feed hat blog

As bloggers, we put a lot of effort into telling our readers how to do things.

We believe that if we can just give them enough informative content that they’ll subscribe to our blog and never leave. We try to become the best teacher we possibly can, instilling wisdom down into short, usable posts that our readers can put into action right away.

But what if that’s not what they really want?

What if they don’t want a teacher to tell them what to do?

What if all they’re looking for is a warm and understanding person who understands what they’re going through and is willing to love them, no matter what?

Someone like (you guessed it) Mr. Rogers.

Do you care how they feel?

Being a kid can be tough.

Everyone is always telling you to be quiet. No one wants to listen to what you think. Your parents make you go to bed, just when all of the fun is starting.

But not Mr. Rogers.

Fred Rogers made you feel like it was just you and him hanging out. He respected what you thought. He loved you, not because he had to (like your parents), but because he genuinely believed you were special.

After a while, you believed him. You felt special. You came back to the TV, day after day, just so you could feel that way again.

The best bloggers do that too. I read Copyblogger everyday for years before submitting this guest post, and it wasn’t just the information that kept me coming back. It was because, when I was done reading, it made me feel smarter, like I was one of the few people on the web who was truly in the know.

The more I think about it, the more I believe that’s a part of our job. Our job is bloggers isn’t just to inform our readers, but to make them feel special.

And yes, I realize it’s a little hokey, but I think Mr. Rogers can show us how. Listen to some of these quotes:

Lesson: For your audience to love you, first you have to love them. And they have to know it.

You know, I think everybody longs to be loved, and longs to know that he or she is lovable. And, consequently, the greatest thing that we can do is to help somebody know that they’re loved and capable of loving.

How much do you care about your readers? I mean, really care?

Mr. Rogers didn’t just talk to children on television. He also visited them in person. On a regular basis, he would go out into public and ask kids about themselves. He would bend down and look little boys and girls straight in the eyes, so they knew he was fully focused on them. Then they poured their hearts out to him right on the spot.

No, he wasn’t compensated for that time, and neither are we. Most popular bloggers spend inordinate amounts of time reading every comment, responding to every email, and watching what people say on Twitter. None of this has any direct effect on traffic, but what it does is build goodwill. One at a time, your subscribers find out that you really care, and it transforms them from readers into raving fans.

Lesson: Before you can be a leader, first you have to be a neighbor.

Our world hangs like a magnificent jewel in the vastness of space. Every one of us is a part of that jewel. A facet of that jewel. And in the perspective of infinity, our differences are infinitesimal.

Mr. Rogers didn’t pretend to be better than the children who watched his show. He didn’t point out how young and ignorant they were. He didn’t appoint himself as an expert and command them to listen.

Instead, he decided to be their neighbor: someone just like them, who knew what they were going through, and was ready to help in any way he could, not because they were defenseless children, but because that’s what good neighbors do.

The same is true for bloggers. If you really want your audience to listen to you, you need to take the time to tell them your story, pointing out the ways you’re similar to them and inspiring them through your example.

Lesson: Create an environment where it’s okay to be imperfect.

I like you just the way you are.

Most kids are terrified, not just of getting caught with their hand in the cookie jar or their parents finding a bad grade on their report card, but of the possibility that they’ll do something so bad that their family will stop loving them. They believe that love is only for “good” children, and they worry that they don’t deserve it.

This quote was Mr. Rogers’ gentle way of correcting (and comforting) them. Over and over again, he would tell them that, “I like you just the way you are,” not just because it sounded good, but because it was what they needed to hear. They needed to know that love wasn’t conditional, and that they were safe enough around him to make mistakes and learn how to improve.

I believe it’s important for us to create the same environment for our readers. You may not realize it, but lots of your readers are probably intimidated by you, believing that they can never be as good as you are, and they’re afraid to reach out to you for help.

It’s important to remind them that you like them just the way they are. Maybe you don’t have to tell them as often as Mr. Rogers, but take a moment every few weeks to mention how impressed you are with the creative ways they’ve implemented your suggestions and how are honored you are to have them as readers.

It’s a small thing, but it matters.

Lesson: Keep what works, throw out what doesn’t, but always know what and why.

Propel, propel, propel your craft softly down liquid solution. Ecstatically, ecstatically, ecstatically, ecstatically, existence is simply illusion.

Every day, Mr. Rogers honed his craft, paying attention to even the smallest of details.

One time, he asked a fellow actor to say “the dog is going back home” instead of “the dog is going back to his owner.” He didn’t like the word owner because it was too possessive for the children viewers.

He also stuck with what worked. “Won’t you be my neighbor?” wasn’t just the theme song for the show; it was a way to set the tone at the beginning of every episode, getting children ready to listen. And so he repeated it, show after show for years.

It’s our responsibility as bloggers to hone our craft in the same way. You should experiment, not just with headlines or post ideas, but with new openings, new closes, new pictures, and even new words. It’s how you improve.

And at the same time, take a lesson from Fred Rogers and don’t be afraid to repeat what works.

Lesson: Seize your opportunity

When will your opportunity be?

Every day that communicate from the heart, you have a chance to change the world.

Back in 1969, Nixon proposed cuts to PBS, leading the Senate to hold a hearing that would decide the future of the station. And who do you think appeared before them and melted their hearts with words?

Mr. Rogers.

He wasn’t the CEO. He wasn’t a Washington insider. He wasn’t even well-known to the committee. Yet he showed up, spoke from the heart, and transformed some of the toughest, most hardened politicians in the country into raving fans.

It was the opportunity to create change that many of us dream of, and he seized it. But here’s the real question:

When will your opportunity be?

Watch this video, and think about it. Because when it comes, we’ll be counting on you.

