This You Need To Start Blogging For Big

This You Need To Start Blogging For BigA quick search on the net for blogs and you find that not only are the general public using them as a way of electronically noteing their feelings and thoughts but also businesses are using them as an informal way of updating their clients of products and services. It seems that when it comes to blogging big businesses and small businesses are on the same playing field. 

A blog offers any business the opportunity to communicate with employees, and customers, sharing knowledge and expertise. As you may or may not have realised is that blogging is a big plus and if used correctly can provide an interesting and effective way to increase brand identity and awareness. My personal web design company (Able Net Design) has seen an increase in interest of blogs and its use with our own customers. It seems that everyone is jumping on this new system, as a cheap and effective way to spread the word. A quick google search for the term "business blogging" returns 11,200,000 results. There are even companies poping up everywhere as blog consultants, which can help set up a blog that you will get the most out of. 

Is blogging really as good as everyone thinks, well i am certainly having some fun with it and am sure if it didn't work it would have died by now. But what are people blogging about? Well people are blogging about everything and anything and there are some reports that people are making a nice little income from it aswell. Income off a blog how can that be? That is the same question i asked when i first heard about it. I would have thought that the process to making money of a blog would have been quite involved however I have discovered that it is quite the opposite. It seems that with the use of strategicly placed advertisements and a large amount of traffic bloggers are utilising the paid to click type of advertisements, to earn profits. 

Now i thought this has to be tested, so i impletemented a few different paid to click advertisements on my blogs to see how they go. It took me little over 10 minutes to change my blog templates and implement these advertisements. So with the ads up and running i decided to continue posting as usual to see what happens. Well i can say that im not going to get rich quick. However i assume that the more traffic you have the more clicks you will get, and since my blogs are relatively new i didn't have high hopes. But all in all it is a fun way to keep the bloging interesting. 

The blogging revolution just seems to keep on getting bigger and bigger with Google and Yahoo releasing its on Blog search engine and others like Technorati which would be the most well known blog search engine. Technorati claims to be tracking 20.1 million sites  , and if you view their top 100 blogs you will see that the topics which are being blogged about are endless and unique in every category you could think of. For more information on blogs and how you can get one check out our site (ablenetdesign.com) or read my online marketing blog (ablenetdesign.blogspot.com) there will be more information on blogs posted in their as time goes on im sure of it.

Stay Motivated & Increase Your Traffic!

So you have a blog, you’re got your theme all pretty and how you like it, and you’re publishing posts. Everything is great, but… where are the readers? Here are some tips to stay motivated and increase traffic, too.

• HAVE FUN! If you aren’t enjoying blogging and it becomes a chore, stop. Blogging should be fun, and it will show through in your posts.
• Don’t feel pressured to post every thirty seconds – save it for when you have something to say. That said, try to be consistent – once a week, once a day, one a month around the same time – whatever. Consistency = people coming back.
• Don’t expect to have a million readers immediately and don’t be discouraged if you don’t. It takes time to gain readership, but they will come if you keep up the awesomeness.
• Blogging is time consuming and there is no way around that; spend time on your posts so that readers get what they deserve. Quality over quantity.
• Want to drive more traffic to your blog? Participate in the community of similar bloggers to get your name out there and get more readers. Comment on other blogs, do guest posts, talk to others (like me!) on Twitter (and use hashtags so more people see your tweets – #fitblog and #runchat are good healthy living ones, and #rdchat is good if you are an RD but there are plenty more!), post links to your blog on your personal Facebook page (and think about starting a page for your blog, too!), share photos on Instagram and Pinterest, and participate in contests/movements/online bake sales/etc. The more you interact, the more others will start to notice you!

Favorite Plugins

Plugins are to your blog like apps are to your smart phone. They add fun features to your site! Here are a few of my favorites. To install a plugin, simply go to your WordPress dashboard, and click on “Plugins” on the left, then select “Add New.” Search by any of these by name (use the exact name I list), click install, and then follow their instructions for setting it up!

1. Alpine PhotoTile for Instagram – This plugin will allow you to add a cute little feed of your recent Instagram photos to your sidebar. Look on the right of my blog to see mine for an example!
2. Comment Reply Notification – Have you ever left a comment or question on a blog and then forgotten to go back and check for the answer? I do this all the time. This plugin will email someone if their comment receives a response, so the conversation can continue!
3. Facebook Like Box – This plugin will allow you to add a Facebook “like” box for your blog’s Facebook page onto your sidebar. To see mine, look right! :)
4. Image Widget – This plugin makes it easy to add photos/images to your sidebar.
5. nRelate Related Conent – This plugin adds links to related posts at the end of each post. To see it in action on my site, click over to my homepage, click on one of the posts, and scroll down to just above the comment section. It’s the “You may also like:” thing with other posts below it. (I have it set so it doesn’t show on pages, just on posts, which is why it’s not showing over on this page).
6. Pinterest Badge – This plugin will allow you to add a cute feed of recent Pinterest pins to your sidebar. Again, to see mine, look over to the right!
7. Pinterest Pin It Button For Images – This plugin will display a pin it button on your images when someone hovers their mouse over them. To see how it works, hover your mouse over the image at the start of this post!
8. Shareaholic – This plugin adds social bookmarking icons at the end of your posts. To see it in action on my site, click over to my homepage, click on one of the posts, and scroll down to just above the comment section. It’s the thing that says “Share and Enjoy!” with an arrow to all the social media sharing icons. (I have it set so it doesn’t show on pages, just on posts, which is why it’s not showing over on this page).
9. Twitter Widget Pro – This plugin will allow you to add a feed of your recent tweets from Twitter onto your sidebar. To see mine, look right!

