Blog titles are one of the most important aspects of a blog, but often times are not given the importance that they deserve. As a professional blogger, I always tell new bloggers not to underestimate the significance of blog titles. It is the first thing a reader sees when they visit your site and will many times will determine if they stay and keep reading or leave. I often relate it to a newspaper headline, if the headline captures you will buy the paper, if not you will keep walking. Here are three tips to help you crafty killer blogger titles that will prompt that visitor to keep reading.
Create a purpose driven title. The headline will tell the reader what is to come and why they should read. By crafting this up front it will also help keep you focused.
It is also important to be descriptive and clear. For example, if my headline reads, "How to promote your blog," you know exactly what that post will be about. This is a solid headline because it is very clear, and if your visitor is interested in that they will read through. However, if you combine this with my next tip, you will then have the perfect title.
You will want to make sure you let the reader know what is in it for them. You should convey the benefit of what your article will deliver them. For example, you can say, "Tips to promote your blog and make more money online." This is a much more compelling blog title.
There you have it, three easy tips that should help improve your blog.
For more tips on writing Blog Titles be sure to check out TycoonBlogger.com. You will also find great information on Promoting your Blog. This post was written by Dan Keller.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dan_Keller
Friday, August 28, 2009
[22] 16 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog
You've got your blog set up and you've started posting pithy, useful information that your niche market would benefit from and enjoy. Days go by, you keep publishing, but no one comments and your traffic stats are barely registering. What do you do?
Like any website you own, you must do some blog promotion to start driving traffic to your site. Here are 16 steps, in no particular order of importance, that you can start doing now to get traffic moving to your blog.
1. Set up a Bloglet subscription form on your blog and invite everyone in your network to subscribe: family, friends, colleagues, clients, associates.
Http://www.bloglet.com
2. Set up a feed on MyYahoo.com so your site gets regularly spidered by the Yahoo search engine (see tutorial on http://www.biztipsblog.com)
http://www.my.yahoo.com
3. Read and comment on other blogs that are in your target niche. Don't write things like "nice blog" or "great post." Write intelligent, useful comments with a link to your blog.
4. Use Ping-0-matic to ping blog directories. Do this every time you publish.
http://www.pingomatic.com
5. Submit your blog to traditional search engines:http://www.submitfire.com
6. Submit your blog to blog directories. The most comprehensive list of directories is on this site:
http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/
Tip: Create a form to track your submissions; this can take several hours when you first start so schedule an hour a day for submitting or hire a VA to do it for you.
7. Add a link to your blog in your email signature file.
8. Put a link to your blog on every page of your website.
9. If you publish a newsletter, make sure you have a link to your blog in every issue.
10. Include a link to your blog as a standard part of all outgoing correspondence such as autoresponder sequences, sales letters, reports, white papers, etc.
11. Print your blog URL on your business cards, brochures and flyers.
12. Make sure you have an RSS feed URL that people can subscribe to.The acronym RSS means Rich Site Summary, or some may consider its meaning as Really Simple Syndication. It is a document type that lists updates of websites or blogs available for syndication. These RSS documents (also known as 'feeds') may be read using aggregators (news readers). RSS feeds may show headlines only or both headlines and summaries.
To learn how news aggregators/RSS readers work, see this site: http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-readers.htm
13. Post often to keep attracting your subscribers to come back and refer you to others in their networks; include links to other blogs, articles and websites in your posts
14. Use Trackback links when you quote or refer to other blog posts. What is TrackBack? Essentially what this does is send a message from one server to another server letting it know you have posted a reference to their post. The beauty is that a link to your blog is now included on their site.
15. Write articles to post around the web in article directories. Include a link to your blog in the author info box (See example in our signature below).
16. Make a commitment to blog everyday. 10 minutes a day can help increase your traffic as new content attracts search engine spiders. Put it on your calendar as a task every day at the same time.
Tip: Use a hit counter to track your visitor stats: how many unique visitors, how many page views, average length of visit. You can get a free hit counter at http://www.sitemeter.com
Denise Wakeman of Next Level Partnership, and Patsi Krakoff of Customized Newsletter Services, have teamed up to create blogging classes and marketing services for independent professionals. You can read and subscribe to their blogs at http://www.biztipsblog.com, http://www.coachezines.com and http://www.bizbooknuggets.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Denise_Wakeman
Like any website you own, you must do some blog promotion to start driving traffic to your site. Here are 16 steps, in no particular order of importance, that you can start doing now to get traffic moving to your blog.
