(Credit)

The words ‘spam’ and ‘spammers’ are always viewed with apprehension. However, it is wrong to think that everything about spammers is bad. The truth is bloggers can actually take a cue from spammers on certain things. It can be of big help. Yes, bloggers hate spam but learning a few things will definitely not hurt.

Copywriting

Copywriting is what helps the spammers sell their products. Spammers are not always proficient in English but they use handy copywriting techniques always. Bloggers need to understand a well written copy that looks good will definitely sell.

Know your fish

Spammers always know their niche fish or target audience and so should the bloggers. The spammers mark out their target audience in order to enhance their sale and if bloggers want their post to become popular, they need to determine their target audience as well.

Charm Offensive

Spammers are always trying to charm their target audience. Spammers compliment their audience and make them look good. Bloggers should follow the same path and choose the right words while conversing with audiences through their blogs. Making the readers happy is a great way to ensure the popularity of blogs.

Discipline is the key

Nothing much can be achieved sans discipline and most spammers seem to know this too well. The spammers put in multiple hours of efforts in order to grab the attention of their target audience. Bloggers need to do the same as well. A lot of bloggers might argue that spammers are conmen who need to put in that extra effort to woo their audience but bloggers need to put in some amount of effort as well. Lazy and undisciplined bloggers will not be able to make a mark.

Automated Tools come in handy

It is not that spammers do not sleep and are always working away on their computers. No spammer actually works 24×7 but they seem to be everywhere, always with the help of their automated tools and systems. Bloggers can get some help from technology as well. Being driven by the system can enable bloggers to duplicate their efforts and be everywhere, always.

List the subscribers

Most spammers adhere to email campaigning and email newsletters to woo their audience. Bloggers can do the same. If spammers can undertake email campaigning, so can bloggers. Bloggers need to understand that email campaigning is a wonderful way to garner money and it is also a great way to build up relationship with the audience. Bloggers can lose out on a lot if they do not undertake email campaigning. A list of permission-based subscribers can be an asset for bloggers.

More subscribers, more business

Spammers know that numbers matter. The spammers do not usually enjoy great conversion rate but even a 0.1% conversion rate of maybe ten million means a lot. Bloggers need to understand this; more subscribers increase the chances of increasing the earning of the bloggers.

Sending out vivid messages and pursuing big spenders is also something that bloggers can learn from spammers. In fact, a few lessons from the spammers can definitely help the bloggers become a name of reckon with in the field of blogging.

7 Amazing things that bloggers should learn from spammers is a post from: Blog Godown

One person can do only so much. No matter how much time and effort we put into our blogs, chances are we’ll need help somewhere down the road. Without that help, it might become difficult to grow and prosper in an increasingly competitive landscape. This means partnering with others. While a partnership necessarily involves relinquishing some level of control, it’s a worthy trade-off for most bloggers. There are also ways to go about it so that you retain as much control as you wish, while still helping yourself and others gain a larger audience.

There are two primary ways to create blogging partnerships. The first is to invite others to your blog. The other is to create a blog network. Both have their ups and downs, so your decision will depend on your blog’s current circumstances.

Building a Solid Partnership (Credit)

Partnering with other bloggers

One way to break through a blogging plateau is to combine and conquer. By adding contributors to your blog, you add different perspectives. These perspectives can add a fresh take to your own, which can entice more and more people to visit. That means more traffic, which will help you grow further.

Not sure how to go about adding new contributors? There are a few ways you can approach the idea.

Combine with another blogger. This might be the most difficult to approach, but it can also have the greatest benefits. There are dozens and dozens — maybe even hundreds — of blogs in every niche. Not every one of these can be successful. If you can identify a talented blogger who doesn’t get much traffic, you can invite him or her to join your blog. Put in front of a larger audience, his or her skills might truly shine, which will improve your blog.

It might be difficult to convince someone to leave their blog and join yours. Likewise, you might not be so keen on adding another voice to your own blog. But the benefits to both of you should outweigh these doubts. By combining blogs you get the traffic benefits of both. You might also attract more traffic, since you can produce more and better content working together.

Invite non-bloggers to contribute. Much as it might shock you, not everyone blogs. Some people just don’t have the time. Others don’t have the desire to create and maintain a blog. You can take advantage of this by inviting these people to contribute to your blog. These voices will be welcome, since they were previously unheard in blogging circles. Additionally, they will allow you to publish a greater volume of posts. That helps boost visibility and traffic.

Get contributions from many bloggers. If you want a real variety of voices on your blog, you can talk to many bloggers in your field and ask them to contribute. You might have to work out some kind of compensation, or you might need to reciprocate and contribute to their blogs. But adding many voices to yours will add to the variety and attract a larger audience. Plus, those contributors are likely to promote their work on your blog, so you can tap into their audiences, too.

Solicit guest posts. Accepting guest posts is another way to add variety to your blog. Again, the more varied your blog the more people you can attract.

Creating a blog network

While it is a much more difficult pursuit, creating a blog network has far-reaching effects. You can keep your blog and others can keep theirs, so everyone retains a level of independence. It also creates a smart grid. What is a smart grid? Electric companies use it to ensure the efficient delivery of power. You can use your smart grid to ensure the efficient delivery of ad impressions and page views.

Traffic and ad impressions do represent two main benefits of creating a blog network. Networks can combine traffic from all blogs to obtain better ad deals. They can also siphon traffic to different places within the network, which means more people will see each blog. Interlinking also creates a stronger links structure — also like a smart grid — which can help with organic search engine results. It all adds up to a more complete product that has a larger audience and higher ad revenue than the blogs could obtain separately.

There are two ways to go about building a blog network.

Blogs of a similar topic. Some of the best networks out there combine blogs that cover similar topics. For instance, SBNation combines all different sports blogs into a single network. Users can navigate among their many team and general blogs. Visitors tend to stay within the network, getting their information from multiple sites within.

This can work for many other niches, too. A network of blogs related to affiliate networking might contain sites that relate to PPC, SEO, copywriting, basic marketing strategies, analytics, and more. Blog networks of this nature can capture a large topic comprehensively. Visitors can jump from blog to blog and still see fresh information on a topic they’re interested in. It’s an effective way to capture a fuller audience.

Blogs of dissimilar natures. Just because your blog doesn’t share a topic with another shouldn’t stop you from forming a network. Many successful networks have started by combining two blogs of completely different style and substance. Take the PMC Network for instance. They have a TV blog, a movie blog, a tech blog, a gossip blog, and more. They might be grouped together under a pop culture banner, but that’s a pretty general one.

By combining loosely connected blogs, you can improve everyone’s audience. Again, PMC works so well, because many people are interested in each of those topics. When they want tech news they’ll go to Boy Genius Report. When they’re done there, they read about their favorite TV shows on TV Line. They don’t even have to type in an address or open a bookmark. They can navigate right from the top bar.

Combining dissimilar blogs might be difficult at first, but it can pay off the largest in the end. The idea is to combine topics that carry widely different audiences. Those audiences can then click around to other blogs in the network, thereby increasing everyone’s traffic. There are plenty of other growth opportunities as well, including cross-posting and cross-promoting.

Everyone’s blog plateaus at one point or another. There are a few tactics that can help you break that plateau and move upward, but each time you’ll move less and less. By combining with other bloggers, you create avenues that don’t exist for individual blogs. Combining and conquering might be your best bet to realize continued growth, higher traffic, and more revenue.

How blog partnerships help everyone grow is a post from: Blog Godown

Ultimately your online marketing campaigns revolve around your readers. You might make it to the top of a search engine results page (SERP), but it won’t mean anything if readers don’t find value in your content. Even loyal readers will begin to drop off if your content strategy is erratic and disorganized.

Unfortunately, it can sometimes be difficult to know what your readers want to see on your website or website’s blog. If you have a large number of followers, it is up to you to take steps to find topics that you can customize for your readers. This won’t always be obvious, so there are a few things you can do to help give you insight into your readers’ minds:

Carefully Understanding what your Audience wants from you! (Credit)

Top 5 Ways to Find the Content Your Readers Want

1. Look for questions in all of the comments on your website.

Whether you’re starting a business or working to improve your current business, you likely offer a space for reader comments. Readers are most often asking questions or offering up opinions about a specific article, but if you really pay attention you will see that the comments are usually full of potential blog posts. If a reader ever asks a question in the comments, write an article answering the question. If two readers ever have a disagreement about something, consider looking at both sides of the issues and writing a detailed blog post. These ideas are coming straight from your readers.

