Discover New And Exciting Techniques Of Creating Blog Content

Guest Post - Our host is Anna Robeson, Anna is looking at some different types of content bloggers can use and readers will love.See How To Become a guest author on Blogging Section. 

The days of simply writing content and posting it online are long gone. I've heard the phrase „content is king” time and time again, and while I do not disagree with it, hell, I've actually written an article on the subject myself, I have to say that content is not only written. Images, videos info-graphics are also content, visual content, but still, content. The problem with today's internet is the fact that it is over-saturated with information.

Let's be honest, how many of you read articles from start to finish?  I don't. Even if I find something that interests me, I usually skim through the text, and bookmark it for later. Many writers are faced with a major problem: people do not read their blog. Moreover, in most cases, it is the first few seconds that attract a user. You can be sure that a block of text isn't as attractive as a post rich in images or videos. Written content is without a doubt the most popular content creation technique, and it is also one of the most poorly done. Any respected agency will tell you that high-quality content is one of the most powerful business promoters. That being said, let us discover alternative content techniques.

1. IMAGES

 

What most people do not know, is that written content is not the only one that can be optimized and used in order to promote a website. Everybody knows the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words", but in the world of SEO, a picture can be worth a thousand visitors or links. I've seen a lot of web owners who get a decent percent of overall website traffic from images. There are plenty of visual search engines out there which focus their queries around photos and videos. In other words, if you find some eye-candy, you can read the source article, or better yet, you can create truly unique posts which you later pin on a Pinterest board. Never underestimate the power of a high-quality image, because most of the times people want to see what it is that they are interested in, before they read about it. 

2. VIDEOS

 When it comes to videos, things are a little complicated. With images it is possible to takes someone else's work, as long as you give credit to the owner. The days of simply shooting, editing and uploading a film are long gone. Nowadays, in order to get a video noticed you have to take certain steps:

• Did you know that Youtube is the largest search engine except Google? What better way to gain more exposure than by creating an awesome video which you can share on Youtube later?

• Once you've uploaded the video, make sure that you are sociable about it. Believe me, your readership will appreciate the effort that you made in order create it. You can even create your very own, branded YouTube channel, if it is exposure that you are looking for. It is more convenient for users to listen to something while they go about their business.

• Tweak your video for search engines. Basically, in order to apply search engine practices on videos, one has to edit the „Meta-data” of the post. This means that descriptions, titles and data will be branded on YouTube’s and Google's channels.

 

3. INFOGRAPHICS and CONTENT VISUALIZATIONS

 

 I may be treating them at the same time, but Infographics and content visualizations have little to noting in common – except the fact that they are both visualization tools. Infographics represent a great alternative to written content, and a more attractive one if I might add. They are commonly used to present interesting facts in a more visually appealing way.

Concept visualizations, on the other hand, are a great content technique which every specialist should have in his marketing tool belt. They are extremely efficient because they can help explain complex or abstract ideas that are difficult to put into words. Simplicity, and clarity are the two, key qualities that a content visualization should have. I especially recommend it for bloggers who are trying to prove a point, or make a statement, and for business owners who want to make things easier to understand for clients.

4. GIFs and MEMEs

 

Animated GIFs have long been used on forums and chat-rooms, but it was only recently that Tumblr managed to make them go viral. They are a fascinating tool for promoting written content, presenting new concepts and marketing ideas. They are capable of adding that interesting visual appeal that any website needs, and to stimulate and engage with the public.

Are you familiar with MEMEs? If you are not then maybe it is time to do some research. It all began with 9gag, and now there are so many funny Memes circulating that it's hard to keep track. They are catchy, hilarious and impossible to forget. If you want to establish a personal brand, memes are the best thing you could ever do. They may not be useful for content creation, but they are the best way to interact with your readers.

 

5. PODCASTS

A podcast is a multimedia digital file which can be uploaded to a portable player. Many people think that podcasts are a thing of the past, but I assure you that they are very useful. Podcasts, both video and audio are an excellent solution for people who like to jog, who travel a lot or who have to commute. They can easily be uploaded to iTunes or any podcasting platform of your choosing. They give you the opportunity to be original, because they give you the chance to create irresistible and original call-to-actions.

