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Showing posts with label blogging tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging tips. Show all posts
I've been on the look out for some blogging inspiration - especially now that I've decided to sign up for the Ultimate Blog Challenge .  The last few days have been spent doing general research on the past challenges that I've participated in to get an idea of what kind of themes or topics other participants were blogging about.  The challenge sends out blogging topics each day as well to keep the participants inspired. 

Then, the other night I came across The Daily Post blog site which has a Daily Prompts section.  It's quite cool as there is a 'daily' prompt (as the name suggests).  The prompt is a word or up to 3 words from what I've noticed topped up with a question / statement that you can put your own response to in case you don't want to think of a topic solely based on the prompt word(s).  The site also allows you to pingback to their posts and enables your post to be visible to all the participating bloggers. 

Quite a few of the prompts have caught my attention and I'm hoping to get cracking on them at the earliest.  I may have to back-date some of them to go in accordance with the Prompt schedule or maybe it won't matter at all.  I'll figure that bit out.  I'm a bit of a stickler for order. 

I also came across A Prompt A Day which has only just started in June and as the name suggests - the host puts up prompts ranging from a word, an image, a quote.  There are about 80 prompts so far. 

Another interesting site is The One Minute Writer - wherein there's a daily prompt but you have 60 seconds to jot your thoughts down in the form of a comment.  Of course you can take this a step further and expand on your own blog.  I know I would do that.  

So there you go - in case you are in need of some writing inspiration, I'd definitely recommend heading on over to any of these blog sites and see what it is that inspires you to write.  

p.s Don't forget to share your blog link in the comments so that I can visit your page. 

The other day a friend of mine, randomly says to me ‘isn’t one of your new year resolutions to drink more water’ ? I wasn’t quite sure where he got that from because other than penning down a set of resolutions back in 2010 – I hardly ever make New Year resolutions.  Then I realized, he might be referring to this really nice set of ‘thoughts’ I had come across and put up on my blog as Divas’ New Year Resolutions on 1st Jan 2012.  I’ve actually had that image as my desktop picture and I suppose in some ways a lot of those thoughts have worked for me.

 

Looking back at 2012 – and now connecting it with the ‘resolutions’ – I reckon I’ve done a pretty good job.  According to my business partner, I’ve ‘calmed down significantly’ after taking an extended break to get out of India.  The trip honestly has done wonders for me and I just feel like a brand new person.  That’s what I need.  I’ve also picked up the ‘this too shall pass’ attitude so I’m stressing less than I was before.  I actually feel like I have cut back on sugar … I do love my desserts, but if it doesn’t hit the spot then what’s the point of having it right ? (And this cannot be considered complaining!)

 

All of the above considered, I came across another really nice set of thoughts that caught my attention (who would think it’s so hard to find a nice set of resolutions that do not involve ‘lose weight’) which shall go alongside my existing desktop picture.

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What do you think  ? Have you made any New Year Resolutions ? Do you actually manage to keep them ?

Over the last few weeks everyone seems to be talking about ‘Pinterest’.  I’d read about it and heard about the ‘by invitation only’ access and thought that I should go and check it out. 

Good news.  I went to their site and requested to ‘join’.  Got my ‘invitation’ within a few days.  Bad News.  I couldn’t sign up !! After a weeks’ battle of trying to actually create and log into my Pinterest account; I figured out that I couldn’t sign up using Chrome and had to register using Explorer instead. 

After finally getting my account sorted out - I’ve managed to browse around the site and see how I could use it for myself and also for my business.

What’s All The Pinterest About

It’s yet another networking site – but this time more with images.  It’s essentially a way to organize your ‘visual thoughts’ by way of creating ‘boards’ and ‘pinning’ images to it. 

It’s a lot like Facebook in the sense that when someone posts something, you can like it, share it, and comment on it.  You can ‘follow’ people (kind of like ‘friending’ a person) and see all their updated ‘pins’ (i.e posts) on your home page.

The best way to find ‘boards’ that interest you are to look out for key words.  For my business account I would look for boards that are related to ‘destination weddings’ or ‘wedding hair styles’.  For my personal account I’ve created my first board ‘Quotes’ where I’m collecting different quotes that have been created in a visually appealing way.

