Blogging Success—Slow and Steady Really Does Get You Where You Want to Go

by @EdieMelson

For the past five years I’ve been sharing tips and tidbits from the writing life here on The Write Conversation blog. One of the things I keep coming back to is the fact that small consistent steps make a big difference.

Today I want to toot my own horn a little, as well as share some small things you can do consistently to duplicate the success I’ve had with building an online platform.

Social Media Monday—What Gadgets Do I Need in My Blog’s Sidebar?

by Edie Melson @EdieMelson

Someone contacted my with this question just last week. I looked for a blog post about this to send her. That's when I realized that while I talk about this in bits and pieces within different blog posts, I’ve never written a post addressing this specific issue.

That’s a huge slip-up on my part because your blog’s sidebar is VERY important in the overall success of your site. Not just what's in it, but also what order those gadgets are in.

So today I’m going to break it down and answer the question, “What gadgets do I need in my blog’s sidebar?”

Social Media Monday—The Etiquette of Commenting, for the Blogger & the Reader

by Edie Melson  @EdieMelson

Blogging is a great way to build an online community—when you take time to learn how to do it right. Part of the things you need to learn including how to write a focused post, how to keep to a schedule, how to facilitate conversation with open-ended questions and today’s topic, the etiquette of commenting.

It’s important to know the dos and don’ts of commenting because part of growing your blog means you’ll be leaving comments on other sites, as well as replying to comments on your on site.

The etiquette involved isn’t complicated. As a matter of fact, I think it’s fairly intuitive. Most of us do the right things most of the time. But there are some things we may over look. Today’s post is designed to help you learn the etiquette of commenting for the blogger and the reader.

Social Media Monday—Essential Dos and Don’ts of Blogging

by Edie Melson  @EdieMelson

I love to blog, and I try to share my love of blogging when I teach at writing conferences.

I also know that many of you aren’t such fans. Many of you try to love blogging because it’s a good way to connect with your readers and build an online presence. Others, don’t even try to love it, but do it out of necessity. The rest are like me, and enjoy the process as well as the connections it brings.

No matter where you are with blogging, it’s important to do it well. Whether you blog twice a month on a group blog, or daily on your own site, there are some essential dos and don’ts of blogging that I’d like to share with you today.

How to Structure the Perfect Blogpost

by Adam Morgan

Structuring the perfect blog post is a myth. A blog post is a work of art that conforms within the science of grammar, psychology and SEO. Though we will never achieve the perfect blog post, we can always shoot for the ideal blog post.

The ideal blog post consists of the following basics:

• At least 500 words.
• A killer title.
• Targeted keywords.
• Captivating images.
• Links to other posts with the blog.
• Captivating content.
• A video (if relevant).
• A call to action.

What’s that Mean—Blog Post Titles that DON’T Confuse Your Social Media Followers!

by Edie Melson

I spend a lot of time sharing other people’s blog posts on my social media networks.

But spend even more time passing over valuable posts because my followers would have no idea what the post was about. So today I want to give you the basics to help with blog post titles that DON’T confuse your social media followers.

I pay a lot of attention to my blog post titles, and I often spend almost as much time composing them as I do writing an entire post.

Put Your Blog on a Diet

We’re nearing the end of the year, and if you’re like me, your blog may have put on a little extra weight. But unlike us, slimming down your blog takes only a couple of hours.

This is a good time to whip it back into shape, before the insanity of the holidays descends. So today I’m going to help you put your blog on a diet.

Click on your own site and look at it with these thoughts in mind. Here’s the checklist I use to evaluate my sites. Don’t hesitate to tweak it to fit your needs.

Social Media Monday—Blogging, Do I REALLY Have To?

The answer to your question depends on your goals. Although blogging is a proven way of connecting to readers and clients, there are some options you may not have considered.

And beyond that, this isn’t a one-size-fits-all sort of world.

Here are some instances where you might want to ignore all the advice you’re getting. 

Social Media Monday—Social Media & the Law of Diminishing Returns

Social Networks are as hard to number
as a charm of Hummingbirds!

At the time I'm publishing this blog, there are approximately 40 large social media platforms and networks. I say approximately because counting them is about as hard as numbering a charm (flock) of humming birds. And they come and go almost as quickly.

