blogging tips

10 Blogging Tips For Beginners

February 15, 2014 by Marc Guberti 15 Comments

new blog

At first, the entire thought of having a blog, maintaining it, and getting traffic will scare a lot of beginners. The reason beginners are scared is because they have no personal success to go by with their blog. A new blog has never raked in hundreds of daily visitors, does not have a powerful presence on the web, and does not have a lot of content. To make matters worse, when some new bloggers look at other people’s blogs, some of them adopt the “I wish that was me” attitude and end up more confused than ever. Here are 10 things about blogging you need to know right away:

Have a picture of you on your blog. If your blog is for a business, have a picture of your business’ logo instead. My picture is on the top right sidebar of my blog which is where a lot of people will be able to see it.
Directly under your picture should be your subscribe button. It is essential for any blogger, new or well-known, to give readers an easy-to-find option to subscribe to the blog. Having a subscription box that takes up space and is directly beneath the picture of you will help out towards getting more subscribers. These are other ways to get more subscribers to your blog.
Focus on quality content before you focus on the traffic. This is a concept that many bloggers forget about. If you focus on the traffic, you will quickly be disappointed when you realize you are only getting 1 visitor (or none) every day. This blog started out very slow, and while it was growing slowly, I was getting more practice at writing quality content. Many of my first blog posts had typos (if you look at them now, you won’t see the typos, but many of my first blog posts are not close to the best I can do). After months of practice and daily blog posts, I had quality content to stand behind. Then, I focused on increasing my traffic since I had quality content. Earlier, I wrote a blog post about quality content not being enough. Some people think that getting big traffic numbers is better than writing quality content. In the end, quality content keeps your visitors on your blog and makes it more likely for that visitor to buy one of your products.
Traffic can suddenly spike at any given notice. Although this will probably not happen for a few months, blog traffic does get sudden spikes. This inspirational picture is one example of a big spike in blog traffic. My blog was consistently getting 100 visitors a day, and then it jumped to 243 visitors one day, and then I was consistently getting 200 visitors every day. Furthermore, my blog was consistently getting 300 daily visitors, and then on one day, it got over 500 visitors. After that, my blog was consistently getting 350 daily visitors. The spikes do happen, and you never know when it is going to happen to you. Giving up on the blogging journey will never allow you to see the spike in traffic that catapults you to the next level.
Start off by writing blog posts at a comfortable pace, but at least once a week. This will allow you to get the hang of blogging for the first time. As more time becomes available and you are able to write high quality blog posts faster, you should bump up the rate to 1 blog post every 3 days and work your way to publishing a blog post every day.
Schedule your blog posts so they all get published at the same time. All of my blog posts are published at 9 am EST or 9 pm EST. The one time I tried to schedule a blog post at 6:30 am, my traffic for that day got cut in half. On the very next day, I scheduled a blog post at 9 am just like I had been, and then the traffic came back. If you schedule blog posts to be published at the same time of day spread throughout weeks, months, and years, your visitors will know exactly when you will publish another blog post. I’m sure there are people who visit my blog at 9:05 am EST because they know that there is new content up on my blog.
Schedule a blog post for the early morning (6-10 am) or late night (9pm-12 am). Those are the times of day that most people are visiting blogs. Do not schedule blog posts in the afternoon because that’s when most people are at work. Scheduling your blog posts in the early morning or late at night are the two best times to publish blog posts in order to get more traffic.
Build a stronger presence on social networks. Your social networks are a key component towards getting more blog traffic. By building a presence on your social networks, you will be able to build more connections, and get more visitors, subscribers, and customers. There are numerous blog posts right here on this blog that show you exactly how to grow a big following on various social networks. Here are some of those blog posts.
Tell your friends about your blog. That traffic has to start from somewhere. Telling friends about your blog and having them subscribe also helps out towards staying motivated.
Have an About Me page on your blog. After people go on your blog and read some of your blog posts, they will want to know more about you. This is where having an About Me page is very useful. When you create your About Me page, use it to create a powerful (but true) story about yourself. Tell people as much as you can about who you are, what you do on the web, and what you do off the web. Here is my About Me Page.

The beginning is always the most challenging process. The best form of motivation that I can give you to keep going is that I was a beginner too. Seth Godin was new to blogging at one point. So was Jeff Bullas. We can easily go even further and say that at one point, Mark Zuckerberg was new to the concept of social media. All of the successful people of our world started out as newbies. You may have just started to blog, and by doing so, you are following the footsteps of other people who are successful.

Does The Length Of A Blog Post Matter?

February 7, 2014 by Marc Guberti 9 Comments

One of the big questions of blogging is whether the length of a blog post matters or not. Do longer blog posts necessarily equate to more shares and subscribers? The answer is no. That does not mean a long blog post is going to result in less shares and subscribers either.

The length of a blog post does not matter. The amount of time it takes to make your point does matter. Some blog posts are less than 50 words long because that’s how long it took for the writer to make his point. Some blog posts are over 1,000 words long because that’s how long the writer needs to make his point.

In addition to making a point, blog posts should also reinforce that point with examples or more information. “More information” can range from a few sentences to a few paragraphs. Examples can range from one example to over 10 examples.

Going back to the question, the length of a blog post does not matter. What your targeted readers get out of your blog post is what matters. If a targeted reader understands the point you are trying to make, then you did a good job.

6 Lessons I Learned From Typing Over 150,000 Words For This Blog

January 29, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

After writing a little over 650 blog posts, I have typed over 150,000 words which averages out to 227 words per blog post. It is not possible to spend that much time typing that many words without learning a few lessons, so here are the 6 lessons I was able to learn.

