Blogs are everywhere. Celebrities have them, businesses need them and pretty much anyone with an opinion can start one. With so many blogs all over the place, why are some more successful than others, and how can you start one that’s more likely to succeed?

At the end of the day, the main reason why there are so many websites and blogs on the internet today, is simply because it’s so cheap and easy to get started. Heck, you don’t even need to have any technical or design skills anymore, with most site builders offering simplistic drag and drop editors.

A perfect example of this can be seen with the millions of users that have gone through the process to create a blog on Wix. In fact, they even have an ad campaign that shows celebrities creating their own sites in seconds — showing it really is that simple.

However, even with it being extremely quick and easy to start a blog of your own… does it mean that you should? Nothing in life worth doing is easy, and that’s the same with creating a successful site or blog as well.

To stand out from the crowd and create a site of real value, you are going to need to pre-plan for the launch of your site and how you will continue to grow it over time. And that is exactly what we are going to be covering today.

1 – Know Why Are You Blogging in the First Place

What’s the point in starting a blog if you don’t have a reason for one? Well, that is why you need to first think about it and consider the different options available.

Of the many different reasons to start a blog, here are some of the most common reasons:

• Inspire your audience and share your story
• Improve writing ability and being more tech-savvy
• It’s a fun and exciting new skill to learn
• Building a site and brand for your business
• Generate income through content, traffic and ads
• To meet new people and become a voice online
• And many more…

As you can see, when it comes to blogging… you don’t really need to have a reason to get started, you just need to get started.

The more clear of an idea and message you have for your site, the more likely you are to succeed with it. Also, try to stay as niche focused as possible, as this will help with your content creation and audience targeting — which we will be talking about next.

2 – Decide Who Your Target Audience Is

So, you came up with an idea for your site… now what? Ideally, you would want to promote it and bring new visitors to your site.

Before we do all of this, you need to know who your target demographic audience is, where you can find them, and also how they are going to get value out of your site.

This is important because there are already a billion different sites on the internet, already talking about a million of the same things… So why would your site be any different?

With both this point and the previous one in mind, try to think about why you are going to create a site, who it’s meant for, and why it’s better than what’s currently out there.

And if you think your new shiny little blog has no potential or chance for success… just take a look at this story on a woman that created a coupon blog, which then turned into a multi-million dollar success story!

3 – Go Live with Your Social Media Accounts

When you think about social media, you might be thinking this is something you would want to set up after your blog goes live. Actually, it’s best to start it before going live.

There are several reasons for this, but the first is that you can secure a nice set of names across each of the social platforms. It would be best to try and get the same name as your domain name, but this is often hard to accomplish.

When creating your social profiles, try and make sure they are all branded in the same colors and language, so they have a consistent look and feel across them all. You will also want to link back to your site from your social profiles as well. This will help people find your site.

Once your site is live, it’s important to share all of your blog content across each of your major social networking platforms. You can also create a Facebook Fan Page as well, along with accounts on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.

4 – Launch Your Site with Live Articles

Another important thing to consider before actually going live with your site, is to make sure that you have a few live articles for people to read as well.

Many people will go live with their blog and share it with everyone, and only have one article on the site. It’s very exciting to get your site live, but if it’s just one article… then there isn’t much else to do.

With that being said, try to have at least three to five articles live on your site. Also don’t forget to add some nice visuals within each article, and to also link out to any other reliable references or sources you talk about.

5 – Learn the Basics of SEO and Social Media Marketing

After your site is live, you will then want to focus more of your time and effort on the outreach and promotion process. This can best be accomplished through the use of SEO to rank in the search results and social media marketing.

Google will eventually index your site in the search results for free, but you will need a lot of backlinks from other sites and high-quality content to compete against other sites.

For this reason and more, social media marketing is often the go-to method for new bloggers and site owners. Since most of us already have friends and a following online, it’s much easier to share new blog content with friends versus trying to rank in Google.

If you’d like to learn more about the many different ways to bring new audiences to your blog, be sure to read through these 8 recommendations from Forbes.

How to Start Your Blog in the Right Direction from Day One

No matter what type of blogger you are, it’s important to try and make your blog as fun, informative, visually pleasing and useful as possible. With a billion other blogs out there fighting for attention, you are going to need to do something special to win your audience over.

The best way to accomplish this is by making sure you read through each of the questions and data points we listed above.

The more you know about your site, it’s audience and reason for being, the more likely you are to set a foundation for success.

The most important thing for you today is to start planning and getting everything in motion. Blogging is an extremely fun process, but can be slow at times, so best to get started now versus later on.

Blogging can be quite fun and lucrative if done correctly. While some people blog for fun, others have taken it as a career. Some people blog full-time while others blog part-time. All these are ways on how to make an extra buck out of blogging. But what is blogging? You might ask. In layman’s terms, blogging can be described as a web-based journey where bloggers share their thoughts on various issues or topics, be it financial, family, law, or entertainment. 

Interestingly, there are so many people who’ve made blogging their main source of income and are enjoying the fruits of their labor this way. All it takes is time to find relatable topics you can engage your audience with and you are good to go. But there’s more to blogging than meets the eye. These might have to do with the logistics that come with it as well as the other nitty gritties that will be discussed below. Here’s what you need to know if you are looking to start blogging in 2021. 

Learn SEO

Before you even start your blog, you should have the basic knowledge of how SEO (search engine optimization) will affect your blog site. Not so many bloggers realize this but SEO is the bread and butter of most if not all blogs. This is among the ways you can improve and boost your online presence without much of a sweat. 