About the Author: Karl Staib writes about building stronger relationships and being happy at work: Work Happy Now! If you enjoyed this article, you may like to subscribe to his feed, follow him on Twitter, or read one of his most popular articles: How to Write a Career List.

Read more here: 
The Mr. Rogers Guide to Blogging from the Heart

I’ve been blogging for a few years with moderate success. Much of my success has been because top bloggers like John Chow have been willing to share the lessons they have learned along the way. Now that I am approaching a place where I earn as much from my blogs as I do from my day job, I feel that it is important to share one of my favorite (and most successful) blog adventures.

In 2009 I moved from Hawaii to Morocco. Being a blogger, one of the first things I did was look at who was blogging and what they were blogging about in my new country. Morocco has a large expat community and I was surprised at the number of great blogs I found here. In addition, I found that a lot of Moroccans blog in English too. This is really not all that surprising given the facts that English is the unofficial language of the Internet and that Moroccans have a remarkable aptitude for both languages and technology.

The thing that I didn’t find was an up to date directory of all the blogs in Morocco. I found directories that covered French blogs, directories that covered Arabic blogs, and outdated blogrolls but I didn’t find anything in English that reviewed all these great blogs or differentiated them based on categories.

In November of 2009, I was conducting workshops for tourism businesses that wanted to use blogs to promote their businesses and I wanted to demonstrate how to build a blog from the ground up, so the natural choice for me was MoroccoBlogs.com, a site that reviewed, categorized, and promoted the many English language blogs in this North African country.

During the workshops, I demonstrated many of the lessons I have learned from Gurus like John, that’s not what this article is about, but for those who want a bulleted list for quick reference these were things such as:

• Be a part of the blogging community
• Make your blog easy to navigate
• Pick your keywords carefully
• Plan your blog out before you start it
• Utilize social media
• Write compelling blog posts
• Utilize great widgets and plugins
• Give your prospective readers something they want

It’s this last one that has taken MoroccoBlogs.com from an unknown website to the most visible blog in North Africa.

Since I was already categorizing and reviewing Morocco blogs, I decided to take things to the next level by using my blog as the base of the Best of Morocco Blog awards. In January, I launched the contest and my traffic went from 15-40 visits a day to 300-500 per day in a matter of days. Here is how I did it.

Step 1: I kept careful note of what blogs people were talking about both in person and in the blogosphere. I made sure to review each notable blog and notify them of the fact that their blogs had been reviewed on my site.

Step 2: I designed a rough “Nominated” logo and then I visited a webmaster forum where I ran a contest for $10 for who could create the best graphic from my rough design. Within 24 hours, I had several beautiful designs to choose from.

Step 3: I brainstormed categories for the contest based on the blogs which were available. Given the large diversity of Morocco blogs, I chose “Best Overall” “Best Personal Blog” “Best News Blog” “Best Travel Blog” and “Best Cultural Blog”. I also decided to call the contest the Best of Morocco Blogs since the name incorporated the name of my blog and had a catchy abbreviation “The BOMBies”. I further brainstormed a catch phrase “Is your blog the bomb?”

Step 4: I had the winner of my design contest create individual winner badges, nomination badges, and sponsor badges. Keep in mind these graphics would have cost me hundreds of dollars if I had simply hired a graphic designer. Instead, through a contest, the total cost was $10.

Step 5: I installed the Wordpress Polls plugin on my blog and set up the individual polls with the most talked about blogs as the nominees.

Step 6: I commented and emailed the nominees with the “Nominated” badge. I also left the nomination process open for a week so that any blogs I had missed could be included in the contest.

Step 7: I activated the polls and held my breath to see if anyone would accept the validity of a new blog determining who had the best blogs in Morocco.

Of course they did.

As bloggers, we all enjoy being recognized and I think that there is something innately competitive about bloggers as a category of human beings. We all seek recognition, praise, and….traffic. Within a day, the top Morocco blogs had all put my badges in prominent positions on their sites. Not only that, but they were also encouraging their readers to leave their blogs and to visit mine!

This isn’t a win-lose situation though. I’ve been told by nearly all of the nominees that their traffic has increased dramatically since the start of the contest. In two cases, bloggers that were nominated had decided to stop blogging, but when they found out they were nominated (and recognized) as great blogs, they decided to keep going!

I wasn’t done though.

Step 8: I wanted to offer great prizes to the winners. Sure, it’s nice to have a winner badge, but I wanted them to have more, so I started looking for sponsors for the Bombies. I decided to look for companies and businesses that wanted exposure. The great thing about a blogging contest is that the sponsors get exposure as sponsors and then, ideally, they also get exposure on the winning blogs too! This is another win-win! You don’t get much better press than having the top bloggers in a country writing about your product or service.

The winning bloggers will get a range of prizes including wine tours, weekend getaways, and exotic Moroccan cooking lessons. The sponsors are getting great exposure. All participants, sponsors, and reviewed blogs are getting more traffic. Readers are getting introduced to new and exciting blogs they hadn’t seen before. I’m getting more traffic, a more exciting contest, and increased prestige as an authority blogger. That’s a win-win-win-win-win! It doesn’t get any better.

Step 9: The contest ends February 21, 2010. Come check it out! If you have a favorite be sure to vote!

Step 10: The next step is to hold Morocco’s first ever Blog Camp. It will be a chance for bloggers to meet up, have workshops and discussions, explore beautiful Fez, Morocco (the largest car free urban area in the world and oldest inhabited Medieval city), and hopefully, we can even get John Chow to come and eat couscous with us!

Vago Damitio is a blogger, writer, traveler, and teacher. He lives in Sefrou, Morocco though his other hometowns are Bellingham, Washington and Kailua, Hawaii. You can follow his personal adventures at Vagobond.com.

