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Creating Killer Blog Content

It’s Day #7 of the #31DBBB challenge, and today’s assignment s to write a linked post. The topic I will be covering with my speed linking post today is a bit of a mashup of blog posts about a topic that is close to my heart–creating killer blog content.

As a tip of my hat to the developer of the #31DBBB, this first link is to Darren Rowse, who shares a great blog post about creating great blog content.
http://www.problogger.net/how-to-write-great-blog-content/

In this vintage, oldie-but-goodie post, seomoz shares some online tools that you can use to find ideas for blog psots:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/10-web-tools-to-help-generate-blog-content-ideas

Chris Brogan shares 40 tips for delivering killer blog content. You’ll find lots of inspiration and ideas that will help you to crank out copy that reflects your passion and your expertise.
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/40-ways-to-deliver-killer-blog-content/

Dosh dosh shares even more creative ways to surmount the daily challenge of delivering compelling content that appeals to your readers:
http://www.doshdosh.com/how-to-effectively-create-content-for-your-niche-blogs-a-brief-introduction-and-guide/

Karan Singhal provides lots f practical tips in this post about creating blog content that will interest your readers:
http://www.famousbloggers.net/create-bolg-content-interests-readers.html

So, enjoy these blogs and feel free to share a link in the comments for your favorite posts that have ideas for creating great blog content.

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Blogging is a personal publishing format that allows you to be able to have your own platform for sharing your ideas with the world. Reading feedback from visitors is quite rewarding and makes it worth all of the work and effort that goes into producing a quality blog.

But sometimes there are those days that your Mamma warned you about. There are days when life gets to be overwhelming, you’re exhausted and beaten down and the baby needs a new pair of shoes.  Sometimes you wonder what the heck you were thinking when you started that blog. What made you think you’d have time to post every day or least every week?

Well, gentle reader, I’ve got some fabulous news for you. I find myself in the same boat as you. I’m a blogger, a mom, and I’m running a business from home. My days are full to the brim, so if I am not strategic with my time, my blogs can slip off the radar and languish for days while I’m scrambling around after my girls, or knee-deep in a client project.

Since we all face the challenge of how to fit our blogging tasks into an already gloriously full day, I’ve come up with some tricks and strategies that you can use to develop productive habits, which will allow you to make the most of those little snippets of time in your day to get your blogging done.

I’ve heard it said that we teach what we most need to learn, and that is indeed the case with me because one of my biggest challenges has been keeping fresh posts on my blog. So, here are some tips and for writing and blog posting that I try to follow:

1. Keep a notebook handy

Here’s a perfect example of this tip. As I write this, I am sitting in the laundry room doing laundry. Because right now I live in an apartment that does not have a washer and dryer, I have to schlep my clothes to the local laundry. But, while I sit here waiting for the wash cycle to finish, I’m getting this blog post written because I brought my little mini-Netbook with me.

Get a small notebook, use the notes feature on your phone, or like me, keep your mini-laptop handy and jot down ideas as they come to you.

2. Stay in ‘Idea seeking’ mode

Keep your eyes and ears open for what is going on around you. How can you incorporate the events of your life into your blog posts? Just this week I got my first complaint on my email subscriber list. It threw me for a minute, but I got back on track quickly and turned it into a blog post.

Are you facing a challenge in your life? Find a way to share what you are learning without sharing too many of the personal, gory details. When there are big stories in the news either in your local area or nationally find a way to weave larger story into your blog posts if it’s appropriate.

Use your notebook and capture those ideas. You may not use all of them right away, but at some point you’ll be stumped for something to write about, and you can consult your notebook for some new ideas to write about.

3. Schedule specific blogging tasks

As a blogger you’ve got to do the following tasks over the course of a week:

• Write blog posts

• Share blog posts

• Market your blog

-social media marketing

-blog directories/communities

• Research

• Blog maintenance

- install, update plugins

-stats reports

-comment moderation

-database backups

• Network/build community with other bloggers

I’m certain that there are more tasks, but this is all that came to my mind. All of these things need to be done in order for your blog to run smoothly, so plug each of the tasks into your calendar and designate how many minutes you will set aside to complete it.

4. Write titles and outline posts in batches

In your research time, come up with some working titles of blog posts that you plan to write over the course of the coming week. Now, when you sit down to write, you will not be facing the dreaded blank page or screen. If you don’t have a hot topic to write about at the moment, look at your batch of working titles and start from there.

5. Write posts in batches

Take your list of titles and post outlines and write up a few posts in advance. Set them aside and come back and edit, proofread and format them in batches and, if you are running WordPress, you can publish them all at once scheduling the exact days and times you want each one to go live.

