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10 Ways To Come Up With More Blog Post Ideas

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How To Come Up With More Blog Post Ideas

 

What is your least favorite experience as a blogger? Maybe that least favorite experience is staring at the computer screen, struggling to think of what you will write your next blog post about. When I was new to blogging, this was not only my least favorite experience, but it was also too common.

Knowing that you have to write more blog posts but not being able to come up with the ideas is a frustrating point in the writing process. The number of times this frustration occurs and lasts is dependent on the actions we take to reduce the number of times this frustration occurs and create a better response to it. Here are 10 methods you can use to come up with more blog post ideas and respond better to writer’s block, therefore reducing your frustrations as a blogger at the same time.

 

#1: Look At What Other Experts In Your Niche Wrote About On Their Blogs

The internet gave us the power to access any type of information we want at a lightning fast speed. The days of driving (or walking) to the library to gather more information have come to an end.

However, few people utilize the information on the web to come up with more blog post ideas. Many people use the web to surf YouTube videos, conduct research for the school essay, or browse through Facebook.

In my opinion, one of the most underrated ways of using the web is to come up with more blog post ideas. I read the blogs of various people in my niche. Doing so allows me to learn more information about my niche, and some of the methods I read about in their blog posts spark ideas for the blog posts that I write. I will never advocate plagiarism for as long as I live (and I have been plagiarized, so I know what it feels like), but if you combine some ideas from other blog posts with your knowledge and unique content, you will come across more blog post ideas while writing unique content.

 

#2: Take Two (Or More)!

As you write more blog posts, you will start to get an idea of which of your blog posts are the most successful. Sometimes, a blog post emerges as a winner out of pure luck while at other times, your most successful blog posts all relate to one specific topic.

Regardless of what your most successful blog posts are, that is, the ones that gets the most traffic, those blog posts can strategically be used to keep people on your blog for a longer period of time. You can write a Part Two for one of your blog post that is already popular. Since the original blog post is popular, the Part Two will also get more attention. Think along the lines of The Dark Knight. The first movie was spectacular, so people came back and watched the second movie. Then, people liked the second movie and decided to watch the third one. If there is a fourth movie, I am sure it would get a big crowd.

After you write your Part Two blog post, promote that blog post at the bottom of the original blog post. At the end of Part Two, mention Part One. If you create a Part Three, promote the earlier parts at the end of that blog post. Part Two promotes one and three while Part One promotes two and three. Visitors who want to read through all three parts of that series will have to click all three links and read the content. Therefore, the visitors who read that one series will stay on your blog for a longer period of time. A creative idea would be to create an entire blog based on a series of blog posts. Groove HQ does this very well.

 

#3: Change The Title Of A Past Blog Post

The idea for your next blog post could be in a blog post that you already wrote. When I am stumped and struggling to think of new blog post ideas, I look at all of my past blog posts’ titles. The first reason I look back at all of these titles is because looking back has its set of rewards. The second reason I look back at all of these blog posts is because I can simply replace 1-2 words in a blog post title, add a word, or subtract a word, and then I would come up with a completely new blog idea.

Let’s say you have a blog post called “10 Ways To Get More Twitter Followers.” There are plenty of variations that can be applied to this one title:

  1. “25 Ways To Get More Twitter Followers”
  2. “10 Tips To Get More Pinterest Followers”
  3. “10 Ways To Get More Blog Subscribers”
  4. “10 Ways To Lose Twitter Followers”

“10 Ways To Get More Twitter Followers” is one of my core building blocks for blog post ideas. I simply change the wording of the title in a way that would change the blog post’s topic, and then I start writing that blog post. As you create more core building blocks, it gets easier to build on top of them. Another core building block I have is, “10 Twitter Mistakes You Should Avoid.” I can replace, add, or remove words in order to come up with a completely new blog post idea.

 

#4: Use Topsy

Topsy allows you to see any tweet on Twitter, and the tool does a nice job at organizing those tweets based on categories. You can search a niche-based keyword in Topsy, and then a series of tweets containing that keyword will show up. Some of those tweets can inspire new blog post ideas. Some of the tweets you read on Topsy may even become core building blocks for blog post ideas. Twitter’s search engine also works fine, but it is easier with Topsy’s search engine to get very specific (video content, tweet with a link, tweet without a link, etc).

 

#5: Create A Twitter List Of Influential People In Your Niche

Although Topsy is more specific than Twitter’s search engine, Twitter has a special, unique feature that still makes it a very valuable resource for coming up with more blog post ideas. Twitter allows you to create a list of users that display as your custom feed.

Let’s say you decided to put 20 people on your Twitter list. The only tweets that would appear on the custom feed would be from those 20 people, regardless of how many people you are following. You can create a custom list that consists of the leaders of your niche. Then, you can scroll through their tweets. One of those tweets could provide the sparks for your next blog post idea.

