Image by comicbase via FlickrAfter seeing the title of this post you may have said-"Ah!!! the age old discussion on posting frequency once again." But I thought I should write about it as the discussion is still hot and almost all discussions on this topic has been inconclusive.I have seen many posts on posting frequency and found most of the bloggers leave you in a mesh between posting daily and 3-4 times a week.


There are a couple of school of thoughts on the posting frequency-

1. Post 3-4 times a week.
2. Post daily

Before I give my thoughts on the two ,I would like to discuss the pros and cons of the two-


Pros and cons of posting 3-4 times a week-

I have been posting on this blog more or less with this frequency and I am better acquainted with the pluses and minuses of posting with this frequency.Let us take the pros first.

Well the plus with this is you are able to give more attention to your post.As a blogger the quality of content you write depends upon the time you give to your post and not on your writing skills.The biggest advantage thus, is ,you are able to produce quality content.

Secondly, your blog is free from the filler posts that people often post to cope up with the pressure of posting daily.

Thirdly,it doesn't takes away the charm and fun of blogging.You can't blog if you are living with constant insistence of posting daily.It will take away the fun and fascination of blogging.Your unwillingness will be mirrored in your posts and you will loose credibility.


Now let us talk about the cons of posting 3-4 times daily.One of my observations for past few months has been-
1)I get some subscribers when I post and I loose a few of them when i didn't post for next 2-3 days.
2)My blog ranks better in search engine rankings when I post and I loose the ranking when I am postless for next few days.

A visitor on your blog subscribes because he is crazy about the information or topic that you deliver through your posts.Since he is crazy about the topic he likes to be fed daily.Once you disappoint him he unsubscribes.Thus, the blog subscribership suffers.In my opinion , you can still build a subscribership with this rate but the growth rate would be low and thus, it will take long time to build huge readership.

Search engines like regularly updated contents on blogs and one of the determinants in ranking a blog is the update frequency.So, with this posting frequency you loose ranks in SERPs specially if you have a competitor who blogs daily.


Pros and Cons of posting daily-

Let us kick off to the pros first.Most of the bloggers advice to write daily.The reasons they give in support of this are-

• Posting daily ensures you feed your subscribers daily and thus, satisfy them and also increase their numbers.
• Daily posting schedule wins the love of search engines as search engines in general and google in particular love frequently updated blogs.
• By writing daily you are able to increase the numbers of posts with good pace and more number of posts affect your pagerank in positive way.
• You improve your writing skills as the most important tip to become a great blog writer is to post daily.

The cons of writing daily are-

• The quality of content is affected.
• You are not able to give more time on your posts.
• Your blog may become a clutter of filler posts.
• Most importantly the zest of blogging is lost as you have a constant pressure of blogging daily.
  

So, after telling so much about the posting frequency, I feel, you are baffled and going to ask me one simple question-

What should be the posting frequency on my blog?

Well, I am not the one who can answer this question for you as the answer differs for different blogs and different blogger.But certainly I can help you in answering this question.Your decision on blogging frequency should be driven by asking certain question to yourself-

1. What your blog is about?- A blog which delivers news on it will certainly have a high posting frequency and a blog that covers very small niche will have a smaller frequency.
2. Have you got an idea or you are posting just to meet the demand of posting?-I have seen bloggers posting short posts just because they have to post.The result is they produce a low quality content having no value and make their blog a directory of filler posts.
3. Have you worked sufficiently on the post or you are posting it when it is still raw?- One of the things I have noticed on many blogs is ,they produce uncrafted content.The imperfection comes out because they haven't worked on the post and they believe they should post daily.

My final opinion on posting frequency-

In my opinion posting frequency doesn't matter if it is not too low or too high.
What actually matters is the quality of content.If you can produce quality content everyday it is good but if you can't it is fine to have a lesser frequency of 3-4 posts a week.Give the time your post deserves and never post fillers on your blog.

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As a blogger much of your success depends upon quality of your content. You will be appreciated if you are writing original and quality content otherwise you will fail miserably.This is the reason why content is called king.In this post I will talk about ten powerful tips to generate awesome content on your blog.

I will not preach about making things scannable or making your significant point bold or other stuff that is widely discoursed in every blogging guide.Instead I will talk of some slap-up points to make your content better.


1) Recognize your audience-

Just ask yourself, Who your audience will be? Or, for whom you are writing? Whether you are writing for newbies or intermediates or savvys .Plan your content once you answer this question.


2) Use colourful verbs in place of tired overused verbs-

Verbs are like condiments. Just like condiments add flavour to food, verbs flavour the content.And once you flavour your content blog visitors will relish it.Let us take an example- Take a look at following sentences-

"The whole SEO is such complex that sometimes I get confused."

"I am perplexed due to intricate nature of SEO."

Both these sentences mean the same thing but in later case the verb 'confused' (no doubt an overused verb) has been replaced by more attractive verb 'perplexed'. Also, see the word 'complex' has been replaced by more appealing word 'intricate'.

Where can I get colourful verbs from?

Now this is a question which needs to be answered. Well just download a thesaurus from internet.They are available for free , just google it and get it. Thesauruses contain list of synonyms.What you have to do is to identify overused verbs and replace them with vibrant synonymous verbs.


3) Use active voice rather than passive voice-

The benefits of using active voice is that subject comes first and some worthless words are chopped off.Take an example-

"John killed Michael" (active voice)

"Michael was killed by john" (passive voice)

In this example, the subject 'John' comes first and and useless words 'was' and 'by' were cut-off by using active voice.


4) Write 'you' centred content and not 'I' centred-

Although it is not possible to use 'you' focussed content everytime but use it most of the times in your content.You focussed content makes your discussion personal with your blog readers.

Example of 'I' focused sentence- "I will provide you with latest information about blogging on this blog."

Example of 'you' focused sentence- "You will get latest information about blogging on this blog."
Now just judge which statement looks better to you.