Discover the SECRETS I’ve Learned to go from zero a month to over $40,000 a month from blogging. Download Make Money Online with John Chow dot Com for FREE!

Continued here:
My Favorite and Most Successful Blog Adventure

As you know I’m a big fan of the Wordpress platform. Although it’s not the most optimal platform, there’s no question that it makes it easier to run a website. I was recently asked by Brian Clark of CopyBlogger to test a new service/plugin for Wordpress, one that was designed to help you do a better job of optimizing your posts.

Scribe SEO is plugin that works with Wordpress to analyze your posts, give you information about them, and make suggestions about improving your post from an SEO Perspective. If you’re using Thesis, the plugin interfaces without a hitch. While I haven’t tried it, I understand it also works with the Hybrid and Headway themes as well. If you aren’t using either of those themes, that’s fine. You’ll just need the All in One SEO plugin. So here’s what Scribe SEO does …

Your post is ready to be analyzed by ScribeSEO

Once you’ve finished writing your post, the plugin checks to make sure you’ve written an optimized version of your title in the custom title field. Want the title to be the same? That’s OK, but you’ll have to copy/paste it down below. It then checks to see if you’ve written a meta description. Yes, I know the meta description is not a part of the ranking algo, but your meta description is what appears under your page title in the SERP’s and writing a click-enticing meta description is good thing. If you don’t think Google is using click tracking data, you might want to reconsider. Last, it checks to see if you’ve got content for the post. Once everything is set you’ll see three green arrows like in the screen shot to the right and the analyze button will “turn on.” Hit the button and the process will start. For this write-up, I’ll show data from an old post.

Before we dive in, let’s do a common sense review. Just because a computer program tells you to do something doesn’t mean you should turn off your brain and blindly do it; use some common sense. Sometimes you’ll do something “wrong” on purpose. If you are breaking the rules intentionally and are fully aware of what you are doing and why, feel free to ignore the suggestions. Remember that just because Google and your GPS tell you to go a certain way doesn’t always mean it’s the right way to go. Always use your noodle.

Ok, so here’s a sample of the information you’ll get back from Scribe SEO:

The tool gives you an overall score, a breakdown on keywords, suggestions for tuning your focus into/out of keywords, and a SERP preview. The last tab gives you some general overall SEO guidelines to keep in mind. Are there other tools out there that can give you this information? Absolutely. But can they give it to you right in your dashboard, before you publish, and  without a lot of copying and pasting? Nope.

Here’s where you need to use your brain a little. You don’t need to strive to get a 100% on every post. Technically your posts might be better but honestly I don’t think they’d be as valuable or have as much personality. Having an article that is 100% optimized but is boring is never as good as a slightly less optimized article that’s interesting to read. However (he says, looking squarely in the direction of you bloggers out there) ignoring keyword focus in favor lyrical prose isn’t the answer either. What you need to do is strike a balance, and that’s where Scribe SEO comes in. Write an interesting post/article THEN use Scribe SEO to make sure your article is targeting the right words and sending the right signals to the search engines. This is especially helpful if you are outsourcing your content creation to someone who isn’t an SEO.

Scribe SEO is a paid service. You’re allowed to set it up on as many websites you want. Then, depending on the level you choose, you get a certain number of evaluation runs. For $27 a month you’ll get 30 evaluations, for $47 a month you’ll get 120 evaluations, and for $97 you’ll get 300 evaluations. However as part of the introductory offer you can get the full 300 evaluations for only $27 a month (but the offer ends Feb 19th so you better hurry).

Is it worth the price? If you’re using CPM based advertising and you can generate higher rankings and more traffic then the answer is yes. Running Adsense or an affiliate website/blog? Again if this tool can help you write posts that rank better, drive more traffic, and get you more clicks or conversions, then the answer is again yes it’s absolutely worth it.

Bonus Tip: Do you have old posts that you expected a little more out of? Use this tool to go back, re-evaluate, and tweak things a bit to improve them.

Is this tool for everyone? No. However, if you are looking for a native tool to help finely tune your posts, then yes, this tool can help you. If you feel that your writing is stronger then your SEO knowledge, then yes, this tool will definitely help you. If you use writers with varying degrees of SEO expertise, this tool will absolutely help you bring everything up to par.

If you fit into any of the above scenarios, give Scribe SEO a try and publish posts that are better optimized. Don’t forget: it’s only $27 for the highest level until February 19th.

UPDATE: to answer the question, if you join at the $27 price now you’re locked in, and it won’t go up as long as you stay subscribed.

Disclosure: I was given beta access to this tool and the above post does contain affiliate links. However I’m comfortable recommending this tool since I have tested it on several commercial websites I run and have been satisfied with the results.

Advertisement: Need an SEO Audit for your website, look at my SEO Consulting Services #5

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Use Scribe SEO to Optimize Your Wordpress Posts

Related posts:

1. Technorati, Wordpress and Related Posts If you’re a wordpress user you probably know the incoming…
2. Wordpress SEO: Wordpress Security Why it Matters to SEO In recent weeks wordpress security, or more correctly the lack…
3. Wordpress SEO: How to Maximize Your Internal Link Strategy While there are hundreds of thousands of posts on maximizing…

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

View original post here:
Use Scribe SEO to Optimize Your Wordpress Posts

Like most people who work in the marketing space, I’ve been hearing more and more about “demand media” and “content farms” in recent months and how they are either the death of quality writers or the greatest thing since sliced bread. Rather than sit on the sidelines, I thought I’d give it a test drive before forming an opinion.

First things first, this is NOT A SPONSORED POST OR REVIEW. I paid for this service with my own money. They didn’t know who I was or that I was writing a review when I placed my two orders. There is no incentive (past, present, or future) for writing this post.

