Posts Tagged ‘blog’
How I Organize My Feeds
Whether you are a part-time blogger or a pro-blogger who makes a full-time living online from your blog, you want to take time on a daily basis to keep up with the latest developments in your niche and other industries. You certainly don’t want to talk about things without being on the top of things in your market. Not knowing what you are talking about is the best way to lose your credibility and damage your blog’s reputation. Finding blogs to read in your niche is not that difficult. There are plenty of lists out there that show you what the top blogs are in each niche. There are plenty of bloggers that create posts about top blogs in different niches. So there is no excuse in finding a handful of blogs to read on a daily basis. Things get a bit more dicey when you are greedy like me. There was a time that I had over 1000 feeds in my “must read” folder. I was never able to catch up with everything in that folder, but it was a nice way to challenge myself.
I realized after a while that one just can’t keep up with that many feeds. Not without sacrificing some other things. As a business owner, I owed it to myself to organize my feeds in a way that would help me get the information I need on a daily basis without forgetting about my core business processes. If you suffer from information and feed overload, you may want to consider switching your feed reader and use one that lets you organize your feeds and get more out of them. Bloglines and Google Reader are both very powerful and worth using if you are a feed junkie. I personally stopped using Bloglines a while ago as Google Reader provided me with more social features, but either solutions works great. How you organize your feeds is going to be the most important part of the process. Read more »
Blog SEO: Research Keywords Like a Pro with SpyFu
Driving traffic to your blog should not be your only priority but should be a big part of your overall strategy. You can have the best content in the world, but people are not able to see what you have to offer, you are not going to achieve the success that you deserve. I know a lot of people want to believe in those Cinderella story when you blog for years and finally get recognized for your work. I hate to break it to you, but unless you take time to promote your blog, you are not going to get the appreciation you are hoping for.
One way to drive passive traffic to your blog is by optimizing your blog for the search engines. I am not talking about creating splogs but rather using relevant keywords that people are searching for in each post. Many bloggers choose to go after those generate keyword phrases, but there is a lot of traffic to be gotten if you target those long-tail keywords in your posts. The good thing about long-tail keywords is that you don’t have to sound like a robot to use them in your posts. The traffic per keyword may not be much, but if you use enough of them, your traffic adds up.
SpyFu is one of the best tools to dig up those long-tail keywords for your blog. It may not be as famous as WordTracker and Keyword Discovery, but it provides you with a wealth of features to help you optimize each and every post for highly-targeted keywords. For starters, SpyFu allows you to spy on other blogs and websites and find out what keywords they are using to generate traffic. You can also take a look at their ads, their PPC keywords, and even their estimate advertising budget to find out what your competitors are focusing on.
SpyFu Kombat allows you to find out which channels other bloggers are focusing on and what you can do to match or better their efforts in those channels. You can always download the keywords that other blogs are using and find out which ones you can use in your future blog posts.
If you push your blog using Google Adwords, SpyFu has you covered in that area as well. But I personally have used SpyFu to come up with blogging ideas, find out what my competitors are doing, and find keywords that people are interested in talking about. Ultimately, SpyFu is an affordable premium service that can help you write more targeted posts and get more passive traffic in the long run.
Note: SpyFu is a premium keyword research service and while you can use the free version to get some research done, to take advantage of some of the above mentioned features, you will need to become a paying member (thanks @searchguru).
Lost Your Job? Why Won’t You Blog?
The job market is tough. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that. It’s not that jobs are not out there. It’s just that you have more people going for less positions. To put it in economic terms, you have a lot of demand but not that much supply. A lot of job searchers have been discouraged by the conditions in the job market, and some even stop searching. I know a lot of these people, and it’s heart breaking to see people struggle to make a living these days. But the question that I usually ask this folk is whether they blog. It’s really simple. If you don’t have a job and searching for a job, you are still going to have some time to blog on a daily basis. It’s never too late to start blogging, and who knows where it’s going to take you.
Many people are afraid of starting a blog. They feel blogging is done only by geeks and nerds. That attitude has started to change in the recent month as more people are realizing how easy it is to start a blog and start building business. Becoming a blogging superstar is not that easy. It does take a while, and a lot of work. But that doesn’t mean you should start. If you don’t get into the game, you are never going to succeed. Blogging can open a lot of doors for you. You may get consulting offers from your visitors. You can even write a book (a lot of bloggers have). Here are just a few things you can achieve with blogging:
- Find a job.
- Build up your resume (blogging looks good on your resume).
