10 tips for coming up with fresh ideas

Coming up with fresh ideas is what turns small businesses into big businesses. Sadly, it is at this point that a business becomes more uniform, less unique, and begins to slowly lose customers to its competitors. This is actually what started to happen to the Apple Company. That was until they created the iPhone and started a new mobile revolution. The Apple Company was forced to be unique and fresh, otherwise they were heading for oblivion.

Here are a few ways you may come up with fresh ideas for yourself.

1 - Get a life and live it
Have you ever heard those pretentious people who say they have traveled the world and now they feel invigorated and refreshed? Feel free to knock the watercress sandwich out of their hands and step on their suede shoes. However, you should note that people with an active life will often have fresher ideas.

You do not have to travel the world, but you cannot just sit at home or work all the time. This sort of thing happens to comedy TV writers all the time. They start their job full of ideas that they have pulled from real life situations. But, a few series into it they run out of ideas. This is because they work all the time (on tight deadlines) and do not get out there and live.

They do not see real life interesting people, or funny incidents that happen in real life. This is also why a lot of comedy shows will parody movies, because the writers are either sat at home, or watching a movie at home. If you want fresh ideas then be more active, aka, get a life!

2 - Keep your problem in your mind
There is a difference between worrying about a problem all the time, and keeping it in your mind. People who are motivated and need new ideas in order to solve a problem will keep the problem in the back of their mind all the time. They will walk around garden centers with their spouse, or watch a soccer match with their kids, and will keep the problem in their mind.

They will often see things during their day that gives them a bit of inspiration. Before they know it, their mind has connected the dots (so to speak), and they are full of new and fresh ideas to solve their problems. Keeping it in the back of your mind will allow your subconscious to have a think about it, whilst you get on with your life.

3 - Use active imagination
You should really research into this technique. Some people believe it is a way to communicate with your subconscious. Other people believe it is a way of tapping into your creativity, and others believe that it is a way of clearing your mind enough to come up with new ideas. It is probably a combination of all three.

4 - Ask your friends and co-workers
If you get really stuck then have a quick conference with your coworkers and your friends. You will probably hear no suggestions that you have not thought of yourself, but there is always a chance that one of them will come up with a great idea.

5 - Look at how others solved their problem
Have other people had your problem in the past? How did they solve their problem? Just because an idea has been used before does not mean it is not fresh to you.

6 - Research into your problem
This does not just mean do a little bit of analysis, it means look into how other people came up with fresh ideas and how they solved their problems. Read books, go to seminars and watch educational programs.

7 - Brainstorm
Sit in a dark room with a digital recorder, and just think about your problem. Record yourself speaking aloud any of your ideas, and you will soon have a recorder full of fresh ideas.

8 - Think of ways to make it worse
Ironically, if you look at a problem and come at it from the other side, you can come up with some new solutions and idea. You first think of how to make the problem you have worse. You then think of ways of hindering your methods of making it worse. The way you would stop yourself making it worse is often loaded with fresh ideas and solutions for your problem.

9 - Do market research

Ask your audience. This is one way of getting new ideas that are fresh and unique. Ask open-ended questions and probe the people you are trying to appeal to. Get their opinions and try to engage them. You may be surprised at the results you get. The added benefit is that it only takes one good idea from one person to turn things around for you.

10 - Hire a consultant

Let us face it, a consultant is expensive and will drain productive hours from you and your staff. However, a consultant may sometimes bring new ideas to the table that you have not thought of (that is basically their job). They have no doubt had a lot of experience with other companies in your industry, and so have a wider view of your particular problem or concern. They are often able to come up with ideas that other people have used, but that are unique and fresh to you.

Written by: Kate Funk from Tutorsville.
 

Continue Reading...

How to Write High-Quality Content Quickly

Successful bloggers know how important it is to add interesting and high-quality content to their blog in order to keep their readers and their search engine results position. But some bloggers find that adding useful and interesting content to their site on a daily basis is not so easy to do, but it doesn't mean that it's impossible. 

Here we will share some advice for all bloggers concerning how to create effective content for their websites quickly and efficiently:

1. Selecting your ideas
What do you do first when you sit to write an article for your blog? Do you spend a lot of time developing ideas?

When time has passed from the last post publication, and time runs out, you have no time to wait for inspiration. In such situations, we advise the following: whenever there is free time, start a brainstorm to generate ideas for articles, and do not forget to write them down.

Read other blogs of the same niche and do not forget about Twitter! Who knows, maybe you will be able to tell about the same topic in a more interesting and understandable way.

Subscribe to online newspapers, magazines of your favorite topics preferably, and write all the information to your notebook.

2. Combine all the information you have gathered
Gather all the information, simply insert it into a Word document, and write a few chapters of your own. The next step is to format the text, remove all unnecessary words, and distinguish titles. Then you can build a table of contents, it will give you some cross-links, facilitating the search of interesting information in the text.