OK. Into the nitty gritty. I’ve used “cheap” copywriting services before and, while affordable, the content was always hit or miss, usually with a lot more misses than hits. Most of the time it wasn’t useful for anything other than churn and burn MFA stuff. I’d given up on them a while ago and just started hiring real writers using services like the ProBlogger Job board or referrals from people I know and trust. But not everything needs to be high quality. Sometimes you need mid/low level grunt stuff that doesn’t suck and isn’t “dismembering infants” but doesn’t cost a fortune. This type of content is what I decided to test. I looked at few different services and decided to give TextBroker.com a shot.

On the main client page, they have samples you can read and pricing. I tested the $1.60 per 100 words and $2.20 per 100 words service after reviewing the linked examples. I ordered 4 pieces of 350-400 words at the $1.60 level. When the first piece came back, I was a bit disappointed. The writing was fine, but the piece had the wrong editorial “feel” to it.

It was at this point I remembered something I read in the 4 Hour Work Week about how to spec things out for a personal assistant. I realized I hadn’t done a good enough job describing what I wanted, which set the person on the other end up to fail. So I refused the piece as it was, gave a few suggestions about how to fix it, and fired it back. Within an hour I had the rewrite. While it wasn’t stellar, it was good enough for what I wanted. The remaining three articles, though (again) not stellar, were good enough. If I had done a better job up front specifying what I wanted and how/where the copy was going to live, I probably would have gotten better results. If you haven’t read Chapter 8 of the 4 Hour Work Week I suggest you do. If you have read it, skim the chapter again to remind yourself. Your results will be better for it.

For the next trial I went up to the $2.20 per 100 words level. I requested 7 articles. The pieces started rolling back a few hours later, and I was very happy with what I was getting. It may not have been flagship quality writing, but it was very good. Some writers were better than others and extremely good, but all the articles were better than average, and I was very happy with the results.

Pros

• Speed – You get your work back fast. Very fast. I ordered 11 articles and got 10 of them back within 4 hours of placing the order. The last article arrived in less than 24 hours.
• Value – You can decide how important the copy is and adjust the price to match your needs. There’s no need to overpay for something you don’t need.
• Quality – The copy was always in English, readable, and of good quality or better.

Cons

• Inconsistent Tone – Unless you select a specific author (which has a different price structure), your work is kicked into a general pool for all authors. This can lead to completely different editorial styles and a bit of a hodge podge feel.
• Prepay – You have to prepay for the service. You use paypal or a credit card and are billed the a dollar amount up front which sits in your account. You use this to order articles from. With most writers, you pay a small deposit up front or pay at the end of the month. The accelerated billing puts your costs at the front of a project.

Conclusion

To conclude, I can say that overall the Textbroker.com copywriting is service is one I’m very happy with and will continue to use in the future. I got an excellent value for the price, the articles delivered were of good quality, and they were delivered quickly. It won’t replace flagship content created by high quality writers, but it has a lot of value for the cost.

Bonus

If you order a lot of articles, and, like me, use wordpress as a CMS for your projects, here’s a tool to make migrating the posts in easier. Get the CSV2 Post plugin from Zack Preble. Use the article export feature from Textbroker to export your articles in batch. Then use the plugin to import in batch mode. I set the publish date in the import file to a future date, so nothing publishes as result of the import.  I can then tweak the articles, add images, add tags, or make any other changes. If you want to use the imported articles as pages and not posts, you’ll need Post to Page Converter Plugin.

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

TextBroker.com Copywriting Service Review

Related posts:

1. Squidoo Customer Service, Part II So I mentioned in my Squidoo Customer Service post on…
2. Customer Service Have you had to call any customer service departments recently?…
3. Squidoo Customer Service I’ve been trying to play with Seth Godin’s new site…

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Original post:
TextBroker.com Copywriting Service Review

A Guest Post by David Turnbull of Adventures of a Barefoot Geek

After the initial excitement of launching a new blog fades most bloggers are a few steps away from being overwhelmed with the pressure of blogging to the point that they quit, losing the momentum they were building up and all the progress they’d made. This is an unfortunately common occurence.

Writing. Guest posting. Commenting. Responding to emails. Continuous learning. It’s a lot to take in and if you’re not adequately prepared to face challenges as they appear there’s a likelihood that one day you’ll choose not to publish another post and then you’re back to square one.

Recently, just a fornight ago in fact I became conscious of these feelings as my most recent blog was reaching the 6 month mark. I’d surpassed all the goals I’d set for myself but there was stilll that worry of being locked into my work instead of having control over it. I have no problem with hard work, but when it hits the point of dominating my life I prefer to step back and ask myself “How can I make this easier on myself?”

And that’s what I really want to share in this article. This is not about escaping the work of blogging (because I do honestly enjoy it, just not when it causes imbalance in my life) but to relieve yourself of the constant worry and uncertainty that blogging entails.

Set smaller goals

I’m an advocate of thinking big in most areas of life. If you’re dedicated and disciplined then ambition can often fuel creativity and drive. But blogging is different. There are so many interwoven components to blogging that a big goal often becomes an aimless goal, and an aimless goal is as bad as no goal.

Writing is the most important task for a blogger, so let’s use that as an example. One common belief held by many writers is that you should sit down in the morning at 9am and then not move until 5pm. The idea is that this forces you to write. Do this for 3 days in a row and you’ll lose whatever passion for blogging you ever had. The alternative is much more attractive.

When you sit down to write tell yourself this magical phrase: I’ll be satisified when I’ve written X words. Replace X with the smallest amount of words you can be realistically satisfied with. Once you’ve made this decision and are no longer constricted by outrageous word counts or time frames there’s no anxiety as you work and I expect you’ll find yourself greatly surpassing the “satisfactory metrics” you set for yourself.

