Five Useful Tips From Experts in Writing Blogs

More and more people are putting up blog posts every day.

2 million blog posts are written daily which is why it’s not easy to stand out from the crowd.

As a blogger, you are not just competing with other blogs out there but new websites as well.

According to Netcraft, there are around 1.8 billion websites around the world.

In the most popular blogging platform on the planet known as WordPress, there are 75 million websites and blogs combined.

There are other platforms like Tumblr (350 million blogs) and Blogger.com who have several millions of bloggers on their platforms that are churning out articles and posts.

Statista.com shows that the number of blogs on Tumblr increased by 25 million blogs every 6 months.

The emergence of WordPress has changed the blogging world by offering a platform that is free, user-friendly and easy to implement.

– Websites with a blog have 434% more indexed pages

– 76% of online experts say they plan to add more content in the coming years

– Blogger.com has more than 46 million unique visitors per month

– 45% of online marketers say that blogging is an essential part of their marketing strategy

These numbers may be overwhelming for the average blogger but this shouldn’t stop you from pursuing your passion to write and publish a blog.

You should focus and try to dominate your chosen niche.

We share with you five useful tips from experts in writing blogs.

Be Concise

Blogs are usually written in an easy to read and conversational tone. Avoid using terms and words that are complex for the average reader to understand.

Concise writing is lean, readers can finish the article in a few minutes with little effort. Here are three tips you can apply to enhance your writing:

  • Avoid linking verb phrases that make your writing passive. For example, instead of “was writing” use “wrote” which sounds more forceful.
  • Change prepositional phrases like “The decision of the team,” to “The team’s decision.” These phrases make sentences longer and harder to follow.
  • When a noun ends in “tion,” change it to a verb. For example, change “in the creation” to “to create,” which makes the sentence sound cleaner.

Clear sentences should convey information in a simple way. Writers tend to focus on sounding smart to impress readers, but this defeats the purpose of making them understand you better.

Complex sentences confuse readers, you should keep in mind that they don’t care about your writing prowess, they only want to look for solutions to their problems.

The Hemingway App is a tool that you can use to see whether your writing is bold and clear.

Appeal to the Senses

Fiction writers can make their audience feel the stories that they write. They are good in transporting their readers into the story like they were really there.

Use vivid details that appeal to your reader’s senses, paint pictures with your words.

Business writing is different from fiction, but you can still harness the power of sensory language in your content.

Let your readers see, hear, touch, smell or taste your ideas so that they will get hooked on your content.

Be Consistent

It is easier to lose your traffic than to attract them. Bloggers forget that they need to be consistent with their posting.

For newbies, posting once a week would be a good way to start, but if you can post daily, then that is the best frequency for blogging.

A Hubspot study showed that blogging consistently leads to higher subscriber growth rates. Businesses that publish entries on a regular basis added subscribers twice as quickly compared to those who added content only once a month.

Give Free Content

Research has shown that those who add a giveaway contest led to 125% more email subscribers.

People love getting prizes and free stuff, make sure that what you give away has value and would be appreciated by your audience.

Add CTAs

Many bloggers forget to add a Call to Action on their posts.

Give your readers a chance to signup to your email list or follow you on Twitter.

Bloggers who added these CTAs had an increase of 335% in Twitter followers in 7 days.

Video Marketing Strategies That Works In 2018

Video marketing is now becoming an integral part of marketing strategies today. This paradigm shift is because more people are watching videos on their mobile devices daily.

Planning is required for companies to make video marketing strategies that will work in 2018. We take a look at steps you can take below:

Research

When it comes to your video marketing strategy, you can never do enough research. Good marketing foundations are essential, but you have to keep track of the latest trends with your audience, industry, and prospects so that your content will cater to their needs.

Having a well-oiled content marketing strategy gives you a basis for your video content.  You need to think of ways to convert your content into video format.

What is the purpose of your video marketing strategy? Do you want to increase sales? Are you planning to promote your new service? Do you want to build your email list?

Coming up with answers will help you determine the type of videos that you need to produce.

Match this with the type of content that will appeal to your audience then you are now ready to go to the next step of pre-planning.

Plan   

Once you have done all your research and your data is complete, your next step is to implement your research results to your video content.

Always keep in mind the goals that you have set so that your videos will focus on achieving those goals. We take a look at some examples.

