Student Blogging: Not Just Kids’ Play
Young students today are intuitively adapted to technology, and many educational systems have long integrated the use of the Internet in their curriculum. Some of the online references that students use for research are blogs, which may also spark an interest in budding creative writers and journalists in the classroom. For safety reasons, it’s more advisable to introduce blogging to students in their early teens. Although many children ages 12 and below are already attuned to the use of the Internet and social media, and there are…
Banish Generic Calls To Action From Your Campaign NOW!
The title sounds cheesy, right? But it tells you exactly what you’re going to do. This is one of the fundamental elements of a marketing and advertising campaign, both on- and offline. After you’ve made your pitch about your service or product, the next logical step is to invite your audience to do something about it. This is your Call To Action (CTA). Image source: freepik.com If you visit any website that offers special…
5 Ways To Stay Motivated In Blogging
If you’ve decided to blog, chances are you’ve begun on a high note, especially if you’ve been inspired by the idea of putting your thoughts online for everyone to see. But a few weeks or months into blogging, the love affair falters. You will run out of words to say, ideas to brew, and you will begin to slow down. You might even ask yourself “What’s the point in all of this?” especially if you’re not gaining an audience as fast as you wish you would. Relax, it’s inevitable. You are not a machine. I’ve also been there several times. But instead of merely giving up, there are ways to get back into…
Decision Paradox and Your Niche
Chances are you’ve already heard of numerous bits of advice on how to find your blogging niche. But unless you are single-mindedly driven to pursue and discuss one topic, it’s hard to decide on exactly what your blog will be about. The common refrain you’ll hear is, “Figure out what you love to do,” as basis for establishing your blog niche. So what will you do if you have several interests that you love equally? What if you’re good at something else? What if you wish to pursue other topics altogether…
What Makes SEO-Friendly Quality Blog Content?
You’ve heard it thousands of times: QUALITY OVER QUANTITY. While for some, it’s still debatable, the fact remains that quality content is the reason why your audience will come to you AND stay. Quantity can be attractive, but minus substance, it makes more for forgettable material that results in high bounce rates for your site. Quantity-driven content may work for low-value sites that publish several posts within the week, or even within the day. But not you. Although you’re posting regularly on a consistent schedule, you also want your readers coming in to refer to your …
Grab Your Ticket for the 2015 ProBlogger Training Event
Yesterday we released tickets to the 2015 ProBlogger Training Event on 14-15 August here in Australia on the Gold Coast. As I write this post 560 bloggers, speakers and team have grabbed their tickets (400 of those went in the first 10 minutes) and under 150 tickets remain. This year we’ve got attendees coming from all states and territories in Australia as well as attendees flying in from the USA, New Zealand, India and Fiji. Attendees not only come from all…
7 Commonsense Tips to Improve Your Next Expert Roundup
This is a guest contribution from Neil. Are you wondering why your expert roundups are not living up to your expectations? Why you are never getting the level of response some other people are getting? After all, the idea behind creating an expert roundup sounds foolproof on paper. Get eminent experts to answer a question for you. Gather the responses and publish the ultimate answer to that question. Get your experts to share the content and then leverage their audience to get a viral post. There is no way you can fail…
3 Secret Weapons I Used to Launch My Fulltime Blogging Career
This is a guest post by Jeff Goins of Goins, Writer. “I’d like to be a writer,” I told my friend one day when he asked what my dream was. “But that’ll never happen.” And I quickly went back to moping around, waiting for my big break. At the time, I was working for a nonprofit as a marketing director, secretly wondering what it might be like to write for a living. Little did I know how close I was to my goal. My was staring me right in the face the whole time. I was just blind to it. “Every great dream begins with a dreamer,” Harriet Tubman once said. “Always remember, you…
Blog Post Idea: How I Do It Posts
Recently I shared a simple technique that I use to come up with ideas to write about on my blog – answering a beginner question. While not really rocket science I had a number of readers contact me privately with thank-you messages appreciating the nudge to write that type of post. Today I’d like to suggest another simple technique for coming up with blog post ideas. It’s simple yet is perhaps one of the most powerful types of posts I’ve used on my own blogs many times in the last 12 years. I call these posts the &#…
