MelvinBlog

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

Traffic

Your Guest Post was Rejected, What’s Next?

by ·

By now you probably already have learned that guest posting is a powerful way to drive crazy high quality traffic to your site. I’m not just talking about the hits here, I’m talking about traffic that could easily become one of your subscribers, more importantly your customers. Guest Posting really is going to do the job for your blog in terms of getting more publicity.

So because a lot of people already knew it and learned it’s benefits, it seems that every blogger in every corner is sitting, focusing and writing a guest post for the big blogs in their niche. But the question is, are they getting success by actually getting their post/s qualified? Or is it the owner of the other blog think their guest post suck?

Ok I will talk from experience here. Probably you have seen me and my blog on some other blogs having a guest post so it’s pretty obvious guest posting is my blog project since late last year. But I am going to confess that for every 5 guest posts I write, less than 50% gets accepted. For every 10, it’s just 4 and yeah it’s painful especially thinking about the time I spent writing and writing only for the author to say it has not met the qualifications. *sucks*

So that was my experience early this year when I was just totally new to guest posting. Obviously I have improved a lot but the question is what to do next when you get rejected? (ok, no list in this post guys!)

The answer is just keep on going. I know other people would say try to analyze, learn and improve but I think it’s just all about keeping on writing. I’d tell you’d be surprised on how just writing alone could unknowingly improve your way of writing. I love reading my old posts and it always amazes me how many stupid mistakes I have done before even though I (think) have a good english grammar (for someone who lives outside the US).

It’s ok to feel bad but that should never keep you from trying. Bloggers have different styles, so they also have different requirements, different take on whether the article is good or crap. If you’re guest posts got rejected then go ahead and submit it others. If its still discarded then don’t delete it from your hard drive. Even if it piles up there it’s still going to do you wonder by letting you become a better writer.

What do you think guys? I would really love to get your opinion about this topic.



Do You Know You’re a Boring Blogger?

by ·

The number 1 advice people always say to you to succeed in blogging is that you need to create good and high quality content. So there ya go! Because of it you’re forced to write articles like a freelancer, you’re fed into acting like you need to be like Darren Rowse and stuffs. The end result, you become a boring blogger.

Most people get it wrong by thinking that writing top-notch content is all about the perfectness of the grammar, the formality of how words are written and just sounding absolutely professional. Believe me it’s not! The problem with most bloggers is that they try to be perfect and because of that, they sound like a robot. It’s just like reading an article in a monotonous tone. Try reading books in your school library and you’ll know what I mean.

Ironically sometimes, you don’t realize that you’re starting to bore your readers to death. Results? A decline from just about everything (readers, subscribers, traffic , etc). Anyways here I compiled a list why you might be or starting to become a boring blogger:

  • You sound like a lawyer – and you don’t need to. I don’t know but professional blogging for me is not really about being professional words-wise or with the proper grammar and stuffs. Pro Blogging is about treating blogging as a serious business. So if you’re a 15 year old kid who’s trying to sound like your teacher, then you’re not helping your blog.
  • Generic Articles – generic articles is a really big NO NO. Or at least minimize it. Generic articles is like the ones that has been tackled 300 million of times and you still tackled it and talked it in a none unique way. Articles like “how to earn money from blogging” or “Make Money By starting a blog”. You see, it’s hard not to regurgitate a topic. But you make it unique from the rest by adding something unique and breaking it down to more specific topics.
  • Transformed into a  news site – Blogs like TechCrunch can certainly do this considering the audience that they have right now but smaller bloggers SHOULD NOT. I see a lot of bloggers just writing the same news on their blogs w/c really adds 0 value. Just because Dennis Yu is popular,  does it mean you have to write about him too?
  • All Promotional stuffs – I guess we can blame a guy named John Chow for this? lols. It turns me off so much when I see someone promotes a product for the obvious sake of just earning a commission. How many times do you see someone make a clickbank product writeup and then recommend it to people w/o even him knowing what the product is really all about? Booooring stuff!

There’s nothing wrong in being quirky and putting some humor in your posts. At least in this way, you don’t get to have them have the impression that you’re a lame, boring blogger that makes  “robot-ish” sounding articles. By not being that, you are easily separating yourself away from 70% of the bloggers. What do you think? Does this article make any sense to you?

5 Tips to Effectively Start a Brand New Blog

by ·

In this post,  Brandon Walker talks about some good tips on getting how a brand new blog can easily get recognized.

I often get asked “what is the best method to use to effectively start a new blog to give it the best possible chance of being successful?”

