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The Blogger’s Guide to Creating Catchy Blog Post Titles

Tanya — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:07:23 +0000

With so many blogs in for readers to choose from, you need to make yours stand out from the rest by capturing a prospective reader’s attention from the outset. The body of your writing could be outstanding and chock full of information that is thought-provoking, interesting, and entertaining. If you can’t get anyone to read it, it simply doesn’t matter. Capture a reader’s attention and make them want to come closer by writing catchy blog post titles that bring them in to your blog.

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Teach Your Readers Something New

Instructional titles are always a popular choice. People like to add to their base of knowledge, and a “How to” in the title can help to bring in some traffic. You could also offer “Tips for” doing something better. If you can tie your tips into something seasonal, you may see a spike in visits to your blog around that event. “Top 10 Ways to” do something are also good choices, since a reader is going to be curious about which items or activities made the list and whether he or she would have given it the same rank that you did.

Give Them a List

List titles are another good way to get someone’s attention and encourage him or her to click onto your blog. If you decide to go with this option, keep the blog title relatively short. You don’t want to give too much information away in the title. “Five Ways to;” “Seven Things You Need to; “Three Things to Stop Doing; these are all examples of list titles that will get someone’s interest.

Write Numbers in your Title

Readers are drawn to numbers in titles. Use them to draw the reader’s attention to your post.

Ask a Question

Using a conversational tone with a reader and asking questions is another effective strategy when creating titles for your blog posts. Engage your reader by “speaking” to them as if they were in the same room. “Do You Know….” can be the three words that can start off a great title for a blog post.

Get Personal in Your Choice of Material

Blogs are supposed to be about connecting with readers. They give the blogger a chance to write in a more casual tone than a web page, and you can use this to your advantage. By using “I” statements in your titles, you immediately connect with your readers. “I Didn’t Know How I was Going to Survive [Name of Challenge]” will make people curious about what the writer did to overcome the problem.

Use Time to Your Advantage

People want to save time or do things more quickly. Use this concept in your blog titles to attract their attention. “Five Minutes to a Flatter Tummy” or “Get Out the Door in Less than 20 Minutes” will get people clicking to find out what the secret is. If your title implies that you have knowledge that other people don’t, they will click through to your writing to avoid feeling left out.

Go for Controversy in your Title

There is a difference between opting for a controversial topic and simply being offensive. Some bloggers seem to enjoy the notoriety that goes with trying to push the envelope of good taste and stirring things up. If you try this tactic in your titles, you will find an audience, but it is not likely to lead to long-term readers.

There is a way to tackle controversial topics while still walking the fine line of being respectful. This is the one you should be taking if you decide to go this route. It will still bring in readers to your blog, and it will stimulate thoughtful discussions on the topic at hand.

Choosing a title for your post can be the most challenging part of the process. You want it to reflect what the body of the piece is about, while being enticing enough to draw in readers. These tips will help you accomplish both writing goals.

Author Bio: Leslie Anglesey is an educator, blogger and editor at www.essaytigers.com. She loves to share blog writing tips and will gladly connect with you on Google+.Popular Posts:

Life Skills Of A Successful Blogger: Flexibility

Tanya — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 13:03:52 +0000

In the blogging world, things are always changing. That’s just the nature of the online world. So, to be a successful blogger, it’s important to be ready and willing to change and adapt as needed.

If you’re blogging for profit, then you’re an entrepreneur – I hope you find some encouragement and inspiration in the following tips!

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What’s The Biggest Change You’ve Faced In Your Blogging?

What has thrown you for a loop or two? Share in the comments below!Popular Posts:

2 Freebies Every Blogger Needs To Know About!

Tanya — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 21:20:04 +0000

Thanks so much for supporting Blogelina and our mission to help other bloggers by using our affiliate links in this post!

If you’re blogging for income – or even if your hobby blog is bringing in a few dollars here and there – it’s important to keep track of what your blog’s income and expenses are.

Why Would You Want To Track Your Blog Finances?

Well, for starters, doing this will tell you if your blog is actually turning a profit or not. Also, you need to know what your blog is bringing in for tax reasons (yes, you do have to claim your blogging income on your tax returns! Check out this series that can help: Blogging and Taxes – Know The Basics!).