The feature I like most is the fact that I can create a ‘pin it’ button that can be used directly from my browser to be able to ‘pin’ images from other websites directly to a relevant board (and if you don’t have one – can create one).

I suppose I can see what the fuss is all about.  It’s a cool site and am sure it’s useful for a lot of businesses out there (especially for people in the service / hospitality sector)

To know more about Pinterest, check out these blog posts :

  1. 35 Brilliant Bloggers Talk About Pinterest
  2. Beginners Guide to Pinterest Basics

If you are on Pinterest or if you fancy joining it – don’t forget to follow me or like some of my pins.  The Pinterest account for my company AKA : A Klass Apart can be found here.

social_media_monitoring_tools1It has taken me nearly 9 months to come up with a way of dealing with all my social media accounts and not be overwhelmed with the responsibility. Many people now have multiple social media accounts on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and so on, so it’s important not to spend your whole day stuck to your computer screen, it’s bad for your health for starters!

Whether you are a small business or just an avid social media fan there are a wealth of tools out there which can help you manage your time online. Maybe you like spending a lot of time online interacting with your friends, family and followers, or maybe you’re in business and need to free up some time to actually get on with your work.

Here are some great tools (in no particular order) I have come across in the last 9 months which I wouldn’t be without, I have written about most of these on my own blog:

Tweetdeck

Since Tweetdeck was updated a few weeks ago I have been using it a lot. You can use Tweetdeck with Twitter and Facebook. I can consolidate all my own accounts and my client’s accounts on here and can easily scroll through them quickly to see any mentions or interactions. I used to schedule tweets through Tweetdeck but it was a cumbersome operation and took me such a long time just to do a week’s worth of posts, I now use SocialOomph for scheduling...

SocialOomph

Automation of updates is a hot topic among the social media circles, some like it, others hate it... it’s a bit like marmite!

If I was being honest I didn’t like automation when I first started out, it seemed as though the person didn’t really care about being on social media. My opinion quickly changed when I realised how much time social media can take up, I just wasn’t getting any real work done and I was starting to get stressed with it all.

SocialOomph lets you schedule tweets, and with the advanced plan, Facebook and blog posts as well. I have a paid account and it has definitely paid for itself in the number of client’s I have gained through Twitter alone. I love the queue reservoirs, I can add updates when I think of them and add them to the queue. You set a time frame, so say every 2 hours and the queue is tweets out and it goes to the back of the queue and so it carries on. To really benefit from this you need to have a lot of updates in your reservoir because people don’t want to be seeing the same updates over and over. I tend to check mine once a week, delete old irrelevant ones and add some new ones.

I also have my clients profiles on here using queue reservoirs and it’s a great way of getting your updates out there but not being tied to your computer 24/7 - plus it frees up your time to interact more with your followers/fans.

Buffer

Buffer works by scheduling Tweets, Facebook or LinkedIn updates at optimum times of the day. When you install it, either as an add-on for your browser, on your iPhone or a widget on your blog/website, you can click the Buffer icon and the tweet/link/update will automatically be scheduled to post at the next time slot.

I recently upgraded my account with Buffer so I am now able to have 6 accounts and 50 updates per account.

I use Buffer with Flipboard and SocialBro, they link very nicely!

SocialBro

SocialBro is all about stats, it tells me everything I could ever want to know about my followers and who I follow on Twitter.

Within the application you can customise what you want to see such as 'Best Time to Tweet' or 'Analyse Your Competitors' and so much more! You can also link it to Buffer and it will automatically customise the best times to tweet, it suggests you do it once a week so your tweets go out at optimum times.

Flipboard

This app is for the iPad and iPhone. When you are overwhelmed with social media this is a great app which consolidates everything into a magazine style format. You can flip through page after page of updates, it's nothing like your Twitter feed, and it includes the images so it makes it so much easier to pick out items of interest. You can also add customise searches, and you can link a lot of your social media accounts. I have mine linked to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Reader, but there are other options too.

I am always interested in what others use for managing their social media, so why not follow me on Twitter and let me know, or comment on this blog post.

clip_image002Jo Harrison of Writer's Block Admin Servicesdivas guest blogger is a British Virtual Assistant based in South West France. Jo specialises in social media management for small businesses and eBook formatting. Jo's blog contains further articles on social media tips and the eBook industry.

