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How to Set Up a Blogger ‘Rainy Day Fund’

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This is a guest post by Timothy Ng, an experienced personal finance writer, specializing in credit card comparison. Check out his balance transfer for life guide

As a blogger one of the hardest parts of sharing your views and knowledge with the world is making a decent enough income to reward you for your time and energy. Most bloggers will likely give up after months of blogging, especially when they don’t see a fair ROI (Return on Investment) for the their time. Therefore you are best advised to save up for a rainy day, to avoid this disappointment in the first place. [Read more…] about How to Set Up a Blogger ‘Rainy Day Fund’

Bet You Didn’t Know that Site’s Built on WordPress – Network Solutions

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Time for another post in the “Bet You Didn’t Know that Site’s Built on WordPress” series where I highlight businesses and brands using WordPress that might surprise and inspire you.  If you thought WordPress and blogging was just for hobbyists and personal blogs, you’re wrong.

Today’s featured website using WordPress in cool ways is Network Solutions.  This is a company that has been around the world of domains, hosting, and more for years, and its most recent site redesign was intended to restore the brand’s position as a leader in the online space.  I’m on the Network Solutions Social Media Advisory Board, so it came as no surprise to me that WordPress would be the tool to bring the Network Solutions website into its new brand era.

Take a look at the clean, easy to read and visually appealing home page of the Network Solutions website built on WordPress:

The interior pages of the site use either a one-column or two-column layout as well as easy to read fonts, colors, and designs.  Take a look at one of the interior pages that is text-heavy but still easy to read below:

The site even includes a page that lists all of the Network Solutions blogs (also built on WordPress) in a single place, including graphics and links, as shown below.

Last time on “Bet You Didn’t Know that Site’s Built on WordPress” I featured a college, Tufts University, and today, you see a mid-size company using WordPress to run its primary web presence.  Stay tuned for another well-known brand using WordPress in the next post in this series, and prepare to be amazed!

What site built on WordPress really amazes you?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts!

How to Find Expert Sources or Be an Expert Source for Blog Stories and Publicity

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Did you know there are free resources that bloggers can use to find experts and professionals as sources for blog posts?  Did you know that these same free resources also allow you to offer your own services as an expert source, which gives you a great way to promote your blog both online and offline?

Consider this scenario — you’re writing a great blog post, but you need an expert to help you get the facts straight or provide a quote to take the post to the next level of authority.  Where do you find an expert?

Consider another scenario — you want to increase exposure for your blog, build your authority and your blog’s authority, and boost awareness and traffic to your blog by providing quotes and interviews to journalists, bloggers and publishers.  How do you do it?

The free online resources below can help you find experts and become an expert source for other publishers:

1. Help a Reporter Out (HARO)

HARO is a free tool that journalists, authors, publicists, businesses, and more use to find sources and offer services as topic or industry experts.  You can submit your requests for sources using the form on the HARO website.  Each day, members are sent emails listing requests for experts and sources.  You can respond to any request that you’re qualified for.  Just follow the individual response instructions published with each opportunity.  Follow the link to learn 5 tips to help bloggers maximize HARO.

2. ProfNet

ProfNet is a service offered by PRNewswire.  You can register for a free ProfNet account and then browse through submitted requests for experts and sources or publish your own requests. You can follow the link to learn how to create a ProfNet opportunity.

I have used both of the free tools listed above and recommend both to bloggers who want to find expert sources and promote themselves as expert sources.  For example, many of the real-world stories and case studies included in my book about social media marketing come from ProfNet and HARO calls for sources.  Through those requests, I met people and heard stories that I wouldn’t have found on my own, and I broadened my own online network in the process!

Have you used HARO or ProfNet?  Leave a comment and share your story.

Bet You Didn’t Know that Site’s Built on WordPress – Tufts University

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This is the first post in an ongoing series I’m writing for Performancing.com called, “Bet You Didn’t Know that Site’s Built on WordPress” where I’ll highlight businesses and brands using WordPress that might surprise and inspire you.  If you thought WordPress and blogging was just for hobbyists and personal blogs, you’re wrong.

Today’s installment of “Bet You Didn’t Know that Site’s Built on WordPress” features Tufts University, one of the leading higher education institutions in the United States and located just outside of Boston, Massachusetts.

Each of the student and administrator blogs sponsored by the Tufts University Office of Undergraduate Admissions runs on WordPress.org.

The main Tufts Blogs site offers links to recent posts from each Tufts University blog as well as a list of all the blogs in the left sidebar.

The Inside the Dean’s Office blog offers insight from Dean Coffin, which is written in his own voice and with a touch of humor that makes it far more interesting than you might expect from the dean of a leading university, as you can see from the post shown below.  You can read his post here if you can’t see it in the image below.

The Tufts Engineer blog is pictured below.  Each Tufts blog is simple in design with the same background and the only change being in the post content and the About page link.  I’d actually like to see better branding at the top of each blog to better identify what each blog is about that makes it unique and interesting.  The consistency in the background is a good idea, but I’d like to see uniquely branded headers or some other way to better identify what visitors can expect to find in each specific blog.

Despite the need for better individual blog branding, Tufts University shows from its blogs and its use of WordPress that is is keeping up with the essential technology and social media conversations that students, donors, businesses, and communities expect to see.  Furthermore, the prominent links to Tufts University Facebook, Twitter and YouTube profiles are done well to maximize community and relationship building opportunities.

What do you think of Tufts University’s use of WordPress.org and blogging?

The Secret to Creating Shareworthy Content

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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

The Most Important & Effective Strategy When Business Blogging

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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