These days, it seems as if laziness has crept into our business lives.

A lot of bloggers no longer research the topic before jamming the keyboard. How pathetic?

They prefer the easy route. They can write 2,000 words article without studying the market. But doing this has its negative effects.

It doesn’t make you exceptional – the content you put out on your blog may not ‘hook’ the reader, which is your primary goal.

Blogging as we know it today has evolved. Recent market research shows that over 100,000 new blogs are hosted on daily basis. These blogs need fresh contents and I know you do too.

So, how do you differentiate and stand out from the crowded blogosphere?

That’s a tough question, but I got you covered. Listed below are 2 professional ways to hone your blog’s value and pique the right readers. Stick to these proven marketing activities and your blog would build you and funnel BIG profits into your bank account.

1.    Research, Research, Research

To be honest with you, there is no alternative to market research. Before you put a pen to paper or your hands to keyboard, do your research first.

If you want to write about search engine optimization, for instance, Google has made it clear that you need to write quality content. And with the changes going on with search algorithms, including webspam penalty policy, writing from your head or brain will not impact prospects or make any difference.

Even if you’re an expert, there are important search engine processes you don’t know. And this applies to other industries. When you research, you gain upper hand to strike and craft exceptional article. This article will be different from the stacks already indexed by search engines.

Whatever you do online that has a nexus with contents, research is the first step – take this advise to heart. As part of your research assignments, read other blogs and niche-specific whitepapers. “Study to show yourself approved” – The Bible

2.    Craft, Don’t Churn Articles

Blogging is hard work and writing is an art!—Michael Chibbuzor

I know there are prolific and creative writers around, but you can’t produce more than you know. It takes extra knowledge to write 5 quality articles every day. And if that’s your limit, don’t struggle to write more. If you do, the juicy aspect would be gone.

Honestly, a lot of bloggers churn articles, instead of crafting a masterpiece. Off course, you can’t be perfect but try to publish what others want to read – if your blog doesn’t put smiles in readers’ faces, you’ve wasted a rare gift from Mother Nature – TIME.

To craft means to do a task with skill, thoughtfulness and focus. How thoughtful are you and what skills have you acquired to help in crafting top notch contents? If you’ve little knowledge about social media marketing, how can you blog about it?

To churn means to ‘move violently.’ To pursue someone or run to win prize – As a freelance writer, there were moments in my life when I was churning articles to make more money. I thought I was smart.

I wasn’t producing quality contents and this impeded my freelance writing journey and was about ruining my career.

But I’ve learned to take things easy, give attention to extensive research and work on perfecting my craft, instead of churning, padding and stuffing articles just to make money.

You’re Exceptional!

Success begins on the inside. Knowing you’re ‘exceptional’ would help you reconsider, when doing a task. You don’t want to complete a task that makes you regret or demean your brand. Know who you’re and how unique your work should be and pursue this vision with all your might.

An exceptional blogger isn’t perfect, but he or she is continually working towards appearing perfect. – Michael Chibuzor

An exceptional blogger is a person who knows how to craft articles, write catchy headlines and invests quality time in market research before writing a word. Are you exceptional in your blogging career? Share your comments. I can’t wait to read your views.

Image Credit: datecover

source from: bloggingtips

source from: optiniche

1. Gmail (with Thunderbird)

Gmail is great for a few reasons: great spam filtering, a boatload of storage, and free POP support. That means you will worry less about random spam making it to your inbox, your account is not likely to go over quota anytime soon, and you don’t need to log into Gmail each time you wish to check and respond to your e-mail.

Set up your Gmail account

To get started, sign up for a general catchall email account. I recommend one for each particular blog project (and you can have more than one blog within a particular project). After the account is established, the first thing you’ll want to do is click on theSettings link in the upper right corner and then Forwarding and POP/IMAP. From there, enable POP download and set it toarchive Gmail’s copy.

I won’t go over setting up the POP mail in Thunderbird because Google has already provided excellent instructions.

Next, you need to add each e-mail address, found underAccounts, you intend to use with your Gmail account. Basically, you’ll be setting up an email address for each of your blogs which will be forwarded to Gmail.

