Tag Archives: tips and tricks

Blogging 101: How to Be a Better Blogger

Posted on September 12, 2013 by Hosting

The post Blogging 101: How to Be a Better Blogger appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing . There is no shortage of advice out there on how to be a better blogger. It seems everyone has their own take on what it means to succeed in the blogosphere. That’s because successful blogging is a multifaceted accomplishment, requiring you to be more than just a good writer. Blogging requires an amazing amount of focus, determination, and (overall) passion about the topics that you’re blogging about. Read on to see what it takes to make your blog successful.   Get Direction What is the purpose of your blog? You should be able to answer this question before you ever start writing. For this reason, it’s a good idea to have a mission statement. You don’t have to define your blog too narrowly, or publish your mission statement for all to see, but having one written down will help to guide you with each new piece of content you write. Next, establish three to five topic buckets. As blogger Mark Collier puts it, topic buckets fold under the larger umbrella of your website’s purpose. For example, if the focus of your blog is to help people with personal development, you might choose motivation, productivity, wealth management, and relationships as your topic buckets. All of your categories would fall under one of these buckets, and every one of your blog posts would fall under one of your categories.   Be Consistent A blogger who only publishes when he feels like it isn’t very likely to have an audience. The truth is, you won’t feel like writing most of the time. However, if you want to create an audience, you will need to blog consistently, whether it be a few times a week or a couple times a month. The important thing is to let your readers know what to expect from you. Keeping an editorial calendar is a great way to stay on track with your blogging. You might also consider writing blog posts in batches instead of one at a time, and publishing each one when the time comes. When you plan ahead, you’re more likely to succeed in staying consistent with your blog.   Appearance Matters Human beings are very driven by visual appearance, so you can bet that a user’s first impression of your blog will include the appearance of your website. Your website appearance should reflect your personal style, your business brand, and/or the aim of your blog. Keep this in mind if choosing a theme for your blog. It’s also important to keep your pages clean and clutter-free. If you have distracting pictures, animations, old content, or banners that don’t contribute to the overall look of your site, then it is time to clean them up. If you have a lot of pictures on your website, consider using a photo gallery theme to keep things in order.   Be Creative Coming up with content ideas is probably the most difficult part of blogging, so mastering the art of idea generation is one of the best things you can do. First off, you should keep a running list of blog post ideas that you can refer back to. From there you can come up with ideas in a number of ways. Spend an hour or two each week brainstorming topic ideas. Just write down everything that comes to you, no matter how unpolished the idea seems at first. Sometimes they just need some time to marinate. Set Google Alerts for your chosen topics and see what news items you can write on. Visit sites like Yahoo Answers and Quora to see what people are asking about in different categories. Create blog posts around reader emails. Ask readers directly what topics they’d like you to address.   Stay on Task If you have trouble staying on task, then there are a number of tools that can help. Ommwriter is a free tool that creates a writing space within your desktop, and even provides ambient music and appealing keyboard sound effects. Time Doctor is another great tool. Not only does it track the amount of time you spend on a task, but it also checks up on you, should you drift off to Facebook or YouTube. A lot of bloggers have had great success with Focus Booster . This little program uses the Pomodoro technique of working for a set amount of time followed by a short break. Which ever tool you use, the most important thing is that you choose something that works for you and follow through with it.   Get Out More As much as productivity and focus matter in blogging, unplugging and living your life is just as important. Neglecting your other hobbies and passions in favor of blogging can not only drain you, but it can also hurt your writing. As Vincent Van Gogh once said, “Whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.”   Though blogging can sometimes be a challenge, it can also be a great joy when your audience appreciates what you do. Remember that no great blogger became that way overnight, not even Seth Godin or Brian Clark. Use these tips to improve on your blogging life, and watch your efforts blossom as a result. Continue reading →

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The Wheel Turns: From Pay Per Click to Pay Per Gaze

