Each week I like to highlight blog posts that I received some Wisdom from. Please visit the following blogs, comment if you wish, and glean from their knowledge and experience.
Finding Backlinks by Illene from BasicblogTips.com. In this video she shares how you can see who’s linking to your wordpress blog via three methods. [wordpress dashboard, Technorati and google webmaster tools] Be sure to visit her blog for lots of great WordPress tips.
The Ultimate guide to Guest Blogging by Kristi Hines of Kikolani.com. If you’ve ever thought of guest blogging this post covers everything you need to know. Love the title because it truly is the Ultimate guide. She guides you through setting your guest blogging goals, how to find guest blogging opportunities, Preparing your blog pitch, Best times to pitch your guest post ideas, How to submit a great post, how to write a great Bio, tracking your results and how to be a great guest blogger. Wow- that is a lot of great information.
Linked in Groups Tips by Denise Wakeman. She shares tips by Social media Linked in expert Viveka Von Rosen who runs Social Media Biz School
P.S. I met two of the three business women via an online Linkedin group. The other lady, Illene, I found via Audioboo.com.
You know that blissful feeling you get after you find out that the project you were dreading was completed by someone else?
Crissy Herron on Indiebiz chicks has created a wonderful Business,Marketing and Blogging plan for 2012 plus she’s giving away a free preview. She’s planned out your entire year for you. Each month you get 20 blog post ideas, 10 ways to expand your income as well as 3 promotional ideas. Are you glad she’s done all the hard work? I know I am.
Giving your readers access to your rss feed is a smart move for bloggers. It gives them access to all updates to your blog when you make them. Feedburner lets your readers subscribe via email or in a reader like Google Reader. Feedburner is one of the most well known burners and below you’ll find a quick tutorial on how to burn your blogspot or wordpress blog feed. Feedburner gives a number of tutorials on how to add these to your blog.
Find Your Feed
Blogger: Url of your blog ex. momwithahook.blogspot.com
Self hosted WordPress: url of your blog ex. saraduggan.com
WordPress blog: url of your blog
Go to Feedburner.com:
Enter your URL, Click Next.
‘Identify Feed Source’ [atom or rss] then click Next.
Add a title to your feed – your blog title or a name that your readers will instantly identify with. You also have the option of entering a custom feed address as well. Click Next.
Congratulations you now have a RSS feed burned via Feedburner. Now you can dress it up with some bling. Click Next.
Some RSS Bling for your feed. Track clickthroughs, individual views and reach.
There is an option for you to offer your readers rss updates via email. This is good just in case people don’t read through a reader like google.
Feedburner has all the code you need to add to your blogspot blog, wordpress blog or self hosted blog. Just choose the option, grab the code and add it to your site.
Weekly Wisdom is a weekly post where I like to share with you the sites I’ve come across that I’ve learned from.
Here are a few from this week:
Word Chef – I first came across Tea via Linked in. I visited her blog to nominate a couple of small businesses in her annual contest. Little did I know that I would win the nomination contest she was having. I received a number of great business books, a wp learning membership plus I get to attend a webinar and learning session with her. If you need help with branding your business or copy writing, she is the gal to turn to.
Creative Blogging – This is a course run by blogger Tom Treanor. I first came across him via a twitter post by Crochet Liberation Front regarding a blog webinar he was hosting. I won a copy of his SEO book and connected with him via linked in. [which by the way is where I found the Word Chef] This course is free and gives you a simple yet detailed introduction into the why’s and how’s of blogging.
Problogger – is a great blogging resource. Run by blogger Darren Rowse I first came across his blog via a course I took last year with Michelle Shaeffer – 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Again, as far as blogging is concerned this guy is an expert and definitely a blog you should read if you want your blogging career to be effective.
Liz Strauss – is the blogger behind successful-blogger.com. I was referred to her via a post by Solosmarts regarding cross blog conversations. If you recall I did a cross blog conversation with Kathyrn of Crochet Concupiscence earlier this month. She is an author of a book and of course writes amazing articles on how to blog.
What one site gave you wisdom to work with this week?
As a Crochet Blogger, you may be wondering how in the heck article marketing can help you and your blog. Isn’t article marketing just for experts and authors? The short answer is that article marketing is for anyone who wants to establish themselves as a leader in their field and drive more traffic to their website. So, as the owner of your own Crochet Blog, article marketing can help YOU.
Before I get into the details of how article marketing can help your blog, let’s take a quick look at what exactly article marketing is. In a nutshell, it’s the process of using short articles for publication and distribution by other websites and off-line publishers, typically free of charge.
The first question that occurs to you is most likely, “Why would anyone give away their expertise and content for free?”