5) Don't write useless sentences and words-

I have seen some bloggers talking about their pets, or girlfriend or running nose on their blog.Don't do this.These things doesn't matters to your visitors.Visitors come to any blog in search of information and not to know about your running nose.

Your every sentence should either be an information or an elaboration of an information.


6) Don't preach, demonstrate-

Preaching is like muttering a confounding theory without proofs of whether it will work or not.While demonstration is backed by some solid facts ,citations or images. Evidencing your facts makes you much trustworthy.So, make your points backed by some solid facts, citations and images from trustworthy sources.


7) Be personal while interacting through your content-

Write as if you are talking to your readers.Think how would you have talked with your friend on a particular topic? Use the same sentences as you have used while conversation with your friend.(often with some refinement)


8) Break longer sentences into two-

Longer sentences look clumsy and are often hard to understand. So, break longer sentences into two easily digestible sentences.


9) Be simple and clear-

If you close your eyes, can you visualize the idea behind every sentence? Is every sentence as tangible and concrete as possible? If you can’t wrap your arms around your message, neither can your readers. Rework sentences to ensure they’re clear and concrete.

If you’re struggling to explain a technical or abstract concept, grab a pencil and sketch it. This exercise forces you to simplify and distill your idea and may spark helpful ways to present the concept to your readers.


10) Be a ruthless editor-

Writers often fall in love with their own words.But be ruthless with your words.Cut words, sentences and even an entire paragraph if they are not needed or otherwise not in good shape.Sometimes you may have to delete your entire post and start afresh. But if you are not satisfied with your own writing your readers will not be either.So, just cut cut and cut untill you are satisfied.

Check for grammatical and spelling mistakes. Nothing hurts you more than a bunch of grammatical and spelling mistakes.So, be in the hunt of mistakes while editing your content.



Writing better content for blogs is a time consuming process and needs a lot of motivation. But once you are able to keep spirits up you can be a better writer of blogs. Earlier it takes much time to write a content but as you go on writing the process will become a bit easier and less time taking.

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One thing that can make you a distinguished blogger is your content. Look out in the blogosphere and you will find that every successful blogger generates high quality content consistently. Because it is content which builds enormous links , it is content that brings lots of traffic to your blog and, it is content and only content which skyrockets your blog readership .In short content is vital for your success as blogger.This is the reason why content is regarded as king.

Creating high quality content is a skill not every one knows. If you are a kind of blogger who is quite serious to generate rockstar content for your blog then this post was specially written for you. Before I start I would like to tell you that creating content requires a lot of motivation and work on your part. But if you are a serious blogger this doesn’t pose any problem for you.

To generate a blogpost of high value a blogger need to follow five points. These five points are-

1) Find topics people are interested in.

2) Research on topics people are interested.

3) Organize the points you have found during researching.

4) Write a very attractive title or headline.

5) Take care during writing content body..

Now I will take each of these points one by one and tell the things in great detail.Let us take the first point here.

Find topics people are interested in-

It is vital to choose a topic in which people are interested. Much of your success as a blogger depends on the people who read you. If they like you and your content, you are successful if they don't you are a failure.This is why a blogger has to respect the interests of the communities. But the question is how one could know what people are interested in? Here I will tell you some ways to get an idea about likes and dislikes of the readers.

1) Through polls- Polls are a very good media to get an idea about the likes and dislikes of people. Just run a poll on your blog and see what people seek from you. If you don’t have good amount of traffic on your blog then results of polls can sometimes be misleading. In such case take a look on the other blogs (with high readership) of same niche and see the poll stats of those blogs.

2)Through forums- Forum is site where people discuss their issues ,problems ,and questions and other members answer the questions.Forums are great place to see what people are interested in.Just look what questions are most frequently asked and the answers of those questions can be one of your posts.

As a blogger you must respect the likes of your audience or you run the risk of being neglected.

Research on the topic people are interested

Once you know the the topic/s of interest your next job is to research the topic. Just try to increase your knowledge base as much as you can. Note down any point which you would like to mention in your post. Forums are again great site to get some content for your blog. You can get some exciting ideas and points from forums. Read some other blogs , websites , journals and books to make your research perfect.

Organize the points you have found during researching

You get a very big list of points while researching the topic. Now the next job is to organize the points. Just rate the points according to importance or sequence (in which points should come) or any other criteria you think will fit best. Organizing the points is often missed by most of the bloggers. Although organizing your point is not that important if you have a short list of points but It would be nice to organize as it makes the task of writing a bit easier.

Write a very attractive title or headline

Although the title contains only a few words but it is the most important part of your content and so, a blogger must pay attention and spend some time on the headline of the content. The title or headline is often written in bigger font and in catching colour , so, it is first part that is noticed by the blog visitors. The title should be regarded as the advertising hoarding of your content.

But the question here is- What a title should be like? Well your title should -

1) Tell what your post is about

2) Contain your primary keyword ( For visibility in search engine)

3) Generate curiosity in reader’s or blog visitor’s mind (Most important)

Just ask yourself how you would describe your post if you have to do it in a sentence or a few words. The sentence you make can be your title often after some refinement. Similarly, incorporating your primary keyword in the title is quite easy to do.But what actually is tough ask is , generating curiosity in reader’s mind. I have some tips to do this although I am not sure if these will work every time.

Well there are variety of bloggers doing variety of things to make the title more intriguing. Many bloggers including me use words like ‘How to’ , ‘Tips’ and ‘Tutorial’ to make title more attractive. Others use the technique of shock, confusion and sometimes big claims. But sometimes these techniques bounce back on you when you don’t live upto the expectations.

Many times I use the actual question asked in some forum or a blog as my title. I have researched on some of the posts and found that the posts with such titles do better than others. You can see it yourself on your blog.

Take care during writing content body

While writing content take care of following points –

1. Be to the point yet descriptive.

2. Write paragraphs of 3-4 sentences. Long paragraphs can strain readers eyes and so readers on the net don’t like long paragraphs.

3. Write your most important points upfront. Readers spend very little time on one site instead they flick between websites like people flick between channels while watching TV. So, you have just a few seconds to convince the visitors. Keeping important points on top can make use of those few seconds.

