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Influence is the power to affect, control or manipulate something or someone.

Everyone who wants to build a powerful online presence has to think about their influence:

How can I make my blog more popular ?

How can I make my readers take action ?

How can I make people spread my message ?

Whatever the question is, it always leads to practicing digital influence in one way or another.

Let me show my powerful 7 steps of increasing yours:

1. Have an epic mindset.

This never gets old. No matter what you want to accomplish, you first have to believe that YOU can do it.

I think the biggest part of anyone’s success online is their psychology. Famous bloggers knew they were going to make it sooner or later, it was just a matter of time.

Talk to yourself everyday, and use phrases like: I’m going to become the most influential blogger in my niche. It’s my digital destiny !

Sounds crazy, but it’s pretty powerful. Especially when you say it with conviction.

2. Tell me your mission.

If I go to your about page, how long will take me to find the purpose of your blog ?

Is it clear within the first seconds, or do I have to read through endless paragraphs to find out. This is more important than you think: the more concise and kick-ass your story, the easier it will be for your readers to promote you.

My mission: I’ll help you to spread your digital influence.

Short and tweetable, the way it works.

Make it easy for your fans to spread your message. Make it valuable and concise.

3. Find your keywords and dominate them.

Terms like internet marketer or blogger are excessively overused nowadays. Does the world really need the 10,000th blogger who teaches us how to make money online? No. So instead of aiming for the general terms, be more specific. Become the traffic expert, or the community niche builder. These keywords will become part of your brand, and you’ll create your unique selling point.

It will also help enhance your SEO if you keep using your keywords.

Mine is influence, what’s yours?

4. Create your online persona.

Most people say that in order to be personal writer, you have to be yourself. But what if you don’t like or know yourself? Ahh, forget about it. Take it one step higher and recreate yourself. Become the person online you always wanted to become – fully embrace your passions and obsessions, and then use them to market yourself.

If you are a true technical geek, then fully show it your posts: be so obsessed with your niche that your readers think it’s funny. Whatever your traits are, be extreme with them and show it. If you are not over-the-top in one way or another, you’ll end up a drop in the ocean.

5. Merchandise yourself.

You have a kick-ass blog, and created your unique remarkable brand. What’s next? Digital expansion. Guest posting and networking is standard, what else can you do to fortify your influence? Merchandise yourself.

I have recently printed my logo on T-shirts and pullovers. Whenever I make a video, or a coaching call, I wear my “own” brand. It makes a huge impact on my readers and clients. Find ways to expand your brand influence. Maybe you can create a kick-ass business card with your icon, or you “brand” another physical object. If you really want to become a well-known blogger brand, you should consider merchandising yourself !

6. Focus and rule.

A lot of bloggers think that using every social media channel is way to go. Meh! The more you try to be everywhere, the less quality you bring to each channel.

Instead, find your favorite channel of mass distribution, and rule it like a digital emperor. Focus entirely on that platform. Become so active that people start missing you once you take a day off

Rather than doing a hundred things, do one thing, but do it amazingly good.

I live and breath all of these steps myself. Some of these points may sound unreasonable, but remember: unreasonable people rule the world. If you copy the standard way of spreading your online influence, you will vanish into oblivion. Whooosh. Just like that.

Don’t worry, if you follow these 6 steps, this will never happen to you.

Now, go out and spread your influence. The internet is yours for the taking.

Mars Dorian helps people spread their influence and build passionate online communities. If you want to build a strong digital presence, dive into his world at marsdorian.com and follow him on Twitter. Want to guest post on HowToMakeMyBlog? See more info here.

See more:

1. How blogging ideas spread – 6-step plan for creating something big
2. Twitter Marketing Ebook: How To Go Viral On Twitter
3. 5 simple steps to build blog traffic by writing comments
4. 7 tips that will make your blog stand out
5. What is great blog content? How do you know your content is good?

Thanks for reading HowToMakeMyBlog.com

My name is Marko Saric and I help bloggers succeed. Subscribe to the RSS feed to join thousands of bloggers and get all my blogging tips for FREE!

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Let us say you own a website that sells products online in a particular niche. Now let us assume that you have competitive pricing within your niche and that you have decent conversion rates on the traffic you currently receive. That is great to hear, but the problem is your site is out-ranked by the big retailers and other competitors in your niche.

So what do you do to gain exposure? Invest more in pay-per-click campaigns? Test out the free and paid shopping channels? Did you ever stop for a second and consider launching a blog?

The immediate and long-term effects can be huge for the brand, and your SEO channel if done properly. I will review a few of the major reasons every e-commerce site should have a blog.

Becoming an Expert in Your Niche = Branding Karma

When you want to catch up on the sports scores for the day, which channel do you instinctively turn to, is it not ESPN? If you were interested in the latest celebrity gossip, which blog would you visit first?

Every niche has its own set of experts that followers turn to religiously for advice, news, best practices or simply their own enjoyment. There is no reason that your website could not be a top destination for your niche. You sell the products that its followers love, right?

If you are not a talented writer or have a writer on staff do not worry, there are plenty of hungry writers out there. Look for college journalism students, freelance writers and bloggers or those who are simply passionate about your niche (do not neglect your customers as a source!) are all potential targets.

