True Blog Money: Blogging Tips

Showing posts with label Blogging Tips. Show all posts

14 May 2016

10 Top Tips from Blogging Experts for Beginners

I’ve heard blogging referred to a couple of times recently as a mixture between an art and a science. If this is true (and I think it is), there’s no ‘right way’ to approach blogging if you want to be successful. There are plenty of people who’ve done a great job of it though, and I thought it would be useful to learn from them

These 10 bloggers shared one important tip each for blogging beginners. No doubt, even if you’re not a beginner these tips will probably prove to be useful.

1. Write for yourself first

Write for yourself first & foremost. Ignore the fact that anyone else will read what you write; just focus on your thoughts, ideas, opinions and figure out how to put those into words. Write it and they will come.

Adii Pienaar, founder of PublicBeta

Adii’s experience in writing for himself firstly has made a difference to his blog in ways he didn’t expect:

2. Love your existing readers

Love the readers you already have. A lot of bloggers get quite obsessed with finding new readers – to the point that they ignore the ones they already have. Yes – do try to find new readers but spend time each day showing your current readers that you value them too and you’ll find that they will help you grow your blog.

Darren Rowse, founder of ProBlogger

A blog is really two things. One, simply a piece of technology, a platform. But, two, it is a promise in the minds of most readers, who expect that the blog should have actual content with some elements of value that is hyper-targeted to their needs. Much like with a newspaper. Readers don’t just look at a newspaper as newsprint that is delivered on their driveway every morning. They look at it as valuable information about their city, where they live, and the things that they do.

3. Be consistent

Consistency is one of the most important things that bloggers tend to forget. It’s much easier to lose your traffic than it is to build it up, so make sure you consistently blog.

Neil Patel, founder of KISSmetrics

A study by Hubspot showed that consistent blogging actually leads to higher subscriber growth rates:

Over a two-month span, businesses that published blog entries on a regular basis (more than once a week) added subscribers over twice as fast as those companies that added content once a month.

4. Give away your knowledge

Don’t be afraid to showcase what you know. Too many bloggers hold back the good stuff out of fear of giving away the “secret sauce.” There is no secret sauce in a world where everyone has high speed Internet access at all times. Today, you want to give away information snacks to sell knowledge meals.

Jay Baer, author of Youtility

Jay’s advice is to share the knowledge you have, rather than keeping it tucked away for a rainy day. Chris Guillebeau follows this advice by offering two free, downloadable PDFs to his readers. Chris also does what Jay calls giving away “information snacks to sell knowledge meals.” On both of the free PDF download pages, Chris markets his book on the right-hand side

5. Be true to your voice

Stay true to yourself and your voice. People don’t care to follow sites so much as they care to follow people.

Chris Pirillo, founder and CEO, LockerGnome

Another blogger who advocates the importance of the writer’s voice is Jeff Goins. He says that your voice is the most important, yet over-looked part of blogging:

Writing isn’t about picking the right topic; it’s about finding the right voice. What matters, what readers really resonate with, isn’t so much what you say, but how.

6. Give your email list priority

If you’re blogging to create a business, a movement, or to support a cause, then you need to build an email list. It’s not an option. I don’t even consider my blog to be my community, my email list is my community. Caring about these people, writing for them, and delivering value to them should be your number one goal.

James Clear, entrepreneur, weightlifter and travel photographer

When the New York Public Library focused on growing email subscription rates, this simple home page design with information about what readers could expect to receive boosted numbers by 52.8% over a more complicated version with less information about the actual newsletter:

7. Write catchy headlines

No matter how great your content is, it won’t matter unless you have an amazing headline. People have a split second to decide if they should click on your post, and your headline will make them decide. The headline is also essential in making it easy and desirable for people to share your post. Keep your headlines SPUB: simple, powerful, useful and bold.

Dave Kerpen, author and CEO of Likeable Local

Something we do at Buffer is to test several different headlines for each of our blog posts to determine which ones works best. Here’s an example of what that might look like:

8. Be Yourself

There isn’t one specific set of rules to be successful in blogging. When I started blogging, I had the opportunity to learn from experienced and successful bloggers in the industry. One of the best lessons I’ve learned from them is to simply be me. I didn’t have to be too “professional” or use “big words” to impress others. I had to simply be me.

By being me, I enjoyed writing and the process more. It had me writing more than I usually would too. If you look at the the most successful writers like Seth Godin and Chris Brogan you’ll notice that they are different and unique in their own ways.

Aaron Lee, social media manager, entrepreneur and blogger

Moz CEO Rand Fishkin agrees that telling your company’s story is important, as opposed to following a formula for successful blogging:

Emotion and storytelling have been part of how we communicate with each other and inspire action for thousands of years.

