If you just took the life-changing leap to start a blog, then you’ll have a lot of ideas waiting to get out.

How do you fill those white screens on your blog with eloquently crafted blog posts that will bring you relevant traffic over time?

In this post we’ll look at:

• How to target relevant blog topics
• Using high-quality conversational writing structures
• 3 blog posts every blog should have
• How to add a touch of style too

Having blogged through several competitive niches and industries over the years like travel, WordPress and personal finance, I’ve seen a thing or two that works.

This is by no means a complete guide on how to write a blog post (because you’ve got to insert your own secret sauce!) but it’ll get you pointed in the right direction. If you’ve got blogging tips to add, drop us those in the comments!

How to find and target relevant blogging topics

By now we can all agree that your blog posts should not cover what you had for lunch.

In fact, WorldOMeter.info indicates that often over 5M blog posts are written each day.

So picking boring topics is pure blog suicide.

How can we find topics people are actually curious about? Well you may just have those topics on your mind already, and if so, great!

If you’re having a bit of writer’s block, try search on Google Trends.

For example, before writing this post I had a few ideas on topics like:

1. Writing style
2. Blogging fonts
3. Google SEO
4. How to start a blog

Putting each of the 4 topics I might write about into Google Trends shows me right away which blog topics are the most popular in terms of number of monthly Google searches.

So clearly if I wanted to write about a blog topic with higher relevance, I’d choose blogging style or maybe Google SEO as topics. Blogging fonts is pretty obsolete (though not a bad topic by any means).

Having a tool like Google Trends in your back pocket can help you make big decisions on how to write your next blog post.

Using high-quality conversational writing structures

There are blog post styles that don’t work.

For example I could write about how to get original Nike Michael Jordan shoes signed by him for $10 a pair but if the blog post looked like one big chunk of text then no one would find that info.

Then there are blog post styles that do work.

One blog I always refer people to is NeilPatel.com because it’s just so conversational.

You can almost hear Neil talking to you through the writing.

There are three things you need to remember to be conversational and write posts that people consistently want to read:

1. Let people know why you’re writing aka what the problem is
2. Offer a solution
3. Offer proof for your own knowledge (like case studies, personal experiences, past successes, jobs you’ve completed)

Then load it up with questions for the reader every few sentences.

This sort of strategy will help you stay away from essay style writing which you probably don’t want to do in the first place.

Lastly, make sure you blog posts leave people wanting a little more. You’re not trying to write a new encyclopedia here, although that can help blog post SEO.

Leaving things a little open-ended with room for discussion is a great way to spark comments.

3 blog posts every blog should have

We all like seeing a few types of blog posts on blogs we read but it’s hard to pinpoint them.

Well here they are:

1. Welcome to the blog post: Tell people who you’re writing for, what they should expect and a little teaser about your own story and goals. Here is our example when this blog launched: Welcome to DearBlogger in a British Accent
2. Ultimate guide: Write an epic, exhaustive guide on your greatest expertise which you think people will need. This is where you can be the encyclopedia. Here is our example when this blog launched: The Ultimate Guide on Where to Blog
3. Controversial piece: Shake things up a bit in your niche with a different approach to a topic people love debating but are perhaps afraid to. Here is our example when this blog launched: The Truth about Premium Themes

The benefits of knowing about these types of blog posts which we’ve been telling our audience who create a blog on YouTube about for years is two fold.

You have a little do-to list when you start off so you won’t get writer’s block.

Then, once you have this solid foundation of blog posts, your ideas should naturally lead you to the next type of post, and the next and so on. You won’t have to worry about where to start!

How to add a touch of style too

The style component of blogging is the trickiest one of all.

You will spend hours upon hours up late tweaking the style of your blog through custom images you make and custom css.

I just hope the edits you try to make eventually work

The fact that this part of blogging is so tricky is why I put it at the end of this blog post.

There are, however, as per usual with our pieces of advice lately, some good rules you can follow!

1. Less is more. Focus on doing little things like the titles, comments or sidebar of your blog really well and NOT bombarding your blog with tons of widgets that don’t make any sense alongside eachother.
2. Often times what makes or breaks your blog is what you don’t show, not what you do show. For example you don’t need to show that you have zero comments, or not many categories, or not many authors. Delete these items and put your best foot forward.
3. Find an idol. If you can find a blogger who’s blog and messages you love, learning a bit about how they style their blog can go a long way in showing you how to do it too!

You can also get advanced with blog styling and use Google fonts. No guide on how to write a blog post would be complete without this:

youtube.com/watch?v=tQ48rARlWEo

If you’re looking for specific fonts that work:

• Body: Proxima Nova, Helvetica, Arial
• Headers: Arial MT Rounded, Lato, Roboto

These are just a start; common fonts that are great for simple communication.

On top of fonts, knowing how to edit a blog with custom CSS, which is particularly useful for removing parts of your blog, is a key skill:

The combination of Google fonts for your body text or even just your headers plus knowing how to style with custom CSS basically makes you a professional WordPress designer. It’s a pretty badass combination.

Conclusion: You now know how to write a blog post in WordPress

Plus, you’re much further ahead of the pack of hundreds of thousands of beginners out there each week who will have to learn how to write a blog post from scratch on their own.

Good luck! Did we miss any part of how to write a blog post which you’d like to add? Let us know in the comments below because it could really help someone out! Thanks!

Did you enjoy reading this post? Want to hang out with us where we create content each day? Then please come Subscribe on YouTube.

The post How To Write a Blog Post: Style and Format Guide (2021) appeared first on Dear Blogger.

In this guest post, Sylvia explains several blogging mistakes we make along with advice on how to quick fix them.

Is the content marketing industry near its end? Not a chance!

In The State of Content Marketing 2018 report by Smart Insight, the signs of growth are pretty evident. When asked to choose the single marketing activity that would make the largest commercial impact in 2018, 20% of business owners chose content marketing. That answer was at the top of the list, followed by 14% of votes for big data, and 14% of votes for artificial intelligence and machine learning. Social media marketing got only 10% of the votes.

So content marketing still rules and there’s no question about it. Every single business needs a blog.

But blogs are already pretty common. We practically see them on most websites. Why aren’t they all successful? Well if you think that producing content is enough, you’re making one of the most common blogging mistakes. Speaking of blogging mistakes, we have that major one plus few others to list.

1. Assuming that Blog Posts Are Enough

You write content, so that should be enough, right? Wrong!

There are at least 8 important components of a content marketing strategy:

• High-level goals
• Brand story
• Audience Personas
• Competitive research
• Keyword focus
• Content objectives
• Promotion and distribution
• Measurement of key performance indicators

So no; starting a blog and publishing random content when you feel like it is not enough. You absolutely need a strategy if you want the blogging process to be effective.

2. You’re Too Serious (and it’s Causing Blogging Mistakes)

Have you ever read a blog post that sounded like an academic article? All those big words, endless paragraphs, quotations that you barely understand… Yeah; that style doesn’t work in blogging.

If you go through the most popular blogs, such as Wait But Why for example, you’ll notice that no matter how serious the topic is, the style is always light and there’s some humor involved. Even if you tackle a topic that wouldn’t stand humor, you could still keep the light tone.