You can pay them on a per contribution basis, with discounts for on your products, or for back links and the idea of personal exposure (if they have their own blog). However, just having a blog that you update on a regular basis, does not mean that your e-commerce site will automatically become an expert within the niche, the content is the key.

Produce Awesome Content

You need to create truly awesome content. “Awesome,” in this case we define loosely, as awesome could mean a number of things. It could be content that helps educate your customers, personal experiences or insights that provide a unique perspective upon the niche, statistics or whitepapers that you conduct, or perhaps a brilliant infographic.

No matter what the content is, the first step is determining what your customers and readers would define as awesome. How do you do that, you ask? Check popular blogs from experts within your niche or within a related niche. See which types of blog posts garnish a high volume of comments, re-tweets, shares, diggs, etc.

Come up with a list of topics that you feel would resonate with your audience. Now you have the writers and you have produced this awesome content but no one to read it!

Catch the Social Media Bug For Brand Exposure

How do you get people to read your awesome content? Well the first step is to open the curtains of your blog to the world. Start reading and participating in other relevant blogs within your niche by contributing comments on their blogs.

Do not, I repeat, Do not leave half-hearted or useless comments for sake of quantity. Comments need to be thoughtful and insightful. If you have not done so already, start acquiring social media handles and usernames related to your brand.

Blog promotion is a whole other science that we will not be able to get into within this post, but there are plenty of resources on this site and others to help you with promoting your blog on Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Digg and others.

However, introduce yourself to your niche’s audience within these social media channels and slowly but surely over time you can start to develop a following (especially if your content is awesome). Use social media channels as a way to broadcast your tips and advice as well as to interact with those who care about the niche.

Not only will your brand start to become recognized but it also has the opportunity to acquire customers (at the end of the day, customers are the most important aspect of your business are they not?). New customers can come in the form of new visitors, e-mail subscribers, and social network followers or friends.

Awesome Content + Exposure = Visibility

Creating the content and obtaining exposure will certainly lead to improved visibility of your website. Visibility can be a direct result of your content development initiatives. An e-commerce blog is a great tool to supplement your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.

Your blog can help your site achieve higher search engine rankings on targeted keywords through inbound links (internal linking from the blog to your e-commerce site, links from blog rolls, guest blog posts you submit to other sites, references to popular blog posts, etc.), and the in-blog post targeting of certain keywords.

You could write a product review to target highly relevant, specific keywords or produce a how to guide focusing on popular, broad terms. Each strategy pays its own separate dividends.

The social media promotion as mentioned can lead to increased exposure for your brand and develop a consistent flow of referring traffic from the likes of Twitter, StumbleUpon, Facebook and Digg.

In addition, networking your way in with the so-called, “power users” of these social media channels and creating brand evangelists will only solidify your reputation as a niche expert. It is one thing for your own handle to promote your content, it is entirely different if respected, well known members of the niche.

Customer Engagement = Customer Loyalty

When reviewing the BrandKey 2010 Customer Loyalty Engagement Index, you will see that brands such as Amazon / Zappos.com, Domino’s, JetBlue have the most loyal customers within their respected industries. In terms of marketing strategy, what do all of these brands have in kind? Customer Engagement and Transparency.

All of these brands focus on providing solutions to their customers above all else. Zappos and JetBlue are leaders in customer service; they engage with and listen to their customers in order to improve their services.

While you might not have the advertising budgets as these companies’, you certainly can budget for the development of a blog, your online window to your niche and its customers. Discover what your audience will consider “awesome” and then waste no time in fulfilling that demand!

Have any other tips for an e-commerce site considering launching their blog? Drop them in the comments below, we’d love to hear from you!

Jeff Herbst is an SEO manager with The Supplies Guys, a leading online retailer of genuine and compatible toner cartridges, carrying a wide selection of HP Toner supplies for your office needs. You can also find small business tips and deals on their B2B blog. Want to guest post on HowToMakeMyBLog? See more info here.

Image by Dexxus.

See more:

1. What is great blog content? How do you know your content is good?
2. Top 5 Twitter plugins to incorporate into your blog
3. How one blog comment can bring you 230+ unique visitors
4. Free WordPress Ebook – Blogging is dead, long live blogging
5. Guest blogging discussion: To give out the best post or not

Thanks for reading HowToMakeMyBlog.com

My name is Marko Saric and I help bloggers succeed. Subscribe to the RSS feed to join thousands of bloggers and get all my blogging tips for FREE!

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What is the main purpose you blog? Perhaps it is to make money. Or it might be to spread information. It might be to change people’s minds or just to rant.

Or it could be to have fun. But that isn’t serious blogging, right?

Actually, if done right, blogging is a lot of fun. And if blogging is fun, you are probably doing it right. By blogging, I don’t mean just the actual writing. Writing your blog is indeed one way of having fun.

If you are not having fun writing the posts, maybe you are not doing it right. You could try blogging nude or lightening up your style, but if you do not enjoy writing, blogging is not what you should be doing.

There are two other great ways to have fun blogging – two other things that many bloggers do with too serious an intent to have fun (and they don’t do either of them as well as people who have fun doing them).

