Successful Blog

Blogging Tools of Engagement that Attract Attention

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How to blog series

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Grace Nasri

6 Tools of Engagement

There are currently billions of webpages indexed across the world today; as the number grows, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate one blog from another. The six sites below have created tools to help bloggers increase engagement, attract attention, and differentiate their blog from the rest.

1. FindTheBest’s Interactive Widgets: Adding interactive widgets to blog posts is one of the best ways to drive user engagement and increase time spent on your site. FindTheBest () a data-driven comparison engine, offers hundreds of product and service widgets to enhance posts and reviews. The interactive and customizable widgets (http://www.findthebest.com/widgets) have an added bonus of being monetizable—bloggers receive 100 percent of all affiliate revenue.

2. Visual.ly’s Infographics: Infographics have grown in popularity over the past year, partially because it’s easier for most people to consume and retain information presented in the form of an image or graphic rather that pure data or text. Visual.ly allows bloggers to create customized infographics for their blogs. Other sites like Stat Planet, Tableau and ManyEyes are starting to pop up that make it easy to build customized infographics.

3. Flickr’s Photos: Posts with photos, graphics or other illustrations not only look more enticing, but they can also drive traffic from image searches; when photos are saved with relevant keyword tags, they will show up in an image search and when a user clicks on the image, they will be taken to the affiliated blog. In addition to Flickr, sites like WikiMedia’s commons and Google’s image search are also great sites to find relevant images and graphics, but be sure that the licensing allows for republishing.

4. Pixlr’s Photo Editing Software: For bloggers who don’t have Photoshop but want tools to be able to edit their photos before posting to their blog, Pixlr’s Editor provides online photo editing tools for free.

5. Vimeo’s Videos: People consume and digest data through different formats and channels, while some are more drawn to text and data, others find video content more engaging. Sites like Vimeo make it easy to upload, share and post videos. But Vimeo isn’t the only video sharing site. Site like Blinkx, Vimeo, UStream and YouTube are some other great places to find engaging videos relevant to your blog post.

6. SpeakerText’s Video Transcription Service: Video content, while highly engaging, is not easily searchable by search engines. Video transcription services like SpeakerText specialize in transcribing the content on your video, which helps search engines index your content.

Maybe you’re using one or more of these already. Try the rest. Keep alert for tools that will raise the engagement on your blog.

What tools of engagement fuel your blog?

Author’s Bio:
Grace Nasri is the managing editor at FindTheBest, a data-driven comparison engine. Her articles have been published in The Huffington Post, Reuters, VentureBeat, The Street, Technorati, Asia Times and more. You can see a full list of her articles at GraceNasri.com and can find her on Twitter as @GraceNasri

 

5 Simple Ways to Deliver Irresistible Content and Lower Your Bounce Rate

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Be Irresisible!

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If you’ve been developing a business online in the last few years, you’ve probably heard statics regarding the brief amount of time we have to get and keep the attention of first-time visitors. What was almost 20 seconds in 2005 now is being described as something between 8 seconds and 10.

Getting folks to arrive is the first step, of course. In that, an attention-grabbing, killer headline is everything.


Click image to access complete podcast at The Onion.

Whether it is something completely original and novel, ultra-specific and geared towards a niche, or just incredibly compelling, good headlines on the Web always win.

They always win, except when they don’t.

If a headline delivers traffic, but the traffic immediately bounces away, can you say the headline wins?

A killer headline will get traffic, but what keeps folks reading?
We have to deliver great content to give that headline legs or that traffic will bounce away.

5 Ways to Deliver Irresistible Content and Lower Your Bounce Rate

Strong businesses are built on strong relationships. What transforms a headline clicker into someone who hangs around? What turns first-time visitors into people who want to stick around? What makes them stay and already thinking about their return? Here are five things you can do to make it more likely they get what they came for.

Five Ways to Deliver to the Clickers Who Follow a Headline to Your Blog …

  1. Deliver content that your headline promises.
  2. Deliver content in short paragraphs using subheads surrounded by lots of white space so that people have room to think and breathe. Add a picture that supports the text and illustrates the content. First impressions count.
  3. Deliver it without making folks jump over ads or through hoops to get to the prize that the headline promises. Decide whether you want me to stay … there are other ways to get me to buy.
  4. Deliver it by responding to the people who take time to comment.
  5. Deliver it by making it easy to find more of what brought people to your site.

It’s not the visitor who never came that’s a loss. It’s the visitor who comes to find that we’re not what he or she thought. A great headline followed by something less doesn’t win. It doesn’t even finish.

The most important thing is deliver — do what we say we’re going to do.


Click image to see complete article from The Onion.

If the content you deliver is easy to access, faster to enjoy or employ, and adds value and meaning to a visitor’s life, you can bet that visitors will be glad they came and ready to come back. Easier, faster, more meaningful is irresistible. That’s a fact.

Great headline, lame blog post — who wants to deal with that? You’ve been there. What’s your response when you end up on one of those?

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Take Readers on Your Travels

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You love to travel and want to put pen to words, be it before summer ends or down the road.

If you’ve thought of creating a travel blog, it is probably easier than making your travel plans, packing up the suitcase, and making sure you have a good time.

In order to craft a good travel blog to draw in readership on a regular basis, have a few basics in place.

Content, Content, Content

First, review different travel portals online to see how others do it, what to avoid, and what niche you may be able to fill that readers could be missing.

Whether your travels take you not too far from home or halfway around the world, the goal of any quality travel blog is to make readers feel like they’re along for the ride with you.

In order to have your blog followed regularly, the first and most important aspect is providing regular content.

