Helping You Rock Out Your Site Like A Rockstar!

An online business trying to improve their online visibility, target audience and increase exposure must create a blog that is totally dedicated to the site of their business… period! There is no shortcut to online success. A proven and tested principle that search engines use when ranking a website is to look at the frequency at which the content of the site is being updated. The surest and easiest way, therefore, to ensure there is a constant supply of fresh content is through blogging.

Note, however, that blogging with specific high quality content that is targeted at the niche market is not enough. You must create some more buzz and attention around your site, distribute your content, and more importantly be around your blog readers. How do you do that effectively? Here are a few ways of doing it.

• Familiarize yourself with how bookmarking tools like ping.fm or HootSuite can be utilized to boost the amount of high quality inbound links to your website by posting each of your blog posts to at least 25 of the leading social networking and bookmarking websites automatically
• Use online available tools like the famous Google Keyword tool to establish the kind of long tail keywords the market is using to search for information related to your business.
• Ensure there are enough social networking icons within the blog that will encourage your readers to retweet, bookmark or even post a link on their site redirected at your blog post
• Ensure your primary keywords feature generously in the title and body of the blog posts in order to have them rank highly on the Search Engine Results Page.
• Ensure there is a comment section after every blog post which will encourage your readers to share their views and comments regarding the information contained in the blog.
• If you are good enough, try to post some of your content on other blog that accept guest articles. Most of them will offer you 2-3 links back to your website.
• Build social community with people that are really interested in your niche. Is worthless if you have 30000 followers on Twitter if only 5 people are interested in your posts.

Don’t think that the above mentioned is an all-inclusive list of measures to take in your link popularity strategic development plan to boost web traffic. The strategies, tips and techniques that will drive traffic towards your site are only limited by your very own imagination.

This is also not all there is for you to do, you have to search your specific niche market and find websites and blogs that rank the highest. Ensure you get affiliated with the blogs as they already have a well established page rank. By having your blog posts feature on their pages, you will get more visibility, publicity, and broad exposure. Request for a link in exchange for them posting your blogs on their sites and you will sure get the traffic that you want.

There are so many sites, and all the sites out there in cyberspace, there are millions of blogs (well, at least is is assumed considering WordPress 3.0 alone had well over 10 million downloaded.) Naturally with all these websites, some people are going to be talking about nearly the same thing. So, why not link to each other?

Linking articles are extremely important. In a way, I find it like a handshake with another website owner, telling them that I read their article and may have been inspired to continue the conversation, but also give them some type of credit. In other words – some link love.

Linking articles can do a number of things:

• Open a topic to a whole new crowd of people that would have never seen the original source
• Promotes traffic
• Could build a good friendship between webmasters
• Raise awareness on controversial topics and right a wrong
• Keeps the conversation going with people who are interested in connecting with others

While there is a lot of competition going on for traffic, even the larger sites link to articles that are valuable. It just makes sense to do so in order to cover a topic as thoroughly as possible.

In fact, I challenge you to write an article based on this topic and link back. When you do, comment here and I will add your article’s title and link in this post. Let the link love begin!

I have written some topics in the past that have been controversial. Unfortunately, because not all bloggers are within the United States, my claim for 1st Amendment rights are not always possible, as shared by Jennifer Brown Banks in her article How to Tackle Controversial Topics in Blogging.

Unfortunately, employers are surfing the net and will find you, so if you are going to be controversial, even politically, you need to blog anonymously. The stories of people being fired because they blogged about some topic or another is proof. I have blogged about this before.

So, here is how to tackle controversial topics without bombing out:

