blogging tips

What To Do When You Lose Faith In Your Blog

October 5, 2015 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Blogging is along, drawn out marathon. Some people question themselves right when the starting gun goes off. Others question themselves on the last mile. While in a marathon you know the finish line’s location, the location of the finish line for blogging (for this analogy, the finish line represents a blogging empire) is unknown. You won’t know where that finish line is until you step on it.

During the journey to a blogging empire, you will encounter some bumps along the way. You may quickly get over some bumps and question yourself on some of the other bumps. When you lose faith in your blog, you need two things:

Inspiration
Clarity

The inspiration is easy to get. Just read some case studies about blogs that suddenly started growing like crazy. This picture is the most inspirational picture I saw throughout my journey.

The only problem with inspiration is that inspiration alone is only a temporary solution. You feel inspired in the moment, but are you ready for the next bump? To be ready for the next bump, you must build upon your clarity.

For your blogging strategy, building your clarity means devising a step by step plan. What are you going to do today to get more blog traffic? What are you going to do tomorrow? What are you going to do throughout the month?

Every week, I take some time to look at my plan and identify different methods I could utilize to get more blog traffic. I now invest in Facebook advertising because it’s having an impact on my blog’s traffic. Spending an hour going through my tweets and analyzing the results for each of those tweets lets me know what I should continue tweeting and what I should stop tweeting.

How did I reach the conclusion of focusing on Twitter and Facebook? The answer is that Twitter is my blog’s main source of traffic, and Facebook has some on and off days. Putting more time towards Facebook now allows me to see more “on days” than “off days.”

Look at what you are doing for your blog right now. See where you are getting your best and worst results. Focus on amplifying the platforms you use to get your best results, and don’t spend as much time on the platforms that yield poor results.

Combine that with some research to discover more ways to get traffic and sales, and you’ll have a strong plan.

At this point, inspiration and clarity are both working for you. These two ingredients are enough to get you through a few days feeling the blogger’s high. However, there is one more piece to the puzzle. Let me give you a hint:

Any plan that looks good is just theoretically good.

You can’t say a plan is good until it brings in the results. A plan to bring in money isn’t the same as actually bringing in money. Implementing the plan lets you see how good that plan actually is.

I created a plan for profiting from Facebook ads and growing my audience with Page like ads. For an entire week, I was anxious about the plan. Even though I knew the plan was good, I had no idea what would happen. Plans are theoretical, not reality. However, plans let you tackle reality more effectively.

After you create your step by step action plan, act upon it. Don’t wait for next week to get started. Get started now. If you get started now and keep at it every day, it doesn’t take long for a plan to turn into a habit. An effective plan that gets implemented habitually spells out success.

So how do you go about implementing your own plan? The answer is to start small and build your way up. If you consider Facebook ads for your business, it doesn’t take long to understand how confusing it could get. There are more than a dozen different ads you can create and advanced audience targeting tools.

So I decided to only create a Facebook ad for getting more Page Likes. I knew that to make a profit on Facebook, I would need more than that one ad, but I needed to get started. Focusing on that ad for a few days allowed me to learn a lot about Facebook advertising. I quickly got the cost down to $0.01 per like and got over 10,000 likes in my first month. I aspire to surpass 100,000 Facebook likes by the end of the year.

Only after I understood the Facebook Page Like ad did I start utilizing other Facebook ads. You can’t have a blogging plan that takes you from zero visitors to 100,000 visitors in one year. However, you can have a plan for getting 1,000 visitors in your first month. You can create a plan that allows you to scale your growth month by month so you eventually get 100,00 visitors in one year.

In Conclusion

The blogging journey has its triumphs and bumps along the way. It is how you get through the bumps that determines how likely you are to become successful. Starting with accomplishing a small goal gives you the small win. Putting a string of small wins together results in long-term success.

Successful blogging requires inspiration, clarity, and taking action. Until a plan gets implemented, that plan is theoretical. No matter how good a plan seems on paper, the power of that plan is determined by the implementation.

How do you stay strong through challenging times with your blog? Which of these tips was your favorite? Sound off in the comments section below.

11 Super-Powered Methods To Get More Engagement For Your Blog Posts

August 7, 2015 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Blog Post Engagement Picture — Let’s get it started!

Remember when engagement didn’t matter? That’s a trick question. Getting more engagement for our blog posts has always mattered, but with content piling up fast on the web, people have more places to go as they rapidly go from one blog post to the other.

