How to Get Your Blog Posts Read: The Five Triggers
Guest blog post by Andrianes Pinantoan. Andrianes is a staff writer for Open Colleges, an Australian education provider of TAFE courses.
Did you know that one new blog is created every second?
In the old days of journalism, there were few channels: newspapers, magazines and local newsletters. But when the internet hit the world in the 1990s, everyone and their grandmas started producing content for the world to read.
The emergence of online blogs is a boon in many ways, but it did being with it one major drawback: information overload. Coupled with an increasingly time-poor population, it’s no wonder that your blog is largely ignored – even if your content is undoubtedly engaging and useful.
So how do you break through the clutter and get your posts read? By paying attention to five triggers. Continue reading
Pitching Your Work to Bloggers: 6 Tips for Getting the Attention You Deserve
You’ve poured your heart into your latest work – be it a blog post, an eBook, or an online class. And it’s really, really good. But it’s not getting the attention or traffic you know it deserves.
Is it time to try a bit of – gulp – self promotion?
A colleague recently asked this question.
“An essay of mine was published in my city’s alt weekly,” Laura Laing wrote on a writers’ forum I frequent. “It was a really tough essay to write, and I’ve gotten a really fantastic response. But to be frank, I’d like more people to read it.”
Laura said she knew of some relevant blogs that might link to her story. But she feared that promoting herself might cross a line.
As a blogger, I’ve been on the receiving end of pitches like hers. And I love sharing suggested resources with my readers. That said, I also throw a lot of pitches in the trash. So to answer Laura’s question – promote away! Just be smart about it.
Here’s how: Continue reading
Why Web-Friendly Writing Matters: A Tale of Teen Pregnancy & Petty Theft
Last Friday, a New York Times article popped up in my Twitter feed: “How Companies Learn Your Secrets.” As a marketer, I’m interested in how companies collect consumer data. So I clicked through to the article.
I read the first sentence. And then I left.
C’mon, you’ve done it too. You’ve clicked on a titillating headline, discovered nine pages (nine!) of text-heavy content, and you realized that checking Facebook was suddenly very, very important.
But one journalist looked at those nine pages of text, and saw opportunity.
Kashmir Hill repackaged the nine-page article into a web-friendly morsel for Forbes.com. She titled her blog post “How Target Figured Out a Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did.”
And with that blog post, she captured 1,304,291 page views in a single week. Continue reading
Free 55-Page eEbook: “The Small Business Blogging Blueprint”
“I’d like to create a blog, but I don’t know where to start.”
“I don’t have the technical skills to build a blog.”
“I have a business blog, but it doesn’t get any traffic!”
Sound familiar? As a marketing consultant, I’ve heard countless versions of these statements. Each week I meet more small business owners who want to start a business blog, but something gets in their way.
Lack of time. Lack of knowledge. Lack of a plan.
Why I Wrote About Blogging for Business
I, too, struggled with these problems when starting my first business blog in 2007. I had to focus not just on blog creation and maintenance, but on:
• Getting blog traffic
• Capturing customer leads
• Making sales
I read every blog book I could get my hands on. But most were outdated, and none addressed how blogging could grow my business. So I spent two long years in trial and error, testing out one technique and abandoning it for another until I discovered exactly what worked.
And let me tell you: you’d be amazed by all the blogging advice that’s just plain wrong. Hiding keywords at the bottom of every page, for example – while that may have gotten you search traffic in 1997, it could get you blacklisted from Google today. Continue reading