 

#6: See What People Are Asking On Yahoo! Answers

Getting customers to ask you questions and turning those questions into blog post ideas is one of the smartest way to write blog posts. You get to answer your customers’ questions while putting content on your blog that answers the same questions other people may have (but these people were either too afraid to ask or couldn’t communicate with you). If you can take this path with surveys, and you get enough questions in the comment section, then focus on that path instead of Yahoo! Answers. Regardless of how popular you are, it wouldn’t hurt to have some surveys on your blog and encourage visitors to ask questions.

However, most bloggers do not get enough traffic to be getting dozens of questions every day from survey responses, comments, or any other method. Most bloggers only get a few questions every month at the very most. For the bloggers who do not get as many customer questions, there is still a reliable place to see what questions your customers may have.

Yahoo! Answers is that solution. You can search niche-related keywords on Yahoo! Answers to see what types of questions your potential customers and visitors are asking. Then, write blog posts that answer the questions you saw on Yahoo! Answers. You can also answer some of the questions directly on Yahoo! Answers and promote your blog. Yahoo! Answers is one of the most visited websites on the entire web, and it would be good to have a backlink to your blog there.

 

#7: Look Through The Comments Of Popular Niche-Related Blog Posts

Looking through the comments of popular, niche-related blog posts on the web and your blog may expose some of the questions that your customers have. You may know the answers to the questions people are asking in the comments section.

The first thing you should do is answer that person’s question in the comments section. It is okay to answer someone’s question on another person’s blog. Some bloggers will be okay with it (some may even thank you for taking the time to write the answer) while others may decide to not publish your answer and then come up with their own response (this does not happen as often, and it’s bad ethic). Regardless of whether the comment gets published or not, you are making an attempt to serve the person who commented on that blog post. Serving others is one of the core values of successful entrepreneurs.

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/1D41Qot”]Serving others is one of the core values of successful entrepreneurs.[/tweetthis]

The second thing you should do is write a blog post that answers the question. If one person had a question, chances are that other people have the same question. If you answer a question for one person and publish that answer in the form of a blog post, then you are answering the same question that people from around the world had (until they read your blog post and the answer to the question).

 

#8: Read Books

Reading books is a valuable way to come up with more blog post ideas and obtain more knowledge. Some of the books I have read have completely changed my business habits and the way I structure my time and goals. You may be so empowered by one of the books you read that you may come up with dozens of blog post ideas just from that one book. I know that multiple blog posts I have written are based on what I read in The 12 Week Year, The ONE Thing, and multiple books written by Seth Godin.

 

#9: Watch YouTube Videos

YouTube videos are another great source of knowledge. However, what you learn on YouTube depends on which YouTube videos you watch. The only way you are learning new things about your niche on YouTube is if you are watching niche-related videos. If you are a digital marketing expert watching YouTube videos about comedy or an upcoming video game (at some times…guilty as charged), then you are not learning anything new about your niche.

There comes a time and place to watch anything you want on YouTube, but that should not be a daily habit. My recommendation is to surf YouTube for as long as you want for just one day every month. If you use YouTube every day, chances are you will watch several re-runs of the same video. Your time is more valuable than that.

 

#10: Write Multiple Blog Post Ideas For One Topic

If you write blog posts about Twitter, then you can write multiple blog posts that revolve around that one topic. For this tip, let’s go back to the core building block, “10 Ways To Get More Twitter Followers.”

In one of the tips, you may encourage your visitors to have more conversations with their followers. Therefore, you can write a blog post called, “10 Ways To Have More Conversations With Your Twitter Followers.”

You can also gain more followers by getting more retweets. Therefore, you can write a blog post called, “10 Ways To Get More Retweets On Twitter.” One of the ways to get more retweets on Twitter is by tweeting pictures. Then, you can write a blog post called, “The 10 Elements Of Highly Retweeted Pictures.”

One of the tips you could mention in that article is that creating your own stunning pictures works well. People may not know how to create their own pictures in the first place, so you may want to write a blog post called, “10 Tools For Creating Free Pictures On The Web.”

Do you see how one blog post about getting more Twitter followers turned into four other ideas? I could have gone on with this example in an infinite loop, but that would take too long.

 

In Conclusion

One of the common reasons why bloggers get frustrated is simply because they can’t think of any ideas for the next blog post. When a blogger is able to write content, that blogger is in a type of paradise for that moment of time. The moment writer’s block steps in, it becomes nearly impossible to think of new ideas. As a result, that paradise is lost and replaced by frustration. By implementing these tips, you will know how to come up with more blog posts ideas so that frustration occurs less often.

Which tip was your favorite? Do you have another tip to make it easier for us to think of more blog post ideas? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

5 Ways To Tap Into The Power Of Blogging

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the power of blogging

Blogging has quickly emerged as a powerful resource to make a strong income. Before 2000, if you heard the word blog, you would have no idea what someone was talking about. WordPress did not even exist, and Blogger was launched in the middle of 1999. Less than 10 years after the first few blogs were created, many people reference blogs in their conversations. Blogging has become one of the core components towards online marketers’ successes. Millions of blogs are on the web, and more people want to get a piece of the action.

