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What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Blog About

Feb 10, 2016 By Lesley J. Vos

If you’re reading this, it means you blog.

5 proven strategies for defeating writer's block for bloggers

Obviously.

You’re a blogger. You’re a content marketer considering blogging as part of your marketing strategy. You’re a fiction writer considering blogging as a good way to communicate with readers or promote your book.

Whoever you are, if you create online content you constantly need ideas and plans to answer these eternal questions:

What to blog?

What content to share with readers?

What to write?

It’s a big problem for many bloggers, especially those believing the more often they write and publish, the better. As a result, they experience writer’s block, they procrastinate or sacrifice quality for quantity, and they eventually become sick and tired of blogging.

Sounds familiar?

If so, don’t panic!

This article will reveal all secrets of coming out with great ideas for your blog, and it will tell you what to do when you are stuck and don’t know what to write.

Let’s get started…

#1. Practice Free Writing

Never heard of it?

It’s a technique, perfectly described by Mark Levy in his book, Accidental Genius: Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight, and Content, that awakens your creativity and helps you organize the huddle of ideas you keep in the head.

So, what is it all about? What is “free writing”?

Well, according to Urban Dictionary:

A term used to express the idea of just picking up a pen and writing the streamline of thoughts you’re thinking down on a piece of paper and attempting to have some type of flow.

Don’t worry, it’s easy:

Take a laptop and write several pages of text, expressing your subconscious ideas without estimating and thinking whether they work for your blog or not.

Just sit. Start. And write.

Don’t try too hard

Your only limit is the time you have available – don’t worry about purpose or topic. Just write. The process is what matters here, so relax and don’t think about results.

Let your thoughts and words flow.

Use tools

Free writing is a popular technique used by many people, no matter if they are bloggers, writers, or those wishing to organize thoughts and reveal their hidden talents.

So, it comes as no surprise that many tools and resources have appeared to help us write with comfort.

Try the buzzword ones:

Tool 1: 750 Words

lesley-vos-1

Accept the challenge of writing no less than 750 words daily. Sign up for free, and get a clean sheet of paper every day to write down your thoughts, ideas, stories, and whatever comes to your mind.

Don’t stop!

After reading your flurry of words, you might be surprised by how many ideas for future blog posts you’ll discover.

Tool 2: Written? Kitten!

lesley-vos-2

Practice free writing with the online tool for cat lovers.

After you complete the challenge of writing 100 words (you can set the limit, by the way), a picture of cute kittens will appear to inspire you and motivate to continue writing.

Have you ever thought of kittens as a source of inspiration to blog?

Now you can try it.

Tool 3: Write or Die

lesley-vos-3

Write or Die is an application to eliminate writer’s blocks. You get rewards for accomplishments, or you see the consequences of your procrastination.

Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux users, this app has many features for you to choose.

The idea of Write or Die is motivating you to express thoughts quickly and without worry.

Write quickly

When free writing, forget about stops. If you can’t find words to continue a sentence, write about what you see or feel at this very moment:

“Dang, I don’t know what to write. I try to finish this paragraph and express my thought, making it clear for readers, but words don’t come. Please, please, stop talking, you silly neighbor! Hmmmm. This jazz song sounds so nice… Well, okay, what was I writing about? Maybe I should write about my dog now? He is so funny!”

You’ve just read an abstract of this post author’s free writing session.

P.S. It seems that my next blog post will be about how listening to jazz can influence content writing.

Set time frames

Decide on time limits for your free writing sessions. For example, promise to write 1,000 words for 30 minutes.

When you know you have only 30 minutes to complete writing, you won’t stop and think about better words to use, better arguments or facts to give, etc.

Don’t pause. When you do, you lose a moment of subconscious ideas emerging.

Write the way you think

Just let your thoughts flow. Don’t think about the words to say, the grammar construction to use, or writing style to apply – write as you think.

No one will read your free writings except you, after all.

#2. Change Perspective

Are you Bill who manages a blog about books?

Well, every Tom, Dick, and Harry can do it today. And they do, actually; that is why you don’t know what to blog, and that’s why you read this post and try to find out how to solve the problem.

lesley-vos-4

But what if you were not Bill?

What if it was Winston Churchill who blogged about books? What would he write? Or, more importantly, how would he write?

When you experience writer’s block and don’t know what to blog about, imagine yourself as someone (or something) else: a pilot, a millionaire, a dog, an opossum (why not?), or even a pencil.

How do they see the world? What would they write?

Yeah, it sounds weird. But such an approach can help you see the problem from a different angle, come up with new ideas, and find out-of-the-box solutions.

Change perspective, and you may just defeat your writer’s block.

#3. Steal Content

With content being king and content marketing being the best way to grow traffic, bloggers face one more problem:

They need excellent content to sparkle.

No wonder you’re struggling for ideas – you can’t just write blog posts, you have to write blog posts that sparkle.

And it’s not like you have all the time in the world to write them. Once you come up with a brilliant idea, someone named Neil Patel or Bryan Hutchinson will beat you to the punch and publish it!

Sigh.

Or, even worse, someone who doesn’t seem to know anything about “compelling content” takes your brilliant idea and blog about it!

Yes, their content sucks, but they were first. And you are late.

Deep sigh.

The more ideas sink this way, the more you get lost, procrastinate, experience writer’s burnout, and don’t know what to do.

You throw in the towel!

But what if I told you it doesn’t matter if someone has already written about a topic?

lesley-vos-5

What if the already-published idea is awesome, but the individual who wrote about it failed to represent it the way it deserves? Or, what if the individual did do a good job, but you know it could be better?

If that’s the case, you need to do The Skyscraper Technique:

  1. Take content that is worth stealing
  2. Improve it and make it sparkle

Find it

Your task is to find potential-worthy content or the content that has done well already.

How can you do that?

  • Search Google and check the top results on the topic.
  • Try resources like BuzzSumo, Facebook Trending, or Quora to see the popular content and “steal” the idea.
  • Check Open Site Explorer to get an insight into top blogs and see their most linked articles. It will help you understand what’s hot today.

Improve it

Once you’ve found good (or even great!) piece of content, it’s time to improve upon it and publish it on your blog.

But how can you improve the content?

Make it longer…

Top 10 Tools Every Blogger Needs vs. 50+ Awesome Tools To Run A Blog
Top 10 Tools Every Blogger Needs vs. 50+ Awesome Tools To Run A Blog

Display it differently…

You Are What You Read vs. Want to Write Better Infographic
You Are What You Read vs. Want to Write Better Infographic

Expound it…

Google Ranking Factors vs. Google?s 200 Ranking Factors
Google Ranking Factors vs. Google?s 200 Ranking Factors

In each example above, people took the already-good (or even great) content and made it 5% better – or more.

Don’t plagiarize

The secret of creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. – Albert Einstein

Thank you, Einstein, but we don’t want to be thieves and get Google penalty for dishonesty!

That’s why we’ll do the following:

  • We won’t infringe copyright
  • We’ll cite all sources, even non-copyrighted ones
  • We’ll improve the content

In short, if you are repurposing any part of the original post, be sure to link to it. Always give credit when credit is due.

#4. Consider All Variants

You write content, generate, and distribute it.

You want it to be compelling and shareable, and you do everything for it to become interesting and entertaining (as well as useful).

But…

It’s so difficult to brainstorm every day, seeking an answer to the #1 question on every blogger’s mind:

?What to blog about??

It’s the wrong question to ask!

Instead, try answering this one:

“Did you consider all content variants?”

The point is, more than 100 types of content are available for you to write and publish at your blog. Make sure you’ve considered them all and chosen the best ones to share with your readers.

Top ten most popular content types include:

  • Lists
  • How-to’s
  • Guides
  • Interviews
  • Infographics
  • Statistics
  • Tips
  • Quotes
  • Reviews
  • Problem

Need more? Check out this list of 44 fantastic types of content written by Justin McGill of HubSpot to get writing ideas for your content:

lesley-vos-9

Still not enough for you? What about 50 more blog post ideas to consider?

Never set limits!

#5. Update Old Content

As a blogger, you have old content in your archives.

Oh, those old but lovely posts you wrote months or even years ago…

They’ve been so popular and shareable. Even more, they continue to drive results! You wish you could write content that would bring the same results from traffic and leads, don’t you?

It’s a pity those posts have been buried deep inside your blog, right?

Wrong.

‘Cause they are not buried!

When you don’t know what to blog but still want your content to rock, why not to update and republish your old blog posts?

Why bother? Well…

  1. You extend the life of your best content
  2. You continue getting results from it
  3. You minimize the effects of writer’s block

Plus, just because a post is old doesn’t mean it isn’t bringing traffic to your site.

According to Margot da Cunha, a former content marketing specialist at WordStream, 76% of a blog’s monthly page views comes from its old posts.

Old content update. What can be easier?

Still, you should remember some small but significant details to do it right:

How to update old blog posts?

First of all, choose the post to update.

  • Check your analytics to see which posts still generate traffic
  • Check social shares to see which posts users loved most
  • Check keyword ranking opportunities: if some blog posts ranked well for a particular keyword, check whether you can improve this result
  • Make sure the content is still relevant

Once you’ve chosen the blog post for updating and republishing, consider the following details:

Keep URL the same

There is no point publishing a new article and getting a Google penalty for duplicate content. You can always modify the original post.

Keep keywords the same

Even if you decide to change the title of your post, make sure you keep the keywords that have been working so well for you. You chose to update this post for a reason, after all. Don’t do anything that will hurt your Google rankings.

Update the content

Read your post and determine what needs to be changed. You might need to remove non-relevant content, replace outdated data or screenshots, add new practices, replace internal links, or update CTA.

Yes, updating old content when every other blogger is writing brand-new content sounds crazy.

But it’s an effective method for maximizing your most-trafficked blog posts. Plus, it helps you combat writer’s block.

What’s not to like?

Final Thoughts on Writer’s Block

It’s hard out there for bloggers.

So many blogs, so much good content, so many things to remember? it can be quite confusing when you?re trying to decide what to write!

Thankfully, you now have the know-how and tools to help you during those struggles.

Been staring at your keyboard? No clue what to write about?

Change your perspective!

Consider all options!

Steal content! (Not literally, of course.)

Breathe new life into your old content!

Writer’s block scares a lot of bloggers, but you don’t have to be afraid – not any more. You got this.

Good luck!

How to Write a Blog Post: The Definitive 10,273-word Guide

Jan 27, 2016 By Kevin J. Duncan

How to write a blog post

It’s a lonely feeling.

You’re with a group of people who are discussing an unfamiliar topic – a topic completely and utterly foreign to you.

So, you smile. You nod your head. You slowly backpedal out of the room so you can Google the foreign topic on your smartphone.

And?when you return to the conversation a few minutes later, ready to proudly share the information you just learned, you discover the conversation has switched to a different esoteric topic.

Sigh.

You want to scream, but all you can do is smile, nod your head, and begin the dance anew.

When you’re new to blogging, most resources and “how to” posts can make you feel the same way.

You’ll see an intriguing headline promising to teach you something new. Excited, you’ll click on it and start reading. However, your excitement quickly fades.

“What the heck is this blogger talking about?” you’ll mutter under your breath.

You skip ahead to the comments section hoping to connect with other, equally-confused individuals. Alas, everyone else seems to know exactly what’s going on.

This only makes you feel worse.

“What language are these people speaking?” you’ll wonder aloud. “I don’t understand any of this!”

Trust me – it’s not you.

We experienced bloggers forget there was a time when “this” was all foreign to us. A time when we didn’t have it all figured out (like we pretend we do now). A time when we were newbie bloggers.

Heck, I’m as guilty of this as anyone…

I am reading all your tips, but there is one flaw in your approach. You assume your readers know what you are talking about! This reader does not.” – My Mom

Thanks for the Email, Mom

She’s right.

Most bloggers writing today long ago moved beyond the basics. “How do I add an image” and “how to start a blog” have been replaced with questions related to on-page SEO and getting more email subscribers.

That’s why when you search “how to write a blog post” on Google, you don’t get beginner-friendly results.

You get wonderful posts from amazing sources in your results, yes, but they’re posts designed for readers who already know a thing or two about blogging.

They’re not designed for you. They’re not designed for my Mom. They’re not designed for new bloggers who need the information most.

Let’s remedy this. Shall we?

Getting Started
Finding Your Unique Voice as a Blogger / Choosing a Topic / Types of Blog Posts / Choosing a Title

Writing: Overview
The Intro / Body of Your Post / Your Closing / Call to Action

Publishing
Categories / Tags / Edit Your URL / Publish Your Post

Technical Mumbo Jumbo
The Formatting Toolbar / Visual Editor and Toolbar Toggle / Bold, Italics, Strikethrough, Underline, and Font Color / Lists?and Blockquotes / Text Alignment / Hyperlinks and ‘More’ Button / Headings, Paragraph, Address, Preformatted / Paste, Undo, Redo, and Keyboard Shortcuts / Decrease and Increase Indent / Add a Photo?(aka Add Media)

Frequently Asked Questions
How to Find Links? / How to Embed YouTube Videos? / Where to Find Photos I Can Use? / Logging In / What’s My Password? / Start a New Post?

Final Thoughts

Getting Started: How to Write a Blog Post

This article will walk you through the entire process of writing a blog post. It’ll discuss the steps in choosing a topic,?publishing the post, and?”all the technical mumbo jumbo” in between.

WordPress will be used for our examples, but the concepts are the same regardless of the blogging platform you use.

Lots of screenshots will be provided (since they’re said to be worth a thousand words), and lots of links will be included to other great, helpful resources.

The question is…

Can you handle it?

At 10,273 words, reading this article in its entirety will require strength, stamina, and determination.

It won’t be easy. Distractions will be plentiful. Children, spouses, and co-workers will likely interrupt you on numerous occasions. Squirrels will inevitably do something cute outside your office window. New cat videos will most assuredly be uploaded to YouTube.

But for those special few who can focus, who can read the article and learn everything it has to share, great things are possible.

Let’s get started.

Finding Your Unique Voice as a Blogger

unique-voiceBefore getting into the mechanics of blogging, let’s step back for a moment and discuss a mistake I see many bloggers – new and old – routinely make when they sit down to write a blog post.

(If you want to jump ahead to the mechanics, click here to go the next section.)

The blogosphere is a lot like being trapped in an elevator with actors Jack Nickolson, William Devane, and Christian Slater. If you close your eyes, everyone sounds the same.

We bloggers write the same way. We cover the same topics. We use the same plugins. We follow the same advice, we kiss up to the same influential bloggers, and we all part our hair to the left (I’m assuming).

We’re followers. We do what we see the leaders in our field are doing. If Darren Rowse, Pamela Wilson, and Jon Morrow started writing “you know what I’m saying” at the end of every paragraph, bloggers everywhere would begin doing it, too. You know what I’m saying?

Why do we do this?

Well, we’re conditioned to behave this way.

When you’re young, standing out is oftentimes the most embarrassing thing imaginable. You’re rewarded for conforming, so you dress the same way as your friends, listen to the same music they do, and say the same silly expressions they say.

This conditioning continues when you reach adulthood.

