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Posts Tagged ‘Blog’

Ever wish that you could ever so gently nudge some of visitors to comment or promote your content? There have been many instances where someone will email me or mention in passing that they really liked my blog post on “such and “such” and when I then go to check they never left a comment…hmphhhh. It’s like thanks for the feedback but a comment would be much more helpful…well guess what…there’s a tool that can help you.

At HubSpot, my place of employment, we constantly talk about the importance of “nurturing your leads”. That is absolutely an important component to ensuring that those you engage with you continue to stay engaged. In a similar manner this wordpress plugin, WP Greet Box, allows you to stay on top of with your returning visitors. Why not nudge someone who returns to your site…they are obviously interested so nurture them by keeping them engaged and in the process giving others a chance to become engaged.

Are you intrigued? So here’s the deal…”Greet Box” allows you to set customized messages to certain audiences. So if someone comes to your site via Stumble Upon you can encourage that visitor to Stumble your content. Pretty cool huh. I haven’t used it yet myself but as I find time I will let you all know how’s it going. You can see more details, screenshots etc through Wordpress.

Let me know if you try this yourself, or if you are employing similar ways to engage your loyal followers and fans.

If you have a blog, whether it be your personal blog or that for your business, you have to advertise it. You want to advertise your blog not only to gain more followers/readers but also to open your potential to more inbound links. Remember that inbound links from other trusted sources are like people raising their hand saying “you should pay attention to this one, good stuff.”

I’ve put together a list of the top FREE sources (some are directories, while some are the very obvious social media networks where you can promote your blog). They are (in no particular order):

• Google’s Blog Search
• Technorati
• FriendFeed
• Blogged
• Blog Catalog
• Blogmarks
• Twitter
• My Blog Log
• Zimbio
• LinkedIn
• FaceBook Fan Page
• StumbleUpon

You will want to make sure to create an account on most of these sites and remain active. Find a specific group, niche or topic that relates to you or your business, and then track the links and traffic that comes in from those sites. No doubt most of you may already be active with a good portion of the above mentioned…but are you linking to your blog. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of these will have what is called “no follow” applied so you won’t get direct credit from them. As more and more people come across your blog and see what good stuff you have to offer, they will bookmark your site, share it, comment, link etc.

Are there any that I missed that you think are definitely worth setting up an account and linking to your blog?

Image source: (www.blogtrepreneur.com)

My most recent wordpress project was one that required a move from Blogger’s Blogspot to Wordpress. Check it out www.rungranolarun.com

Many bloggers often start out with Blogspot.com and then wish they were using Wordpress instead. The move is actually not too difficult.

Depending on the hosting solution that you use for your Wordpress, you may or may not be able to upload the Blogger’s blog directly. I use Bluehost (found it’s limitation) and had to use a workaround. Wordpress.com actually did the trick.

Here are the steps you want to follow:

1. Log in to or create a Wordpress.com account. Once logged in you want to find the “Tools” tabAfter selecting the tools tab click on “Import.” Within the import section you then select “Blogger”, then authorize. This section will take you to your Google Account for which the log in is the same as your Blogspot.com log in. If you are already logged in then this won’t be prompted. Google will then ask you again to authorize the connection so click “grant access”.

Once you have finished this connecting process. Your Import > Blogger access will now show you all Blogspot.com blogs that you have with that respective account. Select the one that you want to transfer to Wordpress.

Click “Import” and the process will proceed automatically. This however is where (if your Wordpress setup won’t allow it) you could get stuck. What happened to me was that I’d select import and each time only one post would import and then the process would stop. The workaround is to use Wordpress.com as I mentioned.

After the import is complete and you verify that indeed all of your posts and comments are uploaded you can then do the reverse (unless you are not self hosting, in which case you’d be done now). For those who are self hosting follow the steps under “Tools” > “Export” now. It simply exports Wordpress to a file that can then in turn be uploaded to your hosted wordpress account.

2. Before you proceed with the final import make sure that you have installed the Wordpress Plugin Blogger Redirector and that your permalinks are set to /%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%.html which is the same format that Blogger uses. This way when you set the final redirect from Blogger all of your posts will redirect as well.

3. Test, test, test

4. Log in to Blogspot.com under “Settings” > “Publishing” > “Advanced Settings” and enter your new Wordpress domain address. Then save those settings.

Your final product just may look something like this

Hope this helps. I’d love to know what your experience with blog migrations has been.

