[Mistakes #8] Five Common Mistakes Bloggers Make When They Want More Readers … and How to Fix THem - DailyBlogTips

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[Mistakes #8] Five Common Mistakes Bloggers Make When They Want More Readers … and How to Fix THem Posted: 24 Jan 2014 06:15 AM PST This is the 8th post in our mistakes series. Do you want more readers? It's a silly question. Almost every blogger does – whether they have 5 readers, 500 or 5,000. However, some bloggers end up making big mistakes when they focus on growing their blog larger. These are five of the most common, though you may well have come across others (share your thoughts in the comments below). Mistake #1: Not Building a Good Blog First However great your promotional skills are, you're not going to get far if your blog looks really amateur, contains only two posts, or has default text (like the WordPress sample page) still in place. Imagine coming across a new blog for the first time, perhaps through a search or through social media. If it makes a poor impression on you, there's a good chance you won't be back. Fix it: Before you start gaining readers, make sure your blog is in good shape. It certainly doesn't need to be perfect – but you should have at least five posts in place, and at least one of those should have been published within the last month. Mistake #2: Using Shady SEO Tactics Some bloggers turn straight to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) when they want new readers. And while being found in search engines is really important, it's not a good idea to take shortcuts. Dodgy tactics like writing hundreds of low-quality guest posts just for backlinks, participating in link exchanges, or stuffing your posts full of keywords probably won't work, and if they do work in the short term, they'll almost certainly see your site heavily penalised in the next Google update. Fix it: By all means pay attention to SEO, but use "white hat" tactics that make your blog a better reading experience too. For instance, you could hand-craft descriptions for each post (using a plugin like All in One SEO Pack) and come up with keyword-rich titles that help readers know exactly what your post is about. Mistake #3: Asking for Links (the Wrong Way) Some new bloggers create lists of all the top blogs in their niche and promptly email everyone asking for a link. While this might seem like a good idea at first glance, it's not likely to result in links (large blogs are inundated with requests like these) and it may well annoy the people who you most want to impress. Fix it: It's OK to ask a blogger to link to you – but pick someone who you already have a good relationship with, and try to target someone who regularly includes links on their blog (either in a weekly roundup or in a blogroll). Mistake #4: Leaving Loads of Blog Comments While leaving comments is a great way to get involved in the blogging world and build relationships, it's not a particularly good way to get readers – especially if your comments are all of the "Great post!" variety. Many bloggers will edit or delete comments which use a keyword rather than your username, too, and some will delete comments that they feel aren't adding to the conversation. Fix it: Go for quality not quantity in your comments. If you have a good point to add, by all means share it – this may encourage readers to click on your name and check out your blog. Remember that the most important thing is building a relationship with the person who owns the blog you're commenting on. Mistake #5: Thinking Great Content is Enough Some bloggers don't bother promoting their blog. They ignore SEO (maybe because they're intimidated by it) and they rarely use social media, or comment on other blogs. In many ways, this is the opposite mistake to the above four. These bloggers believe that by writing great content, they'll eventually attract readers who'll share their posts across the world. (This is the "if you build it, they will come" school of blogging.) Fix it: Great content should absolutely be your first focus – but the blogging world is so busy and crowded that you need to market your content too.  Try cutting back your posting schedule so you have more time to promote your posts.   The key thing to remember when building an audience is that while there are no super-quick shortcuts, there are definitely methods which work well and consistently to grow your blog. If you're struggling to get readers and want to go further, with tactics that work in the long-term as well as having an immediate pay-off, check out our brand new course Get Readers. It's open for registration until Tuesday 28th January.   Wanna learn how to make more money with your website? Check the Online Profits training program!