1. Know your rights. If you work for a company, know your company’s policy regarding divulging work in public. Some companies do not have any policies concerning workers talking about work outside the facility. Others do. In the United States, if you are employed in a state that has a ‘fire at will’ policy, you could be out of a job.
2. Be truthful. Be civil and do not create statements that could be defamatory.
3. Be thorough when stating facts to back up your opinion. You could put your opinion out there, but it would not hold a ‘grain of sand’ or rally any support.
4. Do not expect others to agree with you. Everyone has an opinion and while you may be well informed on your topic, there may be others who have a lot of proof. Let them lay their opinion down and even if you do not agree… at least the topic has been discussed from several angles. Never write off people because they do not agree with you. These are the people that you can learn a lot from, even if you do not agree.
5. Be civil. Name calling, demeaning words will not only piss people off that might be involved, but a lot of readers are turned off by such behavior. If you are going to shout from your soapbox, at least have some integrity.
6. Keep an open mind. You may feel your opinion change a bit on some issues. That is perfectly fine. No one is forcing you to be a certain way. It is your blog. However, if you find yourself agreeing, be sure to do a follow-up post and share your revelations.
7. Choose your words wisely. While you could choose your battles wisely, it is probably best to choose your words wisely. In blogging, you can write on whatever topic you want. It is how you word your articles that may make or break your site. If you have written something in the heat of the moment, save it on draft, and then read over a few times before posting. If you go back later, people will not appreciate the passive-aggressiveness.

Do you walk the fine line of controversy? How have you succeeded? Have you had a bad experience with blogging?

So, you have decided to dabble in accepting guest blogging. Perhaps you have accepted posts, but have been only accepting the articles via email and posting them yourself.

STOP!

You are making more work for yourself.

Guest blogging is like regular blogging… it should not be a chore. You should be accepting posts, reviewing, and publishing, so streamline your work.

Here are ways to prepare your site for guest bloggers:

1. Create a page just for Guest Writing. It can be “Guest Blog Here”, “Guest Write Here”, “Submit Your Article”, or whatever. That page needs to have your requirements and how a person can submit their post.
2. Secure Your WordPress Site. You are opening your site to people. Make sure to try to keep your WordPress installation up-to-date and make sure you keep an eye on who registers on your site.
3. Install the Role Manager Plugin for WordPress… that is, if you are using WordPress. You will be able to specify exactly what capabilities your guest bloggers will be allowed to do on your site.
4. Create an Author Box for your posts. Forget bylines when the author box can be filled out by your guest bloggers filling out their WordPress user information. This is where they can promote their own sites or businesses they work for.
5. Create an Author Page for your guest bloggers. If you have a few regular guest bloggers, this is a nice page for your guest bloggers to bring back to their own site to promote.
6. Promote that your site is open. It might be once a week you have to mention it, but it is necessary. People need reminding and while they may not jump for the chance immediately, they may sometime down the line.

While I would put in the list Adsense revenue sharing, I am going to leave that as optional as that is more of a personal choice rather than something that is truly necessary.

What other resources should site owners use when preparing their site to accept guest bloggers?

When you first start blogging it is fairly rare that your spam box is bursting, but, as your blog becomes more popular and your RSS feed is submitted to more sites that pull from it for your blog posts, it’s inevitable that you are going to get more and more spam comments arriving on your blog.

Those that are new to blogging and who have been lucky enough to see their blog take of really quickly will know what I’m on about and the question always arises on how you deal with this spam that you are suddenly getting, do you just delete it all or sift through it?

I personally do a bit of both, OK Akismet does prove to be a good deterrent for spam, but sometimes innocent comments are put in the spam section, so my advice to most bloggers and specially those using the WordPress platform is check your spam, if you see a comment that shouldn’t be there they approve it and over time that persons comments will stop appearing in the spam box.

Also be careful what you approve, some comments can look quite innocent, but, check them for their links as these could be going to the type of sites that you really don’t want to be linked to. Also set up a comment policy on your blog and this should also help those commentators that appreciate your blog to comment in the correct way, such as using a name and not a website etc.

Spam is indeed a problem for a lot of blogs, but it’s something that all bloggers have to live with

Most people who start a blog do so because they have a great idea or cause that they want to promote, or because they are passionate about a particular subject or issue (or all of the above). Because there is a certain amount of dedication involved in the upkeep of a blog, you must have a good reason for starting (and continuing) or you will inevitably allow your posts to lapse and resign your blog to the graveyard of ignored cyberspace. But over time, even the most devoted bloggers can hit a wall.  It’s not really writer’s block, because you are ready to write. The problem is that you’ve run out of ideas for what to write about. Or if you’re a freelance writer, you may be contributing to blogs that have a subject matter you don’t find particularly interesting (or maybe they’re even downright dry). Whatever the case, there are ways to get around a lack of inspiration and continue producing posts that are interesting and engaging.

