Marc's Blog

10 Things Every Blog Post Needs To Have Other Than Quality Content

June 18, 2014 by Marc Guberti 16 Comments

Do you know the criteria for writing a good blog post? If you are like most people, you probably think that all you need in a blog post is quality content. It seems as if the phrase “quality content” is on too many blogs to count. However, there are certain parts of a blog that most people forget about. While creating quality content is important, it is also important to create an optimized blog post that gets more attention and keeps people on your site longer. These are the 10 things that every blog post needs to have:

A clear purpose. You can write about social media tips, how cavemen used fire 10,000 years ago, or the daffodils on your lawn. No matter what you write about, you need to have a clear purpose right from the start. Have a headline that tells your readers exactly what your blog post will be about and have content that supports the headline. If you find yourself going astray from the headline, then you either need to change the headline or break the content into two separate blog posts.
Something to lower your blog’s bounce rate. Bounce rate represents how likely someone is to leave your blog without clicking on any of your blog’s internal links (ex: links to articles, a link to a page on the blog, etc). If you can keep someone on your blog for a longer period of time, that person will be more likely to subscribe to your blog. Having a lower bounce rate increases the chances of having someone subscribe to your blog.
A final paragraph that encourages interaction. The best way to get more people to comment on your blog is by encouraging those people to comment on your blog. I include a final paragraph on all of my blog posts that asks for the reader’s thoughts and/or tips. Adding this final paragraph allows me to interact with more of my readers.
An easy way for people to share that blog post on social networks. Placing social sharing buttons on your blog takes no more than 5 minutes. However, those 5 minutes can make a big difference between how many shares your blog posts get. In addition, if your blog posts get shared often, your blog will be (but more importantly, look) more popular. A blog that looks more popular becomes even more popular. Your readers will enjoy reading your blog post that got shared 1,000 times more than your blog post that only got shared 10 times. Even if the two blog posts were identical, the reader would enjoy reading the one that got shared 1,000 times more than the one that got shared 10 times. Popularity makes the entire experience more enjoyable for the reader.
Bold sentences. Using bold sentences allows you to highlight the important information. Some of your readers will not have enough time to read your entire blog post. If you use bold sentences, these types of readers can learn the important stuff even when they skim your blog posts. Since they got some value from one of your blog posts, these readers will come back for more information when they have more time on their hands.
A stunning picture. Pictures grab our attention, and it is a proven fact that social media posts with pictures get more engagement than social media posts without pictures. All of your blog posts need to have pictures. Pictures give your readers a better idea of what your blog post is about. Pictures act as an emphasis of the headline. A big advantage of having a picture is that you allow people to share your blog posts with Pinterest. If enough people pin your blog post, it could go viral and be seen by thousands of people on Pinterest.
A call to action. You can include a call to action in almost any blog post. If your blog post contains tips, then your call to action is to have your readers implement the tips that you shared. A call to action makes the reader do something after they read your blog post, and by making that happen, the reader will come back for more things to do. If your calls to action work, then your readers will subscribe to your blog and eventually buy your products.
Include keywords in your blog posts. Including keywords in your blog posts helps your SEO and ultimately allows you to get more blog traffic. While it is important to use keywords, it is also important to avoid stuffing keywords into your content. If you see yourself using a particular keyword in every sentence of your blog post, then you have used that keyword too often.
Your personality. You need to display your personality in your blog posts. Writing blog posts and uploading videos gives you a unique voice on the web. However, every voice on the web is unique. You need your voice on the web to allow people to get an idea for who you are. Andy Nathan wrote a guest post on Jeff Bullas’ blog where he explained how he learned everything he needed to know about social media because of Star Trek. He could have called the blog post “7 Social Media Tips,” but by directly referencing Star Trek, Andy shares an aspect of his personal life with us.
The right structure. One of the simplest ways to get people to stay on your blog is to write blog posts that are easy to read. You cannot have one giant wall of content. Instead, your content needs to be broken down into several paragraphs. Even if one of your paragraphs is only one sentence, it is better to break down the giant wall of content into bite-size pieces that are easier for people to read.

