Today is the second Ultimate Blog Swap, and I’m so excited by the quantity and quality of the blogs who are participating! With more than 100 blogs signed up for today’s swap, you’re sure to discover some new favorites along the way, so grab a cup of coffee, pick a random blog from the list below and start blog hopping!

Here’s how it works: Each blogger listed below is posting on another blog today and, in exchange, someone else is posting on their site! That means, theoretically, that you could start anywhere on the list and follow their Blog Swap links to find another great post and then another and then another.

Enjoy!

Do you want to be notified next time we do an Ultimate Blog Swap? Sign up here!

Today’s the 2nd Annual Ultimate Blog Swap! is a post from Life Your Way

© 2010-2012 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved - This feed is provided for the convenience of Work Your Way subscribers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited. If you are reading this content elsewhere, please send an email to contact@yourway.net to let us know. Thanks.

The following post is from James of Google+ Tutorials:

Source: quinn.anya

My last blog here at Blogging Your Way was titled Does Your Blog Have Clear Direction? In that post, I talked about the importance of our blogs having a good focus so that your audience can know exactly what to expect every time they come by your blog, and that actually by limiting your content to a specific niche, you are more likely to build a loyal base of readers.

In the comments, I was replying to a question that someone had asked, and it really got me thinking again about our motivation for blogging and the topics that we blog about. I am sure that there is a wide range here in this community, and I thought that it would be really great for us to have a discussion about this. Not only would it help us here at Blogging Your Way to know the sort of posts that would be helpful to you in reaching your goals, but also a great opportunity to discover new blogs written by others in the community and finding out the motivation behind them. Pretty cool idea right? I think so!

I thought that we could all introduce ourselves, our blogs and our motivation. So what I would like to propose that we do is each answer three questions in the comments below. This will be a great opportunity to discuss, discover, and grow as bloggers!

The questions that I would like as many people as possible to answer in the comments are as follows:

1) What is the web address of your blog

2) What is your blog about?

3) What is your motivation for blogging?

(Fame, fortune, sharing knowledge, meeting new people, being involved in a community, etc!)

Perhaps we will all find some new blogs to add to our Google Reader!

I am really looking forward to seeing some of your blogs, talking to you about your blogging motivations and making some new connections!

Let’s go! Answer the three questions from above in the comments below!

	James Brooks is a professional blogger, web designer and social media consultant based on the South West coast of England. As well as being a co-founder of GPlusTuts, a blog about Google+, James also enjoys blogging about technology, food and tea!

Ask The Community: What Do You Blog About and Why? is a post from Life Your Way

© 2010-2012 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved - This feed is provided for the convenience of Work Your Way subscribers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited. If you are reading this content elsewhere, please send an email to contact@yourway.net to let us know. Thanks.

The following post is from James of Google+ Tutorials:

source: stopnlook

Learning to SEO optimize your blog posts can make the difference between having a blog that gets tons of traffic, and having a blog no one else – except maybe your friends and family – will ever see.

One of the best ways to search engine optimize your blog posts is by using keyword phrases people might actually use to find information on the kinds of things you write about.

Here’s a crash course on using keywords to get more traffic to your blog:

Choose the Right Keywords

Keywords and keyword phrases help to determine how well your blog post will rank in the search engines. The better it ranks the more visits that post, and your blog, will get.

Keywords are the words and phrases web surfers use when searching for specific information. To find out which keywords are getting a lot of searches in your niche, use the free Google Keyword Tool. Under “Match Types,” uncheck “broad match” and check “exact match.” The more searches a keyword has, the better and the fewer words there are in a search term, the more competition there will be.

For example, you’d have an easier time ranking well for “third party car insurance” than for “car insurance.”

Use Keywords the Right Way

Once you have a keyword that’s highly searched, but has low competition, you want to use it in the right way. Try to work your keyword phrase into the title of the blog post, and the post’s very first paragraph. You can also try to work the phrase into the last paragraph, although there’s some debate over how important this really is. You should also try to work the keywords into the H1 tag and the H2 tags, which are usually used for subheadings. But only do this if it looks natural, many have abandoned this practice because using keywords in every subhead can be difficult to do naturally.

