26 Tips to Get Your Blog Ready for First Time Visitors - DailyBlogTips

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26 Tips to Get Your Blog Ready for First Time Visitors Posted: 13 Sep 2012 02:48 PM PDT Is your blog looking a bit stale? Would you like to freshen things up a bit? Would you like to give your own blog a makeover, without hiring anyone? Just so, it is looking brand new and sparkling for the people visiting for the first time? It's not that hard if you know exactly what to look for, and to look at your blog from a newcomer's point of view. You need a checklist and a block of uninterrupted time. Anywhere from half and hour to forty minutes is ideal to start things of. Keep a paper/pencil handy if you want to take notes the traditional way, or open up a new text document and type away. (Don't ignore this, because you will forget things so it is better to write those down as you go). Let's begin. 1. Look at your blog title. What is it telling your readers? If you are still on a free domain and thinking about moving to self hosted site, think long and hard about your blog name. 2. Getting your tagline just right is extremely important. It speaks volumes about your blog. It tells the first time visitors what is it about and what's in it for them. Aim to make it descriptive rather then creative. 3. Showcase a clutter free design. Install a premium theme to make it look really professional. You are only looking at one time cost but it will really help your blog stand out. You can easily tweak things to make your design look exactly the way you want. 4. Add a brief author bio and image to your sidebar. This way anyone landing on it for the first time can see at a glance who writes it. Again emphasize on why you write this blog. 5. Show your most popular posts on the sidebar. This way your best content is always available for newcomers. 6. Place your email sign up form in a prominent position. A top bar works well. Another good position is to add it to your sidebar. Be careful that it is above the fold and the reader doesn't have to scroll down to find it. 7. Make it super easy for your readers to contact you. Add a stand alone Contact Me tab on your main navigation or add this information on your About Me page. Don't make readers jump hoops to get in touch with you either. 8. If you are accepting guest posts, it is a good idea to display your guideless in an easy to locate position. Think about adding a Write for Us or Guest Post Guidelines tab on main navigation. If you accept guest posts by invitation only, say so. 9. Add links to your Social Media profiles on your sidebar. Be consistent with your choice of icons. 10. Work on your About Me page until you are happy with the result. After your home page, this is the most frequently visited page of your blog. It needs to tell the visitor who you are, why you are writing this blog and why should they care. Meaning what makes you qualified to write on this topic. Don't forget to add your opt-in form. 11. Add a subscription form after every post to remind your readers. Add other relevant plug-ins that will display similar posts. 12. Add social share buttons at the end of your posts so that people can share them easily. Don't add too many to confuse them. Select a few networks that you are active on yourself so you can respond and keep an eye on what's happening. 13. Create your ideal reader profiles. Go into detail and write a few personas. Make sure you appeal to at least one type of reader when writing your blog posts. 14. Headlines can make or break your post. They need to make somebody curious enough to click on it. Spell out the benefit and try to stay away from formulaic ones. 15. Hook your reader in with an irresistible intro. Perhaps make a startling revelation or share a shocking statistic? Ask a pressing question or say something totally unexpected. 16. Make your content screen friendly. Short paragraphs, subheadings, bulleted lists, images, screen shots and lots of white space. Every single element will go a long way in making it highly scannable. 17. Practice the principles of effective communication. Blogging is much more about writing. Remember to be clear, concise and connect with your audience. 18. Add a relevant call to action to your home page (subscription form) or at the end of your blog posts (Share, comment, link, buy something). Don't overwhelm readers with unnecessary choices. 19. Create 'linkbait'. Examples of these are round up type posts, interview posts, long lists – in short, posts that a lot of people would be interested in linking to. They are excellent ways to build authority and show off some social proof (tweets, likes, comments, links etc). 20. Install Reply Me type plugin. This sends an automatic email when you respond to a comment. The commentator doesn't have to check any boxes to receive updates. More over, the person only receives the response and not all the comments in the thread. They never miss your response and it helps build engagement. 21. Show that you truly care about your community and always respond to their questions and any relevant comments. 22. Offer a freebie to get people to sign up for your newsletter or subscribe to your blog. Nothing entices anyone than a relevant freebie. This can take a form of a short report, an ebook or even a link to a video. Make sure you deliver high value content to get people to sign up. 23. Add a hire me page if you have any services on sale and list all the details for easy access. Don't bury this information. 24. Place testimonials and raving customer feedback on your site to add credibility and authority. 25. Thank your advocates and your biggest supporters. People who always take time out to comment and share your stuff. 26. Have fun. Come across as a positive, passionate and fun loving blogger. Don't paint a picture of gloom and doom. There you have it. Go through the list, make notes and then take action. Keep coming back to it when you need to. And share it with others so they can improve theirs too. Marya Jan is a proud content creator for Open Colleges. When she is not busy blogging for them, she can be found helping other small business owners revamp their blog content at Writing Happiness. Check it out and grab the free ebook 'How to Write Blog Content that Works'. Original Post: 26 Tips to Get Your Blog Ready for First Time Visitors