With millions of blog posts getting published every day, it has become difficult for us to keep track. How long do you think it will take you to read all of the content that gets published on the web today? If you are extremely lucky, you might survive to tell the story to your great-great grandchildren.

Content has dominated the web, but not all content gets remembered. You may go on a blog after this one and forget the name of that blog a few days later. It happens to me as well.

How do you go about being remembered? The answer is to create engaging content. If your content engages with the reader, that reader will want to read more of your content, and it’s only a matter of time before they come back to your blog every day.

With engagement established as the main way of getting people to remember your content and to come back for more, here are some methods you can use to get more engagement from your blog posts.

#1: Use Shorter Sentences

I recently learned about this tip from Jeff Bullas. In case you don’t know, Jeff is a digital marketing expert with over 300,000 Twitter followers and a blog that gets over 4 million views every year. To sum it up, he’s crushing it.

I decided to submit a guest post request to him, and he liked the idea. However, instead of simply saying that he liked the idea, he offered me some guidelines. One of them was to write shorter sentences. That makes sense. The longer your sentences are, the harder it is for your readers to understand them. If it takes a reader too long to understand certain sentences, that reader will ditch your content for someone else’s content.

Writing shorter sentences makes your content easier to read. Easy readability encourages people to stick around. When readers stick around, engagement increases.

#2: Utilize More Pictures

Another tip Jeff gave me was to use pictures throughout my blog posts. This tip has been more difficult for me to implement on this blog, but I implement it for other guest posts that I write. Using more pictures also serves to make your content easier to read and understand.

If your pictures highlight key points from your blog post or show your visitors how to do something, then those pictures are helpful for your readers and you as the blogger since your readers stick around.

#3: Ask Questions Throughout Your Blog Post

How do you normally start a conversation with someone? Maybe “How was your day?” or “What’s up?” Maybe you say something else when starting a conversation.

Most conversations start with a question, and once a conversation starts, it lasts. Regardless of whether that conversation lasts for 10 minutes or 10 seconds, the conversation starts with a question. Asking questions throughout your blog posts allows a mini conversation to take place as your visitors read the blog post.

#4: Utilize Jokes When Appropriate

We remember the funniest jokes we hear and events that involve us. Each time we think of a funny moment, we tend to laugh and think about that moment for a while. If you read something funny, you are bound to remember it every once in a while and then remember what you were reading at that moment.

Your blog visitors are no different. If they stumble across something funny, they will remember it. That is why you must utilize jokes within your blog posts when appropriate to make your visitors laugh. Your visitors will then continue reading your blog posts and taking in the value—but they will also be on the search for another hidden joke. The more humor you include in your writing, the more your visitors will remember you.

#5: Start Your Blog Post Off With An Irresistible Headline

The headline is the make or break point of a blog. A good headline entices visitors to stick around and read your content. A bad headline will do the exact opposite.

The best way to master the headline is by looking at blog posts on other blogs related to your niche. Look at their headlines and see which ones grab your attention. Also observe the headlines of the most popular blog posts related to your niche.

#6: Take The Conversation To Social Media

Some people will find one of your blog posts on social media and visit your blog that way. Having conversations with these people on social media is a precursor for having a conversation in the blog post’s comments section.

Social media conversations will also allow you to build relationships. Having a series of conversations on social media with the same people will entice those same people to constantly visit your blog and engage with the content. Some of these people will have a deeper appreciation for what you do with each interaction. That appreciation will translate to more engagement for your blog posts.

#7: Go Where Your Audience Goes

What a classic! But still important. In the real world, going where your audience goes means networking at events. The digital world is a different story. In the digital world, you can know where your audience goes by looking at what they share on social media. Look for common sharing patterns, and those patterns will let you know where your audience goes.

Knowing where your audience goes makes it easier for you to keep in touch with them. Do all of the people in your audience like a blog related to yours? You can comment on several blog posts so people who engage with that blog will remember who you are (and probably go to your blog). If the blogger allows, you can also write guest posts on that blog so your old and new readers get to see your content.

Find where your audience goes and then make yourself a big part of that community. You will attract more people to your blog and learn more about the people who make up your audience at the same time.

#8: Respond To Comments

Want your visitors to know you better? Respond to their comments. When you take the time to respond, you make the visitor a part of a conversation that can build into a strong relationship. Every friendship, business connection, and relationship starts with an introduction where people greet one another. Those types of relationships can start by you responding to a visitor’s comment.