Today, and as it turns out, content is still king! There are so many people who are after quality content and if you have not invested in the right SEO practices for your blog, then you might as well quit. Sadaf, the blog owner at https://massilah.com, provides good blogging tips and insights as well as the best SEO practices to utilize if you are to generate more traffic from the known search engines. Among such practices include:

• Ensure that your URLs are specific, meaningful, and relevant
• Include post titles that are eye-catching and compelling
• Keyword placement is also a major area of concern as those placed within the first paragraphs help to rank your posts higher on search engines
• Ensure that your content is top-notch stuff
• When using images, be sure that the images are optimized for search engines
• Do not compromise on your blog’s loading speeds

Identify Your Niche

To start a blog, you need to identify a niche, which means coming up with relative topics that you’ll be good at. Your blog posts should have a theme and to find one, you need to address issues that affect you or topics that your audience can relate with. Think of it as a marketing platform. Most bloggers will concentrate their posts on their passions, talents, or hobbies. However, it would be best if you started with an area you are passionate about because come to think about it, you can not go wrong with following your dreams. This helps to ensure consistency and originality. 

When it comes to choosing your niche, choose your niche based on the audience revenue potential. Your niche should enable you to solve most of the problems your audience encounters. The challenges you solve also need to be too dire that your audience can be willing to spend some money and time on. 

Most people have gone into affiliate marketing as a result of blogging. Affiliate marketers will recommend consumers to businesses, products, and services. This means that at the end of the day, they’ll be making commissions on every sale made through them. You could also maximize your professional leverage by having a deeper understanding of your clients’ needs. By this, it means researching the most competitive keywords.

Write Down The Goals Of Your Blog

Starting a new blog requires a lot of discipline and consistency. Once you’ve identified your niche, you need to keep track of everything including your motivations, content, goals, and ideas. Set specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely goals. Build the profile of your blog through unique value propositions. Write down your blog’s headline and subheadings. Create your blog’s elevator pitch on how you would market your blog to an audience in a few seconds. Consider your clients’ needs and how you are going to categorize your blog. 

Come Up With A Domain Name

You’ll, of course, want to be associated with your blog and this is mainly the identifying factor when creating a blog. A blog extension name will be key to your audience identifying with your content. This will be your brand and it’s of utmost importance that you invest heavily in it to ensure that it will resonate in the minds of your audience for time to come. Your domain name should be catchy, short to the point, must include specific keywords, and should be easy to type. 

Create A Budget

There will be costs to be met when starting a blog. You’ll most definitely need hosting services from the best web hosting companies if you are to get the most out of your blogging. Needless to mention is the fact that it costs to create an effective and efficient domain name. Other costs to factor in include:

• Hardware costs
• Marketing tools
• Content creation
• Creating a website
• Plugin development
• Managing your blogging team
  

Launching Your First Blog Post

It will cost you time and money to see your first blog post go online. It will cost you even more if you are to see your blog posts attract more traffic. But with advancements in technology and the various paid blogging services, this shouldn’t take time. As a newbie, you might consider utilizing the WordPress blog option. But then again, it would still be meaningless if you’ll not have invested the time to create a great domain name, marketing yourself, or creating quality content. 

You might, while at it, consider enlisting a blogging company to help provide you with the services you need in consistently supplying your audience with quality content, in social engagement, and in meeting your objectives and goals. 

To start a blog, you need to have a profitable niche where you can use your passion, professional experience, and skills to fill. Having measurable goals is key to helping you achieve the focus of your blog. The audience, marketability, and knowledge should guide your choice of a blog.

Are you or your business associates looking for advice to improve the reach of a website that is simply ‘Coming Soon‘ or sitting there in maintenance mode?

The concern, of course, is that so many customers visit your website but leave without a great impression.

If this is what you’re concerned about, and you hope to improve your website experience while creating your product, then you’ve come to the right place.

The reality is that you must consider opportunities to create raving fans even when your website, service, or product is pending.

Like you, we have recognized over time that there are so many benefits to having a placeholder while your website is in creation mode.

That’s where Coming Soon pages can play a pivotal role in your company to drive new potential customers to your brand.

This article will help you understand everything you need to know about great-looking Coming Soon pages, and also what you can do to ensure yours is customer friendly.

What you will learn:

• Why you need a Coming Soon page
• 7 Traits to Consider
• How to create a Coming Soon page
• Final Thoughts

Why you need a Coming Soon page

The fact is that many people are trying to launch a website, and often most sites fail. The reality is that they fail to attract traffic to these sites.

You should know that it does take time to get that momentum going on a website and to start to see a decent amount of traffic visiting your site.

During this time, you should plan for future visitors by putting up a Coming Soon page. This step will alert the google algorithm to your site being online.

You will also be able to add valuable information, such as :

• Product or service information
• Share context around your offering
• Share invite-only content to first browsers
• Social proof to build site authority earlier on

You can also start building a great email list right off the bat. This email list can help you engage your growing following, turning these followers into customers that continuously support you.

Even better, if you are using WordPress to power your site, all of this can be done with simple plugins and themes instead of hiring a designer for custom work that continually needs to be change.

A perfect example of this would be creating a WordPress coming soon page right from a multi-use plugin like Branda and Hustle from WPMU Dev.

With the Branda plugin, you can easily create a coming soon page for your site, and then use the Hustle plugin to set up email submit or mailing list forms. You can see a quick example of this below, along with a countdown timer for when the site officially launches.

