Thank you to Michelle Rebecca for this guest post. 
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Just about anybody can be a blogger, but it takes a certain set of skills, knowledge, and experience to consistently write popular posts. When it comes to creating content for an online audience, you can be the best writer in the world and have little impact unless you know the tricks to the trade. If you are just establishing yourself as a blogger or feel like you aren’t getting the attention you deserve, consider these four expert tips that are sure to give your blogs a boost in popularity.
Grab Attention |
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While at the end of the day your posts will be judged by the content within them, a sure-fire way to attract a wider readership is to create a title that demands attention. Creating attention-grabbing headlines is the number one rule of all forms of mass communication, from newspapers to blog posts.You want to captivate the reader by using words that resonate; your title should promise to deliver the answer to an age-old question or provide insight on a hot-button topic. Make your titles short and to the point, and give a compelling reason for the reader to click on your story to find out more. Make your title a question so the reader is forced to read your blog to find out the answer. You can also try making your blog post titles a little shocking or risqué.
Make It Inviting |
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| No one likes seeing giant blocks of text, online or not. However, online readers are more turned off by the look of a blog post that’s long, dense, and ultimately foreboding than people who also read traditional forms of media. Be sure to organize your posts into easily digestible sections, starting with a snappy introduction that pulls the reader in, and continuing on in short paragraphs of concise information no longer than three or four sentences. Whenever applicable, use bullet points and numbered lists to support your ideas.
Tip: Add in a few condensed “tips” or “hints” that will help your readers put your ideas into practice. You want to make sure your reader feels like your post actually helped them. Preach to the Choir |
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If you want to grow your readership on the Web, choose subjects that register with a large audience. As long as you are demonstrating a unique perspective and speaking from a place of authority, everything is fair game. Try formulating your concepts in high-interest areas such as popular culture, personal finance, or how-to subjects. Just remember to be original, and choose to add something new to the conversation rather than going over the same old ground that’s been covered a thousand times.If you’re an extremely opinionated person try to restrain yourself from getting too one-sided in your blog posts. Taking a particular stance on a controversial topic will result in a much smaller readership than a neutral blog. If you feel as though you absolutely must express your opinion on something consider incorporating a weekly or monthly opinion piece into your blogging schedule.
Throw in Some Eye-Candy |
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Nothing puts the bow on a blog post better than the addition of an appropriate visual element. Whether it’s an instructional video, creative infographic, or good old-fashion photo, you can draw a bigger crowd by adding visuals for support. Sites like Pinterest, Wanelo, and Instagram have made people very spoiled when it comes to visuals. The creation infographics and videographics are a great example of how visually-based we’re becoming. People are bored by text, but turn the text into an image and people are so much more likely to read it. There are also a lot of people who are visual learners and including a visual that demonstrates a point you’re making in your blog post will help them better understand what you’re saying.Visuals also make the post look more polished and professional, and give you the opportunity to connect with potential readers before they read a single word.
Final ThoughtsWhether blogging for legal professionals or executive resume writers you’ll have more success if you tailor your style to the online reader. By choosing compelling titles, formatting your work for readability, adding visual elements, and choosing favored genres, you will surely see a boost in the popularity of your posts.
Michelle Rebecca is an aspiring writer and blogger with a passion for the Internet, specifically social media and blogging. She loves how social media connects people across the globe, and appreciates that blogging gives her the opportunity to voice her thoughts and share advice with an unlimited audience.
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Want to improve the click-through rate on your sales emails? Stop trying so hard. Well, there’s a little more to it than that — but the bottom line is, if you want to make sure that your sales emails don’t end up in the spam folder, you need to make sure that you’re not striking the wrong tone with an overly salesy email (studies show that people get more anxious and apprehensive the more you try to sell to them). Your best bet, according to Flint McGlaughlin of MECLABS is to keep the tone helpful and no-pressure — think “customer service” rather than “sales.” A few other factors that may be hurting your click-through rate? Vague subject lines; emails that look like landing pages, rather than messages; paragraphs that are too long (or too short!); and poor design choices such as the dreaded “white-text-on-a-black-background” look (And yes, people still do that. Even though they shouldn’t.) To learn more about crafting a killer sales email, watch this free MECLABS copywriting clinic. It’s about 30 minutes long and totally worth it. The live critiques are super-helpful.