2. Create an open forum for readers to tell you what they want to read.

Some websites create a discussion board where readers can tell you, the editor, exactly what they’d like to see. This works great because people will generally agree with a topic and then reply to the idea. This will let you easily see which topics are the most popular and which topics you may need to take a pass. Ideally you would be able to write about every topic that was mentioned, but these forums can sometimes get a little bit crazy! This is a potential issue you could have if you were to take this approach, so it’s important to evaluate the size and outspoken-nature of your audience. Will they be upset if you have to skip their idea? Do you have time to write about every idea that is mentioned.

3.    Create a poll that gives readers options for your next blog post.

Sometimes people do not know what they want until they see it. Creating a poll gives readers choices when it comes to the topic for your latest blog post. This will also help bring a level of engagement to your website as well as give readers a reason to continually check back to your website. After all, if you voted to see something specific, you’re likely to continue to come back and see if you “won.” As an editor, you may not want to put out a poll every single day, but once a week is usually successful.

4.    Use other statistics and trends to make an educated guess about your readers.

If you can’t figure out a way to talk with your readers directly, you should try and follow the trends of people everywhere.  I often look at the Twitter trends to see what people are thinking, but more often than not I look at the trends of other websites. Do you notice that a lot of websites are getting engagement from an infographic? Do people enjoy reading articles about social media? You may also want to check out LinkedIn Today to see what is trending.

5.    Accept guest posts on your blog.

Many companies accept guest posts in the hopes that they will get a break or the author will draw in a few new readers, but the accepting guest posts is also a great way to give the readers what they want. After all, there is no better way to discover what your readers want to read than to let them write it themselves. You will of course want to monitor and edit everything that is written before it is published, but accepting guest posts is sure to bring your blog to a new level.

In the end, creating customized content for readers will go a long way. They will know that their thoughts are taken into consideration, and this isn’t something you cannot get with every website. Ultimately, writing for your readers is one of the best things you can do for your website. If you don’t know what they want to see right away, a little bit of research is worth the time.

What do you do to find out what your readers want to read?

Do You Know What Your Readers Want to Read? is a post from: Blog Godown

“Like us on Facebook” is probably a phrase that you have seen or heard countless times before. Chances are that you have “like” some of them before. Suffice to say, Facebook is fast becoming the most essential social media tool for businesses or brands to build a fan page, if it is not already one yet. Like it or not (pun not intended), Facebook is set to change the way we shop, reflect our show of support and affect our decisions or opinions.

Most businesses or brands these days have a Facebook fan page, regardless of whether they are a huge chain store or a sole business establishment like my local friendly optician. I must say that I was most surprised and bemused when I received an SMS from my optician one day requesting that I “like” his shop’s fan page. Yes, I did “like” it. My optician, like many of the businesses out there today, is trying to harness the power of Facebook as a free marketing tool by getting as many “likes” as possible. The trick lies in your persuasion to get people to “like” you. Hence, here are 5 tips on how to increase your Facebook likes.

Tip 1: Promotion / Giveaways

Social media is all about human interaction and subsequently, human behavior too. You don’t need to be an expert to know that humans love free stuff. Therefore, owners wanting to promote their businesses or websites are highly recommended to run promotions or giveaways as a mean to engage potential fans, whenever possible. This is a simple yet effective marketing tactic and cost so much lesser than traditional advertisements.

According to a recent survey of global online consumers conducted by Nielsen on the top reasons for following or liking a brand on Social Media, it was found that an overwhelming majority of people liking a brand, company or celebrity because they wanted to receive discounts and special offers. Other main reasons include wanting updates and showing support.

Thus, giving offers or free gifts to a number of people who “liked” your page is a sure way to generate an exponential increase on your “likes”. In addition to that, you could also ask for these fans to post about your page and / or promotion on their Facebook or Twitter too. Make full use of the excitement generated by your offer.

Tip 2: Quality Content

My personal observation on my Facebook page as well as other fan pages, is that whenever there is an interesting post or funny clip being uploaded, it gets shared around and before long, it is spread through the Facebook network, without me or the businesses or brands having to make direct requests to have them shared. Many a times, these posts and clips do generate “likes” as it gets shared repeatedly. And best of all, these “likes” are genuinely given and would lead to curiosity and subsequently more visitors to your page.

Tip 3: Photos Tagging

Another good way to generate “likes” is to load pictures. Everyone loves a good picture, especially if they are in it. So if you are planning to run some events, do remember to take as many pictures of the participants and of the event as possible. Have these pictures uploaded to your Facebook fan page and invite your fans to tag themselves. Once this is done, their friends get to see them and yes, you guessed it, will “like” it.

Tip 4: Linking to Other Social Sites

Other social media sites like Twitter and LinkedIn are a great source of fans and friends. Since Twitter is only a microblogging service and does not allow more than 140 text-based characters, it is a great platform for posting teasers and directing traffic to your Facebook page.

LinkedIn on the other hand, would be an excellent place to introduce your business to as it is a social networking for professional relationships. Link it back to your Facebook and those who wished to learn more about your business will automatically drop by.

The more traffic you direct to your Facebook, the more chance of it getting “liked”.

Tip 5: Positioning of “Like” button

Speaking of social media sites in the above tip, are you aware that most internet marketers these days would have a Facebook “like” button on their blog’s articles? The main idea here is to get your blog readers to support your Facebook page. The crucial part is the positioning of the “like” button on your blog. The best position for this button is of course at the end of the article, where your readers would most likely notice it right after they finish reading your article and thus, increase the chances of clicking on it. Depending on your layout, of course you can also place it higher up, near to the title of the blog article.

I admit that it is not easy to successfully market your business or website via Facebook. It is after all a free marketing tool. There is no such thing as free lunch and thus, you will have to work hard to achieve the effect you want. But if you follow the tips above and put in the effort, you are most likely able to generate and continue to generate “likes” to your fan page, resulting in a positive impression on your business or website. It may even be more effective than the traditional advertisement!

How to Increase your Facebook Fan Base is a post from: Blog Godown

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at the typewriter and bleed.”
~ Ernest Hemingway

A lot of blogging advice focuses on marketing techniques and writing tricks. It’s easy to change your font style and start your headers with an action verb, but do those things really matter? Is it more effective to mimic somebody else’s style, or to be yourself? Too often in life we suppress our real desires, all for the sake of some vague dream of success that waves to us from a dimly gleaming future.

I’ve been in the online writing business for almost four years. When I first started blogging, I constantly molded my content to appeal to my target audience. I felt like I could analyze a market demographic and turn myself into a little writing machine to take advantage of their interests. At one point I had ten writers working for me. But all of that was unfulfilling, just a way to sell out in a digital world. It may have been more convenient, but it still sucked.

You know what the problem was? I simply wasn’t interested in suppressing my own desires and identity in the name of “success.” All of the market analysis is meaningless if you are trying to mold yourself to someone else’s expectations. You’ll come across phony, because that’s what you’re being. It’s impossible to hide. The truth has a way of sneaking out.

So why put the truth of today off for some more convenient tomorrow? Don’t hide behind somebody else’s proven techniques. That kind of thing might increase your traffic, but will it connect you to your ideal audience? More importantly, will it make you happy? If your so-called “success” doesn’t satisfy you, then what’s the point?

I’m not saying educating yourself about effective blogging techniques is a bad idea. But it often overwhelms your unique voice, which is the entire point of blogging. I know it’s scary to reveal yourself to the world. What if they reject you? However, until you do, you will never gain a loyal audience or be engaged in meaningful work. Don’t you think it’s time to stop researching techniques and start expressing yourself.

The Art of Honesty

Let’s face it, as an author your mission is to cut through all the generic bullshit floating around the interwebs. You’re an evangelist, an angel, destined to bring the light of authenticity and truth to the world. How ya gonna do that if you’re too afraid of what someone else might think of your article?

Sure, there are proven techniques for sharing your thoughts, and it’s generally a good idea to follow those guidelines whenever possible. But sometimes standard procedure gets trumped by the purity of inspiration. As a writer, hell, as a person, you should focus less on following rules and more on being yourself.

After all, isn’t that what life’s about? Being honest, living purely, expressing yourself and letting people love or reject you for who you are, not who you’re pretending to be. This is the art of writing, and it deserves cultivation.

But wait, you say. Hold on just one moment. Isn’t such a bold and reckless approach doomed to failure?

Redefining Success

To have spoken, and spoken honestly. That is never failure. It is an achievement worthy of its own place in a soon-to-be-deleted bookmark folder. Better yet, it’s something remarkable that you just don’t see everyday. And people respect the kind of guy who is willing to say what he thinks and eat the consequences, regardless of what they may be.

As a writer, your job is not to hold back. You can’t hedge your bets and hope that someday the perfect opportunity will arise, and on that fateful day you will ride your unicorn into battle and vanquish the hordes of doubters and naysayers. Soldiers don’t learn to fight in the barracks, and writers don’t get published by hiding behind procedure and rules.