This is the main rule of blogging to keep in mind:

The audience doesn’t have much time or energy to deal with content that’s hard to read. Don’t be formal. Just write as you speak.

Hopefully, you don’t address your friends on an academic tone. That could be both a real communication mistake and one of your blogging mistakes. Well, don’t blog like that, then!

3. Writing Whenever You Feel Like It

“I feel so inspired today. I’ll write a blog post. Two, even! Then I’ll take the month off blogging and wait for inspiration to strike me again.”

In an ideal world, that’s how blogging would work. You would write a blog post whenever you felt like it, and you’d just rest when you faced a writer’s blog.

But this is not an ideal world. You absolutely need a strategy, and that strategy involves a schedule. Consistent blogging is necessary for few reasons:

• It helps you develop a habit. When you simply wait for your muse to visit you, the blog will remain poor of content. If you create a schedule and start working on your blog every single day, the routine itself will keep you inspired.
• You get more traffic if you produce more content. It’s simple math: the more pages you have at your website, the more your audience can explore it. The more links you share on social media, the more people see them.
• Your audience develops a habit, too. If you tell them to expect three posts per week, they will get used to visiting your website on those days. If you fail their expectations, they will simply forget all about your great blog.

Consistency is challenging. It means working on the posts and their promotion every single day. If you’re willing to make that commitment, you’ll be successful. Even if you cannot find enough time, you can still make it happen. Just outsource part of your work to AUBestEssays or freelance writers/editors.

4. Going Free All the Way Can Be a Big Blogging Mistake

Yes; WordPress and Blogger allow you to start your free blog. Since you can avoid spending money, you decide that would be the best thing to do. You’ll just share your blogs on a free platform and you’ll share the links for free on social media.

Oh… sorry to break your bubble, but that won’t work.

If you want to optimize your blog for search engines, you’ll need to invest in reliable hosting. If you want to make it attractive to the audience, you’ll need a good responsive free or premium theme. If you want people on Facebook to see your posts, you need to start thinking about paid advertising.

5. Avoiding Long-Form Content

If you focused on long-form content, that would mean spending at least two days on a single blog post. You could compose several short articles instead. That would mean more pages at your website and greater frequency of publishing. But it would also be the wrong thing to do!

Almost everyone could compete with short articles. When you deliver something elaborate, detailed, and super-informative to your audience, you’ll have a competitive advantage.

Long-form posts rank higher in Google results. Take a moment to let that detail sink in.

So are you making any of these blogging mistakes? When you identify the mistake and fix it, you can expect great things to happen. Just keep listening to your audience and fixing the things that don’t work.

About Silvia

Silvia is a freelance writer and novice entrepreneur from Phoenix. In a free time, she travels and works in a field of psychology.

The post 5 Common Blogging Mistakes that You Can Fix appeared first on Dear Blogger.

While corporations and larger businesses likely have a team dedicated to developing successful marketing strategies, small and mid-sized companies may only have a one-person squad manning the marketing department. As 2018 is unfolding, new trends and marketing technologies that marketers should be aware of are emerging. It can be challenging to keep up with this fast-moving industry, but SMBs can have a leg up if they keep their ears open to trends. Here are five 2018 small business marketing trends marketers should keep their eye on.

1. Mobile App Adoption

In the past few years, SMBs have been slow to create and utilize mobile applications that promote their businesses. In 2016, fewer than a quarter of these individuals had a mobile app, and nearly a third were unlikely to develop one. However, almost half have plans to create one shortly. As a freelancer and solopreneur, this has reinforced the importance of becoming familiar with basic app development principles. While it makes sense to get a professional to handle mobile app development, knowing why audiences are more keen to align with businesses who have mobile apps will help others like me in the future see a reason for moving this way, and even develop apps of our own.

2. The Rise of Video Marketing

Video marketing is on the rise across all industries. According to an infographic by SocialMediaToday, video increases traffic from search engines by 157 percent. Also, the average visitor spends 88 percent more time on a website when videos are included. That’s a real eye opening and an easy small business marketing tactic to take ahold of. In the past five years, video has shown to be a tool all marketers should have in their arsenal. Since many SMBs are run by one-person teams, it can be difficult to put a focus on this, but as 2018 continues, video marketing should be a staple in SMB marketing strategies. I have personally put out simple one to two-minute videos that have received more engagement on Twitter and Facebook than posting written prose. Including visual elements such as video is a reminder that everyone learns and interacts with information differently, and video marketing is a way to acknowledge this finally.

3. Understanding the Outcomes of Marketing Strategies

According to a 2016 Small Business Marketing Trends Report, SMBs are still in the dark about how their marketing strategies are benefiting the company. Nearly 49 percent of small business owners are not sure if their marketing efforts are effective. As companies continue to add to the culture of focusing on outcomes and putting a spotlight on ROI, SMBs will have to determine what impact their marketing has. All-in-one marketing tools, such as HubSpot and SharpSpring can help shed light on the successes of marketing campaigns and the overall areas for improvement. Checking Google Analytics was a daily ritual for me as a communications associate for an educational nonprofit. It gave me the knowledge I needed to understand why specific blog posts were more popular than others, and the types of content our constituents were looking for. Whether it is Google Analytics or some other software, keeping track of results will intelligently guide future endeavors.

4. Separating Social Media Usage from Social Media Marketing

In 2017, data from BIA/Kelsey revealed that 77 percent of SMBs utilize social media in overall marketing efforts, but only 32 percent invest in social media marketing. The majority of the U.S. population has a social media account, and marketers have to begin to look at social media as a viable method for gaining leads and generating conversions. For me, it was so easy to think that a large number of followers translated to success. In actuality, I should have been looking at engagement data and how campaigns I managed were performing. Social media, like anything else, has to involve a well-thought-out strategy to find the truth behind the numbers, and realizing this helped me to become more intentional in my planning.

5. Content Marketing is Essential

According to social media expert, Neil Patel, higher quality content creation was the number one factor contributing to marketing success last year. This trend does not look to slow down in upcoming years. Along with social media marketing, SMBs have to create relevant content for blog posts and social media sharing to draw in constituents. I saw this first hand when I started a blog for a previous nonprofit employer. I took time to survey constituents to see what they
wanted to hear from us. Not only did this increase page views, but it also made constituents more apt to donate and open newsletter content. Meaningful content will turn bystanders into active participants. As revealed above, many of the tips above reference relatively new technologies: social media, mobile app development, and digitally measuring outcomes. These tips help small and mid- sized businesses stay in step with competitors, reach broader audiences, and reveal who the company truly is through effective content.

Next Steps To Dominate Small Business Marketing Trends:
● Look for training. If readers are struggling with proficiency in social media or analytics
software participating in workshops or training to better understand these tools is a great
first step.
● Stay up-to-date on industry practices. If there is a push toward infographics in blog
posts or a new way of sharing video, then reading blog posts regarding these topics or
following influencers who share best practices is an excellent way to stay current.
● Decide what is the most important item to tackle first. Maybe the company is doing
well with video marketing, but a mobile app has been something leaders have seen a
need for. Marketers should make sure they have their priorities in line regarding what the
company needs most.
● Measure often! Metrics and analytics should become a major part of the strategy. Each
tip above should go hand in hand with ways to measure outcomes to know if plans are
meeting set benchmarks.

Which Small Business Marketing Trends Have You Noticed?

