Blog Basics #1 - How to start a blog?

Since I have been approached by many people - friends, relatives, acquaintances, etc asking on how can they start a blog, thought it would be better to write a post & redirect them to it rather than narrating the same story to each of them. But instead of writing the entire script at one go, believe it would be easier to share it across multipe posts highlighting the basics.

Now that it's a series of post that I shall be doing, this is what you can expect in the coming week(s) (I have a day job too).

1. Content Strategy (It has been covered in earlier post here)

2. Platform

3. Promotion

4. Monetization

Before going further, you might consider to read one of my earlier post which covered the 'Basics of Blogging' written as part of the #AtoZChallenge. That was a short post though given the challenge was to write daily. This post instead is a detailed one to let the readers understand each step to achieve their goal which is 'Starting a blog'

One of the biggest decision once you have decided your niche areas for blogging and/or content strategy is about choosing a blog platform. Remember, there are several options here and it depends how much premium you're ready to pay. (there are free ones too, which is where I start)

1. Free Services or Hosted Blog

If you are of the 'testing the waters' kind, it makes sense to use one of the free services to start your blog. Listed are 3 popular options that can be utilized:

1a. Blogger

Blogger started as one of the earliest forms of free blogging site, where they eliminated the need to setup exclusive softwares on your site. Instead, they offered to host your content on their site with the catch that your blog would come up as .blogspot.com. They have since move to map custom domain, but there are still certain restriction on the designs, plugins.

1b. Wordpress.com

Often, we have seen people getting confused between Wordpress.com & Wordpress.org. The significant difference is, Worpress.com is a hosted-blog service, where it offers space to its registered members & your name appears as .wordpress.com. Again, like Blogger, there are few designs & plugins available for use. But the biggest difference is, you cannot have a monetization services like Adsense on this free service.

1c. Tumblr

Tumblr, I would say is rather a splash page where you can either redirect your social feeds or post your own content on their site. It could be more like your online diary, where certain posts are made for public consumption where there is no certain content strategy.

2. Self-Hosted Blog

2a. Wordpress.org

Wordpress.org gives a download option of the very popular Wordpress blogging software. The software can be installed in your local machine as well as on the hosting server and helps you easily setup blogging capabilities on your OWN site. It also gives you access to innumerable themes, plugins which can be configured per your requirements.

2b. Blogging softwares

If you're a power user, it makes sense to install a blogging software on your host server and have a strong team who can design it specifically for your purpose. Remember, those were the early days of blogging and many amongst us used it when Worpress.org was not around. I do not have any personal favorites here though because I haven't used any.

Your turn

Which of the above or others are you using & what has been your experience. Do share you stories & enlighten the post, readers. 

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How to Create Content for your Blog

andriuxuk via Flickr

As a blogger, one of the most common grouse I share with any of my fellow bloggers is to find fresh content for their blog. It's imperative for us to find & create content which is interesting and revs up the audience. We need to create content from the topic we love & would like to have the audience love them too. And believe me, it's not easy to be creative & generate content regularly.


In case you have just begun to write, do visit this post to understand the basics of blogging.


Then how do we do it?? I have list few tricks on the way I create content for my blog posts:


1. Google Reader


Google Reader, pull up feeds from the subscribed list & show the posts in a stream. I agree, there are various RSS reader tools, but I still love the simple interface of Google Reader. Since I read multiple blogs, it is difficult to keep a list of them & visit regularly. So, If I have liked a certain post, usually subscribe to their feed so that I stay updated with their content.


Reading to the various posts, and being updated helps me to think about the topics that would resonate with my audience.


2. Scoop.it


Scoop.it allows you to curate online content into a dynamic digital magazine. It also connects to various social platforms like Twitter, Facebook, etc allowing you to share the content you like. Similar to Google Reader, you need to subscribe to the user's posts to get them streamed on your page. 


Since, the users of Scoop.it also pull post for different places on the web, skimming Scoop.it has helped me to look for ideas from beyond the few chosen people that I follow on Google Reader. It just takes me about 30-45 odd minutes to go through the list & I have my ideas flowing.


3. Disqus


Disqus is a global comment system that improves discussion on websites and connects conversations across the web. I have installed 'Disqus' commenting system on my blog & while it has indeed brought some traffic, the best part is, it has encouraged people to comment & these comments are indeed helpful at times to produce post.


