Just like Facebook and Twitter, Google+ can be a game changer for bloggers. It can not only drive a ton of traffic to blogs, it provides bloggers with the opportunity to interact with their audience in a deeper fashion. Google+ could be a great community-building tool if you dedicate enough time to being involved on it. Here are 6 quick ways you can use Google+ to build a more solid community:

1. ask questions: I have seen many successful Google+ users take advantage of this approach to engage their fellow community members and get the discussions started. Some bloggers even use the feedback they get on their questions to write more informative and thought-provoking blog posts.
2. ask for feedback: Google+ provides you with instant feedback. If you are connected with a few hundred people (at least) on Google+, there is no reason you can’t gauge your followers’ interest in the topics you intend to write about on your blog. Just use your creativity to avoid turning your followers off.
3. watch top stories: there are a ton of content curators on Google+. By connecting with these folks and following the top stories, you will get a better understand for the pulse of your niche market at any moment. This approach may also help you find more topics to cover on your blog. 
4. throw contests and giveaways: people love getting their hands on free things. Giveaways and contests are popular on Twitter and Facebook. They work great on Google+ too. Of course, you do not want to give things away just for the sake of doing so. Doing your research and setting up your content to gain valuable information from the participants in return is a good idea.
5. connect with potential partners: sometimes, knowing the right person opens new and unexpected doors of opportunity for you. Google+ is a great place to find other top players in your niche market and expand your network. You never know what opportunities open up as you meet and network with other professionals online.
6. provide value: this should go without saying. Whether you are sharing your own stories online or voting for top stories written by other bloggers, your goal should be to provide some value to those who have circled you. Smart bloggers are using Google+ to further distinguish themselves as authority figures in their markets.

In order to get the most out of Google+, a coherent plan is required. Using Google+ like a headless chicken won’t boost your business. But as long as you know your end goal and take time to be involved on Google+, there is no reason Google+ can’t be a big boost for your publishing business.

We all want our blogs to get more attention in the markets we are involved in. I have covered plenty of paid and free ways one can go about promoting a blog. But wouldn’t it be nice if you could get others to promote your website for you for free? If you have written reviews on hot, new products or done killer interviews with experts in your industry, you know how to do this. The fact is, people are willing to link back to you if your post is about them or helps them in any way (in most cases). Here are 6 easy ways to get people to link back to your blog and promote it:

1. cover new startups: not all startups get the attention they deserve from top tech and startup blogs. By covering underrated startups on your website, you may get links back from them. They may even use your words to promote their products.
2. review products: not all product reviews will get your blog links and mentions from product makers. If you review products of a large company such as HP, chances are you won’t even register on their radar unless you have a large following online. However, reviewing exciting, new products by less known companies might do your blog wonders.
3. create mega lists of superstars in a niche: let’s face it. We all have egos and would love nothing but to be included in “top lists” by others. Creating lists on superstars in your niche market (or any other market for that matter) could lead to valuable incoming links from some of them.
4. interview people: killer interviews do go viral online from time to time. You should pick the people you interview carefully. Don’t just focus on heavy-hitters though. If you identify and interview upcoming superstars, you are golden.
5. link to others: want other authority sites in your niche market to link back to you? You can get the ball rolling by linking to them. You should do it for that purpose alone. But many bloggers do return link love you send their way.
6. modify other people’s work: this is a useful tactic among coders, designers, and pros in those types of fields. People are willing to link back to you if you take their open works and make amazing changes to them.

Getting others to link back to you and promote your blog for you does not have to be hugely complicated. It does require hard work and dedication. The above tactics should make the process more easier though.

[Image credit: mzacha @ Stock.xchng]

Every new blogger that I meet tells me about how he/she wants to follow his or her dreams. That sounds very nice on a piece of paper. But a lot of folks have the wrong expectations when it comes to doing that. Having lofty dreams and achieving them are two different things. It takes hard work and dedication to get where you aim to get to. Besides, there will always be setbacks and challenges along the way. Unless you are ready to take on them all, chances are you won’t reach your ultimate goal in this business. Having the right kinds of expectations is a good start. Here are a few other things you want to pay attention to as a dreamer:

1. achieving your dreams won’t be easy: this is a no-brainer. If dreams were easy to achieve, everyone would be doing it. While it is true that you want to aim for an attainable dream, you should still aim very high. Don’t ever expect reaching your ultimate goals to be a walk in the park.

