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10 Blogs Every Blogger Should Check Out in 2014 - DailyBlogTips

10 Blogs Every Blogger Should Check Out in 2014 - DailyBlogTips

10 Blogs Every Blogger Should Check Out in 2014

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 01:29 AM PST

Want to go further in blogging and entrepreneurship in 2014?

This is far from a definitive list, but these ten blogs are all packed with great advice.

(And I'd love to hear your recommendations in the comments.)

I've listed the blogs in alphabetical order, rather than ranking them in any way.

#1: Boost Blog Traffic

Jon Morrow's blog has in-depth posts packed with great advice (whether it's from Jon or a guest poster). Enter your email address on the front page to get his great Headline Hacks "cheat sheet" – a one-stop shop for great blog post titles.

#2: Copyblogger

One of the best known blogs out there, Copyblogger consistently has great advice, in punchy, easy-to-take-in posts. If you're going to succeed online, you need to establish yourself as an authority – and Copyblogger will teach you how.

#3: DailyBlogTips

Perhaps I'm a little biased here ;-) but I think DailyBlogTips has a good balance of content for beginners and for more advanced bloggers. We make sure we include plenty of concrete tips that you can put into practice right away.

#4: Firepole Marketing

Danny Iny's Firepole Marketing blog always impresses me with high-quality posts. They've got a newly-launched podcast, and Danny writes one of my favourite newsletters, answering readers' questions with thoughtful but honest advice.

#5: HubSpot

The HubSpot team publish consistently great content that's bound to teach you something new. They put quite a lot of posts out, but they're all great reads, covering a wide range of online marketing topics.

#6: Michael Hyatt

Michael, former CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, blogs about leadership, entreprenurship, and publishing. If you're looking for inspiration and ethical, value-centred advice, his blog is a great one to follow. His book Platform is also well worth a read (it's based on many of his best posts, plus extra material).

#7: ProBlogger

If you've been around the blogging world for any length of time, you'll have heard of ProBlogger. Darren Rowse – plus guests – publish lots of excellent beginner-friendly content, plus some more in-depth tips and advice.

#8: Quick Sprout

With in-depth posts, plus lots of statistics and screenshots, Neil Patel produces excellent content that's well worth your time (even the really long posts!) He's founder of Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics, and has a bunch of free extras to offer – like the "Double Your Traffic in 30 Days" course.

#9: Social Media Examiner

With excellent guest authors and definitive posts, Social Media Examiner is the blog to read for everything Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ or Pinterest related (they also have occasional posts on blogging).

#10: WP Beginner

Whenever I need a WordPress tutorial, chances are that WP Beginner has it. Their posts range from fairly straightforward ones aimed at general users to those aimed at developers and designers working with WordPress.

 

What's your favourite blogging / marketing / social media related blog? Let us know about it in the comments…

Wanna learn how to make more money with your website? Check the Online Profits training program!

A Very Simple Introduction to HTML (and Why You Need to Know About It)

Posted: 30 Dec 2013 07:29 AM PST

If you've been around the blogging world for more than a few weeks, you've probably heard of "HTML". You may even have glanced at a few bits of HTML code.

(I know some DBT readers are expert HTML, CSS and PHP coders – I'd love your best beginner-friendly tips in the comments, to help out our readers who are much newer to this.)

So what is HTML – and why might you need to know about it?

HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language. It's a special language that tells web browsers (like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Opera) how to display different elements on a page.

HTML consists of tags that wrap around different areas of text. Here's an example:

<strong>Here is a line of text in bold.</strong>

This produces:

Here is a line of text in bold.

The opening tag <strong> tells the browser to start putting the text in bold, and the closing tag </strong> tells it to stop.

Here's another example:

<em>Here is a line of text in italics.</em>

This produces:

Here is a line of text in italics.

(Here, em stands for emphasis.)