Now, blogs continue to grow in number. More bloggers want a reliable way to make a full-time income from the comfort of their own homes. The phrase home sweet home now has a new meaning. However, it does not take long for new bloggers to realize that the road to success and a full-time income is a long one. Many bloggers give up before they see their traffic increase at an exponential rate.

You don’t have to be one of those bloggers who gives up in the middle of the journey. You can stick with it and make a full-time income. In fact, with the right knowledge, you can reach the goal of making a full-time income from your blog quicker than most of the successful bloggers out there. In order to tap into the power of blogging, get the traffic you want, and get that full-time income, follow these five tips:

 

#1: Be Committed    

Blogging is not an activity that you can halfheartedly do. In order to become a successful blogger, you must be committed. You must write valuable blog posts that empower your readers, and you must write those blog posts at a consistent rate. I know there are some bloggers who succeed by writing at an inconsistent rate, but new bloggers who are not making as much revenue need to nail the consistency to boost commitment.

As you get more comfortable as a writer, I encourage you to write more blog posts and even increase the length of the blog posts that you write. The best way to become a better writer is by writing often. The amount of commitment you have for blogging determines how much you accomplish in that area of your life.

 

#2: Grow A Large Social Media Audience 

One of the most powerful methods of boosting blog traffic comes from growing a large social media audience and promoting your blog posts to that audience. My Twitter audience brings in a large portion of this blog’s visitors.

Not only does Twitter directly help attract more visitors, but Twitter also indirectly attracts more visitors. I know that there are several readers who visit my blog daily. Many of those people probably heard about my blog post in a tweet. Not only do people remember me from Twitter, but one of the big factors in SEO is the social media traffic that your blog gets. If my blog’s Twitter traffic doubled, then my SEO traffic would eventually double in a few days as well.

A large social media audience provides more direct traffic, better SEO, and more connections. I interact with dozens of my followers every day, and some of those interactions have turned into strong connections.

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/13NEK6j”]A large social media audience provides more direct traffic, better SEO, and more connections.[/tweetthis]

 

#3: Optimize Your Blog For Getting More Subscribers

A blogger’s revenue is defined by how many people are on the email list. The most successful bloggers on the web also happen to have tens of thousands of blog subscribers. That’s not a coincidence. The difference between a blog subscriber and any other visitor is that blog subscribers can be notified about your latest blog posts through email.

I notify my blog subscribers at least once every week about my latest blog post. I don’t overwhelm them with multiple emails every day, and you don’t have to send daily emails in order to see life changing traffic. All you need to do is grow your email list larger and larger so each of the emails you send out attract larger audiences.

One great way to get more subscribers is by creating and effectively promoting a landing page that collects email addresses. Pop-ups are also great at getting more blog subscribers.

 

#4: Create Your Own Products

Most successful bloggers make a large percent of their revenue from the products they create and sell to customers. Creating products such as books and training courses that a service automatically gives to customers will allow you to make money in your sleep. How cool would it be to wake up to an extra $200? I think that would be a great way to start off the day.

Many bloggers decide to offer consultation sessions and have ads on their blogs. I like the idea of offering consultation sessions. However, consultation sessions can only bring in so much revenue since you can only be available for your clients for so many hours. I believe consultation sessions can be used to achieve a five figure income, but a six figure income would be a bit too much (unless you charge a very high price for your consultation sessions or have numerous hours available for sessions).

Having advertisements on a blog, however, is simply not worth it. Most bloggers only make a few dollars from their ads every month. Advertisements can only provide a somewhat stable income for the big players who get hundreds of thousands of visitors every month. Even then, it would be more effective to promote your product instead of an ad. 99% of the time, a product sale leads to more revenue than an ad click. Offering multiple products also brings forth the possibility of returning customers. Who would possibly want to be a returning ad-clicker?

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/13NEK6j”]Most successful bloggers make a large percent of their revenue from the products they create and sell to customers. [/tweetthis]

 

#5: Optimize Your Blog For SEO

SEO is a powerful outlet for getting more blog traffic. Over three billion people search something on Google every day which means understanding the language of SEO will allow you to boost your blog traffic. I wrote an article about boosting SEO, but don’t stop there.

The Huffington Post wrote an article about SEO. So did Forbes. SEO is one of the most important ways to boost your blog traffic. Growing a social media audience is a reliable way to boost your SEO, and there are other methods as well.

To many new bloggers, intermediate, and even some advanced bloggers, SEO sounds very confusing. I remember when I first started blogging and struggled to understand what I needed to do to boost my blog’s SEO. Although writing valuable content is one factor towards good SEO, there are other factors that go deeper than providing valuable content. When I started on my journey, I found SEOmoz extremely helpful. Be sure to take a look at their free guide.

 

In Conclusion

Blogging is a fun activity that has the potential to bring in a large income. There are some bloggers on the web who make over $1 million from their blogs. Regardless of what you think of the idea right now, you could be the next blogger who makes a six figure income, a seven figure income, and beyond.

