Thursday, January 13, 2011

Top 10 Attributes of a Successful Blogger

Have you ever thought about what it actually takes to become a successful blogger? Well, there are certainly a lot of successes out there and we can all learn from the best of the best. So I got to thinking about what it actually takes to run a successful blog and here is a list that I came up with.

1. Loves to write
You must admit that in order to blog successfully then loving to write must be #1. You really shouldn’t be blogging if writing to you is a chore. Your own writing style is what endears you to your readers.

2. Knows his grammar
Maybe you didn’t expect to see this one on the list but it is very difficult for me to read anyone’s blog who isn’t very particular about proper grammar. A case in point is Daniel Scocco, the owner of this extremely successful blog. If you didn’t know, he also runs a blog called DailyWritingTips. It is my guess that Daniel also feels that writing properly is very important to a successful blogger.

3. Hard Worker
If you’ve run a blog for a while, as I have, you certainly know that you must work hard. If you don’t, then it will show in your writing and your blog will not be well read. You can’t fool people and put your blog on auto-pilot. If you do then you will lose readership.

4. Entrepreneurial
After a while you will want to make some money from the online presence and brand that you have established with your blog. A lot of people get into blogging for this sole reason. Whatever your situation entails, chances are you want to supplement your income. I plead guilty to this as well. It’s hard to be in the blogging world and hear about how others are making money online and not want to have a piece of the pie.

5. Creative
You can make a blog anything you want it to be. You have the choice of a myriad of themes and plugins that you can tweak to make your blog site unique. This is what makes the world of blogging great. No blog is the same and it’s simply up to the creativity of the blogger to make it that way.

6. Life Lover
This is one of the most positive aspects of the blogging world. Have you run across a blogger who doesn’t love life? This is why I added this attribute to my list. And since I started my blog I have come across the most engaging, pleasant, and helpful people I have ever met.

7. Personal Developer
Personal Development is a huge niche when it comes to the blogging world. Well, I’m here to say that all bloggers want to develop personally. We all have this in common. Without this trait would we really be doing what we are doing? I don’t think so. I try to learn and grow as a person every day but I don’t think I’m unique.

8. Communicator
This one is no big surprise is it? A blog is basically a means by which we can communicate with our readers. Communication is not only good for the blogger but also hopefully for the reader. A successful blogger wants to connect the audience. Replying to comments is very important and that is why I respond to every comment on my blog.

9. Helps Others
This was one attribute that blew me away. When I started blogging I emailed some fairly high profile blog owners and they actually responded to my email. I wanted an opinion on the design of my blog and I also asked to interview them for my blog. They helped me out and it got me off on a very positive note when it came to blogging. It showed me how compassionate and helpful even high profile bloggers can be.

10. Efficient
We all have a certain amount of time in our lives. And unless you are blogging full-time, you are trying to squeeze in the time to create new blog posts or to guest post on other blogs. Successful bloggers are very efficient with their time because they know that their time is limited. A successful blogger will work in high quality guest posts at certain times which allow them to maintain content but not at the expense of publishing subpar posts.

I think that this is a pretty comprehensive list of the top attributes of a successful blogger. Please feel free to share any more traits or characteristics that you think I left out.

About the Author: Bob Bessette writes a blog called TotallyUniqueLife which is geared toward practical solutions, tips, and advice for your life.

How to Be a Remarkable Blogger

Have you ever thought about what it takes to build your blog above the norm and make it the envy of everybody? What it takes is being a remarkable blogger.

There are many debates in the blogosphere; some agree that content is king while others believe marketing is king. But the truth is that neither content nor marketing is king but the blogger himself. The blogger has to put the right balance between content and marketing which brings the need for being remarkable.

Be Unique and Personal

It is no doubt that John Chow and Darren Rowse are highly successful bloggers and their results are enviable but the truth is, trying to be John Chow or Darren Rowse won’t take you anywhere. Things would even be worse because a lot of people are already reading John Chow’s blog and your content will look boring to them should they come across your blog.

You are yourself and you won’t go far trying to be someone else. While there is nothing bad in looking up to a particular successful blogger and trying to be as successful as he is there is no point in copying everything that particular blogger is doing. The world already has one Darren Rowse and they don’t need another one but the world is yet to have YOU and they need YOU so try to be the master of your own ship. Let your unique traits and personality come through anything you do on your blog and it will be easier for you to achieve success.