6. Utilize guest bloggers

Do you ever need a break from blogging, say for a vacation? Wouldn’t it be cool if someone else would write a blog post for you every now and then? Well, in exchange for a link back to their blog, guest bloggers will write a unique blog post for your blog. Is there a particular fan of your blog who always writes thoughtful, cogent comments, and who has a blog on a related topic to yours? You might send them a quick email and see if they might be interested in a guest blogging gig.

There are also several forums where bloggers seeking guest bloggers, and bloggers seeking blogs to guest post with hang out and help each other out. Here are two that I use:

http://BloggerLinkUp.com/

http://myblogguest.com/

7. Find ways to make it fun

Do you remember why you started blogging in the first place? Try to stay in touch with that initial excitement and use that energy to make your blogging tasks something you get to do rather than so much drudgery. Challenge yourself to a solid week of daily posting. Join a 30 day blogging challenge or start your own. Set specific goals for how often you will publish posts, and then create little rewards for yourself when you meet those goals. You know what motivates you, so use that to your advantage.

I’m in the 31DBBB challenge right now, and one of our tasks for the challenge is to find a blogging buddy. Develop a collaborative relationship with another blogger and challenge, encourage and support each other to make your blogs the best that they can be.

I recommend being patient with yourself as you develop these new habits. See which ones work for you and go with those for awhile and see if your blogging productivity improves. Number seven is the most important here because if you view your blogging responsibilities as chores or another “must do” task it will feel like drudgery.

When you come to view blogging as something fun and exciting that you get to do, you will be more likely to put all of your positive energy and enthusiasm into the task. Your passion for your topic will be apparent to your visitors and attract more visitors to your blog.

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I’m participating in the #31DBBB Blogging Challenge, and this post part of the Day #2 assignment. I want to welcome all of my fellow SITS Bloggers and thanks for all of the linky love

The first post of this blog was published originally in January of 2007, but a catastrophic crash in October of 2008 (before I knew about the importance of backing up my database) caused me to lose all of those early posts.

Prior to this blog for my consulting business I had a personal blog that I began in the fall of 1998 (before they were actually even called ‘blogs’). So with 12 years of blogging experience under my belt, I thought I’d write a post about what being a blogger has taught me about life.

1. Don’t write anything you wouldn’t want your parents or your children to see.
In the early days, I didn’t tell my parents that I kept a blog. I felt far more free to write whatever I felt like writing when I was pretty sure that they weren’t reading it. Well, the day eventually came when my dad, bless his heart, discovered my blog one day when he googled me. Thank goodness he didn’t find anything embarrassing, but it might have been a more awkward conversation had I been writing about something that they would not have approved of, or would be embarrassing.

Aside from your parents and off-spring, be mindful that your employer or colleagues might also discover your blog, so be mindful of what you write and publish online.

2. Don’t be afraid to speak your mind.
Your blog provides you with the opportunity to stand up for what you believe in, to take a stand for your beliefs and defend the ideals that you hold dear. There will be people who will agree and there will be people who will disagree with what you have to say, but don’t let that dissuade you from writing from your heart.

3. Be authentic.
One of my favorite quotes on this topic is by Dr. Suess, and he said, “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter won’t mind.” Authenticity totally shines through in everything you write. Don’t try too hard to sound witty, or take on a fake persona. Your individuality is the gift that you offer to the world. Let it shine through.

4. Always publish your best work.
Don’t fall into the trap of waiting until you “get discovered” before you start coming up with fabulous content because it’s the fabulous content that will get you discovered. Write your posts like everyone’s watching. Edit ruthlessly. Find a writing partner to edit and/or proofread for you. Ask for feedback from your readers, and strive to always improve your writing.

5. Having a platform is powerful.
As your blog readership grows you will discover that you are creating a platform for yourself. Your blog is your own media outlet. Don’t squander your chance to put forth your message. Take your blog seriously and others will do the same.

6. Avoid negative posts and bashing or flaming.
Avoid writing scathing posts and railing with negativity about a person or a group. If something has gotten you angry and upset, you might want to take some time and process it and choose the most intelligent course of action rather than firing off a vitriolic post that you may regret sooner than later.

7. It takes a village.
The blogoshpere is a community, so reach out to other bloggers and create relationships. Offer to guest post on your favorite blogs. Link to your blogging buddies from your blog. Be as supportive as you can of other bloggers  within your community.