Also a Coming Soon page helps you to hide the behind the scenes work that makes your site look quite unprofessional in its early stages. Don’t overlook this aspect as the first impressions generally last.

Therefore it’s so important to have a Coming Soon page. Next, I will share more information on the traits to consider when creating that page.

7 Traits to Consider When Creating a Coming Soon Page

As with most pages online, you must always think about your end consumer experience and how the Coming Soon page can benefit that consumer. This one thing will set your business apart for the better.

These are the seven traits you must look out for:

1. A Clear Value Proposition

A clear value proposition will give your new visitors a specific idea about you and your business. It tells them what value you can bring into their lives.

Ultimately, it’s a one-sentence phrase that’s catchy and easy to remember. This phrase is generally one of the first things your customers see.

Yet, many entrepreneurs have got this wrong and found that their traffic decided to go elsewhere.

As pointed out in this article featured on Business2Community, there are plenty of ways to cover all of your bases when creating something as simple as a “coming soon page”. You can see what we mean through the visual below.

Think about it; customers visit your page for a reason. And that reason is to gain something or for a benefit.

If you aren’t offering anything beneficial, they move on over to the next vendor. This point is so important, yet also attached to this you will find a  rarely used aspect which I will detail in the next section,

2. Core benefits of your product or service

Simply put, the core benefits of your product or service is a breakdown of the features and benefits that your customers can expect.

The modern-day consumer has high standards simply because so many vendors are available to sell them the product at their specification. You must keep up and prove that your offering is the best.

You can do this by making it easy to access, and including it just below your value proposition. The structure will also have to be visually pleasing. Consider using a bullet list of benefits. It’s systematic, and your customers will love that.

Naturally, remember that benefits help your customers imagine visually how your product will give them value and make their lives easier.

Think about any new purchase you make; you always visualize how it will fit into your life. Ultimately that leads to you swiping your credit or entering your credit card details online.

3. Single call to action (CTA)

A call to action is one where you direct your customer to act. It will involve several things.

I’ve made a list of examples to consider:

• Free ebooks which can attract customers to your email list
• Rewards/giveaway which educate your customers about your products
• Exclusive invite to a discount on your product if they share your offering on social media

Ensure that you have a bold call to action that grabs attention at once. Yet it should also be related to your product at hand. Again, this can all be set up by using the lead generation or pop up plugin for WordPress.

Avoid unrelated CTA’s, they only confuse your customer and make them feel annoyed by your brand.

These CTA’s will be vital to increase your fan base while you’re building your product. Once you’ve indicated an excellent call to action, your next focus must shift to building authority for your customer.

4. Social Proof

Social proof is simply a way to show your potential customers you have some authority in the marketplace, and it builds a sense of trust.

Examples of social proof include:

• Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok followers
• A published book
• Testimonials from experts in the industry
• Videos showing celebrities raving about your service

Social proof is of enormous importance for a brand to succeed. And if taken seriously, you can build a large following through social media presence.

Do this by using Facebook ads, networking, affiliate marketing engagement, or leveraging your other brands. Another great option is to use testimonials or to show where you might have received news, media or press coverage in the past.

Alternatively, engaging influencers on various social media platforms can yield excellent results.

The idea of influencers also brings me to the next point, which you will see is quite essential when consumers have the opportunity to imagine themselves using your product or service.

5. Photos or videos of the product in use

This ties in nicely with using influencer marketing, and onboarding influencers onto your network to share your product.

You will find a win-win opportunity whereby your influencers can provide you with quality content for your Coming Soon page while they get a fee for lending their brand name to you.

Alternatively, you can make use of websites like Fiverr and Upwork to get high-quality content at a reasonable price.

Another critical factor is that users want to visualize how your product or service works, so make sure you provide this tool.

Many websites currently try to keep things minimal, yet I would steer you towards using as much leverage as you can when starting a new brand. Let’s look at the next section that will show you what every Coming Soon page must adopt.

6. Exclusivity

The average consumer wants to feel unique, special, and you have to create that feeling when they visit the Coming Soon page. Exclusivity can be a vital trait during the early phases of a new brand.

Here are a few ways to create exclusivity:

• Include a “by invite-only” section – it will make potential customers wonder how to get in
• Have a VIP mailing list, which they can only access once they meet specific criteria
• Attach yourself to more prominent brands, and aim to leverage their brand

Yes, it may seem simple but can do wonders for your engagement on your Coming Soon page and ultimately lead to more sales and more traffic too. 

7. Create Scarcity

Scarcity is another tool you can use to keep your visitors engaged on a Coming Soon page. The idea that you will miss out on something somehow always drives consumer behavior.

It’s so common there is even a word for it: FOMO.
It means the Fear Of Missing Out.

Here are a few ideas to include for scarcity:

• Add a referral element with rewards and have a time frame for people to use it
• Include a countdown timer on your website for exclusive access to content

Scarcity is an excellent way to persuade people to take action on your page. You can use many tools to do this, including plugins on WordPress, Shopify, Wix, and other popular platforms.

8. Bonus Trait

We have covered seven traits, but we have two more that you can use on your Coming Soon page that will improve your customer satisfaction and improve sales.

Use a survey: Often, when your website is not up yet, you may still be in the finishing stages, and it’s a good idea to engage your prospective customers with a survey. People love to share their opinions, and it will build an emotional connection with your future customers.

Keeps things very simple:  Simplicity keeps site visitors on your page. They are often eager to understand more about your page and also what they can learn from it. This step will create an air of mystery and consequently get people talking.

How to Create a Coming Soon Page

Now that you have a good understanding of the traits of a great Coming Soon page, you may be wondering how to do it.