Companies usually don’t hire the guy wearing the super comfy and sensible sweatpants – they hire one of the dozen guys wearing a black suit.

Pretty girls usually don’t go for the guy with the blue Mohawk – they go for one of the million guys with “the businessman” haircut.

But here’s the thing…

Blending into the crowd can only take you so far.

Lady Gaga started playing the piano at age 4, wrote her first ballad at 13, and began performing when she was only 14. And yet, no one paid her a lick of attention until she started dressing like an alien from outer space.

You (probably) won’t have to wear a dress made out of plastic bubbles to succeed as a blogger. But you are going to have to separate yourself from the crowd. You’re going to have to be that one gray suit in a sea of black. You’re going to have to find your voice.

The Importance of Uniqueness

The trap many bloggers fall into is we believe if we write just like a popular blogger, we’ll be popular, too.

Imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery, but in blogging it’s a no-win proposition. Even if you succeed, you’re still a poor man’s version of someone else.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to remind people of someone else. I want to be the someone else.

God made each of us unique.

There might be billions of people on the planet, but there is only one you. You have unique DNA. Your hopes, thoughts, and dreams are unique. Even the face you make when you accidentally walk into a spider web is unique.

It’s time to tap into what makes you… well, you.

Need help? Here are a few suggestions to help you get started:

#1. Stop Reading Other Blogs for a Little While

I know this seems counter-intuitive, and believe me I’d love it if the answer to finding your unique voice could be found by reading my blog and joining my email list, but first you need to clear your head of influences. (THEN you can join my email list!)

Stop reading Jon Morrow for a day or two. Stop reading Pamela and Darren. Stop reading your favorite blogs.

Why?

Because it’s difficult to find your voice when you keep hearing theirs.

Think about it. If you were a musician about to record an album, and you kept listening to someone else’s album over and over, don’t you think it would influence the music you create?

So, clear your head.

Then you can start writing.

#2. On Paper, Write Down as Many Details About Yourself As You Can

Don’t hold back. Need an example? My list might look something like this…

I’m a writer. I’m a micromanager. I’m funny. I simultaneously wonder sometimes if I’m putting my graduate degree to good use, and if I should have kept going until I got a doctorate. I’m a sinner. I’m a believer. I love my wife. I enjoy teaching. I know a lot about blogging. I have a full head of hair. I worry I just jinxed myself by saying I had a full head of hair…

Most of what you write won’t be germane to blogging. However, a clear picture will eventually develop.

For example, I’m a writer who likes to teach and make people laugh. Also, my hair might be falling out soon.

Highlight with a marker the key, applicable details you wrote down. Whenever you write, at least one or two of these highlights should shine through in your writing.

#3. Audibly Review the Will Ferrell Movie “Elf” While Someone Takes Notes for You

No, it doesn’t have to be “Elf.” It doesn’t have to be a movie. It doesn’t even have to be a review.

The idea is to pick a topic you know fairly well, and talk about it while a friend writes down the words and phrases you use.

At a basic level, finding your unique voice as a blogger means finding a way to incorporate the things you say into the things you write.

If you read aloud something you wrote, and a friend can’t answer “yes” to the “does this sound like me” question, try the following trick used by English teachers:

Forget what you wrote. Ramble about the topic out loud while someone takes notes for you. Take their notes, memorize them, and begin sprinkling a few of your common words and phrases throughout the blog post you wrote.

After doing this, read your post aloud for your friend again. I guarantee they will say “yes” to your question.

Why does finding your unique voice matter?

It matters because you have a perspective which can’t be found anywhere else. If you don’t share it, who will?

John Lee Dumas can’t share it. Neither can Jeff Goins or Chris Garrett. Jon, Pamela, and Darren can’t share it either.

Only you can share it.

Finding your voice as a blogger is important because the alternative is depriving the world of something special, precious, and unique…

You.

The world already has a Chris Brogan, Joanna Wiebe, and Blaine Wilkerson. What it needs is [your name]. It’s time you shared you with the world.

Ready to write a blog post that doesn’t look, sound, and smell like thousands of other posts that came before it?

If so, let’s push forward…

Choosing a Topic

choosing-topicDo you already know what you’re going to write about?

Great! You’re ready for the next step.

However, if you’re pondering what you want to write about, or you want to learn how you can find topics to write about in the future, keep reading.

If your blog is a personal one (meaning you write about your own life), you’re in luck. You’re surrounded by inspiration!

If it’s related to your world, it’s blogging material. For example, you could write about…

  • Your loved ones
  • Your job
  • Gift ideas for writers, bloggers, etc.
  • Your recent trip to the torture chamber known as “the shopping mall”
  • The time you went to work wearing mismatched socks
  • The time you gave your boss head lice

Really, the possibilities are endless.

Still need more ideas?

Try an online topic generator.

HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator allows you to enter up to three nouns, and it will generate several blog topics on which you could write.

hubspot_blog_topic_generator

Entering “jogging,” “running” and “sore feet” in the available fields generates the following potential topics:

  • “10 Things Your Competitors Can Teach You About Jogging”
  • “How To Solve The Biggest Problems With Running”
  • “Why We Love Sore Feet (And You Should, Too!)”
  • “The Ultimate Cheat Sheet On Jogging”
  • “10 Quick Tips About Running”

Is it perfect? No. Capable of sparking an idea? Absolutely.

Another option is the?Content Idea Generator by Portent.

Unlike HubSpot’s, Portent’s tool allows you to enter one word. This is the subject of your potential post.

However, you can get a seemingly-unlimited list of options for your subject by clicking the reload button.

portent_content_idea_generator

An added bonus of content generators like HubSpot’s and Portent’s is, with a little tweaking, they can give you titles for your blog posts. We’ll discuss titles a bit later.

Here are a few more tips for discovering topics:

  • Read the newspaper
  • Watch TV
  • Go for a walk
  • Browse Facebook and see what?your friends and family are discussing
  • Read comments people have left on other posts you’ve written (if applicable)

So, feeling better about picking topics for your blog?

Great! Let’s move on…

For More On Choosing Topics, Check Out:

  • 19 Blog Post Ideas to Spark Your Creativity and Inspire Your Writing by Henneke Duistermaat
  • 101 Blog Post Ideas That Will Make Your Blog “HOT” by Mike Wallagher
  • How to Choose a Topic for Your Next Blog Post by Darren Rowse
  • How to Decide What to Blog About by Amy Lynn Andrews
  • 4 Simple Ways to Choose the Best Blog Topics for Your Audience by Neil Patel via HubSpot

Types of Blog Posts

types_of_blog_postsThink of blog posts like they’re movies.

You have documentaries. You have shorts. You have action-packed blockbusters. You have comedies. You have dramas, westerns, musicals, sci-fi, thrillers, and whatever the heck Nicolas Cage is doing these days.

The type of movie goes a long way to determine who its audience will be.

Want to make a lot of money? Make an action movie. Want to win awards? Make a musical.

The types of blog posts you can write are almost as endless. And, like movies, their type plays a major role in determining who will want to read it.

Let’s take a look at a few different types of blog posts you can write. If you want to skip this part and go to the next section, click here.

Instructional posts (tutorials, how-to’s)

instructional-postsThis is why Al Gore invented the Internet when he was?a small boy (he writes sarcastically).

To allow people to share information. To let them teach others. To provide individuals the means to learn how to do something new.

When someone reads a how-to or a tutorial, they’re not doing so by accident. There is something they want to learn, so they find?a blog post promising to teach it to them.

When you write an instructional post, you’re filling an information gap.

There is something you know others do not. You teach them what you know.

Examples of instructional posts:

  • More Email Optin Ideas Than You Can Eat! (And Some You Never Heard Of) by Ashley Faulkes
  • How To Drive Traffic with Your Outdated Content by Ana Hoffman
  • How to Convert Pinterest Visitors to Subscribers by Jeni Elliott
  • Blogger Outreach: How To Get Influencers To Generate More Traffic by Tor Refsland
  • How To Get A High-Traffic Blog, Even If You’re Blogging Solo by Julie Neidlinger
  • How to Create Cornerstone Content that Skyrockets Your Authority by Ahmed Safwan
  • Expanded Guest Post: How to 100x the effectiveness of your next guest post by Bryan Harris
  • How to clean leather couch so it looks brand new by Airtasker

Oh, and the post you are reading right now?

It’s also an example of an instructional post.

List posts

list_postsList posts are easy to spot by their titles.

See if you notice a pattern in the following examples…

Examples of list posts:

  • 21 Beginner-Friendly Tips for Landing Freelance Writing Jobs by Smart Blogger
  • 5 “Five-Minute or Less” Blogging Tips That Yield Big Results?by Pat Flynn
  • 20 Rules for Writing So Crystal Clear Even Your Dumbest Relative Will Understand?by Glen Long
  • 5 Reasons I Still Use CommentLuv by Kristi Hines
  • 15 Pro Blogging Tips Every Marketer Needs to Know by Dominique Jackson
  • 13 Quick Tricks to Drive Traffic to Your Blog in Minutes by Pooja Lohana
  • 25 Smart Ways To Increase Your Blog Comments by Neil Patel

As you can see, the titles of list posts follow a distinct pattern.

15 tips… 20 rules… 5 reasons… 16 ways… 7 ideas… 61 excuses…

The idea may seem overly simplistic, but blog readers love list posts. It’s also, for many bloggers, the easiest type of post to write.

Little wonder list posts are arguably the most popular type of post.

Resource posts (roundups, list of links)

resource_postsIt’s easy to confuse list posts and resource posts due to their similarities.

Both may have a numbered list. The difference is a?resource post curates the content of others, while a list post is primarily your own, original content.

For example,?Top blog quotes by 101 amazing bloggers is an example of a resource post. It’s in a list format, yes, but rather than supplying my own content I am curating the content of other bloggers.

However,?22 ridiculously easy blog tips you can use right now is an example of a list post. It’s in a list format, and the content I provide is my own.

(None of this is to suggest resource posts are “easy” to do. You may be curating the work?of others, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. A good resource post can take longer to put together than a regular post, in fact.)

Your head is spinning right now. Isn’t it?

The good news is it really doesn’t matter if you confuse list posts with resource posts.

Whatever you call them, resource posts are?very versatile.

You can collect and share websites you enjoy, quotes you find inspiring, or tools you believe are super useful. Some bloggers do weekly roundups of posts they’ve enjoyed from other bloggers.

The applications are numerous.

Examples of resource posts:

  • 43 Experts Share Their Top Tips To Grow Your Online Presence by Adam Connell
  • 15 Top Bloggers Reveal How They Make Money Blogging! by Enstine Muki
  • 10 Top Bloggers Reveal Secrets Behind Their Author Bio by Tom Hunt via UK Linkology
  • What Seriously Makes People Unsubscribe From Your Email List? by Pauline Cabrera
  • The best RSS Reader / Aggregator by Bauke Roesink
  • 125 Marketing Quotes from Top Bloggers by Uttoran Sen

Review posts

review_postsReviews are a fun type of post to write.

You can review movies, television shows, an appliance you recently purchased, a restaurant, or any other random whatever.

The kind of reviews you write will depend on the type of blog you own.

Again, if your blog is a personal one, you can review anything you desire.

But if you have a movie blog, for example, reviewing a car won’t make a lot of sense to your readers.

(Unless it’s a review of a car in a movie, of course.)

Examples of review posts:

  • First look at the new Syracuse University mobile app by Anthony Rotolo
  • OptinMonster Review: A Platform For Rapid Email List Growth by Adam Connell
  • Switching Away from Disqus Review ? Increased Comments by 304% by Syed Balkhi
  • Reviewing WooCommerce Memberships by Chris Lema

Still with me? We’ll run through the last few quickly!

Video posts

As a new blogger, you’re unlikely to create your own videos and publish them to the web any time soon. However, inserting a video you find online into your post is certainly doable!

With video posts, you can place YouTube videos into your posts as an accompaniment to your text content.

So, as an example, if you were reviewing the TV show “NewsRadio,” you could include in your review YouTube clips of the show.

We’ll cover inserting?YouTube videos a bit later in the tutorial.

Infograph posts

What’s an infograph? Here are a few examples:

  • Why Every Business Should Blog [Infograph] by Neil Patel
  • How To Increase Your Blog Traffic (Infographic) by Sue Anne Dunlevie
  • Tips & Tools For Creating Infographics by Creative Meerkat
  • 3 Reasons You?re Not Getting a Positive ROI From Infographics by Brittany Bullen

Basically, an infograph?is?an?image used to represent information.

Don’t know how to create an infograph? Don’t worry. You can?find great infographs online and embed them into your blog posts – just make sure you cite the source and give credit to the author.

You will want to write a paragraph, two, or three of text so the infograph makes sense to your readers, of course.

Interviews

Blogs allow us to channel our inner?Walter Cronkite.

Bloggers interview other bloggers all the time. It’s a way to help each other out (through cross promotion), and it’s a great way to help others see you as an authority (if someone interviews you, you must be important, right?).

Plus, interviews are fun!

Intimidated? Don’t be intimidated.

Leanne Regalla has written a great post teaching bloggers how to interview influential people (even if the very idea terrifies us). Check it out here.

Whew! We’re done with this section. Let’s move on to the next one, shall we?

For More On Choosing Types, Check Out:

  • 73 Types of Blog Posts That Are Proven to Work by Kevin Gates via OptinMonster
  • 12 Types of Blog Posts to Drive More Traffic to Your Blog by Rich Brooks via Social Media Examiner
  • 7 Reasons Why List Posts Will Always Work by Brian Clark

Choosing a Title

grape-nutsYour title (also referred to as headline) needs to grab the attention of your readers.

However, it should be relevant to your topic.

Post Foods may be able to call its breakfast cereal “Grape-Nuts” despite the fact it contains neither grapes nor nuts, but the title of your blog post should make sense.

Your title should make readers want to read the first?word, sentence, and paragraph of your post. If it accomplishes this, you have crafted a good title.

So, how do you write a good title that accomplishes such feats of strength?

The two online topic generators we discussed earlier should have given you some clues. Here are some of the ways a title can be good:

They?ask questions which beg to be answered. Examples:

  • 7 Reasons Why Coaxing a 4 Inch Cockroach from my Bathroom in Fiji Made Me a Better Blogger?by Ryan Biddulph
  • Is a Secret Obsession With Being Special Costing You Friends??by Katharine Di Cerbo
  • How Do Blog Comments Help Your Blog?s SEO??by Lisa Sicard

They?promise something of value to the reader. Examples:

  • Everything You Need to Know About Blogger Outreach?by Will Blunt
  • How To Create An Email Opt-In Offer Your Dream Customers Will Love?by Sally Ann Miller
  • How To Build Authority Online?by Scott Taft
  • How To Effectively Use Social Proof To Your Advantage To Convert More Visitors?by Andrew Warner
  • How to Use Pinterest to Drive More Traffic to Your Blog?by Charlene Kingston

They are fun. Examples:

  • Freddy Krueger of Blogging: How to Write Highly Successful Guest Posts in under 2 Hours?by Ana Hoffman
  • Does This Mean I Can’t Do Insanity Anymore? by?Kate Erickson of?Entrepreneur on Fire
  • How To Promote an Unsexy Article (and boost shares 252.4%) by?Jason Quey

They stir the pot and aren’t afraid to step on people’s toes. Examples:

  • The World’s Worst Blogging Advice?by Adrienne Smith
  • 11 Ways to Lose Friends and Alienate People on Google+ by Ryan Hanley
  • I Just Deleted Your Outreach Email Without Reading. And NO, I Don?t Feel Sorry by Tim Soulo via Ahrefs
  • Why Nobody Reads Your Blog Posts (and What To Do About It) by Tom Southern

They use buzz words like “free”, “cheap”, and “best.” Examples:

  • 99 Ways to Promote Your Blog For Free by Jason Mathes
  • The Best Plugins to Start a WordPress Blog by Ashley Faulkes
  • How I Got 532 Subscribers in 43 Days Using Cheap Facebook Ads by Mary Fernandez

Each of these examples bring a little somethin’, somethin’ to the table.