Blogging, and the web in general, has given our culture the unique ability for anyone to succeed despite the amount of revenue they currently make, age, and any other limiting factors. The web and blogging is filled with limitless possibilities. Utilizing these possibilities to spread your message will allow you to not only make a strong income, but also live the ideal life. I’d rather make no money at all than be at a despised $500,000/yr job that tears my family apart.

You have the option to love what you write blog posts about because you can write about anything that interests you. Frank Kerns, a very successful online marketer, started with dog training videos. His training courses he provided for dog trainers and owners got a large number of sales. No matter what you have a passion for, it can be turned into a blog and products.

Which of these tips did you like the most? Do you have any other tip you would like to add? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

The Three Most Debated Blogging Practices

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Blogging Practices

Millions of blogs now dominate the web, and over 150,000 blogs are created every day. Throughout this strong run blogging has had over the years, thousands of tips, books, and training courses have been created to empower people with the knowledge they need to become successful bloggers.

However, some of the advice in products and articles about blogging contradict each other. In many cases, contradictions occur because both sides of the argument can lead to better results. These contradictions have led debate around a bunch of blogging practices for several years. In this article, I am going to discuss my thoughts on the three most debated blogging practices.

 

#1: Blogging Frequency

I could probably write an entire book on this one blogging practice. Many people say you should blog consistently while a few people say you should blog inconsistently. People have mixed opinions about whether to publish daily, weekly, or at a frequency in between. Few bloggers suggest only publishing one blog post every month, but some bloggers succeed by writing at that frequency. Few bloggers suggest publishing multiple blog posts every day, but some bloggers publish new content at that rate, and get phenomenal results from it.

My blogging frequency has been around all of those spectrums. My Red Sox Blog was updated inconsistently. Sometimes, I would update it every day. At other times, I would update it every week or month, but never in a consistent pattern. That blog was basically my crash course to blogging in general.

Then, I wrote a Lego blog that got updated every week or two depending on how many other obligations I had. Then, I wrote a blog called Yugioh Philosophy that got updated every day. Once this blog you are reading surpassed the Yugioh Philosophy Blog in traffic and my overall passion went to digital marketing, I decided it was time to focus all of my efforts on this blog. In a few months, I went from daily posts to one blog post every 12 hours. Now, I only update this blog three times every week.

Here are the five reasons I decided to update my blog only three times every week:

  1. If you write longer blog posts, readers stay on your blog for a longer period of time. This is great for SEO.
  2. Longer blog posts tend to get shared the most, and most of the articles on Page 1 of Google are over 2,000 words long.
  3. Writing fewer blog posts makes writer’s block less likely because I only have to think about three ideas every week instead of 14 (writer’s block was a commonplace back then).
  4. I can go more in depth on the topics I choose to write about.
  5. It is less time consuming. Writing longer blog posts is less time consuming than writing shorter blog posts but spend most of the time struggling to think of the next sentence.

My recommendation is to write one blog post every day to get a feel for blogging, and once you become a passionate blogger, write three lengthy blog posts every week.

 

#2: Blog Post Length

I touched upon this debated blogging practice earlier, so I’ll be more brief than before. Seth Godin is one of the few people who gets away with short blog posts (that’s because he has a powerful influence over millions of people). However, the blog posts on QuickSprout (QuickSprout gets hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors) indicate that longer blog posts are the ones that become popular on the search engines and get shared more often.

Typically, the longer blog post gets more traffic than the shorter one. Search engines detect more keywords (but don’t overstuff your blog posts with keywords since that hurts SEO), and people read the longer blog posts for a longer period of time (this results in more engagement and subscribers). Just by writing longer blog posts, I almost doubled the amount of time people spend on my blog.

 

#3: Pop-Ups and Advertisements

One thing I am against is putting advertisements on a blog. Many people see advertisements as distractions that don’t bring in enough money (if you’re getting paid $1 a day for advertisements on your blog, then that’s more than most people). Instead of promoting ads on your blog, you should promote your products and subscription box so you can build valuable relationships that turn into more revenue than a pesky ad that brings in a few pennies per click.

At first glance, pop-ups look like giant ads. Pop-ups used to annoy me, but I have come to appreciate them. In fact, I use a pop-up on this blog to promote my free eBook 27 Ways To Get More Retweets On Twitter (you can grab your free copy here). In fact, if you haven’t seen it already, you may see it soon enough. Pop-ups are not giant ads; they are giant calls to action. Pop-ups allow your readers to know in a nutshell what they get for entering their name and email address. If you are looking for a reliable pop-up, then look no farther than Pop-Up Domination. I used Pop-Up Domination to create my own pop-up, and the entire process of creating your own pop-up and connecting your email service is simple and straightforward.

 

In Conclusion

Out of all of the blogging practices I have implemented and seen others implement, these are the three practices that have received the most debate. I myself have debated these very issues multiple times throughout various blog posts, and as I continued to write blog post after blog post, my views of these topics slowly changed.

I used to believe in short and simple daily blog posts, but now I only write three long, information-packed blog posts every week. I used to think that pop-ups were evil, but now I run them on my blog (and they increase subscribers quite nicely). I knew right from the start that advertising was evil, and I can never imagine a day when a pesky ad finds its way on my blog. I do use Adsense for my YouTube videos, but putting those ads on my blog would be too much for me to bear.