Even with a one-person team, SMBs can still set themselves up to be competitive in their respective industries by using smart small business marketing trends. As long as marketers keep their ears to the ground and remain open to learning something new, then they can reach success regardless of the trend.

Chanell Alexander currently resides in Atlanta, GA. When she’s not traveling and trying new restaurants in the Metro Atlanta area, she writes about the latest technology and tools for TrustRadius.

The post Keep Your Eye on These Small Business Marketing Trends for 2018 appeared first on Dear Blogger.

This is a guest post by Ryan Biddulph. Ryan discusses the dos and don’ts of blogger networking, and we’re glad he wrote them down because we agree whole-heartedly with all of them! Ryan is a published author and blogger. See more below.

I have been online for almost 10 years.

The sheer number of blogger networking blunders baffles me.

Most bloggers have no idea how to network. Why would you know how to connect with influential bloggers if you haven’t been given a specific guide for befriending these blogging big dawgs?

Making these mistakes adds months or years to your blogging learning curve.

Address these boo boo’s today.

Own your networking errors.

Build your blogging buddy network from an intelligent, heart-centered space to grow a successful blogging business.

A1: Not Having a Plan

I read this fabulous blogger outreach guide by my friend Christopher Jan Benitez at WHSR recently:

Effective Blogger Outreach Strategy

The guy dives into blogger outreach with a clear, intelligent, focused plan in mind.

Not having a networking plan leads to ruin every time.

How can you think clearly and confidently if you have no plan to systematically follow?

Develop a fundamentally sound blueprint for befriending top bloggers in your niche.

Avoid this most common of blunders by doing a bit of mental legwork before networking in your blogging niche.

1: No Personalizing

Not personalizing is a surefire way to fail with your blogging networking campaign.

Hurried, desperate bloggers miss opportunities to connect with fellow bloggers on a deeper level.

Move away from fear-based, impersonal, generic, bland marketing. Top bloggers have a mountain of emails to sift through daily. Your generic email or social media message finds the trash queue almost every time.

Be personal. Add names to emails.

If you are like me, your name is the best sounding word in your native tongue. Make a lasting impact on bloggers and readers. Use their names to develop deeper connections with your fellow human beings.

Donna Merrill provides you with a shining example of someone who personalizes virtually every online interaction. She makes you feel special, which is why she is so dang successful.

2: Trying to Get Before Giving Can Ruin Blog Networking

The most damaging blogger networking blunder: trying to get before giving.

I routinely receive emails, social media messages and all manner of queries asking for features on my blog, guest post opportunities, retweets to my 52,000 Twitter followers and other requests from complete strangers.

Why would I help strangers when my dear friends are waiting in line for features, mentions, and retweets?

Do not bother begging an established pro blogger for a feature, for a mention, or for a guest post on their blog. You need to earn that right by patiently practicing your craft, by generously promoting influential bloggers, by commenting on their blogs and by helping them in as many ways as possible.

I had to pay my pro blogger dues by patiently helping influential bloggers for years, without looking for anything in return.

Help top bloggers. Be generous. Do not ask for anything in return.

Being persistently generous without asking a top blogger to be featured on their blog is the simplest way to befriend a blogging influencer. Your friendship can evolve into something fun and prospering – perhaps even a guest post invite – over the long haul if you patiently assist these pros without begging them for anything in return.

I worked on my writing skills for years to gain confidence in my blogging abilities. After retweeting a few blog posts and writing in-depth comments on Blogging Tips for a few weeks I received admin rights to a high profile blog.

The power of giving generously wins again!

3: Lack of Persistence in Your Blogger Networking

I had lunch with Zac Johnson a while back.

He explained how he placed 14 guest posts weekly on high profile blogs to build friendships and links for Blogging Dot Org.

Does it surprise you that his patient, persistent networking and serving regularly lands his website as the #1 search result on Google for a hyper-competitive “blogging” query?

The dude persistently networked for over a decade online. He became an online icon by helping blogging big dawgs daily for years.

Flash in the pan networkers quit connecting with bloggers after a week or month. Said bloggers throw in the towel after seeing zero financial return on their networking campaign.

Give it some time guys.

Persistent networkers succeed in the blogging game.

Impatient networkers weed themselves out of the blogging herd.

4: Hanging in all the Wrong Places

Failed bloggers tend to hang out on blogs not related to their niche.

Why network with bloggers who have little interest in your blogging niche?

Avoid this common blogger networking mistake.

Target your networking campaign by commenting predominantly on blogs aligned with your niche.

Share blog posts related to your niche.

Hang in all the right spots.

Befriend bloggers interested in what you have to offer.

If you receive invites to guest post on these blogs you will be speaking to a targeted readership.

5: Blanket Desperation within Your Blog Network

I met a blogger on Facebook recently.

The friendly individual messaged me 3 times before assaulting me with a series of video call requests.

I noted how I only chatted via video with my blogging clients. He immediately attempted to video call me 2 more times before I blocked him.

Nothing personal; I just let go desperate, needy bloggers to make room for confident, clear, loving, generous bloggers.

Do not give in to blanket desperation.

Most bloggers network from a dominant energy of fear.

Clear the fear. Network from an energy of love, generosity, service, and respect.

Move up in blogging circles by being as successful bloggers are being, even if you have yet to see successful blogging results.

Your Turn

Have you made any of these mistakes in the past?

What other blogger networking blunders have you seen recently?

About the Author

Ryan Biddulph

Ryan Biddulph is a blogger, author and world traveler who’s been featured on Richard Branson’s Virgin Blog, Forbes, Fox News, Entrepreneur, Positively Positive, Life Hack, John Chow Dot Com and Neil Patel Dot Com. He has written and self-published 126 bite-sized eBooks on Amazon. Ryan can help you build a successful blog at Blogging From Paradise.

The post 5 Blogger Networking Blunders and Corrections appeared first on Dear Blogger.

This is a guest post by Patrick Panuncillon.  He is an entrepreneur who loves nurturing young minds and molding them into becoming effective leaders in their chosen fields.

Guest blogging is already an all-too-familiar terminology in the digital society whose benefits help to launch many startups to success. However, as Google continues to grow and develop, this medium also needs to conform and keep up with the changes. If you’re looking for a new action plan for your business, reverse guest blogging might be the answer.

As Google goes toward a more well-formed approach which focuses more on the searching aspects other than keywords, the production of high quality and creative contents becomes more important than ever. And, this is where reverse guest blogging comes into the picture. As if brand management and link building aren’t tedious enough, marketing experts and practitioners are now adding reverse guest blogging to their marketing arsenals. Per contra, unlike the bothersome spin-offs of old ideas, this method is relevant to marketers who want to improve the visibility of their brand online.

How does reverse blogging work? If you are expecting a complicated process because reverse post blogging is a tactic that provides quality and credible editorial links, you’re in a surprise. All because this method is very simple. As what the name itself suggests, reverse guest blogging is the opposite of guest blogging. So, while guest blogging is a means of offering your contents to other sites to be posted, reverse blogging is a method of asking other sites to provide content for your site.

In short, reverse guest blogging is just:

• Accepting a guest post request from other sites.
• Receiving the guest post request of other website and following up with article publication request for you.

