WordPress Howto Spotter » Blogging

Is Buying Traffic for Your Blog A Good Practice

Alex Sysoef — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:13:49 +0000

Attracting traffic is first taken in consideration by any blog owner to increase his/her revenue. One of many benefits, you get from heavy traffic, is promotion of your blog, as more and more people get to know about your blog your pages will be more browsed and in the process increasing the monetary value of your blog.

If the traffic is targeted you may get fruitful results. But buying traffic for the blog has many disadvantages; the traffic will not be targeted and you may not the real output out of it. Some paid traffic can be useful but rarely do they do anything apart from increasing your stats.

Paid traffic may deprive you from your targets

Blogs are made by taking some niche into consideration, when you buy traffic in masses from any unknown site; it results in increase of counter beyond the geo boundaries. Like your blog may be targeting users from a particular country but you may get traffic from countries other than that place. The whole purpose of your blog will be wasted.

No list of subscribers

If the blog is focused on providing information or news then you may want that people to read your work. Paid traffic can deprive you from this, unreliable traffic from these sources do not convert into subscribers. They are only paid to surf your website and that to a particular page, may be the home page.

At the end of the day your visitors will rarely convert to readers. Some companies even promise to provide guaranteed sign ups. In that case out of 100, 30 will be from same city or even same postal code. These activities have scam printed all over them. And search engines do not like scams at all; you will never want that your blog is being omitted from search pages.

Negative impact on Adsense

When you have an Adsense enabled on your blog and you go in for paid traffic sources, there are definite chances that your Adsense account will be banned. This is considered a serious offence by the Adsense advisors, particularly Google. Apart from Adsense many other advertising networks discourage paid traffic sources.

Decrement in sales

If you have a product or any service for sale on your blog then be sure you will not be getting any bucks. Paid traffic just increases your traffic counter and not the sale. The traffic seller websites generally employ one or many techniques to deliver traffic your way, one of which is pay per click. The pay their user some value for clicking onto the links, these links redirects them to your site. These users are keener to get more bucks than your products. Instead of wasting time on these you can consider Ads or Social media campaigns to viral your product.

About the author: Claudia is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on luxury and technology. She recently read an article on BMW cars that attracted her attention. These days she is busy in writing an article on most expensive cars

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Ugly Does Not Sell: 5 Reasons to Look at Your Blog

Alex Sysoef — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:09:37 +0000

It seems like a modest notion. People are drawn to attractive things. But some bloggers appear to overlook that. They think that the content of their blog is more vital than the design. Well, they are wrong. The most enlightening blog in the world will not be effective if it is indecipherable. Here are five things to look for in your blog.

1. Legibility– First of all, no reader will visit your blog for five seconds if they can’t read it. Is the text nearly the same color as the background? Do ads muddle up, cover up, cut up, or hover over your posts? You have a two second window of opportunity to hook a reader and draw them in. You’ll miss it if your site appears like it was planned by a kindergartener.

2. Attractiveness – This goes along with legibility. Does your site look nice? No, don’t tell me what’s written on it- just look at it. Is it appealing? Do the colors complement each other? Is the pattern set up in an attractive way? Do the pictures have borders? Are they the same size? Do you have pictures? Are you uninterested and just looking at a hunk of words sitting on your screen? Add some zing! Spice it up. Don’t go to extremes, but color and photos are great.

3. Usability– Can users get around on your site? Make sure you use all the widgets you need to make it simple to navigate through your blog. You don’t want users getting frustrated and departing, so make sure your blog is easy to use and doesn’t take a lot of effort.

4. Flow – Going along with the notion of easy to use; does your site flow? Does it logically progress from one post to another, or is it a jerkyjumble? Let the user’s eye move naturally, and avoid chopping up your site into little lumps of commotion. The less sidetracked readers are, the more they’ll read and the longer they’ll stay.

