The post 5 Ways to Write Faster appeared first on ProBlogger.

Running a business is a time suck of epic proportion. Planning, administration, product development, sales, delivery, email, bookkeeping, social media, marketing. It takes time. Throw in a family and you flit from demand to crisis without a moment to reheat that cup of tea you made three hours ago.

Your blog post – that important but not urgent task – is often the victim of the go-go-go life. You know it’s important for but there it is, languishing at the bottom of the ‘to do’ list day after day after day.

‘I must write that blog post.’

‘I really should write a blog post.’

‘Today I will write a blog post.’

‘Tomorrow I will write that blog post…’

Sound familiar?

Not batching… slogging.

I am in awe of bloggers and business owners who casually comment, ‘I write a blog post in 15 to 20 minutes and I batch them. I just sit and write six or seven in a row.’

You what?

Blog posts take me hours. Not minutes. Hours. Write one and I’m creatively spent. I need to lie down, take a walk or faff about on Facebook for 30 minutes to recover. By then a crisis has flared up. Forget batching.

I’m not so hot on the ‘stream of consciousness’ approach either. It’s great for therapy but no-one wants to read my therapy. Not even me.

Despite this I write regularly and professionally. I get it done and I’m getting faster with practice. I’ve also picked up a tip or five from my occupation, psychology.

So here’s what works to write blog posts faster – and why.

1. Have a plan

I used to procrastinate until the day before my publish date (or even the day of) then wait for inspiration to hit and the words to flow. It doesn’t work. It’s slow and frustrating. To get faster I need to know what I’m going to write. Better yet I need some bullet points and links to research I’ll need.

Why it works: In psychology task planning is called an ‘implementation intention’. Its complex and uses the front part of your brain, the prefrontal cortex. Implementation intentions reduce procrastination. Without a plan your brain says, ‘Oops, too hard’ when faced with a big, vague task like writing a blog post. It wanders off to find somewhere else to focus its attention. With a plan you ease its path to your goal, making resistance – and procrastination – less likely.

2. Make planning a separate exercise

Planning then writing in one period is brain overload. Break it into two separate tasks and you increase your efficiency and produce a better result. I like to brainstorm and plan over a coffee at a favourite café. I’ll write later in my office at my laptop.

Why it works: Cues in our environment trigger our habits. Keep looking at the same four walls and you’ll keep thinking in the same old way. To break through a creative block, arrive at fresh ideas and then get writing, mix it up and work in different environments. Large spaces with good natural light and fresh air are great for prompting new thoughts and ideas.

3. Write for 15 minutes a day

Fellow ProBlogger contributor Kelly Exeter put me on to this. Once I’ve got my plan I sit at the laptop, take note of the time, put away distractions and write for 15 minutes. It doesn’t matter what you write. In fact Kelly suggests that if you’re stuck, just keep writing ‘I don’t know what to write here’ until an idea arrives. Try it, it works. What’s more, once you start and find your flow you may find that you just keep going until it’s done.

Why it works: Getting started is often the hardest part of any task, particularly one that feels difficult. The good news is that once we’ve started we’re likely to push on until the job is complete. This is called the Zeigarnik Effect. Your brain doesn’t like starting a task and then stopping part way through. It will linger on your unfinished business, making you anxious until the task is done. Get started and your mind will kick in with the motivation you need to keep going.

4. Set a deadline

A joy of being the boss is the flex in your deadlines. Don’t feel like writing today? Do something else instead. There’s plenty of work to do. Except that’s how the important but not urgent blog post is set adrift.

Sitting, thinking and writing is hard work for your brain. It rewards you by prioritizing that task last, letting you off the hook. It’s a short term gain however. The blog post still isn’t written.

I set myself deadlines for every blog post to trick my brain into getting it done. The shorter the deadline, the more focused you are.

Why it works: Motivation is complex, psychologically, but we know for sure that as a deadline approaches our stress levels rise. When our stress levels rise our brain and body is primed for action. We get started and we work hard to get the task done. This is known as the Yerkes-Dodson Law. No deadline? Not enough stress to get you moving. If you’re a conscientious type like me self imposed deadlines will work. If you’re not, find a way to get others to set deadlines for you.

5. Focus on the end result

The anticipation of a holiday is often the best part, right? Imagine yourself lying by the pool, cocktail in hand, responsibility free. It motivates you to pack and get out of the door.

This works for getting blog posts written too. Generating ideas and writing might feel difficult but don’t focus on that part. Focus on the reward. For me that’s hitting the publish button or sending a finished piece to an editor.  Even better is positive feedback.

Work out where your motivation lies. What’s the reward you get from writing that blog post? Where’s the thrill? Focus on that to get it done.

Why it works: There are two types of goals. Avoidance goals are things to avoid- like losing our audience because we haven’t written a blog post in a month or more. Then there are approach goals. These are the goals that compel us to move forward. Your pool and cocktail vision is an approach goal. The feeling of satisfaction on hitting the publish button is an approach goal. Anything can be an approach goal if you think about it in the right way. Don’t focus on what you’re avoiding. Focus on the good things that come once your task is done.

Ellen Jackson from Potential Psychology is a psychologist who does things differently. She writes about people and why we do what we do. She coaches, she teaches and she helps workplaces to do the people part better.

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The post How to Personalize Your Blog Like These 10 Top Bloggers appeared first on ProBlogger.

Lots of bloggers seem to do everything right, yet they don’t see much success.

They write well-structured posts, they pay attention to SEO, they know the ins and outs of their blogging software … but something’s lacking.

That missing “something” can often be personality. It’s the difference between a blog that readers come across and instantly forget … and a blog that makes a connection and an impact.

Does your blog need a bit of extra personalisation? Here’s how ten top bloggers make their blogs stand out:

#1: Include Great Photos, like Caz and Craig from YTravel

Blog: YTravel

Some blogging topics pretty much demand great photos. Travel is one of those (and others include food, craft and fashion blogging).

Caz and Craig post gorgeous, smiley photos of their family. Some of these are simple candid snapshots, like in 17 Tips for Flying With Kids to Keep You Calm and Happy, and others are a little more posed, like the photos in Getting Settled in the USA + Where to Next.

Lessons learned:

• Photos of you, living the lifestyle you blog about, help your reader to feel connected to you: they know what you look like.
• If you’re looking for help taking better photos, check out my other blog Digital Photography School. You can find our beginner-friendly tips here.

#2: Add Some Flair, like Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income

Blog: Pat Flynn

As soon as you visit Pat’s blog, you see huge text of his name and photos of him with what he’s about – “father, husband, serial entrepreneur” – as well as his quirky humour: “protector of baby yoda”.

Lessons learned:

• Don’t be afraid to go big! That might mean a huge photo of yourself, a bold statement, or an About page that’s filled with images.
• Talk about who you are beyond blogging: Pat lists his favourite book, movie and game, and writes about his family on his About page.

#3: Develop a Strong, Identifiable Tone, like Shannon Kelly White [language warning]

Blog: Shannon Kelly White

Salty language tends to polarise readers: some love it and find it a big part of a blog’s appeal; others will be put off and won’t return. Shannon swears – frequently and enthusiastically – on her blog (even in her tagline and navigation menu):

Lessons learned:

• Tone is memorable. It can make otherwise fairly dull posts a much more interesting read, like Foods Your Toddler Might F*cking Choke On.
• Even if your tone alienates some readers, it’ll win the hearts of others. As one of the comments on Shannon’s About page puts it “I love someone who swears as much as me and sounds just as cool.”

#4: Get Custom Illustrations, like Ramsey from Blog Tyrant

Blog: Blog Tyrant

As soon as you visit Blog Tyrant, you’ll see the red-shirted blogging super-hero avatar: this illustration features in the banner image on the home page, and in the feature images for several of his posts:

It’s also on the front cover of his free report.

Lessons learned:

• Custom illustrations can create a sense of consistency across your blog. Blog Tyrant’s not the only blogger who uses them in this way: Social Media Examiner have their little jungle explorer in their header and at the start of each post.
• If you’re not comfortable including personal photos, a cartoon version of you can be a great alternative.

#5: Focus on your ‘About Page’, like Elsie and Emma from A Beautiful Mess

Blog: A Beautiful Mess

New readers may land on any post on your blog … and you can bet if they like it they’ll be checking out who the blogger is behind the post, by clicking on your “About” page next.

It can help to give them a quick glimpse into who you are and what you’re all about. Sisters Elsie and Emma do this stylishly with a bright, bold photo and short but cacthy introduction.

Lessons learned:

• An “About me” widget in your sidebar is a great place to create an instant connection with your reader. Include a link to your full About page too.
• Happy, smiley photos of you are always a great draw. Some bloggers include these in the header, but the sidebar is a great alternative.

#6: Be Consistent With Your Branding Across Platforms, like Chris Ducker

Blog: Chris Ducker

Chris Ducker uses the same (smiling) headshots on each of his blog post images, his About page, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, creating a consistent brand across multiple platforms:

Lessons learned:

• If you’ve gone to the time and expense of getting professional headshots done, use them – not just in your banner image, but on social media too.
• You may want to have variations on your headshot, from the same shoot (compare Chris’s front page image with his About page headshot, for instance).