Be bold. Climb that mountain, step by weary step. You are not a corporation to focus on global domination at the expense of a shattered soul. You are a writer, an artist, a master craftsman. And your job, your sole focus in life, is to live well. Only then can you share that life through your work, because it will be a life worth sharing.

Masterpieces don’t exist. Fame and success are illusions. Life is right here, right now, this present moment. Are you using it wisely?

Be Yourself

Remember this: writing is about sharing your heart, not about being heard. Don’t lose focus of the real goal. Worldly success and the praise of others are small things compared to the confidence that comes from being yourself. So write that article, even if it is doomed to failure, then take pride in a job well done. You aren’t begging for approval, you’re speaking your mind, and that’s what readers really want.

This is about discipline, about values, about cultivating a fearless and indomitable soul. Rejection is not defeat. Being ignored is not being overcome. These are merely opportunities to grow stronger. I refuse to let another person control my satisfaction in life, and so I write the best goddamn articles you’ll ever read and I email them to whoever the hell I please. And so should you!

You can resort to gimmicks and marketing tricks, you can dupe people or prey on their psychological quirks, but it won’t get you far. Character has a way of shining through, and readers are more perceptive than you might think. Nothing compares to honest expression.

It’s time to throw away the rulebook. Tear down the walls of your heart. It’s time to live deeply, speak freely, and be loved for who you are. This is the art of writing, and you can do it today. Good luck, and tell the truth!

Writing from the Heart is a post from: Blog Godown

A guest article by Noah Mark Rodolfo. You too can be part of this great knowledge sharing community. Take a look at our guest blogging guidelines.

Every blog should commit itself to create a sustainable edge or advantage in order to stay competitive in their chosen market. In the blogging industry, blogs in similar niches are inter-connected to each other which forms a “community” that only intends one purpose – to share relevant and useful information. This can be in the form of content, whether its videos, images or any types of media.

But blogs are not equally created and each have their own branding that sets them all apart from each other. This is where the competition kicks-in. If you really think that blogging is a fair “community”, your blog won’t reach a mile and will be left behind. As a blogger, you have to continuously innovate yourself in any aspects of this business as much as possible. So how can you innovate further to keep ahead of the competition and sustain a competitive edge?

Create a competitive edge for your blog

First off, understanding every angle in the blogging business could require industry research. As you continuously studying your market, you will be able to find some questions as well its corresponding answers which can highly help you to beat and standout among your competition.

Uniqueness is the most basic branding strategy that every blogging guru could ever teach you. If you look at traditional business products like Apple, Sony or perhaps a car brand like Toyota, what makes them successful in their own field are their unique concepts, product trendsetters, service competitiveness and the quality of their products. The same goes in blogging, whether you are in the most competitive market, bringing out the best in you will completely present a unique kind of blog which can really catapult you into the next level of popularity.

Content is king! You may often see this particular phrase in SEO forums and various posts from “make money online” niche blogs. Being unique can be justified through the quality of content that a blog serves for its readers. Striving to give the best information to your readers will not only give actual fresh content, but it can give more popularity to you and to your blog. This will make a big difference that leads most blog lovers to prefer your site over other competitors.

Next is to look after the benefits of your readers and followers. Aside from asserting serious effort in sharing content, you must be able to identify other things that can tickle your readers interest. This can be achieved in different forms depending on your capabilities. If you can manage to offer freebies like e-books, coaching services and other free programs, it will certainly give you a competitive blogging edge.

People will always patronize products that are made of quality and of course, affordable pricing. Same goes in blogging, people will visit a site which offers more features rather than a regular blog that only offer articles. Remember, people visits your blog because they are expecting something new from your site. If you failed to satisfy your visitors, it could greatly affect your blogs’ readership counts and most importantly, it will position your site at the tail-end of the competition.

Once you were able to satisfy your readers, you only need to sustain the same formula to stay on top. Keep your style as trending as possible. You must also be able to adapt every changes in the Internet industry to keep your blog up to date and difficult to copy. Once done perfectly in regular basis, profit will surely follow. Only then that you can guarantee your blog with competitive edge over the others.

How to Create a Competitive Edge for your Blog? is a post from: Blog Godown

Wahooly, not just a company with a wild name, is a hot start-up focused on helping launch other start-ups. The way Wahooly hopes to accomplish its goal isn’t traditional by any standards. However, it is more in line with current marketing ideas and practices. Rather than requiring users to fork over money to support a project, Wahooly takes advantage of social promotion, connectivity, and feedback as a means of supporting and growing the start-up. As compensation for their support, users become invested in the new company.

Sounds pretty cool, right? So, how does it really work?

An example from Wahooly’s site describing its service goes as follows: imagine there is a new, social, photo-sharing site that needs help getting its feet off the ground. After setting up a deal with Wahooly, the photo start-up is presented to Wahooly users who, if they think the site has potential, can sign up to support it and help it grow. The number of users who can sign up to support is limited to a pre-defined amount depending on the needs of the start-up. Each user will then hold an equal share of a portion of the start-up.

How do Wahooly users make money, and what’s in it for the start-up?

Ultimately, the value of a user’s share is dependent upon how much they help the start-up. Active Wahooly users, those that contribute high quality feedback and are the biggest advocates for the brand, are rewarded with more points, meaning an increased value of their share. Users can track the always-fluctuating value of their share and their ranking amongst the other photo start-ups supporters on their Dashboard page.

It’s a win-win situation for both the start-up and users: the more buzz built and improvements to the start-up, the more compensation a user receives!

Quality supporters are the biggest help

Not just anyone is able to hop in on the Wahooly action. Wahooly partnered with Klout, the questionably reliable social-influence measurement site, to find over 25,000 high-ranking influencers. These users are very socially connected and are probably early adopters. Needless to say, highly influential people who are credible and can reach out to many others can be utilized to great effect for promotion. I’m hoping that Wahooly is kept as an exclusive system to maintain the quality of service it hopes to provide.

Wahooly launches with three start-ups

Wahooly launched, albeit in beta mode, on February 1st with three start-up companies looking for support. Over the course of 2012, Wahooly will introduce over 200 more start-ups to its users, most of which are consumer-targeted, web-based applications.

Wahooly definitely has an interesting model and may provide more to its users and clients than any other site like it. Only time will tell if what it strives to do comes to fruition. A quick way to tell is if some of the first start-ups to be introduced on the site achieve success. As Wahooly says, “social capital is the future,” but can Wahooly really put it to use in a way we haven’t seen before?

Wahooly is Open for Business! is a post from: Blog Godown

With more people than ever now getting into the whole social media aspect of owning a smartphone, it’s only logical therefore to make sure you have all of the available tools at your disposal. Thanks to the increasing range of apps that are out there, it’s now possible to carry out all manner of social media tasks, no matter what kind of smartphone you have or whatever your location happens to be.

Naturally, everyone has their own opinions on which apps are the most essential to have on-board your mobile device, so here’s a handful that seem to be some of the most popular.

Give me five

Facebook App

You don’t need to be a social media expert to know that it’s Facebook that pretty much everybody is using nowadays to ensure they stay in touch with family, friends and work colleagues. You’ll find that the app version of this is even better than the desktop counterpart because it has managed to shrink everything into a smaller area, but still works a treat.

Twitter Andoid App

Twitter is another social media must-have and, again, the app version of the software makes for a fantastic way to stay connected for both posting Tweets and keeping tabs on others activities too. The great thing with most apps that work well is that you can do just about anything on a smartphone that used to be confined to a conventional computer. The Twitter app is no exception.

LinkedIn Social Media App

LinkedIn meanwhile is often perceived as a social media site that concentrates more on the business professional and to a certain degree this is correct.
However, now that it has a mobile app version, more and more people are discovering that it’s also another great way to promote your own personal profile. The software is slick, the site looks a treat and if you want to get yourself seen then this is another one to add to the app arsenal.

Google+ Mobile App

Google + is seen by some as a poor substitute for Facebook, but it is actually a refreshing twist on the social media theme. The way that it works is very quick and easy to get your head around, and once you are up and running, the potential for increasing those in your social circles is massive. What’s more, if you’re signed up you also get access to all of the other free Google apps too, such as Gmail and Docs.

Adobe Photoshop Editor

We’re all using a lot more images on our social networking pages now these days; so another software app that’s a definite requirement is that of the image editor. There are plenty of these around, but if you’re looking for a dependable and familiar friend then Adobe Photoshop Express makes a good bet. It’s obviously a lot more trimmed down than the traditional version, but it makes quick and easy image editing on a smartphone a doddle.

Wordpress Mobile App

Meanwhile, if you love to blog then, again, there are countless apps out there in the marketplace that can help you get the job done. Try something like WordPress if you’re a little more advanced, as this can give you some truly powerful tools for social media needs. However, less experienced users might want to try their hand at Blogger, because the app version of this online service
is incredibly user-friendly.

