“DISCUSS: What Was Your Most Popular Post in the Last Month and Why Did It Succeed?” plus 6 more |  |
- DISCUSS: What Was Your Most Popular Post in the Last Month and Why Did It Succeed?
- 7 Simple Ways To Attract More People to Your Blog
- 11 Tips for Slaying Your Most Insidious Blogging Limiting Beliefs
- 7 Places Bloggers Can Get Design Work Done (Without Breaking The Bank)
- Just 24 Hours Left to Get Your ProBlogger Training Event Virtual Pass
- How Jon Morrow Crafted the Most Popular Post on Problogger
- How to Protect Your WordPress Site Before the Hackers Lock You Out!
| DISCUSS: What Was Your Most Popular Post in the Last Month and Why Did It Succeed? Posted: 18 Sep 2013 08:57 AM PDT At our ProBlogger Training Event last Friday I had a great conversation with 3 attendees during a lunch break where we each shared a post on our blogs over the last month that gained more visitors and/or comments than normal. We had to say what the post was about and why we think it ‘worked’. The exercise was fascinating and revealed a few similarities between the posts. I enjoyed doing it so much that I thought it might make an interesting group discussion here on ProBlogger. In comments below – please share a link to a post in the last month on your blog that got more visitors and/or comments than normal and tell us why you think it worked with your readership. Once you’ve shared – have a look at the links others share and the comments that they leave. I suspect that by doing so we’ll all probably learn a thing or two about creating successful blog posts. PS: Here’s my answer. The most popular post on ProBlogger over the last month was ‘Don’t Fall Into This Trap That Could Destroy Your Blog‘. I think it worked partly because the title makes you want to know what the trap is… but also partly because the post is based upon a story and is on a topic that most bloggers can relate to. Over to you! Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger DISCUSS: What Was Your Most Popular Post in the Last Month and Why Did It Succeed?     |
| 7 Simple Ways To Attract More People to Your Blog Posted: 17 Sep 2013 08:37 AM PDT This is a guest contribution from Ryan Currie at Spokeo. Blogging is an art and it takes practice to really get right. There are few things more frustrating than pouring your blood, sweat, and tears into a masterfully crafted blog post only to see the analytics at a standstill days after posting. Here are a few tips for bringing more people to your blog, consistently. 1. Find out what people want to read |
| 11 Tips for Slaying Your Most Insidious Blogging Limiting Beliefs Posted: 16 Sep 2013 08:37 AM PDT This is a guest contribution from Ryan Biddulph. "Should I write this post? I do not know. I mean, it will probably go live in 1-2 months. 1-2 months is a long time. Not worth it." These thoughts traveled through my mind a few minutes ago. Honestly. Limiting beliefs cripple most bloggers. A select few embrace their limiters, listen closely, tune into their nasty little dialog and do it anyway. Which is why I am writing this post now. Imagine yourself as a successful blogger. Or if you have seen some success imagine yourself supercharging your results. What do you hear? Listen in to the internal dialog and you might hear stuff like: "I have no time to run a successful blog." "I have no friends in high places." "I have no talent.” "Nobody will read my posts." "Nobody will promote my posts." The list can go on forever. I know, because I created such a list many moons ago. I felt comfortable creating and then defending my limiting beliefs because I enjoyed being comfortable. So much easier to reside in my safe, quiet, peaceful comfy zone. I mean, if I ventured out into uncomfortable areas I might actually grow. Yikes! I might be faced with intense criticism. I might actually make real money through blogging. I might become free. I might need to push myself more and hit deadlines and enter into prospering partnerships and write detailed posts and do research and attract ghostwriting clients and publish sponsored posts. Wow! That sounds like a lot of work. I convinced myself that being comfortable made more sense than growing so naturally I obeyed my limiting beliefs. As you can imagine, obeying your limiting beliefs ruins your blog. No need to expound on why. Imagine yourself being free. Imagine 10,000 or 30,000 or more eager readers/rabid fans devouring each of your blog posts. Imagine yourself traveling the world. Truth be told I have nowhere near that many subscribers but hey, I am traveling the world. I have spent the past 2 and a half years living in places like Indonesia, Thailand, Nepal, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Peru and Costa Rica. I have visited Japan, Taiwan, China and El Salvador. I mean, a guy who struggled to make a dime – literally – 4 years ago learned how to live the internet lifestyle so he could chill in Bali and Phuket? Are you kidding me? An ex-fired-security guard turned world traveler? How did I do it? How did I go from jobless in New Jersey to swashbuckling globe-trotter? I faced, embraced and released my blogging limiting beliefs. I faced 'em and did it anyway. On to the tips! 1: Meditate Image courtesy of tiverylucky / FreeDigitalPhotos.net. It seems like 50% of my practical blogging tips focused on meditating but honest to goodness, spending at least 20 minutes daily sitting in quiet accelerates your blogging growth like no