5 Tricks to Increase Google Page Rank for Your Blog

Google page rank is an elusive term that most bloggers don't completely understand. In fact, there are probably few people in the world who completely understand it, because Google keeps the secrets of its page rank algorithm very guarded. Boosting your Google page rank isn't something you can do in a day. If it were, everyone would have a Google Page Rank of 10. Keep reading to learn a few of the tricks to increase your blog's Google page rank that are fairly easy to implement over time.

1. Get Incoming Links from High Quality Related Sites

The best way to increase your Google page rank might not make a difference over night, but it will make a big difference in time. The key is to get incoming links to your blog from highly authoritative and well-trafficked websites and blogs that are related your blog's topic.
For example, if you write a blog about finance, getting a link from The Wall Street Journal website would give your blog a big boost. If you could get more high quality links from popular sites such as Fortune.com, SmartMoney.com, and so on, your blog's Google page rank would most certainly jump.

2. Remember to Use SEO Techniques

Search engine optimization is an important part of increasing Google page rank. Read the top 10 SEO tips, and make sure you're using them.

3. Write Original Content

Do not copy content from another site. Even if you're copying and republishing your own content from one page or one site to another, do not do it. Google's algorithm cannot tell the difference and will either give the originating site the credit and downgrade the others or downgrade all of the sites that publish the duplicated content. Google acts harshly toward any kind of content scraping, even if you're completely innocent. Once your page rank is downgraded, it can be nearly impossible to get it back up again.

4. Don't Go Link Crazy

Many bloggers hear that it's important to have incoming links to boost their blog's Google page rank, so they start leaving comments anywhere and everywhere across the web, participating in random link exchanges with anyone who is willing to participate, and so on. Remember, as the first item on this list says, Google's algorithm cares about quality links, not quantity. In fact, your page rank could be downgraded if your blog is deemed to be little more than a bunch of links.

5. Write Great Content

If you write great content, people will want to link to it, particularly high quality websites. Get on the radar screen of popular bloggers and websites by leaving comments, writing guest posts, participating in forums, emailing directly, writing articles, and so on. Build relationships with people who write for high quality sites, and the number of quality, incoming links you get to your blog will grow organically over time.

How to Improve Your Page Rank

When it comes to getting your site on the first page of Google, your page rank is a great indicator of how well your page is performing. Your page rank is based on a combination of the quality of your content, your search engine optimization, and your links and viewership. Improving all of these aspects will lead to an increase in your rank. See Step 1 below to learn how.

Steps

1. Focus on your content. The absolute most important factor to your page rank is the content on your site. If your content is original and useful, it will draw more visitors than a page with poor content. Creating good content is no simple task, and involves a lot of different factors.

• You should be updating your website regularly with new content. Websites that stagnate and do not stay current will drop in the ranks. If you’re writing a blog, try to update at least once a week at the minimum.
• Make sure your content matches your site description and keywords. If readers click away from your site after discovering that the content does not match their search, you will get penalized when they leave quickly.

2. Optimize your pages. Your content should be optimized for both keywords and conversational searches. The best way to do this is to make your article titles as close to the popular search query for that topic as possible. Make sure that your content answers the questions of the readers, or provides unique insight.

• Avoid overloading your site with keywords. Google will recognize this and ding your ranking because of it.
• Make sure that your site’s meta description is accurate. This is displayed to users when your site shows up on searches. An accurate description will lead to more clicks top your site, and less bounces upon landing on your site.
• Google’s Hummingbird update for their search engine algorithms has made keywords much less important than conversational searches. This reflects changes in the way that people search for things. For example, instead of looking for the keyword “iPhone”, Google will look for pages that answer questions such as “Which is the best iPhone for me?”

3. Utilize backlinks. When search engines see that visitors are coming to your site from other sites, your page rank will increase. The more reputable the site the viewer originated from, the more impact this will have on your rank. You can add backlinks by commenting on other blogs and adding a link to your site when you sign off, or you can provide content for other websites and then link back to your site via your credit.

 

4.Capitalize on social networks. Social networks are a great way to spread backlinks among a large number of viewers. Viewers will link your site for you if your content proves valuable. This will in turn increase your traffic, which will lead to an increase in your rank.[4]

• Creating a compelling link to your site is incredibly important for social networks. The reader needs to be intrigued enough to follow the link, and it needs to stand out from the deluge of news on their feed.

5.Create and submit your sitemap. A sitemap is a text file that lays out the pages of your site. It makes it easier for the Google bots to find all of the links and content on your website, as well as determine their importance. There are a variety of websites that will generate a sitemap for you, or you can create one yourself. See this guide for more details.

 

6. Translate your website. If you can afford to hire translators or have a community willing to do the translation work, you can significantly increase your audience by making your pages available in other languages. This increase in traffic will help to increase your page rank. 7Create an RSS feed. An RSS feed will help bring in new readers to your site, as well as retain existing ones. This will show consistent traffic, which will in turn positively affect your rank. You can use automated programs or create your own. This guide explains the process in detail.

 

7. Create an RSS feed. An RSS feed will help bring in new readers to your site, as well as retain existing ones. This will show consistent traffic, which will in turn positively affect your rank. You can use automated programs or create your own. This guide explains the process in detail.

Put your remarkable mark in a world of bloggger

Can I be painfully honest with you for a moment?