Five killer social media Apps to add to your smartphone in 2012 is a post from: Blog Godown

Since the dawn of email marketing, spam filters have had a myopic focus on protecting innocent victims from scummy marketing ploys. The battle win continue to be fought as long as there are those sending emails and those protecting us from those people. But you can be one of the “Good guys” just by changing the words you use.

The problem with some of the naughty words out there is that they’ve been considered naughty for years, and some haven’t been cleared of their unnecessary charges (see “Free,” as an example). Since these words have been the top and longest running offenders and are still considered a threat to email inboxes worldwide, it’s best to avoid using them all together.

Photo Credits

1. Opportunity

If an email with “opportunity” dotted through it somehow sneaks into your inbox, then it wouldn’t be at all surprising if the tiny hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.

So, why is “opportunity” a particularly scary and naughty word?

First, an “opportunity” isn’t a deal or a promotion. An “opportunity” is something that you, as the subscriber, benefit from after jumping through hoops and not the other way around. Through and through, “opportunity” is a sleazeball word.

2. Free

“Free” is usually followed by “offer,” “leads,” “investment,” “opportunity” or “money.”

In email subscribers’ minds, “free” comes with some serious baggage and strings.

But, “free” can also be quite valuable to email marketing, if used only once. If you must use “free,” use it in your subject line like “Free Shipping.” Try not to make the “free” whatever the entire focus of your email promotion.

3. Amazing

What’s “amazing?” The Seven Wonders of the World? The birth of a child?

Natural phenomena earn the illustrious right to be called “amazing.” Anything else warrants suspicion.

It doesn’t matter how awesome your man made product is, it surely isn’t “amazing.”

4. Urgent

“Urgent” sounds like it’s coming out of the mouth of a non-attorney spokesperson who is talking about an “urgent medical announcement.”

“Urgent” implies that you’re taking your life in your hands if you don’t act immediately.

An email, even a marketing email, shouldn’t trigger the fight-or-flight reflex in your subscribers.

Just don’t use it.

5. Name Brand

Much like “urgent,” “name brand” paints a very sleazy picture in the minds of your email subscribers.

Think of a back alley deal for “name brand” prescriptions or rummaging through some sketchy guy’s trunk for “name brand” hand bags.

Here’s a thought: why not just tell us what those “name brand” items are? Who are the actual manufacturers of the products?

“Name brand” implies that you don’t have any “name brands” at all, but crappy knockoffs.

6. Opt-in

Let’s just clear something up: no reputable online business emails customers directly, asking them to “opt-in” for any service.

Customers do that one their own, after they made the choice to hear from you.

Also, it is more than a best practice but a necessary action that all customers “opt-in” for any service you provide – email, SMS or fax marketing included.

Since marketing in this manner is highly regulated, not providing this option but soliciting it through email is very suspicious and quite scary.

The Verdict

Get creative and don’t resort to using the naughty words to try and push your email promotions. People won’t open them and you will only end up destroying your reputation in the process. If you need to dust off the thesaurus, do it. Now go and play nice with your next newsletter or promotion.

6 Naughty Words to Never Use Anywhere in Your Emails is a post from: Blog Godown

It takes all kinds of people to make the world. The same adage stands true for the content available on the internet. Be it opinions, conversations, blogs, articles and feedbacks, the written word has never had it better. For every third article/blog, there are a multiple discussions and opinions being traded. Most of the time, the audience (and in some cases even the writers!) cannot differentiate between a blog and an article.

What you find here is a blog post (It was a blog when it was a work in progress and since it is published on the net, it is a blog post!). An article would have been more informative. However the fact of the matter is that the attention span of the readers (read internet users/browsers) being low, blogs have found more acceptance than articles.
But, then, how does it matter, you may ask.

What to write?

To Write or Preach?

Blogs are humorous, have space to offer opinions and feedbacks and are not preachy! On a serious note, blogs have become a hit with the audiences as they offer information to the average reader in a precise manner. The personal or first person style of writing allows the reader to be a part of the entire process. It is more empathetic. The language used is conversational. Anyone with even a little flair for writing can express ideas, share news or just rant about anything/anybody in the world via blogs.

Articles, on the other hand, handle more serious stuff. The information given is always backed by the source. It refers to the information in a well structured and factual manner. Articles being with an introduction, provide information within paragraphs and ends with conclusion. The sources are also mentioned at the end. Not all articles encourage feedback, unless the pitch (news/editorial) demands.

Article or Blog for SEO?

A webmaster offering content writing services, will always opine that blog posts work great at the initial stage of an SEO campaign. Even inviting guest posts on the website is a great way to get other sites to point links. While articles serve the purpose of educating the readers, they are useful for building the reputation and quality of the site. The main aim of any visitor is to collect information and there are times when an educated visitor/opinion leader might refer and link your site, which in the long run lends authenticity to the site hosted.

That brings us to the question: What to do: a blog cap or an article hat? And that’s elementary, dear Watson!

What To Do: The Blog Cap Or The Article Hat? is a post from: Blog Godown

Foursquare is coming up in the digital world and wants to be the cool social hangout everyone thinks of when they’re out and about. The location-based service recently introduced Nearby Maps, a features it hopes people will start using to find familiar places in their area. Best of all – this one offers a little something for local businesses as well.

When a user visits the Foursquare page of a business, they can now see all of the business’ locations that are nearby where they are located. For example, if a user is visiting family in a different town and wants to find the nearest JC Penny, they can visit the brand’s Foursquare page and view a map with all the JC Penny stores in the area. The feature also presents the user with the closest options. Nearby Maps does a fine job of giving the business some nice publicity, while providing the user with the information they need.

credits: FastCompany

Catching on in the Business Community

Foursquare has become much more business-friendly as of late, and brands are taking notice. In 2011, the company introduced its very own business pages, a trend that has truly taken off in the social space. What many observers appreciated about this feature was that it not only catered to local businesses with brick-and-mortar establishments, but those who may not have a traditional, physical place of business. Page owners have access to unique marketing opportunities, as well as help from Foursquare, which provides a platform for extending offers and tracking activity via analytics.

Foursquare has been releasing several new features, most aimed at making it easier for consumers and brands to connect. One of the most interesting features to come along in recent times has been the Explore engine. Explore was literally a huge step forward for Foursquare, expanding the service’s presence from the mobile world to the desktop. The company has also been steadily introducing features to help brands increase the visibility of their pages. Slowly but surely, Foursquare is becoming a tool more businesses need to pay attention to.

Getting on the Foursquare Map

According to Foursquare, the Nearby Maps feature has been rolled out on hundreds of business pages and will reach many more in the near future. All users have to do to benefit from this feature is visit the page of the business they want to find. Brands have to go through the process of connecting their page to their venues, which all starts with creating a page, of course.

Foursquare says this connection offers the following benefits:

- Management tools to create special offers and view activity reports for each location.

- Ability to connect a business page to venue pages.

- Provide customers with an easy way to find the closest venue on a map that resides on the business’ Foursquare page.

Foursquare is still growing up, but is already displaying so much potential. Features like Nearby Maps only add to its strength and value as a marketing tool.

Does the Foursquare Nearby Maps feature make it a stronger tool for businesses? is a post from: Blog Godown

(Courtesy of vanessaeducation)

Imagine writing a great blog. The writing and editing process is complete and only the submission process is left. It is time for posting the blog, but the little hourglass or circle keeps spinning on the tab of the web browser indicating the Internet is working but not submitting. Frustration increases during the waiting process. The mind races to the thought of the competition submitting faster. Blogger’s fatigue and defeat sets in. It is an utter nightmare.

Fast Internet connections can alleviate this problem. Non-technical bloggers can solicit the help of a technical friend, but most of the solutions can be implemented by bloggers. To optimize the Internet connection, try these few simple tips.

(Courtesy of willc2)

How to Improve Internet Connection Speed

Currently, bloggers may have access to dial-up connection, DSL, satellite and cable Internet. Cable Internet or broadband is the fastest connection available to bloggers. The slowest connection is dial-up. Improve the speed of the connection by examining the current speed of your Internet connection. This may be accomplished by a few simple tests. Review the tips to increase productivity and enhance the blogging experience.

Conduct a Speed Test. Determine your current upload and download speeds. Some experts recommend Speedtest.net for these tests. The tests are free and can be conducted directly from web browser. Speed tests will help bloggers determine if the Internet connection is fast enough.

Eliminate Extraneous Programs. Extraneous programs make the computer run slower than normal. Each time the computer is started, several programs must load also. The fewer programs required to load at start-up, the faster the computer becomes. The programs are located in the lower left hand toolbar on the computer typically. Experts recommend uninstalling programs not frequently in use to improve the computer’s speed.

