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7 Reasons Why You Need To Schedule More Blog Posts

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7 Reasons Why You Need To Schedule More Blog Posts

To some, the idea of scheduling blog posts may sound unnecessary, but in reality, scheduling your blog posts in advance is a utopia. Is that a bit of a stretch? Maybe, but scheduling those blog posts in advance does come in handy. Here are seven reasons why you should start scheduling more blog posts.

 

#1: You get more comfortable as a writer

The key to producing valuable content is to be comfortable as a writer. If I had to rush this blog post and have it done by the end of the day, it would be tough to read. Being forced to write a 1,000 word blog post (which could sometimes turn into a 2,000 worder) with a time limit removes the comfort of writing.

However, I always have a month’s worth of blog posts scheduled in advance so I can comfortably write my blog posts. I can go in depth and provide more examples.

 

#2: You get to write longer blog posts

When you schedule numerous blog posts in advance, you are giving yourself extra time to add more meat to your blog posts. The reason why longer blog posts are better is because your readers stick around for a longer period of time. I could have listed these seven tips in just 50 words, but then my readers wouldn’t stay on my blog for a long period of time.

In addition to making your readers stay on your blog for a longer period of time, longer blog posts allow you to bring the main points home. I could have just mentioned that you have to get more comfortable as a writer and then went into this method. However, going more in depth allows more people to understand that something is important.

You must go into detail about why something is important instead of just stating that it is important. Being able to write longer blog posts allows you to develop a stronger why for your readers.

 

#3: You have the option to focus on more important goals when necessary

If you have months of scheduled blog post, you can take a month off of blogging and consistently publish new blog posts at the same time. In essence, your blog will temporary be systematized. Now you have the option to temporary focus all of your attention on more important goals.

When I have three month’s worth of blog posts scheduled, there is no reason for me to write blog posts at the same pace. Rules and concepts occasionally change in my niche which means if I continued at my pace and had 6-12 month’s worth of scheduled blog posts, some of them would be outdated by the time they got published.

Instead of writing more blog posts, I put more content into my books. Instead of writing 2,000 words for one of my book and a blog post each day, I am writing 4,000 words for one of my books and nothing for my blog for an entire month. That’s an extra 60,000 words for the book. The best part is that I continue to publish content on my blog at the same rate as I was before without writing a single blog post in an entire month.

 

#4: You have more control over your schedule

One of the biggest things I feared as a new blogger was getting home from an event at midnight and having to write the blog post at midnight so I could publish it at 9 am Eastern–the same time that I always publish blog posts on this blog. Luckily, that has never happened, and that’s only because I write blog posts in advance.

Scheduling blog posts gives me the ability to take a day off. I never have to write a blog post or send an email on major holidays because they are all scheduled. I get to spend time with my family instead, which is more important to me. Scheduling blog posts in advance makes sure that you never sacrifice family time so you can write the blog post that you need to publish tomorrow.

 

#5: You can do more research

Providing research in a blog post makes that blog post more interesting. If your research is related to your blog post, your readers will enjoy learning about the useful facts. For example, there are over 1 billion Facebook users. This is an interesting fact that I stick into many of my blog posts about Facebook.

Doing more research will also allow you to learn new things about your niche. The prime purpose for some of the research I conduct is to obtain new knowledge about my niche that serves as inspiration for my future blog posts. Knowledge is power, especially when it is on your side.

 

#6: Your content will grow in value

Since you are writing more comfortably, and you are able to write longer blog posts, your content will grow in value. When I first started this blog, I understood the advantage of having scheduled blog posts. As a result, I went on a complete working frenzy to schedule as many blog posts as possible.

When I rushed my blog posts, I was not doing a good job. Some were filled with basic typos that a spell check would have caught, and there were a few that confused me when I looked at them a few months later. I started to get comfortable with writing when I had numerous blog posts scheduled in advance. Then, I wrote better blog posts that, since being published, have been shared thousands of times across the web.

 

#7: You will be more a committed blogger

The more of your time and work you put into a project, the more committed you become. The typical college athlete is more committed to a sport than the typical athlete in elementary school.