#9: Give Your Most Loyal Visitors Some Control Over Your Next Topic

One way to boost engagement for your content and build loyalty at the same time is to give your visitors more control over your content. Simply ask your visitors what they want your next blog post to be, and then write the blog post that most of the people in your audience vote for. You can either create a poll with a few choices or allow people to comment with any idea they want you to write about.

The great thing about this strategy is that you get your audience involved (they help to choose what you write) and you can get out of writer’s block at the same time (you can potentially have dozens of new blog post ideas right in front of you). It’s a win-win, and that type of bond will encourage your visitors to return to your blog and engage with the content more than before.

#10: Have A Conclusion

The conclusion is a way to briefly summarize your blog post while asking a series of questions to entice discussion in the comments section. A conclusion is essential to every blog post, and most conclusions are only a few sentences. After you are done reading the final tip, take a look at the conclusion I used for this blog post as a guide.

#11: Blog Consistently

The key to getting engagement on your blog is to get returning visitors who remember your content and appreciate what you do. The visitors who appreciate what you do are the ones who will engage with your content the most.

By writing blog posts at a consistent rate, your most loyal visitors will know when to come back for new content. Each time your visitors read through your new content, that is another chance to have those visitors engage with your blog.

In Conclusion

Getting your visitors to engage with your blog posts will boost the chances of those visitors returning to your blog and eventually buying your products. Most of the engagement your blog posts will generate comes down to the written content, but there are some outside factors that also determine how much engagement your blog posts get.

How much engagement do your blog posts get? Do you have any additional tips for getting more engagement? Which of these tips was your favorite? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

The Guest Blogging Formula To Success

August 3, 2015 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Guest Blogging Picture — Guest blogging isn’t dead. It’s actually growing.

Guest blogging ain’t a joke. It’s actually a big deal. Ever since I began blogging, I wrote several guest posts here and there. Now, I am on a guest blogging frenzy. Writing on the right guest blogs can potentially skyrocket your growth and put your content in front of millions of new visitors. How do you reach that point? Here’s how:

Build Credibility

The owners of guest blogs want skilled bloggers to write guest posts for them. Popularity is another factor, but you must prove that you have skill. This is why most people with guest blogs will ask for the links to some of your past work before giving you the green light.

They also want to know that you are an expert in your niche. This is where credibility comes in. 90% of the time, the person with 10,000 Facebook likes knows more about Facebook than the person with 100 Facebook likes. You want to boost your credibility in the areas of your brand that you envision yourself writing guest posts about. If you envision yourself writing guest posts about getting more Facebook likes, then keep on getting more Facebook likes yourself. The more you have, the more people will listen to your guest blogging inquiry.

Even when you are deep into the guest blogging strategy, and you have become successful with it, you must still strive to build your credibility. One great thing about credibility is that there is no maximum to how much credibility someone can have.

Create The Golden List

One of the biggest mistakes bloggers make is assuming that as they boost their credibility, the top people in their niches will find them. As I continued growing my Twitter audience, people did contact me and ask me to write guest posts. I agreed and saw more traffic come in.

However, I was not getting guest post requests from the top bloggers who were getting millions of annual blog visitors. Very recently, I had a desire to land my content on several top blogs that were getting millions of annual blog visitors. I wanted my content to reach out to more people so it could empower more people and potentially lead more people to my blog.

I came up with a revolutionary idea that I never used before. I created the Golden List—a list of 100 top influencers in my niche. I wasn’t even sure about who accepted guest posts and who didn’t. I just wrote names down, and towards the end, it became extremely difficult for me to think of influencers in my niche because I already wrote down the names of people I heard of before.

With the Golden List in front of me, I had the names of 100 top experts within my niche. I then went to each of their blogs to see who accepted guest posts and then made my pitches.

Pitch The Right Way

I knew that since these influencers are popular, they probably get dozens (hundreds?) of daily emails filled with pitches for guest posts. If you are getting hundreds of emails every day, you’ll pay more attention to the people who stand out, and you may delete some emails after reading the first 1-3 sentences. If you want an idea of what this process is like, put up a legit query on HARO.

So I knew that I immediately had to stand out right from the beginning. But not only did I have to stand out, I also had to stand out for the right area of my niche. If I want to write a guest post about Twitter, here is how I start my pitch:

“My name is Marc Guberti and I am a 17 year old digital marketing expert with over 200,000 Twitter followers.”

This sentence is deja vu for me. I must have started dozens of emails with that one sentence in one week. In one sentence, I let the blogger know about my age (which is rare for my niche) and my Twitter audience size which establishes my Twitter expertise. I mention that I have over 200,000 Twitter followers in nearly every pitch I send, and if I want to write a guest post about Pinterest, then I will mention that I also have 20,000 Pinterest followers.