Clarify and simplify

What do you want to get out of blogging? Answer that question at least once a month for as long as you own or write for a blog. I imagine most people will respond “to make money” and that’s fine, but there has to be a motivation higher than that, because blogging isn’t exactly the most effective approach to generating an income.

Once you understand with crystal clear clarity why you’re blogging you can eliminate a ton of the garbage that leads to blogging-based stress.

When I first started blogging I had the “make money” goal lodged in my brain, but over the past few weeks I’ve had a shift in my thinking, in that what I truly love is writing and making exciting (and sometimes weird) changes in my life. After I had clarified this I realized that my actions were inconsistent with what I wanted. Instead of writing I was spending most of my time leaving comments on blogs, posting in forums, and using other standard blog promotion tactics. Most of this was unfullfilling.

Now my approach to writing and building a readership is far simpler. These days I do 2 things:

• Write (for my own blog and guest posts such as this).
• Care (responding to tweets, emails, blog comments etc).

This has been enormous, so don’t underestimate it. Clarify exactly what you want out of blogging and shape your actions to accomodate for that. Sure, if I were to leave 20+ comments on blogs per day, or become an active member in lots of communities my readership would probably climb faster. But at the same time the very essence of what I love about blogging would be lost, and that’d be setting myself up for eventual failure. Classic example of short term sacrifice (a small boost in traffic) for long term gain (endless fulfillment).

Become a “what matters” blogger

Conventional blogging advice indicates that you should write 3-5 times per week without fail. Yes, in the early days of blogging (at least the first 5-6 months) consistency is crucial. You need to prove that you’ve got the chops and that you’re not going to abandon your readership. But, aside from news blogs and blogs that have multiple contributors, I’d suggest you lower the frequency significantly.

This is something I lifted from Tina of ThinkSimpleNow.com who is well known for taking multiple months away from her blog. I doubt everyone could be met with success using that approach, but the lesson still holds true: to ease the pressure of writing and heighten the respect from your readership only write and publish content that truly matters.

What “matters” is a subjective gauge of course, but at its core it’s your own highest inner standard that you must hold yourself too. Through this approach you will end up spending more time writing individual posts, but:

• Each post will provide you and your readers with lasting fulfillment.
• There’ll be less of a frantic rush to publish content.
• Freeing yourself from a strict deadline and schedule is incredibly liberating.

As a poll here on Problogger indicated, lowering your frequency is not what causes people to unsubscribe from your blog, it’s posting too much that readers dislike. Here’s a quote from Darren himself:

I’ve lost count of the number of bloggers who tell me that scaling back their posting frequency a little brings a new life to their blog…scaling back a little means that they are able to develop better quality posts, that they get more comments per post (the posts remain on the front page of the blog longer) and readers say that they appreciate it.

People don’t unsubscribe from blogs when every piece of content provides them with genuine value.

Successful blogging requires sustained effort over a long period of time. I don’t want to make it seem like you can eliminate hard work and the anxiety that comes with the process. But you can make it easier on yourself. Take action to ease the pressure of blogging and refocus on what you truly care about.

What strategies do you use to ease the pressure of blogging?

David Turnbull is a life-long geek who loves to write about life hacking, simplicity and technology at his blog Adventures of a Barefoot Geek.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

How To Ease the Pressure of Blogging

Share This

See original here: 
How To Ease the Pressure of Blogging

A Guest Post by Warren Davies from GenerallyThinking.com.

It’s pretty clear that if we want to be pro bloggers, we can’t rely purely on producing fantastic content. We have to optimise our pages for search engines, build backlinks from relevant sources, as well as putting our heart and soul into our content to make it as valuable as possible for the reader.

But what if the reader gets what they want from the post and then leaves? Well, that’s nice of us to solve their problem, but it’s not going to help us earn the money and freedom we want!

We need to entice first time visitors further into our blogs, expose them to its different areas and articles, make them feel like a kid in a candy store when they see all the information inside!

One way we can do this is through a landing page analysis – to see which pages people are landing on, checking the metrics for these pages, and then optimising them so that they are better placed to convert first time visitors into regular readers. Here’s a 4 step plan.

Step 1 – Identify Problem Pages

This is easy to do with Google Analytics – just go to Content -> Top Landing Pages, and check the chart at the bottom of the page. These are the pages that visitors are most likely to enter your site through. Now check the column to the far right – Bounce Rate. This is the percentage of visitors who leave your site without looking at another page on your blog. They hit the landing page, get what they want (or not) then leave.

If you have any high bounce rates in this section (80%+), you’re missing out on further page views from these first-time visitors. This is vital; pulling readers further into your site is essential to converting visitors to subscribers and/or sales.

Step 2 – Analysis

Before we start optimising the page, we need to do some more research. Here are the two main things you can do:

• Click on the name of each post, and look at the Time on Page. Is it significantly lower than the time it takes to read the article? If so, it’s likely that the reader is not finding the answer to the question they had when they clicked through.
• Ask them. Set up a Poll on the page, entitled “Help me improve this article: What information were you asking for?” Give a few options, and don’t forget to add ‘something else’ as an option. Alternatively, a simple “Did you find the information you were looking for?” can be useful. Experiment with putting it at the top and bottom of the post, to see if people are reading the whole article before bouncing.
• Check the entrance sources for the post on Google Analytics. Are people mostly finding the article through Google images? This might account for the high bounce rate.

Step 3 – Optimise

You should now have some ideas on how you might optimise the article. Perhaps there’s more information you want to add, maybe you want to shorten it, or then again maybe you want to make it more appealing and add more images. Then again, maybe the site design is unattractive, or there are too many ads or other annoying things on the page. Whatever you do, don’t assume; test.