4. Don’t copy sentences of other bloggers .If at all you want copy something then copy ideas and relate it in your own unique way. Don’t forget to give credit to the original blogger.

5. Try to write your stuff in a different way. Remember successful person don’t do different things they do the same thing differently. So, try to be different from others. Even if you are presenting the same stuff, present it in some different way as others.

6. Write simple sentences and avoid using jargons. Write for everyone rather than for some handful who can understand hefty language and jargons.

7. Try to throw a joke or two every now and then. This lightens the mood and make reading more enjoyable.

8. Make use of images and graphs wherever needed. Images and graphs help readers understand the topic you are writing on.

9. Be personal and original you while writing the post. Write as if you are talking to your readers. Just imagine how you would talk with your friend while discussing the topic and write the same sentences.

10. One last tip- don’t write when you are angry or frustrated or drunk.

Writing content is an art and only some people are gifted to generate good quality content but of course, if you follow these points you can sharpen the skill of writing on the blog.

If you have something or some point which you would like to discuss ,you are most welcome to discuss it through comments. I will be more than happy to hear from you.

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Image by Getty Images via DaylifeOne of the most important factor which can make you a successful blogger is your content.If you are able to produce quality content and you can do it consistently then there is no reason why you can't become a successful blogger.Furthermore, the quality of your content depends on what you do before writing your post.You select topic , you research and there are much more things you do before writing your post.Here in this post I am going talk about the things you should do before writing your post.



I would suppose that you have already selected a topic to write a post on.If you have not selected your topic ,I would suggest you to take a look at my post on selection of topic.Once you have selected your topic you would prepare yourself to write post.A good preparation involves following steps-

• Visit forums and see what questions people are asking on topic.

• Research and get answers of those questions.

• Organize your findings on the basis of importance.

• Research for keywords

Visit forums and see what questions people are asking on the topic you have selected-

This is important as if you are able to answer the questions which is hovering in other people's mind then there is all likelihood that they will appreciate your work just because you are actually answering their queries through your posts.Secondly, you get an idea about what should be discussed in detail and what should be left.


There is a very easy method of finding forums on your selected post through google search.Just type in "your topic"+ "forum" and you will get a list of forums in which people discuss their issues relating to that topic.


Make a list of questions people have frequently asked in the forums.This will give you a fair idea about what people are interested in.

Research to get answers of questions people have asked in forums-

Once you have a list of most frequently asked questions ,you should start your hunt for getting answers of those questions. Research the topic and get as many material as you can on the topic.Scan through some quality websites or blogs, read books and scholarly articles on the topic and make all efforts to get the answers of the questions you have listed.


Write down any point you would like to mention on a piece of paper or MS word document or a text file.Make a list of points that you would mention in your post.

Organize the points you have found while researching-

Most of the people using net don't read the full post but scan through the post. Furthermore, Things on the top of the post are more often read than on the bottom of the post.So, to make an impression and to bind your visitors with your post you need to keep your most important points on the top of the post.


Organize your points according to importance.But to organize your points you have to identify your important points first.In general, answers to the question most frequently asked are more important.Another good criteria is- little known things are more important than more known and widely discussed points.

Research your keywords-

Researching your keywords is necessary because keywords help people to reach to your posts or blog.There is no meaning of a great content when nobody is able to find it.So,researching your keywords before writing a post will be nice and fruitful thing to do.


Think of keywords or phrases which people might use to find you.Make a list of 10 such keywords or phrases and analyse them for search volume and competition.Then pick 3-5 keywords with high search volume and least competition.This is the basics of keyword research.



Writing a post in a blog is like appearing in examination.If you don't prepare well you are likely to fail.So, you must pay attention on the points I have mentioned above in order to keep your preparation tight.Once you prepare well you are able to create quality content.

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Today I was going through one of the posts on bloggerbuster when one of the posts there drew my attention.The blogpost was about the time of publishing the post.Although I knew that blog posting time does affects traffic to some extent but I have never researched on the topic.


According to the facts and research results written there the best time to publish on a blog is 10 am to 2 pm PST (Pacific standard time). This time correlates with the time when online users are most active in US.


If your visitors come from some other part of the world you can calculate the the best time to publish accordingly.These results are based on a research carried out by Jake Luciani and was done by analyzing about 10,000 entries from social bookmarking sites like Digg, Delicious ,Reddit and Mixx.


While going through the research results I came across an astonishing fact.According to Luciani the worst time to publish your posts is on weekends between 3pm and 5 pm. Earlier most of the bloggers including me were of the opinion of publishing during weekends as less blogs are updated during this time.So, the facts coming out from Luciani's research came as a surprise for me.


But Luciani has supported his point with nice graphs and charts which you can find here.Further details can be found here.

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Why do you blog? Do you blog to promote your business? Do you blog to support a product or a service? Does your blog have a narrow or broad focus?


Some people blog for personal reasons: they blog to promote a cause like the importance of cancer research. Some people blog to promote affiliate programs or to share their knowledge about a topic. Others blog to promote their home business, to differentiate themselves from the competition or to let people know more about the products and services that their company has to offer.


Regardless of why you blog, regardless of whether your blog is focused on one element of one service or around a network of products and services, you'll find that your blog needs one thing in order to be successful: content.


Without regularly updated content, your readers will not have a reason to keep coming back to your blog. Without regularly updated content, your readers won't be learning anything new from your blog. At that point, no matter why you are blogging, you'll start to realize that you are not accomplishing the goals that you set for your blog.


There are plenty of companies that will tell you what to do to find blog content. They will tell you that, in order to have a successful blog, all you need to do is visit article directories and repost content that's relevant to your blog. The problem is that, when you do this, you're still not offering your readers anything new.


The next group will tell you that, rather than visiting article directories you should look into purchasing private label rights for content. Private label rights content can be eBooks or articles that can be broken down, sold, relabeled with your name or title or that can be rewritten: when you buy the rights, you can use the information.