The Rich Advantages of Reverse Guest Blogging

The benefits of reverse post blogging don’t only stop at building a strong relationship between the brand and the blogger and creating a possibility for future strategies and partnership. The benefits that it can give to your  business are endless, provided of course that it’s well-executed.

As a matter of fact, it is a great marketing maneuver for brands that don’t have bandwidth or resources to produce contents on a regular basis. Below are the significant advantages that it can provide to your brand and business.

• The owner gets the total wheel. Reverse guest blogging offers convenience to the owners as there’s no need to interact with all of the bloggers who only want to contribute an article in exchange for a link. The blog owner can choose writers that he or she wants.
• Less Workloads for the owner. Shaving off workloads is the greatest benefit of this medium. The owner’s tasks become minimal because, in reverse guest blogging, it’s the blogger who writes, produces and promotes the contents.
• Readers will consume something new. Readers like to hear and read fresh perspectives from someone else outside of your blog. As a bonus, these writers can produce contents about topics and niche that you’re not confident writing about before.
• Hardwearing partnerships. If you’re reaching out to a seasoned blogger, chances are they are not going to be a one-time writer for your blog. They’ll get to know you and your brand better, and you’ll get the chance to know them better which will lead to a strong corporate relationship.
• It generates backlinks. Of course, just like how other mediums or marketing work, reverse guest posting allows the guest or fans of the blogger or writer to link back to the contents of your site which creates backlinks. You make the readers happy. The readers generate backlinks for your site for more visibility. It’s a win-win situation.

The Structure of Reverse Guest Blogging

You’ve probably heard a lot of negative publicity about guest posting. It’s no longer viable. It is dead and the end of guest blogging era. To an extent, these claims are valid.

If you post spammy guest post pieces, use guest post exchange networks or use a guest post for link building only, then yes, you have a high probability of facing a penalty.

Notwithstanding, reverse guest blogging is a different case. As a matter of fact, this medium is not just a link building tool. It’s also an exposure tactic that will serve your brand well. The links that come along this exposure are just by-products.

Below are the breakdown parts of reverse guest blogging structure that you need to check-out to comprehend better how this strategy works.

• You obtain credible and quality articles from other websites.
•  Put the articles that you get through an editorial process to omit crappy links, insert additional links to help users, add content into the article before publishing or revise the article if necessary.
•  Post that refined article, then promote it to your email lists and social media channels.
• After you post an article, you can send other articles from different sites.

Important Reminder

To make reverse guest posting works for your marketing campaigns, it’s important that you only insert relevant links in the articles, only if these links will genuinely help the readers. 9 out of the ten links that you will use should pass the editorial process and will remain in the article.

If you successfully do it, you will earn an authoritative and relevant content link. Congrats!

How To Make Reverse Guest Posting Work For You

The mechanism of reverse guest posting is maybe simple. However, there are some key points that you can apply to improve your success rate. Check out the details below:

Produce Guest Post Requests

You’ll see that number skyrocket in a considerable rate if you put some time in creating a well-written, optimized write for us page.

Most people searching in Google for guest post opportunities will type something like:

• Niche + write for us, Niche + submit article, Niche + guest post.

Optimize your pages for these types of searches. Below are the key points to use on putting your write for us page together:

Create Two Related Sites

From the standpoint of SEO, you need to have a minimum of two related sites to avoid immediate link swapping between site A and site B.

Each site should have a minimum of 10 well-formatted articles. This strategy yields two advantages for your site. It provides free content for one site and gives relevant links to the other one. It also helps streamline link building and cross promotion opportunities. As a result, you’re going to have two relevant sites over time.

Create a Pitch Template

The rule of thumb is to play around with ideas that work for you and your niche. But don’t forget to incorporate the basics.

First, have two reliable sites and do them a favor first by posting their articles. Then second, ask for a return favor. It’s just that simple. Some companies offer guest blogging services which you can employ if you’re not that confident with your guest blogging skills.

Make Your Site Link Worthy and Look Trustworthy

The obvious point here is to generate positive responses for guest post requests by making your site link worthy, reliable and more than just an affiliate site of Amazon or Ebay.

Below are practical tips to  follow:

• Type of Domain – With regards to domain names, don’t build sites on PMDs and EMDs to avoid receiving data whenever there’s a change in the overall success rate of the site.
• Fresh Posts Feed – Make sure that your recent posts feed has a combination of articles, and not just your latest product review articles. Employ the most prolific writer in your team who can deliver a qualitative contents for you. You are probably aware that you need to have some original, how-to type or user-help articles nowadays, but making these articles visible to the person who you asked to take an article from you helps improve the success rate.
• Past Writing Samples – If you don’t have guest posts yet, the ability to produce a handful of quality articles on your site, especially if you have plenty of shares on social media platforms will render a significant benefit.
• Customized Homepage – This is the area where first impressions help. The majority of the themes permit a home page customization if you exhibit posts. You can choose to display a set page, a page that shows a feed of quality articles or a non-monetized home page since it works best.
• Email List or Social Media Presence – It will be a big help if you can offer to promote the article they post for you through your email list or social media audience if you have reasonable subscribers and followers.

Comprehend the Types of Guest Post Requests

When your site is ranking for particular guest post related keywords on private lists, you’ll discover that you acquire three kinds of outreach requests;

• SEO agencies are outreaching for clients. Typically the pitch comes from someone claiming that he or she is a freelancer working on his or her portfolio.
• Brands with in-house SEO teams who do outreach campaigns. There will be guest post requests coming from different eCommerce sites doing outreach for example.
• Regular individuals like bloggers and web owners whose doing guest blog outreach for their sites.

The strategy works best with regards to success rate if you use it interactively. People who do link building know the importance of guest posting or generating articles to be posted on their site and are happy to grant you an article on their site in return.

Further Reading;

Guest Posting 101: 7 Keys to Get Your Guest Post Published

Guest Posting And Guest Hosting: Best Practices

WordPress SEO: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Highly Optimized Blog Posts

Takeaway

Reverse guest blogging is not just a silver bullet for link building that you can employ as a sole tactic for link building. It means that the more site you have, the better it will be for your business as you’ll have bigger opportunities for link building on wards. After you set up a stable system, you will yield quality content for your sites, get better exposure for your sites and build new connections in your niche.

Patrick Panuncillon

He is a full-time entrepreneur who splits his time between managing his digital marketing firm, Link Vista Digital Inc. and studying web design, print advertising, and blogger outreach. On his downtime, he likes to write about SEO and just about anything within his interests and shares them with his readers and followers on social channels. You may connect with Patrick on Twitter or/and LinkedIn.

The post A Fresh Take On Reverse Guest Blogging and It’s Practical How-To-Guides appeared first on Dear Blogger.

Dear Bloggers,

When I published my first blogging tutorial I had no idea if 100 or 0 people would read it.

Videos were even tougher – YouTube is so tough at first!

But now, 200 videos and a few long blog posts later, we finally have something to show for all our hard work in creating wordpress blogs and websites (aside from some seriously cool blogs and websites themselves): an official Showcase Website where your sites can be posted, viewed and shared!

Visit our new YouTube Website Showcase here!

I’m so excited to have help people make a website and blog and to see real businesses thriving. It’s one of the most rewarding things in the world seeing your completed sites (even if they stray from the demos!)