8. Encourage other bloggers.
Be sure to leave positive comments on other blogs. Find something encouraging to say that goes beyond, “great post.” Show that you read the post and write a comment that adds value and builds up the blogger.

9. It takes commitment.
Maintaining a blog is not easy. With all of the other responsibilities in your life, it can be a challenge to commit to writing three to five blog posts each week and managing all of the other tasks inherent with the job. Determine at the outset if you think you can be committed to maintaining the publishing schedule before you begin.

10. Persistence pays off.
In the end persistence definitely pays off. When you have a blog that is getting decent traffic, a steady flow of comments and good reviews you’ve really got something to be proud of. Don’t give up when things get challenging because the only way to fail is to give up.

If you’re a blogger, please feel free to leave a comment that shares a life lesson you’ve learned from blogging.

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It’s the middle of the summer, it’s blazing hot outside, the kids are out of school and the long, hot days of summer tend to lull us into vacation mode.

Now, if you’re on vacation, by all means chill out, relax and enjoy your down time. But if you are still working towards completing your goals for this quarter or this year, then don’t get sucked down and lose your focus. Snap out of it! (Do I have your attention now?)

A great way to snap out of an unmotivated rut is to start a challenge. Take one of your goals and turn it into a challenge to make it fun to complete it. Recruit some partners or supporters to either join you in taking up the challenge, or to cheer you on and encourage you and hold you accountable to your goals.

Post your goal up on a bulletin board in your workspace where you can see it, and depending on how you are counting progress, make a chart where you can tick off  ‘to-do’ items and see your progress.

One of my goals for this year is to improve this blog’s performance. In my business I have been doing quite a few blog setups lately, so  lot of my energy has been going towards setting up new blogs for my clients.

I decided it was time to kick this goal into high gear, so I’ve joined the “Secret to Success is Support” womens blogging community as they are taking on Darren Rowse’s ’31 Days to Build a Better Blog’ challenge. Of course I’ll be blogging about my progress here, but if you’d like to join me and the rest of these power blogging women, feel free to do so.

My challenge to you is to create a challenge for yourself.  Make it a realistic goal so that you are more likely to accomplish it, but not so easy that it doesn’t get your juices flowing. Where attention goes energy flows, so give your project your consistent attention each day and you will get there.

Keep on coming back here for motivation and encouragement, and feel free to contact me if you’re feeling stuck and need some inspiration or advice.

One of my favorite personal development authors, Anthony Robbins, says that you should never leave the scene of having set a goal without taking an initial step in making it become a reality. Yes writing the goal down is a first step, but what can you do to kick your goal-achievement into high gear despite the ‘lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer?’

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Increase blog traffic

1. Establish a consistent publishing schedule and stick to it. At least three posts a week is ideal.

2. Add an opt-in subscription box ‘above the fold‘ close to the upper, right-hand corner of your blog. Offer a valuable free product in exchange for their contact information.

3. Send weekly updates to your email list with a link back to your blog.

4. Make it easy for your visitors to share your blog posts on social media sites. Add plugins such as ShareThis and Wibiya to allow visitors to quickly share your content.

5. Brand your site along with your social media profiles so that your visitors recognize you on those sites and
click on your links.

6. Include a ‘Contact’ link on your blog.

7. Create a ‘Privacy Policy,’ and ‘Disclaimer,’ links if you offer affiliate sales on your blog. Providing up-front, full disclosure is now a requirement by the FCC, and it puts your visitor’s minds at ease when they are clear on exactly how you will be using any information that you gather about them.

8. Include a ‘FAQ,’ or ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ page to answer questions for your visitors and provide them with everything they need to know when it comes to doing business with you.

9. Use your email subscriber list responsibly. Your visitors did not sign up for your newsletter to be spammed with ads. Offer them ‘susbscriber only’ specials and send them free ‘subscriber appreciation’ gifts to remind them of how valuable they are to you.

These are just a few tips and strategies you can use to keep your reader’s interest and keep them coming back to your blog. The main draw to your blog, of course, is your stellar content. Writing sparkling prose that is keyword rich, relevant and useful to your readers is the best way to keep them coming back for more.

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I have been learning more and more about Google pagerank and Alexa rankings, and while my blog is now a PR3 (out
of 10), my current Alexa ranking is so high (over 2 million) they don’t even show stats for it on their website.  All this means is that I must continue to work on driving targeted traffic to my blog, because the more traffic a site gets the more their alexa ranking will rise. But there is a bit of a caveat in there. The traffic needs to come from sites where the visitor has the alexa toolbar installed.

