Archive for July, 2009
Blogging advice on how to create a professional blog
There is a lot of garbage out on the web and even more in the world of blogging. The most important blogging advice I can give is on how to blog like a professional. This includes some of the most basic blogging advice possible yet so many people overlook it. People will read your blog and as such you should approach it with at least some respect and writing ability. Here are five things you should always keep in mind when you approach your blog if you want to create a professional blog.
1. Edit your writing: Don’t just type in wordpress and hit publish. Use a word processor. Fix spelling mistakes and glaring grammar mistakes. If it is not 100% perfect it is okay but try your hardest to write quality content. Learn to edit your own writing. Proofread once or twice before you schedule your next post.
2. Headlines grab readers: Your headline should be something interesting. It should tell the reader what you are going to do and how you are going to add value to them. For example “Five ways to do something” or “Learn to do something” - If you write a generic title to your post then you won’t grab readers.
3. Keep it simple: Out in the web you have a wide range of readership. This means people of all ages and backgrounds. Keep your writing simple and make it understandable. Don’t write in lingo or specific language that only someone who is an expert in a field will understand. Write in common language.
4. Mix opinion and fact: It is good to share your opinion now and again on a topic but don’t only share your opinion. Support information with facts, surveys or links to show additional information. Give your statements some support to lend yourself creditability in your blog.
5. Readability is key: Block after block of text will put a reader to sleep. Try to work in bullets and numbers. Work on bolding important lines and breaking up the text to make it more readable.
Here are the five blogging advice to make your blog appear more professional. Hope they help and if you have any suggestions, please share!
![[del.icio.us]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Feed Me Links]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/feedmelinks.png)
![[Google]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/google.png)
![[Kaboodle]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/kaboodle.png)
![[LinkedIn]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/linkedin.png)
![[Reddit]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/reddit.png)
![[Squidoo]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/squidoo.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Technorati]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/technorati.png)
![[Twitter]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/twitter.png)
![[Windows Live]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/windowslive.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
![[Email]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
Filed under Blogging, Blogging Tips
Where to find blogging ideas when the well runs dry
After talking to a few people who blog I found a similar theme. They got into blogging because they love a general topic but after a few posts they start to run out of new blogging ideas to write about. They know the topic like the back of their hands and love to write but just don’t have any leads or interesting things to say when it comes to blogging ideas.
This happens even with the most creative blogger, at some point, the well runs dry. If you are at this point here are a few tips to help get the engine started again and find some new blogging ideas to write about.
Go read some blogs: Find bloggers who write on similar topics as you. Read their posts and the comments left by readers. See if you find a point that was not developed or if you have some of your own ideas that could further drive the point out.
Read some old posts: Go back to your old posts and read them over. Maybe you wrote about a topic and could revisit it now. Bring in new information, ideas or tips to breathe some new life into the article.
Check out the news: Read up on the current events in your area. Read related magazines and news websites and see if anything interesting just happened. Set up google news alerts on those topics so that you can have some new material each day to read and write about.
Hopefully one of these techniques will help you jumpstart you’re writing. Blogging ideas that are fresh and interesting are out there, just need to keep looking and you will find one.
Filed under Blogging, Blogging Tips
How to get involved in blog promotion
One of the things every blogger with dreams of making cash online needs to know is how to get involved in blog promotion. Blog promotion is the only way to get readers to your site. The more readers equates to more possibilities that one of them will click an advertisement and you then make some cash online blogging.
So, what is there to learn about blog promotion? A ton!
Blog promotion starts with the basics of learning SEO or Search engine optimization. This means building a blog that will rank high in search engine results. Majority of people who look for things online start out on a search engine and query keywords related to what they want to find. Your goal is to identify what keywords you are going to master and work them into articles and backlinks to your site.
Once you have SEO down, start looking into SMO or Social media optimization. This means having your articles picked up by social media giants like digg and stumble. It also includes using facebook, tweeter and any other social media you can to get the word out about your blog and each post you add.
Blog promotion is about getting the word out. Telling everyone who will listen and making it easy to find your blog. Everywhere you leave a footprint in the web should be an easy link to your blog. A forum, a comment on another blog or even in your email signature.
