<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" media="screen" href="/~d/styles/rss2full.xsl"?><?xml-stylesheet type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~d/styles/itemcontent.css"?><rss xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0" version="2.0">

<channel>
	<title>Blogging Teacher</title>
	
	<link>http://www.bloggingteacher.com</link>
	<description>Blogging Tips to Create a Successful Blog</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Fri, 03 Sep 2010 02:07:17 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1</generator>
		<atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/BloggingTeacher" /><feedburner:info uri="bloggingteacher" /><atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="hub" href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" /><feedburner:emailServiceId>BloggingTeacher</feedburner:emailServiceId><feedburner:feedburnerHostname>http://feedburner.google.com</feedburner:feedburnerHostname><item>
		<title>4 Solid Reasons Why you’re Not Getting Traffic to Your Blog</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BloggingTeacher/~3/abPU9CgY0yY/4-solid-reasons-why-you%e2%80%99re-not-getting-traffic-to-your-blog</link>
		<comments>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/4-solid-reasons-why-you%e2%80%99re-not-getting-traffic-to-your-blog#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 Sep 2010 02:07:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Paul Cunningham</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Traffic]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.bloggingteacher.com/?p=1947</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Traffic is very important to your blog’s success.  It is traffic that determines how many comments you will get, it is traffic that determines how many mailing list subscribers you will get and it is also traffic that will determine how many sales you will make.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a class="post_image_link" href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/4-solid-reasons-why-you%e2%80%99re-not-getting-traffic-to-your-blog" title="Permanent link to 4 Solid Reasons Why you’re Not Getting Traffic to Your Blog"><img class="post_image aligncenter" src="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/emptyroad.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Post image for 4 Solid Reasons Why you’re Not Getting Traffic to Your Blog" /></a>
</p><p><em>This is a guest post by Onibalusi Bamidele.</em></p>
<p>Traffic is very important to your blog’s success.  It is traffic that determines how many comments you will get, it is traffic that determines how many mailing list subscribers you will get and it is also traffic that will determine how many sales you will make.</p>
<p>Many bloggers have worked hard, building traffic to their blog.  They’ve guest posted, they’ve commented on other blogs, they’ve done practically everything they think they have to do in order to get traffic to their blogs but it seems all is a waste; they just can’t get it right.</p>
<p>Many bloggers get traffic, but the traffic keeps reducing, it is like you got 100 visitors today and then see it diminish to 80 tomorrow or you can’t just get past a particular amount of visitors, it seems like you’ve reached a plateau.</p>
<p>This post will be talking about 4 reasons why you are not getting traffic to your blog, and I will be giving some practical tips I have used to overcome this problem.</p>
<h2>1. You’re not Re-evaluating Your Blog</h2>
<p>It is very important every blog and business take this step. If you implement something and it’s not working for you, you don’t need to be discouraged or begin to think about quitting. Take a moment and re-evaluate your blog – what is it that you’re doing that needs to be stopped? Or what is it that you aren’t doing that you need to get started doing?</p>
<p>There are various aspects of your blog that has to be re-evaluated; one major aspect is the overall theme and goal of your blog. If you say you want to be writing about blogging tips, are you writing about tech tips? Your readers are reading your blog for a reason, and not fulfilling that reason might make you lose them.  If your readers subscribed to (or are visiting) your blog because of the blogging tips they want, they might have no other choice than to quit if they see you changing the theme of your blog – you can’t expect a bank manager to be reading about nursing.</p>
<h2>2. You Don’t Know What You Want</h2>
<p>It is very clear that there are several ways to get traffic to a blog, but one major reason why many bloggers are not getting traffic to their blog is because they don’t know what they want. You will see some people say they want search engine traffic today and then focus on social media traffic tomorrow.</p>
<p>Know what you want! If it is social media traffic you want, spend your time learning how the system works and if it is search engine traffic you want, spend your time optimizing your blog and your posts for the search engines.</p>
<p>One major step you should take is to list the major ways you want to get traffic to your blog, know what it will take, plan how you want to go about it and then stick to it. If your major traffic generation strategy is guest posting, you don’t need to waste your time commenting for traffic, focus on guest posting and guest posting only and if your major traffic generation strategy is social media, learn to be a social media power user.</p>
<p>There is power in consistency, choose a method and stick to it!</p>
<h2>3. You Don’t Write Great Content</h2>
<p>I am a blogger who loves testing things, I might decide to write everyday for this month and then write 5 posts the next month, it all depends on what my mode of experiment is.</p>
<p>I have taken a close look at the articles I write everyday and the once in a while killer content I write, I discovered that the everyday article does not pass the average page view while the killer one keeps bringing in traffic weeks after I have written it. I have also discovered that the killer articles I write impacts my general blog traffic i.e. if I do get 100 visitors a day, one killer article can help me move that number to 140 daily visitors permanently (I have written an article that doubled my daily traffic).</p>
<p>Your readers know what is good and they are most likely going to stick to your blog if you write great posts than if you write posts that are just there to fill the space. Try to focus your efforts on producing great content and see if it is worth it, the results will decide for you!</p>
<h2>4. You Aren’t Consistent</h2>
<p>In terms of being consistent, I am not saying you should have a fixed posting schedule, but you should rather make things clear. A reader who reads one of your great posts will be strongly disappointed if he/she visits your blog everyday for 2 weeks without finding a single recent article on your blog, the reader will eventually quit.</p>
<p>Try to keep updating your blog regularly; don’t just leave your readers in a state of confusion, waiting for your next article to go live.</p>
<p>One thing I have discovered is that updating your blog too much is dangerous (except you want to be doing it consistently) and not updating at all is dangerous. If you want to write one article every two weeks and then spend most of your time promoting your blog, be consistent with it, don’t just start posting everyday and then pause for a week. If you do post everyday and you decided not to post for weeks, your readers will begin to think you have stopped blogging.</p>
<h2>Conclusion!</h2>
<p>One major mistake many bloggers make is focusing the best of their efforts on what is of the least importance, or better put, misplacing their priorities. If you make sure everything towards sustaining traffic to your blog is in good condition, getting traffic to your blog won’t be a problem.</p>
<p class="note">Onibalusi Bamidele is a young entrepreneur living the internet lifestyle, visit his <a href="http://www.youngprepro.com">entrepreneur blog</a> for more great posts and <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/dataentryforall">subscribe to his blog</a> so that you won’t miss the goodies.</p>
<p>Image Credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicholas_t/">Flickr</a></p>
<h3  class="related_post_title">Related articles:</h3><ul class="related_post"><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/is-guest-posting-traffic-valuable-for-your-blog" title="Is Guest Posting Traffic Valuable for Your Blog?">Is Guest Posting Traffic Valuable for Your Blog?</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/podcast-deliberate-blogging" title="Podcast: Deliberate Blogging">Podcast: Deliberate Blogging</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/heres-a-quick-way-to-create-an-endless-supply-of-blog-post-ideas" title="Here&#8217;s a Quick Way to Create an Endless Supply of Blog Post Ideas">Here&#8217;s a Quick Way to Create an Endless Supply of Blog Post Ideas</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/blogger-interview-rhys-wynne-of-the-gospel-according-to-rhys" title="Blogger Interview: Rhys Wynne of The Gospel According to Rhys">Blogger Interview: Rhys Wynne of The Gospel According to Rhys</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/4-productive-things-to-do-when-you-hit-a-blogging-dead-end" title="4 Productive Things to do When You Hit a Blogging Dead End">4 Productive Things to do When You Hit a Blogging Dead End</a></li></ul><hr />
<a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/review-of-backup-buddy-wordpress-backup-plugin?utm_source=bloggingteacher&utm_medium=rssfeed&utm_campaign=backupbuddy"><img src="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/images/backup-468x60.gif"/></a>
<p>This article <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/4-solid-reasons-why-you%e2%80%99re-not-getting-traffic-to-your-blog">4 Solid Reasons Why you’re Not Getting Traffic to Your Blog</a> is © 2010 BloggingTeacher.com</p>