other practice. Most struggling bloggers walk around in a haze. The crowd has no clue why they fail. This makes perfect sense because until you become aware of your limiting beliefs you cannot solve these low energy, success-killing ideas. Meditating helps you hear the chatter. Like this morning, as I sit here in Kathmandu, Nepal, I wanted to go back to bed. Big league jet lag after spending 23 hours traveling from New York JFK to Kathmandu. I heard the negative chatter shared above, and said, the heck with it; I am writing the guest post and submitting to Problogger anyway. Meditate for 20 minutes daily. Sit in a quiet spot. Observe. You will be stunned by what comes up. You will feel liberated after listening in to what is REALLY happening in your mind. 2: Submit Guest PostsSubmitting guest posts introduces you to 2 people; supportive types who spur you on to create, and conquer your blocks, and unhappy trolls who criticise you needlessly, helping you to embrace resistance. The supportive types inspire you. The trolls teach you how to process feedback from a lesser developed, unhappy mind. In both cases be grateful for the experience because you can grow quickly by guest posting frequently. 3: Connect with Inspirational Figures They can be inspirational bloggers like Darren Rowse or inspiring folks from any walk of life. If these people could crush their limiting beliefs you better believe you can do it too. If you are deeply depressed, or if you have 4 cents in your pocket, or if you were assailed by your family for making high energy, freeing, courageous choices, I feel you, because I experienced these nightmares too. If I can experience these nightmares and come out on top you can too. Connect with inspirational figures. 4: Do the UncomfortableI admit it; I felt that quick and easy posts were the only way to generate revenue. After creating 50 – yes FIFTY – video posts between my 2 blogs daily for about 3 weeks I came to a revelation; short posts will net you little revenue. I felt uncomfortable writing longer, detailed, in-depth resources like this post. Sure I saw success writing such posts in the past but I did not experience the rousing results I so craved. So I bailed, and shot myself in the foot in a major way. I hated sitting down to write a 2000 or 2500 word resource. I felt all of my fears, worries and anxieties up close and personal. I was wasting my time, I was losing money, and nobody is going to see this post anyway, blah, blah, blah. I hated feeling these feelings but new that slaying your limiting beliefs means being uncomfortable, to blast through these blocks. Do the uncomfortable. Become comfortable with these acts. Prove to yourself that your limiting beliefs die a quick death if you will simply do what you feel uncomfortable doing. 5: Do Crazy Stuff Outside of Blogging Speaking of ‘Crazy Ideas’ 3 years ago I had never flown on a plane. My first trip? From New York to Denpasar, Bali. 23 hours on 3 separate planes. It was crazy for me, kinda scary, a massive challenge, but doing crazy stuff builds a faith in yourself you simply cannot replicate through other others. Click through to my blog after reading this post. Or now. See me petting a 400 pound tiger in Thailand? His name is Ron. Real gentleman. But I was freaking terrified to step inside the cage. I shook. I said "no" but after seeing my fiancée Kelli walk into the cage with no fear and the Thai guys laughing at me I pushed myself through my terror and sat inside the cage. This was perhaps the most empowering experience of my life. I felt scared, of course, but I also felt free from the intense fear that I could never step into a cage and actually pet one of the top apex predators on earth. This faith naturally leaked over into my blogging exploits. I crushed blogging limiting beliefs my proving to myself that my fears were under my control. 6: Meet Fans DailySome folks will fall in love with what you do. Some people will promote each post and comment on each post and become one of your blogging brand ambassadors. Meet more people each day by promoting posts other than your own and commenting on other blogs. Fans will support you through difficult times. Good friends push you to kill your limiting beliefs. Brand ambassadors will expand your presence, build your blog and help you prosper but of course you need to meet these folks by aggressively networking. Meet people. Daily. Push yourself to meet at least 10 to 20 new bloggers through commenting on a daily basis to kill your limiting beliefs because many of your new blogging fans will help you succeed and dissolve any limiting ideas that you might hold. 7: Meet Harsh Critics Image by Stuart Richards On the flip side of the coin are harsh critics. I remember the first person who blew me out of the water on the ghostwriting front. This person pulled no punches. I became enraged but responded in a polite manner. The anger festered. I was really, really pissed, which meant I saw some truth in her words. After thinking through the criticism/feedback I uncovered one of my limiting beliefs; I could only charge for my services if everybody liked my work. After receiving this stinging feedback I went into a shell, stopped aggressively promoting my ghostwriting services and turned down work. But deeper analysis of the criticism confirmed that I simply needed to accept that when you charge for your services you might not impress everybody. Sure, you might need to improve your writing skills. Or perhaps a miserable, unclear person wants to unload their unhappiness on you. In either case you can learn what you truly believe about yourself and why you might hold yourself back by dealing with harsh critics. 