Hard work leads to big rewards. My first 150,000 words on this blog led to a remarkable webinar, more sales for my book, over 350 daily visitors, the ability to meet more people on my social networks, the confidence to write more books, and other things as well. I can only imagine where I will be when I write my next 150,000 words.
No one knows everything about their niche. Some of my blog posts were inspired by other blog posts and videos that I happened to look at before writing the blog post. The best way to have more ideas for blog posts is by watching other people’s videos and reading their blog posts as well.
People notice you as you put in more time. When I went from tweeting every hour to every 30 minutes, more people mentioned me and visited my blog posts.
Some people get better results by using what many people have differently. 30 minutes on Twitter can be utilized by reading all of the tweets for a trending topic. 30 minutes on Twitter can be utilized by scheduling tweets. 30 minutes on Twitter can also be used to connect with your followers. A lot of people forget about connecting with their followers. How people use Twitter depends on how influential they are.
We don’t start out strong (but we get there with time). My first blog post was a very brief introduction of myself. Looking back at the blog post, I could tell that I rushed it in order to click the publish button and have something up when people visited my blog. Even when I first published that post, I was averaging only 1 visitor a day (thanks Mom). My first tweet was even worse. The tweet basically said, “Buy this product” with a link to the product. If you go to that tweet today, the link does not even lead to the product anymore. I was eventually able to learn from my (many) mistakes, and my writing proves it.
You never know how close you are to exponential traffic. I first created this blog towards the end of 2012. I got 38 views in November. I never got over 1,000 views in a single month until September 2013. Ever since that month, my blog traffic has been growing exponentially. The next month led to over 2,000 views. The following month led to almost 4,000 views. December led to over 5,000 views. To start off 2014, my blog got over 10,000 views in January. If my blog continues to grow exponentially, I may be up to 100,000 views before the end of 2014. There were some times when I did not want to write a blog post because I knew people would not visit it. By not giving up, I was able to go from the 38 views in November to getting thousands of views every month.

Those are the 6 lessons I learned from writing over 150,000 words for this blog. I’m sure I have written over 500,000 words total with my books, tweets, and other blogs combined, and I have learned many lessons throughout the journey. There will be a point when your blog posts reach a combined total of over 150,000 words. By remembering the lessons I have learned, you will be empowered to write more blog posts and take yourself straight to the finish line (those 150,000 words). Once you cross the finish line, it’s time to enter into another race.

5 Things To Know Before Creating A Blog

January 27, 2014 by Marc Guberti 19 Comments

If you have your own blog, welcome to the club (it’s a big one). For the people who do not have a blog, whether that be you or one of your friends, these are 5 things that people without blogs should know about before starting.

The road is tough, but the treasure is on the other side of that road. When you are blogging, you will never know how close you are to getting that big increase in traffic. It took me almost a year of blogging before I saw a dramatic increase in traffic. This picture will give you an idea of the dramatic increase in traffic your blog can get.
Choose your URL carefully. A really long URL is more challenging to remember than a short URL. When in doubt, have your name as the URL to your blog.
The first blog post does not get tons of traffic. In fact, that first blog post may not get any traffic at all. However, all of that traffic will come sooner or later.
The success you achieve from blogging depends on how much time you put into it. Publishing blog posts only once a month that are always short shows that blogging does not take up a lot of time. In order to be a well-known blogger, you should dedicate 15-30 minutes a day to blogging.
Use WordPress. Their plugins are awesome, the statistics tell you a lot about your blog, there are plenty of themes to choose from, and the dashboard organizes all of WordPress’ features where you can easily access them. Whether you use the dot-com or dot-org version of WordPress, it is the best option for bloggers.

Are you ready to create your own blog? Do you have any questions? Please share your thoughts below.

Quality Content Is Not Enough

January 26, 2014 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Quality content is enough to become good at writing about a certain topic.

Quality content is not enough to get noticed.

The people don’t just come. They need to see where they are going before they can get there.

Quality content sets up the foundation.

You need visitors in order to build on that foundation.

People need to see that quality content before all of the retweeting and repinning takes place.

After you get the people, the quality content will make them want more.

Quality content is a key factor towards success, but it is not enough.

Getting people to see that quality content will allow your blog to experience exponential growth.

How To Make Your Blog’s First Appearance Look Better

November 22, 2013 by Marc Guberti 6 Comments

First appearance is really important. Looking presentable can be the difference between getting a sale with a client in person and losing a client. A blog’s first appearance is just as important. The first appearance will decide whether the visitor goes somewhere else or subscribes to your blog.

The first way to make your blog’s first appearance look better is by choosing the right theme. It is important to choose a theme that looks professional on your blog. However, a theme is not enough to make your blog’s first appearance look better.

Having a picture of yourself or your company’s logo on your blog is essential. You will get more credibility when you put the picture on your blog (preferably the sidebar) because people will have an idea of what you look like. When people have an idea of what you look like, they are more likely to subscribe to your blog. All of the blogs with hundreds of thousands of subscribers either have a picture of the blogger or the company’s logo.

Another way to make your blog’s first appearance look better is by having a lot of pages on your blog. Have an About Me page, a Top Blog Posts page, a More Resources page, and anything else you can think of. Don’t show too many pages because your menu on the top of your blog will take up too much space. 5-10 pages will be good enough. If you want more pages, but you can’t fit them on the menu without it looking bad, take those pages off of the menu and provide links to those pages under a More Resources page.

When people like your blog’s appearance and content, they will want to follow you on social networks. Offer visitors the option to follow people with social media icons on the sidebar of your blog. I recommend using the Acx Social Media Widget in order to get all of those social media icons on your blog.

The first appearance has always been important, and it will always be important. Give your blog a spiffy appearance that makes visitors want to come back, subscribe to your blog, and share all of your posts.