<p>Get more <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com">blogging tips</a> at <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com">BloggingTeacher.com</a></p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=abPU9CgY0yY:KQPgZr8LqcU:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=abPU9CgY0yY:KQPgZr8LqcU:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=abPU9CgY0yY:KQPgZr8LqcU:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=abPU9CgY0yY:KQPgZr8LqcU:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=abPU9CgY0yY:KQPgZr8LqcU:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=abPU9CgY0yY:KQPgZr8LqcU:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=abPU9CgY0yY:KQPgZr8LqcU:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=abPU9CgY0yY:KQPgZr8LqcU:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=abPU9CgY0yY:KQPgZr8LqcU:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=abPU9CgY0yY:KQPgZr8LqcU:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=abPU9CgY0yY:KQPgZr8LqcU:I9og5sOYxJI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=I9og5sOYxJI" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BloggingTeacher/~4/abPU9CgY0yY" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/4-solid-reasons-why-you%e2%80%99re-not-getting-traffic-to-your-blog/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		<feedburner:origLink>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/4-solid-reasons-why-you%e2%80%99re-not-getting-traffic-to-your-blog</feedburner:origLink></item>
		<item>
		<title>Is Guest Posting Traffic Valuable for Your Blog?</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BloggingTeacher/~3/yyyKWQ63oY4/is-guest-posting-traffic-valuable-for-your-blog</link>
		<comments>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/is-guest-posting-traffic-valuable-for-your-blog#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:32:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Paul Cunningham</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Guest Posting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Traffic]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.bloggingteacher.com/?p=1937</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You've heard it before - guest blogging is a powerful strategy for driving traffic to your blog.  But how much traffic can you expect?  Well I've had guest posts published on blogs of all sizes and even a guest post on the biggest blog is no guarantee of a massive rush of traffic to your own site.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a class="post_image_link" href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/is-guest-posting-traffic-valuable-for-your-blog" title="Permanent link to Is Guest Posting Traffic Valuable for Your Blog?"><img class="post_image aligncenter" src="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/queue.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Post image for Is Guest Posting Traffic Valuable for Your Blog?" /></a>
</p><p>You&#8217;ve heard it before &#8211; guest blogging is a powerful strategy for driving traffic to your blog.</p>
<p>But how much traffic can you expect?  Well I&#8217;ve had guest posts published on blogs of all sizes and even a guest post on the biggest blog is no guarantee of a massive rush of traffic to your own site.</p>
<p>So you might be wondering just how valuable that traffic really is.  I&#8217;m going to show you some stats from a guest post of mine that was published last week, as an example of the value of guest posting for traffic.</p>
<h2>Traffic Stats from a High Profile Guest Post</h2>
<p>This particular guest post was published on one of the leading websites in the niche, and provided just a single link back to my own blog from the author bio.  It is my second guest post on the site (the first was via a republishing agreement, this one was a unique article).</p>
<p>How did those visitors compare to overall site traffic?</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Time on Site</strong> &#8211; 155% higher than site average</li>
<li><strong>Bounce Rate</strong> &#8211; 37% lower than the site average</li>
<li><strong>Pages per Visit</strong> &#8211; 99% higher than the site average</li>
<li><strong>Conversion to Email Subscriber</strong> &#8211; 428% higher than the site average.  Better yet, over 800% better than the conversion rate for the blog&#8217;s main traffic source, Google.</li>
</ul>
<p>The conversions alone are worth the time it took me to write the guest post.  It&#8217;s been exciting to see the big jump in new subscribers to that list.</p>
<h2>How to Land Great Guest Posting Spots</h2>
<p>In my interview for <a href="http://blogcastfm.com/blogger-interviews/paul-cunningham-blogging-teacher/">BlogcastFM</a> I was asked how did I manage to land a <a href="http://www.problogger.net/archives/2010/04/24/how-small-victories-help-you-create-big-products-for-your-blog/">guest post on Problogger</a>.</p>
<p>In the interview I explained that it came down to a few main factors.</p>
<ul>
<li>Darren already knew me from interactions on his blog, Twitter, email and the <a href="http://www.problogger.com/forum">Problogger forums</a></li>
<li>I took the time to write a quality blog post, giving myself time to do multiple edits and revisions until I was completely satisfied with it</li>
<li>I did as much leg work as possible for Darren, such as pre-formatting the HTML, and making sure the images would fit in his blog&#8217;s content column</li>
<li>I linked to as many of Darren&#8217;s relevant archived posts as I could find</li>
<li>The timing was perfect, because it continued a theme from a guest post by David Risley and a post by Darren himself</li>
</ul>
<p>If all of those factors were not present I would not have had the confidence to even pitch the guest post to him in the first place.</p>
<p>So how did I learn all of that?  Well a few weeks prior to that I had bought and read the <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/recommends/guestposting">guest posting guide</a> by Chris Garrett.  Chris has been a prolific guest poster over the years and condensed everything he learned into this package which includes an ebook, video, and some worksheets and other resources to help plan a guest posting campaign.</p>
<p>I remember thinking at the time that the guide was a bit different than your typical ebook product.  I couldn&#8217;t really put my finger on it until I actually met Chris in person at the Problogger Training Day in Melbourne.  Chris is so genuinely shy and humble that he can&#8217;t oversell anything.  It just isn&#8217;t in his nature.  So that instantly explained the very plain website and the bargain price for the <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/recommends/guestposting">guest posting guide</a>.</p>
<h2>Using Guest Posting to Build Traffic to your Blog</h2>
<p>You can use guest posting to drive traffic to your blog by following this simple process.</p>
<ol>
<li>If you aren&#8217;t confident enough or want some help with the finer details, check out Chris&#8217;s <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/recommends/guestposting">guest posting guide</a>.</li>
<li>Choose the blogs that you want to write guest posts for. Don&#8217;t just pick the top blogs in your niche, look for some smaller ones as well, especially those that have passionate audiences.</li>
<li>Get to know the blog owner by participating in their comments and in other places such as Twitter.</li>
<li>Make sure you read their guest posting guidelines, if they have them.</li>
<li>Write an amazing blog post. It should be so amazing that you would happily post it on your own blog. Don&#8217;t hold back thinking you need to save the best stuff for your own blog.</li>
<li>Submit your post following their guidelines to the letter.</li>
<li>After about a week if you haven&#8217;t heard back from them you should send a quick follow up.</li>
</ol>
<p>I really recommend you give guest posting a try if you aren&#8217;t already doing it.  As you can see from my own stats it is a very powerful method for driving high value traffic to your blog.</p>
<p><em>Image Credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/saxonmoseley/">Flickr</a></em></p>
<h3  class="related_post_title">Related articles:</h3><ul class="related_post"><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/4-solid-reasons-why-you%e2%80%99re-not-getting-traffic-to-your-blog" title="4 Solid Reasons Why you’re Not Getting Traffic to Your Blog">4 Solid Reasons Why you’re Not Getting Traffic to Your Blog</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/podcast-deliberate-blogging" title="Podcast: Deliberate Blogging">Podcast: Deliberate Blogging</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/heres-a-quick-way-to-create-an-endless-supply-of-blog-post-ideas" title="Here&#8217;s a Quick Way to Create an Endless Supply of Blog Post Ideas">Here&#8217;s a Quick Way to Create an Endless Supply of Blog Post Ideas</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/blogger-interview-rhys-wynne-of-the-gospel-according-to-rhys" title="Blogger Interview: Rhys Wynne of The Gospel According to Rhys">Blogger Interview: Rhys Wynne of The Gospel According to Rhys</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/4-productive-things-to-do-when-you-hit-a-blogging-dead-end" title="4 Productive Things to do When You Hit a Blogging Dead End">4 Productive Things to do When You Hit a Blogging Dead End</a></li></ul><hr />
<a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/review-of-backup-buddy-wordpress-backup-plugin?utm_source=bloggingteacher&utm_medium=rssfeed&utm_campaign=backupbuddy"><img src="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/images/backup-468x60.gif"/></a>
<p>This article <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/is-guest-posting-traffic-valuable-for-your-blog">Is Guest Posting Traffic Valuable for Your Blog?</a> is © 2010 BloggingTeacher.com</p>
