Showing posts with label blogger. Show all posts
Little known Ways to Increase Traffic to Your Blog
Thousands of new websites and blogs are created every hour of the day. How is anyone going to see yours?
When you have worked long and hard to create the perfect blog to showcase your work, your writing or your worldview, you want as many eyes as possible on this masterpiece.
Since the early days of the web, developers and marketing professionals have fought fiercely to bring their content and business to new customers.
The majority of people in North America spend so much time online they should be sent to addiction rehab centers. But how can you get them to pay attention to you?
Guest Posting
In the business world we call this cross-promotion. Blog viewers want lots of content and they require a certain frequency of posting.
You can’t really post any less than once a week or people will stop coming to your site. Guest posts significantly increase your ability to post.
Guest posting doubles or triples the amount and quality of content available on your site, with little effort on your part. Guest posting allows you to create backlinks to your site, increasing your SEO value.
Having a popular and well-respected blogger from another site write content for your blog will give your work a new legitimacy.
Why not share your audience while creating a new community of loyal blog readers?
Create a Community
If your blog focuses on a specific topic, city, music genre or business philosophy, there may be other people writing on similar topics.
Build relationships with them.
The best way to make your blog stand out and to promote yourself at the same time is to start commenting on your favorite blogs.
Commenting on blogs allows people to see your point of view or maybe laugh at your jokes; then they will follow the link to your blog.
Give it Away Now
Many successful bloggers started out with tiny sites but took a gamble on increasing traffic to their site through contests and giveaways.
Everyone loves a free gift, and nothing drives readers to your site faster than a chance to win something. Find a local business to donate prizes or create an irresistible item or product that people want.
Then, offer anyone a chance to win the prize by subscribing to your site, following you on social media, commenting, or any other way you want to retain your audience.
Everyone wins when you offer something of value in addition to your great writing and interesting content.
Diversify Your Content
You are proud of your blog and the content you’ve created. Now show it off in other formats to attract whole new audiences.
If your blog is primarily text-based and full of interesting articles, now is the time to add video and audio content. It’s easy and inexpensive to record audio interviews with leaders in the field of your blog topic.
Video can be produced with just a phone these days, so you have no excuse not to make short videos and post them to YouTube or other video-sharing services like Vimeo.
Don’t try too hard to create a “viral video.” We never know which of our videos will suddenly become crazy popular.
All you can do is create content that is funny and informative and then send it out on every social media platform.
Send in tips to popular blogs encouraging them to feature your new content, and soon you will be exponentially increasing traffic to your blog.
Focus on photos
It can be incredibly difficult to constantly create content, write and edit it, film or record it, then upload everything. An easy way to increase the amount and quality of your blog content is to make a daily or weekly photo series.
Blog readers love to share the spotlight, so have them really interact with your site and send in photos. High-traffic blogs almost always focus on photos and pictures, GIFs and memes to engage viewers and bring even more people to the site.
Host an Event
Finally, you want to celebrate after all your hard work creating a popular blog. A great way to create loyalty with your audience is to host a fun meetup!
People love to meet and talk to the “man (or woman) behind the machine.” It gives your readers a sense of community and participation to meet with fellow blog enthusiasts.
Now you know what to do to make your blog a total success: host a great event, post colorful and engaging photos, explore new formats, offer contests with prizes, strong commenting and guest posting.
In no time you will have thousands of new and loyal blog readers. Then it’s time to monetize.
Image courtesy of xedos4 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The Many Benefits of Being a Travel Blogger
Do you have a passion for traveling the world and that same passion for blogging as well? If so then you should consider becoming a “travel blogger”!
While I’m not a traveling blogger, I do travel a decent amount and part of my business is blogging. I’m actually writing this post as I’m on a flight on my way to Naples, FL for a quick trip!
With the concept of blogging and taking trips around the world in mind, I thought it would be a fun idea to write a post about the many benefits of being a travel blogger.
I’m not a lawyer or accountant, so some of these ideas and tactics might not be effectively practiced by all… but from what I’ve seen and heard the travel niche is quite an interesting and fun one to be in!