(Do you need to write your title before writing your post? Not necessarily. Do what works for you. I would suggest at least having a working title for your post before you begin writing it.)

So, do you think you are you ready to write a great title that captures your readers’ attention and makes them want to read what you’ve written?

Great.

Let’s keep going…

For More On Choosing Titles, Check Out:

  • 10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work?by Brian Clark
  • How to Craft Post Titles that Draw Readers Into Your Blog by Darren Rowse
  • Can You Resist Clicking These 3 Headlines? by Jerod Morris
  • The Formula for a Perfect Headline by Neil Patel

Writing content: Overview

According to Neil Patel (as well as many other knowledgeable bloggers), blog posts should follow a very predictable (but very effective) pattern:

  • Introduction
  • Point 1
  • Point 2
  • Point 3, etc.
  • Closing with CTA (call to action)

Seems pretty straightforward, right?

Now let’s look at each part of this pattern…

Writing your intro

Okay, so you’ve picked a title sure to draw in readers like a moth to a flame.

Now it’s time to keep the momentum going.

Blogger?Mary Jaksch says a good introduction “invites the reader in” and makes them feel welcome.

Bloggers like Jon Morrow begin many of their posts with a question.

Many bloggers will begin their posts with quotes or statistics.

I’m personally fond of beginning posts with an anecdote.

There are many techniques for writing introductions, but the good ones have one thing in common:

They captivate your audience.

Introductions do not exist merely to transport your reader from Point A (your title) to Point B (the body of your post).

They do this, sure, but good introductions are so much more than primitive forms of transportation.

Brian Clark says your introduction should “capture the reader’s imagination and pull them deeper into your content.”

Lofty goal, but doable!

Further reading:

  • How to Write Spellbinding Introductions by Shamelessly Copying the Pros by Shane Arthur of Boost Blog Traffic
  • 11 Ways to Write an Irresistible Intro to Your Blog Post by?Mary Jaksch
  • 5 Simple Ways to Open Your Blog Post with a Bang by Brian Clark
  • 6 Steps To Writing Captivating Blog Post Intros Every Time by Alicia Rades via Blogging Wizard

Body of Your Post

You’ve picked your topic, chosen what type of post you want to write, and written your intro.

Now it’s time to get to the meat of your blog post… the body.

This one is all on you. Your unique voice, writing style, your thoughts, the way you look at the world… these are things which are distinctly?you. Only you can write them!

But don’t worry, I’m happy to offer a few guidelines which have served me well over the years…

Write Short Paragraphs

Large blocks of uninterrupted text are very difficult for readers. Solution? Keep your paragraphs short.

A paragraph consisting of only one, two, or three sentences is quite common in blogging.

I realize this goes against what your writing?teachers taught you in school, but trust me: It’s okay to have lots of one-sentence paragraphs in your blog post. Your readers will thank you for them.

Use Heading Tags

We’ll cover heading tags in more detail later in the tutorial, but “use them” is a tip warranting multiple readings. They help Google prioritize your content, and they help organize your content for your readers!

Proofread and Edit

Don’t get into the habit of publishing the first draft of your blog posts.

Proofread them. Make sure there aren’t any mistakes. Look at your sentences with a critical?eye, and see if you could rewrite them to make them better.

Give Credit When Credit is Due

If you are quoting something or using an idea you found online, be sure to credit the source and hyperlink to them.

In addition to being the right thing to do, this has the added benefit of potentially getting the attention of the source. They might mention you on Twitter, or even visit your blog and leave you a comment.

Write Long Posts… or Short… Doesn’t Matter, Just Write

If you haven’t already, you’ll eventually ask someone whether it’s better to write long posts or short posts.

Short posts allow you to write more frequently, which depending on whom you ask is either a great or horrible thing.

And long posts, in theory, should take longer to write. Which means you won’t publish posts as frequently, which, again, is either a great or horrible thing depending on the person you’re asking.

Some will tell you short posts help boost your blog’s traffic, while others will say short posts hurt the number of comments and social shares (people sharing your posts on Twitter, Facebook, etc) you receive.

And some have?similar, or totally different, thoughts regarding long posts.

It’s a hornet’s nest of a discussion, in other words.

My take?

Well, my take doesn’t matter.

I just think you should write.

If that means writing short posts once a day, great.

If that means writing one long post once a week, awesome.

I’ve done it both ways. I’ve gone through stretches where I wrote short, bite-size posts on a frequent basis, and I’ve written behemoth posts like the one you’re reading now.

Once you’ve learned the ropes on blogging, please do analyze your publishing habits and see if there are tweaks you can make.

Maybe you’ll discover long posts work better for you. Maybe you’ll discover short posts fit your writing style and your audience better.

Maybe, like me, you’ll discover both can work.

But right now?

Just write.

Too many bloggers talk about blogging rather than ACTUALLY BLOGGING!?[tweet this]

Your Closing

You’re in the home stretch! All that’s left to do is tie a ribbon on this puppy and you’re finished.

And by “tie a ribbon,” I mean write the greatest closing paragraph (or paragraphs) in the history of blogging!

Pretty easy, right?

Too many bloggers, yours truly included, botch the end of their posts. We’re so happy to be finished, we rush to the Call to Action.

As a new blogger, you need to develop good habits early on. You need to value your closing paragraph as much as your introductory paragraph.

You need to realize your last paragraph is just as important as your first.

So what makes a good closing paragraph? Well, it depends on your particular post.

Maybe your closing needs to kick your readers in the rear and propel them to take action?

Maybe your closing needs to reassure your readers?

Maybe your closing needs to ask a question your readers must answer?

Whatever your post needs, make sure your closing provides it.

To use a sports analogy: Don’t fumble the ball on the one-yard line.

Further reading:

  • A Rabble-Rouser?s Rules for Writing Kick-Ass Closing Paragraphs by Henneke Duistermaat via Copyblogger

Call to action

Your post is complete! Time to sit back and relax with a glass of orange juice, right?

Not yet!

Have you given your readers a call to action?

No?

Well, it’s a good thing you’re reading this.

Let me ask you a question: What do you want readers to do after reading your post?

Do you want them to leave you a comment?

Follow you on Twitter?

Sign up for your mailing list?

Whatever it is you want your readers to do, tell them to do it.

Don’t assume they’ll know you appreciate comments. Or really hope to be friends on Twitter. Or to grow your mailing list.

Tell them.

Publishing

It’s time to publish your post!

Aren’t you excited? Well, I’m excited.

Let’s look at the details you should know when publishing a post…

Categories

categories_area

To the right of your writing area, you will notice a section for “Categories.”

When you first start WordPress, you will have one category available to you: Uncategorized.

You can edit categories (add them, delete them, rename them, etc) by going to POSTS in your WordPress Dashboard and selecting CATEGORIES.

However, you can also add new categories on the fly while writing your post!

Click the “+ Add New Category” link and you’ll be able to create a new category. WordPress even allows a hierarchical order, so if you want your new category to be a “child” of an existing category you may do so.

“But what is a category,” you ask?

Categories are broad groupings for your posts.

Need an example?

Let’s say you have a blog for reviewing?movies, television shows, etc on Blu-ray.

You could have a primary category called?”Reviews”, and you could have “child” categories like:

  • Movies
  • TV
  • Documentaries

And for non-review posts, you could have another parent category called “Announcements” or “News.”

So, if you were reviewing “Field of Dreams,” you would put it inside the “Movies” category.

If you review the TV miniseries “Hatfields & McCoys,” you would mark it as “TV.”

And if you wanted to write a post about Kevin Costner being cast in a new movie, you would mark it in the?”Announcements” or “News” category you created.

Make sense?

A post can be marked for multiple categories, but it has to be in at least one.

Don’t worry. If you forget to select a category, your post will be marked in your default category.

(Your default category is your first category, which is “Uncategoried” or whatever you chose to rename it.)

Tags

tags_area

“Okay, but what are tags?!”

Great question.

If categories describe your posts in broad terms, tags describe them in more detail.

So, continuing our “Blu-Ray review blog” example from earlier, the movie “Forrest Gump” would go in the “Movie” category.

However, you can give it tags such as:

  • Tom Hanks movies
  • Comedy
  • Drama
  • Oscar-winning movies
  • 1990s

By adding tags, you are better connecting your related posts.

Without tags, “Forrest Gump” and “Turner and Hooch” would only be related by both being in the “Movies” category. But with tags, they’re also connected by the “Tom Hanks movies” and “Comedy” tags.

How detailed you want to be with your tags is entirely up to you. And you can also go back later and add new tags to a post if you like.

Note: While your post must be in at least one category, it does not have to be in any tags. So if you don’t add a tag to it, WordPress will not add a tag for you.

Edit your URL

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By default, once you click the “Save Draft” or “Publish” button WordPress will make the end of your URL whatever the title of your post happens to be.

So,?if you wrote a post titled “20 reasons Kevin Costner is the greatest actor in the world,” WordPress would turn the end of your URL to “20-reasons-kevin-costner-is-the-greatest-actor-in-the-world” (but without the quotes).

This is a pretty long URL.

So, if you wanted to shorten it (or you just wanted to customize it), you could click the “Edit” button.

Be sure to separate your words with dashes. Also, only use numbers and letters. Keep it simple.

Publish your post

publish_area

Let’s look at each area of the screenshot.

Save Draft

WordPress will automatically save your changes every so often. However, clicking the “Save Draft” button periodically is a good idea.

Preview

If you want to see what your post looks like so far, clicking the “Preview” button will open it in a new tab/window.

Status

The status of your post can be one of several. For most of your blogging needs, it will come down to two:

  • Draft
  • Published

If the status is “Draft,” it means you haven’t published it yet and no one (but you) can see it.

If the status is “Published,” it means it’s visible to the world.

Visibility

You have three options:

  • Public
  • Password protected
  • Private

“Public” is what most all of your posts will be, and your post is marked public by default.

However, if you want to allow only certain individuals to read a post, you can password protect it. Only readers who have the password you enter will be able to view it.

Finally, you can set a post to private. This means it’s published, but the only person who can see it is you.

Revisions

How many times have you clicked “Save Draft” or “Update” is reflected in the number of revisions.

My number is usually quite large!

Publish…

By default, your posts are set to “Publish immediately.”

However, if you click the “edit” button, you can choose a different date for publishing (either in the past or future).

If you set the publish date for some time in the future, your post becomes “scheduled.”

And when this scheduled time arrives, WordPress will publish your post for you.

This is very handy if you have written a post before going away on vacation, but you want it to publish several days later.

SEO

You will only see this option if you use the WordPress SEO plugin I use.?In other words, don’t worry about it.

Publish Button

When you are ready to publish your post, click the “Publish button.”

Once your post is published, you will see the status changed to “Published,” the “Publish…” changed to “Published on” followed by the date and time, and the Publish button itself change to an “Update” button.

If you make any changes to your post in the future, click the “Update” button to make those changes appear on your blog.

And that’s it. You did it!

You published your post!

Ok, but how do I…
(The technical mumbo jumbo)

If you’re anything like my Mom, this entire time you’ve probably been thinking:

That’s great, Kevin, but how do I actually write a post? Where do I go?? What button do I click?!“

It’s time to dive into some of the technical aspects of writing a blog post.

Up first? The formatting toolbar…

The formatting toolbar

If you’re familiar with Microsoft Word or Open Office, you should be familiar with a few of the buttons on the formatting toolbar.

Let’s briefly go over the key ones. Those which require emphasis will be discussed further a bit later.

Visual Editor and Toolbar Toggle

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Visual Editor

By default, you will be writing your posts in WordPress’s Visual editor. Unless you are familiar and comfortable with HTML code, you shouldn’t use the Text editor.

The pretty buttons you see in the image above will go away and, depending on what you have written, you will see HTML code sprinkled throughout your blog post.

If all this sounds Greek to you, just remember one thing: Stay in the Visual editor.

Toolbar Toggle

At least for this tutorial, you’ll want to be able to view all the formatting options available to you.

To show all the options (including underlining, changing the font color, and the undo button), click the Toolbar Toggle button. Conversely, you can click the button again to make the extra options go away.

Bold, Italics, Strikethrough, Underline, and Font Color

format_toolbar_1
Bold and Italics

You don’t want to overuse them, but making a word or sentence bold (like this) or italics (like this) can help important parts of your content stand out.

Strikethrough

Another way to highlight your text is to strike a line through, like this.

Underline

This button lets you underline a word or group of words, like I’m doing here.

Use it sparingly. Readers are conditioned to associate?underlined words as?hyperlinks. If you are underlining words which aren’t links, your readers could become confused. Similarly…

Text color

If you want to change the color of a word, you can use the highlighted button.

Just please don’t overuse this. In fact, feel free to never use it.

However, if you do use it, make certain you don’t change any words to the same color your blog uses for hyperlinks.

In other words, if hyperlinks on your site are the color red, don’t make other text (which aren’t links) red. It will confuse your readers.

Lists?and Blockquotes

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Bulleted (aka unordered) list

If you have a series?of short points to make, using a bulleted list is a great way to do it.

  • Here is my first point
  • Second point
  • Third point

A bullet list is an unordered list, which means there is no hierarchical order. Each item has the same bullet to the left of it.

Numbered (aka ordered) list

On the other hand, numbered lists (also called ordered list) do have a?hierarchical order. Here is what they look like:

  1. My first numbered point
  2. My second point
  3. My third point
Blockquote

The blockquote is a super handy formatting option when you’re writing a blog post.

If you have a quote or piece of text you want to emphasize or set apart, highlighting the text and clicking the blockquote button will give you the following:

(Superheroes) can disappear for months or years and then burst back onto the scene with a climactic display of their impressive powers. Okay for superheroes, not okay for your content. It might feel boring and constraining, but publishing consistently brings results.” – Amy Harrison

How blockquotes are styled is different from one WordPress theme to another, so yours will probably look different.

Text Alignment

format_toolbar_4
Left align

By default, your writing is going to be left-aligned. What this means is your text starts at the left-most margin of your display area. This is an example.

Center align

If you want to center your text, the “Align Center” button will do it for you. This is an example.

Right align

If you want push your text to the right-most margin, use the “Align Right” button. This is an example.

