Helping You Rock Out Your Site Like A Rockstar!

You have probably read product or service reviews online. I know I have. You also have spotted fake ones or perhaps ones that just really make little to no sense. A lot of people rely on reviews from both blogs and other review sites to determine if a product or service is well worth the money.

There are reasons why people do fake reviews:

• They were paid by someone else to do it.
• They want to make money through paid to post programs.
• They want to make money through affiliate advertising.

Do I have to list more? As you can see, it all boils down to making money.

However, it does more than make someone money. Fake reviews on sites or blogs:

• Have little regard to their own readers and do not care to provide honest reviews.
• Have little regard to actually working with companies to feature a worthwhile product.

You basically lied while earning money. The economy might not be that great, but when people have money to spend, they will spend it on products and services that they can trust.

And what happens if your readers call you out on a fake review? Retracting your post seems really unprofessional and pretty much a turn off for readers. Remember, that article could be deleted, but how many places did that article get pinged? How long does that article stay in the search engines? How about- how long will it take for you to regain your reader’s trust?

That is what you should be focusing on.

What can you do to avoid writing a bad review that might be construed as fake on your blog?

Well, the obvious would be to write a real honest review. Try the product or service first or do not attempt to write about it at all. If there is any pay involved, or affiliate programs attached, Without focusing on that, make be thorough and try to cover as much as you can like: product description, first thoughts, expectations, end result of product or service’s use, and final thoughts.

It might take a little more time to blog a real review, but in the end, you are letting your readers know where their money is best spent. Being helpful = #win!

What is the purpose of an RSS feed? That is one of many questions I get from people on a daily basis. I decided I would share. First, you have to understand what it is before I go onto explaining how you can use your RSS feed to your advantage.

According to Wikipedia, an RSS feed is:

RSS (most commonly translated as “Really Simple Syndication”) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.

The format is really simple (exactly part of its definition.) In fact, you can view my own rss feed here at Blondish.net and see for yourself. You will be able to subscribe to these feeds too. One way you can subscribe is to plug the feeds you into your Google Reader. You can simply click on the title of the feed on one side and it appears in a window for your to reading convenience.

However, here are a few things to help you with your blog when harnessing the power of RSS feeds:

• You can use your social networking places and spread the news about your blog and ask those who like your blog to subscribe to your feed. The feed is something that your reader can choose to come back and not forget about after some time.
• You can make money with your RSS feed. There are programs out there that will allow you to add text links or advertisements to your feed so you can make a little money.
• You can hold subscription drives. RSS feeds are free to subscribe to. In fact, Chris Brogan holds them on occasion, and encourages others to hold them too. These subscription drives could pull in more readers who are curious about your content. You can also take this time to ask your audience on what they would like to see on your site so they may come back again and again.
• You can encourage your readers to make comments on your blog through your feed too! This is a great way to keep your blog’s conversation rolling!

The great thing about the feeds are that all you have to do is blog and it will be published not just to your website, but your feed page too. It can drive traffic to your site on days you did not do much to promote your blog, and possibly bring back old viewers you have not seen in some time.

Do you have an RSS feed? If so, what do you do to harness its power? If not, have you ever considered putting one on your site?

You may have read a few times that you have to blog frequently. The problem is… how frequently should you blog? And why should you blog frequently? Who should be blogging frequently?

One specific answer for all bloggers does not cut it. There are so many different niche and even more so, different types of blogs, and individuals. Not everyone can attest to being a professional blogger who has quit their day job and have all the time in the world to do what they want, including blogging. Even professional bloggers are not pumping out content in mass amounts all on their lonesome.

Who Should be Blogging Frequently?

You should blog regularly no matter who you are or what you write about on your site. At least once a week is good and keeps the search engines interested in crawling your site.

The problem is that you encounter a couple things: whether you have the time to blog, or keeping up with your competition. If you want to blog and be up to date, you are going to have to make the time to do it. If you can at least blog once a week and only spend a maximum of one hour (depending on the length of your post and how well you can type), you should be fine.

Why Should You Blog Frequently?

There are a couple reasons why you should blog frequently. For one, it does keep the search engines crawling your site for more information. However, the biggest thing- for your audience (your readers and followers, and maybe even your clients.) If you are not sending out any updates, what is going to keep them on your site?

