MelvinBlog

A blog that chronicles my journey on online marketing, blogging, social media, technology and life.

Internet Marketing

Don’t Wait to be Perfect in Blogging

by ·

We all want to be perfect. We want to look perfect while going to any party, we want to be perfect while playing video games, and we want to be perfect if we are cooking something. We just want to be perfect in whatever we do, so that we can prove how much superior and efficient we are than our peers.  And, the same rule applies to the blogging. Time and time again, I see bloggers who got struck in the vicious cycle of creating a perfect blog and eventually lose focus from their real objectives. So, in this article I’ll try to convince you that you shouldn’t wait to be perfect in blogging.

1. Improvement is more important

Don’t expect too much, too quickly because it will just increase your frustration. I’ve seen many bloggers who wants to be perfect from the first day. And due to this, they put so much pressure on themselves that they completely ignore the improvement that occurred in them over the period of time. Perfection is a never ending process, so don’t think a lot about it and focus on improving your skills.

2. Success depends on efforts

You can’t control the perfection but you can control your efforts. The more efforts you are ready to put into your blog, the more successful you’ll be. It is a myth, that to be successful you need to be perfect. How many successful guys are completely perfect in their jobs? How many successful guys know everything about their niche? I don’t think even one of them knows everything about his field. What makes them successful is the huge amount of efforts they put in to their job.

3. Criticism is good

Criticism or rejection helps you to identify your weak points which you were not aware of and provide you with an opportunity to make yourself much better. So if you just want to be perfect before you are afraid of criticism then think again. Don’t wait for your content to be perfect, go out with what you’ve and learn to take all kind of criticism.

4. Just Do It

It’s a Nike slogan, but really a great advice. Don’t hesitate to execute your plans even if they are not perfect. I’ve seen many persons having great ideas about product, website but they never execute it because they feel their plan/product still needs some more tweaks. As the result, most of those plans never get executed. Execution is more important than perfection. Don’t wait for your plan to be perfect because you don’t know how people are going to react in reality.  The greatest example of this is Microsoft; they never waited for a perfect operating system. They came out with the basic version of windows in 1985 and are still trying to improving their product without sacrificing their sales.

5. Sometimes it’s better not to be perfect

When you are perfect (popular) in your niche, then you start attracting lot of unwanted attention towards yourself. People start having huge expectations from you, your failures get more criticized, you’ve more enemies etc. So, in a way your decisions start getting influenced by the opinions of others. But when you are not perfect, you are free to do whatever you want to do and how you want to do.

So these are the five points due to which I think that why you shouldn’t wait to be perfect. As I know that I’m not a perfect and there is lot that I’ve to learn. So, please share your opinions in the comments below.

Gagandeep Singh is a Freelance writer working for conversion rate optimization company Invesp.

It’s Not About Making Controversy, It’s just Being Me

by ·

If you’re a long time reader of this blog, you probably have seen me a lot of times really go into a certain topic and just write on it freely, most of the times really pouring in a lot of immature controversial  statements as oppose to just being balanced enough and having a milder take on things.

But it’s just recently that I’ve been quite getting some flak for that attitude and that lead to me writing this very interesting post about my take on things.

It’s not Being Controversial, it’s just being me

I don’t think a lot of bloggers have this attitude but when I write, I just speak myself out. I try to be as spontaneous as possible and I think it speaks very well on how transparent I am. But that doesn’t mean that I am being irresponsible. Obviously when you write based on how you feel, you’re most of the times wrong. And that’s what I try to avoid. I can always assure you that I do my research or own study before really speaking on things. For all those people out there, it’s crucial. If you don’t do your research first, it may ruin your credibility.

Back to being transparent, I think most people here have liked my spontaneity and personality. That being said, it’s equally important as well to try to connect to your readers by just being your own. Sure at times we feel quite pressured not to sound too personal (and quirky) fearing to lose our credibility, but the truth is what  all our readers care for is our own view on things. You could talk about this, talk about that and talk about all those latest trends but at the end, our readers will only care on our own tack on those issues and that’s why they comment on the first place. They either agree or disagree.

Controversy gives more risk as a blogger

A lot of people have gone down to this path. They start a blog, and to make a shortcut or to get noticed quickly, out of nowhere they hit big bloggers/people. They try to criticize them even though it’s not reasonable, they tend to create a lot of controversy so that they can get traction in as little time as possible.

I would tell you first and foremost to avoid that tactic. It’s an old blackhat practice and I don’t think it is going to work if you do it solely for bullshitting other people. Sure it can yield you great spikes in traffic but unless you give people enough proof on those, all of those craps are just deemed claims. And claims are just stuffs that you should never believe into.