Editing for People Who Love to Write… Too Much
If you’re anything like me, you love words. You love prose, you love language, you love how a perfectly-constructed sentence can say so much more than just letters put in order. If you’re unlike me, however, you love to use lots of words, and write mountains of prose. I know it’s hard not to get carried away, telling everyone everything you’ve ever wanted to say about a subject. Especially online, when blogs are creative outlets, and there are no restraints or word counts. But having been on…
7 Effective Tips To Grow Your Social Media Presence The Right Way
This is a guest contribution from Adam Connell. Have you ever wondered how to gain a significant advantage with social media? Not just in terms of growing a following but growing an engaged following? I have too, and so have countless others. The truth is that you can, and it’s easier than you might think. If you’re serious about growing a more engaged following, you’ll find this post helpful. You’ll learn how to focus your efforts, boost engagement, monitor your progress and ultimately start seeing real growth. Ready? Let’s dive in! 1. Get to know your audience Your …
30 High-Impact Ways to Level Up Your Writing
This is a guest contribution from freelance blogger and email copywriter Hassan Ud-deen. Ever feel like your writing could be better? If you’re a blogger, there’s no way around writing. It’s critical to everything you do, and shapes your reputation online. This makes a lot of us dread writing. We approach it with a heavy heart full of anxiety and minds clouded by doubt. But what if you could ensure that your writing is at least decent every time you hit that publish button? You’d be less worried about the mechanics of writing, and more focused on your message to your audience. Making you a more powerful blogger. So here are 30 high-…
Top Takeaways from ProBlogger Perth Training Event: Content, Blog Design, Social Media, Productivity, and Monetization
In the lead-up to the main ProBlogger Event on the Gold Coast this year, we have held various workshops and panels around the country, teaching and inspiring bloggers in their own home towns. February saw the first full-day event in Perth, Western Australia with both local and interstate speakers on the topics of content, better blog design, social media for blog growth, productivity, and monetization. We’ve rounded up the top three tips from each speaker for those who couldn’t attend. Darren Rowse (Keynote) How to Build Sustainable, Long-Term Blogging Success Through the Creation of Meaningful Blogs and Social Engagement. Darren took us through the main …
ProBlogger FAQ: How Long Should Posts Be?
Over the years I’ve been asked many questions about blogging, but I find there are a few that pop up more often than others. While blogging is different for everyone, I have found that the conclusions I’ve arrived at after all this time still hold true. Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be posting my answers to the most frequently asked questions here at ProBlogger. If you have any you’d like me to answer, I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below. The biggest question I get asked though, is how …
Why Should I Make My Webpage Interactive?
This is a guest contribution from Ben Shwartz. They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover… but does that extend to eBooks? How about webpages? In the current state of our globalized, media-saturated society, it’s difficult—if not outright impossible—to live by this seemingly antiquated adage. Amidst the hustle and bustle of the World Wide Web, appearance often conquers content in terms of user retention, which makes your landing page the golden ticket to your website’s success. “If you had one shot, one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted, one moment… would you capture it, or just let it slip?”—Eminem on landing page optimization… or a rap battle. …
The Structure of a Proper Client Proposal That Will Land You a Blogging Gig
This is a guest contribution from Karol K. Struggling to make money blogging, aren’t you? SEO doesn’t seem to work for you. Neither does social media. And don’t even get me started on commenting on other blogs and online forums … it’s just noise. Maybe you even subconsciously hate people like Darren, Jon Morrow, or Brian Clark, purely because they’ve succeeded and you haven’t (yet). First of all, it’s okay. Don’t worry, not being satisfied and trying to look for outside reasons to justify our…
Tips for Creating Your First eCourse
There’s a reason you’re seeing an influx of ecourses in the blogosphere of late – it’s a fantastic way to share to a higher (and sometimes more concentrated) degree your talents and knowledge. If you have a niche blog, then there’s a good chance you can come up with an in-depth and useful course that will be helpful for your readers and profitable for you. If an ecourse is something that’s been on your mind, then read ahead. Last year, Chantelle Ellem of Fat Mum Slim ran her very first blogging ecourse…