Not thank-God-he-told-me honesty, where somebody points out you have spinach on your teeth. No, I’m talking about the sucker-punch-straight-to-the-face brand of honesty.
It’s brutal. It’s ugly. It’s unexpected.
And I can almost guarantee you will NOT enjoy it.
In fact, I’ve been holding off telling you for years now, hoping somebody would do the dirty work for me. But no one has. So, out of respect to you, I want to tell you the truth.
So here it is.
You know how you’ve been struggling to get traffic? Tried everything, and it’s just not working right?
Well, it’s not because you haven’t found the right traffic strategy. It’s not because you need to change your domain name. It’s not because the Google gods have turned against you and cursed you to wallow in anonymity forever.
It’s because you’re dumb.
And if you ever want a chance in hell of anyone listening to you, you’d better smarten up.

Did I really just call you “dumb?”

Yes, I did. Sorry.
Granted, you might be part of the minority who’s getting a lot of traffic and making a ton of money and is really and truly brilliant. If that’s the case, consider yourself excused from this “Come to Jesus” meeting.
The rest of you though?
This is not a ruse where DUMB turns out to be a clever acronym for something far less offensive. The truth is, I’m calling you out, and I’m doing it out of love.
Because you see, everyone has been lying to you. Including me.
We teach you traffic strategies. We dole out writing tips. We give you a pep talk and make you believe maybe you can really become the next blogging superstar.
But honestly?
There’s one really big thing we’ve been leaving out. Here it is:

Popular bloggers are smarter than you are

And no, I’m not talking about IQ.
What I’m referring to is having a conversation with somebody and walking away thinking, “Holy crap, they’re amazing!” Maybe not a super genius, no, but captivating nonetheless.
Every popular blogger I’ve ever talked to for more than 15 minutes has had that effect on me. I always come away from the conversation with a perspective I didn’t have before.
You might say, “Well, they’re not necessarily smart. They’re just articulate,” but I don’t think that’s all it is. I think it’s a piece of a much larger set of characteristics.
Just a few examples:

• They know damn near everything about their topic. And if they don’t know it, it’s in their reading pile.
• They can take enormously complex ideas and compress them into simple language anyone can understand.
• At least some of what they say is truly original. You’ve never heard it anywhere before. Ever.
• Even if you have no interest whatsoever in their topic, they find a way to captivate you and make you interested. It’s spooky.
• You find yourself thinking about something they wrote or said weeks or even years into the future.

Yes, they are publishing great content, building relationships with the right people, and employing the right traffic strategies, but at the bottom of it all, you have a wicked smart person who deserves all the attention they’re getting. They are truly special people.
On the flipside, there’s everyone else who is some combination of ignorant, obtuse, unoriginal, boring, or forgettable. You read their work, and you come away thinking they’re kind of dumb.
So, it’s time to ask yourself the question…
Which group do you belong to?
Or even more importantly, which group do you want to belong to?

The truth about building a popular blog

It’s not only about what you publish. It’s also about who you are.
If you’re smart, it’s relatively easy. You publish an idea that’s both brilliant and useful, it blows people’s minds, everyone starts talking about it, and a bazillion people link to your blog. Influencers also line up to become your friend and help you out because… well… you’re cool.
But if you’re not smart?
It’s nearly impossible. You can do everything all the blogging authorities tell you to do, and you can do it absolutely correctly, and you’ll still fail. I guarantee it.
So, does that mean you’re doomed?
Not necessarily. Here’s why:
This isn’t about genetics. This isn’t about inborn talent. This isn’t about fate.
It’s about deciding who you want to be and then making yourself into that person.

How to make yourself smarter

I was not what you would call a “bright” kid.
I goofed off in class. I failed tests. I skated through with mediocre grades.
But sometime around the age of 13 or so, I got fed up with myself and decided to change things. There wasn’t any pivotal moment that I recall. I just started caring less about what my friends thought and started thinking about who I wanted to become.
And that person was smart.
So instead of spending 30 minutes on homework, I spent five hours. If the teacher assigned a 500 word essay, I wrote a 1,000 word essay. On the weekends, I stopped going to the arcade and hung out at the library, reading books totally of my own choosing for 8-10 hours straight.
Nobody told me to do it. I just did it. Because that’s who I wanted to be.
Within a year, I was getting straight A’s. By the time I was 16, I graduated high school with college credit, a full two years early. In college, professors regularly called me a prodigy.
But you know the funny thing?
I failed every intelligence test the schools gave me. Every single one. I don’t remember for sure what they said my IQ was, but it was something like 106.
Could they have been wrong? Maybe, but I prefer to think something different:
Each and every one of us decides who we are. No, you may not be ready to be a popular blogger now, but you can become ready.
You just have to decide you want it, and then take the necessary steps. For example:

1) Replace your friends

I told you this would be painful, right?
Well, here’s some more brutal honesty:
If you want to grow, you almost always have to replace your friends. No, you don’t have to insult them or drive them away, but simply stop spending as much time with them as you used to.
Why?
As Jim Rohn famously said, “You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” There’s no scientific evidence I know of to support him, but pretty much any successful person will tell you it’s true.
When I first heard that as a teenager, I didn’t want to believe it. I wanted to think I could help my friends and take them with me.
But I couldn’t. Not because I had to “take care of myself” or anything narcissistic like that, but because they simply didn’t want to come. They were happy with who they were, and they didn’t have any desire to grow.
So I left them behind. I’d be lying to you if I said it was easy, but I’ve never regretted it. If you want to grow, you have to become someone new, changing the way you think, how you talk, and yes, the people you hang out with.
Want to become a better writer?
Well, find a few writers a little better than you are, online, in real life, wherever, and become friends with them. Exchange work, give each other feedback, and also find ways to hang out and do absolutely nothing related to writing.
If you know them in real life, go to a movie, bowling, a coffee shop, whatever. Talk to them. If they’re online, IM them every day or two, share a YouTube video, rant about stupid politicians, or just ask about their day.
At first, talking to them might be painful. You’ll feel like an idiot. Eventually though, you’ll get smarter, just by hanging around with them. You won’t be able to help it.
That’s what good friends do: they help us grow.

