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2015-07-31

Important Tips for Blogging Beginners; Newbies Blogging Tips


Blogging can be a challenging and interesting endeavor if you know what to expect and what is expected of you. If you are a “newbie,” a term used for blogging beginners, then you may want to learn about significant tips you can use to succeed in your first blogging venture.

Here are some of these important pointers.

1. Know what a blog is

Knowing the definition of the word blog would help a lot in your success as a blogger. The word “blog” originated from the combination of two words, “web” and “log.” These indicate that a blog is found in the World Wide Web where people can “log” in entries like pictures, ideas, videos and allow readers’ interaction. Most blogs are interactive and have different genres.





2. Opt for free webhosting at the onset

If you are a beginner and you are only blogging for fun, then you do not have to pay for services. There are many free providers you can take advantage of, like the two most popular free services, blogger.com, and wordpress.com.

These two webhosts offer sufficient features and excellent theme designs that could be used by bloggers. Each of these webhosts has advantages and disadvantages.

While free wordpress hosting could be more advantageous than blogger with regards to some specific features like image control, blogger.com hosting allows paid ads like Google AdSense, LinkedIn and many more, in its template and design. Only the premium wordpress paid account allows advertisements.

3. Select a niche that you are passionate about

After you have selected your webhosting provider, you can then select your niche. You should choose one that you are passionate about and is within your line of interest or hobby. If you are interested in writing, then you can choose the writing blogging niche.

On the other hand, if you are a physical education instructor, you may want to create a sports blog. It is very important that you select a genre about your interest because you will not find it taxing later on to write your posts (articles in a blog) if you do not have the passion for it. Most blogs fizzle out because the author could not sustain it for lack of posts to write.

4. Choose a blog title that is catchy and interesting

If you have seen marketing slogans, they are catchy and easy to remember. Your title should be the same; it should have an appropriate length and a catchy title.

A personal writing blog can have a title like: Ken Armstrong Writing Stuff, or an educational blog about clinical chemistry: ClinChemExplorer, or a blog about the Kalinga ethnic minority: TheClamor of Kalinga.

Based on the titles above, you can see that they reflect the content of the blogs.

5. Choose a blog theme that reflects the topic of your blog

A theme refers to the layout or “look” of your blog. Choose a theme that looks formal if your blog is about serious topics like law or education. If it is a news blog then you can choose a news format theme. You would certainly not use a floral theme when your topic is about cars.

6. Write your first post and then write regularly from then on

Once you have written your first post, you should write regularly. Writing regularly has several benefits:

*You will be indexed by search engines more often, making your blog more visible online. This would be favorable for since you need all the exposure you can obtain to make your blog known.

*Your readers will know when to expect new posts and they will also visit your blog regularly.

*Writing regularly would not only inform other people about your expertise, but will also improve your writing skills.

There are essential things you should also remember in writing your posts.

* Proofread for grammatical and spelling errors. You would not want your reader doubting the veracity of your post because of a misspelled word.

*Write in a conversational manner. The person came to your blog because he wants to learn about the subject you are passionate about, so talk to him like he is there in front of you.

*If your post is about information, support it with links to reliable sites, or establish your credentials in your blog “About Me” page so readers will know you have expertise on the topic.

*You may want to ask your reader’s opinion on the post. This would invite comments or reactions from them.

*Create a titillating title. Arouse the curiosity of readers with your title, something people would like to read, like “Making Money with Google AdSense, My Experience with the Program  or “How to Lose Weight Fast”

*When posting your article, use paragraphs more often. As much as possible, try to make each paragraph not more than 5 lines. This format would attract more readers  than big “blocks” of paragraphs that would not motivate visitors to read. Short paragraphs make the post more visually appealing.

*Use interesting graphics, images or pictures to entice your blog visitors to explore more of your content. Great pictures however should be coupled with a remarkable post. Most bloggers would say “Content is King.”

*You should always credit your image sources. There are various sources of free pictures which you can use in your posts. Ascertain however, about the copyright before using them.

