products.

Which of these tips did you like the most? Do you have any other tip you would like to add? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

3 Ways That Looking Back At The Past Can Propel You Forward

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Looking Back At The Past

Society teaches us to avoid looking back at the past. Thought leaders have said things like, “Don’t look back because you are not going that way,” and, “Don’t let your past ruin your future.” While the context behind these motivational quotes is understandable (don’t think about bad things that happened. Continue living in the present and achieving greatness), they indicate that looking back at the past can never be useful.

I look back at the past, and I look back at it often. I would go as far to say that looking back at the past has made me a better individual in various areas in the present. Looking at the past can spark motivation and lead to higher achievement. Here are three ways that looking back at the past can propel you forward:

 

#1: Look Back At Some Of Your Disappointments

I agree that looking back at disappointments can have a negative impact on our futures. The grudges people hold to themselves for many years can affect their performances in life. Just by thinking about the grudges, some people lose their productivity and produce less valuable work.

However, some of the disappointments we have encountered in life can be building blocks towards our success.

There are runners who get motivated to work harder by thinking about their disappointments. I ran one of my mile races in 5:00.00 which is as close to a sub-five mile as anyone can get. Half a stride. That would have made the difference. Luckily, I ran a mile in under five minutes before this race, but the thought of being that close and not breaking five minutes was a disappointment.

It is now a disappointment that I think as I approach the final lap of some of my races (if my mind is not preoccupied with other things). In many indoor and outdoor races, especially the shorter races, a final sprint to the finish line is the difference between a new individual best time and just another time. Thinking about that 5:00.00 mile gives me an incentive to push harder, because I never want to miss my goal by one millisecond ever again.

 

#2: Look Back At Your Successes

Many individuals are so focused on the present and achieving better results that they forget about the results they have already achieved. Many individuals spend more time thinking about how they will get ahead instead of going back and thinking of how thankful they were when they got a desired result.

When I got that 5:00.00 mile, I was disappointed at that moment. Soon after the race, I thought about the time I ran the mile in under five minutes. Then, I felt a new sense of motivation that affected how fast I ran in workouts and how seriously I took core workouts at the end of practices.

On the business side, I am always thinking of moving forward. Sometimes, I think of moving so far forward that I think about what I do not have instead of the things that I do have. Sometimes, I forget all of the work it took me to grow my social media audience and how grateful I was when I hit certain milestones. Looking back at my past accomplishments allows me to increase my feeling of self-worth (which by no means is low, but everyone needs a pinch of the feeling of self-worth as often as possible), and my feeling of self-worth is one of the core components that made my journey possible.

 

#3: Look Back At Your Past Ideas

Have you ever had the moment when you scribble a bunch of ideas on a piece of paper, but you couldn’t implement them all? As you open up more time for yourself, you will also have more time to start your past ideas.

The more you scribbled on that piece of paper, the more likely one of your ideas is to be brilliant. Even if your piece of paper does not have a brilliant idea, one idea you wrote on a piece of paper can spark the inspiration for a brilliant idea. Many businesses that fall apart inspire other ones to rise above the rubble and thrive (that’s how Twitter was created).

 

In Conclusion

Many thought leaders constantly say that looking back at past experiences can hinder your future. Some people recommend not looking back at your past all together. Although our pasts have their fair share of bad experiences, our pasts also have their fair share of incredible experiences. We all have accomplishments that we need to be thankful of. As more goals get pushed back, self-worth goes down, but if we call back all of the thoughts that make us feel self-worthy again, then we will have the motivation we need to accomplish more goals.

What are your thoughts on looking back at your past? Do you look back at your past to motivate yourself? Please share your thoughts below.

5 Ways To Make Money With A Blog

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Make Money With Blog

Although there are bloggers who are absolutely crushing it on the web, other bloggers wonder if it is even possible to make any money in the first place. When it comes to making money with their blogs, most bloggers are confused and try a variety of methods to boost their income.

Some of these bloggers fall prey to the advice of taking surveys and clicking on paid links to bring in revenue. Activities similar to those eat up a giant chunk of your time every day but don’t show much for it. Even if you make $500 every month by taking surveys (that would be a great income for a person who takes surveys), that only adds up to $6,000 every year which is not enough to support a family or amplify your message.

The solution is to implement fewer, but more powerful tactics that bring in a steady stream of income. The days of taking surveys are over. The days of making thousands of dollars in your sleep are now here. In order to make a good amount of money with your blog, utilize these five methods.