The same concept applies for blogging. If you have numerous blog posts scheduled, you have more commitment because you know at this point that you have written thousands of words for your blog. I am committed to blogging because its fun, but another factor is that over 400,000 words are on this blog. It would be very difficult to simply walk away from all of that hard work.

Scheduling blog posts in advance will allow you to see the work you have accomplished. Seeing this work may make you think of your future in blogging, and that thinking process may boost your commitment.

 

In Conclusion

Scheduling blog posts in advance presents bloggers with many benefits. The main benefit of scheduling blog posts is that you become a better writer in a variety of areas. You may learn how to write more content in a shorter amount of time, write higher value content, and become a more committed blogger. I attribute the value of my blog’s content to the fact that I was able to schedule blog posts in advance, and therefore I could write comfortably knowing that I have months of blog posts scheduled in advance.

How many blog posts do you schedule in advance?

5 Steps To Make Your Blog Go From Hobby To Business

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5 Steps To Make Your Blog Go From Hobby To Business

Some blogs on the web are money making machines that allow bloggers to bring in six figure incomes. Before getting to this stage, many bloggers initially take it as a hobby. I considered blogging as a hobby for a very long time. Just to be exact, it took me about a year to go from hobby to business, and I wasn’t making much money when I started (that’s true about any blogger).

You may be on the fence right now still taking blogging as a hobby. It is great to start off treating it as a hobby because you need to enjoy blogging in order to be successful. There are tips to get more traffic and make money online, but if you don’t enjoy writing content, it is not going to work out. After you can consider blogging as a hobby, and you are eager to make the transition from hobby to business (that you still enjoy), here are the five steps you need to take.

 

Step #1: Write a bunch of blogs until you find your niche

When you first start out as a blogger, it is important to avoid settling with one blog right away. Although there are some people who know what they want to write blog posts about since day one, there are other people who make big changes. I wrote blogs and blog posts about the Red Sox, Yugioh Cards, and Legos before I started this one.

If I settled with the Red Sox blog, you would not be reading this blog post right now. I refused to settle with one idea until I created this blog. It is okay to have dozens of blogs before finding the best niche for you. When you identify your main blog, you have the option of using your other blogs to test out particular plugins, themes, or code before applying them to your main blog.

 

Step #2: Focus on the main blog

Once you identify your main blog, you need to solely focus your time on that individual blog. When I first started this blog, I was still updating my Yugioh Philosophy Blog because I had no idea how far this one would go. As a result, I was writing one blog post every day for the Yugioh Philosophy Blog and one blog post every day for this one. It was only when this blog started to get more traffic than the Yugioh Philosophy Blog that I paid my undivided attention to it. As a result, I did not write another blog post on the Yugioh Philosophy Blog, and I was able to write two blog posts every day for this one (I have stopped since then because when I say two blog posts per day, I am referring to 250-500 word blog posts).

The strategies I use to promote this blog change, but the blog I promote is always the same. Don’t try to juggle responsibilities for multiple blogs because you put all of that time into one blog, and provide more value to your readers. If you insist on having multiple blogs, my recommendation is to still focus on one of them until it brings a full-time revenue. Then, create another blog and have contributors for it. Neil Patel does this very well with his Quick Sprout, KISSMetrics, and Crazy Egg blogs.

 

Step #3: Look at the leaders of your niche

The reference to Neil Patel earlier is the proper segway for looking at the leaders of your niche. I examined the leaders of my niche so I could learn new information, what works, and what does not work. Neil Patel has multiple blogs that get over 100,000 visitors every month, and I read through many of the Quick Sprout blog posts.

In addition to Neil Patel, I also read what Jeff Bullas, Kim Garst, and others put on their blogs. Seeing how the leaders of your niche are writing blog posts will give you ideas for your own content. The best way we learn is by example, and by looking at enough successful bloggers in your niche, you will be able to learn from the best examples available.

 

Step #4: Write high value content often

One of the main reasons why most people get stuck at the hobby stage is because they are not writing valuable content often. Some bloggers write inconsistently. On one month, these bloggers are able to write 10 blog posts, but the next month, these bloggers only write two blog posts. This inconsistency indicates that blogging is still a hobby.

In addition, the content you post needs to be valuable. I could have ended this blog post a long time ago if I chose, but then it wouldn’t be as valuable. I could have simply mentioned the first three steps and then scheduled the blog post. However, extending the blog post to include other steps and examples increases its value.