8: TravelTraveling is one of my favorite ways to address my blogging limiting beliefs. I am displaced immediately from my comfort zone the moment I leave the US. Example; here in Nepal – after 23 hours spent flying and some major league jet lag agitation – I went online for the first time. Slow internet. I knew this because I have many blogging buddies in Nepal. So I was prepared but still annoyed. Then after I connected for a few hours I realized each of my comments was blacklisted. Again, major annoyance. Limiting beliefs arose: "How the heck am I going to blog here? How can I network? I am doomed! I need to work from my apartment to blog effectively." Yadda yadda yadda. Then, it took me about 10 minutes to log into my back office. 10 minutes. I was pissed. More limiters popping up. After some VPN magic I could post comments, network and whatever problems occurred with my blog, well they cleared up nicely. Why? I traveled. I allowed my blogging limiting beliefs to pop up by moving to a foreign land. Travel. Get out of your hometown and if you really want to succeed through blogging get out of your homeland. Introduce yourself to a different way of thinking and some hairy situations which force you to embrace your limiting beliefs head on. 9: Open up a Source of Income Outside of BloggingI was so wildly desperate to make money blogging – so I could eat – that I became totally blind to my limiting beliefs for many years. I pushed myself harder and harder and harder and scared away success. This was because I had no cushion. Blogging was my main means of making money and since I was not making money I desperately did things which hurt my blog. I was completely unaware of one of my chief limiting beliefs; to make money blogging you need to do more, quickly, than the other guy. So I posted frequently, and posted more, and more, and more, and patted myself on the back, until I saw my meagre pay checks, fell into depression, got angry at the world and moved into even more self-destructive behaviour. The cycle continued until I opened up multiple streams of income. I wrote for SEO clients. I opened up a Google Adsense account. I offered my ghostwriting services. I wrote paid guest posts. I accepted sponsored posts. I became an affiliate marketer. I made money, and most of it was outside of blogging as I earned nice sized pay checks through writing for an SEO company. Once the cash flowed in I relaxed on the blogging front. I saw the error in my ways. I saw my "I have to do more than the other guy or gal" limiting belief up close and personal. What a relief! I could actually work less, more intelligently and see more blogging success by thinking through my campaign. It all started when I freed myself from the worry of putting food on my table or a roof over my head. 10: Release Your Short-Sighted ApproachMuch of my blogging failure was rooted in taking a short-sighted approach. I checked my ad earnings daily. If I saw $25 I was pretty happy. If I saw .06 I would flip out. On most days my ad revenue came a heckuva lot closer to 6 cents than 25 dollars. I also checked my page views and subscriber stats daily. Each day was a failure or success. Of course this "everything hinges on the day's metrics" limiting belief continued until I release the silly approach. Once I relaxed I saw the error in my ways. I killed the limiting idea by trying something different. I decided to check my metrics infrequently. I moved my attention toward creating value and making connections. I wrote more guest posts and engaged in more joint collaborations. I joined multiple blogging tribes. I stopped obsessing over daily fluctuations by developing a long term vision for my blog and my life. Do the same. See your blog as a resource. See yourself as a wildly successful blogger, now, by visualising these dreams. Adopting a long term vision helps you identify any habits which do not support the vision, otherwise known as "limiting beliefs." 11: Persist4 years after being fired from my job as a security officer in Port Newark I am sitting on my deck in Kathmandu, Nepal. Watching the hustle and bustle of a developing city I feel floored. I learned what was stopping me – that being "me" – by persisting through tough times. If you will just keep at it you will expose your limiting beliefs. You can see why you are preventing your success through your dominant beliefs by working daily. It is not easy. Many times I wondered whether blogging was worth it, or if I would ever live my dreams, but by pushing past these uncomfortable points I observed my limiters. I saw what needed to change if I was to succeed. Keep going. Through persisting alone you will learn all you need to know about your faulty, error-prone beliefs and by releasing these ideas you can become wildly successful. How do you expose your limiting beliefs? How do you slay your faulty beliefs? What tips can you add to this list? Ryan Biddulph helps you live the happy internet lifestyle by sharing money making tips through his blog. He pets tigers and travels the world in his spare time. You can visit his blog here. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger 11 Tips for Slaying Your Most Insidious Blogging Limiting Beliefs     |