 

#1: Offer Consultation Sessions 

Offering consultation sessions is a great way to bring in more revenue and make connections at the same time. My recommendation is to start with a low price, and as you get more clients, increase your price point. Compared to the other methods, consultation sessions bring in a quick, sizable amount of money, but they do take up time and force you to constantly change your schedule so you can talk with your clients.

The goal of every consultant should be to eventually charge thousands of dollars for a few hours. That way, getting one client every month means making thousands of dollars every month, and having fewer clients will open up more time you can use to implement the other four methods for making money with a blog.

 

#2: Create Your Own Training Courses

You have knowledge that many people want. Some people have become millionaires by offering advice as practical as dog training advice. Training courses have been sold for hundreds of dollars, and the really good training courses have been sold for over $1,000 (not to say that any training course under $1,000 is sub par or not phenomenal). A basic training course with a few videos can be completed in about a week. Some training courses that didn’t even take two hours to create are now generating thousands of dollars in revenue every month. Imagine what you could do if you created multiple training courses, and they all made multiple sales every day.

 

#3: Create Your Own Membership Sites

Out of all of the methods, creating your own membership sites represents the most stable way to earn an income. While sales of products can spike and decline, once someone is a member, that person always pays a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual fee for being a member. If someone gets access to your membership site for $9.99/month, and that person sticks around, then you can always count on making $9.99/month from that one member.

Then, imagine if you had 100 members like that. Now you are making $999/month which is about $12,000 every year. That’s not bad for an inexpensive membership site with only 100 members. What if the membership site had 500 members? What if you had 10 membership sites with 100 members each? What if members each paid $19.99/month instead of $9.99/month? The possibilities are endless.

The best part is that the income you generate from a membership site acts as the foundation for future months. If you get 20 members in July, and you only get 10 members in August, then you are still making more money from your membership site in August than you made in July (in August, you have a total of 30 members while in July, you had a total of 20 members). The foundation simply continues to get stronger as your membership sites accumulate more members.

 

#4: Promote Affiliate Links

Depending on the products you promote, the commission rates, and traffic, an affiliate can make anywhere from a few dollars every month to thousands of dollars every day. Some affiliate even get a recurring commission when they get someone to buy membership to a membership site with an affiliate link. Amazon, ClickBank, Commission Junction, and LinkShare are four websites that offer a variety of products with affiliate links.

The only problem with affiliate sites is that typically, with great power comes great irresponsibility. You should only promote the products that you have tried for yourself and believe in. Do not grab the affiliate link for a product just because that product has a high price or promises a higher commission. Only promote the products that you can truthfully say are incredible.

When you use affiliate links, it is also important to avoid turning this method into your #1 source of income. Although some affiliate marketers make strong incomes from their links, these marketers depend on other brands and entrepreneurs to continue producing products. In addition, affiliate marketers have no control over the commission rates. If Amazon decided to cut the commission rate from 4% to 2%, then too bad for the affiliate marketers. Affiliate marketing is a great way to make more revenue, but you need to create your own products and market them as well.

 

#5: Write Your Own Books

Writing your own books and promoting them on your blog serves two benefits. The first benefit is that writing and promoting your own books has the potential to bring in more revenue. The second benefit is that writing books allows you to become a better writer. Part of the process in getting more sales is how much a potential customer appreciates the value they get from your free content. Many customers see a paid product as an enhancement of free value. Therefore, the better your free value is, the more highly your customers will think of your products.

Writing books and making money from them is more than just writing a book, putting it on the Kindle, and hoping for the best. Ultimately, there are two main strategies you can take to writing books. The first strategy is self-publishing short books in bulk and hoping that they all bring in a few sales every day. The second strategy is to publish one major book every 1-2 years, promote it like crazy, and turn it into a bestseller.

My recommendation for new authors is to start with the first strategy. When authors are new, their audiences are not as large which means the chances of becoming a bestselling author are very slim. New authors would have a better chance of writing books in bulk and getting a few sales every day from those books. If you needed to get 16 book sales every day to make $1,000 every month, think of how much easier it would be if you wrote 16 books compared to if you only wrote two books. When you write 16 books, each book only needs to get one sale every day while if you only wrote two books, those two books have to each bring in eight daily sales. It is easier to achieve the same income goals if you have published multiple books, but if you choose this strategy, you must also ensure that your books still contain valuable content.

 

In Conclusion

There are many ways to make money with a blog. However, it does not take long for a blogger to realize that not all income opportunities are created equal. Some revenue generating activities eat up valuable time and don’t bring in a decent income.

Surveys take up a giant chunk of time but rarely bring in a good amount of income. Even if you somehow manage to make $1,000 every month from surveys (now everyone who takes surveys wants to know your secret, and you’re probably taking surveys for half of the day), taking survey after survey on topics you are not fond of is a bad way to make money on the web.