Instead of writing a blog post just to say that you wrote one, write a blog post that you know your targeted readers will enjoy.

 

Step #5: Create products that match your niche

Most of the blogs that are bringing in the six figure incomes are doing so with products. There is the rare exception in which ads are bringing in a bulk of the revenue, but ads are the exception, not the rule. Most people cannot make a full-time income with advertisements just because a blog would need to be getting over 100,000 visitors every month to have a good shot at it.

Instead of relying on advertisements, you need to create your own products. The web has made it incredibly easy for us to write books, launch training courses, and create membership sites. All three of these products have the power to bring in six-figure incomes. Some of the people have used these products to make millions of dollars, and that is not an exaggeration.

Creating your own blog is a great way to get more traffic and spread awareness for the products that will bring in the revenue.

 

In Conclusion

Blogging is a fun experience that can also turn in big profits. Some people make six figure incomes just from their blogs, and in order for you to start making revenue with your blog, you need to go from hobby to business. You can still enjoy writing blog posts when you make this transition, and this love for blogging is critical towards your success in the area.

Blogging success is never an overnight success. For most bloggers, it takes several years before they get the type of traffic associated with a full-time income. However, blogging success is possible, and it has transformed some people’s lives.

6 Blogging Tools That You Should Start Using ASAP

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6 blogging tools you should start using asap pic

Blogging tools have the power to give your blog more functions, make it more valuable, and get more blog traffic. However, with a variety of options, many of the good blogging tools get overlooked. Some of these blogging tools may sound unfamiliar to you or too good to be true.

All of these blogging tools provide some value in a different area. When combined together, these tools have the power to enhance your blogging experience and get better traffic at the same time. Here are the six blogging tools that you should be using.

#1: Google Webmaster Tools

If only there was a tool that allowed you to see why your blog posts are not getting search engine traffic. This is the tool. Google Webmaster Tools explains why your blog is not getting much SEO traffic and how you can fix it.

An example of this is that http and https sites are two different things. Google will see http://yoursite.com as duplicate content of https://yoursite.com. In addition, Google sees your blog differently from you do. You also need to make it easy for Google to crawl on your blog.

To the typical newbie, all of this information sounds just like another headache. For the most part, Google Webmaster Tools comes along with valuable articles that take a part of the mystery out of SEO. If you want to get more SEO traffic from Google and ensure your articles are indexed on Google the way you want them to be, then Google Webmaster Tools is the right blogging tool for you.

#2: Optimize Press

Optimize Press is arguably one of the most powerful WordPress plugins out there. It allows you to create landing pages that match up with your emailing service (Aweber, Mailchimp, iContact, Infusion Soft, etc). These landing pages are easy to edit with the live editor. You get to change the button color of your subscription button, and what the text says. The best part is that you do not even need to know a lick of code!

In addition to coming with a variety of landing pages, Optimize Press also allows for membership site and training course creation. That means Optimize Press can bring in a big chunk of your revenue.

Just like almost every piece of technology, Optimize Press takes some time to get used to. That is why there are many tutorials that the people from Optimize Press provide for their users. If you are confused about something, chances are there has already been a tutorial done for that particular issue, and the tutorials are explained in an easy-to-understand manner.

#3: Canva

One of the most common practices is using a picture without asking for permission. Although some of these pictures have no licenses, there are other pictures that have copyright protection, and you don’t want to use those.

Instead of looking for a picture on the web and possibly (accidentally) using a picture with copyright protection, you can create your own picture. Many people, when presented with this opportunity, think of having to learn graphic design or something similar which involves a big investment in your time.

The great news is that you do not necessarily need to be a graphic designer to create stunning pictures for your blog posts. Canva is a free tool that makes picture creation easier. Canva allows for better looking pictures that when customized, can appeal to your article’s content.

One strategy that can now be utilized because of Canva is including the title of your blog post in the picture. The reason including the title of your blog post in the picture is important is because pictures grab our attention more than text.

Some people skip over the text and go straight to the picture. When this happens, your visitors can see the picture, read the title in the picture, and then know the title for your blog post. Including this picture also allows people to know what your blog post is about when they see it in Google Images or anywhere else on the web before seeing the actual blog post.