5. Coherence – At first this point seems almost the same as the first one, but it is not. Beyond just the appearance of the text, the color mixture, can a reader comprehend what you’re saying? Is your grammar right? Are you writing in proper English? Do you get your argument across without beating around the bush or using words that necessitate a dictionary? Remember that most readers have a reading level of around fifth grade. So unless your audience is strictly the well-educated, keep your blog easy to read.

Making a blog attractive really isn’t that hard. Consider what you look for in a site. What are your likes and dislikes? Go from there. Simplicity and ease of movement are key. Just stick to the basics and there shouldn’t be an issue. And remember not to spend so much time on the appearance that you forget to write!

Guest Post By: Melanie Slaugh is enthusiastic about the growing prospects and opportunities of various industries and writing articles on various consumer goods and services as a freelance writer. She writes extensively for internet service providers and also topics related to internet service providers in my area for presenting the consumers, the information they need to choose the right Internet package for them. She can be reached at slaugh.slaugh907 @ gmail.com.

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Why Social Networking is Important for Bloggers

Alex Sysoef — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:40:40 +0000

Coined in late 1999, the term, “blog,” was used to describe the process of content published online by individuals covering a wide range of topics. With the proliferation of the Internet, blogging has evolved into a global phenomenon where people post content and media on subjects ranging from current events to cat picture memes to love. With so many bloggers vying for top search engine results and viewers, publicizing your blog has become just as important as the content that you produce. One of the best ways for bloggers to do so has been to leverage different social media outlets. This article will cover some reasons why you should use social media marketing to publicize your blog.

Picking a blog host is an important step in setting up your blog for future social media marketing campaigns. For example, WordPress and Blogger, two popular blog platforms, allow for users to link their Facebook and Twitter accounts in order to automatically signify when your publish new content. Furthermore, these established platforms have integrated web forms which allows viewers to opt-in to subscribe to your blog, providing you another way to track the traffic that you’re getting. Although the time saved in manually updating your social networks may seem trivial, the ability to aggregate your social networks (and subscriber listing) into a centralized source will reap dividends if your blog starts to gain traffic.

Touched upon earlier, having a social media presence will help you develop an online personality and brand that viewers can discern and learn to trust, essentially helping you drive further traffic to your blog. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ allow you to interact with your friends and social networks, and other platforms such as Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon allow you to share interesting pieces of information to potential viewers.

Having an online presence will provide you opportunities to interact with other like-minded bloggers. This is particularly important for students taking online classes or others who don’t have the opportunity to frequently interact with people who share their views. Similarly, given the importance of search engines in helping people find relevant news and content, building relationships with other bloggers is a great way for you to develop your blog. If you find content that you like, comment on the blogger’s article and they will likely do the same. After building a relationship, you could possibly write a guest article on the blogger’s website, which is another way you can gain traffic to your own blog.

One important aspect to keep in mind when using social media marketing techniques is that maintaining your social networks is a full-time job. Commenting on others’ blogs, replying to comments on yours, and sharing insightful information through your social platforms shouldn’t be restricted to work hours. Furthermore, building a solid network takes time and effort; growth starts small and builds exponentially. Initially, you might have to put several hours into building just a few followers, but with constant work and quality content, your social networks will become the perfect complement to your blog.

Guest Post By: Lindsey Wright is fascinated with the potential of emerging educational technologies, particularly the online school, to transform the landscape of learning. She writes about web-based learning, electronic and mobile learning, and the possible future of education.

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Antispam Bee – Great Comment Spam Fighting Option for WordPress

Alex Sysoef — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 07:58:19 +0000

About 5 hour ago I have installed a great plugin, Antispam Bee (can be found in WordPress plugins repository) to test this alternative to Akismet. Not that there was anything wrong with that plugin but I get quite a few questions on FREE alternative for business bloggers and I just had to test.

Results are stunning so far, to say the least:

Needless to say I get my unfair share of comment spam, just as every other blogger and it helps when you have some form of automation. Antispam Bee so far exceeds all expectations and considering that it doesn’t query external DB to identify if comment a spam or not and doesn’t send your information to some external site (yes, Akismet does sent quite a bit of info on comment it tests for spam) – I like it.