- Gain more on the job experience.
- Find consulting/short-term projects.
- Create an in-demand product.
- Make money from your blog.
- Sell your blog for profit.
- Set yourself up as a guru in your industry..
- Increase your marketability.
- Network with other bloggers and expand your network.
- Find new passions and enter new industries.
- …
Whether you are looking for a job or you already have one, there is still no reason not to start a blog. The sooner you start blogging, the better off you will be in the long run. Your blog will gain value over time and open doors for you in the future. It’s not just about money, but rather about building assets. One day you are going to be thankful you started your blog when you did.
Your take: what has stopped you from starting your own blog?
35 Ways To Write a Controversial Blog Post
Controversy sells. If you have writing your blog for a while, you have probably used controversial posts to engage your users and gain more traction in the blogging world. Just take a look at Fox News. Those guys have some of the worst reporting I have seen in the media. They are so biased and crude. At the same time, they are dominating the world of cable television. Guys such as Bill Oreilly and Sean Hannity call President Obama all the names in the book, and people keep watching them (and I am not talking about the conservatives). It’s really the oldest trick in the book. Create controversy and reap the rewards for a long time. If you don’t believe me, ask Rush Limbaugh.
There are many ways to create controversy, some of which even I am not comfortable with. Not everyone can pull off a Rush Limbaugh. It’s an art, and that’s why Rush is so good at what he does. But if you are looking to create a little bit of controversy to gain some exposure on the Web, here are a few ideas to consider:
- Take on other top bloggers.
- Make bold predictions.
- Make off the wall predictions.
- Talk about the difference between men and women.
- Pick one gender over the other (know your audience first).
- Talk about why Web 2.0 is overrated.
- Bash Twitter!
- Talk about the death of blogging.
- defend Scientology and Tom Cruise on your blog.
- Pull a Hannity on President Obama
- Talk about who shouldn’t have touched the Queen
- Pick Microsoft over Apple.
- Bash the iPhone!
- Talk about UFOs.
- Tackle Illegal Immigration.
- Defend or oppose abortion.
- Post a controversial video.
- Create response videos to top bloggers.
- Talk about how our economy is doing great.
- Defend Jim Cramer and the Wall Street.
- Defend Facebook’s latest redesign.
- Better yet pick Facebook over Twitter.
- Or Twitter over Facebook.
- Discuss how Zune was great.
- Repeat Glenn Beck’s claims on your blog.
- Talk about how Kindle will never make it.
- Discuss Cash 4 Gold on your blog.
- Leave Twitter and talk about the reasons.
- Bash Digg and its new toolbar.
- Attack Net Neutrality.
- Argue why Wikipedia is overrated.
- Talk about why Twitter and Facebook should be paid services.
- Talk about dubious ways to gain followers on Twitter.
- Discuss the pros of behavioral tracking.
- Talk about who you wouldn’t date.
There are many more ways to create controversy on your blog. I strongly recommend everyone to look at FoxNews. These guys have turned this concept into an art. I am personally no fan of controversies. But there is no question this tactic works. Just make sure you know where that line is and don’t cross it. Remember, you want to expand your blog not kill it!
Your take: did I miss anything? What would you add here?
Blog More Effectively With Zemanta
Filed under: Blogging Tools | View Comments
Professional bloggers are always on the lookout for ways to blog more effectively and get more done in less time. There are only a limited number of hours in a day, which means to take your blog to the next level you need to use tools that allow you to get your blog posts done faster without you having to cut any corners. Zemanta is a cool new service that allows professional bloggers and professional media members to research more effectively and find appropriate content faster.
You can install Zemanta on your server (for Wordpress) or just use their browser extension. There is really no difference between the two. Zemanta is truly a life saver as it allows you to find content for your blog posts fast. Here is how it works. Once you download Zemanta, it adds a bunch of tabs to your blog’s sidebar. From there, you can search for images, news, and other type of content and import them to your blog fast.
How To Use Zemanta
Zemanta is simple to install. You can easily add it to Firefox or Internet Explorer. You can also download the plugin for Wordpress and put it on your server. I personally prefer the browser extension. Here is what you can do with Zemanta once you install it:
- Find images for your blog based on your keyword term.
- Tag your posts like a pro. Zemanta automatically suggests targeted tags based on your content.
- Link out to other sites that address the same topic as yours.
- Use the Reblog button to create reaction posts to what other bloggers have had to say about your topic.
You can also use Zemanta to write e-mails more effectively. You get the same features you get on your blog on Gmail as well.
