The Science of Blogging

The word “science” comes from the Latin root “scientia,” which means knowledge. This is the reason why the word science is attached to many “non scientific” terms like “the science of theology.”

A blog is defined as follows:

A blog is a type of website that is usually arranged in chronological order from the most recent “post” (or entry) at the top of the main page to the older entries towards the bottom.—Darren Rowse, What is a Blog?

Most websites are intended to acquire or spread knowledge, hence science and blogs have a lot to do with each other.

The following scientists’ quotes do not refer specifically to blogging, but I think they can teach us a lot about it.

I am sure that I am not smarter than other scientists. Psychologists have said that my IQ is about 160, I recognize that there are one hundred thousand or more people in the United States that have IQs higher than that.—Linus Pauling; Nobel Laureate of Chemistry (1954) and Peace (1962), in an interview to the site Academy of Achievement, Nov 11, 1990.

An authority on blogging, Darren Rowse said in Blogging Takes Super Human Effort vs Blogging is Easy [Misconceptions New Bloggers Have #1]:

“Before I started blogging I had had 20 jobs in ten years, none of which were in anything to do with the online space and most of which were fairly manual/physical jobs.“My only qualifications were half a degree in Marketing (which I failed half of the subjects in) and a Bachelor of Theology.“I’d received a ‘C’ in English in my final year of high school.“I was incapable of making text bold on my first blog for several weeks—I wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed when it came to anything technical!”

Some people think that only people with exceptionally brilliant minds can become good bloggers (or good in anything). This is nonsense. Just work hard with devotion. You will make it. There are no magic people.

If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.—Sir Isaac Newton; English physicist and mathematician, in a letter to Robert Hooke, 5 Feb. 1675 or 1676

There are always good resources available on any niche you choose, and there are always some people who are “giants” (authorities) in that field. By “resources” I don’t only mean blogs. There will always be excellent books, magazines, videos, and so on in your niche. Utilize them.  I don’t mean copy their content. I mean learn from them, put your own voice in it, and produce fresh content. If you can do your own research and take the current material a step ahead, even better.

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.—Albert Einstein; Nobel Laureate of Physics (1921)

To make a blog successful you must keep working on it regularly.

Despite the fact that there are thousands of articles on ProBlogger, I keep returning to this site to read the new ones. Though sometimes I read some old articles, mainly I concentrate on the latest material. I think most readers do the same, as the latest post’s comments are the most frequented.

If you make a blog and update it once in two months, it will collapse. Readers usually want new content on the latest happenings in your niche. Also, readers want regular replies from you. If they are taking the trouble of sparing some time and commenting on your blog, they want the favor to be reciprocated.

You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.—Albert Einstein; Nobel Laureate of Physics (1921)

To be a good blogger, you need to know a good deal about blogging. For example you need to know which is a good blogging platform, the methods of monetization, how to set up an email newsletter, how to use sites like Facebook and Twitter to your maximum advantage, and more.

The rest is mind game and hard work. Keep blogging diligently. You’ll learn many things practically that you will not learn by referring to blogging resources. Use this information to create better blogs than your competitors.

I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him.—Galileo Galilei; Italian physicist

Do you think visiting “bad” blogs is a waste of time? Not at all! By visiting them you can learn why that blog didn’t do well. What mistakes did the blogger make? Pay attention to those mistakes so that you may not make them.

The worthwhile problems are the ones you can really solve or help solve, the ones you can really contribute something to.—Richard Feynman; Nobel Laureate of Physics (1965) in a letter to Koichi Mano, February 3, 1966

Though there are thousands of problems that humanity is facing today, you should select a niche of which you have a good knowledge. Then, write posts that can really help people live better lives by solving their problems. If you can solve their problems, they will visit your blog.

The lecturer should give the audience full reason to believe that all his powers have been exerted for their pleasure and instruction.—Michael Faraday; English physicist, as quoted in A Random Walk in Science (1973) by Robert L. Weber, p. 76

Give your readers the true impression that you really care for them and you have put up a lot of energy and hard work into your blog. Don’t try to fake yourself.  You must really make all attempts to please your audience.  If you yourself won’t take your blog seriously, don’t expect your readers to take it seriously.

Do you know quotes from other scientists that reflect and fit with blogging? Share yours in the comments!