2) Become a know-it-all

Ever seen the movie The Edge?
Anthony Hopkins plays a billionaire who seems to know… well… everything. No one can ask him a question he doesn’t know the answer to.
Well, popular bloggers are kind of like that.
No, they don’t know everything, but a quick conversation could easily go from the latest trends in social media to political intrigue in medieval England to how to replace the carburetor in your car. All in a few minutes.
And they’re not bullshitting. They really know a lot about all of those subjects (and many more).
Here’s why:
They’re learning. Constantly.
To use myself as an example…

• I listen to an interview with a brilliant person every morning during breakfast
• During lunch, I read part of a nonfiction book
• I watch 42 minutes of the smartest TV I can find during dinner (often on Netflix)
• After dinner, I read the day’s news and interesting blog posts
• Before going to bed, I read fiction for at least an hour
• While I’m in the car, I listen to books on tape, even if I’m going to the local pharmacy
• I spend a portion of every weekend watching recordings of conferences I couldn’t attend

And the crazy thing?
Amongst popular bloggers, I’m not abnormal. Yes, everyone has different routines, but each and every popular blogger I know spends at least three or four hours a day consuming new information.
It’s not just an idiosyncrasy. It’s required.
In today’s world, going to school, learning a few things, and then coasting through your life without reading another book is a death wish. You’ll be obsolete in a few years. Hell, if you’re a blogger, you’ll be obsolete in a few weeks.
The opposite is also true. If you spend more time learning than anyone else, before you know it, everyone thinks you’re a genius. Not only can you recite the work of other important people, but you connect the dots between totally unrelated subjects, creating new ideas nobody has even considered before.
It’s not because you were born with a high IQ. It’s because you know so damn much.
The point?
Spend at least three hours a day learning something new. I don’t care how or when you do it. Just make sure you do.

3) Do less

Here’s another powerful question:
How many hours per day do you spend thinking?
And no, I don’t necessarily mean sitting in a chair, lost in thought. You can include time when your body is on autopilot too, like when you’re driving to work, doing the dishes, taking a shower, etc.
For most people, it’s maybe two or three hours per day. Now, here’s the follow-up question that really brings things into perspective:
Of those hours, how many are spent thinking about your writing?
Uh oh. Now you’re in trouble, right?
Most people think about their family, their job, their upcoming vacation, but they don’t think about what they’re going to write until they open the word processor. Big mistake.
Recently, I found a slide deck from Brendan Schwartz, the CTO of Wistia, talking about how to build a great product, and in it, he gives some surprising advice:
For every hour you spend working, you need to spend 10 hours thinking. Or put more simply, 10x thinking, 1x doing.
And it applies to more than just building a product.
If I add up all the time I spend writing blog posts, it’s probably a similar ratio. If I spend five hours writing a post, which I often do, I wouldn’t be surprised if I spent 50 hours thinking about it before I start writing and in between drafts.
When readers see the finished product, they think, “Oh my God, you’re a genius,” but the truth is, the vast majority of the stuff I think is either worthless or downright stupid. You never hear any of that. All you hear is the 10% I decide to share with you.
Whether they realize it or not, most popular bloggers do the same thing with their best content. They might think about a post for months or even years before they feel ready to write it. Usually, those are also the posts that go viral and make them famous.
Now, you might be thinking, “Well, I’m not doing this full time. I have a job, kids, a social life. I’m just too busy.” And you’re right. You are too busy. That’s the problem.
If you want to become a popular blogger, you need time to think. Not just for a few minutes here and there, but for hours and hours on end.
That means doing less. As painful as it may be, you’re going to have to cut some things out of your life to give yourself time to do this right.
Maybe it’s reducing your time in front of the television. Maybe it’s scaling back your hours at work. Maybe it’s spending less time with your friends.
Regardless, you have to cut something. Otherwise, you’ll never have time to think, and you’ll be just another fool regurgitating what everyone else says.

The bottom line

Blogging isn’t only about SEO or social networking or the quality of your subheads.
It’s also about you.
More than likely, the person you are right now is not capable of being a popular blogger. Your environment, your habits, and your schedule are sucking all the promise right out of you.
If you want to succeed, you have to change. Surround yourself with smart people, bury yourself in books, and cut all the crap out of your life that’s distracting you.
You may not feel it happen, but it will change you. Drastically. You’ll still be you, but you’ll be a better version of you.
And you’ll see the results.
Where your posts used to get a halfhearted response from readers, you’ll start getting dozens of adoring comments. Where popular bloggers used to ignore you, you’ll find them linking to your posts without even asking. Where you used to only see small, incremental traffic gains, your traffic will explode, going from 100 visitors a day to 500 to 1,000, all within a matter of months.
Not because you’re using some new traffic technique. Not because you got to know some powerful influencer. Not because you got lucky.
It’ll happen because you’re worthy. Slowly and painfully, you’ll have transformed into someone worth listening to.
Are you ready to be that person?
Or are you going to be just another dumbass with a blog?
The choice is yours.

Top 20 Ways using you can put your blog on top

A troubling thought, isn’t it?
You’re slaving away at your blog, but you can’t help wondering if you have a shot in hell of getting anyone to read it.

