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Archive for blogging

bikram | July 29, 2011
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3 Essential Tips for Effective Blog Writing

Are you new to blogging community? Blogging is a great pleasure. It can be a personal blog or a professional blog written for a company, a brand. A blog has no boundaries. It can be anything, it can be ‘you’, it can be your secret desires, and it can be your diary. A blog is typically updated regularly, and that’s how it’s also different from a website, with frequent new posts. You need not know any programming language. You can put blog title, write content, attach image and just click on ‘publish’ and show it to the world. How many of us know what makes good blog writing? Here are some tips for your help.

A nice title

Always remember, it is the title of a blog post that attracts readers to read the same. Even a regular follower of your blog may simply overlook your latest post, if it doesn’t have a catchy title. Title has to be creative, catchy and very interesting. Some really interesting blog titles I have come across are – ‘Is Politics a masturbation for own pleasure?’, ‘What is so big about Big Brother?’, ‘Drinking and driving – a deadly combo for suicide’, ‘Celebrities and their uncelebrated agony’ etc. Aren’t these titles really catchy and persuading? Yes, that’s the sole purpose. Take your time, think and think till you crack a lovely blog post title.

Find a niche

Often we want to do everything. Don’t do it. Don’t make a blog for all, every topic under the sun. If you want to write on multiple subjects, you can create separate blogs for each of them. As for example, if you are a social thinker and wish to have a blog on societal and political topics, you may simply dedicate a blog towards socio-political-cultural topics. If you wish to narrow it down further and wish to write only on social crimes and role of law, you may stick to that. But don’t make the mistake of putting all in one blog – like social issues, a poem of yours, your last vacation experience, and your opinion on the current educational trend in Europe etc. Make sure you find a niche for your blog. You may choose ‘travel’ as your blog niche. Write travel related topics only. If you put everything in one, search engine may not locate your blog. Finding a niche for your blog will help you to get a higher search engine rank.

Keep it short and simple

A blog is for regular followers, readers, not for one time or not so regular viewers who visit a website just for some information or buying purpose. Blog is read to know others’ views, experiences. Thus, make it as simple and conversational as possible. Language should be simple and free flowing. And remember, no one wants to read long paragraphs running pages after pages, keep blog posts short. You may continue a post in your next write up. On Internet people browse and can’t hold attention for very long. Thus keeping it short wins the game.

So what are you waiting for? Get started with you blog. Practice will make it perfect.

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bikram | July 16, 2011
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Why Should You Start Blogging Right Away?

If you have been tweeting only while being happy with your website, you are missing out a lot more there. Blogging is the most popular and best thing to do. Here are some reasons, which say why you should start blogging.

Best place to voice your thoughts and opinions

There is no other platform better than a blog to voice personal opinions and thoughts, beliefs and values. You need not wait for anyone’s approval or permission to publish.

You need not be a tech-savvy person

Unlike web page creation for new content addition a new blog post doesn’t need any knowledge of HTML or anything as such. You can easily create a new blog post, write and publish the same on your own. All you have to do is type in to a box, and click on ‘publish’ button, for the world to see your blog post.

Search Engine Optimized

Blogs achieve automated search engine optimization. For higher ranking in search engines you need to keep your blog content fresh and update the same regularly. Categorize your blog content under different sections. Archives can be customized. Use keywords effectively and find specific keywords and mention them in keywords section. Every part of your blog can be customized. You can include keywords in your blog title, description, blog post headings, trackback links, comment invitations, archive titles, category titles. Search engines love content which are organized, structured, thematic and connected and a good blog has all these. So search engines look for such blogs, with which very few professional website can match up to.

Online community

If your blog is about a specific theme and a topic of interest, there will be an active online community interested in the same; who will be following your blog throughout. You can expect loyal readership, active comments, suggestions, feedback, and sharing of your blog URL in various websites. Ask your followers to actively participate and do the same when you visit their blogs.

Preserve old posts

Old articles are valuable and enjoyable even after years later. Blogging gives this liberty, as it safely archives all past blog posts categorized under different years. Old Tweets are hardly revisited and are hard to find too.

Don’t you think you should start blogging right away?

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bikram | July 12, 2011
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Did You Know Blogs Can be Effectively Promoted For Free?

