Mistake #1 – Not integrating your blog with your website
Easy Fix:
•    Sub-domain (e.g. http://blog.website.com)
•    Website Folder (e.g. http://website.com/blog
•    Separate Domain (e.g. http://thisismyblog.com)

Mistake #3 – Publishing Inconsistently
1.    Businesses that blog at least 20X per month generate over 5X more traffic than those that blog fewer than 4 times per month.
2.    Businesses that blog at least 20X per month generate nearly 4X more leads than those that don’t blog.
Easy Fix:
•    Create an editorial calendar for regular publishing
•    Will address more on this solution

Mistake #4 – Publishing off Topic Content
Easy Fix:
•    Defining your blog focus (What are you trying to accomplish?)
•    Generate a list of keywords pertaining to your industry (Brainstorm a focus point)
•    What does your audience want?

Mistake #5 – Offering No Content Variety
Easy Fix:
•    Text-based copy
•    Charts or graphs
•    Audio content (podcast)
•    Cartoons
•    Infographics
•    Guest blog articles
•    Curated lists
•    Industry-related book reviews
•    Q&A
•    Videos

Mistake #6 – Failing to Encourage Engagement
Easy Fix:
•    Keeping Comment Open
•    Monitor & Reply to Comments
•    Don’t Moderate Comments
•    Ask Questions
•    Listen to Feedback

Mistake 7 – Neglecting to optimize your search
Easy Fix:
•    Identify Your Keywords
•    Optimize Blog Content with those Keywords

Mistake 8 – Implementing a Poor Blog Design
Easy Fix:
•    A Call-to-Action in Every Post
•    Subscription CTA
•    Social Media Sharing Buttons
•    Post Previews
•    Clear Connection to the Website
•    Fast Page Load Times – Pindom (free tool to tell you how long it takes to load your blog)

Mistake 10: – No sourcing content
Easy Fix:
•    Curate Content (CurationSoft, Scoop.it) Content curation is the collection and sharing of content such as articles, videos, pictures, tweets, songs or other pieces of digital content.
•    Welcome guest bloggers

Mistake 12 – Failing to Promote Content in Social Media
Easy Fix:
•    Create a Presence
•    Expand Your Reach
•    Share links to Blog Content in Social Media
•    Make Social Sharing Easy (Social Media Share Buttons) on every post and/or pages

Mistake 13 – Ignoring Blog Analytics
Easy Fix:
•    Measuring Monthly Visitors
•    Traffic-Driving Keywords
•    # of Blog Subscribers
•    Comments Generated
•    Page Views
•    Leads & Conversion Rate
•    Inbound Links
•    Social Media Share = # of Tweets, Retweet, Facebook Shares

Mistake 15 – Expecting Overnight Success
Easy Fix:
•    Don’t Give Up

For all mistakes and easy fixes from Hubspot, subscribe and download their FREE e-book  “15 Business Blogging Mistakes and Easy Fixes”.

I want to hear from you! What blogging mistakes have you learned to avoid? What was your most dreadful or easy fix?

Social Media News:

After protest, Congress puts off movie piracy bill

What Are Dirty URLs?
While websurfing, I have noticed some dirty urls that should be avoided.

Here are a few examples:
http://mywebiste.com/?p=46
or http://mywebsite.com/pl?id=4&view=basic

“Dirty url” is known to confuse the heck out of the search spiders. If you have a look at the above url, would you ever recall the link off the top of your head and/or determine the keywords pertaining to the post? Probably, not!
Spiders, also known as crawlers, follow and crawls links throughout the internet, seeking contents and adding them into the search engine indexes.  The more confusing links to your site, the less likely the search spider will crawl and index all of your pages.

Making a Dirty URL Clean and SEO Friendly
Fortunately, Word press provides options to customize your website url structure to improve search engine ranking and sharing compatibility.

Here’s is quick solution:

• Login your WP Dashboard

• Click on Permalink under the Setting Tab

• Under Common Setting, UnCheck Default

• Click on Custom Structure and add the following code: /%category%/%postname%/ - (displays category and post name) or /%postname% – (displays post name )(Categories and post name should be keywords rich)

• Click on Save Changes

Here’s an example of a “Clean and SEO Friendly URL”

http://mywebsite.com/postname

A clean url helps your visitors recall your website pages, helps the search engine determine what your pages are about and optimize your website for your keywords. For any social media tips or dirty url problems, please contact me.

Here are a few of the questions we covered:

1. How many keyword phrases should I include in my blog?
2. How many times a day should I promote my blog on multiple social media platforms?
3. How many words should my blog post contain?
4. In your opinion is blogging an effective way of promoting one’s business or a way to highlight industry trends?
5. Is adding pictures and graphics effective in a blog?

To hear the show with Reggie Juzang, please visit Blogging Basic Q&A Discussion.

My next guest, Era Nichole, a Freelance Journalist, head writer and Public Relation Specialist, will offer some smart ideas on how to create fresh, unique content just by the activities business consultants and coaches perform on a daily basis.

Era Nichole, a New Orleans, La native where she developed the passion for the Arts and Communications. She currently has a A.A. in Communications from, the University of Phoenix and currently working towards her B.A. in Communications & African American Studies at Georgia State University. Era began her career and currently with Tonnae Nicole Cosmetics as a head writer and Public Relations Specialist. You can also view some of her work in monthly in depth articles in Overflow Magazine out of Chicago, Illinois. Freelance Journalist Era Nichole has her own production company Arcani Productions that specialize in Event Speaking, Voice Over and Blog Production. You can find excerpts of her work on Facebook.com/EraNichole.