What makes you any different from the millions of other bloggers hoping for attention?
You’re all doing the same stuff. Cranking out posts, messing around on Twitter and Facebook, leaving comments on popular blogs – you know, the usual.
But nobody gives a crap. Readers have seen it all before. You’re not offering anything new, so why should they hang around?
Good question. And the problem is, you don’t really have an answer.
Most of the time, you feel like you’re stumbling around in the dark. You can’t tell what’s working and what’s not. It feels like a big, never-ending guessing game.
Maybe you came here to find some answers. Maybe you’re hoping I’ll tell you what to do.
But I won’t.
Not because I don’t want to, but because sometimes you can’t understand what to do until you first understand what NOT to do. So, let’s start there.
Here’s a big, fat list of ways to be a mediocre blogger. How many are you guilty of?

1. Tell stories

People love stories, but that doesn’t mean you should tell any. Here’s why: telling a boring story is worse than not telling any stories at all, and unless you’re trained in storytelling, yours are pretty much guaranteed to be boring.
If you doubt me, go to a bar and tell a story to someone in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear. If everybody in the bar stops talking to listen to you, you’re a good storyteller. If they don’t, you suck.
And almost everybody sucks.

2. Be “true to yourself”

Let me guess. Tried-and-true marketing techniques just don’t feel right to you, so you’re scrapping it all in the name of authenticity?
Well, I’ll be damned. I must be psychic!
No, the truth is everyone feels that way in the beginning, and everyone has to do it anyway. To get good at something, first you have to follow proven techniques and screw it all up, and then you learn, and then you follow proven techniques and do it correctly, and then one day, when you’ve been doing it a long time and you’re a freaking master, you invent your own techniques. It’s the same process for learning to play the piano as promoting your work.
If it feels inauthentic, it’s not because there’s something wrong with the technique. It’s because you’re doing it wrong, and you need to keep practicing.

3. Build your Twitter / Facebook / Google+ / Pinterest / LinkedIn following first

Here’s your thinking: the reason you’re not getting any traffic is because first you need to build your following on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, or <insert your social network here>. Once you start getting some traction, then you can promote your blog, and the traffic will start flowing free and easy.
Heh. Wrong.
Yes, social networking is important, but you know what’s even more important? Focus. By dividing your attention between so many different places, you’re pretty much guaranteeing you won’t do any of them well.
My advice: ignore social networks entirely in the beginning. Wait until you have 1,000 blog subscribers before you even think about building up a following somewhere else.
(And if you want to know how to get that first 1,000 without spending a nanosecond on Facebook or Twitter – here’s a clue.)

4. Write short posts

In my opinion, no beginning blogger should be publishing anything under 1,000 words. And really, 2,000 words should be your goal.
Why?
Three reasons:

1. Readers perceive long content to be more valuable. They’re more likely to bookmark it, share it, and link to it.
2. Most other bloggers are too lazy to write long content. If you’re willing to put in the effort, you’ll stand out.
3. There’s some good evidence Google prefers long form content. And giving Google what it wants is smart.

The bottom line: stop writing short posts. Or at least intersperse them with much longer content.

5. Give common sense advice

Do you believe in preaching good old-fashioned common sense?
If so, I worry about your chances, because common sense is boring. Readers have already heard it so many times they tune out the minute they even catch a whiff of conventional wisdom.
“But… but… common sense is what they need!” you say. My response: it doesn’t matter. If nobody is paying attention to you, you can spout all the truth in the world, and it won’t do anybody any good. So, stop writing posts that make people want to stop listening.

6. Insist on originality

The opposite of common sense is also dangerous.
Some writers also get so obsessed with being original that they become incapable of ever publishing anything. And when they do happen to stumble across an original idea, it’s so strange and foreign to the reader that they can’t even follow it.
The better approach: find ways to approach old topics from fresh angles. It’s a lot easier, and it’s a lot less risky.

7. Be polite

Do you hold back from asking influencers for links because you’re worried about bugging them? Or worse, do you hold back giving your readers the truth because you don’t want to offend them?
Well, newsflash: real bloggers fight for their ideas. There’s no need to be obnoxious, but you can’t go around squeaking out requests for help and dancing around hard truths.
You have to demand attention. You have to take stands. You have to be totally and utterly shameless.
The world already has enough cowards. So please, don’t be another one.

8. Write “when you can”

For a lot of people, finding time to write is like packing a suitcase.
You put in all the important things first, close it to see if everything fits, stuff in more things, check it again, and so on and so on until there’s no more room. Whatever doesn’t fit gets left behind.
In life, those “important things” that get scheduled first are your job and family. If you have any room left, you stuff in friends and relaxation and whatnot. And then, at the very end of the list, you have writing.
Because it’s the last to be scheduled, it almost always gets “left behind.” Not because you want to neglect it, but because your life is already full to bursting, and you just can’t find the space for it.
The solution: schedule it first, not last. Make it one of the “important things” you put in the suitcase first. Believing you’ll find time for it otherwise is just delusional.

9. Worry about SEO

Speaking of delusional…
Lots of people see blogging as a way to get search engine traffic. Find a keyword you want to rank for, publish a post around it, and a few months later, you’ll have all the traffic you can handle.
Right?
Wrong.
Getting search engine traffic isn’t about keywords. It’s not even about blog posts. It’s about creating something so amazing everyone talks about it and links to it.
So do that. You can worry about SEO later.