Now that you've learned about five alternative content creation techniques, you will be able to make your web-page more dynamic and flexible. But you don't have to stop here. Music videos, SlideShare presentations, Embedded Tweets and many other strategies await your discovery.

 

Anna Robeson

About the Guest Author:
Anna Robeson is a passionate writer who usually consults with a digital net agency . She is interested in all things tech, and she is constantly scouring the internet for interesting new things to share with her readership.

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7 Reasons Why Acting Goofy On Your Blog Helps Business

Guest Post - Our host is Brianne Walter, here Brianne explains why you don't have to be serious on your blog at all times.See How To Become a guest author on Blogging Section. 

Bloggers, like any other business owner in the world, take their blogs very seriously. Every bit of information they put on there and every post is somber and serious and high on information. Not many would ever want to tamper with the serious image that they have created in front of their audiences. However, as many successful bloggers know, acting goofy on your blog could be a great alternative to always being super serious. Here are a few reasons why you should consider bringing out your goofy side every once in a while on your blog.

1. It helps you and your content team relax

Goofing around is the easiest way to relax- for you, your content team and even your audiences. While always posting thought provoking, well researched pieces helps you build up your credibility but you have to remember that people love bloopers just as much as the serious stuff. Think of it as something like the signature charming sign off that your favorite news anchor used before ending a news bulletin and you would realize that throwing in a goof or two can actually help your content team feel refreshed by much.

2. It would never be as bad as you imagine

Being goofy on your blog really has no down side. Unless you have no talent whatsoever for comedy, goofing off would never had a bad repercussion on the image of your blog. In fact, posting a goofy pic or video or post on your blog will actually help people get a better sense of your confidence which would automatically get them to see your blogs in a new light as well.

3. It gives your audience variety

Building up a dedicated audience for your blog is hard work. Sustaining this audience could be the real tricky part however. But if you have the talent for providing your audience with variety, you’d have a better chance of retaining eyeballs over a longer period of time. When your audience sees that you can provide them with a bit of variety as well as what your content specializes in, they might be tempted to spend more time on your page.

4. It promotes bonding

A very well known universal fact is that people like the company of folks that can make them laugh. This also applies to the virtual world and the millions of cat videos with felines doing dumb stuff proves that. So, you have to ask yourself, if a cat doing silly things can get millions of page views, a real person doing something similar might be enough to make even your regular audience tune into your page more often. Plus, blogs are more about personal expression for both the content developer as well as the reader and little goof offs every now and then would bring your readers ever closer to you too.

5. It’s entertaining

Yes, goofs are rather entertaining and blog owners and developers should not be ashamed of sharing their own goofs with their followers. Of course you don’t have to make a regular habit of it but posting a picture of a video of behind the scene bloopers etc. keeps audiences entertained while allowing them to see your human side too.

6. You’re cool if you can laugh at yourself

The ability to laugh at oneself is not something that everyone is blessed with though the people that can pull it off without sounding sarcastic or whiny generally are considered the most self confident of all folks. The self assurance this ability gives off is also quite attractive to others which makes making friends and winning admirers a breeze too. If you can admit to and even show off having a goofy side, people will find you cool for sure.

7. It helps you stand apart from rival blogs

No matter what topics your blog espouses, you know that there are at least a handful of other blogs that are writing about the same thing. While this kind of rivalry is amazing for development of content, its quality and putting the reader first, it also makes it hard for both established blogs as well as new entrants to the game to stand out from the crowd. This is where posting about the occasional goof could set you apart and help you create a wider fan base in the long run.

Brianne Walter

About the Guest Author:
Brianne is a writer/blogger. She loves writing, travelling and reading books. She contributes to Hydroxycut.

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The Best Type of SEO Blog Post There Is (And Why You’re Not Using It)

As bloggers, we tend to overestimate our core audience. It’s nice to think that all of our readers will dive into our content with some basic idea of what they’re doing. The idea is that there’s no reason to define well-known terms or concepts because you assume your audience already knows about them. And if they didn’t, you’re assuming they’ll open up Google and take a look for themselves.

The harsh reality is that by taking this approach, you could be losing out on hundreds of first time readers. It’s important to realize that a section of your audience is aspiring to join your niche, and just needs to know how.