Great reasons you should consider being a travel blogger…
You Get Free Vacations! – This one can be looked at a few different ways. If you have a big travel site that a lot of people are visiting and looking for reviews, hotels and destinations could pay for your trip to their location in exchange for full reviews on your site.
Business Write Offs – Another way to look at your travel and vacations as a blogger is being able to use them as a cost expense and writing them off through your business. This means you would be able to user your business credit card to pay for the expenses versus using your personal card.
Massive Money in the Travel Niche – If there is one niche that you can easily think of that won’t be going away any time soon, it’s the travel niche. There is so much money being spent by travel agencies and they need to book new travel, vacations and hotel rooms to continue to stay in business. If you have an audience of people coming to your travel site, you can definitely sell some premium ad space on your site.
It’s Fun and You Get to See the World! – Probably the number one reason for becoming a travel blogger is that you get to see the world and reap all the benefits of it being your job and business in the process.
Running a travel blog isn't for everyone, but if you have the time and patience for travel, there is a whole world of opportunity out there waiting for you!
11 Essential Tips to Secure Your Wordpress Blog
There have been a lot of brute force attacks recently both on WordPress blogs and Joomla sites. There are even web-based, commercially available tools that are being used to launch these attacks – and they are very effective.
Fear not! There is some steps you can take to make sure that your WordPress site is secure against brute force attacks, keeping your site, its content, any products you offer, your money, data, and, most importantly, your customers safe and sound.
Why Bother Protecting WordPress?
You may not realize it, but your WordPress blog can go wrong in a lot of ways, and if it does, it would have horrible consequences for your business. Some of these problems include:
- Temporary issues ranging from something as simple has having your password reset, causing you to be locked out of your account or having your site redirect automatically until you gain access to your account again and correct it.
- Loss of content can really be disastrous. Imagine if a hacker got access to your account and deleted all of the articles you had. Do you have them all backed up? Imagine all the time, money, and effort you’ve put into your content gone.
- Whether your products are digital or physical, hackers can wreak havoc on your products. If you’ve got a line of digital products (eBooks, graphics, videos, so on) that you keep on your server, they could easily be stolen and distributed. And if you think you’re safe because you sell physical products – think again. How could you know that a hacker changed information so that it looked like they paid for an order until it was too late? You’d have shipped the order out before you realized that you didn’t have the money.
- Speaking of money – how much would you lose if a hacker gained access to your account? Do you make your money from advertisers? How much would you stand to lose if your site went down for any length of time?
- Are you in the habit of keeping your personal data stored away on your server? Emails, passwords, personal, potentially sensitive information would be just a few clicks away to even the most novice of hackers. This is exactly the kind of thing that sells well in the “information age”. Even if the hacker didn’t have plans to sell your information, they certainly could make good use of it themselves.
- If none of the rest has bothered you, perhaps this will: You reputation. When you build a business around yourself, your reputation is key. Most damage is not permanent, but it can and does take a long time to repair – sometimes years. Think of all the business you stand to lose if your customers don’t think that their privacy is protected when they buy from you.
11 Easy Steps to WordPress Security
1 Update WordPress Often. Easy, quick, and simple. Updating WordPress often can help to protect you from hackers. So if you notice a new update out, install it! Critical security updates are issue by WordPress from time to time.
2 Choose Your Username Wisely. Be thoughtful when you choose your username. Don’t do the standard “admin” as so many do, and try not to make it easy to guess by using your name or information about the products you sell or the genre you thrive in. “SteveDog” isn’t too hard to guess when your name is Steve and you sell products related to and discuss dogs all the time.
3 A Strong Password is a Must. Though the importance of strong, alphanumeric passwords has been talked about for years, a surprising amount of people still use simple, easy to guess passwords such as “Password”, “12345678”, and “ABC123”. Others use easy to guess passwords that involve personal information “Sally92”. Though most sites now require you to use an alphanumeric password with a minimum length (some are even including a minimum of one character [!,*,@]), it is still very important to choose something hard to guess. If you’d like, use a password generator when coming up with your password.
