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Blogging Tips & Strategies

Lessons I learnt From Blogging That Apply To Other Areas Of Life (And Vice Versa)

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I got this blogging idea exactly two months ago from a seminar on Internet marketing for which I was presented a complimentary ticket. By then I didn’t have any “real-life” friends who were blogging really seriously and therefore I had to kick it off almost all by myself from scratch and made quite some mistakes along the way. I didn’t and still do not have a perfect plan but it is interesting that once you start rolling the ball the blog, it gains momentum.

The  lesson learnt?  Don’t sell yourself short because of limited experience/expertise/budget/time… and don’t wait till you have the perfect plan – you gain your experience over the course.

Be yourself

Trendy stuff are attractive and it is easy to imitate (or copy?!). Nevertheless, if you are serious about blogging and decide to linger for awhile in the blogosphere, just be yourself would be the substainable strategy. After all, readers are smart and it is not that hard to tell whether you’re pretending to be somebody you are not or you are being your authentic self.

The lesson learnt?  Each of us is unique.  It is most appealing when you are simply being yourself, and being comfortable with yourself.

Consistent quality

It is hard to be consistent and it is even harder to be consistently good.  Nevertheless, I think you won’t disagree that consistent quality blogging is the only way to maintain and grow the readership.  No doubt we can blog daily or even post several articles a day.  Nevertheless,  beware that posts contain little substance may sometimes backfire – and your readers may leave faster than they gathered.

The lesson learnt?  Never sacrifice quality for quantity – and this definitely also applies to many other aspects of our lives:  One true friend is better than one hundred acquaintance; a pair of nice shoes is better than ten pairs of poor quality ones that wear out quickly; one bottle of fine wine is much more enjoyable than ten bottles of average quality wine… [Read more…] about Lessons I learnt From Blogging That Apply To Other Areas Of Life (And Vice Versa)

Why blogging is important to find success today

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Blogging today is just as easy as it’s always been. If you have something to say, you just have to say it using whatever blog platform you want. If you don’t have something to say, well you can get it said for you by hiring a writer! But whether you write for your own blog by yourself, hire content writers or both, you’ll understand that it’s important to blog if you want to find more success online as a blogger today and here we’ll talk about why blogging is important to find success today.

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Blogging is Fun and Interesting

If you have a passion or interest in something then a blog is the best way to go about bloggin’ about your passions! As you do so, you’ll likely learn more about that passion. And other people that read your blog will get to learn about all the things you know about it and even share their own knowledge! So a blog can be fun and interesting to run for these reasons alone! So go ahead and blog about those things you are passionate about. If they’re good, in time you’ll become surprised at how much attention they can get!

Blogging is Proper Usage of Your Time

Why do you think there are so many blogs today? Because blogging works! If it didn’t work, and work out well for the blogger, then there wouldn’t be any blogs. It’s the same with advertising. Why do you think you see so many adverts on TV and the media? Because advertising works so people create ads. It’s the same with blogging. When you are researching and writing new blog posts in your spare time, that is time well spent! And so, running a blog is a great way to keep busy when you have some free time. [Read more…] about Why blogging is important to find success today

5 Essentials to good story writing

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If you’ve always believed in your writing skills, and want people to appreciate the stories you have in your mind, it is important to pen them down on paper rather than keeping in your head. However, just because you have some good ideas does not mean you can be a great writer. In order to write an interesting story, you need to understand every aspect of the literary world, and how to spin your words into everlasting tales.

No matter how charming you plan your protagonist to be, you need an interesting storyline to keep the readers interested. Every story has three acts (beginning, middle, end) formulated with the right mix of some key ingredients. A story needs to have an origination, escalation of a conflict and resolution.

Every story needs a vulnerable character, mixed up in a setting which is important to the narrative. The character’s meaningful choices will determine the outcome of your story, and reader’s interest. In simple words, every story is a journey of transformation from one situation to another. Sometimes, it’s also about the transformation of a character. A better understanding of the key ingredients that make up a story will help you tell your tale to the world.

Orientation

The beginning of your story needs to grab a reader’s attention, and familiarize him with the mood, tone and setting of the story. It should also introduce the protagonist so that the reader invests some time and attention. Before a reader cares about the story, he needs to care about the protagonist.

The best way to introduce the protagonist is to set your reader’s expectations by revealing a basic portrait of the character. You need to give a glimpse of your character’s normal life to the reader. For instance, if your main character is a detective, readers want to see him more at crime scenes. Similarly, a college guy should be playing pranks in the college campus.

Whatever basic portrait you choose for the main character, you need to understand that it will also serve as a strong promise to your readers about the transformation which the character will undergo in the story. [Read more…] about 5 Essentials to good story writing

The importance of using Web Hosting Reviews

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If you’re entering into the world of web hosting for the very first time then you might be getting a bit bewildered by the huge number of hosts that are available. Then when you start looking at them you realise that there are also different types of hosting, pricing packages and lists of features they offer to name a few of the factors that come into play.

You may come across lots of different review sites but you need to be careful not to go with sites that are perhaps not very impartial i.e. they are promoting particular hosts for their own gain. To ensure you avoid such sites, always look for reviews that are well-established technology experts or are on sites that are authoritative so you know you’re getting information that is legit.

