I have noticed that a number of my readers are interested in increasing their blog traffic.

Simply put, everyone loves having more traffic.

Like all things desirable, it is the scarcity that creates the demand.

How can you create a stream of traffic that can assure your blog a steady and growing readership?

In my last post, I mentioned that after abandoning my blog for about two months, there was no noticeable decline in my traffic rankings.

A number of my readers have sent in emails to know just how I have been able to achieve that when they are working really hard and still manage to get only a trickle of search engine traffic.

In this post I will show you how I created the foundation that made that feat possible.

I believe making this public will reduce the number of private emails I will have to reply to on the subject, since it will furnish me with a ready post to point my readers to.

How did I create a blog that was solid enough to withstand abandonment for a whole fifty days?

1. Write Evergreen Posts

Just what is evergreen content?

As the name clearly shows, evergreen blog content is content that remains in relevance for a long time, with little or no need for updates.

When referenced even years after it was published, it still remains useful to the reader.

Examples of content on this blog that fit the evergreen profile include:

Lower Your Alexa Traffic Rank – The ‘How To’ and Why It Matters

5 Google Friendly Shortcuts to Get High PR Backlinks

The amazing thing is that all of those posts were written over a year ago, but till date they are among the top traffic doorways into Pro Blogger Tips.

Before you protest, allow me to concede: Yes, things change very quickly online! For some industries, what is trending today may well be stale by the end of the month. That means that the difficulty or ease with which you create evergreen content may differ depending your industry.

That said, the key thing is to keep in mind that if some of your contents remains fresh for a year or two, that could be considered to be evergreen for most industries.

Simply stated, to grow blog traffic, think evergreen posts!

2. Link Internally with Keyword Rich Anchor texts

Having a tight internal linking structure is very important for sustaining the relevance of your blog.

A consistent link structure engenders a healthy link equity flow throughout your website, allowing you to strategically target link juice to target landing pages, lift important pages up in your site structure and improve usability and ‘crawlability’ of your  site – making it easier for both humans and search engines to locate your content.

It is also easier to determine the structure your desired anchor texts and keyword positioning on page than it would be if you were to acquire said link from an external source.

I have created a very strong internal linking ethic and even have an automated angle to it by using SEO Internal Links WordPress plugin.

3. Minimize the Use of No Follow on External Links

Do you still link out of your blog with nofollow tags?

When I started blogging, I was very selfish with my link love. Practically all external links on this blog were nofollow tagged. After I reevaluated the practice against the actual purpose of the nofollow tag, I realized I was missing the mark.

The nofollow tag was meant to prevent Google bots from following and indexing paid links.

Sadly, bloggers have taken this to the extreme and now mark every external link with the nofollow tag. I consider it to be selfish, similar to saying: “You ain’t getting any link love from me, buddy!”

In an interesting Google Webmaster Forum discussion, Google user Rickweiss writes:

“Bloggers have apparently taken the issue of never having a dofollow on any link that is tied to something you are compensated for so seriously that they are putting nofollow on all links in their posts. In other words, the legitimate link to the products page is getting a nofollow.”

The only situation where Google recommends the use of the nofollow on external links is to tag paid links and optionally comment links to reduce comment spam. Doing otherwise just shows bad faith, as Google has shown me they think so too by giving me consistent traffic even during my 50 day hiatus.

My outbound linking strategy is now very generous and I rarely use the nofollow tag on external links unless when I link out to ‘bad territories’.

4. Use Images for Visual and SEO Impact

Blog posts need images to break up the text and improve readability. It also provides a quick visual reference on the context of the post.

Apart from those functions, blog posts need images to slip in keywords and improve on page keyword optimization in a way that is unobtrusive.

If you are not using images on your posts, you are leaving a great SEO opportunity  on the table.

I use Photo Pin to mine Flickr for Creative Commons – Non-Commercial licensed images and I have found it to be much fun.

When next you are working on a post, include at least one image and optimize it for the search engines by using your keyword in the image alt tag.

5. Add an Attention Grabbing Headline

It took you two days to write a post, and then you crank out a headline in five minutes, right?

Wrong!

I work really hard to make my headlines visually impactful. I have written a headline that took me more than one week to decide on. This should be no surprise because I learned quite early just how much of a big deal having a great headline was.

