7 Classic New Blogger Mistakes That Will Kill Your Traffic, Profit Or Leads!!!!!
Someone's always asking me why their blog isn't getting traffic/making money/converting leads. These are the top seven mistakes that are related to all three of these issues.
1. Being Too Anonymous
The general public still have only the vaguest idea of what a blog is. For those people, this is how it goes. They go to a search engine or a site they already frequent. They search for something or follow a link. They end up at your blog.
In 10 - 30 seconds, from 25% up to 90% of the time, they'll then leave, not having found what they want, never to return.
What makes the percentage of people who stick around higher? It's typically 3 things.
A- There's so much information at that site in a topic that interests them that they will be back.
B- They get the sense that someone is "minding the store",
C- Least likely, they believe that they will find what they're looking for or and feel connected to a real person who might be able to answer their question, or direct them to something better.
You can affect those last two by being a real person. I know some people have ghost bloggers, CEOs in particular. They give their general ideas to another party who fleshes them out. Or the other person writes all their blog posts. Some sites have a team of bloggers posting on a site where the actual owner who makes the most profit is never heard from.
And that's fine. Your blog must still have personality. There's no law that says it has to be Your personality. But if you have an impersonal blog, you may as well not have a blog at all.
2. Not Linking to Fellow Bloggers
Big mistake. Biggest lesson in blogging is that no blog is an island. Why would you expect people to link to you if you don't link to them? And if you think that's giving away traffic that won't come back, think of it this way.
Unless you chain someone to their computer, they're eventually leaving. And since it's illegal to do that, you might as well help your visitor along their way. It is imperative that you develop the confidence to know that they'll come back. And no one can place a gift in the palm of your hand if you're holding out a closed fist.
3. Not Commenting on Your Blogs or Others.
No popular blogger catches every last comment, true. But to get to popularity, you better believe they started out that way. You should also comment on other blogs. In fact, forget your link the first few times - you may only need one link to count in your favor anyway. So take the focus off that and add to the discourse.
It's smart blogging and people don't forget it.
4. Speaking Like an Expert Before You Know Your Stuff
This is my number one pet peeve. Everyone is an expert on something, but you should Only speak expertly on things you know about. Doctors don't try to do your taxes for you. It just doesn't make any sense.
At first, people may listen to you. But once they do what you say and they fall flat on their faces, because of your bad advice, what then? Do you think they'll be in line to buy your products and solicit your services? Will they become return visitors who may click on advertisements that interest them?
No. Duh!
And yet I see people I think of as truly intelligent make this dumb ass mistake again and again.
It's so cool to have authority and to have people's opinions be swayed by your knowledge and expertise, sure. But until you can prove your results, cite supporting research from trusted sources, and maintain a reputation for being a rain maker, you're shooting yourself in the foot and you'll probably take your business down with you.
Not to mention all the poor people who are following your bad advice. My favorite thing is when people give contradictory advice on different blog posts in the same week, without even recanting. They state whatever position is popular, just to get visitors, not caring about the fallout they cause.
So if you're a newbie blogger, how do you get popular without declaring yourself an expert? How can you have power and be influential if you're the little guy? That's another article for perhaps later on today.
5. Failing to Capture Leads
There's no reason why you shouldn't have some type of lead capture on your site. Even if it's inadequate and you don't intend to email your list frequently. Sending them a freebie or some tips once a week is enough to keep your list warm. Send them a tip a day and it'll be blazing hot. And when your tips hold water, they'll be ready to spend money on the premium version of your solution to their problem.
The same is true for RSS. More people are using RSS feeds, and sometimes they are fading into the background of other tools they use to retrieve information or do research. For the love of Pete, if you're blogging, turn your site feed on and test to make sure it works.
6. Taking without Giving and Thanking
It's great when everyone links to you, pays attention to your site, and generally makes you popular. But you have to frequently remember that you're nothing without those folks. Send a private thank you note. Make a public one.
Add the link of the person who linked you to a social bookmarking site. Comment. Share. Make a blog post about your supporters.
7. Poor Integration of Monetization Techniques
Another pet peeve of mine.
It's amazing how many times I pull up a blog that has more in-your-face monetization plans than good content. Not that I'm against money. You know me. I'm not ashamed of being a capitalist. The value exchange is one of man's best inventions.
However. If you want to have paid reviews, an advertiser block, Google AdSense, affiliate links and paid link positioning on your site all at the same time, blend, darling. You can get all that stuff on your blog, and more, if you'll simply position it properly.
If you don't know how? Hire a designer.
Okay. I think that was all seven. A long article, but it's worth it if any one of those seven points puts money in your pocket, traffic in your site, or leads in your sales process.
3 Secrets Every New Blogger Needs To Know Quickly!!!!
Skill #1: Art of Writing
Surgeons are highly paid as long as they can operate on their patients. What if some of the fingers are injured suddenly? It can practically cripple the earnings severely. Likewise, as a blogger, the skills to write well is essential. If your skills to write is poor, it is as good as the surgeon that has 5 fingers instead of 10 fingers.
