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10 Tips To Write Blog Posts That Visitors Will Want To Read

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How To Write Better Blog Posts

Do you know which blog you visit the most? Have you noticed the amount of time you spend reading the content on that blog? Not all blogs are created equal. We spend hours of our time on some blogs while we only spend a few minutes on other blogs. The blogs that grab most of our attention are the ones that have optimized blog posts—the type of blog posts that we have a strong desire to read. In order to optimize your blog posts so more of your visitors read them from start to finish, follow these 10 tips.

 

#1: Write Irresistible Headline

The irresistible headline is what gets people through the door. Before someone reads your blog post from start to finish, that person needs a desire to read the article. That’s where an irresistible headline comes in handy. Irresistible headlines grab attention and encourage people to click the link in an email or social media post and start reading your blog post. Once you get someone to visit your blog post, the other factors become important.

 

#2: Start By Asking The Right Questions

Asking questions at the beginning makes your visitors think about answers that relate to your blog post’s content. Visitors who think about the answers to questions you write are engaged visitors. When I ask questions like, “Do you know which blog you visit the most?” I am asking questions that make my visitors think and have the right mindset for going into the blog post. I could have started this article by saying, “How much traffic does your blog get?” but that wouldn’t have made as much sense. I typically ask 2-3 questions at the beginning of every blog post.

 

#3: Turn Your Blog Posts Into Conversations

When was the last time you left in the middle of the conversation? Was that an awkward feeling? When we are engaged with conversations in real life, we typically stay in that conversation until it ends. Then, we look for the next conversation to be a part of.

If your write your blog posts like conversations, it will be more difficult for your visitors to stop halfway. That’s just like leaving in the middle of a conversation you are in, with you doing most of the talking (and then suddenly walking away). Look for more ways to include I, you, me, we, and us in your blog posts. Having a conversation with your reader makes that reader feel welcomed. It is this feeling that encourages a reader to read your entire blog post.

 

#4: Use Pictures Throughout Your Blog Post

They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, and I say that an infographic is worth 2,000 words. Pictures are especially valuable right now because we are visual learners. That’s why infographics are so attractive (and that’s why some go viral). I encourage you to use multiple pictures in your blog posts. Start with one picture in every blog post and then see how you can incorporate other pictures in other parts of your blog posts.

An additional benefit to using pictures is that your blog will get more traffic. Including pictures in your blog posts makes it possible for people to pin your blog posts (according to a study done in 2013, Pinterest has over 70 million users, so allowing people to pin your blog posts is a big deal), and if you use alt tags, your pictures will also get more visibility in the search engines.

The best policy for using pictures in your blog posts is to use your own pictures. Using your own pictures is better for SEO than using someone else’s picture (especially if the other person’s picture is already established on the search engines).

[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@MarcGuberti” url=”http://bit.ly/1BdRdOm”]The best policy for using pictures in your #blog posts is to use your own pictures.[/tweetthis]

#5: Make Your Blog Posts Bite-Sized

I could have made this entire blog post one paragraph, but I don’t think my readers would stick around for a long period of time if I did that. The way you display your content is growing in importance. We can’t read big paragraphs on the web. They need to be tiny.

3-5 lines per paragraph is the sweet spot. If any of your paragraphs are over six lines long, then you are approaching the danger zone. Making it easy for your visitors to read your content is just as important as writing valuable content.

 

#6: Make Your Blog Posts Unique

No matter what you choose to write about, there are thousands of other blogs like yours. My blog is not the only blog about digital marketing. There are plenty of others. In order to stand out from other blogs in your niche, you need to develop a unique writing style and over deliver in value.

One of the most successful bloggers in the SEO niche is Neil Patel with his Quick Sprout blog. You’ll only have to read three blog posts on his blog to understand why he is dominating the niche.

 

#7: Do Your Research

Conducting research about your niche will make you stand out as an expert in your niche. Each time you write a blog post, do some research about your blog post’s topic. See what facts you can get from the web that would support your content.

If I write another article about why Pinterest is a big player in social media, I could mention that Pinterest pins have a half-life of 3.5 months which is 1,600 times better than Facebook posts. Providing this type of evidence would support the message I am trying to send with that particular article. It may take some time to do research, and the research may only add up to a few extra sentences, but you will know more about your niche and write a more valuable blog post at the same time.

 

#8: Put In All Of Your Effort For Every Blog Post

The amount of effort you put into your blog posts determines how long people will stick around. If you are only putting half of your effort into your content, then your visitors will know that. Many of your visitors have read thousands of blog posts before encountering your blog. They know the difference between a valuable blog post and a dud.