Just writing a word like Zeal and Zest looks kinda funny as part of a blog title.  At least I managed to come up with something other than ‘zzzz’ (which is really how I’m feeling after 26 posts for the A to Z challenge)

ZThis is gonna be short & sweet.  Your blog is all about you and your blogger voice.  Let it be heard.  Let your zeal and zest for your blogging come out in every post that you write.  If you can’t express yourself on your blog – then what’s the point ?

And most importantly, don’t ‘zeek out’ i.e. don’t lose control of yourself / don’t freak out !  Blogging is meant to be fun – so smile and just do it ! 

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay !! The A to Z Challenge is finally complete !

p.s. I promise ‘zeek out’ is a real word in the dictionary !

XThat caught your attention right ? My attempt at a slightly humourous heading considering I couldn’t think of anything quirky to go for an X tip.  Damn it’s a really hard letter to come up with things for !

In case you don’t know .. Xanadu is an idyllic, exotic, or luxurious place (according to the Webster dictionary) … and that’s what my blog is for me .. its my idyllic place, my haven to just let myself go !

You should be super eXcited about your blog – I know I am about mine and about the ones I read.  I’m forever pimping out blogs of my favourite bloggers to anyone who wants new reading material and its always good to hear that other people I know are checking out my blog.  I love connecting with new readers via their comments and feedback.

I often find that I lose myself in my blog … especially when I’m on a roll .. sometimes I can’t type my thoughts up fast enough because there is just so much going on.  Do you find yourself in that mode ? Its a place where I can express myself without any reservations at all .. do you notice that on other social media platforms there’s a certain degree that we hold back when it comes to really saying what is on our mind ? 

How Xanadu is your blog for you ?

WOkay so I was totally clueless about what to write about for the Letter W … My first thought was to write about Wikipedia (‘cos really it’s such a great site to be able to find info on) but then I realized it wasn’t quite the blogging tip I wanted to share.

Ever since I started my first blog challenge in Aug 2011, I have been on the look out for other blog challenges as well as trying to find new ways to come up with good content for my blog.

Just now it struck me – the only way your blogger voice is going to grow is when you actually try out different forms of writing !  I’ve never actually done an actual writing exercise (like proper writers do) so I can’t tell you what to do with that.  But my perspective of it is that you should be open to writing about things you have never written about and something that is different to your usual content on your blog.  Taking part in a blog challenge is a form of a writing exercise for me and I can’t tell you just how chuffed I am with myself for making it through the challenges !

Here are a few ‘writing exercises’ (or challenges or whatever writing prompts – whatever you want to call them) that you might find useful :

  1. 15 Day Feelings Challenge : you have one word as a prompt for each day and you can write about anything you want
  2. 7 Deadly Sins Challenge : 7 sins, and you need to write 7 things about them in relation to you
  3. 10 Day YOU Challenge : a great way of letting your readers know more about you !

And if you want more check out these links :

  1. 5 Daily Writing Exercises That Can Improve Your Blogging by Mariana Ashley
  2. 365 Picture Prompts from the Creativity Portal
  3. Imagination Prompts from the Creativity Portal 

I hope you find these useful and if you have any writing exercises or tips then please do share them in the comments.

Bottom line – write whatever it is that you want to write about as long it comes from the heart.  Not all of us are professional writers; or can claim to have penned a book or two – but if you put your mind to it – anything is possible.  Happy Blogging folks !

UThis was a bit of a hard one for me – so I’m going to try and make this short and sweet.  Your blog is one of millions of blogs out there.  So what makes your blog so special for people to come out and keep visiting you ?

You need to make sure your blog is Unique and is always Updated.  I know it sounds ‘easy’ but it’s sometimes overwhelming to know that you have all these amazing blogs out there that just seem to have something special about them.  And of course we all want our blogs to be one of those ‘go-to’ blogs ‘cos its got all the best content ever !

My suggestions to you to keep your blog unique would include mixing up your content; participate in various blog challenges; and invite your favourite bloggers to write guest posts for your blog to give a new voice to your blog.

Some of the ways you can keep your blog updated is by refreshing your blog design every few months or at least once a year.  I’ve had about 4 different designs & layouts for my blog since I started blogging.  You can also schedule your blog posts so that you have regular content being posted even when you are too busy to blog. 