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Guest Posting: Link Building VS Familiarity

I enjoy guest posting when I find the time as it allows me to write about subjects I can’t cover on my own websites. More importantly, it’s a great way of raising my profile, pushing traffic towards my websites and connecting with an audience that I have not had any dealings with as yet.

I’m sure you are all aware of the benefits of guest posting so I won’t speaking about that too much today. What I would like to do is compare the benefits of guest posting on a small selection of blogs and websites regularly against guest posting on new websites every week.

Obviously, it benefits you more to write on large traffic websites that have a large audience. That’s a no brainer. For the sake of argument though let’s assume that all websites you will be writing for will have the same traffic and give you and your website the same level of exposure.

So which do you think is better: Guest posting on a regular basis on 3 or 4 websites or writing a guest post every week for a new website (remember that we are assuming all websites have similar traffic levels etc)?

From a traffic point of view, guest posting on different URLs is better. It will increase your authority on search engines and raise awareness of you, your website or brand, as they will be exposed to a larger audience. The main objective with guest posting is primarily promoting yourself and your website so guest posting on a large number of websites is surely better, isn’t it?

My answer to that question would gear more towards yes. If I was employed by company to guest post online so that traffic was pushed to their new website then publishing 20 articles across 20 websites would likely bring more traffic than publishing them across 3 or 4 websites. However, there are benefits to guest posting regularly over a small number of websites and it’s something you should bear in mind when planning out your guest posting strategy.

Currently I guest post semi regularly for Blogging Tips, John Chow, ProBlogger and Noupe. I have guest posted on many other blogs over the last year or so but those are the websites I have published several articles on.

There are many reasons why I enjoy writing for a small selection of blogs:

I don’t waste a lot of time arranging guest posts

Arranging guest posts on new websites regularly can be time consuming. You need to email the owner, introduce yourself and explain why they should let you guest post. This process can involve a lot of back and fourths. Time is something I hold with high esteem when working online so I don’t take this added work lightly.

I have a good relationship with the owners and editors of the blogs I write for regularly. They are happy with the articles I write and publish them without modifying what I wrote. They are also very professional and quick to respond to my emails. When I want to write an article I email them with a suggestion, they usually email back quickly saying that they are happy with the article topic and then I email them the article. The process is painless.

I know the audience

When you write for a new blog you need to spend some time reading older articles on the site to get a feel for the type of content they publish and the type of content that gets a response. I have been a subscriber for the blogs I guest post regularly on for a long time so I know what type of article is suitable and what isn’t.

The audiance knows me

Guest posting isn’t all about getting a link back to your website at the end of an article. You need to connect with the readers of the blog you are writing for. By doing so they will be much more likely to visit your own blog and much more likely to subscribe.

One of the best ways of connecting with readers is by building familiarity. By posting on a regular basis they will get to know the type of person you are, the type of articles you write and find out more about the websites you run. A one off guest post can be a hit or a miss but if you write regularly for a blog you will be able to engage with readers. They might not agree with your viewpoint on one subject but they may on another.

I’ve not yet directly compared the benefits of guest posting on many websites against posting on a select few. Perhaps the best solution for those of you who do guest post a lot is to guest post on a small selection of blogs regularly in addition to guest posting on new blogs every now and then. Traffic is something that you will be able to monitor accurately though it would be interesting to see if you get more comments or tweets on the articles that are published on your ‘regular blogs’.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject.

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5 Ways to Improve Your Writing and Become a Better Blogger

When it comes to being a better blogger and building a successful blog it is important for you to realize that your communications skills matter a lot. Working on improving your writing as a blogger can result in great rewards for you since writing is one of the major modes of communication for bloggers.

Whether you like it or not as a blogger you have to write everyday. Your writing can be in the form of articles on your blog, it can be in the forms of guest posts on other blogs, it can be in the form of your contribution on forums and it can be in the form of comments on other blogs. This article will be giving you a few tips to help you improve your writing and make you a better blogger.

1. Write Everyday

This can be something extremely difficult to do but is something that can help improve your writing significantly. While reading is one of the best ways to improve your writing skills it is very important for you to know that practice makes perfect, and no amount of reading will help make you better unless you start writing regularly.

Try to write at least one article everyday, no matter how short. You don’t need to publish that article, you don’t need to submit it as a guest post to another blog but writing constantly makes it easy for you to see what you’re doing wrong and as a result work on improving on it.

