If you have been in internet marketing for a while or if you are a content creator, you have definitely heard the term “duplicate content” and have most likely been scared of the term “duplicate content penalty”.

Duplicate content occurs when you have content on your website that is similar to other content that already exists on the Internet. This situation results in your website to perform badly in the eyes of the search engines especially Google who takes this very seriously.

Why You Should Care

Duplicate content is not cool. If you are trying to produce or post rehashed content, your content will not do well in Google or other search engines, and you will not be able to drive any search traffic to your website.

According to Google Webmaster Guidelines, all website owners should provide unique content that deliver value to their visitors and internet at large. As opposed to this guideline, if your website consists of duplicate content, Google and other search engines view your content as spam and will reduce the Page Rank.

In simple terms, Google’s search algorithm devalues website that simply copies and pastes stuff from other websites and thus, ranks them very low. They may even remove your entire website from their search results which could be a nightmare.

Unfortunately, many internet marketers and content creators cannot see the opportunity here. Instead of being scared of the duplicate content penalty, you can be rewarded by the search engines for having unique and quality content. In other words, instead of blaming search engines for their elaborate approach, you should try to understand the benefits of providing unique content and enjoy the increased search ranking results by doing so.

Benefits of Unique Content

Unique content that presents useful and interesting information helps to build credibility and trust which is required for expanding reader base and create loyalty. Also, quality content has better chances of getting noticed by other popular websites that might consider linking to your pages giving you some link juice. Consequently, as you build more back links, both your Google Page Rank and search ranks will be boosted. Most importantly, this will increase your website’s traffic and help you reach your content marketing goals.

If you are the person who creates the content, you should never copy any existing content. You can search for the subject and topic you are going to write about but you should always use your own words and ideas. If you hire writers to create your content, you need to check the content you receive from your writers before publishing it on your website. Also, you need to check the content you have already published regularly to verify if any piece of your content has been copied by others.

Plagiarism is a serious issue which has some serious consequences and therefore it matters.

6 Popular Online Duplicate Content Checkers

There are some very successful tools to check for duplicate content very easily. The following is a list of the most popular duplicate content checkers with some explanations about their prominent features.

1. Copyscape – Copyscape is the most famous and authoritative duplicate content checker on the internet. Copyscape’s products are used globally by millions of website owners. The tool has a free and paid version. With the free version, you can only search already published content. To be able to check unpublished content, you need to use the paid version. Copyscape searches Google and Yahoo for duplicate content.
2. Duplichecker – Duplichecker is another free duplicate content checker. It allows you to check your unpublished content for free. You can either upload the .txt file or paste the content on the tool itself. With Duplichecker, you can search Google, Yahoo or Bing.
3. Plagium – Plagium is another tool and it is a good alternative to Copyscape. One of the best features of the tool is that it sends an email alert in the case of your content is copied. Plagium checks your content on all Google, Yahoo and Bing. The tool has both free and premium membership versions.
4. ArticleChecker – ArticleChecker is another reliable duplicate content checker tool that checks content on Yahoo and Google. It enables you to enter your content in the tool or upload a file containing your content.
5. CopyGator – CopyGator provides an entirely free service that monitors your blog’s RSS feed. It can automatically notify you when your new post has been copied to another feed. Another great resource for bloggers.
6. Webconfs.com – This site enables you to find out what percentage of two pages is similar. You simply enter the URLs of 2 similar pages, and the tool gives you the percentage.

Verdict

As a smart blogger and an internet marketer, you should see the opportunity here instead of being scared of the search engines’ duplicate content penalty. You should always check your content with these effective tools to prevent the duplicate content issue.

As you provide unique and quality content, you will not be rewarded only by the search engines but also by your readers who will spend more time on your pages and become your loyal readers or customers. Avoid duplicate content and Be you-nique!

This guest post is contributed by Andrew who is trying to produce fresh content for an elevator company in New York keeping in mind possible problems with duplicate texts or paragraphs.

In a perfect life, a landing page on your website should be a gateway of sorts—uncluttered by things like slow page load, too many navigation options, distracting graphics, and etc. When I first started writing at Prestige Marketing, I learned that landing pages provide a portal by first, bringing visitors to your website, and second, by leading those same visitors towards taking action (e.g., filling out a user poll or generation lead form, making a purchase from your affiliate campaign, reading and leaving comments on your blog, or even picking up the phone to make an appointment with your business).

Whatever the desired action is, it will be dependent on that initial impression your landing page makes. And in the fast-paced online world, you can guess how easy it is for a visitor with a poor first impression to click off of your landing page and click on your competition’s instead.

So knowing that you only have one chance to make a good first impression, website owners should take their landing pages very seriously. It’s vital to ensure that there are no barriers to the gateways and paths leading users into your website and around your web pages. For instance, features or design implements can prohibit readers from finding the information that they want—for instance, making a purchase, learning more information about your company, or contacting your customer service department.

8 Ways to Optimize your Landing Page for Better Conversion Rates

1. Page load time

Enter your website from a variety of landing pages. Does it take a long time for your landing pages to load? If it does then chances are that your visitor has already clicked off. That’s the trend for landing pages that take too long to load—and such pages have the lowest conversion rates to prove it.