I will continue testing it but so far it looks promising with variety of options, including ability to check honey pot project, this plugin can be superb alternative for anyone running a blog for profit or a commercial business site based on WordPress!

I also noticed slight increase in performance as I also disabled couple additional plugins I had running along with Akismet to battle the comment spam onslaught. While I haven’t tried it myself yet (will probably test later) Antispam Bee supposedly works quite nicely together with Akismet, you just have to adjust settings a bit so it doesn’t just delete comments but sends it for Akismet’s evaluation.

However – I personally don’t see the need to duplicate the effort as “this little bee” seem to do the job quite nicely by itself and doesn’t require any licensing!

Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think?

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Effective Email Marketing for Building Your Blog

Alex Sysoef — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 12:13:23 +0000

Email marketing can be an effective way to build your blog readership. But you have to do it well. Get it wrong and you risk alienating readers. It’s all about being appropriate. Sending too many emails can result in email overload and readers will unsubscribe from your emails and may quit visiting your blog.

Ensuring that your email marketing is really effective means that you need to send high quality emails no more than once or twice a week.

What Constitutes Quality?

The emails you’re sending need to be highly relevant and offer value to your readers. When I sign up for emails from the Gap, it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement. They send me occasional emails informing me of significant sales events. I respond by purchasing clothing. They don’t abuse me with spam or email overloads and they reap rewards from me for their restraint.

Bloggers need to think about their emails in the same way—give readers value. Don’t send them daily emails about upcoming blog posts. That can begin to resemble spam. Send an email before an especially gripping series of articles—maybe on a Monday before a weekly series begins. That can help ensure that readers will enjoy and even anticipate your emails.

Harness the Power of Timeliness

Emails that use season specific themes work well. But beyond integrating holiday themes, start thinking about timeliness in terms of current events. When you can offer unique and articulate blog posts about timely events in which readers have high interest, you can leverage timeliness into an email that’s sure to get read. That goes a long way to driving readers to your blog and sharing your blog with friends. Well-written material with timely content can produce good buzz. And there’s no better way to build your blog than the ability to consistently produce buzz. If something monumental occurs over a weekend, strike while the iron is hot. Begin writing content and email your readers on Monday morning. Let them know you have a series of timely posts going up over the course of the next week.

Be Personable

When people sign up for email newsletters, make sure you have an area where they can put their birthdays and any personal details they want to share. Any information you can garner will allow you to increase your ability to be more personable. Sending birthday greetings and holiday wishes goes a long way to solidifying readership loyalty. Letting readers know you appreciate them and don’t take them for granted will make them feel more connected. And the whole purpose of your emails is effectively connecting with readers.

Social Media Integration

When you have an effective email marketing campaign, you can leverage your readership into your social media efforts. Your Twitter and Facebook blog promotion can benefit greatly. Encourage individuals via email to subscribe to your Twitter feed and “like” you on Facebook. This can turn dedicated readers into fervent retweeters of your blog posts and garner new readers from their followers. And when readers “like” your Facebook status updates two things can happen. Those “likes” show up in their friends’ newsfeeds and can drive them to your blog. But the best result is when a “like” turns into a comment. That’s the start of your readership beginning to interact with you and reader interaction is a sign of engagement and increased connection. That means you’re making great progress in continuing to build your blog.

Guest Post By: Jesse Langley

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Mobile Bloggers Do It on the Phone

Alex Sysoef — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 10:08:36 +0000

Whether you love blogging just for the fun of it or you are trying to pursue it as a career, you may eventually need to write a post or administrate your blog from the road. It simply is not viable to expect to be able to blog from your computer at home or at work all the time. Fortunately, there are many who have found themselves in your situation, and this has given rise to two revolutionary concepts: blogging apps and phone tethering.

There are many great apps for mobile blogging that can be used with a good mobile broadband connection while on the go to publish more little pieces of yourself for the world to see. Here are a few great mobile blogging apps for your iPhone.