Justify

To duplicate the look you find in books, where the beginning of a line touches the left-most margin and the end of the line touches the right-most margin, use the “Justify” button. If you write long paragraphs, Justify can offer a nice, pleasing look to your text. This is an example.

Hyperlinks and More button

format_toolbar_5

Insert/Edit link

If you want to add a hyperlink to your post (which will take the user to a different web page when they click on it), highlight the text you want to turn into a link.

Next, click the “Insert/Edit link” button you see highlighted. It will look like chain.

You will be shown a popup similar to the following:

add_link

In the “URL” field, enter the address you want users to be taken to when they click on your link.

In the “Title” field, enter the text you want to display when the user hovers over your link. For example, if you were linking to BeABetterBlogger.com, an appropriate title would be “Be A Better Blogger” or “The Blog That Changed My Life.”

Checking the box with the label “Open link in a new window/tab” will do exactly what it says. If you leave it unchecked, when a user clicks your link?the destination address will replace your blog. Effectively, the reader will have left your blog.

However, by checking the box, the destination will open in a new window or tab, leaving your blog in its existing window or tab (and making it easier for your reader to return to your blog).

Clicking the “Add Link” button will complete the process.

If you need to edit your link, click the linked text in your WordPress Visual Editor, and re-click the “chain” button.

Remove link

If you want to remove a hyperlink, click anywhere inside the linked text in your Visual Editor, and click the “Remove link” button.

Insert ‘Read More’ tag

If you want only the first part of your post to be displayed on your blog’s home page or archive pages (as opposed to the entire post), use the “Insert Read More tag” button.

When you do this, a link will be placed directly after your excerpt text, which will take your reader to the full post once they click it.

To use it, place your cursor where you would like your text to stop. A common place would be after your first paragraph, or after your introduction.

Then click the “Read More” button.

Headings, Paragraph, etc.?formatting

format_toolbar_6

Headings

Throughout this tutorial, I’ve been using different headings to break up my text.

Have you noticed?the larger, bold text used to introduce each new section? Those are headings.

I add them by typing the words (such as “The formatting toolbar”), highlighting the words, and choosing “Heading 2” in the drop-down box highlighted in the image.

There is a hierarchy with the “Heading” elements, with Heading 1 being most important and Heading 6 being least. Here is how they look:

Heading 2

Heading 3

Heading 4

Heading 5
Heading 6

Please note: Your particular WordPress theme could have different sizes for each of these headings.

I omitted displaying “Heading 1” because you really shouldn’t use Heading 1 tags within the body of your blog posts. There should be only one instance of Heading 1, and that is your blog post’s title at the top of the page. (Your theme will use a Heading 1 tag for your title for you, so there is no extra steps you need to take.)

Beyond improving the readability of your post by breaking up chunks of text, heading tags help search engines like Google.?Your title (hopefully) describes what your post is about, so you don’t want it competing with other Heading 1 tags for Google’s attention.

(This is one of those on-page SEO things I mentioned earlier. Don’t dwell on it, just know Heading tags have benefits which go beyond readability.)

Further reading:

  • The heading structure for your blog by Joost de Valk of Yoast
  • The Ultimate Guide to Writing Irresistible Subheads by Gary Korisko
Paragraph

The “paragraph” formatting element is used for most of your post’s text. It’s the “normal text” you see when reading a sentence such as this one, and you can add additional elements like bold and italics by clicking the appropriate buttons on the formatting toolbar.

Address

The “address” formatting option is for, you guessed it, displaying mailing addresses.?It italicizes the text and pulls the lines closer together. Honestly, I’ve been blogging for almost 10 years and I’ve never once needed to use this particular option.

Preformatted

The “pre” formatting option is commonly used when you need to display code inside your blog post. Keep it in mind if you have such a need, but a majority of bloggers won’t ever need it.

Paste, Undo, Redo, and Keyboard Shortcuts

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Paste as text

If you have copied text from somewhere else (another web page, a Microsoft Word document, etc) and you would like to place it within your blog post, the “Paste as text” button is your solution.

When you’ve clicked and activated it (you will see a border appear around the button), you will now be able to paste the text your copied without inserting any strange formatting. You’ll be inserting the text and only the text.

With your cursor placed where you would like the text to go (and with “Paste as text” activated), paste your text using one of the following methods:

  • CTRL + V (While holding down the CTRL key on your keyboard, press the V key)
  • Right-click your mouse and choose the “Paste” option

Note: Copy and Paste works differently on tablets and smartphones.

Undo button

If you accidentally make a mistake, such as deleting an entire paragraph, the undo button will be your best friend. Click it and your previous action, whatever it may have been, will be undone.

You can undo several previous actions if needed.

Redo button

If you need to cancel an “undo” action, click the redo button.

So, for example, if you accidentally clicked the undo button and the paragraph you’ve just written disappears, clicking “redo” should bring it back to you.

Keyboard shortcuts

Want to learn keyboard shortcuts, such as CTRL + V and CTRL + C? Click the keyboard shortcuts button and you’ll be presented with a list of handy shortcuts you can use for when the need arises.

Decrease and Increase indent

format_toolbar_8

If you are using a bullet or numbered lists, you can increase or decrease the indention of those lists. For example:

  • This is a point I’m making in a bullet list
    • Here is a sub-point I’m making
  1. And here is a point I’m making in a numbered list
    1. And here is a sub-point

This comes in especially handy with longer lists.

Add a Photo?(aka Add Media)

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Sometimes, as my friend Will Hoekenga likes to say, words fail to do justice. Sometimes, you need to add images to your post to really paint a picture for your readers.

That’s why it’s necessary to learn how to insert photos into your blog posts.

Let’s say you wanted to insert an image of an adorable kitten.

Where do you go?

What do?you do?

Don’t worry, it’s really easy!

First, you need to click the “Add Media” button you see highlighted in the example image above.

After clicking “Add Media” button you’ll see…
add_media_1

(If you have trouble viewing the image clearly, click it to see a larger version.)

1. Media Library

By default, you’ll see the “Media Library” tab. This displays all the photos you have already uploaded to WordPress.

2. Upload files

If you want to insert an image saved to your computer, this is the tab you’ll want to select.

3. Photos already in Media Library

If you haven’t uploaded any photos yet, this will be empty. However, assuming you’ve uploaded photos in the past, you will see all of them here.

4. Insert photo from URL

Be careful with this one.

If you have images stored on another blog you own, for example, you could grab the URL of the image, click the “Insert from URL” link in the above image, and paste your image link.

This would be fine.

However, don’t use a?URL belonging to someone else! This is called hotlinking, and you’re stealing bandwidth from the owner of the image.

In short, if you don’t own the domain where the image is located, don’t link to it.

5. Insert into post

Once you’ve chosen the image you want to use, clicking this button will insert it into your post.

After clicking the “Upload Files” tab you’ll see…
add_media_2

If you’re handy with your computer’s operating system, you could drag one or more images to this window and WordPress will upload them.

Or, you can manually choose images by clicking the “Select Files” button.

After clicking “Select Files” you’ll see…
add_media_3

Find the image you want to use. Click the image and then click the “Open” button.

Note: My images were all stored in my “Downloads” folder. Yours could be on your Desktop, in your Pictures library, or somewhere else entirely.

After selecting image and clicking “Open” you’ll see…
add_media_4

(If you have trouble viewing the image clearly, click it to see a larger version.)

1. Your photo

Once uploaded, your picture will be highlighted (notice the blue border and check mark).

2. Align, link to and size

You will have the following alignment options:

  • Left – When selecting this alignment, your image will be to the left of your text
  • Right – When selecting this alignment, your image will be to the right of your text
  • Center – When centering, your image will be in the center of your content area, and your text will be below it on the following line
  • None – Your image will default to the left, and your text will be below it on the following line

You can also make your image be a hyperlink. Options include having the image link to a larger version of itself (which comes in handy when you have a large image forced to be made smaller to fit into your post), and having the image to an entirely different URL such as BeABetterBlogger.com.

Finally, you can choose what size your image will be in your blog post.

If it’s a large image, you can choose “full size”, “medium” size, “small” size, and “thumbnail” size. The smaller your image, the fewer options you will be given.

3. Insert into post

Clicking the “Insert into post” button will place your image wherever your cursor was located.

Congrats! You’ve inserted an image into your blog post!

Tip: If you want to take your blog posts up a notch, consider adding custom artwork. My friend Jaime Buckley is an amazing hand-drawn illustrator. If he doesn’t already have what you’re looking for, he can create it for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Certain topics didn’t fit elsewhere in the tutorial (or did, but were removed for brevity’s sake).

We’ll go over those here.

How to find links?

“How do I find links to use in my posts? How do I find links to Facebook pages”

No problem! Let’s start with finding a link for a basic webpage.

Finding links for regular pages

What if you wanted to use the URL for this post of mine you’re reading right now? (He writes pretending he’s?not wishing and hoping you’ll want to do so.)

Scroll up to the top of the page and look for the following:

url-example

(Pay no attention to the hundreds of tabs I have open!)

The highlighted portion is the URL for this post.

Simply highlight, copy it (hold down CTRL and C on your keyboard, or right-click your mouse and select “Copy”), and you’ll be ready to use it in your post.

Find the link to a?Facebook page
grab_url_2

Guess what? If you’re using a laptop or desktop computer, you follow the same steps as above!

Just scroll up to the top of the screen and copy the URL in the address bar.

However, what do you do if you’re using a Facebook app on your tablet or smartphone?

How do you find the link to the Facebook page?

Great question.

Let’s use the Facebook page for Unveil the Web in this next example.

You should see something similar to the attached image.

If you click the “More” button, you should receive an option to “Copy Link” or “Show Link.”

This is the link to the Facebook page.

How to embed YouTube videos?

Okay, let’s say you wanted to embed a YouTube video into your blog post like you see on other blogs.

How do you do it?

Well, let’s walk through how you would embed the following YouTube video from the hilarious-TV-gem-from-the-90s,?NewsRadio.

When you view the video on YouTube, beneath it you’ll see info similar to the following:

embed_youtube_1

By default, you will see the “About” info for the video.

Click the “Share” button and you will then see…

embed_youtube_2

First, you’ll see all the different social media files where you could share the video you found. (Keep that in the back of your mind if you want to do this one day.)

We want to click the “Embed” button.

When you click the Embed button you’ll see…

embed_youtube_3

This is where the magic happens.

If you want to change the default video size, you can do so in the available drop-down box. There are other options available to you as well, which you can check on or off.

Once you’re happy with your options, highlight and copy the code like you see in the image above.

Now it’s time to take this code and put it into your blog post.

For the first and only time in this tutorial, we will leave?the “Visual Editor” and use the “Text” editor.

embed_youtube_4

Depending on whether or not you have any formatting in your post (bold or italic text, headings, numbered lists, etc) what you see when you click the “Text” editor tab could be confusing.

Fear not! Ignore the odd symbols and focus on the words you understand. Find in the text the location where you want the YouTube video to appear in your post.

embed_youtube_5

Make room by hitting ENTER, if necessary. Then paste your YouTube code.

(Remember: You can paste by holding down the CTRL and V keys on your keyboard, or by right-clicking the mouse and selecting “Paste.”)

And that’s it!

That wasn’t so bad was it?

Further reading:

  • Embedding videos and playlists by Google Support

Where to find photos I can use?

Searching Creative Commons?images for Flickr is a very handy resource for finding photos for your blog posts.

It’s what I use.

By default, you’ll search for photos whose owners permit their images to be modified and to be used for commercial purposes.

When you find a photo you like, click on it. In the bottom right-corner you’ll see options, including an option to download the image.

Also in the bottom-right corner you’ll see a link to the copyright information.

If it says “Some Rights Reserved,” you’ll be permitted to use is so long as you follow the citation instructions. Typically, all you have to do is provide a link to the source, a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate whether or not you modified the image.

Here’s an example:

citation-example

Log in?

wordpress_login

It’s time to open a new tab in your favorite web browser.

Depending on whether or not you checked the “Remember Me” option when previously logging into your blog, you might still be logged into your blog’s dashboard.

Go to the following URL:

  • example.com/wp-admin

Change “example.com” to your your blog’s domain.

Now, if you’re already logged in, WordPress will take you to your dashboard. However, if you aren’t, you will be redirected to the login screen.

Your username

Whether you registered for a free WordPress.com blog, or you’re self-hosting a WordPress blog, you picked (or were given)?a username and password.

Don’t worry, I can help you remember if you’ve forgotten.

Hopefully.

If you have a free WordPress.com blog, your username is the same as your domain.

So, for example, if your blog’s domain is peanutbutterfan.wordpress.com, your username is peanutbutterfan.

You can also check your email. When you registered, WordPress should have sent you a welcome email.

If you self-host a WordPress blog, the odds are very good your username is admin.

(For security reasons, “admin” isn’t a good username. But that’s a topic for another tutorial.)

Again, if you’re unsure, you should have been sent an email when WordPress was installed.

Now, as for your password…

What’s my password?

wordpress_password_request

Ideally, the password you selected is one impossible for anyone else to guess.

It should be unique and unlike any of the other passwords you use for email, banking, etc.

And it shouldn’t be written down anywhere, especially on a sticky note adhered to your monitor.

Also, hopefully you remember what it is!

However, never fear if you don’t. Beneath the “password” field on the login page is a link for “Lost your password?”

Clicking it will take you to a page for retrieving your password.

Simply enter your username or the email address you used setting up the WordPress account.

Instructions for resetting you password will be emailed to you.

Once your password has been reset, return to the login screen (using example.com/wp-admin or example.com/login) and log in using your credentials.

That wasn’t so hard. Was it?

Start a new post?

If you’ve never seen or actively used the WordPress dashboard before, you might feel overwhelmed at first.

However, for writing a blog post, all you need to know is where to go to write a post. Thankfully, you have three options.

wordpress_dashboard

The “New Post” link in the top-right corner is going to be your easiest option.

Click it.

You will be taken to the “Add New Post” screen.

new_post

Congratulations! You’re ready to write a blog post.

Further reading:

  • Master your dashboard by WordPress

Are You Ready to Write a Blog Post?

It can be difficult for new bloggers out there.

So many buttons, so many steps, so many things to remember… it can be quite confusing when it’s all brand new to you!

And what people tend to forget is you could be a blogging novice, but still be a writing savant.

Take my Mom, for example.

Don’t let her quote in the introduction of this post fool you…

My Mom is sharp as a tack.

She’s?an amazing, witty writer, too.

She’s new to blogging and the “technical” aspects of it (hence the reason she emailed asking me to teach her how to write a blog post), but this doesn’t change the fact?she has writing talent in spades.

You’re probably the same way. You have writing skills, you just don’t have blogging skills.

Yet.

Don’t let being unfamiliar with all the “technical mumbo jumbo” get you down.

Don’t let any feelings of being overwhelmed discourage you.

Don’t compare yourself, your blog, or your writing to those who have been blogging for years and years.

We all were new bloggers, once upon a time.

Never forget that.

The No-Nonsense ‘Make Money With Your Blog’ Primer

Jan 20, 2016 By Sue Anne Dunlevie

Here’s how most bloggers think…

Start a blog, throw some ads on it, make money.