A slow loading landing page does not make for a great user experience, and Google will judge your site for it. Keep in mind that the average page load time should never exceed 5 seconds. Use google page speed tool to check the loading time of your landing page. If it’s bad, I suggest you use a CDN (content delivery network) like Amazon S3 or MaxCDN which will drastically improve your site’s load time.

2. Obstacles on landing page

How are you supposed to know how users using all sorts of different browsers see your landing page the way you do? You check—that’s how. Take the time to load your page using a variety of popular web browsers to see if the video or flash works, to see if images load, and to see how your content formatting looks. This is because not all browsers will see your site the same way.

People using different browsers might have a different experience when viewing your landing page so it is always wise to check if your website or landing page is cross browser friendly. You don’t have to load your site on each and every browser; just enter your site link on browser shots and it will do the magic.

3. Distractions on landing page

Seeing that most web visitors will make the decision to stay or go within seconds of visiting your landing page, your page should be clean with no distracting clutter and contain a clear call to action. For instance, you might use a catchy headline to attract the user to a feature blog post or even to your affiliate. This works out great.

Avoid stuffing your landing page with too much irrelevant info. Simple pages with strong headlines, catchy subtitles and good call to action perform better in terms of conversion rates.

4. Take control with your navigation

Landing page navigation should almost trap a user once they land making it difficult for them to leave the page.

Sure, your home page should offer great navigation options to help them find the information they desire, but the understanding is that if they’ve entered via a landing page, they are where they want to be. So remove the standard website navigation on your landing pages to gain better control over what the visitor sees and does on the page, and make it obvious for the user where you want them to click with big, colorful action buttons.

5. Keep it above the fold

Folds, meaning page folds, refers to the content and images that appear on screen before the reader needs to scroll down for more. Folds have no place on your targeted landing pages, and your call to action (i.e., a user poll, an opt-in form etc.) should always appear above the fold in all instances.

6. Create trust

A first impression is very dependent on earning the trust of potential customers. You can do that by using elements of trust on your landing page. For instance, feature things like customer testimonials, company descriptions, guarantees, and privacy policies help create the trust needed for today’s online shoppers to feel secure.

7. Use relevant graphics

Images are great way to add some visual engagement to your website; on landing pages, and on your entire website for that matter, only use images that are relevant to your content and compliments your company’s mission statement, personality, and marketing messages. Always use high quality images, and if you can’t afford to pay a professional photographer, buy stock photography to avoid looking cheap and unprofessional.

8. Always consider what’s not there

White space refers to the empty space surrounding all elements on screen—including content, images, captions, page banners, headlines, and etc. Overwhelming a visitor with too much “stuff” and not enough white space can have them clicking off in a jiffy. On the other hand, the proper use of white space to surround your key messages will greatly improve the user experience and guide them naturally to your call to action button.

You can improve on white-space by examining your landing pages for too much information. Ask yourself, do you need every single image and marketing message on the screen? If you don’t, then remove it. OR if it’s important enough, then create a new page for it instead of muddying the waters with too much information on the same page.

Check out Optimize Press which is one of the best landing page themes powered by wordpress. You can see this awesome theme in action on legit product reviews.

Remember, landing pages are very important as it plays a vital role in conversion rates. Take some time and go through all the tips I’ve mentioned. Implement them, tweak and split test it on your landing page and see your conversion rates double.

This guest post is contributed by Caeden M MacGregor who is a staff writer for Prestige Marketing, a Vancouver internet marketing company that specializes in blogging on viral marketing, social media, and internet marketing tips and techniques. Caeden has written for numerous blogs in a variety of fields ranging from software to fitness, and from gourmet food to travel. He currently lives in Katy, Texas with his wife, young daughter, and his best friend, a French bulldog named Morty.

If you’re looking to increase traffic to your blog and eventually turn a profit, welcome to the club. There are thousands of bloggers out there who share the same vision as you. Many of these bloggers will see their vision through but the majority will fall victim to one of the pitfalls that ensnare driven people: they’ll get worn down by the constant attention and consistent work that is required of bloggers.

I always find it hard not to laugh when I hear someone saying something about a get-rich quick scheme involving blogging. The business of blogging is like any other business. You build up customers and information and that is your product. The only catch is that your product is free. Your challenge is to monetize your site and figure out a way to get a profit out of a seemingly unsustainable business model. Most people choose to go with advertisements. Some sites use membership fees and others use referrals to make money. Whatever method you decide on, you should take these tips to heart.

How to: Improve your Blog Today!

Write What You Know

This is one of the oldest tips in the writing book and it holds true for blogging just as much as any other form of writing. If you’re looking to gain a loyal readership, you should stick to subjects you know. No one cares about a chef’s thoughts on software programming. Look at your set of skills and expertise and base your content off of that. You will find that you are able to make more informative posts and more enjoyable posts when you focus on one of your areas of expertise.

Write Everyday

This was the first thing my professor in my college news writing class told us. If we sit down each day and write about something — anything — we will soon find our vocabulary and our ability to create interesting thought connections expanding. You don’t necessarily have to update the blog every day, but you should take some time at the beginning or the end of the day to write. Maybe it’s about your day or about a dream you had last night, but it should happen on a daily basis. This is the most effective way to sharpen your writing skills.