In the end, your views on these blogging practices will change based on how you implement these blogging practices and how your needs change. You may never implement advertisements, but you may realize it’s time to put a pop-up on your blog.

What are your thoughts on these three blogging practices? Do you have any other blogging practices that you would like to open for debate? Please share your thoughts and other blogging practices below.

How To Make Your Blog Hit A Tipping Point

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Blog Tipping Point

The tipping point is one of the most desired points to hit for any blogger. The tipping point represents a giant surge of traffic that increases beyond expectations. It is the type of traffic that takes a blog from a few hundred visitors every month to thousands of daily visitors in a relatively short period of time.

When my blog hit its tipping point, it originally got 500 views every month. Then, month by month, my viewership doubled until this blog got to 25,000 monthly views. It only took a few months to make that big transition. While this transition was taking place, I was utilizing many tools and resources to grow my presence, but I did not know everything that I know now. In order to make your blog hit a tipping point, these are the six things you need to focus on:

 

#1: Provide Valuable Content

Promoting your content only goes so far. One thing that determines your success as a blogger is how many people promote your content. Few people are capable of making content go viral on their own.  Only the Oprah types can accomplish such a feat. 99% of the time, content goes viral when the people in your audience share that content with their friends, and those friends share the content with their friends. Repeat the process a dozen times with each friend, and then you have viral content.

However, people are not going to talk about your content just because it is there. People primarily talk about extremely poor or valuable content. The poor content gets bashed while the valuable content gets praised. Valuable content is the content that wins on the web and gets shared the most. Valuable content results in more returning visitors and stronger relationships between you and your readers. Don’t be afraid to provide free value on your blog. In many cases, it is the free value that encourages the sale. So you’ll make more money anyway.

 

#2: Grow Your Email List

You have to listen to me on this one. I started focusing on my email list a few years after creating this blog. That was by far, undoubtably, without question the biggest mistake I made with this blog (I’m emphasizing this for a reason). Out of the first 100,000 visitors who visited this blog, I didn’t even get 300 subscribers because my blog was poorly optimized to get more subscribers. Your email list is so important because it gives you an easy way to communicate with your subscribers, and the click through rates are incredible. Even if you only get a 5% click through for your emails, that is a much higher statistic than the percentage of click throughs you would get on social media (almost always under 1%).

Some marketers go as far to say that the size of your email list indicates your income. Most of the successful bloggers who make six figure incomes have over 10,000 subscribers (although having 10,000 subscribers does not guarantee a six figure income, having that many subscribers is very helpful). These blogs get a surge in traffic when an email blast gets sent to subscribers promoting the latest article. Imagine having a list of 10,000 email addresses, and 7% of those people clicked on the link. That’s an extra 700 visitors just from that one email. Some of those visitors may decide to share the blog post on social media (very helpful for SEO) or write a blog post about your blog post. Most of the blog posts that I promote on this blog (that aren’t mine) are blog posts written by Seth Godin. I’ve been reading his emails every day for over two years. That’s not a coincidence. I typically share links to blog posts that I read in my inbox first.

Don’t make the same mistake I made. Build your email list now. It is your number one priority for turning blogging into a full-time income.

 

#3: Grow Your Social Media Audience

Once you write valuable content and have landing pages set up to collect email addresses, those pages need visibility. The web is a noisy place with millions of blogs. Someone finding your blog (or anyone’s blog for that matter) is like finding the needle in the haystack. Some needles in the haystack get found more often than others. In order for your needle (blog) to be found in the haystack (the web) more often, you need to promote your content on social media.

Not only is building your social media audience a great way to promote your content, but it is essential towards establishing your authority on the web. Having a large social media audience gives you better social proof. Think about it this way. Would you rather buy the Twitter guide from the person with 100 followers or the person with 100,000 followers? Would you rather take the Facebook course from the trainer with 1,000 Facebook likes or the trainer with 1 million Facebook likes. When you grow your social media audience, you can use the social proof to boost your credibility.

No matter what you do, never resort to buying fake followers. Not only does it hurt your credibility, but the fake followers will never engage with you. They will also make your real followers feel uncomfortable. Here is an interesting case study from Social Media Today about someone who bought 50,000 Twitter followers (and was disgusted by the results).

 

#4: Boost Your Blog’s SEO

To many bloggers, SEO is still confusing. The main reason SEO seems confusing is because there are so many factors that go into a search engine’s ranking system. Some search engine tactics such as adding alt tags do not necessarily improve the value of your blog posts. Those types of search engine improvements are the ones that get done behind the scenes so search engines can understand what your blog is about.

My recommendation is to only learn a few SEO methods at a time and implement them one by one. Focus on improving your blog’s bounce rate, linking to your other blog posts, including alt tags in your pictures, growing your social media audience (that helps with SEO) and writing longer blog posts (while keeping the value). My recommendation is to master one of these tips at a time and then move on to a new set of tips. You can start with any five tips you desire. I wrote a blog post that contains a few more tips about boosting your blog’s SEO.

