5 Blogging Secrets For A Successful Blog

Here are 5 Blogging Secrets For A Successful Blog, a few tips that I have learnt over the past few months that I been blogging. I think these steps are important for maintaining and keeping the momentum going new blogs. If I say they’re secrets, you’ll treasure them more, but the thing is, I share this with you daily. I do it right in front of you. But just this once, I’ll slow it down, and walk through it  ll. Fair?

1. Drafts.
Make drafts of your future posts, collect data and information related to the post and keep working on them. One of  the reasons most blogs fail or lose an audience is that they fail to to post consistently. Having a  unch drafts helps you when you run out of ideas and keeps you organized.

2. Become A Feed Ninja.
Read more post less. While you might not be Scoble and have the ability to read 600+ RSS feeds in a few hours, try to  keep track of news around your niche and interests, blogs catch up on news faster than news sites. Reading will also help to give you more ideas for your next post. Practice makes you perfect.

3. Engage Users And Build Relationships
I have subscribed to every reader who has left a meaningful comment on my blog this helps me get to know my readers better and what they expect from my blog. Use Services like cocomments etc to keep track of  comments.

4. Be Available And Accessible.
One of the key things of building relationships is to be easily accessible. I have added most of my regular reader on Gtalk and chat with some of the frequently (you can add me ajacob[at]clazh.com). I’ve helped some of them out when they ask me for help or advice.

5. Break News, Write Pillar Posts.
If you follow point 1 and 2 you’ll realize there are two types of post you can do. Break news or write Pillar post. Breaking news is hard you’ll need to watch your Rss feeds like a hawk, it has a few advantages, if its important news it will get picked up easily by other blogger. Writing Pillar post will make your article sticky, most of the traffic that I get are from my pillar posts.

What Are Pillar Posts? Source DailyBlogTips

Characteristics of pillar articles:

• they are longer posts
• usually above 750 words
• they offer a clear value to the reader
• their content is timeless
• their content is original and unique
• they outline the expertise of the writer around a specific topic
• they attract links from other bloggers

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Controversy Concerning "Servicing" of Structured Settlement Payments

Servicing of structured settlement payments occurs when a structured settlement payee sells only a portion of their future structured settlement payment rights, yet concurrent with the transfer, the factoring company also enters into an agreement to "service" the structured settlement payments that have not been sold. In "servicing" practice, one check is made payable to the factoring company instead of one to the factoring company and one to the payee. The factoring company receives the entire structured settlement payment, when due from the annuity issuer, takes what is owed to it and "passes through" the balance to the payee. This involves issuing a separate check to the payee issued off the factoring company account.

 

Further it has been alleged that annuity issuers will not address questions of payees whose payments are subject to a servicing agreement. Some factoring industry commentators suggest the reason for this phenomenon is that some structured annuity issuers will not "split" annuity payments (i.e. make payments to more than one place)ostensibly to save administrative cost. Others say that the practice is driven by the factoring companies simply as a means to secure new business. Several industry commentators have expressed concerns questioned whether such servicing agreements are in the structured settlement payee's "best interest".

What they say needs to be addressed is what effect the bankruptcy of a factoring company "servicing company" would have on the payee, with respect to the payments being serviced. Until this issue is decided, payees who are considering partial structured settlement transfers should be wary about participating in "servicing agreements". One possible solution has been suggested-that there be a requirement that servicing companies post a bond.

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Earn Money Just For Commenting

Earn money an Get payd more just for commenting. This is not somethings new for some people but even so it would not hurt if I tell that there are another ways to earn money that is possible for most people who not really know, this way can be used as an alternative way to earn additional money and spent a little time just for commenting. Actually not just a comment task we can get the benefits but there are also other forms of task that we can run, and of course these tasks is calculated based on credit, for 1 credit is equals $ 0.01, or 100 credit is equal  $1. And of course every task has a credit score that can range from 1,10,50,100,150 credits.

To cash your money you need or have collected at least 2000 credits or equal to $ 20.

Here are all the ways you can currently earn IMReportCard.com Credits …

• Rate a Review or another users’ comment 1 Credit
• Grade a Product, Service, Person or Biz-Opp 10 Credits
• Add your own comment to any review 50/100/150 Credits + *Bonus*
• Suggest a new product, service, etc. for review 100 Credits
• Refer another user to IM Report Card Whatever THEY earn!

