Guest Post on Other Blogs

Guest posting is not the same as writing articles, as it typically means you have a relationship of some sort with the other blogger. By saying something original and interesting, you can turn many of the other blogger’s readers into your own. You don’t necessarily have to guest blog within your own niche, either – sites that talk about leasing groups financial sites, mom blogs – they’re all into guest blogging and welcome quality content that matches their own niche. Either way, you’ll enjoy interacting with others.

Try a Google Adwords Campaign

Google adwords allow you to advertise your blog without organically ranking very highly. This is a potentially very good way to get started and get some traffic flowing, sort of like priming a pump. This is one of the easiest ways to get some traffic coming to you. You’ll find searching for the right keywords to be an entertaining and enjoyable experience. Just make sure you start small so you don’t lose a ton of money.

Comment on Articles

If you write intelligent and thoughtful comments on articles and blog posts, you have the ability to promote what you’ve written by demonstrating what you know and how you can share your knowledge. Often, people find new blogs through reading the comments of interesting bloggers and clicking through to the links of those who left the comments.

Utilize Your Social Media Profiles

If you have Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, it makes sense to promote yourself on all three of these platforms. Whenever you have the ability to write out your blog’s URL for people to come visit you, do it. If nothing else, it makes finding you easier for people who’ve heard about you and want to learn more.

Write a Book in Your Area of Expertise

A lot of great writers over the past few years have released a book to cover a lot of ground that they also cover on their blog. But a writer need not be great to do this. Even if your writing skills are middling on their best day, people trust your word more if they know it’s also in print. Even if they never read your book, the fact that you’re a published writer they could look up on Amazon will build your credibility considerably.

Promoting your blog usually involves writing, and the process needn’t be hard or annoying. Just look at every new visitor you get as a new person who appreciates what you do and what you have to say. If you focus on promoting yourself, in time you’ll have tons of readers.

What Is Google Webmaster Tools?

Google Webmaster Tools is not only a way to check the ranking of your blog, but offer great inside information on what works for your blog and what doesn’t. Blogger can see which keywords attracted the most people and from where. The tools also allow bloggers to see which websites link to the blog and even give users the ability to set preferred domain names. In other words, Google Webmaster Tools gives you much of the information need to know to make your blog successful. While it may take time, every blogger should be using these tools.

Why Should I Use Google Webmaster Tools?

Let’s say you write about a popular topic and use the right keywords, but the page views are dismal. With Google Webmaster Tools you can get a better understanding of why your post bombed. The same is true for a post that drew in thousands of readers. You can look and see where the visitors were coming from, which keywords drew them in and where your page currently ranks. Google Webmaster Tools can even tell you if there were problems while indexing your site and which errors led to the problem. Best of all, Google Webmaster Tools gives you an inside look on how your site stands up to others when people perform searches for keywords that your posts contain.

While Google Webmaster Tools may not be able to give you all the answers you need to succeed, it can make a difference in how your site performs. Whether it’s telling you where traffic comes from, which keywords work best or just how well your page ranks, Google Webmaster Tools offers useful advice for bloggers wanting to blog professionally. So, what do you have to lose? Dig a little deeper and learn what you can do to make your blog the best it can be.

Include Live Links to Your Best Blogs

Chances are you have a number of blogs and there’s another chance that some do better than others. Including live links in your resume makes it easier for companies to view your work. Be sure to link to the homepage of your blog and that your blog looks the best that it can. Before sending out or posting resumes, you should tweak your design and remove any unnecessary clutter.

Highlight Your Accomplishments

A blogger resume should also contain a list of accomplishments you have made as a blogger. You may want to list your most prestigious awards, number of page views and followers or comments received by important people in the field of your topic. Remember, you are competing with other bloggers. You need to show companies why you are the right person for the job. Just remember to include proof of your achievements in the form of pictures or live links.

Mention Stats

If important people follow your blog or social networking accounts, it pays to mention this. A company will be interested to know that the content you write for them could be seen by potential investors or people willing to endorse the company. People want to know your story. Other information worth mentioning includes search engine ranking, number of pieces of content published and of course how long you’ve been working in the blog industry.

Explain Your Skills

Last, but certainly not least, you should highlight your skills. You want to list the platforms you’re familiar with, your understanding of SEO, your ability to connect with readers through social networking sites and your knowledge of social bookmarking sites.

Creating a blogging resume isn’t that difficult. You need to understand though that there are a number of other bloggers applying for the same jobs. Your resume needs to stand above the rest by showcasing your skills, accomplishments and stats. Don’t forget to also include live links throughout your resume to show off your best work.