There are several key features that every blog should posses. I am going to outline some key elements that every blog must have:

Strong Engaging Posts

1. Quality on page SEO – Optimized Titles, URLs, Headers and Content.
2. A theme – your content and overall look and feel of your blog should all be around a similar topic. If you want to talk about your cat or how you helped an old lady cross the street, while that is very sweet of you, …um I don’t think anyone cares to follow that except a few of your close friends and family or unless you are a celebrity in which case you can even write about your bowel movement and people will still follow you.
3. Write posts that draw in your audience and will get them to share your content. Writing information that is helpful will do that for you. “How To” posts are a great place to start.
4. Post at least weekly and if possible twice a week.
5. Pose questions at the end of your posts to encourage engagement and feedback.
6. If you have a successful post follow it up immediately by posting another strong article.

Easy Sign up/Call to Action

1. Give people the optionto sign up via RSS. You want to have that sign up above the fold
2. Also give people the option to sign up via email. It’s old school but people still use it.
3. Show people where else they can find you. While that may mean that they read your content elsewhere my school of thought is that they are at least still following what you write and will still share your content.

An Information “About” Section

1. Make available a snippet of information through a sidebar or at least on your home page that gives your readers a glimpse as to the human side of your blog.
2. Also have a full blown about page. This page can be developed over time and should be a kick ass glimpse at what makes you, you, and what your blog is all about.

Feature this…

1. Highlight you best blog posts. Trying to find ways to keep people on your site? Give them easy access to your most popular posts.
2. Find some cool wordpress plugins that sensible and work for what you offer. Here are some wordpress plugins that I think are key.
3. Write up a post about someone else.
4. Look for new ways to attract people to your site that will hopefully also serve as link bait.

Set Goals

1. Whether your are setting goals for your social media strategy or your overall blog…have them be concrete and realistic.
2. If you are trying to promote your services or you are selling something then track your leads.
3. Consider getting comments as a possible goal/conversion measure.

A strong blog doesn’t happen overnight. You know the saying Rome wasn’t built…neither will your blog. For a lot of people it takes some time to find their voice. Once you do…keep at it.

What are some key elements that you employ on your blog? Anything you think that this list definitely should have?

Wow. First of all kudos to Social Actions for doing the initial “Change the Web challenge” and then for Zemanata to  “pay it forward.” I have blogged about how great Zemanata is once before, but this truly sets them apart…Ok so let me get you up to speed as to what this whole challenge, “Blogging for a cause” is all about.

The kind people at Zemanata have stepped forward with the following challenge to each and everyone of us:

We Need You to Blog About Your Favorite Causes.

As a blogger, your voice can change the world. Innovative social media tools, such as blogging give you the means to promote any number of worthwhile charitable causes. It’s a big challenge, but one we know our community of blogging friends is up for: making the world a better place.

Zemanta has been working with Social Actions, an initiative that aggregates civic causes from more than 50 databases, to create a tool that recommends charitable causes to bloggers while they write. In recognition of Zemanta’s effort, we were awarded 2nd prize at the Change The Web Challenge.

What Zemanta is doing now is that they are taking that $3000 (and any matches they get) and donating that money to an organizations that gets the most blog press/coverage. (You know the basic concept of paying it forward I assume).

My response: “I accept your generous proposal, Zemanta!” Of course I am jumping at the opportunity to share my favorite organizations with you…

So I start with an amazing organization out in Arizona. I became familiar with their mission and work first hand during my work at ROI Solutions. The organization I’d like to brag about is the Center for Biological Diversity. Boy, based on the last 8 presidential years we should all be advocating for more biological diversity (*IMO*). The Center for Biological Diversity, or CBD as they are called, has been on the forefront of saving endangered species for years. Please consider this: most of those species are dying because of global climate changes, new housing or corporate developments, and simples things like off road driving; circumstances for which we are all responsible.

Some of their more familiar recent campaigns include Saving the Polar Bears, Cleaning up the Bush Legacy, and the Call of the Wild (you may recall those popular animal ring tones from a few years ago, that was them)…but beyond the general popularity of their campaigns, their campaigns are extremely well run and organized and managed by even more efficient people. Their staff are among the most dedicated and enthusiastic animal nerds that I have ever met, and that is so cool.

Cool as they may be, we have to remember that we are all responsible, and we should all pitch in to ensure the continued prosperity of as many living creatures, however big or small, on Earth as we can. So wether this inspires you to join CBD, to make a one time donation, or maybe to share this story with a friend, I am honored to have shared their work with you. I do hope that you do one of afore mentioned, and even better, take the time to write about this or your favorite organization.

This blog post is part of Zemanta’s “Blogging For a Cause” campaign to raise awareness and funds for worthy causes that bloggers care about.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Big win for a tiny endangered species (CBD success story – one of many) (sciam.com)
• Blogging For A Cause (zemanta.com)
• Zemanta now suggests ways to change the world (zemanta.com)