Not to worry, we have you covered. Historically, it was a challenge to create beautiful one-page sites. I have good news for you; you can now create these pages on your own.

The bad news is that you may need to do a little extra work to set up the page. That said, it will be worth your time.

Since WordPress powers over one-third of websites on the internet, we highly recommend finding a coming soon or maintenence mode plugin that makes the creation and management process a whole lot easier.

Final thoughts on Creating that Perfect Coming Soon Page

In this article, we have taken a deep dive into Coming Soon pages and how they can help your business show a professional face while building your product or service.

It’s important to note that these pages have vital traits to consider to ensure that you maximize on any traffic coming over.

These are simple opportunities to keep your customers in the know. Keeping customers informed will serve another purpose too. It will be pivotal in building a continuous customer relationship that helps you provide value now and in the future.

Now, it is all about implementing the seven traits, and you can do this through your current website platform or use an automated service.

The choice is ultimately yours, but whatever you choose, remember to incorporate these ideas for maximum exposure.

Thank you for reading along so far, and we hope you implement these tools to take your Coming Soon pages to the next level.

With torrents, you can easily and quickly download an array of files, such as movies, music, films, and more. With the peer-to-peer file sharing service, the download comes from multiple sources simultaneously. As long as there are enough users (i.e., seeders) that are distributing the data, the speed to download the files will be fast.

While this is true, there are situations where the torrent may become sluggish on your Mac. You may run into some other issues, too. As a result, you are probably looking for some viable solutions.

Keep reading for some helpful torrent troubleshooting tips to ensure the download process is fast and easy.

The Torrent Download Doesn’t Start

One issue with torrents is they are dependent on someone else seeding the file from their computer. Seeding means you let another user download parts of the file from your computer.

In some situations, no users are seeding or downloading the file, which means it can’t be downloaded. You can likely fix this issue by finding another file.

While finding the right file can be tricky, it is possible. Sometimes it will be a process of trial and error, so don’t give up.

The File Downloads Slowly

One of the most common reasons uTorrent for Mac moves slowly is because there isn’t enough hard disk space. Not only will this issue slow down the uTorrent application, but your Mac’s performance, as well.

Another issue is if there is an overflow of deleted file entries in the registry of the app. Every time uTorrent loads on your Mac, it checks the download list to check the file entries. The operation uses up the app’s resources on outdated .plst files and broken records processing, which causes slow work.

Unfortunately, using a registry cleaner may not speed up the uTorrent download very quickly. This doesn’t help much, but there are other things you can try.

Correct the Port Settings

Port forwarding is an option to provide your uTorrent with a speed boost. Also called port mapping, this method is about redirecting a communication request from an IP port/address number combination to another via the network gateway (a firewall or router).

If the proper permissions are granted to outgoing or income communications, a firewall is going to block them by default. That’s why the firewall permissions must allow UDP and TCP communications in both directions. It’s possible for you to set the permissions for the uTorrent app in general and the uTorrent port, particularly.

With routers, Mac users have two options. One option is to make settings for Universal Plug and Play – UPnP – that’s built into uTorrent. With UPnP, the application can create the port mapping through the router without a user’s consent. Even though this is convenient, this can pose a security issue, if being used outside of the residential network.

If you plan to use this method on your Mac, be sure to run a test to determine if it is prone to any malicious attacks via the UPnP.

For a more secure option, use the second option here to set up your port forwarding manually. To check and see if the UDP and TCP are both forwarded on your router, you can go to Options and then Setup Guide.

Correct the Client Settings

Another option for speeding up the uTorrent download is to set the proper upload limits and the quality/number of peers. Usually, the more upload that’s given out, the more download will be received from other peers. However, leaving your upload unlimited isn’t a good idea because that’s going to hinder the outgoing communications.

Using the proper upload calculators will allow you to determine the upload speed of the uTorrent app based on your internet connection’s speed. To figure out the upload speed, run an online test.

Try uploading files at server speeds, beginning at 80% of the maximum speed capacity and then move down gradually.

Another option for speeding up the uTorrent file upload is by making a bandwidth setup. Create a limit on the seeding rate and several active downloads/torrents in the queue with the desired upload number in mind. These specific preferences depend on the quality of the internet connection, so try different settings to find the best result.

Correct the Router Settings and/or Firewall

The goal is to correct these to allow incoming connections. To do this, use the following steps:

• Visit uTorrent, choose Preferences, then Network
• Click the “Randomize Now” button to increase the TCP port number past 10K
• Disable the “Randomize port during launch” option (this affects the download speed of uTorrent)
• Check “Automatically map port” if you use a router

It’s also a good idea to use the online port check-up services to figure out if the uTorrent’s default TCP port is blocked or open. If the port is blocked, switch to a different one.

Torrent Troubleshooting Tips: Now You Know

As you can see, several issues may arise when it comes to using uTorrent on your Mac. The torrent troubleshooting tips found here will help you make the most of your download efforts and ensure everything moves smoothly.

While it may seem confusing at first, the more you use the app and services and the more you download torrents, the more everything will make sense.

If you are looking for more help and information about using your Mac, business topics, or affiliate marketing, be sure to check out our blog regularly. Our team is posting quality and helpful content regularly.

Ever wished you could earn at home?

You can with a successful blog. However, there are so many blogs flooding the Internet today. It’s estimated there are well over 600 million blogs live and active right now.

Unfortunately, so many of them go unnoticed. Avoid this by learning how to be a successful blogger, one that grabs people’s attention. Become the authority that people visit regularly.