Blog commenting

Chances are that you have read about the importance of blog commenting. Perhaps you have read that it is about building relationships. Or perhaps that it is critical to build links for SEO. Or that the best way to drive traffic is to write an intelligent comment on another blog.

And chances are you take this advice seriously. But don’t take it too seriously. People can tell if you are smiling when you write; it comes out in your tone. Yes, it does. In blog comments, you have the opportunity to let your hair down and be approachable. To give interesting comments that won’t be deleted. All you have to do is to have fun.

Typically, you are advised to comment on blogs in your niche and on posts that are keyword-relevant. On this guest post that I wrote about blog commenting for SEO, I made an additional suggestion:

“Yes, you should also frequent blogs that interest you, even if they are totally off-topic. I suspect I might be the only SEO consultant making this recommendation, but I think it is worth noting that if you are a hiker, you will have more intelligent comments to offer on a hiking blog – and you will enjoy doing it, so it will be less like work and more like fun. And whether the links are all keyword relevant, they still count and you’ll enjoy it a lot more than trolling for blogs only on your professional topic. So there!”

Too many people try to leave the quickest comment possible, then move on to the next blog. That’s no fun. It’s also not very effective, as lowest-common-denominator comments are more likely to be removed and people are less likely to follow the link you leave. Here are a few things you can do to write the best blog comment:

• Respond to other comments. Bloggers love interaction on their blogs, and so do readers
• Try to outdo the best comment so far by writing an even better one
• Be funny. Who doesn’t enjoy humour?
• Add to the blogger’s argument
• Play a polite devil’s advocate
• Subscribe to comments and return to respond to other comments
• Return to the blog a week later and become a frequent commenter

Social bookmarking

There are winners and there are losers when it comes to social bookmarking your blog posts. Here is the profile of the loser:

This is serious business, so you only do what you have to for your own website. You submit only your own posts. You submit them all, to each social bookmarking website… then move on to the next. You don’t engage, you don’t participate, because engagement and participation are fun, not work.

Here is the profile of a social bookmarking winner:

You are there to mix and mingle, to share your great content and to enjoy the content of other members. You submit your own posts, and you vote for others’ posts. You also submit plenty of great items that carry no self-interest. People appreciate this (yes, they actually notice) and they appreciate that you vote for and comment on their submissions.

Is it any surprise that they also vote for your submissions? That you get enough votes to be promoted to the home page? That your links become DoFollow and that you get more traffic from the home-page appearance? You can’t achieve this unless you are prepared to have fun.

• Leave comments generously
• Vote for friends submissions
• Follow Good submissions and comment on the actual blog
• Submit friends’ blog posts
• Play the game with the other social bookmarkers on the website

Blogging should be fun – not just the writing, but also the promotion. Write great posts, comment on all the blogs fit to eat, and join the social bookmarking game for fun and profit.

David Leonhardt is an Ottawa based SEO consultant. When not guest blogging he occasionally finds the time to update his own SEO marketing blog. Or you can follow him on Twitter and most social bookmarking websites. Want to guest post on HowToMakeMyBlog? See more info here.

Image by Pink Sherbet.

See more:

1. What is great blog content? How do you know your content is good?
2. 10 Simple Steps To Increase Blog Traffic Via StumbleUpon
3. 10 ways to increase the number of blog comments
4. 10 must use tips for beginning bloggers
5. Plugins That Improve WordPress Blog Comments Feature

Thanks for reading HowToMakeMyBlog.com

My name is Marko Saric and I help bloggers succeed. Subscribe to the RSS feed to join thousands of bloggers and get all my blogging tips for FREE!

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Blogging has opened up new passions in my life; for sharing and writing. Anyone reading this who has ever had the urge to author a book or write articles to be published now has the perfect way of expressing those creative moments by blogging.

The individual nature of blogging enables you to write about whatever it is you love the most. Those posts will then attract great people who think like you and add to that energy. It’s a Win-Win!

Opened a floodgate of ideas for me

Having my own blog has also opened a floodgate of ideas for me. Since starting my blog recently (I am a relatively new blogger) I have noticed that content for great blog posts has been presenting itself to me. This comes down to the personal development principle of getting more of what you focus on.

I’m sure those things were there before but I’d never considered them to be things to write about. Why would I do that if I had nothing to write them on? Now that I do, my blog, the ideas are coming thick and fast.

For example I had never been much of a fan for taking photographs, until I got a digital SLR camera which really allowed me to express some creativity in the photos I take. In the 18 months since I got my camera I have taken thousands of pictures, not all of them are masterpieces but who cares, I’m having fun and that’s part of my point.

My subconscious is constantly looking for beautiful things

I also find that my subconscious is constantly looking for beautiful things to take photos of. This is a completely automatic thing; I can be out and about and see something great and instantly I get that “this is a great subject for a photo”. Out comes the camera and the moment is captured.

Now I see the same parallels in blogging. As I’m enjoying writing and blogging in a big way I am constantly being presented with ideas for my posts. I’m sure those situations for those ideas had been there before but the fact is that now I am more tuned to receive those ideas because my mind is looking for them. Pretty cool huh?

I’m sure you’ve found the same with things you’re excited or passionate about. Who hasn’t bought a new car, driven off the lot and then seen 2 or 3 of the same car on the road driving home when you’ve never noticed them before. Same principle here: Now that your mind is focused on something, your mind notices more of it. Those situations were there before, it’s not that you’re encountering more of those vehicles, it’s just that you’re noticing them more.