When you’ve finished adding your e-mail addresses (and verifying them), make sure to select Reply from the same address the message was sent to before saving your changes.

Now, you don’t need to use Thunderbird, but one thing I really dislike about Gmail is its lack of folder support. It uses labels to organize mail, but I find it distracting to see all the mail jumbled in the inbox, even if they do have a specific label attached. I only like seeing mail from certain accounts when I’m ready for it, not when I immediately sign in.

If you decide you’d like to use Thunderbird, then you’ll need to make good use of its Identities. After adding your Gmail account (see instructions linked above), click onEdit=>Properties to bring up the account manager. In the right section of the account manager, there will be a button calledManage Identities where you’ll be able to set up an identity for each of the email addresses being forwarded to Gmail.

Each of these entities acts like a separate e-mail manager; whenever you receive mail addressed to that specific account, when you reply, it will automatically use that email address as the return sender. You can even set up different reply-to addresses on a case by case basis.

The only downside is that Gmail handles outgoing email a little differently. If you’d like some insurance on the mail being sent according to your preferences in Thunderbird, you should set up a noreply address on one of your servers and use it as the outgoing mail server in Thunderbird as opposed to Gmail’s.

2. Firefox

Forget the coolness factor of Firefox, this recommendation is about one particular Mozilla feature called Profiles. Setting up multiple Firefox profiles can create a sterile and optimized environment for each of the blogs you maintain; this is especially good when it comes to marketing the blog.

This is possible because each profile:

• Maintains its own set of cookies
• Maintains its own set of login details in the password manager
• Has its own bookmarks
• Has its own set of activated add-ons
• Has its own homepage(s) upon start up

In particular, it’s the cookies that really matter because the separate cookie management allows you to have separate MyBlogLog, Blog Catalog, Twitter, Flickr, StumbleUpon and other web 2.0 service accounts which follow you around the net.

Get your Firefox profiles set up

Open the Firefox profile manager. If you’re in Firefox right now, print out this page and close it, then from Run console, type the following: . Please note that if you’ve installed Firefox in a different location, the run command will differ for you.

Firefox will open up its profile manager console:

The first time it opens, it will only have the default profile you’ve been using, but by clicking on the Create Profile button, you can create a new profile for each of your blog projects. And before you click on Start Firefox, make sure to remove the checkmark next to Don’t ask at startup. Doing this will force the profile manager to open each time you launch Firefox.

When in a particular profile, you’ll suddenly develop tunnel vision and focus only on the tasks required for that blog project. Just make sure to keep your profile of the moment straight and avoid aimless net surfing–set up a general catch all profile for playing around.

Special Note: To keep each of your Firefox windows straight, install the Titlebar Tweaks add-on for each one of your profiles, then take the time to customize their display to include the profile name.

3. Windows Live Writer

After giving Windows Live Writer another chance, I was impressed by how much the software had improved. Now I can safely say it’s a blogging power tool. It’s not entirely perfect, but it can help productivity when you have multiple blogs to maintain.

First, take a half hour to add each blog to your Windows Live Writer installation and configure each one. Then, download and install one very important plugin: Dynamic Template and become familiar with how to use it. (Joe Cheng has some excellent videos explaining how to set up new templates.)

Dynamic Template allows you to specify bits of code that you use repeatedly and it can be highly customized. Until I was pointed in the direction of this plugin, many of the features I missed (and needed) from w.blogger and other desktop blogging clients was non-existent.

For instance, I like to insert content from Amazon every once in a while. The current Amazon plugins available left a lot to be desired. Rather than fight with these plugins or search for others, I created an Amazon link template. I set it up to ask for two pieces of information–Title and ASIN–and then it adds the link, complete with my affiliate ID, to whichever bit of text I’ve highlighted.

Dynamic Template can certainly come in handy when you have a lot of redundant text or code as with product reviews. Create a new template with your desired review format, then use it whenever you start a new blog entry.

Now, go forth and blog like a champion.

source from: optiniche

Sure, asking what you’re going to blog about seems like simple enough of a question, but depending on your answer, the goals for your blog can swing heavily. Your blog can become a very different kind of website and your strategies can be vastly different too.