| 7 Places Bloggers Can Get Design Work Done (Without Breaking The Bank) Posted: 12 Sep 2013 08:37 AM PDT This is a guest contribution by Skellie Wag. Every blog has a design. Whether it's a beautifully put together custom job, a WordPress theme, a template or something frankensteined together with a vague knowledge of HTML and CSS. Most of us are not web designers, and because of this, the design of our blogs can end up being a thorn in our side. We want to make changes, but don't know how. We'd like a better logo (or simply to have a logo at all), but aren't sure how to get one. We know our header image is a little ugly. But what to do about it?  Image copyright Renee Jansoa – Fotolia.com Finding designers for smallish jobs like making tweaks to a blog theme, designing a new header, or adding an email form can be a little tricky. It involves working with a designer who is willing to take on a small job, who fits with our budget, is friendly, communicative, and does work in a style that we like. That's a lot of criteria to fulfill! Because finding someone like this seems tough, many bloggers will overlook necessary design updates, or try to do it themselves. If you've ever stayed up until the wee hours trying to make one small change to your blog's layout, only to mess up everything on the page, you're not alone. My life as a blogger became much easier when I realised that there are several places where you can get small design changes done at a good price, by good people. I'll dig into these options below, examining the pros and cons of each. Next time you need design work done on your blog, you may consider using one of these options. 1. ElanceHow it worksYou write an outline for your job, and list a budget. Freelancers will write proposals for why they are the best person to do the job, and will 'bid' a price for completion. ProsBecause each job generally receives bids from multiple freelancers, there is downward pressure on pricing as freelancers compete to win the job. Working with freelancers from Elance tends to be affordable. Because there are hundreds of thousands of freelancers working through Elance, you are likely to have a rich selection of proposals for your job. ConsBecause Elance is highly competitive for freelancers, many try to speed up the process of submitting multiple proposals by submitting generic copy and paste messages. In some cases, the freelancer may not have properly read the details of the job proposal. Because the quality of a freelancer's work is not approved prior to joining Elance, quality varies. The verdictIf going through Elance, take the time to do due diligence on any freelancer you are considering hiring. Make sure you're willing to devote some time to go through the multiple proposals your job is likely to receive. 2. oDeskHow it worksBrowse freelancer profiles listing their hourly rate, skills, and the number of hours worked through oDesk. Alternatively, you can post your job and budget and receive applications from oDesk's freelance community. ProsYou can pick and choose a freelancer whose work you like, whose hourly rate you like, and who has a great reputation on oDesk. Alternatively, you can post a job and receive applications (much like on Elance.com). ConsIf you post your job to oDesk, you'll have a volume of applications to go through, not all of which will be from ideal candidates. You need to ensure that you have the time to perform due diligence on applicants. If the job is only small, the time taken to choose a freelancer might outweigh the benefits of outsourcing the job. The verdictFor small jobs, consider selecting a freelancer directly to save time, rather than posting a job. 3. 99designsHow it worksOn 99designs you create design competitions rather than post jobs. Designers enter multiple designs aimed at best fulfilling your brief. If you select one of these designs as the competition 'winner', you claim ownership of the designer's work, and the prize money is divided between the designer and 99designs. ProsIf you don't like any of the designs provided by competition entrants, you don't pay anything. You'll receive designs in a variety of styles, with many different interpretations of your brief. Most jobs receive around 30 design pitches, giving you a wide range of work to choose from. If you're not sure exactly what you want, this could be a smart route for you. ConsThis service is a better choice for a large scale redesign, as they do not do small tweaks. 99designs also focuses on design work only. Because designers who enter your competition are not guaranteed to be paid unless they win (the chances of which are statistically low), their work may reflect this. Some members of the design community also believe that spec work is unethical, because the designer may or may not be compensated for their effort. The verdict99designs could be a worthwhile choice if you need a complete redesign for your blog. If you aren't sure exactly you want, having a range of options to choose from could be useful. 