*There are some owners who would simply be asking for attribution like in your creative commons, and some asking for more than that, so read the requirement first before using them. All published materials online are properties of those who published them, so you should be aware of copyright issues.

*The last but not the least, reply to comments on your posts. This would ensure your readers that you value them and their thoughts. Once you have gained rapport with your readers, you would have gained loyal readers to your blog.

7. Make your blog known by socializing

Since your blog is new, you may want to socialize at Facebook or Twitter to let people know about your post. You can also enlist your blogs in ranking sites for exposure. Ranking sites include Top Blogs, Alexa, and in search engines like Google Search, and Yahoo Search. This would help make your blog popular. You can also make use of Google Analytics to monitor the performance of your blog.

8. Blog for the right reasons

If you have created a blog to earn money primarily, then you might want to forget about that intention for a while, because you will only get frustrated. Blogging is more about sharing what you know and wanting to help people online about topics you are knowledgeable about. Online surfers would not visit regularly a blog full of ads and the like.

Gain first the trust of your visitors, before you could ever think of earning your first cent. Once you have established your online integrity, then your visitor will even volunteer to buy your stuff, whatever you are selling.

After you have established your online integrity you can then think about money matters. You can then try for Google Adsense, Blogvertise, Review Me, Infolinks and many more. These are recommended because they were proven to pay.

Be careful though with Google Adsense because they’re very strict in implementing their policies. One inadvertent click of your own ads, may cause permanent ban of your account. There are many ways to make money from your blog.

These are all the basic things that you should know as a “newbie.” You may want to adapt them to help you in your new venture. Remember; however, that there are several ways to skin a cat, so what may work for other people, may not work for you. You can experiment and try other methods once you are there, blogging is also about creativity and initiative, so get started, and welcome to the blogosphere!



The RSS feed of this post is for non-commercial use only. This is not for blogs or websites that have ads and the like. If you're reading this post in another site, then please leave a note in my blog at http://jenaisle-candidthoughts.blogspot.com so I can take appropriate action. Thank you.




2015-07-26

Why Updating your Blog several Times a Week is Important

Creating a blog is an exciting endeavor, especially if Internet surfers get to read your blog. You may have created your blog for several reasons. The reason could range from having a medium to express your thoughts, to maximizing the exposure of your business.

Whatever it is, you need “traffic” or readers to be able to accomplish this successfully. One way of doing this is to update your blog several times a week.






The following are important effects of updating your blog regularly. 

• Increases “traffic” or visitors 

You could only obtain “traffic” or readers if the search engines could access your blog and bring your posts to organic searches. One way of doing this is by updating your blog several times a week. This is because when the "bots" (Internet robots) of search engines "crawl" your blog, they could detect that you have new posts regularly, so they would be programmed to scan your site more often. This would drive massive traffic to your blog thus increasing your visitors.

• Traffic obtained is “organic,” which is more productive 

When you post new content regularly, your blog will attract “organic traffic.” Organic traffic is traffic resulting from searchers who are interested in your blog content or product. In this case, there is more likelihood that they will read your post or buy your products.

• Increases your ranking in the SERP

Posting several times a week would also program the search engine crawlers to frequently scan your pages, and therefore exposing more of your content to search engine traffic.

This would increase your ranking in the SERP or Search Engine Result Pages. Search engines like Yahoo, Google and Bing; derive the results they come up with from posts in websites and blogs.

If you have regularly updated your blog, then your links will appear more on the first pages of the SERP. When they do, the probability of your link being clicked is increased significantly.

• You will gain more loyal readers 

If visitors to your blog notice that you always have fresh material, they would return and could become your loyal readers. These are some of the vital results of updating your blog various times in a week. The activity could also hone your skills as a writer.

It would encourage you to do more research because you have to come up with new materials every day to sustain your blog. Whether you are a newbie or a pro, knowing this fact could help you a lot to succeed in blogging.