Blogging for Fun

If you are going to blog simply for the fun of blogging, you really can choose any topic that you’d like for your blog. The majority of people who start their first blog are creating personal blogs. With these kinds of sites, the blogger usually discusses personal interests or offers an online diary of sorts.

These kinds of blogs are great for learning how to blog, making new friends online that might share the same interests. For example, you might be a big fan of the Vancouver Canucks and you start a hockey blog. The goal is to have a good time, just because you want to have a proper venue for voicing your opinions. You might then get in contact with other Canucks fans around the city.

When you’re blogging for fun, just about any topic will do. This is because you are likely less concerned with profitability and other metrics. It’s more about making friends, having a proper venue to have your voice heard, and learning about the different technologies and innovations that are available to bloggers today.

Blogging for Business

If you are going to blog as a branding exercise for your company, your goals can be very different from a personal blog. Corporate blogs and official company blogs are an entirely different animal from the blog of a regular individual.

With business blogs, two main trends seem to emerge. On the one hand, some companies will only blog about company business. They may offer customers and partners an “insider’s look” into the company, showing them what happens behind the scenes. This is the case with the Disney Parks blog, for instance. They can also use the blog to highlight new products and other company announcements.

Alternatively, some companies use their blogs as a way to establish themselves as experts in their field. While some posts relate directly back to the company itself, many blog posts are simply about that particular industry. A financial services firm, for example, may offer posts that discuss the current economy, setting up your accounting books, and so forth.

Blogging for Money

More and more people are getting into blogging with the sole purpose of making money from them. They see larger sites like Engadget and TMZ making substantial amounts of money and they want to get in on the action. This is perfectly understandable.

If you are thinking about starting a blog with the goal of turning it into a viable business on its own, then you will have to take a completely different approach than you would with a personal blog or a corporate blog.

In the next chapter, we will discuss in detail how you can go about finding the right and profitable niche for you to start blogging about. Choosing the right subject matter can mean the difference between making thousands of dollars a month or barely being able to afford the hosting costs.

source from: bloggingtips

Positioning yourself as an expert in the field helps you to sell your goods and services.  Show don’t tell the old adage goes when it comes to writing, and that applies to blogging or posting on forms, or any other way that you decide to get the word out. Letting everyone know that you’re an expert is nothing new if you want to sell, but the crossover part comes in how that’s accomplished on the web.

Valued added information. Little tips and yes, even some DIY ideas will cause people to remember you when the bigger stuff needs doing. Make yourself look like a really good guy or gal that knows their stuff and is so confident they don’t mind sharing a tidbit or two of information and you’re on the way to building brand loyalty online.

Remember that regardless of how you feel about it, credibility and trust means you need to have great search results. People gauge how they feel about a firm by the page ranking it gets  and how high the company name is on a Google search. This is the crossover from the word of mouth that helped to make company’s household names in the print and television days.

That means you need to hire someone who can take your personal brand where it needs to go with the help of seach engine optimization. Once you start putting your personal branding efforts front and centre with a combination of good content and solid seo technique, you’ll get able to charge higher fees for your goods and services.

It’s important to stand out from the crowd when you’re branding yourself on the Internet, and that’s because the scope is often worldwide for the goods and services you’ve got to sell. Personal branding that’s tailor made to the web is the way to stand out.

source from: bloggingtips

More and more people are turning to TMZ and Perez Hilton for their celebrity gossip. Tech enthusiasts point their browsers at Engadget and Gizmodo instead of waiting for a magazine to hit the racks. After all, that magazine will be reporting on news that is already a month old by the time it hits stores. Blogs, on the other hand, are quite literally on the pulse of the industry, quite literally being up to the minute with their relevance.

The major blogs have very much become massive communities on their own and they are no longer in the shadows of traditional outlets like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Blogs are big business and are worth millions of dollars, getting thousands, even millions of visitors on a very regular basis. Even celebrities are recognizing the importance of blogging, keeping their names at the top of the public’s mind at all times. People want to know and they want to know right now.