4. MicrolancerHow it worksFreelancers create listings for their services, with price, turnaround time, number of revisions, and work examples provided upfront. Buyers purchase the service they want. The work must be completed and approved within the turnaround time, or the buyer is eligible for a refund. ProsMicrolancer is specifically designed for small design and coding jobs, the kind that bloggers usually need done. Freelancers are reviewed for quality, meaning the standard of design and code is high. Terms, price and work examples are provided upfront, making it easier to make an informed decision. ConsBecause service categories have a minimum price, Microlancer is less affordable than other options. Job size is limited, so it is not a good choice for a complete blog redesign. Additionally, payment is required upfront, which might deter some buyers. The verdictMicrolancer is a good choice if you have a clear idea of what you want and don't want to spend time trawling through dozens of job proposals. It isn't well-suited to larger projects, such as a complete redesign. 5. FreelancerHow it worksYou post a job and freelancers submit job proposals and bids to work on your project. You can also search freelancer profiles, or post contests (similar to 99designs). ProsWith projects, freelancers and contests available, there are many options for getting your design job done. If you'd like to choose from a number of interested parties, post a project. If you'd like to choose one person to work with, select a freelancer based on their profile. If you'd like to receive many different pitches for completed work, post a contest. ConsGoing through project proposals requires time to perform due diligence on each application. Choosing a freelancer from the 8 million+ profiles might also be time consuming. When posting a contest, it will take time for the entries to come through. Freelancer.com might not be the ideal choice for a job that you need done urgently. The verdictFreelancer offers flexibility in how you want the job done, and a huge pool of freelancers to choose from. It is a solid choice if you have the time to make sure your job is done by the right person. 6. People Per HourHow it worksPeople Per Hour is structured around hourly rates. You can choose to work with individual freelancers who state their hourly rates upfront, purchase an 'Hourlie', a fixed price service, or post a job and receive proposals. ProsYou may be able to find a freelancer who has posted an 'Hourlie' rate for exactly the job that you need done, for example, a blog header redesign. Otherwise, you can post your job and receive bids, or choose a freelancer who seems like a good fit for the job. ConsFreelancers on People Per Hour don't pass through a review process, so the quality of their work varies and may not always be clearly visible upfront. You should look deeper into any freelancer you are considering working with and make sure they do the kind of work that you're looking for. The verdictPeople Per Hour offers the flexibility to find a freelancer through several different means. You'll need to take the time to make sure you're happy with your choice before you commit. 7. TweakyHow it worksThe Tweaky website offers dozens of fixed priced jobs based around small tasks and customisations. Once a job is purchased, it will be completed by a freelancer on the Tweaky team. The project is overseen by a Project Manager, there to ensure that things run smoothly and that work is delivered on time. ProsTweaky was deliberately created around small jobs and customisations, so it is well suited to the kinds of tasks that bloggers need done. The presence of a staff Project Manager on each job offers an extra level of professionalism and protection against poor quality work. ConsTweaky focuses on code rather than design. Some bloggers may not like that they aren't able to choose who will complete the work they need done (freelancers are assigned to jobs by Tweaky staff). The verdictIf you're not overly concerned with who does your work, only that it gets done quickly and for an upfront price, then Tweaky could be the right option for you. Who Do You Recommend?Would you work with any of these companies to get design or customisations done for your blog? Have you done so already? If so, we'd love to hear your reviews and experiences in the comments. Skellie is a writer, entrepreneur and web developer. She is currently helping out the team at Microlancer.com. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger 7 Places Bloggers Can Get Design Work Done (Without Breaking The Bank)     |
| Just 24 Hours Left to Get Your ProBlogger Training Event Virtual Pass Posted: 11 Sep 2013 06:07 AM PDT As this post goes live 450 bloggers from around Australia are boarding planes to head to the 4th annual ProBlogger Training Event on the Gold Coast, Queensland. They’re tweeting with excitement on the #PBEVENT hashtag – check it out. There they will be lapping up over 30 hours of great blogging training from international guests like Trey Ratcliff, Amy Porterhouse, Tsh Oxenreider as well as Aussie bloggers like Shayne Tilley, Pip Lincolne, Nicole Avery and myself. Attend Our Event With the Virtual PassWhile this event is happening in Australia – you’re invited to participate and access the same great teaching through our Virtual Pass (available for a short time only). The virtual pass will give you access to audio recordings and the slides of all sessions at our event. Shortly after the end of each session we’ll be uploading recordings so you can listen to them just after live attendees – it is the closest thing to being here with us. This year we’ve got 31 sessions planned (we run 3 streams at once during most of the days) on topics including:
That’s just some of it! See the full schedule here. What is Included in the Virtual Pass?