There are three main reasons:
Exposure. The more places your market can find you, the more routes to your website, the higher your traffic will be. Each article you write creates a separate trail someone can follow back to you – and become your customer.
Expert Status. When you put quality information out into the marketplace, you will establish yourself as a go-to expert that people can come to for advice and information. Don’t stop yourself just because you feel like you might not know every nook and cranny of your topic. You need to know enough to provide value to your potential market and give them what they’re looking for. That will put the level of an expert in their eyes.
Stamp of Approval. When another website or blogger publishes your article that serves as a recommendation or “stamp of approval.” This validation serves as an introduction to that person’s audience, making them more receptive to your message. If you don’t put your content out there, this can’t happen.
Article marketing isn’t just for authors or information product marketers. Article marketing is for any business owner or blogger who wants to drive more traffic to their site, establish themselves as head and shoulders above their competition, and gain access to new audiences. Your potential readers or customers are out there looking for help; make sure you show up in the right place at the right time by creating great articles and sprinkling them throughout the web.
Want to publish your first article? Sign up for my 7-day eCourse which takes you step by step on how to publish your first Squidoo article.
Blogger #2 answers the question with a post and a question for Blogger #1
The back and forth conversation goes on with your readers being eavesdroppers. In most cases there is a conclusion to the conversation and a wrap up post.
In each post you’ll want to recap what a cross blog conversation is so your readers will know what’s going on and link to the answer in your friends blog.
How does this benefit your readers? It’s different and brings interesting content to your readers. Hopefully you’ll get your readers to engage in the conversation too.
Read my first post on Momwithahook’s Crochet Journal in which I ask Kathryn about her 365 project as well as her booklet “When Grandma Isn’t Crocheting She’s Hunting Big Game”.
You’ll find her response on her blog Crochet Concupiscence as well as the questions she has for me. I’ll be answering her on tomorrows post so be sure to stop back.
This year has been a bit busy for me as I stay focused on the goals I have set for myself. I’ve been blogging consistently over on Momwithahook’s Crochet Journal which makes it difficult for me to pop on over here. I need to plan posts for this blog as well so I can just add it to my regular list of things to do.
This year I’m participating in the 52 Squidoo Lenses in 52 Weeks Challenge as well as a personal Daily Update challenge. As I’m learning how to develop lenses for the Squidoo lens building challenge I’m learning how to do product reviews.
Each week I research a product, do keyword research, write 5 short articles, plus I publish an article on Ezine articles and I write a blog post. This takes up a lot of time but I know that the more I do this the quicker I will be.
The results so far is one lens on Simply Soft Yarn which earned an angel blessing the day after I published it and one lens on Martha Stewart Cotton Hemp Yarn. I did get behind schedule on the last lens and will be publishing my article later today.
Locally I’m stepping out of my comfort zone – behind the computer screen – by teaching beginning and intermediate crochet classes at a local craft shop. I’m excited to be sharing the craft of crochet because I don’t think we get enough credit – knitting does get most of the lime light.
Another project I’m working on is an eBook that will be published in March 2012. I’ve already written the outline all I have left is to fill in the ‘meat’. With this eBook I’ll be creating companion audios – you can listen to the first of the audios by visiting my Audio boo channel.
2012 also brings with it new challenges with affiliate marketing. I’m slowly learning how to add this to my blog as an income source. I’ve chosen the companies I want to partner with this year and will develop ways [as I learn them] to market them to my readers and followers.
What are your goals for 2012? How was the first week of January?
Last week I hosted a giveaway for those wishing to study under Teacher/Coach Angela Wills in her Website Design Mojo course. I thought offering hosting and a domain name for a year would bring in a few students for her class. Maybe I didn’t promote it well it enough, I don’t know but I’m sad to say I can’t announce a winner today.
What to do?
I thought it would be fun to get your input on this. Comment below and let me know whether I should extend this contest until December 31st, 2011.
Maybe the price is just beyond your budget right now – I so understand that. It was only this year that I saved up the money to take her course. I’m not disappointed in the investment either.
Not sure you need a self hosted wordpress site? That’s okay, you can use the wordpress.com free option – this class still applies.
Here is an example of what you’ll get when you sign up for Website Design Mojo:
Why not get access to a free webinar January 3, 2012 with Angela Wills? She’ll share with you 3 Ways you can make Money with your WordPress site. I hope to see you there.
Recap:
There was no winner to the giveaway [sorry]
Leave a comment letting me know if I should extend the contest deadline
Youtube video on How to make a free Website using WordPress by Angela Wills
Sign up to attend Angela’s Web Site Design Mojo Webinar