You see, the web has become so congested with great content. People just skim headlines for stories that jump out at them and browse through emails based on subjects of interest.

If your effort to convert browsers into readers does not start from the headline, you would be losing more than 90% of your potential readers without their ever reading the first sentence of your post.

So spend some time crafting the perfect headline. You can also try writing variations of the same headlines that emphasize emotions, to see which works best.

This tip can also be used to improve existing posts. Look at the headlines of posts that are not converting traffic and think of how you can improve them.

Jon Morrow, head over to Headline Hacks for the best free headline writing course on the web!

 Conclusion

This post should not be construed as a call for blog abandonment!

On the contrary, it is meant help you build a quality blog that will both stand the test of time and whatever the stresses of life bring. The philosophy is: Now you have the time, build a better blog.

Now you have my blueprint for creating a residual traffic flow, do you think this will work in every case, or was it just a fluke? Let me hear your thoughts!

photo credit: slworking2 via photopin cc

The post 5 Ways to Grow Your Blog Traffic Even If You Abandon Your Blog for Fifty Days [Case Study] appeared first on Helping Businesses Build Blogs that Convert | Pro Blogger Tips.

(I never thought it would come to a time when I would have to write this post).

A little over a year ago, I started blogging with so much promise of great things to come.

But here I am today, typing away and wondering: “Just what went wrong?”

To put things in perspective, my last post on this blog was published approximately 50 days ago. That is scary, especially considering the fact that I knew I could have written one post for each of those 50 days, had I wanted to.

Sadly, it has not been so much about the time as it has been about the interest.

Where went my motivation?

True, having a number of freelance writing clients have kept me busy, but abandoning my blog for that long is clearly a case of killing the goose that lays the golden egg. To date, all my freelance writing gigs have been landed through this same blog.

Just where did the zest I had initially go?

The truth is, what happened to me and my blog did not come about overnight.

I had stretched myself out as far as I could go and even some more. The cracks that appeared in the seam were unavoidable.

The result was that I fell into a burnout that made even the easiest blog-related task seem like a torture.

Ironically, my very last post was on the topic of stress management for bloggers.

Thank God my ranking stayed intact!

Curiously though, my hiatus has made some facts I read from Chris G about post frequency even more clearer.

Findings I made also supports the position of this post here and here and here.

My blog receives a decent amount of traffic daily without my having to lift a finger. So why did I almost kill myself with writing daily posts on this blog at a time?

In fact, apart from a few spikes here and there, my traffic has remained consistent throughout my 50 day sabbatical. I have not made any progress, neither have I conceded any search engine ranking.

Curious.

…and so much for my ego!

Another curious thing is that the web is so fluid, and I could literally commit virtual suicide and no one would notice!

I had been expecting a torrent of emails questioning why I would dare allow my successful blog to gather dust.

Things turned out differently!

Everyday as I log into my email, all I saw was spam.

I was reminded of those poor souls who die only to be discovered months or years later by a random stranger. I really should focus on connecting with people and making friends in the blogosphere.

As my friend Adrienne would say: Relationship is King.

Come to think of it, now I have seen the light I am pressured to agree with your position, Adrienne.

Lessons gathered along the way

1. It does seems to me that a blog that maintains its position in the SERPs for two months without any new content is solidly footed and worth fighting for.

2. That I have not made a great job so far connecting with my audience and my email list.

3. That leaving a comment for each comment received is not such a bad idea, anyway. It kept things exciting for me, and when I stopped reciprocating, I soon lost interest in my own blog (funny how these things turn out) .

I am still considering my options here, but here are some decisions I have made:

1. Blog More Consistently

2. Comment on the blogs of those kind enough to leave a comment on my blog

3. Read – yes, really read – the post of other bloggers.

4. Match every one post on my blog with five elsewhere.

5. Make an effort to make friends with other bloggers I find interesting.

Have you passed through similar circumstances as a blogger? How were you able to get motivated again? Feel free to share in the comments below…

The post Blogger Burnout: What Do I Do With My Blog? appeared first on Helping Businesses Build Blogs that Convert | Pro Blogger Tips.

 If you are yet to have a day when you felt like dumping your laptop in the waste bin, then you must be one lucky blogger. Sometimes we get that feeling when we know we are grossly behind on our schedule and there seems to be little we can do about it.