Striking a balance

All in all it boils down to striking a balance between both. I am always a firm believer that you can get more people to read you by just being yourself, not pretending to be a lawyer or what. On the flip side, more people will actually then BELIEVE you by doing your research, thus boosting your credibility as oppose to just reading you.

Striking a balance is quite a work if you ask me. Sometimes we tend to be not fair but that’s where our readers come and rescue us. I always feel glad, actually really glad when a commenter opposes to what I believe and then explains his side on the comments.

What do you think about this topic?

How Landing Page Can Increase your Blog Traffic

How Landing Page Can Increase your Blog Traffic

by ·

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

by ·

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. 😉

Most Blog Fail at This, Marketing!

Most Blog Fail at This, Marketing!

by ·

Ever wonder why 90% of the blogs just can’t get off the ground? Simple, they suck at marketing!

Because of the nature of blogging and what it really is, a lot of people doing blogging just couldn’t really make it. Blogging is defined originally as a hobby, something that’s like a personal diary where you can enjoy doing it without needing to spend that much of time. So up until now this is the stumbling block that most newbie bloggers and even intermediate ones face.

Almost always, the case is that bloggers don’t want to learn marketing at all. Selling sucks isn’t it? And besides you never dreamed to be a sales person throwing up stupid sales pitches to your audience. That being said, it‘s safe to conclude that bloggers don‘t think marketing is essential for the success of their blogs.

If you‘ve been reading this blog for quite some time, you always hear me say that blogging is internet marketing. That is true and your success depends on how competent you are with marketing. Some people who want to learn it even pay for those expensive internet marketing courses and programs while others simply just try to learn it themselves.

In blogging, however you really don’t need to know each and every stuff about internet marketing, you only need a few of them to get started. Coupled with building relationships, good marketing can really skyrocket your blog/brand/profile w/c would get you more traffic and obviously the end result is income.

Blog Marketing for Fame

So for the last 2 and half months or so, I took some time in creating this guide w/c would help an average blogger grow their blog on a quick rate. Nope this isn’t a make money eBook or a crappy PLR product. This is a simple info product w/c is targeted to bloggers who like to explode their blog traffic, get their brand known and simply just slay it in the blogosphere. Whether you’re a newbie blogger or an intermediate one, I would like to hope that this product is one that can be very valuable to you. It contains tips on how you can grow your blog quickly in less than one month (or whatever pace you want to). And by saying growing your blog, it’s not just about increase daily hits or huge unique, it’s about building a real brand with real community that will be with you for the long haul.

Edit: This book has been rebranded and updated as ‘Blog Marketing Guide‘

Subscribe now & Get Immediate Access

After signing-up to my blog’s newsletter you will immediately be able to download your copy of the Blog Marketing for Fame eBook. On top of that you’ll also receive my exclusive tips and tricks to market your blog (stuff that is not published anywhere else), insider’s information about my upcoming projects and so on. The newsletter is totally free and if you think the content you’re receiving is crap, you can cancel anytime.

You can subscribe to the newsletter by going here.

 

What is Problogging & A Look at Some Pro Bloggers

by ·

Problogging is a word that’s not new. If it sounds new to you, then probably you are living under the cave. Pro blogging simply stands for professional blogging and today I would like to talk about it more from my own perspective. No worries as I’ll assure you that this is no generic article.

Each and everyone of us bloggers want to be called as professional bloggers but in reality we’re not. Professional bloggers are simply the ones who do blogging as a business, more specifically as a primary business. They usually allot 6+ hours per day with their blogs, mostly dealing with content and marketing. That being said even though I am spending a lot of time blogging, I cannot still call myself as a problogger because I am student.

It’s also a big misconception that you can look like a professional one by blogging with perfect grammar and great fluency. Again its a total misconception. Although I don’t want to imply the mentality of speaking like a moron/douchebag, you cannot just focus too much on how formal your way of speaking is. At the end it’s all about gaining popularity and capitalizing on it, not boasting your English degree.

So Im going to take a look at some probloggers today. Obviously, just earning a big amount of money doesn’t mean you’re a pro blogger. Anyhow, here are the great examples of bloggers who do professional blogging.