It’s a big misconception that promotion always needs good amount of money and no one can do it for free. If your blog already has high benchmark of content quality, you don’t need much financial input to take off to greater heights.

Here are some tips for promoting your blog for absolutely free.

Tags and categories

Web search engines work on the basis of keywords in tags and categories to file your postings, so that searchers can get a customized optimum search outcome. Use keywords thoroughly yet creatively in your content. It shouldn’t appear forced. Enter categories always. Remember tags should be specific and categories should be broad

Search engine finding

Make sure people can easily find your blog in search engines. Submit your blog to popular search engines like Google, Yahoo!, ASK, Live etc. Try to acquire a high rank in search engine findings.

FeedBurner

FeedBurner is an effective tool letting you know number of subscribers and traffic to your blog. It’s an extremely beneficial method. Make sure you thoroughly know each tabs of FeedBurner and the options available.

Linking

Linking is very important. Promotion of your blog URL is very important task. In all your online and offline communication messages provide link to your blog. You can promote your blog link in multiple ways. You may also include blog URL in your email signature, so that whoever receives a mail from you get to see your blog URL below your name. If you are following other blogs and actively comment there, make sure you attach your blog URL with your comment. If you are active in social and business networking and actively participate in Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus and the like, make sure you add link to your blog in your profile detail.

Go to other blogs

If you want others to visit and actively be a part of your blog, you have to do the same for others. Follow good blogs, which interest you. Visit other blogs regularly, share their posts, and put meaningful comments. This will get you closer to the blogger as you will slowly start interacting more and more. This will also draw other bloggers to your blog and actively follow you. Getting a good bunch of active followers is a sure treat for any blogger.

Try these simple tips and promote your blog without a single penny spent.

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bikram | June 19, 2011
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Few Tips for Blogging

For the aspirant and new bloggers here are some useful tips. You may know enough about blogging and stay quite enthusiastic about the same, but unknowingly you may miss out few important points of blogging. While you do blogging keep these few things in mind.

Be regular

Most important of all things in blogging is staying regular. Be regular to your blog and keep posting every day. If it’s an image and video driven blog, make sure you regularly post some new things. If you avidly write in your blog, be regular. Everyday post new write ups with power-packed titles. Blogging is like virtual diary, your readers will expect you to update it regularly. If you do not post quite often, your viewers may soon lose interest and not come back to your blog.

Respond to the comments

With growing popularity and viewership of your blog, more and more people will leave their comments against your post. Reply back to the comments. Commenter expects you to reply to his comment, else he won’t be motivated enough to comment again in future. Comments may not be always be flattering for you, which can be easily handled with heart-felt thanks. Critical comments or thought provoking questions are much difficult to handle. Address them carefully, with patience and good reasoning. You may get many spam messages as well, which can be blocked. There will be fanatic irrelevant abusive languages too, which should be avoided and deleted. Replying back to such messages ensure welcoming further danger. Instead maintain your dignity. Replying to comments will make your blog interactive, fun and updated.

It’s not website

For all the new bloggers, let me tell you blogging is not website content writing. Web content is much formal, whereas blog can be as much informal and casual as your nature. If it’s a personal blog of yours it can be your reflection. If you wish it to be blog of your company, even then you may take a friendly approach to come closer to your customers. So keep language easy, friendly, and interactive; so that you can send across the intended message effectively without entangling the reader in complex vocabulary and style of writing. Don’t be pushy.

Follow these guidelines while blogging.

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bikram | June 18, 2011
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Things to Remember About Corporate Blogging

Corporate blogging is the latest buzz. Companies have taken this route of blogging to reach out their fans, followers, customers, public in large. It nurtures a brand, helps it to come close to its people and become popular.  Here are few tips for corporate blogging.

Concrete blogging strategy

To see results of blogging you will need to hold your patience for a while. You need to draft a blogging strategy, which should be parallel to your PR strategy, corporate mission, and vision. Since blog is a subtle and indirect expression of customer relation, it has to be related to other modes of communication. Blogging is all about interaction. Unlike other forms of promotion, in blogging you initiate a discussion, draw comments, and nurture ongoing discussion with other bloggers and target audience. While commenting, contradicting, advising, explaining you earn credibility, reliance and admiration. This is called blogger relation. The stronger it’s, easier it will be for you to reach your audience.