An example from my experience was only recently when I had the most awesome day with my two daughters. I took them to swimming lessons, we hung out and played outside, I did some work in our home office where they came and visited me etc etc. It was a great day and great content for a post about me and my family.

That’s part of what my blog is about

After all, that’s part of what my blog is about. I took note of the feeling I had from that wonderful experience and I put it into words on my blog for all to see. That’s a personal thing to me, so it’s important to remember that your blog is all about you.

So…What are you passionate about? What do you know a lot about? What experience have you had that can serve others by sharing? Be attuned to receiving those inspirations, then here’s the next key: Write Them DOWN when they arrive! The worst thing that can happen to an idea is to let it slip through your fingers like sand so carry a notepad with you, or if you’re in the 21st century like me, key it into your phone somehow.

Ideas and inspiration can come and go in a flash so make sure you capture them. I have a page of ideas on my phone for posts and now that they’re ready to be actioned I just wait for the urge to write and I already have content to work on.

A guest post by Kieron Atkinson, giving back while creating wealth – it is all about contribution. Want to guest post on HowToMakeMyBlog? See more info here.

Image by DBPhotography.

See more:

1. London Blog Club – Blogging goals and to-dos
2. 10 tips to stay focused when blogging
3. How to be a prolific blogger
4. Top 33 silliest search queries people have found my blog with
5. How to write blog headlines that make people click

Thanks for reading HowToMakeMyBlog.com

My name is Marko Saric and I help bloggers succeed. Subscribe to the RSS feed to join thousands of bloggers and get all my blogging tips for FREE!

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Confession time – do you have Website Shame? You know it when you have it – the hastily crossed out URL on your business card, the missing “website” field in your social networking profiles, the horror of someone you respect accidentally discovering your “still in progress” site, the botched attempts at “fixing” things that left you worse off than before.

If you’re reading this with a laugh of recognition it’s official – you’ve got The Shame and you’ve got it bad! We’ve all been there and the good news is it’s completely curable.

These ten strategies will take you from being ashamed to falling in love with your site again.

1. Recognize That You Are Not Your Website

If you’ve had a long term case of Website Shame, why do you think it has hung around for so long? I believe all comes down to fear, and as silly as it might sound our websites can carry a lot of emotional baggage! They are our public face to the world. You might be frozen in inaction because you see your website as such a huge insurmountable task that will reflect badly on you if you screw it up. Instead, remember that your website is just one project that you can start to make progress on one step at a time.

2. Remember Your Only Two Choices

You can either learn to fix your site yourself (this applies to any area of your site that needs help – copywriting, graphics, programming) OR you can hire someone else to do so. Those are your only two choices. End of story! Getting stuck because you don’t know how to do it yourself but think you can’t afford help is a dead-end road. Instead, empower yourself to move forward down one path or the other.

3. The Website Fairy Ain’t Coming

Related to your two choices above, let’s get real for a second – are you waiting for the Website Fairy? Do you plan on getting to your site “someday” when you have more time and money? Do you have a secret fantasy that the world’s most talented designer/developer might show up in your inbox one day offering to fix your site for free? Or that even better you’ll just wake up one day to an entirely different website? It might sound funny but honestly most of us have had these thoughts! The sooner you stop waiting for the Website Fairy to arrive the sooner you can get in gear on creating your fabulous new site without her.

4. You CAN Afford a Designer

I’m always surprised by how many people tell me that they know their site sucks but they can’t afford to hire a designer. If you’ve ever had that thought, it’s time for a serious reframe. You might think than an overhaul will be a drawn-out, multiple thousands of dollars affair, but in many cases one or two hours of professional design lovin’ will make an enormous difference to a site. Until you start that conversation with a designer, you just don’t know what your options are.

Quality designers can easily be found for $35 – $75/hour, and of course you can find much lower rates overseas. So if you have ever spent $50 on dinner you can afford a great designer! Instead of telling yourself you can’t afford it, start exploring options – could you find someone talented in India or the Phillippines? Could you barter? Could you find an odd job or new service you can offer that would net you $50? Stopping hitting a wall and start getting creative!

5. Get Back Control

Is there an area of your site that you’re totally in the dark about? Have you been “meaning” to learn how to install plugins or what FTP means for months? You don’t have to be a technical genious, but you do need to be able to confidently hold the reigns of your blog. And if you’re using a platform that doesn’t allow full control or customization, I’d strongly suggest that you switch to wordpress.org.

6. Stop Letting Past Mistakes Drag You Down

I see this one a LOT – people can’t bear to let go of an ineffective, disorganized, outdated site that they paid big bucks for. Listen – if you think your website sucks chances are the people visiting it hold a similar opinion! However, they don’t know that you spent $3,000 on it two years ago and frankly it doesn’t matter to them! I know this one can sting, but expensive mistakes in the past are no reason to let your site keep dragging you down.

7. Stop Making Assumptions For Your Visitors

People first come to your site with a blank slate – they have no idea who you are, what you write about or why your blog exists. When we examine our own blog it’s easy to overlook this, because what we do seems so obvious to us! You cannot overstate the purpose and overall theme of your website to first time visitors – so make it much more prominent than you think you need to. The crystal clear tagline on the header of How to Make My Blog is a great example.