#7: Use Color to Boost Your Brand, like Jadah Sellner

Blog: Jadah Sellner

When you visit Jadah’s site, your eyes are instantly drawn to her beautiful color scheme:

The colours of her clothes tie in with the color theme of the site: it feels like everything fits together seamlessly. (The whole combination feels like a warm, earthy makeup palette)

Lessons learned:

• Color matters! Perhaps bright colours aren’t quite right for your blog, but you can still create a similar banner image that takes colours from a photo of you and uses them for text and other elements.
• Use color consistently across your site: check out Jadah’s contact page for some examples.

#8: Use a Brand Statement in Your Content, like James Schramko from SuperFastBusiness

Blog: SuperFastBusiness

The first thing you see on James Schramko’s site is a brand statement calling out his business coaching services and who they’re for. Instantly, it’s clear what he’s all about and – crucially –what kind of audience/customer he’s making content for.

Lessons learned:

• Don’t be afraid to be direct and let people know exactly what you’re about and who you’re blogging for.
• Make sure, though, your focus isn’t just on yourself and your own story but on how you can have an impact on readers’ lives.

#9: Have a Tagline and “Call to Action” that Cuts Straight to the Chase, like Kelly Exeter

Blog: Kelly Exeter

If you can tell your ideal readers, in just a few words, that your blog is exactly the right place for them:

(Your name) is a (what you do) who helps (your ideal reader)… (do what you offer).

And if you have something to offer, get your readers to take action straight away… There’s no use putting them through some complicated email subscription auto-responder series, just get them to click a button and “FIND OUT HERE” what you can do for them.

Like Kelly:

Lessons learned:

• Think about your tagline as who you serve (“smart people”) and what your blog will help those people do (“amplify their ideas”).
• Add a compelling call to action that gives your audience immediate access to what they came to your blog for in the first place

#10: Personalise Your Reader by Defining Them (or Helping them Define Themselves)

Blog: Puttylike

Emily has a TedTalk that identifies her personality type as a “Multipotentialite” and she creates an audience of people who identify with her definition.

The genius move by Emily is that on her home page she uses a quiz as a lead-magnet (“Are You a Multipotentialite?”) to convert random visitors to her site into repeat readers.

Lessons learned:

• Define your audience. Help your audience define themselves. Use a quiz or questionnaire.
• Develop a lead magnet that converts web traffic into an audience for your blog and put that front and centre.

How are you currently showing your personality on your blog? Did anything resonate with you as you looked at the above examples … and what will you try next?

The post How to Personalize Your Blog Like These 10 Top Bloggers appeared first on ProBlogger.

     

The post 5 Critical Elements You Need to Check Off for Every Blog Post appeared first on ProBlogger.

This post is by ProBlogger subject matter expert Ali Luke

Over the past few years, I’ve conducted a lot of blog reviews for fellow writers. It’s always great fun to read other people’s posts … especially when they’re on topics that are totally new to me!

Along the way, though, I’ve noticed that there are five critical elements that far too many bloggers miss out of their posts.

Could your posts be missing any of these too?

They are:

1.       The Hook

2.       Subheadings

3.       Transitions

4.       Links

5.       The Conclusion

#1: The Hook

I’ve never seen a blog post that didn’t have an introduction. I’ve seen plenty of posts, though, that had over-long introductions without a hook: a compelling reason for the reader to keep going.

Here’s an example of a good hook, from Laney Galligan’s post 5 Ways You Can Use Facebook Groups to Benefit Your Blog:

That’s right, more than 1 billion people are using Facebook groups. That’s where the conversation and community is happening and it’s something you can easily create for your blog.

Laney makes the benefits clear (Facebook is where “the conversation and community is happening”) and also makes an implicit promise that this post will teach the reader how to “easily create [that] for your blog”.

The first few sentences of your post, too, need to convince the reader that your post is worth their time.

#2: Subheadings

Very short blog posts (say, under 400 words) don’t need subheadings. Anything longer, though, can normally benefit from being broken into sections.

If your post is missing subheadings, it’s easy for the reader to get lost midway.  When that happens, chances are, they’ll stop reading. Subheadings help because they act like signposts: they tell the reader where they are and what’s coming next.

For more help with subheadings, check out my podcast for ProBlogger, How to Use Subheadings to Add Structure to Your Blog Posts.

#3: Transitions

A transition is like a little bridge from one thought to another. Sometimes, you don’t need a transition at all (a subheading can essentially serve the same purpose). If your post feels disjointed or abrupt in places, though, you may need to add in a quick transition.

Often, a transition is helpful before any major new section of your post. They can also be used to introduce lists.

Here are some examples, from Nicole Avery’s post How to Reduce Your Time on Social Media to Increase Your Blogging Productivity – you might want to read the whole post to see how these work in context:

There are two different ways that I see social media impact bloggers’ productivity negatively.

How does this behaviour on social media impact their productivity? It impacts it in three key ways:

It doesn’t mean that you can’t be on social media, it just means you need to take a more planned and proactive approach to how you go about it. Here are two actions you can take to help you:

#4: Links

While it’s not absolutely essential for your post to contain links, it’s almost always a good idea to include at least one. Both internal links (to your own blog) and external links (to other websites) matter.

• Links to past posts on your blog help readers dig in … and stick around.
• Links to posts on other people’s blogs position you as someone helpful and knowledgeable.
• Links to your products or services help you make more sales.
•  Links to books on Amazon can bring in affiliate income – and also make you look helpful and well informed.

It’s often appropriate to include links throughout your post, usually to give more information about a particular point. If you quote someone or give an example, you should provide a link too.

Sometimes, you might not have many opportunities to link within a post (or you may not want to distract readers – e.g. in a how-to post): if that’s the case, you could include some “further reading” or “where next?” suggestions at the end.

#5: The Conclusion

Of all the missing elements, this is probably the one that seems to get left off the most! If you finish your post too suddenly, though, it not only seems weirdly abrupt to readers … it robs you of a great chance to direct their next actions.

There are several ways to tackle the conclusion: personally, I think it’s good to sum up briefly (if only in a sentence), and to give a “call to action”. You can find out more about those in the ProBlogger podcast episode How to Write a Post That Contains a Call to Action.

Here’s an example of a conclusion that encourages the reader to take action based on the content – this is from Colin Gray’s post How to Get Your First Podcast Sponsorship:

If you’re looking to dip your toe in the waters, but sponsoring your blog is a step too far, then try your podcast. Build a relationship there and who knows, it might lead to your blog, your video channel, your social media.

If that gives you the time and the space to spend time on the content you love, offering more and more value to your readers, then it’s worth an ad spot or two. Give it a shot!

When you’re busy writing a blog post, it can be difficult to think about everything you need to include … you’re probably hurrying just to get all your ideas down.

As you edit, though, use these five critical elements as a checklist: make sure you’ve included each one – or that you’ve got a very good reason not to!

Which of these five elements do you find yourself inadvertently missing out? How could you include it in your next post? Share your thoughts or tips with us in the comments!

The post 5 Critical Elements You Need to Check Off for Every Blog Post appeared first on ProBlogger.

     

The post Mastering Blog Post Creation: 10 Essential Steps to Enhance Your Writing Process appeared first on ProBlogger.

It hits you like a TON of BRICKS!

It’s an idea for that KILLER blog post that is just bound to bring you all the traffic that you’ve ever dreamed of.

With the idea fresh in your mind you sit down at your keyboard and BANG it out – desperate to hit publish as quickly as you can for fear that someone else will beat you to the PUNCH!

As SMOKE rises from your keyboard you complete your post, quickly add a title to it and proudly hit PUBLISH!

Visions of an avalanche of visitors, incoming links and comments swirl before you…

But then…

Reality hits you like a SLAP in the face.

There are few visitors, no comments and no links.

It’s not a KILLER post – but not in a good way – it’s DEAD.

Ever had that experience?

I have – many, many times over.

Today I want to walk you through an alternative workflow for constructing a blog post…

One…

That…

Takes….

Time.

Crafting a Blog Post

If there’s one lesson that I’ve learnt about writing for the web it’s that a key element to writing successful blog posts is that in most cases they take time to CREATE.

I emphasize ‘create’ because I think too often as bloggers we ‘PUNCH’ out content as though we’re in a race or under some kind of deadline. It’s almost like we’re on a production line at times – unfortunately the posts we write often reflect this.

In this series I want to suggest an alternative approach – the crafting (or creation) of content.

This process is a more thoughtful process that is about crafting words and ideas – shaping posts into content that take readers on a journey.

To kick off this series, I want to suggest 10 points to pause at when writing a post on your blog. I’ll include a link to each post that follows in this series as I update them.

Instead of rushing through a post – I find that if I pause at these key moments my post rises to a new level of quality and posts tend to get more traction with readers. They don’t guarantee the perfect post – but they certainly take you a step closer to a good one.

1. Choosing a Topic

Take a little extra time defining your topic and the post will flow better and you’ll develop something that matters to readers.

2. Crafting Your Post’s Title

Perhaps the most crucial part of actually getting readers to start reading your post when they see it in an RSS reader or search engine results page.

3. The Opening Line

First impressions matter. Once you’ve got someone past your post’s title your opening line draws them deeper into your post.

4. Your ‘point/s’ (making your posts matter)

A post needs to have a point. If it’s just an intriguing title and opening you’ll get people to read – but if the post doesn’t ‘matter’ to them it’ll never get traction.

5. Call to Action

Driving readers to do something cements a post in their mind and helps them to apply it and helps you to make a deeper connection with them.

6. Adding Depth

Before publishing your post – ask yourself how you could add depth to it and make it even more useful and memorable to readers?