2. Read Everyday

Another way you can improve your writing as a blogger is by reading everyday. It doesn’t matter if it is a book, if it is a top blog in your niche or if it is comment made by your readers. You will be able to notice a significant improvement in your writing skills if you are able to read any good thing you lay your hands on. You shouldn’t be restricted to books or blogs in your niche alone, but anything that is written in the English language, and anything that is written by an author you trust.

3. Learn from the Leaders in Your Field

It is also very important for you to realize that, as a blogger, while reading a lot of great books and articles in magazines can help improve your writing, learning from the leaders in your industry can also have a significant impact on the results you get. The leaders in your niche have been blogging for years now, they have experience with writing for your field and they have improved their skills over time. By observing how they write and why they do so you’ll be able to develop your skills and write perfectly for your audience.

It is important to realize that you don’t just have to copy them blatantly though. The best way to build a successful blog is by being unique. Don’t try to be what you are not but make effective use of every opportunity to learn from others.

4. Write Your Mind

Another thing you should realize as a blogger is that the best way to succeed isn’t just to write, but to write well. Learning to write well isn’t just enough, but learning to write your mind might make a whole lot of difference.

In most cases a lot of people who read books today do so because it is necessary and in most cases it isn’t necessary for your readers to read your blog so don’t write like you are writing their next school book. One of the key to writing content that gets results as a blogger is by connecting to your readers emotions, and the best way to do this isn’t by trying  to write the next perfect article but by writing exactly what is on your mind.

The key to writing content that gets results isn’t to write the perfect content but to write to your true self. I have seen bloggers without perfect English get great results and I have seen people write posts with perfect grammar that goes nowhere. The reality is that if you learn to write your mind and do it regularly (tip #1), and you also follow the second tip in this article you will be able to improve your writing skills significantly.

5. Get Feedback

As bloggers and writers it can be quite easy to deceive ourselves with the hope that our writing is great when it indeed isn’t, it can also be easy for us to believe our writing sucks when it really doesn’t. When you do the same thing over and over again you get used to it and hardly notice the changes and writing shouldn’t be any different. The only way to know if your writing is improving isn’t just by writing and telling yourself it is, the best way to know if your writing is improving is by getting feedback. Try to get your readers to give you feedback about your writing. Try to get them to give your suggestions and over time work on writing the perfect article.

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At the End of the Day, It’s Still About People

Sure, you want to make money. You want to make a lot of money. Maybe you’re doing all of these things to help you make money. But, you know what? Without people, there is no money. You absolutely cannot make money without people, unless you’re a bank robber, and I don’t suggest that.

Your online business is about people. It doesn’t matter how great your report is or your new product or your blog, if there’s no people, there’s no sales. You have to cater to the people. It doesn’t matter if you sell information, offer a service or even what niche you’re in. It ALL revolves around people–the consumer.

You’re told to build traffic so your site will be a success. You need traffic or it will fail. What is traffic? Yep, people.

You’re told you need a list so you can promote your products to. Without a list it will fail. What is a list? Right again, it’s people.

In reality, you are not generating traffic or building a list. You are attracting people.

No people, no traffic, no list, no money.

The best way to make money online? Attract people.

What do you do with them after you attract them? Build a relationship. Sure, you can have crappy products and no people skills and not build a relationship, but that will only last so long. Building a business that way is equivalent to the life cycle of a fly. It’s very short-lived.

If you want to build a successful business online, you need to set aside the money issue and focus on people. Put your focus on serving them and helping them solve their problems. Then, and only then will the money come. People will want to buy from you and they will be loyal customers if you give them value and solutions to their problems.

Keep people in the forefront of your business and at the end of the day your bottom line will be a reflection of how well you served people.

Take care of people and they will take care of your business.

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The Importance Of Scheduling Your Blog Posts

One of the most important responsibilities of running a popular blog such as Blogging Tips is scheduling posts. This is particularly true for blogs in which the blog owner doesn’t write every day themselves. That is, they just need to organise the articles written by staff and guest posters.

Scheduling is just as important for blog owners who write the majority of their content (this is perhaps less true if your posting frequency is irregular or you only publish an article once a week). One of the most important lessons I have learned over the last 4 or 5 years of running blogs that publish articles daily is that it is vital to schedule posts in advance. You never know when something unexpected will come up that will take away time from your usual working routine. Sickness and family emergencies can never be planned.