There is no right or wrong way to make your blog unique – what makes it really unique is the fact that’s its YOUR blogger voice that’s going to be heard and those who like it will stick around and those who don’t – oh well they’re just missing out. 

Just the other day, I wrote about Quality vs Quantity of posts and prior to that I’ve gone over how we must maintain original blog content. 

Have you found that sometimes you are on a total blogging roll – everything seems to be inspiringS2 you and before you know it – you have got 4-5 ideas that you can make into blog posts.  So all these posts are ready but ‘now what’ ? Do you post them immediately ? Do you come back to them in a day or two or even the next week to post them ?

I’ve been there and guess what – sometimes I’ve forgotten that I have this awesome post sitting in the drafts and that post has gone unpublished for the longest time.  That sucks especially if it is a post that was probably more relevant to have been published earlier (maybe ‘cos it related to another post you had / it was in time for a new movie release / had something to do with what has been going on in the news – you get my drift here)

During the course of the Ultimate Blog Challenge that took place in January this year – I discovered that ‘scheduling’ my posts was really a God-send !  Blogger & Wordpress both offer this service and if you use Windows Live Writer like I do – then that has it as well.  The best part is being able to review & edit your posts prior to publishing (even though its technically already published)

Some of my posts for the A to Z Challenge were all written up on my free days and due to my ad-hoc work timings – I set up the posts to be scheduled to be published at different times each day so that I didn’t miss out on my posts. 

What are your thoughts about scheduling posts ? Have you done that in the past ? Are you going to be scheduling any posts during the Ultimate Blog Challenge ? Have you figured out when is the best time to ‘schedule’ your posts for ?

Read, Read & Read Some More R

Blogging isn’t just about writing your own blog and letting people find you in Blogosphere.  It’s also about ‘reading’ other blogs ! Yup – you know all those other thousands of blogs that exist out there.  You’ve got to read them (ok not all of them but you need to make the time and do some blog stalking).

Who knows what kind of blogging techniques you will discover just by visiting other blogs.  Maybe you even ‘discover’ the next big blog that carries trends that people can’t wait to find out about.  The more you read the more you tend to get inspired – and hey inspiration is something we all look out for ! Reading other blogs also gives you the chance to make some great blogger friends.

React & Respond

So reading other blogs sounds easy right ?  Errrrrrrrrm WRONG.  If you read 20 blogs a day but don’t ‘react’ and ‘respond’ to them  (i.e leave comments by de-lurking) then what’s the point of reading those 20 blogs ? How are those folks going to know you thought their post was absolutely fantastic and totally expressed your own perspective on the topic in ways you couldn’t do yourself ??

rrj-read-react-respondDuring the course of this challenge, I’ve mentioned that it’s very important to engage your readers and to at least respond to comments that you get on your blog.  The other thing you’ve got to do is also ‘react’ by responding to other blog posts you read by leaving comments for them.

It’s quite an easy mantra.  Read. React. Respond.  (oh and feel free to pimp the blog that you react the most too – the blog author would love you for it)  Now imagine if everyone was networking that way – how many new connections would we all make ?

How many blogs do you read on a daily basis ? Or do you keep your blog reading for the weekends ?  Do you react with a response when you come across an interesting blog post ?

qQuality Over Quantity

Some blogging tips suggest that one should post a minimum of a post a day; sometimes more if they want their blog to reach top ranking.  After 3 years of blogging, there is no right or wrong way to blog ‘cos it really depends on you and what you want to achieve with your blog.

My belief is post quality over quantity.  As long as you are putting up good quality content on your blog, that’s all that matters.  The content should be relevant, informative, and intrigue your reader enough to want to leave you with interesting & interactive comments.

Make it your blogging goal to post quality over quantity.  I rather have a handful of meaningful posts than 30 posts that lack any sort of depth.  Others believe that Quantity matters too – check out what Jan Wong has to say in ‘Quality over Quantity, Really ?’

Questions

I noticed that when I started ending my blog posts with questions to my readers – the conversation on my blog increased.  You can’t be shy at blogging – so why not come right out and ask your readers direct questions related to your post topic which will encourage them to respond and therefore also get some of your anonymous readers to de-lurk. 

Do you question your readers directly or indirectly ? Which one works better for you ? Or do you sort of place the question between your post and hope someone responds to it ? 