It’s always a difficult question to answer particularly because starting a brand new blog can be challenging and difficult for webmasters as they usually have no audience, no traffic and have not been recognized as an authority within their niche. It is therefore extremely important to have credibility and that can be difficult to achieve, particularly if you have only been active in internet marketing circles for a short length of time.

But don’t become too discouraged because you will find many successful bloggers will say the most difficult time they faced during the beginning stages of blogging was when no one knew who they were within their niches.

  1. Write Good Content – Writing good content in your blogs is essential if you’re looking to get noticed within your niche. This is the most effective means you can utilize to connect with your readers because through your content you can project your own style and personality.Readers appreciate good quality content and if they like it may even consider linking to it because they like it so much. From my own experience I have sites that tend to do well and attract traffic simply because I had put a great deal of time and effort into writing good quality content.

    This is generally because readers bookmark the content, refer to it in their own posts, resulting in natural links and traffic.

    The golden rule for writing good content is that one stunningly well written post can receive much more traffic and attention than many very ordinary posts combined.

  2. Guest Posting – Often when you begin a new site you don’t have an audience of people reading your content while other sites in your niche may have.To generate interest my advice is to search for credible blogs in your niche and look to see whether or not they accept guest posts. If they do accept guest posts write a top quality article using your very best material and then send your article to the blog site by email. If the blog author happens to like your material, they will post it on their site resulting in you gaining credibility, recognition and generating traffic to your own site.To help you get started, one method you can use to find guest posts is through Google. This can be done by entering the search string (niche keyword) + “guest post. This search will bring up pages of results on blogs that are willing to accept guest authors.

    Find appropriate blogs in your niche and get writing!

  3. Gain Trust With Google – Thousands of brand new blogs are started everyday, many of them spam sites. It is important for you to convince Google that your site is not another one of these low quality sites by building quality links from reputable sources.For example Ezinearticles, Hubpages and Squidoo are all sites looked favorably upon by Google. Further, they all allow you to create a page on their site with a link pointing to your own site.

    In simple terms, by getting a single link from each of these sites you are effectively letting Google know that you are not just another spam site and you should therefore be trusted. This can be very powerful because gaining trust from Google is very important because ‘traffic is king’ and can over time lead to search traffic flowing to your new site.

  4. Become a Credible Source of Information Within Your Niche – It is very important that you build credibility within your niche when you begin a brand new site. It is necessary to show people you should be trusted and are knowledgeable with regard to your niche.As already mentioned guest posting is one way to gain this credibility along with forum marketing and commenting on high profile blogs being another excellent method.

    The key is to post relevant and exceptional comments so people will take notice.

  5. Build a List – Generally when you start a new blog, visitors to your site are very limited – that’s why it is important you try to retain these visitors who do come calling.One method you can use is to produce a free report with valuable information about your niche and offer it to your readers in exchange for their name and email address. This can require effort on your part in putting together the report but there are several advantages to be made by following this approach. For example, apart from collecting their details so they can be contacted later, you are also importantly building trust and credibility with your readers through the free report you are providing.

Conclusion

Clearly the success of your blog or any website for that matter is dependent on how much effort you’re a prepared to put into your site.

If you work hard and apply the 5 methods I have mentioned above, then before you know it your brand new site will have visitors clicking onto it and generating ongoing income for you.

Brandon Walker is an accomplished internet marketer who provides tips, techniques and advice to other bloggers on how to generate income from working online at Foxmarketer.com

Do You Appreciate Your Readers?

by ·

It’s kinda sad that most bloggers (even popular ones) don’t seem to show they appreciate they readers/audience. There is a big imbalance between bloggers wanting to get too much traffic and bloggers showing their appreciation to their readers. One crucial factor I think why blogs get loyal readers is the fact that readers feel appreciated and therefore they keep returning because they know the author “care” for them.

Many people misunderstood my posts about not caring for PM’s on contact form and not replying on blog comments as a proof that I really don’t give much value to my readers. It’s understandable but it’s totally untrue. The value that I place to the blog readers is the highest (higher than advertisers). Because no readers literally means no money made at all and no fun.

Well today I am going to list ways on how you can show appreciation to your readers and I hope you guys like it.