How To Track Your Blog’s Income & Expenses

{Freebie #1} Set Up A Separate Checking Account For Your Blog - Keep your blogging finances as separate as possible from your personal finances. CapitalOne 360 is offering a free checking account right now that actually pays you $50 to sign up!
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{Freebie #2} Use LearnVest To Help You Track and Manage Your Funds - Track your expenses and income AND get access to important financial advice – all in one place! Oh, and it’s free, too. Click Here For Your {Free} Learnvest Account!

Make Sure You Keep Good Records - The above tips will make it easier for you to manage and track your blog’s profits. But, it really boils down to: You need to find a system that works for YOU to keep careful records of your blog’s money flow!

How To Make Money With Your Blog – Right Now!

Set Up A Free Checking Account With CapitalOne 360 and Get $50! We already mentioned above how important it is to keep your blogging funds in one place and right now, you can earn $50 for your blog – doing just that! Click Here To Sign Up For Your Free Online Checking Account!

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Join Blogelina’s Affiliate Program - Earn competitive commissions referring bloggers to our classes and services! We have a great deal on our upcoming July session of Profitable Blogging For Beginners that you’re going to want to check out! Click Here To Sign Up For Your Affiliate Account.

(Note: There are links in this post that contain my referral link. Read my disclosure policy.) Popular Posts:

How to Have More Fun With Your Blog

Tanya — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 13:24:06 +0000

Has your blogging become boring? Have you lost enthusiasm for your topic? Instead of giving up or letting your blog become stagnant, why not take a few simple steps to reignite your passion and find your smile?

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The following tips will help you have more fun with your blog.

#1 Surround Yourself with Things That Make You Smile

What does your home office look like? Does it look like an office or does it look like a playground? Your home office will ideally be a reflection of you and all of the components of your personality. Hang inspiring and fun photos on the wall. Create a toy box full of things that make you smile.

For example, your toy box might include juggling balls, stickers, modeling clay or silly putty, and a Rubik’s Cube. These toys are what you pull out when you’re feeling stymied and need to brainstorm. You can also use them when you need a quick energy boost and a break from working. When you take a little time to make your office a fun place to be, it can have a significant impact on your attitude toward your blog.

#2 Find Good Partners

Surround yourself with people who are enthusiastic about working with you and excited about what they do. For example, if you hire a virtual assistant, hire one that is excited about being your virtual assistant. Positive energy is contagious and it multiplies. When two enthusiastic people get together, nothing can stop them.

#3 Take More Time Off

Burnout is one of the primary causes of the blogging doldrums. It usually means you’re working too hard. Take time off. Decide what work schedule works best for you and change your routine. For example, you might work two or three long days a week and take the rest of the week off. And don’t forget to take entire weeks off once in a while. Your blog will survive without you for a few weeks and if it can’t, then create systems that support vacations.

#4 Create a New Vision

What do you want your blog to look like in five years? You may be working from the vision you originally had for your blog. That’s fine if you haven’t changed. However, chances are that you, your audience, and your blog have gone through some changes. Embrace these changes as an opportunity to adapt a new vision. Give yourself time to think about where you want to take your blog and then create a plan to make it happen.

#5 Get Help!

Are you doing everything yourself? Are you overworked and just plain tired? Get help. Hire specialists to do what they do best so you can focus on what you do best. For example, if you spend hours every week writing and you dislike writing, find someone to do it for you.

You’re in control of your life and your future. If your blog has become boring, take steps to light a spark and make it fun again. Chances are that you’ll see profits increase too.

What Makes Blogging Fun For You?

Share in the comments below!Popular Posts:

Infographic: How to Get More Likes on Facebook

Tanya — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 15:53:27 +0000

Want to get more likes for your Facebook page?

Kissmetrics has put together this amazing infographic to help you figure out how to do just that!

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Source: How to Get More Likes on Facebook – Infographic

Let’s Support Each Other – Add Your Link Below!

Add your Facebook page link in the comments below and have fun liking some new pages and supporting your fellow Blogelina readers!

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Improve Your Alexa Rank with These Two Fast and Easy Tips

Tanya — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 12:32:58 +0000

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There are many ways that bloggers measure their success. Google Page Rank and Alexa Rank are two of the most popular. If your Alexa ranking seems to be stagnant, there are a couple of tricks you can implement to get it to drop fast.

