How To Increase Your Blogs Domain Authority

Domain authority is very important when building an online business especially when you want to generate organic traffic. For those of you NOT aware “domain authority” refers to the entire value of your domain as established over the years looking at such elements like size, age and link building patterns. It’s hard to manipulate simply because you are looking at so many factors which all have been combined, and make sense at the same time. I’m surprised at the amount of bloggers who don’t pay close attention to domain authority, and suffer in the long run. A high domain authority is a cool way to increase your worth quickly within the search engines increasing your organic traffic.

Today, we’ll be exploring domain authority, and what I’ve learned over the years regarding the importance it plays. I’ll like to discuss some practical ways to increase your authority so you start increasing your rankings within the SERP’s.

Let’s get started, and your feedback will be greatly appreciated.

On-Page SEO

All great websites start with a solid on-page SEO portfolio. Without it, you’re going to have a hard time getting noticed within the SERP’s, and even indexed by Google. The good news is that doing your on-page SEO is very easy because you have to focus around a few solid keywords. If you do a quick Google search, then you’ll be able to find enormous resources on how to do this correctly, however I’ll explain a bit right now so you can get started.

First, it’s important you have a handful of solid relevant keywords to work with. This will allow you to guide your on-page SEO better. Next, you have to worry about “3” areas of your on-page SEO:

• Title
• Description
• Keywords

When writing out your title it’s important you follow the character limitation. This number is usually around 60-65 characters, and must be relevant. It’s also very important because the text here gets displayed within search engine results so the more accurate, the higher chance of getting a click-through.

Secondly, the description also gets displayed within the search results, so it’s important this is as relevant as possible. I like to include relevant keywords which are popular because this increases the likelihood of a conversion. The keywords section is NOT that important, however it is optional to add some relevant keywords around 3-4.

Next,

Make sure you have switched your permalinks to “post name” if you are using WordPress. What does this do? It will show the title of your content within the URL, and this is extremely important when your site is getting indexed. The good news is you have added relevant keywords into your title so your URL should be relevant automatically.

Remove Poor Links to Your Site

This is very important especially after Google introduced algorithm updates which target poor links to your website. Many people tried to manipulate search results by bulk linking from poor quality sites to their pages, however this is NO longer something which helps with rankings. Google has become smarter, and knows high quality content always attracts high quality links. If you have an enormous amount of low quality backlinks to your site, then it’s time to remove them from your profile. Google has provided you with a tool to streamline this process, and it’s called the Disavow Tool. How does this work? Simple…

You go through your link profile using GWT (Google Webmaster Tools), and make a list of external backlinks which you feel are hurting your rankings. It’ll take some researching, but the end result can definitely help increase your overall domain authority. Once you have a collection of links you feel are hurting your domain authority, you can submit them to the Google Disavow tool using a .txt editor. Head over to Google search and do a quick search on this tool, and you’ll be able to find enormous tutorials which will guide you through the entire process.

Remember,

• Visit GWT to find the sites linking to your domain
• Use org to research these sites looking for quality score. If they are poor sites, then you know they’ll be hurting your domain authority.
• Do this every 2-3 months to ensure your link profile is as clean as possible
• Submit them to the Google Disavow Tool using your .txt editor
• For more information, search “Google Disavow”, and you’ll find a handful of tutorials which will help you get started.

Internal Linking Strategy

This is very important to help build the overall strength of your domain because you are pushing the authority of internal pages. Google has gotten smarter, and now ranks site which have a high overall score, and NOT just those with popular single pages. Why have they switched to this approach?

They switched because bloggers would build links to only one of their pages, and forget the rest of the website. They would write awesome content, publish it, then hope to rank that page to increase ROI. Google, over the years, because their very familiar with this approach now require a solid internal linking strategy, and external links to every page. This will ultimately increase the entire domain authority of the website. It’s a great way to ensure you don’t get penalized going forward, and continue to be an authority blog in the future. Here are some things to pay close attention to going forward:

First, make sure you write valuable content every time because this will increase the amount of linkable content on your site. The more value you provide the higher chance others will link to your blog. Secondly, each time you write it’s important you link out to some external sources because they get pinged whenever they have a new external link. They’ll MOST likely check out your website when they get alerted, and if they like your content they’ll link right back. The fact you linked out to an authority source means you’ll get an authority link back if they decide to do it.