Another thing worth noting is that there are countless regurgitated content on the web so make sure your blog posts are as unique as possible. Even though it is almost impossible to come up with a totally unique post you can give what has been said several times a new and unique spin and people will be happy to read it.

Be a Product of What You Teach

Just take a look at the blogosphere and you will notice that this is very common among bloggers. A lot of people are teaching you what they have no experience doing; someone who’s never made money online is teaching you how to make thousands of dollars online and someone who finds it difficult to get traffic is writing an ultimate guide on getting traffic to a blog. Things like this won’t take you far and people will easily see through you if all you do is preach what you aren’t.

You don’t necessarily need to start a blog in the make money online or blogging tips niche because those are not the only niches you can succeed in as a blogger but try to start a blog on what you are passionate and highly successful at. For example, if you are very good at football but you’ve never made any money online you will find it easier to be successful at blogging about football than blogging about making money online.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Is Blogging The Right Career Path For You?

To many, the world of blogging for income seems like a fantasy world. Internet marketing “gurus” are a dime a dozen and it seems like everywhere you look online, there’s a website claiming they can teach you the secrets to creating financial freedom. It all look so easy…but it’s not. Not even close!

The profession of blogging is often misunderstood and gets far less credit that it deserves. People assume that all we do is sit at home in our underwear, surf the Internet, and write an article now and then.

Now, this may be true for recreational bloggers, but for those who are trying to earn a living from it, it couldn’t be further from the truth. Blogging is a process, a very long process, and if you don’t agree then you are obviously NOT a blogger.

On the surface, blogging may seem like a laid back, easy way to make some money online. In actuality, it’s ultra competitive, especially in the Internet marketing space, requires a massive time commitment, and for most bloggers, offers little or no monetary reward.

The upside is that you get to write about what you love (hopefully), work from anywhere you want, build a huge social network, and have the possibility of earning more in a month that you ever did in a year at your day job.

The Internet Lifestyle

The lure of the “Internet lifestyle” brings millions of new bloggers out of the woodwork and into the blogosphere every month. Getting paid to write about something you love while sitting on a white sandy beach is what most new bloggers probably envision their life will be like.

Unfortunately, that rarely happens, and if it does, then consider yourself blessed. Blogging is a grind and while there is nothing wrong with having to spend countless hours working on building your blog, it’s still a long, often tedious process.

One problem is that people get so wrapped up in the idea of being a superstar blogger and living the good life that they miss the bigger picture. And that’s creating a valuable resource for their readers, writing entertaining and/or educational content, and properly marketing their blog.

Statistically, very few bloggers will earn more than $500 from their blogs and the main reasons are

They don’t treat it like a business
They write infrequent and/or random posts
They have no idea who their target audience is
They have no clue how to effectively market their services
They have no strategy for their business

These things all need to be considered before you even think about trying to build a business from your blog. Fail to understand any one of these and you may find yourself in a place that you don’t want to be. And that place is frustration.

Blogging For Income Isn’t Easy

The path to success for a blogger is not a straight line. What works great for one person may not work at all for another. There are many different ways you can achieve online success, and even more ways you can achieve failure.

When a new blogger starts out, everything seems great. We have a seemingly infinite number of ideas, are writing tons of great content, are getting involved with multiple social networks, are creating a buzz for our blogs, but it eventually wears off.

This is when frustration rears its ugly head. When you have just thrown your absolute best out into the blogosphere and you see very little being returned, it’s disheartening. This is why it’s vital that you have a strategy for your blog. Just trying to figure out your business plan or marketing strategy as you go does not work!

It’s very important to figure out exactly how you plan to earn income from your blog before you try to do it. If you don’t, you may end up being one of the blogging casualties we hear about all the time. These are the people who have a great blog, are doing exciting things, and then one day they are gone. They forgot one important thing-planning.

When we eventually realize that making money online is not easy, it can be a shock. Many bloggers think that building a list, putting a few Google AdSense ads up, and adding affiliate links to their site will make them a bunch of money.

While these are all techniques that actually do work, they do not work for those without a clear plan.

So before you decide that you are going to be the next Darren Rowse or Brian Clark, do some research first. Make sure you fully understand everything that goes into blogging for a full-time income before you set off to do it.

Otherwise, you may end up like millions of other “wannabe” pro bloggers, disappointed and broke.

About the Author: Steve Roy is the owner of EndingTheGrind.com, a blog dedicated to helping people get out of their miserable jobs, build an online business, and live with passion!

