All posts in Blogging

Mar

4 Ways To Get Blogging Ideas From Social Media

Categories: Blogging, Social Media

Tags: Blogging Ideas, connection, conversation, Facebook, Idea Tips, Linkedin, twitter, YouTube

As I mentioned in the article, “6 Time Management Tips For Content Creators,” the biggest challenge most bloggers face is thinking of topics to write about. There are days when ideas will come naturally, but there will also be times when you just can’t seem to think of anything good to write about. Inspiration for your next post can come to you in many ways. It can come when you’re out for a walk, reading a favorite book, playing your favorite online games or when you’re relaxing in your favorite coffee shop while waiting for friends. But did you know that you can get a lot of help from social media?

Social media is a great tool to help you with idea generation, although there are two things you need to take into consideration: make sure you are following the right people and train yourself to be observant and an active listener. Sometimes we take conversations for granted and really don’t listen but believe me, the questions asked and the rants posted on certain topics can be a great source of inspiration for your next article.

1. Twitter

Conversations happen everyday on Twitter, 140 characters at a time. People talk about everything and anything under the sun. It could be a new app people are having problems with or discussing suggestions for their next vacation. Try asking a question about a particular topic and use the crowd sourced information to start creating your post. Track conversations using hashtags. I love joining Twitter chats on subjects that are fascinating to me. Not only do I get to meet interesting people, I also get a good idea of what people like and what they don’t like about a particular service or product. The possibilities are endless.

2. Facebook

Engagement on Facebook has evolved significantly. In year’s past, all you’d see were status updates and photos posted by friends and families, now we’re seeing people sharing posts and information about a variety of topics. Games and contest abound on Facebook too. Do you know a better way to run a contest on Facebook? Why not write about it. Remember there are still a lot of people wondering how things work on Facebook. Tap into that need and offer a solution. Write articles about getting better engagement or your Facebook experience. Another promising source of ideas is the Facebook Graph Search. Although it will allow you to search certain topics that offer personalized results like you’d get from traditional search engines, the results will be far more contextualized and contain much more specific data about your social circle. Trending topics and what is important to people are the key points here.

3. Google Plus

Have you joined a community on Google Plus yet? If you have, you will know it is a great place to collaborate with people who have the similar interests. If you share articles on your feed, pay attention to the comments people leave on a posts you share. Those comments can be a valuable source of topics for your next article. One reason Google Plus is popular the Google Hang Out feature. Google Hang Outs allow you to join video chats with other people on Google Plus. By joining in conversations, you’ll be able to meet more people who may become the inspiration for your next blog post. Participating in Hang Outs can help establish yourself as a leading source of information in your field of expertise. This will help build your thought leadership and bring new audience to your site. Lastly, another feature I love about Google Plus is the analytics they offer. This analytics data will give you a good idea of what topics people are searching for and engaging with.

4. LinkedIn and YouTube

If you are someone who writes about marketing or anything related to your profession then LinkedIn may be a site worth checking out. On the home page you will be given the option to check out and follow experts within your industry. You may also read their blogs, check out what these thought leaders are saying and use it as inspiration for your next blog post.

LinkedIn Groups are another great source to get a feel for what topics are fueling conversations and to see what real-life questions and challenges your audience members are talking about.

You Tube is a great source of material too. If you do not have the time to create your own videos to share on your site, most videos on YouTube are embeddable. There are a host of videos out there that you can use as a thought starter.

No matter what social media platform you use as an idea generation tool, make sure you use them as inspiration and research and not to copy someone’s work. Inject your own spin into your writing and offer a point of view and opinion. The key is finding the pain point and find ways to offer solutions to those pain points. Do you blog and use social media as an inspiration tool? Share with us here. We’d love to hear about your experience.