Have you been there lately?

Well, the three secrets I will share in this post should bring you up to speed as far as productivity as a blogger is concerned. Applying them will reduce the blogging associated stress, after all if you are anything like me you started blogging to run away from the stress associated with your 9-5 job.

Set clear goals

This one should be obvious, but surprisingly a lot of bloggers operate on an ‘everyday will take care of itself’ principle. The most interesting thing about the internet is that it is like a Pandora’s Box.

Full of surprises, it is only natural for you to drift away from the task you had on hand, say read updates from ten blogs you follow, to check out some pretty neat stuff you just stumbled on.

This will not always be Farmville or , sometimes it can come disguised as part of your work – a great plugin you just need to add to your blog, or powerful about page copy that makes you want to review yours – but as long as that was not the task at hand, it is a distraction.

Set clear goals for your blog. That way when you stumble on these great plugins, you can review them against your blogging goals to see if they fit into your big picture.

If they do, instead of abandoning what you had scheduled to do at that time, bookmark the page to come back to it. If it really matters, you will make out a time block for that particular task.

Create To-Do Lists

Without a To-Do list your day can suddenly grow wings and take a direction of its own.

So now you have set goals, create daily tasks that take you closer to those goals.

While this may sound childish, believe me, mapping your day in this way can help you hold yourself accountable. This is a great way to stay focused on what needs to be done.

If you have a To-Do software installed on your system, use it to map out your daily tasks. I use the Todo.ly browser extension and it works just fine for me.

If you prefer organizing your day using a Calender, that is also great. While you are at it, you may want to organize your week and month to see the big picture about where you are headed.

How much time do you spend on Facebook and Twitter? How often do you check Google Stats and Emails? Map a specific time segment for every task you do, from writing your blog posts, engaging on Twitter, replying emails and so on.

While those tasks are important for your business, they can suddenly become distractions if you allow them to. I check emails twice a day and despite the temptation to look at my stats daily, I only check Google Stats once a week.

Do you really need to do any of those more often?

Hold yourself accountable to keep to time. If a task was supposed to take twenty minutes and it looks like it will take forty now you are at it, abandon it and move to the next task. Do not allow one task deny you closure on other items on your To-Do list.

Think Long Term

It is important to plan ahead as a blogger. At times that would mean realizing you just cannot do everything you set out to do.

What is your blog to you? Is it a business or just a way to while away the time? If you have long term goals of turning your blog into a source of full time income soon, then it may pay to hack your routine in favor of staying organized.

If you are anything like me, you have two To-Do lists. One for the tasks you have to do daily, and the second for the tasks you hope to be able to add to your first list soon. To succeed as a blogger, both lists are important.

Establishing a routine and getting everything done every day is easy as a beginner blogger, but you will notice that as time goes on, your To-Do lists are getting longer and longer with every passing week. You see bright ideas on someone’s blog and you add it to your future list. Then you stumble on a plugin you would love to try out someday and you chuck it in there too.

And the two lists are growing, side by side and before long you realize that your business is growing too alongside your lists. Your blog is making you money now and you are getting traffic coming in from all over the web and there is still so much to do, but just one you.

Is it time to pack up? You bet not! Now is the time to start hiring some employees to help you take care of your daily To-Do list so you can start focusing on the big, bright future.

What do you make of these ideas? Tell me in the comments below.

Image Source: Cool Web Developer

The post 3 Bright Ideas to Reduce Blogging Related Stress appeared first on Helping Businesses Build Blogs that Convert | Pro Blogger Tips.

It may surprise you to know that the age of your domain and blog are some of the strongest SEO factors you owe for your ranking.

Now, everything being equal, if you have two blogs that produce great content, it would make sense that the older blog has more successful blog posts than the newer blog.

Apart from the trust factor (it is easier to trust someone who has been in a business for five years than to trust someone who just got started in it), it is only natural that older blogs ranks higher since they generally have a larger cache of great interwoven content.

So to me it is not just about the blog’s age or the age of the domain but the fact that by virtue of the age, the blog owner has had a lot more time to create amazing, link magneting content.

What is the takeaway from this post?

Start that blog today.

If you can set aside $10 dollars for the domain name, just do it. And while you are at it, add a little extra for the hosting! Do not put it away till tomorrow.

