5 Gut-wrenching Challenges Faced by Bloggers Today (and How to Counter Them)

The availability of so many blogging platforms online these days made it easier for just about anyone to start their own blog. Even so, it doesn’t mean that all bloggers find it easy to blog consistently without hiccups – there are challenges to be tackled each day, preventing a good blogger from becoming a great one.

Here are the most common challenges almost anyone will potentially face during his or her lifetime as a blogger – which ones do you experience?

1. Challenge #1: Writer’s block

Ahh, if only I had a dime every time I hear this lament uttered by writers everywhere, in and out of the blogosphere: “What do I write about?” The problem here is NOT because there’s a lack of content to write about. Rather, it is the fact that there’s too much information threatening to send the blogger’s brain into overdrive (admit it – you DO have a list of must-read blogs and articles daily, all . And we all know that too much of a good thing can be bad, don’t we?

Challenge accepted: To counter this issue, we need to first go back to our roots. Look at your blog, the first few posts that you’ve written from the beginning, that is. Do you remember just how exciting it was back then, clicking on the “NEW POST” button and tapping away happily late into the night with only a cup of coffee for company and your favorite band singing in the background? Reminisce on that, and relive those memories by doing exactly the same thing. Think about the purpose of your blog, and write about the most basic of all things that would appeal not only to your audience, but to yourself, because that’s why you started your blog in the first place, didn’t you?

If you’re on Twitter, do consider tweeting about your predicament, along with a strategically placed hashtag (i.e. #whatshouldiwriteabout) – it’ll do wonders for your content idea bank.

2. Challenge #2: Lack of comments from visitors

It’s discouraging to wait and wait for comments to flood in especially after you’ve spent the whole night writing a blog post you feel awfully proud about, and then not receiving any feedback.

Challenge accepted: Heard about the old adage “Give, and you shall receive”? If you want the pleasure of seeing comments flooding into your blog, then you should first freely offer them on other blogs. Don’t leave generic comments like “Great job!” but instead, offer constructive comments or a reply that everyone will find valuable.

3. Challenge #3: Zero or little traffic

Most people, with the exception of a few private bloggers, actually put up a blog so that people may appreciate their content, while others want more traffic so that they may capitalize on it. Whatever your reasons are for gaining more traffic, it can be disheartening to see the lack of traffic pouring in.

Challenge accepted: Do what everyone else is doing, and that is to promote your blog via social media. Companies such as SGW swore by social media widgets that can easily help them achieve this. Another method is to identify websites that are similar to your niche and offer to write them a guest post or two. That way when you link back to your site, you’ll have readers from other sites visiting your blog. Voila, more traffic!

4. Challenge #4: No time to blog

Some bloggers find it difficult to be consistent when posting content after the initial euphoria. It may be due to busier days at the workplace or a new baby if the blogger is a mom-to-be, but if you put your heart to it, you WILL find the time to blog.

Challenge accepted: If you own a smartphone, you’ll find that you can blog from just about anywhere using appropriate apps using your mobile device (Squarespace is pretty nifty). You can also consider sending out short but regular tweets, and when you do have the time, you can expand upon these tweets into full-fledged blog posts.

5. Lack of SEO knowledge

If you properly search engine optimize your blog, you may be rewarded with higher rankings than the average blogger who don’t. However, some bloggers bemoan the fact that they are not proficient in SEO enough without realizing that the most basic knowledge is the BEST knowledge.

Challenge accepted: You don’t have to be an SEO genius to start obtaining higher ranks in the search engines. As long as you have great content, a user-friendly design, a good amount of followers and good social media practices, then you’re as good as the next SEO blogger.

5 Gut-wrenching Challenges Faced by Bloggers Today (and How to Counter Them)

The availability of so many blogging platforms online these days made it easier for just about anyone to start their own blog. Even so, it doesn’t mean that all bloggers find it easy to blog consistently without hiccups – there are challenges to be tackled each day, preventing a good blogger from becoming a great one.

 

Here are the most common challenges almost anyone will potentially face during his or her lifetime as a blogger – which ones do you experience?

 

1. Challenge #1: Writer’s block

 

Ahh, if only I had a dime every time I hear this lament uttered by writers everywhere, in and out of the blogosphere: “What do I write about?” The problem here is NOT because there’s a lack of content to write about. Rather, it is the fact that there’s too much information threatening to send the blogger’s brain into overdrive (admit it – you DO have a list of must-read blogs and articles daily, all . And we all know that too much of a good thing can be bad, don’t we?

 

Challenge accepted: To counter this issue, we need to first go back to our roots. Look at your blog, the first few posts that you’ve written from the beginning, that is. Do you remember just how exciting it was back then, clicking on the “NEW POST” button and tapping away happily late into the night with only a cup of coffee for company and your favorite band singing in the background? Reminisce on that, and relive those memories by doing exactly the same thing. Think about the purpose of your blog, and write about the most basic of all things that would appeal not only to your audience, but to yourself, because that’s why you started your blog in the first place, didn’t you?