3. Build a publishing plan
Having a few articles in the reserve, it is not necessary to post them all at once, it is better to plan their publication for a month for example. Believe us, such a step has many advantages. Just think about it: you will not be distracted from your personal affairs and rest, but your blog will be updated with new and interesting content regularly.

4. Objectives
Now, when a publishing plan is ready, you face several more challenges.

The first one is to create a separate file for each message (it can be a Word document for example).
The second one is to create catchy titles for each article.
The third one is to write tags, keywords, and insert pictures – believe us, they will make your blog more attractive.
The fourth one, if necessary, is to add the appropriate information on existing researches and links where the materials used in the article came from.

Having done all this in advance, you will be surprised how much free time you have now, which can be used to promote your blog and increase its popularity.

5. Publishing the post
Now you are ready for publication. All you need is to download the chosen article and publish it on your blog. Make sure you've read it one more time and edited any mistakes if necessary.

6. Scheduling
Even after all the above, it is difficult to stick to the timetable. The main thing is to create a good atmosphere for yourself, which would help you to work at the most convenient time. Just decide when it is more comfortable for you to work: days or nights, mornings or evenings.

7. Write all your thoughts down
Writing down all your thoughts, clever and useful ideas, you will spend less time on the work with an article itself. Also, if you want you can share your main thought on a few posts, it depends on your imagination. Try not to be distracted from the main topic.

And, probably, the most important advice for every blogger is: Write full, interesting articles, and write them for people, not for search engines!

Content Written By: Alex Strike, who writes for writing-help.com and Essay-Writing-Service.net at the moment and can't imagine his life without writing.
 

Continue Reading...

Tips to Choose The Right Set Of Keywords For Your Website

Why do you create a website for your business? That's right – for promoting your products/services to a larger number of potential buyers in the online space. While searching for anything on the web, people use specific 'keywords' and 'key phrases' – and you need to be aware of the popular ones related to your line of business. Once you do that, you can frame such CMS website development plans, which would target those keywords. In this article, we will provide some handy tips, for choosing the right set of keywords for your website: 

Research for keywords
Think up all the possible words and phrases that can be used by people, who are looking for the products/services you have to offer online. Google Adwords and WordTracker are two extremely popular keyword research tools, from where you can get a large number of useful keyword suggestions and ideas too. 

Do a competitor analysis 

Your website will not be operating in the online space in isolation, and you need to take stock of the keywords/phrases that are being targeted by your professional rivals as well. That way, you will get a clear idea of the keywords that are generally targeted by the market leaders in your industry.

Balance search volume and competition levels 

In any good online keyword analysis tool, you will find the search volume of all the keywords you wish to target – over a specific time period (usually, a month). You are also provided with an idea of how competitive each of the keywords are. Choose such keywords that have a proper balance of competitiveness and search volumes.

Choose specific keywords 

If you are in the business of manufacturing 'toy horses', will 'toy', or 'horse' work as effective keywords? No they won't – simply because they are too broad, and would only result in the arrival of an unnecessarily large number of general visitors. Optimize your website design services and content material, by using specific keywords – that provide a clear idea of your line of business. Don't choose too specific keywords though – which might keep your visibility low.

Consider targeting long-tailed keywords, as well as those in 'exact' and 'phrase' matches 

While searching for anything online, people generally use a specific 'group of words', instead of the exact name of your product category. For example, people looking for canvas paintings in Australia are more likely to use 'cheap canvas prints in Australia' as a key phrase, rather than only 'canvas prints'. Similarly, do make use of keywords in their 'phrase' match form too (i.e., the keywords will be present in a certain sequence in the search query).

Distribute the keywords properly on the different pages 

According to the latest Google algorithm update, the home page of your website should have the maximum percentage of your primary focus keywords. More deep-linked pages should have the keywords, in decreasing proportions. Plan your web design & development in a manner that – each of the pages can serve to target one or two specific keywords.

Keep in mind the negative keywords 

This is of particular importance when you are launching a paid advertising (PPC) campaign to promote your website. Make a list of the words that are not related to your products/services, but can lead to your ad being displayed. To cite an instance, if you are selling 'racing cars', make sure that 'plastic' is added as a negative keyword. You do not deal with plastic cars – so why should you pay for the unnecessary clicks?

Keep in mind the above factors, while determining the right set of keywords for your website. If images feature prominently in your website design plans, make sure that keywords are present in their ALT descriptions. Change the targeted set of keywords, as and when necessary – depending upon their performance. A regularly updated, properly framed keyword list can help you to connect with the maximum number of potential buyers in the online space.

Continue Reading...

How to make a Travel Blog Stand Out With High Quality Content

 

These days, more than ever, travel bloggers are becoming aware that by implementing SEO to their travel blogs they can increase traffic and generate a larger readership to their blogs. There are a wide range of SEO strategies and tactics that are being used by travel bloggers. However, even with the most effective SEO strategy, a travel blog will not have a considerable online presence and gain publicity without a continuous flow of high quality content.

What defines high quality travel content?
As we all know, high quality content has the necessary characteristics which readers will look forward to. Thus, content should be informative but not too technical, interesting, and relevant.