You must put all of your effort into each blog post you write because you never know what piece of content your visitor will read first. When I think of which blog post a first time visitor visits, I think of a huge spinner that will land on a random blog post on my blog. I don’t know where it will stop, but wherever it does stop, that is the new visitor’s first impression of my blog and maybe even my content.

Having a strong first impression is critical towards getting returning visitors and getting those returning visitors to read through your blog posts from start to finish. Some returning visitors won’t have to read your article to know that they are good. It is at this point when you know a returning visitor is actively engaged in your content.

 

#9: Build Your Authority In Your Niche

There’s a blog post written by someone with 100 Pinterest followers and a blog post written by someone with 10,000 Pinterest followers. Both of those blog posts are about getting more Pinterest followers. Which one do you read first?

Building your authority gives your blog posts extra leverage. People relate strong authorities to more valuable content, and in many cases, that’s how strong authorities on the web work. The most successful bloggers are often writing the best content. Growing your social media audience, writing more valuable content, and creating products are three great ways to build your authority in your niche.

 

#10: Show Your Results

Every informative blog post gets some leverage when it shows results. After many get quick rich schemes filled up the web, customers have turned into cautious buyers. Visitors are cautious when visiting a blog. When they hear things about a blog post getting a certain number of visitors, they want proof. They want to see your results.

Showing your results lets your visitors know that you speak the truth. Showing your results boosts your credibility and makes people believe what you say (this is a special privilege. Use it wisely). Pictures that prove certain earnings, traffic, or any other desirable result is possible are the pictures that often spread far and wide on the web.

 

In Conclusion

The most successful blogs are the ones that attract attention for a long period of time. In order to establish yourself as a top blogger in your niche, people must visit your blog, and those visitors must read through numerous blog posts on your blog. Write blog post headlines that make your blog post content sound valuable, and then live up to that expectation. Look at other blogs in your niche and see how they do it. The best way to learn is through examples.

Which tip did you like the most? What do you think makes up a blog post that visitors would want to read from start to finish? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

5 Reasons Why Having Multiple Blogs Is Beneficial

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Managing Multiple Blogs

I envision more people creating more blogs. I’m not just talking about more bloggers creating their first blogs. I am talking about a growing group of bloggers who manage multiple blogs, write the content for those blogs, and have guest contributors. Some people will have two blogs, others will have three blogs, and other people may even have dozens of different blogs.

When most people think of having multiple blogs, they often think of the extra workload. Imagine managing five blogs and making sure they all get updated on a regular basis while managing all of the other things that you do. That is in part why many bloggers who follow this strategy have guest contributors. Neil Patel runs multiple blogs. He writes everything on the QuickSprout blog, but he often has contributors write the content for his KISSMetrics and Crazy Egg blogs.

Why would a blogger want to give himself more work? Why would a blogger want to take time away from creating products and services? Behind every action is a reason, and there is definitely a good reason to have multiple blogs. In fact, I will discuss five of those reasons in this article.

 

#1: Your Blogs Can Promote Each Other

Are you looking for more backlinks? Create multiple blogs and have them backlink to each other. You can reference articles from one blog in the articles of another blog. In some of the blog posts on QuickSprout, Neil Patel promotes articles from KISSMetrics and Crazy Egg. He does the same on KISSMetrics and Crazy Egg for QuickSprout. This is one of the easiest ways to get more backlinks. If you use this method to get more backlinks, then you must build up all of the blogs you create. You don’t want to create dozens of blogs and have most of them look spammy. Having spammy backlinks will hurt your blog’s SEO.

 

#2: You Can Offer A Greater Range Of Products

By offering a greater range of products on various blogs, you could potentially bring in more revenue. The self-published author Steve Scott has one blog about habits and another blog about making money on the web. Having two blogs based on different niches allows Steve to publish books in both of those areas. He has one Amazon author page for his habits books and another Amazon author page for his books about making money on the web.

The only objection I could think of is that since there are so many product options (training courses, membership sites, books, eBooks, coaching, etc), it is possible to stick with one niche and just create products for that one niche. Some of the blogs you create can be blogs that only promote affiliate blogs. Although I don’t update them as much as I used to, I still have blogs about Legos and Yugioh Cards that still bring in some revenue. I have built a decent passive income for myself from these blogs by promoting other people’s products.