Also, do ensure that there are links and pathways to other content on your site! This is essential. Maybe your related posts plug-in and category list are not effective – you might have to tell/coax your reader into looking deeper.

If you have several ideas on how to optimise the page, you may want to use Google Web Optimiser to run several new versions of the page. Each visitor will be randomly directed to one of your test pages, and you can compare the metrics against each other at the end of the test.

Step 4 – Check Results

One week should be a good enough time frame to compare the before and after effects. Going back to Google Analytics, bring up the Content Detail page for the entrance article you’ve been playing with. Set the date for the week leading up to the day you edited the page (but not including that day). Copy and paste the stats into a text editor or Excel; the main ones you’re interested in are Time on Page, Bounce Rate, and Exit %. Then set the date for the seven days after you optimsed the article. Again, copy and paste the results, and compare.

How did you do? If you were successful, you may have seen an increase in the Time on Page – although maybe not – but certainly a decrease in the Bounce Rate and Exit %. This would indicate that more readers are looking further into your site – congratulations!

What if there was no difference? Then go back to step 2. Conduct further research on how you might improve the page. Ensure you have links to other content on your blog, and that the wording of your article makes these links seem like essential further reading.

What’s a ‘good’ bounce rate?

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to give a one-size-fits-all figure to aim for. It depends on many factors. A bounce could mean the visitor literally only wanted one piece of information, and left because they got it. The ambiguity of the keyword you’re targeting will be important. If you’re getting a high bounce rate from an 8-word keyphrase, it’s probably a worse situation than the same bounce rate for a 2-word keyphrase. Your domain name could play a role too – ‘Problogger’ is pretty clear, but would an article on, say, ‘marketingtips’ be specific to blogging, or to offline marketing? Maybe you’d have to read it to find out.

Having said that, bounce rates over 80% generally mean there’s work to be done.

Landing Page Analysis – A Case Study

I performed a landing page analysis analysis on GenerallyThinking.com, my psychology blog. My top landing page by far was my post on personal strengths and weaknesses. This article proved hugely successful with search engines, and accounts for 25% of the overall traffic of the site! However, the bounce rate and time on page were dismal, as you can see below:

• Time on Page – 00:01:35
• Bounce Rate – 86.67%
• Exit % – 82.98%

I ran a WP-Poll asking what people were looking for at the bottom of the page, and got no results. I put it to the top of the page, and got a few replies, but still not many. Clearly, people weren’t reading to the bottom – there was a need unfulfilled. The data I collected from the poll indicated that people wanted more information on strengths than I was offering – the article was too focused on weaknesses.

So, I ripped out the section on how to manage and work around your weaknesses completely, and posted it as a new article. Then I re-wrote the post as a portal, giving a basic overview of personal strengths and weaknesses, including how and why they could be identified – but not giving too much away. I preferred to point to other articles on my site that cover these topics in depth.

I uploaded the new page, waited, and then tested the results as described above. Here they are:

• Time on Page – 00:02:31
• Bounce Rate – 66.67%
• Exit % – 66.20%

Fantastic! Time on Page increased by a minute, bounce rate reduced by 20% and Exit % reduced by nearly the same amount. A little more tweaking and playing with images might improve things further.

(By the way, if Darren will forgive the flagrant self-promotion that article’s worth a read actually – what successful entrepreneur would say personal development is not an important part of their craft?)

How much could you improve your site by performing an entrance analysis? Remember – don’t make assumptions; test and measure everything!

Warren Davies is a positive psychology student at the University of East London, who runs a psychology blog at GenerallyThinking.com.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Perform a Landing Page Analysis on your Blog

Share This

Go here to see the original: 
Perform a Landing Page Analysis on your Blog

When many people think about search engine optimization, they assume that is something that they can handle on their own. They assume that they can simply tweak the wording on their respective websites and they will automatically skyrocket to the top of the search engine results page.

Well, it’s not quite that simple. In fact, there is a lot that you can do with search engine optimization that has absolutely nothing to do with tweaking your own websites and webpages. To prove this point, the folks at SEO Arbiter decided to order this review, illustrating just what is possible when you make use of their SEO services.

Professional Search Engine Optimization

As you can probably figure out, SEO Arbiter specializes in the search engine optimization of their client’s websites. You can get one-on-one consultation and they will recommend a plan and a strategy to rank for your most highly treasured keywords.

They take a comprehensive approach to the search engine optimization, approaching the project from a variety of different directions. Based on the page with the plans, they utilize techniques like directory submissions, article marketing, social bookmarking, and more.

The Power of Off-Page SEO

In case you haven’t figured it out for yourself already, search engine optimization off your own webpage is just as important (if not more important) than the SEO you do on your own webpage. My own minor SEO victory was achieved largely with off-page strategies.

For the purposes of this review, SEO Arbiter ran a case study on John Chow dot Com, trying to improve its search engine optimization for a number of keywords. Part of the technique involved a lot of article submission.

Shown above is one of the articles that was submitted to Ezine Articles on the subject of authority sites and blogging for money. As you can imagine, this article came with a couple of links back to John Chow dot Com using the targeted anchor text.

SEO Arbiter submitted a total of 51 articles specifically for this purpose. Those articles have been viewed 1,779 times with 63 clicks to John Chow dot Com.

The Proof is in the Pudding

So, how did they do? After almost two months of search engine optimization for John Chow dot Com, SEO Arbiter was able to propel the blog into the top ten results in Google for five critical keyword phrases.

For some of these, John Chow dot Com was able to move up between 14 and 25 positions in the search engine, but the SEO pushed the blog up more than 91 positions for “earn money blogging.” That’s quite the achievement in a relatively short amount of time.

