Courtesy of Freedigitalphotos.net

If you want to start guest blogging you will need to make sure you do it right. You might think that guest blogging will bring you lots of new readers, but this is only going to work if you do it the right way. Before you decide to travel down the road of guest blogging you will need to make sure that your own blog is prepared for all the new traffic it might get.

What your blog should have before starting guest blogging

Your blog will need to have nothing but high quality posts on it. You want to let new readers know that you provide real value and not regurgitated content.

Next you need to make sure that the design is good. You do not want your blog to be hard to navigate.

Lastly, you will want to make sure you have some sort of subscription option so you can build up your list. This should be one of your biggest goals as a guest blogger.

Looking for blogs to guest post on

If you are going to be successful at guest blogging, then you will need to make sure you look for a blog to post on that has an audience just  like yours. If you put guest posts on blogs that are not related to yours, it is not going to bring a lot of new readers to you. If you put posts on a blog that is similar, then you can increase your readership.

How to find blogs that accept guest posts

The best way to get started searching for blogs that accept guest posts for your niche would be to look at some of the blogs you already go to. You can search through some of the comments left on these blogs and click through to other blogs. You can also look at the blogrolls on these other blogs to find some sources. If this does not work for you there are other options.

Searching for blogs that accept blog posts in Google

Here is the best way to find blogs that accept guest posts.

• First you want to go to Google
• Next you want to type in keywords with parenthesis around them like “Guest Post”
• looking for “Guest Bloggers”
• “This guess post was written”
• “This guest post is from”
• “Guest post by”

After this all you have to do is begin the search. What if you want to find only blogs that are good for your niche though? Well all you have to do is insert a few keywords. Here are some examples.

• Looking for “Guest Bloggers” put a keyword phrase here
• Wanted: “Guest Bloggers” a keyword phrase here

You are going to have some good ideas coming out of the gate, but these might not be accepted by the blogs you want to post on. You will want to what type of blog posts your host blog is going to accept from you. The best way to do this is to read some posts, look at the style. Are the posts made to be personal, conversational, professional, etc? You need to make sure you understand this.

Writing the blog  posts

It does not matter how many ideas you have for a guest blog post. You will need to make sure that it is something that audience is going to care about. There are some other pointers you need to follow as well.

• You should make sure the guest post you write is not for something the host blog has written about in the past.

• You should try to write a post that add  more value to a previous posts on that blog.

• You should make sure your guest post does not conflict with the what host blogs posts might talk about. This means you can present different viewpoints, but not to the point where you might offend the audience.

You are not done. If you really want to write posts blog owners will not turn away, then you need to make sure you know what has worked for them in the past.

One great way to do this would be for you to scan through some of their old posts. Look to see which ones are the most successful, then see if you can create something that adds something different. Depending on what you are saying a blog owner would  not turn this away. When you see that a blog owner has a lot of followers, you can bet that they are running a serious business. So the guest posts you submit have to be good in order to be presented to the audience.

Checking the blog posts before submitting

It goes without saying that you will want to only submit blog posts that are going to have good grammar and good spelling. There should be no mistakes. So you want to make sure you double check and triple check everything before turning it in.

Creating a solid byline with useful post links

When you submit a guest post to any blog, they are going to let you provide a byline for the post. Do not just link to your front page with this, create a short sentence about the primary focus of your blog and leave a link to your best posts. Put a little though into it. Make sure the short byline you leave gets attention. If this part is done right you will have no problems getting your guest posts accepted.

Creating content that counts

In the past you might have focused on writing blog posts that were really short, because you felt this was one of the best ways to ensure they got read. You might have put in some bullet points and that was it. Those days are over. Now your goal has to be creating guest posts that will generate buzz. This is what is known as creating epic content, and you can read about it here CopyBlogger.

Look out for market trends and write about them

Owners of blogs that are looking for guest posts will be far more likely to accept one from you if you are writing about the next big thing. Blog desperately want to be the first to get in on something new. A lot of subjects out there have already been covered to the point of saturation on the large blogs out there.

If you want to write posts that are saying something new, then you need to read niche magazines. You might have to have access to information no one else does. The point is, you would need to look for news in your niche in unconventional ways in order to find new information or something that could be considered ground breaking. If you did and submitted it as a post, there is no way a host blog would turn down the guest post.

As far as the structure of your guest blog posts and other important specifics about them, you need a blue print. One really great source you might want to head to would be Evolveandexpress. They include useful directions and it should serve as a good blueprint for those who want something simple to get them started.

Please share your thoughts about writing quality guest posts, and how much of an impact guest blogging has had for you in the comments below!

The post How To Write A Guest Post That Blog Owners Can’t Turn Away! appeared first on ProfitBlog.com.

To put the widget on your site simply go to your Google plus page and click the “profile” link in the left sidebar.