Third, you want to make sure if you are building external links to your website that you build from authority sources. One of the best ways to get the right type of links from influential sites is to guest blog. This gives you an opportunity to write content on a relevant website, and link back to yours at the same time.

It’s an awesome strategy which I have been using for years.

Social Signals

Over the years, Google is finding new ways to rank content, and build domain authority. This means new marketing methods are becoming more dominant. For example, one of the best ways for Google to determine what domain is valuable is by looking at the social signals. The more people share a specific content the more value it obviously provides. Next, Google will give those with higher social signals privilege within the search results because it ultimately increases the user experience.

Next,

It’s important you target the right social networks because some might do harm rather than provide a benefit. For example, by targeting a poor social network you’ll find people who are simply trying to build a profile of followers to sell advertising space to. This means your content will be shared on poor quality sites which can lead to low quality links being sent to your page. Instead of helping your domain authority, it can cause it to decrease which is why Google now gives you an efficient way to remove toxic links. Here’s what I recommend you do going forward:

• Join the MOST popular social networks, and start building your profile. For example, add your company details, contact information, and some awesome posts. This way when people check out your profile they’ll see a business profile.
• Start adding people who are relevant to your niche because these are the type of people you want to get your content in front of…right?
• Don’t keep sharing just any type of content you publish, make sure it’s the best online. This increases the likelihood of some serious engagement.
• Keep building your profile, and you can sue some tools to help you tweet or share content so your profile stays active.

Social media has become very important, and Google knows this which is why they give enormous ranking authority to them. When you share content it’s a great way for other authority bloggers to find your content which encourages them to link back adding value to your domain authority.

Give It Time

After you have implemented the strategies above, it’s important you give the entire process time. Google will never rank your new website within a few weeks because you haven’t built your credibility yet. It takes around 3 months for your new links to get indexed and another few months to start building authority. It’s important you stick to the game plan because if you DON’T then you might give up right before you were going to see an enormous boost in your rankings.

Here are a few pointers:

• Post content frequently because Google uses freshness as a ranking factor
• Spread out your link building because this makes things look natural
• Always pay close attention to relevance
• Never use software or link-farms because these will destroy your domain authority.
• Stay focus on your end goal so you don’t lose sight of what’s important.

Final Thoughts

In the end, it’s important you have a solid domain authority because this adds value in all aspects. For example, when you have a high DA, bloggers want to link to your content, purchase from your website, and will trust your content as a valuable source of information. I’ll admit it does take time when you are first starting off to build this, but any serious blogger will tell you: If your serious about blogging, and passionate about your niche, then you have nothing to worry about. Here are a few things to do right now to get started:

First, read over this content and write out the elements you haven’t started to implement into your blog. Secondly, you need a way to track data so install Google analytics because they’ll provide everything you need to find out like what content is popular, where your audience is and the search queries.

Next,

You have to implement the strategies which are missing within your blogging or website because they’ll help increase your domain authority. Start by implementing the ones you can and keep track of how they improve your overall DA. It’s important to keep writing high quality content which is linkable because the more links you can get the higher chance of having your website indexed quicker. As mentioned, writing content more frequently is a great way for Google to index your content so keep a solid content writing schedule going.

You can log into GWT to look over your current link profile. After, use the Google Disavow tool to start removing links which are harmful so you can build a solid high quality profile. From inside GWT, head over to search, then internal links to find your complete profile.

Here are some final tips:

• Stay focused
• Write high quality content
• Always link to and from value sources
• Check authority before linking from source
• Remember to use Google Disavow to remove bad links.

Click Here To Download John Chow’s New eBook, The Ultimate Online Profit Model!

from John Chow dot Com https://ift.tt/2pVcJrd
via Daniel

Reputation Is More Important Than Information Now

I still remember when I was a kid, if I was unsure about the lyrics of a song and I totally misheard them, there was no real way for me to verify them. So, I’d go about my days and weeks and years, singing along with totally the wrong words. For the longest time, I thought that they were saying “psychosomatic, Alan Kinzane” in “Breathe” by The Prodigy, wondering to myself who this Alan Kinzane fellow was.