Image Credit: © alphaspirit – Fotolia.com

Mar

8 Tips for Writing SEO Friendly Content

Categories: Blogging, Social Media

Tags: blog content, Content, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Ranking, SEO, Social Buttons, Social Network, Tips, Writing

Comments: 12

Before we delve into the tips, let us begin with what it means to have SEO friendly content. Simply put, it is producing content that is written with attention given to how search engines might view your content. Sadly though, there are a lot of marketers as well as bloggers who put too much emphasis on their SEO and tend to forget about putting their readers front and center. Think of your audience and write something that will be beneficial to them. You are writing for people, not for the search engines.

If you are new to blogging or you have a new website, it is only natural to want to be searchable and improve in page rank. You want people to discover your site and in the long run, be loyal visitors to your site. Ultimately you to get back links from external sources which boosts your credibility. There are over 27 million pieces of online content shared daily. Imagine the amount of content you need to create to compete with that! But don’t worry; the process will take time, but it is not too difficult to achieve. Here are eight tips for writing effective SEO friendly content.

1. Write Useful And Engaging Content

When asked what my formula is for writing good content my answer is always write content that is useful and/or entertaining. Most search engines rewards sites that share relevant content with their readers. The more original and fresh the content you share, the better visibility you will gain in search results. The more people who find your content helpful or entertaining, the more share worthy it becomes. Remember that a well written article trumps quantity at all times. Some site owners think the more articles they churn out, the more ranking they acquire. This couldn’t be more wrong. If you just vomit words out for the sake of having new content, you will be disappointed.

2. Keep It Short And To The Point

You need to be considerate your reader’s time. Keep it short and make your point right away. Some articles longer articles can be boring. In my experience, if a person can read your article and benefit from it in under 5 to 10 minutes, you’ll get more people engaging with your content. I also like using lists. Try to break up your copy for easy reading.

3. Choose Your Keywords And Use Them Wisely

Even before you start writing an article, you should have already chosen which keywords to use. Include them in your title, in your meta-tags and within the body of your post. Be careful not to over use them. Most readers are wise enough to see what you are doing and will get turned off and never go back to your site again. Don’t be lazy. Tag your content. This will help search engines categorize your content more accurately and that will help your search positioning. Don’t know which keywords or tags to use, try WordTracker or Google Trends.

4. Have A Point Of View

What will set your work apart from others is your point of view. Everyone can write an article on the same topics as yours but adding your own story and experience will make your content unique. Offering your own spin or twist will make your content much more interesting to your readers. If they can better relate to you, the more shareable and engaging your article will be.

5. Make Links Part Of Your Copy

When you add links to your article, it is important to make it part of your copy instead of just saying “check it here”. Adding back links from credible websites that you used as a source is important as it builds trust and credibility with your readers about the information you are sharing.

6. Optimize Your Images For Better Search Engine Ranking

Use relevant images not just all text. Not only does it makes your article more interesting, but you’re able to optimize your images with relevant keywords to name your image files or graphics. Make sure to name the image properly and to optimize the size of the image as load time can have an impact on your SEO. Make the image as small as possible without sacrificing quality. You can try the Image Optimizer tool for this task.

7. Proof Read Your Material Before You Publish

This is a must for all writers. Proof read your work. Make sure you check your spelling. Imagine if you are relying on keywords to help you be more searchable and you misspell those keywords, then all your hard work becomes futile. Besides, you also don’t want to annoy your readers with misspelled words and bad grammar.

8. Make Your Content Easily Shareable

Okay, you have followed all the tips above. You wrote a killer article and have published it. The next important step is to make it shaerable. Make sure you have all the leading social share buttons on your website. All the popular social networking sites offer plugins readily available for anyone to install and most are free. Search ranking tends to increase when content is shared frequently. Don’t under-estimate the power of social media.

There you go, the eight tips that I use as a checklist before publishing any article. Did I miss any? Please share your tips by leaving a comment. We would love to hear from you.