In theory, private label rights content is only a good investment if you purchase it as a framework, an inspiration for creating something new. Many people however, use the private label rights content as it is. They too, however, do not offer readers of their blogs anything new.


Even if everyone rewrote the content in the PLR articles they purchased, it would still not be original content. Think about it. 100 people buy the same article and each rewrites it a little. Do you think that each of the 100 articles will be significantly different from the others?


Plus, when your readers find only the same information they find elsewhere, you'll quickly find that they don't keep coming back to your blog. The only way to hang onto your readers is to offer them fresh relevant content. In order to provide the fresh relevant content that your readers are looking for, you have two options: write the content yourself or hire someone who will be able to write it for you.



While blogging enables everyone to be a writer, there will be times when you find yourself at a loss for words or too busy to contribute to your own blog. These are the times when you will benefit the most from having a content writer. Your content writer can create articles of the length you specify, using your topics and keywords and provide you with content that is yours and yours alone.



If you're looking for fresh content on a regular basis, there is an additional option. Rather than hiring a content writer to provide an article or series of articles, you could hire a blog content provider who will manage your blog, optimize it for search engines and readers and create fresh content daily.


The right blog content provider can work with you to create a blog that meets or exceeds all of your goals whether you're writing to promote a cause or a business. With fresh, relevant content each and every day, your blog's readers will have a reason to come back again and again.

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Today, the internet is overflowing with content and there is a growing demand for articles on just about any topic ranging from cosmetics to construction material. However, not everyone can write a good flowing article and people often hire out freelance writers to write articles for them. This is probably why Article Writing in itself has become a fast growing profession that more and more people are taking to for earning a real income.

Here are 5 tips on how to write a great blog post:

1. Attention Grabbing Headline/ Title

It does not matter how well written your article is unless you have an eye-catching headline. Most of the time, when people are looking for information on the Internet, they tend to click on the catchy or inviting headlines instead of the boring and the mundane topic names.


2. Simplify Your Words

It is also important to remember that people who surf the internet come from various backgrounds and are usually looking for some information or the other. So in order to reach out to a wider base of readers, you must try to use simple words that are easy for everyone to read and understand rather than use big words that would confuse readers. Also, when catering to a wider audience, it is important to stay away from technical terms. For example PLR Articles maybe a common term for an Internet Marketer, but it is something that an accountant will know nothing about.


3. Use Short Sentences and Paragraphs

When surfing the web, the attention span of most people is reduced to 9 seconds, equivalent to that of a goldfish. In other words, people tend to be a lot more impatient when reading from a screen as compared to reading from a book. This is why it is important to keep your sentences and paragraph short, simple and to the point. Another way to keep your readers attention would be to use a lot of bulleted points.


4. Make Your Article Conversational

The best way to make your article likable is to break the ice with your readers by using conversational language. To put it simply, try to use the sort of language you are likely to use on an everyday basis. This should make your article feel more personable and your readers will take personal interest in your article because they feel you are talking directly to them.



5. Infuse Your Personality Into The Article

When writing an article, try to inject some of your personality into it as well. For instance, you could mention if you had any personal experience related to the article or if you particularly like something related to your content. You may even slip in a light joke or two to entertain the reader as long as it is funny and goes in sync with your article. Whatever you do, the basic idea is to let the reader know that there is an actual human person who has written the article. Doing so will eventually lead to forge a relationship with your prospects.



To conclude, there are always different approaches to different cases and though you may be able to use all the above mentioned tips in some cases, you can only use one or two of the techniques in most cases. And I am sure you will learn more about how to write a good article as you go along.

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As a blogger you might have faced the problem of not getting ideas to blog on every now and then. This is specially true if you are around for more than an year or your blog covers a small niche.Although the definitive solution to this problem would be to plan your blogging beforehand and to choose a bigger niche on which you can blog indefinitely but if you get this problem even after planning and good niche choice then this blog entry is written for you.


First of all I must say that don't panic when you have nothing to write or talk about on your blog.This is quite normal phenomenon and occurs with every single blogger sometime during their blogging career.


OK now I will talk about the tips any blogger should follow if he/ she runout of ideas to write a blogpost.


Read your own blogposts you have written months before -

There are very few bloggers who look back to their own posts. Think yourself , how many times you have read your own posts published months back ? Although this will take sometime but this can be fruitful to extract ideas to blog. Once you read out your own post , you get some points you have missed or some updates about the post.

The missed points or updates you notice can be the theme of one of your blog articles.Apart from getting ideas to blog , reading your own post gives you some opportunity to internally link your newer posts with the older ones.


Take a look into the forums and see what questions people are asking -

Forums are very very useful for bloggers as you are able to know what questions are irking people and if you are able to answer them through your blog your work will be appreciated.Just make a list of questions people have asked in forums.

After making a list of questions , see what questions has been answered through one of the blogposts and what questions has not been answered. The questions which has not been answered becomes one of the potential blogpost of your blog.


Read out other blogs of your niche

Many a times I have found ideas for blogging through one fo the posts of other bloggers of same niche as mine. The moment you get something interesting you may write the point on your blog with your own opinion the subject. Here I must say that you must copy the ideas not the word and opinion of other blogger. Be yourself while expressing thoughts on a particular subject.


Have a look at quality article directories

Sometimes I do take a look at some article directories and while browsing through the articles actually I discover some udeas to blog on.This works quite fine for me and I think it will also work for you. The plus point of article directories is that you get multiple articles on multiple subjects which are written by many authors all with their own style.

I would like to emphasize here that don't copy articles from article directories instead write yourself it is good not only for search engine optimization but also for long term success as a blogger.



In short , ideas are there scattered all over place no matter from where you tke it from but always think of ideas or subjects in which people are interested and be original yourself.I would once again repeat one of the things i have said earlier that planning and niche choice will help you not getting burnt out but once you do runout of topics you must take a look around yourself, I am sure something will click in to your mind.