I meet a number of persons online who seek blogging advice for a blog they would one day start. They get trapped in a analysis paralysis, getting all the details dead-right.

Does that sounds like someone you know? Then be a friend and share this post at them.

Stamp your blog’s presence on the web today, not tomorrow, not next week, but today!

The earlier you start your blog, the more time you would have to learn the ropes, make mistakes and correct them.

Remember, each blog post is an entry point into your blog and the more blog posts you have, the higher the possible sources of entry.

Guess what? Someone is searching for something you have an answer to. Just blog it!

The post Blog Traffic Guide: Why a Blog in Hand is Worth Two in the Mind appeared first on Helping Businesses Build Blogs that Convert | Pro Blogger Tips.

If your business deals with people, online, offline, of for that matter, even on the phone line, then you need a small business blog.

Period.

Irrespective of the industry you operate in, your business stands to benefit from the goodwill you can generate by being the provider or enabler of high quality useful and free information.

Even in the most boring of industries, blogs have been known to spice things up and create a community around brands.

This post is designed to help you carry out a self-test to determine how much you stand to benefit from having a blog.

Do I have your attention?

Should you start a blog for your business?

Most businesses I have surveyed initially felt their business could not really benefit from having a blog. Do you feel the same way? The four questions below can align your thoughts as you arrive at a conclusion:

1. Can your business benefit from new customers?
2. Do your customers use devices like mobile phones or computers?
3. Do they have access to the internet?
4. Can you write interesting content relevant to your industry?

If your answer to any of the above questions is yes, then you stand to benefit from a review of what a business blog can do for you.

6 benefits of having a small business blog

Next, let’s look at all of the potential benefits of having a blog for your business. Chances are at least one of the following will appeal to you and your business goals.

1. Customer attraction and Retention Benefits

The number one reason why you need a blog is your customers. Having great content on your site is a good bait to drag in prospects in.How do you provide blog content in a customer focused manner?

It starts with determining the kind of content your audience is interested in?For instance, an insurance company may create compelling content on how companies may significantly reduce their insurance costs.

This will get readers into associating that company with affordable insurance. A lead capture form placed in the sidebar or below the post can then be used to capture readers into leads.

A blog also affords you the opportunity to create content targeted at engaging current customers. This content type would include product, service and industry news. Many marketers put too much premium on gaining initial visibility with their using traditional efforts like advertising.

The problem is that if those adverts do not lead to instant sales that would be money and effort down the drain. With a blog you have more time luxury, as you can engage with your prospect overtime until they are ready to make a buying decision.

2. Social Media Benefits

Does your business struggle with gaining popularity on social media? Here’s how your business blog can help.

Shared blog content is much more accepted on social media than advertising. You’ve probably heard the 80 / 20 rule – only 20% of your social media updates should be about your business.

If you make that 20% a link to your valuable blog content instead of a promotion, you will gain more followers who are really interested in following your updates closely. The more readers who share your content, the more your business will gain in social media exposure.

If you use the official Twitter retweet button on your blog posts, you can set it up to include your username. That way, when your readers tweet your blog posts, they get a message to follow you on Twitter. Likewise on Facebook, if you update your page with your latest blog post, fans can share that update which will link back to your page, thus giving you the chance to increase your Facebook fans.

Unlike product or service pages, great content has the potential to go viral. It’s not often that a business can share a link to a product page on their website and get hundreds to thousands of shares on social media (unless you’re Apple releasing a new version of the iPhone).

3. Search Engine Optimization Benefits

Search engines love websites with valuable content resources. Your blog can help boost your websites’s search engine rankings through providing regularly occurring quality content updates. Such content flags search engines that your business has a quality website. Google has been working especially hard to rid search results of low-quality sites. One of the footprints they look at in determining whether a website is good or not is the website’s content profile.

Hence, having unique, quality content on your website’s blog will let Google know you deserve to have better rankings in search.Your authoritative blog content is also a smart way to attract high quality backlinks from other websites, forums and social networks.

Apart from sending you a stream of targeted visitors you can eventually convert into leads, these links act as votes or attestations to the quality of your content in the eyes of search engines. Blog content can help you rank for long-tail keyword phrases.

Let’s say you have a pet supply store. There are only so many keywords you could target with your homepage and product pages. With blog content, you can go much further.

