BLOGGING Archives -

March 5, 2018March 3, 2018

Basic Blog Designs

Basic Blog Designs

Regardless of whether you have chosen to have your blog hosted or are self-hosting; are using a free or premium template, there are several elements to all blog layouts.

Home or Landing Page:

This is the page everyone sees when they first come to your blog or website. Keep it clean and uncluttered so that your targeted audience can navigate quickly without being overwhelmed with a lot of links or options.

Profile or About You Page:

This page should include a clear or professional head shot, also a statement or the purpose of your blog. You can actually create two “About” pages, one can be about you the author, and the other can be about the blog.

Posts:

All blogs have posts, these are the the entries you write and publish, with the most recent post being displayed first. At the bottom there are clickable links for “older posts” or “previous posts” so that readers can navigate through your blog.

Comments:

Comments are what makes your blog interactive, they are what helps you understand your audience’s reaction to what you have written. It shows that you value your readers and their opinion. You can turn off the ability for people to leave comments, however, if you do, you may turn off readers.

Don’t be discouraged if you don’t initially get a lot of comments, stay committed and over time you will.

Categories:

Categories or labels are great ways in which to identify your posts and it also helps readers find others in the same category, i.e. family, recipes, health and wellness.

Sidebar:

Most blogs have more than one column, and the most included information on a blog’s sidebars are your picture, contact info, social media icons, subscription info, categories or labels, links to your archives, links to recent comment or popular posts as well as ads.

Try not to clutter up your sidebar, less is more, unless you have started monetizing your blog.

Archives:

This helps readers find older posts and are divided by year or month. Archives are useful for search engine optimization (SEO) because every post you ever wrote will be available for years.

Header:

Your blog’s header is similar to a newspaper’s masthead. It covers the top of your blog and usually includes your blog’s name, slogan and logo or an image. You can create your own header or hire a designer but it’s what distinguishes your blog from the millions of others.

Your blog’s header appears on every page so it becomes very recognizable and just a unique as you are.

Footer:

The footer spans along the bottom of your blog and may contain the following information: Copywrite or Disclosure Statements; Terms and Conditions or Privacy Statements; your email address; contact information; links to other resources; feeds from other blogs you may be following.

Not everyone will scroll down to the bottom of your blog so keep critical info in the sidebar or in the header especially your “follow me” social media icons.

Check my Youtube channel for more information on this topic or check out my website to sign up for a FREE 30-minute blogging consultation.

Let’s Chat: What are your “must haves” when designing your blog?

February 21, 2018February 16, 2018

Pen Pals to Private Messaging

Pen Pals to Private Messaging

When I attended William B. Ward Elementary School in New Rochelle, NY in the 60’s, I remember we had a teacher that gave us an unusual class assignment. We had to chose a Pen Pal from another country and write to him or her once a month. I am not sure how we chose the country or the person, but I do remember being excited because I loved to write.

My Pen Pal, was a young girl in Japan, I forget her name, but I will never forget how anxious I was to get her letters because they always included an origami creation. Something that she made just for me, it could be a flower, or a bird or some other exotic design and I kept them all in a shoe box under my bed.

Unfortunately, other than making paper airplanes or a “Fortune Teller Game” I was never able to create anything as fancy as she, however, I enjoyed writing multiple page letters which makes perfect sense now as to why I am a blogger – I LOVED TO WRITE!

Having a Pen Pal in the 60’s has now evolved into a new meaning in 2018, most teens are connecting via Private Messaging, sending a text or Snapchat. However, writing and communicating with someone one-on-one can still be fun and even lead to something greater, like writing a book or an eBook like my friend Lisa Bryant did.

If you didn’t have an opportunity to listen to the Podcast interview, please click this link afterward to listen to our conversation about “Journaling for Juniors.”

Since Lisa’s book launch, she has been traveling throughout the state speaking and signing copies of her book “You Are Enough: Keeping it 100 With Yourself.”

Writing, journaling or blogging is not only good for the mind, it is also good for the body and soul. We live in a world that is in constant change, with thoughts, ideas, news, and nonsense filling our heads on a daily basis. We all need a way in which to release some of the pressures that may be building in our brains and writing is one of the best ways to do so.

Not having time, shouldn’t be an excuse and you may be amazed at all that you have in your head, so take some time to make the time to write. Although you may not write longhand with paper and a pen, start typing your thoughts on a keyboard or dictating them onto your Smartphone and you may find the more you write the better you feel.