Instead, you could be making a six figure income, seven figure income, and beyond. Although most bloggers do not bring in much revenue, there is also a large group of bloggers that make six figure incomes just from their blogs.

You may not be making any money with your blog. You may be seeing progress at this stage of the game. You may even be making thousands of dollars every month. Regardless of where you are at this stage of the game, your blog can generate more revenue, and it can become your primary source of a full-time income.

What are your thoughts about making money with a blog? Which method did you like the most? Do you have any other methods you would like to share that bloggers can use to increase their revenue? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

6 Reasons Why You Need To Dream Big

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Dream Big

No matter how small or big, we all have dreams and aspirations. Dreaming small is the easier option because it is easier to make small dreams come true. Reaching 1,000 followers on any social network is a small dream. Reaching 1 million followers is a bigger dream.

All of the successful people in the world got to where they are by dreaming big. Seth Godin does not strive to make 100 sales per book. He strives to turn each of his books into an empowering movement that allows him to spread his message farther and donate to his favorite charities. Mark Zuckerberg’s dream for Facebook’s growth didn’t stop at 1 million users, and it didn’t stop at 1 billion users either.

One of the simplest ways to be successful is by dreaming big. If you don’t dream big, here are six reasons why you need to start:

 

#1: Only Big Dreamers Become Successful

No one became successful by dreaming small and having no faith in their ideas. Successful individuals reached their status by dreaming of big dreams. Dreaming big is the more challenging road to take, but the more challenging road is often the road worth pursuing.

 

#2: You Will Ask Yourself Three Questions In Life

Online marketer Brendon Burchard has a solid eight figure income, multiple successful products, and over 1 million Facebook fans among other things. At the end of all of his videos, Burchard shares this message with his readers, “Live fully, love openly, and make your difference, today.”

Burchard did not simply choose those three statements from a hat. He came up with those three statements after a life changing car accident where he asked himself three questions: “Did I live? Did I love? Did I matter?” Those are the three questions people ask themselves as their lives approach the end.

Now that you know which questions you are going to ask yourself at the end of your life, continue living your life and taking the actions that will allow you to answer yes to all three of those questions. Don’t strive for 1/3 or 2/3. This is your life we are talking about, not a quiz score that has a small impact on the final average. Dreaming big increases your chances of answering yes to all three of those questions.

 

#3: You’ll Have A Bigger Box To Play With

Did you know that our dreams are like boxes? Believe it or not, there are ceilings that stop us from going upward. It is possible to reach a number of followers or subscribers and then hit a ceiling where the number ceases to increase. Maybe you may hit your ceiling on your Twitter growth once you hit 25,000 Twitter followers.

How then are there people with millions of Twitter followers? The answer is that every individual’s ceiling is at a different height. Boxes have a finite amount of space, and once using up all of the space, many people simply pursue the next big thing and flip-flop from one niche/social network/passion/business to another while leaving everything else behind forever.

Big boxes get created by dreaming big. Luckily, the size of a box can be modified at anytime. When successful people’s big dreams approach reality, these successful people dream bigger. Brendon Burchard had big dream after big dream about how he would make $1 million every year, $10 million every year, and then $20 million every year. Burchard now makes over $20 million every year, and he is already dreaming big and thinking about making $30 million every year. Once you dream big and continue to dream big, you will increase your chances of becoming successful at what you want to thrive in.

 

#4: You Will Challenge Yourself

When we throw challenges into our lives, our lives can get very exciting very fast. Last year, with the Christmas break approaching, I decided to put in so much work for my business before the break that I would be able to relax for most of the Christmas break (entrepreneurs need their downtime too).

I also decided to pull of this plan during junior year. I did two month’s worth of business work in just 18 days, and I also studied for tests and completed my homework. As a result of cramming all of this work over an 18 day period, I did not have to work nearly as hard over the Christmas break.

I dreamed big by thinking I could do things like write 40 blog posts, finish reading two books, and completing a training course (among other things) in 18 days. I embraced the challenge and got all of those goals accomplished. When I challenge myself in this manner, I strengthen my productivity.

Within that 18 day span, I used every ounce of time I had to either complete schoolwork or work within my business. By challenging myself when school is in session, I set myself up to be more productive over the summer. Every summer, schoolwork and going to school are no longer on the to-do list. In the summer, I gain an extra 10 hours every day because I am not going to school and doing homework for those 10 hours.

