Tag: blogging tips

Categories
Marketing Sense

35 Blog Post Ideas When You’re in a Slump

Marketing sense

The age-old question, “I’ve covered everything under the sun! What else is there to write a blog post about?” trips us up regularly.

 See if any of the suggestions below prompt new ideas for you.

  1. Make a list of your message’s foundational points. Cover one point per blog post.
  2. Make a list of FAQ from your audience or readers. Answer one question per blog post.
  3. What about the most common challenges your audience / readers face? You guessed it! Address one challenge per blog post and help them overcome it.
  4. Write a bulleted list of helpful, insider tips or DIY instructions related to your message.
  5. Share how God called you to your ministry and invite readers to share their stories with you via a return email or a comment on the social media post you create to promote this blog post.
  6. Share how you knew this ministry idea was from God and not from last night’s pizza. 🙂
  7. What’s going on in the news that ties into your primary message?
  8. Have a new project coming up? Share the behind-the-scenes activity.
  9. Which new book have you read or heard about recently? Why might that be a good fit for your readers?
  10. What’s the history of your favorite holiday? How can you tie that into your message?
  11. Share a gift idea for those you serve (that their loved one might give them).
  12. What startling or just released statistic relates to your message and your audience?
  13. Book launch coming up? Invite readers to support you as book launch team members or ask them to post just once.
  14. Been to a conference lately? What was the most valuable info you learned?
  15. Conference–who was the most interesting person you met, and why?
  16. Conference–who was the best presenter and what made them the best one?
  17. Conference–what’s your overall opinion of it and would you suggest your audience attend?
  18. Conference–does the conference above offer scholarships and if so, how does that process work?
  19. What else can you tell your audience about the conference mentioned above or any other conference?
  20. Write a long “roundup” blog post highlighting all the other blog posts you’ve written on that same topic. Be sure to share the link to each article as you highlight it!
  21. Share book reviews you’ve written, explaining what you did (and did not) like about the book.
  22. Write a blog post listing your favorite blogs about your topic.
  23. Write a blog post listing your favorite podcasts about your topic.
  24. Explain your research process for books, projects, or courses.
  25. Share a list of quotes that apply to your topic.
  26. Share a heartwarming story about your child or grandchild that ties into your topic.
  27. Share your favorite writing or speaking tools, platforms, or resources, and why they’re your favorite.
  28. Share three common myths related to your topic and explain why they’re not true.
  29. Share your daily schedule and invite readers to share theirs.
  30. Share how you manage your time and invite readers to share their schedule.
  31. Share your process to find the perfect title for your books or products.
  32. Share your primary goal(s) when posting on social media.
  33. Explain what a blog tour is and how your readers can be part of one.
  34. Make a list of the influencers you follow and why.
  35. Describe how you hope your message impacts your audience.

Whew! That’s a lot of ideas! Praying more than one is helpful. 🙂

Categories
Blogging Basics

How to Choose a Website Template for Bloggers & Writers

For bloggers and writers who wish to create a credible online presence, selecting an appropriate website template is essential. For this reason, your equipment should include more than a pen and wild imagination. It is time to get a well-designed website to draw in more visitors and keep them interested. Let us find out how to choose the best ready-made solution and highlight your writing talent.

How to Create a Website Blog & Writer’s Site Using a Website Template?

Step 1: Establish Your Goals

It takes more than just having an excellent concept to make it happen. You must have a thorough knowledge of the subject matter and objectives. Additionally, think about issues that the site addresses for your prospective readers. The framework and essential components of the online project will be determined at this stage.

Consequently, you must define the following aspects:

  • Your line of work (showcasing your writing portfolio, attracting new readers, selling booking, providing valuable content, and so on);
  • The persona of your readers;
  • Project objectives;
  • Problems of the audience you can fix using an online project.

Step 2: Imagine Your Perfect Design

Creating a website with blog or writer’s site is not only about how they appear. Eye-catching sliders or an original homepage design will not always work. Convenience and functionality are key factors in web design.

For this reason, this stage presents some tricky scenarios. For instance, what definitely works for an ordinary business card is probably not the best option for our goals. While selecting a website template, take into account the following fundamental factors:

  • Format, layout, and design of the header and footer;
  • Logo placement;
  • Content width;
  • Navigation;
  • Color schemes;
  • Typography.

The majority of contemporary tools typically allow extensive customization. It means that any of the aforementioned points can be altered and modified.

You can always get inspired by other blog website ideas. Look through successful online projects of successful writers and bloggers and your niche. Then, it will take you nothing to take note of all elements, including layouts, fonts, and overall user experience.

Step 3: Pay Attention to Ease of Use

The process may be completely handled for you by modern web development technologies. However, with blog writing templates, you need to take care of the website’s content, media files, forms, and other components. Of course, it is possible to pay a freelancer to complete all the tasks, but that would incur additional costs.

So, choosing a website template with a basic content editing tool is a smart idea. The majority of platforms often have drag-and-drop editors. Using them, it is relatively easy to alter elements without specialized coding knowledge.

Step 4: Analyze the Features

For non-techies, ready-made solutions are undoubtedly a fantastic option. Users anticipate them to be adaptable with a range of options to allow for personalizing the site. For this reason, you can always opt for an excellent choice with all the necessary built-in widgets and add-ons. When it comes to writers and bloggers, these are:

  • About Section;
  • Blog posts;
  • Categories and topics;
  • Contact info;
  • Advanced search;
  • Social media integration and newsletter subscription;
  • Author bio and photos;
  • Testimonials.

Step 5: Choose a Trustworthy Website Template Provider

What to look for in a dependable provider of ready-made solutions?

  1. The number of templates. The better a provider is, the more templates they have.
  2. Reviews and comments from users. Individuals discuss their experiences and point out both positive and negative aspects of their purchase.
  3. The availability of customer support. It indicates that a supplier is prepared to address any problem.

A Few Words in Conclusion

A crucial step in developing your online profile as a blogger or writer is choosing appropriate blog website templates. Select an appropriate variant that complements your brand and effectively presents your work. Make sure to take into account factors like functionality, design, navigation, and customization capabilities. Remember that there are multiple premium and free blog templates WordPress to grab. Thanks for reading!

Nancy Howard

Nancy P. Howard has been working as a journalist at the online magazine in London for a year. She is also a professional writer in such topics as blogging, IT, and digital marketing. She loves travelling, photography and is always welcome to meet new people.

Categories
Blogging Basics

How to Write Your 1st Blog Post

A welcome post is a pinned post on your blog that appears first in your entry feed. But let’s leave the technical side of the question for later, it’s the easiest one here. The most important and complex part is the ideological component because a welcome post is a blogger’s calling card.

How to make the most of the opportunity and simply and succinctly tell readers about yourself, your blog, and interest the reader? In this post, we look at how to write the perfect welcome post, based on analyzed publications from custom writing Write My Essays.

Show yourself as an author

An author’s personality is the most valuable thing in a blog. That’s why we start our welcome post by talking about ourselves.