  • Darren Rowse – is the pioneer of professional blogging. I probably have never seen a guy who is as dedicated as Darren in this world. He blogs at ProBlogger.com and some other many sites. What’s amazing with this guy is that you can take a look at all his blogs and easily notice that they are all established in whatever niche they are. Although he’s a bit conservative in terms of making money, I still believe he makes a heck of cash with all of his assets in the internet
  • Yaro Starak – Yaro is my favorite blogger. Although he’s not the earliest person to do blogging, he probably is the first guy to leverage his audience best by offering a membership site called Blog Mastermind. Since then it really exploded his expertise on the subject matter where he gained a lot of reputation and trust. Look at Yaro as a blogger who got interested in internet marketing, studied it and mixed it with blogging superbly to achieve who he is today now.
  • John Chow – Ok it took me 5 minutes to decide whether I should include Chow in this list. After all he’s like Shoemoney. The only difference though is that Chow has no other big  business aside from blogging w/c is why he’s in this list. John is the best example of a pro blogger who doesn’t need to have perfect way of expressing things in word.
  • David Risley – It was only last year when I stumbled upon him and his blog. Some of you may not even know him yet. If not it’s your best chance to know him @ DavidRisley.com. He connects with his readers well by just blogging spontaneously. David is a problogger even before the term existed but he just started building his expertise couple of years back. If you’re looking to build a blogging business, then head on and grab his six figure blogger blueprint (Don’t just get afraid of his large voice!)

Okie dokie. As always I’d love to hear your opinions on this and your thoughts about problogging. Also do you have any other suggestions out there for professional bloggers? Or do you think someone in that list doesn’t deserve being included?

Demand & Supply – Understanding Blogging Economy

by ·

Currently Blogging is one of the greatest Internet Marketing Model. While many people use blogging for personal purposes, some use it as an Internet Marketing tool. The few people who use blogging as Internet Marketing tool are the ones who want to earn money, reputation and fame. But only a very few percentage of them succeed.

One of the reason of success of these successful bloggers (whom we call pro bloggers) is the understanding of Blogging Economy. The understand how to utilize their resources, where to invest and how to balance Demand and Supply. Demand and Supply is core of any kind of Economy. The relationship between demand and Supply underlines the forces behind the allocation of your blogging resources in the most efficient ways. It also decides the price (may not be a monetary value) of your content in the Blogging Community.

Before we proceed any further let us define Demand and Supply.

Demand refers to how much (quantity) of a product or service is desired by consumer. The quantity demanded is the amount of a product people are willing to buy at a certain price.

Supply represents how much the market/producer can offer. The quantity supplied refers to the amount of a certain good producers are willing to supply when receiving a certain price.

How does Demand and Supply work for Blogging?

In blogging, a blogger is not always selling. So two cases arises, one when a blogger is selling his content (posting article/post) for free and other when a blogger is selling a product or service for a price.

CASE I: Blogger provides free information through an article/blog post

Here the commodity (information) is free to everyone, so money is not a factor. When something is free, it means the supply is theoretically infinite. The demand of the content decrease and so does its value. Now to increase the value of your content, we need to increase the demand. And since our commodity is free, its not that simple. There are two different ways to increase the demand.

  • First is decreasing the supply. But practically it is not possible to just decrease the supply. In case of a blog post once posted is available to everyone. One way to decrease the supply will be to password protect the whole/part of post. You may also consider having a free members area where selected few have access to the content. This way you virtually decrease the supply. This will only work if your content had high demand before.
  • Second is allocation of resources. Allocation of resources in blogging means investing more time (if required money) to research the topic you are about to write. Write the post in a unique way or better with a whole new perspective.

CASE II: Blogger is selling some product or service

Here the commodity is not free and those who want it or need it have to pay some price. When you are selling something, the price is decided by the demand and supply in the market (here blogging community).

When money is involved, it becomes easier to understand the market. Price decreases with higher supply and increases with increase in demand. So if the product/service you are selling is available elsewhere in plenty (may be lower price) you will have to decrease your price too. But if the demand is high and supply is low (only a few more sellers are there), you can increase the price as well.

There are some more factors which decide the price as well. One of these factor is customer awareness. Think of the condition when a certain product eg. Blogging Guide is available in plenty but the customer is aware of only your guide. The customer will buy yours. You can set higher price. This is a case of Virtual Demand (a imaginary high demand and low supply condition).

Whatever I have mentioned above are only few of the theories of Demand and Supply in Blogging. To succeed you need to understand them and apply these theory practically. For example, I told you about how demand and supply control the price. You can use it to decide the at what price you should sell your product/service, so that people buy it. How to make them buy your product and service at a ceratin price.

If you have any questions, just leave a comment and I will answer them.

PS: The most important thing to note about Demand and Supply is that how impractical (it is mostly theory) it may seem, it governs the market. You can think of cases where the theory may not apply, but in most cases Demand and Supply theory works with a high efficiency.

Editor of Agent Deepak – A student at IIT, Kharagpur. He has 3 years of experience in Blogging and also have 1 year experience in SEO, Graphics design and Web design. He is tweeting @AgentDeepak. If you are on Facebook you can also befriend him @AgentDeepak

Photo Credit from Chief Ingredient