Disable plug-ins and add-ins. These programs put a significant strain on the Internet connection bandwidth. Some programs may have to be completely removed. Bloggers can remove them through the Control Panel.

Increase the Browser’s Cache. With increased browser cache, the memory increases. Cache stores files for frequently visited web pages. Loading web pages from cache is faster and easier than loading web pages from the Internet over and over again. This simple process can significantly improve computer speeds.

Turn off Automatic Subscriptions. Automatic subscriptions should be turned off. Automatic subscriptions consist of RSS feeds, podcasts and software updates. This simple task increases speeds during browsing. After browsing is complete, the feeds may be turned back on after the web browsing session is complete.

Avoid Downloads During Peak Periods. Avoid downloading large files during peak periods. The peak periods typically range from the mid-morning to mid-afternoon. Web traffic increases significantly during this period. A blogger’s productivity may be slowed if trying to post articles to the Internet. Plan accordingly to ensure optimal productivity of bloggers.

Summary

Bloggers who improve the speeds of the Internet may improve productivity levels. Working during periods when the Internet is slow may cause bloggers to spend twice the time as normal on the Internet. This is not productive. Working with slow Internet increases frustration and fatigue.

Consider cable modem or broadband for the fastest Internet connections and the best results. The blogging experience will become more enjoyable for the blogger. Time saved may be allocated to producing compelling content.

Blogger’s Solution to Slow Internet is a post from: Blog Godown

Google has recently announced their new “admin” feature and Twitter is releasing brand pages for their websites. Google, Twitter and Facebook pages are typically not overseen by one individual, but by various individuals. This form of management proves suitable for social media companies, but it does impose serious security problems, especially when it comes to security breaches.  Legitimate social media marketers are in abundance on social media websites, but sadly, so are spammers.  With the ease of posting, companies should beware of security concerns because spammers can put any company’s brand at risk.

The following are tips for marketers to keep pages secure while avoiding security breaches:

1. Always be aware of who has access to your social media page

It proves inevitable that more than one person manages your social networking website profiles. Because of this, different people are granted access. Ensure that only people who are directly involved with your marketing strategies has the passwords and email addresses associated with the account. Minimize the number of people as much as possible who are granted access to the account. Remove people who do not contribute to the success of the social medial networking campaign.  Unnecessary personnel should be deleted, as well as anyone you do not know.  In the cases of not recognizing someone, you should investigate why that person had access to begin with.

2. Change your password regularly

It proves crucial to consistently change your password for social media networking websites. Do not forget that these sites are hooked into your company email address, and that should be changed consistently, as well.  Some might argue that it proves ridiculous to flirt with so much skepticism, but people are always complaining about hackers gaining information from their social media site. Regardless, no matter the statistics of this crime occurring or not occurring, you should protect your pages you admin by protecting your personal pages.  Hackers run rampant on these websites, so protect your pages at all costs.

3. Remove people as quickly as possible who do not require access to your brand

What some companies fail to do repeatedly is remove fired or dismissed workers as soon as possible from accessing company pages.  There are different horror-stories from companies who have fired bitter employees. These companies came to realize that the terrible publicity they received was from a disgruntled employee who was fired.  Immediately after, someone is fired; they will no longer require access to your admin page.  They should be removed immediately. The longer you delay this task, the higher probability of some disaster occurring.  You have worked hard for your marketing campaign; do not mess it up simply because you “forgot” to extract a fired employee off your access list to your admin page.

Conclusion

These security measures probably look tedious and frustrating to operate, but there have been various social media mistakes made because of hackers, neglect and spammers.  You have worked hard for your marketing campaign, and you must ensure proper care in maintaining, and protecting your pages at all cost.

Managing Passwords for Social Media Security is a post from: Blog Godown

It is incredibly difficult to lose money on a blog. The overhead is so low that even CPM ads, AKA webmaster welfare, can pay the bills. As sites grow and require more expensive hosting packages, they can usually extract more for CPM ads, so it all evens out. In other words, blogs that lose money probably aren’t trying that hard to make it.

But you’re trying hard to make your blog more profitable, right? You want to get as many eyeballs on it as possible, right? Good. Then we’re on the same page. There are a few ways you can approach these ideas. There’s just one catch..

At some point, it’s going to cost you money.

Don’t worry, though. Much like your hosting costs, you can recoup these dollars via future earnings. But in order to break through barriers, you’ll have to break a few eggs. Fortunately enough, the resulting omelette tastes delicious.

Affiliate Marketing is not easy but it's worth it!

The Pitch: Affiliate Sales

Affiliate sales is a term every blogger should know in some form. It is a potentially lucrative way to monetize a blog or other online venture. Many companies offer affiliate programs, which allow third parties to sell products and get a commission. There are plenty of companies that aggregate affiliate offerings, allowing you to find many programs in one place. Starting with affiliate sales is remarkably easy.

It is remarkably difficult, however, to make money at first. You can implement affiliate links on your blog, and you can even try to promote them a bit. But chances are, no one’s buying what you’re selling. There are many steps you have to take before you can successfully implement affiliate links onto your site. And yes, those resources will cost you money.

The Solution: Conferences

Every year there are a number of conferences for affiliate marketers. Just google it and you’ll find dozens of results, which reveal conferences all around the country. The industry is large and full of veteran experts who have been doing this since the late 90s. That’s a wealth of information available to you. All you need to do is get to the venue and pay for admission.

The admission price is pretty set in stone. It’s what you pay in order to gain the benefits of others’ knowledge. There are other costs involved, but those you can help control. For instance, Affiliate Summit is an annual affiliate conference in New York City. You can use a travel site such as Orbitz to find a package deal that provides a discount on airline tickets and New York hotels (which, as you can see, are not cheap). Little hacks like this can go a long way, and they can help keep your costs down while traveling.

Remember, though, that in the end it’s all an investment. You’re going so that you can turn that plane ticket, that hotel room, and that admission ticket into dollars from your blog.

Direct Sales

While affiliate sales can earn you plenty of money, they require heavy volume in order to be truly profitable. You’re earning a small margin per sale, so you need a lot of sales for those pennies to add up. They’ll add up far faster than CPM advertising, but there are far faster ways. Selling your own products directly to consumers can be a profitable endeavor for bloggers.

As with affiliate sales, it’s tough to get the ball rolling. The big difference between the two is the overhead. You’ll have to pay for research, for manufacturing and other types of production, for shipping, for storage, and for a number of other costs. It might not sound very enticing. This is why many bloggers do not travel this path. It’s just not safe, and it can put you deep in a hole.

Yet there is a solution that can minimize your overhead while maximizing profits.

The Solution: Information Products

You know something about something. Everyone does. With just a little focused research, you might even become an expert in that field. The great part about being an expert is that you can then sell your expertise in the form of ebooks and other electronic products. These take little money to produce, so what you make is almost pure profit. They do take your time, which is your most valuable resource, but if you spend your time right the returns will amaze you.

It will require a significant time investment, at first, to gain expertise in a field. Once you get there, you’ll need to spend time researching which types of information products you’ll offer. A newsletter is useful, since it allows you to remain in constant contact with prospects. That can help you sell ebooks, e-learning videos, audio guides, and other products. The actual product creation could take the least amount of time. Once you find the structure, the content creation should be relatively easy, since you did all the research beforehand.

Implementing affiliate and direct sales to your site can provide more income than you ever dreamed possible. The catch is that doing either requires discipline and an investment. In other words, you’ll have to spend money to make money. But, since that’s how businesses have done things since time immemorial, this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Are you ready to invest in your blog, and yourself, yet?

Cracking a few eggs to make your blog omelette is a post from: Blog Godown

One of the main challenges of a blog arises from the problem of keeping readers engaged.  The blogger may have all the components for the foundation of a blog: but without that special quality or quirk, the bounce rate may stay pitifully high. However, there are a number of strategies that bloggers can use, to positively influence their bounce rate. With content that promotes dialogue and sharing, bloggers can maintain audience interest and keep readers engaged.

5 Tips to Create a Sticky Blog

Making it Sticky!

1. Diverse Content

A successful, “sticky” blog will touch on a variety of different topics, which fall under a similar theme. A blog with multiple interests is more likely to attract readers, in comparison to a blog that focuses on a single topic (there are exceptions, of course). Diverse topics also allow writers to expand their expertise and knowledge, decreasing the chances of writer’s block. However, make sure that writers do not constantly move away from the niche of the blog. If the front page is filled with a stream of unrelated content, then visitors may be confused and turned away from the site.