7. Quality Control and Polishing of Posts

Small mistakes can be barriers to engagement for some readers. Spending time fixing errors and making a post ‘look’ good can take it to the next level.

8. Timing of Publishing Your Post

Timing can be everything – strategic timing of posts can ensure the right people see it at the right time.

9. Post Promotion

Having hit publish – don’t just leave it to chance that your post will be read by people. Giving it a few strategic ‘nudges’ can increase the exposure it gets exponentially.

10. Conversation

Often the real action happens once your post is published and being interacted with by readers and other bloggers. Taking time to dialogue can be very fruitful.

Take Your Time

Taking extra time at each of these 10 points looks different for me in every post that I do – but I believe that every extra moment spent of these tasks pays off.

Sometimes the pause I take in one step will be momentary while in others it could take hours or even days to get it just right. Sometimes the above process happens quite automatically and other times I need to force myself to stop and ponder something like a title or the timing of a post.

Each of the 10 points above have much more that could be said about them so over the weeks I’ll be tackling each in turn in the hope that we can have some good discussion and sharing of ideas around them. I’ll link to each of them from within the list above as I release the posts.

For each point I hope to give some insight into how I tackle them and will share a few practical tips and examples of what I’ve done that has worked (and not worked). Don’t expect posts each day on this series – like all good things – this will take us some time!

The post Mastering Blog Post Creation: 10 Essential Steps to Enhance Your Writing Process appeared first on ProBlogger.

     

The post How to Schedule Time for Writing appeared first on ProBlogger.

Maintaining Momentum in Blogging Series

I find it is very easy to get distracted by the many different elements of maintaining a blog and the allure of social media, to the point where I find it hard to do the core element – creating content.

Here’s how dedicating specific times to write can not only reclaim your momentum but transform your blog’s trajectory.

The Power of a Writing Routine

Establishing a writing routine isn’t just about discipline; it’s about carving out a space for creativity and productivity to flourish. Research suggests that routines can significantly reduce stress, enhance focus, and boost creativity. Embracing a consistent writing schedule not only helps in managing your blog more efficiently but also in nurturing your mental well-being.

I do this by setting aside time each day (usually the same time each day) for writing but also setting aside longer times on a weekly basis (ie at present I’m experimenting with making Mondays ‘writing day’). I’ve also at times taken even longer periods of time to go away for the sole purpose of writing (ie for a weekend). I find that setting this time aside, away from distractions – and even away from being online altogether – really lifts the quality and style of my writing.

In fact, if you’re interested in my daily routine, here’s A day in the life of a ProBlogger (me).

Finding Your Prime Writing Time

Not everyone’s creative peak happens in the morning. Experiment with writing at different times to discover when you’re most productive. Pay attention to your body’s natural rhythms—your circadian rhythms play a crucial role in determining your most fertile periods for creativity.

Read this article to understand your different brain states to Make Sure You’re Functioning At Your Creative Best.

One thing I’ve done before to find my prime writing times and different states of productivity is Keeping a Blog Diary to Analyze Your Blogging Routine.

Setting Realistic Goals

A writing session without a goal is like a ship without a compass. Set achievable targets for each session, whether it’s a word count, a post length, or a number of posts. This clarity will guide your efforts and heighten your sense of accomplishment.

ProBlogger’s resident psychologist Ellen Jackson has some good behaviour changing tips in How to Smash Your Blogging Goals in Just 5 Days.

Soemthing I do every day, even two or three times a day, is to analyse critically:

‘What am I doing right now and is it worthwhile? Is this three hours I just spent on social media taking me closer to my goals—and it could—or is it taking them away?’

This kind of questioning has become an automatic part of my daily work rhythm. By paying conscious attention to it, it’s become second nature. While that doesn’t always stop me from becoming distracted, it does help me stay focused.

Minimizing Distractions for Maximum Productivity

Distractions are the arch-nemesis of productivity. In a world where every ping could lead down a rabbit hole, creating a distraction-free writing environment becomes crucial. Consider using social media blocking apps, establishing a designated writing space, or wearing noise-cancelling headphones to keep the focus on your writing.

Here’s a couple of posts from ProBlogger writers covering other ways to focus on writing amidst distraction:

• 10 Ways to Switch Your Brain to Writing Mode When Working From Home
• 2x Your Blog Writing Productivity and Reduce Your Stress by Single-Tasking

Tools and Resources

Several digital tools can aid your journey towards a disciplined writing schedule. Google Calendar or Trello can help you plot your writing times, while Scrivener or Google Docs offers a seamless writing experience. For inspiration and organization, turn to Feedly for staying updated with industry news or Evernote for managing your research and ideas efficiently.

Engagement: The Heartbeat of Your Blog

Invite your readers to be a part of your journey. Share your experiences with managing writing schedules and ask for their strategies and challenges. This dialogue not only enriches the content but fosters a community of shared growth and learning.

What tips do you have to share with me?

And what tips do your readers have to share with you?

Case Studies: Success Stories

To give you some inspiration, we asked 14 top bloggers who’ve mastered the art of consistent writing to offer their invaluable insights and motivation…

This is what they came back with: 14 Bloggers Share Their Daily Blogging Routine.

Embracing Flexibility Alongside Discipline

While the emphasis on a writing schedule is paramount, acknowledging the need for flexibility is equally important. Life’s unpredictability demands a degree of adaptability. Sharing strategies for adjusting your schedule without derailing your blog’s progress can provide readers with practical advice for navigating their blogging journey. Here’s how I try to Balance Between Family Life and Blogging Life.

Incorporating a strategic writing schedule is more than just a tactic for content creation; it’s the backbone of a thriving blog. This disciplined approach enhances your connection with readers, showcasing that true blogging success springs from both the quality of your content and the thoughtful planning that goes into it.

The post How to Schedule Time for Writing appeared first on ProBlogger.

     

The post Why Stories are an Effective Communication Tool for Your Blog appeared first on ProBlogger.

As I write this it is the last Tuesday morning of the month and I’m sitting in a local coffee shop going through my ‘end of the month routine‘.

It involves a large lattè (everything else hinges on this) and some delving into my blogs metrics to see how they’ve been performing.

While I do keep track of the traffic stats of my blogs each day I like to set aside an hour or two at the end of each month to go a little deeper and do some more analysis of trends on my blogs – I find that when I do this I notice things that I can build on to continue momentum on my blogs.

This morning as I was looking at the type of posts that had done well in the last few weeks on my blogs I noticed an interesting trend – many of them were ‘story‘ type posts.

• The Power of Being Personal on Your Blog – the hottest post on ProBlogger last week – a post where I tell the story of being jumped on/hugged by a reader who I’d never met before.
• The #1 Reason My Blogging Grew Into a Business – the hottest post on ProBlogger in the last month – the story of my wife giving me a 6 month deadline to get my blogging to a full time level – or go get a ‘real job’.

Both posts got a lot of traffic, were linked to by numerous other blogs and were re-tweeted more than normal.

I’ve always known how powerful ‘story posts‘ can be on a blog but I decided to dig a little further to see whether this continued deeper than just the last month.

What I discovered was that story posts have been among the most popular posts on this blog over the last 5 years time and time again. They’re not the only type of post that does well (there are a few other types of posts that do well – we might explore these in a later post) but they certainly have performed very well for me.

Here’s a few more examples of popular story posts:

• The Day 250,000 People Showed Up at My Blog – a case study that recorded my experience of a successful post.
• 9 First Step Goals for New Bloggers – a post introduced very quickly with the analogy of my son’s first steps (and a picture of him).
• Learn from My Mistake – Don’t Leave Money on the Table – a story of where I failed – shared as a warning to others.
• Becoming a ProBlogger – a Story in Many Parts – my full story of going full time as a blogger – a mini biography.
• Lessons from an Umbrella Salesman – not a personal story but an analogy type post from my early days of blogging.
• Another Day in the Life of a ProBlogger – a post from a few years back which outlined a typical day of mine.

I could go on…. and on! Each month that I looked back on through my blog here at ProBlogger a story type post featured in the top 2 or three posts.

Why are Stories Effective?

A lot could be said about the reasons why stories tend to do well on blogs but here’s a few reasons that I’ve seen in my own experience:

• Stories engage the imagination of readers
• Stories go beyond facts and theories
• Stories reveal something about yourself as a blogger (they’re personal)
• Stories trigger emotions and the senses
• Stories are conversational – they stimulate others to react and tell their stories
• Stories provide hooks for readers to latch onto in your blogging (they’re relatable)
• Stories grab and hold the attention of readers
• Stories are memorable – while people don’t always latch onto facts and figures – a good story can be remembered for years
• Stories illustrate your points in ways that can be much more convincing (and convicting) than other types of information

The key with stories on blogs is making them tie into the rest of your blog – ie make them relevant and ensure that they have some point to them that is useful to your readers on some level. While telling the story of how your dog dug up your vegetable patch might interest you, the readers of your blog about (insert your blogs topic here) may not be quite as fascinated – unless you use the story to illustrate something about your topic.

Now that we’ve looked as some of the reasons stories are effective on blogs – in my next post I want to extend the idea of story telling with a 2nd post that explores some of the types’ of stories that you might like to use on your blog.

This post is another part of the Principles of Successful Blogs series. Previous principles explored are Listening, Trust, Usefulness, Community and being Personal.

The post Why Stories are an Effective Communication Tool for Your Blog appeared first on ProBlogger.

The post Nine Ways to Spice Up Any Blog Post—Fast appeared first on ProBlogger.