<p>Get more <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com">blogging tips</a> at <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com">BloggingTeacher.com</a></p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=yyyKWQ63oY4:wCT6H8aETrA:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=yyyKWQ63oY4:wCT6H8aETrA:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=yyyKWQ63oY4:wCT6H8aETrA:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=yyyKWQ63oY4:wCT6H8aETrA:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=yyyKWQ63oY4:wCT6H8aETrA:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=yyyKWQ63oY4:wCT6H8aETrA:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=yyyKWQ63oY4:wCT6H8aETrA:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=yyyKWQ63oY4:wCT6H8aETrA:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=yyyKWQ63oY4:wCT6H8aETrA:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=yyyKWQ63oY4:wCT6H8aETrA:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=yyyKWQ63oY4:wCT6H8aETrA:I9og5sOYxJI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=I9og5sOYxJI" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BloggingTeacher/~4/yyyKWQ63oY4" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/is-guest-posting-traffic-valuable-for-your-blog/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		<feedburner:origLink>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/is-guest-posting-traffic-valuable-for-your-blog</feedburner:origLink></item>
		<item>
		<title>4 Productive Things to do When You Hit a Blogging Dead End</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BloggingTeacher/~3/CH5JfSGpwHU/4-productive-things-to-do-when-you-hit-a-blogging-dead-end</link>
		<comments>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/4-productive-things-to-do-when-you-hit-a-blogging-dead-end#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 28 Aug 2010 13:47:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Paul Cunningham</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Productivity]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.bloggingteacher.com/?p=1931</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Some people call blogging a journey, and if that is true then it is a journey with a lot of false starts, wrong turns, and dead ends.  When a new blogger hits a dead end they don’t know where to go.  They feel lost, and very often then simply end their journey right there.  But just because you can’t see where to go next doesn’t mean you should give up.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a class="post_image_link" href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/4-productive-things-to-do-when-you-hit-a-blogging-dead-end" title="Permanent link to 4 Productive Things to do When You Hit a Blogging Dead End"><img class="post_image aligncenter" src="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/deadend.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Post image for 4 Productive Things to do When You Hit a Blogging Dead End" /></a>
</p><p>Some people call blogging a journey, and if that is true then it is a journey with a lot of false starts, wrong turns, and dead ends.</p>
<p>When a new blogger hits a dead end they don’t know where to go.  They feel lost, and very often then simply end their journey right there.  But just because you can’t see where to go next doesn’t mean you should give up.</p>
<p>When I feel like I’ve hit a dead end I am tempted to just slouch down in my chair and stare at the Twitter stream until I decide to go to bed.  Believe me I’ve done it more than once in the past, and of course it gets me nowhere.  So instead of throwing away hours of productive time I started using that time to my advantage instead.</p>
<p>Here are 4 tips for finding your way out of a blogging dead end.</p>
<h2>Brainstorm New Post Ideas</h2>
<p>Mind mapping an amazingly productive brainstorming technique.  Try creating a mind map of 50 new post ideas and look for ways to interlink them into short series.</p>
<p>50 posts might sound like a lot but once you get the first few ideas rolling the rest can come quite easily.</p>
<p>I use the free version of <a href="http://www.xmind.net/">Xmind</a> to create mind maps.</p>
<h2>Re-Assess Monetization</h2>
<p>Quite a lot of people start blogs to make money but then get so busy blogging and networking that they forget to optimize their monetization.</p>
<p>When I’m in a rut or just too tired to come up with new content I’ll take a look at my ads, affiliate promotions, and other streams and see what is and isn’t working.  When you take a look at these with fresh eyes once in a while often you will spot problems or improvements to make.</p>
<h2>Test Processes</h2>
<p>I have a regular <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/resources">blog maintenance schedule</a> but I also use the times when I feel stuck to just test out one or more of the processes on my blogs.</p>
<p>For example I will sign up to a mailing list and make sure it is working, and that the confirmation email and autoresponder messages are still working and contain valid information.  Contact forms and backups are also good to test during these times.</p>
<h2>Traffic Analysis</h2>
<p>I try and avoid stats addiction by not spending hours in Google Analytics every day, but on those days when nothing is coming out of me I’ll dive deeper into the stats and look for anything interesting.</p>
<p>I like to see whether traffic is still growing or plateauing, whether the growth is from search engines or referring sites, any posts doing unusually well/poorly that I can improve on, or which forums/networks are sending me best traffic in case I need to increase my presence there.</p>
<h2>Over to You</h2>
<p>So what about you?  Do you ever hit those dead ends and find yourself struggling to create something new.  What do you do to keep from wasting those hours?</p>
<p><em>Image Credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/benny_lin/">Flickr</a></em></p>
<h3  class="related_post_title">Related articles:</h3><ul class="related_post"><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/the-value-of-setting-blogging-goals" title="The Value of Setting Blogging Goals">The Value of Setting Blogging Goals</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/you-wont-make-money-by-just-blogging" title="You Won&#8217;t Make Money by Just Blogging">You Won&#8217;t Make Money by Just Blogging</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/the-bloggers-guide-to-eating-elephants" title="The Blogger&#8217;s Guide to Eating Elephants">The Blogger&#8217;s Guide to Eating Elephants</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/how-to-make-a-successful-blog-without-any-content" title="How to Make a Successful Blog Without Any Content">How to Make a Successful Blog Without Any Content</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/the-perils-of-synchronous-blogging" title="The Perils of Synchronous Blogging">The Perils of Synchronous Blogging</a></li></ul><hr />
<a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/review-of-backup-buddy-wordpress-backup-plugin?utm_source=bloggingteacher&utm_medium=rssfeed&utm_campaign=backupbuddy"><img src="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/images/backup-468x60.gif"/></a>
<p>This article <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/4-productive-things-to-do-when-you-hit-a-blogging-dead-end">4 Productive Things to do When You Hit a Blogging Dead End</a> is © 2010 BloggingTeacher.com</p>
<p>Get more <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com">blogging tips</a> at <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com">BloggingTeacher.com</a></p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=CH5JfSGpwHU:xm7iFF5qU5M:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=CH5JfSGpwHU:xm7iFF5qU5M:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=CH5JfSGpwHU:xm7iFF5qU5M:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=CH5JfSGpwHU:xm7iFF5qU5M:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=CH5JfSGpwHU:xm7iFF5qU5M:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=CH5JfSGpwHU:xm7iFF5qU5M:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=CH5JfSGpwHU:xm7iFF5qU5M:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=CH5JfSGpwHU:xm7iFF5qU5M:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=CH5JfSGpwHU:xm7iFF5qU5M:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=CH5JfSGpwHU:xm7iFF5qU5M:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=CH5JfSGpwHU:xm7iFF5qU5M:I9og5sOYxJI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=I9og5sOYxJI" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BloggingTeacher/~4/CH5JfSGpwHU" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/4-productive-things-to-do-when-you-hit-a-blogging-dead-end/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>8</slash:comments>
		<feedburner:origLink>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/4-productive-things-to-do-when-you-hit-a-blogging-dead-end</feedburner:origLink></item>
		<item>
		<title>My House Just Burned Down</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BloggingTeacher/~3/zWgr0PK5gN0/my-house-just-burned-down</link>
		<comments>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/my-house-just-burned-down#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 24 Aug 2010 06:04:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Paul Cunningham</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Email Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mailing Lists]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.bloggingteacher.com/?p=1924</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you haven't already put in place the things you'll need in the future, you might one day find yourself standing in the wreckage of the thing that you worked hard to build and wondering what went wrong.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a class="post_image_link" href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/my-house-just-burned-down" title="Permanent link to My House Just Burned Down"><img class="post_image aligncenter" src="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/fire.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Post image for My House Just Burned Down" /></a>
