Writing by Brick Marketing on Monday, 17 of March , 2008 at 6:21 am Leave a comment
Preparing blog content can be difficult, particularly if you are trying to write a post everyday or even harder, trying to write a couple of posts each day. There are a couple of key points that make the preparation of your blog content just a little easier.
Format
Write in an easy-to-read light style. Blog readers have developed a reading style of their own. Don’t bother with long sentences or large paragraphs. Keep everything short and to the point. Your finished copy should be easily scanned. Articles should be between 300 and 700 words max. The ideal size is around 500 words.
Style
It seems the preferred font for reading blogs is Sans-Serif and the size at 10 or 12 points. Any smaller and it is too much of a strain. Any larger and you are shouting. White space is another key preference. Small paragraphs create their own natural white space.
Delivery
Writing blog content that can be scanned quickly means delivering the content in nice neat little chunks. Bullet or numbered points are easily scanned. Small paragraphs with headings (as I have done with this post) also make for quick reading.
Keywords
Placing keywords in the article title are almost a must now. The keyword you use is also the ‘keyword’ for attracting your readers. For a 500 word article, you need only use the keyword six or seven times for SEO effect. Don’t fill the article with your keywords - keep the content interesting.
When preparing your content the most important thing to remember is why you are writing and who you are writing for. Don’t fall into the trap of saying I write for myself. If that is the case., why publish on a blog? You are writing for the general population.
Keep the articles user friendly, don’t fill them with keywords or long technical words. Keep the article as simple and straight forward as possible - but don’t dumb it down. You need to provide good blog content, not dumb blog content.
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Category: Blog Content
Writing by Brick Marketing on Friday, 7 of March , 2008 at 1:26 am Leave a comment
Sometimes it can be difficult to come up with good quality fresh blog content each and every day. One solution is to use the occasional guest writers. The difficulty is knowing where to find them.
I know several blogs that advertise for guest writers however this option is fraught with several difficulties. The major difficulty is telling someone that you do not require their services (because you don’t consider their quality, experience or knowledge good enough). If you don’t handle this correctly you risk alienating them and any of their followers. The best way to handle this situation is use the ‘little white lie’ philosophy and advise them that you have already found sufficient writers.
Rather than advertising, there are two options that are far better. The first is to look at those that are advertising themselves as guest writers. You can visit their blog, look at the quality of their articles and get an understanding of their knowledge and skills.
The second method is to visit blogs that you enjoy reading and ask them if they would be willing to write a guest blog. If you use any of the social widgets that show your visitors then check out those that visit regularly. They obviously have an interest in your blog content and if they write in a similar genre then they may be quite happy to write a guest post for you.
There are several benefits to using guest writers. First the guest writer provides some degree of importance to your blog. Other think your blog is important enough to write a guest post on. For the author, they have their name and blog URL placed onto another site providing free links and exposure.
One of the biggest benefits is freshness that a guest writer can bring to your blog. I like guest writers that are a little controversial, who don’t mind speaking out. It creates an online conversation and of course they can be as controversial as they like, it is not you making the statements. You can often ‘feed’ of this type of post for several days with comments and follow up posts of your own.
A guest writer can be a great asset to your blog content providing a different perspective, a change in direction and a little controversy. All good for the continued life of your blog.
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Category: Blog Content
Writing by Brick Marketing on Tuesday, 26 of February , 2008 at 10:14 am Leave a comment
Does your blog content planning include pillar posts? Do you have a clear idea of what a pillar post is? Pillar post are, as the name suggests, posts that support the whole structure of a blog. They are the kind of posts that people will reference time and again and are generally written to the following format.
- They are articles with a definite structure in that they include an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.
- They are usually longer than your average articles running to 700 or more words.
- Readers find the articles valuable and feel they benefit from the articles contents.
- The article is not only original it is fresh and demonstrates the authors expertise on the topic.
- The article remains valuable for a longer period of time.
- These articles are well researched and include referencing and other relevant links.
