You Can Develop A Winning WordPress Blog!

What it takes to make your blog stand out.

Welcome to the blogosphere! Are you thrilled with your blog or are you looking for more? More, as in increased traffic, better photos and ample ad income? I know exactly how you feel! If you want an effective blog, then operating under the premise of “business as usual” is not something that you want to do. Rather, you must set your blog apart from the multitude to help it shake the blogosphere. You might even make some extra money too!

5 Steps To Better Blogging

My personal blogs have to perform to the point where I want them to perform which requires some dedicated work on my part. But, I’m up to that challenge! So, let’s review some ways that you can build a better blog:

1. Your Traffic — I’ve built up traffic to my blogs by connecting them to several sites that I control. My thinking is this: I might as well take advantage of what I have in order to advance what I control. Additionally, when I guest blog on other sites I am not timid about linking up to my other blogs. Ultimately, I add tons of natural links to each blog, a step that has kept the traffic growing.

2. Your Photos — Most certainly, including images with your blog posts is mandatory and with each entry too. On one of my business blogs, I will regularly contact companies and ask for the right to use one or more pictures that they own, and include it with an article I am writing about that business. Of course with this request I am not about to knock the company, so don’t go down that path if you want to receive their assistance. Many people are happy to help as they see you assisting them in promoting their business, even if you’re doing so indirectly.

3. Your News — Replicating and pasting news releases word for word is a bit much and is considered unprofessional. Nevertheless, citing parts of the news release such as using executive quotes and linking back to the original release is a wise move. I have seen blogs where a passing reference is made to a news release, but the words are purely that of the writer’s. This allows you to harness a trusted news source and put your own twist to the story.

4. Your Themes — WordPress is recognized by many as being the best blogging platform and the amount of themes created by users of this blogging software is impressive. Yet, even the default WordPress theme is rather nice which I’ll sometimes use when I’m first launching a new blog. For other blogs, I like to download an uncluttered, but colorful theme that is easy on the eyes and offers visual appeal.

5. Your Ads — Most definitely, there is no need to overpower your visitors with ads, but operating without ads isn’t helpful either, especially if you are wanting to monetize your blog. The essential Google AdSense adverts can be useful as can any banner ad space that you can offer for sale. The thinking with most bloggers is that you should get paid at least something for all of your hard work!

Personal Sweat Equity

Truly, there is plenty that you can do to shape a more masterful blog. If you want to send your blog to the top of your segment, it does take hard work and plenty of it. Put the sweat equity into your web log and you will harvest the reward of more traffic and greater income. Get noticed by building a better web log right now!

See Also — Good, Better, Best Blogging Practices

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Why Article Marketing Just Won’t Go Away

How you can benefit from this established marketing practice.

Article marketing isn’t about to go away. You probably knew that, but what you might not know is why this form of “getting the word out” still works.

Marketing Expertise

I consider myself an expert of sorts in article marketing. Beginning in 2005, I was hired by a client to write articles for his business and post those articles to various marketing directories, but especially to EzineArticles. “Ezine” is owned by Christopher Knight and if there is any one person who knows article marketing better than Knight, then I haven’t met him. Come to think of it I haven’t met Knight either. Moving on….

Seven years later, I have scads of articles posted to directories. At one point I was No. 10 on EzineArticles’ list, but eventually I shifted my sites to magazines, blogs and websites. Yes, I was paid to write for the directories and to post those articles. Maybe I should change my tense here because I still market articles on a regular basis. These days I write about a dozen articles each month for EzineArticles and other sites for my clients.

I thought article marketing would eventually fade away, but at this point in the game, I still see benefit from having original and interesting articles posted to other sites and picked up, with backlinks intact and posted elsewhere.

Article Marketing

Here is why article marketing will continue to thrive over the next few years:

1. It is free content — Even if an article is eventually posted to multiple sites, the people who are doing the posting are getting free content. Sure, you NEVER want to rely exclusively on content used available for use elsewhere, but with article directories you can find some good reads to include on your site. In exchange, you’re expected to keep the links in the “author’s resource” section in place.

2. Authors can build a name for themselves — If everyone knows who you are, then article marketing won’t matter to you. For people who want to make a name for themselves or desire to expand their base, then writing several quality articles and offering these to the directories makes sense. The alternative is to find a website to host these articles, but that doesn’t always work out. Besides, if you want multiple backlinks, then article marketing is the fastest way to gain these.

3. You don’t have to be a writer — Writing for the article directories is one way people who aren’t especially good at writing can hone their skills. Of course, that means some of the articles submitted to and accepted by the directories aren’t first-rate. Still, if you are looking for an audience and can’t afford the services of a copywriter, then the article submission route is a very good way to go.

4. Your article stays in place always — This is where you need to be careful about submitting your articles. Use a directory that isn’t proven or regularly updated and you’ll risk that your article will someday disappear. Personally, I don’t count who picks up my articles and where they get republished — I’m satisfied that the article directory has a copy and that copy will continue to send links back to my sites or my customers’ sites for years to come. Choose only an established directory and avoid those with little to no standards.

5. You’ll get new business — As a writer, I know my articles have brought in new business for me. As for my clients, they’re satisfied on two fronts: 1) backlinks are gradually built up and, 2) more customers find their websites. What they pay for my services is a cost they’ll need to recoup. I’m confident that my services are a moneymaker for them, otherwise why am I still doing article marketing?

Final Thoughts

One bit of advice that should be used is this: when you market your articles, submit what you write to just one directory. Multiple submits are a waste of time — find a directory or two or three that you like and send your articles there. Keep track of your articles including how many times each article is picked up and redistributed. Work on writing catchy titles, use your keywords wisely and put in place your sub-heads too.

Related articles

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