This guest post is by Ali Luke of Aliventures.

Did your latest post get all the readers, comments and tweets that it deserved?

Probably not. You wrote a great piece, but somehow, it seemed bland. Your ideas were good, but the post lacks a little something. What you need is more spice.

Here are nine ways to add some heat to your post, and grab readers’ attention.

#1: Add a snappy title and subtitles

You know that posts need great headlines. Often, the headline is all that a potential reader can see before clicking through to read the whole post—on Twitter, for instance, or in a CommentLuv link.

When you’ve got a post ready to go, though, it’s easy to just hit the Publish button, leaving it with whatever title first came to mind. Don’t do that. Give yourself time to pause and rethink. Is every word in the headline pulling its weight?

Further reading: How to Craft Post Titles that Draw Readers Into Your Blog

#2: Introduce powerful images

You might think images don’t really matter. After all, you’ve written great content—surely no-one cares whether or not there’s a pretty picture with it?

The thing is, images are eye-catching. They can make your posts look more polished and professional. And a great image can even set up the mood or tone of a post.

You’ll want to include at least one image per post—probably at the top. But if you’ve got a longer piece, it’s often worth adding several images to help break up the text. You can see how I did this in a huge post, Freelance Writing: Ten Steps, Tons of Resources, with ten images, one for each step.

Further reading: Blogosphere Trends + Choosing and Using Images

#3: Tap into readers’ concerns

Your readers don’t just want interesting information. They want posts which solve a problem. That could be something simple and basic (“How do I hold my camera?”) or something huge, like “How do I get out of debt?”

If you know your readers well, you’ll know what their common worries and struggles are. You can use these in your post, by empathizing with how they feel and by showing them the way forwards.

Further reading: How to Create Reader Profiles/Personas to Inspire and Inform Your Blogging

#4: Add a personal anecdote

This isn’t a technique which you’ll want to use in every single post, but it’s very powerful when used sparingly.

Readers love stories, and they love to feel a sense of connection with another person. By telling a brief story from your own life, you hook the reader on an emotional level, not just an intellectual one.

My favourite example wasn’t originally a blog post at all. It was live, from Darren speaking on stage at BlogWorld Expo. He retells the story in the video post What My 4-Year-Old Son Taught Me About Successful Blogging.

Further reading: The Power of Being Personal on Your Blog (which also includes an anecdote!)

#5: Offer “take home” or “action” points

Sometimes, you’ll have a great post packed with useful content—but without anything for the reader to really grab hold of.

To help your reader engage, offer “take home” points, summing up the post, or “action” points: something that gets the reader thinking or some next step they can take. I’ve noticed that when I do this with posts, I get more comments and retweets than otherwise.

This is particularly crucial if you’ve written a post which is heavy on theory. There’s a great example here in Charlie Gilkey’s The Four Key Dimensions of Business, where he ends with four straightforward questions to help people start using what they’ve just read.

Further reading: How to Create Compelling Content by Inspiring Action

#6: Get readers to react

Sometimes, bloggers aim to use the power of reaction in quite a cynical way. They post rants—angry pieces which are just intended to start an argument or to get attention.

But when you encourage thoughtful reactions, you help readers to share their ideas—and to share your content. You turn them from passive consumers of your content into active engagers with it.

Getting readers to react might be as simple as asking “What do you think?” In most cases, though, you’ll want to pose a question or ask their opinion on something specific.

Further reading: 7 Questions to Ask On Your Blog to Get More Reader Engagement

#7: Include quotes from other bloggers

When you’re reading blogs, you might come across a great quote—a sentence or a paragraph which really resonates. Why not share it with your readers?

Including quotes from other bloggers can help you to back up your own opinions and facts: it proves that other experts in your field are saying the same thing as you.

Plus, quotes help break up a long blog post. They allow you to introduce a different voice into your piece, and can provide a starting point for discussion.

Further reading: Blogosphere Trends + Effectively Using Quotes

#8: Use an analogy

Maybe you’ve written a great post that explains exactly how something works, in painstaking detail. The problem is, your readers aren’t engaging with it—they’re not even reading it.

Can you come up with an analogy that helps the reader to understand?

A good analogy gives your reader a picture in their head, based on something familiar. It can give them that “Aha, I get it!” moment. It can help them look at something in a fresh way, like Starting a Successful Blog is Like Planning an Invasion. You can keep the analogy going as a running metaphor using language that relates to it (like “allies” and “skirmishes” in that post).

Further reading: Blogging is like…

#9: Make your language punchier

You’re a blogger—which means you’re a writer. You need to make every sentence and word work for you.

By “punchier”, I don’t mean you should be aggressive. I mean that your words need to be strong and engaging.

Cut out unnecessary words and phrases, like “it may be the case that” or “In my opinion” or “it’s quite probably true that”. You don’t need these wishy-washy qualifiers, and your sentences will reader more strongly without them.

Use everyday language. Short, simple words can convey your points far more effectively than grandiose, convoluted ones.

Further reading: Blogging is About Writing

I’ve given you nine ways to spice up your posts. Now it’s your turn! What’s your number 10?

Ali Luke is a writer, blogger and writing coach. She’s just launched The Blogger’s Guide to Freelancing, a fully updated and expanded version of her popular Staff Blogging Course. Grab your copy today for $29, and start using your blogging skills to make serious money.

The post Nine Ways to Spice Up Any Blog Post—Fast appeared first on ProBlogger.

The post 7 Steps to Proofreading Like a Pro appeared first on ProBlogger.

This is a guest contribution by Charles Cuninghame, website copywriter.

I’m sure we can all agree that proofreading is the least fun part of blogging. But while it may be tedious, it’s well worth the effort.

Typos are not only embarrassing, they can also cost you money.

In a widely reported study, British entrepreneur Charles Duncombe found a single spelling mistake can cut your online sales in half! If you don’t have a product, then you could be missing out a blog subscriber or repeat visitor!

Here’s a tried and tested proofreading process that I’ve taught to many novice writers with great success. Once you get the hang of it, you should be able to thoroughly proofread an average length blog post in 5-10 minutes.

What you’ll need:

1. A printer
2. A red pen
3. A highlighter pen

Step 1: Set it aside

Time permitting, set your blog post aside for a while before you proofread it. An hour is good, a day is better. The more time you put between the writing and proofreading, the more refreshed you’ll be and better able to spot any typos.

Step 2: Print it out

Research has shown that proofreading on-screen is not as effective as proofreading a printout. So do yourself a favour and print your post out. But run it through the spell checker first, to fix any obvious spelling mistakes.

Step 3: Mark up your changes

Get ready by minimising distractions. Proofreading requires your undivided attention. So turn off your phone, close your email and switch off the music.

Read through your post marking up typos and rough spots with your red pen as you go. Force yourself to slow down and concentrate. Focus on each word and character as you read.

Make your mark-ups obvious so you don’t overlook them at the corrections stage. Punctuation marks (commas, apostrophes, full-stops/periods, etc.) are particularly easy to miss. So it’s a good idea to circle the mark-up for extra emphasis.

It’s also a good idea to put a cross in the margin next to a line that contains a correction.

Step 4: Read out loud

Once you’re been through your blog post once, read it aloud. Reading aloud helps in two ways. Firstly, your ears will often catch mistakes that your eyes miss. Reading aloud forces a higher level of concentration than silent reading.

And secondly, reading out loud helps you to write conversationally. If your post sounds clunky when you speak it, you need to revise it until it sounds confidently conversational.

Step 5: Double-check details

There are some details that are particularly embarrassing or troublesome to get wrong. So you should double-check the following:

• The spelling of people’s names e.g. is it Janine or Jenean? Stuart or Stewart?
• Ditto brand names e.g. is it Word press, WordPress or Word Press?
• Telephone numbers and email addresses
• Prices
• Click links to make sure they go where you want them to.

Step 6: Make corrections

Make all your corrections in one go, not as you find them. Be very careful as you make changes. You don’t want to add in errors at this stage. Be especially careful with any sections you’ve rewritten. If you’ve rewritten a significant portion of your post it’s best to print it out and proof it again.

A common mistake is missing corrections you’ve marked up on your printout. So as you make each change mark it off your printout with your highlighter. When you’ve finished making changes, go over your printout to make sure you haven’t missed anything.

Step 7: Final check

As a final check, run the spell checker over your corrected post. Read it on-screen to make sure it looks OK. Break up any paragraphs that are longer than 5 lines. Now you’re good to hit the publish button!

Charles Cuninghame is a website copywriter. For important documents he usually hires a proofreader.

The post 7 Steps to Proofreading Like a Pro appeared first on ProBlogger.

     

The post 52 Types of Blog Posts that Are Proven to Work appeared first on ProBlogger.

This guest post is by Karol K of Online Business Design blog.

Blogging is not only about putting together 400-2,000 words of text and publishing them on your WordPress site. As a blogger, you can choose from a much bigger variety of possible blog post types (and content in general).

Let me be honest and admit that I’ve wanted to compile this sort of list for a long time. Coming up with new ideas for posts every couple of days might lead you to a hard stop on a brick wall very quickly… I believe writer’s block is the more politically correct name for such a situation.

One of the most effective ways of fighting writer’s block is having a big resource file, containing lots of ideas and frameworks for new posts. Besides, writing standard, old-school blog posts can get boring very quickly. That’s why every blogger needs some variety in terms of content if they want to be doing this for a longer period of time.