If you want to see these tags:

1. Create a new post or page in WordPress. (You don't need to publish it.)

2. Type some text then make it bold and/or italic:

bold-italic-text

3. Click the "Text" button on the visual editor to view the HTML code:

bold-italic-text-html

Why You Need to Understand (Some) HTML

Nowadays, there's no need to code posts in HTML before adding them to WordPress, which a lot of bloggers did in the past.

And with plugins like Black Studio TinyMCE Widget you don't even need to use HTML for your widgets.

However, it's a big advantage to get comfortable with HTML code, just in case something goes a bit wrong with a post or page that you're formatting.

Have you ever seen a post that ended up all in italics, for instance? This happens when the closing </em> tag accidentally gets missed off after a phrase in italics. It's easy to add it back into the text view of your post, when you know when you're looking for.

As a blogger, you'll probably run across some occasions when you want to use HTML code. Maybe it's on a forum, or even in a blog comment (some allow HTML), rather than on your blog itself.

Also, HTML isn't very hard to understand, and if you want to make small tweaks to the theme of your blog, HTML is a good stepping stone on the path to understanding CSS (the code that styles your blog).

I'll be posting about some more tags every blogger should know next week. In the meantime, revisit one of your past posts in editing mode, click on that "Text" tab and see what you can discover about HTML.

Wanna learn how to make more money with your website? Check the Online Profits training program!

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ProBlogger: 2014 Reboot: Make Money From Your Blog This Year

ProBlogger: 2014 Reboot: Make Money From Your Blog This Year

Link to @ProBlogger

2014 Reboot: Make Money From Your Blog This Year

Posted: 30 Dec 2013 08:43 AM PST

We are mining ProBlogger content this week for super-useful information to kick-start your blogging year with gusto. Today we focus on that old chestnut – is it REALLY possible to earn some cash doing what we love? Well the answer is “yes, but”. So if 2014 is the year you finally knuckle down and make it happen – Darren’s got just the post for you.

This post “Is it Really Possible to Make Money Blogging? [7 Things I know about Making Money Blogging] first appeared in November 2012. 

Every now and again I am pulled aside at a conference or am emailed and/or tweeted by someone wanting to get the “real” scoop on whether it is possible to make money blogging.

  • Is it really possible to make a living from blogging?
  • Is it just a small number of people making money from blogging?
  • Is it only really possible to make money blogging if you write about the topic of making money blogging?

I completely understand the questions and would probably want to add one more:

  • If it is really possible to make money blogging, how likely is it that you’ll succeed?

I’ve written many times here on ProBlogger about this in the hope of giving a realistic picture of the topic, but I think it is worth touching on again because there is a lot of misinformation out there right now.

On one hand, we see hype on the topic. Periodically someone will claim to be able to make millions from blogging quickly. These claims are usually accompanied with the release of a product or service (i.e. they are marketing spin).

On the other hand, I periodically see people writing about how it is impossible to make money blogging (or that anyone claiming to be full time is either a scammer, a liar, or is selling something on the topic of making money online).

The reality is somewhere between these two extremes.

7 Things I know about making money from blogging

1. It is possible

I’ve been blogging for just under ten years and for nine of those I’ve been making money blogging. It started out as just a few dollars a day but in time it gradually grew to becoming the equivalent of a part-time job, then a full-time job, and more recently into a business that employs others.

I used to talk about the specific levels of my earnings when I started ProBlogger but felt increasingly uncomfortable about doing so (it felt a little voyeuristic and a little like a big-headed boasting exercise and I didn’t really see the point in continuing to do it)— but my income has continued to grow each year since I began.

On some levels I was at the right place at the right time—I got into blogging early (in 2002 … although I felt I was late to it at the time) and have been fortunate enough to have started blogs at opportune times on the topics I write about.

However I know of quite a few other bloggers who make a living from blogging, many of whom have not been blogging anywhere near as long as I have.

For some it is a hobby that keeps them in coffee; for others it is the equivalent of a part time job/supplementing other income from “real jobs” or helping their family out as they attend to other commitments (raising a family). For others it is a full-time thing.

I’ll give you some examples below.