#4: Topsy

For every blogger on the web, there comes a moment when thinking of content becomes difficult. This is what has become known as writer’s block, and it is one of the worst experiences a blogger can have.

There are many suggestions to breaking writer’s block such as writing the ideas the night before or reading other people’s articles. However, there is another way to break writer’s block and get access to numerous ideas.

Topsy is a tool that allows you to see any tweet ever sent out. You may be wondering why Topsy qualifies as a blogging tool let alone a way to cure writer’s block. The answer is that since Topsy contains every tweet ever sent, it also contains numerous ideas. There are over 1 billion tweets sent out every 2-3 days which means there are trillions of tweets to choose from.

It is impossible to read all of the tweets ever sent. Life is simply too short. That is why Topsy allows you to find specific tweets by entering specific keywords. Then, you can see all of the tweets within a certain time range.

When I search phrases like “social media” and “blogging,” I get to see the headlines that other people are tweeting. If I see an article named “3 Social Media Tools For Success,” I may create a blog post called “6 Blogging Tools That You Should Be Using ASAP.”

Although I do not remember whether Topsy was the exact tool I used to come up with this blog post, I have used it to come up with several blog post ideas over the years.

#5: iContact

Although any emailing service that allows you to easily communicate with your subscribers will do, I would give a slight edge to iContact (probably because of experience). iContact gives you many emailing formats, and editing the emails you send out is incredibly easy.

One thing you can do with iContact and most emailing services is send out emails with a summary of your blog post and then the ability for your reader to click on a link to read the rest of the blog post.

Another option that iContact and most emailing services present is your ability to create any email with any type of text as long as it is neither spammy nor inappropriate. This gives you the option to notify your subscribers about product launches. You can create the buzz for your products (that you possibly create with Optimize Press) using iContact.

#6: WordPress Editorial Calendar

The more blog posts you schedule, the more difficult it will be for you to know whether all of the days are accounted for. There are many bloggers who schedule blog posts weeks or even months in advance.

This is a great strategy to get more comfortable with blogging (always being consistent will not be as much of a concern since you are already being consistent for a long period of time). This strategy becomes a problem when the blogger checks their email and does not receive a new blog post.

One of the problems I had when I was writing two blog posts every day is that when I first implemented this change, I did not realize that on some days, I was sending multiple articles to my RSS subscribers at the same time.

This problem existed for a while until I got the WordPress editorial calendar. This calendar allows me to see all of the blog posts I have scheduled along with the dates and times they will be sent out. The best part about this editorial calendar is that its function is exactly what it sounds like: you can see the titles of your blog posts on a calendar that correspond with the day the blog post is scheduled to be published.

The WordPress Editorial Calendar is a great way for you to stay organized, especially when you are writing blog posts several weeks in advance.

In Conclusion

With the right tools, you can turn blogging into a full-time income that brings in thousands of daily visitors and turns you into an influential person in your niche. The quicker you can get comfortable with your blogging experience on a technological scale, the easier it will be for you to write more content for your blog and create products along the way.

Which blogging tool is your favorite? Which tools do you use?

8 Reasons Why You Need A Blog

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8 reasons why you need a blog pic

Creating a blog is one of the best experiences the web has to offer. In fact, over 152,000 blogs are created every day, and there are millions of blogs on the web already. Due to all of these blogs, the web has become a giant hub for information with billions of typed words for specific topics. It is amazing how much time bloggers have collectively spent typing over the years.

Yet, there are still people who do not have their own blogs. There are still people who are not taking advantage of all of the opportunities that blogging has to offer. There are still people who are not sharing their content to the world with a blog. If you are not a blogger, here are 8 reasons why you need a blog. If you are a blogger, these are the reasons why you need to continue blogging.

#1: You Have Full Control

When you have your own blog, you get to decide your own work hours. That means if you want to wake up in the morning to write blog posts, you can. If you want to take a three hour break, you can do that too. In fact, you can take the day off if you choose.

Blogging gives you the control and flexibility that a day job does not provide. If you have a kid, and your kid’s school bus arrives an hour late, blogging gives you the option of picking up your kid at school instead of having that kid wait for the bus. If you are at a day job from 9 to 5, then that opportunity to pick up that kid from school will not be available.

