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How to Write a Good Blogging Bio

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As an introduction to someone who may know nothing about you, it just happens to be the most important aspect of any guest post you’ll write. Without a good bio, you risk losing credibility and significant traffic. Consider this your elevator pitch. As such, it should be short and to the point. There are three details you don’t want to miss.

 

  1. Spell Out The Specifics

First and foremost you want to introduce yourself, and briefly explain what you do. “Your most important details should go in the first sentence,” according to Brand Yourself.

You want put it forward with intention and a strong sense of purpose. Your goal should be to move readers, and engage them so they’ll be compelled to click through to your site. Consider using phrases such as [Read more…] about How to Write a Good Blogging Bio

How Social Media Involvement Can Help Your Company’s SEO Efforts

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Both Bing and Google are now using social media activity to help shape and determine search engine results pages (SERPs). This is based off the notion that a user will be more interested in seeing content that their friends and others in their social network have already shared or read versus content that hasn’t been accessed by anyone in their circle.

Because of this, companies need to get more proactive on a positive, community-driven social media strategy that can help drive engagement and promote user activity via social media.

[Read more…] about How Social Media Involvement Can Help Your Company’s SEO Efforts

The 3 Blog Laws of Self Hosting (Ignore Them At Your Own Risk)

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Despite the benefits of blogging upon Blogger, WordPress.com, OnSugar (for Drupal lovers),  or a microblogging site like Tumblr, there comes a season in your life when you must embrace the trials and tribulations of self hosting your blog.

Fortunately in the age of social networking and blogs, most hosting companies offer clients “one click” installs allowing users to upload the blog software of their choice without having to resort to using the infamous FTP (which only geeks love).

Aside from finding yourself a decent host, there are 3 laws of self hosting that you should follow which will not only prevent damage to your blog’s data (as replacing it via Google cache can be a pain), but also of your wallet as well.

[Read more…] about The 3 Blog Laws of Self Hosting (Ignore Them At Your Own Risk)

5 Crucial Tips To Help You Secure A Successful Blogging Future

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Blogging SuccessBlogging, depending on your approach, is a lot like investing in prime assets. Some niches appreciate faster than others and all require a dedicated overseer who is constantly tweaking and improving the portfolio and instruments to guarantee the best results. The blogosphere is your marketplace and the strategies that you implement and maintain will greatly affect the long term success of your blog.

However, before investing your precious time and effort into growing a blog you need to have a solid plan to execute and define clear goals for yourself. Here are some excellent tips to help you get started on the right track to achieve your blogging dreams. [Read more…] about 5 Crucial Tips To Help You Secure A Successful Blogging Future

The Most Powerful Characteristic of Successful Bloggers

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Blogging CharacterUndeniably, we can’t help but admire the legends who came before us; who set the trends and standards that many aim to achieve and maintain. Financial success and fulfillment of life are very attractive goals but require the dedicated, passionate and sometimes lucky soul who will dare to venture and claim the prize.

In the world of blogging, this is no different and still there is only a small percentage of bloggers, in comparison to the entire blogosphere,  who actually achieve huge success through blogging. After taking note, you will find that there are a few key characteristics that most probloggers possess like persistence, focus and passion but there is one more requirement to the mix. That ingredient is the ability to change and adapt. [Read more…] about The Most Powerful Characteristic of Successful Bloggers

5 Solid Reasons You Should Never Quit Blogging

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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

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

Is It Too Easy to Blog?

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There’s an interesting anti- blogging op-ed rant in the Baltimore Sun by Garrison Keillor, an amusing American writing icon who’s known for classics such as Lake Wobegon Days and A Prairie Home Companion. In the rant, entitled “When everyone’s a writer, no one is,” Keillor gives an entertaining slap in the face to blogging and microblogging, suggesting that the Internet has made us both literate in terms of increasing reading interest, though simultaneously reduced the value of writing. I mean, who wants to pay for something when you can probably find it for free or which is easy to steal? [Via Writers Write.]

That sounds about right, but the irony that the Baltimore Sun’s web page has Google AdSense ads smack-dab in the middle of Keillor’s op-ed piece isn’t lost on me. If this is what traditional publishers think they have to do to survive, then so be it. Now, I just had an email conversation earlier today with someone who wants to buy a few old sites that I’d previously bartered from someone else. The potential buyer wanted me to also add more content, which I wasn’t interested in even before he tipped his hat by making a mention that you can buy 10 posts for $20. That was because I’d mentioned to him that when I had tried to find writers for my sites, that was what I was quoted, by people who knew the niche well.

The $2/post might be available for some niches, but you will get exactly what you pay for: writing that’s likely unreadable and would take you far too long to edit than just write yourself. Specialized niches, on the other hand, require you to stay on top of the market, do extra research. I won’t give away the niche, but let me put it this way: if I have to watch a 1.5 hour TV show just to do some research to write one single post for $2, there’s something seriously wrong with the industry. You can’t live off that kind of workflow and rate. Worse are those who think everyone should now write for that rate, regardless of where you live. (One guy from Buffalo, NY, a few years ago, offered me a $1.50/post even though I repeatedly said I lived in Toronto, Canada. I’m now in Silicon Valley, California, and even if I can still work from home, life is expensive here.)

The culprits, as Keillor suggests, are probably the otherwise fantastic blogging systems such as WordPress, MoveableType and Drupal, that have in one sense revolutionized publishing because they allow anyone to easily write and publish at minimal cost, and in another sense are destroying publishing because they allow anyone to easily write and publish at minimal cost. And claim to be a writer or blogger. Even when they’re not. Keillor says, “Call me a pessimist, call me Ishmael, but I think that book publishing is about to slide into the sea.” Again, that sounds just about right. In fact, to add to the potential demise, Barnes & Noble have a new e-book publishing platform, Pubit!, for independents and self-publishing writers, with the distribution vehicle being through B&N’s e-Book store.

Still, let me reassure you aspiring bloggers who actually have or can develop real writing skills, who have inspired writing (though not day in and day out), that you can make living. I doubt most of you will achieve blogging success if you blog for advertising dollars, but if you align yourself with clients who sell products and/or services — or sell your own — then it’s possible to make a living writing online, even excel at it. Just don’t let the ease of blogging subvert you from building your writing skills. Blogging platforms like WordPress are merely writing tools, just like the now-ancient IBM Selectric typewriter was that I first started cracking out my short stories and poems on.

On a side note, it’s the seventh birthday of the WordPress blogging system — one of the key propagators of the online publishing revolution. Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress and Automattic, shares some thoughts about this occasion and mentions that version 3.0 is near (it’s available in beta form). He also notes that that WP development community now numbers over 1,500 active members contributing to what the GPL software is today — that is, much more than a blogging system. Happy birthday, WordPress.

Image: Flickr.