The best place to start is the Weblogs section of the website About.com. The reason is that this site provides tips along with the listing of blogging jobs. You can also visit the larger websites like ProBlogger that advertise the blogging jobs. Do not miss the mainstream job sites like Career Builder and Monster. Generally, these sites will post better paying jobs. Another option is the blogging network, which hires paid bloggers. They are acquired to look after existing blogs. Network will typically ask for samples on the specified topic. You can also check out the blogs like Deborah’s where freelance writing jobs are advertised. You can also get jobs that offer you a share in revenues.

Always have a blog of your own while looking for a well-paid blogging job and make sure it is updated every day. This allows you to demonstrate your capabilities as a blogger to the talent hunters. You can share your blog with your relatives, friends and business associates. Having your own blog also allows you to gain experience that will be handy while applying for blogging jobs. You also need to be persistent as there are many people looking for these jobs. After having gained more experience, you can also go for better paying jobs and remember to keep away from frauds as some unscrupulous characters have entered the business and they do not pay for your work. Ensure that you are working for a reputed company.

Use your social media to generate traffic

Some blog owners still don’t like using social media sites to promote their blog, which is a shame. Links provided to social media sites can generate quick feedback and visits because it’s easier for your friends and acquaintances to click on the link and then read the article. Don’t be shy, self-promotion is not a bad thing.

Posting schedules should be considered

You may have written a wonderful article. But before you post it, make sure that you post it in a day and/or time where you will get more mileage from it. Study your blog traffic and post your great articles on a day or time when you usually anticipate more traffic going to your site. Just post your more “generic” content at a time when there is less traffic – even on a weekend if you want to.

Use a more critical eye when reviewing your post

Don’t just write and post your article. Before you publish your blog post, take some time to step back and look at what you’ve just written. Chances are there are some things that you can tweak and improve. For example, a more descriptive title, or a stronger opening to your post.

Many times, I find myself tempted to write headlines with a twist, or funny ones that are meant to be an insider joke (meaning only a few people would understand it). If you run a blog intended for such a purpose, then by all means, go for it. For instance, you might run a literary blog, and you are fond of writing poetry. In many cases, the titles of your posts can be simply one word. It can be as far out as just a single exclamation point.

However, when you run your blog with the intent of providing useful information, or as a source for news, reviews and editorials, it makes sense to use relevant headlines. In this case, you need to include relevant keywords in the title itself. Including relevant keywords in the title can both help your blog become more visible in search engines, and it will also make your post more attractive to human readers, such as those coming from feed readers. After all, at first glance, it’s the title of their post that they encounter, and so people will often judge the content based on the headline.

Let me ask you this: when you do a Google search for a certain topic, do you necessarily click on the first result in the list? Or do you click the title that seems most appropriate to your query?

I must admit that in doing reviews for submissions here on EatonWeb, I often scan through post titles, both current and archived, before reading through posts. This lets me get a feel of what a blog is all about, even before I read through entries. It helps me gauge the relevance of a blog at first glance.

Write a better blog. Start with great headlines.

1. Build more relationships.

Bloggers are often too focused on writing. They forget that blogging is a great social channel. How many other bloggers do you know?

Of course, you can start the process by leaving comments. But you can do much more. Send a blogger a guest post. Introduce yourself to another blogger. Ask for a link. Reply to an interesting message on Twitter. Basically, anything that allows you to interact directly with other bloggers will usually be more effective than simply leaving comments.

And why build relationships? Well, it’s fun. It makes blogging less lonely. And relationships can definitely lead to profitable partnerships.

2. Add multimedia.

Whether you add podcasts, video posts, or both, using multimedia adds a lot of perceived value to your blog. Think about it this way, “Out of these three products, DVD, audiobook, or book, which is the cheapest?”

Multimedia allows you to reach a different audience in your industry. For example, in this Perfcast interview, Darren Rowse said he gets a different group of commenters whenever he does a video post.

With videos, you can get more traffic by posting them on YouTube since YouTube gets a lot of traffic.

Multimedia also lets you set your blog apart since most blogs still don’t use multimedia.

You don’t have to suddenly shift your blog to audio or video only, but I’m sure even a monthly multimedia post will pay big dividends.

Here are two introduction resources to help you get started: Intro to Podcasting 101 and an interview with a video expert.

3. Diversify your monetization.

Too many bloggers get lazy when it comes to monetization. This is easy to do since monetization is usually the last thing we focus on. But with a little effort, you can diversify your income streams and make more money.