What you don’t want to do is use the keyword too many times in your post. This is called “keyword stuffing”, and search engines don’t like it. So if your keyword phrase appears 20 times in a 500 word blog post, some pruning is in order.

Use Images Wisely

Using images can add a nice, visual element to a blog post, which will appeal to your readers. Images are also another way to SEO optimize your post.

If your keyword phrase is “car insurance online,” you can use that phrase as the name of your image. You can also use the phrase in the image’s alt and title tags, but only do this if it fits. If you have an image of people frolicking on a beach, giving it the alt tag “car insurance online” would be misleading. Instead, choose an image that fits the keyword. For example, an image of a computer with a car on its screen would be perfect for a “Car Insurance Online” blog post.

If you want more traffic, you need to SEO optimize your blog posts, and while there are more advanced ways to do that, using keywords is a relatively simple method that gets results. I hope that these tips will help you to get more targeted search engine traffic to your blogs!

Do you have any other tips for SEO optimizing blog posts? Why not share them in the comments below! 

	James Brooks is a professional blogger, web designer and social media consultant based on the South West coast of England. As well as being a co-founder of GPlusTuts, a blog about Google+, James also enjoys blogging about technology, food and tea!

SEO Optimize Your Blog Posts Using Keywords is a post from Life Your Way

© 2010-2012 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved - This feed is provided for the convenience of Work Your Way subscribers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited. If you are reading this content elsewhere, please send an email to contact@yourway.net to let us know. Thanks.

The following post is from James of Google+ Tutorials:

source: Des Morris

Yep.

I often have those days where my body tries to tell me: don’t bother blogging.

See, it’s not easy to be creative on demand, yet, if we are to be successful in what we are trying to do as bloggers, consistency has got to play a big part in that.

Writers block can affect the best of us, and when it happens it is not at all nice! But, as they say, you have to be in it to win it, and perseverance is key. The big question is this, what can you do in those times where you are uninspired and your body is trying to encourage you not to bother?

Get Rid of Distractions

When you are trying to focus on the task in hand and write something awesome for your audience, yet not feeling it, one of the worst things that you can do is allow distractions anywhere near you. Don’t let it happen! 

What do I do? Stick some headphones in, put some soft music on, and use the awesome fullscreen feature on WordPress. Right now as I am writing this post all I can see on my 23″ monitor is this very blog post. The world may be falling apart behind it, my inbox might be going crazy, my Skype might be constantly ringing, Katy Perry might even be tweeting me, but I am blissfully unaware. I am getting stuff done, and it feels awesome!

Mix Up Your Process

One of the reasons that you might be struggling to get that awesome content down is that you have been stuck in the same routine. Mix it up a bit baby!

If you are someone who meticulously plans your blog posts before writing, why don’t you try freestyling it a bit and see what comes out? If you are someone who normally is more freestyle – why don’t you try and get a structured plan on paper before going straight for the kill? I think you will be surprised at how well this might work for you!

Look For Inspiration

I know that I talked above about getting rid of distractions, but sometimes before you get to that point you need to look around for some inspiration. Don’t use it as an opportunity to get distracted from the task, but looking at other websites and blogs in your niche can be a great source of inspiration. One thing that I have mentioned before that I find very helpful for this is Google Reader.

Don’t Give Up

Please, don’t give up. There are thousands and thousands of bloggers competing for your space. The ones that will have the great success, are the ones that don’t give up. Don’t be the quitter!

Guys – I am rooting for you! Have an awesome week and keep at it!

I’d love to know, what are some of your tips for pushing past the “don’t bother blogging” feeling? Let us know in the comments below.

	James Brooks is a professional blogger, web designer and social media consultant based on the South West coast of England. As well as being a co-founder of GPlusTuts, a blog about Google+, James also enjoys blogging about technology, food and tea!

Don’t Bother Blogging is a post from Life Your Way

© 2010-2012 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved - This feed is provided for the convenience of Work Your Way subscribers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited. If you are reading this content elsewhere, please send an email to contact@yourway.net to let us know. Thanks.