9. Understand your audience

Understand your audience better than they understand themselves. It takes a lot of upfront research, and often means being a member of the very tribe you’re trying to lead – but it pays off.

Brian Clark, founder and CEO, Copyblogger

Understanding your audience better means you’ll have a better idea of what blog content will resonate with them, which is a good start when you get to writing blog posts.

A great technique for doing this is to simply ask your readers first on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn with an engaging quote. If people respond well to it, than this is probably a great topic to write about. An example for this comes from Andrew Chen who famously “tests” his blogpost ideas on Twitter first.

And so does Joel here at Buffer. Take this example from a recent Twitter post of his, where he simply tweeted one quote to see how well people liked a topic before he blogged about it:

10. Get ideas from your audience

Create blog posts that answer the most interesting questions from people you engage with on social media.

Dave Larson, founder of @tweetsmarter

This can be a great way to gather ideas of what topics people would most like to read about, which will help your blog grow! One of the best ways I’ve seen this in action is through blog comments or Tweets....

I’m sure there are lots more great tips out there about building a blog. What’s your favorite?

5 May 2016

what is blogging? and how do you do it

This post talks about one of the simplest question ‘What is Blogging?’ We will start with the people's view on blogging. Then we will discuss about conventional meaning of blogging followed by its real meaning.

Blogging: What most people believe?

At the beginning, most of the bloggers have misconception that blogging is a kind of money making machine. Without understanding the correct meaning, they rush to make a blog, publish some posts quickly and try to fill their blogs with advertisements, thinking that they will earn huge money quickly, but 99% of the time all in waste.

What is the reason they are not successful?

They are doing a thing unexplained to them. In this post I’ll try to correct the misconception. I will also try to give new bloggers a better definition of blogging, so that they can have a strong base for their blogging career.

Blogging: The conventional definition

“The term blogging is a verb which refers to the action performed by a person when he makes a post to a web blog or a blog. A blog is a journal, diary or a personal website that is kept on the internet and updated frequently by a person or group of person.”

This conventional meaning is not enough to understand blogging completely. So, next in this post I have tried to explore blogging to some more extent.

Blogging: The real meaning

Blogging, in a real sense is a way to

   1) Share your thoughts, ideas and opinions to the world.
   2) Help others by giving information to them in the topic you are expert.
   3) Communicate with others and exchange your ideas through comments, emails, etc.
   4) Share anything you want whether it is images, songs, videos, or your personal experience.
   5) Make good friendship with other bloggers and your visitors.
   6) Provide unique and quality content which your visitors appreciate.
   7) Create something and share it.
   8) Inspire someone around the globe.
    And lot more....
Blogging is not meant for

    1)Sharing any other’s copyrighted materials.
    2)Doing spamming or scamming.
    3)Harming any individual or community.
    4)Promoting violence.
    5)Promoting illegal activities.
    6)Doing anything which is wrong and against law.

Blogging today with every passing minute is becoming a dirty practice due to the wrong use of it. I recommend you to do a clean and safe blogging, writing unique and quality content which provides your visitor a real value and help. Do not rush for making money. It may work for you temporarily, but if you really want to become a professional blogger, you must do blogging for helping others and providing them for what they have come to your blog.

Thousands of blogs are started daily , but only ten of them are of real quality and I know you want to become a part of the ten. So, start a blog keeping the above points in mind, so that no one can stop you becoming a professional blogger. If you already have a blog, then it’s time to start doing blogging in a new way.

Why Do People Blog?

So you may be asking why anyone would want to have their own blog. We believe the answer lies in the fact that every human has a voice and wishes their voice to be heard. The Internet is a medium that is unparalleled in its reach. Never before have average people like you or me been able to reach a global audience with so little trouble. Bloggers have the opportunity of reaching hundreds or even thousands of people each and every day.

There are still many people who like to share the details of their days. They may post twenty or thirty times a day, detailing when they ate lunch and when they headed home from work. On the other hand there are bloggers who give almost no detail about their lives, but write instead about a hobby or interest of theirs. They may dedicate their blog to something they are passionate about.

In fact, today’s blogs can provide hair tips, up-to-date news, technical information, celebrity scandal, political rumor, gets people involved in volunteering, advice on investments as well as there being blogs on cooking, health, gardening, sport, blogging blogs (this blog) and of course many personal blogs and quite a few strange blogs.

Conclusion

At the end, I hope you have understood ‘What is blogging?’ and how you should do it. Working hard, having patience and helping others really pay for long time and help you making your online reputation. Love and passion for blogging are the secrets, to become a real blogger.

Wish you a happy and successful blogging.

Do you have any other better definition of blogging or you have any questions? Do share it through your valuable comments. I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible.

True Blog Money