 

#5: You Will Put In More Work

As you challenge yourself by dreaming big, you will also put in more work towards your goals. You will put in more work and effort if one of your big dreams is to gain 5,000 subscribers in three months than if you had a smaller dream of only gaining 500 subscribers in three months. More research will get conducted, and more work will be done towards getting you closer to your big dream. Remember that it is possible in the world we know to achieve dynamic results in a short amount of time. You may not be an overnight success, but some people went from no income to six figure incomes in less than two years (although these people are rare to find, they do exist, and you can join that rare group of people by dreaming big).

 

#6: You Will Realize How Important You And Your Time Are

You are important, and so is your time. This tip finds its way into many blog posts and books, but not everyone recognizes how important they and their time are. The truth is that we are all mortal, and mortality is a powerful motivational force unlike any other motivational force in the world.

Once you realize your time is limited, and you challenge yourself by dreaming big, you will also realize how important it is for you to accomplish those big dreams. One of the worst things to possibly do is to never manifest your big dream into something remarkable.

We only get to live once, so we must make the best out of our lives.

 

In Conclusion

Dreaming big is essential towards living a successful life. The most successful people in the world continue dreaming big to this day, so it works. Dreaming big extends your scope of possibility, and as you move closer to your big dream, you will also feel a surge of confidence. This surge of confidence will be very helpful when you come up with bigger dreams and continue putting in the work and effort to make your big dreams come true.

What were your thoughts about the article? Do you dream big for any other reasons? Please share your thoughts below.

How To Write 10,000 Words Every Day

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Write 10,000 Words Every Day

How much would your life change if you could write 10,000 words every day? I know that may sound like a strange question, but hear me out. For a blogger, that could mean having months of blog posts scheduled in advance in just one week of work. For a self-published author, that could mean self-publishing three books every month. Self-publishing these extra books can lead to more revenue, and having all of those blog posts scheduled in advance creates more time to launch training courses and promote products.

For me, having the ability to write 10,000 words every day allows me to write books at a fast pace and have blog posts scheduled in advance. I utilized this ability to completely systematize the writing part of my business for a few months so I could focus on creating more Udemy courses, membership sites, and other big product ideas that I come up with (you’ll be seeing a bunch of them very soon).

One of the best tips I could give to write more words every day is to create outlines for the content you plan on writing. I write down all of the key points I want to discuss in a blog post before I actually go and write that blog post. When I am writing a book, I always plan out the book’s structure before I start writing it.

Writing 10,000 words every day also requires that you spend a good portion of your time writing. Many people give themselves big goals but do not give themselves a sufficient amount of time to accomplish those goals. Many people want to write 10,000 words every day, but most people only give themselves 1-2 hours to accomplish this goal.

Even if you give yourself two hours to write 10,000 words, that’s 5,000 words every hour. Do you have enough concentration and ideas laid out for you to write 83 words every minute (more than one word every second)? If you look away for a few seconds, it takes a few seconds for the computer to show what you typed, scratch at an itch, or you made a mistake and want to rephrase a sentence at any point in those two hours, then you are falling behind. That sounds really harsh, but that is the standard people create for themselves when they don’t give themselves enough time to write the content.

When I write 10,000 words every day, I typically give myself 5-6 hour to get the job done (since I don’t work for someone else, I can do that). That means I am writing at most 2,000 words every hour. This adds up to a more flexible 33 words per minute. At this writing rate, you can scratch an itch or rephrase a sentence in peace while ensuring that you reach your goal. If you want to accomplish a big goal, you have to put in a large amount of time and effort towards that goal.

Finally, you must write about something you enjoy. If your fingers are not flying across the keyboard, and you are not passionate about the topics you choose to write about, then writing will become more of a chore than a fun activity. The most successful writers see writing as a fun activity primarily because they have full control over what they write about. The same writers who write New York Times bestselling books would feel uncomfortable writing about topics that they knew nothing about or despised. Find your niche, and write about it. When you decide to expand your niche, only expand your writing to the topics you have a passion for.

 

In Conclusion

Writing 10,000 words every day is a challenging task, but it is not impossible. You can write more words each day by applying the tactics in this blog posts. The most important tactic in this blog post is to write about the topics you are passionate about. Without the passion for the topic, none of the other tips can fall into place.

What were your thoughts on these writing tips? Do you have any other writing tips for us? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

The Three Most Debated Blogging Practices

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Blogging Practices

Millions of blogs now dominate the web, and over 150,000 blogs are created every day. Throughout this strong run blogging has had over the years, thousands of tips, books, and training courses have been created to empower people with the knowledge they need to become successful bloggers.