Learn to master the art of writing as early as possible. Here is a tip for you to uncover yourself...
Assuming you are talking to your kid about his room, which of the two statement below is more influential?
"Your room is untidy. Clean it up now" or "Your room is untidy. When is a good time for you to clean it up?"
Got the answer?
Use questions instead of statement to influence people. Learn to master the art of questioning.
Skill #2:Information Overload
Fire can keep you warm during cold periods or fire can cook you a delicious meal. At the same time, fire can destroy houses too.
Likewise, at some point in time, as a new blogger, you will face information overload. While lots of information are easily available and often for free, the downside of it is that too much information will confuse and distract you.
Learn to manage information like the fire.
How do you like the following tip...
Open a new email account. Sign up for freebies using this account. Create a new bookmark in your browser. Book mark all blogs, websites that you want to learn into this bookmark. Whenever you are free, open the email or browser bookmark. You will soon realize that there are so many and a sense of overwhelm creeps in. The result is that it is no longer exciting.
Sure, you may open some of the freebies but now you will not open every single one of them and it becomes more selective. You become more in control.
Skill #3:More Ego=Less Money
It is very satisfying to see for yourself the progress of your blog creation. You get comments from readers and you see the ranking improving daily. You start to beautify your blog with fanciful graphics, add more vibrant colors and change themes to look from looking good to looking great.
Readership increases but where is the money? You have to realize that you are in the profit-making business, not ego-building business.
Learn how to monetize your blog and kill your ego! What? Kill my ego? Ok, we are human beings and we need ego to survive and to motivate us.Then at least learn to deflate your ego(temporarily).
Let's look at a tip or metaphor to help you deflate your ego.Take a balloon. Stuff it with little pieces of golden paper. The golden paper represents money.Now blow the balloon to a reasonable size. Hold the balloon above your head. Then take a needle and poke at the balloon. As you poke at it, shout out " Less ego means more money!" Feel the golden flakes falling all over your body. Cool, huh? And then when you have made good money you can inflate back your ego by buying nice sports car or luxurious houses.
Tips From a Full-Time Blogger!!!!
Tips for beginner Bloggers: Just a starting point for beginner bloggers. I will expand on this in time and also write more in depth stuff later.
Write about what you know -
Do not start a blog about a certain topic just because you think it will make money. Start a site/blog on a topic you know and fully understand or are passionate about. If you can learn to monetize that then you can think about blogging for pure profit. To many rookie bloggers make the mistake of wanting to cash in big on their first project. Don't get trapped in this mindset, the vast majority of full time bloggers DID NOT make it on their first three sites. Just because you didn't make a fortune on your first couple sites makes absolutely no difference on your future success.
Self Confidence -
Guess what? When you start a site on something you know and love your opinion has just as much merit as the next guys. Do not be afraid to stick your neck out there. Let people know your opinions without out fear of being proven wrong later. This doesn't mean misrepresent facts. This means that when it comes to your opinion make sure you give YOUR opinion. Who cares if someone disagrees, or you are proven wrong later. In-fact, the more outrageous your opinions the more your blog will attract hits. It's your site, if they don't like it so what - at the end of the day it's only the internet for pete's sake.
Attract Traffic Through Linking -
Here's a novel approach. The more you link to others the more they will link to you. That's it, the secret is out. Not only is it polite to cite your sources your readers will appreciate it and so will other webmasters. You don't have to break the story to reap the rewards of the traffic. I know several rookie bloggers that will cite no one and link out nowhere. They are doomed to failure. This stupid attitude of not wanting to give anyone else credit for anything WILL NOT WORK in the blogosphere.
Make Friends -
Make friends both online and off. This may be harder for you shut-in world of warcraft types but social networking is the corner stone of blogging. Go to trade shows if they are in your area. My city actually has a group of bloggers that meet weekly. This is paramount to your future success. Other webmasters will WANT to do business with you more when they have meet you face to face. These are the contacts you are going to need down the road. Take my word if and when one of your sites ever makes it huge - YOU WILL need them.
Make your site look Professional -
To many people are giving away bad information. Back on the late 90's a lot people used to say that if you had good content you didn't need good design. Not sure if that was ever true then but it is definitely not true now. If you suck at graphics and design (like I do) then get a freeware template or ask a buddy to design something for you. If your site does not have a professional appearance people will not take it seriously. The more appealing your blog is on the eyes the more people will stick around. This is a proven fact. This means good navigation and clearly defined and accessible links. It still baffles me why top companies and corporations pay very little mind to this. I have been browsing numerous sites and when I went to purchase their product or service I could not find the payment link! If anyone could not find a payment link on an e-commerce site the webmaster should be fired that instant.
Blogging Advice | What Every New Blogger Needs to Know!!!
Blogging advice tailored for newcomers can be hard to find. With new terms and tools appearing daily, it can be confusing for new bloggers to know where to start. To learn the basics of blogging such as how to set up a blog and make money from it, keep reading; it's easier than you think.