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In one of my earlier post I have talked about -Things to do BEFORE writing a blog post. I have said that writing on a blog is like appearing in examination.Things you do before writing is your preparation.Now let us suppose you have a very great preparation but the question here is- Does that great preparation guaratee that you will score good marks in exam ??


Not exactly.Preparing before appearing in examination is great thing to do but marks scored in exam depends on how you have expressed yourself during writing exam .Similarly , researching before writing blog post is nice thing to do but quality of your content depends on how you have expressed your opinion and findings in the post.


For purpose of understanding , I will classify a post into two parts-

• Things appearing above fold-
  

This is the part of your content which is visible without scrolling.This is the most important part of your content as visitors decide whether they should scroll down or not on the basis of quality of this part.Generally this part contains-Title and the first paragraph of the post.

• Things below fold

This is the part which is visible only after blog visitors scroll down.This part contains all information of your post and your last paragraph.



Make full use of two seconds-

According to one of the surveys , people using stumble upon just give 2 seconds on a site before switching to other site.So,you have just 2 seconds to convince your visitors that you have a good content.This act of convincing can be done through your title.An attractive title can make people to pause and see your content.


So, while writing your blogpost you must pay a particular attention to the title of the post. Title is like advertising hoarding of your post because it is above the fold, it is the first thing that people notice and it is written in bigger font than rest of your article.


Another tactics to make full use of those two seconds is placing an image at the top, just left to the first paragraph.Images speak better than words. An interesting image can draw attention of the visitors and so you must consider placing a small image at the top of your post.



Channelise your visitors -


Once you are able to write a good title you will be able to channelise your visitors to first paragraph.Once you write good first paragraph you are able to channelise your visitor to rest of your article.


My point here is make the full use of the thing that appears above the fold.If you are able to generate curiosity in the readers mind then there is every possibility that they will read whole of your article or post.



Things to consider during writing rest of your post-


The thing below the fold contains the information that you want to deliver to your audience or visitor. There are many techniques bloggers apply to make their content read.I have always said that people don't read on net instead they scan through the content.They want to get or scan important points quickly.


So,while writing your content make sure that your content is scannable.There are many ways one can make an article scannable. I am listing some of the ways to make your post scannable-

• Write short paragraphs of 3-4 sentences.

• Use bold , italic, bigger fonts or different font colour to emphasize your important point.
  

• Use images to make your point understandable even to dummies.

• Make use of unordered or ordered list to list your points.

These are a few things to make your post scannable.


Let's sum up the things :-

1. Write an attractive title.
2. Use your first paragraph to generate curiosity.
3. Make your post scannable.

Make sure if your post is fulfilling these criteria before publishing your post.


Happy posting !!!

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I first came to know about writing softwares through an email in my spam box containing details of a software , Instant article wizard.That email contained many tempting reasons to use the software.



To be honest, I was tempted to use the software to write my posts.I was fascinated with the thought of generating many hundreds articles without virtually raising my finger.You might also have been tempted to buy those softwares.But control your temptation right now and read this post before you proceed to buy it.



Let us continue with my story.So, I was tempted to buy that writing software but I decided to try some free writing software first before buying .I made a search in google for free writing software and found one.I just downloaded the software and and was ready to try it.I tried to generate an article on " keyword research" using that free software.



While trying that free software ,I found some really good points that make human mind different from any software.I am sharing those points below-

• While writing on blogs you have to organize your writing.You have to make sure that your most important points come first followed by next important and so on.Organizing an article or a post is something which only human minds can do.A software can't differentiate between more important and less important points.

• While writing a post you try to create humour in order to make reading less tiring and more interesting.Every successful blogger will tell you to make your writing interesting by throwing away a joke or two.A writing software can't create humour while a human mind can do so.

• To be a successful blogger you have to optimize your each and every page and post.For this you use your keywords cleverly in such a way that the article is friendly to both human beings and search engines.A writing software creates an article stuffed with keywords ,i.e., a software writes for another software (search engine spiders) while a human mind writes for both human and robots.

These are a few points that differentiates human mind from writing software.


My advice here is, never use writing softwares to build content for your blog as it will not help you to succeed as a blogger.Just rely on your mind to create content because your mind can create a masterpiece but writing softwares can not.

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Before I started blogging , I was in search of a topic in which I get many audiences to listen to my opinions.As a blogger every one want to succeed and to succeed you need a decent amount of visitors or audience.


I was quite serious to start a blog.But before starting a blog, I decided to increase my knowledgebase on blogging.So, I started to learn about blogging on the net.The more I learnt the more interested I became in blogging.


Gradually , blogging became my favourite topic.



In those days I was going through an article on technorati.com.One of the line written on that article prompted me to blog about blogging.That line was-

"Currently tracking 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media. "

I found that there are millions of audiences right there if I start to blog about blogging.


But that was not the only reason to start a blog on blogging.Again, there was another sentence on some website which made me extremely tempted to start a blog on blog.That sentence was-

"99% of the bloggers fail due to one reason or
other"

Perhaps this sentence has made me more tempted to start a blog on blogging.Since most of the bloggers fail, so, I thought ,if I am able to give some useful and valuable suggestions to the bloggers then I can really build a vast number of audience to listen to me.

At last ,I found three really good reasons to start a blog on blogging.Those three good reasons were-

1. I was interested in the topic.
2. There were and are large number of people who are interested in the topic.
3. I had learnt much about the topic and was quite ready to deliver suggestions to the interested persons.

The reason why I am telling you this story is that,as a blogger you must choose your topic carefully to get sccess.Before jumping to a topic you must ask three questions to yourself-

1. Are you interested in the topic on which you are planning to blog?
2. Are there decent amount of audiences to listen to you?
3. Have you got good knowledge base on the topic on which you are blogging?

Switch to a topic only when your answer to all these three questions is "yes".

This way you can really choose a good topic to blog.

HAPPY BLOGGING !!!!

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This is 7th post of a series of posts on article writing.I will advice you to read earlier articles of How to write an Article series first.Earlier articles of this series are-

How to write an Article Part-1 , Part-2 , Part-3 , Part-4 , Part-5 and Part-6
In this post I will tell you about last step of "Article pathway" ,i.e., Proof Reading.