You are a real estate company who wants to promote your project which is now in the pre-selling stage. Your videos need to showcase the plans and the development of your pre-selling project. You would also need to include infographics on the advantages of buying now than later showing how much they will be able to save. Aerial shots using drones would be an attractive feature in your video.  You can also show people how to get to your site location the fastest way.

You are in the retail business, and your company sells weight loss products. Your videos should be on testimonials which show before and after shots of satisfied customers. Interviews would be a good idea with customers sharing their weight loss journey. A separate video informing prospects about your product and why it helps in weight loss is also relevant.

You are a nonprofit company that helps new businesses get started. Your videos can be a webinar type which shows a weekly class that you conduct with entrepreneurs.

You also need to choose a platform where you would upload your video. You can choose from Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and a whole lot of other social media platforms.

Each platform will require a different approach in your video content. For example, LinkedIn would have a more professional audience while Facebook allows you to target specifically by age, gender, location, and other categories.

Produce

Now that you have a plan based on your research you can now create your video content. There are options that you can choose to save on cost.

You can self-produce videos if you have a modest budget. You don’t need to buy expensive equipment if you can’t afford it yet. Smartphones with good cameras will do just fine. You need to research on proper techniques on video production and editing.

A more expensive option is to hire a production company like press release distribution services. If you need a video that is professional quality, then this is the way to go. Going directly to a video production company is ideal if you already have your content prepared. Going through an agency is an added expense because they will outsource your video production needs anyway.

Build

You have done your research, planned well and created your videos, now you want people to watch them.

Promote your videos on your website and social media platforms. Send out email promotions and ask your employees to share it on their personal platforms.

All You Need To Know About On Page SEO

 

We now live in a digital age where speed sells. Technology has improved by leaps and bounds which has resulted in making things faster. Cars are now faster, planes, ships as well. The need for speed has made people impatient, especially when it comes to getting information online. This is why it is important for us to know how to do on-page SEO optimization.

Best selling author and SEO expert, Neil Patel shares with us about everything we need to know about on-page optimization.

The past few years we have seen Google release several updates to their algorithms. The Panda, Hummingbird, and Penguin were the biggest updates that set new guidelines on how website owners should structure their sites for link building and using anchor texts for outgoing links.

On page SEO has not changed that much despite these updates. There are SEO experts who worry so much about having to change on page SEO strategies in order to adjust to the updates.

Here are on page SEO tips that you can apply in order to boost search rankings and get more search traffic.

Improving your site speed is one of the cheapest ways to improve rankings and give you the best ROI.

Research has shown that 47% of your target visitors expect your site to load in under two seconds. In addition to this, more than half of all U.S. online shoppers will not purchase from a site that loads slowly.

Make sure that your website does not have duplicate content which will slow website indexing down. Site speed is now a major rank signal, unlike in the past. Speed is essential and is now a fundamental aspect of SEO.

Studies have shown that a mere 1-second delay in page loading can result in a 7% decrease in conversions. To give a clearer picture of what this means, let’s assume that an online store is making $100,000 per day, a single second delay can cost around $2.5 million in lost sales per year.

On page SEO also involves using tag fundamentals. Meta tags should be taken seriously by paying attention to the basics.

Title tags describe the title of your web page. They are used in displaying previews or snippets of your page in search engine results. Make this short, direct and descriptive. Don’t duplicate content from those written on your page. Use 50 to 60 characters for your title tag, Google limits previews to 60 characters.

According to Survey Monkey, 43.2% of visitors click on a given search result based on a meta description alone. Your meta description appears below your title tag, limit it to 160 characters. The meta description is what search engines use to know what topic you are writing about so that they can send it to the right audience. Don’t stuff keywords in your meta description and try to use words with similar meaning with your main keywords to get on page SEO in your meta description.

For WordPress users, writing your meta description will be easier. You just need to install the All in One SEO Pack, which allows you to set up title tag and meta description all at once.

Content drives search traffic to your website. According to a Hubspot report from 2014, close to three-fourths of consumers choose to research companies through articles rather than annoying ads.

Come up with content that includes long tail anchor words. Be consistent in coming up with high-quality content. Content is one of the drivers of Google rankings. Some experts even say that content marketing has overtaken SEO when it comes to driving traffic.