Tell us about who you are in plain and simple language, as briefly as possible. What is your name, or who do you want people to call you? You are free to withhold your age and personal information. If you are a themed blogger or a profession-related blogger, include your education and what you do.

Write about your award-winning authorship or involvement in meaningful writing programs or courses. For example, provide links to your books if you are a published author. One more thing is if you’re not hiding from your readers – add your favorite photo in the welcome post.

Introduce your blog

The second important part of the welcome post is the presentation of the blog. Essentially, you need to answer two questions: what is your blog about, and what is its format?

Do this, literally, in one sentence – make it short and to the point. If you’re struggling to articulate your blog in one sentence, think about whether readers will be able to make sense of extensive content. That’s a reason to think about a serious overhaul of your blog and its concept.

Show the reader the most interesting things

Introduce the reader to the rubrics of your blog. It is the headings, not the thousand-and-one links to everything you think is most interesting. Describe each of them briefly, in one or two sentences. Do not put hundreds of links to individual entries, as just a few people will scroll through a long page – give a link to the tag, which will combine the posts in the headings. Put the title of the rubric in bold, and link it to the tag.

Options for contact

Describe the rules by which you can be contacted. For example: for cooperation questions, write to official emails; for other questions, write in person, and so on.

You may also give links to social networks and services, in which you as a user are presented. Do not give links to resources where you are not active.

Common mistakes when writing a welcome post

Sometimes a welcome post needs to get the desired response. One of these mistakes was made in the content writing.

  • Lots of facts in one post – the reader gets lost in the abundance of information and doesn’t remember anything. Decide what you are writing the post for. If you are telling a personal story – write about the fundamental facts in general terms, and vice versa – do not go into the biography when describing.
  • There are a lot of narrow professional terms in your post – these words are incomprehensible to ordinary users, so they will not read your post. There’s nothing wrong with terms, and sometimes you can’t do without them – let’s say when writing a post about medicine or law. Remember to explain difficult words simply and briefly and don’t make them the main focus of the publication.
  • Your publication has no structure – if you write about yourself first, don’t finish the thought and jump to services, then go back to the story, the reader will be confused by your thoughts and will probably leave the page. Decide what to write about at the beginning, what to write about in the middle, and how to end the post. Stick to that logic, and the text will be coherent and clear.

Final thoughts

            All in all, the welcome blog post is the fundamental part that defines further blog success. This is your chance to present your personality, your sphere of activity, and your offer as a blogger. A well-written welcome post tells your story in a way that is accessible and interesting to users and increases the credibility of the blog and the product you’re selling.

Nancy P. Howard has been working as a journalist at the online magazine in London for a year. She is also a professional writer in such topics as blogging, IT, and digital marketing. She loves travelling, photography and is always welcome to meet new people.

Categories
The Intentional Writer

Be A Responsible Writer – Internet Best Practices

The intentional writer

We want to be responsible, professional writers, but there are so many little details to remember. Here are some best practice tips to help you look and act professionally on your blog, website, social media, guest posts, or anywhere else you appear on the internet.

Be consistent with your image

Choose one headshot and use it on all author profiles. This includes all author-related social media, email, professional associations, the bios on guest posts, and your primary “about me” website photo.

Use a professional headshot. This is the image that you are putting out there in the world. Spend a few dollars to make it look professional. You don’t need to spend a mint to get a good photo, but it’s important to use a high-quality photo that makes you look good.

Keep consistency in mind when writing bios for profiles. Select the primary facts you wish to include in your bio and then use them consistently across all internet arenas. Otherwise, you are sending mixed signals. This does not mean using the identical bio everywhere. You can tweak your bio slightly to best fit the occasion, but don’t introduce yourself as a chocolate-loving motivational speaker and dog-lover one place and a chess grand master who writes mysteries about vintners somewhere else.

Be consistent with your brand

Assume everything you put on the internet is public—every post, tweet, reel, comment and like. Decide not to put anything out in the virtual universe that you don’t want associated with you. If you’d be embarrassed to let your friends hear you say something, it’s not something you should be saying or sharing.

Also, consider the whole picture your internet presence creates. If a stranger studied a random selection of your posts, comments, and shares, who would they think you are? The closer that impression is to the truth of your brand, the better. You are the author of your brand, so only you can act responsibly and choose what messages are suitable and what messages don’t belong in your brand.   

Be responsible with intellectual property

Everything you write is your intellectual property. This is good news for writers. The intellectual property laws protect us without our having to submit every single thing we write to the copyright office. But this same law protects everyone else’s intellectual property, too, such as images, songs, music, quotes, and videos.  So, be responsible.

Don’t use images without permission. It is not OK to copy any image you find on Google and use it in your blog, meme, or handout. You are free to use your own photos, but when it comes to using someone else’s, you have two choices: A) get permission from the source and attribute the photo correctly B) use a legitimate source of free-to-use images. Three I use are Canva.com, Pixabay.com and Pexels.com.

Don’t use testimonials or reviews without permission. Just as we may not swipe any photo we find to use in our own material, so too we should not steal someone’s review of our book. Including reviews and testimonials on our site or social media, or marketing is great strategy, but ask permission before using someone else’s words.

Use quotes responsibly. In general, fair use practices mean we may use a small excerpt of a published work, as long as it is properly attributed. Although not required, it’s good form to include the title of the book the quote comes from, along with a link to the book or author’s site.  

An exception. Since poetry and song lyrics are relatively short, using even a line is more than the “fair use” limit. Thus, it’s not best practice to quote poetry or song lyrics without express permission.  

Finally, use due diligence. Always double-check the accuracy before using a quote. There are tons of quotes floating around the internet that are incorrectly attributed. Spend a few moments searching to verify you have the wording correct and that it’s a legitimate quote and not an urban legend.

One final tip—use “clean” links

When you arrive at something like a product page through a search, the address of the page often has a bunch of extra gobbledygook after it. It’s better to cut that excess stuff off before using that address as a link on something you post.

An example:

Here’s the whole URL for my book after I typed a search into Google:

https://www.amazon.com/Fountains-Secrets-Lisa-Betz/dp/1646456297#:~:text=%22Fountains%20and%20Secrets%2C%22%20the,her%20new%20husband’s%20home%20seriously.

Here’s the result for the same book after searching via the Amazon site:  

https:// amazon.com /Fountains-Secrets-Lisa-Betz/dp/1646456297/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1659375674&sr=8-1

Notice the bold part is the same. That’s the actual URL of the page or the “clean” link. The rest is recording how I searched to get there. In both cases, I want to erase all the extraneous stuff to shorten the link. In Amazon, this means everything from the ref= onwards.

(To be safe, I always delete the stuff I think I don’t need and then hit enter to make sure the link still works. Then I copy the link and paste it where I need it.)

I hope these simple tips have helped you put your best, professional foot forward. Happy writing.

Lisa E Betz

Lisa E. Betz is an award-winning mystery author, entertaining speaker, and an unconventional soul. She combines her love of research with her quirky imagination to bring the world of the world of the early church to life. She infuses her novels with unconventional characters who thrive on solving tricky problems. Her second novel, Fountains and Secrets, was recently named a finalist in both the Golden Scroll and Christian Market Book Awards.