10. Start multiple blogs

In my opinion, it’s pretty much impossible to build a popular blog in less than 10 hours a week. If you want to grow quickly, tack on an additional 10.
Say you have two blogs. 2 X 20 = 40 hours a week of work to grow both of them quickly.
Are you willing to dedicate that kind of time? Do you even have that much extra time in your week?
If not, pick the blog that’s most important to you and jettison the rest.
Otherwise, you’re not blogging. You’re just dabbling.

11. Search for the perfect domain name

Blogs are like living things. They evolve. Even if you found the perfect domain name today, you would hate it a year from now, because the focus of your blog will change.
The better solution: pick a domain name that’s good enough and go with it. Sure, changing it later is a headache, but never having a blog because you’re such a damn perfectionist is an even bigger headache.
Pick it. Register it. Move on.

12. Show the world how clever you are

Got a clever domain name? A clever headline? A clever post?
You’re probably pretty tickled with yourself, right?
Well, I hate to break it to you, but cleverness almost always backfires. People won’t get it. Sure, they would understand if they spent a few minutes thinking about it, but they’re in a hurry, and there are a gazillion other blog posts to read that don’t require so much thought.
Instead, be clear. Don’t make people figure it out. They’ll reward you by coming back.

13. Try to be Seth Godin

Every once in a while, I’ll give a student some advice, and they’ll respond with, “But that’s not what Seth Godin does!”
*strangles student*
Think of it like this. Let’s say you like to play a little US football.
If I handed you a helmet right now and pushed you into the middle of a professional game, how do you think you would do?
I’ll tell you how you would do: you would get your ass handed to you. Those guys are genetic freaks who have prepared their entire lives to do battle with other genetic freaks. You’ll never be able to do what they do, no matter how hard you try. In fact, even trying could be deadly.
It’s the same thing with Seth. He’s the blogging equivalent of a 350-pound lineman who can run a mile in under 4 minutes. In other words, he’s so freakishly talented he can do things nobody else can.
So, stop trying to copy him. You don’t have his kind of talent, and if you did, you wouldn’t want to copy him anyway. The whole thing is just silly.

14. Wait until you’re in the right frame of mind

This one is so tempting.
You’re feeling tired or frustrated or <insert your negative emotions here>, and you think, “I’ll never be able to write like this. I’ll just stop and come back when I’m in a better frame of mind.”
The truth?
You’re procrastinating. You’re scared of how difficult it is to express your thoughts, and you’re using your emotions as an excuse to quit.
It’s understandable, but that’s not what good writers do. Good writers write.
It doesn’t matter if they are tired. It doesn’t matter if they are going through a divorce. It doesn’t matter if their kids are screaming. It doesn’t matter if they’re sick and dying in the hospital. It doesn’t matter if terrorists drop a nuclear bomb on their hometown.
They write. End of story.

15. Agonize over your WordPress theme

It’s the same issue as searching for the perfect domain. You’ll never find it, and even if you do, you’ll hate it later. So, pick something good enough and get on with your business.
You have 15 minutes. Go.

16. Wait until <insert freelancer here> can help you

Are you waiting for a graphic designer or programmer or copywriter or WordPress specialist to help you with something?
Well, stop. If you’re ever going to get anything done, you have to refuse to wait for anyone. Ever.
A lot of times, that means doing without. You might have to give up your fancy theme modifications or custom logo or WordPress plugin. Sure, they would be useful, but do you really need them?
No. You need to get off your lazy butt and stop procrastinating.

17. Use free (or cheap) hosting for your blog

Can you get by with it?
Sure.
Should you get by with it?
Not if you can help it. Here’s why:
At some point in the future, you’re going to have a problem with your blog. It’ll get hacked or slow down or just disappear mysteriously, and you won’t know what to do.
If you have a free or cheap host, you’ll be on your own, and you’ll waste days or even weeks trying to figure it out. At the end of it all, you’ll realize how foolish you were to skimp on hosting and move to a premium host like WP Engine who fixes stuff for you when it breaks.
Or you can be smart and just do it now. The choice is yours.

18. Build your RSS subscriber list

You didn’t get the memo? RSS is on life support, and it’ll die any day now.
Smart bloggers stopped depending on it a long time ago. Instead, we get our readers to subscribe via email.
So should you.

19. Publish great content – in the wrong place

Is great content important?
Sure.
Should you create as much of it as you can?
Absolutely.
But should you publish it on your own blog right now?
Probably not.
To explain why, imagine if Martin Luther King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech to an empty room. It’s one of the greatest speeches in history, no doubt, but without an audience, without anyone to hear it and spread the word, it loses power.
Great content works the same way. Before you have an audience, publishing it on your own blog is kind of a waste of time.
You’re better off publishing it as a guest post instead. Borrow a blog that already has a huge audience and funnel those readers into your own list.
Then, once you have a small group of dedicated followers, really ramp up the content on your blog. Just not before.

20. Give up

After reading through all these mistakes, you might feel like, “Well, damn. I’m just a screw-up. I might as well quit.”
But you shouldn’t. Here’s why:
We’re all screw-ups.
In my first three years, I made every mistake on this list. Every single one.
Not only did all my blogs fail, but I was banned by Google, my first guest post was rejected by Copyblogger, and I got so carried away bragging about my interview with Seth Godin he had to ask me to stop. Looking back, it’s horrifying how many mistakes I made.
But I’m still here.
I learned from each failure. I got advice from smart people. I mastered the craft.
Listen to other popular bloggers, and you’ll hear the same story. Over and over and over again.
It’s not a coincidence. That’s how success happens. You live and learn.
If you’re guilty of some of these mistakes, it just means you’re still in the beginning stages of the journey. Take your licks, do your best to learn from them, and never, ever lose faith in yourself.
You really can do this.
There’s nothing wrong with you.
Just.
Keep.
Going.