3 Reasons to Stop Relying on How-To Lists for Information (and What to Do Instead)!
This is a guest contribution from Daryl Rothman. The truth is out there. At least, we hope so. How-to lists are all the rage in the burgeoning blogging world. And many are good, but there is an absolute deluge. The list of lists is growing. Who has it right? How do you choose? What lists you should rely on? Simple. None. Before you loose the slings and arrows of recrimination upon me, hear me out. I didn’t say you shouldn’t read any how-to lists. There are some great ones. Read away! I am saying you need to stop relying upon them. Here’s why. We are…
The Only Business Training Resource I Promote Just Opened for Enrolments for One Week
Update: this course will be open for enrolments for just over 1 more day. I only promote one blogger training resource each year and this is the only week this until 2016 that they have enrolments open. I’m very fussy about what blogger training resources I promote (because there is so much hype and dubious practice in this space) but today have a recommendation for an authentic and valuable program that I know will help many ProBlogger readers. Here’s what you need to know. The Short Story The Elite Blog Academy is one of the most comprehensive blogging courses I’ve ever come across – and it’s available to enrol in …
Make Money Blogging for Real: 3 Must-Know Factors
This is a guest contribution from Jerry Low. Most people have heard of the success of Perez Hilton’s blog and that he makes somewhere between $200,000 to $400,000 each month blogging about the latest celebrity gossip. Success stories like Hilton’s might make the prospect of earning a fortune blogging seem real, but the truth is that it is hard work and not very many crack that six figure per month mark. Still, you can make a decent living from blogging, if you know how to go about it. Every now and then, I’m pulled aside at a family gathering or am emailed by someone who wants to know if it’s possible to make money blogging. Some of the common questions include: How do you make money online? …
ProBlogger FAQ: How Often Should I Post?
Post frequency is a topic that comes up often among bloggers. It doesn’t matter if you’ve just started or you’ve been posting for years – people change, algorithms change, and even your motivations for blogging change. No-one is immune from wondering if their schedule is working, or if tweaks can be made for more successful audience interaction. As I said in my previous FAQ post on how long posts should be – it depends on several factors. The length of posts, the frequency of posting, and definitely post content all require trial…
The Full Blog Monetization Menu – 60+ Ways to Make Money With Your Blog
This is a guest contribution from Paul Back. You think about it all the time – how great it would be to make money from your blog. Yet, with monetization, things can get a little confusing. There are just so many different options. Making money from your blog is not something that happens by accident. It takes forethought, planning, and a winning strategy. Once you understand all of the possible ways to monetize your blog, it’s much easier to devise the right plan. Succeeding at Monetizing Your Blog The First Step …
6 Steps to Make Your Nonprofit’s Blog a Must-Read Web Destination
This is a guest contribution from Eric Rardin. Managing a nonprofit is already more than a full-time job. Often, when operating on shoestring budgets to make a dent in large-scale, intractable problems like poverty or human rights, writing up a few hundred words for a blog post can seem like the least important of the myriad to-dos. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth! For your supporters, your organization’s blog is a window into your world. It showcases what matters to you, how you’re achieving your mission, and provides…
7 Digital Marketing Skills Every Professional Needs
This is a guest contribution from Brian Burt. “Whatever you are, be a good one.” That popular bit of wisdom has a timeless ring of truth to it, but we may want to update it for the internet age. “Whatever you are, be a digital marketer” might be more apt in this era, when nearly everything that matters happens online. The new reality is that in order to be marketable in any field, you need to sharpen your digital marketing chops. Whether you’re an administrative assistant or a CEO, you can be a better version if you have…