So, if you’d like to know how you can help a blogger boost her Alexa rankings, here’s a couple of things you can do. These, by the way, are things that you can also do to boost your own website or blog’s ranking so take note.

1. Install the Alexa toolbar, (it can also be a status bar). Use it to visit your own site daily and you’ll get lots of geeky, techy info about the other sites you visit.
http://www.alexa.com/toolbar

2. Leave a short review of my blog:
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/productivepen.com#

Here are the steps I’m taking to nudge my Alexa rankings down as much as I can without breaking out in a cold sweat
or losing a moment of sleep about it:

1. Leaving a review (with a link back to my blog) on the top ranked Alexa sites
http://www.alexa.com/topsites

2. Installed the Alexa widget to my blog

3. Installed the WP Stats and the WordPress.com stats plugins so that I can track all of my relevant stats from

one handy dashboard.

4. Getting listed in web directories such as dmoz.org, which was down today when I tried to log in.

5. Most importantly, work on publishing relevant, useful content that keeps my readers coming back, encourages
them to comment, and share the content that they find useful.

Here I am, unabashedly pimping the all-powerful Alexa because it’s basically the popularly accepted way to determine a website’s value. Do you care about your blog’s Alexa ranking? If so, and you’ve tried some other nifty hacks to nudge your ranking down please share them here.

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People create blogs for various purposes ranging from simply writing about what’s happening in their daily lives, trying to bring attention to a particular cause, selling products, for corporate outreach, or gaining increased exposure for the author, every blog works better when it has a clearly defined purpose. By the time you have finished reading this blog post, you will have a clear idea of the advantages of having a purpose driven blog and some ideas for refining and communicating your blog’s purpose to the world.

The blog seems to embody the spirit of new media. The blog has emerged as a great equalizer in the world of publishing and media. It provided the average person who might otherwise never get a book publishing contract the ability to get their message out to the world.

Anyone can start a blog for free, or you can purchase a domain name and hosting for minimal cost and potentially reach millions of readers. But in order to maximize this opportunity to reach your audience, you’ve got to make your blog’s purpose plain when visitors arrive.

People make a decision within about three to five seconds as to whether or not they like or find useful what you have to offer on your blog.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself as you begin to refine your blog’s purpose:

• What are you trying to accomplish with your blog?
• Clearly a blog whose purpose is to sell products will have a different layout and style from one whose purpose is to generate interest in a particular topic or cause.
• Can visitors tell what your blog is about in less than five seconds after landing on your page?
• The mission and goal of your blog should be clearly communicated in the title, and the content should not veer too far from the main topic keywords.
• Have you narrowed your focus sufficiently?

Some bloggers who are knowledgeable about and passionate about several topics try to cram all of them in to one blog. This can make it challenging to attract targeted traffic, and the search engines won’t be clear on how to rank your site with such a divergent array of keywords.

Are you creating value for your readers?

Regardless of your blog’s purpose, if you are not creating value for your readers they will not have much reason to stay long or return. You are competing with millions of other blogs for your reader’s attention. Do not squander the opportunity to shine by always presenting your best content.

LaShanda Henry, author of the Sistasense.com blog, among several others, says this about blogging:

“Blog like you’ve got an audience of millions reading your blog. Blog like everybody’s watching you”

Don’t wait and hold back your best content until you get ‘discovered’ because you will not get discovered unless you consistently provide excellent, valuable content that attracts readers, keeps them coming back and inspires them to share your posts with their friends and followers.

When you give valuable content away on your blog it communicates your depth of knowledge about your topic and it causes people to keep coming back because they are confident that you will always have something important to say that will benefit them in some way.

Do you love your topic?

When you love your blog topic, when you have a passion for what you are writing about, when an idea hits you and you can’t wait to get out your laptop and blog about it, that passion and enthusiasm is absolutely infectious and it comes across to your readers.

If you love your topic, chance are there are lots of other people out there who share your feelings and who will be thrilled to find a kindred spirit.

Clearly defining your purpose will make it easier for you to create excellent content because you will be delving deeply into a narrow topic rather than going all over the place on a variety of topics.

The purpose driven blog has a clear focus, it provides value for the reader, and it communicates the bloggers passion for the topic. If you are a blogger, take a moment and re-visit your blog’s vision and mission. Where can you make your purpose more clear? Try doing a quick poll for your readers to see if you can discover what kind of impression they are getting and what suggestions they might offer to make yours a more purpose driven blog.

Now it’s your turn. Go ahead and leave a comment about your blog along with the URL. Visitors who read this post will visit your blog and leave you a comment about their impressions of how effectively your are communicating your blog’s purpose.

