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Think You’re Cut Out For Blogging? Take This Quiz

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Blogging Quiz

One of my favorite toys to play with as a kid was the 20Q toy. I enjoyed how I could respond to 20 questions, and somehow the 20Q toy would always know what I was thinking about. I decided to mix the 20Q toy with my love of blogging to come up with a 20 question quiz to determine whether you are cut out for blogging–and being successful at it–or not.

  1. Can you write blog posts every day for many years to come? The right answer is yes.
  2. Do you believe your traffic will dramatically increase overnight? The right answer is no.
  3. How long will it take for your blog to become popular? The right answer is at least one year.
  4. Are you writing about what you enjoy? The right answer is yes.
  5. Is a blog merely a place to promote a product? The right answer is no.
  6. Is a blog a place to show ads? The right answer is no (more on this here)
  7. Will you trade in your passion for money? The right answer is no.
  8. Will you treat blogging as a hobby? The right answer is not forever. It will become more than that.
  9. Would you blog even if you knew you wouldn’t make any money from it? The right answer is yes. It takes some bloggers a few years before seeing a huge profit.
  10. Would you write a blog post late into the night if you had to? The right answer is yes. If you enjoy blogging enough, writing late into the night won’t be a problem.
  11. Do you read books? The right answer is yes.
  12. Are you only blogging for the money? The right answer is no.
  13. Do you want to avoid making mistakes? The right answer is no. We all make mistakes anyway. As hard as it is to believe, I make mistakes too (okay, my ego got the best of me there).
  14. Do you envision your blog becoming successful? The right answer is yes.
  15. Do you want to be an author? The right answer is yes. If you want to be an author, then you would also make for a really good blogger.
  16. Are you blogging just to get more traffic? The right answer is no.
  17. Is blog traffic more important than having fun writing the content? The right answer is no.
  18. Are you happy with where you are? As long as you keep on growing and never settle, it’s great to be happy with where you are. If you settle, there’s a problem.
  19. Do you set goals for yourself? The right answer is yes.
  20. Would you write for a guest blog? The right answer is yes. This shows you enjoy writing content and getting traffic to the point where you would write for someone else. This will make you a better blogger and writer when you write for your own blog and publish your own books.

If you had the right answers for most of these questions, then you are ready. If you got more than five answers wrong, you need to change your thinking about what it means to have a blog and write blog posts.

How did you do on the quiz?

 

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.

 

3 Ways To Avoid Running Out Of Blog Post Ideas

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Blog Post Idea Box

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

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

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

 

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

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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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.