As for travel blogs, high quality content could mean travel experiences that are laid out in the most interesting ways, travel tips that address a prevailing and common travel problem, amazing travel destination suggestions other than those that anyone would normally find in other travel blogs, or reasonably priced travel service offers.

How can a travel blog stand out with high quality content? 
The notion that a travel blog will stand out with high quality content is not difficult to comprehend. But in what ways can a travel blog really achieve this? 

A descriptive and unique title will make readers visit the blog to get hold of the whole article
SEO may make a content or travel blog be easily found in search engines. But without an enticing and unique title, a reader will simply continue scrolling down the search results page to look for more titles that seems to manifest a more helpful article. 

High quality travel content will make a visitor read through the whole article 
An enticing title can do a great job in making a reader check out the article. But if the content doesn’t seem to have interesting and helpful information or is difficult to read with long sentences and paragraphs, the reader will simply go back to the previous search results and find another better travel content. Travel readers, especially those who don’t have the luxury of time, are always searching for quick but helpful information. Thus, they want content that are direct to the point and has an easy to read format. Travel bloggers believe that content does not have to be encompassing. It has to focus on a particular aspect which is deemed to be more helpful, rather than general information which are common in travel blogs.

High quality travel content will make readers go through other content within the blog
It is common among readers who are impressed with an article to check out other posts within the travel blog. After reading a well-written content, they are expecting other posts to be as helpful and interesting as well. Travel bloggers should take advantage of the readers’ expectations as a result of the high quality content which the reader checked out in the first place. They should ensure that they maintain a continuous flow of travel related content. In may be difficult to sustain this with the travel blogger’s own efforts but with the help of other sources such as freelance writers, guest bloggers, or travel writing services, this is certainly, not far from being possible. 

High quality travel content will be shared by readers even without the travel blog owners’ solicitation
Thanks to the prevalence of social media these days, sharing a link to as many networks of people as possible can be done easily and quickly. As soon as the reader finishes reading the article, he can simply click on the social media buttons somewhere within the page (usually at the bottom) to share the content or blog to his different networks in social media.

Final Words 
The competition in the travel blogosphere is getting fiercer. These days, it takes more than just an extensive travel experience, knowledge, and passion for writing to make a travel blog successful. One has to ensure the quality of the content in order to achieve the benefits listed above, and to give the travel blog an edge in the travel blogosphere. 

Content Written By Sandy Allain: Sandy Allain is a passionate writer who covers helpful tips in blogging and SEO for travel website and blogs. Find out more about him and his services in his website, sandyallain.com
 

Continue Reading...

How to Increase your Page Rank

We are all trying to seo our websites, we talk about them non stop on social media and post about them in unlimited numbers of directories, forums and blog comments. But is this just a waste of our time and money? 

Google states on their own website you will rank well if you help customers get the answers they need, the product or service they want and give the full customer service experience. So in order to rank my keywords well I like to follow my 5 main ranking steps for keywords.

 1. Keyword in the meta tag on the page I am trying to rank

 2. Keyword used amongst other content on the ranking page

 3. Keyword written in URL for the page to make it relevant

 4. Keyword hyper linked to the page from other website pages

 5. Use the keywords in social media when linking to the pages 

Now that is about keyword ranking but on to ranking the overall website, trying to achieve page rank and getting your website popular with google. Once you have a Page-rank score (a ranking from 1-10) this tells you how important your website is in the terms of google. It is very rare that websites get a score of 8-10, only sites like wikipedia get the really high scores so something like a PR2-PR5 and you are doing quite well. Google will also keep visiting your site more and more if you keep updating and keeping it important.

The way to get ranked is so simple, I think people just like to over complicate it. Ask your self what you want your website to sell, put those products on and then see what else you can offer the customer. Can you offer them some information on how to use the product? Could you give them a guide to help them or maybe there is another way you can help your customers out by adding something to your website. Remember it is all about adding content that is useful and relevant to the customer. So If you sell cake decorations then you may write tutorials about how to create cake decorations or tools needed for specialist cakes.

Social Media is another area where if you only have a few likes it really isn't worth spending hours per day promoting, however if you pay to have sponsored posts and adverts on facebook about your business and grow your facebook followers then you will be able to get customers interacting and asking questions.

Content Written By Gemma Dawson: Gemma Dawson offers many themed party items including Disney Cars party supplies . 
 

Continue Reading...

Optimizing Images for Better Search Engine Rankings

 

Organizations, big and small, employ SEO or Search Engine Optimization to build brands over the Internet. They understand the importance of having an online presence. As a result, businesses end up investing thousands of dollars attempting to get the best positions on Google and other major search engines. In some cases, rankings equal revenue; hence determining the best ways to optimize SEO results tactically is essential to succeeding in the worldwide economy.

Images, as a plus point for search engine optimization and organic search results are often neglected. Images are capable of drawing traffic using image search, with inclusion in complete search results. There are numerous aspects to image optimization that includes better ranking in search results, optimization for trouble-free sharing of pictures on the social web, and in some cases optimization for consumer experience.