Encourage Guest Posts

This is an especially important practice if you are blogging as a second job. There will be times when you find that you are simply too busy to update your blog on a regular basis. Encouraging guest submissions can allow you to build up a big backlog of entries that you can post in the event that your week becomes entirely occupied by business trips, meetings, dinner parties and other activities and obligations.

Get Social

Take advantage of the opportunities that social media present to you. Sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn provide you with an audience of millions. Get on the sites and start conversation with your followers. Take an interest in what others are saying. Social media is only as valuable as you’re willing to make it. If you create a Twitter account but only follow Wired.com and Popular Science, you’re never going to grow your readership. Follow liberally and get engaged in conversations with people. People are more likely to return to your site when they actually see a personality behind the curtain.

Take It Easy On Ads

No one likes coming to a site that is splattered with ads. It is not visually appealing and can be hard to navigate. If you’re looking to make money off of ads, that’s great but don’t jump the gun on setting up ads. Facebook took a long time to even start putting ads up. They waited because they knew that if their users felt like they were just customers or numbers on a quarterly earnings report they would not be as inclined to use the site. It wasn’t until they had people hooked and had created their own ecosystem that they introduced the ads. This is not to say that your site has to wait years to ever introduce ads, but it should be a lesson that your page should never have more ads than editorial content.

Be Original

This is perhaps the most important and hardest tip to stick to. Sometimes when we read a post on another site, it’s so darn good that we just want to copy and paste it onto our own page. There is nothing wrong with occasionally putting someone else’s content on your site (as long as you have permission and credit the author properly) but this should not be counted toward your personal quota of posts for that week. If you’re especially inclined to post someone else’s content on your page, do it and then post your reaction to it. Tell the readers what you thought of the post. What do you agree with or disagree with? Put your own spin on it.

Blogging is not a get rich quick scheme. It is hard work but it doesn’t have to be laborious. It can be an enjoyable creative outlet if you stick to these tips. Now what are you waiting for? Follow these tips for a better blogging experience.

This guest post is contributed by Lisa who is a guest blogger and writes about the blogging community, tech news and how to get deals using HP coupons.

In this new era, the whole concept of marketing has crept into a new level. With people becoming more and more aware of the internet and its advantages, “Content marketing” is one such approach that companies use to gain the attention of customers. From providing online content for websites, blogs, social media channels, micro websites and advertising campaigners, “Content marketing” services are much in demand.

And as a blogger, it is very important that you know how to create some awesome content that will not only provide value to the community but be interesting to your readers.

9 ideas to make your content marketing a huge success!

1. Know your business

It is important that before you start any kind of content marketing campaign, you must know your ultimate goal and your business. You should also know your niche, the product that you’re trying to market, the market where the product is sold, key value propositions of the product and differentiating factor from the rest of the products available.

Knowing your target market and audience is the first step to content marketing success so get this straight.

2. Define strategy

For the success of your content marketing campaign, you must have a clear strategy in place. Your strategy should be based upon your ultimate goal and what you are trying to achieve.

Whatever product you decide to release to your niche market, it should be of quality and provide value to the prospects and the community.

3. Be buyer centric

If you want your online content marketing to succeed, you need to ensure that the content you develop should directly connect with the target audience. You need to understand the various levels of potential buyers and ensure that the relevant content is available for them. Even before you start developing your content, you need to focus on your prospect’s or audience’s requirements. Remember that you are writing for a specific group of people so it is vital that you know about them, their likes and dislikes.

4. Plan your strategy

In this phase you need to plan exactly what you are going to create. Your outline of the content, tactics that may be helpful etc should be ready to be implemented. Maintain a spreadsheet to track what you are going to post. This will not only create a checklist but also help you keep track of your current and upcoming posts. In this way, you can stay well organized and schedule your content accordingly.

5. Create the content

Now that you have planned your content, it is time that you get creative and develop the content. It is unlikely that you might have to post entire content at one go. Plan your postings accordingly and strictly adhere to the time lines that you have set up. Your in-depth research in the previous step which is planning your strategy would come in handy as to what to post during different time frames

6. Track & Analyze

It is always a good practice to analyze how your content is performing in the web. If you are not tracking your blog traffic then you won’t know what works and what doesn’t for your readers.

Open a Google analytic account (it’s free) before you launch your blog. You can also try out some premium analytical stuff such as clicky which is awesome for tracking real time visits to your blog. Another cool site is Neil Patel’s Kissmetrics and of course, Crazy Egg which is awesome for tracking clicks, heatmaps, split testing etc.

Bear in mind that monitoring performance is tough through social media websites which is why you should consider using an analytical tool.

7. Follow-up and Reach out

After publishing your content on your blog, make sure that you reach out to all the potential target audience. Use social media networking to your advantage. Try to respond to each feedback you get on your post. This doesn’t only show that you care for your readers but also increases your credibility as a knowledgeable blogger.

Observe that your online content marketing improves with each cycle that you publish.

You may also want to consider advertizing in websites and do pay per click marketing (PPC); such as Google adwords and facebook ads which are pretty good for driving traffic to your blog. If your content marketing addresses the target audience then you will not have any problem building connections and a super online audience.

8. Document and analyze performance

With frequent data collection of the performance of your content, you would be in a better position to analyze and improve on your future projects. Do not get de-moralized if your performance is bad. Document all your findings and ensure that you learn what not to do in your next assignment. Keeping a track of all your success and failures would be a good idea for reference in future.