And that’s just the first sentence. Here’s how the typical pitch goes from start to finish:

“Hello {Name of Blogger},

My name is Marc Guberti and I am a 17 year old digital marketing expert with over 200,000 Twitter followers.

My idea for a guest post is {name of guest post}.

Here are the methods/key points I would discuss

{List methods/key points and write 1-2 sentences explaining how you would discuss each method}

Please let me know your thoughts on the idea.

{Closing}

The email is concise and to the point. I am not doing anything to gain brownie points. I am simply stating what I would do if I was given the opportunity to write a guest post.

One important thing to know is that when I send an email like this, I have not written the guest post yet. I only start writing the guest post when the blogger contacts me and says that he/she likes the idea. If the blogger doesn’t like the idea, then I can come back with another idea when I am ready.

Before The Pitch

Want to ensure that your guest post idea gets accepted? Take a look at several pages of blog posts on the blogger’s blog. Look at the titles of blog posts to see common trends, but also look for what’s missing. I came across one digital marketing blog that didn’t publish a blog post about Pinterest for over a week.

I saw my opening, and in the first sentence of my pitch, I mentioned that I have 20,000 Pinterest followers. I then came up with a guest post idea and followed my rubric. Less than two weeks after I sent the initial email, that guest post was published on a blog that gets millions of annual blog visitors.

It’s not enough to know what niche a blog is in. You also have to know what type of content has been published there before so you put yourself in a better position to publish a unique piece of content. If I ever opened this blog to guest blogging, I wouldn’t want a guest post idea strongly related or identical to a topic I recently wrote about. You have to make a pitch that suggests a completely different topic from the ones that have been discussed, but the guest post you suggest must be related to the blog’s niche.

My Results

For a long time, the only authority blog I wrote for often was Business2Community. This guest blog taught me the potential of getting traffic by writing guest posts. However, I largely abandoned guest blogging to write longer, more in-depth blog posts on this blog.

When I went back to guest blogging, I implemented this formula. In the first day of implementing this formula, three bloggers wanted me to write a guest post for their blogs, and I landed an interview. Part of my quick success was that many of the people I contacted responded in a few hours, but I have seen long-term success for this strategy. My content is reaching thousands of new people who I am only able to reach because of my guest posts.

In Conclusion

Guest blogging is anything but dead, but not every guest blogging opportunity is created equal. Some of your guest blogs will generate more traffic back to your blog than others, but as you get better at writing guest posts and contacting other bloggers, you will become comfortable with writing numerous guest posts.

Writing more guest posts and getting them published on high authority blogs will expand your reach and allow you to tap into a new audience.

Do you write guest posts? Who have you written for? How many guest posts have you written? What is your tip for guest blogging success? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

8 Top Tactics To Get A Ton Of Blog Traffic

July 31, 2015 by Marc Guberti 4 Comments

More Blog Traffic Picture — Who doesn’t want more traffic?

One thing every blogger wants is more traffic. The desire of bloggers to get more blog traffic is stronger than the Cookie Monster’s desire to eat through an entire box of cookies. A strong desire to get more blog traffic comes along with a strong desire to know how to get more blog traffic and how to sustain the traffic once you get it.

Knowing how to get traffic is the first step towards getting more blog traffic and eventually making that traffic sustainable. In this blog post, I will reveal 8 top tactics you can use to get a ton of blog traffic.

#1: Write More Guest Posts On Different Blogs

Writing guest posts on numerous blogs in your niche expands your reach which allows more people to hear your message. I have written several guest posts on blogs like Business2Community, and guest posts that I wrote years ago still lead to more blog traffic for this blog. These guest posts also resulted in backlinks that help out with my blog’s SEO.

Writing more guest posts does allow you to get more blog traffic, but there is a secret advantage to guest blogging that not as many people are initially aware of. Guest blogging allows you to connect with other bloggers in your niche, and a connection can lead into a strong relationship. Having strong relationships with other bloggers may lead to more exposure for your content and products depending on how well you develop those relationships.

#2: Get On More Podcasts

Getting on podcasts serves the same function as writing a guest post, but there are some difference. The main difference is that people get to listen to you talk about your expertise, so they’ll get more out of the podcast. Writing guest posts and blog posts also allows your audience to get value from your expertise, but while many people skim through blog posts, they won’t skim through a podcast as much.

Podcasts also result in more promotion for you because when you get on a podcast, the host will introduce you by stating some of your credentials. Then, at the end of many podcasts, the host will give you the opportunity to tell the listeners where they can find you on the web and what your latest product is.