Pillar posts are important to your blog content as it increases your standing as a writer within the blogging community. You will know if your readers consider it a pillar post as it generally receives more attention in the social community through Diggs, Stumbles and other recommendations. Your pillar post will generally have the more inbound links than other articles within your blog content.
When it comes to your blog content you need a pillar post and it is handy to be able to write one on a regular basis. Just don’t over do it.
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Category: Blog Content
Writing by Brick Marketing on Saturday, 23 of February , 2008 at 8:12 am Leave a comment
There are many blog and website services provider in the market place now. What features do you look for before buying their services.
The first and most important feature to look for is the level of expertise in the services they offer. Some services providers claim a high level expertise but unless they can back these claims up with evidence, generally in the form of a portfolio of successful clients, then tread warily.
The second feature, whilst not truly a feature, is price. Cheap is not always best, in fact it rarely is. The lower the price the lower the level of service - it is a simple matter of economics. If your are offering a service that requires a high level of expertise from a team then low fees indicate either a small team or a lack of dedicated resources.
The major features to consider are of course the services themselves. Do they offer web hosting? Price again is important here - cheap hosting invariably leads to cheap service - frequent down times and little support. When it comes to web hosting, you get what you pay for.
Other features include web design, content writing, directory and search engine submission, SEO, blog and/or website marketing and an ongoing help program.
Providers such as Brick Marketing not only offer a comprehensive range of blog and website services, they have the expertise to see your project through from start to finish. Brick Marketing also have a wide range of blog and website services to assist you in the ongoing development of your blog or website.
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Category: Blog Content, Blog Design, Blog Marketing, Blog SEO, Blog and Website Services
Writing by Brick Marketing on Friday, 15 of February , 2008 at 6:41 am Leave a comment
When planning your blog content, do you write naturally, or do you plan for a particular audience? There is nothing wrong with either style, however, if you write to a particular audience, how effective are you.
If your blog content is aimed towards a particular social media audience, do you write for one particular outlet, or do you write in the hope of targeting them all? Each outlet has a particular leaning. Skellie wrote a post on Problogger today that pretty much summed up the target areas for blog content on Digg Del.icio.us and StumbleUpon.
……Each service likes certain types of content and dislikes others. Digg likes mass appeal. Del.icio.us likes anything its users like, but an item won’t go popular unless the source page gets thousands of hits.
If you’re in a niche without mass appeal, SU can help you where the other services won’t. Digg’s categories are deliberately broad to avoid diluting its power to send waves of traffic……
If you are writing to target these social bookmarking sites then you need to have a thorough understanding of what is required.
Where I do take issue with this philosophy is that it can be difficult to write to this market every day. Often it is more fruitful to write naturally on topics you understand and are completely comfortable with. Along the way you are going to have some good articles; some articles may be so so; and every now and then, an A++ article. When you strike that A++, you need to examine it carefully to see which social bookmarking site you can target, then fully optimize the article for that site. Hopefully you can then reap the benefit.
While waiting for that A++ article in your blog content, be active in each of your target social bookmarking sites. Promote the articles of other. They will come to appreciate your daily articles and when one of those articles shine, they will help promote it for. Try to get them to promote your post every day and they will become jaded and turn off.
Your blog content is very important. Your target audience is very important. It stands to reason that your blog content is written to satisfy you target audience.
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Category: Blog Content, Social Bookmarking
Writing by Brick Marketing on Sunday, 20 of January , 2008 at 1:04 am Comments (2)
Blog content is everything! At least that is what they tell me. Make sure you get a good quality post onto your site at least once a day. Some bloggers go into withdrawal if they cannot get at least one article posted everyday - sometimes two or three articles on the one day.
Content is “king”. If you do not provide the quality - you will not get the traffic. The question is - how often and how long? There are no hard and fast ‘rules’. You do not have to post ‘everyday’. You certainly do not have to post several time per day.