The Nan Ross Show
Thursday, August 26, 8:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Show Page Link: http://budurl.com/n87l
Call-in#: (347) 324-3703

Show Topic: Creating A High-Profile, High-Traffic, and High-Profit Blog Isn’t Rocket Science!

Nan: How long does it take to become a successful blogger?
Steph: It depends on how you define success. On average, it takes about a year. My blog has been around for five years. It took two to three years to get my blog going.
A lot of people give up too fast.  It is difficult to reach success with blogging in six month. Give yourself time. It is more about pacing yourself instead of sprinting. It is about building up a community and watching it spread like wildfire.

Nan: What website would you recommend for new bloggers?

Steph:

Problogger – monetizing your blog, writing content, blog design, collaboration, blog   critiques
Copyblogger – copywriting tips and advice for bloggers and internet marketers
Seth Godin – Seth Godin’s riffs on marketing, respect, and the ways ideas spread.
Aaron Wall – SEO Book – web visibility and SEO strategies

Nan: Should someone who is new at blogging learn ‘how to blog’ or ‘how to write’?

Steph: If you play a sport a lot, you get better at it. If you write a lot, you will be better at it.  You’ll probably want to learn more on how to blog initially, and as you start to get into the groove then you get into how to write.

• Understanding the Fundamental of Blogging

It does not matter if you are an amazing writer, if no one knows that you are blogging. You have to know the fundamentals of blogging to attract your audience to your blog.

Nan: How often should we be posting on our blog?
Steph: There are a lot of theories out there. It’s basically anywhere between no more than a few times a day to no less than once a month.  If you do more than a few times a day it’s too much and no one wants to follow you. If you do less than once a month, they will forget about you. The norm is 1-2 times a week.

• Find You Pattern and Stick with It

Nan: What should the length of the blog be?
Steph: Look at your niche and try to fit into their format. If you are writing on a video game review, you probably don’t want ten pages; if you are breaking news, then a few paragraphs may be sufficient. However, if you are a computer programmer and write a post on new technology, then you may be expected to write more lengthy posts.

The most successful blogs are usually one page and a half.

The listen to the show in its entirely, click on the below link and enjoy!

Creating a High-Profile, High-Traffic and High-Profit Blog Isn’t Rocket Science

Related Stories:

Blog Blazers Book Review – Video

How to Use Video to Promote Your Blog- Video

10 Hot Tips for Bloggers

How to Use Podcasting to Promote Your Blog

The Nan Ross Show

I invite you to listen to the show for blogging tips and strategies.

Creating a High-Profile, High-Traffic and High-Profit Blog Isn’t Rock Science

with Stephane Grenier, Author of Blog Blazers

To Purchase the Book Blog Blazers

1. Feed their ego
Who doesn’t like a stroke of their ego? Let’s just face it, everyone loves to be recognized. Imagine having a first date with a hottie and he or she does not recognize your most impressive attire or your sexy 6” heels. Ooo! You will start to feel a little uneasy and wonder if that person is attracted to you.

Promoting others is the key to success in social media. Watch what your audience is doing online. Praise them for their hard work, perseverance and promote them to others in your network. They will love and remember you for that!

2. Hit their spot
Ok, maybe not that type of spot! I’m talking about hitting your audience emotional spot. To woo your audience, you make them feel protected, secure and confident. Just like your first love. When you engage with your audience after repetitive interaction, it creates an emotional attachment. When your audience is emotionally attached to your brand; they become your loyal customers and active promoters.

3. Mentally Stimulate Your Audience
It’s not easy to pay attention to some people in this world. I have been on dates with gentlemen who were quite boring or talk too much. But there’s one thing that intrigues me the most about a gentlemen – how mentally stimulating he is. He will ask closed-end questions that keep me involved mentally and physically.

Remember, your audience is part of your community because they want to be educated and take something away of value. By stimulating your audience’s mind with thought-provoking questions, we keep them interested, intrigued and entertained.

4. Just Listen & Respond Briefly
Ok, back to the gentlemen who talks too much. Uh! That’s annoying! I understand you want to be heard online but when you talk too much instead of listening, you will be tuned out. You will be the dude that everyone avoids at the party.

Law #4 from the 48 Laws of Power “When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control.”

Listen to your audience before jumping in the middle of any conversation. Be brief with your response and be out. You will appear more profound and mysterious.

5. Be Honest
This last one is for the fake folk! I was on a date with a gentleman who talked about how perfect his life was. The money, the career and his lifestyle was so golden. I knew he was lying! He is human!

Law #12 from 48 Laws of Power “Open-hearted gestures of honesty and generosity bring down the guard of even the most suspicious people.”

It’s not about one act of honesty, but a series of acts. This applies to the language you speak to your audience. Some bloggers need to be more transparent toward their audience to show that they are human.

From being a single parent, working a full-time job, part-time freelancer and a part-time Social Media Enthusiast, I would be lying to tell you my life is golden. Even though I have my ups and down, my life journey has been exciting and spontaneous. When we are honest to tell our audiences some of our struggles and setbacks, you inspire others to pursue their dream and overcome their challenges.

Whether you are an introvert or extrovert, wooing your audience is not rocket science. It requires time and patience. If you can provide valuable content, be attentive to your audience’s needs, stimulate their mind and stroke their ego, you will create an emotional bond and grab their attention.