6 Ways to “Shoot Up” Your Blog

Blogging Tips December 31st, 2007 Say Something (1)

Time to let your blog shine, dust it off and let others marvel at it…
Go to Google and execute a cursory search on “Ways to improve your blog”, and the quest will likely return hundreds of results, all of which seem to originate from existing blogs. Visit several of these blogs and scrutinize carefully what you find. Unfortunately, the blogging community is falling to the rear of the websites in terms of attraction and usability. The six major arguments brought out below tend to emphasize the problems that bloggers face and the best approach to correct these troubles.

Blogs do not have to surface in a dissimilar aspect then do the websites, after all a blog is merely a platform, which facilitates people to publish content online. A blog symbolizes a personal online journal that is posted on the internet and updated on a daily basis. In actuality, the blog is fashioned after a personal notepad. So here are some, not so unknown, ways to shoot it up and get some traffic & subscribers.

1. Comment Like Crazy on Blogs
Pay a visit to other similar blogs. Make several mental observations of their pros and cons. Are they more successful then yours? Study and compare your blog with theirs during each visit to the related blog. Be an active supporter of other online blog communities. Most blogs will allow readers to leave their own comments. If you have something interesting to say about somebody else’s blog, then do it, being sure to add a link to your blog in the process.

Do not believe for one minute that you must keep your writings to put on your own site only. Feel free to place them on other sites as well. The presence of your entries on another site may be just the thing to wet someone’s appetite and cause them to visit your blog. Comment frequently to get your name and URL out to the others in the blogging community. However, do not post comments just to post your link. That is obnoxious and does not do good things for your image.

2. Write a weekly “Cream of the Crop” Post
Bring out the best of your blog. It does not have to be you only that writes your blog entries. If you have a guest that has stated something of interest whether it pertains to you or not then make it a note to let others know it was a great idea. Include them in your “Best of Post” area. It will pay off in the end as people find that is the best way to judge a blogs contents while at the same time it will broaden your blogs audience. If another blogger within your community posts an interesting comment, then link to it and respond by adding your own comments. Keep in mind the Track-backs do bring fresh traffic to your blog.

3. Utensils Are Where It’s At
There are so many tools or widgets designed for bloggers to help get traffic.
The web is loaded with ”utensils” and ways to spice up your blog. Stickiness is always a way of grabbing the attention of other bloggers as well as to gather additional readers. Installing a graphical user interface item on your blog for which the visitor can interact is certainly one way to increase reader participation.

4. Give Your Blog Some Character
Above all, try to create a pretty blog. If your blog is pallid and boring, people simply will not have a very good time interacting with it. Ensure that the fonts you select are readable, and go easy on the flashing banners. Avoid the popup ads when possible as well as the giant bright text as these are most certainly annoying to your reader and will send him surfing the net elsewhere. Your blog should be highly visible and as attractive as possible when viewed in all browsers.

5. Rock Your Personality 
Chat with your visitors and get to know them. You must really get to know your readers on a more or less personal basis. Begin by telling your friends of your blog. Do not automatically assume that they will find you but rather you must direct them to your blog. At the same time, tell your friends to pass the information on to their friends also.

6. Give Readers What They Desire
Maintain themes for your blog based on your readers’ desires. If you are even remotely serious about the health of your blog, you should consider whipping your existing theme into shape or even creating a new one that’s well designed in terms of look and code. Your chosen theme will play a great part in the success or failure of your blog. There are many free themes available, which would blend in well with using a specific theme based upon the day of the week.

When possible install a traffic analysis gadget on your blog to learn about the patterns of your visitors. Be sure to be diligent when responding to a comment that readers may post on your blog. Be sure to answer all directed e-mail promptly. I think, these measures will help you to improve your blog considerably!

6 Tips for Easy Reading Blogs

Blogging Tips December 29th, 2007 Say Something (0)

Each writer has to cultivate their own method of effective writing and over time become a master of their own characteristic style. Their writing however must be straightforward and easy to understand while being simple to read. With these basic traits in hand, you can surely rake in the compliments without having to possess the skills required of a modern novelist. “Cuz believe me, I ain’t no great writer!” < I was being sarcastic.

Be PreciseMaking use of those extra lengthy paragraphs and plugging in the spacious words does not really work out well when writing for the blogging community. Most of the blog readers do not read and absorb the phraseology contained in a blog like they would in a stylish novel. Instead, most bloggers will rapidly skim the through the data in an effort to hastily extract each and every bit of important information which may be contained in the blog.Developing an effective and successful blog does not have to be a drudgery nor should it become your lifelong work for twelve to sixteen hours each day. In a nutshell, blog writing should be nothing short of practical day-to-day writing. Nothing elaborate and nothing too carried away. We look forward to providing you with a few straightforward hints aimed to helping make your blog easier to read.