Those are the 10 things that all of your blog posts need to contain. Adding these 10 things to your blog does not take a lot of time, and as you become a better blogger, some of these methods will become automatic.

What are your thoughts on the list? Do you have any additional tips on what needs to be in a blog post? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

The Power Of Setting A Date For Your Goals

June 18, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Deadline Approaching

The biggest lies are soon and later. I’ll start this soon. I’ll work on that later. Those are stallers that make an attempt to hide the fact that you don’t want to do anything that you say you will do soon or later.

Setting a date eliminates the problem of soon and later. Soon and later do not define a date. As far as we know, soon and later can range from a few days to a few years. Setting a date will be the only way you will get your goals accomplished.

Setting a date forces you to give yourself a deadline. When I decided to self-publish 1 book every month, I was able to do just that. Then, I started writing a book that I gave myself no due date for. That’s when my self-publishing career hit a bad note, but ever since I reapplied the 1 month rule, I have been able to write, and self-publish 1 book every month. Instead of saying soon or later, I made sure that soon and later meant by the end of the month.

If you continue to say soon and later, then don’t bother. Setting a date is the only way to tell yourself that you are serious about a particular goal and want to accomplish it.

How To Be Able To Write 1 Blog Post Every Day Of The Week

June 17, 2014 by Marc Guberti 16 Comments

Consistently Writing Blog Posts

In order to be a successful blogger, you either need to write 1 blog post every day or write 1 blog post every week that contains seven day’s worth of blog post content. There are numerous bloggers who are able to successfully write one blog post every day, but the large majority of bloggers think they are incapable of writing 1 blog post every day let alone a very insightful blog post every week in order to make up for it. The reason why some bloggers are able to write 1 blog post every day is not because they have more time than the people who do not write 1 blog post every day. The reason is that these bloggers use their time differently so they are able to write 1 blog post every day. In fact, some of these bloggers are able to write multiple blog posts in a given day just by making slight changes to their schedules.

One of the main reasons why some bloggers are able to write 1 blog post every day is because of good time management. These bloggers wake up early and give themselves multiple hours every day to write content. Some of that content turns into blog posts while other parts of the content turn into books. If you are getting 9 hours of sleep every day, see how you can trim it down to 7.5 hours of sleep. Scientific studies have shown that the people who get 6.5 to 7.5 hours of sleep live the longest, and if you are getting too much sleep, then that’s not good. Waking up earlier will make you healthier and allow you to be more productive.

Time management is definitely important, but it is not the only reason why some bloggers are able to write 1 blog post every day. Another reason why some people are able to write 1 blog post every day is because they write about the things that they enjoy. There are too many bloggers who write about certain topics just because they are popular. Just because a blog is all about a popular topic does not mean the blog becomes popular. In order for the blog to become popular, you need to be able to add new content to that blog for a long time before being able to get 100 daily visitors. Writing about something that you enjoy will make it easier for you to write in the beginning even when you are only getting one visitor on some days and no visitors on other days.

Another way to write 1 blog post every day is to have more ideas to choose from. Every day, before I stop working for the day, I surf on the web for content related to my niche. This content gives me the inspiration I need to think of good ideas for future blog posts. Having all of these ideas laid out before the morning will give you more time to do what is important at that moment–write new content.

By writing 1 blog post every day, you will be able to see a gradual increase in traffic over time. You may only see a 2% increase every week, but those 2% increases add up. As you continue to write content, implement tactics to boost your SEO, and effectively use your social networks, you will eventually see 10%, 20%, and higher increases in traffic within the week.

What are your thoughts on writing 1 blog post every day? Do you have any additional tips to write 1 blog post every day? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

How To Make One Sale Every Day

June 17, 2014 by Marc Guberti 4 Comments

One Sale Every Day

One of the most discouraging moments for any author, entrepreneur, or business is when your products stay on a sales drought. Some of these sales droughts last for a few weeks while others last for a few months. It is during these sales droughts when people learn the hard way that they “don’t just come.” It takes a lot of work to get the customers to come, and it takes even more work to make six figures from your products. When I was in my sales droughts at the beginning of my career, I would feel very accomplished if I could get closer to making 1 sale every day. This thinking got me from making 1 sale every two weeks to making 1 sale every week. Thinking the same way allowed me to pass a major milestone: getting one sale every day. While some people are getting hundreds of sales every day, and companies like Apple get millions of sales every day, it feels incredible when you get daily sales for the first time in your career.