Use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to find extended phrases for your main keywords. Instead of just targeting ‘dog grooming’, you could have content that targets ‘dog grooming tips’, ‘dog grooming tools’, ‘do it yourself dog grooming’, and many more related terms.

The people who search for those keywords and find your content might just become customers of your store.

4. Collect market intelligence

Having a business blog gives you the opportunity of seeing the world through the eyes of your customers. Getting insight from your audience about where your products and services should be headed is a smart way to grow a business.

If you are waiting to get that insight through traditional channels like feedback forms and surveys, you may have a hard time having a reliable ‘feeler’ as most customers may not have the motivation to fill out a feedback form.

A comment form on a blog post is another thing, as readers are more willing to air their views after reading a great article. The comment section of your company’s blog presents you with a great opportunity build a community of active individuals who are passionate about your company’s brand and can serve as brand advocates both online and offline.

By fostering an active discussion, your company can truly be said to receptive, as customers will address questions to real persons inside the company, often providing insight on opportunities for new content.

5. Trust Building Benefit

Have you ever wondered that people seem to buy more readily from companies they have had a number of interactions with? It is because of trust. Conversations are the building blocks of relationships, and relationships lead to trust.

Having a business blog provides a platform for you to establish connections with your audience and share experiences and perspectives, which engenders mutual trust. Ideally, those interactions ought to be in person, but most companies just do not have the time to start one on one conversation with all their customers.

A blog presents a viable alternative to face to face interactions by providing social media channels and interactive contents. Your blog content is therefore a trust building magnet, and as your audience is repeatedly exposed to your authority of thought, it becomes so much easier for them to opt into your lead generation funnel.

Repeated exposure to resourceful content helps build familiarity between you and your prospects, and over time this creates an atmosphere of trust that makes sales much easier.

6. Brand Building Benefits

Last, but not least, having a business blog can do wonders for your online reputation. Become a leader in your industry. If your business blog produces valuable content, then you can use that content to position yourself as a knowledge leader in your industry.

SEOmoz, for example, is a well-known resource for SEO information. This leads tons of people to their website where they get a chance to sell a premium membership to their SEO tools.

The highlight is: your business blog should dominate search results for the right reasons. Aside from popping up to potential customers, you’ll want your blog to rank on the first page for your business name to push down any potential negative results including bad reviews or bad press.

Be the first resource people go to in the event of a crisis. If your business has a crisis (product recall, service outage, public scandal, etc.) then you will want your customers to know that they can come to your blog for the latest news.

To establish this mindset, you have to be vigilant about publishing fresh content and news on a continuous basis on your blog. This will prevent people from relying on outside sources for news you should be handling.

Hopefully these reasons are compelling enough to convince you to start your business blog today. Which of these reasons do you find most compelling in your case?

The post Why You Should Start a Small Business Blog appeared first on Helping Businesses Build Blogs that Convert | Pro Blogger Tips.

Some businesses just get told to start a business blog and they jump on the band wagon without giving the decision some critical thought.

1. What is the purpose of your blog?
2. What does your blog promise?
3. Why does it matter?
4. Who stands to benefit from reading it?

Did you consider those questions before starting your blog?

If you did, great! If you did not, now is a great time to do so.

One of the strongest branding strategy you can have going in your favor is to have clearly defined your blog’s promise from inception – day one.

Some persons would call it a mission statement; others would call it an elevator pitch. I prefer to call it blog promise since that personalizes the relationship and expectations. The important thing is: if you do not have one, go create one.

How do you craft a blog promise?

A great blog promise fulfills three core requirements:

1. States what your blog does
2. Communicates what your readers should expect from your blog
3. Commits you on key deliverables

To inspire you, here is my blog’s promise:

Pro Blogger Tips guides businesses on their journey to build blogs that bring in more business. It is a platform for me to share great ideas that have helped my blog and should help yours.

That’s it, my promise to you my readers!

So what your blog’s promise? Have you already crafted something?

The comment area is a great place to start, or you could write a post-length blog promise and send me a link.

The post What is the Purpose of Your Blog? appeared first on Helping Businesses Build Blogs that Convert | Pro Blogger Tips.

Anyone with a WordPress blog is familiar with the hassle that is required simply to edit and update posts.