63 Blogging Tools That Will Make You Insanely Productive

Let me guess.


You read the headline on this post and thought, “Cool!” Then a little voice in your head whispered something like, “Why do I need another post on all the cool tools I don’t have time to use?”
That is the key, isn’t it? Time. Having the time to set up, play with and truly put to work all the amazing tools that will rocket your blog into the heavens.
And having time to write. And time to follow other bloggers. And time to network on social media.
After your blog is set up, after that technical part is over, every new blogger is fundamentally the same. You’re full of excitement and plans. You have a bright, shiny new blog, bursting with potential and ideas.
And zero readers.
Time then becomes the key factor that separates new bloggers into three dramatically different kinds of bloggers. That’s why all the standard advice about the tools you need is confusing. Tools don’t make the blogger. Time does.
Because it’s how much time you can spend studying the top bloggers in your niche, improving your writing and cultivating relationships with readers and influencers that determines how fast your blog will grow. And how fast your blog grows determines the tools you need.
Tools are essential, but time is the magic elixir.
Again, bloggers span a wide spectrum, but fall into three distinct groups. Read the following descriptions, and then jump to each group’s tool section to discover what you need.

The Minimalist Blogger

You have ideas you want to share but you may not be too sure about this blogging thing. You’re willing to dip your toe in the water, because it seems like it could work, but the tech part is still a challenge. You don’t need the fancy tools.
Most of all, you don’t want to spend a lot of time on it yet, or you don’t have a lot of extra time in your life right now. Maybe you just want to write and follow others in your niche. Whether your topic is a passion, a hobby or related to what you do for a living, a blog is a side project that you can give no more than 10 hours per week, if that.

The Serious and Committed Blogger

You’ve gotten your feet wet in blogging,  and you’re committed to what you’re doing. You want to build a business from your blog, but your income and readership are not big enough for you to quit your job. You’re squeezing out as much time as you can, maybe 10 to 20 hours every week, and you need tools that won’t suck up much time but will deliver a big impact.

The Entrepreneur Blogger

You look at blogging differently than everyone else:
You’re not running a blog; you’re operating a business. Blogging is a promotion strategy, but it’s not an end in itself.
Because you’re doing this more or less full time, you have significantly more time to spend experimenting with tools that others can’t.
Because this is your business, you’re willing to invest money in it, so the higher price tags on the more sophisticated services don’t put you off – IF they make sense for growing the business and saving you time and effort that can be used better elsewhere.

The Blogger’s Tool List

We’re listing all tools we’re familiar with and use. Many of the links that follow are affiliate links, for which we’ll earn a small commission if you choose to buy (at no additional cost to you.) Expect additions and changes as we find better tools. We’ll also be adding sections on courses and books that will help you in your blogging business.
We’ve organized it into four sections to match where you’re at as a blogger.
Setting Up Your Blog: This is the tech list. If you’re thinking about starting a blog go here first to find out what you need.
The Minimalist Blogger: Tools to build a solid foundation but nothing fancy.
The Serious and Committed Blogger: Upgrades to many of the basic tools needed as you add products, build your subscriber base and earn money.
The Entrepreneur Blogger: Advanced tools for blogs earning from $10 thousand to $10 million.

Setting Up Your Blog

How to Buy a Domain Name

NameCheap is our favorite cheap domain registrar. There’s no good reason to pay more. We recommend you don’t purchase your domain name through your web hosting company either, because if you decide to switch web hosts later, which is likely, it can be more complicated.

How to Choose a Web Host

The standard advice to go with a large web hosting company for long-term stability is sound. Small web hosting companies still disappear without warning, a terrifying situation. You will also require different levels of bandwidth and service as your blog grows.
For minimalist to serious bloggers, we recommend HostGator, which offers several low-priced plans for new and small blogs. You can purchase shared hosting for as low as $3.96 per month with a three-year contract, a 20% discount is almost always available and the support is excellent.

Why You Must Start with WordPress

We’re adamant on this tool: only WordPress. Forget Blogger, Weebly and all the other free amateur platforms if you want people to take your blog seriously. WordPress has become the industry standard.
Most large web hosts already have WordPress available for installation from within your hosting account. But you can do it yourself by downloading it from http://wordpress.org/. It’s customizable to support a range of functions as your blog grows and you can set up a good-looking blog without knowing how to code.

How to Get a Great WordPress Design for Your Blog

WordPress provides the behind-the-scenes guts of your blog. A “theme” provides the template and design. You can pay a web designer or you can buy a customizable WordPress theme. A lot of graphic designers will get angry at us for saying this, but don’t spend money for graphic design at this point. As you will see in a minute, premium WordPress themes can be very attractive by themselves and have robust code, making them more than enough for your beginning needs.
While you can get your blog started on the built-in WordPress theme, your blog will immediately look more professional with a premium theme. We don’t recommend you use a free theme. The differences between free and premium themes are in the backend: While both may look good to visitors, free themes don’t come with a technical support desk and are almost always ignored by their developers when they move onto other projects, leaving you with an outdated theme that will become more vulnerable to hackers and more prone to break over time.
Premium themes are updated regularly to keep pace with WordPress upgrades and new trends. Plus, they maintain support desks that will help you with setup, problems, customization, upgrades and maintenance.
We use themes from ElegantThemes for several sites. It doesn’t take much effort to customize an Elegant theme. For $39 a year you have access to all 86 themes plus customer support. Developer pricing and a lifetime one-time fee are available.
StudioPress is the leader in premium WordPress themes. Built on the Genesis WordPress platform, StudioPress is used by many top social media bloggers. Although pricier than Elegant Themes, you can buy Genesis plus an individual theme or the entire theme package.

