Blogging: Writers Block And Providing Value
September 29th, 2009
Traffic Generation
Relevant blog carnivals instead of PPC – Steve Pavlina did this to get upto 50 000 views/month. PPC may be good at the start but I don’t see it as a long-term strategy. Word of mouth is a much better way of generating traffic. Because they have been recommended by friends and/or social bookmarking, they are more likely to trust your site and return. With all of the untrustworthy looking gurus on the internet, trustworthiness can really makes you stand out.
Find your relevant blog carnival and start submitting your articles regularly. Another benefit is that you gain links to your website which last forever and push up your rankings in the search engines. By providing good content, you may find that they link to your site in the future without you submitting.
When you post to your blog and to carnivals, you widen your audience to all people who read the blog carnivals. After a while though, you will generate enough regular traffic so that submitting to blog carnivals is a waste of your time. Then all you have to do is provide your content and the system that you have built including RSS and other people linking to your site will do the leg work for you.
Digg, StumbleUpon, Twitter your articles – Use SocialPoster. This also uses the power of word of mouth as quality articles go up to the top and are shared between groups. Hitting a sweet spot on one of these sites can give you a huge surge in traffic. I would only recommend Twittering on your main account if you publish a few articles per week. Otherwise, people may feel that you are constantly marketing to them.
Pay Per Click (PPC) – I do not believe in PPC as a main means to accessing traffic but it can be useful. Although if you have no money from the start then PPC is out of the question. By targeting long-tail keywords(with adsense) you will save money per click as their is less competition.
For example, if someone searches for “how to learn to drive in London” because their is so little competition for that exact phrase, they can afford to give it away for cheaper. Plus if you are providing this servicew then your traffic will be more targeted and more likely to convert better to sales rather than someone looking for general information on driving lessons.
Rank for high keywords – Ranking high for phrases that have a high search volume is a great idea. This brings regular targeted traffic to your site. Make sure that you alter your metatags (or title if that word scares you), mentioning the keyword a few times in the article.
The common mistake that people make here is a narrow focus. Try looking from a wider, zoomed out perspective. Is your article worthy and relevant enough to be at the number one spot in Google and stay there? If it is, then the articles quality should take you most of the way and marketing should be minimal.
Ask yourself “Is this the best article that I can produce?”. What does Google look for to get something to a number one spot. There is alot of technical jargon and theories surrounding this topic but they all agree on one thing, relevant quality content.
Don’t create something below your personal best because eventually it will be beaten by good content. Especially when Big G puts you in the sandbox or changes its mysterious algorithm.
And, if you accept second best from yourself, your mind set is limited and your results will follow. This is a general life principle.
Stop Relying on Google – By putting all of your eggs in one Google-branded basket, you hold yourself open to having all of your traffic shut off at the flip of a switch or if they have a problem with your site. The same thing applies with Adsense. Try experimenting with different ways of generating traffic and income. By getting your articles viewed in a wide variety of places and making use of RSS technology you can control how people come to your site.
You are running a business – Face it, if you run a site with Adsense/Chitika on it, you are running a business. You have costs (domain/hosting), you provide value, have customers and hopefully repeat customers. If you switch your mindset to treating it like a business, your reality will follow. Picture to yourself what a “real business” would look and feel like and how you would act differently to how you do now. Transfer those ideas to your blogging.
How do I provide my best value?
Remove time as an obstacle – time should not be related to money, unless you work a J.O.B (just over broke). It is better to provide one fantastic article that takes a week than 10 crappy articles over the same period. Not only will it look better on your online CV, but it will provide more value to others, and reach further providing you market effectively. By removing time as an obstacle, you can produce your absolute best content no matter how long it takes.
What to write?
Keyword tools – Use tools such as SEOtool, Gtrends , Wordtracker and Twitter search. If you have a mental block or don’t know what to write about these tools let you enter a keyword such as ‘marketing’ and give you a list of related keywords and how many people search for them daily.
Do not use these tools how most people do. By finding keywords and writing sub par content to get non-targeted traffic. Instead, use them to find what people are searching for and find the ones that you have an interest in writing about.
Twitter is particularly useful because it tells you a variety of things that people are doing several times a day. It has a search function and a trends function to find out what is a hot topic at the moment. I recently heard a story about a guy making $350/week solving peoples CSS problems by using Twitters CSS function.
Your passion – Writing about your passion should never be difficult. You should have a long stream of ideas that you write down when they come to you. If you experience writers block often then you are either seriously uncreative (unlikely), or you need to find something you are more passionate about.
Read about your blogging topic daily – It is almost impossible to get mental block when you have a daily barrage of ideas coming your way. Keep a pen and paper with you at all times as you never know when a great ideas will come to you. You can do this for free by signing up for RSS feeds using Google Reader.
Ask your subconscious and wait – I like to think of our subconscious mind as everything that goes on in our mind behind the scenes. After reading PsychoCybernetics by Maxwell Maltz I have found a great technique for generating creative ideas effortlessly. In the book, Bertrand Russell describes a technique where he provides his conscious mind with all the facts needed then tells his subconscious mind that he wants an answer.
After leaving it for a while (possibly over night) he either gained a flash of insight in which answers were obvious and clear, or, he returned to the thought consciously to find the answer ready for him. This saves you time because you dont waste your time solving times consciously and get better, clearer answers.
Money
Money is what business is all about, a good amount of money shows that people are happy with your service. What is money. A trading of value.. So Business 101: provide value, your very best.
Think of yourself as a potential reader “What would provide me immense value to me?”, “What would make me recommend it to friends?”. As well as improving your article views/income, running a business becomes a hell of a lot more fun when you concentrate on the needs of others.
To quote Lao Tzu, “No self, self is fulfilled”.
By concentrating on the needs of others, you transcend your ego and stop all the selfish “me” thinking. You will probably find yourself in the paradox that your income increases, the less you concentrate on it. If you concentrate on income too much, you will change your actions rather than providing value.
You may see a little shortcut and see that it will make you money but will come back to bite you in the future. I am definitely not saying money is evil, just that it cannot be your main focus.
You see so many people go into business with a “make money” attitude. If this attitude is your predominant one then you will actually struggle to make money as you aren’t in an abundant state of mind. You have to shirt inside and visualize what it would be like to be financially abundant, then your reality shifts.
What would you write about if you could write about anything? What are you most passionate in spreading the word about? Passion goes a long way in motivating and inspiring you to blog. It is tedious to write about something you have little or no interest in.
Although you should let money have its place and do not deny this to your readers. If you are a new blogger then I recommend putting ads on from the start. Not so much to earn income now, but to avoid a point in the future where you might put ads up and people will think you are selling them out for money.
The secret formula…
It is as simple, and as difficult as this
Constantly provide your best value on something you feel passionate about and get it out in front of your target audience”
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