If you catch a typo, want to resize an image, or need to add some extra italics or bold, those simple changes require that you load the entire back-end of your blog, open the editor, make and save the changes, and then preview the changes on the front end.

It’s a long and often times frustrating process, considering how small and mundane the changes involved can be.

For those who are all too familiar with this runaround, there’s a new and better way to edit WordPress posts that will save time and allow bloggers to focus totally on creating content.

This new method, called front-end editing, does not require opening the back-end of Premium WordPress themes. Instead, you simply load your blog’s home page or individual post pages, and start editing the post right there.

Front End Editing Essentials

It doesn’t get easier than this!

Front-end editing isn’t much different from back-end editing. With front-end editing, the blog posts you see on your front page are accompanied by “Edit” buttons, which you can click to open a text box in which to make changes.

You make the changes right there, then save them, and immediately you see the results of your work. No more going back and forth between the front and back ends, just to check the typo you corrected is now correct and the changes have been registered.

Front end editing streamlines that process and, by doing so, cuts in half the time you need to update posts.

Editing Pictures

It’s not only text that can be edited from the front end. Pictures also can be adjusted if you’re not happy with the way they are being rendered.

With front-end editing enabled, images used in your post will be accompanied by “edit this” buttons, just like you see beside your blog posts. Clicking the button will bring up the same photo editing interface you are used to seeing on the back-end of your site, with all the same options.

From this interface, you can change the photo’s title, edit its ALT text and caption, add a description for the META tags, revise the URL, and adjust the size and alignment of the photo however you wish. Then you can save the changes, and immediately see the newly edited photo in your blog’s layout.

That way, if you aren’t happy with it, you only have to click “Edit” again, and then redo your adjustments. Nothing more than that is required.

Security

Some people at first think that front-end editing might make their web sites vulnerable to hackers, because “front-end editing” sounds like back-end functionalities will now be  accessed by anyone who has access to the front end.

Surely, 177k downloads count for something!

But of course, this plugin wouldn’t be so widespread if that were the case!

Just as with regular editing, users must be logged in to use front-end editing, and they will only have permission to edit posts that they could edit during back-end editing.

How To Start Front End Editing

To begin taking advantage of front-end editing, bloggers have to download a front end editing plug-in, and then activate it on their blog. By searching the plug-in codex, you will be able to find numerous plug-ins that give your blog this capacity.

One of the most popular plug-ins is called Front-End Editor, but there are others that accomplish the same thing. Best of all, the plug-ins are free, and they only take a minute to install and set up.

What do you think of this tool? Is it a great time-saver or another needless plugin to worry about?

The post Streamline Your Blogging With Front End Editing appeared first on Helping Businesses Build Blogs that Convert | Pro Blogger Tips.

What is your job description?

Are you a blogger or technical adjunct?

The truth is, blogging is fun – that is if you have the guts to cut off all the joy killers that you have rallying around your blog.

If you are not a programmer, then why are you messing around with code?

Just because you know how to add an image to a blog post does not make you a techie.

I am not saying you cannot learn the techie stuff; with some stubborn dedication to code you can unravel it, but is that the best use for your time?

Even if you have to learn code, is it so urgent that you have to take time away from building your blog to do so?

Now don’t get me wrong, I have done a fair degree of code-digging myself and I have spent days at times fiddling with stuff that would have taken an average programmer twenty minutes to sort out.

Eventually, I got it sorted out, but not before a fair amount of tire-kicking and an assortment of swear words.

Sounds like you, I guess?

How to Put Code in its Place

The thing is, you do not need coding skills to be a successful blogger.

Is tinkering with code making you mad?

In fact, when you mix ‘codexploraration’ with your blogging time, you can stress yourself unnecessarily with details that are not your strong points.

The danger is that in your head all the stress created points back to reinforce the ‘blogging is hard’ mentality.

For a change, why not consider outsourcing the code and focusing on building a better blog?

If you do not have the funds to hire a programmer to sort out the techie details, staying off soda for a month should do the trick.

As far as I am concerned, the only thing worse than a code idiot is someone who thinks he knows code just because he can format a post in HTML.

If you feel you are burning man hours trying to figure things out, do yourself a favour – get outside help.

The faster you can get help, the better for you and for your blog. There are tens of thousands of talented programmers out there in search of work, and they would be more than happy to restore order to your blog, if only you would let them.