Install the Alexa Tool Bar

Alexa is a rank that essentially determines how often a website or blog is visited compared to all of the other website and blogs on the web. The lower your Alexa rank, the better.

But, there is a catch.

Your Alexa rank is determined by how many people visit your website that have the Alexa toolbar installed. Who visits your blog more than you do? My guess: no one. I know that I am the top visitor to my blog. After all, I have posts to write and comments to respond to. I spend a good amount of time on my blog. This is why it is crucial for bloggers to install the Alexa toolbar.

(You can install the toolbar here.)

You can also encourage any friends or family who visit your blog to install the Alexa toolbar on their computers.

You will be amazed at how fast your rank will drop just by implementing this one, simple tip.

Comment on Other Blogs

The average Joe doesn’t know about the Alexa rank, but since most bloggers measure their rank they will have the toolbar installed. If you comment on a lot of other blogs in your niche, chances are they will come back to your blog and return the favor.

This is the main method I have used to lower my Alexa ranking. My blog is about 6 months old and has an Alexa hovering around 200,000. Everyday my rank consistently drops a little lower.

You get added points with this technique. Your Alexa rank will lower, all while building valuable connections with fellow bloggers.

Alexa is Not Just Important to You

Your Alexa rank is not just important to you. If part of your blog monetization strategy is direct advertising then lowering your Alexa rank is critical. Different advertisers look for different metrics. I have been contacted by some that base their pricing primarily off of Alexa rank and I have seen others that pay no attention to it.

If you are interested in direct advertising you need to be aware of your rankings.

There you have it. Lowering your Alexa ranking really is simple. Even if you only implement tip number one you will consistently see results.

Author Bio: Alexa is a single mother to two little girls, ages three and four. She is also an avid blogger. She chronicles her journey as a single mother trying to make it big at Single Moms Income.

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9 Ways You Can Keep Your Blog Content Protected

Tanya — Thu, 30 May 2013 04:20:35 +0000

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One great thing about starting your own blog is when you start to see web traffic, subscribers and money come streaming in. There are bloggers who essentially steal your content by scraping it. There are even bloggers who get ranked high in the search engines because of scraping other people’s content. Here are a few techniques that you can implement to protect your blog content from being stolen or scraped.

Run plagiarism checker

One way you can check to see if anyone else copied your web content is to run plagiarism software. You will be able to catch anyone who is using your work as their own. You can make sure that your work is also completely unique and original since you are also responsible for not copying other people’s content.

Create Personal Flair in Your Content

To combat blog scrapers and lazy bloggers, you need to create some flair into your web content. This is difficult to copy and if someone does copy your style, people are going to recognize it right away. This is another great way to make it more difficult for people to steal your content.

Copyright Your Web Content

You should consider copyrighting every blog posting you put up because it will protect it from spammers and scrapers. DMCA site is a good service to use if you want to protect your web content.

Watermark Your Photos

Another thing scrapers like to take are photos. You can create a watermark on every one of your photos that you use so you can protect your web content from thieves. It is easy to create watermarks on photos. You will need to save the photo as a ‘dpi’ file so you can protect the quality.

On Your Blog Site, Install a Copyright Proof Plugin

This type of plugin works well so you can show everyone that you are an authentic author of the content you publish on your website. Your content will have a unique seal you will be able to use anytime another person tries to steal your content.

Linking Your Articles

Another great way to keep your site content safe is to deeply link your blogs to other postings within your site. You can also link the images as well. If a person were to steal your content by copying and pasting it onto their site, your link will stay active.

Tynt.com

This is a tool that automatically produces a backlink right to your site when an individual steals your web content. The backlinks give you the authority and page rank so you can get the top result in the search engines. This will create more web traffic to your site so you can get paid for the content you wrote.

Disable the Right Click Function

Another way you can protect your content from thieves is to disable the right click feature on your site. This will make it difficult for someone to simply copy and paste your content and use it as their own.

Contact The Thieves

Another way you can keep your content protected is to tell the thieve to take down the stolen content. This has been highly effective for many people since there are bloggers who mistakenly put up other people’s content without realizing it.

Author Bio: This post was written and submitted by Sandra Miller. Sandra is a freelance writer from Brooklyn. She always uses professional editing services help to make her writing perfect.

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Tons Of Unbeatable Affiliate Marketing Tips And Tricks

Tanya — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:57:23 +0000

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Looking for some ways to boost your Affiliate sales? Check out these tips and tricks!

