Effective Blog Post Sculpting with HTML Headings
When it comes to reader engagement, crafting an attention-grabbing headline is not the only thing you should consider. You might even write a great introductory paragraph that will make your readers click the little “read more” link on your blog, but the hard part is drawing their eyes down the page, and keeping them hooked until the final message.
Great content is essential, but it only goes so far. What your readers are looking for is a summary of the main points, in an easy-to-find-and-follow format. Just like reading a magazine, readers want to be able to skim your content and still pick up the essential points.
For this purpose, we have HTML heading tags such as H1, H2, H3, H4, and so on and so fourth. While H1 and/or H2 will be used for your catchy post titles (check out the guide on SEO-friendly headlines), H3 and H4 should be used throughout your post to draw the reader down the page and summarize portions of your content. Either tag has a slightly different purpose, and we’ll discuss how to use them in your posts.
Click here to read the full blog post!
Do you know what Blogging Consistency and Frequency are really about?
Yesterday, Syed Balkhi published one of his best posts lately: “Consistency & Frequency Are The Ultimate Downfall of Blogging“. While Syed was probably looking – as he stated at the article’s end – for a bit of controversy, he actually managed to create a very thoughtful post that made me write a follow up, something I rarely do.
Blogging “Experts” always preach that you must be consistent with your blog, and you should post frequently.
This is how Syed starts his article, making it clear where he’s going to hit, the famous “Be consistent, write frequently” blogging tip. While he makes some very good statement on consistency, I would have loved to see a more detailed explanation of what should be understood by “being consistent with your blog”, and since I did not find those, I’ll share my views in this article.
Click here to read the full blog post!
How to Effectively Plan a New Blog Post
You know, planning a new blog post can be one of the most common problems for a new or recurring blogger. At the same time, the quality of one’s content can dwindle if you don’t take the proper time to consider what it is you want to write about, and stay on task. So how do you go about creating that perfect post idea?
Write When You’re Most Productive
To start, you should try writing when you’re the most productive. If you really want your content to sizzle, you need to be on top of your game, ready to outperform. For example, sitting in a comfortable chair and listening to music might be the best writing environment, while a silent library works for others. Naturally, it’s impossible to be able to sit down and be in perfect writing form 24/7, but being prepared to write is important to developing exceptional content.
Before you begin writing, why not try arranging your desk area in a way that suits you? Make your environment as comfortable as possible to get yourself into the writing mood. Try opening a window. Sounds crazy, right? Whatever you might think, creating an atmosphere that you feel at ease in will make you that much more productive.
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3 Essential Questions to Ask Yourself Before Launching a Corporate Blog
Ever since blogging has become “mainstream”, companies has discovered a new marketing tool in blogs. Some took blogs even further and transformed them into brand elements and it proved to be a winning decision, as blogs have the power to give a voice and a personality to a company.
But even so, corporate blogging has not always been the best choice for some. Just as with any other marketing tool, it needs to fit your company’s profile, needs and expectations in order to be truly effective. Is a blog really going to help your company? Ask yourself these 3 essential questions before taking the step and launching a new corporate blog.
Question 1: Is the blog a necessity or a caprice?
The decision to launch a corporate blog can be based on many factors and proven advantages of blogs. Among them:
- Empowering the sales process;
- Prompt product feedback and customer support;
- Position team members as experts an thought leaders
- Search engine rank improvement;
- HR tool;
- and so on.
Triple Your Traffic with Content Distribution Techniques
There are billions of blogs in the blogosphere. People always say that creating another blog might not be the better thing since almost everything online is saturated. Of course, that’s a complete baloney! Fortunately 60-70% of blogs don’t get traction and just couldn’t seem to make progress. And it’s because of several reasons which I wouldn’t want to talk about here.
Most people fall into this big misconception about blogging. This misconception is about “post and publish”. People think that the key to getting traffic is by creating a killer post, then publishing it. We all know it’s not the case. If no one reads your blog, then no one is even going to notice you created a good post! Obviously the one thing you have to do is to let people know “you” exists in the blogosphere. How? By spreading your content. Today I would like to talk about how you can possibly triple your traffic by spreading your content. Without further “fluff” here they are:
Consider This Before Getting a Custom Blog Design
Today I’ve received an email that made me think about this subject. Somebody asked me to confirm that a design agency that I’ve never heard of before, has done the design you see on Blogsessive. Obviously, I replied and told him that Blogsessive is a custom design done by yours truly, and any agency (with one exception) that would proud themselves with Blogsessive’s theme would be a fraud.