The design can only entertain your readers for a short bit, and if they already read the older posts, what is left? With millions upon millions of blogs alone, other sites that have been updated, might be far more enticing.

The Internet changes, technology changes, just about everything in life changes. If your niche has some pretty important news and you have an opinion about it, that is more reason to be blogging frequently and making sure that your readers are filled in on the most recent news.

How Frequently Should You Blog?

In order to determine how frequently you should blog, there are some factors to think of:

• How fast paced is your niche? (is there a lot of news or not a lot of news)
• How much time do you have to blog, or how much have you set aside to blog?
• How ambitious are you about your site’s success?

Some niche, might be so small and the news for it is not a lot. That might be great for some as it can be manageable.

Some bloggers write on the fly. Some bloggers schedule a time to blog. Find what is a comfortable fit for you and blog. You might even want to jot down some prompts and notes for each before sitting to write a post. It might make the process faster. However, if you want to blog and be up to date, you cannot make excuses. Like the Nike saying- “Just Do It!”

In the case you are aiming high for the success of your blog, you might adopt a far more frequent routine like once a day, three times a week or five times. If you do more than once a day, great… especially if you are the primary author.

However, do not overdo it. Pace yourself and schedule posts to publish based on the pattern in times your visitors come by to comment on your website. Yep! You have heard it! If you look through your comments for your site, and notice the time, you can market your articles more efficiently. Your regular readers can be a big clue on why they may miss commenting at one post versus another… and this is without looking at third party stat programs!

If you have a strong following that leaves comments, try to keep them in mind when it comes to blogging. If they cannot read your work every day, and you are publishing too frequently, you might have articles that do not get the attention they need.

Also, you can put out a survey or poll for your visitors to fill out so you know:

• How often they visit your site
• What brings them back to your site
• What topics they are interested in
• What topics that have not been covered that they would like to see in particular
• How easy is it to use the site (poor usability can be a deterrent)
• When do they like to visit the site
• If the site improved more, would they visit more often
• Any suggestions for better site usability?

Does Being a Frequent Blogger Lead to Success?

So, I had to ask this question…. does blogging frequently lead to success? The answer: Not all the time.

There are so many factors into what it takes to have a successful blog and much of it rests on how you market your site. You can publish as much content, slap as much handy dandy search optimization tricks, and have traffic from the search engines, but the people who stick around the longest are the ones you connected with out on the social networks or in person.

You ultimately have the keys to drive your blog towards success, stay in park, or crash and burn. Some successful bloggers only blog once a week. Others a couple times a day.

How often do you blog? Do you make a schedule to blog or write on the fly?

Are you a blogger that accepts guest bloggers quite frequently? You might want to think about how you label your site, especially if you are wanting to strengthen your own brand.

Guest blogging can be really great for blog owners as it is a means to supplement content when it cannot be published as frequently. It is a way for fresh faces to be heard with topics that echo that of the blog owner’s views. However, it is a supplement- not to be used frequently.

In allowing frequent guest bloggers, it becomes a permanent crutch, leaving you unable to break out on top.

I have found it quite alarming that there are individuals that believe themselves to be influential in their niche, but it is more like an article submission website. Of course you are going to build a good reputation opening up your site to guest bloggers, but your circle is going to only attract that following. Individual voices will mesh together with others. That is great! I know this sounds harsh, but it is true. Sometimes I visit a site in order to read the blog owner’s work, not the 10 other posts done by other people.

I find it a bit disturbing if the one person who own’s a site where only a percentage of articles were written by them is claiming credit for building such a site. Also, I find it even more disturbing if the site is being monetized and the blog owner is not doing some sort of revenue share system. It does take money to keep a site up, but there is a line that has to be drawn.

(Example – and the site shall remain nameless: I had guest blogged at a site about freelancing and web designing, and it became quite popular. When I was busy with conferences, the blog owner constantly was asking me to submit an article. I was not being paid, nor did I ever agree to regular submissions because of my schedule.

When I did write up my last post for that site, the owner sent a mass email to his newsletter and his contributors to say that he sold the site to someone else. Soon after that, I was contacted by the new owners, and after seeing my work used to line someone else’s pockets without a flinch of remorse, I could not agree to contribute and asked for my work to be pulled off.