9. Continue improvements

This should be a continuous process where you need to be more effective and stay in business to get more results. Re-track progress at least once in 2 months. Accordingly set your goals and targets. Create content and analyze data for those 2 months. You would be in a better position to decide what strategy worked and what did not.

Try to get feedback from customers, readers or fans and see what can be improved in your next content marketing campaigns. This will ensure that you can reach to the pulse of your target readers and be in business for a long time to come.

Content marketing cannot happen overnight and it requires a lot of strategic planning and implementation techniques in order to achieve immense success. You need to be in a position to reach out to the target online audience and connect with them. Now go out there and start creating some awesome content.

This guest post is contributed by Alyssa Clarke who is a blogger and also happens to be a tech lover. She is always on a look out for latest tech stuff and is currently hunting for some cool Mac apps. She recently read about the Toggle touch remote control and desperately wants to own it.

Running a successful and popular blog means completing several steps that work together to increase your chances of achieving your target visitor numbers. Your blog will need good on-page search engine optimisation (SEO), good off-site SEO, good content that is regularly updated, and good anchor text backlinks from high Page Rank websites.

Once your blog has all those factors lining up with good results, the visitor numbers will start to increase. But once you have all these new visitors, how do you retain them? To make your blog successful you must learn how to increase blog subscribers, also known as the art of blog subscriptions, guaranteeing that your visitors can’t help but return, again and again.

Increasing blog subscribers is one of the most important aspects of a successful blog yet surprisingly under appreciated by many internet marketers and bloggers. Now don’t confuse yourself with Blog Traffic and Blog Subscribers. It’s fine to have several thousand unique visitors every day, but if they never come back, then you will have had only one isolated opportunity to achieve your blog’s target. Whether it be an adsense click, an affiliate purchase, or a product sale, how much more likely would that objective be if your visitor returned twice instead of once, or 5 times, or every day?!

What do the pro bloggers mean when they say “Money is in the list”; even in this case, we are trying to get the email lead of the visitor which means turning the visitor into a subscriber so we can send them follow ups and blog updates. I bet now you can understand the value of return visits, and the very best vehicle for that return traffic is a subscription. If you can persuade your visitors to subscribe to your blog, they will return over and over again, and every time they return, they are increasing the value of your blog; in terms of traffic, sales, higher click through etc.

Whether you know this or not, if you can’t convince your visitors to subscribe to your blog, you will not be that successful in blogging industry. This is the bitter fact but you always have an option . Keep reading…

When a visitor subscribes to your blog, they are basically saying “yes, I like this blog and I appreciate the content”. Subscribers (not visitors) are most likely to fulfil your blog’s ultimate goal in the long run by purchasing your stuff, supporting you and looking up to you. There really is no better way to quickly increase return traffic than to increase blog subscribers.

So how do we entice blog visitors to click on to the RSS feed and become a loyal subscriber? There are lots of ways to get subscribers and retain them and I have posted several related articles previously such as Top 4 Methods to increase RSS subscribers but today, I will post my top 2 essential steps that always work. If you seriously follow them, I bet you will start to see an immediate increase in subscribers count.

The 2 Essential Steps to Increase Subscribers

Step 1 – Don’t Make it Difficult!

I know this sounds easy but I still see lots of blogs that are not following it. There are entire books on website usability; it is such an expansive topic. When it comes to persuading a site visitor to make a choice and actually click on something, usability has to be perfect. Anything less than perfect is a lost subscriber. So how do you make it easy, simple and a no brainier for your visitors to subscribe to your blog?

The most frequently used method of syndicating content and allowing visitors to subscribe to your blog updates is using an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed. Thousands if not millions of blogs have an RSS feed, but how many of them actually describe how to use the RSS feed? RSS means Really Simple Syndication, however to anyone who has never come across it before, it is far from simple.

You may be surprised to learn that many visitors simply click on the RSS logo, see a page of text, and then failing to understand what they have done, close the page and leave the blog! 80% of my friends and family do not know what RSS is. Surprised? Don’t be. Everyday the number of new internet users is increasing which means a lot of them will have/have no idea what RSS is and needs to be educated about it.

To ensure that these new visitors actually understand about RSS and subscribe to your blog, next to your RSS button or image, you can place a link to a page on your blog that explains what an RSS feed is and how to use it. To make it even better, you can include the following details:

• explain that RSS feeds are web-pages for computers, not visitors
• explain and link to example browser based RSS readers
• explain and link to downloadable desktop RSS readers
• describe where to find your RSS feed buttons, including the Firefox RSS feature
• explain how to subscribe using each type of RSS reader

By explaining these five crucial steps to understanding RSS feeds, you are massively increasing the chances of your visitors actually using your RSS feed and seeing content that they want to return and read in full. Make sure the link to this page is prominently displayed near to every RSS logo on your blog, and reap the benefits of RSS subscribers. This is a tip that you won’t find in many places; you will see this method in action on this blog in a few days so, I am giving you a head start

Step 2 – Encourage Visitors to Subscribe

With your RSS beginners guide in place, and your RSS feed button or link displayed on every page, you might think you have done enough to encourage visitors to subscribe, but no, you are only half way there!