1. Set up a Bloglet subscription form on your blog and invite everyone in your network to subscribe: family, friends, colleagues, clients, associates.
Http://www.bloglet.com
2. Set up a feed on MyYahoo.com so your site gets regularly spidered by the Yahoo search engine (see tutorial on http://www.biztipsblog.com)
http://www.my.yahoo.com
3. Read and comment on other blogs that are in your target niche. Don't write things like "nice blog" or "great post." Write intelligent, useful comments with a link to your blog.
4. Use Ping-0-matic to ping blog directories. Do this every time you publish.
http://www.pingomatic.com
5. Submit your blog to traditional search engines:http://www.submitfire.com
6. Submit your blog to blog directories. The most comprehensive list of directories is on this site:
http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/
Tip: Create a form to track your submissions; this can take several hours when you first start so schedule an hour a day for submitting or hire a VA to do it for you.
7. Add a link to your blog in your email signature file.
8. Put a link to your blog on every page of your website.
9. If you publish a newsletter, make sure you have a link to your blog in every issue.
10. Include a link to your blog as a standard part of all outgoing correspondence such as autoresponder sequences, sales letters, reports, white papers, etc.
11. Print your blog URL on your business cards, brochures and flyers.
12. Make sure you have an RSS feed URL that people can subscribe to.The acronym RSS means Rich Site Summary, or some may consider its meaning as Really Simple Syndication. It is a document type that lists updates of websites or blogs available for syndication. These RSS documents (also known as 'feeds') may be read using aggregators (news readers). RSS feeds may show headlines only or both headlines and summaries.
To learn how news aggregators/RSS readers work, see this site: http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-readers.htm
13. Post often to keep attracting your subscribers to come back and refer you to others in their networks; include links to other blogs, articles and websites in your posts
14. Use Trackback links when you quote or refer to other blog posts. What is TrackBack? Essentially what this does is send a message from one server to another server letting it know you have posted a reference to their post. The beauty is that a link to your blog is now included on their site.
15. Write articles to post around the web in article directories. Include a link to your blog in the author info box (See example in our signature below).
16. Make a commitment to blog everyday. 10 minutes a day can help increase your traffic as new content attracts search engine spiders. Put it on your calendar as a task every day at the same time.
Tip: Use a hit counter to track your visitor stats: how many unique visitors, how many page views, average length of visit. You can get a free hit counter at http://www.sitemeter.com
Denise Wakeman of Next Level Partnership, and Patsi Krakoff of Customized Newsletter Services, have teamed up to create blogging classes and marketing services for independent professionals. You can read and subscribe to their blogs at http://www.biztipsblog.com, http://www.coachezines.com and http://www.bizbooknuggets.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Denise_Wakeman
[20] How to Promote Your Website and Blog Through Article Writing
A lot of people are aware that article marketing is the best way to promote their website and blog but some of them are clueless as to how they can go about it. Are you one of them? Then, this article is for you. Let me give you a step-by-step guide on how you can use your articles to promote awareness that your website exist in the World Wide Web.
Here's what you need to do:
1. First, get to know the topics that are interesting to your target readers. There are so many ways to do this depending on your preferences and the amount of time that you have. You can conduct surveys, do keyword research, or visit forums and blogs.
2. Write your articles. Now that you have the topics, the next thing to do is to start writing your articles. There are so many things to keep in mind the moment you start tapping on your keyboard. If you want best results, you need to make your articles highly informative, easy to understand, short, direct to the point, scannable, and unique. Don't forget to create your resource box where you can put your site's URL.
3. Distribute your articles. Post your articles not only on article submission sites but also on blogs and forums that are frequented by your target audience. Ensure that the sites you post your articles to allow you to put inbound links that will take your readers back to your website. You can increase your resource box's click through rate if you offer freebies like reports, ebooks, and newsletters.
Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article writing success, "Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide"
Download it free here: Article Writing-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Or...do you want to learn how to increase your online income by adding coaching, consulting, and online classes to your existing practice or business? Find out how here: Internet Marketing for Coaches
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sean Mize teaches coaches, consultants, and small business owners how to package their knowledge and sell it in high priced coaching, consulting, and online class packages. Sean says "If you have an existing marketable service or skill that you can teach others, I can teach you to package it into a high-priced class or coaching program, guaranteed"
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sean_R_Mize
Here's what you need to do:
1. First, get to know the topics that are interesting to your target readers. There are so many ways to do this depending on your preferences and the amount of time that you have. You can conduct surveys, do keyword research, or visit forums and blogs.
2. Write your articles. Now that you have the topics, the next thing to do is to start writing your articles. There are so many things to keep in mind the moment you start tapping on your keyboard. If you want best results, you need to make your articles highly informative, easy to understand, short, direct to the point, scannable, and unique. Don't forget to create your resource box where you can put your site's URL.
3. Distribute your articles. Post your articles not only on article submission sites but also on blogs and forums that are frequented by your target audience. Ensure that the sites you post your articles to allow you to put inbound links that will take your readers back to your website. You can increase your resource box's click through rate if you offer freebies like reports, ebooks, and newsletters.
Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article writing success, "Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide"
Download it free here: Article Writing-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Or...do you want to learn how to increase your online income by adding coaching, consulting, and online classes to your existing practice or business? Find out how here: Internet Marketing for Coaches
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sean Mize teaches coaches, consultants, and small business owners how to package their knowledge and sell it in high priced coaching, consulting, and online class packages. Sean says "If you have an existing marketable service or skill that you can teach others, I can teach you to package it into a high-priced class or coaching program, guaranteed"
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sean_R_Mize
[19] How to Write a Blog
The Internet is rife with blogs (short for a web log) on every topic under the sun. From personal journal-type sites to music-review sites to fashion-criticism to political-commentary and everything between, you can find blogs on any subject you can think of. Why are so many people blogging?Blogging has gained immense popularity in the last couple of years, and thousands of new blogs are created each month. But why? Well, as technology evolves, so do we. The beauty of the Internet is not only the wealth of information it provides, but also the connectivity the access to the thoughts, feelings, opinions, pictures and videos of other people across the globe. Maybe it's because we're naturally voyeuristic, or maybe it's the innate human need to have a sense of community (we are social creatures, after all), but whatever the reason, blogging is wildly popular, and probably not going anywhere. In fact, as the news media declines in these tough economic times, bloggers are gaining more and more power in terms of taking on the role of opinion makers. Why should you blog?Blogging has a great number of benefits in fact, there are probably as many reasons to blog as there are types of blogs. Many people use blogs as an extension of their careers their blogs are forums by which their employees and/or clients can contact them and keep up with what's happening day to day. For others, a blog is an outlet for creativity. Writers, cooks, musicians, and designers are just a few of the types of people who can use a blog to share their passion with the world by posting poems, recipes, songs, general observations, event dates, photos and new projects. Some people use blogs simply to increase their web site ranking in the search engines, as regular updates help keep web sites relevant. And some people just want someone to talk to, so they talk to everyone via a personal-journal-type blog. Where can you get a blog?There a lots of free blogging sites to help you set up a blog and get started. Blogspot is a very simple one to use, and you can get set up and going in just a few minutes. But don't be fooled, just because everyone and their dog seems to have a blog these days doesn't mean blogging is easy. Successful blogs are relevant, topical, and regularly updated. How do you get started?If you want to start a blog, the most important thing to do is to choose a theme: what is your blog going to be about? Writing, painting, cooking, fashion, politics, sports? Try to narrow your focus to make creating content easier, a blog that's not narrowly-enough defined can cause problems when it's time to come up with something specific to write about. The most effective blogs tend to be those that are very specific in their subject matter, so don't just pick a topic, pick a niche within a topic. For example, if you're a trend-watcher, pick a specific area to focus on: new trends as seen where you live, for example. Or instead of starting a blog about sports, focus on one sport, or one state's various sport teams, or even just one team. The more narrowly you focus your topic, the easier it is to overcome writers block down the road, and to ultimately make your blog successful (that is, getting people, besides your mom, your co-workers and your spouse, to read it).Article Source: http://www.ArticleStreet.com