I still guest post at several places, but I am cautious to take on others that may be doing the same thing.)

A community blog is more suited title for such sites. It gives the community that contributed the credit it deserves. If you want to build authority, having a community blog is not the route to go. Your voice gets diluted in between your guest bloggers’ posts.

If you plan to become an influential blogger, make it your goal to put together a plan in regards to guest post submission. You need to determine how many posts in between should your guest bloggers be published. Your ratio of your own posts to your guest posts should be in favor of your end.

Blog communities are not bad and there can be a wealth of information found at those sites. In no way will I ever say that they should be avoided. They can be a great place to meet other bloggers!

However, building your brand and engaging with others should be priority. The guest posts will roll in, and as your site grows, you can become more selective about what is submitted.

What are your thoughts? Have you ever had any experiences with guest blogging that left you feeling sour?

Starting your own blog does take courage. You are starting it with the obvious intent to reach out to others, whether it to provide information, provide inspiration, make money, for therapeutic reasons, or other reasons.

Before you start a blog, you really have no need to be monetizing it yet. Of course, you can implement Adsense, but without traffic and clicks, you make nothing and appear to be all in for the money.

Get your priorities in order before you start a blog.

Planning your blog is the best place to start.

What do you want to do with your site? Do you want to teach people something? Do you want to make money? You want to create a sturdy focus, specifically on what you want to cover or have a great interest to learn about. Unfortunately, just picking something to blog about will not cover it. Why? Well, you are more than likely to become disinterested. That is why a lot of bloggers and social media consultants will urge you to have a real passion for what you write about.

Once you have what you want to write about, create a site. Whether it is using WordPress, Google Blogger, or some other platform, you need a medium to become your blog headquarters.

When you get that site, just do not let it sit idle for one moment! Write your first post. Make it your introductory. Include:

• A little bit about yourself.
• Your intentions for your blog.
• Topics that will be covered.

Be prepared to blog more than just an introductory posts. You can always save a post on draft mode and publish when you are ready. The fact of the matter is- blog! This is where you take your first step into the open.

Do not worry about the design. Do not worry about the monetizing. Your content needs to come first.

How are you going to invite people to your site if there is nothing there to welcome them? Your blog is much like a home. If you have nothing to make people feel at home, why would they want to stay… let alone come back.

Most blog platforms and content management systems have at least a pleasant default theme. Some bloggers wait until they have a perfectly design site to make their debut. However, what about all the time waiting for that theme to be finished, or the time to find the right one?

You could be blogging and already engaging with people!

So many people want to worry about making money, playing with their site to optimize it for the search engines, and more….however, you really do not have to focus on that so much. Search engines becoming social oriented, other than normal algorithms. So, that means, your visitors will be the ones to say your site has more authority, and not just a bot.

After you have written your content and actually started driving in readers, you can think about all the other luxuries to add to your site.

There are so many blogs out there and a lot of people are unsure of how to take their site to their next step. t is important to keep some type of plan, much like a business. Even if your site only has advertising or even if you are just wanting people to hear what you have to say, you need a plan!

Here are 5 steps to building a business plan for your blog.

Write your site’s focus. This is what you will refer back to when things are not going well. You will put what you want your site to do, who you want to reach, and how you will go about doing it?
Set some long and short term goals. Sites fail because they only have a short term goal. It is important that long term plans are put into place in order to keep your site relevant to your visitors and for the times. The Internet has changed a lot throughout the years and putting goals out will allow your site to last.
Site design and content are important. This must be planned out and executed carefully. It does not need to be perfect, but your site should be planned so you are directing your visitors to what you want them to see. If you are selling something, you need to convey that by having a banner or something to draw your visitors attention, even if you have a blog. As you build your influence and reputation, people will inquire about your special services or products.
Have a monetizing strategy. Whether it is banner advertising, text link ads, paid to blog entries, or just selling your own services, you need to decide what is best for your site and for your visitors. You could literally hurt your own earnings in choosing the wrong services.
Having a marketing strategy for your site. Even if you are on a budget, there are still plenty of ways to get the word out. Making a marketing plan to promote your site is important because frankly, if you never tell people… how will you get traffic? You have to be knowledgeable of where it is best to promote your site- find the niche you best fit in.