Finding Correct Information

I remember playing “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego” on the computers at school when I was younger too. I remember having to locate the world almanac somewhere in the classroom so I could find out which country had “lira” as its currency. If I wanted to find a book at the library, I had to go through a physical card file, and the “facts” in that book could easily be over a decade old.

And then the Internet arrived and evolved, and it changed everything forever. These days, we have practically all of human knowledge from practically across all of human history literally at our fingertips. No more misheard lyrics or arguing over trivial facts, because all of that is solved with a quick Google search or with a visit to the Wikipedia page. But there’s a problem with that, because the gate keepers to information aren’t really there anymore.

But Who Said It?

Anyone can have a voice on the Internet, which is good. But it is also bad, because it means that a lot of misinformation can be spread too. You’ve probably heard the term “fake news” tossed around a lot recently. The vast majority of people take what they read online at face value, judging it first by who actually said or wrote it. The reputation of the person or publication supersedes the actual information itself.

Italian philosopher and tenured senior researcher Gloria Origgi calls this “the reputation age,” saying how it is effectively the successor to the “information age” from the early days of the Internet. Even if you have your facts straight and you present a compelling argument, if you don’t have the reputation to back it up, no one is going to listen. No one is going to care. And no one is going to believe you.

So, what does this all mean for you?

You Know Who I Am

As a blogger and an Internet marketer, you need to be paying very careful attention to your reputation. It is very much tied into your credibility, which in turn is very much tied into your potential for success. You need to amass as much social currency as you possibly can so that your words hold weight. When your words hold weight, you can leverage that weight for additional opportunities.

And these additional opportunities, like speaking engagements, lend themselves to putting more dollars in your pocket. When you recommend a product on your blog, through your YouTube channel, on social media or anywhere else, if you have a strong reputation, people are more likely to follow through on your recommendation (and generate an affiliate commission for you as a result).

So, You’re an Expert?

This is why it’s more important than ever that you work toward establishing yourself as a trusted and reputable authority in your industry or niche. You want other people to see you immediately as the go-to expert. Your reputation will precede you and that’s far more powerful than being an unknown.

There are many ways to build up this kind of online street cred. You can self-publish a book, because being a published author commands a certain level of respect. And here’s the curious thing that you may have noticed even with John over the years. The more prominent reputation you earn and the larger your audience grows, the more prominent your reputation becomes and the larger your audience grows too. Success builds upon success.

Facts are important. But so is your reputation.

Click Here To Download John Chow’s New eBook, The Ultimate Online Profit Model!

from John Chow dot Com https://ift.tt/2QR7owr
via Daniel

Hillbank Motor Sports Open House

Sally and I attended the open house of Hillbank Motor Sports. Hillbank Motor is a premier dealer for Shelby and Superformance Cobra, Daytona Coupe, GT40, Corvette Grand Sport cars, apparel and accessories. They’re also a Caterham Dealership and recently added Ruffian ebikes to their portfolio.

Click Here To Download John Chow’s New eBook, The Ultimate Online Profit Model!

from John Chow dot Com https://ift.tt/2RJ4dbo
via Daniel

How Long Should Your Blog Post Be?

I’ve always been asked this question about content length, and have heard many different points of view as they apply to this topic. I’ve been lucky over the years to be able to network with some of the top bloggers within my niche so I can drill them about this very question. I have learned a lot, and would like to provide some feedback about what is the right length for your content. There are many things you have to consider when writing content, and you don’t want to limited yourself because you have a certain word count in mind. For example, many times I would miss out on adding value because I would be too overwhelmed in reducing content length. Here’s the honest truth,

Your content should be as long as it has to in order to get your point across. When you have finished writing, ask yourself this question: Is this the best piece of content you’ve written for your readers? If the answer is “yes” then publish your content, and if it’s “no” then you have to go back making it better. In the end,

There are many myths which come in the way from you producing awesome content. Let’s look at the MOST common.

Myth 1 – Make Content Enormously Long

This is a huge myth because you want to make it long, and right to the point, however you want to avoid writing simply for the sake of writing. Sometimes people looking to lengthen their content will add un-necessary elements so they can make it seem like they have added enormous value. I promise you that it’s incredibility hard to fool people, and they’ll know EXACTLY the amount of value you have provided when they finish reading through your content. I encourage all of you to write lengthy content, but only if you need that space to cover all the major points. Don’t write simply because you feel it’s important to go over 2,000 words. Next,

Doing this will NOT fool the search engines because they have over 200 rankings factors which look at different elements to determine the value of your content.