She also blogs about the joys and challenges of living an authentic, purpose-filled life. Lisa and her husband reside in southeast Pennsylvania with Scallywag, their rambunctious cat—the inspiration for Nemesis, resident mischief maker in the Livia Aemilia Mysteries. Lisa directs church dramas, eats too much chocolate, and experiments with ancient Roman recipes. Visit her Quietly Unconventional website at lisaebetz.com or check her Facebook page at LisaEBetzWriter.

Categories
Guest Posts Magazine and Freelance

A helpful tool for bloggers – SEO, Marketing, Content Creation Tools

Guest posts

Online tools are providing tons of help to bloggers in every aspect. Starting from research, creativity, content creation, proofreading and SEO marketing, you have plenty of tools indexed on the web to help you become a successful blogger. Starting a new blog has become religiously important, thanks to the advancement in technology and the launch of online tools. This post will tell you about some of the most important and helpful tools for bloggers!

Helpful Tools for bloggers to try in 2021

Out of hundreds of online blogging tools listed on the web, we have handpicked the most effective ones:

HubSpot – Blog Topic Generator 

The most important thing in blogging is you have to provide your visitors with informative and interesting content. This can only happen if you have fresh and authentic ideas. This blog topic generator is a famous tool that can help you find multiple topics related to your niche. You have to provide the noun or the keyword against which you are targeting your blog. Getting unique and interesting ideas is very easy with this helpful tool.

Google Docs – Blog writing tool

When it comes to writing content, you must subscribe with the best tool which can provide you options and features for beautifying the text. You must know that if the blog structure is not clear and optimized, it will be rejected no matter how informative it is. Using online tools like Google docs or MS word, you can create blog content with proper formatting. You can add headings, subheadings and bullet points in the blog content with these tools. 

Grammarly 

In blogging, you have to make sure that the quality of your content is up to the highest mark. You cannot afford to make any silly mistakes in your blog content if you don’t want to lose the interest of the organic traffic. We would like you to know that using online proofreading tools like Grammarly can help you find mistakes and remove them from your work in less than minutes. For enhancing the quality of the blogs, you would surely need Grammarly.

PlagiarismChecker.co

Plagiarism is an intolerable offence in blog writing. If your content has plagiarism, you will lose the interest and trust of the search engine and the organic traffic interested in your site. To check plagiarism, you need a reliable plagiarism checker tool. The plagiarismchecker.co is a designated resource that can help you check for plagiarism in your blog posts. The plagiarism detector tool cannot only scan your newly created content for duplication errors, but it can also scan your complete blog website and find out if someone is stealing from you. A plagiarism check is very important for a blogger, so you should never avoid or take it easy.

ReverseImageSearch.org

Images are also considered to be an important part of a blog post. Without an image, a blog post would look boring and unappealing for the common visitor. Images are important because images are more understandable than text. The human mind understands and accepts visual information sixty thousand times quicker than it perceives text. The reverseimagesearch.org is a search platform that is powered by the RIS technique. This image search utility can help you find relevant and royalty-free images for your blogs, and that too without any formalities and added expense. 

Ahref 

Ahref is a very powerful platform that you can use for free for two weeks. The main purpose of Ahref is to help you audit your blog site for different aspects. If you want to see your blog site rank in Google’s highest positions, you need Ahref. It would help you get information about the keywords you should use in your content and help you make a thorough competitive analysis of the sites working on the same niche as yours. If you want to get the right keywords or find out details about the directory links on your blogs, you should try out Ahref. Backlinks are very important when it comes to affiliate and SEO based marketing.

Live Chat

This is another important tool for a blogger. Having a live chat on your blog would help you communicate with your audience in a better way. If you want to understand your readers, then you should connect with them on live chat. You can get feedback about your blog posts and find out what they would like to read about. Create blog content according to the target audience’s requirements!

Paraphrasing Tool – SmallSEOTools

Paraphrasing tools are online software programs that can help you rewrite the content into unique and human-friendly content. You must know that you have to constantly create and update your old content in blogging so that readers can stay engaged with you. The online paraphrasing tools can help you rewrite and revise your old content in a new style. Instead of creating new content, you can use the spinner tools to revive your old and appreciated posts. The paraphrasing tool is also used to remove plagiarism from the content!

These are some of the best and most helpful tools that bloggers can use from all across the globe!

Amelia John is a digital marketer and a writer who has introduced various modern strategies in her published articles. She is also co-author of various famous digital marketing books. Amelia was born and raised in New York. She was a bookseller before moving to children’s publishing and worked for Knowledge Creators Company as a creative writer. She wrote a number of articles and blogs for teens and children on the adequate use of technology while working in that company. Amelia is famous for her great knowledge about the modern innovations that can be depicted in her writing.

Categories
Guest Posts

WordPress Performance Tips for the Everyday User

No matter what you do for a living, there is a big chance that you are running a website dedicated to your business. After all, the number of websites keeps growing steadily as there are now more than 1.7 billion sites on the Internet.

Now, every website runs on a content management system (CMS) and WordPress is by far the most popular choice among webmasters of all levels of knowledge and skills. A report reveals that WordPress powers 34% of all websites on the Internet, but the platform’s market share goes as high as 60%.

Users love WordPress because it’s simple and easy to figure out, but they still need to know a few basics in order to keep their sites running smoothly and efficiently. In this post, we will show you nine WordPress performance tips that are suitable for everyday users. Let’s take a look!

Find a Reliable Hosting Provider

Many webmasters make a simple mistake of choosing cheap but unreliable hosting providers. A typical user does it because he/she is not expecting a huge amount of traffic and therefore is not willing to invest in WordPress hosting.

Jake Gardner, an essay writer in charge of IT topics, claims this is a big mistake: “As soon as you create an army of loyal fans, you will notice that your site is slowing down. This is why I recommend you to pick a well-known provider such as Page.ly, WP Engine, or Bluehost.”

Pick a Good Theme

A theme is a collection of templates and style sheets used to define the appearance and display of a WordPress powered website. As such, it has an overwhelming impact on website performance because people love to see a beautiful online presentation.

Now, you can find a lot of WordPress themes with “one size fits all” solutions. While it may seem tempting, we encourage you to opt for a specific niche-focused theme. How come? Generic themes are covering all sorts of features – even the ones you don’t really need.

For this reason, you should pick a narrow theme that suits your business needs. If you visit a website such as Best Essays,  EssayTyper.com or EssayEdge, you will realize they use the same sort of theme because it gives them only those features academic writing agencies might need.

Choose the Right Plugins

WordPress themes determine the appearance of your site, while plugins help you to make the website better and more efficient. Just like a theme, you should also be smart enough to choose the right tools for your business demands. Generally speaking, almost every website needs plugins to enable search engine optimization, online security, contact forms, email marketing, content creation, and similar.