Imagine that John is a business owner looking to start a business in professional organizing. John heads over to Google and types in “what is a professional organizer?” He arrives at a blog post that explains the concept, and then searches the blog for more information. John just became an avid reader of the first organizer blog he’s ever visited, and the blogger just received a new reader and prospective client or customer.

DEFINITION POST: GOOD FOR SEO, GREAT FOR NEW READERS

There are two reasons why definition posts rock for building up the authority of a blog…

• There are thousands of people just like John who are looking for someone to explain their niche and its vocabulary in easy to understand words.
• People often search “what is..?” phrases on Google.

The thing about definition posts is that right now, most definition posts are found on adsense or free article websites. If you’ve ever had to do research for a bit of writing, or if you were looking to get started in a field, you know that information on these websites is generic and often largely unhelpful beyond getting the basics down.

As a blogger, you can offer a first-time reader more than “just” a basic definition. Definition posts are a portal into your blog’s deeper content. When writing definition posts, you have the chance to introduce readers to a new concept and help them get started with other, in-depth information. A few well-placed links in the posts and a “how to get started” section and you’ve just converted a possible reader into a dedicated one.

HOW TO WRITE A INSANELY HELPFUL DEFINITION POST

Here are a few key highlights to get you started:

• Break General Topics Down into Small, Informative Posts
• Use Easy to Understand Titles (e.g.Free Blog Vs. Paid Blog)
• Link to More Informative Posts on Your Blog
• Don’t Link to External Sites
• Provide an Example of the Concept

What are you waiting for? Head out and write a definition post for your blog today and share the link in the comments below. Show us how you’re introducing readers to your niche.

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10 Guaranteed Ways To Make Your Content More Shareable

Many bloggers out there may be writing great content but receive very little appreciation by the number of social shares.

Why?

That is the big question.

Even when there’s a steady stream of readers connected to the RSS feed or even though the content has numerous visits, you still do not have a clear guarantee that it will be shared by viewers. Here, we will be learning guaranteed ways to make your content more shareable.

Engage With Fans In Social Media

In Facebook, it’s not enough that you share your posts and invite more people to like your page. Sure, you gain readership but you don’t necessarily win free “viral marketing” if these fans do not share them with their network. What you need to do then is to build relationship with these people by engaging with them in social media. For instance, in Facebook, aside from your regular updates, you should be able to encourage them to post a comment, like your post and don’t forget to return comments by posting responses as well.

Earn Audience's Trust

People should not view your accounts as those being run by a robot or machine. You should be able to show your personal side and earn the reader’s trust by establishing a unique voice. In your field, your site and content should be marked as “trustworthy” in all occasions. To help you achieve this, an example you can do is to have other people post reviews about your site and share them with others.

Cater to Sharing People

There are two types of readers. One is the type who reads a lot and appreciates it by saving the page as a bookmark stored only in his or her web browser. This is the type who will save it only for own use and reference. The other one is the type who would share the content to others. The one you should target is the latter. It would be rather wasteful if you’d exert your effort only to enthusiasts who does nothing but collect information. Instead, you should watch out for people who would recommend content. You can hunt for this type of people also in social media and forums.

Write To One Person

You cannot serve several masters. If you want your content to be shared, you should have loyalty to your reader. If you think that your content caters to baby boomers who are vacation houses to retire, focus on that and don’t change the subject. Address this audience and use conversational tone in your writing.

Write Actionable Content

Readers want answers but writing your content should not only be providing answers through text but providing answers by call-to-action buttons and links. At the end of each post, place links that would link them to another page and social sharing buttons that will trigger sharing of content. The key is to entertain but at the same time, learn how to empower them to convey your message to others. Adding links that are relevant to their concern will further boost their education so they might share this page as it contains the list of references their network might be able to find interesting.

Present Infografics

Nowadays, there are free tools you can use to create your own infographics. These can fulfill part of evidence in your work. By presenting data through graphics combined with quotes, results of researches and statistics, your content will have a higher edge against competitors who only provide textual content.

Offer Giveaway Every Now and Then

People would be willing to join giveaways as they love to receive exciting prizes. So you can create mini contests where the requirements to take home the prize is to share your content, like your page, recommend your site, and so on. Track the respondents and you can set a random raffle draw to determine the winner. Give the winner a note requesting to share the word about the award.