Quotes

Personally I find that quotes can be very inspirational and can always be linked into a blog post or used to create a brand new post.  Do you use quotes at all ?

During the course of the A to Z Challenge, blogger Gillian of A Daft Scots Lass has been putting up some great ‘mottos’ (and some quirky quotes) for each letter of the alphabet.  Make sure you check them out and follow her on Twitter whilst you’re at it  @ADaftScot

On that note, I’ll leave you with 3 quotes I came across and thought were pretty apt for this post.

It is the quality of our work which will please God and not the quantity.
Mahatma Gandhi

Questions provide the key to unlocking our unlimited potential.  Anthony Robbins

PBefore I start today’s post, let me throw a few questions your way.

  • Do you want other bloggers to know about your blog ?
  • Do you think you have a fun blog and want more readers ?
  • Do you want to be recognized as a budding blogger with tons of potential ?
  • Do you have amazing products and want to reach out to new clientele ?
  • Are you looking to publish and distribute the next best-seller on this side of blogosphere ?
  • Are you publishing blog content that everyone should read at least once ?

If you answered Yes to any of the above (very random questions) then my darling blogger friend, you better start pimping your blog ! And I don’t mean by standing in a dodgy alley and giving out your blog business card. 

Social media is an amazing space and the most perfect place for you to pimp your blog without fear of being judged.  To use social media effectively, you know ‘know your audience’.  . Flowtown has a great infographic on social media demographics on their site.

6 Ways To Pimp Your Blog Diva Style

  1. Create a Face Book Fan Page for your blog and invite all your FB friends to ‘Like’ It.  Tell your Twitter friends too !
    • Use Networked Blogs to sync your blog posts to your Facebook profile and Facebook Fan Page.
  2. Create a Twitter account ifpimpmyblog you aren’t already on it – make sure your twitter name is something people can associate with your blog (if you are an anonymous blogger)
    • Tweet and Re-Tweet to your hearts’ content and use relevant hash-tags so people can find your content.
  3. Digg the posts you enjoy
  4. Stumble your own posts and share other posts you Stumbleupon.
  5. Add your blog link to your email signatures.  I do that on my personal email as ~ My Dazed Reflections http://www.dazedreflection.blogspot.com/
  6. If you are a business blogger or have a blog for your business, then LinkedIn can be a powerful tool for B2B (business to business) companies.

How do you pimp your blog over social media ? What works for you ? What other platforms have you used that aren’t mentioned ?

Feel free to leave your FB Fan Page; Twitter ID’s and Linked-In Profiles in the comments so others can share some bloggy love with you.

You are a unique person – there’s no one els0e out there who is ‘you’ (unless you have a twin and even then I’m sure there are differences in who you both really are).

Your blog is a reflection of you and therefore all the content you post on your blog should ideally be original posts.  This is where I always end up thinking ‘erm how original can my post be ?’

Technically there is no such thing as an original idea ‘cos all ideas are somewhat borrowed or based on ideas from the past (whether it was 10 years or 100 years or even 10 days ago).  It’s a fact – so accept it.  I have.

There’s no harm in taking titbits of a great news article or a featuring a YouTube video that you enjoy – but if you don’t add your own opinion / perspective to it – then it doesn’t really add value to your blog and loses its ‘originality’.   Oh, and don’t forget to share the linky love so that your readers can go back to the original source of your inspiration.

See what I mean – it’s a bit tricky trying to be original but there are ways to do it.  You just have to bring your opinions and perspectives to the post and voila – it’s as original as it can get.  It’s all about expressing yourself at the end of the day.  And if you’re lucky – someone else will be inspired by it and write about the same thing and so it goes on. 

How do you come up with original content for your blog ? Do you list off potential topics and then just go with one or do you get that gut feeling that it’s going to be a good one ?

Further Reading :

  1. How to Write a Popular Post by Leo Babauta
  2. 10 Secrets for Writing Good Blog Posts

 

NLet’s be honest here – if you are a blogger, then you are already in a way – a bit of a networker.  It may be in your personal life, or work life – and now due to blogging / because of blogging you’ve started networking.

Networking is a fab way to make friends in blogosphere.  It’s also a really easy way for you to pick up on new ideas that you can use to create new content for your blog.

