LWLs and SheFinders – Ask Your Blogging Questions – Win an Amazon Gift Certificate
March 31, 2010 by Andrea the Blogger
Filed under New, blogging
Hi Fellow Ladies Who Launch, SheFinders and their friends – to celebrate the launch of my new blog – ProfitableResultsBlogging.com – all about how to make blogging WORK for REAL business owners, authors, and mom blogges….
Win this Gift Card
This is where I reveal all the things I’ve learned building my media empire for tween girls and their parents at GirlMogul Media
… I am inviting you, my fellow launchers to ask me any question about blogging, have a chance at winning a $50 Amazon Gift Card and download my F*R*E*E Blogging Guide- Profitable Results Blogging…
So ask your questions, download the guide and I’ll pick one lucky and random poster to be the lucky winner of a $50 AMAZON gift certificate – good for just about anything in the world…
What are good questions? Maybe you’re wondering which platform to use, if you need to be a techie, is blogging even right for you, can you make money blogging, will it take too much time, can you land a book deal from blogging, how to re-invent an old blog into a traffic powerhouse, does the world need another mommy blogger — whatever your question is, just name it and I’ll post back an answer in a timely fashion….
And once you post – go here to download your free report – Power Up Your Blog – How to Make Your Blog a Profit Machine
Questions – - I’m listening….
What are the best five blogging tips that you learned?
thanks for the question here are 5 of the best ones (that I can think of now)
1. in the beginning post frequently
2. if you want your blog to make money (and I know that’s not the goal for everyone) be sure to really think through your blog’s subject and pick one where there are a lot of people interested it – but don’t be too broad
3. share the love – comment on other people’s blogs
4. Use wordpress and get your own domain name
5. Love what you blog about
That’s all for now…
Who provides the best free service of tracking your viewers?
I use google analytics – it’s free and all you need to do is install a little piece of code on your blog and then you can log into your account and see how many people come, where they come from, what keywords they’re using – even what posts they come to. If you use wordpress download the free plugin Google Analytics to your blog and then simply add your Google analytics id and you’ll be up and integrated and tracking stats within an hour or so.
I like to publicize my blog posts on Facebook, but I find that people then tend to leave their comments on my Facebook wall and not on my blog. What is a good way to encourage readers to leave comments on the blog?
Great question. There is an application for Facebook called Facebook connect and Facebook comments which should allow better integration with Facebook – including a way to aggregate Facebook comments back to your blog. The good news – if you blog on wordpress there is a plugin for it – try this link http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/facebook-comments/ to read more about – let us know how it works out for you!
What is the ideal length for a blog entry?
General guidelines say about 200-300 words which fits nicely on one page for the reader and isn’t too taxing to write for the blogger. On the other hand, you should always take as long as you need to say what you need to say, and if that’s longer or shorter so be it. If you’re blog is along the lines of a how-to or informational blog – like how to have a deer free garden, then you might want to consider interspersing shorter posts with 10 or more pillar articles of a longer length packed full of information – these will attract the search engines, readers will love them and they’ll establish your credibility.
Did you ever see the movie Julie and Julia? If so fabulous, if not, I highly recommend it! Well, the character Julie is what got me interested in blogging. So my real question is: what website would you suggest I go to in order to set up/start a blog? … and can you do it for free?
Hi – loved the movie. In it, Julie set up a free blog – which you can do by going to wordpress.com or blogger.com – you can easily get something like http://www.mydomainname.blogger.com, but your blog will be hosted on the blogger or wordpress domain – you’ll be a part of a vast network of bloggers. Which isn’t bad, but it’s harder for people to remember and will make it hard for you to optimize your blog – I recommend finding a webhost, like hostgator, picking a domain name and installing wordpress on it. You’ll pay a few dollars a month, but it will be worth it – and it’s really easy. For a great how to guide I do recommend Rob Benwell’s Blogging to the Bank http://profitableresultsblogging.com/profitable-results-blogging-package/ – even if you don’t want to use your blog to make money it’s truly a great step by step guide to setting up a blog
What is the best way to drive traffic to your blog and how do you get more followers?
The best way to drive traffic — in my experience – paid search – Pay per click ads from Google. However this is not free and can be quite expensive. This can be ok if you are using your blog to sell products – either your own or others, and can either get people to buy the first time you visit, or sign up for an email list and you can close the deal later. This is not a good idea if the main source of revenue for your blog, especially google adsense ads or if you’re just trying to build traffic and/or followers. Rarely will you be able to make enough money from adsense to cover the cost of your PPC campaign. I have heard that the google content network and facebook ads are good places to place ads on and get “cheap” clicks…
“Free” ways to drive traffic include writing and submitting articles to article directories. These include a bio box and a link back to your site. ezinearticles.com is a great way to try. But you need a lot of articles to really see a difference. Targeting your posts to highly searched long tail relevant keywords is another good way.
As for followers, have a nice niche that you publish in where you are perceived as an expert doling out great insight is always good. Or be tremendously funny or a celebrity. As for followers I assume you mean RSS followers, but don’t forget the value of building an email subscriber list – try to get people to subscribe by giving them something free – like an ebook that is relevant to them – obviously the tone/theme of your blog and what you know about your audience will help you decide what they might respond to. This doesn’t have to be War and Peace – just be sure its informative, funny, relevant. Spend a little time doing some formatting, getting some decent pictures and laying it out so that it looks “good”
Hope these ideas help – traffic and followers it really something one could write an entire book or two on…