New Updates

Google Docs Starting to Look A Lot Like Microsoft Word

Google has good news for all the bloggers, publishers, and authors out there. Finally, Google Docs has made it easy to track changes made to documents.   Google has just announced a new revision history interface with a series of changes all making Google Docs much more user friendly. Users have .... More »

4 Helpful Tips to Profit from WordPress

When social networking came along, its reach was underestimated. Out of that whole mindset came the idea of web logs or blogs. A blog is a place where information is posted and people read it. The most popular blog site available right now is WordPress and here is how to profit from using it for you.... More »

Blogging Updates Oct 4th - What You Can Take From Your Blog’s Worst Day

I love these Blogging Roundups because I like blogging. OK, I like WordPress more than Blogging but it all fits together right? I want to call your attention to the post "What You Can Take From Your Blog’s Worst Day". I really enjoyed this and I know you will as well. We are all lo.... More »

Monetization Strategies For Blogs And Content Sites

Whether or not you want to call it a blog, social media content production results in an influence platform, not a passive advertising doormat.  For most new media content producers, that’s the difference between doing this part-time and going pro. Assuming that’s your goal, you want .... More »

How to Grow Your Google Rankings

Growing your Google ranking helps with increasing traffic to your site.   They are several different ways to do this task and these methods come from other bloggers and webmasters through trial and error with a complete focus on tracking statistics of their sites. Keep in mind that growing your Go.... More »

As much as many of us want to get our blogs up and running and create an overnight success story, the truth is that having desire alone just isn’t enough. For starters, guys like Darren make it look extremely easy now, but it’s not like he rolled out of bed one morning and became an instant success. He poured hours of blood, sweat, and tears into his blogs before they became income worthy, but don’t fret just yet, help is on the way.

Even though we have to make our way through the learning curve until everything “clicks” into place, there’s no reason that we can’t shorten the learning curve so that we can spend less time wishing and more time living. By learning from our own experiences and, more importantly, the experiences of others, we can do just that. Darren does a great job of doing that here, but I’d like to present a list of things I learned the hard way, things I wish I knew sooner, and things that I think new bloggers could use to elevate their game to the next level.

1. Good Design Is Crucial

Most bloggers don’t have a very long time to make a good first impression, and with the abundance of great content throughout the interwebs, readers try to find ways to cut back and/or make quick decisions on which content they consume. One of the ways they do this is by judging a book by its cover. It might not be fair, but it’s reality. You dont’t have to give your kidney for a good design. There are dozens of theme providers that have both inexpensive and free themes that look much better than what was designed 2-3 years ago.

2. Narrow Your Niche

This is something that took me a long time to understand. I thought that by covering a bunch of topics, casting a wider net so to speak, that I would attract more people to my blog. The problem with that strategy is that when you do attract new visitors, you throw them off if your content isn’t consistent. They’ll wind up leaving and you’ll have to recruit new readers for every single post. So, try fishing with a spear instead.

3. Comments Really Do Matter

I didn’t take this seriously at first. I thought that my content was special enough to get noticed on its own. Boy was I wrong! It wasn’t until a few months ago that I crafted a comment policy that has helped my traffic explode. I do it by subscribing by email to a dozen or so blogs in my niche so that I’m notified as soon as there is a new post. I try to comment right away and do my best to add something meaningful to the conversation. More importantly, I come back and reply to other comments in the discussion. Do this often enough and on enough blogs and you will start to get noticed. You can’t give commenting lip service either; it is something that needs to be done every day.

4. Don’t Underestimate The Importance Of Your Knowledge

When you master a skill, it’s easy to think that others might be on the same level as you, which can lead you to discount the value of your skill set and experience. However, most people don’t know what you know and would to pay you to teach them. Things that might seem simple to you can look like Greek to a reader. Don’t ever take your skill set and knowledge base for granted.

5. When You Have A Blog, You Are The Authority

Own It! – We blog from behind a desk and see our lives as imperfect or incomplete. However, to a customer or new reader, you have an incredible amount of authority. If you have gone through the work of publishing content, then you need to step up to the plate and own that content. Take the authority and use it. You might be a 6 or 7 (on a 10 point scale), but to that new person, you are a leader. This excites people…they want a piece of your vision. Use that authority to step up to the plate and give them what they want. Don’t be afraid to be an expert!

Although this is just tip of the iceberg, I believe that if you just learn to improve on a few of these points, then you’ll shave a tremendous amount of time off your learning curve. You still might have to learn the hard way, but at least now you’ll have the context to understand what’s might be going wrong.

Read the full text by Nathan Hangen.