2. Optimization

A messy blog, with excessive links and poor design, can send the wrong message to a first-time visitor. By designing the blog with user experience in mind, webmasters can decrease bounce rate and keep readers on for longer. However, the lack of advanced computer skills is no excuse: there are a number of changes that any blogger can implement instantly. Remove dead links and redirect pages that frustrate and dissuade readers, and decrease the attractiveness of the blog.

3. Off-site Engagement

There are a variety of ways to keep readers engaged, even when they’re off the site. One such method is email marketing; if a reader is subscribed to a blog, the blogger can send periodic emails with engaging, new content. With social media and multimedia platforms, the blogger can provide followers and fans with videos, short updates, and alternative forms of content. By creating an experience, readers are compelled to turn back to the main site.

4. Internal Linking

One way to keep readers engaged is to use internal linking. Links that lead to similar content can move visitors from one article to another, keeping them on a blog for an extended period of time. Some ways to use internal linking is to use keywords or have a list of related articles at the end of a blog post. Another advantage of internal linking is the SEO benefits: in addition to using target keywords, search engines sites are able to take advantage of internal links to better index the blog.

5. Use Reader Opinion

If you’re stuck for ideas, bloggers can take advantage of their audience in order to generate engaging content. Use polls and read visitor comments to get an idea of the audience’s interests. Another way to involve readers is to use a suggestion content form, encouraging the audience to submit ideas. A blog’s content is written specifically for its audience; therefore, use readers to create engaging, interesting content.

A low bounce rate may seem like a difficult goal, especially for fledgling blogs. However, by creating a blog with engaging content and “sticky” qualities, bloggers are more likely to enjoy the benefits of a low bounce rate.

Keep Readers from Bouncing: Creating a “Sticky” Content Strategy is a post from: Blog Godown

Whether it’s a website or a blog, it needs to project credibility. If the blog doesn’t meet the highest standards of credibility, there is no way in the world that it’s going to attract a loyal readership.  So improving the reputation of your blog must be a high priority task for you.

Credibility can be built, but it can't be bought!

Here are three tips that will go a long way in improving blog credibility:

Only post Relevant Content

It is only if your blog has relevant content that it can strike a chord amongst users. The reason why visitors want to go through your blog is because you have promised them specific information and if they don’t find that information on your blog, they are not going to come back to it again.  For e.g. if your blog is about iPhone applications and their development and you start offering information about Android or Symbian development, it’s not something that the readers are going to like very much. Another facet of relevant content is that it should be fresh. Readers want the latest information and are not looking for content that is old and whose expiry date is long past.

Answer your Comments

If you think that you can improve the credibility of your blog purely by publishing fresh content, then you have another thing coming. Once you have posted on your blog, it’s important that you answer the comments that you attract for a particular post. The fact that readers have taken time out to post a comment means they have read your blog post with interest and decided to air their views about what was written. Their comments might be appreciative or can even be critical of the ideas or thoughts that have been expressed in your post. As a blogger you need to show your acknowledgment for their appreciation and in most case a short and sweet ‘thank you’ will do.

But when it comes to criticism, you can defend what you said in the blog post and clarify any doubts that the reader has expressed through the comment. This tells blog visitors that you know what you are talking about and are saying something not just for the heck of it, but with conviction. It’s a simple equation really – If you are convinced about what you are saying, you stand a better chance of convincing your readers.

Don’t Keep Projecting Yourself as the Best

Confidence is always good, and you can project that confidence through the content of your blog posts. But, if your blog keeps saying that you are the best at regular intervals, be it through the tag lines used, its content or the images used, instead of looking like an expert, you will come out looking obnoxious. The fact that you are the best shouldn’t be told to the readers of your blog, it must be something your readers should be able to gauge naturally, over the course of time.  The use of visuals, call to actions etc. must be commensurate with the purpose of the blog and not be put in place to tell visitors that there is nobody better than you.

It’s important to note that these are not the only tips that will ensure credibility for your blog. As you go along, you will learn of new ways to improve the credibility of your blog. The important thing is to do the simple things right.

3 Great Ways to Improve the Credibility of Your Blog is a post from: Blog Godown

To say that business conditions these days are less than ideal across the board would be a great understatement. Because of these conditions, companies must tread carefully when it comes to funding the marketing initiatives necessary for their very survival. Email marketing is already affordable, but it just doesn’t get any more economical than free. In this article, we will take a look at why free email marketing is such a good option for the small business operating in an ailing economy.

Email is Still Cool

Consumers these days use a broad array of devices and mediums to communicate. Social media, instant message, and SMS text are just a few of many that instantly come to mind. While several channels have come along over the last couple of years, email remains as common and useful as ever. Consumers around the world have an email account they use on a regular basis, and if you run a small business, you can rest assured that the members of your target audience are among the bunch. What does all this mean? That free email marketing can give you a reliable way to get in touch with the people you need to reach.

Its Measurable

Today, it takes a number of different key ingredients to make up a successful business strategy. One of the most important is a system that keeps track of your performance. Knowing how your campaigns are truly fairing can be difficult with traditional media, but it is a breeze thanks to the measurability of email. With the inclusion of a simple HTML image tag, email allows you to track just about every vital aspect of your campaigns. This includes the number and percentage of opens, clicks, forwards, and much more. Although robust tracking capabilities may appear to be a luxury limited to paying customers, it is very possible to find it in free email marketing.

Free = Huge Cost Savings

It is no wonder that the rugged economy has hit small businesses so hard when considering that they have fewer resources than their larger counterparts. Unfortunately, this usually means they are harder with smaller budgets as well. When money is tight, even methods that are generally affordable can be prohibitive. This is what makes a solution like free email marketing so ideal in these tough times. The cost savings it delivers can give a small business the opportunity to keep the budget intact, and boost their profit margin in the process. Spending less is always going to produce a better looking return in the long run.

Summary

Email marketing is a great fit for organizations of all sizes. In today’s sluggish economic climate, you could say a free service is perfectly suited for small businesses. It literally lays off the budget while providing all the powerful tools that many companies around the world gladly pay for. We can’t really think of any reason for a small business not to at least consider free email marketing.

Why is Free Email Marketing a Good Option for Small Businesses in a Struggling Economy? is a post from: Blog Godown

The two faces of blogging

The “Active” and the “Passive” has a lot of impact on the daily lives of bloggers. An “Active” blogger takes initiative, strives to be productive and does the hard work. The “Passive” counterpart is a big time procrastinator, shirks from menial tasks and tries to find shortcuts, even if they may not be the right things to do.

Classifying yourself as a pure “Active” or “Passive” blogger can be a bit strong. But, there are shades of both, one shade is bigger than the other one (more like a two face you see in the image (evil smile)). One can identify this by analyzing the behavour of “Active” and “Passive” bloggers. Let us take some examples which will help you understand the scenario better:

General Blogging:

The “Active”: An Ideal version of this type of blogger is a task master. A productive guy who does not stop with writing just the article. There’s a lot more it. He tweaks and optimizes and then markets it. Next, he analyzes his posts according to statistics. It is not the quality of article that matters to him, but the actual learning curve which will eventually lead to the path of becoming a problogger one day,

The “Passive”: The type of blogger that most of us experience in one stage or the other. We sometimes call it writer’s block just to avoid embarrassment but we are actually lazing around, dozing off . The Passive sounds fun but it is the path to disaster valley. The Passive guy is only interested in the results and hence, he tries to focus just on writing and super quick methods to make money online – the kind of methods which are sold by many crooks. Eventually, they are either cheated by some crook or they start using black hat methods.

Commenting:

The “Passive”: The “Good Post” and “Thanks for sharing” kind of comments are not adding value to the discussion. They were supposed to be of value years ago, when blogging had just started. Everyone was new to the concept, so short and supportive comments like these were always welcome. But, nowadays, this is a passive way of commenting. Most of these comments are spam, but even the real ones are of no use. Good Post does not reflect your opinions and ideas. It is an indicator that you are too lazy to write a thoughtful comment.

The “Active”: The Active commenter is every blogger’s favorite. The one who treats comments as a forum to discuss. He adds value to the forum by giving his insight and topping it up with his opinions. It can be a critique, or a strong reaction. But, whatever it is, it adds a spark to the commenting forum and adds to the reputation of the commenter.

Social Media

The “Passive”: The shameless self plug or sharing like a robot are signs of this guy. The Passive tries his best to automate each and every bit but fails because he is easily ignored by the people in his network (The people in your network are not dumb!).

The “Active”: He is the content curator who shares useful stuff which may or may not be related to his work. He understands the “social” in social media and makes it a point to be a part of conversations and discuss on big and small issues.

I would not ask which side you have been on, because i am pretty sure its been both. But, I would ask you, what do you consider “Active” and “Passive” in terms of blogging?