4 Don’t Use the Same Info From Other Blogs. If you use the same log in information for all of your blogs, chances are that all of them will be hacked if one gets hacked. Choose different log ins for each blog so that you don’t have to worry about losing all of your blogs when you’re already stressed about losing one of them.
5 Don’t Use Log In Information From Different Sites. Similarly, don’t use the same old usernames and passwords that you use for several other sites, otherwise the hacker might decide to see what other problems they can cause for you on those sites, as well.
6 Attempted Login Limits. WordPress offers plugins that allow you to limit the amount of login attempts that can be made. This is incredibly effective against brute force attacks.
7 Two-Part Authentication. If you want an extra layer of security, go with a two-part authorization. This will send a secret verification code (something which cannot be guessed to your cell phone. This code has to be entered to log in to your blog. You can read more about this and other two-part authentication at:http://en.support.wordpress.com/security/two-step-authentication/
8 Password Protect wp-login.php. Another simple way to deflect brute force attacks is to password protect the file “wp-login.php”. It’s actually pretty simple to do. Hostgator provides an easy tutorial for you to follow, although it might not work on other hosting accounts. http://support.hostgator.com/articles/specialized-help/technical/wordpress/wordpress-login-brute-force-attack
9 Hide Your WordPress Version Number. Not running the most up-to-date version of WordPress? Hackers can and will find out about and exploit this fact by using security holes. But it’s pretty easy to hide what version number you’re using in just two steps. Firstly, open functions.php and add
remove_action(‘wp_head’, ‘wp_generator’);
That’ll get the version number off of your header, but hackers can still access it through your RSS feeds. To prevent that, add
function wpbeginner_remove_version() { return ”; } add_filter(‘the_generator’, ‘wpbeginner_remove_version’);
into the functions.php.
10 Protect wp-config.php The configuration file is usually found in the root WordPress folder, which makes it easy pickings for hackers. But, it doesn't have to be there! It’s easy to move and will still allow WordPress to function properly. If you’re wp-config.php is located in /public_html/wp-config.php, simply move it to /wp-config.php . Problem solved!
11 CAPTCHA is a huge deterrent for hackers as it takes time and effort most aren’t willing to put in. Simply get a CAPTCHA plugin – there are several – and add that final layer of security to your WordPress.
Conclusion
Thankfully securing your blog doesn’t have to be hard. If you take these very easy steps right now, taking only a few minutes out of your day, you don’t have to worry very much or often about hackers.
10 Time-Saving Tips For The Busy Blogger
Editor’s note: This is a contributed post by Syed Balkhi an entrepreneur and a public speaker. His passion revolves around helping businesses succeed. He is known for his creative marketing skills and web development experience. He is the founder of WPBeginner and List25 sites that have been featured on NYTimes, Mashable, Huffington Post, Business Insider and TechCrunch.
Whether you blog for personal or business reasons, creating quality content can really eat up a lot of your time. This is especially true if you want to make a dent in the online world. Creating awesome content that is informative and worth sharing requires significant time and effort to research and write.
There is a defined process to creating a successful blog even after writing and publishing your articles. You must take time to promote your content and be prompt in responding to comments from your readers. After that, the whole process starts over again and it’s time to write your next post. Sometimes we wish we can just wave a magic wand and new content magically appears, but unfortunately that’s not how it works.
Unless you can afford to hire your own writers similar to large publishing companies, you’ll have to do it all yourself. Consistency is key if you want to be successful and earn a living from blogging. Don’t worry though. Here are some time saving tips that can help you write with more efficiency and be more productive.
1. Have A Specific Place To Store Your Ideas
One of the biggest challenges most writers encounter is thinking of ideas and topics to write about. Writer’s block is common to most bloggers. Ideas often come to us at unexpected times and in unusual ways. Ideas can come to us while taking a walk, playing video games or even chatting with friends.
Having a place to store your ideas is important.