Right?

Unfortunately, it?s not that simple.

While many (many!) people start blogs each year with dreams of making a full-time income, most blogs barely bring in enough money to buy a cup of coffee.

Why?

Because ads are not as lucrative as you might think. To make $100 a day with Google AdSense, you need at least 40,000 page views per day. Yes, per DAY.

You’re probably wondering…

“How can you do it, Sue?”

How can you make money with your blog without killing yourself trying to get tons of traffic?

By selling your own services, courses, or products.

So, here?s the deal:

There are 6 ways to REALLY make good money with your blog. And I’m going to tell you about them right now.

Sound good? Let’s dive right in.

#1. Selling Services

dunlevie-selling-serviceTo make money, you need to take the focus off ads and focus on your services.

What kind of services can you offer?

Freelancing

If you are a content writer, copywriter, virtual assistant, etc., you can use your blog to get attention and build your brand with your readers. Freelancing is hard work, but you can build your rates as your increase your experience.

Real-World Example

Pooja Lohana is a successful blogger who has been featured on ProBlogger, Jeff Bullas, Write To Done, and more. However, this is how she earns her income:

pooja-lohana-freelaning

Pooja has leveraged her writing talent and turned it into freelance work. So can you.

Coaching

Are you really good at what you do?

Instead of selling your services, you could teach others to do what you do. Like freelancing, coaching is hard work. However, you take on fewer clients, and you can charge more per hour.

Real-World Examples

Don Purdum created and sold a business that generated nearly $20 million annually. He has a lot of knowledge and insights to share, which is why everyone from Adrienne “Engagement Superstar” Smith to “Two-Time Super Bowl Champ” Gary Clark have tapped Don for his skills as a business coach.

By offering 1-on-1 Internet Marketing Coaching on his blog, Unveil the Web, Don is able to leverage his experience into extra income.

Jonathan Milligan offers a similar service at Blogging Your Passion:

jonathan-milligan-coaching

Through his site, bloggers who “need a blog breakthrough” can hire Jonathan for a one-hour, 1-on-1 coaching session.

And if you’re really short on time, you can hire blogging guru Chris Lema by the minute:

chris-lema-coaching

By using a service called Clarity.fm, Chris is able to offer his insights to readers quickly and easily over the phone.

How To Get Started w/Services

Create a “Services”, “Work with Me”, or “Hire Me” page on your blog. Use this page to list what you offer, display testimonials, etc.

Here’s an example from Ashley Faulkes of Mad Lemmings:

mad-lemmings-services

Ashley is an expert at WordPress and SEO. So, in addition to regularly blogging about these (and similar) topics, he offers these skills as paid services.

You could do the same.

Pick your areas of expertise and offer them as services on your blog.

Tip: Freelancing isn’t “free money”, so look for financial solutions that can help you manage your side income and their tax implications. For example, Kontist offers products tailored to the needs of freelancers in Germany.

#2. Selling Products

dunlevie-selling-productAnother option for generating income with your blog is to sell products – either physical or digital. Your blog can act as a way to bring attention and traffic to your online e-commerce store.

Are you the crafty type? You can sell art, jewelry, and other wares.

If you?re not the crafty type, you can sell digital products. The opportunity to sell knowledge and information is HUGE!

Position yourself in your niche as an expert and the buyers will come. Whether it’s an eBook, printable PDF, checklist, or guide book… people are always on the hunt for information to make their lives easier.

And here?s the kicker:

The great thing about digital products is you create it once, but you get to sell it over and over.

Real-World Examples

kate-erickson-book

John Lee Dumas and Kate Erickson have created numerous products for their Entrepreneur On Fire audience.

Kate’s eBook, The Fire Path: A Beginner’s Guide to Growing Your Online Business, shares the step-by-step process she and John have used to grow a 7-figure business.

You might not have million-dollar insights to share, but if you have valuable knowledge (or skills) there’s no reason you can’t create a product people will want to buy.

Speaking of skills, Jaime Buckley is a renaissance man. When he’s not writing fantasy novels, he’s offering his artistic skills to discerning clientele:

jaime-buckley-artwork

By creating artwork once, Jaime is able to profit from that hard work over and over. For example, here is an artwork bundle he sells for $5.99.

Jaime knows there is a market for bloggers in need of funny, original visuals their readers haven’t already seen a hundred times.

By using his skills as an illustrator to create a digital product, Jaime is able to bring in yet-another stream of income for his family.

How To Get Started w/Products

Ask yourself, “What does my audience want?”

“What problem can I solve for them?”

You see, the type of product you create doesn’t matter nearly as much as the need it solves.

Jeni Elliott knew this, which is why she decided to create a professional-but-affordable media toolkit for bloggers. Jeni saw bloggers were faced with choosing between substandard quality and paying a painful amount of money, so she created The Brand Magnet:

jeni-elliott-product

You need to create your Brand Magnet.

Figure out what your audience needs, and then go create it.

Products haphazardly thrown together without rhyme or reason might make you a little money, but they don’t hold a candle to worthwhile products that fill a need.

Tip: Look at your most popular blog posts. Which ones have received the most interaction? These are great candidates for topics that could be expanded into products.

#3. Selling a Course

dunlevie-selling-courseFigured out what your audience needs?

Great!

Instead of a one-time download, why not create an entire course on the topic?

You can create courses comprised entirely of written material, videos, or a combination of the two. You can also bundle them with coaching sessions, private group memberships, or priority customer support – allowing you to create several different price points for your audience.

Real-World Examples

Bryan Harris launched his signature course, 10ksubs, in the Spring of 2015. He made $220,750 in the first 10 days.

How’d Bryan do it? He created a course that filled a huge need for his audience.

Elna Cain has done the same with her recently-launched freelance writing course:

writeto1k.com
Source: writeto1k.com

Elna’s readers kept asking her if it was really possible to make money by online writing.

After answering “YES!” over and over again, Elna decided to create a course showing them exactly how to do it.

How To Get Started w/Courses

Platforms like Rainmaker and plugins like Zippy Courses have made offering courses insanely easy for bloggers.

To learn more about creating membership sites with Rainmaker, check out Syed Balkhi’s in-depth tutorial. To learn more about Zippy Courses, check out its thorough documentation.

#4. Offer Workshops

dunlevie-offer-workshopsAre you seeing a trend here?

There are so many “things” you can sell on a blog.

If you have something you can teach or solve for your readers, you can host an online workshop or live training session.

In them you can give your readers the tools they need to take action and make positive changes in their lives. You can even record the session to sell as a training video later on down the line.

Real-World Examples

Charlene Kingston, an experienced business coach and featured blogger on Social Media Examiner, regularly offers online workshops to her audience:

Source: Charlene Kingston
Source: Charlene Kingston

Though he is no stranger to online workshops, Will Blunt of Blogger Sidekick often opts for live, face-to-face interaction.

Will offers in-house training to digital marketers in his native Australia. Given his wealth of knowledge, Will is in high demand.

How To Get Started w/Workshops

Google Hangouts, Blab, and Periscope have made hosting workshops easy. They’re viable alternatives for those who can’t (or don’t wish to) pay for a pricey GoToWebinar account.

To learn more about them, check out Martin Shervington’s Ultimate Guide on Google Hangouts, Ian Cleary’s tutorial on Blab, and Ana Hoffman’s Periscope tutorial.

#5. Have a Membership Area

dunlevie-membership-areaWant another way to make money with your blog?

How about creating a membership site or offering premium content?

They are both exclusive, members-only features your blog readers pay a fee to access.

Exclusivity is key – the perks behind your paywall can’t be mundane and easily accessible elsewhere. They need to be worthwhile.

Real-World Examples

With Tara Gentile’s coaching fees typically running $7,500 or more, the $39 required each month for membership to Kick Start Labs is an outright bargain – members have access to two group coaching calls by Tara each month (among other perks).

Also a bargain is Sarah Mackenzie’s Read Aloud Revival community:

Source: Read Aloud Revival
Source: Read Aloud Revival

In addition to resource guides, access to well-known authors, and other perks, members of Read Aloud Revival get to join a community of over 1,800 other like-minded parents with a common goal: getting their children to love reading.

And all for $14.95 a month.

How To Get Started w/Memberships

Using a plugin like Restrict Content Pro allows you to create premium content only your paying members can read. To read more about it, check out this tutorial by Syed Balkhi.

However, for ease of use and accessibility, it’s hard to beat the convenience of private Facebook groups. If you’ve never before created a Facebook group, here is the simple three-step process:

Step 1:

Sign into Facebook, find ?Groups? in your navigation menu, and click “Create Group.” The following window will appear:

Source: Mary Fernandez

Step 2:

Choose “Closed” or “Secret” for your “Privacy” settings.

Step 3:

Click the “Create” button.

That’s it.

#6. Affiliate Programs

dunlevie-affiliatesWant to know the best part about selling affiliate products?

When you promote the products of others and your readers buy it, you get paid a commission.

With affiliate sales, you?re still selling products, courses and programs, but you?re not the one creating them.

Yes, this isn?t as lucrative as creating something of your own. But for bloggers who don?t want to offer services or create their own products, it?s a very viable option.

You can promote affiliate products in all kinds of places. Place affiliate links in your:

Content

Add affiliate links into your blog posts. You can write informative posts and link to products (where they fit, of course), or you could write a full product review to tell your readers all about the product (both its pros and cons).

Real-World Example

Be A Better Blogger’s own Kevin J. Duncan wrote an all-encompassing article explaining his reasons for switching to The Rainmaker Platform:

duncan-affiliates

In addition to giving readers a behind-the-scenes look at his decision-making process, Kevin sprinkled affiliate links for Rainmaker throughout his article.

Emails

There really is power in your list.

Your subscribers have already shown an interest in what you have to offer, so capitalizing on that interest from time to time by sending out emails with affiliate links is a great way to generate income (while also offering your readers a [hopefully] beneficial product).

Real-World Example

Jeff Goins’ readers trust him. When he shares with them a course or product, they know it’s something good:

Source: Jeff Goins
Source: Jeff Goins

In the email screenshot above, Jeff shared with his readers a discounted price for Michael Hyatt’s 5 Days To Your Best Year Ever course.

Your “Resources” Page

Your readers want to know what tools or products you use. They’re curious. They’re also likely to give the resources you use a try (at least on a trial basis).

Becoming an affiliate for the products you love and use, and sharing those affiliate links with your readers on your Resources page, is an excellent way to generate income for your blog.

Real-World Example

Adam Connell of Blogging Wizard has tested and reviewed virtually every product under the sun. His favorites are listed on his “Tools” page:

adam-connell-affiliates

Ana Hoffman does the same on her “Resources” page:

ana-hoffman-affiliates

By organizing the products they use for readers to see, and by using their affiliate links for readers to click, Adam and Ana bring in real and tangible incomes.

How To Get Started w/Affiliates

Some products, such as Rainmaker and LeadPages, require you to be a customer in order to be an affiliate. Others, such as OptinMonster and Bluehost, don’t have such restrictions.

Every merchant is different, but many use ShareASale to manage their affiliate opportunities. Here’s how to create a free account:

Step 1: Choose Username and Password

After clicking the “Affiliate Signup” button on ShareASale’s homepage, you’ll see the following screen:

shareasale-step1

Choose your username and password, and select your country of origin.

Step 2: Enter Your Website Info

You need a website in order to use ShareASale. Assuming you have one, on screen two you enter your URL, the primary language in which your website is written, and a few miscellaneous pieces of information about your site (such as whether or not it contains adult material).

Step 3: Enter Contact and Payment Info

On screen three, you’ll enter your name, address, and all other applicable contact information. Next, you’ll configure your payment settings (though you can skip this step and come back to it later in your ShareASale dashboard).

And that’s it. You’re now ready to sign up for thousands of different affiliate opportunities.

What?s The Bottom Line?

It is possible to make real money with your blog.

However, long gone are the days where you could do so simply by writing a few posts and throwing Adsense on your site.

You need to offer a service. You need to create a product, course, or membership site. You need to offer live training. You need to learn all you can about affiliate marketing.

Monetizing your blog can seem a little overwhelming. So, start small. Make it your goal to earn $1,000 this year.

How?

Create a $97 course and sell it to 10 people. There’s your $1,000.

And you want to know the best part?

As your blog grows, more opportunities to make money will become available to you.

Play your cards right and you can obtain the freedom that lets you work from home doing what you love…

Blogging.

Featured image by OTA Photos (adapted) / CC by 2.0

Behind the Scenes of a Viral Guest Post: The 6.4k Share One Hit Wonder

Jan 12, 2016 By Tom Hunt

Almost every blogger I speak to is looking for that one “lucky” post that will go viral and take their blog to the next level.

“I need to go viral…”

“I need to create one of those YouTube prank videos…”

“I need to get lucky…”

The problem?

Luck plays a VERY small part.

If you want to create viral guest posts that are shared over 5k times, “luck” is FAR eclipsed by a proven, well-crafted strategy.

In this blog post, I’m going to give you a “behind the scenes” look at how I managed to go from a no-one to building a viral guest post that received 6,400+ social media shares on a blog I have been following for years.

And if that wasn’t good enough, thanks to the strategies I’m about to share, I now have a close relationship with the blog’s owner and have just joined his latest mastermind group.

Here is the article, and here is the proof:

tom-hunt-01

An Idiot’s Guide To Virality

I am not a psychology professor.

Thus, we are not going to go into the psychological theory behind sharing or viral coefficients, although here is a great book for that.

No, I am going to tell you what works.

The one law you will need to internalize in order to surpass the coveted 5,000 share mark is this:

PEOPLE SHARE THINGS THAT MAKE THEM LOOK GOOD.

Look at Dan Bilzerian. He shares things that make him look good all the time:

Packed up, stopping in Chicago for a couple days before NYC

A photo posted by Dan Bilzerian (@danbilzerian) on Sep 1, 2015 at 9:10pm PDT

Look at me. Whenever I get the opportunity to post an image of me looking good, I take it:

A photo posted by Tom Hunt (@tomhuntio) on Oct 22, 2015 at 5:19am PDT

Heck, Be A Better Blogger’s own Kevin J. Duncan does this now…

“Asked to write for Boost Blog Traffic a second time…” http://t.co/CysptVMYt8 THX @JonMorrow @GlenLong #meme pic.twitter.com/d9e1ojHmn1

? Kevin J. Duncan (@kevinjduncan) June 27, 2015

…and then:

“That moment when you discover @brianclark has tweeted your post…” http://t.co/V24Soqldcg pic.twitter.com/h86VIChEN1

? Kevin J. Duncan (@kevinjduncan) July 24, 2015

In other words:

  • You find a post that mentions you – you share it to make yourself look good
  • You find the website of a cool bar you like – you share with your friends so it makes you look cool
  • You find a post that could help a friend – you share it to help your friend and also to make yourself look good in front of your friend

Simple, right? But who will be doing the sharing of our awesome post?

Coming from the corporate world, I have always been told to “manage stakeholders.” I never really understood what this meant until I started guest blogging. A stakeholder is someone who “holds a stake” in something – they have an interest or concern.