Posted on September 11, 2013 by Hosting

Although Google Glass won’t be on sale until 2014 and it will be years before the futuristic technology penetrates the device market far enough for advertisers to invest in its instant and interactive capabilities, Google has just been granted it’s “Pay Per Gaze” patent, so it’s certainly hitting the thoughts of your PPC agency , website designers and webmasters. Adwords was introduced in 2000 and PPC as we know it began in earnest in 2002; a multi-million dollar industry of which advertisers and digital marketing specialists are keen to explore every new opportunity, where each new device and platform translates to just that: a new opportunity.   The Google Pay Per Gaze Patent Google’s pay per gaze patent was filed for back in 2011 for a “head mounted gaze tracking device” which would send images from the direction of the wearers “gaze” to a server, that server would identify relevant adverts and charge the advertiser. The patent is not just limited to online advertising but can also relate to advertisements in the users environment which they view and interact with but Google has been a little non-committal about whether it will be implemented at all, inferring that not all patents get developed into products. The patent also suggests the capability to assess a user’s emotional response to an advert and react accordingly. If you’re not prepared to wait for Pay Per Gaze to become a reality, if it does (although if you are a realist it’s only normal to expect Google to want to make a few millions from advertising through the next step in wearable computing) then there are other Pay Per Click alternatives to talk to your digital marketing agency about. For the full news on Pay Per Gaze read more at Mashable and AllGeek.TV .   Will it just be Google Glass? It remains to be seen whether Google’s Pay Per Gaze patent will give them a complete monopoly on the head mounted device PPC industry, but there are certainly smart eyewear competitors to Google Glass emerging as Digital Trends reports:   Sony Smart Glasses Sony does already produce 3D glasses for gaming, but has filed patents in 2012 for devices capable of transmitting information to others and a pair of glasses with displays for both eyes.   Microsoft Glass Microsoft filed a patent in 2011 which included layering information on top of live action events and their other patents have included Xbox and Gaming smart eyewear.   Apple iGlass The competitor round-up would not be complete without an addition from Apple, who have filed much more vague patents which suggest they have been researching the area but are more likely to hit the market with an iWatch sooner. The report also includes potential products from lesser-known players and products, with some capabilities already on the market like gaming glasses and those which incorporate digital cameras but which have far less potential so far to send to you running to your digital marketing agency to initiate a Pay Per Gaze campaign. *** Having established his career in digital sales and marketing,  Duncan Cumming formed his own digital marketing agency. Along with the running of his business, Duncan spends time writing informative and helpful articles about the different areas of online marketing. Continue reading →

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10 Blogging Strategies That Will Help Bring More People To Your Website

Posted on August 31, 2013 by Hosting

Every blogger has faced the lack of readership dilemma at one point or another. After all, there’s no point in creating an archive of content if there’s no one there to read it. Contrary to what you may believe, that super star blogger you admire so much didn’t burst into notoriety overnight. Gaining a readership is something that requires consistent effort. Below you will find ten building blocks on which you can build your blogging strategy.   1. Share and Share Often If you’ve written something great that you’ve put your heart into, then let everyone know about it. Put it on your Facebook wall, tweet about it, bookmark it on StumbleUpon, Digg it, and put it out there for the world to see. Ask your friends to do the same. You can continue to do this long after you originally publish your post. Consider re-sharing your post again at a later time as a “throwback” or a “best of” promotion. You can also compile a list of your most helpful blog posts and share the comprehensive list with your readers.   2. Make List Posts People like lists. They’re easy to read, and offer a quick way for readers to digest information they find interesting or useful. Make lists that are relevant to your blog, such as top tools to use, best blogs to follow, most helpful Youtube videos, or most influential people in your field.   3. Learn to Write Headlines The blog post title is the hook that grabs your reader’s attention. You can have a great blog post, but if the title is boring, then you might as well toss it. John Morrow of Copyblogger has a wildly popular post on writing catchy headlines.   4. Blog Commenting Engaging in communities built around other blogs is a great way to interact with other readers. Leave thoughtful blog comments that help show you’re interested, knowledgeable, and passionate about the subject at hand. Link back to your website in the box provided. Avoid including links directly in your blog comment though, as this could come off as too spammy to the existing readers in the blog community.   5. Make Posts “Scannable” Have you ever been faced with pages and pages of textbook material that just make your eyes glaze over? You don’t want to do that to your readers. This is why making your posts scannable is so important. Use subheadings, bullet points, lists, and use short paragraphs of three to five sentences when composing your blog post. This will help ensure that your readers can quickly scan over the post and quickly get the gist of what the post is about, before actually having to read the whole thing.   6. Contests and Giveaways If there’s anything that people love more than lists, it’s free stuff. Give away a free copy of your latest product, or a much-coveted item like a Kindle or iPod. You can also give away copies of books and other items from guest bloggers or other people you deliberately feature in posts.   7. Guest posting Guest posting is probably the best way to get your name in front of new audiences. A few guest posts a month on other relevant blogs can get you a nice stream of new visitors. This also works in reverse. Have a well-known person guest post on your blog to draw in new visitors. You can also conduct an interview or Q&A session with an industry expert.   8. Blog Carnivals and Link Parties A blog carnival is a compilation of blog posts that a blogger puts together on a particular subject. Blog Carnivals give bloggers a chance at exposure, and give the blog owner a helpful piece of content to present to their readers. See a good example of this at Kelly the Kitchen Kop . A link party is similar to a blog carnival, except bloggers submit a link directly to the host blog. See the blog of writer Carol Tice as an example.   9. Tell Stories Telling stories is an art. People have long been captivated by good stories, whether they’re written, spoken, or featured on the silver screen. Engage your readers with a good story related to your topic to really draw them into what you’re saying.   10. Use Visuals There’s a reason why infographics have sharply risen in popularity in the past couple years. Humans are very visual creatures, and visuals are a very effective way to illustrate what you’re talking about. Graphs, illustrations, photos, and slide shows are great ways to catch a reader’s attention, and can also help break up the monotony of a longer post.   Bonus Tip: Check Your Motives at the Door You probably already know the number one rule of blogging: Write great content. But why are you writing great content? Is it to offer a helpful resource to your readers, or just to attract attention? Your number one priority must be to help and/or entertain the reader. If your priority is to attract attention, it will show in the quality of your writing. The best bloggers are passionate about what they blog about, and know how to effectively captivate their readers. Continue reading →