Although having the right mindset is very important, you also need to know the how-to aspect of getting more sales. Having a good attitude is not enough, but it is going to be the main motivation you have when you do the work that will allow you to get daily sales. If you don’t have the right mindset, I highly recommend reading this blog post to acquire the right mindset and then go back to this one.

There are four big things that you need to know about the typical customer in order to get more sales:

Customers hunt for bargains. My training course used to be worth $47, and I offered a coupon for my blog subscribers that reduced the training course’s price to $20 (and I still do this). That was a $27 difference which accounted for a discount slightly over 50%. Then, I boosted the price of my training course to $100. I offered the same coupon on my blog that made the entire training course worth $20. However, this coupon had a stronger effect. Instead of making the training course a little over 50% off, the same coupon now made the same training course with the same videos 80% off. 80% looks a lot better than something that is “a little more than 50%.” When you give people a discount, make sure the discount either ends in a 5 or a 0 so it is easier for the average person to calculate the savings.
Customers love leaders. The most successful people just so happen to be the leaders. It’s not a coincidence. Leaders also happen to be the ones with a lot of credibility. That’s not a coincidence either. In order to become a leader, you need to boost your credibility and do things differently from your competition. By standing out, you will become more popular, and customers love buying from leaders who also happen to be very popular.
A higher priced product is associated with better quality. These products are associated with so much quality that they are worth multiple looks. As a member of HootSuite Pro, I decided to take a look at SocialOomph. It seemed interesting and cost more than four times as much as HootSuite Pro for the one year option. I went on SocialOomph five times before realizing that HootSuite Pro is the better of the two. In addition, the most expensive training courses happen to be the ones we hear the most about. More people talk about the training course worth $2,000 than they talk about the training course worth $500. It’s very easy to put both of these together. You can see a $2,000 training course and tell people that they can get a 75% discount by liking your Facebook Page. Customers would be very quick to click the like button and see the price get cut down to $500. Even if you planned on pricing your training course at $500 right from the start, originally pricing it at $2,000 suddenly makes the $500 look like a steal. In addition, $500 is still a high enough price to associate as a quality product created by a leader.
Customers get influenced by testimonials. Some people call them testimonials and other people call them reviews. Testimonials have a big influence on customers. In order to get good testimonials for your product, your product needs to be valuable. Displaying some of the top testimonials on your blog may be the difference between getting multiple sales and not making a single sale. It is important to realize that customers have become smarter over the years. Creating fake testimonials became a popular way to get more sales for a new training course. In order to prove that your testimonials are real, you need to link to the person’s social network or blog if you want to include that person’s testimonial.

Those are the four things you need to know in order to get more sales, but you need to know what to do with this knowledge in order to get more sales. The first thing you need to do is distribute your product for free so more people can get access to it. Implementing this part of the strategy will make your product more popular and get some testimonials along the way. You need to be simultaneously growing your presence on the web and social networks so you have more credibility. The person with 10,000 followers has more credibility than the person with 1,000 followers…unless the person with more followers gets caught for buying fake ones. After you offer some of your free products, you need to make it look as if your customer is getting a steal. If you intended on pricing a 40 video training course for $500, bump it up to $1,500 or $2,000. Then, offer a discount that lowers the price down to $500 if someone likes your Facebook Page. Not only is it a steal for the customer, but you get to make the same amount of money you would have made anyway. As you get more customers, you will have more testimonials to include on your sales page, and the more testimonials people read about your product, the more likely that person is to buy it.