Proof reading is one of the most easiest step in article pathway and also the most overlooked step,particularly by the newbie bloggers.This last step has got particular importance and you should pay a particular attention to this step.



Why one should proof read their work? Every one makes mistake.Even most successful bloggers make mistake.But the reason why their mistake is not visible to the readers is that they proof read their content.



Before publishing your content you must check for spelling and grammar mistakes because too many spelling and grammatical mistake can hurt your reputation as a blogger and also mask your information even if it is valuable one.



Suppose you have a great content or tips for your reader but you have committed too many mistakes.So, what happens due to those mistakes you lose credibility and mistakes mask your content even when it is great.



How one should proof read their content? The method of proof reading is quite simple.Just read your content time and again.You will get many mistakes in the way , just correct those mistakes.Many bloggers use spelling checker software for this.



Should one rely on spell checker software? Many bloggers rely on spell checking software to proof read their content.My advice on this issue is just use spell checcking software as complementary tool not as an alternative.Any of software available can't replace human brains.



One good method is to first use a spell checking software and then proof read yourself.



How many times one should proof read? Well, this depends on the person who has written the content.One good method is to proof read until you are not getting any mistakes.For some folks it is 2-3 times.For me it is 5-6 times as I am from non-english speaking country and ,so, I commit many mistakes.



This ends my post as well as entire "How to write an article" series. To sum up things I said in this post-
Proof read your post until you are not getting any mistakes.Use spell checkers first and then read the content yourself.

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This is 6th post of a series of post.I will suggest you to read previous 5 posts of this series before heading to this one. Previous posts in this series are-

Article pathway (Part-1) , selection of topic (Part-2) , Researching (Part-3) and Keyword research for your articles (Part-4) and,How to write Title of Your Article?
.Read these posts if you have not read it yet.

In this post I will tell you some really good tricks to write better content for your blog/journal.

I classify my article into three parts-

1. First paragraph
2. General Body
3. Last Paragraph

First Paragraph of Article :

First paragraph of an article is of particular importance, because it is the curiosity generating paragraph.If I refer title tag as advertising banner then first paragraph is the text written on that banner.There are two ways to generate curiosity from first paragraph-

• Write what you are going to tell in the article.I have seen most of the successful bloggers using this technique.Most of the successful bloggers will tell you what they are going to write in the article in their first paragraph.


• Create questions and answer them in the paragraph that follows.This is even better way of writing first paragraph.Just ask some commonly asked question on the topic in your first paragraph and promise to answer them in following paragraphs.If people visiting your site are hunting for the answer of those questions then they might read all of your content.

General body of Article :

This part is meant to put all your information for readers.There are certain tips to write this part of your article which I would like to share with you.

1. Use tags, bolds , italics and different font colours to emphasize your point.This helps readers by easily getting your important points even if they don't read your entire post.


2. Write short paragraphs of 3-4 sentences.


3. If you have promised to answer some questions you have asked in first paragraph then answer those questions in most possible lucid way.


4. Use each of your selected keywords about 4-6 times.This is particularly important for search engine optimization.


5. Use bullets and ordered lists.


6. Write in simple way to make your point easily understandable to anyone.


7. Prove your point by citations, quotes from other websites.Give examples to make your point understandable.


8. Write to the point, don't drift away from one topic to another.


9. Use images.Images draw the attention of your readers and also help them to understand the point in discussion.It has been observed that articles having images get more hits than other articles not having images.

The last paragraph of Article :

Last paragraph has got multiple usage and is no less important than other paragraphs.You can use your last paragraph for following-

1. Summing up- Most of the bloggers use there last paragraph for summing up what they have said in the article.


2. Information about next post-
Last paragraph can be used to tell your readers what topic you will cover in your next post.

If first paragraph is the advertisement of the same article then last paragraph can be used to advertise your any other related post or your upcoming post.The idea is if visitors liked your article they might be willing to read some more posts from you and they will find an immediate link to one of your related posts in that paragraph.

This ends my post on content writing.Once you have completed your content writing , you must proof read your article for any spelling and grammar mistakes.This will be the theme of my next post.

Next and last post in this series is How to proof read your article

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Before I start I would like to mention that this is part-5 of a series of posts.I would advice you to read my previous articles in this series ,namely, Article pathway (Part-1) , selection of topic (Part-2) , Researching (Part-3) and Keyword research for your articles (Part-4) ,if you have not read it yet.

In this post I will tell you about next step of "Article Pathway" ,i.e., How to write a 'killing' title for your posts/articles.

The title part of your article is very much important as it is title part of your article that people see first and once your title makes them curious or attracts them they go on to read your content.

Also, search engines are title lovers ,so, cleverly chosen title can bring a boost to your search engine optimization campaign.

Title also plays some role in bringing in some traffic for you,as title parts are almost always shown on the snippet of the search results page.The more beautifully you have wrote your title the more chances are there that people will visit your site from search results page.



You can't write a good title if you don't know what a good title is?If I have to define a good title then I would define it as-


A good title is one which-

1. Is appealing to the visitors.


2. Contains your primary keywords.


3. Is neither too long nor too short.


4. Is written in simple way without use of jargons.

Now I would discuss each point listed above in a bit detail.

Let me take the first point- By saying a title should be appealing to the visitors I mean to say- title should attract visitors, should make them curious.

For example,Titles with terms "How to", "Tips and Tricks", "Secrets" and " Tutorial" are most famous ones because they make enough curiosity in visitors mind.

A title should be able to draw attention of your readers and funnel them to rest of your articles.

"Good titles set your posts apart from the clutter around them and then draw readers into your post. Grabbing attention might happen using tactics of ’shock’, ‘big claims’, ‘controversy’ or even ‘confusion’."

These are the words of Darren of problogger and I must say I firmly agree with him.