Let me tell you, comments, either on your post or other posts where you have shared yours, are a great place to have discussion, are at times greatest inspiration for your own content. Since, there would be people commenting on your post, you'll know what their challenges are & how certain content has got the audience interested. I remember one of the Klout post that I did a while back, to my surprise, it got comments within 5 minutes of being posted and the various discussions gave me inspiration to write more on certain challenges.


In addition to these three tools, I also use Twitter lists. The utilities of Twitter lists has already been covered at multiple places like this and so I'll refrain from covering here.


Also, I have started to use list.ly lately, though am yet to utilize its potential,  but I do see that it can be an excellent tool to make a 'list' and have it crowdsourced. It's a great idea from Nick Kellet & Shyam Subramanyan and I am looking forward to use it more often. You can find me on list.ly here.


Your Turn

How do you think that these post will be useful to you? I would like to hear your opinion, you know it counts. As I told, comments are a great source of inspiration and I love them coming from you. Also, you might even share your source of ideas/inspirations using the 'comments' below. They would be helpful to us - the bloggers. Remember, 'Sharing is Caring'.


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Top tips on SEO for your Blog

Image Credit - Stuart Miles

SEO or search engine optimization is a way to increase the rankings of your content on the search engines. It helps in generating much required traffic & engagement by having your content getting listed at the top by the various search engines. Content on your blog is no different. It helps to follow certain rules while writing your blog post to have it discovered by search engines & rank it above other blog post. In addition to traffic & helps you generate $$ too.

Last week, over the #blogchat Twitter Chat, we had this interesting topic being discussed. Those 60 minutes were pure pearls of wisdom having Lee Odden (@LeeOdden) co-host it along with Mack Collier (@MackCollier). Guess, it was Lee's second time that he co-hosted #blogchat & this time especially to teach the lesser mortals about optimizing their blogs for search engines and social network. We were indeed thankful to Lee as he was away in Antwerp for a speaking event and it was 3 AM his time we started twitter chat.

Listing down few of the pearls from the event that I helped me learn on optimizing blog in addition to the Content Strategy tips:

1. Optimization extends beyond keywords & links
2. Blog SEO is a cycle: Plan, implement, monitor for editor opportunity & progress, measure, refine, repeat.
3. Write on-topic, on-target - keywords will come up organically.
4. Write blog content around a keyword.
5. Ensure you have your keywords in the title & first paragraph
6. 1-3 keywords for every 100 words
7. Engage on Social Media - Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest (it drives 5% as much traffic as Twitter & Google)
8. Share on Google+, remember they own Google Search
9. Use "Permalink" on blog so title and keywords show up in URL
10. Optimize to share, engage. More of each will push your search engine rankings
11. Dish out Content regularly, ensure you have an editorial calendar

Pitfalls:

1. Bloggers should be aware that Google is actually penalizing some forms of SEO now.
2. Overuse of keywords in a post
3. Search engines, Google or other, understand text - metadata, links and not images.

Tools:

1. Google Adwords Keyword Tool 
2. InboundWriter
3. ScribeSEO

And do follow @LeeOdden & @MackCollier. They did a great job in driving this session.

Do you have any other interesting tip to share on SEO for blog. Share it with us using the comments section below. Would like to hear your tips.

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D is for Digital Marketing

Ever since Internet became the heart of communication channels, companies are finding ways to leverage it for marketing benefits & that essentially is all about 'Digital Marketing'. The marketing world has seen a paradigm shift in their campaigns while moving from traditional channels to the digital space. 

The advent of search engines saw the marketer lapping up SEO, ad banners, PPC strategies as part of digital marketing, which promised that your brand pages lands at the top. And now even these  are being tweaked so that they suit the more prolific social channels rather than focusing on the entire internet space. The intent is clearly to be heard and reach out to more customers.

This blog post is part of the A to Z Challenge and I would be glad to see your comments on "Digital Marketing"

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Content Strategy - Top 5 Clues

Courtesy: nokhoog_buchachon

The letter of the day is 'C' and for the guys in Social Media world, its stands for the dreaded 'Content Strategy'. As marketers & especially in the social media space, tt's the singlemost aspect in deciding the success of content going viral. A good content strategy should ensure that it is easy to be found & engaging.

For the content, that has essentially gone viral, on careful analysis, you might see a pattern. Ape it!!!