Every web marketer should know that visitors need told what to do in order to close a sale, they need what is known as a “call to action” button. It is no different with RSS subscribers, they need a call to action i.e. you need to tell them to click that RSS feed button.

The best and most natural way to do this is to include a reminder at the end of the blog post along the lines of “if you liked this article, please subscribe to our blog!” You could make a subscriber link as your blog entry footer. On this blog, I have an intro plugin that asks to subscribe at the beginning of the post . You can also notice an email subscription option on the sidebar that clearly says what it does. I hope you get the point. I am listing some plugins that I personally use on my blogs. These will help you with the RSS stuff.

WordPress Plugins I found useful

1. What Would Seth Godin Do – Displays a custom welcome message to new visitors and another to return visitors. I am sure you know what to do with it You can have a customized RSS or even Email Subscription form at the end or beginning of your posts by using this plugin.

2. WP Greet Box – I have this installed on this blog. It simply greets visitors with a small message. You have the option to include the RSS link and various other social icons. Just check it out.

Enough said; if you can follow these two essential steps on every blog you run, you will definitely see an increase in blog subscribers – taking you one massive step closer to achieving your goals!

Maintaining a popular blog means following the rules of the “i”s; insightful, innovative, interesting. If you can make each and every one of your blog entries follow one or all of those rules then you are well on the way to blogging success and maintaining a popular blog with great traffic, and lots of return visitors.

However, sometimes inspiration does not come easy, sometimes writers block can set it, your blog posts can start sounding a little stale, and worse, your traffic might start to drop off. If you ever find yourself in a place like that, with subscriber numbers slowing, follow my three critical steps for Blogging Success below and re-invigorate your blogging!

Step 1 – Fresh Ideas!

If you are suffering from writers block and cannot think of the next subject for your blog there are a number of ways to find new subject matter of interest to your readership. Do you use bullet point lists in your blog entries? I hope so because they are a great way of making your blog posts pleasing to the eye and less hard work for the lazy reader. Just make sure you get your points out in a nice orderly matter. There is another use for these bullet lists in old blog posts though, and this tip is gold – read on!

Revisit the most popular posts on your blog, identified either by visitor stats, or by comment count, and take another look at those bullet points you have in there. Every one of those listed items can be a blog post of its own! You have already proved the blog post was a popular one, so now create a new blog post for each of the bullet point items! In this way you can find inspiration for half a dozen, a dozen, or even more brand new blog posts. This is a golden tip that keeps your blog relevant, interesting and insightful! Trust me, this stuff really works.

Here’s another golden idea for finding inspiration for your next blog post – check print media for ideas! Offline sources such as printed media can offer a blog owner a lot in addition to online sources. Many bloggers will simply Google for related topics to find inspiration for their next blog post, but there are even more powerful ideas waiting for you in the offline world – namely magazines. There are magazines for just about every subject these days and there is almost definitely at least one for your blog’s subject matter. There are two major benefits with researching offline articles; First, your blog is less likely to be penalised for duplicate content. And second, Professional writers from magazines come up with some great titles and innovative content!

So, visit your local magazine stand, find the best magazine in your niche, and buy a subscription for a regular stream of new ideas for your blog! Or, just google it and you will find tonne of good ones related to your niche.

You don’t have to steal any ideas or copy other’s stuff; instead, you can curate it

Step 2 – Connect with your Audience

When I say connect with your audience, what does it mean to you? When you are blogging, you are writing for people and not bots. When you write about a topic, try to solve a problem, direct a problem and seek solution or talk about personal experience/story. Post questions that people can comment on, post something that can be related to a group of people. Always remember your target audience for whom you are writing. You have to get this straight: connecting means relating to another, helping, answering questions, getting back, responding to emails and feedback etc. Here’s some more tips for making that all important connection:

I’ve already told you the first way to connect, that’s right, the three “i”s – insightful, innovative, and interesting. If you re-read your latest blog post and you can honestly say it has at least one of those elements, it’s all good. If it is lacking by either not having any, or perhaps having all three, but in diluted form, you have a decision to make. Do you publish the blog post and let the search engines put a value on it, but at the expense of boring your readers and losing a subscription opportunity – or, do you scrap it and go back to Step 1? Only you can decide, but for a long term successful blog, you should take the brave step of scrapping it and starting again!

Another way of connecting with your blog’s audience, is to harness the power of social media. Twitter and Facebook alone have accelerated beyond all belief to reach unprecedented membership. If you can offer your visitors a means of connecting your blog to their social media, with a simple click, they will do it at the drop of a hat – no hesitation! So jump on the social media bandwagon if you still haven’t and make sure you have like buttons and all those cool social icons posted with every blog post. WordPress has several cool plugins for it such as Digg Digg which is my favourite.

I also suggest that you Install the facebook comment platform on your blog because over 800 million people are on facebook and most are always logged into it. When they land on your blog post, they might simply post a comment because there is no hassle of logging since they are already logged in. On top of that, their comment gets posted on their profile which means more exposure and more connection.

Make your blog appealing to the eye. This does not mean you have to employ a graphics artist, but making “reading your blog” an easy process for the eye. This is an important step that many bloggers either forget or are blissfully unaware of. Make your blog easy to use and easy to read. In practice this means following these vital guidelines; Focus on a simple design and easy navigation. Do you like the design of this green blog ? What about the simplicity?