I would now quickly come to the next point- A title should contain 1 keyword,which is your primary keyword. In my post on keyword research I told you about keyword research process and method to select 5 appropriate keywords for your articles.Choose one keyword (the least competitive one) from those 5 and use it in your title.Most people are of opinion that only one keyword should be used in the title part.I must say I agree with them.

Using more than one keywords may cause dilution of your effectiveness of title.

A good Title should neither be too short nor too long.Now the question is, what should be regarded as too short and what should be regarded as too long?The views of different people are different.Some say a title should be around 40 characters long while some are of view that it should be 70-90 characters long.

Before putting my view on this, I would like to ask a question.Why length of title is so important?

A title should be the mirror of your article and should clearly depict what you are going to write in your article.Secondly,it should fit in the snippet of the search results pages.So, a title should be long enough to describe the theme of your article and short enough to fit in the snippet on search results pages.

Look at the snippet shown above.The first line (in blue) is the title field and it is 63 characters long before those dots appear.This shows a snippet can contain at most 63 characters for title.Thus, it is clear that your title should be at most around 60 characters long to fit in a search page's snippet.In my view you should write a title which is 40-65 characters long.

I will now jump to the last point- A title should be written in simple way without use of jargons.The idea is that simple titles are readily understandable.How can you expect a visitor to read your article when he doesn't understand your title at first place? So, keep it simple and avoid using jargons and technical terms unless it is extremely needed.

I would advice you to take some time to write your title and never forget to include your primary keyword in it.


This ends my post on titles.My next post in this series will be about writing content of your article.Have you ever thought why some people are able to write good content and majority others are not?Read my next post on 'how to write content part of your article' to get the answers.

In the next post of this series I have discussed about how to write good content in your article.Check out this article.

Other post in this series is-How to write an article part-7.

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In my previous posts on 'How to write articles??' series I have already told you about Article pathway , selection of topic and researching.Now I will move on to step-3 of article pathway that is keyword research and selection.

Before I tell you about keyword research and selection I would like to tell you about importance of keywords and what comprises good keyword.

Keywords are basis of search engines and they help you in catching your target audience and thus getting targeted traffic.It is absurd to write an article when you are not read and it is also absurd to present your article to someone who is not interested in a subject on which you have written.

This is where keyword help you.By using best keywords for your article you ensure that your article will be read by a target audience.

Now let us talk about what is a good keyword.A good keyword is one which is-

1. Frequently used by people to make searches in search engines.
2. Is less competitive ,i.e.,relatively lesser number of websites are targeting that keyword.
3. Can be used time and again in the article/posts.
   

For finding such keyword you have to go through a series of steps which is called as keyword research.

Keyword Research

Keyword research process involves a series of three steps which when followed in proper way can help you choose your best keyword/keywords.The three steps are-

• Keyword discovery
  
• Keyword analysis
  
• Keyword selection

Keyword discovery-

Keyword discovery involves identification of as many keywords relevant to theme of your article as you can.In my post How to write Articles??-Part 3 (research) ,I have said you should make a list of 20 keywords that other websites /blogs are using while you are researching for your content.

Next get other 30 keywords from overture,wordtracker and Adwords keyword tool.So,now you have a comprehensive list of 50 keywords.This completes the first step ,i.e. ,Keyword Discovey.Now lets jump to the second step-Keyword analysis.

Keyword Analysis- Keyword analysis is the most important step in keyword research process and should be done with utmost attention.In keyword analysis you analyze what keywords are most used by people to make searches in search engines and how many websites are using those keywords.

This is important as you have to choose a keyword which frequently used to make searches and relatively lesser no. of websites are targeting those keywords.
Thus,Keyword analysis involves analyzing two things-

1. Analysis of Search volume



2. Analysis of Competition

Analysis of Search volume - In this you analyze the frequency with which a particular keyword is being used by people to make searches in search engines.More frequently a keyword is used more better it is.For analyzing search volume I use two tools-

1. Overture


2. Adwords keyword tool

When you open the overture keyword tool site and make a search for a particular keyword then overture produces a list of suggested keywords and to the left of each keyword there is count column which shows how many times that keyword has been used in the past month. More is the count better is the keyword.Make a list of keywords that have high counts.


When you open the adwords keyword tool, you will see a page like this-

You should particularly focus on average search volume out of the three columns I have encircled.The bar in that column shows the amount of search volume.More filled is bar more search volume that particular keyword has got.This gives a basic idea of what keywords are being used by the people.

Now the question is,which tool should be used, overture or Adwords?The answer is both.This is becuse by using both tools you have avery refined results on keyword analysis.

Based on search volume stats gathered through overture and adwords keyword tool make a list of 15 keywords which generate more search volume out of 50 you have discovered in previous step.Once you have selected your 15 keywords you would now analyze thes 15 keywords for competition.

Analysis of Competition-There is a very good method for analysis of competition.This makes use of google search.Whenever you make a search in google then the results page looks like this-

Look at the top right side of results page (which I have encircled).The number shown (in this case is 887000) is very much important.This no. shows how many websites are using the keyword that has been used to make the search.Lower is the no. lower is the competition.Now make a search for each of your 15 keywords which you have selected after 'analysis for search volume' step.Let us suppose you get the no.s n1,n2,n3........n15 for your 15 keywords after making search in google.

Now you are done.Choose the keywords whose values are minimum.Choose 10 keywords whose values are minimum as compared to others.These keywords are the best keywords for your article or blog as they have least competition.

What next??You don't have to use all 10 keywwords in your article.You have to select 5 out of 10.This comprises the next step, the keyword selection.

Keyword Selection-

This step is probably easiest step in keyword research.Out of 10 keywords you have selected choose five keywords which you think you can use time and again in your article.And keyword selection is done.

This ends my topic on keyword research.In the next post of this series I have discussed the next step of "Article Pathway" ,

In next post of this series I have written about, How to write the title of article?Check out this article which answers many of the questions related to titles.

Other posts in this series are- How to write an article Part-6 , Part-7.

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My goal in this post is to offer you realistic training and tips to help you research in right direction with right researching methods.Most people think researching is necessary only because you have to get some useful and informative content for your article.