For image SEO, it might be useful to consider optimizing images, for example optimizing a small webpage within your page. Just like normal web pages, factors for optimizing images for search engines are url structure, expressive tagging and anchor text.

 Here are a few interesting tips for optimizing your images to perk up their performance in the search engine rankings: 

Look for the right images
Finding the appropriate image is extremely important. Good images can add a further dimension to a page or article that’ll encourage individuals to share the page and generate some great backlinks. According to research, although text is still the first thing perceived on the page, the image is what trades the page. Some of the best pages to find images are Flickr, stock.xchng and iStockPhoto. As long as you’re searching with the proper license, you may also make use of Google Images to find images for your website.

Add keywords in the file name
Just as keywords in post urls are indespensable for pages, the same is applicable for images. Using keywords in your image filename is essential for helping search engines find out relevancy. For instance, naming an image as 'istock_0003221Xsmall.jpg" won`t provide much information about the webpage. If there`s an article about blog themes, a relevant picture and a suitable file name should correspond to your article.

Google advises you to place your images in a single folder on your site, in stead of placing them in haphazard folders all through the website. One more suggestion from Google, linked to URLs of images, is to ensure that you use regular image file types like JPEG, PNG, GIF and BMP.

Build descriptive alt text
An added way that search engines help find out what your image is about is alt text or tags. Different from traditional web content, search engines fail to detect the text content of an image. Consequently, search engines have to depend on descriptions around the image, file names, alt text and other adjoining text.

If you add meaningful text in the alt tag, it’ll help the search engines in determining what the image is all about. If you’re using an image for a link to a different page, make sure that you use an alt text that’s relevant to the content of the site being linked to.

When all these things get lined up, it helps search engines substantiate that you aren’t spamming and that the image is of superior quality and relevant.
 

Continue Reading...

How to Create the Perfect Landing Page

A landing page also known as a known as a "lead capture page" is the first page a person views after he or she finds your site from a search engine results page and decides to click on the link. Having an optimized landing page is very important to internet marketers and online retailers to generate leads, sales or opt-ins for specific products or services.

A Perfect Landing Page Will Deliver The Right Message To The Right People At The Right Time! 

Page Headlines and Ad Copy

The landing page headline and advertisement wording should compliment each other.

Clear and Concise HeadLines 
Being one of the first things a visitor will read, the landing page should not confuse or bore, but compel a visitor take a closer look. Addressing a specific point that is related to the content of the site will catch a reader`s attention more than having a vague and uninteresting headline.

Flawless Grammar
In the example of an online marketer that is asking for visitors to buy a product or service and give their personal billing information, the customer`s trust will be at risk if there are spelling errors and flawed grammar.

Taking Advantage of Trust Indicators
For an effective way of building trust, incorporate testimonials, press mentions, guarantee seals, and third party trust and security certification (Better Business Bureau, VeriSign, ect.)

Use a Strong Call to Action
After a visitor reads the landing page headline, it is crucial that they know what to do next. Take for example when Mozilla Firefox changed their call-to-action from "Try FireFox" to "Download Now - Free", it out performed the original call-to-action by 3.6% resulting in 600 more downloads during the time of the test.

Buttons and Call to Actions Should Stand Out
Identify the keywords people interested in your service might be searching for and use words such as "free", "new", "buy", or "download now". A conversion button should stand out and be placed right below a call-to-action or have the call-to-action as the button. None the less, the button should be big, bright, and above where a user would have to scroll to it. Using orange or yellow buttons help catch a viewers eye.

Go Easy on the Links
Links connecting the user to too many other sites or pages will distract them and have a negative impact on conversations. Lots of links may make sense on a regular homepage, but on a landing page simplicity is key.

Use Images and Video that Relate
Implementing motivational speeches, videos of user testimonials, and product images into a homepage can have a positive impact on viewers, as well as give shoppers an extra push to look further into a product.

Keep it Above the Fold
The space a visitor sees without having to scroll is where the most important parts of the page should be.

Always be Testing
Optimize a landing page for conversion over time. Run tests, change images, and calls-to-actions to see what works best for you. Testing two completely different site designs against each other can be beneficial in the long run.

Hopefully this article has given you an insight on creating landing pages that will prompt your visitors to take action and result in higher conversion rates for your online business
 

Continue Reading...

Choosing the Right Ad Network or Banner Exchange for Your Blog

 

Now that you have decided to give up a portion of your blog for an ad or two, you need to make a decision about how you go about attracting advertisers. That means deciding which of the following approaches best suites both you and your site.

Banner exchange network is a free network in which sites submit their banner ads and agree to display the banner ads from the other sites in the network. This benefits you not with a direct monetary gain, but by sending more traffic to your site, which means you can make more money (such as selling stuff or selling ads). The network also sends out ads from paying customers, which is how the network makes it`s money.