Careful with Guest Blogging for SEO Purposes Only Posted: 23 Jan 2014 05:30 PM PST If you are doing guest blogging solely to acquire links, especially with optimized anchor texts, with the goal of improving your SEO and the search rankings of your pages, well, stop! It’s has been rumored for a while that Google was starting to frown upon those practices, but now it’s confirmed, straight from the horse’s mouth. Here’s a quotation from a post Matt Cutts wrote this week, titled The decay and fall of guest blogging for SEO: Okay, I'm calling it: if you're using guest blogging as a way to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop. Why? Because over time it's become a more and more spammy practice, and if you're doing a lot of guest blogging then you're hanging out with really bad company. Back in the day, guest blogging used to be a respectable thing, much like getting a coveted, respected author to write the introduction of your book. It's not that way any more. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some sites actually getting penalized for this type of guest blogging in the future. The post is quite long and has some videos too, so check it out. That all being said, legitimate guest blogging where the main goal is to spread the word about your site or product and to reach a new audience is going to be fine according to Matt. Here’s what he wrote: There are still many good reasons to do some guest blogging (exposure, branding, increased reach, community, etc.). Those reasons existed way before Google and they'll continue into the future. And there are absolutely some fantastic, high-quality guest bloggers out there. Wanna learn how to make more money with your website? Check the Online Profits training program!

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ProBlogger: Not on Instagram? Your Blog Could be Missing Out

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Not on Instagram? Your Blog Could be Missing Out Posted: 23 Jan 2014 08:56 AM PST This post is from ProBlogger Team member Stacey Roberts. You could be forgiven for thinking Instagram is just for celebrity selfies and sharing pictures of what you ate for lunch. And while that's exactly what Instagram is, it's also so much more. For a start, it's a network of totally engaged online creatures – exactly the kind of people who love to read blogs, and probably would love yours too, if you let them know you have one. So many of us are visual creatures, and we love pretty pictures. In the last few years, Instagram has been the place to be for that – many of my blogging friends now call it their favourite form of social media. It is invaluable for interacting with readers (especially ones who don't have a blog), and for finding new ones that aren't coming to you through the usual channels. It takes two seconds to upload a snippet of your day and check in with what's happening. Instagram routinely gets plenty of interaction and engagement from fellow users, and while a tweet can sit in the ether feeling sorry for itself, an image is far more evocative. It also doesn't take much for your followers to "like" your image, and you're always in their feed as it's not based on algorithms only Einstein could understand. Instagram doesn't take much brainpower to engage with – it's not a tweet to be read, it's not a Facebook status to understand – so people check in on it much more than they do other forms of social media. You can flick through while waiting in the doctor's office, in the car at school pick-up, before a meeting, or even while waiting at the checkout. So the more you pop up in people's feeds, the more your name and brand begin to get familiar. And because it takes one tap to engage – people are more likely to. Folks love to share, and are often found snapping a picture of their freshly-made bed, a beautiful blue sky, or even their kids who painted their face instead of their paper. And they don't just share and run, often they scroll through for a bit as well to see what everyone else is up to. Then they check back to see if anyone has chatted to them, which results in more scrolling. It would be silly not to capitalize on this, and be where the people are. If you're looking for 150 million monthly active users globally, you can't go past Instagram. The 65 million photos uploaded by users every day result in a billion likes – and some of those could be on your content. Instagram says users spend three times as long on Instagram as they do on Pinterest and twice as long as on Twitter. You don't have to be funny or clever, you can just snap a picture of something intriguing and share that. There is always the lure of the "behind the scenes" images, so if you're a business, upload some shots of what you all get up to in a day’s work. You might think it's just for the young, but you’ll be surprised how useful it is to find new readers of any age, and how easy it is do do. Less effort for more readers? You'd be crazy not to do it. Stacey Roberts is the content ninja at ProBlogger.net, and the blogger behind Veggie Mama. Can be found making play-dough, reading The Cat in the Hat for the eleventh time, and avoiding the laundry. See evidence on Instagram here, on Facebook here, and twitter @veggie_mama. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger Not on Instagram? Your Blog Could be Missing Out

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