Active and Passive Side of Blogging is a post from: Blog Godown

This is a guest article by Kevin Moor. You too can be part of this great knowledge sharing community. Take a look at our guest blogging guidelines.

Blogging is a very popular activity; many folks that you know have a blog, and many of those folks will have more than one blog. Blogs are a great way to express yourself or share your knowledge and expertise, so it makes sense that you would want one too.

As you get started, you probably have done a little bit of research on blogging. It is important to know what to do with your blog, but it is equally vital to know what you shouldn’t do. The following tips are only 10 of the things that you should not do with your new blog.

Don't do this!

1.) DON’T overdo your layout. For your blog, simple is probably better. If you do a more elaborate layout with lots of logos you may end up making your blog too busy and hard to read. It could also end up making your blog look a bit unprofessional.

2.) DON’T create a big header. A big header with a logo is sure tempting to create as it can make you site look sharp. It will also make your blog hard to read. Big,slick headers can push the text down. If your visitors can’t see any actual text or content when they first visit your blog, they are more likely to simply surf away from your site before reading any of your posts.

3.) DON’T put too many ads on your blog. You want ads because you want to make money off of your blog; monetizing your blog with ads is one of the prime ways that the average blogger earns money for all of their hard work. You may like ads, but your readers definitely don’t. If you have too many obvious ads on you blog, you will turn your readers off and they may not end up coming back for more.

4.) DON’T disable comments. Turning comments off can be tempting for new bloggers. If you allow comments, you leave yourself and your posts open for critique and may put yourself at risk for someone saying something negative about your work. If you turn off comments, you won’t know all of the awesome things people are saying about your site either. Also, blogging is a type of social media, and this means that you are cutting off the conversation if you disable comments.

5.) DON’T forget to post. If you want a successful blog with lots of visitors, you need to post often. Some say that once or twice a week is often enough, and others say that once a day isn’t enough. However often you intend to post, you need to remember to do it. If you stop posting, viewers will stop checking back to see if there is new content.

6.) DON’T ignore social sites. Social media is a great way to get more eyes on your blog. Share your content via these sites, and be sure to open up accounts on the most popular sites for your blog.

7.) DON’T have a general blog. General blogs can be fun, but niche specific blogs can attract more readers. If you want a widely read, successful or profitable blog you should have it be on a particular topic.

8.) DON’T have music or video autoplay on your blog. You may think that these features make it easy to find the media, but all it actually does is make viewers want to click away from your blog as soon as they can. Visitors who may be checking your site at work or at class or another time when they aren’t supposed to will not appreciate this.

9.) DON’T use blackhat techniques to get people to your blog. If you don’t know what these are, don’t worry; you probably are safe. Otherwise, please know that these spammy, slightly underhanded methods will turn off your readers and may get you banned from search results.

10.) DON’T forget to read other blogs. By reading other blogs, you will get a lot of benefits, including learning about what does and does not work when blogging. You should also leave honest, pertinent comments on these blogs, as this will surely lead to even more hits for your own site.

10 Things You Shouldn’t Do With Your New Blog is a post from: Blog Godown

Blogging is the recent popular activity that all of us do regularly or in our free time. We share our thoughts and interests on a blog or give a comment on others blog or even become a blogger’s fan!

Many people have taken up blogging for their livelihood. The concept of guest blogging allows people to post articles in somebody else’s blog as a guest blogger giving each of the parties an advantage

of content, branding, traffic and good writing skills. Starting a blog, writing relevant content doesn’t comprise a good blog. Getting readers to read your blog is the most important task.

To have a steady flow of traffic to your blog, you need to promote your blog effectively. Facebook is giving us so much everyday. It is the largest social networking website in which millions of people connect with each other. Facebook is very good platform to publicize your blog. Let us see how FB apps can help you promote your blog.

I. Facebook Pages:

Creating a fan page is one of the top facebook applications which will help you promote your blog. When you decide to create a fan page, keep your personal FB account away from your blogging community. You can boost your facebook page by:

a. Discussion boards: Once you create a fan page, a discussion board tab is available to share views on with one another. The discussion boards resembles a forum in which you and your fans can start and carry out discussions thereby building relationships among fans.

b. Polling: Create a poll and get your users vote their choice. An easy way to gather data and responses. You can publish the results of the poll and get opinions from your fans.

c. Static FBML: If you think your blog needs a bit of customization then you need to be familiar with HTML codes. Static FBML(Facebook Markup Language) feature allows you to add tabs and modify them in your fan page. You can use HTML codes or FBML in the fan page to setup landing page for fans and non-fans.

II. Social RSS:

Add a RSS Feed subscription for your blog for users to get updated content. Let your Social RSS be visible and configured accordingly before you activate it. According to your latest post, the feeds will update automatically.

III. Notes:

Notes is one of the Facebook applications available on your tab once logged in. Importing blog posts is easier with the help of Notes and it is the reason why many use it. You can either import the blog or copy and paste your individual articles into Notes and share it with your fans. They in-turn can share the note with others or add comments on it.

IV. Blog:

The Blog application is the quick and easy way to start blogging on Facebook. You can promote your main site using Blog on Facebook. Another application similar to this is Blog Box which allows you to write, add a blog post or import articles from an existing blog. If you have imported articles, Blog box will check your main site for any new post and update content every 6 hours.

V. Facebook Ads:

Placing an Ad in Facebook is the quicker way to get visible but with a charge. FB Ads reach out all people and have the ability to attract visitors to your blog or fan page.

Note From Editor: So what have been your experiences with Facebook marketing? Which application has worked for you?

The Top 5 Facebook Apps to promote your blog is a post from: Blog Godown

Blogging is certainly not as easy as many people think it is. Blogging is actually a business and involves a lot more than just writing good content. Getting a nice design, moderating comments and promoting blogs are only just a bit of the whole blogging business. Running blogs as a professional does take up a lot of time especially if the blogger works a full-time job and can only attend to his/her blog at night or on the weekends.

Always running out of time!

Managing time is an essential skill that a blogger needs to learn. Even if you are a full-time blogger, you still need to manage your time properly. The tough question is always there – how to maximize the time, make sure that we get the most out of each hour and finally come out productive by the time we log off at the end of the day?

Let’s take a look at some time management tips that could be useful for bloggers:

• List down and maintain your ideas in idea file

  An idea for your next post suddenly pops out when you are waiting for the train to arrive – what do you do? Do you keep it in your head? I suggest writing down the ideas.

  Brainstorming activities take a lot of time. Save time and list down any ideas you have in your head so that later on, you only need to focus on the writing part. Create a “box” called an “idea file” and put all the new post ideas in it. When it is time for you to start writing, open the “idea file” and go!

  To record the ideas and store the details, I recommend Evernote. Evernote helps to maintain the idea list and the retrieving process is easy. If you don’t fancy Evernote as much, find other method that suits you. The list of ideas doesn’t even have to be maintained electronically; some people write their ideas in notebook or keep them in their smart phones. Whichever method are you using, the idea is to maintain the idea list to save your time.

• Build a routine and stick to it

  When we work for others, time is managed for us. We have certain expectations to be met – arrive at the given time, log on to the system, be productive, take a break, come back and be productive again. If you think this only applies when you work for others, think about it again. It is just as effective if we apply this to our own day when we become our own bosses. The only difference is that this time, we manage our own time, instead of having our schedule and tasks dictated by others.

  Schedule your blogging time, make it a routine and stick to it. Having a routine helps you to stay organized. If you don’t have a structured schedule, it is very easy for you to come up with excuses such as “no time” every time you messed up your progress. For instance, you might want to have a fixed brainstorming session every Monday and write articles every Friday. This helps you to focus on other tasks on the other days; you could spend those days working on marketing, generating traffic, etc.

• Focused Batches

  Focused Batches is a tactic to manage time effectively when running a blog. We all suffer from information overload and it can be a major interruption at work. Writing articles in one sitting and then publishing them in queue every day during the week is an example of focused batch work. It leaves the rest of your week open to other tasks such as developing products, for instance.

  You might want to consider breaking the weekly tasks into focused batches. Structure your schedule by allocating one or two hours just to focus on that single task, take a break and start with different single task in the next hour. You also can switch it to days instead hours but the gist is to have a single task to be focused at a go.

• Airplane mode

  Airplane mode is a feature on most smart phones that will turn off all connectivity once you activate it. You can’t call, text or surf the web. It is a “Do Not Disturb” hanging on the phone “door”. Apply the airplane mode to the times when you are doing important works on your blog.

  It literally means removing all potential distractions such as turning off Twitter, email notifications and going off Facebook. Carrying out your work at a fixed place such as in an office with a door might help you to get full, uninterrupted attention as well. It indicates you are in working mode and activating “airplane mode” makes you actually stay there with your work.