What You Need To Get Started :

• USA Account to get approved and if you are come from a fraudulent country you will be reject, so that to get approve use FREE USA VPN service before register.
• Register here at IMReportCard.com (ref)
• Once you get approve, set your profil page.
• Read and understand http://www.imreportcard.com/faqs.cgi
• English And Grammatical when Commenting
• Paypal to cash your money

How much you can earn through IMReportCard.com :

Well it will depend on your skills in making comment (read the rule how to post a comment), because only by commenting you can earn huge credits between 50/100/150 or suggest some sites to review. It usually take about 1 day for your comment to get approve or reject but it also can be fast. Make sure your comment is over than 100 words (follow the rule) and dont get your comment  rejected by many times or your account will be deleted.

let us assume that we can make 5 comment every day and each comments is approved and give about 50 credits each, then 5 * 0.50 = $ 2.5 per day, and if it was done for 30 days then $ 2.5 * 30 = $ 75.

It is a simple calculation, and every one of us can produce different results, depending on the comments we have made and credits given for our comments. and if you can make 10 to 20 comments a day and all of them accepted, then you can calculate yourself how much money you earn.

So, if you think this is worth to try, than register now……, this is worth to find a capital for your online business somethings like buying hosting or domain name or anyother you like.

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Installing Widgets on Your Blogger blog

Installing Widgets on Your Blogger blog

Once you start looking at other blogs (and you should be to learn how to format your own), you’ll notice cool-looking widgets that you may want to install on your Blogger blog. How the heck would I install something like that? you may be thinking. It’s very, very easy. You see, rather than having to actually go into the template and fiddle with HTML, Blogger allows you to add a number of items to your blog–and takes the guess-work out of it for you.

Usually, widgets will have an install code. Click on a desired widget to visit the site to get your own and look for a snippet of code. Run your mouse over the code to select it or right-click and hit “Select All” then press “Copy.” Once the code is highlighted, return to your blog and go to Layout.
How to Install Widgets

• At Navbar, click on “Add a Gadget.”
• Scroll down until you come to HTML/JavaScript
• Select that and paste the code into the box
• You can choose a title for the top part of the box
• Press “Save” and you are done!

Check out your blog to see your new widget, proudly showing itself off in your blog’s sidebar!
Installing a widget on your Blogger blog is easy, thanks to the handy HTML button.

• Take a deep breath and reward yourself by going out for some pizza. You are joining the ranks of dedicated, pizza-loving bloggers.

Once you get on to the process, installing widgets can be one of the neatest aspects of blogging

Tags: blogger tips, blogging tips,blogger widgets

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Duplicate Meta Description and Titles Issues In Blogger

While reading the celebrating post at FalconHive, I realised an important point has been overlooked by me. Although I have written the articles on importance of Meta tags, and how to add meta tags to specific pages, but the solution to a serious error which is very common in almost all blogger blogs has remained un-answered till now in this blog.
The errors or issues in Blogger/BlogSpot blogs is the duplication of meta description tags and page titles.

Before I tell you the reason behind these errors, let's see what are the consequences of these errors: Due to any of these issues, search engines like Google and Yahoo may consider your blog as filled with duplicate content and titles, which can confuse their algorithm, and thus may lead to penalization of your blog.

Now the reasons that your blog has these errors:
1. In Blogger, although you can add meta tags to the template easily, but these tags are then used for the entire blog (all the posts). So the description tag, which is only meant for the main/home page gets copied and is displayed for all the pages. Now Google assumes that all your pages are having the same content, which is a serious offense in Search Engine Language !

2. The second issue of duplicate titles arises because Google indexes blog posts and comments separately, and while indexing comments, it again indexes the complete posts. Now this is where a serious problem of duplication of both content and titles takes place.

So you must remove these errors to make a successful and Search Engine Optimized blog.

Finally the solution to the problems:

1. First of all, in the template (Blogger-> dashboard -> Layout -> Edit HTML) find (CTRL+F) the code for meta description tag, something like this:

<meta content="GENERAL_DESCRIPTION_HERE" name="description"/>

Now put that tag in an "if" condition, so that it will be displayed ONLY in the HOME PAGE:

<b:if cond="'data:blog.url"></b:if></div><meta content="GENERAL_DESCRIPTION_HERE" name="description"></b:if>

Now save the template.