Trying to chase down and join all the networks is not only impossible, it’s completely counterproductive. As writers, we need to remember the purpose of social networking, and it’s not to make a career as a marketer. It’s the means to an end—actually a couple of ends. Our goal with social media needs to stay focused on two thing:

Learn How to Navigate Feedburner

A lot of people don’t realize they have a valuable service attached to their blogs. It’s Feedburner and it’s most commonly used feature is as a gadget to let people sign up to follow your blog through email. But there’s so much more to Feedburner and today I want to give you a guided tour.

In Blogger, Feedburner is default service for email subscriptions, since both are owned by Google. But it’s frequently used with other blogging platforms like WordPress and Typepad. 

Normally, when you want information about your blog, you begin by going to your dashboard. 

NOT this time. 

To access your Feedburner account you have to start on the front side of your blog. That’s the side that visitors see. This is also where you can access your Feedburner stats. Go to the Sign Up With Email gadget and click on the words, FEEDBURNER. 

NOTE: if you don't have a clickable FEEDBURNER link on the front side of your blog, type in Feedburner.google.com to your search engine. Don't type www before it. Google owns this service and they're messing around with access to it and it's finicky to get to it. Once there, click on the blog signups you want to access.

This will take you to the Feedburner site. Once there, you’ll see all your blogs listed. Click on the one you want to work with. This will take you to a page with lots of different menus--some at the top and some down the side. 

Across the top is:

ANALYZE

OPTIMIZE

PUBLICIZE

MONETIZE

TROUBLESHOOTIZE (I think they got a little carried away here)

Most of the things you’ll want to do will be accessed from the PUBLICIZE tab. Click on that and you’ll see a new menu appear on the left side of the screen. Click on Email Subscriptions first. 

NOTE: if you want your subscriber details, scroll down to the bottom of this page and click on SUBSCRIBER DETAILS.

Now you’ll see even more options appear. Before you click on one, look at the bottom center of the screen and you’ll see the number of email subscribers you currently have for your blog. This is also where you’ll see the HTML codes to plug into websites and blogs (if you don’t use Blogger). 

A lot of people ask me if it’s possible to set the time when their blog is emailed to people. It definitely is and this is the menu that allows you to do that. Look back on the left side of the screen and click on Delivery Options. 

The first thing you’ll want to do here is select your timezone. After that, you can schedule email delivery of your blog updates. Your options are in two hour increments. This is good to know about if you ever happen to post your blog a couple of hours late. You can come here, change your delivery time and then change it back after your subscribers have been notified. Just be sure to click SAVE after you’ve made any changes. 

I recommend you take some time and get acquainted with all the different things you can do through Feedburner. Also be sre to post any questions or comments you have in the comments section below.

And don’t forget to join the conversation!

Blessings,

Edie

SEO for Writers—Basic Hyperlink Tips

SEO or Search Engine Optimization and Hyperlink are important terms for writers to know, whether you’re a freelancer writing blogs or websites for customers; or a novelist trying to build a platform.

If you’re not familiar with SEO here’s a post I did on Search Engine Optimization a while back that should help you come up to speed.

Today I want to concentrate on hyperlinks and teach you how to use them effectively.

A Hyperlink is a clickable link found within a post. The paragraph above contains a hyperlink—Search Engine Optimization. If you position your cursor above any of those three words and left click you’ll be taken to another page on the website. Other common terms for a hyperlink are a Hotlink or just a Link.

Hyperlinks are a good thing to have within a post for a couple of reasons.

• Including them will raise your search engine ranking.
• It’s a way to utilize previous posts and get more traffic on your own blog.
• They can give your readers more value by linking to valuable site that your readers may not have visited.
• It’s a way to build credibility by linking to other sites you’ve written for.

BUT, there are some tricks to formatting hyperlinks correctly to give you the best results. 