2. There is no single way to monetize blogs

Recently at our Melbourne ProBlogger event I featured numerous Australian bloggers in our speaker lineup who fit somewhere in the part-time to full-time spectrum. They included:

The year before, we had others, including:

Most of these bloggers are full-time (or well on the way to being full-time bloggers). They come from a wide array of niches and all monetize quite differently—doing everything from selling advertising, to having membership areas, to selling ebooks, to running affiliate promotions, to promoting their offline businesses, to selling themselves as speakers, to having book deals, and so on. Many have a combination of different income streams.

They are all also Australian, and are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what is happening here in Australia—the same thing is being replicated around the globe.

There are many ways to monetize a blog. To give you a quick sense of the many methods check out this “money map” I created a year or so back, which outlines just some that I brainstormed (click to enlarge).

Ways to Make Money Blogging.png

I also recorded this free hour-and-twenty-minute webinar giving an introduction to the topic.

3. There are no formulas

From time to time, people have released products that claim to be formulas for success when it comes to making money online. They outline steps to follow to “guarantee” you’ll make money.

In my experience there is no formula.

Each full-time blogger I’ve met in the last ten years has forged their own path and has a unique story to tell. They have often acted on hunches and made surprising discoveries along the way.

There are certainly similarities in many of the stories but each blogger has their own personality and style, each one is reaching a different audience, and each niche tends to monetize differently.

The key lesson is to be aware of what others are doing and to learn what you can from each other, but to also be willing to forge your own path as well!

4. Many niches monetize

One common critique of the topic of monetizing of blogs is that the only people making money from blogging are the ones writing about how to make money blogging.

This is simply not true.

In the above list of speakers from our Melbourne event you’ll notice I included topic/niche of each blogger. None sell products teaching others to make money blogging—all are on blogging on “normal,” every-day topics.

My own experience of having a blog about blogging (ProBlogger) and a blog about Photography is that it is my photography blog that is by far the most profitable blog (I’d estimate it’s ten times more profitable).

I’ve interviewed numerous full-time bloggers of late in a webinar series including:

Interestingly, none of them make money by teaching others to make money online. Sarah largely blogs about health and wellbeing, Tsh blogs about simple living, and Ana blogs about woodwork.

5. Most bloggers don’t make a full-time living from blogging

Every time I’ve surveyed readers of ProBlogger about their earnings, we’ve seen that those making money from blogging are in the minority.

In a recent survey of 1500 ProBlogger readers we asked about their monthly earnings. What you’re seeing below is the spread of earnings from readers who are attempting to make money blogging (note: not all ProBlogger readers attempt to make money, so not all are included in these results).

Keep in mind that ProBlogger readers are generally newish bloggers—about half of those who took this survey had been blogging for less than two years.

So of those trying to make money blogging, 10% don’t make anything and 28% are making less than 30 cents per day. A total of 63% make less than $3.50 per day.

Let’s be clear—most bloggers who are attempting to make money are not making a living from blogging.

Having said that, of the 1508 bloggers surveyed 65 (4%) are making over $10,000 per month (over six figures per year) and a further 9% were doing over $1000 per month (which is at least a part-time level of income).

My feeling, having been attending blogging conferences for six or so years now, is that the number of full-time bloggers is on the rise, and there are actually quite a few more people now at least making the equivalent of a couple of days’ work a week in income from their blogs.

However, most bloggers don’t make much.

6. It takes time to build

When I dig down into the stats from the survey on income levels above, and do some analysis of those who are in the top income bracket, it is fascinating to look at how long they’ve been blogging.

85% of those in that top income bracket have been blogging for four years or more. Almost all of the others had been blogging for three or four years.

This certainly was my own experience. I blogged for a year without making money and once I started monetizing it was around two years of gradual increases before I approached a full-time income level. It would have been four years before I joined that top bracket of income (over $10,000 per month).

Blogging for money is not a get-rich-quick thing. It takes time to build an audience, to build a brand, and to build trust and a good reputation.

And of course even with four or five years of blogging behind you, there’s no guarantee of a decent income.

