Down and Dirty Blogging Secrets Part 2
In case you missed last week’s post here is it.
This is a long one, so proceed at your own risk!
Last week, I talked about how the blogging elite handle their blogs, but today, I’m going to show you how they grow their subscriptions, bring in new viewers and improve their rankings in the search engines.
Blogging Alliances
Nobody hardly ever talks about it, but there are bloggers who help each other out by making comments on each others’ blogs and even host book tours with one another. If they all blog in the same genre, this is a great idea. Even if they don’t, and one of them possess a blog with a huge audience, it may still benefit that writer (you) to get in front of that audience.
Paying for Comments
It does get lonely in the beginning but some bloggers have chosen to bypass the whole painful process by purchasing social proof. Yes, you too can make your blog look instantly popular by paying people to comment. I found several people on Fiverr.com like this guy who for five dollars will, “make your blog look more lively!”
But why pay? You can easily cut out that $5 middle man by setting up multiple fake social media accounts for free!
Now before you roll your eyes, it’s actually one of the oldest marketing tricks in the book. For years, restaurants and night club owners have paid people to come to their establishments and just hang out. The theory being, people are sheep and will automatically follow a crowd. Guess what? It works, both offline and on!
Seriously, I don’t recommend paying for comments or faking social proof, you could get caught with your pants down! Also, it goes against everything a blog is, it’s supposed to be a place where you share your thoughts. If you’re successful, people will share theirs right back.
Become a Content Robot!
When I say content, I don’t mean deep, meaningful articles. Case in point, this past year, Demand Studios, and Huffington Post were called out on their black hat SEO techniques and also for possible plagiarism.
According to their writers, they were told to simply rewrite popular articles and change headlines. In addition, they inserted keywords, to attract search engine bots which had them dominating search engines at lightening speed. Unfortunately for them, Google is cracking down on that stuff and is currently downgrading their rankings.
The “white hat” way of doing this, is to use your own unique content, and slap a popular headline on it. Remember titles and headlines aren’t copyright protected. Meanwhile, don’t forget to insert your SEO keywords!
Link Love
Links help your blog’s visibility in the search engines, they’re like a crumb trail that leads right to your blog. If you ever wondered why spammers blindly post links, this is why. The more places your links appear, the more visible you become to the search engines.
Instead of spamming, lots of bloggers and their virtual assistants submit their blog URL’s to as many blog directories as they can like Technorati (The yellow pages for blogs) or Blogcatalog.
You can also submit each of your individual posts to Digg, StumbleUpon or Reddit.
Now if you’re just lazy, or have plans for blog domination, you can pay people to link to your blog. Be warned, most of these sites are spammy or are hocking the latest internet scam, so you need to know what you’re doing here. In most cases, paying for links is a waste of money from what I’ve been told by SEO experts.
Paying for Traffic
Yes, bloggers are doing that too, but there’s a science to buying traffic. There is targeted and untargeted traffic. The targeted traffic, is what you want if you have something to sell or want subscribers.
There are people offering these services like this company here. (No affiliation.) It’s hard to gauge how successful these services are because unlike other products, there are NEVER customer reviews and testimonials. Most bloggers would die if they found out if you knew they paid for sex… oops, I mean “traffic” 
The Takeaway
I know this was a lot to process, and I understand that many of you can’t, or don’t want to do most this. That’s fine, I’m not suggesting you use any of these techniques. I’m simply showing you what some of the blogging royalty have done to get those massive subscriber rates, sponsors, and advertisers lining up at their door.
If you got any down and dirty blogging secrets please share in the comment section.
Down and Dirty Blogging Secrets Part 1
Last year, when I decided to take my blog seriously, I started educating myself on how the blogging elite handled their blogs. It wasn’t easy, most of them are very guarded. Why shouldn’t they be? I’m their competition right?
In this posting, I’ll reframe from the same ol’; write good content, post regularly, comment on other blogs etc. Instead, I’m giving you the goods!
Learn the Art of Recycling Posts
Let’s face, there will be days, when life intersects with your blog. For times like that, you can recycle or repost one of your old blog posts. In freelancing it’s called repurposing and EVERYONE does it from magazines, to even the late night news.
Before you go and start reposting for the next six months, there is an art to recycling posts. First, make sure to tweak your post in case it’s out of date. You do this by updating old information or putting key words and new links within the article.
Stripteasing
Most experienced strippers know you just don’t get on stage naked. You go slow, and show a little bit of skin, a little at a time. It keeps your audience wanting more. In fact, if you’re really good at it, they might put money in your g-string
The same goes for long posts. (No pun I swear!) People aren’t going to read your 3,000 word manifesto. At best, they’ll skim the article. That’s because people don’t have time, there are millions of websites, blogs and video games vying for the same pair of eyeballs. It’s time that you’re really competing for. Instead of 1,200 word posts try writing 4 smaller 300 word articles.
Using Pictures & Graphics
Apparently, people like images with their words, kinda like a story book. Why? I don’t know. I guess it breaks up the article and makes the site look more appealing or something.
Wait a second. Here’s a picture for the story book people…
Blizzard a pup in Antarctica
Be Controversial
Want more traffic and comments? Just bring up abortion or gay rights and you’ll have thousands of angry people visiting your blog in no time.
Avoid Controversy Like the Plague
I know, it’s a total contradiction to the previous tip! But there are blogs out there that never address any issues and only talk about “positivity.” This can mean anything from meditation, to the LOL cats!
Oh wait, here’s another picture…
Here’s photographic proof the LOL cats have been around forever!
Posting Multiple Times Daily.