Value addiction

A blog is always a value addition device; otherwise, corporate website would have been enough. It’s mode of communication which is updated every day with new posts, new additions. Blog updates not only about the corporate’s new achievements, happenings, offerings; but also about the industry as a whole or its thoughts in large. If a blog doesn’t add any value, it falls flat on face and serves no purpose.

Thoughtful logical analysis

When you are talking about some industry practice, or comparison or some current news make sure you analyze it well along with rock solid reasoning. No one is interested in a mere description of news. Provide some thoughtful analysis that will bring some food for thought to the reader. Personal perspective interlaced with data will help you to fetch credibility and loyal readership. If you prefer not to comment on the topic, you may sum up opinions and perspectives of community in large. You may put links of other related blogs for further knowledge.

Respond to the comments, they are valuable

Responding to blog readers’ comments is very important to build long-term relationship, traffic, and loyalty. It’s one way to make them feel valuable and special. It will help you to dig deeper into a topic, raise debate, and lengthen the thread of interaction. Blogging is all about interaction. So start talking to your customer. From this entire audience is benefited and you learn new things too.

Be open to critics

Don’t expect it to be a joyous ride throughout. There will be criticism, which you have to accept. Handle it with logic. It will earn you respect and credibility. Criticism is certainly constructive. You will also see hike in viewership. When flaws are pointed out, it gives you scope to improve.

Promote

Promote your blog through friends, social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook. You may send some newsletters about your blog to you target audience.

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bikram | June 2, 2011
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Why should You Start Blogging?

Blogging is an important tool of marketing for anyone. Even if for personal writing, it is highly interactive and rewarding. Personal blog helps to vent ideas and write well, whereas business blogs allow informal yet easy daily communication with customers and employees. Here are some reasons stating why should start blogging.

Frequent update, easy maintenance

Unlike websites, magazines, blogs are frequently rather almost regularly updated with opinions, articles, information, links, videos, pictures etc. Blogs are easily maintained, informal, and more approachable. Readers find it enjoyable, informative and get to know more about a company in terms of its offering, achievements, new developments, innovations, partners, and the like. It’s like voice of a person or a company, educating and informing minds. These are more frequently updated than websites. For business purpose blogs are good communication tools for internal communication with employees.

It chisels writing skill

Blogging enhances writing skill, helps to communicate better. If a person is interested in writing, communicating his views to the world in his personal style; blogging is the best idea. Since blog posts are short in length and informal, they arouse lot of interest among readers. Other bloggers, writers will also find interest in your blog and may soon start following you. This way, you will soon develop lots of fans and followers. Since you will be showered with comments and feedback, you will also improve in terms of writing style, topics, and marketing ideas.

Empowers readers

One of the main advantages of blogging is its highly interactive. People feel empowered, since they can comment instantly or keep a track of your posts. Blog readers are not forced; they naturally tend to respond to a blog post. It is an exchange of opinions, views. Since it is an instant publishing system, it allows instant feedback too. If people like your post, may share your link with others or link their own blog to yours. Comments are highly motivating. They will act as a boost for your writing.

You can rule the niche

Create a niche for your blog. Find out your core expertise area and start writing on the same. If digital marketing or suppose politics is your cup of tea, start writing on the same. Mass appeal is difficult to achieve. Find a niche for yourself and appeal to the concerned people. You may soon master the subject and rule it. It’s a great tool to showcase your ideas, knowledge. Your readers will soon get addicted to your blog, turn into regular readers and long-term loyalists.

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bikram | March 20, 2011
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Blogging and Social Media

The doomsayers are flat out wrong!

Social Media has become such a huge phenomenon, and many proclaimed that the rise of social media will kill blogging the way television killed the radio, or the Internet killed magazine, the newspaper, and what not. But, this time the doomsayers were flat out wrong.

Blogging did not go away, and social media didn’t become the blog-killer. It didn’t, and both co-existed amiably. What doomsayers forgot to realize that blog has a different purpose than social media. If I could draw a leaf from our life to understand what these people were saying then I will say if blogging is like the magazine you read then social media is akin to meeting you have with your friends, or may be a conference you attend.

How can a conference or friends’ gathering replace the need of magazines?

