Blogging is more than just blurting out your emotions on the Internet. It’s a style of writing that requires honesty, accuracy and a little flamboyance. Be careful, though. Your online audience could either make you a viral sensation or a complete bust almost overnight.
Like any form of writing, there are standards and styles to abide when blogging. If you want your blog to get noticed, you also have to optimize your content to be recognized by Google and other search engines. [Read more…]
Internet security is the only topic on the web that I can predict will always be in the headlines as long as mankind and internet technologies exist. As we take exponential leaps and bounds in technological advancements, security is an issue that is always there to keep us busy. An increased number of our most valuable assets are gradually being transferred online in the form of private data, financial information and general web presences and the opportunities for exploitation by scammers and thieves increase. Our reliance on the web can potentially be our greatest downfall. Especially those of us who are not prepared.
As you search the web you’ll find a plethora of articles on how to secure your WordPress blog but you won’t find articles that point out the overall evolution of online threats and the fact that exploits and attack maneuvers are becoming tremendously complex and smarter and WordPress sites are at great risk. Keeping your WordPress installation up to date, tweaked and cleaned won’t cut it for total security. [Read more…]
As you grow and develop as a blogger or writer you will need to continuously focus on how you’re going to drive traffic by providing content readers find interesting. Your ability to spark conversations and get people thinking and talking about you, your brand or commentary is what will help create relationships and build authority. Authority in search engines or in the minds of your readers is not about how much content you can create but how much value you can squeeze into every encounter.
As bloggers, how do we provide value for our users and readers? Your answer will depend on what your goals are and what niches you’re serving, but in our field, engaging conversations have proven to be particularly valuable. This is the reason many marketers who have ventured into the world of forum building have enjoy success beyond what they could ever imagine. Since this form of communication offers a richer, more personal and direct experience for individuals seeking answers to questions and a desire to interact. [Read more…]
We may be well into the 2nd quarter of the year, but January 20, 2014 is a day which will live in infamy. This was the day that Google’s SEO and webspam aficionado, Matt Cutts dropped some comments that rocked the guest blogosphere. Fires were set, cannons roared, and chaos reigned. Digital marketers ran headlong out of their corner office windows in order to avoid the disparaging fallout to follow…
Luckily, they were on the first floor, but never mind that.
The point is the entire industry shifted, and further developments have only gotten juicier. Whereas it was once fairly simple to avoid being penalized or dropped from Google indexes, now there are a new set of standards to abide by within an entire genre of link building. Let’s begin our examination with a sobering view of what Google’s go-to SEO guru actually had to say on the subject of guest blogging. [Read more…]
WordPress is not just for blogging but is a powerful platform for achieving any imaginable goal online. The business of blogging is evolving and if you do not yet have a plan of action for monetizing your blog beyond advertising, now is the time to start thinking outside the box. Start running your blog like a business offering real services and products. The accumulated content on your blog is of greater value than you could imagine and brainstorming a little with content you’ve published so far, you’ll find opportunities to create information products or showcase products in your niche of which you could even benefit from affiliate sales. 
Here are examples of 15 e-Commerce WordPress templates to get your creative juices flowing. [Read more…]
Thinking of launching a WordPress blog/site? Or maybe you’ve grown tired of your existing blog after learning that you’ve been doing it all wrong? It’s not too late to start or restart. Blogging and internet marketing in general to achieve real results is getting more challenging by the day but at the same time there are definite methods and routes to take to achieve success.
In this fast paced blogging race there’s no time to reinvent the wheel and learn everything on your own from scratch but there exists a vast pool of resources made available from those who have traveled the long hard journey and persevered. Trying to find the perfect marketing model, best WordPress themes and tried and proven SEO techniques can be daunting. So I’ve decided to share some of my experiences developing websites and building blogs to make your journey more seamless and rewarding.
[Read more…]
I am sure you’ve come across plenty of articles about the mistakes bloggers shouldn’t make regarding their blogs and how they must avoid certain pitfalls if they want to leverage the immense potential of blogs to generate revenue. You’ll be forgiven for thinking this one is along the same lines, because it is.
The fact is there are so many mistakes that can trip a blogger, and each one of them is as critical as the other; this means there is always something new to say. In this article, I’ve tried to identify and explain those mistakes that are not very self-evident and which are associated with the bloggers attitude rather than his/her writing skills. [Read more…]
What can you learn from the best travel bloggers? Quite a bit, regardless of what kind of blogger you are, from foodie to relationship disher-upper, or even if you haven’t quite started a blog (yet). Travel bloggers provide a unique perspective, which can be challenging, considering there are over 1.3 million blogs dedicated to travel alone; only a few of them are monetized and garner enough followers to put them at the top of the class. The Huffington Post recently named the top travel bloggers around the world who blog in English, and came up with an impressive list of candidates for the top spot. [Read more…]
One thing we learn from a very young age is that being liked matters. From being chosen on the best football team to getting that dream job ahead of someone equally as capable, being seen in a positive manner and with positive sentiment is of notable benefit.
The same is true for brands and if people have a high opinion of your services or product, then they’ll find it more desirable and be more inclined to purchase it.
In this day and age brands tend to deal with people on a one-to-one level mainly over social media. So, creating positive sentiment on social media around your brand is important – in fact it matters a lot!
We’ve talked before about how important security is if you want your business to succeed. We made sure you knew about the ways hackers might try to conquer your WordPress account and that got us thinking about the other online places we take for granted as being relatively hacker-proof but really…aren’t, like your phone.
A lot of people believe that their smartphones are incredibly safe. That’s because most people equate the word “smartphone” with “iPhone” and until recently the iPhone was thought to be virtually hacker proof.
Guess what: they aren’t. A little over a year ago, NBC News reported that researchers had managed to hack iPhone’s operating system. More recently, there is speculation over whether or not Apple worked with the NSA to allow the agency access to iPhone users’ personal information. [Read more…]