2. For the second issue (duplicate titles); in the same page (Layout -> Edit HTML), click on "Expand Widget Templates".
Then find (CTRL+F) this code:

<a expr:href='data:comment.url' title='comment permalink'>
<data:comment.timestamp/>
</a>

Replace the entire code with this new code:

<b:if cond='data:post.commentPagingRequired'>

<a expr:href='data:comment.url' title='comment permalink'> <data.comment.timestamp/> </a>

<b:else/>

<a expr:href='data:blog.url + &quot;#&quot; + data:comment.anchorName' title='comment permalink'> <data:comment.timestamp/> </a>

</b:if>

That's it. Now within a week or 2 weeks, you may see the difference and improvement brought to your blog by this method !
NOTE: For my own blog it took around 10-15 days to get these errors removed from Google.

To see the changes, you should have an account in Google's Webmaster Tools. Once you log in to your account you can see the errors at Diagnostics -> Content Analysis.

Credits for the 2nd hack: Cranked.Me

**UPDATE: This screenshot will better explain you, how Google considers the same page as two different pages with same title and content, just because it indexes comments separately:

**UPDATE: Thanks to this hack, now in my own blog (mr-luthfi.blogspot.com ) the number of duplicate meta tags and titles came down from around "250 and 80" to "7 and 28" within 20 days. Now Google is more frequently visiting this blog due to less (the so called) duplicate content :)

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How to Change Blogger Icon Into Yours

How to Change Blogger Icon Into Yours. Most bloggers (Blogspot users) are eager to uniquely customize the appearance of their blogs, and one of the small but significant customizations is changing the icon / favicon. This article will explain about how to change your blog icon, from the default Blogger icon to your own custom icon. I have used this method myself so I am sure it will work for you as well. Would you like to know more?

Recently, I had changed my tab icon of my blogger site. It used to be a common blogger icon which is an orange rectangle with the white letter B inside it. I changed it into my custom made icon of a sky blue rectangle with vertical I and Y (my initials), which also looks like a winking smiley. If you are interested in doing the same, here are the steps to do it:

1. Prepare an image

, can be JPG or PNG format. I suggest PNG format because its size will be smaller by a 4:1 ratio. It means that a 10 Kb JPG image will be a 2.5 Kb in PNG format. Also make sure the size is small like 20 x 20 pixels or less, so the file will be smaller in size and won't make your blog loads slower.

If it's difficult for you to edit a small image, you can make a bigger one first, like 200 x 200 pixels or more, and after finish, you can skew it smaller. Microsoft Paint can do it for you easily.

2. Upload the image

to an image hosting service, like the free PhotoBucket. Then, obtain the direct link to your image for the next step. You can use another image hosting service if you like, just remember to get the direct link.

3. Add this bold tags to your template. To access it, click "edit html"in "layout" section. Put them in head section, between "title" tag and "b:skin" tag. If you face difficulties in finding the tag, just use the find tool in your browser. In Mozilla Firefox, the shortcut is ctrl+f. If you use another browsers, apply with adaptation.

<title><data:blog.pagetitle>
<link href='

"color: rgb(255,0,0)">put the direct URL of your image here

' rel='shortcut icon' type='image/vnd.microsoft.icon'/>
<b:skin>

Save and done! Visit your blog, open a few tab, and you should see your new icon there. It is very simple, so feel free to try it. Any question?

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30 Blogging Secrets to Power Your Community

Do you like learning about magic tricks? To me, the best magicians are the ones who share what they know. Penn and Teller are like that. They love deconstructing tricks in front of you? So, do you want to learn some blogging secrets from me? If I say they’re secrets, you’ll treasure them more, but the thing is, I share this with you daily. I do it right in front of you. But just this once, I’ll slow it down, and walk through it all. Fair?