Not sure where to start? It’s easy!

Check out these 7 tips showcasing how to start a successful blog:

1. Pick a Platform

Before you ever write your first blog post, you’ll need to first pick a platform. Keep in mind that your choice will forever affect how you manage your blog site.

WordPress, for example, has a high learning curve but it offers the most flexibility thanks to all its plugins and themes. Wix, on the other hand, offers fewer plugins or customization features but it has a unique AI-centered website builder.

List down the important features or plugins you’ll need, especially those for SEO purposes, chatbots, and design. Weigh which platform gives you more bang for your buck and which one you’re comfortable working in.

2. Know Your Niche

One of the reasons many blogs go unnoticed is the fact they don’t focus on a specific niche. Avoid this problem early on by identifying your niche and your target audience. Refine this even further later on by studying your visitor metrics — check the age, location, and other important demographics that make up your readers.

Don’t simply write about anything in your niche either. Yes, your blog might be about video game news but this doesn’t mean you should post every bit of gaming news out there. Go to Reddit or Twitter and check which topics people want to discuss and read about.

3. Diversify Content

Yes, your blog will focus primarily on written posts but it shouldn’t stop there.

Break up your paragraphs with images. This prevents monotony and raises the entertainment value of your post. Images can also help educate people more, especially those who rely on visuals to understand the content.

If you can, use videos too.

Videos will account for over 82% of all Internet traffic by 2021, which makes sense since videos are quicker and easier to consume compared to written blog posts. Some companies like Wired feature both a video review and a more in-depth written review of tech gadgets.

Why not step into experimental technology too? Diversify your content by adding VR or AR content? Use polls and fillable forms to encourage interaction from your visitors and readers.

At the end of the day, your blog should have more than walls of text.

4. Invest in SEO

You could have the prettiest site and the most entertaining content in the world but it won’t matter if people can’t find you. Your site will gather dust if it can’t increase traffic and this requires boosting expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.

Achieve this through proper SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

Trusted and reliable web platforms recommend using tools like Yoast SEO to audit your blog posts, meta descriptions, alt tags, and titles. Use Google Keyword Planner to identify which keywords to prioritize and create content around. Approach other blog sites for guest posting opportunities and backlinking options.

If you’re on social media, encourage people to share your content. Use proper lead generation tactics and forms on your site to boost your email marketing strategy.

5. Educate and Entertain

Always prioritize two goals: educate your readers and keep them entertained. Reading your blog shouldn’t feel like reading a wall of text from a school textbook. However, as easy and fluid as it is, your post should still pack a punch in terms of content and useful information.

One of the best examples is affiliate marketing. It’s a system where you can earn by educating people about products.

This is all about reviewing products and giving the average reader a good idea of whether or not they should buy. If they click the affiliate link on your review, you’ll earn a commission.

You can check here to learn affiliate marketing basics and tactics.

6. Encourage Interaction

Don’t let your blog be a one-sided platform. Encourage interaction because this can help in terms of SEO, brand awareness, and reader loyalty.

Not sure which one of the five topics you have is interesting? Put up a poll and ask your readers! Now you know for sure which topic is going to get more readers.

Did you post an epic 2,000-word review of the latest hit movie? Ask people to share it with their movie-buff friends and always encourage them to leave comments — keywords in the comment section helps!

7. Market Your Blog

If SEO is the backbone, proper marketing is the rocket that’s going to propel your blog forward.

Get busy sharing your blog posts on social media, forums, and on Reddit. Leave links to your blog site on your social media profiles. If you’re on platforms like Facebook, boost your posts so that people outside your usual followers will discover your content.

Again, encourage people to share your content. Get in touch with other bloggers and ask if you can guest post on their site or if they can mention or link back to your blog the next time they post something.

If you have the budget, invest in a PPC campaign. Paid ads can go a long way to spread awareness and build traffic.

However, keep in mind that getting traffic is only the beginning. Keeping people interested in your blog is the more important factor to work on.

Now You Know How to Be a Successful Blogger!

Learning how to be a successful blogger isn’t easy but these 7 tips can give you a good head start. Don’t hesitate to experiment. It’s okay to stumble around a bit since most platforms like WordPress and Wix offer free options to start with.

Of course, there are more advanced tips to follow if you want to get the most out of your blogging career. If you want to learn more, feel free to read all our other guides right here, today!

Creating articles and blog entries is essential to your website. It engages people and gets them to want to know more about your brand. If done well, you are offering quality content that makes people want to come back for more. But, let’s face it. Text alone can be boring sometimes.

We are visual by nature, so adding a beautiful picture or graphic to your text can help bring out the essential aspects of a post and help create hype for your brand.

Better yet, use video. Video is the most engaging format of media available today as evidenced by statistics on video marketing. Users respond to it 66 times more often than text because it adds a visual element to your content. It is also more shareable because you can add social media share buttons or have people share it on YouTube.

• Video marketers get 66% more qualified leads per year.
• Video marketers achieve a 54% increase in brand awareness.

Below are some practical ways that you can incorporate video within your text to complement what you’re saying while not interrupting your main message.

1. Use humor.

Using humor in videos is one of the best ways to captivate your audience through video. Whether you were using talking head and interviewing people on the street about what they think about your products or creating hand-drawn animations through a whiteboard presentation, using humor is one of the best ways you can attract an audience.

People love to laugh, and they want relief from the stress that they face every day. Studies show that people come to the internet through mobile devices many times looking for funny videos. Use this to your advantage by adding funny videos to your page to accent your text.