</p><p>A person phones the insurance company and says “<em>Hi, my house just burned down. Can I buy some insurance?</em>”</p>
<p>That’s the thing about insurance. By the time you need it, it’s too late to buy it.</p>
<h2>The Greatest Ebook That Nobody Ever Bought</h2>
<p>Imagine you’ve been blogging for a few years.  You’ve worked hard writing great blog posts, leaving comments all over the place, and tweeting every day.  You’ve built some good traffic and are starting to think you could be a successful blogger.</p>
<p>You also did what the experts told you to do and created a product to sell, an ebook for the sake of example.  And now you want to tell people about it.</p>
<p>So you write a blog post and send out a tweet.  You sell two or three and that is all.  Meanwhile successful ebook launches are going on around you.  Theirs is selling like crazy and yours isn’t.  The big difference?  They have a list they can sell to.</p>
<p>Your blog brings you traffic.  You sell to your list.  Its time you started one.</p>
<h2>The Simple Steps to Successful Email Marketing</h2>
<p>Here’s what you do.</p>
<ol>
<li>Sign up to <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/recommends/aweber">Aweber</a> or <a href="http://www.mailchimp.com">Mailchimp</a>.  They’re both good.  I use <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/recommends/aweber" style=""  rel="nofollow" >Aweber</a>, you might prefer Mailchimp for the free starter plan.</li>
<li>Set up your first list and become your first subscriber to test it out.</li>
<li>Create something you can use as a <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/how-to-use-free-content-to-build-a-mailing-list">list building incentive</a>.</li>
<li>Promote your list on your blog.  Put signup forms in your sidebar and at the end of blog posts (if you’re not sure just take a look at what your favourite blogs are doing and start with that).</li>
<li>Test a popup.  Yes, an <em>evil popup</em>. They don’t have to be annoying and obnoxious if you don’t want them to be.</li>
<li>Keep driving traffic to your blog, and watching your signup rates.  Sidebar form not converting? Try a different colour.  Popup conversions too low? Try a stronger offer.</li>
<li>Keep your list warm with regular, high value content.</li>
<li>When the time is right, make them an offer.  Your ebook, an affiliate product, or a consulting service. Whatever it is you sell, your list should hold the people who are most interested in you and your stuff.</li>
</ol>
<p>Yes you’ll make mistakes.  Yes you’ll write a dud headline on an email that nobody opens.  Yes people will unsubscribe.  And yes, it costs a little bit of money to have a list.  But there is no black magic behind it all, and nothing to learn that is any harder than learning to blog in the first place.</p>
<h2>Still Not Convinced?</h2>
<p>Getting started with email marketing was something I really struggled with.  It wasn’t anything to do with the technical stuff; it was this voice inside of me that thought marketing was <em>sleazy, spammy</em>, and <em>soulless</em>.</p>
<p>If your internal voice is objecting then simply leave a comment below telling me what that voice is saying to you right now, and I’ll answer your concerns as quickly as I can.</p>
<p><em>Image Credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/caesarsebastian/">Flickr</a></em></p>
<h3  class="related_post_title">Related articles:</h3><ul class="related_post"><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/single-or-double-opt-in" title="Are You a Single or a Double? (The Opt-In Debate)">Are You a Single or a Double? (The Opt-In Debate)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/should-you-resend-your-emails-to-subscribers-who-didnt-open-them" title="Should You Resend Your Emails to Subscribers Who Didn&#8217;t Open Them?">Should You Resend Your Emails to Subscribers Who Didn&#8217;t Open Them?</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/7-easy-steps-to-expert-email-marketing" title="7 Easy Steps to Expert Email Marketing">7 Easy Steps to Expert Email Marketing</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/email-marketing-report" title="Download the Free Email Marketing Report">Download the Free Email Marketing Report</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/what-is-the-best-day-to-send-emails" title="What is the Best Day to Send Emails?">What is the Best Day to Send Emails?</a></li></ul><hr />
<a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/review-of-backup-buddy-wordpress-backup-plugin?utm_source=bloggingteacher&utm_medium=rssfeed&utm_campaign=backupbuddy"><img src="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/images/backup-468x60.gif"/></a>
<p>This article <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/my-house-just-burned-down">My House Just Burned Down</a> is © 2010 BloggingTeacher.com</p>
<p>Get more <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com">blogging tips</a> at <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com">BloggingTeacher.com</a></p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=zWgr0PK5gN0:anxaVTjn0Yk:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=zWgr0PK5gN0:anxaVTjn0Yk:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=zWgr0PK5gN0:anxaVTjn0Yk:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=zWgr0PK5gN0:anxaVTjn0Yk:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=zWgr0PK5gN0:anxaVTjn0Yk:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=zWgr0PK5gN0:anxaVTjn0Yk:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=zWgr0PK5gN0:anxaVTjn0Yk:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=zWgr0PK5gN0:anxaVTjn0Yk:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=zWgr0PK5gN0:anxaVTjn0Yk:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=zWgr0PK5gN0:anxaVTjn0Yk:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=zWgr0PK5gN0:anxaVTjn0Yk:I9og5sOYxJI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=I9og5sOYxJI" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BloggingTeacher/~4/zWgr0PK5gN0" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/my-house-just-burned-down/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>12</slash:comments>
		<feedburner:origLink>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/my-house-just-burned-down</feedburner:origLink></item>
		<item>
		<title>Three Easy Ways to Instantly Improve Your Blogging Score</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BloggingTeacher/~3/ECuNBowPx4M/three-easy-ways-to-instantly-improve-your-blogging-score</link>
		<comments>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/three-easy-ways-to-instantly-improve-your-blogging-score#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:01:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Paul Cunningham</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Features]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Copywriting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ebooks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Writing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.bloggingteacher.com/?p=1908</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In this post I give you three killer tips for immediately improving the quality of your blog posts, and tell you how to get 60 more tips just like them.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a class="post_image_link" href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/three-easy-ways-to-instantly-improve-your-blogging-score" title="Permanent link to Three Easy Ways to Instantly Improve Your Blogging Score"><img class="post_image aligncenter" src="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/three.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Post image for Three Easy Ways to Instantly Improve Your Blogging Score" /></a>
</p><p>My friend Glenn doesn&#8217;t know a lot about WordPress. And what he does know gets him into trouble more often than not.  In fact that&#8217;s how we met on Twitter.  Glenn had a WordPress question and I had the answer.</p>
<p>What Glenn does know a lot about is writing.  Copywriting and SEO are his bread and butter.  So when Glenn wanted to help bloggers improve their writing skills he teamed up with the best blogger he knows, Darren Rowse of Problogger.</p>
<p>But Glenn and Darren wanted to do something more than just another Problogger guest post.  They knew that bloggers love two things:</p>
<ul>
<li>Checklists they can follow</li>
<li>Scores they can use to compare themselves to everyone else</li>
</ul>
<p>And so the two of them got together and created the <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/recommends/scorecard">Copywriting Scorecard for Bloggers</a>.  I&#8217;m going to be sneaky and share three of their best tips for you right here.</p>
<h2>Write Effective Headlines (3 Points)</h2>
<p>A killer headline will make or break a blog post.  Take a look at the blog posts that get the most retweets, Stumbles, and Diggs.  Notice what they all have in common?  Great headlines!</p>
<p>Look at the headline for this blog post.  Did it make you want to click through and find out more?  (I hope so, or Glenn will be laughing at me right now).</p>
<h2>Use Short Sentences for Impact (3 Points)</h2>
<p>Read this sentence.</p>
<blockquote><p>Social media is any form of online publication or presence that allows end users to engage in multi-directional conversations in or around the content on the website, using web-based technologies to transform and broadcast media monologues into social media dialogues, and is believed to be a driving force in defining the current time period as the Attention Age.</p></blockquote>