When building a viral guest post, we have three different groups of stakeholders that need to be targeted and influenced to share in slightly different ways:

The Reader

The Reader will share useful content with their network that makes them look good.

The Influencer

The Influencer will share content with their network that mentions them, as this will make them look good. (Hint: we need to mention Influencers.)

The Blog Host

The Blog Host will share the post because it was published on their website.

Yes, this means you will NOT be publishing the post on your own blog (unless you have over 10,000 subscribers). You will posting it on another blog within your niche to leverage their audience and their relationships with influencers. (More on this in the “Determine Blog Destination” section.)

With these concepts in mind, let’s dive right in…

Generate Post Idea & Headline

What is the most shared blog post format of all time? Let’s just take a quick look at the ?most shared? Buzzfeed articles:

tom-hunt-02

Look at those share numbers! For a more comprehensive overview of why List Posts will always work, I will refer you to Brian Clark.

But yes, you will need to create a list. A list of what (I hear you cry)?

Well, that depends.

There are a number of factors to consider when determining the topic of the list you will build:

Factor #1: Has the list been built before?

If so, only do it if you can make it slightly different and MUCH better.

With my chosen topic, I couldn’t find a solid list of alternative media sources. However, when entering “stop reading the news” there are a wealth of quality opinions from influencers on the topic:

tom-hunt-03

And if The Guardian has an article on the topic, surely people care about it, right?

Factor #2: What are you passionate about?

(This answer will hopefully be the same as Factor #3.)

Not sure what you?re passionate about?

  • How about that weird topic that gives you that excited bubbly feeling in your stomach?
  • The thing you can sit around for 4 hours on a Saturday night and discuss with your friends?
  • Or, the thing you spend your time reading about at work?

Without a doubt, the greater your passion for your chosen topic, the more effort you’ll put into it. The more effort you put into it, and better quality it’ll be. And the better the quality, the more shares you’ll ultimately receive.

Factor #3: What are your readers passionate about?

That’s a question only you can answer.

In my case, the people I want to join my blog audience have a similar outlook on life to me: they have a healthy disregard for convention.

Factor #4: Can you take a minority viewpoint?

People love rallying against the majority, so if you can argue a dissenting view people will be more likely to share your post.

“Stop Reading The News” definitely fits this point as I am pretty sure most people read the news.

Factor #5: Do Influencers you follow have any similar qualities?

Many of the 19 individuals I mentioned in my List Post shared a similar outlook; most notably, Owen Cook, Alan Watts, and Joe Rogan. In addition to giving my List Post a central focus, this similar outlook increased the chances these Influencers would share it.

Factor #6: Does it strike you as a remarkable list?

If you came across the list as you scrolled through your Facebook feed, would you stop and show it a friend sitting next to you?

If your list isn’t remarkable enough to compel someone to share it with a friend sitting two feet away, it’s unlikely they’ll bother sharing it with their followers.

The Headline

Once you have an idea for a striking, remarkable and passion-fueled List Post, it’s time to sculpt a headline that will turn the heads of all those to see it.

But first, a question:

Do you want to know the secret behind writing great headlines? (And also behind the success of every great person?)

Consistent action over a long period of time.

Or, in this context: Write 10 headlines a day for two years. That’s what I did.

And after two years of practice, I focused my efforts on crafting the perfect headline for my List Post. These were my two finalists:

  1. Stop Reading The News: 19 Mind Expanding Alternative Media Sources
  2. Wake Up: 19 Refreshing Alternative Information Sources That Will Unlock Your Mind

tom-hunt-04After a bit of discussion, Cody McKibben (the Blog Host) and I felt “Stop Reading The News” was a more compelling call to action and would lead to more shares.

Don’t worry. You don’t have to wait two years honing your headline skills before you can create your List Post.

Blogging magnate Jon Morrow shares his greatest headlines in his eBook 52 Headline Hacks,?which I highly recommend you download after reading this post.

Determine Blog Destination

It is of crucial importance that you select a blog that has a similar readership to yours.

You need to build a shortlist…

I assume you will already have a shortlist of blogs you follow in your industry (I had been following Thrilling Heroics for a couple of years prior to writing this post), but if you don’t:

  • Head over to Alltop and browse other blogs in your chosen topic
  • Go to BuzzSumo and search relevant keywords
  • Email your subscribers and ask them to share the blogs they follow

Once you have a shortlist of approximately 10 to 20 blogs, list them in a Google Sheet. If they have them, be sure to include a link to their “guest posting guidelines” page. If they do not, type their name and the words “guest post” into Google:

tom-hunt-05

What you’re looking for is evidence the blogs on your shortlist are friendly to guest bloggers. Cross blogs that do not accept guest posts off your list. For those that remain, enter their URLs into BuzzSumo:

tom-hunt-06

See those high share counts? That’s what you’re hoping to see.

Once you’ve researched all the blogs on your shortlist, it’s time to pick a target.

Head over to your chosen blog and collect the owner’s email address, Twitter handle, and phone number (if available). You should be able to find this information on their “guest post guidelines”, “About”, or “Contact” pages.

Once you have their contact information, you’re ready for the next step.

Make Them Like You

You may be starting to notice a recurring theme in this post:

PEOPLE LIKE PEOPLE WHO SHARE THEIR STUFF.

Head to your chosen blog and blogger and:

  • Follow them on Twitter
  • Like them on Facebook
  • Sign up to their mailing list
  • Comment on a post of theirs that you like (follow these guidelines for blog commenting)
  • Share their content and mention why people should read

These techniques are MUCH more effective if performed consistently over time and not 5 minutes before you send your email pitch. Check out this post by Paul Back for a more comprehensive guide to making friends with bloggers.

Now it’s time…

Time for the moment you have all been waiting for:

The Ultimate Guest Post Submission Email

Here is the exact email I sent Cody of Thrilling Heroics:

tom-hunt-07

Catch what I did there?

  • Reminded Cody that “we spoke on Twitter”
  • Provided two potential headlines (when people collaborate on a project they are more likely to support it)
  • Used the words “add value to your readership” – I am focusing on HIM and what HE cares about
  • I don’t refer to my interests (traffic, links, recognition, etc.) – again, I keep the focus on him
  • I show I’ve already done some work by creating this list of people and linking to their Twitter profiles (Law Of Reciprocity)
  • I inform Cody he’s included on the list – indirectly stating he is an Influencer of mine
  • By mentioning that he is a “digital nomad” himself, I’m proving I have been following him and am aware of what he does
  • I mentioned I’ll personally reach out to each Influencer on the list AND other Influencers that have created/shared similar articles before – this lets him know I’ve done my homework and that I’m not expecting HIM to do the heavy lifting
  • I refer to the previous List Post on his site that achieved 173 shares, and told him we could beat it. This shows 1) I am, again, a follower of his blog and 2) I’m aiming high

What I could have improved:

  • I could have included links to previous posts I have written in the same niche/industry and included the number of times they have been shared
  • The formatting of my signature was not aligned with the rest of the post
  • I could have mentioned specifically how Thrilling Heroics has helped me in the past

Here is Cody’s response:

tom-hunt-08

I have taken these improvements and added them to a Google Doc you can download, customise, and send out to your selected Host.

Notify Influencers

Okay, so we have the Host Blog and we have an extremely shareable idea for a List Post. Now we need to identify and approach the Influencers who will comprise this List.

As discussed above, if you have selected a topic relevant to yourself and your readership, identifying Influencers should come naturally.

However, if you want to boost your numbers (the more Influencers, the better), I would suggest entering your keyword into the search bars at Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Alltop. See which individuals pop up time and time again.

It is also important to be aware of the existing relationships between the Influencers you select and between them and your chosen Blog Host. These existing relationships can boost the likelihood of sharing. For example:

  • I knew Cody (Blog Host) follows/has relationships with a number of the Influencers on the list, so he would be more likely to accept the post AND share it
  • I knew Joe Rogan has relationships with Duncan Trussell and Chris Ryan (as they often appear on each others’ podcasts)
  • I knew Brian Rose also follows and has a relationship with Joe Rogan
  • I had an existing relationship with Brad Burton, which made him more likely to share the article

Once you have your list of Influencers, enter their Twitter handles, email addresses, links to their best content, and headshots into a Google Sheet. Here is a template you can use.

Then send them a “Heads Up” email like the one I sent to my Influencers:

tom-hunt-09

In the email you send, be sure to mention the credentials of the blog you will posting on (remember, Influencers are interested in getting exposure), how much value they have provided you over the past X days/months/years, and that you have found their headshot and want to know if they approve.

I received a 25% response rate from the 19 Influencers, so do not worry if they don’t all respond.

tom-hunt-10

The main reason for the “Heads Up” email is to raise awareness of your post in their minds, which will increase the likelihood that they will share once it is posted.

Construct Post

Now it’s time to do some real work.

Your List Post must include:

An Introduction

When a reader starts to read your content, they’ll inevitably ask themselves the following questions:

  • Why should I read this article?
  • What will I get out of it?
  • Is this article meant for me?
  • Have I read something similar before?

You must answer these questions in the first 30 seconds.

A Section For Each Influencer

In the post I created, I chose to include the following details for each Influencer. Feel free to include any other details that are relevant to your topic or audience:

  • Name (Linked To Twitter Profile)
  • Snappy Headline
  • Why You Should Follow Them Section
  • Link To Get Started

Here is an example from the post:

tom-hunt-11

A Closing & Call To Action

Personally, I like to close blog posts with words of inspiration that lead to a clear call to action. Ideally, these will encourage a reader to take action right there and then.

In this case, the action we want readers to take is sharing our List Post.

tom-hunt-12

Visual Interest

Once you have the raw text, you need to make sure your formatting is on point. I like to bold headlines and ensure all hyperlinks are clearly marked.

Here is the CSS class used to right-align circular head shots with a lovely little shadow (pass this on to your developer if you are non-technical):

.influencer-photo {

float: right;

margin-top: 1em;

margin-left: 0.5em

margin-bottom: 0.5em

border-radius: 150px;

-webkit-border-radius: 150px;

-moz-border-radius: 150px;

background: url(http://link-to-your/image.jpg) no-repeat;

box-shadow: 0 0 8px rgba(0, 0, 0, .8);

-webkit-box-shadow: 0 0 8px rgba(0, 0, 0, .8);

-moz-box-shadow: 0 0 8px rgba(0, 0, 0, .8);

}

Credit to Glen Long from Boost Blog Traffic for this CSS code.

Once everything has come together and is looking fresh, it’s time to send your draft to the Blog Host you identified.

From my experience, most Blog Hosts like to receive posts in .docx format with images either embedded in the document or embedded separately. Some Blog Hosts, such as Boost Blog Traffic, The Write Life, and Be A Better Blogger, like to use Google Docs. I would recommend inquiring with your Host to determine their particular preference, though their “guest post guidelines” page will usually contains clues.

Ensure all files are labelled clearly and the .docx file (if that’s indeed the Host’s preference) includes the name of the Host Blog.

This assures the Host you have created this piece of content JUST for them and are not just “guest post spamming.”

Reach Out To Influencers

Okay… You have addressed all concerns of your Host, made it through the editing process, and your guest post is now live.

Time for a beer?

Nope, your work is just getting started.

First, let’s pick the low hanging fruit…

Share the post with your subscribers and all your social media networks. Confirm your Blog Host has done the same. Depending on your and the Blog Host?s influence, you may gather a few hundred shares this way.

Next, it’s time to encourage each Influencer to share the List Post with their networks.

In order to increase the chances of BIG share numbers, let’s review BJ Fogg’s Behavior Model:

Image Credit: BJ Fogg
Image Credit: BJ Fogg

As we can see from the graph, a person acting on a specific behavior (sharing your List Post) depends on three factors:

#1. Trigger

In this case, the Trigger is this email:

tom-hunt-16

(More on the content within this email shortly.)

It is important not to be disheartened if they do not share after your first Trigger email – you can follow up with multiple Triggers through email, Twitter, and any other social networks in which you are connected.

Personally, I like to send a tweet immediately after sending the above email just to highlight the fact that I have sent them an update. Some may disagree, but I think it is acceptable to follow up with each Influencer on a weekly basis for a month through email and Twitter (until they share or respond with feedback).

#2. Motivation

If we have chosen an appropriately shareable topic and an insightful review of each Influencer, their motivation for sharing the article is clear:

PEOPLE SHARE THINGS THAT MAKE THEM LOOK GOOD.

#3. Ability

In order to maximize the number of Influencer shares we MUST make it as easy as possible for each Influencer to share the post.

To do so, head over to Share Link Generator and create links for all major social platforms:

tom-hunt-15

In my Trigger emails to each Influencer, I included links for Facebook, Google+, and Twitter:

tom-hunt-14

In the above email to Mark, I’m once again highlighting the potential value that could be added to Mark/Alan’s audience (Alan Watts unfortunately passed away) by the article.

If you get replies asking you to change anything, do it:

tom-hunt-17

After I immediately changed the link Mark was referring to, he promptly shared the article on the official Alan Watts Facebook Page. This generated a whopping 862 shares:

tom-hunt-18

Once each email has been sent, I would wait around 24 hours for any shares to surface. Then mention each Influencer who hasn’t yet shared in a Tweet similar to this:

You?ve been featured ’19 Mind-Expanding Alternative Media Sources’ https://t.co/oNYBPMCSV8 @joerogan @tweetsauce @brianbrose @LondonRealTV ? Tom Hunt (@tomhuntio) November 5, 2015

Note, I included two people I know have a relationship together in this Tweet: Brian Rose and Joe Rogan. Unfortunately, my 700 strong Twitter following did not generate those 70 RT’s – those were mainly produced by Joe Rogan after he decided to retweet.

We also received shares from Chris Ryan…

A few alternative news sources: https://t.co/bfSLgDcmLS ? Christopher Ryan (@ChrisRyanPhD) November 5, 2015

Brad Burton…

Bless. The Bradsta is in at #5 pop pickers. *takes bow* thanks for no Tom ???????????????? https://t.co/N5lTL1aVeW ? Brad Burton #BeYou (@BradBurton) November 4, 2015

…and, of course, Cody himself:

Stop Reading The News: 19 Mind-Expanding Alternative Media Sources https://t.co/qOGuTyP6Vu ? Cody McKibben (@codymckibb) November 4, 2015

Once we have followed up with ALL of the Influencers on the list, we can now focus on Influencers that were not been mentioned in the List Post, but may still be interested in sharing the article.

First, I would first start contacting anyone with whom you have an existing relationship. Next, use BuzzSumo to search for your keyword and add authors of existing posts on List Post’s topic.

You can then send them the following mail:

tom-hunt-19

Note the email’s similarity to the previous Trigger email – the difference is it includes a link to the similar post that lead me to that particular individual.

Once you have found and emailed authors who wrote similar articles, you can use BuzzSumo to find individuals who have linked to those articles. Send them similar emails requesting feedback and shares.

Monitor & Connect

If you have taken my advice in the above section regarding NOT being afraid to be controversial, by now you should have some “interesting” comments. Congrats – that is awesome!