If you don’t want to promote other people’s products but still find yourself in a time crunch, you can outsource for your products. I know of several successful self-published authors who outsource for their content. Some self-published authors get outsourced content that they wouldn’t be able to write themselves. Some authors who don’t have enough knowledge about health to turn their knowledge into a book hire someone else to write the book. With this outsourced book written and published, this type of self-published author now has another book in another niche that can bring in revenue.

 

#3: More Passive Revenue

Having more blogs and offering a greater range of products on your blogs has the potential to result in more revenue, especially if all of your blogs promote each other. You can make affiliate sales and create your own products. Although I don’t like running ads, it wouldn’t hurt to run ads on one of your blogs that promotes low-priced affiliate products if you have already created a couple of blogs.

You can’t expect to update dozens of blogs every day and still find a way to create new products and make more revenue. What you can do is create short blogs that explain basic information and promote your main blog. You can also have contributors write content for your blog just like Jeff Bullas does for his blog. The Huffington Post does this as well. I, along with many other contributors, write guest posts for Business2Community. If your blog has an authority on the web, many contributors will write content for you for free. These contributors will only ask for a backlink to your blog. Some blog owners almost never update their blogs anymore. They have contributors update the blog instead. All of the income that blog generates is now passive income.

 

#4: You Become A Better Writer

Contributors are not going to rush over to your blog the moment you create it. Before your blog becomes an authority, you will have to write most of the content (unless you hire writers to write the content). The more content you write on a daily basis, the more your writing skills will improve. Becoming a better writer will make it easier for you to write valuable blog posts and books.

 

#5: You Get To Reach Out To Different Audiences

If you have numerous blogs, you will reach out to a larger audience. Some of the people within that audience will see that you write other blogs, and those blogs will get more visibility. If you have read Neil Patel’s content, then you could have first seen his content on QuickSprout, KISSMetrics, CrazyEgg, or a guest post he wrote. With more blogs, there are more chances to be seen.

[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@MarcGuberti” url=”http://bit.ly/1ES2WDX”]Creating multiple #blogs allows you to tap into different audiences.[/tweetthis]

 

In Conclusion

Having multiple blogs serves as a big advantage, but the advantage you get from managing multiple blogs depends on what those blogs are about. Chances are few people would know me for having a blog about Legos. Legos have nothing to do with digital marketing. However, I have multiple Lego blogs that promote each other and get a decent sized audience. I also have smaller blogs about digital marketing, and those blogs tend to do better than the ones about Legos (people know me for digital marketing, so the transition is easy to make from one of my blogs to the other). QuickSprout, KISSMetrics, and Crazy Egg all have content that serves bloggers. That’s why the transition from one of those blogs to the next is so easy for readers to make. Both of Steve Scott’s blogs show us how we can become more successful in various areas of our lives which leads to the perfect segue.

If you want to branch out into an entirely new, unrelated niche with no easy transition from one blog to the next, then you need to create multiple blogs about that new topic. It is possible, and it can also be very rewarding. You can create smaller, condensed blog posts on some of your blogs and have contributors write the content for your other blogs.

The key to making all of this work is having a large audience on social media and your email list. With large audiences in those two areas, you will have the potential to make any blog on the web become popular. All of your blogs can start off with a big pinch in traffic that continuously builds momentum. Which of these tips was your favorite? Do you think the work of managing multiple blogs is worth it? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

How To Go From Zero Blog Traffic To A Global Audience

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How To Get More Blog Traffic

Every blogger started with no traffic. Some bloggers are at that point right now and are looking for ways to get more traffic. This is the learning process, and it is a necessary process to go through if you want to have a successful blog. Some of these bloggers now generate full-time incomes from their blogs, and some of these people get hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors. Those are the crazy numbers that everyone aspires to achieve for themselves.

So the question people ask when they are not getting many visitors is, “How do I go from zero blog traffic to a global audience?” Having a global audience requires the combination of multiple factors working together.

The first thing you must do is grow your social media audience. Having a large social media audience serves the following benefits:

  1. Social proof. People will take you more seriously if they see you have a large social media audience. If one person with 10,000 Facebook fans came out with a book containing Facebook tips and another person with 1 million Facebook fans came out with a book containing Facebook tips, and both books were sold at the same price and had the same number of pages, which book would you buy? Many people would go with the book written by the person with 1 million Facebook fans.
  2. Better SEO. Search engines take social media very seriously in their ranking algorithms. By growing your social media audience and getting more traffic from your social networks, you will also get more search engine traffic. For this blog, increases in my social media traffic almost always result in more SEO traffic. Having a big audience on social media means more social shares which is an area of social media that search engines take into strong consideration when ranking blogs for certain keywords.
  3. Visibility. Social media is the most valuable free platform on the web. Many people on social media have gone from no audiences to audiences of thousands for the affordable price of $0. Social media makes it easy for you to interact with your audience. Interacting with the people in your audience will allow you to strengthen the relationships between you and various people following you on your social networks. Some of these people may become your future customers.