You can see that for some of the other highly competitive keyword phrases, SEO Arbiter was not able to get into the top ten, but the rankings did improve substantially.

Exclusive Offer for John Chow dot Com Readers

Do you want to get the same kinds of results for your own website or blog? SEO Arbiter is extending a special offer for readers of John Chow dot Com.

Normally, you have to pay the $250 startup fee and then a $500 monthly fee for the SEO Arbiter service. However, you can have your first month of service for free if you simply pay the startup fee.

This offer is limited to the first 20 people who sign up through the special link and it expires on January 8, 2010. Based on the real world example of what SEO Arbiter was able to achieve for John Chow dot Com, it looks like they know their stuff.

CLICK HERE FOR ONE FREE MONTH WITH SEO ARBITER

Discover the SECRETS I’ve Learned to go from zero a month to over $40,000 a month from blogging. Download Make Money Online with John Chow dot Com for FREE!

Read more here:
Search Engine Optimization Case Study with SEO Arbiter

This is another addition to our ongoing series of tutorials and case studies on landing pages that work.

Singapore-based Pearlin Siow is a go-getter! A writer and author of business motivational books, she knows that writing a book can add a nice fat dollop of authority gloss to individuals and businesses.

Her new venture is all about applying that proven tactic and making it pay. Along with her co-writer, Cayden Chang, Pearlin wants to attract business owners who understand the value of proximity. In this instance, having their business article/info/bio adjacent to articles written by well-known Asian entrepreneurs in her upcoming book series, 100 Best Business Ideas To Make You Rich.

Let’s dig right in.

• The Goal:Get 95 pay-to-play articles
• The Challenge: Pearlin and Chang want to hit the ground running with their new site launch
• The Current Landing Page: www.the-100-best.com
• Value: $998 per article inclusion

Click image for larger view

The Maven’s 10-Point Critique

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

#1 — Make sure your landing page design works for the majority of monitors and screen displays.

I viewed the page on my 20” screen/1680 x 1050 resolution and it looked a little big to me. I then tested it on a 15” monitor with a standard resolution. The page spilled its borders and was completely unreadable. You’ll definitely want to rework the overall design layout so the majority of visitors can read the page comfortably and without a lot of fiddling around.

#2 — Use one strong establishing image ‘above the fold.’

Your header and book cover images are large — too large, in my estimation — and compete with each other. Your headline gets lost sandwiched in-between, and lost means not read. I’d pull back the banner size and simplify it to its essential message. Then I’d crop the cover image to show just the front of the book.

The back cover is too hard to read, even in this super-sized size. Don’t show what visitors can’t digest.

#3 — Be mindful of what a book cover communicates, both directly and indirectly.

You can’t judge a book by its cover but, to one degree or another, all of us do. That’s why smart publishers spend time and money to get their book covers just right.

Your current cover confused me. Why does it look wrinkled? Why the handwriting effect? Why the Tested and Approved badge — by whom? Your cover has to appeal to two markets — buyers of the book product when published AND the business people who will pay to be included in the book. Ask yourself — do you want to appear in a book that looks like that and do you want to pay for the privilege?

$998 is a lot of marketing dough to spend. A high quality, business-elegant book cover will make it easier for your prospects to imagine their own name and article inside.

#4 — Provide an example of what ‘my page’ might look like.

For $998, I want to see a sample of what my page might look like. Offer an attractive mock-up of a typical page. Show me what my investment buys me — my name here, my photo here, my business information (name, URL, etc.) here, etc.

You actually do this but it’s not on the landing page. It’s found buried on your click-through page, Terms and Conditions. You want it on the landing page. Show a portion of a sample page and link to a pop-up window (that keeps the reader on the page) that shows a typical article. Rather than a static PDF, it might be fun to do this as a mini-movie so you can do close-ups, etc.

From an emotional standpoint, this is a vanity project. Therefore you have to help the prospects imagine and visualize themselves in the book and make them say Wow, I want to be a part of that.

#5 — Consider a two-column format so you can run photos of all the famous folks you’ve interviewed for previous books adjacent to your page content.

Consistency may be the hobgoblin of a small mind, but I tend to like bio shots in one basic format and size. I’d think about redoing these images with professional head shots (like Yap uses in your sample interview) and decide on one size for display.

Click image for larger view

COPY CONSIDERATIONS

#6 — Put your core promise upfront.

In the newspaper business, failing to do this is called burying the lead. In marketing, we call it less-than-smart, especially when you have just a few seconds to capture someone’s interest long enough for them to continue to engage with your message.

Right now, you have 4 (4!) screens of warm-up copy and big pictures, but on the bottom of screen 4 I found this:

Wouldn’t it be great to get instant credibility with your clients and customers by being featured in a bestselling business book, called 100 Best Business Ideas To Make You Rich, alongside top entrepreneurs like …”

Not a perfect sentence but it hits the core point — Gain instant credibility by sharing your knowledge alongside other business experts in a new business book. I’d also add something about not having to write a word if you’re not a writer or too busy to do so. We’ll write it for you!

#7 — Don’t underline anything in your copy that’s not a link. And the only links you should have on your page are the calls to action or links that support the calls to action, period.

You underlined your book title, making me want to click it. When nothing happens, I’m frustrated. Feel free to use bold, italics, or color to highlight your title. Just don’t underline them.

Speaking of links, you have several that distract visitors from your page and force them to leave. Links to Amazon might sell a few of your other books, but you’ve just given someone a reason not to proceed toward a $998 pay-off. If you use a link, have it open up on the same page.

Every link has to be 100% focused on helping the visitor make a positive decision toward the desired action. Nothing more, nothing less.

#8 — Be trustworthy. Prove all claims or don’t make ‘em.