[18] The Essentials of Blog Posting
Blogging has probably been the most fun internet marketing activity I've undertaken in my online business. I love to write, and reach out to my website visitors with new information, news, reports, opinions, or articles that I've created that expose a little of my personality and give my readers something they want to hear. Not only is it fun, but it's free, profitable, and generates hoards of traffic to your site, provided that you make quality posts with quality content and know how to market your blog. There are good ways and bad ways to blog, so here are a few essential things to keep in mind when making your blog posts:First you have to write something that people will be interested in reading, and reading regularly. Posting your articles to your blog is the best way to get quality content on your blog, but it's also good to write about your own personal experiences and opinions. Your articles should be at least 500 words, and your personal comments can be shorter, but still containing quality content. You don't want to post just one fantastic article packed with content, you want to post many, and try to make a blog post every day, every other day, or even weekly so that your readers know that your blog is fresh and updated regularly. The first few months that your blog is launched are critical months when you want to attract a readership and give them enough that they bookmark your site to come back to it frequently. Giving your blog a domain name that's easy for them to remember and represents your content with good keywords is also a good idea.There's another thing you can do with your original articles to gain exposure to your blog, and that is submitting them to a blog carnival. This means submitting them to a site that features and summarizes maybe 5 quality articles on a specific topic. Other blogs will link back to this carnival host, giving you more quality traffic. Also, when you make a blog post, you can link to other people's blog articles, which leaves an entry on their post to your post. It may attract other bloggers to you, who may in turn link back to your posts. A good article directory to submit your articles to maybe once a week is Ezine Articles.Once you have a blog, you want to expose it to the right audience. A good way to do this is by making comments on other people's blogs whose content is related to your content. If you randomly post comments all over the place on blogs unrelated to what your site is about, then you won't generate the kind of traffic you want. Stick to your niche, and you will get readers from that niche wanting to click on your blog link at the end of your comments. It's also a good idea to encourage people to make comments on your blog posts, and to reply to these comments to keep a conversation going. The more comments that are left on your blog, the more other people visiting your blog will realize you have something important and valuable to say, and they will want to read it to find out what all the buzz is about.I have also joined a blog traffic exchange to get traffic to my blog, but you can also submit your blog to different blog directory sites, such as Blog Top Sites. This site allows you to add a small bit of HTML code to your blog so it can be rated in a particular category and will help get you more traffic and better ratings. If you remember to not only create quality content for your blogs, but also market your blog effectively by commenting, linking, and submitting regularly to the right places, you will be on your way to having a popular and well-visited blog!Article Source: http://www.ArticleStreet.com/
[17] Business Networking And Blog Courtesy-working On A Professional Link Campaign For Blog SEO
Business is all about networking, right? Plus, you likely know that you need to get some links to your website to build traffic. Since you’re a pro blogger, of course the first place you look for those much needed links is the blogosphere.However, some manners are in order when it comes to posting comments and linking to your blog from other blogs.It comes down to common courtesy. We’ve all heard the ‘golden rule’, right? Do unto others and all that jazz? The goal is for us to get a much needed backlink to our website, that’s true. But that’s not all we want. Spammy backlinks can be obtained pretty easily. There’s even software out there that will blast your links to a million different blog posts comment areas. But it’s not really what we want or need.I’ll tell you one reason why.Before even thinking about the other guy’s blog, and common courtesy, let’s consider your overall professional appearance. Think of your backlink campaign as one big press release for a minute. If you were blasting a press release to the major news networks today, you would want to present a super professional appearance right? You would want the world to see you as the undisputed expert in your field, professional, classy, the very best. Right?Then why would you use a different approach and spam your link across the blogosphere? Making you and your website (translate: your company) look cheesy and unprofessional? If you knew that was the way the world perceived you and your business, you probably would have thought twice about it before you used a link blaster and posted your link to a million spam blogs. The problem is that many businesses and many bloggers don’t think the internet is part of ‘the real world’. They don’t stop and think about the fact that their actions on the web can have the same negative impact