When I talk about networking – I don’t mean just add someone to your blog roll / Twitter.  I’m talking about actually connecting with other bloggers via all platforms available to you.  When you discover a blog post that really leaves you gobsmacked or awestruck – make sure you de-lurk and let the blogger know that you appreciate what they have to say.  If they have a Facebook page for their blog – then ‘like’ it and share it with your FB network.  If they are on Twitter – then tweet with your favourite bloggers; RT their posts; interact via tweets with them – have an actual conversation outside of your blog (I’ve actually met a few of my Blogger & Twitter friends in real life as well)

I managed to get some great new content for my blog by asking my network if anyone wanted to write a guest post for me.  The response was overwhelming and I have new content that is different to my regular style of writing – which in turn gained me a few new readers.

Do you network with your blogger peers ? What’s your preferred way of communicating with them ?  Do you ever seek their help when you feel a creative stump ?

Diva’s Discovery

Networked Blogs is a simple and fun user generated blog directory that lets users gain more exposure for their blogs.  Your blog gets it’s own page, a listing in the Networked Blogs directory and its easy syndicated to Facebook and Twitter (which means once you publish your post to your blog, it automatically gets posted to your FB and/or Twitter page as well).

Check out Michelle Shaeffers’ post ‘How To Add Your Blog To Networked Blogs’ – I’m sure you’ll find it useful.

Make The Time To Blog

When one first starts blogging, they tend to write / post whenever they feel like it.  I’ve found that over the past few years; I’ve started to make the time for blogging even when I’m super busy Mand have way too much on my plate – but I make sure I put aside a little bit of time to update my blog. 

Why ? Because I want my blog to grow (for myself).  One of my blog goals is to post a minimum of 8 posts a month; and luckily for me in 2011 I averaged 17 posts a month (compared to 2009 / 2010 where I was averaging 10 posts a month). 

My blog (or me) will probably never be a Top 10 blog across genres – but that doesn’t mean it can’t be. And the only way it will – is if I make time for my blog like all the other pro-bloggers out there.  Just by committing to take part in the A to Z Challenge – I’ve made myself make time for blogging each day.

What about you – do you just blog as and when you like or do you set aside a particular time of the day to blog ? I tend to write the most late at night or early in the morning.  Do you have any blog schedule that you follow ?

Mix It Up

I enjoy mixing up the content on my blog since I’m the type of person who gets bored quite easily.  I love to read blogs with different content to mine – and if I learn something new from a blog post that’s a total plus point. 

Memes are in essence pre-defined templates that bloggers can use to provide regular and interesting content to their blogs.  They are particularly useful when you’re lacking inspiration or when your creative juices are drained out. meme 2

I do owe some of my blog posts to the memes that I participate in such as Music Monday; Wordless Wednesday; and a little meme I created on my own Sexy Saturday.  The idea behind these memes is quite simple – every Monday I put up a post about a piece of music that I enjoy.  Wordless Wednesday involves putting up a photograph / visual art – I’ve clubbed this by adding my thoughts to the picture and asking my readers what they think about it too.  Sexy Saturday is all about eye-candy and I used it as a way to feature the actors / actresses that I (and the rest of you) drool over.

Do you participate in any popular memes or blog hops ? Would you consider participating in any of the ones I have mentioned ? Does your blog have a mix of topics or do you tend to stick to one type of content ?

Did You Know …

Richard Dawkins first introduced the word ‘meme’ in The Selfish Gene (1976) to discuss evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. He gave as examples melodies, catch-phrases, and beliefs (notably religious belief), clothing/fashion, and the technology of building arches.

 

LLinks are awesome.  I enjoy clicking on links within articles or blog posts that provide ‘further reading’ links that are relevant to the topic on hand.  It’s a way for me to discover new blogs as well.

A Back-Link is exactly what it sounds like – a link coming back to your own blog or website.  It could be from another blog or website to your own; or an external link from someone else. 

