MelvinBlog

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How Landing Page Can Increase your Blog Traffic

How Landing Page Can Increase your Blog Traffic

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It still continues to surprise me how a lot of people still DO NOT use a landing page for their blog. A landing page is just basically a page where you send majority of your new visitors. This is a crucial page because by letting them stay in that page, you’re persuading them to subscribe to your blog and become a loyal reader. Here’s an overview from my Analytics on how my landing page is faring:

You can notice that people who enter my blog through that page are less likely to bounce that quick. Because my best posts are showcased there, they oftentimes continue to read my post rather than just leave away. As of this writing, my blog’s landing page is located at /welcome. In that page you can see that I introduced first what my blog is all about, then presented them the best posts in each category and lastly offered them to subscribe to my RSS.

A lot of well-known bloggers do use a landing page for their blogs and that’s because they know the power of it. If this one is new to you, then let me present the benefits of using one:

  • Lets new readers read on your blog more – The bounce rate of a new user is usually in the range of 70%-100%. If you have a landing page, a new user would stay on your blog more, read more of your stuffs, potentially increasing the chance of that user to become a loyal reader in the future.
  • Increase subscribers – The no.1 point leads to this point. Since using this method I have seen a great jump on my rss subscribers. Consider this, would you subscribe on a blog where you have read the best posts of it, or on a blog where all you’ve read are the recent posts?
  • Increase your expertise – Since your best posts are showcased in your landing page, it gives your expertise and credibility a huge boost. Because of your good content, people will start to have that perception that you are a credible person in your niche, hence would keep them for the long haul.

But how do I do a landing page? Contrary to the belief that only sales pages and static websites can have a landing page, each and every blog should have one. Because of the overcrowded content in the internet, a lot of people have become used to what I call “skimming mentality”, where people just read a bit and then go away.

Landing page is a good tool to keep people on your site longer hence reaping the benefits I mentioned above. Anyways there are two ways on how you can your landing page and I would discuss both of them right now.

Traditional Landing Page

The traditional landing page involves creating a dedicated page showcasing the best stuffs in your blog (you can look at mine to see the pattern).  In that page usually contains the ff; a short description of your blog, why people need to subscribe to your blog, your best posts, and another for them to subscribe.

You can actually even alter and just use your creativity depending on what you are offering to the market. For example, I have a free eBook I am giving away so I would definitely add that to my landing page. You can name that page depending on your taste, just make sure the name is something relevant to accommodating new readers (mine’s title is /welcome).

Home Page as a Landing Page

The evolution of blog’s home pages from the standard chronological layout type from the magazine-style has also its reason. That is to make the blog more enticing to readers. Unlike the old layouts, magazine-style themes showcase more than just the recent posts. It gives emphasis to a lot of things, making good use of every space without looking too much cluttered.

Using a magazine-style template automatically makes use of the home page as a landing page itself.  We’ve seen big blogs like John Chow, Problogger and many more switch to that layout. Because of that, readers would not just focus on the recent post but most likely they will focus on the blog as a whole.

Conclusion

Using a landing page for your blog is imperative. As I’ve said, it continues to amaze me how a lot of bloggers still don’t do it. Thus far, I don’t see any disadvantages of having one and if you don’t have one right now, I highly suggest you to do your one now.

I would be interested to see your own blog’s landing page and would like to hear your thoughts about it.

Hard Work Is Mostly Needed at the Start

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The  ratio of new bloggers having enough juice to continue from those bloggers who give up is pretty far-fetched. And by doing your own simple observation you can easily notice it. Just by checking some of the old comments from your old posts you can see that most of them have abandoned blogging (for a good reason or because they realized its not for them).

I always believe that if you have the passion and dedication you can surpass that stage alone but I’m starting to contemplate now. In any business model, the hardest part (or what is better known as heavy lifting) is done at the start. And today I would like to give my share in it, relating it to blogging.

Why At the Start?

Ok this is what you need to do when you are aiming to have a successful blog yet you’re just getting started. You need tons of great content, you need lots of commenting (200 blogs a day), you need a lot of guest posting (rejected ones aren’t included), you need to do repetitive link-building tasks, you need to spend almost half a day in social media, you need to connect with the big boys of your niches, you need to do some freelance for a startup income, then spend some time doing all those boring tasks and the list goes on.

Do take note that you need to do that for months, not just for a number of days or a couple of weeks. It’s just god damn tiring and draining. This is actually a good filtering process where those who are really serious about it get in and those who are not get filtered.

Importance of Proper Mindset

Proper mindset is very important here. If you’re expecting something unrealistic within a couple of days then it will disappoint you. It’s important NOT to have any expectations but still be in line with your goals (w/c you must have). All the other stuffs, adjustments, new learnings etc are gonna be very vital here.