1. Keep your Blog Appearance Pleasing, clutter free
When setting up your blog be sure to keep your colors proportional. By this, I mean make the font color seeable with the background color. The combination should be easy on the eyes and require no squinting to read. Closely associated with color is the font. Choose a font that is easy to read and above all avoid the fancy fonts and those that are similar to scripts.

Keep your navigational scheme simple and easy to use. Do not try to confuse your visitors or you won’t see them come back. Do not plaster ads all over the site in the hopes that someone will click on it and you will make money – it does not work that way.
Lastly ensure that your page looks good regardless of the browser you are using and the screen resolution for which your monitor is set for.

2. Make Your Headlines Crazy Catchy
When a visitor first arrives at your blog the initial thing they perceive is your blog headlines. The age-old saying about the importance of first impressions has never been truer. When you create, your headlines make sure that they are as descriptive and appealing as you possibly can make them. The objective here is to catch the readers attention immediately and then to keep it. Always be on the look out for new and different entry techniques to add to your arsenal of ideas. Writing effective and catchy headlines is a skill in itself that all bloggers should perfect.

3. Be Honest & Direct
Do not force your reader to spend his day reading halfway down the page in order to understand the drift of what you are trying to convey. This information should clearly be presented within the first paragraph and then further developed as your writing continues.

4. Scrutinize
Provide your reader with a little extra help in getting through your commentary swiftly and proficiently by smoothly guiding them to the heart of the article you have written. Use some bold accenting being certain to provide logically break points for lengthy posts making them into more bit size chunks. Be careful though that you don’t overdo it.

5. Is Your Spelling All Wet?
Above all else do not misspell words – there simply is no excuse these days. Use your spellchecker to initially review your document for the proper spelling of all the contained words however be forewarned. Spellcheckers are not foolproof and are notorious at making their own assortment of errors. Rely more upon your initial training and honed skills at word checking rather then the word processors spelling checker. Give your complete script several cursory proofreads – One before checking the spelling and one again after the spell checker has been used.

6. Give These Paragraphs Some Breathing Space
You should make generous use of bullets to get your point through to your reader. Your blog visitor will be able to read much quicker and he will appreciate your thoughtfulness at helping to get him over the reading and allowing him to move on. He is definitely likely to return since he realizes in advance that he can cover more ground at your blog then the one down the street.

I hope these little notes are of some use to you in making your blog easier to read. In conclusion, do not just write to convey information to your reader – follow these simple rules and write so that the readers can actually READ IT!

Mark Joyner Gives Away Free Blogging Course

Blogging Tips December 24th, 2007 Say Something (0)

Just doing my part ok, 

I’m evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they’re letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I’ll let you know what I think once I’ve had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it’s still free.

Extremely Simple Advice For Bloggers

Blogging Tips December 21st, 2007 Say Something (0)

For me, my outlook changed and I am now looking at life and my blog in a whole different way. Now all the things that probloggers were saying to do for the beginning steps of starting your blog, finally hit me. For instance, I was told to do just as much as you can, just keep doing it and not to be afraid to throw something out there to see if it sticks. Yeah yeah this is very basic and doesn’t help someone figure out what thier topics should be but EVERYONE has an interst or a hobby. If you can pin point that specific niche you are interested in and are passionate about then just go for it. See if it “sticks”. Another big tip I received in some form or another is to spend as much time commenting on other people’s blogs as you do posting on yours. Like I said before this is just a quick post for those beginners who have no idea where to start.

To start, I say not to worry about the SEO (search engine optimization) or the analytics. Find that something that you KNOW, love and want to share with people, then go out there everyday and write about it. You WILL build an audience.
Deborah Micek of the Sickest Blog System, said in an interview to just be there, get blogging, get podcasting and get video up on your blog as soon as possible. Video is something that is happening now, get on board that ship and learn the ways of video… Heck, I am attending the MasterSeminar here coming up the end of January in Vegas, and I plan on getting as much people as I can on video doing short interviews. Video is what people want to see, it is whats more entertaining and fun. Of course, I am all about that! Currently I am a part of Deb and JP’s Blog i360 program, I must say the hosting is a bit high but within a week my subscriber count went up about 8 more than where its at. Not much but for a week and two posts later but it was like magic. If you want to learn more about that program and what thier backend does for blogs and how much of a time saver it is, click HERE.
I am trying to not be everything to everybody, when you do that, you lose focus and the fun will end. So that goes back to focus on your passion and blog as often as you can.