<p>If you read it all, congratulations. I&#8217;m betting most of you just skimmed over it.</p>
<p>Long sentences are boring and hard to read.  Write shorter sentences.  Your readers will thank you for it.</p>
<h2>Promise an Outcome (2 Points)</h2>
<p>I&#8217;ve already promised you one outcome in the headline.  By following these three tips you will instantly improve your blogging.</p>
<p>You&#8217;ll find the other 60 tips in <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/recommends/scorecard">The Copywriting Scorecard for Bloggers</a>.</p>
<p>63 tips sounds like a lot doesn&#8217;t it.  Are you expected to check off 63 items every time you write a blog post?</p>
<p>No, thats the beauty of this.  Glenn is a teacher, so this ebook contains over 50 pages of copywriting advice specifically tailored for bloggers.  The scorecard is just your way of finding out where you stand right now, and where you need to improve.</p>
<p>When you find a weakness in your writing all you need to do is look up that section in the ebook, learn how to improve that part of your writing, and put it into practice.  In no time it will become second nature and you&#8217;ll be writing high quality blog posts with complete ease.</p>
<p>Buy <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/recommends/scorecard">The Copywriting Scorecard for Bloggers</a> right now at the launch price of $9.97 (it goes up to $14.97 soon).  Thats a bargain for this kind of advice from a 17 year copywriting veteran and the world&#8217;s most successful blogger.</p>
<p><em>PS, Glenn would never admit it, but he loves to hear stories from happy customers. After you buy the ebook and use it for the first time come back and leave a comment with the before and after scores for your blog post.</em></p>
<p><em>Image Credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/denniswong/">Flickr</a></em></p>
<h3  class="related_post_title">Related articles:</h3><ul class="related_post"><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/welcome-listeners-of-the-creative-penn-podcast" title="Welcome Listeners of The Creative Penn Podcast">Welcome Listeners of The Creative Penn Podcast</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/how-to-make-a-successful-blog-without-any-content" title="How to Make a Successful Blog Without Any Content">How to Make a Successful Blog Without Any Content</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/your-own-successful-freelance-blogging-business" title="Your Own Successful Freelance Blogging Business">Your Own Successful Freelance Blogging Business</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/what-makes-the-ultimate-blog-post" title="What Makes the Ultimate Blog Post?">What Makes the Ultimate Blog Post?</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/blogger-interview-marko-saric-of-how-to-make-my-blog" title="Blogger Interview: Marko Saric of How To Make My Blog">Blogger Interview: Marko Saric of How To Make My Blog</a></li></ul><hr />
<a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/review-of-backup-buddy-wordpress-backup-plugin?utm_source=bloggingteacher&utm_medium=rssfeed&utm_campaign=backupbuddy"><img src="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/images/backup-468x60.gif"/></a>
<p>This article <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/three-easy-ways-to-instantly-improve-your-blogging-score">Three Easy Ways to Instantly Improve Your Blogging Score</a> is © 2010 BloggingTeacher.com</p>
<p>Get more <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com">blogging tips</a> at <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com">BloggingTeacher.com</a></p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=ECuNBowPx4M:vMmr13369dk:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=ECuNBowPx4M:vMmr13369dk:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=ECuNBowPx4M:vMmr13369dk:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=ECuNBowPx4M:vMmr13369dk:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=ECuNBowPx4M:vMmr13369dk:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=ECuNBowPx4M:vMmr13369dk:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=ECuNBowPx4M:vMmr13369dk:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=ECuNBowPx4M:vMmr13369dk:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=ECuNBowPx4M:vMmr13369dk:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=ECuNBowPx4M:vMmr13369dk:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=ECuNBowPx4M:vMmr13369dk:I9og5sOYxJI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=I9og5sOYxJI" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BloggingTeacher/~4/ECuNBowPx4M" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/three-easy-ways-to-instantly-improve-your-blogging-score/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>12</slash:comments>
		<feedburner:origLink>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/three-easy-ways-to-instantly-improve-your-blogging-score</feedburner:origLink></item>
		<item>
		<title>How to Say Thank You to Your Best Commenters</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BloggingTeacher/~3/NxFEF6S-sbk/how-to-say-thank-you-to-your-best-commenters</link>
		<comments>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/how-to-say-thank-you-to-your-best-commenters#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 18 Aug 2010 03:32:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Paul Cunningham</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Comments]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Community]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MySQL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[phpMyAdmin]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.bloggingteacher.com/?p=1898</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Do you know who your best visitors are?  Chances are they're also your top commenters.  Considering that as few as 1% of your visitors are likely to comment at all these are people you want to hold on to.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a class="post_image_link" href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/how-to-say-thank-you-to-your-best-commenters" title="Permanent link to How to Say Thank You to Your Best Commenters"><img class="post_image aligncenter" src="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/thankyou.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Post image for How to Say Thank You to Your Best Commenters" /></a>
</p><p>Do you know who your best visitors are?  Chances are they&#8217;re also your top commenters.  People who take the time to not only read your blog, but leave comments as well.  Considering that as few as 1% of your visitors are likely to comment at all these are people you want to hold on to.</p>
<p>At the recent <a href="http://www.problogger.net/archives/2010/08/11/150-bloggers-pack-melbourne-hotel-for-problogger-training-day/">Problogger Training Day</a> held in Melbourne attendees were taught to build a loyal community of readers by reaching out to people who comment on your blog.</p>
<p>So how can you do this?  Here are three easy ways.</p>
<h2>Reply to Their Comments</h2>
<p>This one is simple.  When people take the time to comment on your blog you can simultaneously thank them and keep the conversation going by replying to them.  I admit this one is tough sometimes.  People don&#8217;t always leave comments that give you any way to respond other than to say &#8220;thanks&#8221; back to them.</p>
<p>There are other benefits to doing this.  As <a href="http://www.chrisg.com">Chris Garrett</a> said, the easiest way to turn a post with 10 comments into a post with 20 comments is to reply to each of those 10 comments.  That higher comment count may be just the thing that tells a new visitor that your blog is active and interesting.</p>
<p><strong>Tip:</strong> turn on threaded comments for your blog if your theme supports them, it makes the conversations much easier to follow.</p>
<h2>Comment on Their Blogs</h2>
<p>If a commenter has included the URL to their own blog you can make their day by visiting them and leaving a comment on one of their blog posts as well.  Not only are you making them happy, but you&#8217;re also commenting in front of <em>their</em> audience which may drive some more traffic to your own site.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re looking for a way to track the effectiveness of your off-site commenting check out these <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/comment-link-strategies-for-your-blog">comment link strategies</a>.</p>
<h2>Send Them an Email</h2>
<p>Since every commenter leaves an email that you can see in your WordPress admin area, all you need to do is copy that and write a short note to say thanks or to compliment them on their comment, their blog, or any other message you want to send them.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;ve been blogging for a while now and haven&#8217;t already been doing this then you can find out who your best commenters are by querying your WordPress database.</p>
<p>Most web hosts will provide you with access to phpMyAdmin through CPanel (or whichever hosting control panel they offer you).  With phpMyAdmin you can directly query your database for information.</p>
<p>Simply open up phpMyAdmin and select your WordPress database from the left hand side, then go to the SQL tab.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1899" title="phpmysql00" src="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/phpmysql00.png" alt="" width="550" height="270" /></p>
<p>To get a simple list of all commentors email addresses you can run this SQL query (paste it into the field and click Go!).</p>
<pre>SELECT DISTINCT comment_author_email FROM wp_comments;
</pre>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1900" title="phpmysql01" src="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/phpmysql01.png" alt="" width="550" height="175" /></p>