If you’re a newbie, its really crucial to have one. You probably are at the start of what is called the learning curve where you are doing your own thing at your own pace and yet you’re absorbing new information. This is tough but I ‘m a big believer of “mind over matter” statement so if you think properly, you can overcome those obstacles.

You Ready?

This question can be hard to answer depending on who you are and what you are doing. For instance, I am a college student. At some point I think I would be very happy to just sell this blog and enjoy the 10X than monthly income money I am gonna get paid. For most, they quit even before they get to have a chance.

You don’t need to put hardwork just at the start, you need it everytime. But keep in mind that the bloodiest part of it is when just getting started. I said “bloody” because these are usually the tasks that can tire you. At some point you may even feel wasted. But as you make progress, your focus and hard work shifts from bloody stuffs to the easier managing part. And believe me in the end its all worth it. 😉

This Is How I do Link Love, Plus Some Announcements

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Been a long time since I’ve done this thing and I thought this is the best time to do it. Before anything else, I would like to greet you belated happy valentines. I would be very interested to know how has your Valentines day went.

Anyways this whole February is a pretty exciting month and the blog has been doing well for the year. I’m also quite happy that I am managing my time well considering Im a graduating college student as well.

And now for the link love. One thing I’ve noticed is that most bloggers link to big bloggers in the industry for the great posts of the week. It’s not really wrong but I don’t find it useful. Why? Because more likely, your readers have already read that post considering they are well-known bloggers. So all in all there’s not much value to add. Anyhow for the top posts here we go:

Let’s start of with this good post from Deepak on why you should get on Facebook where he talked the benefits he has had. The beautiful Liane from BBB wrote a great analysis on creativity and why its a much game-changer. A funny post on worthy tips is about why employees should switch to Google Buzz. Fourth is from the one who I will call Mr.Comeback who has written a refreshing post about the whole make money online concept. Last is from the sister site of this blog w/c has tackled the simple secret why some people really seem to leverage Facebook and make some good money out of it.

Announcements

Well actually there is really no announcement. I just find that if you do link-love, you have to have announcements as well. lols.

Anyways, in the next few days Im really going to put out some strong, useful content so stay tuned. I’m also planning to release something that is really going to add value here in this blog.

Lastly, if you haven’t done yet, please subscribe to my blog’s newsletter and receive your free copy of my eBook entitled “Blog Marketing for Fame“. Chill everyone!

Great Blog Design & Why it Can Make or Break your Business

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Most of my readers here treat blogging as a business and if you’ve already read my Blog Marketing for Fame report (w/c is free!), you can see how much I emphasized good blog design as one of the keys in blogging success. Just by simply paying attention on the top blogs in any niche, it’s easy to spot that no one in them sports an ugly design. That being said, you can’t expect people to read your content (even if its a good content) if your design is crappy.

As always the best time to get the perfect design is at the start or at the earliest time possible. The reason is you don’t want to waste new readers by leaving a bad impression to your blog.If your design alone can persuade them to subscribe then why not! But what is a good blog design?

Great Blog Design

If you are thinking that a superb design is synonymous with the price tag, then you’re wrong. I’ve seen a lot of custom-designed blogs that sucked while others simply use a free tweaked theme and it looked awesome.

To achieve a good design, you don’t really need to pay for a custom unique theme from a certain company. All you need to do is grab a design and then lay out your brand properly and clearly. The key here is lasting impression and brand awareness. Of course the basic things are important as well like readability, typography, cleanliness and etc but these days one way that people can remember you is through your design.

For instance here in my blog, people (imo) do realize that I am using a custom theme when in fact it’s just a premium theme. Why? Because I don’t think anyone using Colormatic Theme (my theme) has done good branding for their blogs enough for people to realize them. In short, when people see my theme, they know I’m the only one using it.

Importance

Two things I’ve mentioned above is lasting impression and brand awareness. For me design is neither a part of content nor marketing, it’s actually a  part of both. People won’t read your content if your design sucks (debatable) and on the other hand I’m amazed to see how a lot of big firms have used attractive design as a major marketing strategy to boost their business! All together it speaks both of content and marketing.

How do I know I have a good one for my blog?

This is actually a pretty opinionated question but all I can say is your readers will tell you. I’m sure you all do forum reviews for your blog. If it’s your first time to hear it, its basically when you solicit reviews on large forums for your blog.

Funny thing is that most people view that strategy as a traffic generator but the real key in there is still the review itself. I, myself seek for tons of those forum reviews and it has really helped me out in improving the design of my blog.

You can also do so by observing the top blogs in your niche and see what they have. Although one can say it’s just a time-waster, you can still gain something because blogs from different niches accomodate different layouts so that may probably be useful as well.

All up to you

Tackling blog designs, how to have one and how to maximize it, is a HUGE topic. In fact there are blogs who are solely dedicated in writing about it. I’m no expert and heck no good designer (I always seek opinion).