 

If you’re on Twitter, do consider tweeting about your predicament, along with a strategically placed hashtag (i.e. #whatshouldiwriteabout) – it’ll do wonders for your content idea bank.

 

2. Challenge #2: Lack of comments from visitors

It’s discouraging to wait and wait for comments to flood in especially after you’ve spent the whole night writing a blog post you feel awfully proud about, and then not receiving any feedback.

 

Challenge accepted: Heard about the old adage “Give, and you shall receive”? If you want the pleasure of seeing comments flooding into your blog, then you should first freely offer them on other blogs. Don’t leave generic comments like “Great job!” but instead, offer constructive comments or a reply that everyone will find valuable.

 

3. Challenge #3: Zero or little traffic

Most people, with the exception of a few private bloggers, actually put up a blog so that people may appreciate their content, while others want more traffic so that they may capitalize on it. Whatever your reasons are for gaining more traffic, it can be disheartening to see the lack of traffic pouring in.

 

Challenge accepted: Do what everyone else is doing, and that is to promote your blog via social media. Companies such as SGWDallas swore by social media widgets that can easily help them achieve this. Another method is to identify websites that are similar to your niche and offer to write them a guest post or two. That way when you link back to your site, you’ll have readers from other sites visiting your blog. Voila, more traffic!

 

4. Challenge #4: No time to blog

Some bloggers find it difficult to be consistent when posting content after the initial euphoria. It may be due to busier days at the workplace or a new baby if the blogger is a mom-to-be, but if you put your heart to it, you WILL find the time to blog.

 

Challenge accepted: If you own a smartphone, you’ll find that you can blog from just about anywhere using appropriate apps using your mobile device (Squarespace is pretty nifty). You can also consider sending out short but regular tweets, and when you do have the time, you can expand upon these tweets into full-fledged blog posts.

 

5. Lack of SEO knowledge

If you properly search engine optimize your blog, you may be rewarded with higher rankings than the average blogger who don’t. However, some bloggers bemoan the fact that they are not proficient in SEO enough without realizing that the most basic knowledge is the BEST knowledge.

 

Challenge accepted: You don’t have to be an SEO genius to start obtaining higher ranks in the search engines. As long as you have great content, a user-friendly design, a good amount of followers and good social media practices, then you’re as good as the next SEO blogger.

Benefits Of Using High PR Social Bookmarking Sites

What are social bookmarking sites?

Social bookmarking sites are sites that offer centralized online service in which, people can add and share their favorite bookmarks. The first social bookmark site was introduced in the year 1996 and it was only in the year 2003 that it started to gain popularity after the site Delicious was started. This site made the term social bookmarking popular and also introduced people to the term ‘tagging’ which is considered to be a very important facet of social bookmarking. Through tagging people can organize their bookmarks in the site and can be done in a very flexible way. Folksonomy is social tagging that is a process using which many users of the site can add metadata that are in the form of keywords enabling them to share content easily.

Uses of social bookmarking sites

By using social bookmarking people can promote websites and is now considered to be a very powerful tool that can be used to share websites and webpage that you like with your friends and family. A social bookmark site is not just a place to save your favorite webpage’s or websites and share them with your friends; it is also a great way to look at what other users have tagged and this can allow you to find pages or sites that might interest you. By using high pr social bookmarking sites you can promote your website by using social tagging and thereby drawing traffic into your website. Social bookmarking sites are now a great platform for backlinks and are used by many website owners to promote their websites and products.

Advantages of using high pr social bookmarking sites

  • High pr social bookmarking sites are often very popular among people and therefore you will be able to use them as a great source for traffic.
  • These sites are known to be gold mines when it comes to traffic and you will be able to drive decent traffic to your site.
  • These sites are also great to develop backlinks and by developing backlinks, you can generate traffic to your site.
  • The ranking of your website can greatly increase when you use backlinks in high pr social bookmarking sites as they are considered as quality backlinks and therefore help in increasing page rank.

Finding high pr social bookmarking sites

Using social bookmark site that has a Pr rating of 6 or more will be ideal for the purpose of generating traffic to your website and to place backlinks. The top PR ratings of such bookmarking sites tend to be 8 and any site that has the ranking of 6 and above will be able to do the job. It is easy to find websites that have reviews and ratings of social bookmarking sites online. Therefore, you have the option to go through the reviews and ratings to identify the sites that you need to target. Only if you target social bookmarking sites that have good PR rating, you will be able to see the benefits of your social media marketing campaign.

Matthew Anton is a Twitter marketing consultant. He has extensive experience and expertise of handling successful Twitter backlink building campaigns.