Ad Network is a company that contracts with a number of advertisers and so generates a pool of ads. It then uses an "ad server" to distribute those ads to sites that have signed up with the ad network. Your site typically gets a percentage of whatever revenue the ad network generates, typically 40 to 60 percent.

Important Things to Consider Before Signing Up:

There are thousands of banner exchange and ad networks online that are available to bloggers and website publishers, but how do you choose the one that`s right for you? Here are some things to look for.

Credit Ratio
On a banner exchange network, this is the number of ad impressions your site has to generate before having one of your ads diplayed by someone else. this usual ratio is 1:2, meaning your ad gets displayed once for every two impressions you generate.

Payment
Does the ad network CPM or CPC to determine how much you get paid? Are there different rates for different ad formats? How do they pay you ( check, PayPal, direct deposit )? Is there a minimum payment? For example, most networks won`t send payment unless your account is at or above some minimum amount (such as $100).

Minimums
Does the network require a minimum number of monthly impressions, a minimum number of unique daily or monthly visitors, or a minimum click-through ratio?

Image Specifications
Does the banner exchange network have any specific requirements for the image files you can use as an ad? For example it may want only GIFs or JPEGs, it may require file sizes to be certain number of kilobytes or less, or it may not allow animated GIFs.

Ad Formats
What type of ad formats does the network serve, and can you choose the formats served to your site? For example, if you think your site visitors will hate pop-unders (most people do), avoid a network that serves them or does not allow you to choose a different ad format.

Ad Position
Does the ad network require that the ads be positioned above the fold? Are below the fold ads used?

Multiple Ads
Does the ad network restrict the number of ads that can appear on the page?

Site Type
Does the ad network restrict the type of sites it deals with? For example, many networks won`t serve ads to sites on free servers, sites where the proprietors don`t own their domain names, or site that are composed only (or mostly) of chat rooms, bulletin boads, or links to other sites. Also many banner exchange networks are geared to sites with specific types of content, such as business or sports.

Let`s Take a Look at the Two Most Popular Ad Networks:

Google Adsense (www.google.com/adsense) is by far the most popular because it offers ads that are contextual, meaning they`re targeted at the specific content of the page on which the ad appears. There are no page view or visitor minimums, you get 50% of the ad revenue, and the threshold for the first payment is $100.

Chitika (www.chitika.com) is an online ad network that is known in the industry for the ability to perform unlike any other by delivering the right ad to the right user at the right time. you are allowed to use chitika with adsense because chitika ads are non-contextual and do not look like adense units. Minimum payment threshold of $10.00 (USD) for PayPal payouts or $50.00 (USD) for checks.

Choosing the right ad network for your site does not have to be a difficult task, with a little research, patience and the information I have provided here, you should be on your way to displaying profitable ads on your site in no time.

Continue Reading...

What is good blog design

Ask 10 web surfers to define "blog design" and you`ll almost certainly get 10 different answers because it means different things to different people. An artist`s blog is quite different then a golfers blog, and both won`t be the same as a company`s e-commerce site. However, if people say that these blogs all have good design it`s because they all have a few things in common.

Use a non-headache-inducing look

When most people think "design" they think about colors, images, and other visual aspects. These are important, but few of us have an artist`s eye, so creating a visually gorgeous looking site is asking a bit to much. Fortunately, your site doesn`t have to be stunning looking to qualify as well designed.You just need to avoid the most egregious graphical faults, such as ugly backgrounds that make text hard to read, colors that clash with each other, and excessive use of fonts.

Remember content is king

Good blog design really begins and ends with the design of the content itself, Nobody will care about your site if the content is not compelling or useful.

Consistency, consistency, consistency

If you shoot for anything when designing your site, it should be consistency. Use the same or a similar color sceme on each page, place important elements (such as a link to a contact form) or an (about me page) not only on every page, but also in the same spot on every page.

Make things easy to find 

We`ve all got to many sites to see, so no one likes to waste time trying to find things on a page. Good site design means making things easy for your visitors to find.

Make your reader feel welcome

If you want people to keep coming back to your site, you`ve got to lay out a virtual welcome mat and make everyone feel at home. Having good content and a consistent, easy to read layout are all very welcoming, but so are social elements such as feedback forms and bulletin boards.

Write about topics that interest you

If you are not interested in what you`re writing about, I guarantee your readers won`t be interested either.

Write with passion

If the topic you`re writing about really interests you, let everyone know. Shout it from the rooftop that you love this stuff.

Write in your own voice

The best home pages act as mirrors that show visitors a glimpse of the authors inner workings. Everybody - amateur and professional writers have a unique writing voice; find yours and use it.

Tell stories

The enjoyment of a good story is hard - wired into the human brain. There`s something about an engaging, well told narrative that captures the imagination of readers and leaves them looking for more.

Have fun 

Finally, always remember that having a blog is not ment to be a deadly serious activity. The web is nothing more or less than a wonderful new medium for you and me to express ourselves and communicate with other people who share the same interests, thoughts and philosophy.