This list is divided into a couple of sections depending on the purpose and characteristics of each content type. Feel free to treat it as a resource file ≠ñ you don’t have to go through the whole list at once.

Article style posts (aka standard blog posts)

1. How-to/tutorial posts

This is one of the most popular post types and one that arguably brings the most value to the reader. The most important thing to focus on while writing it, is to give some specific information on how to do/perform/attain/reach whatever is promised in the title of the post. Videos and images work very well as additional resources for how-to posts.

2. News posts

Typically used by bigger blogs, leaders in a given field that have their finger on the pulse at all times. They are usually short (less than 500 words) and share an important piece of news in a given market. There are a couple of downsides if you want to make them an important part of your publishing schedule: you have to be fast (there’s nothing worse than yesterday’s news), news has a short expiration date (it’s hard to turn a news post into a piece of evergreen content), and finally, you have to be publishing them at least once a day.

3. Definition posts

A.k.a. Wikipedia-style post. What you basically do is choose a term that has a significant importance in your field and define it using simple language, so the term is easy to understand for someone who’s new to the topic.

4. Standard list posts

List post is one of the most popular post types in use today (you’re reading one right now). The basic idea is that you take a topic or a problem and you try to come up with a number of separate solutions to it. List posts are so popular because they are extremely easy to follow. Each point is usually not related to the other ones, which means that even a distracted mind can get a lot of value from the whole post. List posts are also great for bookmarking or sharing with friends—precisely because of their reader-friendly construction.

5. Resource/link list posts

Very similar to standard list posts. The difference is that now you’re not coming up with the content on your own, but searching for valuable information elsewhere and, in the end, sharing links to what you have found. This type of list post is very popular lately and many successful bloggers are using it as one of the most important elements of their publishing schedule. This kind of posts tend to get a lot of backlinks due to the fact that people who have been featured often like to let their readers know about that fact, so they go ahead and mention it on their blogs.

6. Profile posts

A profile is a post focusing on a specific person, usually someone famous or important in a given field. Profiles usually cover things like: why the person in question became famous, what’s so special about them, what they have accomplished, and what’s their history and background. There are no specific rules of creating a good profile post. You have to choose your target, find as much interesting information about them as you can, and combine it into an article.

7. Case studies

Case studies present a way of solving a problem based on a real-life example. They are usually constructed in a step-by-step manner presenting each step in a detailed way, and explaining why this specific solution has been chosen. Case studies usually end with a roundup of everything that has been done and present the final results.

8. Problems-and-solutions posts

This is similar post type to case studies, only here, the solution doesn’t have to be one that has already been applied. It can be a description of a theoretical solution to a problem, or an idea worth considering for other people struggling with the same problem. For example, let’s look at amateur bodybuilding as a topic. One of the most common problems in that field is gaining lean (fat-free) body mass. A bodybuilder-blogger might create a post targeting this specific problem by giving a number of possible solutions, like introducing a special diet, different workout regime, different hours of sleep, and so on.

9. Comparison posts

Every field has some specific characteristics or problems that can be solved by many different means. Comparison posts take two or more possible solutions and compare them to one another. Various aspects of these solutions need to be taken into account if the whole post is to be valuable. It’s also good to point out a winner at the end. Some of the things you can compare against each other are: software, books, courses, companies, etc.—even people.

10. Stories

There’s nothing like a good story. Stories are ones of the most reader-friendly types of blog posts. We ñ humans ñ are used to hearing stories ever since we were children. The power of stories lies in their ability of disguising certain messages while describing seemingly unrelated situations. You can create a story about someone who wanted to do something but failed because they didn’t know the most important elements of X, where “X” is the thing you want to share with your readers… Just an example.

11. Controversial posts

The truth is people like to read controversial articles even if they don’t agree with the author. That being said, not every author has enough balls to write such a thing. Interestingly enough, creating a controversial post is not that difficult. The easiest way of doing it is to pick a topic, write down your thoughts about that topic, and then sharpen them up to the point of absurd. You can use some sarcasm while doing so. Here’s an example. Instead of saying “some Internet marketing tips published online have very few possible applications in real life,” say “every Internet marketer knows nothing about real-life business”—strong, to the point, and easy to disagree with.

12. Inspiring posts

Usually an inspiring story about someone (hopefully, an underdog) achieving something. The main message here is “if he can do it, so can I.” The only problem is that it’s not that easy to find something interesting enough to be turned into an inspiring post.

13. Research posts

A step-by-step guide on how you are (or someone else is) researching a specific topic. For example, you can share how you’re doing your keyword research, or how you’re searching for a virtual assistant to hire, or how you’re doing market research to come up with a list of potential partners and competitors.

14. “What others are saying” posts

This is a combination of a research post and a link list post. The main idea is to find a topic and find other people sharing their opinion on that topic. Sometimes it’s better to not pretend that you are the most knowledgeable person in a given field, but share the opinions of other experts instead. It’s the thing Napoleon Hill was famous for.

15. “What if” posts

A hypothetical post about something—”What would happen if X?” kind of thing. To start, choose an interesting topic, find an element that’s certain to exist in that field, and try to write a post about what might have happened if that element never existed. For example: “What if WordPress was never invented?”

16. Parody posts

A satirical view on a given topic. The easiest way of coming up with such a thing is to choose another publication about something, note down some of the ideas presented in it, and extend them to the point of absurd. For example, many building-a-successful-blog gurus tell you about the importance of commenting on other blogs. In response, you could write a post on “why you need to comment on 1,374 different blogs a day if you want to be successful.”

Unconventional blog posts

17. FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) posts

I’m sure you know very well what this is about. The only problem with coming up with these kind of posts is the “frequently” part. If you want to create a FAQ style post you need to have an audience to get the questions from. Creating a fake FAQ containing only some imaginary “frequently” asked questions is the biggest sin of them all.

18. SAQ (Should Ask Questions) posts

A similar type to the previous one, but this time you, as the expert, provide a list of questions and answers your audience should be asking you. The trick here is that frequently asked questions are not always the ones that are the most important (that’s because people don’t know what they don’t know), so in a SAQ post you can present your expertise and deliver much value to your readers.

19. Reviews

There are tens of blogs that focus solely on reviews of various products and services, mostly in the tech/gadget niche. I’m not telling you to start posting only reviews from now on, but submitting one every now and then surely can’t hurt you. In addition, you can include your affiliate links and make some money along the way.

20. Interviews

I’m sure there’s a lot of potential people you can interview: experts, celebrities, ordinary people who have managed to do something significant, people sharing their success stories, companies, other bloggers. Just look around your niche and I’m sure you’ll find someone interesting.

The interview itself can be done in a couple of different ways. You can meet with someone in person (the traditional way). You can mail them your questions and they will mail you back the answers. You can call them via Skype or phone. You can do a twitter interview (tweeting back and forth questions and answers). Basically, there are no limits. Sometimes being creative pays a lot, so try to come up with your own ways of doing interviews.

21. Ebooks

Whenever you have a big library of resources, your own posts, notes, etc. you can combine them and turn into an ebook, and then announce its launch in a standard blog post. One of the best examples of using your existing blog posts to create an ebook is the work of Darren Rowse in 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Once you have your ebook ready, the best way of delivering it is, of course, as a PDF download. In fact, creating ebooks can be fun—something I found out for myself when putting together my own ebook.

22. Special reports

It’s like an ebook, only smaller, usually focusing on just one aspect of a given field, and in most cases delivered free of charge. Other than that, you can approach it the same as creating a standard ebook, and once you have it ready, announce this fact in a blog post.

23. Cheat sheets

As Wikipedia defines it, “a cheat sheet is a concise set of notes used for quick reference,” and that’s exactly what it is. I’m sure that you can find many rules, tricks, methods of doing/using something that relates to your field or niche. You just have to put it all together in a neat PDF file and share it with your readers. Just to give you some examples of nice cheat sheets: Cheat Sheets & Quick Reference Cards for Developers.

24. Checklists

A checklist is a set of specific steps that need to be taken in order to complete a task. Next to the headline of each step there should be an empty box where the person using the checklist can put a tick once the step has been completed. This forces you to use the PDF format once again. Once you have the checklist ready, write a post describing what it’s for and how to use it.

25. Infographics

Infographics are very popular in today’s Internet. They are cool to look at, present information in an easy-to-digest manner, provide a lot of value, and have a high share-with-a-friend factor. The only downside is that they are very time consuming to create. And in most cases you have to delegate this work to someone (or work together with someone) if you want the final result to be exceptional. Nevertheless, they are worth to consider if you have the time and the resources. Here are some examples of great infographics: Infographics for Web Designers: Information You Ought to Know, 12 Amazing SEO Infographics.

26. Projects

In my opinion this is one of the biggest things you can do for your blog once you have a moderate readership. By “moderate” I don’t necessarily mean the numbers, but people’s engagement with your posts.

The basic idea is this. You announce a project that you will be participating in (or are an author of) and invite your readers to take part in it, and share their results. A great example is what Pat and Tyrone have done with the Niche Site Duel project.

27. Open questions to your readers

This is usually a very short post. Just a single question to your readers about whatever topic. But, of course, it has to be something related to your niche, and it has to be something that actually interests you, something you want to know … maybe as part of research for your upcoming post. Publishing this kind of post can help you tighten the relationship with your readers and encourage some of the quiet ones to speak up. The only downside is that you have to have a moderate readership in order to make this work.

