Category Archives: Internet Marketing
How to Start Guest Blogging – 6 Basic Easy Tips To Follow
I am sure that you’ve heard about guest blogging. If you have decided to make money online, but haven’t heard of this method before, you’ve gotten to the right place. Keep reading and you will understand not only what the benefits of guest blogging are, but what you should be prepared and willing to do in order to have your article accepted by other blog owners and reap all the benefits of having your content, links and name on someone else’s blog.
Is guest blogging worth it?
Well, to answer this question, let me illustrate it this way. Let’s take two well-known store brands, Wal-Mart and Target for example. Let’s say, Target is allowing Wal-Mart to put some of its items on THEIR shelves. Now, when people buy those items, even though such items are on Target store’s shelf, Wal-Mart store is cashing in. Do you think that Wal-Mart would like such deal? You bet they would!
Guest blogging is exactly the same thing. You are allowed to put YOUR own items (your links) on someone else’s shelf for free! The only price you have to pay is that you need to put one of your nicest items (article) out there, but really that’s a small price to pay to reap more traffic and subscribers as a result. Isn’t it?
In the end, one of the greatest benefits is that you are going to show off on someone else’s blog which in some cases might even be a more up scale than your own. In turn, more targeted traffic will be browsing your blog on a regular basis and join your own list.
But, now let’s see what you need to know to start blogging on someone else’s blog!
6 easy tips to guest blogging
1. Usually, blog owners who will allow you to post on their blog will want your article be of the same niche as their blog theme. Well, this shouldn’t be a surprise. If you have a blog about travels you wouldn’t want articles talking about computers technology would you?
2. You need to keep in mind that to be taken seriously your blog post should be of an acceptable length. Most blog owners will tell you how many words they expect your article to be, but most of them will be OK with 500 to 1000 words. To be sure, somewhere in between these numbers should be fine.
3. Do not even try to publish an article that is not 100% original. This would put you out right from the get go. Your article shouldn’t have been posted anywhere else before. Period.
4. Try to write about a specific theme within the niche of the blog you are writing for. General theme blog posts are usually not welcome, and rejected, especially if it’s one of the specific rules of the blog owner.
5. Most times, you will be allowed to link to your own blog, but you won’t be allowed to link to any kind of affiliate programs. So, start guest blogging only when you have your site or blog ready.
6. Guest blogging means that you have to make double sure that your article is written in very good English with no grammar or spelling errors. You will need to put your editing hat on a few times before you submit your blog post.
There are other specifics that you might have to follow according to the particular blog owner’s rules. However, all the specifics should be well described on their registration page and if you follow them well, you should have no problem having your article posted on their blog and reap all the benefits from it.
If you want to promote your blog, increase your readership and subscriptions, you can write for my blog at Persuasive Article Marketing.
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Are Your RSS Feeds Auto Discovery Friendly?
Just imagine. Every time someone visits your website, their browser notifies them of your RSS feed. No, it’s not as interuptive and no where near as annoying as pop-up subscription boxes but still a good chance to get people to subscribe to something you have to offer. In a nutshell, that’s how auto discovery works. There ‘s usually a small flag somewhere in the browser telling people your feed is available for them and if the visitor is interested in subscribing, they will simply click subscribe – much like bookmarking a page.
Now you know how it works, why is it so important? For one, many feed readers and browsers already support auto discovery RSS feeds. But perhaps what’s more important, Microsoft is incorporating this starting with Internet Explorer 7. Internet Explorer still commands a good chunk of browser share out there, especially those who are new to the Internet or non technical Internet users. If your RSS feeds are not auto discovery enabled, it’s a good chance you’ll lose out on a bunch of subscribers.
As it is today, browsers like Firefox, Opera and Safari can auto discover feeds. Many use this to subscribe because it’s just so much easier. While this group may not be that large but why should you not take advantage? If just making your feeds auto discovery friendly you get an extra subscriber, even if it’s only one it would be worth it because it costs nothing but maybe 2 minutes of your time.
So how do you find out if your feeds are auto discovery friendly? The good news is, if you’re using a blog to manage your content, many have this feature built in. But it doesn’t hurt to just check it anyway. If you don’t use a blog, chances are, your feed is not auto discovery enabled.
Before I go, here are two little tips that would help your RSS distribution and subscription using auto discovery.
1. Put the auto discovery tag in other web pages too. Just because it’s not a blog doesn’t mean you can’t have an RSS feed on it. Take advantage of that, put your feed in your main website’s template. Now you have two opportunities to get in touch with people. When you update your website and when you update your blog.
2. If you use a service like FeedBurner to track your subscriptions, remember to update the feed URL in your blog or website template. This way, you’re capturing all your feed traffic statistics.
What’s next? Go make your RSS feeds auto discovery friendly right now. Because RSS is not always visible to us, don’t run the risk of forgetting this.
About the author
Lynette Chandler helps entreprenuers leverage readily available technology for their marketing. Learn more about RSS and blogging at TechBasedPlugins.com
In My Eyes, It’s SPAM
I always capitalize SPAM when I type it for some reason – could be because it makes me so frustrated! Not so much the “enhancement” ads, and other “Hey dude, increase your stamina… She’ll love you even more” type of SPAM. Those just make me laugh, roll my eyes and then I can send them into SPAM-oblivion with a click of my mouse.
The SPAM that frustrates me the most is that which comes from uneducated website and business owners who, I guess, don’t know any better – but should.
- If you took my email addy off of another website, and you’re contacting me to see if I want to be invited to join your site – but you don’t have your site listed, or any way for me to check out what site you’re talking about – I consider that SPAM!
- If I receive an email sent to every email addy off of one of my sites (eg. Lauren@, newsletter@, schedule@ – all @the same site) with an offer to join your mailing list – I think you’ve harvested all the mails off of my site, and I consider that SPAM!
- If I find that my email addy (whichever one it is) is listed along with every single email addy in your address book to receive your offer, or Specials – I don’t appreciate you circulating my email address to the other 25 people on the list and, I’m sorry but, I consider that SPAM!
- If I am continually being invited to join membership sites by someone I barely know, or who’s name I have to look up somewhere to recognize – I may not report it as such, but I consider that to be SPAM too!
- If I receive your newsletter out of the blus, and see down at the bottom that I have the option of opting out of receiving any more of your newsletters, BUT I never had signed up to receive your newsletter in the first place – yep, SPAM!
No, I don’t report everything that I consider SPAM, most often I just delete them. Occasionally I’ll even respond with a polite request to be taken out of their address book, or at least off the “invite list”. If I know you, and we’ve built a relationship then I am usually appreciative of the thought, and will consider the invite.
I guess what it all boils down to is – know who you are sending your emails too. Do not send unsolicited offers, or invites to people you really don’t know. NEVER grab emails off some random website. Have an opt-in list with a legit sign-up that has given you permission to send those recipients your offers, etc.
You save yourself, and others a whole lot of time, and have a better chance of getting your message in the right hands – not in the SPAM folder!