Interview Expert And Post Insight

It’s not so often that readers find great insights from interviews with experts they follow and adore. So if your content makes this a reality, then you want a great opportunity to be found. When interviewing, choose questions that you know will mean a lot to your audience and that will receive likely more shares.

Ask For Advice

Ask for advice not from experts this time but from your audience. In your Twitter account, you may send a tweet asking for tips from followers. Do acknowledge their answers by “retweeting” the most favorable ones and “favoriting” the most promising feedback. In this way, they will feel appreciated and they will tend to do the same way—retweeting your tweets and favoriting them. End result? You will earn more followers soon.

Focus On Quality Not On Quantity

The number of words in your post determines its “share-ability”? Not exactly true. Let’s take Seth Godin’s blog posts as example. He does not write lengthy content but makes sure that each one leaves a bang to his readers every time.

Wrap On

Make shareable content is not an easy chore as you think it is. You need practice and determination to keep up. In the long term, when the word goes around, more will be more willing to do the same and it will come to full circle.

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Not A Professional Writer ? An Amateur Writers Guide To Sounding Like An Expert

The thought of writing a Blog intimidates a lot of people. Why? Most often, people think they have to be a professional writer to sound articulate and knowledgeable. While details such as proper grammar, spelling and word use is important with any type of writing, the beauty of Blogs is they can be written in your preferred writing style. In fact, it is actually recommended that Blogs be written using a more “informal” language. Therefore, if you focus more on what you say rather than how you say it, it’s not very difficult for an amateur writer to be viewed an online expert.Below are some great tips for the amateur to write like a professional.

TOP QUALITY CONTENT

Probably the most important aspect of your blog is researching and developing quality content. Blogging just to say something for the sake of saying something is the quickest way to detract people from your Blog. Research topics of interest and develop content that people will find interesting. If you are a business or have a “niche” Blog, take time to keep up with the latest trends and happenings and strive to be the “first” to cover it. For instance, let’s say you have a technology blog. You will want to stay abreast of the latest software updates, computers, tablets, phones and gadgets and report on them either before or as soon as they are released. Remember, the early bird gets the worm, so be first and fast!

USE BULLET POINTS

Even a really bad writer can compose a good bullet point. If you are uncomfortable with your sentence structure, consider composing a short intro paragraph, followed by brief bullet points, then a closing paragraph. This is especially helpful when posting tips and advice. And, it takes the stress out of having to compose long paragraphs to relay your point. 

START SMALL

Many Bloggers feel the need to continually compose posts with a high word count. If you don’t have a lot of writing experience, consider posting smaller Blogs filled with richer content. As you write more, your skills will naturally enhance. Once you reach a level where you are comfortable composing longer posts, don’t be afraid to go for it! But, don’t stress yourself out worrying about word count until you’ve had some practice.

USE PROOF READER

Having a trusted friend, colleague or family member proofread your blog is always a good practice. They can help identify areas where you might need to work in more details, and even point out grammar and spelling errors. They can also tell you, from a third party perspective, if your blog makes sense. We, of course, know what we are talking about when we write it, but is it understandable to the reader? An objective proofreader can be an incredible asset!

EXPLORE PLUGINS 

There are also a number of plugins and tools available to help Blog writers. After the Deadline is an example of an excellent WordPress plugin to check your grammar, spelling, style and detect misused words. 

So, as you can see, you don’t have to be a professional writer to sound like an expert. Taking time to research and develop your content will help even the most amateur writer achieve a healthy stream of followers!

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Increase Your Blog Readership To Increase Traffic

Your blog is not only a blog to deliver content to the visitors. It's your voice who speaks in behalf of you. You need to write for readers not for the visitors. If visitors land on your blog and they don't understand what you are trying to say then surely they will not convert into your readers. Generating traffic is not enough if you are not able to build strong readership for your blog. Good readership can help you to achieve your goals of blogging. Don't work to build only traffic, works for maintaining and building best reading experience for your visitors so that they love to read what you write for them. Today, I am going to share my own way to build a consistent readership to convert your blog into a diary for internet world.

Tips to Build Readership

Below are some best tips that works to enhance blog readership and to improve relations with visitors to convert them into regular readers. Readers are the returning visitors that are same important as new visitors to maintain your blog traffic. Let's learn how to achieve it.