<p>That is useful but it might be a very long list, and doesn&#8217;t tell you who your top commenters are.  To do that you can use a more advanced query instead.</p>
<pre>SELECT COUNT(comment_author_email) as Comments,comment_author_email as Email,comment_author_url as URL FROM wp_comments GROUP BY Email ORDER BY Comments DESC;
</pre>
<p>That will output a list of all commenters, plus their blog URL if they left one, and sort them in order of most comments to least.  You can export the results out to a spreadsheet by clicking the Export link at the bottom of the page.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1901" title="phpmysql02" src="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/phpmysql02.png" alt="" width="492" height="64" />Now you can use the spreadsheet to keep track of who you have and haven&#8217;t emailed yet.</p>
<p>So there are three ways you can reach out to your commenters and say thank you.  Which of these do you plan to use on your own blogs?</p>
<p><em>Image Credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenosaur/">Flickr</a></em></p>
<h3  class="related_post_title">Related articles:</h3><ul class="related_post"><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/remove-corrupt-comments-with-phpmyadmin" title="Remove corrupt WordPress comments with phpMyAdmin">Remove corrupt WordPress comments with phpMyAdmin</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/get-to-the-next-level" title="How to Get to the Next Level (for Bloggers Who Didn’t Know There Was a Next Level)">How to Get to the Next Level (for Bloggers Who Didn’t Know There Was a Next Level)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/comment-link-strategies-for-your-blog" title="Comment Link Strategies for your Blog">Comment Link Strategies for your Blog</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/reader-qa-how-to-respond-to-blog-comments" title="Reader Q&#038;A: How to Respond to Blog Comments">Reader Q&#038;A: How to Respond to Blog Comments</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/thesis-post-thumbnails-not-working-after-domain-migration" title="Thesis Post Thumbnails Not Working After Domain Migration">Thesis Post Thumbnails Not Working After Domain Migration</a></li></ul><hr />
<a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/review-of-backup-buddy-wordpress-backup-plugin?utm_source=bloggingteacher&utm_medium=rssfeed&utm_campaign=backupbuddy"><img src="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/images/backup-468x60.gif"/></a>
<p>This article <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/how-to-say-thank-you-to-your-best-commenters">How to Say Thank You to Your Best Commenters</a> is © 2010 BloggingTeacher.com</p>
<p>Get more <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com">blogging tips</a> at <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com">BloggingTeacher.com</a></p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=NxFEF6S-sbk:3Pu73yt9hUg:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=NxFEF6S-sbk:3Pu73yt9hUg:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=NxFEF6S-sbk:3Pu73yt9hUg:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=NxFEF6S-sbk:3Pu73yt9hUg:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=NxFEF6S-sbk:3Pu73yt9hUg:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=NxFEF6S-sbk:3Pu73yt9hUg:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=NxFEF6S-sbk:3Pu73yt9hUg:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=NxFEF6S-sbk:3Pu73yt9hUg:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=NxFEF6S-sbk:3Pu73yt9hUg:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=NxFEF6S-sbk:3Pu73yt9hUg:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=NxFEF6S-sbk:3Pu73yt9hUg:I9og5sOYxJI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=I9og5sOYxJI" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BloggingTeacher/~4/NxFEF6S-sbk" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/how-to-say-thank-you-to-your-best-commenters/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>21</slash:comments>
		<feedburner:origLink>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/how-to-say-thank-you-to-your-best-commenters</feedburner:origLink></item>
		<item>
		<title>Are You Paying Attention to Gideon Shalwick?</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BloggingTeacher/~3/8sw_szieE6I/are-you-paying-attention-to-gideon-shalwick</link>
		<comments>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/are-you-paying-attention-to-gideon-shalwick#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 09 Aug 2010 09:00:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Paul Cunningham</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Email Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mailing List]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Promotion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.bloggingteacher.com/?p=1890</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Would you like to know how to get 10,000 new email subscribers and run a successful product launch? You need to pay attention to the people who are doing exactly that.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a class="post_image_link" href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/are-you-paying-attention-to-gideon-shalwick" title="Permanent link to Are You Paying Attention to Gideon Shalwick?"><img class="post_image aligncenter" src="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/watching.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Post image for Are You Paying Attention to Gideon Shalwick?" /></a>
</p><p>Recently I asked you if you were <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/are-you-paying-attention">paying attention</a> to what is going on around you.  The message was that by watching what successful people are doing you can learn their strategies simply through observation.  This can save you hundreds or thousands of dollars in online training programs and ebooks if you keep your wits about you and look past the content to analyze the techniques.</p>
<p>Gideon Shalwick is someone I pay attention to.  We live in the same city which is what first caught my attention, and he has also partnered with Yaro Starak (another local) in various ways in the past.</p>
<p>To say I&#8217;ve simply been paying attention to Gideon (and Yaro) the last few years would be an understatement.  I&#8217;m one of their biggest free-loaders.  I&#8217;ve never bought their products but I&#8217;ve read, watched, and listened to every free report, blog post, video, and podcast they&#8217;ve released.</p>
<p>Why?  Because these guys are getting it right.  Lets look at Gideon&#8217;s <a href="http://rapidvideoblogging.com">latest free report</a>, and see why you want to pay attention.  Note, I am linking to Gideon&#8217;s latest launch content in this post but none of them are affiliate links.</p>
<ul>
<li>Over-delivering.  Gideon&#8217;s <a href="http://rapidvideoblogging.com">Rapid Video Blogging</a> report is over 90 pages long, and reveals more for free than some people reveal in a paid product.  If even one person complains about this being &#8220;yet another worthless free report&#8221; I would be amazed.</li>
<li>Reinventing old methods.  The squeeze page sports an amazing design that stands out from your typical landing page, and yet sticks to those key fundamentals that work.</li>
<li>Building the list.  Gideon long ago learned the value of having a mailing list, and integrates it into all of his marketing.</li>
<li>Powerful relationships.  Look at the list of testimonials on that page (and there are more in the report).  Those are the result of years of building up relationships through generosity, reciprocity, and treating it like a business.</li>
</ul>
<p>So is it working?  Gideon has over 10,000 downloads of the report and over 500 comments on the page that you land on once you opt-in.  Can you imagine getting 10,000 signups to your list, just by giving away something free?</p>
<p>Even if you&#8217;re not interested in video blogging I urge you to <a href="http://rapidvideoblogging.com">grab a copy of this free report</a> and at least pay attention to what you can learn from watching Gideon&#8217;s launch.</p>
<p><em>Image Credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/left-hand/">Flickr</a></em></p>
<h3  class="related_post_title">Related articles:</h3><ul class="related_post"><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/my-house-just-burned-down" title="My House Just Burned Down">My House Just Burned Down</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/how-to-make-art-blogs-profitable" title="How to Make Art Blogs Profitable">How to Make Art Blogs Profitable</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/single-or-double-opt-in" title="Are You a Single or a Double? (The Opt-In Debate)">Are You a Single or a Double? (The Opt-In Debate)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/should-you-resend-your-emails-to-subscribers-who-didnt-open-them" title="Should You Resend Your Emails to Subscribers Who Didn&#8217;t Open Them?">Should You Resend Your Emails to Subscribers Who Didn&#8217;t Open Them?</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/7-easy-steps-to-expert-email-marketing" title="7 Easy Steps to Expert Email Marketing">7 Easy Steps to Expert Email Marketing</a></li></ul><hr />
<a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/review-of-backup-buddy-wordpress-backup-plugin?utm_source=bloggingteacher&utm_medium=rssfeed&utm_campaign=backupbuddy"><img src="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/images/backup-468x60.gif"/></a>
<p>This article <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/are-you-paying-attention-to-gideon-shalwick">Are You Paying Attention to Gideon Shalwick?</a> is © 2010 BloggingTeacher.com</p>