In this post I’ve created a little video about the showcase explaining where you can find it, how to use it and what you’ll get out of it when your WordPress website or wordpress blog gets featured!

Watch our YouTube Showcase Video!

Why Submit Your Website in the Showcase?

You’ll get to:

• Inspire others and get inspiration from similar sites!!!
• Create your own page on a dearblogger.org subdomain, great for SEO!
• Announce your blog or business or any kind of website to the world
• Pick categories of choice
• Track a view counter
• Setup backlinks of choice
• Post images of your website or blog of choice
• Have the satisfaction of completing a tutorial a knowing you can make a beautiful blog
• Grab that initial mention on the web. Like that time you first won an award for your art project!

You won’t get:

• A million bucks or a million visitors
• Instant stardom
• A ton of blog sponsors

But, actually, it’s these sorts of features on the web that do lead to initial blog-stardom and initial sponsors, and now that you know how to make a website or blog I’d love to help take you to that next level.

That’s all for this post!

Make sure to watch the directions in the video then Submit Your Website to the showcase (assuming it was made with our tutorials!)

The post YouTube Website Showcase – I’m So Excited to Feature Your WordPress Websites and Blogs! appeared first on Dear Blogger.

The moment you create a new blog, you should focus on building backlinks. Not on a new pretty logo or a sidebar advertisement, but on earning links from other quality sites in your niche which point back to your own website or blog.

Sure, “all link building campaigns must start with something worth linking to” – Yoast

But after working long nights you’ll inevitably have this “worthy piece of content” and at that very same time you’re ready with content I want you to have a strategy laid out to get people reading your stuff. That’s where backlinks come in.

In this post, instead of just talking generally about link-building strategies, I’ll walk you through exactly how I got the first 10 backlinks on my first ever blog so hopefully you can replicate the process to get a few more backlinks too.

Why do more backlinks = more traffic?

The theory is that when someone links to another website, they are effectively saying it is a good resource. Otherwise, they wouldn’t link to it, much in the same way that you wouldn’t send a friend to a bad restaurant. – Moz

In other words, Google uses links to 1. discover new webpages (just like you would discover a new restaurant from your friend) and 2. to determine the quality of a webpage and how well to rank that page in their results (just like how if 10 friends of yours recommend Tao for Pad Thai, for example, you’ll be more likely to go there Friday night).

When a high-profile website creates a hyperlink (a link, or a backlink) to your blog, Google notices. Google notices because they automatically crawl the web daily. That link contains “link juice” a little bit of which passes from the authority of the high-profile website down to your website. Get a lot of links, get a lot of link juice, and become a high-profile website yourself.

In Google’s perfect world, people read the web and link back to things they love just out of good natured kindness (organic link building). However there’s a lot more manipulation which actually occurs (black hat link building). But that’s not the focus of this post. We’re focusing on the organic ways to build links.

The process is pretty simple. Google and the SEO community who worship it still maintain the consensus that backlinks account for the top 2 largest criteria in deciding how a piece of content (a blogpost you write, for example) will rank in the Search Engines.

We want your posts to rank in Google, so more people find them, which means more traffic. So you need links.

What should I focus on as a new blogger?

In simplified form, what you should focus on as a stay-at-home blogger or small business owner is a 4 step process:

1. Create the best content possible
2. Get backlinks pointing to the content (see steps I’ve used below)
3. That content ranks higher in Google for related Search queries
4. More clickthroughs from Google means many more eyeballs on your blog post over time

Sometimes we will create content well in advance of building links. You might write the best article ever on how to lose weight, or who rigged the election, or why Tiger Woods will win another major. You might do so without ever even wanting such an article to rank in Google. In fact, if you were the only person ever to write such an article, it would likely rank #1 when people looked for that sort of information, assuming you had indexed your website to Google.

However the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages, which you see when you errr Google something) today are much more competitive. It’s much more likely that any resource you see is trying to be there, and is trying to beat out other similar resources. Given this increase competition online, we can take into account the following 10 link building strategies in order to strategically get your blog posts and website pages read.

10 link building strategies to get backlinks organically

1. Guest post for a large blog
   It’s good to shoot high. When I launched this blog I read all of ProBlogger.net’s posts, commented often, interacted on Facebook with their SMM, and eventually sent one well-timed email with a guest post that got accepted.
2. Guest post for a medium-sized blog
   Cast your net wide. I always loved landing guest posts on sites like 12Most, BrazenCareerist and CheapSholar (to give you some ideas) because it filled my slower weeks with backlinks and good solid networking.
3. Guest post for a small blog
   You’ll also need to stomach your pride at times. Writing incredible posts for small blogs will still gain you marginal increase in link juice, even more so if that small blog becomes a big authority some day. Did I bore you enough with the guest-posting strategy? Probably, so let’s move on.
4. Host guest writers on your own blog
   Invite other bloggers, writers and just plain friends to write a your blog. This complements your blog with another voice and they’ll be pretty likely to share the finished post on their own site, if they have one. Backlink, check.
5. Get featured in a weekly roundup
   Plenty of content managers and SMMs send weekly link roundups to my inbox each week. By getting on a few of their radars, you can get your links in roundups. It doesn’t even matter if your site is way smaller than theirs, these people often just need original content and it makes their job easier! The effect here is quicker but similar to expert roundups. Boom, backlinks.
6. Create a sister blog and cross link
   Not exactly helpful if you have two blogs with zero traction, but it can take the pressure off one. Especially if you want to write on a topic that fits on but not the other. You might build your content quicker.
7. Get your friend who is a well-known writer to feature your blog
   Sort of a lucky unicorn tip here in that if you have it, you’d better use it, but not necessarily talk about it at your coffee chat. If you have a friend with influential powers on a larger website, encourage them to feature your new site. Take them out to dinner for crying out loud. People love being pursued for their strengths.
8. Trade sidebar or footer links Offer Testimonials!
   In the olden days we could email people asking to swap sidebar links and this method of trading link juice actually worked. Nowadays you’re better off emailing them with a glowing testimonial you wrote and published on your blog. If done well enough, they’ll want to feature it (who doesn’t love more good testimonials about their service or content?) on their own website. Backlink, check!
9. Acquire author bio pages on other websites
   If you guest post more and more, you’ll get better and better author bio pages. You may have to ask/remind the author to setup the page for you.
10. Start publishing your content to other mediums
    The most places your content exists the more chance you have of being found. For me, moving to YouTube in early 2014 was a big step which scared me but also one I’ll never regret. There’s much more opportunity for traffic, and because now I get to focus on YouTube SEO! 

Does everyone need to get more backlinks?

Not really. Huge websites like Huffington Post, Time Magazine, Business Insider, Vogue, Forbes etc. etc. can spend their time creating high-quality content (not backlinks) because their content is already likely to be linked and mentioned on other websites and blogs. Their large readership and huge reach sort of carries this process of getting mentioned out on it’s own.

Smaller bloggers do need to build links. Especially if you just now create a blog and want it to hit your niche with a bang. You need to launch with good content on your blog, and have other websites mentioning you to speed up the process of Google noticing what you’re doing.

Position yourself as fresh and different as you can in your niche, swallow your pride, and get out there and build more backlinks. It’s largely helpful to how we blog for a living later on!