#2: You Get To Stay Home

One of the big benefits of blogging is that you can write blog posts in your pajamas. You do not need to get up, put on a blazer and tie, and get to work. There is no commute with blogging.

No commute allows you to save a lot of time. It takes some people an entire hour to get to work and then another hour to get back home. If you are in this scenario, blogging will give you two extra hours to do more work.

#3: You Get To Write About Anything You Want

It is a shame that most kinds of work as associated as activities we do to pay the bills. There are many people making money from jobs that they hate. With a blog, all of that changes. Instead of being given a set of instructions and working for someone else, you get to work for yourself. You get to create your own instructions and decide what you write about.

That means you can write about the topics that you are passionate about. If you enjoy golfing, then write blog posts about golfing. If you enjoy fashion, then go for it. You can write about anything you want as long as it is not inappropriate content.

#4: The Entire World Gets To See Your Content

There is a big difference between you and your English teacher seeing your content and literally allowing the entire world to see your content. Putting your content on the big stage gives you more responsibility for your content.

In addition to giving you more responsibility for your content, it is a great feeling to publish a blog post. Your content has the power to serve anyone on the planet. Imagine getting a comment from someone on one of your blog posts thanking you for writing that blog post. It is a great feeling, but the only way to experience that feeling is by clicking the publish button and grow your audience.

#5: You Can Make A Full-Time Income

Blogging is a great way to put your content in front of the world, but it is also a great way to generate a full-time income. A blogger can make money by using his/her blog to grow an email list, interact with those subscribers, and create products along the way.

There are some bloggers who have made lucrative incomes from their content. John Chow is a blogger who makes hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. Imagine how much your life would change if you were making six figures every year from your house. Blogging gives you the power to do that.

#6: You Can Make Money In Your Sleep

The bloggers who have turned blogging into a full-time income make money in their sleep. These bloggers wake up to more sales, advertisement clicks, people who want to be consulted, and more activities that generate revenue.

It is a great feeling to wake up and start the day knowing you just made an extra $100 for sleeping in your bad. The only way to make money at a job is by being awake and active for as long as possible. At the same job, working for 40 hours every week brings in more revenue than working for 30 hours. If you turn blogging into a full-time income, you can make more money than someone working 40 hours every week in half the time!

#7: The Income You Make Is Dependent On The Work You Put In

In the status quo, wage is typically a constant. You get $10 every hour for performing a series of tasks. Not working long enough makes it more difficult to pay for the taxes. Blogging has no wage based income. That means the amount of work you put in will be a decisive factor in how much income you make.

The revenue that comes from blogging starts off very low for a long period of time, but then, after putting in the right work, that revenue will skyrocket upwards.

That’s what happened to the blogger who are now making a full-time income. At one point, they were not making any revenue from blogging, but now they are making six figures every year. Some bloggers even make seven figures every year.

#8: You Get To Connect With Like-Minded People

One of the many things every person enjoys doing is talking to someone with the same interests. If two cross country runners are talking to each other, they always go on and on about intense practices and funny moments in their running careers. There’s no question about it (I should know).

A blog gives you the power to connect with like-minded people. When these people leave a comment on your blog, you have the power to continue the conversation with that person. As the conversation develops, you and that person will develop a strong connection. It may not be like a best friend connection, but it is a connection. Some of these people may buy your products later on.

In Conclusion

Blogging is one of the best experiences that the web has to offer. The potential for blogging transcends the status quo, and some people have been able to make full-time incomes from their blogs.

Do you have a blog? If not, do you plan on starting one?

14 Things You Must Do If You Are A Blogger

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Blogging can potentially be a great experience that brings in a big profit and allows you to grow a list of email subscribers who you can easily communicate with. The only way to tap into this wonderful experience and turn your content into a stream of revenue is if you know what to do as a blogger.

The journey from new blogger to full-time income takes a few years, and there is no such thing as an overnight success. There are certain things that all bloggers must do in order to make it big. Here are 14 of them.