<p>Get more <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com">blogging tips</a> at <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com">BloggingTeacher.com</a></p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=8sw_szieE6I:DHHflTpgMks:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=8sw_szieE6I:DHHflTpgMks:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=8sw_szieE6I:DHHflTpgMks:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=8sw_szieE6I:DHHflTpgMks:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=8sw_szieE6I:DHHflTpgMks:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=8sw_szieE6I:DHHflTpgMks:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=8sw_szieE6I:DHHflTpgMks:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=8sw_szieE6I:DHHflTpgMks:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=8sw_szieE6I:DHHflTpgMks:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=8sw_szieE6I:DHHflTpgMks:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=8sw_szieE6I:DHHflTpgMks:I9og5sOYxJI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=I9og5sOYxJI" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BloggingTeacher/~4/8sw_szieE6I" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/are-you-paying-attention-to-gideon-shalwick/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
		<feedburner:origLink>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/are-you-paying-attention-to-gideon-shalwick</feedburner:origLink></item>
		<item>
		<title>Your Assumptions Are Killing Your Blog</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BloggingTeacher/~3/HORJRA9RGVc/your-assumptions-are-killing-your-blog</link>
		<comments>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/your-assumptions-are-killing-your-blog#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Aug 2010 18:00:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Paul Cunningham</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.bloggingteacher.com/?p=1885</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Have you tested your assumptions, or are you killing off opportunities by blindly trusting them?]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a class="post_image_link" href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/your-assumptions-are-killing-your-blog" title="Permanent link to Your Assumptions Are Killing Your Blog"><img class="post_image aligncenter" src="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/test.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Post image for Your Assumptions Are Killing Your Blog" /></a>
</p><p>This post came from a question that a reader emailed to me.  Unfortunately the email address they supplied doesn&#8217;t work, so they haven&#8217;t received an answer from me.</p>
<p><em>Tip: I&#8217;m happy to answer questions </em><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/contact"><em>via email</em></a><em> but you should probably make sure I can actually get back to you with the answer.</em></p>
<p>This was the question:</p>
<blockquote><p>I want an interactive blog to support future book and build a following  both deep and wide.  Older men and grandads need this simple and not too  SM-ish.  What apps for WP do you consider essential, not diversionary,  and not requiring social media addition?</p></blockquote>
<p>There are two assumptions that I noticed immediately:</p>
<ul>
<li>The audience is older men and grandfathers</li>
<li>The audience doesn&#8217;t use social media</li>
</ul>
<p>Understanding your target audience is important, but you should avoid the mindset that they are your only audience.  There is a lot to be gained from looking outside of your target audience.</p>
<p>Here are two suggestions:</p>
<ul>
<li>Use a brainstorming exercise to consider who your <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/heres-a-quick-way-to-create-an-endless-supply-of-blog-post-ideas">primary and secondary audiences</a> are</li>
<li>Use your <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/where-on-earth-are-your-visitors">web and email analytics</a> (if you have them) to tell you who your audience is</li>
</ul>
<p>You might be surprised what you discover, and it can open up a lot of extra promotional channels for you.</p>
<p>The second assumption was about social media.  This is an easy place to make mistaken assumptions &#8211; Twitter is pointless, Facebook is for teenagers, Digg traffic is worthless, and so on.  But if you take the time to look into it you often find those assumptions to be incorrect.</p>
<p>For example, in December last year nearly 20% of US Facebook users were aged 45-65, and males aged 55-65 were one of the fastest growing demographics, according to the website <a href="http://www.insidefacebook.com/2010/01/04/december-data-on-facebook%E2%80%99s-us-growth-by-age-and-gender-beyond-100-million/">Inside Facebook</a>.  And it doesn&#8217;t take a big percentage of 500 million active users to add up to a big potential audience in real numbers.</p>
<p>Also consider that  social media lets you market to people who may not be the intended  customer of the book or product, but might still buy it for someone in the  target audience.</p>
<p>The wrong assumptions can kill a blog.  Assumptions need research and testing before they can be relied upon.</p>
<p>So how many of your assumptions might be holding you back right now?</p>
<p><em>Image Credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/horiavarlan/">Flickr</a></em></p>
<h3  class="related_post_title">Related articles:</h3><ul class="related_post"><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/feedburner-is-the-canary-in-the-mine-shaft" title="Feedburner is the Canary in the Mine Shaft">Feedburner is the Canary in the Mine Shaft</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/get-to-the-next-level" title="How to Get to the Next Level (for Bloggers Who Didn’t Know There Was a Next Level)">How to Get to the Next Level (for Bloggers Who Didn’t Know There Was a Next Level)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/forget-about-rss" title="Forget About RSS. Yes, Thats What I Said">Forget About RSS. Yes, Thats What I Said</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/reader-qa-how-do-you-mask-affiliate-links" title="Reader Q&#038;A: How Do You Mask Affiliate Links?">Reader Q&#038;A: How Do You Mask Affiliate Links?</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/what-have-you-tested-lately" title="What Have You Tested Lately?">What Have You Tested Lately?</a></li></ul><hr />
<a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/review-of-backup-buddy-wordpress-backup-plugin?utm_source=bloggingteacher&utm_medium=rssfeed&utm_campaign=backupbuddy"><img src="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/images/backup-468x60.gif"/></a>
<p>This article <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/your-assumptions-are-killing-your-blog">Your Assumptions Are Killing Your Blog</a> is © 2010 BloggingTeacher.com</p>
<p>Get more <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com">blogging tips</a> at <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com">BloggingTeacher.com</a></p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=HORJRA9RGVc:y-cHKqbcum8:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=HORJRA9RGVc:y-cHKqbcum8:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=HORJRA9RGVc:y-cHKqbcum8:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=HORJRA9RGVc:y-cHKqbcum8:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=HORJRA9RGVc:y-cHKqbcum8:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=HORJRA9RGVc:y-cHKqbcum8:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=HORJRA9RGVc:y-cHKqbcum8:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=HORJRA9RGVc:y-cHKqbcum8:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=HORJRA9RGVc:y-cHKqbcum8:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=HORJRA9RGVc:y-cHKqbcum8:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=HORJRA9RGVc:y-cHKqbcum8:I9og5sOYxJI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=I9og5sOYxJI" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BloggingTeacher/~4/HORJRA9RGVc" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/your-assumptions-are-killing-your-blog/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
		<feedburner:origLink>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/your-assumptions-are-killing-your-blog</feedburner:origLink></item>
		<item>
		<title>Poll: When Do You Do Your Blog Maintenance?</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BloggingTeacher/~3/O5GlRnA3DFg/poll-when-do-you-do-your-blog-maintenance</link>
		<comments>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/poll-when-do-you-do-your-blog-maintenance#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Aug 2010 00:04:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Site Admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Maintenance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Polls]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WordPress]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.bloggingteacher.com/?p=1879</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My own maintenance plan used to be "do what you can, when you can, as you think of it" which I eventually found to be totally inefficient and left a lot of important tasks undone.  So I'm interested in hearing from you about your own blog maintenance routine]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a class="post_image_link" href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/poll-when-do-you-do-your-blog-maintenance" title="Permanent link to Poll: When Do You Do Your Blog Maintenance?"><img class="post_image aligncenter" src="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/straws.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Post image for Poll: When Do You Do Your Blog Maintenance?" /></a>
