Blogging for Dummies – How to Write Irresistible Blog Posts
Anyone and everyone out there can create their own blog, but once you get started, how do you attract readers? When it comes to blogging for dummies, writing irresistible blog posts is truly where it’s at. This is your opportunity to establish your identity as a blogger, attract readers, and make sure that they stay loyal to your specific blog. Here are some simple tips for your success in blogging for dummies:
- Write in a conversational tone. Blogging is a personal web diary, so people want to hear exactly what you have to say. If you would normally talk with a little bit of slang, that’s great to add to your blog so that readers can get to know you. The only exception to this would be if you have an informative blog related to research topics, which you will want to present in a professional light. Use your judgment, but also allow your readers to get to know you.
- See the bigger picture. Blogs can be posted on a daily basis, so make sure to connect one post to the next for all of your regular readers. If you begin by talking about one specific subject, like politics, make sure to connect it to other posts to attract a loyal following. Repeat visitors are what will create a sense of community in your blog, so remember to cater to them so that they will want to come back and follow what you are saying.
- Focus on an attention-getting headline. In the same way that you would pick up a magazine or newspaper based on a headline, irresistible blog posts come from catchy titles that will grab people’s attention. As a rule of thumb, people absolutely love “How To” or “Best of” type posts. Whenever you approach a subject matter, consider a way to make it into a list compilation, which people will be more likely to read because it is easy to reference and understand.
- Use images as often as possible. In blogging for dummies, consider using helpful and on topic images. The bottom line is that images give an aesthetic view to your blog, attracting the reader even more. A simple attractive image will complete the look of your blog, and it is even more helpful to include several images if you are doing a tutorial or instructional series. This is something that people will bookmark and continue to come back to as an irresistible blog post!
Guest post author info:
Chuggin McCoffee is a coffee fanatic that has spent the entirety of his career cultivating and studying all of the best uses and brewing styles for optimal coffee and espresso flavor. His specialty site for all coffee needs, supplies, and commercial coffee makers can be found at http://www.thecoffeebump.com
Your comments are welcomed!
How do you write blog posts? Leave your input below. Speak up!
Affiliate Blogging Tips from Ex Million-Dollar Business Owner Erica Douglass at Erica.biz
Did you ever have the feeling the so called “gurus” teaching you how to make money online are actually regurgitating stuff they’ve heard from others?
Did you know that most “experts” are nothing but theoreticians? The majority never made the money they promise to teach you [e.g. thousands overnight, or six figures a year]
Today’s interview features Erica Douglass …
Right-click here to get a PDF printer-friendly version
of this interview and read it offline!
I got impressed with reading her success story. At the age of just 26 she sold her business for a whopping $1.100.000.00. And now she’s ready to teach you how to jump-start your business.
You can now safely take affiliate blogging lessons from someone who’s been there, done that.
Please introduce yourself to our readers…
I’m Erica Douglass. After selling my online business at age 26 for $1,100,000.00, I “retired” and chose to teach you how to jump-start your business.
I blog great free online business tips every week at erica.biz, and I am also blogging about myself, my new startup, and starting a business on a budget.
When, how and why did you get started with blogging @ Erica.biz ?
I became financially successful at a young age, having sold my web hosting company for $1,100,000.00 at age 26. (But it wasn’t an easy road — as I talk about in The End of An Era.)
After I sold my business, many people started asking me how I became so successful. I felt I needed an answer, and I honestly wasn’t sure, so I started erica.biz as an exploration into how anyone could become successful.
How long did it take you to get you to where you are now, and what would you say to our readers who are already tired and frustrated of not seeing any results from their blogging?
I bought the domain name erica.biz in December 2007 and migrated my blog to that domain. At the time, I had about 70 subscribers. Now, just two years later, I have over 8,000 subscribers and am well along the way to reaching my next goal of 20,000 subscribers in 2010.
You have to get your name out there and write well if you want to see big success in blogging. Those are the two keys. Take a new slant on a topic; write something controversial that you believe strongly in; do something crazy in your life and document it…these all work really well to drive traffic to your blog.
The best advice I can offer is: Be interesting. Then write about it.
What are the TOP areas I should concentrate on in affiliate blogging?
Work on creating relationships with your readers to find out what products they want and then either create or join forces with the people who create the best products in that area. The key is to only promote products you truly believe will be beneficial to your audience.
Do you have a formula for attracting traffic to Erica.biz?
I use guest posting to drive massive waves of traffic to my blog.
What would you say is the one most important thing you’ve learned about blogging?
It takes time and persistence to make a successful blog. No one is an overnight success in this industry.