Remove the Plugins You Don’t Need Anymore

Everyday WordPress users are known for their “set it and forget it” philosophy. This often turns out to be a disastrous habit because hackers take advantage of outdated plugins to attack WordPress websites. If you know that over 50% of WordPress vulnerabilities come from plugins, then you understand how important it is to uninstall the tools you’re not using anymore.

Take Advantage of Excerpts on Homepage and Archives

Another thing you can do to make the website more functional is to take advantage of excerpts on the homepage and archives. Namely, WordPress will automatically load and display the entire content on a given page, which is a surefire way to degrade website performance.

If you really think that visitors should read the whole thing, then you can leave the function as is. But if you think excerpts are enough, then follow this pattern:

  • Settings → Reading → For each article in a feed, show Summary

Minimize the Size of Images

Visual content is always burdening WordPress websites, so you should consider minimizing the size of your images. Photos that are too big will make the site slower, which is a big deal in the world where almost 60% of visitors leave a page if it takes longer than three seconds to load.

The easiest solution is to use lighter images and avoid gigantic files. Another option is to install a plugin such as Smush Image Compression and Optimization to make visual content go easy on your site.

Split Comments into Pages

When your website becomes very popular, you can expect people to start writing lots of comments all over the place. While this is a sign of professional success, it can also jeopardize performance because comment loading increases the overall speed of your website. If you want to prevent this problem, go to Settings once again:

  • Settings → Discussion → Break comments into pages

Optimize a WordPress Database

As you keep creating new posts and adding fresh content to the website, you can expect WordPress to get slower gradually. In such circumstances, you should not hesitate to optimize a WordPress database because that’s where all the information is stored.

You can do it manually through settings, but a much simpler solution is to install a WP Sweep plugin. This tool will help you to get rid of many redundant features in these (and many other) segments of the site:

  • Auto drafts
  • Deleted comments
  • Revisions
  • Orphaned user meta
  • Transient options
  • Unapproved comments
  • Unused terms

Keep Your System Up To Date

Do you know that almost 40% of hacked WordPress websites were using an outdated version of the platform? This means that webmasters who neglect updates are likely to suffer from malicious attacks.

The only logical response to the threat is to keep your WordPress system up to date. Every time you see there’s a new version available, take your time to upgrade and solidify both the performance and security of your website.

Conclusion

WordPress is responsible for the functioning of more than a third of all websites currently available online. Users appreciate the platform because it’s super-easy to figure out, but some of them are still not able to identify the most important functions of the CMS.

In this article, we analyzed nine WordPress performance tips suitable for everyday users. Remember our tips and make sure to leave a comment if you need additional explanations – we would be glad to help you out!

Justin Osborne is a writer at dissertation help and research paper writing service, he loves to share his thoughts and opinions about education, writing and blogging with other people on different blogs and forums. Currently, he is working as a content marketer at online assignment help and Edubirdie reviews.

Categories
Blogging Basics

A First Time Blogger’s Journey To Success

Evelyn Mann has been blogging for eight years, with over 1 million hits sharing her experience as a special needs mom of a miracle boy who was born with a rare form of dwarfism.

I started blogging after going to a writer’s conference. Encouraged by the feedback, I set out to follow the offered advice. Before searching out a web designer, I had to determine what I wanted to write. What was my passion? What would readers want to read and enjoy?

Your Blogging Topic

What is your passion? For me, it’s writing. Since I could remember, I wrote in a journal. I joined my high school newspaper and published three travel articles in the local newspaper. Now, fast forward several decades, my love for writing had turned into a first draft sharing the story of my son’s miraculous survival from a rare form of dwarfism.

After coming home from my second writer’s conference, I decided to create a blog about raising a miracle. Next step, find a web designer to take the technical work out of creating a home for my blog. After many suggestions and searching, I found a young and upcoming website designer who would hold my hand throughout the process.

Web Designer

We met on a sunny Florida day in my home office. With a pad of paper in his hand, Pavel asked me questions about my book, what I wanted to achieve and then turned to discussions of color and layout. With those questions answered, we talked about pricing and shook hands. That was the start of a beautiful business relationship, one that has served me well over the years.

In today’s tech-savvy world, you could design your website using Wix or a similar site, but choosing to DIY or delegate this rather daunting task, I leave the design (and the work) to the experts.

Do It Yourself

Check out this link for a list of Website Builders for 2020:

For website builders in your area, search Google for website designers in your area. Another resource is an app called Fiverr. This app pairs customers with sellers who work from all over the world. When selecting a seller, note the customer reviews, the location of the seller, seller level, and response time.

As of this writing, Fiverr’s suggested a Seller who is top-rated, six years’ experience, a fifteen day turnaround, has over 500 reviews at 4.9 out of 5, located in Pakistan. With prices ranging from $100 to under $400, you would receive a three to ten-page website depending on the package selected.

Pavel is also available to craft and create a tailor-made website. Click here: 

My First Blog

After my website went live, it was time to post my first blog; an introductory blog to share the reason for my passion. On May 23, 2012, I posted a blog titled Samuel’s Diagnosis. Being new to crafting words in blog form, I made many newbie mistakes.

  1. No pictures
  2. No Headings
  3. No Outbound/Inbound links
  4. No Call To Action
  5. My Category showed as Uncategorized

I did not know what I didn’t know. But, I accomplished the goal of getting my blog started. If you’re in the same spot right now, pat yourself on the back. You can always update an old blog to add the style points I missed above.

For more tips on updating an old blogs.

In my second blog, I added an outbound link. Success. But I still didn’t know that doing this would help with my Search Engine Optimization. Now that I’ve been blogging for several years, I look for a natural opportunity to add an outbound link which fits in with my topic.

Surprise, Your Photo’s Are Gone!

I added a plug-in which placed a watermark on all the photos of my blog. Since I share precious pictures of my son, Samuel, I thought this to be a great addition. That is until I woke up the morning before being interviewed on live television only to find all my blog pictures gone! In a panic, I called Pavel, and he pulled me out of the proverbial frying pan and fixed everything. Lesson learned.

Find tips about popular plugin’s and how to choose them here.

Another Blogging Hurdle

What else could go wrong? Some of my photos were posting sideways.

Has this happened to you?

Frustrated, I scoured the internet to find an answer to this hair pulling problem. I discovered if I uploaded the picture and edited it ever so slightly, and then re-submitted in WordPress, wah-la, all fixed.

The free resource I use to re-size my photo’s is: picresize.com/

If you’d like an easier solution, you can add a plugin called Fix Image Rotation in WordPress.org. This app fixes the mis-orientation images taken using mobile phones which is most of my images.

Marketing Tip

Once my blogs posted, I found a technique to share my heart felt, sweat of my brow words and passion. Posting on social media helped to spread the word and engage new readers. Want to learn how? Read about my secret sauce here.

Over the years I learned through trial and error. And I still have more to learn as the technical landscape continues to change. My blogging journey far from over as I continue to share my passion with others. How about you? Where are you on this journey? Share your thoughts below. I read each one.

Evelyn Mann is a mother of a miracle and her story has been featured on WFLA Channel 8, Fox35 Orlando, Inspirational Radio and the Catholic News Agency. A special interview with her son on the Facebook Page, Special Books by Special Kids, has received 1.4M views. Along with giving Samuel lots of hugs and kisses, Evelyn enjoys hot tea, sushi and writing. Visit her at miraclemann.com.

