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What to Focus on When Implementing a Guest Blogging Strategy

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curateGuest blogging is one of the best ways to increase traffic, search engine placement, and SEO value of your website or blog. While it does take significant time and effort to find the best platforms for content, as well as organizing the writing and marketing of the posts, guest blogging will help any company or individual gain visibility, credibility, and links online. Guest blogging can also help drive a sense of community and conversation surrounding the ideas of the post itself in the comment section.

To be successful at guest blogging, there are few guidelines to ensure that posts are shared often and are driving links back to your website.

Write an Amazing Bio

The majority of blogs or websites that accept guest posts will allow writers to include a short bio at the end of their content. This bio must be carefully optimized to include the best possible information about the company and its services in the shortest amount of space. Be sure to always include a link to the company’s website, and also a few keywords surrounding the company’s products or what they offer.

In many cases, the bios can only be about 25 words, so be sure to eliminate any necessary information, while also personalizing the writer and the company.

Here’s an example:

Kelsey Jones is a writer for Performancing (hyperlink), a new media company focused on blogging, marketing, branding, and more. Follow Kelsey on Twitter (hyperlink) or read her posts on the Performancing blog (hyperlink).

Of course, not all sites will allow 3 links in the bio, but always use as many as are allowed. Great bios include call to actions that give readers options to learn more about the company or its writer.

Choose an Engaging Topic and Title

To make a splash on someone else’s site, guest post topics must be engaging and interesting. The best posts answer questions, drive controversy, share news, or teach the reader something they didn’t know before. The title of the post is what first introduces the content to readers– so it must be catchy while also giving them an immediate idea of what the post is going to be about.

Titles that do well include numbered items (such as “Five Marketing Tactics You Don’t Know About”), make people mad or curious (“Why Your SEO Strategy Sucks”), or answer a question by teaching the reader something (“The Complete Guide to Adobe Photoshop”).

Once a catchy title has been generated, the content must be just as well-written. Don’t include  anything that isn’t absolutely necessary and be sure to include photos, links to support statements, and call to actions or the inspiration for change.

Tie-In What The Company Does

It is also important to tie in industry keywords or services that the company sponsoring the guest post provides. This increases the company’s credibility because they are writing in areas that they are actually working in. For instance, it doesn’t make any sense for an app developer to write a guest post about knitting. However, if they just made an app that showcases knitting patterns, then the post could be “The Best 5 Knitting Apps”, including their app (if guest posting guidelines would allow).

Just because a blog is willing to take posts doesn’t mean it is right for your company if they aren’t in your industry. It will also mean that less readers will actually click on the links in the writer bio to go to your website. While having a dofollow link on an reputable website has some benefit, the benefit for your gaming customers just isn’t going to be there on a canoeing blog.

Online and Social Sharing

When the post is published, be sure to promote it via the company’s social media accounts. This only serves to generate visibility for the post, which can lead to more site traffic and more trust from the website the guest post is published on. If a guest blogger’s content is heavily read and shared, then a website is more likely to ask them to guest blog again.

Besides social media, there are other places online to share content– email blasts with link roundups, newsletters, the company’s website, or a blog post summarizing the content with a link to the article. By promoting the content in every available outlet, you are not only benefitting by getting your posts more exposure, you are also showing your existing audience that you are reputable enough to be published on other websites.

Follow-Up

Once a post has been published, it is important to check it regularly for the first couple weeks to respond to any comments. Users appreciate having their questions answered by the actual writer of the article. The bigger the site, the most comments articles it will generate, so it is important to make sure these are answered in a timely fashion.

For posts that are extremely popular, many readers appreciate follow-up articles by the same author. So if “The Complete Guide to Adobe Photoshop” went viral, then the author could benefit from writing “The Complete Guide to Adobe InDesign.” Because the author has already set himself up as an expert in Adobe products, it only makes sense to continue writing content surrounding that software.

5 Mistakes Bloggers are Making With Social Media

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5 Mistakes Bloggers are Making With Social MediaEven though most people would regard bloggers as tech-savvy and the ones to whom they can bring their computer to when it no longer will save any more images to the desktop after the first 500. However, it is possible that bloggers are making the same mistakes many others do when it comes to social media.

Not Connecting at All

Not utilizing social media at all is most likely the worst thing a blogger can do when it comes to maintaining a presence online. Creating a social media account is free and fairly easy to do; what takes the most time and effort is keeping it maintained. Many bloggers may feel that social media takes up too much time– however, considering the missed potential when it comes to exposing their brand, it is worth the while to at least set it up.