Last year, I was on dozens of podcasts, and on those podcasts, I discussed social media, blogging, and other digital marketing related topics. Getting these podcast opportunities is a combination of luck (don’t rely on it) and contacting people who have their own podcasts. Some people found me on Twitter and invited me for an interview. However, I directly contacted many of the people who had me on their podcasts prior to getting the spot. I made my quick pitch and then they contacted me saying that they wanted me as a guest.

#3: Share Your Blog Posts With Your Social Media Audience

The easiest way to get more blog traffic is to share your blog posts with the audience you have already built. Not only can your audience lead to more blog traffic, but the more often you share your blog posts on social media, the more traffic you will get.

When I was starting to get the hang of Twitter, I tweeted once every hour. As I got better and experimented, I decided to tweet once every 30 minutes (and 90% of these tweets promoted my blog). My blog traffic from Twitter doubled. Feeling confident about the results, I decided to send one tweet every 15 minutes, and my blog traffic from Twitter doubled again. As you continue sharing your blog posts with your social media audience, experiment to see what elements and posting frequency allow you to get the optimal blog traffic and social media growth. Here are some elements you can experiment with:

The picture you use for your blog post. Pictures are very important for social media engagement. Posts with pictures receive more than twice the amount of engagement compared to posts without engagement. My most retweeted tweets (the ones with hundreds of retweets and favorites) all include a picture. The color of your picture, the background, and what your picture looks like are three factors that determine how well your picture does on social media.
Word choice. Some words attract our attention more than others. Do you want a good guidebook to getting more Twitter followers or a secret guidebook to getting more Twitter followers? One word can make all of the difference, but when you use different words, make sure you use 6th grade level words. You don’t want to confuse anyone with an SAT word (i.e. propensity which means a bias or tendency).
Hashtags. The ideal number of hashtags to use in a tweet is 1-2. The total number varies for each social network, but if you use too many hashtags, it will become difficult for your audience to read your social media posts.

#4: Optimize Your Blog For Social Sharing

When you get traffic, you must be prepared to expand upon that traffic. Getting enough traffic can create a momentum that leads to sustainable traffic. The preparation for long-term traffic is to optimize your blog for social sharing. You must make it easy for visitors to share your blog posts on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and the other social networks. That way, when these people share your content, your reach expands, and you get to reach new visitors. Here are some ways that you can optimize your blog:

Include social sharing buttons at the bottom of every blog post. If people enjoyed your blog post and read it from top to bottom, they will see your social share buttons which will entice they to share the blog post.
Use Click To Tweet. Click To Tweet is a tool that allows you to create a link that, when clicked on, will take your visitors to a prewritten tweet that you want them to send out. It is easy to create a tweet with Click To Tweet and also easy to get the link. See Click To Tweet in action!
Make sure people can pin your images just by clicking on them. Some blogs automatically set this up for you while a WordPress plugin will do the trick for other blogs. If people can pin your images just by clicking on them, sharing your content on Pinterest will be easy for your visitors to do, and all of those extra pins will lead to more blog traffic.

#5: Promote Your Blog Posts Within Your Other Blog Posts

When most people think of traffic, they think of getting a visitor to come from an outside referrer. Whether that outside referrer is Google, social media, or any other place on the web, that’s where most people think the traffic will come from. When you get traffic, you want people to stick around for as long as possible. The visitors who spend the most time on your blog are more likely than any of your other visitors to buy your products.

One method to get people to stick around for a longer period of time is to promote your blog posts within your other blog posts. For example, take a look at my blog post 70 Amazing Twitter Tips. That blog post includes several links to my other Twitter related blog posts, and this strategy increases the amount of time people spend on my blog. Visitors who spend a lot of time on your blog are more likely to become returning visitors.

#6: Write Better Headlines

When people share your blog posts, they often write the headline, include a link, and then post your blog post on one of their social networks. When most people share this blog post on their social networks, the social media post will look like this:

“8 Top Tactics To Get A Ton Of Blog Traffic. [LINK]”

The more enticing your headline is, the more people will click on the link to read your content. The enticing headline will also encourage your visitors to read your entire blog post and leave a comment. Here are some methods to write better headlines.

#7: Blog Consistently

One of the most important blogging tips for success is to blog consistently. Writing several blog posts every week allows you to improve your writing and rank higher on the search engines. In addition to better writing and more traffic, your loyal visitors will know when to go on your blog to read new content. If you consistently publish your blog posts on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 9 am eastern, then your loyal visitors will know when to visit your blog for the update.