Categories
Blogging Basics

Three Things To Do BEFORE You Start Your Blog

Starting my blog, I had no one to hold my hand. No one to tell me what to do. No guidelines. Fueled by advice I’d received at a writer’s conference, I started my blog to promote my memoir.

On May 23, 2012, I posted my first blog called Samuel’s Diagnosis. It was a 1,111-word document with no pictures, headlines, or photo keywords. I didn’t even add spacing between paragraphs. This first post clearly showed I was a newbie to the blogging world.

Over the years, I have gained experience through continued posting and gaining an audience for my miraclemann.com blog. I even created a training class for first-time bloggers covering topics ranging from technical aspects to social media sharing strategies.

Several of my writer and networking colleagues reach out and wanting to know “How To Blog.” I typically find they focus on the technical side of blogging rather than the creative end. However, just like writing a book, a blog needs a direction. A table of contents, if you will.

Step One

Hash out the theme and direction of your blog. What message do you want to share? Who is your audience? Who is your ideal reader?

A fellow writer colleague, Odell Sauls, asked for assistance in starting her blog. She is crafting a historical fiction book set in 1950’s New Orleans. The tentative title is St. Philips Street. Before creating her blog online, I asked her to send me her first blog as a Word document.

Her response: “Not sure what to say.” As a writer interested in blogging, have you ever felt this way? I shared that a blog needs structure. It requires a theme — a reason for a reader to read your words. Since her book is historical fiction, the blog could be about historical New Orleans. She could pull stories from her book as well as stories from other historical sights and craft her blogs around those topics.

She can then create an Instagram page with pictures from various historical locations around New Orleans with a link back to her blog.

Step Two

Write a Table of Contents, of sorts. Jot down 6–12 titles for your future blogs. In a recent job interview, the prospective employer asked me to share blog titles that I would like to create. Here they are:

  1. How To Connect With Other Solitary Writers

               Headline Analyzer score of 71.

               Audience: Writers

  • How To Create A Tribe To Share Your Blog

                Headline Analyzer score of 73.

                Audience: Bloggers

  • 3 Ways To Reach Out To A Special Needs Mom

                Headline Analyzer score of 75.

                Audience: Moms & Social Media

  • How To Avoid Medical Advice From Dr. Google

                Headline Analyzer score of 76.

Audience: Moms

How To Market Your Book Without Being Pushy

Headline Analyzer score of 75.

                Audience: Authors

Note how I clarified the intended reader or audience for each blog. In creating your titles, the audience should be the same in keeping with the theme of your blog. Another added detail is the Headline Analyzer score. Strive to achieve a score of 70 or above. Click on Coschedule.com/headline-analyzer to craft your blog title and discover your score.

Creating sample titles, takes the sting out of the question, “What am I going to write about?” Having a plan is half the battle. If you write monthly, plan out your first 12 titles. You can always change or move titles around later.

When crafting your blog titles for the year, remember to add in themes for the holiday season. For example, Odell could write a blog about Christmas In New Orleans featuring several historical sights and post the blog in late November or early December.

Step Three

Write three sample blogs in a Word Document. This will help you not only envision the direction of your blog but, you will be able to answer these questions.

  1. Do I have enough content to write blogs for the long-term?
  2. Do I need to change the direction of my blog to produce more posts?

Focusing on content before technicality will help you craft your blog and set you up for success.

First Blog

As you write your first blog, create a document between 500 to 1000 words. If it takes 1200 words to share your topic, check to see if you could split the blog into a two-part series. Or, keep it “as is” if the blog holds your reader’s attention. Have a friend read it for flow. Then ask them the following:

  1. Did they want to stop reading at any point?
  2. Would they prefer reading your topic as two blogs?
  3. Would they want to share your content?

If they say, “Yes,” to number 3, you have a winner.

For more tips on crafting your blog, check out this previous post on blogging.

Do you want to create a blog? What is your motivation? Share what you know and then follow the steps above. If you have questions, share them below. I read each one.

Evelyn Mann is a mother of a miracle and her story has been featured on WFLA Channel 8, Fox35 Orlando, Inspirational Radio and the Catholic News Agency. A special interview with her son on the Facebook Page, Special Books by Special Kids, has received 1.4M views. Along with giving Samuel lots of hugs and kisses, Evelyn enjoys hot tea, sushi and writing. Visit her at miraclemann.com.

Categories
Blogging Basics

Quick & Easy Blog Posting For The Holidays

Do you have a posting strategy for the holidays?

I read a post from a fellow author stating she will be off line for the rest of the year. She has already scheduled out all her content for the next six weeks. My first thought: I’m impressed. I am not a planner. I post manually and normally do not schedule. But after reading my friends post, I thought, how hard can it be?

Work Your Plan

Do you post your blog bi-weekly, weekly or monthy? Depending on your posting schedule, this will determine how many blogs you need to create to schedule for the rest of 2018.

  1. Schedule a time to brainstorm topics you want to post. For this column, I have a list of topics to cover into 2019.
  2. Set aside time to create your blogs with the topics you selected. This may be a block of several hours, or you may choose to write a blog a day for several days.
  3. If you are crunched for time or having writers block, considered updating an old post by adding new content. Or review an old blog and consider writing a Part 2 on the same subject.

You can find more content creation ideas here.

Posting Software

Once you have created your blogs, schedule your post manually or use scheduling software. Here are a few to choose from:

Buffer: Free Account – 3 social accounts, 10 scheduled posts per profile, Twitter, FB, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram

Paid Account: Pro – $15/mo – 8 social accounts, 100 scheduled post per profile, Twitter, FB, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram

HootSuite: Free Account – 3 social profiles, 30 scheduled messages

Paid Account: $29/mo – 10 social profiles, Unlimited scheduling

Later – Free Account – 1 social profile per account, 30 Instagram posts, 50 Twitter Posts, 30 Facebook posts, 30 Pinterest posts.

Paid Account: Plus – $9/mo – 1 social profile per account, 100 Instagram posts, Unlimited Twitter Posts, 100 Facebook posts, 100 Pinterest posts.

Postcron: Free Account: None

Paid Account: $14.99/mo – 8 social media accounts (including FB, Twitter, Google+,Pinterest & LinkedIn) 2 Instagram Accounts, 100 pending posts

Whether you decide to post manually or use one of the above schedulers, have a plan to share your content over the holidays. Being consistent year around and continuing to build your blog content helps increase your visibility and helps with being discovered by search engines.

Do you post manually? What scheduling software do you use and like? What is your favorite feature? Comment below and share the goodness.

Evelyn Mann is a mother of a miracle and her story has been featured on WFLA Channel 8, Fox35 Orlando, Inspirational Radio and the Catholic News Agency. A special interview with her son on the Facebook Page, Special Books by Special Kids, has received 1.4M views. Along with giving Samuel lots of hugs and kisses, Evelyn enjoys hot tea, sushi and writing. Visit her at miraclemann.com.