Are you in the process of building backlinks? Have you had some recent success you’d like to share? Post a comment, it takes 4.5 seconds and can help someone tremendously!

Image from Pixabay

The post How To Build Your First 10 Backlinks with Examples appeared first on Dear Blogger.

UPDATE: We’ve dropped the named UNITY for now (because this word is sadly not in our domain name). All help simply takes place 24/7 at The WordPress Experience as it’s now called, or as usual in the comments here and on YouTube.

In this video I hit a tricky golf shot then talk about why I’m making the new WordPress Experience Club for members of the HostGator + WordPress family (aka if you made a wordpress blog or website with a guide here at the blog or using one of my youtube tutorials, that’s you!)

Why Unity? Why Join Some New Club?

The club is free for all to join, but recommended for users of HostGator hosting and WordPress.org because we’ll be covering those sorts of features and strategies over the next several months.

We’ve all got too many things doing on in our busy days. In my opinion, worry about your WordPress website you can’t figure out shouldn’t be just one more thing.

But the problem is too often we search for help on our blogs and websites and it goes like this:

WordPress “experts” run us through lots of fluff, ads and a bunch of their own ideas without directly solving our problems. At the end we’re left smacking our palm to our foreheads. Sidenote: I love animals to death and don’t condone dog shows.

So within Unity I’ll be devoting entire nights, 1-1 sessions, and personalized, exclusive videos to making sure you get your questions answers and enjoy a premium level of success in the world of WordPress, online marketing, eCommerce and beyond.

I want you to feel outstanding about your WordPress blog or website.

And for so many of you I’ve already laid out the path. But if you still feel left out in the cold in WordPress then this club is a must join. You’ll literally get walked through how to turn a WordPress website into a successful project you can do for a living and love logging into each morning.

I Can’t Do it Alone

Well actually a lot of this content is made by just me sitting here in my underwear or at the coffeeshop at 10am so technically that is alone. But I need your participation to make this club great. All you need to do is join by email list on the new Unity page here at the blog, then await next steps for events (like to attend our first town hall on 7/19 even if it’s just for 10 minutes to ask your website design questions, to be held at YouTube and our new Dear Blogger forum).

That’s actually all you need to do. Join the email list now too so when the club formally launches on Tuesday 7/19 you’ll get the link to my first ever exclusive (non-public) YouTube video on “how to write a blog post that get’s over 2 million pageviews!” We’ll actually go through how you can create this sort of viral effect on your blog too with real steps outlined.

So that’s it.

Enough for now.

Stay tuned at the new email list, the old email club too, and subscribe on YouTube. More soon!

The post Video Update: Unity – The WordPress Experience Club appeared first on Dear Blogger.

You only get one chance to make a good first impression.

Your website is your virtual calling card, and making it great is up to you.

Your success depends not only on your readership and your engagement level, but also on its appearance.

When deciding on your website’s appearance, you need to take the following into consideration:

• the theme you use
• your home page
• which widgets you should display — and when and where

Today we are going to focus on your theme. Next week we will focus on your home page, and the week after that, we will focus on your widget choices. Yes, this is another 3-part series! (Remember the last series I wrote, about putting yourself out there?)

Choosing a Responsive Theme

It’s no secret that advances to technology now dictate how we use the internet these days. Many people are using their smartphones to access their email, blogs, and social media accounts. Therefore, it is important that your website uses a theme that is RESPONSIVE.

If you are using a responsive them, then your site will be clearly visible on all devices — phones, tablets, iPads, and computers.

To check how your site looks, you can use a tool such as try Matt Kersley’s Tool, which shows you results for 5 different-sized electronic devices. Just enter your URL and let the tool do the rest!

The 5 different sizes it shows you are:

• 240 x 320 (small phone)
• 320 x 480 (iPhone)
• 480 x 640 (small tablet)
• 768 x 1024 (iPad – Portrait)
• 1024 x 768 (iPad – Landscape)

You can also use Responsive Test if you want to view your site using other options. In the upper right-hand corner, you will see these icons:

If you click on the first icon, the PHONE icon, you will have a variety of choices to view: Apple, Blackberry, Samsung, HTC, and LG, and under each are even more options.

If you click on the second icon, the TABLET icon, your choices include: Apple, Amazon, Asus, Barnes & Noble, HP, Microsoft, Samsung and Sony.

If you click on the third icon, the LAPTOP icon, again you have many choices to choose from. Same goes with the fourth icon, the COMPUTER icon. Clearly, each icon will give you a variety of options to see how your website looks on each device that exists!

Choosing a Free or Paid Theme

Should you go with a free theme or a paid one?

The choice is entirely up to you. Greg claims that buying a premium theme actually made him richer.

He also thinks that paid themes make you look more professional.

There are many excellent, free themes available from WordPress.org and I use a free theme on Wording Well. I bought one for my other site, however, which leads me to my next point…

Test Your Theme On Different Devices… To Be Sure it Works

I purchased a theme for my personal/author site, Laying It Out There, but then I noticed that the menu bar wasn’t working properly when I viewed my site from my son’s smart phone.

Ugh!

So even though the theme is responsive, there was still an issue with the theme I chose. Ultimately, I ended up installing a different — and free — theme on this site, which goes to show you that you don’t need to spend a lot of money (if any) to make your website look good and be user-friendly!

From this experience, I learned the hard way that it’s important to test your theme on as many devices that you have access to, just to make sure that it works.

Some Theme Homework For You

Change your theme to a responsive one if you don’t already have one.

Try to access your website from as many different devices as you can. Ask your family and/or friends to help. (I don’t own a tablet, but my mother does. I also don’t own a smart phone… yet… but my son does. I’ve enlisted their help to test my new theme. I’m still not entirely sure I’m satisfied with it yet and so might change it again.)

Share your experiences with us in the comments, including any problems you ran into.

Greg and I are here to help you work through them!

Lorraine Reguly is a freelance writer and editor for hire. She gives away a FREE blogging ebook, 20 Blog Post Must-Haves, to her Wording Well subscribers. Grab your copy TODAY!

The post Impress Your Website Guests: Choose a Responsive Theme appeared first on Dear Blogger.

There’s a lot you can do to make a blog popular these days.

But if you can choose the perfect nickname – a pseudonym – before you start a life-changing blog you just might become the next hit.

Pseudonyms are everywhere in blogging and you’ve got a nickname too.

They make you interesting, mysterious, draw a personal connection and could even make a blog more profitable if you do it right.

In this post I’ll cover how to blog under a nickname (like viperchill, shoemoney, blogtyrant, collegeinfogeek, wordingwell, or yes dearblogger but so so many others).

Need Your Help: I can’t find this topic covered anywhere else on the web but it’s a question I’ve gotten 4 times this past week alone and it’s something that is awful if you do it wrong. If you use a nickname to blog successfully, please let us know how you do it in the comments! Thanks!

Choose it before you start

I use to have an economics coach who would say “the easiest answer is the wrong answer”.

What he meant by this was that you could write down a bunch of beautiful stuff on his tests but if you weren’t going about the problem the right way, you would most likely just get a wrong answer. Even if it felt good writing down that answer it would still be the wrong answer.

You have to go about choosing your nickname the right way.

The first step is choosing it before you start a blog. The second is understanding what sort of vibes your niche needs at the moment and having good timing.