While you’re probably not going to be able to afford to travel every month (unless you do it for a profession), a blog that is sparingly updated stands much less of a chance of gaining a regular following.

The next and most obvious factor is having a clean looking blog that is grammatically correct, flows nicely, has attractive pictures, and makes the reader feel like they’re part of the journey.

While your writing tone should be informative and to the point, don’t make it out to be an instruction manual. We travel for the simple purpose of getting away and enjoying new experiences or rekindling old memories, so keep the tone of the blog enjoyable.

It sounds rather obvious, but it is important to maintain a travel journal during your journeys so that you can look back and pinpoint items to a rather exact science. Hopefully your travels involve lots of fun activities, so recording them for posterity will make it easier when you begin to blog.

 

Adventures in Life

When traveling down the blogging road, be sure to engage your readers in your adventures. If your readers comment or ask questions about your journeys on the blog, be sure to respond in kind.

Another plus to writing a travel blog is that it can lead to new friendships with others who also like to set sail on new adventures. In some instances, you might actually find new travel partners to share journeys with. Sharing blogging information is also a plus, as travel bloggers can promote each other’s sites, therefore leading to more readers.

While travel bloggers should not expect to make a fortune or even any money early on with their sites, there is potential to profit from one’s journeys.

Assuming that your travel expenses are not going to come easily, making some money off of a travel blog can help assist in covering some of those costs.

In closing, a travel blog should be done in order to convey your travels to others and share the good times that traveling can bring.

Update the blog regularly, engage in conversation with readers, and make the experience one that is fun and doesn’t seem like a job.

If you follow those basic rules, your travels and writing about them will be a vacation.

Photo credit: freetraveltime.com

Dave Thomas is an expert writer on items like call center services and is based in San Diego, California.  He writes extensively for an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs at Resource Nation.

Optimal Elements: Two Column Blogs

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A Guest Post by Louise Baker

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Let’s face it – there’s no aspect about your blog that is more important in the long run than its design. No matter how good your content, no one is going to want to read your blog if they can’t get past the design. As blogging becomes more mainstream and advanced, design elements are becoming more and more flexible, allowing people to do whatever their imagination desires in terms of their blogs’ layout. Unfortunately, this has led many bloggers taking the route of overcrowding their design. Two column blogs are considered to be the most streamlined and clean type of design, and there are many tweaks that can be made in order to optimize this layout.

Designing a two column blog is all about working as clean as possible. Blogs are like periodicals, and the idea behind this realm of design is to make the content as attractive looking and easy as possible to read, so as not to alienate any visitors. Since two column blogs are somewhat minimalist compared to 3 column blogs, you have a much larger area to work with regarding content. This will allow you to mess with font sizes and photo layouts until you come up with what you feel works best. Finalizing a design is all about trial and error, and often comes down to personal opinion. Regardless, it helps to have a few associates or friends critique your layout.

Since two column layouts tend to have less sidebar room than other types of layouts, the framework itself forces you to be minimalist, which is a good thing. Instead of crowding your sidebars with widgets, comments and the like, make an effort to design them to be as clean as possible. There are other areas on your blog that you can sneak in a few widgets, but you should strive to keep your sidebars clean.

Remember that the most important part of your blog is the content, but the design will determine how the content is viewed. Choose fonts, sizes and other variables that really seem to stand out to the reader. The design is not meant to be focused on. In fact, its main goal is to let the content shine while helping out backstage. If your design is clean, your content will pop. Take this into consideration and your next blog will look clean and professional.

Here’s an example of a clean, well-designed two column blog.
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Louise Baker ranks online degrees for Zen College Life. She most recently wrote about the best colleges online.

Thanks, Louise. A clear path to information is so important to online learning sites.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Open Mic 7pm Chgo Time: Let's Talk About Things That Went Wrong!

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Yes the Mic Will Be on Tonight

Join Us Tonight

We”ll Laugh About This One Day . . . Right?

We can talk about blind date stories, most embarrassing moments, things we lost, cakes that went flat, glasses we sat on, times we got caught breaking the rules, something we forgot we were supposed to do, and whatever else comes up — even flamenco dancing.

Oh, and bring links about things that went wrong that you want to share!

The rules are simple — be nice.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?

What New Friends Have You Met and How Have You Made Life Easy for Them?

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Done these three things lately?

New links connect blogs. New relationships connect people.

New people can add dimension and depth to your thinking and your ideas.

What new friends have you met lately? How have you made getting to know your blog easy for them? Here are three things you might do to get the ball rolling.

  1. Find a new blog in your niche to follow. New blogs are new people with new points of view. Join their discussion by leaving meaningful comments and trackbacks. Every discussion offers an opportunity to learn something new from.
  2. Check your sidebar. Make sure your sidebar is friendly to new arrivals who want to take a tour. Showing your readers where to find things is advertising.
  3. Organize your archives as your readers would want them, and make a Popular Posts page. Ask your readers how they use your archives. Try to use them yourself to see how they actually work. Take the time to put your most popular articles in one place where new readers can find them as soon as they arrive at your blog.

New friends who feel at home usually come back to visit again.

UPDATE: I am updating this post as part of my response to comments 11-13. Carma this is a post reference that I am linking back to your blog through a trackback. This should show up in your comments for the post called Make New Friends with Trackback.

This is the URl for that page http://karmasword.blogspot.com/2007/03/make-new-friends-with-trackback.html I got there by clicking the time 9:22A.M. (when you posted that post) under your blog. I copied the URL from my browser’s address bar to use it to make the link in my post here.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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For more on how to think like your readers see Customer Think on the Successful Series page.
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