Protect Your Website Against Google Algorithm Updates

google hummingbird updateChanges in Google algorithm updates can put the fear into even the most successful of affiliate marketer. The changes can affect search engine optimisation ranking, and can mean the difference between obtaining healthy traffic volume to a site, or not at all. Here’s all you need to know to ensure your website is as protected as possible against future Google algorithm updates.

Make your content unique

It’s been no secret that Google has been waging war with websites that produce low quality content. What this means as an affiliate marketer is that you really need to ensure that the content you provide on your site is meaningful, interesting and unique. Don’t copy from any other sites, and always try to think about how you are adding value to what you produce. Consider using a tool such as Copyscape to check your work isn’t duplicated.

Manage your links

Google has also taken it upon itself to penalise any websites with cheap inbound links that smack of spam. If you want to protect your website, then make sure that your link profile is as natural as possible. What does this mean? Try to create relevant and engaging links on your affiliate site. Incorporate your brand name into most of your anchor text. Use generic anchors such as ‘click here’ and ‘learn more’. Avoid the use of automated link-building software. Have a mixture of do-follow links and no-follow links.

Don’t over use keywords

Previous Google updates have penalised affiliate marketing websites that have been keyword heavy. Don’t over use keywords, but focus on the most important phrases only. When you do use them, make their use as natural as possible.

Engage in social media

It’s something that every affiliate marketer should be doing anyway, but to make sure your website is protected as possible against Google algorithm updates, you should be paying even more attention to social media. Google will view your website favourably if you can show that you have an active social media presence, so make sure you have a Facebook or Twitter account. Make use of Pinterest if you produce unique images, and install social sharing buttons on your pages.

Keep your site current

Again, it’s probably one of the biggest golden rules of affiliate marketing, but if you’re not keeping your website current and up to date, then Google could well penalise you in its next round of updates. So, as well as adding as much unique content as possible, keep reviewing it and make sure it is current.

Build a mailing list

One of the best methods to protect yourself from any future Google updates is to get building a mailing list. Your list should be made up of your targeted email subscribers and all of your customers and contacts, etc.

Get people visiting your site

Google seems to favour those websites where visitors like to frequent, and stay there. So, you need to protect your website by drawing traffic to your site and giving visitors sufficient reasons for them to hang out there for a good while.

Anytime Google changes is heard it worries even the most successful of people. Clicksure, the author of this post, does everything they can to make sure we prepare you before and after the updates.

11 Wonders of Video Marketing

youtubeBelow are eleven reasons for you to consider video marketing as part of your digital marketing strategy:

What attracted us most during our childhood days, a comic magazine or a TV cartoon? I am sure most of us will say TV cartoon. That’s because the animation used in video tends to attract us more than mere plain text. Our eyes often get glued to something which has movement. Just compare a photograph with a video. You would prefer watching latter over former. This logic can be successfully used by digital marketers who wish to get their brands across millions of people in short span of time by incorporating the right strategy. The name of that strategy is Video Marketing.

  1. Video lovers are more: People love to watch videos and this has been proved by the success of Youtube channel. According to the experts a staggering 70% of the total Internet users around the world spends atleast 30 minutes watching online video daily.
  2. Video dominates search results: Videos appear at the top of page as a result of search queries. When your audience will enter search query relevant to your line of business, your video has more chances of appearing at the top of search results.
  3. Spreads faster than other content: Videos are shared and liked by people more than the articles or blogs on social media platform which means videos have more chances of getting viral over the Internet.
  4. Creative Videos get more visitors: Videos, if creative and original, attracts more visitors as they can engage audience more than any other format.
  5. Video entertain people: Videos entertain people and gets them glued to their mobile or laptops. It’s an effective way of promoting brand while entertaining people.
  6. Videos are inexpensive: Videos can be created at no cost. Creating 2-5 minutes short videos about specific topic from articles & content is the emerging marketing trend these days.
  7. Information gets conveyed easily: Videos help businesses convey information in an easy manner. People don’t need to go through long texts to understand and get information.
  8. Videos attract Smartphone crowd: Smartphone users crowd is increasing at a tremendous rate and so is video watchers on mobile. Your videos can be easily accessed by Smartphone users.
  9. Videos are versatile: Videos can be shared on different channels and can also be posted on your website.
  10. Videos have human touch: Videos have the ability to provide information personally to target audience.
  11. Video induces action faster than texts: Videos persuade audience faster than articles or blogs. It conveys information more directly. Being an audio-visual medium it reduces the time required to read the articles.

see-hear-listenAccording to the 2013 Online Video Marketing Survey 94% digital marketers in today’s time use Youtube for video marketing and 87% is the video sharing rate on Facebook. Video marketing is one popular tool which can be used by digital marketers to rise above their current level and reach maximum audience. All brands need to do is to create amazing video!

Author Bio:

Ana is a digital marketing Specialist and a creative blogger who mostly writes on topics related to digital marketing & Social Media. To read more of her creative writing & tips please follow www.media-mosaic.com.