Make sure you respond to these comments in a calm and diplomatic manner as I try to do here:

tom-hunt-20

And here:

tom-hunt-21

Be sure to connect with and respond to EVERY share and comment. You want to make as many connections as possible, right?

If executed correctly, you will find this process will build MASSIVE goodwill with your readers, Blog Host, and – most importantly – Influencers. It is your responsibility to capitalize on this and ensure you develop the relationships further through Twitter, email, and even in person.

It’s finally time to sit back, relax and have a beer…

Or, you may even be popping a bottle of sparkling white wine with your Blog Host if everything has gone to plan.

Seriously, you cannot underestimate the goodwill a well executed (and shared) guest blog post can have on your relationship with key Influencers in your niche.

You now have the power…

You no longer need to dream about viral YouTube prank videos for those much sought after traffic spikes. You no longer have to fail in your quest to develop deep relationships with the Influencers you admire.

You have no excuse NOT to create that BIG guest post you told yourself you were going to create “someday.”

You have the formula. You no longer have to rely on “luck.”

Featured image by Alex Grech (adapted) / CC by 2.0

The Unpublish Challenge

Dec 9, 2015 By Kevin J. Duncan

unpublished-keyboard-keyIt pains me to write these words.

No, it’s not because my fingers are sore. It’s not because I’m suffering from carpal tunnel. It’s not even because I’m sitting in an uncomfortable chair. (Although…)

It’s painful because I know what I’m about to say will challenge paradigms and hurt people’s feelings.

And not just any people…

People who follow me on Twitter. People who have subscribed to my email list. People who have written guest posts for me.

I’m stalling. It’s best to come right out and say it…

Remember the guest post you contributed weeks, months, or years ago? The one you eagerly shared with your friends and proudly display on your sidebar or “about” page?

I’m removing it from the website. I’m taking it offline. I’m clicking unpublish.

And the most painful truth of all?

Your post shouldn’t have been published in the first place.

Still Reading? It Gets Worse

It just wasn’t ready.

Like an old-fashioned Polaroid or a minor league pitcher who can’t throw his curve for strikes, your guest post needed more time to develop.

That’s on me.

I should have given it back to you for further editing. I should have asked you to make more revisions. I should have demanded more detail and less filler.

But I didn’t. I clicked publish, promoted your post to my trusting readers, and hoped for the best.

Worse? It’s not just yours – I’ve published several guest posts that needed more time in the editing room before seeing the light of day.

I let feelings of obligation and my reluctance to say “no” override what I knew to be true:

“Even if a guest post is good, it doesn?t mean you should publish it. The content needs to be great!” – Neil Patel

Even though I teach readers to do their best and make every post count, I’ve published guest posts that fell short of those standards.

Even though I once spent seven months from start to finish on one of my own guest posts to ensure it was worthy of the website publishing it, I’ve failed to demand the same level of commitment with guest posts written for my own website.

Even though I wanted great, I accepted good.

Thankfully, it isn’t too late to remedy the situation.

It’s Time to Unpublish

the-unpublish-challenge-portraitOn January 1, 2016, any Be A Better Blogger guest post deemed “good not great” will be taken offline. At that time, their URLs will redirect to the post you are reading right now.

Why wait until 2016? Why not take them offline right away?

Because I want to give these guest bloggers a second opportunity. I want to challenge them to do what I failed to ask them to do: Be better.

Revise your guest post. Improve it. Add additional details.

Turn your “good” guest post into a “great” one.

Yes, I realize this is crazy. What I’m proposing is unrealistic, outside the box, and sure to ruffle some feathers.

That doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea.

We bloggers are taught to update our old posts. To breathe new life into them. To better them.

Why should guest posts be any different?

Why shouldn’t bloggers reach out to past contributors whose content needs refreshing? Why shouldn’t those old guest posts be improved upon and revised?

Better yet…

Why don’t guest bloggers take initiative?

Why don’t we revisit our old guest posts and offer to make them better?

The Road Less Traveled

Have you ever read an old guest post you’ve written and thought, “I could do that way better today”?

Why not do something about it?

This morning, I emailed everyone who has ever published a “good not great” guest post of mine. The details varied, but here is the gist of what I sent them:

Hi [name],

You’re going to think I’m insane.

First off, thank you once again for allowing me to write for your audience back in [month and year]. I’m so grateful for the opportunity, and I’m happy your readers enjoyed it.

All that said, I think I can do better. It’s been [length of time since publishing] and a lot has changed. After rereading [name of guest post] recently, I thought of several ways I could improve it.

I’m not talking about adding any additional links to my website. I’m not talking about including an opt-in bribe or anything like that. I just want to make the post 5% better. I want all future readers of the post to see the best possible version of it.

In short, I’d like to update it.

Would you be open to that?

Kevin

Why did I do this?

I did it because the lifespan of a guest post doesn’t end after the first couple days of comments and social media shares.

People continue to discover your guest posts months – even years – later. In most cases, these posts are the only content these individuals will ever read of yours.

Don’t you want to impress them? Don’t you want to knock their socks off? Don’t you want them to seek out other posts you’ve written?

Of course you do. Or, at least you should.

Everyone who reads a piece of content you’ve written is a potential fan for life.

They’re people who could subscribe to your email list, follow you on social media, and buy that eBook or course you’re planning to create one day. They’re people who could tell their friends about you. They’re people who could shout your virtues from rooftops.

You should do whatever it takes to turn that potential into action.

And those tired, out-of-date, or “good not great” guest posts you’ve written?

They’re not going to cut it.

In fact, they could be doing more harm than good. It’s quite possible they’re hurting your reputation as well as the reputation of the blog owner who published them.

The Unpublish Challenge

Revisit the guest posts you’ve written. Go through them with a critical eye while asking yourself the following question:

“How could I make this post 5% better?”

Is the post a work of art? Awesome. Take a few minutes to share your masterpiece with your followers – it may be brand new to many of them.

But if you find things to improve? Things that kind of… well, suck? You need to do something about it.

Using my email above as a template, reach out to the blog owner who published your guest post. Offer to make it 5% better with absolutely zero strings attached.

If they take you up on your offer, start writing. Make the post the best it can be for all those potential fans for life who will find it.

And if they say no? Well, you need to ask a tough question…

“Does this post help my reputation or hurt it?”

If the post helps your reputation, flaws and all, great. Email the blog owner again and thank them for their time.

But if it hurts your reputation?

Politely ask them to take the post offline. Explain why the post no longer benefits either of you.

Extreme? Yes, but it’s for the greater good.

Keep in mind: You can’t demand they comply. The post is theirs. They own it. You gave it to them.

However, no respectable blog owner will want a mediocre post on their site that’s been disowned and renounced by its author. Your request could be the kick in the butt they need to realize their old content needs refreshing.

Yes, This is Scary

It asks you to critique your work.

It asks you to look a little foolish.

It asks you to reach out to bloggers you admire and say, “Hey… can I try that again?”

It asks all those things of you even though the payoff is immeasurable and could be years down the road.

But it’s worth it.

Somewhere out there is your next fan for life. It could be someone of influence, a future business partner, or the person destined to be your new best friend. And someday, they’re going to stumble across a random guest post you wrote.

Don’t you want it to be great?

Tools and Tips To Write Engaging Content Your Audience Will Love

Dec 3, 2015 By Julie Petersen

Note from Kevin: Today’s guest post comes courtesy of Julie Petersen. Need help writing engaging content? Julie has some great tips and tools…

tips-tools-portraitWhat?s the last truly great article you read?

Did you share it with anyone on social media? Did you tell your friends and family about it or quote it later in your day? Did you save it so you could read it again?

If any of these things are true, I bet I can tell you two facts about the article. First, I can say with confidence that it was well written. The author took their time to compose their thoughts in a way that drew you in and engaged you on an intellectual level. Second, it was visually appealing. You saw a picture, video, slideshow, or something else that got your attention.

These things don?t just happen.

It takes time to craft engaging content that audiences love. And if you?re pressed for time or new to writing, it can be a challenge to produce quality articles over and over again.

The following tools and tips will help make the process a little more seamless. Use them to improve both your writing and your visual content so your readers will love your work.

Writing Tools

no1Hemingway Editor

Write like Hemingway!

Hemingway Editor is an awesome website that can improve the readability and clarity of your writing. You just copy and paste your article into Hemingway Editor?s platform, and the site will highlight any sentences that are hard to read.

It also points out passive voice and adverbs so you can modify them as you wish.

no2Tweak Your Biz Title Generator

Tweak Your Biz?s online Title Generator comes up with a huge list of possible headlines for your blog posts. All you have to do is type in your topic, and specify whether the topic is a noun or a verb. Tweak Your Biz does the rest.

Choose the headline that grabs your attention the fastest. It?s sure to have the same effect on your readers.

no3Ninja Essays

Ninja Essays is a tremendous resource for writers.

For a small fee, Ninja Essays can write your articles for you. If you need help with editing and proofreading, they have services for those as well.

They?ll even help with formatting!

no4PlagTracker

PlagTracker will ensure that your articles are free of plagiarism.

The website will scan your article, find any instances of plagiarism, and replace them with original content.

Rest easy knowing you will always have truly unique content for your readers to enjoy.

no5Word Counter

Longer content is viewed more and shared more across social media. Longer posts also offer more opportunities for backlinks and embedding SEO keywords.

For these reasons, it?s important to have a minimum standard for the length of your posts. Aim for at least 400 words per post.

Essay Mama?s Word Counting tool will make this step in the process very easy.

Visual Content Creation Tools

no6Canva

Considered to be one of the easiest design websites for anyone to use, Canva uses a ?drag and drop? tool to make stunning graphics for your website or blog posts.

Kevin J. Duncan uses Canva to create many of the graphics you see here on Be A Better Blogger!

no7Pixabay

Choose from a selection of over 490,000 free photos and illustrations.

Pixabay makes it easy to find what you?re looking for with their search tool.?You can further filter your results based on orientation, theme, or prevalent color.

It’s pretty nifty.

no8PiktoChart

PiktoChart lets you easily create infographics for your website.

You start by selecting a template, and then you add charts, video, pictures, and data. With built in social media options, you can easily share the infographic across your web pages.

You can also choose to download and print it, or embed it into a website.

no9WeVideo

Unlike most visual content creation websites, WeVideo lets you make videos for your page.

The site has advanced options for people who are a bit more tech-savvy, as well as basic designs for those of us who are lacking in artistic abilities.

WeVideo is free for 5-minute videos and up to 2 GB of cloud storage. After that, plans start at $11/year.

no10GIFMaker

GIFMaker is a free site that lets you make animated GIFs, slideshows, and video animation. It?s one of the only content creation websites that doesn?t require you to sign up.

The tools listed above will make content creation process much easier and effective. However, you need to know how to use them appropriately to get the desired effect.

10 Writing Tips to Make Your Content Engaging and Viral

#1. Use Keywords

When you write your article or blog post, it has to compete with thousands of similar articles in order to receive decent placement in Google?s search results.

One way to help your article rise to the top of the list is to incorporate keywords that will draw readers to your page. Use keywords in your bio or the ?About Us? section of your social media profile. Also, include them in the title of your article and anywhere else that is appropriate.

Just be sure that the writing sounds natural.

#2. Always Respond to Comments

This should go without saying. But you?d be shocked to learn how many businesses and individuals neglect to respond to questions or comments on their social media profiles.

This is absolutely crazy because you have an interested customer right there in front of you asking for you to talk to them. This is even true if you receive a negative comment. Engage the person in conversation. Take advantage of this great opportunity.

If you fail to respond, someone who might have been interested in your product or service might move onto another company or website where they won?t feel ignored.

#3. Tell A Story

Stories connect us to one another. If you can find a way to tell a story within your article, people will be more engaged and interested in what you have to say.

Tell a truthful, personal, and relevant story. This might be on your ?About Me? page or within a blog post about how your business grew from the ground up.

Allow your readers to cheer for you and see themselves within your story.

#4. Be Unique

Unique content will be re-blogged, liked, and shared. Content that has been spun and spun across the web will not.

Find a way to make your article stand out from the rest.

If you?re writing about the best type of dog for each person, for example, maybe focus on the best type of dog for each person based on their eating habits or their sleep schedule. It?s more interesting than basing the decision on their work schedule or space in their home.

#5. Use Pictures and Video

People are visual by nature. We are far more likely to read articles with images to keep us engaged.

People are also more likely to purchase from a business that has great images on their website. It?s not always fair or logical, but it?s true. Use this to your advantage. Incorporate images into all of your posts.

#6. Take Advantage of Social Media

Do some research to learn which social media platforms your potential customers use on a daily basis, and put serious effort into sharing your posts on those pages.

If you find out that you have a lot of potential readers on Twitter and Instagram, for instance, then only posting to Facebook won?t be very effective.

There are many wonderful social media tools that can help push your content to your audience. Take advantage of these tools to make the most of your writing.

#7. Be Trustworthy

When someone reads your article, they will be anxious and apprehensive about the content unless they feel that they can trust you or relate to you in some way.

People trust academic technical experts the most. But directly after the experts, they trust people who seem most like them. They are generally less trusting of CEOs.

If you happen to be the CEO, don?t let this stop you from writing. Just focus on how you are like the reader instead of focusing on your title.

#8. Eliminate Distractions

Keep your article simple and without a lot of fancy distractions.

Do not offer multiple calls to action at the end of the article. When people feel overwhelmed with their choices, they frequently opt to remove themselves from the situation entirely. Provide your readers with very limited options for a next step.

One way to do this is to have an email list that readers can join. You could also ask that they like your Facebook page or subscribe to your blog. Do not ask for all of these things at once.

#9. Give Advice, Not A Pitch

People are smart. They can see a marketing pitch coming from across a football field. If your article seems ?salesy? you will lose your audience before they ever reach your call to action.

If you want to recommend your product or service to them, do so in a way that feels like you are genuinely offering your expert advice. You don?t need to come right out and pitch your company. They?re already reading your article on your website.

Just advise the reader on how you can help them without coming across as aggressive.

#10. Spend Some Time On Your Headline

The headline is the only thing standing between you and your readers. Without an attention-grabbing headline, your potential readers will skip your article and completely miss out on the content.

Constructing a great title isn?t hard. It just takes a little time and thought. Focus on using ?emotional? words that will cause people to react. Some emotional words are ?fear,? ?protect,? ?comfortable,? and ?shocking.?

You can also use tools like Portent?s Headline Generator to build a great headline.

Over to You

There you have it!

Hopefully these tools and tips will improve the quality of your work. Be sure to bookmark this article away as an easy reference until it becomes a habit.

Over time, you?ll get used to turning to them for help with creating slideshows, editing your writing, and making graphs.

[avatar email=”julie.petersen1988@gmail.com” size=”125″]About Julie Petersen
Julie is a content marketing specialist and a blogger. She is running her educational blog AskPetersen and working as a private English language tutor. You may contact Julie here.

The Promise of Tomorrow

Nov 30, 2015 By Kevin J. Duncan

whats-next-portraitDays before Thanksgiving, our neighbor across the street started putting up Christmas decorations.

As I sipped from my turkey-shaped coffee mug while wearing my Thanksgiving-themed pajamas, I looked out my window and wondered: “Why are people in such a rush?”