Try to keep your blog posts below 600 words like Seth Godin if you can’t write long interesting articles like viperchill; both kick-ass in their posting styles.

Make use of paragraphs, bold, italics whenever necessary.

Paragraphs make it easier to read and focus on sentences.

Make proper use of bullet points to list out points and important stuff.

Remember, don’t make its difficult for readers to be able to read stuff on your blog.

Having a strong Black Background with a weird light font will be a pain in the eyes. Try to keep it simple stupid. If you don’t like how it looks or if something sucks in your eyes then you know that you have to work on it.

Step 3 – Retain your Readership!

If your blog is leaking readers, or if your subscription stats are on a downward trend, it’s time to reassess and figure out why you are losing subscribers. I have experienced this before; Wise are those who make mistakes and take steps to fix it. So if you start losing subscribers all of a sudden, don’t panic. There can be many reasons for this, for example, perhaps your blog is based on a seasonal niche and will naturally have peaks and troughs of interest. However, here are the top three reasons why your blog is losing subscribers.

• Too many updates! Yes it is true; you can update your blog too often. There is a misconception that Google expects to see updates every day to be of value – don’t fall into this trap. Maybe 1 post a day can get indexed and bring you more search traffic, but your subscribers will hate you for it. Let me explain why. First of all, if you really don’t have anything awesome to post then its better to sit down, think about it, come out with something awesome and then post it. Secondly, you might be able to commit to your blog and make a post everyday. But, in reality, we all know that most of us are busy in our trade and it’s hard to keep up with several blogs on a daily basis. You don’t want to annoy your readers by sending them daily updates through aweber, feedburner, or twitter feed EVERYDAY. Make your readership wait, then hit them with the three “i”s couple of times a week. They’ll love you for it.
• Don’t be negative. There is always a way to put a positive spin on almost everything, and your readers will appreciate positivity more than negativity – every time. Some bloggers even agree that it is better to say nothing than to be negative, while other bloggers make a habit out of being negative and it becomes their Unique Selling Point. For the most part though, as a blogger looking for both new and returning visitors, keep it positive! If you are addressing something negative then try to find a positive outcome
• Over Promoting sucks. Are you writing promotional blog posts more than quality and informational ones? If this is the case, then your blog sucks and I wouldn’t doubt if you are losing subscribers. As a blogger, you should try to post useful and informational articles that will help others or make a difference in the community. There is nothing wrong with promoting stuffs and I love doing it myself but there is always a right time for everything. A lot of my readers emailed me asking why don’t I have that many promotional posts on this blog and how am I still able to make money from it ; well the secret is : the ultimate guide to blog monetization . Promote stuff that is worth it; a product that you will personally use and can vouch for. When is the best time to make a promotional blog post ? Let’s say, you are a regular blogger making 3-4 posts a week. In this case, you can make 2-3 promotional blog posts per month. I would try not to go above that.

Always remember, the more you share free ideas and help others, the more money you will make in the long run. Its a crazy psychology , I know, and maybe i’ll write a blog post on it someday soon.

Bottom Line

Successful blogs were not created over night and the fact is that you need to work hard on your first blog if you really want blogging success. Be truthful to yourself and take the shot. If you think your blog sucks and is not doing well then stop procrastinating and implement the three important tips mentioned on this blog post for your blogging success.

If your blog isn’t getting the big unique visitor numbers you need for decent conversions, or if your blog isn’t getting enough return traffic to keep the impression count up, your blog sucks! But why does it suck, what is it about your blog that’s making it fail when others are managing great with good visitor numbers and healthy commissions every month from Affiliate sales, Amazon or Adsense?

If you are trying to monetize your blog, you’re going to need to figure out why your blog sucks – and to understand that, all you need is our ten point hit list! Read it, and recognize your own blog in this list, and make sure you read all the way to the end to see why a blog that sucks can still make some great money!

This is Why Your Blog Sucks

1. You’re Too Greedy!

What’s the first thing you did once you had your blog up and running? If it was to add Adsense code or plaster it with affiliate links, then you’re being too greedy. The problem with your impatience is that when Google’s spiders come around and find your brand new blog, all they see is ton of adsense and less quality content. This sets off the Google “Made for Adsense” alarm, and before you have even got going, your blog is being marked down!

2. You’re Too Cheap Pt 1!

Did you hire a content writer to prepare your articles so you could concentrate on SEO and link building? Did you pay less than $2 per hundred words for that content? Chances are, you got what you paid for and that article is neither interesting enough to keep your visitors returning, or poor on page SEO means Google has flagged it as spammy and your blog just lost another opportunity to gain some value in the eyes of Google. With Google Panda in effect, if you can’t produce quality articles, your blog will disappear from google search in a matter of time.

3. You’re Too Cheap Pt 2!

So you decided that having your blog sit on a free blogging server somewhere was just too tacky for you, you’d rather host it somewhere yourself so you can fully customise it and have full control. Sounds good, sounds great even, but where did you go to host your blog? Did you go to a host that was so cheap you couldn’t possibly fail to make enough money to cover the pitiful annual cost? Did you choose Godaddy? The problem here is that you just put your valuable blog on the same shared server as around 100 other sites, mostly of dubious origins. You don’t think Google knows this? Here’s a clue cheapskate … Reverse DNS. If you are starting out and are looking for a reliable wordpress hosting then go for either wpwebhost or hostgator.