28. Starting a debate

Similar to publishing an open question, only this time you are saying what’s your opinion at the beginning of the post, and let your readers pick a side, so they can share their own arguments in favor or against. One more time … you have to have an audience for this to work. Once you consider the debate finished you can shut down the comments and write a follow-up post pointing out some of the most important parts of the debate.

29. Presenting an existing debate

Let me just give you an example. A while ago, Corbett Barr published a post presenting a debate between Pat Flynn and Everett Bogue on whether or not you should allow comments on your blog. The debate has been prepared earlier by interviewing both sides giving them the same questions, and then letting them take a look at each other’s answers so they could react to them. This is a great idea and I have to implement it myself in the near future. I encourage you to do the same.

30. Surveys and polls

Yet another way of connecting with your audience. This time again you are the one asking questions. A simple poll consists of one question with a number of possible answers. For example: “Which member of the A-team do you like the most? 1. Hannibal, 2. Face, 3. Murdock, 4. B.A.” There’s a number of different WordPress plugins that can provide you with a possibility of creating a poll.

A survey is usually something a bit bigger. For instance, a questionnaire containing a number of poll-styled questions as well as essay questions, and simple fill-in-the-blanks. You can search the WordPress plugin directory to find an appropriate plugin for this too. Surveys surely provide much valuable information about your audience, which makes them worth considering once you have an engaged readership.

31. Crash courses/gathering posts

This is a kind of post consisting of links to other post within the same topic, and maybe some additional comment or content. For instance, this guitar blog sharing information on how to learn guitar chords. Each chord gets its own post, and at the end of the series there’s one big gathering post featuring the links to all the other posts and some additional tips and resources. In the end, the whole post looks like a kind of crash course on learning guitar chords.

32. Twitter posts

In order to create such a post what you need is a topic, preferably a trending/popular one, and some time. Just go to twitter search and find some interesting tweets about the topic. You may search by keywords or by hashtags. Once you have a set of 20+ tweets you can combine them into one “what people are saying” post. This may sound like an easy way out, but in reality these posts can be very informative and, in many cases, very funny.

33. Income/traffic/expense reports (monthly)

Very popular lately. Some of the best examples can be seen at Think Traffic and Smart Passive Income. What you do is simply take a look at your Google Analytics account as well as your bank account and report any changes comparing to the previous month. Of course, you have to be comfortable with sharing this kind of information. The other problem is that telling people that your traffic is at 346 per month and you income at $12 per month might not be the best social proof possible.

34. Contests

Contests are a great way of connecting with your audience or even getting an audience in the first place. The most important element of a contest is the prize. It has to be something worth competing for, which mean it involves spending some money or finding a sponsor. The theme of the contest can be anything. For example: “whoever sings the highest note wins an iPod”—you get the point. Entries can be submitted via email or, preferably, via a comment below the post. It’s up to you.

35. Draws

Something similar to a contest. The only difference is that the winner is not chosen by someone, but gets drawn randomly. Other than that, same rules apply.

36. Races

Another idea that’s similar to a contest. The main idea of a race is to give your audience a specific task to do, and the first person to complete it wins. It might be something like: “first person to publish 20 comments this month on my blog wins an iPod.” The main benefit of such a thing is that apart from the winner submitting 20 comments you may get the runner up submitting 18, two people submitting 17, and so on. So in the end, running a race might bring you many more comments than 20. Just an example. The rules of running a contest apply here too.

37. Quizzes

How is it any different from a poll or a survey? Well, a quiz is not a tool for you to find out something about your audience, but a tool for your audience to find out something about themselves, usually in a funny and entertaining way. A great example is a quiz that can be found at theoatmeal.com, titled How long could you survive chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor?. It turned out to be a big link bait for theoatmeal and resulted in #1 ranking in Google for the phrase “bunk bed”, whether it was intended or not. Plus, at the end of the quiz you receive a cool badge which you can include on your blog or share on Facebook. I’m sure you too can came up with something quiz-worthy in your niche.

38. Software, tools, scripts, plugins, themes, services

You can use a blog post to announce your new software, tool, plugin, service, etc. Share some information about the thing—what it can do, who it is for, how and when to get it, and so on. This might be a good way of notifying your readers of what’s going on in your business, what you’re up to, and what’s in it for them. You can get some ideas for new services or products by doing a brainstorm and researching what your audience might be interested in. Of course, to make it happen you have to know your audience first.

39. Comics

Every day more bloggers start to publish comics as a constant element of their publishing schedule. Take a look at Web Designer Depot. If you are, or can get, someone who can create the actual comics, it might be a good way for you to expand your audience and give them something that’s very easy to digest. It can be a nice link bait as well. Two examples of comics-only blogs: xkcd and Wulffmorgenthaler.

40. Jokes

No further explanation needed. Obviously, it’s not a good fit for every niche, but who knows? Maybe it’s perfect for yours.

41. Icons and other graphical freebies

This is something that works well in the design niche, which is not very surprising. Designers are always on the hunt for some fresh, preferably free, icons/buttons or other graphical tools. Try to adjust this strategy to your niche. For example, if you have a photography blog you might share some free stock photos on Creative Commons license. If you’re in the business development niche you could get some Microsoft Word templates designed for you and then share them with your audience. It’s not just about icons.

42. Presentations

If you’ve ever given a presentation on whatever topic I’m sure you still have the slides somewhere on your computer. You can upload them to Slide Share and then embed them in your blog post. Inside the post you can describe what the presentation is about, mention when and where you gave it, and encourage your readers to re-embed it on their own blogs.

Audio blog posts

43. Mp3 files (as a podcast)

First things first: what is a podcast? Quoting Wikipedia: “a podcast is a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication.” Translating it into plain English, a podcast can be a series of mp3s launched in a sequence. Probably the best idea is to register your podcast in iTunes and get some recognition there.

When it comes to the content itself, a podcast can contain whatever you want. You can give tutorials on various topics, tell jokes, even read poetry. Feel free to browse the iTunes directory to get some ideas.

44. Interviews

These are similar to text interviews, only this time you conduct them over the phone or Skype and record everything along the way. Then you share them as an mp3 on your blog or turn them into a podcast if you’re planning to release more than one interview.

Again, some people you can interview include: experts, celebrities, ordinary people who have managed to do something significant, people sharing their success stories, companies, and other bloggers in your niche.

45. Talks

Something similar to an interview, but this time you’re getting a number of people (three or four) on the line or Skype, and give them a topic to talk about. Of course, you record everything so you can share it with your audience later on. This kind of talk is more focused on a specific topic rather than on the people participating in the talk. This is a good idea if you have the possibility to convince a couple of influential people in your niche to take part in it.

46. Teleseminars

In order to pull this one off you need an engaged audience, or good marketing. The main idea is that first you announce you’ll be conducting a teleseminar on topic X and give people a link where they can sign up for it. Then when the time comes you give the seminar to a live audience. Of course, you can also record it and share as an mp3 later on.

The most popular way of running a teleseminar is to focus on a how-to topic. It should be something you can explain to your audience—something that’s really important to them, yet it’s not so easy to master alone.

Video blog posts

47. Talking head video

All video post types on this list have one thing in common: once you have the video made you can embed it in a normal blog post, or share it with your audience as a video podcast.

Now, the talking head video. It’s the simplest video to make. What you basically do is sit in front of a camera and talk about something. One of the most famous examples is Gary Vaynerchuk and the posts on his personal blog. Of course, the topic needs to be interesting if you want to have any kind of impact, and you have to be comfortable with the camera—something many people find challenging at first.

48. Screencast

Screencasting is another name for recording what’s happening on your screen. It can be done with software called Jing, for example. It’s a very easy-to-digest way of giving a tutorial on some technical things, like setting up WordPress or doing something in Photoshop. Sometimes it’s much easier to do a screencast than explain such things via text content. Usually the same amount of information can be delivered in a five-minute screencast as in 3,000 words of text. And the problem of you being uncomfortable with being in front of a camera doesn’t apply here, so it’s actually easier to make.

49. Presentation video

This is basically a kind of screencast. But it’s made by first creating a PowerPoint presentation (of course, you can use other software too), then firing it up and recording everything while you talk the viewers through the presentation. It’s very easy to make and the results can be great due to some of the PowerPoint’s fancy features.

50. Interviews

Nothing new here, except this time you’re not writing or recording audio, but shooting a video instead. Video interviews always look more professional because they have that TV-like feel to them.

51. How-to video

Shooting a how-to video is a good idea if you’re in a niche where it’s easier to actually show something than it is to describe it with words. The guitar niche is a great example. It’s much easier to show people how to play a specific chord than it is to describe this to them. The main problem here is that you have to be comfortable with being in front of a camera. If you’re nervous, people will notice.

52. Webinars

Similar to teleseminars, webinars use video as the main medium. Other than that, the same rules apply.

Recycling

The final advice I want to give you in this post is to recycle your content. Now, what do I mean by that? Whenever it’s possible and makes actual sense, try to take a piece of your content and repurpose it by turning it into a different medium.

For example, you can get your videos and mp3s transcribed and then share them as a regular blog post. You can also go the other way around: create an article first, then turn it into a script, and in the end shoot a video and upload it to your YouTube channel. Another idea is to take your email newsletter series, read every edition out loud and share the whole thing as an audio podcast on iTunes. I’m sure you get the idea by now. As you can see, the possibilities are endless.

What’s on your list? Do you have any interesting blog post type ideas you want to share? What’s your favorite type? Speak up in the comments: your input is more than welcome!