 

#5: Put In More Work Than You Already Are

If you want to make it to the next level in anything, then you have to put in the next level of work. The more time you commit to blogging, the farther you will go. If you spend twice as much time researching different tactics you can use to boost SEO, get more subscribers, and grow your social media audience, then you will have twice as much knowledge in those areas. If you spend twice as much time writing content, then that content will probably be longer and more valuable.

It is possible to reach a tipping point for your blog, but reaching that tipping point (or anything important and worth the time) is not an easy task. I wrote blog posts every day even when I knew no one would see them. It was the process of writing every day that allowed me to get better, learn new tricks, and turn my blog into what it is today.

 

#6: Persistence

A blogger’s journey is one of persistence. For the average blogger, it takes a few years before his efforts turn into a full-time income. Every blogger, even the most successful ones, started out with no audiences of their own. Successful bloggers had to fight their way through the noise as they grew their email lists and social media audiences. It takes months of research to master SEO and a few weeks of research to learn what happens when Google comes out with a major search engine update.

If you are persistent, and you learn new techniques along the way, then you will become a successful blogger. Be patient, continue to put in the work, and success will greet you on the other side.

 

In Conclusion

Tipping points take a lot of work to pull off, but any blogger can experience a tipping point, the moment when traffic soars more than ever before. Even the most successful bloggers experience tipping points in their social media audiences, blog traffic, and the number of subscribers they get.

The key to becoming a successful blogger is by being persistent and learning new techniques along the way. Which tip was your favorite? Do you have any additional tips for bloggers who want to reach their tipping points? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

How To Find Your Blogging Niche

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How To Find Your Blogging Niche

If you have not created a blog yet, this blog post is especially for you. If you have a blog, and have not identified your blogging niche yet, you must identify that niche before you write another blog post. Every successful blogger knows what their blogging niche is, and by learning what your blogging niche is, you will know what you need to write about so you can become a successful blogger. Knowing your blogging niche is important for the following reasons:

 

#1: You get to know who your target audience is.

Just because someone visits your blog does not mean that person is a part of your target audience. Your target audience consists of people who were interested in your niche before visiting your blog. That means when these people visit your blog, they already have a strong interest in what you are providing.

Knowing your target audience also allows you to know who you need to interact with on social media. Not every social media user is created equal. If you are a digital marketing expert, you do not want to build a following around karaoke. You want to build your audience around people who want to learn more about digital marketing.

 

#2: You get to specialize your writing.

Believe it or not, it is easier to specialize your writing than it is to constantly write about anything. Although that statement may be difficult to believe in, writing about anything brings forth an infinite amount of choices. Being given that many options makes it difficult to make one decision. It is easier to make a decision you have faith in if there are only 10 options on the menu than if there are 1,000 options on the menu.

You can write about an experience, a motivational quote, a music song, an animal, your trip to the zoo, a long rant that you read from a blogger named Marc Guberti, or anything else. When you choose to write content for a specific niche, you will always have a general idea for what your next blog post should discuss.

 

#3: You know what to build your presence around.

In order to build your presence, you need to build that presence around one niche. When we think of Steve Jobs, we almost always think about Apple and nothing else. Some people also think of Pixar, but ultimately, when we think of Steve Jobs, we also think of Apple. You want to make sure people can easily associate you with a niche when they think of you.

Now that you know what to build your presence around, there are fewer obstacles holding you back. The main obstacle in the beginning is before you choose what you want to build your presence around, you tinker around with numerous niches. I wrote blog posts about the Red Sox, Yugioh Cards, and Legos before I started this blog. All of that time taught me about blogging, but now that I have chosen digital marketing as my niche, I waste less time.

 

#4: You know which niche is going to be your money maker.

In order to make money on the web, you need to create products and offer services such as eBooks, training courses, and consultation sessions. Once you identify your blogging niche, you are also identifying the niche you use to create products and offer services. When your blogging niche and your products match up, some of the people who visit your blog end up becoming customers.

By focusing your efforts on one niche, you will focus more of your time strengthening a few areas of your money making strategy instead of spending a little time implementing different methods to bring in a small income (i.e. taking surveys, clicking ads, tweeting ads to a small audience, etc).

 

How To Identify It

Identifying your blogging niche will allow you to save valuable time and grow the right audience. When I refer to a blogging niche, I am referring to a niche that you can stick with for many years to come. Ask yourself these three questions so you can identify the right blogging niche for you:

  1. What topics do I enjoy writing about? The only way you are going to make it as a blogger is by enjoying what you do. That way, when the journey gets challenging, you embrace the challenge when most people would give up. Besides, you are doing what you love to do. Create a list of all of the topics that you enjoy.
  2. Which of these topics do I know a lot about? Now that you have the list of all of the topics that you enjoy, identify the ones that you know about the most. If you make it big as a blogger, it is entirely possible that you will be writing about this topic for many years (or even decades) to come.
  3. Which of these topics do I enjoy learning more about? You must strive to constantly learn about the niche you choose so you are able to write more blog posts. If I stopped learning about digital marketing last year, I would not have been able to share the thousands of methods that I have learned within a year to grow your presence on the web.