Hence, its essential to have a good content strategy at the heart of any campaigns so that you gather enough leads. Here are my top 5 clues to help you ace content strategy:

1. Define niche

Identify an area of expertise to talk about. Reader's come to your blog to learn something, but if cannot offer learning on the same subject over your posts, chances are, they are not coming back. Capture the trends in your domain & write about it, you'll always have the first-mover advantage.

2. Determine Audience

Based on the post you have written & the traffic that has been generate, analyze your audience. You should be able to know which part of the world reads more, shares more. Target this audience by ensuring that your post covers what they want.

 

3. Curate Relevant Content

It would be a difficult task to think about content day in & day out. So better curate content. Internet is flooded with noise, determine what you want. I use channels like Google Reader, Scoop.it to curate content for my blog.

4. Include Call-to-actions (CTA)

One of the most important aspect of any content strategy is to have a CTA. You need to be able to get the reader on what to do next after visiting your content. Asking them for opinion, to share or even getting them to download your ebook are good CTAs.

5. Social Sharing

The last one though has to be about sharing. Give your reader multiple opportunities to share your content. Pick up any one of the plug-in available over the web & have it on your page. Make it easy for the reader to share your content.

This are some of the tips that I have gathered by experience & am trying to master it.

My CTA for you is to share it, as I have put multiple social sharing links (Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Stumbleupon, Buffer.it). You can also share your opinion using the comments section below.

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Basics of Blogging - A to Z Challenge

Blog - Image Courtesy - Stuart Miles|FreeDigitalPhotos.net

When the competition is about blog, I thought why not write about blog & see if we share a common understanding. For me, blogging was to share - the information that I gather over my normal day, my opinion about a particular story (like the employee issue at Goldman Sachs) or do some plain talking. Over the years that I have been blogging (not so consistently!!!), I have learnt the finer nuances & to succeed, these basics have to be mastered.

Sharing some of them:

Rule 1: Have an Aim

Now that the Blogging bug has bitten you, find a purpose for the blog. Determine if you want to write an an individual or represent your company because that will shape up your following. Also determine your niche.

Rule 2: Content Strategy (That's going to be the next post :-) ) 

In a nutshell, your content strategy should help you define the content that will be suited to the 'Aim'. You cannot be writing a food recipe on a technology blog. Defining a content strategy will also help you to source references that are of relevance, remember its a sea of information out there.

Rule 3: Editorial Calendar (My post on how to do it)

As a rule of thumb, to make yourself heard, the noise you create has to be persistent & consistent (look ma!! I rhymed it). Post regularly, but to do that effectively, make sure you have an editorial calendar in place. It helps you in planning of the post well in advance & also ensures focus

Rule 4: Promoting

Once you have posted it, let people know about it. Use the various social channels to share your post. Twitter can be leveraged by using tweet chat or personal interactions, similarly you can use Triberr (to ensure more coverage) or dlvr.it (to share at multiple social channels) . Make your post SEO friendly, it gets the search engines interested.

Rule 5: Engaging

Last but the most important aspect is engagement. Best engagements can happen over a blog post & your views has the ability to get more moolah too. Ensure you respond to comments, tweets & any sharing that happens for your post, it shows people that you care.

I do care about engaging too and the guys at Disqus have done an amazing job to have me setup their comment platform. Do drop in your comments below & lets tell them they have done an amazing job. Also, tell me if you like my blog and share yours for me to comment.

Follow me on Twitter (@malharbarai) or 'Like' the Facebook Page to stay updated.

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A - All aboard the A to Z Blog Challenge

Today is the Day #1 of the A To Z challenge & am on board writing the first post.

As part of the challenge, we are supposed to write a post on each of the word as given in the schedule. Think its easy?? Get registered, as the A2Z Team is still accepting requests. Believe me, this is going to be a huge blog marathon & I feel great to be part of it.

My Top 5 reasons to pick up the challenge

1. Regular Post

2. Wider Audience

3. Great Traffic

4. Interaction with other Bloggers

5. Gain Influence

Looking forward to the semblance that it can bring up in my posting schedule & well not to forget some good traffic too (Who doesn't like that as a blogger)

Haven't heard of A to Z Challenge?? Visit their blog today and register if you can. Seems almost 1600+ bloggers are already registered.

And if you have already registered, do share your Blog Link using the 'comments' below.