Karol K. (@carlosinho) is a 20-something year old web 2.0 entrepreneur from Poland and a grad student at the Silesian University of Technology. He hates to do traditional business but loves to train capoeira. Tune in to get his advice on blogging and starting an online business.

The post 52 Types of Blog Posts that Are Proven to Work appeared first on ProBlogger.

     

The post Forget about Marketing: Concentrate on Blogging appeared first on ProBlogger.

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This is a guest contribution by Nicholas Whitmore.

The title: What on earth does it mean?

Well, recently it seems like a lot of bloggers fancy themselves as marketers. You can’t read a post on a blog without seeing a load of other bloggers commenting at the bottom, with a link back to their own site. Of course other bloggers use black hat SEO tricks and other shady tactics in order to drive traffic to their blog. Each to their own you might say, but at the end of the day life can be much, much easier.

If you publish blog content that’s truly awesome, everyone else will market your blog for you.

If you seem to spend half your life trying to promote your blog with your efforts never coming to fruition, now’s the time to stop. There’s a reason why things aren’t working out – and you can bet your bottom dollar that it’s the actual content in your blog posts.

Sorry to have to break it to you, but your blog posts suck.

It’s time to go back to basics because if you’re guilty of trying to build links and force traffic to your blog, you’re trying too hard.

The art of blogging involves thinking up great topics and blog titles, performing research where required, then authoring great work.

Building links and driving traffic to your website does not fall under the blogging remit – that’s marketing, something different altogether.

Good things come to those who wait

Starting a successful blog is not something that you can do overnight. In fact, it can take months or even years before you start to see traction and those crazy traffic figures you’ve dreamt of. If you’ve got a short attention span or you’re incredibly impatient, the chances are that you won’t make it as a blogger.

Whilst some bloggers out there make a living from their sites, don’t go quitting your day job and blowing your life savings just yet – getting a blog to the point where it can be successfully and sustainably monetized takes a very, very long time.

Expedite success with more awesome blog posts 

The only way in which you can expedite the success of your blog is to publish more high quality content. Be careful not to inundate your visitors with too much content to digest though in your race to the top. Careful balances need to be struck between quality and quantity – a balance must also be struck between too many and too little blog posts.

Rarely will you see a sparsely populated blog that’s extremely popular. One of the core ingredients of a successful blog is frequent content – there’s no getting away from that fact. You don’t have to post 10 new blogs each week, but it would help in a lot of cases.

Hard work always pays off 

On my desk is a mug that my father used to drink out of. It says: “Hard work always pays off” – I find that little saying resonates around my head at least one million times each day. There are few things in life truer than this saying – and it can of course be applied to the world of blogging.

Be prepared to spend a good few months writing awesome posts that few people will read initially.

Keep plugging away – keep publishing great content and your blog will be recognized. The pay off comes when the recognition that your blog receives snowballs – links from other blogs start rolling in, and people recommend your posts on social media.

Recognition usually starts like a little trickle of water – gradually it will build up into a raging torrent. The more recognition your site receives, the more people will read it. As more people read your blog, it’ll receive further recognition. It’s an infinite loop of goodness for you as a blog owner!

In Summary 

When you write and publish awesome content on your blog, good things will come your way.

When you write and publish boring content then spend hours on end building links to it, trying to force people to your website, good things will never come.

Spend your time blogging – not marketing. The marketing side of things will be taken care of for you by your visitors if the blog posts that you publish are good enough to be recommended and shared across the internet.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with sharing posts you publish via social media with friends and followers – it’s the ideal way in which to generate that initial buzz and interest about your blog. When the marketing of your posts takes longer than it does to actually write them however, you’ve almost certainly lost your way as a blogger.

 Nick is a freelance journalist and website content editor from http://www.contentwriting.org. He writes extensively about the art of blogging, as well as online marketing techniques such as SEO, PPC and SMM.

The post Forget about Marketing: Concentrate on Blogging appeared first on ProBlogger.

     

The post 4 Ways A Superhero System Will Make You A Better Blogger appeared first on ProBlogger.

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“That’s it! I’m starting a blog!”

We all had that fire, that passion when we first started a blog. The excitement of creating content and putting it out into the world was tangible… that feeling (and motivation) to publish a few posts and see what everybody thinks.

Fast forward a few months: what happened? Where did all that motivation go!? Now that excitement somehow turned into: “I just have a blog that nobody reads, I’m tired of updating, and I’m wondering if it’s even still worth it.”

We’ve all been there.

Life gets in the way, our kids get sick and keep us from working on our blog that ONE day we had free, or we come home from work dead-tired and fail to write even the first sentence of a new post.

I certainly know I have. I first started my blog Nerd Fitness fourteen years ago, and I can probably count on my fingers and toes how many times I sat down to write simply because I was motivated to do so. More often than not, writing was the last thing on my mind. And yet, here I am: now a pro-blogger (750 published posts, most of which are 2000+ words), and a published author!

I’m not saying this to brag, but to prove a point: I didn’t rely on motivation, but instead put a superhero system in place to make sure I stayed on target.

After all, we all know how awesome superheroes are, and influential they can be in our lives. Just ask Darren!

Today, I’m going to share with you a 4-step system that will help you finally crack the code and consistently improve at your efforts to become a superhero blogger. It’ll help you stop relying on motivation and instead use rock-solid strategies to take over the world…or save it.

BATMAN: Hack Your Batcave to Win.

One of the most important ways I’ve learned to manufacture discipline in life (instead of relying on willpower and inspiration) was through hacking my Batcave.

Bruce Wayne, AKA Batman, is unique in the superhero world in that he doesn’t have any special powers. He can’t fly, he can’t teleport, he can’t regenerate or shoot lightning out of his fingers. Instead, he’s a regular guy that uses his gadgets, gizmos, and a normal mortal body to fight crime.

Since we’re also mere mortals, it’s time to start thinking about your own bat cave (your surroundings) to help you effortlessly stay disciplined like Bruce Wayne.

Your Batcave will probably be your apartment or home office, your kitchen table, or wherever you set up shop to work on your blog. Ask yourself: is this Batcave designed in a way to help me get closer to crushing it as a blogger, or farther away?

Because we are products of our environment, everything around us is subtly pulling us in one direction or another. That TV in your living room is saying “watch me! I have reruns on my DVR!”

While at your computer, Facebook is saying “check me! quick! You might have more likes on that cat video you posted!” Your phone might be next to you might have a notification about a new comment on Instagram, or an email about a sale at JCrew.

If you are going to succeed as a superhero blogger, it’s time to get serious about putting systems in place that work for you. Willpower (aka the power to say “I will write and I will not do all of the other amazing distracting things around me) is a finite resource, which means the more you have to rely on it, the more likely you’ll be to fail.

So stop relying on willpower. Create a lifestyle that sets you up to blog consistently.

I start by adding steps between me and the bad habits that keep me from writing:

• Cancel your cable. Those shows are useless anyways.
• Put your TV in your closet. Or at the very least, far away from where you write.
• Install Freedom.to on your computer and block time wasting websites until you’ve written your 500 words for the day.
• Uninstall all social media apps from your phone (life will go on), and turn off all notifications.
• Find other creative ways to limit the powers of distractions in your life.

I then decrease the number of steps between me and the writing habit I’m going to build:

• I write first thing in the morning, before I check email (don’t even keep the gmail tab open!)
• I have a blank document open on my computer before I go to bed so as soon as I sit down, it’s the first thing I see.
• I set a daily goal of 500 words. It doesn’t matter if it’s good content, or if I want to write, I have to write 500 words.

You need to cultivate discipline, and your environment needs to work for your writing, not against it.

SUPERMAN: Recognize and understand your kryptonite.

Next, we turn to one of the most powerful superhero ever created: Superman!

This dude is faster than a speeding bullet, can leap over tall buildings in a single bound, and shoot freaking lasers out of his eyes! There’s a reason many on earth consider him a god.

However, for all of his powers and abilities that are unlike anything else in existence, he can still be undone by a substance: KRYPTONITE! This glowing green mineral can be used by bad guys to keep Superman at bay.

We all have kryptonite in our lives too that can keep us from becoming Superhero Bloggers if we’re not careful. Not only do we need to recognize our kryptonite, but we need to prepare for it too.

Again, we’re not relying on willpower here, but rather we’re going to kryptonite-proof our lives so we can work daily on our blog.

Let’s start by identifying what your Kryptonite is: this is something that you have almost no chance at withstanding. For me, it was video games: I had purchased NerdFitness.com and did nothing with it for two years because I was too busy playing video games online with my friends and never “found time” to write.

FORTUNATELY, my computer broke, and I couldn’t afford to fix it, so I told myself I couldn’t play another video game AT ALL until I made my first dollar through my website. For the next 18 months I came home work and wrote articles for Nerd Fitness, eventually making money through ebooks with the site. Only then did I allow myself to play games, as I was better equipped to handle them properly.

What is your kryptonite, and how can you fight it?

• Do you come home from work exhausted and all you want to do is plop down on the couch and watch TV? That’s okay! Recognize that writing after work isn’t an option for you, and build the habit of writing BEFORE you go to work.
• Are your kids your kryptonite? I don’t mean they’re glowing and green, but I bet it’s quite tough to focus on blogging and building a side business if you have kids and a family to take care of. So wake up before they do. Yup, it might mean waking up at 5AM to be able to write for 90 minutes uninterrupted before they come jump on your bed.
• Is it TV? Video Games? Negative people in your life? Get rid of them. Life goes on without TV, Netflix, or Fallout.