Once on your profile page you should see a link that says “get started”. Click on that and look for the section that says “Connect Your Website”. That will take you to a page that will have the widget creator on it. There are a few settings you can play with to customize the looks but it’s fairly basic. Once you’ve got it the way you want it, simply grab the code and come back to your sites admin area. Click on the “widgets” settings in “appearance” and then place that code you copied into a text widget.

Here’s a quick video I made showing you how I did it for this site.

The post How to add a Google Plus Widget to WordPress appeared first on ProfitBlog.com.

In the video below I’ll show you how to easily change up the look of your WordPress site by editing the background.

The post How to Change Background Color or Image in WordPress appeared first on ProfitBlog.com.

In order to do this you simply type out the text that you’d like the visitor to click on.  Then you open the link form in your wordpress post editor and type in mailto:emailaddress@email.com

Then just hit save and you’re good to go.

The post How to Add an Email Link in a WordPress Post appeared first on ProfitBlog.com.

Although it probably seems very simple for most it can occasionally be hard to find the login page for your wordpress site. Depending on the theme you have and the widgets you’ve got active there might not be a link on your site for you to easily login to the admin area.

To find the login page of your site you just need to go to the location where you have wordpress installed and add /wp-login.php or /wp-admin/ onto the end of the url. For example if your site was www.wordpress.org you’d want to go to www.wordpress.org/wp-login.php.

Hopefully that helps and if you’re still a bit confused, I’ve made a video showing where to login as well. Enjoy.

The post How To Login to WordPress Dashboard appeared first on ProfitBlog.com.

Image Coutesy of: freedigitalphotos.net

If you are one of the people that are not using infographics, then you are missing out on a great way to be driving traffic.

Just think about it.  Infographics are just about everywhere.  Infographics take information that might be hard to process or might seem complex, and they turn them into easy to understand visual images.  Infographics are very nice to look at, plus they are made in a way that is very easy to comprehend.

A lot of webmasters are still only focusing on traditional SEO methods such as site tags and backlinks.  If they have any infographics on their website, they might not even get counted, because the search engines see them as being just a large image.

The text that is within the graphic usually cannot be picked up by a search engine.  If this is the case, then why are infographics gaining so much steam?   Well there are a lot of benefits infographics offer that you might not realize at first.

The benefits of using infographics in order to drive traffic

• Infographics cater to those with short attentions spans. These days people are more inpatient than ever. People want information fast and if they do not get it they will leave a website.  If your website has an infographic then this is one of the best ways to get the message you want to get across at lightening speed.  Facts are presented as images, and the images are designed to tell quick story.  People will be able to easily digest this information and share it on social networking website like Facebook, Twitter, and especially Pinterest!

• Infographics can have a viral effect in the social media world.  If you create content to post on a blog or a social network like Twitter, having an infographic included with it makes it far more likely to be spread around.  You are also more likely to get your content shared on Facebook.   All of this is going to lead to higher page views for your main website.

• Infographics load really fast.  They are seen as being single images, so this means the content on a page should load pretty quick.  Google rankings factor in the speed it takes for a website to download.   So the faster your website loads, the higher your search engine rankings will be.  (Learn How to Speed up Your WordPress sites Here)

• Good infographics can get found and used on high authority websites.  If the infographic you create is good enough and provides enough value, then there is the chance you could be approached by a website owner who gets a lot of traffic and has a lot of credibility.   These site owners would have to get your permission to use the graphic, but if they did, just imagine what this could do for your website credibility and your long term search engine rankings.  You can increase the chances of your infographics going viral as well by sharing them on popular bookmarking websites like Reddit and StumbleUpon.  Also, if you know your info graphic is a winner, try contacting a few well respected bloggers, and see if they would share your infographic for you.  Just make sure to offer them something in return.

What a good infographic must contain

In order to be successful at creating infographics that can go viral you need to know the basic elements they must contain. A good infographic contains the following:

• Good visuals – which means nice looking pictures or icons that represent information (Eye popping images are very helpful!)
• Good content -  this means stats, references as well as other interesting things.
• Color – this means injecting a bit of color into your infographic and not making it look dull.

As you can see, by using infographics you are going to be using an approach that will allow you to instantly engage your readers in a visual way.  This is going to help you extend your reach, because content has a better chance of being shared through social networking when it has infographics.

Here are 4 sources you can use in order to have infographics created for you

Even though infographics are good, there are a lot of people who won’t be able to use them because they have no idea of how to make them. Not to worry, because there are several places where you can go to have them made for you. If you choose right you should not have to overspend.

Odesk.com

Odesk is one of the best places for people looking to have infographics made for them. There are no fees in order for you to post a job on this website and hire someone. The website will take about ten percent of whatever the contractor earns though. You can set the payment structure however you want as well. You can choose to pay people by the hour or a fixed rate for a project. You can even add a week limit to how many hours can be worked.

Freelancer.com

Freelancer is probably one of the largest freelance market you can find on the internet. So if you are looking to have infographics made and you want several options as to who you might hire, Freelancer is for you.  The downside is because you will have so many more choices you will have to invest time going through the ones that are not a good fit for what you are going for.