[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@MarcGuberti” url=”http://bit.ly/1zS7uU5″]Having a large #SocialMedia audience boosts your social proof, #SEO, and visibility.[/tweetthis]

You have the ability to use social media to promote your blog to an ever-growing audience. Twitter is where most of my social media audience is, and I typically send 100 tweets of various blog posts on my blog every day. I get over 100,000 blog visitors from Twitter alone every year, and that number continues to grow. I also get thousands of blog visitors from Pinterest every month, and that also improves my blog’s SEO.

If you want to reach a global audience faster, then you need to implement multiple things at the same time. While you grow your social media audience, build your email list. I wrote a free eBook about getting more subscribers which you can download here. You must use an emailing service such as iContact or Aweber to grow your email list. These two services and others make it easy to do the following:

  1. Communicate with your audience through email about your latest blog posts, products, etc.
  2. Create custom list and autoresponders for each of your free prize giveaways
  3. Fix problems. iContact has superior customer service, and from what I have heard, Weber’s customer service is top-notch as well.

The money is in the list. Don’t make the mistake of waiting until your blog starts to get hundreds of daily visitors before using an emailing service. My blog got over 150,000 visitors before I started taking my email list seriously. It was a mistake that cost me thousands of blog subscribers. Don’t make the same mistake.

Finally, there’s SEO which at times can be a mystery. However, SEO works. Not only does it work, but it can be very effective. Neil Patel, who regularly gets hundreds of thousands of monthly blog visitors, reported that 40.51% of his blog’s traffic came from Google. His email list and social media were also big contributors to his blog traffic.

SEO works if you know how to use it. I created an entire infographic that goes into detail about how you can improve your blog’s SEO. The Yoast SEO plugin is the best WordPress plugin to have for boosting SEO. Blog speed and backlinks are two other SEO-boosting factors, and both get discussed in detail in the infographic. One method discussed in the infographic is using your new content to link back to your old content, but you can also use your old content to link back to your new content.

 

In Conclusion

Social media success, a big email list, and SEO success are the three critical components that you must achieve in order to go from zero blog traffic to a global audience. Going from no audience to a global audience does take time, even if you have the necessary knowledge to get there. You must take social media, an email list, and SEO seriously for more than one day. If you want a global audience, you must take those three things seriously for months and years to come.

Even the most successful bloggers are trying to reach more people. They are looking towards social media, their email lists, and SEO among other things. A blog’s success is not just about the blog. It is about the rallying forces that support one another. Those rallying forces acting together are what result in successful blogs.

What were your thoughts on the methods discussed in this article? Do you have any other tips to grow an audience? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

The Five Most Vital Parts Of Any Blog’s Success

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Blogging Tips For Success

When it comes to success as a blogger, the short lists work the best. Some people will insist that there are dozens of metrics and tasks that measure a blog’s success. However, all of the metrics and tasks all go back to five vital parts of a blog’s success. You can call these five vital parts the Furious Five of success as a blogger:

 

#1: Social Media Audience

Having a social media audience allows you to boost your social proof and get more blog traffic. Twitter is still a major source of this blog’s traffic, and having my large Twitter audience also boosts my credibility. It is on Twitter where I grow strong relationships with my readers. I have had dozens of conversations with some of the same readers.

Having a strong social media audience gives you a platform to promote your content on the web and good SEO at the same time. SEO is an important part of a blog’s success, but if you focus on being successful on social media, then you will have successful SEO (that’s why SEO did not make this list).

My advice for mastering social networks is to master one social network at a time. If you try to master all of the major social networks at once, you will get confused by information overload. Approaching one social network at a time will make the information easier to obtain and remember. It is better to be effective on one social network than it is to be mediocre on 10 social networks.

[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@MarcGuberti” url=”http://bit.ly/1EXbKGh”]It is better to be effective on one social network than it is to be mediocre on 10 social networks.[/tweetthis]

#2: Email List

Your email list is another powerful source of blog traffic. It is on your email list where you can generate a large income by promoting your products and building relationships with your readers. Most of the emails you send to your subscribers should promote your latest articles.