Categories
Blogging Basics

Make Your Blog Mighty: Attention To The Details

Do details matter? In the world of blogging, I would say, “Yes.” You labor over a beautifully crafted blog spending time, effort and energy to share your heart with your audience only to hear crickets. Has this happened to you? The following two tips could help make your blog hum with activity by paying attention to the details.

SEO Your Headings

I recently saw a lengthy news article online. After the title and under the featured image, the writer listed bullet points sharing the most important topics shared in the article. This helped me to decide if I wanted to read the article in its entirety.

Headings in a blog are similar to the points noted in the article. Using the Headings Feature in WordPress will help your blog to be easily read. This allows the reader to scan the blog and know, at a glance, if they would like to read it.

Another reason to craft Headings is for SEO. As stated in a Yoast article,

“Although not a major ranking factor, headings do affect SEO. That’s because headings are important to help users understand the subject of an article. And if readers use headings to figure out what an article is about, Google will too.”

Crafting headings helps visually set a block of text apart and aids with the readability score in WordPress.  Yoast SEO recommends you offer a heading for every 300 words. To add headings, you type the heading, highlight it, and then select the dropdown box that says Paragraph.

Heading 1 – 6 are available options to select from. I usually use Heading 2 throughout my blog. You can choose Heading 1 as your first heading and use Heading 2 in the remainder of your blog.  For this blog post, I used Heading 2 only.

The Mighty Meta-Description

The purpose of creating a meta description is to have a reader choose your blog to read. Similar to the description on a book jacket, the meta description helps draw them in. State why they should read your blog. Using 150 characters, craft enticing phrases like, Learn More, Get It Now and Try It For Free. This needs to mirror/match your content or Google may penalize your site.  The meta-description should have your selected keyword shared at least once for SEO purposes.

For my blog titled, Why Being A Mother Has Great Value, I wrote the following meta description:

Is there value in the mundane daily chores of being a mother? This article says, “Yes.” Read why being a mother has great value.

My selected focus keyword is: a mother has great value. These words are also contained in my title. Using the focus keywords in my meta description, and title helped to give my Yoast SEO score a green light.

Another example of a meta description used by Barnes & Noble for the memoir, I Can Only Imagine By Bart Millard is the following:

I Can Only Imagine is an amazing book. I was humbled just reading it, Mr. Millard’s story is fantastic to read. To know all that he is gone through in his life and how GOD fit exclusively into it.

In this meta description, Barnes & Noble chose to use a book review to entice the reader. However you choose to craft your meta description, remember to make it do the heavy lifting to gain attention. In other words, make it mighty.

Why do these details matter? Meta descriptions help to entice your reader. Headers help your readers decide if they want to continue to read. There are many aspects to writing, designing and marketing your blog. These two details are two of the ingredients to make your blog mighty. For more tips, read Sure Fire Ways To Gain An Audience .

Evelyn Mann is a mother of a miracle and her story has been featured on WFLA Channel 8, Fox35 Orlando, Inspirational Radio and the Catholic News Agency. A special interview with her son on the Facebook Page, Special Books by Special Kids, has received 1.4M views. Along with giving Samuel lots of hugs and kisses, Evelyn enjoys hot tea, sushi and writing. Visit her at miraclemann.com.

Categories
Uncategorized

3 Sure Fire Ways To Find Your Audience

When I started blogging, I researched examples online. I came across a blogger who posted one paragraph a day. I wondered if this was the norm. I thought there had to be more to blogging than writing a single paragraph. Is this how I find an audience for my blog?

Posting

After a few minutes, I discarded the idea of writing so few words. Instead, I chose to create blogs ranging from 400 – 700 words, depending on the topic. But what I failed to realize from the blogger I discovered was the concept of consistency. Posting daily created a body of work which helped him be found by search engines. 365 paragraphs to be exact. At 120 words on average, the total equals 43,800 words. His body of work all posted on the internet. A library of sorts, if you will. Each post with its own topic.

My sister-in-law had started a blog before me. She had consistently posted over the years creating her own body of work. When she shared my website with her followers, several of them started following me. Her consistency and sheer volume of work helped me to start finding my audience.

As a new blogger decide how often you want to post and stay consistent. At first, I posted weekly. Now, my schedule as a special needs mom, author, columnist, and social media instructor allows me to post on my own blog monthly.

How much should you post just starting out? How do you create your own body of work in a short amount of time?  One way is to join this year’s NANOWRIMO which is an acronym for National Novel Writing Month.

Sure Fire Tip: Find your audience by posting quality content, 2-3 times a week. Posting once a week or once a month can still gain you an audience but at a slower rate. You may also want to guest post to help your audience find you. Read more here.

You don’t have to be writing a novel to join this challenge in November. Another writer who joined last year used the opportunity to write a blog post each day of the challenge. This year, I plan to create a blog every day in November. Once completed, I will use the body of work created as a backlog of pre-prepared blogs. With consistent posting, this could also boost my SEO (Search Engine Optimization) helping me to grow my audience. You can sign up for NANOWRIMO here

Titles/Descriptions

As an author, I know how important it is to have an attention-grabbing, gotta read it, give it to me now title. From the title of your blog to your meta-description, creating interest for your audience is key.

Use a great title generator to help you craft the perfect title. I use coschedule.com’s headline analyzer. This title generator ranks your title on a scale up to 100. Don’t fret, I’ve never received a 100 on any of my titles, but I am happy to see my title go green (above 70.)

Sure Fire Tip: Use this headline analyzer to create your titles with a score of 70 or above.

The title I intended to use for this blog post was Blog Basics For Beginners. Kinda rolls off your tongue, doesn’t it? Though it seemed like a catchy title to me, it received a headline score of 40.

How did I get my score up? I downloaded a list of emotional words:

I added Sure Fire which is an emotional word found on the list and changed the title to 3 Sure Fire Ways To Find Your Audience.

The title of this blog received a score of 71. Your score color is green when scoring over 70.

Focus Keyword

When I want to search for topics about memoirs, I type the word memoir in my google search bar. Or, in my particular area of interest, I type, medical memoirs. The first return under this topic is Popular Medical Memoirs Books by Goodreads.

If I type in my son’s diagnosis using this string of words: Thanatophoric Dwarfism Survivors, the second result is an article I wrote for The Mighty.com. The 8th result is a blog I wrote on my website. (The Mighty.com has a much larger body of work than my blog; hence, higher on the list.)

The word or string of words searched for in the Google search bar are focus keywords your audience will use to find results for a topic. And hopefully, they will find you.

TIPS

Tip 1: When crafting your blog, think about how your audience would search for your topic/blog.

Tip 2: Before writing, search your topic in Google. What words did you use to search? Chances are, this will be your keyword or keywords. Did your search return any results? If so, peruse the results and decide if you want to narrow your topic. If no results appeared, your topic may be just what your audience wants to know.

Tip 3: Still need help finding a keyword(s)? You can find suggestions for a keyword by using Yoast suggest.