#1 – The Most Important Tip

The most important key to having a successful affiliate marketing program is to choose a high-quality product. Promoting affiliate products on your site means putting your credibility on the line. If you try to sell your visitors on a shoddy or second-rate product, you will lose their trust and their business.

#2 – “Sell” Your Product

When working as an affiliate, you cannot assume that people know what the product is or what it does. And you certainly cannot assume that people know how the product will benefit them. You need to spell this out in a clear and concise manner. Readers only know what you’re telling them about the product.

#3 – Choose Where You’re Sending Them

Where you put affiliate ad graphics and links on the page is as important as what you choose to link to. Tanya’s Note: Make sure you actually visit the page that you’re sending your readers to. You want the information they find there to be clear and really help them understand what the product is all about.

#4 – Place Your Ads Wisely

If you have a menu at the left, putting a small graphic at the top is good. Links within content are also excellent, as is at the end of an article right above the comments.

#5 – Would YOU Buy?

Check out the website of the affiliate program you’d like to join and consider whether you would buy from it. Does it look professional? Is it eye-catching? Can you easily navigate it? How hard is it to find help? Is there a phone number and address available? If you trust it, your readers will, too.

#6 – Use Article Marketing To Grow Your Reach

Make sure you are submitting quality articles to the major article marketing directories every weekday. Don’t let up – build this into your routine so that it happens without you even thinking about it. Hire a virtual assistant to login to the directories under your name and upload the articles for you each day.

#7 – Be Honest

When using affiliate marketing, be sure to be honest about your intentions. Let the visitors know that you are doing affiliate marketing. When you are honest with your visitors/readers, you will gain their loyalty. When a reader uses your referral link, they will feel good about it if they know that you are using affiliate marketing and that they are able to help you.

#8 – Treat Your Readers Right

It is important that you treat your website visitors right. They know an affiliate advertisement when they see one. If you endorse a product that you do not believe in or if you take advantage of their visit with excessive ads, then they will not visit your website in the future.

#9 – Broaden Your Horizons

Some people avoid promoting high-ticket items through their affiliate marketing business because they feel that those items are too hard to sell. However, your sales skills often play a more important role in your success than the cost of the product. If you can write effectively, you can let potential buyers know how the product looks, feels and sounds. You can give them a sense of what it would feel like to actually own the product. Appeal to their senses in creative and tempting ways. Make them feel as if they can’t live without the product, for another day.

#10 – Affiliate Marketing Is For The Long Term

Affiliate marketing should be approached as a long term project. It all starts with building a web site or blog. The consistent creation of great content and the generation of traffic is next. Only then should affiliate links and banners be added. As one progresses it become easier to determine the right placement for the ads and the type of content that converts. So, be prepared for the long haul to become a successful affiliate marketer.

#11 – Once You’re Comfortable… Promote!

If you plan to hold a contest with an affiliate company, promote the heck out of it! You’ll have to dedicate the bulk of your time to posting the link on forums, social media, contest directories, “Linky” lists, and any website which shares a similar topic to yours. It’s a lot of work but the increase in sales will be worth it!

As previously explained, affiliate marketing can be a wise marketing strategy.

Every business could benefit from having more customers or developing new ones.

About The Author: This Article is written by Konika Chauhan, Author of Earning MethodsPopular Posts:

37+ GMail Keyboard Shortcuts – Use These Tricks To Email More Efficiently!

Tanya — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:34:47 +0000

Did you know that there are keyboard shortcuts that Gmail recognizes?

Maybe I’m in the dark a bit, but I didn’t know these were set – or that there were so many of them!

Anyway, I thought I would share the shortcuts that I’ve found – and hopefully help make your emailing take up just a little bit less of your time!

As someone who uses Gmail a lot for my blogging, I look forward to putting these shortcuts to good use!

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Do You Use Gmail?

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30 WordPress Tips YOU Can Use Today

Tanya — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:18:01 +0000

As you probably know, WordPress is a dynamic web publishing platform and the choice of over 60 million website owners. You can use it to create a professional looking blog or traditional website quickly and relatively easily. There are also countless ways that you can customize your WordPress site so that it uniquely reflects your business.