A Basic Set of WordPress Plugins

With plugins, more is not always better and in fact more can slow your site down or cause code conflicts. You only need a few basic plugins to add enhanced functionality for social media sharing, email capture, analytics and site performance.
Social sharing: Dozens of social sharing plugins are available for WordPress. We like the free Digg Digg plugin because it floats on the side of the screen and follows the reader up or down the page as they read, so it’s always visible.
Popups: We didn’t like the aggressive way popup boxes take the reader’s screen hostage, so we designed a better one – Unpop, a polite popup that slides up the screen, doesn’t annoy the reader and goes away when your reader tells it to. You can use it to get email subscribers, likes for your Facebook page and register readers for a webinar. Try it for 30 days free at GetUnpop.
Analytics: Be sure to get some form of tracking or analytics code on your blog from the start. Google Analytics is free and easy to install. Later as your traffic increases you may want to invest in a paid analytics program but for the short- and mid-term Google Analytics will provide enough data to make your head spin.
Site performance: We recommend installing WPSuperCache to maximize the speed at which your blog’s pages load for a visitor. Consider it fine-tuning for your blog’s engine; knowing the technical details at this point won’t make you a better blogger but your blog won’t annoy your visitors.
SEO: The degree of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) you need to implement generates intense debate among bloggers. For beginners, we say forget about it. Seriously. Other than creating the very basic metadata so your posts show up correctly in a Google search, your time is better spent writing great content and promoting it.
Many WordPress themes, like StudioPress, have SEO built in that makes the basic set up quick and painless. Don’t overthink this part.

Where to Find Images and Photos

Everyone has their favorite stock photo site, and ours is Bigstockphoto. The prices are inexpensive for small photos, which are the right size and resolution for blog post images. Searching for appropriate images to illustrate a blog post can become a huge time suck, so limit yourself to one or two stock sites.

How to Establish an Email List

Building your email list should be your primary focus as a blogger from the day you start. Relying on RSS or other email collection programs to maintain your list is foolish. You should aim to collect emails from Day One, or earlier.
We recommend you start with the free version of MailChimp. It has a clean, easy-to-use dashboard and you can not only create multiple lists but also create segments of lists as well. One key thing you can’t do with the free version is create a series of autoresponder emails that will be sent out automatically when a visitor signs up to your list.
You’ll need to upgrade to either a paid MailChimp account or another paid email marketing provider when your blog reaches the point where you’re offering a free email class that requires an autoresponder.

The Minimalist Blogger

Social Media Listening Tools

Feedly is a free replacement for Google Reader that you can use for tracking posts from the blogs you’re following in your niche. Set it up with folders by topic or by size or by influence, whatever works best for you.
The free version of Hootsuite is more than enough at this stage to monitor different social media networks in one place as you follow the top bloggers and cool kids in your niche.

Add Custom Email Sign Up Boxes

The free version of MailChimp will still be adequate at this point. As you begin guest posting, you might consider a premium plugin like Optin Skin to add custom email sign up boxes for the readers who visit your site.

The Serious and Committed Blogger

Upgrade Your Email Provider to Create a Free Email Course

You are probably ready to develop a simple email autoresponder course on your topic. For that, you’ll need to upgrade from the free MailChimp account to either a paid MailChimp account or one of those listed below. All of these email providers provide pretty much the same service and are competitively priced. Pick the one you like the best or find easiest to use during a free trial period.

• MailChimp, paid version
• Aweber
• ConstantContact
• GetResponse
• MadMimi

Develop an Audio Course as Your First Product

Now that you’ve whetted your subscribers’ appetites with your free email course, offer an audio course for your first paid product. It’s quick to produce, technically easier to manage and one of the best ways to gauge if you’re hitting the target without a lot of time invested in production. InstantTeleseminar is the most reliable provider we’ve found. It records automatically and customers can join your teleconference calls via phone, Skype or the Internet.

Add a Shopping Cart

You’re wise to keep it simple at this point, until you have multiple products or build an affiliate network. Your best choices are PayPal, eJunkie and Clickbank. Each provides a slightly different set of features, so compare them to find your best fit.

Add Landing Pages to Your Blog

Offering products or requiring registration for classes, teleconference calls or webinars requires separate landing pages to make the experience seamless for your customers. We recommend OptimizePress for building simple landing pages.

Schedule Social Media Sharing

You should know by now where your peeps hang out on social media, so use a free Buffer account to schedule links to useful and relevant content from other bloggers, quotes, tips and links to your guest posts and blog posts.

Tweak Your WordPress Theme

As you build a reader and subscriber base and tweak your blog angle, you may find your theme doesn’t have the look or features you need. Rather than paying big bucks to have someone design a brand new theme, which can create unwanted technical problems while you’re beginning to make money, search out freelance web designers on Odesk or 99Designs for customizing your current theme.
You can find a lot of talent on Odesk if you take the time to search carefully, using the competency scores and feedback from previous clients as gauges. 99Designs uses a contest model rather than a fee per hour model. You determine what you’re willing to pay and the design requirements. Designers who are interested respond with samples for you to choose from and you choose the winner.

Optimize Your Blog for SEO

You should have gained enough traffic, page views and links for Google to notice your blog consistently by now. We recommend the Yoast SEO plugin to optimize the content on your site.