8. Ditch The Jargon

Most of us are so accustomed to our own “insider” jargon it’s hard to remember a time when we didn’t know what “RSS” was. But if you write for beginners, any kind of jargon is going to lose and confuse your readers – especially when used in the navigation or categories of your site. Getting rid of jargon is an instant fix that will make your site much more friendly to new visitors.

9. KISS – Keep It Simple Smartypants!

Yes, I’m using “smartypants” instead of the more common version of this acronym (Keep It Simple Stupid) because most of us make our website difficult to use not because we are stupid but because we’re over-thinking things. You do not need 20 different items in your navigation. A post about vanilla cookies and vanilla wafers might seem quite different to you, but believe me by your readers standards they can go in the same bucket! When in doubt simplify and eliminate and your site will not only be easier to use but look much cleaner.

10. Clean Up The Junk Graphics

You know the ones I’m talking about! Jagged edges, weird white backgrounds that stand out from the color background of your site, too big or too small pictures that don’t quite fit how they are supposed to. These small “oopsies” add up to make your site look like the junk pile. Treat your site like a pro – if you wouldn’t be proud to send a graphic to your favorite blogger, do not put it on your own site.

A guest post by Laura Roeder, a social media marketing expert who teaches small businesses how to create their own fame and claim their brand online. She is the creator of Zero to WordPress Website and Zero to WordPress Blog. Want to guest post on HowToMakeMyBlog? See more info here.

Image by FlyNutAA

See more:

1. Why A Blog?
2. Top 33 silliest search queries people have found my blog with
3. How to analyze the popularity of a website
4. How To Get Blog Traffic – Inbound Links And Anchor Text
5. 7 ways how NOT to run a blog consulting freelance business

Thanks for reading HowToMakeMyBlog.com

My name is Marko Saric and I help bloggers succeed. Subscribe to the RSS feed to join thousands of bloggers and get all my blogging tips for FREE!

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As bloggers we are constantly looking for ways to make our blogs more interesting. It goes without saying that it’s important to write well and to know our audience and focus on topics relevant to it.

However, these days it may not be enough to simply write good blog posts and assume that our readers will be sufficiently entertained. So what more can we do? I have found that creating new multimedia experiences for our readers by mashing together various social media content is an effective way to increase audience engagement and drive more traffic.

A picture is worth a thousand words

We’ve all heard the saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” it then would logically follow that a video has to be worth a lot more. Of course I’m not telling you anything new by suggesting that you should use video embeds in your blogs to pique your readers’ interest. We already know that embedding multimedia content such as web video, flash games and other widgets is an effective way to get your audience actively involved.

What I’m proposing is a different approach. Why not get more value out of your embeds by embedding more than one thing at a time? For instance you could enhance that YouTube video you were planning on embedding by combining it with a related Twitter feed. Thus, your YouTube video will come equipped with its own reader “comments”.

Your readers will not only get the opportunity to enjoy the video but they’ll be able to see what the Twitter community thinks about it as well. As a result your audience will likely be more engaged by consuming this YouTube & Twitter combination than by the “commentless” YouTube video alone.

Consider the multimedia mashup

You can also consider the multimedia mashup as a blog post contained within itself. It is sometimes a challenge to consistently come up with compelling content for our blogs. Why not use the creative energy of millions of YouTube and Twitter users to help us put together blog posts on current hot topics without investing a ton of time? You can write a short intro and supplement it with the YouTube/Twitter mashup. Your audience can enjoy the video and stay engaged by reading the endless flow of tweets.

The mashing together of multimedia content will not only increase engagement but can also help you monetize your blog. We can take that same YouTube video and combine it with the Amazon product widget. Your readers can enjoy watching the video and observe related Amazon products right next to it. It is the best of both worlds.

The viewing experience is not interrupted by having an advertisement intrude on the video in any way and yet the products remain highly visible. This particular YouTube & Amazon combination should result in a higher conversion rate than having the traditional Amazon sidebar which may or may not show content-related products and is not in the main view.

Making money outside of your blog

Another advantage of using the multimedia mashup over traditional affiliate marketing is the potential of making money outside of your blog. The Amazon widget contained within the mashup stores your Amazon affiliate code. As readers embed the mashup on other websites and blogs or link to it, your affiliate code travels along with it.

The mashup that started on your blog can now continue to work hard for you on other websites and help you get more value out of your affiliate marketing. In fact, this opens up a new way to take advantage of popular web videos. You now have a great incentive to leverage viral content by attaching your affiliate campaign to it. If your mashup goes viral that means your affiliate campaign just went viral as well.

My company uCubd.com (you cubed) was created to give bloggers and web publishers an opportunity to effectively leverage popular social media content. We have built a mashup platform that will allow you to add more value to your stand-alone embeds. The best thing about our technology is that it’s free and easy.

It literally takes seconds to create a mashup using our platform. All one needs to create a mashup is a YouTube embed code. Our system will automatically analyze the video and render related tweets from Twitter or products from Amazon next to it. Our mashups are not limited to YouTube, other embeddable video and widgets will work as well. We’re also currently working on building a variety of mashup templates that will offer users more options beyond Twitter and Amazon.

