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The Secret to Creating Shareworthy Content

shareworthy-contentI often refer to the term I use to describe amazing content that people want to share online as shareworthy, and today, I’d like to dive a bit deeper into the concept of creating shareworthy content, so your blog and online reputation can benefit from the compounding effect of blogging, attract more visitors, and grow organically over the long term. In other words, shareworthy content leads to sustainable growth, and I’m going to tell you how to do it.

What is shareworthy content?

It’s simple. Shareworthy content is amazing content that people like enough to want to tell their friends about it and share it with their social media connections. They can share that content by blogging about it on their own blogs, tweeting it on Twitter, linking to it on Facebook or LinkedIn, and so on. Therefore, shareworthy content is not necessarily viral content that explodes across the Internet. Instead, it’s a tangible form of the world-of-mouth marketing of the social web that businesses covet.

How do you create shareworthy content? [Read more…] about The Secret to Creating Shareworthy Content

5 Solid Reasons You Should Never Quit Blogging

Blogging has become the most popular and Never Give Up Blogging
easiest form of expression online which has also helped many to achieve financial success for themselves and their families. Although we all have various reasons for blogging, a vast majority is driven solely by the idea of making millions online and living the internet lifestyle in the shortest time possible.

Unfortunately, the get rich quick mindset is like a house built on sand and easily gets washed away in disappointment when the reality hits that its going to take some really hard work. At this point, one may experience blogger burnout or just feel like giving up but I say, don’t give up, reassess your strategies, redefine your goals and look at all that can be gained through this fulfilling endeavor.

Whatever your reasons may be for quitting, here are 5 solid reasons for sticking to it and never give up on your blog. [Read more…] about 5 Solid Reasons You Should Never Quit Blogging

Stake Your Claim on Your Blog Niche

blog-nicheIt seems like everyone is trying to find their niche on the social web, particularly when it comes to blogging.  In simplest terms, a niche is a very specific area of focus, and a niche blog is one that is tightly focused on one specific subject.

The web has become a very cluttered place, and it’s hard to compete for traffic for broad keywords (such as parenting or business) against larger, well-established sites with deep pockets.  However, you can stand out from the noise by choosing a niche and offering authoritative, reliable, and shareworthy content and conversations related to that niche on your blog.

The first step is to define your niche by asking yourself the following questions:

1. What subject can write about frequently?

Define your area of expertise that you want to use as the core of your online reputation.  Your niche should be a subject that you can write about a lot and that you actually have something worthwhile to discuss.  Once you identify the subjects that you can write about extensively, then break that topic up into smaller, more focused subjects.  In other words, define the niches within that broader topic.

2. Is my niche viable today?

Take some time to learn who else is publishing content related to your possible niches, and make sure there is an active and engaged audience already seeking information about and talking about your potential niches.  Also, use a tool like the free Google AdWords Traffic Estimator to get an idea of the traffic a niche blog might attract.

3. What keywords should I target?

Do some keyword research to further research the potential audiences niche topics could generate to your blog, and ensure your content is optimized for search engine referrals and effectively attracts your target audience using tools like Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery, or the free Google AdWords Keywords Tool.

4. How can I differentiate my content and make it valuable?

Niche blogs are highly focused, therefore, it’s important that you learn who else is publishing content related to your niche to ensure you add value to the online conversation.  You don’t want to simply republish the same kind of information that other bloggers are already publishing.  Take the time to create amazing, shareworthy content related to your niche to fully leverage the compounding effect of blogging.

5. Can I make this niche work for the long term?

While it’s important that your niche is viable today, you also need to make sure that you set your business blog up for long term success.  Make sure you can create enough content for your niche blog for years to come while remaining passionate about your subject matter.  Also, don’t choose a trend niche that is hot today but is likely to fade into oblivion in the not too distant future.  For example, writing a blog about a popular television show might sound like a great idea today, but if you want your blog to be successful indefinitely, then a television show that could be canceled in a year or two might not be the best niche topic for your blog.  Make sure your niche topic matches your short and long-term blogging goals.

Image: stock.xchng

The Most Important & Effective Strategy When Business Blogging

Incorporating a blog within any small to large Corporate Blogging
organization’s website can be one of the most important decisions that could be made. Blogs are extremely effective for driving sales, web traffic, building brand awareness and strengthening relationships with customers. However, corporate blogging can be somewhat different from a regular personal blog due to differences in goals and audience but at the same time there are techniques that are guaranteed to produce results whatever the goals may be.

Let’s discuss what readers of corporate blogs are looking for and what elements will keep them coming back for more and even make a purchase. [Read more…] about The Most Important & Effective Strategy When Business Blogging

How the Compounding Effect of Blogging Gives Your Blog a Huge Boost

The compounding effect of blogging is a topic I often discuss in my books, to my clients, and at speaking engagements, but in order to understand the compounding effect of blogging, you have to understand the importance of search engines in sending visitors to your blog.

Consider this…

Where do you go to find information about just about anything when you need it? Do you check the Yellow Pages? Nope. Do you go to the library and look at an encyclopedia?  Not anymore.  Today, most people have access to the Internet and they turn to Google or their favorite search engine (with Google being #1) to find the information they need on just about any subject.