4. You Backed the Wrong Horse!

This is a hard one to bear, but sometimes you have to re-evaluate the worth of your blog’s niche. You did check out the value of the niche using the Adwords Tool didn’t you? You did check out the competition didn’t you? If you haven’t checked the value of the niche and the likely traffic numbers, and if you haven’t checked if it is even remotely likely that you can rank for that niche, then the chances are, you backed the wrong horse by picking a poor niche, and you should call it quits and start again.

5. You are Impatient

Your blog is suffering because you are too impatient. Rather than waiting for natural backlinks to start coming in, you took some other action (see points 6 and 7), paid for stuff, and now it is all happening a little bit too quickly for Google to award your site a “natural” bonus. Google likes “natural” linkage, and “natural” growth, and you just blew it by creating a monster in 31 short days. Sometimes slow and steady wins the race

6. You Bought a Tool that Sucks

So you did all your SEO research and you learned that the most important thing for ranking is backlinks. That’s great, but then you fell foul of point number 5 again, you got impatient. So what did you do you hasten all those glorious high page ranking, EDU backlinks? You went and bought a backlinking tool that you don’t know about! Worse than that, you even used it. Now you have hundreds of backlinks from worthless sites – do you really think Google is going to listen to that kind of action? Remember the guys at Google, they are clever. If you think you can fool them, you are only fooling yourself.

7. You paid for a service

Taking short cuts is fine. You paid a guy to check your on page SEO. You paid a guy to do your off site SEO. You paid a guy to create your blog for you, and you paid a guy to write your content. You’ve been paying a lot of guys to work on your blog! The only problem there is that it is no longer your blog. It’s a mish mash of contributions from different people of different skill sets and different capabilities, it’s a mess. Your blog is a mess of contributions, and it’s missing a vital feature – you! Unless you take a hand in your own blogs development it will not have consistent and appealing stamp of “you”, and this means a lack of stickiness that will cost you return visitors.

8. Your blog domain is worthless

Google posted in their blog recently that they were devaluing exact match domains (EMD)’s. Well I don’t know if you noticed, but it doesn’t take much research to see that EMD’s still rank consistently higher than random names. I have several niche sites with EMDs that are on the first page. If you are chasing a niche and you thought of a cool quirky domain name for it, then your blog sucks. You should have went EMD!

9. Your blog has no strategy

You need a strategy for a successful money making blog. How often will you publish new content? How often will do off page SEO? How often will you check your Adsense account for income? If you answered in the following order: rarely, when I am bored, and every freaking day, then your blog sucks!

10. Make Your Blog Suck ?

Finally, here’s one reason why you might actually WANT your blog to suck, and some internet marketers actually plan a blog that sucks! If you have a decent domain and you are getting decent organic traffic, you can win with a blog that sucks by making sure the only outbound links on a page are Adsense ads. This strategy works for a lot of people, who see the type of massive Click Through Rates that are the stuff dreams are made of. I am not a big fan of this but trust me, it works

So now you know why your blog sucks, and by using this information, you can turn it around and start making money from your blog! Always be patient, consistent and focused. If you think this blog sucks then please let me know why do you think so by posting in the comments below.

Recently, Joost shared an amazing infographic with us. Being a wordpress fan, I had to repost it here with two other wordpress infographic I found interesting. I am not going to take much time typing because all the information is in the picture and I suggest that you check them out in depth. Let me know what you think.

WordPress in a Box

WordPress in a Box

WordPress Anatomy

WordPress Anatomy

The Power of WordPress

Power Of WordPress

There are ton of reasons to use WordPress. This is just an inspiration for 2011. Start blogging and making bank!

A Blog can be defined in many ways- It could be an online journal, a community to connect with people or even a platform to draw advertisers and make money. I won’t lie to you; blogging is hard work and no blogs have ever become popular overnight.

The primary focus of most blogs is to build a list of loyal audience and subscribers who would bring in value to the community.

Many bloggers give up the idea of blogging when they don’t get success. The sad part is that they don’t realize that success don’t come overnight. Blogging requires consistency and time. There are ton of blogs being created every day and each of them is screaming out load to seek attention. Considering all these, it is sometimes difficult to figure out if blogging is right for you.

Whether you want to connect with your audience, create a community or make money from your blog- You need ton of quality traffic. But how do we know if people are connecting to your blog?

7 ways to tell if your blog is doing right:

1. Niche

This is the first and most important thing to bear in mind when blogging. Ask yourself, what is your niche? Most newbie bloggers commit mistakes by going off-topic when writing blog posts. Whatever your niche might be, simply stick with it and create posts that are relevant to it. If you are looking to turn your blogging into a successful online business, you have to know your audience well.

The purpose of this blog is to help others create a profitable blog and make money online. I don’t think my subscribers will like it when they come back tomorrow and see a Justin Bieber post on my blog (no hate bieber). So, always stick to the niche and write for your target audience.