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“Five Newsworthy Stories for Your Next Press Release” plus 1 more

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Five Newsworthy Stories for Your Next Press Release Posted: 13 Sep 2012 01:01 PM PDT This guest post is by Frank Strong of Vocus. Most bloggers understand that online press releases can drive traffic. Press releases are powerful ways to reach people through search. As Lee Odden wrote in his book Optimize, "search is an explicit expression of need or want" and online press releases provide the means to reach people at the precise time they are expressing that need. This of course can result in one thing many bloggers desire the most: traffic. ProBlogger has offered reasons to use press releases to promote a blog, and very sound editorial guidance on how to turn a press release into a blog post. However, there's one piece of insight that's missing: idea. In other words, what are we going to write a press release about? This is especially important for the better press release distribution services. They must enforce editorial guidelines or risk having their content rejected by distribution partners. The biggest catch?  We've got to have a news angle—that is, there's got to be something new in our announcements.  I've seen bloggers struggle with this concept the most, and so here's a few ideas that I've found make great press releases that are effective and simple to produce. 1. More reads for the most read As bloggers, we know that to build a community, we've got to blog consistently.  The same is true for online releases: we need to develop a regular cadence for our announcements.  One very easy way is to announce our most read blog posts every quarter.  Take a look at your analytics and determine which posts earned the most unique visitors and then write a press release about it.  Is the media going to call us?  Probably not, but we'll definitely earn some traffic and hopefully repeat visitors.  This works best if we can find a trending angle—as you can see my company follows our own advice and earned 1,000 new visitors with this release. 2. Themes emerge in blogs Sometimes bloggers like to experiment with an idea—we get a hunch and the float the idea on our blog to gauge the reaction. One idea leads to another and the next thing we know, we've got a whole series of blog posts. As they say in the news business, three is a trend, so look for a trend that emerges from all time we've invested in blogging and find those emergent themes. Then, write a press release that illustrates the trend just like a hard news story you might read on a major news site. In this case, your press release is the story. 3. Research is newsworthy Matt Landau is like any other entrepreneur trying to make a living. To promote his business, he does what good marketers all do well: he's active on social media, publishes a blog, and contributes content elsewhere. He's got a niche in vacation rental marketing and over the years has accrued wisdom that he's turned into products, like reports, guidebooks and research he sells on his blog.  For one of his latest products he spent $199 on a press release and earned $3,850 in bookings.  However, he is cautionary against suggesting such success can come overnight.  During a phone conversation, Matt noted that content marketing is a "slow, long hard process that requires a commitment, but if you are confident and persistent, that persistence pays off."  The lesson?  Consistency matters. 4.  The news before the news Starting a review site?  Want products to review on a blog?  We've got to tell someone about it if want them to come—building it isn't enough. Marie Howard was tired of lousy beauty products and started a blog, Howard House Reviews, to review beauty products for women.  And she announced it to the world.  Ah, but that's only a one-time announcement, right?  No. The consumer industry has sales seasons and so too should review blogs.  Journalist Beeb Ashcroft announced her Holiday Gift Guide for 2012 which will help drive traffic, but also attract new products to review, and in turn, drive more traffic. There's an announcement for every season. 5. Announce what's new Satyam Kumar is a yoga teacher that knows how to promote his business. He blogs, he has a newsletter, and he creates audio podcasts and video tracks for practicing the various yoga techniques he teaches and he hosts them on his blog.  When he uploads a newest yoga podcast, he puts out an announcement about it and is careful to point out to readers they can subscribe on iTunes, so he gains not just visitors, but subscribers.  This tactic can work well for any sort of new content we produce on our social outposts and embed on our blogs: the latest YouTube video you embedded on demonstrating your software, or the latest speaking presentation just posted to SlideShare.  If this works well, double down and post the five most views SlideShare presentations to the blog and announce that too. Get tactical—and practical—with your next release These ideas are not strategic—they are tactical and intended to be practical ways to promote a blog with press releases.  There's a quotation often attributed to Hinduism that might well apply: "An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea." Frank Strong is the director for Vocus, which also owns PRWeb, Help a Reporter out (HARO), iContact and North Social.  Follow @PRWeb on Twitter for more tips on press releases. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger Five Newsworthy Stories for Your Next Press Release