Additional Tips & Blogging Ethics

• When you try another blogger’s recipe and post about it on your site, simply share a link to their original recipe (and include your own original photos and comments). Don’t repost the recipe on your site – it’s like plagiarizing in the blog world! Not cool.
• If you significantly alter someone else’s recipe (e.g. change at least 3 major ingredients – not just things like adding walnuts or a little more cinnamon), then you can post your updated version, but it’s still good to link to the original recipe (e.g. Adapted from: RECIPE NAME).
• When you do start working with brands, be sure to be clear about your relationship with them when you post. If you’re talking about a product, for example, you should say if you got it for free. Being transparent is a good thing!
• Wondering how everyone adds text to their photos (like I did in the image at the start of this post)? Or creates cute Pinterest-worthy workout graphics? Or makes picture collages? The secret is an awesome website called PicMonkey! It’s free to use the basic version and no registration is required. Try it out! :)

Five Tips for Better Blogging

1. Use Simple Language

If there's one lesson I learnt as a writer that stuck, it was: K.I.S.S. — Keep It Simple, Stupid. Blogs are not the place to show of your enormous and incomprehensible vocabulary — this isn't a PHD. Your blog is where people come to learn, whether it's about you, Ferrari engines, or how to make scones. You need to be able to speak to people in a way that the 'average Joe' understands. After visiting your blog, I should know something that I didn't know before and this learning experience shouldn't have been a massive effort. Keep your sentences concise. Keep your language simple and to-the-point. Keep your tone casual. Your readers will appreciate it.

2. Know Your Audience

The second most important lesson I've learnt as a writer is: know your audience. If you don't know who you're writing for, you shouldn't be writing. Knowing who your audience is, is a power. It allows you to keep your blog and writing relevant. Nothing is worse than slaving away in front of the computer and having no one read your work. If you know who you're writing for, you know how to target them and what they're interested in reading — you can then tweak your content to suit these interests. Blogging is a way that you can give your loyal followers something for free. The most successful businesses use their blogs to show 'behind the scenes' of their campaigns and products — their audience is already interested in their products, so blogging about how they were created, or the inspiration behind them is an added extra that their clients are bound to love.

3. Blog Regularly

The best blogs are consistent. A post should be published on the same day, at the same time every week — perhaps multiple times a week. This should be done for a number of reasons:

• Your readers know when to check back and discover new content.
• Shows that your brand is reliable.
• Great for Google algorithms and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).

First and foremost, you're blogging for your readers, and they need to know your routine. For example: every Tuesday at 9am, my online literary magazine posts a 'Writing Prompt', because of our consistency, our readers know to check back once a week for this particular feature, which means we have more and more returning visitors.

Blogging consistently does something wonderful for the reputation of your brand as well: It shows you're reliable. There's nothing more valuable to a reader than trust. Use your blog to prove to your readers/clients that you're trustworthy. This will take you, your blog and your business a long way.

The more you update your blog, the more Google knows to revisit and index your pages. Your pages need to be indexed in order to come up in people's search results. If you post regularly, Google's bots enter into a routine, where they will continually come back to index your articles.

4. Remember Your S.E.O.

For those of you who don't know SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. It's all about making your blog/website easy to find when searching for various terms in search engines such as Google. This is not something that should dictate your blog (it's more commonly used on websites themselves), but it's something that should be given some thought, because it can seriously benefit you. Have a think about what your blog is saying. Is it recommending products? Is it based around a particular field or industry? No matter what your topic, it will have 'Keywords'. Keywords are the terms that people most search for in Google and other search engines. You can look up how often a term is searched for a month with free online tools such as Google Adwords (all you need is a current gmail account to use their keyword planner), and you can also use Ubersuggest (you don't have to sign up for anything) to find out what variations of your keywords are searched for. I used the Google Adwords Keyword Planner to find out that the term 'literary devices' is searched for 74,000 times a month. I then popped over to Ubersuggest which showed me a list of terms that include 'literary devices' that are also commonly searched for:

5. Say it With Images

It doesn't matter what you're blogging about — chances are an image will benefit your post. More than anything, an image gives your readers' eyes a breath of fresh air amidst huge chunks of text. It allows them to have a brief break, increasing the likelihood that they'll continue reading. An image will also create more visual interest on the page — you're not reading a novel, you're reading a blog post — sometimes you need a splash of colour, or a funky quote to jazz the page up a bit.

Including an image also increases the chances that your blog post will be shared across a broader scope of social media platforms such as Pinterest and Tumblr. Finally, using images also has hidden benefits... If you optimise your images to suit the keyword of your post (include the keyword in your image filename, title and caption), you are creating a richer post, and search engines love it.