  • Read and reply to their comments – It sure did take long for me to realize this one. Contrary to what I believed before, its not true that readers comment on blogs and don’t come back anymore. It surprises me a lot of times when I replied to a comment that the readers comes back and say thanks for replying. Replying to every comment may look silly but it builds readership and loyalty.
  • Link out to them – Although its impossible to link out to all your commenters, giving a link love to some of their best posts can be helpful. Believe me, bloggers feel appreciated when someone links out to them, may it be a big blog or a small blog. Most people are afraid to give links because they don’t want to dilute their pagerank w/c is a lame reason. Readers > Pagerank/Metrics.
  • Ask for their opinion – If you’re a long time reader of this blog, there is a customary question and answer thing here wherein a reader can ask a question and me hopefully me being able to answer it. The mistake that most blogs do is they stuff their readers so much that they are an expert in their niche that their readers won’t anymore do anything which is completely wrong. Ask out your readers for something, post a poll or just simply encourage them to do interactions with you.
  • Give out incentives – Ok, so here I have never had given an ipod or a flip (and I think it’s far-fetched). The blogosphere is a tight community that every incentive received is a big thing. I can’t stress this more. It doesn’t have to be a physical product or a cash prize but anything that can be useful to them is a nice thing.
  • Show Social Media Love – I always feel good when someone retweets my post or stumbles something here and stuffs. Another good way to show your appreciation is to actually do the same for them. If you’re into social media (who’s not?), a simple digg, or some buzz on their article can mean a lot to them. Remember it’s ALWAYS giving first then receiving second.
  • Network With Them! – The reason I put the little social bookmark/network icon on the sidebar is to network more with my readers. Everything we are doing online is marketing. Marketing is not business, but it’s a function of the business. It helps big when you connect to your readers via other social means like Facebook, Friendfeed or maybe Youtube and etc. The good thing with blogging is that it enables us to maximize networking with other people w/c at the end leads to bigger business relationships, joint ventures or just simple friendships. If you’re not doing this, then you’re missing out a lot!

Showing your audience that you appreciate them is a big factor on having a successful blog, successful business. Sad state is that most people don’t even pay attention to it. What do you think? I would love to have your own take about it and you can do so in the comment form.

Note: Interestingly, all people who are in my top commentators list (@ sidebar) would be able to get a free advertising for one month. Just comment here and I would hook you up on something. Thanks. 😉

The Real Gold In Entrecard

The Real Gold In Entrecard

by ·

Update: This was posted two years ago and I don’t use Entrecard anymore so consider everything here in this post as outdated.

A lot of people really think using Entrecard is useless and they would rather just get rid of it than get frustrated with the way it brings traffic to their own blogs. Although I wouldn’t argue much on how sporadic the traffic from Entrecard can be, I can, however defend that Entrecard has other benefits way more than just a tool for blog promotion. Btw, here’s a screenshot of how Entrecard fared with this blog for a couple of months.

Entrecard Traffic

As you can see Entrecard wouldn’t really bring you much traffic and traction directly. In fact a lot of people don’t even reach with over 100 hits with their Entrecard!  The real gold within entrecard is on how you utilize the credits. If you look back on it a long time ago, it’s easy to notice that Entrecard has gotten so much better. They started having this ‘cashout’ thing where one can cash out his ec credits. They rebuilt their forums and marketplace w/c makes it more appealing to its users and more importantly they still managed to hold on despite all the critiques they have received the past year.

So how do you utilize your credits? Many, many things. Sponsor a contest with EC? Not possible?  You bet it is! How many blogs and sites can start linking to you in exchange for just a couple of thousands credits? How many people would start clicking your link by knowing you sponsored this amount? The truth is, there are endless possibilities. I had few blogs that I’ve seen jumped from 0 to PR3 just by sponsoring couple of contest using Entrecard.

And how about their marketplace? If you haven’t paid a visit in their for quite a while then make sure to do it know. The  new EC Market is just not about selling ad spots, reviews, stumbles and diggs or whatever (w/c is what it used to be before). The market also puts up good listings of actual goods that you maybe interested as well. And how about those talented designers who are willing to accept credits for their services? Yes  the sky is the limit.

To conclude this one, we can say that Entrecard didn’t really meet up the expectations most people had. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth a look or useless. Like whatever asset, it’s use and value can depend on how one utilizes it. How bout you? What is your experience with entrecard?

Blogging And Facebook

by ·

Ok, we all know that (probably) all people who are aware that the internet exists do have their own facebook accounts. But not all are concerned on having their own blog. I’m all fine with that as I really don’t recommend blogging to everyone and it depends on one’s interest whether to enjoy it or not. Although blogging and facebook (alongside Twitter) seemed to be somehow connected with each other, we can all agree that both can be time-waster’s as well. Here’s my take on their advantages and disadvantages:

ADVANTAGE

The good advantage of having a facebook account and an own blog is that it already sets your own stage online. It gives exposure to who you are and what you do best. Some may think its retarded but the truth is when you meet people or when you are applying for a job or a position, a company will always do a Google search for your name to see who you really are, yep its so true! Having both accounts (or even just one) is already a big plus if you’re trying to carve out an online reputation for yourself (or even just a personal brand).