Hype makes prospects antsy and mistrustful. That’s why marketers (like you and me), just can’t say anything and have folks believe. Shouting doesn’t make it so, either. So one of the areas I’m particularly honed-in on is language precision.

If you’re calling yourself a best-selling author, prove it by copies sold, Amazon or Barnes & Noble ranking, etc. If you’re, for example, the most successful business author in Singapore, that’s cool. It’s specific and believable. Say that instead.

Also, a book that isn’t yet published can’t be a best-seller. It’s a future/prospective/potential best-seller, but not a best-seller now. So you need to focus on the claims and statements you can make that are provable and believable. Believability leads to trust and trust leads directly to a sale that the customer won’t regret later.

#9 — Consider your audience when highlighting your chosen experts.

I have to be honest to say I haven’t heard of any of the folks you highlight. The fact that I personally haven’t heard of them isn’t important. What is important is whether or not your prospects have.

If you’re going for a strictly Asian market, you might be good to go. If you’re thinking outside Asia, then you’ll want to sprinkle some European, North and South American experts to round out the roster.

#10 — Detail the process for your visitor, step by step, once they’ve paid their $$$. Anticipate their questions.

Okay, so I pay my money and then either submit my article and ancillaries or you interview me and write it up.

Then what happens? Who owns it? Can I use my article on my own blog? How will you market this book? Do I get a cut of the sale price? Do you have an affiliate program? These are the questions running around your prospect’s head that will most certainly need answers.

BONUS 1– Define and clarify your call to action.

Submit your story and Join now are two very different calls to action. (What am I joining?)

Submit your story for review is a better call to action. It lends a little exclusivity to the mix, since you’ve noted that entries will be limited.

BONUS 2 — Clarify the charitable contribution.

I’m all about the pro bono, obviously. But your copy says 100% of the book sales will go to your charity. When I read the linked document, however, it says 40%. Disconnects make me uneasy.

My thanks to Pearlin Siow for her patience and support of Heifer International. Look for my next makeover in approximately 4 weeks.

Want to get a future Copywriting Maven landing page makeover?

Got a landing page that’s more poop than pop? Willing to share with Copyblogger readers? Prepared to put a little of your own “skin in the game” for a Maven Makeover? Then follow your click to Maven’s Landing Page Makeover page for all the details.

I’m back-logged for gratis “Heifer” critiques until 3/15/10. If you’re interested in a private critique/makeover or other services, please email me directly.

About the Author: Roberta Rosenberg is The Copywriting Maven at MGP Direct, Inc. Find her @CopywriterMaven on Twitter.

More:
Landing Page Makeover Clinic #21: The-100-Best.com

A guest post by Kevin from BeginnerBloggerTips.com (with some comments from me below too). Image by Shawnson.

My journey into affiliate marketing.

Before I start, I’d like to make two disclaimers:

1. I don’t hate google or AdSense—this article isn’t a rant against either.
2. I recognize that every blog is different—what I’m about to say may not apply to your blog. Regardless, I think you should ask yourself the question I’m presenting here.

Disclaimers finished; let’s get to the point:

The Parable of the Lemonade Stand

Imagine a lemonade stand. The entrepreneurs get the ingredients, start up their business, and have dozens of customers per day. It earns twenty dollars a day. Not bad for a humble lemonade stand, right?

Now, let me throw in a twist: imagine the before-mentioned entrepreneurs are in their 30’s. They own the lot on which the lemonade stand is located. The lot is located along a major highway in a rapidly growing suburban area. All adjacent lots have businesses making thousands of dollars per day. Suddenly our lemonade stand seems rather silly.

This concept is called opportunity cost—the economic consequences of choosing one thing over another. I’m learning about this the hard way — I’ve been making pennies per click when I could have been making dollars per click.

Let me explain in a little more detail. As I’ve mentioned before, strongandfit.net is the first profitable blog I’ve ever had. As my traffic increased, so did my AdSense earnings. A few dollars a day ads up, so I was finally seeing checks come in at the end of every month (I’m new to making money online, so I’m easily amused).

But I started noticing something: a few products in particular kept showing up over and over on my blog (in the AdSense widget). “Wait a minute,” I thought to myself, “these products obviously convert well if someone is willing to spend money promoting them.” I realized I had inadvertently put myself at the bottom of the economic food chain: I was getting paid a few cents per click while someone else was earning commissions on sales produced by these clicks.

I did a little research and started directly advertising these products with affiliate marketing. So far it seems to be paying off—my blog is making more money.

But there’s another benefit: I have complete control over what gets advertised on my blog. It’s turning into a win-win situation: my readers are referred to high quality products, and I earn more in commissions.

I still use AdSense, but I’m devoting more of my prime “real estate” on my blog to affiliate marketing. Maybe you should also consider doing this.

A Note from Darren

Like Kevin says, I don’t have anything against AdSense either. In fact I find that it works quite well on some of my sites. For me the idea of ‘Opportunity Cost’ is a powerful one. For every decision you make to use ANY type ad unit on your blog (whether it is AdSense, some other ad network, an Affiliate product, an ad sold directly to an advertiser, an ad for a product of your own there is a potential opportunity cost of that decision.

The key is to test different options. Kevin has had success in substituting affiliate ads in the place of AdSense, for others affiliate products might not work, but an ad for your own product might. For others it might be about swapping ads to Chitika or another ad network. For others it could monetize better by selling ads directly. For others still it could be better to not have ads at all but to sell yourself on your blog as a consultant.

The key is to test and experiment with different models.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

The Parable of the Lemonade Stand: Is AdSense Costing you Money?

Share This

Here is the original: 
The Parable of the Lemonade Stand: Is AdSense Costing you Money?