#8: Analyze What Works

One of the universal truths about every blog on the web is that some blog posts do better than others. Some blog posts don’t get much traffic while other blog posts on the same blog may go viral. Every week, I take a look at my most popular blog posts to see what type of content my visitors like the most.

This analysis allows me to see patterns that let me know what my audience likes. I noticed that my blog posts about Twitter and blogging are the most successful which is why most of my blog posts are either about Twitter or blogging. I will occasionally experiment and write about other social networks and topics related to digital marketing, but I usually write content based on what I want to write about combined with my audience’s interests.

In Conclusion

We all want more blog traffic. The blog traffic allows our reach to expand, and as we get more blog traffic, the dream of making a full-time income will get closer towards realization. Getting more traffic, and eventually getting consistent traffic, requires preparation. You must optimize your blog to effectively generate more social shares and keep your visitors’ attention.

Which tactic of generating more blog traffic was your favorite? Do you have any additional tips for getting more blog traffic? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

How To Build A Successful Blogging Empire From Scratch

July 27, 2015 by Marc Guberti 4 Comments

Get More Blog Traffic

Remember what it felt like to start your blog from scratch? Choosing the URL (if you haven’t done that yet, this post will help), what we would write about, and the themes we would choose for our blogs were three of the many questions we asked ourselves as we created our blogs. Once a blog is created, it can be taken in many directions. After struggling in the beginning and learning as I continued in my journey, my blog has now become a successful blog that routinely gets tens of thousands of visitors every month.

Making your blog become successful at a quick rate requires you to have direction early in the process. It took me a long time to acquire the knowledge that I know now, so I wanted to share with you how you can build a successful blog regardless of whether you have been writing blog posts for years or if you just created your blog a few days ago.

Getting Everything Set Up

Preparing yourself for success is just as important as putting in the work that will allow you to become successful. Right when you set up your blog, you must write a compelling About Me Page that tells your story, where you came from, where you are now, and your expertise.

After you write an About Me Page, you must develop a structure for your blog posts. What will they be about? How will you start them off? What will the body of your typical blog post look like? How will you conclude your blog posts? How will you get pictures on your blog (I use Canva)? How long will your blog posts be? These are some of the questions that you must ask yourself as you set up the structure of your blog posts. If you do not know how to set up your blog posts, then look at other bloggers for inspiration. I read hundreds of blog posts written by different bloggers, and after reading those blog posts, I got exposed to many different blog post structures and styles of writing, that when combined with my unique style, I came up with my own blog post structure that I go by for every blog post I write. Establishing your structure in the beginning will make it easier for you to write high value content.

Getting Traffic

Your best bet to getting traffic in the beginning is to use social media. Twitter alone led to the transformation of this blog. In 2013, this blog almost got 15,000 visitors for the year. In 2014, this same blog almost got 250,000 visitors for the year, and Twitter led the massive transformation. SEO traffic also dramatically increased, but the main reason my SEO traffic increased was because my Twitter traffic dramatically increased. The best and easiest way to increase your SEO traffic is to get more social media traffic because social media plays a big role in how much traffic you get from the search engines. The more active you are on the social networks, and the more time your content gets shared on various social networks, the more search engine traffic your blog will get.

Based on my experience of accumulating hundreds of thousands of social media followers, the best thing you can do for your social media strategy is to focus all of your time on social media towards growing one of your social media accounts.

Optimizing Your Blog For Subscribers

One of the things you should focus on right from the start is growing your email list. This is the one factor I missed for a long time, and it cost me thousands of subscribers. Because my blog was not optimized for getting subscribers, my first 150,000 visitors only resulted in 300 subscribers. I knew that I could do better than that, and I was reading more and more blog posts that included the famous phrase, “The money is in the list.”

After reading enough of those blog posts, I decided to create an account on iContact, create an emailing list, and then optimize my blog for getting more subscribers. The advantage of using a service like iContact or Aweber is that you have more control over what emails get sent to your subscribers, you can use tools with these services that you can’t use with a free service, and you get access to powerful email marketing features such as autoresponders and segments.

A few days after I joined iContact, I had my own landing page. I used Optimize Press to create my first landing page and the other landing pages on my blog. Optimize Press makes landing page creation simple, and right when I had my landing page, I promoted it on social media. In a few weeks, I found myself going from gaining no subscribers every day to gaining 10 subscribers every day. The quick transformation occurred in part because I already had over 100,000 Twitter followers at that point, and I gained a steady 200-500 new followers every day.