These are just a few general steps to building a business plan. This is important for practically all bloggers out there. It can also give you a clue on how much time and money you are willing to spend working on the site and eventually get a return on your investment.

What other steps do you have for newbie bloggers needing a direction with planning their blog’s future?

It is not uncommon to read from a lot of blogs about blogging that guest blogging has a lot of benefits. However, with all these people guest blogging and sites publishing these articles, are people really taking advantage of this in the best way possible.

The benefits of guest blogging is a two-way street. Both the site owner and the blogger benefit. So, in order to cover how you can make the most of guest blogging, I need to address both sides of the street.

For the Site Owner:

• While you want to follow the focus of your site, be open to new things. It may be because you are not familiar with new techniques or news in your niche as you thought you were. There will always be someone with a leg up on your knowledge in your niche. Let them bring that knowledge in and enhance your site.
• Make sure that you place guidelines for guest posts if you decide to open your site to outside writers. It would be pointless to keep rejecting articles that do not fit your site’s criteria, especially if you do not list any in the first place. Do not assume people will write exactly what you want.
• Be courteous with your guest bloggers and make sure you do background searches on them. They are doing you a favor by providing you quality content. Even if you promise pay for regular writing, they are still doing a larger favor.
• Make sure you do background searches your guest writers. No, you do not have to do a full research, but find out what your guest writers are writing about on their own websites. There are a lot of bloggers who pull information almost out of thin air and that could hurt your site. You want your site to be able to offer the right information, not the wrong.

  For example, I recently read an article, to which I will not name, that had quite a few points that showed a lack of experience in the area. In fact, the article probably should have either been revised or not been published at the site as it contradicted other articles on the site that had a similar topic.

For the Guest Blogger:

• If a site owner has criteria, follow it. If you are unsure of the requirements for guest blogging at a website, ask.
• Do not expect your article to always be approved. Site owners try to make sure the articles fit their site before publishing. If your site does not meet the owner’s expectations, you can take the article to another site for consideration.
• Your guest post is not a free ticket to make money by throwing in an affiliate link or slipping in an article you are getting paid for by an outside company, even for SEO. This is wrong. That is why there are places for that (like your own blog and article publishing sites.) As social media marketing has become popular, people are looking for transparency – not people writing and making money off someone else’s blog for a guest post. In that case, pay the site owner their cut for hosting your paid blog post.
• It is fine to insert keywords, but they should be related to a direct business or place that you have control over. Again, this relates somewhat to the previous point mentioned.
• One of the purposes of guest blogging is to build a healthy relationship with readers in your niche. That should be what you set your sights on building. Once you have, you will find people eager to read your own site, connect more with you, or even do business with you.

Are there other ways that you can make the most of guest blogging?

A lot of people like to use forums and social networks for communicating. Did you know you can have your own community, much like those forums through your blog’s comment system? Did you know that it should be one of your goals to convert people to comment on your blog?

Well, its true!

Each person who comes by and leaves a comment, is leaving their mark on your site and might have a good opinion… even if it does not completely agree with you. Those comments make your site dynamic as no other site will have the same exact comment from each and every person. Some of those might have information that help you, as well as others who visit. Some may be questions you can answer, or even, other readers can answer too!

Communication is a beautiful thing if encouraged correctly. You can build a sturdy community around your blog comments by doing a couple basic things:

1. Write thought provoking content. You could even end with a question. This leaves the floor open to your readers to decide if they want to jump in and share their opinion.

2. Reply back to comments. The thing is… if you reply to a comment and they come back, you just successfully converted them! They were interested enough not only to comment once, but to come back and reply.

3. Return the favor by commenting at your commenters’ blogs. This is going that extra step forward and being active to go outside of your own site and help carry on the conversation at your readers’ sites. This is a win-win as you end up helping to build two communities instead of one.

4. Try a Top Commenter of the Month contest. Not everyone does this, but from time to time, it might be something to integrate into a contest where your top commenter might win a prize.

5. Implement the Commentluv plugin. (This plugin has versions for both WordPress and Blogger.) Commentluv gives your commenters an incentive to comment. When they submit a comment, the Commentluv plugin pulls the most recent post from that person’s site and places the link to it with the published comment.

These are merely a few ways to build a solid community around your blog. How have you encouraged your readers to comment on your site?