Obviously if you build a group of loyal readers then you do need to provide articles on a regular basis. We have started a new year and typical to the season many people have written about their ambitions for the year and what worked and what did not work during 2007.
There has been one common thread through out what did work. It seems that less and more are having positive effects. Confused. Let me clarify. Less posts per week. Longer more in-depth posts on a regular basis. It is making more sense now to post in moderation but ensure those posts are top quality. There are so many blogs in the blogosphere it it becoming impossible to visit each one every day. RSS and email subscriptions are growing. A good quality post four or five times per week is just as likely to maintain or grow your traffic and as a daily post.
Blog content IS king. Provide quality articles on a regular basis and your readership is assured.
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Category: Blog Content, Blog SEO
Writing by Brick Marketing on Monday, 14 of January , 2008 at 6:16 am Comments (1)
These WordPress tips can be used to present your blogs content using some attributes that are not present on the WordPress toolbar. To use these tips you will need to enter them through the code screen when creating your content.
You are probably familiar with the bold and italics attributes. You can also use strong or emphasized to highlight your text. Other attributes include big and small and superscript and subscript.
To get this effect use the following codes either side of the text you want to enhance.
<b> </b> for bold
<i> </i> for italics
<strong> </strong> for strong
<em> </em> for emphasized
<big> </big> for big
<small> </small> for small
<sup> </sup> for superscript
<sub> </sub> for subscript
One attribute that is a little more complicated is the horizontal rule that I have just used. It is good for breaking up topics within the one post. This code includes parameters such as ALIGNMENT - left, right and center. WIDTH - the length in pixels of the line and SIZE - the thickness in pixels. The noshade command determines whether or not the line is filled or hollow as sown below.The code for the above line is:
<hr align=”center” noshade=”0″ size=”4″ width=”400″ /> and for the line below:
<hr align=”center” size=”4″ width=”400″ /> (note the omission of the noshade)
Several points to note with this code. All the attribute parameters are inside double quotes. The tag, HR, is between the < and > - note the trailing / - this closes the tag.
A short word of warning. If you pride yourself on having 100% strict xhtml then do not use the HR tag as it is not supported. You should also check your formatting in both Internet Explorer and FireFox - there are times when what works in one will not work in the other.
For headings, use a heading tag. Note the closing tags at the end of the line - these must be used. The tags for these are <h1> </h1> through to <h6> </h6>. You will also need to take into account your themes CSS which is file of code that changes some of the attributes. The CSS for this theme has been altered to display the <h1> </h1> code in white (which does not work on a white background> so I have omitted the code from this list. Your template may well support the use of it.
heading 2
heading 3
heading 4
heading 5
heading 6
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Category: Blog Content, Blogging Tips, WordPress tips
Writing by Brick Marketing on Tuesday, 8 of January , 2008 at 8:45 am Comments (1)
Many organizations, both online and off line, are using blogs as a way to market their business. Your blogs content can be one of the most cost effective forms of marketing available. The following tips will help you create a blog that boosts your business and encourages your clients to come back, frequently.
- Provide reviews of your products or services. One of the benefits of using blog software such as WordPress is that you can create static pages. Write short reviews of products or services with links pointing to more in depth articles placed on static pages.
- Create staff profiles on static pages with links either from short articles or from within other articles. Customers often like to know who they are dealing with. Remember, when potential clients visit your website they do not get the same face-to-face contact that is available in an off line enterprises.
- Create ‘How To’ articles. How to articles help your clients get the best out of your product or services. Potential clients see the support that is available which may just make the difference between closing the sale or seeing them moving on to a rival.
- Develop a FAQ section based on client feedback. This can often save you time answering the same questions all the time.
- If you have off line store fronts or agents, write informative pages introducing each of those store fronts or agents including contact details.
- Use the blog as a record of news releases, company announcements or any other marketing activities. If you are running a competition, highlight it on the blog. Likewise if you are opening a new store or releasing a new product, use your blog to promote it.