Not Responding to Feedback

Once a social media profile is set up for a fairly active and/or highly trafficked blog, then it will mostly likely continue to grow at a fairly fast pace. This is when comments, questions, and responses to items posted as statuses on the page. Bloggers need to answer and respond to these on a timely basis, as nobody likes to be ignored, especially blog readers. Participating in the social media community for the blog can help increase loyalty and readership.

Not Sharing Their Content

One of the easiest things to automate via social media are blog post RSS feeds. Use a service like Twitterfeed.com to set this up, which allows for instant posting on someone’s Twitter or Facebook page. This can ensure that your posts are being shared automatically, without having to think about or remember it.

Not Allowing Others to Share Their Content

This is something that is a onetime set-up, but makes it easy to help blog readers share posts. For WordPress blogs, install social sharing plugins like Sharebar or Sociable.  For other types of blogs that have HTML capabilities, install an embeddable widget like AddToAny to appear at the end of posts.

Not Considering it as a Benefit

This goes back to the first mistake– taking social media for granted. Because blogging is an online writing platform, social media should be something that is easy to integrate into the overall blogging process. Most bloggers have nothing to lose when it comes to social media and should in fact add it as part of their blogging and online marketing strategy.

Blogging and Taxes: Getting your Taxes Done on Time

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Being a freelancer is a serious business on its own and so are the taxes that go with gigs like blogging.

Yes, taxes are not fun, they can snuff the life out of you if they’re all left undone. But really, all you need is to devote a day or even a couple of hours which is enough time to get your tax affairs in order. Even if you have an awesome run these last 11 months working here and there, tax season is bound to sneak up on you before you know it. So you better have your receipts and forms ready and please do yourself a favor never do your taxes at the last minute.

W-2
If you’re a blogger hired by an online magazine and you’re paid regularly like a full-time employee, then you need to fill out this form. This form lists your salary, the taxes withheld, tips, commissions, social security tax and any other form of employee compensation. The IRS will require your employer to send you a W-2 form, since the IRS receives a copy of your W-2, they can compare whether the tax return you filed matches that of what your employer submitted. This form will let the IRS know whether you owe any back taxes or if you’re entitled to a tax refund.

1099
This form is primarily for independent contractors. If your blog income rakes in $600 or more in a year you’ll need to file a 1099. It’s good to keep track of every payment made to you throughout the year, and then check the amounts on all the 1099 forms you receive if they are consistent. There should be no discrepancies; the amounts issued on your 1099s should match up.

As a self-employed worker you can also deduct expenses related to your blogging work through the 1099 form, deductions can be made on the cost of things such as office equipment, office space, tools, cameras and soft wares.

If the process seems too overwhelming, then hire a tax expert on freelancer returns. Yes, I’m calling YOLO on this, if you’re not up to it then hire an accountant or a freelance tax attorney and get your taxes straightened out.

So a quick recap if you received the following:

  • If you got a W-2 in the mail, it means your taxes are withheld and you are technically an employee. The company that hired you will pay half of your employment tax which is your Social Security, the rest of it you are responsible to pay for out of your own pocket.
  • If you got a 1099 which means no tax withheld, this automatically states you are a freelancer, an independent contractor. You are on your own here; you pay for your Medicare and social security tax.

But just as critical to know which form to file, do know what tax credits and deductibles you qualify for. As a freelancer, you may be at an advantage here since there’s a lot of room to reduce your taxable income and do write-offs. But more importantly, make sure you never miss a tax deadline. Reaping the ire of the IRS will only cost you more in penalties and legal woes. As a freelancer, the tax-related paper works you need to keep are receipts, pay stubs and W-2s because the IRS has six years at least to audit returns. So if you do finish early, take tremendous pride that you’ve done your taxes right, it’s no easy feat, you should feel doubly good about not taking your taxes for granted and getting some much needed tax relief.

Three Essential Tools for Freelancers and Small Businesses

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You could be the most talented web designer, artist, photographer or writer in the world, but no matter how in demand your work may be, if you can’t get the basics of running a business under control then you are going to struggle to make a living for long.

Whether you are just branching out on your own, have left full-time employment for whatever reason or have built up a strong client base but need to ensure you get the business side right, then there are plenty of affordable tools out there to help you. Working for yourself means there are a lot of more mundane things that you take for granted when working for an employee which you cannot afford to forget about.

Whether it’s paying bills, organising your tasks or keeping your clients updated with your progress, here are three of the best tools out there to help make running a small business that little bit easier, leaving you more time to do what you do best: [Read more…] about Three Essential Tools for Freelancers and Small Businesses

Do You Tie in Your Blog With Your Social Media?

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Many businesses may wonder why their Facebook or Twitter profiles don’t seem to be growing like they should. At first, they may seek to blame the employee or consultant that is responsible for updating and maintaining the profiles. However, before putting blame on the social media content provider, it may be time to look at the company’s website, especially the blog, to see what can be done to increase awareness and exposure of the company’s social media website.