Most of the giant blogs have several authors and therefore, are really magazines such as the Huffington Post, iVillage etc. They post 10-30 times a day and this gives them a boost in the search engines which organically, gives them even more viewers. More viewers, attract big advertisers, which is the real power behind those blogs.
To do this, it may be necessary to hire other writers to ghost blog for you. You can even partner with writers in your niche and take turns posting.
*A Grim Warning*
Many famous bloggers spent days, not hours on their blogs! I’ve heard stories about bloggers ruining their relationships, and even forsaking a personal life just to “tend their blogs.” It’s not a glamorous way to live!
In part two, next week, I’ll give you even more insight on how the pros handle their blogs.
If you got any dirty secrets, please post them in the comment section.
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Never Tell Employers You’re A Writer & Other Personal Revelations
writing (Photo credit: found_drama)
Last month, I had a job interview and it went well until I was asked, “What are your long term goals?” I told them I wanted to be a published author and immediately, the tone of the conversation changed. P.S. I never got called back.
After that experience, you’d think I would’ve learned my lesson, but I did it again this week when asked, “What is your dream job?” Yep, you guessed it, I said― writer! Can you say dumb?
What They Heard
Saying you want to be a writer, is kinda like a little kid saying they want to be an astronaut. Sure, it’s cute at 6, but at 30, it sounds a bit infantile!
Over the years, I’ve heard a lot of people say they wanted to write. You know the same way people say they want to lose weight. We all know 90% of the time that’s not happening.
When I Realized it Was Me & Not the Economy
A recruiter once told me, I should just say that I want a position in “communications ” and not writing. That sounds reasonable, but still a tad shady. Why should I pretend like I don’t have goals outside of their company? I’m not a drone! But I guess since they pay my bills, they do sort of own me. *Sigh.*
Maybe I Knew All Along
Realizing you’re a writer is a sort of like when someone realizes they’re gay. Suddenly, you’re like, “That’s what I am?” “There’s a name for this?” and “There are others like me?”
It’s liberating, now, I can concentrate on writing, rather than start another pseudo career.
This is a huge risk. I always imagined writing my book on the weekends and running the rat race during the week. At least if I failed, I would still have my mediocre job and collect a paycheck at the end of the week. Now with all that gone, I’m flying by the seat of my pants, hence, why I named this blog: Writing By The Seat Of My Pants.
Asking For Trouble
I’m not stupid, I’ve heard all the horror stories. I’ve also heard the wonderful stories of people who made their dream come true. Who’s to say this isn’t an opportunity wrapped up in a recession? If not, I’m gonna need a place to live, got any suggestions?
Like this:
Committed To Your Blog?
First, I have an apology to make. Last week, I tried connecting my blog to Flickr and it didn’t quite work the way I hoped. Sorry, for the unintended spam!
I started blogging two years ago, and to be honest, it’s been a roller coaster ride. There have been times where I actually walked away in utter frustration. I envied all those bloggers who had their 20,000 plus subscribers and hundreds of commenters. I figured since I didn’t have that, I must suck.
Why I’m Bringing This Up
Recently, another one of my friends decided to start blogging and I think she’ll be great at it. She’s college educated, and well traveled, which means she has a lot of experiences to share. She’ll figure this blogging stuff out in no time.
I have another friend who didn’t do so well, you can read about that here. Problem is, she’s not college educated, but has a crazy past. She was a wild-child and recently, became a Born Again Christian, which would make for an awesome blog.
What both these women have in common, are the struggles they’ll face in the blogosphere. If you’re a blogger, you know what I’m talking about!
Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started…
- You should have a clear purpose for your blog.
- Write in batches to keep your stress levels low.
- Accept the fact that it takes time to succeed as a blogger.
- Market that darn blog! StumbleUpon, Digg, Twitter and Facebook are your friends.
- Network with other bloggers, it will pay off! Blogging communities are everywhere, try Triberr, LinkedIn, Facebook and SeededBuzz.
- Don’t get discouraged when people don’t comment. My most visited post got absolutely no comments.
Did I miss any? Was there something you wished you had known before going live with your blog? Tell us in the comment section.
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My Adventures On CreateSpace
It seemed easy enough, upload your photos and MS Word manuscript and you can build book on CreateSpace for free! How hard could that be?
First, Their Templates Didn’t Work For Me!
As suggested, I copied and pasted my manuscript into a template that CS suggested. Here’s what happened…
The frownie face says it all doesn’t it? Fortunately, a fellow author came to my rescue!
Cover Girl!
I used a stock photo for my cover and made sure it had the exact 300 dpi that CS requires. Unfortunately for me, the CS interior guide told me that my photo was 240 dpi not 300. How is that f****** possible?
At this point, I didn’t believe CS not after the template fiasco. So I simply refresh the page, and uploaded it again and guess what? It accepted the photo, no cropping, or any resizing necessary!
Lessons I Learned
- If you can afford it, get a professional to do this.
- Learn the in’s and out’s of desktop publishing software like InDesign or Scrivener. These programs are specifically designed for creating print and eBooks. They’re pricey, but Adobe InDesign has a subscription plan that’s only $49 a month. Here’s a list of others.
- Read the guides on CreatSpace carefully, especially, when dealing with margins, page size etc. There’s even a community resource center to help you along.
- Use a PDF since CS converts your Word documents into a PDF anyway.
- Make sure your manuscript and cover are really ready to go. Are your pages numbered? Is your cover in pristine shape? Do you need a table of contents or index?
- Patience isn’t a virtue, it’s a necessity!
Am I the only one who had this much trouble? If not, share your story in the comments section.
*Shout out to @WouldUTrade on Twitter thanks for the help! Check out his site on Tumblr.