Build Your Blog With Professional WordPress Themes!

Continue Reading...

5 Ways to to Make Money From Your Blog

Who doesn't like passive income? Here's how your blog, however big or small, can help you take a step in the right direction. There are plenty of ways to make money online from taking surveys to working as a freelancer to selling stock photography. However, I am talking about how you can earn money from your blog, which you already love to write for.

Here Are 5 Of The Most Popular Blog Monetization Methods:
 

1. Banner Advertising

This seems easy to do but can actually be pretty hard to accomplish because you need to get the right kinds of advertisers who are interested in your blog and reaching out to your audience. If you are a big blog, however, you can reach out to companies like BuySellAds to help you get banners to your blog. The most money is usually made when an advertiser specifically wants to reach out to your audience and sees value in doing so. You can start by contacting small businesses in your niche and asking them if they would be interested to advertise for a fixed cost on your blog.

2. Google Adsense
This is a broader class of advertising in the category of pay-per-click, but this is by far the most popular form of pay per click advertising. You get paid not by the impressions of the ad but depending on how many people click on it. Therefore, there is no guarantee of a certain income here, unlike in banner advertising where you know you are getting a fixed amount of money irrespective of how many people actually click on it. Of course the upside is that you get a good amount of money for every person who clicks on the ad, and there is a very good potential to earn a lot of money. A lot of sites rely on Google Adsense for monetizing their websites. One of the biggest advantage of this is its ease of set up. You just enter a code and forget about it - Google takes care of everything else, including contacting the advertisers.

3. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing can be a highly lucrative way to make money from your blog. A lot of companies have an affiliate program. You just recommend products to your readers and when someone clicks on your link and buys the product, you get a certain percentage of the sale as commission. You get paid only when a sale is completed, irrespective of how many impressions an ad makes or how many people click through to it. The upside is, you can potentially make a ton of money. Big name bloggers regularly earn 6 figure incomes from this method, so it is a large pie that small bloggers have a chance of being a part of.

4. Social Media Campaigns
Brands and businesses want social media engagement. If you have a good and loyal social media following, you should leverage it. Sponsored Tweets, for example, are a really good way to make a few bucks advertising to your followers along with all the regular content that you post. Same is the case with Facebook. If you have a good number of engaged fans, businesses will pay you a nice amount of money to reach them.

5. Email Marketing
Email marketing is a very powerful tool that bloggers enjoy. You need to collect leads from your blog so you have their permission to reach out to them whenever relevant. In your regular newsletter, you can sell an ad space for a company. The beauty of email marketing is that you can combine affiliate marketing with this - if you come across a great product that you use, why not promote it to your list and make some money off it too?

These are some of the common ways to earn an income from your blog. What methods appeal to you, and what methods do you use? We would like to hear your thoughts.
 

Continue Reading...

Is Your Blog Content Boring? It Maybe Time for a Change

The signs that our blogs’ content has become boring may not be immediately noticeable. You may have noticed a significant drop in your traffic lately, or a noticeable change in the amount of time your blog readers are spending on your posts and pages. While this can be caused by a variety of reasons, many bloggers have discovered over time their enthusiasm and creativeness going away.

Let`s Take A Look At Some Of The Main Reasons Your Blogs Content May Be Boring To Your Readers And The Solutions You Can Apply To Fix The Problem.

No Story
Each post ought to read like a short story, providing your readers with both information and a sense of experience. It can be very difficult to keep the attention of a reader if you are only writing facts and figures in a plain and usual sense. Can you remember how determined your creative writing teacher was in confirming that your story was actually creative? Try imagining that the teacher is still looking over your shoulder. By using figure of speech, metaphors and narrative speaking, you will keep the attention of the reader while giving them the desirable information they are seeking.

Displaying To Much Advertising
If your blog looks and reads more like an advertisement or a sales page than it does a valuable informational resource, then you may find out pretty quick that your blog readers simply do not enjoy being overwhelmed and bombarded with ads. While some readers will accept advertisements as an everyday part of life on the web, you should as well provide them with relevant information and content that will in fact make it worth their while. More than likely, the information, content and resources you display on your blog can also be found somewhere else on the internet; if they cannot see the sky for the clouds, then they are likely to look elsewhere.

Quantity Over Quality
Many bloggers believe that providing their readers with a great amount of content will give their site an added bonus. While it may help you in the search engine rankings, it most certainly will not help you in obtaining loyal followers and returning visitors. With so many elements to balance in a blog post or article, it can be very overwhelming at times to ensure everything is laid out and brought to the attention of the reader just right. Try spending a little more time focusing on the overall content of your posts, followed by a revision that adds the necessary advertising and keyword components.

Poor Topic Selection
Is the topic that your covering simply not interesting to your readers? Have you taken a alternate approach in recent days or weeks that could contribute to blame? By making sure that the subjects and topics you are writing about are actually desired by internet surfers, you can avoid writing quality articles and blog posts on topics nobody wants to really read.