What I intend to share here is the importance of good blog designs and how it can make you ahead of those so many lame bloggers sporting stupid crappy designs. 😉 What say you?

Blog Interviews are Lame

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The “in” thing nowadays is blog interviews. You can surf the blogosphere and easily find a ton of bloggers doing it. Why? “Maybe’ because it’s a good way to boost your blog’s traffic.  Before, it seems that only reputable bloggers can do interviews with big people. But now it has become different as almost anyone can easily hold one. Not only that, these days you don’t need big people, you can interview random people and still look like you’re doing it finely.

My Rant with Interviews

Personally I’m not a fan of these interviews (although I got interview quite a many times). I find it as a lazy blogger’s way to sneak some traffic w/c will not really convert in the end. Either way here are the main reasons why I think its lame:

1. Lazy, Generic and Annoying Questions

There is nothing more annoying for me than to see generic questions get asked like “Tell something about your blog”, “What’s your advice for the readers here” and stuffs. While you cannot avoid asking the same questions with different people, it’s a completely different case when you just intentionally have a pre-made question for all your potential interviews.

Remember, each and every blogger has their own persona, different experience, expertise and tone. Don’t be lazy, ask questions accordingly!

2. Interviewing People that Don’t Add Value

The main purpose of an interview is for the interviewee to share something valuable to the readers of the interviewer’s blog. I don’t mean to be offensive but the hard fact is that you cannot just interview random people across the board and expect your audience to get interested in it.

It’s also important to stick your niche. If your blogging about blogging, you need to interview credible probloggers, not just any bloggers out there blogging on different niches.

3. Gullible Interviewees

Again you are going to disagree with this but I would just like to be honest. I find it absurd that these big people let these unknown bloggers interview them. Unknown bloggers are those who are just getting started, with 10m+ Alexa ranking and stuffs. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying someone is not qualified to do an interview if he/she is just getting started. What I mean is that there must have some sort of credibility first before you can interview people. Just like in guest posting, you have to look first on the guest poster’s site before accepting the post if it’s good.

And as for the interviewees, I think it’s also important to think on whether accepting the interview can benefit other blogger’s audience (if there’s actually an audience) and benefit themselves as well. I don’t see the point of spending an hour answering questions when no one is really going to read it. I know you know what I mean.

Final Words

In doing interviews it’s essential to become creative and stand out from the rest. One person who does it fairly well is Michael Dunlop from IncomeDiary.com. The guy interviews people well and I myself enjoy all of his lengthy interviews with prominent people in the industry.

Just becoming different and not lazy can make a huge difference.

MyBlogGuest Review: Promote Your Brand by Guest Posting

MyBlogGuest Review: Promote Your Brand by Guest Posting

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This is a paid review sponsored by Ann Smarty of MyBlogGuest.com

Just in case you‘re living inside a hollow cave, you probably aren‘t aware yet that guest posting is the most powerful FREE way to get a blog known. By far, it’s a very powerful tactic that can get your blog brand across a wide range of audience. In my free eBook called Blog Marketing for Fame (get your copy now!) I stressed so much how it made my blog grew that quick.

For today, Ann Smarty pinged me last week to do this review of her site called as MyBlogGuest. I‘ll drive straight into the site and will now discuss what it is all about and its functionalities. So basically MyBlogGuest is a forum where you can find guest posters and fellow bloggers. The idea behind it is to build a community of guest posters that will collaborate with each other. In the end, it should be a win-win situation for everyone.

Site‘s Design & Aesthetics

At first look, you actually wouldn‘t think it‘s a forum and for me the only time I realized it was a forum was when I already completed filling out my profile. The site‘s layout is very simple yet it doesn‘t look like an ancient website. The forum itself is small yet is very targeted to guest bloggers. I personally like it because being targeted, you get to squeeze every benefit from it and will no longer need to avoid forum lurkers who just annoy members.

Another unique part is the categories and tags page. While you can browse each thread to find out your interest, you can also benefit a lot by sorting the blogs by categories. For example, MelvinBlog Dot Com is inside the internet marketing category so all you have to do is to pick your niche/category and you would immediately see blogs which are talking on the same stuffs. It also works the same with tags where you can specify the tags that your blog uses.

Functionality and Benefits

As I’ve said I’m a fan of small yet tight communities. MyBlogGuest isn’t like other forums which are mostly cluttered. As I was browsing different topics (there are just mainly 5 topics), I noticed that the members are supportive of each other. Ann was also out there responding and collaborating with the members. There was even a “Help Needed” topic there where you can go out and request for social media votes.

Another thing Ann mentioned is that they would try to keep the quality as high as possible. The forum has made it easy to report people who violate the rules, or those who don’t follow the guidelines of guest posting. So if you go out there and try to game the system, then more likely you are gonna get banned.