I try my best to always have around a weeks worth of posts written in advance when possible, more if I am planning a holiday. This week I was reminded of the benefits of doing this.

One month ago I fulfilled a dream of mine and came to South America. Unfortunately, I have an allergy to something in the apartment I’m staying in. Back home I suffer from the same problem when exposed to dust or animal hair from cats and dogs. My nose runs constantly, my eyes get red and sore and I generally just feel run down.

Fortunately, I brought Loratadine tablets with me just incase I was exposed to any animals but they haven’t completely stopped the symptoms. The most pressing thing for me is to find out what’s causing the allergy. The apartment has laminate flooring so there’s very little dust gathering, I’ve replaced the feather pillows with anti-allergy pillows and there are no pets allowed in the entire apartment complex. This has all left me baffled as to as to what is causing me so much grief. For my last roll of the dice I am going to buy an anti-allergy duvet to replace the cotton and polyester blankets that I’m currently using, though as I have used similar blankets back home with no problems I predict I’ll have to see the doctor next week.

On Sunday I was lucky enough to watch the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Bogota. I had an amazing day but forgot to take my tablet in the morning so I awoke yesterday morning feeling terrible. I generally work between 9 to 6 during the week but after a small article that should have took me 15 minutes to write took me over 2 hours, I switched the computer off and relaxed. Thankfully, I had articles scheduled in advance so I could afford to take time off to get myself better.

If your blog only posts about the latest news, you may find scheduling in advance isn’t really an option. News posts can’t be really written in advance as you need to publish the article when the news is still fresh and relevant, therefore the majority of news posts are written the day the article is published or the day before.

Most blogs contain a mixture of news, reviews and opinion type articles so what you should do is schedule posts that will be as relevant in a few weeks time as they are today. When the opportunity to write a news related post comes up you simply have to reschedule the scheduled post for another time.

Here are three WordPress plugins that you should all find useful when scheduling your posts:

Editorial Calendar – My favourite plugin for scheduling posts. The plugin adds an easy to read calendar page to your WordPress admin area. It’s a quick and easy way to see what days have posts and what days don’t. To move posts to a different day you simply have to drag and drop the article to the selected day.Future Posts Calendar – Adds a calendar to the top of your post editor sidebar that quickly see what days have posts scheduled on them.Auto Schedule Posts – The perfect plugin for blogs where the date the content is published isn’t really important. The plugin lets you set parameters for when you want articles posted online. If the plugin finds a day without a post it automatically schedules one of your completed posts for it.

I’m sure you are away of the limitations of writing articles too much in advance. In an ideal situation all content would be written on the say it published so that your blog remains relevant by reacting to popular trends. In reality, I think it’s best to plan ahead as if a ‘sick day’ could turn up at any time.

Be a smart blogger and run your blog just like any other business. Prepare for the unexpected and your readers will rarely see any irregularity in your posting frequency.

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How PPC Campaign Works to Get Traffic for your Website

Pay per click (PPC) is an internet marketing campaign that is designed to attract targeted customers to your website. There are various other techniques that plays important roles in the vast field of internet marketing but PPC is one that I know well! Some people feel that running a PPC campaign alone is enough to get users to their website and have a successful business. I personally think it is a bad idea to just run PPC. People should start running other campaigns such as search engine optimization, social media marketing, etc to get good rankings and have a successful website.  Here is a little teaser on getting PPC traffic to your website.  Also, top comment below will receive a code for $100 if free Google Adwords PPC traffic to your site.

How to Set Up a Successful PPC Program

A PPC campaign is an easy way to bring targeted customers to your website. But it takes a lot of time to make the campaign a success. There is a lot of trial and error method involved in the process. It is important to optimize your content of the advertisement so that users click on it. The optimization of PPC campaign works in three distinct steps

Keywords: Firstly, you need to come up with the keywords which suit your website well and sign up for a PPC cost program. Only then your advertisements will crop up in the first page of the search engine result page. You need to keep analyzing and find out which keywords work best for you.Ad content: Each advertisement will have a unique message stated below the website name. Optimize the content well so that users get the information they need. You should try and minimize the number of words as much a possible because users do not have much time to read through lengthy content. They might be side tracked by other websites content. You only have two seconds to catch the user’s attention. So minimize the content length and explain about your website. If you are not good with content editing, you may need to recruit professionals to come up with this particular piece of information to have a successful PPC campaign.Landing page: Landing page is nothing but the web page the user lands on when they click on the advertisements. Many advertisers give their home page as landing page but creating a separate landing page is important to have a successful PPC campaign. When a user lands in the homepage, they are lost and have no clue what to do next, they may leave. It will unnecessarily increase your bounce rate. Create a landing page that gives the user some information about the website in a short and precise manner. Then give a link of your home page. This will help in reducing your bounce rate and help you in converting visitors to your customers.