You need to choose a niche that applies to all three of those questions. The niche must be something you enjoy writing about, are an expert in, and enjoy learning about. There is no in-between answer. Do not choose to write about a topic just because it is popular or your best friend likes that topic. If you can find a topic that satisfies all three of those needs, then you have successfully identified your blogging niche. With your blogging niche identified, you can now put content in front of the world that is related to your blogging niche instead of any blog post idea that comes up at the spur of the moment.

What is your blogging niche?

10 SEO Mistakes That Will Hurt Your Blog’s Search Ranking

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10 SEO Mistakes That Will Hurt Your Blog’s Search Ranking

Millions of blog posts are being written every day for various blogs across the web. One of the obvious facts that new bloggers learn quickly is that not all blogs and blog posts get equal attention. On a particular blog, some blog posts get more attention than others. There are some blog posts on this blog that always get more traffic than others. There are also some blogs that get more traffic than other ones. Out of all of the blogs I have, this one is by far the most successful.

The amount of traffic your blog gets is dependent on social media and SEO. Social media covers the sharing aspect and growing an audience on the networks you use. However, SEO is a much deeper concept that a select few understand. To everyone else, it looks like the extensive math problem that takes up the entire chalkboard.

Understanding SEO is important because it is a big avenue for traffic. Some people get thousands of daily visitors from SEO which means it is valuable. Although SEO is not exactly the do or die stage of a blog, it is important, and here are 11 mistakes you need to avoid so your blog can have better SEO.

 

#1: Not submitting your blog’s sitemap to Google.

One of the reasons why blog posts do not get SEO traffic is because they are not even indexed by Google. A sitemap presents all of the contents of your blog in a way that makes it easier for Google to read them. Submitting your blog’s sitemap to Google will allow them to properly index your blog posts. Indexing your blog posts on Google makes it possible for anyone to find any one of your blog posts with a particular search phrase.

There are many options for creating your own sitemap, but out of all of the options, the Google XML Sitemaps WP plugin is the easiest to use. This plugin makes it easy to create an XML sitemap to submit to Google so all of your blog posts can be properly indexed. Once you get your sitemap, head over to Google Webmaster Tools and submit your sitemap.

 

#2: Not knowing the difference between http and https

Actually, there is no difference, and that’s the problem. Search engines see http://www.example.com and https://www.example.com as two different websites with identical content. This is duplicate content that search engines associate with plagiarism. As a result, your SEO ranking will go down for both the http and https versions of your website.

In order for you to identify whether your blog has this problem or not, simply enter http:// before your blog’s URL. Then, do the same thing but with https:// in the front. When you do this, check your URL for spelling because you do not want a misspelled URL to give you the wrong webpage.

Your SEO is doing just fine if one of the two options worked. If both options work, then your blog’s SEO is getting hurt. For a WordPress blog, you can change your blog’s URL by going into settings–>general. Then, you can change your blog’s URL to your preference so people can either use http or https to access your blog. Visitors should not be able to use both http and https to access your blog.

 

#3: Not having meta tags for your blog posts

Search engines have a big responsibility in organizing billions of blog posts based on popularity, keywords, and value. Although search engines have this big responsibility, they struggle to understand a majority of blog posts. The reason why some valuable blog posts are not getting any search engine traffic is because they do not have meta tags.

I got introduced to meta tags more than a year and a half after I created this blog. I had to go through every blog post I ever wrote and add meta tags to them all. It was painstaking work that took several months of my time, but it was all worth it. My search engine traffic jumped up significantly after making the change. Any of my blog posts that were already doing good traffic from the search engines got a big jump in traffic.

I use the Add Meta Tags WP Plugin to add meta tags to all of my blog posts. I include keywords in these meta tags so search engines can pick up on them and promote my content. Meta tags, especially the meta tags with the right keywords, make it easier for the search engines to understand what your content is.

 

#4: Not understanding how Google sees your blog

Google sees your blog completely differently from you. It does not see the colors and pictures that may be on your blog posts. In order to make it easier for Google to see the way your blog looks, use the data highlighter in Google’s webmaster tools. Once you verify your blog, the data highlighter will allow you to let Google know how your blog looks (pictures, text, author name, etc). Using the data highlighter only takes 10-15 minutes, and it can have a big impact on your search engine traffic.

 

#5: Not improving your blog’s bounce rate

Your blog’s bounce rate allows search engines to identify how interesting your blog is. If your bounce rate is 100%, that means people are visiting your blog and then leaving without reading another article. A high bounce rate is bad for SEO and results in fewer conversions.

In order to see where your bounce rate is at, verify your blog with Alexa and then see their stats. Your blog’s bounce rate should be under 70%. A bounce rate under 70% means that at least 30% of your visitors are reading multiple articles on your blog. The lower you can get that bounce rate, the better your SEO and conversions will be.