If you must learn code, setup a local version of WordPress on your system and play around all you want in your spare time, but remember to call that time your coding time and not your blogging time, just to keep things in perspective.

This tip alone can bring back sanity to your life and you will look for me to thank me when you figure this out.

What to do with your rescued time

You will notice that when you leave code for coders, you would have rescued a great chunk of time for yourself.

Just imagine how your freed time could serve you!

What do you do with this time segment?

1. Spend more time crafting your future blog posts to get them out of the ordinary into the spectacular. It may be a great idea to think in series, and get out a huge assortment of related and relevant content to your blog.Remember, as a blogger there is really nothing as important as blogging, and this tip will help you put that into focus.
2. Another way you can utilize time you have rescued would be by using it to form friendships with other bloggers you read. Make comments on their blog posts and pitch guest post ideas at them.The more you interact with bloggers, the more you make friends out of them. It is your network of friends that will support and help you grow your blog, not your programming skills.
3. A third way you can utilize your rescued time is by creating a basic, inexpensive product for your audience. It will put money on the table, and in the future, it will justify the fee you pay to your programmer.

Do you agree with these ideas? If not, why not? Don’t be shy, let’s hear you in the comments!

The post Are you a Blogger or a Programmer? (How to Grow Your Blog by Putting Code in Its Place) appeared first on Helping Businesses Build Blogs that Convert | Pro Blogger Tips.

Some weeks ago I stumbled on an MP3 recording called “The Strangest Secret in the World”, by a man called Earl Nightingale, one of the greatest motivators ever!

I know you may not have heard of Earl Nightingale.

Before I stumbled on that recording, I had not heard his name before too, but after listening to him for a little above thirty minutes I knew that I was never going to forget his name again.

Truth is, this is the best motivational speech I have ever listened to, and the best thing was, the concepts he shared were just so practical that I wondered why I never thought of them myself.

I can guarantee this: if you take care to apply the teachings of this man, your life (not just your blog) will never be the same again.

Here is an excerpt from the transcript:

Have you ever noticed that a person who becomes successful tends to continue to become more successful?
On the other hand, have you noticed how someone who is a failure tends to continue to fail?

The difference is goals.

Some of us have goals, some don’t.

People with goals succeed because they know where they are going.

It’s that simple.

Think of a ship leaving a harbour.

Think of it with the complete voyage mapped out and planned. The captain and crew know exactly where the ship is going and how long it will take – it has a definite goal. And 9,999 times out of 10,000, it will get to where it started out to get.

Now let’s take another ship, just like the first, only let’s not put a crew on it, or a captain at the helm. Let’s give it no aiming point, no goal,and no destination. We just start the engines and let it go.

I think you’ll agree with me that if it gets out of the harbour at all, it will either sink or wind up on some deserted beach – a derelict.
It can’t go any place because it has no destination and no guidance.

It’s the same with a human being.

If you would love to listen to that audio – and I strongly advice that you do – this page has both the recording and the transcript. (I suggest you listen to the recording, because the transcript just did does not measure up).

I know you will want to thank me soon enough; just do it using the comment form below.

The post The Strangest Secret in the World appeared first on Helping Businesses Build Blogs that Convert | Pro Blogger Tips.

This goes against everything you’ve been taught. Right? Well, stick with me for a few minutes and you’ll see the wisdom behind this.

First, I’ll ask you a question: Why do you publish posts on your blog? Answer this question as truthfully as possible because it will determine if you should even publish posts each week (or just once a month)…

Are your answers like…

a. I want to help a lot of people solve —- problems?

b. I want to build a followership that will hang onto my every word?

c. I want to build a vibrant community?

d. I want to presell targeted traffic and then monetize it?

e. I want to stand up for a cause I believe in?

The list can go on and on. However, what chances do you have of meeting any of those set goals if your blog is read by just you and your dog? But don’t the gurus say that if you write top quality content regularly the search engines will send traffic to you?

Well, they said so and they are right but you just didn’t get the full picture. You need a few other things apart from your top quality content to gain traction with the search engines.

You need quality links, social signals, activity on your site and so on. And for any of these to happen the way Big G likes it, you need people. So is this catch-22 or what?