How Important is PPC in Online Marketing

I believe that only 30% of your website visitors should be brought to your site through your PPC campaigns.  That being said, you shouldn’t let this deter you if you’re getting 60% of your website visitors through PPC cause it can be one of the best ways to get targeted traffic while you work on other things like SEO. PPC shouldn’t be ignored because it gives a head start in your marketing campaign. When you start a website, the ranking gained through other online marketing techniques are not enough to have decent amount of traffic. A PPC campaign will bring in target users to your website that are searching for what you have.

I’m giving away a $100 coupon to start your own campaign with Google Adwords.  Best comment below gets it!  I’d love to hear what your experience is with PPC.  If you have any questions about PPC please visit our PPC Tips page or leave a comment below.

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FREE Is The Future of Business

Right now I am reading a book by Chris Anderson called “Free – The Future of A Radical Price”.  You can find this on iTunes for FREE.  You can also search Google and find it pretty quick. Chris Anderson is Wired magazine’s editor in chief and gives us a glimpse of why the cost of doing business online is falling closer and closer to zero.  I really like how this has helped me with everything I am doing online.  The best way to get people online is to give them something free.  You see this on all the top blogs you read, top sites you visit and pretty much everywhere online.

In Free, Anderson breaks down the priceless economy into six broad categories, demonstrating how to make money in each:

- “Freemium”: Free Web software and services, and some content, to users of the basic version. (Think Flickr and the $25-a-year Flickr Pro.)

- Advertising: Free content, services, and software to an audience that advertisers will pay to reach.

- Cross-subsidies: Give away any product that entices customers to pay for something else. Example: It’s a free second-gen Wii! But only if you buy the deluxe version of Rock Band.

- Zero marginal cost: Anything that can be distributed without an appreciable cost to anyone, like online music.

- Labor exchange: Performing tasks to gain access to “free” sites and services.

- Gift economy: From Freecycle (free secondhand goods) to Wikipedia, money isn’t the only motivator.

Always give Away Something FREE

Your readers want to know that you care about them, so why not give them something free.  Not only does this show your reader that you’re giving them something free that has taken you a lot of time and effort, you also show them that you care about them.  This will inspire trust. This will give you more credibility.  This will break down the barrier that is between you and their information to re-market to them.

How Does Free Work?

Free breaks down the barrier between you and your readers.  If you are selling an eBook and you charge even $.01 you may get a small percentage of readers to purchase your product. But if you give it away for free you will quickly see that your numbers will increase, you’ll get more subscribers, and your blog will be more popular. People love something free, they don’t even think about it.  It makes it so they don’t have to think about the decision; it’s free, why not?

What Do I Give Away For Free?

Give away anything and everything. Just kidding, don’t get yourself into trouble.  I would personally go with what Zac Johnson, John Chow, and many others have done in the blogging space and give away an eBook.  An eBook is a great way to gain your readers trust while getting them to subscribe to your blog.  Use a service like aWeber to keep track and distribute your eBook.  It will keep track of your readers and let you email market to them in the future.  This will allow you to make money off your readers in the long run and keep them coming back to your blog consistently.  Make sure when you’re giving away something free that you don’t give away crap.  Giving away something free that is horrible will cause a bad taste in your readerships mouth.  Bad press travels much more quickly then good press.  If you put something crappy together and give it away for free it will damage your reputation.

I encourage all of you to read Chris Anderson’s book “Free – The Future of A Radical Price”  It will change your world and help you to understand free a lot more than you think.  It will help you realize how Google can give away 99.999% of it’s products for FREE and still make Billions Profit each year.  Please let me know below if you have read the book or have any questions.  I would love to help you out with and Blogging Tips that I have!

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