2. dreams are not always what they seem: many bloggers dream about making a ton of money from their site. Some look to gain fame and attention. Dreams do look rosy when you picture them inside your head. Things could turn out very differently in the real world.

3. it takes time: patience is a virtue. We have all heard that before. You simply can’t become a millionaire or a super blogger overnight. These things take time (often a lot of time). Don’t let your slow progress towards your goal discourage you.

4. dreams change: as a blogger, you need to be ready for this part. My goals have changed dramatically from the ones I had when I started blogging. Things change. We all change as well. You should not get too attached to a dream when you know in your heart it is time to follow something else

5. it requires full dedication / risk taking: you may be passionate about blogging and achieving your goals. But if you are not putting 100% of your effort towards achieving them, you won’t get too far. All successful bloggers put all their efforts into their businesses. They also take risks when they need to get ahead.

6. it’s about the lessons: life is a learning lesson. Every success and failure can teach us a thing or two about how we can do things better the next time. You should keep an open eye for these types of lessons even if you fail to meet the goals you have set for yourself. Some of us end up failing multiple times before finally achieving the success we deserve.

Achieving your dreams and life goals won’t be easy. But if you work hard, take risks, and stay strong against challenges, you will get there in the end. It will be all worth it when you do.

[Image credit: Billy Frank Alexander]

Credit: 7rains

In the past few months, I have seen many folks who share affiliate links blatantly on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter. All publishers go through rough times. We all want to make more money and live more comfortable lives. Sharing affiliate links with your friends, followers, and those who have circled you may bring you some much needed cash. At the same time, it could set your business back overtime.

While it is true that some people don’t care about their contacts sharing affiliate links with them, many folks do. You may be able to pull it off but you want to be careful not to go overboard. Besides, you should take time to get yourself familiar with things you need to do to stay compliant with the law when sharing affiliate links online. Here are a few reasons why you want to share as few affiliate links as possible on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+:

• affiliate links could turn people off: if you are just getting started and don’t have a large following online, the last thing you want to do is turn people off. Sharing affiliate links time and time again with your contacts can do that. I have seen popular figures share affiliate links for  hot gadgets such as Kindle and iPad in their streams. Not everyone can pull that off though without losing followers. 
• paid links could damage your credibility: many of us leverage our social outposts to enhance our brands. Sharing affiliate links and spamming your followers will reflect poorly upon your brand. Besides, it is hard not to judge someone’s credibility when they are sharing paid links all the time.
• you could get in trouble: every country has its own set of laws as far as online marketing is concerned. If you live in the U.S., you need to disclose your paid links to your followers. It is so easy to get in trouble in this country if you are not too careful. Some people prefer disclosing their affiliate links. I prefer sharing regular links in my stream and not deal with the disclosure part. The choice is yours.
• paid links can get you banned: this should go without saying. Not all communities are friendly towards affiliate marketers. Even Google is not too fond of them. Sharing too many spammy affiliate links could get you banned.

At the end of the day, the decision to share affiliate links in the communities you are involved in is up to you. Only you can make the decision that is right for your business. You should always ask yourself whether what you are planning to do will be worth it in the long run.

Credit: Mart1n

Throwing giveaways and contests on your blog is a very simple way to build links for your website, solidify your community, and improve your search engine rankings in the long run. Not all giveaways are successful though. Giving shiny gadgets on your website without any planning may work for a while. But it may not lead to the long-term results that you expect.

In order to throw successful contests,  you need to have a goal and keep your visitors’ convenience in mind. Your goal should be to keep your new visitors to keep coming back for more. Without an action plan, that’s hard to do. Here are 6 ways you can get more out of your giveaways:

1. have a plan: harder than it sounds. Giving away cool products on your website is not about having fun. It is about accomplishing a certain goal. You should always ask yourself why you are throwing a giveaway and what the end goal will be.
2. choose a decent prize: you shouldn’t be cheap when it comes to giving away things on your website. Your prize should be tempting enough to your visitors to make them want to take action on your site (whether that’s liking your page on Facebook or retweeting your posts).
3. choose the length of your content carefully: giveaways that run for too long could turn people off. Put yourself in your visitors’ position. A very long giveaway does not exactly excite people as they’ll have to wait for very long to even figure out if they have won.
4. disclose your connections: if you have been given a product to offer to your visitors, you need to disclose your connections. You don’t want the FTC to come down hard on you, do you?
5. don’t forget terms  & conditions: I have been guilty of doing this the wrong way in the past. Giving things away on your website is not as simple as it sounds. You need to have clear terms & conditions on your website. There are certain steps you need to follow to make your sweepstakes compliant with the law. Don’t cut corners here. You can learn a lot by watching what others are doing with their giveaways.
6. communicate with your visitors: just because you are giving away a product to one or few individuals, does not mean you should not communicate with your other visitors about your giveaway. You should also clearly tell people when your contest has expired to avoid any confusion.