What’s the biggest mistake you made getting started in affiliate blogging?
Promoting small ticket items that make me a few pennies or dollars per purchase. In my opinion, the real money is in thoroughly promoting bigger-ticket items with how-to videos and detailed posts on why those products are worthwhile. It’s the difference between making $0-$100 with one blog post and making $1300+. Let me tell you, those $1300+ checks are so great to get!
A second mistake was picking affiliate partners that weren’t reputable. Be careful—some people won’t pay you for sales you make. When getting started, make sure to ask around and ensure that their other affiliates are getting paid—or use ClickBank, LinkShare, or Commission Junction (or another third-party affiliate network) so that you’re guaranteed to get paid.
Never assume—even some well-known marketers or people you know personally will not pay you!
So how do you make money online with your blog?
I sell my own products (such as Guest Post Secrets) in addition to a few selected affiliate products that I personally endorse. Hint – use coupon code CODRUT to bring the price down to $47 ($20 off!)
What tools and resources would you say are essential to affiliate blogging?
I use GoCodes to generate /go/ links on my blog for free…so if someone in person asks me about a product I recommend, I can scribble a quick affiliate link for them on a piece of paper. It also makes affiliate links look clean on my blog. It’s a free plugin for WordPress.
Tell us more about your free ebook – My Blog Success Manifesto – why should one sign-up for it – and what it delivers – plus, what list building plans do you have for the near future?
I may be a bit biased, but I believe this is the best free guide I have ever seen to growing your blog quickly. I spent over a year studying Internet marketing and psychology and applying it to my blog. While there are no backhanded or otherwise “evil” tips here, many of these tips may be surprising to even top bloggers.
Just four of the over thirty tips in Blog Success Manifesto…
- Tip #27 (page 54) — Just imagine doubling your daily new blog subscribers by implementing one simple tweak…that takes only 10 minutes! That’s exactly what happened to me. I explain in detail; read the book and implement this tip right away for immediate effect.
- Tip #13 (page 25) — How do you advertise products you like on your blog without becoming a “marketer”, and without getting snide comments about how you’re “selling out”? I show you exactly how I make hundreds of dollars with a single blog post without alienating readers.
- Tip #16 (page 30) — How would you like a huge wave of hundreds of new subscribers in a few days — as often as you want? You can be instantly successful with this tactic; the first time I did it, I received a quick 5,000-visitor boost and over 150 new subscribers in just three days!
- Tip #26 (page 51) — The “secret” asset that even many top bloggers don’t take advantage of, that will light the way to recurring, passive income every month.
The book is a quick read, professionally designed, and well worth your short time investment. If you implement just a few of these tips, you should see your blog become more popular quite quickly.
Download your free copy of my Blog Success Manifesto now!
Thank you for sharing your blogging advice with us.
P.S. If you have any questions or suggestions on today’s interview, comment below [I want to hear from you]…
For more affiliate blogging interviews, click here…
3 Affiliate Click Getting Tips that Always Work
There are two types of affiliate marketers. A few “select” can get people click on their links [and spend money with them], while the rest hope it would happen [and in 9 out of 10 cases, it won't...]
Which one are you?
Do you know how to get readers click on your affiliate links more often?
Can you do that without sounding desperate or hype?
Most wannabe affiliates are using the regular “click here”, “check this out” or “download this product” call to action.
We live in a world full of contrasts. If everybody else is using the same methods to getting clicks, do you think it’ll work forever?
How do you stand out in the crowd? How do you make sure you get the click, and not your competitors?
Today, we run in a very competitive world. And the Internet is fiercer. You win, or you lose.
Everywhere you look around you’ll see your message [call to action] swimming in a pool full of other “me too” messages.
Whenever you send out a Twitter alert, an email to your list, a blog post to your readers, or whatever, your message to get the click can’t stand on its own, unless it’s remarkable.
If you want people click your links and spend money with you, follow these three simple affiliate click getting tips:
#1 – Get out of the “me too” circle
Avoid using standard call to action formulas. Stand out in the crowd. There’s no other option.
#2 – Write RED messages
A RED message is what I call a “STOP and CLICK ME” call to action. Let me give you an example
Awhile ago I submitted an article to EzineArticles database and had this call to action at the bottom
“You might want to check out these 127 winning advertising headlines.”
The call to action [hyperlinked text] was … 127 winning advertising headlines
There’s no “click here”, “download now”, or “check this out” clickable words in there.
#3 – Spy your competitors
Some of the best call to action messages that brought me a ton of clicks and made more money than before were those that I “learned” from my competitors.