that they would have in the real world when it comes to cheesy and sleezy promotion tactics.Nope, the internet is different in their eyes. They only know they need a bunch of links. It’s not important to them to build an overall web persona. PR is not a concern. But it should be. Because the web is no different than any other advertising medium. People are people, and if they read crappy comments that make you and your company look bad, they are not going to do business with you.Now, let’s also consider the other blogs out there and some basic manners. In the real world, that is the one that doesn’t have a keyboard attached to it, you need to have some etiquette when it comes to business networking, right?For example, if you are a member of the local rotary club, you don’t walk into the meeting each week shouting, “Make $5,000 every day using my secret methods”!Do you?No. You network. You shake everyone’s hand and say hello. You get into conversations and have intelligent discussions. You add something to the group as a whole. When asked, you give your expert advice and opinions and you build new relationships that turn into new client relationships.So why would you do it any differently online?When working on links from other blogs and other business communities, have the same manners you would if you were in that rotary club meeting. Be a contributing part of the conversation. Get involved and work on your professional appearance at the same time. Post relevant comments to the current discussion. Don’t interrupt like a thirty second commercial break, changing the topic so that you can promote your new product or service. Stay on topic and contribute something useful.It’s o.k. if you don’t agree with someone. Good debate can be good for business. Some people will agree with you and visit your site based on your professional opinions. But only if your argument is written professionally and with some class. Stay out of name calling sessions and stay away from labels. Don’t call anyone an idiot or a moron. In the end, you end up looking like one.Your comments are mini press releases. They are little road signs showing how professional you are. Or how unprofessional you are. Your public appearance is up to you. So have some courtesy when posting your comments. It will make the difference when it comes to how successful your linking campaigns are.Published At: Isnare Free Articles Directory http://www.isnare.comPermanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=275803&ca=Business
[16] Blog Profits - How To Turn Your Blog Into A Home Business Money-Maker
Hundreds of thousands of new blogs are created every day, and many people who blog want to turn their blog into a profitable home business. Unfortunately many of those blogs are doomed because of a lack of planning.You can turn YOUR new blog into a money-maker.Just follow these five steps. Notice that you need to complete four of these steps before you start blogging, so follow the steps in the order in which they're given.Here are the five steps to blog profits:1. Decide what you'll sell from your blogTo generate profits, your blog must make sales. Nothing happens until you sell something, so choose a profit center first.You can choose: to sell advertising from your blog; to sell a product or many products; or to sell services - your own services, or those of others.Selling advertising is a common and successful method of generating profits. To sell advertising however, you need content - the more content on your blog, the better. So if you choose advertising sales as a profit center, be aware that although your profits may be slow in coming, they'll constantly increase as long as you keep adding content.When you sell products from your blog, your profits will flow much more quickly. However, you do need to focus on sales, as well as on content.If you choose selling services, make a list of the services you and/ or others will be offering from the blog.2. How will you get traffic? Do you have some startup capital?A couple of years ago you could rely on RSS almost completely to get traffic to your new blog. Those days however are long gone.Make a list of ways you'll get traffic. If you have some startup capital, write down which methods of paid advertising you'll use, and when.3. Plan your content - this is vitalYour next step is to plan your blog's content. Don't omit this step. Most bloggers stop blogging because they run out of things to say.So write down your topics, and make a list of five to ten blog post titles for each topic. Your topics will become categories on your blog.4. Schedule content creation and marketing into your dayIf you want to turn your blog into a profitable home business, you'll need to blog every day.When will you blog? Early in the morning, or late at night? Schedule at least an hour a day to work with your blog. During this time, you'll create content, and will market the blog. Schedule the hour into your day, and keep to your schedule.5. Review your progressBlogs grow organically. If your blog sells advertising, you'll need to add more content than you will if you're selling products or services from your blog.Use a statistics package on your blog (Google provides free Google Analytics), and review your statistics once a week. Your traffic will grow as your blog marketing methods start to work for you.Once you have traffic, it's time to ensure that your traffic gives you a return on investment, so watch your traffic carefully, and assess whether you're getting the profits you want from your home business.Good luck with your blog: by following the five steps we outlined above, you'll be able to turn your blog into a home business money-maker.Published At: Isnare Free Articles Directory http://www.isnare.com/Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=238848&ca=Business
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