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When you launch your first blog and publish your first post, you’re full of excitement and anticipation. But the frightening news is that your new blog has been thrust out into a blogosphere that is full of millions of other blogs all clamoring for your reader’s attention. Guest blogging on established blogs in your niche/topic is an effective way to gain some favorable exposure with your audience quickly.

What you want to do is to find a way to show up where your ideal audience is already hanging out. Guest blogging is an effective way to do that. One of my favorite quotes on this topic is by Jeff Herring, the Article Marketing Guy, who says, The best way to get traffic is to find out where the traffic is going and get out in front of it.” When you get out in front of the traffic you can then direct it wherever you want it to go.

Begin by becoming familiar with the top blogs in your subject area or niche. You can do a search on alltop.com, blogsearch.google.com, technorati.com or simply type your topic into your favorite search engine. Let’s say you are looking for blogs on the topic of bird watching. Type: bird watching + blogs into the search field and see what you find.

Make a list of the blogs that appeal most to you and start commenting on them leaving a link back to your site. Actually read the posts and make comments that add value. Next, contact the blogger and ask if they are interested in guest posts. Keep the email short and tell them exactly what you are prepared to write about, but show that you are actually familiar with their blog and their audience.

Make contact with several bloggers and try to schedule your guest posts to appear closely following your launch. If the readers like your posts, they will come to your blog. It’s up to you to provide excellent content on your blog so that when your new visitors arrive they’ll find a reason to come back and maybe even subscribe.

For lots of great tips and resources to help you get started check out this guest blog posting guide. Save the time and frustration of trying to figure it out on your own and instead hit the ground running with fabulous results.

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I am writing this post in answer to the question: “What have been the rewards and benefits of participating in the blogging community?” for Mabel’s Labels BlogHer contest.

I have been blogging since 1998–which was really before blogs were called blogs. In those days it was simply an online journal where I wrote about my life as a single mom living and working in Massachusetts. I had really wanted to create my web site over a year earlier, but I kept on getting cold feet. I was afraid of putting myself ‘out there’ and I felt vulnerable to the criticism of others. After a few months of procrastinating and reciting a litany of why I shouldn’t put up an online journal I finally just did it and brnwebgrrl was born. I rationalized that I would just not tell anyone I knew about it. I set up my first web site on the free servers at fourtune city. I simply wrote from my heart a few days a week and almost immediately started getting positive feedback. In fact, as I look back, I’ve never received any negative feedback from my online writings. I remember at one point, there was an error on my site and I lost some of my work, so I decided that it was time to get my own domain name. One of my readers was a web site designer, and she designed a site template for me in exchange for a link back to her site. I kept that blog unchanged for about nine years. Just this past fall I put my blog on a new domain and set it up using wordpress–no more coding html by hand.

During those years I met the man who would become my husband through that blog. My readers followed the progress of our relationship and when I announced our engagement, they were all happy for me. I happened to mention in one of my posts that I was going down to Crate and Barrell to fill out my bridal registry. Well imagine my surprise to discover that some of my readers had purchased wedding gifts for us through the registry! When our first child was born, we also received baby gifts, prayers and encouragement as well.

When my marriage ended in a very messy, surprise divorce a few years later, my readers prayed for me and offered their support as I dealt with the depression and pain of betrayal and getting back on my feet as a single mom again. I am still in contact with some of my readers from that early blog, including Michelle, who lives in North Carolina, who has stayed in touch with me to this day.

I also got an email once from an agent who was interested in my writing. That was very encouraging, but because of some of the drama in my life at the time I was not able to pursue that offer.

For me, the main benefits and rewards of participating in the blogging community has simply been the feeling of being a part of the blogging community. We sort of made things up as we went along in the early days. Blogs and bloggers came and went. We freely linked to each other and commented on each others blogs. We’d send emails when it had gotten to be awhile since the last time someone posted. For me blogging fills a deeply felt need to be heard. When you create a blog you create a space for dialog with the outside world. You share your words and others receive them and comment or not. You get a glimpse into the lives of the writers of the blogs you read and find things that resonate with you or not.

With the advent of paid blogging the vibe of the blogosphere has changed a quite a bit. This is my ‘working blog’ and I use this as a platform for my writing when I am working with clients for my writing services. It’s not about me, rather it’s about the many topics that I write about in my work. But I still have a place in my heart for the personal blog–the online journal that expresses an individual voice desiring to simply be heard above the noise of modern life; where the reward is the ability to be heard and validated. The benefit is being able to share that experience with other bloggers and readers.

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