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Social Media & Changing Food Habits

You can say, this journey of change in food habits started during my first visit of the US. Almost, 8 years back I tasted 'Pad Thai' and 'fruit tart' for the first time & instantly fell in love with it. Since then, I have been trying to perfect it & today it tastes good & so my wife wanted to put up the recipe on her food blog (haven't obliged her with the Pad Thai recipe yet :-) ). The discussion with her though brought to my notice how the food habits around us & including ours have changed with the proliferation of social media.

Food is something that is intrinsic to all of us & you can gauge the popularity with the number of blogs dedicated to it, be it - healthy, organic, vegan, pastries etc or the number of photos appearing on Pinterest.

So what is driving the change?

Frequent Travel

Food habits in each of the country were quite unique to the place of living, but since the late nineties when people started traveling places frequently as the businesses started going global, there was this sudden interest to learn recipes of distant lands. Today, mom's recipes has been replaced by food blogs.

Social Channels

A visit to thekitchn.com made me realize the number of contest taking place - Healthy Blog, Best Food Photography & others. And the key drivers of these contests is the healthy dose of sharing across the social networks - Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest (offlate). 

Even the food chains have become suave enough to have presence on Social Media and ensure that they grab eyeballs as well as business. Take the case of McDonalds & Subway brand pages on Twitter.

But more than them, its the individual contributors who write regularly - the likes of Chinmayee Bhat @LoveFoodEat or Sukaina @SipsAndSpoonful or Susan Voisin @Fat Free Vegan.

These folks have made sure that the traditional recipes are shared & adopted. In family dinner or even otherwise, the eclectic dishes are indeed derived from either a blog or probably the host came across a Tweet or Facebook post.

While, I can't still make out what a ganache means, my wife has already put her baking skills to test (unfortunately on me!!!) tonite. 

Do share your thoughts & how your food habits have changed. Make use of the comment section below and share your favorite recipe or two and your thoughts. Meanwhile, cheers to Pepperica (@jalbarai) for igniting these topic.

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How-to setup an Editorial Calendar for effective Content Strategy?

Image Courtesy Stuart Miles

Writing is a wonderful art & over the time since I started to write - blog, articles, whitepapers or for that matter any content, I have found that the only way to better it, is to follow a certain content strategy. 

Your single most goal is to build content that will generate more traffic but the challenge is how-to translate that into action...

Regardless of your goals, one of the way to setup an effective content strategy that can improve over time, is to build a "Editorial Calendar". I have seen multiple templates available on the web, but having picked up few of them I have gone ahead & personalized it to suit the content that I produce.

An editorial calendar is a great way to do forward planning - research, et al for your content and also helps to keep track of your ideas, users.

Though, one of the goal that every content strategy should address is to show up on the search ranking, so have a post that has a blend of "search engine" specific keywords in title & post.

Here the glimpse my "editorial calendar" and you might want to personalize it to your requirements:

Editorial Calendar

I've divided my calendar under columns like:

Week

As I do my posts on weekly basis, the first column was to put a date/week for each content. It helps me channelize my research, thought process in the run-up to the week.

Key Goal

Its good to define your key goal at the start. It has been my experience that until you have a certain goal in mind, it would be difficult to setup your thoughts over the huge amount of noise generated on the web.

Heading

The first place where the viewer might get interested to go through your content is the "heading". This is the single most piece to attract viewers and gather a certain fan following. Also, the traffic from social channels will most probably be driven by it.

"Headings" need to be creative, suggestive or even controversial so that viewers will read further & comment too.

Have a tentative heading to start with as you might need to revisit after you have defined your keywords.

Keywords

Go through any SEO optimization techniques & the stress is to have maximum coverage of keywords. 

"Keywords" supposedly are instrumental in driving the traffic to your site from the search engines. Make sure your post, heading have a mix of them so that your page is search-engine friendly.

I make sure that my post has a good set of keywords for it to appear in the search engines & help drive first-time visitors.

Hits/Week

Once I am done with posting my content, I track the stats for a week. It helps me to analyze the content of my post - what worked & what didn't. 

A deeper analysis can reveal which channel has generated traffic - search engine, Twitter, Facebook. It is one detail that can helps you to decide which channel to emphasize for your content.

Comments

These is a very personal column that I use to deduce the judgmental errors.

It helps me in planning for my next post & I try to avoid the mistakes that could have occurred in previous posts...

And while you are here, do not forget to leave your comments. They are welcome & helpful too...

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