DISADVANTAGE

Ok, like the ones we’ve talked about lurking in forums a couple of weeks ago, both can also waste your time. Most people that have their own blog and do online business would waste it by ‘blog-hopping’ or maybe by caring too much about the looks, designs and metrics of it. While facebook on the other hand has a ton of applications/games embedded into it that could mesmerize one, hence it’s easy to get distracted, just enjoy it and neglect other responsibilities. Those who don’t have an online biz or stuffs can also ‘lurk’ in facebook too much (w/c is harmful as well). I have talked with a lot of my friends and they shared to me that facebook takes 90% of their time in the internet (by playing third-party games and taking stupid quizzes and stuffs). I really don’t have anything against it but if you’re a student or someone who does something , then probably you can be better doing your own stuff. Oh well, maybe just my 2 cents.

As for every online property, entity or whatever, they have their own disadvantage for their use. Sure facebook is fun and so is blogging but at the end, it’s not really hard to figure out whether either of them is hurting your productivity. Or maybe its just me. If you agree w/me then add me on Facebook. 😀

How ‘Not’ to Have a Successful a Guest Post

by ·

I have already  seen many guides on making an effective guest posts so I thought I would create one that is quite completely the opposite. 🙂

Anyways you might have seen me do guest articles on some blogs related to this niche. And to tell you honestly, guest post is really a great way to reach out to newer audience and types of people, interactive with them and hopefully have them following your blog. As I have been doing guest posts since last year I have learned a lot of stuffs about it and today I want to share you what are the things that you should do if you want to have your guest post suck big time:

  1. Crappy grammar – Well I have had some problems before with this because usually I just type what’s on my mind spontaneously so grammars had become one of my problems before. If you are no-english native, that doesn’t mean you should write posts with grammatical errors. But still if you like ‘Not” to have a successful guest post, then do your crappy article!
  2. Don’t comment/interact – While I don’t really respond to all comments, I try to interact as much as I can especially with guest posts. There is no worse thing than when a reader asks something on that certain post w/o getting a response from the guest blogger. Responding and interacting with them is like giving them another reason to subscribe and follow your blog. But anyway don’t respond back especially if you don’t want your author bio link to be clicked.
  3. Be boring – Every blogger has his one tone and by trying to pretend you are somebody is a big ‘YES’ if you want to have an unsuccessful guest post. If you speak like ‘chow’ then so be it! If not, readers would surely get bored with your ‘professional-like, pretending’ tone.
  4. Self-Promo Bio box – It’s not wrong to say that you are a ’10 year old blogger who has some experience in blogging’. But saying stuffs in bio box like ‘a guy who is making six figures a month and by purchasing my book you can learn how to’ is a big no no! The bio box plays a crucial role because it gives a short overview of who you really are and what value they can get from you in case they want to visit your blog. The box is not for bragging and self-promo but still if you think it can help you go ahead. Congrats, because you are destined to have no clickers for your link. 😀
  5. Full of fluffs – I have to confess that during my early days of guest posting, I get a rate of 10% success in guest posting! 90% won’t even get passed the owners approval because of fluffs and some nonsense in the article. Remember blog owners expect articles that are even better than what they are writing, so they expect you to write ‘scholarly’. Put fluffs and prepare to be criticized!
  6. Direct them to your front page – Ok here’s an example. On normal days this blog gets 150-250 uniques a day. On days where my posts on some blogs are published, I get 250-350 uniques. A 100 increase isn’t that high eh? Yes it isn’t (or it is depending on who you are), but on normal days my blog gets 700-900 pageviews and on ‘guest posting’ days it gets over 1500-2000! Why? Simply because of the use of landing page. LP is simply a page where the visitors  land. Here’s my landing page for instance. The page simply contains an explanation w/what your blog gives and what your best/helpful posts are. To be honest when reading a new blog for the first time using their LP, I usually subscribe after getting to read their best posts! It can increase conversions up to 50% depending on how you carve out your own.

Over the past years I think I have improved a lot in terms of making a guest post. Guest posts are really beneficial in such a way that it can simply bring you a lot. I know some of you have also your own ups and downs with guest posts so feel free to share your thoughts (or critique!).