While all of us have become routinely accustomed to filling in those particular niches, some of the time, a better strategy is to let someone else do the hard work. Select topics and subjects that are relevant to your site, new, trending, interesting or controversial. There numerous areas in which you should be risky when it comes to writing content, but you should never take the risk when it comes to covering a subject that your readers will simply find boring.
 

Continue Reading...

What You Need to Consider While Doing International Link Building

International link building can sometimes be very complicated since they have many factors that need to be considered. This therefore makes it much different from domestic link building. Extensively, the research keywords and complex sites issues, relevant links that are targeted broadly in order to give out an operation that is pitfall peppered.

Inappropriate execution can also harm your domestic efforts. From the international link building outlook, some factors may be considered, depending on the benefits they bring from the assigned links. The factors include the following:

The country's domain level
A relevant domain level should be on the market site such that when it is targeted on the market overseas, it can produce a fantastic link. This makes it appropriate for the international markets sites to be on the Goggle's key indicators. For example, a UK's pet supplies corporation who wants relevant ranked phrases in Google may follow www.fishtanks.fr for its supply in France.

A page found within the Country's folder
In order to specify each country, some sites usually set up their target differently based on sub-folders. With the sub-folders specifying each country, getting a link may be an authentic achievement due to their detailed domains. For example, a www.fishtanks/fr link that is animalized may be huge if you are ranking it in France.

The IP's site location
The Geo - location of a site being an indicator of the search engines is also relevant to the globe users. Like in our example, if a relevant sub-folder is not used in the fish site, then the fact remains that it is hosted in France. So, we now tell Google that the site is relevant in the market, and therefore, a link found on the site may helps us to find Google.fr rank.

Language
This may look obvious; however, the site links in target language helps the users definitely. Google.fr looks for sites in both English and French, so the site links written in French helps you in your specified search engine. Similarly, using secure text in your target language contributes to the effort of ranking the phrase.

The profile of the target site link
If the site lacks any of the page factors indicating the relevance of an international market, then it does not imply that the cause is lost. We have many factors indicating the markets relevancy that are found in the profile's site link. But if large proportion of a market links is relevant, then this relevance is carried over. This can be beneficial when all of them are interconnected.

An address on the site
Another indicator of a market that is relevant is the presence of its physical address on the website. Provided that the text is on the Google search, it will produce a link that enables you to rank the market's search engine. If there is some list of local business in Google places, it would be better to establish the websites relevance in the target market.

The site owner's address
This may give a connection that is slightly loose, but Google has managed to register some information and can locate where the site owners are based. If the target is in your market, then definitely there is possibility that you will beneficially gain more in that target market in case it links to you.

All the factors mentioned above contributes in the finding of international links that are naturally spread and fantastic. This helps the campaign of your international link building and thereby, can head you towards a worldwide success.
 

Continue Reading...

How to blog for International audiences

Blogging is a great platform to express your ideas and opinions on any topic you want to write about. However, there are hundreds of thousands of blogs and that means there’s going to be a lot of competition in attracting readers. One way of attracting more readers is tailoring your blog so that it appeals to an international audience.

Here Are Six Tips That Will Set You On The Road To Achieving This:

 

1. Make your language accessible
Across the English speaking world, every country has different colloquialisms and dialects that are possibly unfamiliar to people out with those areas. You should look to make your posts readable to people that are not from your local town or city. For example, if you are a food blogger from Glasgow in Scotland, you should avoid using words like ‘goosegog’ instead of ‘gooseberry’ or ‘braw’ instead ‘beautiful’, in the context of food.

Sometimes you might not realize that you are using words that other people will not understand, but whenever you do, replace them for a more universal word. This is not to say you need to completely internationalize your writing, as some of the appeal of your blog might be its perspective from your country. The language you use, however, should be tailored to a wider audience.

2. Consider translating into other languages
You might want to consider translating your content into a foreign language. You will be able to attract international readers that have a preference to reading in their native language and those that cannot read in English. Although machine translation tools, such as Google Translate, are an easy and free option, they are prone to errors. At best, the results tend to be over-literal, at worst they can be nonsensical or even offensive.

The best option is to choose a professional native-speaking translator. Ideally, they will be based in the target country, so that they are up-to-date with any changes in dialect.

3. Content
Your content might have to undergo some changes. You do not need to alter your content completely so that everything is aimed at an international audience, but you should write on topics that have a wider appeal. For example, a health and fitness blogger could tailor their content so it focuses on a current international event with worldwide appeal. Events like the Olympics and The World Cup are not-to-be-missed opportunities for attracting readers across the globe.

It is important that your content is the best it can be. Far too many bloggers rush out posts that are not ready. You will not get international readers coming back to your blog or recommending it to anyone if they find poorly written posts with spelling or grammatical errors.

4. Keywords
Keywords are one of the most important elements of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It’s worthwhile tweaking your keywords so that your blog will be discovered by international readers. A bit of research will let you know what keywords will be optimal for any particular region or specific country. You will, however, need to be careful when translating these keywords so that they keep their meaning.