Give this a shot, have fun, make some money and let us know what you think.

A guest post by Marat Galperin, co-founder of www.ucubd.com. Want to guest post on HowToMakeMyBlog? See more info here.

Image by Q Thomas Bower

See more:

1. 9 reasons why Mashable rules the social media
2. How to monetize your blog by selling your own product
3. How NOT to make money with your blog
4. Why the readers would want display advertising on my blog
5. Why using banner ads limits your blog’s income potential

Thanks for reading HowToMakeMyBlog.com

My name is Marko Saric and I help bloggers succeed. Subscribe to the RSS feed to join thousands of bloggers and get all my blogging tips for FREE!

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Daily millions of blogs are built in blogosphere, but most of them fail soon. The reason behind failure of blogs are different but it shows, it’s not easy to maintain a blog.

There are always two sides of coin and it is applied to blogging also. Apart from many advantages of blogging, there are few hurdles in blogging career which might keep you away from success and making money online.

This article is not to demotivate you rather it is to share the true facts about blogging so that you can prepare yourself to face all the challenges which you might experience in the field of blogging.

Here are 5 reasons which show why blogging is not an easy task:

Competition:

People are attracted to blogging and thus competition is also increased. All the bloggers work hard to get good search engine rankings, generate huge traffic and make money online.

To compete with so many passionate bloggers requires a lot of hard work as well as smart work.

Patience:

Even if you are working hard to make your blog successful, there might be chances that you won’t get good results soon or you might face few ups and downs.

But that’s the part of blogging, you need to keep patience, analyze the problems and keep moving ahead . The day that you lose patience you won’t able to blog with same passion.

Update Yourself:

Blogging is all about sharing knowledge and experience. Thus it is important, that you must have lots of knowledge relevant to your blog niche. For getting knowledge, you need to keep updating yourself with all the latest news and information.

If readers don’t find updated and current information on your blog, they won’t visit back.

Negative feedback:

There are chances that you might get negative feedback about your blog from your readers. It is possible that your blog readers might not agree with the information you provide or they might give you negative feedback about the design. These negative comments might demotivate you.

Try to listen to negative feedback if it is genuine and don’t let your passion down. Use negative feedback as a way to improve your blogging style. It takes time but once you learn to handle criticism, you are on the way to become a better blogger.

Active Participation in Blogging Community:

Blogging is not only about writing quality content, you need to spread the word. You can always create a community around your blog by various means like adding Facebook fan page, chat box, and most important commenting on other blogs.

Replying to all comments on your post will give personal touch to your readers and gradually you will have tons of readers who will be religiously following your blog.

As there is a lot of competition in blogging, you need to be very active to show your presence to others. You need to be social, comment on other’s blog, make community and regularly update your blog. It is important to have good online persona that can drive traffic to your blog.

Blogging is easy to start but hard to maintain. To be become a successful blogger you need lots of patience and passion to work.

What do you think about blogging, is it an easy career option or not?

This is a guest post by Harsh Agrawal who blogs at Shoutmeloud and also offer blogspot to WordPress migration service. Want to guest post on HowToMakeMyBlog? See more info here.

See more:

1. How to turn your passion into a blog
2. How blogging ideas spread – 6-step plan for creating something big
3. Blogging consistency and keeping a regular blog posting frequency
4. Make your blog a side business, problogging comes later
5. 9 reasons why Mashable rules the social media

Thanks for reading HowToMakeMyBlog.com

My name is Marko Saric and I help bloggers succeed. Subscribe to the RSS feed to join thousands of bloggers and get all my blogging tips for FREE!

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Talk about being lost in the crowd, my chosen niche is filled with so much information on the web I’m surprised I’m at all where I am today.

My competition is multi billion dollar companies with their company blogs, Doctors, p.h.d. types, anything that ends in ‘pedia’, professors, and tens of thousands of little voices like mine all wanting your attention on just one subject.

My name Jerry and I blog about pest control.

Typing furiously all night only to have 16 hits the next day

I’m not sure what your blog is but if you were like me when you started you probably spent many an hour typing furiously all night only to have 16 hits the next day. What a terrible feeling that is.

Rays of hope were far and few between and I would be very depressed at times because I know that I am a great pest control technician and have owned my own company for years but couldn’t get anyone to read what I had to say.

Giving up was definitely an option but the one rule I kept reading about from all the blog gurus was content, content, content. So, I pushed on with my little blog and punished myself daily with my constant stat checks.

I began to be me and write the same way I spoke

What began to change for me is something I think can work for anyone whether you have a crocheting blog or you do nuclear fission. I began to be me and write the same way I spoke to customers who I serviced.

While most blogs were only spewing out information fit for an entomologist I decided to start telling my story. Not in any chronological order and not every day but I sprinkled in some of the craziest things I’ve seen and many of the off the wall ideas this sparked in my head.

Sure I still do the complete life cycle of the flea and the ‘How to’’ that is also popular but I knew that everybody was doing step by step instructions so it might take a lifetime to rank for anything like that. What I saw that was missing were the daily experiences and feelings that came with being a pest control technician and business owner.