You need search engines to send in traffic and you need people to make search engines send your traffic.

So what your blog should focus on first isn’t a post or posts everyday but gaining a minimum viable audience (an audience that will help you deliver what search engines want or an audience that can help you make sense of all the effort you expend in writing your posts).

For the less ambitious, that should be around 1,000 email subscribers. But if you have eyes set on lofty things, you should be looking at 10k subscribers.

But why do you need those numbers and how do you get them if you don’t already have an audience?

I’m glad you asked. First, here’s why you need those numbers…

You are NOT newsworthy YET. I know it hurts but it’s the truth.

What would be the world’s reaction if you made the following statement…

“What’s wrong with these poor masses?”

No one will really care!

That’s what happens to your great content when it is published on your new or NOT-so-popular blog. As far as the whole world is concerned, you are a small fart in a tornado. No one will even notice. It doesn’t matter if what you have to say will save the world — No one cares.

But what would be the world’s reaction if it came from the President of The United States of America?

A public outcry!

It will be “liked”, shared, tweeted, retweeted, reblogged, pinned, etc. It will go viral. None of these will happen because the statement can pass as epic content but because of the person behind the statement.

Would that statement change their lives? NO! But they just have to respond because of the person behind it.

He has a status and relevance that makes everything connected to him so important. I even read a news item where everybody thought it was cool for the President’s dog to eat the news crew’s expensive equipment. Let your dog try it and see whether you won’t be in big trouble.

Important point: Build your status, relevance, importance, pre-eminence and authority first. When you do, even your poor posts will get more comments, likes, shares, tweets and (all the social stuff we all like) than the “bestest” post you publish on an unknown blog by an unknown blogger — You.

Now that you know why you shouldn’t bother about daily posts first, here’s how to gain those numbers…

You’ll gain more by submitting such great content on top blogs

If you have great content, don’t publish it on your new blog. Look for a blog that has an audience that’s similar to the one you are targeting and submit it as a guest post. Do this repeatedly enough (and within a close time frame) and you’ll gain the following…

i. Pre-eminence: Why should people listen to what you have to say? Well, one good reason would be that you are an authority. And one of the fastest ways of building your authority is sharing the same stage with a recognized authority.

Now don’t think it must be Copyblogger, for starters. Every blog with a vibrant community recognizes the host as an authority to a certain degree. Start with a number of such vibrant blogs (even if they are NOT A list blogs) and you’ll start building your authority.

ii. Traffic: If people like your article (why wouldn’t they? It’s great content; It’s persuasive copy) then they will click your link and head over to your blog where you should have set up a name squeeze page to build that all-important list.

How much traffic will you drive? It all depends on the number and quality of blogs you submit your guest posts to.

Submit 50 guest posts on blogs that can deliver an average of 100 visitors to your blog and you will get 5,000 visitors within that time frame. What can you do with 5,000 people? A lot!

iii. JV Partners: You can’t submit top quality guest posts and NOT end up building a network of partners. Good bloggers love great content and will like to make your acquaintance if you deliver such consistently.

What does this mean? You will have a number of partners who will happily promote your products when you do develop them.

iv. Link juice: Do you remember our initial talk about getting traffic from search engines? Now, you are talking. With more established blogs linking to you, you start building link popularity that will make Google and the other search engines show you some love.

But how do you get your guest posts accepted? Well, start making a connection with the host bloggers. The easiest way is to start leaving thoughtful comments on their posts. If possible (it is), work hard to become one of their top commenters. This will make them know you.

They’ll be more likely to accept your offer when you pitch them for a guest post if you are a known face.

The added benefits you get by taking the time to leave useful comments are…

i. You get a feel of what works on their various blogs. You are NOT just doing a quick research. You are part of their community and understand their mindset.

ii. You see areas of need that you can provide cover for with your guest posts. You stand a better chance of being accepted if you write on something useful that hasn’t been written about ten times on a particular blog.

iii. You gain highly targeted traffic as people who read your valuable comments click through to your site.

Many people fail in their approach to content marketing because they do NOT pay more attention to the “marketing” part of the equation. Don’t make this mistake. That is, if you want to make money online through your blog.

The post Why Your Blog Doesn’t Need More Than One Post Per Week appeared first on Helping Businesses Build Blogs that Convert | Pro Blogger Tips.