However, some of the advice in products and articles about blogging contradict each other. In many cases, contradictions occur because both sides of the argument can lead to better results. These contradictions have led debate around a bunch of blogging practices for several years. In this article, I am going to discuss my thoughts on the three most debated blogging practices.

 

#1: Blogging Frequency

I could probably write an entire book on this one blogging practice. Many people say you should blog consistently while a few people say you should blog inconsistently. People have mixed opinions about whether to publish daily, weekly, or at a frequency in between. Few bloggers suggest only publishing one blog post every month, but some bloggers succeed by writing at that frequency. Few bloggers suggest publishing multiple blog posts every day, but some bloggers publish new content at that rate, and get phenomenal results from it.

My blogging frequency has been around all of those spectrums. My Red Sox Blog was updated inconsistently. Sometimes, I would update it every day. At other times, I would update it every week or month, but never in a consistent pattern. That blog was basically my crash course to blogging in general.

Then, I wrote a Lego blog that got updated every week or two depending on how many other obligations I had. Then, I wrote a blog called Yugioh Philosophy that got updated every day. Once this blog you are reading surpassed the Yugioh Philosophy Blog in traffic and my overall passion went to digital marketing, I decided it was time to focus all of my efforts on this blog. In a few months, I went from daily posts to one blog post every 12 hours. Now, I only update this blog three times every week.

Here are the five reasons I decided to update my blog only three times every week:

  1. If you write longer blog posts, readers stay on your blog for a longer period of time. This is great for SEO.
  2. Longer blog posts tend to get shared the most, and most of the articles on Page 1 of Google are over 2,000 words long.
  3. Writing fewer blog posts makes writer’s block less likely because I only have to think about three ideas every week instead of 14 (writer’s block was a commonplace back then).
  4. I can go more in depth on the topics I choose to write about.
  5. It is less time consuming. Writing longer blog posts is less time consuming than writing shorter blog posts but spend most of the time struggling to think of the next sentence.

My recommendation is to write one blog post every day to get a feel for blogging, and once you become a passionate blogger, write three lengthy blog posts every week.

 

#2: Blog Post Length

I touched upon this debated blogging practice earlier, so I’ll be more brief than before. Seth Godin is one of the few people who gets away with short blog posts (that’s because he has a powerful influence over millions of people). However, the blog posts on QuickSprout (QuickSprout gets hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors) indicate that longer blog posts are the ones that become popular on the search engines and get shared more often.

Typically, the longer blog post gets more traffic than the shorter one. Search engines detect more keywords (but don’t overstuff your blog posts with keywords since that hurts SEO), and people read the longer blog posts for a longer period of time (this results in more engagement and subscribers). Just by writing longer blog posts, I almost doubled the amount of time people spend on my blog.

 

#3: Pop-Ups and Advertisements

One thing I am against is putting advertisements on a blog. Many people see advertisements as distractions that don’t bring in enough money (if you’re getting paid $1 a day for advertisements on your blog, then that’s more than most people). Instead of promoting ads on your blog, you should promote your products and subscription box so you can build valuable relationships that turn into more revenue than a pesky ad that brings in a few pennies per click.

At first glance, pop-ups look like giant ads. Pop-ups used to annoy me, but I have come to appreciate them. In fact, I use a pop-up on this blog to promote my free eBook 27 Ways To Get More Retweets On Twitter (you can grab your free copy here). In fact, if you haven’t seen it already, you may see it soon enough. Pop-ups are not giant ads; they are giant calls to action. Pop-ups allow your readers to know in a nutshell what they get for entering their name and email address. If you are looking for a reliable pop-up, then look no farther than Pop-Up Domination. I used Pop-Up Domination to create my own pop-up, and the entire process of creating your own pop-up and connecting your email service is simple and straightforward.

 

In Conclusion

Out of all of the blogging practices I have implemented and seen others implement, these are the three practices that have received the most debate. I myself have debated these very issues multiple times throughout various blog posts, and as I continued to write blog post after blog post, my views of these topics slowly changed.

I used to believe in short and simple daily blog posts, but now I only write three long, information-packed blog posts every week. I used to think that pop-ups were evil, but now I run them on my blog (and they increase subscribers quite nicely). I knew right from the start that advertising was evil, and I can never imagine a day when a pesky ad finds its way on my blog. I do use Adsense for my YouTube videos, but putting those ads on my blog would be too much for me to bear.

In the end, your views on these blogging practices will change based on how you implement these blogging practices and how your needs change. You may never implement advertisements, but you may realize it’s time to put a pop-up on your blog.

What are your thoughts on these three blogging practices? Do you have any other blogging practices that you would like to open for debate? Please share your thoughts and other blogging practices below.