Thank you to Shelley Roth for allowing Socialot and Jessica Scheider (from The Writers For Hire) to host this Webinar on small business blogging. It’s really got some GREAT info in it. Jessica answers questions for beginners and advanced bloggers. How can I use my blog to increase my search engine results?
Watch the video here: Small Business Blogging Webinar Or flip through the Power Point presentation here: Blogging for Business Got any more questions for Jessica? Let us know and she’ll answer them here! Anyone can take a Facebook page and pay for likes with ads. You can run a coupon and drive a few sales, or make a few interesting posts asking for feedback and get responses. The trick is figuring out how to actually use your Facebook page to drive sales without having to do any work, being able to measure them and also provide value to keep people interested. Here is a quick pointer with a strategy I have used and then two tools that will help you to be able to start testing how you can get it to work for you as well. One trick about Facebook marketing is to figure out how to turn a fan who is distracted and wants to play games or talk to their friends into an actual customer who is paying attention and will leave to shop. One of the most effective ways to do this is to get them to join your newsletter or email list. By having the Fan on your newsletter or email list, you can take them from being a fan with a ton of distractions to a captive audience that will see your ads or newsletter and be able to take action, without all of the distractions. So how do you do this? One person might say, post to sign up for your newsletter and link to it. That can be effective, but you have to give an actual reason and remember that your posts will only show to a portion of your fans (unless you pay for more exposure). Another person may tell you that you need to have a link to your sign up box in the page description. Although you can do this, it will probably be ignored by a ton of visitors. Here are two tools with free options that you can use to get sign ups so you can turn a fan into an interested customer without having to show them a million ads and ask them to sign up a million times.
A lot of us will use videos on our pages to gather interest and gain attention. The videos may be yours or someone else’s, but if they have allowed sharing, you can import it into Viewbix and help them make money (if they have adsense on their videos) as well as increase their views which helps with their video SEO and plug it into a custom Viewbix Player. Viewbix allows you to take these videos which the author has given permission to use (or you can use your own) add a custom skin with clickable calls to action on them and add them to your own website or to social sites like Facebook and Twitter. You can use whatever URL you would like which means tracking links and affiliate links are welcome and will be able to show up in your analytics to show the amount of clicks and sales. (If you have a Viewbix pro account you also get a full analytics suite). When you are done customizing your skin and player, you can then add in shopping and list apps, skype, scribd, coupon, eBay and a ton of other apps including newsletter sign up apps. By using the newsletter sign up app and having it open after the video finishes playing, you can now have the viewer on Facebook subscribe through your video and then get back to doing what they were doing on the social media site. This is a way to more easily get them to sign up without being aggressive and also have them on your list so you can market back to them and begin making money.
Pagemodo is a tool I have grown to love. It also has a free option. Pagemodo offers you a ton of customizable templates with a drag and drop interface so you don’t have to be able to code. You can set it up to add an ecommerce shopping tab, a real estate, video design or any of the others including a way to come to your site and sign up for your newsletters. The thing that I love about pagemodo is that your tabs are now fully customizable and you can drive measurable and trackable sales as well as get newsletter sign ups with one click from these custom designed tabs. They even upload them to your pages for you and with a paid account, you can add a like gate which has shown it can help to grow your fans or likes easily so people can access your information. Converting Facebook traffic is easy, you just have to think about how to get your fans to either sign up for your newsletter so you can market to them later when they are not distracted, or you just need to find a way to create a positive and easy way for them to complete a purchase with a great looking page and tabs. By using these two tools you are on your way to working on a solid plan to convert your Facebook fans into actual customers. About the author: Adam Riemer is an online marketer with more than 10 years of experience. You can read his blog about online marketing and being an Affiliate Management Company and even find tips on SEO, datafeeds and optimizing your website. You can visit him here at Adam Riemer Marketing, LLC.
 
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