In short, when writing content make sure you:

• Ensure your content is to the point
• You’ve covered all the important sub-headings
• You have made sure you answered all the questions

Myth 2 – People Don’t Actually Read Entire Content

Another huge myth is people don’t read the entire content so why NOT make it short…right? This is incorrect, and will cost you enormous readership if you continue to apply this strategy throughout your blog. I’ve noticed that people will skim through your content the first time around then will go back and read it over to pull out the value. With so much competition and manipulative content, people want to ensure they have found the right source of information they are looking for. The last thing they want to do is read over content which is 2,000+ words, and NOT find any value because this will be a waste of time.

Here’s something else you want to keep in mind,

There is NO shortage of content available online so people prefer to skim through initially then go back and read over. This way if they figure out what their reading doesn’t provide value, they’ll head over to another website to find what they need. Google search has done a good job sorting out high quality from poor quality so you’ll definitely find a handful of websites which provide you with the information you need. Here’s the game plan going forward:

• Always focus on value and what they reader is looking for
• Don’t write thinking won’t read your content because this will hurt the effort you put into your content
• Think about losing these readers to your competition, and how this can hurt your brand.

Myth 3 – Keywords Don’t Matter When Content Is Longer

I remember when I first starting writing longer content, I was under the impressive that Google will pull out the main keywords and automatically rank me for them. The reason I was thinking this was because I had written high value content so thought Google would give me preference on specific keywords as long as they were somewhat relevant. I could NOT understand that keyword-rich content, no matter what, is important because it helps Google organize the search results. They rely on us to give them signals on what we want to rank for, and what our content is about. Keep in mind, we know our content better than anyone so it only makes sense for us to add the signals required to rank for certain search phrases. Next,

Google extended this focus by tweaking the way they rank our content, and what else they expect from us. For example, you’ve probably noticed over the last several years the importance of LSI and long-tail keywords increasing. This is to better serve the search patterns of people who are becoming more precise. No matter how long your content it’s important you continue to do research before writing so you target a specific audience. It’s true with better and more value content, you’ll rank higher than others, but this has to do with all the other factors involved:

• User retention
• Social signals
• Bounce rate
• Speed
• Engagement
• Links
• And more

Always start with Google Keyword Planner and Trends to find what keywords are important within your niche then start building from there. With longer content, you’ll have a lot more leverage going forward to embed a variety of keywords within your content. Stick to the 3-4 percent rule when adding keywords to your content, and mix it up whenever you get a chance.

Myth 4 – Shorter Content Get More Link Backs

Another huge myth is that content length doesn’t matter when trying to attract back-links from authority blogs. The truth is very simple: When you write content which provides value, you’ll be able to attract more back-links because people will want to link to it much more. As bloggers we are always trying to find other resources which provide our readers with value so will link to content as an additional resource. It’s also our duty to ensure the content we link to actually provides readers with an all-in-one solution which is why longer content is more attractive. For example,

What content would you link to if you wanted to provide your readers which additional information.

1. Short content which briefly provides a solution to readers, or
2. Longer content which is more in-depth, and provides a complete solution.

If you’re like me, then you’ll link to content which provides value because this will build your credibility at the same time for providing value. We all know the power of authority links, and how they can help boost your content within the SERP’s so make sure whenever you publish content it’s the best available online. It’s that simple!

Myth 5 – Longer Content Reduces Frequency Which Is Bad

It’s important to keep one very important thing in mind that it’s better to publish content twice a week instead of everyday as long as the value is enormous. I learned this the hard way because I was always under the impression that posting every day is better than every 3 days which couldn’t be more incorrect. What I learned is you can have a 3-day gap however it’s better to focus on quality, and length to provide substance to your readers. This way even with posting frequency reduced, you’ll still be able to engage your readers and build momentum online within the SERP’s.

When it comes time to rank content then you’ll benefit in that realm too because there are 200 rankings factors, and high quality content always performs better. You’ll attract way more social shares, links, will reduce bounce rate, and increased on-page engagement.