• Tie your hyperlink to valuable words. The words hyperlinked in your post are also searchable by search engines and you don’t want to waste them, so pick words that are specific to the topic you’re linking. For example, in the first paragraph, I could have made the word POST the link. It would have made sense, after all I was referring to a previous post. But how often do people do a Google search for the word post? Not very often. So I linked to a much more interesting set of words, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION.
• Be sure the site you link to opens in a new window. This is important because your website stays open and it’s easy for your reader to check out the info you’re referencing and return to your post. Otherwise you might lose them. In most standard blogs and websites you have an option to decide this.
• Always check your links. Let me say that again—ALWAYS CHECK YOUR LINKS! Very few things will irritate people more than to be curious about something and then be directed to a dead-end when they try to learn more. I don’t care how familiar I am with a link, I always test it before I publish a blog post.
• Inform others. If you’re linking to someone else’s site or article it’s polite—and smart—to drop them a quick email and let them know. We all like to know that others have found our information valuable. Frequently the honoree will tell others about your article and this can also help you get the word out about your blog or topic.

Now it’s your turn. Post any questions or comments you have about hyperlinks in the comment section of this blog and let’s learn from each other.

Don’t forget to join the Conversation!

Blessings,

Edie

How Often Should I Post—Keys to a Reasonable Blog Schedule

There is lots of information about blogging around, some of it good and some of it not so good. One of the biggest misconceptions I see is in regard to how often you should post your blog. The common misconception seems to be that daily is always best. While this may be true for some, it’s definitely NOT for the majority and here’s why. 

• Daily blog posts don’t always get read. People are busy and few (if any) have time to read every blog every day. If you post once or twice a week I’m much more likely to read every post than if you post every day. For the sites I follow that post every day I pick and choose what I read by the title of the post (which is a whole nuther subject!).
• A daily schedule can cause burnout. For many people, a blog is something they do in addition to their regular writing. If you have to work too hard at it you may be tempted to quit.
• Frequently the posts are better when they’re spaced further apart. Let’s face it, it’s hard to be great day-in and day-out. This definitely holds true with blogging.

So what is a reasonable blogging schedule? Truthfully it depends. But here are some things to think about to help you find that magic number for you. 

• Your personality – are you easily discouraged when you don’t live up to expectations? If so, I’d start slowly. Once a week is a good goal and then, if that’s manageable you can add another day. But keep the schedule in line with what you can accomplish. If you’re like me, when I fail at something too often I give up and quit.
•  Your goals – think about what you want the blog to accomplish. Are you trying to connect with your readers or start a network? That will entail posting more often and replying to comments in a timely fashion. Do you want to build a platform? With that, a regular schedule of two to three times a week, with focused articles and posts should do the trick.
•  Your lifestyle – what does your home life look like? Do you have a full-time job or are you a full-time writer? I have a friend who writes and she homeschools five kids. Believe me, posting four or five times a week just isn’t a reasonable goal for her. 

So what’s the answer? Mainly, I think we need to be flexible. We need to give ourselves the time and space we need to figure out what works best for us and our readers. When we do that, we’ll be well on the road to excellence.

So what have you found? I’m curious, how often do you post and what feedback have you received about your posting schedule?

Don’t forget to join the conversation!

Blessings,

Edie

So How Much Time Do I REALLY Have to Spend on Social Networking?

Truthfully—the bare minimum.

Yep, you read that right.

But what about the hype, the promises, the RESULTS? Don’t the results increase in direct proportion to the effort? No, not so much.

Fairly quickly, the return on investment when, it comes to time and social networking, begins to diminish. I that sounds counter-intuitive, but it’s the absolute truth.

That said, how much time is required?

It depends…on your expertise, your audience and the desired result. 

Your Expertise

With any new skill, including social networking, there is a learning curve. It takes time to come up to speed on how to use Twitter, Facebook and Blogging platforms effectively.

But, you don’t need to become an expert. After all, you want to be a writer—not a social media expert! So how do you know when you're expert enough to be effective? Here are some basics you should have mastered:

Twitter: You need to have a Twitter account and know the basics of tweeting. Here is the first, second and third in a series I wrote about Twitter. And one stand alone post about Twitter.

• How to compose an effective tweet.
• How to use hashtags correctly. Here’s a post on that.
• The difference between a direct message, a reply and a tweet.

Facebook: You need to have a Facebook account and know how to navigate Facebook. Here's a helpful post.