Grab Your Virtual Pass TodayNormally a package of teaching like this would be sold for upwards of $500 but thanks to our friends at Yellow Pages our Virtual Pass is available for a limited time for you to purchase right now for the price of $249.99 USD. That’s just on $8 per session (plus you get access to the two webinars). So don’t delay – take advantage of this special price and Pick Up Your Pass here. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger Just 24 Hours Left to Get Your ProBlogger Training Event Virtual Pass     |
| How Jon Morrow Crafted the Most Popular Post on Problogger Posted: 10 Sep 2013 08:37 AM PDT This guest contribution from Ahmed Safwan. Writing viral posts. That’s what we all dream of. We hope that we can write the next popular post on our blog. But what if you make it on one of the most influential blogs on the Internet (like Problogger) and get a lot of visits out of it? Well, Jon Morrow did that with his post, How to Quit Your Job, Move to Paradise and Get Paid to Change the World. The post attracted over 70,000 visits in the first 24 hours and it’s on track to get nearly 1 million visits. Darren was astonished. That’s why he called Jon the best writer on the web. He was able to attract over 9,000 subscribers to his guest blogging course solely on the strength of this post. Many of them had signed up to the premium program because of that one post, and he was able to make a great amount of money. It’s pretty amazing, right? But how did he do it? That’s what we will cover in this post. You need compelling content… not just another 5-tip post that’s generic. Compelling content is essential to get traffic, engage your readers and turn them into paid customers. It’s the dream that most bloggers have. We all want to quit our job and move to paradise. Not only that, he shows you how to get paid to change the world. The content is compelling and he crafted the post well. But a lot of us could do this. It’s true. So why aren’t our posts going viral? Well, it’s not just about the content. Jon Morrow included some ingredients that made his post spread like wildfire. Hundreds of posts are created about how to quit your job and move to paradise, but this post has some ingredients that other posts don’t have.  Image courtesy stock.xchng user lusi 1. Evoking Explosive EmotionsJonah Berger co-authored a research paper with Katy Milkman called "What Makes Online Content Go Viral?" In this paper, there are some insights that you need to care about. One of these insights is that content that evokes high explosive emotions is more viral than content that doesn’t. Basically, you need to evoke emotions in your content to make it spread online. After you readJon Morrow’s post, you feel inspired and that you have the power to do anything. Another key insight Jonah Berger found is that positive content is more viral than negative content. That’s why Jon’s Problogger post spread more than his Copyblogger post, On Dying, Mothers, and Fighting for Your Ideas. In his Copyblogger post, he intended to make people cry and he evoked that emotion explosively. With his Problogger post, he wanted to inspire people. The difference is that the emotion he tried to evoke in his Copyblogger post was negative but in his Problogger post, the emotion was positive. That’s why the Problogger post spread like wildfire. But how to evoke that emotion?Jon Morrow has a great answer to this question. In his post How to Be Unforgettable, he explains how you can connect emotionally with your readers. “Instead of sitting down and writing cold, imagine the emotion you want to create in your reader, and deliberately cultivate that emotion in yourself. Cry, laugh, get so mad you nearly beat your keyboard to death.” Jon says. “Then let it loose. Let it flow through you and into your words.” “Your readers will feel it. They'll wake up. It'll make them feel alive.” Jon explained. “And they'll remember you forever.” It’s simple but really effective answer. It’s worth reading the post word-by-word to learn more about how to evoke emotions and how to be unforgettable. 2. Telling a StoryThis is one of the most effective ingredients Jon added in his post. He shared a story that was incredible. It inspired a lot of people to continue facing their difficulties. It made people connect with Jon. He shocked us with his story. That’s exactly what you need when you craft a compelling story. If it’s something usual and people will predict what will happen next, then it’s boring. You don’t need to create specific posts to share your story as Jon did. You could add a story in the opening of your blog, to start it with a bang, as he did in his “How To Be Unforgettable” post. Thanks to Brian Clark for this awesome tip. To prove that telling stories is an effective way to make your posts spread more, check out James Chartrand’s story on how he is a she. It got over 540 comments and was one of the most popular posts on Copyblogger. 3. Having Irresistible Magnetic Headlines"8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest. This is the secret to the power of the headline, and why it so highly determines the effectiveness of the entire piece." ~ Brian Clark John Wisely from Pick the Brain wrote a post that got him only 100 visits. The post itself was great; that’s why he was disappointed. He thought that the problem may be in the headline. He deleted the post, changed the headline and published it again with the same content. It got 5,000 visits. (You can check the case study here) Jon Morrow knew that headlines are really important. He started to learn the art of creating magnetic headlines for years until he was able to master it. He is now the master of creating headlines online. His headlines are always irresistible. Luckily, he created a cheat sheet that contains the top 52 headline formulas that always outperform when they’re used right. I really recommend you to check this cheat sheet before you choose any headline.Choose one of these formulas, and then fill in the blanks carefully to create your irresistible magnetic headline. Try to include power words and you’ll have better results. Jon also created a list of 317 power words you can use not only in your headlines, but also in your content. His headline was very specific and it has power words like “paradise” and “paid.” This headline is really effective to capture your attention, even at 2am!  