Zemanta is truly an exciting tool for bloggers. Not only it allows you to find content for your blog, it helps you optimize your blog posts for search engines as well. Best of all, it comes in many formats allowing you to install it on your browser client or on the server side. If you are looking for a tool that helps you become a more effective blogger, you should try Zemanta.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=648a1fb1-c5e9-47b4-bb99-86ce631787bc)
5 Wordpress Themes For Pro Bloggers
Many of my colleagues often ask me whether I am being paid by the Wordpress guys to spread the word around about their product. In truth, I am being paid by them. Not the way you think. These guys have provided me and millions of other bloggers around the globe with the best content management system ever made. It’s not cash, but who needs cash when you get a piece of software that should be worth thousands of dollars for free. What’s more valuable that Wordpress software is the community behind it. These folks spend hours of their time to write free/paid plug-ins and themes to enhance the Wordpress experience for everyone who’s using it.
Wordpress is the best blogging platform on the market, period! Nothing comes close. The software is highly intuitive and comes with so many enhancements that help bloggers connect with their readers more effectively. The number of pro blogging themes made for Wordpress is just astonishing. If you are an experienced blogger looking to give your blog a makeover or just a newbie excited about getting started in this business, you can’t afford to ignore Wordpress.
Wordpress has some of the most beautiful website designs ever made. But we can’t list them all here. So here are the top 5 blogging themes that you can use to take your WP blog to the next level.
- Thesis Wordpress Theme: thesis is the top pro blogging theme for the Wordpress platform. Most superbloggers are using Thesis on their blogs. It’s very easy to work with and highly customizable. And it is optimized for search engines. In essence, you are buying a theme that keeps paying for itself by bringing you more visitors. And if you know any coding, you can change your settings easily and create a whole unique design for your blog.
- Urban Elements: Press75 is a top producer of video-blogging themes. In fact, they have 4 of the top 5 video-blogging themes available on the market. Urbal Elements is one of the few themes by Press75 that is designed for regular bloggers. It’s very attractive yet easy to modify. Urban Elements integrates your social media accounts, allowing you to help your visitors keep in touch with you on popular social media sites.
- Who’s Who: an amazing news blogging theme designed for bloggers who specialize in reporting the news. It comes with a highly attractive design and is social bookmarking ready.
- Bobv3: Bobv3 is another attractive Wordpress theme designed specifically for pro bloggers. It’s lightweight and search engine friendly.
- Sketchd: Sketchd is a perfect theme for personal and pro blogs. It comes with a super attractive design, and it is very easy on the eye. It’s cheap too!
(Honorable mention: TrueBlogger, a pro blogging theme that is a clone of the old problogger.com).
What’s your favorite Wordpress blogging theme?
Are You a Blogging Leader?
Filed under: Start a Blog | View Comments
Everybody wants to blog these days. There is something hot about blogging, at least to the average Joe/Jane. I have had the feeling that blogging is not treated as being unemployed these days. In fact, it is treated as something that smart people do (but not as geeky as paying chess). But how do you establish yourself as a force in the blogging world in 2009?
Let’s be honest. If you are trying to start a blog these days, you are not an early market mover. Big established blogs are at least a few years old, and their authors have been honing their skills for years. Even getting started with Twitter and FriendFeed is not anything new. But here is a fundamental questions: do you need to try something new to be successful in the blogging world?
The answer is yes and no. Innovation does pay in the long run. Having the ability to differentiate yourself from others by trying new things certainly helps. But you don’t have to invest something to innovate. Blogging is a form of communication, and you have the most potent differentiation tool in your pocket – your voice. Your voice is unique to you only. Sure. People can imitate you. Superstars are imitated all the time, but at the same time, you can’t clone someone’s voice and personality.
In order to find success with blogging, you need to find your own voice and angle to tackle things. You’d be surprised how far you can go in the oldest niches by taking a different angle. Folks are out there hungry for information, and they get tired of hearing the same perspectives over and over again. If you are creative enough to think outside the box and figure out a way to stand out in the blogging crowd, you are golden.
You want to make sure that there is an audience for your voice. You should listen to your visitors at all times to find out what they are looking for. It’s back to economics again. You’ve got to make sure there is a demand for your supply. Blogging is a communication platform, which means there is no excuse for not knowing what you readers are looking for. You can use your blog comments or polls to find out what is it that turns your audience on. That’s what good leaders do. They listen!
Do you agree? Have you had success using the above approach to get a firm footing in a hyper-competitive niche?