2. Create an engaging thumbnail.

Remembering that people are visual, make sure that you create an engaging video

That emphasizes what your video is about. Having bright colors or a logo that attracts their interest will help but always make sure to capture one of the most interesting aspects of the video. If you use actual video footage for the still shot, take a little extra time at this point to think about how to create an interesting thumbnail. The thumbnail will get indexed as an image in Google and also on YouTube when people look for content.

3. Try whiteboard animations.

One of the best things about using whiteboard animation is that you can tell an entire story of your brand or explain how to use your products or services. Through this systematic and detailed approach, users will see a hand drawing out the information that you want to show them, and you can build a whole city by showing the hand what to draw when you create your whiteboard animations.

People love whiteboard because perhaps it reminds them of their early days in school when teachers drew out things on the chalkboard. It may also be reminiscent of some of the old cartoons that were built on simple frames. Whatever the case or the motivation people love whiteboard animations and you should love them too if you’re a business owner. They allow you to take the viewer from start to finish all the way to your call to action. Also, studies show it keeps their attention longer than other kinds of video and may, therefore, make them stay until your call to action.

3. Create infographics.

Infographics were developed about 10 years ago, and they combined some of the best elements of informational text with graphics that appeal to someone’s visual interest. What’s more, you can make an infographic into a video using some simple technology and software such as you might find on the simpleshow website. Check out some of the video examples here and see what you might want to do to bring your content alive through whiteboard video for infographics.

5. Place the video at the top of the blog or website entry and describe the information in the video below it.

Some of the psychology involved in sharing videos that work is the placement as to where you put them on the page. If you put the video at the top of the page, it is going to be the first thing they see when they enter your website and therefore they will assume that it is one of the most important aspects of your site. Put it in your blog as well to draw more attention and make sure and use keywords in your video description so that you will pull in people from both YouTube as well as general search engine traffic.

6. Try a cartoon with frames and text written below.

Have you ever thought about creating a frame by frame cartoon the way they used to do it? You can do this through whiteboard animation. Take a look at some samples of whiteboard animations and decide for yourself which one might be the most effective with your branding. You’re entertaining people when you use white boarding, and that is the key to keeping their attention. People want information, but they also want it given to them on an interesting platform and format. You can communicate anything you need to communicate attractively and dynamically that will keep them coming back for more.

To learn more about the many different ways individuals and brands are creating hand drawn cartoons and using them within whiteboard videos, click here.

7. Use video testimonials and use captions to illustrate what people said.

Create character animations of people talking and recommending your brand. You can use dialogue from customer service emails or from the feedback you’ve received on social media so that it will be authentic. Then use characters to deliver the dialogue.

Remember you want to increase the visual interaction and draw more customers to your website, so whiteboard animation is a great way to do this while keeping their attention and staying on focus. Customer testimonials should talk about the positive aspects and why the people liked your brand so that they will want to share this with others.

There are many ways that you can build your brand by adding video as a main component to your content. These types of video testimonials keep the material interesting instead of just putting out text, which can be boring to people over the long-term. You can use these techniques on your blogs or websites and other sites by cross-advertising across your platforms using the same keywords throughout.

This is a part of building your brand and integrating your marketing strategy so that video becomes a focus of what you do. This will greatly increase your impact and this is backed up by research.

Think Visual!

Whatever you do, think video and think visual, because the future is about handheld devices looking for videos that tell them what they want to know fast. If you can meet this need you will be on the top of the heap in the near future as we move toward an AI dependent and video mobile-focused world.

Blog content works wonders if you know how to effectively promote it and rank it in the search results. The main problem is that most bloggers and content creators are simply focused on creating content and then not putting in the time, work, and effort to actually promote. This is a direct path to failure for many reasons, such as:

• Wasted time being spent on publishing 500-word articles
• Not having evergreen content you can refer to time and time again
• Scattering your SEO and link building efforts all over the place

A better way to create content for your site or brand, is to make sure you are covering as much content as possible, while also staying niche specific and having a call to action in the process. It’s also best to publish content that has at least 1,500 words of content, and is something that you can refer to over and over again. Even better, is if you can include some industry resources, references, and graphics, which can legitimize your content and also increase your chances for picking up some additional backlinks and social shares from regular site visitors.

With all of this in mind, let’s take a look at a few different brands that are doing content creation correctly, and how you can also grow your brand, blog, and business using these same methods.

Before We Get Started

Before we jump into the list of sites and a few examples of winning content for each, we should cover a few valid points when it comes to blogging.

WordPress makes blogging and content creation extremely easy. There are already more than 300 million WP-powered sites and blogs on the internet today.

There are also many different ways to create content, share it online, and also make it rank higher and more effectively in Google.

Before creating content for your site and clicking the publish button, you should have a solid content creation and marketing plan.

To learn more about the various components of effective, be sure to check out this start a blog guide.

Examples of Brands Using Evergreen Content

One of the most important things to remember when looking at different online companies and brands, isn’t just how well the content they create is performing, but also how they are creating content for their audience. Content is great, but if it doesn’t provide value and funnel new leads or sources of revenue into your business, it’s pretty much just more clutter being added to the one billion+ active websites online.

Making Job Search and Business Opportunities Easy

JobCompass is a website that covers the concept of making money in the world today, while also creating niche-focused content that targets a select group, demographic or audience. You will find a wide range of list and resource articles on their site, but you will also find some useful ones like this one on  where to find jobs for pregnant moms.