Copyright Gorilla – Fotolia.com 4. Picking an Established Platform To Go ViralTo make your post spread like wildfire, you need to seed the traffic at the beginning. Then, if it has some of the ingredients shared above, your visitors will do the rest. Jon Morrow had the platform ready for him to share his astonishing content and to make it go viral. He made use of it to create the most popular post in the blogosphere. That’s why you need to share your best stuff on other blogs as a guest post. It’s true that Jon would have seen a spike in traffic if he posted it on a new blog, but it wouldn’t have reached such a large audience of people. So, when you’ve got something amazing that you think should deserve to get 100,000 visits, post it on other blogs. Your mission will be easier after that.  Image courtesy guigo.eu, licensed under Creative Commons The truth about writing viral postsYou need compelling content to go viral. But it’s not enough. You need to add some other ingredients to the post to make it engaging so that people can’t help but share it with their audience. Yes, you can actually do it. If your blog is small or you don’t even have a blog launched yet, find a bigger blog that has 10,000+ subscribers and share your brilliant idea there. Craft it well, add some of the above ingredients, and you’re set to go and have your viral post. It may not happen every single time, but you can still make it. Jon Morrow did it on Penelope Trunk’s blog when he was still a beginner blogger, and created one of the most popular posts there to this day. You can do it too! So, get out there and write something amazing! Try it and see what happens.
Ahmed Safwan is a blogger and marketer that teaches how you can get your posts shared, tweeted, and talked about. If you want more people to read and interact with your content, check out his free Blogger’s Handbook for Writing Viral Posts! Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger How Jon Morrow Crafted the Most Popular Post on Problogger     |
| How to Protect Your WordPress Site Before the Hackers Lock You Out! Posted: 09 Sep 2013 08:37 AM PDT This is a guest contribution from Caleb Lane, WordPress security expert. I am sure you already have on your to do list that you need to respond to emails, return phone calls, show up for meetings, write more content, and a whole lot more. But, what if I told you that the effects of being hacked could cause all of your work to be destroyed and you would have to start over? I bet your to do list would change a little bit if all of the work you have done on your website was gone forever. That is why WordPress security is very important and you need to add it to the top of your to do list. For those who use WordPress there are some things that you can do to make sure your site is as secure as possible. Here are 11 things that you should do to help ensure your site is as safe and secure as possible: 1. Create Strong PasswordsThis is one of the easiest things to do to ensure your website is secure. Many people make excuses due to it taking too much time, but should be taken very seriously. Each of your sites should have a different password.
Once you have secure passwords for all of your sites, you should never just write them down. The only two places your passwords should be are in your head or within a password manager with a strong master password. If you are going to use a password manager, LastPass or KeePass should do the job for you. LastPass offers a free version and a premium version for $12 a year, while KeePass is open-source and completely free. If you decide to use KeePass, make sure you keep a backup of the password database file in case the file becomes corrupted or your hard drive fails. 2. Keep Your Site UpdatedWhen it comes to WordPress, many people do not want to take the time to make sure they have all of the current updates. Remember WordPress is not releasing these updates just so they can get media attention. The updates are released to fix bugs, patch security holes, and to introduce new features. Will any solution always remain a step ahead of the hackers? No, but when there are security holes that are known and there are patches available, you need to implement them on your site. There are no excuses for not keeping up with the updates. You should also make sure to keep your plug-ins and themes up-to-date. Also, if you have a VPS or dedicated server, keep all of the things associated with the server up-to-date as well. Now you may be thinking, how do I do this with all my websites? Thankfully Infinite WP and Manage WP allow you to manage and update all of your sites from within one dashboard. 3. Changing the WordPress Login UsernameChange the username that is provided as the default admin user when you first set up your account. Since most brute force attacks on your website are automated, they most likely will either use "admin", "administrator", "manager", or your domain name to try to hack into your account, so use a random username instead. Of course the username should be backed by a strong user password using the guidelines that were covered earlier. 4. Guarding Against Brute Force AttacksMany people do not realise that most sites have at least a few hundred unauthorised login attempts each day. In addition to the possibility of successfully hacking into your blog, these attacks can also put a strain on your server resources. To guard against these brute force attacks, make sure you have taken the steps listed above. You can install a plug-in such as Limit Login Attempts that will lock out the hacker after a certain number of failed login attempts. 