Write your article/blog with your keyword or keywords in mind. Naturally add these words in your title, article headings, picture tags, meta-description and in the body of your content. (Read Part 2 of Sure Fire Ways To Find Your Audience next month for further discussion of headings, tags, and meta-description.)

Sure Fire Tip: Use Yoast Suggest to find a fit for your keyword(s).

For this article, I searched for Grow Your Audience in Google. Potential focus keywords returned were:

  • grow your blog audience
  • how to grow your audience
  • how to find grow your audience

Based on this list and the content of my blog, I would select “grow your blog audience” as my keywords. This should help my ideal audience find this blog post when searching using these words.

Sure Fire Tip: Use Yoast suggest to find your keyword(s) for your blog.

Have you used any of the above websites when creating your blog post? Do you use other websites to craft your blog and help find your audience? Share in the comments below. Let’s help each other grow.

Evelyn Mann is a mother of a miracle and her story has been featured on WFLA Channel 8, Fox35 Orlando, Inspirational Radio and the Catholic News Agency. A special interview with her son on the Facebook Page, Special Books by Special Kids, has received 1.4M views. Along with giving Samuel lots of hugs and kisses, Evelyn enjoys hot tea, sushi and writing. Visit her at miraclemann.com.

Categories
Blogging Basics

Microblogging For Authors And Writers

A traditional blog gives your readers a place to find you and your writing. A place where you share with your audience stories about your writing, your book, and upcoming projects. It’s a fan page of sorts. A home for your blogs all in one place.

Microblogging is a form of traditional blogging; however, it is not found on your website. Of course, you could add your microblogs on your website as well, but traditionally microblogging is found in a social format via social media sites.

If you don’t have a traditional blog, microblogging is a great way to get up and running without the investment of creating a traditional blog. I believe authors should have a traditional blog. Click here for my reasons why.

In Edie Melson’s Social Media class, she defines a microblog as a post with 100 – 150 words. (Edie authors the popular blog, The Write Conversation. When sharing your microblog, add a meme which is a picture with text on it.  Describe your meme or your purpose in sharing the meme.

I use Canva to create my memes. It is a free app you can use on your laptop, iPhone or android. For ease of use, I would use your laptop to create designs. I have created memes on my iPhone, but have found it a challenge to design without the use of a mouse. Canva saves all your designs in the app. You can sign up for Canva here.

Once you create your design, share the inspiration behind the photo. You can post something inspirational, either a famous quote or one you created. Or a captivating paragraph from your book or work in progress. Even a picture of your work space can be used to microblog. Share what inspires you to write.

Be sure to add a call to action. A Call to Action is what you want your audience or your reader to do with the information you shared. It could be signing up for your newsletter, getting a free infographic (create your own infographic here) or by directing them to purchase your book.

On Instagram, you are not able to add links in your microblog.  Direct your audience to click on the link in your bio. The link in my bio connects them to my book store page on my website. You can choose to use your Amazon link as well.

Below are two examples of Instagram posts which are microblogs.

Microblog 1: (Used with permission of Becky Kopitzke)

Have you ever scolded your kids just moments before walking into church – where you then flash a sudden smile for all the holy people {as if you hadn’t just squawked at your child like a mad chicken}?

Maybe you’ve snapped your husband’s head off for asking an innocent question like, ‘What’s for dinner, hon?’

Yeah, I have, too. And I know I’m not alone.

Lots of us fall short of loving our loved one well. And not just our loved ones, but people outside our bubble, too –  like the new woman at Bible study who feels vulnerable and lonely because the rest of us greet each other with hugs and chatter while she sits alone, unnoticed. Or what about that mom at school who is grumpy to everybody all the time. She’s easy to ignore, or worse- to complain about with the other moms.

Have you ever wondered what God thinks of all that? Have you ever dared to be different? Well, now you can.

Microblog 2

In this microblog, I share the impact my son Samuel had on a stranger:

“I saw everything that was important in his eyes when he first looked at me and I have never experienced anything like that in 48 years. I was supposed to meet Samuel and when he left, I had something from him….courage. I have been afraid of making changes, taking initiatives, loving, and the list goes on.

I was up all night thinking about what you said to me and reflecting on the look I received from Samuel. It may sound nutty, but he is the angel I desperately need to meet.”  See more about this encounter here.

Do you microblog? Share your most highly commented microblog in the comments. And inspire others to start their microblog journey.

Evelyn Mann is a mother of a miracle and her story has been featured on WFLA Channel 8, Fox35 Orlando, Inspirational Radio and the Catholic News Agency. A special interview with her son on the Facebook Page, Special Books by Special Kids, has received 1.4M views. Along with giving Samuel lots of hugs and kisses, Evelyn enjoys hot tea, sushi and writing. Visit her at miraclemann.com.

Categories
Dear Young Scribes

Creating & Maintaining a Blog to Build a Readership: Part 2

In the previous post, we discussed how writers can build a blog readership by establishing a brand, deciding on a topic, and having a clear target audience in mind. But how is a blog maintained once its created?

Here are 5 strategies I’ve found to be the most helpful:

1. Keep the blog updated 1 – 3 times a week.

When I first started my blog, Christ is Write, I blogged three times a week and noticed great results from this. Now, I only blog once or twice a week. There have been times when I’ve gone weeks without posting. It’s during those times I’ve noticed the greatest dip in my page views.

If you want others to notice your blog, it’s vital to produce weekly content for your readers. That way, they will continue to return week after week.

2. Follow multiple blogs within the same category and comment on their posts.

Remember the blog topics you narrowed down in the last post? Now, find other bloggers who post on the same topics.

For instance, when I launched my blog, I followed multiple bloggers who posted on faith and fiction. Those were the people I wanted to connect with.

If you comment frequently on their posts, your name will become recognizable to them. Pretty soon, they’ll return the favor on your blog as well.

3. Interact with your blog followers.

On the “about” page of my blog, I introduce myself, then invite the readers to introduce themselves in the comments. This gives me the opportunity to know more about my target audience, build relationships, and start conversations.

Also, it’s polite to respond to your comments—even if it’s a simple “thanks for commenting!”. Doing this will show that you appreciate your readers, and it will encourage further conversation on the topic. Then, when readers see that you’ve responded, they’ll be more likely to comment on your future posts, too.   

4.  Stick to the main topic(s) of your blogs.

Think of your blog like a magazine. If you typically write posts on health and fitness, then your readers should expect posts on dieting, exercise, etc. Don’t you think they’d be a little disappointed if you decided to write a random post on politics?

However, if you have an idea for a post that doesn’t fall under the main topic(s) of your blog, try to brainstorm ways you can cater the post in a way that sticks with the main subject(s).

For instance: When I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, I had the urge to write a post about this disease. The only problem? My blog isn’t a medical blog.

Because of this, I decided to write the post in a way that could fit into my “faith” category.  I was still able to share my experience and give info on the disease as well. (See Purpose of Trials: 5 Things Being Diagnosed With Diabetes Has Taught Me”.)

