Helping You Rock Out Your Site Like A Rockstar!

Of course, you could jump into blogging, but you will find out after a time that you need a better direction. It might be that you decided to blog about anything and everything on your site, or you just are not happy with how your site has come. It could be that you might not have the traffic you want.

For the beginner blogger, any help is appreciated. In fact, more so now than in a couple years ago because of how blogging has become so popular.

Here are some tips for beginner bloggers:

1. Site Focus. You need to pick what you want to write about. Even if you have a specific niche, make sure to keep your focus to anything pertaining to it.
2. Your Content comes first before design. However, make sure your site is easy to navigate. If you are trying to direct people to special page, create an image or something unique that draws attention to that area. (this will help convert over your visitors.)
3. Blogging is not a chore. If you find yourself having problems with blogging, you might need to research to be able to continue writing. Do not be afraid to read other blogs and write about their topic. Of course, you should be using your own opinion and you should give some link credit back.
4. Be prepared to return comments. You like them, and others do too. If you receive a comment, try to return it. It is plain lazy to just tell your visitors – oh, I will comment if I feel like it. Although it is not a requirement, it is certainly an act of courtesy. Also, make sure to reply to comments. Your visitors may or may not agree with you, or they may provide some useful information. Your blog is somewhat like a forum so you do want to continue the conversation and keep people coming back.
5. Try learning new ways to promote and optimize your site. Social networking has come quite a way and it can be a great tool for bloggers to share their articles. As to optimizing sites, this will help your site be seen better by the search engines so when people are looking for specific information and it relates to what you write about, your article just might show up in those search results.
6. Do not be afraid that your blog fails the first time around. Just re-focus and try again.
7. Share valuable content. There are so many blog sites out there that say the same thing. Others might vary, but try to go in-depth and provide an informative and unique way to approach a subject.
8. Always ask for feedback. Never assume a handful of people is the majority in how effective your site is to your readers. Go outside your normal circles and ask people, even those who may have never been to your site on what they think about it. You might be surprised.

What other tips might you have for anyone who has started blogging or might be considering it?

I often see a lot of paid to comment jobs on Freelancer.com, and so even though there are a lot of spammers, I have been noticing actual legitimate comments from businesses that normally I would find as spammers. In fact, these comments are real and I cannot deny it – even if I reply to their comment and they never respond.

How are they real?

They actual show depth in thought and also provide feedback concerning the topic. It is not a lame comment at all!

I can see why paying someone to go around and comment might be nice, but is it truly effective? Are these people actually given a list of sites that might convert visitors into customers. If by what I have seen lately with these people leaving real comments, I think there may be a real case.

The purpose of these comments are primarily placed so the blog owner and readers of the site will by chance visit. It seems harmless and I have no problem with that.

However… how do we define that versus comment spam? Do you just delete an honest comment that has everything to do with your post just because you have a feeling it was actually a paid comment, or do you keep it?

Obviously, it is easy to spot comment spam. A lot of it does not make any type of sense. Some of these people are asked to use a different email address and such. For me, I have a problem with that because you should proudly represent your comment, even if it might be paid. I like it when a company is open about their dealings and this would be hiding it. Is it shady? It depends on what your preference is. Right now, I am just coming to acknowledge this slowly growing trend.

I am almost wondering if those comments will eventually need to be disclosed like paid posts.

What are your thoughts about people getting paid to comment on sites? If the comment seems legitimate, should it be allowed, or should it be considered comment spam?

The internet is sustained through a continuous supply of up-to-date information through often exasperating human effort. This network, analogous to a human vascular system must be kept alive with nutrients, and a readily available supply of “Blogsxygen.”

This supply is provided by the multitude of avid bloggers and midnight-oil-burning writers.

Keeping the internet’s heart pumping takes a lot of input.

So for the general online blogger, who has no newsroom experience, what can be done to reduce the pressure to keep up to date?

The real answer to organization in the workplace is the no-clutter approach. Ever noticed that successful executives have nothing on their desks? It’s not that they have nothing to do, they are very busy people – and VERY expensive to hire, so their techniques are the best management training can buy. Another thing you may have noticed is that they are not all rocket scientists either, so what these execs do, anyone can too!

The key to good working organization is to be clutter free – not by color coding Post-It notes!

Effective organization can easily be achieved by following some simple steps

• Keep an address book either written in an A-Z book or on your computer, do not write contact info anywhere else.
• Use a written or computer-based desk diary, written is better. Do not write/ anything down that is time-sensitive anywhere else.  The diary should be the daily bible. Do not use loose inserts/post-its in the diary either.
• Maintain a system of file naming for everything you write that is not immediately published. The filenames should include the date, version and title. This makes retrieval of archives so much easier.
• If you have multiple blogs and updates that can be categorized, make multiple desktops/logins so that you can have a customized workspace relevant to each project that you are undertaking.
• If you need to be note-taking constantly, keep all the notes in one journal. If computerized, the key to selecting effective desktop organization software is to keep it simple – organizers that offer too many features are invariably counter-productive.

Most of all get rid of the irrelevant clutter in your workspace! Some people thrive under an umbrella of momentarily interesting desk toys and trendy stationery items. This often translates through to the computer desktop they work with. This haphazard approach to work is not effective. A de-clutter of all the digital desk-toys and must-have system tray items has a detrimental effect on productivity. Constant adjusting, updating and fooling around with feature-rich and function-poor software is very time-wasting. A productive workplace requires focus on relevance.  For the many that have a daily responsibility to meet a deadline, keeping both the physical and the digital desktop clear of abstract data and irrelevance is the ultimate goal.