You should only do a product pitch to your subscribers once every six weeks. However, it is also important to avoid doing a product pitch just for the sake of doing a product pitch. If you have nothing new to sell or don’t have a special deal for the old stuff, then there is no reason to promote a product to your email list. Remember that promoting your blog posts and engaging with your email subscribers builds the relationships, not product pitch after product pitch.

 

#3: Traffic

Traffic is primarily generated through social media, an email list, and SEO. You can achieve good SEO by growing your social media audience and getting the people on your email list to visit and share your blog posts. Directory sites such as StumbleUpon and Digg are great places to get additional traffic, but you should primarily focus on your social media audience, email list, and SEO.

 

#4: Products

Your products are your primary sources of income. Advertisements are not worth the time and effort (they lead people away from your blog), and in affiliate marketing, you are dependent on good commissions and other marketers/brands. By creating your own products, you will have a more stable income. If the person you are affiliated with decides to go down from a 10% commission per affiliate sale to a 5% commission per affiliate sale, then you’ll get half the initial commission per sale.

When you create your own products, you have more control over the commission you get, and the commissions tend to be higher. When I write a $2.99 Kindle book, I make 70% of the commission. However, if I was not the author and promoted the book as an Amazon Associate, I would only get a 4% commission. It would take 18 sales as an Amazon Associate to make the same revenue as the author who generates one sale for the same book. The numbers support creating your own products.

 

#5: Content

The content you provide on your blog can either attract loyal readers or scare people away. No matter how much social proof you have, that social proof can only take you so far. The restaurant with a packed parking lot has more social proof than the restaurant with no visitors. However, if the food at the popular restaurant tastes awful, customers won’t come back. Then, that social proof will gradually disappear and the restaurant will become irrelevant.

The content you provide on your blog must give your readers a reason to stick around and come back. There are numerous blogs on the web that provide valuable content. My blog is not the only digital marketing blog on the web, and your blog is not the only blog of its kind on the web either. Providing valuable content will allow you to stand out from the crowd, and as a result, get more returning visitors. The returning visitors are the ones who promote your content, join your email list, and buy your products.

 

In Conclusion

The main reason most people are not successful is because they make success more complicated than it has to be. A blog’s success is not a combination of dozens of methods working together. Instead, a blog’s success is a combination of those five vital parts. By focusing on these five methods instead of the dozens of methods that are available, you will move closer to successful blogging.

Which of these methods was your favorite? Do you have any tips on amplifying these five methods? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

10 Methods To Become A More Successful Blogger

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Successful Blogging

The bloggers who become successful are the bloggers who strive to improve themselves at any moment possible. These bloggers want to acquire new knowledge and skills that they believe could accelerate growth. The more effective you are at your craft, the more people will notice, pay attention, and become loyal fans.

Now you probably want to become a better blogger so you can be more successful while spreading your message to the world. Remember that no matter how good you get, you can always get better. There is no limit to how good a blogger (or anyone) can become. In order to become a better, more successful blogger, follow these 10 methods.

 

#1: Look At The Pros 

When you start on any journey, you need to have a role model to go by. This role model needs to be a leader of your niche who is thriving. I have many role models in the digital marketing niche who inspire me to constantly grow my blog and email list while creating products. Looking at the pros and reading their blog posts can also teach you various lessons about your own niche. I learned what I know about digital marketing through other people’s blog posts, books, videos, and training courses.

 

#2: Focus On Value Instead Of Quantity

Many people believe that having more blog posts means more traffic. The logic is that if every article on a blog gets one visitor every day, then it would be better to have 10,000 blog posts than just 100 blog posts. As a result, some people constantly produce blog posts thinking more about the potential traffic and maintaining consistency than the actual value.

However, the value of a blog post ultimately determines how far that blog post spreads on social media, how many of your visitors become returning visitors, and how many of your visitors buy your products. Taking the time to provide value in your blog posts will allow you to attract the visitors that matter the most—returning, targeted visitors who appreciate your content and may buy your products in the future.

 

#3: Write Every Day 

A great way to write more valuable blog posts is by writing every day. If you write every day, then writing will come natural to you. I used to struggle to produce valuable blog posts just because I was by no means a writer. Then, I started to write every day about a topic I am passionate about to this day, and my writing got better. You can’t get better at something unless you are willing to put in more practice than you are already putting in.

[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@MarcGuberti” url=”http://bit.ly/1zOLri1″]The best way to get better at #blogging is by writing more often.[/tweetthis]

#4: Enhance SEO

SEO is a valuable stream of blog traffic. However, it only takes a few minutes of exploration to realize that successful SEO is like going through a gigantic maze. My recommendation is to focus some of your time on SEO, but the moment it becomes an obsession, you need to stop focusing on it. In the end, valuable content matters the most because you want your blog visitors to appreciate your content.