Here’s what I suggest you do going forward,

First, publish content every 2-3 days to find out how that schedule works out for you. Secondly, spread out your writing because it’s much easier to write 400 words daily because in 4 days you’ll have 1600 words which is a great length when publishing. Third, always add social buttons so people can share with their friends online especially on the big platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google +. Focusing on these networks will be better then all others because 80% of the engagement is on these networks. Finally,

Have a solid way to track data and statistics so you know what’s working. We forget to track certain elements of our campaign which leads us to NOT optimize losing out on much needed traffic.

Final Thoughts

It’s time for me to provide you with the game plan going forward because this will help you stay focused. I have discussed a handful of popular myths about content length, and hopefully you’ll have an easier time writing content going forward. From the content above, you can pull out things like: content, length, research, value, and frequency. Next,

It’s time to go over your current marketing strategy looking for ways to improve to better engage your readers. One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen my clients make is that they’ll read about optimization strategies, but fail to incorporate them going forward. There is no point in reading this content if you’re NOT going to implement what you’ve learned throughout my content. It’s a waste of your time, and you are NOT serious about growing your blog because you would take what I mentioned seriously if you were. Here’s what I need you to do going forward when writing content.

First, go back and skim through this content writing down the MOST important steps because it’ll allow you to reference what you need quickly. When you are implementing these strategies, the last thing you want to do is waste time looking for the MOST important parts of the content.

Secondly, you’ll want to look through the list, and find which ones are currently applied to your content. This will make it easier for you to narrow which ones you should learn how to apply into your niche or content marketing. No need in applying those marketing techniques which are already in your content because this will simply slow you down. However, you can look at finding ways to tweak or optimize the marketing techniques if they are NOT producing results.

Third, it’s time to track your marketing efforts because some will work better than others. I’ve always stressed the importance of tracking because it’s a great way to optimize everything you do in business. Some things will work better than others, and you have to make sure you spend time on those which strategies which produce results because they’ll bring you closer to your bottom line. For example,

Out of all the methods I’ve mentioned above 2-3 will work better so it’s on you to find out the actual ROI. If you’re getting a higher ROI using only 2-3 strategies compared to the others, then make sure you implement only those techniques. I look at marketing as a complete trial and error game because you have to take out the time to test different things in the beginning, however after you’ll have much less work because the tedious stuff has been taken care of.

Click Here To Download John Chow’s New eBook, The Ultimate Online Profit Model!

from John Chow dot Com https://ift.tt/2EhEeVW
via Daniel

Jeff Bezos on Work-Life Balance

When the richest person in history (with a net worth of over $100 billion… that’s “billion” with a “B”) has something to say about what it takes to be successful, our ears will naturally perk up. After all, he’s clearly doing something right to accrue that kind of fortune and he seems to be pretty happy about the whole thing too.

And understandably so, I suppose.

Common Sense Is Mediocre

What you’ll find with so many of these success stories is that these individuals have a habit of turning conventional wisdom on its head. Take Tim Ferriss as a prime example. Conventional wisdom will tell you that if you want to be successful at what you do, then you need to work hard and you need to put in long hours. The guy who is first to arrive at the office and the last one to leave at night, he’s the one that’s going places, right?

Ferriss, counter intuitively, champions the notion of the four-hour workweek. He strives to work less so he can achieve more.

Another popular tidbit of “common sense” is that if you want to be successful, you should go to college or university and get a degree or three. I’m certainly not downplaying the value of higher education — I have one of those degrees myself and I certainly don’t think it was a waste of time and money — but then you see that some of the world’s most successful people dropped out of college.

Mark Zuckerberg is a good example, but you have to remember that he was going to Harvard. Just getting into that school makes you pretty remarkable, so he’s already on another tier than most people.

A Strict Trade-Off?

Which brings us back to the Amazon CEO. At an awards event, Jeff Bezos commented on how he views work-life balance, since he gets asked about it all the time. He said work-life balance is “a debilitating phrase because it implies there’s a strict trade-off.”

And that’s how most people think about it. If you work more, it means you have less time, energy and resources for your personal life. If you focus more on your personal life, then it’s harder to get ahead in your work. Bezos disagrees.

“It’s not a balance,” he said. “It actually is a circle.”

Put another way, he says these two components shouldn’t be separate and compartmentalized. Rather, the relationship between the two is reciprocal. “If I am happy at home, I come into the office with tremendous energy. And if I am happy at work, I come home with tremendous energy.” One supports the other.