If you are interested in learning more about blogging, please head over to my website to schedule a consultation or complete the contact form so we can get you started “Building Your Blog”

Do you find writing helps you release stress?

February 12, 2018February 12, 2018

Build A Better Business with a Blog

Blogging for business is not a new concept and for many small businesses it can be an extremely effective tool to build onto their current social media footprint, establish and/or broaden their brand, or position themselves in their area of expertise.

A strong social network can become an asset for any business. Social media offers every business the opportunity to strengthen relationships with their target audience, creating loyal customers and even brand advocates. Exploiting this potential is no easy feat, but can be done if the medium is used well.

Unfortunately, many companies are still not getting the best out of their social media accounts. Yet social media is big business: 74% of all internet users use social networking sites, and for younger adults it’s even more.

However, marketing on FREE social media platforms is not always FREE nor do you own them. Anytime the creators/designers of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others decide to make changes to the algorithms, privacy settings, advertisement guidelines or timeline promotion there is little to nothing you can do about it.

However, a blog, one that you have created on WordPress.org, for example, is owned by you and you have total control as to what you want to promote and when you want to promote it. The ultimate benefit of blogging is the opportunity to communicate expertise and establish the business as a reliable resource.

Thanks to my astute fellow blogger, Rena, she reminded me that businesses should ALWAYS use WordPress.org because WordPress.com is owned by WordPress but .org is the self-owned version.

“Content is King ~ Platform is Queen.”

Creating a platform is about building a social media presence, a stage that can be seen above the crowd. Content is the message, but a platform provides visibility, amplification and engagement with the targeted audience.

Social media is a great tool for driving traffic to a website, but a blog will do more to build a platform. While there is much debate about the return on investment (ROI) for time spent on social media, the results of blogging are easier to evaluate with Google Analytics.

Google Analytics charts your unique visitors, comments, interactions, time spent on the site and other social media metrics which help business owners learn more about their customer interests and problems that may need to be solved.

Any owner of a small business could benefit from creating a blog as part of their website or as a stand alone platform. When first starting it is important to make friends or engage with bloggers in the same niche and in high places as it helps in selling and promoting their products.

There is proof that not only can your blog help promote your business, it can even become an additional source of revenue.

Blogs are one of the top online services to influence a purchase. When making overall purchase decisions, consumers rank blogs third behind retail and brand sites.

According to the CORPORATE-EYE.COM “The power of blogs in influencing consumer purchase decisions is stronger than you might realize. According to data from a research study conducted by Research Now, nearly nine in 10 consumers (84%) make purchases after reading about a product or service on a blog. Among consumers between the ages of 18-34, blogs ranked as the most important source of information to make buying decisions.

Among consumers between the ages of 35-54, blogs ranked as the second most important source behind friends, family, and colleagues. Even older consumers (55 and older) value blogs when making purchase decisions ranking them third in terms of importance behind friends, family, and colleagues and editorial articles”

As an award-winning blogger/content creator of two blogs, DelBlogger and DeDivahDeals, as well as an instructor of social media and blogging, I have conducted workshops and trained over 500 participants. In working with these small business owners and entrepreneurs I have helped many of them not only create a blog but have taught them how to use their blog as a source of an additional stream of income.

ABlake Enterprises offers a Blogging to Build A Better Business Workshop which is designed for business owners and entrepreneurs who want to create a blog to complement their current website or as a way to increase and expand their brand on social media.

Please head over to the website to learn more or complete the form below for additional information.

A Blog is a better business card that will broaden the brand and expand their exposure online.

January 29, 2018January 29, 2018

Social Media & a Blog – Driving Traffic with Twitter

Social Media and a Blog

Driving Traffic with Twitter

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – Social Media allows you to reach more people and a wider audience because it’s social and people go to social media platforms to socialize – duh!

Social Media platforms such as Twitter provide a wider audience and trust me, your blog may show up in Google searches but until people actually know about it, you are not likely to get a lot of traffic.

Social Media makes it easier to connect with people, it reaches more people through a chain reaction. An increase in traffic will generate leads and attract you to advertisers.

There are unique ways in which to reach people depending on the Social Media network. People want to connect, people want to share…it’s the new white picket fence.