The revenue generation on the site comes from a range of sources, but it’s mostly based on affiliate marketing and lead acquisition. This makes it ideal for JobCompass to continually come out with as many useful resources and money making opportunities on their site, while also having their own recommended (likely an affiliate offer) method as well.

With a ton of evergreen content in place, and audiences all over the world always looking to make more money, this is a win-win situation for both JobCompass and their audience.

The Business of ‘Business on Social Media’

Facebook and Twitter are multi-billion dollar companies, but the business of marketing and growing a brand on social media collectively is even much larger. When you look at the many different brands and businesses in the world today, they all need to be active and growing on social media. Throw into the mix that there are plenty of social media platforms out there and new audiences to reach daily, it just seems like a never ending supply for demand and advertising dollars.

One such company that focuses on social media marketing services, is Famoid. Through their social media growth strategies, brands can reach new audiences without needing to create their own marketing an content creation plans. Instead, Famoid does the work for them.

On the Famoid blog, you will come across a wide range of case study articles like this one on gaining traffic on Pinterest. They also have a bunch of similar ones for Twitter and Facebook, while also profiling other brands and strategies they are using as well.

This is ideal for two main reason. The first, is that it creates content for the Famoid brand and allows them to reach new traffic. The second, is that Famoid creates these case studies, brands read it, and then sign up for their services when they realize they don’t want to put in their own time, work, and effort.

Again, win-win for the brand and end customer reading the content.

The Business of ‘Business on Social Media’

Facebook and Twitter are multi-billion dollar companies, but the business of marketing and growing a brand on social media collectively is even much larger. When you look at the many different brands and businesses in the world today, they all need to be active and growing on social media. Throw into the mix that there are plenty of social media platforms out there and new audiences to reach daily, it just seems like a never ending supply for demand and advertising dollars.

One such company that focuses on social media marketing services, is Famoid. Through their social media growth strategies, brands can reach new audiences without needing to create their own marketing an content creation plans. Instead, Famoid does the work for them.

On the Famoid blog, you will come across a wide range of case study articles like this one on gaining traffic on Pinterest. They also have a bunch of similar ones for Twitter and Facebook, while also profiling other brands and strategies they are using as well.

This is ideal for two main reason. The first, is that it creates content for the Famoid brand and allows them to reach new traffic. The second, is that Famoid creates these case studies, brands read it, and then sign up for their services when they realize they don’t want to put in their own time, work, and effort.

Again, win-win for the brand and end customer reading the content.

Free Content, Expert Names and Valuable Content

People use the internet for a few different reasons. They either want to buy something, find information, or to be entertained. If you can cater to one of these demands, then you can definitely create a business or revenue stream in the process.

As mentioned earlier, there is plenty of demand for making money online and entrepreneur/business marketing. Sticking with this content, we can now take a look at Mixergy.com and see how they are using a few different methods to reach new audiences, create killer content, and make money in the process — while also leveraging the power of industry experts and well-known entrepreneurs from around the world.

First off, Mixergy is subscription style site that is focusing on helping businesses and brands grow, while also getting the valuable information they need to do so. It was also created by Andrew Warner, who does most of the content and interviews for the site. You can see one of his most popular interviews here.

Once you take a look at the site, you will notice it’s mostly a landing page that makes the user enter their info before getting access to the content. It’s brilliant and I bet it works amazing. But again, it’s also a perfect example of how a website can provide real value to their audience, while also benefiting in the process.

Some site visitors will leave when they see the call to action, others will sign up for free. Of those who do subscribe, some will then upgrade to the premium plan. It’s all a numbers game, and the more valuable content Mixergy continues to create, the more value they will offer, and the more their business will grow.

The Best Blog Content, Doesn’t Look Like Blog Content

From a business standpoint and from a marketing perspective, blogging doesn’t necessarily have to mean sitting down and writing boring text content that ends up wasting your time.

Just take a look at the few different examples above of how these brands are using blog content to not only offer value, but to also increase lead generation and growth in the process.

If you don’t have a solid content creation and marketing plan, blogging isn’t something that you should be wasting your time on. The internet is way too saturated with content, and if you are just pushing stuff out there to hope it ranks and is being seen, it simply won’t happen.

To learn more about how to create fully optimized content that works in search and for lead generation, be sure to check out my list of top SEO analyzer tools that you should be using in 2019.

Blogging is a great way to get your website noticed and generate more traffic and sales. 86% of companies use a blog on their websites, so you can’t afford to miss out.

You may think that blogs aren’t that important, or that they don’t make a lot of difference to your business. But they are a lot more effective than you may think.

Blogging can increase your lead generation by 67%. Whether you’re a new or established business, this can prove invaluable. Here are 5 reasons your business needs to start writing blogs now.

1. Generate Traffic

Blog posts add more content to your website and thus attract more people to visit your site. Creating web content means that you can direct your readers to other parts of your website.

This means you can write a post about one of your products or services and use yours as an example. When readers discover this, you have a greater chance of boosting sales.

2. Boost SEO

When it comes to marketing your business, SEO is king. SEO determines where your website ranks on search engine results. In turn, it impacts how many people find you.

There are a lot of things that affect your SEO. Things like a fully optimized website and using the right links can make a real difference. Hook Agency says that having the right SEO can double or even triple your traffic from search engines.

Once you have your website sorted, blog content is next. The more blogs you write, the better the SEO. Use popular keywords and terms that your audience would search for. This will make your posts rank higher on search engines and get customers your way.

3. Create a Brand Voice

There are a lot of company blogs out there which may be interesting, but they have no distinctive voice. When they have no voice, they all blend into one.