</p><p>One of the bonus resources I offer to subscribers is my <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/resources">Blog Maintenance Guide</a>.  The responses to that guide that I have received were initially surprising &#8211; I hadn&#8217;t expected so many people to tell me they did little if any maintenance on their blogs before reading the guide.</p>
<p>In hindsight it shouldn&#8217;t have been a surprise.  My own maintenance plan used to be &#8220;do what you can, when you can, as you think of it&#8221; which I eventually found to be totally inefficient and left a lot of important tasks undone.</p>
<p>So I&#8217;m interested in hearing from you about your own blog maintenance routine.  If you can take a few seconds to vote in this poll, and leave a comment below, I would really appreciate it.</p>
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
<p>And if you&#8217;re interested in taking a look at my Blog Maintenance Guide head on over to the <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/resources">resources page</a> to get it.</p>
<p><em>Image Credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/spacepleb/">Flickr</a></em></p>
<h3  class="related_post_title">Related articles:</h3><ul class="related_post"><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/blogger-interview-marko-saric-of-how-to-make-my-blog" title="Blogger Interview: Marko Saric of How To Make My Blog">Blogger Interview: Marko Saric of How To Make My Blog</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/blogger-interview-erica-mueller-of-erica-says" title="Blogger Interview: Erica Mueller of Erica Says">Blogger Interview: Erica Mueller of Erica Says</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/some-holiday-reading-from-the-archives" title="Some Holiday Reading from the Archives">Some Holiday Reading from the Archives</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/how-to-protect-the-wordpress-admin-account" title="How to Protect the WordPress Admin Account">How to Protect the WordPress Admin Account</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/how-i-launched-a-new-blog-in-just-3-hours" title="How I launched a new blog in just 3 hours">How I launched a new blog in just 3 hours</a></li></ul><hr />
<a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/review-of-backup-buddy-wordpress-backup-plugin?utm_source=bloggingteacher&utm_medium=rssfeed&utm_campaign=backupbuddy"><img src="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/images/backup-468x60.gif"/></a>
<p>This article <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/poll-when-do-you-do-your-blog-maintenance">Poll: When Do You Do Your Blog Maintenance?</a> is © 2010 BloggingTeacher.com</p>
<p>Get more <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com">blogging tips</a> at <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com">BloggingTeacher.com</a></p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=O5GlRnA3DFg:-JgHMzcS3rE:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=O5GlRnA3DFg:-JgHMzcS3rE:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=O5GlRnA3DFg:-JgHMzcS3rE:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=O5GlRnA3DFg:-JgHMzcS3rE:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=O5GlRnA3DFg:-JgHMzcS3rE:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=O5GlRnA3DFg:-JgHMzcS3rE:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=O5GlRnA3DFg:-JgHMzcS3rE:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=O5GlRnA3DFg:-JgHMzcS3rE:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=O5GlRnA3DFg:-JgHMzcS3rE:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=O5GlRnA3DFg:-JgHMzcS3rE:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=O5GlRnA3DFg:-JgHMzcS3rE:I9og5sOYxJI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=I9og5sOYxJI" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BloggingTeacher/~4/O5GlRnA3DFg" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/poll-when-do-you-do-your-blog-maintenance/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
		<feedburner:origLink>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/poll-when-do-you-do-your-blog-maintenance</feedburner:origLink></item>
		<item>
		<title>Are You Paying Attention?</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BloggingTeacher/~3/vfRY0xA2FkE/are-you-paying-attention</link>
		<comments>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/are-you-paying-attention#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 02 Aug 2010 09:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Paul Cunningham</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Insipiration]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.bloggingteacher.com/?p=1873</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Do you need to buy expensive blogging products to succeed, or can you acquire that knowledge through careful observation instead?]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a class="post_image_link" href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/are-you-paying-attention" title="Permanent link to Are You Paying Attention?"><img class="post_image aligncenter" src="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/attention.jpg" width="600" height="300" alt="Post image for Are You Paying Attention?" /></a>
</p><p>Blogging and marketing products are expensive. Especially the membership and coaching programs you see launching all the time.  I’m in a few only because I found ways to make them affordable.  People ask me whether they should buy them too.</p>
<p>But do you really need them?  What if you just paid attention to what is going on around you?</p>
<p>There is a well-known product launch formula that a lot of these sites use.  It’s expensive to buy the course.  But if you follow enough launches (even ones you don’t really care about) then you can learn a lot through observation.</p>
<p>You don’t need to like someone’s offer to get value from being marketed to.  And you don&#8217;t need to spend big to acquire new knowledge.</p>
<p>Tip: next time you feel the urge to hit the “Buy” button, stop and analyse the sequence of events that led to you feeling that urge.  Emails, blog posts, Twitter activity, multiple mentions on other sites, interviews, etc.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thelaunchcoach.com/product-launch-tips">Launch fatigue</a>? Or a free lesson?</p>
<p>Want to drive some traffic to a new blog?  How about a <a href="http://thenetsetter.com/blog/entrepreneurial/50-netsetters-you-should-know-about/">list of 50 people</a> who will be flattered by their inclusion and willingly promote your site to their own audience.  Right before you release your <a href="http://rockablepress.com/books/blog-business/">new book</a>.</p>
<p>It’s easy to resent being the target of all this marketing all the time. Until you peel back the skin and see the free value you’re getting.</p>
<p>If you just pay attention.</p>
<p><em>Image Credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ngmmemuda/">Flickr</a></em></p>
<h3  class="related_post_title">Related articles:</h3><ul class="related_post"><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/4-solid-reasons-why-you%e2%80%99re-not-getting-traffic-to-your-blog" title="4 Solid Reasons Why you’re Not Getting Traffic to Your Blog">4 Solid Reasons Why you’re Not Getting Traffic to Your Blog</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/is-guest-posting-traffic-valuable-for-your-blog" title="Is Guest Posting Traffic Valuable for Your Blog?">Is Guest Posting Traffic Valuable for Your Blog?</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/4-productive-things-to-do-when-you-hit-a-blogging-dead-end" title="4 Productive Things to do When You Hit a Blogging Dead End">4 Productive Things to do When You Hit a Blogging Dead End</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/three-easy-ways-to-instantly-improve-your-blogging-score" title="Three Easy Ways to Instantly Improve Your Blogging Score">Three Easy Ways to Instantly Improve Your Blogging Score</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/poll-when-do-you-do-your-blog-maintenance" title="Poll: When Do You Do Your Blog Maintenance?">Poll: When Do You Do Your Blog Maintenance?</a></li></ul><hr />
<a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/review-of-backup-buddy-wordpress-backup-plugin?utm_source=bloggingteacher&utm_medium=rssfeed&utm_campaign=backupbuddy"><img src="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/images/backup-468x60.gif"/></a>
<p>This article <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com/are-you-paying-attention">Are You Paying Attention?</a> is © 2010 BloggingTeacher.com</p>
<p>Get more <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com">blogging tips</a> at <a href="http://www.bloggingteacher.com">BloggingTeacher.com</a></p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=vfRY0xA2FkE:nj9NzZvwkJA:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=vfRY0xA2FkE:nj9NzZvwkJA:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=vfRY0xA2FkE:nj9NzZvwkJA:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=vfRY0xA2FkE:nj9NzZvwkJA:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=vfRY0xA2FkE:nj9NzZvwkJA:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=vfRY0xA2FkE:nj9NzZvwkJA:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=vfRY0xA2FkE:nj9NzZvwkJA:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=vfRY0xA2FkE:nj9NzZvwkJA:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=vfRY0xA2FkE:nj9NzZvwkJA:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?i=vfRY0xA2FkE:nj9NzZvwkJA:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?a=vfRY0xA2FkE:nj9NzZvwkJA:I9og5sOYxJI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BloggingTeacher?d=I9og5sOYxJI" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BloggingTeacher/~4/vfRY0xA2FkE" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/are-you-paying-attention/feed</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>10</slash:comments>
		<feedburner:origLink>http://www.bloggingteacher.com/are-you-paying-attention</feedburner:origLink></item>
	</channel>
</rss>