User and technology expert web hosting reviews are a great way of getting truly unbiased information about what you can expect from each web host. It’s a bit like when you are choosing a restaurant to book for a special occasion if you’re trying somewhere new; you would ask people who have been there or you would use reviews from Facebook, TripAdvisor etc. before you decide on where to go if you don’t want to take a gamble. [Read more…] about The importance of using Web Hosting Reviews

How to find great images when starting a blog

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Anyone who has either had their own blog or been responsible for managing the content on a website before will know, getting hold of good quality images can be incredibly difficult. However, there are plenty of online resources which will help you find great images when starting a blog or website.

Thanks to the incredible power of social media and Google, finding images online is easier than ever. Millions of photos can be accessed with just a few clicks of the mouse, be it on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or through Google image search.

However, be very careful when using images for your blog. This is because by using an image without permission, you immediately open yourself up to potential copyright violation. Photographers or authors can then prosecute you for this, or demand you pay large sums of money for the usage of their intellectual property.

It’s a minefield, but there are some options that are both free, easy and offer you real peace of mind. Here are just a few:

  • Getty Images
    If you know anything about photography or journalism, you will almost certainly have heard of Getty Images. They are arguably the biggest commercial image agency in the world, operating in just about every single country with photographers spanning the globe. Their rates are usually incredibly high, however a couple of years ago they did something huge. And incredibly cool.They introduce an embed option for their images, meaning that webmasters can now search their website for photographs and for many of them, there is now an option to embed these within your blog. No payment. You don’t even have to sign-up for an account. The only down side is that you have to use the code as provided, and so this will bring some caption information over – a small price to pay for world class imagery!
  • Free photo stock websites
    A quick Google search will find a handful of great websites offering a limited number of professional photographs for free use on websites. Subject areas can be hit and miss, and choice within those areas sometimes a little thin, but they’re well worth checking out. Try to steer away from stock photography that looks just that – stock. Don’t forget, your trying to make your blog genuine, so if you’re going to use photographs that aren’t yours they need to be artistic or a little bit different. Do not use an image for the sake of doing so. Make sure it adds something to the story.
  • Creative commons imagery
    A great resource for photographs for you to use on your website free of charge is the likes of Flickr and Wikipedia. Now before continuing, please note that NOT ALL images on these two sites can be used, let alone for free. Instead, you’re looking for images that have a Creative Commons license.On Wikipedia, click any image and beneath the large version of the photo will be the license and copyright information. On Flickr, you can perform an image search which enables you to filter results that are on a Creative Commons license. Also pay close attention to the usage information with each image, and how you should caption that photo on your website. You will almost always have to give credit to the photographer or source of the image when published it on your blog.

Low-cost images

Okay, some people will see nothing can be as good as free, however there are some websites which offer massive libraries of photographs and graphics for a small cost. The likes of 123rf.com have an enormous library of images that are different costs for different sizes. It’s also useful because images are sold in credits, so you buy a stock of credits (e.g. 10) and then purchase images from that credit, usually around 3-4 credits per image if you want a file that is a good size for web use.

Knowing these 5 Secrets will make Your Blog look amazing

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Every year, learning institutions are sending graduates to the job market. As much as this is a good thing, there are no sufficient opportunities to accommodate everyone. That has left many students desperate and in urgent need of alternative source of income. In some cases, they tend to go for trades they never learnt at school. One of these alternative occupations is, without doubt, blogging.

Considering the number of frustrated bloggers, especially the owners of blogs receiving low monthly traffic, some tips are in order. This article, therefore, is going to describe five secrets that can make a blog look awesome and enable it to compete with others for traffic. However, the ability to know when someone’s business/blog needs help always determines the level of success.
The following are the 5 effective practices that can turn around your blog:

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Captivating Design and SEO-friendly Template: Always use a well-designed site with all the necessary SEO features incorporated.  More often than not, it is faster and cheaper to purchase a design template than to build one yourself. In addition, not all student bloggers have a background in HTML or programming. Therefore, buy a responsive template (i.e. a template that can display your blog on different devices such as tablets and smartphones). A template with HTML 5, clean code, CSS social media integration and popular widgets is an added advantage.

Quality/Unique Content: An aesthetic and SEO friendly template, although important, are never enough. For you to get loyal readers and subscribers, you must generate unique and quality articles. It is advisable, at times, to contract an expert freelance writer to write for your blog. To guarantee originality in every blog post, always write on subjects you understand well, or that you have researched on extensively.

Quality Backlinking: The most linked site with the highest number of unique daily visitors gets the top position. Consequently, advertisers will look for such sites to place ads and ensure maximum exposure. Since Alexa and Google rankings are both based on the number of quality and relevant links to your blog, you ought to dedicate time (daily) to create links. However, you need to build these backlinks in the most natural way possible to avoid being categorised as spam by major search engines.

Reliable Hosting/Domain Registration: Host your blog with a reliable webhosting services provider and choose a domain name that points to your main niche/keyword.

Daily Posting/Updating: Ensure that you have fresh content for the search engines on a daily basis. The best practice is posting/updating at least two articles per day. Another factor is your audience, can your audience consume two articles per day? If you are providing shorter blog posts, then that is entirely possible; if you are publishing more detailed guides, on the other hand, then you may need to tone this down somewhat.

Using the above ‘secrets’ is effective if made a routine and not a one-time effort. In fact, with dedication and eagerness to learn new blogging tips, you are guaranteed a reasonable income from your blog.