Starter Moves

1. An intriguing title goes a long way towards getting people to the blog. Failing that, posts with numbers seem to work. Especially weird or odd numbers. 27 is odd.
2. A picture per blog post has been my trick for a while. It draws your eye, whether or not you want it to. We’re wired for it. I use Flickr Creative Commons photos to do that. (Make sure you give them adequate credit. I show that in this post, too.)
3. Did you ever notice most of my posts open by asking a question? That’s a secret. When I do that, you stop and think about the question. But more importantly, it shifts your mind to the “what’s in it for me” sphere that you started reading from in the first place. Make sense?
4. Break things up visually. Notice that I have an H3 tag (html speak) title repeating the top title, and that I’m using a list to give your eye some natural “chunking.” Go back and read cafe-shaped conversations for an example.
5. Oh, maybe I should’ve started the post by saying that it helps if you write something useful for people. People want posts they can use to improve themselves or their business.
6. Brevity rules. I mention this a lot. People just don’t read long posts (usually). There are exceptions. I read every word Ann Handley writes, and often wish for more.
7. Write “unfinished” posts. Having ways that others can add to a post or improve on it invites participation. This might just mean asking for ideas or getting a sense of what others’ experiences are.
8. Mix up the length of your posts, so that people can read varied length articles, like magazines and newspapers do.
9. Consider an editorial calendar, where you write down which TYPE of blog posts you’ve written lately, and which you intend to write. This helps you from doing recurring posts, and gives some variety to what you’re writing.

Technical Stuff

1. A nice clean blogging theme goes a long way. I’m a huge fan of Thesis for WordPress (so much so that I became an affiliate for it).
2. Make it easy for people to subscribe to your post. Most people stop at putting a big orange RSS button up in the corner of their blog. Check out my sidebar. Check out the Financial Aid Podcast. Look how many ways we show people how to stay connected to the community. That’s not by accident.
3. I’ve said it before. Claim your blog in Technorati. You don’t have to like Technorati. You don’t have to think it works well. But it triggers mechanisms you need.
4. Consider changing your permalinks structure. (In WordPress, this is in Settings/Permalinks. Where is it in MT or Blogger?) I learned this from Chris Pearson. Change it to custom and put /%postname%/. If you click on any post including this one, you’ll see it all written out in plain English without extra info. (This is a preference).
5. If you worry that a post might get “lifted,” or if you encourage people to repost your work with attribution (which I encourage), include a few links in the original post that will politely show people where the content came from. I learned this from Christopher S. Penn.
6. Consider every plugin and widget. Do they improve your blog or slow it down? Do they help you blog smarter?
7. Learn a little more HTML, just a bit. Learn how to make links, how to add photos, how to bold and italicize things, and that. If you’re stuck, Google or “view source” on blogs that do what you want to accomplish. (For example, I had to learn how to stop and start a numbered list with ol start=”10? to write this.)
8. Don’t force people to register for an account to comment on the blog. Lots of people won’t. (Your mileage may vary, but corporations try this all the time because they’re worried about someone leaving a “your company sucks” comment on the blog. It doesn’t fix that. It slows down real discourse.)
9. Technology should serve your community and your content, not just be there. Consider every technological change with that lens.

The Bonus Round

1. Share your posts politely via social platforms. In Twitter, I usually ask a question, and provide a link to the blog post to see what people think. I don’t “blurt” the blog posts automatically. Not every post is worth Twitter.
2. Facebook has tools like Simplaris Blogcast that integrate your blog into Facebook. So does LinkedIn. This falls into my outposts strategy.
3. Link out to other blogs often.
4. Comment on other blogs often. Thoughtfully. Adding thoughtful comments to other people’s posts builds friendships. I was a passionate commenter on Copyblogger back when I had 10 subscribers on my blog. Brian was still really nice to me.
5. Remember to comment in your own comments section. Conversations with your readers turn them from readers into a community.
6. Showcase your community. I do this with my Rockstars page (which needs updating) and by taking the occasional guest post.
7. Be consistent. You don’t have to blog daily, but if you blog once a week, get at least a post a week. Need blog topics?
8. Repoint to the old stuff occasionally. It’s often still useful to new community members.
9. Keep giving. When you can’t think of what else to give, give some more. Being helpful is the #1 thing you can do for your community. Share your secrets. You can’t execute them all anyhow.

More

1. Give the reader a give such as free ebook in pdf or something. Everyone love presents.
2. Blog walking (and give a comments) is absoletely needed to build a nice relationship in blogging.
3. Encourage yourself : there is no opportunity to success when you're not confident to blogging. Many people are afail in almost everything when they hesitating for what they do. Just do it

Need more? I have a collection of my best advice about blogging.

Your Ideas

What would you add to the list? Which blogging secrets have helped you? Are there any questions my thoughts gave you that I didn’t adequately answer? Let’s talk about it more.

(Oh, and that’s a secret, too).

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