Getting Sales

The first way most bloggers promote their products is by displaying those products on the sidebar. Although product placement on a blog’s sidebar does lead to some sales, most of the top bloggers rely on email marketing and state that email marketing is more successful at getting sales than a blog’s sidebar by a long shot. This is why growing your email list is so important.

As you grow your email list, you must communicate with the people on your email list. Set up a week long autoresponder that automatically sends a series of emails to anyone who joins your email list. In this autoresponder, you should let people know about your story, provide advice, and then do a product pitch at the very end of the email.

Not only can you get more sales with an autoresponder, but you can also send an email blast to your list in which you do a product promotion. You should be routinely communicating with your email list once per week and providing them with value, but every 6-12 weeks, don’t feel shy to promote one of your products. Part of the reason you build your email list is to accumulate more revenue so your message can survive and spread. You get that revenue by promoting your products and getting sales. Whether you choose to rely on affiliate marketing, your own products, or both of them is your call, but I recommend creating at least one product so you have more control over how much revenue that product generates.

In Conclusion

Building a blogging empire from scratch requires you to know just enough about building a blogging empire from scratch. The other requirement is that you implement the knowledge and learn along the way. You just need to start out with enough knowledge in the beginning because you will acquire enough knowledge later in your journey that will allow you to turn your blog into a massive success.

Did you just start your blog? Do you remember the first blog post you published and how you felt? How is your blogging empire going? What tips do you have for us so we can grow our blogging empires? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

10 Easy-Peasy Methods To Write High Value Blog Posts

July 24, 2015 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Write Quality Blog Posts

Content has always been king, and it will continue dictating which bloggers become successful. The bloggers who write the best content are the ones who we remember, and we return to these bloggers’ blogs numerous times. Every new blogger wants to know how to become a successful blogger, and the answer almost always points back to the fact that content is king.

We know that content is king, but how to we go about writing better content? How do we go about writing the type of content that leads to returning visitors? In this blog post, I will discuss 10 methods you can use to make your content king.

#1: Read Other People’s Content

The best way to become a better writer is to surround yourself with the best. The people you surround yourself with typically determine what type of person you become. Go on Amazon, look for books in your niche, and buy some of them. Read thousands of blog posts on the web from your favorite bloggers.

By surrounding yourself with high value writing, you will gradually pick up on what makes the writing so valuable. Each of the writers may follow a common writing style that makes their writing eloquent. Not only will you gradually pick up on what works for other writers, but you will also learn more about your niche. Taking the time to read books every day has allowed me to learn so much about my niche that I didn’t know back when I started. The only way to move forward is by obtaining new knowledge and implementing the right knowledge in what you do.

#2: Write Longer Blog Posts

When I wrote two blog posts per day for this blog, it was a big commitment. I was getting better at blogging, but I know a lot more now than I knew then. What I often did was write concise blog posts that rarely exceeded 500 words. Although some blogging styles encourage blog posts under 500 words, I became a better writer by increasing the length of my blog posts. Now, I always strive to surpass 1,000 words for every blog post, and some of my blog posts exceed 5,000 words. Writing longer blog posts forced me to spend more time writing content, and as I spent more time writing content, my writing improved.

When I wrote longer blog posts, I also went more in-depth on certain tips that I would normally skim over. I provided my personal experiences and other people’s case studies that added an entirely new meaning to my content.

#3: Provide A Story

Do you like a good story? Then again, who doesn’t? Some of the best stories have been passed on from generation to generation, and some stories that were told thousands of years ago still get told to this day (although the very old stories are mostly told in history classes). You don’t have to turn your blog post into a novel, but you can provide a story of a personal experience that applies to the blog post’s topic, or you can provide the case study of someone else’s story that applies to the blog post’s topic.

Providing stories within your blog posts has the potential to increase the value of those blog posts by providing your visitors with inspiration or a relatable experience. One time, I wrote a concise blog post about how urgency at TJ Maxx increased my productivity. I was in a desperate need for an updated wardrobe, but I got to the store only an hour before closing time. I somehow found and got what I was looking for within that timeframe. Maybe you haven’t had the same stress at TJ Maxx, but my story is a relatable experience for many people. Whether you were at a Target as it was about to close or had to prepare an email blast with 15 minutes to spare, you know what it feels like to suddenly get a productivity spike as the deadline rapidly approaches.

