Archive for the Category »Blogging Lessons «

Mar

When you think about it, the internet and all that is shared on it is powerful.

Mainstream media now has competition with alternative news sites, as do governments.

People voice their opinions or share what they believe to be fact, whether it be in comments, on social networking sites, or in blog posts.

Anyone can be a broadcaster of sorts.

Today’s Lesson

The article titled, Secret Media War of 2012 states, in part,

Throughout the heyday of print media and radio and recently, even cable news, the job of the press has been to manipulate and control public opinion as well as voting blocks. The elites bought and controlled most media outlets and developed and promoted a controlled political opposition, on both the left and the right, that allowed them to set the parameters for discussion and debate.

That’s true. News, as well as other information, used to be (and in some cases, still is) manipulated and does not necessarily consider what’s in the best interest for the public.

Before the internet, all we had were TV channels, radio and print media to depend on and what we believed was often based on limited information.

In fact, if those in powerful positions didn’t want us to know additional facts, they weren’t published.

No one was the wiser.

Until today.

With the advent of blogs and social networking sites, the doors to information from all sources are now open and although at times it may feel like we’re being bombarded with too much data. we can pick and choose what to believe.

WE can make up our own mind, and not feel like we’re being brainwashed; not feel like we don’t have access to all of the facts.

Additionally, as bloggers, we have more information at our fingertips. More arguments to make. More ways to inform our readers.

And although we’re not technically journalists, we can broadcast newsworthy stories or share posts which can help others in unimaginable ways whether we have one reader or a million.

Today’s Assignment

Do you realize what you post can, and does have an impact on others?

Do you feel like a newscaster, or do you think what you publish is unimportant?

Care to share?

Category: Archives, Blogging, Blogging Lessons, Social Networking, Writing Tips 74 Comments

Mar

Another One Bites The Dust

Barbara Swafford

If you’re worried about competition in the blogosphere, the good news is, most blogs don’t make it past the first month or two.

My guess is, many bloggers jump on the blogging bandwagon believing they’ll make a substantial amount of money in a short period of time and when that doesn’t happen, they quit.

They don’t even give blogging a chance.

Although writing blog posts or publishing photos or videos can be easy, oftentimes new bloggers don’t realize there’s more to blogging than just publishing.

To become successful, we need to “get found”.

That’s the hard part; the part of blogging that takes work.

Now for the bad news; most blogs don’t make it past the first month or two.

Today’s Lesson

If you own a business in the real world, there’s more to it than just getting a business license and hanging up a “OPEN” sign. In order to get clients, you’ll need to advertise and network.

Blogs are no different. We need to advertise and network, too.

In previous lessons we learned how commenting on other blogs can help us get found. Although this technique helps, just leaving comments on the blogs of others is not enough.

In order to expand our reach we need to self-promote.

Self-promotion means learning SEO (search engine optimization) and attracting the likes of Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Self-promotion means we need to get out of our comfort zone, announce we’re online, try to entice others to come by our blog, to read what we’ve shared, to comment, to subscribe to our posts and to tell their friends about us, too.

Self-promotion entails setting up social networking accounts, getting others to not only follow us, but to read what we’re linking to and to share our posts with their followers.

Writing stellar content is the best way to make this happen, but one post, one link, one subscriber is only a start.

Self-promotion is something we can’t stop doing.

Self-promotion is never ending.

Most importantly, self-promotion is not a one way street. That which we want others to do for us, we also need to do for them.

Sadly, if we aren’t continually showing up in places where others frequent, if we’re not giving back or we’ve stopped publishing value based posts, we could be forgotten. If we’re not updating our blog, search engines could stop sending us traffic. When traffic dwindles, that which we worked so hard to build, could all be for naught.

… and another blog bites the dust.

Today’s Assignment

What method of self-promotion works best for you?

Care to share?

Category: Archives, Blogging, Blogging Lessons, Increase Traffic, Networking, SEO 105 Comments

Mar

The Key To Attracting Readers

Barbara Swafford

It’s often written, “You only have one chance to make a first impression.”.

Just like in real life, how our blog is dressed, designed or decorated will tell a newcomer a little about us as well as what they can expect from our blog.

First impressions can be lasting. First impressions can also determine if a reader will explore our site further than just looking at our header and the title to our current article. A first impression can make some readers click off of our blog and never return.

Today’s Lesson

When I first started this blog, I repeatedly changed the theme.

Part of the reason was I hadn’t found my blogging voice, and secondly, I wasn’t sure what I wanted this blog to become.

By testing and studying a variety of themes, as well as growing as a blogger, I settled on the theme you currently see. I think it depicts not only what this blog is about, but mirrors how I want to be perceived by my visitors.

Viewing the notebook is similar to showing you what my journal would look like; my thoughts expressed on “paper”. I share what I would write if I prepared blogging lessons in real life, as well as show others “your answers”, all of which receive an A+.

For some, my theme might appear too cutesy. For others, it could be a turn-off.

The first impression I project won’t please everyone, but that’s okay. No blog does.

Thinking about how I came to settle on this theme leads me to ask, “How did other bloggers pick their theme or decide how they wanted to be perceived online?”.

Today’s Assignment

When a new visitor lands on your blog, what message do you hope your blog depicts?

Or are you still searching? Experimenting?

Care to share?