2. Growth in Subscribers Count

Subscribers are crucial for our blog’s success. I bet we all are hungry for them. Good content brings in loyal subscribers who would stick to your blog for a long time. If your subscribers count is growing then you should be on the right track, good job! However, bear in mind that building a list of loyal subscribers can take a while. This blog has gained 200 subscribers in the first 2 weeks. I realized that good content posted on a regular basis attracts massive visitors. If you can write a pillar article twice or thrice a month, you will definitely see some growth in visitors.

Do not get frustrated if your subscribers count doesn’t grow. You might be doing something wrong; maybe you should improve the quality of your posts. A good way to find out what your visitors would love to see is by taking a poll. This works out pretty good.

3. Comments

Comments can be a great satisfaction to bloggers. Comments indicate that your posts are getting noticed. All authors want to receive feedbacks from their visitors. So, if your blog is receiving ton of comments (excluding all the spam), then you are on track.

I have noticed that most blogs tend to receive more spams than quality comments these days. Most commenters are basically looking for a backlink to their site/blog and that is the only reason they drop by. I personally think this sucks. I bet you have seen ton of comments on popular blogs; some of them do not make sense and some are not even relevant to the topic. I appreciate comments that provoke discussion and debate. Does your blog have such comments? If yes, then it means that people are enjoying your posts and they want more. If not, just work hard and you will be there.

4. Likes & Tweets

Almost every single blog has a like and a tweet button. Social media is very crucial to your blog’s success. If your blog post is getting ton of likes and tweets (people like your stuff and thus sharing it with others), it is a good sign. Getting a post viral can bring in massive traffic to your blog.

If your posts are not being re-tweeted or shared online then you should re-valuate your posts. Improving the quality and being creative can help. I would recommend that you get involved with social media, stay active on twitter and Facebook and interact with others. Once you make friends on several social media platforms, you can request them to share your stuff. You never know, your content may just go viral.

5. Blog Buddies

When you start blogging, most likely you will get to know ton of like-minded people through online communities and social media. It is feels good to have friends who can share stuff that is related to your expertise or niche. Trust me, blogging buds and partners is essential if you want to succeed. They will not only help you grow but also help you gain credibility online.

If you are one of those (like me) whose most friends are not in tech field, then, the best way to make some new friends is through social media. I got to know ton of amazing people and trust me, I get to learn new stuff from each one of them. Do not simply go out there and make friends with everyone you come across; instead, participate in discussions in online communities. Several popular forums and blogs have potential and genuine people hanging out all the time. You can connect with them, engage in a conversation and also exchange wisdom.

6. Links & Trackbacks

Link building is important. It really helps your blog’s presence in the search engines in terms of ranking and placing. Search engines give sites with good inbound and outbound links a higher ranking. Building good links to your blog can be frustrating and a long process; why not let others do the work for you? I know it sounds too good to be true. I am talking about trackbacks. If your content is good, people will love it. When they love it, there is a chance that they will link back to it. This is the best way to get free high quality backlinks to your site.

Have you ever wondered why people always link back to Problogger.com or Entrepreneurs-Journey.com? Because the authors of these blogs are popular; they produce amazing and entertaining content that is loved by their audience. Once people start linking to your blog, more will soon follow.

7. Request for Guest Post

Most bloggers allow guest posting on their blogs. This is because they want to take a break from blogging (which is a good thing) and the guest poster may bring something different to the table. I suggest that you have the option for guest posting on your blog.

If you receive guest posting requests then it is probably because your content is good and your blog is getting popular. Most guest posters seek relevant and popular blogs to post on. Your blog might not be popular at first but if you stick to your niche and produce quality content, it is just a matter of time to achieve that.

Another method to draw attention of the guest posters is to post on their blogs. You can request to exchange a blog post with any fellow bloggers you know. Exchanging guest posts with credible bloggers will bring in positive changes to your blog.

Question: What is blogging success according to you? What have you learnt from this post and what’s your take? The comment box is all yours!

Whats been happening in MasterMind Blogger

Today, I just wanted to update you guys about the latest happening in my life and my blogs. You all can see that I have not updated MasterMind Blogger for some time now. Of course, the blog is still alive, running and will keep providing the best tips. I was away traveling for the past 2 weeks. I have been to Boston and NYC and been up to a lot which I will explain in Salman Ahsan dot Com shortly. I am sure you all will have lots to take away from what I have learnt throughout the trip so, look out for the post

I also have been working on some new projects which I will discuss later in my posts. Most of my blogs including this one will soon have a new theme, fresh content and premium tools section only for my readers. I will also be installing several scripts which will make your seo/internet life easier. There will be a section where my readers can post questions and requests. Seriously, I have several things planned and I hope they all work out straight. I love you all for your support.

Please tell me what you want to see more in this blog. The purpose of MasterMind Blogger is to provide the best tips to build a money making blog, period! Whatever I post on this blog will be related to blogging and money making. All the tips are mine which comes from researches and experiences. There are ton of reasons why you should subscribe and stay in the loop. There is so much more to come…

If you are a newbie blogger and want to monetize your blog, then watch out for my next 5 amazing posts which will make a huge difference.

Last but not the least, join our forum and connect with all the bloggers and entrepreneurs at BlogMaster Point

The comment box is all yours so tell me what do you think?

To your blogging and money making success…

NB: MasterMind Blogger will be transferred to a new server in the next few days. If you experience any difficulty accessing it, please try again later. Cheers