Mar

6 Time Management Tips for Content Creators

Categories: Blogging, Social Media

Tags: Article writing, blog content, Content Creators, Multi Tasking, Organization, Time Management, Tips, Video

Comments: 8

Publishing articles on a regular basis can be very taxing especially if you have a million things on your to-do list. Most people just give up leaving their blogs without fresh content because they just can’t find the time to write. For websites and blogs owners, this is not a good thing. If you want to be searchable you need to be consistent in publishing fresh content on a regular basis.

There are a lot of bloggers that have made it their New Year’s resolution to write more in 2013 but; if time is an issue, here are six time management tips that we hope will benefit every content creator.

1. Have A Place To Store All Your Ideas

No matter how small or big any idea you may think of, you need to have a place to save those ideas. We usually use notes on our iPhones or iPads or store them in our Dropbox for quick reference. Even a plain old paper notebook is good. What’s important is you are able to jot things down quickly and be able to go through your notes once you are ready to write. You don’t waste time getting your thoughts organized. The biggest hurdle any writer will encounter is the writer’s block.

2. Keep A Content Calendar Ready

Writing a good article takes a lot of time and preparation. That means taking the time to do the proper research and planning as part of the writing process. In order to cut your writing time in half, I recommend you keep a content calendar. The best practice is to create an outline of what you want to publish first. Have at least three articles written and ready to publish prepared ahead of time. You can always adjust as news and conditions warrant. As you think of ideas, write it down on your calendar and add a publish date to keep yourself on track.

3. Stay Away From Distractions

Distractions are a writer’s worst enemy. You will need to set aside time each day to write and commit to it. It’s good idea to allot at least two hours a day or more depending on your capacity and skill level. Go to a place where you can focus. If you’re someone who loves talking on the phone or hanging out on your favorite social network, eliminate the temptation by silencing you phone and closing your browser. Everyone is different so check yourself and identify the things that distract you and stay away from them when you sit down to write.

4. Be Disciplined – Avoid Multi-tasking

Do one thing at a time and you will get more done. Some people think that they can solve their time problem if they do everything all at the same time. We are often tempted to check our emails, watch a video or chat using your instant messenger, or surf the web when we sit down to work on our articles. Doing your research also ahead of time and concentrating on your piece is more efficient. Discipline is important character every writer should learn to possess especially if you do it for a living. If you master disciplining yourself to stay on track then you will never miss any deadline.

5. If You Use Video On Your Articles Upload in Private Mode

If you use multi-media on your blog, one tip to save time is once you finish editing your video, upload it in private mode and watch your video again to check if it plays properly. That way you still have the opportunity to go back and fix any issues before making your video public. Once you are satisfied, then embed your video in your post and publish your article. Making all the changes before you publish will save you the headache and embarrassment of correcting once it is embedded on your blog post.

6. Edit Your Work Only After You Finish Writing

In order to be really efficient with your time and still have a well written masterpiece, I recommend you write the entire article in full before you edit. Just let your thoughts flow. After you’re done then you do all the necessary spelling and grammar checks. I would also advice you to read your article aloud and see if your statements makes sense or if the ideas flows exactly the way you want it to. This is also a good time to do your fact checks and choose the appropriate image for your material.

There you go, the six tips that can help you manage your time. Do you follow a different work flow or do you have tips that I might have missed, please share with us, i would love to hear your thoughts.

Jun

[Infographic] How to Write the Perfect Blog Post

Categories: Blogging

Tags: how to write the perfect blog post

Comments: No

Every blogger has their own “magic formula” when it comes to writing the perfect blog post. However, there are a few simple tricks to keep in mind when writing a post.

Derek Halpern from Social Triggers just came up with an excellent visual representative on how we can leverage proven psychological and conversion principles to write the perfect blog post.

Believe me, when it comes to writing the “perfect” post, Derek is the go to man.

Like this? If you do share it with your friends. (Click to tweet this post)

There are more excellent marketing tips at Social Triggers.

All posts in Blogging

[Infographic] How to Write the Perfect Blog Post

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