Let me give you an example of timing. Listen up because I think about this stuff a lot.

Example of Nicknaming a Blog with Good Timing:
We all know and respect ProBlogger.net because he’s the godfather of blogging, a staple in our industry. But can you imagine how ridiculous it would be if a blog called “Pro Blogger” popped up in 2015 with countless other expert blogs about blogging.

We would laugh. But “Pro Blogger” was a hit name because it was original, started 8 years ago and did one thing really well.

Put as simply as I can, many bloggers don’t realize how important the timing of when they start their blogging empire is and assume they can just start up and out-content-create the competition.

You can’t. You can do ok, but you won’t do really well.

The problem here is that competition is a very real thing. If you don’t respect it, you can’t beat it. However if you do your niche research and truly find that your concept – your nickname – will stand out, then it’s a greenlight.

Further, if you can understand that you are starting a blog in a certain climate and use that climate to your advantage, you will have a much better chance at becoming a hit blog.

Don’t change it once you launch

Simply put, you cannot change your nickname or pseudonym after you launch your blog because you will lose credibility. And that is next to death for a blog.

Let me explain this further.

You might think you have an even better idea for your nickname or see some other blogger with another genius idea, but believe me when I say the people who matter will have like your first idea.

Don’t change it.

“Measure twice, cut once” – Home Improvement

That’s actually a line from Home Improvement’s Al Borlan, a godfather in his own right

Think of how many business’ out there making fortunes now seemed ridiculous to mention when they got started. Chipotle always sounded ridiculous to me. YouTube? What the.

You get the picture.

Include it in your domain name

Along the lines of not changing your nickname ever is including it in your domain name.

This part is a must – because you want to show commitment to your brand.

Not only that, but this results in pretty darn significant inbound SEO. As your name grows and people start Googling it, you will come up #1, which is how ultimately it should be.

If your nickname is something totally ridiculous then it is okay to partially include it, or surround it with some other keywords in your domain name.

I’m happy to help you brainstorm.

Just keep in mind that creating a good nickname that is also a good domain name is incredibly valuable these days.

Need a bit of creative help? You can ask a comment here, or you can go out and get some fresh air, run around, and let things simmer.

Nothing makes for a good idea like some time away from that idea to do something else you love doing.

“Nothing fires up the brain like play” – Stuart Brown

Compliment it with themes and motifs all the time

Finally, I’d like to add that motifs can strengthen your nickname.

I know that sentence sounds really weak though, so let me explain what I mean.

Example of Using Motifs to Strengthen a Blog Nickname
Let’s say your blog name is, hmm…bowlingman (wow, that really stinks, but going off the top of my head as I type here). But let’s say your blog pseudonym really is bowlingman and your domain name is thus bowlingmansblog.com – and it’s a blog about everything bowling.

It’s weird but could actually work.

In your writing, you’ll want to use motifs.

What’s a motif? It’s an item that compliments a theme.

So if your blog were about bowling you would want to mention things like popcorn machines, flashy lights, awkward shoes, good times with friends, arcades and those sort of mental images in your writing.

Using motifs and mental images like this can strengthen your messages. It shows you know what you’re talking about.

It can also lighten up the subject enough that you can get your messages through!

You want that.

You want that.

Conclusion

Choosing the perfect blog nickname is something that should take at least 3 tries with and perhaps several post it notes or pieces of scratch paper.

Don’t go with the first idea unless you try out 3 more, and the first one still wins.

Lastly, remember to do as I always tell new bloggers and be niche-narrow. Don’t brainstorm for weeks then pick some all-inclusive nickname that’s too vague or confuses everyone.

Whether you call it your pen name or your nickname or your pseudonym (which by the way is really hard to spell guys) this name should say something about you – specifically you.

“You can do anything, but not everything” – David Allen

Being niche narrow sets you up as the expert, even when nobody knows you, or your nickname.

Discover more bloggers just getting started

Learn more about starting a blog and finding your voice in the blogosphere HERE

The post How To Create a Popular Blog Under a Nickname (a Pseudonym) appeared first on Dear Blogger.

I had recently had the opportunity to sit down with a blogging client and help her improve her blog’s design. She had all the writing talent and content of a major blogger, but lacked the technical insight that can only be gained through years in the blogosphere.

This person is my mom and I gave her 10 hours of blog consulting as part of my Christmas present.

After looking at 5-10 blog posts of hers, I realize several trends within how her posts were titled that I though could help the audience here from the standpoint of SEO, branding and long-term promotion.

Not Understandable For a Wide Audience

If you’re like me, when you start a blog find your maneuvers rather clever. It’s all so fun and while in the learning stages you really can do no wrong. A title that only you and a few friends will understand? Too cool to pass up. A title that rhymes? Superb. An inside joke or a quote from a famous movie? Smashing.

Wait up.

There’s a problem here, and it is that these clever titles often don’t relate to a wide audience, meaning:

1. Your titles won’t make ANY sense to LOTS of potential fans
2. Your titles don’t explain the post to GOOGLE or PEOPLE

Clever titles are something we all try, and I could dig up 20 examples on my older blogs. And yes, they are fun. But if you’re creating a blog to be popular, show off your literary work, or build some form of income you have to get over you cleverness.

Clever titles really can kill a blog and leave you wondering why that other blog is so successful and yours is not.

Why?

As I said clever titles mean very little to Google and are therefore not too clever at attracting long-term traffic through the search engines. The solution here is that clever titles only work when they also contain words that explain your post to a wider audience.

Let’s see some examples of how to massage our clever titles into SEO titles too.

Use 2-Part Titles Instead (For SEO and Branding)

Titles with SEO and branding are the best in terms of attracting long-term growth and reader appreciation. Honestly, I would choose the SEO title if I had to only chose one sort of title, but in today’s literary world we can do both.

Let’s pick apart some post titles around this blog, for lack of a better example:

How Blogs Fail to Get Traffic

In this post from 2012, the words within the phrase “get traffic blog” are very SEO friendly meaning they are heavily searched in Google. The “fail” part of it is for branding and memorability’s sake. No one is searching “blog fail” in Google unless hey are searching for failblog.org, which would yield a negative match for this blog, which I don’t want.

Move From Blogger to WordPress – Start to Finish Migration!

In this migration tutorial, the words “move blogger wordpress” are the SEO terms as well as the word “migration” while “start to finish” is the branding component I added so people know it’s a complete sort of walk-through and not just someone talking.

How To Make a WordPress Website in 10 Minutes

Numbers can also be used for your branding and make for excellent title additions if you do it right. You probably get the picture, but “make wordpress website” is the SEO portion here, while “10 minutes” is the branding addition. Both pieces add value to a post title. If you’re wondering how to craft a post title with numbers in it, think about numbers other folks will find attractive given the particular situation at hand (higher $$ are good, lower time limits, etc).

What You Can Do to Fix Titles

The bottom line is that writing titles that are clever to you but don’t adequately explain your content will hurt your long term growth both in the search engines and with real people.

You can probably understand this in full by thinking of posts you read on other blogs. How and why would you read a post labeled by a clever title you don’t understand? You really could not read this post.

The posts we read the most are direct for the SEO while being branding, but brief in their branding.

Assuming you want a growing audience you should add a SEO portion to every posts (and page, for that matter) title you write.

