UPDATE: The price will increase to $29.97 on September 1st – grab it now at $9.97!
As you’ve probably heard by now, Darren Rowse of ProBlogger and Glenn Murray of Divine Write just released the Copywriting Scorecard for Bloggers, a 100 point checklist of 63 key things to check before you publish to help you improve the quality of your blog posts.
If you’re insanely busy like most (working a full time job, writing for multiple blog sites including your own, etc.), the thought of going through a checklist for every blog post you write might sound a bit overwhelming. I know it did for me at first. But since downloading and reading through this 59-page ebook, I can give you these tips on how to use it more efficiently and get value out of it for every blog post.
What Does the ProBlogger Scorecard Cover?
In a nutshell, the main headings in this ebook include:
- 5 things to do before you start writing.
- How to plan your blog post.
- 5 ways to make the writing process simpler.
- 27 writing tips and things to avoid to improve your writing skills.
- 6 recommendations to make your post easily scannable to capture your readers right away.
- 10 ways to better SEO optimize your posts around your main keywords for better search rankings.
- 20 common grammatical mistakes made in writing (including affect vs. effect, that vs. which, and lay vs. lie).
Since the Apple iPad has come out, I have been dying to get one. One of my main reasons to have one is for when I am at seminars, such as the upcoming Social Media AZ, or when I’m at conventions like the upcoming Blog World Expo in October.
In the last few months, I have been following a great blog by a fellow Third Triber that has, thusfar, specialized in iPad news as well as entered several contests to win a free iPad (because I am currently saving up for a big trip next year, so I don’t want to buy it outright), but no luck in winning one so far.
There are a lot of places to list your blog for getting the maximum exposure, as well as places where you can receive blog reviews that may be the first impression a visitor may come across for your site. Here are some to add your blog or submit your site to in order to increase your blog traffic and reputation.
For Reviews
Want to get reviews and ratings for your writing skills and your blog? Submit yourself and your sites to the following networks.
Scribnia is an excellent blogging community that lets you connect with and review other blog writers. I was added here as a contributor to Famous Bloggers, and my profile has already brought in some traffic, as well as connections and reviews from other awesome bloggers like Hesham, Andrew, Danny, Francisco, Julie, Meena, Arijit, and Antonia. I will be getting some reviews going for you all soon if I haven’t already.
This is a guest post by Brian Stephens of Moulin Website Design, a web design company supporting small businesses.
A home business sounds great, doesn’t it? Rolling out of bed in the morning when you wake, rather than to an alarm clock. No boss giving you grief for getting in late. You can do what you want when you want. Life couldn’t be better, or could it?
First of all, there are two ways to work from home. There is working for a company from a home base, and there is working for yourself, self employed and building your own business. Making money blogging as a business venture is a great example of a way to do this.
Working from Home for Someone Else
Lets discuss the working from home for a company option first. This is a real work at home job where you actually are working in your home – not out on the road servicing clients all over the country and not getting home until 8.00PM, exhausted from all the driving.
Here are the pros for a real ‘working for a company at home’ type job.
- Save on the commute time to and from work.
- Have some flexibility in your working hours.
- No office politics to deal with.
- Far fewer work clothes required.
- You have a high level of autonomy on how you do your work.
- You can enjoy a peaceful environment with little or no interruptions (assuming you don’t have others working at home or kids running around simultaneously).
Somewhere, throughout my vast array of email filters, I must have missed my invitation to try out the new Digg 4.0 beta / alpha system, but this weekend out of sheer curiosity, I logged into new Digg site and got to play around with what is coming up. So, without further ado, here is a look at the inside of the new Digg system.
Finding Friends
When you first login to the new Digg, it will suggest some profiles for you to follow under a variety of topics, including Business, Entertainment, Technology, and more.
New Digg Suggested People to FollowOn the next screen, you are invited to connect your Digg account to Facebook, Google, and Twitter to find your friends on Digg from each network.
New Digg Find Friends on Facebook, Google, and TwitterIf you decide to skip these options when first signing in, you can find popular profiles and check your networks later by going to My News > Find Profiles, and you’ll see a little section for My Networks on the left sidebar along with the topics you can search for popular profiles in.
New Digg My Networks
For many bloggers, myself included, the thought of a mailing list is the furthest thing from their mind when starting out blogging. And many others think of mailing lists as only something you need if you are going to be selling your own products or affiliate products to your subscribers.
This, however, is a false assumption. I would say that anyone who is looking to get into serious blogging should start creating a mailing list as soon as possible. This is why!
Reasons to Create a Mailing List
Here are some great reasons to have a mailing list for your blog, some for even if you are not selling a thing!
1. Announce new additions to your site.
Whether it is a new design, social profile, or new resource page, announcing updates through your newsletter can get your readers excited about visiting your site again!
2. Alert your list when something is awry.
This week, there was a little hiccup in the networks between Cox and GoDaddy – certain people with Cox as an ISP couldn’t see certain GoDaddy sites, including this one and Dofollow. I didn’t know if I was going to have to make an emergency hosting move, but if I did, I would have been able to alert people on my mailing list immediately. It would certainly have come in handy around the time my sites got hacked a few months ago. Fortunately, GoDaddy solved the issue, while demonstrating some seriously good Twitter customer service skills.
17 CommentLuv Enabled Blogs to Visit
by Kristi on July 4, 2010 · 68 comments
In the spirit of the FamousBloggers and ComLuv blogging contest, I thought it would be a good time to take a look at the various blogging sponsors contributing to one of the largest cash prize blogging contests who have, of course, CommentLuv enabled blogs.
I know that most of my readers are well aware of the reasons to love CommentLuv, including its great benefits to blog owners, readers, and especially commenters with the ability to promote blog posts and articles on article directories and networks such as HubPages, Squidoo, EzineArticles, & more.
CommentLuv Enabled Blogs List
Without further ado, here are the contest sponsors with blogs enabled with CommentLuv for your content pleasure!
1. The Home of CommentLuv – The ComLuv Network
One of the top sponsors spearheading this contest is the network behind ComLuv itself where you can download the plugin and register your site to have your latest 10 blog posts / articles available to you when commenting. They also have a blog filled with contestants’ entries and great tips on how to use the CommentLuv system on your own site and when commenting. So if you are not yet taking advantage of this great backlink building and traffic generating blog commenting system, be sure to register now and start commenting!
2. Learn How to Blog at FamousBloggers
FamousBloggers is a great site to find lots of informative bloggers who know how to educate their readers on the art of blogging, social networking, and making money online. It is a friendly community that knows the importance of interacting with readers by responding to comments and reaching out to find quality writers to share a new wealth of information on how to succeed at blogging. It is also home to the other half of the entries for this contest.
Continue 17 CommentLuv Enabled Blogs to Visit