Lastly there’s also another part w/c is called Blog Round Ups where Ann would feature the best guest posts arranged through the forum in her blog. Although I don’t think it’s a huge feature, it can still help you get traffic especially if your blog is just getting started.

The Bad & Ugly, Some Suggestions

Well not really bad and ugly, I just can’t figure out a good title, lols. The one thing I don’t like is the quality of blogs in there. In fact I’ve seen people requesting for guest posts on a blog with an Alexa 1 million rank but it’s understandable and it’s the inevitable part of this feature. But I would definitely love to have a sort kind of a filtering system where you can filter good blogs from average ones.

Actually there is, the Blog Power. By specifying your blog and some of your social media accounts, you are getting a certain rating for your blog. The higher, the better obviously. But I find it glitchy since Google PR and other stuffs don’t really determine the audience behind the blog. Another is the part where you link your social media account to the forum. Actually it’s not linking, it’s just inputting (w/c is obviously a flaw).

Since I’m not a social junkie, all of my social accounts power just combined for a mere 7 points. So what I basically did was just borrow the user name of the top users in those social networks. Look:

Obviously the built-in Blog Power isn’t really a reliable metric and even if they fix it, it is still not (metrics aren’t that precise in determining)

It’s also the anti-thesis for direct communication types of guest posting for bloggers. Since most bloggers do have a contact form, then why go through a third party in a forum? Besides, bloggers check their email more often than forums right? Anyways I don’t really see it changing the current procedures in guest posting. People will still contact other bloggers directly and stuffs like that.

Final Words

MyBlogGuest is a decent site and the fact that it’s not a make money program is one thing that I liked so much about it. Ann Smarty is a pretty reputable person in this industry and I know her intention is honest. As the forum grows bigger and bigger and more tweaks are implemented, I think the site can become a key player in the rapidly-growing guest blogging community. Of course it still depends on a lot of factors, mostly the users (both quantity and quality). If she can get large bloggers to thumbs it up then it’s going to get huge in no time.

Sign up now with MyBlogGuest and tell me your experience about them.

What I Learned in Doing Paid Reviews

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Last month, you probably have seen me accept a couple of paid reviews here in my blog and to be honest I know you don’t like seeing two paid posts in less than 10 days especially that this blog rarely does paid reviews.

The truth about paid reviews is that you rarely pass on them. Practically, it’s the most expensive form of advertising one can avail and for the bloggers; it’s the most lucrative one. And again, I don’t think most bloggers would pass for the opportunity of getting paid. As long as it’s related to what your blog is, then I don’t think there’s any problem with that. Of course, it can hurt your blog in a way or another.

I have learned some few lessons on doing sponsored reviews but before I talk about that, I would like to share with you how I really discourage advertisers from purchasing a review from this blog. First is I price my review too high. Ok, although it seems like $50 is a small amount for the audience I have, it actually is $50 way back when this blog is in 200K Alexa (w/c means I need to raise). Another thing is that my blog is pr0, meaning you don’t get organic boost. And worst, I even no-follow the links! And lastly, I don’t let it last too long in the front page. Doing this sponsored post is really painful in my ass BUT for the money-sake, you obviously do it as long as it’s relevant.

Anyways here are the key tips that I learned in doing posts that are paid:

  • Tell them everything – I always tell people to tell your client/advertisers what to expect. After I learn that someone has purchased a paid review, I usually personally contact them with the details, along with how long the review would be there and the nofollow thing. And besides, I believe I clearly stated in my advertise page.
  • Adjust quickly – If you’re like me then you have a ton of drafts that you are planning to publish anytime soon. So imagine everything is planned already and all of a sudden somehow requested a paid review, how would you react? Adjust rapidly! Make sure you don’t alienate your posting frequency by breaking it. On the other hand, also make sure that the advertiser realizes his post will not be posted immediately but on a scheduled date.
  • Tell your readers you’re paid to do that – There will be times when you would get consecutive review requests or even 3-4 requests in one week. I’m sure it would cross your mind not to disclose some of it because you’re worrying your readers might get annoyed with those reviews. Listen, disclose it! Don’t even think, just disclose it and talk in such a way that you’re still doing your normal posts.
  • Be honest – This is an ancient tip with paid reviews yet still many bloggers are afraid to do it. When you’re paid to review someone’s product, you either get your reputation tainted, or get the advertiser’s expectations not met. I would rather get the second one. With my last review about PasteWeb, I was constructively critical with the program itself but I can tell that the advertiser was not mad with me. Here’s one key tip: You know your audience, you know what type of audience they are so think of them when doing your review. Conclude the review based on whether it can benefit your readers or not.

Obviously as I was mentioning this, I still have a couple of paid reviews on the way but I can assure you this will not bore you to death nor will it make you not want to visit this blog again. How about you? How do you deal with sponsored reviews?