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Here Are 30 WordPress Tips That YOU Can Use Today:

Use a Landing Page. Change your site so that it displays a custom landing page instead of your current posts. Many themes have this feature, or you could use a premium solution such as Premise for WordPress.
Strengthen Your Footer. Make the best possible use of the space at the bottom of your theme to include important links, a short bio or other important information about your site.
Update Your Theme. Are your traffic numbers flat or falling? When’s the last time you updated your WordPress theme? The answers might be related. If your theme no longer reflects the current branding of your company, then update or switch to a new theme.
Start Video Blogging. The current version of WordPress makes it extremely easy to post video content.
Improve Your Permalinks. By changing the URLs for the articles on your WordPress website to include fewer (but higher value) keywords, you may be able to improve the ranking of those articles on the search engines.
Leverage Your Images. Each time you upload an image, make sure to tag it with appropriate “title” and “alternate text” tags to assist your search engine rank. The “title” is also what appears when someone tries to “pin” your image to Pinterest.
Improve Your Sidebars. Use this tutorial to populate the sidebar areas of your site with content that can be dynamically selected and displayed based on a number of different parameters that you specify.
Add Page Numbers to Blog Post Comments. If you have a particularly active community of users who comment on your blog posts, use a plugin such as WP-Paginate to add page numbers your comment pages.
Hide Certain Post Categories From Your Home Page. Install the PE Category Filter to keep certain categories of post off your home page, but still keep them available on other portions of your site.
Let Users Register or Comment with Facebook. There are many different ways you can integrate your site with Facebook. The Simple Facebook Connect plugin is one of the best and easiest ways to start.
Make Sure Everything is Current. This should almost go without saying, but take a few minutes today to make sure that your WordPress install, your plugins and current theme are all current.
Enable Avatars. In order to make your commenting environment more personal, you can enable avatars in the >> Settings>>Discussion area of your dashboard
Check Your Site as a Visitor. If you’re only viewing your site through your admin dashboard, you may be missing out if something weird happens to the display. Logout of WordPress then reload your site to verify.
Add an Author Bio. Follow this tutorial to add a brief author bio to each blog post.
Display a Random Post as a Tweet. You beef up your Twitter account by using this simple plugin to automatically display a random post as a tweet.
Change Author During Editing. To be able to identify a particular author when creating a new post, you must change your default settings. From the “Add New Post” page, click “Screen Options,” then “Author.”
Clean Up Your Comments. While plugins like Akismet do a good job of filtering out blatant comment spam, you can also use this plugin to help you get rid of commenters who spam through their author URLs and comment links.
Highlight Author Comments. If you actively engage in conversations with your readers through the comments sections of your posts, you can use the Simple Author Highlighter plugin to make your comment responses stand out.
Display a Random Post. If your website has hundreds of posts, you may want to make it more likely that new readers will be able to discover some of your older material. Use the Random Post Widget plugin to display a link to a random post in a sidebar widget.
Members Only. Consider building a membership area of your website by selecting a new theme or plugin with those capabilities.
Use Breadcrumb Navigation. “Breadcrumb Navigation” is a navigation that can provide you with SEO advantages, and can make your site easier to use by your site visitors. If your theme doesn’t offer native support, consider a plugin such as this.
Encourage Social Sharing. Make it easier for your readers to share your website on Facebook and Twitter with a comprehensive social sharing plugin.
Personalize Your Greeting. Use a plugin like WP Greet Box to change the message that appears at the top of the page when someone loads your blog, depending on how they found your blog.
Redirect after Comment. Readers who make comments are likely to stay more active on your blog, so you can use this plugin to take them to a special page after they make their first comment.
Schedule Future Publication. On each new post page, there’s an option to schedule future publication of a post. This means you can prepare a number of posts all at once, then schedule them for an even publication stream.
Allow Readers to Easily Email Links to Your Articles. Use the WP-Email plugin to help your readers share your posts via email.
Disable HTML in Comments. Disable the HTML risks in your comments by using this tutorial.
Speed Load Times. Use a caching plugin to make your site load faster.
Change Image Quality. Update the default size of your thumbnails in >>Settings>>Media.
Install Google Analytics. If you’re not yet using Google Analytics to analyze your site traffic then install a Google Analytics plugin and get started today.

There are so many little things you can do with WordPress that can add up to big results. Just work on one thing a day and you’ll have an improved blog in no time.

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What Would You Like To See YOUR Blog Be Able To Do Today?

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