I wrote a blog post that contains a few methods to boost your blog’s SEO and SEOMoz came out with this awesome guide. There is more information in their guide than in my blog post, but I also warn you to not go too deep into SEO right away. Only implement a few methods at a time. If you begin by implementing dozens of methods to boost your blog’s SEO at the same time, then you will become overwhelmed.

 

#5: Optimize Your Blog For Getting Subscribers

Optimizing your blog for getting subscribers is a very important step towards success. Your email list is the best way to communicate to your visitors about your recent blog posts and products. Most of the revenue successful bloggers generate is from their email lists. Your success as a blogger depends on how effectively you are building your email list. Here are some tips to get you started.

 

#6: Grow Your Social Media Audience

Your social media audience is another critical component of a blogger’s success. In fact, social media also plays a critical role in SEO, so if you feel confused about SEO, focus your time on growing your social media audience.

When you grow your social media audience, focus on one social network at a time. That way, you can focus on learning new things about one social network. You should only start to utilize a second social network once you master one social network. Mastering social networks is like mastering languages. You wouldn’t try to learn 10 new languages at the same time. Instead, you would learn each new language one at a time. The same methodology applies to mastering social networks.

[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@MarcGuberti” url=”http://bit.ly/1zOLri1″]Mastering different social networks is just like mastering different languages.[/tweetthis]

#7: Write Guest Posts

Guest posts serve many benefits. The first benefit of guest blogging is that as you write more guest posts, you will also become a better writer. The second benefit of guest blogging is that you build your authority on the web (the more times people see you on the web, the more your authority grows). The third benefit of guest blogging is that you can tap into a new audience and generate traffic to your blog. The fourth benefit of guest blogging is the SEO benefit (as long as the guest blog is related to your niche). Sometimes, guest blogging even leads to joint ventures with some of the top bloggers in your niche.

You never know where your guest posts are going to take you. The only way to figure out where your guest posts may take you is by giving it a try. Look for guest blogs related to your niche, see what the requirements are, and then start writing.

 

#8: Have Your Own Product

As grow your visibility and start to establish an authority on the web, you must have a revenue generating product of your own. Whether you choose to write a book or launch a training course, this product needs to generate revenue without your involvement. That way, you can make money in your sleep and then you’ll know that you are crushing it as a blogger.

Having your own product does not mean being an affiliate for someone else. You must take the time to create a product related to your niche so you can bring in a bigger profit.

 

#9: Make Your Blog Load Faster

Your blog’s speed is essential. Google takes blog speed seriously in its algorithm, and for every second it takes for your blog to load, visitors are less likely to read articles, subscribe, or stay on your blog for a long period of time. One of the easiest ways to make your blog load faster is by creating pictures on Canva instead of copying and pasting them from Google. On Canva, you choose the size of your pictures (I choose 300×300) instead of resizing a 2500×2500 picture to the size I want (a resized picture still loads as if it were the original size). Here are more tips to make your blog load faster.

 

#10: Decrease Your Blog’s Bounce Rate 

Your blog’s bounce rate is another SEO factor that Google takes into consideration when it ranks blog posts for certain keywords. The lower your blog’s bounce rate is, the better. When one visitor views multiple pages on your blog, your bounce rate is decreasing. If one visitor only views one of your blog’s pages (this can be a blog post, a page on your blog’s menu, or any other part of your blog), then your blog’s bounce rate is increasing (not good). You can verify your blog on Alexa to see your blog’s bounce rate. Alexa shows you how to do that. Once you know your bounce rate, here are several methods you can use to lower your blog’s bounce rate.

 

In Conclusion

The journey to becoming a successful blogger is a long journey, and the journey to becoming a more successful blogger is an endless journey. No matter where you are as a blogger, you can always make more revenue and become more successful. The most successful bloggers are still looking for more ways to generate more revenue. Ultimately, the key to being a successful blogger is to be a committed blogger.

Which of these methods was your favorite? Do you have any other methods for achieving success as a blogger? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

12 Productivity Tips For Busy Bloggers

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Productivity Tips For Bloggers

Bloggers are some of the busiest people on the planet. They have to manage and produce content for social networks, blog posts, and products. They also have to obtain new knowledge by reading more articles on the web while making sure all of the technology properly works. Sometimes, an email address can no longer send and receive emails. Other times, the blog stays in maintenance mode, and it’s up to the blogger to fix those technological flaws.