The most important aspect is to place yourself in your clients shoes. If you were looking to buy, what information would like to have at hand? Keep your blogs content simple and straightforward. Ensure each article or page provides sufficient information without going overboard. Used effectively, your blogs content can boost your business and boost your client satisfaction levels.
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Category: Blog Content, Blog Marketing
Writing by Brick Marketing on Wednesday, 2 of January , 2008 at 8:04 am Leave a comment
It’s the new year and like most fearless forecasts, there are a lot of website predictions coming out like the 40 Plus 2008 Web Predictions presented by authors of ReadWriteWeb.
Here at BlogMarketingJournal, we are confident that the year 2008 will be a better year for bloggers and the blogosphere as a whole.
It will be a more fruitful blogging year for old and new bloggers alike. Here are BMJ’s Blog Predictions for 2008:
1. Blogging will be more lucrative than ever. Those who have just started with problogging can expect an improvement in pay per post.
2. More blogging jobs will be made available. More and more people will hire bloggers to post whether for personal or corporate blogs.
3.Blogging will become a household term. It will go more mainstream and the public will know more about blogging.
4. Bloggers will be the new media. Companies, agencies, and even media outfits will look to the opinions of bloggers as part of the new media. These companies have started to realize the power of blogs and bloggers and no one’s going to stop them now.
5. Bigger blogs like Engadget, Mashable, and TechCrunch will continue to grow making a fine line between new media and mainstream.
6. Smaller blogs will continue to have revenue no matter how small.
Now there. As compared to last year, blogs will be a bigger and better thing this year as the Internet world will realize the importance of social marketing.
So here’s to a successful 2008 blogging! Cheers! Blogging rules!
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Category: Blog Content, Blog Marketing, Social Bookmarking
Writing by Brick Marketing Staff on Friday, 28 of December , 2007 at 12:14 pm Leave a comment
I just received an e-mail with the subject line: “Kindle A New Flame With A Bigger Penis.” All jokes, aside, I’m pretty sure what the intended keyword was in that limp effort to attract my click. If you guessed “penis” then you’ve got the wrong thing on your mind. And if you said “flame” then shame on you (I hate to snuff out your fire, but …).
No, I’m reasonably sure that the primary keyword in that subject line is “kindle.” It could just have well been a blog post title, but it wasn’t.
I think “kindle” was the keyword for two reasons: First, its placement right at the beginning of the subject line makes it the most prominent word in the line. Secondly, the Kindle from Amazon is a very hot item right now. It’s just been released within the last six weeks and all the hype in e-books is all about the Kindle. I’m guessing that it was a very popular Christmas gift this year.
Spammers know that using keywords is important. They do their research. But they haven’t done quite enough research to figure out that trying to trick people into clicking your links by using irrelevant keywords isn’t going to get you any more business. Just because “kindle” is a popular keyword today doesn’t mean you can attract buyers for your widget by using the word in your titles as a double entendre. People are smarter than that.
Evidence shows that straightforward titles are better for getting people to read. As soon as they find out that your “kindle” isn’t the kind of kindle they had in mind, they’re off to set other bonfires. So, yes, put keywords in your blog post titles and use them in your blog posts, but don’t be tricky about it. And if it seems like I’ve broken my own rule in this post, just remember one thing: Just like some fires are meant never to be kindled, some rules are sometimes meant to be broken.
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Category: Blog Content
Writing by Brick Marketing on Monday, 24 of December , 2007 at 10:36 pm Comments (5)
Choosing a domain name for your new blog is just one thing. There’s still the hosting, SEO, content, and design to think about. It’s important to tackle each and every issue if you are ready to start a new blog, whether corporate or personal. DailyBits’ Steven Ward wrote an interesting list of 8 Bad Decisions When Starting a Website. The items included in the list may seem basic but a lot of webmasters completely forget about them.
So here they are. I called them “8 No So Wise Decisions” because really, forgetting about them is just not so wise.