An Easy Decision

Years ago, I wrote that you don’t necessarily have to choose between your career and your personal life. Instead of seeking balance, we should seek work-life integration, because work and play can be the same thing. Something that has come up in this blog before is that for John, blogging and Internet marketing are fun. The huge income is just a happy byproduct and he’d still do it even if it made no money.

Money can be motivating, to be sure, but it shouldn’t be your only motivation. It’s much more about the kind of lifestyle you can achieve when you shed any notion of work-life balance. Work, life, it’s all the same if both sides energize you rather than drain you. It’s just living when you don’t feel like you’re working.

Maybe work-life balance just is not quite my tempo. It doesn’t appear to be the goal for Jeff Bezos and his personal life — with lots of sleep, scouring the oceasns for NASA rockets, and taking his four adopted kids on submarine rides — looks pretty rad next to his $100+ billion fortune.

Click Here To Download John Chow’s New eBook, The Ultimate Online Profit Model!

from John Chow dot Com https://ift.tt/2yfRDsa
via Daniel

The Top 5 Reasons Why Your Blog is Failing

Blogging is a tough business, and many others have set a standard of what quality truly is so have excelled in the business. Blogging is tough because unlike several years ago, you have to put an emphasis on specific things which didn’t matter before. For example, there is huge importance put on value, layout, marketing, and even proper link building. I forgot to mention, it’s important you always do your research before getting started because if you don’t then you’ll be focused about the direction you should be heading in. However, you also have many resources available to you which will guide you on track, and this is where you’ll benefit where others have failed. You have to know how to utilize what’s available so you create something very special for your readers. I’ll be discussing this in another blog post, but today let’s look at “blogging mistakes”, and why you’ll fail when others have succeeded.

Let’s get started, and your feedback will be greatly appreciated. The blogging mistakes listed are what I think have impacted my growth over the last few years.

No Email List

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is NOT collecting email addresses from the very start. Grabbing email addresses is a way to build continued growth, and a way to build loyalty by sending updates on new content, and trends. If you ask any authority blogger they’ll tell you it’s important to start collecting email addresses right away because it’s something, you’ll be doing later on. Not to mention, signing up with ESP providers is very cheap, and cost effective so why NOT implement a form right away. Platforms like WordPress make it very easy for you to plugin forms in different locations.

Here are a few things you can do with a solid email list:

First, you can send them updates on continued content being posted, and keep your brand on their mind. It’s easy for people to forget about your blog once they leave, however very hard if you send them follow-ups every few days…right?

Secondly, you can ask them for their opinion which is a great way to generate topic idea’s, and even ways to improve your blog. For example, it’s common practice for bloggers to ask their subscribers to fill out a survey, then implement what others have said. Asking to fill out a survey will give you a chance to learn about the type of content people want to read, or changes they want to see on your blog. Next,

Third, if you sell products or services then sending out a newsletter is a great way to generate profits. Imagine having an email list of over 10,000 subscribers and launching a product? You can send these people a follow-up about the product and generate sales almost immediately.

I know many of you think implementing a form is difficult, however these days it’s become very easy. Let’s look at how you can add a form to your blog.

• Sign up with an ESP like aWeber, MailChimp, etc
• Create a list, and you can view some of their tutorials to see how this can be done quickly.
• Create a form which is very easy because many of these ESP provide pre-configured formed. All you have to do is add some text, images then add the code to your page.
• You have to create your first follow-up sequence which can be done in minutes using the drag & drop feature.

The point is all of this can be done within minutes, and with very little investment which is why it’s important to have a form on your blog from day one. If you don’t add a form then you can have several missed chances to build retention, and not to mention your competition will have a solid email sequence which will allow them to compete for the same traffic.

No Updating or NO Consistency

One of my biggest pet-peeves is when I don’t find a blog I love to read updated. This means they are NOT up to date with the changing trends within my niche, and I should go somewhere else to find the information I’m looking for. You can imagine if I feel like this how many others do as well? The point is it’s important to keep your blog always consistent, and up-to-date. This should definitely be the case especially when it’s so easy to come up with solid content if you really want to quickly, and with very little time. You have so many tools which will generate topic ideas for you like Topsy.com and Buzzsumo.com.