Since bloggers are so busy, many of them desperately want extra time in the day. Some bloggers go beyond the call of duty and only get four hours of sleep which is not enough sleep to live on. Although you can’t add extra hours to make a 100 hour day, you can implement tactics that allow you to save time and make you less busy. Here are 12 of those tactics:

 

#1: Use The WP Editorial Calendar

The WP Editorial Calendar is a WordPress plugin that allows you to see all of your scheduled blog posts displayed on a calendar. This feature is especially helpful for bloggers who schedule a bunch of blog posts in advance. The bloggers who schedule multiple blog posts risk making the mistake of not scheduling a blog post on the right day or the right time of day. Some bloggers have accidentally published two blog posts at the same time because they scheduled the blog posts. When I was starting out, that issue happened to me a few times.

The WP Editorial Calendar solves this issue by providing a clear layout. This clear layout will make it easy for you to see when your blog posts have been scheduled by the time and day so you never schedule two blog posts for the same time and day again (if you haven’t done this at all, you’ll never do so if you have the WP Editorial Calendar).

 

#2: Write Down A Month’s Worth Of Blog Post Ideas In One Day

One of the biggest time-eaters bloggers face is staring at the screen and not knowing what idea to write about next. That is why in every month, I always dedicate one day for coming up with a month’s worth of blog posts ideas.

When I wrote two blog posts every day, this would be challenging. I would come up with 60 different, legitimate ideas for blog posts in a few hours. Now that I only publish three blog posts every week, that process is easier. I only have to come up with anywhere from 12-14 ideas depending on how many Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays there are in the month. Knowing the ideas in advance makes it easier for me to write my blog posts.

[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@MarcGuberti” url=”http://bit.ly/1EAQ1pE”]Knowing your #blog post ideas in advance makes them easier to write.[/tweetthis]

#3: Outline Your Blog Posts Before Writing Them

Another big time-eater bloggers face is knowing the blog post idea but still staring at the screen. This time, the problem is figuring out how to continue writing about a particular idea. If your blog post idea was “10 Ways To Ride A Horse,” and you left it like that, then the idea is not enough.

The bloggers who write a blog post idea without outlining the blog post still have to think of the 10 different methods to ride a horse. This thinking results in delay which can eat up a big chunk of any blogger’s time. Outlining your blog post with all 10 of the different methods to ride a horse before you start writing that blog post will allow you to save that time. Then, you will already know what you need to write about going into the writing process.

 

#4: Have Guest Bloggers Write Content For You

If you are a very busy blogger or just prefer to save a lot of time, you can have guest bloggers write the content for you. I personally do not have guest bloggers for this blog because I want this blog to only contain content that I wrote.

However, there are big name bloggers who have guest bloggers write the content for them. The great thing for bloggers who want guest bloggers to write for them is that most guest bloggers will contribute to your blog for free. To the guest blogger, your blog is a way to get a backlink, spread the word, and build authority on the web (many writers who contribute to The Huffington Post make sure people know that they contributed to The Huffington Post). If you approve the guest post, then you have an extra blog post to be scheduled in advance. If one blog post gets published on your blog every day, and you get three guest posts every week, then you only have to write four blog posts every week. Writing four blog posts is less time consuming than writing seven blog posts of the same length, and the impact this can have in the span of weeks and months is powerful.

 

#5: Only Use Technology That Is Easy To Use

Some refer to technology as a reliable companion while others describe it as a nuisance. You want to focus on using the technology that is easy to use. If you do not know how to use a piece of technology, only learn the technology that is easy to learn.

There are bloggers who focus on learning some of the most challenging technological tools and features. Some of these technological tools and features take years to learn, but not all tools lead to equal results. Some tools that take years to master will lead to better results than the tools that take a few minutes to master, but then again, the opposite is also possible.

I only challenge myself with 1-3 technological tools that seem difficult every year, and none of these challenges take more than a few days. If I was stuck for a few months trying to learn how one piece of technology worked, I would lose too much time that I could have used to produce valuable content.

 

#6: Hire People

Hire people to take care of your marketing campaigns (although they can be very beneficial, they also eat up a lot of time). If you entrust someone to your marketing campaigns, be sure to set up a system for that person to follow. If you reward the people who buy your book with a free training course, you can hire people to provide the customers with the free training course they deserve.