1. Free or Cheap Web Hosting. Low cost hosting will bring you to hell Frequent downtimes? Low bandwidth? Goodluck!
2. Not Buying a Domain Name. Read Why Domain Names Matter.
3. Not Getting the Right Domain Name. Review the 7 Highly Effective Domain-name Habits.
4. Designing Exclusively for Search Engines. SEO, SEO, and SEO. It’s all about optimization baby! Try to get noticed by Google.
5. Prioritizing the Look Over the Content. Content is still king. What’’s the point of having a really cool flash-based blog if your content is so-so?
6. Forgetting About the Target Market. On a niche? Stick to it.
7. Poor Navigation. Please, don’t confuse your readers with fancy navigations. It’s just pointless. Help them by pointing them to the right page easily.
8. Ineffective Keyword Targeting. As part of good optimization efforts, learn to target the right keywords.There are lots of keyword research tools out there that could help you find the more popular keywords.
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Category: Blog Content, Blog Design, Blog Marketing, Blog Metrics, Blog SEO, Blog and Website Services, Blogging Tips
Writing by Brick Marketing on Saturday, 22 of December , 2007 at 1:46 pm Leave a comment
I was tempted to write “domaining” in the title but it doesn’t fully describe what I want to say. By domaining we mean. the process of selling or buying domain names. But issue here is choosing how to choose the right domain for a highly successful blog, so I called it domain-naming.
Now that you know domain names matter, it’s time to learn how to identify a good domain name when you see one. Daniel Scocco writes about the 7 Characterics of Good Names and here they are:
1. They are short. The shorter the domain name the better.
2. They are easy to remember. People tend to just memorize domains.
3. They are easy to spell. Do not give them reason to misspell your domain names.
4. They have a .com extension .Go with the most popular extension
5. They are descriptive. Give your visitors idea what your website is about at a glance.
6. They are brandable . People will associate your website with the brand and with the content, product, or service.
7. They don’t contain hyphens or numbers. Such are cheaper for a reason.
Daniel said that “a good domain name will be the corner stone of your website’s success” and I agree. Why do you think Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, or Multiply made it big in the Web 2.0 era?
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Category: Blog Content, Blog Marketing, Blog and Website Services
Writing by Brick Marketing on Thursday, 20 of December , 2007 at 11:00 am Comments (1)
We’ve already heard of ways to get links to your blog. Now, you’ll read about simple effective tips to finding readers for your blogs. Sure you may have a million of backlinks already but you’re reader meter is still not improving. What’s the point of having lots of websites linking to you if people don’t patronize your blog?
Darren Rowse of problogger.net wrote on the topic of finding readers for your blog. Since I’m in the mood for giving away blogging tips that have helped me further my blogging, here are another set of tips you can also find useful:
Tips to Finding Readers for Your Blog by Problogger Darren Rowse:
1. It takes time. Be patient. Every tree takes awhile to grow.
2. Quality Content and Good Design. Post timely and relevant content always.
3. Link to others . Be generous with your linklove.
4. Comment on others’ blogs. Show other bloggers that you are alive.
5. Interact with Readers. Be friendly. Don’t be a geek.
6. Update frequently. Four entries in 3 months will leave your few readers uninterested.
7. Search engines . Gotta love Google…and well okay, Yahoo, and MSN, and etc.
8. Add a signature to your outgoing email. This always works.
9. Web Rings . Join blog groups and networks that share the same interest as you.
10. Add an RSS feed to your blog . More and more people now trust their feed readers for updates. Why not join the bandwagon?
11. List your site on Portals . Think classified ads.
12. Blog Search Engines and Indexes . Same tip no. 7.
13. Get Involved in others Blog Projects. Volunteer your blog and talents for a cause.
14. Get involved in other web forums . Forums are another area of live discussion. Don’t ignore them. Make friends with the active members.