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Infographic: From Dial-Up to Lightspeed

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Hosting

From ARPANET to Fiber Optics, we’ve come a very long way in a relatively short amount of time.  The following infographic traces the origins of the Internet from its humble beginnings up through today’s technology.  Where do you think it’ll go from here? From Dial-Up to Lightspeed via HostGator Continue reading →

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7 Content Curation Resources to Use Now

Posted on August 27, 2013 by Hosting

Content curation is the process of cherry-picking the best pieces of content surrounding a specific theme. According to an infographic published by Mashable, 571 websites are created, 347 WordPress blog posts are published, and 3,600 Instagram pictures are uploaded in any given minute. With the millions – and perhaps billions – of gigabytes of information floating around on the web these days, content curation can be a very powerful tool when building an audience. Marketing firm and software developer Curata conducted a survey last year which found that companies that use curated content on average get 30% more page views than companies that don’t. Websites like Mashable have built huge followings by publishing curated material. After all, readers appreciate not having to sift through throngs of websites to find the best information. If you’re planning on using content curation as a part of your own content marketing strategy, here are some tools to help get you started:   Google By now, you’ve probably realized that Google is more than just a search engine. While performing a simple Google search will yield helpful results, you can also use of some of Google’s other tools in your content curation efforts. Set up Google Alerts for specific topics, and have a list of relevant links delivered to your inbox as often as you want. You can also customize Google News to deliver news relevant to your industry. You can also use Google’s Blog Search function to find interesting articles and discussions on your chosen topics.   Industry Associations Top industry associations tend to be good about keeping track of top news in their fields. Subscribe to their newsletters or follow them on social media to stay abreast of what people are talking about in your industry. You should also subscribe to conference newsletters, even if you don’t plan on attending the conference. It helps to know what topics and keynote speakers who are making a splash in your industry.   RSS Feeds RSS feeds are a great way to keep up with your industry’s best blogs and to stay on top of trends. Just sign up for an account with an RSS reader like Feedly or Newsblur, and subscribe to the top blogs in your field. If you’re not sure which blogs to follow, just look up a list of top blogs in your industry. Coincidentally, many blogs have their own curated lists of top blogs which you can find with a simple Google search. If a blog you’re interested in doesn’t have an RSS feed, sign up for the site’s newsletter instead.   Ask Your Audience Crowdsource good nuggets of content by asking your audience to give you a heads up whenever they come across interesting articles. You can even set up a special email inbox for this, like tips@yourcompany.com.   Social Media Social media is a great way to keep up with curated content. After all, social media users curate content every day by sharing and retweeting. Keep track of your chosen hashtags on Facebook and Twitter to see what your followers are talking about.   Delicious Though it started out as a simple social bookmarking site, Delicious has grown into one of the best content curation tools on the web. This program allows you to easily “capture the web you’ve been missing” by saving and organizing interesting links you find online. You can also discover the specific content pieces that others have tagged by clicking the “discover” tab.   Curate Your Own Content Companies often have loads of helpful content stashed in old blog posts, videos, slide show presentations, articles, and other sources online. If this is the case with your company, find ways to curate your own past content. Some ideas include: Creating a new list blog post that includes past blog posts around a certain theme (e.g., “Our Most Popular Blog Posts of 2012”). Creating an ebook out of popular pieces of content written on the same topic. Create a video series based on your past written content. Create a resource section of your website where you categorize your most helpful blog posts and articles. You can also term it as a “Best of ___” page. Create a video or slide show presentation to publish online. Create infographics of stats pulled from your content.   With more content than ever before being created and shared every day, content curation allows your brand to select the best examples and to create the context in which you present them. This also gives you a chance to connect with those whose content you’re curating and to stay in the know when it comes to industry trends and thought leaders. This works both ways, as your company extends its reach whenever its content is curated. In essence, everyone involved has something to gain from curated content. Continue reading →

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