Diva’s Guide to Giving & Receiving Linky Love

  1. Links to Posts that you have referenced.  I tend to link back to blog posts that might have inspired my own post and I make it a point to also inform the blog owner that I will be doing so / or have done so.  It makes them feel good and you’d be surprised at how often those bloggers will pimp your blog post for you just ‘cos you’ve mentioned them and given them credit. link-to-me
  2. Link back to your own related posts.  Linking within your own blog is a great way to boost your blogs SEO, and to showcase your other blog content to your readers.  You can go a step further by using key words that relate to posts that you’re going to be linking back to so as to further boost your blog SEO.
  3. Link back after Comments.  Most of the time, when you leave a comment on a blog, there is a feature that lets you leave your blog link.  Make sure you do this ‘cos you never know who might be interested in reading your last post.
  4. Become a Guest Blogger or Invite a Guest on your Blog.  I encourage any blogger doing a guest post for my site to include a link to their website and to their FB and/or Twitter; and the same has been asked of me when I have guest posted for other blogs.

What do you do to increase your back-links ? Do you use any of the suggested methods above ? Do you offer a link exchange feature on your blog ?

Diva’s Discovery

A while ago I came across ‘Comment Luv’ – it’s a plugin that can be used with Wordpress and Blogger blogs which allows the person commenting to choose to display not only their name, but any one of their last 10 blog posts.  Now that’s an easy way to create and increase links to and from your blog.  Check out this nifty video to get a better idea about it.

p.s. if you use Intense Debate as a commenting system like I do – you just have to go to your dashboard and activate CommentLuv

p.p.s the ‘Love’ part of this post was inspired by @MystiqueWanderr and @Mate1

KToday’s post is inspired by my twitter friend @panku_  He totally reached out to me within 5 minutes of me tweeting yet another plea for help last night.

When I first heard about key words – I was a bit confused.  I mean it sounded simple enough but every other website was talking about how important it was, and how it should be used and how it affects search rankings .. a bit over my head to be honest.

Basically keywords are those specific words which are searched in a search engine.  If you open Google now and type in ‘Blogging’, you will get a few options of ‘key words’ that people use when searching for topics related to blogging.

If you use your keywords correctly – search engines can provide you with a free source of targeted traffic to your website or your blog.

Diva’s Guide for Using Keywords

  1. Place key words in your content copy. The best places to use keywords are in your Post Title, Headline, Sub-Headings, First and Last paragraph.  Of course you can also use variations of them in the body of your text
  2. Place keywords in your Meta Tags.  So meta tags are in the HTML part of your web design (and really if I knew how to explain this any easier I would).  There is something called ‘title’ and ‘description’ and you have to include a short concise description of your blog / site / page over here. key-word-resume
  3. Place keywords in your ALT tags i.e. photo tags.  So if you’re blog / site is about pet care, and you if a picture of a dog on a comfy dog basket then your tag should read something like ‘only the best for your pet’
  4. Place keywords in your domain name and page title.  This is important for people who have their own domain names.  You can get a lot of directed traffic out of this.  e.g. if you have a pet sitting service in Dubai then your domain name can be ‘www.dubaipetsitting.com’ (this is friends’ company).  Search engines tend to find these first.

Do you consciously use key words when writing your blog posts ? Now that you know about it – do you think you might have subconsciously done it ?

Please do share any tips or insights based on your experience on how one can incorporate key words into their blog posts.

Before I started the A to Z Challenge, I knew I was going to faceJ trouble with some of the alphabets for my theme (which is the A to Z of Blogging – Diva Style … oooh I like the sound of that!)

I sent out a plea tweet yesterday as I still didn’t have any topic to write about and then one of my favourite bloggers @TheHopefulRom came to my rescue with the suggestion for today’s post ‘Just Do It’ ‘

TheHopefulRom thought it would be apt ‘For anyone who's spent ages thinking about blogging but has been too afraid’ – Just Do It.

It’s perfect and makes for a great post.  So I’ve come up with a few scenarios where the motto ‘Just Do It’ will get you motivated enough to keep you going.

Here’s the Deal. You’re new to the blogging world, and you want to get your blog noticed.  What do you do ? Blog, Blog and Blog on ! Just do it ‘cos if you don’t, no one will know you’re out there.

Here’s the Deal.  You want to experiment with your blog content to show off your witty sense of humour but aren’t sure if your readers will like it. Just do it – ‘cos someone out there in blogosphere is going to enjoy your post.

Here’s the Deal. You’ve been reading about blog challenges but don’t know if you will be able to complete it.  Don’t be afraid. Just do it – how else will you know if you can or can’t complete it.