Back Up Your Site

Don’t tempt fate. Install a backup plugin. We use BackWPup and back up to our server, but you can back up to a DropBox or Amazon S3 account automatically.

The Entrepreneur Blogger

Upgrade Your Webhosting

As your traffic grows you’ll want to upgrade your plan and may consider moving to your own server, which you can do with HostGator or web hosts dedicated to blogging and WordPress, such as WPEngine and Synthesis at Copyblogger Media. Both are expensive, but the peace of mind and higher-level customer support for a large site that hosts your business, community and products are worth it.

Upgrade Your Site Protection

As your blog gains traffic and becomes known, expect the hack attacks. It’s not pretty and can destroy overnight the goodwill you earned with your readers and subscribers. Sucuri cleaned up the nasties when BBT was hacked last year, and continues to keep them at bay. It’s expensive, but not as expensive as losing hundreds of subscribers it took months to win over.

Choose Email Marketing and Shopping Carts Based on Sales

Your growing traffic, subscriber and customer base demand closer attention and more integration. You have several choices.
Under $10,000 in sales
Expect to outgrow PayPal, eJunkie or Clickbank soon and begin researching other options.
Up to $30,000 in sales
Open a business bank account if you haven’t already. Most accountants and bookkeepers would probably advise you to do it earlier.
Over $30,000 in sales
Open a merchant account either through PowerPay or get a Stripe account, an alternative to a merchant account. You will need either one to have a credit card processor.
Up to $100,000 in sales
Keep your paid email marketing provider and add a shopping cart: We recommend UltraCart. It offers the complete range of shopping cart services, such as order pages and affiliate management, and integrates with all the leading email providers.
Over $100,000 in sales
Upgrade to an integrated email, shopping cart and customer relationship management (CRM) system such as Ontraport (formerly OAP). The difference with an integrated provider is automation – many of the email, list segmentation and billing functions can be automated and integrated with the contact profile. You can also track and group clients and contacts in different ways.

Landing Pages

LeadPages offers dozens of slick page designs for sales, event registration and other types of landing pages plus easy split testing. It’s easy to set up and customize.

Tweak Your Web and Graphic Design

Your blog-based business has finally reached a point where it could benefit from a custom design. Use Dribbble and Behance to find a really good designer.

Expand into Video and Audio Tools

We continually get questions about how Jon creates his videos. The short answer – he’s a geek. The longer answer includes PowerPoint. Seriously. Jon uses advanced PowerPoint animation techniques you can learn from Slideology. He does a screen recording of the presentation in PowerPoint, then imports it into Camtasia, where he records the slideshow with audio, and then renders it as an MP4. On a Mac, you can use the same animation with Keynote and ScreenFlow.
If you like the slides in our webinars, we get the templates from Graphic River.
If you don’t have that much geekiness, you can find a video producer on ODesk or Elance that knows advanced presentation techniques.

Consider Adding a Membership Site

After you’ve grown a substantial list, it may be time to open the doors to a private membership site to offer exclusive products and information. You need several elements to create that private community.
Wishlist Member is our choice for managing your membership. It integrates seamlessly with WordPress and the expanding list of plugins allow you to customize your members’ experience. It’s a bit more expensive than other options, but versatile.
Most membership sites offer a forum for members to interact. We use Simple:Press in the GuestBlogging Apprenticeship Program, which is a large and active forum. The plugin is still free but the excellent customer support is now fee-based.

Consider Offering Webinars

Up to $100,000 in sales
If you’re hosting small or infrequent webinars, try Meeting Burner or Any Meeting.
Over $100,000 in sales
Consider a subscription to GoToWebinar. The most expensive option, it’s the most reliable despite its occasional glitches.

Take a Look at In-depth Analytics

Up to $100,000 in sales
Tools like CrazyEgg or VisualWebsiteOptimizer make sense for tracking visitor behavior on your landing pages (but not your entire blog). Moz or Raven Tools are also helpful for tracking your traffic from search engines and social media.
Over $100,000 in sales
You have several ultra-sophisticated, pricey options for data-tracking and analysis: Look at Kissmetrics, MixPanel. You’ll probably need a developer to set up these tools and handle campaigns. At this stage, small tweaks in conversion can equal significant gains, so don’t get lost in analysis paralysis.

Advanced Social Media Tactics

Because your social media following has likely reached a critical mass that now grows organically, reaching out to individual influencers in your niche is a more profitable use of your time. A tool like BuzzStream efficiently helps you search and track your interactions with bloggers, journalists and other people you want to keep your eye on.

Advanced Email Marketing Tactics

Customer IO, which sends emails triggered by user behavior, can help you refine your customer marketing and engagement and increase conversions.

Scalable Affiliate Software

Depending on your particular product mix, you may need to compare affiliate services. IDevAffiliate is popular and robust affiliate tracking software that will scale as you grow.

We’re not finished yet…

This resource guide will evolve, as our business grows, as we require different tools and as new tools are introduced. We’ll add a tab at the top of the blog so you can find this guide easily when you come back, and we will keep you posted on the changes.

…and neither are you!

Wherever you’re at with your blog, you now have the all tools you need to take it to the next level. We’ve done the research and explored all the dead ends – so you don’t have to. Whether you have 10 hours, 20 hours, or 60+ hours a week to work on your blog, using the right tools will help you fully exploit the time you have.
So let’s “tool up” and get your blog ready for prime time.
If you have a question regarding a particular tool, post it in the comments below. We’ll do our best to help you.