How to Play Poker Like a Rockstar

Think back five to ten years ago… if you wanted to play some poker you had two options; call over a few friends, or head over to your nearest casino. Now, through the power of the internet, you can play poker and win/lose money from the comfort of your own home! Poker is now bigger than ever and everyone wants to get in on the action!

My good friend Neil Patel is about to take the online poker world by storm with his new blog, Online Poker Lowdown, where he covers everything from learning how to play poker, to mastering the arts of bluffing, and teaching others how to master the game without having to lose their wallets.

Being a close friend of Neil for many years now, I already know that everything he touches turns to gold, so I’m very excited to see what Neil has in store for his readers at OnlinePokerLowDown.com.

Are You the Next Poker Rockstar in the Making?

Just like building a business, learning how to win at poker takes a lot of time and effort. That is why Neil created Online Poker LowDown, to help you learn the game and become a poker pro! Whether you’ve won or lost thousands of dollars playing poker, or just play for fun, you need to download Neil’s free guide to learning how to play poker like a rockstar.

The best way to get good at poker is by playing it, alot!… but Neil sums it up best in the following…

At first I tried to read as much information online about poker, but I couldn’t find one good website that could help you go from not knowing anything about poker to becoming an expert.

After a while I just gave in and decided that I would get good at it by playing in countless tournaments and games. And I have to say it worked really well. The problem was I lost over $13,000 before I started to get good at the game.

For that reason, I decided to start Online Poker Lowdown. And as I mentioned earlier, although I can’t guarantee that you’ll win the next WSOP, if you decide to join the Online Poker Lowdown community I can promise you 3 things:

1.   You’ll become a poker rockstar – if you are willing to put the time and effort into getting good at poker, I promise that I’ll do everything in my power to make you a poker rockstar. From teaching you about the basics to helping you with advanced poker strategy.

2.   I’ll save you money – I can’t guarantee that you won’t lose money, but I’ll help you avoid the dumb mistakes I made so you won’t have to spend $13,000 to get good at poker.

3.   I’ll never brag – a lot of people like talking about how much money they make playing poker. You’ll never have to worry about that with me because it does no good for me to brag. Just think of it this way, if I told you how I made thousands dollars playing poker will it help you make thousands of dollars? No! So there is no point in me bragging.

Don’t have $13,000 to blow on playing poker? Download Neil’s free guide “How to Win Heads Up” and subscribe to his RSS blog feed for all future posts and poker updates. Let me know what you think!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

What’s the Difference Between Content Marketing and Copywriting?

image of two ice cream cones

For a traditional marketer, the answer to the above question is simple.

Content marketing is the creation of valuable content that has a marketing purpose. For example, my company creates an awesome special report, and we exchange it for your email address and your permission to educate you further about our stuff.

Copywriting is designed to get the reader to take a specific action. Sometimes that’s making a purchase, but it can also be confirming an email opt-in, calling for more information, or going into a store to check out the merchandise.

Content marketing is blogs, white papers, and viral video.

Copywriting is sales pages, infomercials, and direct mail.

Two different critters, right?

Well, not if you’re doing it right.

Content without copywriting is a waste of good content

There are some blogs out there with seriously good content, and few readers. (Maybe yours is one of them.)

If you’re writing great stuff that people would love to read, but you’re not finding the traffic you want, the problem probably lies in ineffective copywriting.

Your headlines are boring and they don’t give people any reason to click through.
Or your headlines might be too cute and clever, showing how smart you are without communicating any reader benefit. Either way, if you’re not putting much thought into your content headlines today, hop over to the Copyblogger tutorials on writing great headlines and fix that before you try anything else.
You haven’t explicitly thought about how your content benefits readers. Just like a product has to have a benefit to the buyer, your content has to be inherently rewarding to readers, or they won’t come back. Here’s an article that talks about how to do that.
Your content isn’t building any rapport or trust. You can always get social media attention by being a brat, a pest, or a train wreck, but attention doesn’t translate into subscribers or customers.
You haven’t leveraged any social proof to show readers that your blog is a cool place to hang out. This is tricky when you don’t have lots of readers yet, but we have a few tips for you.
You don’t have a clear, specific call to action that lets people know what you want them to do next. (That might be to subscribe to your blog, sign up for your email newsletter, or share your content on social sites like twitter and Facebook.)

Remember, copywriting is the art of convincing your reader to take a specific action. (And yes, it’s still copywriting if it takes place in a podcast or video … if you’re doing it well).

The thoughtful use of copywriting techniques on your blog will get readers to subscribe to your content, opt in for more from your email newsletter, and share your great stuff with other readers. That’s how you build a large, loyal audience.