5. Use social media networks
Promotion is an important element that can boost your blog’s readership across the globe. A great way of doing that today is by using social media networks. By all means use the big two - Facebook and Twitter, but don’t forget about popular platforms in countries you would like to attract readers in. For readers in Russia, you could use VKontakte and Odnoklassniki. QZone is the way to go in China, while Zing is one of the main platforms in Vietnam. Drauglem is popular in Latvia and for readers in Holland, you could use Hyves. Consider other platforms that are for specific purposes, such as Sound Cloud for music.

6. Be internationally active
Aside from social media networks, you should also comment on popular blogs across the world and be active within blogging communities. Interact with bloggers who are popular in certain foreign countries, which could potentially result in them linking your blog in theirs. Don’t hold back in commenting on blogs all over the world and get people aware of your blog. If you have written appealing, well-written posts that are accessible to an international audience, and perhaps have also been properly translated, then you will stand a good chance of attracting an international audience to your blog.
 

Continue Reading...

5 Blogging Tips For Beginners

Owning a blog is a great idea, especially when you have a story to tell. Blogging has become fun and through it people like you and me have the ability to express what we believe, the things we have done that bought us success, discuss or failures and give successful ideas to people from different walks of life. I have found blogging the best tool and technique, or perhaps a reputable platform I can let the world know what I think and believe.

However, many people think that starting a blog is one hell of a task, but nothing could be further from the truth. Stating my own blog was indeed the simplest way to join the internet community. With a computer and a stable internet connection, all you need to do is follow some simple steps and you will be good to go.

Define your goals goals
Every person needs to know what they want to get the best results in the long run. My goal had to do with the main reason why I was starting the blog. For you, it could be for promoting your business, welcoming friends to join you on social media, helping people with self-improvement information or a forum for you to share your ideas with the rest of the world, or you could be blogging just for fun. Having established your goal, design your blog and market it robustly.

Understand your audience
When you understand your audience better, then you will absolutely know their taste of content. If your audience is teenagers, the design and content of the blog must be directed towards teenagers.

Be consistent 
Always keep in mind that your blog is a brand, and so represents a specific message. Readers treasure consistency.

Constantly update your blog
Always have something new for your readers. I have come to understand that the reason why visitors do not go to some sites is due to the presence of the Methuselah content. If your content is also boring, you may end up having very little visitors to your blog.

Your blog should be inviting to readers
You could request visitors to your blog to leave comments, which you reply to later. This shows the readers that you actually value them and keeps the conversation between you and your readers going. You also take this opportunity to invite your readers to come back for more lively debates.

Creating and sustaining a blog, contrary to what people think, is not difficult. You just need to identify the field you love most and about which you can write most confidently. Being original and writing quality content is a sure way to keep your readers intact. You should desist from copying and pasting contents to your blog.
 

Continue Reading...

Are You Ready to Start a Blog? Here’s How to Tell

Everyone seems to be blogging these days. Most blogs get a few new visitors each week, while some have become so popular that their authors are now celebrities. The real question is whether you’re ready to start a blog.

Blogging started as a way to share your innermost thoughts with the online world. Over time, it’s evolved into a way to market your business, brand yourself and create a thriving online community. This has made blogging more of a profession than a hobby, which means that you need to be ready to maintain a blog before starting one.

Why Would I Want a Blog?
If you’re thinking about starting a blog, you probably have a reason for doing so. In fact, many good things can come from a blog, including:

Better Marketing: Numerous articles emphasize the importance of blogging in marketing your business online, but like other marketing strategies, it requires a clear goal and plan for moving forward.

Communication: Blogs are a way to share your thoughts about everything from cool new products to the upcoming election, and these can open up great discussions with friends and strangers alike.

Visibility: A store might use a neon sign to let people know they’re open. Your blog is your way of introducing yourself or your business to the online world.

Am I Ready to Blog?
The great thing about blogging is that you don’t need any special skills or qualifications to start one. The downside is that it takes a lot to make it successful, so make sure you’re able to do it.

Thought and Planning
Before starting your blog, know what you want it to be about. Do you want to be a fashion maven who covers the hottest styles from London? Do you want to offer advice on home repair? Are you a newshound with your own ideas about the events of the day? Make that the focus of your blog and build everything else around it.

Time and Effort
The most successful bloggers know that a blog can’t be a hobby that you write in your free time. You need to make time for it. Plan what you’re going to write about and then develop enough content to update your blog once a week. That’s how potential readers will find your blog and, more importantly, continue coming back to it.

A Unique Perspective
Maybe everything that can be written has already been written, but not everything is written the same way. For example, there are lots of blogs about Cadillacs, but one that covers the history of the car has different content than one that collects stories from past and current owners. Find your favorite topic and find a unique way to discuss it.

Blogs are fun to read and write, but the latter takes more than just a few minutes. If you want to start a blog, be ready to give it the time and attention it needs to succeed.

Build a Professional Looking Blog with StudioPress WordPress Themes!

Continue Reading...