 

#1: Utilize social media

Growing a social media audience will allow your blog posts to reach out to more people. It is important to choose one social network and excel at it instead of being bad with multiple social networks. Once you master a social network, continue mastering it while trying to master another social network.

As your audience grows, you will be able to use social proof to entice people to stick around and come back. Many people like to go back to the things that are popular. If you have thousands of followers on one social network, you will be able to use this large number to indicate that you are popular. Indicating that you are popular will result in your visitors coming back for more.

 

#2: Use an email service like iContact to communicate with subscribers

The money is not just in the list. The money is also in your ability to properly communicate with that list. A service like iContact makes it dramatically easier for bloggers to interact with their subscribers.

Interacting with subscribers is not the same thing as having them subscribed to an RSS feed. By interacting with your subscribers, you are able to develop a deeper connection. You can ask your subscribers how their day was before you mention your article. You can even promote your products to the people on your list so you get more sales. They say the money is in the list for a reason.

 

#3: Grow your email list

The larger your email list is, the more people there are who get your emails. No matter which emailing service you use, you need to get people on that list to communicate with in the first place.

There are plenty of ways to grow your email list. One of the most successful methods of growing an email list is something that many marketers refer to as the bribe. A bribe is a free prize that you give to the people who subscribe to your blog. PDFs, reports, videos, and digital books are popular bribes that result in more subscribers.

Another great way to get more subscribers is by including a call-to-action at the end of all of your blog posts. I use the Optin Forms plugin by Codeleon to easily create an effective call-to-action at the bottom of my blog posts. The plugin gives you different themes to choose from and allows you to change the colors of the optin form.

 

#4: Create Your Own Products 

Creating your own products definitely beats relying on affiliate marketing. I know that there are some people who are bringing in a full-time income from affiliate marketing, but the problem with affiliate marketing is that you are dependent on another seller. You never want your income strategy to be dependent on affiliate marketing because it is an inconsistent income stream. Even for the best affiliate marketers, there are some really good months, but there are also really bad months.

Creating products is the better approach towards building a strong income with a blog. By creating products, you are able to bring in a more reliable income. Creating your own products makes you closer to bringing in consistent revenue.

 

#5: Enhance your blog’s SEO

Although having good SEO is not a do or die stage for a blog, enhancing your blog’s SEO has the potential to bring in thousands of extra visitors.

Getting people to share your blog posts more often and growing your social media audience are two great ways to boost your SEO. In order to get more people to share your blog posts, you want to either go in depth in a certain area or be concise. My suggestion would be to have a mix of both of those kinds of blog posts so you are able to identify which ones get shared more often.

Growing your social media presence and constantly posting links to your blog posts will also boost the amount of shares your blog posts get (as long as the blog posts are valuable to your targeted audience). Writing longer blog posts also helps out in the process. Here are some more tips to help you enhance your blog’s SEO.

 

#6: Know your market

#5 kind of led into knowing your market. In order to be a successful blogger, it is important to know who the desired visitor is. This desired visitor needs to be interested in your blog’s topic before visiting your blog in the first place. Just ask yourself what kind of content you write and what kind of person would be interested in reading it.

For this blog, I pursue people who are interested in growing their online presence and making a strong income on the web. If you have been reading this blog post word for word, I know you are definitely a part of my target market.

 

#7: Write 1 blog post every day

Writing 1 blog post every day is essential to getting more traffic. Writing 1 blog post every day gives you more of your blog content to share on your social networks so you are able to generate more traffic.

In addition, the math supports writing numerous blog posts. If you have 1,000 blog posts, then each of those articles only needs to get 1 daily visitor for your blog to get 1,000 daily visitors. If your blog only has 10 blog posts, then each of those articles needs to get 100 daily visitors in order to bring in 1,000 daily visitors.

Although that is a big difference, the quality of your content is a decisive factor towards how much traffic it will get. Just because something is up on the web does not mean people will automatically come.

Writing 1 blog post every day is especially valuable to newbie bloggers. The best way to get better at writing is by writing every day. The best sports athletes in the game got to where they currently are by practicing every day. Writing is no exception, and you need to be a skilled writer to attract a large following of people who easily remember you.

 

#8: Write down blog post ideas

One of the biggest challenges that stops bloggers dead in their tracks is writer’s block. This occurs when a blogger runs out of ideas. Writing new content becomes more challenging when a blogger encounters writer’s block.