Why Google Loves My Blogs (and How to Get it to Love Yours) Posted: 13 Sep 2012 07:04 AM PDT This guest post is by Melody McKinnon of Canadians Internet Business. The latest algorithm updates from Google have broken the hearts of many blog owners. The search engine appears to have lost interest in many of them. Yet on every website and blog I own, my attention from Google has increased—even on blogs less than a year old. Naturally, I want to stay in Google’s good books so I’ve given this a lot of thought. I’ve concluded that Google is simply looking for blogs with a personality worthy of its love. It’s no longer a matter of superficial gestures and pretty words. This somewhat fickle search engine uses several factors to determine if you are ‘the one’, and I happen to meet that criteria by nature. I prefer to write (and read) posts that are packed with information that may not be easy to find online. I write for people and what they’re searching for. I answer the question, “What would I be happy to find if I was searching for this topic?” When that task is complete, I go back and lightly optimize for organic search. I’m consistently active on social media. I’ve built quality relationships with other bloggers. I’ve been marketing online since the 90′s. I’ve seen every manipulative trick and they all had one thing in common: they came back to bite people on the butt every single time. Desperately seeking Google is trying harder to find what people are looking for these days, so it helps to view the search engine as a person rather than an entity. If Google placed a personal ad, here’s what it would be seeking: Good looks and a great smile: custom design, limited advertising, and shareable images. Charm: social media and blog interaction. Give them something to talk about. Friendly and open: user-friendly blogs with easy commenting. Intelligence: deep, meaningful content that is truly useful. Unique: dare to be different and create unique content. Good listener: cater to the searcher, not the search engine. Are you really giving them what they’re looking for? Integrity: are you a cheater? Manipulation has no place in a good relationship with Google. Neither does copyright infringement, illegal activities, or hate content. Long walks on a Vancouver beach: geographically-specific content when applicable. Sincerity: thinly disguised advertising, superficial posts built around keywords, and buying links will not be tolerated. Highly respected: Google respects those who are respected by websites it respects. You may have to repeat that a few times to get it! Great attitude: upbeat stories, suitable for a family audience. Hang with a good crowd: avoid linking to, or being linked to by, the “slums” of the Internet. No hookers please: there’s nothing wrong with making money with your blog. The key is to give more than you get. Love yourself: you can’t expect anyone else to love you if you don’t love yourself. Produce a blog that you would love to read. Love them back: sign up for Google+ and take the time to learn how to use it. Add both a follow and share button to your blog. Oh Google, your love means so much to me. I’m inspired by your efforts to control your wandering eye and focus on those who are truly worthy of your attention. You make me feel like the most special website in the world wide web! Melody McKinnon holds 52 certifications in business, marketing, writing, nutrition, biochemistry & general sciences. She blogs for the newly relaunched Canadians Internet Business, All Natural Pet Care, and Petfood Industry Magazine. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger Why Google Loves My Blogs (and How to Get it to Love Yours)

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