Sparked a huge debate

The extreme lows that I felt when I started my business struggling to make the bills and the conquering exhilaration’s when I hired my first employee. I began talking about the people and what some have meant to me and how others still get me angry to this day.

All of the articles are bug related of course but you might guess otherwise when you read my poem about earwigs which sparked a huge debate as to whether one could lodge in your brain to lay her eggs or the morality of side jobs, I was called a thief on that one.

The other major factor was my increased use of forums and social sites. I used to skip these links when I used Google to find bug information because all they ever led me to was a forum where no reliable facts were.

No gestapo ever showed up at my door

Just people giving there bogus 2 cents worth for the most part. DUH ALERT. I realized that this is where I should’ve been all along after responding to just one idiotic person who used motor oil on her cat to get rid of fleas.

From that revelation I joined what ever forum I could and just kept slipping links in. I even got banned from one or two for breaking the advertising rules but since no gestapo ever showed up at my door I still join groups but I’m more careful now not to upset the moderators.

Using search engine alerts I find where people are talking about my subject and join in on Facebook or do it yourself sites and simply add a good comment or helpful tip and post my link. One such site called thriftyfun.com covers almost every subject you can possibly think of and a large section of my traffic comes from folks clicking in from there.

Get slightly depressed when I don’t hit 1000

I’m by no means any kind of blog guru like Marko Saric or some of the others I’ve read and my html knowledge is a big hinderance when I try to do the simplest things. I can however fulfill the one rule everyone seems to agree on of content and if the people won’t come to me right off, I create a way for them to find me through my forum post strategy.

These are not by any means the only things I’ve tried or still do but they are definitely my primary vehicles to promote my blog. Oh and the days of 16 clicks? After 2 plus years they are gone and although I’m not setting any records I now only get slightly depressed when I don’t hit 1000, I’m starting to catch on.

A guest post by Jerry who blogs at Pest Cemetery. Want to guest post on HowToMakeMyBlog? See more info here.

Image by Chumpboy.

See more:

1. What To Consider Before You Create Your Blog
2. How to grow the number of your Twitter followers
3. Focus your blog writing on a specific niche topic
4. How to make your blog stand out in a saturated blogging niche
5. What Are Blogs?

Thanks for reading HowToMakeMyBlog.com

My name is Marko Saric and I help bloggers succeed. Subscribe to the RSS feed to join thousands of bloggers and get all my blogging tips for FREE!

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If you’re like me, you’re a blogger that thrives on comments. Getting loads of traffic on a post is awesome, but if I can get a load of comments responding to my post, I do back flips (in my mind).

If you’re not like me, that’s okay. We’ll help you get some comments anyway.

Here are some tricks for getting more comments, that I’ve picked up throughout my experience as a blogger. They might just work for you too…

1. Challenge your readers to think about something differently

If you can do this well, nothing will get your more quality comments. Either people will refuse to look at something differently, and feel the need to express their commitment to their current beliefs, or you’ll open their eyes to a whole new way of looking at something. Even if you don’t believe in your stance, playing devil’s advocate is a comment magnet.

2. Start a list and ask for additions.

When you’re listing out tools, tips, tricks…whatever. Open it up to the readers at the end to submit their own tips. Hell, take it one step further, and when a reader comments with a good addition, edit your post and add it to the list with credit to the commenter.

3. Keep it short. Ask the questions without providing all the answers.

If you provide both sides to an argument, or answer every question, that’s awesome…just not if you want to get a lot of comments. Your readers want to be part of the discussion, so be sure to leave them something to talk about.

4. Don’t include tweets as comments. People see 72 comments and they’ll be less likely to comment.

If readers think their comment will be lost in the noise, they won’t comment. When I see a comment thread loaded with tweets (especially if they’re not separated) I am much less likely to comment. Also, if you include the “twitter mentions” in the count for # of comments on a post, people will be less likely to comment.

5. Ask for thoughts at the end of the post.

It’s a simple concept. Chris Brogan probably does this best. At the end of every post, ask for your readers thoughts. Sometimes, that’s all it takes to get a reader to share their opinion. It shows that you want to know what they think.

6. Respond to as many comments as possible.

The reason for this is the same reason as #4. People comment with the hope that their comment will be read. No one likes talking to a wall. I try to respond to every legitimate comment I receive so that whether you’re a first time reader, or you’ve been reading since day 1, you know I’m listening, and I care about what you think.

7. Ask for thoughts on Twitter

Everytime I plan to put a post that is meant to provoke conversation, I make sure to ask the same question on twitter before the post. Aside from getting comments, it’s a good way to gather some information and insight for your post. It also gets people thinking and talking about the topic so that when your post goes up, they’re ripe with opinions to comment on.

8. Continue the conversation off the blog

One thing I love to do is quote a comment in a tweet, and ask for thoughts on the comment. Once you get the conversation started on your blog, it can help to spread it to other communities. “Here’s what my readers thought, what do you think?”

9. Respond to a popular blog post that got a lot of comments

If a blogger wrote a great post that hit a nerve with their audience, drawing a lot of comments, you can share your thoughts on the topic in a blog post response. It’s clearly something that people care about so while your post probably won’t be as big as the original post, you can still drive a good conversation.