This is why it is important to write down your blog post ideas so you do not forget them. I write down blog post ideas the moment I think of them, and in most cases, I end up writing a blog post around that idea many days later. Relying on your memory to remember all of the blog post ideas is a mistake.

 

#9: Look at articles on the web about blogging

Most of my knowledge of blogging has come by looking at other people’s articles and experimenting with my own methods along the way. Since you are reading this article about blogging, then you are already ahead of the game!

Problogger and Copyblogger are two great blogs (other than this one) that provide tons of valuable information about blogging.

 

#10: Read books

The only reason I do not sound like your English teacher right now is because I’m not asking you to read Shakespeare books. Reading books as a blogger serves two major benefits:

  1. You get to see other writers’ styles.
  2. You get to learn new things (core values, things about your niche, etc).

Since you are a blogger who should be writing about what you enjoy, you should also be choosing books that you enjoy to read. The reason why people see reading as dull is because few people get to pick and choose the books they read. As a result, you should only choose to read the books that you would enjoy reading.

If you want to read Shakespeare, then go for it. If you want to read something more modern, that’s also great. Your decision should be based on what you want to read.

 

#11: Improve your blog’s speed

Google loves a fast blog which means if your blog is slow, it’s not getting as much search engine traffic. There are plenty of simple ways to make your blog load faster. One method is to show an excerpt for your blog posts. If a headline catches a visitor’s attention, that visitor can click on the headline to read the entire blog post.

Another great way to make your blog load faster is to upload smaller images. In many cases, it is the images that make a blog take forever to load. I use Smush.it which is a free plugin that has the power to shrink images.

 

#12: Create a compelling About Me Page

For thousands of years, human beings have loved a good story, and this love for a story has not outgrown us. We enjoy hearing good stories, and we remember them very well. Stories like Old Yeller and Unbroken are unforgettable to the people who read them.

Although you do not have to turn your bio into a novel, you should be sure to create a compelling About Me Page. Tell your visitors your story, where you came from, how you struggled, how to progressed, and where you are today. Make your story one of those stories that people feel obligated to pay attention to.

 

#13: Show off your popular articles

All of the people who visit your blog for the first time will have no idea what to expect. The advantage you have with a new visitor is if that new visitor likes the headline and content of the first blog post they see, that visitor will become curious.

For those curious new visitors, showing off your popular articles on your blog’s sidebar is a great way to get more blog traffic while reducing your blog’s bounce rate. If your popular articles are really good, some people will browse through all of them. At that point, you can rest assured that this person will become a returning visitor.

Showing off your popular articles is also great for the visitors that you currently have. Showing this option will give your visitors more content to browse through, and popular articles are usually associated as the best articles on the entire blog.

That means all of your visitors, new or returning, will go into those blog posts thinking that they are extremely valuable. All you have to do at that point is live up to the promise and provide your readers with valuable content.

 

#14: Make your blog easy to navigate through

One of the most under looked ways to get more blog traffic and decrease bounce rate is by making your blog easy to navigate. You must make it easy for people to…

  1. Access the pages on your blog
  2. Access your content
  3. See your popular posts
  4. See your subscription form

By making it easy for people to navigate through your blog, they will stick around longer. The longer someone sticks around, the more likely that person is to become a customer.

 

In Conclusion

Blogging is an exciting journey that has allowed many people to work at home while making a full-time income. If you do not have a blog, I highly recommend starting one, and if you already have a blog, then you’re in good shape. Always enjoy every moment of the journey and strive to raise the bar higher for yourself.

And don’t forget to continue practice writing. The more you practice at it, the better you get.

The 5 Elements Of An Irresistible Blog

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One of the hardest things to do with a blog is make it an irresistible blog. Irresistible blogs are the types of blogs that people can browse through for a long period of time. We all have our favorite blogs that we browse through for many minutes at a time. You want people to be browsing through your blog for many minutes as well.

Including links to your older blog posts is a great strategy to lower your blog’s bounce rate. Including these links does help out, but your blog needs to be the type of blog that your targeted readers would want to visit countless times.