Throwing a successful giveaway does not have to be too complicated. But you need an action plan. You also want to be compliant with the laws in your state. It is better to be safe than sorry.

YouTube is a great place to catch all kinds of videos. One could spend a lifetime or two trying to catch up with all the interesting videos available in that community. YouTube can serve as a great traffic driver for your business too. Quality videos that receive a lot of visits can bring a significant number of new visitors to your blog.

People have been contributing content to YouTube for years. But it is never too late to start. Here are 5 ways you can get started with YouTube quickly:

1. unbox new gadgets: this is so simple, anyone can do it. You just have to be willing to spend some money to get your hands on a brand new gadget (e.g. iPhone 5 or Kindle 5). If you can work with the PR departments in some of these companies, you may be able to get your hands on test units ahead of time.
2. cover hacks: we are not talking about black hat hacking. Creating videos showing people how to get around the restrictions in their gadgets is one way to go viral on YouTube.
3. create new video reviews: when I buy a new product, I always check YouTube to see if there are any reviews available for it. Unfortunately, not all products have video reviews on YouTube. That’s where you come in. By reviewing those types of products, you can build a strong YouTube presence faster.
4. cover the latest news, first: regardless of which niche market you are involved in, you can enhance your YouTube channel by breaking the latest news first. If you can get it done in a professional manner, you are golden.
5. compare products: this too applies to most niche markets. People love watching product comparison videos. The more thorough your coverage in your videos, the better chance you have of gaining new subscribers and visitors from your work.

Building a killer YouTube channel does require you to be innovative and agile. Offering unique, valuable videos is one way to set your channel apart from others in your niche market.

My Blog Guest: a great community to be a part of to find guest post opportunities that will help take your blog to the next level. It is one of the sites I check first when looking for writing opportunities.

Blog Synergy: another awesome community to get involved in to find writing opportunities for your website.

Google operators: Google is your best friend when you are searching for things. There are plenty of search operators you can use to narrow down your search and find unique blogging opportunities faster.

Freelancing sites: many publishers rely on communities for freelancers to find professional writers for their blogs. Checking sites such as Guru may help you find unique writing gigs.

Social Networks: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ are all places you can search for guest post opportunities. You just have to be involved in these communities to get the most out of them.

Blog Directories: there are plenty of powerful blog networks you can go through to find publishers who may be interested in your work. Alltop is one of many sites bloggers need to have bookmarked.

Linknami: this site has a free community to connect bloggers with those interested in writing guest posts for others. Guest bloggers can search for interesting blogs in their niche market to find new opportunities.

Forums: blogging forums are also worth checking out to network with others and find interesting sites to write for. The good news here is there are so many of these around, you are bound to discover new opportunities by participating in them.

How do you look for guest blogging opportunities? Please share your tips here.

Some folks assume that the harder they work, the more success they are going to achieve. It is true that in order to be successful in life, we need to be serious and dedicated towards our cause. But working 24 hours a day, 365 days a year will have a negative effect on you. I have found this the hard way. If you push your body and mind the hard way, you are going to burn out and become less productive. Taking long breaks can not only help you recharge you battery, it can make you fall in love with your blog all over again.