15. Take all advice with a grain of salt - Be yourself and have fun! . Enough said.
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Category: Blog Content, Blog Design, Blogging Tips
Writing by Brick Marketing on Tuesday, 18 of December , 2007 at 11:20 am Leave a comment
Now that you’re getting to know more and more about blog marketing, I guess its time that you learn the value of backing up. Much like your PCs and laptops, it is important that you back up your blog database because you’ll never know what could happen. Your WordPress blog database for example contains all your entries, comments, and links that you have gathered throughout the years of blogging and you simply can’t afford to have them deleted just like that — kaput in an instant!
Backing up your blog must be done regularly, the same way you back up your important files. You know what could happen if you don’t—all your entries and photos sent to oblivion. You’ll never know when your web hosting server will crash or your blog gets hacked by some clever programmer whose only goal is to annoy you, so it’s good to be prepared.
Don’t wait until a series of unfortunate events happens to you blog. Get into the habit of backing up by following these simple and easy steps. No, you don’t need to be a geek to do this.
- Use an FTP client to download all the site files (the Wordpress folder)
- Log into phpMyAdmin and select your Wordpress database
- Click on “Export” and make sure that all the Wordpress tables are there
- On the “Structure” section tick “Add Drop Tables,” “Add AUTO_INCREMENT,” and “Enclose table and field names with backquotes”
- On the “Data” section leave all the boxes unticked
- Tick “Save as file” and download the database (you can use compression if your database is big (SOURCE: DailyBlogTips)
If you don’t have access to your WP’s phpMyAdmin, you may use the Database Backup plugin instead. And remember, backing up habits can save your online life. So save the blog, save yourself,save the world.
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Category: Blog Content, Blog Plugins, Blogging Tips, WordPress tips
Writing by Brick Marketing on Monday, 17 of December , 2007 at 1:19 am Leave a comment
Michael Stelzner recently came out with his list of 2007/2008’s Top 10 Blogs for Writers. I told you, lists as blog entries always work. I am not really sure how he ranked the blogs but I agree with some of his choice. Copyblogger for one, is a personal favorite because it presents timely writing tips in this age of Web 2.0 gearing to Web 3.0.
With or without SEO or linkbuilding in mind, blog writing is somewhat different from journalistic. Now thanks to these talented writers who share the same passion in blogging as I do.
Top 10 Blogs for Writers by Michael Stelzner:
1. Copyblogger, by Brian Clark: Holding the number-one spot for the second year running, this site excels at teaching the art of writing.
2. Freelance Writing Jobs, by Deborah Ng: For writers seeking new work, this site is your sole destination and maintains a top spot in our contest from last year.
3. The Renegade Writer, by Linda Formichelli and Dianna Burell: Are you a freelance journalist looking for inspiration? Look no further.
4. Web Content Writer Tips, by James Chartrand and Harrison McLeod: With a focus on making more money as a writer, this blog is full of helpful how-to articles.
5. Web Writing Info, by Courtney Ramirez: This excellent blog looks at social networking and emerging web-based opportunities for writers.
6. The Golden Pencil, by Anne Wayman: Wayman, a second-year winner, examines how to go for the gold as a freelance writer.
7. Catalystblogger, by Jennifer Williamson: Williamson writes about the pains and trials writers face.
8. Freelance Parent, by Lorna Doone Brewer and Tamara Berry: Two moms provide excellent perspective on writing with a dash of parenting.
9. Write from Home, by Amy Derby: Derby provides fresh commentary and advice on writing.
10. Copywriter Underground, by Tom Chandler: This site, a second-year winner, provides regular doses of inspiration for copywriters.
Now there, this for me is a comprehensive list already for those who wish to improve their writing and problogging career. Notice that 6 out of 10 are women? Does this mean that women are the greater bloggers? Hmmm…quite a good topic for discussion.
Anyway, congratulations to the winners! And here’s to hoping that someday, blogmarketingjournal.com will land somebody else’s Top 10s.
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Category: Blog Content, Blog Marketing, Blogging Tips
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