Blogging is a very powerful tool and popular blogs are being sold for millions of dollars. What started out as independent ventures have quickly become parts of major media empires. Take a look at Gawker Media, for example, a conglomerate that runs such popular blogs as Kotaku, Lifehacker, and Jalopnik. These sites are huge with monumental followings. This is powerful for branding and powerful for audiences.

Moving forward, personal blogs will surely still exist, but professional blogs are very much not only the future, but they’re already the present. Blogs are big business. This cannot be re-iterated enough. With multiple updates each day and loyal fan followings, blogs represent huge opportunities for advertising revenue. And for the businesses who choose to launch their own corporate blogs, even if no advertising is involved at all, the blogs represent a very powerful marketing and branding tool.

Blogs may have once existed on the fringe of the Internet, only read and used by those “in the know,” but blogs today carry huge mainstream appeal. Better still, there is still so much more potential yet untapped. Going back to Gawker Media, for example, they’re recognizing the importance of multimedia and its prominent role in blogging in the future. The sites are almost becoming like TV channels that are completelyon demand. Users can choose exactly the programming they’d like, interacting with the authors and building that community even further.

Gawker competitor Weblogs, Inc. runs such sites as The Unofficial Apple Weblog, Download Squad, Joystiq, and TV Squad. It is a subsidiary of AOL, a company that may have otherwise fallen into Internet obscurity in recent years if it were not for this blog network of about 90 blogs. The key to success on the Internet is staying up with the times and AOL recognized the opportunity when it came to professional blogs. These make money and they have increasingly large audiences.

And the same can be said about Blogging Tips. I can’t say for sure what blogs will look like ten years from now, but one thing is for sure: blogs are here to stay and they’ve still got a lot of room for even greater growth.

source from: bloggingtips

This is a country that’s been in the news lately since people there and around the world are wondering if the Burmese authorities are finally loosening their grip on the Web as freedom seems to be taking a foothold. Still as you might expect, they’ve got a horrible record that starts with the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) that is the arm of the military government there.

Consider the fact that the literacy rate in the small nation is 91% for people over the age of 15 but the percentage of Internet users based on population is only 0.2%, and it’s not hard to see why the military rulers there might be considering lessening the firm grip they have on the place. Smart literate people are hard to control.

Then there’s Syria where the criticism of the presidential family is not allowed and foreign journalists don’t usually get accreditation. With a literacy rate of just over 80% and the percentage of Internet users at 20% , you’d think that the Web there would be more developed but reports say the Internet in Syria is in fact the least developed in the Middle East. State-owned Syrian Telecom (STE) is the only game in town and as we’ve all seen lately, they have firm grip on the information that goes in and out of that country.

Headlines coming out from that country aside, the persecution of what the regime there calls cyber criminals continues unabated. Tariq Biasi is just one of the bloggers that was jailed for what was called ‘weakening national sentiment’ on his blog and the even pro democracy  Elaph.com is heavily censored in that country.

In North Korea, as you might expect, there’s not much information to go around although the state does claim to have a 100% literacy rate. What Internet does go into that shadowy place is filtered by the Chinese who supply the networks and the country’s Internet PC room is a haven for foreigners and diplomats rather than the common folk. Still there are reports that Web-enabled mobile phones that are smuggled in are allowing people access to Chinese internet sites.

source from: bloggingtips

The managing of your selected key terms/search phrases in the Adwords program is absolutely varied from what you are accustomed to since here, you do not have to use long tail keyword phrases and the more particular versions because your advertisements are routinely being dispersed to relevant websites, therefore, you can use the largest of keyword phrases that you want. Actually, broad phrases may even have more affect and give better conversion rate as people are particularly looking for information about their problem and they usually type long tail keywords in Google to get the results.

In typical bum marketing, you initially choose the suitable keywords by doing a very in depth keyword research, and then you write articles based on those keywords, your keywords are the heart of your ads in article writing apart from the quality content.

It is also better to select the website where you want your ads to be shown up. In this way, you can avoid those sites with poor content and can only display your ads on relevant websites to drive only highly motivated traffic to your own website.