Despite being hours away from green-bean casseroles, pumpkin pies, and quality time with loved ones, many of us spent the week of Thanksgiving daydreaming about Black Friday shopping and pondering whether or not Luke Skywalker will turn out to be evil in the new Star Wars movie.

We’re always looking ahead to what’s next.

Today it isn’t good enough. Today is lame. Today is the redheaded stepchild of the space-time continuum.

No, we want to skip today. We want tomorrow. Tomorrow is cool. Tomorrow is the bee’s knees. Tomorrow is an absolute good filled with anticipation, promise, and hope.

The problem with such a mindset is we’re not promised tomorrow.

Those plans you’re making? That next thing you can’t wait to arrive? They may never come. Today could be it.

Today might not seem like much. It might not have arrived with much fanfare. And it might not be able to hold a candle to the unknown magic tomorrow holds.

But it’s here.

Today’s available, right now, for you to grab and make the most of it.

What are you going to do with it?

Creative Commons Image via Incase.

How to Resurrect Your Blog and Turn it Into a Business

Nov 26, 2015 By Wichly Cazeau

Note from Kevin: Today’s guest post is from Wichly Cazeau. Want to resurrect your blog so you can turn it into a business? Wichly is here to help…

resurrect-blogIt seems that everyone and their neighbor has a blog, but – sadly – very few people know how?to turn it into a business.

Not all blogs are created equally and there are a variety of?things and practices you can put into place that will thoroughly resurrect your?blog and turn it into a moneymaking masterpiece.

So whether you blog as a hobby,?to strengthen your SEO standing with Google, or as a voice for your company, it?s?time to start analyzing your website, layout and content and rejuvenate them with?these fresh changes so you can start tearing the industry up with a storm.

Let’s dive in…

Recognizing Your Mistakes

One of the very first things you need to do in order to turn your blog into a business?is to recognize your mistakes; recognize why your blog hasn?t become a business?already and recognize what hasn?t worked for you previously.

The blogging industry?is incredibly fast, and you may quickly notice that one of your biggest mistakes may?have been that you didn?t keep up with the rapid pace or, more importantly, you dismissed the constant changes that are required for your success.

Maybe you didn?t?stick to a consistent publishing schedule, missed deadlines or overlooked important?emails and opportunities? Recognizing what you should, could or would have done?differently provides you?with the opportunity to learn from your mistakes.

As soon as you are able to?recognize the business and blogging mistakes and make appropriate changes, the?rest will typically follow suite. Even if you think your blogging strategy has been?foolproof, you?ll find something.

Just take a look.

Design For Success

Providing fresh, creative and entertaining content is certainly key to resurrecting?your blog and turning it into a business, but the importance of design and layout?should never be overlooked either.?Your blog has to be user friendly with precise?navigation, accurate links, and a layout that isn?t overwhelming.

Many blog owners?often think that plastering their content with ads will turn it into a business, but it?often does the absolute opposite as your layout will no longer appeal to your?audience and will encourage them to abandon the site.

Fortunately, you can reverse?the negative effects your current blog theme may have taken on your analytics?by spending a couple of dollars for a unique blog theme that promotes a crisp and?clean layout.

Additionally, Internet usage?via mobile devices has significantly increased over the years and is continuing to do?so,?so?your blog design must be responsive. This means your design will?automatically adjust to whatever device that it is being viewed on, whether it?s a?desktop, laptop, smartphone or tablet.

By ignoring mobile users, you are limiting the people?that can view your website; you?re limiting your success.

Build a Team

Building a team doesn?t necessarily mean that you have to hire some employees, nor?does it mean that you have to break the bank to pursue this business endeavor.

With so many incredible freelance websites out there, you can hire professionals for?every need, as you need it. Work-for-hire contractors can be used for everything from?your web design, to content, marketing, search engine optimization and so much?more.

It is important to recognize that you are never going to be able to thoroughly?handle all aspects of your business on your own. You are also probably better at?some things than others and, for the components of your blog in which you?aren?t?an expert, hiring freelancers so you can reap the benefits of their expertise often pays off in the long run.

Your team may consist of one or two work-for-hire freelancers or 50 full-time employees, but everyone needs help eventually.

Listen To Your Audience

Your blog should have some sort of analytics provided, and if not, it is certainly time?to set?them up. Your analytics are the only proof you have that is going to tell you?exactly what is working for you, what isn?t, and who your audience is.

Many people?overlook their blog?s statistics, and this is one of the biggest mistakes bloggers?can?make. Learn how to read?your analytics and make necessary changes to provide your audience with what?they want.

For example, if you have been providing content specifically for women?aged 35-40 but find that your audience equally consists of both sexes, you may want?to adjust your tone to cater to all.

Age, location, topics, pages and time of peak traffic?are a few of the statistics you should be consistently following.

So, ?give the people?what they want?.

Ads and Affiliates

Generating revenue is likely your main goal when turning your blog into a business, but in order to do so you need to have reliable traffic and content that is?relevant to your niche or an advertiser?s product/service.

You can easily add many?text-ads onto your website with a simple widget such as Google’s AdSense, and they?will automatically scan your website for keywords and display relevant ads.

However, these methods often don?t generate a large amount of income and you?need to be careful with how you place them on your website, since web design is so?important (as mentioned previously). There are also many other blog advertising?options that can have a better payout. Affiliate programs are one that gives you?commission anytime a click-through from the ad placed on your site results in a sale.

While there is thousands of affiliate programs, be sure to only choose those that are?suitable for your content and that offer a higher percentage of sales.

You can also?sell ad space to other companies; many of which will pay good money in comparison?to the other two options mentioned. However, for all options, you do need a high?amount of traffic to see any significant amount of money coming in.

Furthering Your Profit

Income can certainly be generated outside of ads and affiliate programs as well,?depending on the niche of your business.

You can start by offering premium content?for audience members that pay for an upgraded membership, or even sell?merchandise such as t-shirts, mugs, and notebooks with your blog?s logo on it.

Merchandising your brand will also help with creating brand recognition and?promotions. You may also want to start using your blog as a platform to sell your?expertise.

Coaching is one of the largest growing industries in the world, and?depending on the niche of your blog you can get a coaching certificate and start?helping others improve the areas of their life that you have expertise. Alternatively,?you can?start providing coaching on a creative skill you possess. Not only is this a monetary?opportunity, but it is an incredibly rewarding job that can quickly provide many?additional opportunities such as webinars, online courses, workshops etc.

Get your?certificate, create a sales page on your website, and you can be booking your very?first clients in minutes.

You may also want to consider adding an eCommerce store?to your blog that sells items that you frequently discuss. Instead of advertising the?products of someone else?s online store on your blog, you could direct your?audience right to yours.

You can also generate income with sponsorships since?advertising on blogs is often a more affordable option for many companies;?as?such, they are looking for businesses just like yours to pay and provide product to.

You will need a decent amount of traffic, but with excellent content and the previous?tips taken into consideration, you are well on your way. All you have to do is create a?media kit (or hire a freelancer to) and start distributing it to PR agencies and brands?that will want to have access to your audience.

With any one of these options or a?combination of some, you can certainly be furthering your revenue with your blog.

Be Genuine with your Approach

One of the biggest mistakes many blog owners make is that they are blogging for all?the wrong reasons, and when you aren?t genuine within your approach it shows?within your content.?More importantly, it will reflect in the lack of loyal viewers that?come to read your blog.

While everyone wants to generate some revenue from their?blog and efforts, doing it solely for the money aspect isn?t going to bring you the?success you?re looking for. So, forget about what other people are thinking and truly?invest your heart and soul into your blog and the rest will follow.

Be genuine,?authentic and different.

If the writing isn?t your strong point, resort back to the?previously mentioned tip and hire some freelance writers to handle the content for?you so you can focus your expertise on other elements.

Your Turn

As you can see, your blog can easily be turned into a profitable business with some?simple adjustments, fresh content and marketing tactics.

Toss some ideas around?and see what works for your new business endeavor, and just because something?may not be working right now doesn?t mean that it is a write off.

Sometimes, you?just need to sit back and analyze your blog, content and analytics to see how you can?implement new ideas and opportunity into your business.

Creative Commons Image via azadam.

A Blogging Process That Actually Works

Nov 19, 2015 By Matthew Tyson

blogging-process-that-works-portraitIf you?re new to blogging, congratulations! You have now joined the ranks of a hundred million other people, all of whom, like you, are vying for the public?s attention.

Blogging is the best avenue for budding and professional writers these days, but there?s a lot of competition.

To stand out among the masses, you need to get it together. If you go head first into your debut blog with no preparation, no forethought, and no understanding of how the blogging world works, you?re likely to produce a big ol? crapsack full of word vomit.

(Trust me. I know.)

See, you might be a great writer, but that doesn?t mean you?re a great blogger. Not by a long shot. So whether this is your first time stepping out into the blogging world, or you?ve already gone out, failed miserably, and are now looking for some guidance, this blog post is for you.

At WideNet, we’ve developed an effective process (through significant trial and error) that I’m going to share with you so you can start producing awesome content that doesn’t suck (or at least sucks less).

First, let?s take a look at 5 of the most common mistakes new bloggers make:

Thinking people care about YOU

You are not important.

?at least, not as a writer.

Unless you?re the Pope or Gary Vaynerchuk, readers don?t care about you or your quirky bio at the end of the page. They only care about what you have to say – a hard truth for the starry-eyed blogger to accept. But like it or not, that?s the reality. So put your ego aside, and focus your energy on your content.

What you write should be geared towards your audience. Not you. Cut the personal, introspective blabber and write something the people want to read. In fact, unless you have a mind blowing personal story (and it better be good) that can boost the overall message of your blog, keep it in the third person for a while.

Burying the lede (or point)

Like journalism, effective blogging gets to the point. (I could end there, but I?m going to elaborate a touch).

99% of internet users are coming to your blog to learn something, and, like every clich? female lead in a romantic comedy, they need to know where it?s going.

That doesn?t mean every blog post has to be 500 words or less. Long posts are fine, so long as they?re relevant. Just don?t bury the point underneath a bunch of pointless verbiage.

Lack of Focus

This is in relation to the last point.

A good blog needs focus – both on the audience and the topic. A lot of fresh-faced bloggers tend to be chock full of ideas, which is great?until they try to fit every one of them into a single blog post.

I get it. We?re writers. We spend all day bombarding our brains with ideas. Write them down, but don?t try to fit them all into one post.

You?ll find more success by writing one great blog post about one single topic. Plus, by writing on one idea at a time, you give yourself a lot more writing material to pull from.

Erratic Publishing

Once, when asked about how he writes, poet Charles Bukowski said, ?Don?t try,? meaning, wait for the inspiration to hit you, and then write.

Don?t listen to Bukowski. He gave bad advice. He was also a pessimist who whined a lot and died as an ugly, sad man. You don?t want that.

One of the biggest mistakes new bloggers make is blogging only when they feel inspired, which can often lead to long gaps between posts, causing you to lose relevancy and trust with readers.

Try this exercise. Sit down with pen and paper and write down every conceivable idea you can come up with. It doesn?t matter how ridiculous it might sound, just write it down. Build yourself a bible of source material.

Then, set a schedule, and stick to it. Be it two blog posts a week, bi-monthly, or every other day, have a reliable posting schedule. A stream of fresh content keeps readers hooked and grows your audience.

You can?t call yourself a writer if you aren?t writing. So, if you want to be successful at this, you SHOULD try. Try really hard.

Skipping the Editing Process

Looking at some of the blogs on the web today, you?d think proofreading is a lost art.

Whether it?s overconfidence, apathy, or inexperience, some bloggers just don?t seem to grasp the importance of editing and proofreading.

No, it?s not fun, but it is necessary if you want your audience to take you seriously. Bad grammar makes you look stupid and destroys your credibility. Your first draft can look like a 1st grader typed it with its feet, but before you publish your final copy, you better proof your content with a fine tooth comb. And don?t just check for grammar. Make sure your writing reads well and makes sense.

It will save you so many headaches in the future. And embarrassment.

Bonus Tip:

Here?s a little extra special tip: forget about word counts. This isn?t college anymore. Not everything has to be a solid 1500 words, and trying to stretch a blog post out will only hurt you. The only exception here is if you?re writing for a publication that requires you to have one. If that?s the case, stick to the word count, but other than that, it doesn?t matter how long or short your blog posts are. If you?ve made your point and backed it up with solid information, you?re done. Don?t lessen the value of your post by filling space.

Note from Kevin: Listen to Matthew here, folks. Filler is bad. It’s bad in hotdogs, and it’s bad in blog posts. If your aim is to publish 1,500 words, write 2,000 words and then edit down. Don’t write 1,000 words and then add 500 words of filler. The resulting post is rarely better for it.

So did you get all that? Great. But we?re not done yet.

Say you?ve followed all the information above, and now you?ve got yourself a nice, clean blog post that?s ready to go. What do you do next? Hit publish? NO YOU DO NOT.

You run it through the filter.

?The filter? is what I call the four questions I ask myself every time I?m about to publish a post. It?s a good way to stay self-aware and hold yourself accountable.

1. Is it informative?

Users want answers. They want information. Give it to them.

Your content should tell your target audience everything they need to know – the who, what, when, where, why, and how. Before you publish, read it back to yourself, and make sure you?ve answered these questions. A little ambiguity is fine, but a blatant lack of information is just frustrating.

Don?t let your content be a wasted read.

2. Is it simple?

Don?t be fancy. Keep it simple. Simplicity aids communication and makes information easier to digest. Plus, it keeps you on level with your audience.

If something is small, say it is small. If it?s large, say it?s large. Don?t try and show off your complex vocabulary. Save that for your novel. Your message should be strong enough to stand on its own without having to dress it up with big words.

Cut the hifalutin verbiage and shoot it straight.

3. Is it consumable?

Honestly, everything on this list works towards making your content consumable, meaning it?s right and ready to ingest and retain.

Truly effective, consumable content is always in the right place at the right time and crafted specifically for the culture of your audience.

Example: If you?ve got a heavy mobile audience, then your content needs to be short, sweet, and easy to read and access on a smartphone. If you?re targeting a demographic that responds well to visuals, then you better produce some pie charts and infographics.

Your content isn?t just a solid block of information. It?s a conversation. It?s malleable. Form it to your audience so they can consume it.

4. Is it motivating?

Let?s be honest for a minute. Taylor Swift?s song Shake It Off makes you want to dance. You just can?t help yourself. When that chorus hits, you shake it. You shake it hard.

Your content should have a similar effect. It needs to be so enticing and compelling that it motivates people to act. To do this, you need to know your audience, know what drives them, and know what they want. If your content doesn?t reflect that, take a step back and rework it before you go live.

There. Now you can publish.

A Confession and a Pep Talk

The information provided here has been scrapped together after years of writing and failing. Without a doubt, these guidelines will help you excel at blogging, but they won?t make you a great blogger.

At the end of the day, the only way to become a great blogger is to practice, practice, practice. Write every day. Find YOUR voice, YOUR style. That?s something only you can do, but it will make you great.

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