Many bloggers feel hesitant about taking long breaks from their blogs (breaks longer than a week). If you have scheduled some posts ahead of time or can hire someone to take over for you in the short-term, there is no reason you should not take long breaks. Here are 6 reasons to do so:

1. avoid burn out: there was a time I was working close to 18 hours a day, managing multiple blogs, writing codes, and promoting products. I was able to handle that for a while. After 15 months of doing so, I realized that was not the way to go. I took a month-long break and that did wonders for me. Taking short and long breaks is essential to avoid burning your brain out.
2. regroup: becoming a successful blogger takes time and effort. You will have to face various challenges. Things will most likely go wrong from time to time. Taking breaks helps you handle major setbacks with a clear mind.
3. find new ideas: sometimes, it is too hard to think outside the box and see the error of your ways when you are too attached to your work. If you are working 18 hours a day just to keep your blogging business going, you won’t have a whole lot of time to think about new outside-the-box ideas for your business. Taking a break can help with that.
4. find out what you could be missing: I am a big believer in people pursuing what they love to do. Not everyone gets to do it. But if you have decided to quit your job to pursue your dreams, you may as well do something you love. Those who truly love blogging will miss their work after just a couple of days. If you are having nightmares about going back to your work, you should probably change things up.
5. experience the world: experienced individuals who read, travel, and experience the world around them on a regular basis are more likely to succeed in their blogging career. The more you experience the world, the more you will have to share with your audience.
6. find inspiration: have you fallen out of love with your blog? Taking long breaks could rekindle your love and inspire you to push your blog to more interesting directions. Your work will be a whole lot better when you find your inspiration again.

Taking long breaks is not something many bloggers feel comfortable doing. It can do your blogging business wonders though.

[Image credit: theswedish]

We all want to gain more friends and followers on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. The number of people who have circled or followed you is not everything. But it does count. One of the best ways to gain attention on Google+ is by sharing the right type of content with your circles. The content you share on Google+ should be relevant and useful to your friends. But you should not limit yourself to just simple articles. Here are 6 types of content that can get you a lot of attention on Google+:

• Thought-provoking discussions: people love tackling controversial and though-provoking issues on Google+. You don’t need to have thousands of followers to get the conversation started.
  
• infographics: infographics can make your timeline more interesting for your friends. You do not want to just post infographics to Google+ for the sake of doing it. My data suggests adding a bit of content and explaining the infographics you share can get your audience more engaged.
• relevant posts: posting everything in “Public” mode is not always the best idea on Google+. If you have taken time to organize your circles, you should try to share the most relevant stories with each. For instance, my photographers circle is probably not interested in hearing about my geeky projects.
• videos: people may love reading articles, but they also enjoy watching videos everyday. If you can get your hands on interesting and engaging videos on a regular basis, there is no reason not to share them with your circles.
• photos: I have personally had a lot of success with photos. I do stay away from silly photos that may not reflect well upon my brand. But science, funny, and nature photos do get a lot of comments and re-shares.
• reshares: Google+ is not all about you. It’s about interacting with others and giving them credit for their great work too. I have already saved plenty of searches in my sidebar and use those to find relevant content to reshare on Google+.

What are some of the tactics you have used to achieve success on Google+? Please share them below.

Many of us have domains that we never use. I personally have a couple of hundreds of them that I never got a chance to do anything with. Domains are not as expensive as they were 10 years ago. But their costs do add up if you have enough of them sitting in your account. Your domains are assets for your business. They can bring you more business and come handy with new projects. If you have a highly brandable domain, you may even get to sell it for a decent amount of cash.

Deciding what to do with idle domains is not that easy. Doing nothing with them is not the best idea though. Here are 6 things you can do with them:

• sell them: you can’t sell every domain for a decent amount of money. But studying sites such as flippa should give you some ideas. You would be surprised what people make for brandable domains. If you add some content to your website and get ranked for top keywords on major search engines, you can make even more money.
• host a blog on them: you feel you can handle a few more blogs? The more quality blogs you have, the more your revenue potential will be. Besides, you could have an easier time selling an established blog than an unused domain.
• create a product around them: I have seen many top bloggers use this approach. They usually register a bunch of domains and use them one by one as they create new products. Why pay to buy expensive domains when you can register some for cheap today to use later.
• park them: this is something we have had the least success with. But there are some folks who are making a decent amount of change by parking their portfolio of domains. It is an idea worth testing if you do not have the resources to add original content to your domains.
• prepare them for future launches: search engines do pay attention to the age of your domains and the content on them. You may not be ready to build a business on all your domains just yet. Adding some content to them once in a while and getting your domains indexed is not a bad idea though. It will save you time when you are ready for your next project.
• ditch them: this is the practice I use for my lousy domains. Many of us have registered lousy domains in the past. Keeping these domains in your portfolio won’t be that much of a use. Just ditch them and save yourself time in the process.

What do you usually do with your unused domains?