Everyone needs time management skills, regardless of whether you are a blogger, office worker or a homemaker. The tips above and some self-discipline helps to keep a blogger efficient and effective in running his/her blog, even if the blogging hours are limited.

Time Management Tips for Bloggers is a post from: Blog Godown

Social media has become increasingly important for all of us. It can greatly affect our career. Have some silly photos of you and your friends acting stupid when you were drunk at Christmas, and the next thing you know, you are not getting that promotion, and you start getting the feeling that you are not really wanted in the office anymore, and you don’t know why. Some people are getting obsessed with social media, Facebook and Twitter marketing. They have come to see themselves as a brand.

(credits: GOIABA (Goiabarea))

The worst personal experience I have had personally, more than once, is when I have met people in a social situation, we have had a good conversation, and then they ask for a Facebook profile. Soon after they don’t speak to you again when you meet them in public because you only have a few friends on Facebook and you are not ‘popular’ enough for them. It is important to manage our time on Facebook and other social media websites.

For some people, they have become addicted to the use of Facebook, and all they do is sit on it all day. They could be getting out, meeting real people, enjoying life, and actually doing something. Here is a look at how we can manage our Facebook life:

Time Constraint

We wouldn’t think it was appropriate to sit in front of the television for 8 hours a day, and do little else, and there is no reason why one should be sitting in front of Facebook for ridiculous amounts of time either. Set yourself a time limit for how long you will allow yourself to gossip, chat and be internet social.

Friends

The concept of friends online is very interesting. Facebook is much more useful when you actually know and have an interest in the people who are associated with your account. Do you really need to be adding all that junk on your account? If someone is not communicating with you via Facebook, and you don’t have a real relationship with them (a Facebook relationship is not a relationship), you should dump them from your account.

Not Real

Have you realised how much of what is happening on Facebook is not actually real? There are numerous fake accounts and fake people on Facebook. Those accounts are so obvious. They are the ones with women wearing a bikini looking alluring or the guy with the six pack abs. They will have 3 photos, little information, and randomly make a comment to everyone. Every now and then, she will tell you how great a product she has used is. She is a fake profile used by a guerrilla marketing company to push products and services.

Privacy

Facebook has been the subject of a lot of debate about privacy. Despite their attempts to give users more control it is struggling with so many users. Hacking, identity theft as well as stolen images have become problems. With so much personal information available on the site you can understand why so many criminals are trying to use it to run scams.

Gossip Book

Unless you are using it in a mature and controlled fashion, or you are using it for effective business purposes, such as boosting your SEO or career in a mature fashion, you might have a problem. Are you behaving like a snotty teenager, gossiping, acting obsessively and suffering from Facebook-nervosa?

Facebook-Nervosa: Are You Suffering this Illness? is a post from: Blog Godown

In internet forums and blogs people actively discuss the problem of website conversion rate evaluation and its increasing. The increasing part is one of the key tasks of web analytics, so this issue should be considered in more details.

So, what site conversion means? The simplest definition is the following: it is a process of making clients (customers) from site visitors. Conversion percent is correlation of number of visitors with the number of customers in percent. The problem is that many commercial site owners try to define optimal conversion rate for web resource which is not quite right. There can’t be one factor. For one business person optimal conversion rate is 3% (some online shop owners say that the conversion rate of their sites isn’t more than 2%), and for another – 10%. If the activity of site not only covers the expenses, but also allows to reinvest money and its future development – we can say that site conversion is not critically low.
But if the level of site conversion is threatening to site’s profit, you should take some actions to correct this situation. Taking into consideration that conversion is the process (visitor becomes customer), you must first make it maximally fast and convenient for visitors. The more difficult it is to use the site, the lower there is a probability of a new purchase. Bad website design makes people think that they have an affair with nonprofessionals.
Let’s discuss some key parameters that affect conversion rate of the web site:

1. Don’t overload visitors with information. Very often owners of online shops write too many information about product. In this situation it is better to make a link to additional information about the product and not to make visitor spend his precious time on reading the information that may be useless for him.

2. Don’t force visitors to give their personal information if it is not very important for you. For example, why must he register the account when he just wants to order a good? Or why do you ask his e-mail before he downloads price list orpdf-document? Very often visitors are asked to fill in a big web form, and if this process makes him tired and irritated, he will just leave your resource and never come back.

3. Be maximally frank and open for your potential clients. For example, if for some moment your internet shop doesn’t have a certain product, don’t show it on the front page. It is better to mark it “This product is not available now”. If the customer pays for delivery, you shouldn’t hide this fact. It would be better to describe all process of delivery in details. It is also advisable to inform the client about the time of product or service delivery.

4. Embed a contact page in your online shop. It would be great if you build a customised web form that will fully suit your web resource. But if you are not very good in programming, then you may use one of online generators like PHPForms. Visitors will feel that you care about their opinion and that you can answer all their questions very quickly via email or by telephone.

5. Offer potential clients several variants of payment. If you only accept the bank payment, your internet business won’t have any success. Very often the limited list of payments make people leave this website and go to your competitors.

6. Money refund. Remember, it is one of the most verified ways of clients attraction. If the visitor knows for sure that he may take his money back, he will trust this online shop.
Of course, there are plenty of other advises about increasing site conversion, but it all depends on individual parameters of your site. Anyway, these advises are the ones that you should adhere first.

Building Successful Online Businesses – Site Conversion Basics is a post from: Blog Godown

If you are serious about developing your blog as a business there are times that you will have to consider outsourcing some aspect of your blog. Indeed managing a blog when you have 100 visitors is a lot different when compared to 10000 visitors. This is why it might be important that you learn how to outsource some aspects of your blog. In this article I will be speaking about 4 interesting aspect of your blog that you can outsource

Design

The first thing that you might consider outsourcing is the design part of your site. Indeed things such as blog templates and logo design can all be outsourced without having too much impact on your blog. The key here is to make sure that you give enough information to your designers to make sure that they understand what you are looking for. There are plenty of freelancers online that will be ready to work for you at a really affordable price.

SEO

Another thing that can easily be outsourced is the SEO. Indeed things like social bookmarking or link building can beoutsourced quite easily and will allow you to save time for some more productive aspect of your blog. Again you will want to make sure that you choose a qualified person or firm to handle this as you will not want them to make use obscure techniques. Using such techniques can penalize your site and may cause your site to disappear from search engines ranking page altogether.

Blog Management

Updating blog software, hosting management and databases management can be a time consuming task especially as the number of visitors keeps on increasing. This is another aspect of your blog that you should be able to outsource quite easily if you want to save some time. It might be a good idea to leave this blog management aspect to the same company that designs your blog in the first place.

Content Creation

This is an aspect of your blog that can be quite tricky if you are careful. Indeed the success of your blog will depend on the quality of the content that you post on your site. Your post will normally be a reflection of your own personality and it can be quite difficult for another person to replicate this. This is one feature of your blog that you may have problem outsourcing as it may take some time for you to find the most appropriate freelancer.
Alternatively you might want to outsource only some categories of your blog while you continue to write on the core topics of your blog.

Outsourcing Your Blog: A Guide is a post from: Blog Godown

Faster website improves user experience and hence directly affects the bounce rate as well as the returning traffic. If you are targeting global audience, you should know that they are using different types of internet connections – some are fast and some are slow. Those with high internet speeds don’t care much about the site load time because almost every websites loads in a matter of seconds. However, those with slower internet connection, each byte downloaded is precious. Therefore, the goal should be to reduce the site load time by tweaking and optimizing the website.

Google Also Recommends Faster Websites

As you might know, google has included site speed as a part of their search algorithm. This was done by google for the same reason – website usability. They also believe that a good website should be fast loading in nature. Therefore, they have provided tools to check site speed such as google analytics and some other firefox plugins. This helps you find the bottlenecks such as SQL Queries, DNS Lookups etc.

Plugin Performance

Similar to the tools provided by google, godaddy has launched a wordpress P3 Plugin Profiler. This ingenious tool generates  ”creates a profile of your WordPress site’s plugins’ performance by measuring their impact on your site’s load time”. In layman terms, it finds the speed bottlenecks.

It generates virtual traffic for the website and measures the performance of each plugin and stores them in the results file. You just have to click on “Start scan” and it will do all the work automatically by loading multiple pages of the website.

It displays a pie chart of the average total time taken by each plugin. Here is what my website’s test results looked like:

As you can see, you can easily visualize which plugins are consuming more time and hence, you can act on it by:

1. Removing the plugin

2. Replacing it by another plugin which consumes less time.

3. Using a code snippet which has the same functionality as that of the plugin.

It’s a pretty cool plugin and has a lot of advanced features such as detail stats and timeline. You should give it a try!

Site Performance: Determining the Blocking Factor is a post from: Blog Godown