7. It takes a lot of work

Longevity is not the only key to a profitable blog. The other common factor that I’ve noticed in most full-time bloggers is that they are people of action.

Passivity and blogging don’t tend to go hand in hand.

 

Blogging as “passive income stream” is another theme that we hear in many make-money-blogging products, however it is far from my own experience.

I’ve worked harder on my business over the last ten years than I’ve worked on anything in my life before this. It is often fun and gives me energy, but it takes considerable work to create content on a daily basis, to keep abreast of what’s going on in the community, to monitor the business side of things, to create products to sell, to build an audience, and so on.

The key is to build blogs that matter to people, that are original, interesting, and helpful. But this doesn’t just happen—it takes a lot of work.

Conclusions

Yes, it is possible to make money blogging. There is an ever-increasing number of people making money from blogging at a part-time to full-time level —however they are still in the minority.

Those who do make a living from blogging come from a wide range of niches, however one of the most common factors between them is that they’ve been at it for a long while.

How long have you been blogging? Are you looking to make money from it—and have you already? Share your experiences with us in the comments.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Build a Better Blog in 31 Days

2014 Reboot: Make Money From Your Blog This Year
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Shoemoney - Skills To Pay The Bills

Shoemoney - Skills To Pay The Bills

Link to ShoeMoney

Where to find the TOP affiliates at ASW 2014

Posted: 30 Dec 2013 10:14 AM PST

Post image for Where to find the TOP affiliates at ASW 2014

Affiliate Summit West is just 2 weeks away.

I can’t frickin wait.  It’s so cold here in Nebraska and with all the other stuff going on here it’s going to be nice to have a “break”.

If you have not already gotten on board with the Affiliate Ball , get ahold of Darren -  Email info@affiliateball.com or call D-money @ 818 825-3972.

This is by far the biggest night-time network event during the Summit.

When doing calls or talking to people that have affiliate products they always say the same thing…  ”I only want high quality affiliates that can drive a lot of sales”.   Ya … so does everyone.  But most of these guys are hiding underground on the net.

6d1e3d58-724a-452e-8137-1f00d152cf86bottle service 3Want to know where they will be?  Check the bottle service tables at the Affiliate Ball…  ask anyone, they’ll tell you the same thing.

Honestly, I can’t think of a more concentrated group of people that drive millions in affiliate sales than in the bottle service area of the Affiliate Ball.   So get a table and bottles for your company and network with guys that can make your company… literally make your company.  At least they will tell you what you need to do to attract them.

Don’t forget to RSVP if you haven’t already.

Trying to increase your Google rank that is like no other?
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“2014 Reboot: Get Ready for the New Year With a Blog Overhaul” plus 1 more

“2014 Reboot: Get Ready for the New Year With a Blog Overhaul” plus 1 more

Link to @ProBlogger

2014 Reboot: Get Ready for the New Year With a Blog Overhaul

Posted: 29 Dec 2013 08:34 AM PST

We are mining ProBlogger content this week for super-useful information to kick-start your blogging year with gusto. Today we delve into the world of giving your blog a shake-up for 2014 when you’re a bit weary of the same-old same-old. Ryan Barton, author of Smart Marketing, shows us the way.

This post “9 Steps To Take When You Loathe Your Own Blog” first appeared in May 2012.

You’ve got an editorial calendar, you’ve scheduled blog posts weeks in advance. Look how professional you are. Well done. You’re an inspiration.

You press “publish” and bask in retweets, praise, and a flood of comments. You’re “resonating” with your “tribe.” You’re prolific. You’re a cocky so-and-so.

Then it hits: the loathing.

You're exhausted. You’re ignoring your calendar. You can’t be bothered to think about new topics. Your writer’s well is bone-dry. You’ve met the resistance and it has won.

Your writing becomes programmed (verse, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus). It’s no longer art, and no longer an exercise in intellect. It lacks moxy. You’re phoning it in.

This is a low point. Have you been there?

If you bore yourself, how do you expect your readers to read, let alone share, your content?