Either have a little notebook handy or use a notes app on your smartphone to capture your ideas. Write down any ideas that come to mind. Don’t be concerned about the relevance or quality, just get your raw ideas written down. Later on you can go back and review and edit your ideas to help you finalize your next blog topics.
2. Create A Content Plan
Aside from writing down ideas, take time to create a content plan. Your content plan should be in the form of a calendar. It is where you will track types of post you will create and when you will publish each one. You should also note your promotional strategy in your content plan for each post you publish.
By updating your plan on a regular basis, it will help you be more productive and be more consistent in creating and publishing your content.
3. Create An Outline For Each New Post
Once you have figured out the title and have written the introduction for your article, the next step is to create an outline. This is especially helpful for articles that are in a list format. Creating an outline will help you shape the flow of your content, making writing your post easier to complete.
After creating your outline, tackle the most difficult part of your article first. I find this method works well to keep my writing process on track.
4. Schedule Time To Write
Have you ever sat in front of your computer and just stared at an empty screen? Don’t worry. You are not alone. The best way to tackle this problem is to schedule time for yourself to write. Pick times when you feel most creative and alert.
Choose a time when you’re likely to experience the least distractions. Some people write better in the morning, while others write better at night. Make sure you stick to your schedule and make it a habit.
5. Remove Distractions
When you have set up your writing schedule, the next thing you need to do is eliminate all distractions. Turn off the television, close your email client and log off your social networks. By removing distractions you can better focus and be more in the creative zone.
Writing requires a lot of concentration. You want your words to flow naturally. Don’t let those seemingly little distractions derail you from creating great content.
6. Use A Timer Or Set A Deadline
Another effective trick is to set a deadline for yourself. Let’s say it takes you two hours to write and edit a blog post. Set yourself a deadline and stick to it. The time you allow yourself will depend on the kind of article you’re writing and your overall writing skills. The key here is discipline.
I know some friends who even use a timer. This tool is a great way to get you hustling and more focused on the writing task at hand.
7. After You’re Done Writing, Take Time To Edit
Have you tried writing your article and editing it at the same time? It doesn’t work very well. I know this is hard for some writers to understand, but it is something that is important if you want to create well written content. The main reason for this approach is to give yourself the opportunity to truly focus on just writing and to let your thoughts flow.
Constantly stopping to edit will just distract you and derail your train of thought. Don’t stop to check grammar or spelling until you are done writing your first draft.
8. Fact Check, Create Your Tags And Add Photos
After editing your work for grammatical and spelling errors, the next step is to do your fact checking and add meta tags. At this point you can also add images that will complement your article. By doing these activities in batches, you save time and can concentrate on actually writing your post. Establishing a defined, repeatable workflow is key for maximum productivity.
9. Back Up Your Site
Imagine you wake up one morning and your blog is gone. All your work has disappeared. One key step that most bloggers tend to miss is backing up their website or blog. Do not wait for your site to get hacked or infected with malware before implementing a back-up strategy.
If you are unsure of how to go about backing up your blog, hire a professional to do it for you. Being prepared will save you significant money, time and aggravation in the event that something bad happens.
10. Use Analytics To Avoid Guess Work
Aside from using the comments and social-sharing statistics to help judge how well your content is resonating, you may want to look at implementing more formal analytics. If you struggle with analysis (finding which topics your readers like and share the most), the best thing to do is implement Google Analytics on your site to eliminate the guess work.
Google Analytics will give you a good idea of the kind of articles that resonate most with your audience. Your site’s analytics will show you who visits and on which pages they spend the most time.
Knowing how your readers interact with your content will help you better gauge your audience’s behavior and preferences. If you are new to blogging, it is a must to set up your Google Analytics at the start and not lose out on valuable analytical information.
Final Thoughts
As a blogger there are so many things you can do to shave time off your blogging workflow and to-do list. By saving time on your writing process, you can allot more time promoting your articles, replying to comments and building relationships with other bloggers.
What time saving activities have you implemented? How much time have you saved? Share your tips with us here. We would love to hear from you.