The first thing you need to know is that inspiration is not some ambiguous entity that is impossible to harness. You don’t have to wait around for an idea to come to you. You can seek it out. If you’re struggling to come up with a topic or you just can’t seem to spice up your content, take advantage of the fact that there are literally billions of other blogs out there that you can peruse to get started. Now, I’m not advocating piracy. You absolutely should not copy content from another blog, ever. But sometimes just reading other people’s work can spark an idea that gets you going, or helps you work through a trouble spot.

You can also try to introducing material that deals with related subjects that have some personal interest for you. For example, if you’re working on a blog for new moms, and you feel like you’ve worn out predictable topics like how to nurse and burp, which products to buy, and the effects of postpartum depression, you could throw in a little fun (and work in your love of movies) by creating a top-ten list of baby movies every mom should see. Or if you’re contributing to a blog about health and fitness, write about a personal experience with sports massage (it gives you a good excuse to do “research”) and how it can help other athletes. You can even relate a recent news story to your writing, even if you think your subject doesn’t lend itself to current events. Are you running a sporting blog? Put together an article about Paris Hilton’s recent arrest at the World Cup games and how certain sports lend themselves to certain types of fans.

The point is, there is no such thing as running out of topics. You can always find a way to keep your posts topical while mixing them up with related (or even seemingly unrelated) subjects. And there is a world of inspiration at your fingertips, so be on the lookout for other articles or media that will put you on the path to your next best blog post. Even though you might sometimes feel like you’ve finally reached the point where it’s all been said, if that were true, a lot of bloggers would be out of business (and that is clearly not the case).

Getting paid to blog has been a great break through for bloggers. This brings the advertiser to the reader without being very obtrusive… like some banner advertisements. There are plenty of sites that offer opportunities to get paid to blog, and even more sites that are available for bloggers to earn a bit of cash through different methods. Some of the strictly paid to blog sites that pay decently are:

• PayPerPost
• Social Spark
• PayU2Blog
• Blogvertise

(Note: none of these links have been attached with an affiliate link.)

Now, although I have listed those websites, there are many others out there, but before you go barreling in and joining all of them, you have to know a few things.

1. Make sure your site meets the Paid To Blog site’s requirements. A lot of times the requirements consist of how many posts you have written and how long your site has been opened.

2. Blog, just do not make it so obvious you are desperate for cash. Some sites like PayPerPost and Social Spark require you to have a non-sponsored post between each sponsored post.

3. Be honest when writing your sponsored post. You cannot just slop anything up. Most of these systems have moderators to check submissions. Also, the client paying you to post will probably see what you write. You could find yourself suspended if you cannot provide honest and valuable content.

4. Make sure your sponsored posts relate to your site. Even if it is just a link with a keyword, it would seem silly if you put “leaky faucet” in a tech blog. That would be a bit confusing for readers. Look at each potential opportunity with a critical eye.

5. Disclosure is important. Within the United States, it is required by law to disclose any paid to blog entries, or any type of endorsement (anything that you are getting paid for.) In the social networking world, if you are publishing posts into your Twitter and Facebook accounts, your followers deserve to know if they are being blasted by advertisements.

What other things would you suggest to anyone looking into trying their own hand at getting paid to blog?

Recently I received a guest post from a blogger and I thought it was well written. I was so close to publishing it, but something just did not seem right. I asked the guest blogger to fill out their profile, and they had not, which is a requirement here at Blondish.net, so I took a closer look at the entry.

Now I could have used Copyscape, but I did not have to. I put the certain sentences in Google search and was shocked to see the article elsewhere. Of course, some things were taken out, but the article was word for word. Of course, I deleted the pending submission. I am not sure if it is worth the time to confront the plagiarist about it.

So, with that said, if you are a site owner accepting guest posts, double check your submissions. In fact, you might need to go back through past submissions.

You may even want to go back and ask guest bloggers to make sure their profile is filled out and that they have some sort of Gravatar image. It is kind of difficult to believe a person is genuine if their bio is not complete.

Some of these guest bloggers are working for companies and that is okay at times, but it would look bad if the blogger working for them did not have their own work.

So, does this means that there should be certain guidelines set for guest bloggers? If a person is guest blogging about a company they represent, should they disclose it and also give in their bio a link to their own blog site?

What should be done?