For example, if you’re only using AdSense, take some time to find an affiliate program that would fit your blog. Try searching “[name of your industry] affiliate program” on Google. Also, look for direct advertisers. This is effective especially if you get a lot of AdSense clicks. You can contact the owners of the sites that show up on your AdSense ads and see if they would like to advertise directly with you. Usually you save them money since Google won’t be taking their cut.

My favorite monetization method is creating your own product. I like this method because you don’t have to share the profit and you don’t have to deal with advertisers. Also, you can create an info product so you don’t even have to deal with shipping and handling. Here are some product ideas to consider: video, audiobook, ebook, membership program, and paid forum.

Over to You

What resolutions will you make in 2009?

1. Be prepared.

I listened to an mp3 about how Jerry Seinfeld prepared for his first appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. This was many years ago when Seinfeld was an upcoming comic and The Tonight Show was a very popular show. Seinfeld knew there was a chance he would be nervous during his performance. So, he practiced his short monologue over a hundred times because he knew that proper preparation leads to a confident performance.

As bloggers, we can learn from Seinfeld’s work ethic. How prepared are we to blog? Do we know our niche well? Have we researched our niche audience? Do we know our competitors? Did we create a well thought out plan for creating content and gaining attention in the long haul?

Yes, there is the mistake of over-planning and over-preparation. But blogging without enough preparation is also a mistake. Too many bloggers jump into blogging without enough preparation.

If you feel unprepared to blog, you may need to take a break from blogging (or at least, post less frequently) and take time to prepare, research, and plan.

2. Break your tasks down in smaller steps.

Doing something big and bold is good for your blog. Let’s say you decide to do a seven-part series of posts. Or a list linkbait of 101 things. However, it can be intimidating to think about the project.

By breaking down your projects into smaller tasks, the projects won’t seem as intimidating. Smaller tasks are easier to accomplish and you’ll gain momentum and confidence as you complete each small task.

Also, don’t just use this tactic on your big projects. I’ve broken down 400 word posts into smaller chunks (paragraphs and even sentences).

3. Gain trained in the art of writing.

I started blogging because I was passionate about my niche. However, I soon realized that I didn’t have much writing chops. It had been many years (back in college) since I had written on a consistent basis.

So, I read a couple books about writing. This helped me remember the writing fundamentals from my college days. Here’s a good list of books to get you started.

Also, start reading popular blogs and books in your niche and you’ll get a feel of what good writing looks like. And getting feedback from other writers helps too. I recommended join a blogging or writing forum to network with writers and bloggers.

4. Celebrate small positive trends.

Look back at some of your stats – maybe the number of comments or monthly visitors. If you’re trending upward, you can feel confident that as you blog consistently, you’ll stats will continue to increase.

Even though you only have 100 RSS subscribers, you can look back when you had 20 or 50 subscribers. As long as your stats don’t stay stagnant or drop for a long period of time, you should have confidence that you’re doing something right.

5. Gain practical experience in your niche.

This mostly applies to bloggers in a “how to” niche. Let’s say you have a gardening blog. You should start a garden and then you’ll have something to blog about because you’ll learn a lot from your experience.

Also, you’ll gain confidence because your experience will add credibility towards your reputation.

Feedback

What have you done that has helped you blog more confidently?

Who do you think will advance to the next round? Who will incur the wrath of Simon Cowell?

In music, confidence is a big thing because a huge part of the performer’s task is to make the audience feel at ease. If you’re nervous, the audience will be nervous for you or worse yet, be hostile towards you.

Blogging with Confidence

There is a similar phenomenon in blogging.

If you’re not confident, your post quality will not be high as it could be. You’re unsure of yourself, so you write “safe” blog posts. These blog posts have no life. They are basically rehashed content that can be found in other blogs on your niche. You’re afraid to take a risk and write something conceptually unique because you fear the possible criticism from your audience.

Also, you won’t have the urge to promote your blog because you’re not confident in your content.

Now you don’t want to be overconfident to the point of being arrogant and self-absorbed. That’s turns people off.

But if you’re confident, you’ll be motivated to write blog posts that are conceptually unique. You’ll take more risks that will cause your blog to stand out from the crowd.

Your readers will sense your confidence and feel at ease as they read your blog. You’ll be more likely to make specific call to actions that will cause your readers to subscribe to your RSS feed, buy an affiliate product, or join your email list.

You’ll promote your blog with more fervency. You’ll email other bloggers and tell them about your content. You’ll go on social voting sites and ask other members to vote for your posts.

Building Confidence

In my next post, I’ll talk about some ways to increase your confidence as a blogger. Feel free to subscribe to get updated on new posts.

You might be blogging consistently, publishing your 3-5 300 word posts week in and week out. However, that in itself will not get you a lot of search traffic.