Maybe your kryptonite is self-doubt. You’re afraid to hit publish because things aren’t perfect, or you are afraid of what people will say, or what if nobody reads it. Seth Godin said it best: “Be judged or be ignored.” People will say anything and everything, so might as well get them talking about you and your work!

If you know where your energy is going to get zapped from, you can prepare for it ahead of time and make sure you get the important stuff done before that kicks in.

WONDER WOMAN: Fight with Passion and Strength

After the Man of Steel and the Caped Crusader, we turn to a female badass: Diana Prince, better known as her alter-ego, Wonder Woman!

This Amazonian goddess has gone through many iteration over there years, but a few things have stayed tried and true throughout her comic book career: her inner and outer strength (I mean, come on…she’s WONDER WOMAN!), determination, passion, and compassion.

It starts by being honest with yourself: are you in this for the right reasons? I think a lot of people like the idea of running their own business, buy a course on blogging, and then try to go into a niche they have no idea about because they’ve told “this is a profitable part of the internet!” These are the people that give up after a few months when they realize money doesn’t just magically start shooting out of their computers once they publish a few blog posts.

The truth is this: becoming a professional writer, running an online business, or being a problogger is a lot of freaking work. I love The Four Hour Workweek as much as the next guy (I bought NerdFitness.com after reading it!), but many people took it the wrong way in assuming they were simply a few weeks away from making a living online with a tiny bit of work. If you are blogging about something that you don’t care about, eager to make money immediately by creating a product before you even have a site worth reading, you’re setting yourself up for a short (and quick) trip back to reality.

Instead, pick a subject you are passionate about. I hate to use the word “passion,” as it gets thrown around by Internet Marketers looking to get you to buy their course on hopes and dreams and unicorns (apologies to any unicorn bloggers), but there’s an element of truth to it. You have to LOVE the topic you’re writing about and the community you hope to build, because you might be writing on that subject with no audience and no money for a long long long time.

Help people. Wonder Woman is known for her humanity: feeling compassion and giving love without discrimination. If you’re struggling to figure out what to write about, solve a problem. When in doubt, help people. Sure, it would be great if you could get paid to eat pudding and watch Netflix, but who will pay you for it? Start creating an insane amount of uniquely helpful content that solves a specific problem for people, and answer every email without discrimination: whether or not that person every pays you a dime, improve their lives in some way.

For the first 5 years of Nerd Fitness’s lifespan, I answered every email that came into the inbox, and the autoresponder people got when they signed up asks “what’s your biggest struggle when it comes to getting fit?” Everybody got a response, and today we have 750 free blog posts, free message boards, in addition paid courses and events. We still answer each email and help each person regardless of who they are or where they came from.

Help people. Write about things that you are fired up about. And expect to do it, thanklessly, for a long time.

JUSTICE LEAGUE: Surround yourself with powerful allies to keep you accountable.

These days, bands of superheroes are everywhere, from the Avengers Movies to the upcoming depiction of the origins Justice League in Batman vs Superman.

Real life allies can be incredibly powerful – the difference between success and failure.

Think of it this way, if you skip your blog writing today to watch TV, nobody would know, and who does it hurt, right? But now imagine you’re in this with a friend who is also writing, and they notice you didn’t have your blog post up and give you a call. This is the beginning of introducing some accountability to your system.

I got a bit extreme with this, and gave a coworker $500 of my dollars, and for every day a blog post was late, she would donate $50 to a cause I HATED. Of course, I couldn’t possibly live with myself knowing my money funded something I disliked so much, so I had to get my blog posts done on time. Sometimes it was at 4AM, other times it was seconds before I had to hit post… but I got them done.

So form your own Justice League!

• Follw the Problogger Facebook Page: It’s a community of people who are struggling with the same things you are!
• Build your own mastermind group. Online or in person, group up with others who share your excitement about building a business and holding each other accountable.
• Find an accountability buddy…aka accountabilibuddy. A single person that will call you on your excuses can an incredibly long way in holding you accountable when you need to get shit done.

I’m not quite sure if Batman gives Wonder Woman homework, or if Superman makes sure Bruce Wayne gets to his workouts on time, but I like to think they do!

The world needs more heroes. Will you heed the call? I’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment below with:

1. 1 environmental hack you can use to stay on target with your blogging
2. Your blogging kryptonite and how you will fight it off.
3. One way you can be more helpful and serve your audience better.
4. 1 friend you can recruit to your Justice League

Steve Kamb is the author of Level Up Your Life and creator of Nerd Fitness, a worldwide community of average joes and jills looking to live better lives.

The post 4 Ways A Superhero System Will Make You A Better Blogger appeared first on ProBlogger.

     

The post An Introduction to Using Images on Blogs appeared first on ProBlogger.

Image created in Canva

The following post was originally submitted by Duncan Riley from the Blog Herald, Weblog Empire and updated with current tools and tips.

I asked Duncan to explore the topic of using Images on Blogs. I think you’ll agree that his article below is a very comprehensive exploration of the topic, which I hope you will find helpful.

Any good blogger will tell you that images and imagery are vitally important in the development and rise of any good blog, but they can also be frustrating, time-consuming, and challenging to work with. Nonetheless, it’s crucial to understand how to effectively use images on your blog.

Types of Images

For ease of use, let’s categorize images on your blog into two categories: design imagery and content imagery. Design imagery includes any images you may want to use in the header, sidebar, or footer to enhance the overall visual appeal of your blog. Content imagery refers to photos and images you include within or exclusively as blog posts. While we will cover common ground in dealing with both types of images, there are some distinct considerations for each.

Toolbox

While there are various tools available, let’s focus on free resources for image editing and creation to suit different needs and budgets:

1. Canva: an excellent web-based graphic design tool that offers a user-friendly interface and a wide range of customizable templates. It provides an extensive library of free images, icons, and illustrations to enhance your blog’s visual content. It’s what we use here at ProBlogger.

2. PicMonkey: another useful tool for creating visual content for your blog with photo editing and design plus templates for logos, banners, thumbnails, and more

3. GIMP: powerful open-source image editing software available for PC, Mac, and Linux. Many users consider it as powerful as Adobe Photoshop but without the price tag. GIMP offers a comprehensive set of features for manipulating and editing images.

Posting Images to Your Blog

The method for posting images to your blog depends on the blogging platform you use. Most platforms, whether free or paid, offer image hosting as part of their services. However, it’s essential to consider the bandwidth/traffic limitations of your blogging package and how image sizes can impact your blog’s loading speed. To optimize your images, you can utilize image editing software such as GIMP or Canva, which allows you to resize and compress images.

TIP: If you’re having trouble wityh your image file size being too big, try using TinyPNG which is a free service for Smart WebP, PNG and JPEG image file compression.

Copyright Issues

Copyright laws vary, but in general, using copyright-protected images as extracts or complements to your posts falls under Fair Use or Fair Dealing. However, using such images as part of your blog’s design may not be considered fair use. It’s crucial to familiarize yourself with the legal concepts of fair use and fair dealing in your jurisdiction.

When it comes to commercial sites, it’s safest to assume that the images are copyrighted unless stated otherwise. It’s advisable to avoid using such images unless you understand the legal implications.

It’s also important to follow the unwritten rule in the blogosphere of providing attribution when using images from other blogs. Include a link back to the source blog within or at the end of your post, giving credit to the original creator.

Where to Find Copyright-Free Images

To find copyright-free images, you can explore the following resources:

1. Unsplash: offers a vast collection of high-quality, copyright-free images contributed by photographers worldwide. The images are available for free and can be used for both personal and commercial purposes. We’ve previously used Unsplash a lot at ProBlogger.

2. Pixabay: provides a diverse collection of copyright-free images, illustrations, and vectors.

3. Pexels: another popular platform that offers a wide range of high-quality, free stock photos and videos. You can search for specific images or explore their curated collections.

4. Freepik: provides a vast selection of free vectors, PSD files, icons, and photos. It’s a great resource for bloggers looking for graphic elements to enhance their visual content.

5. Canva’s Free Image Library: In addition to its design tools, Canva also offers a free image library with a wide variety of high-quality photos and illustrations that you can use in your blog posts.

Remember to review the specific licensing terms and requirements for each resource to ensure proper usage and attribution.

What services are there to help bloggers with images?

There are several ways you can enhance your image experience as a blogger:

Forums: If you encounter any image-related issues, check out the user forums of your blogging platform or hosting service. These forums often contain valuable information and discussions on similar problems. You can search for solutions or even post your own questions.

Support: If you’re using a paid blogging service like TypePad, take advantage of their customer support. Reach out to their support team via email with your questions or concerns. While they may not directly assist with image-related issues, they can point you in the right direction or provide helpful resources.

Blogs and Bloggers: Many bloggers have encountered and solved image-related challenges. Utilize search engines like Google and blog directories like Technorati to find blog posts or articles discussing similar issues. You may discover valuable insights and solutions shared by experienced bloggers.

By utilizing these resources and tools, you can effectively incorporate images into your blog posts, enhance your blog’s visual appeal, and navigate any image-related challenges that may arise.

Remember to always respect copyright laws, give proper attribution when necessary, and strive to create a visually engaging and appealing blog through the thoughtful use of images.

What tips and tools do you have for using images on your blog? Drop them in a comment below.

The post An Introduction to Using Images on Blogs appeared first on ProBlogger.