10 Awesome Things to Make Your Blog Rock!

by Matt Langford

The world of blogging has been flooded with resources over the past few years. There are many self-proclaimed ‘experts’ that have no portfolio, limited experience, and horrible blogs.

Part of becoming successful in the blogging world is being able to filter through the mess to find the gems that do exist. No matter how successful your blog is or eventually will become, there is no doubt that you’ll have to learn from others on a daily basis. Whether you choose to lean on Darren Rowse or take a more creative approach, you WILL have problems arise.

The following is a list of 10 Mostly New Things that will help you speed up the learning process and ultimately Make Your Blog Rock! Check out this mixture of tools, reading material, design and seo themes, and other resources.

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www.dougjack.net

Doug said, in his poetic way and I quote: “It all is so Wonderful my friend, you take this amazing work of art you have created and hang it,…ANYWHERE..ANYWAY.on Any WALL THE UNIVERSE WILL LET YOU. I am completely fulfilled and in awe of your compassion and passion for your work sir.”

Thanks, Doug. I am likewise in awe of you and your work and it is a real pleasure working with you. The facebook fan page we are working on is also coming along nicely.

Why does Google love blogs? Because they are based on sound and solid html coding and standard platforms such as Blogger and WordPress. And because they tend to be updated often, Google considers them fresh content. When you post daily or weekly, you are training Google to return often and update your site in their index. Traditional static websites can take weeks or months to be updated but a blog post can show up in Google in a matter of hours.

Blogs (short for “Weblogs”) are also a BIG part of what is called Web 2.0. Gone are the days of static “brochure ware” websites that just sit there with the same tired old sales copy. Web 2.0 ushers in a new world of interactivity between the site and the user: Leave your blog comment, upload your YouTube video, submit your Facebook profile. These are ways the web has evolved and I predict that within a few years ALL websites will be blog based sites, or at least interactive in the way of blogs. If you leave a comment below you have engaged in the Web 2.0 aspects of the “blogoshere”. And I have a easy way of learning what my readers are thinking, and what their concerns and needs are.

Also true of Blogs and other Web 2.0 properties such as Squidoo and Hubpages is that a non-technical user can easily update their own content without knowledge of html or web design. This is a tremendous advantage over older static sites that required you to ask and pay your webmaster to make every little update to the site.

WordPress is by far the most flexible, powerful and customizable of the blog platforms and is totally free. There are 100’s of high quality “themes” or templates available and 100’s of brilliant plug-ins to provide all sorts of functions – all freely available through the Word Press community. For example, here’s a site I created recently based on the Word Press platform that contains a simple plug-in that allows users to review and rate their favorite weight loss program. See Weight Loss Product Reviews

Another creative use of WordPress is my latest site that allows visitors to purchase a beautiful gift bag that is designed to be given to and inspire a perfect stranger. The blog uses the comment function to request comments and stories from the givers of the bags as well as the receivers. See The Global Gift.

Another advantage of blogs is that they are generally less expensive to produce when you use and customize a standard theme. All my blogs listed below use freely available themes and are customized with appropriate branding for each site. Instead of $1000 on up for a standard site, a simple blog site can be set up for $500 on up, depending on level of complexity. I am also including for new clients a set of powerful SEO plugins for Word Press that will help get your pages indexed and ranking on the search engines. I will include some basic training as well in most effective use of this powerful tool.

See below for recent blog projects completed or in progress. Of course, the site you are viewing now is a recent blog as I just converted it over (finally) from a static site format. If you notice some common elements among my blogs, it is because I tend to like a handful of themes that I customize as needed.

Please contact me for a free evaluation of your needs regarding business blogging, SEO, information product creation and marketing, or sales process optimization for higher conversions. Happy Blogging!

Recent blog projects

• All-One Vitamin Blog (add-on to existing site for high quality vitamins)
• Nutiva Blog (add-on blog site supporting hemp based nutritional products)
• Work Pain Free (my own Ergonomic training for computer users – try it free)
• In Alignment Coaching ( For Life Coach Marilyn O’Malley)
• Allen Gold (a personal blog)
• The Life of My Dog (eBook sales site, partnered with my brother David)
• Zero To a Million in a Year (my own personal project to make my first $Million)
• Hub Heaven (an intro to Humanity Unites Brilliance)
• The Global Gift (using the blog comments to collect user feedback)
  
• Weight Loss Product Reviews (using a custom blog plug-in to get user ratings)