After hearing the price for which that agency was going to create something similar, the following thoughts started taking shape:
- Why would you proud yourself with the work of someone else?
- Why think these things would not surface?
- Why roll out a low-ball quote for something that’s worth much more, or that you cannot deliver, but still state you can.
Before getting a custom design for you blog, here are some things you should consider.
Click here to read the full blog post!
Jennyfer, I Won’t Follow You! Ever.
I’m a moderate Twitter user. A couple of tweets a day, sometimes announcing new blog posts, sometimes engaging in conversations. This evening I managed to finally get some free time to enjoy my Twitter account.
The minute I started tweeting, in other words became active, I received 3 fried request. 2 out of these 3 requests were made by new accounts under the name “Jennyfer”, following about 2000 users.
Every account like this has one or two tweets maximum and all sound like this:
- I’ve made $6000 last night with ‘Some name’;
- $15.000 overnight. Click here to find out how.
It’s easy to see that these are spam accounts, and yet they average about 10 followers.
So, when I get a request from one of these accounts, what are my choices? Let’s see:
- Ignore the request;
- Block the user.
But what about my desire to actively fight spam accounts? What if I don’t want to “block” the user and protect myself? What if I want to report the user and protect everyone else?
I really think that Twitter needs a “Report spam” button and some text filters as most of the phrases these spam accounts use are standard presets.
So, Twitter, will you help the community actively defend itself?
Update: Until such options will be – if they will ever be – integrated, the one alternative is to follow Twitter’s spam dedicated account @spam, and report spam to them.
The 3 C’s of Blogging
How to blog? How to promote content? How to attract readers? How to keep them coming back? The are hundreds of blog offering blogging tips, and Blogsessive is only one of them. But, while running back and forth through the abundance of information, most times we forget about the basic principles of blogging.
Most times, we focus so much and invest too much of our time doing only one thing (ie: writing, promotion etc.) and we forget that blogging is actually a 3 step process, and all 3 steps should get the same level of attention.
These 3 primary steps of blogging are what I call the 3 C’s of blogging, or the 3C process:
- Create
- Communicate
- Collect
What’s Behind a Unique Blog?
The blogosphere is big. No, wait. Actually, is HUGE and keeps on getting bigger every day with thousands of new blogs being launched. In such a competitive environment, the chances of “making it big” with your blog are drastically reduced, unless you play your cards right. Unless you publish a unique blog, it will disappear like dust in the wind.
But what’s behind a unique blog? Does your blog have what it takes to be considered unique? Let’s find out!
Unique is a collaborative term
It’s not just about the topic you choose for your blog. With 133 million blog records indexed by Technorati since 2002, I’m yet to be convinced that there is a topic of real interest that hasn’t been approached. I’m not saying not to look for something new. I’m just saying that there are also other things that make your blog one of a kind. Among them, these are the ones that matter most:
- Choose a domain name with a twist! Make it short memorable.
- Get a custom design. If you cannot afford one, at least get a premium theme or a free theme that offers enough customization options.
- Write you own content. Don’t copy. Don’t rewrite.
- Find your own voice. Develop your own writing style, with your own twist. Some choose a certain amount of humor while other prefer a more professional, balanced approach.
- Explore your topics. Go beyond the surface information. Analyze, share views and opinions and guide your readers. Add that extra-feeling of personal experience.
- Brand yourself. Find your spot and personality in the blogosphere. Be the “thinker”, “helper”, “announcer”, be whatever fits you, just pick a role and stick with it.
All of the above are meant to make you easier to identify in a mass of amazingly similar blogs and bloggers. If you want to survive as a blogger, you need to find a way to take your blog out of the crowd. You need that unique blog!
Interviewed by Yan Susanto on ThouShallBlog.com
About a week ago I was asked by Yan Susanto of ThouShallBlog.com if I could answer to a couple of question for an interview on his blog. Needless to say that since I love the quality and enthusiasm you’ll find in Yan’s work, I immediately accepted.
Here’s a short snippet of the interview:
4. To what do you attribute your blog’s success?
As I said before, to faith and focus. Focus on the smaller – present – steps required in order to achieve the bigger goal. From point A to point B there are always smaller steps like A.1, A.2 and so on. Dealing with each one at its own time made a lot of sense and results did not fail to show.
You can read the whole interview on Yan’s blog.
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