Elance.com

Elance is similar to Odesk in a lot of ways. What it does is provides time tracking software as well as screen capture software so you can feel good about things.  You have the choice to hire local contractors only if you want. You can also choose to hire people from certain English speaking countries such as the USA, UK, Canada and Australia.

Guru.com

Guru is a place where you can find plenty of contractors to create an infographic for you. The site takes it fees out of the contractor rates. Contractors who use this website can lower the fees they pay by becoming paid members. In any case, the fees are apart of the prices you get quotes for jobs here. You should find plenty of options.

Infographics are going to add an element to your website that is currently missing.

If you are creating good quality content you want it to stick in the mind of your readers right? Well what if I told you that about 99% of that information does not stick.

Do you think this is a good way for people to remember you or share your information?  With infographics information sticks in the brain much better and people will remember it. If people remember the infographic they will likely remember the website and share it.  Are you beginning to see how powerful infographics are now?
The only thing you need to do before you decide to have an infographic created or make one yourself is know what it is trying to accomplish. Is your goal to build a brand? Is your goal to tell an entertaining story? Maybe you are just trying to be humorous or make sure readers take away what you want them to take away.
You can also research websites in your niche and try to get a feel for what type of infographics they would be most likely to share with their audiences. This gives you even more of a chance to go viral and gain more of a following. Just one thing to remember though.  You will want to make sure whatever information you use is timely.

Examples of Good Infographics?

For some really good examples of infographics, I recommend visiting CoolInfographics.com! (Note, when visiting that site scroll to the bottom to go to the other pages!  There are a TON of infographics from Honda Accords, to Obama, to Mickey Mouse!)

Have you used infographics in your social strategy?  Leave me a comment below

The post Are You Using Infographics To Drive Traffic? appeared first on ProfitBlog.com.

It’s very simple and only takes about a minute or less to add.

I’ve made a quick video you can watch that shows how to do it or you can simply follow the steps outlined below.

WordPress Made Easy Video Training

1. Log in to your sites wp-admin area and select Appearance in the left navigation bar. Then click on Widgets.

2. Once on the widgets page you just need to add the text widget. Or if you’ve already got one then you can just edit whats already in it. Note: you can have multiple text widgets so it’s usually best to just add a second one and use that for your Youtube Subscribe box.

3. Next just past this code into the text widget: (Thanks to the official Youtube blog for the code snippet)

<iframe id="fr" src="http://www.youtube.com/subscribe_widget?p=add YouTube Username here" style="overflow: hidden; height: 105px; width: 300px; border: 0;" scrolling="no" frameBorder="0"></iframe>

4. In the code be sure that you replace the part that says “add Youtube Username here” with your Youtube channel username. You can also adjust the width of the widget by setting a different width in the code.

5. Then hit the “save” button on your text widget and you should be good to go! The widget will automatically pull your channel information from Youtube and display it in the box along with an easy to use subscribe button.

If this helped you and you were able to put the subscribe box on your site be sure to leave a comment below so we can check out your site and youtube channel!

The post How to Add Youtube Subscribe Widget to WordPress appeared first on ProfitBlog.com.

They grab the attention of your visitors, look more professional, and can help to get your point across better.

The problem, is that not all images are free to use, and if you haven’t noticed, stock images don’t come cheap.  If you want to know how to find free pictures for your blog, you’re in luck!  There are some great places to find that perfect image that you’re after!

Watch this video to see my two favorite websites to find  free images to use in my blog posts.

As you can see,  finding free images to use in your blog posts is actually pretty easy.  You just need to know where to look!  Are there other good places to find free images?  Yeah, of course.   There are tons of websites that you can use, but these are the ones that I have grown to love, and use on a regular basis.  To recap, I use the following sites:

1. FreeDigitalPhotos.net – This site has some really high quality photos, but you must give them credit, or leave their watermark on the image.  This is by far my favorite choice for finding legal / royalty free images for blog posts!

2. sxc.hu – This site has a lot of free images, some of them are really good, and some of them look kinda amateur in nature.  Overall, it’s a great place to start.  i have personally been using sxc.hu for about 6 years now, so they must have something good right?

3. And for paid images, I like to use Shutterstock.  There are a lot of stock photo sites that offer high quality images for a fee, but this is the one I like the most.  Keep in mind though, it’s kinda pointless to buy an image from a stock photo site when there are so many great FREE image choices out there , and Shutterstock does not come cheap!  It costs about $10 per photo (If you buy 5 at a time), so be sure you have a REALLY good use for it!

Please feel free to share what sites you are using to find free images for your blog posts in the comments below!

I’d love to know, and I’m sure everyone else would benefit from knowing which sites you use as well!

Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

The post Where to Find FREE Images to Use in Blog Posts appeared first on ProfitBlog.com.