• How to accept friend requests, as well as send them.
• How to hide unwanted posts.
• How to compose an effect Facebook post.
• How to configure your account privacy settings to protect yourself and your family while still interacting with readers and clients.
• The difference between a regular page and a fan page.

Blogging: You should have a blog—to practice writing on a deadline if nothing else. Here are parts one, two and three of a series I wrote on blogging.

• You need to know how often to post. Unsure what’s best? Here’s a post to help you decide.
• How to use keywords and labels effectively.
• How to tie your title to your keywords.
• How to use photos and videos to illustrate and partner with your posts.
• How to answer comments effectively.
• Which platform best suits your needs and skill level. Here is a comparison of the three most popular platforms.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to be explaining these topics more in-depth. But for now here’s my short answer on how much time to spend each day—once you’re familiar with social networking.

You should spend no more than 30 to 45 minutes per day, five days a week on social networking. 

Yep, after talking with thousands of authors and writers, I’ve found that any more time than that becomes counter-productive and actually interferes with our writing.

If you’re spending more time than that per day, something’s not working. So now it’s your turn, how much time do you spend daily on social networking? Is it working for you? Do you know how to tell if it’s working? I’d love to have you share your answers and your questions in the comments.

And don’t forget to join the conversation!

Blessings,

Edie

Thursday Review—Which Blogging Platform is Best?

Why do you use Blogger?

That question—or some variation—seems to always come up when I speak about blogging. And the answer is simple—and complex.

The reason I started with Blogger was because it was so easy. And when I started my blog you could hardly fill a sentence with what I knew about blogging, much less a book!

But the reasons I continue with Blogger is a little more complex.

• I’ll be honest, I have an affinity for Blogger because we've sort of grown up together. It seems that every time I’m ready to take that next step with my site Blogger has added a new upgrade.
• Blogger is run by Google. Now Google isn't perfect by a long shot, but they have a HUGE presence on the Internet and they—as well as anyone—know where the business is headed.

I am familiar with WordPress and also with Typepad as blogging platforms. And I don’t want to leave them out. They both have some great options as well.

WordPress

• The thing I like best, and least, about WordPress is it’s tutorials. It walks you through the mechanics of building a blog, but you also have to move through a lot of the focus of your blog. It’s a lot to get through to just get started. When I built my blogs it was harder to get started with WordPress if you didn't know anything about websites and such. Now, with their directions it’s pretty easy. Their tutorials are much more thorough than Blogger’s. Blogger walks you through the steps—WordPress explains them.
• WordPress is also constantly updating its options. As a matter of fact, my next blog will be built on WordPress. Not because I’m unhappy with Blogger, but because I want to expand my knowledge base and play with a new toy!

Typepad

This platform isn’t free and it’s my least favorite, maybe because I’m not as familiar with it. But I’m coming up to speed quickly because I’ve taken over joint management of a large typepad site.

Surprisingly, since it’s a fee based service, it seems to have the least options. It seems that every time I want to do something it’s only possible in the next pricing tier.

Everyone has their favorite platform and to be truthful they’re all pretty good. WordPress and Blogger are definitely the frontrunners and they tend to swap the lead back and forth. For a while Blogger offers the newest and best options, then for a while WordPress does. I don’t think you can lose with either one.

So I’m dying to know—what’s your favorite blogging platform and why? Did you try a lesser known one and love it . . . or hate it?

Don’t forget to join the conversation!

Blessings,

Edie

Does My Blog Enhance My Brand?

Your blog should make sense with your brand. It should help complete the picture of who you are. This goes hand in hand with last week’s post about audience. It also takes into account the purpose of your blog. All of these things must work together to present a clear picture of who you are and what you have to offer your audience.

Trying to figure out your brand can sometimes difficult. Here are some things to consider when looking for your brand: 

• What is your passion? You’ll only be able to sustain a blog about something you’re passionate about. 
• What do you know that could help someone else? We all have things we’re good at.
• What do you want to become an expert about? If you want to learn about something the best way to do it is teach someone else.

The final thing to do is get started. All blogs evolve and get better with time. All the research in the world can’t take the place of actually doing the work. So don’t hesitate, take a chance and try out blogging!

And . . . don’t forget to join the conversation!

Blessings,

Edie