In the sidebar, footer, or main page of a company’s website, they should have a Facebook Like Box, as well as a Twitter widget. For the blog, the sidebar is the best place for these engagement boxes. They allow visitors to instantly connect with the brand’s social media profiles without ever having to actually go to the external sites.  This can help drive growth for the social media profiles instantly.

Besides making sure that visitors are aware of the company’s social media profiles, they should also be making their blog content more shareable by adding sharing widgets or plugins to each blog post. If a site is hosted on WordPress, great free sharing plugins include Shareable and Sharebar. For other websites, try AddtoAny.com or AddThis.com. These plugins and widgets are all free, and can greatly increase your company’s social exposure online.

Sharing content socially shouldn’t always be the visitor’s responsibility. The company can set up automatic posting of a new blog post, news piece, or any other content onto the social media profiles when they are posted on a blog or site that has an RSS feed. TwitterFeed.com is a good resource to do this, especially since they allow sharing on Facebook Pages, not just profiles. Be sure that your automatic posts include a photo preview when shared on Facebook– this instantly gives them more visibility and makes the content more eye-catching to the user.

For original or linkbait blog content, be sure to also make sure that posts are shared via social bookmarking sites, which can make them viral in a short amount of time. However, only use social bookmarking for truly original content, such as “The 12 Top Mosh Pit Photos of All Time” instead of “Greg’s Hardware Store Now Open.” Social bookmarking users aren’t interested in self-promotional posts.

Encompassing social media site widgets, sharing plugins, and a social bookmarking strategy into your overall social media strategy can help ensure growth and continued success.

How to Get Your Content Shared Via Social Media

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content sharing via social media

Many companies and bloggers create content with the hopes of it going viral– that is, having it shared with thousands (if not millions) of online users around the country and the world. However, the so-called mystery of how to make content popular on social media sites and otherwise continues to be something to be solved. However, if a writer follows these guidelines, they are much more likely to have their content be shared via social media.

Make it Interesting

Content is successful only when it either answers a question for several users or entertains almost anyone who reads it. There is something to be said for content that is high-quality and content that is just there to fulfill a weekly blog post allotment. Forgo regular “fluffer” content for appealing and engaging content to make your linking ratio much more higher per post.

Make it Linkbait

This is similar to the guideline above, but there are certain types and formats of content that are much more successful online. These include top 10 lists, infographics, cartoons, tie-ins to current internet memes, mixed media posts, free widgets, and more. However, it is important to note that even though linkbait is content that is created solely for the purpose of going viral, it definitely still needs to be high quality and not something that is forced.

Make it Shareable

Offer several opportunities to share content for the readers. Include easy sharing buttons at the top and bottom or scrolling side of the content and check them regularly to ensure that they are always working (occasionally free social sharing plugins tend to be buggy at times). Besides offering sharing links to the top social networking sites like Pinterest, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, including buttons to print and email the content also offers additional opportunities for sharing.

Make it Graphic Heavy

Content that is broken up with photos, clip art, illustrations, or infographics further supporting or describing the text can help keep a reader’s interest. It makes the content more visually appealing overall without relying on the content alone. Additionally, graphics make content easier to share on social media sites like Pinterest and Facebook that offer an image preview of the posted links.

Getting your content shared on social media takes more than luck. It takes preparation, great writing, and an interest in sharing information rather than focusing on traffic. Making the quality of the content a higher priority than getting traffic usually achieves both traffic and loyal readers.


Relationship Marketing: What It Is And Why You Need It

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What is it that makes a good Real Estate Agent Great?It seems that every year a new handful of hyped up marketing techniques become the latest craze. That is in addition to older classics of the web such as SEO, which are still a staple today despite the changes made in search engines to curtail abuse in the area. In the end, it is best to keep a fair share of these methods brewing at once to give you the best overall results possible.

But one has never stopped being true, even if for some companies it went out of style: the customer is always right. Or, more specifically, customer satisfaction for loyalty building.

It is as true today as it ever was that getting a new customer is about ten times more costly than keeping one that you have already sold to. What you might not know is that it goes beyond that. It is also less important to make a sale than it is to ensure the happiness of that customer. [Read more…] about Relationship Marketing: What It Is And Why You Need It

Business Blogging: Interact with Potential Customers by Asking Questions

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Corporate blogs have many unique purposes. They’re more than just a way to show your customers that you’re hip, and should be used accordingly. A successful business blog can and should reach out to current and potential customers in a way that you cannot do any other way. [Read more…] about Business Blogging: Interact with Potential Customers by Asking Questions