The RSS feed of this post is for non-commercial use only. This is not for blogs or websites that have ads and the like. If you're reading this post in another site, then please leave a note in my blog at http://jenaisle-candidthoughts.blogspot.com so I can take appropriate action. Thank you.



2015-07-18

How to Spice up a Boring Blog Spicing up Blogs

A boring blog can be likened to a food without flavor or to a song with no singer. It would not be appreciated like it should be.

People would pass by and not give it a second look. If you have a blog and you could not entice readers to stay and explore it, then it would be considered “boring.”




Spicing up your blog to make it more interesting is a smart decision. Here are simple and practical methods to do so.

1. Write interesting posts 

This is the primary remedy that you should do. Most bloggers would say that "Content is King.” Write interesting posts that readers would search for and would be willing to read.

When a post is interesting, the other negative aspects are equalized. People would stay and read if your article bears some importance to them and you are able to arouse their interest.

2. Conduct a contest 

You can conduct a contest without you getting from your own pocket for the prizes. The contest should be related to your niche to spice up your blog and to attract readers.

If you are in the writing niche, you can hold a “Flash Fiction” or Poetry writing contest or like this Creative Writing Contest. The contest requires fees however, which may discourage participants. It is preferred not to collect fees for the entries because participants would be motivated to enter and win some cash instead, and not to fish out their own cash for your contest.

Most participants/readers prefer cash prizes, which you can solicit from your online friends by providing a space for their widgets or banners in your site as compensation for their donations, This Traffic Generation Contest is one example.

If you could not generate cash, then you can give out prizes like books, and items. You can also give out credits if you are a member of a blogging community, like this “Interpret This Kalinga Man Photo Contest.” You can accommodate links to the donors’ blogs for a month or for a specified amount of time, or even for as long as your blog exists. This will depend upon your discretion.

3. Award Top Three monthly commentators 

Your readers would be motivated to comment and to monitor your posts if they could win some extra cash from your Top Commentator of the Month Award.

You can award the Top Three commentators for the month and then acknowledge the rest who participated. This is also one way of letting your readers know that you value their inputs. This would definitely spice up your blog and breathe some life into it.

4. Add pictures 

Remember that graphics and pictures present your ideas clearly and attractively. If you are describing a dazzling, lovely sunset, you could show this more vividly to your readers with an actual picture of the event.

As the cliché’ goes, “A picture paints a thousand words.” Online surfers would also tend to stay on a page which has more attractive pictures.

5. Add videos 

Adding videos would also make your blog alive. You can create your own video. There are several sites which allow you to create your own video free of charge. These sites include YouTube, Vimeo, Flicker and a lot more.

You can also post videos created by other people, as long as you have their permission or you give them credit in your post. You should be completely aware of copyright issues. Ignorance of it won’t excuse you from any legal issues later if you get caught plagiarizing or copying other users’ content.

6. Make your theme vibrant 

Your blog’s theme should be interactive and vibrant. Try using some color and animation. Do not use pop-ups and automatic music though, as this is not appreciated by lots of online surfers. Use your common sense and place yourself in the shoes of the reader, you would come up with ingenious ideas.

7. Write as if you are talking to your readers

Write as if you are directly talking to your readers. Visualize them across the table “listening” to you while you write your article. Ask for their inputs or opinions regarding your post. Inviting their comments would allow them to voice out their thoughts about the subject. You can add a chat box widget, like a chatroll in your side bar, if you blog regularly.

Many blog owners write for what readers want, this is excellent, but you must also write for yourself. You could only interest your readers if you are passionate about your topic because it will show in your posts. These are some of the vital ways you can do to spice up your blog.

Remember to utilize whatever online resources you can use to help you in your quest. Blogging should be an exciting and not a boring adventure.



The RSS feed of this post is for non-commercial use only. This is not for blogs or websites that have ads and the like. If you're reading this post in another site, then please leave a note in my blog at http://jenaisle-candidthoughts.blogspot.com so I can take appropriate action. Thank you.