October 14th, 2009 — Blogging, Content Ideas, Writing for Your Blog
If you want to keep readers coming back to your website, you should produce fresh blog posts to keep their interest. Look to the biggest sites, what they all have in common is that they constantly produce content that is new and fresh. This is also what the webmasters of the blog will say is the most difficult thing. Producing content that is fresh and frequent is a challenge that, once overcome, will take your blog to a new level.
There are a number of things that can help you in producing content that is fresh. The first is to make sure that your posts are kept brief. Trying to consistently put out 500 word posts will quickly burn you out, with the time that is taken. Many good blogs have many posts that are short. The average attention span of the internet reader is about a minute and a half. Short blog posts will be refreshing for the readers who may not have the time to read very long blog posts.
Another thing that is good for keeping content fresh is to prepare a backup stash of articles, or a working queue. This sort of action is especially good for those who may find themselves suffering from writers block. The premise is to write articles before you need them. You may have a stash of articles for when you are blocked, or you may have a stack of articles that you add to, and pull content from, following a schedule planned in advance.
Some blogs will invite their readers to be guest bloggers. This will not only introduce ideas from your readers, which can act as a muse for your posts, but it will also encourage participation from your blog readers. Interaction is a surefire way to create a sense of community with your readers. Reader interaction is also good because some great blog posts stem from conversations in the comments section. Let us not forget the biggest benefit to guest bloggers, one less blog post for you to write.
Guest bloggers do not have to readers. Rather, you can find a blogger who is within the same genre or niche. Inviting these bloggers to contribute can enable you to form professional relationships with other bloggers. These relationships can encourage the growth of ideas through conversations. Many times, guest bloggers from other blogs will also allow you to write for their blog. This gives you and them access to each others readers, bolstering the traffic to both blogs.
Sometimes the best way to ensure fresh content is to blog in teams. A team of bloggers may run a single blog or many. The idea is that the bloggers will share in blogging duties, so that if one can not contribute for a period of time, the others can take up the slack and ensure that fresh content is produced. Such an agreement between bloggers will require less work for the bloggers, and give a number of different views within the content.
Producing content that is fresh is how you will ensure that your blog flourishes.
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Originally posted 2009-02-06 09:00:10. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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October 11th, 2009 — Plugins, WordPress
WordPress originally saw the light of day in 2003, and is now being used on thousands of different websites in countries all over the world. WordPress is designed to be a simple open source blogging tool that can be taken advantage of in two different ways: You can either take advantage of the hosted option, or you can take advantage of the free software download option.
WordPress offers a number of additional features that can be downloaded and installed, and these extra features are known as WordPress plugins. These WordPress plugins make it possible for you to customize your blog so that it suits you, the genre of your website and the nature of your audience as well. There are a wide variety of different WordPress plugins that you can choose from, many of which are downloadable directly from WordPress, while others can be found elsewhere on the internet. If you are new to blogging, it may be difficult for you to figure out which WordPress plugins will best suit you. Here are some of the mot popular WordPress plugins that are available online for free download.
This is a WordPress blog that helps to optimize your titles, generating automatic META tags as well. It gives you the chance to override titles, setting any descriptions and meta tags that you want. Depending on what version of WordPress you are using, you can usually simply install this plugin to have it work straight away with little work or issue.
This is a truly fantastic tool, helping you sort out potential spam in your blog. It will check all of your comments to analyze whether or not they are legitimate, allowing you to review the potential spam so that you may decide whether or not to keep the comments accordingly.
This plugin is capable of integrating your WordPress blog and your Twitter account together. Twitter is a free micro-blogging and social networking service that can be easily integrated into your WordPress with the right plugin.
Although there are many different ways that you capture data and statistics regarding your website, most offer more information than you really need when it comes to blogging. The WordPress Stats system was designed specifically to focus on the information that a blogger actually needs.
This is a guestbook plugin that can be easily customized, which makes it possible for you to change colors and customize mandatory fields where users can fill out certain information that you are looking for. You can fully manage all of the user entries, and you can even edit or remove posts before they are shown on the website.
Each WordPress plugin has its own unique set of advantages and benefits that can help to turn your blog into a user friendly place. With so many different plugins to choose from, it is worthwhile to spend time searching for what is available, selecting those plugins that will benefit you, your blog and those who are visiting to read.
Originally posted 2009-02-06 08:00:54. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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October 10th, 2009 — Blogging, Readership, Subject/Topic
When you are working to find your blog’s niche, it would be a bad idea to choose one that you think is profitable. That would be the wrong choice to make. Instead, you should consider a few questions in determining your niche. The first is important: Is it something that you are interested in? You will be tasked with generating lots of content, with frequent posting. This will cost you time in terms of research, writing, brainstorming, etc. Without interest in your genre, you won’t last. Motivation will dwindle and the blog will be short lived. Plus, if the blog talks about what you are interested in, you will have a lot of knowledge to start with.
You should also ask if your niche is too specific or general. To specific, and you may find yourself capping off with five readers. Too general, and you will be competing with blogs that are already well established. Try to achieve a balance so that the competition will not be as high, and that you will attract a good number of readers. As an example, instead of a baseball blog, choose a specific team, or state or stadium. Related to this, ask who your audience is. A blog that is targeting senior citizens may not do so well right now, because those individuals may not spend time online. A generation from now, that may not be true. Targeting a specific region, do they have internet?
Now ask yourself, will you be able to easily advertise? This is important if your goal is to generate traffic for revenue. Your blog should be able to reach high in the rankings, advertising should be able to added to the blog without much distraction, and that there are other similar blogs which you could potentially exchange links with. Your searching should also answer another question, who are your competitors? Finding out who these people are will allow you to generate content that is different so that you do can draw readers to your site.
If you are seeking profit, will your niche be profitable? This will not apply to all blogs, as some people are out there to inform, not necessarily make money. This also should not be the only concern with a blog. If in considering the first question, you find a few topics which you have interest in, you can try and pick from the list the one is most profitable. Topics for which you are most passionate should have preference as they will be the easiest to generate content for.
Finding a niche is a process that requires much thought and inner reflection. You should not pick a niche for the profit alone. What is most important is that you choose a genre that you have passion for. Not only will your blog do much better in terms of quality and quantity, but you will not lose interest and find yourself disliking your blog. Make sure that you know the answers to the above questions before settling on a niche.
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