What do you do when you loathe your own blog?

Find a way to restart, tabula rasa. And you’re the only one who can make it happen.

1. Do a design refresh

You buy new running shoes, and suddenly you want—need—to run. I must satisfy the shoes, it is their reason for existence. You buy a new car and instantly you cease dreading your hour-long commute.

It's the same with your blog. Launch a new theme and you’ll feel the need to create new content that mirrors the sophistication of your new design. It pulls you back in and urges you forward. Clearly, your own boredom isn’t reason enough for a design overhaul, but it’ll certainly reignite your fire.

2. Narrow your focus

When I launched The Smart Marketing Blog in 2007, my posts were eclectic random. Readers didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know what to expect. One day, a post about bus stop ads, the next day, how to set-up PDFs to open at screen height, and another day, musings on a new social network. There was no focus.

But now, when I focus only on smart marketing for small business success, my readers know what to expect. I have focus—a roadmap.

3. Take off the chains

Darren publishes daily. Sort of. Somebody on the collective ProBlogger team publishes daily. But I think he'd agree that expecting you, by yourself, to generate mind-blowing content daily is expecting too much.

At one point, I followed an editorial calendar that scheduled posts twice a week. But even those posts were rubbish. They weren’t inspired, they were the result of a self-imposed guideline. Sure, publishing more frequently drives more traffic, but also yields disappointed readers who are trying to digest your traffic-driven rubbish.

Write because you can’t help it, not because there’s a blank post to fill. Today, I write only when I can imagine giving a speech on my topic. The topic is that good. So good, I can visualize myself preaching from a soapbox. And you know what, my traffic has remained the same, despite publishing much less frequently.

4. Ship something

I don’t advocate shipping something simply for the sake of shipping; that only yields mediocrity. But shipping evokes pride and passion and a fierce sense of taking names. Last year I published my book on smart marketing for small businesses, this year I launched my newsletter, and in the months ahead I have two other books in the works. Each functions to inspire and refill my writer's well.

Aside from your blog—because your blog is not your product, your blog supports your product—what can you create to inject that same inspiration?

5. Change your routine

Want to find new inspiration? Approach your trivial, mundane tasks in a new way. When you break your habits, you force yourself to problem-solve, expand your thinking, and consider other solutions. It’s that same thinking that yanks you out of your writer’s rut. Purposefully take the longer route to the office, travel to a foreign country, run instead of lifting weights, read a different genre book to stretch your mind, expand your palette with a new coffee brewing method, keep your phone off when it’s normally on, watch a documentary instead of that sitcom—or better yet, read a book … with pages, not a screen.

6. Change how and where you write

Last week, I sat in a dark parking lot waiting for takeout from a local eatery. I was isolated, undisturbed, and focused. So much so, I made great progress on a blog post in the matter of minutes. Just me, a journal, and a soft dome light. Working out of coffee grinder-dominated cafes doesn’t foster the same productivity. Neither does sitting in front of a television or high-traffic public venues. Sure, use the excuse that people-watching inspires you. Rubbish.

Take yourself seriously, hide yourself, sever ties to notifications, reminders, and the urge to make sure you’re always in-the-know. Your writing—your art—deserves nothing less than your undivided attention.

7. Read new, not more

How many blogs do you subscribe to? Right now, how many blog posts sit unread? If you’re no longer challenged—if you’re glazing over posts out of habit, if you’re no longer being inspired and challenged—unsubscribe and find new ways to be stimulated. Stop wondering if you’re missing out on anything, cut ties, and stretch yourself. You may be out of school, but that’s no excuse for not remaining a student.

8. Who’s your muse?

Who do you work for? Wake up for? Breathe for? Write for them. Is it your wife, your lover, your most loyal subscriber, or your unborn child? Use them as your motivation to keep driving when you’re not strong enough to persist yourself. Keep this person’s photo nearby as a reminder. Don’t get so busy that you forget why or for whom you’re working so hard.