It cannot. Both are different. Rather the readership of magazine will increase because of word of mouth phenomena cutting loose during social gathering. And that is what has happened to blogging. Now more and more people are blogging on variety of different topics.

Social media has fueled the growth of blogging. Now more and more people are using their blogs to express themselves. Social media along with its status messages has brought writer out of every person. Earlier you couldn’t imaging people saying things that you see them writing on their Facebook walls.

Social media may be huge in its own right, but when it comes to blogging, even a force like Facebook is subservient to blogging.  Facebook is used by the bloggers to promote them, and it doesn’t work in the opposite direction. Facebook, twitter, MySpace, and the rest have turned into mere tool for bloggers to promote themselves.

What do you think about this? Has social media become the force or will become the force that will take the place of blogging? Use the comment box below and write in.

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bikram | December 11, 2010
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Tips for Hiring a Freelance Writer

With growing usage of Internet as a medium of communication all across the world and a major source of business, hiring a freelance writer on internet has increased manifolds. But recruiters often remain anxious and uncertain about hiring a quality writer. The nature of internet medium raises suspicion and lot of uncertainty regarding writer’s credibility, competence and originality. But a right knowledge about what to look out for in a freelance writer can actually save lot of worries and draw tangible results.

Here are some tips for hiring a freelance writer.

Check out writing portfolio and verify originality

Don’t just believe in curriculum vitae’s few boasting words and nicely crafted cover letter, measure writer’s competence and that’s possible by carefully going through his or her writing portfolio. It will reflect writer’s style of writing, command on language, sense of grammar, vocabulary understanding etc. If you like the writer’s work, make sure it’s original and not stolen from elsewhere. Some writing verification websites and software can help you to verify the authenticity and credibility of the write up.

Talk to multiple writers

Always keep your options open. Never settle for one writer unless you see other writers in the industry and go through their work. You never know what you may miss unless you see all. So go through couple of good writers’ work and select the one who is best in totality – sense of purpose of writing, in terms of writing style, command on language and vocabulary, cost.

Discuss all terms in advance

Never assume things, put everything on paper and discuss in advance of work. Deadline, cost, writing style requirements, length of write-up, writing topics, specific expectations – everything should be discussed in advance. When you discuss make sure you have a proof, like written contract.

Make some advance payment

Often not only you feel anxiety regarding work on time, but writer also feels the same. To make both of you feel secured and the writer motivated enough to carry on the work pay him or her in advance. It’s advisable to pay 25% initially, 25% after presentation of first draft and rest 50% after final work submission. It will keep both of you happy and content.

Communicate frequently

Make sure you are in constant touch with the writer. Don’t take things for granted, keep the writer updated. Whether through email, telephone, instant messenger or face to face interaction – communicate.

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bikram | November 14, 2010
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How to Increase Your Blog Traffic This Christmas

One of the most effective traffic strategies that an A-list blogger uses to give a sudden boost to his blog traffic is leveraging special events, and festivals. It helps A-list bloggers pull immense amount of traffic in very short period of time. They do it for every major or minor festival, which gives them several spikes in traffic, and they even succeed in retaining some of the audience who came to sample the blog during the spike for the long time. Over the period of time, all these add up and result in permanent increase in traffic.

In this article, through the Christmas example I am going to tell you how you can use a special occasion or festival to boost your traffic.

Give people reason to revisit

Provide a list of Christmas icons and graphics

During Christmas when everything is painted with Christmas fervor, people do not want to leave their desktop, websites, and blogs behind. Therefore, they remain continuously on the look for cool icons and graphics to decorate their virtual world.

Provide them a list of unique decorating resources. Do not be lazy in creating this resource. This will pull a lot of visitors

Give cool Christmas decoration tips

You can also offer Christmas decoration tips with your audience. Tell them what all they can to do jazz up their Christmas. Be creative, draw inspiration, and create a step-by-step guide. Give detailed instruction on Christmas decoration.

Gift ideas

Christmas is the time of year when people exchanges gifts with everyone they love. Finding and selecting multiple gifts could be a time consuming affair. You can cut down on your audience’s research time by giving them a huge list of top gifts with $100 or $50 or whatever your audience’s budget is. They will really appreciate this effort.

Start applying these traffic strategies right away, as there are just 45 days left to Christmas, and the earlier you will do it the better result you will get.

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