Example — Imagine you have a website and you want to increase traffic to it.  Here’s how the compounding effect of blogging works:

  1. You have a website made up of 20 pages. That’s 20 entry points to your website for Google to find, index, and deliver in relevant keyword searches.
  2. You add a blog to your website, and you publish a blog post everyday for a year. Now you have 365+20=385 entry points to your website for Google to find, index, and deliver in relevant keyword searches.
  3. You publish posts on your blog and those posts offer interesting, useful, helpful or entertaining content that your audience finds value in. In other words, those posts are shareworthy.
  4. People find your blog content and realize it’s interesting and shareworthy. They share it on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc. with links back to your blog. They write about it on their own blogs with links back to your blog. Now, the number of entry points to your website (via your blog) has increased exponentially. Your Google search traffic increases as all of these additional incoming links to your blog and website boost your Google search rankings, and traffic to your site from referrers across the web increases, too!
  5. Your website went from a static destination with 20 standard entry points to an interactive, engaging site with hundreds or thousands (or more) of entry points and an increase in traffic from search engines and referrers! You can’t buy that kind of exposure and growth potential!

The compounding effect of blogging really is that simple. It’s about creating shareworthy content and entry points, and it’s a method of building organic search traffic that has a good chance of turning into a long-term, sustainable traffic-stream and help you build a loyal audience.

Bottom-line: any blogger can benefit from the compounding effect of blogging, but it starts with creating shareworthy content.

Image: stock.xchng

10 Things You Learned in Kindergarten that Make You a Better Blogger

I bet you didn’t know that a lot of the things you need to know to be a good blogger were taught to you before you could even write your name.  It’s true!  A lot of the things you learned in Kindergarten apply to blogging and other aspects of your social web activities.

Don’t believe me?  Keep reading to learn about 10 of those things you learned in Kindergarten that make you a better blogger.

1. You need to be polite.

This one is a no-brainer.  If you want to build your audience, then you need to do what your Kindergarten teacher told you and be nice and respectful to others, even if you don’t agree with them.

2. You need to share.

At 5-years old, we learned to share toys, but as bloggers, we need to share each other’s content, ideas, conversations, and so on if we want our blogs to grow.

3. You need to take your turn.

In Kindergarten, we learned not to cut in line, and as bloggers, we can apply that lesson to allowing others to have their say.  While you might not agree with a comment left on your blog, let others have their turn to share their opinions, and then enter into an adult-conversation to discuss the issue further.

4. You need to say thank you.

This goes without saying, but showing your appreciation is extremely important to helping you build relationships across the social web.

5. Don’t run with scissors.

Be careful what you publish on your blog and follow the written and unwritten rules of the blogosphere to ensure you don’t put yourself in a bad situation.

6. It’s not nice to take other people’s stuff.

Don’t scrape content, don’t use images without permission, and don’t try to pass off any kind of work that you did not create as your own.

7. It’s really hard to get gum out of your hair.

Your words live online.  Once you publish them, you might not be able to remove them.  Always think about how the content you publish will affect you and others now and in the future.

8. Don’t hang upside-down on the monkey bars while wearing a skirt.

Avoid getting too personal on your blog.  It might seem like a good idea to publish those funny pictures of you doing a keg stand at a frat party on your blog, but if a hiring manager sees them a year from now, you might think differently about putting those pictures out there for the world to see.

9. I’m rubber, you’re glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you.

People will say mean things about you online.  It’s inevitable.  You need to have a thick skin to be a blogger.

10. Raise your hand.

Write about what you know and don’t be shy about it.  Be confident and don’t be afraid to share your knowledge, opinions, and yourself on your blog.

Image: stock.xchng

5 Ways to Drive a Buzz about Your Events Using Social Media

Whether you’re a blogger, business owner, or individual with an event to promote, you can spread the word and drive an online buzz about it using the free tools of the social Web.

Some tools integrate directly into popular social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn while others not only let you promote your event but also let you search for events, people who might want to attend your own event, and more.  Suffice it to say, the social Web offers everything you need to create a successful event buzz at your fingertips!

Following are five easy-to-use and free social media tools that you can use to promote your online and offline events across the social Web: [Read more…] about 5 Ways to Drive a Buzz about Your Events Using Social Media

Should Your Business’ Blog Profile Industry Leaders?

One method of raising your blog’s profile is to profile other blogs or bloggers. This can be a very successful approach, like it was for blogger Ben Spark on his I’m Not a Famous Blogger site (link below). But what if your blog is for a business? Profiling industry leaders — i.e., your partial or full competitors — might make sense, though profiling their personal or company blogs could be misconstrued as an attack on the slightest wrong word, unless you’re extremely careful. In which case, is it a good idea to cover competitor sites at all?

I’m of two minds on this. On one hand, linking to the blogs/ sites of competitors is actually a good search engine strategy, provided you’re linking to quality sites, and quality, relevant content. Search engines want to provide relevance of content; they don’t care about your business politics. So linking to topically relevant sites scores you points. On the other hand, profiling your competition could have one of two negative results. Firstly, it could backfire on you. As mentioned above, competitors might be leery of you profiling them. Or, you could do such a good profiling job that you send away clients. Neither one is a win.

Still, there’s an opportunity to implicitly show why you’re better, without actually saying so. If you feel the need to profile an industry leader, make sure that you do a series. Keep everything business-like and neutral, if not positive; leave out the personal stuff. Next, make sure that you have some additional compelling content that you can give away — such as an ebook, report or whitepaper — which not only shows authority in your niche but to which you can link to from each profile post. Have this extra content available for download at the same time that you publish the first industry profile post. Give readers a directive at the end of each profile; suggest that they download the report or ebook to learn more, and that they can contact you with relevant questions.

This approach is more likely to bind interested parties to your site rather than sending them away to a competitor.

Ref: Ben Spark/ a I’m Not a Famous Blogger.