9. Declare victory or failure

When starting a new project, name your goal. How else will you measure success? Seth said it best, “Declare one or the other, but declare.” Maybe it’s time for self-evaluation. Maybe it’s time to reflect and determine what you did right (to do it again) and what you’ll avoid the next time. Because there will be a next time. “Failure” isn’t never blogging again. No, failure is taking valuable lessons and proactively applying what you’ve learned to the next iteration of your blog.

We’re artists. We all feel the urge to tweak our logos and change our avatars. We see the same “us” every day, and we're bored. But what we find repetitive and boring and loathe-worthy, our tribe views as consistency and resonation.

The real artists find a way to push through, put their shoulders back and chin up, and reignite their own passion.

Talk back

Have you hit the blogging loathe-wall before? How did you bust through it? Leave a comment below so others might be inspired to do the same. And stick around—later today we’ll take a look at a case example of a blogger who changed their blog’s writing style overnight—and reaped the rewards.

Ryan Barton is a small business marketing, social media, and design consultant. He is the author of Smart Marketing, blogs at The Smart Marketing Blog, tweets at www.twitter.com/RyanBarton, and lives in Los Angeles.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Build a Better Blog in 31 Days

2014 Reboot: Get Ready for the New Year With a Blog Overhaul

Merry Christmas from ProBlogger HQ

Posted: 24 Dec 2013 07:57 AM PST

It’s just ticked over to the early hours of Christmas Day here at ProBlogger HQ in Melbourne Australia, so I wanted to pause the blog tips today to wish you and yours a happy holiday season.

Here in Australia we’re expecting a pretty warm Christmas – around 30 degrees celcius – and will no doubt celebrate the day in shorts and t-shirts and eating our BBQ’d Christmas lunch outside by the pool (we really do throw shrimps on the BBQ).

Beach-Santa_729-620x349

I’ll be celebrating with Vanessa, our three boys, and extended family and feeling very grateful for another healthy and happy year.

I’m also particularly grateful to you as readers of ProBlogger and hope that whatever you find yourself doing as the end of the year approaches that it’ll be safe, fun and meaningful to you and those you love.

PS: things will be slightly quieter here than normal this next week as we’re in Summer mode but we’ll be firing up again in the new year and will have some exciting things to announce as we progress into 2014. Stay tuned – things are about to get pretty interesting here at ProBlogger!

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Build a Better Blog in 31 Days

Merry Christmas from ProBlogger HQ
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Shoemoney - Skills To Pay The Bills

Shoemoney - Skills To Pay The Bills

Link to ShoeMoney

Free Shirt Friday- ACE Hackware @acehackware

Posted: 27 Dec 2013 07:00 AM PST

Post image for Free Shirt Friday- ACE Hackware @acehackware

This week’s free shirt Friday comes from ACE Hackware. The business is an e-commerce boutique for information and physical security professionals. The company is run by chief hacktologist Taylor Banks. ACE Hackware carries fun and interesting assortment of gear for the seasoned and aspiring security professionals alike, including lock picks, bump keys, hackware (the stuff the good guys use) and much more.

IMG_3402.JPG

If you would like to see your website or company featured on Free Shirt Friday click here.

Trying to increase your Google rank that is like no other?

What happen to Affiliate Blogs?

Posted: 27 Dec 2013 05:22 AM PST

4-5 Years ago there was a ton of GREAT affiliate blogs. AND a ton of great forums for affiliates.

All of these places shared some great content.

This blog has never really been a affiliate blog or anything more than about me. I also used to give a ton of information on here. Lots of step by step walk throughs. I will occasionally throw out some easy ways to make money but its more of a hobby for me.

Forums like DigitalPoint and Wickedfire used to be a huge hotbed for valuable information… But I think people got tiered of all the wannabes and shit talkers.

When people ask me where the best information is right now I direct them to either my free training course which is somewhat outdated OR the ImGrind forums (pay).

The best blogs right now that I read are Charles Ngo and John Chow (I know I can’t believe I am saying that).

Know of any great blogs for affiliates?

Looking for an SEO service that won’t get you banned?
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