But if you write blogs with a specific voice, you make an impression. When people can recognise your writing style, they recognise your company.

Set featured imageTry to give your posts a personality. They are more fun to read and will keep people coming back to read for more. They make your brand more trustworthy and encourage people to choose your brand.

4. Showcase Your Services

When it comes to your business, you’re the expert. You know all about your own products and services, so use your blog to show off this knowledge!

Explain what you offer and what you can do for your customers. People want brands to know exactly what they’re selling and it makes you more reliable.

It also serves as a free way to advertise your business. You can write as much or as little as you want on the services you’re offering.  

5. You Stay Ahead of the Curve

When you give your website a blog, you’re also future proofing your business. Those who don’t have blogs are lagging behind and missing out on a lot of great opportunities.

It gives you the chance to be creative and boost your business in a whole new way. You can also add other media like videos and photos to your posts to boost your SEO even further.

Chances are, you’ll find blogging very fun. Regular content on your site gives your business a firm presence and will keep you on the SEO map for longer.

Your Business Needs to Start Writing Blogs Now

Now that you know how important it is to start writing blogs for your business, it’s time to get started. It’s a fun creative challenge which can lead to more traffic and more sales.

Want to start a blog on your website? Check out our services and see how we can help you set it up.

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Few things are worse than when you click over to a new website or blog, and then it’s loading slow as anything. With everyone having an extremely short attention span, and so many options for other websites and entertainment online, a fast loading website is a must for every blogger, brand, or business on the internet.

There are also many benefits associated with a fast loading site, beyond just user experience. Google is now penalizing sites that take too long to load, and boosting up other sites that a mobile-optimized and running super fast.

Depending on how technical your design or WordPress skills might be, the process of speeding up your site and maximizing it’s optimization might vary. To help with this process, I’ve listed a few of the best working methods below.

Optimize your Homepage to Load Quickly

With the homepage being one of the most vital parts of your website or blog, you should be doing everything possible to make sure it loads quickly. Different things can be done to speed up your homepage such as lowering the number of posts on the main page, minimizing applications and widgets from third-party sites, and also optimizing your images so they are either loading as a smaller sized file or through a CDN service. It’s also a good idea to use an SEO friendly theme or template, as these are more often cleaner with their coding and already optimized right out of the box.

Use an Effective Caching Plugin

If you are using a CMS like WordPress or blogger, then using an effective cashing plugin can contribute nicely in the process of making sure your site is loading as fast as possible. Since caching is an apparatus for a temporary storage of web pages to diminish bandwidth and to improve page loading performance as well, it saves the server’s time to make web pages load faster. Caching plugins are easy to install and use. All you need to do is perform some research online to see which plugin is best for your site, then click a few buttons to have it installed right within WordPress. Once this is done, it’s usually just a matter of copying the account number of your CDN and letting the hosting provider and WordPress plugin do its work.

Use CDN (content delivery network)

We’ve already referenced content delivery networks or CDNs, a few times now. The way these solutions work is that they host a version of your site on their server, and then loads the content from another server that is closest to that individual’s location. More and more site owners and bloggers are using CDNs not only to improve page load speed but to provide users with a great experience to make them stay longer on the website. Also mentioned earlier, this can help with how well a site ranks in Google, while also moving your site above the competition. Moreover, if one of your server locations is overloaded due to huge traffic and visitors, then users can automatically be switched to a new server location to enjoy fast loading website experience.

Improve Your Hosting Plan

If you have a slow loading website or blog, it’s likely due to your hosting plan. If you are pushing a lot of traffic through your site and making money in the process, you should definitely upgrade from a shared server. Shared hosting is often fine for new site owners and bloggers, but as your site gains more attention, backlinks, and traffic, it will also likely be using more server resource. On a shared server, your site is also sharing the server resources with many other sites — sometimes hundreds, or even thousands! Upgrading your hosting plan to a VPS or dedicated hosting package can greatly improve the performance of your site as well. So, if you are still using a cheap web hosting plan with an average price below $5/mo and receiving massive traffic from search engines, then it would be the right time for you to upgrade your hosting plan with a better one to speed up your website loading speed.

Use Optimized Images

Big images take up a lot of space and resources when it comes to loading data from your site. This is especially true with very high-quality images. While these images are going to play a big role in the beauty and engagement on your site, there are still ways to optimize such large images so they load faster and put less stress on your server. There are many plugins are available that can drastically reduce the file size of an image without reducing the quality. Image optimization will not only help you boost website load time but will also save disk space for more files and media. If you really don’t want to overload your website with plugins, then you can also use online image reducer apps and software to optimize image before uploading to the media library of the site.

Minimize HTTP Redirects Requests

How and where content is being loaded on your site can also affect its overall performance. You may need to use redirect requests to redirect the web browser from one URL to another. There are a variety of reasons as to why you might want to do this, such as to specify a new URL location, to track visits and clicks on the site or to connect different elements of the website with each other. Since redirects might be necessary to enhance overall UX of the website, you should only be using the redirect requests that are most important because excessive redirect requests can have an ultimate impact on the loading speed of your website/blog.

Don’t Leave Your Audience Hanging

When browsing the internet, few things are more annoying than accessing a slow loading website. It’s hard enough to get someone to visit your site, let alone stay for a few seconds. Don’t give them a reason to leave right away because your site isn’t loading as fast as it should be.

Follow each of the simple and effective site speed optimization tips above to make sure your site loads as fast as possible, ranks higher than the competition and also doesn’t disappoint your audience when they hit your site.