If your blog is not getting a lot of traffic, you may initially have to hire guest bloggers. However, as your blog builds an authority on the web, the guest bloggers will eventually come to you (I still get emails from guest bloggers even though I say I don’t take guest posts). Even if you know how to perform a tedious task, you can hire someone else to get the job done so you can save time. Time is money.

 

#7: Write Content That You Want To Write

No matter how good you are at writing content, you must choose a topic that you are passionate about. If you grudge the writing process, then you will often drift off and think about some of the things that you would prefer doing instead of writing the next blog post. Be proud of what you put up on the web! It all goes under your name.

[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@MarcGuberti” url=”http://bit.ly/1EAQ1pE”]Be proud of what you put up on the web. It all goes under your name. #blogging #socialmedia[/tweetthis]

#8: Write Your Content In The Morning

The morning is the most productive time of the day. You need to wake up early to write content so you won’t have to worry about writing the next blog post in the evening. As the day wanes down, and more distractions come into play, it will get more challenging to write blog posts at a consistent rate.

By waking up in the morning to write your blog posts, all of the distractions will not have a strong impact in your writing.

 

#9: Schedule More Blog Posts

Unfortunately for me, writing and scheduling two blog posts are two different things. I made the mistake of updating my Mac to Yosemite before it was fully usable. The result was everything on my computer going dead. I could not access the internet or any of the content I wrote. Basically, the only thing my computer could do was turn on and show me all of the icons and possibilities that I once had before the Yosemite update.

After my Mac was taken to the Apple Store the following day, I got full access to my computer again. I could write content, access the internet, and do everything else just like before. However, one file went missing, and that one file contained all of my blog posts and blog post ideas. I had about 10 finished blog posts that I never got to schedule and a dozen or so ideas that never got written bout. I couldn’t even find the document on my Mac’s Passport To sum it up, it was a bad day.

Maybe the document is somewhere deep within my computer (that would be cool because I could create a “Lost Blog Posts” series). The lesson I learned is that it is important to schedule blog posts in advance for a long period of time. I got lucky because I still had a month’s worth of content scheduled. However, if I only had blog posts scheduled for the next day, I would have been pressed into the uncomfortable condition of writing blog posts with only a few days to spare (while knowing that I already put in the work, but that work was gone).

By scheduling more blog posts, you will feel more comfort in your blogging journey. Last-minute stress will be a thing of the past. Since I schedule over a month’s worth of blog posts in advance, I never have last-minute stress when it comes to writing blog posts. That is why I am always able to create long, insightful blog posts that are over 1,000 words long (and sometimes over 2,000 words long. I knew I should have turned this blog into a membership site…)

 

#10: Write Fewer Blog Posts

The fewer blog posts you have to write, the less ideas you have to think of. For the average blogger, more time is spent thinking of what to write about than actually writing blog posts. If you write one blog post every day, then you have to think of 30 blog post ideas every month. However, if you only write on the weekdays, you would only have to think of 20-24 ideas every month depending on how many weekdays are in that month.

The fewer blog posts you have to write, the less time it takes to come up with more ideas. That means you will have more time to write the content that matters—your content.

 

#11: Don’t Bounce From Idea To Idea

One you identify the blog post idea that you want to start writing about, you must only write content for that one blog post before you write any other piece of content anywhere else. The bloggers who write multiple blog posts simultaneously have to constantly shift their thinking from one blog post to another.

If I wrote one blog post about Twitter and one blog post about Pinterest at the same time, then I would have to constantly shift from writing about my Twitter knowledge to writing about my Pinterest knowledge. Each time a shift occurs, more time is lost. That is why it is better to focus on writing one blog post at a time than it is to start writing and finishing multiple blog posts at the same time. I only tried to write two books at the same time. Neither of those books are in the marketplace, and I’m not thinking about publishing them.

 

#12: Keep It Simple

Blogging is something that typically becomes complex in a short amount of time. Many bloggers insist on giving themselves work to do in the boat loads, and they insist on spreading that work out in dozens of areas. You need to keep your blogging strategy simple in order for it to be effective. The best plans are the simple ones.

 

In Conclusion

Blogging for a full-time income is a demanding responsibility. Some bloggers may find themselves fighting to stay awake late at night to write extra blog posts, respond to comments, or do anything else for the good of their blogs.

If you know some workarounds, blogging won’t be as demanding as it is now. Granted, these workarounds are by no means get rich quick schemes or anything of that nature. However, these workarounds allow you to save valuable time. The way you use your time determines how successful you become in what you do.

Which tip was your favorite? Do you have any other tips for boosting the productivity of busy bloggers? Please share your thoughts and advice below.