It’s all about quality NOT quantity so you can post every 3-4 days, and spread out your writing to make it as streamlined as possible. If you write 600 words every day, you’ll have 2400 words of content to publish on day four. This means you’ll have more than enough words to add substance to your content.

Next,

You have the option to hire a blogger or even allow for guest posting opportunities if you feel you don’t have enough time to keep producing content. Many new bloggers are trying to breakout within your niche so are more than happy to produce content for you going forward. I started out the same way, and still write content for a handful of blogs going forward. It’s important you find the right people before letting them publish on your blog so it’s important to look for the following things:

• Make sure you look over their previous content, and the quality they write.
• Make sure you look over their personal blog and Google their name to see if anyone has reported them for plagiarism.
• Ask them to hand in sample work on a topic so you can evaluate their writing skills.
• Just give them a chance to prove themselves, and hopefully they meet the standards you require.

A few years ago Google introduced the freshness update to their algorithm which means they’ll reward those blogs who update frequently. Google wants to ensure their users have the best experience when using their search engine, and one way is to make sure they find the best information possible. This means it’s important to Google that they have fresh content which is updated always showing first within the ranks. You’ll benefit from this algorithm change if you post high quality content frequently. It’s that simple!

Personality Matters

If you think about the people or blog’s you remember, then something will stand out. You’ll notice they all have personality or are different than anyone else within the same niche. This is very important when starting a business, and if you want to continue to grow, so establish yourself as being unique so that readers will remember the experience they have on your blog. You might think this is difficult however it’s all about being unique, genuine and authentic. For example,

What defines you right now as a person is your own voice, and the way you communicate with people when providing value…right? When blogging it’s important you use the same approach, and don’t change the way you present your content to readers. Keep your voice when writing content, answering questions or even replying to comments because this will help you stand out compared to others.

No Passion Involved.

One reason why people fail when getting started is because they have NO passion in what they do. They chose to blog because of the money involved, and NOT because they love the industry or niche. When you don’t love what you do, you’ve failed before you even got started. Passion is what drives you when you think everything else has failed, and this will distinguish you from your competition. No matter who you talk to they’ll tell you in order to succeed in what you do, you have to love what you do…it’s that simple!

Many bloggers fail because they got involved for the wrong reasons which is money alone. I’m NOT saying this is a bad thing, however, it is if that’s the only thing which matters when starting a business. Even though many bloggers will make money if they hang in long enough, you need passion to keep you pushing forward during those first few critical years when you start out. No business makes money right away, and the chances of failure increases as time goes on, however with passion involved you have just decreased the likelihood of failure.

Make sure whatever blog you get involved in you are passionate about the niche.

Not Treating It Like a Business

Many people will fail at blogging because they don’t treat it like a business. If you are starting a blog to make a living, then you have to worry about the business side of things. You have to pay close attention to marketing, user interaction, user retention, and how to grow your blog. You have to know how to utilize new trends entering the market, and how to stand out compared to your competition. If you are blogging as a side business then the finer things won’t matter, however if it’s a business, then you have to pay close attention to the following:

• Content writing to engage your readers
• Understanding your audience
• Current and new marketing trends
• Marketing budget, and investment going forward
• User acquisition
• User retention
• How you’ll continue to grow over the years and earn a product
• Products and services

All these matter when you are blogging as a business because in the end it’s all about the bottom line.

Final Thoughts

Now that you have a few important reasons why your blog will fail, it’s time to start re-evaluating some of factors as they apply to your blog. Go through looking for areas you can improve on your blog, and start implementing changes where you can. For example, if you’re just planning on starting a blog then consider jumping into a niche you’re passionate about so you’ll continue to push forward, Next, start improving your writing so it includes your own voice, and represents you when publishing content. Every great blogger has their own voice which has allowed them to stand out compared to other bloggers. This is why it’s important you keep writing using your own voice, and make sure this can be seen throughout your blog.

It’s also very important to treat your blog like a business going forward. It’s time you start analyzing your data, spend on marketing and explore options to increase user engagement. Many times we fail because we don’t find ways to improve continuously throughout out blogging career. If this is truly your business then find ways to keep users engaged by writing on trending topics, introducing new products or making things much easier. This all falls under the idea of treating your blog like a business which caters to your audience.