Here’s the Deal. Are you afraid of leaving comments on other blogs ? Just do it and de-lurk ! Trust me – you won’t regret it.

Here’s the Deal.  You want to write about a potentially controversial topic / you are infuriated by something but afraid to blog about it / you’ve been inspired by an idea that could just turn the heat up on your blog .. but you hold yourself back.  Just do it – blogs are meant to be an outlet for you to express yourself; it’s your blog after-all.

Here’s the Deal.  You’ve made your blogger friends that you follow them on FB and/or Twitter and you would love for them to Guest Post on your blog but afraid / embarrassed to ask.  Just do it – not only will the other blogger be flattered they would also appreciate that you think highly of them. 

justdoit

Just Do It.  3 very powerful words.  So whether you are a newbie or a native in blogosphere, whenever you find yourself in doubt (in similar situations to above; not for when you’re thinking about raiding a bank or jumping off a cliff) – just do it ! What’s the worst thing that could happen ?

Disclaimer : Neither TheHopefulRom or myself are promoting Nike or blogging on their behalf.  This thought can be traced back to the Tweets between THR & myself on 10th April 2012. 

(I’m trying to be funny – is it working ?)

Ideas & Inspiration

All blog posts stem from an idea or a thought which our fingers tap out into posts via the keyboard.

Do you ‘think’ about what your blog posts are going to be about or do you just let your creativity take over ? Or do you get an ‘ah ha’ moment and you know that’s what your next post is going to be about.

Sometimes I get inspired by other blogs I read – and I feel that I could definitely add another perspective to the general idea & thought behind that post.  I started participating inI memes such as #MusicMonday and #WordlessWednesday ‘cos I found that I certain music and photographs just tend to inspire me to pour out my emotions / thoughts.

I love the idea behind the A to Z Challenge because you’ve basically been given an outline of what you have to do – and now the world is your oyster and you can choose to write about anything.  I’ve come across blogs that are using the theme to list the best movies; favourite music artists; give writing advice; introducing characters from a fiction novel; and even relationships.  It’s fantastic.

Where do you get your blog ideas from ? What inspires you the most ? What inspired the theme behind your A to Z challenge posts ? Do check out my posts 712 Topics You Can Write About and Never Run Out of Blog Ideas Again

Infographics

I’m sure you’ve seen them floating around cyber space – I find them pretty cool.  Did you know that cave paintings are considered to be the first infographics ? How cool is that ?

I quite admire anyone who is able to create an infographic – especially for complex information that needs to be easily understood.  I tried doing a basic one just for myself and gave up half way ‘cos it was getting too detailed (and really I am quite useless at using advanced Photoshop or any other creative software)

Do you use any infographics in your blog posts ? Have you tried to create one before ? If you are the creative designer type and use various software for designs then you should check out Inkscape. 

Diva’s Discovery

I personally really liked ‘Visual.ly’ for creating infographics because the interface is simple and easy to use.  Have you ever used it before or heard of the site ?  Here’s a funky infographic I made with the help of the ‘create’ feature on the site (they also have templates to guide you from)


create infographics with visual.ly

Headings

Have you ever found yourself clicking a link to an article just because the headline / heading caught your attention ? We’ve all done it – I know I definitely do it.  Sometimes the articles are worth it – and sometimes I think ‘erm why am I here again ?’

More often than not – people will read an article based on the heading alone.  It doesn’t matter how much you pimp your new blog posts via Social Media – if the title doesn’t strike peoples’ interest it’s unlikely they will read the whole post. 

Try to use a headline that makes people sit up and H-11notice (also as an opportunity to connect with a potential new reader).  Easier said than done unless you are a stand up comedian … which brings me to my next point …

Humour

Humour is very important in a blog (or at least that’s what I think).  I try to incorporate ‘me’ in my posts and that sometimes involves a bit of sarcasm and a few funnies.  Anyone with a sarcastic streak will catch the undertones in my posts but its not meant to be evil – it’s just my way of being kinda funny. 

I reckon any reader – irrespective of age, gender, race, & geographic location – can appreciate humour in a blog.  And there are some wickedly funny blogs out in Blogosphere. 

Do you tend to appreciate most types of humour ? If you had to pick your top  10 blogs from your blog roll – how would you rate them on average on the humour front ?