Whether you are selling a book, a training course, or another product, implementing this strategy will allow you to get more sales. Implementing this strategy over time will allow you to get one sale every day. What are your thoughts on this strategy? Do you have any additional tips? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

5 Ways To Get More People To See Your Pinterest Pins

June 16, 2014 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Getting viral on Pinterest is not as hard as it sounds. When under 500 followers, I was able to get over 1,000 repins and likes for one of my pins. It was amazing to see one of my pins get more repins than I had followers at the time, but it taught me that getting viral on Pinterest is not as hard as it sounds. All you need to do is get enough people to see your pin. These are 5 ways that you can get more people to see your pins so they are more likely to go viral on Pinterest.

Pin more frequently throughout the day. I use ViralWoot (formerly PinWoot) to schedule my pins. I schedule at least 4 pins every day, and sometimes I pin at the moment. Pinning more often allows more people to see my pins and makes it more likely for one of those pins to go viral.
Pin something that people would want to repin. Just because it is there does not mean it wins attention. A motivational message is something that people would want to repin. However, people would not to repin a message that says success is unattainable (which is obviously false).
Grow a targeted following. By growing a targeted following, you will have an audience who is eager to see your latest pins. These targeted followers will be more likely to repin and spread your content.
Tweet about your pins. You can use any social network to promote another social network. While tweeting about pins to your Twitter followers is one option, you can also share your pins on your Facebook Page, your Instagram account, or any other social network that you have.
Focus on specific boards. A board with 1,000 pins is going to get more attention than a board with only 10 pins. Make it a point to get at least 10 of your boards to 100 pins. Then, make it a point to get all of those boards to 500 pins. By constantly adding pins to those boards, you will give your followers more content to browse through. The longer your follower browses through your content, the more likely you will be to get a repin. Some people will repin 10 or more of your pins that are all on the same board.

Getting seen on any social network is critical towards growth. Pinterest is no exception. By getting seen more often on Pinterest, your content will be able to spread faster, and you will eventually become viral.

What are your thoughts on the list? Do you have any additional tips on getting your pins seen on Pinterest? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

6 Ways To Get More Returning Viewers On YouTube

June 16, 2014 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

youtube optimization

Most people focus on getting returning blog visitors and returning customers. While it is good for anyone to return, less people focus on getting returning viewers on YouTube. Returning viewers on YouTube will be more likely to share the videos on your channel every time. In addition, they will also watch your videos for a longer period of time. As these people promote your channel, others will learn about your videos and recommend them to your friends. This is ultimately how most channels and videos end up going viral. Since getting returning viewers is critical towards your success on YouTube, you need to implement these 6 tactics to get more returning viewers for your videos.

Have a professional 1-3 second introduction. Don’t jump right into what your video contains without including a professional introduction. Having a professional introduction automatically makes your video better. It gives people an idea of what will be in your video, and a professional introduction will make you look more professional too. The professional look will build on your credibility which is always important to get more of.
Have a strong intro after the professional 1-3 second intro. All you have to do for the strong introduction is briefly tell everyone who you are. Just mentioning your name is good enough. Even if you already said your name in 20 videos, keep on saying it. Some of your viewers will have no idea who you are until you say your name. As the viewer hears you say your own name more often, your name becomes glued into the viewer’s mind.
Make sure you are publishing quality videos. Publishing quality videos are really important. The professional 1-3 second introduction completely grabs the viewer’s attention. In order to grab their attention for the duration of your video, your video needs to be really good.
Get more people to subscribe to your channel. There are several ways to get people to subscribe to your YouTube channel, and I highlighted 20 of them in an older blog post. Subscribers get notified every time you come out with a video which means these people are the ones who will be very likely to become returning viewers.
Have a remarkable story. Remarkable stories always help out, and in some cases, having a remarkable story may allow you to go viral. These are some ideas to help you come up with your own remarkable (but true) story.
Have a strong conclusion. For this strong conclusion, you need to sum up everything you said in the entire video. After that, tell the viewer that you hope that your video served them. If you think of a good punchline to use at the end of all of your videos, then use it before you stop recording.

By getting returning viewers, your YouTube videos will become and look very popular. The popularity of your YouTube videos helps decide whether someone will view your video or not. Most people tend to view very popular videos, and by getting your viewers to become returning viewers, your YouTube videos will be more attractive to potential viewers.

What are your thoughts on this list? Do you have any additional tips about getting more returning viewers? Please share your thoughts and advice below.