You want people to be visiting your blog for many months, and eventually many years to come. You want your blog to be so memorable that people come back for more. Here are the five elements that go into making your blog irresistible.

 

#1: Have eye-popping pictures.

Pictures have the ability to attract people to a blog post and identify what the blog post is about. Some people will unintentionally skip the headline and go straight into reading the blog post content. That is why I include pictures in my blog posts. If I write a blog post about Twitter, I make sure I include the Twitter logo. That way, if someone reads past the headline but sees the picture, the reader knows the article is about Twitter.

One of the big concerns with using pictures in your blog posts is that many people use images that they do not have permission to use. That is why it is important to create your own pictures that you do have permission to use.

Creating a picture is not as hard as many people think. You do not have to learn graphic design to create your own pictures. Instead, you can use an online tool such as Canva to create your own pictures. Canva has a variety of functions such as creating a picture for your blog posts, Twitter header, Facebook background, and other functions as well. The best part is that the pictures Canva allows you to generate can be eye-popping.

 

#2: Have good headlines. 

Although some readers skip the headline, the people who are staying on your blog for a long time are reading through those headlines. Headlines allow your visitors to know what exactly your blog post will be about.

However, you do not want a simple headline that tells people what they are going to read. I could have called this blog post “5 Blogging Tips,” but “The 5 Elements Of An Irresistible Blog” is a more specific title with the pull-word “irrestible.”

There are many pull-words in a headline that fill people with a strong desire to read your content. Depending on the niche you are in, those pull-words will vary. In order for you to identify the pull-words of your niche, look at other blog post headlines in your niche. Then, ask yourself if the headline is attracting your attention and which words are pulling you in. Afterwards, experiment with your blog and see which pull-words, when used, grab the most attention.

The better your headlines are, the more clicks those headlines are going to get. One of the best strategies to making sure everyone reads your headline is by editing the picture and including the blog post’s headline in the picture. Canva allows you to do this.

 

#3: Make it easy for people to navigate through your blog.

It is mandatory as a blogger to make your blog easy to navigate. There are many blogs on the web related to yours, and if your visitor feels confused with your blog’s navigation, that visitor will not stick around for a while. When someone visits your blog, that person is choosing you over the countless other blogs out there. Make each visitor feel welcome.

Having good navigation means making it easy for people to access the pages on your blog and blog posts based on certain categories. If you write long blog posts, only include short summaries of those blog posts that require a click to see the whole blog post. Regardless of how well you write, there are going to be some topics that particular readers won’t care about.

Some of this blog’s readers are only concerned with the content about blogging. That means, scrolling through a bunch of 1,000 word blog posts about social media won’t be their cup of tea. Shortening these blog posts will only result in these people scrolling through 50-100 words of other content until they find the content they are actually looking for.

Making it easy for people to find what they are looking for and then delivering on the value will ensure that these people stick around for a long period of time.

 

#4: Have the right colors.

The colors you use for your blog have a big impact on how well it does. Color psychology is one of the most underrated areas of marketing, but it is a great way to make a blog look more attractive.

Women do not like gray, orange, and brown. They like blue, purple, and green. Men don’t like purple, orange, and brown. Men like blue, green, and black. From this data, you should make sure your blog post includes blue and green colors so both gender groups like the colors on your blog. Here is a detailed blog post on KISSmetrics that goes into color psychology.

 

#5: Include good social proof.

We have a natural tendency to come back to something that is popular. That means if you have good social proof and can show yourself as a popular expert in your niche, people will come back more often. All of the social media experts are quick to show their credentials and social proof.

The social media experts with hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers make sure people can easily see the Twitter follow button with the exact number of followers. I display it on my blog’s sidebar, and the Twitter button happens to be larger than the rest of them.

 

In Conclusion

By combining these elements together, you will have an irresistible blog that grabs attention and makes visitors stick around for a long time. Getting people to stick around for a longer period of time boosts your chances of getting subscribers and sales.

In addition, Google loves it when people stay on your blog for a long period of time. That means your blogs will gradually get more search engine traffic. Not only does making your blog irresistible result in people staying on it longer, but it also results in more traffic in the long-term.

What were your thoughts on the list? Do you have any additional tips for creating an irresistible blog? Please share your thoughts and advice below.