Be Consistent, Not Regular

You may already know that posting regularly is the best practice to enhance your blog traffic and ranking in search engines. But this is not enough to build a powerful blog readership. You need to be consistent to make your blog a community of bloggers. Stick with a particular time and deliver content regularly on the same time. Your visitors should know when they will get new and fresh content so that they can land on your blog and read new written content. If you are not able to stick with a particular time, then you can use Schedule Post feature in blogger which is the perfect tool to schedule your posts for auto posting.

Call To Action

Writing for readers is the first step but what if they feel that you are not interacting with them. Convert your writing into a conversion like you are directly talking with them. Add a strong reason to call a action into your posts. Below every post you need to convey your visitors to leave a comment so that you can reply them. If they feel that there is someone who is interacting with them then why they will not come back.

Write For Readers, Not For Visitors

You try to write best quality articles for your blog. But this is not enough. There are thousands of blogs into same niche which you have and their blog owners are also generating high quality articles. The thing which you need to convert your blog visitor into reader is that write by following a plan. By plan, I mean to say that whenever you write new post try to give hint to your readers about your future post so that they can come back to read it. It will not only improve your blog traffic but also your one time visitor will convert into your long time reader.

Its Your Time!!!

This was all about on how to build strong blog readership. I have shared my own way with you guys. Now this is your turn to work for your blog. Always remember that not only work for traffic but also work for maintaining readership to give your readers a memorable reading experience.

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Top Tricks to Increase Your Blog Popularity

Everybody knows, that the most important component of a really good and popular blog is its content. And even if you
do everything right to attract readers (we mean SEO), your blog won’t be popular if there is no interesting, useful and really informative content in it.

Let’s imagine, that all your posts are good, you write interesting articles, give much information to your readers, and it seems really useful and must-know. What’s next? Are there any tricks to increase your blog’s popularity?

Here is the list of 10 useful tips to increase your blog popularity that can help you deal with that. Probably, you’ve tried some of them already, but it’s never late to refresh your mind and make your blog better.

1. Exchange articles with other bloggers. Ask some well-known bloggers write an article for you and give a backlink to your blog. Big chances are that this blogger’s readers will visit your blog after reading it.

2. Comment other blogs. If your comments are informative and useful for other bloggers, the chances are they will read your blog and will give some links to it afterwards. These bloggers’ readers can find your blog in such a way.

3. Write a plugin. Write your own plugin for WordPress or improve the current one. If it’s useful for other bloggers, they will provide some backlinks to your blog.

4. Offer some tests. Users like sharing different tests in their social profiles, answer questions to find out something new about themselves. You can use this trick to attract their interest: post some interesting tests to your blog, and let people share it and comment on it.

5. Make lists. People like reading different lists of some advice, rules, or methods of how to solve this or that problem. Such lists as “Top 10 rules for…” or “5 best tricks to…” will definitely become popular among your readers, and they will comment on them or share them with their friends in social networks.

6. Write about success, not fails. Users don’t like reading stories of a loser who complains about his bad and poor life. Be positive, tell about your success and achievements. You blog should inspire readers, not make them depressed.

7. Talk to your readers. Never ignore the comments your readers leave! Be polite, answer their questions, make them believe you can be their friend.

8. Your blog’s address. Write it everywhere you can: your e-main, your Facebook or ICQ status, your pastecard etc. Everyone whom you talk to will see it and visit your blog to know you better. It can bring you some traffic anyway.

9. Use catchy titles. Think twice before giving a title to your post. This is the first thing your visitors will notice, and your task is to make them wanna continue reading the article itself.

10. Use podcasts. This is a guarantee of your blog’s popularity. Try adding some video-podcasts for example.

Your readers should feel that you write your posts for them, not for search engines. Ask for their opinion, motivate them to comment on your articles… The more comfortable people feel themselves reading your blog – the more chances are they will come to read it again and again. Hope these tips to increase your blog popularity will help you.

Author’s bio:

The article you’ve read above is written by Alex Strike, a copywriter. He’s interested in blogging,
PC games and innovative technologies. Works on CheapEssaysOnline at the moment.

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If you are new to the whole blogging scene, you might find it a bit confusing and overwhelming. There is so much information out there on blogging that it can be difficult to process it all. Here are the basic tips that you need to know as a newbie.

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