WordPress

Since WordPress is currently the hottest blogging platform in the world, it makes sense that the WordPress app is at the top of our list. With this app, your WordPress blog can be in your pocket at any hour of any day or night. This app allows you to create new posts or edit old ones from your iPhone. You can also moderate comments freely if necessary. This app will connect you directly to your WordPress blog from wherever you are.

Pen My Blog

Pen My Blog has a user-friendly and intuitive interface that can easily and quickly be mastered by even the most amateur mobile bloggers. Posts can be created, deleted, or even just modified as required in a simple and straightforward fashion. If you are a more advanced blogger, however, you may want to use a more advanced app, as Pen My Blog does not allow certain advanced functions like HTML editing or landscape mode.

iBlogger

For more diversity across blogging platforms, iBlogger is the best option. It is compatible with not only WordPress but also Type Pad, Moveable Type, Expression Engine, and many other platforms. This app allows you to add pictures to your posts, manipulate categories, and use tags. You can view yours or anyone else’s blog in high quality format right from your iPhone.

Tumblr

If you are a Tumblr blogger, this Tumblr app will open up for you a world of possibilities, all of which can be accessed directly through your iPhone. This app allows you to edit old posts or create new ones, and you can even add quotes, pictures, categories, or tags to any post. If you are a video or audio blogger, the Tumblr app will let you post new audio or video content that you can also record directly on your iPhone.

Tethering

If these apps just aren’t doing it for you or you simply must have a bigger keyboard, you can also blog on the go by tethering your iPhone’s (or other smartphone’s) mobile broadband connection to an iPad, laptop, or other device with a Bluetooth or cable connection. To activate the hotspot tethering feature, first make sure the feature is turned on for your phone with your carrier.

Once your carrier has enabled your iPhone for tethering, visit the Settings menu and click on the General tab followed by the Network tab. Make sure the Cellular Data slider is in the On position. Below this, you will see an option labeled Personal Hotspot. Click on this and slide the slider to the On position. You may set a password for accessing your iPhone’s mobile broadband connection if you like.

To set up your laptop or iPad for tethering, visit its Network Settings menu and find the name of your iPhone under the Available Devices tab. If you added a password, enter it here, and you should be connected and ready to blog from your laptop or iPad using your iPhone’s Internet connection.

Guest Post By: Blake Sanders is a tech writer at UK broadband comparison site Broadband Expert, with a specialty in mobile broadband and phones, as well as the latest in mobile internet provider news and information.

Note: Photo courtesy of english106 via FlickR Creative Commons.

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SEO Techniques to Use in Your Blog Writing

Alex Sysoef — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 16:32:45 +0000

Implementing SEO techniques into your blogging has the potential to generate a good amount of traffic for your blog when it’s done right, which can help to result in a higher Page Rank. And that is the ultimate goal of every blogger, isn’t it? Well, that and earning money for writing about what you know and love. By adding SEO into your everyday posts you’ll help to optimize your content and hopefully accomplish both of those things.

So how do you do that?

Start with keyword research. If you’ve looked into SEO practices at all you’ve no doubt heard countless people tout the importance of utilizing the right keywords. So take some time to do your homework and find out which keywords are important to your blogging niche. There are countless keyword research tools out there to help you narrow down which keywords you’ll want to use.

Once you’ve determined which keywords are going to be most effective in boosting your blog’s traffic start implementing them. The very first thing any reader is going to see when they stumble upon your article is the title of the post – so drop an important keyword that corresponds to your post in the title. This will help your post to be picked up by search engines more easily.

You will then want to write your opening so that you can include either the same keywords from the title or ones that correspond to the title. Why? Because when a search engine picks up the title, it more than likely will include at least part of the opening paragraph from the post – having keywords in there will help to bolster the SEO content.

Take some time to think about your metadata as well – adding keywords into the meta tags and meta title will also help to boost your SEO. If you can, try to incorporate some keywords into your content as well.

All that being said, though, you don’t want your sole focus be on using as many keywords as possible. You want to try to use the ones that pertain to what you’re writing about and will supplement your content making your post natural and fluid while also integrating keywords. Writing for the sole purpose of implementing keywords will just make your post sound stilted and stiff. Search engines may still pick up your blog but your readers will be turned off by this type of writing, making it a waste of time in the end.