You can lower your bounce rate through a variety of ways. Here are some of them:

  1. Include links to your older blog posts in your new ones
  2. Use Hello Bar to promote one of your articles, or better yet, a landing page
  3. Show related articles at the bottom of every blog post
  4. Show popular articles on your sidebar
  5. Redirect people to another page on your blog after they subscribe. This page should contain links to the best content on your blog.
  6. Show summaries of blog posts so people have to click (lowering bounce rate) to read the entire blog post

Most people do not see a sudden drop in their bounce rates. It takes a few weeks before seeing a significant drop in your bounce rate, and when I say significant drop, that usually means a 5-10% drop. Getting your bounce rate under 60% means you are moving in the right direction.

 

#6: Stuffing keywords

For a long time, keywords were the focal point of SEO. If your blog post had a lot of keywords, it would be on Page 1. If I decided to write the word “SEO” 100 times in all of my blog posts about SEO, those articles would have been #1 on Google. However, many people abused this rule, and Google sent their panda after those people. Many blogs suffered under the wrath of the panda, even the blogs that were getting millions of daily visitors.

If you try to stuff your blog post with keywords, then the search engines will make it more difficult for people to find your content. The worst part about keyword stuffing is that there are many offenders, but few people know that they are breaking the rule. My rule of thumb is to never use the same keyword twice in the same sentence. Synonyms are also very useful. If your keyword is “giraffe,” you can refer to the giraffe as an animal in one of your sentences instead of referring to it as a giraffe in every sentence of your blog post. Using synonyms to replace keywords will boost your blog’s SEO.

 

#7: Having too much anchor text

Anchor text is any clickable text in your blog post that leads to any webpage. In this sentence, “10 Easy Ways To Enhance Your Blog’s SEO” is anchor text. It is a clickable link that leads to another webpage. Anchor text is great for SEO and bounce rate, but having too much anchor text in one blog post can also be harmful.

The search engines won’t like it if you have dozens of anchor text links in the same blog post. However, there are worse consequences of having too much anchor text. The success of a blog all depends on how many visitors it gets and what those visitors do when they get on your blog.

If you have dozens of anchor text links in your blog post, it will be more difficult to read. I make my blog posts as easy to read as possible by writing short paragraphs and only having some anchor text. Imagine how different the reading experience of this blog post would be if every other sentence was anchor text. For the average person, it would be too much to bear, especially when there are other blogs on the web without that much anchor text.

 

#8: Letting spam comments infect your blog

Most of the comments you will get for your blog will be from spammers who are promoting their links without even bothering to read your content. New bloggers who want to boost their social proof often make the mistake of approving these comments. These bloggers reason that, based on the numbers, it is better to have 1,000 spammy comments than 10 real comments.

Having 1,000 comments indicates a popular blog, but the search engines know better. Not only are the links from most spammy comments bad (i.e. Get 5000 Twitter Followers For Just $3), but when engaged readers think of commenting on your blog, they get to see all of the spammy ones first. Would you want to comment on a forum group where all of the members were saying things like, “This is the magic pill that will make you lose 100 pounds in 10 days,” or, “Get a six-pack in six weeks”? You will lose the type of interaction that matters–the one between you and someone in your targeted audience.

 

#9: Not taking social media seriously

Social media is anything but a fad. It has completely transformed businesses and allowed blogs to suddenly become popular. The main reason this blog is popular is because of my Twitter presence. My SEO traffic has really been kicking in lately, but that is because I also get traffic from Twitter. Every day, I am getting hundreds of daily visitors from both Twitter and the search engines.

In addition to boosting your SEO traffic, social media allows you to interact with your targeted audience. I have made many wonderful connections on Twitter. Some of these people share my blog posts and buy my products. Social media is one of the most valuable traffic generating assets known to mankind.

 

#10: Not taking backlinks seriously

Backlinks are one of the most intriguing parts of SEO. When people think of backlinks, they think of the old and worn out practice of buying backlinks in bulk. Google caught on, and now the mighty search engine measures backlinks by quality instead of quantity.

When Google caught up to backlinks and declared quality over quantity, many people assumed that backlinks were simply dead. For a very long time, I assumed backlinks were dead just like many people who read contradicting advice on the web.

If you still believe backlinks are dead, take a look at the Alexa ranks for the most popular blogs on the web. Then, scroll down to see how many backlinks they have. Most of the popular blogs that are getting thousands of daily visitors also have thousands of backlinks. If you want to get more backlinks for your blog, implement these tips.

 

In Conclusion

SEO is a powerful way to get more traffic from your blog. Many of the mistakes people make are based on misconceptions and contradictory advice. I have tested various methods to boost SEO, and these are the good ones. However, SEO chances rapidly, and the methods to boost SEO are always subject to change.

You want to implement the methods that work now before Google changes the rules again with another panda attack. Implementing the methods now will allow you to get more visitors and allow more people to remember you. That way, if Google levels the SEO rules again, you’ll still get a lot of traffic from the people who remember you.