5. Malware MonitoringYou need to have a solution in place that will constantly monitor your site for malware. A perfect free solution for this is WordFence which will scan your WordPress core, plug-ins, and themes for changes against the files in the WordPress repository. If there are changes to the files it will send you an email notification if you provide an email address within the plug-in options page. Another malware monitoring solution that includes server side scanning as well as a variety of other features is Sucuri. Although it costs some money, it is well worth it for the additional features it provides. 6. Fix Malware IssuesIn addition to your efforts to prevent malware from infecting your blog, it is always a good idea to find a way to clean up any malware issues that are detected. One of the costs that many blog and website owners tend to overlook is the cost of downtime that is associated with security problems and the time it takes to clean up those issues. A good solution that will remove malware in the event that you are hacked is Sucuri. If you have been hacked already, you can sign up for their service and they will remove the malware even if you were hacked before signing up. 7. Choosing a Hosting ProviderA substantial security risk comes from having your blog on a server that is shared. Consider the risks of your single blog and then multiply it by the number of blogs and websites on the same server. If you choose shared hosting, it is likely that you are going to be lumped in with hundreds of other sites. The reason shared hosting is a big risk is because if another website on the same server as you gets hacked, your website can possibly be hacked as well. While your own VPS or dedicated server may not be the right choice for you due to the knowledge to manage it and the cost, managed WordPress hosting may be a good alternative. They offer hosting that is more expensive, but well worth it considering the risks that comes with generic shared hosting. With managed WordPress hosting you get better security, a faster site, better support, and full backups done automatically for you. The 3 managed WordPress hosts that stand out are WP Engine, Pagely, and Synthesis. All of them are slightly different and have different benefits, so look into each one and pick the one that fits you best. 8. Clean Up Your SiteAs well as protecting your blog you need to make sure you keep your blog tidy. Get rid of any old plugins and themes that you are not using anymore. This also includes separating websites that are in production and still being developed by having them on separate servers. Often times you will be working on a new website, but then forget about it for a few months. This causes the website to become out of date and vulnerable to being hacked. For this reason, it is always a good idea to separate websites on different servers that you are still working on from live websites in production. 9. Control Sensitive InformationWhen you are cleaning up your blog files make sure that you are not leaving any important information available for the world to access. Check your phpinfo.php and i.php files. These are like roadmaps to your set up and a hacker will be able to use this information to break in. Another area of caution: don't store backups of your site directly on your website's server. This is just inviting potential hackers to download the backups and hack into your website without any work! Disabling directory browsing is a good idea to prevent a hacker from browsing your blog site's folders and files for information that could lead to them finding a way to exploit you. You can disable directory browsing by adding (without the quotes), "Options –Indexes," to your .htaccess file. The last thing you have to be careful with is using the file manager within CPanel and having it save temporary copies of important files such as wp-config.php. That is why it is always better to use secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) with a program such as FileZilla. Bonus Tip: Never store your passwords within FileZilla because they are not encrypted. If you were ever to get malware on that computer, it is very common for malware to search for passwords stored within FileZilla and use them for malicious intent. 10. Backup Your SiteIt is always a good idea to backup your blog site in case your site gets hacked or even if you made the wrong change to a file and want to restore a prior version. The two best solutions for backing up your site are BackupBuddy and VaultPress. If you are using another backup solution already that is fine just make sure it isn't overwriting the previous backup and that you have backups going at least a few weeks back. It’s also very important to test the backup to make sure it works even if you don't need it. 11. Be VigilantThis is fairly simple to explain. You need to stay on top of everything that is going on in the WordPress security world. Remember, preventing issues in the first place is better than detecting and fixing them later. While a managed WordPress host will have your back, it is also important that you have your own back as well. Take the steps that are listed above to help make your WordPress site as secure as possible and keep an eye on stories about website security as well. Never think that the security issues are only affecting other sites… they can just as easily affect yours. Caleb Lane is the WordPress security expert for Lockdown 2013, where you can learn how to secure your WordPress website. He spends his time consulting with companies about their website security and keeping his clients updated about the latest changes and news in website security. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger How to Protect Your WordPress Site Before the Hackers Lock You Out!     |
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