SEO copywriting can be an enormous asset to your blog writing when it’s done right; you just have to be sure to not lose the focus and humanity of your blog when you’re doing it. Keeping your writing organic while also optimizing it is the best way to maintain SEO optimization success.

This Guest post is by Christine Kane from internet providers, she is a graduate of Communication and Journalism. She enjoys writing about a wide-variety of subjects for different blogs. She can be reached via email at: Christi.Kane00 @ gmail.com

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Volunteer Virtually and Watch the Rankings Grow

Alex Sysoef — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 11:37:39 +0000

As a blogger, you know how important it is to have links to your blog out on the web. Likely, you’re already doing many things to get more of those links, including having interesting content that will spread among the social media platforms and writing guest blog posts so you can link back to your blog.

However, there is one form of internet citizenship that you probably haven’t thought about yet: virtual volunteerism. The internet is full of non-profits who need content written and organizations that couldn’t write a blog post to save their lives. There are even online newspapers that can’t seem to fund themselves and need a lending hand. Volunteering in exchange for a byline link or an author’s page isn’t just self-serving altruism, it’s smart.

The trick is to create a symbiotic relationship where both parties flourish. Find what they need (photos, an editor, stories, a webmaster), and tell them what you’d like in return. If they’re willing to pat your back, give them a hot stone massage with scented oils. By going above and beyond, they’ll be grateful to you and more likely to help you out.

If you’re a student, talk to your career services department. Even if you’ve gone the online education route, it’s possible someone at your college can help you find a great place to volunteer.

Another thing to consider is that you’ll want your blog topic to match up as much as possible with your charity. If you blog about home life, look for opportunities that deal with tutoring children, building houses or even focus on domestic violence. Bloggers who tackle environmental projects will find plenty of opportunities to work with international wildlife organizations and animal shelters.

Since many adoption decisions are made based on animals’ photos online, shelters are finding they need better photographers to work with. Since many photographers rely on their blogs to bring in clientele, they’re in the same sort of predicament. They need more exposure, and the animals need better exposure. Shelters will be more than happy to link to your site if you become a regular photographer for them. If you can’t actually visit their location, you can give them tips on setting up shots and have them e-mail you the raw files so you can edit them. You can also jump in with writing cute descriptions and editing them.

There are a myriad of projects available, so it’s no surprise you’ll need a way to sort through them. Volunteer Match is just that tool. You can search based on keyword and then check the box to specify that you’re only looking for virtual volunteering opportunities. Search for just the word ‘blog’ and 124 opportunities immediately pop up. Of those, there are certainly opportunities for everyone.

When you contact a non-profit, be completely clear about your intentions. You want to paint it in the best light possible, but you also don’t want to stick a condition on your volunteerism at the last minute. Let them understand that you’d love to help out, but that you’d appreciate a little link love as well. Avoid being a spammer, and offer to help them regardless of whether or not they link to your blog. However, don’t continue assisting them if they continue to be unwilling to help you out as well.

Remember that being a good citizen has more benefits than a boost in rankings. You want to put genuine heart into your work and do your best. Don’t just shoot for the minimum to scrape by; realize that you have the power to help and take control of that power.

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Planning Your Blog Posts

Alex Sysoef — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 11:28:44 +0000

Blogging has the ability to take up such a massive amount of time as it is that the thought of taking out more time to plan posts ahead of time probably doesn’t sound that appealing. But pre-planning blog posts can actually end up saving you time in the grand scheme of things and make for more well thought out posts that more people are interested in reading. Why, you ask?

Let’s explore.

For starters, when you take the time to pre-plan posts you avoid hitting the inevitable lull that comes with blogging (and just writing in general). It happens to the best bloggers out there: that time when you sit down to write out a stellar post and are hit with… nothing. By having a slew of posts already in queue, or ideas set for each day, you avoid hitting the dreaded writer’s block. You also avoid the rush of “oh my gosh what on earth am I going to write about today!!!” that inexorably comes each morning when you sit down with no plan in play.