Make sure to link to the original post, and let your readers know that you’re responding to it. This sends some link love to the originator, gives your readers some context, and will probably leave a trackback comment on the original post leading people to your response.

10. Reward your commenters for commenting.

If all else fails, bribe them. Now this certainly isn’t a long term solution, but giving a prize away can inject a little life into your blog quickly. If you still want quality, say “whoever has the most creative response wins this awesome bag of potatoes!” or whatever you crazy kids are giving away these days.

Also, check out a plugin called Commentluv. It will add a link to the commenter’s last blog post. It’s a win win.

David Spinks is the Community Manager for Scribnia, where the world’s bloggers and columnists are reviewed by their readers. He also blogs at The Spinks Blog about business, careers and professional communities. Want to guest post on HowToMakeMyBlog? See more info here.

Image by Mike Baird.

See more:

1. 6 steps to make your blog visitors loyal commentators
2. 10 ways to increase the number of blog comments
3. How unsociable is your blog?
4. What is great blog content? How do you know your content is good?
5. How to write blog headlines that make people click

Thanks for reading HowToMakeMyBlog.com

My name is Marko Saric and I help bloggers succeed. Subscribe to the RSS feed to join thousands of bloggers and get all my blogging tips for FREE!

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The humble blog has come a long way in the last decade. What was once merely the hobby of the amateur working away in their basement has morphed into one of the defining themes of Web 2.0.

Some of the most highly trafficked websites on the Internet nowadays are blogs. It’s a flexible way to deliver information and at the same time interact with an audience.

For those just starting out, here are a few tried and true suggestions for making your own personal blog a success.

Know Your Audience

And more importantly, write for them. You can’t write for everyone, so don’t even bother.

While fostering true debate and the free exchange of ideas is terrific, you’ll want to get a feel for who your core demographic is and what they care about. Are they liberal or more conservative? Urban or rural? Country or rock-and-roll? You get the general idea.

Pick A Focus, And Stick With It

Unfortunately, you can’t be an expert on everything. And if you attempt to write about every idea or issue that pops into your head at any given moment, your blog will come off as schizophrenic and lack direction. Choose one area of interest that you’re truly passionate about and explore it in-depth.

It’s All About Networking

An important aspect of the social web is that’s it’s, well, social. Interacting with not only your readers but also other blogs and webmasters is a great way to get feedback as well as newh2 subscribers to your blog or RSS feed.

Backlinking is a crucial component of driving unique views on your blog, so comment on other well known and highly trafficked sites and leave a link in your comment back to your own site.

Function Over Form

Aesthetics are important, and you’ll find yourself judging other people and other websites based on appeareance alone. While you try not to be superficial, it’s simply a part of human nature and you can’t really help it.

Your blog doesn’t have to look like a million bucks right off the bat, so focus on great content over shiny graphics and layout. You’ll have plenty of time to fiddle with your site’s look later.

Choose Your Plugins Carefully

It’s easy to lose focus on what you’re blog is actually about and supposed to be doing if there’s too much visual information and tools clogging the page.

When you work with a CMS like WordPress or Drupal, it’s easy to keep slapping on plugins for everything from a RSS Feed Manager to a World Clock and everything in between. Just go with the essentials and keep it simple.

Turn Your Blog Into A Community

Make your readers feel like they’re participating in a discussion rather than just reading a blog. Reply to comments, start conversations, and create forum capabilities on your blog when you get enough followers.

Accessibility

Later, you may well want to consider creating a mobile-only format version of your site for those looking at your blog on a cell phone or tablet computer. While it’s true that they can access the syndicated RSS feed via their e-mail, it’s still a good idea to widen the accessibility of your site.

Don’t Go Overboard With Ads

Monetizing your blog is important and you have every right to make a few bucks off of it. Just keep the ads to a minimum and don’t push the popups and what not in the faces of your readership.

Be Consistent With Your Output

In other words, publish regularly and often. Don’t skimp on quality, because it matters. Just know that if you want to create a following, you need people to know that there will be new content on your blog on a consistent and regular basis, so pace yourself.

Make It Unique

There are many blogs out there and you need to make yours stand out from the crowd. Develop your own unique style and voice, and write creative and interesting articles and you’ll get more readers and followers than you know what to do with.

These tips should give you a good idea of how to start out, but from there it’s up to you to make the most of your blog. Tweaking the format is pretty simple and there are plenty of tutorials online about web design and development if you want to add new features and functionality.

The most important thing to remember is to have fun and enjoy the blogging experience. If you like what you do, it will come through loud and clear in your writing and resonate with your followers.

Melissa Tamura is Editor at Large of the Zen College Life directory of online degrees. She most recently wrote about online EMT training. Want to guest post on HowToMakeMyBlog? See more info here

Image by Scarleth White.

See more:

1. Content Is King For A New Blog So Start Writing Posts
2. Offer more options to subscribe to your blog content
3. How to get your guest post featured at biggest blogs
4. Do not worry about SEO, just concentrate on your blog readers
5. 7 tips that will make your blog stand out

Thanks for reading HowToMakeMyBlog.com

My name is Marko Saric and I help bloggers succeed. Subscribe to the RSS feed to join thousands of bloggers and get all my blogging tips for FREE!

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