First, pick which blog platform you would like to use. The top two contenders are blogger.com and wordpress.org. Here's some simple blogging advice if you're having trouble deciding. If you're entirely new to blogging, blogger.com is the way to go. If you're familiar with the basics of blogging or would just like to have more ''control'' over your blog, wordpress might be a better choice. No matter which option you choose, the process is simple. All it takes is filling out your name, email address and naming your blog.
Although each platform comes with its own web hosting, here's some blogging advice every blogger should take. Purchase your own domain name. Not only will having your own domain be easier for your visitors to remember, it will add another level of professionalism to your blog.
After you've picked out which blogger platform to use and have started to set up your blog, the next step is choosing your template. Templates are pre-made designs for your blog. The best blogging advice when it comes to templates is to make sure that your template reflects the topic of your blog. It's more sensible to use a car template if your blog is about exotic cars, than it is to use a template about food.
You may not realize it, but you're halfway done. You've picked a blog platform, registered your blog name, and picked out your very own template. You may have also decided to register your own domain name. Now its time for some blogging advice that everyone wants to know - how to make money from your blog.
There are 3 main ways to monetize your blog - through traffic, content and ads.
Traffic for your blog can be obtained in many ways. While most people think you have to pay a huge amount of money to achieve traffic results, the following tips are not only free, but also simple.
The easiest way to earn money from your blog is by simply filling it with content. If you can remember this, it will become one of the best blogging advice you've ever received. The more relevant content that you add to your blog, the easier it will be for search engines to find it. This means more traffic, which equals more money. When you first begin to blog, try to post several times a week and eventually work up to blogging on a daily basis. Readers like to know that every time they visit your blog, they will read something new.
Don't worry if you don't like to write; content comes in different forms. No longer is writing the only way to fill up a blog. Videos, podcasts and even games are now considered content.
Once you've filled your blog with content, the next step is to add your blog to social bookmarking sites. Social bookmarking sites are websites that cater to sending readers to blogs based on their personal interests. The top social bookmarking sites include StumbleUpon, Digg, Technorati, Reddit, Propeller, Fark, and Del.icio.us. However, many bookmarking sites prohibit any marketing ploys; so to minimize risk, bookmark 4 to 5 non-self-serving links for every self-serving link you bookmark. Post comments on other people's bookmarks and be an active participant in the discussions. Bookmark sites that other people have bookmarked so you'll be seen as part of the community.
Another effective way to create income is by signing up for affiliate programs and promoting them on your blog. This is not only great blogging advice, but can be used for other ventures as well such as websites. Every time a visitor purchases an affiliate product from your blog, you get paid a commission for it. The commissions can range any where from a few bucks to hundreds of dollars. The tip to remember when it comes to affiliate marketing is to pick programs and products that are related to your blog. It's much easier to get your visitors to sign up for a recipe subscription if your blog is about cooking, than it is to get them to sign up for a stock market subscription.
One last tip for creating money for your blog is to place ads. This can be done in various ways. One of the most popular ways is through Google AdSense. Each time a visitor clicks on one of the AdSense ads, you get paid. It's also free to sign up for an account. As a bonus, if you signed up under the blogger.com platform, all it takes are a few clicks to get AdSense onto your blog. If you chose wordpress, the setup is still easy. You just simply install a plug-in to add Google AdSense to your blog.
A lot of people will tell you that this is the blogging advice they wished they would've received when they first started to blog. Not only do you now know how to setup a blog, you also learned how to profit from it. Now the only thing you have to do is go create your blog and start earning!
Lessons Learned by a New Blogger in Getting Traffic!!!!!
A friend of mine approached me one day and told me that I should start posting my articles in a blog. You see, I write about a lot of things like the places I have visited, the hotels where I stayed, the bars and restaurants I've dined in. My original purpose in doing this was to remind me of the things that I've done. Anyway, what convinced me to post these personal articles on the net is the possible monetary gain.
My friend told me that there is a new trend on the net which can be a source of income just by simply posting my articles in the blog, get people to read it and perhaps, get some company to advertise on it, I will be earning money in no time. I was persuaded by his logic and I found myself posting entries one by one. I thought that's all there is to it. I was dead wrong.
My experience taught me when I started blogging a year ago that in order to be a successful blogger, it is not only enough that you write well. You must be able to drive traffic to your sites, be it blogs, videos, squeeze pages. This is where your friends and other connections can help. They can help you spread the word about your blog just like what happened in my case. Some bloggers even go to the extent of hiring a third party to promote their sites. Posting some nice visuals can also attract more attention. But for me, putting up a good tag line about your articles can surely get you some traffic.
Moreover, I've been reviewing other people's works as well to see if I can pick up some lessons from them. I learned that all of these top-notch bloggers share common characteristics. I learned that the contents of the blog must be more or less unique, full of insights and reliable information so that your readers won't just be there in passing but will refer back to your website from time to time, thus, maintaining the traffic.
