The 7 Unwritten Rules of Blogging

Posted on December 18, 2015December 27, 2015 by sitemanager

Thinking of starting your own blog? If so, you'll want to follow these seven unwritten rules. While there's no universal standard for maintaining a blog, these rules will boost your credibility while attracting new visitors in the process. Blogging Rules: Cite Sources There's nothing wrong with including excerpts or quotes from other websites and sources on your blog. However, you should always link back to the original source. This is done as a courtesy of saying "thanks," but it also shows search engines that your blog isn't a one-way street. Use a Custom Design The great thing about bl...

5 Things No One Tells You About Blogging

Posted on December 17, 2015December 27, 2015 by sitemanager

You'll Get Spam Comments... Lots of Them Allowing visitors to submit comments on posts and articles is a great way to boost engagement while creating fresh new content in the process. If you've been blogging for any significant length of time, however, you'll notice many of these comments are nothing more than spam. Such comments may consist of "Wonderful blog! I'll be sure to grab your RSS," or similar generic messages. This doesn't mean that you should disable your blog's commenting feature, but rather use an anti-spam plugin like Akismet to filter them. Competition Is Stiff There are lit...

WordPress App Launches for Windows

Posted on December 16, 2015December 27, 2015 by sitemanager

With Automattic having releasing the WordPress app for Apple's OS X, it was only a matter of time before a Windows version was released. Well, it appears that time has come, because the developer behind the world's most popular blogging platform has announced the release of a Windows version of its app. The new app seeks to streamline the process of creating and editing blog posts straight from your Windows desktop. Up until now, WordPress.com bloggers were forced to either log into their blogs to create new posts, which some users complained as being tedious. No Need For a Web Browser wit...

Reasons to Include Images in Your Blog Posts

Posted on December 12, 2015December 27, 2015 by sitemanager

close-up-of-photogratpher, using images in blog

If you look at some of the web's most popular blogs, you'll notice they all have one thing in common: they feature images in addition to text. While text is the backbone of most pieces of engaging content, images can enhance the experience the end user. To learn more about the benefits of using images in blog posts, keep reading. Images Break Up Text Have you ever encountered a webpage consisting of nothing more than a large wall of text? If you have, chances are you didn't read it, because pure-text articles such as this are difficult to read. Studies have shown that visitors are more li...

Blogging for Lead Generation

Posted on December 10, 2015December 27, 2015 by sitemanager

blogging spelled out, blogging for leads

Still struggling to generate leads for your small business? One of the easiest ways to attract new leads is to start blogging. It allows you to connect with your target audience on a more personal level, instilling the trust and confidence necessary to capture their contact information. Avoid 'List' Blog Posts Don't get me wrong, list, e.g., "Top 5 Mistakes to Avoid," are a highly effective and engaging form of web content, which of course is why you see so many of them online. They naturally capture readers' attention, enticing them to read through the items. But lists aren't particularly e...

How to Make Your Blog Posts Easier to Read

Posted on December 8, 2015December 15, 2015 by sitemanager

idea light bulb, how to make your blog posts more readable

Can't seem to generate a strong following with your blog no matter how many posts you make? You can spend countless hours researching and writing new content, but it's not going to yield any real benefits unless visitors actually read it. Unfortunately, this is an all-too-common problem experienced by many newcomers to the blogging scene. The good news is that you can make your blog posts more attractive and easier to read by following some simple steps. Dark Font, Light Background A good rule of thumb when formatting your blog posts is to use a dark color for the font and a light color for...

Help! Someone Copied My Blog’s Content

Posted on December 5, 2015December 6, 2015 by sitemanager

cyber thief stealing content, hand coming out of computer screen

You know your blog is popular when someone else copies and publishes your content on their own website. But having your work blatantly stolen can be disheartening to say the least. When you invest your time, energy and money into creating high-quality content for your blog, you don't want others "piggybacking" off your success. So, what's the best course of action to take in instances such as this? How to Identify Stolen Content First and foremost, you'll need to identify what content (if any) has been stolen from your blog. There are several different ways to do this, one of which is to ...

6 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting My First Blog

Posted on December 2, 2015December 15, 2015 by sitemanager

Blog Competition is Stiff To say there's a lot of competition in the blogging stratosphere would be an understatement. While there's no way to tell exactly how many blogs are currently on the Internet, some sources estimate the number to be around 152 million. If you plan on getting noticed, you'll need to focus your blog around a high-traffic, low-competition niche; otherwise, you simply won't achieve any serious degree of success. You'll Need to Moderate Visitor Comments Assuming you allow visitors to submit comments (and you should!), you'll have to invest the necessary time and energy i...

Should I Use Nofollow Links on My Blog?

Posted on November 24, 2015December 10, 2015 by sitemanager

nofollow links, broken links on a red background

Nofollow links were introduced by Google nearly a decade ago for the purpose of combating spam. As the name suggests, they tell search engines not to follow a link; therefore, no link juice is passed down to the linked website. As a blogger, though, you may be wondering whether or not you should use them in your blog. Advertisements A good rule of thumb is to make all advertisements and sponsored links nofollow. As noted by Google, paid links should be given the nofollow attribute to prevent them from negatively impacting user experience. If paid links are kept dofollow, they could art...

5 Ways to Promote Your Blog Posts

Posted on November 18, 2015November 22, 2015 by sitemanager

You can spend countless hours crafting the perfect blog post, but it's not going to yield any tangible results in people actually see it. This is why you should promote your blog posts after publishing them. Doing so will drive traffic to them, increasing your posts' visibility and hopefully generating new conversions and/or sales in the process. Share on Social Media One of the first things you should do after publishing a new blog post is to share the link on your social media profiles. This includes Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and other networks for which you have accounts. Assuming you h...

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