You can add SEO to your post titles by:

• Inserting 3-5 useful keywords
• Simply explaining the content
• Anticipating what people are searching for in the future right around your niche

You can add branding points to your post titles by:

• Using accurate numbers or numerical figures
• Using dashes and semi-colors to separate parts of the title
• Adding words which catch people’s attention, like “fail” or adding words that simply please the reader

If you read this post, I’d hope you can better understand the rationale the big bloggers are using in their titles, as well as the strategy behind titles on other channels like big sites and YouTube videos.

Using a bit of blog post strategy within your posts (and you can also do this within headers in a post) is crucial to positioning your blog for long-term, effortless growth from the search engines.

How Are Your Titles?

What titles are you scheming up for your next post? Drop an idea or two in the comments and hopefully we can help you discover the perfect title!

The post Why Clever Post Titles Are Killing Your Blog appeared first on Dear Blogger.

Taking a summer break from blogging is not something all bloggers do.

Last year, I took no breaks at all.

This year, I stopped posting twice a week and only posted once a week for a couple of months while I ironed out some techie details after I moved my website from Lorraine Reguly’s Life to Wording Well.

Essentially, I have been blogging for about a-year-and-a-half with no vacation, no summer break in 2013, or breaks of any kind throughout the year.

Guess what?

I need a break!!!

But can bloggers really take a break???

Can you really take a break from freelancing, or BLOGGING?

The short answer is:yes, you can. The long answer is that you might have to plan your break wisely.

Note that this is quite different from unplanned breaks due to sickness.

In a few moments, I’ll get into some strategies you can employ for taking a break, and taking a break without feeling guilty.

For now, let me tell you that I’ve been reluctant to take an extended break despite the fact that I live in Thunder Bay, where winter lasts for about eight months. I thought the guilt would eat me up.

But after careful self-reflection, I have come to realize that taking a break is just what I need.

I need to take advantage of the nice weather while it’s here.

I need to rejuvenate myself.

I need to focus more on myself instead of on everyone else.

I need to be healthy.

I need to spend more time with my family.

I need a break from social media.

I need to plan for my future.

I need to take care of me, otherwise I cannot take care of everyone else.

Sometimes striking a work-life balance is just not always feasible.

I used to take summer breaks when I was working full-time, teaching. Now that I’m blogging and freelancing, getting paid for guest posts and editing, I am spending more and more time at the computer than I’d actually like to. Not to mention that I finally released my first book (Risky Issues: Stories about identity, drugs, abuse, death and friendship, currently available from Amazon and Google Play) and had to set up a new author website and a ton of new social media accounts, like my Google+ Author page, my Facebook Author page, my Amazon Author Central page, my Goodreads Author page, etc.!)

Sigh.

But…the cool thing about freelancing is that part of the freelance lifestyle allows for flexibility and freedom. If you have understanding clients, you’ll be able to take a vacation without any negative consequence, provided you take care of their needs (or at least consider them when you are making your vacation plans).

Teachers Get Summers Off, Why Don’t Bloggers?

When I was teaching, I took summer breaks every single summer! (I needed them, too.)

For two glorious months, I didn’t have to put up with any brats lovingly guide and teach my precious students.

Instead, I got to relax, read all those books I wanted to read but didn’t have time for during the school year, spend time lounging in the sun, go swimming with my nephew (and maybe this year, with my niece, too), suntan, and spend time outdoors. For someone who basically lives in an igloo most of the year, doing all of these things is a real treat!

Other Bloggers Take Breaks

What comforts me somehow is that other bloggers I know take breaks.

Freelancer and blogger Harleena Singh took a big break. Harleena is – in case you don’t know – a super-smart person who has a successful blog called Aha!Now that offers advice, help, and information about many different things.

When Becc, from Take Charge Now needed a break, she took one. She even asked for guest post contributions when she made this decision.

And when Jeff Goins needed a break, he took one, using a similar strategy as Becc did.

Heck, sometimes you even have to take a break from blogging to get married, like Benny Hsu did! (Ooh, the sacrilege!)

I also believe that admitting you need help – or a break – is a sign of not a weakness, but a strength. It takes guts to do something like taking a blogging break!

How to Take a Break from Blogging: 7 Things To Do and Remember

So how do you take a break from blogging? There are many ways, and there is no right or wrong way.

However, there are a 7 things you can do to prepare to take a break:

1. Schedule posts (and re-post older posts, or create some round-up posts that consist of links to several other posts).

2. Inform your readers of your intentions so they know what’s going on.

3. Stick to your plan so you can rejuvenate yourself.

4. Book guests who will promote their own posts (and yours, too).

5. Close comments during your absence.

6. Set a deadline for how long your break is going to be, and make sure you return when you say you will!

7. Ask your readers to subscribe to your newsletter so you can stay in touch. (In keeping with with my last suggestion, I urge you to subscribe to my newsletter to stay in touch with what’s going on!)

How to Avoid Feelings of Guilt when On A Blogging Break

1. Remind yourself that you deserve a summer break – or blogging break – or whatever kind of break you are taking.

2. Remember that if you are honest with your readers, they will understand. They are human. They cannot fault you for being human, too.

3. Yes, you will miss your readers. That’s okay. You’ll also want to write blog posts when you are inspired. Go ahead! Write them! You can always save them as drafts and schedule them when you return from your break. In fact, writing great posts is an excellent way you can prove to your readers how much you love them.

4. Focus on the positives: you are helping your physical and mental health by taking a break. You need breaks in order to do other things. There is more to life than blogging, despite what you might think. (Oh, the sacrilege!) Take time to smell the roses, enjoy the journey you’re on, revel in what you are doing with your life.

5. Enjoy the moment. (See Point #4.)

6. Find comfort in the fact that your break won’t last forever. It will be over before you know it. And then it’s back to the same ol’ grind.

Will I really take a break?

Yes, next month. For two whole weeks!

It’s summer, and I want to relax. I want to read. I want to go swimming. I want to spend time with family. I want to take two courses (already paid for!), and I want to come and go as I please.

My brother has a nice pool in his yard. The pictures in this blog post were taken last year when my sister and I took her kids to his house.

My five-year-old nephew, Ali, loves swimming! This year, his little sister, Samantha (Sam), is two, and she’ll be in the water as well (hopefully)!

I love taking Ali to our neighbourhood’s outdoor pool, too. I’m also looking forward to teaching Sam how to swim!

Here’s Ali, at the pool. You cannot see me, because I’m the one doing the recording.

Plus, I have to reiterate, with all of the nice weather we have been having, I absolutely must take advantage of the two months of summer to the fullest extent. Before I know it, winter will be back! *groan*

So, I’m taking a break. In August. For about two weeks. Can you blame me, really???

Now, what I’d like to know is this:

Are you going to take a break from blogging this summer? Why or why not?

Share your thoughts and stories in the comment section, please! I’m not starting my break for a while yet…

Lorraine Reguly is a Canadian-based English teacher-turned-author who offers both writing and editing services to anyone in need, bloggers included! She blogs on various websites and, if you subscribe to her newsletter, she will send you a copy of her ebook, 20 Blog Post Must-Haves.

The post How to Take a Summer Break from Blogging (without Feeling Guilty) appeared first on Dear Blogger.