Pre-writing posts is also a good strategy to implement because it gives you the flexibility of publishing them whenever you want and letting them marinate in a draft form, allowing you to come back at random and tweak to your heart’s desire. This takes a post that otherwise would have been hastily thrown up onto your site to the next level because you’ve had time to add to it, edit it, and perfect it.

Planned posts also can help to expand readership – something just about every blogger wants to do at some point in their blogging career. By planning posts ahead of time and writing posts ahead of time you are creating better content which will then equal something that people are going to want to read and want to share more, thus increasing your readership. When you write posts that cater to both what people want to read and tie that in to what you want to write, you are able to cater to both sides of the spectrum. This is in contrast to the theory of just blogging about your day or week, and allows creating a certain theme throughout your blog that you can tie into everything you write about.

Having well-written blog posts go up on your website regularly is what makes successful bloggers successful. They don’t quickly slop together posts and hope that the post ends up appealing to their readers, but instead spend time putting together material they feel will be enjoyable to their readers.

Author Bio: This is a guest post from Laura Backes, she enjoys writing about all kinds of subjects and also topics related to internet providers in my area. You can reach her at: laurabackes8 @ gmail.com.

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How to Create Viral Content

Alex Sysoef — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:47:31 +0000

Everyone wants their blog to go viral. It’s the ultimate certificate of achievement and the best pat on the back a blogger can receive. It’s also not an exact science. There are no rules to follow that can tell you how to make that sort of magic happen. However, there are definitely wrong ways to go about it. There are things you can do that will garnish only a tweet from your mother, and rightly so.

Don’t fake it

Have something to say. Don’t pretend to be interesting just to entice the linkerati. People may have moments of less-than enlightenment, but you should never work on the assumption that your readers are ignorant or stupid. They’re looking for good, solid content to share with their friends and followers. Many of the linkerati are themselves bloggers, and they know what a fluff piece looks like.

Take it for a spin

No one cares about what you think of your dog. It’s great that you love the little furry beast, but the internet doesn’t really need another epic love song from a pet owner to their animal. Look for a more original take on the situation, and find a different angle. Talk about what it’s like when it seems like your girlfriend loves her dog more than you or when you go off to college and your dog starts growling at you every time you come home. It is fine to write about your pet, but keep in mind readers aren’t going to share something they’ve read a hundred times.

Don’t walk the straight and narrow

Let’s be honest—if you go too creative, readers aren’t going to know what to think. If the story has nothing to do with them, they’re not going to care. A story about a challenge you faced while fixing Linux computers may be original, but not many people outside your field will care. Topics about education, family life and general frustrations will always be better received by the majority of readers.

Give it up for free

You have something to offer, whether it’s wisdom or just plain old advice. Don’t make readers click through several different posts while you half-explain whatever you’re talking about. Nothing is more frustrating than having five different tabs open just to read one story. While this does up your click-through rate for your blog pages, it’s only going to hurt you in the long run. Think of it this way: how many times have you copied/pasted an article in an e-mail? Sharing that way doesn’t really work if there are ten links in it.

Variety can spice up life, but ruin your shares

When it comes to sharing your post, you want to give readers options. You don’t want to make them search through a deep list of tiny icons. Ideally, they should be able to hit a button and be done. Consider your market. If you’re primarily based in the West, Twitter, Facebook, Dig, Reddit and Google+ should be all the social icons you need. Any more than that and you’re just wasting their time. Likely, they’ll only share it on one platform, so be deliberate as to which one you place most prominently. If you’re looking to grow your presence on Facebook, make that share button loud and proud.

Whatever you do when it comes to creating viral content, be deliberate about it. Don’t expect mundane content to be enough to get by. Aim high, promote the best of what you do, and make sure you’re doing it well if you’re aiming for viral.

Guest Post By: Jesse Langley enjoys all things search and social networking. He is also an advocate for online education.

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