#4: Include Easter Egg Jokes

I sometimes reference kryptonite in my blog posts. Each time I mention kryptonite, I usually turn it into an Easter Egg Joke. Easter Egg Jokes are jokes that are hidden within the content, so not everyone will know that a joke is in the works. Disney movies are filled with Easter Egg jokes that children wouldn’t understand so adults could still enjoy watching the same Disney movies they watched as children.

Although it isn’t always easy to include an Easter Egg Joke within your blog posts, including them will strengthen the relationship between you and the visitors who get the joke. The relationship between you and the visitors who don’t see the Easter Egg Joke won’t be changed because of one Easter Egg Joke.

#5: Write Every Day

Practice makes close to perfect, and the best way to do better at anything is to practice it every day. Right now, I want you to think about the greatest skill you have. Then, I want you to think about how much time you spent practicing on your greatest skill compared to the amount of time you spent practicing on your least skillful area. You should quickly realize that you spent a lot of time practicing on your greatest skill but virtually no time practicing on your least skillful area.

If you want to emerge as a power blogger who writes high value content, then you must practice writing every day to reach that point. No matter what day of the week it is, and no matter how much homework I have during the school year, I am always writing niche-related content every single day. On some days, when I don’t find as much time to write, I typically write 2,000 words. When I have an entire day to write, I can write over 10,000 words in a given day. By spending so much time writing content every day, it has now become easy for me to write high value content. If I really wanted to, I could write high value content with my eyes closed. By writing millions of words on my computer, I have memorized the location of every key on my computer. I wrote that entire sentence with my eyes closed.

#6: Do Additional Research Before Clicking Publish

After you write a blog post, do some additional research about your blog post’s topic and look for insightful information on the web. When you do additional research, you are looking for statistics and facts that you can use to attract more interest in your content. When I talk about the power of Pinterest, I almost always mention that 80% of pins are repins to show how easy it is to go viral on that social network. Providing this statistics strengthens my claim that Pinterest is a powerful social network. Imagine how different the blog post would be if the statistic doesn’t get mentioned. I would just be stating my opinion without supporting it.

#7: Be More Descriptive

When you describe events, methods, or anything else, be as descriptive as possible. Being descriptive allows you to write in great detail, and this great detail can make a visitor feel as if he/she were with you at an event or have a stronger connection with a personal story or case study. Your writing will improve as you become more descriptive because being descriptive requires you to spend more time thinking about what happened and creating sentences in such an eloquent manner that the visitor feels a strong connection with what you write about.

#8: Write A Strong Intro

The introduction is an important part of your blog. It decides whether a visitor continues reading or leaves your blog before reading another word. Your first sentence must captivate your visitor with a question, a cool statistic, a strong statement, or a small insight that leads into the larger insights in the blog post. The best way to write a strong intro is to read other blog posts in your niche and take note of which introductions grabbed your attention. My introductions are based on a combination of different elements in dozens of other bloggers’ introductions combined with my own style.

#9: Write A Strong Closing

A strong closing entices people to engage with your content with a series of questions while quickly summing up the entire blog post. Mastering the closing not only leads to more engagement, but people who like your closing will remember how great the blog post was, and these visitors may decide to look at more of your content. The stronger your closing, the longer someone will stay on your blog.

#10: Proofread

It would be such a same if you wrote an excellent blog post but didn’t take the time to proofread it. Spell check only does part of the job. Spell check wouldn’t alert me about “same” because it is spelled correctly. The sentence should read “It would be such a shame if you wrote an excellent blog post but didn’t take the time to proofread it”

The only way to catch those types of mistakes that hurt the value of your writing, regardless of how valuable your insights are, is by proofreading your content. Not only can proofreading expose the mistakes that a spell check can’t account for, but you will also find sentences that can be structured better and think of a new tidbit that can increase the value of your blog post. Never underestimate the power of proofreading. It is the one thing that most bloggers forget to do.

In Conclusion

Content is king, and making your content king will allow your blog to dominate your niche and attract a large audience. You can get blog traffic by promoting your content, but if your content does not provide value, you won’t get the returning visitors who eventually choose to buy your products. Successful blogging isn’t about getting traffic. It’s about getting traffic that sticks. You want returning visitors who appreciate what you do instead of one-time visitors who don’t appreciate the value that you provide.

Making your content more valuable for your targeted audience will entice those people to stick around, engage with your content, and tell their friends about what you do.

What do you think makes up valuable content? Which of your blog posts are you the most proud of? Which blog post on the web is your favorite (if it’s not one of mine, I won’t get offended)? What tips do you have for writing more valuable content? Please share your thoughts and advice below.