To get a huge increase in search traffic, you will need links from authority sites. Authority sites include the popular sites in your niche, the well-branded sites, the about.com’s on the net, the blogs that get 10+ comments per post, and the sites with Alexa ratings under 100,000. Also, The EatonWeb Blog Directory lists blogs based on authority.

Google gives a lot of weight to these links because they are harder to build than the average link. These links can’t be bought (usually). Instead, they have to be earned with linkworthy content and diligent marketing.

So, how often do you create linkworthy content?

Many bloggers overestimate the linkworthiness of their content.

Here are some examples of recently published linkbait.

• 23 Ways to Keep Fast Food in Your Diet
• 11 Colorful Optical Illusions
• Seven years since — looking back and forward on 9/11 [PICS]
• E-Mail Addiction: Five Signs You Need Help
• 10 Things Millionaires Won’t Tell You
• Is hip-hop haunted by ghostwriters?

In the last couple of weeks, have you created anything similar to the above content? Have you produced something interesting, useful, and/or entertaining that has a good chance of attracting links?

If not, you’re missing out on a lot of links that lead to a huge search traffic increase – not to mention the direct traffic from those links as well as improved branding and reputation.

Linkworthy content is the backbone of a good linkbuilding strategy.

Linkbait vs. No Linkbait

Here are two graphs to help you understand the importance of this type of content.

In the above graph, you’ve blogged for two weeks without publishing anything linkworthy. You get two authority links, which increase your link popularity. The blue color represents link popularity.

I’m being generous with the two authority links. Many blogs will not get an authority link for months.

Compare that graph with this graph.

In this graph, you cut down you post frequency to spend time creating linkworthy content and emailing authority sites to tell them about your content.

A couple authority sites linked to you. You got a great amount of link popularity. Not only that, but the link popularity from the linkbait is bleeding over to your other posts and those posts are ranking better. See with Google, if you build authority links, even the pages that don’t get links receive a boost in ranking.

Imagine if most of your two week periods looked like graph #2 instead of graph #1.

In a couple months, you’ll be an authority site with a ton of search engine traffic. Other people will be emailing you to link to their site. You’ll be well-networked in your niche because you connected with other bloggers through your emails. And your branding will have improved because you’ll be known as the blogger that wrote that great resource or that funny list. You’ll be known for your linkbait.

Why the Higher Word Count for Linkbait?

I symbolized linkbait with the higher word count because linkworthy blog posts are usually much longer than the average blog post. Also, these posts have more elements like video and images.

Long posts stand out from the crowd of short posts. They are unique and bloggers are more likely to link to unique posts.

Why Keep the Short Posts?

There are a couple reasons to continue publishing short posts.

• Quality linkbait takes a lot more time to create.
• Short posts serve as great search engine fodder. The more blog posts you publish, the more keywords you target.
• If your site is consistently updated, readers will expect new content and return to your site more frequently.
• Your blog looks active.
• It shows your passion and expertise for your niche since you always have something to say.

Basically, doing a mixture of short posts and linkbait is a good SEO strategy.

Balance is the key. And if you don’t have a lot of time to blog, if you produce just one linkbait a month, you’ll be way ahead of most blogs.

Why Linkbait Works for SEO

The reason linkbait works so well is because Google’s algorithms are heavily based on the quality of links. Google used to focus more on anchor text but anchor text has taken a back seat to domain link popularity (aka the number of high quality links pointing to your site).

Yes, you still want keywords in your anchor text and title tags. However, it’s much better to have a link from about.com with the anchor text “click here” than a link with great anchor text from a blog without much traffic or PageRank.

Why Other Blogs Can Get Away Without Doing Linkbait

Some blogs didn’t have to linkbait to get their search traffic. Usually, they were one of the first to enter the niche. Since they had this advantage, they got a bunch of great links because of the lack of competition. I’m assuming most of you are blogging in niches that are already established with many competing blogs. In this situation, you’ll need to differentiate yourself from the other blogs with your linkworthy content.

Also, Google tends to rank older sites better than newer sites. But if you’re consistent with your linkbait, over time you’ll overtake those blogs that don’t publish much linkbait.

Learn More About Linkbait

It will take a whole new post to cover the basics of linkbait creation. The main principle is to take some time to do research on the sites in your industry. What are they linking to? Why are they linking? Then, based on that information, you can create content that they would want to link to.

Also, here are two resources to help you get started.

• Screencast Video: Here is an Easy 4 Step Formula to Create Linkworthy Content
• The Link Baiting Playbook: Hooks Revisited

Your Turn

How often do you create linkbait and market it to other bloggers?