But utility of researching is not only limited to collecting contents but researching can also be used for some other purposes which I will discuss in paragraphs that follows.

Before I proceed I would suggest you to read my earlier posts-How to Write Articles??-Part1 and Part2 if you have not read it yet.

There is a purpose behind everything you do and researching is no exception.First of all I would like to tell you the purpose of researching.The purpose of researching are-

• Getting content for your article.
• Selecting proper keywords.
• Look what people are looking for.

Researching method-For proper researching you have to follow certain steps (in sequential manner).

1. First of all select about 20 websites/blogs and 20 forums which are related to the theme of your article.Always include official website if there is one.For example if you are planning to write about Adsense then you must include official website of adsense and adsense blog in the list of 20.


2. Then log into as many forums as you can and try to find what questions are hovering in people's mind.This will give you an idea about what you have to search for while reading contentsin other blogs/websites.


3. Read material on blogs/websites to search the answers of the questions people have been asking constantly in the forums.Remember the more you read the more content you will get and better writer you will become.You can't be a good writer when you are not a good reader.So,be a voracious reader.


4. Keep a paper and pen with you while researching and note down every point you would like to mention in your article.


5. While reading look what keywords those blogs/websites are using.The idea behind this is-Since those keywords are working for them ,so,it will also work for you.You should read very carefully at slower pace to get the keywords those websites are using.Make a list of 20 keywords that those websites are using.

Now you might be wondering why I have told you to make a list of 20 keywords.I have answered this query in my next post.So,don't miss that post and get answer in Part-4 of this series.

Other post in this series-How to write an article- Part-5 , Part 6 , Part 7.

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In previous post I have discussed the "Article Pathway".If you dont know what article pathway is just read my article-How to Write articles??-Part-1.In this post I will tell you in detail about Step-1 of article pathway, i.e,How to select topic for your articles?

Writing articles start with the selection of topic.Most of the blogs/websites will tell you two methods of selecting a topic.These are-

• Select a topic in which you are interested. or,


• Select a topic in which people are interested.

But both these methods have some disadvantages.The first method has a disadvantage that people might not be interested in a subject/topic in which you are interested.Thus, you might not get the traffic you have desired.

The second method will take away the charm of writing as you may not be interested in a topic in which people are interested.

Furthermore,writing without charm will also hamper your skills of writing as your disgust will be mirrored in your article.

What I am going to tell you is a middleway between both these methods.Read on the next few paragraphs as I will disclose the right way of selecting a topic.

Prior to selecting a topic make sure that whatever topic you are selecting is related to the theme of your blog or website.After that proceed in following manner-

• Select a topic in which you are interested and not in which people are interested.This is because selecting a topic of your interest doesn't kills the charm of writing and also helps because you have basic ideas about that topic of interest.

• Once you have selected a topic of your choice just go in some forums and look what questions people are asking about that particular topic.

Let me take an example.Suppose you are interested in Tourist Places in India and decide to write about some tourist spots in India.So,go into travel forums and look whether people are interested in historical places or hill-stations or sea beaches.If you are able to pin point what people are looking for in that particular topic of your then half your work is done.Just answer the questions people are asking in your article.

This way you are able to select a topic of your choice and also make sure you are giving answers to questions people were looking for on the topic you have selected.This ends my post on selection of topic.

In the next post I have told you about right approach to research (Step-2 of article pathway and part 3 of this Series).You might have read how important it is to research for writing articles.

But nobody tells a good method of researching.I will tell you the complete methodology of researching so that you are able to write good articles with plenty of informative content.

Other Posts in This Series are-

How to write An Article?-Part4 , Part5 , Part6 , Part 7.

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Writing on a print media and on a blog/site is entirely different thing.While writing in a print media you don't have to bother about keywords and search engine optimization.But while writing on a blog you have to take care of these points failing which you may not be noticed on the net and in blogosphere.

This makes blog writing a bit more difficult than writing anywhere else.In this series of post I would tell you about the art of writing a blog.

You can't be a master of something if you don't know the definition of that 'something'.So, I will start with definition of "article".I will define article or blogpost as-


"A written piece of information which is primarily written for human beings and is also search engine friendly."


Now extract three phrases from this definition-

1)"Piece of information"-

This means your article should contain some useful information.A visitor comes to your blog or any other blog in search of information ,so, you must have some useful information in your article.


2)"Primarily written for human beings"-

This phrase is most important.You should be writing articles to help your readers.The article should be in simple language to make it understandable for anyone.I come across some blogs which are primarily optimized for search engines to get high rankings.While high search engine rankings can bring you some beefit but in the long run it will not be beneficial for your blog.Write for humans first and then consider robots.


3)"search engine friendly"-

The article should contain useful keywords to get traffic from search engines.Remember use keywords cleverly in such a way that it doesn't defeats the purpose of making the article for human beings first.While writing online you have to consider search engines and optimimization because if you entirely omit search engine optimization then you remain unnoticed and there is no point writing or saying something when nobody is listening to you.



Now I am coming to point on how to write articles for your blogs/websites?


I follow some steps for writing articles.I call these collection of steps as "Article Pathway". (self coined term)These Steps are-



Step-1 Selection Topic

Step-2 Research

Step-3 Keyword Research

Step-4 Writing a 'Killing' Title(Becuse the first thing your readers will notice is your Title)

Step-5 Writing first paragraph to generate curiosity(So that readers read your entire article)

Step-6 Writing general body of Article

Step-7 Last Paragraph of Article (Use this paragraph to generate curiosity for your next post or just sum up what you have said in your article)

Step-8 Proof Reading



Each and every step has its own importance.So,you should pay attention to every step in order to write good article.I would advice you to proceed in sequential manner ,i.e.,follow step 1 followed by 2 and so on.


I will write about each and every step in quite detail in separate posts.

The first step of "article pathway" is choosing your topic.Sometimes it becomes tough to choose topic because you are not able to decide whether you should write articles on a topic in which people are interested or write about something in which you are interested.I hav