Copywriting without content is a waste of good copy

So is copywriting everything? Will effective use of copywriting technique propel you automatically into the ranks of the world’s most popular blogs?

Sadly, no.

If you do a brilliant job packaging and marketing crap, all you do is efficiently get the word out about how bad your crap is. Not the result you’re looking for.

Smart marketers still need to keep these cornerstones of great content marketing in mind:

Generosity is sexy. When your free content is so valuable that it makes you a little uncomfortable, you know you’ve got the mix right.
Only ad men like advertising. If your content looks like an ad, it will be overlooked or thrown away. Make your “advertising” too valuable to throw away by wrapping it in wonderfully beneficial, readable content.
Content marketing makes for great SEO, but don’t make the mistake of writing for the search engines. Always write for people first, then go back and make your content search-engine friendly so new readers can find you.
And of course, always remember the first rule of Copyblogger.

Really good content is unsurpassed at building rapport, delivering a sales message without feeling “salesy,” and getting the potential customer to stick around.

That’s why the sharpest copywriting minds are trending more toward a “content net” approach. They combine strategic copywriting with great content to get the best of both worlds. Which is exactly what Copyblogger’s been teaching readers for the past five years.

How about you? How are you using content and copywriting on your site to build more traffic, and to convert that traffic into fans and customers?

Let us know in the comments.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Corporate Blogging Insights From C-Suite

Corporate blogs (and blogging in general) get run through the ringer of “Is it a dead art?” to “It’s essential for online success!” and all stops in between. Many fear blogging due to concerns about time, risk / reward, exposure and the list goes on.

eMarketer brings us a corporate some insights from a survey done by Blog2Print (an interesting idea, btw). Here are the reasons why big companies blog according to CMO’s.

The most prominent reason might well have been named “If you can’t beat’em, join’em”. When you say that you are essentially “giving in” to do this then you wonder just how sincere or genuine the effort will be moving forward. I think it is safe to say that if there is passion behind a blog the chances of success through reaching the other goals desired goes up exponentially. But hey, it’s not often we confuse Fortune 1000 companies with passionate companies is it?

As for the attributes of what makes a corporate blog a success? Well, they seem to be a little more in tune on this one.

In the end, it is true that part of the cost of doing business today is having a business blog. It’s the expectations around the blog that are what need to be examined or even taught to most business people. The ‘build it and they will come’ approach (referred to here as the Filed of Dreams Method) doesn’t fly. The “Let’s make this a pure sales vehicle’ approach is obvious and unattractive.

What most markters should be concentrating on is the entire ecosystem of the online space that the blog is a part of (Oh brother, did I just type that?). In plain English, it’s just a part of the bigger puzzle. It’s a way to get links, it’s a channel to get some play in the social media world and it’s just another way to simply do business.

Is a corporate blog a requirement for success? I would say not. It is a requirement, however, for greater success in the digital business world we all live in today.

Your thoughts?

Big News at Marketing Pilgrim!

You may have noticed a trend over the past few months.

While I’ve personally been blogging less and less, Frank Reed and Cynthia Boris have been hitting it out of the park! Case in point, Frank’s excellent interview yesterday with Mike Blumenthal.

So, why have I been slacking?

Honestly, Trackur is growing so fast it’s time to turn my attention 100% on building the world’s best social media monitoring tool. (Yes, the SEO in me couldn’t pass up that anchor text opportunity).

However, Marketing Pilgrim is still my baby! It’s become the leading place for marketers to get the lowdown on the latest internet marketing news. As we’ve always said, “We don’t always break the news, but we do always break it down for you!”

So, to ensure Marketing Pilgrim continues on its epic growth in 2011, I’m absolutely thrilled to announce that Frank Reed will today take over as Managing Editor!

A round of applause for Frank? OK, maybe leave him a comment in this post.

Frank will be tasked with ensuring Marketing Pilgrim continues to offer the best in marketing news commentary, but he’s also got some great ideas up his sleeve.

Cynthia will continue to be his “wing woman,” Joe will kick-butt on Saturdays, David will keep an eye out for interesting developments you may have missed, and me? Well, I’m moving to the role of “Publisher” which will see me more behind the scenes, but you just know I won’t be able to resist adding my 2 cents on a regular basis.

Thank you for your loyal readership. Frank and I are looking forward to an awesome 2011 with you!

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Thursday, January 13, 2011

Top 10 Attributes of a Successful Blogger

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