5. Write fresh content that will make it easy for others to read, share, and interact.

Here are a few pointers to keep in mind when writing a post:

  • Try to keep it between 300 – 850 words
  • Write short paragraphs
  • Include 1 – 3 questions at the end of each post that invite readers into a conversation
  • Research how to write SEO-friendly posts
  • Make it easy for your readers to share the post on social media
  • Always use copyright-free images (you can find them on Pixabay.com, Pexels.com, Photopin.com, Unsplash.com, etc.)
  • Modify your font, size, and colors so it’s easy on the eyes

It takes time, determination, patience, and persistence to grow and maintain a blog. The payoff, however, will be well worth it—especially when it expands your reach and perhaps increases your chances of publication.

For more blogging advice for writers, I highly recommend the book Connections by Edie Melson. Much of what I’ve learned on blogging came from that book, as well as the author’s blog, TheWriteConversation.blogspot.com.

How do you maintain your blog? Let me know in the comments!

Categories
Blogging Basics

Five Key Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Blogging

5 Key Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Blogging

Beginning bloggers face a steep learning curve that can seem overwhelming. Because there’s so much to learn, it’s easy to begin blogging without a clear plan and purpose. Really, it’s enough to make your head spin: SEO, format, technical, style, social media, length, graphics, and more. The list seems endless.

When I started blogging, I didn’t have a clear vision of I wanted to accomplish. I had a general topic, but lacked a well-developed focus. Over time, I’ve learned through mistakes, training, and example. Start out strong with five key things I wish I knew when I started blogging.

[bctt tweet=”Five Key Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Blogging”]

  1. Give yourself permission to grow over time.
  • Fight the temptation to be overwhelmed with all the details.
  • Let go of perfectionism and remember everyone walks one step at a time.
  • Refuse to negatively compare your blog or traffic with others.
  • Subscribe to writing blogs for practical tips and tutorials for ongoing development.

 

  1. Know your why. Take time to think through the reasons you’re blogging. Examine your motivation with prayer. You need a stronger why than building a platform and generating high traffic. Platform and traffic are good goals, but writing for the numbers can be discouraging.  Consider these questions:
  • How does God want to use your writing?
  • What is your purpose for blogging?
  • What do you hope to do?
  • Why is this important to you?
  • How do your experiences, knowledge, and passions fit with your calling to write?

 

  1. Focus your blog.  A well-focused blog makes it easy readers to know your passion at a glance. The average reader decides within 30 seconds if content is relevant to their interests. Use these tips to focus your blog.
  • Craft a strong mission or brand statement you can work with long term.
  • Choose 3-6 main topics that relate to your purpose.
  • Brainstorm ideas that fall under each topic.
  • Keep your mission statement in mind when you write.
  • Make your focus clear at first glance with structure and graphics that present your topic.

 

  1. Understand the difference between a category and a tag. Categories and tags can sort content by subject rather than chronological order. Categories are broad topics supporting your why, or your mission statement. “Your blog’s categories are like its elevator speech. Make it happen without excess,” explains Julie R. Neidlinger.  Tags are more specific than categories and relate to specific details of your post.
  • Be strategic in choosing your categories.
  • Use categories and tags to make it easy for the reader to find content.
  • The use of tags is optional and not limited in number.
  • Don’t overuse tags; WordPress recommends less than 15 in a post. 

 

  1. Aim for brand consistency.  Refer to your brand statement in most of your posts for a cohesive, focused site. Brand statement, categories, and blog content should all work together.
  • Place your mission statement in a visible spot to remind you to tie your post to your brand.
  • Keep a list of words, phrases, and concepts that support each category. Use these consistently in your posts whenever possible.
  • Before publishing, double check each post for a clear connection to your why or your mission statement.

[bctt tweet=”Refer to your brand statement in most blog posts for a cohesive, focused website.”]

These tips will help you quickly overcome many of the content and organizational challenges new bloggers face. Stay focused on the purpose of your blog, the why that motivates and energizes you. Share your passion with the world with an organized and clearly structured site. Be patient, aim for steady growth and celebrate each new skill mastered. Understanding how to write a clear mission statement and organize your blog will but you ahead of many beginning bloggers.

 

Categories
Dear Young Scribes

How to Create & Maintain a Blog to Build a Readership: Part 1

Photo credit:

Savannah asked, “Do you have any tips for people who are new to blogging or would like to start?”

I began my blog, Christ is Write, over six years ago when I was 16-years-old. My intention going into it wasn’t to build a readership. I simply wanted to have an outlet where I could share my faith-related reflections and the insights I was learning on the writing craft.

Within the first few months, I reached 100 followers and regular blog visitors.

Creating my blog was one of the best decisions I’ve made so far in my writing journey. Not only has it advanced my career by helping me to establish a readership (which generated book sales), build a brand, and network with other writers, but it’s also granted me the satisfaction of instant publication for my writing.

I’ve grown as a writer through the weekly discipline of maintaining my blog and writing on specific topics. Simply put, there are far greater to blogging other than building a readership.

But as I mentioned in a previous post, agents and editors are becoming more and more strict about platforms. It’s reaching the point where they won’t even consider signing with a fiction author unless he/she has developed a healthy online following.

And one of the best ways to do this is through creating—and maintaining—a blog.

So if you’re an aspiring author hoping to create a blog for the purpose of building a readership, ask yourself . . .

1. What is my brand?

What is the specific impression you’d like to leave on your readers? An author’s brand is the image and/or type of book your future readers will think of when they hear your name. It combines the author’s genre, personality, and unique characteristics in a way that sets them apart from other authors.

What image (theme, mood, layout, colors, fonts, picture, etc.) would best portray this brand and represent your work/personality?

2. Who is my target audience?

Be specific about this one as well, because each post you write will be catered toward this group of people. What is the target age group? Gender? What interests/hobbies do they share? If you’d like to see a flock of readers who consistently return to your blog, as opposed to random spurts of readers, then it’s important to narrow your audience focus by creating a well-defined target audience. 

3. What kind of posts can I write that will reach this audience? 

For instance, if you want to start a lifestyle blog for teen girls, then you could write posts that are popular amongst that age group. (Specific topics that come to mind are prom, makeup tutorials, college advice, developing a healthy-self image, etc.) The key here is to figure out how you can reach this audience through only blogging about topics you’re passionate about.

4. What is the overall theme of my blog?

Choose 1 – 3 topics that are frequently covered on your blog. (For instance, I like to blog about faith and fiction.) This will create the umbrella that all of your sub-topics will be placed beneath. It helps to create a narrow focus for your blog—which, in return, will contribute in establishing your consistent readership.

Eventually, you may feel as though blogging is cutting into your writing time. But as long as you invest more time writing rather than blogging, you’ll be fine. In fact, blogging enhances your writing. Anything that requires the discipline to write will improve your writing. (Yes, even essays!) You’re also practicing writing on a deadline and brainstorming new ideas.

And the best benefit, of course, is attaining a readership for your future books.

In the next post, we’ll delve a little deeper into how to maintain a blog once it’s created.

If you have a blog, what has been the greatest benefit to come from it? If you don’t have a blog, do you think creating one would help to establish a following?

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