Your competitors don’t have to be in the same niche or industry as you are. I usually like to go out there in totally non related niches, and spy on how other professionals are writing their emails and call to action messages. Then I adapt them to my own marketing.
How about you? How do you get the click?
Post your comments right away, your feedback counts!
P.S. In upcoming post, I talk about an affiliate “breakthrough” that helps newbies go from $0 to $300, and from $300 to $3,000… without AdWords! Stay tuned!
This Blogging Mistake Could Cost You a Fortune
Bloggers are generally different than Internet marketers. Bloggers are typically known as those people who often update their blogs with new posts, whereas Internet marketers may only update their blogs once in a while.
The other BIG point of difference between bloggers and Internet marketers is that bloggers may or may not be building an email list, while ALL Internet marketers (at least those who know what they’re doing) are CONSISTENTLY building an email list.
Having been in the online business field for more than 3 years now, I dare to say that if you’re not building your list, you’re losing out A LOT!
Actually, to put it bluntly: NOT building an email list is a blogger’s BIGGEST mistake!
When I say this, bloggers typically counter with excuses saying that they have RSS feeds which their visitors can subscribe to so that whenever they update their blogs, these visitors will know about it and hence revisit their blogs.
While that is true, it is important to realize that NOT everyone uses an RSS reader. On the other hand, if you’re talking about email, then I’m 100% sure everyone has an email address.
In addition, the purpose of visitors subscribing to your RSS feed is so that they get to know whenever there is a new post on your blog. If there is no new post, then you CAN’T and have no reason to contact them.
With an email list, however, you can contact them AT WILL even if there are no new post on your blog.
The advantages of building an email list are:
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1. The ability to FOLLOW UP with visitors who have given you their email address.
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It takes MULTIPLE exposures (at least 7 times) before a person is going to buy from a COMPLETE STRANGER.
Even if you don’t have your own product to sell, you can still follow up with them MULTIPLE TIMES to sell them a related affiliate product.
If you don’t have their email address, how are you going to expose your offer or your affiliate offer multiple times to them? Do you expect them to remember you and come back to your blog tomorrow or a few days later?
Forget it! They’ll NEVER, EVER come back. The Internet is filled with blogs like yours, so why should they remember you and come back again?
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2. The ability to contact them EASILY at ANYTIME for WHATEVER reason
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Okay, “WHATEVER” is probably not the most appropriate word to use.
My point is that you can contact your email subscribers whenever you want and let them know about your new blog post, or to let them know about the special discount for your new product (or affiliate product) that will last for only 48 hours, etc.
And you can let them know EASILY simply by sending them an email.
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3. You LEVERAGE your effort and time
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When you build an email list, you are ACCUMULATING your database of prospects and customers OVER TIME.
Sure you may only get 5 subscribers per day.
Guess what – a year later, you’ll have 1825 subscribers.
You have spent so much time and effort in driving visitors to your blog. It would be a waste if you just let your visitors go like that without even trying to capture their email address.
For example, let’s say you write 10 articles and submit them to article directories. You get 20 visitors today because of these articles you’ve written 2 weeks ago.
To get another 20 visitors, you’d have to write another 10 articles again. If I didn’t write more articles, then I don’t get any new visitors.
However, if I had captured the email address of these visitors when they first landed on my blog, I can contact them again AT WILL without having to write more articles.
I’m LEVERAGING my effort and time by building an email list.
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4. The ability to build DEEPER and BETTER relationships with your audience
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Because you can contact your subscribers anytime you wish, you can build DEEPER and BETTER relationships with them.
You can email them telling a little about yourself and how you got started in whatever you’re doing. Don’t be afraid to share your personal story. People like to read and listen to story. Using story is a VERY POWERFUL way to hold people’s interests.
(one POWERFUL tip: be sure to tell your STORY at the BEGINNING of your autoresponder messages because you need to let them know who you are VERY EARLY so that they’ll be more receptive towards you and your offers in the very near future…)
Over the next few days, you educate them by giving away tips and tricks, and potential pit holes in your industry. Be sure to mix them up with some sales pitches so that you make money as well.
If you’re currently not building an email list of your own YET, then NOW is the time to do start building one.
Not today. Not tomorrow.
But NOW!
Remember, RSS feeds won’t do the job. You MUST be prepared in building your list NOW!
I’d love to hear your thoughts, so be sure to leave them in comment below…
Author Resource:
FREE Cheat Sheet “This Is How You REPLACE YOUR JOB On The Internet…” Is Finally Available For The Average Beginner. Click Here Now To INSTANTLY Claim Your FREE Cheat Sheet And Learn How To Make Money On The Internet.