Twitter is by far the most popular microblogging website

Twitter:

Connect in real time with people you wish you had in High School. Celebrities and followers in the same niche or interest groups. Twitter is another great way to connect with people and share information. It is the perfect platform for sharing links, articles and establishing yourself as an expert. It’s also a great and easy way for others to share your content, reaching more people.

Twitter is by far the most popular microblogging website and it goes hand in hand with other blogging platforms so make sure to have a presence and be active on it.

Twitter user statistics

There are 330M monthly active users

A total of 1.3 billion accounts have been created

Of those, 44% made an account and left before ever sending a Tweet

Only 550 million people have ever sent a Tweet

500 million people visit the site each month without logging in

As of Q3 2017, 23% of US citizens are monthly active users of Twitter

80% of active users access the site via mobile

707 is the average number of followers

391 million accounts have no followers at all

Katy Perry has the most followers, with over 108m

Journalists make up 24.6% of verified accounts

83% of the world’s leaders are on Twitter

79% of accounts are held outside of the U.S.

Twitter estimates 23m of its active users are actually bots

Twitter marketing statistics

65.8% of US companies with 100+ employees use Twitter for marketing

77% of Twitter users feel more positive about a brand when their Tweet has been replied to

58% of top brands have over 100,00 followers on Twitter

92% of companies Tweet more than once a day, 42% Tweet 1-5 times a day, and 19% Tweet 6-10 times a day

The average Twitter user follows five businesses

80% of Twitter users have mentioned a brand in a Tweet

54% of users surveyed by Twitter reported that they had taken action after seeing a brand mentioned in Tweets (including visiting their website, searching for the brand, or retweeting content)

The last two years have seen a 2.5x increase in customer service conversations on Twitter

Join in on tweetchats – especially those of popular programming

Thank you for reading Tweeties and follow me on Twitter!

January 24, 2018January 23, 2018

ABC’s of Blogging

Always Be Creating

As a blogger you are constantly writing, but how do you capture and keep your audience’s attention, what do you need to do to keep them coming back for more? Start by learning your ABC’s – Always Be Creating.

“Woman Gives Birth To an Alien Baby”

Have you ever stood in a grocery store line and read a headline such as this in one of those magazines or “newspapers”? Did it capture your attention, or perhaps the picture of an alien baby peeked your curiosity to read further. Well that is how you have to think when writing a new post, no, it doesn’t have to be as dramatic as alien babies but it should make your readers want more.

Tips To Keep Your Readers Coming Back For More

Build Excitement

Grab the attention of your readers by creating fun or exciting titles for your posts. Sometimes it helps to write the title after you’ve written the post. The sum of the post can spark a more interesting title after it has been written. Once you have written your post, read it aloud which may trigger a titillating title.

Bye-Bye…Go Outside

The best posts are inspired from real life, leave the house, leave your laptop or computer. Go for a walk, take a road trip, attend an event, ‘live life’. Read books and magazines, talk to friends, get out in the real world you never know what will spark a post idea. Don’t forget to take a camera to capture moments to get your juices flowing!

Do Something (DIY)

Show and tell. People love learning something new and enjoy watching it even more. Create a YouTube or Livestream a Facebook video showing an experience or provide a tutorial then write about it.

Interview

While you are out and about living life, perhaps there is someone out there you can interview? Is there a new restaurant or hot spot opening? Is there a sporting event or play happening at the local high school or college, maybe even an author or entertainer is in town for the weekend. If you can grab an interview or a get a testimonial it will definitely add credibility to your blog.

Have Fun

Everyone likes a good joke or a funny cartoon. Show your personality with something light, we all need a means of escape every now and again if only for a few minutes.

Quotes & Inspirational Messages

Read something inspirational, a quote or poem, share it with your readers, again, we can all use some uplifting words in our lives.

Little known Facts

“This day in history” can spark ideas for great posts and they are fun. Share a little known or inspiring historical fact, make sure to fact check them first. You can also write posts about “what life would be like without….” an invention or an event.

Sharing is Caring!

Blogging isn’t a competition, it’s about sharing information, stories, ideas, and inspiration so recommend other blogs. Care less about your numbers and more about your reader, they will thank you for it and stay loyal longer. My blogging friend, MadamTooMuch has some great sites that she loves to share so go over there and check her out.

Let’s Chat > How Do You Keep Your Readers Coming Back for More?

To learn more about my blogging services, please head over to ABlakeEnterprises.

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