Get to work! There is time to make cash blogging but you need to get started today and get busy with your blog promotion to build an active readership.
Two tips to get involved with blogging for cash
A lot of the time people read profitable blogs and get jealous wishing they were in the business years ago so that they could make away with some of blogging for cash that is going on. No worries, there is still time to make some cash online blogging.
Now, before I mention two ways to get involved with blogging for cash, I need to state the obvious. This is not an over night thing. You will not start blogging and then make a ton of cash quickly. It takes years of posting on a normal basis and even then you might only make enough to put gas in the car. So before you get started be sure you have the patience and energy to stick with it for the long run.
The first tip to get involved with blogging for cash is to learn the art of rewrite. One of the worst things you can do is post the same information exactly as it is written in more then one location. It will kill your SEO advances. However if you write and article and then rewrite it over and over again, you are safe. So, if you want to get involved with blogging for cash, sign up for paying blogging sites like today or examiner and write content. Rewrite one post over and over and post it on your own blog and then all of the other places. It will take little time to do it and will get your keyword heavy content out there.
The second tip is to learn how to pick good keywords for your content articles. Picking good keywords for your content articles can be the difference between ranking on page one or page one hundred. Where page one is actually blogging for cash and page one hundred is useless. Check out Google’s Keyword Tool as a great place to start. Find keywords and write for them and then rewrite the article until you have enough versions to cover all of your blogs.
Hope the two tips help out - remember even content articles need to have some quality to them. They need to add some value or you will scare away the reader. So when rewriting and picking your keywords be sure to keep the reader in mind as much as as the search engine spiders.
Do you have an online journal blog?
A blog can be used for a number of reasons but one of the original reasons was as an online journal blog. The idea was to be able to post like a journal about a person’s life, not about making money online. Some where down the road marketing took over the concept and ran with it, greed took it from there but back in the beginning, an online journal blog was a way to simply put thoughts out there for the world to read. How long did this last? Not long.
While many people have now turned to make dollars online rather then the original intent, most still keep a private or online journal blog somewhere in addition. Usually a free blog where they post about their normal day to day life shared with family and friends. Do you have one? Do you only have your business blog or professional blog that is monetized?
I think many people fall out of love with blogging over time. It just happens. The make money blogging route while sounds great is a good deal of hard work. Takes a lot of time and energy to make it happen. Most people just do not have the consistency and drive to make it happen. In the end it is the personal online journal blogs that will stay around. People still keep on living their life and while their interests change, their need to post about what happened to them, who pissed them off or what made their day will always remain. Themed blogs like this one will fall out of favor eventually but personal blogs can be adopted to cover any topic no matter how random. If you don’t have one, start one. Will help you keep your balance on professional blogging and an online journal blog for everything else.
Filed under Blogging, Blogging Tips
How blogging plugin can make a bland blog interesting
Most bloggers are not going to create their own blogging theme, they are going to use a free one in the beginning at least. As a reader of many blogs, I get tired of seeing the same blog theme over and over again so what can be done to make a common blog theme standout from the rest? Blogging plugin.
There are so many blogging plugin out there that are free to install and with the latest version of wordpress, they take no effort or tech savvy whatsoever to setup. All you do is browse what is out there and activate them. If they require any configuration they will have an easy to use user interface for you to configure. These blogging plugin can be applied to pages and posts and add some flavor and personal touches to a standard theme. The more personal the blog feels, the more likely the reader will stick around. If you spend time to personalize and care for your blog, readers will notice. You will stand out as a person who is genuine versus someone posting to make a few dollars online.
Here is a post I did earlier which shows you where you can find some free blogging plugin.
Check it out and find some that you think your readers will enjoy. Maybe you want to promote more comments or increase your SEO. There are blogging plugin available for all of that stuff. Whatever you are looking to do to your blog, there is a plugin created and best of all it should be free.
Wake up your blog theme, go review your blog today and see what your sidebars have in them. See what you can do to make your blog theme stand out with a new blogging plugin.
Filed under Blogging, Blogging Tips