Another thing that you should keep in mind is to make your ads attractive, the reason behind is that people who are looking for something on internet are not searching for your ads. So, to grab their attention, make your ads appealing, which promote every potential visitor to click on them, hence, to land on your website. If your ads are not appealing, they will be simple ignored and you will not be able to drive traffic to your own website.

Before you move further to optimize your land page, its better to spend a lot of time first in making your ads effective so, you can get the more conversions rather than just clicks. Don’t try to cheat your visitors, always provide the relevant information in your ads that is matched with your website content. Moreover, link your ads directly to your land page as it will save the time of your buyers and you will see an increase in your conversion rate.

Now, the last part is to tract the performance of your ads, either they are working according to your expectations or not. If you are not getting the required conversion rate, make necessary changes in your ads or if your selected keywords are not performing well, choose the new keywords. Always be proactive and do the necessary change so, you can get the best out of your PPC campaign.

source from: bloggingtips

Now it’s easier than ever to setup your own blog contests through the use of a new wordpress plugin called Contest Domination. The concept of the plugin is simple. Make contest and promotions as easy as possible to setup, while also making it extremely easy for people to enter your promotions while also getting them spread throughout the major social networks.

Quickly Create Contests that Link Right into Your Current Mailing Provider

When it comes to creating WordPress driven contests and promotions, it doesn’t get much easier than using Contest Domination. The forms are already setup for you and you just need to plug in the necessary information and prizes for your contest. Best of all the plugin syncs right up with your current mailing list providers such as Aweber.

You can see a preview of the plugin in action below. Once the plugin is installed on your WordPress, you can play around with all of the functions and settings. The goal with the Contest Domination plugin is to make it so people can enter your contest and earn more entries by sending out the content to their friends and contacts through Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn… thus bringing more people to your site and building a viral wave of incoming entries and traffic.

If you’ve ever wanted to run your own contests through WordPress and are looking to make the most use out of social marketing and viral traffic, Contest Domination is the perfect wordpress plugin for you. Be sure to check out their web site and view the full live demo of the plugin in action on their web site.

source from: bloggingtips

The best way to become a better blogger is to study other bloggers. Search for five blogs that get a good amount of traffic, not the A-List blogs, but medium type blogs. Look for a few in your niche, but also look into other niches that get a good amount of interaction too. You’re not just studying the blogs, but also the people behind them. You can check health niche blogs, IM blogs, affiliate marketing blogs, mommy blogs, wahm blogs. Just get a good mix to watch for about a week or two. You may even want to take notes, do a case study of sorts.

Here are some things you will be looking for:

1. How many words are their posts?
Do they write long, drawn out posts, short posts that are to the point, or do they write a medium length post with a bit of their own thoughts and personality thrown in?

2. How many graphics or infographics?
Some people use a lot of graphics, some don’t. If you notice that more people comment on blogs with graphics, this may be something you want to start doing on your own blog.

3. What is their call to action in the posts?
Do they have a sign up form or ask you to do something in each post? Even if it’s just read another related post on their blog, do they ask you to go read it or share something extra?

4. Do they ask for comments?
If so, where and what do they ask? A lot of people ask for comments and for you to share your thoughts, but not everyone does this. Some bloggers tend to get a lot of comments even if they don’t ask. However, this is something you want to pay attention to. If the people asking for comments are getting more, you can safely go with asking for more comments on your own blog.

5. How do they get traffic? Check keywords in post, whether they comment on other blogs to bring people back to their own blog, how often they tweet, Like, Google 1+, or other.
This one may take a bit more investigating as you’ll need to follow them on social media and try to track their movements between other blogs. Where do they comment? What kinds of comments do they leave on other blogs? What are they tweeting about?
These things can give you some clues as to how you should approach your own blog and people in general.

I know this isn’t the fast track to better blogging that most people are looking for, but if you want to improve your own blog and rankings it will take time and some research. Picking 5 medium-traffic blogs to follow and analyze is a great way to become a better blogger yourself because you can see first hand what is working and what isn’t.

source from: bloggingtips