Only once the suffocation of trivia and distraction is removed, can effective blogxygen be successful.

I have recently opened the blog to registration for authors/ guest writers since I have had quite a few submissions. I think it will be far more helpful than sending an email to me with the email in document form.

With that said, anyone who wrote in the past, even if you do not write in the future, you will have an author account as I am adjust the template. In fact, there has been a lot of content moving, and soon to be some dynamic page template changes to better allow each section of the site easier navigation.

These changes will also demonstrate how dynamic you can make your site. This was inspired because I will be speaking at WordCamp Chicago 2010 that your WordPress site can have a look that is more than a blog format. My topic is “Rocking Out Your Website With WordPress.” You can view the full program of WordCamp Chicago 2010 if you like.

With that said, anyone wanting to guest write can view the requirements and how to sign up by clicking on Guest Write Here. It can also be found at the top of this website in the main navigation.

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?

Though there are a lot of people who do plan posts, there are also many who do not. In fact, a lot of times, creating a post might be something done on a whim. However, it might be better to think ahead.

Every day you read a lot of articles and view a lot of pictures. In return, you might even be motivated to blog about it. The problem is that you might end up having a lot of ideas. You could write it down on paper, but why do that, especially if you use a content management system like WordPress.

In WordPress and most CMS, you can save your articles in ‘draft’ and publish at will.

How?

When you are inspired to write something but might not have the time until later, write a temporary title and a few notes in the post. Save it on draft mode. A lot of times you might need to find a little more information, so when you are ready to write the post out, it is there for you any time you want.

In fact, you can have many posts in draft mode. You can use it like a “to do” or “to blog” list. This eliminates you having to write down a list of topics on paper. It also gives you a guideline to try to stick to instead of coming up with something impromptu.

If you decide that an article is not worth writing, you can just delete it.

It really is a convenience to plan your posts on any website. It will save time and you can always add to your blog list, making it easier for you to know what to write next – eliminating the dreaded ‘writer’s block.’ Yes, it can help prevent writer’s block or to some – blogger’s block! For social media marketers, it can be a tool to get content rolling out faster to stay on top of your niche.

Do you plan your posts? Have you tried it and it did not work for you?

In 2009, I wrote How to Overcome Bloggers Block. After recently reading How To Keep Blogger’s Block at Bay by Sarah Harris, I have decided to do a bit of a refresher. This is because I still see people having issues with coming up with material.

Fixing your Blogger’s Block (also known as Writer’s Block) is easy. You constantly see and read all sorts of things and actually have an opinion about it. In your own niche, you can use this to your advantage. Sometimes another blogger only covers so much of the topic and miss out on a few points. It is not always on purpose, but it is something you can cover on your own website. Just remember to give a little link love to the post that inspired you.

Inspiration is not hard to come by at all. If you are having trouble coming up with something, then you are not truly looking in the right places. If websites in your normal niche are not doing it for you, look outside your normal niche circle. This could allow your website’s community to grow some more.

It is important that you keep your options open as the potential to finding inspiration is everywhere – videos, images, articles, television, life experiences, and more.

How do you find your inspiration?

So, you want to make a website? Whether business or for personal, there are several general guidelines you should follow. These are made to be flexible for most types of websites, however may not work for everyone. After webmastering several sites for almost 8 years now, these have been guidelines I have followed when creating projects. Some have flopped, and some have succeeded, but these have always been a great guideline to follow.

Because this is so long, I will be breaking it into parts. This is Part 2 of this series. If you missed the other, please read So You Want to Make a Website: Part 1

2. What can you invest into your website?

Will you be able to invest time into your website? Will you be able to invest money into your website? These are important and merely optional depending on the website owner/ webmaster choice in how to bring the site into existence.

Making a website takes time, sometimes even money, especially when having it hosted with a paid web host. If you are unable to design a site, then obviously you will have to invest money into having it designed and coded. Some web designers are cheap and others are expensive, but nevertheless, it is an investment to bringing the site together. The same can be said about web hosting. I actually sell off my server web hosting for as little as $25 a year at Host Solutions, which are perfect for bloggers and my server is geared to support WordPress.

For bloggers in particular, free hosting will only do for so long. As a website owner, you need the control to monitor your site’s success and breaking out on your own is ideal.

In regards to investing time, it can be a very finicky issue. The content will obviously be the main part added once the site has a general layout to portray it. However, it is also the part that takes the most time. You as the website owner will have to take time to put this together, if not, hire a webmaster who can. This can be an issue as some cannot utilize the internet efficiently and have no idea how to add their content, while others may not have the time.

A webmaster can make the changes necessary. Some web designers may even offer Site Maintenance/ Webmaster services. Like web design, it may be expensive or cheap, but make a good choice on someone that is reliable. A hired webmaster who seems like they are hard to contact and get any site updates done in a decent time is not exactly ideal.

Also, for both time and money, how will you get your site out? Do you plan to invest money in advertising, or do you have a lot of friends who can spread the news like wildfire? Getting the word out on a website is not easy. It takes a lot of time, even a lot of money, and even though you could reel in quite a bit of visitors, you have to maintain this, seeking larger areas to reach more of your audience.

Are you still free hosting, but find that your site is quickly becoming popular? What is holding you back from investing in your website? What kind of plans do you have for your website in the near future?

If you already have invested some, is your site succeeding or are there areas that you need to focus on that are not up to your satisfaction?