Finally, don’t forget to use the marketing tools you have available. Always build an email list because it’s a great way to build user retention, and get people coming back to your blog. Neil Patel once said it’s very hard getting 200,000 people to visit your blog unless you don’t have a way to get them back which normally means to have a solid email marketing sequence. ESP’s (email service providers) are very cheap so it’s something you should add to your blogs marketing strategy, and track results to find out what’s working.

Click Here To Download John Chow’s New eBook, The Ultimate Online Profit Model!

from John Chow dot Com https://ift.tt/2OfpPy6
via Daniel

The Cinematic Universe of Blogging Business

When Avengers: Infinity War hit theaters in April 2018, it enjoyed the largest opening weekend of all-time with an estimated $630 million at the box office. This movie, which really just sets up the next Avengers movie, represents the culmination of a decade of world-building with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

The world has seen countless superhero movies before, surely, and it’s no stranger to sequels, prequels and side stories either. But nothing has ever been attempted at quite this kind of scale and it doesn’t look like the MCU is going to slow down any time soon. They’re already planning out the next several years of movies and we have no reason to believe the success won’t continue to build upon even more success.

You may not have a media juggernaut with mouse ears bankrolling your venture, but you can take home several key lessons from the Marvel Cinematic Universe in terms of how best to approach your online business.

Building Toward Something Bigger

Leading up to Avengers: Infinity War, there were a total of 18 movies (not including the television shows) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe spanning 2008 to 2018. That’s a lot of content. What we may not have realized in the early days of the MCU is just how ambitious of a project this really was and how big it was really going to become.

But what we’ve come to learn is just how each of these films contributed in some way to the overall world building of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They were all working toward something that was bigger than themselves, all fitting into a much grander scheme. The big picture, as it were.

In your blogging business, you’ll find that you’ll also need to juggle a great number of moving parts and each of these parts must also contribute to a bigger picture. Each component has its own identity, just like the characters and movies in the MCU, but they’re all working toward a single over-arching vision. You may have multiple categories on your blog. You may have a YouTube channel, an email newsletter, an online course, an ebook, a membership site, a Facebook page, an Instagram profile and so much more going on.

Each element must be optimized for its specific purpose, but they must also all align toward a common vision and overall objective.

Each Piece Must Be Able to Stand Alone

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is rather audacious in that it assumes and expects that all fans of the movies will have already enjoyed all the other movies that came before the current one. They’re not going to explain to you why Groot is the way that he is in Infinity War, because they’ll assume you’ve already watched both Guardians of the Galaxy movies. They don’t have to explain why Captain America and Iron Man aren’t on speaking terms, because they assume you’ve already watched Civil War.

Even so, these films must all achieve a rather delicate balance. They want to leverage these intricate interconnections so that die hard fans can extract the greatest enjoyment from the current offering. At the same time, the new movie must be enjoyable in and of itself, even if someone who is watching it isn’t 100 percent up to speed. There needs to be enough there that everyone can have a good time and, if they’re not all caught up, watching the movie will motivate them to catch up.

The content that you produce for your blog and on your other channels needs to operate in much the same way. Each piece of content needs to be able to stand alone, offering great value (education, entertainment, or otherwise) to the reader or viewer. At the same time, it should build upon and expand upon what you’ve already produced in the past. When someone new stumbles across your content, they should feel welcome, not totally lost, and then they should be encouraged to dive into your archives for more.

And when they do, they’ll get pulled deeper and deeper into your universe.

Assemble Your Dream Team

Perhaps the biggest lesson bloggers can take home from the MCU is that you cannot do it alone. In an effort to take down Thanos in Infinity War, heroes from all across the galaxy (and beyond) assembled and united under that single purpose. They don’t always see eye to eye and they don’t always agree on everything (and some of them don’t even know one another), but they’re all working together.

You may think that you want to go it alone in your blogging journey, because you value the sense of ownership and self-direction of being your own boss. I get that. I really do. But you can’t do it alone. You have to recognize that your fellow bloggers, for instance, are your colleagues and not your competitors. You have to leverage the skills and expertise of professionals whose talents complement your own.

There is no “i” in team, but there is in “victory” and “profit.” Let’s go kick some Mad Titan butt.

Click Here To Download John Chow’s New eBook, The Ultimate Online Profit Model!

from John Chow dot Com https://ift.tt/2ymmthY
via Daniel